Inside the Green Union building, Abara was still trying to consume the large magical crystal they had brought back to Athir. It was slightly smaller now as the Formthief Mimic was succeeding, its silver body crashing over the gem like waves. Ferrisdae’s blue flames were causing it to boil, but still it persisted.

  As I got closer, the waves started becoming more frantic. “Stay away!” Abara said. “Don’t you come over here!”

  “No, your time is up,” I said, not stopping my approach.

  Abara turned back into his Gnome form. Its hair was almost completely burned away, and its skin was charcoal. I tensed, expecting a spell, but the mimic gestured towards the wall beside it. A portal opened up. At first I thought it was useless since it couldn’t go through, but the sight on the other side did stop me.

  The Bottom’s Up was trashed. Every shelf we had was destroyed, and broken bottles littered the floor. Halfling bodies were strewn about the knocked over tables and chairs, almost all dead except for a few who were still twitching. I ignored the Half-Pints as I quickly scanned the room for any signs of my wife or daughters.

  Britear, Tabitha’s magical green axe, was on the bar. It shook without anyone touching it, but I didn’t hear what it had to say. When my wife was around, the weapon preferred to speak telepathically only to her. I watched as she stood up and carefully peeked over the bar. Blood covered her and she was panting, but she had clearly gotten the better of whatever force decided to go after her.

  Her eyes went wide as she saw me, and she stood up completely. “I’m fine! The city is-”

  The portal slammed shut. “Damnit!” Abara yelled, expanding back into its mercurial form as it tried to eat the crystal again. “Damnit, damnit, damnit!”

  “Looks like your distraction didn’t pan out, Abara,” I said. If something had happened to Tabitha, I wasn’t sure if I’d have been able to keep myself on this side of the portal. Thankfully, people had forgotten or didn’t believe the stories about just how tough she actually was.

  Gods, I love my wife.

  I resumed my approach. Tabitha might have been fine, but I was worried about her words. If there were things going on in New Frausta, then I should probably get back there sooner rather than later.

  Tightening the grip on my sword, I started moving divine energy. Despite being so out of practice, it didn’t take nearly as long as I expected. Instead, it seemed to jump at the chance to be useful. A smile I couldn’t stop spread across my lips as I channeled the energy, making the blade glow bright blue.

  Martial arts were special attacks used by the non-magical. Whether it came from one’s aura, or fighting spirit, or red hot rage, they were often powerful. They rarely reached the heights of power that a dedicated spellcaster did, but it still allowed them to enforce their will on the world in unique ways. As a paladin, I was offered a small selection of spells, some healing capacity, and a few martial arts.

  I had been denied them as an oathbreaker, but they all came back to me now. And, as Cheroske’s energy flowed through me, they were more powerful than ever.

  Ten feet away from the Green Union building, I swung my sword in a crisp horizontal slash. The world paused for a moment as it tried to figure out what was supposed to happen next, almost as if waiting.

  The cabin was cut in half, though the crystal persisted. What was left of the roof was blown into the forest as if carried by a heavy wind. Abara’s body was sliced into several pieces, and the part of its mercurial body that was on top of the crystal splattered wherever it flew.

  My smile became a giddy grin, almost like I was a kid with a new toy, but I reined it in; now wasn’t the time.

  What remained of Abara was still substantial enough to allow it to transform. It changed into a small, ugly creature with a wasp head and wings attached to a bulbous, almost baby-like body. It couldn’t have been bigger than my thumb. Turning tail, the mimic tried to flee into the forest.

  I dashed after it, jumping onto the magic crystal. Abara was clearly in sight, but the moment it hit the treeline I was going to have problems even with it lit on fire. The Mimic was simply too small.

  Tapping my blade against my shield, I began to use another martial art. This one was harder to perform as the defensive implement didn’t conduct divine energy as well as my sword had. It was something to practice at. Regardless, the shield warmed up and glowed bright red.

  I jumped from the magic crystal to the perfectly cut wall before leaping again. I raised my sword and angled my shield downwards before releasing the energy. It accelerated, taking me with it, and plummeted directly towards Abara.

  The Formthief Mimic was struck and went flying into the ground. I landed on top of it, creating a perfect circular crater in the ground, one knee on my shield to keep Abara pinned. It started to transform again, putting up arms covered in black chitin as it took the shape of some kind of humanoid insect. My sword, already raised high, glowed with a brilliant holy heat as I activated the core ability in a paladin’s arsenal.

  Abara screamed as I used the divine energy swirling in my core to become anathema to everything evil and vile in the world. I channeled raw, universal goodness into my blade, and it shone with an almost overwhelming light. Just that alone burned and harmed the mimic on a more fundamental level than Ferrisdae’s fire ever could.

  Then, I began slashing.

  The blade, now the bane of all evil, cut through the chitinous limbs. Abara didn’t relent, however. Its transformation became desperately quick as it reformed them. So I continued to cut. Little by little, the Mimic’s mass was tossed aside as it lost more of itself.

  Every swing took more energy out of me, and I felt the divine vessel within me empty. Not quickly by any measure of the word, but any loss was surprising considering I thought Cheroske’s gift was keeping it full. My sword faltered as I was met with a revelation.

  This amount of divine energy wasn’t my goddess’ gift to her newest paladin, this was just how strong I was now.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Abara, sensing a moment of weakness, lashed out with both wicked clawed hands. I lowered my head, protecting my face and allowing it to catch the top, and felt its fingers trying to crush my skull. With its arms out of the way, I pulled my sword back and thrust it through my enemy’s skull.

  The Mimic’s screams were quick to stop with my final debilitating application of Smite Evil.

  The Formthief Mimic’s body lost any sense of cohesiveness as it became a silver puddle. I stood up and backed off as it grew larger and larger, eventually stopping at the size of a small pond. Some of the silver liquid came over the edge of the crater, but not much. This was the whole of its body. The parts I hadn’t splattered away, anyway.

  “Is it over?” Ferrisdae asked, limping around the building.

  “Yes,” I said confidently, my eyes catching something. “But the dungeon is still active, so we’re still here in the Endless Moment.”

  “So we need to start a ritual? Or do you think we can stop it by destroying the crystal?”

  Instead of answering, I pointed at something over the center of the puddle. “Do you see that?”

  The Elf approached, and I set my hand on her elbow when she stopped next to me. The healing glow passed from me to her, and she stood up straighter. “You really are a paladin again,” she muttered.

  “Yes. But do you see that?” I asked again.

  Squinting, she looked at where I was pointing. Then, she cast her magic sight spell in case there was something she missed. “No, nothing out of the ordinary. What is it?”

  “A string,” I said.

  It was strange, but there was a string connecting the puddle to the cloudy sky above. It was glowing with a dark red color, though not brightly. Wading into the puddle, I tapped my shield against my chest to return it to its buckler form. A part of me knew I should be trying to get back to New Frausta, but a louder part of me told me that this was important somehow. I just wasn’t getting information on why it was here or what it was. I reached out with my hand and plucked at it, but my fingers went right through.

  “This is highly irregular,” came Himia’s voice, and I turned around to regard the newcomer. She was staring not at the puddle, but at the string.

  “You know what this is?” I asked, pointing at it.

  “Of course. You may be a paladin again, but you are still a Dungeon Inspector,” she stated. “What is irregular is that you can now see the dungeon’s connection point.”

  “Its connection point?” I asked, my eyebrows raising. “As in, this string is the link to Abara and what he’s done here?”

  Himia nodded. “That is correct. This is what the Dungeon Master, Master of Dungeons tampers with to change dungeons, take control of them, and so on. You were supposed to be able to see them eventually, but not this soon. You are exceeding all expectations, Inspector.”

  “So if I cut this, everything goes back to normal?” I asked, looking back at the string. “No ritual required? Is there any backlash?”

  “There is no backlash if it is done correctly, no, but doing so should be beyond your-”

  I was already in motion when she had said no. Raising my sword, I imbued it with divinity just in case and slashed the string. A pulse of force shot out in every direction, sending me flying backwards into Ferrisdae. She tried to catch me, but ended up getting knocked over as well. I scrambled off of her, noting that Himia had not moved at all before looking towards the sky.

  The string was disintegrating on its way up incredibly quickly, and another pulse caused ripples in the clouds once it reached the top. All at once, the greasy quality of the world disappeared from around us. Every lightning bolt dispersed before they could hit the ground, and the runes were no more. I took in my first easy breath now that the DTER was gone.

  “You okay, Ferrisdae?” I asked, not looking back.

  “A little winded but not hurt, thanks to you,” she said, standing up and brushing herself off. “Hey! Everything’s back to normal!”

  “Most unusual,” Himia stated, and I felt her gaze on me.

  “Well, nothing I can say about that. I’m just your ordinary, everyday Halfling,” I said before turning to the facsimile of a woman. “So, what now? Do you need to get back to your master or whatever?”

  “Yes. I think he will be quite surprised by what I have to tell him,” she answered.

  “Then you should-” Before I could finish a sentence, Himia disappeared as if she had cast a wordless spell. Shaking my head, I turned my attention to Ferrisdae. “You did good, kid. I’m glad you got over your spellcasting block.”

  “I… I did, didn’t I?” she asked, eyes widening as if she only just noticed it. The Elf looked down at her hands, staring at them for a few moments. The look on her face changed as she started sniffling.

  I hid my frown, knowing what was coming next.

  Ferrisdae threw herself at me, wrapping her arms around my neck. “I thought you were going to die,” she sobbed.

  “It’s alright, Ferrisdae,” I said, awkwardly hugging her back. “I’m fine, you’re fine, and we did it. There’s no need for this.”

  “But I disobeyed your orders,” she said quietly into my shoulder, which was becoming wet with tears. “If you died, it would have been all my fault.”

  I held my tongue as I slowly pulled myself out of the hug. She remained sitting on her legs, eyes red and puffy as I patted her on the head. “You broke through your wall, and that’s all that mattered,” I told her. “Now, you need to get to your family. Make sure they’re okay, and then head to New Frausta when you’re ready. Get some rest along the way.”

  “Back to New Frausta?” she asked, wiping her nose with her cloak. Disgusting, but it was better there than on my jacket. “But what about you?”

  “I’m a paladin again, I’ve got a lot of power left in me,” I told her. “I’ve got a spell that will open a doorway to the place I consider home, but it’ll only work for me. I have to get back, for my wife and kids but also the DoD. You go see your family, and for Cheroske’s sake, actually talk to your mother. If I see you and you haven’t, then I’m going to be far more ornery than usual.”

  “Oh, is that a threat, Liam?” she asked, laughing despite the tears.

  “Yes, it is, Ferrisdae,” I confirmed. Thumbing my rune on the Hilt of Holding to retract the blade, I hooked it to my belt and helped the Elf to her feet. “And you know not to call me that in public, right?”

  “We’re not in public, we’re very clearly alone.”

  I ignored her logic and pointed towards the city. “Go. People are going to be confused why it’s been twelve hours, so get your family to help squash that. Got it?”

  Ferrisdae stood up straight and nodded. “I’ll take care of Athir and get back as soon as I can, sir.”

  “Thank you,” I said before turning away. “I’ll be off, then.”

  “Good luck. Say hi to the family for me.”

  I nodded and took a breath. The next spell I was about to cast was a rare one that I had asked Cheroske for specifically. The downside was, at this distance, it was going to take a considerable chunk of energy. Raising my hand, I swiped it downwards and spoke the divine language. “Take me to the place where I belong.”

  A golden door appeared in front of me and, without a second glance back, I went through it, ready to be home.