<Wealth, women, and power beyond your dreams can be yours with my help. All you have to do is say yes.>

Serenity ignored the voice. He knew it was simply trying to get him to lower his defenses. He might have to take down the shield, but he was not going to accept the djinn. Any sort of acceptance made it harder to get rid of attackers that went after the mind or spirit.

Serenity’s will held solid as he scraped at the bits of magic with the knife-copy. A few flaked off, but the knife mostly passed through them without disturbing them. It would have to be his ax, and there was no good way to manage it; bringing the ax past the shield would simply dispel the shield.

Another spell might work, but Serenity didn’t have the magic capacity for a large spell. He had two choices - leave the shield up and return to weakening the djinn with his ax or take the shield down and risk it all on a single throw of the dice. Leaving the shield up wasn’t without its risks; anything outside the shield was vulnerable, and he was fairly confident the djinn was using his arm as a bridge, simply a slower one than if the shield weren’t there.

A much slower one. Serenity didn’t feel like gambling everything on a single throw of the dice; he felt far more like playing with a stacked deck. Serenity tossed the copy away and it dissipated in the air; as with anything, intent mattered. They wouldn’t last long regardless, but it was simple to dismiss them even faster if desired.

He snatched the ax off the ground. This was a strange fight; he hadn’t moved yet. It felt more like dangerous exercise than a real fight. It was too bad he couldn’t take the fight to the enemy.

Or could he? What would happen if he broke the vase? He hadn’t yet since it was made to contain the djinn and he didn’t know if it also had a weakening effect, but his primary problem right now was that he couldn’t get at the creature. Yes, he was damaging its magic and therefore its form, but he didn’t know how much of it there was.

Serenity stepped forward into the middle of the circle and brought his ax down on the vase.

It shattered into several pieces and a cloud of greenish-red smoke rose all at once. It was less than Serenity had feared; he knew he’d already dealt with that much. He just hadn’t dealt with it all at once.

After a short pause, where Serenity swiped the ax through it several times, it rushed towards Serenity and surrounded his shield.

<Submit or once I take you I will use you to destroy everything you value.>

Serenity tried to block the voice out. It was trying to hit on his horrors now instead of his desires, and this time it was far closer. It was harder to ignore, but instead of making him want to give in, it was making him angry. He swung the ax with more force, not caring as much about reserving his energy as long as his opponent fell.

<You want the power to defeat me, don’t you? Take it from me!>

Serenity felt something push its way at his self; he knew it was coming at him through his exposed hand, but he couldn’t attack without exposing himself. He pushed back. It tried to tempt him with the thought that the power would help him kill the djinn, help him stop the djinn from -

From killing his family.

It needed to DIE.

Serenity’s Incarnate flashed into being around him, filling his aura with no more thought than that and Serenity pushed it towards the magic infesting his hand.

The sparks vanished and Serenity turned his attention to the djinn itself, which seemed to have redoubled its effort to breach his shield.

Serenity no longer wanted to take the time to cut the djinn down to size or handle this in a way that didn’t call on his old strengths. He wasn’t the Final Reaper anymore, but the Final Reaper wasn’t wrong about everything. Sometimes things just needed to die.

And anything could die.

Serenity pushed Death out from himself. It wasn’t a cleverly-built spell or any of the other tools Serenity had. Instead, it was nearly pure Intent, backed up with his Incarnate.

Anything could die.

And it was time for Djinn Elatiq to die.

Why didn’t matter. Neither did how. Simply Death.

An ending to everything, without a new beginning.

It wasn’t cleansing or purifying; it didn’t fix things. It simply broke them until there was nothing left to give.

Death.

Serenity’s magical mental shield fell and he dropped his ax. Death did not require a shield or a weapon. Instead, he stepped forward until his aura covered all of the djinn including the vase.

“Anything can die. It is time you did.”

It was a simple statement. A simple action. A simple spell. Nearly pure Intent, shaped by the Incarnate of Death into a pure instrument of Death, powered by Serenity’s remaining Mana and Essence.

It was the second time since his return that Serenity had cast an Intent-based spell, and just like the first, he passed out as the spell completed.

The red-and-green smoke in the air dissipated as he fell.

[Ambit increased]

[Core completed. Initiating selected Evolution]

[Evolution halted: Incomplete Path]

[Risk of Core Overflow Sickness is Elevated due to Paused Evolution]

“I doubt it would have worked.” Serenity shook his head at Russ’s skeptical expression. “Two reasons. First, it was weakened significantly by the ax. It’s hard to say how much, but significantly. I think it was accepting damage since it thought it had a way in anyway, so it probably wasn’t planning to break my shield. Ax-and-shield was a much more energy-efficient way to fight. Second, I don’t think I could have managed the necessary purity of intent to manage that earlier. As for a death spell … I won’t. I just won’t.”

Rissa set her hand on Serenity’s shoulder and squeezed gently. He moved his hand up to cover hers, but didn’t say anything else.

Russ shook his head but softened it with a smile. “I don’t understand why you’ll kill without hesitation but not cast a Death spell, but that’s your choice. You’re sure you’re fine? No aftereffects, no intrusion by the djinn?”

Serenity nodded. It wasn’t the first time Russ had asked, and he doubted it’d be the last. “I’m sure. The djinn is dead. I saw it die. I know it’s dead.”

He also knew that he’d somehow managed to get a 25-point jump in his Ambit, as well as experience for his Path and Progression for his Core. Under other circumstances he’d have counted it as a productive day, but he’d failed at the original goal: not only was Rube not healed, he was still unconscious.

Not only that, but even though the djinn hadn’t gone near him, the warping had spread during the fight. It seemed to have stopped since then, but amputating both arms wouldn’t remove where it had spread on his chest. It was only part of his right side, but that was more than bad enough. Both Rissa and Serenity had checked him; she didn’t feel anything to heal and Serenity didn’t feel any left-behind Essence to work with. She’d tried to “heal” a human shape back into a small patch of skin on his arm, the way she’d once hurt Serenity’s scales, but it’d drained her mana quickly with no visible effect. It clearly wasn’t going to work.

Serenity wished he could have killed the djinn faster. Maybe he could have if he’d smashed the vase earlier?

Rissa followed Serenity’s eyes to the unconscious man. “You couldn’t have known.”

Serenity knew that. It didn’t make him feel better. “I asked him to come out here. I told him I’d help. And I made it worse.”

“It’s still better than leaving him alone. We all know he wouldn’t have stayed himself if you hadn’t intervened. It might have been slower, but it would have been worse in the long run.”

Russ wasn’t wrong, but Serenity knew it was something that would take time to accept unless he found a better solution.

“Why don’t you take him into the Tutorial, get help there. The same way you did with that guy we found in the parking lot? It seemed to work out well.” Russ stared at Rube the same way Serenity was.

Serenity found that oddly comforting. Yes, Russ knew they’d made the best decisions they could, but he clearly still felt some responsibility for the way it turned out. “I can’t. He’s already been; when I asked the Voice about it, he was pretty clear that he’d let me help people jump the queue but not go more than once.”

:Bring him to me.: Aki’s mind-voice was clean and clear, refreshing after the filth of the djinn. :He makes me itch and I want to see why, but he’s too far. If he weren’t unconscious… but he is. So he can come. Oh, and next time you’re going to do a huge explosion like that, warn me first. I’m not prepared for that much at once!:

:Explosion?: Serenity blinked. There hadn’t been an explosion. :Wait, do you mean when I killed the djinn?:

:Tasted of you and of death with entirely too much warped magic. Stuff that strong isn’t supposed to happen when you only have a single floor; I’m having to extend my area and add two new levels. Without time to think about them! So you get your butt here with the itchy guy and let’s get that dealt with before you do something else insane.:

Two new levels?

Serenity was too old for this shit. He’d returned to looking much younger than his actual age, but that didn’t matter; he was definitely too old for this shit.

It did explain why Raz wasn’t there when Serenity woke up. It suddenly occurred to him that Raz wasn’t the only person missing, so he reached out to Aki. :Where’s Ita?:

Ita hadn’t been involved in the ritual, because Serenity was more familiar with mind magic than “contagion” magic. She’d stayed at her new home in the middle of Aki’s dungeon instead.

:She’s helping lay out the upper floor, trying to make it look like hills and natural areas with stuff behind it, while Raz and I work on the lower floor. She’s avoiding monsters, trying to make it a work area as it reaches for the Sun. She said something about a challenge area.:

Serenity picked up Rube. He was prepared to feel the vague disgust he had earlier, but for some reason it was a lot milder; it seemed to be continuing to fade.

A challenge area? What sort of challenge area would Ita choose to create?

Katya also wasn’t present. Wait, was Katya with Ita? Serenity’s eyes widened in horror. :Not a crafting dungeon!:

Serenity hated crafting dungeons.They took forever and his entire job while he was in there was generally being the unskilled labor. Once in a while he also “got” to pull guard duty; it was simply unpleasant.

:Ask her. I don’t have time.: Aki’s presence disappeared abruptly.

General: Increased Core Progression and Level

Magic

Physical: Added Debasement Resistance

Abilities