Billy soared effortlessly through the air as a gryphon, with Jenna mounted on him. Bob followed at close distance, gliding in his manta form.

  Bob had told them that the Imperial’s weird senses took most of the joy out of flying. Billy was grateful he had decided to travel on his own rather than share the ride with Jenna, as the extra weight did, in fact, make a difference.

  It took them nearly an hour to arrive at the location marked on the map by Eleon, with Jenna serving as their navigator. As he had warned them, the Black Tower was an entirely unimpressive structure. Billy would not have given it a second glance had he come across it by chance. That was the intention all along.

  They went down a short flight of stairs, which led to a never-ending tunnel with a slight downward slope.

  “Did anybody remember to bring a light source?” Billy asked, knowing in advance they had not. They had faced a Tribulation, for God’s sake. They were supposed to be better at adventuring than this.

  “No problemo,” said Bob, quite out of character. He always tried to say cool things when he wanted to show off.

  He drank from the Cup —always the Cup— and started glowing as if he were made of radioactive material.

  “It is a simple rank 3 Flamecraft perk…” he began to explain.

  “Yes, yes. We know the theory,” Jenna interrupted him. “How long does it last?”

  “As long as I want to, but then I can’t use it again for one hour,” explained Bob.

  They walked for what seemed like hours until they finally saw a distant light at the end of the tunnel.

  Everything was like Eleon had described it, including the insectoid dragon, watching them as he emerged from the underground lake at the cavern’s center.

  There was a tangy ozone-like smell in the air. The cave was absolutely silent, which surprised Billy. These underground places usually amplify sound, since it cannot disperse into the open air.

  The walls were hung with fluorescent lichen that emitted a sickly green light, just potent enough to allow them to see dimly.

  Tens of corridors emerged from the sides of the cave.

  They had just emerged from one of them. Billy cast a second glance at it and realized that the corridor they had come through now contained numerous evenly spaced side corridors on its left.

  The die was cast. Any attempt to leave the cavern through the tunnel would now take them back to this very spot. Billy briefly wondered if Jenna and Bob could teleport out of this place, but decided that the risk was probably not worth it.

  “You took your sweet time,” the Dragon’s voice sounded inside their minds. “You told me it would be only a matter of a couple of days.”

  “Wait!” Bob asked. “You have met us before?”

  “Oops, sorry, my bad,” the dragon apologized. “I have mistaken you for your future selves. You know, when you ditch Billy for Bob and have seven kids with him.”

  A glacial silence swept the room.

  “You also adopt two kobolds,” the dragon added. “You name Billy one of them.”

  The Losers gaped open-mouthed at the creature.

  “Just joking, just joking, I made it up,” it said apologetically. “Sorry, I don’t get much social interaction down here. I have to make the most of it.”

  “Does this count at the terrible price we have to pay for your help?” fumed Jenna.

  “In your dreams,” answered the Keeper.

  Billy was scanning the place with his Essence sight. It looked weird through those optics. There were lots of afterimages superimposed on each other, as if someone had tried to cram a whole photo album inside a single shot.

  Ghostly individuals of every race and shape occupied the dungeon. The only constant feature was the dragon; it looked solid and real, in contrast to the spectral presences.

  Billy felt something ring inside his mind and opened his system screen.

  There was one new tag in his dungeon screen.

  Temporal: The dungeon allows access to other temporal dimensions. All Temporal dungeons feature their own mechanism to prevent temporal paradoxes. This mechanism may vary between different instances.

  Billy almost trembled with excitement. He could build his own time machine now! The possibilities were…

  “It does not work like that,” the dragon interrupted his train of thought, clearly amused.

  Temporal dungeons exist to preserve the sanctity of History, not to defile it. And who is Doctor Who? Never heard of him.”

  The damn thing could read his mind like an open book.

  “Let’s get to business,” Jenna interrupted them. “We need directions to...”

  “Yes, let’s get to business,” the Dragon cut her. “You first do something for me, then I will give you whatever directions you desire.”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “And before you try any of those silly Bartering perks on me,” the beast said, turning to face Bob just moments before he attempted that very idea, “let me remind you that you will never leave this room without reaching an agreement with me. You are not in a position of strength, so do not test my patience.”

  Their original idea was to ask for directions to the moment in which Andara had already reached Belona, but had not yet discovered she had traveled through time. They would take her out in the past before she could become a danger in the future.

  “Can you at least tell me if Andara…” Billy began.

  “I never snitch on my clients,” the dragon told him coldly.

  A client. Damn. She had already been here. God knows where, or when, she was now.

  “Ok, what do you want in exchange for your help?” Jenna asked the Keeper.

  “A former client was supposed to come to Belona for a date with Limbo a few months ago, but he hasn’t. Instead, he has entrenched himself in the past, in an impregnable fortress that he built over one year,” the dragon explained. "He has designed such a fortress as to automatically become an inescapable prison, even for himself, in a few weeks of his subjective time. Once that happens, he will not be able to make his fated trip to Limbo."

  “I will give you directions to the moment in the past he is currently at. Because he did not follow fate's instructions, he has become Dissonant. You must follow that Dissonance and subdue him. You need to take him back to the Black Tower and make him cross into the future. And you must do so before that damned place he has designed turns into a trap.”

  “He is Governance, isn’t he?” Jenna asked.

  “Of course he is,” the keeper confirmed. “Any questions?”

  “Yes, why send the three of us to do this work? You could send just one, and…” Bob started to ask.

  “It was merely a rhetorical question,” the dragon interrupted. “I have no intention of providing you with any information beyond what I have already given.”

  Bob fell silent, but a thoughtful expression replaced the confusion on his face.

  Billy recognized that expression. He sensed that Bob had perceived something significant.

  A series of twenty-one numbers manifested like glowing sigils on the dragon’s chest. “Use them well,” it said. “A single mistake means getting lost in the maze. You will end up here again, and then you will owe me one additional task.”

  The way back was as tedious and uninspiring as the way in. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they saw the light at the end of the tunnel and emerged from the tower.

  Then, suddenly, the silent presence of the blood link sputtered and went out.

  “My blood seal is down, I can’t feel your minds anymore,” said Billy with anguish.

  “Damn it, how did we not think of it?” exclaimed Bob. “Of course it is down, Dignity has not even been born yet. I had a small hope, seeing as it could work through different dimensions, but time travel has proved too much.”

  “Will it restart when we return to the present?” asked Jenna.

  "I highly doubt it will work that way. The power was not designed for that purpose. Originally, Dignity could only activate it for hour-long periods. However, when she became an Omega, her ability advanced, allowing her to keep it permanently active. But now, we are no longer in tune with that power. Only Dignity herself can restart it. We've become like those garage remote controls that need to be reset; the digital key must be reintroduced for them to function again."

  “So, basically, no more blood link until we return to the present and Dignity restarts us?” Billy summed up. “Damn, I am going to miss it,” he added.

  “Yes,” Bob conceded, “it is a huge tactical advantage."

  They were now inside a vast, lush forest. An enormous moon lit the whole sky.

  Valaia, the old Belona moon, would later split into three after being struck by a celestial object.

  The trees and the wildlife were slightly different from those they had seen in present-day Belona.

  Jenna scanned for Dissonance signals and detected one to the north. She triangulated its position and determined it was at least fifty miles away.

  Billy suddenly noticed something important: “Jenna, I am getting achievement points, even though I have not taken an experience tonic. I don’t know exactly at what point in time we have arrived, but this place has an active System.”

  Jenna’s eyes glazed for a few seconds, as they did when she expanded her Spirit. “You are right. This place is starting to sprout dungeons, and by starting, I mean precisely that. There are only a few of them, scattered all over the planet, none above first rank. The system was activated mere hours ago,” she concluded.

  “Oh, no, please,” Bob protested. “I can’t see another Apocalypse. I just can’t.”

  Billy sympathized with him. All their adventures, all the risks they had taken had only one goal: stopping this monstrosity. They had already prevented it in Belona’s present, but now they got a front row seat to witness the coming of Evolution to the planet. In a few months, most of the inhabitants would be dead or turned into monsters.

  “Let’s do this. The sooner we finish our task, the sooner we can leave this place,” Jenna answered curtly.

  Billy respawned in his gryphon form, and they flew towards the dissonance source, closely followed by Bob in his Committed shape.

  Their path took them near one bustling town. It had an oriental, Arabian Nights look. The inhabitants were stocky, with Mediterranean features and plain clothes. They worked, sweated, cursed, laughed, and cried, like any other.

  Billy felt a twinge of pity for them. They had absolutely no idea of what was coming their way.

  They finally reached their destination, which was hidden in a rocky, inaccessible canyon. Entry was possible only through the air, effectively cutting off access to the inhabitants of this world, who relied on primitive technology.

  The Dissonance came from a temple-like structure carved into the rock. Three huge stone figures presided over it. Billy’s breath caught in his chest as he recognized them. The three statues were idealized, but still clearly recognizable versions of the Losers, clad in their elven armor.

  Bob’s statue held a Palooga ball; Jenna’s had a sword; his wielded a spear.

  There was a huge word engraved in the porch. WELCOME.

  “Ok, things keep getting weirder. This guy was clearly expecting us,” Jenna said.

  “What makes you think that? Our three statues or the fact that the only word present is written in English?” Bob asked peevishly.

  “And now we know why he sent the three of us, instead of only one,” Bob said. “The Keeper knows we will not make it alone. This place has been clearly designed so that it can only be overcome by us three working as a team,” he concluded.

  “What makes you think that?” Billy asked.

  “He is right, Billy,” assented Jenna. “This is not the Keeper’s doing. This is Governance. He has forced the Keeper’s hand so that only the Losers can clear this place. He wants to speak with the three of us and has created a situation that can only be resolved by the Keeper sending us together into the past, at one specific moment in time. That bloody dragon would not waste two additional tasks otherwise.”

  “Well, if that is the case,” Billy said, “perhaps we will face no opposition at all. He wants us in, after all.”

  “Keep dreaming, Billy,” Jenna answered. “The only way this place is going to recognize us as the Losers is if we fight like them.”

  They prepared their weaponry, Bob adopted War Form, and they cautiously entered the Temple of Three, wondering what horrors awaited them inside.

  Volume 2.

  725 pages, and will probably end up closer to 800 once the bonus material is in.

  150 pages into Volume 3, Dawn of the Compendium.