The Archimage Wars: Divinity of Elysium

By Philip Blood

The story of The Archimage Wars is an urban fantasy series. The story begins in current time, on Earth, but don't let the time or place fool you! Truth is stranger than fiction and the truth about Earth and what it really going on will confound and amuse you!
Join our wizard hero as he tells his crazy story and takes you on a diabolical journey where you will travel across the Ten Worlds. He must not only survive, but must relearn to use the magic he has forgotten if he is to survive the Ascension Quest, and unravel plots so twisted and deep you would need an Albus Sorceress to help you find your way through! Fortunately, you will have one to help you figure it all out.
On this journey you will discover things that are hidden in all of Earth's history, wars, religions, famous people, movies, books, legends and myths, and while doing so, uncover the truth about our universe! It is not what you think. This novel series will take you on a quest across many strange fantasy worlds, not the least odd of which is Earth. The worlds range from almost Tolkien fantasy settings, to modern day technology, and everything in between!
If you liked Zelazny's Amber series, Butcher's Harry Dresden series, and Farmer's Riverworld series, you should like my The Archimage Wars series.
In book 7, our hero continues his journey, going to the World called Elysium to face off with the Archimage who has claimed that he is God. Is he? And do you dare find out the truth?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philip Blood
• Release date: Aug 21, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463453629

Philip Blood

Philip Blood is a published author currently living in the Los Angeles suburbs. He is an avid scuba diver, a voracious reader of sci-fi and fantasy, a tabletop gamer (from way back), and a computer game junkie with MMOs being the top of his list.Mr. Blood recently finished the third and final novel in his Zone series, this one called Brethren of the Ark and will soon publish book 9 in his urban fantasy series, The Archimage Wars: Warlok of Sheol. Book 1 through 8 are all available now with just one more to come to finish the series. Book 10 will be finished by the end of 2020. In addition, he works on creating Audio Plays for his novels, with five already available and more to come!He also recently went back to his very first fantasy epic series, Cathexis, and did a deep re-write, fixing may of the writing issues of a young author (he wrote it 30 years ago) while leaving the story intact. All four books have been re-written and are now available in ebooks or print versions.Finally, Mr. Blood has begun outlining a new, more traditional, fantasy epic, which he will start writing in 2021. The series is called, Kingdoms of Magic.

Book preview

The Archimage Wars:

Diabolical Book 7

Divinity of Elysium

by

Philip Blood

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Version 3.00

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PUBLISHED BY:

Philip Blood

The Archimage Wars: Divinity of Elysium

Copyright © 2018 by Philip Blood

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any short quotes from other Authors, Movies, Writers, or Composers works are within the bounds of the Fair Use Act.

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Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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Dedication:

Sometimes you do not give credit to those who stick with you, or how good you had it, but then something comes along in your life that reminds you that, though you made a mistake, it does not mean you cannot fix it. And so, I dedicate this book solely to my wife, Marianne Wilhelm.

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Other novels by Philip Blood

SINGLE NOVELS

Dragon Slayer’s Incorporated

SERIES:

NexLord (3) zONE (3)

Dark Prophecies The End and the Beginning

Black Chains Pirate Code

Grim Realities Brethren of the Ark

The Archimage Wars (10) Cathexis (4)

Wizard of Abal Necromancer’s Dagger

Sorceress of Atlantis Conspirator’s Coin

Demon of Annwn Sorcerer’s Ring

Seeress of Yaochi Desecrator’s Sword

Necromancer of Irkalla

Huntress of Tartarus Kingdoms of magic (Forthcoming)

Divinity of Elysium Weapon of Destiny (Forthcoming 2021)

Magus of Nibiru Black Wizardry (Forthcoming 2021)

Warlock of Sheol Doomed Crusade (Forthcoming 2022)

Sibyl of Terra Witch’s Curse (Forthcoming 2022)

The story so far…

Welcome, friends and others who have stuck with me through this story of redemption. If you are new to this saga and have not yet read the previous volumes, STOP READING! Go back to Book 1, Wizard of Abal and start from there. No, really, what I am about to tell you will really spoil the story by getting ahead things and revealing things you should not know!

OK, here come those spoilers and if you are still reading, I warned you!

As you already know… I am The Dragon. My full name, one of many, is Abaddon Dragon, and I am still the most hunted mage on the ten Worlds.

It turns out that, even if I am the wizard who inspired the myths of the Devil, there are still a few mages who are willing to call me a friend, or at least give me the benefit of the doubt.

You may have forgotten how I reached this point in my life, so let me remind you of what has transpired. However, if your memory is better than mine, go ahead and skip to Chapter One and pick up the tale there, I am just going to go over the highlights of the six previous volumes.

Some time back, I woke up on a stone slab in the ancient Egyptian ruins of Karnak, having forgotten every damn thing about my personal history. I did not even know my name, but I could speak many languages and I know how the world works, at least Earth, but we will get to the other Worlds, soon enough.

A Hunter, from Morrigu’s House, named Stewart Hentan, tried to kill me as part of the Ascension Quest. That is what the Houses call their game where they all try to eliminate the other nine Houses on their way to winning a stupid ‘King of the Hill’ contest! All this warfare is just so that their supreme ruler may ascend to the Silent Mother’s throne. That means that their Archimage would get to rule the universe, or the PTA, or something, as God.

At that point, I traveled to England, where I ran into a wizard and tourist named, Hydan. He is a lush on holiday; no, really. He travels the Worlds to drink and collect new alcoholic beverages. I was soon reunited with my old girlfriend, Fiona, a kick-ass, Second-Tier Sorceress from House Albus. She is the single most beautiful girl on this side of Andromeda. Not that I remembered her or anyone I had known in the past, due to my wonky memory.

Soon, we were off to a new World, called Abal. On the way, I met a bloodthirsty Tarvos sorceress named Myrka, who only wanted to stay near me so that she could find The Dragon when he came to do me in. Everybody thought I stole something from the master of evil, and that he wants it back, or that he just wants to kill me because I stepped on his favorite flower… or something.

Myrka and the rest of her House are tainted with a power called the derkaz. It is something that, once voluntarily taken into your soul, makes a mage callous and violent.

Once we arrived on Abal, I gathered another wizard into my little group, a very honorable Bakemono mage, named Toji. I saved his life, so he swore to serve me for a Yaochi year. That is his home World.

During our little adventure on Abal, I bumped off a mage who had returned from the dead, he also happened to be the insane son of the Archimage of Abal, Mordred. Then, I rescued a guy I thought was my dad, who turned out to be the Archimage of Abal, Mordred’s father. His name is Merlin. Yes, he is ‘the’ Merlin, of King Arthur legend.

Merlin did not blame me for doing in his son. That little shit had caused a civil war on Abal and he had imprisoned his dad in a crystal cocoon, though I eventually busted Merlin out.

I also met, who I thought was, my long-lost mother, the White Enchantress. With her help, I had managed to stop a thousand or so year civil war on Abal.

That is when I learned that my father is not Merlin, of House Sivaeral, but was some House Albus wizard called The White Knight. I figured that the White Knight was Lancelot of the same Earth Arthurian legends, with Guinevere being my mother, The White Enchantress. It made sense, though it was all a lie. However, I did not know that yet.

When I thought they were my parents, my previous Nautilus Glyph, of House Sivaeral, changed to what I thought was my actual House, becoming the Spider Glyph of House Albus.

I then returned to Earth and did a little research into my newly discovered House. While doing that, I met a Hidden Soul, which is a mage who does not know they are a mage and, because of that, they do not show a House Glyph on their left cheek, at least, not yet. His name was Casey Griffith.

Together with Casey, Fiona, Hydan, Toji, and Myrka, we had gone to yet another of the ten Worlds, this one called Atlantis, the home of House Albus. At that point, I thought these were my people.

Once on Atlantis, I battled with Morgana, a Dokkalfar necromancer who teamed up with a dark entity called The Unspeakable. I later discovered that The Unspeakable was the split-off, dark half, of Jenidan, the Archimage of House Albus. This dark half named herself ‘Draok’, also known as the aforementioned, Unspeakable.

During one battle, Guinevere was killed and, later, Lancelot, the man I thought was my father, got kidnapped by Draok. If that was not bad enough, Draok inhabited Myrka’s body, using something called a ‘Heart of Stone’ to take control. To find and rescue both my father and get Draok out of Myrka, I had to go to another of the Ten Worlds, Annwn.

Annwn is the home of House Tarvos, a bunch of derkaz crazed, bloodthirsty, nut job mages… just like my pal, Myrka. I went there pretending to be a captured mage slave since they do not allow other mages on their World. On Annwn, while tracking down Draok to rescue my, supposed, father, I discovered that the Tarvos are dying off due to some inability to breed with another Tarvos mage who has embraced the derkaz. To keep breeding, they have been capturing and enslaving mages from other Houses and using them as breeding partners.

Not only that, but their planet is slowly spiraling in toward its sun, which has already made the surface so hot it has become uninhabitable. I had solved their breeding problem by finding some of their mundanes who were in hiding. Now the Tarvos mages can breed with them, instead of enslaving foreign mages. Next, I blackmailed the Archimage of Annwn into releasing all his mage slaves. Along the way, I met Melusine, an Argoth girl, who knew me from way back, before I lost all my memories. After I set her free from slavery on Annwn, she told me that she owed me her life, so she decided to tag along to repay her debt by protecting my sorry hide.

Then, the man I thought was my father, sacrificed himself to get the Unspeakable out of my bloodthirsty Tarvos friend, Myrka. Unfortunately, Myrka then also sacrificed herself to save me from her own derkaz crazed Archimage. Before she died, I, stupidly, promised Myrka I would save her people. Damn my mouth! That turned out to be extremely difficult. Nearly all of them, including their Archimage, Arawn, had embraced the derkaz, making them uncaring, bloodthirsty killers. And, at that point, I thought that no one had any idea how to get the derkaz out of a person once they took it into their bodies! At least I solved the Tarvos breeding issue and put a stop to their enslavement of other House mages for procreation.

After that, we returned to Earth to help Toji. His family had been disgraced and his Grandfather’s position as Warlord on Earth taken by another Bakemono wizard named Jiro. Toji had been coerced into helping that very mage, the man who disgraced Toji's family line. To reinstate his family’s honor, Toji made a deal with Jiro to challenge the Bakemono Executioner to a duel. Normally, this would be suicide for a Fourth level mage to challenge a Second, but I had obtained a rare and powerful Actuality weapon, called Excalibur, yes, that Excalibur, and Toji… er… borrowed it, without asking, so he could use it in his duel. If he managed to kill Hotaru, Toji planned to commit honorable seppuku, happily dying by his own hand, knowing his family’s honor would be reinstated. What an idiot.

I threw a monkey wrench into that plan when I challenged Hotaru to a duel before Toji could do the same thing. Hey, it sounded like a good plan at the time! This solved the immediate problem of Toji dying in the duel, but Hotaru is like a lawnmower on nitro when she uses a Katana, the very weapon we would use in our duel at the Winter Solstice, which was coming up swiftly!

I had also learned, from a message in a ring given to me by the now-deceased, Guinevere, that my father is not Lancelot, The White Knight! She told me that my father is really… wait for it… Arthur Pendragon.

I started searching Earth, looking for my pop, you know, the Once and Future King? We had a lot of catching up to do. The problem being, I thought I was being hunted by the evilest being, well, ever. Everyone calls him The Dragon and he was once part of the ring of Ten Archimages. These are the ten immortal Archimages who each created, at least, one intelligent mage species on each of the Ten Worlds. The Dragon is also the only surviving son-of-a-bitch to break the Archimage Accords… twice, which got him tossed out of the Ring of Ten.

Sheol, his World, was then destroyed and House Dragon marked for extinction, with the other eight remaining Houses hunting him and his descendants. There are only a few mages left from House Dragon, but their Archimage, The Dragon, was still out there, causing havoc, pretending to be mages of other Houses (which only an Archimage can do), while committing all kinds of atrocities and other evil shenanigans. Oh, and I was sure he was hunting me for some unknown reason.

Arthur Pendragon is of House Dragon and is the man I now thought was my father. Pendragon means: ‘From the dragon’s enclosed land’, or ‘from House Dragon’. Since I still thought my mother was a second of House Albus, I figured that made me half-Dragon, which also means I was now half-sentenced to death. I was fairly sure that my being a half-Dragon crossbreed was enough for any mage to want my head stuck up on a pole.

I wisely kept this new family relationship a secret, even from my friends.

Fortunately, at this point, my Glyph still showed an Albus Spider, which I thought was due to my mother’s side of my blood. Guinevere was a Second of House Albus, while Arthur was a Second from House Dragon, which would have made me a Crossbreed Bastard Second. At that point, no one, except me, knew of my dark side connection.

That is when I got this great idea to go talk to Mordred… yeah, the guy I killed on Abal, and his wife, Morgana, who I had also killed when I went to Atlantis. It turns out they knew things I needed to know, but I had killed them without asking those questions first. I figured I was screwed, due to that ‘dead men tell no tales’ thing. Then my new Argoth pal, Melusine, informed me that she knew a mage who could get me to a place called the Netherworld… yeah, the land of the dead. Once there, I thought I could ask the dead souls of Mordred and Morgana some pertinent questions.

So, like an idiot, OK, not just like, but as an actual idiot, I separated my soul from my body and made the trip to this Netherworld. For my trouble, my soul was nearly eaten by the dead souls of those I have killed and, to save me, the souls of my dead friends protected me so that I could escape. In doing that, they damaged their souls, and now they were on borrowed time before their souls dissolved unless I figured out how to release their souls from this Netherworld. You see that place was not natural! Someone created it to trap souls instead of letting them go on to a place some people call, the ‘Origin’.

Upon returning to the land of the living, the Winter Solstice was nearly upon me. No big deal, right? Except, remember, I stopped Toji from challenging Hotaru, the Bakemono Executioner, to a duel by insulting her first, thereby, getting into a duel with her myself! That was one of my dumbest ideas, and that is saying something!

My friends and I decided that I would have to uncover the whole plot, which led Toji’s family into disgrace, or I was going to have to face that katana-wielding master slicer and dicer in a duel!

So, we went to spy on Jiro in Okinawa, where we witnessed him making a deal with Bloodmoon, the mage spy who is impersonating dead mages. This time, he or she was playing the part of Fiona Albus, my girlfriend. However, we did not get any proof of Jiro’s guilt in framing Toji’s grandfather.

Then I ran out of time and ended up in Japan, where no matter how much I tried to avoid it, I ended up in that very duel with the katana wielding Hotaru!

By some miracle, when an avalanche obscured our battle, I managed to disarm Hotaru and pick up her sword. However, in some stupid act of chivalry (where did that come from?), I gave her sword back and then offered her my apology… and life if she wanted it. I promised her I would find the proof of a plot going on against Toji’s family. She decided to let me live, much to Jiro’s chagrin!

After that, I had to go to Toji’s home World to find that proof of the plot that I suspected Bloodmoon had concocted with Jiro. We uncovered a much larger conspiracy. Jiro was plotting with the Second in charge of Yaochi, a guy named Susumo.

In the end, we exposed Jiro, who committed Hari-kari, and then I tricked Susumo into revealing his involvement in the plot with House Argoth to weaken Yaochi. Nuwa, a Seeress who can see possible paths into the future, and who is also the Archimage of Yaochi, took charge and put things in order. She put Susumo’s fate in my hands, but I remembered what a little saeran girl taught me, and I spared his life. I did get Toji’s line reinstated and their honor restored.

And all was right in the universe… for about two seconds.

Nuwa offered me a reward, and foolishly, I took it, even after she warned me that the knowledge would not bring me happiness. She told me where to find Arthur Pendragon back on Earth, the guy I was so sure was my father.

I left my friends and headed to find Arthur. I did not want them to learn that I am half-Dragon yet, little did I know, it is much worse than that! I found Arthur, and he took me to the dungeons beneath, what had once been, the location of Camelot Castle. There, he showed me a giant crystal with a boy trapped inside. I broke the crystal, something Arthur, a Second of House Dragon, could not do. He knew I could do it, firstly, because I had already broken Merlin out of such a prison and, secondly because Arthur knew something I did not… I am an Archimage.

I learned that the boy inside the crystal is Arthur’s son, Nicholas. I know, wait, I am his son, Nicholas… but as it turns out, I am not. Arthur is not my father… and, holy bat-twist, I learned that it is the other way around; I am Arthur’s father! That makes me the Archimage of Sheol, the monster who is the basis of every legend of the Devil, and just about every other evil bastard in history! I am The Dragon.

Coming to grips with this was… hard. All this time, I thought The Dragon was after me, but someone else has been disguising themselves as The Dragon while I was in my coma for 27 years, and for who knows how long before that! Now I had to find out the truth. What evil acts am I responsible for? Or, has someone else been doing them in my name? So, I called up Professor Casey to help me dig up some information on the devil. I arranged to meet him at the University of Oxford England.

That is where we discovered that the Dokkalfar mages had dug up the bones of some old guy who may have been the ‘Typhoid Mary’ of the Black Plague, which turns out to also be the base ingredient in a deadly mage plague. Following Bloodmoon, I saw the Imposter steal something from a museum. She swiped something called the Alfred Jewel. This turned out to be a magical key that unlocks the catalyst that turns the Black Plague into a mage plague. Without it, you cannot use it on mages, with it, you can wipe out an entire House!

However, while we were following Bloodmoon, Hydan managed to steal the Alfred Jewel from the Imposter’s room. At this point, we figured that the Imposter is the Archimage of Irkalla, Kali. As it turns out, Kali is the Archimage who knows how to remove memories! Since mine have been stolen, I decided it is worth a trip to Irkalla to get my memories back from Kali.

Once there, we discovered that Irkalla is a tidally locked planet. Where half of the population are vampires and the other half their food. Well, sort of vampires, close enough that they are behind the myths of what Earth people consider vampires.

We traveled to the dark side of Irkalla to find Kali, and in the process got captured and bitten, thereby contracting the vampire virus. This started to change us into blood-sucking monsters driven by ‘the thirst’.

I met Kali, and we had a little chat. It turns out, I had a lot of things wrong. She convinced me that she is not the Archimage who has been impersonating The Dragon. She claimed she was visited by me, The Dragon, and that I gave her the vampires virus. I, supposedly, told her it was a way to change her people so they could live on the cold side of Irkalla. Once taken, they were stuck with it and now they must feed on their mundanes to survive.

But I convinced Kali that I had not given her the virus. I told her that someone impersonating me had done so. That mysterious person, who must be an Archimage to take my form, also started the blood feud between the Tarvos and Dokkalfar and got them both to take in the derkaz taint.

I made a deal with Kali, I would solve their vampire problem by using Earth science or the Friare brewers to make an antidote, in exchange for the memories she had stolen from me. It turns out she made a deal with Morrigu, Archimage of House Hentan, to steal my memories. Morrigu wanted to use me and Kali wanted revenge since she thought I had given her people the vampire virus.

In Kali’s palace, I ran into that very Archimage… and Morrigu confirmed my theories… admitting to playing my part. She admitted to pretty much everything! Then she escaped, taking my memories with her when she headed back to her home World of Tartarus. She even invited me to come after her, where she is strongest, and would have her hunters track me down.

Nearly crazed by the vampire virus, I got into a fight with Stewart Hentan, a Second, who I purposely set onto my path to kill me. You see, I thought I was going to turn into a vampire and have the derkaz in me as well. I planned to take in the derkaz since it was the only way I could collapse the Netherworld, thereby releasing the trapped and decaying souls of my dead friends. Not wanting to turn a derkaz-crazed, vampire Archimage loose on the Worlds, I concocted a plan to let Stewart know where to find and kill me, but only after I saved the souls of my friends. I did all that, and it got rid of the derkaz taint! However, because I had Kali remove the memory of my setting Stewart onto my trail, he nearly killed me. However, Kali saved my ass, yet, in doing so, revealed the fact that I am The Dragon to my one-time friends.

They immediately attacked me. Why not? Every other mage of every House, except mine, is out to kill The Dragon. I managed to escape by following Stewart Hentan through a portal back to Earth. That had the fortunate effect of taking away the vampirism infection, which is only in my Irkallan body back on Kali’s World. Now free of the derkaz, from going to and collapsing the Netherworld, and free of vampirism, due to returning to Earth, I was home free, except for that little part where everyone now knows that I am The Dragon and wants to kill me and salt the earth where I die.

So, I headed for Tartarus to exact my revenge on Morrigu for all the horrible things she has done to me, including impersonating me to do evil, killing Gaia (my wife), Cora (my daughter), and murdering Fiona Albus. I wanted her to die by my hand.

However, she knew I was coming, so I had to be cunning. I learned the Archimage trick of changing bodies and used it to impersonate one of her Huntresses, Ganna, whom I had met on Earth. Then I joined a tribe of the Felinae line of House Hentan so I could get to Morrigu and kill the bitch.

While there, I uncovered a plot from an outside force who was helping the Panthera tribe of the Hentans against the other tribe, the Felinae. I guess someone wanted to get them into a civil war to weaken House Hentan.

In the midst of this, my old friends showed up on Tartarus, hunting me, The Dragon.

Eventually, I helped Stewart Hentan and captured Hydan, Toji, and Melusine before the Panthera could take them. I did not want to risk my old friends fighting against derkaz crazed mages who might kill them, inadvertently.

So, I helped capture them to keep them alive, playing the part of Ganna so that my old friends did not recognize me as Nicholas… or The Dragon.

What I did not see coming is that I learned to respect some things about the Hentans while playing the part of Ganna. I even made a friend, a young Fifth, named Cesra.

In the end, I faced a hard decision, do I become like Morrigu and commit the murder of her and all her mages, including Cesra, my friend, thus confirming what everyone in the universe thinks of me, that I am the Devil? Or do I change my goal and spare the terrible Archimage and architect of all my woes? I choose that path, deciding that I will not be what others think I am.

I got my chance to kill Morrigu and stayed my hand. That got me captured by Steewar (his real name) Hentan, but at least I proved I am not the monster everyone thinks I am.

Now with a new goal, I continued my plan to get to Morrigu, but now I was interested in bringing her to justice, not committing murder.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum, (literally, I went to Rome at the end of this crazy chapter of my life). I got my chance to kill Morrigu and stayed my hand. That got me captured by Steewar Hentan, but at least I proved I am not the monster everyone thinks I am. Bully for me! Of course, now I was chained to a giant ring, awaiting execution for my new moral outlook on life.

But Morrigu chatted with me and convinced me that she is not the Archimage who has stolen my identity. In fact, her identity was stolen by the same person, who then tried to use me as an assassin to kill Morrigu. Had I not learned to respect the integrity of the Hentan House mages, I would have become that weapon destroyed their entire line!

In the end, I helped Morrigu get the derkaz out of her Panthera line, and then I slipped away to free my old pals. I played the part of my old friend Casey Griffith, changing my body to make me look like him so that my other old pals did not kill me for being The Dragon.

However, in escaping from Tartarus, my real identity was revealed and my friends and the Archimages Baal and Arawn, two of the cabal of Archimages, all tried to kill me. On reaching Earth, I decided to run from my old friends before they could finish me off. Baal and Arawn also sent mages through the portal, chasing me, ordered to kill The Dragon.

Now, running from my old friends and the high Tier mages sent to do me in, I led them on a merry chase through the ruins of Rome, only to be cornered at Circus Maximus where I fled up to the top of a 12th-century tower to make my last stand, depleted of almost all magic.

They toppled the tower, with me in it, and I leaped out the window, using the last vestiges of my power to make myself light, for the first, and what I thought would be, the last time in my life.

That is when Hydan found me, wounded, weak, and unable to use any magic to defend myself because I had, virtually, nothing left.

But instead of killing me, Hydan told me that he is my friend and reminded me that I had once told him, friends do not kill friends.

He had not been hunting The Dragon to do me in, he had been trying to catch up so he could help his friend.

Which is where I find myself in this saga, right now…

Chapter One

They spoke of my capture

And of my escape

They called it misfortune

But I called it fate

-Styx

If there is one thing I hate, it is being woken up early, particularly by a wrinkly skinned little bastard with a bad case of body odor. Pox must have shaken me awake. Opening my tired eyes, I can see that I am standing in the center of the Colosseum, tied to a post. I do not know how I got back in here, or how the Colosseum has been returned to all its former glory from the days of ancient Rome.

All of the stands around me are full of screaming and yelling spectators, calling for the blood of The Dragon.

Damn, somehow those Tarvos and Argoth mages must have finally closed in and captured me. I guess Hydan had to take off, or maybe he was taken while trying to protect me. Regardless, they seem to have brought me to this stadium for a public execution!

This cannot be the original Colosseum; it is in too good of shape! It looks like it has only been recently built! Maybe they took me through a portal to Elysium and I am in one of the Argoth House stadiums?

I looked around, desperately seeking a way to escape. However, I am very well secured to this metal pole and it has sigil marks all over it, as do the manacles which are binding my wrists and holding my arms up above my head.

I tried breaking them anyway, yet to no avail. Baal must have made these sigils.

Then I saw a few massive forms stepping out of huge doors and heading toward me across the sandy floor. First is the Archimage Baal; he is encased in his gleaming silver and gold armor, which I had seen him wearing on Tartarus. Next to him is the derkaz wielding Archimage Arawn, of House Tarvos. He is in his true demon-like form, which is native to his World, Annwn. To his right is Kali, also in her native, six-armed body, the dark vampire Archimage of Irkalla. All three of them are massive, standing over ten meters in height, though I am still my normal human size.

Then another large creature stalked out, and I immediately recognized Pox, my trusty servant! He is also nearly eight meters tall. I felt a moment of hope; he must be here to protect his Master!

But Pox turned and smiled with long pointy teeth, joining those four Archimages who face me, staring down at me in a half-circle, gazing sternly at my manacled body.

Then Pox said, You should have killed Morrigu when you had the chance.

I heard something from behind me and tried to turn, but I only saw the blurred shape of a massive ax head, coming for my neck, swung by someone standing behind me… and I realized that it must be Morrigu!

As the blade hit my neck, I knew it would sever my head from my shoulders. I screamed and my head came up off the ground, my eyes opening wide, only to see Hydan’s concerned face looking down at me.

What is it, Nicholas? he asked, with some concern.

I swallowed and then looked around. I am not in the Colosseum and there are not any giant Archimages or a huge phantom looking down at me. I am still in modern day Circus Maximus, Rome, with the rubble of the ruined tower off to my right.

What happened? I croaked out, still weak.

Hydan answered, You passed out; I think you used up too much magic, Nicholas.

Abaddon, I corrected him, Nicholas is my grandchild, I just borrowed his name.

Hydan nodded, Of course, though that will take some getting used to for me. Can you get up? I don’t know how long Toji and Melusine can fend off these mages, especially if more arrive.

I tried to get up but nearly passed out again. Ah, no go, I replied, sadly.

Hydan smiled, I will carry you!

He then picked me up in a fireman’s carry, tossing me over his broad shoulder. Hydan is stronger than he looks!

He trotted through a gap in the short wall, then went up toward the ruins which surround this end of the Circus Maximus.

Toji came running out of the dusty air which is obscuring the entire area due to the recently fallen tower. The dust is making me cough, but I am not complaining, the dust is as good as fog for keeping our pursuers from spotting where we are headed.

Toji stated, We must go, I think reinforcements are arriving!

Hydan spoke, Make a Star, we must chance it to escape; here is an Image to use.

Toji nodded and started burning one into the stone.

I heard Hydan calling out, Melusine!

He must have reached her in a Spirit Bridge because she answered and Hydan made it so I can hear her response, ‘I’m here, Hydan. Where are you? Do you have The Dragon?’

I do. Are you in control of Myrka? Hydan asked.

Melusine replied, ‘For the time being, yes. I’ve convinced the bitch to let me at least talk to him before she goes all gangster on The Dragon!’

Hydan replied, All right then, head for the first arch on the left side when facing the end of Circus Maximus.

She quit speaking and soon ran out of the dust to join us.

Milord, she said, seeing me over Hydan’s shoulder, Are you all right?

Call me Abaddon, I noted, wryly. 'Milord’ seems a bit stuffy, given the circumstances.

She still looks concerned, but then Toji finished his Star and Hydan said, "Melusine, you should go through first. You will have