Eni stepped once more into the Obelisk's glow. The familiar chill of teleportation gave way to the sound of waves: she found herself at the pier where Insip stood, as melancholic as ever. At her appearance, the Archon flinched visibly, nearly tumbling into the water.

  "Hey, Insip," Eni called out quietly.

  "Ah, it's you..." the elf turned, his silvery hair catching the sun. "What brings you here? Did you... come to talk to me?"

  Eni silently pulled the water-damaged book from under her uniform.

  "I think I found a prophecy. Nick's hunting for them, right? Decided to give it to him. Maybe it's actually important."

  Insip stepped closer, looking into her eyes. Something terrifyingly aware flickered in his gaze.

  "If you want to understand for sure," he said in a quiet, even voice — but his lips didn't move. The words echoed directly in Eni's head. "Tear out the page about the In-between. If Nick tells you about the Civilization, or some history — then it's a true prophecy. If he just brushes it off... then it's just old paper."

  Eni was stunned by how much he knew.

  "How do you know what's written there? And if you know, why don't you just say it yourself? And anyway... what about Alvina? We're LITERALLY surrounded by plants. She should've whispered everything I found to Nick by now!"

  Insip just let out a heavy sigh and looked away.

  "I blocked Alvina's access to information about us. Don't worry, she won't hear anything."

  Eni opened her mouth to protest his constant riddles and half-truths, but suddenly reality around her shattered. A second later — she wasn't on the pier, but in the middle of a cozy, warm room. A fierce debate was raging at the table: Vee was heatedly arguing something with her father, while Maeno, graceful and silent, was eating, clearly enjoying the show.

  "So what if our universe was created by a being as powerful as you, Dad?" Vee argued, waving her fork. "He just moved from one branch to another, creating a new universe!"

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  "Nah," Nick leaned back lazily, refuting his daughter's theory. "I think matter is Nothing. It's created by the collapse of Nothing and monstrous temperatures. Imagine a big house. What happens if it falls? It gets crushed. Same with Nothing. It was uniform, like a sphere, and then it collapsed. The high temperature from the collapse gives that Nothing the form of matter."

  At that moment, Nick turned his head and saw Eni. His face twisted in shock. Apparently, the trainee finding his private home wasn't part of the plan.

  "What the..." he muttered and instantly vanished.

  Eni didn't even have time to say hi to Vee and Maeno before Nick reappeared, holding some strange object.

  "GET THE FUCK OUT!" he yelled and threw the thing at her.

  Space turned inside out. Eni blinked and found herself in the empty assembly hall. A moment later, Nick appeared there too. He sat in his chair with a completely unbothered expression, as if he hadn't just kicked her out of his own living room.

  "So... what happened?" he asked, like nothing was wrong.

  Dazed, Eni placed the book on the table.

  "Do you know what this is?"

  Nick grabbed the folio, quickly scanning the cover and pages. His eyes suddenly lit up with eager fire.

  "Oh, it's a prophecy!" he started flipping through the pages greedily. "'Brother's revenge for brother'... that's probably either our dumbass twins or someone else. Who Kartavan is — no idea."

  He turned a page and clicked his tongue in irritation.

  "Damn, shame most of it's washed out. Hard to say about the invasion either — there are dozens of portals open right now, and who knows how many are hidden or broken... we either don't know, or... we'll find out soon. I'll tell our guys to prepare."

  Reaching the middle, he pointed to the line about children and showed it to Eni.

  "And this is the most useless part. 'Children' could be us, or my Vee, or... hell, anyone. Trash. No groundbreaking info here. Except the part about the war was confirmed... unfortunately."

  "War?" Eni repeated, feeling a chill crawl inside her.

  "Yeah, war. Against the Voice and his entire race," Nick replied casually.

  "B-but the Voice..." Eni stammered, "he's..."

  "I'm stronger than him," Nick cut her off.

  "How much stronger?" escaped her.

  Nick paused, staring at the ceiling.

  "Well... I have complete immunity to magic, explosions, projectiles, and piercing attacks. Almost one hundred percent evasion, 50% block on any attack, 150% regeneration. Also, every 5 seconds I'm invulnerable to any attack. I'm immune to an opponent's first strike and their killing blow. I'm invisible if the enemy is more than three meters away. I have 200% speed, and I have a Soul Sword that splits souls into layers. If we're talking about the Observer... even if he blocks my time rewind — which works for 15 seconds back — then... yeah. I'm stronger. But I can't say for sure."

  Eni stood frozen. She thought she'd seen at least a fraction of his power during training, but it turned out he was just playing with her like a kitten.

  "Nick... is there anyone stronger than you?"

  "In the upper and middle layers — I'm the strongest," he said, raising a finger instructively. "But the lower layer... I haven't even been there."

  "Why? You're so powerful!"

  Nick looked at her like she was a clueless child.

  "Strong doesn't mean stupid, Eni. You want me to go against Hades? Or Satan? Or against Heaven? I'll tell you right now: one valkyrie fucked me up royally, even when I was popping gods like sunflower seeds. Or should I go down to the infected world of Gaardavaard? Fuck, can't even pronounce that name..."

  He fell silent, grabbed the book from the table, and just left without saying goodbye, leaving Eni alone in the empty hall. Eni stood in a stupor, realizing her only source of information was now in the Coalition Head's pocket, but she didn't dare argue.

  She returned to the tavern and immediately collapsed onto the bed, turning off the device.