“Come now Talen, perhaps instead of seeing it all as a burden, would it not be better to think of it as an adventure?”

“An... adventure?”

“Yes. It is how I have felt of my life thus far, and I find great comfort in it. I have traveled the world. I have met the strangest and most interesting of people. I have walked within the darkest oceans, and through the harshest flames. I have built great things, and silly things. I have lived many lives. And I have met you in the end. A friend to travel with for the next adventure ahead. Perhaps we will succeed, and humanity will flourish again in the world unafraid. Or perhaps not. But regardless, has it not been an adventure? The greatest one there is.”

“I’m… not sure. I wish it could be.”

The man collided into him. Talen simply observed the situation, recalculating options.

The speed and trajectory had been rapid, but a flare of occult kept him grounded on the terrain. He skidded backwards a dozen feet or so, and the rock terrain around the source of impact had been flattened out into a small shallow crater from the air pressure of contact.

Urs was there. He could sense him. On the back of this man. Using his own powers to shield the knight from having his internal organs crushed by the force.

Talen’s hand remained jabbed forward into the strange mite cape. He could sense the occult concepts within. It would be simple enough to cut sideways and slice into the edges of the cape. That would collapse the entire thing.

If he did so, he would lose his arm and blade. The arm could be remade. The blade could not. He calculated it would be faster to crush the man with his other free hand instead.

He lunged forward with it, grabbing the relic armor by the neck. Fingers digging into the metal plating.

Stronger than Feathers. Relic armor was always superior to them when it came to defense capabilities. Still, the old armor began to groan as Talen’s fingers clenched forward.

He would kill this man, and then take Urs off his back. He had to. He wasn’t certain why anymore, but he knew he must. The two had to be united.

Occult radiated from his old friend, and Talen recognized the signature. The quantum fractal. One of Urs’s more dedicated abilities. Trouble.

He searched the near future to see if he succeeded and where to move.

What he saw strained his ability. Even with his own fractal of Resolve powering his sight.

Infinity collapsing with infinity. Most of these he crushed the man’s throat, and then grabbed Urs off without even a hint of resistance. Others, the pair struggled. It was in those realities that Talen found war.

And indeed, he felt the future lock into place as his world was clearly among those where the pair fought back.

It was an intrusion on his soul. A foreign tendril reaching into his own body. Hundreds of different kinds.

All coming from the mite lantern on the man’s side.

He couldn't fight this off with physical force. Talen looked inwards, and fended the intrusion off.

The opponent was clever, capable, but ultimately not skilled enough to handle Talen’s own willpower. He ripped each of them apart by the dozens, scything through. Hundreds were killed.

They were trying to reach his core. He focused on himself, leaving behind the physical world as is. Crushing the man’s throat would not end the battle, the enemy souls were coming from the mite lantern at his side.

The two stayed frozen in their position, battling within their souls instead.

At the rate he was killing the intrusions, he would be able to fend the attack off, crush the man’s throat, pull him down and then break the lantern. His systems calculated the path forward, but each time he sent instructions to his body on movement, the enemy souls were piling on to prevent them. The intrusion was deep.

It needed to be purged.

Talen frowned, focusing. Instinct guiding him, as he fought against the swarm that didn’t seem to end. Something was wrong. He wasn’t certain what. All he felt when he searched was exhaustion.

But he had to act. Regardless of how he felt. Duty compelled him forward. He had to act. He had to complete his promise to Urs.

Each soul he ripped apart was simply one more to the altar of war, to the ashes and pyre that had been built up behind him. What was a few thousand in comparison to how many he’d failed?

The weight pressed down on him, and he responded by cutting through the enemy souls in one strike, clearing past the intrusion.

He took command of his right arm again, pulled his blade back out of the cape and sliced the side of it once he had the entire weapon pulled free. That way the enemy would not catch him again with this mite treasure.

His left hand still held the man’s throat, forcing him to remain in range, his right hand now free from the ripped cape, blade lifting up for the deathstroke.

And then he felt one more soul tackle into him.

The prior army of clones he’d fought had clearly held the signature of mites. The dissociated loose sense of reality. They had all beheld the mite collective and been able to remain whole and lucid. The emotions had been surgical, prepared for death, struggling against him with everything they had.

The souls coming from that mite lantern had already prepared and expected their death at his hand.

This new one had not surrendered to the inevitable.

It was not allowed to die until it had completed what needed to be done. While this soul was, Death was not. The mere idea of being killed was rejected outright by an iron will Talen hadn’t ever seen before.

Talen’s eyes flickered around, looking to track down where the origin point was. Dispatching the origin soul fractal this tendril was reaching out from would kill the soul properly. Or he could shockwave the entire thing a few miles off, where it would either smash against something hard enough to bend, or draw off too far to be in reach of him.

He found the source.

It had come from the final Feather he’d fought. The one he’d cut into pieces, and still somehow tried to fight him even past the deathblow. The pieces far off on the ground, unmoving.

He had noticed that last Feather had hundreds of soul fractals lit to life within the chassis. He’d cut through where he knew the normal soul fractal should have been, at the throat, but the enemy hadn’t been killed. At least the true fractal of division had made short work of the rest. The hand cut off the chassis would never function again. The chassis itself was cut in half, the very concept of it being a working Feather was cut.

It had taken his old enemies months to repair themselves from that kind of conceptual damage when he had attacked them. That had been… had been how many years ago? He wasn’t sure. His mind felt heavy.

And his right hand was still held upwards, blade ready to cut down on Urs and the man at the same time. But each time he tried to move it down, that rogue soul was in the way. Furiously fighting him off.

The others had been easy to kill. This one… Talen focused, and turned to the newcomer with more intention.

It had come from the ankle of the enemy Feather. When he’d cut the chassis of the Feather, he’d cut through simple machine and empty soul fractals.

He was about to send a quick shockwave to rip the dead body’s ankle off and cast it away when he noticed an oddity. The broken chassis was far off, already blasted away.

Which meant... this soul had willingly abandoned the shelter of the soul fractal, flew through the air after him, and was now attacking him. While having no home of its own.

It was existing in the air, absurd willpower holding it alive despite reality around trying to break it down.

Talen manifested a few fractals of division in the air, and attempted to slice the wayward soul directly.

It failed.

Tendrils coming from the enemy humans around him reached out and dissolved his attempt before they fully manifested.

His eyes flickered around, calculating how he could quickly end the enemy all around him with his body currently frozen from the intrusion.

There was no other way than pure brute force.

Plan resolute in his mind, he fully turned to the newcomer’s soul, and gave the opponent his full undivided attention.

The soul slammed back into him with the same sense of finality.

And against all possible logic Talen could think of, it held the ground against him.

Tenisent knew with certainty that if he failed here, humanity would die. The clan would die. His family would die.

That singular thought galvanized him as he struck forward, against the waking madman before him.

He could feel his son’s soul attempting to fight this man off. The one who’d come from the other side of the mite wall. A different Keith but no less his son.

Stolen story; please report.

Dying a hundred times over, holding the man’s hand from executing the physical Keith struggling in the emperor’s frozen grip.

He slammed into humanity’s ancient hero, with all the fury and spite he could muster, and held the man off his son inch by inch. Bringing out his willpower to bare like an impenetrable wall.

Talen didn’t show surprise at being held off. Only recalculation and doubling effort.

Tenisent felt the force buckle his soul downwards, but he refused to be crushed and slowly stood back up against the god, shielding the souls behind him.

The mass of Keith Superiors still made the attempt, rolling past his defense, trying to attack the old emperor from fortifications.

Any Keith that passed too far from his ability to protect was shredded apart.

Cease your attempts to kill yourself boy. Tenisent hissed back, struggling against the Emperor. Take this moment, do what you do best.

His boy had been pressed into this fight from the start, unable to take a moment to truly study the enemy. Tenisent knew his son had defeated every enemy he’d encountered over time. He needed to study the enemy, discover what needed to be discovered, and execute the counter plan.

His role thus, was to hold Talen here once again. To give Keith and Urs the time he needed.

Talen pressed forward, trying to break past Tenisent’s own wall. Tenisent groaned in response, but he would not be broken. Unwilling to allow an inch of territory back within the madman’s own body. Not until his mission was complete.

Talen's arms remained frozen in place. And so long as Tenisent lived, that arm would never cut downwards.

He didn’t feel any anger from Talen at being held off. To the old god before him, he was another foe among thousands to be slowly pried off and killed. There was no fear of failure. No spark of worry. Simply resolve.

So be it. Tenisent resolved himself to be the last foe this man would face.

What needs to be done? He sent back to Keith, feeling the pair behind him having come to a conclusion in the space he’d given them.

Urs reached a small tendril back, I need to break through to his core. I am unable to do so. There is something in the way, a miasma that shouldn’t be there. Keith has been attempting to remove it by brute force. We have been unsuccessful in all our timelines thus far.

It really hasn’t gone according to plan, Superior added. Everytime we try to send a Keith to even investigate they get swarmed and fade out. Three gods above Father, I don’t even know how you’re holding him off alone right now.

It has to be done. It will be done. Tenisent simply stated the truth. He turned his attention back to the god before him, still pushing into him, the force unending like a mechanical lever.

Tenisent matched it. And then reached forward himself further attacking the old emperor’s soul directly. Building a tunnel that the two behind him could use to safely investigate what was holding them off.

The weight of the world pressed down on him, a rogue soul unfettered in the air. Talen pushed from the other end, never faltering for a moment, destruction held behind the madman’s impassive eyes. Only needing a single moment of weakness to cut him down.

But Tenisent held on, fighting it all back. His willpower was inexhaustible. He would hold until the work was done.

I see it. Keith sent back. I know what A57 did to him.

Urs followed behind, soul to soul, showing him the root of the old emperor’s madness.

Roiling miasma of sickly emotions. All being fed and magnified back through the fractal of Resolve itself. All held in place by a central fractal beyond.

The division fractal. A variant built to cut the soul.

The emperor was being constantly divided in half, paralyzed by his own human emotions fed into and magnified by his unwitting nature and power, all of it turned against himself.

Resolve and Resilience constantly reknitting the soul back, while the division fractal remained stamped where it lay, dividing him back in half at the same speed.

Tenisent could sense the full depth of the miasma twisted around to keep the division fractal powered and held in the right place.

It was despair. Hopelessness. Fear. Self-loathing. Every emotion humanity could feel was there. All held under a mask. The world needed an emperor. He could not be anything less.

Keith’s souls withered away on contact, the emotions too overwhelming to survive past the wall. Urs equally could not step through, even less resilient than Keith was to such overwhelming pain.

And for all of Superior’s training and might, the boy’s soul had learned to interpret and speak with a gestalt god. He had no resilience beyond what he began with to the sheer darkness ahead, multiplied a hundredfold through the Occult.

Tenisent knew then what he had to do.

With a force of will, he drew himself together and stepped into the miasma directly.

The pain and self-loathing crashed into him. Wanting him to curl into nothingness. To be eradicated from the world. A coiling serpent that had consumed the souls of millions before. Despair itself.

Tenisent stared at that artificial monster eye to eye.

I know you. He hissed. He knew this pain.

It was his cowardice. His self-loathing. The years spent chasing every bottle he could find to drown it out.

He stepped through the miasma.

You cannot break me.

The roiling emotions held off like they had been every single day since the day he’d woken up and realized his daughter and son needed him.

It had never left him. It was always there. He powered through it every moment he opened his eyes and carried forward.

This moment was no different.

You cannot break me anymore.

He held the miasma at bay, opening a hole, one hand holding back the emperor’s attempt to crush him, the other holding the path forward for Urs and his son to pass through the darkness unharmed. To finish the fight.

The fractal of division was fully exposed ahead. Constantly regenerating. Finely crafted to bring down a god. A57 had left no room to dispel it.

The blade could not be broken. But the soul it cut could be repaired.

Keith Superior reached out to both halves of the emperor’s divided soul, and pulled them together, then held them together, against the force of the division fractal.

Urs reached a hand through. Past the miasma Tenisent held off. Past Superior manually holding the damaged soul back together. And he touched upon the old emperor himself.

Talen awoke.

He felt a soul reach out to him in the darkness. A familiar one. He knew this man. His mind was groggy, but for once something felt lifted off of him.

The pressure was gone. He could think again. Not clearly, but enough. And the soul ahead of him…

“Talen.” The voice spoke.

“Urs?” He answered back, recognizing it. Hope coming back to his heart for a moment, surging at the feel of someone familiar again. “I… something is wrong with me. My mind is a fog. I can’t remember where I am. What has happened?”

“I’m here now.” Urs hummed softly, holding him like a dying man. “Everything will be all right.”

Talen held a hand out, clutching for help. “I have to do something. I was here to do something. I…. can’t remember. I can’t remember anything.”

“We were beaten, my friend. They turned you mad, and imprisoned me. It has been centuries. But we have found each other once again despite it all.”

Talen opened his eyes and beheld his situation for the first time.

There was a haunted man ahead of him, holding back darkness surrounding him. A blinding light among the shadows.

The man’s eyes turned to him for a moment. Resolute. Unyielding. With a willpower that eclipsed even his own. The moment passed and the man returned to holding the darkness and the world beyond at bay.

Talen blinked, and realized there was a younger soul right there next to him, under that protection.

Holding his soul together. Struggling to keep it there with every bit of focus he had.

Talen looked downwards at what the young man fought against.

At the center of his chest, was a blade, stabbed through his heart. Unable to be removed. The reality of his situation came to him quickly.

They were holding him together, against everything around, struggling for every second. It would all collapse soon enough.

He turned back to his friend, hand reaching out. “Urs, my body is… I… I can't fight. I can’t keep going.”

“Neither of us can anymore.” Urs chuckled. “Our time is at an end. I’ve come to uphold my promise. The fractal must be united back, and passed down. I have found who we need.”

“They still need us.” He whispered back.

“They will carry the burden now. They are ready for it.” Urs smiled. “I have seen it. Such wonder and hope, you would feel proud of what humanity has achieved during the years we were lost.”

“I…” Talen’s hand groped into the darkness, feeling lucidity fade for a half second before his soul rejoined.

“I'll guide you from here, leave this part of the journey to me.” Urs held a hand out. Talen reached back and held it.

“You will?”

“Every step of the way. We will travel together.” Urs turned his head, beyond the darkness. There was someone there.

“I understand.” Talen said, struggling back on his feet. Focusing himself for his last task. “I am… ready.”

“I knew you would be.” Urs held a hand out, and the third soul was dragged forward before them, surprise radiating from him.

“This is him?” Talen asked, observing the youth.

As old as he had been when he had begun everything, once. Studying the occult history. Stumbling upon Tsuya for the first time. Searching for Urs while he brought together an alliance to face the machines.

It had been a different world then. But it had all started somewhere.

With a glance over he studied the man and saw the young man’s history.

What he beheld left him breathless. “There… could be peace?” He turned to Urs. “How much have we missed?”

“Much.” Urs chuckled again. “We have grown old. They can make a better world than we had even hoped for. I am glad you see the wonder in it as I have.”

The youth began to panic. Realizing what was going to happen. Urs brought a comforting hand over. “Shhhhh, be at peace. I knew Talen could never be fully healed. And he knows it himself.”

A pulse of frantic thoughts came from the soul.

Urs shook his head with a sad smile. “I am old, and cannot fight. This world needs someone else, someone who can do more than we could. This was the plan all along, from the moment I saw what you were.”

The foreign soul continued to panic, pointing to the man holding the darkness above them.

“He might have been. The skill and soul of a warrior indeed. A worthy replacement for Talen.” Urs shrugged. “But only Talen. You are better. We need more than a warrior like Talen. And more than a dreamer like me. Your father has another destiny ahead of him. This one is yours.”

“You must be our inheritor.” Talen spoke, feeling lucidity still brushing in and out, a spike of fear that he wouldn’t make it before he could complete what needed to be done. “There is no time for doubts.”

He glanced down at the blade lodged deep in his soul, ever threatening to break him apart. He could not even manually pull his soul together, even now fully awake. Only with the struggling help of the other soul here from the outside in, doing the work from a better angle. And still faltering in and out.

It was not sustainable. He looked upon his inheritor one more time.

Talen could see it. The potential. All the skills needed. The talent to wield them. The perception required to command both Urs’s greatest fractals and his own. The best of them both. United.

“I cannot continue. My fight had ended.” He held a hand out and the Fractal of Resolve manifested within, ever shifting in ways his mind had learned how to interpret perfectly. It had been a part of him for so long now, he could call it to mind without even a thought. “You must take my place.”

The youth beheld the power, understood the weight, and quickly resolved himself to what had to be done, prepared.

Talen stamped it within the boy’s own soul, deep within, forever changing who he was. An immortal like themselves.

He could feel the source of it all open a third pathway, pouring in one more direction. The power fractured into three.

All that was left was to seal the other two pathways. To restore the power back to one.

“This fractal cannot be undone.” He spoke to his inheritor, currently struggling to adjust to the inflow of power. That was fine, he would learn. “This power is now part of you. The day it unravels, so will your own soul go with it.”

He turned to his oldest friend. It was fitting he would be here at the end. Talen couldn’t have hoped for a better way out. “It was… an honor.”

“Indeed it was.” Urs spoke. There was a sense of loss and witfulness in his voice. “It was… an adventure. The greatest adventure in the world. I am glad to have met you on it.”

“It… was an adventure.” Talen gave a flicker of a smile. “Yes it really was. The greatest adventure in the world.”

He closed his eyes, feeling a sense of peace for the first time.

Rest. It was time to rest. He had done enough.

Resolve pulsed out of his soul one last time, and he unraveled it as if pulling on a single string. It flickered away, the power cutting forevermore.

And with it, all that had held his soul together.

His mind immediately grew jumbled, thoughts and emotions collapsing around him. His soul no longer healing back together as the division fractal within cut him apart. The other soul trying to hold him together found only tattered remains in hand, flowing apart like water.

He could feel Urs nearby, holding what was left of his hand. Breaking apart as well, resilience fading away from him.

The true fractal of Resolve pulsed. Bright as a sun before them, returned to a single instance of it.

There was one last task left to do. One final labor. He could feel Urs next to him doing the same.

He held out the last of himself, everything of worth, everything he had learned over a lifetime, all he had been, and held it forward. His fading willpower focused on keeping this bundle of memory and ability whole and unbroken.

He felt a tendril of foreign soul touch upon it, accepting the last he had to offer this world, taking it off his hands.

Talen smiled one more time.

Then let himself dissolve away.