It took time to get back to where everyone else waited, but Serenity spent the time well. He didn’t have a Skill for it, but he still knew how to make a shield. He definitely had the mana to support one, even one that was always on, and if he was going to fight Lykandeon he didn’t want to go in without a shield.

He probably could have built one before with his unusually large mana pool for a Tier Four, but he wouldn’t have been able to maintain it and still manage the ritual, so there was no point. Without a Skill, he couldn’t erect a shield spell quickly; he wouldn’t have been able to get it up in time. He did have one Infused in an item, so he could have Evoked it if necessary, but it wasn’t very strong.

Serenity hoped he’d get a shield Skill with his next Path, but that meant he needed to take a mage-oriented Path next; only mages got shields as Skills at Tier Five. Even a default Shield Skill would get him something that could go up quickly. If he didn’t, perhaps that would be a good use for Quickrune? It would probably hurt to use, but if it would let him store a spell that didn’t degrade with time, that would be a perfect place to keep an emergency quick shield.

The advantage of casting his own spell was that he could tune it to whatever he was fighting. In this case, Serenity decided that magic was probably the bigger threat. He expected Lykandeon to fight like a mage, since he never wore a weapon or armor; the fact that he’d fought using bolts of light in the prophetic vision reinforced that assumption.

Serenity tried to remember what color they were; that would tell him about what he needed to defend against. Were they golden? Perhaps the green with hints of gold from the ritual? Serenity couldn’t remember. They were bright and he’d mentally thought of them as “bolts of light”, but that was all he could remember. He thought he’d remember if they were greenish, but he couldn’t be certain. He’d have to defend against both light and magic, then, but he could probably keep his physical defenses light.

Since he was effectively wearing dragonscale armor, shielding against energy and magic made the most sense as a general defensive setup anyway. Dragonscale was extremely effective against physical damage but generally did very little against magic. There was a reason it was the preferred heavy armor for spellcasters who didn’t mind angering dragons.

Serenity didn’t expect he’d need to worry about angering dragons any time soon. The only one he was likely to see was Althyr, and Althyr knew he was a dragon so seeing dragonscale “armor” wasn’t likely to be a problem. He’d probably want to check with Althyr about it if he went to a higher-Tier planet, however; dragons could sometimes show up on planets with Tier caps as low as ten.

Actually, that meant he probably should check with Althyr sooner rather than later. Not only was he himself arguably Tier Eight, Tzintkra’s cap was - in places - high enough for dragons. It would be irritating to have to fight off a dragon necromancer. Fighting off a dragon crusader, on the other hand, wouldn’t be new, but it was never fun.

Dragons lived long enough that even the young ones who tended to head out on crusades against “evil” were a pain to fight. They weren’t any smarter about what “evil” was than other people, but they were definitely more annoying to fight off. Having to fight one over “wearing a dead dragon’s body” would probably not be any more fun than fighting over “being undead”, even if it was more understandable.

Serenity grumbled at himself. He’d gotten distracted again. What was he doing?

Oh yes, he was building a shield. Magic and energy primarily; he’d add something for more physical attacks but that would be more for awareness than anything else. It might also work on weak “carrier” attacks, but most of those would be stopped by his armor anyway.

Or would they? Armor stopped some carried attacks because it wasn’t part of the person, but his armor was. Oh, it wasn’t subject to poison and there was no direct physical connection to his body, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a metaphysical connection. He’d need to be wary of carried spell attacks, even if they were encased in a physical delivery vector.

While he was at it, he should add in some protection against secondary and environmental attacks. He still had to breathe, after all.

Serenity almost stopped running as he realized his last thought might not be correct. More than half of his forms didn’t breathe, why was he assuming he had to? Well, he probably had to get oxygen somehow to keep up activity at a high level like his current running or for a good fight, but that might be all. He hadn’t needed to breathe as an undead. Well, not as most of the undead he’d been; a few variants did actually have to breathe.

Whether or not he had to breathe, he did breathe. Which meant he should include protections against everything from spores to toxic atmospheres or vacuum. He had the spellforms for each of them, along with the set that maintained a reasonable atmosphere, temperature, and pressure when diving deep in an ocean.

No, he’d better set those aside for now. Those bells and whistles would take time to add and continuously cost mana even if they weren’t being used. He needed a simple shield that defended against what he was likely to face, not the Final Reaper’s massively adjustable and adaptable masterpiece that he couldn’t even start to afford.

He also wanted to fully examine the spell for potential areas he could improve it with essence use, but that wasn’t something he could manage fast enough to matter now. He wanted to get to Lykandeon before he recovered.

Serenity was back at the suite already. He must have been running faster than he’d expected; he’d also gotten through the portal connection quickly, but that simply meant there wasn’t a line. He’d have to actually build the spell on the way to Aeon’s core room; with the portal connection that Rourke could probably get for them, it wasn’t that far away. Hopefully they’d be able to get ahold of Rourke quickly or get Karin to help, if Karin was in good enough shape.

Serenity glanced through Aeon’s core and saw that Lykandeon was still lying on his couch. He was probably sleeping; he hadn’t moved since Serenity first checked.

Serenity took a deep breath, then opened the door. He’d need to explain why they were suddenly changing the plan and going after Lykandeon instead of using the opportunity to raid the area Serenity now knew was known as the Underground to recover anyone they could find.

Serenity had the feeling that he knew where every single one of his people in the Underground was. They’d been sent to the Legions, the “newest members of the Legions” had all collapsed, and he could see through their eyes through the influence of Aeon’s core and possibly Lyka’s core. Earthlings had a far higher tolerance for World Core residue than Lykans did; it only made sense that the people who were the most affected and not dead were probably Earthlings.

Aeon would help him get them out - hells, he could probably walk them out himself - if he killed Lykandeon. It was a straightforward explanation, though it might take a little time to get across.

Sillon’s shout from just beyond the door interrupted Serenity’s attempt to gather his thoughts. “We’ll be ready to head out as soon as Ita gets back. She has the Book; Blaze thinks he can use it to temporarily stabilize Karin so she can get us authorized through the portal into the Palace. He’s going to have to stay with her, he’ll bring her back here after she triggers the portal and why are you standing in the doorway?”

Serenity was still standing in the doorway because he was surprised. He hadn’t expected them to be planning without him, though he wasn’t certain why he hadn’t expected it. Serenity stepped inside and let the door fall closed.

Had they already decided what to do with his daughter? “Jenna?”

“She’s coming with us to the portal, Blaze will carry her there and back. He insisted that since he couldn’t come you’d need Rissa so you’d have some healing if something went wrong.” Sillon grinned at Serenity.

Serenity found himself smiling right back. “It’s good to have competent people who can figure things out without handholding.”

Sillon shrugged. “You should’ve seen Blaze. I think he was overjoyed; he pulled out three different plans of attack depending on what the Palace is like when we get there.”

Serenity chuckled. “I’ve seen them. He has more than that; there’s even a plan where we travel cross-country to the Palace and come in the back. I’m not sure when he mapped it, but he said he’s been over the whole route several times.”

Serenity was actually a little surprised Blaze wasn’t coming with them and leaving someone else behind to watch Karin and Jenna; he knew the Healer wanted Lykandeon’s head on a pike. Possibly literally, though Serenity was sure Blaze would be happy enough knowing he was dead. He’d expected absolutely no difficulty convincing Blaze to go after Lykandeon.

Ekari, Rissa, Sillon, and Kerr were the people he’d expected to need to convince. Ekari hatred Lykandeon but also knew how powerful he was; the others might despise the man but he didn’t think they hated him, so he hadn’t expected it to be easy to talk them into assassinating him.

On the other hand, wasn’t that basically what he’d done when he sabotaged Lykandeon’s ritual? It hadn’t killed him, but it had certainly hurt him badly as planned. Perhaps not assassination but certainly assault.

Since everything was already under control, Serenity took the time to build his shield while they waited on Ita and Kerr. He limited it to energy and magic as the primary defenses, since energy would also handle light, even lasers. He couldn’t stop himself from adding some additional features, but the ability to shape the spell to be something other than a simple one-way bubble should be useful; for once, he had other people he might need to protect, so a standard shield just wasn’t good enough.

Before he even finished setting up the spellform, Ita hopped through the doorway, followed quickly by Kerr.

“Are we still good to go?” Kerr panted but didn’t let it stop her from talking. “We ran all the way from the portal, I don’t think I can run back.”

Serenity frowned and stabilized the incomplete spellform; they were far enough behind him that he’d assumed they’d conserved their energy while traveling. He didn’t have to, but he still shouldn’t have beaten them by the twenty-three minutes he had. He must have been moving faster than he thought.

A quick review of the recorded footage showed that he’d run about twice as fast as his previous normal pace. When he thought about it, it made sense; his attributes were much, much higher. He simply hadn’t expected them to be effective this quickly. Attributes usually took time to take effect.

Serenity risked a glance at Lykandeon. He was still unconscious on his couch. “Yes, we’re still good. Everyone ready?”

He’d just have to finish the spellform and cast on the way. The trip wouldn’t take long, but it would take long enough to finish the spell.