WIEDERGEBURT Act VII: Chapter 16

We arrived to see a city in chaos. Even from a distance of several kilometers, the echoing boom of thunder and explosions captured out attention. From up close like this, it was perfectly possible to see the Lightning Giants as they tore into the city, raining destruction via lightning down on the heads of their enemies. The city might be surrounded by a gate. I might not be able to see past it. But I could tell beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Sekbeists were being demolished.

It was awe-inspiring.

It also made me wonder if we were even needed.

“Are we even needed?” asked Aliya, unknowingly paraphrasing my own thoughts.

“It doesn’t matter if we’re needed or not.” I turned toward the army standing before me, gazed into the faces of those near the front as my eyes hardened. “Whether the Lightning Giants can defeat every enemy in Vahn is irrelevant. That is our city. If we don’t take part in its recapture, then does it really matter if we reclaim it or not?”

My question sparked a round of nods. I wasn’t sure Aliya understood my feelings on the matter—she had never been to the Northern Plains before, much less Vahn—but she nodded anyway and backed down.

“You all know why we’re here, so I’m not going to mince words. It’s time take back what is ours. Everyone! Get into formation! On my mark, we charge!”

The Spiritualists were quick to get in formation. Siv, Fay, and I watched as men and women lined up in groups. There were five in total. Each one would be led by either myself, Fay, Earland, Raul, or Aliya. I glanced at my son standing at the front of his battalion. He smiled at me, as though to reassure me that he could do this, and I smiled back before my expression hardened.

I turned back to the city. Then I looked at my wive.

“Would you do the honors?” I asked.

Fay shook her head, offered me a resigned smile, and then took in a deep breath. “EVERYONE! CHARGE!”

Our group charged toward Vahn’s front gate, currently closed. None of the Sekbeist I’d seen the other day were standing guard on the crenelations. They were likely occupied trying to stop the Lightning Giants from rampaging.

I dragged my hand along the ground as I continued to run, pulling the earth element and manipulating it into the shape of a massive hammer, one that was easily fifteen times taller than an adult human. Fire swirled around the hammer as I raised it above my head. The fire served not only served to harden the weapon but also increase its explosive power. I even went one step further and wreathed it in wind to fuel the flames, making the fire go from red to white.

We got closer to the city. We were now only a few meters away. That was when I brought the hammer down.

The gate didn’t stand a chance.

Intense heat billowed from my hammer as it melted through stone and steel within seconds. My flames were well over 3,000 degrees Celsius, and most stone melted at 1,500 degrees Celsius. After burning through the entire archway and gate, my hammer struck the ground and detonated. The force was so incredible that it blew this entire portion of the wall to smithereens. It was… probably a good thing I’d raced ahead of my men. They would have been burnt to cinders if they were too close.

Because of how hot the stone was, no one would be able to actually make it past the gate, so I quickly summoned water to cool the molten surface. Hissing echoed around the city as steam billowed from the gateway, creating a thick smokescreen. The ground cracked as the incredible shift from hot to cold contracted and expanded the stone.

My forces with Fay in the lead finally caught up to me and burst through the steam covered entrance, racing out on the other side.

Everyone already knew what battalions they were assigned to, and so we all quickly split up. Fay, Raul, Earland, and Aliya went off on their own.

“Stick by my side, Siv,” I said.

Siv nodded as she followed me. “I won’t leave your side.”

“Spiritualists! To arms! Follow me and reclaim your city!” I called out to my battalion. The resulting battle cry shook the ground we tread and made even the buildings rattle, or so it seemed to me. With something of a grin, I led our group deeper into the city, toward where I could sense the most negative life forces. The Lightning Giants had done a great job of killing many Sekbeists, but there was still well over a million signatures inside.

Our battle to retake Vahn had now begun.

***

“I’ve got you now—hurk!”

Lin shut the Sekbeist Warlord who attempted to kill her up by impaling him through the throat with a spear of light. She was non too gentle as she tore the weapon free, allowing his blood to splatter along the ground. After twirling the weapon around in her hand, she threw it into a horde of Sekbeist just as they emerged from the Warp Gate. The resulting explosion killed all of them.

“How much longer do you have to go?” Lin asked Big Sister.

Big Sister was wandering around the gate, studying the runes that were etched into the ground with a look of utmost concentration. She didn’t even seem to notice the explosions, enemies, and earth shaking, such was her focus. It made it hard to protect her. Several times Lin had been forced to divert her attention when the enemy surrounded her, only to realize Big Sister was in danger of being killed because she wasn’t paying attention.

“Just a little longer,” Big Sister assured her.

“You said that an hour ago!”

Lin felt distressed as she merged into the floor, allowing a Sekbeist Warlord’s dark sword to slam into the ground instead of her. It ate the ground apart. That was the Void at work, or rather, the Concept of Negation. Lin emerged from the floor behind the Warlord and proceeded to severe his spine with a swing of her whip. She only used poison instead of the void. There was no need for her to bring the Concept of Negation to bear against these small fry.

Still.

There were so many of them!

“It takes time to create a counter rune,” Big Sister argued. “And this is one of the most complex rune arrays I have ever seen.”

“Grrrr! Then do what you have to! This princess will guard you for as long as needed!”

“You’re the best, Lin!”

At the moment, Kari was circling around the Warp Gate and drawing in her leather bound notebook, sketching down the runes being used to maintain this Warp Gate. Lin remembered teaching Kari how to draw so she could do this.

Another dozen Sekbeists emerged from the Warp Gate. They were all Warlords this time, which caused Lin to groan. It looked like the people on the other side finally realized something was happening to their people and decided to send in only their most powerful members. That was both good and bad. This Warp Gate could only bring out so many people, and the larger the people, the less they could send. At the same time, fighting twelve Warlords would be much harder than fighting two dozen Elites.

“You four kill the Lamia. I will take down the human,” one of the Warlords commanded.

It didn’t look like the others much cared for this man’s orders, but they didn’t argue with him and started on toward Lin. She hissed at them and erupted with Spiritual Power. Since there were so many, she could ill-afford to hold back.

Creating a black ball above her palm, Lin waited for only a moment before she sent the orb flying, sending it straight into the lead Warlord’s chest. He didn’t seem concerned at first. When the runes covering his armor suddenly failed and her attack pierced his stomach, however, his expression changed, though it was too late by then. Her attack had burned straight through his heart.

“T-this Lamia can use the Concept of Negation!” one of them shouted.

He received a Void Bolt to the face for his troubles. The attack ate right through his head, reducing it to just a stump.

Lin had no time to watch as her opponents died, and instead she created several void spears in the air around her and sent them flying. The remaining two Warlords that had been charging toward her stopped and rushed out of the way. Her attacks struck the ground, ate through it, and formed a perfectly bowl-shaped crater with smooth edges.

“How is it that you can use the Concept of Negation?!” asked one of the Warlords.

“This princess isn’t obligated to answer you,” Lin retorted before launching herself forward on her tail. She transformed her body into a cylinder of flame, blew through the Warlord’s body, and slammed into the ground before Big Sister. The group of eight Warlords who had been about to attack her big sister were forced to stop as a wall of fire appeared around them.

Lin was getting a lot better at switching between using a concept and using an element. It was difficult at first because it required switching the way she thought. Concepts were completely different from elements. The way they worked, the theories behind them, and what they could do. However, the more she used the Concept of Negation, the more familiar with it she became, the easier it was for her to get into the mindset needed to wield it.

“Keep your grubby hands off this princess’ big sister,” Lin said with a snarl as she slammed her hands into the ground.

Her hands merged into the ground, then two massive hands rose up on either side of a Warlord. He tried to run. She wouldn’t let him. The moment she formed both hands, she willed them to move, slamming them into each other and crushing the Warlord flat. She didn’t stop there, however, and created eight giant snakes. Each one was as large as a Warlord but nearly four times longer. She willed them to curl around the Warlords and slowly crush their bodies like snakes constricting their prey.

“Lin! I’m ready to close the Warp Gate! I only need a few more minutes!”

“A few more minutes, coming right up!”

The moment she declared she was ready, Big Sister’s finger began glowing as she wrote runes into the ground at a speed so fast that even Lin was left stunned. The surety and grave of her movements was more than impressive. However, it was the way in which time itself seemed to bend as Big Sister worked that really shocked Lin. She couldn’t be sure of what she was seeing, but it looked to her like Big Sister was manipulating the very fabrics of time to aid her.

More Sekbeist poured from the Warp Gate, but Lin continued to kill them. She wouldn’t let a single one through. Sometimes she killed them with spikes of earth, other times with poison, light, fire, or any one of the elements she had gained mastery of. It was almost too easy by this point. Big Sister continued to work all the while, drawing rune after rune as she traveled around the Warp Gate.

Finally…

“I’m done!” Kari announced as she slammed her hand into the ground.

A dozen more Sekbeist were streaming out of the Warp Gate, but as if gravity had suddenly changed course, all of those who had just emerged from the gate found themselves getting sucked back in. They screamed and tried to pull themselves out. It was impossible. Their bodies turned into distorted streaks as they were sucked back into the gate, and then the gate itself grew smaller and smaller, until it at last disappeared.

“Phew.” Big Sister stood up and wiped the sweat from her brow. “That’s one Warp Gate closed. I’m almost surprised I was able to do it.”

“You mean you weren’t sure you could close the Warp Gate?” asked an aghast Lin.

“Of course not,” Big sister said, shaking her head. “I’ve never closed a Warp Gate before, so how could I know whether I could close it or not? All I had was a theory. But I’m glad to see it worked.”

“Mrg. I guess that’s fine since it worked,” Lin mumbled, though she was almost tempted to move away from her big sister right now. “But next time you aren’t sure of something, please test it before just attempting it during a battle like this. We could have seriously died you know.”

“You are right. I’m sorry, Lin.” Big Sister came over and began gently running her hands through her hair. Lin wanted to resist, knew she needed to be stern, but it felt so good that her tail began thumping against the ground. “I promise not to do something like this unless there is no other option.”

“Ugh. You’re just like Darling when you make a promise,” Lin said.

Big Sister giggled. “Eryk and I have the same opinion when it comes to promises. We won’t make one if we aren’t sure we can keep it, but we will do our best to compromise. Anyway, we should go now, don’t you think? We might have closed the Warp Gate, but there are still a couple hundred thousand Sekbeist in the city.”

“Right…” Lin said with a sigh. Then she frowned.

“What is it?” asked Kari.

“Nothing much.” Her brow furrowed. “I just realized I can no longer sense any of the non-Sekbeists I’d felt the other day. I wonder what happened to them.”

***

My battalion and I were fighting in the middle of Market Square. It was one of several market plazas dedicated to business transactions, shops, and vendor stalls. No vendor stalls were set up right now. What was present instead were several hundred thousand Sekbeist. They streamed out of shops, appeared from alleys and side streets, and leapt over roofs.

I clenched my hand into a fist and channeled the Concept of Death through it. The death energy took on a dark hue as it coated my hand like a flame, which I released when I waved it forward in a sweeping gesture. The flames flew over the Sekbeist charging down one side of street. As it washed over them, every Sekbeist it touched died. There was no outward sign of their deaths. They just stopped breathing, their hearts stopped beating, and their bodies tumbled to the ground.

“H-holy shit!”

“He just killed all those Sekbeist like it was nothing!”

“What happened?! I feel like I blinked and missed it!”

I ignored the Spiritualists gawking at me and turned to my wife. “Siv, there are several fliers coming our way. Take care of them.”

“Right!”

Siv bent her knees, looked into the sky, and blasted off the ground. The earth shook and the cobblestone cracked underneath the force of her actions. It was just a side effect of her power. Siv soared high into the air, reaching a height of a hundred meters before she needed to use her wings to achieve greater lift. Now floating in the sky, she stretched out her hand and clenched it into a fist.

“W-what’s going on?!” one of the Spiritualists screamed in shock. Not that I blamed him.

The area around a group of Sekbeists flying on Demon Beasts mounts distorted, becoming warped and twisted like the area was both stretching and being compressed. Thin lines appeared in the sky. They looked like cracks spreading along to create a spider’s web. Then the cracks shattered and the Sekbeist mounts all shattered with them, their bodies disappearing into particles.

“Lord Eryk and Lady Siv are way too overpowered!”

“You said it!”

“Are we even needed? I feel like I could take a nap right now.”

I rolled my eyes at the group. “Get back to work, all of you.”

“Yes, sir!”

Despite their words about not being needed, it wasn’t like those under my command were doing nothing. I was taking care of one side by my lonesome and Siv would take care of any Sekbeists that tried attacking from above, but the battalion fighting by my side was watching my back. They worked in squads of three. One person healed, one person attacked, and the last one defended. It was a perfect combination and something my wife, Fay, had fortunately drilled into these people during her time in the Endless Desert.

It took maybe half an hour before the enemies in this area tapered out. Once we stopped getting attacked, I ordered a third of the battalion to remain here and defend this area, took the rest, and had us move onto the next area. We were slowly making our way across Vahn. If everything was going according to plan, then Fay, Raul, Earland, and Aliya would be doing the same thing with their battalions.

Time became a very important thing during combat. While it was very easy to lose track of time, it was important to understand how time could affect the flow of battle. That made me wonder if someone who had mastered the Concept of Time would be able to accurately judge what would happen during the course of a battle. Could a master of time manipulate a battle based on its flow within time? If true, then that meant if Kari could master her concept, she could possibly become one of the greatest commanders in history.

But I was digressing.

Several Sekbeist leapt out of an alley and tried to attack me from my blind spot, but I spun on the balls of my feet and thrust out my hand, fingers spread. Six balls of death energy flew from my fingertips and slammed into half the Sekbeist Elites. Then Siv flew down from above, crushing one of them beneath her feet before mauling the remaining five with swipes of her draconian hands.

We had reached the base of the mountain, which was where we were supposed to remain for now. I was certain our battalion had moved faster than the others. In maybe another hour, the other batallions should have also reached the base of the mountain, surrounding it on all sides. Once we reached that phase, my group would begin moving up the mountain.

Galdr was with us.

“I CAN SEE SEVERAL OF MY PEOPLE STANDING NEAR THE MOUNTAIN’S BASE NORTH-EAST OF US.”

“I guess that means Fay’s group has reached the base of the mountain,” I said with a nod, crossing my arms. “I wonder who will make it next…”

“Eryk!”

“Darling!”

Before I could ponder my own question, two voices called out to me, making Siv and I turned toward the mountain and look up. Two people were flying toward us. One of them was Kari, of course. The other was Lin. I had to be honest, it looked very awkward to see Lin of all people flying toward me. I remembered a time when not being able to feel the ground scared the crap out of her.

“Welcome,” I said with a grin as the pair walked over to us. “I’m guessing you were able to close the Warp Gate?”

Kari raised her hand in the victory sign and grinned at me. “Were you expecting anything less? With the Warp Gate now closed, they shouldn’t be able to bring anymore reinforcements through there. I’ve also created a strong counter rune that should prevent them from opening the Warp Gate again.” Here, her face suddenly looked uncertain. “Saying that, if they get Hriedmar to come, I can’t garantuee my rune array will hold.”

“That’s fine. I figured it would be something like that,” I said. “I doubt they will bother bringing Hriedmar over just to open this Warp Gate. They have much more important matters they need from him.”

Hriedmar was likely the key to their ultimate goal: resurrecting the Sekbeist Overlord. He was, to the best of my knowledge, the only now capable of undoing the seals on the remaining Seven Great Overlords. That meant they wouldn’t do anything that would jeopardize his ability to perform his task.

While Kari and I spoke, a much sillier topic was taking place beside us.

“It seems you have improved a lot while you were away. This princess is impressed.”

“I’m now strong enough to stand beside Eryk and support him.”

“Hmph. Don’t get a big head now. You still have a long way to go before you’re a match for this princess.”

“Tch.”

“Did you just click your tongue at me?!”

“Your manner of speech slipped.”

“Tch.”

For some reason, it was very amusing to watch Lin argue with Siv. When Siv first arrived, Lin had felt a little threatened by her because Siv was a Drakvarian, but then she became disappointed after learning that Siv was kind of a coward. Now that Siv had gained both strength and courage, it seemed as if Lin was feeling threatened again. I wasn’t sure why.

But I was amused.

“I think Siv and Lin are on their way to becoming rivals,” Kari said with a giggle.

“Probably.”

I smiled, but then turned away and looked at Galdr. He caught my gaze and looked down.

“EVERYONE IS IN PLACE.”

What he meant was all the Lightning Giants were now standing at the base of the mountain, which also meant every batallion was in position.

“Did you and Lin kill all the enemies on this mountain?” I asked.

“No.” Kari shook her head. “Once I closed the Warp Gate, we made our way straight to you. We only killed the Sekbeists who got in our way.”

“Then I guess we’ve still got some work to do.” I turned back to Galdr. “Fire the signal please.”

“YES.”

Lightning sparked along Galdr’s right hand, which he suddenly thrust into the air. A massive bolt peeled through the sky. Thunder echoed around us. That was the signal for our groups to start moving.

We made our way up the mountain, taking the road that traveled along the mountain in a spiral shape and killing any Sekbeist we came across. There weren’t as many on this path as there were down below. I could tell through Spiritual Perception that we had killed the vast majority of them already.

Since there weren’t enough Sekbeist to pose an actual threat, I let the members of my batallion lead the charge and watched from the sidelines. I’d only help someone if they were in danger. However, everyone in our army had reached at least the Second State of Spiritualism, which meant only Sekbeist Warlords and Shamans would pose a real threat. The most powerful enemy we ran across was a Sekbeist Elite.

The rest were Grunts.

“I think that’s the end of things,” Kari said, stretching her arms above her head. “Lin, can you sense anymore Sekbeists?”

Lin cocked her head to the side, then shook it. “No. I cannot. At least, not within the city. It looks like a few might have fled, but…”

“We’ll send someone to kill them before they can get far,” I said. I thought about going myself, but I honestly didn’t think it was necessary. “For now, let’s meet up with everyone else.”

No one disagreed. Our group soon made it back down the mountain and traveled to Central Plaza. As we walked, I grabbed Siv’s hand to catch her attention.

“You did a great job today,” I said to her.

“Thank you!” Siv’s smile reminded me of a flower blooming at the first rays of morning light.

Lin hissed as she grabbed my fake hand and tugged on it. “What about this princess? She did good too, right?”

“Of course you did,” I said, leaning over to kiss her temple. “You were amazing.”

“Mmm. That’s better. This princess accepts your praise.”

With Lin mullified, our group made it to Central Plaza, where Raul and Fay were already waiting with their battalions. Alexis was also there. At first, I was going to ask how her mission to rescue the captives went, but I paused upon seeing her expression. I looked at Fay and Raul. They both caught my gaze and shook their heads.

So they didn’t know what was going on either.

“Alexis… did something go wrong with your mission?” I asked.

“Did something go wrong? Yes. I suppose you could say something went wrong… though it might be better if you said the mission had been doomed to fail from the start,” Alexis said.

I frowned. “What happened?”

Alexis shook her head. “It’s not what happened. It’s—you know what? It would be better if I showed you.”

I had no idea what Alexis wanted, but I told everyone else to begin assessing the damage while I traveled with her. Siv remained with me. However, that was only because she had no interest or the ability to really assess the damage incurred to the city. I suppose she was also trying to act like my bodyguard.

Alexis was silent as she led us first to the Paladin Sect headquarters, which was closer to Central Plaza than the Merchant Guild’s office. I felt a chill run down my spine when she led us through a secret tunnel. She opened a door on the other side, and gestured for us to proceed her. We did. As the door clicked behind us, I got a good look at the room.

What I saw was shocking.

The first thing I noticed was the corpses lying on the ground. There must have been… thousands of them. They were all piled up like a small mountain inside of a small circle made of symbols I recognized as the Sekbeist’s language. Running from the circle were lines of power that fed into several large… caskets? Tubes? They looked like cylindrical glass chambers. I did not know what they were, but they reminded me of the tube-shaped objects that I had found inside of the strange building located deep within the Morkdypt Ravine.

There were other objects down here that I didn’t recognize, strange contraptions that lit up and had buttons and knobs. The same symbols as the ones on the ground flashed across a small section that made me think of the bildschirm. I’d never seen anything quite like this though.

“I don’t know what the Sekbeist were attempting to accomplish… but I don’t think I need to tell you what took place here,” Alexis said.

“No… you don’t,” I agreed as Siv gripped my arm. She might be braver now than she ever had been, but there wasn’t a single person who enjoyed seeing so many dead. I closed my eyes. “Was the Merchant Guild’s office also like this?”

“Yes.”

“I see.”

A moment of silence passed. I reached out with Spiritual Perception and discovered about what I’d expected. All of these people had their Spiritual Power sucked dry. They were nothing more than empty, withered husks.

“What should we do?” asked Alexis.

Opening my eyes and taking a deep breath, I turned to the petite woman with a serious frown. “We’re going to show this to Kari and have her figure out what the Sekbeist were hoping to accomplish here. We should also get several people to help get the dead out of here and give them funerals. Can I leave that to you?”

“Of course you can,” Alexis said, and for once, she didn’t complain about how much she disliked her task.

***

Several days passed by quickly. I sent out a messenger to Queen Medusa and King Menes, informing them that Vahn had been taken and asking them to escort all the non-combatants here. It would probably take three or four months before they arrived. In the meantime, everyone was working hard to repair the damage done to the city during the battle to reclaim it. At any time of the day, you could hear Spiritualists hammering away at buildings they were fixing, or see them running through the city carrying a hundred tons worth of supplies.

My wives were also hard at work.

Fay had been spending almost all of her time inside of her new alchemy lab, refining alchemy pills to replenish the stock we had lost. There was a limit to how many she could refine right now because we didn’t have a lot of supplies. I’d sent Ashten out with several squadrons and try and locate the ingredients needed for Spiritual Healing Pills, Blood Clotting Pills, and Body Repair Pills. Those were the only alchemy pills that required ingredients that could be found close by.

While Fay spent her days refining, Siv and Lin were helping repair the city—in their own way. Neither of them actually helped with repairs because they simply didn’t have the skill. However, Siv often brought refreshments to the people as they worked. It wasn’t all that unusual to see her flying through the sky with a basket in her hands. She had become something of a mascot to the people. On the other hand, Lin used her incredible managerial skills to deal with logistics. She decided which buildings were the most important to repair and allocated the necessary supplies into every project. Since we were working with limited supplies, some of the buildings were torn down and the parts were used to repair more important buildings.

We would determine what to do with the torn down lots later.

Unlike the others, Kari was researching what the Sekbeist were doing in the basements of the Merchant Guild and Paladin Sect headquarters. I felt in my bones that we needed to find out what they were up to. Something inside of me was telling me that whatever they were doing down there was very important to us. Kari already had a perfect sketch of the two Sekbeist rune arrays and had locked herself inside of her room. She hadn’t come out in several days.

Just like my wives, I was also working. Because I was the strongest person present, I had become the de facto leader within this group, and so every decision made needed to be passed through me. I also needed to create and keep documents of everything we were doing, settle any disputes that took place between individuals or groups, and of course document those incidents too so we had files on hand to refer to if similar incidents occurred.

Basically, I was stuck doing paperwork.

“Haaaaaaaa. Why do I have to do this? Surely Ashten or Alexis are much better suited to doing paperwork than me.”

I grumbled and complained as I wrote up a report regarding a recent incident between a Lamia from the Endless Desert and one from Midgard. The Lamia from the Endless Desert had attempted to steal the other Lamia’s man, which had caused a violent dispute between the two that ended with one of the newly repaired buildings getting destroyed.

Fights between Lamia were violent, it seemed.

While we were all faced with a common enemy, that did not mean disputes like this never happened. I was honestly a little surprised they had only started up recently. Perhaps that was owing to the fact that these people had lived in fear every day since fleeing into the Endless Desert. Now that they were able to let their guard down, disputes that couldn’t happen because their minds were occupied were cropping up now.

I was using the mayor’s residence as my home. While I had purloined this office space for my own use, Fay had an office down the hall from mine.

The office was large enough that it could be used to house small meetings if need be, but there wasn’t any tables or chairs beyond this desk. A bookshelf sat to my left, the books surprisingly untouched. I guess the Sekbeist didn’t have an interest in reading. There was nothing to my right, but a blank space on the wall suggested there might have been a painting hanging from it, perhaps a family portrait.

As I finished writing up my report, someone knocked on the door.

“Come in,” I said.

The door opened and Raul walked in. He looked at the stack of papers on my desk—finished papers that I had just spent the entire morning doing. Then he looked back at me.

“Please don’t tell me you have more paperwork for me,” I said plaintively.

“I don’t.” He reassured as he walked over and set a single scroll on my desk. “It’s just one report.”

“Oh, thank the nine realms,” I muttered in relief, grabbing the scroll and unrolling it so I could read the report.

Raul talked while I read. “There was another dispute. Some of the Spiritualists wanted to take over the Paladin Sect’s headquarters, but Alexis was against it. They argued with her and were beaten to a pulp. I only arrived to see the aftermath. I did manage to get statements from all those involved and eyewitnesses.”

“It seems the ones who became physical first were the other Spiritualists. That’s good. I would have hated to punish Alexis. She’s far too valuable.” I set the report down, leaned back, and scratched my chin. “Since it sounds like the other Spiritualists will be in the hospital for awhile, I think we can let them off with just a warning, but if they persist, let them know that I will be the one dealing with them next time and not Alexis.”

The Paladin Sect was important to both Tungsten and Rienhard. Tungsten had been one of my best friends in my last life, and Rienhard was a great friend in this life too. The sect was important to me in both my past and present because of the people in charge.

“Will do,” Raul said.

“Was there anything else?” I asked. Raul shook his head. “That’s good then. I should be finishing up soon. Are you going to join us for dinner, or will you be having dinner with your girlfriends?”

It was a testament to his strength of character that Raul only blushed a little. He coughed into his hands, clearing his throat, and said, “I’ll talk about it with Sana and Lilac, but I think we’re going to have dinner with you and everyone else tonight.”

“Okay. Then I’ll see you later tonight.”

“Bye for now, Father.”

“Yup. See you later.”

As Raul closed the door behind him, I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes, allowing myself a moment of respite. It might sound odd, but doing paperwork was far more exhausting than fighting in a battle against an overwhelming enemy. Paperwork was tedium made manifest. I couldn’t fathom how I managed to do this every day for several whole years.

Someone else knocked on the door.

“It’s open,” I called.

The person who stepped into the office this time was none other than Kari. Dressed in a simple white gown that did nothing to hide her large chest, the dress swished around her ankles as she walked. Her hair was a little damp and her skin flushed a light red. It looked like she’d just gotten out of the shower.

There was a serious expression on her face.

“Kari, if you’ve left your office, I can only assume you’ve managed to figure out what the Sekbeist were doing?”

Kari pursed her lips. She seemed angry. No. That wasn’t quite it. I didn’t think words like “anger” were enough to adequately express her feelings. When I reached out to her through our bond, which I was getting a lot better at controlling, I felt a storm of emotions brewing within her.

“I have an idea of what they wanted, yes,” she said in a tight voice.

“I’m guessing it’s pretty serious,” I ventured. “Should I call for a meeting so everyone else can hear this?”

“That would be a good idea. I do not want to explain this more than once,” Kari admitted.

I nodded and stood up from my desk. As I took Kari’s hand and led her out of my office, I wondered what was so vile that even someone who had experienced as much as my wife could become this upset by it.