When I left the mindscape and time finally unfroze, I was no longer the person I'd been when I'd entered.

  I was not the Lilith who had scrambled desperately for a foothold in this new world, bound and without agency within the body of Lilliana Silverwater.

  But nor was I the woman from before. I was still a Queen at heart; I always would be. Yet something inside me had changed, shifting and distorting into something more.

  I had come to understand real power. To experience it. To grasp the enlightenment of what it meant to wield the full potential of my soul.

  A diamond core, as I once possessed, may have had more raw power than my current self, but it lacked the depth of what Orpheus had unlocked within me in the mindscape. The ceiling I had once sensed upon reaching the diamond realm was gone. There was no limit now. No cap.

  Energy, both my own and that of reality itself, surged through me with effortless fluidity. It fueled my being with more Shen energy than any other creature in this world, save for the progenitors themselves.

  For a month, I had prepared for the shock of returning to reality. I had braced myself to face the Hydra and to recall the world of Graedon after spending so long within the mindscape replica of Ordite.

  I had closed my eyes to Orpheus’ farewell, a slight, foreboding wave, and opened them to battle. Time moved again.

  And so did I.

  It felt different, using my new power outside of the mindscape. Here, mana existed in a boundless abundance. I could feel it, even see it—tendrils of energy drawn toward the Hydra and the Dukes, each siphoning the world's essence to bolster their strength.

  But everything moved slowly for me now, sluggish compared to the speed I had grown accustomed to facing against Orpheus. I left my wyvern behind, my body moving at speeds rivaling those in lower stages of the platinum realm. The distance between myself and my paragons disappeared in an instant. I seemingly materialized between them and the Hydra, my hand outstretched toward the creature’s blazing tornado of flames and its expanding Greater Domain.

  The heart energy and mana within me merged, condensing into Shen energy. A single, thin beam of Soul Weaver attributed Shen energy erupted outward, colliding with the Hydra’s inferno. It did not crash against it—it cut through, slicing through the firestorm like a blade through warm butter.

  The Hydra’s flames scattered, parted by the pressure of my energy. My attack punctured the center head, shattering the creature's heavy scales and driving deep between its eyes.

  I hovered before my paragons, wreathed in the black and white flames of my Shen energy. The Hydra roared in pain, its eight remaining heads recoiling in shock and fear.

  With a crooked finger, I gestured at the beast.

  “It’s time for you to leave, lizard.” My voice was flat, emotionless, but it dripped with the royal authority of a Queen.

  My Shen energy coalesced, pushing outward and shaping into a Domain that forced back the Hydra’s own.

  At a glance, I could tell the Hydra had no ability to use Shen energy. It's Greater Domain flickered like a barely lit candle, fueled only by fragments of energy and mana, unable to fuse them into true power.

  “My lady?” Nasq’s voice came from behind me. I turned, meeting his wide-eyed stare, a tangle of emotions flickering across his face. I knew what he saw when he looked at me now.

  Not the Lady Lilliana Silverwater he had grown accustomed to.

  Orpheus had warned me—once I activated my Shen energy in the real world, the advancement of my mana and heart cores from within the mindscape would force my body through complete reformation. It would finish what I had resisted upon reaching the silver realm. The pureness of Shen energy would protect me from the dangers of premature advancement I'd feared in Sealrite.

  No.

  Nasq was seeing the Queen of Aedronir. The Queen of Conquest. Lilith of Aedronir.

  Some of Lilliana remained within me. I would never wholly return to who I had been before, because I was not the same. Lilliana was part of me, just as I was part of her. But reformation always revealed one’s true self.

  Gone was Lilliana’s small, thin frame, replaced by my own tall, powerfully built form, sculpted by decades of training, dominance, and power. My face retained her soft features, but the scar through my right eye remained and deepened, no longer a whisper of what it was. I traced my fingers over my forehead, searching for the lunar markings, but they were absent.

  I had not resisted them this time, so why had they not returned? Perhaps I was no longer a Lunari, fallen or otherwise.

  Pain flickered in the stump of my left arm. I paid it no mind. Reformation always fixed deformities. Mana surged through my vortex, spewing upward toward my heart core before merging into Shen energy and fueling the regeneration.

  Within seconds, I'd regained my long lost limb. It was as I'd remembered it. My arm. Not Lilliana's. Mine.

  I flexed my fingers, a strange tingle buzzing from them to my mind as I attempted to reorient myself. A fresh limb, a fresh start.

  “Dog of the Systeeemmmm,” the Hydra sneered, its voice a garbled snarl. It had managed to remain airborne, though its lifeless center head sagged, bobbing with each beat of its wings. “I wwwwiillll devour everything of the Ssssystem. Each and eevvvery oonnne of yyyyoou.”

  One of its heads twisted, lunging toward the dead center head. Fangs clamped down. Flesh ripped as it tore away its own lifeless head from the base of its neck.

  I watched, horrified, as the remaining stump writhed, flesh bubbling like lava from the cracked scales. A surge of mana pulled toward it, mingling with the creature’s core energy.

  And then it began to regenerate.

  Slowly. Painfully. Muscle, scales, and bone reknit themselves, piece by agonizing piece. The creature's other eight heads squirmed in obvious pain, its regeneration nowhere near as smooth as mine had been.

  I balked and felt my blood run cold.

  Was it undergoing a diamond realm reformation?

  No. If it were, it would not be in pain. And I could feel the strain within its monster core—its reserves of energy were depleting, not increasing. This was something else.

  I took the opportunity to flex my speed once again, leaving my stunned paragons behind and darting through the air to where my senses told me Marchioness Eliza Alistar was. I debated attacking the Hydra while it regenerated, but a curiously cruel part of me wanted to see what would happen if I gave it a few moments. If it were a skill I could replicate, I wanted it.

  I surged forward, my senses locked onto Marchioness Eliza Alistar, her energy core pulsing vividly in the distance.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  She stood beside King Zer’nack and the assembled gold and third-realm warriors, their expressions grim and uncertain. I hadn’t noticed earlier, but they had withdrawn from the battle to heal and shield King Zer’nack. Regardless, I needed at least half of them to stand with me.

  Though I had finally balanced my two cores—each now firmly in the middle stages of the third realm—and learned to fuse them into Shen energy, doubt still gnawed at me. Could I truly vanquish this colossal beast of legend?

  At the very least, we now had a fighting chance.

  Only Dame Annalise and Duke Goldenhearts seemed able to fully track my speed as I bolted toward them. I stopped before them, my eyes fixated not on Eliza, nor the King, but on the ominous black blade strapped to her back. My blade.

  I extended my hand.

  No words were needed.

  Marchioness Eliza hesitated, glancing at King Zer’nack. He frowned, but acquiesced with a nod after only a few seconds.

  She released Deathbringer from its straps and, after another brief pause, tossed it to me.

  Her face was lined with wrinkles, bruises, dirt, and blood. The others were the same—battered, wounded, and weary. The worst was Dame Annalise. Her right leg twisted at an unnatural angle, while half her face was burned beyond recognition.

  King Zer’nack, however, bore little more than a few scorch marks on his armor.

  “How…?” the Marchioness began, but I cut her off with a sharp shake of my head.

  "Now is not the time, Marchioness," I said. "The seven of you—" I gestured to Dame Annalise, Marchioness Eliza, Duke Goldenhearts, Duke Granger, Sir Alaric, King Zer’nack, and Dame Justicia. "Must work with Sir Benedict to support me."

  I deliberately avoided using Benedict’s title and house name, unwilling to explain why a foreign aristocrat was under my command. He, Nida, and Nasq were closing the distance, swiftly approaching astride their mounts. Though I knew Benedict could likely fly, he had yet to do so. Curious as that was, I had no time to dwell on it.

  "Do not presume to command me," the man snarling at me was older, two, perhaps three, decades beyond Duke Alistar. His slicked-back light brown hair was streaked with gray, his narrow eyes sharp and hateful, much like Morgana’s. His face was all angles, predatory and hawkish. Duke Goldenhearts, no doubt.

  I ignored the man who would soon die and turned instead to King Zer’nack and Marchioness Eliza. "I can defeat this creature. The Goddess of Light has bestowed upon me the power to save her believers from the wrath of this beast."

  Sir Alaric’s eyes grew wide, and his fingers tightened around the hilt of his blade, but he did not speak.

  "Your Majesty," I continued, "the Goddess has warned me—if you stay, your safety is at great risk. If you wish to fight, I ask that you support me from a distance. The Goddess would not see one of her true believers lost."

  I didn’t wait for a reply. They would help, or they wouldn’t, though I hoped they would. Either way, I had retrieved my sword and furthered my false identity to the leaders of Lysoria. There was nothing left to speak on.

  The Hydra’s head had fully regenerated, its gleaming eyes locking onto me with reborn hatred.

  Does it remember? I wondered, judging in the affirmative given the reborn head’s obvious rage. Or perhaps it simply feeds on the emotions of its brethren?

  All nine heads opened their mouths in eerie unison, unleashing a torrent of energy blasts at our haphazard group. Had we remained in place, we would have been obliterated.

  We scattered.

  King Zer’nack, Duke Goldenhearts, Marchioness Eliza, and Dame Justicia fell back, watching from a safe distance. Whether it was out of disdain for me or obedience to the Goddess’ supposed message, they refrained from engaging. I’d requested aid from a distance, but they seemed satisfied to sit back and watch for now, perhaps testing the veracity of my words.

  Dame Annalise, Sir Alaric, Benedict, and—surprisingly—Duke Granger flanked me, following as I charged the Hydra. My Domain kept the creature’s Greater Domain at bay, allowing us to fight unimpeded by the power of it.

  It did not take long for the Hydra to realize that, this time, the battle was different.

  Very different.

  The others’ attacks continued to only harass it, but my strikes damaged it.

  A burst of black flame hurtled toward me—I twisted, dropping low, gliding belly-up just beneath the searing heat, weaving toward the Hydra enormous torso.

  Deathbringer screamed with delight, the powerful blade exuding enough bloodlust to cause even a progenitor to hesitate. Unlike my energy core, it seemed Deathbringer’s growth had not been reset. The Hydra recoiled, its heads freezing mid-motion as Deathbringer bit into the seventh head’s neck. The sword drank greedily, devouring the monster’s blood, gorging itself on flesh. The yellow gem in its hilt vibrated with a deep, resonant hum as it siphoned energy from the Hydra’s core.

  I’d registered how it’d managed to regenerate, so this time I would give no opportunity to heal.

  Wrenching Deathbringer free, I brought the blade down between the seventh and sixth heads, carving deep into its torso. Its scales split, and black, corrupted blood gushed forth in violent geysers.

  A shadow fell over me—the Hydra’s central head, descending to devour me whole.

  I barely dodged, twisting away in time to keep my arm, though not unscathed. A jagged tooth raked across my skin, flaying a ribbon of flesh. Pain seared through me as its acidic saliva burned, eating deeper into muscle. My energies fought to heal the wound even as the damage spread. The pain did little to slow me, working only to remind me that while fast, I was still only in the gold realm.

  That was when a scream tore through the chaos.

  I recognized the voice before I saw her.

  Dame Annalise—grievously wounded, carried a deep gash carving through her midsection from shoulder to hip. Blood trailed her through the air, creating a swirling cape of crimson about her.

  Duke Granger was instantly on the Hydra’s head, hammering it away from the fallen knight with his magic gauntlets, each strike carrying the force of an avalanche.

  The beast scowled through scaly features, its golden eyes narrowing on him, just enough time for Dame Annalise to retreat.

  But she didn’t.

  I realized almost too late—it wasn’t that she refused to retreat, but that she couldn’t. She had already lost consciousness.

  But even as I understood, Dame Annalise continued plummeting toward the ground.

  "Nida!" I shouted. I hadn’t needed to. The tigerkin and her wyvern were already diving.

  I growled, launching myself at the Hydra once more.

  I rained down blow after blow on the creature, puncturing its scales with condensed energy as I threw everything I had at it. A hundred strikes, each one digging deeper, each one hurting it.

  And yet, the Hydra did not weaken.

  If anything, it grew stronger.

  Every roar, every wound, every ounce of damage fed it.

  I gritted my teeth. At this rate, my increased realm was only pushing the Hydra faster into the diamond realm. For every bit of Shen energy I used, I depleted only a fraction of its mana and energy. I couldn’t only hope it would run out first.

  I closed the distance, ducking under a fury of black flames, finding purchase on one of the necks. I clung to its thick scales and ripped a large one free, revealing rough grey skin underneath. The Hydra shrieked, its nearest head writhing in pain. Without hesitation, I flipped the scale in my grip and drove it back into the creature’s flesh, hammering it deeper with Deathbringer until only the hilt remained above the surface.

  This time, I let the blade stay.

  Deathbringer howled at my abandonment but vibrated with ecstasy as it drank hungrily of the Hydra’s energy.

  "Wwwhhaaat is this weeaaappppon?" the Hydra’s nine heads hissed in unison, four of them coiling to search for the buried blade.

  "My lady!" Nasq’s voice echoed from afar, amplified by a sound enhancement spell. "You must burn the necks to stop regeneration!"

  I frowned but didn’t have time to ask how he’d figured that out, instead sending a short reply via sound transmission, tendrils of energy carrying my words across the battlefield. With my gold realm core, it should work even despite our distance.

  "Ensure Vespera is healed. She is our fire. For now, see if Benedict is able to summon flames for us." I didn’t actually know if Benedict could wield fire magic, but I hoped he could.

  The Hydra spotted me—fourth head twisting just a fraction before lunging, its maw wide and ready to devour me whole.

  It missed as I leapt off its torso and tore away from it, darting between two of its seemingly less intelligent heads.

  And that’s when I realized I hadn’t kept track of the time.

  The past decade in the Mindscape had left time… irrelevant.

  I hadn’t noticed the setting sun.

  Or the rising of the moon.

  Lunar energy surged from deep within me even as Lunar mana—colossal and overwhelming—flooded the world. Experiencing Lunar mana for the first time was exhilarating. Each tendril that flowed through my mana core sent a thrill of excitement through me. In my time with Orpheus and having seen the mark of the Lunari gone from me, I’d thought my lunar affinity all but diminished.

  It was not.

  I literally pulsed with the power.

  My body surged skyward, instinctively drawn to the moon until I hovered above the Hydra, gazing down at its pathetic, beastly form. My red eyes blazed against the radiant lunar glow encircling me, like a divine halo of protection, bestowed by the Gods and ignited by the black-white flames of my Shen energy, roaring with fury from within and without.

  I was no mere warrior. No Soul Weaver.

  I was the embodiment of lunar might, once again wielding the powers of a true Lunari.

  I smiled down at the Hydra as lunar energy and mana fused into a new form of Shen energy, erupting from me with the fury of a volcano. It tried to retaliate, spewing its own flames, but its feeble resistance crumbled, parted effortlessly by the might of the moon.

  The scream that tore itself from all nine heads simultaneously and ripped through the battlefield was no battle cry— it was a wail of rage, desperation, and fear.