Ivaran takes his eyes off Ulrika and me to put them on, Drake. My heart is beating hard enough to feel the pulse on my wrist because of Ulrika’s tight grip. He walks into the room making his way over to Drake. Ulrika is about two feet behind Ivaran. She keeps her eyes on me while I watch him closely while he gazes up at a bookshelf.

“Hello, sir! Has something caught your eye?” Drake asks.

“That green book with the faded spine,” Ivaran answers. “What does it say?” Drake flies up to it to read the name.

“Oh! It’s one of mine. Are you looking for knowledge of Drow culture?”

“No. I already know their history.” He points at another green book at the end of the top shelf. It’s also green but doesn’t have a worn-out spine. “Read me that?”

“Sure think.” Drake snaps his right finger. The book flies out and into his hand. “Another one of mine,” he chuckles. “Fungus for enhancing positions.”

“Does this sound like what you want?” He says with a raised voice.

“Let me see,” a woman says with her body halfway in the door then walks in. The woman isn’t a fairy. She is a young-looking woman and has pure white hair. The only two I know that have hair like that are Vahloin and one of the Kromagian tribes called Fireaeayhs (Firey Eyes). Vahloin comes from them.

“Here,” Ivaran says. He hands Drake a coin and tosses the book to the woman without looking where to throw it. The book stops in midair at an arm’s length from her face. It opens up, making a crackling noise as the pages unstick from each other. “You two.”

“Hmm?” I say without thinking.

“You two are giving me an odd sensation.” Ulrika’s lips tighten as her eyes bludge. The eyes are glued to the book. Every few seconds the page flips.

“Uh, we... we’re...”

“We know magic!” Ulrika blurts out, suddenly letting go of my wrist. She swirls her fingers in a circle to blow the air in the room. “See? I’m still learning the basics?”

“Same,” I say to play along.

“What can you do?” Ivaran asks as he takes a step closer to me.

“Ivaran,” the woman says, slamming the book closed without touching it. “Come. Pay the fairy. Let’s head on to the asylum”

“Yes, my lord,” he says, bowing, then follows her out into the street, heading left. Ulrika and I sigh in relief nearly at the same time.

“What the fuck?!” Ulrika shouts in a quiet voice. “Gods, my heart is racing right now.”

“Was that another Paragon?” I ask.

“We’re in for a fight for our lives. We need to tell Haleema that Ivaran is here!” She reaches for her bag, making it reveal for her to see.

“What is going on? You two look troubled,” Drake says.

“That man is the reason why there’s a war going on,” I say. “He’s the cult leader of Nite.”

“Seriously?” Drake says, scratching his head. “He comes here a few times out the month to buy my books.”

“Drake,” Ulrika says, tossing a portal ring into his fumbling hands. “Activate it with mana and step on the other side of it.”

“I shall, milady,” he nods.

“Perfect,” she says, punching the first letter. “Let’s go, my love.”

“My... love?” Drake says softly. She heads out, but I stay to see his realization of finding out she’s my wife. “That’s your lady?”

“Yes,” I laugh as I follow after Ulrika. “That’s my wife.”

The last thing I hear from Drake before closing the door is, “Shit.”

I spot Ivaran and the woman on top of two black horses heading down the middle of the street. There’s a straight open lane clear from any fairies. Everyone stands aside as if some royal caravan is strolling through the streets.

“What’s going on here?” I say. Ulrika shrugs and stumbles on her words. “Let’s follow them.” We tail them to the asylum. The rowdy crowd near the building Haleema and Glysith are in becomes silent. Ivaran offers his hand to help the woman off the horse. She grabs his and carefully steps off her horse. Once both her feet touch the ground, their horse disintegrates into embers. Something about that woman doesn’t sit well with me. I do not like her mysterious nature and the fact that she is in some respected position over Ivaran.

“Do you think she’s like another leader?” I ask.

“If so, then this crap goes deeper than we expect,” Ulrika insights.

Ulrika and I use the open lane to jog over to the building. At the end of the street, I find Ivaran, the woman, Haleema, and Glysith staring down at each other. The first floor is nearly full of fairies. Two males stand close behind Glysith and move directly behind her as if trying to move out of sight.

“Stand aside fairies,” Ivaran says, taking a step closer to Glysith. He takes the two fairies by their arms up to a central staircase. They beg him to let go as they try to pull themselves away. Their bare feet can’t grip the floor.

“Out of my way!” The woman says, shoving Haleema into a crowd of fairies. Haleema slams into a wall with what looks like a simple push. The woman walks up the stairs with the book she bought floating near her head. I rush to Haleema’s side, nearly fumbling over fairies to see if Haleema is okay. Her wing is broken, but they return to their natural look in a poof of sparkles.

“Are my eyes playing a trick on me?” Haleema whispers. “Is that Ivaran?”

“They are not playing tricks on you,” I say.

“It’s him,” Ulrika confirms.

“Are you okay?” Glysith says as she helps Haleema to her feet.

“I’m fine,” Haleema grunts, then grabs her lower back. “That fucking bitch.” She slouches forward and stumbles into me with her head ramming into my stomach. “We got to get them back.”

“Who are they?” I ask.

“They last two of the VIPs seeking asylum.” Her hand on her lower back flashes in the same fashion I saw when she healed her splinter wound. “Glysith, come with me. We need to get them back.” Haleema and Glysith run up the stairs with their hands gripping the handles of their swords.

“Hold on, you guys!” Ulrika says, running after them. “Do you plan on confronting them by yourself?” They don’t heed her question. They’re going to get themselves killed. Haleema I worry the most. She’s running towards the man who killed her former boss, Emdal. I can’t imagine the type of anger that’s consuming her. I got to make sure she doesn’t do anything that’ll get everyone and herself killed.

Ulrika and I scurry at a cautious pace to find them. This second floor has open rooms with one long hallway connecting them. It’s packed, but everyone is looking at one room at the right end of the corridor.

“Move,” Ulrika says as she shoves fairies left, right, and center to make a pathway through. “Move!”

“Get out of the way!” I say to help her out.

As we approach the entrance where everyone is crowding around, I hear Ivaran’s voice echoing down the hallway. He stands in the middle of this huge open multi-level room with the white-haired women. The two male fairies have their hands bound by chain-casted spell inscriptions on the ground. I can sense that it is the same demonic magic from the fog cloud. To make the whole situation worse, there are cultists armored head to toe in every corner of the room, including the upper floors. Their faces are hidden behind a silver-plated facemask. This is my first time seeing a different class of Nite than the usual grunt.

“Kaio,” Ulrika says, poking her finger into the side of my abdomen. “I think I see them.”

“Where?” I try to find them myself without any luck.

“There! I think.” She stands on her toes to point at Glysith. I don’t see Haleema next to her or anywhere for that matter.

“Spread out. Make sure she doesn’t do anything she’ll regret.”

“Okay.”

Ulrika heads right while I head left through the crowd. Everyone is so fixated on Ivaran talking I can’t help myself from lending an ear from time to time. He’s giving the fairy government and its people one last ultimatum to join Nite’s One World Union. He spouts the same rhetoric of how the gods and Xnalos abandoned Zadione. The truth of her failure doesn’t come out of his guiling lips.

“Pure madness,” I say. Now, Ivaran is saying something new. He’s promising to create new gods in the image of Zadione’s creations. Those include fairies, drows, and orcs. The room erupts. Fairies talk among each other and some yell at Ivaran.

“Look upon the last of your government!” Ivaran says to the silent crowd. He balances his swords on the cuffed fairies’ shoulders with the blade pressing against their necks. It’s sharp enough to make them bleed. “They brought this mess upon all of you.” The crowd all start talking once again. “Do you acknowledge Zadione as the creator of the new world?” He yells. Some fairies in the crow immediately say yes. A few of them get on their knees to bow around me. The white hair woman takes her face out of her book to take notice of what’s going on. She smirks with her right lower lip pinched in as she scans her eyes all over the room.

“Ivaran,” the woman says, then closes her book.

“Yes, my lord?”

“Stand aside.” He bows while backing away from the fairies. “My beloved creations. Don’t look so frightened.”

Creations? That can’t be her... That can’t be her!

I stop searching for Haleema to give the woman all my attention. She comes my way, somewhat looking at me. When she gets closer, she kneels in front of a child holding her mother’s hand. “What’s your name?” The boy looks at his mother as if he’s unsure of what to say or looking for permission.

“Dusk,” the boy says.

“What a wonderful name.” The swords on the chained fairies’ shoulders spin horizontally, severing their heads in a blink of an eye. “I think I’ll name one of my angels after you.” Silence breaks after gaspy horrors. Fairies near the doorway flee. Suddenly, the open door becomes a wall, sealing the majority inside the room.

“Quiet!” Ivaran screams until his voice is the only noise in the room.

One second afterward, a ruffle breaks out next to him. One of his swords flies into his right hand. He uses it to disperse whoever is causing the ruckus by slowly moving into the crowd. Haleema and Ulrika are at the center of the issue. Ulrika is restraining Haleema with all her might. Zadione takes her attention off the child and over to them.

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“Bring them before me,” Zadione commands.

Ivaran uses telekinesis to force Haleema and Ulrika to the center of the room, a foot from Zadione. Their hands are retrained by the same chains coming from the ground.

“Ah, you again?” Ivaran says. My heart sinks into my stomach when Ivaran puts his sword to Ulrika’s throat. Just in case I have to make a quick move to save her, I take out my dagger to keep a low profile.

“I’m going to kill you!” Haleema screams at Ivaran. She tries to free herself by violently thrashing around like a caged wild animal. “Come here, you fucker!” Ivaran chuckles slowly and takes his sword off Ulrika’s neck.

“Where is all this anger coming from?” Ivaran says with a big grin on his face.

“You murdered Emdal in an unfair fight!”

“Murdered?” He scoffs in a maniacal laugh. “Who are you?” Haleema puts her hand between her legs and hides them under her ass. “Who are you?” He says, raising his voice. She whispers something with her head down. then continues whispering as she lifts her head. Something blue emits out of her hands. It flows into the inscriptions on the ground. The second he sees it flowing underneath Ulrika, he grabs and pulls Haleema’s head back by her hair. “What are you doing?” It also shows up under Ulrika, freeing her in a burst of blue.

“Breaking free!” Hallema’s disguise comes off the second her staff appears in her hand.

“It’s you?!”

“That’s right!”

The inscription under Haleema and Ulrika vanishes, disintegrating the chains around their wrist. I run to the right of the room, tethering Ulrika across the floor over to me before chaos erupts before our eyes.

“Forgive me for pulling like that,” I say.

“No worries,” she says. Once I get her on her feet, her disguise poofs off. Her sudden return to her actual height makes me jump a little. “Whoa! You’re back to normal!” She grabs her beast before looking down at them. “Is the sun going down already?”

“I don’t,” I pause to look over her shoulder to watch Haleema and Ivaran duke it out.

Ivaran parries a powerful blow from her, causing anyone near it but Zadione to fall over. The only thing that moves on her is her hair which she casually whips it out of her face. She stomps her way over to me with eyes deadlocked on me. I push Ulrika out of my way to throw my dagger over some fairies, aiming for her right eye. It stops with the point of the blade facing the opposite direction. Suddenly, an invisible demonic force grabs a hold of my body like it is wrapping around it.

“I can’t move!” I say as I use all my strength to lift my arms out.

The force floats me over to Zadione. She gets in my face after delivering the most painful haymaker to the left side of my face. I see stars popping in and out of the room.

“What made you think that would work on me?” Zadione chuckles.

“Kaio!” Ulrika shouts.

“I knew something felt off about you two,” she says quietly while rubbing her index finger across her lip. “Who is she to you?” After she asks that question, she says, “Don’t tell me. I’ll find out myself.” She utters something in a whisper in elven while extracting mana out of my forehead. “Oh,” she snickers. “She’s your whole world.” She takes my dagger to place it under my neck. “Listen here. You’ve already lost this fight. I am.”

“Get away from him!” Ulrika screams The crackling sound of thunder booms inside the room. Everyone, including Zadione, presses their hands to their ears. Lightning streams past my ear, striking Zadione. She drops her to all forces, huffing and puffing. The force around me ceases. I fall to the ground. Luckily my dagger bounces away before I land. I turn around to find lightning encompassing Ulrika’s body. “Are you okay?” I shake my head, no. “I’m going to kill you, Zadione!”

“Enough!” Zadione screams at the top of her lungs, filling the room with a low-toned grungy voice. An explosion of dark demonic energy expels from her body. Everyone in the room freezes in place except for Ivaran. I can’t move my body, but I can still look around with my head. “Ivaran! Who are these imposters?”

“I’m certain they are Paladins, my lord,” Ivaran says after punching Haleema twice in the face.

“This one is Kromagian. Does Xanlos hate me that much that he sends his beloved people after me?”

“It seems to be.” I try to open my mouth to tell her that’s not the truth, but I can’t. My mouth is forced shut. “This one here is named Haleema.” He kicks her hard in the stomach several times. She turns red and she starts breathing hard like she’s in labor. Some spit seeps through the corner of her lips. “These must be her people.”

“Kill them. I’m taking over this land right now.”

“Like hell, you will,” a voice says from above.” No one is there, so I assume it’s from someone on the upper floors. “Zadione, enough of this foolishness!” Zadione checks the second floor, carefully. Nothing seems to catch her eyes, so she looks toward the ceiling. She chuckles and opens her arms. “Xaonlos, who have you sent this time?”

“Me,” Coretha says as she manifests from a bright yellow light. “Hello, sister.”

“I am not your sister. Phopasis is,” she says gnarling through her teeth. “Has Xanlos finally come to a stop me?”

“I came here of my free will, Zadione.”

“Free will,” she chuckles before going into laughter. “Your free will get you punished.”

“I don’t care.” My full body restraint goes away when Coretha gives me a single wave. She continues waving until every single person is free. “I can’t stand by seeing all the harm you’re causing. It must end now.”

“Harm was and is what I am created to do.”

“No, it is not! This is absolute madness!”

Ulrika surprises me from behind, hugging me tight with her arms and squeezing my stomach as she guides me away while I watch Coretha and Zadione bicker.

“This is where the entrance was,” Ulrika says, talking frantically then screams at everyone to move out our way. “Can you blast a hole in the wall?” Coretha and Zadione’s screaming at each other steals my attention away from Ulrika. “Kaioson!” Ulrika forces my face to her by cupping my cheeks. “Get us out of here!”

“Okay!” I say. I place my right hand on the stone wall where I think the door is and power up my Delayed Gasam spell. It comes out, causing a layer of stone to shatter like glass. There’s more to break through, so I charge up another shot. Same results, but I can see the other side.

“Do it again. We’re almost there.”

“Where do you think you’re going?” Ivaran says as he sprints our way. His swords fly towards us, narrowly missing our bodies.

“Hey, asshole!” A familiar voice says. Out from the crowd, Glysith stands in front of me and uses her power to throw Ivaran in the air. His back slams against a pillar. She lets him fall to the ground before throwing him out of sight somewhere on the second floor.

“Kaioson, go!” Glysith says with her eyes locked on the second floor. “I’ll stay behind. You two get far away from here!”

I charge my Delayed Gasm for the third time. My mana is depleted to the point I can’t unleash massive impact. It’s enough to create a hole big enough for one person. The fairies franticly try to flood through the opening.

“One at a time!” I say. Coretha and Zadione continue to yell at one another. I can feel Coretha’s mana and Zadione’s demonic mana begin to build.

“Your words won’t stop me from doing this,” Zadione says. “I will be a goddess to them.”

“You’re a nobody,” Coretha scoffs with a smile. “You are an entitled, narcissistic child who thrives on despair!”

“Hey,” Zadione chuckles with her arms out like she wants a hug. “It was my job to bring chaos!”

“Yes, but you’ve gone mad!” Coretha’s eyes glow yellow. “You must be stopped!”

“The only way for that is to kill me. You’re welcome to try.”

“Kaio, it’s time to go!” Ulrika says. She takes me by the hand and tries to navigate through the crowd. “Move! Move! Get out of our way!” We get tossed around. My hand nearly slips from her grip. “Kaioson! I can’t hold on!” I tether her hand to mine to prevent it from slipping.

“I got you!” I say.

We make it by the skin of our teeth. A massive mana explosion rocks the entire building. The room we just got out of becomes blocked by rubble. Fairies in the room beg us to make another hole.

“Shit! We got to get them out!” I say.

“No, we need to leave!” Ulrika says. I charge up my spell but can’t bring it to destructive power. I’m too weak from dispelling too much mana.

“Damn!” I say, punching the wall. The building shakes again. Some stones from the ceiling nearly hit me.

“Kaio, let’s go!”

“Wait!” I say out of panic. “Let me think of a different way.”

“Kaioson!” She screams. “You’re going to get us killed!” She pulls my arm to take me away. The ceiling comes crashing down all around us. We have to dodge nearly every step to avoid being crushed to death. I can’t keep up with her and start to lag. She makes it to the exit unscathed. “Kaio, hurry!” The constant shaking makes it hard to run in a straight line. “Kaioson!” Her voice lets out a shrieking scream. She runs after me, but I tell her to get out of the building.

“Run! Get out!”

“Not without you!” A rock nearly hits her head. It clips her shoulder, but she doesn’t take the hint to move into a safer spot. She stands, watching me franticly trying to get out of the hallway.

“Godamnit, Ulrika! Safe yourself!” She cries and shakes her head, refusing to leave.

A tremor knocks me into a wall. I bag the back of my head against it. When I reach to soothe the pain, I accidentally touch the handle of my sword. An idea comes to my mind when I accidentally touch my sword. I use it to fly out of danger over to Ulrika. Five seconds later, the left half of the building collapses.

“Gods! That was close,” I say.

“Kaioson,” she says, tightly gripping the collar of my shirt. “You could have died!”

“But I didn’t,” I say to force something positive thinking. She throws me to the ground and stands over me with her finger pressing into my chest.

“You are a fucking idiot!” She yells almost crying. “Run? Get out? Safe yourself?” She quotes, mimicking my voice. “You would rather die and leave me as a widow?”

“Ulrika, I wanted you to not get hurt or killed,” I say with stutters and a gentle voice.

“We are supposed to get through this together! If you died... If you died...” Tears from her eyes fell on my face. “Gods, I should punch you for acting foolishly.”

“Maybe you should.”

“Gods,” she weeps with a smile as she looks up to the sky with her eyes closed. “Give me strength.” I’m deeply angry with myself for not thinking about what would happen if I didn’t make it out with her. I can’t dwell on my decision for long because the building collapses right as Zadione walks out the door. She’s furious. I can see that both of her eyes are bloodshot. Any rumble that rolls behind her bounces off an invisible force field. “We got to get out of here, now!”

“Portal ring!” I say.

“Oh,” she gasps. The moment she opens her beg, Four people fly out of the rubble. They head our way, slowly descending past the smoking remnants of the building. It’s Coretha, Glysith, Haleema with bruises on her face, and Ivaran. Glysith has him tethered. He looks either unconscious or dead. His clothing is ripped and dirty with dust, and his face is bloody.

“Zadione,” Coretha says after landing on the ground. “Give up this forsaken dream. Ruling this world is not your right.”

“It is!” Zadione declares with such a thunderous voice that it blows dust around her.

“It is not!” Haleema yells. “You’ve caused senseless deaths in the name of your incongruous love for chaos!” Some spit flies out her mouth. Her anger invigorates my spirit. I lose the need to flee from this mess to see where this will end. It appears that Ulrika feels the same way. She doesn’t have the ring on her finger. “Damn you, Zadione! Today you die!”

Haleema throws one of those crystals that calls upon other Paladins. But this one is bigger. Everyone I know comes out, including one particular elf. Lyra joins the team, dawned head to toe with shining silver platted armor. She has a full-body shield in one hand and a spear with two hooks in the other. An orange cape with a white trim flows down her back.

“How cute,” Zadione says, giggling like a little child. “Do you think your Paladins can stop me?”

“We can,” Haleema boldly says.

“Fine. I will unleash hell on this realm until nothing is left of my enemies.” Purple lightning strikes Ivaran when she points at him. His clothing is all white now, plus all the damage on his face is gone. “Rise, my Paragon.”

“My lord,” Ivaran says, slowly standing to his feet. “You’ve reived me?”

“You’ve served me too well for the shitty gods to take away,” she says while calmly raising her hands to the sky. More purple lightning comes out of nowhere without the assistance of clouds. Each strike brings the same fully armored cult that was in the building. Other brighter stikes bear several sketchy-looking soldiers. They’re not uninformed.

“This is not good,” I say. I look at Ulrika to see how she’s fairing in this crisis. She franticly looks at everyone and then slips the portal ring down her index finger. “What are you doing?”

“We are getting out of here,” Ulrika says.

“I don’t think that would be wise.”

“Damnit, Kaioson,” she whispers while rubbing her brows aggressively. “Fuck!”

“What, Ulrika?” She rolls the ring on her finger without breaking eye contact with me. I can tell she’s nervous, but I don’t know what level it is at. Her brows are flexed upward. The rest of her face is relaxed except for her lips. They’re partially pinched in. “Talk to me.” She smiles yet looks away for a quick moment.

“Is this it? Is this how the end starts?”

“We’ll get through this,” I say softly in her ear with my arm around her waist. “I made a vow,” I remind her and myself. “Cabin, daughters, peace.”

“Okay,” she says several times after taking some deep breaths. “Kaioson...”

“Yes, my love?”

“Take the ring from me. I’m scared I’ll disappoint you.” I secure the portal ring in a pocket inside my right side shirt.

“You can never disappoint me. I know it would be in good faith.”

“Would it? Would ditching our friends and allies be in good faith?” My response gets interrupted by a big flash of purple coming from Zadione. A stream of lightning rains down on her, morphing a dark, volcanic purple upper plate of scaley armor.

“Gods, help us all.”

“Stay close to me.” Her voice comes off as more sincere than serious. She seems scared or nervous. “Kaioson.” Her eyes snap to look at me. “D- did you hear me?”

“I did. I’ll stay close by.” I bump my shoulder into hers to be funny. It makes her smile, which is what I want to see. I’m going to need her at her best. She’s more battle harden than me, but she needs to not worry about me once the battle starts. “It’ll be okay.”

“And if you’re not?”

“Do not doubt your husband.”

“Yes,” she whispers with teary eyes, “my love.”

Zadione and Coretha float up several feet to the sky. They talk for a time without yelling at each other. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but by Zadione’s cheeky smile, she’s not receiving what Coretha is saying. Once she stops talking, Zadione begins speaking. Her words end up causing Coretha to slap her across the face.

“We’re fucked,” Ulrika says.

“Mhmm,” I respond.

The clear blue sky slowly turns purple as a raging storm cloud appears from nowhere. Lightning streaks wildly through the clouds. Some of it comes down to hitting innocent bystanders. Anything flammable ignites in a blaze of fire. Flaming rocks rain down from the clouds. One comes hurling down over our heads. All the fairies scream in panic, running into people and each other. Rhyndac lifts her hand over her head to create a forcefield to protect everyone inside, including some of Zadione’s forces.

“Kaioson,” Ulrika says.

“What?” I say after looking at her.

“I’m starting to regret giving you that ring.”