The imperial capital never had an emperor… of all the things that his grandfather had said, that was the one that troubled Dallion the most. It didn’t help that the “removal” had a far greater impact than any banishing or curse he had seen before.

As a rule, any rectangle that was beyond the four basic colors—blue, red, white, and green—was bad news. Purple was an exception, though only available to those who awakened with the gift of magic. Supposedly, they only saw rectangles only in that color their entire existence. In Dallion’s case, he had retained his ability to distinguish colors, now seeing that type as well.

There were two additional colors he had seen afterwards: black—linked to the void—and yellow, which had the tendency to appear only when something went really bad. In this case, the rectangle not only seemed to have ejected his grandfather from reality itself, but also had changed everything relating to his existence. In the minds of everyone, the man had never returned from his trip to Nerosal. It was Aspian Luor who had suffered de-leveling after witnessing his friend be betrayed and killed in the capital. The only thing that had been brought back was Kraisten’s daughter, whom he had taught how to become an awakened.

It was now clear why no one broke a Moon vow. Those that did were removed from reality along with all traces of them. Quite possibly the archbishop had been inspired by that to create his own brand of banishments and name erasures.

At present, Dallion held two histories in his mind. In some ways it was similar to his Earth and local past that had been with him ever since his awakening; it was also different—much sloppier, as if someone had cut out part of the world and crudely stitched the remaining pieces to make sense. Anyone who could compare the two lines would instantly know. The problem was that other than Dallion, no one seemed to know better. Everyone from his family to his guardians and personal echoes only knew one history—the current one.

Isn’t this fun? Dallion thought. One part of his family had been banished from history, and another had been removed from the world itself.

His stay ended up being a lot shorter than he had planned. When he had come, he’d wanted to spend several days at least. Granted, a lot of that time was supposed to have been spent questioning his grandfather about moments of his past that the old man had neglected to mention.

The knowledge that had he spouted out in the final minutes before breaking the Moon vow had made Dallion aware of two things: he was the youngest of the participants in the race for world dominations, and he hadn’t mistaken what he had seen back in the battle for the capital. To be sure, he had to check one more thing, and for that, he had to visit Nerosal.

“Do you want your old room?” Linner asked as Dallion sat in the darkness of the room, staring at the night sky.

This had used to be his grandfather’s room. Now, it had belonged to him all along.

“Sure,” Dallion replied, not turning around.

“You’re going to leave again, aren’t you?” his brother asked, sadness emanating from him like a constant whistle.

“I’ve errands to run,” Dallion replied in the most innocent way possible. “I’ll keep an eye on things here. I won’t let anyone harm Dherma.”

“Just like before, right?” Linner sighed.

“Yes, just like before.” Dallion glanced over his shoulder. “Are you sure you don’t want to awaken? I know ways that can make it happen.”

“I know,” Linner said. “You’re the new archduke, aren’t you?”

Dallion remained silent.

“Mom told me. She knows a lot of what’s going on in the world, even if she pretends she doesn’t. I know a lot as well.”

“I didn’t want to put you in danger. The war…” Dallion looked back at the sky.

“It’s the same each time, isn’t it? You come here, promise that after you finish what you’re doing, you’ll come back to stay, but you never do.”

“There are things I need to do, but this time it will be different.” When I’m done, I’ll be able to change the world.

“I know you believe it, but is it true? You used to be the laughingstock of the village. The one who desperately tried to awaken for years without success. Everyone considered your awakening a miracle from the Moons.”

“Except the Luors.”

“Yeah.” The comment made the boy crack a smile. “Except some of the Luors. Look what you’ve become—the most powerful noble after the emperor himself, and still you have things you need to finish.”

“I know it doesn’t sound good,” Dallion admitted. Listening from the side, he wouldn’t believe himself, either. “Just have a bit more patience.”

His brother shook his head. Dallion could feel that he’d never lose the bond between them. What was more, he could feel the pity coming from Linner. The boy remained non-awakened and didn’t even care, enjoying his life without qualms or fears. Judging by emotion alone, one would think that he had gone through all the awakening trials, and Dallion was the one tagging behind.

“I got married,” Dallion said all of a sudden.

For once, this caught his brother by surprise.

“When this is over, I’ll bring her to Dherma.”

“Who?” the boy asked.

“Someone that’s been close to me for a very long time.” Dallion smirked. “In other words, you’ll see when I get back.”

“You know I’ll hold you to that.”

Dallion nodded. There was no point in claiming that he’d never let his brother down, because it was no longer true. Once the final race was over, he would.

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“See you.”

REALM AWAKENING

Dallion returned to his realm.

The sky was colored bright orange, despite morning just having started. Shining brightly, next to his skill pillars, the massive half-heart Moonstone filled the air with divine energy. Even after using a substantial part of it, enough remained for Dallion to add another gem to his Moon emblem, as well as a few more things. Sadly, it was too early to resort to that—there was a real chance that he might need it urgently in the very near future.

Dallion’s fingers moved, casting an eight-circle spell. Once he was done, a large sphere emerged in front of him.

“Harp,” Dallion said, sculpting the sphere into a globe with his current knowledge of the world’s maps. “How much of the seas do you know?”

The nymph emerged a step away, wearing the fine water dress she preferred when playing her harp in his realm.

“I know the ocean and most of the coasts,” she replied. “But that was a long time ago.”

“Describe what you know.”

Going by memory, Dallion recreated everything he knew of the main continent, ranging from the fallen south to the forbidden north. There were a number of blank areas, but on this scale, the map seemed a lot more complete than not. The entire empire was there, as well as a few of the former neighboring countries. Dallion made a point to add the dwarf kingdoms to the west, the giant forests of the east, and the Star’s former stronghold beyond them.

Giaccia helped by detailing the entire ocean, coasts included, and a few of the large rivers going inland. Dallion’s other guardians and familiars join in, adding what they could until soon enough, the first fully complete world globe floated before them. Even Adzorg joined in through his linking echo.

FULL GLOBE

(+1 Perception)

You’re the second person created this since the start of this age. Worth a point, it seems.

How kind of you, Dallion thought as he waved the achievement rectangle away.

“Any reason you created this, dear boy?” Adzorg inquired. “It’s a rather fascinating achievement, but there are a lot more detailed maps for everything of importance.”

“How far has the order spread?” Dallion asked.

“That’s…” The old mage paused. “That’s a rather good question, actually. I suppose no one knows for certain. We know that they haven’t set foot in the fallen south,” he said. “Or the forbidden north.”

“Do we?”

The south seemed to have been abandoned, after the destruction of the eternal city, but the archbishop still had scrolls describing buildings and technology found there. Maybe it was more than the Star’s abandoned playground?

“There’s no reason to think otherwise. Anything else is guesswork.”

“You’re very right,” Dallion said, glancing at the eastern coast of the continent. It was a safe bat that the entire area was known by the Order in one way or another. Maybe the northern bits were unexplored, but there were more than enough monasteries south to suggest that expeditions had taken place there. “To know for certain, we’ll have to stop guessing.”

Surrounding himself with a bubble of reality, Dallion left his realm, venturing back into his real world domain. Like a glass marble, he rolled through the section of wilderness under his influence, making it all the way to the city of Nerosal. This wasn’t just a casual visit, though. Concentrating further, Dallion moved to the Order’s citadel in the city.

The archbishop had been clever enough to leave several presences there in the form of domain bubbles surrounding the shrines and citadels. Dallion was able to see the foreign bubbles clearly, as well as the threads linking them to the vast network of monasteries and other domains throughout the world. Severing each and everyone off would take an impressive amount of effort. For the moment, he only needed to isolate one.

Floating up to the domain bubble he wanted, Dallion summoned his harpsisword.

If you do this, you’ll be declaring war to the Order, Giaccia warned.

We already are at war, Dallion said, striking at the barely visible thread that went out of the bubble and stretched to infinity through the sea of wilderness.

REALM INVASION

A rectangle emerged as the blade struck the thread. Apparently, severing off part of a realm wasn’t as simple as Dallion initially expected.

“No, you don’t!” he hissed, infusing the harpsisword with spark and Moon magic threads.

Holding the weapon with both hands, he swung once more, striking the thread with a full line attack. Sparks flickered all over the point of contact.

CONNECTION SEVERED

A new rectangle formed. The bubble within Dallion’s domain shattered, dissolving like ice on a hot summer day.

Dallion didn’t waste a moment, venturing into the realm of the structure. Now that he had obtained full control over it, he could tell exactly where everything was, both in the real world and in the awakened realm. Thus, he ventured directly to the bishop’s chamber.

“Hello, Cleric.” Dallion emerged near the desk, before the occupant of the room could react. Threads of music connected to the unfortunate person, preventing him from twitching a muscle. “Stay still,” Dallion ordered. To be on the safe side, he also cast a series of binding spells, surrounding the bishop in several spheres of aether.

“I didn’t expect you so soon,” the other replied. On the outside, he still resembled the albino that Dallion had met years ago. Yet, both of them knew that to be nothing more than a disguise. The real bishop was just another of the archbishop’s copyettes placed to play the role of bishop to the world. “I never doubted you’d come, though.”

“Lucky me.” Dallion cast another quick spell to dissolve the massive desk in the room.

“For what it’s worth, I didn’t approve of you being killed. It was all for the greater good.”

“Isn’t it always?”

“The emperor’s too dangerous. If he’s let unchecked, the world will—”

“The emperor wasn’t in the capital,” Dallion interrupted.

The determination with which the statement was made caused surprise to leak from the albino. The copyette quickly tried to block it, but it was already too late.

“You didn’t know, did you?” Dallion laughed. “You’ve been serving him for Moons know how long and you never knew.”

“The emperor was there.” Cleric insisted.

“Sure. I’m not here for that. I just want to learn how far the Order has spread throughout the world.” Dallion mixed magic with music skills. “And you’re going to tell me the location of every last one.”