Dave stepped out into the night, walking towards the vast shadow stretching out of the Rimzadria Estate garden into the sky.

As he crossed the protective barrier glow of the red runes on the door of the caretaker's cottage, the void-colossus noticed him. A monstrous body of the Ward manifestation twitched, its massive head tilting towards him, hundreds of silver-blue eyes focused upon the lonely, speck-like individual beneath it.

The shadow-fox-centipede emitted a siren-like wail, making Dave's eardrums throb.

He felt the power of a thousand soul-shards pulsing around him like a swarm of insects, repelling the feeling of terror pushing against him.

The Ward-Avatar wanted him to run, to hide. He refused, standing his ground. Dave felt it in every fiber of his being - the Ward of Shandria was wrong, broken, like an arcane software set to simply do a specific task, but not to think or function to its full potential.

It was a mindless thing! The Ward needed an operator, needed to be controlled, to be... reset.

"I'm not afraid of you anymore," Dave uttered to the Void-colossus, his face set.

The beast in the sky wailed once more, louder this time as Dave began walking towards it.

Hundreds of shadow-creatures emerged from every corner of the garden from beneath the dark branches and roots of great trees, heading to Dave, silver eyes glittering like stars in the night sky of Earth.

As the horde of shadow-creatures closed in on Dave, his heart raced in his chest. Their numbers grew and multiplied with every passing minute like a tidal wave of darkness threatening to consume him. But he refused to let fear into his heart.

He knew that by standing his ground against terror he could unlock a door that's been closed for two hundred years.

The little Shadows emitted hisses and growls. As the monstrous sky-demon wailed above for the third time, Dave's feet began to move backwards on their own accord, his ghost-shield failing him, terror seeping in and wrapping its tendrils around his mind.

Dave heard Remicra's footsteps behind him. She wrapped him in her embrace.

"Together," she said. "I'm here for you. I trust that you know what you're doing."

Dave nodded, thankful for her support.

He knew that his human senses were becoming overwhelmed, were being subverted by the Ward of Shandria. He needed to bend, not to break.

He turned his Phantomancy sense on, peered at the world not through his eyes, but with his skill.

Instead of void-demons he saw souls. Souls of hundreds, no... thousands of magi, flickering ghosts wrapped in shawls of darkness, akin to silver-blue fractals entwined into a single, monstrous web.

In that very moment of clarity, Dave suddenly knew what the shadows of Shandria were. They were the dead archmagi that perished here for two centuries and were forevermore chained to the city by their crystalline cores.

The ghosts were wispy, indeterminate, but they were definitely souls. The shadow-colossus also contained a brilliant, defined, brilliant fractal in its depths.

It was Cedez, the soul of the foxkin girl was now hovering in the center of the behemoth like a gemstone necklace.

Dave was no longer afraid of the darkness around him.

"Cedez," he said, staring at the brilliant, violet-silver soul of his second best friend. "I see you. I'm not afraid of you. Wake up!"

He spoke directly to the soul of the foxgirl rather than the monstrous Shadow around it.

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Cedez did not answer, did not respond to him. Perhaps she was too far, too buried in the power of the Ward to understand him.

Dave decided to switch up tactics.

"I see you," he said, addressing the crowd of the dead near him. "I see all of you. You are just like me, you wish to defend this city."

And as the words left his lips, the swarm of shadow-creatures paused. Their advance faltered.

"By nihilim's shadow... they're slowing down... how are you doing that?" Remicra uttered with a barely discernible voice. Dave felt her body trembling as she clung to him. She was terrified of the shadows, not able to see what he saw.

"I'm not your enemy," Dave addressed the armada of ghosts, his voice growing bolder, as he channeled Alaster Rim, his lips speaking the highborn Shadow-tongue. "I am a noble knight of Shandria, just as you are, my old friends! Stand with me, as you once had! Stand by me and your Empress! War is coming against Shandria... and I need all of you to assist me, for a great enemy aims to march his army to our gates!"

Dave's voice echoed through the ethereal plane. He felt that it wasn't the sound made by his lips, but rather the intent in them translated by his skill somehow reaching the souls of the fallen archmagi.

"I know you yearn for action!" Dave continued, his voice filled with conviction. "I know that you feel lost and you lash out at all, nip blindly like beasts at all who violate the domain of her Divine Shadow. But... that is NOT enough anymore! Nay, we must act with deliberation and focus, unite against our common, vile enemy that has infected this city and now seeks to trample our Noble Estates! Our enemy seeks to rip out the hearts of our great-grandchildren, desires to extinguish the lives of all in Shandria!"

Whispers of agreement, voices without speech rippled through the crowd of the dead. Even though the cores of these men and women were ground into dust, their souls had not been likewise destroyed, were suffused into the Ward of Shandria by the Engine of Crown Continuity, made into its servants.

"I am Lord Rim!" Dave declared. "Stand with me, help me awaken Cedez Astra as the rightful Empress of this realm in our darkest hour of need! Help me bring this city to great prosperity, to destroy the corrupt, to educate the foolish and to uplift our home to greatest heights!"

The dead stirred. More agreement. Dave knew that he had touched the door. All he needed to do now was open it, to turn the handle.

"Bring our Empress to my side!" He ordered. "Help me wake up our Empress from her great, centuries-long slumber! Help her take full control of our city and its magnificent Ward!"

The souls of the fallen archmagi shuddered at Dave's Shadow-voice command, their ethereal forms shimmering with newfound purpose. They moved as one, surged towards the colossus, rushed up and through it, swirled around Cedez's soul, their combined energy forming a radiant halo of light that only Dave could see.

The colossal shadow began to tremble, coming apart.

It flailed weakly left and right in confusion, not understanding what was happening. The Crown Engine was not prepared for the Ward to target itself. Whichever Archmagi had designed it two hundred years ago, they did not account for Phantomancy, did not account for a sneaky programmer taking advantage of a loophole in the system of death and sacrifice they had designed.

"Bring Cedez Astra to me!" Alaster-Dave-Alaster ghost-chain bellowed in Shadow-tongue. "So that I may bow to our Empress, so that she may hold my shoulder and accept me as her personal vassal!”

With a surge of power, the shadow-fox-centipede suddenly disintegrated.

Like an angel previously entwined in infinite tendrils of darkness, the soul of Cedez now descended from the sky towards Dave, carried by the legion of the dead in their mutual embrace.

The ghosts appeared like hundreds of brilliant, colorful nebulae holding a brilliant violet star.

"I am at your disposal, my Empress," Alaster-Dave-Alaster took a knee. "Lay your hand on my shoulder and bless me!"

A silver-violet soul tendril extended to Dave's shoulder forming into the shape of a female hand. The figure of Cedez became clearer, more defined.

Cedez had touched him, her eyes still closed. Dave reached out with his own hand and Astral tendrils, wrapped a part of his soul around her.

The crowd of the dead archmage lords clapped in approval. This was all part of the sacred ceremony that they had themselves often participated in, something that their souls had definitely remembered.

"Open your eyes, awaken and see that I am ready to serve you forevermore!" Dave injected his own line into the noble oath of Shandrian knighthood allegiance.

The soul of Cedez held him as he spoke, counting the seconds of their embrace.

One-two-three-four.... five.

Ghostly eyes suddenly snapped open, stared at Dave in the Astral.

"Dave..." The soul of Cedez uttered without moving her lips. "W-what? What the shit?! WHAT?!”