The remaining weeks of the summer term went by much the same as the days prior to Fluminix’s hatchday, unfortunately. Just one big daze of staying just too busy to be around for anyone.

The only exception, much to my frustration, was the annual team-building days the school held a week before the students would arrive for the new academic year. The activities were fine, to be honest, aside from being dragged into yet another one of Iakovos and Lupa’s shenanigans. This time they challenged each other to a duel to the first blood drawn.

And with that, I meant that someone from each department – read me – would face off against each other.

Now, I don’t know if any of you have ever experienced getting your brain cut in half? But I definitely don’t recommend it. It wasn’t a fun experience.

First of all, having a lich without. Any. Damn. Blood. Face off against someone with blood, was just plain cheating.

Secondly, when Lupa performed an overhanded slash, which I failed to dodge, causing it to split half my head in two. It led to my opponent freezing up in shock. A shock shared with everyone present but me. I could only sigh.

Thirdly and luckily, lefty and righty were experienced enough to operate independently by now, so whilst righty grabbed her to keep her in place with my left hand, lefty casually brought the sword in my right hand up and nicked her cheek, drawing blood.

Lastly, having both halves of your brain reconnect was a horridly disorientating experience. Just as it was to have both halves be split.

Anyway, my personal troubles aside, the summer came to an end, and a new school year started. With it I got a whole fresh batch of new students to mould into their future selves. Which, coincidentally, ate up even more of my time.

Not even two weeks into the new term, I was doing my usual thing I did on a Monday, teaching Basic Magic Theory from dawn to dusk. A routine I was exceedingly comfortable with. Only made a tad more complicated by Fluminix coming into her magic less than a week ago. Finally.

So, now I wasn’t just herding my students, but also a too-mischievous-for-her-size infant dragon that occasionally puffed into a dark cloud or spit the occasional sparks from her maw. On a much rarer occasion, but would happen at the same time, turning her into a sparkling dark cloud.

Cute, but something I needed to constantly keep my eye on.

So, you might imagine I wasn’t all too pleased when the door to the classroom – mid-class – was thrown open by a huffing and puffing teenage boy. A teenage boy that had managed to get the cosiest job in all of Paideia: the local Adventurer Guild liaison. Normally, that would just entail handling my Adventurer Guild messages and mail, which there wasn’t a whole lot of.

Only, sometimes something came up that required the liaison to run all the way up here to hand me a message in person.

After I floated the letter into my hands, I skimmed it over.

“Fuck,” I cursed, mostly to myself, before I looked up at my confused students whilst turning to leave. “Class dismissed!”

I magically plucked Fluminix from the floor and floated her – much to her protests – over to my hands as I took quick strides towards the windows. The quickest way out of the building.

Luckily, I had just enough presence of mind to open the window, before I jumped out of it. Never mind that I was on the fifth floor.

Fluminix flapped her wings open, slowing our descent down more than I would have liked, but it still helped me ensure I landed softly and without needing to heal my legs back together.

“Thanks,” I said to her quickly, as I gave her a quick scratch whilst I strode over to the admin building.

With a magically enhanced jump I made it to the floor Eweleanor’s office was on, being eternally grateful for it having a tiny balcony, one which didn’t allow anyone to actually stand on. It did help me land whilst bursting the balcony door open without having to break in through the window.

I threw Fluminix out of my hands and towards the stunned sheepkin headmistress, along with the letter I had received. “Emergency.”

“Wa–” she tried to say, but I was already out of the window again and rushed to the main building.

I ran through the corridors, taking magically enhanced jumps over the groups of students I couldn’t easily avoid, before bursting out through the doors to the grand courtyard. Which I also zipped through as quickly as I could, being very glad I didn’t need to worry about oxygen or muscle acid anymore and could just run on forever if needed to.

Once out through the northern gate, I made my way to the nearest building belonging to the Tender Department. When I opened the door, I blinked at the unexpected sight I was met with.

“I’m borrowing one of the wyverns,” I simply stated as soon as I had gathered myself again at seeing Seren again for the first time since our argument, turning to leave before I was delayed even further.

Unfortunately, my startle had given her enough time to grab my arm before I could run off. “Wait, by borrowing, do you mean like you’ve borrowed animals in the past?”

I glanced back at her with urgency and confusion. “Yes.”

She frowned before nodding to herself. “I’m coming with.”

I blinked and frowned before I sighed. “Just try to keep up.”

I was off running again as soon as she let me go, towards the forest. Thankfully the path through the forest, towards the alary, the building that offered housing for all winged animals in the Flornum Forest.

With Seren hot on my tail, I made my way up the stairs of the building to the top floor, where I knew and hoped I could find a wyvern.

I quickly subdued a first wyvern I found and climbed onto its back, whilst magically propelling Seren up and forward.

“Whoow!” she exclaimed as she awkwardly landed on the wyvern’s back.

“Hold on tight,” I simply stated a mere moment before I urged the animal into flight, causing Seren to quickly wrap her arms tightly around my waist.

“Where are we off to in such a haste?” she asked, well yelled rather, as the wyvern we had taken was a wind wyvern, one of the fastest of their kind. And I was pushing it to its limit.

“To kill a lich,” I, again, stated simply.

I might have only skimmed the letter, but I knew enough to know this was bad news. Very bad news, because this was no ordinary, troublesome lich.

Emergency summons

Top priority mission – Only to be given to a select few members

Lich sighted.

First deep in the Himane Mountains, in Eastern Artavar. No other undead reported at the time.

Second sighting three valleys over, to the west. A handful of revenants reported to be under its command.

No further sighting reported as of writing this summons.

Guildmaster Lavi Sorek, Mazilach chapter of the Adventurer Guild

Revenants, by definition, didn’t just follow the command of a lich. Especially not if they were a later addition. It went against the free will principle that underpinned all intelligent undead.

Unless, of course, soul magic was to be involved. A thought that caused me to frown and speed the wyvern up even further with as little magic I could spare before I would have to deal with whatever I would end up finding on this mission.

I highly doubted it was as simple as a powerful lich.

*******

When we drew close to the path the lich was predicted to take, I spotted something I highly hoped I wouldn’t have: a detachment of crusaders. In their shiny armours they could be spotted miles away. The midday sun reflecting off their helmets at an unlucky angle, right in my and the wyvern’s eyes, causing the wyvern to buckle and to urge it to land earlier than planned.

The crusaders were already neatly lined up, as if expecting an engagement soon, and some of them spotted us as we landed, pointing our way. So, when I had dismounted and strongly urged Seren to stay put, away from the potential battlefield, and had made my way over to the eager little holy shitfaces… ahem, I meant, the always appreciated crusaders, I was expected.

Much to my misfortune.

“Well, well, well,” the obvious commander, denoted by the extra shiny golden additions to her armour, drawled. “Look who showed up. Figures the bitch herself would come and cause us even more trouble.

“Scum is always drawn to scum,” she spat at my feet, which I completely ignored as I made my way to the centre of their formation, into the space the commander had conveniently made available to me by approaching me.

“I’m here for the same reason you are,” I stated simply. “Or, at least, I would hope so.”

The crusaders eyed me with both curiosity and animosity, both present in almost every single one of them, as their commander strong-armed herself into the too-tight-a space beside me. Which squished me against the crusader next to me, who didn’t budge the slightest.

I still offered them one of my kindest smiles, to which they scoffed and spat at.

Sola’s finest, indeed.

Just as much a bitch as the so-called goddess herself.

Not that anyone actually knew much about her. Least of all these sycophants of hers here.

These so-called crusaders, or mujahideen as they were called around these parts, always claimed to uphold honour, chivalry and humility.

None of which I had ever found in one of these holy warriors.

As I contemplated knocking the lot of them out, so I could just focus on what I came here for, movement up the hill in front of us caught my attention. Not just mine, as all of the mujahideen lifted their shields and locked their formation, a glimmering wall of white and gold.

Well, it would have been, if the sun was in front of the formation. Which it wasn’t, so it was merely the pompous display of wealth and status that it really was.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at my own, internal diss of them, which drew the ire of the commander on me once more. Her scowl was truly a work of art, it was impressive. She must practice in the mirror.

“Do no think for a second that this emergency lets you off the hook, lich,” she practically spat at me. Mostly because she was essentially right in my face, with how little space the both of us occupied. And also, why hadn’t they already? It would have made much more sense to attack me on sight.

Oh well, she was saying more things, but I ignored her in favour of seeing what we were dealing with.

If I wasn’t already deadly pale, and if I still had blood in my veins, my face would have been drained of it and I would be as pale as a ghost.

Instead of looking at the approaching lich and his small warband of revenants, I was looking just off the side of him, as there was something much, much more troubling accompanying him.

Nox.

The traitor.

The defiler.

The very reason I didn’t believe in any of the gods.

For they weren’t gods.

They were ‘merely’ spirits playing gods. Playing gods with absolutely zero concern for us inhabitants of the material plane.

Unlike normal spirits, who could be seen as distorted humanoid figures, these deity-spirits were invisible except for a select view.

Dragons could see them, and feared them.

I could see them, and dreaded them.

For the seven deity-spirits were at the top of the food chain, by a long shot.

I stopped myself from gulping. I wouldn’t help.

The presence of Nox does explain why the lich was able to muster a loyal army of revenants from, pretty obviously, unwilling participants. Their souls were shackled, chained, to Nox. Not to the lich, which made all the difference.

Well, not that it was a favourable difference, but I at least knew I needn’t bother with the lich. He was far beneath me.

“Look who is here to witness my greatest triumph!” the lich shouted in jubilation from across the field. “The traitor Morgana herself! Maybe I’ll add you to my glorious army after I’m finished with these lesser beings! That way you can at least witness me finishing what you started!”

“Don’t you dare ignore me, lich!” the commander yelled in my ear. “You think you can turn your back on us, betray everything that Sola gave us to grant us blissful lives?! To subvert the very foundations of the natural order?!”

I shook my head minutely in an attempt to ignore both of them. Which wasn’t all that easy. Especially the commander, who insisted on keeping her yelling going, despite the close distance. My poor eardrum.

Now, how to deal with the impossible?

I didn’t stand a chance at winning against the deity-spirit. I might have superior technique, but only a fraction of its mana capacity. Attrition would work against me.

I could deliver a lightning strike on the shackles and hope that such a first strike action would be enough to both free them and stop the deity-spirit from shackling them again immediately after.

Honestly, there wasn’t a single technique that worked each time. Deity-spirits were as fickle as they could be. Sometimes ‘defeat’ would suffice, sometimes it was entertainment they sought, other times mere frustration could force them to give up. I hadn’t a clue what it was this time, so planning anything around its behaviour and desires was impossible.

So, what would give me and my faithful mujahideen the best chance of winning this confrontation?

Well, for starters, I should, grudgingly, give them some necessary buffs and protections. Even though it would drain my reserves and lessen the chance of fending off the false god.

“HA, even our Goddess blesses our righteous endeavour!” the commander exclaimed, loudly, in my ear when I fired off the necessary buff and ward spells, which caused them to be enveloped with a brief, bright light. “There is no chance any of you abominations will leave this field alive! BRETHREN, WE WILL CLAIM THE VICTORY THE DEMON HAS STOLEN FROM OUR GLORIOUS HERO!”

Too loud, lady. Too loud.

“So, what will you do now, fallen messiah?” the lich asked me mockingly. “I bet you’re shaking in your sandals at my might, aren’t you? Trembling in fear! HAHA Give them all the aid you can muster, for it matters not! I will be victorious and deliver the fallen world to Nox himself, and he will grant me a place at his side!”

Whatever, dude. I couldn’t care less about his delusions. I had a job to do.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, before I started to visualise all the components needed for the spell. All the little pieces of the formation that needed to be slotted into place in order to do precisely what I wanted it to do. To target only what I wanted to and with the intensity that I wanted it to do.

I could form a spell formation that would cover the entire battlefield, but that would have been a waste of mana. As would controlling smaller formations individually to stick to each revenant, too taxing. So, I was left with only one option: autonomous spells attached to a central spell. Taxing, sure. Mana intensive, sure. Doable, absolutely.

And our best shot, I reckoned.

At least, if I failed, I wouldn’t have to worry about anything anymore. As I would be dead.

Small blessing, I supposed?

Anyway, each rune was in place in my mind, each branch perfectly calculated, darkness rune in the centre, directly challenging Nox’s authority over the element. The latter was a gamble, but then again, all magic was, really, was taking a gamble on physics.

I smirked as I opened my eyes.

“What are you–” the commander started before I cut her off.

“Will you just shut it, and just do what you came here to do?” I bit, as I cast the monstrous spell I just created. A large purple circle with too many runes to make out from the distance, appeared above the centre of the battlefield.

The mujahideen stared at it wide-eyed, and even the lich took an instinctive step back, before finding his bravado again.

“Any day now,” I growled at the useless holy warriors, as translucent, purple tendrils snaked their way down from the spell formation in the sky.

Either my words or the spell’s visual effects shook them out of their daze or whatever, couldn’t care to think about it anymore at this point, and they charged towards the revenants in an orderly fashion. As if they had all day.

As the snaking tendrils neared the revenants, smaller but no less complex spell formations formed above their heads. Unknown to all but Nox and I, a spike shot out of these formations, precisely targeting the shackles placed on the revenants’ souls.

As soon as they connected, I was almost forced to my knees, only my will power keeping me standing. To centre myself fully, to anchor myself in this struggle of wills, I stared straight at the deity-spirit and let the whole world fall away.

Nothing mattered to me anymore than overcoming the insurmountable challenge I was faced with.

I swore I could see the fucker smirk back at me.

In this battle of wills, I was once more reminded that I was nothing.

Nothing at all.

Not even a speck of dust.

Darkness might flow through my soul, and I might be about to command it at will.

But it was never mine.

Borrowed, the deity-spirit seemed to correct me.

This was… fun.

Oh, this was so much fun.

But was the fun mine, or its?

I couldn’t tell.

But I knew who I was.

I knew what I stood for.

Lie, the deity-spirit seemed to correct me again.

But, no, I knew that to be a lie.

They couldn’t communicate. I knew this. Knew it at heart.

How was it mother had put it?

Ah, yes.

Deity-spirits didn’t feel or exist like us, so they couldn’t ever be us. They couldn’t ever muster our will.

Our will was our own.

And fuck it for standing in my way.

So, I smirked right back, challenging it to throw everything it had at me. Challenging it to come after my body and soul.

I would show it.

I would stand in their paths until my dying breath. For that was who I was.

The undying guardian.

The prodigy of my family.

The pinnacle of everything Vespera had ever strived for.

And screw everyone that tried to deny that.

The world had no gods.

Only monsters.

And it was my duty to slay them, or die trying.

Time blended and bled and wrapped and muddled. I couldn’t tell you how long it took, what it was that did it, but all of a sudden, the pressure vanished, causing me to stumble forward. I took a haggard breath as I surveyed the battlefield.

The revenants were a disorganized mess, as they started to attack each other as much as they attacked the mujahideen. The latter mostly to defend themselves at this point. The lich looked around in confusion, as he couldn’t understand why his army suddenly didn’t heed his command anymore.

But most importantly, Nox was nowhere to be seen.

I had done it.

I let out a shaky chuckle, before using the last slivers of my mana to drop a pilar of light on the foolish lich.

My vision swam all of a sudden, causing me to stumble again, steady arms catching me before I could fall. When I looked up to see who had saved me from the embarrassing moment, I was both surprised and annoyed at the sight of Seren. “I thought, I’d told you to stay away from the battlefield.”

“A thank you would be appreciated,” Seren said sternly, as she loosened her grip on me threateningly.

I grasped her tightly, pulling me upright. “Thank you. Now, please help me get away from here before my lovely compatriots finish the revenants off and try their hand at slaying me.”

She stayed put, annoyingly, and turned thoughtful. “Why shouldn’t I let them?”

Fury surfaced as quickly as magma did during a volcanic eruption, but I pressed down on it. Besides, I was way too exhausted to be angry right now. “Because they will succeed.”

She blinked, in what I hoped was surprise, before she nodded and started walking us back to the waiting wyvern. “You better explain things when we get back.”

“I will,” I uttered as I succeeded at climbing on the wyvern’s back with much help from her, before collapsing. Tethering on the brink of passing out, which I fought with all my remaining will power to prevent.

However, no matter how exhausted I was, I refused to let myself drift off to sleep during the entire journey back home.