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Echo creatures who had loitered nearby—in hopes of catching someone to eat, no doubt—now turn and run away from the golem. We'll catch them later. Right now, we need to find our friends. Jarek crouches to set us down on the wrecked street.
We're in Fort Worth. The apocalypse began here, and it's only fitting that it should end here too. The nightmare Sefton Stainthorpe crafted will vanish, replaced by the beautiful, imperfect world we'd known before the alchemy of worlds. Sefton tried to transmute the Earth into his vision of perfection, and it cost the lives of countless humans and Echo beings, not to mention his own life. Was it worth it? Only Sefton knows if he was satisfied with the result.
Two figures emerge from the shadows in an alley, striding toward us. As they draw closer, I realize it's Dax and Allison.
"How did it go?" Allison asks. "On our end, it seemed to work."
"Yeah, it worked," I say. "The machine and the castle are gone. The Echo will be just a normal planet now, in a parallel universe, and the beings left inside it will need to teach themselves how to live without magics."
"What about the Heart and the Lifeblood?"
Erin and Grant appear in front of us.
Sarah grins at them. "You're back."
"We heard you guys talking about us," Erin says. "Or rather, we sensed you talking about us. Were you guys discussing the Heart and Lifeblood? Felt like you were."
"Yeah, were," I say. "The Echo doesn't need those elements anymore. The Brain, the Lifeblood, and the Heart were simply magical constructs to keep the Echo from crumbling into chaos that would destroy both worlds."
Dax gives me a skeptical look. "How do you know so much about that rubbish?"
"I was connected to the machine. Everything it knew, I knew." I glance up at Jarek, then look at our friends. "We need to bring all the good Echo refugees here, and toss all the bad ones back into the other world. Once we've unbound the Echo and Earth, we'll reverse the damage done to both worlds."
Growling and grunting noises originate from across the street, and I spot figures moving around in the alley.
Jarek lights up his fiery red eyes and bends his knees, like he's about to pounce on those creatures.
They turn around and run away.
But they won't be able to run once we get started on the next part of our plan.
I smirk at our friends. "So, did everybody have a good time during phase one?"
Dax and Erin smirk right back at me, but Allison bites her lip and bows her head, while Grant scratches the back of his neck and glances sideways at Erin. His lips kink up at one corner.
I take that to mean yes, they had a very good time.
"Please tell me," Dax says, "that phase two does not involve sex. I will not participate in an orgy."
"No sex. Though we will need to hold hands." When Dax compresses his lips and squints at me, I raise a palm. "Calm down, Bigfoot. You'll be holding hands with Allison and Erin."
He relaxes and stops giving me the deadly squint.
I've seen way worse nasty looks. His does not impress me.
"Jarek, stay here," I say. "You too, Aldith. We're about to send all the murderous creatures back into the Echo, and we don't want you guys to get sucked in accidentally."
Sarah and I lead the gang back to the gateway, which has expanded, so it reaches all the way to the ground. We link hands one by one until we've formed a circle, then summon all the Echo power we have inside us, the combined strength of six individuals and three couples—the ultimate Tria Prima. Energies begin to swirl in the air around us, and wind erupts, whirling with tornadic strength. We grip each other's hands harder as the magics grow inside us, and a glittering curtain of golden Echo power forms around our group.
Screams. Far away. Coming closer.
Through the curtain of magics, I spot Echo creatures flying through the air toward the gateway. It sucks them in while they keep thrashing in a desperate attempt to escape. Only the evil creatures will be consigned to the Echo forever, and I have no sympathy for them. They chose to become monsters.
They won't die, anyway. They'll have their own world, and it's up to them how they use it.
Shape after shape gets whisked into the Echo, until finally, the last one flies through the gateway. And it telescopes shut, vanishing from sight.
We keep holding hands, because the most arduous and dangerous part of our plan comes next.
