Time Worm — the penultimate stage, named after the mythical form of the entire path. Here theft reaches time itself.
Theft — the bearer temporarily takes away time itself, others' anchors and authorities;
Time — a weakened dominion over it, stemming from the symbolism of the King of Space-Time;
Gaps — wherever there is a term or a condition, he finds a serviceable crack to use;
Deciphering at the level of the first Sequence restores the truth behind anything and exposes the symbolic meanings of things, if there is enough evidence;
and he splits his doubles and feeds them the otherworldly characteristics of his path, raising them to the level of the second stage without any risk.
The most famous bearer of this stage is Amon, whose name has become almost a byword for the entire path. He is also the easiest way to understand what makes the first Sequence of Error dangerous: it is not about the force of the blow, but that the opponent does not know exactly whom he is speaking with, how many doubles are already in play, and when the swap happened — possibly long before the conversation began.
Hence the main difficulty in opposing this stage. Killing the Time Worm is not enough: the doubles keep acting, and the stolen time and anchors do not return at once. Victory over him requires not superiority in force, but an understanding of where exactly he substituted reality.
The advancement ritual shows what this stage does in practice: to disrupt time across an entire city for at least a week.
