The soldier’s body cratered the ground with a deafening impact, shattering the heavy silence over the city. Punctuated only by the Hydra’s guttural laughter.

  “Weeeeeeak,” the Hydra snarled, all nine heads shuddering with what I could only guess was anticipation. “Did yyyouuu truly belllllieve the Maaaain Sssssystem grannnttts trrrruuuue pppowwwwwer?”

  “You know nothing of what you speak, demon,” King Zer’nack shouted, his voice sharp and clear even from this distance.

  “I ccccaannn feelllll it insssside of you,” the monster hissed, each head speaking in unison. “Itt is thhhhere.”

  I frowned and sat up, finding myself at the center of a crater. My recently broken muscles and torn tendons were movable now, though still bruised and throbbing painfully. “What is he talking about?”

  Benedict stared up at the Hydra, his brows furrowed. “I cannot yet say, my lady. But if the Lysorian King indeed gained his power falsely, I’ve heard of a blue pill said to enhance core or mana cultivation.”

  “A pill?” I’d never heard of such a thing. “Is it common?”

  Benedict shook his head. “Not in Cael, certainly. Weak aristocrats have been known to occasionally use them to push through bottlenecks, but nothing so extreme as this.”

  “If we survive, I want a sample,” I said, chewing the inside of my lip as healers pressed in, their glowing hands rapidly scanning and hovering over my remaining wounds.

  I had no intention of using it, but a suspicion was forming. A blue pill granting unearned power, a King wielding unearned power tied to the system—it reminded me of Orpheus’ blue blood and how the system had invaded me when it was injected. What would happen if it were ingested instead?

  My thoughts were cut short as Nida and Nasq tore across the battlefield. Nasq lagged slightly, still short of the next realm. He made up for some lacking speed with a combination of spells causing him to shoot forward making it seem like he rode the wind itself. Wait—no. He was flying. Actually flying.

  “Do mages learn to fly so easily?” I asked Benedict.

  He shrugged. “The gifted ones, yes. Mana offers more possibilities than heart energy—it’s much more abundant in the world.”

  I didn’t buy it for a second. Mana had its benefits, but it certainly did not offer more possibilities. In a way, it actually offered less because its attribute was predetermined.

  But, then, how was he flying?

  Nida shoved one of the healers out of the way, an older woman with wrinkles and graying hair who shouted in surprise at the sudden push. She seemed to open her mouth and want to shout something at the young tigerkin, but a shake from Benedict closed her mouth and she left, likely to tend to the many other wounded.

  Nida’s hands glowed green as she knelt beside me, between two of the remaining five healers. “My lady, will you be able to rejoin soon?” Her question was drowned out by the Hydra’s mocking laughter as its flames clashed with our forces. “I do not mean to doubt your plan, my lady, but..."

  “We’re going to lose at this rate,” Nasq finished for her, landing lightly on the crater’s edge. Dust trailed his heels as he slid down to join us at the crater's epicenter.

  The healers worked furiously to ignore us, their eyes fixated on my wounds—whether out of fear or determination, I couldn’t tell. But I had to admit they were doing a damn good job of healing me.

  “What’s the next phase of the plan?” Benedict asked, his gaze locked on the battle above. I felt his mana core suddenly flex and seconds later his Doman expanded outward, covering the cratered earth but no further.

  I bit back an unhelpful snarl. There was no next phase because he hadn’t substituted the King’s Domain when I’d told him to. Now we were short on Gold cores and third realms, barely holding the Hydra at bay. Instead of yelling, I watched the carnage above—blood and flesh raining down—before speaking.

  “The only way we’ll ever get even a single head to swallow one of our poisoned mana bombs is with bait.” I gestured up at the second leftmost head as it opened its maw and chomped down on a silver-realm knight and his cockatrice, devouring both whole. “That one seems to eat the most. The others rely mainly on fire or claws. I haven’t seen them use their teeth much.”

  “Someone must get swallowed, is what you mean,” Benedict clarified, to which I nodded. “Will we even have time to set that up?”

  Ashwash must have decided to bless me as at that moment I felt a familiar energy core flare to life, followed by the crashing roar of lightning jettisoning from the sky to slam against the Hydra’s center head. I could feel the man’s Authority press down upon the Hydra, eliciting an annoyed growl from the creature. His Authority quickly shifted and distorted, his energy exploding outward as he advanced realms right before my eyes.

  His newly formed Domain was joined by a powerful Authority that mirrored his own before advancement, and another, much more powerful Domain. Though I could barely see the three new figures, I recognized all three of the energy cores.

  Sir Alaric, Dame Justicia, and Marchioness Eliza Alistar had joined the fight.

  “When did he find the time to break through?” Nida gasped, watching as Alaric’s darkness attribute shaded his Domain, combining with the powerful streaks of lightning summoned by Justicia and the overwhelming force of the Marchioness’ lightning-attribute Domain, which pulled lightning from the sky as if magnetized. My fight with him must have shown within him something he hadn’t experienced before. Or perhaps he simply needed to be reminded of what it was to lose.

  “I think we have time,” I mumbled, ignoring the tigerkin’s question.

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  “Heal her,” I commanded the remaining five healers, motioning toward Vespera. “Do not leave her until she can fly again.”

  The healers clamored around Vespera, their faces tight with concentration, while the rest of us leaped out of the crater in unison, not bothering to exit the mundane way.

  I reached out with my soul-weaver energy and called over three nearby resurrected soldiers. Though they arrived from different directions, they reached us nearly at the same time, each wearing the same steadfast look of determination.

  No words were needed between me and Benedict as he took the lead, summoning dozens of mana bombs from his storage ring and briefing the three soldiers on what they needed to do. None looked shocked or afraid—rather, they looked eager. Ready. As if this was their purpose for returning to life.

  And, for all I knew, perhaps it was.

  I turned to the paragons. “My sword?”

  “The Marchioness has it,” Nasq said, the confusion and worry in his tone betraying the surety with which he spoke. “She intercepted our raid on the treasury and said she would give it to you when she sees you.” He hesitated, licking the sweat off his upper lip. “Why… why did the Marchioness support your claim to the blade, my lady?”

  I shrugged, honestly having no idea. “A moment of guilt? She rigged the tournament, after all.”

  It was a question we’d only find the answer to from the Marchioness herself.

  “They’re ready,” Benedict said after a few minutes, all three soldiers having strapped nearly three dozen mana bombs to their bodies before draping heavy black cloaks over themselves, hiding the poisoned, destructive weapons from view.

  I nodded to the Marquess and summoned the House Coin from my storage, sending out an order for wyverns and cockatrice. I glanced in the direction where our mounts would be brought, toward where the rest of my army raced from. My observation was disrupted by a sudden, united declaration from the resurrected soldiers.

  "May your rule be long and your power vast," they said, voices both filled with and somehow also devoid of emotion. One by one, they snapped Aedroniran salutes. "Long shall the Soul Weaver rule."

  The four wyverns and three cockatrices arrived then, either by trainer or soldier, all of whom immediately dismounted for further orders. Whatever those I resurrected knew could be figured out after I survived the current situation.

  “You all are on standby,” I said to the dismounting trainers and soldiers. “Help the healers gather the injured.” That was all the coreless and bronze-cored soldiers were useful for at the moment, and I didn’t want them pointlessly dying because they were grounded.

  The soldiers and trainers slapped quick Lysorian salutes, all seven taking my dismissal in stride and sprinting off to their new assignment. The three strapped bombers took a cockatrice each, while Nida, Nasq, Benedict, and I mounted wyverns. Without a moment to waste, the seven of us urged our mounts into the air to join the war efforts.

  In hindsight, I probably should have remained behind to control the fight far from the Hydra’s notice. But that simply was not in my training or my blood. I was the vanguard of my armies, the pillar of my kingdom. I would never sit back in safety.

  A Queen of Conquest was born to lead, to stand at the front of war, not to shirk behind those who would sacrifice their lives for her.

  That was why, when all nine pairs of the mythical Hydra eyes instantly swiveled my way with intense desire as I entered the outer reaches of its Greater Domain, I felt not a bit of fear. Within me existed only a surging tide of adrenaline and the burning desire to rain death and destruction upon this beast.

  The Hydra roared, three of its heads spewing fire toward the gold cores and third realms, giving it time to create some distance from them and close in on us from above.

  “Second to the left!” I yelled. “Get the soldiers as close as possible.”

  They all nodded, and Benedict’s Domain burst outward, colliding with the Greater Domain. Clearly not having expected a new Domain to suddenly appear, the Hydra hesitated for a split second in apparent surprise.

  It was just enough time for us to launch combined beams of energy and magic at the leftmost and third leftmost heads. The three soldiers and their cockatrice flew in between, darting directly at the target Hydra head. Energy and mana blasts bore down upon the Hydra from above, joining the pressure from our end and keeping the Hydra temporarily locked in place.

  Except for the eighth head, which leaned forward, toward the approaching soldiers. A piano-wire-thin smile bled across its scaled face before its maw opened wide and swallowed all three soldiers whole with a bloody crunch.

  Then we could only wait, holding bated breaths as the seconds ticked away. I vaguely recalled hearing Benedict tell the soldiers the mana bombs would explode within seconds, the myriad of poisons spreading throughout the Hydra’s mana, flesh, and blood until it was little more than a shell.

  Even the Hydra paused, the other heads watching as the eighth head slowly chewed the men and cockatrice with an expression of joy, savoring the taste.

  Five seconds.

  Ten seconds.

  Fifteen seconds.

  I exchanged confused looks with Benedict. He opened his mouth to say something, but there was a dull explosion within the Hydra’s throat, as if the mana bomb had been released underwater. The Hydra heads swiveled around the eighth, their mouths working in odd movements until settling on a single united sneer.

  Green smoke rushed from the eighth head’s closed mouth, and for a moment, it appeared as if it might faint or vomit. Instead, it bared its frighteningly pointed, red-painted teeth my way and let out a soft, unsatisfied burp.

  “What?” I breathed, struggling to understand how the creature so easily brushed off condensed mana bombs imbued with poison. The silver sphere from earlier had at least knocked the beast off its feet despite being exponentially weaker than the combined destructive force contained by dozens of mana bombs, even excluding the lethality of its poison. To some extent, I hadn’t expected the poison to work, but I had anticipated that the mana bombs would inflict some level of damage.

  “That shouldn’t be possible,” Benedict muttered. “Even if it’s a platinum-cored monster, that many mana bombs should have eviscerated its insides.”

  No one said anything, the feeling of doom permeating the air. The Hydra spread its wings to their full length and grinned down at me, unleashing a torrent of energy into the air.

  For the first time that day, the energy it unleashed contained the full force of the Hydra’s might.

  And it wasn’t in the platinum realm. Not entirely. It was already a half step into the diamond realm.

  I realized at that moment my plans had been foolish. I didn’t know how the Desire System worked, much less the effect it would have on monsters I named, and here I was believing I could defeat one of those named monsters before even reaching the gold realm.

  The Hydra glared maliciously down at me, its giant torso blotting out the sun, slowly but surely progressing into the diamond realm as it fought us.

  It suddenly turned away from me, all nine heads shifting to focus their attention on Nida and Nasq. The paragons were less than fifteen seconds from me, but that distance might as well have been half a world away as all nine monster heads opened their maws and unleashed one of the most powerful cascades of energy I’d ever seen, even in my past life.

  There was nothing I could do as that stream of purple and black fire of corrosive energy spiraled toward my paragons. My mind raced to think of something, anything. I had seconds.

  I saw Benedict raise his hands in panic, attempting the same trick he’d used to save me earlier, but the combined prowess of all nine heads barreled through his barriers as if they were wet parchment.

  My heart leaped into my chest, and I screamed. “NO!”

  Nida and Nasq looked back at me, their expressions a mixture of terror and resignation. Time seemed to freeze as I watched, the fire crawling toward their motionless bodies.

  But before the Hydra’s flames engulfed them whole, stealing their lives from me, the black sphere of Orpheus’ core was summoned from my storage ring of its volition. I didn't think. Didn't consider. I reached out and grabbed it with my hand, knowing it was my last choice.

  Then the world went black, and I felt a pull, one that felt as if I was being torn from what was and should be, into a distorted space separated from reality.