“How many pretenders are there?” Dallion asked.

Laughter filled the realm.

“Why are you here, Dallion?” one of the voices boomed.

“I told you. I’m searching for a dryad.”

In his mind, the outlines of colossi began to form. Clearly, eyes were both useful and useless in this realm—he could see as far as the horizon, yet at the same time, he saw only emptiness. It was the voices themselves that gave him a sensation of the entities, and they were massive. As large as the beings during his awakening trials, they rose up into the sky greater than mountains. Dallion could imagine a world in which they ruled supreme—a world in which the landscape itself shifted as they moved. Had such a time existed? One claimed that it had.

“You’re searching for something you don’t know,” a new voice said. “Why are you intent on finding him?”

Dallion went through the answers in his head. If he lied, there was a good chance that they’d know. If there really were pretenders here right now, they’d see through any music or magic attempts. On the other hand, if he told them the real reason, they might ask to be brought back into the real world as well.

Damn you, Simon, Dallion thought. You claimed that you wanted to protect the world, yet you risked this each time you brought back one of your copyettes.

There had to be more to it. Dallion had brought two beings back from the banished realm, yet in both cases there had been a direct link between him and them. One could say he had an anchor point to focus on. Now, he had to find his target.

“I’m bringing him back to the real world,” he said after a long pause.

“That’s clear,” one of the voices boomed. “But why?”

“I intend on challenging the Moons.”

The voices and laughter instantly ceased. That mere fact told Dallion that, despite knowing a lot, the beings somehow were unable to see that part of Dallion’s life. Maybe they weren’t interested as much as he thought they’d be, or there was something preventing them from seeing anything regarding the Moons.

“You’re really going on with it?” a female voice echoed. It seemed that Dallion had been wrong on both accounts.

“Yes,” he replied.

“You know what will happen if you fail.”

Dallion nodded.

“And you have no idea what will happen if you succeed.”

“It has to be worth at least that much. Or maybe you can tell me?”

“We can tell you nothing,” one of the male voices boomed. “And even if we do, you have no way of knowing whether to believe it.”

That much was correct, especially here. They could claim anything, and it would still seem both plausible and doubtful.

“Do you really want to see him?” the female voice asked again.

“It’s why I’m here.” Although I didn’t plan to be.

“Then I’ll take you to him. Consider it a thanks for honoring my daughter.”

“Your daughter?” Dallion asked, surprised.

“The ring guardian you first faced. You knew nothing of this world or the ways of awakened, yet you still offered a fair fight.”

It had been ages since Dallion had thought of that. It was the first trial he had been given back when Aspion Luor was still village chief. “A simple request,” as the man had put it, it had made him face the guardian of Gloria’s ring . Dallion had been in many more difficult fights since, but to this day, he thought of that fight as one of his most notable victories.

“Thank you,” he said.

The realm shifted around Dallion. Looking at it, everything remained identical as it was, yet he could feel the voices moving by, though without moving. The closest thing he could imagine was hovering above a globe while it turned beneath him, bringing him to an entirely new place. During the “trip” he felt many other presences—copyettes, feral creatures, dryads that hadn’t been fortunate to enter the world swords. To his surprise, there also were a few nymphs. It seemed that the mass summoning spell cast by the Azures hadn’t fully worked, after all.

“You’re strong,” the female voice said. “And you’ll get stronger, but that still doesn’t mean you’ll win.”

“That’s why I need the dryad pretender.”

“He’s not as strong as you’ll become. But that is your life. Here, we only get to watch.”

“To watch?”

Dallion felt a strong presence appear in front of him. It was unmistakably dryad and a lot more powerful than the surrounding ones. It was comparable to the initial presences, though different.

“You’ve come, have you?” an elegant voice asked. Dallion paused a moment, only to realize that all other presences were no longer there, including the colossus that had “brought” him here. “I didn’t think you’d go through with it.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“I’ve been getting that a lot.”

“It’s nothing personal.” A form started to materialize; not just an imaginary creation based on voice alone, but an actual physical form. “Everything’s a matter of probability. The banished are destined to watch everything. You’ve noticed that time here is frozen, but it’s also not. Everyone has eternity to look at every moment of the real world as long as they put some effort into it. There are those who deliberately avoid it.”

An eternity to watch? If every person was a different channel, that explained why guardians often chose their owners. Onda had almost said as much. Strange why Dallion hadn’t experienced the same in Harp’s memories.

“You know everything that happened in the real world?” Dallion asked.

“Nice try.” The dryad’s form had almost fully formed. It had the general outlines of any dryad, possibly slightly taller with long flowy hair. It also wore a crown—one far more majestic than the one Dallion had created. “If it were so simple, Simon would have never lost. Only he could have thought of such a plan. Seven hopefuls past and present against the seven Moons. Tell me, do you think you’ll succeed?”

Despite not wanting to admit it, a large part of the plan depended on Simon’s prophecies. Dallion had never faced a Moon in battle, the dryad had.

“What do you think?”

The full form of the dryad had finally emerged. He was very different from Vihrogon. The former ruler’s features were sharp, beautiful, yet merciless. A fraction thinner than the ideal, he was already wearing a full suit of wooden armor—birch, as far as Dallion could tell. Both hard and flexible, it had more magic threads within it than a mage’s robe. The armor covered the dryad from toe to neck, covered with only a cape of vine threads.

That was one way to use one’s natural magic to the fullest, but it was more than that. Dallion could tell that it took a high magic trait to make full use of the attire. Anyone with a hundred or less would only be making a fashion statement.

“There’s no doubt that you’ll lose,” the dryad said calmly. “I’ll still join you, though.”

“If you’re so certain that we’ll lose, why agree to it?”

“Because it’ll still give me a few hours in the real world.” There was no smile on the dryad’s face, although the emotion emanating from him had traces of joy and melancholy. “I’ve no intention of becoming an item guardian, but this would do.”

He reached out and placed his hand on Dallion’s shoulder.

LYULAK has been summoned back into the world

ALLIANCE OF SEVEN

(+1 Awakening, +1 Mind, +1 Body, +1 Reaction, +1 Perception, +1 Empathy, +1 Magic)

All your preparations are complete. See you soon.

The next thing he knew, Dallion was back in his forge. The twi-crown he had worked to create was cracked in the middle, rendering it completely unusable. However, at this point, it didn’t matter—a new person has emerged.

“Hello, Lyulak,” Simon said, not in the least impressed or even surprised by the outcome. “I knew you’d accept.”

“Simon.” The dryad looked at him. “I never thought I’d see your expensive habit come to an end.”

“You say that, but you still accepted my help at the time.” The archbishop stretched. “Did you two have a chance to chat?”

Neither Dallion nor the dryad emperor were willing to answer. Nothing in the conversation had been remotely significant; it was just that neither of them particularly liked Simon, despite following his plan.

“I told him how to create world items,” Simon continued, ignoring their reaction. “I also suggested using them as a safeguard.”

That made two races that the archbishop had “helped.” He hadn’t stopped them from losing the war. It was very possible that he had been the cause of the races’ banishment. Could that have been the reason he’d told them about the way to challenge the Moons? If so, why had he given them a way out? He had personally unbanished individual copyettes, provided the means for the nymphs to unbanish themselves, and told the dryads how to prevent part of their population from suffering a similar fate. Was this all part of a grand plan? Unlikely. Despite the appearance Simon did his best to make, Dallion strongly suspected that he never had a firm plan, but was merely reacting to unfolding events. His ability to see into the future allowed him to react to these events before they happened, but he was never the one to initiate things.

“And what about now? Any more safeguards you’d share?” The dryad went up to the archbishop.

The contrast between the two was tremendous. A head and half taller, the dryad looked down at the boy like a mighty warrior, not even finding it worth to sully his blade with the blood of someone so low. The archbishop, on his part, looked up with the full knowledge that he’ll remain safe no matter what.

“No safeguards this time,” Simon replied. “I take it you want a few hours to enjoy the view before we start?”

The dryad clenched his fists.

“A few hours is fine, but don’t take much longer,” the archbishop continued. “It’ll only become more difficult further on.”

“Just get them here. I don’t need your pity.”

“You okay with that, Dal?” Simon turned to Dallion.

Dallion considered it. The meeting place didn’t matter much for the meeting. For what followed, though, it was better to be as far away as possible.

“Tell them to meet us at the peak.”

“Done.” Simon didn’t delay. “I suggest we set out quickly. We’ll take longer than them.”

There was merit in the suggestion, though not for the reasons Simon thought. Unlike all the times Dallion had set out to an important battle, this time he didn’t want to say goodbye to anyone. Maybe this was his way of telling himself that he would be coming back, or maybe this way he wouldn’t have to worry what might happen to the people he had grown so fond of. One way or another, the whole world was going to change after this.

Using his domain ruler powers, Dallion brought Eury and Pan to the forge. Five of the seven ultimate powers in the world looked at each other silently, aware of things to come. One final step separated them from the greatest battle the world had ever seen. Words were useless at this point.

I just want to say that it was a pleasure and honor watching you grow, dear boy, Adzorg wasn’t able to keep himself from saying. Don’t worry about anything. I’ll keep an eye on things until you’re back.

Make sure that Di gets to a level at which she could replace me.

A loss in the mind is half a loss on the field, dear boy. I’d have thought you’d have remembered that after all this time.

Mentally, Dallion laughed. Leave it to the old mage to have the last word. All things said, though, if the alliance of seven failed, there’d be only one remaining race in the world.

The ceiling and walls of the room tore off, opening a view to the sky. Four of the five people present cast flight spells on themselves. Euryale, the only exception, called upon Dark, who flew down and became her wings.

“Let’s go,” Dallion said and darted to the west. The rest of the group followed.