Bang.

  For the second time that decade, a rift blew through the Sealed Demon Continent and changed the very skies.

  A rift that ruptured out from one clenched fist—a rift that ran straight through the Monster Prince.

  Havoc looked down at his chest in puzzlement.

  …Oh. he rasped. Oh.

  Then he looked at Zane again. You’re…

  It was the last thing the Monster got out. Then he broke into motes of light.

  A few steps away, Princess Saori coughed. She looked up, blood dribbling from her lips. “Your name,” she gasped. “What did you say it was?”

  “Zane.”

  A breath. Two.

  The Wandering Monk, pale and bloodied, bowed his head.

  So did Prince Tatsuo, and Fairy Shi, and the barbarians of the southern Heartlands. Skyhammer Kang, stumbling up from the dunes too.

  They knew who he was. They knew what they were looking at. They couldn’t help but give way.

  “Master.”

  In that moment, every master on the Sealed Demon Continent paid tribute to one man.

  After that day, the name of Zane Sky-breaker would echo through Sealed Demon history.

  The man who stood, when all of man’s best could not.

  The Prince and Princess even carried his legend overseas, to distant lands…

  ***

  There was one last thing.

  “Here,” Zane said, tossing out a ring. “Some treasures from the Temple. Do with them what you will.”

  He felt a bit awkward about breaking the Temple. Some of these folks had come quite a long way. He figured he might as well stuff in the treasures on his way out.

  Not long after he left—

  “It can’t be—the Helm of Rage and Glory?!”

  “That Dracarys Mantle Amulet was the cornerstone of the Di Empire…”

  “That Zane—he just tossed away Noctivarus Kingsbane!”

  Each treasure that spilled out of that Interspatial Ring could ransom a king.

  The poor experts there had been through quite an ordeal that day. This proved to be too much for a few.

  “Who is that Zane?!”

  But it was too late. He was already gone.

  ***

  Reina was quite amused when he told her the story later that day.

  “Oh, Zane,” she sighed. She seemed to get an extra kick out of hearing about his exploits going around breaking things.

  She snuggled up to him as they read their latest postcard. It was from Evan and Avery—a follow-up.

  Evan had done a lot of thinking since their last postcard. After Zane’s encouragement, he was set on it. He wanted to go on adventures forever, and become the hero he always dreamed of. It was a weight off Evan’s shoulders.

  Zane nodded. “Good for him.” His opinion on the matter hadn’t changed—you had to stand up for what was right for you. Something about growing old might’ve broken something special about Evan, he thought. There was this hope in Evan’s eyes he didn’t really see in anyone else.

  It made for an interesting contrast. In the few years Zane had known the kid, Jin had grown a great deal. The kid was almost up to Zane’s chest when he set off, and quite proud of it, though Jin thought it was about as tall as he was likely to get—around that young-adult range. Evan stayed happily the same as ever, a few years younger—just about twelve or so.

  Zane got the sense Fate had something to do with it, along with their Titles. Reina thought you had to be in a certain stage of life to be those kinds of heroes. After a certain point the themes could get a little too adult.

  “That’s more my kind of hero anyway.” She looked up at him with a little smile.

  “…”

  He still felt she thought a little too well of him—he doubted he’d ever be anything like a hero. But she couldn’t be moved on it.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Reina was curious about Jin; Zane thought she would like the kid. Jin reminded him a little of himself.

  ***

  They also got an update from Avery. It came in video form—a soul message.

  “Hey guys! So I’m still freeballing it out here,” she began. She’d dragged Evan along to this war-torn planet ruled by evil orc warlords. They’d all sold out to Malzareth—and, while doing so, enslaved millions of other species.

  She was determined to break them out, and vanquish the warlords. But in the face of it, the problem seemed impossible. The Warlords were all peak Minor Gods, with well-funded orc armies.

  Evan had wanted to go in, make friends, and hope teamwork would win the day. Avery had whacked him on the head with a balloon baton, which she used whenever he got too optimistic. She had another idea.

  “So the thing is, the balance of power between all these warlords is pretty delicate,” she said.

  Zane and Reina shared a knowing look.

  Avery went on. “You remember that time we were on the beach in New Hawaii, and there were all these big sand-castles lying around, just waiting to be stomped on?”

  Evan gasped, as though this unlocked a core memory. “That was you?”

  He looked hurt, like his sand-castle had meant a lot to him.

  “Er,” said Avery. “Anyway! So—the thing about these societies is they're still pretty medieval, y’know? They weren’t exposed to all the sophisticated scams we know about today.”

  She grinned and rubbed her hands together. “They didn’t know what hit ‘em.”

  Avery had put on an orc costume and infiltrated Orc society with her pet human Evan, who was just happy to be included.

  Over the next few months she got into the good graces of the Orc Warlord Zagar, became a trusted financial advisor, and set up the first and only pyramid scheme on planet Vormor. It turned out that Avery was a generational talent at scamming. She was the Lebron James of pyramid schemes.

  In the next half-year, she totally bankrupted three warlords and tanked the coffers of half the others.

  Their own armies turned on them pretty fast after that. Then she and Evan led a rebellion of the other species and won the day.

  There was a sketchy moment where she got found out, and locked up in a cage, and nearly ended up in one of the warlord’s stews. But Evan charged in and helped break her out.

  Now they were headed off to a Monster hive, where they were going to heist a dangerous Monster Prince egg before it had a chance to hatch.

  “Team Sunshower, signing off!”

  Neither he nor Reina knew what to do with all that.

  In the end Reina just wrote she was very proud of them and sent it off.

  ***

  Superdungeon Floor 738

  The Tar Chambers

  The floors, and ceilings, and walls, all sucked in light. A hungry void.

  There were only two points of color in the chamber. One, a set of eyes—six slitted crimson eyes that took up half the space.

  They glared down at a spasming black soul.

  The Soul of the Monster Prince Havoc.

  Havoc howled, spasmed; it was clear he was in excruciating pain, the kind of pain that could shatter minds.

  The eyes didn’t seem to hear. They were fixed on a hazy scene rising from the soul, slowly extracted—vague memories focused on one man.

  Noughtfire, Noughtfire… The hiss echoed through the chamber, reverberating. Were you under the impression you’d put your boy beyond the knowledge of Malzareth?

  A laughter that sounded like steel shredding. There is no such thing.

  Lord Malzareth.

  Lich-King Xolototh stood at the floor-gate, beyond the rusted runes, cowl up, bowing deeeply.

  The eyes flickered over.

  Speak.

  The undead hordes stand at the ready. The End-bringers hunger, whispered the Lich. There was a glimmer in the hollow sockets of its skull. On the break of the first wave, they shall swarm the mines of the outer rim and scour the Deep Earth Hall. Then all the ores of Dragonspire will be ours… without them, the humans lie naked.

  Xolototh grinned, a ghastly sight.

  It was impossible to know what Malzareth was thinking; its eyes seethed like magma.

  What of the Constellation Order? Speak!

  Their scouts have troubled us in the past, as have their star-showers… But the fell hounds know their duty… Seek out the most promising of the young ones, and tear.

  Malzareth made a guttural sound; Xolototh knew the sound. The distinctly pleased sound of long-drawn plans, all coming together.

  Then there is the woman. The new ruler of the World Tree…

  Xolototh nodded slowly. She was quickly rising up the Monsters’ list of irritations—even Lord Malzareth held her in high regard. Somehow she’d made that slow-moving, ancient structure a well-oiled machine—in record time, too. That scar-healing business was a shock, and she’d made it clear she was nowhere near done.

  It was vaguely terrifying to the Lich-King to imagine what she was capable of.

  My ghouls have her scent, Lord Malzareth, said Lich-King. She will lie cold before the wave is out.

  If you accomplish nothing else, hissed Malzareth. Make certain of it.

  In this first wave, the aims of the Monstrous forces were clear. It was not yet time for total annhilation—that was for the Final Wave, in one-hundred years; this early, the heavyweights were not yet free, the Monsters that lurked in the Superdungeon’s farthest depths, that took up whole rooms—most of whom still slumbered. Malzareth’s finest.

  No—this first salvo would be a crippling. A destruction of the Galaxy’s future.

  The Final Wave would be the killing blow.

  There is a complication, my Lord, said the Lich-King, cocking his head. What of Patriarch Azure Flame, and the Nameless King? If they interfere…

  He trailed off.

  There was a deathly silence, and Xolototh knew his mistake.

  Did you think I had not considered them?

  Xolototh cringed. Forgive me! I only thought—

  It is not your place to think. Malzareth drifted closer, so the full weight of its presence hung over Xolototh’s head; the Lich-King gasped. Leave them to me.

  Yes, my Lord! whispered the Lich-King.

  Leave me.

  Xolototh fled.

  ***

  Malzareth watched its servant go, its eyes seething slits.

  All that remained was the #1 target. The most sought-after head in the mind of Malzareth.

  Zane Walker, the Savage Sage.

  Malzareth could not trust any other Monster to the task.

  This would have to be certain.

  Malzareth itself would architect that man’s destruction.

  The ground opened up like a sinkhole, and Malzareth descended into the Chambers’ unknown depths.

  It knew the kind of firepower that human brought. With Goloog it had made a mistake—it had underestimated the man.

  But now Malzareth had done a study of him. It knew his strengths, his weaknesses; knew the full measure of him.

  It was not Zane Walker that Malzareth feared, but the man he could become.

  Breaking Zane as he was now was a trivial thing. Any Empyrean, any Monster King, could do it easily. But such a creature would ripple across reality; Noughtfire would be alert to it in an instant.

  Breaking Zane with a secret weapon—a weapon locked away in Dungeon X, a weapon the likes of which the Galaxy had never seen… that was a more intriguing task.

  Malzareth descended into a realm of flourescent pipes. Tubes piping out of an artery gurglign with pale green liquid, shining with the stuff of souls.

  Feeding down into a vat, where a single creature slumbered, waiting to be born.

  It would be a particular project to kill a man such as Zane.

  A creature not only more powerful, a creature that would mercilessly exploit his weaknesses. A creature against which he would have no chance at all.

  Deep in the bowels of the Superdungeon, the Zane Slayer took hideous shape.