Ignoring the pain, Dallion ripped out the tendrils and flew back. In the real world, this would have been the end. Actually, it might have been the end here as well if Euryale was fighting seriously. She had promised not to pull any punches, but if she had let the tendril spike up while in his body the damage would have been a lot more severe.

As the shield floated to the ground, walls of rock shot up from the ground, surrounding Dallion on all sides. One of them quickly shattered due to external impact, though it was immediately replaced by another.

Let’s see you play with this, Dallion thought as he directed a series of stone spikes to rise from the ground. Concentrating on his magic vision, he could see the gorgon’s magic glow through his stone bunker. As expected, the spikes presented no threat whatsoever, but they weren’t meant to be. All that Dallion needed was a breather to cast a healing spell on himself.

“Lux,” he said, calmly waving his aura sword. “I’ll need your help, buddy.”

The firebird emerged a foot away from him.

“Yes, boss?” it chirped.

“I’m leaving the healing to you,” Dallion said. “Just the healing. Leave the flying and fighting to me.”

A small blob of disappointment appeared in the firebird’s body. No doubt it was itching to show off in front of its owner. Still, healing was better than nothing, so the creature flew right into the man, surrounding him with blue flames.

“Get behind me, shield,” Dall

Gripping both weapons, Dallion made a full circular strike with his aura sword. Three dozen spell circles formed, after which the walls of stone exploded. Driven by the force of the realm itself, they flew in all directions as large blocks. The ones that approached Eury exploded again into smaller chunks, then again.

A rain of pebbles propelled by magic and Dallion’s realm control poured onto the gorgon like heavy hail. Parts of her armor extended to shield her from the blow, but even that wasn’t enough to stop the pure force of the attack.

MINOR STRIKE

Dealt damage is increased by 10%

“That’s the spirit!” Gleam shouted.

The shardfly was having fun facing the dragon. In terms of raw power, she was far inferior to Dark, but her illusion abilities allowed her to have the upper hand. Like a sheet of paper wrapping herself around a blunt weapon, she’d take on attacks with no damage, while inflicting thousands of small paper cuts.

Don’t lose the advantage, Vihrogon said, resuming his dryad form on the ground.

“Never planned to,” Dallion flew forward, incessantly casting spells in the process.

While not individually powerful, they combined all aspects of magic Dallion could think of in his attempt to find the gorgon’s weakness. Lightning, fire, water, ice, clouds… all elements struck her, and still none managed to do anything whatsoever.

Suddenly, Dallion spotted a new line attack flying his way. Instantly, he responded.

ATTACK NEGATED

EURYALE’s line attack has been sliced in two.

Attack has no effect.

Moments after the red rectangle appeared, it was shattered by Euryale, who flew through, attacking Dallion with her armor tendrils.

Deflecting the attacks with both weapons, Dallion tried to take advantage of the situation to gain a guard bonus. Just before he could complete a sequence, though, he felt a sharp pain in his left calf.

AGGRAVATED WOUND

Your health has been reduced by 15%

Not again! Dallion struck the piece of sun gold, pulling it out of his leg through the strength of his blow.

“You still can’t maintain your distance,” Euryale said, charging right at him.

Before she could reach him, a pack of cublings emerged on Dallion, each leaping at her, claws extended. Nox had taken the initiative, catching Euryale completely by surprise.

A single moment of hesitation slowed her movements. She had the skill and speed to slice each and every crackling flying at her, but instead of doing so, the gorgon suddenly vanished, leaving Dallion’s realm.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Huh? Dallion blinked.

His immediate reaction was to cast a new series of defensive spells, in preparation for a sudden sneak attack. However, even before finishing, he could sense that she was no longer there.

“That was anticlimactic.” Gleam kept on fighting. Neither she nor Dark were in the least concerned that the main fight—which they were only assisting in—had ended.

“Yeah… anticlimactic,” Dallion repeated.

There was no apparent logic to Eury’s action. She could have won even if she hadn’t harmed Nox, unless she had a type of attack that Dallion didn’t know about.

“Harp, what do you think?” Dallion asked.

You had lost, the nymph said. She had come in close enough to finish you off. You wouldn’t have stopped her.

It wasn’t what Dallion wanted to hear, but at least it was a realistic description of events. Unlike his previous spars with the gorgon, he had a good idea what was going on, even if overwhelmed. That meant that reaching her wasn’t impossible… as long as he found a way to raise his traits a bit more.

“Gleam, Dark, you’ve had your fun.”

Both creatures stopped mid strike. With Eury gone, both acknowledged Dallion as the strongest entity in the realm. Dark was more eager to continue, since he had something to prove to Gleam as well as Dallion.

“Next time,” the shardfly said, knowing what the dragon felt.

“Yeah, right…” Dark flapped his wings, then slammed them together, vanishing in a flash of light.

A faint breeze swept through the realm. It had seen destruction several times before, but the results of a friendly spar were as devastating as Euryale had warned it would be. Pieces of landscape were scattered all about, broken wall pieces still stuck up from the ground, and that wasn’t even taking into account all the line attack damage.

Leaving the cleanup to Gen, Dallion left the realm back for the real world, where Euryale was waiting.

“Not bad,” she said, as if nothing had happened. “You still need more practice for close combat, but you’ve got a good start.”

“What happened?”

Euryale’s snakes moved about.

“You were winning.”

“Nox caught me by surprise. I didn’t want to hurt him.” Something in her tone suggested that wasn’t the entire truth. “Still, a promise is a promise. I’m here to discuss a closer alliance with Emperor Tamin.”

“Makes sense. Grym’s still out there and—”

“It’s not against Grym,” the gorgon interrupted. “Not, exactly. You managed to kill a battle mage as he was casting his summoning spell. The emperor took care of the rest afterwards. He wasn’t the only mage, though.”

“You think they summoned more nymphs?”

“There are no signs of it so far, but it’s possible. A lot of power was drained from the vortex fields, and it certainly wasn’t used to level up mages. If there are more nymph forts out there, we’ll need the emperor’s weapons to face them.”

Which brings us close to the prophecy, Dallion didn’t dare say out loud. Could it be that Euryale was the key of doom after all? If there were more nymphs out there and she managed to convince Emperor Tamin on an even larger scale, what would that cause for the rest of the world? Several parts of it had already been reduced to glass. Would more follow?

“You understand now, don’t you?” Eury placed her hand on Dallion’s cheek.

Just like in my dream… he thought.

“I’m truly hoping that it never comes to that, but if the nymphs are truly back, they could sweep through all the remaining forces of the world and no one would be able to stop them.”

Copyettes, void weapons, and now nymphs… Neither option seemed remotely good. Just as Dallion was about to share his recent discoveries, the door to the room opened. Normally, it would be Taem entering, bringing food, refreshments, and whatnot. This time, a host of eight sky silver metalins marched in, forming two columns on either side of the entrance. Each of them was polished to perfection and had the Elazni crest etched on their breastplates.

“Welcome to the capital, Envoy,” the young overseer that Dallion knew far too well said with a slight bow. “Duchess Elazni cordially invites you to join her for dinner.”

Everyone knew that food wasn’t the goal of the invitation.

“The baron,” the boy gave Dallion a brief glare, “can accompany you, if you so choose.”

“Thank the duchess for her understanding.” The gorgon replied, the snakes on her head perfectly still.

The sentence was all it took to get the envoy to spring into action. Dallion felt a realm bubble appear around the room. To any internal observer, nothing had changed. Everyone remained where they were—in Dallion’s dining room. In reality, they were moving through the city at this very moment. The overseer was using his powers to transform the domain of the capital and “slide” their immediate surroundings out of Dallion’s house, through the neighborhood, and all the way up to the imperial castle.

“Please,” the overseer took a step back, inviting the gorgon to leave the room.

Dallion followed a few steps behind. He already recognized the corridor they were walking in to—he himself had been there quite recently.

Two rows of metalins and bladerers were arranged along the walls, leading to the duchess’ dining room. The massive door was already open, making it clear how much superior it was to the one the two had just exited.

No one asked any of them to put on blocker items as they entered—it wasn’t necessary, since the only living person in the room was the duchess herself.

Dallion glanced over his shoulder to see what the overseer was doing and noticed that the boy was no longer there. Not only that, but the entrance to his dining room had also vanished.

I really hope you put it back where you took it from, Dallion thought. It was going to be really annoying if the little punk decided to play a joke on him and dropped off his room elsewhere in the capital.

“Duchess,” Euryale said, bowing her head as she crossed the room’s threshold. “I’m flattered by your attention.”

“Since my great-grandson had already welcomed you to the capital, I thought I’d follow suit,” the old noble replied. “We must maintain war relations with our allies, after all.”

The music attacks within her words were apparent. The duchess wasn’t pleased with the envoy’s visit, and far less so with Dallion’s involvement, for that matter.

“I understand that the war is nearly over, isn’t it?” She continued.

“That is precisely what I’ve come to discuss with the emperor.” Eury didn’t let herself be intimidated in the least. “There are certain details that need to be ironed out.”

“Really?” Duchess Elazni raised her chin slightly. “Maybe I could help with ironing out those details.”

“I’m sure you would, but it’s a matter for the main imperial family.”

Pressure filled the air. Dallion felt the sudden discomfort of presenting his fiancée to his family for the very first time. Only a few moments had passed and both women already hated each other. By the looks of things, it was possible that they hated each other long before this meeting. There had to be a lot of politics involved that Dallion hadn’t been privy to.

“In that case, let one of my metalins show you the way to the small library,” the duchess said. “You can find the emperor there around this time.”

“That’s most gracious of you.” The gorgon raised her head. “I think I’ll take advantage of your generosity.”

“Don’t let me stop you. I’ll have a chat with my great-grandson while you do.”

Internally, Dallion couldn’t help but feel impressed. This was the most impressive, passively-aggressive verbal duel he had seen in his entire life. None of the snobbery at the Academy even came close. It wasn’t just words that had clashed—that would be amateurish. Every pause, every shift in intonation was deliberately placed. Furthermore, the duchess had placed quite the subtle cocktail of emotions in her voice, aimed at making the gorgon feel uncomfortable.

With a deliberate twirl of her snakes, Euryale turned around, walking back into the corridor. She was soon accompanied by a massive metalin who led the way. Dallion, though, remained behind.

“I expect you’re having fun?” she asked in a tone that combined disappointment and condemnation all in one.

“I am engaged to her, Duchess,” Dallion said.

“Dallion Darude was. As Dallion Elazni, I don’t want you to have anything to do with the gorgon empress!”