"Hold your fire. We come peacefully, with a request for your master. Please take us to him."

The words of the human were few and straight to the point. Teeth relaxed the grip on his weapon.

She was the first woman he had seen in a long time and her figure stunned him. The curves of her body made the fabric of her clothing loose or stretched at various places, emphasizing her distinctly feminine form. The occasional elements of metal plating did little to conceal it.

"Teeth!"

His attention was drawn to his brother's voice, who he saw in the grip of a known enemy. He had seen that face in his nightmares before. The round nose, the slightly slack jawed expression and the horrible hint of hair stubble all over his chin. He had personally seen this creature hack up his brother Yeller.

He had practiced the crossbow until the movement was automatic, and it didn't fail him now. He loosened the arrow towards the enemy.

-

Teeth immediately dropped the crossbow and fumbled to draw his sword weapon. Meanwhile, Biter, who was standing next to him, charged at the human that had fallen off the big hooved creature.

He made a battle cry. "Raaah!"

"No!" Teeth had enough clearness of mind to recognize rushing in as a bad maneuver.

Kicker joining the battle cry drowned him out and the two younger warriors closed in on the human.

Suddenly the other human landed between them, grabbing the spears right under the heads and twisting them so the two lost grip.

"Stop. We are not your enemy."

-

Teeth was briefly stunned by the spectacle, but then gripped his weapon more firmly and rushed towards the rest.

When the hooved creature calmed down and stepped aside he could clearly see the enemy cradling his brother.

"First!" Teeth tried rushing closer but was immediately disarmed by the two stolen spears. "You killed him! You killed him too!" He yelled at the humans.

The one holding his brother turned to look at him, his eyes were completely dead.

"Are you lot still awake?" Scratch burst through the door opening while holding a human by the hair.

"We are now." said Dumb.

The truth was that nobody had gone to bed yet. Only Dumb and Fat were in the foyer area where the blankets were.

Quiet was cleaning up the dining room and the prisoners were deep in the mines boarding up the sand tunnel.

"We have another guest." He pulled the human with him, Second coming close behind.

The human sat down, the ceiling was too low for him to stand straight up.

When it stayed quiet Scratch became annoyed. "Come on! Introduce yourself." He complained.

"What? Uh, my name is Patrick. I'm a bandit. Where's your master?"

"I'm here. My name is... well, call me Scratch. These are Dumb and Fat, you already met Second here. There's someone named Quiet around here somewhere."

Patrick stared at him.

"These are goblin names." Scratch explained.

"I want to speak with the one in charge here." Patrick insisted. "Who do you take orders from?"

"Again with this! You know, I've got half a mind to-"

Suddenly their bickering was interrupted by a high-pitched shriek from the goblins outside. They had to have spotted more intruders.

Immediately following came various yelling among people.

-

"You lied to us, Patrick." Scratch tutted, not really surprised or betrayed.

Then he turned to his brothers. "I'm going to check outside, can you keep an eye on this one?"

"Won't he get out of those ropes?" Dumb said.

"Roll him into a blanket!" Fat responded.

I'm slaying orcs with Margaret.

Near one of the bigger hills in the region we found a camp of overturned carts and thatch housing. Orcs are simple creatures, so their homes aren't very advanced. Then again, they're probably not supposed to be used for very long before they move on. I guess you could say orcs are exactly as smart as they need to be.

【Laurus! Laurus!】 Margaret comes running.

【Yes?】

【Oh! There you are. Have we gotten all the orcs?】

I think about it. 【I think so, there wasn't a lot of them though. Maybe they're hiding?】

Margaret stares off into the distance. 【Orcs are a militant race, they wouldn't abandon their family like this. What I thinks is more likely, is that the majority are on a warpath, to raid a rival civilization.】

【Wow. Margaret, you sure know a lot about orcs.】

【Oh, yeah... haha. Just something I read once.】

Margaret is so cool. She's a mature lady adventurer, a really reliable person!

【Oh!" I say. "Does that mean they're about to attack a settlement?】

【Hopefully there are other monsters nearby they're attacking, or maybe bandits. But chances are they're marching towards a farm, or even an elven village.】Margaret muses, biting her thumb.

【The hidden village is near he-】I stop myself, I'm supposed to never let anyone know about their location.

【Oh, Laurus. I'm so sorry. I almost made you tell me where it was!】Margaret is really considerate of me.

【Anyway,】I change the subject, 【we need to find the horde and stop it. Are the two of us enough to take on the horde?】

【Stopping a raid of this size would normally be a level C quest at the adventurers' guild. We're both rank C, and there's two of us... But Laurus, how can we catch up to them? We can't see the trail from above the trees and we'd never make it on foot!】

I throw my head back and start laughing.

【Laurus? Why are you laughing? What's wrong?】

I put my hand on her head. 【Pegasi can't only fly you know. They're horses too, we can chase after them on horseback.】

【Ah.】Margaret's face becomes bright red from embarrassment.

"Yup" Scratch stood over First's body. "That's a dead body."

"We... didn't mean to." The human man spoke in a quiet and demure tone. He didn't seem particularly bright to him.

Both humans had come into goblin town wearing protective clothing, just like Patrick. One of them was a woman, her presence slightly intoxicated Scratch's natural instincts, but he kept his composure.

"I understand completely." Scratch said. "You were aiming more for a trade, weren't you?"

"What?"

"Well, I hope you're not so blasé about the life of a hostage as my brother here, because we still have one of yours."

The female sighed in resignation, he saw she was still holding the confiscated spears.

"How about you return the weapons and we resolve all this peacefully?"

"Fine." She said. "Have it your way." And she threw Kicker and Biter's weapons on the ground. "Is that an orc weapon?" she asked, referring to the crossbow, Scratch didn't answer the question but he did make note of it.

-

The two intruders were escorted into the middle of the square where the big fire pit was. Their horses staying behind, grazing in peace.

"As a gesture of goodwill, let's make some light." Scratch said.

"And also because it's really cold right now." Said Dumb, who had come outside as Kicker and Biter took over watching the hostage.

Scratch elbowed him in the ribs.

It took a few minutes, and a bunch of firewood that they had rather saved for later, but eventually a reasonable bonfire was created.

It bathed the makeshift town in a flickering orange light, casting long shadows and generating a spooky atmosphere.

"We can negotiate for the life of your friend." Scratch said, laying down on his side and chewing a grass helm. "But first we need to know your position and aim."

"Yes!" The man said. "We-"

The woman held up her hand, silencing him with a single gesture. "We're refugees. We followed the 'first' goblin to get an audience with his master."

I see. Thought Scratch. So she is the leader.

While he was overthinking that Dumb responded. "Well, there is no-Ouch! Why do you keep poking me?"

Scratch side-eyed him furiously, while continuing to elbow him. "We can't just give anybody an audience with the master. What are you fleeing from?"

Dumb stayed silent, it looked like he was starting to understand the ruse.

The two humans looked at each other hesitantly.

"We... will be corroborating everything you say with your friend inside, naturally." Scratch said.

"Orcs." The man sighed. "We seem to have attracted the attention of orcs. At first we thought they would only try to raid our camp, but they followed us. For some reason they're bent on wiping us out."

"We can only keep ahead of them on horseback." The woman added. "There's roughly fifty of them. Their movements aren't typical of orcs, they probably serve an evil god." She looked at her subordinate. "We did our best to obfuscate the trail, but we don't think they'll ever relent. So we need protection. We have a lot to offer in exchange. Not currently, but in our connection with Eston and the Thieves' Guild. I'm sure your master would understand the significance of that."

"Uh-huh. Sure." Scratch was shaken by the sudden mention of an evil god. He couldn't concentrate on the situation at hand.

He looked around at his brothers. Dumb was right next to him, frowning hard to try to follow the conversation. Second was pacing around agitatedly near the tower. Teeth was sitting some distance away, clutching his head in his hands.

"I... uh...I" Scratch was trying to find his bearing.

"How many of you are there?" Dumb said.

"Twenty-three."

Dumb looked at his fingers. It was a bigger number than he had ever had to deal with.

-

Quiet had come out of the home and whispered something in Scratch's ear.

"Ah." Scratch responded. "I understand you lot haven't eaten since yesterday. We'll get you three something, but we can't feed twenty-three people I'm afraid."

"Really? That is too kind of you." The woman said, then, turning to her subordinate. "We can report back to the main group tomorrow."

Internally Scratch chastised himself for being overly happy to be of service to her. His entire body was screaming at him to mate with her, but that was out of the question.

"Our master won't be here tonight. So you can sleep near the fire. You won't be coming inside. That's were we keep the prisoner."

"Naturally. My name is Lydia Harkness. I'm a bandit. This is my strongest warrior. Huckabee."

"I'm your strongest?"

"A pleasure to meet you Lydia. Huckabee. You can call me Scratch. Not everyone is here, but these are Quiet, Dumb,

Teeth and, all the way over there, Second."

After those words Scratch stood up to go inside.

"We should guard the door." Said Dumb.

Scratch stopped. "I suppose you're right. You stay up during the first half of the night."

Dumb groaned at having suggested it at all.

"Don't you have a regular schedule?" Lydia said, accepting a plate with bread and dried meat from Quiet. "For wildlife?"

"N- Yeeeees" Scratch said. Is the lack of animals here an evil god thing?

When Scratch came back inside Kicker and Biter were force-feeding Patrick, who looked like a long sausage as he was rolled up in several blankets.

"We're moving him to the lower levels." He said, clapping his hands to get their attention. "We don't want a rescue mission taking away our only leverage."

"Hhhmpf!" Patrick tried to protest through a mouthful of dry bread.

"Hup" "Hop" The two lifted him above their heads without protest and ran downwards through the tunnel with the

sausage man above them.

-

"This is actually one of our most luxurious rooms." Scratch proclaimed, when Patrick felt himself being thrown on a soft cushy object.

This part of the cave was completely black. He couldn't see a thing. But the damp atmosphere was at least warmer than the freezing air outside.

"You lot. Meet your fellow inmate."

"Pfff" Patrick managed to spit out the last crumbs. He had only slightly complained about his hunger and the goblins had responded with a cruel ironic punishment of sorts. "Who else is here?" He demanded to know.

"Well. Introduce yourselves." Sounded the goblin boss' insistent voice.

"I'm Scream."

"I'm called Ki-Laugh."

"Digger."

"These ones have proven their trustworthiness." Scratch added, to the giggling of Kicker and Biter, the goblins that had been force-feeding him. "So they rank above you."

"More goblins..." Patrick sighed. On one hand it was good that they hadn't captured anyone else, on the other, this complicated his breakout.

-

There were some shuffling noises of goblins moving from place to place and Scratch sitting down somewhere to make himself comfortable.

"We're going to kill some time, you and I." Scratch's voice said. "I want information from you."

"Why should I tell you anything!?" Patrick wriggled in his restrained and looked around the pitch black room to find the source of the sound. "You're not answering my questions either."

"What I could do here is draw attention to the various sharp objects pointed directly at your eyes right now."

Patrick froze. He heard the soft breathing of multiple grunts standing around him, no doubt holding weapons.

"But I'm trying to make nice with you people." Scratch continued. "So instead, let's play a game."

"A game?"

"A game. For every question you answer, I'll answer a question. How's that? Doesn't that sound fair?"

He wasn't in the mood for a game at all, but right now co-operating with the monster was the best course of action he had.

-

"Fine. Who do you serve?"

"I said for each question that you answer. So I go first."

Patrick gnashed his teeth.

"Tell me this. Why are you here?"

"We're- godsdammit-" he was getting increasingly claustrophobic in his tight blanket. "-we're here to offer an alliance with the tamer. Get me out of this thing."

"Okay, sure close enough. To answer your question, I serve a tamer named... Clyde, Clyde Beatty. Next one of mine, how many of you are there?"

Patrick hesitated. "More than seventy." Which had been true only a few days ago.

It's better to overstate our power. He thought to himself. For intimidation.

The room fell silent. "Patrick." Scratch tutted, like a disapproving parent. "You're lying to me again."

Patrick could feel the flat side of a knife stroking his cheek. "N-no."

"Either you or your boss is. And I'm going for the one that doesn't wait around to hear if I believe him."

Did they really capture even Harkness? Just how many of these monsters are there? "There are... twenty-something bandits. The rest will arrive here in the morning."

"So then, that question didn't count, I'm going again." Scratch said with a playful tone.

"What? Come on!"

"Let's see...why Clyde? Are there no cities or settlements to flee to? Where do the farmers sell their produce?"

It was three questions in one. It took a moment for Patrick to unpack it. "Are you stupid." He said eventually. "We're bandits. If we show ourselves near Eston we'll get lynched."

"hhhm..." The goblins somehow didn't have any knowledge of human society. They were closer to animals than Patrick had thought.

"Now me again." Patrick said eagerly. "When will Beatty ret-"

"No." Scratch interrupted him. "I'm tired of this game. I'm leaving."

"But you said..."

"Yes. And I lied. Bye."

-

Scratch didn't want to deal with the bandits anymore. The evening had been hectic and traumatic, he had discovered that First had been alive and was now dead at the same time, bandits had stormed in trying to negotiate for this and that, and stray facts on orcs and evil gods buzzed around in all the talking. He hadn't even had the time to grieve.

He had dealed with the situation as much as he could and decided to delegate the last part, currently, he didn't have the energy for it anymore. He needed to retreat and meditate. Get rid of all these emotions.

The room was completely silent.

He was looking at her, she was looking at him. Neither was saying anything, but adrenaline coursed through their veins like a raging storm.

In between them the teenager's corpse had already gone cold.

"Are you going to kill me?" The young woman asked.

He sighed, for the first time in years he craved a cigarette. "Got any smokes?"

Eyeing the weapon in his hand she nervously fumbled a packet out her coat.

He held up two fingers for her to place a cigarette in and light it. She nervously did so, neither of them looking the other in the eye.

Still grasping the gun and with the cigarette in his mouth he sat down on the living room floor. He gestured for her to do the same.

Having no recourse but to obey the man with the weapon she lowered herself on the wooden floor.

"I loved that kid." He said eventually, his face showing no emotion. "Do you find that hard to believe? Loved him like he was my own son."

"I... I'm sorry."

"Don't say that." He pointed the gun at her. "I hate apologies." But he lowered it again.

She didn't know what else to say, so she stayed silent instead.

"Ever killed anyone before?" He asked. "Before today?"

"No." She lied.

"Heh. Liar." He laughed, like it was a corny joke.

They sat there, not saying anything, until his cigarette was used up.

"The first time I killed a man..." he leaned back "...lessee, must have been your age. Shylock coming after my pops, surprised him with a twenty caliber at the top of the staircase tower. Pop!" He mimed it with his weapon, making as if to shoot her. "Right between the eyes." He put out the cigarette on the floor. "'Course, that doesn't change anything. Just gets people riled up, killing. I didn't understand that back then. They kill some of yours, you kill some of theirs. Pay like with like, right?"

She swallowed.

"Are you afraid of me?"

"Yes."

"Then why did you come here?"

"I... I had to. Sonny made me, he'd kill me if-"

"Sonny, you're more afraid of Sonny than me?"

She stopped. But then she got angry. "I-if you're going to kill me, just get it over with!"

"Convince me. Why should I kill you?"

"Did you even really love him? You hate me then, come one!" She stood up. "Shoot me, take your revenge!"

He looked at her, his eyes were tired. "Is that what you want? To die?"

"Well, no... but..."

He dug into his coat pocket and retrieved a data stick. "This what you were sent here for, the ledger. Isn't it."

She nodded.

"Take it."

When she nervously took it, he didn't let go immediately.

"Do you understand why I'm doing this?"

She was deathly afraid of saying anything that would make him reconsider. "No..."

"It is because I loved him, that I don't hate you. No life should end with a murder, least of all two. So I'm putting a stop to this feud. Put that revenge thing out of your head, it has never done anybody any good."

"Alright."

"Alright." He let go of the stick and patted her cheek. "Now get the fuck out of my house."

"So... I'm the strongest, huh?"

"Oh Rhada, what have I done?" Lydia showed bemused regret at bolstering Huckabee's confidence to this level.

"I guess I'm pretty strong." He flexed. "I've been training with my sword my whole life. Even before I was exiled."

Lydia stared into the flames. She had been a bandit leader for several years now. When she had been a knight in service to the kingdom she thought she had known the horrors of war. When she lost her citizenship and had to survive alongside the other outlaws in the wild she knew that what had come before was a walk in the park. After the last few days, all previous years of banditry seemed peaceful. What would come to her in the future?

"Hey, boss? When Dee arrives, do you think you can tell her-"

"Huckabee?"

"Y-yes, boss?"

"Are you alright?"

"I-I'm fine..."

She stared at him intently. "But are you alright?"

He looked away. "I guess I'm trying not to think about it. I mean. That's life right? If you're a bandit."

Lydia sighed and leaned backwards. "I'll tell you the truth. I have no idea what to do next. I'm completely lost."

"C'mon, boss. Don't say that. Please. You always know what to do."

She said nothing. She looked at the stars and tried to find the constellations belonging to each god.

-

The makeshift camp was unnaturally silent, but to someone like her sound was all around.

There were goblins scurrying about, both in the light of the fire and out of it. Not too far away she could hear the rustling feathers of a single chicken.

After some time listening to the ambient sounds she realized that the goblins were in a lot fewer number than they were trying to make them believe.

She smiled at the little bluff, there was no way for them to keep it up after sunrise.

-

Huckabee had lain down to sleep. He had a worried look on his face but his eyes were closed.

She could feel her own eyelids becoming heavy. It had been a long day and she only now felt how tired she really was.

She started nodding and eventually closed her eyes.

At the edge of her consciousness she still heard two goblins breaking off from the camp and sneaking into the darkness.

"Where are we going?" Second was confused. Scratch had entrusted him and Teeth with a secret mission, outside the view of the humans.

Teeth growled. "We're going to find some bad goblins. You better keep your weapon in your hand."

The crossbow had been left at the cave, in case of a violent clash with the badits. Teeth was carrying his sword and Second an iron-tipped spear.

Teeth was setting the pace and he was jogging, ignoring the use trails and cutting a path straight across the chaotic forest floor, jumping over various logs and stones to keep up his momentum.

"Just tell me what's going on. So I'm better prepared." Second called after him.

Teeth sighed, having to slow down to properly explain. "The human called our crossbow an 'orc weapon'. Scratch says that means the orcs come around here to deal with goblins. So we're going to find them."

"Okay. Why?"

"Because the orcs want to kill the humans, and so do we. Now, hurry." Teeth increased his speed again.

Second was left behind in doubt. He bit his lip. His feelings were conflicting again, on one hand he feared and hated- no, just feared the humans. On the other hand, every part of his body told him to go near Lydia Harkness, to bask in her warmth and stay together with her.

Teeth clearly blamed the humans for First dieing, Yeller had been killed by them too. The lust was probably drowned out by his anger, or perhaps the lust fueled his anger. An additional affront to him, to make him want to love her when he really hated her.

-

During Teeth and the others' round trip it had taken a day and a half to reach their current destination.

But without baggage and running straight through the underbrush they arrived in a ew hours.

They were the ruins of an ancient structure. To Teeth and Second the thing was too big to register it as a building, it seemed more akin to a peculiar rock formation, a part of nature in itself.

What they found wasn't a sprawling community of goblins. It was a mountain of corpses.

They were strewn haphazardly across the stones and moss, cut up and in pieces, staining everything within sight with various hues of crimson and brown.

Second fell backwards at the sight. "Wh-what's going on?"

Teeth violently hacked into the air to release his rage. "We traded with these goblins! They brought us the flour!" He was angry at seeing his acquaintances slaughtered, despite the mistrust of them he had shown Second.

Second stayed on the ground. Waiting for Teeth to announce it was time to return.

Instead, after a moment of deliberation. Teeth walked further into the ruins. "Come." He said.

-

Farther away from the main bloodbath the amount of gore subsided.

Teeth led the way towards the most secure location in the fortress. Four sturdy walls surrounding the same room had survived, with an old metal prison door blocking the entrance.

The door had been ripped of its hinges and the various prizes and treasures of this group had escaped or been stolen.

Teeth grunted dissapointedly as Second suddenly snapped his head around at hearing something.

"What is it?" Teeth whispered.

"Footsteps."

At hearing he had been discovered the unknown individual suddenly bolted away. He had been hiding behind a crumbled pillar.

The two brothers quickly caught up with him. From the back it was visible that this was a goblin.

Teeth tackled him to the ground and was about to stab him with his weapon when Second once again stopped him from killing.

"Stop. That's not what we're here for."

It seemed to pain Teeth to follow Second's wiser words, but he relented and withdrew his sword. He then grabbed the stranger by the scruff of his neck and lifted him up.

It had to be a young goblin. He didn't show the marks of dishevelment and malnourishment that was typical of goblins.

"Who are you and what were you doing here?" Teeth demanded to know.

The creature started crying, mixing speech with pig noises. "Am *Gronk* Am Live Here. *Skreee.* No kill."

"I forgot they talked like that." Second sighed, having spend almost all of his days around the cave and his brothers.

"This is worse somehow." Teeth mentioned. "Who did all this?" He said to the goblin he was still holding.

"*Kree.* *Kree.*"

"Speak normal!" Teeth punched him with the hilt of his weapon.

"Wow! Hey, Teeth!" Second objected.

But the goblin responded. "Pig come here. Pig talk to us, give us food."

"Uh-huh. Uh-huh." Teeth hurried him along impatiently.

"Pig come back. Take goblins. Kill everyone."

"So a pig did this?" Second asked.

"A pig. Stand-on-two-legs pig. Leader say king will protect. But king never come."

"Where are they now?" Teeth said.

"Why did they come here?" Second tried to ask over it.

The goblin covered his face with his hands.

"Can you hear me? Where are they now?"

The goblin pointed at a nearby hilltop. "They is live there. But they is leave."

"Off to chase the bandits." Teeth said, throwing his capture to the ground. "We can probably follow this path to catch up to them. Let's go." He started walking.

Second kneeled next to the young goblin. "What's your name?"

"Second!" Teeth hissed impatiently.

"Runt."

"Runt. Those words. Those were the pig's words, weren't they?"

Runt nodded. "I not know difference."

"We better take him with us." He said to Teeth.

Teeth raised an eyebrow.

"For translation."

Margaret should have been ecstatic.

Here she was, on a mission with Laurus, the nightshade hero, whom she idolized. This could be the chance for them to grow closer together and eventually fall in love.

However, there was an uncomfortable element to the situation. They were following a horde of the beasts, which was leaving a trail of destruction.

"Who lived here?" She looked around.

"Bandits." Laurus said. "There've been reports about them before. But never any Guild missions."

Margaret exhaled in relief. She stroked her pegasus's, Lady's, head for comfort. "So no innocent people got hurt. Then."

"No." Laurus smiled. "I guess we should thank the orcs for doing our work for us. That used campsite a bit back must have been their original base. The orcs raided them and they fled here."

"And then the orcs followed them and attack them again?"

"I guess."

"Why?"

Laurus looked uncomfortable too. "I don't know. This is highly tactical for orcs. But if any time is good for attacking them it's now."

"Can you track them?"

"We're going to need to follow the horse tracks." With Laurus' pegasus, Shadow, he quickly darted back and forth over a large area with a few beats of his wings. "There are multiple tracks. I think from horses that were just let loose as well."

"Must have been to confuse the orcs." Margaret commented, still stroking Lady's mane. "We could either go back to the orc camp or try to follow one of these trails."

Laurus stroked his chin. "Let's take the one that leads us back in the direction of the Witchwood. If that's a false trail we'll be able to circle around easily enough anyway."

"Okay." Said Margaret, trying not to sigh. It wasn't a mission for excitement, but for the common good. She had to keep that in mind.

With the prisoners now having taken over watching the bound bandit completely, Dumb staying at the entrance, and the duo of Second and Teeth being send outside, Scratch had gathered Kicker, Biter and Quiet in the dining room.

"Is there anything unclear about my plan?" He concluded.

"Yes." Kicker and Biter said in unison.

"Then what?"

"Who is clait?" Asked Kicker.

Scratch sighed. "Pay attention. Clyde I made up. We're buying time with the humans by making them think we have what they want."

"You only told that to the hostage though." Said Biter.

"Look." Scratch rubbed his temples. "It doesn't matter. We're spinning a lie about there being some sort of tamer character when there isn't."

"Okay." Said Kicker. "But only until morning."

"Once it's morning our house of cards will come falling down." Scratch said. "Then there is no hiding our numbers."

"So you're having Second and Teeth find the orcs." Biter recounted. "And we'll meet them..."

"...in around three hours." Scratch finished the sentence. "You don't need to know what an hour is. Just when the moon is at the top of the straight line of stars. That's what I told Teeth."

"Why trust the orcs?" Quiet whispered.

"Why trust the orcs?" Scratch repeated louder so the others could hear what question he was answering. "We can only assume orcs are the evolved state of goblins, like that Horns character we fought. There has to be some basis of mutual understanding there. In any case, it's best to hear both sides of the story. Even if we can't reason with them, we need to at least know more. Our situation is looking pretty bleak with what we know now. Information gathering is vital."

He gave a tone of finality to these last words. As if he was done answering questions.

"Oh. Oh." Biter hopped up and down his seat with an additional question.

"Biter?"

"What's a house of cards?"

"Never mind that. Get some shut-eye. I'll wake you when it's time to spring into action."

Evil Gods

Besides the twelve main gods that rule all positive aspects of reality, there are countless smaller gods that govern elements of evil. They are the fragments of the destroyed God of Evil, whose name is lost to time. Every evil god has their own name and form, often monstrous and inhuman. Just like the gods of positive aspects they seek to spread their own influence by increasing the propensity for their aspect in the world, their dealings are therefore invariably evil.

One of the most powerful evil gods is Manshuu, evil god of bloodshed. This god is responsible for multiple demon kings over the centuries, as a unified monster force attacking humanity is sure to cause a great deal of bloodshed and monsters that are interested in doing so benefit greatly in becoming Manshuu's champion. Just like the main gods each evil god can make a creature their champion, they often choose a monster as their champion rather than a person, since, as weaker deities, the effect is lessened compared to a true god.

Some other prolific evil gods are the five-head gods of indulgence, whose fragmentation is incomplete and are still joined into a single entity despite having separate minds, the evil god of destruction Tamber, who is known to create singular rampaging beasts as champion, and Pinchin, the evil god of death and undeath, who even now holds dominion over the dark lands via his champion, the ravenous lich and his army of the undead.

It is not uncommon for A-level adventurers to find themselves directly at odds with an evil god, but even when defeating a champion and destroying the armies of an evil god, killing them is impossible.