What is that? Dallion asked in his personal realm.

The last time he had seen the echo’s rectangle, its level had been at a hundred and twenty. There could be no doubt that it was an aether echo—Jeremy himself had confirmed it during his conversation. Had he found a way to boost its level? At the current range, that would take insane amounts of magic threads. Dallion wasn’t sure that even Moonstones could achieve the effect. Could it be that Jeremy had a Moon backing him?

I’m not sure, Adzorg replied. It’s definitely an echo, but I have no explanation how—

It’s an item echo, a new voice said from Dallion’s realm.

There could be no doubt to whom it belonged. As Dallion had suspected, the archbishop had been listening in to his realm conversations. Right now, there was a more pressing question he needed to ask.

What’s an item echo?

It’s an item that has properties of an echo, the archbishop replied. Not the best name, but it was descriptive enough. Jeremy took the idea from the protectors. As you’ve probably seen, he’s always good at protecting things.

An item echo? Dallion could almost swear he had come across something similar in the past. The principle was both ingenious and terrifying—the more people killed the echo the stronger it got. That was the reason all its traits had jumped to a hundred-twenty-one. Where had things started, though? The skill limit was a hundred, suggesting that if they advanced the same fashion that traits did, the echo had gone through twenty-one improvements. There was no telling how many emperors it had impersonated, how many forms it had been forced to take on, but the number fell well below twenty.

While Dallion was considering what to do, Euryale used her dragon wings to fly closer and attack again.

Aether barriers appeared between her and the echo, only to be shattered by spark infused sun gold tendrils emerging from her armor. Normally, one would be pleased with such progress, though not Dallion. Hadn’t the gorgon seen what would happen if she killed the aether echo outright?

Unwilling to take the risk, he performed a point attack with one of his instances, aimed at the front of the gorgon’s hand. The strike hit the metal tendrils of her armor, moving them back. The extreme precision kept it from hurting her hand or even damage the armor. It was only the attack that didn’t make contact.

“Go back!” he shouted, causing a column of rock to emerge right under the aether echo.

One ray of destruction spell directed down, and the column had transformed into a deep hole.

“Why?” Euryale asked.

“If you kill him, he’ll explode,” Dallion went with the easiest to convey answer. “I’ve a better thing in mind.”

Another column of earth emerged.

“It’s too slow to reach me,” the aether echo cast another destructive spell.

Determined to continue, Dallion flew back, doubling the radius of the column. Once again, it shot up. This time, two rays of destruction were cast.

“Even without spells, I can evade it.” A faint ring of amusement emanated from the being. Similar to its original, it not only wanted to defeat Dallion, but humiliate him in the process.

The column doubled in size again.

Moving ever so slightly forward, the echo of the emperor cast two more rays of destruction. Most of the column was destroyed, leaving nothing more than a thin crescent intact. It was a single moment of overconfidence, but one moment was all it usually took.

Aqui, Dallion thought.

The large form of the great dragon emerged from the sliver of earth. While not the full size as during the dragon hunt, her mouth was more than enough to swallow the echo whole. Had anything else tried to attack, even Dallion using his domain ruler abilities to shoot out earth spikes, the echo would have had ample time to counter or evade. Yet, only the golden colossus was able to match the speed of a level nineteen great dragon of Dararr.

Aquilequia’s jaws slammed shut.

AQUILEQUIA has assimilated the ECHO, increasing her awakening level by 21.

AQUILEQUIA has increased her awakening level to 40.

“That was your plan?” Euryale turned to Dallion as her snakes moved about in disapproving fashion.

“Sort of.”

In truth, he hadn’t wanted the dragon to get involved, but his knowledge of dragons had kicked in. Since they were magic creatures, similar to the aether echo, they had the power to assimilate the magic while killing it. As the outcome had shown, once the assimilation was done, there weren’t enough magic threads left to trigger a spell or improve the entity. He also kept a few instances at the ready should things not turn out as he hoped.

“It was a gamble.” He smoothened the terrain beneath him.

Within seconds, the scars of battle were swept away, bringing the domain back to its original state. There were no soldiers, many of the main structures were gone—even if Dallion did his best to prevent as many of them as possible from getting destroyed—but the domain itself had managed to survive. Sadly, that wasn’t a given.

“Aqui, Dark, get us out of here!” Dallion ordered. Gleam, can you reach the south through the realms?

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Sure, the shardfly replied. Why the rush?

The archbishop knows where we are.

That was more than enough. With Dallion’s inability to venture into awakening realms, there would never be a better chance to strike him with a mass spell rocket. And even if for whatever reason Simon wasn’t inclined to do so, Jeremy wouldn’t have similar scruples.

The dark green wings detached from Euryale, transforming back into the dragon’s full form. Aquilequia eyed the dragon, then—confirming that he wasn’t a great like her—let out a dismissive snort. At the end of the day, dragons remained territorial creatures.

Subject to the effects of gravity once more, Euryale grabbed hold of a talon on Dark’s foot, then hurled herself up in a feat of acrobatics that landed her at the base of the creature’s neck.

“Let’s go,” she said.

What about them? The green dragon asked. Won’t they come along?

“They will. We’re just the bait to keep them safe.”

She turned out to be right. Not half a minute after the assimilation of the aether echo, a series of dots were visible in the sky. They started by targeting the Academy domain, then continued along a straight line, following Dark’s flight path. Jeremy clearly didn’t care about the damage he inflicted on his own territory, all in the slight possibility he might affect a world conquering rival.

Aquilequia, though, took a completely different path. Her speed allowed her to take a slightly longer route. It avoided the path of the rockets, but came with its own risks—they had to fly over the edge of the nymphs’ domain.

For twenty minutes explosions glassed large areas of the world, rendering the livable area less and less. Conquest didn’t matter, it was all about making the enemy target smaller and smaller. As long as one power remained, there really was no reason to care about anything else. After all, there was nearly no limit to the power of a Moon—everything destroyed could be easily fixed.

The rocket attacks stopped just as abruptly as they started. There was no apparent logic to them, but Dallion welcomed the brief moment of respite. Despite having won a few battles, he didn’t feel like it. While he had gained a lot, not in the least several Moonstones, one of which he didn’t have before, he had lost much of what he had gained and also proven to everyone that he was vulnerable. Over the next twenty-three hours he could barely call himself a domain ruler, leaving him open to attacks on all sides. Also, he was severely wounded. Magic and a high body trait had taken off the edge, but even so, the healing process would be long at a time when every second counted. For the next few weeks, or even months, he’d have to conduct the war safely away from the action—just like all the other three conquerors were doing.

Hey, Pan said from Dallion’s personal realm all of a sudden. You needed me for something?

I could have used your advice… The copyette was so late that Dallion wasn’t even angry.

I found some more spies, the other said unapologetically. A few dozen more, to be precise. There were at least two in most of your major settlements posing as furies.

You’ve been working hard.

It made sense that they would be furies. The race had the greatest amount of freedom, not to mention that there still was an open invitation when it came to them joining. Diroh had taken her role seriously and despite a few minor misjudgments here and there, was on track to reunifying the entire race; without the crimson furies, of course. Even so, having several dozen copyettes lurking about was alarming.

Not exactly, Pan said. All of them openly revealed themselves and surrendered.

What?

None of them fought, none of them even tried to run. It took me all this time to gather them in one place.

Veil? Dallion was furious.

What? The overseer shouted back. With everything going on, we thought it would be better not to distract you with stuff. Besides, it was a pretty unanimous decision. Even sis and Hannah agreed.

Who was against?

Vihrogon. He said that if you can’t handle this much pressure, the war might as well be lost.

Dallion felt conflicted by this. On one hand, he would have preferred to have known, though he had to admit that learning it during his fight at the Academy would have made him second guess a lot of his actions. There was a non-zero chance that he might not have defeated Priscord, let alone the item echo.

Did Eury know?

No one answered.

Did she know?

No way I’m getting involved in that, Veil said, suggesting that she did. Just get back here, okay? Only because you’re done doesn’t mean the fighting is over.

By the time Dallion returned to Alliance, his forces had gained a lot of what they had lost. The empire had consolidated its territory as well—what was left of Priscord’s domain was distributed among the neighboring archdukes.

With everything said and done, Dallion’s overall gains weren’t as much as he had hoped. It was by far not enough to increase his awakening level, and just slightly more than before the empire’s attack. Hannah and Vihrogon had done a masterful job commanding his forces. The dryad had secured all the Order’s former territory, using the southern shardflies to eliminate all remaining strongholds. Currently, it was more or less official that the east part of the continent was Order free. All that Dallion could do was lay down and endure the long treatment process.

Everything had been set up for him. Veil had constructed a new chamber above the war room, which contained a giant bed and pretty much nothing else. The overseer had made sure that there be as few items as possible to keep chatting to a minimum. All mages with healing magic that could be spared were put on standby, and ready to start assisting.

The first thing that Dallion did upon being transported by the overseer to the hospital room was to dismiss all of them. Even so, there was someone he couldn’t dismiss as easily.

“Now it’s my turn to take care of you,” Euryale said, sitting on a small chair by the bed.

Dallion let out a dry laugh. It had barely been half a day since his battle with Priscord and he already felt restless.

“You can stop with the illusion.” The gorgon said.

The comment made Dallion glance at his feet. As far as anyone could tell, they were in perfect condition. There were no wounds on the skin. He could move them however he wished. He could even stand up and walk if he wanted to. In truth, they were still gone.

“I like them better that way,” he replied. “When an illusion is strong enough, it’s no different from the real thing.”

“Then it wouldn’t be an illusion.” There was a momentary pause. “You know you scared me on this one.”

Dallion nodded. Even now, he could feel the emotions emanating from her. There was no point in arguing that she had made him feel the same way many times before. What was important right now was that both of them were here.

“I’ll have to—” she began but was instantly interrupted.

“No,” he said firmly.

“Dal.”

“I know what you’re going to say.” Although he was a lot calmer and more mature than years ago, mentally he still clenched his fists. “I won’t let you.”

“If no one leads your forces, rumors will start to spread. You know how good all of them are at that.”

“Vihrogon can do it, or even Hannah. I’m not letting you put yourself in so much danger.”

“Even after I saved your life?” Her snakes twirled as a wave of annoyance emanated from her—annoyance at his stubbornness mostly.

“Because you saved me.” He reached out to her. “Can’t you just stay? There’s less of the world every day. Can’t we just spend some time the two of us?” If he had his ability to enter the awakened realms, he would have taken her there right now. “Just for a day.”

“To have that day, I must be out there,” she countered. “I’ll be back soon. You’ll know where I am every step of the way.”

“No, I won’t.” Dallion forced a smile. “I’ll never make you carry an echo.”

There were many more things that could have been said. And they would have been if suddenly Dallion didn’t feel a new presence entering the city’s domain. Even in this time of war, it wasn’t rare for a small group of people to approach a city that hadn’t been there moments ago. In this case, though, the presence he felt had deliberately made its way to Alliance.

“Hello, Dal,” the archbishop said, staying steadily a mile above Dallion’s head. “I’m here to surrender to you.”