The Archimage Wars: Sibyl of Terra

By Philip Blood

In diabolical book 10, the final novel of The Archimage Wars series, join our hero for the conclusion of his epic tale. At long last, he must face his past, and then prepare the mages on the Ten Worlds to try and survive a coming cataclysm. Finally, he has to return to where it all started and face his most difficult challenge. Join our wizard on this final diabolical journey while he continues his humorous adventures while navigating through deep plots and shocking twists! Do you dare find out the truth?

The story of The Archimage Wars is an urban fantasy series. It 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 he 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 fantasy settings to modern-day technology, and everything in between!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philip Blood
• Release date: Nov 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005175368

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 10

Sibyl of Terra

by

Philip Blood

Version 3.00

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PUBLISHED BY:

Philip Blood

The Archimage Wars: Sibyl of Terra

Copyright © 2020 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 or references to the works of other Authors, Movies, Writers, or Composers are within the bounds of the Fair Use Act.

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Edition License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your 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 a copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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Dedication:

This book is dedicated to my sister, Rhonda St. Laurent. Why? Well, that is both simple and complex. The simple answer is that (A) she is my sister. And (B) this book is all her fault! I had originally written up a short outline for The Archimage Wars, but when I explained my plan for the ten mage Worlds in this version of the universe, my sister, damn her, said, Why not write one book for each World? So, many years later… here it is, the tenth book in The Archimage Wars series.

The more complex answer involves all the time I spent growing up with my sister in many different places as we moved around the world. She was always there, sometimes annoyingly, yet also wonderfully; she has been a major influence on my life. I would not be the same person if my sister had not been there to guide me and teach me many things, sometimes during the hardest points of our life. Thanks, Sis, truly, you will always be my favorite (and only) sister.

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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…

Holy crap, are you still here, in this tenth installment of my sordid tale? You are as stubborn as a House Dragon mage bent on revenge! OK, I guess if you can wade through all the stories to get to the grand climax, well, I can take the time to tell it to you. Persistence should be rewarded! It is time to reveal the conclusion of my odd and sometimes, painful adventures. But, before we get going, if you are just coming into this tale, and you have not read through the first nine volumes of this saga, please, stop reading, right now! I suggest that you start at the beginning, just like I did, in Book 1, the Wizard of Abal. Once you finish that, then read through the other eight volumes before starting Sibyl of Terra. Trust me, if you start at the end, you will be very confused! Believe me, there are a whole bunch of twists and turns that you will want to follow before you get to the end. Therefore, go back and read from the start.

OK, you have been warned! I am about to recap what has taken place so far. No really, do not read past this point until you have read the first nine novels!

Are you still here? All right, here goes, but don’t say I didn’t warn you! This is only intended to remind you of what happened, not replace reading those other books! Also, if you remember everything that has happened, there is no need to slog through this recap, so, by all means, skip ahead to chapter 1.

By now you are all well conversant with the fact of who I am. My full name, one of many, is Abaddon Dragon, though I used to go by Nick. When I believed I was Nicholas, I thought I was the second most wanted mage on the ten Worlds, though now, if you check the yearbook, it will list me as ‘most likely to become an evil monster, destroy the universe, and laugh while doing so’, yeah, I am the devil. That also makes me the most wanted bastard, anywhere.

Now, none of what they say about me is true, well, at least the part about wanting to destroy the universe; I leave that to the Dokkalfar. The truth is, I’m just the wizard who inspired the myths of the Devil. And they are myths! I am not the evil bastard people think I am. Oddly enough, I do have a few friends who have stuck with me, even after finding out I am the Dark One.

If you cannot fathom why anyone would put up with me, let me remind you of what has already taken place, then you decide.

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 stole his breakfast sausage 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 doesn’t know they are a mage and, because of that, they don't 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 wasn’t 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 wasn’t 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 Seppuku, 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.

In fact, 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’s 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 didn’t 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.

While a prisoner, Morrigu chatted with me and convinced me that she is not the person who stole my identity. Her identity had been stolen by the same person, who then used Morrigu’s identity to try to trick me into killing the real Morrigu. The Imposter sent me, like a weapon of mass destruction, to kill another Archimage. He, or she, used me as an assassin and, had I not learned to respect the integrity of the Hentan House mages, I would have become that weapon and would have destroyed their entire line!

But, in escaping from Tartarus, my cover was blown, revealing me, again, as The Dragon. My friends and the Archimages Baal and Arawn all tried to kill me. On reaching Earth I decided to run from my old friends before they could follow and finish me off. Baal and Arawn also sent mages through the portal, assigned to hunt down, and kill The Dragon.

Fighting off the mages of House Tarvos and Argoth left me wounded, weak, and unable to use any magic to defend myself because I had, virtually, nothing left. That is when Hydan found me.

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 never been hunting me to kill me, he had been trying to catch up so he could help.

Then I spoke to my friends explaining that, though I am The Dragon, they shouldn’t kill me because I have not done all the evil attributed to my name. I think most of them bought my explanation because they didn’t try to do me in, immediately.

Wanting to clear my name and knowing that most folks are not going to be as willing to listen as my pals, with me being the Devil and all, I decided to get proof of my innocence. I planned to do that by obtaining a copy of the soul contract that was made by the cabal. They had plotted to frame my ass for the attempted murder of other Archimages while they were on neutral ground. By now, I had learned that the leader of that cabal is Baal, Archimage of Elysium.

So, I headed for Rome, where House Argoth is running their show on Earth from Vatican City. I had learned that the Pope is always a high-ranking Argoth wizard and that Baal was on his way to the Vatican!

Off my pals and I went to sneak in and steal his soul contract. At least, I hoped it would be there, in the Vatican.

Things went well until I fell for Baal’s trap and the bastard nearly did me in. He cornered me in his underground trap while he was wearing his freaking God Armor. He had spent a couple of thousand years making it pretty much impervious to even the power of an Archimage’s magic.

Along the way, I learned that my Argoth friend, Melusine is my daughter, Elaine. I had planted her on Elysium to spy on the Argoths. I’d changed her body and Glyph to let her take the palace of an Argoth sorceress. The trick of changing a mage’s body and Glyph is what got the cabal to ambush me and start much of this in the first place!

I escaped from the Vatican but lost the soul contract. Baal now took that soul contract to his homeworld, Elysium. That left me with only one choice; if I wanted to steal it, I would have to go there… which was almost certainly another trap and the World where Baal is the most powerful.

We had to battle and sneak our way up through the seven levels to reach Heaven, where Baal’s floating palace is located, up in the clouds of his odd World.

Things did not go as planned; I did not get the soul contract. However, I did manage to steal the bastard’s God Armor! Back, when I went and collapsed the Netherworld, Myrka’s soul came with me and got jammed into Elaine’s body. Sharing a body with Myrka’s soul was not making my daughter happy. Now, I took Myrka’s soul out of Elaine and shoehorned it into Baal’s suit of God Armor. This gives Myrka a powerful and very odd kind of body.

Leaving Elysium, I escaped through a portal and went back to Earth. Unfortunately, the archangel Michael and four of his archangel royal guardsmen followed me there. All five of them were bent on my destruction.

Which is when Fiona Albus arrived… or I should say, Bloodmoon, the wicked spy and Imposter. She mopped up all four royal guards, with ease, while I fought the archangel, Michael. He escaped, but then I realized that Bloodmoon was here to kill me… since I am The Dragon.

We fought, and after we were both bloody and wounded… instead of killing each other, we had sex, right there on the stones of Machu Picchu. I will not go into the details.

Afterward, we talked, though I think both of us figured we would get back to killing each other, momentarily. That is when we each discovered the truth. Bloodmoon learned that, although I am The Dragon, I have been framed for much of the evil associated with my name. It has, mostly, been perpetrated by at least one Archimage playing my part. And I learned that I was wrong about her true identity. Fiona Albus had not been impersonated by Bloodmoon! The truth is, Bloodmoon is Fiona Albus! The woman I thought of as Fiona Albus was the actual Imposter who has perpetrated all this evil in my name! I had it all backward.

And, of all the damn things we learned, we discovered that Bloodmoon and I are in love with each other.

So, having found each other and accepted who we each are, we settled down and enjoyed a life of peace and love…

Really? Did you buy that? Haven’t you been reading? Hell, we got one night together, out on the ruins of Machu Picchu, before it all went south again.

Fiona headed through a portal. However, before I could follow, somebody sicced a freaking Earth Elemental on me! I blamed Ashera, Baal’s daughter who was also his wife. I had discovered that she is the one who has been messing with my life. She had played Fiona Albus and others.

Right then, Ashera was out to obtain a sample of the original Black Plague and then get the catalyst she needs to concoct the deadly mage plague. That Argoth bitch had already obtained the original strain of the plague. However, we had a chance to stop her by beating her to the Fountain of Youth… well, Death… before she could obtain the catalyst needed to convert it to a mage plague.

Unfortunately, we arrived too late. Ashera had already gotten there and used the key to take the catalyst.

Still tracking that bitch, Ashera, we tracked down one of her secret Black Sites in Germany. Once there, we captured a sorceress who had just arrived with a message from Bacchus, the Archimage of Nibiru. It was for Kali and told her that Bacchus had created the cure for the mage plague and that he was willing to deliver the cure to her facility for mass production if he got what was promised… whatever that was.

We went to Nibiru to obtain the cure to the mage plague from a brewer named Percie. Unfortunately, we arrived too late. However, we soon discovered that Percie had escaped and was being pursued by the Archimages from Elysium and Annwn. When we caught up with Percie, she was about to depart Nibiru. That is when we had a second conversation. You see, she turned out to be the Nibiran who had captured and questioned me, earlier! She also turned out to be my long-lost daughter, Cora. She has been alive, all these years. She believed that I killed her mother and tried to murder her, as well. Since then, Cora had been working to bring me down for my crimes. Then she escaped through the World portal.

Now I know that my daughter hates me for something I never did. We checked the portal and discovered that she fled to a place I would never have suspected she would go, my homeworld, Sheol. She took the cure with her so she could hand it over to Ashera.

Since that Argoth bitch already had the plague, all she would need is the cure before she could let the plague loose on all the Houses in her way.

I went to Earth to find out what I could about Sheol before going there. After all, Sheol means ‘hell’. Yes, I am, technically, the Archimage of Sheol, but I do not remember much about my planet. It is not part of the