Not (Just) A Mage Lord Isekai

As if Vaserra's challenge with the Panther Lord wasn't enough, Books was also arriving, his strange caravan of oversized wagons rolling up to the border. Along with the many demands to make use of our influx of mana, catching up with Calbern and dealing with the fallout of the Fores'thall spies…

Yeah, it was a big day.

Big enough I slotted both Recall and Secrets of Telthen, since I might need to get around extra quick. Even with the several minutes it took Recall to 'charge' it might well prove useful.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend much time with Calbern as he volunteered to help with settling Books when Nexxa stopped in. My sister didn't stay long. Just long enough to say congratulations then disappear without explaining what she was congratulating me for.

Typical.

Bevel and Ari were planning to spend their morning together, working on a proper spatial vault in the catacombs. In the meanwhile, Alister, Vendil and I were planning to go around marking out the spies that had been discovered in our own territory. Alister had convinced me not to arrest or exile them, as simply knowing who they were was more important than attempting to keep them out, especially with how bare bones our immigration laws were. We were tracking people, and even had a central database thanks to my newly establish Utility Access, but it wasn't like we were stopping anyone from moving in.

Honestly, between the sentry balloons and the upgraded reports from having Utility Access, I was worried I might have a bit too much surveillance of Cape Aeternia. I could literally just bring up a person on the scanner, then locate them immediately with the sentry balloons, assuming they were outside.

It would've felt excessive if not for the alert that the Sahevin had found their way past the barrier.

The alert felt a little redundant, since I was standing in the crystal chamber when they started appearing out of the air only to get whisked away to the prison. Over a hundred must've appeared then stopped before the assault stopped.

"Uh, Magus Protectus?" Vendil said from his desk, having witnessed the warped space. "Is everything… okay?"

"We're going to need someone to clean the cells," I said, shaking my head. They were not designed for that many living beings.

Just to be sure, I went to double check they were all dead, and… it was disgusting. But the enchantments had held. Not one had escaped. Finishing them quickly, I returned to the crystal chamber. The ones who'd suicided weren't the only ones flagged by the crystal. There were over fifty groups making their way in from the east. They weren't headed for the Golden Halls this time. Also, at the rate they were moving overland, they weren't swimming.

Horde to distract us while they sent in a tactical strike force?

Visuals from the sentry balloons confirmed that each group consisted of at least a dozen awakened Mermen flying at speed. That wouldn't have been so bad if they weren't hauling a Spawner between them. Calculating their paths confirmed the worst. They were headed for each of our population centers.

No sign of their big boss though.

Neither Ari or Bevel complained when I informed them of the change to our plans. Unfortunately, Calbern had already left and Nexxa wasn't answering her Caster. Even if Aeternia's Shield wasn't in position to observe Vaserra's fight with the Panther Lord, it wouldn't have been much help against this newest tactic of the Sahevin, not with how quickly they were swimming through the air.

It should be easy to counter with a little more time. For the moment, we were that counter.

"Take care of yourselves," I said before Ari, Bevel and I split up.

"You too, Papa," Bevel said, squeezing me as hard as she could. "No dying."

"No dying," I promised.

"No dying," Ari agreed, nodding before being pulled into a hug with us. She let out a light giggle, then cleared her throat. "Well, shall we begin?"

We each nodded then flew off.

None of us were new to dealing with awakened Sahevin at this point. And dealing with them when they were flying with only a single spawner amongst them that would go splat if they weren't holding it up…

Easy.

The only real challenge would be the distance between each group.

At least, that's what I'd believed. The truth turned out to be somewhat different. Not because of the awakened. Because of what had been waiting for me after I knocked the third group out of the sky.

Something had knocked me out of the sky in turn.

The fast moving object followed me down, barely giving me a chance to react. Only the fact I'd been running Aegis as a precaution kept me from dying instantly. Even then, I could barely focus.

Ironically, it was the recent experience of losing my head that helped me keep mine in that moment. I cast Restore Form despite my confusion. The moment I did, my enhanced perception of time kicked in and I rolled to the side, wincing at my still useless right arm and bleeding leg.

The massive half-snake Sahevin I'd seen at the barrier smashed into the spot I'd just been laying in. The Abyss Emperor didn't even bother checking to see if its attack had missed, already doing a wide sweep with its tail.

I started dancing.

Specifically, Dimensional Dancing. There was no thought for killing it. It had hit harder than Calbern, Bevel or even Nexxa. A tier-5. That's what Ari had said.

Not as deadly as Felor, so I supposed that was something.

We'd had plans for dealing with the thing, but those had been based on it being a lot slower than it was. According to Ari, most Abyss Emperors were slow, for their tier. Even it's current speed held true to that, though I could barely keep ahead of it even as I cast another Restore Form, focusing on my leg. With the barest of mobility restored, I dodged under a swipe of its tail without Dancing away. Its tail impacted the spot I would've ended up, and I had to upgrade my danger assessment.

Unfortunately, I couldn't keep fighting it. Not the way I had the bear lord.

It outclassed me far too much, and my mana was plummeting. Wasn't enough time to use either of my long distance escape spells either. If I got out of this fight, I swore to myself I'd enchant an emergency item that let me Recall without having a five minute activation.

As it raised its head and arms into the air, I had a moment of inspiration. Calbern had dealt with a giant serpent once. A pair of enchanted steel rods appeared in my hands, the focus for Shape Tool. I quickly reshaped them into pitons as I continued to Dance out of the way of the Snake-Sahevin's big coils.

Once they were ready, I Danced up behind its back, then drove them into the gap between its scales. Only to have them bounce off, only one of them even chipping the scales.

Crashing down along between a pair of mountainous ridges, I glanced up just in time to see its entire bulk descending towards me.

Eyes wide, I Danced out of the way just in time to watch it get itself wedged in place. It was barely a second but that was enough time for me to make another attempt. I managed to get the edge of one piton in place. Instead of trying to get the other in, I used it to hammer the first, driving it deeper. Once it was past the scales, I used Shape Tool Again to make it into an anchor with a spread head.

The next minute was a panicked struggle to get the other in place. Eventually I managed it, using my bare palm to pound it in, realizing my higher Vitality and Resilience made me a much more effective hammer than I was used to. Once that was done, I made sure to tie myself in place, leaving me firmly attached to its back, just out of reach of its arms.

Not its coils, but those were - relatively speaking - easy to avoid. My mana was almost empty, but I'd found a way to buy time. Killing it… that I was still working on. Was kinda wishing I hadn't given Bevel Ari's bracelet. Then again, I wouldn't want Ari teleporting in either.

For some reason, the Abyss Emperor didn't want to give me the time to work the problem. After a minute of fruitlessly attempting to reach back and grab me it decided to switch things up. Flopping over, it drug its back along the ground, attempting to rip me free. It had just enough of a dip where the humanoid upper torso met the coil that when I was curled up with Aegis, it couldn't simply scrape me off.

Didn't stop it from trying.

And trying.

Honestly, it was very dedicated to the cause.

After almost ten minutes of trying to smash me into the stone to rip me free, right as I was certain I was going to run out of mana and end up breaking my promise to Ari and Bevel, it decided to change tactics.

It started swimming through the air.

When it had first knocked me out of the air, we'd been near the middle of Cape Aeternia, not too far from Tetherfall. I'd honestly lost track of where we'd ended up after ten minutes of it writhing around madly, but that changed the second I spotted Mount Aeternia. Disturbingly, it was as fast as Bevel when she did her build up attack and went supersonic. Which meant it wasn't long before the foundry around Tetherfall came into view.

For a terrifying second, I thought it might attempt to threaten my people, to hold them hostage or even just start attacking.

Instead, it flew right over Tetherfall, drawing tons of attention. I got a far too clear view as it flipped over part way and attempted to shake me off, like trying to get an ant to go back into its colony.

Which meant my people got to see their Magus Protectus hanging by a pair of pitons from the back of a giant sea serpent-merman, effectively helpless.

Not my best moment.

At least they didn't get much time to stare before the beast blasted past into Mistvale.

For a second, I had to wonder if the thing was an idiot. As Mana Draw sucked in the mana, I decided I really didn't care. It had brought a Magus into a mana-well.

It was only as it plunged towards the lake that it occurred to me that it might not be so stupid afterall.

"I really, really, don't like you," I grumbled just before we plunged into the water.

Everything was going wrong.

Kaseem was a professional. An Operative of the New Alvian Empire. He'd overseen operations far more complex, with far more dangerous targets than this self-proclaimed Magus Protectus.

Even so, he'd never had an operation that faced so many obstacles.

The first problem was the fierce loyalty. Even refugees who'd only been in the so called Cape Aeternia for a month had unreasonable belief in the man. They had actual plants, people he'd personally chosen for the mission to undermine the Magus' efforts, who had attempted to misdirect Kaseem.

One of them had even attempted to kill Kaseem. They'd ended up finding out how dangerous an ensouled Operative could be, but the fact they'd tried was…

The loyalty wasn't entirely unprecedented. Cults were often founded with such. Except cults were inherently unstable. They were hard to place spies in but they were easy to disrupt.

Cape Aeternia, to his growing dismay, wasn't a cult.

It was nearly as bad as Spellford. And would grow to be just as hard to manipulate if their Magus Protectus continued to grow. That was why he'd been trying to bring the man down.

Convincing the Warlords to 'rebel' had been easy. Just disguise himself as one of the Tethered, then give them an opportunity to strike. They'd taken out the Fronting airship. A disaster that should've set their efforts back months.

The locals had barely noticed.

No, that wasn't true. They'd noticed. Then they'd gone and built another, more formidable airship that was ten times the size and far more difficult to sabotage.

When he discovered Fores'thall poking around, he'd given the assassins a way to strike at the man directly, bypassing his new security measures. Only that hadn't worked either.

Even before that, he'd had some hope the Sahevin beacon would be enough, except the stupid beasts had ignored the actual beacon in Southport and swarmed some empty spot in the middle of nowhere.

Then the clans… he hadn't had to do much more than send messengers who reported the realm's accurate lack of defenses. Defenses that had already been shored up, even before the mana-lake had sprung to life.

And now, now the Magus Protectus was flaunting his skill in battle for all to see. There wasn't a person in Terra Vista who didn't know what an Abyss Emperor looked like.

A tier five Sahevin.

And the man was fighting it face to face.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

There was no way that man was only Pegasus.

Kaseem had been Pegasus for over a century and was almost to Hydra. He had more combat experience than most people had years living. And he still wouldn't fight an Abyss Emperor up close.

The Operative stopped, watching as a plume of water shot into the air. For them to see it all the way from Tetherfall meant it had to be massive. Somehow, he doubted the serpent had solved his problem. He wasn't that lucky.

Running along with the rest of the crowd headed to the Waygates, he crossed his fingers that this time they'd be slack enough on security to let him through.

He made it to just outside the Waygate before a stone hand wrapped around his arm. Cursing silently to himself, Kaseem prepared his lies, knowing these women, while not as fanatic as many, were still stalwart allies of the man.

His words died on his tongue as his gaze met the golem's, the mana he'd been gathering disrupted by its mere presence.

"Well, Kaseem. Fancy seeing you here."

Henri junior wasn't pleased with his task. It wasn't something his mother would've approved of. But a woman like Zuzi didn't give attention to men like him very often.

And it was just one little package. Wasn't even anything important. Just slip it into Chieftain Vaserra's drink.

A little bit of a disadvantage, that was all.

Then Zuzi had promised to give him an entire night doing whatever he wanted. Even spend it cuddled up watching the stars drift past where no one could find them.

All he needed to do was get the package into her drink. It wouldn't even be hard. It wasn't like she watched what she consumed. She was simply accepting goblets from whoever handed her one, then downing them in seconds.

She was practically asking for someone like him to come along. In fact, he was doing her a favor. What if someone with real ill intent was to poison her. Obviously, this was a lesson she needed to learn.

Mind made up, he grabbed a pair of goblets from one of the nearby Sheep, going so far as to thank them for their generosity. His mother had insisted they needed to treat them like people, and while Henri didn't understand, when his mother spoke, he listened.

Which is why he was glad his mother had told him to enjoy the festivities. He never would've dared otherwise. Even the thought of her potential disapproval made his steps waver. But then he thought of Zuzi and her round lips and even rounder bottom.

He was only twenty feet from Vaserra.

He stopped, retrieving the package with shaking hands. Why were his hands shaking? They never shook.

He managed to get more than half of the package into the drink. That would be enough, right? Maybe it wouldn't weaken her quite as much. But that would be fine. Zuzi said Arther only needed a little help. Just enough to make it so he could give a good showing before he accepted her victory.

A little less help would be fine, surely. Maybe… maybe he could even water it down a bit further.

He couldn't do this. Not to Vaserra. No matter what Zuzi offered, Vaserra was… if he was honest, Vaserra was everything he wished he could be. There was no way she'd do something like this. He cursed himself for his weakness, goblet held in a shaking hand as he thought of what he'd been about to-

A heavy arm clamped down on his shoulder, heavy, made of stone, interrupting his thoughts and holding him firmly in place, despite his bonded strength. "Ya know, boy, there are easier ways to impress women. Walk with me a minute."

Tanis was having a not-good day.

The boss was flying. And not the good kinda flying that every reasonable Tethered did these days. He was flying with a giant snake big enough to feed Tetherfall for a couple weeks, at least.

The boss was tough but Tanis was pretty sure he wasn't 'survive getting smushed by giant serpent' tough.

If that was all, Tanis's day still might've been a good day. After all, the boss was good at unsmushing people, even himself.

But the boss was all alone! Everyone knew the boss didn't fight good alone.

Tanis had to get to the boss fast as he could!

Pushing past a stone lady, he charged into the Waygate. He didn't follow the others who were going to the Mistvale Waygate. That would leave the boss alone for too long.

Charging up the stairs, he made his way to the top of the peak. Both his favorite gliders were there, waiting.

So was another stone lady.

"This is remarkable. Local root fiber, reinforced with only a trace of mana, then using a triple cross back stitch. Or is it a triple back cross stitch? Sewing was never really my specialty. More of a hobby, really. Well, big man, you coming?"

Xelinda was spending the day tagging along with her father. While she was looking forward to watching Vaserra's match against the Panther lord, she was feeling restless. Despite Aeternia's Shield's expansive main deck, they were confined to the observation area so they wouldn't get underfoot.

It wasn't expected that they'd need to do anything but apparently the great and wise Magus Protectus didn't trust the Panther Lord to simply concede.

Despite her disdain for his title, she agreed with Perry. The man wasn't nearly as obnoxious as you'd expect from listening to the Tethered talk about him.

She didn't understand why they were so enamored with him when they'd been trained by a literal Knight Exemplar. The whole damn nation was full of storybook figures. A Forgeborn artificer, that annoyingly cheerful devoted of Felor and an entire two chapters of Vox Knights, just to name the most important.

Other than Ser Calbern of course. It was good he was back, she just wished she was studying with him instead of watching the fight.

Even now, she wanted to pull her sword and practice the katas he'd taught her. Unlike what Egerta had tried to pass off as swordplay, there was an elegance to his katas that sang to her soul.

"Wish we were helping," Xelinda said to the man who'd moved up next to her, mistaking him for her father for a moment. "Feel useless up here."

The smile was certainly the same, understanding but carrying a depth of wisdom she doubted she'd ever attain. The dark stone skin wasn't even close.

"You know, a sheathed blade is still a blade. Never doubt your edge, simply because it is not bared. We will play our part, soon enough."

Books was rather impressed by the 'station' that Nexxa had led him to. Not the station itself, of course. That was little more than a rough slab of stone elevated above the rest. It was the connected roads that - while not the equal of the highroads they'd been traveling - would work almost perfectly with the landships.

An intentional choice, he'd been informed.

It seemed that Nexxa and her brother hadn't been idle in their-

"What in the Rift is that?" Books asked, eyes drawn to the dark shape floating over a nearby mountain. It seemed to be bigger than the peak it was moving over.

"Perry's newest airship," Nexxa replied offhandedly, tapping his shoulder attempting to return his attention to the manifest they'd been going over. "Now, we've got two choices for where to set you up. One's on the coast-"

"What has your brother been doing? Last you told me, he was struggling to deal with the masses of refugees flooding in," Books interrupted, gaze still fixed on the airship.

"Putting them to use, obviously," Nexxa said, cuffing him upside the head. "You can gawk at my brother's new toy later, after we get all the boring stuff figured out. Did you want a coastal territory or-"

"That one," Books said, still looking at the airship. He'd studied enough history to know how vital it was to have coastal access if it was available.

"Or, you could take one inland, connected via our new rails. With twenty individual mana-wells, each with a different affinity."

"Oh," Books said, blinking as he finally looked down at the map she'd been waving in front of him. "Twenty?"

Even if they were weak, that was… a lot of mana. Still, water was…

"Is there a river?"

"More than one," Nexxa said, smiling. "The big one cuts right through your territory then mine before emptying into the ocean. Has dozens of others leading into it."

Books nodded, but found his gaze lifting once more. There were no mana-streams in the area. How was it even flying?

"This might just need to wait for a bit," Nexxa said, clapping him on the shoulder. "You're clearly distracted. Feel like a tour?"

Before he could respond, a shockwave rippled through the air, rising from the mountains a short distance to the north.

Bevel was doing a really good job. She'd managed to splat all of her groups already. She was just that fast.

She'd been on the way towards Mama Ari's groups, just in case she'd needed help, when the air had shook.

In a way she was very familiar with.

Someone was going fast. Very, very fast.

And they'd come from the direction Papa had been patrolling in.

Bevel knew her Papa would be fine. He was her Papa, after all. But just in case, she decided to follow.

It only took her a few seconds to build up the same effect. Not towards Papa, but Mama Ari.

After all. If Papa needed help, it would be best to help him together.

That was what family did.

I really, really didn't like this giant-serpent-merman Abyss Emperor jerk.

As the water plumed upwards around us, I dug in even tighter. Unfortunately, the water was perfectly suited to solve the problem a bunch of rock, stone and dirt had failed to.

We'd barely breached the surface and I'd already been torn free of the Abyss Emperor.

Plus side, my mana was full.

Second plus side, the Abyss jerk had run straight to the middle of Mistvale. With a little luck, Tender would…

And that was a nope.

Other than its still closed off domain below, there was no sign of the forest devil.

Struggling out of the water, I barely Dimension Danced my way to shore by the time the Abyss Emperor found me. I continued along the edge of the lake, moving in a large circle, my eyes drifting to the west as the Emperor searched for me. Aeternia's Shield was too far.

No help coming from there, then.

During its earlier thrashing, I'd spent what thought I could spare considering what I had available that might kill this thing. So far I'd come up with maybe getting swallowed and exploding it from the inside. Not an ideal choice even if its head wasn't so small it'd take three bites to get me down.

While I hadn't thought of a way I could defeat it, I'd at least figured a decent way to survive if I'd been tossed free. A single plan that I hadn't been able to implement because I simply didn't have the mana.

Since my opponent had solved that problem, I Danced.

With every step, I mapped out the dimensional terrain just a little more. Which meant each step got a little faster, a little more efficient. And that meant that when a pair of gliders appeared overhead, bearing Tanis and a familiar golem woman, I had plenty of speed and mana to grab them before they could be smashed by the serpent.

"What are you two doing here?" I demanded even as I left behind my prepared dance area, pulling them east towards the Mistvale Waygate.

"Came to help, boss. Can't let you fight alone."

"As your handsome friend said, Perry. Did you know you're fighting an Abyss Emperor? It's a tier-5 Sahevin, focused on physical augmentations. It relies quite heavily on its sense of echolocation. That's not a weakpoint, unfortunately, as its-"

"Suzenne, if you have anything I can use against it, please get to that part. Quickly," I said, dancing to the side as a coil smashed into a giant tree, sending heartwood flying everywhere.

"Right. Critical mission time. You've got this Suzenne," she said. I was honestly amazed I was having so little trouble carrying them. Despite ostensibly now being made of stone, Suzenne was as light as she'd been before I'd used the Establium along with Conflict's Major Favor to bring her and the others back as golems.

After asking them, of course.

They'd awoken while First, Banya and Keria were still having their heart to heart, which had been a bit awkward for everyone involved, despite me having warned them it might happen.

It had also been useful, since the ladies could help the crew adjust to their new bodies better than anyone.

"Okay, right in the base of its back, there's a depression," Suzenne said after a second of thought.

"I might've noticed it."

"Good. The scales there are weaker that on the rest of its body. Specifically the patchy section that looks all pebbly. Even a quick tap can cause them pain. It's theorized it has something to do with whoever designed the Sahevin-"

"And we're here. Try to stay out of trouble this time," I said, dropping them within eyesight of the Waygate. I didn't dare get any closer, because for some unfathomable reason, the Tethered were streaming out of it in our direction.

The hell did they think they were going to do against an Abyss Emperor?

They'd just end up as paste.

So, leaving my 'help' behind, I started dancing northward, through the section of the forest that had been cleared when the Howling Defier crashed.

I'd gained some distance during my mad dash towards the Waygate, but my direction change had allowed the Emperor to catch up. A single mistimed Dance, and I found myself slamming into a wall of scales. Despite Aegis, they felt like they managed to rip half my face off.

To make it worse, the damn serpent interrupted my rhythm, sending me crashing to the forest floor, tumbling into one of the holes where one of the ancient tree stumps had been torn up.

Line of sight being as limited as it was, I looked up to find the Emperor's bulk slithering around the hole in all directions but up. Which, of course, was blocked by its face. It stretched its maw wide, and I tried to find an angle I could dodge to, to avoid getting bitten in thirds, when I noticed the green fire building in its throat.

"Oh come on," I grumbled, changing tacks entirely and pulling on Sculpt Stone to scrape the bits of stone scattered in the surrounding Earth into a flimsy barrier to augment Aegis, even as I pumped mana into Restore Form, hoping the spell would stay active and keep me alive even if-

I felt it before I saw it, when a sonic boom empowered Bevel impacted the Abyss Emperor.

My daughter had arrived just in time to save my life by turning herself into a bullet. Her form was entirely too still in the wake of the impact, the serpent flying away as she fell.

Flying forward, I caught her as gently as I could. I prayed her rescue hadn't come at the cost of my daughter, Restore Form running the second I was in range.

"If you're quite done being heroic, I rather believe we have a monster to deal with," Ari's voice came cool and clear from above.

I nodded, even as I brushed Bevel's hair out of her face, waiting on Restore Form. Thankfully it took, and a second later, Bevel coughed awake.

"Ow," she groaned as I flew us out of the hole. "That hurt."

"I imagine that had to do with the velocity with which you impacted it. Good news, your head was at least as hard as the Abyss Emperor's," Ari said, voice tight but still managing to carry a hint of amusement. "Now, I believe we had best catch up to it before it recovers. Do we have a plan?"

"It's got a soft pebbly spot on its back, just below the torso," I said, shrugging. "Stab it?"

"That… is not a particularly reassuring plan," Ari said, shaking her head.

"Shield," Bevel coughed out. The fact she still hadn't recovered despite the amount of mana I'd poured into her was a bad sign. That meant there was a lot more internal damage than I'd realized.

"Our shields aren't particularly effect against a creature that strong," Ari said as we zoomed over the forest towards where it was writhing back and forth, Bevel still cradled in my arms.

"No. Aeternia… Shield…" Bevel clarified.

"Too far, we'd never-" I cut off as Ari was suddenly sucked against my side.

"Oh my. Prepare yourself, this is rather dis-" The rest of Ari's words were cut off as we went supersonic. It still felt like I was exerting the same amount of pressure to fly, but our speed had just increased by at least ten times.

Bevel chuckled softly. "Zoom."

"Zoom indeed," I said as we passed over the mountains into the foothills beyond. It seemed that even when her body struggled to respond, Bevel's control over her magic hadn't faded.

To the north, I could see ice and rock flying into the air, where Vaserra and the Panther Lord fought.

For a second, I considered dropping the Abyss Emperor on their heads. Instead, I decided I had something we should really try first.

"Ari, can you fly up there, get them to prime the Show-Stoppers?" I asked as Bevel let the speed buff drop. "Need five minutes, starting in three, two, one, now."

"On my way," Ari said, nodding before flying off.

"Bevel, gonna need you to help me keep it in place for the next few minutes, then when I tell you, fly away as fast as you can, okay?"

"Okay Papa," Bevel said, nodding, Restore Form having done the job and brought her back to full health.

"Proud of you, kiddo," I said, ruffling her hair.

She grinned, and then the serpent caught up. It shot past us before realizing I was just floating over a nearby hill. To my surprise, it stopped then glanced to the sides, as if expecting an ambush. It even glanced up at Aeternia's shield.

Then it came for us anyway.

The next few minutes were tense, but far less so than when I'd been dodging it on my own. Bevel was able to use its own movements as a buffer, so not once were we within a dozen feet of getting hit.

A massive explosion of ice to the north caught the serpent's attention, which I took as an opportunity to send Bevel away. She hesitated for a second looking between the serpent and me before nodding.

Felt almost like I'd wrapped myself in gift paper and ribbons, the way the Emperor looked at me when it turned back.

It soared for me and I cut the pull on my flight muscle, dropping like a rock. After regaining its sense of direction, it came down into the empty valley between the two mountains I'd chosen.

As we'd been dodging, I'd been looking for the best spot to drop them, to hopefully contain the effect. I really hoped they got the timing on those Show-Stoppers right, 'cause otherwise…

Why had I thought it was a better idea than dragging it over to the powerful bonded riders?

Not that I had much time to regret my life choices.

I saw the bombs descending. They were too early. They'd hit half a second too soon and… a sudden updraft caught them, causing them to flip in place and then they were on their way again.

The bombs hit the snake.

They exploded.

Recall swept me away, the shockwave not quite arriving in time to ruffle my hair, though I'd say otherwise when I told the story later.

Only as they were tumbling towards me had it occurred to me that I could've used spatial magic to teleport bombs on top of the giant snake instead of using it to teleport myself out of the way at the last second.

Luckily, Recall had triggered in time and I was brought to my nearby anchor point, buried just on the other side of those mountains. I made it out just in time to catch the mushroom cloud from the explosion. And the collateral damage that was both mountains collapsing onto the Abyss Emperor.

I flew back, stunned to see the upper body still moving, digging its arms into the rubble, attempting to drag the rest of its buried body free.

And slowly succeeding.

Before I could do anything about it, a familiar young girl appeared, messy hair blowing in the wind, a sword of whirring smoke held in her hands.

Well past the speed of sound, Bevel buried the Powerful Artifact of Peaceful Annihilation into the Abyss Emperor's back.

Right. Good old plan: stab it.