I finally slowed and banished Switchblade a couple hundred yards from the spot I’d seen the Briggs. From there, Nigel disappeared into the rainy darkness while I activated Mirror Cloak.

  The darkness turned even more monochrome as light bent around me. Between my Phantomstep Breeches, my wolf leather skullcap, and my Shadow Cuisses, the boosts to Stealth made me basically invisible to all but the most powerful detection abilities.

  Moving quickly, but carefully, I slipped down the dark street to the stairway leading down to Echo City. This one was mostly concealed by a huge pile of rubble, but I could squeeze through. I easily spotted the scuff marks from the Briggs’s boots. With a grim smile, I headed down.

  Congratulations, Lucas! Your Treads of the Luscaan Explorers have auto-disabled a Screaming Banshee trap and a Tar Pit trap.

  Screaming Banshee trap. Common. When triggered, surround the target with an earsplitting howl that disorients, confuses, and reduces the ability to cast spells by 25%, while dispelling any active Stealth. Duration: 2 minutes.

  Tar Pit trap. Common. When triggered, restrict target movement by 75% and actively drain 1% health per second for 45 seconds.

  Nice. Those were some pretty impressive traps. The Briggs were getting smarter. That meant Syvelis had probably told them their mission was to draw me into an ambush. Springing those 2 traps on me would have given them ample warning of my approach and Tydrion a great chance to easily capture me.

  With the traps disabled, they were the ones trapped with me. That happy thought made me smile as I silently padded down the rough stairs, avoiding loose rubble. Nigel ghosted down after me, blending in with the shadows like a true apex predator.

  The bright, warm sunlight pouring into the stairwell up to the first landing beckoned from Echo City, and I smiled as I moved into the light. When I crept down out of the hole in the ceiling, the stairs descended to a wide boulevard, flanked by the 3-story remnants of some truly impressive buildings.

  We’d collected enough relics that much of the grand echo of the once-majestic city was already crumbled away, but some vestiges remained. We’d ended up in a far corner of the city but even so, the grand central palace stood proudly in the distance, lording over the other crumpled buildings.

  The boulevard we were descending to looked like it had once been part of a pedestrian thoroughfare in a posh shopping district. The street was paved entirely in some kind of wood, like a giant hardwood floor. Graceful planter boxes held exotic trees with leaves of all shapes and sizes. The clean air smelled faintly of earth and trees and flowers. Some trees even held ripe fruit, although I didn’t pause to Identify them. Nigel did go sniff a few. I remained focused on our prey.

  Fancy storefronts with undimmed signs and perfectly clear glass display windows showcased all sorts of alien clothing, household goods, and more. The shelves of one bakery were packed with fresh-baked goodies that still somehow smelled delicious. Even though my inventory was time-locked to keep food fresh, that shop pushed the concept to the extreme.

  Most of the items were just part of the illusion of Echo City, and would melt to sludge if we tried taking them back up to Ruin. We might find an odd loot box or durable treasure, but the best use of our time exploring would be to make a run at the central palace.

  Since it still stood tall like the grim castle, they must have relics inside, and would most likely have the best other loot. They would be our targets next time. Now was all about the Briggs.

  The traitorous couple had continued along the boulevard, but stopped outside a brewery. They sat across from each other at a delicate, wrought-iron table, painted a cheery green. Martin was sampling a pint of ale, while Trish was munching on what looked like a meat pie.

  Her voice carried easily to me. “Not bad.”

  Martin belched and rubbed the back of his hand. “Better than the swill they usually give us. At least we can enjoy ourselves while we wait for the idiot to arrive.”

  At the sight of the murderous traitors, I had to resist the urge to sprint over there and plunge my blades through their hearts. Judgment was coming, but I needed to get more from them before I finished them off.

  Still, I didn’t need both of them to answer questions. So as I marched toward them, I dropped Mirror Cloak. Martin’s back was to me, but Trish was looking right at me when I suddenly appeared.

  Her eyes widened in shock and she opened her mouth to scream a warning, but she reacted half a heartbeat too late. I had already thrown one of the bombs Jeeves had picked up for me.

  Final Prayer. Rare. This Seismic Thunder bomb packs an oversized wallop in a deadly, barbed package.

  Hurl this heavy dart at an enemy and take cover. Once it impales its target, a 5-second timer begins, giving them a brief window to prepare for eternity. The resulting devastating wave of shrapnel, superheated air, and a ground-shaking surge of earth mana can destabilize entire structures. Don't hang around after you throw this beauty.

  The black throwing dart looked a lot like a bulbous version of a lawn dart, but radiated a menacing aura that promised to deliver. The dart skipped across the table with a metallic clang, shattering Martin’s ale before the barbed head plunged deep into Trish’s chest, just below her sternum. The impact catapulted her over backward with a high-pitched scream.

  She flashed and disappeared. I’d expected her to have another escape token. Whether she triggered it, or it auto-triggered didn’t matter. I had purposefully aimed for a non-lethal spot. At least, not insta-lethal.

  Martin leaped to his feet and spun to face me just as I used the first us of my new utility spell scroll, Reality Anchor on him. It effectively locked him in place, preventing him from triggering his own escape token. He staggered, as if the spell physically impacted him, and he snarled in anger, a pair of slender daggers appearing in his hands.

  I could beat Martin in close combat easily enough, but I had a bunch of shiny new temporary spells, and no doubt he was layered with more annoying trap, teleport, or defense spells. So I focused on Force Weaver and triggered Abyssal Requiem, combined with Convergence Wave, and used Elemental Harmony to add in a potion of Impotence.

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  Abyssal Requiem. Rare. Fire a beam of dense necrotic mana to disrupt target’s active spellcasting and mana use while delivering severe doses of necrotic poison.

  Convergence Wave. Rare. Unleash an explosive sphere of pure energy in every direction to deliver massive damage and disrupt any active spells at the cost of half of your entire mana pool. Saturate the entire blast zone with convergence mana with a 50% chance to Mimic the strongest spell the Wave canceled out.

  Elemental Harmony specifically guaranteed elemental-based potions could be combined, but I’d pushed the limits before. Again, with Force Weaver, I fully expected to meld the extra effect into the synergized spell. Stacking so much into one spell was total overkill for Martin, but sometimes it was the thought that counted.

  Congratulations, Lucas! You have created the synergized spell Nullwake. Rare. Unleash a sphere of total destruction up to 50 feet in every direction, smashing through everything in its path and delivering massive amounts of necrotic poison damage to all organic material. Disrupt all active mana and spellcasting in the affected area, render targets incapable of using mana for 30 seconds, and mimic the strongest spell disrupted.

  Note: Tome of the Callback has added Nullwake as a temporary spell with 1 use remaining.

  A sonic boom explosion shook the entire shopping plaza as an enormous black wave of energy blasted out in every direction, shattering the wooden floor, store fronts, and planters. Trees caught in the blast were splintered, then the chunks of wood and leaves blackened and melted into stinking puddles of good.

  Martin was thankfully standing on the outer edges of the blast zone, so only caught a fraction of the full force of my spell. Three separate glowing shields appeared for a second around him before they fizzled, and the blast hurled Martin like a rag doll all the way down the boulevard before he crashed right through the plate glass window of a shop selling seeds and gardening supplies.

  Congratulations, Lucas! Mimic has captured Observer’s Bastion. Time remaining to re-cast the spell: 15 seconds.

  I stared at the absolute destruction in mute awe for a second before Nigel shouted from behind me. “Warn me before you do that again. That hurt.”

  I spun to see my shaggy buddy, pitiful in his tiny murder kitten size, trotting toward me with a visible limp. Some of his fur had fallen out and the rest was curled and black, revealing open wounds dripping yellow puss from dead, black flesh.

  “Fukuoka!” I cursed and rushed to my companion. The spell hadn’t differentiated from friend and foe. Idiot! Good thing I hadn’t tried that combo with my entire party around me. I might have one-shotted them all.

  I extracted a full regeneration potion and poured it into Nigel’s mouth. He swallowed, then sighed, relaxing visibly as his ghastly, poisoned wounds quickly healed. I gave him a full healing potion too, just to be safe.

  “Sorry, bud. I hadn’t expected that result. Stay here and rest. I’ll be right back.”

  I extracted a large t-bone steak and a giant shark fillet and placed them on the scoured-clean ground. Nigel flopped down beside the food and said, “I’ll try, but I’m going to need a lot of food to recover.”

  “That’s enough to feed 10 people.”

  “Lions have better digestion.”

  I dropped 5 more of each, then trotted down the devastated boulevard after Martin and checked the spell Mimic had captured for me.

  Observer’s Bastion. Rare. This self-contained, pre-cast, and auto-triggered defensive spell is the must-have protection for the wildlife scientist intent on studying the most dangerous wild monsters. Extreme defense against all types of physical and magical attacks for up to 2 minutes, guaranteeing it will bring you safely home. That kind of safety is worth the exorbitant price tag, isn’t it?

  That was honestly awesome, and for a second I wasn’t sure what to do. I really liked my current mimicked temporary spell: Bands of Despair, but Observer’s Bastion was impressive too. If I could have gifted it to Ruby, I’d pick the new one in a heartbeat. My legendary armor already provided impressive defense, and the movement restriction from Bands of Despair might prove more valuable against members of Marisara’s court.

  I didn’t want to waste a great spell, though, so I cast Observer’s Bastion. A faintly glowing shimmering shield appeared around me before fading from sight. Two minutes of extra protection from whatever trickery Martin might carry with him would be worth it. They had a knack for circumventing my precautions.

  “Cyrus, that Tome of Callback notification said Nullwake only has 1 use remaining. Doesn’t my class automatically increase that 3 more?”

  “Not this time, Lucas. You’ve leveraged that class ability more than I’d expected, but it’s not all-encompassing. The tome is a special artifact that your class doesn’t directly affect.”

  “That sucks,” I grumbled, but I wouldn’t complain too much. I was already getting a bonus use of every synergized spell, and I could make that same spell again as long as my temporary spells remained.

  As I closed on the shattered shop window, a distant rumble echoed so faintly, even with my high Perception stat I barely noticed. I cocked my head to one side. Was that my bomb going off up on stage 4?

  Hopefully. No doubt Trish had auto-teleported back to their home base, which was why I’d hit her with the delayed bomb. Nothing like sharing a little explosive present in the faces of everyone who might be there. An announcement from Eva confirmed my hope.

  Congratulations, Lucas! For killing 4 traitors, including Trish Briggs, along with 12 minions of Countess Syvelis, and even wounding the countess, you receive a platinum Mockingjay loot box.

  Bonus reward for hitting the famously elusive countess with a surprise attack that dealt more than 25% damage to her in her own lair. Loot box upgraded to emerald.

  Part of me hated using such a brutal tactic. Killing a monster or a sentient boss in fair combat was one thing, but I’d effectively booby-trapped Trish with a time-delayed bomb to target others around her too.

  I shrugged and pushed the worry aside. Trish was a murderer and Syvelis would never fight fair. Instead, she turned our own people against us and siphoned information from the minds of others. She was a leech intent on killing every last one of us, and I would show her no mercy.

  Too bad that attack hadn’t killed her. Now she’d probably be more careful about where she auto-teleported her spies and traitors back to. Still, I hurt her and killed a bunch of her assets. Maybe that would rattle her badly enough to make a mistake.

  I pushed thoughts of the countess aside as I stepped into the gardening shop, my boots crunching on broken glass. The shop smelled like dirt and loam and plants that had all packed the now-destroyed shelves. Martin had tumbled through the entire shop before smashing through a sales counter, and lay in a pile of rubbled mostly upside-down, legs splayed up in the air. I spotted a broken leg, 2 broken arms, and his bloody face was already blackening from the necrotic poison.

  He wasn’t dead yet, but wasn’t far off. With a sigh, I force a full regeneration potion between his broken teeth and dumped it down his blackened throat. I had to lift him up to get him to swallow, but finally got the potion down.

  “I didn’t expect to need to heal you,” I muttered as Martin coughed weakly, then opened bleary eyes. When he focused on me, he started violently, so I let him drop to the floor.

  There, he promptly screamed as the not-yet-mended bones of his left thigh jutted farther from his flesh.

  “Hurts like a mother, doesn’t it?” I asked conversationally, crouching beside him.

  He tried to curse, but his body was convulsing under the effects of the regeneration potion battling the insidious poison. He’d come closer to death than I’d realized, so I reluctantly forced him to drink a full healing potion too.

  He sputtered and coughed and tried to spit it out, but I held his nose and mouth closed until he swallowed. While he moaned and cried from the pain, I quickly patted him down. He didn’t have anything useful outside of his inventory, so I tried to cast Minion Minion on him.

  Minion Minion has failed to steal Martin Briggs away from Countess Syvelis.

  Too bad. That would have been interesting. Then again, it would have been weird to kill my own minion. At least the failed spell confirmed he was indeed a minion or follower of the sneaky countess.

  “I warned you that next time I saw you that you’d regret it.”

  “You’re a walking dead man,” he said, then coughed again and winced. His internal injuries hadn’t all healed.

  “Says the guy I just had to save.”

  “After you blew me up,” he snapped. His strength was returning, but he was still dazed. A perfect time to begin the interrogation.