Nine months before the end of the world. Again. What a mind fuck.

Haley found Mason a way to keep a timer ticking in his profile, and he never let himself shut it off. He counted towards the new apocalypse not in months, or days or hours. But in minutes.

If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds of distance run, yours is the earth, and everything in it, my son.

Mason wasn’t much for poetry. But his adopted father’s version of ‘parenting’ had been to hang the poem ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling in the hall outside the boys rooms. Mason had been hungry for any kind of male guidance, and probably took it too literally. But later, whenever he’d run or really done anything difficult, he’d thought of that poem, and pushed himself until the last second of that clock.

Now he had to make the whole human race do the same.

Back in the holy city, he approved the player lists and destinations suggested by Phuong and Carl. Then he took the ‘weaker’ players not deemed ready, and set a brutally punishing schedule in the training arenas and simulators. He gave them all two weeks to train, to test items and powers, and then promised them (ready or not) they were going out, too.

He went with Chinua and his team personally to the eastern Nexus, giving each player a few words of encouragement and confidence. He’d offered Carl the Shard of Night from the hag’s lair, but after a brief inspection, the assassin had said he wouldn’t really use it. So he’d offered it to Chinua instead, saying he could give it to whichever player on the team found it useful.

“Thank you, Patron,” the old soldier had said, holding the blade like a religious artifact. “I’m sure it will be of great benefit.”

Shard or no shard, the six players went fully geared. They were covered in trinkets and magic armor made by humanity’s best crafters, with resources pulled from every corner of new earth.

Annie, Blake, Erik the Swede, and Chinua and his people (Adela and Julio) went to the beacon and disappeared. Mason did everything he could not to pull someone out and go personally. He stood there telling himself it was the right thing, that he had to rely on others now too. That a king didn’t fight every battle himself. He needn’t have worried.

Nexus group two was out in three days without a loss.

The system blared their victory across everyone’s profiles, showing names and pictures before the Nexus popped up in Mason’s profile with some kind of thing to click.

[Eastern Nexus: possession offered by: Chinua Lumogu to the House of Mason. Do you wish to accept? Message attached: May this gift speak for me and my people. We will fight by the House of Mason, until the end.]

He smiled and accepted, then immediately nominated Chinua as his official ‘Nexus Protector’, which came with a powerful title and host of system benefits, similar to the ones Mason received for the first. More text scrolled.

[Title received: Nexus Lord. You have gained possession of both Nexus locations. Increased patron options. Increased patron points. Increased effect of various Nexus beacons.]

Seconds after his title finished, the system blared across the sky with more text and a voice in his mind.

[Congratulations on your ongoing survival. With the possession of both Nexus’s by a single house, you have reached the final phase of the game. All event dangers normalized. All planar invasions ended. Final world event begins in: eight months, three weeks, five days.]

Six to nine months, Dariya said. Apparently the system had given them the maximum.

Mason could hardly believe it, but he didn’t waste time marveling. He just looked up and revised the timer on his profile. They all had some more of Kipling’s minutes to fill.

He messaged Haley to get everyone moving on schedule, no changes to any plans. He didn’t want them to ‘space things out’ or feel relieved. He wanted them to act like they were in a desperate battle for their lives, and that battle was even longer than anticipated. Haley immediately messaged him back.

Understood.

In a few days, the holy city had stabilized. It still had all kinds of economic and political problems, with inefficiencies and anti-meritocratic nonsense, but he really didn’t care. They weren’t starving anymore. Their players were moving out into the world to be tested. That was enough.

Some would fail, and die. But the ones who succeeded would get stronger and more than make up for it. He also realized if they were going to use the crucible dungeon to turn civilians into players, it made sense to do it immediately. To give the people who went in time to train and gain in power like the others.

He sent out a call—entirely voluntary, telling the civilians what he expected, and that anyone who wished to fight in the final battle should start preparing now.

They got very few takers. He wasn’t surprised, if maybe still disappointed. The handful of civilians who agreed to go went with players and a small ceremony. Mason thanked them all individually before they went in.

Three out of the nine didn’t make it out of the crucible. One of the others survived but seemed mentally broken, screaming every night, afraid of his own shadow, not willing or able to discuss it. The other five went to train in the simulators. All agreed to head out on teams in three weeks.

Some of the ‘rebels’ came in from the frontiers and further settlements. Most were fairly weak. A few of moderate power. All seemed like good people who just preferred risk and chaos to life with Jeong and his rule.

But after a week they got one top tier player—a Japanese ex-fisherman, who’d apparently been slaughtering his way up and down the coasts for months. He’d apparently been soloing low level ‘water dungeons’.

His unusual nature class let him survive for extended periods in the sea itself, a kind of hybrid caster/ranged with javelins. So that was good fucking news. He also said he could lead people to a number of other lower level, hidden dungeons. Mason offered him a position in his house, a title, and an elven bride on the spot.

After his Nexus victory, Blake went between the holy city and the orc towers. He stayed on as ‘Governor General’, and even seemed liked by the new holy city’s ruling bodies. It was probably where he belonged, and Mason was glad he was helping.

The civilians and players of Nassau took whatever family and friends they’d found and went home to the great forest. Plenty of others wanted to come, but Mason left it up to the civilians to work out. Haley and Sylvie met with the other leaders, and the post-apocalypse’s first ‘immigration policy’ began.

Mason didn’t really care. And with the Nexus taken, the holy city pacified, and the players largely mobilized or training, he decided it was time to sort his own tasks out.

“Take me with you,” Demi whispered after another night of lust with his girls, finally back in his own house and bed.

Half the harem was asleep and tangled up in the sheets, only his immortal wife awake and clinging to his chest. He’d sighed and intended to tell her no, pulling her naked against him as he looked out at the beautiful forest canopy through a window.

But he just…couldn’t do it. Because he wanted her with him, wherever he went, knowing she could handle it. She could probably help.

“I’ve got weird races to visit. Maybe animals to tame. But mostly I have to learn a shit load of magic I’ve been putting off forever. There’s a great tree in the north, maybe the first. The avatar is a kind of super alpha nymph named…”

“Eve.” Demi met his eyes and smiled. “You’re not the only one with nature dreams, you know. Gaia pesters me. Quite a lot.”

“She always said it was technically me pestering her,” he said with a grin.

“And you believed her? My strong, simple brute.” She stroked his face with mock condescension. “It’s a good thing you’re pretty.”

He hadn’t wanted to wake the others, or he would have made her body regret that. She gave him a big, challenging grin, but he just kissed her and pulled her down, looking into the strange reflection of her green pupils.

“OK. You can come.”

She wiggled in glee and hugged him, making the noises to some wordless victory song.

“I can probably teach you some things, you know,” she said eventually. “If you actually listen. Our magic is similar, and I’ve been doing it since the beginning. But you have to teach me your fancy runes. That’s the price.”

“I’ll teach you things,” he muttered, sliding his hands down her side to rest on the flat of a hip. She bit her lip and started to spread her legs, meeting his eyes like she was ready to see if they get away with sex without waking the other girls.

He sighed and rolled away, standing with a stretch.

“Like patience. I’m getting pretty good at it. And you realize this is going to take weeks. We’ll be in Eve’s tree, and maybe in the fey to buy time. She may not be thrilled you’re there, either. Or it might go the other way. Don’t know, really. But you’ll have to do whatever I need. To help learn.”

“Uh huh.”

She stepped up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, softness pressing against his back. He fought the arousal with every fiber of his being, but still lost. She chuckled seductively as she noticed, slipping her hands closer to their target.

“I don’t mind if you don’t. I’m sure we all have a few things we could learn.”

He took a breath as his wife’s hands got…greedier. The prospect of spending many days cooped up with Eve learning magic wasn’t exactly a hardship as it was. No pun intended. But being there with Demi, too? With no horrible crisis he had to rush out and solve? He may not ever want to leave…

“I’m sure we could…” he inhaled as Demi started stroking. “Find a way for us all to get along.”

“Mmhmm.” Demi nibbled his ear, and kept at her work, as he looked out at his ‘forest kingdom’.

No, he decided. Learning magic wouldn’t be so bad at all.