. When that cloud formed around me and became bindings that wrapped me like a boa constrictor, I felt a momentary surge of adrenaline, then my thoughts became cool and calculated. The effects of [Blood Physique] were both physical and mental, and thus, partly responsible for keeping my instincts from controlling me, but knowledge from my older selves was feeding …

. The entire time, I had been on guard against the class SS demon, whom I had badly injured, coming after me. As I exited the entrance tunnel, I saw why he hadn’t. As I intended, my sudden attack on the archdemon had completely changed the tactical situation. I overflew Melione as she helped Bruna toward the entrance tunnel. The …

. The archdemon’s back, with a pair of bat wings stretching out from his upper back and another pair from his pelvis, rapidly expanded in my view. He wore an armor of profoundly dense mana over his torso, probably a demonic raiment, but for some reason was choosing to leave his arms shoulders and wing-roots bare. Perhaps such a thick …

. I’ve mentioned this before, but the three big tunnels forming the cavern had many smaller cross tunnels connecting them. I headed quickly across to the central tunnel using the first crossing I reached. Chiara was following me. Once again, I had neglected to use Command to counterbalance her drive to protect me. Chiara’s path of travel was strange, though. …

. The old man was on the ball. As Fire mana condensed in the asura’s spear, Durandal again raised the [Shield of Oranos]. But rather than the dragon’s breath of the previous attack, a [Fire Lance] of intensely dense mana launched at us. It struck Durandal’s shield and drilled its way through, slowed down for just long enough that I …

. Flame filled everything in front of me, wall to wall, ceiling to floor. It was like facing dragon’s breath head on. The mass of oncoming heated air leaked around the edges of Durandal’s [Shield of Oranos] for a moment, until he extended it to the walls, adding to the heat flash that hit me. The inferno roiled with the …

. “No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.” That’s a famous quote, but it’s actually just a paraphrase. Just like “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,” it’s not quite what the man actually said. The real quote is “No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force.” Which doesn’t exactly …

. Diur’s outrider led us to an island almost as far away from the passage to the pleasure dome as we could, all the way over in the East Tunnel. On a nearby island, a rookery for some sort of seabird was making a racket, but a stand of a magic species of bamboo on our island damped the noise …

. At dawn, I stood in front of the portal, which still looked like the monolith from “Space Odyssey”  to my mind, with a shadow I hadn’t brought through before. “My Lady, you do not need to come with me,” I told her. She frowned, looking frustrated with herself, then stated, “I feel like I should, though.” I sighed. It …

. We faced each other in open water as Chiara absorbed my proposal. Both of us were currently creatures of the sea, me holding up my weight with steady strokes of my flukes, and she using her merrow swimming powers. Neither of us used the vigorous sculling with the arms of a typical human swimmer treading water.  In the moonlight, …