The crater of devastation was so great, in fact, that it had completely sprayed free the sands of the arena Alex and his friends happened to be right under. With enough shattered rubble to send the remnants of the audience screaming in fear, before watching with awe as perhaps the greatest battle of the day unfolded before them.

A monstrous Hao Zei slammed the shattered ground with obsidian axes radiating the promise of absolute destruction as a Silver angel darted around the battlefield of shattered rubble and sands at dizzying speeds, her naginata blasting through even infernal steel armaments in massive explosions of lightning.

Alex was just as captivated as Yinzi as the dust and rubble settled, holding them both tight to the ground lest battlefield chaos or the malice of gods that hated him caused mischance sufficient to hurtle even Alex into the portals protecting his friends from being crushed alive.

Never had his Hao Chan looked more magnificent than when she was slipping past the demonic Hao Zei’s furious assault to paint the man who had caused her such pain and grief in stripes of brilliant crimson as the startled monster stumbled to one knee, spraying infernal blood that spattered into the arena stands, including the rubble-strewn areas his gates no longer protected, sending any spectator it touched screaming in agony as it seared through flesh and stone like the caustic acid it was.

Sprays of blood and fury that Hao Chan effortlessly weaved past, before scoring fresh furrows upon her opponent’s infernal flesh, forever just a hairsbreadth past her stepfather’s furious rebuttals as the monster tried with all his might to crush the brilliant dancer that his vicious axes just couldn’t quite touch, no matter how much he roared and howled.

“Alex, look!” Yinzi was grabbing his hand so tightly it actually hurt.

But Alex already knew what his disciple was witnessing.

A pristine angel of sublime grace and form that was ascending to Gold before their very eyes.

And they weren’t the only one’s witnessing the awe-inspiring sight.

Seneschal Dong Xiao was gazing upwards with solemn gravitas even as Master Panheu gently handed him a Sobbing Liu Li, a near catatonic Xian Hong, and a fiercely smiling Cheng Lei who gave Alex a fierce hug before allowing himself to be led through the gate.

“I knew you wouldn’t let us down, kung fu brother.” Alex’s eyes widened as Cheng Lei’s heartfelt devotion resonated so deeply with his soul, grateful to see that his friend’s own growing mastery of Alex’s art had allowed him to heal his mangled tongue, at least when his arts weren’t being impaired by multiple infernal spikes. He gave his friend a fond hug of farewell before his gaze was once more riveted on his beloved Hao Chan, ascending before his eyes. Yet he and Yinzi weren’t alone, even as Headmaster Panheu and Jidihu silently entered Alex’s gates with such desperate hope in their eyes before running into a sobbing and fully healed Ning Jing’s arms.

“Your beloved third is truly ascending, Disciple of the Fox,” whispered the sultry voice of Crown Princess Cui Zhe herself, eyes filled with tears of gratitude and regret in equal measure as she dared to step through the gates Alex had opened, though saying nothing as the ruler of this entire territory paid witness to Hao Chan’s fierce battle… and the tragic sight of Baidushi in flames, surrounded by what were now hundreds of thousands if not millions of invaders from the crimson crackling gate below.

“I will give you death! I will give you pain unending, treacherous Jezabelle!” Hao Zei roared, lashing out with his axes with furious abandon, the devastation caused with each blow tearing through the coliseum, though the handful of spectators that dared to remain were at least partially protected by the remaining wards Alex had left up, surrounding what remained of the shattered arena still.

Yet no matter how furious his threats or onslaught, Alex’s beloved always seemed to be half a step ahead of the demonic merchant, her naginata flashing with the promise of lightning that blinded them all with its fearsome intensity, sending the giant demon crashing to the arena sands in the crater that used to be the lip of the basin holding their school, now giving all the survivors a bird’s eye view of Baidushi’s imminent demise.

A sight that filled their foe with unbridled joy. “It is done, we have already won, foolish girl!” Hao Zei wheezed, now desperately parrying Hao Chan’s furious onslaught, for all that the monstrous demon howled when blue-white lightning scored his flesh, howls turning to shrieks when the imperial princess fully mastered the art of slipping past her foe’s defenses to scour vicious wounds upon his flesh. Wounds that wouldn’t stop bleeding, no matter how the demon cursed and screamed to dark powers for sustenance.

Yet even as Alex felt his lips curl upwards in desperate hope that his ascending angel might actually single-handedly defeat the nemesis of her nightmares, so too he was struck by a sudden epiphany of his own as his beloved and his greatest mortal enemy tried to give each other the gifts of oblivion.

Because either way, it was a gift freely given.

Cui Zhe shuddered by Alex and Yinzi’s side. “My city is fallen, thanks to this bastard who I pray your disciple can slay, and a Red Prince beyond us all.”

“Um… that’s not entirely true, princess,” Yinzi whispered, earning a pointed look that made her ears flatten. “Alex did beat Dongfang Hong in a duel. But the Red Prince fled before Alex could give him any orders. He took his Deep Gold Wujen too. So I guess that’s a win for us?”

“That bastard still doomed my city!” Cui Zhe sobbed, crumpling before them, Yinzi not hesitating to gather the woman in her arms, soothing her as best she could. For even if Seneschal Dong Xiao had healed her body, she was still a broken woman in spirit who could no longer play at being above it all, wounded by pain, horror, and her ultimate nightmare unfolding before her eyes.

Alex instinctively understood that. Just as he understood that his Hao Chan was now so deeply in the zone, embracing a Sage’s revelation so profound that it was allowing her to condense her core, shrieking at inconceivable speeds with so much spiritual potency at Silver, that should she actually survive the trial before her, it would take her all the way to Gold. At that moment Alex was struck with the absolute certainty that the worst thing he could possibly do, as his beloved desperately dove and cartwheeled away from a now frantically berserking Hao Zei towering at 15 feet… was to interfere.

So he poured all his focus on the doomed city below, twenty foot walls now surrounded by an army vast beyond comprehension, with ever more thousands of enemy soldiers flooding out every minute, thanks to a crackling gate itself a full mile wide in all directions. A gate that could well doom the entirety of a city that was home to millions of inhabitants.

Alex’s heart began to race with impossible hope, even as he clenched the card now in his hand.

Dripping with his lifeblood as he dared pluck it free and put it in play, still safely secured in the heavens above.

“It’s your move, disciple.”

A Gift Freely Given.

Heart in throat, Alex turned to gaze upon Cui Zhe’s once strikingly beautiful countenance, now lined and strained from torments and agony that would scar even a Gold, gazing at the devastation of her province, and absolutely powerless to stop it.

“Cui Zhe?”

The crown princess still trembling in Yinzi’s arms, shivered once before turning her dazed eyes Alex’s way. She flashed a poignant smile. “Why is it that your tales are always so bittersweet, Disciple of the Fox?”

Alex blinked back tears of his own, heart in his eyes as he dared a request that risked getting him executed in any scenario save this one.

“Give me Baidushi.”

Cui Zhe’s eyes widened in outrage that quickly transformed to bitter laughter, than a choked sob. “That you would jest with me, now of all times, Alex?”

Yinzi gazed at Alex with wide, disbelieving eyes, before she flinched at the sight of the blood-stained card in Alex’s hand. “Um… I don’t think he’s joking, Your Highness.”

Cui Zhe’s glare became one of confusion. “Best you explain yourself now, boy. Because were my core not cracked...” She choked out a sob. “I would be taking to the skies right now and raining death down upon those monsters. And now I can do nothing. My children and I, broken and battered… we can do nothing!”

She crashed to her knees, unable to hold her despair any longer, no matter Hao Chan’s furious, exultant cry, the entire sky turning a brilliant Golden Hue as the monstrous demon that had masked itself as her father died to a newly ascended Gold’s killing blow.

Hao Chan's words echoed like thunder. “By lightning I abjure you! May you never return to the Golden Realms in any incarnation, you hideous monster who once dared to call me kin!”

And whatever rebuttal a desperate Hao Zei might have have given would forever remain unsaid when his head exploded under a heavenly bolt of lightning as wide as Hao Chan herself, before she crumpled to her knees, shivering in the suddenly pouring rain.

Before standing upright once more, an exultant smile upon her exquisite features.

Eyes once more a warm shade of Amber, hair the silky black Alex remembered and loved, for all that she blazed with the furious power of Pristine Gold forged in the Crucible of Conflict, heir to a triple sigil talisman of Jade.

Her heritage could be hidden on longer before countless awestruck cultivators captivated by the spectacle of a six and a half foot tall warrior princess, howling her triumph over a fifteen foot demon even now crumbling to ash and oblivion.

Yet not a word was said amongst the surviving cultivators who had dared to see the final battle through. At least not for the time it took them all to uniformly take a knee and solemnly bow their heads.

“Long live the emperor! Long live the exalted! May his righteous rule guard the Golden Realms for eternity!” The all cried as one.

Cui Zhe gave a bitter laugh. “Oh, what a prize you hid in plain sight, Hero of the Fox. If only the emperor and his magnificent legions were here now to claim his daughter, not the poor inspector who underestimated just how deep and wide the rot within our empire truly was.”

Alex heart was a storm of emotion. Filled with overwhelming love and adoration for the positively beaming princess who had just given the most magnificent performance of her life… without even realizing how it might well have cost her the freedom she had so cherished by his side.

Almost the equal of the despair he felt at the sight of Baidushi’s imminent fall. Well over ten million citizens that would soon be at the mercy of the most ruthless invaders imaginable, gated in courtesy of Shalu himself, according to whatever rules allowed his malice to infect the mortal realm.

He turned once more to the princess, a desperate light in his eyes. “Princess Cui Zhe.”

Eyes filled with such loss and despair silently met his own.

“Give me Baidushi. Freely. No strings attached.”

Her jaw clenched with fury that instantly chilled him to the quick. Broken core or no, her body was still infused with the power of a Gold harnessed over countless years, perhaps centuries, now crushing him under the bitter weight of all her pent up fury and frustration.

“Alex!” An alarmed Yinzi gave Alex desperate warning, but he refused to break his gaze.

“That you would dare!” Cui Zhe’s words broke off, heat-filled gaze falling inexorably to the card Alex refused even to look at, before all fury bled to disbelief, trembling like a sheet.

Then he was struck by the weight of her sudden desperate hope when she met his gaze once more. A desperate burden that struck him far harder than her killing glare of just seconds before.

“Alex, if there’s any chance...”

Alex froze, still as a statue, refusing to say a word, no matter the silent plea in her gaze. Because it wasn’t a bargain or a negotiation.

It had to be a gift without any strings whatsoever, or it meant nothing at all.

The moment between them stretched to an eternity, though it only lasted as long as it took a still kneeling audience to raise and fill the air with cheers for the new imperial princess… declarations that froze a transcendentally smiling Hao Chan to frightened stillness, as if only realizing at that moment what her ascension and victory truly presaged for her future.

Cui Zhe’s still ragged voice took on a sudden desperate urgency. “Yes! Baidushi is yours, Disciple of the Fox, to do with as you will!” She sobbed. “Please, save my people!”

But Alex was rendered speechless, suddenly feeling so viscerally the imminent doom of countless millions of people now bound to his soul. Brilliant white light blinded as the air rang with the endless peels of a pristine golden note, and there Alex suddenly was, sitting in his seat in the hall of gods once more.

A seat which perhaps he had never left, gazing with stunned eyes at a softly chuckling WiFu, presently holding the hand of his beloved Qing Bai who was gazing at Alex with the gentle smile of a doting grandmother, for all that her ageless countenance looked no older than his own.

“Stay true to yourself, no matter what else happens, beloved hero and husband of my secondborn,” she whispered in her gentle voice, even as Shalu screamed insensate fury, his divine, withered body still kneeling before his seat.

“How dare he enter these chambers yet again!” Roared none other than Lord Zheng Yi, glaring with furious hate Alex’s way. Long Wang snarled at his very presence, wordlessly rising from his seat, pounding his hands together so fiercely the Golden Realms trembled and shook with countless earthquakes below.

“Leave. Now.” Long Wang demanded, his gaze promising instant death if Alex failed to do so.

Instead, a half-dreaming Alex placed the crimson card still in his hand, his arm stretching a mere handful of feet, and countless thousands of miles while doing so, placing it right over Baidushi itself.

The entire tableful of gods grew eerily still, like a collection of marble statues, such that for a single heartbeat in time Alex felt like the only truly living soul in that entire impossible chamber, for all that WiFu’s eyes still twinkled with mirth.

Then Alex spoke. “A Gift, Freely Given.” He dared to glare at Lord Justice himself. “Baidushi is now off the table.”

Then he took a good long look at the Seanchen deities with their pale silver-white skin and too knowing eyes. “But you can keep your soldiers. I’m not taking them, or the gate. Only the city,” he declared, as the gaming table erupted in furious protests.

“Impossible! He’s a mortal! He cannot play that card!” Long Wang roared.

“And yet, look at that. His card, one he forged himself, I might add, has now been placed on top of Baidushi quite successfully. In both worlds.” WiFu’s lips curved in a bemused smile as the gameboard city tile abruptly disappeared, the fox god chuckling quietly in the suddenly breathless silence.

“I do believe he has claimed the city even more literally than even I could have hoped!”

“He cannot do that!” Shalu roared, only now finding it within himself to crawl back into his seat, wheezing the whole time he did so, jutting a gnarled figure Alex’s way. “He stole our city. That abomination dared to steal one of our Sacred Cities for his own pocket realm! This is all your fault, Disciple of The Fox! You absolute fool. You’ve ruined everything!”

The Seanchen Queen’s eyes widened, as if suddenly understanding. “The gate. You fools actually tainted that gate with infernal bindings. Such acts are forbidden!” The Ice Queen’s outraged hiss made even Alex shiver in the luxuriously appointed and impossibly vast gaming hall of the gods, humbled anew in that moment with just how deadly a game he was playing.

Even Qing Bai paled and shivered, pressing herself tightly to the smiling arctic fox now in her arms, keeping her warm, still wearing a tricorn hat as he gave a yipping laugh.

“Everything we did was within the rules!” A wheezing Shalu declared. “What foolish mortals do with their souls, is of no concern to us!”

Their furious opponent grit her teeth, eyes glittering with impossible fury as Long Wang had the gall to smirk.

Before the sudden predatory gleam in her eyes as the utterly bald advisor by her side with flaps for ears and a wujen’s knowing gaze, who moved with such serpentine grace as he whispered into the Ice Queen’s ear.

Her look of revelation made it clear to Alex, at least, that the pantheon he was regrettably bound to had somehow overstepped.

“Not true, darling fools!” her taunting hiss made even Long Wang wince. “Because the infernalist you used to enact the ritual was brought back to unlife three turns ago, thanks to a scheme Long Wang and Shalu had both embraced, so sloppy with your cards that one Hao Zei, corrupt infernal merchant, managed to reclaim his soul entirely!” She chuckled coldly. “Which means that you fools are just as responsible for his actions as he is. Just how many codices are you fools in violation of for that bit of madness I wonder?”

Her mocking smile turned to a feral grin. “More than enough for me to declare us...”

Alex wrapped the table with the sound of one world crashing into another, breaking off even the Ice Queen’s monologue.

And the look she sent his way would have frozen Alex into a lifeless husk, were he not already used to wading in the frigid River of Souls.

Even her advisor hissed his forked tongue. “Your glare would kill any Lesser Jade, my Queen. Yet he still speaks!”

Alex didn’t dare waste a second, quickly getting right to the point. Because as much as he absolutely despised his pantheon, should other pantheons be in a position to attack them beyond the confines of a single game… it was the empire that his friends called home that would pay the ultimate price.

“Hao Zei is dead. Defeated by the Jade Emperor’s own Daughter. Any taint that might, or might not, have infected the gate, has been cleansed by lightning. So whatever schemes the mortals below, or indeed, the fools across the table happened to be cooking up, are so utterly inconsequential as to be laughable.”

He couldn’t help smirking at the death glares both Shalu and Long Wang were now giving him, Lord Zheng Yi the only one whose scowl had mellowed to a thoughtful frown, as if stunned to realize that Alex might actually be trying to save their collective hides, even if only for the sake of his friends. “Indeed, Hao Zei’s rise and fall has very little to do with the maneuverings of players who have made it quite clear they’d far rather me dead than allied with them, and everything to do with the ascension of my own pieces upon the Board of Fate. I play for my own benefit now, Winter Queen. Whatever effects my tools might or might not have had on Shalu’s asinine gate is utterly beside the point.”

The winter fox cuddling in the lap of his midnight mistress gave the queen a wink. “He has you there, mistress of all things crisp and cool.”

The Ice Queen’s eyes flashed. “The Jade Emperor has a viable candidate? But I sensed nothing!”

“That’s because I have multiple cards in play, including Fog of War, Cleaved Fates, Soul Link, Bitter Fruits, Nemesis, and Jade Queens,” Alex explained, gesturing to the partially shown hand that WiFu had guarded so well.

Much to Alex’s surprise, despite the outraged protests from Long Wang and furious howls from Shalu’s corner, the Ice Queen gave a single curt nod. “Acceptable.” She flashed an icy smile. “And you were resourceful enough to use the cards on your own piece, a boon and burden no one else at this table dares to embrace, to enhance your own hand.” She smirked the winter fox’s way. “A worthy disciple, WiFu. Once I freeze your Golden Realms in eternal hoarfrost, I’ll make sure to resurrect you and your disciple both into my own pantheon.” Her cold smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “For the chaos and change of the seasons aligned with spring’s first thaw will serve as an excellent counterpoint to Winter’s orderly perfection.”

“And allow the mortals sufficient time for at least a single yearly crop before frigid winter snows consume them once more and their lives are devoted to worship and placation before our alters, as is their eternal duty,” the serpentine adviser hissed.

“Because our enemy’s forces now have access to the heart of our realm.” Qing Bai’s voice had grown colder than the Winter Queen’s, as she continued to stroke WiFu’s fur, glaring her former husband’s way. “Because half of my team is so blinded and bitter with hate that they would imperil all we have built for 20,000 years, so long as they could make suffer all who displease them.”

“Silence, woman!” Dongfang Hong roared, divine countenance twisted with furious hate as he glared Qing Bai’s way. “It is your slatternly ways, your daring to defy the natural order, that forced my hand! And it is your mongrel lover and his monstrous little lackey that will pay the ultimate price!” He flashed a truly vicious smile. “Indeed, so long as the emperor purges those foul, mongrel subhumans from our fine people, I care naught if all of QingBai province falls to the bitch who would dare challenge us… before we wipe her and her cohort of lackeys and bootlickers completely off the board!” Dongfang Hong roared, rearing up to his full height, smashing his fist against the table so furiously that Alex could feel the earth twist and buckle in the world below.

For all his resilience, even Alex felt an awful chill at the looks of unbridled hate being sent his way.

Shalu, his once magnificent corpulence warped into a shriveled pox-ridden shell covered with suppurating sores, hissed and wheezed in twisted pleasure. “You truly think this was about the game, fool?” He sneered Alex’s way. “You think this is the first pantheon that has dared to challenge us on our own territory, having absolutely no idea of the powers we can truly bring to bear?”

His cocky smile despite his decrepitude was a chilling sight to behold as gnarled fingers flipped his divine hand with inhuman grace, revealing cards that caused even the Winter Queen to lurch in her seat.

“Impossible!” She whispered.

But Shalu, looking far too pleased with his trembling self, just shook is head in bemused contempt. “Very possible, foolish woman. You yourself are far more vulnerable than you could possibly fathom, with so many factions to rile up within your own realm that all but guarantee its destruction from within. And as delightful as it would have been to bind countless millions of your troops to our cause… the knowledge that they will be putting every single city that ever welcomed that bastard fox and his mongrel disciple to the torch is one that I find equally satisfactory! Especially in the knowledge that such acts will inspire our dear emperor into acts of genocide the likes of which the Golden Realms hasn’t seen in a thousand years! Nothing will please me more than to see the look on that damned fox’s face when his mongrel offspring are finally purged from our world!”

He chuckled with dark malice, right hand swirling with what were now a storm of cards, far far more than the dozen he should have at most… ignoring the hiss of dismay sent his way by the Winter Queen as he locked eyes with Alex and Alex alone, as if daring him to look at the flashing cards in his hand.

Alex refused to take the bait, lest his own acknowledgment of those cards be the final catalyst that seals his doom.

“You might think the actions of my pawn leading to the genocidal elimination of every last trace of Ruidian and Kitsune blood from the worlds we claim as our own to be naught but wishful thinking, mongrel brat who dares to defy me! But I promise you, that is exactly what will unfold, one farming community, one trade town, one city at a time! A purging fire that will cleanse our world of your filthy kind entirely!”

Alex took a shuddering breath, feeling his nemesis card shiver under that divine pronouncement of doom. He felt the blood roaring in his ears, ignoring the hate-filled visages of his enemies, knowing they would only serve to distract and demoralize. Instead, he turned to the fox who was in inspector form once more, tipping his tricorn hat Alex’s way with a warm twinkle in his eyes that reminded Alex so much of his father’s gentle smile.

Alex blinked back a tear, equal parts regret and resolve. “So, I guess it’s that time again,” Alex said, with the same tremble in his voice as when he had uttered his final words to his mother, the day he had been frozen alive.

He pretended he didn’t hear her far off sob.

A cry that might be 20,000 years old, an eternity away.

WiFu’s hand gave Alex’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Only if that’s the path you would take, beloved disciple.”

Alex swallowed, heart roaring as he tore free yet another card from his flesh, ignoring the looks of horrified dismay upon so many faces.

“No, he can’t claim that card out of turn. It’s forbidden!”

Alex and his master ignored their foes’ panicked bluster, meaningless and impotent as it always was.

He blinked back a tear, gazing into WiFu’s pain-filled eyes, sensing Qing Bai’s sob.

The cry of a mother sensing over a million of her children in peril.

“And what happens if I don’t take this path?”

His mentor didn’t bother mincing words. “Vendetta will be declared against all the tribes you swore to defend, in a life you are forbidden from ever remembering.”

“Forbidden! Those very words are forever forbidden!” A panicked Dongfang Hong suddenly roared.

Alex swallowed, ignoring the roaring of his heart as the cold chilly liquid nitrogen waters made even his dying body gasp and writhe in sudden memory. Recalling the final moments of his mother’s dismayed cry, held back by half a dozen medical staff as inconceivably cold solutions filled his veins and flooded over his legally dead remains.

“He summons the River of Souls! He dares to summon it here, in our hall!”

“Abjure him! Abjure him at once!”

Whatever words WiFu was trying to tell him as he placed a tiny silver ring in his hand faded to a brilliant white light as Alex lurched up from his momentary daze to gaze upon his closest friends still huddled in the ruined shell of an arena, with a shockingly perfect view of the fall of Baidushi.

“Alex! Please!”

He took a shuddering breath, catching Cui Zhe’s desperate gaze, tears streaming down her cheeks, the fate of a city about to be utterly overrun showing with eerie clarity in her eyes.

Much to his horror, she kowtowed before him and wept.

“Please save my city!”

Alex shuddered with a storm of potential like no other, now thrumming through his soul as he felt a sacred card click into place, and what had been utterly impossible just seconds ago was now as easy as gently lifting the sobbing Cui Zhe back to her feet.

Whispering words that resonated through the remains of Royal Phoenix Academy.

His Academy.

“A gift freely given,” he whispered as a massive pyramid of divine tier gates erupted from each of Baidushi’s walls.

You have successfully accessed Hall of Doors!

Warning! You are attempting to claim all of Baidushi (15,455,654 inhabitants free of infernal taint). City dimensions EXCEED all Gold tier limitations!

Territory has been ceded to you by rightful ruler!

Divine Tier Card: A Gift Freely Given is now in effect.

YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY CLAIMED THE CITY OF BAIDUSHI!

Experience earned!

You have unlocked the hidden quest: To Forge an Empire!

You have successfully founded your Capital City!

“Baidushi’s covered in glowing light!"

"The gods have answered our prayers!”

The spectators' words of awe quickly turned to dismay.

“Baidushi’s vanished!”