Everything goes black. I open my eyes to nothing but empty space and the roar of battle raging outside as the system's influence roars inside of me. Fore said he could get this… this shit out. That has to happen.

One of my eyes twitches hard. I quickly raise a hand to cover it. Sharp pain lances into my eyebrow, brought on by my own claw-like nails digging deep into my flesh. Pearl gasps in surprise and shoves as much of her influence at my hand as she can. My own muscles strain against the nails inching closer and closer to my eye itself, two awarenesses merged as one just barely fighting back the system's desire to make me half-blind.

"Find Fore!" Pearl cries. "Every second of this is killing three seconds of our unity!"

Shit, shit, shit. I grit my teeth and slam my shoulder into the wall as blood drains freely over my eye, stinging it with a promise of something so much worse. My neck starts to twitch, too, with the second shoulder-first impact. Right on the exact spot I'd been mutilating before. With these claw-nails, though, I'll definitely slice right through a few arteries that'd have me dead in minutes.

In the back of my mind, it registers that that must've been what the system was trying to do. Have me kill myself with only the smallest influence it had. The earrings twist and coil like living things, unlatching from the infinite loop to crawl up my earlobe. They wrap themselves around the harder parts of my ear and latch on with tiny needle-like protrusions, each bleeding the slightest amount of chilly liquid into my skin.

My fingers seize up. Everything from my elbow down goes utterly limp, hanging uselessly from the claws lodged in my forehead. I grimace and slowly pull my own hand off my face, causing a waterfall of blood and clear liquid to crash down over my eye and face. Pearl winces at the size of the gouges. I just try to ignore them.

"FORE!" I scream and slam against the wall again. "I'M DONE!"

I wind up for another charge. The doors slide open to another warzone filled with molten metal suits of armor, purple pollen, and two guys staring at me with mild concern. Fore's the only one that matters. I gesture insistently at my neck and grind a single word through clenched teeth.

"Out."

He nods and waves the other masked buddy off, then pulls me out of the trial room and plants a hand on my forehead. Each of his fingers covers a different wound, and with a small inhale, I feel something in my body start to shudder. It feels like pulling out a thin husk of popcorn that got stuck under my gums, but literally everywhere at once.

"Clench your teeth," Fore says seriously. "This will hurt a lot."

I don't argue for one second and slam my teeth together. He places his free hand on the back of the one on my face and makes a noise like he's about to yank out a particularly deep splinter. Searing, existential pain hits everywhere at once. My teeth hurt just as much as my fingers as much as my ribs as much as the backs of my eyes and everywhere else.

The splinter is everywhere. And it has barbs in deep.

Scarlet anguish floods every inch of my being. I stumble back against the wall to keep from crumpling over and Fore just moves with me–slamming my head against the stone with absolutely no mercy. The only reason that even registers is the noise it makes; a dull thud that reverberates around my skull and gives a nice momentary reprieve to the existential agony.

Fore sucks spit through his teeth with a wet slurp. "Almost done. Nice work not screaming; everyone else I've done this to has screamed bloody murder by now. Okay… worst part coming right up. Try not to pass out."

A very strong whimper slips through my clenched teeth. Fore digs his fingertips into the wounds. Then he does… something. The flesh on his fingertips seems to extend like needles into my wounds, opening them a little further and pushing fire into my brain. It hurts too much to scream. Like every nerve in my body is having a root canal at the same time.

Fore yanks his hand out. Extended fingertips leave my forehead in a spray of blood, each piercing an eye-sized sphere of twitching grey material. All the pain leaves in one blissful wave that's just… too much. My knees buckle and my back scrapes the wall as I sink to the ground with a delirious laugh of relief.

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"Done," Fore says with as much relief as I feel. "These suckers were latched on tight; if you didn't have any shellraiser in you, you would've been the system's plaything."

He flicks his wrist, splattering the grey stuff against the wall. Then he turns around and flicks his fingers at a massive glob of molten metal screaming our way. The blast of air the gesture kicks up stops the glob dead in its tracks to fall uselessly over the horde of already molten assailants.

"Can I ask you something, Shelby?"

I woozily look up at one of the other two non-fore masked buddies. My awareness can tell who it is, but I just don't care enough to check. "Mmrggh."

He nods as if my nonsense means yes. "Do you remember how many people were supposed to be here? Wasn't it, like, only two hundred or so?"

"Maybe?" I mumble and try to shrug. "Who cares?"

The masked guy pulls his lips into a thin line. "I do. Just from Gil keeping us in the loop, there's been at least four hundred actual people here. That's double the number of quest-takers. How's that possible?"

I look up at the guy. "Constructs."

He frowns. "That's not a good enough explanation."

"Hey, don't take it out on her. We'll get to the bottom of that ourselves," Fore assures his buddy with a pat on the shoulder, then turns to me. "Where do we need to go next, boss?"

Next. Right, next. I close my eyes and shove my hands in my pockets while focusing on the sensation of my earrings skittering back down my ears to reform as loops. "Next is the magic room. The one where all the non-grey constructs were made."

Fore raises an eyebrow. "Those ones with the wire limbs and glass heads?"

"Those, yeah," I confirm. "Do you know where the place is?"

He shakes his head. "No idea, sorry. Here. Drink that, and we'll keep the pressure off you for as long as we can."

A bright red potion-filled waterbottle falls in my lap. I instantly uncap it and down… the entire bottle. Fore stares at me with disbelief. Can't say I'm too happy about what this insinuates, either. Even still, I force myself to my feet and hand back the empty bottle. Fore accepts it and turns to rejoin the battle.

"Last stop," Pearl says worriedly. "Time's almost up. Six minutes and eighteen seconds."

The liquid construct peeks out from one of my pockets. So that's where it went. "Is that enough time, savior?"

"If we have to speed even a second looking?" I shake my head. "No. It won't be enough. The Quest has to know that. So whatever it's going to do, it has to do it right now."

I look over at a stretch of wall expectantly. Nothing happens. I clench my fingers and unclenched them a few times, but that's all I can wait for. If the system isn't going to do anything, then I can't save it. There's just not enough time. I… guess there's only one thing left to try. One thing I haven't tried for months now.

The coin trembles in my hand as I pull it out. Pearl's expression instantly darkens, but she doesn't say anything. She knows as well as I do that this could turn out horrifically wrong. But it's also the only way things could go horrifically right.

"Heads, we try to find the construct room. Tails… I bring Jumble to the quest and we kill it together."

I flick the coin high into the air.

"A coin flip? Now?" The liquid construct asks exasperatedly. "Is this really what–"

"Shush," Pearl says quietly but powerfully. "Everyone's fates ride on this."

The coin starts to fall. My tongue feels like sandpaper against the desert that is the rest of my mouth. I know the words I have to say. But if those words end up killing Gnash, Ebb, and so, so many other people… then… I…

I just have to accept that.

I just have to own it.

But this time, it can't just be the best outcome for me. It has to be something far more far-reaching than that.

I swallow one last time before the coin can hit the ground. "Worst outcome for the system."

The world stutters. Everything flashes black and white for a split second… and then goes grey. Only now does it register that my skill hadn't actually triggered yet. Or else the 'black and white' message I can barely remember would've popped up. Instead, something else does.

Skill evolution triggered.

Twist Fate Evolves to: Reknit Fate.

WARNING; Event: Pull Forth The Cataclysm at high risk of occurring from this choice.

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