The dark grey sky covered the pale white land. Dust and ashes accumulated on empty mountains made of dried wood stums, crumbled ores, and viscous black fluid. This shattered world divided itself into countless islands separated by bottomless pits. No sound or radiance, coming from the ever-burning grey flames, could escape their confine. Stillness itself dominated all else, crowning its depressive force the ruler of this Plane.

 A lady in a messy crimson hood sat on a sturdy wooden chair. Every time she reached for the game pieces resting on a makeshift table, the cuffs on her wrists and ankles creaked dissonantly. Their endless chains flailed around whenever uncomfortably warm winds blew against her.

Opposite her was an absentminded maiden, whose glowing, flowing hair covered her countenance. Its colour shifted whenever she contemplated her next move, though much of her mind was elsewhere. Her clouded eyes nonetheless fixated on her enemy.

The hooded lady tapped her feet. Pebbles cut her bare flesh. Gushing blood formed rivers branching to surround the table. Countless skin-like roses rapidly coated the environment. Their metallic odour rendered the grey atmosphere smothering.

The dreamy lady remained focused on the game. The blackness commanded by the Plane howled, their anger screeching in the ears of all living creatures. Shadowy tendrils flung at the roses, disintegrating them into black ashes and drying up the river of blood.

Standing on the side, Fate withdrew the handheld fan covering her mouth. The eyes on its sides closed. “Temperamental as always, Preeminence of Reality.”

“That title doesn’t sound as pleasing as I thought. Address me by my name, like all else do,” Devoria said. “I’d like to win at least once, no matter the method.”

“The game has yet to reach the middle stage.”

Devoria smiled. The cuffs on her wrists shook. The floating island housing her prison also quivered. “Ripples of your emotions, they excite me.”

“What did she mean, Fate?” a calm tone echoed.

Bright green light impacted the ground. Bushes and grass sprouted on the toxic soils and purified the dusty air. A tanned, muscular man stepped out of the pillar of lifelike radiance. His tattooed body shimmered with vitality which not even the deathly energy could suppress.

Devoria smirked, “Oh, Life, have you finally decided to join me?”

Life snorted. “It’s only a matter of time before I comprehend your secrets.”

Devoria shifted her game pieces while smiling. Her blindfolded face turned to Life. “If such is your confidence, why not accept my gift?”

Devoria coughed, heaved, and threw up a mist of blood. The world assaulted this mass of mutating vitality before it could morph into an abomination, though the rotten stench persisted in the air. A lump of pulsating flesh, full of twitching eyes, forced its way out of Devoria.

She presented it to Life. He stepped back, his face pale.

Fate raised her fan to block Life from Devoria. She shook her head. Her waving hair danced around her as if searching for hidden traps.

Laughing, Devoria returned to the game. She let out a light gasp upon seeing Dream’s moves. “You three teamed up to distract me, didn’t you?”

“Why would I do such pointless things?” Life said.

Dream frowned. She raised her hand, preparing to point at Life. As her power stirred up the world, she glimpsed Fate’s softened expression. Her power receded, and she refocused on the game.

“Fate, you shouldn’t have ruined the occasion.” Devoria lightly hit the table. “We could’ve witnessed the power of The Dreamscape.”

“I can’t risk having you escape.”

“I must be much scarier than Gulia.”

“Your avatars cause calamities everywhere.”

Devoria tapped the table. She spent a few minutes in silence before swiftly moving tens of pieces on her multistory board. Her blindfold stirred as her eyes shifted away from Fate to the sky.

“Those fragments aren’t me. They’d happily crown themselves me if given a chance.” Devoria insisted on giving the flesh to Dream. “Are my secrets uninteresting?”

“The Dreamscape is a vast place. I lack any sparred effort to experiment with your Authority.”

“But my power too contains a hint of Dream Domain.”

“Not as majestic.”

Pouting, Devoria chewed the flesh, whose screams musically rang in her ears, and swallowed even the last drop of blood. No filth dirtied the table.

This endless game continued, with Dream emotionlessly executing her plan and Devoria emotionally planning her comeback. Fate’s intense gaze tickled Devoria despite her attire covering her gorgeous body. Even Life’s taunting eyes irritated her.

“No more game today,” she said while pointing at Fate. “Something interesting just happened. Is that not why your heart beats so fast?”

Life carefully inched closer. He too followed Devoria’s words.

“She ruins my threads,” Fate said. “Dream, how much could you see?”

Dream closed her eyes and leaned on the creaky chair. Her breathing ceased. She snapped open her eyes and beamed at Fate.

“The Dreamscape isn’t where it happened. They were in a realm adjacent, a realm warded by a fallen Deity.”

“What did she gain?”

“Virtue might be in danger.”

Frowning, Fate weaved strings in the air. They dispersed as starlight, which illuminated much of this forsaken land. Life and Dream observed her movement while Devoria covered her face, touching her blindfold as if they were her most treasured accessory.

“She should’ve been in your embrace long ago,” Devoria said. “Heartbreak has eroded your confidence.”

Fate stopped knitting. The perimeter of the floating island crumbled as mountains and hills collapsed from the incessant quake. Even the black sky split apart, allowing the black light of The Void to seep through.

An endless flow of unknown entities gushed in, but the world of death consumed all without fail. Dream looked through her pinched finger at the hole and blew. The gap vanished.

Fate slowly exhaled. She nodded at Dream and glared at Devoria but did nothing. “Responsibility is what prevented me.”

“No such constraints are imposed upon me. Why don’t you let me have her?”

“Rather Lilith corrupting the world than you assimilating all.”

“A fragment of mine has already found her.” Devoria licked her lips. “Her smell mesmerizes me.”

“Your scheme will fail,” Life said. “And like with Lacross, we’ll vanquish you.”

“If only you agreed to become my bride, I would’ve whispered my secrets while we had fun.”

“Only a fool would abandon their own identity.”

“I merely gift you one more identity.” Crimson light shone beneath Devoria’s blindfold. “Blame yourself if you get assimilated.”

“A mere prisoner dares to intimidate me?”

Life exerted his arms. His tattoo turned radiant green while his Divinity surged as lively green flames, whose tempestuous vigour fought off the life-ending aura permeating the world. A forest sprang behind him, filled with howls of the spiritual beasts and scents of ethereal flowers.

The board game table trembled, knocking a few pieces out of their places. Dream stopped moving. She sluggishly turned to Life, her suppressed pressures brewing like a continental storm.

Despite Fate’s pleading, she snapped her fingers and whispered her annoyance. Spacetime surrounding Life shattered; milky white reality unfolded around him, integrating his being into The Dreamscape.

Countless delicate, fleshy hands reached for his forest, tore apart his Wild Beasts, and crumpled his flowers. Even his all-reviving Divinity faltered under this enigmatic aura.

Countless strings, whose resonant dances evoked peaceful melodies, wrapped around Life and yanked him back to the deathly world. Invisible wings intercepted the fallen pieces and arranged them where they belonged while pushing back The Dreamscape from absorbing another Plane.

“Please forgive him, Dream,” Fate said. “Gulia’s already sunken a part of the Main Material Plane. We cannot lose another Plane.”

“Bridging the Main Material Plane and the Abyssal Plane,” Devoria said. “Her plan has always been wicked. I supported her wholeheartedly.”

“Your fragments thrive in chaos, but chaos is also an opportunity.”

“If you delay it any further, I might lose control and eat Iris first.”

Fate softly grinned. “If you’re that confident.”

Devoria hmphed. “My mood hasn’t been great lately. Your people keep pestering me that I lost my appetite. Either yours or Innumeral’s.”

“Innumeral . . .”

“At least my games with Dream have conclusive endings. With you and him, however, it’s always been a stalemate since forever.”

“The end is nigh.” Fate’s voice grew cold. “After all, the last piece has appeared.”

“A spectacle awaits us.” Devoria stretched her arms and legs. Her chains crackled. “I can already smell the bloodied rain.”

Life wanted to retort, but Fate had yet to say anything. If Fate herself couldn’t argue against it, such a remark must have some truth in it. Although he was disinterested in the grand game Fate played with the Five Catastrophes, he could still sense the changing of the tides.

“Lacross’s gift couldn’t have been more perfect, too,” Devoria said. “The Dark Pantheon is starting to move.”

Fate turned around and covered her face with her fan. Its eyes reopened, its gazes seeing through everything. “The Source is recovering. You’ll soon see the end of it all. And afterwards, your Destiny will arrive.”

“What is Destiny to a Perpetual One like me?” Devoria struck her chest. Her fingernails messily dug out her flesh. Her beating heart came off. “Ever since I’ve stepped into this place, I’ve been waiting to die, to free myself from this physical vessel. Why not annihilate me now?”

Blood seeped out of her mouth, her eyes, her nose, her ears, but she remained smiling. Her tattered cloak squirmed, her tendrils getting restless. Even the blindfold on her eyes struggled to keep still.

“The day we annihilate your fragments will be the day we kill you.”

“And the day the River of Time uttered my name will be the day I returned.”

Devoria crushed her own heart. Her body limped forward, crashing on the table. The game pieces scattered under her pitiful, dissolving body. Fleshy pink tentacles penetrated through her pale skin and cannibalized her corpse. Worms drilled holes through her head and arms and legs, and she imploded as if getting crushed by a mountain.

Dream sighed. She rose from her chair and walked to Life. He couldn’t meet her gaze but also refused to back down. He could only tense up when she stared at the tattoos on his arms.

“Congratulations,” she said. “You’ve learned a little more about her.”

“There’s no need for The Source to intervene. I’ll uncover her secrets and subsume her power.”

“But you’re careless.” Dream touched a piece of exquisite tattoo on his forearm. “If you let this curse energy build up, you might really turn into an Ancient Goddess.”

Life sneered. “I can control it.”

“My mistake, Dream,” Devoria said. “I shouldn’t have ruined the board.”

Devoria appeared atop her own corpse, still chained and blindfolded. She carefully arranged the blood-soaked pieces to their places. The tentacles and gaping maws extending from her sleeves licked every drop of blood tainting the game.

“Shall we?” she said.

Dream nodded and returned to make her move. Fate intensely watched while Life carefully examined his own body.

…

The sound of constant heartbeats echoed. Iris carefully opened her eyes to the wet sensation of sleeping in a shallow pond. She had reverted to her blue slime body. Her fluid leaked out and tainted every part of her desk. She sat up and looked at her translucent hands.

Her sister’s voice persisted.

Moonlight slithered through gaps between the curtains and washed over her dark face. She could’ve prayed, and her message would’ve reached Herrifer.

The shadow of a beautiful Monster Girl loomed over Iris. She decided against opening her heart. Someone else might try to get in.

After half an hour of recollecting her thoughts, Iris cleansed her desk and chair. She opened her diary and wrote what transpired in her dream.

Her dried ink pen scribbled futilely on the page. Nothing but the scratching noise entered her perception. Unsure of what to do, she rewrote the same invisible sentence, erased it from her mind, and waited for it to come back to haunt her.

Her fingers slipped; the pen fell on the desk, chipping its head. She didn’t even notice that.

It was all but confirmed that she was incomplete, her heart fragmented, her memory scattered. The ideal she held as her guiding light may just be what The Lord implanted onto her head.

She stared inward and found herself hollow, found another silhouette in the mirror of her soul. Who was Elizabeth?

Who was Iris?