For the past seven hundred years, the fortified city of Aegis blocked the only pass through the mountain range known as the Godswall. To the east of the pass lay the human kingdom of Atarah, westernmost of the kingdoms constituting the Alliance of Light. To the west of the pass, the taint of the Forsaken Lands, touched by chaos magic and populated by demonic Dreadspawn, was visible in the sickly color of the ground and in the mutated, skeletal vegetation.

I was standing on one of the towers on the eastern wall of Aegis, observing the sun rising through the giant magical barrier that has blocked all traffic between Aegis and the Alliance for the eight weeks the city has been under siege. Behind me, about a kilometer beyond the city's western wall, and army of Dreadspawn has been assembling ever since the barrier went up. I was impossible to get an exact count of the enemy, but the rumors running through the barracks said that the ruler of the city and commander of its garrison, the duchess Elena Whiteshadow, estimated them to number over thirty thousand, more than ten times the number of warriors we had defending the city, and more of them kept streaming into the pass with every hour.

I could see, beyond the semitransparent barrier blocking the pass, a whole army of Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and all of the other races forming the Alliance. If they could get to us, they would be more than enough to lift the siege, but every attempt to pass through or above the barrier has been met with death, and every attempt to break it has failed.

Standing to my right, one clawed hand resting on my shoulder and the other shading her eyes, stood a creature that, had I seen her six months ago, would have had me wondering who slipped the acid into my drink.

Two and a half meters tall, muscled like a weightlifter, and covered with golden and red scales from head to razor sharp claw, the mere sight of the dragon's hybrid combat form was enough to inspire terror in the hearts of the bravest of warriors.

As the sun slowly rose higher into the sky, my new wife and I stood in silence, preparing ourselves for the moment we would attempt to bring down the barrier, and let our reinforcements come to our aid. Finally, the sun rose above the horizon, and the time to start the spell was upon us. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes for a second, concentrated on my unique talent, and opened them again to a changed world.

I could no longer see any inanimate object, and living objects were only visible as vague shapes made of light, with differing colors and intensities based on the type and strength of their magic. Magic, itself, became visible to me, as thin lines crisscrossing the world, pulsing with the flow of mana. Spells were visible as complex weaves of light, linked to the wizard who created them. I gazed up at the great barrier, and it too resolved into a weave of light, the biggest and most complex I had ever seen. I concentrated, and the weave expanded in my vision, gaining depth as I looked into it, until eventually the entire weave was visible to me, and I could instinctively understand how it worked.

And how to unravel it.

I raised my hands, and took hold of the lines of mana in front of me, and started to slowly weave them into the spell that would perfectly counter the barrier. This would be the hardest spell I've ever cast, and even the slightest mistake would render it impotent, so I had to work very carefully, pulling one strand after another into my weave. I lost track of time while weaving, and it was close to noon by the time I was done. I gave my work one last examination, fixing a few errant strands that would have spoiled my spell if left unchecked, and then it was time to start the second phase of the spell. I looked to my right, seeing the wellspring of magical power that was the dragoness, and was once again amazed at the sheer amount of power available to her. Even the weakest human born in this world had at least five times the amount of mana I had, and my wife was the most powerful I've seen here. I concentrated on the magical bond linking me to her, and started to slowly fill my spell with mana.

At first, everything went well. I felt the now familiar tingling sensation of mana being syphoned from me and into the spell, just as I've felt a thousand times over the past six months. But once the spell drained me of all my power, things became a lot more difficult. I reached through the bond connecting me to the dragoness, and mana started flowing from her into me, and from me into the spell. The pull from the weave grew stronger and stronger, and the flow of mana through me grew with it. The almost pleasant tingling grew warmer and warmer, and suddenly it was transformed, and it felt like liquid fire was flowing through my nerves. The pain grew stronger with each passing second, as more and more mana drained from the dragoness, through me, and into the spell, and it became harder and harder to concentrate.

I clung to the weave in front of me with all of my strength, knowing that if I lost control of it, the spell would fail, and that with that much mana in it, I would have no chance to survive the backlash. My sight grew narrower and narrower, until my entire world was the pain and the spell, and then even those vanished, and there was only blackness.