The Deadlines

The Alliance of Crowns

During the Chaos War, Warlic and Cysero followed a disturbance in the ley lines beneath Battleon and restored the flow of mana. Now Malgor is inside the Core.

As Mana Affliction spreads through Lore, Malgor turns toward Crownsreach and the Queen's Heart, while the secret you kept with Drakath strains an alliance already preparing for conflicts after the war. Cemaros reveals that Drakath considered having you lobotomized rather than risking the universe by killing its Dragon, then abandoned the plan because he would have to keep you alive afterward. You free a controlled Warlic while Dage confronts Malgor, but the Shadowlord escapes with the Heart. Dage hears your voice in him, raising a suspicion that Gravelyn refuses to treat as proof, and Warlic reports something inside the Core resisting Malgor. Warlic warns that Malgor's emotional control has permanently damaged his spellcasting and plans to go into hiding, fearing disaster if he uses magic again. He also suggests that a powerful being's mental strain could manifest as monsters.

At the Shadowlord's Keep, Gar abandons his master and guides you, Gravelyn and Varga toward a Timestream portal, only for his worsening affliction to transform him into a beast and the route to prove a trap. Malgor presents possible futures of your allies destroying one another, trying to turn your fear into surrender, but Gar's intervention disrupts the confrontation. Malgor and Drakath are thrown into the Timestream before the portal is destroyed, leaving you to find a way to pursue them.

To reopen the Timestream, the Avatars channel power through mortal shields: Artix and Aria volunteer, Tyndarius takes Galanoth's place, and Abel offers himself for Kyanos. With Gravelyn, Galanoth and the allied forces, you enter through the opening the volunteers are struggling to hold. The Mumblers inside speak with your voice and memories, and Varga explains that your growing powers gave life to emotions the Timestream expelled. The Second Speaker, a further evolution of the Mumblers, begs for reassurance that your friends will not destroy each other. Gravelyn promises to find a solution, and the beings disappear. Varga explains that hope has removed their need to exist. Gravelyn admits she lied so they could die in peace, though she still has no answer to the conflict awaiting her friends.

Galanoth leads the forces back while you and Gravelyn find Drakath, who has lost Malgor in a maze of scenes from across Lore. Together you enter the Deadlines, remnants of Malgor's abandoned cycles, and learn that he began as one of these beings trying to save his creator. Drakath realizes that Malgor made a one-to-one copy of the Chaos Amulet from the Queen's remains, while still wondering where the original amulet came from. Malgor recalls an earlier cycle in which you killed the Queen as the Eternal Dragon, frightened your allies and retreated into the Timestream. His repeated efforts to restore peace and bring you back met with rejection and failure, turning his purpose toward forced obedience. Eventually he went farther back and killed the Queen in your place, becoming the enemy your allies could unite against. Meanwhile, the portal has left Artix wounded and Aria severely injured. Tyndarius speaks as if dying, while Abel survives. Voidstar believes Kyanos stopped using Abel as his shield because he could no longer bear his Envoy's pain. He says Kyanos's mind is gone, though his body still sustains the Plane of Ice.