Jade’s eyes shot open to… nothing… She was floating in an endless void with no sound or light… But somehow she could see herself.

She rubbed her throbbing head and noticed something about her left hand felt wrong. She focused on it and saw that her entire left arm op to the shoulder was covered in an illusion. Without a thought she was able to dispel the effect.

She poked the fake arm with a growing sense of dread. Somehow she knew what she would find but that only increased the pounding in her chest.

The grey ‘flesh’ moved and squirmed under her touch, more like a viscus fluid than meat had any right to be.

With a fraction of a thought the ‘flesh’ moved to her will revealing a skeleton of mecromail bones and fingers.

She screamed and squirmed in the endless void unable to accept the undeniable truth.

“I AM NOT A GOLEM!” She wailed. “AND I WILL, NEVER, EVER, EEEEVER BE PART SLIME!”

She tore at the slime flesh which squished through her fingers and reformed to the metal skeleton of her left arm in mere moments. She cried and desperately tried to remove the offending matter again and again. But it was no use. The slime was part of her. She could control it with unsettling ease causing it to harden or soften or change shape. She now felt like she wanted to puke so she stopped that useless exercise and focused on her surroundings.

Her mental abilities were nothing compared to Zagreus or Cinder but she could sense others general locations, if she focused on the task. This ability was easily overwhelmed by numbers but it felt like there was no one in this void. That gave her a little hope because if something was here, no matter how dim, it should shine like a beacon once she spotted it.

She ‘sat’ floating in the void with her legs crossed, her elbows on her knees and her palms pressed together. She closed her eyes and consciously ignored unwanted slimy body parts as she focused on trying to make a detection ward. It was one of the things she had been working on recently but it was far from perfected.

The task was effortless as the energy flowed from her like a river. Her eyes popped opened to see a half meter across arcane ring floating in the air in front of her with an intricate mix of her green arcane and the golden arcane of the Worldtree. She guessed the wards Karimere threw around were of comparable complexity. But this was FAR beyond Jade’s abilities. She might be able to do this so easily with a century, or a millennium of training and study. But right now she only knew enough to understand how ignorant she was.

The fact that it was floating in the air was even more disturbing. She had expected to make a small circle on the palm of her hand. This floating effect must be from the treefolk power. That she somehow mastered instantly.

Most species are only able to run arcane along solid matter. The treefolk can project shields and wards a short distance into the air. Aerials are the true masters of projecting arcane. They weave it around like floating threads. Karimere and Lilithana had tested Jade for the ability but she failed completely.

“Freaky arm, extra skills and spells. This is making less and less sense.” She muttered to herself.

She shook her head and focused on the detection spell that was inexplicably known to her. It took a while but she found… something.

“Let’s see who we got.”

She willed herself towards the faint, unknown source of power. The void moved as countless stars and galaxies rushed past her at an incomprehensible speed. The source grew and grew until it felt like it was all around. Then the universe suddenly stopped. Jade found herself drifting in the void above the dark side of a planet that was orbiting a pale red sun.

Spots of light scattered across the planet’s surface showed that there was a civilization down there.

She tried again but couldn’t pin down a source for the presence. It felt like she was looking for water inside an ocean. Jade dispelled her detection ward. She opened up her senses and focused on the flow of the arcane.

Several massive sources of arcane flowed into this planet though portals in low orbit. Or at least that was the surface level of the perception. But her shadowcat abilities told her none of this dream-void was actually real. This was some kind of illusion or construct or… Jade gave up on trying to classify it. But she could not get over the idea that this was real in some sense. This was the truth. No… it was a truth. A… possibility. She scratched her chin then shivered and shook her slime hand in disgust.

She mumbled. “I have fed on my own kind to fulfill my purpose. But now I have finally found you. Fires of green, fires of red, the cycle of life begins again.” The words of the Worldtree had been burned into her brain. It had known she would be there with Klaus. No. It had known that the right people would show up before it died. It had waited. It was not a guess. The energy shared from the treefolk had taught her some things. And she was certain the Worldtree had known it needed to wait.

“Is this construct Azona’s doing?” Jade wondered. “Is Azona looking into the future too? Did I get dragged along by accident? No. This doesn’t feel like Azona or treefolk magic.” She had less answers than when she started and she wanted to know about this cursed arm at least.

She focused on the last thing she could remember before the void and that was showering with Rimmer, which meant she was probably in a healing tank. “I’ve had some weird dreams while healing but this one has to be the record holder.”

There was a surge of vicious arcane as a tear in reality formed few kilometers from her. The force of it made her tremble as it slowly lengthened and opened like a ragged maw.

Someone screamed incoherent bloodlust in her mind. It was a man, through a mental link. He was drowning in enough rage and hatred that he threatened to burn the entire planet with his will alone. Behind the anger felt his sadness and grief that reminded her of the time she had shared memories with Zagreus. But this raw and unfiltered by time. This grief had taken the form of a massively powerful arcane user with a target. It was vengeance incarnate.

A rainbow of arcane attacks lit up from the planet’s surface like a light show at her birthday party. They would take several seconds to reach this altitude.

A golem shaped like a man in thick plates of armor came out of the tear. It had to be dozens of stories tall or more. But no, it wasn’t a golem exactly. It was a machine of war with multiple minds inside it, controlling it, powering it.

The fury coming from the golem should have been the most terrifying thing Jade ever experienced. But she empathized with it. It was right and just. She wanted nothing more than to join in the rampage. “They must pay.” She hissed through gritted teeth.

There was a glow around the golem as various colors of arcane coalesced into a city annihilating beam of energy from its chest.

Jade was now inside the golem as power poured out of her. A flood of feelings and fragments of memories of things that had never happened overwhelmed her.

The beam of energy hit the surface scouring the land as the withering counter attack pounded the golem. She winced in pain and her own energy threatened to consume her.

And with a dismissive sigh… the universe ended.

The planet, the golem, the stars, were all gone in an instant. The only thing Jade had left were the lingering emotions that had her on the razors edge of control.

“GET BACK HERE!” Jade directed her wrath at the only thing she could find, a nebulous presence, the source of the sigh that destroyed the universe. She willed herself towards them with no thoughts as to what she was doing or why.

The presence had turned to leave but now it focused on her with a curious intent extending a bit of its power. It was plenty enough to freeze Jade in place.

But Jade was not about to yield. “BRING IT BACK! THEY HAVE TO DIE! THEY HAVE TO PAY FOR WHAT THE DID! IT CAN’T END LIKE THIS! I MUST KNOW!”

“Whooo aaare yooou?” The presence asked, distorted and distant.

“I AM THE ARCHON!” Jade screamed. Her lack of understand of what that meant was only matched by the absolute certainty that it was true.

The presence focused intently on her. This was an ancient and unfathomable creature that could crush a Mecromancer with a thought. It’s voice sounded like a dozen people talking at once. The chorus echoed in her mind. “False. Interloper. Pretender. Lies.”

“I AM THE ARCHON!” Jade remained defiant. Sheer will driving her with no thought or reason as to why she needed, or even dared to challenge such a foe.

A single soft voice spoke. “Do you truly believe you are the Archon?”

“YES!”

Invisible energy flowed from the presence and engulfed Jade in a spell. “Speak again and know that a lie will end you, puny being. Now tell me who you are.”

She took a deep breath then the words flowed out of her. There was absolute certainty in her voice. “I am Jade Shadowbane. I am the Goddess of Corruption. I am the Plague of Endrala. I am Arachne. I am the Queen of Slimes. I am Mecromancer Zero-Zero-Two. I AM THE ARCHON!”

The presence trembled.

Jade’s primal instincts sensed the moment of distraction and lashed out with her power. She felt the satisfaction of a solid hit. There was a scream and an immediate, overwhelming power pushing Jade away, farther and farther. This was not just a mental distance. It was pushing her home, towards her body. The presence had been distant beyond comprehension. Beyond her galaxy, possibly beyond her universe.

The presence spoke harshly, through pain, as it faded into the distance. “You cannot be here. You cannot know. Do not search for me. This was only a dream.” Jade felt any connection with the presence forcefully severed as the memories of the void began to fade and blur. She somehow knew this feeling and desperately struggled to hang on to the memories. They were important. She needed to know what they meant. She needed answers.