In just moments, all 18 Champions were either dead or on the brink of it.
Yet, four of them stood out as exceptions.
Fear emerged in the Fourth High Dimension, right in the heart of the Merchant's Domain.
The domain was a lavish, flame-lit palace adrift in a pocket of warped space, its walls of ember-toned marble casting shifting orange light over every surface.
The Merchant lounged at a long obsidian table, her bronze skin glowing warmly as flames flickered and danced along her fingertips.
Beside her lounged The Thief, his gray hair messy, a stolen coin still spinning between his fingers even as four of his five lives had already been stripped away.
These two had been around for quite some time, ever since The Thief's last death.
One thing he discovered that really infuriated him was that after each death, he didn't simply respawn.
Instead, he was reborn, marked with a sigil that remained hidden until his fourth death—at which point it brought him straight here.
