Vivari the Veiled. She was the final boss of the first act, but despite that, she was a fair bit stronger than many of the bosses that came after her. Stat-wise, she easily dwarfed Metterand. The player fought her alongside some other temporary units—people like Christoph, Lorenna. She was indirectly responsible for Christoph’s death, too. So… he supposed her death was one problem out of the way.

  Timeline’s really going out of whack, Lucian thought as he advanced through the safehouse, sticking near Aurelia. Got a major boss as an ‘ally,’ Metterand’s dead, Vivari’s about to die… He stopped himself. Well, don’t get cocky. You’re starting to feel yourself, and that’s never a good thing, he thought admonishingly.

  Vivari was an excellent example of why stats weren’t necessarily everything. Even though his brother-in-law had much fewer attribute points in total, his excellent ability and style of fighting made him a much more dangerous opponent than she could ever be. Vivari used ice magic, and ice magic… it left a lot to be desired, in Lucian’s opinion. His, and half the War of Four community’s.

  “Should get you a saddle,” Lucian said. “Maybe a backpack. There’s a lot of things in here I want, but don’t want to carry.”

  Aurelia glanced at him with a look of annoyance—he was getting better at reading her in that form, he thought. They came to the door of the Ice Palace. It had as formidable a door as the entrance, but it wasn’t locked. It was merely that thick because it needed to be insulated to keep the cold inside.

  “Alright, listen up.” Lucian glanced around, and then looked at Aurelia. She sat back, watching the door. “Vivari has an ability just like Metterand’s. She can move freely through ice. That said, it’s not as unrestricted as his was. Until she dies and the demon pops out, it requires magic to use—a hell of a lot of magic. Vivari is much weaker than you, physically, but… her magic can probably kill you,” he said honestly, then grabbed at his satchel. “Unless you use my potions, that is.

  “This…” Lucian produced one. “Simple potion for ice resistance. Your ice affinity is decent. 48%. I think it should be higher, considering how cold and heartless you are, but what do I know? Coupled with this, you should be pretty resistant to her spells. Now, this one…” He produced another potion. “It’s one of Charlton Lowenthal’s potions. It changes the nature of your holy damage. Instead of recovering your health, it absorbs their magic. If you get one good holy-attuned hit on her after drinking this, it’s over. She’ll have no magic, and she won’t be able to walk through the walls, won’t be able to use spells whatsoever. You can boss her around, chomp her to bits. Physically, she can’t compare to you.”

  Aurelia nodded.

  “Even still, you’re not a cat. Don’t play with your food. Finish it quickly. The potions last around ten minutes,” Lucian informed her. “When she’s dead… just step back. She’ll transform, and I’ll handle the rest.”

  Her yellow vulpine eyes lingered on him, as if there was some question she had. Perhaps she was wondering where his confidence came from. He knew where—he had the Voodoo Dagger, the blessings to use it skillfully, and another much better trick besides. Regardless, if Aurelia had a question, she didn’t ask it. She nodded and then rose back to all four legs.

  Lucian pulled out the cork on both bottles and laid them on the floor. “Whenever you’re ready, drink up.” He walked forth to the door. “I’ll open this when you’re ready.”

  Aurelia threw back both potions without reservations.

  Could’ve poisoned those, Lucian thought as he watched. Claimed that she died fighting a demon.

  He hoped Aurelia would demonstrate that Lucian wasn’t being a fool by not doing so.

  ***

  Vivari weaved through the maze of her Ice Palace, her eyes following the big black mass hunting her down. Her foe was being cautious. She had already demonstrated that she knew Vivari’s ability to travel through the ice. Thus far, neither side had earned so much as a glancing blow.

  But there’s another one here, Vivari reflected, peering through the distorted images. He’s lingering near the back, far out of view. He thinks that I can’t attack him.

  Maybe he was right in that assessment, but he was still another variable that she could use. She needed to figure out how this black divine beast—likely Aurelia—would react if she targeted him. She began to step through the ice aggressively, beelining toward him. This consumed her magic aggressively, but she was confident that she wouldn’t place herself at risk.

  As expected, Aurelia began to move toward her quickly. This figure in the back—he was important to things, somehow. Was he the one that had performed that grandiose display of skill back at her spire? It was enough to bring her pause. Perhaps she was being baited.

  As she vacillated between retreating and advancing, a wall of ice in her palace shattered and Aurelia burst through. Vivari immediately sent out a lance of ice, but Aurelia projected holy fire. It bathed Vivari, and burned terribly. She tried to retreat back to her ice… yet her back bounced against the wall.

  What? Vivari looked at her hands. Magic fatigue? This… this…!

  Aurelia walked forward, looming large with a lance of ice sticking out of her shoulder. She shook herself once, and it shattered. Then, her mouth began to glow with holy flame. Her jaw opened wide, and she lunged. In response, Vivari could only call upon the devil within.

  And yet… it was wholly insufficient.

  ***

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Lucian walked out of the cover of the ice walls in the palace. He didn’t like this place at all. The corpses of the infants that Vivari kept weren’t on open display, but he still knew they were there, and that was the disquieting part.

  I thought that this would be hard… but the arena should actually make it easier, Lucian thought. Usually, I have to wait for her to set up an ice wall to do the trick. I knew how to RNG manipulate it so she always spat out an ice wall right away, but this… saves me a lot of trouble.

  He came to where Aurelia stood with labored breath over the corpse of Vivari the Veiled. The possessed woman was pale white, wearing a modest dancer’s outfit. Her veil had fallen off during the course of the fighting. Fangs, burns, cuts, slashes… already, demonic energy was leaking out of her wounds. It wouldn’t be long before the demon within awoke.

  “Just go find cover somewhere,” Lucian said. “She could hit you pretty hard if you’re not careful.”

  Aurelia didn’t need to be told twice. She immediately ran off to a well-protected place within this maze of ice. Lucian walked away a fair distance, putting a wall of ice between himself and Vivari. The ice in this place was exceptionally clear—clear enough to see through, even. He watched and waited.

  Then, as had happened with Duke Metterand, her body began to crack with darkness. That noise… it was like it was engineered to make his skin crawl. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to it, and he wasn’t even hearing it with the same intensity as he had the first time. Moments later, a grand eruption of dark energy occurred.

  Ruminian the Unveiled erupted from Vivari. Unlike Belhazek, this thing was huge. It was a decrepit gray serpentine dragon, its claws menacing with shards of ice. Many of its scales had fallen away, and in their place, demonic eyes peered outward. Like Vivari, Ruminian was a proud beast driven to ruin. Their despair allowed them to be corrupted by the demons. Ruminian had even turned into one of them. Their shared drive for vengeance had led them to merge as one. Vivari sought vengeance against the empire—Ruminian sought vengeance against all humanity.

  The dragon kept bursting free of Vivari’s body for a long time. For some reason, all Lucian could think was silly string. As that unserious notion came to his head, it made him nervous. He couldn’t afford to act casual, not at such a pivotal moment. He needed to get this right. His trick was sound. He knew it was sound.

  But what if it wasn’t?

  Lucian swallowed, running through his backup plans. At least he had some backup plans. The thing with Metterand had been sloppy, but this was going too smoothly. This was the point where things normally went wrong. Where was the complication? Was Vivari’s son going to rise from the dead as a super-demon? Was Belcourt going to kick down the door?

  Focus. Focus, he told himself as the silly string serpent continued to erupt outward. It fixed its eyes on him, as he expected. Then, its serpentine body fell into the ice, weaving through it as majestically as an eel through water. It ignored Aurelia entirely, going right for him. It seemed to lack its hosts fear.

  Lucian watched, watched, waited, until it was no more than a few feet away from him. Then, he activated the Blessing of the Soothsayer, its prompt ringing in his mind.

  You’ve gained the ability to achieve favorable outcomes in one round of combat once per day.

  As it had been when last he used it against Metterand, Lucian could see countless futures unfolding before his eyes. He saw myriad different ways in which the silly string serpent brutally mutilated him, often simply swallowing him whole in one bite. At the same time, he also saw the future he had been counting on. As it turned out, his trick was sound. He didn’t need those backups after all.

  Lucian didn’t dodge, twist, writhe, jump, or anything of the sort. Ruminian burst out of the wall of ice, jaw open wide as it roared in fury. He held up his hand, feeling the Inquisitor’s Mark beneath his glove. The moment that its snout touched his finger, he activated a cheap skill—Annul.

  Annul was inexpensive, and its effect was pretty minimal. It didn’t have many uses throughout War of Four because it required contact, and if the player was close enough to make contact, it was better to just hit the enemy. But in this situation, it was perfect. Why?

  On contact, it canceled all active demonic powers.

  Ruminian had been charging him like a freight train seconds before, but as soon as he activated Anull, it jerked violently and froze in place. Its jaw twitched, but didn’t close. After all, its brain, alongside all the rest of its body, had suddenly been trapped in ice.

  He’d forced Ruminian to turn off its wallhacks.

  A few moments later, the dragon’s jaw slammed shut, and its head sagged lifelessly. It started to dissipate into ash, and its purified essence surged toward Lucian. Lucian took a deep breath and exhaled, all the tension draining from his body. He’d be sweating if he wasn’t in a damn freezer, but that… a fight as smooth as butter. A small consolation for this otherwise disastrous change of plans.

  Aurelia walked out of her place, shifting to her human form. Her gaze wandered the various bits that were still frozen in the ice. Her eyes were wide, and her mouth slightly agape. Finally, her eyes landed on him. She crossed her arms as she watched him. From her perspective, it probably looked like he just instantly killed Ruminian. No need to dispel that delusion.

  “I guess I understand why she ran,” Lucian conceded.

  ***

  Miriam put the Jeweled Eye in place, all the setup for the ritual complete. This formula and its process were definitely rudimentary, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t impressive. It was essentially an extrapolation of a basic distillation and infusion onto a much larger medium. She had studied it plenty, and it had no special requirements.

  She hobbled to her place, removed her prosthetic, and then sat down on the ground. She placed her hand on its spot, closed her eyes, and allowed her magic to flow into the ritual. At once, all of the various items involved in this process began to warp and change. It consumed her magic rapidly enough that she immediately reached for one of the many potions that she had brought to replenish her magic and ensure she could complete this in one go.

  Miriam drank them one after another, feeling the weight of the magic she was commanding. It felt like she was trying to tame a raging elephant. But she could tame it, damn it all. She had to. Her will clung to the magic like a vice, and it acted precisely as she directed it to—no more, no less.

  Miriam felt the spire shake from the intensity of the ritual, but persisted. She could hear the uneasy steps of the monastics as they backed away from the ritual, but she didn’t dare open her eyes and distract herself. Then… a chiming. She opened her eyes and fell to the ground, exhaling in relief. She lifted her head up toward the center of the ritual.

  The Jeweled Eye, once red and inert, now shone with countless colors. It looked as though the gem itself contained a universe of possibilities. In a way, it did. That eye could peer back through time. What Lucian hoped to gain, she didn’t know. When she’d asked, he’d mentioned one thing alone.

  ‘You know that big skull around Golvenne? Well… that thing used to be alive. That’s the time where I’m heading.’