“It’s been a pleasure,” Arcanius said to the group as they prepared to leave the Tower. “Return here after you’ve collected the star fragment, and maybe the Messenger will be back with an update. I sort of doubt it, though. Gods move on a long timescale. If you’re relying on the God of Knowledge to actually find a way back for you, you might be waiting for many years. I’d suggest trying to figure it out yourselves.”

“We will,” Rai promised. “Thank you for the hospitality you’ve shown us, and thank you for allowing me access to your library.”

“You are most welcome. It’s been nice, seeing a young scholar like yourself greedily reading everything he could get his hands on. It’s been a while since the last one of your kind was here – other than myself, but I’m not exactly young, now am I? Now don’t forget: of the three warring factions in the volcano, the one most likely to be deemed a moral paragon is the phoenix, as their race is nearly universally good. Fire giants are generally evil, and dragons… it just depends; they’re as variable as humanoids are. I would make contact with the phoenix first, if possible, and work with them to attack the fire giants.”

“That’s the plan… though I would like to talk to the dragon, at least,” Isa said. “Find out whether they’re evil or not, and if not, why they’re fighting the phoenix.”

“Well, good luck.”

Mounting the drakes, they flew out of the Tower and over to the edge of the island, then plunged down toward the volcano, the top of which was only a thousand feet below. Rai had already used Comfort Zone, though his research had suggested that the interior of a volcano was likely to be so hot as to overwhelm that spell by itself, so using materials Arcanius had, he had performed some alchemy (while being instructed) to create a salve that, when covering the entire body, increased resistance to ambient heat – and worked in tandem with the spell, so that they would be protected. There wasn’t enough to cover the drakes, however, so as soon as they reached the mouth of the caldera, Rai, Isa, and Braveheart, under the effects of the Flight spell, jumped off and continued dropping fast.

The interior of the volcano was different than Rai expected. For one thing, it was huge – the volcano was practically hollow almost all the way down to the base, some four thousand feet below, which was around ten miles across. At the bottom, lava (or magma, Rai supposed) created a lake in which islands and winding paths between them rested. Plumes of lava periodically shot up in perfectly straight columns, sometimes hundreds of feet, sometimes thousands, where they then formed brief midair rivers before turning into lava “waterfalls.” In the twenty-five or so seconds it took to reach a height of only five hundred feet above the bottom, Rai noted that there area was divided up into rough thirds with a fourth section in the middle. Each third had a different look to it: one was uneven in elevation and looked like a series of cliffs, some of which poured out lava falls; one was mostly flat but with large hills that seemed to be filled with metals judging by the glint; and one was mostly isolated rock pillars of immense size, but with a sort of hill-basin as well. The area in the center, where they were fallen toward, was a hole-filled field that glittered; lava columns shot up from the holes.

They came to a halt not far above a battle taking place between a red dragon about forty feet long and a flaming red-and-orange bird of similar size. The two circled one another in the air, occasionally darting toward one another and exchanging blows with a flurry of talons, claws, beak, and teeth before separating and circling one another again. The phoenix’s wounds were no more severe than the dragon’s hit-for-hit, and though the dragon landed more blows, the phoenix was constantly healing, and when wounds began to accumulate, a surge of flames around the bird would greatly reduce or eliminate them. Though the dragon was clearly both stronger and tougher, it was slowly losing the battle of attrition due to its inability to heal its wounds.

Or so Rai thought, until it suddenly roared, sending chills down his spine. Its wounds began knitting themselves back together, scales repairing. It activated its healing again, giving up on attacking and strictly defending itself until, around half a minute later, it was back in top condition.

The two now-uninjured titans resumed their attacks.

“HEY!” Isa yelled in a gap in the cries and roars. “WHY ARE YOU FIGHTING?!”

Both of the combatants pulled away and looked up, noticing Isa, Rai, and little Braveheart, who was flying alongside Rai with wispy wings that looked almost like a heat mirage, for the first time.

“Who are these pipsqueaks?” the dragon scoffed in a deep yet feminine voice.

“Trespassers in my domain,” the phoenix said in a slightly higher-pitched voice. “Though to what purpose…”

“You mean my domain! This volcano is mine!”

“No, it is not! This realm of fire is mine, you selfish fiend!”

“Wait, so this is just a battle over territory?” Isa said incredulously. “This place is like, ten miles across. Surely that’s enough space for both of you?”

“No, little pipsqueak, it’s not,” the dragon said as though speaking to a particularly stupid child. “You see the land below us? It is a magical nexus. It’s what causes the volcano to be like this, and that’s what we’re fighting over. Besides having a high concentration of magic, it also has a lot of treasure in the form of gems and metal. If it weren’t for the heat, the humanoids would be trying to claim it. As it is, we have to deal with the tribe of giants continuously trying to take it from us.”

“Fortunately, we can fly, so they have a hard time fighting us directly, but that means we can’t get to close, which is why we use our subordinates to drive them off,” the phoenix said. “I command fire elementals, while Miss Greedy Scales commands salamanders.”

“And that king of theirs has grown much more problematic ever since he got that weird black-green rock and stuck it in his helmet,” the dragon said. “He’s much stronger and tougher.”

“So… we’re actually here just for that rock; we don’t really have any interest in stealing the rest of your treasure,” Isa said. “Okay, that’s a lie, I’m greatly interested in your treasure, but we aren’t actually planning to take it. So… how about you set aside your dispute for a bit and send your minions against the giants while we take out their leader?”

There was a short silence as the two contemplated Isa’s offer.

“If you take out their leader, it would be easier to deal with them in the future,” the phoenix said. “They weren’t much more than a nuisance before their leader got that stone, after all.”

“It is an intriguing offer,” the dragon admitted. “And you say all you want is that stone?”

“Yes.”

“Very well. If Miss Self-Righteous agrees to the truce and joint assault, so will I.”

“I agree as long as Miss Greedy Scales does.”

“Then we’re agreed! How much of a head start should we give you before flying that way?”

“It will take about three hours to get into position,” the phoenix said. “But we don’t trust you not to try to harvest from the nexus if you wait here, so you’ll have to follow one of us.”

“No,” the dragon said. “You’ll have to split up, or else I’ll think you might be planning a double-cross with her.”

“Fair point.”

“But, ah, only my friend here can cast the Flight spell,” Isa pointed out. “How about he goes with you, while I wait here alone. He can be your guarantee that I won’t do anything, since I need him to leave the volcano.”

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“Hm… Is that alright with you, Birdbrain?”

“Yes. She seems trustworthy, and they are together, so… I’ll trust him as well.”

Isa landed and waited as Rai took off with the dragon along with Braveheart. She alleviated her boredom by wandering the “island.” There were a lot of exposed gems, many of them absurdly sized, such as being as big as a fist. There were also chunks of metal – silver, gold, silversteel, some red metal, and even bits of orichalcum. If this volcano still exists in the present day, we’ll have to come here and mine it, she thought.

Eventually, around two hours later, an army of wolf-sized fire lizards and vaguely humanoid bits of living flame arrived, along with the dragon, phoenix, and Rai and Braveheart. It took two bunches of casting Flight to keep airborne for the entire trip, but they arrived about forty minutes ahead of the army near the giants’ village. The adults were huge, standing at fifteen feet tall despite looking rather squat and compact. Even the children were big, being similarly proportioned. Fortunately, the trio wasn’t immediately noticed, and it wasn’t until the armies started arriving that the giants rallied, grabbing their massive greatswords and rushing out to do battle. The dragon and phoenix stayed airborne, supervising and commanding their not-very-intelligent underlings, which were all individually much weaker than the giants.

As soon as the king came out, Isa knew who to target. While the normal fire giants had hair and beard made of flames, the leader had glowing magma instead, and partially-cooled lava made up its skin. All of them wore partial plate armor, but the leaders’ was made of silversteel and it shone like a mirror. His greatsword also glowed with inner heat, and drops of lava fell from it.

Isa quickly drank a potion of protection from fire, which would help her resist any fire-based attacks until it absorbed enough damage. Armor of Blood, Blood Venom, Giant Size, Isa silently cast. In seconds, she had gone from six feet tall to eighteen feet tall, a full three feet taller than the giants.

“YOU!” she bellowed. “I challenge you to a duel, king of the giants!”

The fire giant king looked at her first in surprise, then in anger.

“What the hell are you?!” he demanded. “Fine! I accept your challenge!” A cloud of ash erupted from his skin, and continued to erupt as the seconds went by. He set his stance, and Isa charged, dodging around the uneven spikes of stone jutting from the ground even as her own mist aura appeared.

“Wrathful Rush!”

“Flaming Parry!”

Her halberd, grown in size with her, came down, but his greatsword swung up, knocking it aside so that it hit the ground beside him. He swung his blade around, he slashed across her chest, sending her back a step as blood exploded outward. Some of it coated her as armor, while the rest splattered on the giant. The trace amounts of lava that splashed on Isa didn’t seem to bother her any more than her blood bothered the giant. He brought his blade down in a diagonal, scoring another deep blow, then slashed from the other side.

He halberd was back in place.

“Sword Breaker!”

Axe blade met sword blade, and his silversteel weapon badly cracked, but did not shatter. Much of the momentum bled off, but the blow still connected with her body. When he swung a fourth time, she was able to twist enough that it chipped her blood armor but did not penetrate her scales.

She took step back.

“Armor Piercer! Armor Piercer! Bloodspell Blow!”

She let loose with a flurry of thrusts. The first two broke through his breastplate and skin like paper and sank deep into his surprisingly tough flesh. On the third strike.

“Weapon Smasher!”

Cracks spread throughout both the haft and blade of the halberd, magically bonded to each other as they were, and the partially spoiled aim meant less damage was dealt as it slashed through the side of his face, splashing him with acid. He howled in pain.

“Die, die, die! Weapon Smasher!”

“Sword Breaker!”

Their blades met.

And both of them shattered.

“DIE!”

The giant threw aside his sword and clapped his hands together. Vortex of red-and-white flames some three dozen feet tall appeared in the same space Isa occupied. She quickly rushed out of it; she could actually feel it draining the protection the potion had granted her; it wouldn’t take much more to eliminate it.

Dropping the shattered remains of her halberd, she cast, “Corrosive Injection!” She lunged, stabbing him through the hole in his breastplate, injecting blood-acid into his veins. Howling in pain, he slugged her in the jaw, then punched her in the chest when her head snapped sideways. The molten lava burned away what was left of her fire protection.

Isa clawed at him. “Star-enhanced spell: Corrosive Claw! Bloodspell Blow!”

Her claws sank into either side of his neck, both injecting and splashing acid all over him. He fell, body bubbling and popping, until he exploded in a shower of lava and metal fragments. The vortex of flame vanished a moment later.

“Ouch,” Isa said.

The fire giants nearby were stunned at the death of their leader. Isa turned toward the closest few.

“Run, you weaklings! Terrifying Roar!”

They fled, which led to a chain reaction of giants grabbing their children from the huts and fleeing toward the wall of the volcano.

“Ahahaha! Run, you puny so-called ‘giants!’” the dragon laughed. “Take that! Even a saurian, weak though her draconic blood may be, could best your leader!”

Rai carefully stepped through the cooling lava left behind by the dead giant an pried the star fragment free of what was left of its open-face helmet.

Isa cancelled her enlargement spell.

“You could have helped, you know,” she scolded Rai.

“I would only have gotten in the way. The cloud of ash around him would have incapacitated me, but you were large enough to mostly stay out of its effect range. You did really well.”

“I lost my precious Silver Halberd. Now I have to make a new halberd early.”

“With the enchantment knowledge I have now, I’m pretty sure I can give it a resizing ability so that you can use it both before and after you evolve, though you’ll need to make it the larger size.”

“But I don’t know that I’m skilled enough yet to make a nine-star, even with access to a Ruler’s Forge.”

“What if I play assistant again?”

“Eeeh… that might still not be enough.”

“Yi-yi-meep,” Braveheart said matter-of-factly.

“You’ll help too?” Isa said in surprise. “I’m not sure how…?”

“Meep!” the carbuncle said indignantly, her gem glowing.

“I guess you do have mysterious powers…”

“Well,” the phoenix said, “I thank you for your help. We should all withdraw now.”

“This is a chance to wipe them out!” the dragon protested.

“They have children, and we’ve already driven them out of their home.”

“They’ll come back.”

“I know, but I’ll not attack children, no matter what species they may be.”

“Feh. Goody-goody.”

“Is it just me, or do you two actually get along pretty well?” Rai said aloud.

“What?!” they both protested. “We don’t get along at all!”

“Sorry I said anything… yeesh. Let’s go, Isa. Braveheart, you’re with me; I don’t have enough spells left to cast Flight on you as well; it’ll take two castings on each of us just to reach the lip of the volano… especially since we have to dodge around the plumes and rivers.”

They left the dragon and phoenix bickering and flew away. Over twenty minutes later, they were reunited with the drakes, and around half an hour after that, they had returned to the Tower of the Thunder Isles.

“Welcome back, children. There won’t be any angry dragons or phoenixes coming after you, will there?”

“Nope,” Isa said cheerfully. “Turns out those two are more rivals than enemies, so we worked together to take attack the giants, and I defeated the leader by myself.”

“Quite strong for fifth realm, aren’t you? Well, as before, make yourselves at home while you research how you might be able to get back to your own time.”

“First things first, Rai: forging my new halberd.”

“As you say. But… let’s wait until tomorrow to get started.”

-x-

Over the week, the two of them toiled at forging and enchanting what Isa called the Dragon’s Halberd (rather than her initial name of “Gold Halberd”). The haft was made from silversteel, and the head from orichalcum. With Braveheart providing a small mental boost to keep both of them sharply focused, they were able to make a fully realized nine-star magic halberd. In addition to having triple the magical boost to accuracy and damage of her Silver Halberd, it now not only had a doubled chance to deal critical damage, but said critical damage was triple normal damage rather than double. Also, instead of holding up to three Corrosive Claw spells to deliver one at a time on impact, it could hold three of any spell. Furthermore, the bonus damage in Berserk mode was double what the Silver Halberd had had. Finally, it could not only resize for any wielder, but transform into any two-handed weapon.

“These forges and anvils are amazing,” Rai commented. “To even enchant something half that much would be prohibitively expensive normally, but it just took some gems and thunder elk horns with their help.”

“Yeah, these things are really nice. You sure you don’t want break the blade and reforge your sword again? My new weapon is strong enough to do that.”

“It’s tempting, but… I think I’ll hold off for now. It’s more important that we research, train, and meditate: get stronger and find a way back to our own era. And hopefully, figure out methods of advancing beyond sixth realm while we’re at it.”

“Maybe the old guy will help with that.”

“He might, but we’ll probably have to do something for him in exchange. There’s no way he’ll give that kind of information to us for free. So… since we’re not to sixth realm yet, we should hold off one that until we’re either at sixth realm, or know how to get back home.”

“Gotcha. Research it is. At least I’m literate now and can help. Well, let’s get to it.”