He made an effort. His legs finally moved, and he was able to climb up the side of the crater just as a volley of spears hit the ground where he had been standing. The blast of power knocked him over, and he would have fallen back down if strong arms hadn't caught him.

"I've got you." The voice was familiar, warm, and alive when it should have been dead.

"R-Rosalina...?"

Greg looked up at Lady Rosalina's face. It was bruised and scarred, but she was still very much alive. There were a dozen cracks in her armor and a bloody bandage around her head, but her eyes were clear and determined.

Greg was able to say, "You're alive."

"Almost. The Calamity took me in, but it couldn't fully integrate a living person until you broke it."

"I've been stuck in the wreckage, out cold." Rosalina pulled Greg up with surprising strength. "Get going now! We need to get out of here before it's too late!"

As the three Calamities kept attacking, she half-carried and half-dragged him away from the crater. The Brotherhood was broken up, and everyone ran for whatever shelter they could find.

Tunner was using his huge body to protect a group of hurt defenders. Seraphine had built a weak ice wall, but it was already starting to break. The projectiles were coming too fast for Marina to stop with her frying pan.

They found safety in the ruins of what had once been a merchant's warehouse. They dove through a wall that had fallen down just as another volley destroyed the street behind them. They found the rest of the Brotherhood already there, and they all looked scared and shocked.

Lylia, Tunner, and Veldway was shocked seeing Rosalina was still alive and well that they starts to talk, "I think it's the best way to save the formalities for later at this situation."

They nodded hearing Rosalina said that, but Lylia still felt thankful to seeing her all alive. "Thank the gods..."

"What the... FUCK is that?!" Felix asked, with no trace of his usual humor. "How is she still alive?! And how did there get to be THREE of those things?"

"Backup plan," Veldway said softly, and everyone turned to look at him.

The master craftsman was sitting with his back against a wall, and his face was pale. "She told me once, a long time ago when we still got along."

"She said that a true master always had a backup plan. I thought she meant for making things go wrong, but I didn't know she meant for everything..."

Another explosion shook the building, and dust fell from the ceiling. The three Calamities were methodically destroying the whole district, and there was nowhere to escape.

"We need another Resonance Hammer!" Marina said in a desperate voice. "Greg, can you make another one?"

Veldway said, "It took me two and a half hours with all my materials, and the Thoughtforged technique was pushed to its limits," before Greg could answer. "We don't have two and a half minutes, let alone hours."

"Then what do we do now?!" Lylia asked. "We can't fight three of those things!" "We barely made it through one!"

"With the last hope already used... it's too late... we can't do anything," Veldway said, and then he did something Greg had never seen him do before.

The master craftsman began to cry. He stared at nothing, and tears ran down his face without making a sound.

"Everything that is happening right now is my fault. This is all of it. I knew it was a lie, but I didn't say anything."

The room was quiet except for the sounds of destruction in the distance.

"The Royal Knights made a fake peace," Veldway said, his voice empty.

"I learned twelve years ago when I was hired to make a weapon that couldn't be traced back to me for an assassination."

"I was told it was for the greater good. That keeping up the appearance of peace meant that there had to be violence in the shadows from time to time. I built it because I was too scared to say no."

Rosalina's face had lost all color. "Veldway, you don't have to—"

"Yes, I do!" Veldway's voice broke. "Agatha was right!"

"It's not about destruction being the answer, but about the truth! We've been part of a system that kills people in secret while talking about peace in public!"

"We're being hypocritical to everyone!

"And now people are dying because I didn't have the guts to tell the truth years ago!" He put his hands over his face. "I'm a fucking disgrace... I'm really sorry..."

Greg felt something change inside of him. Not agreeing with what Veldway said, but understanding it.

He didn't want to believe it, but this new world where he starts his second life was more complicated than he thought. It wasn't simple to find peace, and it wasn't clean either.

It was a mess, and it was based on hard choices that good people made for what they thought were good reasons. But that didn't mean Agatha's answer was right.

Greg said, "You're wrong," and everyone turned to look at him.

He pushed himself away from the wall, making his tired body stand up straight. "About this being your fault... and about any of this being right!"

"Greg," Veldway began, but Greg stopped him.

"Yes, the Royal Knights lied."

"Yes, the peace wasn't perfect."

"Yes, the system was broken." As Greg spoke, his voice got stronger. "But you know what?"

"That's how every system works! That's every time someone tried to make peace! They all have to give up something! Nobody wants to look at the ugly parts of them all."

He walked toward the fallen wall and looked out at the three Calamities that were causing trouble. "But burning it all down isn't the answer."

"The answer is to improve it. To tell the truth and improve something! Don't throw away everything good just because there were bad things too!"

"How?" Lylia asked in a low voice. "How do we improve this? How do we stop her?"

Greg didn't know what to say. The Thoughtforged Hammer was buried in the rubble, having fallen when Greg collapsed. He didn't have the strength to make anything that could stand up to three Calamities working together, even if he could find it and use the Mental Forging skill again.

Then his communication crystal started to vibrate. He took it out and turned it on. "Hello...?"

"Boss!" Bork's voice came through, shaky but happy. "Your hammer! The Thoughtforged one! I found it! I'm bringing it to you right now!"

Greg's heart raced with hope. "Where are you?"

"Two streets north, hurry up! I'll be there in—" There was a burst of static that cut off the connection.

"Bork?" Greg shook the crystal. "BORK?!"

A dwarf with many wounds and a bad limp came into the warehouse. It was Bork, and he was holding the Thoughtforged Hammer in his good hand. The hammer's surface was still glowing with residual power.

"Got it," Bork said, throwing the hammer to Greg and then falling over. "Now go... do something... crazy..."

Greg caught the hammer, and as soon as he closed his fingers around it, he felt the Mental Forging skill kick in. His mind was full of information, starting with all the choices, settings, and ways to mix things that shouldn't work but would because belief is stronger than physics when used correctly.

"Cover me," he told the Brotherhood. "I need 30 seconds."

"Okay, you've got it," Marina said right away as she walked to the door. The others followed him and formed a protective circle around Greg as he started to work.

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