“Are you sure this goes up to the city? It’s taking a long time,” asked Tantus, as he held onto the side of the mine cart with every ounce of strength he had.

“I followed the rails as a shadow. It emptied out in the Hascavir district,” answered Typhus’s shadow self.

“You’re telling me they were planning this long enough to build all these carts and rails?” queried Ralph, wind whipping through his light brown hair.

“There is a much larger infrastructure down here than you can believe. We’re probably adjacent to the Deep Well. There haven’t been Dwellers down here in over a century. I doubt any of the Dwarves made an effort to clean out the lower levels of the dungeon. Wait… something is wrong up top. Typhus is recalling me,” said the shadow before splashing down into the darkness at their feet.

“What do you think is wrong?” asked Tantus, as the mine cart began to slow.

The cart fought physics uphill the entire trip and only slowed down when a rune carved into a wooden cross laying over the tracks flashed with the light of arcanum. To their left was a slab of rock jutting out over a dark chasm. The cart having left the lava flows behind ten minutes ago. Embedded in the wall was an iron ring that held one sputtering torch. It illuminated a ladder that led up to a wooden hatch.

“I suppose this is where we get out?” asked Tantus.

“Can you stop asking questions and just do things? Sorry, I’m still a little upset that we left Ignis back there. No idea why he wouldn’t just come with us. Seems the skittish type,” barked Amanda.

“He’d been pestering Deacon about some message, but never seemed to be able to spit it out. I’m sure he’ll be fine. It’s Deacon I’m worried about. If yesterdays and today’s events don’t count as a Deactastrophe, nothing does,” quipped Ralph.

They climbed the ladder in silence. Ralph managed to lever the hatch up revealing a storage room. The hatch was positioned under a table covered by a cloth that didn’t reach all the way to the floor. That allowed whoever was coming up to look into the room. Ralph noticed the door on the opposite side of the room was wide open. There were sounds battle coming from somewhere outside.

They all managed to regroup in the storage room. It was filled with musty tarps covering stacked crates. On a table near the door was a satin cloth with fifteen to twenty five small diamonds placed upon it. Next to the cloth were slivers of dull ruby spikes. It didn’t take long for them to surmise what was going on in here. They exited the backroom to see ten to fifteen tables laden with jewelers’ tools. At the far end of the room was a broken door hanging off one of the hinges. Considering it was a Deep Dweller establishment, the wide square door looked awkward hanging there. Then there was a flash of grey and white energy followed by some screams. The three friends made their way to the doorway and looked outside.

The sky was filled with flying figures attacking the shattered islands. Most of the attackers had lances that shot out grey-white flames. Tantus gasped in horror as he made a realization. Ralph pulled him back into the shop and gestured for Amanda to follow.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Ralph asked.

“Cloud Swarm! The Cloud Swarm are here. Why? They shouldn’t be this far south. They are supposed to keep to themselves. They wield the Empyrean power. It’s tier three arcanum. It’s like the opposite of Infernal. Why are they here?” babbled Tantus.

“I don’t understand. I’ve never heard of these flying enemies before,” said Ralph.

“This is probably what Typhus’s shadow was called about. Why was there no regional notification?” asked Amanda.

“I don’t know but we should try to make it to the guild hall if we—” Ralph never got to finish.

Two Cloud Swarm landed in a heap in the middle of the road. Bodies broken and battered; their lances clattered across the cobble stones. They began to pulse with a grey-white light. Tantus grabbed both Ralph and Amanda by the shoulders, hauling them back into the shop. As they landed on the floor the lances detonated turning magically reinforced the windows of the jewelry shop into flying razor sharp shrapnel that destroyed everything in the room. If they were still standing, they would have fallen to the ground in bloody chunks. Tantus had foot long piece of reinforced glass sticking through his magic shield. He had it stretched over all three of them, so it was thinner than usual. The tip of the glass was lodged firmly in his right shoulder.

“Tantus, you saved our lives,” said Amanda.

“I don’t think getting to the guild will be quite that easy,” said Tantus through clenched teeth.

That’s when a white glow lit up every building as far as the eye could see. The three of them needed to shield their eyes as the glow crawled its way over the entire city.

The gods spoke to each other in fits and starts. It was like they hadn’t all been in the same place at the same time. After ten minutes of this, Ryan got up to his feet from his position on the ground. He began barking at each one of them from right to left. Deacon didn’t understand the language they were using. The ceiling was still being held together by the combined rainbow energy of the gods. His legs still ached from when the fate had her tendrils around them. He proceeded to rub them vigorously. Deacon was about to pull out a healing potion from his supply when he noticed the Ryan looking at him. All the voices had stopped.

“You do not belong here,” Ryan said plainly.

“That wasn’t a thank you. You know being ignored like this isn’t a lot of fun but since my only exit was demolished trying to save your ass, least you can do is say thank you,” snapped Deacon, he was getting a little fed up with deific superiority.

“No, I mean you can’t be here. This is the business of the gods. Why are the slates silent? Where are my Fates?” Ryan asked as he looked back at his family.

“He killed them, brother. Probably collected their shards as well,” said Amon pointing at Deacon.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“No mere mortal could kill my children,” added Ryan stepping forward.

The old man deliberately placed each foot as if they were meant to go there. He stopped right in front of Deacon and held up his right hand. Grey light flashed in Deacon’s face as his memories began to replay in order. From the attack on Iron Mountain Plateau, to the battle in the coliseum of Crystal Cascade, and finally the clash in this very chapel.

“You have endured much. Too much. My daughters put all of that in front of you, yet you survived. Chimera!” shouted Ryan spinning on his heels and addressing the god.

“Now Ryan, you were gone for too long. I bet I could find you before anyone else did and I was right. My champion has done a lot of good while the Fates orchestrated a coup. They trapped you down here and brought about a pantheon war. What were supposed to do? Just roll over and give up?” replied Chimera.

“You know that’s not what I’m talking about. All of that was supposed to happen. It was the sequence of events I constructed. What wasn’t supposed to happen was you putting the Rule Breaker card in the Deck of Destiny. Not even I can remove it from him. Looks like my daughters thought to suppress its effects… no they used its reality altering effects to create that scar Amon closed. Curious… what was your world like before you left? Well keep those memories close. You may be the only one that will ever remember what the world was like before it was submerged in mana. Now let me fix that crack in your slate,” Ryan said before placing his hand on Deacon’s forehead.

Deacon began screaming as the touch of Ryan poured into his soul. He could see the crack in his slate stitching back together. As it completed, the crack pushed back and shot through the slate again. Then Ryan attempted once more to sew the broken pieces of Deacon’s soul, as represented by his slate, back together. This time it held together. Ryan pulled away his hand, but he was frowning.

“Needlessly Defiant? More like endlessly recalcitrant. Chimera, you have your work cut out for you. This is just the mortal plane, yes? You need to ascend. I won’t be able to fix what’s wrong with your soul without more mana. You apparently have none, so we can’t even use that. I’m far too weak down here. Let me reawaken the world’s slates. That should do for now. Besides you have a soul metamorphosis to undergo young Demigod. Can’t start that without a working slate. You’ll need your little companion as well. You can come in now,” said Ryan.

A small bobbing ball of light floated through the rubble that was even now restructuring itself back into a doorway. Ignis sped over to Deacon and began orbiting around his head.

“We need to return Ryan. Hipag loosing his grasp on you means he no longer has a foothold in our world. The Celestial Plane is still fighting off his minions and I need to be there,” commented Mantarok as he cleaned his blades.

“When we leave this place becomes a pile of rubble again. How do I get out?” asked Deacon.

Ryan leaned forward and flicked Deacon in the forehead. He was instantly transported outside near the Monument to the fallen. Near was relative to where he came from. In actuality he was falling from a great height and diagonally. It looked like he was going to land on that island in the bay with the spire of ore Deacon didn’t recognize.

“Fly, we are going to fast. Fly,” complained Ignis.

“I can’t fly, I don’t have any… oh yea,” said Deacon before triggering Astral Glide.

Spectral green wings sprouted from his back the only problem was Deacon waited too long. His descent slowed but his trajectory remained the same. He tumbled over the ground by the force of his inertia. After the world stopped spinning in his head, he noticed a broken sign at his feet. He leaned back against the rising spire and shook his head. Looking down at the sign, Deacon realized he couldn’t read the deep language. Activating an ability, he hadn’t used in a while, SAYance, brought the soul of a Deep Dweller from those he had collected.

“What does this say?” Deacon asked while pointing at the sign.

“Survival Spire. We Deep Dwellers use this ore in the foundation of all our homes. It’s to remind us of where we came from. Even the Gnomes adopted this practice,” said the spirit.

Deacon allowed the spirit to go to its final rest. That’s when Ignis flew directly into Deacon’s face.

“You know I’ve been trying to tell you this for hours now. It’s time to go,” said Ignis.

“Where? Hang on a second,” Deacon cut him off as a flood of state messages pelted his vision.

Cursed Title Upgrade: Fate Slayer- This title cannot be removed nor hidden. All bounties registered for you will be tripled until your final demise. Anyone taking your bounty will be able to know your relative position twice per day as a final gift from the Fates.

Region Notice: The Shattered Sky is under attack by the Cloud Swarm.

Divine Quest Complete: I’m not my brother’s keeper- You have freed the lost God of Order and Bureaucracy, Ryan. Rewards: Demi-God advancement, Legendary Class Ability.

Quest Update: Path of Divinity- Defeating Sumna has placed you on the Path of Divinity. This quest will see you join a pantheon of your choosing after defeating ten demi-gods. Demi-gods leave behind a Shard of Divinity which is concentrated soul energy. These items are classed as legendary. Take care in how you use them. Five out of Ten. Rewards; Deities Mantle.

Demi-God advancement- You have collected five out of ten Shards of Divinity. You may now advance your soul to that of a demi-god. Before you can begin Soul Metamorphosis, you must choose an aspect based on your experiences in life. Choose from the following:

Destruction- Your path has led to massive amounts of collateral damage. Abilities will be tailored toward your destructive tendencies.

Ruin- You have often been the cause of stronger entities’ plans to fail. Abilities will be tailored toward your disruptive tendencies.

Freedom- You have released more slaves than anyone in an eon. Abilities will be tailored toward your compassion for the oppressed.

Deacon didn’t know what to think. He’d never considered what an aspect of his life meant. Being able to cause more destruction sounded great but did he want to be known for it? Ruin left a bad taste in his mouth, primarily because that’s what the Fates called him. At the end of the day, he knew what he would choose. He mentally selected the aspect of Freedom.

Aspect of Freedom- You can no longer be contained. No cell door or length of chain will oppress you. Now any slave finding themselves in your aura range will be instantly freed. All bindings will cease to exist, be they material, spiritual, or psychological. Your Slave masters Bane title is now part of who you are and can never be removed. All abilities granted by that title are now passive. Woe be the slaver that meets your gaze.

World Notice: The Demi-God of Freedom has come.

“Wait, what was that about metamorphosis?” asked Deacon before white light started crawling up his legs.

“Deacon, it’s time to go. To the Centennial Games. The queen is transporting you now,” squeaked a panicked Ignis.

“Of course, she is,” replied Deacon.

Rule Breaker has activated.

There was a flash of white light and a thunderous boom. It was so loud that Deacon curled up into the fetal position to protect his ears and head. After several minutes of cowering at the base of the spire, Deacon peered out at the world between his fingers as he heard music playing. Before him was a very different environment. There were five story spectator stands filled with humanoids of all shapes and sizes. Deacon could even see the heads of a few Giants peering over the tops of the stands. People were gasping all around as they looked at Deacon and then past him. The sound of the band playing music died out as Deacon looked around. The sky was teal colored instead of blue. The clouds were pink, and the sun burned a bright purple.

“Well how about that folks. Our final contestant didn’t bring an entourage, he brought an entire city with him. Not sure how that’s possible and we hope the ticket holders in what used to be those stands are okay. Let’s have a big round of applause and maybe some prayers for the dead for our new representative of the Fae courts, Deacon Champion of Chimera. Surprising that the Fae courts sent a representative this year even after that embarrassment last time. Oh crap, turn this off—” said the voice of the announcer.

“Great. I hate announcers,” sighed Deacon.

The End