Keynes’s purifying body buff could only protect him so much. The number of debuffs from the gigantic ape was not yet overwhelming, but substantial. Most of them were weak but in a great number, they added up.

The defenders of the palace crumbled under the onslaught of the monsters and the humans who were helping them. Keynes was unable to figure out what was wrong with those humans. The only debuff remotely trying to dominate him was trying to lower his Will attribute and stop him from moving, which didn’t match with the action of the other humans. The debuff was one of the first ones being blocked by Keynes’s purifying body buff. According to Alice, it had a priority as it was a dangerous one if left unchecked.

What is the ape doing there? Keynes asked.

There is a point it must reach in order to claim the territory and make it its dominion. It is all in the System information about the era. Have you read it yet?

I haven’t had time if you didn’t notice.

Keynes landed on a street, dozens of monsters rushed him, coming from every direction, even from inside buildings. This time, Keynes didn’t hold back and put on the Unrelenting Shirt that increased his Dexterity and Strength by 3 each and also decreased damage taken by 5%. He grunted, feeling the strain on his spirit. It hadn’t been like this before he absorbed [Chaos Aura] he realised but there was nothing he could do. Together with shortswords, and the Contender’s Ring, Keynes’s Strength stood at 34 and his Dexterity at 39. It was enough to easily deal with Level 1 and 2 monsters without spending much stamina.

As Keynes got within a hundred metres from the gigantic ape, the pressure from the monsters increased and he was being pushed back. More guards came out of the palace and created pockets of resistance. It also seemed that the human traitors had been dealt with. Keynes didn’t pay them any mind and they paid no mind to him.

There appeared to be no end to monsters but Alice assured Keynes that no new monsters were spawning in the area. At least until the giant ape won and created a dominion.

Vivena is coming, Alice warned Keynes.

She landed nearby, immediately releasing her [Poison Aura]. Her arrival shifted the tide and once again they and the defenders started to gain ground, getting closer to the local boss. Several Level 3s broke away from it and rushed Keynes and Vivena, seeing them as the main threat.

Roars and growls drowned out any other sounds, although Vivena ignored Keynes for the most part so there were no words exchanged between them. Her aura was harmful to him and it looked like she was aware of that.

Where is everyone? Keynes wondered. Not a single flying construct was in the air. The defence of the Capital crumbled, which was strange given that many tribes had come here for the covenant.

Master!

Keynes sensed the change. The giant ape smashed the ground, twice, then the wall of the System messages popped up. They didn’t manage to stop the boss. And oddly enough, Keynes didn’t care much.

The number of debuffs increased, pushing Keynes’s attributes down. All of sudden, the monsters were faster and stronger. But that wasn’t the full extent of the new debuffs, Keynes’s mood dipped, anxiety set in and the usual clarity of thinking started to slip away.

Master, you must go, now. You have not recovered enough to stay and fight. With the dominion active. New monsters would soon begin to spawn.

Keynes glanced to where Vivena was fighting, surrounded by various creatures that tried to take a swipe at her. The effect of the debuffs was clear but not enough to stop her. Keynes’s eyes darted back to the giant ape that climbed to the top of the palace and roared several times sending short-lasting debuffs. There were over five hundred monsters between Keynes and the ape, many of them Level 3 with cunning minds. Keynes had to make a choice. Would he stay and fight or leave the Capital in the hands of these monsters?

Suddenly, Viven shot into the air.

What the hell was she doing?

The reaction of the monsters was immediate. Spells and physical projectiles rushed at her, followed by swarms of smaller monsters.

Unless she had another serum, Keynes didn’t see her succeeding in reaching the giant boss, let alone defeating it with hordes of its subordinates in the way.

Master, you must leave. Your stamina is dangerously low.

He knew, his arms felt as if they were made out of the lead. He had to put away the Vampiric shortsword. It had an interesting modifier—each attack stole a tiny percent of stamina from an enemy—but unfortunately, that stamina wasn’t gained by Keynes. Alice explained that it was a weak version of the modifier and a better one would have something like this.

With the Vampiric shortsword away, Keynes’s Dexterity dipped a little. But even with debuffs, the difference wasn’t enough to make the monsters faster than Keynes. The issue was that he hadn’t recovered after the labyrinth. He needed at least a day or two of rest to gain full health and stamina.

Every muscle of his body burned and his coordination started to suffer.

I really don’t have a choice, do I? Keynes glanced at Vivena’s suicidal attack and felt an emotional void inside himself. Even if it was the effect of dominion debuffs, he still couldn’t do anything about his friend. If she still was one.

Using the last of his stamina, Keynes climbed into the air and left the Capital.

***

Shaper smiled sensing the newly established dominion. His plan was coming together. With the death of the local boss, he would be able to restart the One Empire. So many new possibilities this time around, so many lessons learned.

Shaper left the throne room and retraced his steps back to the room with the view of the main street. The palace shook under the assault of the dominion boss. Shaper was annoyed by the fact that Magnalius couldn’t be out there feeding him information, although it wasn’t like there was any risk to Shaper’s plan. No one capable of defeating a local boss inside its dominion remained in the Capital.

Still, mild anxiety settled in Shaper’s stomach. It wasn’t a dominion debuff, not a single one was able to penetrate his formidable spiritual defences. His worries brought his thoughts to Keynes Kid. The recent events proved that the vision could be fooled, especially by chaos magic. And Keynes Kid’s [Chaos Aura] was powerful enough to defeat the local boss.

Shaper increased the pace, simultaneously growing angry at himself for losing his cool. He entered the room and then jumped out of the window onto the balcony below. The giant ape’s surprised grunt turned into a gurgling sound.

Shaper’s eyes widened, shocked. His body froze as a sudden boundless wave of hatred smashed him from all sides. His plan…

His future…

All destroyed…

Shaar has been defeated.

Dominion of Shaar has ended.

All local dominion monsters are enraged.

Shaper saw red. His aura exploded out of him, killing any monster it touched by destroying their spirit cores. Then he focused his attention on the culprit—

The vision unrolled before his eyes, showing him the consequences of his action. Shaper hesitated, the vision was clear. He wasn’t the one meant to claim the orb of dominion. He came here to ensure the orb would get into the rightful hands.

What about the One Empire? All this time, Shaper had believed that he would be one to claim the orb of dominion. The vision was never clear about this part and so Shaper assumed it would be him. Others were not strong enough, not worthy.

His rage subsided and he started thinking clearly again.

The path to victory remains incomprehensible and only makes sense in hindsight.

Not the tiniest piece of him would have imagined this outcome. He could see Keynes Kid succeeding but not her.

Vivena Sael was on her knees, bleeding from countless cuts. What pushed her to do this? Madness? Greed? Stupidity? She didn’t have any business here. The tribesmen betrayed her and Keynes Kid.

And still, she was here, helping them.

Maybe I was wrong about her…

The enraged monsters not only lost a large chunk of their strength with the dominion gone but also their nature reverted to something wild and primal like rift monsters were exhibiting.

The defenders accustomed to fighting rift monsters started ruthlessly cutting the remaining invaders down, stocking the piles of monster corpses even higher. They didn’t need Shaper’s help. Not that he was eager to offer one.

Shaper walked away from the stone railing to where Vivena Sael was still on her knees. Next to her was the carcass of the local boss. Its size returned to its original state. It must have been buffed by the dominion as it was now barely two metres tall.

Shaper’s crossed the threshold of her [Poison Aura]. It was harmless to him although her keeping it up was a clear message.

She frowned then her eyes narrowed.

“I should have known you were behind this. The moment I heard that your cult is here, I suspected that something was off.”

Shaper noticed a silver orb in her hand. It must be the orb of dominion. He swallowed his desire and pride. He hadn’t lied to Keynes Kid when he’d told him that he’d been following the vision to the letter.

“It seems all of this was for your sake, Vivena Sael. I wonder why and I hope I haven’t made the wrong choice today.”

With that, Shaper wrapped his aura around himself, vanishing to Vivena Sael’s senses. He could use the method he’d told Keynes Kid about but this one was much easier in execution with his strained spirit.

***

Vivena kept her [Poison Aura] up for a couple of minutes after Shaper had vanished. She didn’t trust that man. He had a twisted mind. Their last encounter wasn’t something Vivena wanted to remember. Without their consent and knowledge, Shaper transported them from London to Geneva.

After all this time, she didn’t know how he’d managed that.

You are exhausted, lady. Also, there are several poisons in your body that are not mild.

Vivena sighed, turning off [Poison Aura]. Isako was right. Having no serum, Vivena came up with a different plan. Much more risky and dangerous. She’d used [Create Poison] on her dagger several times, then cut herself, poisoning her body. She had enough practice with the skill that she was sure that no lethal poison was in the mix but they weren’t the serum-grade with barely any negative effects. These were poisons that made a person sick. On the bright side, she had 30% poison resistance from the passive skill and items and her buffed Vitality also kept her on her feet.

She also had an emergency option, an anti-poison serum from a Level 2 rift. But using the anti-poison serum now would cause more harm than good, unfortunately. Once she lost all her extra Vitality, her body was likely to shut down for a while. She pushed herself too far.

You’re right, let’s get out of here. Once I rest up, I’ll figure out what to do with this thing. She looked down at the orb of dominion, then smiled seeing that she was now ranked first on the weekly ranking.

***

Hawthorne and Aurora emerged from the palace. No one tried to stop them. There were barely any people on their way here. And they could see why. Dead bodies of people and monsters were everywhere.

What in the name of Shaper happened here?

To his credit, Hawthorne kept his cool and pulled Aurora behind him. The scale of death boggled her mind. The first two outbreaks had been bad but nowhere near this.

They meandered between the piles of monster bodies, avoiding the palace defenders who were killing the last of the monsters. Hawthorne led them to the breach in the palace’s wall.

“What caused this?” he asked without breaking the stride.

“Something huge, I guess.”

Hawthorne nodded, not questioning her words. He didn’t have any reason to, no ordinary monster was capable of causing this kind of damage.

As they left the palace behind, the number of monster bodies decreased but the number of human bodies increased dramatically. The sight seized Aurora’s heart.

“Where now?” Hawthorne asked.

“Turn left at the next alley,” she said absent-mindedly, then she froze as she noticed something familiar among the bodies. “Wait, Haw.”

She pointed at the body, partially buried beneath a few others.

“We don’t have time.”

Aurora glanced around. They were alone.

“Please, check it,” she asked, her voice cracking.

Hawthorne muttered curses as he pulled bodies away. There was so much blood and gore that he’d need a week’s worth of shower to clean it. After a few minutes, he reached the body pointed by Aurora.

It was a middle-aged woman in a royal white.

“That’s the queen.”

Hawthorne frowned, getting a better look at the queen. Then he slowly looked up at his wife.

“She hasn’t been killed by a monster. This is a rungu’s wound.”

***

The king walked out of the secret tunnel built shortly after he’d taken the throne from Akarys. He had a feeling he’d need it at some point. His court was full of traitors.

The tunnel exit was a kilometre from the Capital, near a hidden stash with a flying construct, food and water. He didn’t expect the monster attack on this scale and would have to—

Guttural growls sounded between trees.

He turned to the four guards that accompanied him, their faces were determined but pale. His head swung in all directions trying to find the monster.

“We must get—”

The king didn’t finish the sentence as a bony protrusion exploded out of his chest. It was attached to a tail that disappeared into the ground. The four guards blinked, unable to comprehend what just happened, then a monster jumped out of the woods. It walked on four elongated legs, its torso near the ground with a tail coming out of its back. Its face resembled that of a spider with long sickly green fangs and many eyes. It was the size of a shed.

“Le—ve—ve--l 4…”

“Ap—ex pre—da—tor…”