Harpsisword in hand, Dallion quietly crawled through the tightest spaces that the realm would provide him. According to Pierce, the rings and the high skill levels—granted by the Order of the Twelve Suns’ altar—guaranteed that they’d be invisible to everything short of the Moons. Unfortunately, Dallion no longer believed that.

The greater the awakened level, the more options existed for bending the rules. In theory, the rings were supposed to prevent him from communicating with anyone within his realm, let alone people half the way across the world. In practice, the combination of companions, music skills, domain ruler abilities, and personal echoes allowed him to bypass the restrictions. His personal echoes knew everything as it happened, as did the guardians of the weapons he held. In turn they could communicate with everyone else within Dallion’s domain network.

It was in this manner that he had managed to share the events with Euryale, as well as learn what was going on in the outside world. It seemed that the war had heated up again, though not on a front that Dallion needed to be worried about. The Azure federation had gone inland and clashed with a surprisingly capable cadre of imperial soldiers. From what the gorgon had learned, two archdukes had combined their forces, and with the assistance of a few imperial legions had managed to drive the attackers out. The Order of the Seven Moons remained neutral, although sightings of war cleric armies had become more abundant. Mirror Pools all across the empire were discreetly evacuating their members, moving to Sandstorm. Furies were doing the same in ever-increasing numbers. Only the hunters remained hesitant, more often than not choosing to sell their services to archdukes and other provincial nobles.

Dallion had made several attempts to get in touch with Dark, but it seemed that the Moons were keeping the dragon out of it. Possibly it was for the better—he wasn’t strong enough to face anything as powerful as this, not to mention there was no telling how he would react upon seeing an unfamiliar dragon.

A hundred feet away, on the other side of the tunnel, Pierce waved his hand in an attempt to attract Dallion’s attention. Getting the hint, Dallion waved back.

Stay there. Pierce’s lips moved without making a sound. I found one ahead.

Dallion nodded. The realm structure he was in didn’t have any obvious way forward. There were several openings leading further away from the giant corridor, as well as one leading up.

I’ll go up to check. Dallion shaped the answer with his lips.

Combining athletics and acrobatics, he rushed up faster than a wall gecko. The passage curved and split, but eventually it led to a section above the cluster of realm structures. From there, Dallion was able to get a better view of the chamber that lay beyond.

Surely enough, there was a dragonlet there. The better news was that the creature wasn’t aware of their presence.

Time to close the net, Dallion said to himself.

Five days ago, after Abla had earned his dragon slayer achievement, the group had split, making their way to the realm’s center. Everyone was free to proceed as they wished, following two basic rules: be stealthy and always remain in sight of at least one other member of the group. That way whoever found the dragon nest first would let everyone else know. Now it had finally happened.

Dallion quickly made his way back down. It was tempting to use magic, but he didn’t want to risk scaring off the dragonlet. Sprinting through the massive tunnel, he then rushed to where Pierce was.

“I think this is it,” he whispered. “It’s younger than anything we’ve seen.”

Age wasn’t a factor, but odds were good that the nest itself wasn’t far off.

“I’ll tell the rest to gather,” the mage whispered back.

“Just tell them we found a dragon,” Dallion quickly said. “Let’s see what it does first.”

It took half a minute for Pierce to convey the message to the next member of the hunting party, after which, he and Dallion closed in on the dragonlet. From a distance, the creature was the epitome of innocence. Curious about its surroundings, it would waddle about, looking at every strangely shaped piece of rock with so much fascination as if it were an undiscovered treasure. For over an hour it went back and forth with no plan or pattern until suddenly a change was forced on it.

Hidden within the honeycomb of structures, Dallion heard the distant sound of flapping wings. Immediately, he raised a finger, telling Pierce to remain cautious.

The sound of wings grew progressively, until the expected happened—a large amber dragon became visible near the realm’s ceiling, making its way towards the dragonlet. A basic layer of illusion surrounded it, although not as thorough as the one the group had fought upon entering the realm had. Its size was truly impressive.

“Think that’s her?” Pierce whispered.

“No, just another adult,” Dallion replied, using the spell Adzorg had taught him to partially glimpse through the illusion. “Just an adult.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“So, there’s more of them…”

Upon reaching the dragonlet, the dragon didn’t even slow down. Sending out an air current, it grabbed the very confused infant, then turned around, flying back to where it came from. This was what Dallion was waiting for. Combining athletic, acrobatic, art, and music skills, he leaped after the creature. Pierce followed immediately after.

Faster than a lightning bolt, the two leaped from spot to spot, always keeping an obstacle between them and the adult dragon. Behind them, other members of the party followed as the net was slowly pulled in a specific direction.

The dragon didn’t seem to be overly cautious, more occupied in keeping the fidgeting dragonlet in the air. The closer it got to the center heart of the realm, the more the open spaces grew. The clusters of structures moved further and further away, becoming smaller and smaller until at one point they stopped altogether.

Not wanting to risk getting seen, Dallion stopped. An opening the size of a huge valley extended ahead. More spherical than flat, the empty space stretched in all directions, only interrupted by a mountain structure in the middle.

The nest. Dallion thought.

Slightly dome-shaped, it stretched all the way up to the ceiling, covered in ragged cliffs and hundreds of cave openings. In many ways, it was closer to a hive than a nest, sticking out like a sore thumb. The dragon had clearly added it later, proclaiming the realm as its own. It made an all-out charge all the more difficult: there was no obvious way to get to the mountain unnoticed, not to mention that if the dragon had domain ruler abilities the mountain itself was a lethal weapon.

“Let’s wait for the others here,” Dallion said.

“Isn’t it a bit close?” Pierce glanced back at the way they had arrived from.

“For a dragon like that, it wouldn’t matter. Either it knows we’re here or it doesn’t.”

Not the best line of reasoning, but Pierce went with it.

Bit by bit, the rest of the group arrived.

The Count was the fifth to show up, his expression conveying his disapproval of the location better than any words could. Abla arrived a few minutes later along with a third of the overall group. Tors, naturally, was among them. Looking at his cousin, Dallion could almost feel pity. The Elazni remained pale, as if he’d been through a week of heavy drinking and intense flu.

“What do we have?” Abla asked.

“Nothing good,” The Count replied before anyone else had a chance to. “Too open for us to hide, too far for us to sprint. A spell will stir the entire nest, sending anything with wings against us, and that’s before we come to face the big one. We can only guess what its skills are.”

“Or that of its mate,” Dallion added, more out of spite towards the Count than anything else.

“Yes…” The Count gave him a warning glance. “There’s no way of knowing if we’ll be facing one of them.”

“We can bring it here,” Astra suggested. “We don’t have to make a sneak, just make it believe we’re making one.”

“Really, Astra?” Tors snorted. A quick gesture from Abla made him quickly shut up.

“A small group charges head on to flush the smaller creatures out,” the woman continued. “Pierce and Dal could use a few large spells, since there’s no point in hiding anymore. If the big one hasn’t come out by them, that’ll make it.”

“Then the main group pulls back to a fortified position,” Abla finished for her. “The problem is, what here could be considered a fortified position? The rings make us invisible, but the dragon remains the domain ruler.”

“Maybe not. The rectangles showed us that the domain was broken. That doesn’t mean that there’s no guardian, but it doesn’t mean there is one.”

“Possible.” the Count nodded. “It’ll still have the advantage, though. Even if it doesn’t use domain tricks, it can scorch through anything here.”

“Unless we don’t fight here,” Dallion added.

The suggestion seemed pretty out of the box even for him, for everyone—even the Count—turned towards him, expectantly.

“We shatter the realm,” Dallion said, his heart tightening at the suggestion. “That will spit everyone into the real world and…” He paused to take a deep breath. Even when it came to guardian-less domains, the notion of deliberately destroying it from within made him uneasy. “And collapse the ruins on top of the dragons,” he finished. “We were on the outside when we entered the realm, so we won’t have to worry about falling debris. Not to the extent they would.”

A smile curved on the Count’s face.

“Then we finish off what we started in the open,” he said. “Won’t be easy, but we’d have negated its greatest advantages. The sealed will be at risk, but they’re done for, anyway. I think we should go for it.” He turned to Abla. “Doesn’t look like we’ll have a better chance.”

“It still won’t work!” Tors said, almost in panic. “There’s at least one domain ruler. We felt the bubble in the real world. We’re just changing one terrain for another.”

“And you prefer to fight here?” Astra shook her head.

“I’m just saying that charging head on might be better. At least then we have the element of surprise.”

“Why not do both?” Pierce joined in after a long period of silence. “If we fight here, we’re at an obvious disadvantage. If we try to break the realm, we give the dragon the chance to prepare. What if we break the realm while also breaking the nest? That way, the dragon will think that we’re targeting it here, and in a way we will be. However, our goal will also be to shatter what’s behind the mountain as well.”

The plan sounded crazy enough to actually work. In his mind, Dallion could picture it. A large enough magic attack combined with hundreds of line and point attacks would create the impression that they were trying to kill the dragon within its realm. He’d have to sacrifice all his ray of destruction cylinders, and use several echoes, but it might just be doable.

“How many echoes can you make?” Dallion asked Pierce.

“A bit more than a dozen. After that, their magic won’t be worth much.”

“It can work. The only question is who’ll lead the fake charge? I doubt sending an echo would work, so anyone who goes will be in more danger than anyone else.”

“Do you have to ask?” Abla crossed his arms. “I will. Pierce, can you find some time to cast a few magic barriers during everything else?”

“Yes.” The mage nodded. “Shouldn’t be a problem. Against a great dragon, they’ll be worth crap, though.”

“They don’t have to stop any attack, just look flashy. I’ll take care of the rest.”