WIEDERGEBURT Act VII: Chapter 36

“The fuck happened here?”

Tora did not know what to think when she saw the gaping chasms, large craters, and massive cracks spread across the mountain top. It was clear that a battle had taken place here, but there wasn’t a single body. A shiver traveled up her spine.

She had a very bad feeling about all this.

“Fucking fuck. I can’t believe I’m doing this. Eryk better fucking appreciate how much I’m doing for him.”

Swearing like usual, Tora made her way into the temple, which also showed signs of damage. There were several craters located periodically and at relatively even intervals. It looked like something had been there, and whoever had come through simply erased this. Tora recognized the Concept of Negation at work.

She traveled downward, into the mountaintop temple, and eventually reached a large doorway… or rather an archway. It looked like a door might have once been there, but it was long gone now. Tora gulped as she crept along the edge and peered inside.

The room on the other side was smaller than she expected. Most of her attention was on the two people inside, however, and not the room. She didn’t recognize which Sekbeist Lord this was, but she recognized Hriedmar easily enough. He was crouched over and using his Rune Writing skill to undo the seal that kept Tiamat locked away.

I have to kill him… but how? I’m sure that Sekbeist will notice me the moment I fucking walk out from behind this door. Maybe I can create a poison to envelop the area? I’m not so good with poisons, but it should be possible…

“I know you’re there. There’s no sense in trying to hide from me,” the Sekbeist Lord suddenly said, turning in her direction.

Shit.

Because she had already been discovered, Tora walked out from behind the archway, hands behind her head, feigning casualness.

“I figured there was some fucker up here messing with the seal, and lo and behold, here the fuck you are,” Tora said.

The Sekbeist smiled, but it was cold and condescending. He was obviously look down at her. The bastard.

“It doesn’t matter if you knew someone was up here or not. You are already too late to do anything,” he said.

Before Tora could actually do anything, the Sekbeist Lord placed a hand on Hriedmar’s shoulder and vanished. This was different than someone who shifted through dimensions or transported themselves with gates and portals. She didn’t know how to explain it, but seeing him just disappear like that made her shiver.

He could have killed me…

Why didn’t he?

Tora received her answer when the crystal coffin surrounding Tiamat melted. Spiritual Power that was even stronger than most members of the God Race spread throughout the room, creating a pressure so intense that Tora’s knees buckled. She placed a hand against her chest. It was a struggle just to breathe.

Tiamat didn’t look much different than her granddaughter. She was a tiny woman of maybe 149 centimeters. Her petite frame was covered with a dress that clung to her torso and became more flowing after reaching her hips. The bottom half also seemed to be made of feathers.

Her silver hair was long, but plaited into an intricate braid arrayed around her head. A few silver strands hung down her face, drawing attention to her youthful features, her small nose, wide eyes, and delicate chin. She looked even more like a porcelain doll than Siv did.

Like all Drakvarians, Tiamat possessed a pair of horns that jutted from her head. They were much larger and longer than any Tora had ever seen. They emerged from just above her ears, sloped backward, then curled down. Her wings were long and white, majestic and imposing. Finally, a large tail could be seen behind her. The dress had a split down the center to make her tail visible.

“So this… is Tiamat,” Tora mumbled, her teeth chattering. “No wonder… she’s so feared. This Spiritual Pressure is insane.”

A large sucking force with Tiamat in the center threatened to knock Tora off her feet, though it didn’t last long. The force and Spiritual Pressure vanished. That just made the tension rise even more. It was so bad that Tora didn’t even realize she had stopped breathing until her brain reminded her it needed oxygen.

Then Tiamat opened her eyes.

Her crimson eyes surrounded by darkness.

The eyes of evil.

“Fuck!!”

Tora barely had time to create a shield before Tiamat unleashed a scream that ripped the laws of this dimension asunder. The world around her shattered and fragmented. Tora screamed as the barrier she’d erected around herself broke, though she managed to escape relatively unscathed. Wiping the blood from her nose, Tora quickly took off, racing back up the stairs so she could get out of this realm forsaken temple.

She needn’t have bothered.

Tora didn’t know what hit her, but pain overrode her every nerve as the temple and everything surrounding it disappeared. Tiamat had created a powerful dimensional rift from which hundreds of thousands of blades emerged and sliced through the temple and mountaintop. Tora did her best to create conceptual armor around herself, but it kept getting torn apart, and Tora found herself being struck numerous times.

She slammed into the mountaintop, groaning in pain. Yet she did her best to keep her eyes open. Tiamat was floating in the sky, surrounded by spatial distortions and dimensional ripples. She looked like a goddess descending to this realm to enact her revenge on the mortals who spurned her. Even though Tora was technically of a higher race, she felt an intense fear of this woman.

Tiamat gazed upon her like she was a worm.

And then she disappeared.

Tora scrambled to her feet and leapt away from her current position—just in time as Tiamat appeared in that location and slammed her fist into the ground. A shockwave raced from the impact, slammed into Tora, and sent her tumbling head over heels. She screamed as the world around her spun. It was only reflexes honed by months of sparring with Eryk and the others that let her flip around and land on her feet.

Except Tiamat was already right in her face.

“FUCK!”

Tora bent her knees and tilted backward, until her body was parallel with the ground. Tiamat’s kick came so close to her face that Tora thought she felt several epidermal layers of skin get shaved off her nose. She ignored her racing heart, planted her hand on the ground, and kicked at Tiamat. Her goal was to kick this little woman in the chest and send her back, but Tiamat had already disappeared.

All she hit was an afterimage.

Tora was unable to do anything this time as Tiamat appeared above her, spun around, and landed an axe kick on her stomach. Bile and blood spewed from her mouth as the attack pulverized her insides. She was certain she could feel all her internal organs being turned into pulp.

The pain was so intense that she must have blacked out. When she came to, Tiamat was holding her by the neck, her tiny fingers clenched so tightly around her throat that she couldn’t breathe. She would have tried removing them, but she had no strength left to fight.

Emotionless, Tiamat raised her other hand, which was straightened into a knife point. Tora already knew what this woman planned on doing. She wanted to fight against it, to kick and struggle and flail, but she just… couldn’t. All she could do was watch as the woman prepared to kill her.

“KARI!” a voice shouted.

In that moment, the world around Tora slowed down. Tiamat was still moving, but it was at an incredibly slow pace, like she was wading through neck deep mud.

Eryk and Fay appeared in that moment. Fay’s left hand was covered in dimensional ripples as she brought it down on Tiamat’s arm, severing it at the elbow. As Tora fell to the ground, Eryk spun on the balls of his feet, then landed a kick in Tiamat’s chest—or so it seemed until Tiamat disappeared. Her forearm also vanished.

“You okay, Tora?” Eryk asked.

Tora would have told him that she wasn’t fucking okay, but all she could do was spew out blood. The disgusting taste of iron filled her mouth.

Fay knelt beside her as Kari walked over. Her cool hand pressed against Tora’s forehead, and it felt so nice that Tora thought she might pass out.

“Tora has many internal injuries. Most of them are fatal,” Fay announced. Then she smiled. “It’s a good thing I have just the pill for this.”

Tora would have asked what this woman was talking about, but Fay soon popped a pill into her mouth, chewed it, then pressed their mouths together. It was so shocking that Tora could do nothing as the other woman shoved her tongue into Tora’s mouth. Something like gunk entered her throat. A hand massaged her as well, helping force the medicinal liquid down.

A string of blood and saliva connected Fay and Tora as the redhead pulled away.

“This is going to hurt,” Fay warned Tora. “Brace yourself.”

Tora still couldn’t say anything, but even if she had that capability, it wouldn’t have mattered because the pain that struck her was so intense she blacked out a moment later.

***

“Fay, take Tora somewhere safe, then get back here,” I said as I stared at Tiamat. The emotionless woman stood several meters away from us, holding her severed limb. Did she not feel any pain. “I have a feeling we’re going to need your help with this.”

“Got it. I’ll be right back,” Fay said.

She lifted the unconscious Tora in her arms, then stepped backward as a dimensional rift suddenly appeared behind her. I expected her to be gone for awhile, but she returned barely a second later, smirking at me.

“Back,” she said.

“That was fast,” I exclaimed.

“Fast indeed,” Kari said with a smile. “It’s a good thing though. There’s no way we can take this woman on without her help.”

“Right.” I took a deep breath. “Fay, we’ll be relying on your dimensional manipulation to prevent her from using that teleportation ability of hers.”

“I’ll do my best,” Fay said.

Tiamat tilted her head as she listened to us talk. I wondered if maybe she couldn’t understand what we were saying, but then her lips twitched into a smile.

“I sense… my kin’s scent on you,” she said to me. “Tell me… what is… your relationship… with my family?”

The stilted manner in which she spoke made me pause. It sounded like she was struggling, but she was still cognizant enough to speak, which meant the Sekbeist Overlord had not been able to fully take over her.

“I’m married to your granddaughter,” I confessed.

“My granddaughter… I see. So that… insufferable child of… mine… finally got married.” Tiamat heaved a sigh of relief, but then shadows appeared on her face as her lips thinned into a straight line. “Please… do me… a favor… kill me. I… cannot hang on… much longer… would like… to die… while still myself.”

I could only imagine how much this woman—how much all the Great Overlords—had suffered by having a piece of the Sekbeist Overlord sealed inside of them. These great heroes of yore had made the ultimate sacrifice and were still suffering for it. I felt nothing but pity for them, even the Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm had my pity.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “We won’t let you, or rather, the monster sealed inside of you, rampage across the nine realms.”

“Thank… you…”

Tiamat’s bright smile reminded me so much of Siv that I felt a moment of hesitation, though the expression vanished as her eyes turned colder than this mountaintop. I could already sense the shift. The Sekbeist Overlord might not have taken over her completely, but he was clearly in charge of that body right now.

“She’s coming,” Kari warned us.

At that moment, Tiamat vanished. I turned all my senses on high as I set about trying to located her. A black dimensional tear opened on my left. As I turned, Tiamat appeared, body corkscrewing to avoid the blade, and I stepped forward as a massive ruler appeared in my left hand. I swung the blade at the woman. She was surrounded by spatial tears. She was trying to escape to a safe distance, but her movements were slow like she was trapped in molasses.

Or like someone had slowed down time around her.

I struck Tiamat with the black death ruler, which sent the woman crashing into the mountaintop. Her body skidded across the ground, though she was able to flip herself around, land on her feet, and skid backwards. Several tears had appeared on her dress—not that she seemed to care. Her blank eyes stared at us like she was contemplating what to do.

Then she stomped on the ground.

“Jump!” I shouted.

Kari, Fay, and I leapt into the air as a dimensional tear appeared under our feet. The inky black whirlpool was deadly enough, but then something crawled out of the tear. It was a writhing mass of tentacles attached to something that only vaguely resembled a face.

As the thing leapt at us, Fay flew forward and created a black gateway. The monster rushed into the gateway, vanished, and Fay quickly closed it, sealing the creature away in another dimension.

Before we could celebrate, the world around us shattered with spatial tears, revealing a starry expanse beyond each tear. Kari gritted her teeth as she held out her hands. Threads of Spiritual Power flowed through the tears, restoring the tapestries of reality. That was at least what it seemed like. What she was actually doing was reverting time to before the tears formed.

We couldn’t remain on the defensive forever. Knowing this, I flew toward Tiamat, who merely stared at me as I descended and swung the ruler like I wanted to break her head open.

She swung her severed hand at my ruler. My eyes widened when it exploded into black miasma. Tiamat wasn’t done. Spinning around, she swung her severed hand again, smacking me across the face. I twirled like a top. Landing on the ground, I quickly healed my broken face with the water element. At the same time, I rose to my feet and raised an arm to block Tiamat’s next punch, which packed enough power to send me stumbling backward.

Kari and Fay appeared on either side of Tiamat before she could press her attack. Tiamat tried to move backward, but Kari grabbed her arm, and time around them slowed to a crawl. It looked like the petite woman was moving in slow motion.

Fay wasn’t, however.

Her leg covered in dimensional tears connected with Tiamat’s midsection. I thought for a moment that this would be enough to rip her body in half, but no such thing happened. Tiamat had barely moved. It took me a moment to realize it, but the woman was wearing conceptualized armor that prevented the Concept of Dimension from affecting her.

All three of us leapt backward as Tiamat’s body exploded with power. We barely managed to avoid being struck thanks to Fay creating a shield that absorbed all the energy and sent it into another dimension.

“This battle is going nowhere,” Kari said.

“She’s just too powerful,” Fay agreed. “I don’t think the three of us can take her by ourselves.”

“No, I think we can,” I disagreed. “Kari and I will attack in close. Kari, try to slow down all of her attacks. You and I will get her to focus entirely on us, and Fay? You’re going to remove the woman’s head when she isn’t looking.”

“It’s better than just hoping to get lucky,” Kari said.

“I’ll give it a try, but don’t expect too much,” Fay added.

There was nothing more that needed to be said, and Tiamat had appeared before us after stepping out of a portal, so we had no more time to talk. I stepped forward and lashed out with a kick. It was blocked when Tiamat raised her leg, which felt more durable than mythril. Hard to believe such a tiny woman could pack so much defensive power.

Tiamat came in with a punch, but her fist inexplicably slowed seconds before it could connect. This gave me the time to dodge. I then stepped forward and threw a punch with all my weight and Spiritual Power put into it. It struck Tiamat in the chest and blasted the tiny woman off her feet.

Kari ran along the ground. She created a ranseur of light and leapt into the air, sailing right for Tiamat as she thrust the woman out. It shattered when Tiamat used her only remaining hand to swat it away, but that was just a distraction. Kari closed the distance, grabbed Tiamat’s face, and slammed her into the ground. She dragged the woman across the mountaintop, gouging out a trench. It was like she had decided to use this woman’s body as a shovel.

Yet even that wasn’t enough to stop Tiamat. A portal opened behind Kari, and a petite hand shot through and speared the woman through the back. Kari yelped. But then Tiamat’s hand was forced back through the portal, which closed as Kari’s wound vanished as though someone was rewinding the clock. While Kari had been able to reverse time, it was clear this kind of manipulation took a harsh tole on her. Kari stumbled forward, which was enough leeway for Tiamat, who placed her feet on my wife’s chest and kicked.

As Kari went flying through the air, I rushed in and engaged Tiamat in hand-to-hand combat. At the same time, Fay leapt through a dimensional rift, appeared next to Kari, and caught the woman in her arms. She quickly fed Kari an alchemy pill as they landed on the ground.

My body was already covered with a thick layer of conceptualized armor. Tiamat tried to strike at me, but she jerked her hand back and stared at the now shriveled appendage. Death could not manipulate time. I could not age Tiamat like Kari probably could if she had enough Spiritual Power. However, it was very possible to drain someone’s vitality with the Concept of Death.

Tiamat must have realized this because she leapt back and lashed out with her tail, launching a powerful storm of particles that blasted into me, shredding my flesh from my bones. I screamed even as I covered my vitals to protect them. The horrid sensation of my skin and muscles being savagely ripped off my body was worse than any pain I’d experienced, and using the water element to heal it just made the pain last long when the new skin and muscles were similarly torn.

Fortunately, while Tiamat was focused on me, Kari was healed up. She and Fay stepped through a dimensional rift that took them to the woman. Kari slowed Tiamat’s time as Fay used the woman’s distracted state to punch a hole through Tiamat’s chest. Even though the woman was covered in her armor, the amount of Spiritual Power Fay packed into her attack exceeded what the armor could withstand.

The storm died down as Tiamat stumbled forward. She struggled to stand up, but Fay’s attack had removed her heart. She collapsed forward and would have hit the ground. I caught her before that could happen and gently sank to my knees.

“T… thank… you…” Tiamat said, gracing me with one last smile before the life vanished from her eyes. Dark miasma wafted from her body. It took the form of a person, a vague outline of darkness that felt evil, and I thought for a moment that our task was not done, but then the figure vanished as the miasma dispersed and drifted away.

“I really pity these Great Overlords,” I mumbled as I reached up and closed Tiamat’s eyes. “They sacrificed themselves to prevent the destruction of our world, but in exchange, their bodies and minds were taken over by the very creature they were fighting against.”

“It is pitiable,” Kari said. “I just hope Tiamat and the others can find peace in death.”

I nodded. “I will make sure she does.”

Looking up, I stared into the translucent face of Tiamat. The woman smiled at me, a soft and tender smile of gratitude, before her figure wavered and disappeared.

***

A lot of people died during the simultaneous attacks on Vahn and the Misty Mountain Range. Not only had all the elder dragons been killed sometime during this crisis, but thousands of humans and hundreds of Lightning Giants had been slain.

Because there was no longer any sense in remaining inside the Misty Mountain Range, I ordered everyone to move to Vahn, which had become our only stronghold. Vahn might have been damaged, but it had survived the invasion. Most of the structures were still intact. Only a few of the key buildings like the one that contained the Spatial Barrier Array had been destroyed. Kari planned on repairing it as soon as possible. She said she was going to make it even stronger than before.

But not right now.

At that moment, everyone had gathered outside of Vahn to host a mass funeral service.

We had created traditional funeral pyres for all the people who had died, which of course meant there were twelve thousand pyres burning in the early morning hours. They were arrayed in a circle, with the largest one in the center containing none other than Tiamat, the Great Overlord of the Eight Realm, Drakvarian Empress, and the Lord of Space and Dimension. I had brought her body with us because I believed she deserved to be laid to rest.

So many people were crying as they stared at the pyres. Men, women, giants, and dragons. I could see couples holding each other as they shed tears for lost friends, fathers and mothers holding sons and daughters who were too young to understand why their mommy and daddy had been lit on fire. Meerand was in the lead of the dragons, and he was releasing soft whimpers as he wept for those who had been lost.

Meerand and the other dragons were an interesting case. They knew they had lost loved ones, but they could not remember anything else; not who had been lost, what their names were, or even what relationship they had to those who died. The Concept of Negation erased everything. That included memories of the people it killed.

I was standing with all of my family—not just my wives but the other members too. Hilda was surrounded by her three husbands. Valence, Dante, and Rainer had not left her side ever since she returned from the dead. Geirolf was standing beside Catalyna, one arm wrapped around her waist and the other holding his daughter. Their son was gripping Catalyna’s hand. Standing beside them was Earland and Aliya. Mykkel and Rienhard were not far away either, and next to them was Stelys and Feinrea, and Erica and Tungsten. Medusa stood a little ways off.

Of course, I was still surrounded by my wives. Kari, Fay, Siv, Lin, and Tora stood right beside me, so close I could catch the scent of their hair on the wind. Chloe was also right next to me. She’d been nearly inconsolable when she heard about what happened to Fray, and she’d been so thankful to me for bringing her back that my lips were still bruised from when she kissed me senseless.

Fray was also standing beside me, holding my hand in hers. She had recovered from losing her life—physically. Dying did something to the psyche, damage it in some way, and so neither Fray or Hilda were in any way stable enough to live on their own. While Hilda was being taken care of by her husbands, myself, my wives, and Chloe were taking care of Fray.

“I just realized something,” Kari said in a soft voice.

“What is it?” I asked, my voice equally soft.

“While we were able to save so many of the people who were close to us this time, so many more people have died,” Kari said. “In changing the past, more destruction has been sown.” I opened my mouth, but Kari smiled and shook her head. “I know I’m being silly. None of what happened is something that we are directly responsible for, and I’m certain events would have played out much worse if we weren’t here… but my heart still feels heavy at how many lives have been lost this time.”

I understood what she was feeling. It was something that always hung in the back of our minds.

I had already lived one life before this, and while they had not traversed time like me, Kari and my other wives had all received the memories from their time in that future. As the one who had spent the most time with me, Kari knew more than anyone else what kind of future we had in that other timeline.

Of course, Kari had not seen the destruction that the Sekbeist Overlord had wrought after his revival. She died during his first attack. The Sekbeist Overlord, possessing the Great Overlord of the Seventh Realm, had wiped Midgard and many cities in the Northern Plains from the map. I didn’t know how many had died back then, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the numbers were comparable to what we had lost this time.

At least in this timeline, we had a chance at victory.

“This princess understands how you feel, but no one here is to blame,” Lin said. “What happened is a tragedy. Maybe it could have been prevented. Maybe it couldn’t. There is no way to know what would have happened if things had been done differently. We were not even present when all this happened, so it’s not like we can bare the responsibility for this tragedy ourselves.”

“Maybe not,” Kari agreed. I could sense that she had more to say, but she held her tongue.

The funeral service ended when all the pyres died down. Nothing remained of the people who had been cremated except ashes. Since it was a small feat for me, I used earth manipulation to create several jars around all the ashes, then announced to the people that they could feel free to grab the ashes of their loved ones. Quite a few wandered over to grab a jar. I just hoped they chose the correct jar.

“Lin,” I began, “Please tell everyone who needs to know that we’re having a meeting.”

“Right now?” Lin asked.

I nodded. “Right now. It can’t wait.”

Lin nodded and slithered off, first traveling over to Medusa and talking with animated hand gestures before moving on. It didn’t surprise me that she was talking to her mother first.

“Fray, I know you’re still weak, but can you please join the meeting with us?” I asked.

Fray gave me a frail smile. “Of course. I think I know what you want to talk about, and I agree that it’s something we really need to discuss now. The sooner the better.”

“I’m glad you understand,” I said.

While Kari seemed to already know what I wanted to talk about, Fay wore a small frown as she asked, “What do you need to discuss that’s so important?”

“As of right now, the Sekbeist have unsealed every Great Overlord except one, or so we assume. It seems obvious to me that they are going to succeed in their goals,” I began.

“You believe the Sekbeist Overlord will be revived?” Siv asked.

“I do.” I nodded once and continued. “And so rather than come up with ways to stop the Sekbeist Overlord’s revival, I think we should come up with a way to combat him immediately after his revival.”

“I suppose there’s not much else we can do,” Fay admitted.

“This fucking sucks,” Tora added. No one disagreed with her.

There was plenty we needed to do before the meeting itself. I ordered our people to set up food stations for those who found themselves homeless, rearranged our patrols so there would be no gaps in our defense, and met with a few civil servants who informed me of the current state of our people—not that I needed it. Morale was obviously had an all-time low right now. Myself and the others had lost the faith of our people, though there was little I could do about that right now.

Once I was certain I’d done everything I could for our people, I traveled to the large building we used for meetings. It used to belong to a wealthy merchant. I heard it was where he did most of his large-scale business transactions.

Because none of us had a chance to eat in over twenty-four hours, I asked Chloe to grab some servants and have them prepare a meal for us.

The people who were attending this meeting were those I felt confident leaving in charge of daily affairs. Hilda and her husbands were there, of course, but so was Medusa, Menes, Quwain, Geirolf, Fray, and my wives.

Sterk was also present. I had specifically requested him. He looked completely out of place alongside the others.

We were using the meeting room meant for larger meetings. A table capable of seating more than twenty people sat in the center, stretching from one side of the room to the other. I sat at the head of the table, Kari sat on my left, Lin sat on my right, and the others had arranged themselves as they wished. It was easy to see they had all formed groups. Medusa and Menes were sitting together, Hilda was with her husbands, and Fray sat next to Hilda.

“Before we get to why I called for this meeting, I would like to hear your reports regarding what happened,” I said at last. “I want to know what happened, exactly, how many people died, and what you think we can do to prevent his from happening in the future.”

Hilda raised her hand before anyone else could speak. “What happened in Vahn was my fault. When we discovered that Garret was alive, I was so overcome that I never considered he might have been enslaved by the Sekbeists. It was my lack of foresight that led to what happened.”

“You are not the only one at fault,” Medusa said as she slapped the end of her tail against the ground in agitation. “This queen was the one who discovered Garret. She thought something was odd about him, but she did not think it was a very big deal. Had this queen acted on her suspicions, all of this may have been avoided.”

While it was nice that these two were willing to admit their faults, that alone would not be enough to resolve the underlying issue.

I leaned back in my seat, placed my hands on the table, and clasped them together. “And do either of you, or anyone else, have a proposal for how to avoid this situation in the future.”

“I might have one,” Menes said, raising his hand. “When people wish to enter Vahn, we always check to make sure they are not Sekbeist in disguise. I believe if we check each slave we rescue for signs of mind control, we can prevent this from happening again.”

“And how would we do that?” I asked.

Kari raised her hand. “I’ve already done an… autopsy on Garret. It looks like they crafted the mind control runes into his very skin. The reason we missed them was because they were carved into his armpit. While it might be invasive, I believe we should check each person who wants to enter Vhan for similar runes on their person.”

“That is pretty invasive,” Fay said as she ran a hand through her hair. “Can’t you create something that can detect them without having to do personal inspections?”

Kari rubbed her face in thought, then answered slowly. “It might be possible, but I will have to study the runes in greater depth… and I might need to find someone who has them grafted on their skin to see how the Spiritual Power flows through each rune. This isn’t something that was created from our runic language. It’s in the Sekbeist language, and while I can probably reverse-engineer the effects, that does not mean I have a complete understanding of them.”

The doors suddenly opened and Chloe entered alongside several maids, pushing several carts covered in plates filled with food. Chloe personally served me. She set a polished white plate in front of me. The food on the plate was a creamy risotto with Parmesan cheese and topped with roasted shrimp. She also poured me a glass of white wine.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Of course, Master.” Chloe leaned in and kissed my cheek before moving on to Fray, whom she also served personally.

I ignored the looks from everyone else—the amused ones from my wives and the baffled ones from those who didn’t know of my relationship with Chloe—and began eating. The risotto was deliciously creamy and created a lovely contrast with the Parmesan and shrimp. I must have been hungrier than I realized, because I ended up scarfing down my entire plate seconds after Chloe put it in front of me.

“It looks like we’re all fed,” I said, “So let me get to the main point of this meeting.”

Everyone focused on me as Chloe and the maids removed the plates from the table and left the room, though Chloe did slip back in moments later so she could stand behind me. I assume she gave orders to the other maids.

“It’s only a matter of time before the Sekbeist Overlord is revived,” I began. “We don’t know where the remaining members of the Zehn Todesharr are, and we’ve got our hands full just trying to rebuild. We don’t have the strength to contend against the Sekbeists right now. Rather than play defensively as we have been, I would like to meet fire with fire. That is why I’m ordering Sterk and the Dweorgs to work alongside Kari and Fray and create another isolation chamber. However, this one will not be used for the kind of closed-door training we were using previously.” I placed my hands on the table, leaned over, and eyed everyone present. “It’s time I shared my origins with all of you and how it will be the key to our victory in this war.”