“So I just tell the System what I want, and it’s done?”

  Romulus looked first from the specter, and then toward the hidden chamber he’d guided them to, located behind the throne. The cylindrical space was twenty meters in diameter and as high as the throne room, close to fifteen meters. The top was crowned by a mural depiction of Lilith painted onto the domed ceiling. He stood at the edge of a circle of runed tiles, each part of an immense shimmering runic array that pulsed with sigils of power emanating void-purple light.

  “Yes. The System is far more aware and intuitive than most people ever grasp. You do not need to navigate every single menu every single time. Simply state what you desire, and the System will comply so long as the instruction has no room for misinterpretation,” the ghost replied patiently. “As I said, it is relatively straightforward.”

  “Okay, and… what if the person doesn’t want to come?”

  Mortarius shook his head.

  “In this case, from all you have told me of Miss Dragomirov, that is moot—but if you wanted to summon someone less agreeable to the process, then the result would depend on their combined Spell Potency Spell Resistance matching against your Spell Potency. If they exceed your singular value through their combined value, the summons will fail.”

  “Which I’m guessing wasn’t a problem when you were in your Prime.”

  Mortarius smiled slyly at Romulus’ words and inclined his head.

  “Indeed. At the peak of my power, I was only one step below the Divinarchs and stood at the Dark Lady’s right hand. Few existed that could challenge my powers, outside of those that were wholly invested in the sorcerous arts,” the specter said with absolutely zero humility. “Though that should also be a lesson to you, Romulus; an Autarch of my power was brought low by the Pantheon, and you are in swaddling clothes by comparison. That should impress upon you the gravity of the challenge that lies ahead.”

  “You’re a ray of sunshine, Mortarius, you know that?” Romulus responded with a grumble.

  “Pragmatism is superior to all other forms of perspective,” Mortarius replied unapologetically. “Now, let us meet this friend of yours.”

  Romulus struggled not to roll his eyes at his predecessor and instead spoke to the air.

  “System, activate the ‘Summon Target’ function for the Mana Nexus.”

  The moment he said the words, a screen appeared before him.

  “Traveler Katherine Dragomirov,” he stated firmly.

  “Well, here we go,” he said to Mortarius with a glance, and received only a nod from the former Autarch. He looked back at the screen and, with a breath out, hit the ‘YES’ button firmly. Immediately, the runes on the smaller circle of tiles lit up with voidal energy, and a dull hum filled the chamber. Romulus felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end like the air was charged with static electricity.

  “Woah,” he said not-so-eloquently, and rested his left hand on Lightsbane’s hilt.

  “It is always impressive,” Mortarius commented idly from his side. “Now all that remains is for your friend to accept the—Ah.”

  The reason for his predecessor-cum-mentor’s truncated statement made itself clear a moment later when a black rift ripped itself into existence, not unlike the one which had dragged him to Lilith’s prison. Romulus watched with interest as it asserted itself into the space and hovered there with crackles of black-purple lightning arcing across its edges and snapping at the air.

  Ten seconds passed with nothing happening before Romulus half-turned his head toward Mortarius and spoke.

  “Is it normal for nothing to happen?”

  “No,” Mortarius said with a slight frown. “It is very much not normal. Something may have happened to her.”

  “Like what?” Romulus asked with mild alarm.

  “Any number of things. Someone may have been nearby and intercepted her, or a Power may have intervened after detecting the mana type, to name two possibilities.”

  “That isn’t remotely comforting, you know. I don’t want her to—”

  Romulus cut off his annoyed response when the portal abruptly crackled with an excessive flash of power and a familiar feminine redhead stumbled out of it.

  Katherine Dragomirov looked almost identical to how she did on Earth, save for the fact that she had opted for a decidedly different approach to her fashion in Eternus. Just like in every game she’d played, she’d somehow managed to combine style with function. She clutched a dark wooden longbow in her left hand, with boiled leather and chainmail adorning her fair skin.

  She turned to look back at the portal and let out a low whistle when she did.

  “Huh. Neat,” she said as if it had been like riding a particularly lackluster rollercoaster. Romulus couldn’t help but crack a smile at her reaction, and stepped forward to meet her when she turned toward him and Mortarius. However, her eyes seemed to ignore the ghost and settled solely on Romulus—jade eyes subtly more vibrant within the reflected glow of the hidden chamber.

  The portal winked out a moment later, and her features split into a broad smile.

  “I did it!” she chirruped happily and then paused in her tracks. “Woah. Darian?”

  Romulus paused mid-step at her audible confusion, and then realized he probably did look different. Notably so. He automatically glanced down at himself, noting the black and red warplate, the skull on his breastplate, the skull-hilted blade at his side, the death motifs on his armor—and then looked back at Kate.

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

  “Hey, Kay,” he said while suddenly aware that even his voice sounded different now that he was fully conscious of it. “Uh. Surprise?”

  Kate stared at him for another long moment, then let out a squeal of delight. “Oh my GOD, you look so HOT!” she shouted, and then sprinted at him fast enough that Lightsbane pulsed a frantic alert a second before the redhead collided with a full force hug.

  She was fast.

  “Jesus, Kay,” he said with an embarrassed laugh and caught her in his arms, allowing her legs to wrap around his waist for purchase. “You’re fast as hell. Yeah. I got a slight makeover, I guess,” he agreed wryly. “Perks of the whole Autarch of the Dark Lady deal.”

  “Oh my god, Darian, you have to tell me everything,” she said while leaning back to stare up into his eyes. “Your eyes are, like, completely red. You look like one of those hot manhua Vampires I used to read comics about, and your hair is closer to platinum than pure blond. Wow. You got taller, too!”

  Lightsbane pulsed its tacit approval to her compliments, mixed with some confusion.

  “The armor helps, but yeah, I made some adjustments,” he admitted while smiling at her and savoring the feeling of having his best friend back. “I’ve got loads to tell you, and I’ve done heaps of research into Eternus—though, while we’re here, call me Romulus, okay?”

  “Right, right,” she said while staring at him for a second longer, and then patted his chest to signal him to let her down, which he did. “You’re using that alias in Eternus. I almost forgot. Sorry, it’s just—wow! You look, like, completely different. It’s giving so much Lestat.”

  “You and that oldie nomenclature,” he said fondly while smiling at her words. “No one says ‘giving’ anymore, Kay.”

  “I like the classics,” she replied primly. “Anyway, that portal? Totally weird. I thought there was some sort of glitch when it ripped open in front of me.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s how it was for me too,” he admitted. “I tried to swim away from the first one I saw, because it sucked me in—but we can discuss that later. I have a lot to tell you and get you up to speed on, and we have some choices to make… but first, I need to introduce you to someone.”

  “Oh?”

  Romulus turned to the ghost behind him and gestured to the spectral figure.

  “This is Mortarius,” he said grandly. “My mentor, I suppose.”

  Kate followed his gesture and then raised her eyebrows.

  “There’s no one there,” she said after a moment.

  “Huh?”

  Romulus turned back toward her and then looked at Mortarius again. A sigh came from the ghost, and he walked forward until he was closer in proximity before snapping his fingers.

  “Hello, Katherine Dragomirov,” Mortarius said regally. “I am Mortarius.”

  Kate’s eyes widened and her lips parted in an ‘O’ of surprise.

  “Woah. You look like Casper’s sexier brother.”

  Mortarius raised his eyebrows at her words, and Romulus let out a decidedly unprofessional snort of amusement.

  “I take it that is a Traveler cultural reference,” the dead King said graciously. “I will thank you for what I assume is a compliment, but Romulus was correct in that you have much to learn, and some decisions to make.”

  “Huh. Sounds serious,” Kate said thoughtfully, still eyeing Mortarius with curious eyes. “I assume it has something to do with Lulu’s makeover?”

  Romulus nodded along to the discourse, right up until ‘Lulu’, and then did a double-take.

  “Hey, woah, no way. We are not going with ‘Lulu’!” he objected immediately.

  At his hip, Lightsbane pulsed a wave of pure mirth and vibrated in a way that Romulus interpreted as the closest thing the Runeblade could get to laughter.

  Mortarius stared at Kate for a long moment, then turned to Romulus with only the second genuine smile he’d ever seen from the ghost. “Yes,” he confirmed without blinking, “Lulu and his current state of existence are, indeed, tied intrinsically to the choices you will face.”

  “Fuck you, Morty,” Romulus said immediately. “You traitor.”

  “Romulus is too much of a mouthful, Dee,” Kate said slyly. “I promise I won’t call you Lulu in front of anyone else, but just live with it for now.”

  “Oh my God, this isn’t happ—okay, look, whatever,” he said irritably while Mortarius continued smiling like he’d been handed an early Christmas gift. “The rundown of it is simple, Kay: I became the Autarch of a Divinarch, which is kind of like a pagan deity, and gained a whole lot of new powers and abilities. However, it came with the cost of pissing off basically every other major and minor Power in the Pantheon.”

  Kate nodded along to his words, and when he turned to lead the way out of the room, she followed him alongside Mortarius.

  “Powers are what they call people who level up beyond Mortality here in Eternus. Basically, I promised my allegiance to the Divinarch of Darkness, Death, Sin, and Order in exchange for almost complete agency. Her name is Lilith, but most people know her as the Dark Lady or She of the End.”

  “That’s so cool,” Kate said while they walked toward the exit. “Is that her on that mural? What a baddie.”

  “Yeah,” Romulus agreed while Mortarius flickered with misunderstanding at the term ‘baddie’, but said nothing. “So, Lilith promised me I could chart my own course, basically, so long as I worked to restore her Faith and Worship across Eternus. The complication, though, is that her brother Hyperion—the Divinarch of Light, Life, Kings, and whatnot—wants to kill me before I can do that. He’s organized an entire Army to come crush me like a bug.”

  “Huh. So you really did flip the script,” Kate said appreciatively and brushed her hair behind her ear. “Normally you’re all about that righteous stuff.”

  Lightsbane pulsed its disapproval at that, and Romulus patted the sword reassuringly.

  “Yeah, well, I decided I wanted a change, like I said,” he confirmed while stepping out of the chamber and leading his companions into the massive throne room. “I claimed this book—” he patted the [Liber Nox] chained to his right hip “—from Mortarius, who was its guardian and a really strong Power before he transitioned to his current state. He tested me, decided I passed, and conferred the title and duty of Dark Autarch on me, then graciously agreed to stick around as my mentor.”

  “What a champ,” she said with a smile for the ghost, who inclined his head.

  “Along with that,” Romulus continued, “I was given the power of a Sanguine Revenant—a really powerful Vampire, basically.”

  “Okay. So what do you need me to do?” Kate asked without preamble when they came to a halt near the throne. Mortarius stayed with them but remained silent, and seemed to simply be listening and taking note of their discourse with considering eyes.

  “Well, I have to hunt down some people in the city that might pose a more immediate threat to me, but before that, there’s a choice you have to make immediately. Well, sort of,” Romulus said and idly thumbed Lightsbane’s hilt, receiving an encouraging pulse in return. “I have the ability to turn you into a Sanguine like me, but I think that may be a mistake to do too quickly—it confers some weaknesses that may hinder our immediate goals.”

  “I’m guessing you’ve got an idea, Lulu. Get to the point,” Kate said with a dimpled grin.

  “Right, sorry,” he said with a smile of his own. “So, basically, I have this thing called a Benediction that I can give you. It won’t change you into something like me, but it’ll give you access to my kind of Magic—that is, Dark Mana—and it’ll apparently boost you somehow. I figure if we do that, it’ll increase our chances of success. No one saw you enter the city, so you’re a completely unknown factor. Even if they suspect me, they won’t suspect a second Traveler.”

  Kate nodded to his words and tapped her lips in thought.

  Meanwhile, Mortarius picked that moment to speak.

  “The idea has merit,” the ghost said consideringly. “Travelers grow with prodigious speed, and based on what I can observe, Katherine here is clearly an Archer with considerable investment in her Agility. A Benediction would do a considerable amount for making her battle-ready, and it would give you a—forgive the pun—powerful arrow in your proverbial quiver, and one in hers as well. Dark Mana synergizes very well with ranged combat.”

  Romulus nodded at Mortarius’ words and turned to Kate, who was looking between both of them with quiet calculation.

  “So, you want to give me a power boost, give me access to Dark Mana, and enlist my help in going full Assassin’s Creed on some people in the city?”

  Mortarius furrowed his eyebrows again, but Romulus just nodded.

  “Okay!” Kate said with a smile. “But! You have to promise me that when it’s not going to be a hindrance to what we want to achieve, you will make me a Vampire. You cannot keep that away from me. You’ve got to promise, Dee!”

  “I promise,” Romulus said without hesitation. “No worries.”

  “This is a good plan,” Mortarius said after a moment more of consideration. “I concur with your idea, Romulus. Katherine will make a very potent ally in completing your immediate objectives, and another Sanguine will be invaluable once Hyperion’s forces reach the city.”

  “Glad you agree, Morty!” Kate said with a sly smirk for the ghost.

  Romulus gave the specter a victoriously smug look, and Mortarius deadpanned.

  “So,” Kate said cheerfully. “What are we waiting for? Let’s get this ceremony done and kill some zealots.”

  At her words, Lightsbane pulsed its enthusiastic approval.

  Well, Romulus thought to himself, things are about to get a whole lot more interesting.

  Truthfully, he couldn’t wait. It was time to get into his favorite part of any game.

  Gratuitous violence.

  Concept Art of Katherine Dragomirov

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