Across Eternity Bk. 07 Ch. 18

The Will of Zyrga

The next day, everyone packed up their things as per Noah's orders. They were apparently meant to set out and return to Duravound, though the timing didn't make sense. Lupin hadn't fully healed, Seraph was still suffering the blowback from his battle, and what little strength Roc had left, he used the previous night to rearrange Cynatas's insides. And were they just supposed to walk all the way to Duravound? The question was answered when Hadat and Amor arrived at their camp, leading ten eagle warriors. The realization dawned on everyone, and they weren't all happy about it.

"Are you all ready to go?" Amor asked.

"Noah, please tell me we're not about to do what I think we're about to do," said Cyrilo.

"If you're thinking we're going to fly to Duravound, then yes, that's exactly what we're going to do."

"Noah, I've never told you this, but I have a bit of a problem with heights," Alexis argued.

"Me too," said Sophia.

"I don't like this plan either," said Shannon, remembering how scary it was to ride on Roroaka's back.

"Listen, I want to get back to Duravound as soon as possible. I have a bad feeling that something's going on down there. This is the best way to do it." Noah then picked up a large bundle of rope and turned to Amor. "Just a few more minutes."

Using the rope, Noah made makeshift harnesses for everyone to help distribute their weight and make them easier to carry. Roc had carried Lupin by grabbing his arms, but that would get painful fairly quickly. Despite doing it once, he was not eager to do it again. Everyone was nervous as Noah fitted them in their harnesses, even Seraph. He had recently unlocked the ability of flight, but his powers were still on the fritz, so if the ropes snapped and he fell, he wouldn't be able to save himself. Roc and Cynatas would fly on their own, though Cynatas to help support Roc, as she did the night before. Soon enough, everyone was strapped and ready.

"All right, we're ready to depart," said Noah.

"Then let the winds carry you to good fortune," said Hadat.

"Thank you for all your help," Amor added. "Men," he then said.

His students flapped their wings, awkwardly floating above everyone, and grabbed the ropes of their harnesses with their talons. Alexis and Sophia couldn't help but yelp frightfully as their feet left the ground, while Shannon screwed her eyes shut and Cyrilo silently prayed. Daniel seemed to be the only one who was genuinely excited. The men of the eagle tribe carried them off, flying over the Ashok Mountains. Up here, the width and breadth of the destruction caused by the battle was clear for all to see, but flying amongst the clouds, there was also abundant beauty, with all of Vandheim stretching out below them. As they flew, Daniel whooped in jubilation.

"We are so fucking Tolkien right now!" he laughed.

They continued to soar, leaving the valley behind and heading south towards Vandheim. Even with eagle wings, it would take two days to reach Duravound, and every second mattered. However, someone arrived before they did. Ragar, exhausted beyond words, reached the fortress holding Zyrga's remains. He had been traveling almost nonstop, moving underground during the day and above ground at night, using his powers over the undead to increase his speed. Any poor soul that crossed his path was devoured to help him maintain his strength, but he was still wounded from the battle, having no energy to spare for healing.

His peerage helped carry him into the fortress and brought him before Zyrga's skeleton, fully assembled. It was standing in a massive vat of blood and butchered corpses, like an above-ground pool, which would nourish Zyrga and be cannibalized to help him grow a new body.

"It's beautiful," he gasped, falling to his knees in religious awe. As a Profane, this was like seeing God in the flesh, or rather, bone. Right now, Zyrga was just a skeleton, but soon, the progenitor of the Profane race would walk once more.

"Lord Ragar," Helena said as she and Ziradith approached.

"Are the preparations complete?" he asked.

"Soon. Your minions are making the finishing touches," said Ziradith.

One of said minions then burst into the great hall. "My Lord, a group of eagle warriors has been spotted flying towards Duravound! They're carrying the Wandering Spirit's party!"

Ziradith and the two Profane felt their hearts sink with dread and burn with rage.

"That bastard!" Ragar snarled. He turned to Helena and Ziradith. "We have no choice but to commence the ritual."

"My Lord, the preparations are not complete! The whole thing could fail cataclysmically!" his subordinate warned.

"If fate is on our side, then we shall not fail! Helena, Ziradith, you two stay here and activate the ritual on this end. I'll seal up Duravound. Today, God walks among us once more." He then turned to his peerage. "All of you, come with me!" Ragar and his subordinates then hurried off.

With Ragar gone, Helena stepped onto a black magic circle inscribed on the ground. As she entered the circle, it glowed with Profane energy, and several lines of runes floated around her, giving her control of the ritual. With flicks of her fingers, she selected various runes in sequence, commencing the process. Throughout the fortress, runes inscribed on the walls, floor, and ceiling lit up, and black lightning crackled through the main chamber. The fortress was now ready to receive the power of Duravound and channel it into Zyrga. All they had to do was wait for Ragar to activate the obelisks in the city and commence the harvest.

Outside, Noah and his friends arrived at the city gates, only to find the refugee problem was worse than he expected. Though they had mostly stopped the Profane wave from the north, the damage was done, with a growing wave of dwarves fleeing their homes and rushing to Duravound, seeking safety in the mountain. There were so many refugees that they were overflowing from the city.

The eagle warriors released him and his friends, bid them good luck, then turned around to fly back to their tribe. Everyone was glad to be back on solid ground, stretching and shaking the weakness from their limbs, but Noah's instincts told him that they had no time to relax and recover. The sky was darkly overcast, and though not a result of Profane power like Miasmarda's cloud cover, it still felt like a bad omen. His instincts proved correct, as numerous explosions suddenly went off across the surface of Duravound's mountain and the surrounding mountains. Explosions were happening all around the lake. Was this an attack, or simply made to look like one?

"Everyone in the city! Move!" the guards shouted.

"No! Don't go inside!" Noah countered, but the dwarves refused to listen and surged past him. He tried again, using his mana to project his voice as far as he could, but if anything, that just scared them more.

"Noah, what's going on?" Valia asked, trying to keep her balance in the dwarven flood.

"We were wrong about the timetable. Whatever the Profane are planning, they're doing it now. I think they're going to sacrifice everyone in the city and harvest their souls."

Valia's heart sank. Was this going to be Welindar all over again?

"What do you mean, sacrifice everyone?!" Cyrilo exclaimed.

"That's why they've been driving everyone down here, burning through the countryside. I think they're going to try to use them to resurrect Zyrga. Ragar said at the party that their god would return."

Cyrilo's face paled. "Noah, those obelisks we saw them building for the energy program! That's how they'll do it! The runic formula, the giant garbled mess that was impossible to read, we thought they wrote it that way to keep its design from getting out, but they did it so that nobody would be able to figure out the real purpose!"

Noah looked through the city gates. Whatever was happening, it would happen in the city. Going inside would be like running towards an atomic blast, but they had to find Zyrga's bones and prevent his resurrection.

"Come on! We have to stop it while we still can! To the royal palace!"

They ran through the city gates, only to find Duravound packed to the brim with panicking dwarves. Noah and his friends hurriedly waded through the crowds, but it was slow going. They had almost reached the palace when the city suddenly shook from another chain of explosions. However, these weren't happening outside like before.

Once as many people as possible had flooded into Duravound, the first explosion went off just above the city gates, causing a cave-in and closing the exit. Every tunnel leading in and out of the city suffered a similar fate, with explosions bringing down the ceilings and blocking them off. The entire city was sealed, with everyone trapped inside. The citizens were panicking more than before, and Noah did what he could to clear a path, stepping on whoever he had to and shooting flashbangs to force people aside as they made their way towards the palace.

Ragar was already there, standing in the throne room. King Geord, the last man standing, gripped his sword as he stood by the throne, facing this threat. All of his guards were dead, slain by Ragar's peerage.

"What do you want, demon?!" Geord cursed.

"You still don't recognize me, you pathetic old fool?" Ragar laughed, then changed his voice. "Does this jog your memory?"

"Sados?" Geord gasped.

"I've gone by many names during my time here, running this kingdom from the shadows. You really think Vandheim has reached this glorious stage of development because dwarves are just naturally intelligent? No, I've been guiding the growth of this country for centuries, cultivating it like a farmer with his crops, and finally, it is time to harvest. When last we spoke, I told you to have an evacuation plan ready to shelter people in Duravound for when the Profane started attacking. Thank you for heeding my advice. You've helped ensure Zyrga's revival."

Noah and his friends burst into the throne room, and Ragar turned to him and laughed. All of the pain he had endured until now was worth it, just for this moment. "Well, well, the Wandering Spirit, exactly where I want you. You're too late to stop it. This is the beginning of the end."

"False Arsenal," Noah cast, summoning an illusory machine gun while Alexis and Shannon raised their bows, Cyrilo and Cynatas prepared to cast their magic, and Valia, Seraph, and Roc were about to charge.

"Like I said, too late." Ragar then dropped down and pressed his blood-stained hand to the floor. "Dark Empire!"

A wave of Profane energy surged from Ragar, spreading through the floor and into the walls and ceiling, infecting the entire royal palace and turning it into Cursed Earth. But it didn't stop there. It continued to spread throughout the city, with everyone being assaulted by the unholy power and drained of their strength and mana. This was no ordinary Cursed Earth, but something far more powerful and set up in advance for this very moment. It was not fatal, as that would hinder the purpose of the ritual, but it incapacitated everyone in the city, ensuring they wouldn't be able to escape, and the inclusion of Cursed Earth would help boost the ritual's chances of success. Noah and everyone else were brought to their knees by the debilitating effects, feeling sick and weak.

"Take pleasure in this, Noah," said Ragar. "You, who supposedly spent thousands of years wandering across space and time, living and dying over and over, have finally arrived at the purpose for which you were born in the first place. Your life will be used to help resurrect Zyrga. There is no greater honor."

One of Ragar's peerage then touched the floor and cast a spell, his powers augmented by the Cursed Earth. The ground beneath Ragar and the others then descended like an elevator, with the floor sealing back up once they disappeared. They were making their way back to the fortress, where Helena saw a change in the runes surrounding her, telling her that everything was ready. With a vicious smile, she touched one of the runes, activating the ritual.

It began at the very edge of the city, all of the outermost obelisks glowing with a dark aura, spreading across the ground like a wall of black flames. It did not cause any damage, but all those who stood within the flames suddenly collapsed, their life force instantly extinguished, and from their corpses, their souls rose. Trapped and bound by the Profane energy, the souls were dragged through the air, visible for all to see. Hundreds of them were flying overhead, pulled into an opening in the cavern wall near the palace. It was a special channel, lined with runes and cables made of magic-conducting material, meant to guide the souls like electricity through a wire.

The channel led out of the city and underground, sending the anguished souls surging towards the fortress nearby. They emerged from a channel exit near the entrance of the fortress, continuing to be guided like water in a canal through the corridors. They poured into the main chamber through the open doors and washed over Zyrga's skeleton. Both Helena and Ziradith watched gleefully as the souls were absorbed into the bones like a sponge.

In Duravound, the harvest zone was expanding, growing from the city's edge towards its center. The citizens screamed in terror as they tried to get away. What little strength they had left was devoted to scrambling atop each other in a desperate bid to reach the center of Duravound. Then, all of a sudden, the advance stopped. The collection area continued to burn, but had ceased its growth. Back at the fortress, Helena scowled and cursed as the runes around her suddenly shifted.

"What is it? What's going on?" Ziradith asked, seeing the flow of souls suddenly halt.

"The ritual stopped working! Damn it, we didn't have enough time to get it ready!"

"Can you get it going again?"

"Maybe. Come here and help me. I'm not very skilled at manipulating runes."

As the two women worked to continue the ritual, everyone in Duravound was suffering from the effects of the Cursed Earth, but it seemed like Seraph was hurting more than anyone. He was on his knees, gripping his head and howling in pain. Was he more susceptible to it because of the damage he suffered in the last battle? Lupin was also in anguish due to his weak magic.

"Seraph, what's wrong with you?" Noah asked, trying to shake some sense into him.

"I can feel it! I can feel an unbearable, horrible evil! Zyrga! He's not in the city!"

"Where is he?"

Seraph pointed in the direction of the fortress. "That direction! I can feel him devouring their souls!"

"We need to get out of here and find where they're performing the ritual," said Noah, though he wasn't sure how to do it. His own body was racked with pain and fatigue, and he couldn't activate his magic.

"I can do it," said Cynatas, floating nearby. Though she was suffering the effects of the Cursed Earth, made evident by her pained breathing and cold sweat, she hadn't been touching the ground when it was activated, so she didn't receive the full brunt. "If I used my powers to make Roc and the rest of you weightless, then he may be able to carry you out a few at a time through one of the ventilation shafts."

"Noah, you should go first with Seraph and Lupin," said Valia. "Try to stop the ritual on their end, and we'll try to stop it on this end."

The situation was bad, but Noah didn't argue. He simply kissed her and Shannon for good luck. The group hurried outside of the palace, where Roc grasped Seraph and Lupin's wrists, and Cynatas, clinging to his back, cast her magic, rendering them weightless. Despite her magic, it still took a great deal of effort for him to get off the ground, and adding Noah to the mix pushed him to his limit. Still, with the power of desperation, he flapped his wings and carried the three of them through the nearest ventilation shaft large enough to accommodate them. It took some grace and acrobatics, but they managed to escape to the open air. Free of the Cursed Earth, they felt like they could all breathe again.

"There! I can sense Zyrga!" Seraph shouted, pointing to the fortress on the nearby mountain.

"I need to land. I can't hold on much longer," said Roc, still suffering from lingering fatigue.

Meanwhile, Ragar and his subordinates were running along the edge of the lake towards the fortress. The sky was overcast enough for them to move freely during the day, but one of the dwarf ghouls suddenly called out. "My Lord! Look over there!" He pointed to Roc, carrying Noah and the two princes, and landing outside the city.

"These bastards refuse to die!" Ragar cursed. He then looked around. "All of you, get back to the fortress and defend it with your lives. I'll slow them down from here."

As his peerage went off without him, Ragar turned away from the lake and moved farther inland. Though Noah's insistent meddling was a huge threat to the plan, the timing and placement were ideal for Ragar to deal with him. When dwarves died, they were naturally entombed in the earth that they loved so much. However, since space was such a valuable commodity in Duravound, burials took place outside the city. Between Duravound and the fortress, all of the city's graveyards and mausoleums were grouped into a giant necropolis. Ragar ran past the endless tombs and gravestones, not stopping until he reached the very center. There, he bit his wrist and let his blood spill onto the ground, then pressed his palms together.

"Desanctified Burial. Macabre Craftwork."

A storm of dark energy surged through the earth as his blood soaked the dirt. In every coffin and tomb, the long-dead dwarves began to stir. With unholy strength, they dug themselves out of their graves and burst out of their mausoleums. Incomplete skeletons that could not walk on their own amalgamated to form golems, and all moved as Ragar commanded. As Roc landed outside Duravound and released Noah and the princes, they turned, feeling the ground shake. Ahead of them, an army of undead was pouring out from between the mountains and gathering at the edge of the lake, blocking off their path to the fortress.

"Lupin, Seraph, are either of you in any condition to fight?" Noah asked.

"I can maybe fight, just not use magic," said Seraph.

"Not against that many foes," Lupin replied.

"Lupin, trade weapons with me," Noah said, handing the prince his sword in exchange for Lupin's chain. "Roc and Cynatas, go back and get the others."

Roc spread his wings and returned to Duravound, where things were getting more desperate. The harvest zone, which had stopped its advance, was now growing again. Dwarves screamed in terror and clung to each other as they were enveloped by the dark aura. Babies and children wailed, and their parents fought with everything they had to get them to safety, but they were claimed without mercy, and their souls were pulled from their corpses, being channeled to the fortress and absorbed into Zyrga's bones.

In the center of the city, near the palace, Valia, Alexis, and Shannon were working with Geord's troops to try to destroy as many obelisks as possible. If they could just break enough, surely the ritual would stop or at least slow, but they struggled just to raise their weapons, let alone swing them, and the obelisks were made out of a mighty stone, further enchanted with magic to resist damage. At best, the most they could do was chip away at the runes, but the formula had been written with numerous redundancies so that each obelisk could continue functioning even if some runes were damaged.

Outside the palace, Cyrilo and Sophia were working together to create a counterspell to interrupt the ritual. Like when she and Alexis faced Voraith, Sophia was trying to carve out a small area of consecrated space where individuals inside could escape the effects of the Cursed Earth and cast magic, but this was proving infinitely more difficult. No matter how much she prayed or scrounged for magic, trying to etch some holy ground into the Cursed Earth was like trying to dig through solid rock with a wooden pickaxe.

Cyrilo was beside her, frantically checking her notes and copies of the obelisk inscriptions, but try as she might, she could not find any way to break or even hinder the ritual. This whole thing had taken years, perhaps even decades of preparation, and she was not going to find the answer in a few desperate minutes. Daniel could only stand and watch, helpless to do anything. Though his magic could disrupt spells, against something this powerful, he was just a squirt gun trying to fight a forest fire.

"Noah needs help! Where are you guys?!" Roc hollered.

Hearing him, Valia turned to Alexis and Shannon. "You two go and take Daniel with you. Help Noah!"

"What about you?!" Shannon exclaimed.

"If we haven't stopped it by the time Roc comes back for us, I'll leave with Sophia and Cyrilo, but I'm not giving up yet. Go!"

As she spoke, the advancing harvest once more paused, freezing up like a cheap computer. Alexis grabbed her arm. "You and Shannon go. I'm not leaving Sophia behind."

Valia reluctantly nodded and left with Shannon to go find Roc. They joined up with Daniel, and Roc and Cynatas carried them outside, where Noah and the two princes were fighting their way through the undead horde. Though they weren't very powerful, the skeletons' strength was in their numbers. All it took was one clinging to a fighter's leg to slow them down, allowing more to pile on, and once their prey couldn't move, they were free to begin ripping them apart. It was a fate that the three struggled to avoid, with the skeletons doing everything they could to grab hold of them and pin them down.

Noah was swinging Lupin's chain, using it like the blade of a lawnmower to cut down the undead dwarves. Because of the height difference, he had to swing it low, while being careful not to hit Lupin and Seraph, but it was working out quite well. The more the chain swung, the more energy it accumulated, hitting the skeletons harder and harder. Even if breaking them couldn't release Ragar's magic, each skeleton struck by the chain was shattered like glass, and by the time they could reform into anything solid, the trio had moved on.

While Noah cleared a path, Lupin and Seraph took up the rear, pulverizing the undead with hammer and sword swings. The goal wasn't to destroy all the skeletons, but simply move past them, and Ragar was steadily retreating towards the fortress, trying to buy as much time as he could. Roc tried to fly over the army towards the fortress, but Ragar's peerage countered him with dark magic, trying to shoot him out of the sky. Roc was forced to land and drop off Daniel and the two women with Noah, but now with Valia on their side, they could start making more headway.

Noah passed the chain to Valia, and she ran with it, swinging it even faster than he could. With her elven grace and power of Zodiac, she moved with masterful acrobatics like a rhythmic gymnast, manipulating the chain like a ribbon. She carved a vast road through the undead swarm, allowing Noah and the others to pick up the pace. Seeing them charging, Ragar cursed and was forced to make a full retreat back to the fortress while using every last bony thrall to block the way.

Inside the fortress, Ziradith and Helena were arguing and struggling to maintain the ritual. It kept starting and stopping, sending souls pouring into Zyrga in random bursts. They were also concerned with Zyrga himself. Even after being fed thousands of souls, there was no visible reaction from the bones. They were just absorbing the power and doing nothing with it. The vat of viscera meant to craft his new flesh had yet to even ripple. It was possible he wasn't resurrecting because the full spiritual power of Duravound, while potentially great enough to revive him if harnessed altogether, couldn't initiate the rejuvenation process when the power flow was so unreliable. It was like they were attempting to drive off a ramp, but kept hitting the brakes while trying to build up speed.

Back outside, Noah and his friends had reached the stone stairs leading up the mountain towards the summit. It was blocked off with undead, but Valia was clearing the way. Roc arrived with Alexis, Sophia, and Cyrilo to help. There was nothing they could do in Duravound to stop the ritual. The only hope they had for saving everyone was to cut the head off the snake. The group arrived at the fortress and rushed inside, fighting their way through the undead. Ragar had changed his strategy, using the skeletons to try to build walls to stop their advance, but Valia smashed right through.

"Everyone, stop!" Noah suddenly shouted, struck by instinct.

The exit of the spirit channel was up ahead, and barely a second after they all halted, a flood of souls came rushing out, churning down the corridor towards Zyrga. All of the undead in the path of the flood were disintegrated by the raw power. Everyone was left horrified by the sight and sound. They should have just been disembodied spirits, but they could hear the screams of terror and anguish. Thousands of souls were surging ahead of them, thousands of people whose lives had just been snuffed out, and were now going to resurrect Zyrga. The flow then stopped as the ritual hit another snag, but that wouldn't last long.

"We can't let another wave reach Zyrga. For all we know, just one more soul could be all it takes for him to revive," said Valia.

"This corridor leads right to him. Let's move!" said Noah.

They kept running, but Daniel objected to the plan. "Is this really the best route to take to get there?! We're basically running on train tracks right now! I don't want to be in the way when the River Styx erupts in another flash flood!"

"Don't worry, I have a plan!" Noah countered.

They advanced deeper into the fortress, soon reaching Ragar and his subordinates, who were holding the line. He was down to just a handful of skeletons and golems, but his face projected his resolve. "You will go no further!"

A sound then echoed through the corridor, the chorus of screams from the tortured dead. Another wave of souls was approaching, and everyone but Noah couldn't help but feel nervous. Ragar simply sighed in resignation, ready to die if it meant keeping Noah and the others from reaching Zyrga. However, Noah turned away from him and faced the oncoming deluge of souls. He pointed his hand at the wave and pulled back his sleeve, revealing a magical device on his arm. It incorporated Voraith's black pearl, the gem from Foley's shield, Bella's brainstem, the holy silver and glass from his spirit mirror, and a dozen other powerful ingredients collected during his adventures. He then projected the magic circle for his curse, but it had been altered, now with his unfinished counterspell included, as well as several other magic formulas.

The magic circle, which should have just been a visual summation of his curse, had now become a magic barrier, and the flood of souls crashed against it. Everyone watched in total shock as the barrier not only withstood the almighty power of the harvested souls but absorbed it. This was something that Noah had been working on since Andromeda's mansion, building it piece by piece and figuring out the runic formula during his downtime. Since his curse was apparently so powerful and near impossible to break, Noah utilized that to his advantage.

The shield gem allowed the spell to become a magic barrier, Voraith's pearl absorbed the power used against the shield, and Bella's brainstem and the holy silver and glass channeled that power into Noah's counterspell, while filtering out any potential Profane contamination. Essentially, whatever energy the shield absorbed was used to begin chipping away at the power cost to undo the curse, and the barrier could not break unless the curse was. It was the ultimate shield against all magical and energy attacks. So long as Noah had it deployed, the only way an enemy could kill him was to truly kill him in the way he so desired. Anything less was just absorbed.

The wave ended as the ritual once more froze up, with everyone staring at Noah in horror. His friends were left aghast, realizing on their own that the souls of Duravound had just been fed to Noah's counterspell. Rather than the citizens being saved, their souls had just been utilized for something else. That said, if not for Noah, not only would they be dead, but that wave would have reached Zyrga. A morbid method, but it worked better than any of them could hope.

Meanwhile, Ragar and his minions were shocked by this turn of events. Not only had Noah and his friends survived, but so long as he was standing between Zyrga and Duravound, the ritual couldn't work. He had cut off Zyrga from his path to resurrection.

"Kill him!" Ragar ordered.

His subordinates charged forward, some wielding weapons with dark auras or glowing fists, and others possessing corrupting elemental magic. However, they didn't stand a chance against Noah's group. One of the ghouls tried blasting them with black flames, but Noah blocked it with his curse shield, then Alexis shot him with an exploding arrow, nearly ripping him in half at the waist. Another, carrying an axe imbued with Profane energy, swung at Seraph, but even without his magic, Seraph could handle him and sent him flying with a well-placed hammer strike, splattering him against the wall. A third ghoul lashed out with tendrils made of toxic, corrosive water, but Cynatas blasted them aside, and Cyrilo hit him with a bolt of lightning, destroying his skull.

Ragar cursed while spreading some blood on the ground. "Restless Battlefield," he cast.

His slain subordinates rose up once more, unbothered by their injuries. Since they were his peerage, they retained their magical abilities even while undead, and could be continuously resurrected, but only so long as their bodies weren't completely obliterated. Even with this ability, Ragar knew he couldn't hope to win against such powerful foes. The best he could do was stall for time, but time was not on his side.

Another wave of souls came rushing down the corridor, with Noah turning and absorbing them with his curse shield, perfectly illustrating the direness of Ragar's situation. If this went on, the ritual would continue, but all the souls would go to Noah instead of Zyrga, and the whole thing would fail. Still, he continued to fight, not knowing what else to do. He was getting pushed farther and farther back towards the main chamber, and he didn't know how to stop it.

Not far off, Helena and Ziradith could hear the approaching sounds of battle. They knew the ritual was continuing, but the flow of souls to Zyrga had stopped.

"I'm going to go help," said Helena, walking to the doors.

"But you're just a succubus! You have no combat powers!" Ziradith argued.

"And if this ritual doesn't work, I'm a dead succubus!"

She closed the doors behind her. Since the souls weren't coming, there was no point in keeping them open. Ziradith was left all alone, trying not to panic. It was all falling apart. Helena ran down the corridors to join Ragar, trying to swallow her dread at how close they were to the main chamber.

"Helena, what are you doing?!" Ragar exclaimed.

"Whatever I can," she replied, beginning to flap her wing and filling the air with her powder.

Noah caught a whiff and was quick to react. "Cynatas, clear the air!"

"Purifying Breath," she cast, erasing Helena's powder and crushing her hopes.

Ragar grabbed Helena's wrist. "Get out of here. Fly to Handent and find Curcio. Tell him... he's all that remains. We base all of our hopes on him now."

Helena solemnly nodded and leaped up through a hole in the ceiling to escape.

"Noah, look over there!" Valia said, pointing to the wall past Ragar. A large magic circle had been inscribed, with several black gems embedded to boost its power.

"That's a magical junction. If we destroy it, it'll sever the connection between here and Duravound and stop the ritual! Alexis!"

Alexis raised her bow and launched an arrow burning with mana.

"No!" Ragar shouted, sending one of his subordinates jumping into the path and receiving the arrow, being ripped into pieces by the resulting explosion. But where Alexis's arrow failed, Shannon's arrow succeeded, shooting over Ragar's head before he could react and striking the magic circle, with the explosive payload destroying the array. Immediately, all the glowing runes throughout the fortress and the soul channel went dark, and the obelisks in Duravound became inert. Half of the population had lost their lives to the horrific Profane ritual, but half had been rescued.

In the main chamber, Ziradith screamed in frustration as the ritual fell apart. The control runes disappeared from the air, leaving her unable to do anything. This couldn't be happening, not again. After all she had been through, all her years of planning and scheming, this couldn't be how it would end. She could still hear the sounds of battle coming ever closer. There was nowhere for her to run, no way to escape, and when Noah and the others arrived, they could not take her alive. She looked at Zyrga's skeleton and approached it, continuing to scream in limitless fury.

"You! You useless waste of bones! Wake up! Regenerate! Do what you're supposed to and kill those bastards!" She grabbed a handful of viscera from the vat and threw it at Zyrga's face. "All this! All this was prepared for you! You're pathetic and useless, just like every other piece of garbage on this wretched planet! All those souls fed to you, and it was just a waste! You owe me death! You owe me power!"

Now she could hear voices, with Ragar desperately trying to keep Noah and the others at bay, but his fate was sealed. Ziradith climbed into the vat, sinking up to her waist in blood and minced flesh, not even caring as she waded towards the skeleton.

"I refuse to let it end this way! Give me what I'm owed!" She then drew a dagger from her dress, and in an act of unbridled madness, she stabbed herself in the stomach. All of her adrenaline was blocking the pain as she carved over her womb, then reached in and pulled out her unborn child, presenting it to Zyrga. "Take it! Take everything I have! Take everything I am! JUST GIVE ME THE POWER TO DESTROY THIS WORLD!"

Suddenly, the bones came alight with a dark aura, and the eye sockets glowed as if Zyrga was alive once more. Zyrga's mind was long gone, his consciousness fading like smoke thousands of years ago, but power yet remained in those bones, and though Zyrga's sentience no longer existed, part of his will was imprinted in his remains. The reason there was no reaction to the ritual was that the harvested souls were just chaotic, screaming energy. Though the innate fear made it easy for the dead demon to absorb, there was no focused desire that resonated with it.

Ziradith's fury, her hatred, her will to destroy, and her willingness to rip the fetus out of her womb just to get what she wanted; these intense feelings awakened the lingering power in Zyrga's bones. Where thousands of souls had failed to get a reaction, the infinite, deranged malice of a single woman was opening the floodgates, and now all that power was flooding into Ziradith.

Outside the doors of the chamber, Ragar was alone. All of his peerage had been destroyed past the point of reanimation, and he had nothing left to control. It was down to him and the sword he had picked up. The doors to the chamber were at his back, with Noah and the others approaching.

"Give up, Ragar. It's over," said Noah.

"No! I refuse to let it end! Don't you understand?! This is our birthright! We, as the Profane, are meant to change this world! This planet will be our kingdom to rule for all eternity!"

Then the doors opened behind him, and a malicious energy poured out like nothing anyone had experienced before. No one could move, gripped by an overwhelming terror that sank into their very bones. Shannon and Sophia were struggling to breathe, with tears running down their cheeks, while Valia and Alexis felt all their courage go up in smoke. Cyrilo was trembling as she clutched Daniel's hand, who proceeded to soil himself.

Both Roc and Seraph's teeth were chattering as if they were gripped by a deathly cold, feeling like everything they had accomplished and all the power they had gained suddenly meant nothing. Cynatas was crouched behind them, clutching her head and rocking back and forth in terror. Even Noah found himself paralyzed by the horrific malice radiating from the darkness. It was like he had been dropped into a tar pit, sinking below the surface with the dark muck filling his lungs and his entire body.

"Rule?" Ziradith asked as she appeared behind Ragar, who found himself, even as a Profane, too scared to turn around.

Ziradith had transformed into something that words could not describe, for her power was something that hadn't been seen since the rise of Somerset. Her skin had turned a dark gray, with her irises blood-red and her sclera jet-black. Her dark hair swayed and flowed as though she were underwater, while her dress, now looking like shadow taken physical form, had become one with her body. The sleeves of the dress were a mane of tentacles around her hands, while the rest fused with her legs and had transformed into several huge writhing centipedes. She didn't walk so much as glide like an octopus across the ocean floor.

"You have forgotten your true purpose," she said, picking up Ragar like a throw pillow. "We Profane were never meant to rule." With a maniacal grin, she dug her claws into him and ripped the ghoul in half. "The reason we exist is to destroy." She then turned her attention to Noah and the others, bringing them to their knees simply with her aura. "Allow me to demonstrate. Chaos Field."

She snapped her fingers, and in that instant, a bubble of darkness grew from her hand, rapidly expanding and swallowing everyone. They felt like they had been pulled into a dimension of endless, raw evil, with their bodies being attacked on a cellular level. They couldn't even breathe as they were submerged by the Profane energy. Everything around them was immersed in darkness, visible only by their silhouettes, as if the world was suddenly drawn on a blackboard, with only the thin white outlines defining their shapes and features.

This dark nebula continued to grow, enveloping the fortress and the mountain beneath it, as well as the sky above. The ground began to shake, with the mountain itself being ripped apart and pulled into the sky. Noah and the others found themselves being lifted up, clinging to a floating stone island, as the roof above their heads was ripped away, revealing the swirling Profane vortex that now blocked out the sun. At its core, this was some kind of Cursed Earth technique, but infinitely more powerful than anything anyone had experienced.

It wasn't just cursing the land; it was erasing reality. Everything was floating because gravity itself had been deleted from the space, and as they rose higher, all the fragments of the mountain and the fortress began to dematerialize. Even Zyrga's bones were pulled into the sky and destroyed, having entrusted all their remaining dark power to Ziradith. Noah and the others, left paralyzed by her aura, were shaken free from their stupor by pain, feeling the darkness eating at their flesh like unholy fire.

"Welcome to my Chaos Field, where all things meet their end. Truth, reality, existence; concepts themselves are erased within this Profane universe. This is what a true Profane world looks like. Ragar and the others wanted a kingdom and flags, but our reason for existence is to corrupt and destroy, and you will be the first victims to fall to the true darkness. Do me a favor and die screaming. I feel I've earned that treat," Ziradith purred.

"Your mana!" Cyrilo exclaimed. "Keep your mana elevated and wrap it around yourself! It's the only way to preserve your existence here!"

It was a desperate, spur-of-the-moment theory, but everyone obeyed. Despite their pain and the overpowering dark force of Ziradith's power, they dug deep for whatever mana they could, forming a protective aura. It seemed to be working; everyone felt like they were sealed in a thin bubble at the bottom of the ocean, giving them just enough air to breathe. However, it would not work long. The weight of the Profane power was crushing them and burning through their mana quickly. Lupin, having the weakest mana, ran out almost as soon as he started. Seraph grabbed him and pulled him close, using his own mana to protect them both. He hadn't recovered his magic yet, but he dragged out every spark of energy he had.

The ground then broke up beneath them, and they were all separated, floating on their own isolated boulders as they continued to rise higher. Alexis leaped to stay with Sophia, while Cynatas clung tightly to Roc. Daniel tried to hang onto Cyrilo, but they were pulled apart. Ziradith's Chaos Field was continuing to expand, enveloping the surrounding mountains and ripping them to shreds. The people of Duravound, those who had survived the ritual, screamed in fresh terror as the mountain above their heads was pulled up into the sky. The unholy space wasn't expanding downwards, so they were safe for the moment, but that would inevitably change.

Everyone tried to keep their auras going, but at most, this would buy them a minute or two. Soon, it wouldn't matter if they could maintain their defenses, as they'd all be annihilated once they reached the vortex above. The situation was at its most dire. Any mana they could use for spells had to be used to maintain their protective auras, and even if they could use magic, Ziradith had now become so powerful that no magic in their arsenal could beat her.

Even if Seraph and Roc were to fight her in their prime, they probably wouldn't even be able to hurt her. She was as powerful as Somerset, perhaps even stronger. It dawned on everyone that they had reached the end of the line. Bella, Scyler, Ragar, Gradius; they all paled in comparison to this new planet-conquering evil. They were about to die, and the Profane would destroy the world.

However, something happened that shook everyone from those thoughts. There was a massive surge of power, and they heard something they never expected: laughter. It was coming from Noah, on his feet with the Rune of False flashing on the ground beneath him, cackling like a madman as mana surged from him without limit, unable to be contained. He was laughing because he had never experienced anything like this. No drug, experience, adrenaline rush, or orgasm could match this sensation, so intense that it threatened to drive him insane with the intensity of the pleasure it gave him.

His power wasn't actually growing in its amount, but he instead felt like it was expanding to its true volume. It was like every unit of his energy was unfolding over and over again, like power, each time doubling in size. Something had disappeared, some weight that forcefully compressed his mana, restricting its projection and spread, but that limiting force had now been removed, and his mana could now run free. It was like this world was a video game, and from the moment he arrived, he had been forced to play at the ultimate difficulty, only to finally find the option for easy mode.

"False Arsenal," he cast, forming an illusory handgun. He took aim at Ziradith and fired a mana bullet. She snatched it out of midair and stared in disbelief, with everyone else likewise shocked. The bullet was real, and not only that, it wasn't dematerializing like the floating boulders. Wrapped in Noah's mana, it was impervious to the effects of the Chaos Field.

Ziradith scoffed and tossed the bullet aside. "False, one of the Anti-Runes, sibling of the Profane Rune of Corruption. Of course, you would have it."

"You said it yourself, Ziradith! In this space, truth itself is destroyed, and when truth ceases to exist, lies become reality!" Noah laughed, utterly intoxicated by his own power.

That's what was missing: reality. His magic was the power of deception, overwriting the world around him with a farce, and whenever he cast his illusions, reality itself bared down on him, trying to correct the disturbance. However, since reality itself did not exist within this space, his illusions were no longer restricted, and that which was not could now take the place of that which was supposed to be. Instead of painting over the world around him, Noah could create and shape the world as he now saw fit.

He then turned to his friends. "Roc, Cynatas, I'll need you to take care of saving everyone."

Before they could ask what he meant, he waved his arm, and an invisible force sent everyone flying off towards the edge of the Chaos Field. Once they were pushed out past the perimeter, the destructive effects were removed, and gravity took over, sending them all into free fall. Roc and Cynatas worked fast, with Roc flying around and grabbing everyone, and Cynatas using her powers to render them weightless. They all landed on the ground below, and Cynatas using her powers to render them weightless. They all landed on the ground below, safe and sound, albeit hyperventilating from the sudden fall. They raised their heads, looking up to watch the battle unfold between Noah and Ziradith.

Still floating in the Chaos Field, the boulder beneath Noah's feet then vanished, and in its place, Noah's Gamma Ray ship appeared, materializing out of nothingness. He stood on the nose of the ship and controlled it with his mind. It rocketed towards Ziradith, sending her racing back. She waved her arms, launching blasts of darkness at Noah, but with well-honed controls and expert knowledge of what his ship could do, he easily avoided the barrage, continuing to stand with his posture unbroken, seemingly impossible to disturb.

It was his turn to fight back, and from within his ship, several lasers and rotary guns revealed themselves and opened fire. Beams of scarlet and streams of tracer rounds flew across the open space, ripping through all of the floating boulders. Ziradith created a shield to defend herself, but was shocked by how powerful Noah's attack was. The bullets were coming so fast, both in terms of speed and number, and imparting more force than she expected, while the lasers were burning through her darkness, as if they were designed specifically to be used against the Profane. Who in the world had conceived such powerful weapons?

Ziradith abandoned her shield, choosing instead to dodge and move among the floating debris field. A barrage of missiles was launched from the Gamma Ray, exploding and barraging Ziradith with waves of fire. She countered with a blast of darkness, managing to slice through Noah's ship. She then waved her arms, and from the darkness around her, a legion of monsters was spawned forth into existence. Wings, claws, tentacles, and all manner of horrific features were born from her black mana and swarmed towards Noah.

His enemies numbered in the thousands, but with a smile on his face, Noah held out his arm, and behind him, a vast arsenal of floating guns appeared, everything from handguns to miniguns to plasma cannons, each one a weapon Noah had used in a past life. They all opened fire, unleashing a hellish payload that mowed down Ziradith's army. She snarled in frustration and cast new magic, with the eviscerated remains of her army reforming into a trio of colossal demons, moving towards Noah with deep bellows of fury.

Noah clapped his hands together, dispelling the guns and replacing them with a whole squad of Goliaths, ranging in height from thirty feet to three hundred. Propelled by rockets on their backs, they lumbered towards the demons, their titanic fists flying like meteors and pulverizing flesh. Ziradith's monsters used their claws to try to carve through their armor, their powerful limbs and tails to crush their bodies, and blasts of darkness to destroy them, but the Goliaths were designed to withstand the end of the world, and they took the attacks like they were nothing and replied with their own. Outside of the Chaos Field, Noah's friends and everyone in Duravound watched with wide eyes as giant steel gods duked it out with gargantuan devils.

Frustrated with the spectacle, Ziradith snapped her fingers, launching a storm of dark blades that would leave Scyler cursing in envy. They ripped through several Goliaths, rending steel like it was cardboard, but the others, having killed the demons, turned to her and replied in kind. Bullets, missiles, and laser beams were fired from their built-in weapons, forcing Ziradith to dodge. A chain of explosions stretched across the black sky as they followed her with computerized accuracy.

Ziradith then turned and shot towards the Goliaths, launching more dark blasts that obliterated all those that remained. She looked around, trying to spot Noah. Fighting at a distance wasn't helping her. She needed to get in close and personally rip his heart out. She then spun around as Noah attacked from behind, forming a sword of darkness to block his swing. Noah was wearing a robotic suit from another lifetime, smaller than any of the Goliaths, but far more adept at enhancing the wearer's natural abilities and movements. It was equipped with a jetpack for propulsion and a mechanized sword with a plasma blade.

"How you doing, sweet cheeks?" Noah taunted.

Ziradith roared and knocked him back, then went after him with her sword. The two of them shot across the sky, a streak of white and black, separating and colliding over and over again. With each clash, their swords met, light and shadow. Ziradith had speed and power far beyond any human, but Noah's suit was doing exactly what it was designed to: boosting him to her level.

Ziradith had no training with a sword and was relying on her newfound power to make up for her lack of skill. At the same time, Noah's technique, honed and polished throughout the millennia before being perfected by Valia, was being unleashed to its full potential. Again and again, he slashed her, with his plasma blade ripping through her unholy flesh. He couldn't help but wonder how his knight sword and its holy edge would compare.

Noah gave a flick of his finger, and behind him appeared a slade siege tower from one of his alien invasion timelines. It charged its main cannon and blaster her at near point-blank range. Ziradith was pushed across the Chaos Field, being burned by the blast and struggling against it, before two Goliaths appeared on either side and each threw forth a punch, crushing her between their colliding fists.

A black explosion then erupted between the steel fists, with the two Goliaths being ripped to metal shreds. A swirling pit of darkness emerged, consuming the debris and expanding. It was a black hole, the kind Voraith would use, but hundreds of times larger and more powerful. Unperturbed, Noah raised his hand and snapped his fingers, conjuring a whole arsenal of nuclear bombs and chucking them into the black hole. This was a magical vortex rather than a gravitational one, so the rules for natural black holes didn't apply. As the nukes were pulled in, they all detonated, unleashing their power in a continuous nuclear flash, burning away the darkness and destroying Ziradith's vortex.

Burned by the nuclear flames, Ziradith seethed with anger. Somehow, Noah had completely turned her Chaos Field against her. She should have been all-powerful in this space, invulnerable and invincible, but thanks to the power of False, Noah was basically a god, creating whatever he wanted using nothing but the power of memory and imagination.

The logical answer was to dispel the Chaos Field, but she didn't know how. Conjuring it had been a purely instinctive act, while her understanding of her powers was still in its infancy. She had gained a wealth of Zyrga's knowledge along with his power, but she still needed time to properly assimilate it and gain a full understanding of herself. Even if she could dispel the Chaos Field, she didn't want to, because that would mean admitting defeat. To be beaten in her own domain, by Noah, of all people, was an indignity she refused to accept.

Changing her strategy, she then vanished, reappearing behind Noah. Before he could react, she slashed him across the back, carving through his armor and drawing blood, as well as sending him flying. Noah reformed his armor, but Ziradith teleported once more, appearing in front of him and slicing his chest, inflicting the same damage and momentum. She continued knocking him around, using teleportation to intercept his flight path and attack him before he could balance himself. Noah struggled to react and mount a defense, having a hard enough time repairing his armor, but soon, he figured out her pattern.

Ziradith appeared ahead of him yet again, this time ready to annihilate him with a dark blast, but the moment she fired, Noah used his curse shield and absorbed the attack. The energy was fed to his counter spell, while the Profane influence was filtered out. Noah then swung his arm, and before Ziradith could react, she was struck by a huge steel mass. It was the aircraft carrier from Noah's time commanding the Second Fleet, materialized and thrown at her in one second. She was pushed out of the sky, crashing down against the summit of a mountain within her Chaos Field, with the full weight of the ship brought down on her.

With a roar of fury, Ziradith obliterated the entire craft, but Noah was already raining down the rest of the fleet upon her, all of them firing their guns before they impacted. The combined force set off a devastating explosion, but in the next instant, Ziradith teleported behind Noah, ready to slice off his head. Unfortunately for her, Noah had predicted this and dodged her slash, then proceeded to snap his fingers.

"False World," he cast.

Instantly, Ziradith was blinded and afflicted with burning agony as Noah brought forth the sun he had used in his fight against Voraith. Of course, not even Noah could create something as massive as a star. He had neither the space nor the mana, but he was able to project its size as it appeared when he broke the record and hit Ziradith with the full power of what he himself experienced.

Ziradith shrieked and writhed in agony as she burned under the light of the sun. Considering that a normal Profane could be reduced to ashes just by stepping out on a hot summer day, the fact that she could withstand this was a testament to just how powerful she was. She created barriers to try to shield herself, even using floating boulders to block the light, but everything she tried was annihilated, and she was left to burn. However, Noah had just about reached the limit of his mana. Though his power could expand and flourish within the Chaos Field, it was still finite, and he had a few moments left before he was completely out, and if the Chaos Field was still active when that happened, he'd be dead. He floated over Ziradith, casting his shadow upon her while using concealment mana to protect himself.

"Hey Zira? Die."

He then dispelled the sun, freeing him to pull out his final ace in the hole. From his ring, he conjured one of his Carthace blades and Tysinger's sword. The serrated katana had been etched with a runic formula using Tysinger's venom, causing it to inflict extra damage to ghouls as his Carthace blades did to fiends. Ziradith gathered what energy she could to protect her head and neck from a decapitating strike, forcing Noah to instead drive both blades into her black heart. In that moment, Ziradith felt something break, something important. The damage to her heart was irrelevant, but when Noah pierced her with both blades, she felt like her connection to her own power had been severed like a tendon.

In that instant, a ripple spread through the Chaos Field, and Ziradith's dark dimension began to recede. All around them, all of the boulders and floating debris began to descend as gravity seeped in, and the remnants of Noah's weapons vanished as they returned to being just illusions. Noah and Ziradith gently floated down, the two of them maintaining unbroken eye contact, with Ziradith trying fruitlessly to remove the blades and Noah keeping them embedded in her chest. They finally landed on the ground, on what remained of the mountain where the fortress once stood, though now it was just a rocky hill. All of the mountains in the region had been leveled, with what little remained in the sky crashing back down. Still, the two of them stared at each other.

"You think this is over? You think you've beaten me?" Ziradith laughed while struggling to hide her pain.

"Try looking at it from my perspective," Noah countered.

"You may have won this battle, but the war has just begun. The darkness can never die."

Then her body suddenly lost its shape and turned to liquid, sinking into the ground. Noah tried stabbing her again and again, but she had escaped. That said, he had left his mark. After the damage she had inflicted, it would take a long time for her to heal and get her powers back.

"Noah!"

He turned just as Valia tackled and embraced him, nearly knocking him off his feet.

"Careful, Valia, I'm bleeding," he said, suddenly feeling all of his wounds.

Valia stepped back and looked him over. "What happened to Ziradith? Is she dead?" she asked as the others reached him. Sophia went to work healing Noah's wounds.

"No, she managed to escape. But don't worry, she won't be making any appearances on the battlefield, not for a long while. And when she does resurface, I doubt she'll risk using that Chaos Field again."

"So Zyrga wasn't revived, but now we have to deal with a second Somerset?" Seraph asked, bewildered.

"It just wouldn't be a Profane War without Somerset. Look, we won; it's over for now. Let's just exhale and be glad we're still alive. Come on, let's go into Duravound. We need to meet with the king. Besides, I'm starving."

They made their way to the city, which now looked completely different. The entire mountain was gone, exposing Duravound to the sun. Dwarves weren't so keen on that, but they'd just have to get used to it. Fortunately, when the debris fell back down, very little of it hit Duravound, so the damage was minimal. However, thousands upon thousands of dead bodies lay in the streets. The population of Duravound had been multiplied several times with the influx of refugees, but now that number had been cut in half, inflicting a devastating blow to the dwarven race. However, the city itself was intact, and while half of the population had been killed, half had been saved. Though hollow, a victory was still a victory.

Noah and his friends moved through the city, deafened by the wails of mourners and all those who were still trying to come to terms with what they had just experienced. They arrived at the palace, which was like an overturned anthill as Geord tried to restore order. With so much chaos happening, even Noah and his friends, the heroes who saved the city, had to wait to see him. They sat in the amphitheater, and the moment their butts touched the stone benches, they realized just how exhausted they were, nearly falling asleep as if they were instead lying on foam mattresses. While they waited, Noah examined his curse, projecting the magic circle on the ground.

"It worked," said Valia dryly.

"It did."

"It saved our lives, and probably even prevented Zyrga's resurrection."

"Indeed."

"And yet the idea that all those innocent people had their souls cannibalized and fed into your counterspell makes me sick and disgusted in a way I can't even describe."

"Go ahead and feel that way. Feel whatever you want to feel. I won't blame you for any of it. But after everything that's happened and the state that we're all in, please, just keep it to yourself."

"Ziradith also called your power, False, the sibling of the Rune of Corruption. We're going to have a serious talk about that soon."

"Hopefully, by that time, I'll actually have answers."

"Am I supposed to believe you don't know anything about that?"

"You are, because I don't. But like I said, we'll talk about all that later. Now is not the time."

Valia obliged and didn't speak again, leaving Noah to study his curse. He likewise kept his mouth shut, not voicing his surprise at how much energy his barrier had absorbed, holding onto it like a battery until it could be used to break his curse. It was still just a drop in the bucket, but the power of all those souls was far beyond what Noah had expected.

He couldn't help but wonder what would happen if he were to harvest every soul on the planet. Obviously, this would only be his final option, after exhausting every other possible method of breaking his curse. Still, if he were to replicate the obelisk system that Ragar used and apply it worldwide, a terrestrial-level sacrifice would be possible. Besides, it wouldn't be the first time he had sterilized a whole planet, and this could actually break his curse. Noah's thoughts got away from him, and he started imagining the steps and resources it would take to accomplish such an endeavor.

"The king will see you now," a royal messenger said, interrupting Noah's thoughts. He dismissed the idea from his mind and stood up. In all likelihood, he'd be dead before he ever had the chance to engage in such a plan. It was vastly impractical anyway.

He and his friends entered the palace and were brought to the throne room, where Geord sat with his head in his hands. Valia remembered King Leonard looking the same way after Valon caused the jailbreak that nearly destroyed Colbrand.

"King Geord. We're glad to see you're still alive," said Seraph.

"You're glad, eh? You're... glad. I find myself unable to remember what such a thing feels like. Is this what it was like for my predecessors? This dread, this terror, this lump of ice sitting in my stomach... is this what they felt while facing the Mad Elf King?"

"You're not the first leader to face this level of threat, and you won't be the last. Feel what you feel, but don't let it stop you from taking action," said Noah.

Geord got to his feet, walking with shaking steps. "Do you have any idea how long it will take to clean up this mess? To collect, identify, and bury the mountains of bodies in the streets? To fill the vast vacuum of skill and talent that was lost with all of the craftsmen, merchants, healers, and bureaucrats who just died?"

"Your Majesty, Uther suffered a similar blow just months before," said Seraph. "We are still standing, still fighting. You are not alone in this war, or in your pain. Your friends, your allies, are here to help you in your time of need."

"War? War?! Forget the war! Even without the cost of battle and the strife yet to come, it will take decades to undo the damage this country has suffered. Our economy, our infrastructure, our military, our population, our culture... The Profane may have failed to destroy us outright, but they slashed our nation's throat, and now we are bleeding out. Vandheim may cease to exist altogether."

"And from its remains, a new dwarven kingdom will rise," said Noah. "Or perhaps a democracy. Or a collection of city-states warring and trading with each other. None of it matters. Your Majesty, if there is anything you should have learned from this experience, it's that this is a danger that renders all flags meaningless. Titles, nations, and borders have lost all value in the shadow of this evil."

Geord moved to grab a nearby bottle of liquor, but Noah stopped him and grasped his shoulders. "If Vandheim ceases to exist, then so be it, and in a thousand years, dwarvish children will read about it in history books, but whether those children even exist or not depends on what you do now. They are who you are fighting for. It's not just the dwarves out there right now; it's all those who await to be born in the millennia to come. The preservation of your species, of life on this planet, that is what you are fighting for.

With or without the Profane, empires rise and fall, and become stepping stones for what comes next. Vandheim is no different. It is just a name, an institution. That crown on your head is just some shiny metal and stones that people decided are important. But the dwarves who call this land home, and will continue to do so long after this war is over, they are what's truly important. They will live under countless different flags as the ages pass, but what matters is that they live. If Vandheim falls in this war, then be glad you are the final king and get to plant the seed from which the future will grow. In the grand scheme of things, it does not matter what is lost, so long as something, anything, remains to start again. Just because Vandheim may fall doesn't mean your people will, not if you fight for the future."

Seraph stepped forward. "This war will change the face of the planet and all history that has yet to be written. If we, who fight on the front lines, can endure, then so can you. This is not a conflict where we can be frugal and worry about costs and deficits. Everything is at stake in this, which means we have to gamble everything we are to have any chance of winning. We gamble and keep gambling, no matter what we lose, until there is nothing left, because if we don't fight with everything we have, there will be nothing left. Your duty as king isn't to protect Vandheim. It's to utilize everything Vandheim has to offer to protect the world. That is how your predecessors faced this threat, and you have to, as well."

Geord turned away and looked at the throne room around him. Everything in that room was made of stone that could crumble, wood that could burn, fabric that could rot, and be forgotten by time. As Noah said, empires would rise and fall, and their history was full of examples. Was Vandheim really doomed to just become a name in a book in the far future? Perhaps that was always its fate. However, the person reading the book, and making sure there were still dwarves in the future to read that book--that was more important.

Geord finally looked back at Noah and Seraph with fire in his eyes. "Then if Vandheim is doomed to fall in this war, let us fall, so that the new flag that rises from the rubble won't be stained with blood. We will be the foundation upon which the future is built. That will be our sacrifice. And until we finally do fall, we will continue to fight, and show these demons the might of the dwarves!"

The king had found his strength. There would be many great hardships that his people would have to face in the near future, but they would endure, and so long as a single dwarf remained among the mountains, Vandheim would never truly die. Noah and the others felt their exhausted spirits lift from the king's determination. Sylphtoria, Uther, and Vandheim were united, and now, it was time to take the next step. Handent awaited, and they would not stop until the Profane were erased.

A time of great pain was set to come, and days later, it was already being experienced. In Sylphtoria, cries of anguish were echoing through the royal palace. Elisandra was in bed, screaming in bloody agony as she felt like she was going to be ripped open like a gutted fish. She was drenched in sweat and tears, wondering how her own mother, or any mother, could survive such an ordeal. A few choice maids were with her, including the midwife, while Lour and all of her male guards could only wait in the corridors below the palace.

"Come on, Your Majesty! One last big push!"

Elisandra harnessed every last bit of strength she had and gave a final push, feeling her baby enter the world. Both pain and relief swept through her, impossible to describe. It was finally over, and moments later, soft cries could be heard from the midwife's arms.

"It's a boy," she said with a smile.

"Rain," Elisandra murmured, more exhausted than she had ever been in her life. She was given a potion to remove her pain and heal the damage of childbirth, while Rain was washed and swaddled. Despite everything she had just been through, she couldn't help but laugh when her baby was handed to her. He was beautiful, picturesque, as if idealized in a portrait. His blond hair, his pointed ears, his soft, chubby cheeks; they were all perfect. "Rain," she murmured again.

"Did I miss the big reveal?"

She turned, seeing Noah appear. "Late as usual," she said with an exasperated smile. Noah approached the bed and reached out, but instead of going for Rain, he stroked Elisandra's cheek, making her gasp. She could feel him. "Noah, are you really here?"

He leaned down and kissed her. "Yeah. I'm here."

"How is that possible?"

"The Rune of False and the Rune of Space. I figured out how to combine them, allowing me to trade places with my illusory copies, but that doesn't matter right now.

"Noah!" she cried. "Noah!" The birth of her child, combined with the return of the man she loved, broke what little control she had left and sent tears of joy running down her cheeks.

Noah lay down beside her, and all of Elisandra's servants wisely departed to give the three of them some privacy.

"This is our baby, Noah. This is our child. Meet Rain," Elisandra cried, still unable to believe it.

"Hey, Rain. Welcome to the world. Of all the kids I've ever raised, he's definitely the best looking."

Elisandra laughed and kissed him, unable to contain her joy. Noah just held her close, savoring the moment. The war with the Profane was ongoing, Ziradith was slowly regaining her strength, and Noah had yet to find Valon and break his curse, but none of that mattered. There, in that room, in that bed, as he lay with Elisandra and Rain, all was right with the world.

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Thank you, everyone, for reading! Book 7 is complete, with just two volumes left in the series. I'm sorry you've had to suffer all these delays, and I truly appreciate your patience! Like I said before, the one upside is you won't have to wait a year to read Book 8. I won't be quitting Literotica, but I do hope it will improve. Now, I want to hear all your thoughts on Book 7. What were your favorite moments, scenes, events, and interactions? Please comment and give me your thoughts! I'll see you all in January!