Apolyn had felt the slave necklace break and was rushing from his secret library, up the stair into his normal library. He ran out of the library toward the front door to his place of power. Ever since his disastrous trip to the Labyrinth he’d been trying to research how to get his idea to siphon the experience out of the Dungeon to Labyrinth link. He could admit that he’d been wrong. The Labyrinth wasn’t just a system of connections between dungeons. It was something much grander. For the last half-century, he’d been trying to figure out how to make it work.

That is until the night of nightmares happened. A lot had changed on that night including the pet he’d captured to be his guarding. When he’d gone to sleep he’d had a semi-intelligent black dragon on a leash. When he woke up he’d found a Shadow Dragon in its place demanding to be released. She could not break free, so he’d kept her. If the Gods saw fit to place her before him, how could he not accept?

Something had broken the slave collar off the dragon or killed it. Maybe that Paladin was back again. He’d already come after him a couple of times. Each time he’d been bested by the dragon. Maybe this time he’d come prepared. He pulled a staff from his Belt of Holding and put up his magical defenses before he stepped out into the morning air and found a man floating there, hugging a dark elf, that was looking over the man’s should directly at him with a hunger in her eyes, a hunger he recognized.

Apolyn slammed the door. The Dragon was free, and that man had released her. No matter there was no way they could break through the dimensional defenses he had in place. Once the door was closed it was nigh impossible to enter his Place of Power. As he turned to walk back to his secret room he heard movement and looked up.

“Going somewhere?” the man asked.

“No, he’s not,” the woman said as she stepped forward and slapped him so hard that his shield crumpled and he flew through the wall into the dining room.

Looking up from the ground he was unable to move as the woman walked towards him, grabbed him by the neck, lifted him off the ground, and carried him one-handed to the door, which was being held open by the man. As he came close to the man, the man reached out and touched his robe casually. Everything on Apolyn vanished from his body and appeared in a neat pile by the door leaving him naked.

“Have fun, honey, I’m going to hold the door open,” he said as a slave collar that could fit around a human appeared in his hand and he placed it on the ground right outside the front door.

That was the least of his worries. The next hour saw Apolyn thoroughly beaten until he would have been less than a bloody mess. He tried to cast spells, but every single one of them fizzled. Worse still, the woman wasn’t fighting him with any kind of hand-to-hand training. She kicked him in the groin, slapped him, picked him up, and threw him against the walls of the courtyard but never hard enough to kill him. The only reason he wasn’t dead was that as his health was about to bottom out the man in the doorway would heal him. The man also shouted encouragingly to the woman egging her on with snide comments; “Damn honey, leave some for me”, “That looked like it hurt”, and “I bet he’s going to feel that in the morning” were just a couple of the more memorable phrases Apolyn heard.

Finally, he was dragged to the front door where he was tossed to the ground. The man reached down and placed the collar around his neck as the man spoke, “Hello Apolyn, I’m of two minds on how to proceed so let me ask you a question. Do you have enough food in your Abode for the next eleven years? Specifically, do you have enough treasure to pay Rustoph’s Supplies to replace all of your food for the next eleven years?”

Apolyn thought about it for a moment then said, “No”

“Fine, I’ll take care of that before we head out,” he said then continued, “My name is Adamantadine, and this,” he said pointing to the woman still holding him down, is Adaline, the dragon you held here against her will for the last almost 11 years. As you might have been able to determine, she’s a little miffed at you. As is someone you tried to steal from. You think of her as the Labyrinth.”

“The Labyrinth is alive?” Apolyn with a hint of excitement

“Not why I’m talking to you. First, you need to know that the collar around your neck will start siphoning off 1,000 experience per second for the next eleven years.”

“But…” Apolyn started to say

“But that will drop you down to level 1 in just over five months, yes I know. Now Analyze me while you still can. You need to see with your own powers the truth of what I’m about to say.”

“Apolyn analyzed Adamantadine, saw his level, and went white. The blood completely drained out of his face the more he read. No wonder his magic hadn’t worked, if this man had been dispelling his spells, they were going to be dispelled.”

“Now identity this,” Adamantadine said as a pearlescent white blade appeared in his hand”

Apolyn did as he was told

Chaos Blade.

A Chaos Blade may only be wielded by a creature of Chaos.

This weapon is drawn and sheathed at will from Chaos.

Damage is Variable

This weapon is indestructible.

This weapon is Soul-Bound to the Fundamental being Johnathan Bennard

Chaos Blade now carries the abilities of Primal Destruction upon the wielder’s command.

Apolyn read over the chaos blade’s description with a sinking feeling. Most of what he read made sense concerning the blade as it was made out of chaos. The part that didn’t, he was sure he didn’t want to know but he asked anyway, “What does it mean by abilities of Primal Destruction?”

Adamantadine smiled, “See Adaline, he is smart. The abilities of Primal Destruction are that, Primal. At a very fundamental level, if I activated that ability on this blade things I touch or kill with it or destroyed, wiped from existence, no longer among us, in the physical form or the spiritual.”

“Are you saying they cease to exist completely?” Apolyn asked in horror

“That is exactly what I’m saying,” Adamantadine said as the blade vanished. “Call it Karma, call it bad luck call it whatever you want but your plan to steal experience to level quickly from the Labyrinth has failed, will fail, and will always fail.”

“Someday I…”

Adamantadine cut Apolyn off, “First, you are going to donate all of your experience for the next 11 years to the Labyrinth. Now I know what your thinking I’ll just remove the collar. That’s the Second thing. If this collar is removed before it unlocks itself the person wearing it will have a contingency disintegrate spell in a one-mile radius that will only destroy you.”

“That’s not how an area effect disintegration works “

“You saw my level, are you telling me I could not make a spell that could just disintegrate you if you were within 1 mile.?

Apolyn nodded reluctantly, “I concede your point.”

“You should also know that I am modifying the disintegration effect with the aspect of Destruction. There is a very strong chance that you will never come back from that spell going off. The necklace is made of Adamantium so accidental destruction is unlikely. Also, it will work inside Antimagic zones so don’t try to find one and take it off there. Finally, If you ever create a magic item that siphons experience I will visit you again and next time you will wear the necklace in a jail cell for 100 years If you live that long.”

“Is that all you’re doing to him?” Adaline asked angrily.

“Honey, what did you do to him for the last hour?”

“But?”

“Did he sexually abuse you while you were here?”

“No, but…”

“Did he harm you in any way after you submitted to the collar being on you

“No, but that first day…”

“But that first day, you found yourself in the place of your shadow and couldn’t believe yourself a slave and fought against it. If he’d raped you, he’d already be dead. If he’d continued to abuse you, he’d also already be dead. Instead, he used you as a guard dog and left you alone. In five months, he will be level 1 and stuck here. Do you think his place had all of the bells and whistles it had when I owned it?

“Somewhat appeased, fine, your right he. He hurt my pride and you’re going to hurt his, I get it,” Adaline said.

“Don’t I get a say in what happens to me?” Apolyn asked.

“No!” both Adamantadine and Adaline said in unison.

Adamantadine clicked the collar shut and Apolyn felt the experience start to drain away from him.

“You have a few days before your levels get so low that you can’t teleport so if you need to go shopping I’d get that out of the way. We’re headed to Rustoph’s Supplies to make sure you’re stocked up for the next 11 years. Remember if you try to take the necklace off, you’re dead. Hopefully, we will never have to cross paths again

“Too true,” Apolyn said as Adaline turned into a large Shadow Dragon and jumped into the air flying south. Adamantadine rose smoothly into the air and caught up to and flew beside her. Sit here for the next eleven years, bah. There was a fourth option. He only had a short time before he wouldn’t be able to pull it off. He closed the door and rushed back to his secret library to grab a few things before he headed out. Taking off the necklace was out. If he could create a ring that was stealing more experience than he was losing, he could keep his levels. That went against the third warning he’d been given but the weak often made threats they weren’t going to keep. He had no doubt he’d lose XP until he was level 1 again. He did not doubt that if he tried to remove the necklace he would die. He very much doubted a man that said he would kill you for doing the exact same thing you would only punish with non-lethal punishment. He would have the ring created and on his finger before he lost 100 levels

* * *

I flew south beside Adaline. As we came within sight of Venoran Adaline shifted back to her human form and I carried her until I landed about 500 feet from the gate and set her down. We walked toward the gate together.

“Bring back any memories?” Adaline asked

“Yeah, my first trip down here I thought I was pretty powerful. How little I knew then.”

“What happened to you?”

“The short version is that my evil alternate destroyed a lot of people, though technically they all shared a soul so that’s a little bit complicated. It’s also why you found yourself in a slave collar. This is the original Primore. You were yanked through dimensions to this place and recombined with yourself. As the more dominant personality, high level, higher stats, higher whatever. You won. I’ll bet you’ve had dreams about doing things you don’t remember doing haven’t you?” I asked.

“Yes, I thought they were just normal dreams or nightmares. They were so realistic.”

“That’s because the subconscious is much stronger than people think. Anyway, you asked what happened. Let me see if I can explain this in a way that makes sense. You know that I can make duplicates and I can put part of myself into them right?

“Yes,” Adaline said nodding

“Well, imagine if I had 100 bodies with only 10 in all my attributes and I had to divide those attributes evenly among those bodies.”

“Is that what happened, you spread yourself too thin?” she asked

“I didn’t spread myself too thin. When I was consolidating this Realm into one Cosmos that wouldn’t I removed nanites from four Cosmos that had been overrun by something a race had created near its beginning. I converted those nanites into my Chaotic nanites, which exist but don’t exist, that’s another story. Anyway, while you were gone I discovered another race that was trying to take over the Earth, so I went to confront them on their home turf.

“What happened?”

“As far as I can tell from the notices I’ve received, I think that something with the ability to make the rules created an area that doesn’t allow Soul Spaces. What should have happened is that everything in my soul space should have been ejected and the soul space closed.”

“So, what really happened?”

“The Chaos that was in my soul, four Cosmos worth, and I became one being and my mind was spread across every “chaotic nanite” because that’s how I think of the chaos.”

“That shouldn’t have been so bad, you have a strong mind”

“I have a strong mind, stronger now even but still the shock stunned me to such a point I had no coherent thoughts until something kicked my mind into gear. My subconscious had been able to stay together and guided me to pull myself back together. That’s why it took me so long to get to you.”

“What happened to the new enemies you found?”

“Say what?” I asked playfully

“What. Happened. To. The. New. Enemies?” she asked slowly, enunciating each word individually.

“I may have unknowingly eaten them all, I think,” I said sheepishly

“Adam!”

“Not to worry, my figure looks great doesn’t it?”

“How are you able to…Let me ask this a different way. You know that I served in technological societies yes? She asked.

“Yes,”

“Well, I took the time to learn some science. How are you able to fit all of that mass into the tiny frame you have without becoming a singularity? You just admitted to having the mass of four Cosmos and you absorbed another.”

I coughed

“How many more cosmos did you absorb?”

“Four.”

“You have eight cosmos worth of mass inside you?

“It’s no longer inside me, it is me”

“Okay, how are eight Cosmic masses not turning you into a singularity.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s all about the nature of chaos and intent. I think a lot of the chaos has taken on the properties of nothing.”

“You’re making my head hurt. How can nothing be something?”

“It’s not nothing, it’s Chaos acting like it’s nothing until I need it to act like something else?”

“Wait, that almost makes sense,” she said. “So, if it’s acting like nothing, it has no mass, no size. So only the parts that are you have mass?

I was about to answer but we walked within earshot of the guards.

“Welcome to Venoran, please go over to the cart and pay the entry fee.” The guard closest to us said.

“There’s an entry fee?” I asked.

“Yes, it’s 2 silver, 1 silver for residents”

I walked Adaline and me over to the cart and paid the 4 silver pieces. It’s not like I had to worry about money after all.

“I think he robbed us,” Adaline said

“Me too, but it’s not worth the fuss, besides Detrik isn’t going to mind is he? He doesn’t even exist anymore, as far as I know.”

“That’s dark,” Adaline said

“He played stupid games, and won a stupid prize,” I said. “We’re only here to make sure Apolyn doesn’t starve when he is dropped to level 1.”

“Why didn’t you just kill him?” Adaline asked.

“Because I wasn’t sure where he’d end up if he died normally. If I went all out we’d probably never see him again. I’m trying not to do that too often so I don’t piss off the real Gods. Besides, he just kept you as a pet and didn’t treat you too badly. Killing him utterly for that would be overkill. It will be at least a century before he gets back to the power level he is right now. 11 years for a Century. He’s paying tenfold. Plus, Bri gets some XP out of it?

“Bri?”

“That’s the Labyrinth’s name,” I said.

“You met the central intelligence of the, oh never mind, of course, you did,” Adaline said.

Adam set the coin pouch he had to hold exactly 1 gold coin and produce another each time one was taken. After 30 minutes he checked his logs and sure enough, 35 gold had been pickpocketed from him. The Thieves guild was going to get an influx tonight.

Finally, we came up to the Entrance to Rustoph's Supplies and I led Adaline inside.

Rustoph was standing behind the counter, “Can I help you?”

“Yes Rustoph, I’d like to open an investment account with you and use it to pay for a friends account as needed”

“Sir, While I’m definitely interested in helping you do that, you talk as if we’ve met, have we?” Rustoph asked.

“My apologies. My name is Adam. No, we haven’t met before but the description I received describing you was uncanny, you match up exactly,” I said as Adaline rolled her eyes.

“Ah I see, what kind of investment account were you looking to start?” he asked.

“I need to pay Apolyn of Apolyn’s Abode monthly bill for the next 20 years. Maybe even consider upgrading his account to your maximum tier?”

“You want to start up an account that replenishes his food for 20 years at our top tier? That includes exotic dishes, Adam. Not even the Royals pay in advance on those accounts because the price can fluctuate.” Rustoph said hesitantly.

“I Understand. Still, what do you think a fair price to do that for someone and maybe a single guest eating three times a day for 20 years would cost,” I said

Rustoph looked thoughtful for a moment then started muttering as he thought out loud, “10 gold for 2 meals three times a day for 360 days then add a zero and double, and the minimum would be 432,000 gold. If the meals were 100 gold per person, and some of them can be that high, then it could be as high as 4,320,000 gold for 20 years. I would require at least 2.5 million gold to ensure that at least half of the meals were exquisite or better.”

“Are you going to do what I think you’re going to do,? Adaline asked

“Of course, I am, I said answering her then looked at Rustoph, “Do you have a storage device?” I asked Rustoph

“I do.”

“Then let’s get this party started, I’m going to open an account with you for 5 million gold.

“Wait a minute, you have that much gold on you?” Rustoph asked.

“I do,”

“Hold on a minute Rustoph said, as he stepped into the back room and the front door locked.

“Rustoph, what are you doing?” I asked patiently

Rustoph’s voice answered from the air behind the counter, though I knew he wasn’t there, “There is no way you could be paying me in five million gold today. The kingdom has never printed more than 10 million gold which would require that you have half that gold in your storage container.”

“I see, well I guess we wait for the guard. If you can please call the tax collector as well, you’ll need them to verify the authenticity of my coins,” I said.

Adaline found a chair and sat down getting ready for the show.

I stood by the counter and waited; it would be a little while before the guards arrived. I could just end this charade, and nothing would be able to stop me. Then again I might piss off a real God and now that I’d seen, firsthand, exactly how powerful they could be. Better to play this out normally if I could so I stood there and waited.