II. Hedonism — Interlude

Atlas Blakely narrates that he does not want to end the universe so much as escape this one, centering the problem on inevitability, time, and his entanglement with Ezra Fowler. He sketches Ezra in intimate detail—quirks, brilliance, and stubborn morality—admitting their bond was alchemical and doomed to loss, a love that could plausibly end in enmity.

As his cohort confronted the reality that one of them might have to die, Ivy first arrived at the ruthless calculus to sacrifice a member. Suspicion and fear coalesced around Ezra, whom others misjudged as weak. Atlas, unwilling to accept murder, recognized that once death became palatable, anyone could be chosen, and sought a third option.

On their installation night, Atlas discovered Ezra had slipped through time; together they pursued time travel as a workaround, keeping their plan secret while Ezra’s staged “death” soothed the group. The loops that followed—Neel dying repeatedly, Folade twice, Ivy left dead as an experiment—hardened Atlas. He and Ezra met in secret years later, still aligned, while Atlas concealed hard truths, accepting that his path made him the story’s villain.

The interlude closes with Atlas’s credo that everything has a cost. He frames his life as accrued debt and acknowledges how late he realized Dalton Ellery’s danger, implying that by the time he recognized Dalton’s true price, it had already been exacted.