General Magical

  Charm Magic Focus: 20

  Magic Schools/Spells

  Divination: 20

  Assess Enemy

  Identify

  Sure Strike

  Minor Scan: Secret Doors

  Lesser Trap Detection

  Charm: 20

  Daze

  Lesser Charm Enemy

  Blur

  Shaping: 20

  Minor Binding

  Minor Mending

  Minor Enlarge

  Stone Fist

  Lesser Repulsion

  Lesser Gazelle’s Grace

  Fleeting Fury

  Gear:

  Ring of the Heir

  Epic Health Ring

  Earring of Charm

  Earring of Non-detection

  Wand of Fireballs

  Wand of Lightning Bolts

  Wand of Lesser Cone of Cold

  Wand of Healing

  Wand of Paralyzation

  Wand of Shock

  Wand of Magic Missiles

  Wand of Frost

  Wand of Flame

  Brooch of Absorption

  Cloak of Invisibility

  Girdle of Defense

  Improved Buckle of the Mage's Mantle

  Blessed Dagger

  Spatial Bag (basic)

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  “Unworked dreams die when night fades and the soul must face the light.” —Inscription upon the tomb of a forgotten king.

  False Gods’ Fall dungeon- Solun- Mira Nelson

  As reality settled around Mira, she found herself once again on a large, windswept plain. The grass was long, and she could sense the movement of numerous tiny creatures ranging from bugs to small rodents and snakes.

  Pain coursed through her, and she felt like her heart had been torn in half. How could she love someone who was the product of a vision? She cursed the dungeon and its cruelty. If you had asked her a day ago if she wanted children, she would have said, “Uh, maybe. Yeah, probably. Someday.”

  Now she had memories of a son she had fought to obtain, then raised, and loved. Thankfully, those memories were fading, but even now the pain was very real. Her heart ached. It was too much to lose him.

  As the vision faded—so that she remembered the events during the vision but the emotion related to them faded—she was struck by a thought. Was that how her mother felt about her?

  She thought she loved her parents, but what she felt for them was a candle against the sun compared to what she had felt for her imaginary child. The weight of that realization leveled her. Perhaps her mother deserved to be cut more slack. That was the kind of emotion that could twist a person up inside.

  It was something she would have to think about. She couldn’t help but remember the last words she had said before she left the vision. She needed to do better. She had meant it as a promise to the idea of a son she might have, but she needed to own that sentiment in the here and now.

  She looked around but didn’t see Dragos. Hmm… he had finished the first test before her. Perhaps this one had been harder for him. She couldn’t help but wonder what he had been tested with. Had it been the same? It seemed too big a coincidence that in her vision he was her husband.

  Was that a vision of a possible future or merely a construct of the dungeon?

  There was no way for her to know for sure, but there was much she could take away from this experience. She remembered that staff she had looked at, and her hand itched to touch it for real.

  Then a notification sprang up:

  Congratulations you have survived the second trial of the fallen, the trial of the identity!

  XP Gained: 1000

  Stats: Charisma +5

  Eloria is conflict. Before you can stand firm, you must know who you are.

  The XP pushed her to level 38, but Mira just left the stat and character points alone. She was more concerned about what was keeping Dragos. She ended up having to wait an hour, which allowed her time to think about life up to this point. She expected that this vision was going to cause her a great deal of self-reflection moving forward.

  When Dragos finally appeared, he stepped out of a portal in the air. It disappeared and seemed to drop him off. Mira called out to him, but he didn’t respond. She walked towards him but did so slowly. He was her teammate for this dungeon, and in that vision, he had been her husband, but what did she really know about him?

  He was powerful and dangerous, and she needed to be sure he wasn’t going to lash out. If his vision had been as painful as hers had then he might need some time to himself. She stood just a few feet away watching him, looking for any sign as to his mental state.

  Eventually, he lifted his head up, and tears were streaming down his face complete with its golden scales. When he saw her he let out a wrenching moan followed by repeatedly mumbling, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  Mira judged him to be more traumatized than dangerous, so she reached out to him. “I’m here, Dragos. You aren’t alone.”

  He looked up at her, and something seemed to flash through his eyes. His expression became that of a drowning man thrown a lifeline.

  “I didn’t mean to betray you. I just couldn’t kill all of them.”

  “Dragos, that was the vision. It wasn’t real. It was a test of your character.”

  “But can you ever forgive me, uxor?”

  There it was again. That word. She knew there was more going on than she could perceive, but she tried to do the mature thing. “Do you need to talk about it?”

  He looked up at her from his knees. “No, I only need your forgiveness. Please let me know there is a way forward, uxor.”

  “No forgiveness is necessary, but for whatever it is worth, I forgive you. I’m depending on you to get through this dungeon. I need you.”

  Those last three words seemed to restore some of his strength to him. The dragonkin stood up but didn’t say anything at first. Then when he did speak, he said, “Would it be too much to ask for a hug?”

  Mira struggled to keep the shock off her face. That was about the last thing she expected from him. But it wasn’t any big deal. She leaned into him but then found herself swept up into his arms. This was a tight hug where he pulled her to him. She hadn’t realized that so much intimacy could be conveyed in a hug. Maybe it was the residual emotions from the vision, but it made her feel.. not uncomfortable. Actually, that was maybe the issue. It felt too natural.

  It lasted longer than she had expected, but she almost missed it when he released her. He looked down at her. “I’m sorry the vision affected me deeply. In my vision, we were… well, we were something to each other.”

  “In my vision, we were married and had a son.”

  “Oh… I didn’t know if it would affect you.”

  “If what would affect me?” Mira stared at him, and yet he wasn’t answering her, so she went on. “I know something happened and not during that last vision. You have been looking at me oddly since then.”

  “If we make it past the dungeon then I will ask my sire how best to deal with this situation. I promise. Will that be good enough?”

  She sighed. “I guess it will have to be. What should we expect from the final challenge?”

  “From what I was told, this is a physical challenge where we will have to fight monsters or people. None of them are real in a normal sense, meaning they don’t have souls. They are just creations of the dungeon. But I was also told that not all the challenges are as straightforward as they might appear.”

  Mira pondered that for a moment, but then a notification appeared.

  Face the three different battle challenges a dragon might face. First wave begins in 30 seconds.

  That wasn’t much time to prepare. Mira went through her spells and gear one more time. She still had spells stored in her staff, along with its mana supply. The same for her the butt of her whip. If she had to melee, her whip would be the best option as she had focused on it the most. Her bracelet of spell penetration would enhance the effectiveness of her spells but didn’t really give her any other options.

  Her wand and the unworn ring of spell storing gave her options, but she would have to remove her Lesser Wind Ring if she wanted to make use of the ring of spell storing. She mostly had healing spells in it anyway, but those had been cast by her mom so were more powerful than anything she could cast.

  Considering what she would be facing, her spells just didn’t instill any confidence in her. Once again, this was likely to come down to her skills as a meta-mage. This was going to have to change.

  She was pulled from her thoughts as she felt magic swirling around Dragos. He had moved fifty feet from her, but it was powerful enough that it drew her attention. Could he really be so embarrassed about whatever had happened in his vision that he couldn’t bear to stand next to her?

  Oh no. This was so much more cool than squishy emotions. This was raw magical power. He was using some type of class or racial ability. Her eyes grew wider as she watched the spell pattern form up. She tried memorizing as much of it as she could.

  The urge to attempt using her Steal Spell class ability was almost overwhelming. The only reason she didn’t was that her ability didn’t just duplicate a spell it also temporarily stole the spell from the caster. She wouldn’t do that to Dragos, even if he wasn’t her ally in a dungeon. Then again, she also didn’t know if it would work on a class-specific ability.

  Either way, she was so distracted by the magic that she almost didn’t see the wonder that was unfolding in front of her. His body was rapidly expanding beyond anything that her dad’s shaping magic did. His neck grew longer, and his form changed. Within seconds, where a man with scales and wings had stood, there was now a dragon.

  Even in dragon form, Dragos wasn’t nearly as large as that massive beast she had seen during the first test, but he was still easily three times larger than Altracia. His scales were all gold, and his clothes and equipment had somehow been absorbed into his body.

  It was staggering that all of that had happened in the thirty seconds allotted to them, but the time was up now. Out across the plains, she heard thunder. The ground was shaking, and a horde of horsemen was charging at them. There had to be thousands of them.

  Mira felt fear slam into her. Dragos had said this wasn’t a vision. They really had to fight these monsters. As they closed in, she saw that they were all humans and elves astride horses with bows or spears for weapons. She literally had nothing she could do against an enemy of this magnitude.

  She leapt into the air triggering her Air Walker trait. Dragos roared and joined her in the air. The force of his wings flattened the grass beneath them and they were both far above the army before it could reach them. That didn’t stop them though as the army kept charging across the plains.

  From the sky, she could estimate that the army had to be 100,000 riders strong. It appeared, however, that they weren’t the target of said army. Instead, ten miles in the distance she could see a shining crystal city. That must be the target. Hmm… was their test to protect the city.

  In her head, she heard Dragos. “Get on my back.”

  She hadn’t expected telepathy but supposed that it made sense with a dragon. How else would they be able to communicate while flying and such? She heeded his instructions and ran across the sky until she was on his back. There was a place between two of his bony spurs at the base of his neck where she could sit.

  As he flew, she saw the currents of magic. It made her jealous for a moment until she realized that Dragos wasn’t actually manipulating all those threads. They were just an instinctive part of his flight. It was the same as when he had flown in humanoid form, only much more dramatic. The wind didn’t bother her. She felt it slightly, but the magic moved most of the air currents around her as it aided his flight.

  He shot forward like an arrow. She wasn’t sure he was as fast as she was now, but in this form, he was much closer. Mira could only imagine how terrifying it would be to have an engine of destruction like this chasing after you.

  His speed worked to his benefit as he was quickly in front of the charging army.

  She spoke into his mind. “I think we have to protect that city.”

  “I concur.”

  What she didn’t say was that she wasn’t sure how they would do that.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” —Sun Tzu.

  False Gods’ Fall dungeon- Solun- Mira Nelson

  The army continued to rush forward. From up here, they seemed small and helpless. They fired arrows into the air, but even the ones that had enough range to reach Dragos were blocked by the winds that swirled around him. She never needed to expend any mana to stop them.

  Dragos said, “I have an idea.”

  Then he flew to the far edge of the army and came back with a diving strafing motion. Jets of flames billowed out of his mouth and burned into the army. Horses and men screamed in pain, and then those behind screamed in terror as they couldn’t stop themselves from running into the jets of flame.

  Still, for all the power that he displayed, Dragos didn’t kill much more than a tenth of one percent of the army. They couldn’t stop the army like that. Mira realized there had to be more to the test than this.

  “Stop, Dragos. We have to find another way. What does it prove to the dungeon if you simply kill all these men? They are all weak from what I can tell, none above 1st Tier. Given long enough, even I could fly overhead and eventually kill them.”

  “It proves perseverance.”

  “Perhaps. But think about the lessons we have learned up to this point. Does this wholesale slaughter mesh with that?”

  “I guess not, but what if it is a test to see if I will give up?”

  “If that were the case then we would be attacking a city or other hardened position. Instead, we are cast in the role of defenders.” Then another thought hit her. “Wait, no, we aren’t the defenders. We are peacekeepers. Having power doesn’t give us the right to rule, but it does give us the obligation to stop evil. I think we are just supposed to find a way to stop the enemy.”

  “You are as wise as you are beautiful.”

  Mira would have laughed if a guy said that to her back on Earth, but she felt his sincerity through the telepathy, and that only made it more intimidating.

  He asked, “What do you suggest?”

  “How many times in a day can you do that little flame thing of yours?”

  “Flame thing? No dragon wants to be told that it’s little.”

  Mira blushed, but then Dragos continued, “It depends on how quickly I do it back-to-back or how long I hold the breath for. If I get enough rest, then I can do it hundreds of times a day.”

  “Would you be able to do one long wall of fire all the way across the front of the army?”

  “Yes, or at least I would try for you. But my flame would burn low after that, and it would take time for it to regain its strength.”

  “I can’t make this decision on my own, but they are only a couple miles from the city now. I think we should try it.”

  Dragos didn’t respond with words but rose high into the sky and prepared for another dive bomb attack. He had to get far enough out in front of the army so that he would be able to make a pass in front of the entire thing. That meant that he needed to create his wall of dragon fire a mere half-mile from the city.

  Mira hoped that she was right because if not there was no way they could deal significant damage to the city. It would be too close, and the city was a wonder of beauty with huge crystal spires, but what it lacked was any defensive structures.

  As he dove, Mira could feel his muscles tensing under her. He poured out a stream of dragon fire then leveled off and flew the mile or more of width blazing a wall of fire nearly a mile long that cut the army off. His flight seemed sluggish as he pulled up, but the fire was burning bright.

  Mira looked at the fire and was amazed to see that dragon fire was infused with mana. This was no normal fire. It burned hot enough to melt steel and drew in the ambient mana around it to maintain its fuel. Even the dirt beneath it was being consumed, but as she watched it, she could tell the fire was still going to burn out too quickly.

  She wracked her brain trying to think of a solution. It was obvious, but she hadn’t seen it. She wasn’t just here as a passenger and not just to discuss strategy. She brought her own unique talents to the table, and the dungeon had assessed both of them and prepared the challenges appropriately for them.

  The first two challenges had been highly customized and triggered strong emotional reactions. Why should this one be any different? So she reached out to work a spell weaving on a scale she had never dreamed of before. The only saving grace was that she didn’t have to create a spell form. All she had to do was push more mana into the dragon fire that Dragos had already supplied.

  It was like moving the ocean with her hands. Swipes of mana fed into the fire, and where it did the flames grew brighter and rose higher. But she was only managing to hit small portions of the wall at a time. The rest was falling lower and lower.

  Dragos did nothing but circle overhead and keep her as close to the wall as possible, but she felt his support. He wished her well and would protect her while she worked her magic. Handling mana was what she did. She just needed to think bigger.

  Instead of reaching out with an image of her hands to pull the mana into the fire, she envisioned all the mana answering her call. She was a pied piper enticing the ether of the world to fuel the flame. This feat might not be something she could reproduce outside the dungeon, but here, with the density of the mana, she was able to build up her song.

  The mana trickled into the wall first and spread from its center until it reached from end to end. As she pushed harder, the mana responded faster and faster. Soon the wall of fire was blazing fifty feet high and burnt with a rich golden color. The army had come to a stop a few hundred feet from it, but the heat became so intense that they had to begin retreating.