Chapter 3: Infiltration

The nation of the Saderan Empire controlled more than a half of the entire continent of Falmart. It's borders reached a majority of the coasts of the continent itself as well as several Islands, that were either completely occupied or at least to a large part by the empire, while the great nation was surrounded by smaller, but not weaker nations, that wouldn't take lightly on an assault of their borders. They were already forced into vassalation by the Empire, however with a nation this big problems were doomed to arise. The transportation of troops and goods for example. Falmart had not many large streams that could be used for ships and long travels across the land were tricky. A lone carriage with goods was like a carcass, that only invited the vultures to come by. The roads were also not very solified outside the settlements and the transportation of troops was not easy either. While each soldier knew how to use a weapon, set up a camp and handle bad weather, there were still obstacles on the way, that the legions of the empire had to move around. To sent soldier from one end of the Empire to another would take weeks, months even, depending on their equipment, the distance they had to cross and the route they would need to take even without having to diverge from the original plan. Not to mention the dangers, that could befall the travelling men.

With other words, the Empire controlled the central part of Falmart, but couldn't expand its territory any further with their rescources and current technology.

In midst of this strong and thriving nation laid the heart and birthplace of this so great nation with over 600 years history, Sadera. Home of thousands of people and residence of both the emperor and his senate as well as many nobles. Through the streets walked humans to their workplaces, their homes or one of the many places people could go to enjoy the luxury of the capital. There was enough water and food to substain the large population of the city. The city was heavily guarded with hundreds of soldiers and dragon riders flying over the the capital. Many merchants came here to sell their goods to the noblemen and common people as a lot of foreign wares arrived within these walls. It was quite impressing for the people of this world to stand within this mighty Fortress, that was also a place of culture, peace and order.

However, it was also the home of various kinds of demihuman races that lived in Akusho, the Red Light District of the capital outside its walls. There reigned only the right of the strongest. Criminal gangs and clans controlled the life of the People that were forced to spent their existence within this place. Demihumans were not allowed within Sadera as the Empire did encourage the population of the supremancy of the human race over all others and so racism was very common in this part of the empire. At the country side people had learned to live side by side with elves, orcs, imps and fairies, but here they were just lower class people. The infrastructure within the suburbs was nonexistent as the strong took what they wanted and the weak were left to die. Crime, hunger, slavery, prostitution and chaos at one hand. Order, wealth and structure on the other. It was always surprising how close these two opposites existed to one another. It was as if a transparent border existed between these two worlds as interaction with each other were quite rare. The capital didn't sent it's guards down there and the criminals didn't dare to go up into the city, where they would be little more than animals to be hunted down.

But one individual in the crowds didn't even looked slightly impressed at all these things that the Empire had built in the long time it has been standing. It was a young man with long black hair and red eyes who walked through the streets. The simple clothes made of leather had a dull brown color, making him look like an ordinary peasant and his feet were covered by ordinary sandals. The man frowned as he walked, but not because of his clothes, but the city around him. For him it was as if he was walking through a nest of vermin, no even lesser creatures than that. However, right now he had to grit his teeth and endure this as his mission was to gain more than just information.

Not long afterwards he arrived at his destination. He stood in front of one of the few palaces in this city. Even as the capital only few among the very rich nobles could afford such expensive houses. And right now he stood in front of the palace of a person that would grant him access to normally top secret data. As he walked closer to the entrance the pair of guards pointed their spears at the man.

"Halt! State your business here stranger or leave! Otherwise we will remove you by force!" One of the guards yelled. The Young man's hand flinched slightly as it curled up like a claw, before clenching and unclenching again. Calmly the young man pulled out a scroll from his robes.

"I've come here to speak with the owner of this mansion. I'd like to join her order of knights." The man said as he held the scroll out to the man. "This is the assignment for my meeting with her." The guard walked closer before taking the scroll and looking over it quickly. About 5 seconds later he returned the scroll to the man. However, before he could speak up a female voice rang from within the mansion.

"What is the cause of this ruckus?" Through the door walked a young woman of about 16 years of age. Her long red hair and red eyes gave her a quite appealing look as her figure was slender and delicately built. The look in those ruby eyes however was stern and cold as if she was an absolute ruler of the Empire. She was clad in a white uniform with several bronze plates as light armor on her body. A white cape was connected to it on her back.

"Princess Pina, it appears this man has come to join the Knight order of the Rose." One guard said as both lowered their heads in respect. The young man however only bowed slightly as the woman directed her eyes at him. This whole situation was almost too much for him to take as he was about to rip this woman's head from her shoulders in the literal way. He needed access and this woman better provided it, because other wise she was of no use for him.

"Your highness he even had a message from Lord Tulius." The other guard said. Now the princess looked directly at the young man. Tulius had been a great general back in the days before Pina's birth and his word meant much more than hers when it came to recommending someone for a position in the military. Pina walked over to the black haired man and held out her hand. The man of course knew what she wanted and handed the scroll over to her as she opened it. Her eyes flew over the letters like an old writing machine, analysing each and every word and their meaning to put the picture together.

"Everything seems to be right." Pinas muttered to herself. She then looked up to the man as her face steeled itself. "Very well. However, only because you have Tulius' recommendation doesn't mean I'll accept you in my knight's order. In two hours from now we will meet at the training grounds where I'll judge your strength. That should be enough time for you to prepare. Now go." She said as she handed the scroll back and with no other word turned around to disappear in her mansion.

The black haired man left the mansion after that. To express his mood right now in verbal form would be quite a pain for anyone, who would listen, and perhaps be a crime categorized as insult of the royal family. The cocky and self-confident attitude of the princess really enraged him. When she had spoken to him her arrogance was clearly showing as she was looking down on him the whole time as if he was nothing but some kind of lesser creature. He would have killed that woman on the spot and be done with it, however his creator's order was absolute.

'Disgusting wench! Even fleas have more respect to the stronger than this brat! How dare she, a mere human to talk like that to a creation of the supreme being and behave like she is actually a more powerful being. Why must I infiltrate this Empire through the order of knights below this spoiled brat? Erebos-sama, give me the strength to pull through this.' He thought as he made his way into the city to find the training grounds of the knights in Sadera. His opinion did matter little as his master's plan was already put into motion. And for it's success he, Hades would do anything that his master ordered him to do.

Meanwhile in Vanguard's Loss

The large dragon player sat on his throne as he had heard the reports of the generals already regarding the strength of the guild. Tartarus was not lacking in manpower. In fact they had a lot of advantages should it come to a war with the saderan empire right now. From the first to the last floor of the dungeon Erebos had control over more than 2000 units of mercenary NPCs. When counting the spawn mobs as well it were more than 50000 given the size of each floor and amount of gold he had invested into this place. While these numbers of course were obviously smaller than those of the imperial army, it were still more than enough to burn this entire nation to the ground within weeks, months depending on how well refugees can survive in the wilderness without any kind of infrastructure.

The spawn NPCs were only from level 1 to 30, however with their superior numbers, were the main force of the dragon player. Also they were spawned automatically by the dungeon itself, meaning that replacing them was immediately after they were destroyed without any drawbacks or costs. The average level of a soldier in their army, or what was left of it, was not above 25, meaning that the Saderan Empire was truly only a big and fat pig that he only needed to be slaughtered, if he just wanted the rescources of them. The Mercenary NPCs were above level 30 and were with that the more capable fighters. If it would be a fight between one of them in the 50s and a legion of the humans, Erebos would place his bet on the one NPC. The monsters in his dungeon variied as lot and therefore had different weaknesses. Surely most of them were dragons like himself, but he had also made other creatures in the dungeon like the lizardmen marauders and succubus valkyries. With such a variety of subordinates Erebos was having the manpower necesarry to demolish this country in a matter of hours and that was without the custom NPCs.

He rose from his throne and teleported to the 2nd floor which was under Aeolus command. The vast desert was hot and arid. On the sandy ground stood a group of 5 men clad in the armor of the imperial army. All of them looked terryfied around themselves as the grip on their spears and swords must have been painful. Then a creature rose from the sands with a loud hissing sound. It looked like a snake covered in beige and orange scales, blending in well with it's current environment. Large horns sat on it's head and a cobra's hood was located at the neck. Small horns ran over the back, while the rest of the creature remained submerged. The snake was about 4 times the size of the soldiers.

The soldiers probably have just soiled themselves at the appearance of the Monster as one could spot darker spots on the sand in their shadowsbeneath their crotches. Frozen in fear they could only stare at the monster leaned towards them. Then it reared it's head back and spat out a gallon of a thick, green fluid. A soldier was hit as the others instinctly took a step away from their wounded comerade. A reaction that was only enhanced by the pain-filled cries of the man as the venom of the serpent dissolved the flesh off the bones. Erebos watched with a neutral expression as the cries died down and the soldier stopped trashing around as he fell limp to the ground.

The other men looked in shock at the remains of their comerade as they were tempted to just throw their weapons away and run for it. Too late, however, came their decision as the snake had moved so fast that it had become a blur. It had clamped it's razor sharp teeth into a man and now dug down in the ground where he had been standing. While digging into the ground one could see relatively small bat like wings along the serpent's body. The soldiers then spread out, however didn't ran when the snake was gone from sight. They looked uneasy at one another, too terrified to even talk to each other.

Then a sudden outcry and a large fountain of sand shattered the silence as another soldier was gone. The last two men now stood about 5 metres away from one another. Uneasily they looked around, moved in circles to check their vision for any sights of the monster to return. Their sandals dug slightly into the sand as they sweated bullets.

Then the monster's spiked tongue shot out the sand and impaled one of the soldiers through the chest, making blood spill out the wound and through the man's mouth. It reared it's head out the sand and swallowed the man last man standing dropped his gladius as he fell on his knees. The snake was gazing down at him almost with a bored expression as it licked the fresh blood from it's mouth. The man let out an insame laugh as he cried. The Serpent opened it's mouth widely and swallowed the man as well, before digging into the sandy ground.

"Another disappointment I see." Erebos said sighing. 'I begin to question why we don't just get it over with. This is almost embarrassing to watch.' He thought, but he also knew why he wasn't just overrunning the Empire. He lacked some very important things. First off, he lacked support by the local people. Of course he couldn't get any as his existence remained secret, but the fact that he was a dragon made things even harder as dragons in this world seemed to have quite a bad reputation as overgrown winged reptiles that consume all other lifeforms including their own kind within their active phases. Large fire dragons from this world for example only went out of their hibernation to breed and to restock their energy they ate anyone that crossed their ways, making them to infamous symbols of calamity, while sea dragons were infamous for sinking entire fleets of ships. Both kinds were also seen as impossible to kill due their natural defenses and weapons.

So winning the hearts of local people over was one thing that Erebos had to do. As someone who grew up in truly poor conditions he knew that alone no one survived very long. You simply couldn't and if you did others might band togehter to bring you down. Another thing he didn't have was a good map of the continent. He ordered Hades to bring one from Sadera should he find one, but given the advancement of the Empire he doubted that there was any really accurate maps of the continent. Erebos still sent out it's scouts to explore the area, but only a small part of the east in which they were in and the route to Sadera were really explored. To travel everything and find what might be hidden by others could take even longer.

And finally Erebos lacked any kind of organisation of larger groups. He might have led gangsters and criminals before, but that is not even close to the scale of a city, even less an entire country. Such organisations are very complex and needed numerous systems to work. Even when Erebos didn't knew all of them or how they exactly worked he was pretty sure that he would Need a lot more than just an iron grip on his people to ensure their loyalty and keep the country as a whole intact. For that reasons he hadn't slept for a couple of days as he had sat in his room and thought of several kinds of things. Economy, laws and food distribution were just a few of the things he had to think about. And then came the annoying fact that he couldn't read the language of those monkeys yet.

"I apologize if it wasn't to your liking, Erebos-sama." Aeolus said as he landed not far from Erebos. "Perhaps if we sent these monkeys against a weaker opponent the battle might be more interesting." The green serpentine dragon said.

"Perhaps. But we are not watching this for entertainment, but to see how strong These men are in a fight. The entertainment factor is simply a bonus. How many kinds of monsters have we tested on the soldiers already?" Erebos asked.

"Around 30% of those within the dungeon Erebos-sama. However, since we are cut short on test subjects and their primitive weapons, we need to find more of them to be tested." Aeolus said. It was true that ever since Erebos had started kidnapping bandits, soldiers and town guards after his attack on the towns in the east a couple of weeks ago, he had been running tests in this desert like once in that giant colluseum in Italy. As he could tell all of the tests had been negative for the humans. Beating a spawn NPC wasn't really difficult, however even for those the men had needed to be in groups to coordinate their actions. While they all were trained soldiers and knew how to swing a sword they were only displaying quite simple and humble efficiency against the monsters from YGGDRASIL.

"Umu. In that case I'll assemble a hunting party to get more of them. Aeolus, come with me to the throne room. I wish to discuss something." Erebos said.

"As you wish Erebos-sama." The dragon said as he turned to a group of dragonkin, Level 55 monsters in YGGDRASIL that resemble upright standing wingless dragons. Erebos didn't pay more attention to them as he left for the throne room. 'I wonder how Hades is doing right now.' He thought to himself. 'Hopefully he doesn't kill someone important, otherwise it might get difficult to get into that princess' group of toy soldiers.'

Meanwhile in Sadera

To say that Hades was disappointed with what he saw was an understatement. When he had arrived on the training grounds he had been instructed by some old Knight Sir Grey or something like that who showed him around. The veteran knight was polite at least for a human that didn't knew that he was talking to a dragonoid, something that princess definitely lacked. The training ground was covered with sand and was mainly occupied by a square area that was used as an arena. The buildings around the training area were of course to make sure that not everyone would watch them Train, while there were also some seats probably for royalty to observe the progress of their soldiers.

Hades had been brought to a room to get simple leather armor for minimized protection against the practice weapons. Speaking of which, Hades saw people mostly fight with short swords, but also with spears and arrow and bow, however weapons like battleaxes, maces or longswords seemed to be nonexistent as well as crossbows. The dragonoid wanted to shake his head at the poor display of the armory. He was sure even lesser players as Erebos called the people from YGGDRASIL, that were not created by another being like himself, could have floored this empire on their own by just killing everything. He didn't question his master though. He probably had just a great master plan in his mind to destroy that emperor.

Speaking of royalty, Princess Pina had arrived with a group of women and one man. All were either around her age, which made them all fairly young. The dragonoid immediately could tell that they were all inexperienced. They had no battle hardened gaze like that of the old knight nor did they bore scars of previous battles. No these people had never fought in a real fight before or hadn't the pleasure of ever having a fight before that was actually threatening their lives yet.

All of them wore similiar light metal armor with white capes attached to their shoulder pads. Their metalic boots clicked with every step as they walked. Princess Pina wore a tiara with a blue gem at her forehead, heavy shoulder guards, a light armor chestplate made of a bronze looking metal while wearing a red shirt that exposed her cleavage beneath it. Hades wasn't staring at them. His eyes were focused on the ridicoulus set of armor the princess wore. Her entire body was wide open for attacks. Surely Hades knew how light armor looked like, but this wasn't armor. This was a damn cosplay outfit!

(AN: Am I the only one who thought that when seeing Pina's combat attire for the first time and then comparing it with that of her other knights?)

'This is a joke. A really bad joke. If that is the elite of this empire I don't even want to face the real army out of pity.' Hades thought sweatdropping as Pina finally stopped and her order of knights right behind her.

"I see you already have gotten armor and a practice sword. I shall now explain why you are here. While Lord Tulius did recommend you for this Position, I shall see for myself how you fair in battle. We are a proud order of knights. All of us are children of noble houses, but that alone doesn't qualify us for such a position within our great empire's ranks. I shall let you fight against the strongest of my order to determine, if you truly belong among us or not." Pina said like some dramatic opera speaker. Hades had to resist to fall asleep at her little speech.

'I don't belong among insects like you for you wouldn't even understand greatness if you were looking right at it. Insolent children! Their arrogance needs to be punished.' Hades thought. "I see. Do you intent to fight as well your majesty?" He asked. Pina looked rather confused for a long moment, before her face turned stoic again.

"I'll see how you'll fight. Perhaps if you manage to stand after this I'll consider dueling you myself. Panache will be your first opponent" She said. A small murmur went through the ranks of her knight order's members rather unsure if it was okay for a princess of the Empire to take part in a sparing match even, if it was against a candidate or a member of their own order. The dragonoid was unimpressed at this. No, he actually doubted that this order of knights as they called themselves was even capable of defeating a horde of goblins on their own. The more irritated he became at Pina's attitude. She carried herself with an aura of self-confidence and arrogance. It sickened the dragon in human skin even more than before. Still safe for clenching his hand so hard that the metal the gauntlets were made off started bending he did no thing that could endanger the plan.

"I'll look forward to it your majesty." He said swallowing his pride and bowing to her. In his mind he was already eating his own tail for that gesture of showing respect and submission. Him, Hades, a creation of Erebos, the sole Supreme Being of Tartarus, BOWING even when it was only pretending for a while to a lowly lifeform, whose arrogance apparantly knew no bounds was unforgivable. If his brothers and sisters back home would knew about that they'd never live this one down. meanwhile Pina only turned around and gave Grey a short nod.

"Prepare the arena!" He shouted at a few workers that were present, who quickly scurried like rats over to the open field to clean it from sand grains that had been blown over there by the wind. Within 10 minutes the arena looked acceptable for a small sparing match. Hades walked over to it with a stoic face while the knight's order was mostly assembled next to it. Two of the princess' knights, both women as one had short brunette hair and one long blonde hair in a drill shaped style, had accompanied the princess to the seats for visitors.

'Tch! Why am I not surprised?' Hades thought spiteful as he only shot the women at the tribune a short glance, but spiced with enough killing intent to make an elephant run back to it's mother. The three women shuddered under the short eye contact, but discarded the thought as a fresh breeze. In that time Hades observed his opponent. It was a young woman about the same age as the princess with short platinum blonde hair. Her eyes held a steel hard gaze in them and her entire body language was telling Hades that she was not going to go easy on him. Or at least she wouldn't hold back.

Hades saw at least that she was one serious fighter unlike the other people he saw so far here. He wasn't worried the slightest, His power eclipüsed that of these 'knights' as they dared to call themselves by far. Pina then stretched her arm out in a pose that tried to be imposing. "Let the match begin!"

The platinum blonde woman dashed at Hades without a second thought as she drew her sword and aimed for Hades shoulder. It was obvious that she would try to hit something not vital, but with enough force to make him unable to fight. Hades, however, simply moved out the way with one step to the sides, making the slash hit only air. Panache realized this and slashed at Hades agan. Again the dragonoid simply dodged by leaning out of the way.

What appeared for the knights of the rose order and the more experienced soldiers as a display of skill and talent was actually held back power to the point where an adult would simply POKE an infant to make it fall on it's rear, yet so softly to prevent it to get actually hurt. Hades was a level 90 dragonoid and with it stood just below the generals and the advisors in the hierachy in Tartarus as the leader of what could be called the black ops. Of course such things like a hierachy among NPCs didn't really exist in YGGDRASIL. Erebos had added them in every NPCs programming from his own experiences as he designed Vanguard's Loss.

The match between Hades and Panache continued like before for a few minutes, while Hades was bearing a stoic almost bored expression as he dodged or sometimes parried every blow thrown at him and Panache became slightly exhausted over time. While the woman had indeed some spine and pride inher mind her attacks werewild and easily forseen by the dragon's sharp senses. She put more energy into the attacks force, speed and accuracy, yet she couldn't hit Hades a single time. Eventually the strain on her muscles was taking it's toll as her movements became slower and more desperate. As she tried to stab him once more he parried her attack and hit the sword with so much force that it was thrown out of the woman's grasp. Hades held up the tip of the sword now to her throat. Panache gritted her teeth as her pride was obviously hurt and the audience looked in awe at the result.

"The match is over. Winner is Sir Hades." Grey announced. The knights order was speechless at this, Until now they had thought of themselves as trained soldiers that were unbeatable, but now some noble's son simply wiped the floor with one of their most talented members.

"Very good Sir Hades. But the test has just begone." Pina said as Panache left the arena, shooting the dragonoid an hateful glare. Hades payed neither of them any attention as he simply went to the edge of the arena and waited for the next opponent to be called forth. It would at least amuse him a little as long as he would be staying in this Empire.

Meanwhile, Vanguard's Loss, Throne Room

After the demonstration, which was more like a feeding of predators with living creatures to get them a bit more entertainment instead of throwing a dead piece of meat at them, Erebos and Aeolus returned to the thorne room of the dungeon. Erebos had felt nothing during these matches as he felt no empathy for the men that were fed to the monsters. It was to him like watching a fly being trapped in a spiders nest and watching said arachnid to move in for the kill. There was some minor in that as Erebos may knew how some monsters did fight, but that also could have changed with the fact that everything was real now. They had still the same abilities and attacked with similiar patterns, but behaved more lively and were not quite like they used to be.

In YGGDRASIL monsters attacked the players and NPCs as they were programmed to do so. Now however when fighting some monsters showedd some kind of intelligence. A swarm of bird monsters for ecxample had been sitting there for a couple of seconds observing the soldiers before attacking and then observing again. The same was with some other predatory monsters. Monsters like a treant however proofed to be less clever as they simply pummeled the human soldiers into bloody paste with their arm like branches or tore them apart like dolls made of straw.

Erebos had a lot to think because of that. Were the monsters even a good replacement for actually born creatures in a war? The answer was yes, since they dstill followed orders no matter how cruel or moraly wrong they were. However he now had to figure out how to organise them. As the monsters mostly had no intelligence on their own they'd need a lieutenant to guide them. Brute strength alone wasn't going to win a war. He knew that well otherwise he might as well be dead now like so many of the people he had fought with and against. Erebos knew that the lizardmen marauders he had deployed during his first wave of attacks were sentient. However as demihumans they were weaker than dragons. He could use dragoons as an alternative, but first he'd have to see what they could provide in battle in this world. He had a lot to think about indeed.

"As you have seen Erebos-sama, these imperial warriors are no match even against the strength of our weakest trained forces. Their estimated levels range from 4 to 15, but that are only the human soldiers. The demi-human mercenaries that the Empire had hired put up more of a fight, but ultimately were killed just like the human soldiers, making their levels still beneath 20." Aeolus said as he looked at the giant black dragon that sat on his throne.

"I see. Thank you Aeolus." Erebos stated as he was about to turn his head to Edo, when Aeolus spoke up.

"Erebos-sama? If I may ask a question?" The large serpentine dragon stated. Erebos looked at his creation, before nodding in approval.

"Very well. Ask what you must Aeolus." Erebos said calmly.

"Yes Erebos-sama. I wished to know why you gave Hades such a task when there are other beings of Tartarus capable of gathering information and infiltrating these pityful humans." He said.

"Ho? Others you say?" Erebos said as he stood up from his throne. "Tell me Aeolus, since I've given all generals enough knowledge to lead our forces to be worthy of their rank, who would you have tasked with such an important mission? Surely you must have thought about such an individual before you questioned Hades' placement in this plan."

"Y-yes Erebos-sama. I have thought that there are other human looking beings in Tartarus who may would be good for this task. Only if I'm allowed to say so that is of course." Aeolus said growing more nervous by the passing seconds he spoke with Erebos. "For example there is a certain individual that would have enough power to-" Aeolus stopped as Erebos rose his hand, signalling Aeolus to stop.

"So you would have suggested 'her' for that mission? Do I see that right?" He asked with a slightly intimidating aura around him.

"Y-Yes my creator." Aeolus said quitely.

"Aeolus, I think you need to learn a few things about infiltration. The best way to infiltrate someone is to have no infiltrator." Erebos said, earning a confused look by Aeolus. "From the perspective of the spied ones of course. Without any evidence that there is a mole in their ranks, they won't grow suspicious about the actual spy. Instead they would fall into a state of distrust and accuse each other to be the spy. Eventually the spy might be found out, but the chance is higher that it is in that moment already too late for the infiltrated. Now I'll explain to you why I didn't send 'her' of all people to do this job.

'Ugh how do I do that?' He mentally groaned. There were only few places in Vanguard's Loss Erebos didn't wish the generals or any living being to go. He didn't even wanted them to know about it and yet they did. Probably they knew all of his creations already by the name, but hadn't met them yet. Spectra for example was a person he didn't like to have around, but she was even worse. He may have only created them to make the people who did take the wrong turn to his throne room fall into deadly traps, however he also had made their backstories meaning he shaped their psyhe and their behaviour as if they were real living beings. "While she is indeed capable of becoming a human in body, her nature and personality wouldn't allow such a thing. Most likely she would burn the capital of the Empire to the ground before we would even have a chance to collect information"

"Also the role of the women in this society is very surpressed. It is a miracle that I haven't seen rape or children prostitution here yet." Erebos said. Of course he was aware of the low technological advancement of the Empire and the nations around it. Even a blind person could tell that these people lived in a for people from Earth ancient system. Not that Erebos knew the exact date since had absolutely no idea about such things like human history. All he cared for was to remain in power and protect what he didn't want to lose. "The biggest issue by sending her is probably her will to destroy other living beings. She's supposed to be an emergency meassure should anyone make it past you and the other generals."

"That will never happen! I'll lay down my life and endure the greatest pain for you Erebos-sama!" Aeolus bowed his head in submission as he declared once more his devotion to Erebos as his creator and god. Erebos smiled on the inside at this.

"In that case I'll trust your word. However don't think that I'll take it lightly should you fail." Erebos warned. Aeolus shuddered a little under his creator's gaze at this.

"Of course Erebos-sama."

"Very good. Now let's move on to the next topic. Since the Gate has been attacked and defended from the other side, we managed to track some of the slaves that had been brought to this side as well as securing in a temporary hideout to observe the Gate. The empire's forces have been waiting ever since for an attack from the other side. Their troops are ready and supplies arrive with wagons every week apparantly. The Gate is so far none of our problem." Erebos said. "What is however troublesome is the fact that we lack intel. Even after killing those nobles and squezzing out every ounce of information from them we still have only limited access to essential knowledge. While Hades will cover that up in the capital, Charon is going from town to town and asking for more information. Not to mention Spectra's skills in...'convincing people'. All together we should have enough information within the next month or two to actually attack the Empire without destroying everything. The Gate is so far a minor factor that still needs our attention as well. Whatever was on the other side managed to fend off a large army of scavangers." Erebos said. 'Knowing their holier-than-thou attitude, they probably see themselves as the rightous ones and everyone else as barbarians. Pathetic. Hilarious even. It will make it even better to pull them off their high horse into a swamp of despair. I always enjoyed telling people who thought of themselves as superior 'no', but this time it's an entire society. Oh ho I feel already a bit excited about seeing this spectacle.' He thought, making plans in his head as he looked at Aeolus.

"Your task will be to keep your troops training so they stay in shape for the case of an attack. Until then we are still looking for new scources of information." Erebos said. Aeolus bowed and gave a "Of course." before he left the throne room. Now alone in the room Erebos sat on his throne as he smirked at the dark thoughts that made up his mind. Even cats had sadistic tendencies when playing with their prey before killing it. But comparing what he had in store for these people with what a kitten would do to a ball of yarn would be a bit insulting.

Back in Sadera

"Uargh!" With an outcry of pain the sole male member of the rose knights order Norma fell on his back as his sword was now embedded into the sandy ground below a few meters away from his fallen form. It had been sometime since the test had begun and Hades had beaten every single knight Pina had thrown at him. Even the most skillful among the nobles' children had failed to land even one hit on him. While the dragon was completely unharmed and still bore an unimpressed and somewhat bored expression on his face, the members of the knight had bruises and cuts as they sat on benches next to the arena.

Some said that Hades had cheated, but what was there to cheat in a duel that was fought with the equipment every soldier of the empire had at the beginning as a recruit? It was simply the difference in skill that made the rose knights order look like a bunch of pushovers that they actually were. Grey once more announced Hades to the victor, but the dragonoid wasn't really listening as Norma was helped by two of his companions to walk off the arena.

Instead his attention was focused on a certain redhead that now stood at the edge of the arena. Her hands were shaking as were her eyes. Cold sweat was running down her fair skin as she looked at Hades. Her jaws had clenched together a bit, showing her nervousness even more. Then she swallowed and steppedinside the arena herself. Her self confidence however only lasted for the first two steps as her body was a little bit shaking in fear. It was as if she had entered the cage of a vicious predator that might as well devour her once she'd give it the chance. Actually Hades thought about it, but showing his true form would only make trouble for his father Erebos.

"You have done very well Sir Hades. Now however I, the imperial princess Pina Co Lada, shall determine if you are strong enough to enter this order of knights." She said with some self-confidence that dispersed the moment the words had left her mouth. She was obviously afraid and to start a fight like that was never a good plan. Panicking on the battlefield was mostly a mortal error. In panic people did irrational things like attacking without a plan or accidentally hitting their own allies.

Hades only resumed his place at the opposite end of the arena and held up his sword. "Very well then. Show me what you are made of." He said. A look of rage flashed over the face of the princess and her knights, but the latter stopped right there as the tension on the muscles that was amplied when narrowing their eyes at the dragonoid's disrespectful words to the princess was causing some of them pain. It was also part of Hades plan to break the princess. He could tell that she was a very prideful person, but she lacked strength and yet believed that she had it. Someone really needed to show that brat that they were as far from the power they thought they held as a serpent was from the clouds it might sought to roam. Pina's pride has already been damaged to a very critical point as her order of knights was beaten one after another. Now however Hades was mocking her directly and there wasn't a single thing she could have done about it unless she would manage to at least hit him once and draw blood.

Grey looked a bit concerned at the princess as she gave him a reassuring nod like saying "It will be fine." or "Just watch." it was almost funny to see such a weak person trying to assure a battle hardened veteran that she would win against a person that singlehandely had wiped the floor with her entire order of knights. The older knight had trained Pina since the day she had made the game of the rose knights order. Back then it had only been a make believe game that she had played with her friends that were all children of high ranked nobles. On her wish to her father the Emperor had actually granted them the official title of a knights order, but only let them be the honor guard for parades and other events. Until now they lacked real fighting experience, but Hades had changed that.

And now he was going to show that princess what the feeling of truly being powerless meant.

"May the match begin." Grey said. None of the duelists moved at first. Pina had of course studied Hades' movements the whole time. When a knight had rushed in without a plan they had been defeated faster than she could have thought to be possible. When they waited to long with planning, Hades had taken them by surprise and swiftly beat them. Pina was working on her strategy since the matches had begun. At first she had believed that Hades was like every foot soldier of the empire some man who could swing a sword in the horizontal and the vertical direction. But she was wrong. His movements were much faster and still accurate with a deadly precision. If this wasn't a spare match, her friends might as well would have been killed.

The two warriors still stood there as Hades made a step to the side. Pina mirrored the movement as she did her best to keep distance to Hades. Like two predators they circled around each other, however while Pina was focused on her enemy Hades was simply enjoying the feeling of dread that Pina reeked of. he didn't need a plan to beat her. She was weak yet to make sure he'd not let her make any plans that would fail in spectacular manner.

Pina then rushed at Hades while simply stood there awaiting her attack. Swinging her sword at the dragonoid's legs was a cheap trick as most people instinctly would try to shield their torso and head, but a simple change on the grasp on the sword's handle lowered it to the same height as Pina's sword. The two weapons met with a loud CLANG as the kinetic energy of her attack backfired and made her take a step backwards.

Time seemed to slow down as Hades trusted his sword at Pina right after blocking. He could easily kill her right now. Stabbing with enough force would make the sword even though it was blunt, smash through her light armor and pierce her chest or he could simply slit her neck which was completely exposed. But that would go against Erebos orders. So instead he would go even a notch higher than that.

Instead of killing her, he'd harm her pride like that of all the other knights' he had fought until now. Instead of stabbing Pina right in the eye or the throat or the heart or wherever else a mortal injury could occur, Hades only slashed at Pina's face so her cheek would be cut a little. It was a shallow cut and only it's length was the reason why it actually bled a bit much. Pina gave a pained yelp as she lost her balance due the stinging sensation of her flesh being cut and fell backwards on her side. The other knights of the order gave horrified sounds and looks of shock at this, while others looked at Hades with looks that could kill, which he didn't acknowledge.

Pina picked herself up right after falling down as she noticed the wet sensation on her cheek. She touched her cheek and winced a little at the burning that coursed through her body as her fingertips brushed against the cut skin. Looking at her fingers, her red eyes widened at the equally red liquid that coated her fingers, ran down them and dropped down in droplets into the sand.

"Princess Pina!" Grey said as he ran over to check on the red haired girl's condition. Looking with a trained eye at the injury he sighed in relief. Apparently he had panicked a little when he saw the blood. He stood up and helped Pina to stand. "Sir Hades is the winner." He said. The knights of the rose order looked bewildered at the older knight, but despite their pride being shattered like a window, they all knew that he was right. Hades, a complete newcomer, had brought so much skill with him that he defeated a group of nobles trained to fight from their childhood on with such ease, that it made them question if he was actually a human being.

Oh if they knew.

Pina still was caught up in her shock as she barely registered what happened around her. It was as if she was submerged in water. All the sounds rang only dimmed to her ears as she tried to get herself under control. Only the sound of Hades stepping towards her made her shake out her stupor. She shook like a leaf in the wind as Hades' presence loomed over her despite standing calmly in front of her.

"It was an interesting fight your majesty." Hades said bowing slightly to Pina much to his discomfort. 'Interesting indeed. Now I know for sure, that you and the rest of you apes are not even remotely a threat to us.' He thought. "However, it seems that your swordplay could need some improvement."

"Uh-uh..." Pina tried to find the right words in her mind as she was currently unable to voice out her thoughts. She cleared her throat and pushed herself away from Grey to stand on her own. Right now she couldn't risk to show weakness in front of her order of knights. In situations like this a ruler had to turn the obvious loss into a victory at least in the eyes of it's peers.

"Sir Hades. You have proven yourself as worthy to be part of the Rose-Order of Knights. Do you accept this offer to serve the Empire and its ruler until death?" Pina said with a lot of pathos in her voice despite the fact that her cheek bunred everytime her mouth opened too much, however she couldn't whisper these words as it had to sound dramtically. Hades was inwardly rolling his eye at the stupidity of this girl. She thought that she had caught the fish that had bitten down the hook, but in reality it was going to drag her into the depths and devour her whole. To keep up his play he kneeled on one leg, while holding a hand over his heart.

"Your majesty, I cannot express my gratitude with any words. I accept." He said. Pina then got her knights together and left to get their injuries treated, while Hades had now one of the most difficult jobs to do while he was going to stay in Sadera. Finding a place to sleep. However his work in Sadera had just begun. Joining the Rose-Order of Knights was simply the first step to gather informations for Erebos from a trustworthy scource. Sadera was the home of thousands of people and informations from all around the Empire were concentrating here.

And full granaries with open doors were always inviting places for rats to sneak in.

Meanwhile, Mountain Range of Ice and Snow

The dungeon was encompassed by a thick forest to the west and south and a mountain range in the North and east. The highest one in the North was the mountain range of ice and snow. Quite a bad choice for a name given that a lot of mountains can have glaciers when the climatic conditions are right, but then again the civilizations of this continent were primitive and lived in mediterrean lands. For them to see snow was probably the very exception of the norm.

The snow was deep, hindering most creatures to advance forward over the peaks of the mountains. But not a servant of the great Erebos known as Kympholeia. The ice dragon lived on the icy floor of the dungeon in a large tundra with a few patches of vegetation. She enjoyed her stay in the dungeon, her home, but even then she wanted to be of use for her master. So she had decided to head north for the scouting of the local Areas. The snow and ice made no difference for her. She easily soared across the sky even if a blizzard would hit her.

However, the same couldn't be said about her sister Gaia. The earth dragon that accompanied her only got slowly forward in the deep snow with her crocodile like body.

"Are you sure you don't want me to help you sister?" Kympholeia asked as she hovered lower over the ground as Gaia peeked out the snow.

"Don't worry about me. I'm fine. See?" Gaia accelerated her pace a little only to slip a few meters further ahead and sliding down a little on the not very steep ground. It was like watching a pinguin sliding down a small slope on its belly. Only that it wasn't a pinguin, but a massive lizard like dragon with the appearance of boulder like armor and that a pinguin would not be submerged in snow until only the tail and hindlegs would be visible.

"I can see that very good." Kympholeia said as she landed near her sister, who could be heard groaning in annoyance beneath the snow as her tail flicked the ground a little. The ice dragon made the snow and ice move away from her sister as her blue eyes looked into Gaia's green ones for a moment. Sighing Kympholeia grabbed her sister and took flight. Her thin arms couldn't hold her sister for Long and the weight of the earth dragon slowed her down, but she at least decided to take her as far as she could.

"You better not tell Erebos-sama about this Kympholeia?" The earth dragoness said.

"Of course not onee-chan." Kympholeia replied to the slightly peeved dragon.

Meanwhile in Vanguard's Loss, Erebos' room

Erebos was taking a nap as he heard the knocking of a servant at the door. Recently the dragon player had discovered a few changes on his habits when he became a dragon. One thing was that he really like noble metals now. Not to the point where he would start fantasizing about him layin on a pile of treasures and roll around like a dog or anything kinky, but he had a desire in the back of his head to get more treasures than he already had now. At one hand it was understandable. A lot of money had been invested into the dungeon and the NPCs creation. On the other hand, however, it was completely different to what he used to be on Earth.

Sure he had been a criminal and a thief, but he never had an obsession for money and riches. The main reason why he had done what he did was that it had been necessary in order to survive.

He sat up as he almost wanted to put on something like a morning mantle, but then remembered that he didn't have any. So far he has been running around naked all the time as it simply felt more natural this way. Looking down his black scaled body he ran his claws over the scales on his belly. He simply felt the pressure the fingers applied on the skin, but he didn't felt the scratching at all.

'Guess that's the prize for having a hard shell for skin.' He thought as he sat up and went over to his desk. "Come in." He said while sitting down. The door opened and a person entered the room, which made Erebos remember that he was going to have to talk with this person anyway.

To describe the creature it looked like the unholy fusion of a dragon and a spider. Of course it was a dragon and the spider features were mostly part of the equipment's decorative ornaments, however it looked like the creature truly sprouted from it's back eight large spider legs, that twitched around and moved like snakes. The tail was long and like a whip and at the tip sat something like a second pair of jaws. The head on the short neck was covered with a black mask that seemed to have a dozen eyes. The inhumane long arms ended in large hands with long fingers with long claws, each sharp like a scalpel and shaped like a sewing needle. It walked on two normal legs with shorter claws, however the entire body was covered with sharp edges like the carapace of an insect.

The head interrogator of Tartarus, the poisonous dragon Spectra.

(AN: Spectra's original design was based on Razenoid of Bakugan, however I figured that making him into such a creature with the upper body of a dragon and the lower one of a spider would be more something for another story in the future, I changed it to a normal dragon with spider themed equipment.)

With steady steps the upright standing dragon walking over to the edge of Erebos' bed where he lowered himself down on his knees and bowed.

"My creator I have returned for the report you have requested." Spectra said. Erebos nodded.

"Very well. What have you managed to get out from the last prisoners?" The player asked.

"A lot my master. I've managed to remove most not vital organs from them before moving the more important ones." Spectra said with delight in his voice. Erebos would have sweatdropped if he would be suprised. But as the creator of the NPCs in this one man guild he was aware of Spectra's role in the dungeon. Erebos had poured in all his sadistic tendencies and ruthlessness into this NPC. While not being a general, the function as a mad scientist and a masterful surgeon were something Erebos appreciated. It fit very well into his fortress of solitude.

Also Spectra fulfilled a very important role in his plan. While his forces would drag sentient beings into this plac, Spectra would analyze the information and convert it into useful data. It was also Spectra who held the most knowledge about this world as he heard it first hand from his prisoners while skinning them alive, dissecting their bodies and tormenting their souls. Yes, the torture of the poisonous dragon wasn't ending with one's death, but with one's soul being destroyed. Spectra was also a highly toxic being, producing poisonous both fluids and gases, that he could test on local lifeforms. However, so far a drop of his poison was apparently enough to make flesh and bone corrode, nerves set ablaze with pain and minds of humans go crazy over the pain. Even metal simply got eaten away by the acidic poisons of the dragon. For some reason, Erebos actually pitied the unfortunate souls, that Spectra had and will get between his fingers.

"I meant what kind of information you were able to extract Spectra." Erebos said.

"Of course my creator. Please forgive my foolishness." Spectra said bowing down lower.

"Go on then. We do not have all day." The player said.

"Yes! While most of the knowledge was already confirmed by interrogating the other soldiers, only few more useful pieces come with the last prisoners. Most of them have only a moderate rate of knowledge as most of them were recruited over all places of the Saderan Empire as the sons of farmers. Fewer of them actually hail from noble families and had some knowledge in maths and gambling, but all of them had only standard knowledge like how to set up a camp or how to move in their legion. Their system of armies is actually very strict, but it seems that their loyalty to their emperor is rather easily broken." Spectra chuckled at this. Erebos couldn't hide his own as he thought about the poor fools being jelly in Spectra's claws. He could only imagine how foolish these men must have felt as they watched their comerades being cut upen by this monstrous being who is not even the strongest in the dungeon.

"Next is the important things. We have pinpointed the location of several places that might be of interest for us such as the city of Rondel, which seems to be a place where a magic academy is located and lots of knowledge converges in one place, Bellnahgo, apparently a place where the temple of a goddess is located, and Italica, a merchant city that produces a lot of agricultural products of the Empire." Spectra said pointing out the locations on a map made by Deliah based on the data she had gotten from Charon and the other people that had gone scouting, while she worked without a break day and night.

Erebos had to confess those were indeed very interesting positions within the Saderan Empire. The least one Erebos would want to engage right now was this city called Bellnahgo. If it only was the temple of one of the many gods that he had heard and read about from the guardians' reports, he was not going to waste his time with that place yet. Though he had to confess that he was curious how strong a real god was in this world. Pushing the thought into the back of his head for another time, Erebos focused on the other two places.

Rondel was without doubt a place where information could be gathered rather easily. So far nothing had presented itself to be a challenge for him or the NPCs he had created in the past. For now he only gathered information about the world and the Empire, but everything that his scouts encountered and attacked them was either effortlessly killed or effortlessly brought back to the dungeon to gather more information. The humans in this world were weak and so were most other races so far. Perhaps Erebos should have expected that much since his avatar and his NPCs had been part of a game. If nature would have made a race as powerful as they were right now on Earth, those probably would have been the dominate race on the planet and not the humans.

Italica on the other hand would be more efficient for the war. When destroying whatever the Empire would grow on those fields, hunger and suffering would foster discontent within the population. That would create revolts and confusion in the Empire. Erebos could already picture how hungry people would try to get soemthing to eat only to be killed by royal guardsmen. It was funny for Erebos to picture that.

Another approach would be to simply occupy the city and block the goods to leave the city, thus luring in the Empire in close combat range. Given the fact that their weapons made of iron and steel could do as much as scratching the dirt of most dragon's scales and their armor was like paper in front of a buzzsaw compared to the dragons' talons it would be even easier than just kidnapping people without anyone noticing in the middle of the night.

"You've done well Spectra. Anything else?" Erebos asked.

"My lord, I'd like to make a request if I may allow myself to dare such a thing from you." Spectra asked.

"Tell me and I'll consider it." The dragon player answered immediately. 'Stop beating around the bush and get to the topic already. It's not like I have all time in the world. Wait. Given that I'm semi-immortal now as a heteromorph and no force so far could pose a threat safe from those demigods who I have yet to see in action I actually do have a lot of time.' Erebos thought.

"My lord, if we manage to find a spellcaster of these primitive apes or any other races from this filthy country, please allow me to run a few experiments on them." Spectra asked as politely as he could, however the impression of actually being trustworthy was something Spectra did not emit with his outer appearance. If someone had to decide to trust rather him or some guy in a Jason costume and having blood splashed all over them, people might as well trust the serial killer lookalike.

'Ah that.' Erebos thought in realization what Spectra meant. One thing Erebos had yet to lay his fingers on was the magic of this world. Upon arriving in this new world and actually learning about the many rather trivial things Erebos had half expected that magic would have been more like common knowldge to people and being more utilized by the people, however that was a false assumption. Magic casters were not even close as wide spread as in YGGDRASIL, where every player could at least cast [Message] to communicate with other players over long distances.

The people of the Saderan Empire however had almost no magic capabilities at all. Those that did lived mostly far away from normal people and Rondel was only an exception because the city was apparantly blessed by the twin gods of science and magic. What Erebos was even more surprised to see was that no magic soldiers had been encountered during the battle at the Gate and the Empire didn't really seemed to actually make magic something used in a more military way given their aggressive nature. It was strange that even with their high numbers and vast lands they did not have a greater power in such things.

'Maybe they are hiding it and use it for special ops, who are not known to normal citizens and nobels. I'll have to wait for Hades to report how things look inside the capital at another point in time.' Erebos thought before looking at Spectra again as he had lowered his head in thought. "Very well. I was planning on running some tests on the strength and power of the locals magic. Should we be able to capture some of them I'll send them right to you Spectra." Erebos said. The toxic dragon bowed even deeper now as his eyes radiated an happiness like a child that got permission to eat ice cream for dessert.

"Thank you very much Erebos-sama. I'll not let you down." Spectra said.

"Umu. If that was everything you are given permission to leave." Erebos said. Spectra gave a short bow and stood up, before the player made the NPC halt in his tracks. "But know this Spectra." Erebos said as he shot the other dragon a look that meant trouble. "Magic casters in this world are rare. Finding them will not be easy and neither will it be to make them just disappear like some soldiers that went 'missing in action', so do not play too carelessly with them. Your last subjects had a rather short life." Erebos said. Spectra seemed to shake a little, before bowing.

"Of course Erebos-sama. Unlike these failures I'll take good care of these special guests." Erebos nodded at this, before Spectra took his leave. The failures as Spectra referred to them had been the last soldiers they were able to capture. Unlike the ones fighting at the Gate they had been simple city guards, that ventured a little too far from the protective walls when Tartarus' minions lured them over. Physically and mentally weaker than the seasoned warriors, they had found their end in painful and horrible ways such as going insane after being exposed to Spectra's poison, being forced to fight high level monsters or simply being tortured physically.

For Erebos it had made no difference how they met their end. What mattered was that Spectra had been too rough with them and killed them, before they could have provided any actually worthy results from the experiments. But one shouldn't cry after spilled milk and things like that happened. It was simply bound to. Instead he would turn his eyes on more important matters right now. Those were the report of Hades and his scouts at the Gate. The dragonoid had managed to infiltrate a unit of knights under the direct command of one of the emperor's children, which was mostly made up of the children of other nobles and, according to Hades at least, extremely weak.

What was almost as important as the strength of those 'fake knights' as Hades referred to them, was the fact that there was absolutely no Problem with entering the City. At first, the dragon lord had assumed that the capital of the empire at least had something like a magic barrier to prevent monsters from entering or a detection System or anything else that came only remotely close to that to ensure some kind of security. But once more his expectations were more than underwhelmed. It seemed that magic was truly far too limited on this world to think that it would be used on the most important settlement in the capital. It was almost laughable.

Other than that, he had sent Kympholeia and Gaia on a scouting mission to the north and northeast of the mountains to investigate those 'wild lands' as some of the imperials had called them. Apparently it had something to do with savage demihuman tribes living there, but first he would need to investigate this case himself.

More importantly than this was the gate however. During the entire time there was no movement at Alnus Hill and the gate just kept standing there like a silent guardian. The empire still had ist troops stationated there, waiting for the enemy to attack. Quite strange to refer to them as the enemy when it was the Empire who invaded them and not the other way around. There were even some conflicts between the human soldiers and the demihuman vasalls in the camps around the hill. 'Human supremacists...' Erebos thought at that shaking his head at the stupidity of this nation. The Gate however never left his mind for long. He had a Feeling, that whatever laid beyond, was not very pleased with what had happened last time when the Empire had tried to invade them and was just preparing for a counterattack. They would do good to hurry up, if Erebos wouldn't be so patient with them to come out. Otherwise he'd already have scorched the entire Empire black like he did with those unimportant cities that Lord Tulius had been living at.

"Well, the next time will come surely. And that Gate seems to be interesting as well. I wonder what is on the other side." He thought loud to himself. It had been almost a month by now since the forces behind it were invaded. And if what the prisoners had said was true, it would surely not take much longer for them to come. After all, what human nation would simply accept the fact that their own people were kidnapped?

AND IT'S FINALLY DONE!? Well actually it was done some time ago, but I had exams and work and projects that all needed to be taken care off. Also I originally planned on uploading the sheets of the NPCs here, but if I had to do that as well I'd probably never come to update this story. (sheepish laughter)

Anyway, thanks for reading and for waiting so long. I hope you enjoyed it, even when it honestly wasn't really worth the long time you have waited. I wish I could have wrote this down sooner. Like always write your comments, questions and suggestions in the reviews. Or write me a PM if you wish to adress something without having everyone see it.

So see you hopefully next time and have a nice day ;)