Sly within his demonic form carried Kyle and Soren down next to the carriage just as the invisibility spell was recast by Steph. The carriage was still falling down as one griffin held it up, the large winged beast was powerful enough to lower it safely. A wave of energy burst out from it stopping a couple meters away from them, the cloaking spell was an area of effect magic.

Kyle hopped off the Devil just as it landed “Yo Birse, what happened?” he asked after jogging over to him, Death and Cherry.

“Draxxer did, we’ve dealt with him. As I predicted he came to stop us and as predicted he underestimated us.” said Birse as he waved the others to come by, Soren ran over as Sly shrunk down to his normal form and did so too.

“What now?” asked Sly as he watched their only griffin land on the carriage’s roof.

“Yo Kyl is your mana high enough to make a golem?” Asked Soren as he inspected the chains on the front, they had been cleanly cut through.

Kyle checked his mana “Nothing large.” he then responded while taking out a core from his inventory, a green crystal twice the size of his fist.

Soren nodded “Something with strong legs, we’ll push the carriage the rest of the way. I’ll get some wheels up, Sly help me.”

“Aight.” Replied Sly as he followed the Dwarf over to the nearest tree, they began to chop down the lower branches.

“Death you go help Steph and Seren keep the cloaking spell up.” Birse ordered as he watched the two work “Cher take a breather, Kyll how far can you sense people?”

“Hmm…” Kyle spread out his spirit detection as he summoned slime to surround the core in his hands and slowly moulded the golem. “If I’m just looking for a presence without knowing location it’s about a kilometre, if I want to know the location of each presence then…400 meters? A perimeter of about 400 meters.” He then replied.

Birse looked surprised “That’s pretty damn useful, can you keep it up for long?”

“Yeah, It’s maxed out too.” Kyle responded with little interest as he continued to form his golem.

“You have a maxed out skill? How? When did you max it out?” Birse asked as he watched the creation of a golem.

“Dunno.” Kyle stated honestly “Guess I’ve had it for a while, just been locked away…The nogitsune and all…Same with my memories, I’ve been remembering things…”

Birse raised his hands “Alright I’ll back off, it’s not healthy to keep everything to yourself though. If you need an ear, well don’t look at me I’ll tell you that much.” He told him with a smirk.

Kyle chuckled “Don’t need to tell me, there it’s done.”, he finished with the shaping the golem “Now to name it…”.

The golem looked like a buffalo, although slightly larger it was still only half the size of the griffin. Made entirely of blue condensed slime to save mana, the buffalo golem was entirely one colour.

“Got it, you’ll be named Slimeaffalo.” Kyle stated causing the golem creation to end, the creature coming to ‘life’ in front of them awaited commands to be given by it’s creator.

Both turned around just as Soren began to chop and shape the wood him and Sly collected, using his two axes to chop and Sly’s daggers to carve and shape. With the sheer size of the branches making a wheel wasn’t difficult but the carriage was simply too large for what wheels he could easily cut off and adding too many wheels made it harder to turn.

So with Sly’s guidance Soren carved off straight planks of wood from the branches and bent them into a circle making use of the branch’s length at their advantage. This was done several times with multiple carvings each longer than the last to create four large wooden wheels made of several layers of thin wood. Each layer was held together solely by Kyle’s condensed slime due to Soren and Sly being unable to think of anything else.

Soren sighed as he grabbed a dagger and some more left over wood “Alright now we need to add spokes and a hub.” he got back to carving.

“How do you know how to make this crap anyway?” Asked Birse as him, Cherry and Kyle watched.

“Back in rune shock me and Soren use to mess around with siege weapon crafting. Didn’t we ever tell you about it?” Sly asked as he helped Soren hold a branch down for chopping.

“Huh, I wondered where those artillery cannons came from…” Kyle mused.

“We created those! Can you believe nobody thought to come up with something other than catapults?!” exclaimed Soren with a laugh.

The game they speak of was of course their main attention, the game where they created their legacy as a guild. Realism was a great part of Rune shock online, allowing it’s players to gain many skills through the motion control system which included realistic combat.

Albeit not being a VR game, Rune shock had stayed highly popular due to it’s genre as an MMORPG and one of the only three of that genre remaining.

That game brought all of them together, and that same game was what Kyle was currently thinking of as Soren and Sly worked.

He thought back to the creation of his body, the fairy he met then and how different she seemed to the next time he ‘met’ Liliana. The machines supposedly used to transfer their souls to this world were created by the parent company of Rune shock online, that same company advertised this world as one of the many virtual reality games created by them and other companies.

“Our predecessors…” Kyle thought out loud as he stared up at the sky.

“Hmm? Something wrong?” Birse asked as he briefly glanced over at him then back at his trusty craftsmen.

“I was just thinking out loud, I mean look at us now. A week ago we were some nobodies sitting around on a chair and staring all day at a monitor and AR garbage.” Kyle sighed then smirked “Now here we are, in a world of magic and fantasy so similar to the game we all gathered at.”

“Enemies left and right, people out to kill us wherever we go. Not so different from back then, other than the improved realism and graphics that is.” Joked Sly as he helped Soren stack the third finished wheel.

“I thought games had better graphics than reality Sly?” joked back Soren with a chuckle.

Sly jabbed the Dwarf in the shoulder “Oi I was talking about anime back then, I swear it’s like I’m talking to damn wall.”

“Oi back to work you two.” mocked Birse as he grinned at them.

“Fuck you, you wanna carry this shit?” replied Sly as he held the fourth wheel while Soren worked on it.

Kyle smiled as they bickered but his mind remained focused on his previous thoughts (“What is that connection…Who is Scythe?...Why did he send all of us here? Why not just the heroes? What is his goal?”) these questions floated through his mind as he tried to reasonably answer them.

“Done. Yo CH get that beast to hover the carriage up while we attach them!” Exclaimed Soren as him and Sly rolled the large wheels over to the carriage.

“On it chap.” Responded Ch who was still riding the last remaining griffin, with a pull on it’s reins he made it take flight and began to heave up the carriage “Hurry up! Don’t know how long it will last.”

“Yo Kyll start chaining that golem to the front!” Sly shouted out as he carried two large wheels on his back.

“Kay.” Kyle walked over to the front of the carriage as it hovered, he thought of the golem following him and so the blue buffalo did. He stood by the large beast of a golem and formed chains of Elder frost slime around it’s neck and all the way to the carriage. He then used his free hand to form the same chains bound to the already existing short chain that once held to the lead griffin.

He bound the two chains together “Done, how about you two?”

“Two wheels down.” Replied Soren as him and Sly moved the other two to the other side of the carriage.

Kyle took a long glance at the already placed wheels, they had somehow melted the metal on the edge of the carriage that made up it’s design and reformed it into a large thick nail who’s head held the wheel in place.

Kyle then realised something “Wait…”, he walked over to the other side of the carriage and watched as Soren used his gauntlet’s heat to literally melt the metal and then formed it with his hands. Soren then cast a weak ice spell to quickly cool down the metal.

“Hey…guys…you know I could have just told Lilior to give us wheels…right?” Kyle told them as they put the last wheel in place.

Both Soren and Sly looked up at him and then back at the makeshift wheel just as the griffin lowered the carriage back down to the ground. All wheels either broke or the carriage broke where the nails were forced in.

“Let’s do that.” said Sly.

“Yeah let’s.” agreed Soren.

Birse simply laughed hysterically having already seen what would happen with his still active mastery skill.

Kyle sighed as he held his face in resignation “Lilior, give us some wheels.”

“Master I do not know what these ‘Wheels’ you are referring to are. I have not been following the conversation at hand.” Replied the core.

“Ah…” Kyle had forgotten that the dungeon didn’t have basic understanding of almost everything. He pointed down at the least broken wheel “With your magic perception you should be able to see this broken part here, if you paid attention to it’s construction earlier you should tell what I mean. This is a wheel-”

Kyle suddenly glanced around the forest “A squad of eight Avians, they just started patrolling this area.” he reported.

“Are they closing in on our position?” asked Birse.

“No, so far they’re just scouring the forest.” Answered Kyle as he focused on his skill “Lilior do you understand?”

“Yes master I will make better wheels!” The core replied innocently much to Sly and Soren’s chagrin.

They watched as aqua-blue mana materialized four wheels while making a small crater around them to clear the snow from it’s way.

“Lilior make sure the two wheels on the front can mildly turn left to right, use the system I showed you with doors.” Sly told the dungeon.

The dungeon’s mana flowed around the part connecting the wheels to the fixed carriage and added a swivel to it “Like that?” Lilior then asked.

“Yeah that works.” replied Soren as he checked the swivel.

Birse looked up at the griffin “Ch unchain that thing and bring it to the front.”

“Should I bring the chain with?” Ch asked as he unmounted the now calm griffin.

“Yeah, better not waste more mana than necessary.” Kyle was the one who answered as he stood ready by the front to receive the chain.

Ch uncoupled the end of the two chains and threw them down to Kyle who had to step back to not get knocked out by the large thick metal “Yo Ch, a warning next time?” said Kyle as he grabbed the two chains and reconnected them to the swivel hooks that use to connect the others.

“Like what? Chains ahoy?” Joked Ch as he remounted the griffin.

“Lumber works apparently!” shouted Sly who was at the back of the carriage where two double doors were located, the only entrance into the carriage other than the hatch to the roof.

“Fuck off!” replied Kyle with a smirk.

“I thought it was timber?” said CH as he moved the griffin to leap down to the front of the carriage, the majestic creature proceeded to inspecting the slime golem by licking it’s horns.

Kyle noticed the griffin’s behaviour “Uhh…Ch what’s it-”, the griffin ripped off a horn and kept it in it’s beak as it moved back into position.

“Think it wanted a treat?” offered CH as he stared down at the griffin licking away at the frozen slime, it’s eyes began to dilate “I think I know why this one wasn’t a lead…”.

“Let’s get moving!” ordered Birse from inside the carriage.

“You heard him, I’ll give you command over the golem.” Kyle placed his left palm on the Slimeaffalo “Transfer command to CHfarms. Done, all yours.”

“Alright, I’ll…yeah I’m just gonna let it have the icicle.” Ch replied still staring down at the dumb griffin.

Kyle waved him off “I’ll be inside.” He walked over to the back of the carriage, opened the doors and stepped inside.

Everyone else stood, sat or lay inside around the dungeon core, the large aqua-blue crystal barely fitting inside the carriage. Dagon stood with his back to the wall and arms crossed, he quietly glared at Sly who was still within his body albeit some differences.

“So did Lilior get him?” Kyle asked just as the carriage began to move with a minor bump.

“Yeah, she’s got him.” Answered Birse as he stood staring into the core, Death, Seren and Woody stood all around it as well casting mana into the core which then flowed into Steph who was channelling the cloaking spell.

Skill jumped inside from the hatch in the corner of the ceiling “How you holding newbie?” he asked Sparta as she anxiously stared out the window.

“How far till we get wherever we’re going?” she asked back.

“About an hour if we’re lucky, saw a lot of adventurers coming over Helix while we flew around.” Replied Sly who was laying down on a bench. Cherry and Soren sat nearby also taking a break.

“I’ve detected movement but they’re all far from us, can’t tell if they are Avians or adventurers though. Height is difficult to discern.” Explained Kyle as he stepped to stand near the core with the others.

“Well we’ve got time to kill so let’s bring him forth, since Dagon won’t tell us everything and we cannot possibly force such an important figure to do so. We’ll simply force a less important figure.” Stated Birse with a smirk “Lilior, bring Draxxer out.”

“Okay.” Replied Lilior as her mana flowed out and took ethereal form. It morphed and formed a humanoid body which then began to take colour. Draxxer Blade appeared in front of them, quiet, emotionless and unmoving.

“So whatever we ask he must tell us, right?” asked Birse as he glanced at Kyle then back at the unmoving dungeon monster.

Kyle nodded “Yeah, his mind is under complete control of Lilior. He cannot lie but we need to be very specific with the questions, am I right Lilior?.”

“You are master!” Lilior replied happily ”This human wasn’t very smart to start with, now he’s a shell with memories and motions. No thoughts pass through his non-existent mind.” she then mused.

“It will have to do, once we’re done with him you’re free to fully absorb his soul.” said Birse as he waved his hand in front of Draxxer’s face.

“Okay!” happily replied Lilior as Draxxer raised his arms up in a ‘Hooray!’ gesture.

“That’s just creepy…” whispered Sparta as she watched from the corner bench.

“I think it’s hilarious.” said Seren as she held back a laugh.

“Anyway, it’s time we all got some answers. Full answers.” said Birse making the others quiet down “Draxxer, why does the Dezol want to take over this small land so much?”

Draxxer lowered his hands and began to speak in a monotone voice “This land was once theirs.”

“Tell us how they lost it, in short explain the events and setting with our current knowledge in mind.” asked Birse.

Draxxer briefly remained quiet before speaking again “Before the Elven empire was formed through their grand quest, a quest started by their Goddess of creation Durga. The Human, Beastkin and Dwarven kingdoms were the largest of Chaoz. The continent of Il’tel was once owned by both Human and Elves while the Beastkin were the strongest kingdom on the continent of Hasharr which is now owned by the Orcs and Ogres.

Back then the continent of Barik was completely owned by the Devils and their Demonic cousins, it was their birth and home land. This was almost a thousand years ago, when the continent of Barik was three times as large as it is today and completely covered in ice.

Devils and Demons alike were under heavy disdain by the main kingdoms of Human, Beastkin and Dwarf due to their grotesque appearances. Going as far as categorising them as monsters, denying them their place as an enlightened race.

The Devils and Demons ignored this fact and for many generations remained living cut off from the rest of Chaoz, worshipping their Goddess of shadows and balance, Hel. Hel, she was their creator. Back before the creation of Chaoz and during the God wars they were her soldiers, her army.

During those times many grudges were made between the Gods and Goddesses, one of the most profound grudges was between Hel and the six worshipped by the Humans and Beastkin and Devi who’s worshipped by the Elves.

The Gods of Fire, Earth, Water and the Goddesses of Wind, Darkness, Light along with Devi. These seven Deities couldn’t stand their foe’s children sharing a world with their own. As per the rules set by the Avatar they couldn’t push them into extinction but they had other plans in mind.

With the promise of more land and further riches the three kingdoms of Dwarf, Human and Beastkin along with the Elven raiders invaded Barik -Or as it was once called, Tempres- and laid waste to the land. Using high sorcery of fire and holy they massacred billions of Demons while slaying their Devil nobles, forever scarring the land and it’s people.

The survivors were then gathered and dumped into a portal, another plane of existence owned by the Goddess of Darkness, the plane of Nox.” Draxxer finished his telling.

“And now they’ve returned to lay waste to their lands and take back theirs.” mused Birse, he glanced at Dagon “Anything to add prince?”. Dagon closed his eyes and remained quiet, Birse snorted in response “Fine fine, we know the rest anyway.”

Birse turned to face the others “Through intel I’ve gained, I can confirm all that we’ve just heard to be true which therefore further proves these next facts to be just as true. The cause of the Elven insurrection which created the Elven empire was due to the same reason the Devils and Demons were kicked out of Chaoz.

The Humans and Beastkin mistreated the Elven race horribly, causing the uprising and the start of their grand quest. I believe the Dezol will not stop with just Ruk and Barik, I believe they plan to next attack the Elven empire. Why? Because the Elves as we’ve just heard aided the Human, Dwarf and Beastkin in the fall of their home, albeit also being mistreated by the stronger races.”

“Lilior mute Dagon.” said Kyle causing Dagon to disappear, he gained everyone’s attention “So our choice next will be whether we truly side with the Dezol or side with the Elves?”

Birse nodded “Both empires are powerful but the Elves seem to be better set. The question is which empire would profit us most. Our goal is, in the end, to finish this grand quest. So those that wish to go home can and those that wish to stay won’t have to worry about Godly interruption or persecution.”

“Which the Elves would provide with the latter…” said Cherry solemnly.

“Yeah, they’re not very fond of other races either.” agreed Kyle.

“Worst case scenario we go to Husharr and settle with the Ogres or Orcs. Everyone agreed?” Birse asked gesturing at everyone.

Everyone either nodded, raised a thumb up or as Sly simply agreed with a ‘Meh sure.’

Birse turned back to the immobile Draxxer “Now, one more thing we need to ask. Since you’ve already muted the prince, we might as well. Draxxer, what is the alliance preparing to fight off the Dezol?”

Everyone’s attention turned back to the dungeon’s puppet.