Things didn’t add up. There was no doubt in Dallion’s mind that the echo he had fought back at the Academy belonged to a domain ruler, but the person standing before him clearly wasn’t. Also, he wasn’t supposed to be a mage.

Adzorg, are you sure? Dallion asked.

I had the misfortune of conversing with an echo of his. There’s no doubt.

Could that have been a copyette? Hardly. Other than Pan, all echoes worked for the Order of the Seven Moons.

“I thought you’d got glassed,” Dallion said, retaining his composure. “Or were you just scared after hearing what I did to Argus?”

“You killed him?” The man moved the shield blade about. Bloodthirst emanated from him, to the point he could barely contain himself. “This might be a challenge after all.”

Dallion kept on combat splitting, examining his surroundings with a dozen instances. Everything seemed quiet so far, and that was precisely what concerned him. He could understand the water islands stopping their attacks on him out of fear they might make it more difficult for Grym’s bodyguard. Yet, why had they stopped all actions altogether? None were attempting to destroy his domain, none were even moving in that direction. Instead, they seemed to be picking all soldiers affected by Dallion’s music attack and retreating.

“You don’t need backup?” Dallion arched his brow. “I’m not a novice anymore.”

For a fraction of a second, Dallion expected a kind of response: insults, overconfident remarks, or anything. Then he remembered—not everyone fought using music skills.

The man’s attack was quick and brutal. With speed rivaling Dallion’s own, the heavy blade plunged forward in an attempt to slice the aether armor and its occupant.

Dallion considered letting the enemy succeed in an instance, just to see the effects, but quickly decided against it. There was no telling what abilities the weapon had. Plus, he knew that somewhere in the Azure army, there was someone with the ability to control force splitting.

Flying backwards, Dallion thrust his aura sword forward in a point attack. To his surprise, the other didn’t block, but evaded, continuing to mount the pressure.

This one’s trained. Dallion added several invulnerability symbols to his sword, then parried a blow.

The force was impressive—enough to shatter blocks of granite—though not more than Dallion could take.

“You’ve gotten a lot weaker.” Dallion used his music skill, filling his words with a combination of anger and sadness. “After last time, I thought that you’d slice me in two. Then again, last time I was a child.”

Strands of music attached without issue. From here on, victory was supposed to be a foregone conclusion, yet the fighting continued.

Spinning in the air, the man pulled back his sword, managing to land a kick in Dallion’s chest. The top layer of his aether armor cracked. Clearly, the sword wasn’t the only thing he was supposed to be worried about.

Thrusting forward, Dallion did an arc slash, while simultaneously summoning his Nox dagger. Dozens of spell circles formed in the wake of the slash, launching chains and aether projectiles at the shield blade.

Another kick flew Dallion’s way. It was met by a cushion of wind that had been quickly cast. There was more, though. The point of that final spell wasn’t to shield Dallion from the attack, but rather to capture his opponent.

“Got you!” Dallion said, engaging in a multi attack with the Nox dagger. Dozens of strikes fell on the enemy’s shin, cracking the armor layer by layer.

Dallion didn’t notice the precise moment when the deadly blade sliced through the bone, severing the Azure’s limb.

Caught in the heat of the moment, Dallion quickly changed target, focusing on the man’s knee, but just as the strike was about to hit, the other pulled back, moving a safe distance away.

“A bit anticlimactic,” Dallion said, his heart thumping as euphoria filled his very being. “After all that talk, I expected a lot more.”

The man stared back. There was no trace of pain or fear on his face. He didn’t seem to even have acknowledged the loss of his limb.

“Passable,” he said.

A thin layer of water ran over the blade of his weapon, covering it completely. Dallion hadn’t noticed any spell casting, so his first thought was that the item had a nymph guardian. Moments later, it trickled down from the man’s stump, forming a new foot.

What the heck? Dallion’s instances moved back. That was far from expected.

Casting a quick spell, he summoned his bowblade and looked through the kaleidervisto. A single echo was visible in the man’s domain—an echo of a nymph in full water armor. The intricacy of the design along with an insignia on the neck guard suggested that he was of high rank, possibly a general.

“You’re not human,” Dallion said.

That explained why wounds and music attacks had so little effect. They’d only affect the puppet. Or maybe not. Judging by the state of the human, there was every indication that whatever control the original owner of the body had, it was long gone, replaced by that of the symbiont echo. If so, did that mean that when fighting Phoil, Dallion had faced an echo of an echo?

“Dal.” Harp arrived at the scene. Despite the amount of strength she had, it was obvious that the guardian was exerting herself. Taking on a humanoid form in the real world was draining, even with Dallion’s help.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Shards of water, as thin as stiletto blades, shot out from her, striking the enemy’s right arm from the shoulder to the wrist.

The tension became palpable. Dallion could feel the enemy’s desire to fight all the way through the human shell. He was burning to fight Harp, but had enough sense not to. Both Dallion and Harp presented an issue individually. Together, they would be more than enough.

“Grym will be pleased I found you,” the man said. “Next time there won’t be a stalemate.”

“I have no doubt.” Dallion smirked. “Next time we’ll win.”

The puppet glared at him, then turned around and flew to his island. The other forces did the same, retreating back the way they arrived. Even the few remaining water golems lost corporeal integrity, splashing onto the valley ground.

You could have waited a bit more, Gleam complained, fluttering all the way to Dallion. I’d have had him.

Dallion didn’t doubt that, just as he didn’t doubt that they had been extremely lucky. The insane gamble that he had made proved fruitful. Had the water islands continued with the attack, there was no doubt in his mind that he’d lose. Not only that, but there was every chance that they took over Sandstorm as well. Hannah and the awakened there were no pushovers, but other than him, only Diroh was capable of non-natural magic and not an average level at best.

“Let’s go,” Harp urged.

“How did they come here?” Dallion asked. “That many can’t have crossed the empire.”

“There are ways,” she replied. “Don’t ask me to tell you.”

“I can free you from the harpsisword,” Dallion insisted. “Even if I lose it, it’ll be better having—”

“I can never leave.”

There it was again—the flash of fear emanating from the nymph. As someone skilled in magic, she was capable of hiding most of her emotions. Apparently, she wasn’t able to conceal this.

“They won’t arrive right away.” Harp changed the focus of the topic. “There’s too much fighting in the west.”

What are you keeping from me? “Just tell me what’s going on!” Dallion had rarely, if ever, raised his tone to Harp. Internally, he felt shocked by his own actions. And for the first time, the guardian looked him straight in the eye and refused.

“No,” she said firmly, returning to his realm of her own accord.

Dallion immediately went back to his realm in order to continue the conversation, but when he did so, he found that all the openings to the harpsisword’s tower were sealed off, turning it into a cylinder of water.

It didn’t take long for Vihrogon to emerge there as well. Standing next to Dallion, he looked at the tower of water, perfectly silent.

“Go ahead and say it,” Dallion said. “I really messed up.”

“No.” The dryad tapped him on the back a few times. “You only messed up fifty percent.”

“You know something, don’t you?”

“I know that she’s the strongest entity in your realm,” Vihrogon replied. “And that it would be a waste of all the awakening trials you completed here, if you were to bring chaos to your realm.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s an answer, just one you can’t seem to accept.”

“I’ve been betrayed too many times, Vih. If there’s something I need to know.”

“You know what they say.” The dryad took a step away. “Those who have no friends never have to fear betrayal.”

After a few more minutes of standing in his realm and doing nothing, Dallion finally returned to the real world. The issue with harp aside, there were a lot of urgent matters that needed attention. The first was figuring out what to do with his second domain. The brief skirmish had left a lot of devastation in the valley, yet left enough plants and water for the Azures to make use of it again.

For that reason, Dallion moved his domain within the mountain hole he had created with his ray spell. There it would serve as a perfect observation point; furthermore, it was a perfect place for furies. Food would still have to come from Sandstorm, at least in the short term, but in all other aspects the spot was perfect.

Thanks to Diroh, just below half of the furies were convinced to change settlements. Dallion took advantage of the fact and improved the settlement to a town. It was noticeable that the action no longer caused Dallion’s awakened level to increase. He had reached one of the barriers and simply creating settlements wasn’t going to cut it. If he wanted to grow, he’d have to take control of larger chunks of territory.

The sudden attack had sobered everyone’s expectations. Being far from the western front, they had forgotten the reality of the world. It was one thing to know that a war was taking place, and something completely different to take part of it.

Furies flew off in all directions with an open invitation to all hunters to join the settlement. Meanwhile, after some domain changes from Dallion, Hannah led the efforts to transform the groups of awakened into an actual army that could fend off serious attacks. Scary even while she was an innkeeper, her new role made it clear why she had been considered one of the legion’s best. March took on the role of trusted lieutenant while many of the icepickers got instant promotions based on their skills and experience improving items.

All that remained was for Dallion to return to the capital once more and inform the emperor—and the Order in subtle ways—of the events that had conspired.

“And don’t forget to get the captain this time!” Hannah shouted at Dallion prepared to go. “It’s not a matter of choice!”

“I will.” Dallion forced a smile. He had no idea how long he’d have to stay in the imperial capital. Ideally, he could be back with Adzorg by nightfall. Something told him that was unlikely to be the case. “Don’t lose my towns while I’m away.”

“Towns?” Hannah scoffed. “Yeah, right. Get out of here. Unlike you, we must work for a living.”

The comment earned a chuckle.

PERSONAL AWAKENING

When Dallion left his domain a moment later, he was back in his imperial palace mansion. To his astonishment, the place was in perfect order. Not a single sleeping noble in sight, it looked as if it had just been cleaned.

“What’s going on?” Dallion asked the area guardian.

Master Dallion, the guardian replied, very much in Taem’s manner. The young duchess came and had a few words with your guests. It was rather fun.

“Good to know.” Not bothering to check the second floor, Dallion went straight for the door. “Anything else interesting?”

Count Pilih came once, but left immediately after seeing you weren’t here.

The count came in person? Curious, but better left for another time. It was of crucial importance that Dallion got an audience with the emperor, or at least someone with the authority to send a few cloud forts to the east. A few mages could also come in handy, although there were doubts regarding their loyalty.

Just as Dallon opened the door, he found an overseer standing there; or rather, it was the copyette pretending to be an overseer.