You allow your form to shift into that of a foxy kobold. A pointy snout, bigger eyes, wet nose, and shimmering black and red fur. Kobolds did not consider big chests attractive, and you were a bit sad they’d shrunk so much. But you’ve got long legs and muscular limbs, which you can appreciate. Even better are your padded feet and hands, with thick black claws. They’re much sturdier than your normal demonic nails. Much sneakier than your normal feet, too.

You don your unnoticeability charm you got in Chanam and take a deep breath. You meld back into the shadows and enter the cave. It’s like an ant’s maze in there.

Tunnels go back and forth, up and down, intersecting and twirling about. Some parts are completely vertical, with claw marks indicating how the kobolds move about. Occasionally you’d stop as a kobold passes by you, lantern in paw and pickaxe stained in dust and a brown substance on their shoulders.

All of their eyes are hollow and sunken.

You even saw one leading a pack of dwarves in similar conditions. No chains. Without the dogs, they’d probably be lost forever in this absurd maze. They don’t need chains. Addiction has already got them.

Avoiding the light of the torches, you find a secluded, locked room. Being a shadow, you can simply slip under the door. What you find inside is nothing more than a bunch of crates.

Odd.

Until you spot what’s written on the side.

‘CLASS S TRADABLE ITEM: PSYCHOSTIMULANT, HIGHLY ADDICTIVE/DEADLY’

Every single one of the boxes said that. In smaller writing beneath, is written:

‘BEING FOUND IN POSSESSION OF THESE DRUGS IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTRIES/STATES/PRINCIPALITIES WILL RESULT IN EITHER INCARCERATION IN NIFLHEIM WITHOUT TRIAL OR DEATH: Prillia, Holy Harpy Hegemony, Reeds, Spider Island, Glacia, Gerhair, United Coalition of Costal Equatorial States (UCCES), Pirate Grotto, Nancy’s Tavern, Dragon Lands, and the vassal states or colonies of those mentioned above.’

That’s harsh, but understandable. In a world without magic, the damage of hardcore drugs can be minimized and corralled without any need for such harsh practices. But in a world where magic can be used by anyone in various forms, and gods walk around in mortal flesh?

It’s a risk to get compromised, and even powerful magicians can be nothing more than slaves to their dealers.

So pretty bad.

Hell, the very fact that they’re marked as such could indicate there was a crisis because of these things. And who knows how bad they’d be if the drugs were infused with magic.

You shudder and snarl. These things may even be able to affect you. You summon a dark flame and let it jet loose onto the boxes. It burns with such intensity, smoke doesn’t have a chance to be formed, and there’s nothing left but gray ashes. You let out a sigh of relief and you slip back out.

Following the paths randomly, you pass by a skulking kobold before noting something strange. You almost left it behind, but years of going through dungeons in video games makes you investigate closer.

A shadow is leading into a wall. But you don’t see it. How interesting.

Going through the illusionary wall, you feel as if something is stopping you. But through brute force, you break through what turns out to be a spell array. The room doesn’t have treasure.

It’s an open room with a hole in the ceiling that goes directly up outside. Whoever built this room was obsessed with time.

Clocks line the walls, hourglasses sit along the edges, marked candles shine on shelves, water jugs drip from suspended ropes, and a giant sundial lays in the middle of the room.

Yet nothing moved.

The clocks showed the exact same time, but their pendulums were stuck mid-swing.

Sand in the hourglasses suspended themselves in the air within, like tiny, glittering stars over immobile deserts in bottles. Marked candles shone and emitted heat but did not flicker or melt the wax. The water jugs dripped water, but the water stood still. And the sundial, despite the fact the sun shone at noon, cast a long shadow. All of them marked the same time.

Six o’clock.

Of course, there’s no treasure to plunder, no adhesive to be found for your settlements… Just this eerie silence.

Hmmm.

You’re uncomfortable.

Best leave.

You slip back out and venture deeper into the grotto. You manage to make a rough map inside your head, but aside from the two rooms and a couple of shared lofts, there’s nothing of interest. No comment on the shitty living conditions.

You’re already pissed someone is forcing people to work in a mine, but the enslaving them with drugs and not even bothering to get a proper mat to sleep on, or unrusted bucket to shit in sets a fire simmering underneath your calm demeanor. You pass more and more people in the mines as you stealthily go downwards. Until you find the treasure trove.

From Corruption’s memory, it’s obvious she got gipped. She fawned over scraps while whoever controlled this operation lorded over hills of mithril and adamantium. If the chipping on the walls of the room of the cave are of any indication, there used to be far more.

A cruel, yet efficient operation that yields results that are almost as breathtaking as the callousness it takes to do such things? You’re beginning to suspect that Aevum is responsible for this. Deeper in the labyrinth you go, until you come up the greatest cavern of them all. It isn’t as large as the necromancer’s money trap, but it’s still impressive in the scale of its works.

Hundreds of people were pulling carts full of metals as a score of kobolds shifted the earth with ragged claws to mine into the ground.

The sheer scale and efficiency was almost like a working machine. Dogs struck at the walls, clearing rock and ores in tandem. Elves, dwarves, and the few goblins picked up the ores, dusted them off, and carefully placed them in a cart. Once a cart was filled, a slave would pull it towards a pile, where elves and smaller dwarves chiseled and smelted out the impurities. Their hands are burned and scarred from the relentless work.

You spot a few taking breaks to go towards the head of it all. On the ledge overlooking it all, stands what looks to be a woman. She’s about twenty feet in front of you, her back turned.

What is left of her purple cloak was patchy, and bits of metal jutted out of her body in some sort of freakish terminator/Frankenstein manner.

Her hands are bulbous, soldered with wires with her fingers extended by a sharp points of adamantium. Intricate, mismatched, metal wings adorn her back. Her metallic parts jerk about, spasming in pain.

And her soul…Is really fucked up.

A long time ago, it might have passed as normal, but it is twisted and ripped. She hates what she does, but believes it is for a just cause. And the pain her metal bits give her…

She takes some weird type of pride into that.

She guards a pouch at her side, and every time someone approaches her, she passes a tiny bit of white stuff, which they immediately snort. You’d think it was cocaine, but one of the workers takes a bit too much. His head starts smoking and you nearly jump out of your shadow when his head fucking explodes.

The woman catches his body before it falls to the ground and a wild hunger rises within her. Her jaw unhinges like a snake’s and she takes his neck in her mouth and sucks the corpse dry. Once the body is nothing more than brittle bone and dry skin, she tosses the body aside in a pile of similarly withered bodies.

There’s no saving her. You shift out of the shadows and aim a bolt of dark magic at the back of her head. With a small apology, you fire.

!

She…

She deflected it!

In one swift moment, her wing rotated 180 degrees and struck the bolt out of the air. She turns around and glares at you, both of her eyes replaced by red lenses.

“The rest of you, don’t slack off! I’ve got an intruder to take care of.” The lenses zoom onto you and she sneers.

Does the charm not work on cyborgs?

“Kobold, you’ve made the worst mistake of your life.”

Oh, fuck, she can see you.

She crouches and leaps over to you, her metal wings cutting apart stalactites besides her.

Panicking, you send a few more bolts her way, but this time, they’re blocked by a silver-magenta shield. Magic.

Time to make a tactical retreat.

You rush back up the cave and feel something hit your side. Gritting through the searing pain, you heal yourself and keep running. Her voice carries throughout the cave.

“You can’t escape me, kobold. Nothing escapes from Paradox.” You hide in a dark corner and wait, making sure not to breathe. “Hiding from me is useless. I was outfitted with so many mana circuits that nothing can escape me, and no magic can hit me by surprise. Although I am curious how you can use such magic. Perhaps Aevum will allow me to dissect you.”

Her tone was placid until she mentioned Aevum, where it turned soft. You grit your teeth. This bastard again! Just as she approaches you leap out and  rake your claws across her jaw.

Except she stops it. Your entire body is encompassed in a glow as she holds you firm.

“Surprise attacks won’t work on me. I could sense your presence. Not to mention a variety of other upgrades. The equipment I wear to replace my own weak, unworthy body is a prototype created by the great Aevum. The only one better equipped would be Aevum himself.”

That’s right, you chide yourself. He did sense you when you were in the ship. This mithril suit would explain it.

“Now come, we have much to learn.”

Not yet bitch!

Concentrating on your magic, you blow flames in her face, surprising her enough to loosen her telekinetic grip on you, which you escape through your own magic blast. A shield popped up to block the dark fire, but you’re lucky she flinched.

You sprint away again.

That punch and escape took a lot out of your mana reserves. You still have about two-thirds what you originally had, so you book it.

Paradox is in no hurry.

You hear her footsteps slowly trotting in your direction. How does she know where you are? No matter how far you go, how many twists and turns you take, her placid steps reach you eventually. You have no doubt that making a serious attempt to exit the cavern would end up with her doing some complete bull.

Like teleporting.

You can tell.

She isn’t like the necromancer or Glasgow. Everything about this mine was done meticulously, an organization without flaws. No way would she leave anything up to chance.

Most likely, she’s waiting for you to tire yourself out. It’s best to pretend she has the complete environmental advantage rather than making your way to the exit and tipping anything off.

Time to use your new favorite trick!

…No, not fucking the problem away, though you’d love to do a vampire cyborg. Well, a prettier one, without all those bits jutting out of her face and body.

Since brute force doesn’t work, then a confusing ambush should finish her.

Now to find a place with a lot of chances for contingency plans. You find a suitably open area and set yourself up. Plenty of outcroppings, shadows, a crumbled stalagmite and a massive stalactite looming above.

You slip into the shadows and wait. The steps come closer and closer.

“Oh? How odd. I know you’re in here. The tracer spell I infused with that first bolt hasn’t worn off. But I can’t detect you.”

You silently curse. That’s how!

“Come on, there’s no escape. I could track you, and even if you get close to the exit, I would head you off before you get close. And you’ve seen how effective your interesting magic was.”

You scowl and jump out sending a bolt directly at her face. She easily deflects it with a wing, but doesn’t see the chain flying in from behind her. A shield automatically deflects it as she shakes her head.

“Distractions for your magic attacks are useless. The circuits automatically block all”—

CRASH!

She didn’t notice the massive stalactite that you broke off. You let out a sigh of relief. She said magic attacks. A small flaw in her armor; seems it was built against magic, and she became too reliant on it.

The rubble rumbled.

Oh please no.

You duck and cover as the rocks explode outwards in a flash of purple.

“Although your tactic was clever, it was futile. I am Paradox. I have no beginning nor an end, born from the Original, forever stuck in a loop. Ageless. Immortal. To kill me would be to break one of the fundamental laws of time.”

What the fuck kind of Mary Sue bullshit is this?  You decide to nope the fuck out and hop into a shadow once more.

“Oh no, you don’t.” Paradox frowns.

Her hands flare and light flows throughout the cave. You’re ejected out of the dissipating shadow in confusion. A stream of light spreads throughout the cave, illuminating everything, leaving no shadows.

What the fuck.

You’ve almost running on empty, and she cut out your easy escape route. She makes your puny magic seem like nothing more than sparklers and bangers to her twenty pounds of C4!

“No shadows to hide in, no place to run, no way to defeat me. Do the smart thing and give up. Maybe Aevum will give you his blessing as he did to me.”

You get up slowly. You give an attractive smile. And run away, her sigh still reaching your ears.

“I have all the time in the world. You don’t. Eventually you will grow hungry, you will grow tired, you will get sloppy.

She wants to play mind games, huh? You’re not the only one who can get sloppy. Play dirty. Running low on magic has you thinking lewd thoughts at inconvenient times.

You make sure you’re far away as you continue running, keeping your soulsight on Paradox at all times.

“You keep saying Aevum this and Aevum that, but you do realize he’s a pretty awful dude, right?”

She doesn’t show it on the surface, but deep within, she’s bristled.

“Although everything we do seems awful, it is for the greater good. How can you claim to know of Aevum?”

You snort loudly as you keep running through the tunnels, an idea forming as you run in seemingly random directions.

“I know a lot about the asshole. I know that he used a necromancer to subjugate the Plains to gather some sort of blue life energy.”

A spike of both interest and fear appears inside Paradox. You keep running down the tunnels, narrowing your scope to a particular area. It’s a risky gamble, but it seems to be the only way to win this one. Especially with all her monologuing.

“I know about the corsair he employed to breed, presumably for MORE life energy.” The fear is growing.  “And now I know that he needs a lot of mithril and adamantium, probably to create a machine powered by life force to do something massive.”

Paradox has hints of panic, but says nothing.

“But best of all? I broke the life force container, I took apart that corsair crew, and now I’m going to defeat you.”

Panic and fear turns into anger.

“You…How DARE YOU?!”

Her soul disappears and reappears further down the tunnel in front of you.

You called it, teleportation. You immediately turn away and smirk.

“I understand why you would hate him for all that, but to destroy his work?! I was once like you, even though he saved me from my loop! Prideful, unconquerable, unmoving!”

She teleports once more in front of you, but you turn before you run into her again. You’re getting better at predicting where she’ll be, as if her soul reaches to where she’s aiming before she actually gets there.

Fascinating.

“But even as he hurt me with the prototypes, he was gentlemanly and kind, apologizing and talking to me about what he had sacrificed. What he intends to do! And I grew to admire him.”

You bite off a quip about Stockholm syndrome. Every sentence is punctuated by a teleport, and she seems to be herding you exactly where you need to be.

“He will remake the world, remake it better! No more time loops, no more pirates, no more liars and thieves! No more murderers, no more monsters, and no more dragons! A perfect world, in perfect harmony! One that my Original would strive for!” As she monologues, you’re in position and work quickly.

You’ve only got about ten minutes before she reaches you. Less if she teleports. You set the trap.

“You’re pacing now, you’re scared. You realize you’re cornered. You, who has not known the extent of Aevum Emit Sisto’s honor. His honesty to both himself and those he has wronged.” She’s getting closer. “His laughter in the face of impossibility.”

Paradox rounds the corner in front of you.

“His love for the family he had lost. And the incredible magic he holds.” Why does it feel like she did a thing? “It must be fate that your journey to stop him ends here, where I began to help him.”

You step out of range of her telekinesis, mimicking a scared expression. Succubus powers come with the natural ability to act, and you use it to your full advantage. She takes a few more steps forwards until—

“It isn’t fate.”

“Excuse me?” Her jaws slam shut as her bionic eyes focus on you.

“I said: it isn’t fate. Or coincidence.”

Jets of flame erupt from your feet into the tunnel you dug earlier, heating the air inside until…

PENG!

It escaped where it could: right beneath a lever. Superheated air erupts from the ground beneath Paradox’s feet, catapulting her into the illusionary wall.

And into the room.

Her comment is what cinched it.

If it began for her here, then Aevum must have pulled her out of her ‘loop’ here. If she can be pulled out, she can be put back in. You walk through the wall and see Paradox struggling, as if she were trapped in molasses.

“Yooooooooouuuuuu plaaaaaaaaannnnnned thiiiiiiiiiissssss?”

She’s trying to escape, but everything in the room starts to move again. You decided to speed it up before she can make her way out. And just for shock factor…

You shift back into your original form and her eyes widen slowly.

“Deeeeeemmmoooooon Kwwwaaachuuuuu?!” She mistakes you for someone else.

“Nope,” you say as you reach up to a pendulum and push it along with a small tap. “I’m Quinn.”

And the clocks start spinning faster as Paradox goes slower…Until there’s nothing left but a still figure that dissipates into nothingness. Her armor and drug pouch clatter to the ground. You could leave everything as is…But you honestly don’t want to deal with a vampire terminator ever again.

You nab the pouch and burn everything else in the room. Turning back into a goblin, you made your way back to the cavern you found Paradox in.

But first…

In the treasure room, you transport half of the riches to the storage unit in Haven. There’s still enough left for everybody. You nod contently and get to the cavern. The miners look at you with dead eyes as you raise up the pouch.

“Paradox is gone. If you want what’s in the pouch, gather everybody and get them to the exit.”

All at once they drop their tools and begin shuffling towards you. You’re going to fix this.