As the dungeon core erupted, waves of pure mana blasted forth, destroying all in its path. Death yawned and snapped her fingers, creating protective domes around the city, the castle, and two vampires at ground zero. She could have protected Blake, who had been holding the core when it exploded, but she didn’t bother. After all, Blake’s mixed heritage would be more than enough to shield her from the mana onslaught being unleashed. In fact, she figured those two vampires could have probably survived, but she didn’t want to risk it—the last thing she wanted was to have her daughter upset at her, especially since she had been an absentee mother for the last two eras or so.

Death shook her head in disapproval at the pathetic lizard calling itself a god. “Out of all the reckless decisions, detonating a dungeon core?” It had been easy enough to protect everyone and everything that mattered, but she questioned why it had mattered. Still shaking her head at herself, she whispered, “Duskara better appreciate all I’m doing for that kid of hers.”

Crossing her arms with a harrumph, Death transformed from the form of a small child into her true self, a woman of grace. She kept her pink hair, dark, cracked granite skin, and endless voids for eyes, but her demeanor changed completely. She now carried herself with regal and magnificent grace, like a Primordial—not a goddess, but one of the two original mothers of the gods—rousing from a deep slumber. Death slowly vanished with a fading smile, ensuring her presence remained unnoticed.

Observing the imminent battle, Death hoped no further intervention would be necessary; after all, this was the most she had involved herself in for ages. Casting one final, lingering glance towards the double convergence in the sky, Death acknowledged that her eras of detachment were drawing to a close. Too much was happening to hide away now.

Magic was pulling through not one but two worlds, and among them, her lost love was returning. Just the wisps of Life’s essence were leaking through the convergence, kickstarting the broken cycles of reincarnation. No one had noticed, of course, but Death had. Across the Moons of Völuspá, bellies began to swell as renewed life stirred within them.

Moreover, what none had perceived yet was that the immortality all had partaken in was now fading as mortality took hold. Of course, this didn’t affect all the various races equally, but Death still snickered at how amusing it would be once all within the realm knew what had transpired. Even those who claimed to be Ascended Gods were now mere mortals, though she wondered how many centuries it would take for time to claim them. So much was quickly changing, yet Death was here, overseeing some minor battle that didn’t play much in the grander scheme. Still, it was fun to watch but meaningless in the end.

Keeping her gaze locked above at the swirling hues of a stellar aurora created by the convergences, Death murmured from nowhere that could be seen or heard, “Such trifling squabbles, mere shadows before the storm, when all that I lost through the veil is reborn. A reckoning looms as dark rhythms adorn, for even my guilt and inaction must face her scorn. I shall bare my essence to her, seek forgiveness, or bear her thorn.”

~

I could swear someone was whispering something, but glancing around, I couldn’t determine where it was coming from. With a shrug, I dismissed it as the mad ramblings of my mind, after all, if my thoughts were good at anything, it was rambling.

Hey?! What the hell, Nightmare!

What?

Mad ramblings? Was that a jab at me?

No?

…

Where was I again? That’s right! The blasted dragon had exploded the dungeon core I was so happy to have stolen from him. Stealing it was actually pretty easy, thanks to Phantasmal Surge, which I’d like to point out, I didn’t need the system for—not that it mattered, since I devoured my own skill. I really should thank Granny Death for the tip. Anyway, I’m rambling again.

When the dragon’s magic hit the core, it blasted me clean off my bones, sending my squishy pudding form flying and splattering. Amazingly, I stayed together in one piece. However, what was odd was that I felt… well, amazing. No, really. Mana flooded everything to the point where I felt a bit tipsy, which might explain why I couldn’t hold back my snickering.

I slowly walked forward, stepping over my skeleton on the ground, realizing a skeleton wouldn’t do much for me if I was constantly getting separated from it. I was literally easy to peel off the bones, which wasn’t good. If I was to fight a dragon, I needed something more—I needed armor.

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With all the mana swirling around as if I were standing in a hurricane, I couldn’t see shit, so I figured now was as good a time as any to play around with it. Closing my eyes, I let the armor weave around me as I envisioned a knight’s armor. Opening my eyes, I frowned as I glanced down at my bone-white, flat chest—oh, and I may have also fucked up the joints because when I tried to take a step, I fell flat on my face. Grumbling, I oozed out of my armor.

Next, I tried a Samurai-inspired suit and fucked that one up too. Then it was Spartan, and let’s just say I could move in that one, but it was a bit... well, Spartan, so I ditched it. Almost thirty minutes had passed since I started weaving armor, and the mana hurricane was dying.

A bit annoyed, I decided to go back to the bones, though I created more pockets to hide my flesh within, from hollowing out my bones to even closing the gaps between my ribs. It wasn’t perfect, but it would do. I just needed to spend some more time after this battle to figure out a suit of armor that would work best for me.

That said, I did make a facemask from Web of Whispers silk combined with the flexible Silk Webbing. Much to my delight, the two silks weaved together so flawlessly that I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began, allowing parts of my face to move about. It was then that I thought about Barbara’s bat armor, you know, the cool armored variant from the asylum games. Only if I went that route, mine would look all white from the silk… unless I spread a thin layer of my pudding flesh over the exterior of it. Hmm.

However, time was up, and I caught a glimpse of the dragon glancing around, his eyes landing on Aurelia who stood over the dragon bitch. And that just wouldn’t do.

Still feeling high on the mana around me, I struggled not to burst into a fit of laughter and excitement as I called forth Phantasmal Dominion. I may have always struggled with envisioning how this spell worked, but now that I understood it from assimilating it through Devourer, I absolutely loved it.

Much of my magic, which I initially didn’t know how to use effectively, seems more about instilling fear—like, debuffs. You know, how Charming someone can make them fall in love with you, making them easier to manipulate and take advantage of. Well, Phantasmal Dominion and Phantasmal Mist seem to be more about instilling dread and fear into my enemies’ minds. Mist seems to make people hallucinate, seeing their worst fears, which often manifest as lost loved ones, but I’m pretty sure it could be other things, like a horde of spiders crawling over someone with arachnophobia.

While Dominion is more about claiming everything within the area as mine—no, wait, that isn’t right. Dammit, and here I thought I had figured it out. It’s more like an area of effect buff zone for my spells. Ha! I figured it out… but wait, do I need a buff zone when all my magic cast without the system is only as strong as the ambient mana I put into it?

Dream, it’s simple; Phantasmal Dominion brings in ambient mana from the Dream Realm, boosting our magic. It really isn’t useful with all the ambient mana from the dungeon core detonation.

So we shouldn’t use it right now?

Oh, no, that’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m all for seeing if we can get a boost. We’re fighting a dragon, so let’s use all we can.

Okay. Sounds good to me!

Nodding to myself, I unleashed my dominion alongside my mist, feeling an all-too-familiar power blend with the overwhelming amounts of ambient mana. I tilted my head back, luxuriating in the sheer power around me. At the same time, I let my voice whisper out to the dragon who had only just glanced over at Aurelia—yep, everything that had just happened, well, had only taken a fraction of a second to play out in my overactive mind, so it literally just happened. Where was I? Right! I whispered out, letting my words be carried across my dominion, “No, you’re playing with me. Pfft!” I may have struggled with not chuckling there.

As my mist spread across my dominion, I closed my eyes and focused on what was perhaps my new favorite spell, mainly because one, I created it, and two, lightning—I mean, lightning! Technically, I named it Blightning, seeing as combining two spells into one had electrifying results, almost as if they turned into plasma, which is essentially what lightning is, right? I took a physics class once, so I think I’m right… let’s say I’m fifty-fifty on that fact.

Regardless, Blightning rippled throughout the mist in flashing sparks of orange, creating a haunting and mesmerizing spectacle. I was nearly giggling with glee as I called out, “Tee-hee! I wanted to keep that core, you dick. He-he-he! But I should actually be thanking you. All this mana in the air—it feels amazing! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Now, how would you like to die, slow and painful or painfully slow? Ha-ha-ha-ha!”

“Don’t mock me, insect,” the dragon roared. “I’ll feast on your—” but I cut his words off with a Blightning strike to his face. It was a struggle not to laugh as the dragon staggered from the blow.

“Don’t be mad. We’re only getting started,” I whispered out into my dominion as I channeled my darkness, my lust for flesh and murder, and called forth my inner Nightmare. “Welcome to my domain, welcome to my nightmare,” I grinned, my sharp teeth gleaming within the Phantasmal Mist.

With my own seductive sway of my hips, I approached the dragon, letting the mist part before me to reveal myself before my opponent. It was odd fighting Orlaith; I felt so out of my element, wanting nothing to do with that battle. But facing this dragon, this so-called Ascended God, I was ecstatic. I was going to kill a god and feast on his intestines! Maybe even make a proper throne out of his skull for my sexy vampiress. Speaking of which, I wonder how she’s doing?