In the great void, far from Aigas...

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Souran was laughing as she and Soizar’s slowly healing soul flitted across the darkness without a definitive destination. She couldn’t help but find Soizar’s whining funny.

So that’s why he had been reluctant to leave even when she warned him of danger. Well, to be fair, she probably would have reacted the same way he did. What made her laugh was the fact that Soizar had wanted all the glory for himself. He probably would have betrayed her just to keep the spoils for himself. Why would he share credit for Rias’ capture if he could help it? The Eminence had promised to reward him personally.

"If the Eminence said you would be rewarded, there’s nothing I could have done, Soizar. You don’t seem to know her very well if you think she is fickle. When was the last time you were invited to her demesne?" said Souran.

Soizar grumbled. He hesitated to answer. Liches were capable of feeling embarrassment too, and he was burning twofold. "It’s been a while. And last I recall, the Eminence was only interested in results. I didn’t trust you to keep your greed in check. Whoever between us wound up bringing in that fledgling would have been the one who got the reward in the end."

Souran chortled. "Well, that hardly matters now. I wonder what the Eminence will reward you with now that you’ve failed spectacularly at a simple task."

"Don’t flatter yourself. We both lost to mortals."

And indeed, they had. The two Liches had escaped Aigas only because Soizar’s soul was still durable enough to withstand Negative Margin Buster without being completely obliterated. Those bits of him that remained within range upon impact were drawn together and used as a means to propel him and Souran into the great void.

There was little Souran could do to assist in the escape effort. Her body and soul were still lost in the Stone Hub of Taboos. She didn’t really need them, though. As long as her phylactery was safe, she could rebuild a soul as strong as the one she had before by leeching off the souls of other powerful beings. That was the essence of being a Lich. To do that, though, she’d need help, which would mean making temporary alliances with lesser Liches; that came with a lot of expenses.

Divinity was a difficult threshold for Liches to reach. Unlike normal mortal beings living within worlds, who had a surefire way of reaching it by completing three conditions – Limit Breaking, Mortal Binding, and Ember Tasting – Liches had to study death for many millennia at the very least before the possibility of becoming Divine peeked on their horizon. That was why they created phylacteries as their own assurance against extinction. They were Divine-level creatures, after all.

Divinity was directly tied to the Immors and Conste, both of which were accessible in exceedingly limited portions to all Undeath practitioners in Deadmanland. As it happened, the more Undeath one possessed in their body – or rather, the more they mastered it within themselves – the more it interfered with the slivers of the Immors and Conste required to reach Divinity.

That said, Liches often obtained enough of an understanding of Divinity to manipulate it within other creatures using predetermined formulas – the Death Knight summoning formula, for instance – before reaching it themselves.

"Can you sense any living souls nearby?" Souran asked.

"I can sense some, but they are quite far away," said Soizar. "You’d better pray that I have enough strength to help us reach them."

"Nevermind that. How much Contiguous Sap do you have left?"

"Enough to get us back home after we find enough peons to make into a usable vessel."

"SOIZAR."

The voice made the two Arch-Liches freeze. Soizar found himself quivering.

The Eminence of Undeath.

Judgement was upon him, finally.

Suddenly, Souran’s jabs felt more than just insults. How was he going to explain how he lost a target that was brought right in front of him on a silver platter? Was he to say that he got sidetracked by Sila? Or that Rias had threatened to fight back if he didn’t let him finish his battle with the star-studded mortals?

None of the excuses were good enough. No excuse was good enough.

"I—"

"AT EASE."

Those two words frightened Soizar even more. What did the Eminence mean by that? Was she really... easing him? Souran was thinking the same thing.

To both their added shock, the Eminence... chuckled gracefully.

"BEFORE I WAS EVEN INCLINED TO BE DISAPPOINTED BY YOUR LOSS, DIRECTION REVEALED SOMETHING TO ME THAT I NEVER COULD HAVE IMAGINED. SERENITY HAS BEEN PLAYING A DIRTIER GAME THAN I AND VOID COULD HAVE THOUGHT."

Soizar and Souran didn’t dare speak, even though the Eminence had given a pause. They listened intently.

"I WAS ALWAYS UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT PROPHECIES DICTATED THE FUTURE RATHER THAN PREDICT IT. AND I ALWAYS ASSUMED THEY WERE LIKE INDESTRUCTIBLE COILS TIED TO A SINGULAR INDIVIDUAL IN THE FAR FUTURE – AN INDIVIDUAL WHO WOULD THEN CAUSE CHANGE AROUND THEM." She laughed again. "BUT I WAS WRONG. THE DAWN MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN A PROPHECY AT ALL. PERHAPS AKHASHA TOOK ON ITS MEANING BEFORE I AND VOID DID. SERENITY WAS SPOILED BY WYRRIM – OF COURSE SHE KNEW ALL ALONG."

Confusion. Soizar and Souran couldn’t understand it. The Dawn? Prophecy? What was the Eminence talking about?

"I’M GLAD. YOU TWO SHOULD BE GRATEFUL THAT YOU GET TO BE IN THE KNOW. THE DAWN IS A BRAND ON THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF REALITY. A BRAND THAT PREDATES ANY OF US. ITS MEANING HAS BEEN LOST TO ME SINCE I CAME TO MY POTENTIAL, BUT NOW IT MAKES SENSE. I ALWAYS ASSUMED IT WAS A PREDICTION OF THE FUTURE." She sounded excited. "AS THE EONS HAVE RACED ALONG, I’VE SEEN IT CRUSTED ON MANY OTHER WORLDS, ON OBJECTS AND INDIVIDUALS. IN THE PAST, NONE OF THE VESSELS WITH THE BRAND HAVE BEEN EXTRAORDINARY. THEY WERE JUST... THERE. BUT IT’S DIFFERENT NOW. I GOT TO SEE ANOTHER DAWN WITH A MEANING BEFORE IT CRUMBLED."

Still, the Liches couldn’t understand it. It scarcely mattered to the Eminence, no, to Emmae. She didn’t care to filter out her thoughts as she mused.

"AGAIN WITH YOUR TRICKS, WYRRIM. YOU NAMED A DAWN, DIDN’T YOU?"