Nathan rubbed the sweat off his forehead. In front of him, a large catlike monster was lying on the ground, its body cut open and blood pouring out of a large gaping hole. In front of the catlike monster was an orc. A familiar orc.

  Nathan took a few steps forward. “Bjorn, just the guy I was wanting to talk to—”

  Bjorn stepped back.

  Nathan stopped and observed the situation. In his hand, Bjorn was holding four or five yellow pins. He had a tight expression on his face. His muscles were tensed, and he looked like he was ready to run away.

  “I’m not interested in stealing your pins, if that’s the concern," Nathan said.

  Bjorn’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t every one of them count?”

  “Bjorn, Bjorn.” Nathan looked at him with the most serious expression he’d ever made. “When have I ever cared about something like that?”

  At that, confusion passed over Bjorn’s face.

  “But you’ve been seeking after the goal of each circle with immense consistenc," he said. "First, the Pandora of the First Circle. You defeated the Dustend in the Second Circle. You were the prime mover for getting your batch of humans out of the Third Circle.”

  Oh.

  If you just had an outsider’s perspective, Nathan would appear as if he were incredibly dedicated and driven. Of course, in reality, most of the time Nathan was just kind of being pulled along by the whims of other people while trying to do his own thing. In the First Circle, he’d done it because everybody else was saying they needed a Pandora. In the Second, he hadn’t even been trying to go after the Dustend. It had forced his hand. He would’ve much rather focused on doing more farming.

  Nathan hummed. “How would you take it if I told you that most of that was just other people doing things and I was kind of along for the ride?”

  “I would point to the fact that you’re currently the number one survivor of the apocalypse, making you the strongest person in the Nine Circles, and that seems like a rather strange status to have if you weren’t being driven to go to the bottom.”

  “Wow, that’s actually a pretty good argument.”

  If Nathan had to categorize his relationship with Bjorn, he’d say that he was at one or two hearts out of ten. Comparatively, Mara was at eight, Bree was probably at six, while Chad was at a solid nine.

  No, Nathan didn’t want to find out what would happen if he had ten.

  The dating sims already told him what would happen. He did not need to experience the bonus CGs for himself.

  Footsteps beat against the ground from behind Nathan. He turned around.

  “Nathan, don’t run off without me!”

  Mara set her hands against her knees and took several deep breaths.

  She rubbed the sweat off her forehead and glared at him. “How on earth do you run so fast?”

  “It probably has something to do with my incredibly high stats.”

  “Oh yeah, that.” Her eyes flickered around, and then she spotted Bjorn, seemingly for the first time. She let out a small gasp. “Green muscle man!”

  “What did you call me?” Bjorn said.

  “It’s been so long!” She bounded forward and wrapped Bjorn in a hug.

  The movement had been so fast and so sudden, Bjorn had been unable to stop her. Instead, he stood ramrod straight, like somebody had shoved a steel pipe down his spine.

  “What are you doing?” he said.

  “Considering all the ways that I can kill you from this position,” Mara said, her voice sweet and cheerful as ever.

  Bjorn looked over at Nathan. “Is she joking?”

  “Probably.” Nathan sucked in a breath and looked off to the side. “Actually, probably not. It kind of depends on her mood.”

  Mara stepped back and patted Bjorn on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on killing you yet.”

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  “Yet?”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  With that, the tension had strangely dissipated. Bjorn’s shoulders relaxed. Nathan could sense that he wasn’t about to go on the offensive anytime soon.

  “It’s actually pretty convenient that I ran into you,” Nathan said. “Because I’ve been needing to talk to you about something.”

  Bjorn frowned. “Aren’t we supposed to be enemies?”

  “Are we?”

  Bjorn opened his mouth, then shut it. He nodded.

  “I’ll hear you out.”

  Nathan would’ve offered to have the conversation inside his soulbound town, but he got the feeling that Bjorn wouldn’t appreciate being led into what he deemed as “enemy” territory.

  So instead, Nathan had ended up pulling the table and two chairs out of his inventory. Why exactly he was carrying those, he had absolutely no idea.

  “Why did you have a table and chairs?” Bjorn said.

  “I have absolutely no idea,” Nathan said.

  The two sat down across from each other. Mara glared at Nathan.

  “Why don’t I get one?” she asked.

  “You’re standing guard.”

  “That’s so boring!”

  “It’s also very important.” Nathan stroked his chin. “Plus, somebody attacks us, you get to shoot them in the kneecaps.”

  “You think I can be persuaded by the mere promise of random violence?”

  “Yes.”

  She grinned. “You know me so well, Nathan!”

  With that, the woman stood at the far end of the hall. She looked around and cupped her eyes using her hands as binoculars.

  Nathan suspected that he was going to regret allowing her to do that. Not that his allowance or rejection really meant anything—if she really wanted to shoot someone, she was going to do that anyway.

  “Now then, why did you want to see me?” Bjorn said.

  His voice was stoic, assured. It was hard for Nathan to pick up on any emotions underneath his tone.

  “Maybe I just wanted to say hi?” Nathan shrugged. “It's been a while, and our last conversation was cut short.”

  “This really has nothing to do with the pins?”

  “I don't care who wins this. Like, in the slightest.”

  Bjorn stared at him. “Isn’t your life on the line? If you fail, all of humanity is doomed.”

  “See, that’s what I actually wanted to talk to you about.”

  “Your seemingly suicidal tendencies?”

  Nathan rolled his eyes. “No. I wanted to talk to you about how this is all a massive waste of time.”

  “I’m listening.”

  Nathan rested his palms against the table. “Look, even if you win this circle, there’s no guarantee that you’ll survive the next one. And even if you get out of here, you might just get snatched back here for a second round. That’s what happened to Emi, after all.”

  “Continue.”

  “I think it would make more sense if we, you know, didn’t let that happen?” Nathan made a so-so gesture with his hand. “I just think that would be pretty cool.”

  “How exactly would that happen?”

  “You know.” Nathan looked off toward the spot behind Bjorn. “All we would need to do is disable Her.”

  Nathan felt a chill go down his spine. The temperature dropped. He let out a breath of air, and it instantly turned to steam.

  Bjorn stood up from the table, eyes wide. “What is this witchcraft?”

  “It's not me. She gets uppity when I mention her by name. Or even really just think of her.”

  Before, Nathan had a lot of incentive to keep quiet about the truth behind the Nine Circles. He didn’t want to risk attracting her attention, after all.

  But she already knew. She talked to Nathan. There was absolutely no reason for him to continue to enforce his mental block on the term.

  “Her?” Bjorn said.

  “I won’t bore you with the details, but basically she’s the one responsible for putting us in this mess. She made the Nine Circles.” Nathan stopped, sucked in a breath, and smiled. “So I plan to kill her.”

  Bjorn remained still. “How powerful is this entity, exactly?”

  “Pretty powerful.” Nathan would’ve sipped on a cup of tea, if he had any, for dramatic effect. “Like, reaches-across-the-multiverse powerful.”

  “And you think you can kill her?”

  “Well, I can’t actually kill her. But I think I can at least disable her.”

  Bjorn rubbed his forehead. “What exactly does this have to do with me? Why did you invite me here?”

  “Because I need your help.”

  “Why would you need our help?”

  “I need every ally I can get. Fenrir is strong. I’ll need that kind of strength to get to the bottom and to face the Mother System. Same with you.”

  “How exactly would that work, given our current circumstances. You saw the main quest description. Only one race is getting to the bottom.”

  “I’ll have you know that I found a loophole.” Nathan paused and looked up at the ceiling. “Probably. It’s still kind of in the works, but I made a deal with a giant teleporting fish.”

  Bjorn blinked. “What?”

  “The point is that I’m pretty sure that there’s a way we can get everybody to the next circle.”

  Bjorn stayed quiet. His thoughts were unreadable behind his stoic eyes. Nonetheless, Nathan could still practically hear his mind whirring.

  “This is a great deal to take in,” Bjorn said. “I wasn’t expecting it.”

  In retrospect, Nathan probably should’ve not mentioned the Mother System. That was probably a bit too much for one conversation.

  Oh well, too late to turn back now.

  “I’ll need to think about this and speak with Fenrir.”

  “That’s fine, that’s fine. Take all the time you need.”

  The two of them stood up from the table.

  Suddenly, he frowned.

  Something felt off.

  He looked over in the direction of where Mara had been standing.

  Had been.

  There was nobody there.

  He ran off and came to a sharp stop. Scuff marks in the stone floor. She had been standing there, but snow he was gone.

  “Mara!” he yelled out.

  Nothing. He heard footsteps come from behind him.

  “What’s happening?” Bjorn said.

  “It’s just a bad feeling.”

  “Your bad feelings tend to be unerringly correct.”

  “If that’s the case, shouldn’t you be running off?”

  “I suppose.”

  He didn’t move.

  Well, it wouldn’t hurt to have backup for whatever the hell this was going to be.