‘We are opposite sides of the same coin, Captain. The ardour of your conviction is equally strong, but my passion is greater than yours. I want more than anything to see everything end. But take solace. While you will die now, the rest of the universe will join you in the afterlife in a matter of minutes.’

As Rastor spoke, Jack’s boots—dangling above the edge of the polished floor—had been silently reaching for the ground and now they touched it, their soles searching for grip.

And as they found that grip, with his last ounce of strength and his one good hand, Jack suddenly grabbed Rastor’s utility vest tightly and, clutching it with fierce determination, he launched himself backwards, off the edge of the temple, pulling the shocked general with him, and they both fell off the high platform into space.

Jack and Rastor plummeted down the side of the enormous stone pylon.

The various windows, balconies and ledges of the pylon rushed past them as streaking blurs.

As he fell, Jack released the shocked Rastor and reached out with his good hand.

He caught a balcony and his fall was instantly arrested while Rastor kept falling, screaming with rage as he plunged toward the quicksand far, far below.

Gasping for air, struggling to stay conscious, his face a bleeding mess, his artificial left hand bent and useless, Jack didn’t care what happened to Rastor.

He just hauled himself over the balcony’s stone rail and tumbled, breathless, to its floor. He lay there on his back for a moment, chest heaving, sucking in oxygen.

Which was when he saw Sphinx far above him, peering down from the temple at the top of the pylon, maybe forty feet away.

Sphinx gave Jack a disdainful salute and then raced away up the next ascending bridge toward the castle and the throne on its peak.

Won’t this ever end? Jack thought.

And so, slowly and painfully, he hauled himself to his feet. To his relief, a tight spiralling staircase ran up the inside of this pylon.

With a deep breath, Jack began to hurry up that staircase, chasing after Sphinx one final time.

The Castle of the Throne of Death

29 December, 0457 hours

Nine minutes till Omega

Sphinx raced into the castle that supported the Throne of the Tree of Death.

Like the previous castle before it, its interior was a high and airy space. Inside that space—also like the earlier castle—was a crisscrossing array of soaring stair-bridges, each leading to a ceremonial archway.

Sphinx had a map with the correct path traced onto it and he followed it.

As Sphinx passed through the first archway, Jack entered the castle behind him and—since he had no map—he bounded up the same stairway Sphinx had taken.

Up they ran, back and forth, hurrying up the interior of the spectacular castle.