A/N: Yo peeps. Guess I had enough energy to continue writing this.

First, I'd like to clarify some things: This thing has basically no editing. There are some parts that could have used a little more work, but I wanted to continue writing without falling into the pit of endless editing. And like I said, this is more of a draft that anything, so criticism and ideas are welcome.

Also, it is to keep in mind that English isn't my first language, and although I tried my best to keep this written so it could be understood, I'd appreciate if mistakes are pointed out.

In terms of story and characters, I have changed some things from the original relase, but I'm not going to tell you to go back to read it. Instead, most of it is referenced again in this part, so if there is some inconsistency with what you remember from the first part, it is highly probable that it was on purpose.

End the author's note already, you lazy shmuck!

Enjoy.

Arc I: A City on the Sky - Part II

A [Gate] opened, and from it two of the highest Angels entered the room.

"My Lady, Drifa, it's good to see you two." The incarnation of death said while kneeling. "I trust everything is well?"

Sera and Drifa stood there, already had undone their disguises – their equipment was the normal divine one and they had dissipated the illusions changing the colour of their hair and eyes.

The Goddess reached out to him with one hand. "Yes, Daith. Although we had encountered some setbacks, everything has gone well." She said, but her mind was obviously not really on what she was saying. "Now, rise. We have better things to discuss than mere trivialities."

The Wiseman obeyed, getting on his feet, while Sera sat on her divine seat. Opening the Base Management tab, she looked for anything out of the norm, and found… nothing. Everything was going normally, and not a single hitpoint on the walls was drained.

If it weren't for her earlier adventure to the outside, she would have raised a brow at that – supposedly, the city had been under constant bombardment for a bit under twenty-four hours, but there was no damage to testify for it.

But now it was almost expected, because the general level on the New World was disappointingly low.

Trying to catch a glimpse of the sieging army with the Base menu proved to be a fruitless endeavour, however, as it wasn't designed to show much of the outside of the city to begin with.

Sighing, Sera reached for her inventory and withdrew the [Mirror of Remote Viewing]. She wasn't a fan of using it, because it had its moments when it started showing whatever it liked. Like an almost-broken computer mouse, back when she still used computers.

Inspecting the forces of the beastmen, she found herself even more unimpressed than she had expected.

"…" she blinked. "That's it?" She felt almost insulted that they thought they could try to conquer and pillage her city with such a pathetic ragtag group of hooligans. True, they were many, way more than the population of Almha itself. But that meant nothing when she realized they were, for the most part, even weaker than the war party she had vaporized with a single spell.

The only thing she could think this so-called army would be good at was at piling bodies until they finally reached the top of the first row of walls.

"And why has not the Hero or his Generals gotten rid of this pest, already?" She asked through gritted teeth. And here she thought that something really bad was going to befall her creation, her magnum opus.

"The Generals are using this opportunity to gain information on the locals, and the Hero-King has invited a foreign ruler to be witness of the power of your children, my Lady. They say that they'll wipe the pest out when the beastmen attempt to assault."

Sera turned pensive at that. She reached again for the Base menu and looked for the redhead King. "Another ruler… Huh, I wonder who is it?" It was likely to be whoever was in charge of the Draconic Kingdom, as the last time she heard, someone was going there as an envoy – and also the closest non-hostile country – but it could also have been the Emperor of the Baharuth Empire, as it wasn't all that far either.

Who was with Kainen was someone who could only be described as a loli, which made Sera blink in surprise. But her attire was rather royal-esque and she donned a crown, so she supposed this was a queen. If it weren't for the serious expression on the queen's childish face, Sera would have looked who the hell had put a child on charge of a country – or married one, for that matter.

Inspecting the foreign queen further, she noted that her eyes weren't normal – they were slitted vertically, like the eyes of a cat, and coloured dark yellow, almost-orange.

"She is no human." Sera said, her voice carried a slightly surprised undertone.

"No, my Lady. This is Queen Draudillon Oriculus of the Draconic Kingdom, and apparently a descendant of a powerful Dragon Lord." Said Daith, stating the information he deemed important.

"A Dragon Lord?" she looked at the Angel of Death, interest seeping into her expression. Given her experience with the humanoid and demi-human races so far, she would reserve judgement on whether or not this 'Dragon Lord' was indeed powerful or if it was only powerful by this world's standards.

She had overhead about mythical and legendary creatures during her time on the Imperial Capital, but they weren't something that she could automatically pin down to YGGDRASIL or some player. Many were very similar to folklore from back on Earth, so some of those stories could have developed independently from the interaction of a player.

Dragons weren't a thing unique to YGGDRASIL, after all, so hearing tales of dragons that could or not exist didn't raise much attention for her. Now, if a Queen from a realm called the Draconic Kingdom claims to be a descendant of a Dragon Lord – maybe draconic royalty? – it was a slightly different matter. Given that demi-humans exist on this world, and heteromorphs like undead also do, then it is not much of a stretch to believe that Dragons do too.

Sera hummed on interest. "So, what does it make her? A dragonoid? A half-dragon? Or something else?" She didn't know all of the races available on YGGDRASIL – and probably only the devs had this knowledge – but she remembered that there weren't all that many dragon-related races, at least discovered by the wider community.

She wondered if this Dragon Lord had also been a player. What surprised her was that, thinking about it, most of the races back on the game were inter-compatible, at the very least with the human race. Did the same thing apply in this world?

But how would she find about it? The few… faster methods of finding out were quickly discarded, spitted upon and continuously and mercilessly stepped on by her unconscious mind, saying that such an inhumane act was reprehensible.

Wait. When did she start caring of people from the outside? She remembered how she didn't feel anything as when seeing those villagers get ripped open, or when she visited the slaughterhouse to revive that woman. But now, her mind started kicking a fuss about not injuring innocents. Something that she had never cared much about, not even back on Earth.

Sure, back then he hadn't gone out of his way to make people suffer, but he also hadn't been a bleeding heart and helped any and every one he could. He had always thought that suffering was part of existence, and made for good plot development besides.

But now, her mind was screaming to go help those innocent who were being butchered right on her doors as she was resting on her diwan. Why? She wasn't sure of the reason. Maybe the angelic innate "good sense of justice" in the form of positive karma started to affect her mind?

That wouldn't do. What if it affected the quality of her work!? Using the New World as an inspiration source would be in jeopardy if she saved every single one due to this newfound empathy-thingy.

Every possible interesting event would result in the Goddess saving the day, and given the power-scale so far, it would even fall in the category of 'A Wizard did it." Which is utterly boring and a big no-no.

Suddenly, Drifa's voice shook her from her thoughts.

"What are you going to do, my Lady?" the Valkyrie asked, but her eyes were still fixated on the mirror that showed the slaughter, her attitude expressing all the disdain she felt towards the demi-humans.

Sera clenched her teeth at the sight, again. "These aren't even my children."

Yet she couldn't just ignore their fate anymore, it would keep coming back to nag.

A butcher knife chopped. An arm rolled free.

He had seen plenty of gore and suffering while researching for his works back then. Granted, it wasn't first-hand, but this technically didn't count either, as she was watching it happen through a mirror. And before, he hadn't felt any strong emotion beyond intellectual curiosity at such sights.

And… she realized that these beastmen wanted to do the same thing to her people. She had already known about it, of course. But one thing is knowing, and another is understanding.

If her subconscious screamed at her that she should take up arms against those who hurt unknown innocents, then it outright demanded her to eliminate the threat when it came to her children.

But she wasn't rash – well, for the most part, at least she thought so herself – and thought back on it. Given her newfound information about the world, and how a measly Death Knight was considered a 'legendary creature' capable of destroying nations by itself, then she objectively knew that no humanoid nation would really pose a threat to her creations.

This Beastmen Kingdom would be no different, as they had been on a war with the Draconic Kingdom for a while, so they couldn't be all that much more powerful than the local humans.

Then again, those beastmen outnumbered the NPCs by a wide margin, and last time it happened, she almost lost three 'named' NPCs – those she had created personally. Sure, they weren't the strongest NPCs out there, but if it came down to a slugfest between two armies, she wasn't positive Almha's population would be left unscathed.

"But… what if…?"

Amidst her ponderings, a plan began forming. There was still much to discover about this world, and one of such facets was whether YGGDRASIL's restrictions still applied to her and the NPCs. The prospect of being able to level up even beyond the cap was both exciting and terrifying at the same time, because if it was possible, who knows what players that came before her would be like. YGGDRASIL was known for not having a very friendly community, broadly speaking: PK, PKK, and griefing in general were rather widespread, and she wouldn't be surprised that players such as those would break havoc the moment they came into this world.

She hummed while looking at the mirror. The fate of those beastmen was being decided without them even noticing. The only thing they could do was make their fate meet them faster than they would otherwise.

A flash signalling the use of magic appeared on the beastmen's ranks as they began to form.

And so their fates were decided. She stood up from the over-decorated sofa, storing the [Mirror of Remote Viewing] back in her storage. She looked at the two other "divine-like" beings with her, a faint if cruel smile on her face. "We are going to the treasury."

Diplomacy had been going well enough, thought the Dragon Queen. The Celestial City's – as their residents apparently called their home – ambassador was polite and explained things pertaining their customs and culture, which she or the governor replied with their own. They were neighbours, after all, so being cordial was of utmost importance for the Draconic Kingdom in that moment. The outrageously strong armed forces of the Hero-King also served as a good persuasive point to be in their good graces, even if what Historia had told the Queen – that the three Knights outside weren't all that impressive by the newcomers' standards – a bluff, it still sent chills down Draudillon's spine.

Dismissing three men that in any other nation would be heralded as heroes by virtue of their strength as "not impressive" was a good way to sober up a ruler.

Hopefully, they would remain friendly neighbours and they would leave it at that. Maybe even have a mutual non-aggression pact, and if the stars aligned correctly, a mutually defensive pact.

The Draconic Kingdom would be in highly need of something to guarantee their continued existence after the whole affair with the beastmen, a thing that the more she spoke with the Head Librarian, the more she believed would be dealt with easily.

But she wasn't feeling confident on securing such a deal, as the Draconic Kingdom wouldn't be able to offer much in return. Other countries, like the Baharuth Empire and the Slane Theocracy, hadn't made a move against her Kingdom only because the threat the beastmen posed, and the moment they aren't an issue anymore, she could see El-Nix to order his legions to annex the Draconic Kingdom while it was recovering. The Theocracy could also potentially move against her – they weren't all that shy to express their distaste towards her ancestry, after all – but it was less likely as they were already in a war against the Elven Kingdom and they probably didn't want to fight on two fronts.

If the need arose, she could swear vassalage to this Hero King to secure the future of her realm, even if she found such a prospect unsavoury.

There had been a good number of meetings with the other representative throughout the span of several days, which gave enough time for her Prime Minister to catch up to her on Arxtu – as she had left him to deal with all the tedious paperwork in an honest childish retaliation after one of their arguments – to which he chastised her for acting reckless and conducting diplomacy while she had, quote and quote, "not a single tactful bone on her body".

Which in turn started another argument, but this time neither had much heat behind their words, even if what they said was the same things they had said countless times before.

The Dragon Queen sighed. "What do you think about the situation?"

The Prime Minister arched a brow, "That you were impulsive and stupid when coming all the way here to meet with a foreign dignitary. That most certainly didn't paint the Draconic Kingdom in a good light for them. You know you could have let them come to the Capital, right?" As usual, his tone was dry and his every word blunt when speaking to his Queen, at least in private.

Draudillon frowned at him, moving her weight so she rested on a single leg as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Have you read the damn reports? I didn't want those three…" she then nodded towards the wall, referencing to the three knights outside, somewhere on the premises. "…anywhere close to the Capital if possible. Moreso their mounts, if they are capable to throw around high tiered offensive magic like nothing." She shook her head as she scratched her chin nervously. "They might not be hostile right now, but who knows if they turn against us in the first opportunity."

The Prime Minister nodded in acceptance of her logic and concerns. At least she hadn't acted childish with them. That would have complicated things more than necessary. As much useful it was to deal with Crystal Tear and some of the more degenerate generals in domestic affairs, international affairs were a whole different game.

His face darkened. "As for what will follow…" he closed his eyes. He may not be a deeply religious person, but he prayed for the lives of those lost to the onslaught. "We have counted the casualties of the territory we momentarily lost to be at four-hundred thousand civilians… in the more conservative estimates. We lost most of the Third and Sixth armies, and even if we were to merge them they would have few men." He turned his face away, seemingly inspecting the decoration on the wall, but his eyes were unfocused. "Losing so much land during harvesting season means that we are running ever lower on supplies. If my estimates are correct, we can reach the next harvest without having to heavily import food if we ration it strictly to everyone – a thing that neither the nobles nor the populace as a whole would like much. We can't reduce supplies to our armies anymore without having bad consequences."

Draudillon rubbed her face with both hands, dropping into a chair. "So, we are going to deal with a famine in the near future as well." She said as she looked at her open palms, then proceeded to close them into tight fists.

The Prime Minister nodded once. "Not only that, it is one that if dealt with poorly, can deteriorate into civil war."

Both sighed again.

Their next meeting was nearing, and they had tried to come up with ways to maybe appeal to the Celestial City, but nothing they could thought up was convincing even for their own ears.

Moving through the austere corridors and walls of Arxtu's Castle, the both of them reached the room that had been designated for this occasion as where diplomatic talks were made.

At one side of the wooden door, a knight from her country stood guard, while at the other side one of the Griffin Knights did the same.

Both nodded in respect when she approached. "Ma'am."

She ignored them both, as her mind was still on other matters. The Prime Minister, however, did thank the soldiers for their work.

Inside, the ever-beautiful Historia was already waiting for them, casually passing through the pages of an old book that had been given to her. The absolute only thing they had found that could be used as a negotiation tool in their favour with this woman was the use of books – as the first tome that had been given to her made her eyes sparkle so much that they couldn't not notice. The Head Librarian was many things, and one of them was living up to her position.

After they exchanged pleasantries – as much as it annoyed Draudillon – the meeting formally started.

"I think…" Historia started, taking the reins of the conversation from the start. "That I had not been very fair with you, your Majesty. I have seen and read many things about your Kingdom beyond what you've told me, but I have not done the same for you." The Dragon Queen raised a brow while moving her body to her right side. It was true, after all. For all Draudillon knew, the violet-haired woman might have been bluffing the whole while – as difficult that might be, given the detail which Historia could get into and still don't contradict everything she said previously. "As such, I have asked a friend of mine from the Arcane University, Prof. Anrous, will provide us with a way for you to see for yourself that I have said not a single lie in our meetings." She said while her polite smile not once slipped from her face. "If you accept, of course. I am not forcing you to do so, but merely giving you the option."

Draudillon blinked in disbelief, looked at her Prime Minister – who had done the same – and exchanged a silent conversation. After they apparently had reached a conclusion, she replied. "I am grateful for the offer, but I have some questions first."

"Understandable. Please, state them and I will answer in the best of my capabilities." The Head Librarian said calmly. She clearly expected this outcome.

The Dragon Queen couldn't help but feel like she was dancing on the hands of someone else. But she didn't know who, yet.

"First of all, how? From what you've said, your city lies deep into the forest, a land crawling with the savages, and would likely be a few days worth of travel by normal methods. I don't know much about flying, as it isn't magic much practiced in my country – or anywhere else for the matter. I currently don't have much time to spare, as in any moment a second wave might assault us." And that was something that had been worrying her for the last couple of days while she was here, too. But at least in Arxtu, she was still within her domain.

"Oh, you need not to worry about it, Your Majesty. Anrous is very proficient with teleportation magic. It will be like walking into a room to suddenly find yourself in another part of the world altogether." Historia said while waving her hand at the issue, like many times before. And, like most times, Draudillon couldn't help but feel intimidated. At least she didn't show her stupefaction each time the Librarian talked about something scandalous like that.

The Dragon Queen gulped. "A-and may I ask why didn't you came here through such a method?" It wouldn't be all that much shocking than sailing through the sky and landing like she were a feather, and it wouldn't have wasted time travelling, either.

As much as the thought of someone with the ability of appearing out of thin air absolutely terrified Draudillon, she couldn't understand why Historia wouldn't use such a more efficient method of travel.

"Oh, it's simple really. We had a… disagreement" Historia paused to find a correct word, something she rarely did throughout prior conversations, as she appeared to be highly articulate. "…which forced me to fly all the way here instead."

Like always, she said the truth but not the whole truth, Draudillon noted.

The Queen sighed, deciding not to press the matter further.

"…Right. So, next question. Can I bring along an entourage?" She moved on her seat so her weight was mostly on her left side now. For someone as old as her, she did have plenty of child-like behaviours, as much as it pained her. Acting that way for a prolonged time made her adopt some mannerisms.

"Of course. We do not have any malicious intentions, your Majesty, but I can understand where you come from with this question. We can accommodate on the spot for thirty people, I hope you find such number acceptable."

Well, it was more than what Draudillon had even hoped for. Certainly more than what she had expected.

"Tell me then, what the underlying reason for inviting me now is?" the Queen asked, narrowing her eyes.

Historia's eyes appeared to shine with approval, and her polite smile turned into one more sincere. "The King wants to meet with you, Queen Draudillon. He said that if we are to discuss things, it would be appropriate for both sovereigns to meet face to face."

Sharing a look with her Prime Minister, Draudillon in the end accepted.

There was no much point to asking more questions, and if they really wanted, they could have already kidnapped or killed her. She was under no impressions all the guards in the city could have had a chance against those three knights and much less against their Griffins – heck, not even her Capital would have been able to resist them. Most of the soldiers had been dispatched to the front already, so pretty much all cities only had skeleton garrisons.

The Librarian nodded approvingly. "Excellent! Let me get into contact with him first. We'll be ready when you are, Your Majesty." She said while she adjusted her glasses.

The Queen and Prime Minister rose from their seats and excused themselves. As they left the room, they started discussing between whispers.

"We can't spend so many soldiers – the city will be vulnerable, even more than it already is if we do." Muttered the Queen

"Yet we cannot leave you without an escort. Even if it's for appearance's sake only, and it would certainly serve to deter opportunists." Argued the Prime Minister.

They continued their banter until they reached a compromise of eighteen guards, the Prime Minister, and Draudillon herself.

The Queen grumbled that they were still too many soldiers, but didn't continue arguing.

Governor Dialtaren then chose from between the current city guard the best soldiers to accompany her. They were good, she thought, but they wouldn't pose a threat for the people they would meet.

Going down the stairs that led to the barrack square, to where her guards were waiting for her in formation. There were also the three Griffin Knights and the creatures that defined their position, opposite from the Draconic Kingdom's unit.

As she walked through the courtyard, Commander Marcus shouted at his unit. "Attention!" he had completed his task of evacuating nearby villages, and had been given command of the group of guards that would go with her. He was, after all, a very good commander with good reputation, but sadly age was catching up with him and he could no longer be in the field for long. "Salute!" the ground shook a little as the seventeen soldiers made the same motion in perfect synchronization.

The Head Librarian was off to the side, sitting on the shade of a tree while she was perusing another book. Sensing Draudillon's approach, Historia let the book she was reading fall to her lap. "Everything ready, Your Majesty?"

Draudillon sighed for what felt like the nth time in that day alone, and nodded in confirmation.

Historia then touched her temple with two fingers for a moment, before a black oval ripped the space in the middle of the courtyard, from which an old-looking man of questionable heritage given his features were mostly covered with hair – either from his head or his beard – and donning a dark blue academic robe of very high quality together with a hat typically seen on many wizards.

"Hoo… This place ain't so bad." Said the old man, stroking his long and messy beard as he took in his surroundings. His eyes stopped at the sight of the Head Librarian, and if his face could be seen, those around him would have seen his face of absolute amusement. As it stood, only Historia could read his expression, to which she was decidedly not impressed. "So… How went our little wager? Hmm?" asked the wizened magic caster.

Historia adjusted her glasses in what appeared to be a nervous tick. "You lost. I got here way before what you wagered for; I have the young Eileifr as witness." She said, voice dry and tone annoyed. "Pay up."

The magic caster looked at the knight captain, who nodded in confirmation, and sighed in defeat. Reaching for a pocket in his robe, he extracted from within ten fat coins made of gold and gave them to the Head Librarian.

Draudillon almost choked on her saliva at the sight of a bet being paid in several gold coins. Sure, as a monarch, such sums shouldn't make her bat much of an eye, but one thing was state affairs and another was a bet.

Historia collected the coins with a victorious smirk, before she schooled her face into the polite smile she had all throughout her stay. "Very well. And you should stop with your unsightly demeanours, Anrous. Especially in front of foreign queens."

The old man didn't care much, however. He waved a hand, dismissing such concerns as unimportant. Instead, he continued speaking as if the rest of the people present weren't even there. "So, Historia-chan, when will you accept all of my grandiose self?"

The answer was instantaneous. "Never. I told you many times before, but I am not interested on men so young." She adjusted her glasses again, its crystals reflecting the sunlight in an eerie manner.

The Dragon Queen did choke on her saliva at that. "This old sack of bones is 'too young for you'? What?"

"Oh, my. It seems bad, useless little Anrous has caused a misunderstanding. Again." The Librarian said while glaring at the magic caster, then moved her head to address Draudillon. "I think I should have said so before, but I am a little like you, your Majesty. For reference, I was a good friend of this whelp…" she pointed with her thumb towards the old man "…'s great-great-great-grandmother." She said, placing a palm on her cheek. "Such good times were those, with no wars or ends of the world or puppies desperately seeking affection, only spending time reading books with friends." She finished with a nostalgic tone, before coughing and continuing with what they were in the courtyard for in the first place. "Anyhow, this is how we are going to travel to our marvellous city. Please, follow me." She then shot a look at the old man, who had his shoulders lowered. He nodded and passed through the portal first, followed by the three knights and the Griffins – interestingly enough the rip in space widened for the beasts to be able to pass through without any problem.

At seeing the beasts were no longer present, all the soldiers that would stay behind and few statesmen who were nearby let out a deep breath in relief – those Griffins were highly intimidating for most people who saw them, the Dragon Queen could gather. And she could understand their anxiousness, as even if the eagle-lion beasts didn't match up with the Brightness Dragon Lord, they felt like really powerful beings nonetheless.

Historia stood at the side of the portal, looking at Draudillon patiently. The Queen looked at the Commander to make him move the soldiers – as they were frozen in place. Quickly enough, the group fell into formation, with Draudillon at the head, her Prime Minister at her right and the Commander at her left, and the rest of the soldiers following them in a column three-men wide.

Idly, she wondered if it would have been a good idea to change back to her adult self. She quickly dismissed the idea, as she couldn't just nilly-willy do so without using a good deal of mana, which was better used in other places than her appearance. Her child-like-self had to do, as she used it for her advantage in literally every other context.

Historia joined them at the Queen's right side, in front of the Prime Minister, and motioned them to follow her.

Passing through that blackness was one of the strangest sensations Draudillon had ever experienced, as it felt like she was doing something wrong to the world, something that she shouldn't. Judging by the noticeably harder footsteps behind her, she wasn't the only one unnerved by it.

What awaited her on the other side wasn't someplace she expected in any scenario. They walked to a stonework walkway that she had to see twice to understand it was on top of the thickest defensive walls she had ever seen – several metres wide, enough for a sizable military unit to fight in without feeling too cramped. The wall bore a myriad of battlements, machicolations, arrow loops, brattices and various other defensive methods all along its construction, with fortified towers every so often.

On the part of the wall she stood on, Draudillon could honestly say that there was more stone than in the entirety of the walls surrounding Arxtu. "Maintenance costs must be a nightmare." It was out of the question whether the place she walked to was a real nation – no other explanation could possibly make sense. In fact, it didn't make sense, but in another matter. If they are only a city-state, how could they even afford to build such grandiose walls? The divine nature of it, told by Historia, was something Draudillon wanted to dismiss but couldn't.

There were two figures in the same segment of the wall they walked to through the portal. One was a handsome man in his late prime, who had short hair and perfectly trimmed beard and donned a light-coloured surcoat with the depiction of a Griffin over full-body hauberk of exquisite craftsmanship, with a light-blue mantle hanging over his shoulder.

The other was a red-haired woman with flame-coloured eyes, whose face – even if it wasn't as breathtaking as Historia's – would make many a noblewoman seethe in jealousy. She wore a red brigandine with a black-and-silver crest consisting of two wings, highly decorated pauldrons and gauntlets – with a set of similar-looking boots – while a slightly large black spiked mace rested on her hip and a complimentary great shield on her back.

The two military-looking figures turned towards them, and Draudillon noted that they were not surprised to see them. They saluted at the sight of the Head Librarian, clearly suggesting deep respect towards the woman. "Historia-sama, it's good to see you." The man said, after which he directed a look with the woman at his side that Draudillon couldn't decipher. Then, he moved his head to address her and her entourage. "May you introduce us to our guests?"

After the introductions were done – and Draudillon noted that neither seemed surprised by her looks nor her rank – Draudillon looked beyond the wall in wonder.

And she froze.

Around the wall she was in, another wall of similar making stood, if a little lower in height. But that wasn't what disturbed her, no.

It was the sight of a veritable sea of moving forms below, which with her good eyesight she could discern were beastmen. Thousands upon thousands of them, all sieging the city she had been teleported to, with more siege engines she had ever seen in a single place. She looked back at the Generals, wondering how they could be so calm about the situation, and then back again towards the morbid sight of what appeared to be all of the beastman population.

Panic started to seep deep into her mind – in any moment they could be attacked by the horde and she would be in the middle of it. And the Hero King wanted to have a meeting with her meanwhile? Her thoughts turned blank.

"Now, if you will, your Majesty, I will lead you to King Kainen." The Librarian left no room for argument – not that Draudillon could in that moment, her mind turned on autopilot – and guided the group down the walls through an exquisitely if pointlessly so stairway into a small cobblestone-paved street. Or at least what Draudillon thought was cobblestone.

The street leaded to a wider avenue similarly paved; close to a fortress complex even a normal beastman assault would have problems overtaking. Down the same avenue, many great buildings could be seen alongside it, of which four stood out: a temple-looking building but many times the size of any Draudillon had seen, two similar-looking buildings at the other end of the road – which she supposed were the Great Library and the University Historia had talked her about – and an impressive castle-palace hybrid that rested on elevated terrain in what appeared to be the very centre of the city.

Although not as big as the Imperial Palace of the Baharuth Empire, the castle looked like it was easier to defend, from what she could remember from her very few visits to the Imperial Capital.

And speaking of Arwintar, this Celestial City simply blown it off the water. It looked in way better state – and that is saying something –, the buildings were all impeccable-looking, and it appeared that the avenue was a thriving marketplace full of pedestrians moving around. There were so many people in fact, that Draudillon wondered if in total the population amounted to around five normal cities. She wouldn't be surprised if it did.

As they made way towards the Castle, they passed by a great amount of shops going from bakeries and humble-looking clothing stores to more sophisticated boutiques and jewellery stores to blacksmiths whose items in display ranged from good to mind-boggling craftsmanship in Draudillon's eyes.

She felt uneasy. Seeing the wildly different humans, elves and dwarves go about their days without a care in the world that their lifestyles shouldn't even be compatible, and not caring that an enormous force of man-eating beasts were knocking at their gates.

She didn't know whether it was ignorance or confidence. Either scared Draudillon for different reasons.

"How come your people are so indifferent to their situation?" Commander Marcus didn't have the same reservations as her to ask the question. He was a very straightforward man, and didn't go around trying to understand something by only observing. Observation was good, yes, but there are many things that he could not notice, as he said times before.

Their guide didn't stop walking as she answered. "It's simple. There is nothing to worry about. The King's army can deal with that little pest with little problem, and if it comes to it, he alone can change the course of a battle. Plus the divine protection of the Goddess keeps everyone calm, knowing that not even the end of the world can harm us if we follow Her."

They continued on their way, the people around them opening way for them, but Draudillon couldn't tell if it was for her presence or if it was for Historia's. "Probably her. She said that she is something akin a head of their faith, after all."

Reaching the middle-point of the avenue in where it widened even more as to function as a plaza, at her right was the imposing temple and to her left laid the castle.

In front of the Cathedral's doors, a stone statue of a woman about ten men in height stood guard, holding a massive sword which, looking closely, Draudillon noticed was a massive piece of metal. It was not much to the imagination who this statue represented – it was most likely the Goddess these people worshipped, given the great care it was made with, and where it was located. In fact, it was so realistic that it looked like it was going to wake any second and start moving as if it were a normal living being.

Turning left and going up another set of pointlessly decorated stairways, the group soon enough made it to the portcullis and double doors leading to the inside of the Castle.

Decorations and embellishments of any and all kinds overflowed on every place she looked. It wasn't overly done as to result unpleasant to the eyes, but the amount of details was staggering, from the walls to the chandeliers to the floor and the carpeting, everything appeared to have one or another precious metal in their making. Not to mention, there was no flaw in the design of anything – if someone were to tell her that this was the realm of a God, she would be inclined to believe them. "In fact, doesn't this count as the realm of their Goddess?"

Looking back to her subjects, she felt inadequate to be on this place. They seemed to have similar thoughts.

They stopped in front of a wooden door – masterfully created, like the rest of the place – as the Head Librarian turned around to address them again.

"The King is waiting for you beyond this door, your Majesty. For reasons concerning space, you can enter with two guards, plus your advisors. The rest will have to stand outside." Historia said while nodding curtly.

"I understand." Draudillon replied while she looked at the Commander. Said man chose another soldier to go with him and stand guard in the room. She then turned to the Librarian, "Thank you for your services guiding us here, you've been most cordial."

The violet-headed smiled. "Likewise, your Majesty. Now, if you excuse me, I have a position to attend to in the Great Library. There are many new manuscripts I have to traduce and catalogue." Her eyes noticeably gleamed at the thought. "If you have to ask for something, the butlers or the maids will tell you what you want to know. It was good to make acquaintances, Dragon Queen, Prime Minister, Commander." She nodded curtly at each of them before walking away.

Draudillon gulped at being left mostly alone with her entourage in the middle of a foreign King's castle. "They really don't think of us as even remotely dangerous."

Entering the room, she didn't know why she felt relieved at seeing there were guards stationed there. If they weren't she would have been intimidated by the Hero-King more than she already was.

In an absurdly decorated chair sat a man in his early adulthood, donning fine robes one could expect from royalty except they seemed actually to worth even more, and also had a long red hair that reached to his shoulders which was kept from falling in front of his face thanks to a circlet-style golden crown. He was currently perusing some documents that laid on a desk in front of him, a quill and an ink pot not too far from his hand.

As the delegation entered the room, the King raised his eyes to meet with the newcomers. Draudillon felt something very strange in the back of her mind at the sight of his face, something that she couldn't recognize. His eyes, a burning set of blazing gold irises, felt like they were judging whether her soul was worthy or not. For what, she also did not know. The only thing she could really make note of the King is that he was remarkably similar to the female General she had met not too long before.

"Ah, welcome, Dragon Queen and her retinue. It's good to finally meet you. I am Kainen, the Hero-King and the Chosen Guardian." He said in an impressive deep voice, one which commanded respect. "Let me formally welcome you into my city. There have been some small issues as you may have noticed that required my attention. But no matter, now we have much to discuss." He motioned to the available seats in the room, to which Draudillon chose a grand and comfy-looking sofa.

"I suppose it is not needed to introduce ourselves, is it?" She already knew that the King had been kept up to date somehow, and given how outrageous these people had been, she found herself less and less surprised at their impossible acts.

The King faintly smiled and slightly moved his head to the side, but did not verbally answer.

That was good enough for Draudillon.

"I'm surprised an army of beastmen in a scale never seen before is considered a 'small issue', Kainen-dono." She said, following his game. He could have been less obvious about it.

"Ah, it is one of the objects of today's conversations. But not exactly the existence of the beastmen itself, the main focus is to discuss about the lands after they are dealt with, Draudillon-dono."

A chill like no other before crawled up Draudillon's spine at his words. He was talking of complete and utter annihilation, with absolute certainty.

True, the beastmen were trying to do the very same thing, but they are little more than somewhat intelligent beasts.

She wouldn't feel bad for them, but with such a statement she finally realized.

This man was dangerous.

"For starts, let's decide what will happen with the forest. We'd like to set foothold in this world, for many different reasons. I imagine the immediate area around our city should go without saying."

The Dragon Queen nodded. "Yes, it seems only fair."

"Well, I'll be frank with you. One of our scouts found the remains of a city deep in the forest. We would like to lay claim to it and make use of its remaining infrastructure for our first foothold."

"You can't!" interjected the Commander, visibly distraught at the mention of the abandoned city. He coughed when he noticed what he did, but the King was interested in his reaction.

"Tell me then, why is it such a bad idea?" The King asked with an arched brow while he fondled his chin.

The Commander looked at the Queen and the Prime Minister before answering. "I-It's a tale from times of yore. It is said that once, it was a great and prosperous city and the gateway to the far east kingdoms, but in a single night its population was completely wiped out by a group of legendary undead known as Soul Eaters. To this day, it is said that those Soul Eaters still wander its streets, as no other country has fallen to these monsters since. Going near the place is said to be practically the same as committing suicide." Marcus explained. The other guard with him started shaking on his knees, even if he clearly tried to restrain himself from doing so.

The King's face took a pensive expression. "Hmm… Soul Eaters, you say?" his question wasn't really a question, but contemplation. "Yes, they could be tricky opponents for most of my troops, but with the assistance of the Faith and carefully choosing who goes, we shouldn't have any problem."

Draudillon was so done with this already. "In which case, I will not interfere if you wish to claim the Silent City. We certainly can't deal with such monsters either way. I suppose you'll also want to lay claim to the territory between the two cities, correct?"

"Yes, that would be right. But we also would like to gain access to the mountains to the north, those which border the Baharuth Empire. Doing so, my realm would be limiting to the eastern border of your country, and I suppose you wouldn't oppose us if we claimed everything east. You'll be left with a sizable part of the forest and plenty of riversides for new villages, and I know you'll need them."

The Queen tried her best not to stiffen her body, a feat she fulfilled with questionable success. She looked at the King in the eyes, as much as she didn't want to, because she needed to keep composure.

"To be perfectly honest, Kainen-dono. You could take the whole forest and I wouldn't be able to do much- who am I kidding, you could take over my entire country and no one would be able to do anything about it. Tell me, why wouldn't you?"

The Hero King's face turned serious, even more so than before. "It is neither simple nor complicated. Objectively speaking, doing such reckless action would alarm the neighbouring nations, which as much as it pains me to say, I have very little information about. There would be social unrest on the conquered cities, and my forces would be spread too thin for my liking. No, I prefer the prospect of having the Draconic Kingdom as a buffer state between us and the rest of the world. Well, at least the known world. The mountains at the north would serve as good deterrent against most hostiles, which leaves the straight between the sea and the lake at the south and the east as unexplored land, and your Kingdom at the west."

"In such case, what makes you think my country wouldn't turn against yours after we recovered?"

The King narrowed his eyes. "Is that a threat?"

Draudillon shook her head. "No, it is simply a hypothetical question, seeing as you seem confident we won't."

Kainen rested his elbows on the wooden table, crossing his hands before his face. "You'll see shortly."

Everyone from the Draconic Kingdom gulped audibly.

"Which takes us to the next subject. There are many – and when I say many, I mean many – of your citizens just outside the walls of my city being herded and slaughtered like cattle. People who don't have a home to come back, and even if they do, they'll pose a problem in the long term for you and your little issue with supplies." Draudillon inhaled deeply at this information being said, not by her or hers, but by someone who shouldn't even know about it – he literally appeared in this world less than a month ago, how could he even get that information? She had soldiers guarding the doors when discussing such topics with her Prime Minister, so it couldn't have been by simple spying. The King appeared to have noticed her thoughts, as a small smirk appeared on the corner of his mouth, but he continued speaking nonetheless. "You have very few options. You let them come back to your Kingdom and it'll start all sorts of problems, so you'll have to import food from either my nation or others, but in either case your economy will collapse in very short time. You could not let them come back and deal with a hungry and desperate mob which who knows how it will act. Or, you could leave them under my care. I certainly could use a little boon in population with our projects of establishing a few settlements, and the people would not suffer from hunger and further strife this way."

The Dragon Queen narrowed her eyes. "These are my subjects we are talking about."

The Hero King schooled his face completely neutral. "No, these people are your subjects who you failed to protect, and would be as good as dead already if not for my interference."

Draudillon could only clench her jaw at that. "He… is saying the truth."

Suddenly, Kainen stood up. "It seems we have to cut this meeting short for now. Ingvar!" he said, motioning to one of his guards in the room. "…escort Draudillon-dono and her entourage to the first wall." He continued, moving his eyes to look at the Dragon Queen. "This is something she'll want to witness. Now, if you excuse me, I have to prepare, and quickly." He finished as he left the room in a hurry. The soldier in question saluted and motioned the people from the Draconic Kingdom to follow him.

The divine treasury – because there were many 'treasury rooms' within Almha, but none had much beyond an insignificant sum of gold – was the perfect place to test some things that were on Sera's mind at that moment. It was in a separate place from the Hall of Heroes and the Goddess' Room, but in the same 'realm' of mostly white void.

The building itself – if one were to call it that – was a circular structure of Greco-Roman design, clearly in a sorry state of disrepair, and reminiscent to a very certain amphitheatre, but even in its half-destroyed form it was obvious this tower had supposedly been much, much taller. Gigantic arches surrounding slightly smaller statues in their centres – statues which were all thirty metres tall – support other similar arches at their top, which do the same in turn.

It did not possess a ceiling, although it appeared that it once had one, in a time so past that no record could even persist.

The only arch which could be passed through was the entrance to the Treasury proper. Before the enormous double gates that closed off the treasury, stood the only statue that wasn't in one or another state of ruin, and it was similar in design to the one which rested at the entrance of the Grand Cathedral, although this one was made out of bronze-ish alchemic metal alloy instead. And, like its sister statue outside, it was actually a gigantic golem.

The ground around the Treasury was very little before it ended abruptly, like if it were a floating island. It was, in fact, one.

Off in the distance was visible the Goddess' Palace, like the size of one's palm. Between the two laid what was better described as the void. White everywhere and nowhere at the same time. There was no precise point where all light came from in the outside, so there were no shadows.

In case of invaders getting their way here, the metallic golem was to fight them. Compared to its size, it did comparatively little damage, but was also highly resistant to damage and nigh immune to most status effects. To top it off, its cores – because it had many magic cores – weren't even within the body, but hidden within the heads of the ruined statues who surrounded the tower.

The sole job of the golem was to kick invaders off of the edge, and then the 'white void' would have an effect akin to teleportation to the player, transporting them back to the Hall of the Heroes. It was a tactic to bore players, after all, if they defeated a level three-hundred-fifty NPC – the Hero King plus the five Phantasms – then there was very little anything she did could best the invaders. So, what would she resort to? Getting them on a loop of being swatted off a cliff until they eventually bore of it and call it quits. To be even more effective, there was a trap around the whole tower preventing the use of any kind of flying ability, whether magic or racial.

Had this golem cost her pretty penny? Definitively. Was it worth it? Debatable, as her base wasn't a hot spot to attack for other players, so most of her NPCs didn't ever see battle.

But it was a fact that it looked quite badass, in Sera's opinion. The trade-off to such unbalanced NPC is that its effective radius of operation was very reduced, as its magic cores weren't on its body. But that was cleverly offset by the design of the chunk of earth it rested on, so in YGGDRASIL it was fine.

Now in the New World, Sera didn't know whether such restrictions upon the golem still applied. She wasn't about to find out, however, as she wasn't there for that and actually would prefer to leave it where it was.

Opening the oversized double doors, they were led to the only room within the ruined tower, where an enormous – the kind which warranted such an immense structure – amount gold and other kinds of items and accessories were haphazardly thrown into a pile. Sera had designed this room inspired after reading a particular book which featured a particular creature who liked to hoard riches. And lay waste to cities, but that was beyond the point.

While the three were closing into the pile, from between the pile of golden coins appeared a reptilian head. The creature's eyes widened at seeing Sera approaching, then in clear joy he quickly sprinted towards and rammed into her.

His red scales gleamed beautifully in the light which came into the room from the opened door, and his wings and tail fluttered in happiness as he rested his head on her thigh, purring when she petted his head.

This was Grim, the treasurer, and a small dragonling. His existence was more out of flavour than anything else, as having yet another high level NPC in there felt like it was both a waste and pointless.

His background information was very in depth, however afterthought he appeared to be. Between the many things he was, the most important was that he was a kleptomaniac without parallel, which aligns perfectly with both his job and his heritage. Dragons love shiny things, after all. He also, supposedly, knew and protected the truth of arcane fire magic.

"Hi! Goldy!" Grim chirped, pulling away slightly so he could look at her in the eye. Then it changed his expression for one of puppy-eyes. "You bring Grim new things, yes? Right? New, shiny precious things?"

"Grim! Treat our Lady with respect!" Drifa had enough of his demeanour, acting like a spoiled child.

The dragonling looked at the Valkyrie, lifting his head up to appear as if he didn't care what she said, but that didn't work very well as his tail was flat on the ground and his wings glued to his back. "H-Hm! I didn't talk with Silvery!"

Drifa arched a brow and crossed her arms over her chest, unimpressed. When the small dragon continued to be rebellious, she made to grab her spear, to which Grim did an 'Eep' sound and immediately started apologizing.

Sera waved a hand to calm both of them down – after watching the events unfold, of course, as it was amusing – because they had not much time to stay around. "Hello, Grim. Unfortunately no, I do not have anything to give you right now, as I didn't find anything worth bringing here yet." She chuckled a little at his disillusioned expression, and continued. "We are here to extract some items, can you help us to find them?" He appeared about to protest, but after looking at Drifa again, he acquiesced Sera's request.

After drawing out a middle-tier outfit, a couple of rings, some scrolls that weren't stored in the Great Library, and a multitude of other magic items, the group of three – plus the dragonling, as he was curious what was happening – walked out of the Treasury Room and into the small space outside the tower.

Stopping just a few metres from the edge, she motioned Daith and Grim to stay further back while Drifa was to be in front.

There were many things that Sera wanted to experiment with.

Her racial levels in the Angelic race together with her caster classes granted her the ability to summon daily several low-level angels or a handful of mid-tier ones without much in the way of costs. She could also summon higher levelled angels but they had the drawback of costing on top of mana to perform the summoning, the angel also needed to drain levels from her.

Not a great many number of levels, but the ten that were needed to summon the highest possible angel was too expensive for most players to even entertain the idea of summoning it. The same happened with almost all summons types, not many really wanted to have to grind the last ten levels because they used it on a summon. Especially close to the level cap, where just levelling up once was almost a chore, taking up to a complete month of nonstop playing and killing every monster on sight to gain a single level.

Deciding that there were still many unknowns about how much YGGDRASIL's restrictions still applied in the New World, high-end summons had to be put to the side for now.

But still, there were other uncertainties about summons. Back in the game, they despawned after an allotted amount of time. Would the same happen in this world?

There was the thing with the POPs that were affected by outside factors like her own writings, for apparently no reason, and she wanted to try if the same could be done with her summons. There was also the chance that the summoned angels did not heed her orders or even turn against her.

And those were the reasons behind so much carefulness.

Equipping one of the items she withdrew from the treasury, the [Ring of the Archangel] – an item she barely have ever used since the only thing it did better than other rings she had was to strengthen summoned angels, a thing she rarely did back in the game since it just wasn't her playstyle – she prepared to summon a medium-tier angel.

Strong enough for this world, she assumed, but not enough to even be able to damage her if it decided to attack her.

Not that it stopped Drifa from demanding to be on the front to shield her if such a thing were to happen.

Extending one hand, she extracted from her inventory one of the many blank-page books she had stored there, and got to work. Within a minute she had a rather rough but satisfactory backstory for a character she had to think up on the spot. Her left hand moved at extreme speeds over the hovering open book, as if typing on an invisible keyboard, while her right hand was held forward, waiting to cast the summoning spell.

With the freshly finished character background in hand, she tried to think up a way that it might work. Not that it was guaranteed to work someway, maybe it was simply a thing exclusive to the POPs, after all.

She drew a breath.

[Racial Skill: Summon Medium-Tier Angel: Dominion Authority]

White blue light appeared from within a single point some distance away from Sera, quickly growing into a figure of an Angel clothed in odd-looking white armour and mostly covered by its numerous wings. In front of its helm, a glowing magic circle denoting its divine association floated.

Angels and other creatures summoned by Racial Skills were typically stronger than the same creatures summoned by only magic, and at least in YGGDRASIL, didn't despawn until much later than normal summons. The [Ring of the Archangel] that she equipped improved the summons' abilities even further, making this newly summoned [Dominion Authority] almost as strong as the next type of summon, which was quite a feat.

By the standards of the New World, it would have a walk in the park swatting around 'legendary creatures' such as Death Knights like if they were flies.

It still couldn't even scratch her with most of its arsenal, and she was immune to divine magic to begin with, even its [Holy Smite] – its strongest attack – despite being of the Seventh Tier, still wouldn't be able to hurt her.

But the angel did no movement to indicate hostility. In fact, it didn't move at all.

Looking at the Dominion Authority, Sera briefly contemplated what to do. Extending again the palm that she used to summon the angel to it, she ordered it to move five metres to her left.

It did so without protest, and stood there waiting for further instruction, completely docile.

It was then that Sera realized that she had ordered the angel without using her voice, like in the game where she just wrote the commands because it was faster.

Lifting her hand to her face, she observed it fascinated, closing and opening her palm in wonder. Moving her face to the side, she looked at Drifa, who had her full attention on the Dominion Authority, and extended her hand towards her, giving her a command in the same fashion.

Drifa turned her head to her in puzzlement, but followed her orders nonetheless.

"Interesting…" She hadn't even thought about trying to use the chat system, even if she knew she could still type – somewhat – as she could write like back in the game with no problem.

Turning her attention again towards the Dominion Authority, Sera approached it. She ordered it to kneel in front of her, which it did again without any resistance.

Looking at the character description she had on her left hand. Simply having it in her possession while summoning was apparently not enough to influence the Angel.

Maybe if she were to cast the summoning with the book on her hand, would it be different?

Holding her left hand in front of the Dominion Authority's head, she touched its helm with the book – as it maybe would fusion with it, or something.

Nothing.

Sera nodded at the result, checking off one of the options from her head.

Next, she held the book with the casting hand, but the results were the same. Only a simple, docile angel in its slightly un-proportioned glory – which was a typical design from the devs' part for any heteromorphic and even demi-human races. It was a real testament to the game's freedom to design that players could turn even the most disgusting-looking creatures into a paradigm of beauty. Or, like many would say, waifu – or husbando – material.

This second summoned angel was completely identical to the previous one, both in looks and behaviour. They met the criteria of mindless summons to a T, or at least appeared to.

She only had a single – guaranteed – try left to see if she could somehow create a customized NPC, as summoning Mid-Tier creatures was limited to three a day, after all.

What she tried next was different to the other two times. Instead of having the book in her hands while casting the summoning, she instead left it on the floor and aimed her casting to it.

Similarly as the previous two times, a white blue light appeared within a single point where she aimed. But then that point of light collapsed and integrated the book which it was over, and just after that the angel appeared.

Sera could not contain her excited smile as her eyes gleamed at the sight.

Instead of a figure clad in strange-looking armour and covered by wings, an angel not unlike Sera or Drifa stood in place.

Highly toned body, skin tanned and of above average height, delicate features – but nothing special in comparison with the most detailed NPCs – framed by a rather short pure-white hair, with a pair of piercing eyes of bright, almost electric white eyes, a distinctly female angelic form stood in front of Sera.

With no clothes on.

Well, that was unexpected. In the hypothetical case anything she tried worked, what Sera expected was the Dominion Authority to keep its equipment – as trash as it would been – and that was why she brought with her a more appropriate set of armour and a weapon.

Well, it was not as if she wasn't going to change this angel's equipment either way.

The Dominion Authority seemed to be slightly disorientated for a moment as she held her head, but when she got sight of Sera, she quickly kneeled. "My Lady Creator, it's a pleasure to meet you. I am most grateful for you to spare your words to create this most unworthy one." The angel's head was so low that she almost kissed the ground.

Sera blinked, half intrigued. She hadn't put in the character description such behaviour. She had put in things similar to the rest of the NPCs, but nothing that outright said them to act like this in front of 'the Goddess', only that they were 'respectful' towards her. Maybe her conception of respectful and the one from the rest of the world were different?

Leaving those thoughts for later, Sera addressed the newly-created angel. "Rise, child. Here, wear this." She said while reaching for her inventory and withdrawing a set of heavy armour somewhat reminiscent of the angelic summons', but more proportioned and with less random protrusions all over it. It was a set Drifa had worn way, way back, but it still was of better quality than a Dominion Authority's armour.

The kneeling angel humbly accepted her Creator's gift, and quickly donned it. "Thank you, my Lady."

Drifa had visibly relaxed at the angel's disposition, and even started nodding at her in appreciation of her demeanour.

"Tell me, child. Do you know the name I bestowed upon you?" Time to test how deeply ingrained the contents of the book were, if at all. Appearance-wise it was mostly spot on – as no matter how good one is with words, one can't fully describe someone as finely as one could design them in YGGDRASIL's character creation – but it was still unknown whether this angel would act as the description said.

"Yes, my Lady. The beautiful name you granted this one was Valkea. And upon this name I swear allegiance on you, and not even death will stop me from doing my duty to you." The answer was, more or less. It appeared that all the facets of personality that she didn't explicitly state were developed according to the rest.

Wait.

This definitively wasn't an YGGDRASIL mechanic, true, but that wasn't what unsettled her. It was actually the confirmation that she could create fully sentient beings with only words and a bit of magic.

Absentmindedly inspecting Valkea's form, Sera was both shaken by this fact and glad that not every word she writes since she was transported to the New World would automatically transform into a living being.

But the fact stands, and she could not stress it enough. She had the power to bring someone into existence with only thoughts. It was a terrifying prospect, moreso if other players – if they were transported like her – were to find this information. She'll keep it to herself.

"None are to talk about how Valkea was created." She ordered while looking at the seraphim, overlord and dragonling. It was a good thing that where she tried this is a place where it was nigh impossible to get spied upon, and the only witnesses were the most loyal creations she had made. Plus Grim, but it wasn't as he was going to leave the treasury willingly anytime soon, if his personality was anything to go by.

There was the possibility that other players could have discovered or to discover in the future this method of effectively creating new NPCs with almost no cost, but she doubted there were many writing nutjobs like her back in the game, and even less that were there when the game shut it servers down.

"If being online at the time of the shutdown is even a requisite for… this."

Shaking away the thought, she addressed the four angels – including Drifa – and gave them orders to follow with haste. Her city was under fire, after all, and she could not let it be just like that.

She needed to show these barbaric creatures why they should have never tried to attack what is hers.

Addressing the seraphim first, "Drifa, you are in charge of these three. You are to command them to deal with the…" she clenched her teeth in vexation "…pests knocking at our doors."

"Yes, my Lady. It shall be done." The silver-headed angel said in agreement.

Sera moved her head to talk to the newly-customized summon. "Valkea, you are to follow Drifa's every command. You'll also have the power to command the other two." The angel hadn't risen from her kneeling position all the while, and at the order, she lowered her head even more. "I understand, my Creator."

"And you, Dominion Authority…" She said while looking at the two hovering passive angels. "…you two are to follow their orders." They didn't make any sign of acknowledgment beyond lowering a little from their position and getting close to Drifa.

She finally turned to the Overlord. "Daith, be a dear and teleport these four to the Hall of Heroes." She said, before adding, "And start preparations to make sure very few are to retreat from here alive. Just enough for them to not die off, but not enough for them to pose a problem for anyone else."

Nodding, "Now go.", she ordered.

In a flash, the five were teleported away, leaving Sera alone with Grim. After a moment of being in deep though, the dragonling approached her and started rubbing his head on her thigh again.

"So… my Lady Goldy," he looked around to make sure Drifa wasn't there, but still addressed her 'properly'. "…is it really true that there are no shiny things outside?" he asked as he purred at her pats.

Sera chuckled a little.

"No, Grim, I haven't seen anything worth bringing to you out there yet. There might be something, though, but I can't say I'm sure."

The dragonling lowered his head in clear disappointment. "Well, Grim is going back to the treasury then. Waiting for new things to be deposited."

When she was left alone, Sera inspected closely both her palms. Extending the right forward again, she tried to cast again.

[Racial Skill: Summon Mid-Tier Angel: Dominion Authority]

…

But nothing happened. It appeared that these specific restrictions still applied, and she didn't know whether to feel relief or not.

Turning her thoughts to what she had discovered, she wondered if the summoned angels would disappear after the allotted time passed, and if the same thing would happen to Valkea.

If it didn't, what would stop her from doing the same with an Empyrean, beyond having to grinding the levels that were used again each time – if the concepts of levels even continued to apply in the New World, which she was still unsure about. Given enough time, she could have a literal army of high level angels at her disposal, and no matter if they didn't quite match up with a player individually, facing several of them at the same time would be suicidal for the vast majority of level one hundred players.

Still, she had to compare the other two Dominion Authority she had summoned with her racial skills to something else to get a picture if summoning worked differently in the New World.

Using her left hand as if typing on an invisible keyboard, she tried to use the command going by only muscle memory.

[Triple Summoning Mid-Tier Angel: Dominion Authority]

The command successfully called forth the angels with normal magic methods, and her mana barely even felt like it was chipped – which, amongst other things in the current situation, was a strange feeling that she didn't quite get used to yet.

Summoning like this without the use of gold coins and contracts significantly shortened the amount of time the summoned creatures were on the field to a measly fifteen minutes.

Further experimenting with 'silent commands', she made the three Dominion Authority angels do various movements, and deemed them to be exactly the same as in YGGDRASIL. Without enemies to aggro them, they stood in place and did nothing else.

"Very well. You three, follow me." She ordered, while an almost wicked smile started forming on her mouth. "We have some furries to deal with."

The three mid-tier angels silently obeyed.

"I lost count already" Boringly stated the Crimson General as she watched as yet another projectile thrown by the beastmen's trebuchets harmlessly impacted against the first set of walls. "You'd think that they would have noticed already that they are doing jack shit."

They have been 'bombarding' the city for more than a day already, and no matter what they threw, they couldn't even get past the walls. She saw that more than once the savages thrown a carcass between boulders or trunks of trees, yet everything they catapulted was useless as they simply bounced from the walls and did no damage. Well, except of tainting the pristine walls with the red of the carcasses, but that was overall a minor thing.

She was well aware why the invading army would throw dead bodies. To lower morale, and to hopefully start a pandemic from the decaying carcasses within the walls, making the defenders unable to defend.

But for it to be effective, the sieging army had to be able to bypass the walls, otherwise it was just a waste of time.

Of her corps, very few soldiers found the view morale-lowering – and coincidentally, they were amongst the weakest of her soldiers. She had to put them on a very strict training to remind them that if they were to be afraid of something, is to disappoint her or their King, and not from their enemies or what they did.

Master Lyn didn't agree with her training methods, saying that they aren't effective in the long term, but she doesn't have to hear the old sack of bones anymore, as she was no longer his student. And she hadn't been for a long time already.

"They don't strike me as the most intelligent bunch, Phyra." Said old sack of bones replied back, his tone as bored as hers. "I must say, against any other target, such bombardment might have already broken down the walls, but it is our Lady's city we are talking about." He said, trying to find something useful to keep himself from falling asleep from boredom.

As a good part of the forest around Almha had been cut down already by the beastmen, the defenders had a pretty good view of their enemy.

Just seeing the sheer amount of beastmen ready to be put down, Phyra could barely hold herself from going there and start a good melee. In fact, she could barely hold her battle crazy smile from manifesting on her face.

Her hand was at all moments on the handle of her weapon, [Nova's Fury], as it felt like it was itching to be set free and start crushing bones and tearing flesh.

"Calm yourself. You are a General now, act like one."

She looked at Lyn, annoyed but she knew he was correct. She doesn't know why she accepted the position, being a field officer was so much more fun than having to stay back and coordinate troops. With her position as General, she would only see combat before the King himself only.

She was snapped out of anguish by the sounds of five armoured soldiers approaching where the two generals were.

The five were the Griffin Knights, the smallest of the corps in terms of numbers but very effective nevertheless.

Lyn also turned around to address the soldiers, his eyes setting on the Knight at the front of the group after quickly studying each and every one of them. "Captain, I trust that everything has gone well on your side, since that ridiculous stunt you pulled last time." The edge on his voice was not lost on anyone, but the only one to visibly react was said elf, who smiled nervously as he scratched his cheek.

"Eeh, yes… that. But everything work out at the end, so I say it wasn't that big of a deal."

He was answered with the General's displeased glance, which made the Captain to let out an even more nervous laugh in an attempt to make the ambience feel less oppressive.

But Lyn only turned again to observe the sieging army around the city. "However, I'm surprised that you even were put to such perilous test by fighting these…" he motioned with his head at the beastmen far below "The majority of them don't seem to be even a decent soldier, or are you telling me that you were bested by a bunch of thugs? I don't care how many hundreds there were, I don't think that you should be in any danger facing these alone."

The elf with the cerulean-coloured hair approached the battlements, scrutinizing the surroundings with his miraculous eyesight. "If you excuse me, I don't think the group we faced back at that village was any ragtag group of beastmen, General. If anything, they can only be compared with those who are guarding the important-looking tent." He informed.

The Captain's interest was piqued. "Is that where the enemy leader is?" he asked. "If we know where their head is, why not strike them where it will cripple them?"

Lyn shook his head minutely. "Everything on its time, Captain."

The elven Captain did very obviously not understand, but nodded and did not pursue the topic any longer.

Then a very distinguishable magical shine appeared in dispersed groups of the beastmen, who proceeded to walk through the air as if they were walking up a slope that wasn't there.

Everyone's eyes slightly opened at the sight, and the Azure General hurriedly turned again towards his Knights. "Captain, I want you and the rest to mount and bring those bastards down from the sky. And I want you to do it five seconds ago, move!"

The five saluted and quickly left the scene, almost sprinting towards the location of the Griffin's Nest.

Phyra could no longer contain her battle thirsty smile. "Finally. Time for action, eh?" Her voice was utterly calm, however, clashing with the expression on her face.

The older man did not reply.

Urm smiled wickedly. The Sages had finished preparations, and now hundreds and hundreds of his men were able to get up those walls to start wreaking havoc. Seeing the display of the highest possible magic the beastmen's casters could do served to further encourage all under the Beast King's banner, and surely to lower the meatbag's morale.

The siege engines had done very little as far as he could see, a fact that annoyed him greatly. But now the confined cattle in their stone walls should be experiencing despair at the sight of the strongest beings walking to them through the sky, completely ignoring their precious walls.

But his confidence was shaken a little when from within the walls, five winged creatures flew and started throwing lightning bolts at his men, who couldn't move fast enough to dodge.

Charred corpses of good beastmen started raining down, its sight making Urm to clench his jaws shut.

He turned towards the bowmen group he had under his command. Beastmen typically used very little the bow, but the ones who did used things very different from what the humans called a bow. For a beastman, human bows might as well were toothpicks. No, the strongest beings used something far superior, capable of shooting very big and heavy arrows with ease.

"Bowmen! Shoot those eagles down!" he ordered. He wasn't going to let those flying chickens to do as they pleased and give them free pass to kill his men.

"But what about the-" Dissent was prohibited. He crushed the weakling's head with his plank of metal.

He narrowed his eyes, looking at the rest of the group. "Any. Objection. With. My. Orders?"

They all straightened right away and did as told, but the eagle-things were too nimble and dodged the volleys without much problem. Some of the arrows hit his own men instead.

Then he noticed that there were preys mounting the eagle-beasts. He didn't know why any self-respecting beast would let prey to use them as mount, but he wasn't going to find out. They fight alongside the humans, they die with the humans.

Soon enough more and more beastmen took up the sky, more than what the five eagle-beasts could handle. It would be a costly victory, but once his men got inside the walls, then it's game over for them.

Just for the beasts these cattle killed, he would personally make sure to taint all of the city's streets red with their blood.

But before any beastman could get past the walls, an all-powerful massive beam of light made an entire column vanish.

Then another.

And another.

Two winged humans and two other winged beings appeared in the sky above the city, and they were the ones responsible for so much losses.

Urm's blood boiled on his veins, and his claws were closed so tightly that he completely destroyed a tree he was resting his hand on.

A soft, melodious voice rung across the field. Somehow, even if its volume wasn't high, everyone could hear what it said.

"You had been given the opportunity to turn away. But you chose to attack our Lady's Holy City, and such an action cannot be left unpunished. Surrender now, and you'll be granted the last chance of mercy. Resist, and be turned to dust."

That didn't go unchallenged by the Beast King, however. His roar could also be heard throughout the surroundings, and even if he had to raise his voice, he could retort so everyone could hear him too.

"HAH! You killed some from my army, and declared yourself already the victor? Have you seen how many more I have? I am no mere ruler. I am the bringer of the new order! The Beastman order! The times of men are done, and I am the one who will be responsible for it! No simpleton winged birdbrains like you can stop me! I have discarded my name, because I have no need of it. I AM THE BEAST KING, THE CONQUEROR OF ALL, AND THE HUMANS BANE!" He pointed forwards with his claw, with his actions renewing the morale of his troops to unseen new levels. "CHARGE, KILL, MAIM, UNTIL NO PREY IS LEFT!"

"HOOOOOO!"

Under a few moments, more winged birdbrains joined with the other four, making them a total of seven. The Beastmen Sages doubled on their efforts to cast their mass levitation magic on more and more combat groups, motivated by their King's speech. All the bowmen groups started to rain death upon the flying defenders without the need of their commander's orders.

Then the defenders' soldiers descended from their walls to meet them in the cleared field. They were outnumbered at least one hundred to one against the beastmen, but the human's formations didn't seem to waver a single bit.

With their focus on the soldiers on the ground, less beastmen took up to the sky and instead rushed to the newly formed defensive lines of the humans in mindless abandon. Not that Urm could blame them, he was one of them.

Closing on the humans, he could almost taste them already, and they made his mouth water significantly. He now understood the pipsqueak's ranting when he informed the King of this founding.

As he raised his enormous metal plank to devastate a file of human soldiers, his attack was however blocked by an enormous black shield.

Looking at his newfound opponent, he saw a human woman clad in full armour, holding the previously mentioned shield and a mace that looked too big on her hands.

"Hey ho, big guy. You are my dancing partner now, I hope you are able to last." Her manic grin would have scared any lesser being, but Urm wasn't one. He met her head on, not holding back.

"I am the great Urm! Commander under the Beast King, and his left hand! NO ONE CAN BEAT ME!" He roared in challenge against his opponent.

Her reply was much more controlled, but still less 'civilized' than what was normal by human standards.

"I am the Crimson General, Phyra of the Searing Flames!"

They interchanged blows faster than any normal being was able to see, both matched in skill and strength, much to Urm's chagrin.

"HA! I SHALL LEAVE YOU ALIVE. FEMALES ARE GREAT PIÑATAS, AFTER ALL, AND YOU WILL BE THE BEST OF THEM ALL!"

"YOU THINK SO, BEAST? THINK AGAIN!"

Her hits, instead of becoming slower and softer as was normal with beings without the stamina of the beastmen, became faster and stronger. Each strike he blocked with his plank left his arm ringing from the exertion, until he could not keep up anymore.

The spiked head of the mace met with his dextrous arm, destroying his bones and ripping some of his flesh off. His trance started to recede, and was witness of how beastman after beastman fell to the human's attack, with very little casualties happening in turn in the human's lines.

He saw how the few who still tried to get into the city were picked off in the air, and how the birdbrains descended behind the beastmen's lines, attacking them from behind.

How a human very similar to the one he had been battling for a time he couldn't really tell was in combat with the King.

He turned again towards the woman in front of him.

He knew he met his end.

"You were a worthy foe, human." He acknowledged her.

Sometime during their fight, they moved closer to the slaughterhouse tents. He hadn't noticed. He grabbed a limb lying on the ground with his good hand, and took a good bite.

The woman turned to him. Her eyes were a scalding shade of red, as if only being stared by her would make anything to burst up into flames. But her expression was different, it was no longer the battle-crazy smile she had sported at the start of their duel.

"You were boring." She stated dryly. Her face did show very little besides boredom.

Before Urm could process what she had said, she took her mace and held it in front of her. She chanted quicker than any Sage Urm had ever seen, unleashing fiery flames from the spiked head of her weapon, which in turn turned almost white from the heat.

"[Nova's Fury]!"

With a single hit, Urm's entire body was reduced to embers. The last thing he saw, besides the searing flames, was how his comrades started to snap out of their trance and try to flee.

"Pinch me." Said an incredulous Commander, then continued under his breath, "I thought I was hallucinating back then."

Everyone from the Draconic Kingdom was in similar states of stupefaction. The Queen and the Prime Minister had been very concerned at first when the beastmen started floating towards them, but their worries were soon relieved when a group of five Griffin Knights on their signature mounts started to mow down the beastmen with ease.

The old magic caster with them, Anrous, chuckled at their reactions. He was there to teleport them out if things started getting out of control, and Draudillon was thankful for his presence – otherwise she would have died from the stress of being in the middle of a skirmish against the beastmen. Thankfully, as they were all 'guests', no soldier with her was requested to help the defence.

Then the group of angels appeared.

If Draudillon had any doubts of the existence of a deity on the Celestial City's side, then they were quenched at the sight of the angelic beings. There would be no other reason otherwise for such beings to protect the metropolis.

Then, one of the angels, a feminine-looking one with silver hair that also seemed to be the highest-ranking in the group, talked. It felt like barely above a whisper, but Draudillon could hear her perfectly even more than a hundred metres away.

And then she heard the Beast King – a monstruous-looking tigerfolk with more scars than normal skin or fur, who had an impressive set of lungs – and her blood ran both cold and boiling hot.

That was the one ultimately responsible for her people's misery. She felt dread at the sight of him – although she could barely discern his features at from the distance –but also hot, righteous anger.

And complete desperation. Even with her army in its totality rallied here, she couldn't see her side winning.

And, however strong these newcomers appeared to be, she had years of hearing the brutality of the beastmen attacks, so she was cynical they could weather the assault and come out of it victorious.

Even Gods can be felled. History has plenty of examples of such a thing happening.

A group of priests and priestesses walked to the Draconic Kingdom group's side. Amongst them, a particular woman stood out by her outfit, which was clearly much higher quality than the rest. At her side, another woman, more humbly clothed stood – but Draudillon couldn't help but feel that she had seen the blonde somewhere else.

Then the Hero King made an entrance, slowly descending from the sky as if he were one of those angels that were high in the sky.

"I trust you'll stay for the performance, Draudillon-dono? I suggest you do, you may see what I was talking about earlier."

Draudillon tried to gulp, but found that her mouth was completely dry.

She just nodded in the affirmative, even if there was nothing more she wanted to than to bail out of the place as soon as possible.

Then the King jumped back into the sky, and Draudillon wondered if he wasn't, in fact, an angel.

Then a massive portal opened far below, from where most of the defending forces walked out of. Their numbers weren't anything impressive compared to other kingdom's armies, much less compared to the gargantuan force of beastmen they were facing.

But they were calm at the prospect of facing such an enemy. Their formations held steady at the charge en masse from the beastmen, and fought with absolute discipline against their savage adversaries.

And, more unnerving of it all, they were actually faring very well.

Beastmen never used much tactics when in combat, as they far surpassed physical capabilities of normal humans. They never needed to use them, as just smashing through their enemies forces was perfectly effective for them. That was the reason why the armies of the Draconic Kingdom rarely ever met beastmen assaults head-on on the open field.

But this army of humans, elves and dwarves was holding the line just fine, against a force many times its size.

The Griffins continued to mow down on the ones who still tried to reach the walls, and the angels did the same until they descended on the battlefield, behind the enemy lines, and started wreaking havoc.

In the span of about ten minutes, several tens of thousands beastmen were killed with very little effort.

Draudillon should have felt relieved at the sight.

But she wasn't. Her worries completely changed from the threat the beastmen posed, to the threat these people posed. At least they were open to talk first, but that served little to calm the Dragon Queen.

Before long, the attacking beastmen started realizing their dire situation, and many of them decided to flee.

Before they could leave the cleared area, an enormous wall sprung from the earth. Only because she had an enhanced vision, Draudillon could discern it was made out of thousands upon thousands of skeletons. She stopped breathing when she saw the skeletons started attacking any beastman that drew close, easily cutting them in half.

"It is judgement upon them by our fair Lady, the rightful punishment given by the Lord of Death, and the revenge of those wronged by these savages."

A priest said, looking at where Draudillon's eyes were fixed. "Those skeletons were… my subjects?"

Then, a blinding light appeared from the other side of the battlefield, from where the Hero King was battling the Beast King. Kainen's sword shone like a sunray in his hand, bathing his surroundings in holy light. Even from where she was observing, she could feel the calming, holy aura it emitted.

The Hero King slew the Beast King, the humans' bane, in a single strike of his holy sword.

Draudillon desperately tried to gulp, but she still had her mouth completely dry.

The battle didn't last much longer. Those beastmen that tried to make a run for it were hunted down mercilessly, and soon enough in the field sounds of battle no longer could be heard.

All within a single hour, throughout which Draudillon couldn't move from her spot as she was completely frozen at the sight.

After the fighting ceased, the majority of the clerics that had been close were teleported to the field to attend to the wounded. She could see some downed defenders here and there, but compared with the sea of beastmen bodies, they might as well weren't there.

Draudillon didn't realize how or when the Hero King came back to the wall, as his voice snapped her out of her thoughts. He didn't look like he had just been in heated combat, he actually looked like he had just donned on his armour, as he was spotless all over.

The redhead smiled, but Draudillon couldn't help but think back on how this man had devastated the strongest forces of the beastmen alone.

"Now that the nuisances are out of the way, we can continue with our meeting, Draudillon-dono. Or would you rather leave the talks for later? I understand if you'll rather go back until tomorrow, dusk is in but a few hours, after all."

Sitting on her comfortable sofa, Sera pondered what to do next.

The Dominion Authorities she had summoned with magic had despawned just after the fray, so they lasted longer than what they did back in the game. Valkea and the other two she summoned with her racial skills were still around, so Sera ordered the two normal Dominion Authorities to hover around Almha, as the great amount of bodies of the slain beastmen could give raise to undead, or so said the clerics. She wasn't sure if it worked quite like that without the active use of necromancy, but it helped to keep the people at peace.

Valkea was ordered to guard the Hall of Heroes instead; that way Sera could check on her more easily.

Over all, the results of the battle had been a little disappointing. The beastmen's average level by YGGDRASIL's standards were around ten, yet neither her nor a single NPC appeared to have levelled up from the encounter.

She didn't feel like she had gained a level from downing around fifty thousand of those furry menaces that tried to run away eastwards with liberal use of [Maximize Magic: Seeker Bolt] while under the cover of [Greater Invisibility], and if she went by the game's logic, would have given her just enough experience to level up once.

The ones who fled westwards were stopped by Daith, and he also reported that he didn't feel any different.

Drifa who had descended to join the fray reported the same, although neither could really tell how many the Valkyrie had killed. Valkea also didn't report she felt any stronger. The same happened with Kainen and the Generals, and she wasn't sure about the POP guards, but she wasn't betting on it.

Although, she could be wrong with those ones. The NPCs she created herself, so they might be stuck on the level she granted upon them without being able to improve, but the POPs weren't created directly by her so they might not be burdened with that.

It could also be that level scaling worked differently than back on YGGDRASIL; she remembers a game from when he was growing up that if the enemy slain was of too low a level, then it didn't grant any experience.

Which leads her to what she had found in her little journey in the New World. Despite having way too many similarities– almost uncannily so – with YGGDRASIL, there were many points where they differed. Talents, Martial Arts, and even Tiered spells that not existed back in the game – as far as she knew, there was no Tier Zero, for example – made the prospect of a different scaling not too beyond belief.

Also, that compared with late-game, this world was rather pathetic. Which also made sense, now that she thought about it. If this was a real world and dying was permanent – with the rare exception of being able to pay the service for resurrection – there weren't going to be many people who put themselves on dangerous situations on purpose, therefore lowering the average level of combatants quite significantly.

All in all she wouldn't call her fun trip a waste of time, as she learnt some very interesting things, but she couldn't say that it was efficient. She had overestimated the new worlders quite a bit – though she hadn't dismissed completely the notion that the Empire's Court Wizard may have been a player yet – but in her defence she hadn't thought that spells of the Third Tier were considered reserved for 'extraordinary individuals', or that anything over Sixth Tier is 'the magic of the Gods'.

She didn't think that using [Greater Invisibility] in tandem with other basic stealth spells would be able to fool them, so she hadn't even tried that approach. Plus, she wanted to have something fresh to draw inspiration from – something that she sadly didn't find as the power gap was just too big for her to find any of it even remotely exciting. Truly a pity, she wanted to see how an adventurer's life was like in real life, but it ended being way too underwhelming.

Getting information was easier this way, as there were none who could counter stealth magic. But it did make it less appealing, not a good way to develop a good plot.

She was conflicted about it.

In one hand, she could have a good storyline developing in her hands, and in the other, the safety of her creations was still uncertain. This Paradyne was said to rival armies by himself, but the same could be said for any half-decent caster within Almha's walls by this world's standards.

There were figures of legend that could have been stronger than her, although again, it was uncertain whether if they even still lived.

Setting on a compromise, she decided to gain more information, but not share the majority of it with her 'mortal' creations unless the situation deemed it necessary.

After all, those beyond the portal were 'created' to be mostly independent from her orders, and she would be a spectator of their actions for the most part, taking notes here and there. Intervening only in times of dire need, even if there was a part of her mind that was screaming at her to not let things come to that in the first place.

She had to remind herself that it wouldn't make a good plot. On top of it, it would be come off like a very protective parent, and no one would like to read that. It was debatable whether the denizens would accept such treatment, but that was not the point.

Using the [Mirror of Remote Viewing], she scanned the surroundings, particularly where a great amount of clerics were healing – or even resurrecting in some cases – the humans that had been captive of the beastmen.

And they were many. Like, if they were to get into the city, they would double the population, and she didn't know if Almha had the infrastructure or supplies to provide for so many people.

[Hero.] She contacted Kainen via [Message].

[My Lady. I am most grateful for your aides' help during the battle, but it had been not necessary. We would have been victorious even without your divine protection.]

[Nonsense. Those savages didn't just attempt to conquer you, my creations, my children, but to completely annihilate every last one of you. Something I couldn't let by.]

[I am filled with gratitude, for how you think about us, my Lady.]

[However, this isn't what I contacted you for, Hero King. I meant to ask, what is going to be done about those human captives your forces just rescued.]

[I had discussed things with the Dragon Queen, the sovereign of the nation from where most of these people hail from. They fall under my jurisdiction now, in exchange of protecting her Kingdom while it recuperates. ]

Interesting. So that was why the Dragon Queen had been in a meeting with him not long ago. There was still a small issue she needed to address, though.

[However, how are you going to deal with them? Almha can't handle such a massive increase in population, and your stocks are going to suffer greatly before long. As much as I want to help, I won't solve every problem you face, much less ones sprung by short-sightedness]

[You need not to worry about that, my Lady. However great our city is, I know that it can't hold all the rescued captives, not even half of them. For the time being, they will be lodged on a camp outside the city, away from the corpses of the beastmen. It will be like that for a short time, as we have discovered the location of a ruined city not far from here, where we plan to move most of them to live in. Many nobles have also made their interest known that they would like to settle on the so-called Silent City by the locals.]

[Why not do it right away?]

[By what the commander from the Draconic Kingdom told me, there appears to be a group of Soul Eaters on the city, who were also responsible for its downfall; however, we haven't yet confirmed whether it is true or not. I will dispatch a group first to scout and deal with the undead if they are in the city before sending the rest of the people.

Also, I would like to ask permission to seed the fields around the city with the divine crops you have granted us, to maintain the new population.]

Sera had been trying to find a way to ask the King to do something like that for some time now, as produce from YGGDRASIL could be used to exchange into gold coins. Now the opportunity presented itself on silver platter!

[Yes, that is acceptable, Hero King. However, I would have to ask you to bring me a portion of it as offerings in exchange.]

[Thank you, my Lady. It shall be done. One more thing…]

[Proceed…]

[I would ask of you to take them under your divine protection, my Lady. They are my subjects just like the rest, now.]

She took a moment to think about what he had said. She didn't think there was anything innately divine about her, not even now. True, she can give personality to angels, but besides that there was nothing omnipotent in her qualities, and true, they might as well be in the eyes of the new worlders, but so would be Kainen if it came down to it.

Saying that she gives protection as if she were to be a real goddess would be pointless, realistically speaking, but very important in how the plot develops.

While she cared more for her own creations above anything else, she couldn't deny that she felt the need to also care for those humans. She even started to feel a little bad for the beastmen she annihilated before.

What would the 'character Goddess' say?

[You know the answer, Hero. They might not be my creations, but they are humans like you in the end. However, as it is said, they are your subjects, so you have the duty to protect and govern them. If they are my followers, it would be my responsibility to guide them. If they are not, then I have no say.]

The Hero King didn't reply immediately.

[I understand, Sera-sama. I will make sure to make your word reach all confines of this world.]

…

Well, that was a take, Sera guessed. It wasn't what she had in mind, but it worked nonetheless to keep things interesting.

Come to think of it, she had never specified how her creations would react to a vastly different religion, like the case of the more widespread polytheistic faith of the Four Gods. It wasn't as she hadn't created one in her novels, but she hadn't made them yet interact with what was the old Kyrsian Kingdom – where Almha was capital of – so how would they react would be completely organic.

Fascinating. Would it unfold as the Holy Wars, or would it be more of a peaceful coexistence. Maybe even a syncretism, as the 'religion of the Goddess' wasn't as strict in some ways compared with similar religions back on Earth.

Humming, Sera's thoughts drifted through lines like those, as she wrote book after book without even noticing.

Everyone in his unit was thunderstruck at what they had witnessed. They had almost shat their pants at the sight of so many beasmen assembled to assault a floating city – which gave the captain all the bad feelings with its similitude with Eryuentiu – but that was eclipsed when they saw angels descend from the heavens to defend the city.

He recognized a Dominion Authority when he saw one, and he saw five of them.

All within his unit were deeply religious – the same as any other Scripture, really – so many of them wanted nothing more than to kneel and pray to the servants of the Gods, but he had to remind them – and himself – that the mission was of upmost importance.

Then they were witness of the gruesome battle that took place. He knew that with only one of those Dominion Authorities, the beastmen were done for; but knowing what would happen and seeing it were two different things.

Especially when 'normal' soldiers joined the fray – 'normal' that could compete on even terms with the Theocracy's greatest God-kins from what the Captain could see.

This was very different from what he had expected. The Conclave and the Pontifex needed to hear of this.

"Is it true, then?" Asked a young man.

Of above average height, perfectly unblemished skin, blond hair with magical illumination and amethyst-purple eyes, clothed with the finest robes man could possibly get their hand on, he was the walking definition of royalty. His every move posed a graceful regality very few could imitate, his tone never betrayed his thoughts, looking as a great if mysterious ruler.

"Indeed it is, my Lord. Our contacts with the Theocracy had confirmed such, even if they really didn't want to believe it to be true."

Jircniv took a moment to contemplate the bigger picture.

He had been aware of the appearance of a new nation bordering the Draconic Kingdom for a while now, but he had been cynical when his spies had reported that these newcomers had apparently dealt with the small beastman problem that had plagued the southern nation.

The Beastmen's invasion was why he hadn't made any move against Draudillon's Kingdom – well, that and the fact that his troops had to cross through a mountainous range, but that wasn't as much of a deterrent as it was a logistical nightmare – and now the savage beasts were gone, just like that?

It had been the official statement from the Draconic Kingdom, that they were no longer at war with the Beastmen Kingdom as the latter was no more. And that Draudillon's rule was protected by this character, the Hero King, for the time being.

But the Theocracy had been nothing if not resourceful when it came down to information, and they had always given him accurate reports, so he chose to believe their confirmations for now.

In other situation, he may have considered sending two other legions to take over control over the Draconic Kingdom's beaten lands, but entering in conflict with a nation he didn't have full information about wasn't his style.

Plus, his focus was on the Kingdom, as has been for years now. First he would deal with Re-Estize, then with any other power.

But if what the reports said was true, then he would need to find more talented individuals to serve him. Maybe even expand the Imperial Knights.

Moving his head to the side, he directed his gaze towards Baziwood.

"Any news about the two who caught Nimble's attention?" He was interested about the two women who had fought on even terms with a Death Knight, a feat that would be difficult even for his own elite Knights.

The Knight Captain looked at his fellow Knights before looking back at Jircniv, shaking his face. "Nah, they hadn't make an appearance since then, Your Majesty. They weren't even seen coming back to Arwintar, so we don't know where they went." He said, then a half-grin morphed into his mouth while he scratched his chin. "It is strange … how should I put it. It comes across very suspicious to me."

The Bloody Emperor hummed. He was prepared to make the two a job offer; depending on how they performed, the Imperial Knights might have changed from four to six.

Alas, it was impossible to reach those two for now, so he might as well continue looking for promising adventurers and workers. "Hm. They aren't all that important, but if they are seen, report it and ask them to come to the Palace. Meanwhile, keep an eye open for other talents."

…

"Is there any information on which magics these newcomers have used?"

The Emperor sighed. As much as he admired Fluder, the old man's obsession with the arcane wasn't a thing he wanted to deal with daily. And neither did the Emperors before him; that was the primary reason behind the existence of the Ministry of Magic, after all. To get Fluder out of the Imperial Palace so one didn't have to deal with his endless ramblings about magic.

The agent – who hadn't been yet dismissed and was still kneeling in place even after he had been completely ignored while the Emperor talked with his Knights – gulped before answering the question of the powerful wizard. "Yes, Fluder-sama. Although it is nothing very detailed, both sides report the use of powerful beams of light, and liberal use of what appeared to be [Lightning] and [Fireball] spells, amongst other things."

Jircniv didn't even need to be looking at Fluder to see how the eyes of the Court Wizard started to shine very brightly.

Fluder stroked his long beard in a gesture anyone who knew him could tell he was intrigued or elated at finding something about magic. "Interesting. I may have to pay a visit to this new nation to see if there is anything I can learn about their magic." He finished with a small laugh.

Jircniv fondled his brow at the old man's antics, but a small smile found his way onto his face.

Before Fluder could get into a longer tedious tirade about magic, the Bloody Emperor dismissed the agent, who saluted and left instantly.

It was useful intelligence, for now. He needed to know more before acting against the south for now, and such an ambition was years away either way. He reckoned that the Kingdom wouldn't last more than five years if things kept at the pace they were going, and a few years more to stabilize the situation before he could set his eyes on another conquest.

A few years would be more than enough to gather enough information.

"'AIGHT BOYS! Move it! We need to prepare an acceptable fortified position, ASAP! And call the clerics to deal with 'em damn undead horsies! Chop chop, get to it!" A short, but extremely bulky man said. Nay, he was no man, he was a dwarf – one of the if not the strongest dwarf under his majesty's banner, in fact – donning one of the most impressive sets of extremely heavy plate armour known to mortals, behind only the silvery plate worn by Drifa, the protector. His armour was so heavy, that any other normal mortal who tried to wear it would be instead crushed by its mere weight.

But he moved with it like if it weighted nothing at all.

He was the Commander of the Paladin's Order, Tvor the Onyx General, from the prestigious dwarven House Volund, known for their supreme craftsmanship. Like his armour or his weapon, for instance.

In all truth, any within his corps would have been able to deal with the destroyed remnants of the three Soul Eaters that laid on the long-abandoned streets, but he felt that he had done enough 'bout them already. They weren't an active threat anymore, so it wasn't his job.

His orders were: clear the undead (if any), and then build a temporary wooden fort that had to be able to hold the majority of the population o' this new town.

He had grumbled – like always – about being given a task far below his or his corps' abilities, but he had acquiesced in the end, after all, he had some good head smashing a few days back on their little skirmish with the furballs.

And he had to give it to the undead horses, they had been some fun fighting against. Some of the weaker links of his Order had a bit of a problem handling 'em, so he would have to rough 'em up until they are able to fight one alone with an arm tied on their back. Tvor is no damn pansy like Lyn who would let his troops get soft.

Seeing the priests gettin' to sanctify the grounds and to get rid of the curse of the undead, he turned towards where the fort was decided to be built.

A rather sizable river passed through the ghost town, and to the northwest was a good elevation which was covered by the river on many sides, leaving the only viable way up through the city if one didn't want to deal with the water. Not particularly effective by itself, but hey, defensive things piled up until one got the perfect fortress. A dwarf should know.

He had ordered that only the dwarves under his command were to actually build the wooden fort, as the damned butterfingered hands of the humans and elves would only make things go slower, rather than faster. Instead, the humans were to cut the trees used to build from the surroundings, while most of the elves were to patrol – because the damn pansies were too uncomfortable with the prospect of choppin' down a tree.

He shook his head. Damn good soldiers, the elves were; but too much of a green thumb to damage nature if it wasn't absolutely needed. No matter, he needed someone to patrol either way.

He inspected his surroundings while stroking his thick, brown beard, a symbol of great pride for the dwarven people.

He saw a city in nigh-perfect condition, except from where a few houses had collapsed from lack of maintenance – which spoke volumes on the crappy wood and stonework of this place's original inhabitants. Of which, mysteriously, are no bodies left.

Now, he may not be an academic, but he knew for damn sure that undead did not eat other bodies, and Soul Eaters eat, well, the souls of those who they kill, so they don't spawn more undead that way. They also don't eat, because they are undead.

He wondered what happened to the bodies. Because, even if it was 'omething that happened more than a century ago, bones always remain.

It was also a thing to wonder where in the abyss had the Soul Eaters come from in the first place, it is common knowledge that a group of low level undead spawn more undead until a higher type undead is spawned, and the cycle repeats; but there weren't any signs of other types of undead, and the Soul Eaters are fairly high levelled.

Something smelled fishy 'bout it, and by fishy he meant good old bad necromancy. Damn eggheads with god-complex can't understand that dealing with the dead is a delicate thing, that one needs to ask permission to the Goddess first to only resurrect people, let alone make these monstrosities. Instead of tryin' to understand the divine and why playing with the dead is a bad idea, they try to do it blindly.

He honestly doesn't have the slightest amount of sympathy for those nutjobs – most of 'em end up as dead as their creations, and those who don't meet their ends on the chopping block.

Passing through the streets, he couldn't help but notice that almost all doors were wide opened, suggesting that everyone left in a hurry. Understandable if they were under attack by such monsters.

Entering one of such houses, he almost choked at the amount of dust he kicked up. Then he saw the amount of spiderwebs clinging from absolute everywhere. But beyond that, there were elements of everyday living in all houses. Obviously this place had not been looted, nor had the inhabitants enough time to pack up and leave.

The buildings themselves were 'aight, he guessed. They couldn't ever possibly compare to the perfect architecture present everywhere on the Celestial City, to the smallest shack.

The houses were better than what the people coming here had been living in for the last few days (and before), so there shouldn't be much to complain from their part.

Apparently, all the lousy nobles had been eaten first by the beastmen, so all of the people they had now were normal villagers or average townspeople.

Before long, his dwarven brothers and sisters had completed the fortification, which was a very good woodwork for such a small span of time. It was plain and without any adornments, but it would do the job, so he couldn't complain.

He lamented the lack of good stone to work with in the surroundings, so wooden defences would have to do for now. They wouldn't get access to stone and metals until they started to settle close to the mountains up north, and that was long ways out still.

He heard a familiar flutter on the air approaching them, and saw that one of Lyn's boys had come for some reason. Tvor furrowed his brow; nothing should happen until the people were to move in the next day.

The Griffin Knight dismounted and made his way towards him before saluting. It was a good thing this was Sigmund, one of his old subordinates. At least Tvor could stand him, as he very obviously didn't slack off like their captain while daydreaming about 'heroic deeds'.

"Sir!" Sigmund said – surprisingly, as he was known for being rather tight on the lips.

"Yea, soldier. I trust you are doing well." The Onyx replied, testing his former subordinate.

"Yes, sir! I had not once stopped training, and since my near defeat at the hands of the beastmen, I have redoubled my efforts at becoming stronger!"

It was impressive hearing Sigmund talk too much. "Well done, soldier." Tvor said with a grin – although it could be barely seen as his mouth was heavily covered by his prized beard – before proceeding with the more official matters. "So, what's up? Is there another group of them furballs that need a good smakin'?"

The Knight shook his head. "No, sir. I was ordered to scout ahead of the group, and when I reached here I was to give a hand if you needed help with dealing with monsters…" the soldier looked around "…which you obviously don't need."

The General frowned again. "What? The group is already movin'? I thought they wouldn't make their way 'ere until tomorrow."

Sigmund attempted to shrug. "I don't know, sir. I think that they knew that you would take less than a day, and I think I heard that someone had confirmed that the coast was cleared."

Tvor planted his great halberd on the ground and crossed his arms. "Well, the place ain't as in good condition as we thought, there are several collapsed houses, and not enough to give 'em good space either way. It'll be cramped for a few days until new houses are built." He said, before he started stroking his beard again. "And the fort might be able to hold most of the population inside its walls, but that doesn't mean it will be pretty."

Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, the original city appeared to have lacked walls, or they were made out of wood and decayed long ago. So the only defensive walls currently on the city were those the dwarves had built in the top of that hill.

At the helpless body expression Sigmund did, Tvor waved his hand. "Don't worry 'bout it, son. I know it's not your fault. Go on, you're dismissed."

After the Knight left the scene, Tvor turned around to continue inspecting his surroundings, grumbling all the while.

Well, at least the wood here was of pretty good quality, all things considered.

If there was something that changed Evnie… Tessa's core being, it wasn't her life of luxury changing drastically and having to escape for her life to a simple, humble life as a housewife. It was what she had witnessed a few days prior, how the tormenters in her worst nightmares were reduced to nothing but ash.

They were no more.

She didn't know what she felt. Perhaps it was closure, for all the people she had come to know, like and love in the village. Maybe it was a macabre ecstasy at seeing the monsters being annihilated.

Maybe it was that she had found something to believe in, at last.

She hadn't been believed in the Four Gods since little. Since her kindest older brother had been unjustly murdered and her little sister had died by a vile sickness within the same week. Since she saw the state of the realm with her own eyes and realized how dark reality truly is.

The only thing that felt similar was when she brought to this world her baby boy, seeing in his face her late older brother.

Joyfulness. She had always been told that she had a too kind heart, and that it was a liability. That someone on her position should be more cold-hearted. She didn't think herself kind hearted. At least she hadn't until her child brought back her genuine smile.

Was it wrong to want people to not suffer from pointless things? Back then it appeared to be the case.

The village had been a good community, small and isolated, but accepted her nonetheless. It had been certainly a breath of fresh air. She had felt like she could be herself finally.

Then stuff out of nightmares shattered that reality.

She gulped. No, she already got over it.

At first, she wasn't sure what to think about these people. Waking up after being killed wasn't something she would have ever expected, as she knew she wasn't strong enough to withstand the normal methods of resurrection. By all means, her body should have turned to ash the moment a normal priest tried to cast such a spell upon her.

Yet it didn't.

These people claimed that they hadn't done anything, and that it was divine intervention. She hadn't believed them fully then, as the concept of the divine was a… delicate matter for her.

In contrast of any expectation she had for the ecclesiastic, the brothers and sisters of the Faith of the Goddess were a noble handful, humble to a fault. Even if they were, allegedly, from another world, she found she resonated with them much better than with many people native from her own world.

Sure, she hadn't been with them for long, but even in that short amount of time, she had seen how the Nobility of the Celestial City weren't openly corrupt, how the lower echelons of society didn't struggle with their everyday life – they used gold coins as a currency, for the Goddess' sake – and how everything didn't seem to fall apart while everyone just watched.

Then, she saw the servants of their Goddess descend from the heavens to smite the army of beastmen. She recognized angels when she saw them, from reading numerous manuscripts back in her caged life.

Their mere presence had calmed her greatly, with a feeling she couldn't quite describe. It felt like being held by the arms of her mother again like how she was when very little.

After the fact, there were so many people like her, who had been prisoners waiting to be butchered by the beastmen, liberated. She could see in their eyes, the despair and brokenness. But also a ray of hope, like what she felt herself.

Tessa joined the Faith not long after. She wanted to make a change, she wanted to believe in something benevolent that would protect the innocent in their time of need.

Her being friends with the Holy Maiden had certainly accelerated the process; but there were many others like her who were willing to join those who saved them – mostly people like her who lost most if not all those they loved.

She might have not come from the Creation of the Goddess, but that didn't mean she couldn't pray for her protection; the Lady was that magnanimous.

In short time, she would join the others into settling a town not far away from the Celestial City. A place to start again, guided by the light of the Goddess.

The place's name was already decided. Neomment, in the Old Kyrsian meaning "New Home", and apparently the name of an old and important city in their previous world.

Tessa felt that the name was perfect for the lost souls seeking the light. As a mere disciple, she couldn't do much yet – she wasn't able to cast divine magic or do any of the frankly marvellous deeds other members of the faith could – but she could attempt to help translate the Holy Manuscripts to the Draconic Kingdom's word. First she would have to learn how to read Kyrsian, yes, but she knows that not everyone would have to do so, and it would be difficult for those who could already read to adjust to another type of writings.

Plus, this way, she could spread the Word of her Lady through the world easier. Although the Draconic writing isn't as widespread as the Kingdom's or the Empire's, it is already known and there are translators of those writings already established.

That didn't mean that she couldn't help the people in the more mundane tasks when it is needed. She might have not been ever the best at hard work, but that didn't stop her for trying to help.

All for a better, peaceful future. For those around her. For her. But more importantly, for her son.

It was a clear night, the light of the moon passed through the open windows of the halls, lighting its interior in the absence of candles or torches. A soft wind whistled against the walls of the courtyard in the middle of the Ministry of Magic.

Fluder barely ever rested in his pursuit of magical knowledge, as his more than two centuries studying anything related to it could testify. He did many things while in his quest to peer into the Abyss of Magic, things that many would find reprehensible, but he didn't regret them. Not a single bit.

All the knowledge he had gathered throughout his life had been thoroughly documented and meticulously archived to make it easier to locate things he wanted to read again, in the strange case he forgot anything. It also served as a good study material for his many pupils, but that was mostly secondary.

His experiments with the undead had not been going as smoothly as he had hoped, but slightly better than what he expected.

Undead never tire, making it easier for them to do strenuous tasks constantly over a long period of time, which in turn would make things like tending the fields or construct new buildings trivial, reducing time and costs exponentially. Fluder didn't care all that much about those points though, he was happy he got an official excuse to play around with necromancy and study it in depth without some person or another pestering him whether it was a wise decision.

Maybe by studying the lower-class undead he might get to understand their nature better, and hopefully find a way to control the Death Knight he had locked on the Ministry's underground. The prospects of transforming himself into a Lich weren't discarded completely, but he didn't see much of a point as he had already reached a point of nigh-immortality without the weaknesses that come with being undead.

He felt a presence in the hallway. "Who's there?" There had been numerous enemies back in his youth that were able of invisibility magic, to which he had developed a sixth sense to detect them, even if they could escape the scrutiny of his magic-seeing eyes.

He knew he was far above already than most of the Evil Deities already, so there was very little for him to be worried about. He may have stopped in his tracks to survey his surroundings, but he never stopped stroking his beard, and his mind was still partly on the subject of the undead.

Suddenly, the image of a woman in full armour materialized in front of him, a scant few metres away. The moonlight caressed her features, displaying and enhancing her transcendent beauty together with her exotic black-colour hair and eyes. But Fluder didn't care of such trivialities, and he hadn't for a very long time now. However, he took note that this was one of the adventurers Jircniv was looking for – which was worth of consideration – but now she also proved to be versed in a particular branch of magic he was still unfamiliar with even when his eyes didn't pick up any magical talent from her, which made her even more intriguing.

He didn't even bother asking her how did she got in there, as it was pretty self-evident. Instead, he studied her form, never stopping caressing his beard. "Do you have any business with me, girl?" He did want to rip the secrets behind invisibility magic out of her, but he didn't want to come across as desperate. He might come to have a better deal if he acted cool; he had learnt that during his starting days as a magician. He who shows more interest gets the shorter end of the stick at the end.

The woman didn't move. Fluder noted that, in contrast of what was reported, she didn't have any weapon with her – supposedly, she had a halberd made out of mythril with her at all times – but instead she had a rather intriguing-looking crystal in her hand. Maybe that was the source of her magic powers?

"Greetings, Court Wizard. I bring you a message from my Lady, but first I have to ask you a question" Her tone didn't carry any sort of inflection, and her face's muscles barely even moved.

Fluder furrowed his brow. He hadn't heard anything these two adventurers were under the protection of any noble. Or it was that they were outsiders? Either way, if it didn't pertain with the Abyss of Magic, he had no concern with it. But he was growing ever more interested in the crystal gleaming with obvious magical properties, so he would hear her question for now. He nodded, motioning her to proceed with her question.

"I'll be blunt. Does the word 'Yggdrasil' mean anything to you?" Fluder saw that her grip on the crystal tightened as she asked – meaning that it was a really important topic.

Moving his head to the side, he stroked his beard even more frequently than normal as he scanned his mind in search for any mentions of such a word. "I can answer what I know, however, I don't give off information freely. I expect a compensation for it."

The woman studied his face for a moment, before nodding.

"The only mentions of that word that I've ever seen were when referring to the old city of the Eight Greed Kings, Eryuentiu. Apparently, both have the same meaning – "the tree in the centre of the world", although Yggdrasil has an obscure etymology, as it isn't derived from the old tongue or any other for that matter. It probably has the same origin as the Eight Greed Kings themselves." He said, trying to find any other reference to that word. He wanted to have any leverage to use in exchange for any new magic knowledge, but sadly nothing more came to his mind.

The warrior in front of him narrowed her eyes. "Very well, what kind of compensation did you have in mind? I doubt you are the kind to ask for gold, as in your position you probably have all you could possibly want."

Fluder waved his hand, dismissing the idea of material gain. No, he was not interested in pretty-looking things if they weren't inherently magical.

"No, I care not for such things, you are correct. But I am an academic; I study magic, in any of its forms. I see that you are in possession of magic items; one that I have no knowledge of would suffice. Or a tome about the arcane, but I don't think you would have something like that with you."

The woman – Athena, if he remembered correctly – raised her hand to her temple, in what Fluder quickly recognized as the use of [Message]. He didn't react outwardly, but as he continued to caress his beard he tried to pry into her silent conversation – something that people had learned that could be done easily, so the spell had been rendered unreliable long ago.

But he found that he couldn't. Fluder could only hear what amounted to senseless gibberish. Whoever this woman worked for, they had found a way to use [Message] safely without the dangers of third parties interfering with the connection, which piqued the old wizard's interest even more.

"Very well, that can be arranged. However, we are not fully aware of the extent of your knowledge to know what to give you." She said, but she didn't leave much space for him to reply before she started talking again. "However, my Lady thinks that you might be more interested on a job offer she has. That way, you could have access to study all the tomes about magic you could ever want to."

Fluder couldn't help but to inhale deeply at the proposition. However, it was too good to be true, he hadn't seen or heard about any other collection dedicated to magic grander than his own. "As… interesting as your Lady's proposition is, you have shown me no proof of you having anything worthy enough for me to turncoat from the Empire. What I have here are decades upon decades upon decades of research and stored knowledge, and as far as I can see, you only have the ability to use the Fourth Tier spell [Invisibility], the First Tier [Message]… " he made sure to let her know that he knew what she had just done, but she showed no reaction. He didn't let her know that he couldn't understand a thing, though. "…and that you have that magical-gleaming crystal. Nothing out of the realms of my possibilities, in comparison I can almost peer into the realm of the Magic of the Gods."

"And which is then, the extent of your capability?" She asked, a very slight tinge of interest could be recognized. Or he thought she had.

Answering truthfully wouldn't hurt him in any way. There was virtually no human who could pose a threat to him, beyond a group of very limited individuals. He was not even afraid to face Gazef Stronoff or the Four Imperial Knights, by their own or all together, they didn't pose a threat to him.

Only the thirteen heroes could meet him in equal terms, a group from very few still remain. His rival Rigrit Bers Carau might still be stronger than him, but Fluder didn't have a magic item of unimaginable power from Eryuentiu like she did.

If this woman in front of him was a possible gate to new discoveries to gain more knowledge, he would take his chances.

"Why, the very limits of mortal understanding on Magic! The Mastery of the Sixth Tier is a feat very few throughout history had been able to proudly proclaim like I do!"

He didn't think that he would be able to learn anything ground breaking by itself, but under the years he had learnt that power does not come alone and especially not easily. It was still worth a shot to gather all he could get his hands on, though.

The woman frowned, as if she didn't believe what she heard. It was understandable, for the majority of the populace, the Fourth Tier was something of fairytales – nevermind anything higher. It was such a pity, though, if she was that surprised with his Sixth Tier, then she would not be of muc-

"Only Sixth Tier?" Her voice carried the first distinct emotion that could be recognized, and it was of confusion. Then it turned… disappointed, of all things. "I knew my Lady was being paranoid."

Fluder's mind grew to a halt.

What.

It has been the first time his ability in magic was catalogued as anything less than impressive, much less just dismissed like that. A pit grew in his stomach, but at the same time, excitement started to grow at the same rate.

He still was a professional, so he had to be cynical to such claims. But before he could ask any more, the Warrior retired one of her gauntlets, leaving in plain sight her ringed fingers – rings that if they weren't magic items, he would eat his staff – and proceeded to withdraw one of said pieces of jewellery.

Then, Fluder could finally see her magical aura. His words died on his throat. He could not breathe, as he couldn't blink, heck, he couldn't even hear anymore. That level of astonishment he was under.

With his magic-seeing vision, he counted. One. Two. Three.

Eight.

This woman in front of him was able to cast Eighth Tier magics.

Fluder could not contain his excitement. Tears flowed freely from his eyes as he kneeled in front of this… Divine being that was in front of him.

Finally! Finally he found – more that it found him instead – a way to peer further into the Abyss of Magic, at long last!

"I know it is disrespectful, but allow me to kneel here!" he started begging. He no longer cared to appear as if he had the upper hand, because he quite frankly didn't have it. And dignity as a measly mortal being as him would matter little to a divine being such as her, either way. "Please enlighten me with your knowledge! I beg of you, please! All I ever want is to peer into the Abyss of Magic! I offer you any and everything I have in exchange!"

Looking up, who he saw was no longer the black-haired woman clad in mythril armour, but someone similar – although with silver hair and eyes – wearing a set of shiny silvery armour while holding an exquisitely decorated set of a spear and a shield. Both magic items felt so powerful that Fluder instantly knew they would be able to shatter entire mountains with little effort.

His heart beat so fast that if not for his magically acquired resistance to most normal physical damage, he would have been in a serious problem.

"Pray not to me, man." The Goddess in front of him stated. "For I am no subject of worship."

His head shot up, completely disbelieving. What? How? How could such a being not be worshipped? Wasn't she the Deity who presides over Magic?

Before any such thought was spoken, a black void hole in space appeared further behind the divine being.

From it, another woman walked… flew forth. Her wings were obvious evidence of her supernatural origins. Donning clothes that emanated power, to the last fabric. Power that no mortal had thought could even exist.

And with the use of his Talent, Fluder could see that her magic power surpassed even the goddess in armour.

Was this Athena's – or whatever might be her real name – Lady?

Fluder didn't know, he couldn't even think straight in her presence.

White and gold, pureness incarnate approached him, floating in the air using her majestic wings. Her aura of magic power almost drowned him, but he was too devout in his pursuit to peer into the abyss of magic to fall unconscious.

"Please, have everything. All I want is knowledge…" he repeated again, now with less strength to his voice.

"Everything? Would you give me your absolute loyalty, in return to be able to accomplish your dream?" Her soft, melodic voice that at the same time was imposing to an unbelievable degree reached his ears, each word a glorious work of music. Her words promised everything he ever wanted.

"Everything! Yes, I offer everything to your exalted being, oh Master of Magic!"

The Goddess in front of him serenely smiled upon him, which seemed to magically calm his nerves. Truly, a most mighty being literally smiled upon him. He could almost see his bright future already.

"It is glorious"

In short few weeks, the Silent City was no more, and on its place, the flourishing town of Neomment was thriving with ever expanding infrastructure projects: road restorations, new houses to better accommodate its new residents, various buildings for administrative, religious and official purposes, an impressive looking wooden wall surrounding the living quarters, and a very complex irrigation system for the fields no new worlder had ever seen, at least on this century.

Dwarven master architects, with the motivation of a certain elven Noble House well known for their mercantile mindset, quickly moved into the newly settled city and started making wonders of engineering together with their apprentices, in just a fraction of the time a normal human group would. They, however good work they did with the available wood, still lamented that they could not build more 'sturdy' buildings made out of stone.

The city's direct administration was given to the financially-oriented House Eileifr, although many other Noble Houses decided to have their own manors built in the city while the land was still comparatively cheap. A long-term inversion, one might say.

The Faith had also moved in with a few important figures, but more surprisingly for everyone, a good amount of acolytes recently initiated from the native population.

There had been many that had seen the goodness of the Goddess and turned to her for guidance, true, but they weren't actually the majority. Many still followed their old religion, and were left alone about it, but there were no priests of the Four Gods amongst the survivors so the worship of the Four Gods turned form a collective event to a more individual one.

Most, however, lost any faith they might've once had after what happened to them. Some of them slowly turned to the Faith of the Goddess seeking comfort, but the majority of them decided to immerse themselves in the everyday work till exhaustion, in an effort to forget and put the nightmares to rest.

There were many differences between being under the rule of the now-named Celestial Kingdom and under the Draconic Kingdom. For example, even the poorest beggars in the Celestial Kingdom would be a filthy rich man in any other human nation as the only coinage was gold. Second was, the tax collectors – at least for the time being – weren't trying to extort them of everything they had.

Depending on where one came from, some townsfolk even found surprising that the Governor or people from his retinue didn't try to have their way with the commoners.

People who were from villages found it strange that the crops they planted were always ready to harvest within a single week – as normally months upon months of careful tending to the fields was needed for them to grow into that stage. Both the officials and the people of the Faith claimed that the plants were granted on them by the Goddess herself.

The day before harvest there was always a gathering in the newly built chapel of the Faith, and in the day after harvest a small portion of the produce was offered in the altar within, praying for the continued divine protection of the Goddess.

Prospects said that within a month, the city would be almost completely self-sufficient, with the exceptions of all metalwork as there was no metal to turn into tools in the surroundings of the city. There is evidence that there was once a small amount of iron nearby, but it was long since depleted, probably by the original inhabitants of the city.

Coexisting with elves and dwarves was a novel experience for many, but they weren't as different as the new worlders had expected them to be, and considering they were saved by these people, well, they weren't too picky anyways.

Pretty much anything is better than being herded as cattle, anyways.

In the following days, more people from the Draconic Kingdom came into town, looking and hoping to find friends and loved ones amongst city's population. Many heartfelt re-encounters and heart-breaking disclosures alike were experienced by the visitors and the citizens.

Even if with the few coins they made all of the people in the city would be well off by months on end on the outside, the great majority decided to keep living in the reconstructing city.

They never had felt so safe in their lives. Being witnesses of what the guards could do, they felt like no harm would ever befall them again if they followed the King's law, so many did so gladly.

The ones visiting the city, especially those who had nothing left back in the Draconic Kingdom as they went broke and had to sell all their property or lost their homes during the beastmen invasion, also decided to move in – which over the following weeks caused even more people fleeing extreme poverty and starvation.

The city had barely enough space for the original intended population, and that was after many new housing blocks were built. With the extra influx of people, the King decided that instead of continue to increase the size of the city – as doing so would render the prepared defences pointless as buildings would need to be built outside of them – the people would instead move into the nearby countryside, mostly on the riverside of the Sharrukin river, creating new villages and small townships.

The migrating had stopped considerably after the Hero King and the Dragon Queen had numerous meetings, in where different agreements were made and further clarified, including trade contracts of foodstuffs and the temporary hiring of engineers and architects from the Celestial Kingdom to the Draconic Kingdom, in exchange the Draconic Kingdom was to be a tributary under the Hero King for the next thirty years, with room for more negotiations.

The more mercantile oriented individuals in the Celestial Kingdom took opportunities to reach to good private deals with the other side, and started to set their sights beyond the Dragon Queen's domain. Similarly, the most devout followers of the Goddess made it their duty to disseminate their faith amongst the native population, something that at first was mostly ignored, but quickly gained popularity from the populace for their charitable acts of free-healing, and loathing from the upper echelons of the church of the Four Gods for the same reason, who tried to shut down with legal actions the operations of the followers of the Goddess as their acts negatively affected the Church's coffers.

But unluckily for them, the Faith of the Goddess was not to be prosecuted – legally – due to the agreements between the Dragon Queen and the Hero King.

So, things escalated on the unlawful side. The priests of the Faith couldn't be harmed directly, as attempts to do so had proven to be fruitless because their guards were much too strong, but that didn't mean hired thugs couldn't go after converts and even people who were only curious. Priests of the Four Gods denied any allegations of them being responsible, even going as far as publicly state that such actions were reprehensible, just after paying the thugs who did such deeds.

Other people from the Celestial City had gone to visit the Draconic Kingdom, stirring numerous interesting rumours, both true and false in equal amounts, about the newfound nation – which, as normal, such rumours travelled throughout the Adventurers Guild ever present gossip road, first into the Empire, and then to the Kingdom.

There weren't many news of this kind shared with the general populace of the Theocracy as adventurers didn't go there – no work – and the government covered the whole thing for the time being.

And was through this gossip mill that a certain rising star duo within the E-Rantel Guild heard about things very familiar to them, especially so the one clothed in pitch black full-body plate.

"Familiars! Kill everything within that forest!" A beautiful girl in rags ordered, almost desperately. The shadowy immediately snapped out of sight, following her orders. Her Vampire Brides and the newly-created Lesser Vampires followed soon after.

She had been tasked by her beautiful master to collect [Martial Arts] users, and more importantly, to not let knowledge of Nazarick's or its inhabitants existence while doing so. But one rat escaped because she got too cocky and consumed by her [Blood Frenzy]. What should she do? He even knew her name because she hadn't thought it would matter any way, and now there were more people that saw her, Adventurers who were about the cave she had just attacked.

She didn't think much about them until she saw that one of the women within the group was carrying a [Potion of Minor Healing] of YGGDRASIL origin, the kind that there were supposedly only in Nazarick. Were this group of adventurers part of her Lord's plan, and she just ruined it with her careless actions? She didn't kill the woman for the time being, but left her under the charming effect of her [Mystic Eyes] skill.

There were more from the team this woman was part of in the forest, and if they were to interact with the escaped rat, her existence could be exposed.

Things could not have possibly gone any worse.

Then, as she was worrying about such things, she felt the connection with her nightly creatures sever – something had killed all of them, including her Vampire Brides, which should have been impossible for any normal run-of-the-mill meatbag that lived on this world.

"Agh! I have to do everything myself!" She shouted anxiously, before turning to the charmed adventurer. "You! Stay there and don't move!" she ordered her in a hurry before leaping off into where she had felt her familiars were vanquished.

Even though she could not move as fast through the forest, she could already smell that the ones that had killed her minions were all human, so no matter if they were mounted or not, she could still shorten the distance before they could get away.

When she got close enough, she could perceive there were ten people in the party that defeated the servants.

In contrast with pretty much all the normal humans she had seen in this world, their gear was not of simplistic design, but highly decorated and she thought that their gear might be enchanted, but she couldn't be sure as it wasn't her expertise. Nothing compared to anything even remotely worthy of Nazarick and the Supreme Beings, but certainly more powerful than anything else she had encountered until then.

Worry started to seep into Shalltear's mind. She had absolutely no idea where these people were from or their abilities, as she only knew that they were strong enough to withstand and overcome an attack of fairly strong creatures according to this world without suffering any notable injury.

If she were to compare these people, normal fleshbags were mice while they were lions. Or more appropriately, normal humans were amoebas and these ten were mosquitoes, compared with the greatness of Nazarick and the Supreme Beings.

Inspecting the ten men and women that were part of the group, her eyes rested on one of them in particular, a male by the looks of it, although Shalltear wasn't completely sure as his features were quite androgynous and she only pegged him as a male for his armour.

Looking at him better, she couldn't shake the feeling that he was stronger than what she had originally thought. Her gut feeling told her that he was actually stronger than all of the Pleiades, which was concerning. Very concerning.

He also had better senses than the rest of the lot, as he quickly knew that there was something more besides the cannon fodder they had just slew.

He pointedly looked at the part of the forest Shalltear was currently, although he appeared to be unsure where specifically as his eyes scanned the same region again and again.

"Formation!" The almost-confirmed male – because even his voice was androgynous – ordered the other nine, and they formed in such a way that there was no blind spot.

Tch. Whatever, Shalltear had to beat them to prey information out of them, even if she had to go all out from the get go.

In a moment, she changed into her battle suit, complete with her divine-class item, ready to get serious for the first time outside of Nazarick.

As she approached, she was identified as a vampire immediately, and attacked with spells and arrows on the spot. None that could have even the littlest chance of inflicting damage.

This confirmed the truth her gut feeling said, the rest weren't anything to bat an eye about.

Her strikes with her Spuit Lance only cemented that truth even further. In a single thrust, any protection was rendered useless. Shields either gave out from the stress, or the arms behind them broke and became useless.

A strike on the plexus killed instantly one of the casters. Even one of their front-liners fell in a single hit to his helmet.

They rained upon her all kinds of spells and even [Martial Arts], but the only ones she felt had even slight chances to injury her were from the apparent leader.

"Gah! If only we had lady Kaire with us!" one of them had yowled after he was hit by her weapon.

It was hard for her to maintain her seriousness in the fight as however skilled they were, it was still pathetic to her. But she forced herself to not let her guard down; she had just let someone escape and she wouldn't commit the same mistake twice.

They never stood a chance against her. She never gave them one.

The androgynous one was the last to fall, body filled with injuries and utterly exhausted. He could barely lift his head from the ground while he spoke.

"Y-you… wicked m-monster. Y-ou might have… cough! Defeated us… but in the end! Humanity will prevail!" He continued to cough plenty of mouthfuls of blood afterwards, but his eyes never left her form, still defiantly looking at her.

Shalltear scoffed at him, as if the barking of a beaten dog could do anything to her. She still left him live, as Ainz-sama said, capture anyone who might have any useful information. And these people had plenty of juicy intel ready to be squished out of, she just needed to keep them from escaping until they could be transported to Nazarick.

She called another set of shadowy familiars and ordered them to finish the job. No one would leave that forest alive or free, she would make sure of it.

Holding her hand to the side of her face, she contacted Albedo through [Message], but her eyes were trained on the beaten forms of the warriors.

No one will escape. And if someone does, she hopes Ainz-sama would forgive her mistake.

The anti-scrying spell instantly reacted when she got to pass the information to the Overseer.

Damn it! She had been observed all the while!

"We have lost half the Black Scripture." Informed Raymond to the other Cardinals. His tone had been calmer than one might have expected when relaying such news, so his peers had to take a moment until what he had said finally dawned on them.

"What?" Complete astonishment, incredulity. Not even a shout.

"The Thousand Mile Astrologer had been overseeing the Captain and the rest of his team, when they were assaulted by a group of shadowy monsters and low-level vampires. They defeated the creatures easily, but not long after another vampire attacked them." Raymond breathed out all air he had in his lungs as he closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, the rest could see the seriousness and terror in them, a combination really strange to see in the ex-member of the Black Scripture.

"This vampire wiped the floor with them. She was not even trying, by what the eleventh seat told me."

Restlessness. A monster of such magnitude… could it possibly be? Is this vampire the legendary Landfall, coming after humanity once more, after she was defeated by the Thirteen Heroes? Or was she one of the Evil Deities?

"What is even more concerning…" continued the Cardinal of Earth. "…is that just after this vampire defeated the Captain and the rest, the Astrologer reported that her vision was blocked not dissimilarly to what had happened with the Sunlight Scripture. She could have been the one responsible for their disappearance."

"What are we waiting for, then!? Send in a rescue party immediately, we cannot lose the God-kin!"

"And E-Rantel is still in perfect condition, even if there is an absurdly strong monster roaming just at its doors? Are we certain that the city has not fallen to the vampire?"

"I don't know if I should feel relief that we pulled out lady Kaire from the mission, or regret that we did. Maybe if she was there, then we could have overcome such a freakish being."

"I wonder… if this vampire is more subject of concern than this new Celestial Kingdom. I don't think that such a nation has vampires – at least not willingly – within its population. If this monster is the one guilty for the disappearance of the Sunlight Scripture, and Nigun had on his hands the power to summon Dominion Authority… wouldn't she more dangerous?"

"No, remember that Gazef was very vocal about his gratitude towards this Ainz Ooal Gown for saving him and the village, and that this person was male and more importantly, an outrageously strong magic caster, not someone on red plate armour and brandishing an unproportionately enormous lance."

"Yes, we had concluded that if an unknown magic caster of such ability existed, they'll likely come from the Celestial Kingdom, didn't we? From what the Clearwater Scripture had reported, they certainly have people of such ability."

"I am unsure about it. We haven't heard of anyone with his description again, but he could as well have disguised himself. It's hard to tell."

"So, are the Celestial Kingdom, Ainz Ooal Gown, and the Vampire related in any way?"

Uncertainty.

"Jir… I have gotten more information about the new southeners." The Court Wizard of the Empire said. "I know not much about their politics, but I heard some interesting tales about their magic prowess." His eyes shone so brightly that Jircniv swore he would become blind by looking at them.

"What happened with your interest with that magic caster, Old Man? What was his name? Gown?" The Emperor questioned Fluder while resting his head on his knuckles. He already knew in which direction this conversation was going.

"Ohohoh, indeed that character is very intriguing; but I have very little information about him, where he is from or his abilities. All I know is that he had been seen close to E-Rantel and that he may be from somewhere in the Great Forest of Tob or the Azerlisia Mountains, which is a pretty wide scope to look for a magic caster that surely knows how to hide himself. In contrast, the Hero King's Capital is a city, and from reports, there are already roads made from the Celestial Kingdom to the Draconic Kingdom. Cities don't move, and most importantly, don't hide." Fluder said with gleeful tone, similar to the one he used when anything magical was in the conversation, but this time turned up to eleven. All the while, he stroked his long beard and a few joyful chuckles escaped him.

Jircniv knew it was already a lost cause.

"Haah… very well, Old Man. You may go." He started, but quickly made to add conditions before he old wizard could trail away in a hurry to his next magical learning trip. "However! I need information about them, and given your position, you will be perfect for a dignitary. You don't need to do much, no trade deals or any other delicate matters, just basic pleasantries. Also, don't forget to go with some of your pupils; they might as well learn something there." Because if he went alone and found something interesting, Fluder might not come back until Jircniv stepped out of the throne if no one was there to remind the old wizard he had to return sometime. The Emperor grew up in his guidance, after all, so he knows the legendary magic caster's quirks very well.

Fluder didn't look back at him as he started walking off, but he still waved with his hand to let Jircniv that he heard. "Yes, yes, Your Majesty. I will make sure of it."

The Bloody Emperor frowned slightly at Fluder's reaction, having expected a small if tiresome discussion with the old wizard about how giving him such a task would consume too much of his time and interfere with his search for anything related to magic.

Yet the old man didn't. Was it really something that intriguing, that Fluder would accept his first orders without even trying to negotiate?

"Your Majesty? Something the matter?"

Apparently he had spaced out for way too much time. He moved his hand at Baziwood to wave away the concern. "No, it's nothing important."

On the purest room known to the world, a woman rested on an ornate sofa, the sight of her mesmerizing for any who rested their eyes on her form. There were very few words that could describe her, but breathtaking or gorgeous were good approximations. Her facial features were perfectly symmetrical and defined; her crystal-blue eyes were complimented with the undulant cascade of her golden hair. Her body sported curves in all the right places, neither too little nor too much, everything in perfect balance.

Clothed in fine clothes of the most pristine white with golden embroidery, made from a fabric so soft it was unequivocally unearthly in origin. Her hands donned rings on each finger, each a golden piece of masterwork art with gleaming sapphires and other blue-coloured precious gems further embellishing said jewellery. Her arms were partly covered by an assortment of bracelets of differing thickness, but all were similarly decorated as the rings on her hands, as were her legs and ankles.

The white walls adorned with silver carvings reflected the faint light that entered the room through half-covered windows and that came from the chandeliers enchanted with [Continuous Light], further enhancing her already ethereal beauty.

She was Sera, the Goddess of the Realm, the Creator of the Celestial City and its inhabitants. To many, a mother figure in a spiritual level. Even to her heavenly servants.

"I wish our Lady would take into consideration how we feel before doing anything rash again." Absentmindedly said Drifa, the Protector of the Realm, as she furtively observed the person in question from the entrance of the room. "I don't understand why would she step into the mortal plane so casually, I don't understand what she looks for. Are we, her creations, not enough? Putting herself in danger like that… if something were to happen to her!"

"I think you are worrying too much, Drifa." A smooth, baritone voice said from her back. "Remember that back in the Divine Worlds of Yggdrasil, our Lady would regularly set foot outside to make sure her creations were safe, battling the Outer Gods, Dragons, and other monstrosities alike." It was Daith who spoke, not looking directly at the Valkyrie as his current task was to survey the Celestial Kingdom's lands in the New World with the use of the [Mirror of Remote Viewing]. "I mean, you should remember. You were there with her most of the time, as was I."

"Was our Lady always like that?" a third voice asked, the newest addition of the heavenly Creations of the Goddess. Valkea was in many ways like an infant, just learning the ways of the world even though she was created with knowledge imparted by their mother. She also endeared Drifa with her 'lesser class' of Dominion in comparison with Drifa's Seraphim – or simply Seraph – making the silver-haired angel wanting to help the white-haired one to advance into higher classifications, although Drifa herself didn't really remember how she did so back then. Sometime between fighting endless Outer Gods and Dragons, without her noticing, she had advanced all the way to the top, to a place just short of her own mother's.

"Yes, you could say so. Our Lady's every creation was made out of her words, so it is understandable that she gives great importance to written texts. If you are speaking whether our Lady had always journeyed beyond her Creation, then the answer is also yes."

Said Goddess was currently too focused on what she was doing to pay them any attention. Ever since she had 'struck a deal', so to speak, with the Empire's Court Wizard, she had dedicated most of her time to read each and every one of the books Fluder had, especially historical records, but also magical research.

While the research was mostly too much underneath her, as the great majority of it was about spells from up to the Fourth Tier when coming with successful variations or brand new spells – something she didn't see much point of, as her common sense dictated that spells of the Eighth Tier were basically misdirection that weren't all that useful otherwise – but the procedure of how the researchers – generally Fluder – obtained such spells was an useful insight.

Historical records, however, interested Sera more for other reasons. The best fantasy has an inkling of reality dropped into it, as in many times reality was stranger than fiction. So, what better fountain of inspiration than the very history of a fantastical world?

Getting thorough knowledge about successes that happened up to six hundred years ago, together with inconsistencies that came from such a long period of time – whether from biased historians, to misunderstandings and the loss of knowledge from a devastation – filled her in with the character of the world.

She might once have thought that it felt slightly generic, this world, but now that she read more about historic events, the picture started to form. Sort of. There were many unknowns for this world, from its population of different races, to a strange change in paradigm it appeared to have happened when the 'Six Great Gods' descended and jumpstarted humanity, which until then was more or less a dying race.

Were then the 'Six Gods' the first players? Or were they completely unrelated to YGGDRASIL? What then about the Eight Greed Kings, the Evil Deities, or the Thirteen Heroes?

Of all of them, the ones who stank more of YGGDRASIL players were the Eight Greed Kings, in Sera's opinion. Specifically a group of players dedicated to griefing, like so many that had plagued the game since day one.

If they found themselves in a situation like Sera, where everyone else seemed to be so spectacularly underwhelming, like the megalomaniacs the lot of those kinds of players were, she could see them pulling a stupid stunt like that. The fact that their old base was called after YGGDRASIL was also a great telling.

What was intriguing was that, from what she could gather from the books, the reign of these Greed Kings was actually very beneficial to humanity, like the Six Gods were before, but for some reason they were hated instead.

It could be in part for them killing the last 'God' in the Earth, the Theocracy's Surshanna, while on their conquest. There is very little of how day-to-day life was under the rule of the Eight Greed Kings, and so the only things known about them were their quick ascension to power and that their decline was brought by themselves.

It truly entered into the definition of that kind of player in Sera's mind.

Finishing a book, storing it away in the inventory while withdrawing another to read, and repeat. She also withdrew blank tomes from the black void to imprint in their pages what amounted to fanfiction on what could have happened hundreds of years back, especially about the great enigmas not touched by the annals, but in most cases, she didn't even notice that she did so, until searching her inventory again and encountering newly written books.

The more she thought about it, her arrival together with Almha could stir the new worlders the wrong way if she was careless.

The actions of her citizens could be paralleled with some of the Eight Greed Kings, for instance. By virtue of setting, the Celestial City favoured humanoid races, and she even almost completely razed various beastmen tribes into oblivion, like how the Greed Kings hunted down many demi-human and heteromorphic races.

It was also something that had been slowly eating at her subconscious, how she just reduced most of them to ash so easily. Even if her reasoning told her that leaving them alive would be bad for her own children – to which her subconscious agreed – so dealing with the threat was the most obvious choice – to which her subconscious disagreed with her actions.

Was that the so called moral-compass so many people talked about? Or was that only the karma system from the game playing with her mind?

Between reading one book and another, Sera thought for a way to balance both her urge to extend a hand in help for the remaining beastman and her writer that demanded to let things happen, as it would be more natural.

She frowned. Did that sound like something a person with god-complex would say? Hmm. Interesting.

Getting up from her comfortable sofa, she made way towards the other three. They stood at attention, even after she had said to treat her more familiarly, and respectfully saluted.

"My Lady, if I may ask, where are you going?" As it was, Drifa was very worried that Sera might decide to leave without warning like before, and she didn't understand Daith's nonchalant attitude towards this.

"I'm going to further test my magical abilities." She replied while withdrawing from her inventory [Herald's Reverence]. "You three are welcome to come with me, but I'm not going to do much beyond staying close to the Treasury trying to see how different magic acts compared with how it did back on YGGDRASIL."

For example, she automatically assumed that with her Magic Archer job-class, its penalties stayed the same in the New World, though without UI to compare when casting a spell with or without the spellbow she couldn't be sure if it really was the case.

Adding up that she hadn't used any mana-taxing spell yet, it was even more difficult to measure the mana drain. With those three [Dominion Authority] angels she had summoned via normal methods, she had felt that a little part of something was consumed, but it replenished before the battle was over. She supposed it was her own mana, and the 'feeling' of it replaced the solid numbers one could see on the UI.

She also wanted to test Fluder's method of learning and creating new spells, which was frankly very esoteric. Most of his research was in thinking about magic very differently from what was in the game, for obvious reasons, and getting her head around it might take her a while.

There was also the thing with summoning/creating angelic beings with the use of conventional summoning spells. She might have not been a dedicated summoner, so many classes of summons weren't available for her from the game, but what if she could learn to summon, say, a Gatekeeper? And why stop at angelic beings only? She knew she could do things outside of the scope of what was permitted in the game, so why not try to learn how to summon other types of beings as well?

There was still the thing that she didn't feel she gained any experience points by killing thousands upon thousands of beastmen, but the New World worked very differently in many aspects compared with YGGDRASIL.

For example, what if killing things didn't give one experience by itself, but what it did was using a skill or a weapon repeatedly? She knew of a game in his childhood that didn't have 'levels', but characters could get better at things after doing those things over a long period of time.

Given that she had killed only using her spellbow – and summons, if one counted them – which was a skill she had 'maxed out', then it would make sense that she hadn't learned anything new, because she hadn't tried anything new.

Did that mean that she had no longer weapon-restrictions?

She reached the 'testing fields' without even noticing, having documented all her wild thoughts in a particularly thick record she had been using ever since she got transported to the New World.

Putting the book in her inventory again, she considered where to start.

If it was true that to earn a 'level up' she had to learn new things, then repeating things she already knew might not be the most efficient way. Earning warrior classes for other weapons, she would need to learn from zero and it might also not be very efficient at the moment.

She wasn't a dedicated summoner, nor a dedicated sword-warrior, but she could do both. Maybe trying to start from there might be the best choice.

She turned towards the two angels that had followed her – the Overlord had stayed back surveying the realm – and narrowed her eyes at the other Seraphim. She had to try something first.

"Drifa, pass me your weapon for a moment." She requested, wondering ifs. In the game she wouldn't be able to even equip the spear, and she wanted to really find out if she could now.

The Valkyrie withdrew from her own inventory the golden spear, enchanted with high-levelled Divine magic, bathing its immediate surroundings with a holy yellowish-white light, reminiscent of the sword the Hero King carried, albeit with the blade slightly shorter in the 'spear'. Really, because [Solljus] was actually more of a swordstaff than a spear, but such weapon class didn't exist on YGGDRASIL and it was a straight double-edge blade on a stick, so it counted as a spear.

Sera got hold of the weapon, and was half-surprised she could. Its weight was pretty much nothing on her hands, even though she knew it weighted quite a lot if it went by YGGDRASIL weighting system. She inspected it carefully, moving it around tentatively.

She got into a position to make a thrust. Nothing happened.

She tried to follow through the attack, but suddenly the weapon jumped from her hold violently, slamming itself on the ground blade-first.

Sera looked at her hands in bewilderment, opening and closing them as she tried to make sense of what had happened. "It looks like I'm still limited by my classes…" but the question was, would it happen with any weapon, no matter what, or was it because [Solljus] came from YGGDRASIL as well, so it had its own limitations?

She pondered further into such possibilities. Would a weapon smithed in the New World have the same restrictions? She couldn't test such theory in that moment. Furthermore, would the people indigenous to this world be affected by the same limitations? Could they use [Martial Arts] while handling a weapon from the game?

Drifa grabbed her weapon from where it landed, unsheathing its blade from the ground, and presented it to Sera again. But the Goddess waved her hand in the negative, as she doubted the result would be any different.

Leaving the matter of weapons for later, she focused her mind on magic for the moment, specifically summoning and her racial classes that let her do it.

On one hand, she might be able to 'level up' her ability on the art if she spammed it nonstop. In the other hand, it might be that trying to summon less in quantity but of higher level angels would do the trick.

Whether using the racial skill to summon instead of magic would affect the outcome was unknown. Using the racial skill let her summon higher-tier angels – even a Seraph Empyrean, even if she had to pay levels too – but with her magic she could only go as high as to summon Dominion Authority.

Would summoning mercenary NPCs with gold count as to the hypothetical 'summoning skill'? She was still unsure whether the mercs would even listen to her, or if she could influence them the same she could as with Valkea. She had plenty of summoning scrolls collected, not that she had used many.

It could also be that no matter what she did, her abilities would be stuck as they were.

But there was only a single way of finding out.

First, she was going to try if she could recreate what she did with Valkea. Who knows, it might have been a one-time thing that might not work again.

Pulling from the void a character sheet she had crafted over the last few days, left it on the floor, and used her racial skill.

From where the book was resting, a new figure emerged the same as had happened last time. A male Dominion angel, handsome face if unhealthily pale skin, with a mane of pitch black hair that reached the small of his back, and eyes that seemed to be the gate to the abyss, rose from where her spell was cast.

Like last time, he was also lacking in clothes, but she was also prepared and threw over him a white toga to wear for the time being.

He also appeared to be noticeably less confused than what Valkea had been when 'created', and much calmer besides. He only had to blink twice before he knelt and swore absolute loyalty to Sera, his tenor voice perfectly serene, indicating sincere acceptance to his place under her authority.

She had tried to further customize his appearance and build with him that what she tried with Valkea, and apparently it had at least partially worked, as he sported magnificent wings the colour of the darkest night, something that didn't come from the default angel-classes and was more like some demon-classes had back in the game.

"Tell me, child. Do you know the name I bestowed upon you?" This was going to become standard testing at this rate.

He raised his head slightly, as to being able to barely see her face. "Yes, my Lady. I am Dyster, a lowly Dominion created by your magnanimous self."

"And are you aware of your own capabilities?"

"Yes, My Lady. I was meant to know and control the powers of the arcane."

"And do you?"

He blinked again. Lifting his left hand, he let his palm upwards, and a moment later, a small flame sprung from it.

Sera smiled widely. There was more testing to do, but results so far seemed… interesting, to say the least.

The sounds of footsteps and of a solid object regularly striking the floor were heard throughout the room. The room, or more like an enormous hall that would any monarch twist in envy at the sight of it, was exquisitely decorated at every nook one could possibly see, no place was left unornamented, but on good taste. Rows of pillars from which ornate flags hung, each carrying a different crest, supported a ceiling so high that one could not possibly see it.

Elegant chandeliers floated high, illuminating the surroundings with the magical light that came from their [Continuous Light] enchantment, while below, a royal red carpet of superb quality covered the walkway that went from the enormous double-doors that opened to this room to the majestic throne cut from a single crystal in the other side of the room.

"Ainz-sama, it's good to have you back with us in Nazarick." A handsome man donning an impeccable red british suit and tie, with nicely combed hair and glasses said to the Lord of the place.

The skeletal being stopped on his tracks, moving his head to the side to address the demon who had just spoken. "Hm… It's good to be back at home." He replied, before moving his entire body to face the Arch-Devil. "Tell me, Demiurge. What is that I've been notified about, what did Shalltear find during her mission?"

Demiurge smiled knowingly, but replied nonetheless. "While on her search for worthy Martial Arts users, Shalltear encountered yet another group coming from the Slane Theocracy, like you did previously, My Lord." Truly, the genius of the Supreme Being had predicted when the Theocracy would make a move to find out what had happened with their Sunlight Scripture, and not only that, but where would they likely send them through, and gave Sebas and Solution a route that matched where Shalltear would find these humans.

He wasn't completely sure Ainz-sama knew that the Theocracy would send their strongest unit to investigate, but knowing the extreme insight the Overlord exhibited the few times he had allowed the Arch-Devil to witness, Demiurge was confident that Ainz-sama at the very least had suspicions of such a thing.

"Really? And what are they called, were they part of the Sunlight Scripture, or other similar group?"

"They are what is called the 'Black Scripture', from what we could gather from their softest members, they are an elite group within the Theocracy, even stronger than the Sunlight Scripture you had encountered yourself, Ainz-sama. And they are a very secretive fellows, their existence is known to very few individuals in the Theocracy, even less outside of it… and they have knowledge of very interesting state secrets from their country. Sadly, they have a tougher shell than anyone we had encountered until now, but they'll cave in sooner or later. As we speak, they are under the tender care of Neuronist."

The Overlord did not move for a second, before nodding in indication that he had received the report fully. Demiurge was worried for a second that he had failed somehow, that he may had missed some important detail, but apparently his work was considered acceptable. He would strive to be even better, to meet the expectations of the Supreme Being.

"Also, Shalltear is waiting for you. She said she had to report something directly to you, my Lord."

Ainz moved his head minutely to the side, in a motion Demiurge couldn't decipher. "Very well, Demiurge. Let her know that I will be waiting for her report in my office."

The Arch-Devil humbly bowed at the Overlord and left to continue with his tasks.

"I'm sorry, Ainz-sama. I've failed you! Punish me however you see fit!"

To be perfectly honest, Ainz hadn't expected that when Shalltear would enter his office for that report, she would say such thing to start the conversation.

He was at a complete loss on what was happening. Didn't she perform extraordinarily well in her mission? Why was she saying that she failed, and requested punishment for it?

Moving one hand to appease the vampire, Ainz then started talking sedately. "Calm down, Shalltear. Start from the beginning. Tell me, what is the reason why I should punish you?"

That seemed to work, if even slightly. At least Shalltear was no longer prostrating at the entrance of his office. Not that she got to her feet completely, but at least it was something.

The Vampire visibly gulped, but she had a resigned look on her face. "I… I let a human know my name, and what's more! I let him escape! I failed your order to not let people know about us, and ruined your plans!" she said with a pitiful expression.

Ainz considered what she said for a moment, humming. "Was this human part of the Scripture you captured?" because if he was, then it could potentially be a problem.

His question seemed to cause her to forcefully – if not painfully – smile. "No, Ainz-sama, he was not. He was one of my original targets, a vagrant bandit nobody that thought himself strong. I grew too cocky and let my [Blood Frenzy] take control of me, and that was why he escaped…"

"Then I don't see much of a problem with that." Interrupted Ainz, and at Shalltear's expression, he continued. "Listen, Shalltear. If it was a single man that escaped you, then it is of no concern. What is more important is that when you faced the Scripture you didn't commit the same mistake; that means you learned from it. I see it as a win, actually, as the warnings of a single survivor – especially if it's from the scum of society – won't be heeded, and instead catalogued as the ranting of a madman." He said confidently.

And in his thoughts, Ainz considered that her mission had gone actually better than what he had feared, so he needed to give her credit for that.

Shalltear's mood appeared to be lifted by his words, but not overly so. She still was biting her lower lip, in an obvious sign of worry about something else. "But you also have other things in your mind. Tell me, what else happened during the mission?"

The True Vampire exhaled deeply before answering. "…Yes, Ainz-sama, there are two major things. While the rat escaped me, I crossed paths with a group of adventurers, and one of them had on her possession an YGGDRASIL potion… and from what I gathered from her after charming her, you gave it to her, my Lord, so excuse me if I interfered with a parallel plan of yours! I didn't know that those adventurers would attack the same group I did!"

Ainz tried to recall of such a thing ever happening, and took him an embarrassingly long time to remember that he indeed thoughtlessly gave off a potion to a woman after a small bar fight he was in when he started his adventuring career. Which in turn it leaded to the whole fiasco with Hamsuke and later with Nfirea and the Cemetery – and Demiurge and Albedo had insisted that the whole thing was somehow planned by him beforehand. And what was worse was that the rest of the denizens of Nazarick actually believed them.

"No, do not worry about it, Shalltear. That woman had already served the purpose I meant for her…" Because he really didn't want to open that can of worms. If they believed something that happened by sheer luck was premeditated, well, he'll let them believe that. But he won't let them stress over things that did not currently exist.

Shalltear's stiffness diminished even more, but it didn't completely go away. Ainz massaged his temple, wondering what minor thing the strongest Guardian was worrying herself over.

"I…I'm glad to hear it. I don't know what I would do if I accidentally ruined one of your plans, Ainz-sama." She said, but her eyes still looked nervous, and gulped while fiddling with her hands.

"As I said, do not worry about it; plans can always be adapted to the circumstances." Because he does things mostly on the spot, really.

He continued to look at her, expectantly waiting for her to spill the beans.

"I-I… screwed up during my fight with the Theocracy's lot. I didn't prepare adequately." Ainz was confused at that – hadn't she won without much of a problem? What was she fretting over?

"When I was to report to Albedo, the counter-spell I casted before I used [Message] automatically reacted… I was watched the whole time, I think."

Now that… was something to worry about. Of course, the same had happened during his fight against the Sunlight Scripture, so it isn't much of a surprise that the same had happened with Shalltear. The problem was, at least with him they didn't know how he looked like, but if what Shalltear feared was true, then they had a pretty good description of her and her abilities. If the people of the Theocracy were anything like the players of YGGDRASIL, then they would start preparing a strategy for the next time they encountered her. He hummed.

"Well, that is indeed a point for concern. But the most important part is that you learned from your mistakes. First with the one who escaped you, and now with the surveillance magic. They don't know your name, or your affiliation. Now you know that you should be ever vigilant about scrying spells, which is a good thing in my eyes. We getting found out is something inevitable, and while you were seen, they still know nothing about the real powers of Nazarick. We may need to be more careful from now on, especially in lands closer to the Theocracy, but I see your mission as an overall success. So lift your head, Shalltear, and be proud of your accomplishments, and not drag yourself down for your mistakes. Instead, do your all to not commit them again, in the name of Ainz Ooal Gown."

He tried to form a somewhat uplifting speech a good boss would say to an employee, and though he wasn't completely confident about it, but he thought it passed the point across.

Shalltear bowed once again. "Thank you for your words and your mercy, Ainz-sama!"

The Overlord nodded magnanimously, and made a motion for the True Vampire to dismiss her from his office.

He still had that thing that stank of player intervention beyond the Draconic Kingdom to worry about. Maybe also from the Theocracy, depending of what could be squeezed from the members of the Black Scripture.

He wondered if his plans to ascension to fame – which are mostly Demiurge's – weren't a bit too hurried. There is plenty he doesn't fully know, after all.

And he needed to reach Adamantine Rank first for the 'demon invasion' plan to begin. He hoped that the amount of crappy 'legendary' monsters he had killed over the week would be enough for him to rank up, because the highest adventurer rank might actually interest him enough to not feel underwhelmed. He was already growing tired of completing everything by blindly swinging swords like if they were clubs, and what's worse, of enemies dying from one hit from that.

There were also other interesting stories he had heard about overhearing gossip in the Guild Hall, apparently the Empire's Court Wizard was so powerful that it was said that he could rival armies of thousands by himself, although Ainz couldn't really measure this Paradyne's strength from only that. There was also the talk about two outrageously strong adventurers appearing on the Empire's capital, in a tale that was eerily similar with his own as Momon.

Other players, or were they the same from beyond the Draconic Kingdom? If they were players at all.

There was too much to worry about, especially when it came to the security of Nazarick and the creations of his friends. He started to feel a stomach-ache again, even if he didn't have a stomach anymore.

"I suspect that you have already felt the magical spike, Tsaindoruks." A figure stepped out of the shadow.

An eye opened.

"Yes… much like the times before, extremely powerful individuals have come to this world. Albeit in this case, they are not grouped all together." An imposing voice said, before letting out a breath so strong that lowered the hood of the newcomer. "These players… they stain this world, bringing chaos with them. He was a special case though, but I can't see anyone like him appearing ever again."

A moment of silence

"So, have you encountered them already?" The woman, a very old person, asked her long-time comrade while inspecting the room. "I don't see the good old Tin Can here."

"No, I haven't, Rigrit. I send the armour to where I felt enormous pressure of magic, but so far I have not encountered with any. There are the ones beyond the border lake, but the journey there for that form is long and it might take me a while."

Rigrit nodded seriously.

The dragon inspected her more closely.

"Oh? That ring is gone, what happened? I can't imagine anyone being able to take it from you…"

"Princess, Blue Rose has arrived."

The Golden Princess put on her mask for her guests. Even if she really thought of Lakyus as a good friend, she knew that the Roses weren't ready – if ever – to see her true face.

"It's okay Climb. Let them in." She said with her gentle voice.

Shortly after the doors opened, and the Adamantine Adventurer group entered the room. Lakyus, like the noblewoman she originally was, was the most polite of them, but Renner didn't find their attitude insulting. It was refreshing, actually, after being surrounded by backstabbers with dishonest faces all day.

"It's good to see you, your Highness." The leader of Blue Rose said with a respectful tone.

Renner minutely waved her hand at her words. "Please, Lakyus, we are all friends here." It was sort of a ritual after so many times it had happened already. It honestly made her chuckle, it never got old in her opinion. Like a tug of war, both their gazes battled for dominance until Renner came up victorious, again.

Lakyus sighed while nodding in defeat. Again.

"Tell me, is there any news from that thing I asked you to look into?" Renner softly asked the five, referring to something all of them could understand but the maids in charge of bringing them tea couldn't. Renner was very aware of the moles within the Royal Castle, not only the servants that attended her, but every. Single. One.

She didn't want to alert her enemies of her movements, after all, what would be better for her reputation than being the one responsible for the destruction of the shadiest of organizations within the Kingdom? Just thinking about how Climb would look at her made her want to squeal in delight.

"Yes, Tia and Tina the responsible for the last one. Bringing down such a monster takes time, and the twins are good at waiting until it's time to act." Subterfuge and sabotage. Lakyus passed her a written report, and Renner's kind smile became just a millimetre more pronounced. She passed the paper to Evileye, who automatically destroyed it, leaving no evidence.

"Very good. I know that I'm asking too much from you, even if I don't have the money to pay you and I can only offer my friendship in exchange."

"Nonsense, Princess! We'd do that either way, it's good to count with your talents at finding the sources." Gagaran spoke up, uncaring of what she said or how she said it, like always.

Renner nodded enthusiastically. "Un! Thank you for your help, I highly appreciate it. And I bet the populace does so too."

"Speaking of the populace, Princess, what is the Kingdom going to do about the little problem with the Empire? Every time I go to the countryside, less and less young people are in the fields. You know it is a disaster waiting to happen." Said Lakyus while holding her tea cup and waiting for it to cool a little.

"Yea, it's a shame. There's less and less good lads these days." Interjected Gagaran, which caused Evileye to say something under her breath that only the frontliner of the group could hear, and both of them got into a small verbal fight… again. The rest of the occupants of the room turned their bickering off.

This time, Renner nodded sadly. She let her own cup down in the low table, crossing her hands over her lap. "I know the situation is far from ideal, but there is very little I can do besides to propose some changes to Father. Even so, there are many nobles that would oppose anything I propose to do about it. In their eyes, the yearly wars always end in a white peace, so they don't see why we should worry about it.

If I were to propose to have a standing army, the Great Nobles will enter into a panic and the risk of rebellion would be high. They'll probably think that the Royal Family would want to take over their territories." She said, halfway through she turned her head to look through the window at the clear blue sky. "Sorry, Lakyus, I know that you became an adventurer to escape all things politic."

The Rose in question waved her hand. "Don't worry about it, Princess. Even if I dislike it, that doesn't mean I should be completely in the dark of what's happening, that would come to bite me later in the least opportune moment." She paused for a moment. "Which reminds me, I heard an interesting rumour when checking on the Guild Hall on the way here. I suppose you are aware?"

Renner turned her head back to Lakyus, a slightly questioning expression on her face. "I am aware of many things, Lakyus. You'll need to be more accurate. Is it the rising star of E-Rantel? Or maybe the wizard the Warrior Captain can't stop mentioning?"

"No, even if they could prove to be useful, I'm talking about what happened in the east. You know that the Draconic Kingdom has been under attack for years now, right?"

The Princess placed one of her palms on her cheek. "Ah, those news. Yes, I'm aware of it. Apparently another nation dealt with the beastmen problem, and now the Draconic Kingdom is a vassal of said country. I don't think I have learned how it is called yet."

Lakyus put her empty cup on the low table, and kept herself on a sitting position slightly forwards, holding herself with her left forearm over her legs. "Yes, that one. I haven't heard of their name yet, either, but what I've heard is that they apparently have legendary creatures as mounts, Griffins." At the mention of the beasts, Renner noted that Evileye tensed, although she was the only to notice as the rest wasn't paying attention to their magic caster. "I don't think I've heard about these creatures beyond old tales from the times of the Evil Deities or even older. I thought they had all perished or were breed to make hippogriffs until none was left."

Renner blinked and hummed, seemingly thinking about the new nation – although she had already made plans concerning them. "I wonder if I could make Father enter in a treatise with them. They sound that they are powerful enough to stand up to the Empire. If we were to form a mutual defence pact to serve as a deterrent against the Empire, then we would dedicate all our efforts on more internal matters." She politely covered her mouth, acting as if she was thinking about it. "Sorry, I was mumbling. To go back to topic, what do you think of the next hunt?"

Lakyus half-smiled, her expression having a small tinge of regret. "Sadly, I don't think we are enough to complete that task efficiently and on time. We'll need more hands than what we currently have. And that is counting with the help of the Warrior Captain, too."

Renner's face turned pensive. "What about asking your uncle, see if his group is willing to help us?"

The leader of Blue Rose shook her head on the negative. "I don't think the rest of Red Drop would be willing in such a task. And I don't know everyone in that group, so I can't be sure that there is no one that would leak information to the outside."

"Should we look into hiring some adventurer or worker group? We could also ask the supporters for help, he'll probably agree to send some of his own men."

"Hm, I don't think workers would be a good idea, as most of them are involved in some way or another in some shady business. Adventurers are more of an unknown, as the majority of them only care about money, and their silence can be broken given enough gold…" Lakyus said, running the options through her head. "…and I don't think it's a good idea to show all our cards yet."

"What about Darkness? Do you know them?" Renner asked, although she already had plans for those two.

"Those from E-Rantel? No, I have only heard about them, and that they apparently frustrated the plans of Zuranon by stopping an undead crisis by themselves. Pretty impressive, to be honest."

"Oh, yea. I got interested on 'em too, if what they say their front-liner is actually very strong. I wonder if this Dark Hero might be interested on some fun, but if what the rumours say is true, then he may not. The magic caster is apparently a pretty face, this 'Beautiful Princess'" Gagaran joined in the conversation, snorting at the end, while Evileye scoffed at the epithet of the latter.

"But they are only two people, I don't think they would be of much help anyways. I say that we take our chances with what we have now, even if we could use more people helping us. At least we know that we can trust those already in."

And enough of that for now.

It ended up being noticeably shorter than the previous part, it seems that I overestimated a bit how much I needed to write. Eh, things happen. Leave your thoughts on the comments! Some people need money to keep writing, I just need feedback (at least for now).

Sort of a sad news, even though I have a couple thousand words written already for next arc (one of the reasons this part was cut short), don't expect the next update to be as speedy as this one, as I have to study for exams for the next few weeks.

Until then, folks!