All the doors of Dragon’s Nest slammed shut at once as the walls glowed a bright purple. Marilyn watched in amusement as the entire building went into lockdown. She did not even try to resist as the floor turned to liquid and bound her feet.

“This is quite the reception,” Marilyn said with a bemused smile, “I was not told about this place. What is it?”

My eyes narrowed as I observed the woman. Despite having used Marilyn as my body double for some time, I had never gotten around to asking her anything about her life before. It was not something I normally had to worry about with my undead. I never even considered that the corpse I picked out of the catacombs because of her looks would have been set in my path on purpose by someone else.

“Told by Aevus?” I asked cautiously.

“That’s right,” Marilyn replied with a nod, “If you know that, then you should know that I am here to help you. There is no need for these… restraints.”

As Marilyn spoke those last few words, her eyes began to glow with a golden light. Her voice became sickly sweet, like honey in my ears. For a moment, that voice drowned out all thought in my mind except wanting to help Marilyn. I found myself unconsciously taking a step towards the woman before a bright bolt of purple lightning discharged from the wall. Numbing pain of static electricity flowed through my body and woke me from my stupor. Jolted awake from Marilyn’s talent, I leapt back from the woman. My domain wrapped around my body as tight as a second layer of skin.

Marilyn frowned as she looked at me with surprise. “That is not right. I was told you would fall under my influence rather easily. Aevus is never wrong. How did you…” She looked down at the liquid floor wrapped around her feet. The pressure of a domain radiated out from her. It felt as if I was deep under a lake as she struggled to get free of the strange stone. Her domain clashed with the floor several times but the more she thrashed against the floor, the deeper she sunk. She started to panic as the floor reached her waist.

A burst of disembodied laughter filled the room as the walls pulsed with purple light. “Little pawn, you are in a game way over your head.”

Marilyn looked around for the source of the disembodied voice but could not see anybody other than Sebastion and me. She pleaded as her innate talent activated again but I was prepared this time. I easily blocked the ability from reaching me with my domain. “You have to stop this. Without me, everyone will die!”

I held up my hand and Mare stopped Marilyn from sinking into the floor momentarily. I knelt down next to the half-height Marilyn and cupped my hand under her chin. “I will give you one minute. Convince me. Why should I not toss you out as food for the Demonkin?”

“I… was sent by Aevus,” Marilyn said as if that was all the answer that was needed. I crossed my arms, looking thoroughly unimpressed. Marilyn stuttered as she tried to find the right words to explain. “He said… He said that when I revived, you would be nearly overrun by the Demonkin. That I was supposed to help you defeat the Demon, Envy, and save this realm at any cost.”

I raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Your ability to influence minds is not bad but it is far from enough to swing the war. How exactly were you supposed to help me?”

Marilyn looked away nervously, not willing to meet my gaze. I grabbed her head and forced her to look me in the eye. A blue flame floated above my free hand, almost burning the skin of her face. “Tell me or I will show you the agony a real mental talent can inflict.”

Fear flashed across Marilyn’s eyes as she looked at the blue flame. I was not sure the talent would work on one of the people I revived but she did not know that. Marilyn seemed to take my threat seriously though as she studdered out an explanation. “Aevus told me that… by the time I revived, your final battle with Envy would have already begun and that you would lose. My task was to enter the battlefield and use my talent on you, the dragon he provided, and any other creatures you had created. I would then force you all to… self-destruct… to sacrifice yourself to help kill Envy and save this realm.”

My eyes narrowed as I glared at Marilyn. “You are not making a very convincing case on why I should not feed you to the Demonkin.”

“Aevus said you would revive! He said you would die either way. I was just there to make sure your death was not pointless.”

I released Marilyn and extinguished the flame in my hand. “Your time is up. Mare, take her to the holding cell we created for Sebastion. We will keep her alive for now. I might have some more questions about this Aevus later.”

“Gladly,” Mare said with a chuckle.

Marilyn screamed as she started sinking into the floor again. “No, you can’t lock me away! If I do not complete my mission, the entire realm will die.”

I patted Marilyn’s head as it started sinking into the floor. “Whatever future this fake Aevus may have told you, it should be clear to you that he was wrong. Even at our earliest estimates, it will be another month before Envy arrives in this realm. Even if he appeared right now, that would not guarantee our death. Whatever lies this man has foretold mean nothing to me.”

Marilyn disappeared completely into the floor as her screams were suddenly cut off. Sebastion looked at me with a raised eyebrow and I shrugged.

“This did not go exactly as I expected but as you can see, she really did come back to life. We can save Lucia the same way. We just need to reach her.”

Sebastion nodded solemnly as he fell silent for a long moment. I pretended not to notice as he wiped tears away from his eyes before finally speaking. “I will do whatever it takes to save my Lucia but… What was that woman saying about Aevus? Is there a dispute in your family? Will it interfere with our rescue?”

I shook my head. “It is just some half-rate fortune teller trying to influence my actions. We have already taken steps to nullify his ability. Foresight abilities cannot see this building or what happens inside, which is probably why Marilyn thought the final battle would have already begun. I had a rift stone that the Demons would have stolen had the building’s defenses not saved us. If they had succeeded, Envy would likely be here now.”

“Had a rift stone?” Sebastion asked skeptically.

I grinned at Sebastion but did not reply. While I was happy the man was willing to talk to me again, I did not trust him enough to tell the truth about the origins of Dragon’s Nest. The fewer people that knew the truth the safer we would be when this war was over.

Sebastion rubbed the back of his head and sighed. “Fine, I will not push the issue but if you do anything to put Lucia in danger, I will not hesitate to be your enemy again, war or not.”

“Do not worry,” I replied with a dismissive wave of my hand, “I want to save Lucia just as much as you do. I will not do anything that puts her at risk.”

Sebastion’s eyes met mine as if making sure I was telling the truth. After a moment, he nodded and turned to leave the room. “I will find a way past the palace defenses.”

The door shut behind Sebastion, leaving me alone in the room. I sighed as I stared up at the ceiling. “Do you really think this Aevus character made a mistake or is Marilyn just a pawn in some longer game?”

The disembodied voice of Mare echoed through the room. “Probably both, the man we are up against rarely makes mistakes. As Marilyn said, Aevus is never wrong. I explained this before but seeing the future is seeing a web of possibilities. He might have simply placed Marilyn there in case that possibility came true but I doubt she has told us everything. It is more likely that she does not even know the true reason she was asked to come here and that she is just the seed of some reaction we cannot see. As you probably already guessed, the less we interact with her the better.”

I closed my eyes and thought about what Marilyn had said. “Do you think that self-destructing myself and everyone I have resurrected would really be enough to kill Envy?”

Mare hesitated and for the first time since I met her, Mare almost sounded sad. Her voice was barely a whisper as she replied. “With the dragon as well... maybe... but doing so would mean being consumed by your golden flame. Would enough of your natural talent survive to allow your resurrection afterward?”

I paused as I understood Mare’s meaning. I might be able to defeat Envy that way but it might also mean death for me… permanent death. Without the green flame's ability to preserve my soul, I would die the same as any other creature. Normally, death was just an inconvenience to me. True death was something I did not consider very often. To actually give up everything and fade away… The thought scared me.

It was better to simply retreat with Dragon’s Nest if things became that desperate. I could always return to the realm afterwards with an army of the Thirteenth Division at my back. Still, it would be best if I did everything in my power to prevent this war from ever reaching that point. My first priority was to weaken the forces of the Ciel Empire.

I was still exhausted from our first clash with the Demons earlier today but the time was too limited for me to sleep. Using the crystals Cyra created for me, I could regain my energy more quickly at the cost of some strain on my body. So long as I did not fall back on this method too often it should be fine.

I quickly found rows of corpses from the battle and got to work. I picked a variety of soldiers from the Ciel Empire as well as a few of the more horrific-looking Demonkin. Some of them were outright terrifying. Giant insectoids and masses of tentacles that could rip a man to shreds with ease. Sometimes you could see the animal or creature that the Demonkin had once been before being corrupted but not with these few I had chosen. These were monsters straight from a nightmare that made grown men wet themselves in terror.

This is exactly what I needed. While I had grown stronger, I still couldn’t control enough undead to wipe out my enemy directly. Finding a way to poison two hundred thousand soldiers was unreasonable and the enemy’s food supplies would likely be well guarded. So, that only left me with a few options left to weaken the army. There might have been easier ways to attack but I could not help feeling excited thinking about what I had planned. It was almost like the games I used to play with my teacher back when I was still learning how to control my innate talent for the very first time.

While I waited for night to fall, I started dressing up the undead soldiers from the Ciel Empire to perfect my ruse. There were several different groups for my plans. Some of the soldiers were covered in blood and mud to look like injured men that barely escaped from the battlefield and others were dressed like prisoners. Each group would have its own mission.

Tonight, fear would reign across the Ciel army and they would learn the terror of making an enemy out of the Immortal Calamity.