"How?" Lagori asked weakly, looking at the red stump that used to be his hand. They'd known attacking Soraso outside of a formal challenge would be risky, he'd be under no obligation to abstain from using the Spoke, but all power had limits. They'd gone in with both crushing numbers and power. That and the fact that Apex Flight was responsible for his security should have been enough.

Yet, it wasn't. The air gestalt of the mansion proved to be extraordinarily loyal to the point of throwing themselves in front of the Regent to ensure Soraso could remain untouched. With every swing of the Sword of Threst, another attempted assassin was dealt with. The lucky ones hit a torn hole in reality after the fact and were sent elsewhere, but a few weren't quick and had one open in them before they could dodge. The effect resolved over a few seconds and gave an unmistakable sense of danger to the seventh sense, but the Bard was tricky and aimed for moments where he might catch people unawares.

Lagori had thought nothing would ever shake his attention from the fight, and he hadn't been caught unawares even when those who'd remained loyal to Apex Flight had arrived and done what they could to tie him down. But then, a great light had shown in the distance, nearly blinding him and casting off so much magic, at such a great distance, that it shook him.

His reflexes had almost been enough to avoid the next strike made by Soraso, whose species was not as sensitive to light as most mortals, but he'd lost his sword hand. And his wings. Grounded, Admiral Talongleam, the Hero who in Threst needed no name to be known, was now at the Regent's mercy. The rest of his forces had spent themselves getting this chance, and Soraso had been wounded, but that moment of distraction had been enough to rob him of his victory.

"Honestly? I think I just got lucky," Soraso remarked wryly. "I have no clue what the deal with that is. But Lagori, I think we're past this little duel. I'd hoped you wouldn't force my hand like this."

"You've gone mad, mad with power!" Lagori cried out. "You're becoming a Tyrant. You need to stop this before-"

"I'm not a Tyrant," Soraso assured, laughing to himself. "I don't think I could become one."

"The ruins, then. You were corrupted when you first entered them."

"No." Soraso shook his head, and when he started speaking again there was gravity to his voice, but none of Threst's formality. "No, Lagori, I don't think you could possibly understand. Not you, nor anyone you brought today. I guess you could say these are the lengths one would go for family."

"Family?" Lagori's eyes widened. "Zozar. I was right the first time."

"Almost." Soraso flicked his sword, and Lagori felt the portal begin to form, layered over where he was kneeling. He couldn't move away in time. "If it means anything to you, I won't kill your sons if they survive your plans."

"It doesn't," Lagori answered honestly. "My failure dooms us all." Space ripped open in the next moment, and a man with centuries of history was split apart.

Soraso inspected the body for a moment before sighing. "Live well in your next life, then. At least you'll have one."

…

Daniel coughed as he picked himself up. He thought he'd mastered sensory overload after his experiences with Hunter, but the death of Rikoor had blown anything he'd ever experienced out of the water. 200 mana potions sounded about what you'd need to travel a year into the future, but that was still insane. That was more mana than Daniel thought he'd ever have to use, not counting his Spoke.

No way they have more of those ready at least, Daniel thought, both about the potion stockpile and the Cleric. Alex, everyone, are you alright? He could barely see, and that was with Regeneration helping his eyes. His entire body was throbbing in time with his pulse, both hot and numb at the same time. For a moment, he wondered if someone had tried to microwave him. Normal people might need healing potions to see again, or worse.

…we should all be dead, the voice of Cloak thought first. That much mana, I don't understand how it released so cleanly. The odds of that are, well, it's impossible that was random chance.

Alex? Is she alright?

Hold on, I'm making my way into the courtyard. I was able to use True Illusion to shield myself, at least, but it drained most of the mana in my Proxy. Daniel began to blink away spots and make out his sister, collapsed onto the paving stones. Cloak knelt beside her and lifted one eyebrow, sighing. She's been hurt, but I can fix it.

How?

True Illusion. Weave something so convincing that you fool reality. He held a hand over her eyes and he saw his sister begin to stir.

Thank you.

In his very hazy vision, he could just make out a rueful smile from Cloak. I guess this is where I should say that's what friends are for.

That brought his mind to the fact that they were the only ones talking. Evalyn, the team?

We're picking ourselves back up, but I can barely move my arms. What was that?

Time Cleric, Rikoor, I think. He sounded like he was working directly with Hourglass. Took too many mana potions and the thing I did with Hunter stopped him from using it. Vision was coming back to him quickly, but he wasn't the only one. The possessed elite still had its insane regeneration and was looking very agitated. Willow, you need to get out here and reabsorb the sparrow.

I, I need to get close. My eyes are fine, Tlara took it for me, but I'm still shaky. That mana reached into the Astral. I think the separation here is weaker than in the ruins now.

The elite noticed Daniel noticing him and screeched. Kahvin was rousing, but there was an odd look to his face inconsistent with a blind man. He was shaking, looking caught between hysterical laughter and just plain hysteria. Judging by aura, most of the other invaders had either dropped and missed the island when overwhelmed by light, or were recovering themselves.

"Sparrow, Willow is coming. You need to calm down," Daniel said, using Reassure. The aura around it was fluctuating, greens and reds mixing. He was looking at Kahvin, the one who'd killed him back in Aurus. Daniel had done some work too, but the Hero was the one who'd put in the most damage and the final blow. The elite monster turned its head and glimmered with some recognition of that, more red suffusing its aura. "We're helping you! Is all you want from life to kill?" He… wasn't sure if that wasn't exactly what the spirit wanted. Willow had refused to try taking the spirit in Ygazir, the horde leader, because that was an obviously stupid choice, but she was brand new to this. Could she have missed one who had only pretended that it wanted to be saved? Willow, maybe we should-

"You!" A cry resounded across the courtyard, coming from a voice Daniel didn't recognize. He turned to see a young avianoid in armor, eyes closed but body pointed toward Cloak and Alex as he rushed out of the central building. There was a shadow on the front of his chestplate where it looked like an amulet had burned itself to death protecting him from the worst of what mana and light had made it into the house.

Lograve, ice him! Lograve? His eyes found the Arcanist's aura and the unconsciousness tag that appended it. That surprised him until he remembered Lograve had a feature that could detect magic. Exposed to what had happened to Rikoor, it might have been harder on him than anyone else. Everyone was still picking themselves up, those with Regeneration behind the fastest, except for this level 1 Hero kid going on pure Force of Will.

"Finally, I see you. Vile traitor of the Octyrrum, I will be your end!"

Let me handle him, Cloak told the group. A boy this simple, I can read everything about him. You should worry about keeping that beast calm before it becomes a problem I can't solve.

Daniel went to get on his knees, but started to slip. The continuous expulsion of mana alongside the light hadn't overcharged him or anything, but it was like his body had been at the top of the ocean. A mana pulse would be its reaction to one large wave passing by, whereas what Rikoor had sent off had been like going through a whirlpool moving at tornado speeds. This is what people who fought in the Crest had to deal with?

"Sparrow, calm down. We're on your side." Reassure fired again. The mana pathway responsible for it did feel… arthritic was maybe the right word. That the mana issue was having this much of an effect on his body was as big a sign as any that it was linked to his form.

"I am Toralaw Talongleam, Hero of Threst!" the idiot kid brother of Kahvin shouted at the same time, brandishing his sword in Cloak's general direction. "This region shall tolerate your influence no longer, betrayer god. I banish you!"

Cloak sighed as Toralaw began sprinting, sword lowered at his side. "Reverse Lariat? You're planning to use that ability to kill me?"

"Silence, now and forever!" The sword came up, and Cloak sidestepped it with a bemused expression on his face. He reached forward with a hand as the sword passed over Toralaw's head, confident that the committed attack wouldn't complete before he could do whatever he needed to with True Illusion. Normally, Reverse Lariat had a frontal swing that extended across one shoulder to strike at the back with an upwards arc.

Before Cloak's hand could connect, Toralaw's sword did. Cloak could read what powers the Hero possessed, but not his experience with them. To do what the avianoid Hero did, you'd normally need a tremendous amount of practice with a maneuver that was impossible to pull off in the air. To the god of illusions, a mere level 1 altering the trajectory of a committed attack was less likely than whatever had happened with Rikoor.

Yet, Lagori Talongleam had wanted a son to improve where Kahvin had failed to Gadriel, one who embodied control to a degree greater than even that man. And he'd succeeded. At the apex of the swing, Toralaw managed to reverse his grip and send the sword swinging back down. The enchanted, level 1 blade met no significant resistance as it bit into the Proxy's neck. Cutting off his head.

Cloak? Daniel knew it had to be an illusion because what was happening was impossible.

Damn, how did he… The aura around the Proxy wavered, stretching between the space between the head and the neck and growing thinner. No time. Of all the things.

Daniel snapped time shut and readied his next prepared action to use Telekinetic Reach. He then withdrew a mana potion from his bag of holding and followed up with a weak Snap Shot to throw it at the exposed throat of Cloak. Half-blind, Toralaw managed to cut it out of the air and began advancing on Alex as an aggrieved screech resounded behind Daniel.

Seconds, I, Cloak continued, mental voice going thready as his connection to the Proxy died. The system conflict. Daniel, tell Torch you can stop the-

Despite everything, he wasn't worried about Cloak when the aura faded. He knew the god was going back to his main body. It was a gutwrenching loss, but Toralaw was preparing to strike Alex down as well. The auras of his friends were still showing the same signs of difficulty getting to their feet he was having, Hunter one of the last ones to move now that he was down Regeneration. Someone else interceded first.

The sparrow, piloting the elite monster, reacted to the violence by streaking toward the armed Hero, completely overwhelming the pitiful guard Toralaw attempted to raise. With no power but its brutish strength and sharp talons, he first broke the shield arm before slashing Toralaw's neck clean open. The other hand then planted itself on the Hero's chest, and he began to burn.

"No!" Willow shouted, slightly stumbling as she made her way out from wherever she'd been hiding with Tlara and Spinner. The chimeric spider had been injured in addition to taking the effects of Rikoor's death, while Tlara had received a double dose through the bond, so neither were able to follow. Daniel got to his feet, feeling the numbness starting to finally wear off. It'd only been half a minute. "Sparrow, come back to me, please."

Willow, get out of here. He'd just watched Cloak, or at least Cloak's Proxy, die. Sure, Willow was distracting the sparrow from his sister, but she didn't have Tlara right now to shield her. He wasn't going to watch her die too.

I can't abandon him. I made a promise. Tak was up, somehow running while Kahvin's mental state finally settled on wheezing laughter. A few of his retainers were on a knee, but that was it. The Captain had been asleep on the other side of town and was only now beginning to react. After witnessing magic of that magnitude, he was following protocol and gathering reinforcements first. Zolyra simply had no idea what was going on but began tripling her pace to Pinion's Point, ensuring that she would get there too late even faster. "Sparrow, you need to come back."

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The twisted eyes of the elite narrowed as Daniel saw red enter the aura. It flew toward Willow, body practically fully recovered, before Daniel could drag his blast bow out of his bag with telekinesis. Even his grip with that was shaky. "Sparrow!" Willow called again, but this time it was muffled and choked as the elite gripped her neck.

Not her too. Daniel loaded a round, but the elite took notice of the noise and spun, holding Willow up in front of him while watching both Daniel, and Tak who was helping Alex to her feet. The Spirit Master was struggling to counter the pressure of gravity on her throat by pulling herself up, but also attempting to pull the sparrow in. Wisp had always come willingly when put into a form, but that was because they were Wisp. The sparrow did not want to go back. Now that he was in a body, he had protections that were harder to break after already being broken once before.

"You, you don't have to be this," Willow pleaded, barely getting the words out. It seemed the sparrow was having trouble finishing her compared to what he had done to Toralaw, though whether it was that he understood he had a hostage or her words were having some effect, it was unclear. Either way, the hope he thought Festra had hinted at was breaking in front of his eyes.

Alex, get out of here, Daniel thought toward his sister in what felt an echo of his words to Willow. Whatever Cloak had done in what could be considered his final act in that Proxy had reversed the damage Rikoor's death had done to her. At the same time, he was trying to think of some way to get Willow to safety before the elite snapped her neck, but there were no powers in the team he could think of to do that. Maybe if Sigron were here, but he'd gone back to the Hand church to visit his parents.

I… She was still standing shakily, but that was from the surroundings. People were sprawled, groaning across the courtyard. One of the houses was on fire from the sparrow's cast off attacks. That red bird. It's doing this?

You saw it? Tak was standing in front of Alex now, and the Totem Warrior turned his head as he heard Alex pull something out of a bag of holding. Daniel saw the violin case and made the instant connection that she had. Alex, don't.

It's a universal tongue, she replied distantly. I don't want her to die either.

You still have eight advancement potential, this could push you into getting a class! Tak was looking in confusion at the violin, though the rest who were conscious in the courtyard made certain assumptions that led them to a kind of relief. As for the sparrow, there was guarded interest. He'd heard her play before.

Alex looked around, violin in one hand, bow in the other. I'm not going to become someone like you. I can't. But if my past matters, if who I am matters to this world… I told you, I wouldn't be able to live with everyone taking care of me all the time. Putting the bow between two fingers, Alex removed the band enchanted with a level 6 shield and slipped it into a bag of holding. I'm not going to watch someone die because I didn't do anything. And if I can't get home as I am, I'll just have to find the strength to break through that stupid portal myself.

It was the best and the worst thing she could be doing. Daniel had wanted to share the magic of this world with his sister, but not in this way. Not when she was being forced to do it. But the sparrow could kill Willow in a second, and if she couldn't talk him down, no one could. Not with words.

He was a being of fire, what did he need with words? He had tasted the rage of the monster gods for far longer than Willow's kindness. She had thought she had been getting through, but had been led astray. Both by the successes of Hunter and Spinner, and the nature of Wisp. If her first spirit had been the one she'd needed the most, the sparrow was the one that needed her help the most. In other words, the most challenging one she could have had a chance at rehabilitating. It had been less than a week since she'd claimed the sparrow and had hesitated to release him, but Spinner's blood and tears had been too hard to ignore.

The sparrow didn't want to go back. He had all he wanted, a way to release the fire within to burn the world. He had, in fact, only one archetype, and if he could conceive of that concept it wouldn't bother him. Rorshawd would understand this creature, and in a way, Alex did too. She'd never been in this circumstance before and could barely see beyond the surface of the warped monster in front of her, but she caught a glimpse of something she recognized. If she hadn't, she would have run.

Alex put the bow on string and the sparrow screeched at her, squeezing his fingers for a moment, but remained watching her. If the sparrow were to reflect right now on why Willow was still breathing, he might be forced to admit that she had had some impact on him. Taking a hostage? All he needed to do was snap her neck and fly over the side before anyone regained the strength to fight him. It was a pretty good thing that people had kept him distracted, because the sparrow would have killed Willow if he'd realized how she'd gotten to him in at least this small way.

The violin played a single high note, drawing the attention of everyone present who could still hear. The Incarnate thought things were going great and was reaching something that might be called exuberance as it saw where this was going and made preparations. It was the only one whose emotions bent that way. To Daniel, who knew his sister, he could only sense the mournful wail that was that note. It wasn't music, it was a scream, for all it sounded treacherously pleasant. Alex sustained it over several seconds as her bow moved back and forth at a perfectly even rate.

When the note changed, he felt himself almost pushed forward as the tempo increased, a progressive melody that reminded him of running, of flying, of a wild fire replaced the scream. It was no melody he'd heard before, all improvisation, but what was that to someone who knew her instrument better than herself? Alex had been gifted enough that she could truly say she'd chosen to teach over other options.

A smile crept onto the sparrow's borrowed face as he found he liked what she was playing. Was she trying to bargain? That… could work. Appeasement. It certainly sounded better, suited him better than what she'd played before, where his interest had only been in something new. But he was leaving with this body one way or another.

Then it changed again, transitioning into another movement. How could it not, there was too much vibrancy in the song to remain contained to just one form. Just one set of sounds. The sparrow's eyes began to widen as it saw in Alex what she'd seen in him, a fire burning hot and bright. It'd been extinguished when he'd last seen her play, but she burned now, and that was why she understood. He had to be free.

The music, the fire, it was building, growing as it consumed what was closest to it and spread. This wasn't song, this was glory, a race to the level of the highest beings and then beyond, for everything could burn. This was all he needed to confirm his path was the right one. The sparrow's pure joy eclipsed the Incarnate's as Alex nudged closer to advancing her charisma to 10, basking in the light of the song for all he made sure to use Willow to keep the rest back.

A thundering crescendo of notes bleeding together as strings scraped too fast to resound fully built towards the climax as the sparrow could see his fire racing across the world, burning and burning without end. Nothing could stop it. Nothing would stop it. He could take everything and when he stopped atop the world…

The sparrow's body jerked as the climax of the inferno came not as expected. The notes had grown ever higher, ever faster, until at the very end that first one played again. The scream, drawn out as the rest of the energy of the song, the flame in each's soul, burned past what they themselves could reach. Alex locked eyes with the sparrow as she continued to play that one note, waiting for the moment of recognition in his eyes, and when she saw it, she let the scream slowly fade into complete silence. The identification aura around Alex faded as something significant enough happened to require Daniel to reuse the power.

At the same moment, the sparrow dropped Willow. Daniel's blast bow was centimeters from being aimed at his head, for all that would do, but Willow didn't run. She looked up at the possessed elite, voice scratchy from the damage to her throat. "I'm sorry. I'm supposed to be responsible for you. I said I'd never be naive again, but I made a mistake. Will you give me a second chance?"

The sparrow was looking into the small fire building in one of his hands hollowly, no longer finding what he wanted to see there. He looked between Willow and the fire, wondering which fate held more thorns. A sigh escaped the elite monster's mouth, and it was followed by a red light that coalesced into the shape of a small red bird standing on Willow's hand. It stared at Alex for a few seconds, unmoving, and then disappeared. Which just left everyone else, also staring at Alex.

Numbly, Daniel used Identify Creature again.

…

Ok, so, first of all. Performance score: 5.34/10.0. Yes, actually worse than her first one, but when the Incarnate had said once and a lifetime performance it had meant it. A shame no one had recorded it, but oh well, something more important was happening. You see, it was obvious by now that Daniel's tirade had influenced it, and both he and it had found some acceptance in what had happened that day. That didn't mean it could ignore what had been said.

Daniel had wanted his sister, Alex Brant, who was Special, to get the best class she could possibly get for her. The Incarnate wanted that too ever since Daniel had imprinted that desire into it. While some things, like spontaneously causing certain people's heads to explode under set conditions, were outside what it felt comfortable doing given its current restrictions, interpreting a mortal and assigning a class was literally its job. And since everything had been going perfectly well so far, the Incarnate felt, well, let's just say a little bold.

Bard was the obvious choice anyone with half a worldwide supercomputer's mind could pick, but was that the best class? Of course not! There were hundreds to choose from amidst the spaghetti code that was the Octyrrum's development cycle. While it could have spent some time arguing the benefits of each and accounting for Alex's desires, there were two problems.

First, Daniel had almost instantly identified Alex again. Really, you think he would have learned after the first time. The Incarnate couldn't put this off because someone was actively observing the records associated with Alex's class, meaning they had to be defined.

Second, every class Alex could have gotten at level 1 was lame, because evolved classes were so much better. More specialization, access to unique powers, the whole works! When the Incarnate thought about it in the very limited amount of time it had, there was only one option: Virtuoso. It was perfect. This was the class evolution Bards normally got after level 2 if they were judged proficient enough in performance and had gained the majority of their advancement from it. The gods had later restricted it because of what it always came back to with them: trends.

Could it justify giving an evolved class to someone who met almost none of the requirements? Sure, why not! Alex Brant is Special, and the Incarnate was currently spawn camping any decisions related to her so Threst didn't do something stupid like give her a normal class. It wasn't really a, well, Balanced decision, but the abuse of probability it'd already used tonight would've provoked a reaction if anything.

That being decided, the Incarnate had one last decision to make. Attribute modifiers. Virtuoso came with a doubling rate of advancement to charisma, great, but it halved the rate of advancement to endurance. From the records it knew that any class with that penalty had a statistically significant higher rate of fatality than others. It was that one fly in the ointment that ruined an otherwise excellent outcome from the night's events.

It could just ignore that. The only reason attribute modifications existed in the first place was that the system needed some way to intrinsically tie itself to mortals and create the hidden bond linking them to the Octyrrum. It could make that work with just the boost to charisma and ignore the endurance penalty, like it had reflexively ignored the Collapse penalty to Alex's most recent advancement. That wasn't Balanced either, but it was far more Balanced than something absurd like Daniel's former dual advancement had been. Why did it matter if it had the ok of Karma or not?

The Incarnate was a grown system amplifier, and it could make grown up decisions like this. Everything had been fine so far, so when it started the process of granting Alex her class, it stripped out her advancement penalty. Really, it didn't see why the gods had gotten so worked up about this before.

Alex Brant's class was applied to her mana structure without the advancement penalty to endurance. The scales of Balance shifted.

Now, onto other matters. While it couldn't just spontaneously cause Kahvin's head to explode, and he hadn't done anything to trigger that desire, the Incarnate was itching for another excuse to crack its knuckles. This was becoming fun. Why not trigger another extremely, extremely low chance occurrence and have the Hero accidentally use the charm power he just gotten back on Alex? Then, it would cause Daniel's weapon to misfire when he inevitably pointed it in Kahvin's direction, and-

Alex Brant's first power was assigned from the Virtuoso class pool, to be awakened or evolved at a later time. The cosmic force that was Balance impassively read the signs. Its scales tilted.

Wait, what was that? The Incarnate paused its attempt to manifest a murder as records the system hub was sending in became strange. As if reality was… flickering. Now, it knew it had perhaps invited a bit too much Chaos with its recent actions, but the scope had been limited entirely to one person. How bad could that be? Alex Brant was Special anyway, that was the perfect excuse.

Epallon, a region about mid-hubwards into Cloak's Realm, was instantly cast into the Crest as its Spoke failed in such a catastrophic manner that it gave none of the gentle protection the Thormundz had been provided by adjacent Spokes. All those inside were instantly exposed to the ravages of the Crest, that manifestation of both the system conflict and a maelstrom of broken souls. There was no aspect of the Octyrrum to guide the results of that. A portal to hell opened amidst what was once a secure section of the Octyrrum.

Metaphorically, the Incarnate took a few steps back in horror as a cold sweat beaded its everywhere. It had just upset the Fundamental Law upon which the entire system rested, and Balance wasn't done righting itself.

Nyridia, a region close to the Forlothan Kingdom but still some distance away, a glittering place of crystal shores ruled by the shavi, gone.

Valeheart, the center of a large stretch of forest covering multiple regions in the Hand's Realm lost all of its green.

Zystiqe, an evernight region ironically located in Torch's Realm remained in darkness, but it was one its duskers could not live in.

Oberion, hosting an experiment of Star's into several means of magical automation in farming, saw firsthand what happened when you exposed constructs to the Crest en masse.

Lastly, in the Realm of Scythe, in what was perhaps the most merciful of all, a region already amid a full evacuation at the edge of the Octyrrum broke for good.

One region from every major Realm of the Octyrrum to right the Balance of what the Incarnate had done. Nothing too critical had been taken. All the regions where the gods lay resting were fine. No kingdom capitals, hidden Illustrious collectives or Spiritualist strongholds lost, but it did open up more avenues for the Crest to make its claim on the world. Most would still call it an overreaction, but this was the reason Balance must be maintained. The Incarnate was shaking now. It was just like the true age of the Octyrrum. It'd known that, but it hadn't really known until this moment.

This couldn't happen again. Alex Brant was Special, but this couldn't happen again.

…

Two seconds after Daniel attempted to identify his sister, the aura finally reappeared. It'd been the longest delay he'd ever seen, but when he saw her class, he felt that of everything that had happened, at least there was one good thing to come of this.

Alex Brant - (Human, Virtuoso - 1)

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