“Did you get summoned to Arxtruria after you died?” Dave asked. “How did you end up as the local Empress?”

“I woke up naked in Shandria two hundred and sixteen years ago,” Lari nodded with a sigh. “One of Duke Lumir’s men was a Hero-Summoner. He told me that my new name is Sariah of Lumis and that I’m to work for Duke Lumir until I can pay off my life debt… for being given another lifetime, the price of being reincarnated on Arx.”

“Two hundred and sixteen years?” Dave’s eyebrows went up. “What?!”

“All this time, I’ve been working for Duke Lumir as one of his knights. I tried looking for you,” she said, “I was hoping that you might be somewhere on Arx.”

“You don’t look that old,” Dave commented.

“I’m a Time mage, Dave,” Lari sighed. “I can rewind myself back to the day when I gained Temporalmancy. For decades I helped Duke Lumir and his men hunt wild beasts until I gained power to control time after we killed a white dragon. Afterwards, I became Shandria’s most important mage, its Hero and Saint who can rewind people’s injuries, keep the most powerful and wealthy of the city… nearly immortal.”

Dave’s eyes went wide.

“For nearly two centuries I’ve been a slave of the Banking Conglomerate and the Lumis Magocracy,” Lari pulled back the collar of her white dress revealing a runic script running down her neck across her chest. “I’m a figurehead in name only, one of many debtors that the Arx Bankers use to hold city-states like Shandria. I worked day in and out for this city, to increase its wealth and commerce, rewound numerous bankers and highborns again and again. I executed countless enemies of the state and debtors by taking their time away!”

“Wait, what?” Dave blinked.

“My magic is… exceptionally limited. The time I wield cannot come from nothing. Life must be taken from one human to be given to another,” Lari said, her eyes distant. “Far too many men and women were turned to ash by my hand so that Duke Lumir and his men could live for as long as I have.”

“Shit,” Dave said. “I’m sorry. I wish I was there and…”

“No,” Lari shook her head. “They would have broken and bound you into obedience. You would have gone mad. I am already mad. They say that the human body cannot tolerate this much crystalline formation inside it. Perhaps it is my time… perhaps I've finally gone mad, been pushed over the edge into complete insanity. Talking to you… in that body of the man I hate so much, it's so surreal… impossible.”

“I'm sorry,” Dave sighed.

“It’s been so long that I can barely remember what you looked like,” she said. “But, I do remember saving your life. You were my adorkable sweetheart, obsessed with designing… What did you call them? Right… LLMs! I was so young and carefree back then!”

The sound of a deep rumble permeated through the stone walls of the gothic tower.

“Oh… It’s begun,” Lari said.

“What’s begun?” Dave asked, feeling his blubbery, fat body shake along with the vibrating interior of the tower they were in.

“Enemy spellfire,” Lari sighed. “They’re testing our wards once more. General Nox Aestaernus besieged Shandria four days ago. Her Shadow Beast swatted our ships from the sky and left us defenceless and surrounded. Sooner or later our wards will fall and then they’re going to slaughter all of the highborns here. All of the bastards I kept alive for two centuries are finally going to die. Perhaps it is for the best…”

“Hang on?” Dave asked. “Can you not… surrender?”

“Surrender?!” Lari barked a laugh. “To General Nox?! No. I’ve been given the order to hold the city to the last mage. I rejected the Verdant Republic’s Ultimatum. Their Archmagi will not be merciful to me now… especially not her.”

Lari shuddered. “I hear she skins those that displease her… alive. Cell by cell, peeling their outer layers. General Nox is a monster far worse than the man whose body you now wear.”

Dave tried to reach out to his Gravity magic and found that it wasn’t there. Next, he tried Phantomancy but he didn’t have that either.

Right. He was just a fraction of himself here, inhabiting the body of the local Duke.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“What kind of a mage is Duke Lumir?” He asked.

“Duke Lumir is Prosperitymancer,” Lari said.

“Which is what?” Dave asked.

He opened and closed his fat fingers, trying to feel his magic. It wasn’t easy, last time it took him years to rediscover Gravity. He didn’t have years here.

“He can touch someone and give them more luck,” Lari said. “That’s how we found the injured white dragon and finished it off. He blessed his hunter team with his magic touch bullshit.”

“What, just straight up luck?” Dave looked at his thick hands. “I can make anyone luckier? What's the downside?”

“If you’re planning to give me more luck, it won’t work,” Lari sighed. “He’s already ripped luck from all of the Shandrian lowborns and poured it into all of the town defenders and me.”

“Shouldn’t we win then?”

“It’s unlikely. The enemy is strong and their army is vast. Even with the Duke’s magic touch, the chances are catastrophically low,” Lari brushed a hand over her silver hair. “Perhaps you are simply my fading consciousness, telling me to off myself for what I've done… to everyone in this city for centuries.”

“I can talk to… General Nox, stop this war,” Dave said. “I can fix this.”

Lari scowled at him from where she sat. “Why the hell would she listen to you?”

“Because… she’s my friend,” Dave said.

“What?” The Empress of Shandria stared at Dave.

The tower vibrated as another loud, deep boom resounded from somewhere nearby.

“At least I think that it’s her,” Dave pursed his lips. “Are there gate mages in the city?”

“The Invaders have more Space mages than we do,” Lari lamented. “The ways are blocked off.”

“Come on! The Duke must have left at least one ship for himself,” Dave pointed at himself. “Right?”

“Sangria,” Lari exhaled. “Our flagship. We’ll most likely lose control of the navigation systems as soon as we leave the safety of the city's Ward.”

“What's your Ward powered by?” Dave asked, feeling like he already knew the answer. “Why hasn't Nox taken the city already?”

“The ossuary catacombs beneath the city are filled with the fallen heroes from centuries past,” Lari said with a shudder. “A labyrinth of skulls. I've seen just some of it. The power of the dead archmagi is why Shandria hasn't fallen yet.”

Dave opened and closed his mouth.

“The Verdant Republic's Space mages screw with the navigation during the day and at night… At night things are the worst. People in the city vanish or end up cut in half. That damned Shadow is leaking through our Wards somehow! The town Ward is ancient and powerful, but not omniscient. We are dying slowly from a thousand cuts during the night,” she shuddered. “I haven't slept for five days, have been rewinding the worst injuries.”

“We can wait until nightfall,” Dave said. “Nox won’t kill me.”

“Are you insane?!” Lari’s eyes bulged. “Their General’s Shadow-Beast is a four hundred metre tall abomination, it swats our strongest spells away as if they’re nothing!”

Dave sighed, rubbing my head.

“I’m not giving up,” he said. “I finally found you.”

A dangerous thought crept into his head, that this wasn’t his Shandria, that this was just a stupid game set up by the Crown Tower. A game that he could lose if he didn’t prove his absolute loyalty to General Nox.

“Archmage Evelyn Kettlecrux is on the flagship,” Lari mulled. “She is our strongest metal mage, as old as I am. We could attempt to fly straight into the enemy’s camp during twilight before the Shadow beast manifests. Their spellfire shouldn’t penetrate the ship, and we will have trouble navigating… but it’s our only chance to try to cut off the head of the beast if we can crash Sangria into their General’s tent!”

Dave thought of the ship he found in the lake. In his Shandria and from what he could recall from the remaining wisps of memories belonging to Magelord Rim... Empress Sari, Metalmancer Evelyn and Duke Lumir died in the attempt.

“We’ll put white flags on the ship,” Dave said. “We won’t fly up or quickly, go out the main gate, announce our surrender.”

“What? You can’t be serious!” Lari hissed. “I’m already a slave to the bankers now, but if General Nox gets a hold of me… she’ll make herself undying! She’s not a nice person! Haven't you been listening at all?!”

“General Nox won’t kill either of us,” Dave insisted.

The Shandrian Empress stared at Dave.

“Trust me, Lari,” Dave said. “Please? Nox will be my friend, isekai’d into her body.”

“How certain are you of this?” Lari demanded.

“Fairly,” Dave mulled. “There should be five of us here… maybe more, depending on whether the Ward of Shandria sees Svenn as one person or ten.”

“What?” Lari blinked, clearly overwhelmed by the concept of five or more people around her being overwritten with random people from the future.

“I don’t know whether this place exists on another Arx somewhere in the past or it’s all just an incredibly elaborate simulation,” Dave said. “In the timeline I'm from… you died on Sangria and General Nox won the city. Plus, I think that I’m here only for twenty four hours in this body. I have no idea if afterwards Lumir gets back in. Damn it!”

“Wow, you really suck at making me feel better,” Lari crossed her arms.

Dave thought about the best course of action. He desperately wanted to save Lari, to free her from the hexagrammic tattoos binding her soul, to talk to her and her alone for the next twenty three hours.

Another boom resonated, this one further away.

“Is this place safe?” He asked Lari.

“It's safe enough, but it's likely not the best place to survive the longest,” she said. “I suspect that there are some who might betray us, give us up to Nox in exchange for their lives being spared. The Lords of Shandria are getting increasingly nervous. Evelyn has been acting weird too… I think that she’s up to something.”

“Where can we talk longest without being disturbed?” Dave asked.

He mentally weighed whether the Crown Tower would murder him for spending half of the allotted time to talk to a friend vs aiding the Sovereign right away.

“Hrm,” the Empress pursed her lips. “I do know of such a place. Come quickly! Spending my last day with my old friend from Earth does sound like an appealing proposition.”