It took a few fast-paced heartbeats for Colin to get past the sudden appearance of the Cult Leader. He expected to either have to face the Lindworm Golem here or, hopefully, it had moved on, and he wouldn’t have to deal with it for now. Nowhere in his expectations had he thought that someone, anyone, would be fighting the giant serpentine dragon golem.

Ignoring the many prompts that were pressing to be looked at and dismissed, Colin focused on Speaker Fahtagin. “Could be better, but great as a whole. What about you? Having fun?”

“Oh, lots of fun. Just wish I could kill this thing,” he said, shrugging. “It appears that it is either resistant to electrical damage or immune altogether.”

Looking over its head, Colin found its status like he did the last time he saw it. Only this time, he found a health percentage bar, which made sense since it had been engaged in combat.

Mini-boss: Lindworm Golem. 87%

“No, I’d say resistant. Otherwise, that stun and knockback effect would not have happened,” Paladin stated, gesturing with one of his massive arms.

Looking at the Golem, Colin could somewhat see what he meant. The giant metallic Lindworm was knocked back several meters from that last attack, something that he would have thought improbable. Even more interestingly, he noticed the sporadic and mechanical twitching that Golem was doing instead of moving towards them.

“Indeed, if the spell had been more effective, it would have been stuck for about thirty seconds or so. Even with the size difference,” Speaker Fahtagin said. “That wasn’t really an attack spell, but a strong binding.”

Annoyed with himself yet again for his lack of foresight and proper preparation with his spell choices, he planned to make it effective when he does get another spellbook eventually. Upon seeing the massive serpentine Golem move normally, the Antagonist decided that this was not where he wanted to be.

“So, I see that you’re dealing with this. We had better get going before we get in your way,” Colin said, quickly turning around and taking a step away.

“Actually, DevilWalker,” Fahtagin said, smiling gracefully. “I’m here to give you a hand.”

“Wait, what? Why?” Colin asked, stopping and turning back around.

Fahtagin nodded, “I’m here to give you some help. Scylla sent me a message about… two hours ago saying that you were in the Dungeon and were going to need a little help.”

“With what?” Colin asked, now getting a little nervous. The Lindworm Golem was now shaking its head and getting ready to get back to the fight. Its red-tinted mechanical eyes looked around for a moment as if confused before locking back onto the Cult Leader then the three of them. If Colin had Larry, he might have been more confident in defeating the Golem with a disposable tank to help intercept attacks. Without him, Colin did not like his chances.

“Oh, this,” he said, pointing at the pissed-off Golem. “And one other thing of your liking after the fact. Apparently, my Goddess really likes you, DevilWalker. Normally she doesn’t show this kind of favoritism.”

“Yeah, sure,” Colin said, opening his menus and checking the countdown timer for Larry.

Your Familiar, Larrimortias Legrelle can be resummoned.

“Wait, has it been over an hour and a half since Larry was killed?” Colin asked out loud as he looked a Fahtagin. “Can you hold it off for a moment?” Colin asked quickly, immediately getting to work on the summoning circle.

The Speaker shrugged, “shouldn’t be an issue,” he said simply.

While he worked on the simple summoning circle to bring Larry back, Colin asked Nox a question. “Shouldn’t I still have over an hour until I can resummon Larry? Why can I summon him now?”

Nox’s voice came through clearly, “that is a simple answer. Your personal character level must have increased. It is one of the unnamed bonuses of doing so.”

With a sudden grin, Colin tried to keep working on the circle while letting the first prompts flow.

Congratulations! You have participated in the death of 59 Grendel Demons and have gained 48,823 EXP. You now have 250,470/256,914 until level 21. Congratulations! You have participated in the death of a Greater Animated Demonic Flesh Mass and have gained 21,261 EXP. You now have 271,731/256,914 experience until level 21. Level Up! You are now level 21 and now have five attributes to spend. You now have 14,817/321,142 experience until level 22. You have destroyed the Dungeon 'Zagan’s Besieged Fortress’ and have gained 50,000 EXP for accomplishing such a difficult and special feat. This reward has been doubled for accomplishing this spectacular feat at less than half the level of the most common attacker on the Core Level. You now have 114,817/321,142 experience until level 22. Your Style in Action Skill is now level 6. The Charisma Attributes effects on those who see you act increase by a small margin. Your moves are reflexively going to be a little smoother and more pleasing to watch. Your Fire Magic Manipulation Skill is now Level 8. Your Water Magic Manipulation Skill is now Level 9. Your Kinetic Magic Manipulation is now level 11. Your Kinetic Vigor subskill is now level 10. All increases done by Skill are now marginally larger. Your Demonology Skill is now Level 4. The Demonic Lore and Knowledge in your head has been expanded due to use. Your boon from the Dungeon for destroying it is determined by three factors. Your actions inside the Dungeon, the type of Dungeon, and your level compared to the Core Levels enemies. The reward cannot fit in your Superior Dimensional Bag. The Reward’ Random Unknown Book’ will be kept outside space and time until space is made available. Your Boon from the Demons for destroying the Dungeon’ Zagan’s Besieged Fortress’ has made itself known to you. As thanks for freeing one of the Demon Nobility from his bondage in the Dungeon, Baal the Steward of Hell has given you a boon based on his infinite Predictive Algorithms. You have gained the ability Hermetic Scribe.

Internally shrugging at most of the Skill level-ups, they were all nice, but none were especially useful right now. Whatever the Heretic Scribe Ability was, it didn’t sound like anything that could be helpful now, and he didn’t have the time to read it. He just finished doing the final touches of the Familiar Summoning Circle as he made a quick decision about where to place his five Attribute Points.

He quickly three two points into Dexterity to boost his accuracy of movement and deftness, one point into Wisdom to continue to grow his Hubris abilities chances of getting a new class to appropriate into himself, and two points into his Charisma. The increase to his Charisma mainly was to help with his Bardic Skills; that Guitar he got in the Dungeon felt like the universe was telling him something. Not that he liked what it was telling him too much, but he could make use of it.

This left his Attributes looking like this.

Strength: 20 Dexterity: 23 Speed: 28 Build: 20 Intellect: 25 Wisdom: 31 Charisma:17 Luck: 16

He could live with this for the moment. Stepping out of the circle, Colin put mana into the circle and waited the few moments he needed for Larry to materialize. Seconds passed as mana coalesced into a silhouette of a tall humanoid form. The silhouette faded to color as Larry properly appeared and opened his eyes to the world.

Upon seeing Colin, the Demon grinned before the screeching of the Lindworm Golem’s limbs caught his attention. Immediately, his mouth opened into a feral smile and created a set of greaves and gauntlets. “Oh Master, you know just what sort of parties to bring me in for.”

“Good, now go get him!” Colin encouraged, very dog owner-like.

“Hell yeah!” Larry crowed, conjuring and shaping a massive two-handed sword in his hands. The Claymore in question flashed as Larry sprinted towards the Golem and thoughtlessly leaped into its path. He swung the sword as its head came into range and was not surprised when the HellRime blade shattered in the attempt.

The blade did halt the charge with the effort, and Larry quickly created another and swung at the Lindworm’s head. The blade seemed to deal some damage but did little more than scratch the surface. But it did complete another objective.

With Kinetic Vigor active, Colin found it reasonably easy to leap on one of the arms it was using to pull itself forward. From there, he drew and activated the Lesser Infernal Edge; the dark curved blade evaporated, changing into the energy blade. With another leap, he landed on its back and pierced the very thick metal shell of the Golem. With a twist and an upward slash, the infernal energy blade tore through the metal hide with a lot less effort than he would have thought.

Mini-boss: Lindworm Golem. 79%

Well, that was pretty good. The Lesser Infernal Edge was doing its job as intended and would make quick work of this thing’s hide. Adjusting his stance to make it easy to stay on, even as it started bucking, Colin began to slice through the steel hide to deal as much damage as he could.

Mini-boss: Lindworm Golem. 63%

The only reason Colin stopped swinging was the electrical current that started rushing around the Golems body. Whether this was an aura or a direct attack against him didn’t really matter. What did was that the attack dealt damage and stunned him. The side effect of the stunning was that it knocked him off the dragon.

You have been stunned for 8 seconds by electricity. You have taken 103 points of damage and now have 523/625 Health remaining.

The fall hurt but not nearly as much as the current passing through his system, keeping him stunned and twitching.

Though his position on the floor did give him a good view of Paladin as he rushed forward, his total weight barreled into the Lindworm’s chest. His palms were glowing with the orange-colored ki energy as he threw both into the chest at the same time. The power vanished a second after the attack, and Paladin took one large step back and directly into a low horse stance.

The Lindworm Golem roared, the action sounding like steel scraping on steel, a moment before it moved forward, snapping at the Sumo. Paladin took advantage of the movement by raising his right leg, pivoting on his left, and moving just out of the snapping jaws path. He then grabbed the open jaws of the Lindworm and pulled.

The Golem’s metal frame screeched and whined as Paladin pulled and threw the Golem forward a few feet. The dragon lost its footing for a moment as it skids to a stop only a few feet away, a moment where it lit up with Heavenly Blight.

Roaring as it got to its feet, the Golem opened its maw and let arcs of electricity flow around its mouth. Even as the Heavenly Blight did its thing, dealing damage over time, the Golem allowed it to continue as it built up a charge. Three seconds later, before Colin or anyone else could interrupt it, the Golem let loose a stream of plasma that burned through the air towards Paladin.

The line of energy that moved too slow for proper lightning was intercepted by Fahtagin. The Cult Leader pointed a finger at Paladin and said, “Sparking Cloak.”

Blue-green magic shot from his finger and wrapped around Paladin’s bare chest, the spell contorting and growing. Resulting in what looked like an aura of sparkling blue-green energy that arched and curved around his torso. An aura that, when it was smashed into by the lightning, was merely absorbed by it, the energy dancing around Paladin’s defense before it was slowly taken in.

Given that Paladin still fell to one knee and was panting heavily when the ‘Static Cloak’ dispersed, he might have still taken damage though. Colin watched as Paladin reached into the pouches on his belt for some kind of cream and was hurriedly rubbing it on his torso.

With the stun worn off and that excitement over, Colin hurried after the Lindworm Golem. After it attacked Paladin, it was forced to turn its attention back to Larry when he swung his new weapon, a comically large Warhammer, into its side. With Rielle’s Heavenly Blight still dealing damage to it over the seconds, and Larry’s near-constant bashing, it was getting worn down.

Mini-boss: Lindworm Golem. 53%

Re-activating his Kinetic Vigor and activating Aligned Strike on both weapons, Colin hurried towards it. At the same time, the Pseudo-dragon Machine swung at Larry with one of its claws. It hit then reared back its limbs to go for another strike before Colin took the chance.

Aiming for the base of the Limb, Colin swung first with the Mythic Xiphos to cut through the outer layer of the Golem first. He then swung with the Lesser Infernal Edge that had been augmented by the Aligned Strike Attack Skill. The demonic energy blade scythed through the limb almost entirely, leaving only scraps of the armor plating keeping the arm attached.

The Lindworm moved its body to still try and strike Larry, but all it got was a limp swing. It curled its head and saw the limb before turning to look at Colin and immediately snapping its head at him like a snake.

The blow missed him by feet as he hurried back and away from the thing that could have bitten him in half if it caught him.

Mini-boss: Lindworm Golem. 44%

Right now, Colin really wished he had a skill that told him the approximate level necessary to fight some creatures. Just with this thing’s size alone, he figured it must be built to fight against a group of people many levels higher than himself. If it wasn’t for his high-quality weapons and the fact that his Lesser Infernal Edge was designed with this in mind, he doubted he would have been very helpful.

The Golem raised its draconic head off the ground very serpentinely and let out a loud enraged roar. The shockwave from the explosive sound carried some magic in it that knocked all the attackers back from the mini-boss, including Paladin, who had class-based knockback resistance. The roar lasted for a few long seconds where everyone ended up on their knees.

His legs felt like jelly until the roar ended, and the stun effect ended. Colin quickly rose back to his feet again and sprinted towards the Golem, reapplying his Aligned Strike on both weapons as he rushed. His immediate action was still too slow. The Lindworm Golem started to gather an arching charge about its body, grounding itself into the earth with each moment. The blue-white electricity was even causing a light glow about its body.

With a turn of its head, the Golem sent several passive lightning arches towards the person nearest it. In this case, Paladin took the damage since he had been running simultaneously as Colin but started closer. The lightning must not have been just for show, given the immediate stun effect that overtook the Sumo.

The now one-armed Lindworm half slithered over to the Paladin and struck out with its massive teeth.

“Intercepting Shield!” Larry shouted, the Shield Skill moving the Incubus in a literal blur. In a moment, the Demon reappeared in between Paladin and the oncoming jaws. The attack impacted Larry’s Shield and shattered it with its sheer bulk alone, the kinetic force of the impact sending it away into Paladin. While it didn’t look precisely pleasant, the collision was certainly less damaging for Paladin than it would have been without the Demon.

“Shit,” Colin said, going into his Dimensional Bag and withdrawing a small patch of scales to use the Channel Effigy Skill with. He placed the Arapaima Scales against his wrist and paused as he looked for Fahtagin, the Cult leader not acting right then.

“DevilWalker!” the man in question yelled a moment later. Colin turned around and found the man standing in a perfect circle of flowing water; water vapor floated up like mist around the man’s knees. “I’m about to get us some help, be ready to attack when we see a friend come around.”

It took a moment for Colin to realize what Speaker Fahtagin meant and started towards the Golem Mini-boss. The jog turned into a sprint as Colin heard Speaker Fahtagin’s words echo out from his position, clear as crystal. The voice resonated across the Dungeon square, and it muted everything else around him as he rushed forward.

“Oh, Horror of the Strait of Messina, I call upon you in my name and in the name of the DevilWalker. Your assistance is needed to bring about the end of a foe that challenges those who worship your name and wants your favor. Come, oh Scylla. Come, oh daughter Crataeis and Phorcys. Oh Scylla, bring your wrath upon our foes and may mortals, demons, angels, and all else who dwell between fear of your coming!” He finished, the words echoing mystically off the city around them.

All around the Speaker, the puddle swept out and expanded around him into a circle of water several hundred feet across. The massive pool rippled as Fahtagin’s incantation swept across it, and Colin felt the back of his neck tingle recognizably. He’d had this sensation before and had some idea what was happening a moment before it did.

The puddle became dark as midnight as if it had become incomprehensibly deep, and three heads emerged from the surface. All bore the Draconic heads that Colin had recognized as Scylla but was much larger than anything he’d seen. The serpentine necks were wide enough that Colin was unsure if he could accurately measure them, but they had to be at least seventy feet in diameter. Upon bursting from the water in a violent eruption, all three immediately focused on the Lindworm Golem and shook all three heads.

“You piteous thing. Once a creature of famed power and potential, You have been brought low by these things that make simulacrums of flesh with cold iron. Worry not, we shall lay your soul to rest,” Scylla said, the heads ceasing their movement. All three heads opened their maws to reveal their immaculately white and sharp fangs; they sprang at the Lindworm. In an instant, they extended past Colin and bit into the Golem; the electric aura started to flow into them.

Colin hesitated for only a moment before leaping onto the electrified body and felt some of the start to drain away his health.

You have taken 17 points of damage and now have 506/625 Health remaining. You have taken 17 points of damage and now have 489/625 Health remaining. You have taken 17 points of damage and now have 472/625 Health remaining.

His health was still high enough that this amount of damage would take a little time to kill him, but that was little comfort when he still felt the pain. He was hurrying towards the Lindworm’s head while it struggled in Scylla’s jaws, and he was doing his best to remain on his feet. Colin felt power build up within the Golem’s body when he got close to the head, like an electric charge being moved around inside its body.

“Careful, DevilWalker,” Scylla said with the Lindworm in its mouth. “This is aimed for you!”

This is electricity; if this was a spell or like a spell, then maybe there was something he could do about this. He had heard that lightning magic was air magic, so…

With a roar, the Lindworm sent out a rolling burst of electricity that moved towards Colin even when he moved. Thrusting his Mythic Xiphos forward, Colin activated one of the tattoos he’d got the day before. This tattoo absorbed an air magic spell, ran it through his body and mana pool to power it up further, then fired it right back out. Hattie, the Tattooist, had warned him that if the spell was too powerful, the tattoo would only absorb a percentage of it, forcing him to take the rest. Unfortunately, this was one of those times.

You have absorbed a spell-like effect that is much stronger than the triggered tattoo can handle and have taken damage. You have taken 113 points of damage and now have 359/625 Health remaining. Due to the Air Magic Resistance of another of your tattoos, you have resisted the Mana Overload and Paralysis(Temporary) due to the spell type absorbed.

Colin drew back his Mythic Xiphos and channeled whatever the spell was back at the Golem, gouts of electricity surging down his arm. The Golem roared and bucked at the effect but could not break free from Scylla’s grip.

“Hurry! DevilWalker! I cannot keep this… going for much longer!” Speaker Fahtagin yelled between heavy breaths. The amount of mana this took him was significant, but more than that was the actual health draining away to help sustain and empower the summoning. If it wasn’t deactivated soon, Fahtagin would die to keep it going.

Mini-boss: Lindworm Golem. 21%

Colin activated his Aligned Strike on both of his weapons at the Mini-Bosses head and swung at the top of the Lindworm’s head. The damage appeared to be not much more than usual, but it had the intended effect. With a large gash into the Golem’s head, the Antagonist slammed his foot down onto the Golem and used Tremorsense before doing his plan.

With the information confirmed, Colin slid inside the opening he created and disappeared into the dark insides of the Golem.

Colin cast Darkvision on himself and found himself inside the inner workings of what could be described as mechanical. Wires stretched from unknown source to mysterious thing, electricity arched along exposed copper and steel, and pistons struggled to move. This space wasn’t quite empty since Colin slid onto webworks of wires that stretched as he landed but didn’t pull free from their source.

It was a little cramped, to be sure, but nothing he couldn’t work with. In all honesty, he wished he had the blueprints and a day or three to analyze them. He was going to hate what he was about to do.

Before doing anything, he checked his mana amount and sighed.

Mana: 28/550.

It appears, even with his higher wisdom score increasing his mana regeneration speed, he’d still managed to make his amount pitifully low. But that was why he bought potions.

To that end, Colin reached into his Dimensional Bag and retrieved a vial with a cool blue liquid in it. The potion was labeled as an Intermediate Grade Mana Potion, and Colin downed it greedily in two tiny swallows. Placing the bottle back in the bag, Colin rechecked his mana. He found that the potion had already increased it by forty points. Giving it a few more seconds to get the minimum amount needed.

Colin readied both the Mythic Xiphos and the Lesser Infernal Edge with Aligned Strike when he had gotten a hundred mana. With a deep breath, he activated Kinetic Vigor and cut through the wires with one swing of his Mythic Xiphos.

With his Lesser Infernal Edge, Colin picked a part of the workings that looked important, a thick mass of what looked like circuit boards. He found that it resisted even the more substantial cutting effect of the Aligned Strike empowered Lesser Infernal Edge. The result was immediate; the Golem arched its back and struggled harder against the monster Goddesses hold to little avail. But he kept pushing through, his hand aching with the effort and the Golem fighting even harder against Scylla’s hold.

When he finished cutting through, Colin just continued wreaking havoc through the Golem’s internal systems.

After thirty seconds of swinging at anything he thought he could cut through, Colin got a stream of prompts he was waiting for.

Congratulations! Your party and another combatant have defeated the Mini-Boss, Lindworm Golem, and have gained 25,000 EXP. You now have 139,817/321,142 experience until level 22. Your Voracious Mythic Xiphos is now level 14. The minimum and maximum damage has increased. Your Aligned Strike Skill is now level 10. Damage per Alignment Rank has increased. Your Earth Magic Manipulation Skill is now Level 4. Your Tremorsensing Subskill is now level 4. You can now sense what is happening in a 360-degree area for 9 meters around you. Your Acrobatics skill is now level 9. Jumping distance, jumping height, balance, and landing stability increased by a small margin. Stability while performing acts considered acrobatic increased by a small margin. Your Kinetic Vigor subskill is now level 10. The Mana Per Second cost of this Skill has decreased by a small amount.

Breathing heavily, Colin turned off the Lesser Infernal Edge and just laid against the machinery for a moment, just existing. He had no choices about his personal growth to make, so he didn’t have to think about that. The current threat had just been beaten since the Lindworm Golem had been outside the Dungeon when they exited. The only thing that could make this moment better would be if he could take a good long nap in here before having to move on with this Golem Invasion.

Then Colin could feel when the three titanic jaws of Scylla released themselves from the body and shook the entire thing.

Sighing, he got up from the unmoving Golem parts and started to climb his way out. On his way, Colin took a little time to poke around the inner workings and pocketed a few of the interesting smaller components. His Knowledge; Golemcraft Skill helped him understand a bit of the piece he was seeing. His skill level was pretty low, so he didn’t understand most of what he saw, but that didn’t stop him.

Especially if his Knowledge; Metallurgy Skill helped him identify a strong metal. He found a few pieces made out of Scarletite and a few pounds of Aurelius, the air element attuned metal. He did find some Adamant, the earth element attuned metal. But left it due to the grates and bars he had of the stuff in his apartment from the Crimson Spire Guild’s Auxiliary Building. Most of the Golem was filled with steel, iron, and copper, which was easy enough to leave there.

When he finally wormed out of the hole he cut for himself, Colin found Rielle conversing with a woman he didn’t know. She stood at around six and a half feet tall, had green-black hair that hung to below her shoulders, had scarred olive skin, and wore a sea-green dress accented with black along the edges. Her entire form was lithe and sharp; the angle and height of her jaw proved that detail. As Colin approached, he saw that her teeth matched that description as well; though sized for a human, they belonged to an apex predator.

“Really, you think so?” Rielle asked as Colin got close enough to finally hear her words and not just her voice.

“I do,” the woman insisted. Her voice sounded familiar, but Colin could not place it. “The options afforded to you as a Druid are varied, and your Boss seems more than willing to help. All you have to do is tell him. If you do it, I guarantee that it will synergize with your Spirits Plea Skill,” she told Rielle.

“Uh, Uh, I’ll ask him later,” Rielle said, looking at Colin as he stood next to her.

Colin eyed the woman before looking up to meet her in the eyes, “first, I am not her Boss. We are teammates. Second, If she wants my help with something, all she has to do is ask, and I will do my best to assist her. Third, who are you?”

“My apologies. I forgot that you haven’t seen this form before. DevilWalker, this is what my Avatar looks like. It’s me, Scylla,” the woman said, grinning and showing off those sharp monstrous teeth.

It was then that Colin realized that he could still feel his Channel Effigy Skill reacting to something nearby. Even though the massive serpentine necks and heads were gone. What little he knew about how his Channel Effigy Skill worked as a sort of sensor, it simply said they were nearby. With the way the Skill tugged at his senses, he was left with nothing to do but believe her.

“Well, may I say that humanizing looks pretty good on you?” Colin said, attempting flattery to keep the Monster Goddess from unleashing herself on them. He had her favor for now and wanted to keep it that way. If nothing else, her Effigy Powers came in handy, and if he could summon her like the Speaker did, that would be a game-changer.

“DevilWalker, save your compliments for creatures that aren’t man-eating sea monsters. While I did want to have a quick conversation with your darling death Fey, Darielle, I wanted to ask you a favor,” she stated.

Sighing internally, Colin said, “what do you need?”

Smiling and showing off her surprisingly white teeth, Scylla said, “Bring Speaker Fahtagin back with you and help him recover. He’s an old friend, and I want to see that he survives past this moment. Especially since he brought me here to help you,” she answered.

Nodding, Colin agreed, and Scylla walked past Colin and towards the still form of the Cult Leader. He laid on the ground in the same puddle of water that summoned Scylla but slowly crept back into the small circle it started at. Unmoving, he laid there, and the monster goddess approached until she was right at his body. She crouched low and whispered something to him before she dropped like a stone through the puddle and inconceivably vanished.

“So, what now, Master?” Larry asked, walking calmly over to Colin and looking at the still form of the Speaker with him.

“For now, you and I are going scavenging through the Golem. I may not know a lot about Golems, but I know a few things about normal machines, and there are a few parts that I’d like to see if we can get them. Paladin?” Colin called.

“Here, Walker,” Paladin said, walking over to the trio that stood in a semi-circle. His body had electrical burns across his body that were steadily reducing and becoming his normal smooth, clean skin. “What’s up?”

“If you are willing,” Colin started. “Larry will be helping me loot parts from the Lindworm. If you would be so kind, I need the Speaker over there carried back to the Hotel. You are the only one, other than Larry, who is big enough to carry him without slowing down. Are you willing?” Colin asked.

Paladin shrugged his massive shoulders, “sure, not a problem.”

A thought occurred to Colin, this man, this Sumo, this Player had been willing to help Colin even if he had nothing to gain and was a good person. A few ideas of things that he could do for the man came to mind, but he decided to take the direct route. “Paladin, thanks for everything. Is there anything you want or need? I’d really like to do something for you.”

“Tell me how you met Scylla, and we’ll call it even later,” Paladin said with a grin. “You’ve been part of a lot of this world’s story, and I want to know all about it. You hear me, Walker?”

“Fair enough,” Colin said. “If you want to take the Speaker and go, Larry and I won’t be too far behind you. Once we get back to our rooms, we sleep, prepare, and then… the real work begins. Are all of you with me?” Colin asked, gesturing to the group.

“Of course,” Paladin answered.

“I’m yours, literally,” Larry stated.

Rielle simply nodded her head, and a shadowy arm stretched out of her shadow and gave Colin a simple but effective thumbs up.

“Great, let’s get to work.”