Zeke felt heavy. His legs were like lead weights, and his every breath was labored. However, the further he traveled from the epicenter of his recent explosion of power, the better it felt.

“It’s the ambient mana,” Eveline supplied, gliding along beside him. Her own progress looked effortless, but every now and then, her entire body flickered as if she was barely holding herself together. “With every step of progress you make, you grow more powerful, but that power comes at the cost of dependence. Without mana – and in your case, the attuned sort – your body can’t support itself.”

“Kind of gathered as much,” Zeke muttered, trudging along.

“The good news is that the levels are steadily rising, and it should only be another couple of hours before we reach full saturation,” she said. “Of course, that assumes you won’t use some new skill that blows up the world or something.”

Zeke shook his head. He did intend to activate a previously unused skill, but he didn’t think [Colossal Legion] would be detrimental to the environment. Of course, it did make him wonder if infusing the skill with his rudimentary braid of disparate powers would do to the bronze golems.

“First – no,” Eveline said. “Just…no.”

“What?” Zeke asked, glancing in her direction.

“It’s like touching a hot stove, seeing the burn, and then asking, ‘Well, it burned my hand, but what about my foot?’. So, I’m going to just cut that off right now,” she said. “And second, you aren’t calling it your ‘rudimentary braid of disparate powers,’ even in your head. That’s just a mouthful of stupid words.”

“Open to suggestions,” Zeke said with an exhausted sigh.

“I like the braid part,” she said. “It’s very…evocative. But it feels somewhat passe. Same with weave. I’m going to have to give this some thought.”

“You do that.”

In the meantime, Zeke would keep calling it what he wanted to call it, even if his description was a little cumbersome. He got the feeling that if he gave Eveline free reign, she’d come up with something pretentiously grandiose.

Gradually, they continued to trek across the black dunes. A few times, Zeke saw some of the native wildlife, but nothing larger than a small bird. According to Eveline, the monsters had assuredly vacated the area the moment the ambient mana levels dipped below a certain threshold.

“They’re even more dependent on it than we are,” she explained. “I had a friend – well, frenemy, really – she killed one of my armies once. And even though she said she didn’t know who they were, I think she –”

“Eveline.”

“Oh,” the spirit woman said. “Sorry. I drift off sometimes. I think it’s because of the whole ‘having my soul splintered into a half-dozen pieces and scattered across the Sea of Corruption’ thing.”

Put like that, she certainly did have an excuse for her flighty nature. But then again, Zeke suspected that was just part of her personality.

“Anyway, Dalala used to say that the beasts are more in tune with the world than sapients,” Eveline went on. “She did experiments and everything. It all just looked like torture to me, but she claimed it was vital research. I wonder what ever happened to her. Maybe we can swing by her old castle and –”

“No.”

“Oh. Right. Keep the side quests to a minimum, I always say,” she said.

As Eveline continued to jabber on about whatever took her fancy, often skewing off on one tangent or another, the trek continued until, at last, Zeke felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He let out a deep sigh of relief and sank to the ground to recover. But before he truly let himself relax and now that the ambient mana levels could support it, Zeke decided to activate his [Colossal Legion].

With practiced concentration, he pushed mana into the appropriate rune, but he almost stopped when he realized that a good portion of the mana came from the earth, rather than his own stores. The skill already utilized earth attuned mana, it seemed. Not surprising, given its origin. But it did beg the question of what would happen if he laced the skill with demonic energy.

A cool breeze slipped through his mind. Or rather, his head. And Zeke looked up to see Eveline floating over him, having obviously just tried to slap him in the back of his head. “I said no,” she said, her hands finding her hips and a petulant frown contorting her youthful face.

“Fine. I wasn’t going to do it right now anyway,” he mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. It obviously didn’t hurt – she was incorporeal and therefore incapable of physical interaction – but the jab of cold had been a bit jarring.

Would she become more corporeal when he freed the other pieces of her soul? He assumed she would get a body at the end, but –

“No. Maybe. I’m not sure, really. My body is long gone,” Eveline said, a wistful tilt to her voice. “But I can exist…between one state and the other. I think. It’s all new ground, and I’m only somewhat sure what will happen.”

“Somewhat sure. Now, that’s an oxymoron,” Zeke said, running his hand through his hair. Then, he finished funneling mana – both his own as well as the earth attuned energy he dragged from the ground – and empowered his skill. A moment later, a vertical slash appeared floating in the air, and over the next second, it widened into a doorway.

“Ow!”

Predictably, Eveline had tried to pass through, but some unseen force prevented it. “Serves you right,” Zeke said, one corner of his mouth turning up in a slight smile.

“You don’t have to look so satisfied,” Eveline pouted, massaging the hand she’d tried to thrust through the portal.

Meanwhile, a small procession of hulking bronze golems stepped through, and the portal closed behind them. Each of the bronze statues towered over Zeke by three or four feet, and they’d armed themselves with various weapons he’d had in his storage space. One held a spear and a shield, while another bore a giant, two-handed sword that looked like a toothpick in its hands. The final member of the group had a pair of axes in its hands.

Immediately, they stepped forward and surrounded Zeke in a protective triangle, and he let out another sigh of relief. Finally, he could take a few minutes to rest.

Over the next couple of hours, Zeke sat cross-legged on the sand, his eyes closed as he drank from the trickle of earth mana he could snatch from the ground. It wasn’t the torrent to which he’d grown accustomed in the caves beneath Min Ferilik, but it was enough to soothe his body, mind, and soul.

He’d come very close to losing everything, and all because of his own hubris. Once again, he’d toyed with powers he didn’t understand, and he’d nearly paid the price with his life.

“Don’t beat yourself up,” said Eveline. “We all do it eventually.”

“What?” he asked, not opening his eyes.

“Reach too far. Some do it via armies and territory. Others with the metaphysical building blocks of our universe,” she explained. “But we all push too far. That’s how greatness is achieved. Most of the time, it backfires. Many die. But that’s the point. If you’re not balancing on the edge of oblivion, you’re not really advancing.”

Zeke shook his head. His experiences supported her assessment. The highlights of his advancement had all been accompanied by very real danger. From the time when he’d forced the first evolution of his race to his most recent brush with tearing the world asunder, his every near-death experience had resulted in huge leaps forward.

And this instance was no different.

Already, Zeke was thinking about the power at his disposal. If he’d had access to twin attunements when he’d fought the wyrm queen back in the Radiant Isles, he would have obliterated the powerful creature. And in that alternate timeline, Carlos would have survived. His death hadn’t hit Zeke very hard – not least because he’d never really liked the man very much – but it was the subject of some regret. He couldn’t go back and change things, but using his newfound power, perhaps he could keep similar situations from occurring in the future.

“Or maybe you’ll just destroy the world,” Eveline suggested.

“That’s a bit dramatic,” Zeke said.

Eveline shrugged. “You say that now, but…well, what about in a few years? A decade? A century? Who’s to say how far you’ll go? I might be a demon, but even I don’t want to kill everyone and everything.”

Zeke just shook his head. There was no way he’d ever be that reckless.

Eveline continued, “Anyway – why didn’t you summon these big guys before?”

Zeke looked up at the decidedly genderless golems. There was nothing to suggest any sort of identity, much less masculinity. They were true automatons.

“You forgot, didn’t you?”

“No. I was just…I didn’t think…just shut up, okay? And stop reading my mind,” he said.

“How strong are they?”

Zeke didn’t answer, primarily because he really didn’t know the golems’ limits. He’d only used the skill a couple of times, and so, he only knew that they were extremely durable and fairly powerful. Anything more specific than that would require further testing.

It was a good thing, then, that he intended to keep them summoned until he left the demon realm behind.

For a couple more hours, Zeke sat and recovered – mostly mentally – from his most recent ordeal, but then, when he judged that he’d gotten as far as he could for the time being, he rose and set off across the expanse of black sand and gargantuan bones. It didn’t take long before any evidence of his recent eruption faded, and with that, the normal terrain returned. This complicated his journey in that he was often forced to either climb over or go around particularly large skeletons. Every time he did so, Zeke wondered what kind of power such creatures might’ve held.

Of course, Eveline had her guesses, and she was more than willing to give them voice. However, it didn’t take a particularly observant person to recognize that they were just that – guesses. Eveline knew very little about the participants in that ancient battle.

Before long, the wildlife made itself known, but the golems were more than up to the task of dealing with anything that attacked. So, Zeke allowed himself to focus on more important matters – like his plans for the future, both near and far, as well as how he might utilize the power that had nearly ripped him and the world apart.

Like that, the group continued on until, at last, they reached their destination, which was a ring of tall obelisks, each constructed of seamless, red crystal. At the center rose a floating castle that would have easily dwarfed Zeke’s tower. The fortress itself was a less than impressive structure made of black sandstone and following a very unimaginative architectural theme that reminded Zeke of the castles back on Earth.

“I’ll bet none of them had stairs like that, though,” Eveline said, pointing to a sweeping staircase that encircled the castle as it wound its way from the ground all the way up to the entryway. That alone was impressive enough, but what really took Zeke’s breath away was the realization that each step was completely unsupported and seemed to float in mid-air.

“You’re not wrong,” he said, staring ahead in awe. The castle was still a half-mile away, but its every detail was easily recognizable. To say it was an intimidating structure would have been an understatement. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that’s where we’re going, huh?”

“Your powers of deduction are truly awe-inspiring,” was Eveline’s dry response. “The good news is that the Warden is probably alone.”

“Probably?”

But before Eveline could reply, a swarm of winged creatures burst from the underside of the castle and let out a collective shriek as they sped in his direction.

“Well, probably not, I guess. But you’ll be fine. I believe in you!”

“You know I’m not really good with flying monsters, right?” Zeke said, once again summoning his hammer. The golems simply stood there, looking toward the threat. Idly, Zeke wondered if they could think. There had to be something in there directing them, but –”

“No. They can’t think. They’re just mindless drones,” Eveline stated.

“And you know this how?” he asked, rolling his shoulders and focusing on the incoming flock of monsters. They were big – much bigger than expected – and unlike his first impression, they weren’t birds. In fact, they didn’t even have wings. Instead, they could generously be called fish, though with enormous fins that allowed them to fly.

Or maybe they were just swimming through the air, much like the mer-demons did.

The fish themselves were clearly demonic, with huge, curling horns, menacing teeth that jutted from their mouths, and glowing red eyes that stood out extremely well amidst their black scales, even from a distance. In addition, they were equipped with a dozen small arms that extended from their bellies.

“This is really going to suck,” Zeke said.

“You’ll be fine. Unless they can attack –”

Suddenly, a collective jet of fire erupted from the flock – or school, maybe – of demon fish and washed over Zeke and the golems. Predictably, the fire did nothing to Zeke – he was practically immune to the element – but the bronze golems didn’t fare so well, and when the wave of flames dissipated, they were left glowing cherry red.

“…from a distance,” Eveline finished. “Wait – you’re okay. Right. I knew you would be. A little hellfire wouldn’t stop someone like you, right? Now, you’d better brace, because they’ll be here in three…two…and here we go!”