Shardflies, like all creatures of the wilderness, were capable of a great many things—more than people could imagine, more than the creatures themselves knew. In his current state, Dallion was able to get a glimpse of all of them. Earth knowledge combined with magic and zoology, allowing him to command them to gather onto him, creating an almost impregnable living armor. There was no longer any need to cast spells to cast barriers or fly—the shardflies did that for him as Dallion issued commands as effortlessly as moving his own body.

The fury puppet fighting him kept on casting spell after spell in an attempt to find some weakness of Dallion’s to exploit, but each of them was countered. Yet, with each passing second, the intensity of the attacks decreased. Apart from being the perfect emerald shield as well as his personal tornado of razor blades, the shardflies were also conductive to magic.

It had taken moments for Dallion to figure that out—something so simple that it should have been obvious months ago. All this was just another reason why mages craved Moonstones so much. One could only imagine what could be achieved using them as a power source of magic. Part of Dallion wished he’d left a fragment to try, but even if given a chance, he wouldn’t deprive himself from the current sensation. It was more than confidence, more than euphoria. Right now, he felt as if someone had removed the barriers of the impossible, creating a world of endless possibilities. With a bit of effort, he could probably create his own awakening shrine, not that it was going to be of much use to him. The principle was clear. All he needed were the raw materials which could be obtained in bulk from the Glass Mounts. For the moment, though, he had to deal with the annoying fly that was trying to keep him as well as its puppet.

Magic spread from his fingers, moving through the layers of shardflies covering his body. When there were no more, it shot out like a dryad vine, hitting one of the insects in the air, before jumping to the next. Threads of magic extended in all directions. Shardflies moved about, forming symbols in the air itself, composing multiple five-circle spells without issue. Dallion would have done a lot more, but five-level spells were all he knew. Nil was right—unlimited power given to a novice was a bit of a waste. Then again, Dallion had other skills to take advantage of.

“What’s the plan?” he asked using his music skills. The connection was almost instant, no longer affected by Palag’s defenses.

“You know the plan,” the fury replied. No sooner had he done so, than his fingers moved, casting a new spell to cancel the music suggestion.

Cheeky, Dallion thought.

Fighting echo-controlled opponents presented an interesting problem. Apart from being physically safe, Argus had also created an information filter of sorts. Palag only knew what he had been told, and if mages were any indication, that was far from the final plan. Still, there would be a few morsels available.

Dallion split into three hundred instances.

“Are you a cultist?”

Nine times out of ten, Palag replied no. In the remaining cases, though, he said yes.

You’ve been keeping secrets, Dallion thought.

That was as gutsy as it was unusual. It was easy to use blocker items to stop the influence of echoes. Putting one on, while under the control of a symbiotic echo, was another matter. Echoes never slept, they were never distracted. The echo must have known about the blocker item the moment the fury thought about it. Or was the mage a Star-cultist as well?

“Do you want the Star to rise again?” Dallion asked.

In the various instances, the fury responded in different fashion. In twenty-one, the answer was identical.

“A new Star will rise.” Palag broke free from the echo’s influence. His voice was the same as it was before. “That Star—”

Thick purple threads shot out from his body, wrapping him up like a cocoon. Instead of providing protection, however, they tightened more and more, leading to an audible crunch. Argus hadn’t been lying when he’d warned Palag not to do anything he would disapprove of.

Dallion was tempted to choose one of those instances to become reality. It would mean an end to the fight. Besides, there was no question that the fury deserved it. He was a Star cultist, and as such would do everything in his power to bring a new abomination to the world. Yet… the memory fragment remained fresh in Dallion’s mind. Palag had been a child once, going through things that would twist anyone. Killing him might well turn out to be the only option, but right now he didn’t want to be the one doing it.

“What’s the plan?” Dallion asked again, choosing one of the instances in which the fury remained alive and splitting again. “Even if you win here, you can’t defeat the emperor.”

“Is that what our old friend told you?” The mage laughed, using the fury’s body. “Like all the rest, he’s barely seen the emperor, but still trembles at the mention of his name.”

“And you have?”

“Many times. When there’s a problem that needs sorting, the emperor doesn’t go to the archmage, he never has. Archmages are snakes that have the power to control the petty bureaucracy of this place. Battle mages do the real work. We fight armies, dragons, and all the aether that end up here.”

Palag began casting his death ray spell, though too slowly to match Dallion’s present speed. One mass attack from several thousands of shardflies, and half of the fury’s index finger was cut off. The wound wasn’t by any means serious, but it disrupted the spell before it could be completed, forcing Palag back on the defensive.

That’s one reason they were kept apart, Nil grumbled from within Dallion’s realm. After a while, they inevitably get delusions of grandeur and try something stupid. If I were still in charge, this would never have happened.

Looks like it’s been going on long before the current one took over, Dallion said calmly. Such thoughts don’t appear overnight.

It’s part of their nature to feel underappreciated. Half the Academy does. The trick is not to let them get to a position to do something about it. I can point out the many mistakes that made this possible, but it would hardly matter.

At first, Dallion thought that the echo was lying. There was no way that Adzorg was that careless or naïve. And still, there he couldn’t detect a single lie of exaggeration. The old echo believed in what it was saying. That meant that the ex-archmage had been blindsided, same as the emperor.

As much as I enjoy this conversation, I’d suggest you wrap things up as fast as possible. Your power comes with an expiration date, and more imperial golems are on the way. It would take a while for all of them to get here, but they will, and as things stand, you are their primary target.

Dallion currently had the power to take all of the golems on, but he conceded the point. There was no point in making a greater mess of things. His best course of action was to finish this quickly, then get to the archmage’s chambers, wherever they were, and foil Argus’ plans.

Splitting again, Dallion circled Palag with his instances and ordered him to surrender. The music skills let the notion enter the fury’s thought, but it was quickly severed by the puppet master. Even with nine and a half fingers, the fury could easily cast even complicated spells.

Finding the effort mildly annoying, Dallion tried again. Five hundred simultaneous attempts were made to get his opponent to faint or surrender, and same as before, none of them were successful.

So stubborn, Dallion thought. If this were a realm, he’d simply have ended everything by creating fifty echoes of himself. Sadly, the real world didn’t allow this sort of action… or did it?

Concentrating, Dallion pictured creating an echo. Ten minutes ago, he’d have discarded the idea as utterly impossible. The Moonstone, though, had broadened his horizons; plus, it wasn’t just any Moonstone, but the Moonstone of Magic and had the power to create exceptions even within reality.

If a reality chameleon can do it, why not I? Dallion thought. And to his own astonishment, he succeeded.  

His body stretched, then split apart, like a single cell organism. The shardflies moved aside, barely confused by the change. Since appearing in this world, they had become accustomed to changes that defied normal logic.

Alas, no sooner had the echo appeared in the real world than it vanished away, breaking up into a cloud of magic dust.

A lot more experience is needed to create echoes in the real world, Nil said.

Dallion could sense that the echo was no less astonished than him, but also marginally terrified. More than likely there was an intricate spell that made that possible, though not one a Novice would know. However, Dallion didn’t need full echoes for what he was thinking. All he needed were a thousand mouths or, more specifically, a thousand sources of sound. Those he had in abundance.

The massive swarm of shardflies spread out again, forming a giant sphere around Palag. Hundreds of feet separated the creatures from the fury.

Palag suspected something, so he cast a new spell—the same one Raven had done within the Moon’s Realm. Bolts of lightning shot out from him, draining the magic from everything they touched. Shardflies fell to the ground by the thousands, creating massive holes in the living sphere, yet it was already too late.

Hundreds of spells were cast simultaneously. Initially, there didn’t seem to be any change. That was, until a single command was issued, coming from thousands of places all at once.

“Submit!” Dallion said through his proxies, using all his music skills.

The command was like a shockwave, causing the fury’s mind to freeze up. In that single moment, not even the mage echo could issue him any orders. Palag froze in place, remaining motionless mid-air. The air currents keeping him in the air disappeared, sending him falling down.

“Cocoon him,” Dallion ordered.

Thousands of shardflies broke off from the swarm, flocking onto the fury. Before he hit the ground, they had already covered him completely, restricting all movement. Inches from the ground, there were enough of them to lift him back up, safely away from any potential aether golems.

“Let him breathe, but restrict his mouth and fingers,” Dallion said.

Why? He brought our nests here to be destroyed.

“Not him, but the one controlling him,” Dallion clarified. “Dig out the chameleon as well. As long as you keep those two incapacitated and far from any golems, you should be fine.”

The shardflies weren’t exceedingly pleased, but they followed Dallion’s instructions. Everything else aside, they could feel the power emanating from him, and as most creatures of the wilderness, they knew when they were facing a fight, they couldn’t win.

“Nil, which way to the archmage?” he asked.

Are you absolutely certain about this? The echo persisted. I’ll tell you if that’s what you want, but this is your chance to just walk away. No one will go after you, if you do. Argus and others might be there. He’s seen what you’re capable of, so it won’t be as easy facing him as it was dealing with his apprentice.

“That’s what I’m counting on. I’m ending this right now and it won’t even take me a minute.”

Let’s hope you have that long… Nil said beneath his breath. Very well. Face north and cast the anti-illusion spell I taught you. A new cluster of buildings should appear. That’s where the archmage lives now.

An illusion? Made sense that someone living in a nest of deceit and paranoia would resort to such measures. Using his shardflies, Dallion cast the spell. Not too far away, a cluster of square-shape buildings formed. This was where Dallion had to go.