After crawling out of his bed the next morning, the dark elf checked his study, a hefty pile of scrolls waiting for him to read. Tristan was nothing if not thorough with his work and apparently, the preparations for the evacuation went smoother than he expected. The loremaster found several lists of supplies and items that had been prepared for the journey.

He also found a map of Menelrond there with points marked at spots that supposedly held empty villages or small towns they could take over. A part of him was glad that things were going well, but he also felt conflicted about leaving all that they had achieved behind just like that. Dana the maid soon interrupted his morose thoughts as she brought him some tea and a few sandwiches for breakfast. This uneasy silence however couldn’t last long as his far-caller began to hum before Grego’s voice came through.

“Those two dark elves from yesterday are in front of the mountain pass with someone the guards couldn’t recognize.”

“Shit,” Regis cussed. “I’m on my way. Tell Quentin to start the evacuation process and wait for my signal.”

“Understood.”

As soon as the call ended, he reached out to the rest of his companions.

“Natalie and Etienne are here.” He said and the line blew up with questions.

“How many are there?” Cruz asked first.

“Did they bring along the archdemon as well?” Osmond was next.

“Should we start the evacuation?” Amanda followed suit.

“I only know that the two of them came with someone the guards couldn’t recognize. I’m heading over to the mountain pass. The rest of you stay back and prepare the people in case we need to leave.”

“Regis...” Letty tried to say something, but the loremaster cut into her words.

“I’ll be fine. They won’t be able to get through the barrier for a while. Just wait for my signal.”

With that, he ended the call and stood up from his seat. He grabbed his blade staff and hurried over to the room with his personal gateway, using it to teleport over to the mountain pass. When he got outside to the battlements, a spine-chilling sight greeted him. The two Argents stood in front of the large gate just outside the reach of the barrier with another woman. ‘Ulgrath?’ The loremaster stared at the woman whom he recognised as the archdemon he had seen the previous day. Only this time, she was of a similar height as Natalie.

“Milord...” The guards tried to speak up, but he waved them down.

“Man the ballistas and wait for my signal.” Regis ordered as he activated his far-caller so that his friends could hear whatever was about to happen there.

“Yes, sir!” They are acknowledged before taking up positions behind the weapons.

“We come peace,” Natalie shouted. “Sort of.”

“I hope you’ll forgive me for not taking you at your word given what happened yesterday.” Regis said with a clear distrust in his tone, earning a chuckle from the archdemon.

“You were right,” Ulgrath said to Natalie. “He’s a cute one. And he’s brimming with power.”

“I know you probably want nothing more than to give your soldiers the order to shoot me with that ballista, but we really need to talk. We tried to explain things to you yesterday before your friends... interrupted us. I wanted to tell you that both you and the other survivors of the battle are safe from Lady Ulgrath. For now at least.”

“You don’t sound too convincing. You know that, right?”

“That’s why I wanted to explain things to you properly so that you would understand. Lady Ulgrath isn’t planning to stay on the Shardlands any longer than it’s necessary.”

“Bulshit!” The dark elf heard Cruz yell through the enchanted earpiece.

“If you don’t want to be here then why go through all the trouble in the first place?” He asked directly from the archdemon, earning a sultry smirk from her.

“Tell me, boy,” the archdemon called out to him in a soft voice that tugged at his chest even under the protection of the barrier. “Do you know what it takes to be a God?”

“I’m mostly an atheist, so... no. Not really.”

His nonchalant answer made Etienne crunch up his nose before facepalming himself while Natalie couldn’t stop herself from letting out a slight chuckle.

“One needs to reach the seventh tier of ascendancy.”

“Is she talking about becoming the god of the Shardlands?” Osmond hummed through the far-caller with the others quietly chattering along.

“You don’t seem to be the church-going type.” Regis noted, his words earning a nod from Ulgrath.

“No, I’m not,” she replied with a morose tone. “My kind cannot become gods, but we can become its demonic equivalent. Though not in this world. This broken and plague-ridden land is no longer able to hold gods.”

“Unable to hold... gods?” The dark elf heard several puzzled voices in his far-caller.

“So you want to ascend to a higher rank,” Regis deduced. “Then why did you come here if this world won’t let you? Unless… you want to springboard from here?” He asked, earning a sigh from the archdemon as she turned toward Natalie for a moment.

“He does catch on quickly.” Ulgrath hummed with a satisfied tone.

“Regis tends to have his moments.” Natalie remarked with a smile.

“He was still dumb enough to fall for the court’s plan.” Etienne remarked mirthfully.

“I think he just wasn’t expecting them to be so cruel to their own allies too.” The dark elf woman argued, but the archdemon cut their chatter short.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Enough. Let’s cut to the case. I came to this world because the infernal plane I hail from won’t let us enter worlds that would allow us to ascend higher than the rank of archdemon.”

Regis listened to the woman’s words with beads of cold sweat slowly flowing down his back. A moment later Quentin’s voice resounded in his ear.

“We’re ready to leave if needed. Try to find out whatever you can but don’t take any risks. If she tries to make a move...”

“Stand by.” The loremaster said loudly which Quentin acknowledged while the guards took as a cue to ease their fingers on the ballista’s trigger.

“You want to use the Shardlands to work around your ascendancy problem.” He tried to gain confirmation of his theory.

“I do,” she confirmed. “While this realm is incapable of nurturing gods, it also lacks the restrictions my home world has. I almost succeeded a few centuries ago but I had to return home because my forces have been attacked in my absence. Now that I’m here once more, I aim to finish what I started.”

“If you only wanted to use this world as a transit zone,” the loremaster spoke ruefully. “Then why go through all the trouble of getting most of the locals wiped out?”

“I had to get rid of Bergaldeen and the people of this world were the perfect tool for that. Especially you, from what I heard from little Natalie here. It’s one of the main reasons we’re talking right now.”

“She must be planning to recruit you for her plans.” He heard Osmond’s voice from his far-caller, a thought he too found plausible.

“You need me for something enchanting related, don’t you?”

“Exactly. Rune masters are hard to find in any world, yet from what Natalie told me, you’re the most skilled one she knows. She claims that you’re an excellent... infusion enchanter. That’s the proper name for it here, right?”

“It is, my lady.” Natalie agreed.

“Well then,” Ulgrath hummed. “Now that you understand what’s going on, I’m offering you a deal Help me create a gate capable of opening a path to the world I seek and I shall leave this world and its people in peace.”

“A tempting offer but I do have to ask,” Regis cleared his throat while his friends were practically screaming in his ear not to make any deals with the archdemon. “What makes you think I’m even able to help you?”

“The fact that you are standing behind a barrier created by a domain heart. One of your own creations I presume. I have seen the gates these people use for transportation, the one used to transport armies is the one I need.”

“You managed to send your golems to the church’s encampment,” Natalie spoke from the side. “That means you already have okay like that.”

“I’m not going to let you inside if that’s what you’re asking.”

“We’re not planning to intrude on your home,” Ulgrath said after a slight chuckle. “Especially not with those domain hearts you’ve altered to explode. Oh, don’t give me that look, boy! Natalie was nothing if not thorough in recounting the battle before my arrival. To think that the mighty Bergaldeen met his demise in such a way. No. I want you to build me a gate where the battle took place yesterday.”

“And what’s to stop you from killing me or the others after I did what you asked?”

“You want guarantees? You’re not in a position to ask of such things.” The archdemon’s voice turned colder.

“Regis,” he heard the paladin’s voice in his ear. “We’re ready to go. Get out of there!”

“Do you see this little thing here?” The loremaster asked while holding up the detonator wand for the archdemon to see, his mind working in overdrive to form a desperate plan.

“Yes?” Ulgrath asked back confused.

“Since you’re an archdemon of scheming and whatnot, you should be able to tell whether I’m lying or not when I say this. If I activate this, the domain heart behind me will overload and explode. And given the fact that it’s several times bigger than the one I put in the spider golem that killed your rival, it should be able to take out all of us.”

“You would... kill yourself?” The archdemon questioned with genuine concern this time.

“And my guards, Natalie, Etienne and... you, most likely. I know this will sound cringe, but I’m not going to let you kill the ones I care about. Even if it means ending things here like this. So, you either make an Archaean oath right here or I will blow us all to kingdom come. It’s your choice. Tick... tock.”

As if to make a point to the threat, he began to channel his arcana to the wand and the barrier began to ripple as the domain heart slowly began to charge up.

“Fine,” the archdemon sighed after a few seconds as she pulled her already provocative armour to the side, revealing the spot where her heart was beating. “What are your terms?”

“Simple,” the dark elf noted while pulling off his top clothes to reveal his heart. “I build you the gate you want and ask anyone willing to help charge it with arcana. In the meanwhile, you don’t cause any harm to the people of this world, locally born or otherwise. No funny business. No charming others, threats or any other means of manipulation. I help you, you leave. End of the story.”

“Acceptable terms,” Ulgrath nodded. “However, I want a clause that neither you nor anyone else will sabotage the gateway in any possible way. I don’t intend to end up somewhere in the void. You also won’t seek any vengeance on my servants for their roles played in the past events.”

“I can only speak for myself in that regard. As for the others, I doubt the locals would be stupid enough to mess with your people while you’re here.”

“Understandable. So… do we have a deal?” Ulgrath asked as she stared into his eyes.

“We do.” Regis said the words as he drew a cross on his chest where his heart was.

Ulgrath did the same and a glowing sigil appeared on both of them as the dark elf felt the pressure of invisible chains weighing down on him as the Archaean oath was sealed. So far he managed to survive the Shardlands without ever having to use this accursed method, but it seemed like his luck had run out.

“I believe we are done here,” the archdemon turned around and began to walk away. “You have two days to explain what happened to the locals. After that, I expect you to start working on my gate. My servants will deliver you the necessary runes once you begin to work.”

With those words, the three of them walked away, stopping in the distance for a minute to open a portal to who knows where. Once they were gone, the loremaster collapsed on the ground as his strength left him.

“Lord Regis!” The guards rushed over to help him up, finding him shivering and covered in cold sweat. “I’ll be fine,” he said with his teeth still chattering as he de-powered the domain heart to prevent it from going off. “Looks like we managed to avoid the worst of it.”

“But at what cost?” He could hear Quentin’s voice from the side as his companions walked out of the guard post.

“Have you gone mad?” Letty asked with tears flowing down her face. “The Archaean oath is a death sentence if you break it.”

“I know,” he said with a weak smile as he wiped her tears away. “But the same goes for her as well.”

“You’re really planning to go through with it,” Osmond said incredulously. “You want to set her loose on another world? Did she not wreak enough havoc here?”

“What was I supposed to do? Run? She would have hunted us down no matter where we went. I wouldn’t be able to create weapons against her while on the run. How many more people would have to die before we took her down?”

“But...” The paladin tried to argue.

“Do you really think I’m happy with this outcome? Sending her to who knows where so she could become some god-level existence? This is the best I could come up with. It’s either this or we are screwed.”