Fireball was probably the best-known spell on Earth. Even those unfamiliar with roleplaying games had heard of it in one context or another. In the imagination of people, it ranged from a jokey puff of fire that could barely light a candle to a giant star of heated plasma that had the strength to vaporize mountains. In the awakened realms, it was the latter.

Three more chunks of molten metal smashed into an island of the Vermillion, all having the same devastating effects. As significant as the destruction seemed to be, though, it didn’t have a huge impact on the Vermillion’s snake. Fighting an island archipelago wasn’t as easy as one might think, which further made Dallion aware of his shield’s true power. It would be quite a while before he could upgrade any of his gear.

Once the last salvo of heated metal hit its target, Lux quickly zipped back to catch Dallion before he fell into the sea. The attack method was far from efficient, but with a single firebird that was all Dallion could achieve—he could have aerial maneuverability or direct chunks of molten metal at his enemy, but not both. Dallion had asked Gleam whether she could serve as his wings, at which point the shardfly had just laughed. Judging by the emotions that appeared within her, she was both unwilling and currently incapable of such a feat.

However, Dallion saw a much greater issue presented. He had effectively been capable of having firearms the moment Lux had become his familiar. Even without forging knowledge he could well have had the firebird propel pebbles at enemies. Instead, the only “great” discovery Dallion had made was combining his two familiars to create the homing Nox dagger. That made for a lot of wasted opportunities. Most likely they wouldn’t have helped him in his personal leveling up, but it would have against everything else. It seemed that the same memories that had helped him cope with the uniqueness of the world were what were keeping him back from using his full Earth potential.

With what could only be described as a roar, the island snake submerged with a splash, leaving Dallion alone in the open. It was catching on to his tactics rather quickly, though it was yet to resort to poison.

Gleam, can you create a few illusions of me?

“It won’t do any good,” the shardfly said, annoyed. “Something that size won’t be fooled.”

I just need something to distract him. Please?

The familiar sighed audibly, then fluttered off to do as she was asked. Given her age, Dallion suspected she would act like the “big” sister in his realm. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t know how right he’d turn out.

Trails of glitter followed the shardfly as she flew through the air. Some of them changed into identical copies of Dallion, complete with Lux’s wings. One couldn’t help but admire the creature’s power and beauty. Such magnificence with the power to glamour everything in existence. Like a chameleon only a thousand times better, and someone in a forgotten era had hunted her down to put her in a hand mirror to make peoples' reflections seem a bit prettier.

Dallion summoned another ingot. Before he could have Lux propel it down at the sea, a volley of rocks shot up from beneath the water, aimed in his general direction. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who could learn new tricks.

Shield! Dallion split into seven instances. Most of them avoided the attack, the rest managed to block them with minimum damage. However, that turned out to be only the beginning. More rocks shot up. Some went through the fake Dallions dispersing the dust that created them.

Lux, fly away! Dallion said.

It was a difficult situation, but Lux managed to fly through the rocks into a part of the sky that was clear from threats.

That was close, Gen said. Any news ideas?

A few.

If Vermillion was going to act like a submarine, Dallion’s only option—since he didn’t have the forging skills or knowledge to create depth charges—was to force him to get out. And realistically, there were only a few ways to do that.

Harp, I’ll need your help again. Dallion summoned the haprsisword.

You don’t have the strength to endure another line slash, the harpsisword said. It feels alright now, because you’re in an awakened realm. When you get back to the real world, the pain will hit you hard.

In general, that was normal when awakened overstressed themselves in the realms. The first few times Dallion tried to do anything, even simple mending, he had felt utterly exhausted. Apparently, the harpsisword believed that the difference in level was so great that even with her doing the actual action, Dallion would be severely affected. Despite that, he needed to continue this fight.

Just one more, Dallion said.

Once again, the sword moved on its own, slicing air and sea beneath it. Two giant waves formed as the watery surface was split in two like pieces of jelly.

This is what wars were like, the armadil shield whispered as Dallion watched the sight, dumbfounded. This is the power of nobles.

This was what nobles were capable of? Nothing so far had prepared him for this. Everything he’d seen, even the brief memory vision of Aspian’s past was nothing. When Dallion had returned from the expedition, he thought he knew where he stood in terms of strength and ability.

The Moon’s protection, an unknown voice said. It keeps the weak protected, but hides a lot of secrets. Don’t worry, you’ll understand everything in time. Most do… or stop trying.

Before Dallion could understand what the mysterious voice was getting at, the Vermmillion emerged from the crack in the sea. Like a mountain, islands emerged one after the other. This time, the head opened its massive mouth. Rows of teeth, larger than buildings, shined in the hundreds.

Shield! Dallion instinctively moved the shield in front of him to protect himself. Back in his mind, he knew that even a cocoon would shatter like an egg under this amount of pressure. The enormous jaws moved closer, then snapped… inches from Dallion.

“Well done, young one,” Vermillion’s voice boomed. “It’s always nice to see someone so enthusiastic. You’re like a chick who tries to fly by running really fast.”

Astreza, Berannah, Centor, Dararr, Emion, Felygn, Galatea, Dallion recited, trying to keep his pulse in check. Despite knowing that this was just a realm, having the Vermillion snap its jaws in front of him had more than doubled the adrenalin in his veins.

“You did what you promised, and so will I.” The island snake moved slightly back. “It will be a shame if I don’t protect a seedling about to sprout. I will call you owner and will be linked to your realm.”

“Th-thank you,” Dallion managed to say. After what had happened, he didn’t expect the guardian to agree. At the same time, he was experiencing a bit of buyer’s remorse, wondering how everyone else would react to the news. Following the laws of realm creation, the serpent was going to border Harp’s tower.

Harp, are you okay with this? Dallion asked. I can try to find a way to—

There’s nothing wrong, she replied using melodies. I’m sure it won’t be a bother.

It was difficult to determine how upset she was, if at all. Knowing the nymph, even if she were, she wasn’t going to say a word about it. Taking a deep breath, Dallion connected the ring to the rest of his realm. The sea extended into an ocean with a string of islands in it. They were positioned so as to just be visible from the top of the nymph’s tower without disturbing her cove.

“An interesting realm you have,” the Vermillion said. “Very unique, very empty…”

“Empty?”

“Awakened used to be filled with dozens of echoes. You only have two.”

Wow, he didn’t even count the boy as a full echo. When one was the size of an entire archipelago, the mistake was understandable.

“I’m just getting started,” Dallion said.

“Being selective is good,” Gleam fluttered. It was clear she wasn’t taking any crap from anyone. “You should be lucky that a kid like you is even allowed here.”

To Dallion’s surprise the Vermillion didn’t say a thing. If anything, he was somewhat on guard. Clearly, he wasn’t the only monster Dallion had invited in his realm. Good thing that they were on his side.

“I hope you make yourself at home,” Dallion said in an attempt to smooth things out. “I promise to level up enough to upgrade you first chance I get.”

“Why?” There was a sudden wave of aggression as clusters of anger and a sense of betrayal formed throughout all of the islands.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Dallion asked. “I thought that guardians—"

“He’s young,” the dryad said from down below. With the realms connected, he had the freedom of appearing in his dryad form. Currently, he was standing on the water’s surface, looking up. “He thinks that all guardians want to get leveled up.”

That seemed to calm the creature down to the point that the clusters faded away.

“Vermillions are protectors,” the dryad went on. “They protect things.”

“That much I know,” Dallion smirked.

“They also lose connection to the item once it’s fulfilled its destiny. As happens with every sphere item. That you should also know.” The dryad smiled.

Drat! Dallion had skipped that detail. Of course, leveling up the ring would banish its guardian away. That must have happened when the mirror pool had called him to investigate the previous ring. Then why had its form changed into a key? Or maybe that was the point. Dallion got a sudden realization.

“Vermillion, can you change the ring into a key?” Dallion asked.

“The key is always a key, young one. I can only make it possible for the key to open things.”

“So, you mean that when it’s a ring it can’t do anything?”

“There’s a lot that you don’t know. My role is not to guard anything hidden in the realm, it’s to make sure that only my owners can open doors through realms.”

Nil, know anything about this?

A bit. There are a select number of items that can be taken out of a realm. Of course, you’ll need a Moon’s boon for that.

Hold on! You mean I can use this key both in the realms as well as the real world?

It’s possible…

If what they were saying was true, Dallion had just found a skeleton key that could unlock realms. No wonder that the Star was after it. With something like that, he could enter any realm—not that he had problems in that department—as well as allow anything to move between realms. In effect, this was a way to free imprisoned creatures. That was why the previous Vermillion was so adamant that it was too late. In its mind, Dallion was after the key to free the copyette.

Come to think of it, the ring had managed to exit a world item and end up in the real world. However, that wasn’t a one off. It could go back inside and unlock things that weren’t meant to be.

“What exactly can the key open?” Dallion asked.

“Any keyhole between realms.”

“So, I can let all my guardians loose in the real world?”

“As long as their realms have keyholes, yes. None of yours do.”

Dallion was definitely going to have a chat with Aspan on the matter.

There were more than one key capable of that. One was in the possession of the Order of the Seven Moons, a second was with Dallion. Someone—possibly the Star—was doing everything in their power to collect them to free someone. Or maybe Dallion had it all wrong? It was possible that the Star wanted to free himself and escape this world and go into another. If the keys could open locks between realities, they could even open a path to Earth or any of the seven worlds.

The question was whether the Star was the only one searching for them, or were there others involved… like the unknown mage, for example…