Tyre, my Human slave, put on the glove Fiara had fashioned and gripped the triple-core monster egg. “Like this, master?” he looked over hopefully.

“Yeah. If you let go, it will teleport back to here. Be sure to let go if you can't return, but hang on tight otherwise.”

Tyre nodded and faced a few Fomor slaves who had come to see him off.

“I will return. I will serve master more with you all,” he smiled and spoke in rough New Orcish. All the subordinate races had started to learn it in order to communicate with each other. Apparently the bored pregnant women have been teaching them.

“Life more,” a Fomor smiled.

Another one laughed, “Die for master. Otherwise, life forever.”

“Weak Human. Come home, definitely.”

Well, that would be ideal, yes.

The farewells ended shortly, and I went to familiarize myself with the city and its new inhabitants--until either the egg returned, or my Law replenished enough to grant life to the ten Human spy corpses. Whichever came first.

***

“Azza, where should we put these alchemical supplies?”

The Small Baphomet woman sat lightly in the air, with her goat legs crossed casually and her hooves tucked underneath her center of gravity. Using a flat rough stone, carved neatly on one side, she had filed her nails into elegant points. She wiped the dust off on the sash tied around her waist and admired their shine.

“The place next to mine should be good, right?” she answered without much concern. They had been preparing and traveling for several hours to reach this place; she considered it justified if she wanted to take a short break.

Neff, who was listening in from a few steps away, frowned unconsciously. “Is it really appropriate to bring materials for your hobby to a place like this?”

Azza was a magic caster, not an alchemist, Neff knew this. Alchemy was just something she dabbled in to pass the time: it wouldn't be of any use to them in the coming battles. Wasn't it just a waste of space and a distraction to have the materials here in this situation?

“You want to deprive me of my hobby, Neff?” Azza dropped her stone nail file into a swaying black void and glanced at her compatriot. Neff, however, wasn't fazed.

“We need to be focusing on the Orcs right now. Will you even have time to practice with those?”

Azza smiled a thin smile. “Neff, let me share a little wisdom with you. War is mostly comprised of preparing for battle, moving to battle sites, and waiting for battle. The actual battle portion only takes up a few hours. I’ve done my moving and my subordinates are finishing the preparations, so unless I start hearing battle cries, all I have to do now is wait. If I have to wait around anyway, I’d rather have something to occupy myself with.”

Azza cut off her and stood on the ground properly. Her long tail swished as she gave a wry smile.

“Of course, I have capable subordinates who’ve been with me for more than a decade. In your case, shouldn't you still have a lot to do? Do you have the time to be standing around judging me?”

Neff cast his gaze to where his own forces were setting up camp. They were a bunch of young and ambitious people who saw something worth following in him. Although they lacked experience and skill to some extent, they had potential.

The young Small Baphomet shook his shaggy black head. “I’m close enough to rush over if there are any problems.”

Azza sauntered a few steps closer. “Yes, you can certainly see it clearly from here.” She came closer still, until her uncovered chest was pressed against his side, her arms curled around his neck. “So why are you in my camp in the first place, fellow chosen of Baythes?”

Neff’s nostrils flared, but he brushed the older woman away. “Do that with one of the chosen you've already collected.”

Azza smiled and backed off. “So what kind of favor are you looking for? You've been self-sufficient until now, so I don't mind splurging a little.”

She makes it sound like I wouldn't have to pay her back, Neff rolled his eyes internally. Azza had lived almost thirty years, and the number of ambitious young villages she had crushed, absorbed, and subordinated in that time was not small. After all, the number of villages that could be allowed to exist in the center of the South forest was only so many. Azza enjoyed beating down incompetent people, so she usually took the lead, but the others would apply their own pressure if she failed.

The time limit seems to be about five years. Growing strong and stable enough during that time is difficult. However, if I make good achievements during this war, it will be a huge step forward.

What Azza offered wasn't poison, but an addictive medicine. If he could control to what extent he used her gifts, they would only become a blessing-- since, after all, Azza liked to step on incompetent people. He would accept her help and use it to further prove himself.

“Actually, there is something. I’d be grateful if you’d teach me how to use or .”

Azza, who had been stroking her beard and nodding in a self-satisfied way, suddenly hesitated. “... Hey, those aren’t Demonic attribute spells, you know?”

“They’re spacetime attribute, right? I can also use it.”

Azza narrowed her crimson eyes and turned her head away, clicking her tongue. “I thought I felt something familiar from you. To think you were a cheeky enough bastard to ask me to teach a lost ancient magic.”

“You won't do it?”

Azza kept thinking for a time, with her tail vaguely swaying. Finally, she gave in with a low chuckle, “Alright. Fine. I’ll teach you .”

Neff held his breath and didn't allow himself to feel happy just yet.

“But that’s a heavy request, so I'll ask for something in return.”

“What do you want for it?”

“I want to pass on my knowledge and techniques properly when the time comes, so I want to raise the odds that my child will have the same affinities I do. In other words,” Azza leaned into a seductive, yet vaguely threatening, pose, “mate with me this season, as soon as the war is over.”

Neff sighed and tilted his chin up a notch, eyeing down at the superior chief. “We’re back to this?”

Azza saw his expression, but she wasn't discouraged. She just smiled and held up her index finger. “Earlier, I was half kidding around, but this time I'm serious. I promise not to use this to suck you into an alliance, so how about it?”

It was impossible not to feel wary about making this kind of deal with a woman known for crushing rising chiefs, but the deal was really too good to pass up. If worst came to worst, he could simply use to run away.

“You have a deal.”

“Great,” Azza smiled. “I’ll start with a demonstration, so watch the spell formation carefully.”

The Small Baphomet gathered magic power into a strange, rotating spell formation with several layers of complexity. Upon release, without light or sound, her body vanished and reappeared a few feet to the left.

“You can only bring yourself and what you can carry with , but there isn't actually any restriction placed on the distance traveled. It is more dangerous trying to go somewhere you can't see, though. has the same problem, actually, so I developed a spell for remote viewing. There’s no problem if I can see the place before I move there. How about I teach you now so you can use it in the battle, then I teach you the remote viewing magic after you’ve held up your end of the bargain?”

“That seems fair,” Neff nodded. “A remote viewing spell seems useful. Couldn't you use it to spy on the enemy forces?”

“It uses a lot of Magic Power, you know? It’s hard to watch a place for more than a few seconds at a time, which is all I really need for teleportation purposes. I do look over the surroundings here every now and then, so we don't get ambushed.”

As if to prove that statement, Azza crafted a spell formation around herself and took a sweeping glance at the region around their camps. There were several camps all clustered together, surrounding old Rhathol’s village in the very center. A handful of chiefs had yet to arrive, but most had gathered, including Bazarath, who had kept his promise of providing weapons. Among the notable people, only Fehan had yet to come, but his village was the farthest away from this spot, so it wasn't surprising.

Azza smiled as she caught a glance of Fehan’s group coming from a ways away. Then in the complete opposite direction, she noticed one small figure moving quickly and quietly toward their location.

“Not really ambush material though, is he?” she muttered.

“What?” Neff turned his head. “Is there actually something there?”

“Just someone not cautious enough to use . I'll go take care of it--this will only take a second.”

***

“So here’s the colosseum.”

I tipped my head back to see the top of what looked like a tall, elliptical wall. There were arch-shaped entrances all around the base, which led to an interior hallway filled with stairs, platforms, and more exits. I didn't spot it earlier simply because it was surrounded by other eye-catching buildings. It’s the classic roman grey with lots of pillars and open seating. The fighting zone looks like a bare dirt floor, but it seems to have been infected by my law, so it’s able to self-repair.

When I was thinking about what would be good to have the War Orcs fight, I saw an ice needle catch the sun high in the air. The Magic casters here know better than to fire at the sky unless they're trying to signal something.

It wouldn't be that the recording egg came back already, right? But what else could it be?

It had only been half a day since the Human left. Could he even reach the place this quickly? I even checked my information saved in , and he doesn't have any movement skills. Was he intercepted?

The teleportation platforms are mainly for long distance movement, and I wasn't far enough away for them to be useful, so I flapped my wings and flew to where the magic came from. I found Fiara at the source with a tense smile on her face. I quietly followed her down into the research building’s basement, then, “What on earth happened?”

Fiara showed a tight smile and lifted the recording egg off of the pelt it had appeared on. “I don't have a clue. Perhaps the Human dropped it?”

Sighing, I pressed my hand to my forehead. “That wouldn't even be funny. Let’s just look at the contents and find out.”

If my slave is still alive, I’ll have another problem to deal with, since I can clearly see with that Babylon’s population has decreased by one.

Fiara and I leaned in close to watch the recorded images playback within the crystal. Nobody else was present to see it. The beginning was boring, so we skipped through most of it. Tyre was trotting through the forest, erasing his sounds and presence with his skills. To be honest, his ability was better than I expected. Maybe I have a stronger presence to begin with, but doesn't have as great an effect when I use it. Even without he could certainly hide better than me.

He’s still visible, of course. uses a considerable amount of Magic Power, and there’s still a long way to go.

We continued to skip past several hours of boring travel and, before I knew it, the recording ended.

“Ah, we missed it! Go back.”

“Y, yes.”

Fiara turned the recording back a few minutes and we watched the image carefully. Out of nowhere, a Small Baphomet appeared--I mean literally out of nowhere; it must have teleported or been invisible or something.

The Small Baphomet this time was a female with a noble atmosphere around her. She was naked except for a black sash around her waist. She didn't have any weapons or armor at all, but she hovered in the air without any signs of worry or discomfort. It was definitely this thing’s fault that the crystal came back, right?

I was expecting a quick spell casting followed by the end of the recording, but there was still more video left. Perhaps because she had so much confidence in herself, the Small Baphomet started to speak in the Fomor language.

“Did you pass by the Orc Lord’s fortress with only those skills, Human? What are you doing all the way out here?”

“S-shit! Demon!” Tyre’s voice came out in the New Orcish he’d been working hard to learn recently. The gloved fingers wrapped around the image started to loosen, but then they were fixed in place by magic, along with the rest of his body. The Small Baphomet touched her glossy black hooves to the ground, her hips and tail swaying as she casually approached.

“Or not. That was Orcish just now, wasn't it? How surprising.”

Small Baphomets aren't nearly as huge as Fomors-- at seven feet tall they're only a few inches taller than I am-- but that height was still sufficient to tower over a single Human. The Small Baphomet woman looked down her black snout at Tyre, her blood red eyes glittering in the patchy sunlight.

Tyre wasn't able to move or speak. He could only stand there helplessly and wait for the enemy to move as she pleased.

“And what is this? A present from the Orc Lord, perhaps?” The Fomor woman reached down and grabbed at Tyre’s wrist. His arm bent as she pulled it, ignoring the magical restraints, until the image in the crystal was almost entirely occupied by her face. “Is it something dangerous to make up for your lack of strength? Oh dear, I can't let you keep it then.”

Her long fingers curled around the image, and then the recording ended. Fiara glanced back and forth between the recording egg and my face, while I ran my fingers through my braids and groaned.

“Great. We don't know the enemy’s numbers, their location, or their strength, and it’s even uncertain if my slave is dead or captured. Fuck. I was extra cautious and everything, but it didn't work at all.”

Fiara set the egg back down on its pelt and spoke softly, “What now, chief?”

I pulled over a metal chair and leaned back in it, folding my arms. I'm worried I'll get wrinkles if things keep happening that make me furrow my brows.

“First things first,” I sighed. “Let’s analyze what little that recording was able to show us.”

Fiara pulled up a chair of her own and sat opposite me. “The enemy is excellent at detection,” she started. “That Small Baphomet seemed like she could teleport. Considering how difficult it was for me to learn to make spell patterns for spacetime magic, she’s likely a very skilled magic caster.”

“So it was someone in a high position,” I muttered. “Whatever detection magic she used is probably also based on the spacetime attribute. There might not be any way to approach undetected. Also, the enemy is clearly aware of me: she kept saying “Orc Lord, Orc Lord,”” I sighed and repositioned my wings. “That binding spell looked particularly troublesome. I’ll need a countermeasure.”

“That isn't too difficult. I got a good look at it after all.”

Oh? Not bad. Fiara can see spell formations as clear as day with her , but she’s only able to interpret them thanks to her own expertise.

“Did you already figure it out?”

“More or less. I've been studying spacetime Magic for a while now. That was something like a fixed space barrier. It’s lucky that time had nothing to do with it: it will be hard to break free physically, but that barrier won’t stop you from using spells and skills.”

“It can't block magic? Seems like a major weak spot.”

“It can't block spirits,” Fiara corrected. “Spacetime spirits exist everywhere, so they're very good at sharing with the other spirits. The world wouldn't be able to exist otherwise. On the other hand, artificial spirits, like Holy and Demonic spirits, will become weaker in a barrier like that. They aren't able to share space very well. Actually,” she put a hand on her chin, “it’s pretty strange for a Small Baphomet to have two affinities in the first place.”

“Mmhm,” I muttered, wondering if it would be alright to praise a talented enemy when one appears. “Maybe I should try to recruit her. Ha, as if I could keep a slave with the Demonic attribute.”

“So should we make another plan for reconnaissance?” Fiara offered. “Maybe attach the egg to a bird and--” I held up a hand to silence her.

“Are the Golems at the gates working?”

“T-they only need to have a magic core placed inside. Why?”

“I want them active in case there’s an enemy who tries to teleport into the city while our strongest fighters are away. The slaves, non-combatants, and father will stay behind. Everyone else will go fight.”

“Now, chief?!”

“Of course not,” I stood up and put my chair back, and Fiara copied me. “Plan things out properly while assuming that the enemy is stronger and more numerous than us. You and mother are in charge. Durghan and brother are second in command. Be sure to consult Dagoran, since he’s warred with the Fomors many times, and try not to undermine his authority as an ex-chief.”

I can rattle off orders to Fiara with confidence; her memory is perfect.

Fiara looked uneasy, one of her hands was clasping the other tightly. “And what will you be doing while we prepare?”

Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to fly ahead and smash those annoying goats as hard as I can.

“Obviously,” I opened my mouth to say just that, but the words caught in my throat when I took a closer look at Fiara’s face. Her lips were pressed together tightly, and she wasn't making proper eye contact. Some of the blood had drained from her blue face.

Feeling guilty and stupid, I sighed and changed my answer. “I’ll be practicing holy magic in the castle.” Ignoring her rapidly brightening expression, I quickly spat out, “So hurry up with those preparations.”

“Of course, chief!” Fiara bobbed a quick bow and jogged out of the room ahead of me.

When she was out of sight, I rested my forehead in my hand, muttering weakly, “Haah. Today is just… What the fuck?”

I think I'm gonna be sick.