“Wooow! I’m flying!” Reani screamed.

“Girl get down,” Mast said.

I guess she was having fun. The Nightmare prowled around the northern tip of the woods so that it could find victims. It was similar to the Night Hag in that it would invade the dreams of its victims and torture them. Once their prey is filled with fear and unable to sleep, they would kill them in the most gruesome ways possible. Fuckers.

I would try and speak with them but the wind makes that a little hard and mouths opening up on my back would probably freak them out. I should leave them be for now. It gave me time to think about everything.

My life the last few months has been nothing but work. Hunt this, go here, go there. FIght these terrible monsters and claim their power. I have gotten way too complacent and trusting in my abilities. My fire immunity failed me because I fought something that didn’t care about it and that is also why my regeneration failed too. That fight left me half turned into a piece of charcoal and if I didn’t have Aqen there to pull me out I would have died.

I will not take a second chance. Tonight I am speaking with Blazeflight and the rest of the Giants to connect with their souls. Then with their abilities, I am going to have the others find the Nightmare. I will then carve a path through the forest to find and kill it quickly. I will lock his soul behind a mountain of chains and bury the creature so I won’t have to deal with it again.

When that is done I will head to Vasselheim and have this conversation the Gods want me to have. And then finally I will take a break. I have time before the Nein begin their journey. I don’t even have to do anything. They might just be fine on their own. Their journey will probably continue without any changes. I would love to simply sit back and do nothing but I am afraid that my actions have had some effect that will fuck up everything. So if I want a vacation I need to get it done before the Nein start their journey. Then after a short break, I will take Rubert's advice and fix Shady Creek Run.

…..........

About a week ago.

“Alright, here is what you need. The town is run by a bunch of different crime families that each take a piece of the pie for themselves,” Rubert said.

“Yea, they suck. It will be hard to get rid of them by myself,” I said.

“That's the problem. You need help. It is best if you either make people follow you or go out and recruit the people you need to help. But both methods need a show of force to prove you have the power to do what you say. You will also need gold to pay anyone you recruit. People there need to eat after all,” Rubert said.

“A show of force won't be that hard and I can take the gold from the criminals. Maybe wipe out a crime family or two and take their gold,” I said.

“Not the worst idea. It's a good demonstration of your power and will draw people to you. Either because they are scared you will kill them or happy you are taking charge. But this will bring you enemies. Can you guess what your biggest obstacle is to your reign,” Rubert said.

“The Savalirwoods?” I guessed. It was a massive forest filled with big magically twisted monsters after all.

“Not exactly. It is a danger but here is a bigger one. The Empire. They allow the Run to exist because it is too much of a hassle to destroy. If the empire attacks the criminals run into the forest and wait out the empire. The empire could just take over the town if the criminals leave but then they just rebuild on the other side of the forest. And now the empire has to fight the monsters themselves,” Rubert said.

That makes sense I guess. Leave the Run alone and they are an annoyance but harmless entity to the empire's leaders. Sure they hurt the citizens but the corrupt government can't be bothered as long as they are being bribed by the Run.

“So what do I do?” I asked.

“Conquer the town, settle up a puppet government, and then sell the city to the Diarchy,” Rubert said.

“Sell it? After all the hard work to take over it,” I asked.

“You don't want to be involved in running a town forever. Sell it to the Diarchy and they can deal with holding off the empire. You plan on telling them how they might end the curse on the Savalirwoods anyway. They will take back over the forest and the Run will be in between a rock and a hard place. Best to sell it to the Diarchy and let them negotiate with the empire,” Rubert said.

“What about the Iron Shepherds? If I clean up the run I will probably end up killing them. That will fuck up the timeline,” I said.

“So what? Do you think the Nein won't be able to handle whatever comes their way,” Rubert said.

“No, they should be fine. But if the Run gets cleaned up then the Gentleman won't send them north to meet with the Mardoon family. If they don't head north they won't meet Caduceus,” I said.

“Then you simply need to arrange the meeting,” Rubert said.

He wasn't wrong. I could probably do that. Caduceus would probably take the chance if I offered it to him. All of his family had left him home so it was just him there right now. When the time comes I can guide him to the Nein.

“Alright let's do it,” I said to Rubert.

………….

Rubert had told me I was too afraid of messing up the timeline. That I was too hesitant to try anything for fear of fucking something up. He pointed out that all I need to do is prevent the unsealing of the Chained oblivion, the unsealing of Uk’otoa, and Cognoza from entering the material plane. The war between the empire and dynasty can be ended by telling King Dwendal that his own damn mages stole important religious objects.

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Prevent 3 major events and the world keeps spinning. Seems simple enough.

“Alright land there!” Sanctum said, slapping my back. I miss Abaxis' telepathy spell.

I landed in a small clearing of the Savalirwoods. The plant life around here has been destroyed and the remains of a battle were easily visible.

“This is where Joseph and I fought the Nightmare. It likes to hunt around here as this is near one of the main roads that lead to Molaesmyr,” Sanctum said with sadness in his voice.

“Don't worry Sanctum, we will put your friend to rest,” Reani said.

“Thank you,” Sanctum said.

“Mr. Edsom. What abilities do you have that could be useful in this hunt,” Mast said.

“The information packet said the Nightmare looks like a horse but with a mane of fire. They can move between planes and are proficient spellcasters. Once I can get within ten feet of the creature I will create an antimagic field that will make holding it easy,” I said.

“An antimagic field? That is a rare and powerful ability but that would make most of my skills useless in this fight,” Mast said.

“I don't mean any disrespect but I don't want this fight to last long. I have spent a lot of effort to acquire abilities that will let me end fights quickly,” I said.

I motioned for Sanctum to go ahead. He led us into the forest tracking some signs of the creature I had no idea how to spot. I didn’t know what kind of ranger he was but they usually had magics for hunting certain creatures. Nightmares were fiends so he might have trained to have them be his favored foe. There were also horizon walkers. Rangers that knew the locations of portals to other planes. Nightmares might leave behind a similar energy that he could track.

All my guesses might have been correct because we soon found smoke rising from the forest and the sounds of screams. We rushed forward and soon found a lot of carnage. Body parts from several people littered the forest. Arms were wrapped in bundles and hung from trees. Feet were laid out around roots. Heads were pinned to trunks.

Reani the sweet cinnamon she was leaned over and hurled her breakfast out. Mast was stunned at the site. Sanctum looked like he was bottling up a tremendous rage.

“This is pure evil. Evil must die,” Reani said with a cold voice. There it was. The child soldier of the gods. A young girl who was raised with love and kindness to be a weapon against evil. A blind hatred against all evil that could easily be misguided.

“Alright heads up. Sanctum is it nearby?” I asked.

“Yes. It might have already spotted us from the ethereal plane,” Sanctum spoke.

“Good. Hey, you donkey-looking goat fucker! Come out and die like a good mare. I want to turn your corpse into glue,” I yelled.

“Are you certain antagonizing the creature is a good idea?” Mast asked.

A loud screech sounded in the forest. Followed was the sound of hooves breaking stone and wood under them. A black-furred horse with red eyes and a main fire stepped out from behind a tree. On its back was a zombified corpse with its head missing.

“Seems to have worked Professor Mast. You guys handle the Dullahan, I got the Nightmare,” I said.

My goal was to restrain the Nightmare and kill it before it could escape. I created hydra heads and tentacles and launched myself at the horse. It disappeared into a cloud of smoke before I could reach it.

They reappeared behind us and the rider threw a flaming skull. It exploded into a ball of fire. It couldn't overcome resistance or immunity and this wasn't a spell so I couldn't try and counter it. The others all had some level of magic and created shields to protect them from the fire.

Reani spoke some druidic words and a massive root erupted from the ground and grabbed at the Dullahan. He batted it away with his great axe.

The Nightmare burst into flames and charged at us. I rushed forward and created the antimagic field. I wasn't used to the oppressive feel of the nullifier’s energy so this was an uncomfortable feeling. I made sure to stay out of the range of my allies so I wouldn't stop their spellcasting.

The Nightmare charged into my field and all the fire on his body disappeared. It tried to stop once it realized but it was going too fast and it slammed into me. I was a bundle of limbs and tentacles making it easy to surround the creature. His rider was missing and I didn't see him.

The Nightmare screeched but I was stronger, negated his abilities, and was immune to his fire. I squeezed as hard as I could. The Dullahan appeared and charged me but the others stopped him. Sanctum toppled his former friend and shot several arrows infused with druidic magic.

The others had the more exciting part of this fight. I simply choked the life from the horse and waited for it to finally die. Not even a minute later was the Nightmare dead and the Dullahan a lifeless corpse once again.

“You were not kidding Mr. Edsom. With your abilities the Nightmare was a much easier beast to kill,” Mast said.

“Is anyone hurt?” Reani asked.

“I could use a heal missy,” Sanctum said holding out his arm which had a long gash he got from the Dullahan blade.

Reani gathered some dirt and moss and slapped it on his wound. Sanctum cried ouch but Reani held his arm and said some words in druidic. Vines grew around his arm and glowed with green little.

“Magic is weird,” I said.

“Says the man who can deny all magics with a thought. How does that work anyway?” Mast asked.

“I can absorb the powers and innate abilities of creatures I eat. That includes some spellcasting abilities they might have. To the north in Aeorion ruins, there are creatures that were designed to be hostile to magics. I killed one of them. I have collected so many abilities I have actually forgotten some of what I can do,” I said. There was a bunch of stuff I could do that I had to remind myself of. I might need to make a character sheet for myself. It would be a good way of tracking stuff.

“What do you normally use? I noticed you haven't a scratch on you,” Mast said.

“I have a few resistances or immunities to certain types of damage. I can regenerate wounds and physical damage to my transformed body isn't transferred to my normal body. I still feel the wounds though,” I said.

“Fascinating. How does this all work? Where are you from?” Mast asked.

“That's enough now professor. Let Edsom rest. He fought that evil horse all by himself after all,” Reani said.

“Alright I will hold off then but you are an incredible man Mr. Edsom,” Mast said.

“Thanks, professor. I have met a few mages who thought that,” I said.

We sat around for a bit before we needed to leave. Sanctum had bundled his friend with rope and fabrics. He wanted to take him to Uthodurn for a proper funeral. Reani was fine with staying and killing more evil monsters and Mast seemed like he wanted to pump me for more information. I was ready to leave.

“We aren't tempting fate by waiting anymore,” I said and pulled out the ropes and straps from my bag of holding. We got my Roc form strapped up and ready to go.