[-=Nox=-]

We started to walk. The masquerade I had composed provided me and my three new minions with the perfect cover. The Sextants didn't even bother to look in our direction as we quickly moved across the devastated city towards wherever June was. I made sure to thoroughly cover Ingrid's power tattoos and parts of her face with bloodied mud so that she would not be recognized.

I knew that I was sacrificing precious time acquiring helpers. Sure, I could have worn Sextant armour myself and rushed towards June alone, but I didn’t want to spend all of my valuable Void and blood magic to do it. If I came to June without enough Void mana, I would not be able to rescue her from imprisonment. I felt that she was in a cage, curled up somewhere dark and terrifying. Argh!

I had been so distracted by June’s desperate prayers for help that I had completely missed the opportunity to give myself a Quest for murders I had already performed. I stuck out my tongue, correcting this opportunity for levelling up my human.

Quest:

Kill all enemies.

Rewards: 100-10’000 points depending on difficulty.

Quest:

Rescue June!

Reward: 10’000 points.

“Do you have any mana?” I asked the Legate, already knowing the answer. The Legate would not allow herself to be crucified if she had any power left to Sunder her enemies.

She shook at me, looking tired, miserable and distraught. "No. I don't know how they did it. I'm at zero."

"A Void null-bomb," I said. "Here! This will help." I put the emerald ring on her finger. "It's a ring connected to a dungeon core. Draw power from it. Attack when I tell you!"

She nodded, smiling wickedly. She was a powerful archmage, far stronger than Yul’s body. The Legate would Sunder my way to June. Nobody would be able to stop her! Her attack, unlike my explosions, could strike distant targets. The element of surprise was on our side, there was no way that we could lose now!

The city burned, smoke pouring into the sky from all directions. The amount of Sextants and slaves they were bringing with them had increased all around us.

Thousands of slaves were being loaded by Sextant knights onto a leviathan, black capital-warship at the edge of town. Two smaller warships were hovering in the sky, keeping watch.

I felt that June was inside. An inconvenience.

There was a Sextant black knight standing atop the capital-warship. He was watching, scanning the crowd that was entering into the ship below him.

I stuck my tongue out in his direction. Nothing! The clever human had a powerful disruptor artifact on him. What the hell kind of a rare artifact could be stronger than my divine scan? How odd. I couldn't even determine his level or tools. Not good. This was likely an enemy Archmage. The big boss. Would he be able to spot us?

“Lazarus, go cause a scuffle with the knights over there. Take Alyssa with you, show her off, boast about her looks or something, and then punch anyone who disagrees.” I pointed the Enforcer towards a crowd of Sextants. “It should distract the attention of the Archmage.”

Lazarius and Alyssa nodded, heading off towards their mission.

"Ingrid, get as close as you can to that enemy Archmage and strike him down. Then, Sunder the ships hovering above us. Decimate the remaining Sextant knights and come into the Capital ship after me and we’ll take it by force together!" I told the Legate my plan. She nodded and we joined the throng of humanity.

“Look at this luscious slave I acquired!” Lazarus yelled at the top of his lungs. I sighed. He definitely needed some practice. “Are her breasts not simply sublime? ...How dare you?!” He swung his fist at one of the Sextants who had said something back at him.

The Archmage looked in the direction of the fight Lazarus had started. Ingrid had come close enough to attack him.

"Sunder!"

The enemy Archmage fell from where he stood, cleaved in twain. I smiled. That was easy. I expected for the System to ding me with my 10k reward, but nothing happened. Odd. I was the one directing Ingrid to do the murdering. I should have gotten something for this! System, why do you ignore me?

Enemy ships started to turn towards Ingrid.

“Sunder!” She yelled, pointing at the nearest flying ship, then at the other. Seeing a Sextant battleship cleaved in twain was a delight for my human eyes. The Legate’s unstoppable power sliced through absolutely everything - walls, bulkhead, pipes, furniture, people. I even saw a coffee mug cleaved in half. It was hilarious. The dissected ships fell from the sky right down onto the crowd of Sextant legionnaires. It was simply sublime, perfect. The System dinged thousands of points at me all at once. Wait...

I looked back at the black knight.

The two halves of the Archmage somehow held together as they fell. They were now writhing on the ground, connected by black, oily strands. The black armour clattered all around, cleaved in half, but he… wait no, she was seemingly uninjured, her body already fused back together.

The Sextant Archmage was a girl! A girl with silver hair and blazing, purple eyes.

She stood up, dusting herself off. "Who dares to strike me down?"

"Sunder!" The Legate turned back to her, persistent in her attack.

The Sextant Archmage raised a hand and a shield woven from pulsating black hexagons formed over her and the all dividing line failed to pierce it. Oh... crap.

"Pathetic," she said, looking at the Legate. "Wait… Haa! Ingrid? Is that you? You've aged. I didn't think you had survived. You’re the Legate of Virtue? How interesting… It seems that our paths have taken us to the highest echelons of humanity. Too bad about this though! I’m clearly far stronger than you. The darkness of my Void is more potent than your Light of Virtue!”

"...Castilla?" The Legate froze. "You… you're the Sextant leader?!"

"I am. Bow, mortal!" Castilla spoke and a spell from her hand struck the Legate. The emerald ring shattered on Ingrid’s finger. She slumped down into the wet mud. She was dead or unconscious. What misfortune!

Castilla was a Void mage, I was certain of it now. A Void high-level Archmage, one that could apparently repair herself even if cleaved in half. I definitely couldn't do that. I felt incredibly jealous of her powers. If Yul was sliced in half, that’d be the end of line for me.

Crappedy crap.

This is fine. I don’t have to rescue June now… I’ll just find her and hide with her, inside the capital-ship!

I blended into the sea of enslaved human females. Alyssa and Lazarus were still alive out there somewhere, but I had lost them in the throng of bodies.

I wanted to devour the Void Archmage, but alas... I was a level one healer with barely any Void mana and she was an unkillable monster that could vaporize me on the spot with an eye blink far before I could reach her. That hexagonal shield alone must have cost several thousand Void mana to cast.

June’s belief in me had suddenly... winked out. Damn it all!

Quest: Failed

Rescue June!

-10’000 points.

What?! No! NO!

I went inside of the Sextant carrier ship, rushing forward, looking for her with my tongue scanner. There were Sextant knights packing people into cages. I accelerated myself, burning through my power, searching for her. There were too many cages in this gargantuan ship, too many prisoners! Damn it all! DAMN IT ALL!

I found her! The cage where June was looked nearly full. I leapt into the cage just as a Sextant knight snapped the door shut.

It was damp, dim and full of bodies. I elbowed my way towards June.

She was dead. There was a bullet wound on her stomach. She had bled out, waiting for me. I was too late. I was far too late.

No. I’m not going to give up! I’m not going to surrender to fate! I’m an ancient Necromancer, damn it! I can bring her back! I can fix her!

I reached down to her and kissed her, connected all of myself to the Void in her body. I couldn't remember specific, potent Void healing spells, but I would not allow her heart to stay still, I would not allow her to remain dead! Life and magic were already well on the way of leaving her body, her aura and soul were coming apart, already full of gaping holes. Cellular metabolism had halted, autolysis had begun, her organs were failing as blood circulation stopped. She had lost far too much blood! I was so close. So close!

I had stood up to an entire army, fought my way across the city of death, killed hundreds, even turned enemies into compatriots to reach her. I would not give up, would not fail her now!

I activated a Necromantic spell, peered into the Void and caught onto the fading thread of her ghost. I pulled her ghostly resonance towards me, pushing it back into her body, anchoring her memory back into place, struggling to keep all of her together as her ghost lost bits of itself to infinity. As I did it, I suddenly understood why I felt the way I did about her. Her complex soul intertwined, connected on its own accord with mine, even as it was deteriorating in my hands, fading away. It had happened all on its own… which should have been statistically improbable! It was as if she herself reached out to me from beyond the veil of death!

I had never paid much attention to the whole soul-mate business that mortals believed in, estimating that such an occurrence would be too improbable to bother researching into. One out of billions - perfect, dynamic reciprocity.

I had been alone as far as I could remember, standing far above humanity as a divinity. In all of my years of long life, I had never sought to find someone that would synchronize with me perfectly like two puzzle pieces fitting together. Not be magically like me in terms of color like my Void Archmages, but connect to me in a way that made me... feel happy, fulfilled.

I wound myself around her soul, locked it into place, held her within me. In that moment of still time, our souls suddenly intertwined, connected like two complex fractals, billions upon billions of energy wave fractions reaching out to each other, vibrating, singing in perfect harmony, reinforcing each other. This was soul magic on a level that I had never encountered before.

I poured all of myself into June, rearranging, retouching, fixing as much as I could, as much as the Void in her body let me. It took a very long time, all of my knowledge of biology and anatomy gathered from my observations within Yul. June wasn't exactly human, but she was close enough to one. She had lost too much blood and Yul’s blood was of the wrong type, even if both were irradiated with my Void. June’s body was rejecting Yul’s blood on the biological level!

This was an enormous problem. It was as if the Universe itself did not want me to succeed and did not allow me to bring June back to life. Unacceptable!

Desperate times called for unrestrained measures. I started to copy Yul’s body into June. I replicated whatever I could, replacing organs and tissues as they failed again and again, perpetually anchoring June’s soul in my embrace, struggling, burning through my mana and my essence.

I held her close. I had lost absolutely everything that I had gained yesterday. I would not lose my June, would not let her die, would not let her fade away. As I sacrificed, burned through my Void mana, blood, marrow and flesh and self I suddenly realised something…

Nothing was worth more to me than June.

Not even being a God.