Amegnon used magically enhanced chains to strangle a huge beast that looked like a cross between a beetle and a badger. His glowing chains dropped the body as it began to dissolve. He struck out at the next beast, directing his chains with a combination of mental command and mana manipulation.
"Arch-magus, we've found a strong magic wielding monster just behind our lines there," one of his aides pointed out.
He once again envied Olivander's portals. That man could be anywhere on a battlefield in a moment. Amegnon had the ability to prepare spells in advance, but it was limited, and he only had one teleport ready. It was meant as an emergency escape. Instead of teleporting or portaling, he used chains to strike the ground and propel himself forward.
The caster was some kind of mantis that had assumed a humanoid form. When it saw him moving in its direction at speed, it launched a bolt of green magic at him. The spell struck him in the chest and dissipated. His grimoire flashed as it absorbed most of the magic, only allowing a little bit through to strike him. He ignored it.
Against casters he was all but unbeatable. It would take a sophisticated ritual and an unsafe amount of mana to threaten him. He did not fear any spellcaster. He hadn't believed it for months, but when he won a relatively simple victory over Olivander, it proved that fact to him. Even his mentor hadn't been a match for his advantages.
A chain ripped a chunk of flesh off the mantis and it stumbled. Four more chains ripped it apart. Amegnon rarely used combat rituals. He had some prepared spells in his grimoire, and the automatic spell protection it gave him, but his Chainkeeper class was more than capable of dealing with most threats.
He mopped up some additional casters that had pointlessly turned in his direction. He struck them down with disdain.
The battle seemed endless. They had precious few platinum quality soldiers, but the Hammer was like a dozen powerful adventurers on her own. Between the two of them and their superior numbers, they were holding their own with very few casualties. He knew that could change any time. All it would take was one high leveled wide area attack monster to decimate their forces.
That thought pushed him to stop to create a new ritual. Olivander had picked up several ward skills at some point in his youth, and was extremely proficient at them. He had developed a series of ward rituals and taught those to his young apprentice. When Amegnon completed his grimoire and powered it, he found that those spells had been transferred from his memory to the book.
He sketched out a wide area mana shield now. It would drain ambient mana without requiring the mana to pass through a person first, but it wouldn't stop focused attacks. The tradeoff made it good protection against a wide area threat like the one he imagined. The focused attacks of individual monsters wouldn't trigger it, and therefore, wouldn't drain it before it was really needed. It would stay intact as long as he was around to support it with his intent — a more or less unconscious process.
That done, he lifted himself high into the air on fresh chains, searching for where he could help the most. A swath of destruction and glowing, dissolving corpses indicated the Hammer's current location. She didn't need help, and he wouldn't approach her while she was swinging a weapon around.
A voice spoke into his mind.
Behind you, Amegnon. There is a rift that you can tap into. You have an opportunity here, far ahead of schedule.
His benefactor spoke directly into his mind. The words often felt close to compulsion, but he was his own man. He could resist the call at any time, but his goals aligned with the voice, and he launched himself through the air toward the rift.
As he flew he launched small segments of chain to destroy weaker monsters. Other longer sections of chain wove together to form shields, protecting soldiers on the field.
He arrived at a rift in reality where monsters were pouring out. The monsters coming out of this particular rift were not strong, and he tore through the entire pack before they were able to pose any kind of threat.
Power expended, the rift began to pull shut. Amegnon held out a hand, and a conjured chain shot forth, into the rift. He willed it to become an anchor. He channeled a specifically prepared spell through the chain.
----------------------------------------
You have attempted to take control of Dungeon, ????
Dungeon is currently owned by Dungeon Spirit, Effandrial.
Effandrial has made contact with your anchor.
----------------------------------------
"Bind."
Power rushed out of Amegnon, and he fell to one knee. His grimoire shone with a golden light as it added power of its own to the spell.
The chain he still held began to shake as a will more than equal to his own attempted to resist his spell. The frequency came to a crescendo and his grip nearly failed when he felt the spell take hold. Working quickly, he released the anchor and pulled the chain from the rift. His grimoire opened to a specific page with an active effect embedded into the pages — a small black hole. He fed the length of the chain into the book.
As soon as the last link passed through the grimoire, every rift in the area snapped shut in a violent clap of power.
"So far so good."
You will need to destroy one more monstrosity of your own creation. It will force open the dungeon entrance to escape. It must die.
Amegnon nodded to himself.
Low on mana, he sprinted through battle. No more monsters poured forth, but there were still enough monsters to occupy the legion. He reached the clearing around the tower and found the Hammer cooling herself off with some water.
An aide brought him a skin of water as well.
"The rifts closing, was that your doing?"
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
He was tempted to lie, but she would probably know, and that would further the distrust she held for him.
"It was. An open rift gave me an opportunity to bleed off some of the magical energy. It's only a temporary reprieve, and when it begins again, we will most likely face a single powerful foe."
"And you expect it to come out here," she surmised looking at the tower.
"I do. It may try to escape, we cannot let that happen."
"Do not mistake our cooperation here for friendliness, and do not presume to tell me what I should or should not do. You will follow my directions, or you will not be leaving this battlefield."
He ground his teeth but responded without any trace of anger.
"Of course, General."
The earth shook and a quiet fell over the battlefield as men and monsters alike turned towards the now shining tower.
Heat radiated from the building, and Amegnon was reminded it was the power of fire he had called forth to spawn the dungeon. For the first time, he found it curious that the monsters they fought weren't fire elementals and their ilk. Red hot cracks formed all over the tower, and the hum of energy intensified over the frozen battle.
Then it burst apart into molten fragments that were cast across the plains. The ward Amegnon put in place earlier was triggered by the wide area attack, and it slowed and deflected the chunks of tower away from the soldiers.
A figure floated in the air, the size of a human but clearly burning with fiery power. The heat that radiated off the figure forced back fights near the crater where the tower once stood. Some of their temporary tents ignited in the heat.
"Can you put it on the ground?" Zemena asked.
"I can."
"Then you may begin, Arch-magus."
The fiery figure turned solid black eyes on him, and it began conjuring an orb of fire bigger than its body.
A dozen chains burst forth from Amegnon. Two pushed him off the ground, hurtling toward the figure. It pointed at him, and the ball of fire followed.
Two chains cloaked in dark magic pierced the fireball and dispersed the attack. The chains fell away, spent. Amegnon launched four more chains ahead of him to wrap up the figure. It burned through two and caught the others. It tried to cast them away, but they wrapped around the figure's arms, binding it.
The remaining chains wrapped around Amegnon's legs, reinforcing him as he slammed feet first into the fiery figure. It launched back, but Amegnon caught it on the chains wrapped around its arms. Chains extended behind him from his feet, and he became a fulcrum for a massive catapult. With some extra mana to enforce his chains he spun around and launched the figure directly at the Hammer.
Zemena's hammer shifted back into the form he had first seen, a massive greatsword. As the figure hurtled toward her, she brought the blade down in a final strike that screamed death in every sense Amegnon had.
The figure, split in half vertically down the middle slid to a halt on either side of the hammer. In a moment fiery tendrils reached out and pulled the figure back together, and it rolled out of the way of a hammer strike that followed a moment later.
Amegnon joined Zemena on the ground and they went to work.
Amegnon used chains to steer the monster back towards the Hammer while using his anti-magic chains to disrupt spells.
Zemena smashed the monster to pieces. It didn't seem to mind, pulling itself back together after each attack.
The Hammer seemed to be enjoying herself, and she didn't look any worse for the wear, but Amegnon was beginning to flag. He didn't have the endurance for a battle like this, and the heat coming off the monster wasn't diminished by his magic resistance, so he collected an assortment of painful burns all over his body.
Finally, the monster began to slow. It stopped casting spells and just looked to Amegnon with hateful eyes. When the Hammer's final blow descended this time, the monster was blasted apart and did not rise.
Zemena stared at the remains of the corpse, and then looked at Amegnon with an accusatory glare.
"It's not a monster…what have you done?"
While he might not have been very knowledgeable about mana balancing, he did at least know that dungeon ruptures were practically unheard of. As they were nearly mythical events, he could provide some incomplete answers with a kernel of truth.
"Have you seen a dungeon rupture, General?"
She didn't reply. Her hand did tighten around the grip of her hammer.
"When a dungeon ruptures, it dumps all of the power it contains into creating monsters. In an event like this, the Dungeon Spirit can become corrupted."
"And you expect me to believe you? You, who barely knows anything about the world, the dungeons, and the dungeon spirits?"
"You don't have to believe me, General," he gestured at the corpse. "The proof lies dead before us. You know how powerful the Dungeon Spirits are. Do you really think I could do this to one of them?"
"What I think you are or are not capable of is a dangerous place to risk your life. I still don't think you could best Olivander Casumus in battle. I've seen you both fight. Perhaps he was just unwilling to kill you."
That pricked Amegnon's pride, but he didn't respond.
The Hammer rested her namesake on the ground and tapped plated fingers against her chin.
"I do not know what happened here, so I will do this. Return to the capital. Host and attend the conclave. If the Dungeon Spirits have no objections after all that has happened here, then I will allow you to remain in your position. You will not be permitted to leave the capital without the express order of the Queen, or myself until after the conclave. I will require a pact to ensure your cooperation."
She waved forward the functionary that had sought out Amegnon earlier.
"You are a Magus, correct? You have the soul oath spell in your book?"
"Y-Yes! Of course, General."
The Magus was clearly inexperienced, he fumbled through his grimoire for the spell. Amegnon reflected that the man was actually probably more experienced than he was. He had only been a Magus for a few months, after all. Maybe it was just nerves. Zemena had that effect on people.
"I will recite the incantation, and then you ask for what you would like the Arch-magus to swear to, General."
The Hammer gave the man an amused smile. "I understand the process, you may proceed."
"A pact bound between souls is unbreakable. Swear to one another, and the terms will be written onto the world itself. Soul Oath!"
Zemena reiterated her demands, and Amegnon agreed to adhere to her words. Nothing in the oath prevented him from working on his other goals, so it wasn't too great a burden.
As soon as he finished swearing, he could feel a weight settle onto him. He needed to return to the capital soon, or the oath would kill him.
"It seems I must depart."
She folded her arms and waited for him to do just that.
He summoned his grimoire and flipped to a portal spell. It took time to draw it out. Every Magus received different gifts depending upon the eye their grimoire bonded with. Amegnon's was very powerful, but it didn't grant him the extra proficiency at rituals that Olivander enjoyed, so he had to reference the diagram a few times. The ritual was complete after about a minute of drawing.
"Sorry, General, it will take me another moment to power this. Portal rituals are extremely expensive, but I dare not draw power through my grimoire to power it right now, so I must meditate for a few minutes," the actual ritual drawing would hang around for as long as he willed, so he could take some time to recover.
She just nodded.
To his chagrin, she remained where she was, watching him until he had recovered enough mana to power the portal on his own.
"Traveler's spell authority create a channel for passage, Greater Portal!"
The ritual flashed and a portal of soft purple light manifested.
Amegnon didn't look back at the Hammer before stepping through.