I got back to the inn late, and I was tired. It had been a very long day, and I was overly tired. When I walked through the door, the place was still hopping. So waved to Godfrey and grabbed my stuff from the back.

As I ducked into the back room, I saw Kasidy and Iris sitting there talking. They seemed like they were having a good time. Which was good. Perhaps I could leave Kasidy here too. I was slowly starting to trust her more since she knew so much about me. I just didn’t like hiding who I was.

I knew I could have headed back to the dungeon, but I was done walking. It might have only been about thirty minutes to walk, but I was just too tired. So I was going to bed. Blink was still with the new followers of Chaos which was a little worrisome to me. Yet, I was going to trust her and likely the Sisters.

I threw the latch on my bed and fell into it. With everything that had been going on, I was sleeping once again in my gear. Sure I pulled my weapons off, but until I got natural vitality, I needed to take more care.

That night I dreamed of Ash.

Years had passed since the last dream of Ash. I could feel that he had become more powerful, as there was a strength that just hadn’t been there before. The odd thing was I almost felt like he could tell I was there but wasn’t saying anything to me.

He and Taphine had finally run the third Champion of the Dark ones down. With him removed, the rest of the armies would collapse. Zumhug, the Orc Shaman that had become the Champion of Milug, dark god of destruction, was in a fortress. The lands around it had been turned into magical traps. Lava flowed freely along with ice.

While Zumhug was hiding in the massive fort, it didn’t mean that the armies of the dark ones weren’t advancing. It just meant that he wasn’t on the battlefront. As such, it was just the two of them making this assault. Which should be fine with how strong both of them were.

I turned to Taphine. “Today we will get the one responsible for your village. It has taken too long to run him aground.”

A much older Taphine looked from where she was crouched on the ground. “Yes it has. But at last it will all come to an end.”

I leaned down and kissed her before we started to run forward. All last night my love had been working a ritual that gave us a path through the traps. It would let us cut right to the fortress and lock the whole place down. Zumhug wouldn’t be escaping today as we had come for him at last.

When we got to the fortress, I felt like something was off. The gate stood empty, and the orcs were dead. They appeared to be drained of their blood. Then Zumbug stepped into the courtyard.

I felt power ripple off of him like only came from me. Then he started to laugh as four more orcs stepped forward. They were clearly champions but only just as they were so low-powered. That didn’t mean that they wouldn’t prove complications.

We had thought that the dark ones had been sealed in such a way that they couldn’t get added champions, but it seemed like something had happened. With the five of them versus the two of us, I still had high hopes of winning. The power that Taphine wielded might take a long time to build up, but it was amazing to see work. She had spent the night making ready for this day.

More than that, however, I was confident that I would be able to take everyone here myself. Yes, I was surprised by the power of Zumhug, but I knew I was still a cut above. So while the fight might be hard, it was a foregone conclusion that we would win.

Taphine laughed and pointed at one of the champions. “Die!”

Then the green lightning that she loved so much arced out from her finger. It struck the orc and punched a fist-sized burning hole through his chest. Then the fight was on as we moved to engage.

While Zumbug was an orc, he was a magic user, and when he stepped into the levels of Champion, his magic became more powerful. So as he lost a champion, he hit me with a blast of lava that sent me flying backward. It was the fastest magical attack I had ever seen from an orc.

I smiled as I got off the ground. I drew my sword that the Sisters had given me and charged forward. His next shot, I took on my shield, deflecting at one of his own. Then I was in the air jumping over a spear that was thrown from my side.

As I landed, I brought my sword in for a cut. The Champion caught the blade on his staff and then touched my chest. I blew back twenty feet, flying through the air. When I got up, Zumbug was laughing.

He pointed his staff at Taphine, and she was blasted back. Then he roared. “I am Zumbug, the Avatar of Milug! Your deaths will bring him through the seal!”

I felt additional forces show up. While we had thought we only had to deal with the traps, it seemed that there was an ambush as well. I tossed a glance behind me to see rising from the ground two towering monsters. They must have been 60 feet tall and almost as wide. They were built like giant goblins, but they had dozens of heads that were yelling at each other.

The near one had a tree in each hand of all four arms. The far one had two giant bows that were each thirty feet in size. They both targeted me. The one with the trees began slamming them on the ground knocking the rocks everywhere. The one with the bows started to shoot ballista-sized arrows at me.

As these two showed up, so did a monster in the sky which I had never seen before. It was like a flying neon green octopus that was the size of a passenger van. From each tentacle, it shot raw, burning mana.

I was forced to go on the defensive by bringing up my mana shield. Then I attacked I felt the power that Ash was trying to move. It felt like the world should work for him and not against him.

I smiled as the ground broke where the tree-wielding goblin was standing. He fell in the path of the mana attacks from the flier. Then I went up and over the top of the downed giant. My sword deflected one of the arrows. I changed its course just enough that it plowed into Zumbug.

The orc champion yelled as the arrow cleaved off his legs. As he was falling, I saw his blood reforming. He didn’t finish falling as he was standing on two legs of twisting blood. He pointed at the fallen giant goblin, and its blood was yanked to him.

Then Zumbug started to grow. “I am Milug!”

Zumbug’s body grew and changed. It exploded apart and reformed with twisting, pulsing blood and gore. As he grew, the champions around him also grew. They didn’t turn into bloody messes like him, but each orc grew to be over fifteen feet tall.

A chill ran down my back as I felt Zumbug change. It was close to the feeling I had when the Sisters came to help me step into being a demigod. The feeling of being small and weak. Zumbug was gone, and Milug, his god, had arrived on the planet. We had a true dark one walking around.

As I dodged a blast of mana, I looked around. Taphine was trying to pull back but couldn’t disengage with the Champion she was fighting. He was much too fast now, and the power he showed knocked her around.

Her magic was brushed harmlessly to the side. So I launched myself across the battle. I activated my shield charge skill, and in an instant, I bashed my shield into his head. As he fell back, I spun and activated my judgment. My body blurred as I spun with my blade out. It caught the giant orc right at the neck. My blade passed through his neck as deeply as it could. Blood spewed out as his head folded back.

I landed on the ground and saw our broken plans. We thought we were going to be powerful enough to take out Zumbug, but things changed when a god showed up. Taphine was laid out on the ground, not moving. So it was just me fighting above my level.

Milug pointed at me, and a cage appeared made out of blood. I hit it with my sword, but it bounced back. So I activated my teleport skill and traded places with the flying octopus. As I began to pass through the blood bars, I screamed in pain and fell down. The octopus was yanked over to on top of the cage. It shuddered in pain as it touched the blood.

I drew a breath in and burned all my faith points. “Order and Chaos! Sisters so fair hear me and my plea in time of need. Milug is here and we are doomed. Save us from their clutches!”

Milug laughed. “They are too weak to save you! I can spare you if you give yourself to me. Bow to Milug the coming one! Bow to Milug the consumer! Bow to me and you will live!”

I felt the power of the Sisters wrapping around me. The cage was weakening as I was being pulled through. I looked over at my love, but she wasn’t encased as I was in purple and pink. She was lying on the ground, unmoving, as the Sisters pulled me away.

I felt a portal open behind me, and as I was pulled through, I saw green light dancing up around Milug. Then I saw a purple arrow slam into his body. The blood was thrown everywhere, and the portal snapped shut.

Order stood in front of me. She held out her hand to help me up. I took it, and as I stood, I looked around. We were in a large room with a view of the world from a window. I felt like we had to be on a space station, but Ash was just confused.

Order said. “My friend Milug shouldn’t have been there. We are looking into what happened with the seal and will try to stop it from happening again.”

Ash looked around. I felt his emotions spike as he asked. “Where’s Taphine?”

Order shook her head. “We tried to find her but she just wasn’t there. Then when my sister landed to fight Milug there was a massive explosion. I almost didn’t get Chaos out in time. You can’t stay here though. The longer you are here now the harder it will be for you to reach the next level. I will send you back now. Once again I am sorry Milug was able to get past us.”

I woke up kind of groggy. It seemed to me that there were things more powerful than orcs that I might have to worry about. I also was sad that yet another one of Ash’s loves had been lost to him. It seemed like he and Taphine had a good thing going. Though she worried me some.

I got up and headed downstairs. I still had a lot to do before I got on the road. One of the things that I was hoping to do was to keep Iris here, but I wasn’t sure how that would happen.

* * *