We appeared back in outside to see the fortress that had formed around the dungeon decaying and creatures falling from the sky while others stumbled and fell to the ground.

  Their cores were losing their power. Over the next few minutes, the parasitical landscape began to reseed, leaving behind a devastated landscape.

  We found the remaining survivors inside a solar shield bubble created by a multi-shard-crafted item.

  “Bryn, is that you?” I heard Sirius call out from inside the bubble as we exited the former fortress walls.

  I let out a breath I didn’t even know I was holding.

  Emerilia let out a screech from the sky before descending onto Asher’s shoulder and nuzzling him.

  There were so few oreowls inside the bubble…

  “Sirius!” I ran over one as of the remaining Striker Guild members, deactivated the shield, and we embraced each other.

  “I’m glad you made it out. It looks like we may have an easier time returning.” He said as he looked over the horizon where a clear patch of desolate land led directly towards Aurelith.

  We didn’t know it, but that continued all the way to the walls of the capital city where any of the fungal growth had come from this dungeon.

  “We lost Wing.” I manage to get out.

  Sirius looked back at the few remaining Scout, Striker, and Wild Wardens that remained. “Too many, too many losses. I hope we were able to buy some time and give the capital a reprieve. Maybe they had finally figured out a way to fight back at scale.”

  “Here’s to hoping.” I nodded. “Something tells me this is far from over, though.” I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something was beginning to make me feel uneasy even with our success.

  “Take a short rest, heal up if you need it. We need to begin our return to the capital. The sooner we get moving, the better. We may mourn our losses once we are behind the walls.” Viper commanded.

  The survivors began to move about the battlefield, gathering anything of value. There was no wood around, so a few groups laid their dead in rows before a few pyromancers put them to final rest.

  Within a short time, we were ready to go, and we began our journey to the capital as fast as we could.

  —

  As we followed the dead landscape directly toward home, I checked my interface notifications.

  You have succeeded in completing a difficult quest.

  Reward Choices:

  Astral Raptor Bracers Upgrade

  Cloak of Night

  Aura Extension

  The bracer upgrade didn’t come with a description, the cloak said it would allow me to blend in with the night to be nearly invisible.

  Aura upgrade would increase the radius of my passive aura affects. While that would be a strong upgrade my bracers were still the most important part of my fighting style.

  After a few minutes of thinking I chose the bracers.

  Astral Raptor Bracers Upgrade Chosen

  …

  …

  …

  Bracer can now summon claws over your hands that are coated in aether-draining toxins. Scar effects will stack when fighting with claws. Storage space increased.

  It wasn’t in the description, but as I glanced down at my bracers I watched them transform and extend over the top of my hands adding new protection ending in points where the claws would clearly form while at the same time it extended down my arm covering just past my elbows in similar plating

  Before I could focus much more on them the next notification brought forward new information.

  Child of the Deep

  Path Level 10 Achieved.

  Progression Locked Until Next Path Chosen.

  Child of the Deep (11/14):

  Tremor Sense+

  Regeneration+

  Lithocurrent

  Gravitational Entropy

  Raptor’s Leap

  Detailed Map

  Bond Interface

  Party Interface

  Quest Reward System

  Final Wound

  Scars of Ending

  Available options based on shard integrations at current path level:

  Poisonous Touch

  Scaled Skin

  Piercing Fang

  Molten Blood

  Immovable

  Final Wound+

  Scars of Ending+

  Tremor Sense+

  Regeneration++

  Lithocurrent+

  Gravity+

  Available options based on bonded equipment at current path level:

  Predator’s Vector

  Raptor Leap+

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  Starbound Momentum

  Available interface options at current path level:

  Harvest

  Detailed Map+

  Party Interface+

  The list of options was honestly quite overwhelming. I decided that I would focus just on upgrades over adding in new things. I didn’t want to create too much diversity in my fighting, or it could cause problems in the long run.

  I selected Scars of Ending, Lithocurrent, and Party Interface. Scars was becoming a major key to my fighting style, seeing the speed increase that Dusk had with her upgraded Lithocurrent on display the last couple weeks made that an easy choice and I needed a better version of the party interface.

  It seemed to only let me add members that it believed were my actual ‘party.’ This meant it only worked with Sirius, Milo, and Malorn right now and it would have been a powerful tool to have inside the dungeon with the strike team.

  The upgrade suggested there would be more flexibility with what I could do to the interface, and I hoped that meant I could select members to add to my party whenever I wanted.

  Since I only chose upgrades, I didn’t feel the usually pain I did with my body adapting to new traits.

  With a quick glance I was delighted to see that my hopes were confirmed with the interface and there were lots of new options, but I didn’t have time to go through them. I’d wait till we made it back to the city.

  Dusk’s list had changed some as well.

  Tremor Sense

  Regeneration+

  Lithocurrent+

  Molten Blood

  Anti-Aetheric Breath

  Rend+

  Scars of Ending

  Shockwave+

  Consume

  She chose to upgrade Shockwave which granted her the ability to create shockwaves when she landed with force on the earth and not just when emerging from it.

  Then she picked up Scars of Ending after seeing how my knives weakened enemies.

  Interestingly, she chose something called Consume, which would allow her to consume a fallen foe who rivaled her in strength, gaining some of their power. It was vague and hard to tell exactly what it would do, given that her primary communication was images and emotions.

  We had grown stronger through this, but the only things I was thinking about were how the capital was faring in our absence.

  —

  After a week and a half of charging back to the capital with little resistance due to being in a dead zone where the Asharkith couldn’t track us because their parasitical landscape had been removed, we finally saw the city walls.

  To our amazement, within a range of about a hundred yards from the walls was a desolate landscape that matched what we had been running on all this time.

  We had seen the growth closing in on both sides the closer we got to the capital, where other dungeons were seeking to reclaim the land that we had freed. But seeing this brought a grain of hope I had yet to experience.

  As our group drew closer to the walls, a gigantic quake began rumbling through the earth, shaking everything with such intensity that we had to stop our progress and brace.

  The closer we had gotten to the capital over the last week, the stronger these quakes had become. It seemed the source of their strength was centered in Aurelith.

  Now that we were closer, I could see buildings that had collapsed from the quakes and sections of walls with cracks that had been sealed many times.

  As we reached the walls, cheers rang out from those on the battlements, and the gates were opened so we could enter.

  The Hand and Asher went straight to report to King Strider and the council as Elorian headed back to Fayrwynn to report to the elves. Guilds split and headed to debrief as well.

  Sirius and I found Milo and Malorn on the wall fighting with… salt?

  My tremor sense had picked up granules when we passed into the dead zone leading up to the walls, but now, I was sure. This was more potent, and clearly it was entropy-infused salt that my senses picked up coating every weapon and piece of armor on the walls. It coated catapult ammunition and ballista bolts.

  They had figured out a way to fight back. The first breakthrough since the Asharkith arrived.

  “Long time no see,” Milo puffed out around his pipe. “Check out our new shiny toy. Or maybe sandy toy. Whatever. Watch this.”

  He dipped his hand crossbow bolts into the salt, and Malorn did the same.

  They each picked a nidus approaching the walls and shot. The moment the bolts impacted, the creatures convulsed, then caved in on themselves and disintegrated, leaving only their cores.

  Another set of archers quickly took care of those.

  “You all have missed quite a bit,” Malorn smiled back at us.

  They stepped away from the walls, and we had a moment of celebration, embracing and grateful we were all still alive.

  Then another quake shook the ground, larger than anything we had ever felt before.

  Cracks formed, rushing through the city and spiderwebbing in every direction. What my tremor sense picked up next turned my celebration into horror as Asharkith tentacles began snaking their way through the cracks throughout the city.

  They began pulling the fissures further apart. Buildings collapsed across the city, and shrieks of terror could be heard as people plummeted to their deaths.

  “Off the walls!” I yelled, and anyone in earshot began clambering for the stairs.

  Due to our position, we were the closest and made it off the walls just as a giant tentacle rose out of the nearest crack and slammed into the wall, caving it in right where we had been standing.

  Dust coated the air and screams of dying men and women echoed everywhere.

  “What is that…” Sirius coughed through the haze.

  A giant hole had formed near the central fortress, and an Asharkith parasitical tower rose out of it, continuing to extend higher and higher into the sky.

  As more of it emerged, the tower revealed a castle fortress made of miasmic fungal growth that blotted out the sun, casting us in its horrifying shadow.

  At its top lay a red rift larger than I had ever seen before, easily ten times the size of an average rift.

  Then suddenly, the rift sent out a shockwave pulse that rippled through the capital, beyond its walls, and into the surrounding land.

  The nidus responded.

  Calls rang out from every direction as fungal monster screamed in triumph. Waves of creatures rushed toward the now broken walls and fractured city.

  That was when what could only be described as tainted flesh dragons stepped through the portal.

  Figures sat astride their backs, covered in plated armor.

  “There’s no way…” Malorn said in disbelief, his elven eyes painting a picture only he could fully see.

  “That… that’s the Arrogane insignia,” he whispered.

  All of this happened in mere moments as we scrambled to find stable ground.

  “What? The Arroganes? Never mind, we don’t have time for that. Head for the academy!” I yelled. “It may be our only route to safety.”

  I could see the academy walls from here. Those keyed aetheric doors could take us somewhere safe. We just had to reach them.

  The dragons took flight and began unleashing devastation across the city.

  Malorn and Milo used their remaining entropy salt to fend off surrounding nidus, while Sirius, Dusk, and I fought through tentacles and monsters to cut a path to the academy.

  We were getting closer when overhead I saw Asher in his razor-feathered form flying through the sky with Emerilia and his remaining oreowls.

  They tore through one of a dragon’s wings, causing its flight to falter and tumble toward the earth before it rapidly regenerated and regained control.

  Other combatants fought the dragons in the air, while those who could spare shots from the ground fired whenever they were not fighting for their lives.

  That was when I felt a dragon enter my tremor sense from behind us as we neared the academy walls.

  “Dodge!” I shouted through party chat. Our entire group dove for cover, scattering from our path.

  Claws raked across the ground where we had been standing moments before, and a fungal dragon landed on the wall we had been running toward.

  I stared up in disbelief. Luceran sat astride its back.

  He loomed over me just as he had all those years ago on my first day at the academy. His blazing blue eyes shone through his helmet, and hair like fire-washed gold spilled down his shoulders. I could see his venomous smile hidden behind his mask. At his side still hung his long blade, and across his back rested his aetheric shield.

  Now, however, his presence carried unrestrained Asharkith taint.

  Luceran looked human on the outside, but I could sense parasites and maggots coursing through his body like blood, and an Asharkith core had fused with his heart, pulsing in a chaotic rhythm.

  “Did you miss me?” His voice sounded monstrous.