As soon as Ethan's fabric-coated hem touched Jun'Ei's brain, he felt a surge of energy fly through him.

Ethan Hawke, her heard her say. You were brought to this world to resolve the question of its eternal discord.

It is time for you to see the answer.

His companions stepped back, Klax finally allowing himself to be dragged away by Tara, while Fauna and Lamphrey looked on, astounded at the pale column of light that spread out from Jun'Ei's floating brain.

Ethan's eyeball buzzed with static electricity, and for a moment he thought he might simply pass out from the sheer power that was channeling through him.

"W-what's happening?" Tara whispered, trembling fingers extending towards her Archon's form…

"Do not touch him!" Lamphrey shouted. "She is showing him," Lamphrey explained. "She is giving him everything she has held on to all this time. Soon he will wake and be the Archon he must be."

Fauna looked to Tara and shared her expression of anguish. Both of them saw nothing but Ethan struggling as the almighty energy of the Prophet flowed into him and through him, all while his last Hoss, the Chimera of Westerweald, watched it all unfold with his heads bowed.

Total obedience, Fauna thought. I wonder…Ethan…

Meanwhile, Ethan was focusing on the voice that rocketed through his hatty bowels.

Can you hear me, Ethan?

He strained himself, his consciousness just managing to hold on through the pain.

Pain that was…beginning to fade with everything else he knew he had to let go of.

I hear.

Then you are ready, Jun'Ei's voice reverberated in his mind. It is time for you to witness the Path laid out for you. Know that it is one I saw as Gyko fell. Know that it is that which shall allow you to accomplish your goals. Know, too, that it is a Path that you may choose to accept, or to deny.

Ethan felt himself smile.

You're giving me the choice?

The dog-woman chuckled.

You have earned it yourself, Ethan Hawke.

The power of the Prophet's mind surged through him again, and he was forced to close his eyes tight.

When he opened them again, he was looking into a star-coated sky.

He gasped, and then felt for his body – moving his arms to touch his chest, his legs, and his neck and…shaggy, unkept hair.

His hair.

He was back in his old mortal body, floating…in space.

He gasped again and clutched his throat, checking to make sure he could breathe. It'd been a while since he'd had human lungs, after all…but luckily it seemed his body was in the exact same shape he'd left it in.

More pressing was the fact that he was floating above a verdant green planet with patches of solid blue on its surface – rather similar in shape and size to Earth, though with much less water overall. He blinked to see the clouds floating by above its dense forests and mountains, and the blinding sun that was beginning to shine its rays on the world.

"Argwyll"…he whispered.

"Yes," the voice of the Prophet said behind him. He turned to see her true self, reformed and resplendent in the same flowing robes she'd appeared in during his quest in the City of Illusions. But here, in the void of space above Argwyll, she seemed to shine even brighter – like pure starlight.

"Our world," she said, "As it must appear to the one who forged it out of the dust of the universe. This is how he looks upon us, Ethan. Detached. And yet inquisitive. He watches us with curious eyes, like an elder tending to a garden."

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"Or cutting it apart," Ethan added. "I have a few choice questions I'd like to ask Him."

"Is that all you would wish?"

Ethan turned to her. "No."

She nodded. "I know. I saw it in you the moment I laid these old eyes upon you. I saw that, this time, I had made the right choice."

At first, he didn't know what she meant. Then, the revelation crashed down on him like a meteor through the cosmos.

"…you summoned me here," he said.

She nodded again, slow and firm.

"But that means that –"

"I have been here since the Start," she said. "And now, I am here at the End."

"The end of…what?"

"The Law," she said with a tiny smile. "The End of Kaedmon. For that is what you desire, is it not, Ethan Hawke?"

Ethan looked at her for what must have been a long time, weighing up his feeling in the moment. On the one hand, she'd dragged him from earth without his consent. On the other hand…she'd given him exactly what he'd wanted.

"A chance to matter," she said – as though she could tap into his thoughts. "A chance to make a change. It is a simple gift, is it not? And yet all beings crave it, insatiably. Even my Klax…the one creature in all my centuries who makes me hesitate to do what I must…he treasures the chance to make a difference.

But even I could not know that you would prosper as you have, Archon Ethan. And yet," she gave a little chuckle. "I held out hope."

Ethan looked down at the planet with a solemn stare, thinking on the words of the Prophet.

"You brought the Archons all here, then," he said. "But – why from Earth? Why from another planet?"

"As Kaedmon has his ways, I am bound to my own nature," she replied. "When Kaedmon came into this realm, he made his Great Revelation – that there can be no love without hate. No life without death. No thesis without antithesis."

Ethan couldn't be sure what she meant – but Argwyll itself was showing him. Before his eyes he saw one half of the planet consumed by flame, burning away all the trees, all the forests, and eating into all life. And on the other side he saw growth, progress, and civilization flourishing.

Human civilization.

"He made a choice," Jun'Ei went on. "He chose his people – the people He made himself. He believed them to be unique in this universe. Thesis. And as soon as he made that choice, I came into existence. Antithesis. I am his contradiction, Ethan Hawke. I am the pull to his push, the ying to his yang. The black to his white."

Ethan saw the wars of the Archons rage across the planet next – all the destruction, all the rebuilding, and all the 'push' and 'pull' that had occurred over all the centuries Argwyll had existed.

"He chose his Champion," Jun'Ei continued. "The Lightborn – an angel made from the purest light of the sun itself. And I, in turn, chose mine. Though I had not the same creative optional as the Lord of Argwyll – being forced to pull my warriors from another dimension parallel to our own. And for the past five centuries, he has endured the insult of my existence, and that of my Archons."

"…and that's why you took humans specifically from another world to 'pilot' your Archon," Ethan said. "Just to add insult to injury. To have Kaedmon see one of 'his own' technically go up against him."

Ethan had to scoff. "Gods are petty creatures, huh."

Jun'Ei sighed down at him, but she did not take offence.

"I am no Divine, Ethan," she said. "I am merely a being who was born to counter Kaedmon's desire for absolute authority. Absolute Order. For that is something he can never have, and he knows it. It pains him so…though he would never let his subjects know this."

Below, Ethan saw the great lights of each Archon's death – each one who had believed in the cause they had been summoned here to pursue.

"…your kind have the purest desires of all beings I have seen in this universe," Jun'Ei said. "And on Argwyll, desire manifests itself as power. Power harnessed by the System – which has existed before even Kaedmon and I."

Ethan was listening, but he was slowly becoming more and more disillusioned by this spiel.

"…that's what they all died for?" he murmured. "For a scuffle between you and Keadmon? A feud between 'good' and 'evil', 'right' and 'wrong'? If you ask me, Jun, it's all bullshit."

"That is why you are the One."

He looked at her like she'd smacked him as she said that.

"I brought the Archons here, Ethan," the Prophet replied. "But only they could make the choice to follow their path or not. Just like you must. The fact that the Lightborn's incarnation failed this time…the fact that we have made it this far…and that you hold so much power within you now…it tells me that this is the time for the cycle to come to an end. The only question is: what do you want?"

He looked down at the planet again, then back at the Prophetess with new eyes. He didn't see her as a dream-figure now. Nor did he see her as some kind of ancient truly above him in power and stature. Now, he saw here as what she truly was: just another perpetuation of the eternal wheel of suffering that characterized this entire world she'd once called home.

"The whole place should be burned away," he said in sudden frustration. "And both of you for what you've done to it - to them."

"Is that what you really feel, Ethan?"

He whirled on her and was about to reassert his statement, when a series of visions flooded by his eyes. Visions of Fauna, and her schoolchildren playing in their fields of Mooncarrot. Visions of Tara looking after her sisters in chains. Memories of Klax leading the people of Sanctum while they praised him for his victories. The birthday bash. Mara's fireworks. The whole team smiling as they set out to rescue Jun…

And he felt tears stain his ashen cheeks.

"…no," he said. Then again, with more feeling: "No."

He walked closer to the planet, raising one hand and swiping it over the entire world.

"I want to end it," he said. "Thesis, antithesis, Lightborn and Archon…I want to rewrite the Law so there's no more contradictions. And if this world really needs a guardian to watch over it - then let it be me."

He turned to see her smiling at him. Not out of sympathy, or with envy, or with the condescending stare of a mother. But with genuine admiration.

"Then take my hand," she said. "And I will show you how."

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