Paragon Of Destruction

With the help of his sword, it took Arran three days to clear the entire city of treasure.

Treasure the weapon could find, at least. Because although Arran suspected the city hid even more riches, the sword could only Sense those concealed caches that held Essence Crystals.

But Arran did not worry about any treasure he overlooked. The coins, jewelry, and other trinkets might have been cherished by the city's original inhabitants, but to Arran, they meant little. What interested him were the Essence Crystals. And those, his sword found without fail.

The abundance of treasure did cause Arran some wonder, however. He'd originally believed that the city's builders had left voluntarily, taking all their belongings with them as they departed.

But if that was the case, they wouldn't have left their most precious treasures behind. And although Arran had no way to find out the truth, he suspected the miners' departure might not have been as peaceful as he had initially thought.

Either way, it didn't matter — whatever might have happened, it had long since faded into history.

And right now, Arran had other things to worry about.

When he had finished clearing the city of treasure, he hurried back to the spherical chamber that held the portal. He had been gone for several days — years, in the Shadow Realm — but when he returned, he found the portal completely unchanged.

It wasn't unexpected, but still, a scowl crossed his face when he saw the shadowy vortex at the center of the space.

If Karanos failed in his task, the duty of closing the portal would fall to Arran. And he still had no idea of how to accomplish that — if it was even possible.

Just the thought of it caused Arran to sigh in frustration.

Yet there was no point in complaining, so he sat down on the floor and began to study the three books Karanos had left behind.

The mage's notes on the Shadow Realm proved all but useless. Most of what he had written concerned the various cities he found while exploring the ruined world, and beyond that, there was little that Arran did not know already.

There were some surprises — apparently, Karanos had once defeated a titanic Remnant, only to discover that killing it sent out a burst of Essence so strong it attracted other Remnants from a hundred miles around — but none of them useful. What little the book said of the portal was nothing Arran could not see with his own eyes.

Disappointed, he put the book back in his void ring. Then, he moved on to Karanos's notes about Shadow magic.

After barely a minute of reading, his eyes had already gone wide with awe. While the mage's notes on the Shadow Realm had been all but useless, his notes on Shadow magic were priceless.

There were techniques, spells, and even insights on the nature of Shadow Essence itself. And while it would take Arran years of study to master them — perhaps even decades, when it came to the insights — he recognized that it would be time well-spent.

Yet although every word in the notes was a treasure, there was one thing that stood out in particular — a method to use Shadow Essence for physical spells.

This was what Karanos had used against Arran when he first reached the city, and until now, Arran had believed the attacks had either merged Shadow Essence with another type — Force, maybe — or made use of Karanos's shard of Living Shadow.

Now, however, he understood it had all been Shadow Essence. And a technique like that was exactly what he needed.

He had become a Master during his time in the Shadow Realm, but only in Shadow magic. And for all its uses, Shadow Essence had little offensive power.

But with this, he could turn Shadow into a weapon. The technique was fiendishly complex and would take years to learn, but if he could master it, he would have another invaluable tool at his disposal.

Still, he returned the book to his void ring after reading it. While he was eager to study the notes properly, they contained nothing that would help him close the portal.

At last, he picked up the third book — the history of Amydon.

Arran had no serious hope of finding anything related to the portal in the book, but it couldn't hurt to look. Perhaps the book contained some well-hidden secrets that might somehow help him.

Yet much as he expected, the book offered nothing but a detailed history of the centuries Karanos had ruled his beloved city. Arran had already heard most of the tales from Karanos himself, and although the stories were interesting ones, they were of no practical use.

Which meant he had no way to close the portal.

Arran's magical skills had grown, but not so much that he could succeed where Karanos had failed. To accomplish such a task, he would need to grow far stronger than he was right now.

And finding a way to close the portal might take him decades, or even centuries. That was time he did not have — not now, with the Ninth Valley and the Hunters on the brink of war.

There was no easy solution to the dilemma, but he had to make a choice. And after giving the matter some thought, he decided that he would remain in the caverns while he accomplished his last few tasks — studying Brightblade's wards, learning to handle his weapon, and testing his magic.

Perhaps the problem would have solved itself by then. And if not, the portal would have to wait.

The first task Arran set to work on was testing his magic. Years within the Shadow Realm had profoundly changed both his Sense and his Essence reserves, and now, it was time to see what he could do.

He began by trying the Shadowcloak spell. Of all the spells he had, this was perhaps the most useful. It complemented his sword skills perfectly, and he was confident that it would help not just against mages, but against Hunters as well.

It only took a few minutes of experimenting before a wide grin appeared on Arran's face.

His Essence reserves were now large enough that he could maintain the spell for days on end, and that alone was enough cause for celebration. But he had made another step forward as well, and one that was even more valuable.

With his sharpened Sense, he found it far easier to see the weaknesses in his Shadowcloak — places in the spell's pattern where the Shadow Essence wasn't perfectly self-contained and closed.

Being able to Sense these weaknesses made addressing them a simple matter, and it took Arran less than a day to improve his Shadowcloak beyond recognition. The flaws he fixed would not matter against normal mages and their dull Senses, but against more unusual enemies, they could make all the difference.

Yet even as Arran rejoiced at his progress, he suddenly felt something from his sword. Disapproval. It seemed the sword was unimpressed with his efforts.

"So you think you can do better?"

The question had its intended effect. A moment later, an image came through the bond with his sword — an intricate pattern of Shadow Essence that only vaguely resembled a Shadowcloak.

Whatever consciousness the sword had, it held a knowledge of Shadow Essence far beyond anything Arran could even imagine. If the weapon decided to share that knowledge, he would gladly encourage it.

With the help of his blade, it took him less than a week to learn the altered spell. And the new Shadowcloak — if it could still be called that — was something he knew would astonish even Brightblade.

Somehow, it concealed not just Arran but also itself, weaving Shadow Essence in a perfectly closed pattern from which not even the slightest shred of Essence could escape.

Arran frowned in wonder when he realized that it somehow resembled Master Zhao's seal. While the actual patterns were completely different, each somehow achieved exactly the same thing — perfect concealment.

With a thought, he unsealed his Fire Realm, then sealed it again using Master Zhao's seal.

At once, a surge of astonishment came from the bond with his sword. Astonishment and excitement — as if the sword had seen something it greatly admired. Clearly, it was impressed with the seal.

Yet there was a trace of hunger, too. This was the first time the sword had witnessed Arran unseal his Fire Realm, and its interest in the new delicacy was obvious.

When Arran recognized the weapon's hunger, he quickly gathered as much Fire Essence as he could, then fed it to the sword. If this was a chance to gain his weapon's loyalty, he would not let it go to waste.

The sword welcomed the gift without objection. It devoured the Fire Essence greedily, taking only a moment to consume the unexpected feast.

But Arran wasn't done yet. Next, he opened his Wind Realm, and the sword grew even more excited when it realized it would taste yet another type of Essence.

And after that followed Arran's Force Realm, his Earth Realm, and his Stone Realm.

By now, the sword had reached a state of frenzy, waves of joyous excitement gushing through the bond it shared with Arran as it feasted on half a dozen types of Essence.

Yet then, Arran opened his Destruction Realm. And in an instant, the weapon's excitement vanished, an overwhelming sense of fear taking its place.

That the weapon would react this way wasn't a complete surprise, but Arran had not anticipated the intensity of its response. It was like an animal meeting its natural predator, and the reaction was one of instinctive panic.

This, he knew, was a problem.

Perhaps sealing his Destruction Realm might calm the weapon, but that was no solution. Arran could not have a weapon that would be sent into a panic whenever he opened his Destruction Realm.

Instead, he gathered a decent amount of Destruction Essence, then began to circulate it through his body. If he was to use the weapon, it would have to grow accustomed to his Destruction Realm.

And so, over the next few weeks, Arran continued to circulate Destruction Essence through his body as he tested his other spells.

To his relief, the weapon's fear gradually diminished, though he suspected it would still take longer for the sword to stop fearing his Destruction Realm completely. But the blind panic was gone, and that was a good start.

His techniques and spells, however, were another matter.

After the Shadowcloak, the first thing he tried was his Shadowsight. With both his Sense and access to Shadow Essence strengthened greatly, it had become predictably strong — but also completely useless.

Within moments, Arran realized that he no longer had a use for Shadowsight. Anything it could do, his Sense could now do better. He could not help but feel slightly disappointed by this — he had hoped that somehow, his Shadowsight would have improved even more than his Sense.

Next, he tried using Shadowflame. Yet this, too, proved a disappointment. Arran's Fire Essence had already been the bottleneck for the spell's strength before he entered the Shadow Realm, and increasing his strength in Shadow magic further made no difference whatsoever.

His sharpened Sense allowed him to make some small improvements to the spell, but none of those made much of a difference. If he was to strengthen it, he would have to strengthen his Fire magic.

And the same held true for most of Arran's other spells, too. While his Sense helped him fix small errors he hadn't previously noticed, the leap he had made in Shadow magic clearly did not extend beyond Shadow.

He might have become a Master, but it was painfully obvious that the title did little to help his magical skills. For him to truly earn the name would require years of practice.

Still, it wasn't a complete disappointment. His improved Shadowcloak alone was enough to make his years in the Shadow Realm worth it, and once he mastered Karanos's methods, his Shadow magic would become even more useful.

Yet when Arran cast a glance at the portal, his spirits dampened at once. There still wasn't any visible change to it, and by now, centuries could have passed in the Shadow Realm.

There was nothing for it but to finish his last two tasks — practicing with his sword and studying Brightblade's wards. Once he finished those two things, he would leave. First to fulfill his tasks for the Shadowflame Society, and then to find a way to close the portal.

But perhaps Karanos might succeed yet — if he was still alive.