It's been days in the Factory, possibly more than that. Those in the middle of the group are healed and sleep, but even then, we've lost a sizeable number to the Obsidian Factory's traps. There is no place that's safe from the threat of poison, electrocution, even incineration. I watch for leaking walls, whether the liquid be black oil or the more sinister murky water, but I've yet to see my worst nightmares realized.

"Stay brave," Iris says. We have gone on like this for lifetimes. I know the curve of her step, the rhythm of her heart, but most of all her words are familiar. When she fights, she says little, and she is as solemn when it is just us and the empty, dark hallways (when was the last time the Factory held light?), but when she does speak, save for orders, it is to me. Her tone is rich with foreign harmonies, but there is also a deep fear that isn't hers nestled in her tone.

How many of our other lives have fallen to the Factory? How many cosmic evils are there out there?

The hallways, in response, grow darker and more twisted still. Even our generated lights with their pale glow seem to die before the darkness. Obsidians leap from the shadows in a myriad of forms and the resulting battle splits the shadows, blood and stone striking the walls. Iris holds the front, purifying the air and searching for dangers ahead, but at last we come across a final door. A few Obsidians, in the form of creatures with curved ears, like Canira, but with two tails and taller, less compact forms, prowl there, with blue gems encrusted in their chests. Their movements are even more automated than those of the other Obsidians, and when they look up at us, they have glassy cateracts in constrast into the other Obsidians' false eyes.

Vivian's fire fills the hallway and grows in intensity, until the hall itself seems to be burning, and I shy away from the force of her fire. The fury in her eyes is thousands of years old. Whatever these creatures were, they never had a chance.

Natrina shrinks back.

"What was-"

Vivian spits a glob of molten spit against the ground, where it sizzles on the floor besides the inanimate, molten rock. I can feel the waves of heat and scent burning fur. "Her personal guard. A reminder. Call it whatever you'd like."

My mind flashes back to the Font, and I remember similar figures engraved around the edges of old scenes. The first race. Terreskians.

"Nethera... was a fallen member of the guard that once protected Verhamera, her family, if you will. She- it-" Natrina shakes her head. "There are many legends centering on the cause of her betrayal. A moment of doubt. A decision, a conscious one, to undermine her luminous siblings. Some claim that she is an inevitable result of the existence of light- a cast shadow. Regardless, she has been devouring for millenia, and if left alone, would do so until the end of time."

"We're going to fight that?" I ask.

"All of us. Together." promises Natrina.

The metal pulls and gives way, revealing two malformed doors, almost melded together by the heat. This pattern continues up the divide, a tunnel that goes to darkness from darkness, and the four of us cross the barrier. The army lies in tow, filtering in, and we continue down the path. Iris's lights flicker and Natrina grits her teeth, which are visible only in the glow of my embers. The path stretches onwards, the familiar metal grates making me almost woozy, but ahead of us I think I can see a dark purple something.

"After aeons. Revenge." Vivian says.

"Too cynical. We've come here for justice." Natrina argues.

Hundreds of forms huddle in the darkness behind us, and then I hear a clink followed by a loud thud. Metal doors slam back together and we bolt forwards, spurred by adrenaline, until we exit the tunnel out into a massive room, the empty twin of the Auspicia's enclave.

The hall opens back up behind us, revealing gored bodies and the cracked remains of bones and Canis horns. Black lightning cuts the air, which Vivian and Natrina have to duck to avoid Both of them are panting, and Iris, at my side, yells into the shadows, "Come out."

Glistening stone tendrils emerge into Iris's glow, revealing a Canis no taller than Vivian or Natrina. As we watch, six wings form across her back from molten material, falling into a familiar pattern. "It has been a very, very long time."

Vivian screams and lunges at her, mouth filled with fire, and Nethera dodges to the side. vivian doesn't give her a chance to recover, and runs again, but by this time Natrina has entered the duel as well. Nethera fends her off with a tendril for each vine, blow to blow, all while dodging and sidestepping Vivian. No fire gets close enough to harm her. Vivian throws herself again and again at Nethera, only to slam the wall, and Natrina, who is less reckless, can't land a blow.

Iris swings in, shooting pure beams of light at Nethera, who looks up and pins her against the ceiling by the wings. Iris lets out a screech of pain as the shards embed themselves into her broken wings, which flap and struggle of her own accord, widening the holes. When they lose their hold, she falls straight to the ground and lies theire, unmoving. Natrina distracts Nethera's attention with a melee hit to the side, her massive girth overpowering the mock Auspicia, and Nethera's form bulges and grows as she turns into a dragon so large it almost fills the room. Iris is pinned beneath one of its six feet and Vivian's fire bounces harmlessly off of its scales. Nethera's lifeless eyes fix Natrina.

"I have seen you die thousands of times," Nethera cooes. "I can't say this is any more impressive."

"Thousands of times?" I ask.

"You should have brought the seraph with you." Nethera says.

"Thousands? Thousands of timelines?" I repeat, still frozen to the spot.

"It's not that simple- we failed- we failed a lot. The first Auspicia went through an uncountable amount of timelines-" Vivian spits back at me, struggling for words.

Nethera raises her head. "The end of times is an inevitability. It is something you have struggled-" Iris cries out as Nethera's foot crushes down onto her ribcage, "-in vain to outrun."

"And you'd call yourself an arbiter of death." Natrina says.

"My nature is death." Nethera responds, her massive jaw gaping open to reveal the perfectly replicated teeth of a dragon. "I, replicated across worlds, I, destroyer of timelines... and for what? To live another day, in the hopes of consuming more. There is so much light left to snuff out. There are gods to topple. Your gods, the ones who wronged me before time and space both knit into the fabric of the universe... I can think of no better punishment for Verhamera than to have her pawns destroyed before I conquer the stars."

"I'm no one's pawn." Vivian growls. Natrina holds her flank, the two of them side by side. "For Lotus, old friend?"
Lotus.

My body unfreezes and I dash for Iris, avoiding the swing of Nethera's tail as she tries to reposition herself to get at Vivian and Nat. As Nethera is knocked back, her foot lifts and Iris springs forwards, crumpled around her chest. "Torch."
I run my snout against hers, taking in her scent, trying to wake myself up from this nightmare. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't do anything. I-"

Iris takes a step forwards. "I can't feel them."

"Iris-"

Vivian lunges up at Nethera, her horns blazing with fire, and Nethera grabs the Hellhound by the horn and slams her against the ground, breaking a horn. Another shatters as she hits the ground, and Vivian's eyes roll wildly in her skull. Natrina runs to her and Nethera's tail slashes about, hitting her right in the chest. The green Canis takes the full might of the blow and crumples against the wall, peeling herself away and struggling back to her fallen friend. Iris's body lights up again, but she's coughing blood and can barely move. Nethera's gaze turns to us and we dash between her legs, my eyes still on the two of them, my heartbeat racing.

"I wanted to make it back," Natrina says. "I wanted to be with her, in the end."

"Lotus." Vivian says. Her eyes are fogging over, and she foams at the math. Her split horns spark off gold and red energy, fizzling out on the floor. "Lotus."

"If you can hear me, Viv... I missed you too. All those years." Natrina crumples over Vivian's body as it stops twitching, and the two of them fade out together. "Well, we made a promise." My breath catches in my throat, desperate, and my body freezes up again, trembling, as Vivian's dying body begins to spark and then, in a final burst, she explodes into flame.

Nethera recieves the full impact of the blast and the embers are in my mouth, my eyes, everywhere. I'm drowning in the aftermath of her scent, all of her remourse, and I squint into the blaze, looking for two bodies that are long, long gone.

"Torch! Torch, please..." Iris's voice is strained with emotion, enough to jolt me from my sudden paralysis, but the half-melted form of Nethera is attempting to move, her body dripping large chuns of magma as she pulls her face back together. Iris moves to cover me defensively.

"They've never made it this far." Nethera says, her molten face somehow even more unsettling. "You, though... there are no other versions of you at all. Prey and predator, working together. I couldn't have expected this. Oh no."

"No one did." I respond, staring into her dead eyes. "But here we are."

"Enough with formalities." Nethera breathes in through two asymmetrical nostrils. I feel something slip from me, like a breeze under my fur, and Nethera licks her stone lips as she takes in my fear. "I wonder how much fear you'd generate before you drowned."

Iris's eyes widen and her broken wings spread wide as she flies at Nethera, her trajectory flawed, and Nethera slams her back down with one swipe. Iris rises again, looking to me, and her gaze hardens. Fire brims around my maw as Nethera's talons near her face, a familiar tug pulling the back of my mind. At first, I struggle not to give on, but this time, it is not a need. It is an offer, a contract between worlds, and it is my birthright.

I am not afraid of destiny.

The fire consumes me and the world begins to tilt. Vivian's strength becomes my own as fire rages atop my head and down my back, all the way to my tail, which flares into a magnificent torch of fire so bright and potent that the air of the room seems to waver around it. I swing it into one of Nethera's legs. As she stumbles back, away from Iris, I run along her underbelly, superheating the obsidian, which begins to melt. As I run towards Iris, to meet her face-to-face, Iris steps back. Her own fur is singed- by my heat- and I am going to save you this time runs through my head.

Nethera is still recovering from Vivian's momento. She rises, squinting, to face me, and my jaw locks open. An intense tornado of blue fire leaves my mouth, encasing her, and my paws leave the ground as my body seeks out a weak point- out of instinct- a single fault line in her chest, an old draconic flaw that I hadn't known about. Nethera's body bursts around me as I aim a flaming paw right into the chink in her armor, shards flying up around me, and adrenaline unlike anything I've ever known is overwhelmed by pain. The debris grows thicker, piercing my skin, and my vision begins to blur. My body hits the ground and the darkness overtakes me.

---

I'm falling upwards through the water. Behind me, I can see a field, whose grassy oasis is falling behind me, and another field lies ahead, pristine green grass almost magical in texture and quality. My heartrate slows and I my eyes half-close, blinking warily. The sensation of drowning seizes me, but even its hold can no longer stir me. I greet the water like an old friend- didn't I always know it was coming? Wasn't I always sure that...

That I...

Iris's dark form cuts the air, trying to drag me upwards with her wings. My hazy vision catches a distinct lack of holes, in fact, I've never seen her more alive.

"Did I do it?" I ask. "Is it over?"
"Yes."

"Did I do alright?"

"Yes!"

"That's good. That's good... you'll tell them, right? Natrina. Vivian. The Defenders. Avery. You'll tell them I did it."

"Torch, please-" Iris is trying to drag me upwards with her forelegs, but she can hardly get a grip around my midsection. My vision blurs further and I begin to see red on the edges of my vision- not fire, but blood. "Torch, you can't leave me. Torch."

"It was destiny. I'm supposed to- one of us always has to-"

"No, we don't!" Iris cries just as her forelegs finally give way. She dives for me, but I'm moving faster and faster away from her, awaiting an impact that never comes, and it dawns on me that I am dying. I wonder if this is how Vivian felt, falling through time... but at that moment, I'm not reliving her story at all. I'm just letting go.

I feel myself brace, looking for an escape, and I move one paw through the air. My fire sputters back to light and pain begins to siege my body, starting with a thousand pinpricks and giving way to sweeping sensation, but I won't stop thrashing. I find myself stirring the air, no longer falling, instead climbing back towards that distant field.

Iris...

I await a push, a sudden surge of adrenaline, but nothing comes. Instead, I grapple with the growing pain all the way up, ascending faster as I come back to myself, and when my limbs kick real air and my eyes open to find myself back in the room, I know I'm home.

Iris's cold and horrified expression breaks into a beam with relief. I can see Lotus smiling through her face, and I think, We'll be your happy ending, Vivian.

"No..." I correct myself. "I think this is our happy ending."

The doors ease open and we leave together, for the last time.