Lady Mardella’s attention was focused on me as Kalli and I incanted the words through mate chat. Our armbands began to vibrate as mana was channeled through them.

Xxtrypx Zymalgoz

Above her head, a translucent string of mana formed a tether between us and the ringed planet in the sky. Slowly, the cage from the diagram began to form above the Archmage.

“Answer me!” Mardella roared, holding the sword at the ready. “You can still have everything. I will let you have it all. The princess. Power. You name it. Just give me what I want!”

It was hard to concentrate on the mana that we were accumulating and have a conversation with Mardella at the same time. We were lucky that she was focused on me and not Kalli because she was starting to buckle under the pressure.

Gritting my teeth, I did my best to respond. “You can’t expect me to do what you want. The only person I want to have kids with is Kalli.”

“Are you saying that you’d rather die than submit to a harmless request?” Mardella scoffed. “There are ways of extracting what I want even after you die. Think hard about that. I am offering you both your lives.”

I closed my eyes, mentally willing the cage to grow faster. While my armor had protected me from mortal harm so far, I was worried that my luck would run out at some point.

Still, the Archmage hesitated. For some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to kill me. Opening my eyes, I noticed a shadow dancing back and forth behind Mardella. Did we miss a Wraith?

The Archmage noticed my distraction and turned to look behind her. While it would have been the perfect time to strike, I was too focused on the magic to move a muscle.

Then the worst possible thing happened. Mardella looked up. She gave me an incredulous look. “What are the two of you…?”

She didn’t finish her sentence as the shadow appeared behind her once again and grew. The black cat expanded unnaturally into an old man wearing a black suit with a bowtie. Before I could so much as gasp, he produced a long jagged knife and plunged it into Lady Mardella’s back, piercing her armor like butter.

She writhed in agony and spun on the man, slashing her blade across his torso. The man fell on his back and Mardella dropped to a knee. Even with her wound, she refused to be distracted from the mana accumulating above her head.

“I. Will. Not. Fail!” She screamed, pointing her wand at the World Magic.

A red streak shot from her wand and collided with the nearly formed cage causing the mana to glow and spark. Feedback from the spell washed over Kalli and me, burning our skin where the armband was equipped.

The cage crashed down around Mardella, kicking a cloud of dust in the air. Released from the spell, I jumped back, trying to avoid the fallout. As the dust cleared, Mardella struggled with a kaleidoscope of colors that washed over her inside of the mana prison.

Then, to my horror, Mardella’s armor exploded, destroying the prison in a shower of sparks. The shattered remnants of the cage flickered for a few seconds and then were gone.

The Archmage stood panting for a moment before turning her attention back to me. “I don’t know what you were playing at, but now I am going to kill you!”

Her eyes bugged out as she leveled her wand at Kalli. I braced myself, willing my artifact armor to protect her. It liquified and slithered over to the pyromancer. Kalli lay on the ground, struggling to catch her breath, and yelped as the armor flowed over her like a coat of wet paint.

The spell never came. Only when Mardella fell to her knees did I realize that she still had the dagger sticking out of her back. I momentarily turned my attention to the fallen man.

Name

Orpheus Medius

Class

Nekomancer

Level

76

Affection Level

Satisfied

The cat had returned. I wanted to check on him, but Mardella wasn’t finished yet. Realizing that Kalli was protected from her by my armor, she turned her attention to me.

“You did this!” She shrieked, her features distorted by rage. “You took away my magic! You will pay with your life!”

She was on me in an instant, moving far quicker than an injured woman in full plate armor had any right to. My life flashed before my eyes as her sword came down on me, intending to stab me through the heart.

I did the only thing I could think of and twisted my body violently, trying to move just enough to avoid a mortal blow. The blade still found purchase in my side, causing me to cry out in pain.

Mardella jerked the blade out of me and raised it for another attempt. I reached up feebly with my hand and grasped at her exposed face.

With my vision starting to blur, I focused on the blade as she held it unsteadily above her head. Then I noticed something. A possible salvation. The Ring of Lost Souls was pressed against Lady Mardella’s face. How had the man told me the ring worked?

While I needed all the mana I could get to treat my gaping wound, I pushed what little I could spare through the ring and into Lady Mardella.

She stiffened, losing her grip on the sword. I flinched as the sharp weapon landed on my body, opening up yet another wound. Fortunately, it did not impale me.

I squeezed my eyes closed, realizing that I was out of options. Kalli was several feet away from us, still struggling against my armor. However, she was desperate to save me. Melvin! Get me out of this. I can fight.

Unfortunately, my weakening core was unable to do much more than keep me alive at the moment. While the wound to my side hadn’t been fatal, it was all I could do to prevent myself from bleeding out. I wondered if Mardella did something to her blade?

Suddenly, she began to laugh. It wasn’t the manic laughter of a crazed woman trying desperately to kill me. It was a different, almost alien laugh that didn’t seem to fit her. “A woman, huh? Quite unexpected.”

The pressure lifted from my chest as she removed herself from my body. I opened my eyes to watch as Mardella deftly reached behind herself to remove the dagger from her back. She winked at me as she discarded it on the ground. “This body is more damaged than I would have preferred but beggars can’t be choosers. See you around, Melvin Murphy. It’s been a blast.”

Then I watched helplessly as she folded mana in on herself and was gone. Noticing Kalli was still struggling in the prison that my armor had become, I squirmed over to her and willed it back onto myself.

She immediately moved to my side, cradling my head in her lap. With tears in her eyes, she inspected my injuries. What can I do? Don’t die. Please, don’t die!

I pointed over at the fallen Orpheus.

Get me over to him. I’ll live. He might not.

It was sheer agony being dragged through the grass. I wasn’t sure if I was seeing my blood, Mardella’s, Orpheus’s, or a combination of the three. It was sickening. Orpheus was unconscious when we got there. I pushed my mana into him, first doing what I could to seal the wound on his chest. Fortunately, when I went through his mana to his core, I found the thing to still be intact. I took the opportunity to connect his core to his mana channels since I was already there.

The resulting feedback launched me back into Kalli, who grunted as she shared the pain of my injuries being jostled.

NEW TRAIT ACQUIRED: [FELINE TRANSMOGRIFACATION]

I didn’t have time to mess around with new skills since I was still bleeding everywhere. Focusing my mana once again on my wounds, I checked every organ surrounding the hole in my side before closing it. Then I focused on the spot where the sword fell on me. While the blade hadn’t gone into me that time, it made a nice little gash across my abdomen. I focused on sealing that and the injuries were gone.

Then it was just a matter of replenishing the blood and mana I had lost, but that could wait. I turned my attention to Kalli, running my mana all over her body looking for injuries. She squirmed beneath me. What are you doing? Heal yourself. I’m fine. Seriously!

Self-healing was significantly more difficult than healing others. For starters, I had to do it while wounded. The superficial wounds were taken care of but Mardella’s attacks had done something to me internally, damaging me all the way to my core.

The good news was that the injury didn’t seem to be permanent. I was just going to need time to recover. Kalli was in constant conversation with Wendy while I worked on myself. I managed to catch part of what Wendy was saying. The mages just surrendered. What happened to The Archmage?

Kalli cradled me in her lap as she replied. Are the Dabians going to attack? I don’t think Melvin or Orpheus can move right now.

Wendy didn’t reply for a while as she made her way over to where Kiki and Alariel were already negotiating with The King. I think we’re good. The King is talking about a treaty. He wants to know what happened to Mardella. Says something about the high house sending someone to investigate.

I groaned at the thought of more mages from the high house coming to torture us. Kalli mistook it for pain and gently rubbed my head. Is there anything I can do?

I looked up at my girlfriend and grinned.

Just keep rubbing, please!

She smacked my head softly. You’re lucky you’re injured!

I laughed so hard it hurt which caused me to groan again. Kalli stroked my head again and whispered, “Poor baby!”

Then Joe walked up. He had uncovered Raverly’s head, leaving only a thick collar around his neck attached to a leash to restrain him. “Are you okay there, bud? There’s a lot of blood on the ground.”

I looked down at the matted red grass and shook my head. “That’s not all mine. Mardella and Orpheus took some damage too.”

“Where did she go?” Joe asked.

It looked like Raverly was also interested in what happened but I didn’t care. I didn’t know where she was. “She teleported away. Mardella could be anywhere by now.”

“So it’s over?” Joe asked hopefully. “Can we go home now?”

I was so distracted from Kalli’s massage and my conversation with Joe that I didn’t see Raverly until it was too late. He inched his way past Joe and then lunged at me. In his hands was the dagger that Orpheus had stabbed Mardella with. “You ruined everything, Melvin Murphy! Why did we ever have to meet you?”

Joe yanked on the leash but it was no use, the leash was too long to prevent him from reaching me. He then muttered an incantation which caused the leash to glow red.

Raverly clutched at the collar around his neck as a gurgling sound escaped his lips. I watched in horror as he dropped the dagger and fell to his knees. Joe rushed over but it was too late. With a loud snap, Raverly fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

“My god!” Joe cried, prying the glowing collar off of his fallen friend. “Why did you do that? Melvin, can you help him?”

Helping Raverly was the last thing I wanted to do. However, I wasn’t about to turn my friend down. Kalli helped me up and I slowly crawled over to the stricken boy.

Probing him with my mana, I felt the damage to his neck. It was severe. Not only had the bone snapped, but the mana to his brain had also been cut off. With a heavy sigh, I followed the channel back down to his core.

There was nothing. Whatever Joe’s device did, it had finished him off quickly. I pulled back out and looked up at Joe, shaking my head. “He’s gone, man. No core.”

Joe dropped to his knees, his eyes welling up with tears. Behind him, a flash of light and flicker of movement informed me that we had more company.

A woman appeared wearing a white robe and a summer hat that complimented her flowing blonde hair. She casually strolled over to us, looking me straight in the eye. “Well now. I see what all the commotion is about. You obviously aren’t from around here. I know every M Class person on Gaia. From the looks of things, I am your big sister. You may call me Maya.”