Konstancia’s funeral was held in the small garden behind the Fox and Fiddle pub. The gathered priestesses of Ishira sang a brief hymn in her honor, their voices mixing with the rumble of distant waterfalls and the whispers of the wind coming down the glaciers.

Delta helped Magenta plant a Mystic tree seed over the grave and then used her Agromancy to make the tree rapidly bloom from it. The resulting little tree grew about thirty centimeters up, covered in violet leaves and flowers.

“This magic tree will watch over your mother,” Delta consoled Magenta offering her another hug. “This spring we will begin to heal Skyisle!”

Magenta’s tears had dried by then and she looked determined to move on from despair and darkness, to help spring begin.

Afterward, we returned to the gloomy catacombs beneath the pub, our footsteps echoing through the ancient halls. I walked ahead of the group next to Magenta as the Bishop and also behind everyone, with Kliss holding onto my hand.

“How are you feeling?” She whispered.

I tried to reassess my thoughts. “Angry,” I said. “Thinking about all the lives that woman stole all on a quest for her ambition. I could have maybe saved Konstancia… she was still alive when I was...”

“You couldn’t have done shit,” Delta shook her head, butting into the conversation. “Both of us were just kids. She almost killed you a year ago.”

I sighed in reply.

“There must be many others like Konstancia,” Kliss whispered. “An entire generation of women consumed by the necromancer.”

“There are,” Delta nodded. “And we can actually make a difference now that we’re strong and have everyone in Skyisle behind us. We will liberate Skyisle from the darkness that the Seditionists wrought.”

Magenta stopped in front of a large blood-iron door and pulled out a knife.

“What are you doing?” I asked as Archmage Delta.

“The passage ahead leading to the sacred temple requires a sacrifice of blood,” she said.

“Don’t,” I shook the Bishop’s head. “That’s a cursed door that feeds on magic.” I examined the door with the Infoscopes, scanning it for weak spots. Then I turned to Kliss.

“Time for you to shine,” I said.

“Yes?” Kliss tilted her head at me.

“Destroy the hinges,” I pointed.

“That looks like solid iron,” She whispered. “I can’t possibly break that with my bare hands… Dante!”

There was logic in her assessment–a human mage would not be able to break this door. Even someone like my dad whose muscles were greatly magnified by Strength skills would absolutely fail here. This was because blood-iron used the caster's own magic against them. Blood-iron devoured all human spells and hexagrams like a sponge. Fortunately for us, Kliss wasn’t a human.

“Just trust in yourself and pull magic from… everywhere you can,” I said. “You are stronger than you think.”

Kliss took a deep breath, her red mane casting little rainbows as it reflected the light of our crystal lanterns. She grabbed a hinge and squeezed it. Nothing happened.

“Focus,” I advised.

Kliss nodded. She squinted at the hinge and squeezed even harder. I watched as a network of strings suddenly extended out of her in the Astral, reaching towards my diary, towards the gold inside of her bag, towards the Violets she tagged with her bite and towards me. I easily cut the thread before it pulled magic from me.

The barmaids around us swayed ever so slightly as orange sparks erupted from Kliss’ fingers. The hinge bent inward as if great force was being applied to it and then tore from the wall.

“Whoa,” Kliss said, holding the bent metal piece in her fingers. “I just did… that?”

She reached out to the other hinge and tore it away too and then pried the door wide open, more sparks raining from her hands.

Magenta stared at Kliss with wide eyes.

“I’ve never seen magic like that,” she uttered. “Giovashi told me that this door is indestructible, that it cannot be broken by a human because it was reinforced by the blood of fifty generations of Ishira priests!”

The door was indeed well-reinforced, packed full of negatively-charged soul-shard magic developed by the Alanian Empire a thousand years ago. However, it could do little against a diametrically opposed, positively-charged dragon heart. Giovashi definitely didn’t make this door to be able to endure against the paw or maw of a dragon, considering that a dragon wouldn’t be able to fit their giant body through the tunnels.

“An excellent job, my apprentice,” I said as Archmage Delta to pacify the potential suspicions of the few bewildered-looking barmaids that were with us. “Ishira has granted you the strength of thirty to bypass this cursed door!”

We entered the hall containing the Astral Engine obelisk. Kliss stared at the black, looming artifact covered in hundreds of gold runes with a deep frown–as an Imperial Overseer she knew that this thing ate human souls.

[Is that thing… dangerous for us?] Delta’s thread reached out into my mind.

[Potentially,] I said. [I advise extreme caution.]

[Then why would you bring us here, brother?] Delta demanded.

[Because this obelisk’s ward is preventing me from scanning lots of things under Skyisle,] I replied. [It’s a blind spot for me and I need it gone.]

Mesmy jumped out of my backpack, running onto my shoulder. The little fox growled at the black obelisk, sensing Charisma magic radiating away from the Astral Engine.

[Well, I’m not gonna be caught with my pants down if that bitch shows up again,] Delta rushed to the Bishop and grabbed onto the ant-mech’s hand. She sent me an annoyed glare from Archmage Delta’s body as her own human body became empty, now running on autopilot, glassy eyes staring ahead.

Magenta walked to the obelisk.

“This ancient stone is Ishira’s gift to us!” She declared, her face twitching as if it was being forced into a serene expression. “A divine engine that forevermore grows in power and protects us all from the influence of other Gods!”

A pulse of magic exploded outwards from the black obelisk, leaping across the entire ward system. My Infoscopes winked away, crashed instantly. A small ward ignited into existence around me, projected from Battie.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

A projection of Giovashi suddenly manifested in front of the Obelisk. It wasn’t the actual Archpriestess, wasn’t the undead monster wrapped in human chains that I had encountered a year ago at the pub. According to what my relaunched Infoscopes told me, this was just a fraction of her soul projected from the Alanian Astral Engine along with a defense system of some sort.

The single functional eye of the projection went over us. Her lips stretched into a cold smile.

“How nice. Visitors. Bow,” she said.

The barmaids beside us and Magenta collapsed to the floor as if the strings supporting them were suddenly cut. Mesmy growled from my shoulder, shielding me from a Charisma wave that was fired from the obelisk.

“Screw you,” Delta said, now fully submerged inside of the ant-mech, operating entirely from the depths of the Astral.

“Sleep!” the obelisk insisted, casting an even stronger pulse of Charisma against us.

The eyes of the Violets closed. We still stood. I winced as Mesmy hissed from my shoulder at the projection, the little fox casting waves from its crystalline heart that tore right through enemy Charisma orders.

Giovashi’s eye stared at us, evaluating our insolence. There was intelligence there within this soul shard, one wielding a lot of power belonging to the Astral Engine and the arcane ward around us.

“You dare resist me?” the projection demanded. “Ah, my little Dante and Destiny, I know you… you belong to me. And you… I don’t know who you are, but you must be a strong mage to resist my words.”

She looked at the ant-mech.

“Perhaps another approach is required,” she murmured and then snapped her fingers.

A brilliant ray of light ignited atop of the obelisk. It struck the ant-mech, punching a fist-sized, burning hole through the head of Archmage Delta.

[PFFFrrrrrgh,] Delta growled mentally. [I lost like… a few hundred ants there.]

[Pretend to be dead,] I replied. [Fall over.]

Archmage Delta collapsed somewhat realistically onto the floor like a ragdoll.

“That takes care of that,” the projection turned her attention to Kliss. “And what are you supposed to be, sparkly girl?”

“I’m Eliza, a knight of Skyisle,” Kliss replied, eyeing Giovashi through slitted eyes.

“Bow before the Avatar of Ishira!” Giovashi barked, sending another wave of Charisma against us. This pulse was a lot more powerful. It drew way more mana from the obelisk than I had expected it to, reaching down twenty levels into the Astral and crushing us like little bugs. I fell to my knees, Mesmy crying out as the mesmerbane field was overpowered by a level 200 spell.

Kliss was left the only one standing. Human Charisma magic simply washed over her like an ocean wave would around a rock.

[Arghhhh, damn it, that really freaking hurt… shit she got me,] Delta cried out. [I can barely move a single tentacle. How the heck is Kliss completely unaffected?]

[She is a completely different species,] I replied. [These Charisma waves are designed against humans, not dragons or ants. Send the ants and bees out of the mech to attack the gold runes on that obelisk and dive deeper!]

Delta growled something in reply. The body of the ant-mech unfolded, unfurled like petals of a flower, releasing thousands of bees and ants. The flying and crawling swarms advanced towards the obelisk.

“What?! Insects?!” Giovashi sputtered.

The red ray fired from the top of the obelisk and fried thousands of ants and hundreds of bees, but didn't do much to the overall swarms. Fire bee stingers ignited, slightly melting the gold runework, as the wave of red ants advanced from below, ready to nip at the obelisk from beneath.

“Stop! I order you to stop!” Giovashi howled. The waves of Charisma washing from the Obelisk halted my thoughts almost completely, made me a mere observer. They didn’t stop the ants or the bees.

“Slava? What should I do?” Kliss turned to me.

I snapped an info tether into her head with the last of my mana.

[Grab the blood-iron door and use it as a shield! Punch the rune in the center!] I barked.

The dragon girl didn’t have to be told twice. Her eyes ignited and she leapt backwards to the door.

“Retreating, are we?” Giovashi laughed. Her laughter cutoff when Kliss picked the torn-off blood-iron door from the ground as if it was made from cardboard.

Kliss advanced towards the black obelisk at full sprint, pulling power from her hoard and Kobolds, moving about thirty times faster than a mundane human could.

“Die!” Giovashi howled.

A ray of light struck from the obelisk. It slammed into the door and had no effect whatsoever, blood-iron absorbing the magic into itself.

“You think you’re so clever, don’t you?” Giovashi hissed.

The magic laser fired again, this time it didn’t shoot at the door, instead targeting a crystal in the ceiling. The crystal redirected the ray directly into the head of our dragon-knight.

As the red ray impacted her dragon mane, the laser harmlessly broke up into a thousand refractions that cast a brilliant rainbow around Kliss.

Giovashi’s eyes became as wide as cups when she saw something impossible occur–a weapon that punched right through people had failed her.

The dragon girl leapt right through the projection of the Ishira Archpriestess and lifted the door above herself with her left hand. Her right fist whooshed through the air and struck the gold rune in the center of the obelisk.

The entire obelisk shuddered, a crack running through its crystalline structure, the gold hexagram warping and bubbling upon contact.

“No!” Giovashi howled. “I order you to kill yourself, girl! Break your neck for me, show me that you love me!”

The scene reminded me of the awful moment when Klint Klondike snapped his own neck under Giovashi’s orders a thousand years ago in this very chamber. Unlike the Alanian agent, Kliss paid no attention to Giovashi’s demands. The level 300 Charisma waves that would make a human mage into an obediently suicidal puppet simply harmlessly flowed over her.

The dragon girl’s now gold-smeared fist struck the obelisk once again, moving at the speed of a freight train. Dragonfire ignited around her fingers as her hand sunk deeper into the gold hexagram.

Dragonskin completely devoured, melted the magic-energized gold from within, rearranging its structure and fusing the remade material into her body to empower Kliss even more.

The projection screamed, flickered and vanished. The shard of Giovashi’s soul within the obelisk perished, burned away with another punch of dragonfire.

Kliss panted and snarled, not stopping her brutal attack even as Giovashi fell silent.

“Mine!” she growled, tearing more chunks of the gold out from the now defenseless obelisk with her claws and teeth.

The ants and bees were also still mindlessly harassing the gold hexagrams from all sides.

I dove back into my body as did Delta.

“Great job,” I hissed out as we ordered the bees and the ants to stop. The insects began to retreat. Kliss didn’t let go of the obelisk, chewing on a gold-covered corner. She sent me a look that spoke of ‘don’t interrupt me’, eyes flashing like two orange flares.

[Is she…?] Delta asked, eyeing Kliss.

[Yep, she’s eating it,] I nodded. [It’s fine, she needs lots of gold for her diet.]

[Did you plan this?] My twin demanded. [Cus we could have freaking died if that laser beam hit you or me in the head.]

[I planned some of it,] I replied. [This thing had waaaay stronger Charisma magic than I expected it to. Giovashi wouldn’t have targeted you or me–you heard her, she still thinks of us as her ghoul pawns, as mere weak children inhabited by human ghosts that she can control with her Charisma orders.]

“Uh-huh,” Delta murmured. “Should we like… maybe stop Kliss from demolishing the rest of the obelisk? Isn’t it valuable or something?”

“Let her have fun, it’s her first hunt kill,” I said, eyeing the gold-obsessed dragon girl.

“Yeah, let me… snack,” Kliss growled back at us. “You have no idea how yummy this gold is. It’s even tastier than the coins.”

“Ugh, why is it tastier than the coins?” Delta squinted at Kliss, clearly not finding the obelisk the slightest bit appealing.

“It was atomically rearranged by the sacrifice of Ishira’s priests for a thousand years,” I explained. “This gold is very magical, much more than the chest we got from the lake.”

“I see,” Delta murmured.

“We wouldn't be able to make good use of that obelisk anyway, it's got far too much of Giovashi's soul in it. It's her Phylactery, changed and aligned entirely to her will. It would not be able to obey us regardless of what I did,” I said.

“Fine,” Delta said.

Kliss didn't say anything. She was busy tearing up the obelisk with sparkling claws, sucking melting gold out of the black stone as if it was just a tasty milkshake and smearing it all over her glittering hands. It was certainly nice of Giovashi to unknowingly donate so much magic-infused gold to our little dragon.