Arc 4: Second Chances

Arc 4 Part 1-1

What the hell is going on? The last thing I remembered before going to sleep was Emily laying beside me in my slightly moonlit bedroom some time after midnight. But I had now awoken to her missing and a strange encounter with a dead man.

“Master Noble, is everything all right?” Higgins asked, as I sat down at a dining room chair. I was inches away from where the knife that killed him was picked up.

Anabel rushed to my side and touched my arm before adding, “Eric? Eric? Let me get you some water.”

I rubbed my eyes and my temple as I awaited her to return with a glass of water. I wasn’t sure if I was hallucinating or dreaming. But surely the events as they were happening couldn’t be reality.

“Thank you,” I said, as I took the water.

“Master Noble. Did something happen to you in Murk? I know your fathers notes were rather vague, but there was nothing to indicate any immediate danger upon entry.”

In the interest of curiosity, I asked how long I had been in Murk, despite not actually having gone there since I went with Emily the other week.

Higgins looked at his watch and said, “you’d only been gone about fifteen hours or so.”

“And where’s Emily?” I fearfully asked.

“Emily?” he questioned.

That’s what I was afraid of. Higgins alive, Anabel not recollecting Stephanie, and no knowledge of Emily either. Without saying another word, I got up from my chair and went to a calendar in the kitchen. The date made sense. It was definitely the following day from the night before. But then I noticed something odd. The day of the week was wrong. As I examined the calendar further, an even more startling observation was made. This calendar was one year old!

“Eric, you’re worrying me,” Anabel said, standing in the kitchen entry behind me next to Higgins.

I turned to them slowly and said, “I know this is going to be really hard to believe…but time has somehow gone backwards for me.”

“What?!” Higgins remarked.

“I’m not sure what’s going on, but I have lived an entire year past this date and when I woke up this morning, it appears that everything has been undone. Reversed. I can’t explain it.” “Surely you jest, sir.”

“I do not.”

“Did something happen in Murk to cause this,” Anabel asked.

I thought about that for a moment. I don’t remember anything during my first visit there that would cause something like this to happen. But even the notion that could have been true filled me with an even deeper sense of dread. Could it be that all of the past year was a dream? An illusion? No Emily? No Arduwan? No adventuring with Wraith? And what about the stones?

I ran to the basement. The others followed me. I had to check the status of the stones. When I went to sleep the night before, six of the seven stones were green thanks to my father and my efforts. The seventh stone was for Callist and it only mildly glowed red, indicating that while the Devil there was active, he was not yet close to conquering that world.

When I opened the safe, my heart skipped a beat. The three stones my father had dealt with were green. The stone from Bristol was green. But Callist, Murk, and Synthetica were all red.

“Eric, what is it?” Anabel pleaded.

I choked back a few tears and bowed my head down before answering her, “it’s all been undone. Somehow, someway, it’s all been undone. All my efforts. Gone!”

She consoled me and Higgins stepped up right behind her. I knew they were confused so I couldn’t just keep them in the dark. I suggested we all go upstairs and I explained everything to them. The adventures, meeting my father, Higgins demise…

* * *

It was a lot for them to take in over a cup of coffee, but they trusted that I was telling the truth. I decided to further demonstrate it by testing my magic. Could it be that all of that had been erased too? My body felt weird. I could definitely tell that my muscle mass was different from before. This was of course before I had started really training.

“Ignite!” I said, casting the fire spell. It worked! But it went out almost immediately and I felt tired, like I needed to sit down. It was as if it was the first time I had ever cast it before. Then I remembered what Tolly had taught me. That magic was easy to use if you knew how to, but it required a flexing no different than a muscle. That explained it. My consciousness was still intact but this body had not flexed the muscle so it literally was the first time I had cast it!

“Remarkable, Master Noble! Your father never learned anything like that. I had told you when you returned from Bristol successfully that no one had ever defeated a Devil on their first attempt. The true sign of a natural. It’s quite evident that you have progressed at least a year, if not more.”

“Ha,” I laughed, “no, it’s just been one. But I must say, despite all of the emotions I’m feeling right now. I’m glad you’re alive.”

“Hmm, yes. It’s quite a good feeling,” he noted, “but won’t I only be killed again at some point in the future? Should we prepare?”

“No. I think you’re alright. Celica was only able to come into this world because I brought her back to the well with me. If she had just stayed in her world then she would have been destroyed with all the other Synths while my father kept the central control at bay. That world is as good as green.”

“Well that’s comforting. Now if only we could speak to your missing comrades. Maybe see if they recollect anything.”

The moment he said that, I remembered something. If this was one year to the day after

I had first gone to Murk, then that meant…

“Oh no, Emily!” I shouted, as I leapt up from the table and darted back downstairs.

“Eric, wait!” Anabel cried out in an attempt to stop me.

It was futile. I knew exactly what I needed to do. I only hoped that I had enough time to do it. I opened the safe back up and took out the stone for Murk. Anabel and Higgins inquiries about what I was doing just went right through me as I made my way into the well.

I came up from the sewer. It was midday. The sun was out but as per usual, clouds in the sky and the ever present possibility of rain. Luckily, I knew my way around and sprinted several blocks until I reached Emily’s office. It was still intact. It had not been blown to bits by Alabaster’s men yet. I rushed to the door. Locked. She wasn’t there. So I decided to try her apartment. It was only a few hours from the time I had met her for our first outing together. I thought maybe I’d catch her before she took the cab out of town to the dinner party.

When I arrived at her place I was nearly out of breath. No sign of her around and no answer when I knocked on the door. I ran to a nearby business and begged to use their phone. They let me, so I called D.A. Ralph.

“Listen. You don’t know me but I’m calling in an anonymous tip that there’s going to be a mass homicide event in the next hour or so. You’ve got to hurry. Detective Grimwood is

involved!”

“Detective Grimwood? Who is this?” he asked.

“There’s no time to explain. Please, just call over to Vinland County and have some units sent to the Cadaver residence.”

I hung up the phone and hoped that would be enough. Emily would be arriving soon and there’s no telling how long the Black Hand people would wait around before deciding to eliminate her. As for myself, I needed to find a way to get out there. I had no money, so a cab was out of the question. I needed to steal a car. Or better yet, maybe I could convince someone to let me borrow one.

I turned to the store owner and said, “Charm!”

I felt a vast amount of energy leave my body but adrenaline kept me standing. The owner looked confused but he was oddly attentive. “What is it son? Is there anything I can do to help?” he said.

“It’s an emergency! Do you have a car I could borrow? Lives are at stake!”

He nodded slowly and then reached for the keys in his pocket. Eureka! It worked. He told me which car our back was his as he handed me the keys. I took off like a bat out of hell.

* * *

The sun had already set by the time I had gotten out into the countryside. Luckily there was no traffic so I drove to my heart's content. Just me and the forest road I was racing on. Emily may or may not be able to remember me, but if I can get there in time, she might be able to help me figure out what the hell was going on.

Finally, I was reaching the end of the mountain road that led to Cadaver's house. It was almost midnight. But what I saw next filled me with both fear and hopefulness at the same time. It was the light of police cars and ambulances. Had I been quick enough?

I pulled up at the end of the driveway and got out to run to the front door. There were police and first responders everywhere.

“Hey hey hey,” and officers shouted, as he tried to stop me, “you can’t go in there. This is a crime scene!”

“You have to let me in! My girlfriend is in there!”

The officer lowered his arms and slowed his attempts at stopping me from entering. Just as I was going through the front door, the body of the butler, found in the entryway, was being zipped into a bodybag. I rushed into the dining room. Two paramedics were bringing what must’ve been the maid from upstairs down in a body bag as well. That’s when I saw her.

On the floor, near the table. Emily in a pool of her own blood. I was too late. I fell to my knees beside her and sobbed as officers dragged me back outside. Her and Cadaver had been killed right as dinner was being served.

Arc 4 Part 1-2

As I walked away from the gruesome scene, I was in complete shock. I didn’t even bother returning to the car I had driven to the house in. I simply wandered down the dark road on this dreary night back into town. The woods around me were quiet but they could have been blisteringly loud and I wouldn’t have noticed. How could this be happening? After all the work we had done to save Anabel and Stephanie. All the blood, sweat, and tears over the past couple of months. I thought I had everything figured out. Even if I went after the Rod of Resuscitation now, it wouldn’t be worth it, because this Emily wouldn’t remember me anyhow. The events of the last year had been banished from memory.

But the worst part of it was…I never even told her I loved her. And the truth is, I did. I couldn’t have made it as far as I have without her. Not that it mattered now, since everything had been erased. Was this the work of one of the Devils? Or was it some kind of divine punishment for not taking my family legacy seriously at first?

About an hour after leaving the crime scene, I heard movement in the woods. From out of the darkness, an all too familiar werewolf sprang forth to attack me. I simply cast, “Flash!”, to create an enormous white light that sent the beast whimpering back from whence it came. My eyes never left the pavement.

I needed to think. Somehow, someway, I needed to conjure up some clarity. I walked onward, deeper into the night. Just me and the lonely highway through this dreadful forest. It would be dawn soon. I still had many miles ahead of me before I would reach Sin City and the entrypoint to the well. Time didn’t matter to me, given that an entire year could evaporate in an instance. And as far as I was concerned, I was a thousand miles from nowhere.

Anabel and Higgins were probably worried sick about me. I know they wouldn’t try following after me, but there was no sense in worrying them for too long. No matter what I decided to do, I wouldn’t be able to do it alone. So after hours of walking, I found my resolve. I needed my allies!

I looked with my tear swollen eyes from the roadway in front of me. The first light was peering over the trees to the east. I stopped for a moment, took a deep breath, and then tore off into a full sprint back to the city!

Once I reached the sewer, I quickly went back to the house. Higgins and Anabel were happy I was okay but I didn’t have time to explain what had happened to them just yet. I needed to make some phone calls!

* * *

“Hey, Eric. What’s up?” said Stephanie on the other end.

“Hey, Steph. This might seem kinda sudden, but I really need your help with something.” “Oh really? What can I do? You’re Mr. Moneybags now,” she joked.

“It’s not something money can fix. I just really really need you and Wraith here as soon as you can. Do you think you could take some time off work and come to England? I’ll cover your airfare.”

“Well, sure. But why are you sounding so serious? Is everything alright?” she asked, with concern in her voice.

“I’m not gonna lie to you Stephanie. I’m pretty down right now. Probably the worst I’ve been in my whole life. Can I count on you to meet Wraith at the airport once I make some travel arrangements?”

“Of course. Just give me five days to sew my life up and I’ll be there.”

“Thank you. I’ll see you soon. Bye.”

Great. Stephanie was on board. Now I just needed to call Wraith. I knew getting him here wouldn’t be too hard since we were approaching the time he invited himself. Best I have him and Steph come at once to make this all easier to explain.

“What’s up, Eric? Got some more tall tales for me?” Wraith said, as soon as he picked up.

“Something like that,” I replied, “but listen. I really need your help with something. Can you meet Stephanie at the airport in a few days and fly out here?”

“Whoa! Seriously? What’s going on?”

“I can’t explain right now but just know that I’m gonna need your expertise,” figured I could stroke his ego to get him more amped up. I was definitely gonna need those skills of his at some point again.

“You bet, buddy! Just give me the word.”

“Awesome! I’ll text you the details. Steph needs a few days. See you soon.”

Okay, this was a start. Now I just needed to bring Anabel and Higgins up to speed before I went looking for Arduwan. With Stephanie needing a few days before she could leave, I had some time to look for her on my own. Hopefully I could find her around Braytown like when we first met.

I came down from my room where Anabel and Higgins were patiently waiting and started to apologize, “Hey, sorry to scare you both like that. I know this is a lot. It’s a lot for me as well”

“It’s okay, Eric,” Anabel comforted, “it must be hard to process everything you’ve been

feeling.”

“So here’s the plan so far. I have two friends from America that will be coming in a few days. They will be instrumental in me figuring out what’s going on. In the meantime, I’m going to

Callist to look for another friend.”

“Callist?!” shouted Higgins, in surprise, “that world is incredibly dangerous, Master

Noble. Are you sure now is an appropriate time?”

“Ha! You said something similar to me before. It’s alright. I know my way around. There’s not much the two of you can do to help right now so just stay here and root for me from the sidelines, okay?”

The two of them agreed. I left almost immediately. I needed to use every moment I had before the others got to my place and there was no guarantee I’d find Arduwan right away.

Unfortunately, this time I didn’t have chainmail, my weapons, or even a horse. I’d gotten so used to Arduwan’s Call of the Wild being readily available. Nonetheless, I had to press on. So I began the arduous march westward through the desert. I was smart enough to bring some water canteens this time…and avoid a certain village.

* * *

After meeting with a merchant's caravan and using my Thieves Cant to locate someone amongst them friendly to the guild, I managed to get a horse. The following day I made it into the northern part of the plains, in the city of Braytown. I went to the tavern and asked around for Arduwan. I got many funny looks. Probably due to the fact that Arduwan, despite her looks, wasn’t exactly a sought after adventurer.

I spent a good hour talking to people at the tavern and out about town. No one had seen her in a while. Perhaps she was off with some other poor adventuring party. After all, this was several weeks before the point in time when I had met her in the other timeline. I guess I would have to spend the next few days searching the nearby villages.

So I did…and that was a fail. I’d searched from the southern coast to northern mountains, from the western Dwarf mines back over to the desert in the east again. Arduwan was nowhere to be found. I was beginning to get depressed again. I only had a couple of days left until Stephanie and Wraith arrived and I’d hoped to have Arduwan with me when I returned to the mansion to meet them.

Sad and with few ideas left, I made it a point to do one last thing before returning home. I went to Arduwan’s village in the Barbarian Lands. I knew it was a slim chance she’d be there, but at the very least I could revive her people for her. I retrieved the severed Gorgon head she had left in that crate and began using it to un-stone all of the villagers.

One by one, each of the people knelt to me in thanks after rescuing them. When I got to King Ardu, he did the same, and said, “brave warrior, I thank you for slaying that awful Gorgon and freeing my people. I am forever indebted to you.”

“Oh, I didn’t slay…wait a minute,” I paused.

The king knelt down in front of me, followed by all the villagers encircled around us. Did what I think just happened happen?

King Ardu lifted his head and said, “My liege, it is with our utmost gratitude that I and my people swear a life debt to you. It cannot be broken by any foe and transcends time and space.”

No way. Did I just inadvertently raise a barbarian army?! Gotta admit, that’s pretty cool. Things weren’t looking so hot for me right now, but at least with this new tool at my disposal, I could exercise my experience at real time strategy games around Callist.

“Okay, first of all, King Ardu, I’m looking for you daughter.”

“My daughter? Do you wish to marry her? Or perhaps just take her to bed? I could arrange both!” he said, eager to please me.

“No no! That’s quite alright. She’s just a friend of mine and I can’t find her. Do you think maybe you can help widen my search?”

“Of course! I shall send riders in the directions of the four winds to search for her.”

“Excellent! Now, is it possible to unite the other chieftains in the event we should need a larger army?” I said, thinking ahead for when the Devil King of Callist decided to make his move on this continent.

“Alas, I wish it were so, but it is not possible. For without my Great Horn, I am no longer ruler of all barbarians and can only commit to you my village.”

Oh, that’s right! Arduwan took the Great Horn when the king was turned to stone and it was later stolen by thieves hired by Davol, the Lich Lord. Ardu must’ve just realized he was no longer in possession of it. Probably best not to tell him that his daughter took it and had it stolen.

“King Ardu, what if I told you I knew of who had the Great Horn?”

“Then I would only be further in debt to you,” he said, as he groveled on the ground further, followed by the other villagers.

Perfect.

“To the west of your lands, there stands an iron fortress. Inside is a sorcerer by the name Davol. He is the one who sent the Gorgon to your village. If you took this information to the other chieftains, do you think they would support you in retrieving the Great Horn rightfully to you?”

“They would mount an offensive so large that the ground would tremble as they tore his fortress asunder,” he said, with angst in his voice.

“Okay, now we’re talking. Send messengers to all the other chieftains and go do your thing. Once you’ve taken your revenge, have your warriors comb the continent and find

Arduwan. I’ll draw you a map and show you where to take her once she’s found.”

“Of course, my lord!”

Looks like if I was given lemons I’d have to make lemonade.

Arc 4 Part 1-3

I left the barbarian village the same day I arrived. I would have to trust them to do what they did best. I only hoped they would find Arduwan and bring her to the spring in due time. But for now, I had to get back to the mansion and rest up. Once Stephane and Wraith arrived, we needed to make a plan to try and figure out if there was a way I could reverse whatever the hell happened to me.

I came back up the well and explained to Anabel and Higgins what had happened. During my explanation, I got a text saying that Wraith and Stephanie were in London and on their way to my house. It was time to form the team back up. Well…what was left of us.

When they arrived, I introduced everyone. It felt really weird. All of them had gotten to know each other so well in the other timeline. Especially Anabel and Stephanie. I felt really bad for all of them, but they were none the wiser. Still, we sat at the dining room table discussing our next course of action.

“So you’re saying that I did a bunch of badass shit in that other world?” Wraith enthusiastically questioned.

“Uh huh, and you scored with lots of chicks too. If we can figure out what’s going on, I think we can get you back to them,” I said, dangling the carrot to encourage him to be serious.

Stephanie just scoffed and said, “Okay, so I’m on board. But what am I supposed to do to help? I didn’t come all the way here just to help Wraith stroke his own ego.”

“That’s right. But I wanted you…no, I needed you here. For support. You see…after Higgins died, I needed someone who understood the basics of this world. Like paying bills, dealing with local authorities, managing regular life stuff. It was you, Steph. You filled that void. I can’t thank you enough.”

She seemed really humbled by my praise. I didn’t say anything about what had happened between her and Anabel in the other timeline. If it was going to blossom here and now it would have to do so naturally. The good news was, I made it clear right away that my intentions towards Stephanie at this stage weren’t romantic.

“Excuse me, Master Noble,” Higgins cleared his throat and interjected, “might I ask, since you are confident in my survival in this timeline as well as with Miss Stephanie’s ability to assume my role, could I be of any help to you in Callist?”

I hadn’t expected Higgins to offer himself to physically go with me. Afterall, he was retired from adventuring. But I suppose he understood how dire the situation was and felt if Stephanie could fill that role just fine then he could be more help than just staying here. I didn’t want to push him into meeting a terrible demise in Callist though. But a different thought crossed my mind.

“Higgins…Reginald. There’s something I must tell you. I’m not sure how you’re going to take this, but I really feel you should know something.”

The room fell silent. Everyone was eager to hear my announcement.

I continued, “Italia is alive. I met her in Brasshaven.”

Higgins' eyes got big and muttered, “What? But how do you even know about Italia?”

“You told me. In the other timeline of course. You showed me the locket she made you. I know all about how you felt about each other. It was tragic what happened. But I feel like you should know. Robot also survived and he had been keeping Italia alive in a secret lab until he was able to fix himself. Then he robotized her and turned her into a killing machine. His prized warrior. But she’s still in there, Higgins. If her controller is destroyed she can be freed.”

Higgins paused for a moment and said, “you know, this is an awful lot to take in. I held her in my arms as she slipped unconscious over two decades ago.” Tears swelled up in his eyes.

“I know. But she’s still here. In fact, I’m not 100% on the order of events, but it’s possible she’s awake right now. Kaiser probably finished her first before he started building his militia. He didn’t start to build his army until late fall and it’s still only March. I can tell you where she is!”

Higgins stood up from the table and said, “I’m going. I can’t pass up this opportunity to make up for leaving her on that train. Especially now knowing she became a puppet to that damned Roboto. Thank you, Eric. This is a rare chance in life at a second chance. I’d always said, in another life, things could’ve been different. Well now they can.”

I went into the library and retrieved some drawing materials to make Higgins a map and some notes. I wanted him to be fully prepared for whatever he may encounter should I be wrong about the order of events. And just like that, he was gone. Down the well into Brasshaven he went.

* * *

As for the rest of us, we needed to try and figure out what caused me to have an entire year erased and everyone's memories wiped. Without Emily present we were much more collectively scatterbrained in figuring things out.

I told Wraith about the Oracle and how once we got Arduwan we could go visit him and see if he could help us figure out what happened.

“Huh? Why do we need her for that?” he inquired.

“Well, you see…the Oracle is a bit of a perv. When you meet Arduwan, you’ll understand why she’s good to have around in negotiating prices for his services.”

“What should I do?” asked Stephanie.

I looked over in her direction. She was sitting next to Anabel, coincidentally where the two of them always sat at dinner in the other timeline. That just made things that much harder for me. But I told her, “for now. Wait. Just stay here with Anabel and…eh, get to know each

other a little bit.”

The two of them looked at one another with a perplexed expression on each others faces.

“So when do we leave?” Wraith asked.

“We can go whenever, but there’s no telling when the barbarians will find Arduwan. I instructed them to bring her to the spring on the other side of the well, so I guess we can just wait there.”

* * *

So we did just that. Wraith and I went down the well into Callist and left Anabel and

Stephanie to watch the mansion. With any luck, we could return here with a better idea of what had happened.

Once on the other side, I had a sudden realization, “Oh no, I just remembered something

important!”

“What’s that?”

“We’ve only been able to get into Vale before because we had a permission slip signed by you due to your standing as an approved merchant. But in this timeline, you’re just some dork who delivers pizzas.”

“Hey! Wasn’t I that in the other timeline too?” Wraith objected.

“You were but over time you established yourself among the Thieves Guild and trading unions. That’s okay. We can just use Thieves Cant to find some guild members and try to have them smuggle us into Vale.”

“Thieves Cant?”

“Oh, that’s right. Forgot you also don’t remember that either. It’s a secret language used to communicate with the underworld. It’s okay. We might be here awhile waiting on Arduwan, so I can teach you now.”

* * *

The hours slipped by. I brought Wraith completely up to speed on Thieves Cant and we practiced a little before we started to hear the sound of horses coming into the canyon. We got on guard just in case, even though neither of us were armed. At least Wraith had his Ninja Warrior skills and I could cast some light magic.

Four barbarian men came riding in on horseback. But the two in the rear had a large wooden beam held on their shoulders linking to one another. In the middle of the beam was an all too familiar blonde barbarian woman. She was hogtied upside down by her hands and feet, carried by the beam.

One of the male barbarians in front dismounted, knelt before me, and said, “Lord Noble, we have found and brought Princess Arduwan to you, just as you instructed.”

Wraith had a look on his face that told me this all just became real to him.

“Excellent, but cut her down. Why did you guys string her up?”

“Sir, Lady Arduwan did not wish to be brought here. We had to.”

The second man who rode in front dismounted his horse as well and proceeded to cut Arduwans ropes. She fell down directly on her back and the men seized her as she got to her feet.

“Let me go! I do not wish to be married off to an outsider!” She shouted while fighting her captors.

I decided to walk up and explain myself, “Arduwan! It’s okay. I’m not trying to marry you. You may not believe me but please try to listen. My name is Eric. You won’t remember, but we’ve been friends for almost a year. Not just me, but Wraith too. The three of us have gone on many adventures together. Something terrible happened that caused us all to forget it and I’m trying to find a way to fix that. But I need your help.”

She continued to struggle and try to fight her way loose from the mens grasp. I didn’t know what else to do except keep trying to convince her.

“Please Arduwan. You’ve got to believe me. It wasn’t just me and Wraith. There was Anabel and Stephanie, Higgins…and Emily,” a tear dropped from my eye, “believe it or not but in the other timeline, it wasn’t these men who swore a life debt to me…it was you. I mostly dismissed it before, but the truth is. I miss you Arduwan. You’re one of my best friends.”

Suddenly, Arduwan stopped struggling and her eyes widened. She stood completely still as if a light switch flipped on in her brain. Finally, she said, “I…I remember, Eric. I remember everything!”

I began smiling ear to ear as Arduwan threw her arms up, tossing the two barbarian men to the side as she grasped me in a loving embrace. The two of us hugged and cried together while everyone else looked on. I said, “How? How did you remember?”

“I told you before,” she said, ”the Barbarian Life Debt transcends time and space!”

Arc 4 Part 1-4

After introducing Arduwan and Wraith…well, reintroducing, at least one of them remembered…we discussed how we were going to visit the Oracle of Vale and see if he could help us figure out anything at all. The barbarians gave me a full report of how they smashed Davol’s minions and overwhelmed his fortress before he could even attempt to raise his dead army. King Ardu was in possession of the Great Horn again and had instructed all barbarians that they would listen to my command.

“Good work,” I told the messenger, “I want the four of you to return to your village and tell the king that Arduwan is with me now and we’re going to try and sneak into Vale. Have his scouts watch in the east for when I return. I may need his help in the near future.”

“At once, my liege,” said the barbarian before he and his comrades mounted up and left the spring.

“Okay, Arduwan. Call us up some horses. We gotta find a merchant caravan.”

She did just that. And we did just that. That evening, we found a merchant caravan and by using how Thieves Cant skill we were able to identify a guild member amongst them. She put us in touch with her family in a nearby village and they made arrangements to sneak us over the border into Vale the following day.

* * *

The bustling city of Vale, nestled deep in the forest east of the desert. A large wagon carrying supplies in from a foreign land made a stop at the center of town. On board were three extraordinary barrels. They were not extraordinary because of what they were made of. It was because of what was inside of them. Instead of water or wine, grain or fruits, these barrels carried myself, Wraith, and Arduwan.

When the coast looked clear, the three of us popped up from our wooden pseudo-trojan horses and quickly fled the scene. Once we got our bearings straight we headed towards the place we knew we would find the Oracle. The receptionist took us in right away for an audience. “Hello!” said the jolly, chubby, balding man, “I knew you’d come. Sorry, just some Oracle humor.”

Funny the first time, not the second, didn’t even acknowledge it this time. “Hi, Mr. Oracle,” I started to say.

“Please, call me Oracle,” he corrected.

“Okay, Oracle. You don’t know us, but I assure you that we’ve met before. In fact, the three of us have been here two times before. I can’t explain what’s happened, but something is messing with the time continuum and…well…I seem to have lost an entire year.”

“Lost a year?”

“Yes. A few days ago, I woke up in my bed and the entire past year had been completely wiped clean. I have all my memories and because Princess Arduwan here has a Barbarian Life Debt pledged to me, she also remembers everything. But Wraith doesn’t…and you don’t. Is there any way to help me? Or is that beyond the scope of your power.”

“Hmm, that is an interesting dilemma. First, we need to discuss the matter of payment.” Here we go.

Before another word was said, Arduwan threw down a bag of money. That’s right! When I first met her she had a ton of treasure from adventuring. Since she didn’t need to buy me and Wraith gear…or a fricken camel, she had plenty to spare.

“Oh. I see,” he said, as he examined the bag of coins, “not quite my fee, but a hefty sum nonetheless. I find you all to be an interesting bunch. Allow me to look into your lives a little bit so I may better assess your situation.”

Hmm, this was a new one. Maybe this is how he treated normal people who didn’t quite have the fee. He just sat there humming with his eyes closed for a moment before saying, “I see. No further payment required.”

“What? Are you sure?” I questioned, wondering why he wanted to feel up Arduwan before but this time he made no such request.

“I know what you’re thinking. You said we’ve met a few times before and you’re probably wondering why I’m not asking to caress Princess Arduwan’s ample bosom.”

“Well, yes, to put it bluntly.”

“That’s because I really like you guys and when I looked into your life I saw that you were constantly surrounded by attractive women. Don’t get me wrong, Arduwan is simply the best,” he made a chef's kiss with his fingers before continuing, “but in the interest of not becoming a tired trope everytime I’m in your presence, I’ve decided to accept your bag of gold alone this time.”

“Wow, really? That’s great!”

“On one condition! Next time you use my services, I want you to bring me one of those women you share a roof with.”

“You must be joking,” I said, with furrowed brows.

“No no, I’m being quite serious. I foresee that there was a dark and brooding one, a sweet quaint one, and even a petite framed one with a lively personality. I don’t care which but we’re doing this on the honor system.”

“Err, fine,” I said, “as long as you help me figure out what the hell is going on, I can make it happen I guess.”

“Oh I’ve already figured out what happened to you.”

“You have! What is it?!”

“Well, it seems you’ve caught the attention of a very very menacing foe. Your escapades around Callist led you to eliminate both a former and current general of the Devil King in the other timeline. Once he became aware that a world walker was here, he remembered stories he heard about a world walker long ago eliminating a past Devil King. So he got scared. He used an extremely powerful curse to try and stop you.”

“A curse?”

“Yes. He wanted to stunt your growth until he could find a way to kill you without endangering his own life or any more of his top aides. This type of magic is very difficult to wield and can only be used once in a lifetime, for it would kill you to use it a second time.”

“Well, what is it? How does it work?” The suspense was killing me.

“The Devil King sacrificed half of his power in order to roll back an entire year of your progress. The only people in the universe who were aware of the rollback are him, you, and

Arduwan by extension of the Life Debt.”

Wow. This is unbelievable. He must have really thought I was something if he did all that.

True, I did kill Davol, but all I did to defeat Apollo was beg for him to leave everyone alone. Still, he must’ve been pretty freaked out when he found out we stopped a zombie horde and an attack force of orcs.

“So here’s a question,” I proposed, “let’s say I killed the Devil King. Would that undo the curse?”

“No, I’m afraid not. What’s done is done. However, in his weakened state, there’s never been a better time to kill him than right now.”

My heart began to ache. I knew it was a longshot when I asked. But I had hoped that would’ve been enough to bring Emily back and restore everyone's memories. But that just wasn’t going to happen. No magic rods or cleric spells were gonna save us this time. She was dead and all I could do was swear to avenge her.

“Alright, is there anything you can tell me that might help me defeat him? Even if he’s weakened, I’m not an elite warrior or anything. Arduwan is, but Wraith is also disadvantaged by the rollback.”

“Hmm, let me see,” he squinted his eyes and meditated for a moment, “the events of the Devil King’s demise are hazy, so that means they’re not in the near future. But not to worry, that doesn’t mean it won’t be you who defeats him. I can, however, see that there’s a special book that can help you on your quest. It’s…a Tome of Wisdom.”

“Tome of Wisdom?” questioned Wraith. I glanced over at him as he rubbed his chin in contemplation. But then I looked back at the Oracle.

“Yes, I can see that it would lead you to a possible way to kill him. Though I can’t see if that particular method would be successful or not. The threads of fate don’t extend that far. I’m

sorry.”

“That’s okay. You’ve told me quite enough. Can you think of anything else that might help?”

He reached his hand up and pressed his finger tips to his scalp as he squeezed his eyes in contemplation and said, “maybe, if something soft were to plant itself on my lap…something, like the voluptuous bottom of a barbarian woman…”

Arduwan started to step forward, but I put my hand up to stop her and said, “Nice try. I don’t suppose you could offer anything else without a lecherous demand?”

“Let’s see…you’re going back to the barbarian lands right?”

“That’s right?”

“Ever wanted to be carried by a giant eagle?”

Of course it had to be that damned bird again!

* * *

“Look! Yonder to the eastern skies, a giant eagle approaches!” said one barbarian scout to another as we flew overhead on a trajectory to Arduwan’s village.

Soon after we would be let down and released from the large roll of carpet that we were wrapped in. We were just outside the village and the king came out to greet us.

“Arduwan! My lovely daughter. You have returned with your betrothed safe and sound.”

“Oh, father, he’s not my betrothed,” she blushed, “I like Sir Wraith.”

“What?!!!” Wraith expressed. This was news to him. This version of Wraith had only known Arduwan a couple of days and as far as he was concerned, she was way out of his league. Shame he didn’t remember all the shit he did to trick her into thinking he was a decent guy.

“King Ardu, I have a favor,” I said.

The king knelt and signaled his daughter to kneel next to him before saying, “at your command, Sir Noble.”

“Is it outside the parameters of my life debt to ask for some of your men to follow me into battle in a distant land?”

“Not at all. We would send every man woman and child in our ranks to their deaths on

your behalf!”

“Ha!” I laughed, “I don’t think all that will be necessary. I’m just wondering if I could take an expedition of some of your finest warriors to face the Devil King. I don’t need them to do anything too crazy. Mostly just ensure my safe passage into his domain and draw some of his forces so I can get a shot at killing him myself.”

“It would be an honor for me to handpick those warriors myself, Sir Noble.”

That night we celebrated our alliance and rested at the barbarian village. The king insisted I sleep in the same quarters as Arduwan, which really wasn;t unfamiliar to me at this point, but I guess he wanted something to happen out of it. However, the next day, it was time to get serious.

* * *

“Sir Noble,” the king announced, as we stood at the center of the village before a lineup of tough looking barbarians. These were a cut above the average ones I had encountered since my very first visit, “these are one dozen of the finest warriors in all of the barbarian lands. Not just my village. I present to you, Throd, newly elected Chieftain of the Batta clan.”

A particularly large chested barbarian man with long brown hair approached me and knelt with his fist against his chest and said, “Sir Noble, it will be my honor to lead these men by your side into victory.”

“Throd’s father was one of my dearest friends and strongest allies. He was recently killed by a suspected spy for the Devil King and so it is fitting that his son help you lead the expedition.”

Wow, a spy, among the barbarians! Apollo had said something about the Devil King’s reach being vast but not quite to the Grasslands yet. I guess with Davol here, his spheres of influence must have been growing quicker than even Apollo thought.

“I’m glad to have you in my service, Throd.”

Ardu smiled and quietly said to me, “Throd once sought the affections of my daughter but was rejected by her in favor of another man. He goes not only to uphold our people's life debt, but to protect her as well.”

I looked over and saw Arduwan with her nose turned up and avoiding eye contact with Throd. The look on his face was pitiful.

Ardu slapped his arm across my back, nearly knocking the wind out of me and said, “with these warriors and Arduwan with you, I have no doubts that you will crush the very skull of the Devil King! You’ll incinerate his innards and let the wind make merry their dust! You’ll make a crown of teeth and cartilage plucked from his face and wear it as a memento of this crusade for all your days!”

“Haha! Well, I was just planning on killing him!” I joked.

“Hahahahahaha! You’re my favorite outsider, Sir Noble. With or without the Life Debt!”

Arc 4 Part 1-5

We had limited knowledge about the Devil Kings dealings. Right before the old timeline fell apart I had instructed Wraith to have the Thieves Guild gather information for me so we could plan a methodical course of action for confronting him. I’d get no such luxury here since this Wraith was new to this world and didn’t have those connections. Plus there’s the fact that the Oracle said the Devil King was aware of my presence and would be anticipating me to do something at some point.

Our best bet was to try and get to the Devil King’s domain and deal with him first.

Unfortunately, the quickest way there from this continent was by ship. Either from ports east of Vale or the long way around from the Southern Seas. That wouldn’t be economical nor practical. Taking a dozen barbarians by ship would be expensive, obvious, and probably dangerous. In a way, this felt like the situation in Bristol all over again. Get to the Devil King and eliminate him before his spies have a chance to signal something is up.

We decided that the “safest” route would be to head west, through the Dwarf mines and over the continental divide to the neighboring nations that shared a border with the Devil Kings territory. It would take longer, but it would keep us on land and be a little more discreet than loading up on some merchant ship that could get people talking and make our presence known to the spy network. Hopefully, the Oracle’s prediction about finding a Tome of Wisdom would happen somewhere along this journey.

The dwarves were kind. We paid them for hospitality with what little gold we had. Thankfully, Arduwan, Wraith and I were safe from being recognized. In this timeline, we had not robbed them of gemstones, so they weren’t looking for us. They offered us the fastest route to the other side of the continent and we were on our way.

We traveled for over a week. It was slow at first, because Wraith had to relearn how to ride a horse. But once we got going, everything felt right. Wraith and I got to dress up like barbarians for a change. We didn’t quite fit in, given the fact we weren’t as muscle bound as all of them. But it was still kinda fun. We spent our days riding and our evenings sharpening our swordplay skills.

One evening, we were sitting by the fire and Throd sat over by Arduwan. She rolled her eyes, got up from her place and went to sit closer to Wraith. This embarrassed Throd. So he said, “Little man! I challenge you to a contest.”

“Uhh, who, me?” Wraith said, seemingly confused.

“Yes. We must decide who is ranked second to Sir Noble.”

I decided to interject, “Umm, Throd, that’s okay. There’s really no need to do that. You see, you lead the barbarians, and I lead you. Wraith doesn’t really have a place in this system.”

“That cannot be,” said Throd, “there must be a defined order.”

He was really trying to push the issue. My guess was that he wanted to impress Arduwan. Wraith really had no idea why she liked him so much and I think he was intimidated by her. They simply didn’t have the history together they did in the other timeline. But it would be futile, because Arduwan remembered everything from before.

“Okay, fine. What is your challenge,” I conceded.

Throd stood up and said, “see that peak? At first light, we shall race to the top of it. The first one of us to reach the top and wave down at the others will be the winner.”

Oh good, at least it wasn’t combat or a test of strength. Wraith had a smirk on his face. I knew what he was thinking, his Ninja Warrior training was going to win this thing for him. Throd was simply too muscle bound and bulky to have the endurance to beat him. Arduwan could, but she was different. She was lean muscle. Throd was like a barn door!

* * *

At sunrise, the two men lined up in front of a fallen branch and faced towards the peak. It was a steep incline towards the top no matter which direction you took. Another barbarian held up a cloth and lowered it to signal the start of the race.

The two of them took off into a sprint at first. Once they reached the lower rock formations they started climbing. Wraith climbed the first large boulder by hand and they parkoured his way across a smaller set before reaching a rock wall. He started going hand over foot from there. Throd was still trying to get some traction. It wasn’t looking good for him early on. Wraith looked like Tomb Raider leaping from rock face to rock face. By the time Throd had gotten just past the halfway point, Wraith was already at the top waving down to all of us.

Arduwan screamed, “Yaaaayyyyy!!!!” And the other barbarians joined in on the cheering.

This only further embarrassed Throd than he was the night before.”

The two of them descended down and Throd begrudgingly admitted defeat. “Congrats, man,” I said to Wraith, “looks like you’re my second in command.”

After a quick celebration, we packed up and started moving westward again.

* * *

A few days later, we were well into the neighboring land. We had not encountered many people since leaving the Dwarf mines. Only a few passing caravans and a small hamlet. But soon, something disturbing came into view. We saw plumes of smoke on the horizon, so we decided to go and investigate.

What we discovered was a burned village. Not a small one either. It was nearly the size of Braytown, but it had been reduced completely to ashes. Any survivors must have fled because there was no one around. The whole thing gave me an uneasy feeling.

“Whoever did this must be to the north,” said Throd, who further noted, “these tracks indicate movement of a few dozen men with steel boots. They came from the north, burned the village, and doubled back. Their encampment must be in that direction.”

“Should we go investigate? Or try and avoid them all together? We’re still a long way from the Devil King’s domain,” I said.

“I will go,” Throd offered, “It’s too dangerous for all of us to move at once. I will scout ahead and report back what I see. Then we will assess the appropriate course of action.”

No one tried to stop him so I didn’t bother to either. The rest of us dismounted to rest while he rode on ahead. The area we were in was flat land with trees, rivers, and fields all around. It was an ideal place to live in a world as harsh as this one. To the north of us was a small mountain range. Storm clouds seemed to be ominously forming near them.

About an hour passed and there was no sign of Throd returning. We weren’t sure how far ahead he was going to search but I had a really bad feeling about it. After a little while longer I made an executive decision to go find him. We hastily packed everything up and began following his trail.

Tracking Throd lead us near the base of the mountains. We saw indications of others moving around in small groups but Throd’s tracks circle around a mountainside. As we were going along, slowly trying to find out where he had gone to, we suddenly had an encounter.

About a dozen knights in all black shiny armor marched around the corner of the mountainside. They came from the direction Throd’s tracks led too. That didn’t seem good. Each of the knights were over six feet tall. They were totally covered in body armor. Their closed helmets made them faceless and their movements were almost robotic in nature.

We held our ground fast and dismounted our steeds. We weren’t looking for a fight if we could avoid one but it was looking like that was what was about to happen. The barbarians all readied their weapons, followed by me and Wraith. We had been given short swords and bows by King Ardu. I called out, “Halt! We do not wish to engage with you!”

No response. The metallic foes simply marched on towards us. It began to darken. The storm clouds we saw forming earlier appeared to move in, almost as if to compliment the presence of this obsidian menace before us. When it looked as though a peaceful parting was no longer an option, I shouted, “Charge!” Signaling the barbarians to attack with full force, Wraith and I in tow.

I stopped to fire an arrow from my bow about halfway before meeting the enemies up close. It was a direct hit on one of them, but seemed to just bounce off without so much as even slowing him. Odd, the power behind that should have at least jolted him a bit. The barbarians and the knights fully clashed and it quickly became a blood bath. Our blood. Not a single knight had fallen and yet all but three of the barbarians, Arduwan, myself, and Wraith were left standing to retreat. But there was nowhere to run to. Behind us, yet another patrol of knights was round the corner. The barbarians advanced again to give us an opportunity to run. Wraith joined them toe to toe against the knights.

*Crash* *Slash* *Slice* *Wham*

“No! Wraith!” I shouted, but it was too late. He tried a springboard maneuver in an attempt to strike one of them with momentum but was cut down and killed right before us. The other three barbarians alongside him.

I hesitated a moment before yelling, “Flash!” Casting the same blaze of light I used to ward off the werewolf before, I grabbed Arduwan and ran inwards towards a valley in the mountainside. I wasn’t sure where it would lead us but it was better than standing their to be butchered.

We ran side by side about fifty yards before the small break in the mountside fed into a dead end cul-de-sac. There were large stones laid about as if this were some kind of shrine that had long since abandoned. But there was nowhere to hide.

“Eric,” Arduwan said, in a panicked breath, “I’m going to try and hold them off. See if you can climb out of here.”

“I can’t just leave you!”

“It’s my job, Eric. I must protect you so that you may live on another day. That is the way of the Barbarian Life Debt.”

It hurt me to do so, but I nodded at her. She had tears in her eyes but raised her greatsword anyway and ran back out towards the black knights.

Rain started to pelt around me as I heard her clashing swords with them. I looked around and saw nowhere to go. Even if I were to start climbing, the rain on the rock face would cause me to slide back down. It was looking grim. Perhaps the grimest it had been since I began my journey. Nearly everyone I cared about was dead and I was helpless to even avenge them. We couldn’t even kill one of those knights. How could I possibly stand to an entire platoon of them, much less the Devil King. What had gone wrong? Did I somehow miss the opportunity to find that Tome of Wisdom the Oracle mentioned?

My contemplation was cut short at the sound of Arduwan’s screams. Lightning crashed and the rain picked up. I knew I had about enough magic power to cast one good spell. Not that it would make a difference, but maybe if I got lucky I could kill at least one or two of those knights before they got me.

Then they came. From out of the mountain pass, about five of those black knights emerged. They were silent. We never once heard them make a sound before the battle and the same could be said for now. I held out my short sword with both hands and prepared to embrace their attack. But just before they made their move, there was a sudden flash of light. It wasn’t lightning. But it was accompanied by a presence. One I had felt before but didn’t recognize. The knights stopped dead in their tracks and looked up behind me. Before I could turn around to see what was there, another flash of light dissolved the black knights into nothingness.

I slowly turned behind me and saw the faint outline of a woman hovering over the abandoned shrine I had discovered. She was transparent and had no color or pupils in her eyes. Really, she was almost a silhouette. I could see she had long flowing hair and gave the appearance of a middle aged woman, but there were no defining features. Her outline was the size of a billboard! Part of me was relieved but the other part was afraid.

“Wh-who are you?” I timidly asked.

She responded with an elegant and well spoken demeanor, “I am Delilah, the Goddess of Second Chances. You have stumbled upon my shrine that was abandoned centuries ago.”

Delilah! This was the goddess Apollo summoned to revive Stephanie! Was this what he had been looking up at and speaking to when he communed with her?

“Thank you! But why did you save me?” I asked.

Her response was hesitant but she finally said, “When I was in your presence before, back at your Mansion, I took interest in you. Your name is Noble and so is your namesake. I saw that you went through great lengths to revive your friend, so that is why I granted your request. It seems fate has brought you here before my shrine that has all but been forgotten.”

“Unreal. But why are you so interested in me? I only did what anyone would and should do to help their friends?”

She paused yet again before cautiously replying, “You may find this odd, but deities can be quite curious. We are restricted by the laws of the cosmos in meddling too much in mortal affairs. But I suppose you could say…I like you and your comrades.”

Well that was a relief. At least she didn’t save me from the knights just face me in battle herself or anything crazy like that. I’d expect as much from this damn world.

“If you’re restricted from meddling, how were you able to save me from the knights?”

She answered in her wise and soft spoken voice, “A deity is permitted to aid a mortal up to three times in a lifetime. No more, since that would imply favoritism. But I’ve decided to grant you a single wish now. Since I have already helped you twice, I will be banished to a lower realm. But I am the Goddess of Second Chances, so that is what I have decided to do.”

“Twice? But this is only the first time you’ve helped me. Technically, Apollo was the one who summoned you to revive Stephanie.”

“Yes, but I only helped Apollo achieve his redemption. It was you who wanted Stephanie to be brought back.”

That made sense. But I really wonder what the parameters of this wish she wants to grant me is. I decided to ask, “If asked, could you kill the Devil King?”

“Yes.”

No way! Talk about calling in the cavalry. I could wrap this thing up a whole lot sooner than I thought! He’s the only active Devil remaining! But wait a second…

“One more question Delilah. If I wish for the Devil King to be killed, will that reset the past year and bring everyone back the way we were before?”

“No. It will not. What’s done is done,” she replied, stoically.

Oh no. This is terrible. It will be bittersweet taking out the Devil King only to know there was nothing I could do to save my fallen friends. And if that is the only wish Delilah can grant me, then I’m afraid it’s the best I could do. I wish Emily were here. She could surely help me figure out a way to cast a wish with maximum benefit.

“However,” Delilah said, “If you were to wish that the Devil King’s curse had no effect on you, I could rewrite the events of time up to this point to prevent him from ever being able to cast it. Though I must warn you…your opportunity to defeat the Devil King while he is at half power will disappear along with the curse.”

“I see,” I replied somberly, “then that gives me some hope. But the entire reason I marched out here to begin with was to take advantage of his weakened state. If we couldn’t even defeat his foot soldiers as we were, I’m not sure if we could stop him at full power.”

“It is a moral decision you must make on your own,” she suggested, “stop the Devil King now and forever or reunite with your allies and find a way without my assistance.”

A moral dilemma was more like it. By her giving me this ultimatum it just made things that much more difficult. But she was the Goddess of Second Chances after all. Perhaps she wanted me to be happy, even if it meant running the risk of the Devil King dominating this world anyway. What am I thinking? It’s just one Devil. There will be more. Eventually, somebody else is going to have to deal with them. I know what my choice is!

“Delilah! I’m ready to make my wish,” I proudly exclaimed, “I wish that the Devil King’s curse never worked on me!”

Arc 4 Part 2-1

The sunlight bled into the room. My eyes slowly began to pry open. It was bright despite the curtains being closed. The light radiating from behind them into the room indicated to me that it was almost noon…

Noon? Wait a second! I sprung up from bed immediately after realizing I was back in the Master Bedroom at the Mansion. I wasn’t dressed as a barbarian, and I wasn’t wet from the rain. Did Delilah really grant my wish? It was difficult to tell right away. Afterall, just a few weeks earlier I had awoken in this room to the smell of bacon downstairs only to discover that the clock had been rolled back an entire year and I was the only one who knew it.

I jumped out of bed and quickly put some clothes on. The only way for me to know for sure was to see for myself. As I ran out of the bedroom, I saw Emily coming up from the staircase. She was alive!

As fast as I could, I ran up to her and embraced her, “Emily! I love you!”

“Whoa! Thought we were taking it slow? That’s not slow!”

“No, you don’t understand!” I explained, “You were dead…but now you’re alive.”

“Relax,” she giggled, “I just went to put on some coffee. You probably had a bad dream and panicked when you woke up so late in the day.”

I backed away from her and held her out from me by her shoulders while giving her a very serious look and said, “Listen. This is gonna sound crazy. But you know how things are with the well and the Devils and all that. The Devil King of Callist put a curse on me and rewound the clock to one year ago today. The day after you and I met. Since I wasn’t there to protect you from the Black Hand, they killed you.”

She looked up at me, unable to fully process what I was saying but listened anyway.

I continued, “I just spent the last few weeks in a living hell where you, Arduwan, and

Wraith were all killed brutally. But I was given a second chance. The same goddess that brought Stephanie back to life. She was there! She undid the curse to give me another opportunity to defeat the Devil of Callist and keep all of you safe!”

Her mouth hung open and her eyes were big. I could tell it was starting to set in how serious I was being and she looked as if she’d almost cry for all the things I’d been through.

“Oh, Eric,” she said, as she pulled herself into my chest and held me. I wrapped my arms around her and started to tear up. The nightmare was finally over.

* * *

A few hours later, my phone gave a notification. Something activated the basement cam.

It was Arduwan! She was coming up from the well. I ran down quickly to meet her. The two of us embraced. It quickly became apparent that she remembered everything as well.

“Eric! Emily! You’re both okay,” she said, “I was on my way back from visiting my village when the erasure must’ve happened.”

“You remember it?!”

“Of course. I told you, the life debt transcends time and space. I remember getting killed by the black knights and the next thing I knew, I was on my way riding back to the spring. That’s when I remembered it was what I was doing before all the crazy stuff started.”

“See, Emily. I wasn’t dreaming. It all happened.”

“Bizarre,” she noted, “forgive me if I’m being rude, but I’m really glad that I don’t remember any of this.”

While we were talking we heard a car pull up outside. The three of us went upstairs to see who it was and discovered that it was Anabel and Stephanie coming home.

“Girls! You’re back! I’m back! Everyone is safe, thank god!” I shouted as I hugged the two of them.

Stephanie sat her luggage down and asked, “what’s going on? Did we miss something?”

“You did…you missed a lot. But that’s okay. I can explain everything over lunch. Hey, wait a minute. What are you two doing back so soon? I was supposed to pick you up from the

train station at four.”

“Oh, yeah,” she explained, “we left our hotel a little early and found out the train before our scheduled one had extra room so they bumped us up. I thought I’d surprise you and just have a cab bring us back home.”

“Great! I’m just happy to have you both home.”

We all sat down for a nice lunch. Bologna and cheese sandwiches. The kitchen was stocked with stuff like that in the wake of Anabel’s absence. I spent the afternoon explaining everything that happened. Like Emily, they too were happy that they didn’t remember any of it.

* * *

The next day, we were all just relaxing and enjoying each other's company in the drawing room. Stephanie and Anabel quietly left the room and spoke to each other for a little bit before returning. When they returned, they had a bit of a surprise for us.

“Everyone,” Stephanie said, with her hands palm up by her side, “Anabel has something she would like to tell all of you.”

We turned our attention to Anabel as she walked up beside Stephanie with her hands clasped behind her back and a smile on her face. Still looking towards the floor, she said, “During our trip to the Mediterranean it came to my attention…that in this world…it’s not unusual for a lady and another lady…who might fancy one another…to…umm…well, join in matrimony.”

“Get out of here!” I said with surprise in my voice, “you two are…I mean…the two of you are?”

Her face went red but she looked up and replied, “Getting married. Yes!”

Unbelievable. I was over the moon. A few months back and I didn’t know what to do with them but now, I couldn’t be happier for them.

Stephanie held Anabel’s hand and added, “It’s true. We are. I know this sounds…ridiculous and cliche, but the truth is…When I came here, Eric, I was confused and lost and I didn’t fully accept myself. But when I met Anabel, I started to feel…complete. So in Monaco, when Anabel asked me about the other same sex couples in public, I explained it and asked her if she would be interested. And she said yes!”

Emily, Arduwan, and I started to clap for them.

“I know it’s only been about eight months or so,” she continued,” but it just feels right.”

“Well now,” I said, “this calls for a real celebration. And here I was thinking just having you all alive again at the same time was reason enough to celebrate. Hell, let’s go bowling

tonight!”

“Then you approve?” Anabel asked, all smiles.

“Of course I do! I’ll pay for everything. You can have the wedding right here if you’d like.

Out in the Gazebo. I can fly Steph’s family in.”

Stephanie ran up to me and with all seriousness said, “Eric. Are you sure? You don’t know what this means to me.”

“Of course I’m sure. I want you both to be happy and it’s the least I can do for all you do for me.”

She hugged me and gave me a little peck on the cheek before saying, “I hope you don’t mind…but would you be my best man? That probably sounds stupid doesn’t it.”

“No, not at all. Of course I will”

* * *

The next day, Stephanie and Anabel came home with yet another surprise. They finally got that puppy she had been wanting. Everything had been so much like a whirlwind since she asked me at Christmas that we never got the time to do until now.

He was a cute little pup with floppy ears and a pretty brown and white coat with some black lines in there. Stephanie said that he was a collie and cocker spaniel mix.

“That’s great,” I said, as I knelt down to pet him, “what’s his name?”

Anabel happily replied, “I just decided a name for him in the car on the way home. His name is Mischief!”

“Mischief? Wow. Like we need some more of that around here,” I joked.

“Is it okay for him to sleep in the house?” she asked.

“Yeah of course. I trust you to train him and all that. Put a bed for him wherever you’d like. Just make sure to keep Arduwan fed so she doesn’t get any crazy ideas.”

* * *

That evening, while Arduwan and I were working out in the fitness room and Stephanie was giving our new furry friend his first bath, Anabel approached Emily in the drawing room where she was reading as per usual.

“Excuse me, Emily,” she asked, coyly, as she approached with fidgety hands.

“Yes, Anabel?” Emily replied, looking up from her book.

Anabel’s eyes zipped around the room. She was unable to make direct eye contact when she spoke. But she said, “We’ve been friends for about a year now. Is that right?”

“Sure. If you can look past the rocky start, I’d say that’s pretty accurate.”

“Agreed. Well, you see. Stephanie has a very large family and many friends. I have no family back in my world. And all of you are the only real friends I’ve had since I was a child.

What with the rebellion and everything. Well I was wondering…”

Emily closed her book completely as she was trying to get a read on what Anabel was asking.

She continued, “You see…I know you told me before, that marriage is the last bastion of an obsolete system and a relic of an antique patriarchal society, but…”

“Anabel, are you trying to ask me if I would be your bridesmaid?”

“Yes, if it wouldn’t bother you too much that is?”

Emily sat her book down and patted the seat next to her on the couch to entice Anabel to sit down. When she did, Emily told her, “Anabel, just because I don’t think marriage isn’t right for me, doesn’t mean I’m not happy that you found happiness in your own way. So of course I’d be your bridesmaid.”

Her eyes lit up and she said, “Really? You would?!”

“Yes. But only if you promise your colors aren’t pastel!”

She smiled and answered, “Don’t worry, you can wear whatever you want!” The two girls hugged it out and went about their evening.

* * *

As the week progressed, I started to get a clearer picture of how I would handle the Devil

King of Callist. I knew that we would have to be methodical about this and not rush into anything, lest we be obliterated like we were in the alternative timeline. I decided to wait until I got Wraith’s report so we better understood what we were dealing with. I don’t think we were in a rush anyway since the stone for Callist still wasn’t flashing rapidly. So we could afford to take it easy for a while and think things through.

I was walking downstairs from the library while Anabel was in the kitchen and the other girls were off doing their own thing when I heard the doorbell ring.

“I’ve got it!” I shouted to Anabel so she didn’t have to trouble herself.

When I answered the door I found a young woman, maybe seventeen or eighteen years old standing at the door with a suitcase. She had long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and what looked to be a school uniform on. Something about her seemed awfully familiar.

“Hello miss,” I greeted, “can I help you with something?” “Hi, Eric!” she exclaimed with youthful energy.

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid I don’t recognize you. I assume we’ve met someplace before?”

“Of course we have. It’s me. Your little cousin, Delilah!”

Arc 4 Part 2-2

“Eric, is everything okay?” shouted Anabel from the kitchen. She was checking in on me after hearing I had answered the door to this person claiming to be my cousin.

“Yeah, everything’s fine Annie,” I hollered back before stepping outside and closing the door behind me.

The young girl stood there in front of me smiling. I’m positive I had never seen her before in my life but she certainly looked familiar. Hearing the name Delilah immediately set off some alarm bells, but how could this be.

“I’m sorry, could you elaborate please?” I asked.

“Sure. I’m your long lost cousin, Delilah!”

That response simply perplexed me even more. I noted, “But I don’t have a long lost cousin Delilah.”

Her smile broadened and she closed her eyes gleefully before stating, “Teehee, well you do now!”

Okay, clearly this was the Goddess of Second Chances herself, Delilah, incarnated in a human form. But what they hell was she doing here on my doorstep.

“Alright, Delilah. I don’t mean to be rude. But could you possibly explain what’s going on, please?”

“Of course. After I aided you in your quest for a third time I was banished to a lower realm. This just happens to be a lower realm in comparison to the spirit realm for deities. Being that I am the Goddess of Second Chances and that I fulfilled my duties, I was allowed to choose what form I would incarnate as until I ascended once again to the heavens. Sooooo, I decided to do a little extra work when I rewrote the events of history.”

“What exactly did you do?” I dared to ask.

“Okay, this is the best part,” she giddily proclaimed, “in the old timeline, your Great Uncle Cornelius never had children. That’s why he left the estate and the family duty to your father. But he did have a romantic relationship with a former maid who worked here at this house later in life. So I simply edited this reality to where she bore a son for him but kept it a secret in fear that the child would one day have to pick up the Noble family burden.” “What?! That’s spooky as hell!” I declared.

“I know, it’s great isn’t it? Anyway, there was a lonely woman who just a week ago died in a tragic car accident in Cambridge. So I altered reality to where she wasn’t lonely anymore! She died with her husband, the lost son of Cornelius Noble, my father!” Her tone and cadence in her voice was awfully excited sounding given the subject matter.

“You’ve got to be kidding. Is something like that even possible?”

She crossed her arms and nodded her head saying, “Mhmm, it is when you have the power of the gods. So now that I’m an orphan, I came here to live with you, my long lost cousin!”

“Wait wait wait wait wait, let’s talk about this for a moment. First of all, why would you do something like this? Second, are you really the same goddess that helped me in Callist. Forgive me, but she seemed rather…mature, and wise. Her voice wasn’t so…”

“Cheerful?”

Well I was leaning towards annoying but we’ll settle for that.

“It’s okay, Eric, let me clear things up. I did it because like I told you back at the shrine, I really liked observing you and your friends. You all seem so happy together. Being a deity is surprisingly limiting and I wanted to experience this for myself. And to answer your second question, that’s correct. In my heavenly body, I was perfection personified. But in this body, I’m just a normal teenage girl. I’ve got hormones and emotions. I’m naive and I don’t have a fully developed brain. It’s wonderful!”

Now I’ve heard everything. An all knowing, all powerful goddess that’s happy she got turned into a dumb adolescent.

“Okay,” I said, “I see where you’re coming from with this. You want to experience life as a mortal because it’s not the same experience as it is in the heavens?”

“Right?”

“So you decided to rewrite my family tree, creepily mind you, so that you could come live here with me and the girls? Correct?”

“Thaaaat’s right!”

“Well, you can’t,” I said sternly, “I’ve got enough going on here and don’t forget, I still have to find a way to defeat the Devil King.”

Her face turned to shock for a moment before she said, “Just hang on a moment, Eric.

Before you get carried away, hear me out. I could’ve incarnated as another harem girl for you. But I saw that it would put me in direct confrontation with Emily, so I decided against it. The feelings I had and the bond I felt in this household was something I wanted to feel more intimately than even that.”

It was strange. She did look a lot like me. But something about how all this came to be just felt so…artificial to me.

“Delilah, you can’t possibly think that just because you moved a few things around in history that you somehow fit into place here do you?”

“I do! Maybe you’re not fully understanding. I’m not just here on paper. I’m actually an eighteen year old girl that has lived and went to school and has friends. Just because you’re experiencing all this at once doesn’t make me any less a part of this reality and I have been for a long time as far as everyone else is concerned.”

“Hmm, hold on a second. If you’ve been here this whole time then how come you don’t have an English accent? I mean, come on, Anabel sounds more British than you!”

She grinned and said, “That’s because I went to boarding school in the States. I had just come back here to start college when the accident happened.”

“Okay, but that still doesn’t mean that we’re somehow family.”

She paused for a moment and let me think before she smiled big again and continued with, “Eric, I want you to take a deep breath, exhale and look within for a moment. Do you feel that? That’s real. It’s the familial bond between us. The same blood courses through our veins. I really am your little cousin.”

It was true, I did feel some kind of connection to her but at the same time it gave me the willies. There’s just no way I could just let her move in here. I mean, we just got a dog. Did we really need another pet? A freakin teenager? But then again. Having a goddess here would be an excellent ally! Surely she could help me keep the evil at bay even if she was a fallen deity. “Okay,” I sighed, “you can stay.”

“Yay!” she expressed, as she leapt forward and squeezed me tightly with a bear hug.

“Alright, alright. Come on in and meet the girls.”

I started to help her inside with her suitcase before she added, “Oh! That’s right. There’s one more really important detail. You can’t tell anyone that I’m a goddess. You can know because you were present when I edited reality. But if anyone else finds out, then I will die. Or worse, it could mean the fabric of the universe gets torn apart!”

“Ah! Really?! If slaying devils wasn’t bad enough. Now I hold secrets that could annihilate us all!”

We stepped into the house and Anabel was just coming down the hall to see what was taking me so long. “Everything okay? Oh, who’s this, Eric?” she asked.

“Anabel, this is Delilah, my little cousin!”

“Oh, Anabel!” she said, as she rushed over to hold her hands, “Dear, sweet, innocent

Anabel.”

Umm, what the hell? Was she literally reciting things she’d heard me say to her in the past?

“Eric!” Anabel happily replied, “I didn’t know you had a little cousin?”

“Neither did I,” Emily said, as she came down the stairs. She had an air of suspicion in her voice.

“Oh, hey, Emily. Yeah, this is Delilah. She’s the granddaughter of my Great Uncle

Cornelius.”

“Funny. I was under the impression you had no other living relatives.”

Dammit, that’s right. Emily had read the journal as much as I had. We’d talked about my family history a lot too.

“You must be Emily!” Delilah noted, “I think it’s great that I’ll have someone my own age to hang out with. We can have slumber parties and do each other's hair!”

“Err, you know, I’m actually thirty. And what do you mean ‘have someone’?”

“Oh!” I interjected, “Delilah is moving in with us. You see, her parents just died and she’s got nowhere else to go while she’s in school.”

“Interesting. She seems to be taking it rather well. Wouldn’t you agree?” Goddammit, nothing slips by Detective Grimwood.

Just then, Arduwan came in from out back with Mischief. She had been playing with him while I was getting the scoop from Delilah.

“Aww, puppy! Eric, I didn’t know you had a puppy!” she said, as she knelt down to pet him. He seemed to really like her.

“His name’s Mischief,” Arduwan stated, “Stephanie says I should’ve been named that since I break stuff all the time.”

“Oh, and you are the lovely Arduwan I’ve heard so much about! Sorry I couldn’t have come to help sooner back at the…”

Delilah stopped. She almost spilled the beans about the battle with the black knights. Emily darted her eyes at me and then back to Delilah.

She saved herself by saying, “back on the patio. I know it’s no fun to scoop up little doggies poops.”

“That’s okay,” Arduwan replied, “I just let him go in the garden. Dogshit’s not the worst thing to get buried out there!”

I facepalmed.

Finally, Stephanie came downstairs. She was the last to be introduced to Delilah.

“Stephanie! It’s so good to meet you in person. I’ve heard so much about you. I think it’s wonderful how you and Eric get along so swimmingly despite your rough history together.”

Steph had an uneasy look on her face as she shook Delilah’s hand and said, “Yeah…it’s great isn’t it. Though I’m sure I know nearly as much about you as you do me. Wanna introduce us, Eric?”

“Ah, yes. Steph, this is my long lost cousin Delilah. She’s gonna be staying with us for a while. Anabel, do you mind getting the attic room ready for her.”

Stephanie interrupted, “oh, we can’t put her up there. It’s too small. Besides, all of Wraith’s stuff is up there. She needs her own space. Why doesn't she take my room? I’ve pretty well moved into Anabel's room now anyway.”

“Aww, thanks Stephanie. That’s awful kind of you,” I praised. Maybe things would work out with her here after all.

* * *

That night, just before turning in, there was a knock at my bedroom door. It was Emily. “Got a minute?” she asked, as she stepped inside.

“Only a minute this time?”

She shot me a look and said, “I’m not here for that. We need to talk,” before shutting the door behind her, “I’m not sure what the deal is with ‘cousin Delilah’ but something is off. I just had to wait an hour to get my hairbrush out of the bathroom and do you know what she asked me?”

“What?”

“She asked if she was supposed to use a whole tube of toothpaste everytime she brushed her teeth. And the bathroom was a fuckin mess too. Ugh,I don’t know what’s going on here. But I expect you to tell me, now!”

I moved in for a save by saying, “Whoa whoa, easy. It’s not that serious. She’s just dealt with some trauma lately. Her head’s probably not on straight. Just give it some time, okay?”

The look she gave me could shatter glass if she stared long enough. She told me, “you know I can’t be deceived, Eric. I will get to the bottom of this.” Then she abruptly turned around and left my room.

Arc 4 Part 2-3

The next couple of weeks were really interesting as I awaited Wraith’s report on the Devil

King and his army. I wasn’t gonna try to push it because I knew we needed to be cautious going into our conflict with him. Not only that, but we were teetering on conflict here at the house anyway. The only one not upset about Delilah’s presence was Arduwan, who was quite busy with Mischief and watching cartoons. She had also told me that during her visit back home that King Ardu had a solution to her Life Debt to me but that it could wait until next time Wraith and I were with her back at the village.

“Eric,” said Anabel, “could you do me a favor?”

“What’s that?”

“Could you please tell Delilah to stop taking snacks to her room? Every time I gather the laundry, I find crumbs everywhere.”

“Oh, Anabel. You don’t have to clean up after her. I’ll go right up and tell her to take care of it herself, okay?”

“Thank you.”

I went upstairs and to the end of the hall where Delilah had been staying. The room that formerly belonged to Stephanie before she had moved into Anabel’s room. I could hear music coming out of the room and the chatter of teenage girls. It was April but Delilah was already shopping for a sorority. Unfortunately for her, that wasn’t really a thing in the UK the way it was in the US. So she put together her own little band hell raisers.

I knocked on the door and got the response from Delilah, “Come on in.”

When I opened the door, I saw Delilah and three other girls about eighteen years old sitting on the bed. The window was cracked open and they were smoking cigarettes.

“Hey! Don’t smoke in here!” I scolded.

“It’s fine,” she said, “I’ve got the window open.”

“Doesn’t matter. It’ll stain the curtains and the sheets. Besides, you shouldn’t smoke anyway.”

“Why not? Emily does?” she copped back.

She had a point, but still. I said, “Emily’s an adult. You kids have your whole life ahead of you to decide if you wanna kill yourself slowly or not.” God I sounded ancient.

“Fine. We’ll put them out,” she said, as the four girls all put out their cigarettes on the window sill.

“Okay, but that wasn’t what I came here for. Anabel says to stop bringing food up here.

You’ve been making a mess and she works really hard to keep this place up.”

“Okay, I’ll do that too,” she said. It wasn’t a defiant tone or mocking. She was agreeable. But she just wanted me out of the room.

So I simply said, “Thanks,” and saw myself out. There was a barrage of laughter from inside as I left.

I went downstairs to where Emily was reading and said, “Do you believe this? They were smoking up there. You’ve been here more than a year and never tried smoking in the house.

We’ve got four chimneys up there right now!”

“Don’t care,” she said, without looking up from her book. She had been really cold to me since the night Delilah moved in.

“Hey. Don’t be like that. I’m trying to make it work for all of us ya know.” She didn’t look up from her book. She just gave the silent treatment.

“Emily. Please. Let me know what’s wrong.”

She huffed and finally acknowledged me. She said, “Ugh, I’m pissed, Eric. Something really weird is going on here and I don’t have enough pieces to figure it out. I know for a fact you lied to me last week when I asked you what the deal was.”

I breathed in deeply and let out a sigh before saying, “Emily. I know it’s bothering you and I wish I could tell you what it was. But I just can’t. Just trust me on this until the Callist operation is over. Then we’ll come back to it and try to figure something out. Okay?”

Maybe once the Devil king was dead I could get Delilah out of here.

“Alright. I’m sorry I’ve been so cold and irritable. I should believe you when you say there’s a reason you can’t say something. It’s just…that girl. She eats our food, she leaves a mess, she comes and goes at all hours of the night. You know, me and Stephanie didn’t see eye to eye when she first came here, but we sure as hell have gotten a lot closer thanks to Delilah being our common enemy.”

"Well that’s a positive, isn't it?”

She shot me a smile and said, “By the way. Steph’s on the phone in the library. She said she wanted to talk to you when you got a chance.”

“Okay, I’ll go see what other Delilah fire needs put out.”

I quietly went into the library so as to not disturb her phone call but she was hanging up right as I came in anyway.

“Emily said you wanted to talk to me?”

She turned after hanging the phone up and said, “Yeah, Eric. I’m just stressed.”

“Is it a Delilah thing?”

“Oh, psshh, no. I mean, I’m stressed about that too. But that’s not it.”

I closed the door behind me and approached her, asking, “What can I do to help?”

She told me, “Okay, so I just got off the phone with my mom. I finally told her I was getting married to a chick and she took it a lot better than I thought. At first she thought I was getting married to you since I had moved here with you. But I explained to her that we were just friends still and that you were basically my boss. She’s gonna break the news about Anabel to the rest of my family, but I think that’ll be okay.”

“Okay, so what’s the problem?”

She sighed and continued, “It’s just. I don’t know. Should I wear a dress, should I wear a suit? Would that make me look butch? There’s a whole bunch of stuff with this that I hadn’t really thought about before…you know, taking the plunge.”

“Hey, you wear whatever it is you want to wear. You’re in safe company here and I’m not gonna let anyone belittle either of you if they come here as my guests.”

She smiled and wrapped her arms around my neck. As she choked back a tear she said, “Thanks, Eric. I can always count on you.” But when she broke away she added, “That’s not all. I was making arrangements for that paperwork you wanted me to get taken care of and I think I found someone useful.”

She was referring to the power of attorney and executor of estate transfer. Just as my father had done with Higgins, I wanted to do with Stephanie. She was my most trusted friend and the only one in the house with real solid foundational knowledge of the world. If something happened to me, I’d be leaving it up to her to carry things forward and find a successor since I didn’t have children of my own. Arduwan would probably go back to Callist but I wanted to ensure Stephanie had the ability to take care of Anabel and Emily without any problems.

“So whatcha got?” I asked.

She held up a printout of a lawyer she found and explained, “Arthur Edwards, fresh out of law school, University of Birmingham. He’s up to his neck in student loans, gambling debts, and a little birdie found out he cheated on his Bar exam by bribing the common law barrister of his jurisdiction. We can sweep in, pay his debts, and ransom his freedom in exchange for some favors in the event we run into any more legal trouble. No magic required.”

“Unbelievable. You’d make Higgins proud. How’d you find a little birdie though?”

She hesitated and then said with a smile, “Okay, it was Emily. I had her look into the guy when I ran a check on lawyers in the UK with the most student debt.”

“Ha! So you two really are getting along better,” I laughed.

* * *

That evening, we decided to have a come to Jesus moment with Delilah about her behavior. She was getting ready to go out for the night but I insisted she talk with us in the drawing room.

“What’s everybody looking so serious for?” she questioned.

“Delilah, it’s about your behavior. We took you in and made you a part of this household under the assumption that you be respectful and do your part.”

She replied in a really dramatic tone with, “But I am really respectful. I always thank Anabel for the food and doing my laundry. And I do my best to play with Mischief when everyone else is busy doing something.”

“I’m afraid that’s not what we mean, dear,” Stephanie said.

“Well, then what’re you guys talking about?”

Emily chimed in with, “What we’re saying is, that Eric’s gonna send you back to where you came from if you don’t shape up.”

Delilah looked at me with a horrified expression on her face and said, “Oh my god. You told them!” She then grabbed her neck and started dramatically pretending to choke as she fell to her knees behind the couch and made gagging noises.

Everyone in the room was confused but I just sighed and said, “No, I didn’t tell them.

Stop it! I know you’re faking it.”

“Tell us what, Eric?” said Arduwan, who had Mischief on her lap while Anabel sat near her petting him.

Delilah popped up from behind the couch with a shocked expression and said, “Wait!

You can’t!”

“It’s too late Delilah. I know you weren’t serious about that whole bit about the universe getting destroyed if they found out you were a goddess.”

Emily’s eyes lit up. The memories came flooding back to her. She said, “Wait a minute.

That's right. That Goddess of Second Chances that revived Stephanie and undid the Devil King’s curse name was Delilah. Is this here? How did I not piece this together before?”

I sighed a deep and regretful sigh before explaining, “Because I used a Forget spell on you so you wouldn’t remember. She told me she’d die or the world would end if anyone found out. But she was just being immature.”

“I was not! I just wanted everyone to treat me like normal so I could get an authentic mortal experience here.”

“Hold up!” Emily intervened, “You used Forget spells on all of us? Isn’t that incredibly risky since you’d forget four extremely important things by doing so?”

“Well, actually,” I confessed, “I only used one. Just on you because I knew you’d figure out the truth.”

“What?!” she barked, angrily.

“Look at it from my point of view. Stephanie was dead, Anabel wasn’t there, Arduwan was…Arduwan. You were the only one that knew Apollo was beseeching her by name. For the record, I was going to cast another one on Wraith when he got here, but that hadn’t happened

yet.”

Emily got up from her seat and marched right past me up to her room. I tried to grab her by the arm as she went by but she flung it upwards to avoid me. “This is your fault,” I said to Delilah as I went up after her.

When I got upstairs, Emily was face down on her bed crying her eyes out. She rarely expressed emotion in this way. I came into the room and flicked the lightswitch on. The bulbs had been replaced with black light bulbs, so I don’t know why I expected it to brighten the room up.

“Why don’t you just go cast Forget on yourself to forget all about me?” she said when she noticed me there.

“Emily, what was I supposed to do? She told me it would be the end of us all if anyone learned she was a goddess. If anything, it’s a compliment that I knew you’d figure it out without the intervention of magic.”

She sniffled a little and then sat upright and said, “No, you’re right. I’ve just been on edge, waiting to snap for a while now.”

“Why?” I asked, as I sat on the bed next to her.

“Because. I can feel my usefulness evaporating.”

“What? How?”

“Because everyone else has a permanent role but me these days. Anabel keeps this house going. Stephanie is getting control of the estate…rightfully so, by the way. She’s good at it. Arduwan fights heroically by your side. But ever since Brasshaven, there’s been nothing I could do to help. I couldn’t do anything to prevent the hell you went through under that curse either. Then you moved in this girl out of nowhere, saying she was your cousin, and she got away with everything with only a mild scolding. I felt so left out. I know I said I should’ve trusted you that you had your reasons for keeping it from me and as it turns out, you did. But I still just feel like my usefulness has run its course.”

“That’s not true at all! Stephanie told me earlier that you got the scoop on that lawyer. No one else here could’ve done that.”

She sniffled a little more and forced a smile then said, “That’s true.”

“Emily, no one can replace you.”

She leaned her head on my shoulder as I put my arm around her. We were then interrupted by someone in the doorway. It was Delilah. She asked, “Eric, could I talk to Emily alone for a minute?”

I looked at Emily and she nodded, so I got up and left the two of them alone.

“Emily, I’m sorry I tricked Eric into hiding my identity for no reason. It’s my fault you got upset with him.”

“No, not totally. My self esteem is partially to blame.”

“I want to tell you something,” Delilah said, with a seriousness Emily had not yet heard from her, “This is what I told Eric on the battlefield in Callist. When Apollo summoned me to revive Stephanie, I took an interest in everyone who lived in this Mansion. I was fascinated by all of you. For millennia, the gods have enjoyed watching mortals play their lives out. But something was different about all of you for me. I wanted to experience it myself. I thought if I could just insert myself into the house but not have you all know that I was a goddess, then I

could feel the way all of you did. But I was wrong. Because of my deception, I drove a rift between you. Please forgive me.”

“I do,” Emily said, “I forgive you. But not because of what you just told me. I forgive you because you’re the Goddess of Second Chances and you gave Stephanie and Eric one. So you deserve one too.”

Arc 4 Part 2-4

Despite the occasional brattines, the next few days were better with Delilah in the house.

The other girls had come to accept her and she went back to trying to live her life even with people knowing she was a goddess incarnate.

Finally, the day came where Wraith returned from Callist with information for me about the Devil King, his army, and his domain. When I brought him upstairs, he saw Delilah walk by. “Who’s the new girl?” he casually noted.

“Oh, that? That’s my little cousin Delilah.”

“You don’t have a little cousin Delilah.”

“I know that!” I exclaimed, “It’s a long story. I’ll explain it over lunch.”

As we sat down to eat, I walked Wraith through all of the events that happened in the other timeline and brought him up to speed on the Delilah situation. In addition to that, I informed him about Stephanie and Anabel’s wedding and told him that he was invited if he promised to behave himself. Regardless, I told him that any actions we took directly against the Devil King, I wanted to wait to do until after the wedding, just in case something bad were to happen to me.

“Okay, so what did you find out?” I asked.

“A lot! Take a look at this,” he spread a parchment map across the dining room table of regions in Callist beyond the continent that I knew.

“See here? This is the Devil King’s domain. His armies are currently on the march in these regions here,” he pointed to a location near where we had been traveling in the other timeline. He continued, “The Devil King had four generals prior to your interference. Davol, whom he banished for failure to the desert near the Barbarian Lands, Apollo, who defected.

Then there’s two others. The commander of his shock troopers, the Black Knights, goes only by the name Beast Master.”

“I know them! That’s the one who killed you in the other timeline!”

“Well, they’re bad dudes. Supposedly they’re modified with Orc blood and other concoctions of monsters. But the last general is in charge of defending the Devil King’s borders. Her name is Priscilla. She’s a half demon. Her mother was a succubus and her father was a

Human Warlord. She’s not as tough as Beast Master but she’s cunning. Also worthy of note, the Devil King’s real name is Shagrath. He’s a magic user but he’s supposed to be a formidable fighter as well. Supposedly he modified himself with Ogre blood.”

“But he’s a human?”

“Used to be. His past is a little shadowy though. No one knows where he came from but they know he replaced another Devil King a long time ago that was killed by another world walker. Presumably one of your ancestors.”

“Well, just the same, I plan on defeating one as well,” I assured.

“So there you have it. We know who they have, what they have, and where we’re most likely to find them. With the proper preparations, we can organize an assault of our own against him.”

I nodded in agreement and added, “Yeah, if we could just find that Tome of Wisdom that the Oracle told me about.”

Wraith furrowed his brows and scratched his chin as he said, “Hmm, Tome of Wisdom?”

“What? What about it? You reacted that way before when you first heard about it from the Oracle. Do you know where it is?”

“It’s a long shot, but I have an idea.”

Wraith led me upstairs to the attic room where he was storing all his old stuff. Sure enough, he pulled out a tabletop roleplaying supplement called The Tome of Wisdom. We flipped through it. There was an entire section on making magic items and weapons.

“Oh my god!” I expressed, “Let’s go ahead and gather the others. But we gotta show this

to Tolly!”

* * *

I decided to hold an emergency meeting in the drawing room. Everyone was present. It was time to discuss what our course of action would be to defeat the Devil of Callist. The first thing I did was show the girls the Tome of Wisdom and explained how the Oracle of Vale foresaw that it would help me find a tool that would kill Shagrath the Devil King. The only question was, which one?

Arduwan sat flipping through the book as we all talked about. She said, “if you enchanted my sword, we wouldn’t have to do anything different. I could just fight the Devil King like any other foe.”

“The bigger problem is going to be getting close enough to the king in the first place,” I said, “We can worry about what item is best once I talk to Tolly. But now matter what we choose, we still have two generals that aren’t just gonna let one of us walk right up and kill their master.”

“Is there some way to make, like, a magic barrier or something that makes you impervious to attack?” Emily asked, “If you could just make your way to his castle and no one could touch you that would be best.”

“True!” Wraith replied, “Davol did have that barrier when we faced him. But the flaw with it was that it only protected the side he was facing. Remember,I was able to stab him by jumping down from behind.”

They both raised a good point so I added, “Yes. A barrier like that one was advanced magic. I could probably temporarily make something like that. Not powerful enough to walk across multiple continents with though. Tolly told me that barriers that totally protected you from all but the most powerful of threats could only be conjured by divine magic, which he knew little about.”

“So you’d need a cleric?” Emily asked.

“Right. Or help from a deity.”

There was an awkward pause before everyone slowly made a glance at Delilah, who had been quiet until now. Finally, Emily said, “Well, Delilah is a goddess isn’t she? Can’t she cast some kind of divine blessing or something?”

“Come to think of it. That’s a great idea!” I enthusiastically concurred.

“Umm, sorry there’s just one problem with this,” Delilah said, as she laughed nervously, “My divine powers don’t work in the lower realms. You see, I’ve been banished from my divinity until I pay off my karmic debt for helping you the first three times. Helping you again wouldn’t be possible.”

“You what?!” I shouted. I had taken her in under the assumption that having a goddess living here would be of some help. I knew she wasn’t all powerful anymore but I thought surely something had carried over.

She waved her arms defensively and said, “I can still help you with my knowledge! I’ve retained all of that. It’s just, I don’t have any powers anymore. I’m sorry.”

I was a little perturbed about this since she certainly had the power to eat all the food in the house. But I decided to go easy on her and said, “Well, it is what it is. No point in us dwelling on it. We’d just have to think of something else.” I turned towards Stephanie and Anabel and said, “I don’t plan on taking any big actions until after your wedding. So I’m going to use the time until then to get things ready so we don’t make some hasty big decision.”

Both of them smiled at me and Stephanie said, “Then maybe the best thing for you to do right now is go find Tolly and get that weapon made. Since he knows that world better than any of you he may have some ideas about how best to approach this matter.”

“Right!” Arduwan interjected, “And we can go to my village and see what my father and the other Barbarians can do to help out!”

That settled it. Arduwan, Wraith, and I would go into Callist immediately and talk to all of our allies to see if we could rally together against the Devil King before he commenced his invasion. If we could get enough support to take on his army then I’m certain my crew and I could get close enough to him to take him out. Once a plan was in motion, we’d come back home long enough to spend some quality time with the girls and have the wedding before pulling the trigger.

* * *

Hours later, I found myself at the edge of Arduwan’s village. Before me was King Ardu and over a hundred barbarians all kneeling at once. Apparently, because they had sworn a life debt to me in the other timeline, it had carried over to this one and they too remembered everything that had happened.

“Alright, alright. Everybody can stand up. I’m glad you’re on my side though. Can we count on you to help us mount an assault against the Devil King?”

“Of course, Sir Noble,” said King Ardu, “We barbarians shall fight to the last man in your honor.”

“Your majesty!” Someone from the crowd interrupted, “Why do you pledge yourself to an

outsider?”

It was Throd, the barbarian Chieftain who helped lead the expedition to fight the Devil King in the other timeline. Why was he acting so different?

“Bow your head boy!” the King insisted, “Do you not remember the life debt you have sworn to this man?”

Throd gave a disgusted expression and said, “I have sworn no such oath!”

What? How could this be? He was one of the chiefs Ardu had gathered after I awoke the village from their curse of stone in the other timeline. Ardu hand picked him to help cross into the Devil King’s domain and attempt to destroy him back then. He gave his life for me in the others in an attempt to scout ahead where the Black Knights had been. What could have changed? But then it all came to me. The pieces fell together. Ardu said that Throd had recently replaced his father as chief of their clan when he had been killed by a spy of the Devil King’s. Throd claimed to have discovered and killed the spy. Also, when Throd went ahead to investigate who had burned that village in the continent to the west of us, he never returned. We had assumed he was killed, but never saw his body. In fact, when we found ourselves attacked by the knights, it was almost as if it was a trap. They had been advancing on us from the front as well as from behind. It all made sense…Throd was the spy!

Arduwan stopped forward and said, “Throd! How could you? Do you not remember fighting and dying in battle at Sir Noble’s side?”

Throd looked around confused. It was clear to him that everyone around him with the exception of Wraith but including me and King Ardu, carried the memories from the other timeline. In a panicked state, Throd took off running towards his horse.

“Seize him!” King Ardu ordered.

Throd shoved two pursuing barbarians down just before he got to his horse. Arduwan let out her infamous Call of the Wild, and summoned a horse of her own. Her and I quickly mounted the steed and went in pursuit of Throd.

“I don’t understand? Why is Throd doing this?” Arduwan asked me, while spurring the horse forward.

I held onto her tightly as we picked up speed and said, “Throd doesn’t remember anything because he never swore a life debt to me like the others. I believe he’s a spy of the Devil King. I don’t have time to explain. But we can’t let him get away or our plan will be exploited.”

Throd drove his horse away from the village, deeper into the Barbarian Lands. Slowly but surely, we began to catch up to him.

“Arduwan,” I said, “I’m going to try and hit him with an arrow. Try and maintain an even pace for a minute.”

With that, I grabbed my bow and an arrow and reached one arm around Arduwan’s neck to take aim. Once I had a clear shot of Throd, I let loose and struck him in the shoulder. He fell off of his mount and the horse ran off into the wilderness.

Arduwan began to slow our horse down and I prepared to dismount. By the time I got on solid ground, Throd was already back to his feet and ran into me with a clothesline attack before I could even draw my sword. Arduwan had not yet come to a complete stop.

I was hurt, bad. A full swing arm across the chest from a barbarian was devastating, no matter how tough I had gotten. I couldn’t beat Arduwan in our little wrestling matches back home, much less take the blunt force of an attack like that and be able to stand afterwards.

Throd stood over me and started to stomp down at my head. I managed to muster up just enough strength to roll out of the way just in time. Thankfully, by now, Arduwan had dismounted and drew her sword. Just as she moved to engage with Throd, he broke the arrow off at the shoulder, leaving the arrowhead stuck inside. He drew his own sword and proceeded to fight with her. The battle was fierce. Arduwan was the toughest of the barbarians from what I had seen up until now, but Throd appeared to be no slouch. The wound I gave him from the arrow seemed to not slow him at all.

By the time I had caught my breath and made it to my feet, Throd had delivered a debilitating blow to Arduwan by cutting her left thigh. She fell to one knee and dropped her sword in pain. Throd held up his sword and started to move towards her to finish her off.

“Splash!” I shouted, casting a bucket full over water on the ground right in front of Throd’s feet. “Chill!” I followed it with, as I touched the ground and froze the puddle of water. This sent Throd tumbling backwards as if he was on roller skates. I knew I didn’t have much time before he would get back up so I held my hands above my head and used what little MP I

had left by casting, “Fireball!” And threw my hands downward, causing a massive blaze to engulf Throd’s horizontal body.

“Ahhhh!!!!” He screamed out in pain. He wasn’t dead, but he definitely wasn’t in good shape.

I was pretty depleted of magic, but I managed to stumble over to his burning body and drove my sword down into his chest before collapsing onto the ground next to him.

I woke up a few minutes later to Arduwan helping me up. Her leg was pretty badly injured, so once I was up on my feet, I had to help her more than she could help me. She wrapped her arm around my neck and used my body as a crutch as we slowly hobbled back to her village.

Arc 4 Part 2-5

On our way back to Arduwan’s village, Wraith and several other barbarians found us.

They were able to carry Arduwan the rest of the way so that I could worry about my own wounds, which to be fair were superficial.

King Ardu approached me and slapped me on the back, nearly winding me once more, but declared, “Sir Noble! Not only have you exposed a traitor within our midst, but you have disposed of him and kept my daughter safe. How can we…or…how can she ever repay you?”

This guy really wanted me to bone Arduwan!

“About that your majesty. I wish to release Arduwan from her life debt. She had said during her most recent visit that you may have a way, but didn’t tell me the details until we came here.”

“Ah yes. Traditionally, the only way to release a barbarian from their life debt is through death or by an overwhelming service to the one they are indebted to. But I understand, that can be rather vague.”

“Yes, it is. Arduwan has tried to keep tally of how many times she has saved my life, but she has trouble and loses count.”

“Umm, yes, I too have difficulty with double digits. Once all fingers are used, it becomes tricky,” said the king.

I held back a snicker and continued to ask, “so you have found an alternative way to release her?”

The king and I continued walking and talking in private away from the others. He answered, “Why yes. Arduwan has expressed to me that she wishes to court your friend Sir Wraith. Personally, I don’t see what it is she sees in him that you don’t already provide for her.

But I have come up with a solution.”

Finally, someone else in this world who sees Wraith for who he is. Breath of fresh air considering that’s how everyone sees him in our world. “So what did you have in mind?”

* * *

The next morning, Wraith and I gathered on the edge of town with the barbarians.

Arduwan’s leg was pretty badly damaged but she was bandaged up and able to stand. King Ardu took a large piece of white chalk and walked out to a big open area. He pointed the chalk downward and started to draw a straight line. After about sixty or so feet, he stopped, turned, and drew in the other direction. He continued until a large room sized rectangle was drawn on the ground.

The king cleared his throat and said, “In order for the transfer of a life debt to occur, the one who wishes to receive the debt must do combat with the one who currently holds the debt. The two will do battle until one is dead or knocked out of the arena. If the possessor of the life debt wins, then he shall have it until his death. However, should the challenger win, he shall receive the life debt himself until it is fulfilled.”

Wow. So this was it, huh? Wraith and I were going to do battle with one another. To be honest, if you had told me this after the fight with Davol, I would’ve thought for sure I’d lose. Wraith was just too damned skilled and I was a fresh fish when it came to fighting back then. However, that was nearly a year ago and we’d both grown quite a bit. Although, with my magic power, I believe I might have the edge. But did either of us really have the heart in this fight to truly take each other on?

“Alright, Eric,” Wraith said, flashing his Scimitar in my direction, “just because we’ve been friends for two decades, don’t think I’m gonna go easy on you when Lady Arduwan’s on the line. Maybe you can’t handle a woman like that. But I sure as hell want her!”

Well that answers that.

“No weapons allowed,” snorted the king, prompting Wraith to hand off his sword and daggers to a nearby barbarian.

The two of us stepped into the chalk rectangle. We stood at opposite ends from each other. It was quiet, like an old western showdown at high noon. After a moment, the king signaled for the fight to begin. Wraith sped off towards me at a full sprint. I held my guard and awaited his attack. Just as he reached my end of the rectangle, he extended his fist and landed a punch on my face. I took the hit directly and voluntarily tossed myself backwards out of the rectangle. The fight was over. I knew what it meant for both of them and I wanted them to be happy.

Arduwan’s face lit up. Wraith stood there with his fist extended outward and a look of shock. The other barbarians cheered but were soon brought back to silence.

“Wait!” announced the king, “one factor has not yet been considered. This contest was formulated in regards to Princess Arduwan’s original life debt to Sir Noble. He garnered it as payment for his aid to her in helping destroy the Sorcerer Davol and restoring the villagers to normal from their stone curse. However…”

Everyone waited in silence, eager for him to finish.

“In light of yesterday’s treachery, Arduwan has incurred a new life debt to Sir Noble for saving her life from death at the hands of Throd.”

Commotion erupted from the other barbarians. A fellow chieftain asked, “But how can she have two life debts to two different outsiders at once?”

“She cannot,” said the king, inciting more commotion.

I decided to interject, “Hey, that’s alright. I don’t need my life debt anymore. We can just stack that one over onto Wraith too. Afterall, it happened before this contest anyway.”

“It is not possible,” the king replied, “I had not considered it in the transfer until after Sir

Noble was tossed from the arena.”

Dammit. Was this just barbarian idiocy or was he calculating a way to keep me into the fold with Arduwan since all the other barbarians were also indebted to me?!

Arduwan ran up to his side and said, “Father, what should I do?! I wish to court and serve Sir Wraith but I also feel obligated to Eric. The truth is, he’s my friend!”

“Not to worry my daughter. There is one more wise than all of us who can determine a solution to this dilemma.”

A dilemma that could've been avoided if he had just thought his through before drawing the rectangle.

“Who?” Arduwan asked.

The king proclaimed, “We shall beseech Fraz, the God of all Barbarians. Surely his infinite wisdom concerning barbarian affairs can help us.”

* * *

That evening, the barbarians took us to a large altar they had set up outside of town.

Wooden stairs led up to the top of a small stone mesa where giant fires billowed on either side in reverence to the god Fraz. Up above, the night sky was littered with a field of stars as we heard the banging of drums and the chants of zealous barbarians.

Down below, in front of the altar, the three of us stood awaiting an answer from the heavens. Arduwan explained to us, “Fraz is the patriarch to nearly all modern barbarians. Centuries ago, he went on many great adventures and spread his seed across the land, producing many descendents. It’s said that his reward for his heroism was that he was granted an immortal heavenly body. Thus ascending him to godhood.”

“Are we sure he’ll answer?” I asked, “And even if he does, do you think he’ll have a solution to the life debt problem?”

“Of course,” she said, “Fraz was the originator of the life debt. It was he who set the

rules.”

Ah, I see. So that’s who’s responsible for this vaguely guided conundrum.

As the night went on, the drums sounded off and the barbarians danced and sang praises to Fraz. I was beginning to think that nothing would happen until suddenly, we all felt a presence. The chants and the drumming stopped and all fell silent. Only the crackle of the large fires on the mesa could be heard. All of us on the ground below looked upwards towards the altar. That presence had the same sensation as the first two times I encountered Delilah when she was still a true blue goddess.

Next, we heard a thundering voice from above. It was deep, almost like a stereotypical bodybuilder's voice. It said, “Vy have you beseeged me, Fraz, God of all Barbarian kind?” Very odd. He sounded almost like he had a German accent…or maybe even Austrian.

King Ardu raised his hands to the sky and said, “Almighty Fraz, I, your descendent, King

Ardu seek your divine wisdom in solving a most peculiar dilemma.”

There was a moment's pause before the voice answered, “Go ahead my son, I yam open to your request.”

“Thank you, my lord. It’s a matter of clarity on the Barbarian Life Debt. My daughter has sworn a life debt to an outsider, per the code of our people. But the bearer of her debt wishes to pass it to another. However, she has since incurred yet another qualifier of a life debt to him.”

Well, I wouldn’t say since, considering that happened before Wraith and I even had the contest.

“Ah, I see. Bring forth ze man who she has zworn ze life debt to.”

I took a step forward and said, “It is I, Eric Noble, your divine majesty.”

“Noble you say?” asked Fraz, “Mein Gott, I should have known. You are the dezendent

Edvard Noble. He vas your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, Grand Fahzer. He and I vent on many adventures togezer. In fact, he vas inspiration for ze life debt in ze virst place.”

Really? Edward Noble, huh? Wow. This must’ve been in the middle ages he was referring to. Long before the mansion was even built.

“I see. Well, that’s good to know. I’m glad we were on the same side. My father said when he adventured in Callist, the barbarians were hostile to him.”

“Ja, I was most dizpleazed in zer decisions in those days. Zey had become ze byad guys and had vallen out of my favor.”

“Forgive us, my lord,” said Ardu, as he bowed his head in disgrace.

“Zont worry, for I have forgiven you. But to your point. Ze anzwer is really quite simple. In order for Prinzess Arduwan to abzolve her life debt to Eric and begin her one to ze one called Wraith, she must devote herself to a zingle tazk that Eric azigns to her and complete it.”

“Assign her a specific task?” I questioned.

“Ja, you vish to vanguizh ze Devil King, correct?”

“That’s right.”

“Zen Arduwan must accompany you on ziz journey and see through to ze end that you

accomplish this tazk.”

“Wow. That’s actually really simple. Thank you, your grace,” I acknowledged.

The voice began to fade off into the night sky as he said, “No problem-o. Ze Almighty

Fraz has zpoken and my vord iz fy-nal…NYAAAAAHHHHHH!!! I’ll be baaaaack!”

I turned towards Arduwan and said, “Well, how bout it? If you can complete this task with me, you’re free to go.”

She reached over and hugged me and said, “Oh, Eric! Thank you so much! I’ll follow you to the edge of the universe if it means accomplishing your goal.”

I had to use my own arms as a wedge to keep her from suffocating me, but I did appreciate the gesture.

Arc 4 Part 2-6

So after the barbarian debacle, Wraith and I set out toward the mountains in the west to find Tolly. I instructed Arduwan to stay in her village and heal for the time being since we didn’t have any potions and didn’t want to push her to her limits unnecessarily.

When we arrived at Tolly’s cabin, he came outside immediately and said, “So! Ye finally came back fer more trainin have ya?”

Hesitantly, I replied, “Well, no, actually. You see. I found this book. Or rather, Wraith had this book and the Oracle of Vale told me that it could help me defeat The Devil King.”

“Defeat the Devil King! Have ya gone mad? I taught ya magic to make a difference in the world. Not lead yourself to an early grave!”

“Yes…but you see. I have good reason to believe I can do it. You see, Shagrath found out I had killed one of his generals and caused another to lay down his arms. So he placed a curse on me. He sees me as a threat. I’ve since unraveled the curse and I don’t believe he’s aware I’m planning something now since the conditions of the curse were undone. The Oracle seems to think I have a good shot at stopping him too. At least, when he tried to peer into my destiny he saw that this book would help. Could you take a look at it?”

“Aye,” said the red headed mage warrior, as he took the tome from me. He flipped through its pages for a moment and his curiosity seemed piqued. Finally, he handed it back and said, “If you’re asking for me to help you with these items, I can oblige. But I’ll warn ya, many of them require a divine blessing to complete or they won’t work. I already told ya, I don’t deal in divine magic. That be fer clerics.”

“Right. I thought as much. But it requires a conventional mage to start the process right?”

“That’s correct. It’s a two fold process to make an enchanted weapon. First through traditional alchemy and then with divine blessings.”

“That’s fine. I’ll take all the help I can get. My plan is to make a divine weapon and gather all the allies I can get to mount an offensive against the Devil King so great that I can get close enough to him to strike him down.”

“That’s awful noble of ya Mr. Noble. I’ll do what I can. Have ye decided which item ya want?”

I opened the Tome of Wisdom up and flipped through to the divine weapons section and told him, “I’ve been looking over the book a lot the past few days and I’m kinda torn. On one hand, I could enchant a sword and take the Devil King on directly. Arduwan even suggested doing it, but I couldn’t ask her to do that. The problem is, I’m only a mildly proficient swordsman myself. There's other items, like the Jar of Entrapment. But that requires me to get really close to the king in order to capture him. So the more practical option is this… ”

I pointed to a picture of a golden arrow called The Divine Arrow. As long as the target is within sight of the archer, meaning, within normal range with a bow, then the arrow delivers a fatal blow, guaranteed. I had gotten a lot better with a bow since I first started training with Higgins. Back then, I couldn’t hit anywhere close to something over one hundred yards. But now I could easily bullseye something within a hundred and fifty yards.

“Hmm, I see,” said Tolly, stroking his beard, “frankincense, myrrh, gold, honey, lemon juice. I have all of these components right here in the house. You’ll just have to obtain your own holy water to christen the arrow with divinity.”

“Of course! I’d really appreciate it.”

And with that, Tolly got to work. He took a normal arrow of mine that was made of wood with a stone arrowhead. We watched him imbue the ingredients with magic power and encase them in a thin layer of gold plating that gave the arrow a dull yellow color. Towards the end of the process he said, “This arrow has been imbued with my magic power but you need to imbue it with a little of your own so it will sync to you when you use it.”

I nodded and held my hands over the nearly complete arrow and pushed forward some MP into it. Afterwards, I thanked him and told him we’d be on our to seek more allies. But he stopped us from leaving.

“Wait, Eric. I’ll be comin with ya.”

“Really?! But it’s not your fight, Master Tolly.”

“True be that may,” he said, “but eventually the forces of evil will once again rampage over this land and I’ll do what I must to help stop it. Besides, I think it’s high time I showed you a little more advanced magic.” He grinned.

Outside of the cabin, he took a small pail of water and said an incantation over it. When he was finished, he sloshed the water all over the ground and said, “This is a form of transportation magic. Teleportation is difficult and takes a lot of magic power. And it’s nearly impossible to take more than one or two people with you. However, this magic creates a direct line of travel from one point to another. When you lay down one point of entry, it takes you to a previous set point of entry. So you can only create two points at a time. Go ahead. Step on the puddle and see where it leads.”

The three of us each step onto the puddle Tolly threw down. We were immediately transported to a forest on flat land from the mountain area where Tolly’s cabin was.

“Hey, I recognize this,” said Wraith, “we’re right outside of Vale!”

“That’s correct, Mr. Wraith. I’ve kept an entrypoint here for many years in case I ever needed to make my way back quickly.”

“But what are we doing in Vale?” I inquired.

Tolly smiled at the two of us and said, “We’re going to speak to the King of Vale.”

* * *

“With all due respect, Mr. McClatchy, the Kingdom of Vale does not wish to invite conflict with the Devil King,” said Herald, the King of Vale. He was an aging little fat man who had long enjoyed the fruits of Vale’s economic power. It was to people like Tolly who had ensured Vale’s place in the world, otherwise, we would not even be afforded this audience with him.

Tolly replied, “But the time will come where a conflict with Shagrath will be inevitable. It is best we take proper precautions now, while his forces are engaged in other lands.”

I decided to butt in by saying, “He’s right, your excellency. You didn’t realize but one of the Devil King’s generals was amassing an army of orcs just a few months ago across the sea.

Without the Tower of Mardur’s beacon in place, you had no way of knowing they were coming. Thankfully, we were able to thwart them before they launched an invasion.”

“And who might you be, young man?” the king asked, mockingly.

“This is Eric, a student of mine. He has great potential and has already defeated two of the Devil King’s generals. With your help, I’m certain he can defeat two more,” Tolly praised.

“Sir Tolly,” the king continued, “I have great admiration for you and do not take your words lightly, but the fact remains. Vale does not wish to engage in conflict with the Devil King nor any other nation. Besides, if we were to offer assistance and you were to fail, then Vale would become a target and we’d need every soldier we have to defend our borders.”

This didn’t seem like it was going to get us anywhere. I was about to give up when

Wraith chimed in, “Cowards. You hope that the other nations of the world can whittle down the Devil King’s forces so that there’s not enough remaining to be much of a bother to your kingdom.”

The king perked up and asked, “And you are?”

“I am the one who is known as the Moonlight Knight of the Desert. The phantom savior, walker of worlds, lord of the shadows, and lover of lasses. I am Sir Wraith, your highness,” he said, with bravado as he bowed.

I was embarrassed as everyone looked on and an awkward silence filled the air. Finally, the king replied, “Well now…I suppose we could afford a small task force to investigate the Devil King’s dealings.”

* * *

“Okay, so Herald is giving us twenty five knights to battle the Devil King. It’s not much, but it’s something,” I stated, “We have the three of us plus Arduwan and the barbarians, which number at least in the hundreds. If we can find a way to rustle up a couple hundred more, we might be able to pull this thing off.”

We were walking through the streets of Vale and weighing our options. We didn’t get what we had hoped, but we had twenty five more men than we thought we’d have before talking to Tolly. Twenty six if you included him. Admittedly, I was relieved when he offered to help.

“Let’s go to a tavern and find someone from the Thieves Guild,” Wraith said, “I’ll put out a request for mercenaries through them. Also, I’m gonna have a letter sent to the dwarves and ask them to help. You said that the Devil King was making moves to the far west in the other timeline, that would put them in danger first in this land.”

“Right,” I concurred, “and that was over a year ago. Granted it was several weeks of travel by horseback but they could very well have advanced much closer by now. There’s no telling what the Devil King is up to. He’s probably slowed his roll a little bit with the loss of Apollo though.”

“Gentleman,” said Tolly, as he stopped in the middle of the street, “this is where we part ways for the time being.”

“Why?”

“Because you clearly need to continue gathering allies and making plans on yer own before making a serious move. Plus ya still need to enchant that arrow somehow. I’m going to do some reconnaissance myself and will meet ya when the time is right. Eric, this is your campaign. When should we prepare to commence the operation?”

“Let’s see. The wedding is in three weeks. I promised I’d stay around the house with the girls until then. Wraith, I want you to be there too. So why don’t we agree to meet one month from today?”

“As you wish,” Tolly agreed, “I shall meet ya in the desert just north of the spring in thirty days. Good luck to ya both.”

“Thanks for everything, Tolly” I said, as I shook his hand, “good luck to you as well.”

* * *

Wraith and I went into a popular tavern in Vale to try and contact the Thieves Guild. I was just about to start Canting when I saw a familiar face I hadn’t seen since I first visited

Callist.

“Frederick! Is that you?” I said to the man who saved me from being burned at the stake my first day in this world over a year ago.

“Well I’ll be damned,” he replied, “if it isn’t world walker, son of Noble himself. How are you?”

“Could be better but all considered, pretty good. I’m really glad to see you. Because we could use your help.”

“I’m sure you could,” he joked, “I’ve heard tales of someone who’s gotten the attention of Shagrath the Devil King and a whole slew of other escapades throughout the land. What can I do for you?”

“Funny you mentioned Shagrath. You see, I plan on killing him. But I’m trying to keep it

quiet.”

“You know the thieves code, Eric. My lips are sealed. But I’m not sure what I can do to help?”

Wraith jumped in and said, “we’re wanting to put a message out through the network requesting mercenaries willing to do some highly risky work for top dollar. Think you can spread the word and have them register at my trading post?”

“Why of course, Sir Wraith. I’ll spread the word from here to Braytown and down to the south seas.”

“Awesome. Also, I want to extend the invite to the dwarves. Can you send them a letter requesting assistance? Let them know we have reason to believe they may be in imminent danger.”

“I’ll deliver it by hand,” said Frederick, “I’m going to the dwarf mines this week…well, to be honest, I was planning on going to steal some gemstones, but I suppose I could play diplomat.”

“Great!” I added, “Tell them they aren’t alone and will have powerful allies.” “Will do!”

* * *

The two of us shared a quick drink with Frederick and went on our way. It was time to go retrieve Arduwan and head back to the mansion. But first, Wraith requested we stop by his trading post. He said he had an idea about how we might be able to enchant the arrow with divine magic.

As we made our way past the merchant guards who both bowed in reverence to Wraith, we approached the sales clerk.

“Hey Wraith, hey Eric!” a familiar voice said.

Stunned, I responded, “Apollo! What’re you doing here?!”

Wraith decided to answer for him, “Well, you see…after we dropped him off in Braytown, I got to thinking. Maybe he would be better suited in my line of work. So after I dropped you off for your birthday party, I doubled back to go find him. He was still sitting, right where we left him at the tavern. The world was his oyster.”

“Huh? You thought an ex-evil cleric would make a great sales clerk?” I questioned.

“Oh yes! He’s quite good. I’ve been needing someone to run things while I’m off on crazy adventures with you and the others. Besides, he keeps my harem company.”

“That’s my favorite part!” Apollo noted in excitement.

“Eh, whatever. Who am I to judge? Have you seen my house and my line of work?, “I dismissed, ”So what’s your plan for the arrow?”

“Well, I just thought, since Apollo used to be a powerful cleric, he might be able to help us figure something out.”

“Let me stop you right there,” Apollo said, “if you’re asking whether I can help enchant an item, I can’t. Part of my dedication to Delilah was the removal of all my clerical abilities since I had only used them for evil right up until helping Arduwan and Stephanie.”

“Then perhaps maybe you could help refer us to another Arch Cleric?” I suggested.

“Ehh, you see. That ones no good either. Part of the reason powerful clerics are so hard to find these days is because the Devil King had them killed. I was an exception because he recruited me. But you don’t go around calling yourself the Devil King and not be worried about high level priests vanquishing you in this world.”

“That’s a good point,” I conceded, “well, I guess we’ll just have to go back to my house and ask Delilah what she thinks.”

Apollo looked at the two of us with confusion and asked, “Delilah?”

Arc 4 Part 3-1

After we retrieved Arduwan from her village, the four of us made our way back to the house. Arduwan was recovered enough to ride and she’d be able to finish healing much easier from the comforts of my home.

When we arrived, everyone seemed to be surprised by the presence of Apollo.

Especially a certain someone…

“My lady, I cannot thank you enough for granting me your blessing!” said Apollo, as he groveled at the feet of Delilah.

“Teh heh, that’s quite alright,” she replied, trying to ease him up from the floor, “there’s no need to praise me here. I’m a mortal in this realm. No better than anyone else.”

“Oh, really?” he said, springing to his feet, “then how would you feel about maybe…umm, going on a date with me?”

Wow, he changed his tune fast!

“Eww! Dude, seriously, you’re like my dad’s age! I think I’d rather have you groveling!”

Apollo started to go back down on his knees but I reached out and stopped him before saying, “Actually, about that Delilah. Even though you are mortal now, we were wondering if there was anything you could do to help us with this?” I held up the golden arrow.

“Oh wow! A Divine Arrow. But it hasn’t been enchanted with divinity yet. I told you before Eric, there’s nothing I can do to help you besides offer my knowledge. I’m just a normal eighteen year old girl now.”

She handed the arrow back and I asked, “Yes, but maybe you could point me to someone who could help. Perhaps tell me where I can find another cleric or possibly another god that could enchant it for me?”

“Hmm, I dunno,” she contemplated, “that might qualify as too much help. I don’t want to get banished to an even lower realm. Besides, there’s no guarantee anyone else would agree to help you. I’m sorry.”

Apollo jumped in by saying, “I do have one suggestion.”

* * *

Apollo, Wraith, and myself waited outside the upstairs hall bathroom for nearly a half hour. There was a slim chance this would work but at this point, I’d try anything.

*Knock* *Knock*

I tapped on the bathroom door and shouted, “Are you about done yet? You know the wedding is a couple weeks away. At this rate you’ll be late for it!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” said Delilah, as she came out of the bathroom with wet hair, wearing nothing but a towel, “hey, look! It worked!” She held up the arrow with one hand as she used her other to keep her towel from slipping down. The once dull yellow arrow now radiated a divine golden light!

“I can’t believe it! Apollo! You’re a genius! Who would’ve thought that the bathwater from an incarnate goddess would become holy water?!”

“Eh, well, they did make me a general in the Devil King’s army after all,” he bragged.

“Great! Now that we have this, our chances of killing Shagrath just increased considerably.”

“Hold on, Eric,” Wraith interrupted, “before we get to Shagrath, don’t we have to deal with those Black Knights first? I mean, I don’t remember them but from what you and Arduwan said, those things sound pretty tough on their own!”

“That’s right. And there’s no telling what those other two generals have in store for us.

But I think I have an idea that just might work in dealing with them.”

* * *

We made Apollo wait upstairs with the girls. Surely he could be left alone with them for a couple of hours while Wraith and I took a little trip down the well. Our destination…Synthetica.

“Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, General Nova,” I said, as the elder leader of the starfleet that once helped my dad battle the synths entered the room.

He shook my hand and said, “Anything for Noble’s son. What can I do for you today?”

“Well, it’s like this. I’m building up to a large showdown in another world and unfortunately, I’ve run into a big problem. There’s an elite group of enemies that have virtually impenetrable armor and I was wondering if I might be able to try using some of your plasma rifles against them? I’m not asking for a thousand rifles or anything. Maybe a few dozen. To be honest, it makes me a little uneasy crossing technology between worlds anymore than I already have. But you see, I”m running out of ideas.”

The General looked at the two of us and then said to me, “That’s it? You want a few dozen plasma rifles? Not even sure why you bothered to come ask me. With the Synths eviscerated, we’ve got stockpiles of them sitting around. I’ll have a few cases sent to the mines for you in an hour.”

I looked at Wraith with a smirk and the two of us nodded at each other.

* * *

Things were going swimmingly with our plans to take on the Devil King in Callist. We had the enchanted arrow, a message going out to all mercenaries. Tolly was out running reconnaissance, the plasma rifles from Synthetica would hopefully make a difference, and we had time to rest and ensure we were well prepared for the coming conflict.

When we came back up from the well, we found everybody gathered in the drawing room. Anabel, Arduwan, and Apollo were sitting on the couch Emily and Delilah sat on the floor in front of them. They were playing a video game system that I had never seen in the house before.

“What’s this?” I asked.

Stephanie came in behind me and Wraith and handed us glasses of water. She said, “I bought the system for the girls. Thought it’d be fun for them to let loose and play a little bit.”

I immediately walked over and switched the game system off and said, “Oh no. I spent way too much of my life wrapped up in those things. My life is a video game now. I’m not letting all of you get absorbed into them.”

“Hey!” Delilah shouted.

“Not cool, Eric,” Emily added.

I didn’t acknowledge either of them. I simply said, “Come on, Arduwan. Wraith and I need some help moving some equipment into Callist.”

She and Apollo hopped up from their seats and we left without further adieu. Once we hauled the weapons cases through the well, we found a place in the canyon to hide them. They were clearly out of sight but someone could still find them if need be. Wraith and Apollo volunteered to camp out over in Callist for the time being to keep an eye on them on the condition that me and Arduwan brought over some of Anabel’s cooking until the wedding.

When we crossed back over it was late enough that everyone had gone to bed.

Arduwan asked me, “Eric, are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine. I’ve just been going fast again. My head isn’t where it should be. I’ll get some rest and be okay. You need to as well.”

“Well…okay. Goodnight,” she said, as she went off to her room at the end of the second floor hall.

I turned the opposite direction and went towards my room. When I went in, I flipped on the light and was startled by someone standing right there in the darkness.

“Jesus!” I yelped, while grasping at my heart. It was Emily, “Isn’t it a bit early for you to be coming by? Aren’t you worried the others will notice you in here?” I closed the door behind me.

Emily had an unsettled look on her face. I knew that look. It was the face she made when she was in the middle of solving a problem. She replied, “I’m not worried about that anymore. Not gonna try to hide this. In fact, I told Stephanie what was going on between us.”

Wow. This was a big development. For one, the fact that she was on that level with Stephanie now was impressive, if not, relieving. But the big news here was that she didn’t want to hide our relationship…whatever it was…from the others anymore.

“Eric. Are we cool?”

“Umm, yeah. Why do you ask?”

“It’s just. Ever since I stormed off the other week and made a fuss, we’ve both been kinda distant from each other. I mean, I get that you’ve been off making your arrangements, but I don’t think you’ve said two words to me since that night. And just when I was starting to connect with Delilah a little bit, you stormed in and shut that game off. That was really mean and not like you.”

I let out a big sigh and sat down on the edge of the bed. She sat next to me and put her hand on my knee. I replied, “Yeah, I’m sorry. It's just. This is the big one you know? More prep has gone into fighting this Devil than any of the others yet. He’s extremely dangerous too and I feel like I could really die this time.”

Our feet hung off the bed but she swung her knees in closer and got nearer to me before saying, “I understand that. But you gotta let loose a little bit. You’ve got some time before the showdown and Delilah said that since she erased the Devil King’s ability to use that curse that he isn’t even aware that you tried attacking him. So you still have the element of surprise.”

“Yeah, I know. But he still remembers that I’ve thwarted two of his generals and I’m definitely on his radar for that. He’s probably planning extra hard for his invasion of the continent to make sure they can take care of me once and for all. The whole realm is depending on this

battle.”

“Eric,” she said, in the softest of tones, “it’s alright. I’m here for you in any way I can. I know I’m not much help in a world like that. We’ve been through that already. But let me know what I can do.”

My hands were shaking a little bit. I’d been bottling up a lot lately. The Noble family burden was really taking its toll on me these days. I simply said to her, “It’s just…I’m scared, Emily. I’m really scared. I’m running low on miracles to keep all of you safe. I came closer than ever to losing you all because of Shagrath. He’s not some shadowy underworld boss or some spoiled rich kid with an empire at his behest. He’s a truly powerful, erratic, and dangerous

villain.”

Emily lifted herself up and threw one leg across my lap, straddling me on the edge of the bed as she wrapped her arms around my neck. She leaned in close and kissed me before whispering, “I know you can do it. I believe in you.” Both of us had tears in our eyes. She was rarely this serious unless she was solving a mystery, but it was as if she was releasing all that pent up determination to encourage me. I reciprocated her embrace and tried to take my mind off of the fight that was up ahead until the appropriate time.

Arc 4 Part 3-2

Stephanie and I sat in the office of the attorney her and Emily had been researching. The time had come for me to sign over the Power of Attorney to her and make her Executor of my estate in the event that something happened to me. I trusted her to do the right thing and to take care of Emily and Anabel. These were exceptionally dangerous times…even considering the normal stuff I was up against.

The lawyer fumbled across the room as we sat in front of his desk. He was a feeble young man with glasses and early thinning hair. No older than Stephanie and I. As a reminder, he had incurred a substantial debt and we had dirt on him for bribing his way through law school. Stephanie contacted him and explained that I was a powerful man who may at times need ‘special’ work done to shield my business dealings. Of course, we didn’t explain anything about the well or the stones, but he got the idea that everything with my family's past was clandestine. So we offered to pay his debts, keep his secrets, and pay him well. It was a winning formula for all of us.

He was a nervous wreck. He couldn’t maintain eye contact with us and shook as passed the paperwork across the desk to us. “He-he-here you go Ms. Keaney. You need only to sign those three lines and have have have them co-signed by Mr. Noble. Then we’re all fffffff-finished here.”

Stephanie turned to me just before finishing up and asked, “Eric, are you absolutely sure you’re okay with this?”

“Of course, Steph. I know you’ll do the right thing,” I assured her.

She signed the documents and then slid them over to me. I quickly co-signed and handed the papers back to Arthur and said, “Mr. Edwards. Thanks for everything. Hopefully, your services will be needed few and far between.”

When we stepped out of the office we were greeted by Emily and Delilah who had been waiting in the lobby. We brought them along to get out of the house and do some shopping together at the mall. Emily had already gone with Anabel and Arduwan separately but decided to tag along with us while we finished up Stephanie’s bridal preparation.

“Uhh, finally!” stressed Delilah, “That took forever! I’m so bored!”

“You’re fine,” I teased, “come on. We can do whatever you want for the rest of the day.”

At the mall, we visited just about every store imaginable. Delilah rarely went out with us because she was usually off with her friends who were none the wiser about her being a goddess. But ever since she confessed to the others what she really was she had wanted to spend more time at home with all of us. To be honest, it was kinda nice having her around, even though she was bull headed.

Emily was just along for the ride so she was pretty quiet on this trip. I was certainly glad to see her getting along with these two though. Neither one of them got the best introduction to her when I brought them into the fold.

Then there was Stephanie. The bride to be. There was a time I thought she might’ve become my bride, but here we were, the oddest of friends after the demise of our romantic relationship. It’s funny how when I set out on my quest that I used Stephanie as my primary motivator. I never imagined we’d be in the situation we were in now.

“Hey, guys!” Delilah squeaked, as she ran up behind me and Emily who were walking together and threw her arms over our shoulders, “there’s a photo booth over there. Let’s go take pictures together. I want to remember this day forever. We can print stickers and scan the QR code to make them our phone backgrounds.”

“Alright, alright,” I begrudgingly agreed. Neither Stephanie or Emily objected either, so the four of us crammed into the little mall photo booth. Emily and I sat on the bench while Steph and Delilah leaned in behind us. Looking at that screen, one couldn’t help but notice how happy we all were.

* * *

Finally, the day of the wedding came. We’d spent the last few weeks just enjoying each other's company and making arrangements for Stephanie’s family to come in. She had a big family, mind you. So much so that it made no practical sense to split the aisle, since Anabel’s only guests were those of us who lived at the house. Instead, we decided to have white lawn chairs make rows leading up to the gazebo in my backyard. Arduwan, Wraith, and Delilah just sat in the front row while every other seat was taken by one of Steph’s family members. Several old friends from college came as well. They all recognized me and it was a tad bit odd considering they probably had thought at one time I’d be the groom and not the groomsmen at her wedding. The rest of the audience was filled with her brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, and neighbors growing up. Steph’s mom couldn’t help herself to pull me aside before the ceremony began.

“Oh, Eric. You know I’ve just always loved you.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Keaney. It’s nice to see you again.”

She leaned in and quietly whispered to me, “How long have you known this girl? Anabel?”

“Oh, a little bit longer than Steph has. A few months. That’s actually how they met. Both of them were working for me.”

“I see,” she continued, “well, how long have you known that Stephanie was…you know?”

Before I got a chance to answer that, we were interrupted by Stephanie who said, “Eric.

Can I see you for a minute? Sorry mom.” She grabbed me by the arm and started walking me over to the gazebo before whispering, “Sorry about that. I knew I’d end up having to pull you away. I don’t expect you to run defense for me.”

Stephanie looked lovely. She wore a simple, sleeveless, knee high wedding dress. Her hair pulled up into large curls that stayed up off of her neck. I was in a classic black suit with a matching tie. We managed to get Wraith in something similar. But Arduwan stole the show. For the first time ever, we got her to wear a peach colored slinky dress. Of course the front was open and you could get a clear shot of 180 degrees of each of her breasts. All the wives in the crowd went to great lengths to keep their husbands' eyes off of her.

Then there was Delilah. She too wore a slinky dress, except hers was blue and only had a reasonable amount of cleavage visible. She sat in the front row bawling her eyes out before we even got started. “Waahhhh, I always cry at weddings!” She cried.

You dolt. You’ve never been to a wedding before.

Bet you’re wondering where Apollo is right? You probably think we left him back to guard the plasma rifles in Callist. Well, you’d be wrong. You see, he somehow convinced Anabel and Delilah that since he used to be clergy that it was on his authority to officiate a wedding. Of course, Delilah had to give him permission since he was no longer actively a clergyman. But who the hell cares anyway? The paperwork was all done by a Justice of the Peace, so he could have his fun. He was waiting up at the altar for me and Steph. We hooked him up with a cool white tuxedo. He looked like James Bond.

Without further delay and before Stephanie’s mom got a chance to dole out any more awkward questions, the ceremony began. ‘Here Comes the Bride’ began playing and everyone turned their attention down the aisle back towards my house. Two of the hired ushers opened the back patio door and out came Anabel. She wore a simple, but less skin showing dress than Stephanie’s. It was white and went down to her shins. The sleeves stopped at the elbow and her cleavage was modestly visible. In her hands was a colorful bouquet of flowers and atop her head was a thin white veil that didn’t cover her face, but trailed down her back and into the hands of her bridesmaid.

The bridesmaid of course was Emily. She slowly walked behind Anabel and held her veil. She wore a sleeveless black cocktail dress that stopped just above the knee. Her hair was clipped up in barrettes and she walked in black stilettos. She painted her nails black but had decided against lipstick. It was the most formal I’d seen her since we went to court together back in her world. And she was gorgeous.

Right behind them was Mischief. He was wearing a big white bow and had the rings tied to them. When the girls reached the gazebo, Anabel stood opposite of Stephanie and Emily opposite of me. She made eye contact with me right up until Apollo started speaking.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the presence of the almighty Delilah…” Stephanie and I shot arrows with our eyes directly at this washed up priest.

“...almighty god.” he corrected, “to bring these two young ladies together in holy matrimony. Marriage is the union of two souls. And the commitments they make to one another are of their own. If anyone has any reason these two should not be joined together, speak now, or forever hold your peace.”

Well, thankfully no one said anything.

“Do you, Stephanie Nicole Keaney, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health?”

“I do,” Stephanie said, with gusto in her voice.

Apollo continued, “And do you, Anabel Marie Townsend, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health?”

Anabel choked back tears of joy and replied, “Yes, I do.”

“Then may you always share the gifts of love - be one in heart and in mind - may you always have a home together. I now pronounce you, partners for life.”

Stephanie and Anabel leaned in to kiss each other and the crowd began to clap and cheer. Emily and I followed suit.

Apollo stepped forward and took both of them by the hand and turned them towards the crowd as he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Stephanie and Anabel Keaney.”

The two of them walked hand in hand down the aisle back towards the porch as everyone threw confetti at them. Suddenly, Delilah sprang from her seat and said, “Out of the way Arduwan, I want that bouquet.”

Arduwan quickly jumped up as well and grabbed Emily by the arm as she was stepping off the gazebo and said, “Come on, Emily! We gotta get out there.”

As Emily was being pulled forward she struggled to say, “No, really, that’s alright, Arduwan.”

On the patio, Stephanie and Anabel turned around to face the crowd. They both put their hands on the bouquet together and leveraged it to toss amongst the violent horde of eager single women in Stephanie's family, as well as her unmarried friends from college. Amongst them was Delilah and Arduwan, who was still tugging Emily into the fray.

The bouquet went up and came down deep into the back of the crowd. Arduwan, the tower behemoth reached both arms up to catch it. The flowers ricochet off of her hands and fell straight into the chest of Emily. Who instinctively grabbed it like a football. She had a look of shock on her face as the crowd cheered once more. Stephanie and Anabel rushed to her side and soon after they were also flanked by Arduwan and Delilah.

“Aww, Emily. I wanted to get married next!” Delilah pouted and then smiled.

“Emily! This is great!” Arduwan congratulated.

Everyone kept cheering and the blushing Emily mumbled, “Oh, it’s quite alright. I’m really not cut out to be marriage material,” as she tried to hand the bouquet off to someone else. In that moment, Stephanie, Anabel, Arduwan, and Delilah rushed her at once and gave her a tremendous group hug. Not that she could see me through all that, but I’m sure she was doing her best to not look in my direction.

Arc 4 Part 3-3

After the wedding had died down, and all of Stephanie’s guests went back to the states, it was time for me to spring my next surprise on the girls. I waited until I could talk to Steph and Anabel alone in the drawing room.

“Okay, girls. Remember how I said I’d pay for everything? Well I wasn’t just talking about flying everyone here and hiring caterers. I’m gonna send the two of you on a honeymoon!”

“Oh, Eric. You really don’t have to do all that,” Steph said, “you’ve done so much for us already. We know how you have a lot of planning still to do for your big confrontation with the Devil of Callist.”

“Yeah, Eric. Let us just take care of you for a while,” Anabel added.

I waved my hand dismissively and said, “Nonsense. Nothing but the best for you ladies.

Besides, this honeymoon isn’t going to cost me a thing except your absence.”

The girls looked at each other in confusion and then back to me. I produced my fathers journal. It was a token that once saw use in this house far more than it did as of late. Emily and I had practically memorized its contents and with as much time as I was spending in Callist, the information in it was pretty dated.

However, there was one world that I had not yet visited. The enigmatic seventh world, which just so happened to be the first world my father had ever defeated a Devil in. The world known as Canvas. According to my fathers notes, the world was an amazing wonderland, fit for recreational use when not under the threat of a Devil. Though it had been almost two decades since the last one there was defeated by my father. It would easily be another ten or fifteen years before another would rear its ugly head. In fact, my father had written as much about this world as he had Brasshaven, Bristol, and Callist! According to him, it was the epitome of safety. There was also confirmation of the world's tranquility from when Alabaster’s goon came back a few months ago. He had been sent there to find nefarious allies for his boss and returned empty handed.

I sat between the girls and showed them the pages of the journal. “See,” I said, “Canvas is like a magical playground. My father said there is a galleria of paintings that are like portals to other worlds. Special magic users, known as Craftsmen, had the ability to paint entire dreamscapes that can be visited by outsiders. These mini worlds can serve as places for rest, relaxation, even training! I want to take you two there to investigate things for myself and find a nice place for you to just get away and enjoy each other's company for a while. It’ll be like your trip to Monaco but on steroids!”

“Uhh, Eric,” Stephanie fretted, “you know I don’t like going down the well!”

“Oh, come on! It’ll be worth it. You won’t be going anywhere hostile. Besides, I’ll be with you until we find a good place. My dad wrote that the curator of the Canvas Galleria was one of his and Higgins most trusted allies in all the realms. See…”

I pointed to a section titled ‘Duchess Chanel’. The entry talked about how after the Devil of Canvas was defeated, she was installed as the overseer of the galleria. If ever I wanted to visit, I should seek her out first and get the rundown on things. Everything my father wrote in his entry about Canvas was glowing. It was a far cry from warnings of such worlds like Callist and World X.

“Well, I for one would like to go!” Anabel said. It made sense. She was far more outgoing about inter-realm travel than Stephanie was and she had visited far fewer places than Emily and Arduwan had, for better or for worse. Come to think of it, besides coming to my world, Anabel had never been to another world other than her own!

“What do you say, Steph? Anabel wants to go. And it’ll give you girls a chance to go on an adventure with me for a change. This one won’t kill you…probably.”

She gave me an unamused look and then looked over at Anabel before answering, “Oh, alright. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt. We’ll just go for a few days though. A week tops!”

“Splendid! We’ll head out first thing in the morning.”

* * *

The next day, we all met down in the basement. Stephanie and Anabel packed a small suitcase and wrapped it in a trash bag to try and stop it from getting soaked in the well. Wraith, Arduwan, Apollo and Delilah were busy out back playing with Mischief so it was just Emily who saw us off.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go too?” I asked Emily, not wanting her to feel left out.

“No, it’s quite alright. I have this strange feeling that Canvas is going to be a big part of my life in the future. I’ll think I’ll wait until I’m needed before running off there.”

“Well, alright then. Don’t let the others burn the place down while I’m gone. Should be back in a few hours.”

“Eric!” Anabel screeched, “Don’t say things like that! I’ve had to put out one of Arduwan’s fires before!”

With that said, the three of us climbed into the well with the bright green stone from Canvas. The girls held on tightly to each of my shoulders as we sank to the bottom and disappeared into the void.

On the other side, we came up to a bright glowing sunny day! The sky was blue, there were white fluffy clouds. The opposite side of the well was up on a steep grassy hill that overlooked a lovely string of classical architecture. It had an almost Greek or Italian look to it. Directly behind us was a rockwall and in the opposite direction was the coastline of a beautiful ocean.

“Wow, not bad,” I said, “and this isn’t even what’s supposed to be impressive about this

world.”

I climbed out of the well and gave each of the girls a hand to come down. That’s when I realized, it wasn’t a well at all! It was like a large, green pipe! Something about it seemed awfully familiar. Anyhow, we followed the journal's instructions and went down the hill towards the buildings. You could see tiny stone paths that lead to and from the buildings from all directions. There weren't a lot of people around, but in the distance you could see scatterings of travelers on the paths.

We took a moment to dry ourselves off before making our way down the hill. That’s when I noticed something peculiar. “Stop,” I said, as I held a hand up to get the girls to halt for a moment, “Do you two hear that?” They both listened with me for a moment.

“It sounds like…music,” Anabel noted.

“Right. But where’s it coming from?” I asked, as we all looked around in every direction. The faint sound of a nostalgic tune permeated in the air. It was like light string instruments and keys accompanied by a basic drum beat. Very odd indeed, but strangely comforting. It added a lot to the vibe of this world.

After standing perplexed for a moment, we decided to continue down the hill towards the apparatus of buildings. Clearly, this was the galleria. My fathers notes mentioned that there wasn’t much too this world away from this location. The people were all peaceful and few in number. Most of them lived in the countryside or off on smaller islands. The real attraction was the galleria, where the uniqueness of the world shined.

As we got closer to the building, the architecture became more outstanding to us. It was an indoor/outdoor array of coverings that reminded me of pictures I’d seen of places like Santorini or Pompeii, but of course without the ruins. Everything was well sculpted and maintained. The floor even looked like it could be eaten off of, despite it being outdoors in some places. The walls were made of marble and stone and the floor was tile except where carpet laid.

We found an entrance and followed the pathways into a hall that took us to a much more indoor type of setting. The walls were lined with large paintings that draped all the way down to the floor. The artwork was intricate. So much so that it looked like you could just step right into them. And from what the journal indicated, you could!

Our instructions led us down the corridor and to the right where we eventually found ourselves in the rotunda. It was large and there were many paintings in this room. At the center of the room was a woman waiting for visitors. She was beautiful! She had silky smooth, ebony skin. She had bushy, curly hair that flowed out to both sides. And she wore an elegant pale blue and white halter top maxi dress.

“Greetings,” she said, with a smile and gave a little bow, “I am Duchess Chanel. I’ve been expecting you.”

I turned and looked at the girls. We were all confused. How could she have possibly been expecting us?

“He-hello,” I uttered, “My name is Eric Noble. You may remember my father.”

“Of course I do,” she replied, “the journal he left you surely mentioned me. Did it not?”

“It did!” I assured, “But it said nothing about how you would be expecting us. Do you have some kind of psychic powers?” Anything was possible I suppose. After all, the Oracle of Vale always joked about how he was expecting me and my comrades.

Chanel laughed a little and replied, “No. Nothing of the sort. It’s just, your father told me a day would come where you would likely come to visit. He expected it would be long before another threat arose here in Canvas. You must be oh so tired from your many battles and adventures.”

“Well, that’s true I suppose. But why did he tell you to expect me? It kinda feels like you’ve almost been anticipating my arrival.”

“Of course I have, Eric. You see…technically…I’m your stepmother.”

“My what?!”

Arc 4 Part 3-4

How was this possible? I found myself standing right across from the woman my father spoke so fondly of in his journal and yet made no mention of romantic involvement with her. She, however, claimed to be my step mother. Was I being lied to? Higgins had said that my father never stopped loving my mother despite keeping himself away from us. For over twenty years before she died. Someone wasn’t telling me the truth.

“I understand that may be a shock to you,” said Duchess Chanel. She stood across from Anabel, Stephanie, and I with her hands clasped in front of her. Nothing about her came off as nefarious so I suppose I should hear her out. She continued, “I don’t suppose there was any mention of our relationship in that journal, because your father probably didn’t want to further tarnish the image you had of him already. But the truth is, he really did love your mother. He just could never bring himself to bring her into the fold of your family's ordeal. I however, was very much already in the fold. What with the incident that took place here in Canvas all those years ago.”

“But what about Higgins?” I asked, “You know him as well and he never mentioned anything about you. He was my fathers most trusted ally.”

“That’s true. I knew Higgins well. But your father kept our relationship a secret even from him. It hurt him dearly to have to hide it. But he had always told Higgins that someday he’d go get you and your mother and bring them to England. It was a someday that never came. Because his enemies only grew in number and became more dangerous. First, it was here, then it was Brasshaven. Josephine took a toll on her world that probably haunted your father to his grave. And as I’m sure you’re aware by now, Synthetica was equally a difficult situation. In fact, it was only after he got word of your mothers death that he could even bring himself to come and elope with me.”

It all made sense. Every negative thought I’d ever had about my old man up until had been washed away by the explanation of the circumstances. This had been no different. He really must have been a good man to sacrifice the way he did.

Chanel’s soft face turned to sadness as she added, “I really hope you don’t harbor any ill feelings towards me. But I understand if you do.”

“Oh, no,” I assured, “I don’t hold anything against you. You wouldn’t be the first person I knew to be caught in a love triangle,” I joked, as I looked back at Anabel and Stephanie. “But I

have to ask…are you aware of what happened to my father?”

“You mean his illness? Yes. He came to visit me before he went back to Synthetica and told me his plans for allowing himself to be synthesized so that he could take control of the central nervous system. He told me it would be the last time I would see him. But he left me a gift. Please, come with me.”

The girls and I followed Chanel down one of the corridors that led to the rotunda. She stopped in front of a painting. It was a self portrait of my father! Exceptionally life-like.

She explained, “As you may already know from the journal, certain people are born to be skilled artists in this world, known as Craftsmen. They can create works of art that can literally be visited by tourists. Your father was one of those Craftsmen. His final gift to me was to create a space where an exact replica of himself before death could exist.”

“Unreal! So you can actually go in there and visit him?”

“Yes. And I do sometimes. But only sometimes. You see, there's a catch to these works of art. If someone spends too much time in a world, they forget they are inside of a fabrication and the world becomes real to them. It makes it harder to leave. I knew that this replica he left me wasn’t the real him so I didn’t want to become too entranced by our visits. My job is to stay out here and curate the other works of art. You can call that my burden.”

I thought about all she told me for a moment before asking, “The Devil of this world. What happened to him? I’m sorry, I’m just having a hard time wrapping my head around how someone could be a danger to the world at large when they are literally off in their own world.” Chanel smirked and said, “A fine question. Come this way.”

The girls and I followed her even further down the corridor until we got to another painting. This one was far different than the others I had seen. It was a tempestuous storm or black clouds and lightning. You could feel the darkness emanating from inside the painting. The name of the piece was written on a small placard below that said only, ‘Nightmare’.

The Duchess explained, “The last Devil of this world was also a Craftsman. He created this art piece. Unbeknownst to the other denizens of this world, he had nefarious intentions. Once he went into his own world, he got carried away and created pure evil. Those who came to visit the world were trapped and could never leave.”

“But isn’t that just a self imposed quarantine? Why not warn others not to visit and leave it at that?” I asked.

“That’s what we did. Until the evil became so strong it could no longer be contained by the world he had created. After a while, the Nightmare began to seep out into other Craftsmens dreamscapes. Starting with these two, and then those four, and so on and so on. Finally, your father and Higgins dared to go into the Nightmare themselves. It took several attempts, but eventually, they were able to vanquish the creator and the evil stopped its spread. In fact, without the original Craftsman, you could visit that world now without fear of it spreading again.

Though I wouldn't recommend it.”

“Yeah, no thanks. I’m good,” I replied, “So why can’t the paintings just be destroyed or sealed up?”

“Because only the original Craftsman can alter a world. Anyone can experience a world, but only the creator can alter it.”

“Wow. It’s like a microcosm of the worlds you can visit through the well,” I noted.

“Indeed it is. But enough about such tragedies. I believe you came for rest and

relaxation?”

“Well, not for me actually. My friends here. Anabel and Stephanie. They just got married and I thought it’d be a good excuse to come visit this world to take them to pick out a honeymoon spot.”

“Ah! Wonderful! Congratulations!”

“”Thank you,”” said the girls, simultaneously.

Chanel led us along and said, “I have a number of suggestions, depending on what it is

you're looking for.”

“Honestly,” Stephanie chimed in, “Just something private. We don’t need an elaborate vacation. We just want some time to experience each other without a lot of other people around.”

“Sure. Then might I suggest, ‘Garden of Eden’?” she pointed towards a painting of a lush jungle scape and explained, “It’s a paradise of nature where clothing is not only optional, they don’t exist. But not to worry, most people find that world to be rather boring, so very rarely are there more than one set of visitors at a time.”

She led us further and waved her hand towards another painting and said, “Or perhaps you require less discreet but more traditional. This is ‘Treasure Trove Cove’, an island paradise. Of course, the waters away from the mainland are shark infested, but the cove itself is perfectly safe. There’s snorkeling, treasure hunts, giant sand castles to explore, and pirate ship rides!” The painting had a large arching mountain over a bay with a lighthouse on top. Ocean appeared to surround the island for miles.

“That sounds delightful!” said Anabel.

“Yeah! I could go for that!” Concurred Stephanie.

Chanel smiled and said, “Excellent! Then I won’t even bother suggesting ‘Frosty Village’ for those who prefer the colder climates for their getaways.”

“Hmm, so how do we go into the world?” Stephanie asked with furrowed brows.

“Simple. Just simply walk up to the painting and step inside. The canvas is malleable.

Make sure to watch your step though, the frame isn’t.”

I interrupted, “There’s no danger for them to be entranced during their visit and forget to leave is there?”

“Oh no,” she assured, “If they’re only visiting for four or five days then they will be well within the limits of maintaining their groundings in reality. Besides, part of my duties as curator is to ensure that visitors leave their chosen worlds from time to time. Of course, if that’s what they wish. There are those who decide to take permanent residency. But when you’re ready to leave, simply return to the place you entered from. You’ll be able to see your way back here to the galleria. However, any local residence of the world won’t be able to it since they are assets of the painting itself.”

“Well, we won’t be doing that,” Stephanie joked, “It’s up to us to come back and make sure your stepson is well taken care of.”

“Good to know,” Chanel smiled.

“Alright, girls. You ready to go in?” I asked.

Both of them nodded and then gave me a little hug before approaching the painting for ‘Treasure Trove Cove.’ They both held hands as they hesitated for a moment. Stephanie gripped their travel bag with her other hand as she stepped forward. A ripple flowed through the painting from her point of entry all the way to the top. Both of them took a step forward and disappeared into the world.

I stood there alone with Chanel. She asked, “Well, now that we’re alone, I must ask, did you wish to speak with your father while you were here?”

I turned to her and responded, “While I appreciate the gesture and I certainly think a time will come where I will want to, right now I just have a lot of mental clutter. But don’t worry. I actually spoke with him, well, a replica of him, when I was in Synthetica.”

“Really?!”

“Yes. He wasn’t sure if he was the real him or not but the remnants of him projected itself in a holographic form to me. I never thought there would be another opportunity to meet with him. So don’t worry, I’m sure when the time is right I will come back here and take you up on it.”

“Of course. Whenever you’re ready, Eric.”

Duchess Chanel and I said our goodbyes and she assured me once more that she would see to it that Anabel and Stephanie safely made it back home. In the meantime, I

returned to a house with only Emily and Delilah awaiting me.

Arc 4 Part 3-5

The week after leaving Stephanie and Anabel in Canvas for their honeymoon was quiet. Wraith and Apollo stayed camped out in the canyon with the spring over in Callist to guard the plasma rifles we stashed. Arduwan decided to camp with them for a few days. That just left me, Emily, and Delilah hanging around the house for a while.

It was midsummer and too hot to go outside much. The three of us were lounging in the drawing room watching TV. Emily sat to my left and Delilah on my right. It was strange, but I’d gotten quite used to her being around and at this point accepted that…well, she was family! It didn’t matter that the universe had been edited to make it so. Who are we to decide what’s real and what’s not when it comes to family. Delilah, even as a deity, longed for connection.

“Hey, Eric,” she asked.

“What’s up?”

“Are you glad I came to live here?”

There was the question right there. She came to us so suddenly and in such an annoying form. But to be totally honest with you, she just started to fit right in so well. I honestly couldn’t imagine the place without her now.

“Of course. Why do you ask?”

“It’s just…when I decided to come, I did so kinda selfishly. Now that I’ve lived as a human for a while, I realize that. I feel kinda bad that I just intruded the way I did.”

“Hey now, where’s this coming from?” I inquired.

“Well…it’s like I told you before, as a deity, I didn’t have a concept of friends and family the way you do. And now, I have hormones and a developing mind. So it’s all just sort of hitting me that…” she paused and her voice turned to sadness, “that I’m not really wanted here.”

I didn’t know what to say. I mean, the truth is, none of us here really wanted some girl to show up and invite herself into our lives. But besides a few hiccups, it was great having her here. How could I explain to her that what she was feeling was natural without hurting her or making her think she wasn’t welcome?

Before I could answer though, Emily reached across my lap and put her hand on Delilah’s knee and said, “Don’t worry sweetie. We all started out just like you. New to this world and with things different from our home. But Eric took us all in and showed us love just the same. Maybe it’s different for each of us, and how we got here wasn’t the same, but you’re one of us now. So don’t ever feel like you don’t belong.”

That was perfect. I couldn’t have said it better if I thought about it for an hour. Delilah sat there looking astonished. Her mouth hung open for a moment before she asked, “Really? Is that true?”

Emily replied, “Mhmm, it is.”

Delilah looked at me and I said, “Absolutely. This house is yours as much as it is any of

ours.“

“Thank you both,” she said, as she leaned over onto my shoulder and nuzzled it as she placed her hand on Emily’s.

* * *

“How are you feeling about this?” Emily asked me. It was days away from D-Day. The start of our big assault against Shagrath the Devil King of Callist. There wasn’t much more preparation I could’ve done. I’d gathered all the resources I could. All the allies I could find. And I’d trained my best to have my body, mind, and soul ready for this. All I could do now was try to relax.

“Good,” I replied, half heartedly, “still thinking I could die. But I feel as prepared as I could possibly be going into this.”

“Well, I’m sure your father and Higgins would be proud. You’ve come a long way since you strolled into my neck of the woods.”

“Ha! Got that eulogy handy?” I said, mocking a comment she once made to me so long ago.

Her face soured and she replied, “I told you to stop all that. You’re going to be fine. I was only asking you so you could give yourself some self reflection before psyching yourself out.”

“Huh? Really? That’s a strategy?”

“Of course it is. You should know how my brain works by now.”

Curiosity got the best of me, so I prodded, “So is everything you say and do strategy?”

She seemed taken aback. There was a nervous look on her face and she couldn’t quite answer right away but finally mustered, “Well…sort of. Yes. I mean. I’m Detective Grimwood! I’m in a constant state of strategy. Even if I don’t always look it.”

“Alright, alright. Now I’m intrigued. So…piggybacking your way into this world when we first met. That was strategy?”

“Of course. I told you before, I was sick of my world. And you saw how dangerous it was

getting.”

“Okay. And volunteering to go into World X with me. That was strategy?”

She seemed a tad more timid to continue answering but finally she said, “Yes. If you recall, it was too dangerous to take Arduwan there and we all thought it be best to have me there so I could think on the fly for you.”

“Uh huh…well, what was the strategy in waiting for me to come to you first when we agreed to have that talk about…you know, us?”

“Just what are you implying!” she screeched, “I told you before that I just wanted to give you your space in grieving over Higgins death. When you disappeared for months, I wasn’t sure what to do!”

I gave her a little grin and asked, “Oh really? Are you sure that wasn’t playing a little bit of a ‘hard to get’ strategy?”

She closed her eyes, crossed her arms, and turned away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, “since when did I ever play hard to get before?”

“I don’t know. Since you decided you wanted more than a fling?”

She opened one eye, still facing away from me and stated, “And what makes you think this isn’t just some sort of extended fling, Eric Noble?”

“You did,” I replied, “you’ve said on a number of occasions that you just wanted to let this thing be real to you as you put it. Multiple times. Why else were you tip-toeing around the others for so long and trying to keep me from meeting Victor so as not to hurt me? Face it, you’re head over heels for me.”

Her eyes enlarged and her mouth gaped open wide. She was stunned. She didn’t know what to do with such truth facing her so blatantly. The words in this story do her no justice. If you really knew the type of person Emily Grimwood was, you’d understand how vulnerable she was when faced with a truth that even she had difficulty accepting. Her entire worldview involved truth. Uncovering it and exploiting it. But what happens when it’s a truth she feared?

After a moment, she calmed down. Her shoulders lowered and she let out a sigh. “You’re right. I am.”

“What?!” I shouted.

She grit her teeth and waved her arms. “Shh, shh…Delilah might hear you!” She attempted to stifle me. We were sitting alone in the drawing room. Delilah was upstairs.

“Sorry,” I lowered to a whisper, “go on.”

“Uhhhhh! If we really must do this. Then alright…” she let out another sigh before continuing, “I wouldn’t want either of us to have any regrets if something did happen to you in

Callist. So here it goes.”

Wow, this seemed like it was gonna be serious. I mean, more serious than she usually was.

“Okay, it’s no mystery that I am quite fond of you and you are quite fond of me. Yes, I don’t have the best history of relationships. And yes, I wanted to just let this be something real for a change. You intrigued me the moment I met you. Even before I knew we were teaming up, that night you walked into my office, there was something about you. No, it wasn’t your choice of clothing or lack of seedy cologne. I didn’t know what it was. And true, I put myself in competition with Anabel after I moved in here because I’m a total horndog and you were fresh meat. But afterwhile, I saw you as more than that. You quickly became my friend. A good friend at that. But obviously, things escalated from there. A moment ago, you said I was head over heels for you.

Fine! It’s true. I freakin love you, Eric! I freakin love you, okay?!”

Yikes, she almost had anger in her voice. There was a long pause, like she had more to say, so I wasn’t about to interrupt her.

Finally, she continued, “Now don’t go off dying in Callist after making me do this. It’s not like I can do that again for someone else someday. You’re just gonna have to accept that you’re stuck with me, alright?”

I moved towards her to hold her tight and just said, “It’s okay. I feel the same way.”

She let loose and started crying into my chest as I stroked her hair, “Don’t let them kill you, Eric. Please! I need you! I need you!!!”

* * *

The big day finally came. Stephanie and Anabel had returned from their honeymoon in Canvas. They both were more tanned than I had ever seen them and they were all smiles. Soon after they came up from the well, Arduwan and Wraith came up. They left Apollo behind with the rifles. I suited up into my chainmail once again and got ready to head out.

“Ready to roll, buddy?” Wraith asked.

“Yeah. Looks like it’s go time.”

Emily, Stephanie, Anabel, and Delilah stood in a line across from the well in the basement. It was an all too familiar site that this house had seen over the years. The support staff seeing off the adventuring party before they put themselves in harm's way in an attempt to free another world from the subjugation of a Devil. It was bigger than that though. This was about stopping the evil from encroaching on this world.

I hugged Emily tightly. It was more visible to the others than we had done before. But she already had said she didn’t care anymore and told Stephanie.

“I’ll be okay.”

She sniffled a little and wiped away some tears as she nodded to me.

I turned my attention to Steph and Anabel. I gave each of them a goodbye hug as Emily hugged Arduwan. “I’m leaving all this in your hands, Steph. I know you’ll do the right thing and find me a successor if I don’t come back.”

Stephanie choked back a tear of her own and said, “Just make sure you do.”

Lastly was Delilah. I said to her, “Well, it’s been fun kid. Keep the girls occupied while I’m gone and I might buy you a car for when University starts up when I get back.”

“Really?! Thanks!”

“Alright, Eric,” Wraith interjected, “let’s do this.”

I looked back one more time at the lineup of ladies and gave them a quick nod. Arduwan climbed into the well first, followed by Wraith and then myself. It was time to take this bastard down!

Arc 4 Part 4-1

This was it. The last red stone. I thought to myself as I stared at the stone from Callist in my hand on the other side of the well. The others were gathering up the weapons cases we brought from Synthetica that contained the plasma rifles. Everything had all culminated to this. It had been about a year and a half since Higgins first made me privy to my family's ordeal. When I first got into this, I looked at the whole thing as some sort of game. I had been deluded by the fantasy’s that inhabited the various forms of fictions I consumed. Distractions really. From a life I loathed as a corporate accountant with no love life or ambition to speak of. But all that had changed now. Somewhere along the way, I realized this thing was bigger than me. For generations, my family had battled the seven devils in order to prevent chaos from making its way to our world. How all this came to be, I had no clue. But what started as fun escapism for me had now turned into a fight for my very way of life.

“You gonna help us with this shit?” Wraith asked. He was toting a heavy case that they had just unearthed.

“Yeah. On my way.”

The plan was simple, yet complicated. We were supposed to meet Tolly and the barbarians later today in the desert north of the spring. The knights from Vale would also be there. And hopefully the call for mercenaries put out by Frederick and the Thieves Guild would also bring us some help.

Apollo was there too, but I wasn’t sure how much good he would do. He helped us haul the cases to the meeting point. But I was gonna suggest he leave after that. Without his clerical powers he was only putting himself in danger coming with us.

We got to the meeting point. There was no specific place, but it was only about ten square miles of desert between the canyon with the spring and the lower region of the Barbarian Lands. It didn’t take long before we saw horsemen in the distance. A lot of them! It was King Ardu and the barbarians. Well over a thousand of them. He had gathered every able bodied warrior that could ride a horse and use a weapon. Considering that the barbarians fit this criteria at birth, that didn’t leave many of them behind in their various villages.

“Ahoy, Sir Eric!” the king greeted, as he dismounted his steed and kneeled, “we are at your command.”

“Arise, my friend,” I said, playing it up a little bit.

“Are these our only allies?” He asked, in dismay.

“Oh no,” I assured, “I have many other friends coming. You already know Wraith and of course your daughter Arduwan. But We should be having allies from Vale arriving soon.”

“Argh!” the king scoffed, “to think that we are reduced to aligning ourselves with the likes of those from Vale.”

Oh shit! I totally forgot. During my fathers time in Callist, the barbarians and the kingdom of Vale were still at odds with each other from the last great continental war. And Tolly was coming! He and King Ardu had personally done battle with each other in the past!

“Look! Riders approach!” shouted another barbarian. Off in the east, you could see two dozen men on horses making their way to us. It was the knights from Vale! Still only twenty five of them. I was hoping that Herald the King of Vale would have changed his mind and sent some more after all. But this would have to do.

The knights all wore white and green tunics over their chainmail. Their leader called out,

“I seek the one known as Eric the son of Noble?”

“That be me…eh, or rather, ‘tis I, Sir Eric!”

“Greetings from the Forest Kingdom of Vale. I am Captain Christoph. The king sends only his finest knights to aid you in battle against Shagrath’s forces of evil. I am at your command.”

Well that was good to know. At least they sent me some elites.

“Please allow me to introduce my other friends. Sir Wraith of the desert and King Ardu of the Barbarian Lands along with his daughter, Arduwan.”

“Ah, yes,” Christoph stated, as he dismounted, “I had heard the Moonlight Night would be a part of this campaign. I’m eager to see your legendary exploits in battle.”

Wraith shook his hand and gave me a boastful grin.

“But you,” he added, looking towards Ardu, “As emissary of the King of Vale, I have a message.”

Everyone stood silent in anticipation.

Christoph continued, “King Ardu, it is a shame that our people bear such a rift between one another. A shameful relic of the old war. Let us make this alliance last far beyond the sieges of the Devil King.”

Ardu smiled and extended his hand to Christoph. “On behalf of the barbarians, I concur!”

Whew! Well at least we weren’t starting out on a bad foot forward with old grudges in place. No sooner did the barbarians and the knights of Vale start mingling with each other, showing their weapons and telling stories of each other's lands, another scout shouted, “Over there! Dwarf riders from the west!”

Surely as I stand here today, there were more than fifty ponies carrying dwarf warriors on their backs heading right for us. Wraith’s idea of sending Frederick to talk to the dwarves worked!

Their leader proclaimed, “As a token of good faith for your warning about the imminent attack by the Devil King on our mountain range, my liege spares five dozen of our warriors to aid you in your crusade. Among us are skilled medics as well, so we hope to be of use to you. He is sorry he could not spare more as he is preparing for an attack on our western front.”

I smiled hardily and replied, “That’s quite alright! The more the merrier.”

The dwarf continued, “Unfortunately, we couldn’t commit more from our security forces but they too have been on high alert for sometime as well. It seems it has become trendy to raid our gemstone mines and the originators of the trend have not yet been identified.”

I gulped hard and looked towards Wraith and Arduwan. They too had an uneasy look on their faces.

Things were going swimmingly. Our forces were starting to amass and I had the Divine Arrow. As long as they could get me within range of Shagrath, I was confident we could pull this thing off.

The dwarves, the knights, and the barbarians were all getting along just fine. Still no sign of Tolly. He didn’t give a specific time. All he said was for us to meet with our allies here in this desert. I’m not sure why though. I guess it made sense as a centrally located place, but we were nowhere near either of the directions to get to Shagrath’s domain. If we were on a coast, we could get there by sea. If we met at the dwarves' mountains we could take the same route I did in the other timeline. I wonder what he was up to?

Suddenly, there was movement to the southwest of us. About fifty or so more men on horseback. They clearly weren’t from Vale, nor were they barbarians or dwarves. Our army started to put themselves on guard since we had no other planned guests. Could this have been a preemptive attack from the Devil King? But how could it be unless our plans leaked? Delilah said that since she erased Shagrath’s curse, he would no longer be aware of my encounters with his forces outside the rumor that the same person who defeated Davol converted Apollo. Speaking of Apollo…could he have been a double agent this whole time?

“Eric! Eric! Have your men stay their ground!” a familiar voice shouted from amongst the riders. It was Frederick! He was riding at the front of a motley crew.

“It’s alright, everyone! He’s a friend,” I assured. After he dismounted, I asked, “Frederick, who are all these people?”

“The mercenaries you requested, Eric. I’ve been signing them up the past few weeks. Wraith said they should register at his trading post, but no one’s been there except the guards…and the girls.”

Wraith looked at Apollo and said, “Yeah. Maybe we should have thought about that before bringing you back to Eric’s place for the wedding.”

“Not to worry though,” Frederick added, “I’ve doubled the number of men since then. We just came from the port city to the south and look who I found!”

A man in pirate garb stepped up and said, “Captain Tye, at yer service matey.”.

“Wait a second,” I noted, “I’ve seen you before. Isn’t this the pirate from the tavern you pointed out to me when I first arrived in Callist?”

Frederick smiled big and said, “The same one. Captain Tye, master of the Typhlosion

Wave attack. I hired every known mercenary in the land willing to fight, just as you asked. The Thieves Guild put up half the funds from their shared treasury on the condition that Sir Wraith put up the other half.”

“Not a problem!” Wraith said, “How much are we talkin?”

“Ten million gold.”

Wraith nearly fainted but I added, “It’s alright, it’s alright. I’m sure after the fight is over we can make some kind of special bargain arrangement with the Thieves Guild for conducting commerce by way of Wraith’s trading post.”

“Of course,” Frederick agreed.

So there we were, my little band of adventurers, twenty five knights of Vale, sixty three dwarf warriors, fifty two mercenaries, and over a thousand barbarians. Everything was looking up, but still no sign of Tolly.

I was beginning to get worried. Afterall, he was the one who insisted we meet here. Why would he be late or no show? Could something have happened to him?! The sun would be setting soon. We had waited all day.

Finally, we heard shouting coming from just over a nearby ridge. I looked over and lo and behold, there was Tolly!

“Over here!” he shouted.

The leaders of our various groups and my party made our way over, ahead of the army to meet him. When we got to where he was standing, we could see that there was a puddle on the ground near his feet. It was a transportation puddle!

Arc 4 Part 4-2

At long last, we reunited with Tolly. He was happy to see that we had gathered a sizable force to take on the Devil King with. But the question remained, how would he and King Ardu fair together?

The two of them quietly approached each other. They remained silent for a moment before the tension finally broke.

“Ardu! You old dog!”

“Tolly McClatchy! From the clan of the McClatchy’s! Why I haven’t seen you since the Battle of Rune Gulch.”

“Oh ho! What were ye, king for two weeks at that time? They still let you lead them?” he joked, as the two shook hands and hugged it out. It was amazing. Letting bygones be bygones was a very simple thing in this world. Ironic considering how brutal it could be otherwise.

Tolly turned his attention to me and said, “Well, Eric. I see you’ve got yer army. Did you manage to enchant the arrow?”

I produced it for him and he was in awe of the shine of its golden glow. Then I said, “I did. And I have more than that. In those cases over there are special weapons from another world that I think could make all the difference against those black knights.”

“Wonderful mah boy! You’ll get yer chance. I’ve spent the last week evading them. After I left you in Vale, I made my way here to set down this entrypoint for the water spell. Then I made the long arduous trip to the frontlines of the Devil King’s assault. When I finally found a good place to hide an army, I connected to this point. But I’d been giving them the run around so long,

I wasn’t sure I’d make it back here in time.”

“Well, you’re here now. Allow me to introduce you to our other friends. Then I’d like to give the troops a demonstration of our firepower. I think I have a plan.”

* * *

After making the rounds introducing everyone, we decided that Wraith should show how the rifles worked since he had the most experience with them. He found a large array of boulders to test it on and spoke loudly enough for everyone gathered to hear.

“Alright. Listen up everyone. This is a plasma rifle. It’s powered by the sun. Once it runs out of juice, it needs time to regenerate. So if you’re using it at night, be cautious. It works like so…”

He turned, took aim at a boulder and started firing. He didn’t stop until the gun ran out of power. The sun was just about to set so he wanted to make sure he could demonstrate it in one go so that it had time to recharge. The boulder was reduced to one third of its original size and you could hear gasps from the onlooking crowd.

“Now,” he continued, “only have twenty of them, so we need to make sure the right people get a hold of them.”

Hands from volunteers in each camp went up.

I stepped forward and interjected, “Uh, let me handle that Wraith. I have a plan of how we best use them. Everyone! I’ve faced the Black Knights before and I know their tactics. They know how seemingly invincible they are and they like to use flanking maneuvers on their enemies. I know Arduwan and some of you other barbarians remember the encounter as well. What I need though is for ten of the tallest barbarians and ten of the shortest dwarves to step forward.”

Looks of confusion abound but little by little my request was fulfilled. Apollo, who stood by the cases, began passing out a rifle to each of the volunteers. Wraith stood by showing each of them proper trigger discipline. Once they were properly acquainted with the weapons, I had them stand in an attack position. The barbarians stood in a row with their rifles aimed towards the biggest stack of boulders in the area. Below their line of fire, the shortest of the dwarves stood aiming their own rifles in the same direction. On my mark, all twenty of them opened fire.

*Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew*

They relentlessly fired until I stopped them. A pile of knee high rocks remained where the huge boulders once sat. Everyone was clearly impressed.

“Now!” I shouted, “Captain Christoph, I’ll need you and your Vale knights to defend the rear of the Plasma Squad. If the black knights use their flanking tactic, the rear will be vulnerable. Do you think you’re tough enough to hold them off until the squad readjusts their line of fire?”

“We’ll keep them safe, Sir Noble.”

“Good. As for everyone else. King Ardu, you’ll be leading the rest of the barbarians as an infantry force to attack the inevitably scattering black knights. Together they’re tough, but on their own, I have a feeling they can be easily overwhelmed by brute force. I want all of you mercenaries to provide support for the barbarians since you are the most experienced among us. Tolly, are you okay being in charge of them?”

“It’d be my pleasure.”

“Excellent. Arduwan, Wraith you two are with me. We’ll oversee the campaign and amend as needed. But once we get a chance to attack Beast Master, we’re breaking away from the main group.”

Beast Master, if you don’t remember, was allegedly Shagrath’s top General. Not much was known about him except that he led the black knights. We’d wanna take him down quickly given the opportunity.

“What about the rest of us, Sir Noble?” asked the leader of the dwarf force. There were still fifty three dwarf warriors when you subtracted the ten I recruited for the Plasma Squad.

“I want four of you to come with my group and act as messengers to the various leaders of the other divisions. The rest of you will act as scouts and support for the barbarian and mercenary groups. Understood?”

“Yes, sir!”

A thousand hours of Age of Empires was starting to pay off.

“Okay,” I noted, “it’s getting dark. Should we tuck in for the night?”

“Ahem,” interrupted Tolly, “If you don’t mind, Sir Noble, but I believe we should take advantage of the army’s morale being high and move against the black knights immediately. If you’re worried about the sunlight affecting yer plasma rifles, you needn’t be. The location on the other side of the water tunnel I created is in a different time zone. We’ll still have more than three hours of daylight once we pass through.”

That’s right! I’d forgotten how far we had traveled before we reached the frontline in the other timeline. That was more than a year ago, so I had supposed they would’ve advanced by now. However, Shagrath was eager to take me out back in that reality. In this one, he probably wasn’t as ambitious about reaching this continent. Still, his forces sounded like they would be approaching the dwarf kingdom soon, so Tolly was probably right about using time to our advantage. At least if we failed, we’d soften them up good for the dwarves to fight back.

“Alright. Unless there are any objections from the command team, we shall move out. What say ye?”

“Aye!” replied Ardu.

“Aye!” Captain Christoph reciprocated.

Tolly, Captain Tye, and the dwarf leader acknowledged with a nod as well.

* * *

Apollo and Frederick were no good to us as fighters, so Wraith had them return to his merchant's trading post and await our return. They bid us goodluck and farewell.

Afterwards, one by one, each member of our army stepped into the puddle of water that magically transported us across the world to the frontlines of the Devil King’s conquest of the neighboring continent. Tolly and my team went in first to survey everything. It was broad daylight, but up ahead you could see the brooding clouds that marked the location of the black knights.

We sent the scouts ahead to get the fix on the location of a black knight platoon. What better way to test to see if the rifles would actually work than to confront a force similar to the one that wiped my group out in the alternate timeline.

The barbarians and mercenaries with their dwarf support units spread out and moved forward behind the expeditionary attack group. They’d be needed to pick off the broken ranks of the black knights once we made contact.

Our group stayed behind the Plasma Squad, following the Vale knights. We knew the black knights couldn’t pull a flanking maneuver during the first entanglement since we weren’t under the dark clouds yet.

A dwarf scout came galloping towards us, warning that a unit of black knights was on the march in this direction. I called out to the Plasma Squad and ordered them to be ready. They filed into their rows and readied their rifles. There were trees around and several big rock formations. We wouldn’t have much reaction time once the knights were visible.

After a few moments in quiet waiting, we began to hear the march of metal boots. The dark clouds formed above us and I felt a few rain drops. It was eerily similar to my last encounter with them, though in a different location.

“Steady. Steady.” I quietly ordered.

Suddenly, from around the bend, a dozen of the black knights in formation appeared. They were tall, dark, silent and faceless behind those masks, just as I remembered.

“Open fire!!!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.

*Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew*

*Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew*

Laser fire ripped across the landscape in unison and didn’t stop until the juice had run completely out of the rifles. I hadn’t ordered such a thing but I suspect it was out of fear and anticipation that the Plasma Squad fired in such a way.

Upon impact, the plasma shots dissolved the armor right off of the black knights. Every hit disintegrated about three inches worth of armor upon contact. The flurry of blasts reduced all twelve knights to about 75% exposure. Underneath, we saw what they were. They were blackened, soulless genetic beings, created no doubt by Shagrath’s alchemists. All but three of them were completely obliterated by the plasma volley. The remaining were badly damaged, but still made no noise as they attempted to crawl away.

Up above, the storm clouds were evaporating a bit, meaning we had cleared most of them in the area. Captain Christoph signaled half of his men to cautiously approach the fleeing black knights and finish them off with melee weapons. It was a successful experiment. We suffered zero losses.

But moments later, the sound of marching boots was heard again. This time faster and more numerous. I shouted for everyone to return to their positions and ordered two dwarf messengers to send word to Tolly and Ardu about the victory but also warn them of a greater battle ahead.

Within minutes of recalibrating, the hills came alive with about three dozen black knights, all in formations. Thankfully, the plasma rifles had nearly recharged fully due to the sun still being up and the clouds parted. I ordered another volley on the nearest group.

*Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew*

It broke their ranks. Not only did the group we struck scatter, but half of them fell and the other two groups split off into the woods as well. We sustained fire on them as they attempted to take cover. The Vale Knights armed with bows provided additional support. The arrows never penetrated armor but it helped to cause pandemonium for the otherwise calm and collected stoic enemy we faced.

About a minute into the clash, I could hear the sounds of barbarians and mercenaries' battle cries echoing from within the woods for miles around in both directions we had spread ourselves. It sounded like it was working. If five barbarians could surround a single black knight during the chaos, they could surely overpower them despite their armor and superhuman abilities. The chant of spells could also be heard from the various magic using mercenaries in our army. Tolly’s spells were no doubt among them.

As the clouds began dissipating, we knew the current flashpoint was drawing to a close in our favor. Above the treeline, to the northeast of us, I noticed a ridge that overlooked the landscape in the direction Tolly had said Beast Master’s forces were located. I signaled for Arduwan and Wraith to follow me up there so we could survey the battlefield.

“Captain Christoph, I’m leaving you in charge of the Plasma Squad. You know how it works now. Send a dwarf messenger to me if anything changes.” “Understood!”

* * *

The three of us dismounted our steeds at the top of the ridge and down below in the forest we could see the divided forces of the black knights being overwhelmed and pulverized. Further ahead, we saw the darkest source of the storm clouds. That must’ve been where Beast Master’s camp was. I ordered several scouting parties to move ahead and plot our best course of action. The sun would be setting soon, so it’d be best for us to save our firepower until just before dawn. Tonight, we’d celebrate though.

Arc 4 Part 4-3

After establishing a heavy perimeter and seeing the sun go down, our army celebrated its newly minted victory over the black knights. It had never been done before. They were the shock troopers for the Devil King and everywhere they went was laid to waste. It would certainly be an embarrassment for Beast Master once he got word. I didn’t expect a retaliation tonight. But by morning it would be on!

The command staff got together at the center of the camp and personally congratulated the Plasma Squad and their supporting Vale Knights. During our celebration, a messenger dwarf arrived with a tally of our losses. 7 barbarians, 3 mercenaries, 2 dwarves, and 0 knights. Logistically, that was an unbelievable record. Of course, no losses were good losses, but we could not help being ecstatic at the thought that we had annihilated more than thirty Black Knights in the first flashpoint of our campaign!

As the celebration carried on, I decided to sit by myself for a while. It was a clear night with a painted sky full of stars above the trees. It would be quiet if it weren’t for the army of nearly fifteen hundred retainers under my employ scattered throughout the woods.

Still, I sat by myself and thought. If we could really pull this off, I would have fulfilled my family's duty to keep evil at bay. There would be no more threat of Devils for at least a half a generation. When I first got back from my fight with Washington in Bristol, even though I hadn’t killed him, that was General Adams doing, I had a sense of invigoration. This wild idea came over me that I could knock down the current batch of Devils in a matter of months and not decades as my ancestors had done. Well, I was wrong, and it cost me. It cost me Higgins, it cost the lives of the girls and Wraith, even if only temporarily, and it cost me dignity. But when I finally set my mind to it, I got good at this sort of thing. I learned some skills, I learned some magic. I got the right allies and I learned to be more strategic. Maybe I couldn’t take out the Devils in two or three months like I had originally thought. But here I was, on the cusp of defeating the last one in just under eighteen months! That surely was remarkable.

I wish my father could see this. I wish my mother could see this. She was in the dark about everything until the day of her death. I wish Higgins was here. I missed Emily. Even though it had only been a day. Something special was going on there. When this was all over, I was gonna truly relax and just enjoy my life at the mansion with the girls. I needed to survive this first. My life was definitely gonna be on the line over the next few days. And with it, the fate of the multiverse.

As I sat there, Arduwan approached me. I realized that besides our training, her and I

hadn’t spoken much lately. Not since the wedding at least.

“What’s up, Princess?” I asked.

“I just wanted to talk a little, Eric,” she said, somberly.

“Of course. You feeling okay?”

“Yes, I was just thinking,” she sighed, “if we are victorious and I am no longer bound by the life debt to you, will you and the others be okay without me in your world?”

“Well, sure. Why wouldn’t we be?”

“It’s just…I wish to stay here in Callist with Lord Wraith, but also, I will miss you and the

girls.”

I cracked a smile and replied, “You really do like Wraith don’t you?”

Arduwan started blushing, a rare sight for her. She averted her eyes from mine and when she looked back up she said, “Yes, I’m quite fond of him. He seems quite fond of me as well. Does he not?”

Seriously, she didn’t catch the hint? He groped her, he swooned her, he put his life on the line for a date with her. The things he wanted to do with her and to her were written all over his face when he was near her. Of course he was fond of her!

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure he likes you. But don’t worry about that right now. We just gotta make it through this conflict, then you can go and do whatever you like. Well, not whatever you like, since he’s getting my life debt transferred. But I suppose that’s what you want anyway.”

She paused for a moment and then said, “You and Emily…you’re fond of each other

too?”

I took a deep breath and then let out a sigh before answering, “That’s probably putting it lightly. But yes. Why do you ask?”

“Because I like you both. Anabel and Stephanie have each other so I’d be sad if you and Emily didn’t court after I left.”

“Ha! We’ve kinda been ‘courting’ for some time. But what about Delilah? You think because she’s a goddess there’s no true love for her?”

“No, I do. But she’s just young and stupid right now.”

Wow. Young and stupid. She’s millenia old and her intelligence stats in comparison to Arduwan’s were as far apart as the day is long.

“Like I said, there’s no need for you to worry about such things right now. Besides, you can come visit whenever you want. And I’m sure I will too at some point. Let’s just try and survive this battle, okay?”

Arduwan hugged me. Not with her usual death grapple. But she genuinely hugged me. We only stopped when the sound of approaching footsteps could be heard. I turned and saw that it was Tolly.

“Good evening to the two of ya,” he said, “There’s something I forgot that I wanted to give ya. You might be needin it come tomorrow.” He reached into his coat and produced two potion bottles.

“Those don’t look like healing potions. What are they?” I inquired.

“For the lass, a strength enhancer. And for you, an agility booster. I gave one of those to Sir Wraith as well. Mixed em up myself as I was camping out on the prairie last week. They won’t last more than ten minutes or so once you use them, so keep that in mind.”

“Well thank you, Tolly. I’m certain they’ll come in handy.”

“Aye.”

“Speaking of Wraith, where is he?”

“He’s off by himself. Same as you two. Seemed to be a might bit troubled. Perhaps he’s nervous about the battle tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I better go talk to him. Thanks again.”

* * *

About twenty minutes later, I found Wraith pacing by himself off in the forest, away from the campfires. He was rattling off nervously so I approached him and asked what the problem was.

“Hey, man. You doing okay?”

He exhaled deeply and replied, “I’m a basket case. A basket case you hear me!!!” as he grabbed me by the collar of my tunic.

“Whoa whoa! Settle down, bro. Are you that perturbed by the battle tomorrow?”

He looked visibly shaken when he said to me, “Screw the battle! Send all the black knights at once! What I’m worried about is after the battle.”

“After the battle?” I questioned.

“Yeah, you see, when this thing is over, Arduwan’s life debt to you is gonna get transferred to me. I’m used to her going back to the mansion with you after these little escapades. But you see, I’m staying here, in Callist. So she’s gonna stay here with me. The two of us are going to be alone together!”

“And the problem is?”

“I don’t know how to deal with that!”

“Oh for crying out loud! You’ve been hitting on her since the day you met. Hell, you stayed in the same hotel room together back in Brasshaven. Not to mention lecturing me about me not being able to handle a woman like her right before you threatened me with your sword!”

“I know…I know I know I know! But it’s all real now! Not just a fantasy in my head. You know my history with women.”

“You mean before you became the Moonlight Knight and got your own functional harem?

Yeah, I remember that guy. Why is it suddenly different with Arduwan?”

“That’s just the thing!” he said, as he spread his arms out wide, “That’s the Moonlight Knight’s harem! It’s a roleplay! I got good with those chicks because I wasn’t Ernest Weathers.

Arduwan knows the real me.”

“Jesus. I’m not seeing the problem here. You’ve been white knighting and milady-ing her from the get go. How is it suddenly different now? Just keep roleplaying. Which, by the way, this is a really weird confession. You mean everything you’ve done successfully here is because you’ve been roleplaying a better version of yourself?”

He didn’t respond to that. He just kept pacing and yammering on. After a moment he stopped and said, “That’s it! I’m disbanding the harem. I have to. Arduwan is royalty. She can’t be kept on their level. I know! I’ll give them to Apollo.”

I rolled my eyes. How did this happen to this guy? Just over a year ago he was pretending he didn’t have any change to get better tips for the pizza’s he was delivering. Now he was Lord Humungus of the desert, dividing up the value of the women who flocked to him.

“Just calm down, man. Arduwan was actually just talking to me about you too. You’ve got nothing to worry about. Get rid of that life debt and you could be her simp. Keep it and she’s still yours!”

“This is bigger than that, Eric. It’s not just a sexual thing…mostly. You see…”

He hesitated a moment and I braced myself for whatever the hell could possibly come out of his mouth next.

“...I…might actually be falling in love with her.”

“Oh, come on now. You’ve gone too far,” I joked, “Wraith isn’t capable of something like that. Remember when you fell in love with Aubrey Plaza? I still need to clear my browser history from those weird searches you did.”

“I’m not kidding, Eric.” His tone got really serious. I’d mentioned before that on occasion,

Wraith could get real. He pulled through when you needed him the most. But it was even more rare that he was serious about something concerning himself. He continued, “Arduwan might be a little bit of an airhead. But she’s everything I’d ever want. She’s beautiful, strong, loyal, fun, and most of all…she doesn’t look at me like I’m a joke.”

Wow. This was heavy. I don’t think I’ve ever once heard Wraith acknowledge how other people saw him. He’s always been so self absorbed. Haha! I’m gonna let him finish!

“When I’m around her, I can completely let loose and be the person I want to be. She doesn’t call me a creep or a weirdo. She looks me right in the eye and she listens to all my bullshit. When you and Emily got shot down in Brasshaven and we made that plan to rescue the two of you. Do you know what she said to me?”

“What?”

“She said, ‘Sir Wraith. You’re the only one who can carry on if something has happened to Eric. We have to try and save them, but if they’re dead, I will fight them by your side till my last breath.’ No woman, or even a man for that matter, has ever offered themselves to me that way before. That’s companionship, Eric. And I love her for it.”

I thought deep and hard about what he said and I couldn’t find any argument with it. I simply told him, “Help me kill Shagrath and you have my blessing. With or without the life debt.

For now, we need to get some rest.”

Arc 4 Part 4-4

In the morning, just before dawn, we made our move against Beast Master’s encampment. We figured we’d use the cover of darkness to move into position and try to get an advantage, just in time for the sun to come up so that we could have sunlight for recharging the plasma rifles.

Our scouts reported that Beast Master’s main force numbered about three hundred. The numbers were in our favor, but the ratio of Black Knight to individual warrior of ours was steep considering that any one of them could handle two or three of us in most engagements. The difference maker was the Plasma Squad and strategy.

The plan was simple. We created a horseshoe front with the Plasma Squad at the center in order to draw the enemy out. The barbarians and mercs would be waiting in the wings for them to scatter. Meanwhile, my group would move in from the southeast during the confusion and hope Beast Master was vulnerable enough for us to take him out. Tolly went with us for this one, since the danger was at an all time high.

He, Wraith, Arduwan, and I sat up on a ridge just as daylight was breaking. Down below, I could see him. The General himself. He was well over six feet tall and wore a scant amount of similar armor that his knights did, only covering his vital areas. Everything about him seemed human, but he was incredibly buff. Not sure why they called him Beast Master though. I wasn’t seeing a lot of beast of burden around or anything. Though maybe there would be some war elephants or something.

I sent one of the dwarf messengers down below to Captain Christoph to commence the attack. From my range, I could almost hit Beast Master with an arrow. I really didn’t want to use the Divine Arrow if I didn’t need to since I was saving it for Shagrath. Even though I knew that if I could hit Beast Master, this battle would be over quickly and with minimal losses.

The four of us decided to start moving ahead of the attack so we could be as close to the camp as possible by the time the battle started. About halfway down into the valley, we heard the sound of plasma fire ripping through the trees to the west of us. Barbarian horns started sounding off, signaling to engage the stragglers.

At the edge of the camp, we spotted a single scout. Most of the army had moved out to confront us but a small detachment stayed behind to guard Beast Master. Wraith sprang forward and was able to get the jump on the guard. He used a dagger to slash behind the neck, just under the helmet. The rest of us swiftly moved in.

The battle was in full swing now. We could hear the barbarians and the mercenaries shouting their battle cries in the forest amongst the plasma fire. It was up to us to take out their leader!

“Confusion!” shouted Tolly. He had cast a spell on three black knights we encountered inside the camp who were walking towards us. This caused all three of them to start attacking one another. We simply continued forth as they destroyed themselves.

Finally, we reached the center of the camp. Beast Master was already aware of our presence and he simply stood there, staring at us. He was flanked by two of his knights. Arduwan raised her long bow and fired a shot at twenty yards directly into one of their faces. It didn’t penetrate the armor, but the force was so great it broke the knight's neck causing him to collapse.

Beast Master’s response to this was grabbing the other knight by the backplate of his armor and tossing him like a ragdoll in our direction about forty miles an hour. Tolly cast a levitation spell to slow his impact while I relieved him of his head with my blade.

“Who dares challenge the advance of his majesty’s conquest?” Beast Master snarled.

I stepped forward and pointed my sword in his direction. The sound of an ensuing battle was heard in the distance. I stated, “We are your majesty’s undoing!”

Beast Master looked surprised at first and then began laughing hardily before saying,

“You?! All I see are insects. You shall now know the wrath of the Beast Master’s fury!”

His eyes glossed over to a gray color as he began growling. Then he began a transformation right before our eyes. His muscles grew, along with his height. He began sprouting fur that protruded from between the pieces of his black armor. Sharp fangs, like that of a saber tooth tiger emerged from his newly formed catlike face. His hands became like bear claws and his bare feet were like that of a gorilla.

“Ohhhh!!! So he’s an animal shapeshifter!” Wraith noted.

“Come on you cowards!” He roared.

Arduwan fired her bow at him. He slapped the arrow away like a toothpick. Wraith and I started sprinting towards him side by side with our swords drawn, but he smacked us to the wayside just as easily.

“Wind Blade!” Tolly shouted while swiping his ax in the air, casting the same spell I used against Apollo. This hit Beast Master directly and left a wound across his chest. He let out another deep roar.

Meanwhile, Wraith and I struggled to our feet as Arduwan came charging in with her greatsword drawn. The three of us slash and swiped but couldn’t land a hit due to Beast master’s superior agility. With a sweep of his backhand, I found myself knocked backwards once again. Tolly ran in wielding his ax with both hands and lodged it into the front of Beast Master’s left shoulder. With a stern uppercut, he sent Tolly flying. It knocked the wind out of the aging warrior as he hit the ground.

With the two of us down, Arduwan and Wraith were left alone struggling to flank him and land an attack. With his claws extended, Beast Master scraped a bloody trail across Arduwan’s exposed midsection.

“Arduwan, no!” Wraith screamied, as he leaped onto Beast Master’s back and tried to choke hold him.

This was bad. We were running out of options and this guy wasn’t going down easily. I reached into my quiver as I lay on my back and pulled out the Divine Arrow. Even with the sky darkening around us from the collective storm clouds, the golden light from it shined brightly. It sucked, but I was beginning to think I had to use it for us to survive this.

Suddenly, Tolly ran across the center of the camp towards Beast Master and yelled, “Don’t you dare fire that arrow, Eric! You’ll be needin it fer Shagrath!” He leaped up and bear hugged Beast Master from the front as Wraith held tight to his back.

“Shocking grasp!” Tolly said, send a jolt of electricity coursing through Beast Master’s armor.

Wraith said, “Ow! You got me too!” as he held steadfast.

Arduwan struggled to bring herself to her feet and used her sword as a crutch with one hand as she wiped her own blood off her stomach with the other. I just kept the Divine Arrow fixed on Beast Master.

“Don’t do it, Eric!” he warned again, “We can win this fight without it! And you lad, time to let go.” he signaled to Wraith.

Wraith held on for another moment before collapsing on the ground behind them.

“Shocking grasp!” Tolly cast again, this time sustaining it longer. The old man had decades of magic experience but even he wouldn’t be a bottomless pit of MP.

“Let go, you fool!!!” Beast Master scoffed.

Tolly’s arms wrapped around Beast Master’s neck from the front and with Wraith no longer on his back, he was free to dig his claws into Tolly’s.

Tolly let out a shriek before composing himself and saying, “I was afraid it would come to this but I guess it’s alright. Combust!”

There was a flash of light, followed by flames. Then Tolly’s entire body burst into an explosion of fire directly onto Beast Master’s chest, neck, and face. He had used a self destruction spell to try and take out Beast Master in one hit!

Wraith brought himself to his feet and made his way over to check on Arduwan. I lowered my bow and put the arrow back into my quiver. As I sat up, a teardrop came from my eye. This wasn’t even Tolly’s fight. He didn’t need to be here. Al I could see was a smoldering pile of ash where he was just a moment ago. On the ground before him was the charred body of Beast Master laying on his back.

I got to my feet and the others started making their way towards me, when all of a sudden, the unthinkable happened. We heard groaning and movement. The three of us looked towards Beast Master and saw him start to get up on one knee. His entire front half was burned and his mangled armor fell to pieces by his side. But before we could react…

*Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew* *Pew*

A barrage of sustained plasma fire came in and obliterated what was left of the General. Looking behind us, we could see the members of the Plasma Squad being escorted into the center of the camp by the Vale Knights. They had punched through the main force of the Black Knights and the remaining that scattered were being cornered and defeated by the army in the woods.

* * *

By mid afternoon, the remainder of Beast Master’s army had been swept away and we had established a perimeter around the camp to make it our own. The wounded were being treated and all around was a sense of accomplishment.

When the tally came in for the losses, the command staff was shocked at how small the number was. Including the numbers from the night before, we had lost 79 barbarians, 12 mercenaries, 5 dwarves, and 4 of the Vale knights. Not one member of the Plasma Squad had fallen though. Our plan was working!

The loss of Tolly was of course beyond some statistic. Though I didn’t know him extremely well, he taught me everything I knew about magic. A special funeral was held for him inside the camp. King Ardu in particular got emotional. Without Tolly, we wouldn’t even be here let alone been this successful. He wasn’t the first mentor I had lost. But I did wonder how many others would fall on this quest?

Arc 4 Part 4-5

Though tragic as it may be, we needed to put Tolly’s death behind us and press on. According to the information provided to us by the Thieves Guild, we were only a few days travel to the border of the Devil King’s domain. Apparently, much of the perimeter to the domain was uninhabitable, untraversable badlands. Dead forest, rocky terrain, lakes of lava…you know what I’m talkin about.

The most direct route in was overland through the gates to the north of us. There was allegedly a wall and a barrier sustained by the last remaining general. Priscilla. Beast Master was supposed to be the toughest of the general’s, so it wasn’t expected he would be defeated in battle the way he was. We’d have the advantage if we moved quickly to the gate into Shagrath’s domain before anyone was alerted we were coming. We couldn’t afford to take more than a day's rest before moving out.

Thankfully, Arduwan’s wound wasn’t bad. She had a light treatment from a dwarf medic and then simply dumped a bucket of water over her head to clean up. That woman could roll in the dirt all day and somehow a splash of water was enough to make her look and smell like a rose again.

We decided to stay in the fortified camp for the night and then continue north in the morning. Our goal was to reach the Devil King’s domain in under three days so we could maintain the momentum and morale we had acquired from these first two victories.

Along the way, we met little resistance. With the Black Knights destroyed, only Shagrath’s human minions remained in the occupied territory we passed through. Our army quickly dispensed with them so as not to take a chance of them regrouping at the gates of the domain and tipping off Priscilla that we were coming.

Finally, on the evening of the third day, we arrived at the edge of Shagrath’s domain. We did our best to keep our forces under cover while we devised a plan. Only a dead and forgotten forest was between us and the enemy wall which stood about four stories tall. You could see the sheen of a purple miasma that acted as a membrane for the wall and protected the domain from invasion.

At the center of the wall was a gigantic iron gate with a tower above it. That must have been the central location for the domain's security. With the wall and barrier in place, not much was needed to defend the border of the Devil King’s land. Especially considering they were used to the other kingdoms playing defense against their assaults. The tower that housed Priscilla was the only structure in need of personnel.

“Should we send the Plasma Squad ahead to attack the gate?” asked Captain Christoph. We stood a little more than a mile away from the domain’s entrance as we hid among the dead trees.

“No, that would draw too much attention too quickly and if we can’t get the wall down fast enough, then they may overwhelm us. We don’t know just how much of the Devil King’s army is present behind that wall,” I noted.

“So what’s that miasma anyway? Will it disintegrate on contact?” asked Wraith.

“Hmm, looks to me like it’s just poison gas. More likely to suffocate you if you got too close to the wall. I’m betting that’s why we’re not seeing any guards posted up on this side. They probably just have Priscilla lower and raise the barrier whenever they need to transport people through the gate.”

Wraith had a frightened look on his face as he said, “So, any chance you can just aim the Divine Arrow over the wall and hit the Devil King from here?”

“No. I have to be able to see him within my normal firing range.”

“Ah. Well, it was a nice try. Better get going if we’re gonna get back to defending our homes and all.”

“Oh, stoppit, you,” I scolded him, “I think I have a plan. I’m willing to bet that Priscilla is at the top of the tower. If we can scale the wall and take her out, our people will have no problem breaking through the gate with the barrier gone.”

“Uh, yeah, but how are we supposed to get in the tower while the barrier is up?” he asked.

“I can do a concentration spell for a barrier of protection as long as you stay close to me. The air will be fine to breathe within it. The only problem is, I can only sustain it so long if I’m going to have enough MP left for a fight once we get up there. Still got that Agility Potion Tolly gave you?”

“Yeah.”

“Perfect. I’ve got mine too. If we sneak over to the base of the wall and drink these potions, I’m sure we can scale it in half a minute at most. We can find Priscilla and take her out while we still have the effects of the potion. She’s supposed to be the weakest in combat of the generals.”

“Alright. I’m with you,” he agreed, “but we should give some kind of signal to the others once we take her out.”

“Not a problem. When she dies, the barrier should drop and they’ll know to begin their assault. Understood?”

All of the squad commanders and Arduwan nodded in agreement.

* * *

About twenty minutes later, Wraith and I found ourselves at the base of the domain wall. We weren’t touching it but we were close enough that the miasma was starting to make us gag.

I quickly threw up my own barrier to not take any chances. It worked! The air was clean and as we walked towards the purple miasma, you could clearly see a bubble around Wraith and I.

Not wanting to waste precious MP, we quickly chugged our Agility Potions. I could feel the very cells in my body racing overtime. It was like, 100X more effective than the best energy drink on the market in my world. Wraith and I started scaling the wall with ease. In no time at all, we reached the window of what we assumed to be Priscilla’s room.

It was dark inside, but there was just enough light to see that it was a woman's bedchamber due to the decor. We slipped in and quietly surveyed our surroundings. A moment later, we heard a voice.

“Please, sirs! Are you here to rescue me?”

Upon further inspection, we saw what looked like a kind and innocent blonde girl around age twenty walking towards us in a nightgown with her hands clasped together under her chin.

“Please help. I am prisoner of the Devil King. He snatched me away from my family and keeps me here to maintain this barrier against my will!”

“Don’t move, Wraith. Hang on just a second. I think I know what’s going on,” I dropped the protection spell around us as I prepared to cast a different spell. You see, I remember the notes from Thieves Guild saying that Priscilla was a half demon. Her father was some tyrant lord and her mother was a succubus. This was obviously a delusion! “Truesight!” I shouted, casting a spell on both me and Wraith so that we could see this girl for what she truly was.

It worked! Instead of the sweet, innocent young maiden we saw before, we now saw a woman with a dark ponytail, dressed as a full blown dominatrix standing before us!

“Let’s get her, Wraith!”

“Just a minute,” he halted me, “I mean…we don’t have to kill her do we? We just need her to lower the barrier.”

“What?! You think she’s just gonna do that for us? Don’t be stupid.”

“Well, let’s think about this,” he proposed, “I was ready to kill her before. But for some reason I don’t want to now. Maybe because she’s even hotter now?”

“You’ve gotta be joking. She’s clearly emitting seduction magic. I’m feeling horned up too but I can see right through it. Just think of Arduwan.”

“Forget about Arduwan…I have. This woman is more suited for me anyway.”

Unbelievable. Was he really this weak minded? Admittedly, Priscilla was probably on equally sexy grounds as Arduwan. They were both tied for the two most attractive women I’d seen in the multiverse. But all I had to do to keep from going under is think of Emily, baseball, and cold showers.

“We don’t have time for this, man. Let’s take her out and get it over with.”

Wraith now had a zombie-like gaze. He turned to me with his scimitar in hand and made like he was going to attack me. This wasn’t like the contest in the barbarian village. He was really really going to try and kill me this time.

The two of us clashed. My sword to his. Everything was faster than normal because the effects of our Agility Potions were still working. We tucked and tumbled away from each other. I was near the window and Wraith stood between me and Priscilla. They knew I was going to try and take her out to break the spell.

Wraith slowly lumbered towards me, still with his sword in hand. Things were looking desperate. There was only one thing I could think to do and it wasn’t going to be pretty at all.

“Kill him, my pet!” Priscilla ordered.

Wraith took off running towards me. At the last moment, I hit the deck and did a leg sweep, causing him to trip straight out of the window. I didn’t want it to be this way, but we were running out of options. This needed to end and it needed to end now! The fate of the universe was riding on it.

As I turned back around to face Priscilla, there was the crack of a whip. She was standing there, both hands gripping it with the other end wrapped around my neck. I grabbed hold in an attempt to stop her from pulling me down to my knees, but it was too late.

“Hahaha! I didn’t expect you to take out your own friend. But just the same, you’ll be joining him soon.”

The Agility Potion was wearing off and I was doing everything I could to stop her from choking me to death. I still had some magic left in me so my best bet was to try a wild card.

“Charm!” I managed to utter, as I sat there on my knees.

Priscilla suddenly released her grasp. Did that really work? I’d never heard of anyone ever trying to use charm on a succubus before. Maybe because she was only half succubi, it affected her.

“Hmm, strangely. I don’t feel the need to kill you. Perhaps you just looked like someone worth keeping around to lick my boots.”

Little did she know, I only needed one moment with her guard down.

“Flash!” I casted a blaze of light that blinded her long enough for me to grab the whip and pull it away from her.

When the room returned to normal, I lashed the whip in reverse towards her and left an awful mark across her face. She had a stunned look as she felt her cheek with her hand and looked at her own blood. I prepared myself for the next attack but it never came. Priscilla dropped to her knees, parallel to me and started crying.

“Waaahhhh! You scarred my beautiful face!!! I never thought something like this could happen!” she wailed.

This bought me some extra time. Did I continue my melee assault or should I think of another spell? I was running low on MP for real at this point. But then, at the last second. I noticed something. Across the room, on her vanity, was a jar with a cork in it. It had a very specific look to it. Like I had seen it before. It was a Jar of Entrapment! Like I had seen in the Tome of Wisdom when I was trying to think of what to use against Shagrath! She probably had one to do all kinds of twisted things to her prey.

I got up and bolted for the jar. Priscilla didn’t notice me there until I had already had it in my hand. From what I remembered, all I had to do was remove the cork, aim it, and shout, “Entrap!” A small tornado whisked Priscilla up and made her into the size of a Barbie doll…well, maybe Skipper sized. The whirlwind placed her inside the jar and I quickly sealed the cork back on. Inside, I saw the microsized Priscilla pounding on the glass screaming to be let out. I didn’t have time to deal with her right now, so I just put the jar into my satchel.

A moment later, I heard someone outside shout, “Typhlosion Wave!”

When I ran to the window, I saw a gigantic wave coming from the direction of the dead forest. It flowed in a direct stream towards the gate and blasted it open. That’s when I realized the barrier was gone! Priscilla’s magic was cut off by the jar. The wave down below came from Captain Tye, the pirate mercenary. This sword attack of his was uniquely his own and a legend all in itself.

After the tide settled, I saw the army rushing in with the Plasma Squad in front, leading the charge. I decided to run down stairs, slashing every soldier of the Devil Kill in my path. By the time I reached the bottom, our forces had seized the domain gate.

I had a pleasant surprise awaiting me when I gathered with the rest of the command staff. There was Wraith, alive and…well?

“H-hey, buddy,” he uttered, as he laid sprawled on a stretcher with Arduwan by his side, stroking his hair as a dwarf medic tended to him.

“Wraith! You’re alive! What happened?”

“Well. When you tossed me out of the window, I plummeted far enough away from Priscilla’s enchantment to snap out of it. Luckily, I was thrown past the miasma, so that didn’t kill me. Luckily, the Agility Potion hadn’t worn off, so I had enough time to try and break my fall.

Unfortunately, I broke everything else too.”

The dwarf medic added, “All four of his limbs are broken. Along with several ribs, his hip, and collar bone. I’m afraid we’ll have to take him off of the battlefield.”

“The plot armor is wearing thin,” I joked, but then added, “hey look though. Got a surprise for you.” I produced the jar from my satchel with Priscilla in it and said, “The second hottest chick in the universe.”

“What are we gonna do with her?” he asked.

“I dunno yet. But let’s figure that out later. We got a Devil to slay.”

Arc 4 Part 4-6

Our victory at the gate was the most impressive yet. When the tally came in from each squad, we were shocked at the losses. Zero! We took zero losses in our siege. Thanks to my planning, Wraith’s sacrifice, and the incredible talents of our fighting force, morale was at an all time high. Only one obstacle remained. The Devil King’s castle.

We kept a detachment of barbarians and dwarves back at the gate to guard the wounded. I offered Arduwan to stay there with Wraith, but she refused.

“Absolutely not, Eric. I will not abandon you during this most trying time. My life debt

forbids it.”

“Wow, that thing’s pretty ironclad isn't it?” I noted.

Arduwan spurred her horse up next to mine and said, “Thank you for saving him.”

I tripped him out a window. But she couldn’t have known that, so I merely replied, “Of course. He’s my best friend. Well, besides Stephanie.”

Arduwan pondered for a moment and then said, “I wonder how they’re all doing back at the mansion? Probably worried sick about us.”

“Yeah. Well let’s just make sure we pull this off.”

* * *

According to the maps we saw at the gatehouse, the Devil King’s castle was only about ten miles away from the wall, so it didn’t take us long to get there. We hung back about a mile away once the building came into view so that the army could catch up. This had to be the most evil looking, most intimidating structure I had ever seen. The place made Davol’s Fortress look like Michief’s doggy bed. It was all black, with gargoyles and spires that pointed up towards the sky like an angry palm stating, ‘Halt!’. It definitely wasn’t Magic Kingdom.

What’s the plan, sir? asked Captain Christoph with King Ardu and the other leaders by his side.

“Have the Plasma Squad form up. Ardu, get the barbarians and the mercenaries into a close flanking position to their sides. We’re gonna ease our way up slowly and attempt to draw their forces out to meet us.”

It didn’t take long during our slow march towards the castle for the gates to open up and a battalion of hell bent human worshipers of the Devil King to make their way outside. We remained steadfast in our approach. That’s when I saw him. On a balcony, about midway up the castle, the Devil King himself made an appearance.

He was shorter than I expected. Maybe five foot ten by my best guess. But he was completely ripped. He had black armor that intermittently covered his upper body and spikes on his iron shoulder pads. His helmet bent down into a mask that covered his eyes and nose, like batman, and a long, sleek, ponytail blossomed from the top of it.

He shouted down to us as his soldiers formed up in front of the castle, “Who dares encroach upon my domain?!”

I gulped hard and then spoke up, “‘Tis I, Sir Eric Noble. I have come to end your reign of terror upon this world.”

“Oh really?” he taunted, “I’ll tell you what. If you can get to me, I’ll give you a free hit, little man.”

I surveyed my surroundings. We had stopped just a stone's throw away from the enemy line. I was confident I could hit him with the Divine Arrow from here. According to the Tome of Wisdom, all I had to do was fire it within my normal range and once it connected, it would deliver a fatal hit. So I decided to go for it and end this thing now. I reached for the arrow, took aim with my bow, and fired it directly below Shagrath’s neck.

The arrow shimmered its golden light from within. Everyone standing on the battlefield, from both sides, looked up in awe as it passed through the air. Then all of a sudden…

“Cosmic Window!” Shagrath shouted, as he held his hands in front of him and made a motion as if he was opening up a scroll. The very fabric of time and space opened up directly in front of him between his motioning hands just before the arrow reached its target. And as quickly as he opened the space fold, he closed it, and the arrow was gone.

“Mwahaha, I’ll be waiting,” he stated, as he clapped his hands and turned to go back inside.

Suddenly, there was a slight rumble. The gargoyles decorated along the castle's exterior began to animate. They were now real like winged, horned, devil tailed demons! And they were descending down upon us ahead of the foot soldiers advance!

I was in total shock. The arrow that we had worked so hard to create, that Tolly died to preserve, that was sworn by him, Apollo, the Oracle, Delilah, and the Tome of Wisdom itself to work…was gone. Never even made it to its target. My inner monologue was interrupted by Arduwan.

“Eric, what now?!”

I shook off my delirium and answered, “Everyone, attack!!!”

The battle ensued. Knights, barbarians, dwarves, mercenaries, demented followers, and gargoyles clashed. Plasma fire tore through the sky in an attempt to fell the airborne attackers. I found myself shoulder to shoulder with Arduwan and Captain Christoph as the wall of enemies met our side. On their own, these soldiers were weak. I easily eliminated three of them during our initial entanglement. But there were still hundreds of them and we were on their home turf. I needed to think of some way to prevent this from becoming a total bloodbath. Then it came to me.

“Arduwan, do you still have that Strength Amplifying Potion Tolly gave to you?”

“I do. Why do you ask?” she replied, as she gored a nearby soldier.

“Drink it, now! I want you to toss me into that balcony window Shagrath was speaking

from.”

“What?!!! That’s crazy!”

“It should enhance your strength ten fold. Do you think that’s enough for you to be able to toss me that high?”

“Yeah, of course. But won’t you land hard?”

“Don’t worry, I have a plan for that. Just do it.”

“Okay,” she said, as she retrieved the potion from her satchel and started to drink it.

“Remember, your strength will increase for about ten minutes, so use the time after you toss me wisely.”

“Got it.”

Christoph signaled his knights and the Plasma Squad to form up around us to give Arduwan a good running space to throw me. She guzzled down the potion and had a look of glee afterwards. You could tell the power was coursing through her body. She scooped me up by my chainmail and got a running start before releasing me into the air. A gargoyle attempted to grab me as I whizzed past him. It was working. I flew like a bird directly towards Shagrath’s court. As I came into the window I shouted, “Gust!” while extending my hands forward and then quickly pulling them back. The spell was much more powerful this time than when I had tried to use it back when our minecart was crashing in the dwarf tunnels. A rush of wind blew towards me and slowed my crash to a tumble as I rolled into the court. Shagrath turned quickly with a look of astonishment at my appearance.

I came to my feet, dusted myself off and said, “Alright, how bout that free hit?”

He gritted his teeth angrily and jumped into the air. With his legs spread apart, he came down like a waffle iron. I dodged swiftly and watched the tile crack below his boots where he landed. He leaped again and tried once more. Then again, a third time. Then a forth. Each time I narrowly escaped.

Finally, he tried a more direct approach. He drew his black metal sword and swiped at me. I attempted to cross blades, but the power from his attack knocked me backwards. No sooner than I got my footing, he charged at me. Desperately, I took a knee and shouted, “Splash!” Water rained down around him and puddled up on the floor.

He stopped just shy of where I knelt and said, “Ha! Splash? Really?”

I touched the floor in front of him and cast, “Chill!” But instead of sending him sliding as I did to Throd, I held the spell in place and continued putting MP into it. He slipped and fell on his back. The ice made its way up Shagrath’s body and froze him to the ground.

A moment later, he burst up from the frozen sarcophagus I created and landed on his feet. He scoffed, “Mwuahaha! Your feeble skills are no match for the likes of me!”

Wasn’t looking good. I’d used a lot of magic power in the last two or three minutes. Might be able to pull a couple more good spells if I tried. I had one worth a try.

“Lightning bolt!” I yelled, pointing my finger at him.

He crossed his arms to shield his face and took the full brunt of my attack. That bolt was stronger than the one I used in the arena in Brasshaven. I was in real trouble now. That used a significant amount of MP. I’d need at least a couple more minutes before I could even use a party trick. By the looks of it, he wasn’t going to give me that.

“You fought valiantly, Sir Noble. No opponent has ever caused me such problems. I shall kill your friends quickly in honor of your efforts,” he said, as he looked down at me still kneeling and held his sword above.

At that exact moment, the most amazing, miraculous thing happened. And that’s saying a lot, because I travel to other worlds for a living. From across the king's court, a window shattered and in from it the Divine Arrow made its way directly to the back of Shagrath. Its golden arrow head protruded through the front of his chest, just below the neck. Exactly where I had aimed for it to hit.

That’s when I understood. The arrow would always hit its target and deliver a fatal hit. It just needed to be aimed. Shagrath had used his magic to teleport it to the other side of the cosmos and for the duration of this battle, it had been making its way back here. Back to its intended target.

He stood there, reeling in agony with his sword above his head. After a moment, he dropped it and fell onto his back. This caused the arrow to press forward further out of his chest. Then after a moment, it disappeared into golden dust, signifying the death of the Devil King of

Callist.

I hobbled to my feet, removed Shagrath’s helmet and went over to the balcony. I looked out over the battlefield and shouted, “The Devil King is no more!” before tossing the metallic helmet mask off the edge.

Everyone stopped in their tracks. The gargoyles scattered in every direction and the remaining followers turned tail and fled from the domain. Cheers erupted from our ranks. The day was ours.

* * *

Once I made my way back to my comrades, I was met with pats on the back and words of gratitude from all the combatants. Arduwan, her father, Captain Christoph and the other leaders sounded off applause at my return.

“You did it, Eric!” Arduwan congratulated.

I replied, “No, we did it! Come here, girl!” This time I took her into a bearlike embrace. We held each other tightly as I whispered in her ear, “you’re free to go now, Princess. The life debt is paid forward. Go now. Live your own life.”

She broke away from me, looked into my eyes and started to tear up. “Oh, Eric!” she cried, as she resumed our embrace. Didn’t hurt feeling that bosom pressed up against me one last time.

I turned my attention to Captain Christoph, who knelt down and bowed before me with only eight other surviving Knights of Vale. They suffered great losses in this final battle. But he said to me, “Lord Noble. I shall return to my king with word of your incredible achievement. I have no doubt you will be hailed a hero in our land for generations. Furthermore, I will insist that we open a direct line of diplomacy between Vale, the Barbarians, and the Dwarf Kingdom.”

I nodded as the dwarven leadership approached. The three of them knelt as well and said, “Likewise, Sir Noble. The dwarves are most grateful of the success of your rallying of our

alliance.”

King Ardu was next. He hammered a fist across his chest and stated, “Let me remind you that the Barbarian Life Debt is still in full effect for every barbarian except my daughter, Princess Arduwan. We are at your command.”

Great.

“Everyone, Everyone. Please listen up,” I said, “I know we’re all excited. But let’s all get back to the gateway and inform our allies of our victory. Frankly, I prefer we’d all just leave this awful place.”

* * *

So we all made our way back to tell Wraith and the others of our accomplishment. When the final tally came in, we mourned the deaths together as a group. The campaign against the Devil King of Callist had certainly taken its toll. 136 barbarians, 28 mercenaries, 11 dwarves, 15 knights. Only eight of the Plasma Squad survived the final battle. Three of the barbarians and five of the dwarves. They bore the brunt of the attack from the gargoyles.

We all decided to camp outside the domain wall while we recuperated before our respective journeys home. The Knights would return to Vale and the dwarves back to their mountain range. The barbarians would return to their lands and the various mercenaries would scatter back across the world as they were before we summoned them. I allowed those with functioning plasma rifles to keep them. I figured why not leave my mark on the lore of the world and distribute some legendary weapons.

Then the question came of Wraith and Arduwan. She was babying him much the same way two certain ladies I knew babied me when I got injured in Callist. Riding out of here would’ve been tough for him. Luckily, we found some healing potions in Shagrath’s castle, so the it would be easier to take care of our most badly injured. When the time came for us all to part ways, I assured Arduwan once again that it was okay. The two of them climbed aboard a horse, Wraith riding pillion of course, and we said our goodbyes.

“It’s okay, Arduwan. You can go and be happy now. You too, Wraith. Go have your own

stories.”

“What will you do?” Wraith asked.

“Me? Well, with the Devils gone and all the stones green, it’ll be a good long while before another threat arises from them. So I’m gonna go home and enjoy being a rich dude in an English mansion with a house full of hot chicks for a while.”

“Haven’t you been doing that this whole time?”

“You’re clearly forgetting the part about Devils.” I noted.

And with that all said, the two of them rode off together. The time would come when we would reunite but for now it was goodbye. They could cause havoc amongst themselves for a while. I was ready to go home. I was tired and I missed the girls. Anabel’s cooking was surely going to be savored even more than usual. Stephanie’s jokes would be a welcome sound. And Emily’s beautiful green eyes would gleam at me as she looked up from her current book.

I rode by myself across the plains and the mountains, into the desert and back to the canyon where the spring was. I descended down one last time for, hopefully, a good long time, and found the stone. Sure enough, it was green. A shade I had so longed for. This damn world was the bane of my existence. In terms of least favorite worlds, it was a toss between Callist and Murk. That place just freaked me the hell out. If I had to pick a favorite, it’d either Bristol or Synthetica. Bristol because the nostalgia of traveling with Anabel and becoming a hero for the first time in my life. Synthetica because that’s where I finally got to connect with my father and learn the full truth of why he wasn’t in my life. Plus I just liked cool Sci-fi stuff. Wraith was more of a Fantasy guy than me.

All the same. It was time to go back home.

Arc 4 Part 4-7

I came up from the well, Callist behind me. The Devils had been defeated and the stones were all green. I was tired and my body was bruised. I hadn’t bathed since I left, and my tabard was dusty as per usual upon returning. The water from the well only made it more icky.

As I climbed out of the well, I noticed loud music coming from upstairs. That was very unusual. Maybe they were planning an early celebration for my return. I quickly dried off and headed upstairs, still wearing my chainmail and tabard.

When I reached the top of the stairs and opened the cellar door, I found myself faced with something that had never occurred at this mansion since the day it was built. A massive party. College students were everywhere. Music was playing and nearly everyone had an alcoholic beverage in their hands. I made my way through the crowd to try and find someone I recognized.

The first person I saw was Stephanie, she rushed over to me and I shouted, “What’s going on?! How could you let all these people in here like this?!”

“I’m sorry, Eric!” she hollered back, “It’s Delilah! She’s out of control! She said she was bringing a few friends over and then next thing you know, all of this happened!”

We were in the hall near the kitchen. I went in to see what was going only to find Anabel. She was frightened and pinned against a wall by two men trying to talk to her. I went up and shoved them. They looked like they wanted to fight back but then freak out and left when they saw me in full battle fatigues. I started to clear everyone out of the kitchen towards the front of the house. When I went into the drawing room, there was Emily, sitting amongst the wild party with a look of disgust on her face. She looked as though she’d given up trying to get them under control some time ago. When she saw me there and noticed my own angered expression, she nodded before getting up to forcefully shut the music off.

On the far side of the room, there was Delilah. She had a solo cup in her hand and was talking to a guy that looked about ‘her age’. I’d had enough. As the music disappeared, I stood in the doorway between the drawing room and the main hall, drew my sword and screamed at the top of my lungs.

“Everybody get the fuck out of my house right now!!!”

The entire mob sprang up at once and made their way to exit. The guy who had been chatting Delilah up turned and ran as well. I just stood there in my Callist regalia with my sword held above my head as older teens and younger twenty somethings meandered past me.

Delilah had a horrified look on her face and she began to cry. She said, “How could you?” before she ran to the stairs to go up to her room.

“Delilah!” I shouted, “Come back here. We need to talk about this. You need to clean this mess up! You know better than this. What if someone found the well or the stones?”

She yelled through her tears back at me, “It was fine. I told everyone the cellar was off

limits.”

I pursued her up the stairs but she slammed the door to her room before I got there. I went to go confront her but I stopped just shy of turning the knob when I heard the sound of her crying. We could talk about it in the morning.

I turned around and headed back towards the stairs when I heard something coming from my room. I took a peek inside and saw a guy and girl in her bra making out on my bed.

I calmly said, “Oh, you didn’t get the memo?” as I raised my sword and sliced straight through a pillow. The young girl quickly pulled her shirt back on as the two of them ran down the steps.

I sat down on the bed and placed my face into my palms. How could she be so stupid? Of all people, she was the one who should’ve known the most to be careful who we let into the house. That’s when I heard a whimpering. It was Mischief. He was scared from all the noise and had been hiding in my bathroom. I called him over and he settled next to me on the bed as I pet him. That’s when I remembered.

I reached into my satchel and pulled the Jar of Entrapment out with Priscilla still inside. I sat her down on my dresser before I sat back down on the bed and started taking my armor off. She just sat there in the jar looking sadly at me.

“I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do with you yet.”

Her expression made it seem she could hear me, but nothing from inside the jar could be heard at all. I noticed that when she was screaming to be let out after I captured her.

I tipped over and slid my chainmail tunic off then said, “Help me understand this. You can hear everything that I say but no sound from the jar can be heard out here right?”

She closed her eyes and slowly nodded yes.

“Thought so. I suspected as much since your magic connection was severed once I put you in here. So let’s see…according to the Tome of Wisdom, anyone placed in the Jar of Entrapment is stuck in there until someone lets them out. Right?”

She nodded ‘yes’ again.

“And anyone trapped inside requires no food, water, or sleep while they’re in there.

Correct?”

Once more, she nodded.

“I bet you’ve done a lot of wicked things to a lot of people. Haven’t you?” I pressed.

Her eyes got big and she began shaking her head furiously.

“Don’t lie to me. I may not know what I’m gonna do with you yet, but a violent end is still not out of the question. Although I might only banish you to solitude for a decade or so. So your best bet is honesty now. Let’s try again. You’ve probably done a lot of wicked things to a lot of people, haven’t you?”

She hesitated a moment then closed her eyes and nodded.

“That’s better. You know, my little cousin in the other room. She used to be the Goddess of Second Chances. Maybe I could learn a little from her. Maybe she needs a second chance. Maybe you need a second chance. We’ll see. But you know what? All you evil types are the same. You never quite learn your lessons do ya? I could leave you in that jar for a hundred years and you’d probably plague my descendants if you got out.”

She didn’t reply either way. Just kept looking and listening to me.

“I don’t know,” I continued, “I just know it wasn’t supposed to be like this. I should be celebrating. Not furious about the mess down stairs and talking to a washed up half demon. I’ll get back to you later.”

I picked up her jar and placed her inside my dresser drawer and closed it up. Afterwards, I signaled Mischief to come downstairs with me so he could go out to potty. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I found all three girls cleaning the house up.

“Hey, Anabel. Next time you clean my room, there’s a half demon girl trapped in a jar in the top drawer of my dresser. Don’t let her out okay?”

Anabel replied, “Umm, okay. Sure,” as she went to take Mischief out back.

“Eric, we’re really sorry we let this happen,” Stephanie apologized.

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault.”

Emily strung up a bag full of trash and asked, “So I’m guessing everything went okay? Arduwan’s fine?”

“Yeah. I killed my first Devil finally. She’s with Wraith. She decided to stay with him after the life debt lifted.”

“Wow! Really?” Emily questioned.

I requested clarity by asking, “You mean, really, I killed my first Devil? Or really, Arduwan and Wraith are a thing now?”

“The second. I have no doubt you killed the Devil,” Emily answered, as she smirked.

I smiled back and said, “I appreciate the confidence. Do you girls mind if I go take a shower before grabbing something to eat?”

All of them agreed and continued cleaning as I saw myself off.

* * *

The next morning we all gathered in the kitchen to talk to Delilah. She informed us that she was moving out as of that day. She said she was staying with a friend until the fall semester started and then she’d be moving into one of the dorms.

“I can see now that I was wrong about everyone here. My wants and needs are not acknowledged. It was foolish of me to look down from the spirit realm and think I could ever fit in with all of you.”

“Delilah, stop all that. You already know that we’ve accepted you. We went through this,”I said, trying to calm and reassure her.

She sniffled and said, “No you haven’t! You hate me because I edited the universe to make myself one of you. You don’t see me as a real cousin at all.”

“You’re wrong about that. It was strange at first, but it makes sense now,” it was true. I really did feel the familial bond with her. I just couldn’t let her walk all over us and endanger the family ordeal. I continued, “This isn’t about that. It’s about the fact that my family…er, our family, has kept the well and the stones a secret for well over a thousand years. It was a huge risk having all those people we don’t know over here at once.”

“I already told you!” she cried, “I told everyone the cellar was a no go zone.”

“Well, I’m sorry to say, but you still haven’t learned that you can’t trust everyone by their word.”

“That’s just the thing, Eric. You can’t trust me either.”

Emily chimed in and said, “Delilah, this is bigger than that. We just need to take things slowly. You said it yourself that you’re just a regular teenage girl with hormones and a developing brain. You clearly didn’t think things through last night. Let’s just all calm down and talk about it some more later.”

“No, no!” she barked, “I’ve made up my mind. I’ve been banished to these lower realms and I’ve decided I was never meant to be here with all of you. I’m going out into the world and I’m gonna try to find my own place in it. I won’t try to force all of you to love me anymore.”

She got up and walked away from the rest of us. None of us knew what to say. But just then, the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it,” Stephanie said.

I breathed heavily and looked down at the floor as Emily put her hand on my back and said, “It’s okay. She probably just needs some time.”

“Maybe so,” I sighed again, “it’s just. I didn’t think things would go like this. I thought I’d defeat Shagrath and I’d come back here to spend some quality time with all of you.”

Anabel bowed her head. She was never one to relish in the drama of the household.

Then Stephanie returned and said, “Well, I’d hate to say it…but it’s about to get a whole lot worse.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She stood in the entryway to the kitchen holding up a certified letter she had just signed for and said, “You’re being sued, Eric.”