was on the top floor of the Garmia Tower at the time. We had virtually depopulated the place of monsters, earning me more levels than I'd gone up in years. That's why Ryudo found it such an easy dungeon when he went in to save Elena two years later. We stood around the Seal of Valmar, which was still in place, and admired a job well done. Just as we were about to leave, a faint illusion appeared in the air. It was a beautiful woman- not really my type though- hovering over us on bat wings. Her lush brown hair was tied back in an impossibly intricate style that looked a little like she had two large horns on her head. She wore a revealing dress and very high heels. Selene drew her sword and tried to kill her but it was an illusion so the sword went straight through it.

"I want to speak to that guy." she pointed to me, "Alone."

Selene thought this over for a few seconds.

"Fine." she indicated for me to step forwards, "Why dont you... talk with this woman for a while? You two can talk all about why she has the Wings of Valmar. I'll give you a promotion if you take less than half an hour."

Then she ordered the others out of the room and left us to it.

"Let's get down to business. My name is Millennia. I know who you are... your holiness Zera." she folded her arms.

"And I know exactly who you are. You're the level guardian. How's things on your end?"

"You... how do you know about that?"

I told her about my upbringing. "I'll help you if you want. I have a lot of resources at my disposal."

"And I thought you were just a pesky old man." she shook her head, "I was going to ask you to stay away from Garmia Tower if you valued your life, but... we would like a little help, actually. Well... to tell you the truth, we need a whole lot of help. The system is completely screwed."

"Define 'completely screwed'."

"I'll start at the beginning." she stretched her wings and floated in a circle for a while, "We had a VERY advanced civilisation once, with technology you couldn't imagine. Our greatest achievement was a high-stat generator. You know, the ones where you just dump your numbers in the partition and when they came out you were a munchkin. And everyone was happy because they could work miracles."

"Holy Granas, don't tell me you got conned into using one of those death traps."

"It's worse than that. We made two. They both somehow got completely corrupted. Our data was ruined. People dropped like flies from data poisoning. Worse still, the two generators were made by rival programmers. They went to war on each other... a war that involved everyone on the planet."

"Ack! That must have been messy."

"Eventually, both generators were put out of action. One couldn't be saved and was deleted. The other was dismantled and the parts sealed off in dungeons while they underwent repairs. While this was going on..." she blew me a kiss, "The whole thing evolved into a primitive religion. The two generators were called Granas and Valmar."

"Oh, so that's how it got there..." my face suddenly went pale. I said slowly "Which one was deleted, Millennia?"

"I'll give you a clue, sweetie. I'm the Wings of Valmar."

"I... oh damn..."

"I wouldn't tell anyone if I were you. Those big hunky knights might get a little upset."

"I couldn't give a damn about that. But... Selene would throw herself off a cliff if she knew. Can we keep this a secret? Please?"

"Suits me fine, sweetie." she giggled, "That lady is your girlfriend? Aww, I'm happy for you. Now, about Valmar. The Wings have been repaired. The other pieces, however, are irreparably corrupted. What I'm going to do is neutralise and delete them all, then absorb their energy. That means I'll be the only surviving piece of Valmar and I'll be able to control the power."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Well, the problem is that I'm going to have to break all the seals to do it. The other pieces will be trying to absorb me, and they won't be as nice about it all as me. Don't worry, I'll be able to find and defeat them all, but the people are going to be very scared. They'll think the end of the world is coming and they'll look to you for guidance. I want you to be a beacon of light in the darkness. Got that?"

"Keep the crowds under control. Got it."

"One other thing before you go, sweetie. The Core of Valmar is buried in that locked room behind your podium. I'd stay away from it if I were you... unless you think you're powerful enough to control it."