High Priest Ephesis walked through the streets of Emer’Thalis, the steady warmth of the sun a match for the warmth in his heart. He loved this city. It was his home after all, and the home of his flock besides.

As he navigated the bustling throughways, he saw many of them now: The devout of Aarris’Sett’elemera’loratel, goddess of light, praised be her name. Recognizing the highest leader of the church, they waved his way and he returned their greetings.

That was one of the pros, he thought, of living in a smaller city like this. You really got to connect with people in a way you never would in the central hubs. There was a real sense of community here.

Of course, it wasn’t all roses. Far removed from other settlements and surrounded by thick forests on three sides, life in Emer’Thalis could be a touch monotonous at times. More so, without frequent trade and travel between other settlements, it was unlikely that more people would learn of the true glory of the goddess Aariss.

Still, it was enough.

Or at least, it would have been. Sadly, that was the day when everything went wrong.

The first sign that something was amiss came from above. Despite the clear, cloudless weather, the light from the sun began to fade as if the clock had ticked forward to evening all at once.

As the unexpected darkness fell over the city, cries broke out. Many of the street goers turned to the priest for answers. He had none.

Still, it was just about as ominous of a sign as there could be, he thought. Doubly so for a priest of light.

“Goddess, what foul force darkens your city?” Clasping his hands together, Ephesis sought the divine wisdom of his deity, but silence was the only response.

As it turned out, he didn’t need a goddess’s wisdom. The answer came only moments later.

When finally the sky shifted from its artificial dusk into a fully stygian black, the beast appeared.

It started small: A sphere of darkness so utterly, impossibly black, the surrounding night felt like the morning sun in comparison. It hung above the center of the city, and despite its diminutive size, it drew the gazes of every person around as if by magnetism.

Then, it grew.

Its surface began to expand while bubbling as if whatever foul substance comprised it was boiling from within. Then, all at once, tendrils formed from each bubble and shot out at the speed of darkness.

When the first of them connected with one of the passersby, he was consumed. No cries, no signs of struggle. He disappeared within the darkness and was never seen again.

The rest fared no better.

It happened so quickly, the High Priest hardly had time to process the attack before one of the inky arms sped towards him. Unlike the others, however, this one stopped but a few breaths before him, repelled by a wall of crystalline light. It sizzled as it connected.

Soundlessly, the tentacle writhed and raged, slamming itself against the barrier in rapid succession, each strike burning more and more of it away.

While the attack was unsuccessful, it did have one effect: It snapped the High Priest from his stupor.

“By the light…” What was that thing? With the blessing of his goddess, he was perhaps the strongest person in the entire city, and he had no illusions of being able to beat it. If anything, there was only one being who could.

“Goddess grant us your strength. Your children are in need of your light.” Trusting in his defenses, he dropped to his knees, praying with his entire might.

Blessedly, she responded.

A golden radiance bloomed into existence directly above the High Priest. To some, it would have been harsh and blinding. To Ephesis, it felt as right as breathing.

Be calmed, my child. I am here.

Unlike the amorphous entity of darkness, the light took on shape, quickly forming itself into the likeness of a woman. Her figure ballooned upwards until it stood 30 meters tall, and all at once, Ephesis knew everything would be all right.

“By her grace…” He watched as she lifted arms of pure luminescence upwards, and from her palms, thin spears of light raced forward. Unerringly, they found the countless black tendrils spread across Emer’Thalis, staking them.

The darkness recoiled, its central orb and many limbs curling upwards like a startled cat.

Then, horribly, each of the appendages seemed to consume the spears, wrapping around them and pulling them into the darkness much as it had the people. With their functionality restored, the tendrils shot off once more.

Not off to more of the city’s denizens, however. This time they shot off to Aarris.

The High Priest smirked. Even a beast as foul as this was no match for the goddess. He was certain that the creature would dissolve the moment it hit her.

Unimaginably, however, it did not.

The attacks barreled into the goddess-made-manifest, one after another after another, and it almost seemed that she- No, she did stagger back. Certainly that wasn’t possible though, was it?

Mouth agape, Ephesis gazed upwards as the two forces so vastly far beyond him warred against one another. If not for his own considerable defenses, even the passing wind from their exchange might have sent him flying.

Still, he did not move. His faith was unshakeable.

Why then, did it look like his goddess was losing?

A pit formed in his stomach, sinking lower and lower as he watched each strike. For all the dark shook and writhed at the goddess's attacks, it only did so for mere moments before it was whole once more. For her part, however, Aarris visibly dimmed as the fighting prolonged.

Is that… another god? He hated to even consider it, but what else could it be? What else could beat back a god save for another god? It was a horrifying thought, and for the first time in perhaps—well, ever—he wondered if Aarris might fail. Though he was fully and completely devoted to her, he would reluctantly admit she was not the strongest deity in existence.

I should do something, he realized with a start. But what could he do? If his goddess couldn’t defeat this “dark god”, how could he?

I don’t have to beat it, though, do I? Certainly, he didn’t know any spells that could destroy the deific monstrosity assaulting the city, but he did know the one…

It would have to do.

After all, how could the head of the order not do everything he could for his goddess?

To the dungeon, then. For the first time since the attacks began, Ephesis moved, and he did so swiftly.

His resolve wavered with each block he sped through, spotting entire buildings reduced to rubble from the great powers’ fight. I visited that bakery a few hours ago. Completely gone. And… that’s the Emiens’ house, isn’t it? I used to visit to teach their son the scriptures. At this time of day, they were probably inside, weren’t they? Then they’re…

He let the thoughts slide off his light shield. Right now, they were even more dangerous than the darkness, threatening to bring him to his knees should he dwell on them for too long.

His only saving grace was that he didn’t have far to go. To the central town altar, down the tunnel, and finally to the city’s dungeon. He knew the way so well, he could almost run there with his eyes closed.

He’d even tried it. He’d kept them shut to block out the sights that would otherwise greet him, stopping only once he’d tripped over rubble too many times. He found upon opening them that his vision was still impaired, though this time by a thick layer of water which silently fled from his eyes.

Finally, blessedly, he arrived at the portal to the city’s dungeon feeling as though his very soul was about to keel over and wretch.

Can I even do this?

As if to reassure himself, the High Priest turned his wrist upwards. A swirling, golden mark bubbled up to the surface of his skin.

I can and I must. He’d never known a practitioner who’d mastered light magic to the extent that he had. And besides, he was no mere priest; he was a Protagonist. Aarris's chosen one.

It would be enough.

The plan was simple in a sense. While Ephesis knew he lacked the power to fully defeat the monster — for god or not, that’s certainly what it was — that wasn’t to say he couldn’t trap it. Considering one of its tendrils had failed to get through his light shield, if he could surround the creature with them, perhaps he could cage it in.

If that wasn’t enough, he’d throw the makeshift prison into the dungeon. A settlement dungeon was an entire pocket dimension in and of itself. Even if small fragments of its power managed to escape, they’d be able to accomplish little while locked so far away.

Steeling himself, he got to work.

Refracted Sight. His vision shifted, and suddenly, he looked down upon the city from a bird’s eye view. Doing his best to block out the horror of the scene before him, he moved on.

Grace of the Gods. As a High Priest, he could link his mana pool to his goddess’s for a short period. He was wary of taking from her with how diminished she already was, but there was no way around it. A spell large enough and powerful enough to achieve his goals would take far more mana than he had.

Radiant Cage. Pane after pane of radiant, crystalline light sprung into existence about the city until they formed a fully encompassing barrier.

Light Manipulation. He used his mastery of his chosen element to pull on the cage. It heeded his call, shrinking, compressing. Impermeable to the dark, where it met the writhing tentacles, the barrier pulled them along. At the same time, it passed harmlessly through the goddess, freeing her from the battle.

Ephesis continued to squeeze and squeeze until the black mass was reduced to its original size. Only then did he stick one hand through the shimmering dungeon portal and enact his final workings.

Harden Light. The cage solidified, locking into place.

Warp Light. By forcing the cage to travel along light beams, he summoned the prison to hand, intent on casting it through the portal.

At least, that’s what he tried to do. The cage flickered, the light failing to pull along its prisoner.

In that moment of weakness, the darkness struck.

Thousands of wriggling, inky tentacles exploded from its surface towards the goddess. Visibly dimmed and diminished from both her battle and Ephesis’s use of her mana, she put up little defense. Like a kraken to an unlucky sailor, the tentacles reeled her in, and in a split second, she was swallowed.

“No! Dark cursed- No!” He would fix this. He had to fix this.

It was at that moment that his magic chose to work once more.

Perhaps it was bolstered by the proximity of the goddess it now contained. Perhaps the darkness was too preoccupied with consuming the deity it now held within. Regardless of the why, the cage sprung back into existence, boxing the dark deity in once again.

What was more, Warp Light finally took hold.

The radiant cage disappeared from his bird’s eye view, traveling near-instantaneously to his outstretched hand. Completely submerged within the dungeon portal, it disappeared.

“Gods- I just trapped my own god.” How was he going to get her out? What if he couldn’t?

He breathed. Aarris was a god. She wasn’t going to die anytime soon. He hoped.

As long as he had access to the dungeon, he’d be able to visit the cage and figure something out. In reality, it was a win. While Aarris could handle herself, the citizens of Emer’Thalis notably could not.

His plan might have not gone off exactly as he wanted, but he’d done the important thing. The people were safe. God or not, the darkness wasn’t able to harm them anymore.

As it so happened, he’d never been more wrong in his life.

Without warning, the air above the city erupted in a wave of condensed, dark mana. Still watching from above, Ephesis saw with startling clarity as it washed over the entirety of Emer’Thalis and beyond.

The mana forcibly booted him from his skill, snapping him back into his own viewpoint. Only moments later, it flooded the tunnel he was in as well, battering his defenses so thoroughly, they nearly broke.

It… It bled through a different dimension. That wasn’t even supposed to be possible.

More importantly though- He stilled his mind. Did he even want to finish that thought?

More importantly though, did anyone else even survive that? He was the strongest light practitioner in the city, and even he’d barely pulled through.

He got his answer only moments later.

Calculating…

User is the last living resident of Emer’Thalis.

Congratulations! You’re now the settlement owner of Emer’Thalis!

Note, as the town hall has been destroyed and the current population is 1, settlement has been downgraded from Average City to Deserted.

Note, your settlement no longer fulfills the requirements to have a settlement dungeon. Closing entrance now.

The portal to the dungeon snapped closed behind him.

“Everyone in the entire city is dead…” He let the words linger there, unsure how to process them. He couldn’t.

His mind came to a crashing halt as all thoughts fled him. He stayed that way for quite some time, until realizing that he could feel something.

Is that… Aarris?

He probed along his mana pathways until he located a light tugging, the thin thread through which he’d used Grace of the Gods to take in his goddess’s mana. Now, however, instead of pushing mana into him, it was pulling.

She’s regaining her mana… through me.

The thought should have elated him. She was alive!

Instead, it only filled him with further dread.

Our connection is already tenuous. If I leave this place, it might snap. If I want her to live… I think I’m stuck here. I’d go into the dungeon and give her the power more directly, but…

He glanced back at the empty stone archway, devoid of its usual portal.

Could I open it back up again? I could try. I’d need to rebuild the city.

But of course, that was a pipe dream. Second by second, dark mana still spewed forth into the city.

This place isn’t inhabitable anymore, is it? And even if it were, I’m stuck.

The hits kept coming and coming and coming until finally, finally the High Priest broke.

“Well who cares, gods dammit! It can’t keep spending mana like that forever!” Someday the city would be livable again. Maybe not someday soon, but someday. Barring that, either Aarris would break free on her own, or the monstrous darkness would somehow escape.

No matter what the case was, all he had to do was wait. His Constitution had long ago passed the point where age was a concern to him.

The thought of leaving his goddess behind didn’t even occur to him. He was the High Priest after all.

What was more, where would he go? Nearly everyone he knew had just died. In a very real sense, she was all he had left.

No. He would stay, and he would wait.

As almost an afterthought, he pulled up the settlement interface and flipped to the Defenses section. “Wouldn’t do to have scavengers running about while I wait. In fact, for all I know, that thing might have had followers.”

He dumped the entirety of the city’s remaining settlement energy into defenses. Not like anyone else will be needing it. Firstly, he opted for a classic defensive barrier. As a city dedicated to a god of light, there were also a number of invisibility and disorientation spells available, and he selected them readily.

As a final precaution, he constructed another Radiant Cage, but this time around himself. Even if someone did manage to enter the city, they’d have a hard time attacking him.

One day, goddess. When the time arose, he’d be waiting.

As the vision came to an end, I groggily opened my eyes. The images from the High Priest’s final moments in Emer’Thalis ran and reran through my brain, bouncing around.

For all that I’d just seen though, the biggest thing on my mind wasn’t the dark monstrosity or the goddess of light. It wasn’t even Rock, who now lay snoring deeply to my side.

Nope, the wildest part of it all was the prompt that hung in the air before me.

High Priest Ephesis wishes to transfer ownership of Emer’Thalis to you. Accept?

Yes No

“What the hell?”