She projected the staff’s stats to Lord Terme. Let him tremble as he beheld her power. It was one thing to hear stories of the Grand Enchantress but another to stand before her. Perhaps it was time for people to remember that it was not just Merrick Dragos who was to be feared.

  Twilight Quality: Lesser Artifact

  Base Dmg: 74

  Attack Speed: 3

  Weight: 1.0

  Active Effect 1: Time Stop- creates a field around the wielder that affects all but her. Within the field, the passage of time stops for all other beings. The staff wielder alone is immune. No magic or force short of the divine may travel in or out of the field for the duration. AoE: 50’ radius. Duration: 1 minute. 2/moon rise with a minimum 1-hour cooldown. Casting is instant.

  Active Effect 2: Warp Reality- allows the wielder to impose her will upon reality with power equivalent to a 7th Tier Grand Spell. True Resurrections, large area changes, and time travel of up to 1 day can be accomplished with this effect. Specifics vary. Casting time varies. Cost: 1 year of life force from the wielder.

  Active Effect 3: Eclipse- darkness and light blended into a singular strike. Deals either necrotic or radiant damage to all targets within the arc depending upon their vulnerabilities. Base Damage: 2000-3000. Armor Penetration: 50%. Magic Resistance Penetration: 75%. AoE: 120-degree arc traveling 100’. 2/sunrise + 2/moonrise. Cast Time is 1 second.

  Passive Effect 1: Staff may hold up to 10,000 mana for use by the caster.

  Passive Effect 2: +25 Necrotic Damage, +25 Radiant Damage as applicable.

  Passive Effect 3: Aura of Stillness- affecting all but the staff wielder. 25’ radius. Movement is slowed by 50%, All spells cost 40% more mana, Attack speed is slowed by 60%, a pressure weighs upon the mind.

  Passive Effect 4: Armor Penetration 50%

  Passive Effect 5: Wielder’s Stats are 25% more effective.

  Passive Effect 6: Aura of Immunity- caster is immune to all Charm magic, hostile transposition, or curses while holding the staff.

  Twilight the Staff is soul bonded to Miranda Dragos

  A terrible power radiated from the staff as she held it. The effect was immediately obvious as Lord Terme began to cower. Mira hated to pull the staff out. It was one of the three most powerful items she had ever made, and the magic of it could change the world around her.

  As she looked at the staff, she saw the crescent shaped top carved from dragon bone, which was fused into the wood of a holy ent. It was both beautiful and perverse. She had been so afraid to make it, but the art had called to her, and Mira did everything to advance her magic.

  Now as she held it, Mira wondered why she had been so reluctant to pull it out. It was her right to hold this. She had crafted it with her own hands. The magic woven into it was the pinnacle of her art both as a meta mage and as an enchanter.

  She looked at Lord Terme, and before she even realized it a tightly curved arc of absolute blackness outlined in brilliant light flew from the weapon. The dwarf only had the single second it took for the spell to fire off to prepare his defenses. Mira smiled. He might survive one attack, but she was not called the Grand Enchantress for nothing. Every square inch of this estate was covered with her handiwork. This was her domain, and no one, not even the Imperium, would threaten that.

  The anger she felt was far greater than she could put words to. She didn’t know why she should feel so strongly, yet she did. And then the power struck a sparkling shield and two enchanters did battle.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “The past informs but does not dictate the future. The sooner you learn that, the freer you’ll be.” —Journal of Professor Miranda Dragos

  False Gods’ Fall dungeon- Solun- Mira Nelson

  Mira didn’t quite know why she attacked. There was a strange juxtaposition in her mind between the absolute certainty that a pre-emptive attack was necessary and horror that she would do such a thing. Her high Intelligence allowed her to process the situation at high speed.

  This led to her beginning to feel an out-of-body experience. It was like there were two Miras. One Mira was fighting to defend her home and the other was… well, somewhere else. She couldn’t put her finger on it, so she doubled down on her battle.

  The wave of energy struck out at Lord Termes. He tried his best to dodge it. His thick body was more agile than one would expect. At the last second, he threw out a talisman carved with the rune for barrier. Its clay form shattered in the air as the eclipse wave struck it.

  Mira couldn’t help but smile at that. He was using single-use items rather than simply erecting a mage shield. It was far inferior since a barrier would be very good against physical or even elemental damage but provided only limited protection from either necrotic or radiant energy.

  Then again, her abilities were known to all of Solun—at least in part. No mage would be foolish enough to erect a mage shield if they knew they were fighting Mira. They hadn’t called her shield slayer for no reason. She was quite the terror for a mage to fight.

  The white cutting edge of radiant energy blasted through the barrier. Its sparkling form shattered in the air and dissipated as quickly as it had formed. Then the dark wave of necrotic energy washed over Termes. He only managed to partially dodge it and screamed in agony as his muscles withered under the effect. Mira had to assume the damage was cut in half or more, but the outcome of this battle was already decided.

  Termes’ left arm was hanging limply at his side now, but his right arm was frantically pulling pieces from his spatial pouch. Each block that he pulled out was thrown on top of the other. Mira smiled. He was trying to form a construct here on her property.

  She allowed him enough time to throw out the six pieces and then their runes began to glow. The enchanted pieces worked together and started to expand. The creature that was formed stood at least twelve feet tall. Its body was a square block of obsidian that had to weigh several tons while its two legs were jointed rectangles and worked to move it forward ponderously.

  It wasn’t fast, simply implacable and difficult to control like all golems were. Mira had been fascinated with golems since she had first been pulled to Solun and encountered the quicksilver golem. She had made hundreds of them over the years and seen many others made by her allies and enemies.

  They were incredibly hard to destroy, requiring far more force to be applied than a living being. Yet, no matter how useful or lifelike they could become, all constructs lacked that vital spark that defined a living being, let alone the soul that only higher living beings had.

  No mortal enchanter could duplicate the work of the Gods in creating a living being. It wasn’t for a lack of trying. Mira knew that better than most.

  Its eyes tracked her from the small sphere that sat atop its body while it pointed cylindrical arms prepared to stab her. Mira had already reflexively activated one of her many mage shields. This one was tied to the Grand Mage’s Mantle spell that was always wrapped around her.

  There were many ways she could attack Termes, countless spells at her disposal. He was powerful, Tier 6 and advanced in his class as well, but he was no match for her. That was what caused Mira the most pause. Termes and whoever sent him had to know she would defeat him. What was the play here? She had never liked mysteries. It would be best if she could take him alive.

  The golem crashed into her mage shield, dealing over 4000 points of damage. She could have survived that due to a full set of mythic gear as well as mythic health and mana rings, but it would have hurt. To her shield, though, it was only 20% damage.

  She jumped back and watched the golem move a bit more. Satisfied that she understood it, Mira activated the control runes that were buried beneath the estate. Any construct on the estate could be brought under her sway.

  The Lego golem—as she had dubbed this type of creature when she designed the first one so long ago—teetered and then came to a stop. She smiled. That was that. It was unlikely that Termes had much else to throw at her.

  “Surrender, and I promise to make your death painless. You won’t get that same offer from my husband, especially once he learns you tried to kill me.”

  “Kill you? Why would I want to kill you? You are the only hope for the world.”

  Mira stopped. She was missing something. She didn’t like that feeling. Her instinct was to simply fire off a swarm of spells to overwhelm the short man. Yet, something deeper than instinct spoke. That other part of her didn’t want to fight him.

  Of all things, it wanted to speak to him. She couldn’t put her finger on what was going on, but that other part of her was somewhere else. No, not somewhere, it was somewhen else. That had to be it.

  “Wait, what do you mean?” Mira asked, but this time her voice trembled.

  Her body felt different. It was like a veil had been pulled back. She was living in a vision. That’s right. This was part of the dungeon test.

  She glanced at the items she was wearing. They were all powerful beyond measure. Her body was older, but she still felt strong. Power practically oozed out of her.

  A flicker of hope crossed Termes’ face. “You are the key.”

  The oddness she felt made Mira more testy. She snapped, “Speak plainly. I don’t have time for riddles.”

  All the while her mind was struggling to grasp whether this was real or simply a vision. It was testing her. The words had been written: “know thyself”.

  “Your husband is too strong. So are you for that matter. He holds all of Solun in his claws.”

  “I still don’t know what you want. Are you asking me to betray my husband?”

  “Never. Your husband was once a good man. He has been driven to this by a series of events. I’m sure that each step he took seemed unavoidable. No single act has been evil, but they have combined to create a nightmare for all of Solun.”

  The new Mira scoffed at that. For a moment she lost control, and out slipped the words. “Bah, Solun is safe. The people prosper under my husband. Only when they fight do they get hurt.”

  “I’m not going to argue that what happened had to happen. It did. Slaying the shadow clan was important—as was your eventual battle with Alucien. You were there. You know he couldn’t have been defeated without the two of you working together.

  “Then when the Warlord of Talos appeared, it was your husband who struck him down. I know that had to have hurt. Yet you have stayed by his side all these years.”

  Something about that caused a great pang of grief to rise within Mira. It had been necessary… hadn’t it? He refused to see the need for peace through strength. The warlord hadn’t known the horrors that Alucien would have unleashed. Still, it hurt.

  “You still aren’t making sense,” new Mira said as she regained control.

  “Don’t you see, the time for war and an iron fist are gone. You are the only one who can make Merrick see that. You and your son. He feels like he is alone in the world, but we have reason to believe that he has a cousin on Talos. The Beast Queen has kept it safe. You alone can make him see reason. You alone can be a bridge between the continents.”

  The words made sense. Yet, Mira was drawn to this world. The power she felt was everything she had been aiming for. So many of these names were strange to her, yet they elicited powerful emotions within her. She glanced at the Lego golem.

  They had been wise to choose that build. It reminded her of old things she had thought forgotten. This strange balance between past and present—or was it future and present—kept her off balance. She wanted this life. The power it came with as well as the sense of unconditional love she had felt from Derrick was intoxicating.

  Her son. Wait, she had a son. She wasn’t a mother. She had never even married. Was this just a dream, a test of the dungeon, or a vision of the future?

  Know thyself.

  She released the golem and streaked away, her speed no less astounding than in the past. Mira reached the drake pens. Where lesser races kept horses for riding, her husband had domesticated drakes. She had a fleeting memory of a certain dungeon drake she had known in what felt like another lifetime.

  All that faded as she saw Derrick clinging to the fences. His eyes were glued to the drakes as he rambled on about which one he was going to ride.

  She didn’t have a son. She never had. Yet Mira had memories of birthing him, feeding him, and watching him grow. Her heart was filled with love for a boy she didn’t know. She remembered her husband in the same way as a memory that wasn’t a memory.

  They had grown apart over the years. The necessity of violence had scarred them both. Grasping for power was a lonely business, even if you only used the power to keep the world safe.

  None of that tainted her feelings for Derrick. He was lovely, and she felt drawn to him. If she rejected this world, did that mean that she would lose her son? Could she risk that?

  She’d only been in the vision for minutes, or had she lived all the past years? Dragonkin didn’t have many offspring. It had taken them years for her to get pregnant. She remembered decades of painful longing. Could she give that up now?

  Mira took a deep breath.

  Know thyself.

  Those words echoed in her mind, but it wasn’t what really moved her. Her father had told her it was better to suffer a truth than to live a lie.

  This vision offered her everything she wanted. She had a husband who loved her, even if they had grown apart. She had a son, a family of her own. She had power and safety and had made Eloria work for her.

  But at what cost? She scanned through her memories. Many suffered. Many had died. The fields were full of serfs—no, call them what they were, slaves. They all worked for her, for her and her family.

  There had to be a better way. Mira knew she needed to wake up. She didn’t look at Termes. His question of turning her didn’t matter. No, she looked at Derrick, at her son, who wasn’t. “I’ll do better.”

  Then the world began to fade around her.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “An army unneeded is expensive wisdom. A need without an army felt cheap at first until it cost everything.” —Memoirs of the Warlord of Talos

  Baldora- David Nelson

  Dave cast Gate and returned to his bind spot in the apartment he shared with

  Emiri. There was some initial resistance. Yeah, he should have thought about the palace being protected by some type of field that would only allow teleportation to a specific field. Eikhorn’s castle in Albia had similar protection. Whoever put this protection in place must not have contemplated resisting a Tier 5 caster.

  Dave’s spell eventually muscled through. Of course, as soon as he materialized, he found a knife at his throat.

  Emiri must have realized it was him because she jumped back with a yelp. “Don’t do that. I could have killed you… well, at least I might have hurt you badly. That and your backlash thingy might have killed me.”

  Dave felt a flash of panic go through him. She was right. His defensive ability could kill a loved one or ally who mistakenly surprise attacked him. That was something he would have to find out about limiting. Then he just shook his head. The last thing he needed now was another issue to research.

  That was all pushed out of his mind though as he grabbed his wife and crushed her to him. He kissed her forehead, but that only sufficed for a second before they joined in a more impassioned kiss. After holding her for a full minute, he finally said, “Is Caiden awake?”

  “I had just finished feeding him. He is in the bed. Go ahead and see him, but try not to wake him up. I’m going to have to put more points into Endurance just so I can keep up with his nighttime feeding schedule.”

  Dave chuckled. There was a reason that he was happy Emiri had breastfed their other kids.

  She must have sensed what he was laughing about. “Don’t think you don’t owe me some diaper changes.” Then she got an evil laugh. “Oh, and they only have cloth diapers here.”

  The next hour passed peacefully. Emiri restrained herself from asking Dave what he had been up to, and he was very much aware that she wanted to. If he knew one thing in two worlds it was his wife. But the time together with their newest child was too nice to waste.

  They compared notes about the other kids, and she filled him in on what Jackson had been up to.

  “4th Tier, huh, and more than halfway to 5th. That’s impressive. The stronger you all get, the less I will worry about you. But don’t worry, I shouldn’t have to be gone for a while. I’ve banked a fair amount of time with the dungeon.”

  She frowned at him, and Dave instinctively knew that the waiting to ask period was over. “You’ve said you were doing something for the new contract with the dungeon, yet you keep being mysterious about it. I’ve really tried to be patient and not pester you with questions, but what have you been up to?”

  “Saving the world or the continent at least.”

  The frown didn’t leave her face, so Dave hurried to offer a more detailed explanation. “The dungeon enhanced me again. I can now become a raid boss while within the sphere of the dungeon’s influence. It gave me a couple of other boosts and taught me some spells. The tradeoff was that I have to spend 10% of my time working on projects for the dungeon.”

  He didn’t go into the dungeon changing into a fairy or the break from Altracia because he already had. Emiri was nodding as he spoke. “One of the spells she gave me was a conjuration spell called Lesser Creation. It allowed me to make something out of nothing. Although in the case of more durable products, I have to use magicyte. So I got a crap done of dungeon relay stations for lack of a better term.”

  Dave judged Emiri to be confused by the expression on her face, so he went on to explain further and just hoped she didn’t accuse him of mansplaining stuff to her.