Ruinous Return

Thomas shook his head, "I\'m going to re-do that damage split spell and have it on me as well – so everyone circle up." They did so, and he softly restated the spell. "Alright, ready."

Lyn went to the pillar and pressed it. It descended into the floor, and the walls fell away to reveal a snowy, ice-capped peak. The wind was howling all around, and if she had not enhanced her body with Waveweal, then she would be chilled to the bone. Gael and Vael looked to be freezing in place, and Thomas rapidly incanted a spell as the snow under his feet began to melt.

Damn cold. Lyn poured mana into her blade and held it next to the twins – the radiant heat from the lava-limned blade prevented their teeth from chattering. "Keep your eyes open," she shouted over the howling wind.

An enormous impact rocked Lyn from the side, and she left the ground, sailing through the air as her cloak drew on her mana to activate, slowing her fall into a snowbank. What was that? She thought. The swirling snow was too thick; and she could barely make out the twins twenty feet away. "Are you alright?!" She shouted over the storm. But the twins didn\'t seem to hear her.

Another impact slammed into her side, and she went tumbling through the snow drifts. Kipping up to her feet, she squinted her eyes against the sleet. What is attacking me? She raised her hand out in front of her and started to incant a spell. It vanished up to her wrist, and she felt something grip down like a vice. An invisible creature.

She felt her arm being pulled – but thanks to the crystal marrow, her bones remained firmly in their sockets which made her connective ligaments and cartilage just as tough as the bones themselves. She stabbed forward and saw the tip of the mana-blade vanish, a fountain of boiling blood hissing out around the invisible space where it had carved.

Her hand was released, and she pushed it deeper, shoving her arm down the throat of this creature, keeping it from escaping her as she dug her clawed fingers into the sides of the esophagus. "No you don\'t!" She shouted as she stabbed it again with the mana blade. She stabbed again and must have hit something vital as it went limp before the invisibility faded. I\'ve never seen this monster, she thought. It looked to be a mix of Komodo dragon, shark, and mountain lion. A quadruped with light-grey fur, a lower layer of hide that was a sheer white, and an elongated snout that had clamped down on her arm.

She turned and ran through the snow drifts to her allies\' last location. "Vael! Gael! Thomas!" She shouted. But no response came to her ears. Fine then. Let\'s deal with this sleet. "Cartha i thalion en-gwaew / tre nin rhaw / a echado gwaew beleg / i telia bethir nedh / i loss a hail / i thano nin cen." She incanted and felt the mana pour down her arm in a warm surge. A terrific gust of air surged from her palm and blasted out in all directions, scattering the sleet and continually emanating from her to prevent new snowfall from descending.

With vision cleared, she could see the twins fighting against an invisible creature, and the brief impacts against another barrier Thomas had erected. Lyn dashed over and sliced down vertically, bringing the enormous mana blade of Cataclysm down through the creature, slicing it cleanly in half. The twins looked at her, and she saw the injuries they had suffered. Why didn\'t Thomas\' spell transfer damage? She thought.

Lyn turned to Thomas, and he incanted some type of spell as a cascade of flickering sparks filled the air and clung to the creature, outlining its shape. That was all the twins needed, as they jumped forward and stabbed at the creature, harrying it and pushing it away from Thomas. Lyn charged in and screamed a war cry as she slashed right through its head. The creature collapsed without a sound. The walls reappeared, and the snowscape vanished. "Thomas," she began as the barrier disappeared around him. "Why didn\'t your spell direct the damage?"

"It\'s line of sight dependent," he replied. "It is less costly on my mana core\'s reserves if I add in limiters."

The twins both exchanged glances before looking back to Lyn, "We\'re fine," Vael said. "Just a few scratches."

"I\'m surprised at how easy these encounters have been," Gael added.

"It is curious," Thomas said as he rubbed his chin. "I have a theory on that. Either the dungeon \'knows\' Lyn and is therefore throwing easy challenges because it desires to be reconquered by her, or a hero core followed your signal spell and replaced the dungeon core. I\'ve always thought that dungeon cores had some amount of influence on the dungeon itself. This might lend further proof to that theory."

Lyn led the way to the altar. There was a single wooden box, and several containers. They were labeled in Elenthir. Warden\'s Wax, which would provide defense against death spells, and Truesight Eyedrops, which would enable the user to pierce illusions with sight alone. Excellent, she thought. Death was one of the big ones I was worried about. She had access to that external spell type, thanks to Elias\' Revenant core…but it was perhaps one of the scariest spell types out there.

The mana required was even more than storage spells, and almost no person had the weird \'mutation\' that reduced the mana cost – at least, no one Lyn had ever come across or even heard of. Undeath – a sub-type under death – was rare but not unheard of. But raw death itself? Even with her prodigious mana reserves, Lyn could only outright kill perhaps ten people in one death spell. No one had the genetic trait for death spell cost reduction.

If I do end up coming across someone with the mana to use it…the wax body enhancement will prevent it from instantly killing me. She looked up at Thomas who had opened the wooden box and picked up the mana core. Lyn shoved the body enhancing items into her storage choker and turned to the Knowledge hero, "Well?"

He nodded slowly, "You can\'t hear him until you hold it, but this one is William." He smiled, "He\'s going to head to Earth. Give me a moment to say my goodbyes." He turned his gaze back to the orb, and she saw subtle emotions play across his face. Then, after a minute, he handed the orb to Lyn. It was a swirling mass of liquid metal that would crystallize and harden before melting once more.

"Hi William," Lyn said.

Hi Lyn. Thomas let me rifle through his memories and fill myself in. Mind if I do the same?

"Go for it."

"You don\'t have to talk aloud if you don\'t want to," Thomas added as he went to tend to Vael and Gael\'s light injuries.

Thanks. I got all the information I need…so you\'re actually building an empire.

"Yeah. I can\'t just do nothing with this power at my disposal."

Hey, you don\'t have to preach to me. I think it\'s a good idea. Just…not for me. I miss Earth. I\'ve learned so much on Ghomar, well, I want to try and apply some of those principles back home and maybe fix climate change. I\'ve got some ideas on that.

Lyn smiled, "You always did want to be an engineer."

Right? Well, I\'m happy you\'re getting my power. You\'ll put it to good use, I\'m sure. Alrighty. Here\'s what the Artificer Core lets you do. You can make any inscription, regardless of whether you have the spell type available to you already or not. Plus, you\'ll be the equivalent of an artisan in any trade or craft. Woodworking, smithing, whatever.

"That\'s…really useful."

Right?

"What about spell types?"

Transmutation. It can do solid to solid, liquid to liquid, gas to gas. You can\'t turn piss into gold, but you can turn rocks into the stuff.

"I wish…I wish you could come back," Lyn said feeling some sorrow trickle into her thoughts. "I know we didn\'t really get much of a chance to connect, but from the few times we did hang out and work together…I regret not pursuing that as a friendship."

Well, nice way to make it awkward right before I head off. He laughed in her mind. Just take care of the other heroes, okay? I saw Trisha and Ben\'s kids through Thomas\' memories. Those little tykes deserve the best you can give them.

"Every child in my empire will be cared for. But I\'ll make sure to pay special attention to their family."

I know. You\'ll make sure they\'re protected. I never knew about how bad you had it at home…I\'m so sorry. Is there anything you want me to do when I go back?

"Depends on when you arrive. If it was before we were summoned, like what I experienced, then I\'d just ask you to take care of yourself. But if it\'s after I left-"

I ran into Gina\'s Oracle mana core earlier. We both raced over to your lightning thingy, and she let me take this dungeon core over, saying she wanted to investigate a few things. From what she told me, if I go through the Earth door here, I\'ll wake up the morning before we were summoned, and just live life as if nothing had happened.

"So…it is a weird time dilation."

The way she put it is that us waking up was a sort of \'checkpoint\' that the summoning spell inscribed in the statue of Aelor would \'save\'. When you consume my mana core, and I move on…I get to pick up from that save point. Have you already consumed other heroes?

"Yes, I have consumed Zack, Elias, Volio, and Nami."

Then those folks will \'wake up\' on the same morning, pre-summon. The ones that chose the Earth door, at least. All at once. We\'ll be a group of classmates, with all of our memories from Ghomar.

"That\'s good to hear," Lyn said as she felt a weight lift from her shoulders she didn\'t know she was carrying. "I thought you might be reborn."

No, that\'s the Ghomar door. Reincarnation as a baby if Gina was right on the money.

"Then…this is goodbye forever."

Seems like it…thanks for setting me free, Lyn. I know we didn\'t really become friends, but what you\'re doing now…makes me wish I had been your friend.

"Take care."

You too. I\'m not leaving a message. Just pass along to the rest of the heroes that I hope they make the most of their lives.

"Will do." Lyn squeezed the mana core and felt it shoot down her mana channel before it was pushed into the furnace of the Destroyer core. She felt the clang of metal vibrating within her torso as the mana core fought back against her primary core…and failed, subsuming to the more potent one. She turned to Thomas and the twins, who were just looking at her. The twins with slight concern, Thomas with a studious expression. "What?"

"Lyn…your horns are different," Vael said.

"Indeed," Thomas added. "And the scales, but that\'s harder to see under the armor."

Lyn willed her armor to recede. "Anyone have a mirror?"

"In my pack in the storage dimension," Gael said. "The pocket sized one."

"Right. You\'ll have to be in there anyways while we travel to Misty\'s mage school. Edro nin haden." The storage space opened, and Gael went in, grabbed the mirror, and handed it to her. She used it to examine the horns atop her head. The substance was no longer horn, but instead was shifting hues and textures between various metals. That\'s weird. Stop that. Almost as if responding to her will, the horns returned to their prior black appearance. Willing her armor to recede, she examined her scales and saw they were doing the same thing. Not a fan of that either. Once more, the scales resumed their black with blue border appearance.

Thomas chuckled, "Off to Misty\'s?"

Lyn nodded and gestured for the three to enter the storage space, "Yup. I\'ll get us there fast." The trio went inside, she released focus on the spell, and pressed the altar\'s button. The dungeon vanished, and she stood at the edge of the knothole of the tree. Pulling Cataclysm, she switched it to bow configuration, drew an arrow from the storage choker, and let loose before teleporting into the skies.

"Thank you for the wonderful meal!" Rashanna said to Lurgen, head Diplomat of the kingdom of Trisk.

"My pleasure. Thank you for taking it here in my quarters," he replied as he picked up his glass of wine and took a sip. The bear-folk man snapped his fingers as servants cleared the table, and another brought over several pieces of parchment. "Now, we have to finalize the details I believe."

"Yes, that is right," Rashanna said as one of her Duskari bodyguards – still armored and cloaked for the sake of not scaring the castle\'s residents and servants – brought over her wooden case holding the variety of documents she had been preparing. This is perfect! She thought. I\'ve already started to build connections here, I\'ve got the company shell for a trading company, and backers already figured out. She had been doing her duty as Diplomat and was ensuring that Lyn and King Skir would have a peaceful, cordial meeting to discuss vassalization.

But she was also a realist and had been given permission to pursue other sources of revenue for her personal fortunes. But I\'ll make donations to Lynhold, she thought, thinking of starting up a school for mercantilism to train up traders that she could then employ in her business to make even more money. Who knows? Maybe one day I\'ll rival the Free City of Bashinol.

The two Diplomats spent several hours going over the various details – who would arrive, which buildings they would stay in, courses for meals, logistics for delivery of goods, the amount of guards and soldiers present…it was a lot of work setting up a meeting between monarch and empress.

The twin moons had risen into the sky before the two called it a night. They shook hands, and Rashanna went back to her quarters. The Duskari with her had split up – half at the castle with her, and half at the inn in the merchant quarter. She went through her nightly routine before laying down in bed.

"You\'re up late," a voice said from the corner of the room.

Rashanna leaped out of bed holding a dagger she slept with under the pillow. "Who is there!" she shouted. "Guards!"

The Duskari guard who had just left her burst into the room not five seconds later. "What is it?" he asked.

"A voice from the corner," she replied.

"Yes, a voice from the corner," the mysterious darkness replied.

The guard relaxed and chuckled, "Bolvon, you ass. Stop that."

Rashanna saw the darkness in the corner of the room recede, and the faint candlelight revealed a Duskari figure that she had seen skulking about Lynhold, and who stood behind the Spymaster at the council meeting before her interview. "You are?"

"Bolvon. Lyn Rivers\' Shadowstalker."

"What does a Shadowstalker do?" Rashanna asked.

Bolvon\'s shoulders sagged, "I wanted a different title. Assassin is too generic and not…interesting."

Rashanna felt a chill down her spine, "You…you were sent to kill me?"

"What? No!" Bolvon said as he stood up and glanced at the other guard who was watching with a humorous expression. "Why would she think I\'m here to kill her?"

The guard leaned on his pike, "Beats me. Maybe her task is taking too long for our Lady Rivers\' tastes."

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Rashanna looked between the two and went back to the bed, sheathing her dagger. "I suppose there is good reason to disturb me?" she asked.

"Yes, there is," Bolvon said as he walked over to the side of the bed, pulling up a chair. "I\'m going to stay with you until this meeting with King Skir. If he\'s not open to her terms…she wants to end a war before it can start."

Rashanna felt shocked, and whispered, "She would kill him at a peaceful meeting?"

Bolvon shrugged, "It\'s smart, if you think about it. Cut off the head of the snake, then conquer the realm while it\'s in turmoil. And the line of King Skir, from what I gathered just lurking about the palace here, is short. He only has a son who would then inherit the throne…and let\'s be honest here, there\'s no way someone else doesn\'t do a power play for the throne in turmoil."

Rashanna laid back on the pillow and nodded, "It is wise to hedge our bets," she muttered. "Very well. What do you intend for the time being?"

He slapped his thighs and stood up, "I\'m going to prop up in the corner there."

Rashanna nodded and turned over, looking at the guard who was still there with an enthused expression. "You\'re dismissed," she said.

The guard shared a look with Bolvon before exiting to the attached guard quarters. Rashanna eyed the Shadowstalker as he dragged the chair back to the darkened corner, kicked his legs up on the nearby table, and shut his eyes.

Does she really doubt my talents that much? She thought. She\'s either extremely pragmatic, an extraordinary planner, or she doesn\'t believe in my skills to negotiate with foreign states.

Rest did not come easily that night.

Lyn opened the storage space and let the trio out. "We\'re here," she said in Arinol, feeling anxiety run down her spine.

Thomas looked up at the enormous building, "Misty\'s mage school." He looked at her, "I\'ll pass on seeing her again. She is really not a fan of me."

Lyn turned to him, "Is she still hung up on the fact that we slept together?"

"Seems so." Thomas looked at the twins, "If you\'d like, there\'s a beautiful spot overlooking the ocean not too far away."

The twins pulled cloaks with hoods out of their packs and equipped them. "Sure," Vael replied. "As long as Lyn feels comfortable without our presence. I\'ve never seen the ocean."

Lyn looked at the twins and gestured dismissively, "I\'ll be fine. You lot go enjoy the view." Thomas led the twins away down a path that headed towards the coast, and Lyn turned to face the enormous building. It was easily the size of a shopping mall, with several large towers ascending skyward. There were no people outside of the building, and it sat atop a hill with the closest town far off in the distance. Desolate. I wonder why Misty chose a place like this?

A set of wooden doors with silver inlay faced her. The inlay read The Mist Academy. She reached up to the handle, and as soon as her hand was placed on it, she heard a voice emanate from the door. "State your name," it said in a gruff, female voice in Triskol. One that Lyn instantly recognized. Her voice. Her old voice.

"Lyn Rivers," she said in Triskol.

"One moment."

Lyn stood there for several minutes, tapping her foot impatiently. Why would she make my voice the voice of the front door? Fucking weird. The doors opened slowly, revealing a lengthy hallway with a glowing, blue stripe along the floor.

The voice came back, "Please follow the blue line."

Lyn did so, and as she walked through the corridor, the doors shut behind her. She saw no other person, despite the several doors she passed by. She arrived at a set of stairs, and followed the line up them, ascending over a hundred feet. The tallest tower, she thought. The stairs ended on a landing, and there was an enormous statue whose face animated.

The voice that came out was Misty\'s. "Oh, hi! Welcome to Professor Misery\'s office! If you want to get in, you have to have the password!"

There was a commotion behind the statue, and it pivoted back and into the room on a hidden hinge. A pale-skinned woman, with deep, purple eyes, midnight-black hair, and wearing a flowing, black robe stood before her. "Hi Misty," Lyn said in English.

Misty looked Lyn up and down. "You\'re different," she replied. "Come on in. I\'ve just set up the coffee pot."

Lyn\'s ears perked up at that, "Coffee?"

"Yup," she replied as she walked into the room. Lyn followed her into the circular chamber. There was a side door that presumably led to a bedroom suite, and a ladder behind the large desk that led upward to a hatch in the ceiling. The room was brightly lit with candles that seemed to be moving in slow motion. Misty went to a side table and poured two mugs of coffee, handing one to Lyn before going behind the desk and sitting down.

Lyn sat opposite her in the cushioned chair and sipped the bitter, black liquid. The buzz hit her almost instantly. "Mmmm… damn I missed coffee."

Misty gave her a wan smile before taking a sip of the beverage herself. "It took a while to figure out, but I use a spell to turn tea leaves into a facsimile." She took another sip before setting it down. "Why?"

"Why what?" Lyn asked as she set the mug down.

"Why…did you come back like that?"

"You read my letter. I fucked something up with the summoning spell."

"You shouldn\'t have been able to do that," Misty muttered. "I don\'t know how you got back." She took another sip. "I\'ve been trying to figure out what exactly happened that day. I\'ve got a solid theory."

Lyn leaned forward, "Do tell. I want to know what the fuck happened. Because, to me, I killed the Demonic Dragon and then everything went white."

Misty took a long chug of her beverage before setting the empty mug down. "The best thing I can come up with is that you killed it, but before you died, you unconsciously tried to consume its mana core. The Scout Core lost and was consumed by the Destroyer core within the Demonic Dragon. You went back to Earth." She shook her head, "By all rights your mana core should not have gone with you. It should have been left behind."

"Probably going to Raevan\'s dungeon, I\'d guess?"

"Perhaps. Just as the hero cores returned to the statue of Aelor, it\'s probable that the Destroyer mana core would return to a designated location." She leaned back in the chair. "But a deity\'s power must be strong enough to pass between worlds, unlike the hero cores."

Lyn smirked and kicked her feet up on the chair next to her, turning her chair to sit perpendicular to Misty. "Then I panicked, didn\'t find anyone else, and ran to the skate park before doing the summonin-"

"How?"

"I just wrote a verse."

Misty pulled out a piece of parchment and grabbed an ink pen. "Show me."

Lyn put her legs down and did so, writing the lengthy Elenthir verses with the destination. "Like that."

Misty turned it around and pored over it, "Fascinating," she muttered. "We could replace the destination indicator and return to Earth at will, just as I theorized. Coming back though…"

Lyn cocked her head sideways as genuine confusion hit her. "But…Thomas had figured this out already."

"What?" Misty\'s gaze narrowed.

"Yeah, he inscribed the foundation of Ben and Trisha\'s house to let them return to Earth."

Her face screwed up in anger as she slapped the empty mug, sending it flying off to the side of the room before shattering. "That asshole!"

Lyn shook her head, "What\'s the deal with you two, anyways?"

Misty\'s demeanor shifted. Overcome by a visage of sorrow. "I…I loved you, Lyn."

"Come again?"

"You heard me." Misty sighed and pulled her hood up over her head, muffling her words slightly as she spoke rapidly – which she did when she was nervous. "I\'ve always really liked you as a person and have wanted to tell you about my feelings, but I couldn\'t ever tell you my feelings because if you didn\'t feel the same then we couldn\'t be friends anymore because it would be too awkward."

She took a deep breath and continued, "So when we got here, I thought maybe I could try to work my way into being your partner through conquering dungeons and doing adventurous stuff but then you started sleeping with the other heroes and when you slept with Thomas who I thought was my friend and I shared this stuff with I just lost it."

Lyn put her hand on the desk, and gently grabbed Misty\'s. She pulled back. "I…didn\'t know you felt that way about me." Lyn sighed, "I…sleeping with Thomas wasn\'t a mistake, and I\'m not sorry I did it. But I am sorry that I didn\'t consider how it would make you feel."

Misty looked out from the hood, her purple eyes glaring at Lyn. Lyn felt her body lock up and her vision went black as Misty\'s voice echoed all around her. "I\'m getting my Lyn back," she said firmly.

Lyn tried to reply, but the embrace of nothingness took her.

Misty sat back in the chair and sighed. Lyn\'s head was dipped to her chest. She pulled the disc out from under the desk and set it on the top of the furniture, pouring mana into the inscription. Come on, let\'s get you out of there. Her whole goal was to just get her Lyn back. The old Lyn. Not this new one. But to do that, she would have to extract old Lyn from the Scout core, which was somewhere inside of the Destroyer core.

She had never attempted to manipulate mana cores like this, and wasn\'t quite sure what to expect, but if everything went according to plan, the Scout core would be ejected with old Lyn\'s consciousness. Misty could then take that mana core and put it into a prepared body. I\'ll get you back, she thought as she took Lyn\'s mug and drank the rest of her coffee.

Darkness. Nothing but darkness. Lyn stood alone, in a black space. "Misty?" She called out, only to be met with silence. She looked all around and saw nothing. Trying to draw up mana, she felt…nothing. What happened? She thought.

A shimmer of dark crimson appeared next to her, and she wheeled on it, taking up a ready stance. The shimmer took form, and she saw standing next to her an elegant looking woman who was a striking image. She looks just like I did in the mirror, Lyn thought. Minus the eyes – those were just flaming orbs. The dark crimson shimmer smiled, "Hello, Lyn. I\'m Raevan."

Lyn didn\'t know what to say. The actual deity of destruction? "What happened? And how am I talking to a long-dead deity?"

"Who said I was dead?" Raevan retorted. "I\'ve been here the whole time. I am the Destroyer."

"No, I am," another voice chimed in. Lyn looked and saw an orange shimmer in the air before a figure she recognized immediately appeared in space before her. The Demonic Dragon, in his huge, scaled form. His head was resting on the ground, and a large, slitted eye gazed at Lyn.

Lyn looked between the two, who were staring off against each other. "So, we\'re…inside the Destroyer Core?"

"Correct," Raevan replied as she smiled gently. "Mana cores carry the soul, or consciousness of a person, if that\'s the term you prefer."

"That\'s why it\'s so bad to harvest them from other people," Lyn muttered. "Because you\'re literally eating their souls."

"Correct," Raevan replied as her smile shifted to a frown. "Normally, a creature dies, and a few moments later their mana core vanishes as they \'move on\'. Harvesting and consuming mana cores is taboo because it ends them entirely. No soul to move on."

"Just like we ended that Volio," Yheron, the Demonic Dragon, growled out.

"Wait-what? He went back to Earth!" Lyn wheeled on him with confusion.

Yheron shook his enormous reptilian head. "No. He refused to be denied Ghomar, and so we destroyed his soul. Volio Mori is no more."

Lyn felt a tremor in her stomach. She fell to her knees and felt like she had to vomit but nothing came up. "Oh God, what did I do? He was a perv, but he didn\'t deserve to be…obliterated."

She felt a hand on her back. Raevan\'s voice was soothing and comforting, "It was his choice. He was given several warnings. But his obsession corrupted his whole being to the point that all reason was lost. He made his choice."

Lyn looked up at Raevan, feeling the weight of the truth behind her words. "Why am I here?"

Yheron sighed, "The Mage hero. She used a spell to try and separate you from the Destroyer core. It won\'t work; the Destroyer core is too strong for that. But it pulled the \'Lyn Rivers\' away from \'The Destroyer\'. You\'re talking to yourself…in a way. You are us; we are you. In this moment, our \'souls\' are being forced to become individual within the Destroyer core. Soon, we will merge again."

"Why would sh-" Lyn stopped herself. No, it makes sense. She wants the old Lyn back. And she\'s trying to get old Lyn back. "But I\'m not old Lyn anymore," she whispered. I had no clue she felt so much for me that she\'d be willing to use a spell on me to get old me back… "I am different. My experience has changed me. The core changed me."

"Correct," Yheron stated with a chortle. "You killed me, and thus inherited the mantle of Destroyer. Granted, dying yourself was not something either of us expected."

"So…you two have just been inside me the whole time?"

Raevan shook her head and helped Lyn up, "We are you." She gestured to herself, "I am the deity of Destruction, as was Yheron." She put her hand on Lyn\'s torso, "Now you have the role thrust upon you. Do you think I wanted to be a deity of destruction?" Raevan asked. "I saved the Ari. You\'re following in my footsteps more than you know, child."

Yheron grumbled an assent, "I rarely left the Valley of the Volcano because I, too, followed the will of Raevan."

"To ensure peace," Lyn whispered, as the history that Vehenna had told her months ago had hinted at. The pieces were falling in place, and Lyn was understanding the truth. A history that was veiled. Millennia of propaganda, falling apart with the revelations she was now learning.

Raevan nodded. "A singular deity was responsible for the creation of Ghomar and the Elenthians. Eventually, the Elenthians left using spells, leaving behind their mana cores as their souls – their being – ascended to the unknown. It was too much grief, losing the first race. So, the singular deity split into two…me and Aelor. Aelor continued to create, and I just sat on the \'sidelines\' as you would put it, only to be called in to wipe out a mistaken creation."

"But that stopped when Raevan was ordered to obliterate the Ari people," Yheron continued. "That was the last straw. The Destroyer rejected the orders to destroy, and instead…for the first time…created."

"The Valley of the Volcano," Raevan replied. "A haven for the Ari people. The Duskari are those who simply swore to raise arms in my name."

"Aelor can\'t destroy?" Lyn asked.

"He could, but he won\'t. He loved his creations too much to destroy them." Raevan shook her head, "He split himself into the twenty hero cores, and divested his power. Through those cores, his split consciousness built the narrative that I, the Destroyer, desired the death of all – one last \'fuck you\' directed at me. Over millennia, his consciousness faded to a whisper. But the narrative persisted, passing from hero mana core before becoming legend. A force that everyone could unite against."

"Peace," Yheron growled. "Peace through a common foe. The whole world, against the Destroyer and his – or her – servants. Aelor\'s final gift to his creations." He huffed and then moved his head to face his opposite eye to the two humanoids in the darkness. "The heroes came, died, and then returned to – as we both learned from your conversing with this Thomas fellow – the statue of Aelor. Only when all twenty heroes had died could the mana cores be reassigned, and the consciousnesses of the heroes trapped within allowed to move on."

"Then they began summoning heroes from other worlds," Raevan stated. "After several rounds of heroes going against my might and failing, the statue of Aelor began to bridge the gap between worlds, calling heroes to take up the mantle and stop me. It was an ancient artifact, made by the first Artificer hero, so technically one twentieth of Aelor divested their power into it."

"But you were killed," Lyn stated. "Kor killed you, the Paragon hero that founded Khrelardia."

Raevan\'s face clouded over with sorrow, "This is true. And do you know what happened after my death? War. In the Victory Age, war broke out between kingdoms. It wasn\'t until Yheron found my mana core in the dungeon atop Shiverburn Summit hundreds of years after that they reunited against a common foe."

"And that\'s what I did," Yheron replied with a chuckle. "I united the whole of Ghomar against a common threat. Sure, I would sometimes go out and rampage…but that was only when I saw the stirrings of war elsewhere. Peace reigned on Ghomar while I lived." He moved his head closer to Lyn, "And then you killed me."

"I didn\'t have a choice!" Lyn shouted at the specter of the creature that she had given her life to kill loomed in front of her. "I didn\'t know any better!"

Yheron grinned and the sight of his teeth sent chills down Lyn\'s spine, "I am aware. You were not given the full truth. No one knows the full truth, save Raevan, me, and now you."

Lyn looked down at the blackness and took a deep breath in. "What happens next?"

"That is up to you, fledgling deity of destruction," Raevan said softly as she caressed Lyn\'s face. "…What does your heart tell you?"

Lyn closed her eyes. What is it I really want? She asked herself. She thought of all that she had learned so far, all she had experienced. From her shitty home life, to being mocked as the weakest hero, to growing in power and conquering dungeons. The history learned along the way. The few classmates she had turned into fast friends. I wanted glory and recognition, she thought. Not to be the weakest. To show all of them that I wasn\'t a joke.

Then came the fight with the Demonic Dragon, her return to Earth, and her self-summon. I wanted the glory of accomplishing the task everyone had set out to complete…but I was responsible for finishing. The realization that she would never be able to claim that glory thanks to the actions of others. She felt the heat roil in her chest as the anger surged up. They stole her glory, her credit. I wanted revenge. No, I wanted them to admit they fucked up and fix it…but they can\'t.

She thought of the Duskari, the Newen, the Sloren, the Ari, and her empire still in its early stages. The goal she had set for herself was to unite the whole world under one rule, under her supreme might. To impose her sense of right and wrong. To prevent children from being abused like she was. To prevent people from going hungry as she used to almost every night. Ensuring everyone had a chance at the same wonderful life as the next person. I thought I had saved the world…but defeating the Demonic Dragon just removed their common threat.

She didn\'t want to be a threat everyone came together to fight against. She didn\'t want to be the one person everyone hated. No…I will save this world. From itself. And when I have saved it, then I, and only I, will have the right to rule it. To guide it. I\'m immortal. Age won\'t kill me. Disease won\'t kill me. I\'ll be the enlightened empress that guides Ghomar to an age of prosperity and wonder, combining the knowledge of two worlds.

"I want to rule Ghomar," Lyn stated. "I want to save the heroes trapped in their mana cores. I want to make a utopia; or as close to it as I can get…I don\'t…I don\'t want anyone to have the childhood I had."

Yheron let out a hearty laugh that reverberated all around, "That\'s it! Conquer and consume! Become the ruler of Ghomar!"

Raevan gently put a hand to Lyn\'s chin and pulled her up until their eyes met. The flaming orbs slowly extinguished before a pair of blue eyes – Lyn\'s own eyes – appeared in their stead. "You choose a hard path. One that will take many years to achieve, and one fraught with peril." She helped Lyn stand up and gestured to Yheron, "We will always be with you, as we are you. Never before has a Destroyer chosen to become a conquering force for good…I look forward to where this will take us."

"Your goal is a good one," Yheron stated as he lifted his bulk and stood up, "Are you willing to inherit the mantle of a deity? To ascend?"

"I\'ve heard that before," Lyn muttered before facing Yheron fully. "In Raevan\'s dungeon. The trial asked me if I would ascend."

"You will," Yheron stated. "If you consume every hero mana core. I was not able to, because the statue of Aelor was intact. But you…you have a tie with the prior generation of heroes, and the statue is gone. The heroes that died, the ones that are still alive…eventually you could gather them all within yourself…and ascend to godhood."

Raevan nodded, "You could be more than I ever was. Ascend beyond just being a deity of destruction." She smiled, "But do not fret, godhood is not necessarily required of you. Rule your empire as you see fit. Those with power create the rules. Lead it to the golden age that you envision."

"I don\'t know if I want to be a goddess," Lyn said quietly. "But I\'ll think about it." Lyn smiled and laughed gently. "Thank you, Raevan." She turned to Yheron, "And…thank you, Yheron. I should hate you for killing me…but it\'s given me the chance to free all my old classmates and send them on their way."

Yheron unfurled his wings and let out an enormous roar before he looked down at Lyn from above. "You are welcome. Go and conquer this world. We\'ll be with you."

"In you," Raevan said with a light chuckle.

Lyn looked between them both and felt a sense of calm wash over her. "We\'ll be with each other," she said. She gave Raevan a hug, and the woman returned the gesture before turning into mist and vanishing inside Lyn.

"One last thing," Yheron stated. "Now that we are truly all on the same course…I want you to have my full power."

"What else is there?" Lyn asked with genuine curiosity.

Yheron smirked, "When you slew me, the Destroyer core was split in half. You returned to Earth with my half. My core gave you lava elementalism. Raevan\'s half of the core you claimed gave control over shadow elementalism…in addition to Creation/Destruction, the most mana intensive of all external spell types at the peak of power that you haven\'t tried yet. So powerful that only if you consumed every hero core could you outright create and destroy at will, altering the very fabric of reality. I would advise against trying that until you have enough mana. The prismatic hues represented the ultimate power you have access to."

He lowered his spiked head to be at her eye level. The enormous eye the size of her torso. "My ownership of the Destroyer core gave you the ability to use internal regeneration spells, alongside lava…and one other…"

"Shifting internal spells. This half dragon form."

"Listen closely, and I will tell you the Elenthian verse to turn into a full dragon; one so ancient that none but true dragons know it. As you and I are one with Raevan, you may use it."

Lyn felt a flutter in her chest. "I\'ve always wondered what flying would be like."