A month earlier... Morpheus had told Greg that the only way he would rise through the demi tier without getting stuck at the third rank was to find a new domain of desire that the law of desire didn't already cover. Most mages would have to do this blindly, groping through the dark trying to find an area that wasn't already captured by the law. Greg on the other hand, had a rare opportunity where he was regularly coming in contact with the law itself. Meaning that, if he could hold out long enough, Greg could map out the domain already covered by the law and from there try to find a direction to take it that was new. Greg wasn't sure when exactly it happened, but at some point, he stopped trying to glean as much as he could from the law of desire. Instead, his attention turned to himself. Have your very being destroyed enough times and you stop thinking of yourself as a physical entity. This was a thought that Greg had never anticipated having, but it perfectly encapsulated what

It had been thirty minutes since the last of Olivia's clones had been killed. The seven pirate ships had been like beehives that someone had kicked. There was a buzz of activity on them as they prepared to launch an attack. On their deck, there was a tense unease as they all watched the preparations take place. At least, Calyn and the armored guards on the deck felt uneasy, the two monsters standing beside her were calmly chatting away as if nothing of any significance was taking place. When Alena's life-seek spell allowed them to wipe out the pirates' vanguard force in just two volleys, everyone looked at the healer with respect in their gazes, as they recognized her magical prowess. After Olivia's clones had gone on the offensive and claimed almost a thousand lives, however, Calyn could see the fear in the gazes of the armored guards whenever they glanced in Olivia's direction. After the display they'd just watched, there was zero doubt in any of them that Roka's guard could kill t

Greg was calm even as he felt his body come apart. For whatever reason, it always started with his physical body. More than once Greg had tried to open his eyes to see what it looked like to disintegrate as you were subsumed by a law. All the attempts, however, ended in failure as all he saw was blackness accompanied by a wet feeling on his cheeks. It wasn't until the fiftieth or so time that he tried this that Greg realized that it was actually his eyes that were flowing down his cheeks. That it had taken him so long was something that, for some macabre reason, he found really funny. It was a mercy that the whole disintegration process was quick and rather painless, otherwise Greg suspected his mind would have been broken long ago. After so many deaths, Greg had gradually become detached from his physical existence. Every new iteration of him that was restored by the stasis formation felt like a garment he'd put on that he'd soon take off. This strange state of mind is what allowed

It went without saying that no second-tier healer could cast healing spells as powerful as the ones the increasingly mysterious woman behind her was casting. Being a clan of body enhancers, the Sydrak clan had no shortage of healers, both those adopted by the clan and those who exchanged their services for coin. Calyn had seen the work of healers belonging to different tiers, starting from the first tier to the one time she got to see a fifth-tier healer work. A second-tier healer would have needed several hours to restore the wound fully without further complications. And at the end of it all, she'd have been sporting a scar from the injury. To heal so completely with a simple spell rivaled what Calyn had seen the fifth-tier healer do. Even more amazing was the fact that it wasn't just their wounds that she was patching up. All the strain and fatigue that she'd accrued in battle faded from her body like ice melting under the noonday sun. Healer Alena was singlehandedly the reason wh

Forgive my impertinence Elder, but may I ask why you chose to enslave them? If there is something you wish done, just ask and I'll do my utmost to see it done." Standing on the partially burned deck of their airship, Morpheus watched as the seven pirate airships disappeared off in the distance. He allowed a few moments of silence to pass before answering the clone standing just a few steps behind him "No, you may not ask," he said. Though the words were spoken calmly, they both knew that they were not in any way negotiable. Though she hadn't descended, Morpheus could feel the focus and attention of the real Primordial on him. Her attention had snapped to him the moment he'd stepped onto the deck and in the clone's line of sight. He was being watched closely. Everything he did and said would be taken apart and scrutinized from all angles for any openings or vulnerabilities. An easy way to find yourself in trouble or worse, dead, is to assume that your foes are stupid. They had succe