As Artorious fought against the humongous undead horror of the Corpse Mound Broodlord, the ground started to rumble.

Ethan felt it before the two combatants did. Down here, deep below the torn, blistered surface of the Twilight Sepulchre's main layer, the undead were doing exactly what the spiders of Rachneros' brood had done in the Festering Dead: they were recognizing that their Lord was here. And he was in danger.

Their response was swift.

As the Broodlord opened its gargantuan skeletal maw and called for aid against the Angel it was battling amidst the lightning-streaked skies, its children gathered all the bones of their ancesters for a final confrontation with the God that had decreed they would rise from the grave in the first place.

Ethan felt the entire ground of the mausoleum he was sequestered in give way. He took to the dank air just above, and looked down into the dark pit that had now opened up beneath him.

From this pit came the sounds of vibrations so loud that even Baphomet's ears closed up in response. Ethan swiftly [Blinked] off to a secluded portion of the tomb and decided he'd watch the show.

Artorious flew through the air, cleaving into the thick, bony skin of the Corpse Broodlord, frustrated, yes, but still assured that this was nothing more than a convenient distraction. He was ready to send two more [Angel-Arm] strikes to sheer the marrow from this abomination.

And then he heard the rumbling too.

And when he looked down, he saw nothing but columns upon columns of gnashing teeth coming right for him.

Shambling Corpse Mound (x10)

LVL 45

HP: 700/700

The defenders of the Sepulcher rose from their decimated home, their arrival serenaded by a crescendo of thunder and violet lightning.

Artorious immediate reaction was to fly out of the way of the ascending fangs of the worms, but even he wasn't fast enough to avoid their hunger. Once again he was swallowed by a Mound, and once again he weathered the storm of skeletal blades that nicked at his angel-skin as he fell inside its throat.

Ethan watched, mute, as the angel flailed against the undead above. He remembered how just one of those things had proved to be a nuisance for him and his party when they'd traversed these dark tunnels before. Only Theo, the legendary slayer-rat, had been able to put a stop to it. But even he'd struggle here against the entire family. Ethan judged that every undead minion had been collected in those eleven worms that were currently up there, fighting for their home.

And here he sat, nestled between two urns full of bonemeal.

Ethan! Sys roared. Now's your chance! Prophet's Pacification only needs five more minutes till its recharged.

Ethan heard Sys, but he did not reply. He did not move a single massive muscle of his Host's.

Ethan?

Instead, he watched every crack of the worm that had swallowed Artorious shine with blazing, fiery light. The creature shuddered, spasmed, and then instantly imploded – scattering a hail of skeletal limbs, skulls, and ribcages across the dead lands.

Where it had once stood, Artorious hovered – eyes full of burning, blinding hatred. He no longer was even thinking about the Archon. Now, he was simply focused on the foes that had been set against him.

"WHATEVER YOU THROW AT ME," he bellowed. "I SHALL SMITE IT DOWN!"

He's right, Ethan thought as he watched the angel descend upon the remaining worms with both his burning blades.

What do you mean?

I'm saying he's right, Sys, Ethan repeated, eyes glued to the form of the angel as he dashed apart another worm with as little effort as a child breaking the arm of its favorite toy. He's right. I've thrown everything at him. All my skills. All my synergies. Even the power of the Delves themselves. And even with all that – and Jun'Ei's heretic skill – I can't beat him.

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He heard Sys grumble at the back of his mind. It seemed the normally demure System had suddenly gained a taste for futile combat.

This is not the same Ethan that stormed Lucent above, he remarked. This is not the same Archon who slew the mad doctor of Griffon's watch. Nor is it the Archon who single-handedly wiped out Lucent's naval forces and its Greycloak hosts!

Maybe Kaedmon let me win those ones, Ethan scoffed right back. Maybe that's the exact path I was supposed to walk.

You don't believe that. That's just what He wants you to think. You're powerful enough to beat him. I know you are!

Ethan closed all his eyes.

Sys, this battle's been raging for long enough for us both two know that's not true. I've been the underdog for this whole dumb saga, while pretty boy up there has his big daddy God that gets him whatever he wants. Look at him. Even with [Prophet's Pacification] I couldn't do enough damage to take him down. It took everything to get him just under 1K HP. We gotta face facts here: he's untouchable as long as Kaedmon's will is behind him.

Ethan heard Sys rumbling about inside his mind like a fox that suddenly knew it was being hunted and had but a small window to escape.

No, he finally declared. No. I won't let you just stop here, Ethan.

Sys, I –

I won't let you! Sys screamed – and for the first time, it really did sound like his old voice back on earth was currently lecturing him. It sounded just like he did during those brief moments when he let himself go. When he let the mask of the perfect, consummate worker drop and his real self came out.

I won't let you be like the others! Sys cried. Even if you are a dumbass for not just flying to Mistborne Isle and leaving this place to its fate. Ethan – you're the furthest any Archon's ever come. You're the furthest I've ever come! The furthest I've ever come to actually believing…

Ethan could hear the slow desperation overtaking Sys' voice. He knew that, right now, Sys understood exactly how fucked they ultimately were. And yet he still said what he had to say.

…the furthest I've ever come to actually believing that my existence matters at all.

Ethan didn't reply. For a few brief moments, there stretched a silence between him and his consciousness that seemed almost unreal – like he and Sys had actually been disconnected for the first time since he'd come to Argwyll.

Up above, Artorious continued his smiting of the undead. Entire piles of corpses and bone-matter rained down from the gaping hole above the mausoleum. The light of Kaedmon pierced the skies, cleaving through the worms and empowering the angel with even more Spirit Cores by the second.

I've been with you your whole life, Ethan, Sys finally continued. I know you. I knew you'd be the perfect fit for Argwyll before Jun'Ei's decree brought you here in the first place and attached the persona of the Archon's System to me. Since then, I've seen you become more and more the person you always wanted to be. A fighter, a leader, a hope for the future. Someone who can make choices that affect not only you, but the direction of the world, itself. Things always seem hard at first for you, but you get through them. You push through with sheer willpower and guile. You always have a plan. And that's what makes you truly powerful.

Ethan wasn't so sure. He'd known how it felt to be powerful now – to hold the fate of so many in his claws and to make harsh choices based on purely what felt like the right thing to do. And yet he couldn't shake the feeling that perhaps those choices hadn't been his at all. Perhaps all of it was, just as Arty said, simply part of some divine plan.

But if he really probed that idea, he found that it just wasn't…satisfying. No. He wouldn't be content to believe that all of this was pre-ordained. That all of this suffering was nothing more than another chapter in the sorry, chaotic history of Lightborn vs Archon, Good vs Evil, Light vs Dark. Because he knew were the darkness in this world truly lay.

As those thoughts swirled in his mindscape, jumbled up with Sys' validation, he was suddenly put in mind of something Lamphrey had always told him:

Power cannot be given or taken. It comes from the Self, or it does not come at all.

All his skills hadn't worked. All his controlled minions hadn't worked. His attempts to reason with Arty hadn't worked. But there was one thing he hadn't tried.

There was something about him that could win this fight. The very thing that Jun'Ei had brought him to this world to experience:

His desire for free choice.

"Sys." he said aloud. "I don't think I have to beat him at all."

He felt the questioning glance behind his eyes. Above, Artorious continued his rampage, but within, Ethan's mind was working overtime.

"These Delves," Ethan said. "You once told me that they are dimensional pockets, right? So that would mean that they aren't directly connected to this planet, wouldn't it?"

Um…yes. Yes, that'd be correct.

"And you once told me that the structure of Argwyll, both internally and externally, is remarkably similar to Earth, didn't you?"

He could feel Sys' curiosity mounting.

I did.

Mind racing…

He checked his Spirit Cores.

Then, he checked his Skills.

Finally, he checked his sanity. Because putting all of this together was going to be his most ballsiest plan yet.

"…Sys, I think I've got something."

Oh?

"…but its batshit insane.

Even through the despair that had wracked his voice mere moments ago, Ethan thought that he could sense a slight smile in the sentient System's reply.

Just do it.

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