Someday, someone will try to kill you, and they will be entirely justified in the attempt.

  Time will change you. Time will see you become someone you could have never imagined being. Terrible people will encounter a series of events that will shape them toward virtue. Perhaps they will suffer loss and learn from their ill ways, or perhaps they will simply grow tired of doing evil.

  But more often, it is a fundamentally decent Pathbearer that learns the wrong lesson. And so often it is just that, a wrong lesson, followed by a wrong decision. When you live long enough, you will inevitably encounter a moment where a single choice you make determines the fates of so many others. And you will choose wrongly. That will traumatize you. That will linger inside of you like a scar, and you will not react the same way the next time, even if what was a mistake before now stands as the right path.

  And so one mistake propagates another. One mistake becomes two. Two mistakes become four. A scar in your memory determines the path of your future. A life you take makes an enemy you did not wish to have. But you cannot make things right. You cannot give back a life you have taken. You cannot fix something you have destroyed. And for all your good intentions, for all your desires to serve the greater good and make a better world, your failure will cause the inverse. And afterward, you must come face-to-face with yourself and make a decision.

  How selfish are you? How much do you think you should pay for the sins of your past? Who are you when you have fulfilled your own ideals?

  Many Pathbearers cannot answer this. Many Pathbearers are broken by this. Many Pathbearers deny and delude themselves, thinking they can avoid this.

  You cannot. You will not. There will be a point where you find yourself forced to do something monstrous to survive, when you make the wrong choice, when you hurt the wrong people. And then, if you live even longer, these events will shape you in turn. By the end of the century, you find yourself casually performing acts you could have never dreamed of before, thinking in ways that are utterly alien to the person you once were.

  There are many kinds of death, Pathbearer. Agelessness does not equate to immortality. Live long enough and see the person inside your heart destroyed. See them destroyed by your own hand.

  What happens after, what you do with the ruins, that is up to you.

  -Valor Thann

  293

  Indifference

  "You are taking this a lot better than I expected you would," Valor said. "All of you are."

  "Emotional numbness and physical exhaustion combined with wonderful sedatives," Uva deadpanned, barely opening her mouth to speak.

  "I'm keeping my screaming internal," Adam groaned.

  Can Hu, meanwhile, was less concerned about itself and more worried about Shiv. "Pathbearer Shiv, are you sure you're well? Your mental resilience is known, but currently, your emotional state is far lower than previously recorded baselines."

  "Well, I did the worrying, begging, feeling bad, and emotional breaking down shit with Georges. He still died. It didn't matter. You can feel whatever way you want, but if you're not powerful enough or capable of changing things, it is what it is." Shiv shrugged and let out a bitter laugh. "Don't know if I was seeing things earlier, but a notification popped up before it suddenly winked out. I can't pull it up again like all the other ones. It somehow sounded like the System was trying to make a bargain with me, asking me how many people I'd kill—shit, how many worlds I might destroy—to get Georges back."

  Four sets of extremely worried eyes fell on Shiv.

  "Are you sure you saw something?" Adam asked.

  "Nope," Shiv replied casually. "I could definitely be having mental issues, or some other weird shit could be happening. Could've been a hallucination for all I know. After all the hell we went through, it wouldn't surprise me either way. But just to assume the worst possible case, I'm going to guess the System is actually talking to me directly."

  "And did you give it an answer?" Uva almost sounded worried as to what he might admit.

  Once more, Shiv just shrugged. "Nah, didn't say anything to it. Frankly, even if it offered me Georges' life right now for free, I'd tell the System to go fuck itself."

  Shiv felt the collective worry of his friends climb another notch. Adam winced visibly. "Shiv, are you sure you're feeling well? Understand that you've been through a lot. We've all been through a lot—"

  "I would tell the System to go fuck and fist itself, no matter how I'm feeling right now," Shiv said resolutely. He stepped away from the reflective surface of the pre-apocalyptic weapon and allowed the deprivation to tear into him once more. The pain came, but Shiv just didn't give a shit. "I think I've learned one thing after all we've been through: The System doesn't care. It's going to try to kill you eventually. It's going to try to take everything from you eventually because it just wants you to keep fighting. Is it going to give Georges back to me? Yeah, sure. I'm sure I'll resurrect him, and then he'll die for some other bullshit reason either today, tomorrow, in ten years, in twenty years, in a hundred years. And the System will use that to yank me along into some other bullshit fight, into some other stupid grudge that I had no part of, into some other crisis or war that's been going on since before I was born between people who are so lost in their own sauce they can't even tell why it started."

  He took a breath. "If there's any way at all to get Georges back, it's going to be by my hands. As long as the System's dangling that gift in front of me, I'm not going to take it. It's a false gift. It's a poisonous gift. It's a sack of shit hidden inside a thick, creamy film of fondue. And I'm not eating through any fondue to lick up shit in the end. I’m done doing that."

  "What an incredibly vivid metaphor that I will simply refuse to visualize," Uva muttered.

  Unrelated to her reply, a surge of rage and momentum crawled over Shiv. He wanted to break things. He wanted to smash this place flat too, to destroy what remained of these ruins in hopes of spiting the System, in case it truly mourned for this place for whatever reason. He didn't. An epiphany went off like a bomb inside Shiv, and it went off hard. He could feel however he wanted or didn't. He could suffer whatever the world inflicted upon him, but all that boiled within didn't need to determine how he reacted without. And another epiphany followed that one. Everyone was just playing the System's games, fighting, struggling, dying, running after the carrot or cowering beneath the stick. All that misery compounded on top of more misery on top of more misery on top of unending misery.

  Valor spoke of the Great One as if they were a god above gods. Shiv didn't feel that way. If the Great One was so great, why were they still caught in the same cage? Why was the System still trying to build up Shiv so that he could eventually ruin that stupid thing's life, or they could finally finish him off in a cataclysmic brawl that would almost certainly leave all of Integrated Earth as ruins and mass graves?

  What kind of reward was that for all his effort?

  What was the point of being a Pathbearer if everything ended up broken and dead around you? Yeah, fighting was fun. Yeah, evolving felt great. Yeah, he had his Path, he had people that cared for him, and he was going on adventures now. But he wanted more than that. He wanted to be and do more. He was already a Pathbearer. Now he wasn't going to be one mired in misery and blood.

  His childish, petulant tantrum against the System calcified into a philosophical, sophisticated form of spite. He wasn't going to play by the System's rules anymore. Oh, he would still level. He would still improve. He would still be a Pathbearer. But he was going to do things differently now. Shiv was done betraying himself. He was done reflexively fighting and butchering everything the System sent his way. And he was tired of seeing so much death all around him.

  It's time for some changes, Shiv declared to himself and the others. His mind was clear, and his resolve was true. "I'm done with this shit. I'm done with this System. If you can hear me, if you can understand me, get this: I'm done killing people for you. I'm done wrapping up your loose ends. I'm done making the world a worse place."

  The Deathless turned and glared at the smooth, reflective surface of the warhead. "Valor, I got a question for you. Were you planning on weaponizing this bomb and using it to kill the Tarrasque?"

  The ancient Pathbearer suddenly looked up. "I—"

  "Well, we're not doing that anymore. In fact, I've decided that no one's killing the Tarrasque. Ever. That thing is going to live until the end of time if I have anything to say about it."

  "What?" Adam squeaked.

  "Oh, no, he's having a mental break." Uva sighed. She walked towards Shiv with her arms open and waved for him to come down from the nest of debris. "Come now, dear. Come here. You'll be fine."

  Shiv didn't do anything to dissuade her. He did want a hug, and he wasn't going to screw himself out of one just because he wanted to argue how clear-minded he was. He slid down the small hill of concrete and metal, and Uva wrapped herself around him. Shiv gently patted her back but continued his rant. "No one's touching that Tarrasque unless I want them to. It's just another piece the System uses to lure people into getting involved in stupid fights and getting themselves killed. And this war is dumb bullshit too. There's not gonna be a war between the Jotun and the Republic. We're gonna solve that as soon as we can. And I'm going to make sure as few people die as possible."

  "I'm sure you will, Shiv," Uva said. Her voice came out muffled against his chest. "I'm sure you will."

  Valor frowned slightly as he looked into Shiv's eyes. "Your intentions are noble, and I understand why you are feeling this way, but I do not think there's any easy solution to the Tarrasque problem. My son clearly intends for you to slay the creature or to discover greater power within yourself during your struggle. On top of that, he would also see the Tarrasque used to destabilize the Republic and distract the Ascendants."

  "Right, I forgot. Fuck Udraal too. But also, Udraal's right. Not about everything, but he's definitely right about the System. Every part of the System is bullshit. Every single thing the System wants is bullshit. For every dumb thing Udraal has done, and every twisted thing he's done to me and everyone else, I agree with him on this. The System is dumb and bullshit. It does absolutely nothing but force people to die and kill."

  "Look at this!" Shiv said, turning around. Uva clung onto him, spinning without letting go. She dangled from his body like a zipper more than a person. Meanwhile, Shiv gesticulated wildly at the ruins surrounding them, and at the reflective bomb before them. "Look at this, Valor. You took us out here. You had to put us in a place that gives people cancer so we can hide from the System because it can't stop tipping the scales and forcing more people to fight for its amusement. Your son's a piece of shit. And I mean that with full offense. I'm sorry to say it, but he is a piece of shit. But he's also right about the System. Just look at where we are right now. Look at the ruins we're standing in. Even without the System, people ended up destroying themselves. Maybe they destroyed themselves because the System got here, but you know what? Something tells me that's not the case. Something tells me that just genuine human stupidity caused that. All that power, all that sophistication and advancement, and it went nowhere. I didn't turn into a Pathbearer to go nowhere. I wanted to be a Pathbearer because, to me, that meant freedom. That meant living life the way I wanted, that meant helping people, that meant hurting bastards who really deserve hurting.”

  He let out a slow breath and lowered his arms. “But right now, that's not what's happening. Right now, I can't cook. I can't do anything artistic because I got Cursed by a deranged goddess who's tied to another dead god that's not fully dead but is also connected to Adam's sister, who my soul might have digested to create my Path, or whatever the fuck. And on top of that, part of the reason why she was created at all was because the Starhawk was trying to screw over his comrades. I guess this happened when he was still capable of being kind of a prick. But you know what? Let's take this a step further. Let's ask ourselves why he thought it necessary to do something that screwed over his fellow gods. They all used to be companions, right? They went down into the Great One's embrace together and came out changed. Together. So, what happened in the meantime?"

  Shiv swept his gaze across the others, waiting for someone to give him a response. "I'm not being rhetorical here, guys. I'm genuinely asking. What do you think happened?"

  Can Hu emitted an electric hum. "Perhaps the passage of ages created a bulwark between former friends and lovers. This happens many times. People change, and sometimes the slow erosion inflicted by time creates differences that eventually become irreconcilable." Its words were measured, wise, but ultimately missed the point.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  "Strike," Shiv declared with a growl. "The System is determined to put people against each other. It did it to the Ascendants. It did it to Roland and half the people who fought alongside him. Let's not forget that he and Jessica used to be friends or something. Now her daughter's dead, probably because he killed the poor girl just to make sure the Starhawk's will was realized."

  Shiv stating things so plainly made Adam look nauseous. The Deathless felt a bit bad for his friend, but he kept going. There was no point in letting discomfort cow him. There was no point at all. The System didn't care if they were uncomfortable. The System didn't care at all. It only wanted one thing, and that was for everyone in existence to eventually kill each other. It wanted him to kill Uva, it wanted Adam to kill him, and so on and so forth.

  "We keep trying. We keep fighting. And look where that might get us! The Great One is in the same position we are. Yeah, sure, they're powerful, but why are they lying dead in pieces? Having other people siphon their skills, or Edicts and Canons or whatever, using their abilities to make themselves fake gods? Is that what we can look forward to? Being strong enough that we don't die completely? Just strong enough that we stick around forever, so that someone can use our comatose body to power their own desires? To make up for where they're lacking? Is that what's waiting for us beyond Legendary-Tier? Because if it is, the System can fist itself using both hands! I'm not going down that road. I'll do whatever it takes to keep our people safe and to make sure that this world is less shitty of a place. But I'm done just running around mindlessly killing things. I'm done getting myself stuck in other people's pointless fights and suffering for their grudges and dumb bullshit. I'm done with all of that. From now on, I'm not hitting people as a first resort anymore! Fuck that! That's what the System wants. And I'm done with that out of spite alone! From now on, I'm gonna cook for people as a first resort. I'm making them food. Enough of this blood, enough of this misery, enough of this Great One shit, all this fighting. For what? For what? Is this the life you wanted, Adam? Is this how you want to live?"

  The tired expression that spread across Adam's face immediately told Shiv he was right. This wasn't what Adam wanted. This wasn't what any of them wanted.

  Valor, meanwhile, considered Shiv, his expression unreadable. "I understand your dissatisfaction, Shiv. In fact, when I was younger, I tried to turn away from the System as well, though perhaps my alternative path was more unhealthy compared to yours."

  "Huh? What did you do while you were feuding with the System?" Shiv asked.

  "Music, mostly. I traveled the land as perhaps the most depressing bard to have graced Integrated Earth. I was not particularly good with the strings, or good at singing, or good at drums, or good at the piano, or good at composition. This simply worsened my mood at the time, and thus I achieved one of the worst Master-Tier Skill Evolutions of Musical Proficiency: Depressed Troubadour." Valor looked away from Shiv, and the flames behind his eyes shrank, making it seem as if his attention was going somewhere distant, somewhere far into his long-lost past. "Instead of spreading joy and happy melodies across the land, I decided that everyone should feel as I did. I do not like to remember these days, but it's… possible that I spread my musically contagious sadness and inflicted a great period of malaise upon the Abyss."

  Shiv imagined an incredibly dour skeleton, walking from town to town, city to city, strumming music and singing hopeless whimpers until the will of those around him was destroyed. As silly as that sounded, it was also another solution against the System's ways: If you could absolutely cripple someone's mood, then why would they fight you? Depression was also a useful weapon—one that Shiv considered wielding.

  "Do you still have any of that musical skill? Because, you know, it might be interesting to learn some of that too…"

  Shiv smiled at Valor. The elder lich looked like he would rather eat his own head.

  Shiv had never played any instruments before, never sang, and never really even hummed to himself. Shiv found it distracting. And the one chef who did like jaunty tunes was thrown out of the kitchen when repeatedly singing the same bloody song about a mother losing her son to some kind of monster drove Georges into a near-psychotic rage.

  Valor visibly shivered as Shiv continued to smile at him. "Absolutely not. I haven't yet regained it, but even if these pieces of me contained my—well, I wouldn't even call it musical talents, more like a cultural and psychological poison. They are too dangerous and too vile a thing to share with another. It was a mistake to tell you about this to begin with."

  A moment of silence passed. Everyone was staring at Valor now. Shiv felt a tickle in the back of his mind, the same kind that manifested every time someone was being dishonest with him. "So, are you saying that because you really think the skill is that dangerous? Or are you just saying that because you're embarrassed and you don't want to play music in front of us?"

  The statement proved piercing. It struck Valor like a blade which hit bone. The ancient Pathbearer cringed as his face turned to glass in Shiv's vision. "N-no," he stammered, "absolutely not. It's simply too dangerous a skill to be passed on to someone else. It is also dishonorable and unnatural. E-enough about my sordid history! We need to focus on the matter at hand right now."

  Shiv's smile dimmed. "Yeah, I know. The five of us here are the only ones we can really trust when it comes to being on the same side. Everyone else has some kind of other agenda relating to awakening or using the Great One, which will cause System knows how much destruction. The only reason you dragged us out here to talk about this stuff is that there was probably an uncountable number of people scrying at us using Divination and other means at any given moment."

  "Correct, but—"

  Shiv kept going, not letting Valor interrupt him. "But nothing. You're probably right about the whole Great One mess. With how many people are trying to mess with their soul and steal more of their matter for their own, I wouldn't be surprised if the Great One suddenly comes back to life someday and just punches the planet in half. But I'm done with that shit. I'm not going to be killing the Great One just because the System wants to set up a new and entertaining brawl. No, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to let the System… I'm not gonna let the System finish. Oh, I'll level, alright. It's like I said. I'll level all of my skills—and then I'm not gonna start any more wars with them. If anyone fights me, I'm gonna smack them, and then I'm gonna make them eat my food. I'm going to make some kind of kitchen prison where people I beat up are made to eat my food until they give up."

  “I’m sure you will,” Uva replied, elongating her neck to lay her chin on Shiv's head, which he found just slightly off-putting and somewhat attractive.

  “I will! I’m going to! It’s what I’m going to do.” Shiv sniffled. Part of him wanted to rage. More of him just didn’t give that much of a shit anymore. “The Great One just makes it all seem pointless if we keep doing this. We’re just fighting for fighting’s sake.”

  He looked at the surrounding ruins and sighed. “Even the ancients managed to make something of their world before it all went to hell. They died. They broke. But they did something while they were still alive. We still haven’t made cities large enough to match theirs. People are living on the streets, starving, getting killed by monsters and other shit. The hells is everyone climbing the Tiers for if we’re just running in place for the System? And don’t say power gives someone the ability to choose. Just look at the Ascendants. Look at Veronica. Look at you, Valor. Your own son ruined you. Where are we going with this? What are we doing?”

  Silence lay claim to the world once more. No one had anything to say to Shiv; he suspected they agreed, but what else was there to do? The System yearned for death and war, and all of Integration existed beneath its heel.

  But I might not, Shiv thought to himself.

  Udraal created me to break things. I should have been the System’s dream, but I never die. I don’t end. I’m a tumor for existence. So it’s trying to adapt. It’s doing everything it can to involve me in all these other conflicts. But I don’t need to bend. I can do something that matters. I can choose if I want to keep going this way. I can choose. I can help other people choose.

  Shiv smirked. Through the haze of frustration and tiredness, there was hope. Things didn’t need to spiral always and forever. Things could and should get better. He knew it in his heart.

  “Valor. I’m not playing along with all this stuff anymore. I don’t care about anyone’s schemes or plots or grudges. I’m going to do what I always wanted to do. And I’m going to start by fixing the Curse Maiden put on me. I’ve killed enough people for a while. I’m going to get back to cooking.”

  “But… the Frost Giants—” Adam started.

  “I’ll cook for them,” Shiv said, entirely deadpan. “They can think about invading the Republic after they try some actual food. If they still want to fight after, they can start that, and I’ll put a proper end to things. But no more than that. Everyone keeps fighting to get what little power they can. And it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. I’ve seen the mistake. The System wants war. Well. I’m doing peace out of spite.”

  “Peace often is only an absence of force, ensured through the monopolization of violence by the state,” Can Hu declared.

  “Then I’ll try to be the state,” Shiv said. He thumped a fist against his palm. “I’ll make sure everything works right.”

  The Penitent’s glowing eyes flickered with uncertainty. “Pathbearer Shiv… I fear that a great many tyrants have repeated variations of this exact statement uncountable times.”

  Shiv remained unshaken. “They’re different. They weren’t me.”

  “I believe they have spoken countless variations of that follow-up phrase as well,” Can Hu added.

  “Could they come back from being dead?” Shiv asked. “Because I can. I will. I’m going to die as many times as it takes to get this right. I’ll keep trying.”

  “I now fear the potential of you becoming the single most dangerous dictator in all of Integrated Earth’s history,” Can Hu said. “Most people do not envision becoming a monster; they only excuse their monstrous deeds for the sake of their higher dreams.”

  “My higher dream right now is kidnapping a certain Tarrasque and making sure no one gets to kill it. Because the System wants that thing dead. And what I want… is for the System—and Udraal—to eat shit.”

  “I’m not sure about the logic behind this philosophy, Shiv,” Adam muttered, seeming genuinely confused. “You—you do seem—”

  “Let’s go have an adventure somewhere fun,” Shiv declared. “Logic’s boring. And it also doesn’t matter. The System’s gonna do what it’s gonna do, and I’m going to do what I’m going to do.”

  A Glimpse of Perspective: Mayhaps… there is freedom in aggression and spite?

  Whatever. I’m going to live despite what the System wants. I’m just going to do things and handle whatever else comes my way. There are going to be problems anyway. But I’m not going to respect the System’s strife. Felling things are pretty much all meaningless to me by now. I’m not growing in power just to increase the size of the explosions I can cause. That’s fun, but I want my explosions to mean something.

  Shiv stepped away from the pre-System bomb and reached out with both arms. He scooped Valor, Adam, Uva, and Can Hu close, lifted them up, and began walking away from the ruins—indifferent to the miseries of the place, uncaring of the lacking mana in the atmosphere.

  “Shiv,” Adam grumbled, shoving weakly against his friend. “Shiv. What are you doing? Shiv. Put me down.”

  “In a bit.” Shiv sniffled. “Decided I want more hugs. So I’m getting more hugs. I’m also going fishing later. Do you want to go fishing, Adam? Maybe we can put a lake or something inside the Gate. That might be nice. Or a river running down the middle…”

  Adam tried to speak but found himself inhaling a mouthful of Valor’s hair. “Pff—It… it might look nice, but I don’t think that’s our main priority—”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll deal with it. You can tell me how it looks later. I’ll start work as soon as I can. But I’m going to grow a kitchen first.”

  Uva cocked her head in confusion. “Grow?”

  “Yeah. Courtney should be used for something other than fighting too. I’m going to have her turned into a flying restaurant or something. That’ll be pretty nice, I think. I’m going to take her across the Abyss and the surface and stuff. I got a bunch of unused kitchen appliances from Monster Mystery Meat, and they deserve to be used.”

  “There’s still a reward out for your head,” Adam said. He was almost pleading with Shiv now.

  “So?”

  “People will come and try to kill you?”

  “What’s that change?” Shiv chuckled. “I have people coming to kill me anyway. I’ll deal with it. Or maybe I won’t in the end. But at least I’ll be doing something worthwhile instead of something pointlessly stupid. The Ascendants want more power, but they rotted their minds and turned on each other. Udraal wants to fight the System, but he’s just causing more horrific tragedy and telling himself it’s science or something. Great One probably wanted something too before they got cut down. All the plots and lies and schemes… Whatever. I want something. I want to be an actual person. So I’m going to be Chef for a while. I’m going to cook.”

  And Shiv’s smile grew ever wider as a feeling of indifference-born-peace settled over him. “And the rest of Integration is just going to have to deal with that.”

  Valor bounced up and down with every step Shiv took, but the ancient Pathbearer’s eyes remained fixed on his disciple, the green glow of his eyes growing brighter. “Ah. I see it now. You will try to cleave to no will but your own now.”

  “Eh. Nothing that complicated, Valor. I’ve just seen enough of the game to know that power for power really isn’t a reward. Power’s meant to help you live your life. And I think I’m going to start doing just that—and I’ll try to do the same for everyone else if I can. I’m just… done being scared of consequences, is all. They’re coming either way.”

  “Could we still consider using that mana-nullifying bomb on the Tarrasque?” Can Hu suggested. “I understand that you are in a fugue state right now, Pathbearer Shiv, but I think it wise to keep our strategies and options open.”

  “You guys can do whatever you want, and I’ll help you. But me personally? I told you what I intend to do: I’m going to beat the shit out of the Tarrasque… and then put it somewhere where no one can kill it.” An image of a tame Tarrasque with his face churning a lake-sized cauldron of soup flashed into shape within Shiv’s mind. “Wonder if I can do that,” he mused.

  “Do what?” Can Hu asked.

  “Thinking about what skills I’ll need to train a Tarrasque to become a cook. It’s a bit like me, right? It talked about cooking before. I think it has the potential…”

  Uva and Adam stared at each other with uneasy expressions. A Psychomantic tendril connected their minds together as they briefly had a dialogue about Shiv. “I’ll let you reach into my mind and see if you can drain away any madness,” Shiv said. “I don’t think you’ll find anything there, though.”

  Tentatively, Uva sank a strand into him, and she cringed. “Oh, Composer. You’re actually going to do this. You’re just going to go around cooking without a care for what the world and the System might throw at you.”

  “Yep,” Shiv said. And admitting that made him feel all the better. “Whatever comes. We’ll handle it. And we’ll live. We’ll have adventures. And it’ll be great.”

  Thus, the Deathless returned toward the sparkling glow emitted by the archway in the distance with friends and family in tow, indifferent to the savage nature of his existence, unburdened by the countless conflicts on the verge of igniting around him. And in doing so, found himself evermore the Pathbearer than the boy he was before.

  Incensed, the System offered its taunting question once more.

  What will you do to see him returned?

  Nothing, Shiv replied. The answer was mostly for himself. I’ll bring him back if I can. I’ll mourn him if I can’t. But I’m done thinking I’ll gain anything but more blood on my hands from playing your games. Don’t talk to me again unless I’m due another level.

  Almost begrudgingly, a following text appeared before his vision while a faint feeling of defiance and satisfied outrage leaked over from across the breadth of existence.

  A Glimpse of Perspective 55 > 68

  Act I End

  pre-order is now active, and the release will be synchronized with the audiobook (narrated by Garrett Michael Brown) as well. With an added piece of news, expect the next few official books to arrive month by month.

  Starting from Act II, there will be one Chapter every day. Unless they are very long, they will usually not be split, so the content per day stays about the same. The time slot for the daily chapter going forward will be the point where the second of three chapters released during the early books of the story, which would be right in the middle of the two chapters you've known for the past few months (10 pm per GMT+1). They should generally come out on time, but please forgive any small delays that might pop up.