In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a long time before we were standing not too far off from Candlekeep. The dungeon was run over and over again throughout what daylight we had left. We had slept, running watches for the night and were now rested. Percius had managed to get us forty Power Tokens with only throwing up from the mana potions twice.

  I gave ten to Ren, ten to Wolf, and then used the two upgrades for myself to allow me to summon three demons at a time and conjure three magical cards at once.

  It wasn’t the most flashy of upgrades, especially so late in the game… but I saw it as a roughly 50% increase to both routes of attack. With no true path to tread to raise my stats or gain further abilities since leaving hell, we were pretty much done. Once we started with the potions and scroll buffs, we’d be all over the place numerically, but still the strongest in the world.

  While Ren cuddled with a trio of hellhounds, I took Fiona over to the side.

  “A city siege,” I said, looking over at Candlekeep itself. It was bathed in red light - something I felt was even more hellish than my kingdom below. The towers and structures within seemed normal enough. It hadn’t been taken destructively. “Can’t say I’m too well-versed in them.”

  “Typically, the defender has the advantage.” Fiona sighed and rubbed at her short hair. “Thankfully, other than the keep at the back, the city isn’t a castle or designed to hold off a large scale battle.”

  I nodded, but didn’t consider our Guild of fifteen to class as ‘large scale’. We had managed to get this close without running into any of the packs of roving Monsters aligned with the Crimson Shadow, but I was partly worried that meant we could get surrounded once we dug in. That said, we couldn’t exactly chase down these lower threats—no doubt they were bait to delay us.

  Despite the name, Candlekeep was nothing like the cities back on Earth. Much larger than any of the towns we had been to so far in our journey, but not beyond the scope of us attacking it. We could see three entrances from here, and although the city was surrounded by a wall, it was relatively low. The Lady in Red had made some effort to clog up the few wide roads with debris, for all the good that might do.

  While most of the buildings we had seen had been traditional fantasy fare and predominantly wooden, Candlekeep was mostly stone. There were still plenty of wooden beams and structures half-wooden, but the expanse of gray brickwork before us was the perfect canvas for the red light bathing the area.

  “Three sources of light,” I thought out loud. “No doubt those are what are maintaining the corruption over the city.”

  One to the left side of Candlekeep, and one to the right. The third was at the back, at the top of the keep itself. A tall, square building that was built to defend against traditional warfare, and the most likely place the Lady and her closest would be holed up.

  “You’re thinking we should destroy those as our first priority, then?” The fighter tilted her head to the side, but her gaze remained on the sources of crimson light.

  I grunted. “No doubt they are protected from ranged and magical attacks, and have powerful fighters standing by them. We are expected, so if they are important, then they won’t be easy to bring down. That said, I think we should send a Party to each.”

  She turned to me and stared at me for a moment. “You’re putting a lot of faith in us.”

  With a smile, I gave her a brief nod. The stage would get too crowded with all of us vying for attention. Splitting up made us weaker, but also spreading out a little further would stop us from being such an easy target. No point strolling up to the gates in a clump and getting nuked by everything the Shadows had ready and waiting.

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  “I would like to pretend I could do it all myself,” I said. “My ego has me thinking I’ll be the star of the show, and if the Lady believes it, then their biggest hitters will be aimed at me.”

  “So you’re being soft, and don’t want us getting caught in the crossfire?” Fiona shook her head and turned to look at the gathered Guild. “I understand, though. Destroying the towers might switch the control of Candlekeep from her to the System once more. Then we’ll have the guards come to our aid.”

  “I’ll be giving everyone teleportation scrolls and the best healing potions I have.” I joined her in looking back at the others. “If we can avoid death, that would be nice.”

  “We should be so lucky.” Fiona gave me a grim smile. “I’ll go inform the troops of the plan.”

  With a nod, she then left. More fool me for pretending that I knew what I was doing. All part of the illusion. Cutting down the Crimson’s Monsters shouldn’t be too difficult for a full group - it was the Players that might be there that had me on edge. Something I couldn’t shake, even after Ren stepped up to me near silent, the hell dogs now gone.

  Rather than say anything, she just held my hand. The two of us looked at the city ready to be sieged. We’d come so far from humble and grumpy roots, and this was the finish line, in a way.

  “It’s strange,” she eventually said, her voice quiet. “I expected there to be more weight… some gravity to this day after so long. It feels like any other, really. In no time, it will be tomorrow and this will be the past, as if all the worry and struggle were worthless.”

  “We’re never beating out time, my dear. What we fight for is to have a tomorrow with less stress and violence.” The Max who endured the present wasn’t too happy about being put through the grinder once more, but perhaps this would be the last time. “What do you think of my plan?”

  “Leyla’s group is quite green. While Fiona and her Party have learned to kill Players, I don’t think the other five are that ruthless or efficient about it.” Ren paused to exhale through her nose. “That said, I trust them to pull their weight. We’re all fighting for the future here.”

  In truth, I was willing to go into the city with just our Party. Hell, even the three of us… if not solo. I wasn’t about to tell the others to stay home, or even give them the choice. The teleportation scrolls were the only out that they could use to save face—and their lives—and I’d hold no grudge to anyone who used one. Even for the most just cause, most mortals didn’t want to give up their existence.

  I let go of her hand to pull her in for a hug. “I’m going to go and divide some consumables amongst the others. We’ll march as soon as we have the stomach for it.”

  The elf leaned back a little so that she could glare at me. “I don’t know how many chances we’ll have to say this, but I love you, Max. Don’t die before me.”

  “And you don’t die ever.” I gave her a kiss. “I love you too.”

  As the corrupting effects of hell had worn off, we’d settled into a more normal stage of our relationship again. It was still unbelievable to me that we were married, but without the mania mashing our brains together, it was nice to feel so comfortable still after everything. As much as I wanted to keep her the safest out of everyone here, there was nobody else I needed by my side through thick and thin.

  I stepped away and filled the Guild with stat and defense boosting potions. Scrolls with beneficial auras and extra healing. It wasn’t foolproof or enough to swing the battle in our favor easily, but every chance reduced the risk of failure.

  We’d be attacked on approach, I was sure.

  After that, who knew what the Lady had in store for us? She was likely to be desperate, sending all available pawns our way to save her own skin. Whatever Players still remained alive and aligned with her. These new Monsters she was somehow able to create. Spells and traps beyond my current knowledge.

  It would be foolish to say I wasn’t worried. Fights against other Players tended to be very short and visceral. While a siege sounded like a long protracted affair, I was sure once we came face-to-face, the battle against the Lady in Red would be something high stakes and decided in little time at all. One of us would become undone.

  I looked over at Wolf, the bear still eating the last of his fill. Mortality was a fickle thing. Whether Ren popped the Lady from half a mile away with her rifle, or I dueled the woman to death over a protracted one-on-one combat, it all ended the same. Each of us was destined to fall away to dust in the end.

  With a long sigh, I shook the malaise from my head and finished off a Sweet Cake.

  A fitting final meal.