Of course, that wasn't the end of it. I had to spend three years perfecting my control of the Core of Valmar. Under the watchful eye of Millennia, I levelled up and learnt more and more about my new character class. She teleported me up to Valmar's Moon to do this. Levelling up as a final guardian isn't like levelling up as a player character. You don't just kill monsters and find things in chests. You have to learn a different fighting style, a style you used against player characters. It was more about getting the technique right than actually killing hundreds of things. A being as powerful as the Core of Valmar can't just go into a battle rage and nuke everything in sight. You have to know your way around a dungeon perfectly, including what kind of monsters breeds where, and command the respect of all the level guardians. I had to fix the remaining bugs in the Valmar system as well. I never did get them all under control. That dungeon is ugly, by the way. What kind of twisted mind designed it? Probably the same person who designed the default forms that all the different parts of Valmar took when they completely possessed someone.

Three years later, I was busy retrieving my hat from a trap on the third floor when Millennia materialised out of nowhere.

"You're level twenty." she noted with admiration, "Nice going."

"Am I ready to return to the Cathedral now?" I asked.

"What's the rush? You left someone in charge." Cardinal Ragnald, actually. I worked that guy into the ground. It was his fault I was Pope. I also told everyone I was busy meditating in my private chapel, which was actually the Core of Valmar room, which only I have the key to. That wasn't why I wanted to return though.

"I miss Selene."

"Aww, isn't that sweet?" Millennia teased me mercilessly about my relationship with Selene. I'm not sure why; her boyfriend was some smelly Geohound. "Well, I'd better teleport you back. You can't keep Selene waiting!"

When I returned, I found the end of the world on my doorstep.

No, I really mean the END. OF. THE. WORLD. The Cathedral Knights were stood in front of the locked gates of the Cathedral and they were killing anyone who tried to get in. Selene hung over the balcony at the top of the stairs, her eyes ablaze with righteous fury. I can't remember exactly what she was doing. I was trying to sneak back into the city at the time. People were going to blame me for the Knight's rampage. They probably wanted to kill me, so I disguised myself as a very fat pizza chef with a very big carving knife. I charged up to the entrance, prepared to personally kill every Knight I could get my hands on. As it turned out, I didn't need to. Ryudo was there and he did it for me. Then he walked up to Selene and asked her what the hell she was trying to do. She said she was angry because of the hypocrisy of the people. They were only trying to get into the Cathedral so that the Knights would protect them from Valmar. The rest of the time they weren't faithful at all, in fact most of them were corrupt. They were swindling the Cathedral, trying to get a service done for free.

I knew instantly that something was amiss. Holy Granas, she's a loon but she's not usually that bad! I teleported into the Cathedral and threw on my robes. I adjusted my hat and made a holy aura appear around me. I was wondering whether to add a halo or not. I wanted to make as dramatic an entry as possible and do something miraculous, something that would make that psychopath fall at my knees and beg for forgiveness. A mass resurrection was possibly my safest bet. Everyone would like me again if I raised all their dead. I could raise all the Knights again as well, so I wouldn't have to recruit a new army. Actually I'm not sure I could have done that as it was healing and I'm still not so hot when it comes to healing. I was just dragging a terrified Cardinal Ragnald from underneath my chair when I heard Elena scream.

That was when Selene jumped off the balcony. I felt sick. Everything was happening in slow motion. I realised now why she had gone so strange all of a sudden. The Valmar project had one terrible flaw; there was no way of knowing whose body each part of Valmar would try and control. Anyone who wasn't completely innocent in every possible way had a chance of being corrupted. While the smaller parts of Valmar, such as the tongue and eye, could be killed without slaying the host, something like the Heart or the Core left no chance.

Selene had been possessed by the Heart of Valmar.