Spells flickered in the distance like fireworks as Pan and Eury kept hundreds of metalins at bay. Initially, there had been a few waves of new age battle mages involved as well, but most of them had been quickly petrified, falling to the ground like solid statues. The sad truth was that despite all their training, few of those present amounted to much. All the capable ones were on cloud forts on the empire’s borders fighting the nymphs. What was left behind were the recently graduated and those with connections to stay where it was safe.

A series of rocket bolts shot up into the air, leaving trails of purple fire behind them. Explosions followed.

REALM DAMAGED

Shell integrity 72%

Obviously, it was going to take a bit more to create an opening.

Dallion struck forward with a point attack, aiming for Duchess Elazni. Before it could reach her, a web of music threads formed, distorting her surroundings. The strike curved slightly to the side, hitting a building behind her. Just as before, the remnants of the destroyed structures quickly returned to their previous state.

“Music threads,” Dallion said, noting the composition of the robe the woman was wearing. It seemed that magic wasn’t the only thing integrated. It must have taken a true master to create such an item, possibly even an otherworlder.

“A gift to the second empress by the emperor himself,” the woman said.

The duchess was far below Dallion’s level, but it hardly showed. The family heirlooms she was wearing helped her hold her own. It also helped that despite the stakes, Dallion couldn’t make himself go a hundred percent all out. Not only was she family, but deep inside Dallion agreed with her reasoning. Days ago, he was of the same opinion, wanting to take the emperor down. Even now he wasn’t particularly enamored with the prospect of allying with him. Sadly, the alternatives were worse.

“What about Tors?” Dallion let out a music attack, probing the strength of the robe. The strands were instantly caught in the mesh of music threads and snapped before they could achieve anything. “Did you order him to kill me or did he decide that on his own?”

“Tors has always been too spoiled for his own good.” There was a note of regret along with the music attacks aimed at Dallion.

Unlike her, he used his aura sword to slash them up before they could become a threat.

“His skills made his parents pamper him, just as I did.” The duchess launched a new wave of attacks. This time, they were targeting the environment around him, as well. The buildings on both sides of him collapsed, tilting in his direction. More strands of music attached to chunks of debris, dragging them towards him.

The whip blade hovering around Dallion extended quickly, severing their connections, causing them to fall to the ground. To be on the safe side, Dallion cast a spell to repel any remaining object. Before that could happen, the chunks flew back up, recreating the buildings yet again.

“I’m to blame,” the Duchess sighed, for the first time skipping an attack. “I never told him that he didn’t have the hardness to be an archduke. I expected he’d eventually grow over it. There was no way the emperor would have chosen him, even if he had selected our House to get the post. He’s there right now.” The woman combat split, glancing over her shoulder in one instance.

The entire sky above the coliseum kept on flickering in orange and purple lights. Watching Pan, one couldn’t doubt that at one point he had tried to take over the world. Strangely enough, it was only constructs that were engaging him. A substantial number of golems had rushed into the fray along with the waves of metalins and bladerers, yet no people.

REALM DAMAGED

Shell integrity 44%

Another wave of explosions blossomed.

“He’s there right now, eagerly awaiting to get his title.”

“You didn’t warn him?” Dallion asked.

An instance of the Duchess shook her head.

“There comes a time when indulgences must end.”

Dallion burst into instances, expecting her to charge forward with an attack he hadn’t seen. The woman did no such thing. Remaining in her spot with enough dignity that would make kingdoms envious, she summoned a lyra.

The instrument was made entirely of sun gold, with strings of Moon platinum. One look was enough to tell that it was an heirloom of the second empress. Dallion recognized the pitch of the laughter coming from within—the guardian that had entered into the lyre’s realm the moment of its creation was a copyette.

Strings of music burst forward as the duchess played a chord. All of them were simultaneously mixed with spark and magic, twisted in such fashion that neither touched the other.

Damn it! Dallion thrust his harsisword forward, combining a spiral attack with music and spark.

Two extreme forces clashed in one another, causing a thread of destruction to appear perpendicular to them, slicing miles of the city on either side. Each attack was capable of leveling mountains, even if they were of a completely different nature. Duchess Elazni’s music was a soft force that could entangle and smother everything it targeted. Dallion’s was an example of hard, raw power.

Directed by Gleam, the whip blade danced in the air, slicing as many music threads as it could manage, but it wasn’t close to enough. For every hundred it would snap, thousands more emerged as the woman continued to play.

Dallion took a step back, doing a multi-attack with his aura sword. Spell circles formed, shooting out chards of aether at the woman. The projectiles were caught by the music strands of her robe long before they could reach their target.

“It takes time to adjust to something new,” the duchess said as she kept on playing. “Even for you. The winner is not the one with the greater strength, but with more information.” She took a step forward, effectively forcing Dallion to take one back. “And the Order has been gracious in providing me with a lot.”

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Only two of her artifacts were in use. There was no telling how many more would come into play. A number of options ran through Dallion’s mind, each of them more creative than the last. All of them were fake paradigms. There was only one thing he had to decide—whether he had the strength to crush his great-grandmother or not. For one thing, she didn’t seem to be hesitating one bit.

Adzorg, Dallion said. Are you safe?

As safe as could be, dear boy, the mage replied.

Cast a protection spell.

Both Dallion and the duchess had the same level of music skill, but despite all her heirlooms, Dallion had something she didn’t.

Just a bit more, he told himself, reaching out to consume a bit more of the Moonstone in his realm. Then, he let go of the weapon in his left hand and played a chord on the harpsisword.

Torrents of music wrapped in divine magic flowed forward. Once again, the two magic attacks met. This time Dallion’s was so much stronger that it shredded the lyre’s attack without contest. The entire robe that the duchess was wearing transformed into a multitude of threads in an attempt to form a protective cushion in front of her. That, too, failed, causing the attire to be ripped to shreds as well.

“Stop!” Dallion ordered, his voice still holding the powers of the Moonstone.

“You used a Moonstone?” The woman’s expression remained unchanged. Hints of pride and confusion were mixed within. “Why?”

“If I’m going to save this city, I can save my great-grandma as well,” he replied. “Sleep.”

The woman attempted to resist, bursting into over a hundred instances in the hopes that one of them would manage to withstand the music attack. Unfortunately for her, none of them did.

REALM DAMAGED

Shell integrity 16%

Another rectangle flashed in the distance. The domain’s boundaries were dangerously close to shattering. All it would take was one more hit. Of course, that was just the easy part.

SENTIMENTALITY

(+2 Empathy)

Still a softy at heart. Try not to change too much.

“See you later, Duchess.” Dallion cast several aether spheres around her, then sent them floating up in the air. Being there would keep her a lot safer than anywhere else.

Without even bothering to look around, he darted towards the grand arena. As he got closer, he quickly saw that the victory wasn’t as clear cut as he thought. There could be no doubt that his companions were keeping hundreds at bay, but not without a cost. Several healing circles were glowing around both Pan and Eury, yet even with all the healing, their health was close to half full.

Spotting his approach, three imperial rune golems changed the target of their attacks, flying straight in his direction. Pieces of thick aether armor appeared on them, along with massive melee weapons.

“Stop!” Dallion ordered.

The music strands bounced off the hardened aether without effect.

They must have revoked your mage authority after your recent visit, Adzorg commented.

“Funny.” Dallion summoned his ray of destruction cylinders and broke one.

The spell was instantly cast, shooting through two of the golems, then continuing on to the horizon. Reaching the boundaries of the domain, it stopped, crashing into the invisible barrier.

REALM DAMAGED

Shell integrity 22%

Shit! Dallion thought.

“I could have told you that,” Pan remarked. “The shell drains magic. Direct aether spells make it stronger. I used something similar at the time.”

“Any reason you didn’t share that sooner?”

“Moon vows,” the copyette replied. “At least now you know.”

Yeah. Now I know.

Another volley of bolts shot up. The explosion was twice as powerful as before, setting the entire sky ablaze.

REALM DAMAGED

Shell destroyed!

That was it. Now the city stood a chance. All that remained was to make sure that the emperor did.

“Lux!” Dallion summoned the bladebow. “Take the crates and follow Eury.”

Sure thing, boss!

“Gem,” he summoned the atherfish as well. “Take Eury up there.”

Okay, boss…

“Will you be alright?” Dallion asked.

“Yeah,” his wife replied. “You just make sure nothing hits us.”

“Count on it.”

Slashing the air, Dallion sent a line attack above the arena building. A majority of the golems managed to avoid the attack, their speed and magic skills better than many of the new battle mages he had seen.

The thought posed an interesting question. With everything going on, there were three things that were supposed to be happening, yet they weren’t. The Shimmering Circle had to be present at an event of this magnitude—if nothing else, Alien should have been. The overseers were also suspiciously quiet. There had been too few of them so far, and none had taken any action since the group had neared the arena. Strangest of all, other than a few minor tricks, the emperor hadn’t used his full domain ruler powers. After the initial city spell, Dallion expected buildings to fly at him like bullets, massive spires to emerge from the ground. If he were in Tamin’s shoes, he’d have every pool of water turn into a water spout, while every creature and insect filled the space between.

A thin layer of magic covered the top of the arena, making it impossible to see through.

“Ready, Pan?” Dallion kept on moving through the air faster than a hummingbird. Blades and spells flew everywhere around him, none able to hit its target.

“What about them?” Three bolts of purple lightning emerged from the copyette’s humanoid body, striking a large metalin in three spots along the torso.

“Ignore them.” Dallion flew forward.

There was no telling what additional effects the spell could have, that was why Dallion wasn’t the first one to go through. Instead, he summoned Nox.

Thirty cublings emerged all over his body. Several of them leaped forward, claws extended. Cracks formed along the reflective surface, spreading like spiderwebs. Then, to Dallion’s great surprise, the spell collapsed, revealing hundreds of thousands of people beneath.

More nobles than people had seen in their lifetimes were all in one place, sitting with blank expressions on their faces. The spell that had been created by the city seemed to be draining their magic… then Dallion remembered—the shell needed magic to function. It would probably get rebuilt within minutes. Thankfully, Eury would already be on the outside by then.

In the center of the arena, surrounded by a dozen legion generals, stood the emperor. Despite the bright glow, Dallion could still see a confident smile on the ruler’s face. A dozen steps away, Abla stood, kneeling down. Beyond him were two circles of guards and beyond them, close to fifty overseers.

“We didn’t think you'd make it here,” Emperor Tamin said. “Seems we’ll have our duel, after all.”

“Is it the generals?” Dallion asked, still covered in a pack of cracklings.

“No…” Pan replied. “It’s the overseers.”

“Which ones?”

“All of them…”