Endless: The Imminent Face-Off (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9789696892984)

What is Trauma to a Force of Nature?

After meeting The Answer, the living embodiment of Knowledge itself; an all-knowing maiden who seeks entertainment through the answers wary travelers bring her, Endless, the once human, now undying embodiment of endlessness stuns Answer with a story fundamental to their race of living concepts right on the brink of forsaking his own function to keep going. Gaining her favor, Answer commits to teaching him all she knows and reviving his will to live.

Now two weeks later, Endless has found at least the strength to return home to Earth after leaving the universe and suffering decades trapped in the corrupting realm known as The Ether. With horns emerging from his forehead and only so much time to reach Earth while his loved ones may still live, Endless leaves Answer with this unexplained change and years worth of trauma still unexplored...

Back in a part of the universe he doesn't recognize, Endless awakes to the face of a friend he hasn't seen in 80 years, the embodiment of universal improvement Surpass. Conflict ensues when Endless prioritizes just one more space adventure over the swift ride home Surpass can give him. Resolving to abandon Endless in space for this, Endless takes advantage of Surpass' pride and ropes him into a wager for the prize of escort home.

Endless will confront The Eternal Challenge, a labyrinth in which he will battle Monsters of Myth and embodiments alike against deadly metaphysical odds as he wrestles with what he is becoming and the regrets he holds for leaving the universe so long ago, while Surpass will face The Quagmire, a universe-spanning puzzle which will bring him into opposition with obstacles across time, embodiments across space, and the very Ether that haunts both him and Endless; all while facing the resentment he has for Endless and himself because of what Endless' disappearance left him scarred with, as his idea of duty itself is forced to a breaking point.

It all comes down to the question... Is Trauma too big for even Forces of Nature?