Xavier hovered high in the air above the Dark Mountains. The thought repeated itself in his mind, and he knew exactly where it came from.

  Resist us no longer. We can give you peace.

  The Nightmare was communicating with him—trying to take control of him.

  Xavier swallowed. He had felt other people and spirits speak to him through thoughts in the past, but nothing had ever sounded like this. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how he might describe the voice.

  Old… no. Ancient.

  Xavier checked his mental barriers. He still had control over the bits of the darkness that were attached to his skin—the small portion of The Nightmare that he kept alive within the time dilation field that he’d sustained since stepping onto the Dark Mountains.

  There shouldn’t have been a way for the demon to enter his mind.

  So how had it done it?

  Xavier checked himself. He was still in control. Releasing a sigh, he moved on with his task, but he did it with a newfound fear fluttering in his chest.

  He moved faster than he had before, pushing his time dilation spell to its limits, eradicating the black substance in record time wherever he found it, killing every beast he passed. He cleaned its existence from every inch of the mountain he could. He could still feel the damage it was taking—the pain it was in. He must have taken out nearly half of it by now.

  And he could hear it talking to him.

  Xavier had no idea how The Nightmare had managed to speed its thought up to a rate that he was able to understand it, but he’d known that the demon had been adapting ever since it had been made aware of his presence.

  I need to push harder.

  But even as he pushed, he felt the limits of his time dilation field. Soon, there would come a time when he couldn’t hold it up anymore. His Willpower Infusion spell had served him well. He was still able to expand his control into any parts of the demon that came into his time dilation field.

  Once that field dropped, however, all bets were off.

  He needed to figure out another way to kill this thing. Melee attacks hadn’t worked—he’d tried everything he could. He went through his different spells, trying to think of ones that would serve him here, but all of his offensive spells… they dealt soul damage, or they took control, or they burned out cores.

  Did this thing even have cores?

  It didn’t work like any other being he had ever faced.

  But there was something he could try.

  He might not be able to injure this thing, but if he called upon others…

  Xavier swooped down, carving his time dilation field through the air as he flew, until he reached a pack of infected wolven on the side of the mountain, on a large grassy plane. The wolven looked frozen in time to him.

  Xavier landed on the ground just before the pack.

  He didn’t yet expand his time dilation field to encompass them. First, he needed to set the trap. Then, he would let them walk into it.

  Xavier cast Soul Sacrifice.

  He felt a rush of energy as the souls he used to cast the spell left him.

  His soulkeeping reserve was full, and after all the ranks he’d received, it was rather massive. He had many thousands of souls at his disposal, which meant he could maintain the bridge to the Otherworld for a good while.

  But that wasn’t what he was trying to do. That wouldn’t be enough.

  Still, he poured a thousand souls into the spell. That would keep the bridge open more than long enough for him to test out what he wished to test out—and not only that.

  There was a specific spirit from the Otherworld he wished to call upon, one that he hoped would come through when he activated the spell—this spirit had always come through in the past.

  A notification appeared as he cast the spell.

  You have cast Soul Sacrifice.

  {1,000 Souls} have been sacrificed to the Otherworld. A bridge has been established. Await the spirits at your leisure.

  Xavier didn’t have to wait long.

  The first spirit to come through was the exact one that he had been hoping would come.

  Volkarin, the dragon that was the Spirit of Vengeance, tore through the bridge and landed next to Xavier. Xavier, anticipating how damned big the dragon was, had extending the limits of the time dilation field’s size before casting the Soul Sacrifice spell.

  The massive dragon extended its wings and threw back its head in a roar to announce its majestic presence, then it gazed down at Xavier.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  Ah! Young Denizen! You have called upon me once more to deal death to your enemies! I will rip and tear them apart and serve their innards to you on a platter if you so wish. We can feast on their blood side-by-side, dragonkin!

  When Xavier had first used the spell after becoming not only D Grade, but also of the dragonkin race, Volkarin had been absolutely delighted. Felicia might have been right about other dragonkin not being accepting of other races becoming one of their number, but as an actual dragon, Volkarin wasn’t bothered by it at all.

  Xavier recalled the dragon’s words to him.

  Mad? Of course I’m not mad! Any Denizen with half a mind can see that dragons are the most superior beings in all of the Greater Universe. It is mad that more of your kind don’t seek to become closer to us. You are wise beyond your years, young dragonkin. You will go farther than I had even at first imagined!

  Then the dragon had thrown its head back and laughed delightedly. At least, that was how Xavier had interpreted the laugh. Since becoming dragonkin, he had found it easier to read the dragon’s body language.

  He supposed that only made sense.

  I wonder what would have happened if I’d chosen the Soul of the Dragon class…

  But that was never going to be in the cards for him.

  Xavier nodded at the wolven amassed outside the time dilation barrier. The pack was eight strong, with an Infected Alpha Wolven at their head. Weak beasts to him now, they were no challenge. They would not pose a challenge to the dragon, either.

  I wish you do deal with these, Xavier replied, only needing to think his words to communicate with the dragon spirit.

  The dragon turned its head and eyed the wolven. Other spirits flowed through the bridge. Xavier was aware that he was becoming well-known in the Otherworld. Then again, he might have been known there already… other versions of him, at least, as the Otherworld was a place between universes.

  But that warped his mind. It was far too much to think about.

  Either way, he knew that whenever he cast Soul Sacrifice, he was likely to get a stream of high-quality, powerful spirits to come through the bridge from the Otherworld and fight for him.

  Even if their behaviour could not always be predicted. For instance, it would be unwise for him to cast this spell if he had company.

  Perhaps it was a good thing that he almost always fought alone.

  Volkarin huffed smoke through his slightly transparent nose. You wish for me to deal with these vermin? Slaughtering vermin is never below me—I will deal death to whomever and whatever you put in front of me—but are you not worried that you waste my talents, young dragonkin?

  Xavier was about to reply when the dragon’s eyes widened slightly. He sniffed the air, looked back through the barrier, then he looked at Xavier’s hand, where the black substance could be seen.

  Ah. The dragon spirit crooned. I think I can understand what is going on here.

  You sense the demon’s presence?

  Indeed. It is not the beasts you wish us to deal with, but the insidious presence within them. The dragon inclined his massive head. Your will be done. Volkarin somehow managed to say the words half respectfully, and half mockingly. Xavier thought that was quite the feat.

  Xavier stepped over to the middle of the time dilation barrier. The other spirits were amassing within the barrier as well. They understood what it was, and they did not breach it. They knew they would get frozen on the other side if they did—even the more chaotic spirits, the ones that he could see barely containing themselves, remained.

  Xavier expanded the time dilation field.

  As he did so, he felt the presence of The Nightmare once again invading his mind. This time, it was stronger, demanding that he did not resist. Demanding that he drop the Time Alteration spell.

  His hands shook. He felt his mind… become vulnerable. He checked his mental barriers, only to find cracks in them—cracks The Nightmare had exploited without him even noticing.

  Xaiver fought the presence even as he felt his will become usurped. He had a dire urge to deactivate the time dilation spell. To give into the presence. To find peace with it. For wouldn’t it be good to stop fighting? Didn’t he simply want to live a peaceful life on the mountain?

  Hadn’t he had enough?

  Enough?

  Xavier froze as he examined that thought. He knew it wasn’t his own.

  He hadn’t had enough of fighting. He couldn’t imagine any version of him in all the Greater Universe that could ever have enough of fighting.

  Did he want peace? Yes, of course—but he wanted peace for everyone, not just himself, and that wasn’t something that would happen if he ever let himself give in. And he certainly didn’t want to live on this mountain for the rest of his life.

  So he had to keep fighting.

  Xavier pushed back against the presence trying to take over his mind. Volkarin was eyeing him. A strange look on the dragon spirit’s face—was that a look of… concern? Surely not.

  Xavier filled in the cracks in his mental barrier, but as he did, he realised something—The Nightmare hadn’t made him cease the time dilation field, but soon it wouldn’t matter.

  The spell was reaching its end faster than he’d anticipated.

  A lot faster.

  He wasn’t sure how he hadn’t seen that before…

  The Nightmare!

  It must have infected his mind a little bit at a time, slightly altering his perception of reality—but it was only this, he realised, that it had changed.

  At least, that was the only thing that he had found that had changed, and he inspected his mind as thoroughly as he could.

  Xavier let out a roar as he triumphed over the demon’s control of his mind, pushing back with all his might.

  He expanded the time dilation field. Now, more than ever, he needed to know if this was going to work.

  The time bubble became large enough to encompass all eight of the wolven in front of him. The dragon spirit, along with the other dozen or so spirits that had flowed through the bridge from the Otherworld, made quick work of the beasts.

  Xavier watched as Volkarin changed his approach to his attacks. He would have expected the dragon spirit to clamp his jaws around his enemies, but he didn’t—he used his ranged, fire and ice breath attack. For the dragon knew it wasn’t only trying to kill the beasts, but what lay within them too.

  Most of the other spirits, realising what was going on, did the same. There were only a few of the more chaotic ones that didn’t seem to change their tact. They ripped and tore through the wolven with glee, leaving pools of the demonic black substance behind.

  Xavier watched, and waited, to see what the outcome was. His mind had instantly expanded into the parts of The Nightmare now within his field.

  He felt those parts die. And this time, it wasn’t because he’d commanded their death—they weren’t immune to magical attacks like they were immune to melee attacks and soul damage.

  His contingency plan might just be able to get him out of this.

  Which was good, because soon—far too soon—his time dilation field would falter.

  And it wasn’t only that. He knew that he couldn’t hold onto himself for all that much longer. He needed to destroy the bits of the entity that were inside of him. The ones he was controlling to gain access to the rest of it.

  For if he didn’t, he would soon lose himself. And that was not something that he could abide.

  The voice of The Nightmare become louder and louder in his mind.

  Give in, give in, give in, give in to usssss!

  Xavier felt his mind falter ever more. The time dilation field was weakening. His mental barriers were weakening.

  He threw his head back and roared, his wings extending to their fullest at his back.

  Die! he willed, and the bits of The Nightmare that were within him died.

  His mind became silent, but the mental energy he’d just expended fending off the demon’s control meant that the time dilation field was at its end.

  The field cracked and broke, becoming inactive.

  Accidental Champion!

  my patreon has 29 ADVANCED CHAPTERS to enjoy!

  https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-tier-book-4-116513628

  https://discord.gg/nsgnbpWJ7S