"In the Year 528 AH, the 21st Imam of the line of Fatimid creed—al-Tayyib Abu'l-Qasim—vanished from the Earthly realm. While tyrants clashed for power, a veil was drawn over his fate. But his story did not end. For God is the Lord of countless worlds—and the Imam is His living proof... in all of them."
The 12th Century – The Fall of the Fatimids
Screams echoed through the palace halls. A wet nurse ran through moonlit corridors with a glowing infant in her arms—his eyes glinting like stars. Shadows chase her. A storm brews behind her. WET NURSE said whispering:"You are the promise my sweet child... You must not fall into their hands..." Lightning flashes. At the center of the palace garden, a geometric device—etched with ancient Qur'anic patterns—awakens. It hummed with energy. The nurse lays the child inside. Her tears fall onto its brass edges. The Wet Nurse replied:"Bismillah... May the Hidden One protect you until the end of ends..." The device vanished in light. The enemies arrive too late. A priest of darkness stares into the empty circle in confusion. An evil Imam who claimed he was a Scholar of the Ash'ari and Sunni creeds but he was not persecuting the child because the family was a Shi'a royal family in fact the Shaykh was not a Sunni or an Ash'ari at all he was in actuality and by intention a servant of his Lord Iblis and the dark forces.
A strange sky with twin moons. Giant floating calligraphy orbits the heavens. Trees breathe, whispering prayers. The baby appeared in a ray of white light, crying gently. A cloaked old man approaches—his face was a radiant mix of time and wisdom. A glowing scroll hovered beside him. He was the Sage of Falak, an ancient sage and shaykh before schools of thought existed among men, Jinn or other similar beings in that quadrant of space. He said:"The Light has crossed the veil. He has come." The infant stopped crying and looked into the sky, as if remembering Earth.
Modern day, Yemen:
A young muwālī, Nūr, is studying in a quiet mountain zawiya. He is reading a worn manuscript with strange diagrams and cosmic annotations. NŪR said to himself:"'...And the Imam was not taken by death, nor by this world, but was veiled by divine command into the world of Tā' al-Mulk...' What is this?" Suddenly, a brief vision flashes—he sees a world of impossible beauty, a citadel of light, and a man in white standing on its peak. Inner voice: "He lives. And when the worlds align, he shall return with the Truth unveiled."
The Imam's New Realm:
Years pass. The baby grows into a young man. He teaches beneath a glowing tree. Creatures and people of various kinds sit at his feet, absorbing wisdom. Imam al-Tayyib said calmly: "Justice is not of one world alone. Wherever creation exists, there too must live its guide." He raised his hand, and a divine map unfolded—realms connected like constellations. One of them glowed faintly: Earth and its Sun and Moon. Imam al-Tayyib said smiling:"Soon, the veil will lift."
The Imam opened his eyes; he was now in the realm of the Guild Worlds which he had lived within for some time, right alongside the girl that Professor Amadeus referred to as 'Maria.' He was a man with spiky blue hair and a long cape, he was clean shaven and sometimes he wrapped a turban. He now went by the name, 'Yogensha,' meaning something like 'inner sage.' He was now over 2,045 years old as he lived in a dimension outside of what would be the same frame of time as on his native Earth. And he never told anyone his birth name was al-Tayyib. He looked towards Professor Amadeus who was in shock, standing beside Xerxes and the others at the meeting hall in the tower of the Guilds. "Interesting, does he know, Zora?" Tayyib looked towards Zora, "Zora, do you know him?" The girl who was in a white hood lined with gold looked at a shocked Amadeus, she said nervously, "Not that I can recollect."
Amadeus took a step forward. "Maria, please—don't play games. I know those eyes. I practically raised you. I loved you. You were my—" He stopped, breath catching in his throat. Zora looked to Yogensha, the mysterious sage standing beside her, who met Amadeus's eyes with a gaze that pierced timelines. Yogensha, once known as al-Tayyib Abu'l-Qasim, turned slowly. His voice carried the weight of an iron drum. "She said she doesn't recognize you, —" (he gestured gently toward Zora) "—So why not just leave her alone." Professor Amadeus for his part countered: "That's a bunch of shit, I don't know who you are but you have no right to control her like this." Tayyib laughed: "Control her, far from it. My name's Y I'm an old friend of her's nothing more, nothing less. I can't and won't tell her to do anything so stop with the baseless allegations." Yang Xiao Lei walked up to the three and asked: "Is there a problem?" Tayyib or 'Y' responded with: "Nothing it seems this wanna-be Ranker is bothering my comrade. I would like it if he was reprimanded." Amadeus shot back: "It's fine, I must have mistaken you for someone else, I apologize." As he said this he bowed in a Confucian style. He walked back to the others. Xerxes asked: "Do you know that girl?" Amadeus smirked: "A long time ago it's a miracle I'm even seeing her. I just can't understand why she's here." This stunned Xerxes and a few of the others, but before she could respond a voice could be heard over the intercom. A woman's voice. "Everyone, if you look at your tablets you must enter the mess-hall to hear about tomorrow's challenge within five minutes, no exceptions. You will also be put on teams in due time." Seregrin: "You heard him it's time to go." As they walked off, Amadeus was stuck. Kaisho asked: "Hey Doc, are you coming?" After a minute Amadeus snapped out of it: "Yeah, I'll be right there."
The mess-hall wasn't really a hall or a mess—it was a colossal floating dome suspended between fractured realms of sky and sea, filled with hovering tables, rotating feast platforms, and glowing orbs that transmitted Guild updates in over 10,000 languages. The domed ceiling displayed a digital night sky mimicking constellations from various worlds. In the center, a circular announcement dais rose, surrounded by Guild challengers—Rankers, Inheritors, and Broken Wills alike. Professor Amadeus arrived last, his jacked fluttering behind him, lips tight, mind elsewhere. Xerxes and Kaisho waved him over, but he barely noticed. Zora sat quietly on the far side of the hall, sipping from a steaming silver cup. Yogensha stood behind her, unreadable.
Suddenly— BOOM. The dais flared with light. A holographic projection of a woman appeared—flame-red hair, wearing a black tactical coat lined with ancient runes. Her voice was sharp, commanding, and slightly amused. "Guild World Participants. Welcome to Phase 3: The Prism's Spine." Gasps and murmurs erupted. Even Seregrin looked surprised.
"Those who survive this stage will rise in rank and enter the Inner Sanctum, where the Guild's true secrets are revealed. Those who fail... well, they can try again in the next cycle. Assuming they're still breathing." She smiled coldly. "Team assignments have been randomized, but intentionally balanced. You'll now meet your team leaders." FLASH! Several figures appeared in beams of color.
VANTA-RAI — The Lightning-Tier RankerAppearance: White tattoos pulse across his pitch-black skin.Weapon: Dual thunder blades made from sky-forged ore.Aura: Like standing inside a storm cell.SAHRA of the Thousand Eyes — Guild Illusionist & SeerAppearance: A woman in lavender robes stitched with cosmic threads. Her veil is covered in blinking eyes that see into other timelines.Power: Dream-Warping & Battle PrecognitionORA-KHAN — The Exiled Fire-King of the 9th RealmAppearance: Half-dragon hybrid in golden armor, horned helmet, voice like a volcano.Weapon: A living chain of molten fire called Ashkara.🌿 LYNARI — Druid Assassin of the Verdant RealmsAppearance: Green skin, vines in her hair, eyes like dew reflecting stars.Power: Control over organic and living terrain; summons forest spirits.
As each team was called out, the participants moved accordingly. Tablets buzzed with the names of new squads. Everyone's eyes darted as alliances formed.
Team 7: "Veilbreakers"
Team Leader: Sahra of the Thousand EyesMembers:Professor AmadeusKaishoLynari (Guest from Team 4)XerxesZora
Amadeus blinked. Then froze. "Zora's… on my team?" Across the room, Zora's tablet lit up with the same. She looked up slowly. For the first time since the incident at the Trial Hall, their eyes met. Xiao continued: "The rest of your friends will remain within your quarters and there still in your Guild they just won't be on your immediate official team. All teams will be announced in due time."
The chamber was carved from memory-stone, a psychic mineral that took on the shape of a team's inner spirit. The walls constantly shifted between snowy woods, battlefields, and lost temples. No one commented on it, but it clearly stemmed from Amadeus and Zora's unresolved past. Sahra entered last, her thousand-eye veil floating like a shadow behind her. She eyed them carefully. "This team is... interesting. Chaotic potential. Interlinked fates. That's rare." Kaisho laughed, putting his feet up. "Or it just means we're the weird ones who didn't die yet." Sahra ignored him. "Tomorrow's challenge is simple," she said. "Climb the Spiral Maw. Thirty stories of living structure. Traps, riddles, and creatures from collapsed and inverted moons. First team to reach the summit wins. Others risk... unraveling or put simply death." Xerxes cracked her knuckles. "Sounds fun. I'm ready to punch through a few assholes." Amadeus, still processing, finally spoke. "Sahra, can I talk to Zora—alone—before we climb?" Zora didn't object. Sahra nodded and vanished into vapor. The room fell silent again. Amadeus stepped forward. "You don't have to remember me, Maria. But if some part of you does... I want you to know I'm not here to control you. I'm here to protect you."
Zora stared for a long moment. "I'm not Maria anymore if I ever was," she said softly. She walked away. Amadeus shook his head. "You were a child. I failed you, not the other way around." It was over. It was time to eat in the messhall and then get some rest.
Challenge Countdown: 08:59:58
In an instant a flood of memories went through Amadeus' mind and he began to scream out in pain. Memories of a girl he was caressing. He saw himself caressing Maria or rather Zora. Of him spending time with her on monorails, in different worlds, they want on adventures for over 1,500 years. And then after this he fainted. Xerxes ran over: "What the heck is wrong with him." Seregrin picked him up: "We better call help and take him to his dorm." Meanwhile back in Umi Lin Lin began to show them around the devine city state and Empire of Icarus an abode of the gods, when Ungar sensed something. "I have to go, I sense something like myself." Lupus growled: "What does that mean tin-man?!" Ungar put his finger on his forehead and he disappeared. Hermes and the others looked around. Talus tried sensing him and so did Narcis but Lin Lin cut them off, "Don't bother." She shook her head, "If I know my father he might be back soon but it will be at a moment's notice as far as we're all concerned he could be anywhere. The bastard's always holding back." Hermes responded: "What do you mean he's holding back?" Lin Lin laughed: "I mean a little of his real power would destroy this world and a billion more 10,000 times over in an instant that's why he holds back in every fight even against world-ending threats, I'd best he hasn't gone full-out since any of you have known him, cause he knows the risk." Narcis was shocked as he was an old friend of Ungar: "You seem to know about it when was the last time he went all out?" Lin Lin replied: "Only once it was when he traveled back in time with me and that must have been over 10 million years ago give or take. I'd rather not see it again if I'm being honest."
Back in the dorm at the Guild World, Doctor Amadeus slowly awoke from his deep slumber he had been out for over 4 hours. Xerxes was waiting with crossed arms, she wasn't even remotely happy. "So what's the big I was gonna let it slide because it seemed personal but if I gonna fight alongside you again doc, you gotta tell me what's going on here." Professor Amadeus tried to give her the silent treatment. But Xerxes wasn't having it she began to pulsate with power, "Don't fuck with me doc, if you don't tell me I'll blow this entire cosmic entity apart and then no one will have to deal with any of this shit." This immediately broke through Amadeus's poker-face, "Fine fine you win, can I tell you the main part of the story most of the details I'd rather forget." Xerxes nodded. "A long while ago about 10,000 years ago I was a well-known bachelor and womanizer at least in my circles. Back then I had recently acquired a new ability the ability of mind control. I used it to force women to have relations with me against their knowledge. There are many men who have desired the same thing but they could not do a such a thing I had the power and I must say I fell well short of the mark, I took advantage of my abilities and exploited many women, any woman I found attractive." Xerxes scoffed: "Is this just a story about your lebido doc, honestly." Amadeus continued: "They were all up to a certain point of the proper age, there was an exception, only one." Xerxes looked back at him horrified.
I was tasked with working as a male nanny a manny if you will at a mansion on Planet Vectron Sector 5, the girl living there was 14 and a half or 15 years old she was certainly going on 15 years of age. She was from an extremely wealthy family. And as a result of taking care of her I was paid handsomely." Xerxes looked nervous. "I acted upon my impulses. At first I molested her and then I completely abused her through manipulation. But eventually I don't know why I began to fall in love with her." Xerxes became angry: "That's not love, that's just predatory behavior." Amadeus retorted: "Its no excuse but I did grow to love her, I went on to sponsor her in University and I took her on many adventures we went to what seemed like countless realms, we did this for over 3,000 years and then one day we were ambushed, that's the part I regret most of all." He began to cry: "She died in my arms, I've never been able to live with myself, she was just a child and I did that to her, you should kill me right now, torture me, it's far less than I deserve." Amadeus began to cry seemingly endlessly.
Xerxes didn't know what to say, atleast at first. Amadeus's voice trembled. "She died because of my choices. My pride. And now she's back—or something like her is—and she doesn't even look at me the same. God knows I deserve that." He looked up at Xerxes, eyes hollow. "You wanted to know what happened? I failed her. And I can never undo that." Xerxes was silent. The crackle of her aura faded. She stepped forward and punched him—not a blow to injure, but to jolt. "Stop acting like the only thing left for you is guilt." Amadeus looked up, stunned. "You think you're the only one carrying weight in this Guild? We all did things we regret, at the very least I did. Things I'd erase if we could. But that's not how it works." She pointed to the mark glowing on his palm—the Guild sigil. "You're not that man anymore, Doc. You're standing here now, in front of your team, in front of me. That counts for something." He blinked. "But—" "No buts!" Her voice cracked with raw fire. "You screwed up. Fine. You live with that. But you don't get to throw your life away just because you hate who you were. You will be better. Starting now. Not for her. Not for the past. For us. For this team." She turned to go, but paused at the door. "Go on with us. Fight with us. And if you want redemption—earn it." Amadeus said: "I guess you're right but… wait, what's that?"
Energy began to swirl around and in an instant a 7 foot giant clad in black armor with a cape and piercing red eyes was standing there, it was Ungar. "Well doctor I meet myself at last, its been some time since I was in this body." The doctor was stunned, "It worked I ascended beyond creation." Ungar shouted: "Cut the shit, I sensed all of the memories. What did you tell this girl?!" Xerxes was stunned for a second and said, "HEY WAIT IT'S YOU?! What's the deal with Hermes?! I was thinking of finding you again earlier." Ungar shouted: "Just wait one minute." Xerxes shouted back: "What did you say?!" Ungar looked back. He didn't have to say anything his stare silenced her. Amadeus told Ungar (his past self) everything that he had told Xerxes. Ungar crossed his arms, "You cut out all of the things that I'd rather forgot, after all no matter how infinitely disconnected to you there's still a sliver of you that remains in me." Xerxes was shocked: "That was the least bad of the bad news, what else could the Doctor have done, what else could have happened?"
"You're not me," Amadeus whispered. "You're... what I left behind." "Wrong." Ungar stepped forward, aura growing like a black hole. "I'm what you buried. What you refused to face. I'm the cost of your 'redemption arc.' You don't get to rewrite me with moral speeches." Xerxes stepped forward. "Okay, enough. I don't care if you're his past future, his evil clone, or some broken cosmic fragment—why the hell are you even here?" Ungar's voice dropped. "Because Zora is still alive I didn't even know this, which means there's been a breach in the timeline, somehow." Ungar began to tighten his fists. Xerxes was confused: "Breach in the timeline?!" Ungar said: "Don't you get it I'm him from 2 billion more years in the future I'm what he became with my vast knowledge in my cosmic Star Child form I should have remembered such an event when I was once Amadeus in a certain sense, my memories of knowing her in a material sense ended after her death. If that's the case someone is messing with the timeline, I don't know how, and more importantly I don't know who could do make this chaotic of a change."
Then the sigil on Amadeus's palm glowed.
Challenge Initiated: Spiral Maw – Twin Soul Protocol Activated.Only One May Climb.Time Limit: 72 Hours.
Xerxes looked at him, her fury barely contained. "So... how much more are you hiding, Doctor?" Amadeus didn't answer. Because even he didn't know anymore himself after what he had just heard.
Many of the Guild Members sat in an Airship. Seregrin looked down: "So those are the competitors, how many." Ranker Xiao responded simply: "About 105, most of them will not interact with each other before reaching the goal and most of them will die before they climb the mountain. Only a few of your friends are down there. I made a special exception. There's been one addition to your team, he's also involved in this trial, he's an old fiend I kind of owed him a favor, quite a few actually." Seregin looked perplexed: "Who's the bloke then?!" Xiao smiled: "An individual named Ungar." All of Amadeus and Xerxes' team were in shock: "UNGAR????!!!!" They murmured: "Ungar is Amadeus's future self, how did he find us here and why is he competing?" they all asked.
Ranker Xiao leaned forward, eyes glowing with curiosity. "Let them bond. The Spiral Maw isn't just a trial. It's a distillation of conflict—internal and external. They will face others, yes. But the real war is with themselves. Put very simply, it's an inner struggle." Seregrin, now watching intently, narrowed his eyes. "You're treating this like some religious pilgrimage. What happens if they lose?" Xiao's smile vanished. "Then this entire fragment of this particular reality becomes undone." Meanwhile, Near the First Pillar A new pair of rivals appears.
Name: Ryser TalonAffiliation: House of the Fanged Moon
Appearance: Manic lunatic of a man with short red hair.Powers: Blood-Contract Manifestation – conjures beasts bound by personal oathsMotivation: Restore his House's name by defeating all Guilds in the Spiral Maw and other abodes.
Name: Mirae SeraphinAffiliation: Unbound Archive
Appearance: Blonde elf woman with incredible fire magic.Powers: Memory Weaving – manifest attacks or barriers based on memories stolen from othersMotivation: Collect the memory-fragments of timeline anomalies; Amadeus and Ungar are goldmines. They both brought with them two whole teams of powerful warriors who followed various schools of the magical arts. Ungar descended, Ungar stood alone halfway up the Maw, cloak coiling like smoke, his crimson eyes scanning the mountain as if seeing beyond it.
He muttered to himself: "If she's alive… if Zora walks again… then someone found a fragment of pure Space-Time. But who? No. Why?" Behind him appeared a towering creature made of golden gears—The Spiral Gatekeeper. "Ungar. You should not exist here." Ungar narrowed his crimson eyes. "Neither should she." Then the Gatekeeper charged. Ungar extended his hand—time itself rippled, freezing the moment—and then reversed it, forcing the Gatekeeper to un-become. He whispered, "I will climb. And I will find whoever dared rewrite the death I paid for with eternity."
The Spiral Maw pulses. A countdown begins. 72 hours. Amadeus walks beside Xerxes. They don't speak. They don't have to. But behind them, Halron, a Dwarf they recently met murmurs: "Jeez this is such a long walk. Tell me we're almost at the summit." Xerxes shouted back: "Will you shut up, it's only been five minutes!" A man appeared before them, "Hello little ones." The man was Ryser. He was an esteemed killer who licked his lips in anticipation. "Get out of the way cretin if you know what's good for you!" Ryser laughed: "And what are you gonna do about it?!" Xerxes began to power up: "MAOI-MAOI FIN!" She shot forward like a bullet striking Ryson. But Ryson crossed his arms and began to smile with delight. Above them several Ghost Spheres hovered above, holographic Spheres that condensed the air around them with raw Qadar and Aura. 'In the Spiral Maw… where time doesn't flow, it spirals… Where the threads of fate tangle like veins through a dying star. Each step up the mountain increases the density of "Qadar" — a metaphysical construct forged by will, memory, and ancient blood. Here, warriors are tested not by strength alone, but by the unyielding truth of their purpose. And now… two blades of fate are about to clash.' Xerxes' body blurred, a shadow streaking toward Ryser at mach speed, the shockwave of her technique — Maoi-Maoi Fin — rippling across the cracked stone beneath them. Trees bent, the very mist parted.'Xerxes: An Echelon-2 Transmuter. She can use the Maoi-Maoi Fin technique like her sister and counterpart Hermes, Talus, Ungar, Lupus and others, she also Possesses the rare hybrid technique of Particle Collapse which makes the Maoi-Maoi Fin more powerful when combined with the prior mentioned technique, it allows her to condense her aura into an anti-form—compressing her existence into "moments" that break causality. Her blow? Not just fast. It's retrocausal.
Ryser didn't dodge. He welcomed it. The impact hit — a direct shot to the chest — but instead of flying back, he rooted himself. Blood burst from his mouth, but his grin widened as red glyphs began glowing across his body. Ryser Talon: "Good. Good! I needed to feel that! I LOVE THE FEELING OF INCREDIBLE GLORIOUS PAIN!" You don't get it, do you?" He slammed his palms together, blood running down his fingertips into a sigil of gnashing fangs. "I am OATHBOUND! And there's not one fucking thing you can do about it." Suddenly, the glyphs along his skin erupted into wild, crimson light, summoning a chimera-like beast made of writhing bone and sinew: Varkuun the Moon-Hound. It snarled as if caught in a loop of suffering and hunger. 'Blood-Contract Manifestation: A forbidden style practiced only by the House of the Fanged Moon. It allows the user to conjure bestial Avatars, familiars, and cosmic mages, each representing a failed oath or broken vow. The more pain in the bond, the stronger the beast.
Xerxes leapt back, flipping mid-air, fingers already crackling with violet strands of refracted aura. "Great. A frickin' blood fetishist." The hound lunged — a flash of tooth and claw — but she vanished, reappearing behind it with a vertical slice of pure kinetic will. "Phase Step." Her blade struck true—but hit nothing. Ryser grinned: "He's oathbound to never be wounded by a strike born of intent. Don't you get it, every time I break an oath I create another demon, one of these days it will supposedly kill me according to the contract I made with Avatar! Everytime I use one I get closer to death! THAT FEELING GIVES ME SUCH A RUSH! YEAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The hound's eyes glowed with inverted moons, then bit into time itself, forcing Xerxes' next movement to lag by 0.3 seconds. "What?!" she spat.Varkuun's ability: "Delay Maw." A predator that consumes the temporal potential of its target, desynchronizing their conscious control from their physical form. In layman's terms: it makes you too late to your own life.
But Xerxes wasn't done. She gritted her teeth. "Fine." Her body shifted. Not in space. Not in time. But in its ultimately perplexing state. She tore her jacket off, revealing the sigil of the Inverse School of the Southern Climb—where one's aura mimics the contradiction of existence itself. "META-FIN: SHADOW WARDEN OF WHEN x 2." A second Xerxes appeared beside her. But older. Scarred. And furious. A forbidden technique. When activated, the caster splits their existential projection into two temporally-dissonant selves: one from an alternate future, one from now. Only the soul knows which one is real.
Ryser froze. His grin faltered for the first time. "Are you serious, typical cliche Anime bullshit. And I thought I wasn't original. Good make it harder for me, all I live for is to kill or be killed." Before he could finish, the older Xerxes dashed forward, crashing into Ryser with a backhand of overwhelming gravity. WHAM! He flew, smashing through trees, rocks, and a portion of the Pillar itself. He coughed blood, but laughed harder. Then the sky darkened. Ten Ghost Spheres activated in the air above — each one spiraling like dying stars, channeling Ryser's Blood Contract Nexus. His final pact. "Feast upon my Vow. Become my Wrath." All ten Spheres collapsed into each other. Final Form: "Fang Sovereign of Red Moon." A god-beast bound by Ryser's lineage oath: that no member of the House shall fall until they have bled for the world. Each sphere was a broken promise. Now they are teeth. The area bent. A massive beast—red, lunar, humanoid with a face like a bleeding eclipse—descended behind Ryser. Xerxes narrowed her eyes. "Amadeus. I might need your help."
Amadeus, standing yards behind, whispered:"No. This one is yours. Learn what you're willing to sacrifice." Xerxes cracked her neck. Both versions of her synced up and stepped forward. "Figures you'd let me down you piece of shit!"The battlefield lit up with violet glyphs. The wind split. Ryser raised his hands, his beast roaring behind him. And then— They charged. Time fractured. Blood splattered.And in that moment, as the Sovereign roared and Xerxes screamed her soul into the shape of defiance… the Spiral Maw listened. The mountain does not care who wins. It only remembers who refused to lose.' Within the Spiral Maw, all things are tested against the axis of becoming. Those who break bend the world. Those who bend break themselves. Xerxes and Ryser—two anomalies drawn from opposite ideologies—now stand not just as rivals, but as embodiments of rebellion. And the Spiral watches. Xerxes charged, her twin selves flickering through paradox like shattered reflections on an inverted moon. The elder-her unleashed a volley of Violet Causality Blades—ribbons of sharpened aura woven from fractured memory, each one screaming as if torn from a dying god."Meta-Fin: Shadow Warden of When" is not a technique meant to win—it is meant to survive the un-winnable. Her older self is a combat-evolved soul-echo, forged in a reality that failed. The Fang Sovereign met her head-on. A colossus of fangs and red moonlight, its arm split into a thousand mouths, each one biting into the metaphysical fabric of the air. Ryser Talon stood beneath it, laughing, his eyes bloodshot, his chest open from the earlier blow—yet no fear. "COME ON! LET ME SEE WHAT YOUR REGRETS TASTE LIKE!" He slammed both palms into the earth, teeth erupting from the ground like inverted tombstones, attempting to bind the movement of both Xerxes.
But the younger version of her snapped her fingers. "Disjunction Clause: [Thread Severance]" A spatial law shattered. The fangs that rose to trap her were suddenly on the wrong layer of reality. Xerxes' "Inverse School" techniques allow her to manipulate causation density—severing events from their expected outcomes. Where most techniques 'cut,' she 'divorces' cause from effect. The elder-Xerxes lunged into the Sovereign's face with a Temporal Split Fang Kick, her boot compressing three seconds of velocity into a single point of contact. The Sovereign's head cracked— —only for another one to emerge behind it. Ryser howled, his mouth now glowing with the same glyphs as his beast. "FANG BIRTH: Reverticon!!""Reverticon": a Blood Nexus technique that allows a summoned being to 're-birth' from its own death, evolving with each iteration. But the price? Ryser must give up one part of his soul's identity each time—forgetting a piece of who he is. His nose began to bleed. His pupils pulsed like ruptured black holes. He began to laugh with incensed delight.
Meanwhile, Mirae Seraphin watched from afar, high in the clouds on a platform made of crystallized memory. Her turquoise eyes narrowed. "So this is the potential of a Maoi-Maoi variant trained through Particle Collapse… and he, a masochistic Oathbound with recursive beasts. Fascinating," she whispered. Behind her, five memory-spirits hovered—phantasms of old warriors she'd stolen fragments from. Another being appeared behind her with pink pigtails and glowing pink eyes, "You managed to get the fragments right silly willy." Mirae jumped back, "Jesus, you need to stop with that you almost gave me a heart-attack. Yeah, I got it, but what about Ungar?" Kakia laughed: "I cast a time-elapse spell that even he can't sense. Don't worry he won't find out about this until I want him to.
Back in the crater, Xerxes' body was trembling, her aura fracturing from overuse. The elder-her flickered—her future becoming unstable. "You're fading." "I know," the elder said. "I burned too much Qadar grounding us here. If you don't end this now, you'll lose more than me." Ryser began chanting, his arms stretched wide. "Jimmy crack corn, and I don't care! JIMMY CRACK CORN AND I DON'T CARE, THE MASTER's gone away. Get ready for a real wallop you uppity bitch, you've lived long enough you dog! DEATH OATH: FANG CROWN OF SILVER APOCALYPSE!" The Sovereign roared—and behind it, nine more beasts blinked into existence, each one a previous failure given form. Their presence collapsed gravity in on itself. The stone beneath them rose into the air, twisted like corkscrews. Xerxes' eyes widened. He was tearing open his final Blood Limit. The sky bled.Blood-Contract Limit Breaking isn't just dangerous—it's suicidal. Ryser is invoking every broken vow he's ever made. That includes childhood promises, whispers to the dead, even lies told to himself in the dark. Each one has a name. Each one a weapon. Each one a punishment. Back in Umi, Hermes fell to the ground and began to cry in pain. "What on earth is wrong with you false-prophet?!" said Lupus. Talus tried to pick her up. Lin Lin replied: "Xerxes her twin must be in real trouble." Lupus thought for a second: "Her twin, that's right, that girl who defeated me back in the Oasis."
Xerxes screamed. The elder-her slammed a fist to the ground. "NOW!" Together, they merged—not physically, but essence-wise. A vortex formed, violet and gold, ripping through the laws of here and now. And in the center— A single being stood. Not two Xerxes. Not past and present. But a new third. "Singularity Xerxes: Queen of the Momentless Edge." Her aura bent around her, no longer bound by frame or identity. Her voice echoed from all directions at once. "Ryser Talon." Her hand closed around the entire sky. "This is your final thread." She flicked her fingers. The world around them shattered. The Sovereign broke apart. Not exploded—unwound—as if the concept of its form was revoked. The nine beasts screamed in paradox, and Ryser's own body cracked from the inside.
His voice faltered. "No… NO. I HAD MORE VOWS TO BREAK… Nothing of any note anyways, I have nothing else." Xerxes floated above him, bleeding from her nose, her fingertips shaking. Her body buzzed with unstable Qadar. She was burning out. Ryser fell to his knees. His mouth curled in a bloody grin, as his mouth trembled and shook, delirious. "…That was… beautiful." Then he collapsed.And just like that, a psalm was sung in the Spiral Maw. One of blood, one of will. Not all battles are won clean. Not all are survived. But some—some become echoes. Elsewhere, in the Upper Maw… Ungar stopped climbing. He stared up toward the fracture in the sky. His crimson eyes narrowed. "She accessed the Momentless Edge. That's not supposed to be possible… More things are changing in this timeline than I could have imagined, I would wager its impossible to restore this timeline to its original state but at the very least these things need to stop before they get too out of hand, did they really think I wouldn't notice my mind is linked eternally to the past, present and future, and the illusion of time and the reality of space time in this world. Know…, I need to calm that, they knew I would find out about their deeds. But who the hell could be doing this?!" Behind him, a cloaked figure stepped out of shadow. "You feel it too?" Ungar turned. "Zora?" The woman stepped forward. "I warned you, future Amadeus. If she walks the edge now... we may be too late."
Ungar exhaled. His voice cracked with ancient grief. "Then everything I climbed to forget… is about to come back down." She nodded. "You remember who you are then after all. Then you know the whole story I presume about who I truly am much, much, much more than Amadeus. I'm much more ancient, but I'm sure you are well aware of my origins and the way in which me and Amadeus and I are connected on a personal level." Zora nodded. Ungar laughed: "I figured as much, you know you should be dead."
Back on the ship Farabius began to yawn, "Another day, huh? So how long until the event is over?" Xiao looked over, "It shouldn't last more than 30 minutes, 72 hours is simply the time limit." Zelanius retorted: "So how'd you end up here as a Ranker I'm sure that's an interesting story and how do you know Ungar?" Xiao began to laugh, "I can't get into that all now, let's just say like a lot of us I was running from my past." Farabius looked around nervously and asked another question, "Is it true there are other forms of energy besides Qadar?" A voice chimed in, "Of course, there are." It was Y or al-Tayyib. He rapped his spiky blue hair in a cloth turban as he crossed his arms with his eyes closed. "Do you think you're better than me chump?" Tayyib uncrossed his arms, walked forward and stopped short of 10 feet of him, "Who's better and who's worse is all relative and incredibly subjective so I would never make such a baseless claim. I'm simply stating that there are clearly other forms of magic in other realms and therefore other forms of aura or other things of that nature at least from our perspective." Farabius was intrigued, "Go on." Tayyib took a deep breath, "It's simple really we all came from somewhere, I came from another world a little over 2,000 years ago, I can tell you're from the Void, the world I'm from was much more foreign than this one or any you or I are probably familiar with, therefore the variables are unknown, at least to us."
Xiao sat cross-legged now, a low pulse of aura keeping him afloat above the floorboards. The hum of Farabius' question still lingered in the air like a sparked fuse. Tayyib continued, the words careful, almost reverent. "The world I come from… it had no Qadar. No aura. Just resonance. Sound and thought, language shaped matter. And through that world God only spoke in symbols and sounds not words, and history is cyclical there. We called it Aetheric Logic and the school of Higher-Kalam." Farabius blinked. "So… you spoke your reality?" Tayyib nodded. "Not always safely." Another woman, Tora leaned against the wall, arms crossed, dark eyes narrowed. "And you say the Void's different?"
Farabius hesitated. "Yes. In the Void, emotion is matter. Your fear can drown you. Your rage becomes flame. There's no logic—just raw state." Xiao gave a small smirk. "So we've got a resonance caster, an emotion-shaper, and me, a time-locked ex-Inquisitor and Commander who's seen too many false timelines to count." He raised a brow. "This is going to be fun." From the far end of the deck, a soft clatter echoed. Another figure emerged from the inner hold. A boy—no older than fifteen. He wore a white robe inscribed with paradox glyphs that shimmered only when not looked at directly. His black hair framed a pair of dead-serious violet eyes.
Tayyib blinked. "You're not supposed to be out of containment." The boy tilted his head, voice calm and dry: "Containment is a matter of perspective, Mr. al-Tayyib. I got bored. Besides, she's awake now." Xiao narrowed her eyes. "Who?" "The Queen of the Momentless Edge." The boy stepped forward. Tayyib stopped for a second: "Bizarre, how did he know my real name?" "She's bleeding across a polarity. And the longer she remains unsynced…" He paused, looking up toward the sky. "…the less of us will remain in the short-term." Farabius turned to Zelanius. "Who is this kid?" Zelanius shrugged. "I just read his bio an hour ago. Goes by Kasyr. He's a Paradoxling. Half-concept, half-human. Born in a failed pocket reality. Technically not supposed to exist. So when he speaks it is usually the truth but he's fed false meta-intel." Kasyr smiled faintly. "And yet. Here I am. And yet, my words have stirred you."
The mood on the ship had shifted—but not into fear. Curiosity hung in the air like static. Not panic, but that charged quiet just before something either really interesting or really dumb happens. Kasyr sat down on the floor without asking, drawing circles in the dust with a finger. The paradox glyphs on his robe flickered lazily. Xiao floated down from his cross-legged hover with a soft exhale. "So… containment, huh?" She leaned against a pillar, arms crossed. "What'd you do to land that VIP status?" Kasyr didn't look up. "I was born thinking backward. That sort of thing alarms adults." Farabius raised a hand hesitantly. "Uh… thinking backward, like what? Time stuff? How time is supposed to be spoken of chronologically I assume you went off the rails in that department." "Sort of," Kasyr replied. "I remember things that haven't happened yet. But I forget things that I already have. It's like walking through a maze and only seeing the exit."
Tayyib narrowed his eyes, intrigued. "And do you control it?" "No," Kasyr said. "That's the problem." Zora's projection flickered overhead like a floating HUD. She didn't say anything. Just watched. Judging, maybe. Or maybe remembering something painful. CLAIRE the holographic woman responded: "Everything he said is true, as hard as it is for me to compute." Tora pushed off the wall. Her voice was casual but sharp. "So what's your angle, Kasyr? Why stay on the ship? You clearly aren't a fan of rules." Kasyr finally looked up. "Because this ship is the last place in this timeline where I don't know what happens next." That got a reaction. Xiao snorted a laugh. And then he began to chuckle: "I think I like this kid." Farabius looked like he regretted asking. Zelanius raised an eyebrow, muttering, "That's either profound or extremely unsettling."
"I'm hoping for both," Kasyr replied. Later, in the mess hall… The trial was still happening below. Xerxes and her rival managed to get back on their feet but the trial seemed it wouldn't be over for at least another hour, Xiao's initial prediction proved wrong. The group was scattered in their own corners. Xiao sat with a mug of something smoking and bitter. Tora cleaned a blade that didn't reflect light properly. Tayyib was carefully folding an origami seal out of pressure-sensitive paper. Farabius, in his usual awkward-but-eager energy, floated between them. He was still head-strong, Farabius was still a demon that wished to first conquer the void and then the mortal world, despite the fact that he was an outcast in the Void. "So…" Farabius started, again. "Xiao. When you said you were a commander, what kind of—?" Xiao cut in without looking up. "Inquisitor. Fifth Seal, Black Path. Led operations in six overlapping zones of unstable time. I did much more than that. That part of my life is just the tip of the iceberg, I have millennia of diverse things on my resume so to speak. Most of it redacted." Tayyib raised an eyebrow. "Sounds lonely."
"It was I suppose," Xiao replied, tone neutral. Then he added, "But the pay was decent. At Least with that particular job" Tora chuckled for the first time. "I had him marked for the 'tragic backstory, cold shell, soft interior' archetype." "I'm not soft," Xiao said, sipping his drink. "Just out of therapy." Zelanius grinned from a nearby seat. "Did it work?" "No," Xiao said flatly. "But I killed my therapist, so I think I passed." Another long beat. Then—Kasyr laughed. A small, clean sound. Like something mechanical ticking into place. "This crew is so doomed."
Elsewhere, in the ship's training module… Tayyib and Farabius sparred casually—more of an exchange of philosophies than real blows. Tayyib's movements flowed like language, each strike syllabic and deliberate. Farabius fought like someone constantly improvising on instinct—jagged, emotional, barely controlled. "You hold too much in your shoulders," Tayyib noted mid-spin. "That's why your strikes are blunt." "You talk too much," Farabius panted, stumbling back. "You're not even sweating!" "That's because I'm not fighting you," Tayyib said, stopping gracefully. "I'm learning from you. There's a difference." Farabius dropped to sit, panting. "You're kind of an ass, you know that?" Tayyib sat across from him, legs folded. "Yes. But I'm also right. You fight like you're angry at yourself. That's a Void-born habit."
Farabius stared at the floor. "…That obvious?" "Only to people who've hated themselves the same way," Tayyib said quietly. Back in the observation dome… Tora and Xiao stood side by side, looking out into the slowly tearing sky. "He's weird," Tora said. "The kid. Kasyr." "They're all weird," Xiao muttered. "You're the weirdest of us," Tora shot back, smirking. Xiao didn't deny it. He watched a ribbon of light crackle across the atmosphere, the edge of the Momentless fracture still visible. "I think he's scared," Xiao said quietly. "Not of us. But of remembering too much. I believe he's basically telling the truth but he's not telling us the whole story." Tora nodded once. "Aren't we all?" They stood in silence a moment longer before Xiao said, "You ever think we're all just characters in someone else's script?" "Yeah," Tora said. "But I'm the one holding the pen." Xiao laughed: "I doubt even Ungar is holding the pen, and what I know about him would indicate he's the most likely of us to hold such an honor." Xiao laughed: "I assume that whoever's writing our script is incredibly bored, anyone on the outside with the ability to write this world must long to be a part of it. But we're on the inside and it seems mundane to us. Imagine, God finds exciting what we his Creatures find mundane." There was a long uncomfortable pause. Tora responded: "You've known this Ungar character for some time I suppose." Xiao laughed: "For quite some time at least a little over 1,000 years he's one of my friends that I met more recently. The last I heard he was helping some kid named Daniel, they were going on vacation in some ocean resort in their world. He told me telepathically. I hope it was nice for all of them. I'd like to meet Daniel, but somehow…" Tora replied: "Somehow?" Xiao took a deep breath: "Somehow I know I wouldn't like the answer."
And beneath it all, in the ship's storage vault—Kasyr sat alone again, sketching. He was drawing a tree. Not a tree from this world. Not even from any world that should exist. It bent backwards, grew through itself, and bloomed paradoxes where leaves should've been. He paused, looking at what he'd drawn. "When she returns, none of this holds…" Then, quietly—almost softly— "…but I kind of hope it does." Tayyib and Farabius finished their little sparring match. Tayyib wiped off his face. "That's enough for today I'm sure you agree." As he said this Tayyib or 'Y' began to put on and adjust his cape. Farabius replied: "Sure… Hey you mentioned earlier that what I said was something you knew because you hated yourself before as well, what do you mean, I can't speak for you but I don't hate myself." Tayyib responded after thinking for a minute: "It's not the one who hates himself, at least that would be grossly oversimplified." This perked Farabius' curiosity. "Let me put it this way, there are people who struggle and go through things because they can't let go of themselves, they can't let the world take them in the form of death or life or even in something like submission or falling into the ocean which is life. You see… (he thought for a long moment how to put it) its not that people are simply unhappy, many people in this world are simply unfulfilled, different people desire different things and find no interest in other things but they have one thing in common they're all running away." Farabius titled his head to the side, "Whether one is obsessed with Power, or Lust, or some addiction he has or anything else he's not only running from death but he's running from who they actually are, usually the most miserable people are the ones who say they are the most free and the most liberated but they have only deluded themselves, and others desire unachievable goals, like a dog chasing its own tail," in the distance Tayyib saw Lupus and Jellal Alibaba walking behind a calm and collected Lin Lin, his mind's eye focused on the former two as an example of this statement. And then his mind went towards Farabius who desired to rule this world as well. "You want power because you're running from who you actually are, and I can't tell you who you are because I don't know." Farabius wanted to recant what Tayyib had just said but he had no words he couldn't think of a single thing to say in response. "But know this, when you truly accept yourself, you'll have no more wanting as long as you live." When he said this his mind's eye went to Talus. Tayyibi got up and left. Farabius was left to ponder to himself.