PERSONAL AWAKENING

Reality shifted for the third time, yet Dallion still wasn’t convinced. While he didn’t show it, being locked out of the realms had been more terrifying than he wanted to let out. In a way, he felt like his awakening powers had been sealed, leaving him helplessly normal. No wonder mages and mid-level awakened feared it so much. Back when he was in the single digits, he didn’t find the notion all that terrible. He viewed it as a waste, but not something to lose sleep over. Now that he had almost lost it, he understood the terror that the sealed had gone through… he understood what his mother had been forced to live with for so many years.

“It’ll be fine.” Giaccia approached in her nymph form. “You won’t lose it.”

Dallion nodded, but part of him still wasn’t sure. Even after achieving so much, the emperor had still found a way to lock his powers for a day. If they went against the Moons, what would they be capable of?

“I must complete the emblem.” Dallion summoned the two gems.

They were many times larger in his realm than they were in real life. Both of them were different shades of blue, marking the last two remaining of the set.

“How will you bring him?” The nymph stood a few steps away.

Several tools appeared, along with a vast number of markers surrounding the cyan crystal.

“The same way you were brought back.” Dallion started carving. “The same way that I brought Vihrogon back.”

Normally, it would take about ten minutes for Dallion to finish shaping the Moonstone. This time, he prolonged it to a full hour. As he worked, he couldn’t help but feel a slight sense of loneliness. In the past, at least one of his echos would have been here, making sarcastic comments. At present, all of them were within towns in Dallion’s domain in the real world. They were doing a good job from what he knew, organizing things, assisting the town garrisons, and helping out wherever they could. Still, they were no longer part of him.

MOON EMBLEM

6/7 COMPLETE

The yellow rectangle emerged. One more remained until the emblem was ready for challenging the Moons. From what both Simon and Pan had explained, the process wasn’t instantaneous. Dallion would have to say the words in order for the challenge to take place. Even so, he felt like he was playing with fire.

“About to go, old man?” Onda asked from his tower.

The distance was impressive, but thanks to the level of his perception trait, Dallion could hear him as if they were standing a few steps apart.

“You never reached forging mastery,” the nymph said.

“Maybe next time.” Dallion started working on the final crystal. “Do you want to return to the real world?” he asked while carving.

“Nah. It’s scary out there.” The nymph let out a forced laugh. “It’s cool here. And now you have a new dragon.”

That was hardly the term to describe Aquilequia. The more time passed, the more Dallion was convinced that she had the character of a cat. Thanks to her power, the dragon had the ability to enter and leave his realm as she wished. Being his familiar, she was careful not to cause any major damage, but at the same time Dallion had no means of stopping her from doing as she pleased. The profound patience the creature had in its previous incarnation seemed to have completely vanished. Thinking about it, that was a good thing. Now she had the time to experience growing up from scratch. Nox and Lux had also gone through the same experience in their own way, though it hadn’t been anywhere as intense.

The carving became slower and slower. Sadly, for Dallion, it was inevitable it would come to an end, and ultimately it did.

MOON EMBLEM

7/7 COMPLETE

MOON AUDIENCE

You’ve earned the right to seek an audience with the Moons. You’re free to challenge them for passage through the awakening gate. Doing so will turn you into a pretender.

However you use the emblem, you only get to seek an audience once.

There it was—the final achievement. Unlike the majority of them, it didn’t provide any points or gifts, but something far better. Out of everyone Dallion knew, two had used it to challenge the Moons, another had no doubt sought an audience—which explained a lot of the archbishop’s unusual abilities. As for Jeremy, Dallion was still uncertain. Simon had suggested that the Tamin Emperor had backed out of the challenge, but that might well be just semantics. After all, the human race hadn’t been banished so far.

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Dallion held the emblem between his fingers. He couldn’t deny it was beautiful, resembling the Order’s emblem—one blue gem surrounded by six others.

“Seven Moons,” Dallion said, then summoned a chain of Moon platinum.

“You’ll manage.” Giaccia went up to him. “I’m certain.”

“Me and your sister fighting for the same goal.” Dallion attached the emblem to the chain, then put it round his neck. “Didn’t think that would ever happen.”

“Let’s hope that both of you get to achieve your dream.”

Hopefully, none of the dreams would clash. Summoning his instruments away, Dallion returned to the real world. It was past noon, Euryale was gone, doing her best to keep morale high. It had been decided that the details of the arrangement wouldn’t be openly discussed. As far as everyone was aware, they had entered a period of calm during which discussions were taking place. There was one thing, though, that was impossible to hide.

“Could have been better,” Simon said, sitting on a marble chair in Dallion’s room.

While Dallion’s wife and all of his top commanders were off making sure that everything within his domain was stable, the archbishop did absolutely nothing. It hardly came as a surprise since he’d done the same on his island for thousands of years, but Dallion still found it annoying. Back on Earth, he’d never have picked him for a roommate, that was for certain.

“Things could always be better,” Dallion said.

“I meant the emblem.” The boy pointed. “You’ve done the bare minimum.”

“It works,” Dallion ended the conversation there.

Dal, Gloria said from within his domain. Your mother doesn’t want you to go through with this.

That wasn’t what Dallion wanted to hear right now.

Why did you tell my mother? He asked.

Someone had to. I didn’t go into most of the specifics, but… She’s your mother, Dal.

And she will be after I get through this.

It’s like she said when you left the village. It’ll never be enough for you.

She really had said so. Looking back, Dallion thought he’d be content with living in Nerosal. His goal was to enter an awakened guild—which he had—and possibly rise to the position of guild lieutenant, or maybe even guild captain. Remembering there was a time he viewed Vend and March as undefeatable made him smile.

There’s nowhere to go after this, he said. When I become a Moon, it’ll end.

Is that what you want me to tell her?

No. I’ll tell her myself once it’s over.

Using his domain ruler powers, Dallion transported himself out of the bedroom and into his forge. To his great annoyance, Simon had done the shift with him. The boy was also a domain ruler.

“I hope you didn’t waste any Moonstones for this.” Dallion summoned half a dozen ingots towards him. Each of them was a special metal.

“Why would I? You’re so obvious.” Simon looked about. He had let just enough of his emotions leak out to let Dallion know that he didn’t find the building particularly appealing. “I can tell you how to summon someone directly,” he said.

Dallion ignored him. If it were that easy, the archbishop would have done it already. Instead, Dallion was going to do his thing.

The item he was creating didn’t matter, but even so, Dallion wanted it to be special. Given the circumstances, a metal version of the twi-crown seemed appropriate.

Magic, forging, arts, and scholar skills combined into one, as Dallion simultaneously created two parts of one object. Each of the bands were made of a different metal, yet at the same time they were also one whole: “separate but united,” as Onda would say.

“You can always use a Moonstone,” Simon said, leaning back against the wall. “I’ve a few left so I can share it.”

“No, thanks.” Dallion kept on forging.

“It won’t matter. I won’t need them in a couple of hours. Why waste it? You’ll get to make your first world item and earn another achievement.”

The temptation was present, but the way the offer was made rubbed Dallion the wrong way. Onda had never told him how to create a world item and neither did any scroll in the Grand Citadel’s library, for that matter. Using a Moonstone would easily deal with that, providing all the knowledge that Dallion needed. It was a valid option, and any trait boost would be more than welcome right now.

You piece of crap, Dallion thought, determination filling him to his core. I’ll do it myself!

The blueprint in his mind exploded. Dallion could see the theoretical form of the item grown from an item to a building, then to an entire area. That was his current limit—a large sphere item that was as large as his personal realm. It was far bigger than any sphere item he had been in; possibly Adzorg would call it a semi-world item, or some other mage-made-up term. Sadly, it still wasn’t enough.

“Forging a province is never easy, isn’t that right, Kraisten?” Dallion asked as he entered the blueprint of the domain he was making. In a single moment, he imagined himself in there, not just as a forger, but also as part of it. With enough concentration, he could feel the ground of the realm, feel the wind in it, sense the smells, sounds, and tastes… In that particular moment, Dallion imagined himself living in the domain.

WORLD ITEM CREATED - TWI-CROWN

Now! Dallion unleashed the magic threads within him, before the rectangle had fully formed. His plan was to find the dryad emperor and pull him out through the item, as he had done with Vihrogon. Yet, something completely different occurred.

BANISHED REALM AWAKENING

A second rectangle emerged. Similar to the ones relating to the Moon emblem, it was yellow.

Before Dallion could even think of saying anything, the opening of an aether vortex emerged in front of him. Next thing he knew, Dallion was standing on both sides of it.

“What the heck?!” Dallion turned around.

Only the him within the vortex moved. The part back at the forge remained frozen as everything else in the real world.

“Would you look at that?” a deep voice thundered. “We have a celebrity here.”

Dallion looked around. Sky, ground, and light were concepts that didn’t exist, yet at the same time, they were there. As Gleam had told him once, there was everything and nothing at the same time. Dallion could feel the heavy pressure of countless souls in a realm that was simultaneously endless and crowded.

“So, you really did it? You punctured the barrier,” another voice said, just as loud and deep as the last. Dallion couldn’t see its owner, yet his music skills let him acquire a mental image of the entity.

“A colossus?” he asked.

“With the younger races getting a free ride, there’s mostly us left,” the second colossus laughed. “Or have you come to take us out as well?”

Dallion didn’t reply.

“Come on, you can speak your mind,” another voice said. “Not that anyone cares. What’s the worst that can happen? We can only keep you for company.”

Laughter erupted like a thunderstorm mixed with an earthquake.

“I’m here to find someone.” Dallion managed to maintain enough presence of mind. Unlike all other realms, this one seemed to pull his own thoughts in multiple directions, as if wanting to spread them everywhere. “He’s a pretender.”

“There are lots of pretenders,” a new voice boomed. “What makes the one you seek special?”

That was a question Dallion wasn’t prepared for.