POV: Hazimon the Dragon.

I was pacing again. Going round and round within the confines of the prison.

Again.

The excess energy keeping me moving despite the futility of it all. It was an old habit. One that had been difficult to break. One that I never managed to break in all these years.

It was a stupid thing to do and I'd known that from the earliest days but that did little to curb the habit. I kept cursing myself all the while. My claws feeling the soft sand underneath me with every new step. I didn't need to be moving. I needed to be working on Projector abilities. On merging those bloody powers together.

But it had been an uphill battle from the start.

Kinetic powers came easily enough. [Telekinesis III] or perhaps something even stronger merging after a single hour of training. It was easy and intuitive. I knew about my body and the effect it had on the world around me. I knew about how movement sent force rippling through the air, even when others might ignore or deny it. I could feel it all through my [Balance] and I knew how to best leverage this force against my enemies. How to call upon these forces to keep myself moving.

I knew how to stop just short of an enemy and I knew how to stop just short of an attack. Forcing myself to a standstill as other powers merely grazed me. Shifter claws and Projector bolts missing me by the slightest of margins.

So that force had come easily enough. Same with the Projector absorption abilities and the ones relating to kinetic energy and frictions and even temperature. I knew what it was like to be burned and frozen and shocked. I knew it all too well and so those lingering sensations came quickly. But that was the end of my luck.

Singing Metals didn't come.

Neither did my daughter.

The fact that she hadn't probably meant she was dead. Solomon Carter would have been able to kill her easily enough and I was not so foolish as to imagine that there was any reason for hi to hold back. The words still echoed around my mind. Taunting me.

'I will butcher your people, Hazimon.'

I heard them again and again as I paced. I heard them every time I tried to open another portal. Every time I recalled the things I'd said and the things I had tried to do.

I didn't regret them of course. The child was evil and far too powerful for his or anyone else's own good. He would have been even more of a calamity than other Savants. He would have upended the fragile order of the Labyrinth in ways that other Savants could never do. He had changed things, one of the most fundamental truths of the Labyrinth. That advancement only came about through constant effort. Through hard work and talent.

He would have allowed the unworthy to cheat. To bring down those who had done things the right way.

'Just as it had been back home.' I thought to myself. His words coming back, fresh and even stronger.

'I will butcher your people, Hazimon.'

Yes. My daughter was dead. If not by his hand, then by the hand of the Seeking Drake.

It was a horrific thing to consider and it made my stomach churn with grief and anguish. It made me feel hollow and helpless and small. My mind raced with self-flagellation. Telling me that I should have killed the Savant as soon as I saw him. That I should have put an end to this farce. He might have hidden in Pandemonium for the rest of the Tutorial. If he'd gotten away. But he might have died if I kept killing him over and over again. I could have done it all by myself. But I'd lived too long to dwell on such matters. The past was the past, the present was now and this was now. I had to think of what I had to do now in order to salvage the situation.

Yes, my daughter was dead. Yes, trillions of Kenari would die horrific deaths too. But I had a responsibility to salvage what I could. And that led me to another question.

What had happened to Singing Metals?

His words went into my own thoughts again, despite myself.

'So yeah. I just ordered my realm to excise that particular funnel of power. I think you'll start feeling the full effect of my meddling soon. Also, I wouldn't expect any help from Singing Metals. She'll be quite busy in Pandemonium I'm afraid. Tied up for a while.'

Singing Metals was a Divine. An ascended Divine.

A creature that had transcended the frailties of flesh and who could materialize anywhere at any time for whatever reason.

'She'll be quite busy in Pandemonium I'm afraid. Tied up for a while.'

How?

How had he done it?

How had he managed to keep her from coming? Could he have killed her?

No.

That was impossible.

Not that such words meant anything right now. That evil child being Gozo had been impossible. The System being shut down had been impossible. The Drake turning around and being a real threat again had been impossible.

'She'll be quite busy in Pandemonium I'm afraid. Tied up for a while.'

I kept pacing. Trying to open a portal out with every other step.

The power let me teleport a short distance away every time, but that didn't mean I could get out. I couldn't even picture myself getting out or imagine how I would even go about getting out.

I couldn't even begin to apply all the knowledge I had to my actual lived experiences.

To me, it felt like using [Telekinesis]. It felt like I was moving very quickly for a short tribute of Psy. It didn't feel like piercing space. It didn't feel like I was opening a hole between two locations.

The great masters and the few Projector Savants I'd asked all likened portal powers to poking the empty air with a needle and then imagining the needle coming out wherever one wanted to go. The more advanced ones, like the Savants, likened the opening of a portal to caressing dough in order to form a circular loaf of whatever kind of fruitcake you wanted to make. Yes, the hole was important, but massaging the edges into the right stable shape with fingers of Psy was equally important.

You couldn't simply open a needle hole and expand it. Other Espers might collapse the hole. Or use it to attack you.

Other Projectors might close it one you as you were trying to cross. Other Telepaths might suppress the power while you were halfway across. Other Shifters might make it so that a virulent plague was waiting on the other side; lying in wait for a hole to open so that the microbes could rush in through the open door.

Other Enhancers, like myself, might simply jam their fists through the hole and drag you out the other end. Screaming all the while.

It just didn't make sense to me. But it should have made sense for others.

Singing Metals must have known where I was. She must have been able to get to me.

'She'll be quite busy in Pandemonium I'm afraid. Tied up for a while.'

I kept pacing. Trying to keep my mind from dwelling on what may or may not have happened.

He might have killed her. But she would have reformed her body. He might have destroyed her half a dozen times, but she would have reformed in Pandemonium and tried again.

Yes, it was a battle of attrition now and that was horrible for everyone involved.

Yes, the amount of destruction the empire would be going through would have been nothing short of devastating.

Yes, it was the worst thing to happen to the Kenari species since the advent of the Seeking Drake.

But Singing Metals could handle it. She was the very best of the best. Always at the forefront. Always improving. Always ready to step up and help.

She should have come for me.

'She'll be quite busy in Pandemonium I'm afraid. Tied up for a while.'

I kept pacing. Despite myself.

It was stupid and I knew it was stupid.

It had never helped anything.

Pacing had done nothing back when I was a mere servant in the service of the old fat bastard and his even fatter son.

Pacing had done nothing back when little fatty killed that bar wench who turned him down.

Pacing had done nothing back when fatty the elder sat me down and told me I would be confessing to the crime.

Pacing had done nothing back when I was rotting in the prison or when I was sentenced publicly or when I was being marched to the gibbet.

'She'll be quite busy in Pandemonium I'm afraid. Tied up for a while.'

Only action mattered.

Worrying about the future didn't make a difference. Me growing stronger and coming back to kill those fools had made a difference.

Action had made a difference.

Justice had made a difference.

She really should have come back by now.

'She'll be quite busy in Pandemonium I'm afraid. Tied up for a while.'

I was thinking back to the first days of the System Tutorial. To the caves in Expert difficulty.

There had been a noble there too. A slimy, slippery bastard of a Telepath who used his [Presence] to cement his place at the top. He got all his levels from weakening foes and strengthening allies. Always making sure there were at least three layers of bodies between danger and between himself.

He was good, in all honesty. He had been skilled and he had helped in battles. But he could never stomach anyone coming close to his level of influence. He could never stomach the idea of anyone coming close to him in terms of regular levels either.

In his mind, he knew better than everyone else and so only he could be trusted to hold all the power.

Bastard.

'She'll be quite busy in Pandemonium I'm afraid. Tied up for a while.'

In that way, he had been just like Solomon Carter. An evil child lashing out and manipulating others. Telling himself it was fine because he had their best interests in mind. Because only he could be trusted to care for everyone. Because no one else knew what he knew. Because everyone else was beneath him.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

Bastard.

'She'll be quite busy in Pandemonium I'm afraid. Tied up for a while.'

I kept moving around my prison. Trying to pierce the veil with my Telepath powers in an effort to summon one of my student's own Intruders.

It never worked.

It never even came close to working.

All the Intruders I summoned were those belonging to Solomon Carter, the evil child. All of them tried to kill me on sight, but that was at least entertaining.

It got old quickly, but it was a way to pass the time.

And passing the time was all I could do these days. It helped to keep my mind off of what the Drake might be doing with the evil child next to him.

'She'll be quite busy in Pandemonium I'm afraid. Tied up for a while.'

No. No I could not think about defeat like that.

That had never been the masters' way back when I was training to escape a life of serfdom in the mountains. That had never been the Masters' way in the Labyrinth either for that matter.

Surrender was no different from death. I could not give up now. I just couldn't.

Singing Metals would come.

'She'll be quite busy in Pandemonium I'm afraid. Tied up for a while.'

I shook my head and even smacked myself to dispel the evil thoughts. The thoughts of despair and defeat.

Whatever trick the evil child had managed to pull would wear off eventually.

It would be a slaughter of course. My people would be nearly destroyed in the ensuing war and I and my allies would have to wipe out his species to set an example. More death would ensue. More death than I had expected. More death than I was comfortable with.

But there was no other way.

What was done, was done. There was no way, but forward.

Just then, a gust caressed my scales.

I froze. My head snapping to the spot where the air had come from.

That was wrong. There was no air here in my prison. Not unless it had been here with me when I was trapped. I had been forced to grow in Shifter just to synthesize my own oxygen. There was no foreign anything here.

But there had been a gust.

I ran over to the general area where I'd felt the disturbance and found a small tablet on the ground. With a handwritten note stuck to it.

"To an old friend, with love."

I fumbled a bit with it and hit play.

The tablet coming to life to show a video.

Of the Seeking Drake.

Of the Seeking Drake pretending to be me.

"People of this world!" He shouted. His tone both reassuring and imperious. "Have no fear! And take heart! We will survive this! We will prevail! I…I will protect you all!"

Everyone cheered.

'Oh no.'

The spaceship revealed the hidden cargo.

A lady dropped to the ground. Dead as a doornail. Her attire being, revealing.

The entire plaza went quiet. The silence prevailing until I shattered it.

"No." I whispered. "Nononononononononononono!"

"Look!" Someone among the crowd shouted. "It's a dead prostitute!"

"NONONONONO!"

The silence that followed was somehow even more deafening.

"The Dragon has a dead prostitute in his ship!" That same voice called out.

No one said anything after that either. No one, except for the Drake, who pretended to rush back to throw the body back into the ship. When he did so, another compartment opened.

Another Kenari fell out. Wearing sexy lingerie.

"Look!" Yet another person shouted. "There's another dead prostitute!"

"WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT!!" I was shouting now. My claws digging into the tablet and crushing the edges. My mind going back to my youth, to the noble telling me I was to confess of else my family would be killed.

This was just like that. The memories coming back with a vengeance as the people fell for the deception. I begged it all to stop.

The image playing on regardless.

Another one fell out even as the Drake threw this one into the ship. Even as they all saw me throwing another dead Kenari into the ship.

"There's another one!" One of the bystanders bellowed. "How many dead prostitutes does the Dragon have in his ship!?"

"I've never seen so many dead prostitutes in one place!" Yet another one cried out.

"They're fake!" Someone tried saying and I could hear the trust they had in me just by the pain in their voice. "There's no way the Dragon could do this!"

"No!" Someone else shouted. "I see dead prostitutes all the time! I know a dead prostitute when I see one! Those are real dead prostitutes!"

I shook my head. Hard. Then I stared at the tablet.

Blinking despite myself.

The murmurs became words. The words became shouts. The shouts became a riot.

And then the video ended and another one played out right after.

"Hello Hazi boy!" The Drake's voice called out.

I gagged, as I saw what he was wearing.

Those… those had… that had….

"Man! I must say your dead daughter had some good taste Hazi boy! This dress is fabulous!"

He twirled about. Then threw the shawl up over his head.

Her shawl.

The shawl I'd given her to mark her passage into adulthood all those eons ago.

She'd been crying in the ceremony. Weeping for her mother.

I recalled holding her close. Telling her that everything would be all right. That I would always protect her.

"Let me tell you something Hazi boy! This rag is fantastic! By far the best toilet paper I've ever used in all the years I've been alive! And the way it just curls up and tightens around the throats of all those dead prostitutes!"

He made a kissing sound.

"Just fantastic! Nothing short of incredible! I've never seen quality work like this outside of my own little wonders!"

He made the motions of someone about to sneeze, and then blew snot into the shawl without it touching his face.

"Wow. Sorry about that. A strong one came over me just now. It happens sometimes. But anyway! Tell me all about yourself these days Hazi boy! I feel like you and I don't connect like we used to! Not since your little kerfuffle out there with our new friend!"

He winked.

"By the way, have you heard about what happened to the Moving Mountain? To Frigid Bloodline? To all those little gnats you collected like cheap dolls?"

He whistled.

"Well the Moving Mountain is dead. Done so completely that there was nothing left. Now, I would have respawned if it happened to me but you know the Mountain. Always so, so very stubborn. So sure of herself. Never occurred to her to merge an ability like that. Too bad, I kinda liked her. Same with Frigid Bloodline. Now that was a twist of fate! Here one second, gone the next!"

He laughed again.

"Oh! And the Veiled Assassin! Don't forget about that little marine mammal! That furry little git! Oh, but he was so very clever. You know we found him? He and the others figured that Sully boy's little trick stopped working as soon as he ran into his latest difficulties. That his Veiled Prince was no longer boosting people left right and center and that Pandemonium wasn't being ravaged as it had been in the beginning."

The Drake's face split open. Rows upon rows of needle-like teeth showing in the air. Waving around like the limbs of a sea-born spineless creature.

He was smiling.

"So, they tried to summon their ace. Not knowing our dear Sully Boy had another hidden ace of his own. Here you go, Hazi-boy. For you."

The air shivered again then and I turned to see another hole in reality. Opening in the other side of the room for barely a moment before closing again.

A body was vomited out into the sand.

A corpse. A naked corpse.

I staggered my way forward. My claws limping.

I did not even know what to say, as I approached and gazed down upon her body.

It was Singing Metals. And she was dead.

Her body bore no wounds. No scars. Even now, the shells that Divines used still held on to Psy and were still protected by the remains of their Enhancer abilities. Her body was still as hard as mine. Harder, if anything.

But she was still dead. As if her life had been simply snuffed out like a candle in the wind.

She was still warm too. And growing colder by the second.

I cradled her head. Watching silently.

He had killed her.

I was sure of it.

He had killed her. Though I didn't know how.

But that did not matter.

He had killed her once. And so he'd be able to kill her again, and again, and again.

She would come back, as Divines were known to do. But he could heal out of anyone he had ever healed with his powers. He would be able to buy enough time to reach the tenth Tier on every Type. He would ascend. And then he would never be killed. Two Divines could counter each other, but that wasn't much of a consolation when I thought of the Drake and any other traitors that he might have boosted.

The Drake would ascend as well. He could buy enough time for it.

The multiverse would never be free of him. Of both of them.

It was over.

It had all been for nothing.

All those people had died for no reason. I had failed. I had failed them. I had failed my daughter and Deketer. I had failed my student. I had failed my species and all the others relying on me. On the stability of my empire.

"Oh and what a fun thing it was." The Drake kept going. Speaking through the recording.

"Here. I'll throw you a bone though. One last thing to brighten your day. Sully-boy didn't get off scot-free. Here you go. A little recording."

The next video was almost devoid of sound. I couldn't hear anything. Nothing, except for a wheezing, trembling sound. Sobbing.

Solomon Carter was sobbing like a babe. And then, after a few seconds, I heard the sound of hands crushing solid stone beneath them.

Then a scream. Harrowing, as the sounds of a world bleeding under the light of a collapsing star.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

There was a sound of scrambling.

"BUDDY!!!! BUDDY!!!!!!!!"

The sounds were akin to those of someone being flayed alive. Filled with an unspeakable amount of grief.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"

POV: Sully.

"Gefre-shur! Mr. Veiled Assassin! We know you're in there!" I shouted.

My Shifter powers helping grow the muscles in my throat even as all the might of my new Enhancer Type made the cells in those muscles explode with energy.

The wave of sound boomed out. Like a tsunami breaching calm shores. It was a shattering sound that echoed down the passageway within the Instance. Bouncing from wall to wall as it travelled deeper and deeper.

"Why would you not use your Telepathy?" Crushing Void asked. "We've come this far and I haven't seen you use them once."

I glanced over at the see-through bipedal salamander. His organs visible in the near total darkness.

"It's complicated." I admitted. "Just, don't worry about it too much right now."

I arched an eyebrow towards the Drake and towards Mercy, but neither seemed to have anything to add.

Though the latter did seem relieved. Truly alive for the first time in weeks.

"I'm just glad this whole chase is over." She admitted. "I don't want to end up destroying the whole Kenari empire. They were a stabilizing presence and we've done far more than just kill a few innocents by this point. I want to be done with this so I can go back to making sure things are calm."

The Drake made a rude noise with his lips.

"Oh you're no fun Mercy. Think of how many fun little toys we've gotten and be glad for all the fun we had with them. What else were we supposed to do anyways? Just how hard do you think it was to find our last Master? Besides. If you want to blame someone, you can blame them. This would not have been necessary if they'd just shown up for a decent fight from the beginning."

"Oh yes, because you are such a fan of fighting against a stronger force directly." She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, on the contrary! I will run! But I've never pretended to be some kind of honorable fighter or anything even close to that. I am a coward. I will be a coward if being a coward means I get to fight another day, under better circumstances. I will get to live and I will get to conquer in the end. Through change and ambition and the will to do what others do not have the heart or stomach to do. This is what I am. This is the essence of the Seeking Drake. Being honorable is not cool."

He smiled and then winked at me.

"Winning is cool."

"Quite." I finished abruptly. Looking back down the tunnel.

"Listen here Veiled Assassin. I know you survived. I know you're trying to do to us what we did to the Moving Mountain. I know you're hoping that Singing Metals will come, if the Veil is slashed open far enough. That might happen, but it won't work."

'I did pay the price, after all.'

No answer came forth.

"It's not too late to stop all this. I haven't destroyed the bulk of the Kenari Empire. I haven't even touched your own species. If you show up as a leading figure, the rivals can still be fought off. The people there will still be in disarray and the ships are not going to be built anytime soon, but you can have peace. I don't have a reason to kill you, beyond you trying to help Hazimon."

I paused, but no answer came forth then either.

"I don't have a reason to go around killing innocent people. Yeah a lot of them died and I stood by. It was the Drake who did it and yes he is a bastard."

"Hey!" The Drake shouted in mock shock.

"But he won't have a reason to keep attack you if you give up and stop helping Hazimon."

"Um, for fun?" The Drake himself countered.

We all stared at him and then I turned. Shaking my head.

"Okay. I'll do you one better. I'll help the Drake train up his Types so that he can ascend quickly. He'll be too busy to bother you and then he'll have ascended and he'll be some Intruder's problem."

'Or more likely his own Veiled Prince's problem.' I mused.

I had seen only a glimpse of it, but that had been enough to know that I never wanted to see it again. The Perfect Drake was that much a monster. Not in the way it looked, but in the way his form didn't sit still. The unreality it was made from flickering like a reflection on a lake. Yet the Drake loved him.

'Someone has to I suppose.'

I waited, but nothing moved to answer.

I frowned. Then I resolved myself to move. Readying myself to run down the tunnel when suddenly, the world began to shift. The shadows lengthening around the corners and the spots where eyes should have been lighting up like gemstones.

The air shivered with purple, crackling lightning that bounced from place to place. Some sparks remaining and some sparks fleeing forever. Into places unknown.

And then the space rent itself. The result of many, many different Masters tearing at the Veil in tandem.

The figure stepped forward from the deepest rent. Her eyes filled with fury.

"It ends here." Singing Metals lied. Though she probably didn't know she was lying.

"Die." She commanded.

Mercy slumped to the side and so did Crushing Void. Yet their Shifter sides were copies of the Drake's own abilities. Copies of my copy.

They would be fine. The same was true for the Drake.

His body slumped down to the side, his mind giving up and choosing death as all his nerves shut down due to the sheer force of the psychic order. But he would be back.

It was different for me, however.

The order didn't go straight through to me mind. Instead, it was parsed through [Solomon's Corrupting Influence X]. The power immediately linking the Divine's mind with the [Presence] power. But not my [Presence] power. This was how the abilities had been reconciled in the end.

I could only call upon my old [Presence] whenever I wanted to do something on purpose but If I was attacked, then the synergistic nature of the Enhancer ability made it reach out to the version it new best.

[Solomon's Eternal Silence X].

The Divine known as Singing Metals twitched briefly. Then she fell from her floating position. Her eyes losing their light, as she became little more than a ragdoll. Her limbs going this way and that as they all crumpled to the floor. Like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

I sighed with relief.

"Well, at least I have confirmation that all those horrible atrocities weren't in vain. It was a good thing I suppose. You all right Buddy?"

Buddy didn't respond. His feelers still clinging to me softly.

Then they began to peel off. His form turning into slurry.

"Buddy?" I asked. "Buddy!?"

I could not sense his mind, but I quickly analyzed his body with my Shifter powers.

Singing Metals had ordered everyone to die. He had been no exception. The last vestiges of his life were gone and I could only faintly hear the last words he'd ever speak in my mind.

'Know that I love you, Sully. More than anything in the world.'

He fell towards the ground. Unable to hold on to any part of me. His last words bounced inside my head.

'More than anything.'

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.