Author of the acclaimed Gates of The Primordials, Jarren Fletcher dismissed the critics who exposed his callous habit: reducing supporting characters to mere plot devices, created for convenience and discarded without consequence. To him, extras existed only to serve his protagonist. Nothing else mattered. That certainty evaporated when Jarren awoke within his own story, reborn as the disposable character he'd long exploited: Deremiah Morcant, a pathetic extra defined by cowardice, whose narrative concluded with suicide to escape the Gate Trials' deadly challenges. Weak and insignificant, trapped in a fragile body, Jarren must confront the lethal gauntlet he'd designed. Surviving his world's merciless rules becomes paramount while racing against the clock. Yet survival isn't enough—he may hold the only key to saving the very world he created. Time accelerates. The paragons converge. The next Wave arrives.