Before I went to sleep and had a meeting with Death herself, I had over a million problems to solve. Now, there are just three problems.

“Why did Eogaill specifically choose me?” “What can I do?” “Who is Pride?”

Three simple questions to summarize and address three massive problems. Whereas the latter two questions remained elusive, the first question, I could only assume the answer as usual, as everything else that is connected to Eogaill.

I used to assume that Eogaill was in a dire need of chess pieces. But if Eogaill needed chess pieces to further her design, she could just teach and train people to do her bidding. Anyone can do that, training and teaching people. Instead of waiting for a person like me to appear, it’s better for Eogaill to create her own chess pieces. Eogaill should be the best person to understand what she wanted the most. And thus, she could design and create the best chess pieces that live to serve her wills without errors. Instead of waiting for something to happen, it’s always better to take the matter to your hands and make what you want become true. Eogaill could and should have done that. Death, Clariciel, and Wonten were being manipulated by Eogaill without knowing. If Eogaill could do that, she must already had spread her chess pieces across the realms. The question “Why did Eogaill specifically choose me?” was the knot that tie up every problem and confusion that I had with Eogaill and her character.

“Why did Eogaill specifically choose me?” I often assumed that was because I could conquer a Divine Dream and used a Divine Dream as a weapon of my own. A Divine Dream would reveal a person’s memory to an Immortal. In a gamer’s language, it’s a “Cheat.” A Divine Dream is so filthily broken of an ability that it is not fair to pit a mortal being of Escana in a war against an Immortal or Immortals. Firstly, no mortal of Escana could access to the Internet to read and do research of what a Divine Dream and how to counter it. And even if they had the knowledge, most lacked the necessary power to conquer it. No matter how smart that person is, his plan would be revealed to the Immortals the moment he goes to sleep. But if I could break through the black dream without any prior training and used misdirection to bypass the memories reconstructing power of Divine Dream, Eogaill could just train her chess pieces to be subtle and stupid in the face of a Divine Dream.

“Why did Eogaill specifically choose me?” I often assumed that it was because my presence commanded the attention of every Immortal who was related the Reign of Chaos. URLOX put me on the spotlight with a stupid prophecy. But Eogaill could probably do the same, putting her agent on the spotlight with her Authority as the Goddess of Truth and Wisdom. She could have invented a nonsensical prophecy to further her intention. Those brain-dead morons would have squabbled over a chess piece of Eogaill’s making.

“Why did Eogaill specifically choose me?” By the time I found the best answer for this question, I had already found myself repeating Eogaill’s method and strategies. I tried to turn Pride into an independent warlord in the same manner that Eogaill had once forced me into that role. I had already smashed my own plan into pieces and ran the pieces in parallel. My pieces did not need to know of my intention, only what they could do. The trajectory of my pieces must have as few intersections as possible. It was best if they could travel in parallel without knowing the other existed. By the time I could answer the “Why did Eogaill specifically choose me?” question, I had already followed Eogaill’s footpath unknowingly.

“Why did Eogaill specifically choose me?” Cheaters like Thrall, the makeup of his faction and those skin-changers existed to undo people’s planning by being the cheat codes themselves. But the worst offense has to be the unreasonably broken piece of crap that is Gluttony. And I was the best weapon to handle them. “Why did Eogaill specifically choose me?” I am the anti-cheat device.

Gluttony and his abilities were just a few among the many aspects that many players considered to be too cancerous to be included in the game. S0rr0w was the first to spearhead the movement to remove Gluttony out of the game alongside the other Demon Lords. Among the community, S0rr0w is like a leading expert when it comes down to the art of using game exploits to win the game. He knew so much about those exploits that it was filthy. So when a person like S0rr0w told people that the Demon Lords must be removed from the game, URLOX should have listened.

When the dark occultist faction was first added to the multiplayer mode, S0rr0w immediately filed a slight strong-worded 50,000 words letter to URLOX regarding various balance issues with this faction. He stated that the introduction of the Demon Lords into the game would create a vast chasm in the power level between various units and factions. S0rr0w argued that these Demon Lords would only take away many important tactical and strategic factors of the game rather than changing them.

URLOX ignored S0rr0w’s letter, probably because how wordy and strong-worded it was. And thus, S0rr0w with a determined mind, made an online petition directly to PIPE, URLOX’s parent company to completely remove the dark occultist from the game before the Qualifiers for the World Cup started. Gluttony was the number one enemy on S0rr0w’s petition, in fact, being S0rr0w’s spearhead for the flame war. Had URLOX and PIPE known better at the time, they would have never just given a nerf to the occultist faction to make do with the online flame and refused to address the real issues.

As the new patch was being released, the flame war that S0rr0w started suddenly turned against him.

“It’s your job to play the game. Quit bitching and just play it.”

“If you don’t like the game now, quit playing it.”

He who started the flame got burned by it. Similar flaming comments flew straight at S0rr0w’s public account. Thousands of these flaming comments were later discovered to come from various burner accounts associated with URLOX’s parent company through a completely unrelated chain of scandals which started with my leaked sex tapes.

S0rr0w remained uncharacteristically silent, accepting the attacks in silence, which was utterly strange. Normally, he would have been obnoxiously loud and brash. As the result, most fans suspected that he must have been received some sort of warnings from the league officials. S0rr0w denied and kept his mouth zipped.

Things went relatively well for URLOX throughout the World Cup Qualifying Tournaments, but mostly because the dark occultist faction was being severely underused. Most team banned the dark occultist faction out of their fear over the issues that S0rr0w had addressed. Most stayed away from this faction due to its luck dependent nature and its various complex requirement and, above all, its long learning curve. Most players could not grasp the subtle yet very important timing of when-to-summon a Demon Lord and when-not-to-summon a Demon Lord. Most players at the time did not know the best methods to farm and harvest the human resources needed to summon a Demon Lord. Misread this timing and the human resource factor, and the match would immediately swing out of their favor. The dark occultist faction was the least understood faction at the time, and considered a high risk and low reward pick, so teams stayed away from it. There were hiccups here and there with the dark occultist faction, but nothing too serious as S0rr0w had stated in his letter and petition.

When the Qualifiers for the World Cup were announced, the dark occultist faction has already faded out of people mind as a legit threat. If anything, this faction was considered a joke at a professional scene. This faction achieved an abysmal win rate of 27% at the pro-scene and most of these wins were close matches. In public matches, this faction could win matches in a landslide manner, but not once it had shown such potential at a pro-scene. So, this faction was considered a joke faction. It was like a calm before a storm, S0rr0w’s fear was absolutely unfound and his petition was quietly overlooked, until the World Cup began.

PIPE’s and URLOX’s worst nightmare truly began on the first day of the World Cup that year. Teams spammed the dark occultist faction without any resemblance of creativity to advance through the first round of the World Cup. Most notably, powerhouses like AE, GOM, IYF, The Alliance and Lavatein were found guilty of this crime. These teams ran an almost identical setup to empower the dark occultist faction. It was either the three Supporters- one Defender- Occultist setup. Or the setup of two Supporters- one Raider- one All-Rounder- Occultist. It was the same setup, strategy and tactic that kept being rinsed and repeated over and over again with very little variations. The summoned Demon Lords were randomized and varied from each match, but the beginning phase of every game and ending result was literally the same. To the world, it was a developed META that appeared almost out of nowhere and over a night.

Great minds think alike. If a person could win millions dollars at a one hundred percent win rate with method A, why would that person use method B or C?

FY, Nightmare, Orithyia and Superior moved away from their staple strategies and tactics, spamming the dark occultist faction whenever they were allowed to. The first day of the World Cup ended with the dark occultist faction achieved a 100% win rate.

Fans laughed and hailed the rise of the new META while they still could. Almost half of the teams who were qualified for the World Cup kept repeating the same strategy and tactic throughout the Bracket Round, abusing the hell out of the dark occultist faction. Most highlight reels of that year World Cup were so stupid and bonkers that viewers could only laugh themselves to tears instead of gasping or awing like usual. Outside of the highlight reels, the games and the matches were just as ugly as they could possibly be. It was like watching a game football where every football players were allowed to score with their hands and were allowed to punch the opposing team players in their face throughout the match. A joke faction suddenly turned the entire game and entire World Cup series into a giant caricature of their former selves.

It was already too late to patch the game at this point. Thus, URLOX and PIPE and the League could only watch as the monster kept rearing its head at them.

S0rr0w made a name for himself for being a Demon-Lord-Hater turned A Demon-Lord-Spammer. He was the man, the myth and the legend behind the meme, “You either quit playing the game as a Demon Lord Hater or keep playing long enough to see yourself become a Demon Lord.” That was the year when S0rr0w gained his infamous moniker. S0rr0w trolled his way to the opening round of Quarterfinals, which was the last time the occultist faction was allowed to be picked. In that opening round, IYF thought they had developed a perfect counter strategy to the Occultist pick. S0rr0w showed his creativity to the world by abusing every game exploit related to the occultist faction on the big screen in a rude, unapologetic manner. The fans sitting on arena booed, the Demon Lord of Lavatein did not care. S0rr0w summoned a Demon Lord, and allowed that Demon Lord be killed as soon as he was done with his exploit demonstration, then summoned yet another Demon Lord. Rinse and repeat. After the third Demon Lord was summoned, IYF called a quit to begin a new round, realizing that it was already impossible for them to win that round.

Nightmare, Phúc, FY, Orithyia and S0rr0w, the masterminds behind the script of that giant ugly joke, had to call a four teams meeting to put a definite end to their joke before the start of the Semifinals. “No more occultist pick from there.” AE, GOM, TA and Lavatein, the four remaining finalists of that year World Cup, all participated in that behind the scene meeting. The four team captains agreed to the non-written pact and their teams with them. Even when there were millions of dollar at stake, everyone had enough of turning the game that they loved playing into a lame joke of its former self. At the beginning the World Cup, those four felt the need to make a statement, and they have already succeeded making theirs statement felt in the most spectacular fashion. So they moved on from it.

Since, for every match that the Occultist faction was neither banned nor picked, the fans at the arena would stand up in ovation. Everyone was sick of watching the same strategy and tactic being repeated.

That year ROC World Cup forever lived in infamy as the most META abused World Cup. That was also the only year where the dark occultist faction was considered a META.

Since, Gluttony was one of those game characters that always appeared on the ROC annual chopping block, being nerfed repeatedly with every new released patch. Similar to Acrẽa, Gluttony possesses a passive ability, that allows him to recover his HP with every kill, making him one of the toughest to kill unit inside the game. He could effortlessly melt through any fortresses and defensive structure through his trademark ability. Originally, Gluttony had the game breaking ability to remove the fog of war to spy on his opponent, base on the units affected by and . This was later removed. But the real reason why Gluttony was considered as cancerous was his ability to turn himself invisible. Despite already being one of the most devastating Demon Lord in term of offensive power, Gluttony could turn himself invisible through for 40 seconds by sacrificing 15% of his maximum HP. It was this ability that made Gluttony so feared. If Gluttony was summoned on one side and the other side possess no unit or structure that have True Sight ability, it was a recipe for an instant game over. URLOX had to rework this ability through countless patches until they said “Fuck this shit” and removed it from the multiplayer mode as S0rr0w had told them from the beginning.

URLOX made it obvious just how much they loved this character of theirs. And it was understandable since Gluttony was URLOX’s best shot at attempting to create a being of cosmic horror.

In the lore, Gluttony was often considered as the natural enemy of Eogaill and Sinintee. Any scheme Eogaill concocted, Gluttony turned Eogaill’s scheme against her. Any form of tactic that Sinintee came up with, Gluttony could turn it around.

Being a Mythical Rank in , and Immortal Rank in two Authorities and aside from having his own unique Authority, Gluttony presented a nightmare matchup for any strategist and tactician.

Gluttony, the Outer World Gourmet,

His hunger can never be sated.

Gluttony, the Existential Devourer,

His meals, they become him, his hunger.

His meals, only Gluttony could remembers.

The two Authorities and granted Gluttony the ability to eat almost everything and everyone. The combination of and allowed Gluttony to corrupt the existential history of his devoured victims. His meals became a part of Gluttony. Their intelligence, their dream and ambition, their history, their abilities, and even their memory belonged to Gluttony from the moment they were devoured.

Whereas Sanguine used the combination of and to dapper with a person’s internal truth, Gluttony used the same combination to change both the internal truth and the external truth around a person. Unlike the case of Sanguine’s victims, Gluttony’s victims had remained beyond my abilities, irrecoverable. Their name and history were removed from the world.

Gluttony was a unified colony of soul and thought. His visage was a grim, taut cluster of flesh with a colossal deformed mouth at the center guarding by two pairs of giant dark mandibles. From that emaciated heap of flesh, a pair of hulking insect’s wings spotted with hundreds of stomach churning giant wiggling stalks. Each of the giant stalk composed of millions of smaller stalks attached with mouths and mandibles.

Gluttony had always been very quiet inside his prison. He mumbled to himself on occasions, but always at ease with his surrounding regardless of the amount of tortures and pain that I and Isonos had subjected him to. The only time when Gluttony became noisy is when he detects my presence in the vicinity.

“Save me,” “Niwdar, save us,” “It hurts,” “Someone,” “It’s eating me,” “Someone, please,” “Dad?” “Help,” “Wonten,” “Help,” “Mom, where are you? I’m scared.”

Gluttony only acted like this to Isonos just once. But whenever Gluttony detected me, he played out this dark orchestra. Those mouths attached to those giant and smaller mouth stalks cried out, begging in a cacophony of voices. Grown men’s voices, numbed by muddy despair, crying for Divine intervention. Women’s voices, drown in slimy fear, sobbing. Children’s voices, confused and afraid, pleading and calling out to their parents. Their voices were no work of mimicries. Theirs were real, as real as the wails of Sanguine’s victims, but coherent and sane. My sharp ears had confirmed the truth from those voices. A lying person made lying sounds. Their voices were true but filled with malice intentions like the light on top of an angler fish, fouled lures to draw in unsuspecting preys.

My ears were sharp and my mind knew better but my heart was confused every single time Gluttony played his orchestra.

Gluttony’s victims and meals, their entire existence was erased from the world and people’s memories. Their erasure would trouble no mind and sadden no one, for nobody could even remember them. Not even their patron gods. Gluttony’s victims and meals, nobody would grieve and mourn their absence, not even their lover, their beloved family and loyal friends. Gluttony’s victims and meals, their absence would not be missed for they were treated to be nonexistent by the world from the moment they become his meal.

The victims’ personal effects remained behind. The personal effects of victims of Gluttony would remain lying around inside their house. These personal effects would remain as the proof that these meals of Gluttony had once been a separated entity from Gluttony. Husbands, whose wife were devoured by Gluttony, would notice of those strange dresses inside their wardrobe. They would notice a stranger’s aroma waffling around their house and bed. They would look at their children, born of their blood, and would notice the bizarre absence of a wife in their memory.

These personal effects would remain to challenge the devoured truth, until the mind of the people would conveniently choose to forget to protect themselves, creating an alternate truth for each of themselves or be erased and avoided. The world would fill in the blanks left behind by the erased truth with convenient and acceptable lies. People would choose to avoid the questions and embraced the lies.

Most would be protected these convenient lies, continuing to live their lives as normal. Few, those who had truly lost everything, would become despondent as they would slowly be consumed alive by the curse. They would be united with their lost ones, that was their only salvation.

Fewer would bash their head against the shaky wall of lies built to hide the erased truth. Only the biggest boneheads of the world could do that. Those who felt the ringing alarms inside their head. Those who understood the looming shudder and the menacing coldness resting on their neck, telling them to turn back. Those who knew the kind intention behind the convenient lies of the world. Those heard their survival instincts screaming at them, yet chose to listen to the whimper of their heart. Those who insistently kept probing into the erased truth would be inflicted with the curse , which slowing turning their existence into nourishments for the Existential Devourer. They would fade away from the reality, slowly and painlessly and unnoticeably. But for a brief moment before the world would forget them, these cursed boneheaded beings would be rewarded for their insistence in the face of the erased truth. To those boneheaded morons who had repeatedly bashed their head against the shaky lies of the world, they would be united with their loved one inside the colony of thoughts and souls, becoming one with Gluttony. Just for a brief moment before they would fully become once with Gluttony, they would feel such priceless reward as they were meant to feel, until Gluttony’s salvation consumed them whole. From then, they were no longer them. From then, there is only Gluttony.

And as if such combination of abilities was not broken enough, URLOX just have to give Gluttony the ability to devour himself, erasing his existence from the truth of the world until he choked and spit himself out. While Gluttony devoured himself, the world forgot him entirely. It was the same broken skill that granted Gluttony invisibility in the game, the same skill that URLOX had refused to remove from the multiplayer mode.

A part of the reason why Craxus was so done with everything at the end of RTDS could be tribute to Gluttony and the Plate of Famine. Craxus had no idea what he had lost to the Plate and how important that something is. He felt at loss but he could not identify the nature or the graveness of that loss.

Sometimes, I stared at the absurdities like Gluttony and asked myself, “How am I going to convince the world that I am stronger and more terrifying than these?” Blowing up a moon and committing mass genocide seemed oddly inadequate in the face of absurd beings like Gluttony and Flokí and Munezee. In the end, beating Demon Lords with Demon Lords is still the best method.

Faugus had repeatedly told me that it was best that I would give up on these victims. “You have to learn to let them go, Shandorei. Not every wrong in the world can be righted. Not every injustice could be corrected.” It was one advice that Faugus had kept repeating.

“I know,” replied I with the same answer to Faugus’ repeated advice as always.

A person could try spending his entire life doing math with two zero numbers. Subtraction, addition, multiplication, no matter how many times he repeats the math, how long he struggles, how smart he is, he could never get anything else other than a big zero for his result.

I have stubbornly tried every workaround that I was aware and every trick that I could employ to undo Gluttony’s work. I played along with Gluttony’s game, giving him a tiny memory of mine in exchange for one of his victim, and got my asses handed to me. Dion saved the match by erasing , even the score between me and Gluttony. None of my attempt worked so far. Gluttony’s victims, they became him and they were him, a part of the colony of souls and thoughts. That I have accepted as Niwdar had accepted. That I have resigned as Wonten had surrendered. Not every problem in the world had a solution. And not every impossible in the world could be proven otherwise.

Unless a person is frickin stupid. From my experience, that is the only possibility to get the result of one while playing with a bunch of zero numbers. It was just a matter of price, whether or not I could afford such stupidity.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“WHY WOULD A SMART GUY LIKE YOU DO SOMETHING SO FUCKING STUPID?” My enraged voice echoed from four directions.

“It doesn’t have to be you, teacher,” replied Isonos, respectfully as ever.

Despite the content of Isonos’ answer did not match with my question, I knew what he meant. I immediately understood how much of my scheme that Isonos had learned and predicted.

Let me be the bait and the hook. Let me lead your vanguard. Let me take the risks. It doesn’t have to be you, teacher.

I was reminded again just how lucky I was that someone like Isonos was actually on my side and not the opposite. But as grateful as I was, for a brief moment, I thought about assigning an executioner to observe Isonos in shadow. I loathed myself for that.

Isonos is easily the last person I wanted to have as an enemy. Meaning if Isonos were to become Gluttony’s meal, he would turn Gluttony into my worst enemy and everyone’s worst enemy. Neither I nor my staffs would be aware that Isonos knew my plan or the fact that Isonos existed. An enemy who knows your plan and exist outside of your radar, that, that is the worst kind of enemy for a person with a plan.

The moment I understood Eogaill’s design of using me to deal with Gluttony, I believed that she must have prepared an executioner to observe and erase me in the exact moment when Gluttony is about turn me into his meal.

Cut the loose end. Lest the world know not of her involvement, lest the Gluttony be stronger, lest the world be consumed by the worst chaos.

That was the most logical choice to make, if I was in Eogaill’s position. There is no room for failure at this point. My plan and hers would continue nonetheless regarding whether I am alive or dead.

But Isonos was not just a chess piece.

“Your opinions and thoughts are being appreciated,” I said before affirmed my intention emotionlessly, “However, I have no intention of changing my plan and design. I had given each and every single one of you a sphere. And most importantly, the freedom to do whatever you want and whatever you feel like in that sphere. So stay inside that sphere. Otherwise, there shall be no freedom for you.”

“I only want…”

“I am still talking. All of my plans are running in parallel. I am the only loose end of my plan and I know how to tie it. You, on the other hands, are incapable of tying up the loose ends. Therefore, wipe away the unnecessary parts from your memory, and don’t make me do it myself.”

“But teacher, if you…”

“Are you, Isonos, the Commander in Chief?” I cut the argument between me and Isonos short with one cold, emotionless question. Friends we are, teacher and student we are, but I am his leader. I reminded Isonos of that.

When the despairing silence had completely sunk into Isonos, weighting the one wing Garuda down in its forlornness, I continued speaking. “As soon as you are done with the Sunken Isle Operation. You will immediately be assigned to this Operation.” I tapped my finger on the stack of key answers for Greed’s homework. “So get ready for it now. You could work however you want and with whoever you need. But do not give your answer to Greed.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When I felt a foreign probing touches all over my mental barricade, I waited, anticipating for correct passwords to be typed in. was the correct password. When I confirmed that the passwords were correct, I invited my guesses into dreamland. It was Lust’s succubi.

I entertained the succubi in many ways but mostly just showed them the absurdity of dreamland where the stupid people live. After a while, I let my clones and stupid people to take care of the guesses and prepared to say goodbye to many old faces.

As the clock ticking, I found myself more hesitated and unsure of my decision to install my war machine on Escana. The question “What can I do?” often popped up inside my head like alarms, then the question “What would FY have done?” would be raised. It was like one pop-up windows after another.

I often repeatedly asked myself “What would FY have done?” whenever I stood at a certain number of crossroads of my life.

I imagined that FY would spend a lot of effort to lead Bloodbeard to a better path, a bright and hopeful future where even someone as insignificant and messed up like Bloodbeard could become a changed man, and through that example, FY would inspire Wonten to do what is right. FY, being the humble man that he was, often told me that I have always over-glorified him. But that is what FY would have done. “Doing the right things for the right reasons with the right methods.” It sounded extremely easy when FY said it, but it was often the longest, the most difficult and the most treacherous path for a person to walk. To talk and then navigate through the end of such path, only a true noble soul like FY could.

“Doing the right things for the right reasons with the right methods.” It doesn’t mean that FY is naïve and ignorant of the evil malice of the world. FY knew, and he had always refused to fight malice with malice, even when he could identify that path as a shortcut. He would refuse to walk down that kind of shortcut. Despite knowing better, FY would try to try to talk to these brain-dead morons and establish an understanding with them out of his good conscience. He could predict his chance and his failure as I could. If I could predict his failure, he could. And he would probably fail, if not certainly. Only then, when he truly ran out of option, when all forms of hope is truly lost, FY would make a radical decision.

Just like me, FY would have definitely been able to identify Wonten as an important and doable goal in order for him to gain the leverage in achieving peace. FY had a way with his words to convince people but Wonten had something better, his mighty hammer. FY would have understood that he must have Wonten’s hammer on his side to negotiate for peace. If a man possesses no power, his words and ideals, no matter how noble and righteous they are, have no weight or leverage in a negotiation table. The other side of the table would not lend him their ears simply because they could toss FY around as much as they like. Why must they listen to him when they can just kick him around? Why pay for the food when you can just take it for free? Why pay gold to your slaves when they are your slaves? Why would a butcher listen to a swine’s plea for life instead of just giving it a quick death? There is no reason for them to listen to FY’s words. On the other side of the negotiation table are Gods and Demon Lords, and FY is just a mortal among billions of mortals. They would just keep doing things that they have been doing for eons. There is no reason for them to listen to FY’s words, unless FY’s words are backed up by something as convincing as Wonten’s hammer. After that, FY would probably create a tripartite situation through his first peace talk, then slowly become a mediator for the other two opposing factions, relentlessly putting an end to the Game of Chaos through one peace talk after another.

If anyone could do that, it would be FY. That, I had no doubt.

To achieve that goal, FY does not need to go through a small checkbox like “giving Bloodbeard a chance to be a better man”. But FY would do just that, simply because that is the right thing to do. Even if the things that FY does are all masterfully calculated, their intentions and goals are noble and righteous.

“Doing the right things for the right reasons with the right methods,” FY have always adhered to his words. Just like me, he could back up his words through his action. That is the truest qualification of a king, the ability to lead his people to walk down the right path. A person is most fortunate to have someone like that as his leader, friend and brother. A person is most fortunate to be able to follow and support such a person. Whenever I compared my methods and myself to FY, I often lamented how unfortunate my followers were. They could have a leader like FY, but all they got was someone like me.

Predict FY’s thought, I can. Think like FY, I can. Talk like FY, I can. Act like FY, I can. Pretend to be FY, I can.

Be FY, I could not.

“What can I do?”

FY would fight chaos by becoming the force and the icon of order. Me, I can only fight chaos by being the personification of chaos. FY could win the war through peace talks. Me, I can only win the war by fighting a war. FY could probably end this madness of a Game by being an avatar of goodness. Me, I can only fold and bash this madness of a Game against itself until it has enough.

“What can I do?” The hardest things to do are often the right things. I can only do all the wrong things in the world.

“What can I do?” It was a strange question.

“What can you do?” If someone else were to ask me this question, I could answer it effortlessly while wearing my most arrogant look.

“What can you do?” When Dion asked me this question, my answer exceeded its ability to simulate the future. But when I asked myself this “What can I do?” question, it felt like I was trying to force a weighty faulty door to open itself.

Put a smile on my lips and be a trailblazer. That, I can do. I can only be myself.

When I was done reassuring myself, I summoned Faugus and my Divine Dream Warfare Department (DDWD) to my office.

The DDWD is the core of my war machine. It is responsible for countering against the threats of the Divine Dream from the enemies and employing the uses of the Divine Dream from my side to the fullest potential. Lust had educated and trained the entirety of this Divine Dream Warfare Department in the usages and characteristics of a Divine Dream and the Authority, including the unique miracle that only the succubi could conjure. I formed this Department from the most suitable people among the old champions of Sanguine, the most strong-minded, discipline and long lived people. Lust and her succubi would act as the important hardware of the Divine Dream Warfare Department while these ancient champions of Sanguine would be the software.

The Divine Dream Warfare Department consisted of four divisions. The First Division is the Baku, a Division that focuses on creating more people who can become a true host of their own dream and trap an unsuspecting Immortal’s astral body inside their head. Through the Baku, I could turn a Demon Lord’s chosen champion into his worst nightmare, his jailer. The Second Division is the Morpheus, a Division that is responsible for converting people to my cause in real life through the usage of the Divine Dream and . Morpheus would convert people of power and authority in the real world into my people through the brainwashing power of the Divine Dream and . The Third Division is the Warren, a Division that is directly responsible for coordinating intelligence and action between various dream hosts and chess pieces through a Divine Dream. The Warren would connect and share information between the four divisions, acting as the heart and blood vessels of the DDWD. The Fourth Division, Baí Zé, is responsible for gathering and analyzing intelligence through the Divine Dream and policing the other three departments as the brain of the DDWD. This Division also acts as the first line of defense if my network of dream demons and dream hosts is being compromised.

Since I had informed these staffs that the meeting would be non-business related and they should come in private, most came to my office alone. But some came in pair or their usual small group. I welcomed them in separated time slots. I asked them of how they have been doing inside my dreamland. We chatted at length about almost every topic but mostly just reminisced of the time and experience we shared inside dreamland. We reminisced of the time when I have not even created the General Staff. We reminisced of the time when I was still heisting souls from Sanguine’s trophy house. We spoke of the time when most of them could not even live or rest as functional people, still at the mercy of their trauma.

99% of the DDWD were old torches of mine, those who had graduated from the need of relying on me as their emotional morphine, people who had been free from their slavery to their morphine. We chatted some, hugged some and kissed some, but stayed away from anything too sexual, knowing just how easily a person can relapse to an old addiction. Most of them had relapsed at least thrice. I was their morphine and their addictions. They had learned just how easy a small glowing ember could stoke up an inferno, especially when that inferno was something they craved and needed. Through our kisses, they felt my hunger to kiss them and held them inside my arms for much longer, and their own surging craving, but they exercised their self-control.

When the chitchat was over, they said their pieces. I said mine. We exchanged a glass of wine, reaffirmed our promises to each other and said our personal farewell at the end.

Faugus was the last to knock on the door of my office. I opened the door and welcomed him in. “Have you done preparing?” I asked.

“Shandorei, I’m ready,” replied the old kobold in earnest and ambushed me with his joke, “When you are.”

My spit came out of my mouth. I was completely caught by surprise. So was Dion. I had never expected Faugus to make this kind of joke or even a joke. Faugus had been acting as a confidant of mine for so long, but this was the first time I heard him speaking a joke. I inadvertently chuckled. “I have made you waited, haven’t I?”

“All the better, Shandorei, I have more time to prepare.”

“Well, time is the only resource that I could waste infinitely.”

“And I have always told you, Shandorei, there is nothing wrong with that. If time is something you have earned with your hands, you could spend it as much as you need. As long as you know what you are doing with it.”

“Do I look like a man who know what he is doing?”

Faugus leaned forward and had a good look of my face. “No, you don’t, Shandorei. You look as clueless as ever,” Faugus delivered his second joke of the day with a deadpanned face.

Any day is a good day when someone who is so stingy on both humor and banter like Faugus would keep delivering one funny joke after another. But it was the deadpanned face that Faugus wore while he delivered his joke that sold it.

I could not hold it together and laughed uncontrollably. Dion’s laughter echoed inside my head. The tears came out of my eyes were real. The pain in my stomach felt so real. It felt like I was laughing in both reality and in dreamland. It had been so long since the last time that I was able to laugh so much.

As I tried to gasp for air, “Do I really look that clueless?” I asked.

“Yes, Shandorei, you do appear clueless,” Faugus affirmed.

“It sounds absolutely beautiful that Kharigan, the home of the Demon Lords, would be destroyed because a clueless looking guy say that it should be destroyed.”

Faugus, despite being one of the two people on Escana who had managed to fool those three insane stooges while he was alive, was the easiest person to talk to. Faugus listened and cared about people’s opinion more than his own opinion. It was easier talking to Faugus than Searek. Searek was unaccustomed to sharing things like emotion fragility and tears. It was easier confiding things to Faugus than Sasengun since there were many things that can only be shared among bros. It’s easier to confide military problems and business with Isonos but it’s easier to confide everything else with Faugus. Faugus possessed the most down to earth character among the people that I have met while having the wisdom to match, so I could always confided him about everything.

The two of us were like an old couple reminiscing their past. We talked about the first time we met each other and the pandemonium Faugus had while we were being accompanied by two Demon Lords. I joked making fun of Faugus, reminding him of the time when he was still playing a fool inside dreamland and believing that I was just another insidious trickery conjured to satisfy Sanguine’s sadism. He talked about the time I got my eyes clawed out of their socket during the time when I first separated Sasengun from the Sanguine’s trophy house.

“Of course, I would do the same. Between a buffy orc, a scary looking kobold, a gross piece of flesh like Magnamor, a Demon Lord like Lust and an obvious guy like me, it’s only natural for her to attack me.”

“Her Highness Lust nearly erased Sasengun for that.”

“Well, I did not know that she could be that violent from her ‘make love not war’ motto.”

Faugus and I kept talking in what appeared to be a short eternity. It was a length that long enough to be called an eternity, but felt too short because we felt like we could keep talking forever. What's comes will come, what will be, shall be. We both knew that. I quickly gulped down a mouthful of dreamland vodka on ice to feel the phantom blister inside my throat. Faugus slowly drained his simmering Oolong tea. One was drinking dreamland vodka and the other was drinking tea. We were such an odd couple.

“They know my specialty,” said I after a lengthy and unconformable silence.

“They do,” replied Faugus.

“Whether I would come to contact with these women or not, these brain-dead smartasses would come for them. These brain-dead morons would lose nothing if they failed but they would feel a sense of secure when they succeed. So they will come. They will send their assassins and armies.”

“That, they would.”

“The bold smartasses would come after me. But the sneaky one would direct their hidden blades at you.”

“Unquestionably.”

“Until I could settle things and finish making my statement, I could only provide you with very limited support.”

“Shandorei, I will protect them and watch over their growth until you arrive.”

“I know you would. Just focus on staying alive and stay away from doing anything too risky.”

“That should be my words. Shandorei, please, don’t get caught up by the moment and focus on what ahead. Your enemies are strong and many. Don’t be careless even for a moment. I would not be by your side. So you have to think more before you act, you are playing with your own life… And stop making Sasengun sad… and…” Faugus gave me his advices and a long list of what to do and what not to do.

Keep my dick inside my pants, beware of Pride, rely more on Sasengun, practice more discipline with Searek, abuse the cheats as much as I need, stop giving my enemies warnings and handicaps before killing them. Only when Faugus touched on the topic of my dependency to alcohol, “I would probably get drunk in the real world,” replied I, half serious half humorous.

“Don’t. Please. Just don’t,” begged Faugus, completely serious.

“Even if it’s once in a while?”

“Don’t. Please. Don’t. Out of the dream and you would be just a puny human as any other human. You are not invincible out there in the real world.”

“I will try my best keep a limit on it.”

“Please do.”

Just like that, my talk with Faugus came to an end.