Aren Locke has always considered himself the weakest member of White Night.

His companions are geniuses, heroes, and monsters blessed with absurd talent. Compared to them, he's just an ordinary leader trying not to slow everyone down.

So when the opportunity comes, Aren decides to step aside.

The reaction is immediate.

One offers him a forbidden technique. Another tries to bind him with a blood oath. Someone else practically begs him not to leave.

For some reason, the strongest people he knows are terrified of losing him.

Aren assumes they're overreacting.

His party, meanwhile, remembers a future where he died, and the world that followed.