A pillar of water erupted as the beam struck the ocean. Still too weak to do anything, Dallion could only watch as the spell took effect. The magic threads of that spot of the world twisted, forming the jagged lines of an opening.

“Nymph magic,” Dallion whispered.

The spell reminded him of the one Harp had taught him. The execution was completely different, but the effects were eerily similar.

More waves formed, bursting up from the ocean surface, but instead of splashing back down, they changed form. The peaks formed towers hundreds of feet high, solidifying into place. More followed, each one creating dozens of buildings at a time. Layer by layer, an entire city formed before Dallion’s eyes. And it wasn’t empty. Even from this distance, Dallion was able to see dozens of inhabitants moving about the hardened water. However, they weren’t humans or any other of the free races; all of them were nymphs.

“Harp?” Dallion asked.

The healing spells had won the battle, healing twice as much as the new surge of magic was burning up, but it would be minutes before he was in a state fit for battle.

Retreat, Vihrogon said. You’ve got no chance against them.

“They have magic,” Dallion said. “All of them.”

It wasn’t anywhere near his level. In Academy terms, most of the nymphs ranged from top novices to adequate apprentices. The issue was that as much as he tried, he couldn’t see a single one without magic.

Was that what Tisaku meant when he said that Dallion was one step behind all along? The Azures’ entire plan had been to return the nymphs from banishment all along. That’s why they needed the Moonstones, that’s the real reason they siphoned off magic from the vortexes. The wyverns and golems probably were their attempt to build up an army fast, but the real goal had been the spell that the battle mage had sacrificed himself to cast.

“Harp?”

Listen to him, the nymph guardian said. I cannot protect you.

Harp couldn’t protect him? This was the first time she’d ever said that. There had been cases in which she had chosen not to, cases in which she intervened even when she shouldn’t have, but he’d never felt the fear that was resonating throughout her entire being just now.

“Lux, get ready to take me away,” he ordered. “Gleam, what do you make of that?”

“Trouble,” the shardfly replied. “Lots of trouble.”

“You saw them in the banished realm?”

“The banished realm isn’t like that… It’s—” Gleam stopped. Some restrictions remained, not to mention she wasn’t a noble.

Dallion moved the fingers of his left hand, casting a spell to summon the aura blade. The weapon swiftly flew up into his grasp. Even it wasn’t enough to win him a fight against an entire nymph city. The few members of the race Dallion had fought in his realm, or while improving items, were anywhere from tough to impossible to defeat. Magic alone wasn’t enough to defeat them, regardless of whether Vihrogon and all other inhabitants of Dallion’s realm helped him or not. No doubt the majority of the reappeared nymphs were weaker, but there would be more than a few who weren’t.

As the waves came to a standstill, the magnificence of the city of water couldn’t be contested. Only the imperial palace was superior.

Determined to see what he was facing, Dallion split into instances. In a hundred of them, he gave Lux the order to propel him forward to the enemy, while the remaining fifty spread out, ready to retreat at any moment.

It took a second for the instances to reach the outer wall. The moment they did, massive spikes emerged from the watery surface, aimed at any intruder.

So, that’s your defense mechanism, Dallion thought. It would have been impressive if he hadn’t already seen something similar within the tower vortexes.

Eager to make the most of it, Dallion’s instances waved the aura sword, casting a variety of combat spells to see the enemies’ reaction. Surprisingly, all of them were successful. The water material that the city was made of quickly shrugged off any damage, but a few nymphs were wounded.

They’re not used to human magic, Dallion thought. That was an unexpected advantage that only made his decision more difficult. Leaving would ensure his survival, but I would also provide the nymphs enough time to get used to the present era.

“Harp, are you sure you can’t stop them?” Dallion asked.

There was no response.

“In that case, I’ll have to.”

Time passed slowly. Every few seconds more and more nymphs gathered at the walls facing Dallion. All of them were in combat gear, even if not as impressive as Harp’s. Apparently, there was one thing that they were aware of: that there was a war going on, and that not all humans were on their side.

“How many do you think there are?” Dallion asked. The healing spells were doing their job well. A little more and he could almost say he’d returned to peak condition.

A few hundred, probably a few thousand, Vihrogon replied. There was a calm tenseness in his voice. Only awakened can be brought back from the banished realm.

“A few thousand. We’ve dealt with more before.”

Yeah, right.

Time to combine music and magic, Dallion thought. Maybe attack as well.

Before that, though, there was something else he intended to do.

“Where’s your noble?” he shouted, using the nymph language.

The question created some commotion among the nymphs, as he expected it to. Unfortunately, no individual nymphs drew attention to themselves. Looking carefully, Dallion was able to spot a few level sixty specimens, but not a single noble. Maybe the partial absorption of the battle mage had an effect? A lot of the small fries had been summoned, but no one really powerful.

Here goes, Dallion started casting Tisaku’s beam of destruction.

The spell formed within seconds, releasing a beam of fiery energy at the water city before any of the nymphs could react. Vapor burst in all directions. A hole drilled through walls and buildings as the spell pierced the city, hitting the water of the ocean behind.

This was supposed to be a moment of victory, but Dallion felt something was not right. Not only was there no fear and anger coming from the nymphs, but as far as he could tell, there didn’t seem to be any casualties, either.

You can’t damage water, Harp said. Even with that much strength.

That wasn’t what Dallion wanted to hear. He knew from his battle against the Star that liquids had no firm shape, but he had hoped that the destructive power of the spell would be enough to make the city pop like a cloud fort.

“That was weak,” Gleam said, fluttering her wings.

Instantly, Dallion disappeared. In her current form, the shardfly’s illusions had become a lot more potent. As far as reality itself was concerned, there was nothing but air where the otherworlder had been. If nothing else, this ensured that he couldn’t be attacked.

“Any chance you could use some illusion on them?”

“No,” the creature replied without hesitation. “You’re only seeing part of what’s there?”

“There’s an illusion?”

As if guessing his question, the sea surrounding the city of water shimmered. Clusters of walled buildings emerged from nothing, like popcorn in a can. What was one single nymph city turned into a dozen, then two. It was as if an entire country had risen from the ocean—or in this case, removed its veil of illusion. The thousands of enemies that Dallion was facing just moments ago now turned into hundreds of thousands… and they weren’t just mid-level awakened anymore.

A tall nymph, clad in water armor, more intricate than what Harp’s had been, rose into the air. There was no question that he was a mage, but a lot stronger than the common variety Dallion had seen. As a rule, most mages stopped their development at twenty. Some pushed on, acquiring a few levels more, but never much. In this case, the nymph was well in his sixties, and his magic level was almost that of Dallion.

“Our nobles have no time to deal with pests like you,” he said, confidence emanating from him like a beacon. “I see you haven’t made the pledge.”

The pledge? Dallion asked within his realm.

That’s news to me too, dear boy, Adzorg admitted. I would assume that the Azures have made some deal to brand themselves allies to the nymphs, or vice versa.

Nymph items, nymph tactics, nymph magic, now nymph warriors. Of course, the federation would be so confident. Come to think of it, it was likely that the archdukes and Emperor Tamin had suspected something of the sort. For all the snobbish talk, the number of forces that had been sent was quite conservative and never accompanied by a noble of substantial importance.

“You used us to tip their hand,” Dallion said beneath his breath. The emperor didn’t need someone to win his war, just someone with the ability to poke the Federation enough to see what would happen. Euryale’s superiors, whoever they were, probably had the same idea when they had sent her with Dark.

“What pledge is that?” Dallion asked, casting a series of aether bubbles around him.

“Ah, an enemy.” The nymph smiled. “I was itching for a warm up after all this time. I hope you prove more resourceful than you have so far. It would make things boring.”

That’s why I told you to run away, Vihrogon said with a sigh. Everyone underestimates nymphs. Even the copyettes didn’t manage to wipe them out during their attempt to take over the world.

Every fiber in Dallion’s body told him to order Lux to fly him out of here. He had no chance against hundreds of thousands… he wasn’t even sure he had a chance against the single nymph mage that had challenged him. The opponent had seen through Gleam’s illusion with ease and didn’t seem in the least impressed by Dallion’s battle spell.

Standing his ground, Dallion reached out to any item guardian in the vicinity, but all of the nymphs’ clothes and gear were made entirely out of water.

“I think I can take him,” the otherworlder said. The level of his magic trait let him see a few minuscule flaws in the flow of the nymph’s magic. It wasn’t a lot, but with a bit of luck and a lot of effort, there was a chance that he could exploit them. Then, after the mage was down, maybe the rest would—

A large purple sphere appeared in the sky. Made entirely of crystal, it gleamed for several seconds, before thousands of minuscule magic threads emerged from its surface.

Without hesitation, both Dallion and the nymph mage flew back.

Hundreds of magic symbols formed, flashing all over the sphere, like a disco ball. Then, a giant image of the Tamin emperor emerged above it.

“Hologram projection?” Dallion uttered the first thing that came to mind.

“Subjects of the Tamin Empire,” the emperor’s voice boomed. “Inhabitants of the world. You have heard rumors of our war with the Azure Federation. Some of you might have been affected, some of you might even have whispered that the empire has reached its final days. To all that have, you are forgiven.”

“Wow. That’s generous,” Gleam said, although Dallion could sense that even she was impressed with the display.

“Our armies were successful in pushing our enemies back, which is when the Federation resorted to the most vile of practices,” the projection continued. “In their desperation, they broke the most significant law of the Moons, bringing back a race that has been banished for millennia. It thus falls on us as your emperor, to prove to them, you, and all that such actions will not be tolerated!”

MASS COMBAT INITIATED

A red rectangle appeared in front of Dallion. It wasn’t the only one. Thousands more were visible throughout the nymph city, as if everyone had been pulled back into an awakening realm.

“The empire has ruled for centuries and the empire will rule for centuries more!”

Purple lines formed in the eastern part of the sky, quickly moving west. Spotting them with one of his instances, Dallion focused. The moment he did, his very being was shaken to its core.

Rockets, he thought, incapable of uttering the world.

Ages ago, back when Dallion had faced his first chainling, Cleric had mentioned that only the imperial family and the Order knew the secret of rockets. At the time, Dallion thought that the man was referencing some kind of advanced firecrackers. How wrong he could be.

Hundreds of missiles, hundreds of feet long, were splitting the air, aimed at what seemed to be the entire seacoast. If they were as powerful as Dallion feared, they would be enough not only to wipe the water cities off the map, but several Azure kingdoms along with them.

“Our power is great,” the projection proclaimed. “Our justice is swift, and our enemies shall feel the wrath of a thousand suns upon them.”

“Lux, get us out of here!” Dallin ordered.

Less than half a minute later, purple dawn became visible on the west horizon.