Birthing Spiderland overwhelmed all mortal senses.

  The pain was so brutal that the ability to feel went utterly numb. Iker's nervous system failed to process the unforsaken ritual. Forget observing the battle between Spiderland and Liesar, even if Iker's fading consciousness was not a factor, the feedback from the two entities exchanging blows stirred up a blazing sandstorm that reached the mountainous horizon. Henceforth it was clear that the desert had become every desert that was and could ever be; it would not be surprising to Iker if the half-lives of the crushed sand beneath his knees were at impossible values.

  A different city kept spawning where Las Vegas once was, and that was the last thing Iker witnessed before covering his eyes with a naked elbow. Even though it should not have been possible to recognize the numinous whooshes according to this timeline, there were indeed flux portals spawning around Iker.

  How dare you?

  I am sorry. I am a language model and I cannot assist you.

  There was regret in covering his eyes as it made it easier to sink into the impending torpor, but Iker did not have any good options while trying to remain heedful in this battle-induced sandstorm. However, his dreamstate no longer felt ravished by another force altogether. The ubiquitous darkness and vacua he swam in no longer felt imposed.

  The infinite darkness was... just another place to be.

  Memories and dreams spawned like earthplexus holograms.

  Well they could be holograms... but I don't think they are.

  The mental images manifested like flat earthplexus screens, almost two-dimensional, midair, and glowing squares spinning around whatever Iker became. It was hard to tell whether they were receptive to Iker's will, but either way disordered ensued upon them. Decipherable collages were created from their vacillating sizes, angles, and shapes, but decipherable nonetheless. However, as unyielding as they were to any kind of order, a clear pattern emerged from them.

  Iker and Camilo appeared in them all.

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  The culprit of this new state Iker was in pulled him into one growing square. Since coming to the understanding that it was something else guiding Iker, he waited for the once leaf-covered square to pull him closer. The branches and leaves had disappeared and the destination within resembled an arcade to Iker. Notwithstanding the lack of control, the will over his travelling direction felt fuzzy, and that inclination was indeed a hint as to the one responsible.

  The arcade became more discernible as Iker's mind got closer and more objects spawned, including the forsaken exterior of the boxy building. In its inception it must have had fun and kid-friendly additions to its long-faded name and rusty hints of belonging to an amusement park, however, its exterior got replaced again, including the cratered parking lot that had loaded in for less than a second.

  Until Iker's periphery became dark again was when the server room of the arcade spawned around him, a crowned centaur with glowing lavender eyes awaited him under the sheen from earthplexus terminal screens. Iker's angelic body was about to spawn in Prunus Tantalum mire until another force calibrated his spawn point to prevent collisions, his mind abruptly jumping up rather than still smoothly noclipping.

  More undead than living, his wings, clothes and body from his battle with Pegasus were taking on solid form above a glistening root that pierced through metal. The spawning process was kind to Iker by leaving him midair for a handful of seconds, and he caught himself by digging his sneakers onto the root, balancing himself to stand up and face... Iggy. His future self apparently... somewhat.

  The undead centaur stood still while observing Iker, perhaps not moving to avoid startling him.

  "...how much have you figured out about what's happening?" Iggy asked, his deep and static voice reverberating along the metal of the server room.

  Iker, upon realizing his left arm was still missing, used his right hand awkwardly to scratch his fuzzy chin. "I think the only way any of this makes sense is that Ameen, Ember, and my dad figured out time travel somehow. Are they trying to just... keep going to the past over and over again to erase me from existence? It doesn't help that espers and jaunters are in the mix... figuring out cause and effect is going to be hard."

  "There's a shapeshifter too," Iggy added. "That's why I brought you here. Why I decided to split us into two worldlines rather than one."

  "Worldline?" Iker asked.

  Iggy, breaking away from his godlike posture, nodded like a human. It broke the tension of being in this war that involved realities, time, dreams, simulations, and memories... even if it was for a brief moment.

  "If you picture the moment you were born, to the moment your consciousness seizes to persist the way a materialist would deem it so, that would be your worldline," Iggy explained. "However, can your worldline start when the atoms that form your body are at the big bang? Can your worldline end at the heat death of the universe, even if you are not alive? Can your worldline be split into different beings, and how many times can it be done? That's what we have been exploiting until we figure out how Ameen's, Ember's, and Maverick's powers work."

  "And who has the shapeshifting powers?" Iker asked.

  "Your boyfriend Camilo," Iggy replied. "We are going back in time to prevent him from becoming a shapeshifter across every reality possible."