The sounds of battle had long disappeared from the city. There wasn't much else to fight. The mercenaries either died or ran away. After all, they were hired to "keep anyone unwanted from entering the mountain". Since they failed in that regard, many of them decided that they didn't want to lose their lives fighting a giant necrotic dragon, so they rather escaped with the first half of their services paid for.

Now, there were different noises in the streets. One of a constant murmur of the freed inhabitants and the other of a dragon digging away at the rubble that sealed off the mountain gate.

"Can you hurry up?" Clive pushed the dragon. "Glavas has been there for a while already and I really don't like the sounds we've been hearing from that place.

"I'm digging as fast as I can!" Sizzy defended herself. "I made this dragon for combat, not for digging around. If you want, I can always just bust through the rocks though."

"No! You know far too well that we can't damage the integrity of the mountain anymore. It could just make things worse."

"Then shut up and let me do my thing!" The dragon briefly returned to its work before one of the nearby citizens pointed into the mist that flooded the city.

"Someone's coming!" the woman shouted.

Clive turned around and truly, somebody was approaching them. Very quickly, the detective noticed that there was something odd about this person. At first glance, they were unarmed and seemed as harmless as one could. His unkempt blond hair and smooth face gave the man a young and slightly foolish look. The dirt stains on his pale shirt and shorts indicated that he may have been a farmer of sorts, which corresponded to his almost-antique moccasins. The strangest thing about him, however, was the odd colouration of his skin. Up to his wrists and ankles, he seemed to share the same shade as Alma, but beyond that, his limbs were a gradient of almost all possible human skin colours before finally turning pale white around his shoulders.

"Who are you? Another bloody mercenary?" Sizzy's dragon asked and crouched down a little, ready to pounce.

"My sincere apologies, but I do have something rather urgent waiting for me inside. I do not really wish you any harm. If you move aside for a moment, I will simply disappear beyond the rubble and all will be as if I was never here."

Clive looked at the dragon, waiting for what Sizzy would do. One of the local bystanders, however, swiftly took the initiative.

"He's not from around here! Must be with them!" The man's loud yelling was really all Sizzy needed. Mercenary or not, the man looked beyond suspicious. Capturing him would ensure that he could not stab them in the back while they'd try to get to Glavas.

The dragon took a few steps forward before swiping with its claw against the man. She merely tried to grab him, but the moment the skeletal construct opened its hand again, the stranger was nowhere to be found.

They did not even hear as he muttered his incantation. The world around them bent and stretched as the man teleported above the dragon's head. In his arm now rested what seemed to be a faintly glowing stick with a texture akin to flowing water. With surprising force, the man tossed it downwards. The weapon's sharp end pierced the dragon's skull and in the very next moment, the entire necrotic construct fell apart. The tendons holding it together snapped and the bones came crumbling down onto the street, crashing against the nearby buildings and damaging their facades.

"Damn it!" the man swore as soon as his feet were back on the ground. "Oooh, I shouldn't have done that. Maybe trapping it first would've been better. Or perhaps a mental attack targeted at the necromancer, rather than the construct?" He scratched his chin. "No, no, that wouldn't work. The result would be pretty much the same. Oh well, I suppose I will have to fix the buildings later. That's rather annoying."

The man shrugged and approached the blocked-off entrance leading into the mountain. Clive stood there, his feet frozen solid to the ground. If there was one thing he knew, it was his limit. There were only a handful of different kinds of threatening people that he could handle on his own. That handful may have expanded further if he had time to prepare and think of a strategy, but even then, someone like this raggedy man would not be among them. Nevertheless, he had to try at least something. If a battle of might and magic would not guarantee him victory, perhaps one of wits might.

"If you're looking for Glavas, he's already gone," he spoke, trying his very best to keep his voice from trembling as the lie left his lips.

"Who? Oh yeah, the hunter. Well, to be honest, I am not that interested in him, so perhaps it is best that he left. Or... did he? Would he leave his daughter behind? Or are you lying? Well, I suppose it doesn't matter in the end."

The man crouched down and looked through a tiny gap between the rocks. Without saying a single word of an incantation, he disappeared in a brief flash before Clive could react.

The detective sat on the ground, his heart pounding inside his chest. Whoever that man was, he was no joke. His magical prowess was tremendous. No matter how strong Glavas may have been, he wouldn't stand a chance against him.

Glavas and Surdi exchanged a few looks of utter confusion.

[Did he really say he's a god or am I reading him wrong?]

"No, he did say that. Hang on a minute! You can't be serious!" the hunter almost yelled at the man.

"Oh? How so?"

"I mean... A god? Of humans? The actual god? The one who broke the bowl of magic?"

An annoyed groan left Swen's lips. "Ugh, yes! Yes, I am the one who spilt the magical water. You know, I did a lot of other things too. Great things. Technically, I created Ezma. I gave all the species the knowledge of the language of magic. But no, people will always only remember the fact that I broke that one bowl. Not even Eigam is giving me such a hard time about it. I would greatly appreciate it if you'd quit it."

Suddenly, Glavas realized something. He gently pushed his son aside and sprung up to his feet. "Wait, why are you here?" he asked, his voice cold as winter in Elkif.

"I came here to stop your daughter from opening the seal that holds the demons of hell at bay. Rest assured, I am technically on your side."

"So you knew?!"

"Knew what?"

"Everything!" he yelled at the god. "You knew what we've been through! You knew that Ruun was killing people, taking their souls, and you did nothing! You knew that he'd come to kill my friends and take away my children, and you did nothing!!"

"Hang on, hang on, there is a misunderstanding. I–"

"Where the fuck were you all this time?!"

"Will you listen to my reason, or do you simply require time to blame me for all the evil in the world."

"Speak. I wanna hear this."

"The answer is simple. I am not omniscient. The only things that make me a god are the facts that I know the language of magic as if I was a native speaker, and that I do not age. In every other regard, I am not different from mortals. Therefore no, I was not aware of your losses. At least not until recently. I am sorry, but there is no one else to blame but Ruundanedai."

"But... You came here! Why now?! Why not sooner?"

"Because I was asked to come here."

"By who?!"

"Eigam."

"Eigam? The goddess of magic?"

"Yes. She does indeed exist, contrary to what some seem to believe."

[You can talk to her?]

"Not only talk. We travel together. I mean... sort of. She is technically everywhere and in everything, but her main consciousness travels along with me. We bonded quite a lot over the millennia we've spent together. Recently, my dear Eigam had a certain... premonition. She can feel when something truly world-threatening is about to happen. A sort of cataclysmic clairvoyance. She foresaw a demon coming here and using an unknown method to break open the seal around hell. I then proceeded to gather more information about how he would do it and that brought us here."

"So he will succeed? We won't make it in time?" Glavas asked, his anger replaced with concern.

"You would not succeed, no. If I hadn't come, you would most likely die here and there would be no one left to stop the demon."

"Oh... I see." Glavas' eyes slid to the floor.

"Do not feel bad. You fought against impossible odds. Fate itself seemed to have risen against you and yet you met its challenge with great courage. However, now, I suggest you leave things to me."

"Alright? So, what's the plan?"

"Hmm..." he scratched his chin. "We won't be able to make it in time. They are simply far too deep. I do not know a sufficient teleportation spell, so, I suppose I will have to be a little bit barbaric about this." He raised his fist and stretched his shoulder a few times. A dark blue aura began enveloping his arm. "I suggest you cover your ears. This might be a little loud."

Something was unnerving about the silence that filled the deepest parts of the old mineshafts. Ruun couldn't help but feel shivers run down his spine every time he noticed Alma's thoughtless gaze, staring unblinkingly at the path ahead of them.

"I'm truly sorry about all this, you know?" He spoke to break the silence. "I guess the closer we get to my goal, the more I feel like I regret everything I had to do to get to this point. I never really lost anyone, you know? The people that followed me were usually pretty good at staying alive. But then Peldo died. Everyone was kinda sad about it and I tried my best to just cheer everyone up. But now... I don't know. Everyone is probably going to die because of me. I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be alive. And yet I am." He sighed. "I know you can't even hear me, but I really hope you will have the good future that you deserve. I took your past away from you but trust me, it was to help so many others. Maybe one day, when you grow up, you will come across some of the demons we'll liberate today. I hope that when that day comes, you will remember that they do not bear responsibility for my sins. And I truly deeply hope that you will be able to forget about me. About all the things I did to you. I hope everyone will just forget. Until I am eventually not even a memory."

Finally, they stepped into the massive room that marked the end of their journey. The vast, hollowed-out area was filled with walkways and scaffoldings leading all the way down to a metallic surface at the bottom.

"Neho," Ruun spoke and lit up several of the leftover torches and lanterns that the past mining expeditions had left behind.

"Look how beautiful it is," he spoke as he lead the girl down towards the barrier of hell. "It's hard to imagine everything that's going on in there. All those poor lost souls. Thousands and thousands of demons who don't even dare to dream of a happy future. We will give one to them. Right here, right now."

As they finally reached the very bottom, Rune briefly stopped. The metal that separated hell from Ezma looked dark at first glance, but as his lantern moved closer to it, it showed tiny veins of red, which seemed to be hidden under the surface. He felt the material gently vibrate under his feet as if even it couldn't contain its excitement. Ruun crouched down and slid his hand over the surface. It was smooth, yet sometimes showed signs of shallow circular dents.

"I can feel them. Don't worry. I'm here. You won't have to live like that any longer. Alma, be so kind and punch a hole right through this metal."

He stood there, waiting, his heart beating with anticipation. How long had he waited for this moment? Well over a century. More than a hundred years of killing and taking souls had finally come to fruition.

"Alma?" he asked and turned around to face her.

"Yeah, sorry, I have some bad news," the girl spoke and the demon's eyes widened. The red glow they bore suddenly seemed to be swirling with purple tints of fear. Alma calmly reached for the ring around her finger and pulled it off with barely any effort. "Yeah, sorry, mind control doesn't really work on me," she said and crushed the ring into nothing more than a chunk of bent metal.

"But... All this time–" Ruun couldn't wrap his head around the situation.

"I played along to protect Surdi and Glavas. At first, I just wanted to catch you when you're alone, but now, it became so much more." The demon took a few steps back when he saw the glowing pure whiteness of her eyes flood with ink-like darkness. "Now, I'm just gonna enjoy taking this dream away from you. You'll die, knowing you were this very close to achieving it. How does that make you feel, you asshole?"