Noriduel and the Old Man, both battered and tired, propped me from both sides. The contact with the former brought me incredible pain and cost me a lot of HP, but I had no other choice. There was no other way for the two to stabilize the portal.

In all honesty, I didn’t fully understand the technicalities. Noriduel would have to either temporarily stop being a patron to his Followers or accept the Old Man’s energy for a short period of time. Perhaps he’d do both — it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that we’d be able to teleport the mercenaries via Elusive Darkness. However, according to Noriduel, once that and the battle with the Mother of the Decayed have been done, he won’t be able to use his true form for a week at best.

Elusive Darkness.

Black smoke began to cover the main square of Al-Harum, where all of the survivors had gathered after the battle: my warriors, the mercenaries, and the Ishirians.

The latter had decided to join us. Greiv and Hask caught up with the refugees when the Decayed attacked them. The God of Darkness appeared in front of the citizens of Al-Harum and offered them to pledge their loyalty to him in exchange for help and salvation. The scared refugees were ready to do just about anything to avoid dying a painful death. Therefore, they, together with Greiv’s fifty soldiers and Hask’s pack, rushed back to the city through the tunnel. The Old Man then blocked the exit. While I was out cold, the Ishirian warriors pledged their loyalty to him. The best among them had to cut themselves with a ritual knife due to the high-level bond with their former patron.

Did I disapprove of his decision? It was hard to tell.

I was glad that the Ishirians didn’t become food for the Decayed. But thanks to Horn’s order to make a living shield out of their comrades, it’ll be difficult to maintain a peaceful relationships in my army.

Speaking of Horn… He died... He was the one who stood between the Mother’s attack and me. He was the one that saved me, sacrificing his life for mine. Unfortunately, this meant that the Old Man and Noriduel had to fight the enemies two-on-three. And I had already sucked a lot of strength out of my patron by using the Small Avatar of Darkness…

But, in the end, the two Gods won. In the last moment, Rugus, who was also pretty beaten by the time he had appeared, came to their aid. We owed the success of our campaign to him. We had swallowed the bait of Viyon, the God of Cunning, Slyness and Guile and the patron of the ruler of Al-Harum — Anur-Sin. His plan didn’t seem to have been to defeat us with the gas; Viyon was sure that we’d be able to get out of his trap. Everything they had done was to mess with our heads. Through his Disciple, Viyon allowed us to taste victory and waited until we found the Part of Zurtarn as he couldn’t find it himself. Only after my diggers had found the legendary artifact did the God of Guile appear in flesh. He then set Anur-Sin and his minions free and ordered them to run away with the Part.

But Rugus had foreseen this. Sitting on giant Crows, several of his Disciples watched everything that was happening from the sky.

Rugus attacked Viyon, and their Followers attacked one another.

My allies won. Viyon fled.

And then the three Gods defeated the Mothers and won us enough time to regroup and leave Al-Harum. We couldn’t have stayed — the vengeful Decayed could’ve attacked us at any moment.

So many things happened while I was unconscious after having used the Small Avatar and the Power of Light… Una even kissed me… It hadn’t been a dream. She said that she’d personally give the artifact to me and asked the others to step back and not embarrass her. The Old Man must’ve complied with her request. Like hell my people would’ve listened to a Disciple of Rugus otherwise.

He had done well to comply with such a small, insignificant request.

But Una was arrogant. Control was her element, after all. That’s probably why she had kissed me in front of hundreds of people. Did she want to make everyone believe that we had a special bond? Or did she want to get in the way of my marriage? Did she wanted to hint to me that my main allies should be Rugus’s Followers, and not those of other Gods?

It was unlikely that Una’s kiss was just a woman’s whim. That would’ve been stupid. There were political reasons behind her actions, but I hadn’t the foggiest what those reasons were.

The world around me was engulfed in Darkness.

The Shard of Sherr’s Gravestone.

Darkness swirled around me. A moment later, I, together with the united army and 10,000 Ishirians, was transferred to the outskirts of Dark.

I stumbled, like a marionette whose strings had been cut, but the Old Man and Tael (Noriduel’s human form) supported me.

“My Followers!” The voice of the God of Darkness sounded from everywhere. “Take the Senior Disciple to his house and go rest. Restore your strength! Tomorrow, under the command of Disciple Kazimir, you’ll set off to Longera! The Senior Disciple will go to fulfill a task that I’ll soon give him. He’ll join you after its completion!”

Despite the fact that they had given me the Restoring Potion 1 a while ago to heal the burns left by the Power of Light, I was still in terrible pain. My vision was blurry — I couldn’t see who was carrying me to the house. I thought that it was Berg and Greiv. The voice of the new thegn, who had been appointed by Noriduel in Al-Harum in front of all the people, could be heard in the distance.

“Brothers and sisters!” Tilda shouted. “We had a great battle today! A great victory! And great losses! We lost many…” She seemed to have stuttered. “But we had chosen this life ourselves. It was our choice! That’s our freedom! Led by it tomorrow, we’ll set off to Longera! We’ll help the Followers of the God of Darkness in their search for the damned artifact! We’ll have our revenge! And our money, of course!”

Her speech was greeted with a roar of hundreds of throats. Oblivion was beckoning me, but I was still catching the tails of the thoughts roaming in my head:

…I did well today. Yes, I made some mistakes, but I can learn from them…

…We’ll have to learn to live differently... I’m a high level... That means new powers... The Ishirians have found a new home... The Old Man’s “Followers” have gotten new brothers in faith... The mercenaries have a new thegn... Kane… Kane got a new, second “Highest Wight…”