As it turned out, the weapon’s stats applied so long as it was anywhere on my person. My Spatial Inventory, however, did not count, and so my ceiling was significantly boosted when I had the sword equipped. Which was always.

The man managed one look of horror before the blade took him.

While I wasn’t exactly trying to kill him, considering how he’d just murdered someone, I wasn’t especially cautious with my aim, either.

All that training paid off as I deftly sidestepped his haphazard dagger strike, and sunk my blade into his unprotected abdomen in a well-executed move that would’ve made Philip proud.

He didn’t scream in pain or even groan—as I’d learned over the past weeks, the combined might of [Light of the Fearless] and [Shadow of the Fearless] had some sort of synergistic effect that rendered my opponents unconscious, unless they were seasoned warriors.

I knelt beside the man he’d skewered and felt for a pulse. It was there. Weak, but there.

“Healer!” I shouted. “He’s still alive!”

A Boonworthy materialized from the crowd and rushed to my position. Only when he’d begun to administer his magic did I take a look at the would-be murderer.

I grunted. He had a pulse. He’d live, but he’d wake up behind bars. As for what happened to him afterward, I couldn’t say. He’d be lucky to get away with his life.

A slew of notifications popped up, and the message I’d been waiting so long for finally appeared.

Congratulations! [Light of the Fearless]’s Ability [Light of the Fearless] has leveled up to Foundation - 4.

Congratulations! [Light of the Fearless]’s Ability [Shadow of the Fearless] has leveled up to Foundation - 4.

Congratulations! Initializer has leveled up to [Emergence - 5]. Spatial Inventory upgraded.

Spatial Inventory size has increased from 4ft x 1ft x 1ft to 4ft x 2ft x 2ft.

Spatial Inventory has gained the ability: [Aim].

The hell?

That was definitely not an ability I’d expected. The size increase, I’d at least hoped for, but Aim? What did that even mean in the context of an inventory system?

Wiping the sweat off my brow, I turned to find Aerion a dozen feet away. She threw me a small and approving nod.

I nodded back as my madly beating heart began to slow back down. Another day, another crisis averted.

Unfortunately for us all, it was not the only one.

No, as it so happened, that meteor was just the opener.

Before I could pull up the detailed description of my new ability, another one slammed into the city some blocks away, shaking the ground. It was followed by another, and another.

I looked up to find the sky filled with them. A rain shower of meteors.

And above them was one that dwarfed them all. A meteor a half-mile in diameter, roaring to the ground.

I didn’t need to be a physicist to know a World Ender when I saw one.

The thing was like a miniature sun, burning so brightly in the sky I had to shield my eyes. When that crashed…

“It has arrived,” Aerion whispered. She’d walked up to me at some point and was clutching my sleeve.

“It? You don’t mean…” I trailed off, unwilling to say it.

“The Cataclysm Dungeon is here.”

I gulped. The massive meteor’s fireball slowly dimmed, and I saw the monstrosity for what it was.

Like a capsule undergoing the intense heating of orbital re-entry, it traveled sideways, protected by what looked to be a colossal heat shield.

Except, it wasn't a capsule or a spaceship that was attached to it.

It was a fortress. A castle of unbelievable size—more like a city, really—one that sported enormous spires and skyscrapers that glowed amber.

“And so the Cataclysm begins,” Philip muttered. “Not with a dungeon, but something far, far worse.”

I turned to find a shell shocked Philip. I’d never seen the composed veteran warrior show such an expression of terror, and that, more than anything, told me something had gone horribly wrong.

“What do you mean?” I asked, my voice trembling. “What is that thing? Isn’t that a Cataclysm dungeon?”

I threw Aerion a glance, but she shook her head. She didn’t know, either.

He turned and stared at me, except he wasn’t looking at me. It was as if I were invisible to his eyes, locked in a two thousand yard stare.

“That,” Philip pointed to the horizon, “is a Landing Castle of the Cataclysm Core, and this city is doomed.”

“What is that?” I asked. “What does that mean?”

Instead of answering, Philip embraced us in a deep hug. “Run. Run away from this place. Run for your lives.”

But then, the unthinkable happened.

“W-what’s that?” Aerion asked, wrenching free of Philip’s hug.

I turned and stared at where she was pointing. A burst of blue light flared from somewhere beyond the horizon. Then another, green one, and a third that looked like lightning.

They flew in an arc, traveling slowly across the sky, though I knew that, given the distance, they had to be supersonic at the very least. For us to even be able to see it, I struggled to comprehend just how enormous those beams must have been,

“They’re headed for the castle,” I said. “What in the world…”

Sure enough, the three beams of light collided with the Landing Castle one after another, although collided might not be the right word. They passed right through, punching small holes into the heat shield that protected the castle. On their own, I doubted they’d have done much at all to the colossal thing, but given the precarious state of the castle, they didn’t have to.

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The previously stable re-entry trail suddenly became chaotic, splitting into a dozen smaller bits, many of which broke off from the main castle and burned up in the atmosphere, spawning even more debris in a chain reaction.

“It’s… burning up,” I muttered. “That’s genius!”

It didn’t take much to destabilize anything traveling at those immense speeds. The atmosphere and friction did the real heavy-lifting, melting and vaporizing the structure.

“By Dominion. By the bones of the Blessed! We’re saved!” Philip breathed, his eyes hollow as he watched the flaming trails crash down.

“The Blessed?” I asked, whipping my head around. “You’re saying high-ranking Blessed did that?”

His stared transfixed at the sky, and I wondered if he’d even heard me.

Most of the ensuing debris either burned up completely, or landed far enough away that it was someone else’s problem. I didn’t even want to think about the wildfires they’d set off, but we didn’t have the luxury of worrying about that right now.

The biggest chunk—the main body of whatever was left of the castle—screamed by overhead, impacting several miles away with an almighty earthquake that rattled the whole city and nearly knocked me off my feet.

Glass shattered, and even a few buildings crumbled, compounding the pandemonium running rampant through the city. I grabbed onto Aerion, more out of reflex than anything, and waited for it to pass. I never imagined thirty seconds would feel so long, but that was probably about how long it took before the city was silent again.

“Perhaps we are saved, after all,” Philip said, looking over the horizon where it’d presumably crash-landed.

“Uh, sorry? I’m pretty sure that quake just killed a lot of people, and you’re saying we’re saved?”

His behavior was honestly starting to spook me, and it wasn’t until later that day, when the man was about five ales in, that I learned why. When I did, I too despaired at the thought of what might have been.

Fate, it seemed, had taken a good, hard look at our plight and then proceeded to laugh in our faces.

Then again, neither Aerion nor I were the same people we’d been when we met in Dominion’s Trial.

We’d grown. We’d learned. We were prepared.

And for me? My confidence came from a different place. A more countable, concrete place.

I looked at my [Rare] magical sword I’d modified to be even better. A sword that had built a reputation in the city all on its own, and which promised to multiply my offensive potential.

I thought of all the grueling training I’d undergone with Philip these past weeks, and of my progress there. From being unable to last even three minutes against the veteran, to defeating him with regularity.

Those were all good confidence boosters—all solid indicators of progress—but there was nothing quite as solid as seeing the numbers confirm it.

I pulled up our stats.

Name: Gregory Samuel Wills

Essence Utilization: 210/230

Blessing: Initializer [Epic] (Emergence - 5)

Stats: Total: 161

— Vigor: 35 (Max: 49)

— Order: 10 (Max: 10) (Max Trained: 11)

— Wisdom: 23 (Max: 50)

— Passion: 19 (Max: 29)

— Grace: 19 (Max: 27)

— Cunning: 20 (Max: 23)

— Dominion: 35 (Max: 74)

Spells:

— Weapon Bestowal: Initialize weapons. Weapons can level up to current Blessing level

— Armor Initialization: Now you can enchantify armor too! Maybe now you won’t have to run for your life like a hysterical baby!

— Spatial Inventory: An inventory you can store stuff in and pull stuff out of. Might even keep perishables fresh! Good for storing weapons. Armor? Not so much. Not at its current size, anyway. 4 x 2 x 2. 20 lb Weight Capacity.

— Spatial Inventory: Aim: You remember how you always used to daydream about inventories you could aim—N-No? You didn’t? That’s sad. Tragic, even. Well, you can rejoice! Because you now have an inventory you can aim. Happy Birthday, Greg.

The progress was incredibly simple for me to measure—I always reverted to my base, human stats whenever I took off all of my gear. I got to taste that difference each and every day, if I wanted to.

I didn’t. Going back to being normal was, well, miserable. It’s said that people acclimatize to wealth, power, and happiness, but with these constant reminders, that would never happen to me. I began with a stat total of 60. 60! Almost 3 times less than my current total. My highest stat was Cunning at 15, while Cunning was now my second lowest, with my highest being 35. Not to mention, my Dominion’s ceiling was stupid high, at 74. That was more than [Reave] gave Aerion.

Of course, her own stats were nothing to sneeze at, either.

Aerion: Elf [Sylvan Reaver] (Foundation — MAX)

Essence: 50/50

Soul: Common / F

Stats (Available: 0): Total: 113

— Vigor: 31 (Max: 33)

— Order: 8 (Max: 8)

— Wisdom: 13 (Max: 15)

— Passion: 2 (Max: 2)

— Grace: 19 (Max: 19)

— Cunning: 10 (Max: 10)

— Dominion: 30 (Max: 56)

Boons:

— Racial Trait: Boon of Elven Grace: + 10 Grace

— Racial Trait: Boon of Elven Vigor: + 10 Vigor

— Racial Trait: Boon of Order: +5 Order

Blessing: Sylvan Reaver (F - MAX) [Uncommon]

Ancient legends once spoke of fierce warriors who terrorized the ancient Elven Elderglades. Thought to be extinct, Sylvan Reavers risk it all for ultimate power. Few sights are as terrifying as a Reaver on the battlefield.

Details:

— [5] Stat points awarded per level

— [1] New ability per rank

— Abilities can level to current class level

— Evolvable (Evolutions: 0)

Spells:

— Reave (Foundation - 8): When activated, the Reaver gains supernatural strength until either all enemies in the area are dead, or their essence pool is drained. In return, they give themselves to their rage, which only the strongest can control. +60 Dominion while active.

Aerion had managed to make it to F-MAX, and was about to gain a new ability once she jumped up to Emergence. We were both giddy about that one, and had worked tirelessly to get her over the hump, but it’d eluded us thus far. I had no doubt she’d reach it in the Cataclysm Dungeon.

Her Dominion was now at 30, which was actually lower than mine, but with the 60 points from [Reave], that put her at a monstrous 90, more than double my current highest stat. As always, she was our heavy hitter. And her 31 points of Vigor meant she wasn’t quite the glass cannon she’d once been, either. Something that gave her no small degree of confidence.

I ran over the stats once again, trying to convince myself we were ready. We’d come far. Incredibly far. But was it enough?

We’d bargained for a single Emergence Rank Cataclysm dungeon.

The Landing Castle was more like five, all combined, with a Divergence Rank dungeon crowning them all.

Thanks to the efforts of what I later learned were Ascendance Rank Boonworthy and Blessed, the dungeon had suffered immense damage. As for its current state and how strong it truly was, no one knew. No one could even guess.

It was even possible the portal to the world in which the dungeon core existed was intact and unharmed. If anything had survived, the odds were good it was the Divergence Rank dungeon. According to Philip, their resilience went up with their rank. Blowing dungeons out of the sky with A Rank magic was only possible for the highest grades. An entire country’s Blessed could unite and still not be able to take down a higher rank Cataclysm Dungeon.

In any case, one thing was clear: We were in for the fight of our lives.

I looked at Aerion. She looked back. Our expressions were the same. The fire that burned in our eyes was the same.

The odds didn’t matter. There was a city at stake. A city in which bonds had been forged and friendships made.

The time had come to defend it.

The time had come to fulfill my promise to Aerion.