WIEDERGEBURT Act VII: Chapter 28

We had journeyed back to the Whiterun Hot spring Resort. It was located close enough to the Demon Beast Mountain Range that we could travel there at a moment’s notice, but far enough away that we wouldn’t alert the Zehn Todesharr that we knew what they were up to.

“Thank you for hosting us again,” Kari said to Lady Sassa as she and her maids served my party food and refreshments. We had been served grilled salmon that the maids had caught earlier that morning, a mild soup made from vegetable stock, and a type of plant that had been baked in the oven until it was crunchy. The plant was my favorite, oddly enough. It had been drizzled in olive oil and salted.

“You are welcome, Lady Kari.” Lady Sassa smiled at the blonde, then turned her smile onto the rest of us. “I appreciate you all coming out here again. It is nice to finally have people visit. I think we had all forgotten what a joy it was to serve customers. Now then, I am sure you have much to talk about. We shall give you some privacy. Please enjoy your meal.”

Lady Sassa left with her maids pushing their carts. As the door to the room shut, I turned my attention back to the women with me.

We were all sitting around a long table, in chairs that were still in great condition considering the circumstances. The soft mattress underneath my bottom did feel a little lumpy. By and large, however, it was a blessing this resort had even that much.

“What should we do now that we are here?” asked Lin.

“We need to find that member of the Zehn Todesharr,” Kari said.

“But the question is: How do we find him?” asked Fay. “The Demon Beast Mountain Range is vast, and he could be anywhere.”

Fay brought up a good point. How were going to find someone in a place that was the nine realms only knew how many thousands of square kilometers in size? It really sounded like an impossible task.

“We’d have better luck finding a unicorn horn or phoenix feathers,” I muttered.

“It is true that locating our foe will require a lot of effort,” Chloe said as she squirmed in her seat. “But I think I might know of a way we can located him easily.”

“How the fuck are we gonna do that, squirmy?” asked Tora, grinning at the woman. I think she was taking pleasure in the woman’s discomfort.

This was the first time I had ever seen Chloe look so uncomfortable, but I understood that she was used to waiting on and serving others, not the other way around. Having so many maids wait on her had left the woman discombobulated.

“Do not call me that.” Chloe kicked Tora’s shin under the table, making the woman yelp as she jerked back, causing her chair to nearly tip and spill her out. Coughing into her hand, Chloe looked at Kari. “I have the schematics for a rune array called Astral Body Projection Array. If you can create this array, I can use it to create an astral body and use it to search the Demon Beast Mountain Range.”

“What is this Astral Body Projection whatever?” asked Lin.

“Astral Body Projection Array,” Siv said quietly.

“Yeah. That.”

Chloe ignored Tora’s glare as she answered Lin’s question. “The Astral Body Projection Array is a rune array that will allow someone who has mastered the Concept of Space to create an astral body. It is a body made of Spiritual Power that can only exist within the Astral Plane.”

“And what is the Astral Plane?” asked Fay.

“The Astral Plane is considered by many to be the spirit world. There is a theory proposed long ago by someone who had mastered the Concept of Space so thoroughly he said that he traveled to a plane of existence where the consciousness of everyone in our world exists. He proposed that when a person died, their spirit traveled to the Astral Plane, where they lived out the rest of their non-physical lives before being reborn.” None of us spoke as Chloe gave everyone a wry smile. “I have no idea if that is true or not, but the Astral Body Projection Array will allow me to project my spiritual body into the Astral Plane, which should in theory allow me to travel the entire world in less than a second.”

“If you can travel that fast, I imagine searching the Demon Beast Mountain Range will be easy,” Kari said.

“Those were my thoughts as well,” Chloe admitted.

“Okay then.” I placed my hands on the table and looked at everyone. “We’ll stay here tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll travel into the Demon Beast Mountain Range, Kari will make that rune array, and Chloe will use it to search the area for the Zehn Todesharr.” I paused and furrowed my brow. “Do we know who they sent here?”

“We do not have complete confirmation, but we believe the person who left was Gorrick,” Chloe said.

Crack!

Everyone paused and looked at Tora as she sat frozen solid in her chair. The mug she had been drinking from had shattered, the broken pieces scattered across the table, hand drenched in ale. She had clenched her hand into a tight fist, which shook as if she was struggling to contain her emotions.

“Tora?” I asked. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Tora grabbed a napkin, wiped her hand, then stood up. “Excuse me. I want to be alone.”

We all watched in uncertain silence as Tora marched out of the room, slammed the doors behind her as she left, and stalked off. It wasn’t long before even the sound of her footsteps had disappeared.

“That was… odd,” Lin muttered as she shoved a whole fish into her mouth. She crunched down, and I flinched when I heard bones snapping. At least Lin didn’t continue talking until she swallowed all the food in her mouth. “This princess has never seen Tora act like that. Do you think she has some history with this Gorrick person?”

“I’m not sure,” Kari said.

“Eryk, I think you should talk to her,” Siv suddenly said.

“You do, huh?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

But Siv just nodded, her expression serious. “This mission is important. We can’t have someone acting on their own.”

“Siv is right about that,” Kari said, nodding. “Everyone needs to know what’s at stake and not act in their own self-interest. Tora’s the kind of woman I’d expect to act on her own initiative the moment she loses control of her emotions. As our leader, it is your job to make sure that doesn’t happen. Besides,” she added with a softer expression on her face, “I think she is in pain right now. If I was in pain, I would want the person I love to comfort me.”

“Does this mean Tora is joining our family?” asked Fay.

“This princess has not given Tora her blessing yet,” Lin huffed.

“Yet,” Kari said with a giggle. Lin just huffed some more.

Since everyone was in agreement, I left the dining hall and went to find Tora. It wasn’t hard. She was one of the brightest flames I could detect using Spiritual Perception right now, and her flame was very unique because of her strong understanding over the Concept of Creation.

I found her sitting in a chair inside of the gaming room. It was a fairly wide space with several tables set up for people to play Hnefatafl. She was sitting at one of the tables with a board and several pieces already sitting out, though she was not playing. With one finger on top of a piece, she rocked it back and forth, her feet resting on the edge of her chair.

“What the fuck do you want?” asked Tora in a gruff voice.

“To know what the fuck is wrong with you,” I shot back. Tora said nothing as I walked over, plopped down in a chair beside her, and stared at the woman.

Tora looked away. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Really? That’s too bad. You’re gonna have to talk about it.” Tora sent me a sharp glare, but I glared right back. “We’re on a mission, Tora. The entire world is at stake here. And I can’t have a member of my party getting emotional during a critical time and potentially screwing everything up. If you can’t tell me what’s bothering you, I can’t take you with us.”

Tora bit her lower lip as she struggled with how to answer me, but no matter how guilty her expression made me feel, I was not going to let this matter lie. Only an idiot would let matters lie during a crucial moment like this. If we didn’t resolve her problem now, it could come back and bite us in the ass later.

“Fine.” Tora sighed and let her feet fall to the floor with a thud. She released the Hnefatafl piece, which rocked back and forth several times before settling down. “I’ll tell you what’s bothering me. Just… give me a moment.”

I was surprised she wasn’t swearing, but perhaps her problem was so bad that her usual habit had taken a backseat.

“Take your time,” I said with a gesture.

Tora closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. Her shoulders rose, stilled, then fell. She repeated this several times.

“I confronted my father before we left for Miðgarðr…” she began, and like that, she explained everything that had happened, from how her father told her that Fray killed her mother, to her confrontation with Fray, and of course, how Fray had mentioned that Gorrick was the actual reason her mother was dead.

“This is a lot to take in, though that does explain why you were crying that night,” I said.

Tora scowled. “I was not crying.”

“You drenched my shirt in tears. You were crying,” I said in a dry voice. Tora’s cheeks darkened at my blunt words, but I just shook my head. “So Gorrick is the reason your mother is dead, and now you might have a chance to confront him. I’m guessing that’s why your emotions are all over the place?”

Tora shrugged. “More or less. I know I’m probably not strong enough to beat him. Even Lady Fray might not be able to beat him in a one-on-one fight, but at the same time… I can’t help but hope I get the chance to kill him with my own hands.”

Well, it wasn’t like I didn’t understand where she was coming from. After Kari died in my previous life, I had lived for revenge, but that was why I could say the things I did now. Because I had already been there.

“I’m not going to tell you not to get your revenge.” I reached out, placed a hand over Tora’s, and squeezed it. “I don’t think there is anything wrong with getting revenge on someone who took something so precious from you… but I do want you to put the mission above your desire for revenge. I will help you kill Gorrick eventually. If we can do so on this mission, great. But if we can’t, promise me you won’t go off and lose your mind to revenge.”

Tora didn’t say anything to me at first, and I thought it was because she was pondering whether or not she should listen to me, but then I noticed she was staring at my hand. I was tempted to pull my hand back. I didn’t. Keeping my hand over hers, I squeezed it once more.

“Promise me, Tora,” I said.

“O-okay. I promise. I fucking promise, all right?” Tora’s cheeks darkened further as she looked away. “So you can take your hand off mine now.”

Seeing Tora like this made me feel… mischievous. The last time I really teased anyone was shortly after I went back in time. Kari and I had been talking in the library, and I was a little too straightforward with her.

“Are you saying you don’t want me to hold your hand?” I asked, grabbing her hand and placing it in my lap. Tora squeaked. “I thought you wanted to marry me. You do know that if we get married, you and I are going to do so much more than just holding hands, right?”

“Er… but… well… we’re not married yet… so, uh, ah…”

I had trouble keeping a straight face as I watched Tora’s face turn redder and redder, until I thought she might pop a blood vessel. This crass and crude woman was awfully cute. I wondered how someone who said “fuck” every other sentence could be so adorable.

My smile widened.

“But fine. If you don’t want me to hold your hand, I guess I’ll stop.”

“Eh?”

I let go of Tora’s hand and stood up as if to leave. The panic of Tora’s face was priceless. With something resembling a sad smile, I said goodbye and turned around.

Tora grabbed my hand.

“W-wait!” I paused, slowly turned my head, and looked at Tora, who was looking anywhere but at me. “I… never said I didn’t want you to hold my hand. Um… what I mean is, you can hold my hand if you want.”

I thought about teasing Tora some more, but I believed the woman had enough, and I didn’t want to push her so far that she ran out on me.

Grabbing both her hands, I pulled Tora to her feet. Then I took just one of her hands in my own—my real hand—and walked toward the door.

“In that case, why don’t we go for a walk together?” I asked.

“Ah. Yeah. Sure,” Tora muttered.

As we left the game room and traveled down the hall, I realized Tora had only cursed once the entire time we were talking. How was that for weird?

***

In order to create the Astral Projection Rune Array, the first thing we needed was a clearing with enough space for Kari to draw the runes. The second thing we needed was the blood of an S-Rank Demon Beast.

According to Chloe, it would be better if we could find a SS-Rank Demon Beast because that would extend the amount of time she could remain within her astral body, but there were not Demon Beasts with that kind of power on Miðgarðr.

“GRAAAAAAA!!!”

A roar reverberated throughout the desert landscape as a massive creature reared back on its two hind legs and glared down at me. This monster had a powerful reptilian body. Its arms were much shorter than its legs and resembled four-fingered hands with deadly claws. A long neck attached its head to its body. Its neck, back, and tail were all covered in bony outcroppings that looked like spikes. Because it had been exposed to many years of volcanic debris, its carapace was highly discovered, taking on a muted grey-blue color.

This was the S-Rank Demon Beast of the desert.

Tyrant Rex.

“I don’t remember every fighting this thing in my past life,” I mumbled as the creature stomped on the ground.

Massive mounds of earth rose on either side and made to crush me. Punched them. There was no Spiritual Power in my attacks. They were just simple punches, but each punch pulverized the earth mounds like they were nothing.

The Tyrant Rex unleashed another angry howl as it realized its attack was inneffective.

“That’s not how you use the earth element,” I muttered with a sigh.

Tapping my foot against the ground, I channeled my Spiritual Power into the earth, manipulating it. The ground came alive. Several massive stakes made of highly compressed earth speared through the Tyrant Rex’s feet. Its howls of rage turned into howls of pain as blood poured from the wounds on its feet.

I needed to be careful not to bleed it too much. Kari needed around several thousand liters of blood to draw the rune array, so I was trying very hard to kill it in a way that didn’t cause it to lose much blood. Lightning was out because that would fry its insides and boil the blood. I could manipulate the blood within its body using the water element, but that might contaminate the blood. This was also why I wasn’t using the Concept of Death. I didn’t want my Spiritual Power doing something to the blood.

“Guess it’s physical attacks then,” I said.

I bent my knees, pushed forward, and disappeared within a Flash Step. The Tyrant Rex didn’t even see me as I appeared in front of it. While it might not see me, it certainly felt me when I slammed my fist into its chest, cracking the hard armored scales there. It roared in agony and stumbled backward, the earth shaking. I had no intention of giving this thing any reprieve, so I flew forward, spun around, and slammed a heel into the same place I had punched.

The armor shattered.

I grimaced as more blood gushed from its wound. Damn it. I could not afford to let this thing lose too much blood.

As the creature roared in both anger and agony, I gathered the wind element around me to create a massive ruler that was about four times the length of my normal one. This one also possessed a much sharper edge, being made of the wind element. Shooting forward, I swung my weapon as I passed by its neck. There was only a moment of resistance.

I landed on the ground and turned around as the creature’s neck split. The head fell to the ground with a loud rumble, then the body followed suit, swaying before striking the ground with an even larger rumble.

The moment the creature died, Kari appeared quickly, activating a timelock around the now dead creature to keep its blood fresh. Siv and Chloe landed next to her. They raised their hands, and I walked over as the blood that had been pouring from the stump in its head began flowing through the air. Fay, Lin, and Tora summoned several large barrels from within a storage ring and set them up. Keeping their hands pointed at the blood, Siv and Chloe directed all the red liquid to flow into the barrels, filling them up.

They were able to fill forty barrels in total.

“I believe this will be enough,” Kari said.

“It had fucking better be enough,” Tora muttered.

“That’s a lot of blood,” Lin said. “We might even have too much.”

“No.” Kari shook her head. “This is just barely enough to draw the runes.”

“You’re joking,” Lin exclaimed.

“I am not,” said Kari.

“Let’s hurry up and go back to the clearing,” I suggested. “I’d like to have these runes complete before the end of today.”

After storing the barrels inside of my storage ring, we journeyed back to a large clearing several kilometers from the desert.

The area we had chosen was an old forest. We had cleared away all the trees, burnt the grass, then manipulated the earth to create a perfectly flag plain. It looked like a massive flatland in the very center of a large forest from a bird’s eye view.

“I’m about to begin now,” Kari said. “Please don’t interrupt me while I’m working.”

We were all shooed away by the woman, who popped open the first barrel, dipped a brush inside, and began drawing along the ground. Her movements were precise and confident. She first drew the circle that would contain the rune array, which was made of a smaller array called a Containment Array. This array was, according to Kari, necessary in every rune array. The array would run rampant if it wasn’t contained in this manner.

I didn’t know much about that. All I knew was watching Kari work was insane.

“I know I’ve said this before, but your wife is very talented,” Chloe told me as she stood with her hands clasped before her. “I have never seen anyone who can create runes like this after just a single glance.”

“She’s certainly amazing,” I agreed.

Lin puffed out her chest. “Of course Big Sister is amazing. She is this princess’s big sister for a reason, you know.”

I snorted at Lin’s uncalled for pride, but I didn’t say anything. Everyone recognized Kari’s talent for runes. However, it wasn’t like she was the only one with a unique talent. Fay was the greatest alchemist I had ever seen, Lin’s talent at management and number crunching was impressive, and while Siv might not have a “talent” per se, her physical strength was such that she could probably pulverize a mountain with a single punch if she wanted to.

Kari worked all throughout the day to get her work done. The sun had set by the time she had finished.

“Phew. That took longer than I thought it would,” she said, wiping the sweat from her brow.

Just as Kari had said, she used up all the blood we gained from the Tyrant Rex. The rune array she had created was another one that was so complex I couldn’t read it. There were probably over a hundred million runes drawn inside of the Containment Array. They all swirled together in complex patterns that resembled a much larger rune. Othala. It meant inherited property or possessions, but it could also mean spiritual heritage and was said to aid people in spiritual and physical journeys.

Kari walked over to us and stopped at my side.

“Okay, Chloe. You should be able to activate this array by standing in the center circle and just channeling your Spiritual Power into the array,” said Kari.

“Then I shall do so right now.”

With a bow toward Kari, Chloe walked into the rune array, stopping on a small circle located in the very center of the array.

The rest of us held our breaths as Spiritual Power surged from Chloe. A pure white flame appeared around her, swirling and flickering. Then, all of a sudden, the Spiritual Power vanished. It was gone just like that.

***

Chloe knew the moment she activated the rune array that it had been a success. Her body seemed to freeze in place, and she felt like she was floating an instant later. She opened her eyes, which she must have closed at some point, and discovered that she was hovering several meters above the air. Looking down revealed her body, frozen in time and not moving.

This is… Astral Projection?

Astral Projection was said to be the highest level of spatial technique in existence. It was a technique that not even Lady Fray, for all her otherworldly talent, could do. In truth, Chloe had not even been certain the rune array she had in her possession would work.

Chloe studied her surroundings. The world around her appeared in dull shades of gray—well, almost everything.

As she narrowed her eyes, Chloe noticed there was some color to the world around her. Master Eryk and his wives had color emanating from their chests. It wasn’t just one color but a plethora of different colors, which she assumed came from their mastery over the seven elements. Tora did not have any color representing her.

So only the elements show up as a color in this realm?

Chloe had no idea if that was true. She flew forward and around the group, curious to know if they could see her, but not only did they not respond to her presence, they didn’t move at all. It was like they had been frozen in time.

No. That’s not in. They are moving, but it’s extremely slowly.

Chloe did not know if that meant the world around her had slowed down, or if she had sped up, but she understood this was the reason she could travel so quickly.

Now that she had a handle on this ability, Chloe took off and began looking around the Demon Beast Mountain Range. She was searching for someone who appeared as blank space within her perceptions. She traveled from one side to the other, searching and searching and searching, but she did not discover the Sekbeist I question anywhere.

Chloe stopped traveling, crossed her arms and her legs, and tried to think about the situation. Another moment passed before she ascended high into the air and looked down at the Demon Beast Mountain Range. She narrowed her eyes and focused hard on directing Spiritual Power into her eyes.

The world suddenly shifted. Bright lines of power appeared on the ground and began flowing. They flowed through the ground, the trees, the plants. Everything.

I see. This must be the consciousness of all living things. In the astral realm, I can see more than just the physical aspects of something. I can also see the spiritual aspects.

Chloe continued staring at the world, searching. If she could see the spiritual aspects of everything, then it should not be hard to locate the Sekbeist, which would appear as a gap in her perceptions. Yet no matter how hard or long she searched, she could not find anything.

A pulling sensation soon tugged on Chloe’s chest. She blinked, then found herself standing back in the clear, in her body, and the others were staring at her in concern.

“Are you okay?” asked Eryk. “We all sensed your Spiritual Power disappear. You had us worried.”

“Yes, I am fine.” Eryk’s concern touched her. However, a frown soon marred her face. “Unfortunately, I have some bad news. I searched the entire Demon Beast Mountain Range and couldn’t find a single trace of the Sekbeist anywhere.”

***

Two days had passed since Chloe first attempted to locate Gorrick using Astral Body Projection. We had tried doing this two more times without success. I was beginning to wonder if the Sekbeist was even in the Demon Beast Mountain Range. Fray said their intelligence report claims the Sekbeist traveled toward the Demon Beast Mountain Range, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he was still there. Perhaps he had only passed through here before moving on.

“Well… this is a problem,” Kari said.

She was sitting on her bed, kicking her legs back and forth. Kari was wearing a simple pink nightgown that went down to her ankles. The gown swished around her legs with every kick.

Fay nodded as she sat cross-legged on her bed. While Kari’s gown was pink, hers was a deep red that complimented her hair. It was also more modest. Kari’s had a cut that revealed a lot of cleavage, but hers possessed long sleeves and a half turtle-neck design.

“It seems the Sekbeist are not in the Demon Beast Mountain Range… which means they could be anywhere,” she said.

“Perhaps they traveled passed the Demon Beast Mountain Range?” asked Lin.

“So they traveled out to sea?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

Lin shrugged. “It’s where the Great Overlord of the Fourth Realm was. Maybe they discovered that one of the other Great Overlords are located at sea?”

Lin was lounging much like an indulgent queen, laying on her side with one hand on her hip and the other on her cheek. Her long tail extended over the bed, trailing off, and continued along the floor. Her outfit consisted of a very skimpy shirt that barely covered her breasts. She wasn’t wearing underwear.

Not that she could.

Tora and Chloe were in their own bedrooms, but the rest of us were in my wives’ shared bedroom. Kari, Fay, and Lin were on their own beds. On the other hand, I sat on Siv’s bed. My feet were planted firmly on the ground. Siv was resting on her side, long dragon wings spread out behind her as she lay with her head on my thigh.

I was cleaning out her ears.

Siv’s ears were similar to human ears. They were just below Siv’s horns, which protruded from her skin a few centimeters above them. Perhaps to accommodate for her horns, Siv’s ears were a little smaller than a normal human’s, but this woman was also just very petite, so it might be that they were small like every other part of her.

Ear cleaning was a three-step process. First, I used a pick with a bowl-shaped end to scoop out the accumulated wax inside of Siv’s ear. I gently scraped the pick along her ear, wiping the wax I found on a small towel that rested on my free thigh.

“That tickles,” Siv muttered.

“Should I stop?” I asked.

“No. Please keep going.”

I didn’t just clean her ear canal, but also gently used the pick to scrape along the inside of her ear. While there wasn’t much wax buildup there, Siv seemed to like it, if her soft giggles were any indication.

“Mmrrrr. This princess wants you to pamper her next, Darling,” Lin said with a pout as she stared at me and Siv.

“Sure,” I said.

“Let’s get back to the matter at hand,” Fay said. “If the Sekbeist Lord did, in fact, merely pass through the Demon Beast Mountain Range, it will likely be impossible to find him.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. This world was huge. I didn’t know how big it was because the furthest I had traveled outside of this continent was the archipelago where I first met the merfolk, but I had reason to believe that most of Miðgarðr was covered in ocean. Fray had confirmed this a while back. She’d said there used to be other continents, but they were all destroyed during the Great War.

“Do you think one of the continents survived?” asked Kari.

“Maybe… but I don’t believe the Sekbeist Lord, Gorrick or whoever, actually traveled over the ocean,” I said after some time. “Our scouts reported that he left for the Demon Beast Mountain Range. However, he is not here. I suspect he knows that one of the ruins here has a Great Overlord sealed away, but he doesn’t know which. Perhaps he is hiding in the hopes that we will lead him to the Great Overlord.”

I finished cleaning Siv’s ear with the pic, so I grabbed another pick with an end that was shaped like a drill. Slowly placing the drill inside of Siv’s ear, I twisted back and forth, grabbing whatever wax the scoop had not been able to get. Siv giggled and clutched her toes together. The sound of her tail thumping against the bed echoed behind me.

“But we don’t know of any ruins with a Great Overlord sealed inside,” Fay countered.

“Are you sure about that?” Kari suddenly asked.

“What do you mean?” asked Fay, her brow furrowed. “Of course I am sure.”

“I’m not so sure.” Kari shook her head.

I cleaned the drill-shaped pick and set it aside, grabbed a small pick with a ball of fluff at the end, and used it to dust the inside of her ear. Siv bit her lower lip. Her cheeks turned red as she squirmed.

“If you keep squirming, I might accidentally poke this in too far and hurt you.”

Siv stopped, but her body still trembled.

“You think we have been to a ruin with one of the Great Overlords sealed inside?” I asked.

“I believe so,” Kari said. She placed her hands on her lap and straightened her posture. “Do you all remember the first set of ruins we traveled to together?”

“I remember,” I said as everyone else nodded. “It was with Catalyna’s group. We journeyed through the Demon Beast Mountain Range and became caught in a trap set by Skygge. He had used Dyr’s ability to attract Demon Beasts to our location, forcing us to split up and make a run for it.” I furrowed my brow. “You believe one of the Great Overlords is sealed there? But we didn’t find anything resembling a coffin.”

“We didn’t, but do you remember the Warp Gate?” asked Kari. “I don’t think that Warp Gate leads to another realm. I think it is actually the entrance to the Great Overlord of the Third Realm’s resting place.”

“Say you’re right,” Fay began. “What should we do with this information?”

“Obviously, we can’t lead the Sekbeist Lord to the ruins,” Kari said, her smile turning devious. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t lead him into a trap by making him think we’re leading him to the ruins.”

***

The next day, our group set out toward the Demon Beast Mountain Range again. This time, we were traveling to one of the ruins we had located during our exploration. It was much deeper in than the ruins Kari believed held the Great Overlord of the Third Realm.

These ruins were definitely something the Dweorg had created. Despite being thousands of years old, the castle-like structure remained standing, nestled inside of a valley with only one entrance.

This castle looked more like a traditional human castle, though it was many times bigger. The high walls surrounded the keep and were connected by guard towers. I could imagine the Spiritualists that used to patrol the ramparts, watching for signs of an enemy attack. Beyond the ramparts and guard towers was the bailey. The great hall was a building to our left, longer than it was wide and made from stone blocks. Of course, the largest structure here was the keep, which was a multi-storied building located against the mountain with maybe seven or eight different levels, each one marked by a long balcony and more walls.

“These ruins also contain a Warp Gate in the basement,” Kari said as we stood in the bailey. Everything had become overrun with plants. Vines crawled along the rampart walls, bushes and shrubs littered the yard. There was an old well where people used to bring up water. However, it had long since fallen into disrepair.

“I wonder which realm it leads to,” I said.

“Mørkeverden.” Kari pointed at a pair of statues standing guard on either side of the entrance. They were massive dogs with two heads, a row of sharp teeth, and faces set in vicious snarls. “I’ve spoken with Fray several times. She told me a lot about the other realms. That creature is a Demon Beast called Orthos. They are monsters from Mørkeverden that have been tamed and charged with guarding places of power. Ende used them to pull her chariot during the Great War.”

“It seems you know quite a bit about the Great War, child. I am impressed.”

We all spun around at the voice, which had appeared directly behind us without warning. Standing naught a few meters away was a Sekbeist Lord. His gray skin was a touch darker than the others, but he also had strange silver designs running over his skin that the others did not have. His red eyes contained a cruel cunning that somehow complimented his sharp features. He looked skeletal and thin, but I did not let myself be deceived by his appearance. The mere fact that I couldn’t even sense his Spiritual Power despite how close he stood was proof of his strength.

“Hello,” the Sekbeist Lord continued. “My name is Rache. I hope you didn’t think you could trick me into thinking this decrepit old castle contained one of the Great Overlords.”