The steps echoed and rebounded along the corridor as a man, wearing nothing but a dirty cape full of holes, walked through it towards a huge, stone door at the end of it. All the while he was humming a lively, happy, tune. He looked so, so bizzare against the rich columns, pedestals with clay busts representing age old heroes, angels, and gods. Every part of him screamed that he simply did not belong there.

Even the guards: colossal winged creatures in silver and golden armors were looking at him with contempt, yet none dared to impede his path.

And so, Zariel cheerfully walked across the so-called Golden Palace, ostentatious of a name as had ever been invented if you would ask him, - the domain of The Three - eventually reaching the end of the corridor and kicking the door open because why not.

“Sup’ Bitches!” he yelled from the doorstep.

Three pairs of eyes looked in his direction. Every kind of negative facial expression went across all their faces in the span of a second, even some new ones he noted with interest. To put it lightly, they weren’t happy to see him.

“How utterly vulgar…” Gaia’Selass, the Lady of Life, who guides travelers across the wilds commented, grimacing hearing his loud racking words. “I could have said something along the lines of ‘good day to you’, unfortunately, we cannot lie - hence, you heard something from the deepest, most sincere part of my heart. I hope you will cherish it for eternity.”

He extolled, putting his hand on his chest and bowing with courtesy, much to the contrary of his words.

“So, ready for today's sessions?” he grinned, not waiting for an invitation he took a seat behind the table, on an empty chair that was already waiting for him.

With theatrical gestures, he put a huge book in front of him, took a pair of glasses from behind his clothes and put it on his nose. Not that he really needed them, they were to just look nerdy, adding to the performance as it were. In the end, his vision was perfect, even more than that - able to piece through the very tissue of reality. It was a power he obtained while still living a ‘mortal’ - when he was just the beast-king.

“So, before we start, a brief reminder of the last events from our previous session…” Zariel delicately flipped through the pages as a very dutiful scholar would have.

The Three groaned.

“...Is this really necessary? We don’t ‘forget’. That’s a mortal folly.” The Lady of the Moon Light hissed annoyed. She knew that Fate-Breaker was just wasting their time for his own twisted satisfaction. “Rules are rules, until they’re conveniently forgotten for petty scheming purposes, as you all once demonstrated to me. Oh you don’t recall? Could have sworn...Oh well you get the idea!” he grinned from ear to ear, but then his eyes narrowed while scanning the table.

On the table, everyone had several pieces of notes, dice, tokens, and figurines representing hundreds of different things. He quickly noticed that The Lady of the Sun Light was suspiciously guarding one of her dice piles with her arm, protecting them from her opponent's gaze.

“O-ho-ho? Someone made an action, while I wasn’t here?” he grinned, making Luxa grit her teeth. “It...isn’t not against the rules.” “Wonderful attempt at language subterfuge but no dice. HA. But your pathetic attempt to hide from me your action still offends me. You know that I count your moves and tokens? I assure you that before I leave this place you yourself will be begging to tell me what you’ve done.” “Keep dreaming!” Luxa said with seething contempt. “Wanna bet about that?” Zariel said while making his best attempt at wiggling his eyebrows at her.

The ‘Young’ goddess, still driven by her pride, nearly agreed. Nearly. She was stopped by her older sister - Life itself - who grabbed her hand.

It was an obvious trap.

Why? Because Zariel had one, terrible, horrendous flaw. He was a terrible gambler. Dice simply hated him, always making him roll relatively worse than the others. There was no magic to it. Simply bad luck.

Because of that, Zariel never, ever bet ‘his money’ unless he was sure he would win. Which meant he wasn’t bragging when he did bet. Indeed, he could obtain this knowledge - most likely via the effects of his ‘card’. He was the Game-Master after all. He created it. He knew by heart every rule that every other God was still trying to decipher and learn how to use to the fullest.

Everyone was playing “his” game.

“I will pass.”

The Lady of The Sun sat back on her chair with a restrained twist of her body, bereaving herself for almost falling for the trick.

“Pft. Chicken.” Zariel started shuffling the cards and spreading them into small piles. “Maybe you would tell us what you used your second wish for, hm? Unless you are…” The Night tried to make him speak, hoping that he would lose by bragging about his triumphs. She had several offenses and sly tricks that should make him talk, but the God of Fate surprised her. “Oh, that? Sure.” “Well how about if I --- Wait w-what?” “No problem. My lil’ champion had a spare match. I allowed myself to empower his opponent, while setting up a little gift that would empower him during that day in the arena. Satisfied?”

The Three blinked few times at him, then at each other, then at him again.

“...What?” They whated in unison. “What-what? Honestly, your avatars should be parrots. Basically, I allowed myself to show him how dangerous his enemies could be, while allowing him to win by ‘sheer luck’ - a coincidence. Badly chosen equipment and artifacts that had a reversed effect on him when matched against his own. Also, I flashed my gorgeous ass there, if he ain’t a complete retard, he should put the bits together that ‘his luck’ and the appearance of the ‘God of Luck’ during his battle wasn’t a coincidence. Basically - I saved him. And he now owes me one.” “...But, you made the problem worse to begin with!” “Hey! Law of Supply and Demand Ladies! If you are producing cannons, you need to create a conflict, so people will buy them!... Everyone needs a light push sometimes… even if it’s under an arriving wagon. I’ve got him filled up on love and hatred, but fear is also a wonderful motivator!” “...You are a monster!” “You are technically correct. The best kind of correct!” he burst into a giggle “...I know…” he continued in a much softer tone “...If they all knew the extent of things, they might indeed think that I am cruel and using them as puppets.” “Ha? And the truth is different?” They all sniffed their noses at him. “Of course.” Zariel noted, suddenly losing all his goofy exterior “When we speak about those who are fighting against all odds, who have not agreed with ‘God’s Will’, who are challenging Fate itself - Then, I love them. I really, really believe that if someone has motivation to keep on fighting, even if their bones are broken, to crawl when they can no longer walk, to - in the moment of their death - curse and spit as their killer… I love them. To me, only those who can sacrifice themselves pursuing their goals are truly worthy to achieve them. And they will, if I have anything to say about it.” He finished with a hardened look at the Three. “This is a straight path to chaos!” Gaia rose from her seat, banging her fist on the table, causing a few figurines and destinies to shift about. “You are right.” he smiled “...and what’s wrong about that? Chaos is nature’s prefered state!” “You are mad!” “Every genius is a little mad… Now, enough chit-chat.”

He once again fixed the glasses on his nose.

“Now - last time, we agreed upon limiting hero actions to…”

The Game-Master started reading from a huge book.

-------------------

“Focus, Aster! Focus!”

Captain Friedrich was yelling at me, as my entire body was trembling - I was sitting in a lotus position, my gaze focused on a small ball, hovering around fifty centimeters above the ground.

“I am… trying…” I managed to say through clenched teeth. “And that’s your mistake! You are trying instead of doing! Seriously! This much should be as easy as breathing, Mister-let -me-just-throw-a-dispel-during-battle!”

Yes. Unfortunately, as I learned after the battle, the way I casted the spell was - quoting Friedrich - so savage and brutal, that not only every mage in the area noticed, but they also cried vivid tears at the sight of someone butchering the spell formula so much. In fact, some were so taken with grief they looped back around and were awed that magic could even be twisted to do such a thing.

“Seriously, don’t you dare call yourself my apprentice, if you’re going to be going around using magic in such a vulgar form.” “... But technically I am not your…” I saw a small chance of saving myself from this torment so I took it blindly. “Saying that - focus-focus-focus! You need to correct your mana manipulation. Mister wanna-be battle-mage!”

I sighed.

Friedrich didn’t know that my spell was technically a curse, and I didn't have the heart to tell him. As soon as he saw me using ‘natural’ magic in a combat situation, he went all nuts and cucumbers, remodeled my room installing two colossal bookshelves, and filled them to the brink with magic ABC’s.

Saying that he was eager to teach me the foundation of magic was… a huge understatement. I’m fairly certain a decent majority of the books were wooden pictographs often given to toddlers to slowly expose them to the do’s and don’t of magic through various short tales.

He would literally pull me from my training with Lieutenant Natasha, also much to her annoyance. And who was punished for HIS doing of this? Of course - me.

Right now, my day looked like so:

06:00-12:00 - General training on the field, with other cadets.

12:30-16:00 - Private training with Natasha, Godrick, or another instructor.

16:30-21:00 - Helping mages with regular tasks - cleaning, rewriting notes - the usual.

21:00-01:00 - Forced magic studies with either Maria or Friedrich himself.

and

01:00-06:00 - Rendezvous with Captain Ghost.

I didn't have even a single hour for myself, and even though I didn’t need to rest, the mental burden was slowly growing stronger and stronger.

The ball I had been straining to keep afloat abruptly fell down.

“Oh come on Aster! The time that you can levitate it should keep on getting longer! Not shorter!” “Sir, sorry Sir. I am trying my best here.”

Almost two weeks have passed since my ‘little’ duel. I would like to say that life was coming back to “normal”, unfortunately, that would be an utter lie.

In front of the House’s gates even more people were gathering, trying to talk with their idols.

Especially with a huge man clothed in White.

“That’s why we increased the intensity of your training…” Natasha explained “... there are lots of expectations on you, before, you were just a nameless nobody in unusual armor. Now, you have become one of our symbols. You fought in ‘our’ name and won. Despite being a cadet, you are already viewed as the ‘property’ of the Lions. This is why you are not allowed to show anything less than perfection… AND IF I SEE YOU FIGHTING LIKE A HEADLESS CHICKEN AGAIN I WILL MASSACRE YOU WITH MY OWN BLOODY HANDS! That battle was embarrassing to say the least!”

She yelled with the fiercest amount of red in her face. I couldn’t tell if she was furious, excited, or was living some twisted happy festish dream of a leader. In the end - she was the one who officially trained me, before the fight, and as my battle with Foxes revolved around really… crude… battle stance, the proud lioness might have suffered some teasing offenses from fellow knights.

But that was then, and right now, I was being lectured by an overly eager mage.

“...say, do you really need to go with Ghost?” the mage-captain asked “... You could really use one or two more hours of meditation… followed by some...” “Only if you will be the one to break it to Captain Ghost about the reason for my absence.”

I allowed myself for some small intimacy, not answering according to our ranks.

“... so you have to.” He sighed defeated.

I got up from my sitting spot, cracked my bones, more as a habit than to bring myself any level of comfort, before picking the ball, putting it on the table, and starting to clean after myself.

As soon as I was done, bowing my head slightly, I said my farewells to the mage and the few of the most trusted assistants that were monitoring my progression with him, and opened the door about to leave. I was immediately welcomed by the direct eye to eye stare of a man covered completely in black, his body seeming to merge with the edges of the closed door frame and empty corridor.

“...Done?” Ghost mumbled at a volume where you’d be second guessing if it was just your imagination or the wind.

The spy-master’s voice, as always, echoed from seemingly every direction.

And that, my friends, is what I meant by saying that I don’t even have an hour for myself.

Sir, yes, Sir.” I replied back, trying to at least keep my reply at a modicum of energy. “Good. Meet me outside of the barracks. Take your armor and weaponry. Take a black coat too.”

… armor? That’s new.

“We are not going to train today, sir?” “No. We have a mission. We will be gone for a few days.”

HALLELUJAH!

HAA-LELUUU-JAH!

If someone had told me, just several days ago, that I would be overjoyed to know that Ghost was about to take on a possibly dangerous, and for sure an annoying quest - I would have called him mad! But now? Few-days-long mission meant that for the next few days I won’t be in camp! Which meant a few days without hellish training!

“Where are we going?” I tried to contain my glee. “Later. You will learn on the way.” “I want to know how to prepare myself…” “Why? Want to take warmer clothes? Afraid you would get cold?” His sarcasm surprised me. That was the first time he ‘joked’ in front of me, as his eyes sparkled for just a few seconds.

… Touche.

“... I will be ready in fifteen minutes” “Good. We depart in five then.” “But…” “See you there.”

Ghost vanished into thin air.

Gritting my teeth, I quickly covered myself in thick robes, starting to run across the facility, towards my room, to grab my necessities.

Cloak, armor, weapon… and book.

Iron Maiden Breaker Volume Three - Duel with the Fabled Amazon. Her tales often called her the Pelvis-Breaker! Being familiar with the fragility of the bones ever since attaining my undead state I couldn’t wait to learn the secret techniques or skills she used to warrant such a fearsome nickname!

Maybe on the way I would be allowed to catch up with my several lost days, for just as the bookstore owner said - these books indeed are packed with marvelous action and lessons! Once you start, you can’t stop reading!

I indeed can’t wait for this mission!

A blessing from the Lord! ~ I offhandedly yelled in my mind.

A blessing from the Lord… ~ I repeated it one more time, this time slower, noticing how it sounded in my head.

It felt, right? Warranted? But even so, the fact that it did gave me the shivers because WHY did it?

I didn’t like it, I didn’t like it at all.

Skill proficiency increased Skills:

[Sword Usage - Advanced level 11 ➝ 16]

[Shield Usage - Advanced level 3 ➝ 7]

[Bow Usage - Apprentice level 1]

[Nature Magic - Novice level 1 ➝ 3]

[Mana Sense - Low - Passive]

[Life sense - Medium - Passive]

[Combat Maneuver/Team tactic - Journeyman level 2 ➝ 6]

[Heavy Armor Usage - Journeyman level 6 ➝ 9]

[Hand-to-hand Combat - Novice level 7 ➝ 10]

[Stealth - Apprentice level 2 ➝ 7]

[Mind Magic Resistance - Low - level 1 ➝ 4]

[Dark Arts - Curse Words - Apprentice Level 2 ➝ 4]

[Dark Arts - Necromancy - Novice Level 6 ➝ 7]

[Tracking - Novice Level 2 ➝ 5]