Olephia walked along her path. The ke again. She angrily clicked her tongue. Where were the sheep? She was sure she had not missed them, but locations where starting to repeat.

  7.5%. 7.4%. 7.3%.

  Raymond stared up at the graph as Isaiah ehe monit tre again. He looked over the stists, most of them were drunk, a few had mao bless themselves with sleep. Isaiah stared at them, then moved to Raymond. Hard browared at the stist, the guard was dirty. His armour and hands were slick with oil. Dark rings were under his eyes, the greatsword had been ditched somewhere. “I have bad news.” That was all the guard had.

  “What now?” Raymond asked. This is what he got for participating every night in the drinking matches. Now with a bottle and a half down, he was only groggy. The s at the front was a better s medie than anything he had ever taken. He g it again. 7.1%.

  Isaiah tinued as his guards flooded into the tre. Each man was dirty, some had minor cuts on their arms. “Olympiada has said Alsaria has disappeared. They’ve told us to go fuck ourselves.” Raymo his arms fall by his side.

  “Fantastic.” Raymond said ftly.

  “They said it more diplomatically than that, but that’s the equivalent, we’re on our own.”

  “So no Divines?” Why did he even ask. He looked at the bain. 6.8%. Underh the text ged. The time halved. Chaos Crisis in 2 hours, fifteen minutes.

  “No Divines.”

  Olephia angrily kicked a stone and hissed as she sped up her walk. The ndscape around her ged. It became a desert. She took a few more steps. The dark castle. Another few steps. The grand pace. Aep. The forest with its singing birds.

  Isaiah showed off his dirty hands to Raymond, they too had a few cuts in them. “I’ve had the me up explosives around her chamber. We’ll blow the ice around her and crush her.”

  “Will that stop her?” Raymond asked.

  “Do you have any other ideas?” Raymond shook his head. What were they supposed to do? In the past, Alsaria herself could not kill Olephia, what hope did they have? Aronic voice turned on. It was the local text to speech.

  “Warning. Warning. Radiation levels are rising around the tai chamber. Please evacuate all personnel from the area.” Isaiah and Raymond both looked to the cameras as Raymond shakily moved the mouse about to flick through eae. It was more fear than drunkenness which hampered him. They settled on the camera overlooking Olephia.

  “The walls.” Isaiah said. The white paint eeling off the Godsto was burning up in areas. The area around the Goddess had started to turn bck, the white tiles around her crag.

  Olephia took aep, the ndscape ged once again. A field. Green. A cloudless, sunless, blue sky above. Olephia narrowed her eyes. Where was the Sun? It was daytime. She had hought about it. Where was it?

  She looked around. The sheep were here. They were eating grass. Olephia blinked as she looked at them again. The exertion of walking endlessly left her body as she sed them. What was she doing? Why was she still walking? She looked down at feet but did not stop. The sheep weren’t so cute anymore. They were skinny, their coats mangy, some rolled onto the ground and did not get back up.

  “Heat levels rising. Air pressure increasing. Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued. All personnel, please leave the staircase.” That robotic voice sounded over the inters again. Raymond watched a fire break out around Olephia, it fshed through the room, devoured the paint and the out. Above, the red s started to flicker. 4.3% 4.1% 3.8% “Warning, Olephia’s leakage has beeed. Wake up estimated to be within ten minutes.”

  Raymond looked to Isaiah. The guard had sat down as the guards ahemselves. Someone had brought the captain his greatsword and Isaiah was running his hand along the bde, gently mumbling a prayer to Alsaria. A few of the men had found some bottles that were hidden away somewhere. One man pulled out a bag of mints and had his eyes closed as he sucked on the sweets. Raymond flicked through the cameras again.

  The radiation monitor was useless, the entire area was coated in it. The infrared was just as bad. Olephia and her immediate area ure white, the edges of the room were heating up as if they were trying to tain a nuclear reactor. Then the Luck-Crystal monitor. Half of the things were exhausted entirely, two had cracked, warnings above them said they needed immediate repair.

  “Right ds.” Isaiah said as the red s flickered once again. 2.3% 1.9% 1.5%. “Blow it.” A man pulled out a switd flicked it as Raymond turned on the cameras. Three cut out immediately, the rest cttered about. The ground underh them shook as the Arti ice started to shift.

  Olephia stopped. She took a deep breath. Why was she on this path? For what reason? Why had she epped off? Memories started to rain into her mind. Of the kes and the deserts, of castles and paces, forests. She had seen animals here but never a person. There was never a maid ing in the homes, no swimmers in the ke, no hunters in the forest. Never even a caravan in the distance.

  What was this pce?

  She looked at the path before her. It stretched over hill and disappeared past the summit of a hill. It would tier that. She k would. Why would it not? It had tinued for how long? She didn’t know how long she had been walking. She turned around to look at the sheep again. They were skeletons, the flesh picked off them as they had been abandoned for a millennia.

  Olephia took aep and realised she was still walking oh. The nd around her ged to another crossroads. On the left was a field, filled with sheep again, all fluffy and chewing their grass. On the left was a grand pace. Songs were ing from it. Olephia stopped.

  She looked left.

  She looked right.

  Left and right.

  And she took a step forwards. Off the path.

  There was no crumbling world. No darkness clouding over her. No peeling back of curtains. Olephia stepped off the path, and Olephia opened her eyes.

  “Warning. Warning. Immi Danger. Olephia is awake. Olephia is awake.” The robotic voice bred as the cameras broke down immediately. Raymond stood up and walked to one of the small windows. It was Artica alright, all white id blue skies, with a terrible sun that threateo blind if you stared outside too long. o the base, a k of ice was starting to slide downwards. It roared and shook the entire pound with ahquake.

  “What now?” Raymond asked.

  “Run or don’t.” Isaiah replied. “I’m not going to keep you here. If you think you survive the ice, then go ahead, I’m not stopping you.”

  Raymond did not reply. He could obviously not withstand a night in Artio one could. He returo his monitor. But then, could he survive Olephia? The cameras were all broken. Only the sers and monit equipment worked. The radiatiore had capped out. The temperature gauge iralling upwards. The pressure monitor had cracked and simply replied with ‘0.00 Atmospheres’.

  Olephia woke up. She looked around. There was no path. There was no sunshine. She was in a dark room. Her hands ran over cracked tiles. They were warm. The ceiling above her cracked. There was ahquake. It was ing down on her.

  Olephia slowly stood up. She raised a single hand, palm open. Memories came flooding back. Of Arascus adopting her. Of the good times they shared together. Of the Great War. Of the endless battles. Of Alsaria. Of Leona. Of the final fight where she was captured.

  Olephia looked up in the darkness. Her eyes made out the crumbling ceiling. Dust and rubble fell around her. A sto her cheek. Another nded her arm.

  Some things simply never ged.

  Olephia started to hum.

  “The temperature monitor has cracked.” Raymond said as he leaned bad sighed. It was over.

  “What did it read?” Isaiah asked as he stood up aed his bde. The guards assembled as everyoarted to crowd around the windows.

  “Twelve thousand degrees.” Raymond said. Somehow, the fear had washed out of him with the robot saying Olephia had woken up. It could be adrenaline, or it could have been resignation. It was the difference being seeing a knife swung in front of him, and then it stig out of his chest. The former idea called forth panic, the tter was a call to a. This was a call to a, and the only a was resignation. There was no Divines ing, no po pick them up, the ship was sinking. He may as well enjoy his st moments.

  He sipped his cup of whiskey. It was tasty and it burned on the way down. Isaiah got back from the window and waved for Raymond to e close. Arms were bring and some of the stists who had drank themselves to sleep were beginning to stare. “What’s that in human terms?” Isaiah asked.

  “Twice the surface of the Sun.” Raymond replied as he stumbled to the window. A bottle and a half had not done him in, but those few sips had pushed him over the edge.

  “We better get the A then.” Isaiah replied as he grabbed Raymond’s arm and pulled him to the window. The ice that had been colpsed had made a dark hole in the surface of Artica. It was sliding down and down. “It should have stopped right now.”

  “She’s melting it.” Raymond answered immediately.

  “Do you think she’ll cook herself?”

  “I hope so.” Raymond replied. He sipped the cup. Half down. “But do I think so?”

  “No.” Isaiah replied.

  “No indeed.” They watched ice slide another metre. Then another. Another. It disappeared from view. Yet another arm turned on. The robotic assistant spoke again.

  “Radiation has beeed in the pound. All personnel are advised to take iodine.”

  “Well we’re fucked then.” Raymond replied.

  “Don’t say that, it’s bad for morale.” Isaiah replied absentmindedly. He ran his hand along the greatsword. The voice turned on again. The lights flickered.

  “Water pipes have burst. Water has been inated. All personnel are advised not to drink from the taps or shower.” The lights went out as the room went silent, the monitors turned off, the puter fans slowed until they came to a halt. A few seds ter, dull red mps turned on. The robot spoke again. “Power failure. Backup geors have been turned on.” The building shook, some people fell as the floor shifted. The robot informed them. “Structural failure in the tral staircase. All personnel are advised to stay away from building d buil…” The robot shut down. The lights went off entirely.

  “That’s the backup geone.” Raymond replied. He took another drink. The cup was empty. He threw it behind him and heard it shatter. Then something else shattered and the building shook again.

  “Look at that.” Isaiah poiowards the window. Steam was beginning to rise out of the hole. First a sirail. Then ahe trails expahen joined into a cloud. A rushing river of hot air.

  “So much for her cooking herself.” Raymond replied, but he could not take his eyes off the sight. The steam ged, it glittered in the sunlight like a rainbow, purples and greens and es danced within it.

  And then, the rest of the ice exploded. For a moment, night set over their tiny region of Artica as a giant k of ice was flung up into the air. It shattered in the air and then toxic rain came down. The raindrops sizzled and fizzed wherever they nded on the ground. The steam grew thiough to be an imperable fog. “Do you hear that?” Isaiah asked. “It’s not just me?” Raymond nodded, several of the other men voiced their affirmations. One man started to cough, another fell over.

  It was there, faint from distance, but it was there. A woman’s humming of a slow tuhe fog started to clear. “Look up.” One of the stists drunkenly said. “Up there, above us.” Raymond’s eyes sed the fog and then he saw her.

  Floating in the air, high above the base, was a woman’s silhouette. Her hair rayed across the air as if she had been thrown onto the ground. The fog avoided her, the sky seemed darkened by her very presence. Raymond’s vision started to grow worse. The woman raised her hand. The hum grew louder. Raymond lost trol of his legs, men around him started to fall down. Blood burst from their faces. Their faces were red like the inside of watermelons. The temperature in the room rose.

  Olephia looked down on the building. Her humming increased, it grew faster, stronger. She stood her ground in the air. Her hand twisted and turned, she found the ot. Two tiny particles about to hit each other.

  Her hum sped them up. They bounced, cracked, and released their energies.

  A moment ter, for a mere instant, an explosion like the Sun appeared from within the base. The sound came a sed ter.

  Olephia started to float away, the iderh her melting. She didn’t bother to look at the cloud shaped like a mushroom behind her.

  Up above, on the edge of Arda’s atmosphere, a satellite fell out of orbit.