Era’s Domain, Present
Niche stands across from Era. Era gestures to the side.
"Your test isn't against me," Era says. "It's against those who perpetuate the cycle."
An extraction chamber appears. Neptune is already at the console, the machine humming with power. Pluto stands between it and Niche.
"How—" Niche starts.
"I brought them," Era explains simply. "They were attempting extraction in the memorial world. I merely... relocated their efforts here. Let's see if you can stop what's already in motion. Good luck, my child."
Neptune finally looks up. "Ten minutes until full separation. Your parlor tricks won't work here, sun bearer."
"Ten minutes seems arbitrary," Niche observes, trying to buy time.
"Industry standard," Neptune replies, looking back down. "The buyers prefer predictable extraction windows."
"Buyers?"
"Did you think we kept the sun's energy for ourselves?" Neptune laughs. "Other dimensions pay handsomely for concentrated solar energy. Fuel for their dying stars. Power for whatever engines they have. We're simply... middlemen."
He taps the display.
"Every cycle, we extract. Every cycle, we profit,” Neptune continues. “This world runs on commerce, not magic. My life element ensures I'll see countless cycles. Endless profit."
"You're selling pieces of the sun."
"Pieces of sun. This world won't miss a few fragments. Not until it's too late." Neptune checks the timer. "Eight minutes."
The extraction device hums louder. Even in Era's domain – wherever that actually is – it's still connected to the memorial world's sun. Still counting down.
"Your test," Era says, stepping back, "is simple. Stop them, or merge with the sun. Show me you've learned more than just restraint."
Pluto reaches into a bag of crystals at his hip. He counts them quietly.
"Pluto," Raizen says. "I see you're still as useless as last time. No powers. No element. Nothing."
Pluto doesn't respond. He runs at Niche. Niche swings but Pluto crushes a space crystal, putting him past Niche before the blade connects. Niche turns around to face him.
Pluto crushes a gravity crystal and throws it on the floor in front of Niche. The ground craters and Niche drops, pinned flat. His bones crack under the pressure.
The ground feels better than standing, but Niche stands back up when the effect wears off.
Pluto crushes a time crystal on himself. Niche's next swing passes through where he was. Pluto’s already behind Niche again, standing in his original position.
Niche turns and faces Pluto again. He doesn’t chase.
"Seven minutes," Neptune says, not looking up.
Niche holds his forearm out, palm up. A fireball forms on his hand, growing at the same pace the whole time. He throws it. It floats toward Pluto like he lobbed it underhand.
Pluto crushes a space crystal and a memory crystal together before the fire reaches him. The distance between the memory crystal and Niche's head disappears. The crystal breaks point blank.
Niche blinks, regaining his balance. His eyes are open but there's nothing behind them.
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Pluto crushes a time crystal on the fireball, still hanging in the air where Niche left it. The flames freeze.
When Niche returns, the flames reverse and slam back into him. But they dissipate on contact, leaving no mark. He looks at Pluto. A hint of irritation on Niche’s face for a second, but it’s gone before Pluto notices.
"He's chaining them," Raizen says. "Every crystal sets up the next."
Pluto counts what he has left. Five.
He takes a deep breath.
Pluto throws a probability crystal at Raizen. The sword slips from Niche's hand and clatters to the ground. He throws the gravity crystal before it stops moving. The sword flattens against the floor like something is standing on it.
"Niche—" Raizen starts.
Pluto smashes a space crystal and memory crystal together. The memory crystal appears against Niche's chest and breaks. Niche’s eyes unfocus.
Pluto holds his last crystal up in front of his face. Time.
One left, Pluto thinks. The final touch.
Something twitches in front of him.
His heart drops. He looks past the crystal and Niche is staring at him. Not in his general direction. Not the empty gaze from before. Directly into Pluto's eyes. With malice.
That's not possible, Pluto thinks. His memory is gone. He shouldn't know who I am. He shouldn't even know I'm a threat. So why is he looking at me like—
Immortal flames fire from Niche's body in a straight line. A single beam, aimed at the crystal in Pluto's hand. Pluto sees it and his hand opens on its own. The crystal falls. His body tips backward.
The beam punches through the crystal and keeps going. It stops inches from Pluto's chest. The time crystal shattered on impact and the flames hang in the air above him, still pointed at his heart.
Pluto hits the ground on his back. He stares up at them.
If that crystal broke a second later I'd be dead, Pluto thinks.
The flames reverse. They travel back the way they came, back across the room, back into Niche. They hit his body and wrap around him.
His memory returns. The flames are already on him. They were there when he woke up. His brain doesn't register them. His element perception skips over them the same way you can't see your own nose. The same way he couldn't tell he was blind at first. They were always there, as far as he knows.
He looks at Pluto. The malice is gone. He starts throwing fireballs again. The flames leave his hand and curl back into him, damaging him, eaten by the immortal flames he can't detect. He throws again. Same thing.
His regeneration fights the burning. Burns, heals, burns, heals. His steps slow. His legs buckle. He drops.
Face down. Burning. Regenerating. Burning.
Pluto stands over him, chest heaving.
"Immortal." Pluto says, watching Niche's body twitch on the ground. "Doesn't mean much when you're burning yourself alive."
"Six minutes," Neptune says.
From the floor, pinned under its own gravity, the sword speaks.
"You fool."
Pluto freezes.
“You're using crystals,” Raizen reveals. “From world. Did you think I couldn't feel them?”
Pluto looks at his hands. Empty.
“Every crystal you've ever found? I let those exist. I wanted you to find them.” Raizen scoffs. “Years collecting my breadcrumbs. Building your whole arsenal on my foundation.”
The gravity on Raizen stutters. The immortal flames on Niche's body flicker.
"And now?" Raizen continues.
The gravity pinning Raizen releases and redirects onto Pluto. He slams into the floor. Niche's element perception recalibrates and the immortal flames light up across his senses. He shuts them off.
Niche stands up. His eyes are solid red. He picks up Raizen without a word.
"All those crystals," Raizen says. "All those combos. Years of collecting. And you don't have a single power of your own."
Niche holds his palm out. Immortal flames gather to a single point. Dense. Compressed.
He fires.
The beam hits Pluto and the flames spread across his entire body. He collapses without a word.
"Did you think," Niche says, "that the King of this world wouldn't notice you stealing from his reality?"
He walks toward Neptune.
"Five minutes remaining," Neptune says. "Pluto's failure is irrelevant."
Pluto is still burning on the ground. Not screaming. Dragging himself across the floor toward the extraction device. He stretches his hand toward the panel.
Raizen thinks.
Niche throws Raizen like a spear. It pierces Pluto's heart.
Pluto's fist hits the panel when his arm drops.
The device shrieks, alarms blaring. The timer drops to thirty seconds.
"Unfortunate," Neptune says, looking up. "But suffi—"
The panel explodes.
Not a small explosion. The overloaded device releases all of the energy at once in a concentrated burst. Neptune’s body is vaporized. His regeneration can’t bring him back from nonexistence.
The shockwave ripples outward. The floor cracks beneath them and disappears.
Niche and Raizen fall through the bottom of the replica domain and into open sky. The memorial world stretches out below them. Above, the sphere still hangs in the air like a dark moon, a hole torn through its base where they dropped out.
The extraction device tumbles past, still sparking, still counting down.
Twenty seconds.
They're barreling toward the memorial world. Above them, the replica domain collapses in on itself.
Fifteen seconds.
The extraction beam is still locked onto Niche, trying to separate him from Raizen even as they fall. The pull is agony, like being torn apart from the inside.
Ten seconds.
Era's domain is completely gone now. Just Niche, Raizen, and the ground coming up fast.
