He and Reina greeted them there, and were treated to a big hug and two little gift-baskets of cookies from Evan.

  Evan could hardly sit still. It felt like every time they came back, he had something new for show-and-tell.

  A few minutes later they were out on an empty bough—a field of leaves the elves used for training.

  “Constellation Slash!” cried Evan.

  A starscape scattered across the battlefield, his own little night sky. Evan showed them how he could now shoot a line of light to any of those points from where he was, making constellations.

  Like that he could cover the whole battlefield in a blink. It might’ve been the quickest attack Zane had ever seen. It used Evan’s new Concept—Fated Wish, which made all his attacks aim true. His Skill helped him draw the lines between the stars.

  Evan looked up at Zane hopefully.

  “I like it,” said Zane, and patted him on the head.

  He could see the vision—it’d make a very effective and wide-ranging bird-blaster.

  Avery, meanwhile, had gotten up to Level 498. It was much slower Leveling this way than she’d expected. Last he’d heard, she’d ended up buying gallons of ice creams melting them down and chugging them nonstop. It was the only way she could get it all down.

  She’d spent most of the past few weeks lying on the ground flailing and moaning.

  “I have been defeated by the ice creams,” Avery declared. She seemed to find this profoundly demoralizing.

  “It’s okay,” said Evan, patting her on the back.

  The two of them had a whole lot of sitting around in caves absorbing things this past year. It’d gotten rather boring—Avery wasn’t sure how all those old geezers did it for thousands of years.

  They decided they’d both be better off heading out and adventuring. Especially now that dungeons were breaking more often, and folk all over the galaxy needed help.

  Team Sunshower was getting together again.

  The thought seemed to give Avery the kick she needed.

  ***

  Avery needed just a handful of Levels and Concepts before she was ready to Ascend.

  And after their last session, Reina had gotten up to the Level 480s too. With her new blessing, she was on the verge of breaking through to Tier 5 Law.

  They were all growing when they were most needed, he was pleased to see.

  ***

  That night over dinner back on Earth, Evan told them about some other things he’d been up to.

  He’d just joined the Intergalactic Baker’s Guild, and got all his merit badges for cakes, pastries, and breads. He was quickly rising the ranks—he was hoping to make grandmaster one day.

  He fed Reginald the Superbara some cookie crumbs under the table.

  “He’s doing side-quests now?!” cried Avery.

  ***

  Evan and Avery went to go check out arcades back on Earth. They’d sleep in their Seattle skyscraper for the night. Zane and Reina snuck back to their estate in the World Tree. It’d give some much-needed privacy.

  Level up!

  Essence Level

  497 -> 498

  The next morning they got a messenger dressed in smart silver silks. A handsome-looking fellow, in that delicate elf way. Quite thin-boned and fidgety. He seemed surprised Zane answered the gate.

  Then Zane had to get Reina out of bed, which could be a dangerous thing this early. She’d been quite out of it when she dozed off on him—she’d been through a lot the night before. To his relief she was only a little cranky to be woken up. She stretched, catlike—the way a lioness might stretch—yawned, and got her robes.

  They received the messenger in their gardens.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Mistress!” he said. “I must apologize for disturbing you at this hour. I didn’t realize you were… indisposed. If you’d like, I can come later—”

  “That’s alright, Delph,” said Reina quickly. “What is it?”

  “It’s just—the beacons you ordered we dispatch to your home planet, Mistress. They’ve picked up seismic tremors.”

  She blinked, and instantly got serious.

  “Dungeon X’s trembling has gotten to the point where, well—our signatures can hear the sound of things within—beasts with the heft of worlds, of True God strength—throwing them against the brimstone, trying to break free… we found three new broken links along the Timeless Chains. The binding Laws unravel as we speak…”

  Zane and Reina looked at each other.

  She’d told him about this Dungeon X last time he was here. It was the only Tier-3 Dungeon within striking range of their home.

  The messenger swallowed. “We’re not certain how many years we’ve got left before it blows. It could be the opening shot of the War, when it comes.”

  Reina’s brow furrowed as she took the news in. He knew she was trying to put all her pieces together.

  “We’ll need to neutralize it immediately,” she said. “If it blows, we’ll pull Elders from the Far Reach dungeons—or even the Maw of Chaos, if we must.”

  Those were three other Tier-3 dungeons—and a Tier-2. All set to blow within World Tree Territory around the same time.

  He could see her worry. If the timings all lined up, her forces could easily get overstretched.

  She looked to Zane, imploring.

  He nodded.

  He’d promised her he would take care of it. He intended to keep that promise.

  “When it blows, I’ll have three more Concepts. I’ll be at the Great Circle. Could be more,” he informed her.

  He would make sure she wouldn’t need a strike team of True Gods.

  She’d have him.

  “Pardon,” said the messenger, blinking at him. “Only… it’s my understanding you’d have to finish three Concepts within the next half-decade, lord Consort.”

  “That’s right.”

  “And is it true they contain sparks of Universal Destruction?”

  He was surprised this Delph knew so much.

  “Archmage Delph heads our scouting,”said Reina, smiling. “I’d put his understanding of the natural Laws up with any Sage in the galaxy. He’s one of our best.”

  Delph flushed at that.

  Reina had a knack for knowing just what a fellow was most proud of—and Zane hadn’t seen a man not puff up at her approval.

  “Well—it’s only that Laws of Universal Destruction, they’re extremely high-Level and esoteric, your grace—from the little we know, our estimates say they could take exponentially more time than a typical Law of the same grade.”

  Zane nodded. “Don’t worry, I know.”

  “…You do?”

  “Put your mind at ease,” said Reina. “If Zane says he’ll do something, he will. That’s who he is.”

  She gave him a look.

  Delph looked like he wanted to say more. Instead he bowed and backed away, befuddled.

  ***

  Superdungeon

  ??? Floor

  Tell me. Hissed Malzareth.

  Its eyes narrowed one by one.

  Very few floors in the whole of the Superdungeon could hold Malzareth’s true form. Most could only contain a single eye.

  This realm was a swirling landscape of endless mists. Where the river of lost souls flowed through, the Superdungeon, carrying the shattered remnants of the damned.

  Here reality was strong enough that three of Malzareth’s heads could emerge—so vast just the eyes and the nostrils took up all the sky, and the rage of the deity could be felt in full. An overwhelming sight, looming over a single shattered, shivering soul.

  A soul Malzareth had personally come down, and dragged out of the river. A gnarled soul—a Monster’s soul, crushed to fragments by a tremendous blow. But pieced together again with Malzareth’s unknown magics.

  The creature that had once been Goloog, the Living Bog, let out a wail. It spoke.

  …I see.

  Malzareth considered this conundrum, and seethed.

  It was not a raging fury. It was the fury of glaciers, or howling mountain peaks—the fury of ancient things. A slow but very cold thing, but more destructive for it.

  At last it spoke.

  Zane Walker must die.

  That man was a candle-flame now. But if left unchecked he would become a wildfire, impossible to contain. Malzareth had seen it happen once before.

  Never again.

  As Zane was now, he should not be hard to snuff out—Goloog should have finished him.

  But something had found it out, detected it.

  It should not have been possible.

  Malzareth’s eyes went still, and it searched the universe for answers. Sifted through time and space…

  It gnashed its teeth.

  The man in the straw-hat had drawn Goloog’s blood. There, a trace of soul—and Malzareth knew.

  Noughtfire, hissed Malzareth.

  Goloog’s blood must’ve fallen into his hands.

  Malzareth considered the human race a puny thing. Short-sighted, given to strange, stupid instincts, attached to ridiculous, ephemeral things. Easily manipulated. But among that that useless race there were a few Malzareth considered true operators. Creatures that, if not level with it, at least deserved respect.

  One of those was the legendary Sage with Eight Fingers.

  Malzareth’s growls tumbled across the realm, thunderous; Goloog shivered.

  Now Noughtfire knew. He would be watching. And those eyes missed nothing.

  The chance was over.

  For now.

  But you cannot forever, human, hissed Malzareth.

  Malzareth was nothing if not patient.

  It had waited aeons for this moment. It could wait a few more short years.

  It had many hungry children in Dungeon X. One, practically tailor-bred for the purpose of breaking Zane.

  When the time came…

  It would be quick, and brutal. And certain.

  Malzareth, in all its ancient wisdom, knew it true. Could see it as sure as a prophecy.

  You, hissed Malzareth. Its eyes swiveled on Goloog.

  The air shivered around those soul-fragments, as a vastly greater soul clenched a fist around it.

  Goloog shrieked.

  The fragments shattered like glass.

  These, Malzareth would take to Dungeon X, where its children would gorge on their failed cousin, and gain a taste for their enemy. And there, in the festering void, grow strong.