The Kronos Plane.
The world's border.
A second after Murphy and the Demigods vanished into the river of time,
Cheris stepped out of the void.
She wore a pure white dress, its hem falling just to her knees, with a thin, silvery-white belt cinched at her waist.
On her feet were white sandals, revealing toes painted with black nail polish.
Her slender right hand, its nails also painted black, held a leash.
Tied to the other end of the leash was a dog.
The dog had Vito's head, four short legs, a body covered in messy gray fur, and a tail that hung behind it, swaying back and forth like a stray.
Cheris stood in the void, her jade-green eyes gazing in the direction Murphy had disappeared. She watched the river of time close before her, watched the Crimson motes of light that were already fading away.
'Here? But there's nothing here.'
The Vito-dog looked up, its face—the face of a reserve Bell Ringer from the Douglas Clan's Clock Tower—filled with fawning and pleading.
