I stared at the gold sand beneath my feet and past it in the Astral, identifying everything about the structure of the cliff beneath me, identifying the boundary between the garden of the arch-cendai and the cliff's edge.

With every step taken, with every exhale, I was identifying the physical connection between the cliff and my Master's domain, marking a straight line.

[I am out of air,] my sister sent. [Don’t come. It’s a trap. Let the monster have me. I love you, Juni.]

[Put yourself in a Still Trance,] I sent. [Crystallize, hide yourself as low as you can. Just hold on. I’m almost done!]

I finished my thirtieth pace and stopped in front of Eunice.

“Are you ready now?” She asked.

“Yeah, I’m ready,” I said. “Ready to speak with you on equal terms.”

“Equal terms?” Eunice stood up from the bench, staring down at me.

“Send the deathshawl back into the Chasm!” I declared. “I’m not an idiot, I know what you’re planning.”

“What am I planning?” Eunice raised an eyebrow.

“You’re planning to use me to activate your End-gate!” I growled. “It’s going to kill everyone, even you!”

Eunice tilted her head.

“What a clever little monci you are,” she said. "Figured everything out, have you?"

“The End-gate is dangerous Inarian magitek,” I appealed to her. “I don’t want to fight you, Master. If you open the gate it will kill everyone on Andross.”

“You seem quite sure of yourself,” Eunice said. “How did you come to possess this knowledge?”

“I saw my future,” I said. “I invested all of my points into luck.”

“Inarian gates and any actions associated with them cannot be observed with precognition,” Eunice said. “I don’t know what silly dream you’ve had, but it is false. I've opened the End-gate into the Astral thousands of times over two hundred years! Stop flapping around like a baby hatchling and go kill the deathshawl!”

I stared up at her.

“If you refuse to step away from this path, if you don’t leave my sister and home alone, I am going to destroy your home too,” I said. "An eye for an eye."

Eunice started laughing. I simply stared at my bemused Master.

“Really, now?” She croaked. “You think that you can oppose me? I tire of whatever game this is. I am orderi…”

Power that was pouring from the dragon heart within Saccy, rushed into my armacus, manifesting an absolute shield between me and my Master. The shield spell designed by Antoine blossomed brighter, actively defending me against the magic Eunice sent against me. Whatever power Eunice had used, whatever words she spoke to take over my body before now had no effect upon me, simply didn’t reach me, poured around me like water rushing around a rock.

“No,” I said from within the absolute barrier that surrounded my person like a shimmering soap bubble made up of a thousand hexagons. “You do not command me anymore, Master - you lost this privilege when you decided to destroy my home and threaten my sister!”

Eunice’s eyes grew wide. She gaped at the inexplicable, overpowered magical shield that wrapped me in its embrace.

“Obey me, monci!” The arch-cendai howled. “I order you to obey me!”

“Go to hell!” I barked.

I grabbed Endy from my belt, raised it high into the air and struck it against the ground, severing the structure of the cliff itself beneath my feet. The massive stone platform beneath me groaned.

Eunice lifted a beetle-wrapped arm into the air, trying to disrupt my magic, trying to push me away from the spot where I stood. The absolute barrier of Lomb designed by Antoine held steady, actively reacted to and repulsed her magical attack.

Rays of magical fire, of ice, darkness, wind and allure struck against me.

The magitek engine in Saccy flared, burned through its vast storage of power as the chimera archmage threw spell after spell my way trying to break through the shield.

I struck the ground again with Endy, focusing on nullifying the connection between the cliff and the rest of the Chasm, focusing on separating the Eurekan Transit Gate from its immovable position on Installation Rozaline.

I cast another spell that Antoine had written into my armacus, empowered, magnified by the dragonheart engine. A thousand crystals that I had buried into the sand earlier while pacing back and forth ignited, unleashing their stored power and setting the cliff alight. The cliff groaned again, fracturing further beneath my feet. Gold sand poured into the dark fissure beneath me.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Eunice roared as she and her skull shook.

A halo of power manifested behind her head. She unleashed her full divine Aura against me, fueled, magnified by two hundred years of belief.

It wasn’t enough to best the shield of the tower of Lomb focused upon my person. Power of an almost-god poured, rippled around the brilliant sphere of magic that surrounded me. Eunice's incredible magical power attempted to crush, to vaporize, to burn me away but instead of doing that it all poured down, redirected by the shield straight into the ground beneath my feet, further damaging the cliff.

I ignored the inferno of magic raging around me, striking the cliff beneath my feet with Endy again and again.

“Obey me! Stop! STOP!” Eunice howled. "I command you to stop!"

Roots of massive trees emerged from the sand, smashing against the shield that protected me, hammering me into the burning cliff.

I struck the ground again with Endy, aiming for the base of the End-Gate that stood deep below my feet surrounded by solid rock. Hellfire of burning crystals flared all around me in a straight line heading towards both sides of the edge of the platform.

The cliff shook. I struck the ground once again, pulling more energy from the dragonheart and the mana crystals filling Saccy to the brim.

I felt that Endy's power had finally reached the gate. An immovable object was faced with an all-killing weapon.

“Divide by zero!” My lips sang as I struck the ground again.

Something finally broke, snapped beneath me after nearly a hundred strikes. The power of the key reached the Shogun gate and unlocked, erased its connection to Rozaline out of existence. The world groaned. Eunice screamed as her entire soul-garden along with a massive cliff and the upside down grove beneath it disconnected from the rest of the sideways mountain range.

I leapt backwards as the cliff beneath my feet shattered in a straight line with a thunderous detonation.

“Goodbye, Master!” I yelled as I watched Eunice sailing away from me, her eyes wide and filled with horror, her claws clinging to the bone-carved balustrade.

Enormous brown roots tried to grab at the edge of the cliff. A ray of blindingly bright lightning struck against them from Galissi, burning the tree-roots to blackened husks. Agatha had pulled through, supported me. Spellfire from Lambert, Antoine, Agatha and Anniya joined the fray, demolishing the forest of roots, carving it up, shattering the thick wood into splinters.

The weight of the dragonskull, the unbound gate and the cliff had proven to be far too much for the damaged roots to bear. Dominion-controlled trees failed to hold Eunice’s garden as the cliff-side fully tore off and plummeted down into the Infinite abyss below us.

Rage flashed in Eunice’s eyes as her place of absolute power, her wizard’s tower and domain fell into the Chasm, punching through the glowing clouds.

The arch-cendai's garden grew smaller and smaller.

I watched as it smashed onto the mountain range far down below us, rolled off it and smashed again into another level and then another. A sphere of broken, burned, sheared tree roots surrounding a gold dragonskull rolled, bounced again and disappeared out of sight far, far below, vanishing in the mists.

I let go of the absolute shield, falling to my knees in exhaustion.

Galissi landed beside me, the door opening with a click.

“This probably won’t kill her permanently, you know,” Agatha said, climbing out of the glider, leather boots clanking on the steps.

She offered me her hand. I took it, standing up. The view was swimming in my eyes. I felt drunk, burned out from within.

“The loss of her domain will delay her long enough for me to get stronger and to make more awesome friends like you,” I said. “Who knows... maybe this taught her a good lesson about bossing me, you know what I’m saying?”

“You’re insane, you know that, right?” The eldest chimera princess shook her silver hair. “This is insane. I did not think that I would be taking down the goddess of the Empire and the chimera arch-cendai when I met you a week ago!”

Emerald approached us, cautiously peering over the broken edge.

"Holy shit," she said. "You just killed the arch-cendai.”

“She will return,” Agatha uttered. “Mother told me that it’s impossible to kill a god. She likely has other soul-anchors, other bodies.”

“Till that horrible day comes, you can call me the arch-cendai!” I laughed nervously. “Get it? Cus I beat Eunice? I’m the arch-cendai now!”

I pretended to tip an invisible hat. My hands were trembling from magical exhaustion. The dragon heart within Saccy was almost entirely spent.

Agatha sighed. She didn’t get my hilarious references. Emerald simply stared at me with wide eyes of admiration like I was the most shiny, precious, incredible thing to exist on Andross.

She took a knee and bowed to me.

"I am yours to command, my arch-cendai," she said. "Can you kill my Mother next, throw her Estate into the Dungeon too?"

"I... don't think that's possible," I shook my head. "Eunice was alone, didn't rely on anyone else to protect her. Your mother has an army and the Palais De La Solstice is too vast and not sitting anywhere near the edge of the Chasm."

"Too bad," Emerald sighed.

A distant boom suddenly resounded from below, the world shuddering once again.

I looked down, spotting a blooming mushroom cloud in the distance and a circle of rapidly parting clouds.

"What in the Astral was that?!" Agatha looked down into the Chasm.

"I think… Eunice’s End-Gate just exploded," I said. "I've… um… made it finite, permanently severed its connection to Andross. Skyships tend to explode when they fly into the Dungeon too quickly. That’s probably what happened. That or it bumped too hard against a mountain. Either way the damned gate is gone and the problem of me unlocking it is solved!”

“Right…” Agatha exhaled.

The blastwave reached us, blowing back her and Emerald's silver locks. Emerald's green eyes were as wide as two plates.

Lambert, Antoine and Anniya walked over to us. They too stared at the growing mushroom cloud far below us. Antoine whistled. Lambert wiped his brow with a handkerchief. Anniya hiccupped, her face as white as a sheet.

Voltara rushed over to me, hugging me tightly.

"Is it over?" She babbled excitedly. "That was the most magically impressive fight I've seen! I feel bad for not being able to help! I wish I had an armacus!"

"The hardest part is over... for now," I nodded. "A good point - I'll get you one. Antoine will design it for you - it won't be as good as mine, but you'll be able to cast spells in no time at all."

"Yesss!" Voltara wrapped me tighter. "Thank you, thank you!"

When she finally let go of me, I stretched and pulled my glider out of Saccy with her help, ignoring the ridiculously exciting number of points I was awarded for my act of resistance, mayhem and mass destruction.

“Get in the bag everyone,” I said. “I'm dead tired and... we still have a very high-level deathshawl to put out of its misery!"