Deacon took a minute to get dressed off to the side of the corridor as survivors streamed past. Paladins of Radiant swept corridor after corridor smiting demons and sending them back to their home planes. Ralph returned with the door mage grinning from ear to ear. Deacon tightened the cinch on his pants reaching back into his bag for a new shirt and paused. That damn jester was leaning against the wall behind Amanda. Why was he here?

“Why do you look like the cat that ate the canary?” Deacon asked Ralph.

“We finished opening a third passageway when we met some civilians fleeing from a hole in the wall. Apparently, a priestess of Chimera was saving people and making her own exits. They said her name was Gloria, ring any bells?” Ralph inquired.

“No.” Deacon said looking nervous.

“Well she remembers you,” Ralph said waiving goodbye to the mage as he left to help others.

There was a chanting coming from the hall behind Ralph now. As it got closer and closer Deacon could just make it out. They were chanting Chimera over and over again. Deacon looked at his group and shrugged at their unasked question. Ralph continued to snicker. A woman in a white shirt and tight black vest with slacks appeared around the corner displaying an otherworldly aptitude for shuffling a deck of cards in her hands. They were fluttering over her shoulders, then back under her arms returning to her hands. The crowd of people behind her were the ones chanting. There must easily be twenty to thirty people following.

“Well hello, champion. It seems we meet again. As you can see Chimera has blessed me with a class specialization. It’s called the Priestess of the Deck. Here, this card is for you,” Gloria said while placing a card on Deacon’s bare chest. As he grabbed it, she ran her index finger down his tight abdominal muscles. She winked at him and continued guiding people out of the coliseum. Shuffling her deck in ever more extravagant ways.

“What the hell was that?” Sophie questioned glaring at Deacon.

“No idea,” Deacon said inspecting the card. It was a picture of a man and a woman with silk scarves wrapped around their privates. At the bottom of the card it read, the lovers. Deacon quickly put it into his bag unwilling to answer any more questions about that strange woman. Now he remembered her face. She was the one who handed him a weapon first in the fight with the Gilgerith. Saving people could get weird.

“Can we get out of here now? I’m sure Armand is going to want to hear how Sophie ended up in the capital. By the ten hells, put on a shirt.” Amanda complained.

Deacon raised his hands in surrender as he grabbed a spare hoody from his bag and pulled it over his head. Not exactly a cotton blend but at least it wasn’t itchy. He replaced his bag around his shoulders, and they all made their way to the exits.

“Anyone want to tell me why the jester is here?” Deacon asked.

“He’s your employee, why don’t you know?” Amanda shot back.

“I definitely didn’t hire a jester.” Deacon answered.

“Well he saved us on the roof from a particularly sloppy demon and got us out to the guild. Says he was instructed to get us out of the city as well.” Amanda said.

“Mr. Clean did leave me a message about his agent. Hey, are you from the Shadow?” Deacon asked Hani. He just nodded unwilling to speak about it while they were passing through all the knights outside the entrance.

“Deacon, is that you? I lost track of you at the ball,” Armand asked as he walked over to the Regulators. They moved off to the side out of the path of fleeing citizens.

“That creep Cyrus Cullep used an item to send me here. The one place in the city I was trying to avoid. Also Sophie is here.” Deacon said gesturing toward her.

“Vice Guild master? How? Why are you dressed like Deacon?” Armand stammered.

“I do not wish to speak on this while there is work to be done. Who’s in charge here?” Sophie asked in an all business tone of voice.

Deacon knew better. He saw the state of her when she arrived in the arena. Something terrible happened to her and she is just shoving it down for the short term. That was a powder keg waiting to go off. If his guess was right, being munched to death by a dragon was too good for Efimeo. Deacon realized he wasn’t paying attention again and decided to focus on the conversation around him.

“… so that’s why I’m here now to secure the coliseum. It’s a true blessing that the Paladins showed up when they did. Standard kit for knights does not include enchanted or blessed weapons need to fell these creatures. Add to that a dragon attacking the palace and we have one hell of night ahead of us.” Armand explained.

“You mean Zageracks? He’s not attacking the palace,” Deacon said.

“Wait that’s your dragon? What do you mean he’s not attacking the palace? Just look,” Armand relayed pointing toward the large crystal next to the palace that was now pulsing with energy.

“Okay, that does look bad but I’m sure he doesn’t give two shits about the palace. The crystal must be some means of him reaching Amon.” Deacon replied.

As if the universe was waiting for him to point it out, an enormous gateway opened. Twice as large as the palace and anchored by the two large crystals on either side of it. The light from the mystical tear in space and time bathed the entire city. A few heartbeats later there was a loud crack. It was followed by deep thrum and droning sound. To Deacons ears It was very reminiscent of a didgeridoo from earth. All of the crystals that lined the city began to pulse rhythmically with the sound. People started to panic as they could now see the what was on the other side of the massive gateway in the sky. Another city with a different skyline. It the buildings had more curved architecture than the slat roof and stone blocks found here. They also had three moons of various sizes in their nights sky. Unlike here where Deacon had never seen a moon.

Magic of all kinds was hurled at Zageracks forcing him from being wrapped around the crystal. Large ballistae bolts began bouncing off his scales. The dragon just shrugged them off. From the other side of the gate a bolt of deepest dark energy fired up at Zageracks who dodged it. The energy arced down into the Crystal Cascade obliterating one of the larger buildings in the central district. The dragon flew through the portal as the thrum reached a crescendo. It then snapped back closed and everyone in the Crystal Cascade received a new slate message.

Regional Event: The Dragon Zageracks, slayer of the unworthy has ascended to the Earthbound Plane. All who witnessed this have gained one level and knowledge of the Dimensional Sentinels.

Dimensional Sentinels: These guardians of the realms between are enforcers that protect the boundaries of space and time. Forceful breaking of these boundaries are prohibited and will be met with violence. Beware those who would venture beyond.

You have reached level Twenty Three. You have four undistributed attribute points.

While everyone else was marveling at their slate messages, Deacon pondered how to add his new points. He took a look at what he had now and where to put these four.

Attribute

Score

Intelligence

27

Strength

55

Speed

47

Agility

24

Wisdom

35

Luck

300

He thought he needed to increase his Agility so two points should go to that. He’s been spending points in Intelligence, but he could always use more. So he put two points to that as well. Now he took another look at where he landed. Seems a bit more well rounded considering how lopsided he was to start with.

Attribute

Score

Intelligence

29

Strength

55

Speed

47

Agility

26

Wisdom

35

Luck

300

“Unbelievable. Everywhere we go.” Armand said.

“You can’t blame that on me. I guess you can since I released him, but we had too. Efimeo had this sword called Manslaughter. It took me down pretty quickly.” Deacon explained trying to get the words out as if he was kid with his hand in the cookie jar.

“We saw the Death Tax notification. So it was you this time. How’s Bael?” Armand asked with a knowing sneer.

“Busy apparently. I think we should find Typhus. I think I’ve outstayed my welcome.” Deacon said.

“Finally. That’s why I’m here. Let’s go they should be setting up near the Deep Dweller embassy,” said Hani in a sassy voice.

“Oh yea. Forgot about him.” Deacon said.

“Then I need more color in my outfit,” replied Hani.

“What about Cullep?” Deacon asked Armand.

“The Inquisitors were sent to his estate. It was dumb to think he could abduct a guest of the King in front of all the gathered nobles, merchants, and high ranking civilians in the city. The King will probably have his head and break up his holdings between the rest of the council. That family is finished.” Armand said.