Die. Respawn. Repeat.

"Don't let that get to the Hand!" I call out.

I dash forward as I speak. Guard must have reached the same conclusion a second before I did, because he's already moving, determination blazing in his optic. He yanks on the chain, dragging the Hand toward us and away from that storm of incoming Firmament; at the same time, Ahkelios flies up into the air, his blade shining with another one of his sword skills.

He slashes, creating a rift in the air that barrels forward and slices through the corrupted Firmament. It hangs in the air for a moment, and for a split second, I think it works—but then it simply gathers itself together again and flows onward, untouched.

Ahkelios lets out a growl of frustration. I call out to him even as I charge toward the Hand. "Use my skills!"

There's a burst of intent through the link between us. In a single moment, Ahkelios and I agree on a plan, and that plan crystallizes into action. Ahkelios draws on a combination of Crystallized Barrier and Firmament Control, creating a scattered array in the sky to stop the progress of that corrupted Firmament. In the meantime, I grab the Hand and throw, lifting it clean off the ground and tossing it further in Guard's direction.

It screeches in protest, of course. The noise is a shrill scream that cuts through the air and makes me wince. "You struggle for nothing!" it seethes. "For nothing! You struggle to save a thing that deserves no pity!"

I am so very sick of hearing this. "Gheraa deserves a second chance," I snap. "And you aren't going to stop me from giving it to him."

It's the wrong thing to say, apparently. The Hand doubles its efforts to break free, straining against Guard's chains and making him grunt with exertion as he pours in Firmament to try to keep it down.

Even with his enormous reserves, there's only so much he can channel at any one time.

And he's not the only one that's struggling. Ahkelios is barely able to contain that incoming Firmament; the two skills he's borrowing help, but not enough. That incoming storm of power is too slippery, for lack of a better term—just like the Hand itself, it's corrupted with a Concept that makes it difficult to manipulate. It acts almost like it has a will of its own, albeit a very basic and rudimentary one.

If nothing else, the Hand is relatively easy to keep under control, but even that doesn't sit easy with me. It's one of the strongest creatures we've fought; even with how much we've grown, I'm not sure it should be this easy—

I narrow my eyes, taking my thoughts back a few steps. Guard can only channel so much Firmament at once, despite his reserves. The Hand...

It's using us.

The thought strikes me out of the blue, but I could snarl at myself for not thinking of it earlier. It really, really wants to stop us from reviving Gheraa, that much is clear, but there's a problem with that plan: there's only so much Firmament it can handle at once. It's packed full of power, and all that power means there's less space for it to take in the dungeon's Firmament and corrupt it.

Guard's problem is that he can't channel the amount of Firmament he contains. The Hand is the opposite. It can channel Firmament enormous volumes of Firmament just fine, but there's only so much it can hold. It hasn't had the same reinforcement I've given to Guard.

Which is where we come in. The more damage we inflict on it, the more it's able to absorb everything around it. The reason the fight hasn't been harder, the reason it hasn't shown us anything besides a single offensive skill...

It wants us to hurt it. We're accelerating the destruction of the dungeon. Every time it heals itself, it consumes a chunk of Firmament and creates a little more space.

We need a different strategy. A way to destroy it without giving it the chance to heal.

The problem with that plan, of course, is that it's a solid block of Firmament that doesn't have any vital organs or distinct weaknesses—no matter how much we hack away at it, it's able to regenerate near-instantaneously. With all three of us fighting it, we can do just enough damage to overwhelm its healing, but in retrospect, that doesn't mean it'll die. Not as long as it has a source of Firmament. And with Ahkelios preoccupied trying to hold all that power back...

Come on, Ethan. Figure it out.

If we could destabilize whatever it's using to hold itself together, for example, or interfere with whatever viral Concept it is that's infected it, we might be able to tear it apart—

The Hand manages to briefly shatter Guard's chains; he staggers backward, trying to recover, and in that window of time the Hand launches off the ground and toward Ahkelios. I grit my teeth and Warpstep into the space between them, grabbing it by the finger and using its momentum to whip it around and back into a mostly-depleted pile of rubble.

Quickened Mind doesn't give me that much extra time at this level of combat, I note grimly. I need to be faster.

It doesn't have any weaknesses that I've observed. It does have a pattern—it always uses its index finger to fire that void-beam skill. Whenever we succeed in cutting it off, it doesn't use it again until the finger's regenerated.

If it's holding back, then it stands to reason that it has a few other skills it hasn't used. I don't think its enormous physical strength and considerable durability count as skills. Likewise, its absorption and regeneration appear to be innate qualities. What am I missing?

I let out a sharp breath of air.

I can't sense any skill constructs. I can't sense a core.

Which means it is using another skill.

It can't just be a solid block of Firmament. Almost everything I've encountered has some kind of core—even the monsters. And of everything it's shown us so far...

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Something must have been creating the illusion that hid that Firmament storm from us. Even now, I can feel that same illusion trying to wrap around us again; only the rift of Firmament Ahkelios left behind is preventing it from taking effect. But what if that's not the only illusion it's maintaining?

What if that illusion is just a distraction?

Throughout the battle, it's always made sure that the most convenient fingers to sever were the four fingers atop its hand, but never—

"The thumb!" I shout. I dive toward it even as I say the words, and Guard reacts quickly, creating new chains and moving with incredible precision. They wrap around each of the Hand's fingers, looping across one and the next as it struggles—and before it can pull free, he whips his chains down, slamming the entire thing palm-first into the ground.

I land atop it a second later, wrapping two Amplified Gauntlets around its thumb and pulling. There's a snap and a crack, followed by a sudden loosening; I stumble backward—

—and what remains of the illusion dissolves around us.

I freeze, my breath catching in my throat.

The dungeon's in ruins. There's a massive chunk of the dungeon that's just gone, absorbed into the Hand. It's been hiding a lot more than just its core—it's been hiding the sheer range at which it can operate, the sheer amount it's been absorbing.

I don't know if what's left is enough to bring Gheraa back—

I banish that thought almost as soon as I have it.

No. It's not over yet.

Without its illusions to hide it, there's a core blazing clear as day within the Hand, though to call it a core feels like an insult. It's a crude, rudimentary thing that mimics what I imagine a fourth-layer core would look like.

More importantly, however, is that a majority of the Firmament it absorbed hasn't been integrated yet. It's trying, but the process is slow. What remains of Gheraa's Firmament seems to be fighting against it, struggling to resist the Hand's control.

And then there's the state of its core. The way the skill constructs are built within it, one in each finger...

My thoughts are interrupted as the Hand bucks beneath me, trying to throw me off; its flesh sizzles and bubbles violently where it makes contact with Guard's chains, and I hear him grunting with effort.

"I can't hold it much longer!" Guard calls.

"I got what I need!" I use a Warpstep to put some space between myself and the Hand; an instant later, the chains dissolve, Guard panting harshly as he cycles air through his vents. "It has a core," I tell him. "We just need to target it."

"And how do we do that?" Guard takes a few wary steps back as he registers the state of the dungeon around us.

"Still figuring that out!" I grab his shoulder and Warpstep again even as I speak, only barely dodging the beam the Hand sends at us; it knows I've figured it out. In the meantime, Guard's recovered enough to create another set of chains, this time using them like a lasso and slinging the Hand violently into a pile of rubble. It doesn't do much damage, but it does buy us time.

"Gonna need you guys to hurry it up!" Ahkelios shouts. He's maintaining an impressive array of barriers, although I notice with some worry that the corrupted Firmament burns through them with greater and greater speed. The Hand gets up more quickly than ever, too, and shatters Guard's latest chain with an odd flex of Firmament.

It's adapting, I realize. Learning how to fight us.

But it's not the only one capable of adapting.

I think back to the glimpse I caught of the Hand's core. The shoddy construction of it means that it's uniquely vulnerable to the same problem Guard used to have; too much Firmament and the entire thing is likely to unravel. I'm not sure it can even use most of its skills without risking destabilizing the whole thing, especially with all that foreign Firmament floating around in there.

Which the best option right now is...

I wince. Ahkelios isn't going to like this.

"'Kelios." I use our mental link to contact him—it's easier and faster than shouting across the dungeon. He glances back at me, still frantically juggling a series of barriers.

"Little busy here!"

"I need you to let it through."

"What—are you serious?" He takes a second to process my tone. "You're serious."

"Trust me. Please."

Ahkelios stares at the storm of Firmament he's trying to hold off, then lets out an aggravated sigh; a moment later, the barriers all collapse, and he Warpsteps over to my side. "I hope you know what you're doing, Ethan."

"So do I," I say wryly.

The Firmament pours in toward the Hand. It lets out a triumphant screech as it turns to face that incoming storm, opening its mouth to swallow it all—even from here, I can feel its core beginning to flex and bend at the onslaught.

"Keep its thumb severed," I tell Ahkelios. "I don't want it trying to trick us again."

He nods and dashes off, blade in hand. The Hand's preoccupied trying to take in all that Firmament—if it weren't for the fact that it would just heal instantly, this would be the perfect opportunity to try to kill it. Instead, I turn my attention to He-Who-Guards.

This isn't going to be enough. We'll need one more thing to push it over the edge, and it's by far the shakiest part of the plan. Partly because I've never even considered the possibility before now, let alone tried it.

"Guard," I say. "Do you trust me?"

He gives me a strange look. "I am offended you have to ask."

I chuckle at this, despite the situation. "Had to make sure," I say. "I'm going to try to create a link between us. The same one I have with Ahkelios. Are you okay with that?"

Guard's optic flickers as he processes my words. "Is that... possible?" he asks, uncertain. "I am not opposed. It would be an honor. But how would that help us win this battle?"

"I'll tell you the rest once we're linked, if it works," I say, offering a slight smile. He bows his head in acknowledgement.

"When you are ready, then."

Prismatic Firmament swirls in his chest. Guard's core, unlike any other core I've seen, carries so much Firmament that it's perfectly visible. The fact that his body was built with a specialized housing unit just to contain it is a remarkable reflection of exactly how much power it holds.

I reach out to make contact with it, my fingers brushing against the glass housing. Guard shivers in response, but says nothing; instead, he waits.

There's exactly one piece of evidence that this might work. I've tried it once before, although it feels like an age ago: back when Rotar was frozen in the Fracture, I empowered Temporal Link with an Inspiration and tried to connect with him. It went poorly, but it did establish two things for me.

First is that I can use Temporal Link on any entity that's out of sync with Hestia's time. Given that the sheer weight of Guard's core has given him immunity to the loops, he qualifies.

Second is that I can, in fact, use an Inspiration—The Mirror Twice Shattered, specifically—to empower my ability to form a Temporal Link. I hadn't fully understood the skill or the Mirror at the time, and even now, they're among the more complex tools I have.

The main difference now, besides all the ways I've grown? I hadn't known Rotar particularly well. The Mirror Twice Shattered is an emotional Inspiration. It emerged from some of the worst moments of my life. I can't use it to create a link with someone I don't understand or with someone that doesn't understand me.

He-Who-Guards and I, on the other hand...

It may not have been for long, but we've fought and stood together enough for me to begin to understand the kind of person he is. I have no doubt he's done the same for me.

It'll have to be enough. I call on both Inspiration and skill.

The Mirror Twice Shattered: Temporal Link.

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