"What are you talking about, Evenson?"
Before the Ancient One could respond, Clea stepped in front of him, her face flushed with alarm.
"The Sorcerer Supreme would never use the power of darkness."
She shot him an urgent look.
"Apologize. Right now."
The expression on her face couldn’t have been clearer.
Please stop talking before you make this worse.
She was terrified.
Terrified that one reckless accusation would turn whatever mercy the Ancient One might have shown into an immediate execution.
Everything she’d been taught since childhood insisted that the creatures of the Dark Dimension were the enemies of all life. The Sorcerer Supreme existed to oppose them.
How could such a person possibly draw strength from that same source?
Evenson ignored her pleading glance.
His eyes remained fixed on the Ancient One.
Silence lingered between them.
Finally, the Ancient One sighed.
Her eyes slowly shifted to a deep violet.
At the same time, intricate markings of the same color spread across her forehead.
She rarely revealed this hidden side of herself.
Against anyone else, there would have been no reason.
Against Evenson...
Concealment was pointless.
Clea’s face went white.
"That’s..."
She stared at the violet markings in disbelief.
"No..."
The evidence was undeniable.
"You... really use the power of the Dark Dimension?"
Her entire worldview cracked in an instant.
It was the sort of revelation that overturned everything a person believed.
The ultimate defender against darkness...
Secretly wielded it.
"To defeat darkness completely," the Ancient One said calmly, "one must be willing to step into it."
She looked at Clea, though the words were clearly meant for Evenson as well.
"I chose the necessary path."
Clea fell silent.
She needed time simply to process what she had witnessed.
The foundations of her beliefs had just shifted beneath her feet.
"You may have made the right choice once," Evenson said casually, leaning against the counter.
"But today..."
He placed one hand firmly upon it.
"...you’ve made a mistake."
The moment his palm touched the wood, glowing runic circuits erupted beneath it.
They spread across the counter.
Across the walls.
Across the ceiling.
Across every inch of the Sanctum.
The entire building awakened.
Dormant spell arrays flared into existence one after another.
Some were etched into stone.
Others floated freely through the air.
Still more shimmered beneath the floor like rivers of living light.
The Ancient One quietly surveyed the room.
Prepared spell formations...
Hidden until activated.
An entire network woven into the building itself.
"A permanent enchantment..."
She examined the nearest arrays.
"Defensive wards."
"Spell amplification."
She frowned.
"And..."
For the first time in many years, she encountered something she couldn’t identify.
None of the magical formations resembled any school of sorcery known to Kamar-Taj.
They belonged to an entirely different magical tradition.
She could only infer their purposes.
"...Spatial expansion."
From outside, the Sanctum appeared perfectly ordinary.
Inside...
The available space had expanded to well over a hundred times its original volume.
Why buy expensive New York real estate when dimensional magic was cheaper?
"This is..."
The Ancient One hesitated.
"...your mage tower?"
"Fortress," Evenson corrected.
"I prefer ’fortress.’"
The Ancient One gave the room another look.
"A remarkably compact fortress."
Then her expression changed.
Someone was attacking the Mirror Dimension.
She turned sharply.
Normally, breaches happened gradually.
This one was being torn open with astonishing speed.
Something powerful was forcing its way inside.
Already.
A sharp crack echoed through the room.
Space itself shattered like glass.
Pain...
Betrayal...
Confusion...
Hatred...
Suspicion...
Chaos...
The whispered voices drifted through the fractured reality.
"The foundation of all things..."
"The pillar upon which everything stands..."
The familiar incantation arrived before the figures themselves.
Two elegant silhouettes stepped through the broken dimensional barrier.
The Eredar Twins.
Evenson’s eyelid twitched.
This had always been the plan.
If the Sorcerer Supreme came calling, the Twins would arrive as backup.
One of the fortress’s permanent enchantments was an emergency warning spell. Activating the defensive network automatically notified them.
On paper...
It had been an excellent precaution.
In practice...
Evenson suddenly regretted installing it.
He glanced sideways at Clea.
This situation had evolved far beyond the original plan.
One Sorcerer Supreme.
One former girlfriend.
Two possessive demonesses.
This wasn’t a battle anymore.
It was a catastrophe.
Forget facing the Ancient One.
Managing these three women at the same time might actually be harder.
Suppressing a sigh, Evenson casually shifted closer to Clea.
If fighting broke out...
At least he could shield her.
The Ancient One’s eyes narrowed.
"Demons..."
She had never seen Eredar before, but the curved horns, cloven hooves, and overwhelming fel aura left little room for doubt.
High-ranking demons.
Standing openly on Earth.
Within New York.
Practically beneath the Sanctum’s nose.
Her thoughts drifted briefly toward the master responsible for overseeing the New York Sanctum.
Daniel...
Your watch has been alarmingly eventful.
Not only had two powerful demons established themselves in the city unnoticed...
One of Kamar-Taj’s most promising disciples had apparently become emotionally entangled with a black warlock.
The Ancient One suddenly felt much older than she had a moment ago.
Alythess entered first.
Her gaze swept across the room.
It stopped on Evenson.
Then drifted toward Clea.
Then back again.
She immediately noticed how close the two were standing.
"Hmph."
The cold snort echoed through the room.
Beside her, Salyssra’s expression darkened as well.
It was the unmistakable look of someone discovering their favorite pet had wandered off and accepted treats from another owner.
Without another word, Alythess lifted her staff.
"Flames bloom beneath the shadows."
A blazing sphere of compressed fel fire, no larger than a washbasin yet dense enough to distort the surrounding air, shot toward the Ancient One.
She hadn’t targeted Clea.
Her anger had found another destination.
The Ancient One’s eyes sharpened.
She immediately recognized the danger.
The fireball wasn’t large.
That only made it more frightening.
The crimson flames had been compressed to an extraordinary degree.
She raised both hands.
Golden energy blossomed into a radiant shield before her.
The impact came a heartbeat later.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion erupted through the fortress.
Compressed heat and pressure burst outward like a miniature sun.
Even reinforced by countless magical formations, the building trembled violently.
Outside, no one would ever know.
Inside, it felt as though an earthquake had struck.
Evenson calmly raised a Void Shield around himself and Clea before the blast reached them.
Watching the collision, he couldn’t help muttering to himself,
"So..."
"This is what Alythess looks like when she’s actually trying."
He stared at the lingering flames.
"...My chances of surviving this conversation just dropped again."
...
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