The Mage Guild had fallen, Emilia was dead or at least unable to cast and they were making their way back out through the entrance hall. The featureless golem that normally handed out maps stood by the gate motionlessly, it wasn't designed for combat and posed no threat.

They had taken losses as well, about a third of their members had fallen but they still had enough left, some still in the guild, others spread throughout the city waiting for his command. The figure was walking next to him, as emotionless as ever.

It asked: "What will you do next? Do you have a plan on how to defeat the guard? What about Bedrock?"

He indeed had a plan, one that up until now he had told nobody, not even the figure. He said: "I'll need access to the eye, from there on we'll use the Mencur-Besh against the guard."

The figure stopped. "Are you aware that you are breaking the rules?"

He nodded. "So what?"

The figure asked: "Are you aware of the punishment for breaking the rules?"

Something definitely was off. "I only ever heard scare-tales of an enforcer."

"If those tales were true, would you still go through with your plan?" The figure was different now, this was more than a question, this was a threat.

He thought for a few seconds. Around them were multiple capable mages who were all armed with crossbows with silver bolts. He really didn't need the figure anymore.

In its usual emotionless tone the figure said: "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The moment he shouted the command was when it happened. Rockhaven folded in on him, the buildings around him got taller and taller, the sky darkened and the entire world seemed to collapse. Before he knew it he was standing in an endless black void. The only other thing he saw were the pure white clothes of the figure.

Then those clothes peeled away, fading into the endless darkness, revealing the figure's body. The figure's skin wasn't just black, its body was like a rupture in the darkness, filled with something even darker. Its white hair had taken the form of a blindingly bright fog that floated around its head, the individual strands slowly moving about. In the midst of its face glowed its eyes with what he could only describe as infinite malignity. The figure was… Shadow Wardbreaker? This was not the Shadow he had seen at the banquet, this Shadow was clearly different.

Her voice seemed to be directly inside of his head, it was multilayered and uncomfortably loud. "I gave you multiple chances to stop, chances to realize that your plan was flawed from the start, fated to be crushed. And what did you do? You decided to cheat, you decided that instead of accepting defeat you should endanger everyone here!"

"You set me up!" He cried.

Shadow chuckled. "No, you did that all by yourself, I only gave you the tools to set your plan in motion. As I said, if you hadn't chosen to break the rules a false death would have been your worst punishment."

"But it's just a game!"

Shadow's form suddenly swooped in and only stopped right in front of his face, her voice got even louder. "Breaking the rules you agreed to as a condition to be allowed on the server is not a game. Those rules are there for a reason, that reason is the safety of everyone participating in the experiment, you knew this as well. You read the contract, you read the rules, you read the punishments and you agreed."

"What do the eyes do anyways?"

"The eyes are a vital part of another experiment that's running on the server, can you guess what the name of that experiment is?"

He was beginning to realize but he refused to answer, he was not about to be intimidated by a virtual threat.

Shadow seemed to have understood the reason behind his silence. She shouted: "Mencur-Besh! An advanced artificial intelligence capable of logic, spread across multiple bodies. The experiment is how they live and develop alongside humans in the long term and humans like you keep reminding me why we needed that experiment in the first place!"

Wait. Did she just refer to humans in second person? Was she an AI as well?

Shadow moved back again. She said: "No, I'm not an AI. I was human once. Now… I'm something a bit different."

"You can read my mind!" He blurted out in surprise.

Shadow laughed. "That and much more. If you haven't figured it out by now, I am the enforcer you believed was just a myth. If you behave I'll let you off with a ban and a mind wipe. Diversity in personalities is important for the experiment but we can't have anyone endangering lives."

That wasn't right. "The Mencur-Besh aren't alive!"

Shadow sighed. "I won't get into a philosophical discussion about whether Mencur-Besh dream of scaled sheep or not. That's not what I'm here for. Now tell me, do you have anything written down in the real world that would remind you of the server? Because that's another broken rule. Don't make me search for the answers myself, you wouldn't like that."

This was bad. In the beginning he had just taken a small note to test if they would enforce that rule, nothing had come of it. By now his entire apartment was filled with notes about everything, including his plans.

Shadow feigned surprise. "Uh-oh. Do you also know the penalty for attempted mind wipe evasion?"

He indeed knew what the contract said, he had always assumed that specific rule to be unenforceable by law. A private group couldn't just inflict a death penalty on anyone, right?

Shadow snapped: "Don't start a morality lecture. We made the rules and have the power to enforce them. Do you know what your interference with the eye could have done? It could have killed everyone in Rockhaven and I'm not talking about fake death, they would have died in the real world. I can't take that chance. Normally I would really just have let you off with a ban, followed by a personal visit, some 'house cleaning' and a mind wipe. But as you might know, we have a hacker problem right now and I can't leave the server because of that."

"So you're just going to kill me?"

"Please, you knew this was coming. You thought about it when we talked beneath the city, back then you didn't seem deterred by the prospect."

So she could just read anyone's mind at any time? Who thought that was a good idea?

Shadow said: "No, I can only use this power when dealing with rule breakers. But if someone gives me such an inviting channel into their mind, I can hardly refuse. Here's a tip for you, don't try to read the mind of the person who's making your plan possible."

He thought back on her previous statement. She was right, he had considered the punishment of death a real possibility and yet he still decided to go through with is plan. Why? Was he so bored with his life after those thousands of simulated years? Now that he thought back, how could he have been so stupid? Maybe he really did deserve this.

"Now's a little late for self-pity." Shadow remarked.

He said: "It's sad really, now that I know this much I can't really go back."

He expected Shadow to reply but nothing came. He supposed this was his chance to reflect on his choices. A deep regret filled him, now that his head was on the figurative chopping block everything suddenly seemed a lot clearer. The longer he thought the more he was appalled by himself, that he completely disregarded the possible dangers. He could have killed thousands.

Shadow spoke again, this time surprisingly softly. "It's amazing how quickly a mind can change. A few minutes ago every possible outcome of you living would have resulted in revenge. Now though… I am only required by the rules to execute unrepentant rule breakers, you don't fit that description anymore. I could theoretically put you in a coma and hope that this situation blows over within a few days. I'd still have to wipe your mind though."

"No."

Shadow asked: "What?"

He said with a shaking voice: "I want you to kill me. If you erase all the years I spent on the server I'd just go back to being who I was back then. Whoever that was… But I know that the me back then eventually became the me that might have accidentally killed thousands out of boredom. While I have this clarity, I need to put an end to this. If I really am this bored, it should end now."

Shadow asked: "Are you sure about this? Being killed by me here is anything but pleasant."

He was confused for a second. "Wait, here? I thought you just have a death squad at the ready. You can kill people through the server?"

"Yes, I'm a bit of an anomaly in that. You couldn't know, it wasn't mentioned in the contract. To kill you I connect my mind to yours. My mind overwhelms yours, your personality is obliterated and I take your memories."

He asked: "You… eat minds? What are you?"

Shadow said: "Something way beyond your understanding, I was occasionally referred to as a god by some. Up until not too long ago I would have disagreed. Now I'm not too sure anymore. After consuming the other one I have yet to see what I will become. You can decide for yourself how much of what I said is the truth."

Mind eating? Gods? God eating? Truth? What was even real anymore? Had his life been real? Was he just now waking up and experiencing the harsh reality? He had only just accepted that his life would end but Shadow's words put an entirely new feeling of existential dread into his mind. He suddenly understood how people in cosmic horror stories could so easily lose their minds.

This was too much all at once, this was wrong. "Just end it already, I just don't want to anymore."

"If that is your choice." Shadow said, then slowly extended her hand until it came to rest on his forehead. He could feel the cold darkness reach out to his mind.

Then he heard the last word he would ever hear: "Goodbye."

Once again, the world collapsed. This time it turned grey, every sense was grey, sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell. Every sense was just an unchanging grey static. Then the grey slowly started to vary, individual sensations split off but they went to all the wrong senses. Was this what she meant by his mind being overwhelmed?

That was his last coherent thought before his mind shattered under a sudden onslaught of sensations and information. He was no more. Now only Shadow stood on the central square in front of the Mage Guild, her palm still on his forehead, her body still a tear in reality, her hair still a white mist, her eyes still distant red stars.

Now that there was light, she cast a shadow as well but that shadow looked nothing like her, it was a writhing mass of silhouettes, occasionally features would manifest, arms, legs, tentacles, only to disappear moments later.

After a second the empty shell in front of her collapsed onto the floor and several crossbow bolts flew at her. Instead of impacting, they simply disappeared into the vast nothingness.

Shadow said: "Settle down citizens, your revolution has failed."

She then looked up at the tower, where she could see a terrified visage framed in chainmail. A smile crept up on her face.