We were lucky to be standing next to Stanley, who was lucky to be hovering behind Heda. As the purple flames split apart in front of the tall woman, we slammed our shoulder against Stanley to press both of us closer to Heda’s back. The flames licked at our skin even so, burning our face and lighting our shirt on fire, the heat in the air unbearable—until it wasn’t. The fabric of the Material World grew ever thinner as multiple Domains sprang to life around us and soothing light quenched the purple flames.

We caught a glint of steel as Tamara rammed her spear into her own throat, but Kim stepped closer, his body emitting pulses of light. Our burnt skin healed in a heartbeat, our fatigue evaporated, and much more importantly, the shade was unable to kill its body. Blood ran down from the corner of Tamara’s mouth as she twisted the spear in her neck, but the damaged flesh around the spearhead healed with each pulse of light.

“Gah,” Tamara gurgled, her bloody grin widening—and then the floating stone arena under us broke apart.

“Catch her!” Jack yelled as we all began to fall, but Kim was too slow to react and the majority of the Players didn’t even know who to catch. The Material World thinned even further until it almost felt like we were taken to the Astral Plane. Soft, cotton-like clouds gathered around our waist to slow our fall, the cavern’s walls turned purple and began bubbling, shimmering fishes swam next to us as if we were underwater, and large chessboards floated in the air. It was one of those chessboards that we crashed onto, landing on a white square. A monochrome copy of us emerged from a black square on the other side of the board, but we ignored it for a moment, keeping our eyes on Tamara. The cotton-cloud was surrounding her too, but even if her fall was arrested, her hands weren’t. We could only watch helplessly as she drove her spear up into her brain and the shade broke free.

The creature’s dark shape seemed almost tangible this close to the Astral Plane, though it was featureless and vague, like ink spreading through water. The vibrant green eyes of the shade were narrowed into malevolent slits as the creature shot toward Jack. We threw Soul Eater immediately, the black weapon cutting through a shimmering fish to intercept the shade—which abruptly changed course, dodging the weapon. We teleported ourselves to Soul Eater as it sailed past and twisted around to throw it again, but the shade was too nimble and evaded the weapon once again. As we began to fall we saw that the shade had changed directions, with Jack nowhere to be seen.

We landed on another chessboard, cursing inwardly. Sure, perhaps we were the only person here who the shade was afraid of … but we wouldn’t be able catch it like this. Although it didn’t know how often we could teleport Soul Eater – every twelve seconds – it knew too much about us overall. It knew too much about all of us.

“Watch out, watch out!”

Above us, the fat cyborg and one of his teammates were launching various objects at the shade as it approached—straight through the projectiles and into the cyborg’s body. The man next to the cyborg turned to run, but the shade was faster, extending a blade from its forearm and impaling the other man from behind.

“James!” a woman shrieked as she flew in with a jetpack and hurled the javelin in her hand at the cyborg. The shade raised a hand in answer, conjuring a large metal frame – a window, held up by multiple drones – in the space between them. The javelin that passed through the window shrunk in size until it was only a toothpick that hit the cyborg’s chest. We couldn’t see what happened next because our chalk white copy rushed at us with its fist swinging, so we jumped off the board and grabbed the back of a shimmering dolphin instead.

“Which is the shade?” Stanley appeared by my side, his eyes on the jetpack-woman and the cyborg as they pummeled each other. Before I could have replied a large antenna emerged from the cyborg’s back and dolphin I was holding onto burst apart, causing me to fall—no, to accelerate toward the ground. From the corner of our eyes we saw that Stanley and all the other flying Players were struggling to control their flight. We weren’t worried, however; Soul Eater had most likely landed somewhere down below already. We teleported to the dagger before we could have hit the ground, arriving at a rooftop relatively far from the center of the battle.

Not every Player were so fortunate, however. Many of the stone buildings had already collapsed when the floating arena fell atop them, and now they got destroyed further as the Players and the remains of the chessboards slammed into them at high speed. The cyborg left an especially large crater as he landed, and though he survived the fall just fine, I was pretty sure that other Players weren’t so fortunate. Another Domain triggered and turned the stone into liquid at a wide area—but I was well out of its range. The lake of liquid stone flowed wherever it could, which meant that the cyborg’s crater was filled in no time. The shade got caught in the deluge, but not for long; with rockets at the sole of his feet propelling him upwards, the cyborg managed to burst free. Heda was there a moment later, running on top of the liquid stone to grab the cyborg’s leg and slam him back into the stone-lake.

A series of explosions followed and we decided to move closer to the battle, jumping from one rounded stone house to the next. The fallen rubble made our path more treacherous, but with Soul Eater we had a safety measure in case we slipped. When the liquid stone ahead of us was suddenly lifted up in the air, we wondered how many of the Players were still alive. The liquid pooled above the battleground like an angry storm cloud, then slammed back down all at once. Yeah, we had to be patient with rejoining the battle or else we’d suffer a quick death.

“Like small gods battling each other,” I said as the lake turned back into solid stone, trapping the cyborg’s legs. The Player with the superhero cape flew in, letting out a freezing breath that hit the cyborg—too late. The shade had already pointed the cyborg’s hand at his own face, blowing his head off. The shade’s black shape then dove through the freezing fog and slammed into the hero’s body, taking control of him. A moment later the Player with the fiery wings tackled the hero from behind, hurling both of them to the ground not far from Heda.

Having gotten close enough to the battle, I crouched down on the edge of the roof to consider my chances. If I attacked now, the shade would most likely launch ranged attacks at me before I could stab it with Soul Eater. Possessing damage-dealer Players was very much in the shade’s interest; it needed proper offensive Abilities to keep the pressure on everyone, and it had to make sure that its body died quickly if things went wrong. Extra mobility helped a lot too, so that it didn’t get outmaneuvered.

I couldn’t see many Players still on their feet. My first thought that they were either dead or too injured to fight, but then I spotted Jessie off to the side, miraculously alive and in the middle of running away. I couldn’t really blame her; considering how many Players the shade had already killed, I had half a mind to leg it too. Yet we decided to say, because we had to take risks if we wanted to get out of this on the top.

The battle had calmed down somewhat, so we climbed off the roof and walked out into the open, where the liquid stone had turned solid and formed a wide flat square. The Player with the cape was dead and the shade was currently in the fire-wielder’s body, dodging blows from Heda’s various weapons. Although his wings had been destroyed, even on the ground he was faster than Heda and darted in and out to place a fiery circles on her armor.

“Faris, stop!” Heda said between blows. “Faris, if you’re still in there, listen—”

She couldn’t finish her sentence because the marks on her armor exploded, enveloping her in flames. Heda roared, whether in pain or anger we weren’t sure, and she collapsed to the ground as her armor continued to burn. Faris lunged at her with his scimitar, but a blue glow surrounded him mid-jump and tossed him backward.

“You don’t touch her,” Kim said, staggering out of the ruins not too far from us. His clothes were badly burnt and one of his arms was clearly broken, but he gestured with his other hand and the flames on Heda’s armor went out. The shade turned to look at both of us, his mouth set in a wolfish grin.

“Faris was a battlemage with short-range, fire-based magic,” Kim said, coming to our side. “He’s probably low on mana now. I’ll cover you, Randel.”

Our eyes flicked from Kim to Heda’s unmoving form, then back to the shade. He was approaching us with a relaxed walk, brandishing his scimitar and making an identical sword appear in his other hand. The battlefield was so deathly quiet that we could hear his footsteps. Kim took up a position a few steps behind us and we reversed our grip on Soul Eater while angling our body sideways, hiding the weapon from the shade’s sight as we lowered ourselves into a half-crouch.

“I thought you were more cunning than this, Randel,” Faris spoke as he walked slowly closer. He lifted one of his swords and tapped his temple with its tip. “I’ve been in the head of more people than you can possibly imagine. That stance you assumed? I know that fighting style intimately. I know its strengths and weaknesses. You won’t be able to land a single hit on me, not even with your teleportation. Not even with the help of that failure behind you.”

We ignored the shade’s monologue, realizing it as distraction. To recharge his wings, perhaps? We shifted our footing, making Faris tense up for a moment.

“Come,” we said, then swung our arm around and feinted a dagger throw. Faris raised his swords to block the nonexistent projectile and we rushed in, striking low. Faris parried our strike with ease, but from the way he moved we could see that he had not expected our dagger to be so long—almost a sword now. He struck with his other sword but we stepped past him quickly, lengthening Soul Eater further, slashing at his leg. Faris jumped back with a burst of fire coming from his feet, but we spun once to gain some momentum and threw the sword at him to close the gap. Faris raised his swords once again to block, but we teleported to Soul Eater and changed the blade’s direction, cutting Faris on his arm. We followed up with another strike, and though Faris managed to block this time, he hadn’t accounted for Soul Eater’s shape to be changed into a small scythe—and so we left a gash on the side of his face.

The shade wasn’t grinning anymore. We kept up the offensive, transforming the scythe into a spear to launch a series of jabs at Faris as he retreated. We did not doubt that Faris had plenty of stats for his Weapon Skills to strike with inhuman speed, but by forcing him to constantly defend himself, activating the proper Weapon Skill would be much more difficult—especially if we kept changing our weapon and our fighting style. We shaped the spear into a halberd just as Faris adjusted for our jabs, then as we nicked the side of his torso we shortened the halberd into a double bladed axe.

He blocked our next strike and locked his swords into the blade so that we couldn’t disengage easily, so we let Soul Eater go and ducked low, punching him in the stomach. As he doubled over we grabbed his arms and slammed his own swords into his face, breaking his nose with a loud crunch. He swung at us blindly but we evaded his swords with ease, then teleported Soul Eater to us and brought it down to our opponent’s head. Faris twisted aside and so the axe sunk into his shoulder instead, after which—

“Enough,” he growled and a burst of flames sent us staggering backward. Kim quenched our burning clothes immediately, but Faris swung his sword with his uninjured arm and we barely managed to block it with the flat of our axe’s head. Our hand went numb from the force of the impact, and then a second strike disarmed us easily. Robbed of our weapon and our teleport on cooldown, all we could do was to dodge when Faris swung again. But the shade’s body was caught in a blue glow once again, and Kim’s telekinesis flung him backward before he could have landed a hit.

“Tsk,” Faris said, glaring at Kim. We used this reprieve to pick Soul Eater back up and turn it into a dagger, but the shade didn’t give us more time than that; with a burst of fiery wings Faris flew straight at us, and we were barely able to remain on our feet as we blocked his sword with our dagger. Pressing his weapon closer so that our blades remained locked, Faris opened his mouth to let out a wave of freezing breath. We closed our eyes just before the cold hit our face, and a moment later we were flying backward to land roughly on our back.

“You alright?” we heard Kim ask, but we had trouble opening our eyes and our face had gone numb from the cold. When we finally looked up, we had fully expected the shade to already be on top of us—but instead he just stood still, swaying unsteadily on his feet.

“What—” Faris tried and failed to speak. His scimitar fell out of his hand and he dropped to one knee, breathing heavily.

“I apologize for being late,” Jack said, stepping out of a nearby shadow. “The shade is now paralyzed, though it is only a temporary measure.”

We rose to our feet slowly, wiping the frost out of our eyelashes. Our arms were aching from the brief combat with the shade, but we knew that this was our chance. Faris could barely remain on his knees now, his face—grinning once again?

“Hng,” Faris gurgled and a portal opened above him, through which a large red sweller dropped onto his head. Jack launched multiple knives in an eyeblink, but the knives hit the monster too late; the sweller chomped down on Faris and the shade burst free, shooting toward Jack. We gripped Soul Eater tighter and got ready to throw it, but Jack didn’t stand around helplessly either; he plunged back into the shadows, evading the shade. The inky creature then flew around us in a wide arc to target Kim instead, and even though we flung Soul Eater with as much force we could muster, the shade sensed it coming and dodged it just as easily as before.

In the following moment, two things happened at once; Kim used his telekinesis to launch Soul Eater at himself, and the shade slammed into his body. The black dagger hit Kim just a moment later, sinking into his chest—and though the shade reached for the weapon, we teleported to it quicker to thrust the blade deep into Kim’s heart. We held the man firmly as he staggered, the light in his eyes going out.

Quest completed: Purging Stonehearth

+1 Feat Congratulations, your level has increased!

Level 12 reached.

Level 13 reached. Congratulations, your legend has risen!

Legend 4 reached.

“Finally,” we said, yanking Soul Eater out of the corpse.

“Finally,” the Scarlet Hand said, slamming our body to the ground so hard that we almost lost consciousness. A terrible crushing force closed around our left leg and before we could react it flung us into the air, our leg cracking loudly as our bones snapped in several places. When we hit the ground for the second time we could barely think through the pain, but we were all too aware of the crushed lump that landed beside our head—it was our left leg from the knee down, separated from our body.

The scream that left my throat was raw and animalistic as agony unlike anything I had ever felt took over. There was blood everywhere, my blood, and though part of us were busy stopping the bleeding, congealing my orange blood, it hurt so much, I just wanted to make it stop, I just wanted someone to end it, and oh, please—panic gripped our heart when we saw what the Scarlet Hand was doing.

“No,” we cried, watching through teary eyes as the man walked in a circle around us, leaving runes on the ground—preparing to bind us. We scrambled for Soul Eater and tossed it out of the circle, but Jack was suddenly there, catching the weapon and flinging it back to us.

“Sorry Randel, but it’s the only way to make sure,” he said, his face stern and unrelenting.

“No,” we said, this time with more anger than pain. We pulled our arms in and tried to push ourselves up, but with a missing leg, it was an impossible feat in this pathetic mortal shell. We thrashed and struggled anyway, our breathing ragged as we withstood the pain, but Jack kicked our head and we fell back into the circle, too dazed to move. We were getting nowhere. We weren’t enough. We were going to be bound to the dagger forever.

I lay on my back, breathing hard, waiting for the pain to pass. Jack and the Scarlet Hand looked down on me much like I imagined the Inspectors did, cold and practical and uncaring. When the runic circle on the ground flared and a wall of light began to rise, it occurred to me that I was going to end up as a footnote in history—just like Pell. Was it supposed to go this way? Sacrificed for the greater good to contain a shade? No, no. Oh, no. I was a selfish, miserable person who would rather bring it all down than die for a noble cause.

“Hey,” I said, staring at the distant ceiling accusingly. “Where is my Domain?”

From the corner of my eyes, I saw Jack tense up—but nothing happened to me. No notification from the collar, no sudden rush of power. Time seemed to stop as the dome of light enclosed me slowly and surely, sucking in the colors and turning my world monochrome. I sighed in resignation. So be it. Just before the dome sealed shut, I uttered the magic word.

“…please?”

Domain unlocked: Break the System

The runic circle around me vanished as my Domain came to life, startling both Jack and the Scarlet Hand. We felt a surge of energy that we used to roll aside, grabbing Soul Eater and sitting up with the same motion. Unlike all the other Domains we had seen, Break the System didn’t thin the boundary between the Material World and the Astral Plane—no, it did the exact opposite. We couldn’t help it; we began to laugh.

“What—what’s this?” the Scarlet Hand asked, making grabbing motions at us uselessly.

We needed to buy time.

“This place was snapped back into the Material World,” we said, pressing Soul Eater against the remains of our left leg. “No more bullshit magic and superpowers. Jack, you can put those knives away. What are you going to do with them, kill me and risk freeing the shade?”

We changed Soul Eater’s shape while we talked, merging it to our stump as a prosthetic limb. Surprisingly, the pain in our leg abated as we connected the black metal to it. The process was almost instinctive, the body healing itself on its own, and though Soul Eater didn’t feel like our own leg, we were able to move it as such.

“What are you?” Jack asked, still holding his knives. “You’re not Randel.”

“I’m still Randel,” I said, “and believe me, I’m quite pissed at you.”

I knew what Jack was talking about, of course. I had put so much strain on my body that the orange veins were clearly visible beneath my skin. They ran down on my left leg too, connecting with the orange lines inside Soul Eater, pulsing to my heartbeat. The gemstone in the black weapon – now embedded in my kneecap – worked like a second heart, circulating the liquid in my prosthetic leg.

“I’m going to stand up now,” I said. “Then—”

“You’re not going anywhere,” the Scarlet Hand said. “You’re going to sit right there, and we’ll wait for your Domain to end.”

I flexed Soul Eater, bending it just as easily as if it was part of me. By now it looked about the same as my leg had been with the boot on, though I had to create its shape from memory. My original leg was a bloody mess and I felt sick just by thinking about it—but we would have plenty of time to lament over that loss later.

“I’m leaving now,” we said, rolling aside and jumping to our feet before either of the men could have stopped us. “This isn’t a request; it’s a fact.”

In response, the Scarlet Hand decided to settle the matter with his fists. For such a well-built man, it was surprising to see how bad he was at throwing a punch. We leaned to the side and guided his hand past our head, then grabbed his arm and swept his legs out from under him; he crashed to the ground in an ungainly heap. We resisted the urge to kick his unprotected head and turned to Jack instead.

“You want to have a go too?”

“I’m fine, thank you,” Jack said. “These old bones are no match for … whatever has been done to you.”

“It’ll pass, don’t worry,” I said, stepping back from the Scarlet Hand. “You alright, man?”

The Hand opted to remain silent, struggling to get back to his feet under the weight of his magicless armor. The death glare he shot me was quite formidable, though.

“Good,” I said. “All I want is to go home, and I don’t really want to hurt you—even if you would kinda deserve it for ripping my leg off. But I’m a law-abiding citizen, and I don’t kill the Emperor’s little puppets.”

The Hand just glared at me some more; at this point, I was pretty sure he was just waiting for his Abilities to come back. I walked away from the two high-level Players without any further comment, trusting my Domain to protect me on the way out. I wasn’t actually sure whether the no-magic zone moved with me or it stayed where it had been triggered, and I didn’t know whether I could be shot from outside of its range.

As soon as Jack and the Hand were out of sight, I spotted two more Players; the Avarii duo, crouching on the nearest rooftop. It was unclear whether my Domain dispelled their concealment or they arrived only recently, but I was glad that they didn’t seem hostile. I waved at them, and they cawed back at me.

“If you keep those two off my back for five minutes, I’ll owe you one!”

They hesitated briefly before cawing again and jumping off the building. I didn’t wait to see what happened next; as soon as I turned around the next corner I broke into a run, taking random turns among the buildings and hoping that no one followed me. We were actually able to feel when our Domain ended, though the change was subtle like the breeze before an approaching storm. I hid behind a tall wall, clenched my jaw, braced myself for the pain—then teleported Soul Eater to Nosy.

It felt like tearing off my leg once again; the twelve seconds of cooldown on my Spatial Symbiosis was the longest twelve seconds I had ever endured. When I was finally able to teleport myself the pain was still not over, because I arrived with one hand clenching Soul Eater and I had to manually attach it to my leg again. I bled all over on what I realized was my kitchen’s floor. Damn, I had a lot of blood. Nosy was giving me a curious look from atop the counter, but I managed to set Soul Eater in place and then only the memory of the pain remained.

I couldn’t believe I had just done that. My leg—my leg was gone. For good. I grabbed the kitchen counter with shaky hands, pulling myself up with some effort. My leg was gone. Comprehending what it meant was too frightening, so I focused on my collar’s new notification instead.

The Dungeon Core of Swellers of the Deep has been removed from the Dungeon.

The Dungeon will collapse in: 2 days

“Thank those cruel three-eyed gods,” I said with a groan. “See this, Nosy? At least one good thing came out of this, after all.”

A polite cough came from behind me, and I turned around to find Devi watching with a smile on her face. I was in danger.

“Had a long day, seyroh-kael?” Devi asked.

“Uh, I still don’t know what that word means,” I said, backing into the counter.

“Your skin is veiny and your clothes are ruined,” Devi said, looking me up and down. “And what happened to your leg?”

“I … had a long day,” I said. “Look, Devi, I’m sorry for—”

I couldn’t finish my apology because Devi stepped closer and punched me in the chest—hard!

“Ouch,” I yelped, jerking aside. “Devi, that hurts! The Scarlet Hand has already wiped the floor with me, and—”

But she wasn’t listening anymore, stepping even closer to give me rib-cracking hug. I could barely breathe and I was about to die for real. It felt kinda nice though, so I hugged her back.

“We fight together next time,” Devi said, resting her head on my shoulder. “No objecting.”

“I’d prefer if we didn’t fight at all,” I said, repeating my mantra—though with much less hope this time. My collar’s inactivity counter allowed me a hundred days of idleness, but I’d count myself lucky if I could spend half of it without anyone trying to kill me.

“What happened?” Devi asked as she released me, taking a step back.

“I wish I knew,” I said. “I did something stupid and awesome at the same time. So … I was stupidly awesome? I felt so driven, and I—”

I was not myself anymore. No matter how I looked at it, my actions and decisions hadn’t been my own. I closed my eyes for a moment, wishing to forget. So much death. So much pain. Shades. There were now two of them, trapped inside Soul Eater, infecting my mind. I should have been way more alarmed about it, but we felt perfectly fine.

“I need your help with Soul Eater,” I made myself say the words, even though we really didn’t want to. Devi nodded as if this much was already obvious, and I stared into her large amber eyes as I struggled to rein in my conflicting emotions. In the end I found it easier to just move on to another topic.

“What happened,” I said, “was a typical Monday morning. I lost one of my legs and a bit of my sanity. A lot of people died because I was too weak to save them. I was almost sealed off and left to die, and now some powerful Players will be after my head. But hey—at least I got this.”

I held out my hand and summoned the Dungeon Core in it; the smooth orb dropped into my palm readily, casting indigo light over Devi’s face. She tilted her head curiously.

“This is pretty, but … Randel, what is this?”

Oh. I was getting a bit ahead of myself, wasn’t I?

“This is a future full off potential,” I said, pressing the Core into her hands. “So what do you say, Devi—wanna help me build a new Dungeon?”