Amadea's eyes glinted with determination as she spoke. "Now, the question is, how do we destroy the opposition to our alliance of Order?"

"You can break them personally, no?" I commented. "Are you not immortal?"

My new partner bared her teeth and spoke through them, her words like shards of glacial ice. "If Georgia is settled in her Baronial estate, I can indeed launch an attack with the full force of my warship and decimate her and her magi, reducing them to mere smithereens!"

My heart raced as I anxiously posed my next question - “Umm. Wait. What if she's not? What if she's elsewhere? What if her ward cannot be conquered by your warship - Bliss, was it?”

Amadea reflected before speaking, “Well, I could call her and simply inquire where she is stationed. Georgia and I enjoy a good rapport; she is unaware that you have ripped out my soul.”

The uneasiness in the air was palpable as I briefly considered the prospect of removing Georgia’s soul too.

"If I carve out her soul would she become our ally against Eunice?" I pondered.

"I wouldn't count on it," Amadea shook her head. "Georgia is aligned with Eunice by virtue of curiosity and exceptional lack of morality. She doesn't appreciate people like I do."

"If you pull her glasses off could we somehow use her artefact to help us? Could the shard of Insurance be used by us to ensure that Illatius survives the coming war?"

"Hm?" Amadea tilted her head at me. "Do you perchance desire to bear the concept of Insurance?"

"Not particularly," I shuddered, recalling how I nearly became Eureka when I put on Amadea's necklace.

"Then perhaps you have an Astral Phantom with a very fractured soul of someone from Earth?" The Baroness laughed.

"I do not," I sighed, crossing my arms.

"Then we cannot use Insurance," Amadea said. "Our only option is to kill Georgia before she realizes that I am unbound from absolute servitude to our Master."

"What about the others?" I asked. "Can they be reached out to, reasoned with?"

"They've used a shard of the Terminator to erase their names," Amadea shook her head. "I don't know who they are."

"What about their chimera names?" I blinked. "Wait... if they erased their names then how can Eunice even remember who they are?"

"She cannot," Amadea barked another laugh. "Eunice does not remember who they are either."

“But, how can she possibly keep them in line?” I asked. "How can she tell them what to do?"

"It is her second in-command, Baroness Georgia, who holds dominion over them," Amadea elucidated.

“Erm... What?” I stammered, trying to make sense of her words.

"Baroness Georgia carries the Shard of Insurance. It remembers all information regardless of whether it is destroyed by the Terminator," she explained in a solemn tone.

"Uh-huh. So, Georgia is the all-ensuring manager who coordinates the others. Knowing their concepts, what do you think the rest of the high-cendai are up to now?" I asked.

"Well, the other five are bearers of... Space, Terminator, Overseer, Recycle and Installer," the Baroness bend five fingers speaking with the cold voice of Eureka. "From what I know... the wielder of Space was working on taking over the Folding Forest from within for our Master. She was one of the three monchi sacrificed to the Heart of the Folding hundreds of years ago. She's most likely still at it as the Folding Forest is powerful and vast."

"Damn," I blinked. "That seems... awful."

"And from the confession of the little monchi we can derive that the wielder of Terminator was definitely working with Gattaca to erase the names of the vanished," Amadea said. "As for Overseer, Recycle and Installer wielders... I have no idea what they're doing or even where they are."

"Do you not have like regular meetings or something?" I asked, my voice edged with curiosity.

"We do not," Amadea shook her head. "Each of us was assigned to particular tasks, forbidden from engaging with others unless expressly allowed by our Mistress. I was appointed to national implementation of Vows and restructuring the judicial system.

"Right. So, if we can manage to overthrow Baroness Georgia, it will break the chain of command between the goddess and others?" I asked.

"Correct. Without new orders they will remain in their current state, and as long as we do not interfere with them they will not bother us," Amadea replied.

A flame of determination coursed through my veins and I clenched my fist, resolute in my plan of action.

"Yesss," I breathed, my spirit alight with enthusiasm. "I think... I know exactly what to do."

I dug into Saccy and pulled out a contract and slid it to Amadea.

The Baroness delicately unfurled the parchment in her hands, scanning the words with a piercing gaze.

"The use of my voice and image, granted to Nemendias?" She raised her eyes to me, her brow furrowed with confusion. "Explain this to me," she commanded.

"Sufficiently advanced Depictomancy can do incredible things," I said with a smirk.

. . .

Through the thick, white clouds, a single, sleek and somber vessel appeared, stopping directly above Nemendias.

A brilliant emblem of Saint Eunissi - a mighty, perfect angel with a divine golden halo - shone upon the central tower of Nemendias. It was Gattaca's victorious sign to the world that the Arcanarium had fallen under cendai control.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

The warship docked onto the tower and opened its black, magisteel gates, heralding in Baroness Georgia and her ten magi warriors garbed from head to toe in magitek armor and weapons.

Baroness Amadea stood atop the landing platform, her elegant yet imposing presence a fitting welcome to the new arrivals. Her white, diamond-encrusted dress glittered in the light of the setting sun.

Baroness Georgia, bemused by the grandiose spectacle, fixed Amadea with a quizzical gaze, her thickly-framed spectacles examining the smug-looking bearer of the shard of Eureka.

"So, it's true?" Georgia asked.

"I'm the one who rules Nemendias," Amadea's reply was a proud nod, her eyes rife with the tint of success. "Monchi Gattaca was of great use to us. I have full control of the ward!"

"You have done well," Georgia's lips curved into a slight smile, "What of the vile traitor? Have you brought her to justice?"

"Grogtilda Lic Misem is currently in the Keeper's office," Amadea's answer arrived with an enigmatic smirk. "She is bound by magic to obey my every order! Her body fully belongs to me now!"

“Splendid,” Georgia applauded with the clanging of her steel gauntlets. "Our Goddess will be pleased with zhis.”

“Will Eunisii grant me more freedom?” Amadea implored, running her fingers around the imaginary choker wrapped around her pale neck.

"Zhat is up to our Master to decide," Georgia shrugged. "Zhe is but a ghost in the Astral now, but she will re-manifest fully given enough time when I finish building her a new body."

"How long will this process take? When will Goddess Euinisii become fully physical again?" Amadea inquired.

"A year? Perhaps less," the bespectacled Baroness replied with a shrug. "She wants a very powerful body and I'm zhe one who will build it for her."

"Right," Amadea nodded. "Your divine glasses make you infinitely dexterous."

"Yes. Now, who are these humans?" Georgia looked at the crowd of black-robed Constables standing behind Amadea.

"Just my adorable partners," Amadea purred. "Don't worry about them, my dear, they work for me. Who are these lovely-looking humans you brought?"

"Just my insurance," Georgia smiled, glancing back at the pink-eyed mages in armor and pearlescent robes. "Zhey are a team of my dedicated archmagi... if you accidentally turn the ward of Nemendias against me, zhey will be able to push against it and blast this place to smithereens."

"Turn the ward against you?" Amadea tilted her head. "I would never do such a thing!"

"I prefer to be safe," Georgia shrugged. "Now, take me to zhe traitor."

"What are you plans for little Miss Misem?" Amadea inquired.

"Our Master wishes her to suffer greatly for what she did," Georgia replied.

"Be glad that I own the courts, or you would be in a pickle of trouble," Amadea laughed. "I heard you put a bomb under her parents' house?"

"What trouble? Don't be ridiculous. Zhe little idiot's life wasn't worth much," Georgia shrugged. "Zhe girl and her parents are criminal debitors! Do you consider me some kind of an imbecile? I already bought zhe rights to the three of them from zhe Fighters Guild of Undertown. Legally, I am perfectly within my rights to execute or torture her if I so desire. I own her!"

"Oooh, aren't you a clever cookie," Amadea laughed. "So your little bomb plot was fully legal?"

"Obviously," Georgia huffed. "If you hadn't captured her, I would have simply shown zhe papers of debitor ownership to the Illatius Judiciary. Simple insurance."

The two Baronesses and their entourage made their way to the Keeper's office. Keeper Nora nodded at them from her desk.

"Now, where is zhe traitor?" Georgia asked, looking around the office.

"Right through this door," Amadea stepped through the portal to Undertown, her shoes clanking on black, metal hexagons.

When the last magi belonging to Georgia stepped onto the hexagonal platform, the portal between Nemendias and Undertown ceased to exist, vanishing the faces of Nora and the Constables.

The mages encircling Georgia quickly shifted around her in a solid formation, eyes wide with a fervent readiness to cast powerful magics.

"Hang on... is zhis...?" Baroness Georgia gasped as she looked across the hexagon-textured space.

"Indeed, my dear. This is the Undertown Inarian End Gate!" Amadea declared. "It can take us anywhere! Currently it is linking Nemendias to Undertown.

"Anywhere?" Georgia whispered, her voice trembling ever so slightly with unconcealed excitement.

"Anywhere, within reason," Amadea nodded. "Juni is the one who controls this gate with her artifact and in turn I control her."

She pointed at me. I stood beneath the gate, magic shackles weighing down my hands.

A cold chill ran down my spine as I heard Georgia utter a single word -‘Marvelous!’.

A malicious glint shone in her eyes as she took one step closer to me. The Archmagi rearguard followed her into the depths of the dark gateway, their faces set with a steely determination.

"Good tomorrow, Doctor Joseph Grimshaw Engel," I said with a small curtsy, shaking my shackles.

"Did you tell her my real name?" an expression of annoyance crossed Georgia’s countenance as she shot a glance at Amadea.

I rolled my eyes and replied: “You were the one who revealed your name to me, Doctor!"

"Wha-" Joseph blinked in confusion.

"That's when I found out that you were an absolute monster beyond saving," I growled.

The slow-boiling rage I'd kept inside me since I met the bespectacled doctor had now turned into a firestorm of fury.

"Open the gate to the edge of Eureka!" I shouted.

The Eurekan gateway behind Georgia flashed open into empty space. The vacuum gripped all of us and pulled our bodies into the gate and through it.

The void tugging us towards itself with a gravitational and pressure differential pull was so strong that nobody standing beneath the gate could resist it.

Georgia let out an undignified yelp as she was flung backwards towards oblivion. All of Georgia's magi plummeted into the gate along with me and Amadea.

Baroness Amadea reached out to me with a smile, hugging me as we fell through the mesosphere of Eureka.

"This was fun!" She shouted against the rush of air, her body entwined with mine, protecting me with a motherly-like embrace.

The infinite expanse of the dead city stretched out below us, illuminated in a kaleidoscope of white glaciers and inky black ruins. Its curvature extended on and on until its details were lost in the limitless horizon.

No one could save us now; in a second or two we would be dead, and at that moment I felt pure panic and thrill like no other as my life flashed before my eyes.

One of the buildings directly beneath us was the exact skyscraper that had the name "Good Directorate" on it. It was the ruin that I had memorized this summer, a building featured on the Depictomancy picture given to me by Inspector Lambert. It was the picture I had shown Infi an hour ago as the place where the gate should open upon my orders.

The magi spun and scrambled in the air, desperately chanting spells to stifle their descent, but it was no use. The power of Eureka's pull below us was more unwieldy than anything they'd ever encountered; an irresistible force that mocked the feeble attempts of their magic. The closer the magi got to the Dead Zone, the more their powers weakened.

Within seconds they were swallowed by the atmosphere and became engulfed in a swirling maelstrom of death.

Baroness Georgia's agonizing wail pierced through the howling wind as her armor and body ignited in a fireball of pain and terror. The sight was too much for me and I looked away as I too spiraled towards certain demise in the jaws of the thousand-floor skyscrapers.

Georgia's glasses flashed one last time as all of us turned into falling, burning stars rapidly devoured by the friction of the atmosphere and the life-consuming clouds caressing the infinite landscape.

I too became a falling star as my body caught fire. Desperately, I watched as the clouds swallowed us up, like a hungry beast devouring its prey. My body was alight with heat as we sped towards the ground. I felt myself slowly burning away, engulfed by the flames that licked my skin.

Amadea's body took the brunt of the impact and shattered, seared beneath me to incandescent ashes.

The infinite city made from doomed worlds stretched out before me, a canvas of death that was about to consume me.

This breathtaking view was my last sight.

Far below, two figures stood atop the skyscrapers with the words drawn upon its flat rooftop. One figure was tall and garbed in midnight black, with a gas mask whose purple lenses glinted as though lit from within, its gaze meeting mine with inexplicable aching sadness. Beside her, a hunchbacked man was polishing his rifle and not looking up - until the figure in black elbowed him.

I recognized him at once - it was the infamous Charles Snippy. The Eurekan citizen trapped in the Dead Zone raised his gaze to meet mine.

"Make a wish upon me, Charles," I thought as my flesh boiled and burned away to sparkling ashes.