“And that, my fellow companion and reader, is how we burn a lake. Any questions?”

“Yes, I have one.”

Rouna raised her hand right before Lilac was about to.

“Can you repeat that one more time, but in a way that both of us can understand it?”

He sighed an extremely deep sigh and decided to shorten up his explanation.

“Basically, just spread this everywhere and light it on fire. Then the lake will burn in such a way that-”

He was cut off when Rouna’s expression turned into one of someone seeing something strange but had gotten used to it.

“Just spread it. That’s it.”

“... and my house?”

Rune had a solution to such a question.

“You can come with us when the lake has been burned up and the house will burn as well, but I can store about ninety percent of it. Just the insides though. Don’t worry, the books are in good care!”

He had stored all the book copies he could get his hands on into his storage. The books themselves were actually made of paper and not some other material. The covers were made of thin layer of wood, but that wood was a special type where it could bend without breaking and was durable. The titles were etched into those covers.

“... V-very well. My house will be burned down, but I should be able to build another. Just, um, store as much as you can, please.”

“Yes. I plan to.”

He got up from the comfortable sofa and gestured for Rouna and Lilac to rise from it as well. As soon as they did so, he stored it and some air could be heard filling up the empty area.

He walked over to the book shelves and stored the entirety of the shelves. Then he started storing everything he could see around the house.

After a while, he leaned against the wall and slid down it. He was tired from storing everything and he wanted to rest.

“Would you like something to eat?”

“Hmm? Yeah… If you could, that would be great.”

She clapped her hands again and food appeared on plates on the wooden floor. Rune thanked her and grabbed a sandwich on a plate.

Munching on the food, he listened to Lilac and Rouna’s conversation with one another.

“So Lilac, you are a minor goddess, correct?”

“Yes, I am. I only protected the forest and, nowadays, oversee the loch. Although, most of the time, I don’t go outside. It’s too scary out there.”

She shivered at the thought of things coming out of the darkness and eating her. She was still not completely aware of all the surrounding wildlife in the lake and, while she could fend off some of the weaker ones, she was not confident in her offensive abilities.

She was a goddess of nature and thus had life skills. She had the ability to grow things more quickly, to bring rain, to clear rain, purify water, and heal among other things. Since she was a minor goddess though, her skills and magics were much, much weaker than that of a major god’s magic.

“Maybe we could have a lake or something for you to reside in. I’m sure we can come up with something.”

“Owf couwf we can fink of somfing!”

Everyone else had a hard time understanding Rune when he had sandwich in his mouth and was waving his food around. He swallowed and looked at Lilac who was looking at him to see if he came up with something.

“Easy. We just have to make something that suits your needs or your wants. So, what kind of thing do you want to rule over?”

Minor gods had the ability to change the areas they ruled over or they could be wanderers. However, they couldn’t choose an environment that went outside of their alignment, such a a lawful good god could not go to an area where chaotic evil reigned.

Major gods did not have such a luxury, but their powers were far greater than the minor ones. They were not assigned land and areas, but, instead, ideas. Those ideas gave them their powers and, if that idea diminished, the power would do so as well. For example, say peace spread throughout the world, then the gods with the war idea would lose a lot of power.

“Hmmm. I would like someplace peaceful and untainted. Maybe a place with nice, cute animals.”

She was one of those people who liked to fluff fluffy animals. Her absolute favorite type of animal was a rabbit as those were the ones who she got along with the most.

“We can have a park, clear of garbage, and have a small forest there with a lake in the middle of it.”

“That… that could work.”

“Yeah, but first, we should take care of this lake. First of all, we need to get to an area above the water… or we can stay inside the house and shield ourselves as it burns. I will take care of the lake while Rouna shields you and herself. I will join later. Here.”

Rune handed Rouna his shield that would be of great help for, when it was struck, it would let loose a torrent of fire to counter. She held it proudly as if she were bestowed a gift of the gods.

Rune placed the barrel of oil that he had kept in the corner into his storage. Opening the front door, he was faced with another metal door that had a valve on it to keep the water out. He closed the door behind him and turned the valve.

The valve on the door not only unlocked the outer door, but also locked the inner one. The water started to rush in as soon as he turned. He remembered the feelings of slight fear as he was unsure of what true terrors lied in the murky depths.

On his way down to the bottom of the loch, when he was dropped in, he had encountered several eels that had the ability to shock opponents. They looked disgusting with their cold, dead eyes shifting to all different directions.

He had to crush them into disgusting balls of slimy flesh before they could bite or come even closer to him. And, since his lust for power was greater than the fear and disgust he was feeling, he absorbed the balls of flesh.

Gaining nothing other than an increase of ability score points. His points were:

Endurance Mobility Strength

(2702)72,900 (2502)62,500 (2402)57,600

He was even more disappointed when he found out that they didn’t increase much, by just about a point or two when he absorbed them, and he gained no new skills or magic.

Then he had happened upon Lilac’s house. She, herself, was floating upwards towards them to catch them. When she saw Rune, she shivered as she could feel his strength and saw the seven Sins rampaging inside of him.

Still, she had seen through that Demon King guise and decided that, as long as he didn’t think of her as his enemy, he wouldn’t do anything to her. And so, she formed a bubble around the three of them and brought them inside.

Rouna was being carried by Rune for she was tired after using Farsight for too long and from seeing the nasty looking beings in the lake. The lack of oxygen was also not helping her whatsoever.

Soon enough, the water poured in and filled up the small corridor. He was holding his breath now and he opened up the door to the outside waters.

His clothes were getting soaked and dirtied, but he could always force the water out of his clothes when he was done. For now, he had to focus on his current task.

He transformed into his Leviathan form and his body expanded to grow several tentacles instead of his legs and his upper body became something like a dragon, but more of a marine version. His body became a white color and, the parts that were not white, became a light or dark grey color.

He wriggled his tentacles to move upwards. He was not used to moving tentacles and was forced to learn in the new conditions. However, since he had become far stronger than he was since the last time he was in his form, he was now more able to move upwards with more ease as his tentacles moved more quickly in the water.

He reached an area where he could not see the house anymore, but he could see, somewhat, the surface. He had seen several shadows that seemed to vanish for they feared his current form.

He took out several metal containers of oil and carefully removed the lids in such a way that the oil spilled out in all directions except for his. Then he formed several pockets of oxygen and oil around him.

Using his most powerful fire spell, [Fireball], the weakest of fire spells, he lit the oil ablaze. Fireballs flickered to life for a moment before igniting the entire sphere over and over again until all six spheres burned. Then it started to spread out and more oil caught on fire.

Since it was dark all around him and, in his current form, he had night vision, he was able to see things somewhat clearly. However, with the new light entering the stage, he could see more than he wanted to.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of nasty looking creatures gazed upon the sight and closed their eyelids, if they had them, and winced at the light. They had grown only in the dark with magic evolving them into the monstrosities of today. With the light, their pale skins and musty color and empty eyes were filled with a new feeling that most haven’t felt in a while. Blindness.

They were so used to the dark that some of their eyes literally burned up at the light and the shriveled spheres of meat that used to be called eyes were now dangling and floating from their eye sockets.

All around him, the creatures were swimming in place. He just looked about in horror and a bit of curiosity to see the new, more horrible and trauma inducing sights.

He was below the spreading fire, busting out more oil barrels and flinging them about when he saw all of them. Instinctively, he threw up his hands and cast as much magic as he possible could until he had less than ten percent remaining.

[Ice Age]. [Lightning Offensive]. [Eldritch Blast]. [Blindness]. [Bind]. [Ultimate Shine]. [Unholy Smite]. [Sinful Darkness].

Just about everything that could work underwater, he used. The creatures were either blown to smithereens, poisoned, paralyzed, or frozen to death.

To be honest, those beings didn’t deserve any of the attacks that Rune set upon them. Still, powerless as they were against him, they could do nothing about his purge that lasted a couple minutes.

Ugh! That was… Ugh! I don’t ever want to do this again.

Those were his only thoughts as he traveled downwards towards Rouna and the goddess. He saw downwards as the fire burned even better than imagined and evaporated water almost instantaneously.

He turned back into his Demon King form and entered the house. He found Rouna and Lilac, standing in defensive stances in the center of the living room. Rouna held the shield high above her head and Lilac was standing behind her with her eyes closed tight.

“The fire is going to be here soon… but I think it will be in a minute or two. Take a breath before you do that. When did you even start doing that?”

Lilac peeped open her right eye and looked at Rune. Then she looked at the ceiling and then back at Rune.

“Well, um, I think about…”

Rouna answered for her as she was far less nervous as Lilac who was trembling, but she was still afraid that she might die due to the plan.

“When you left.”

“Sooo, about five minutes ago.”

“Has it been that long?”

Lilac scratched her cheek and thought about it.

“Anyway, I’ll go to you two. Lilac.”

“Yes?”

“Can you turn carbon monoxide into oxygen?”

She put on a confused look and stared at Rune with furrowed brows. He was asking her this when he was forming three different barriers around them. Even though he had less then ten percent of his mana before, he was now at twenty percent and, even one percent would be enough for a minor barrier of air.

For now, he was putting up a water layer with ice in it, so basically ice water, followed by a layer that was a vacuum with no air or oxygen and void of most other gases. He was waiting for Lilac to answer before putting up the last barrier which would cut off their oxygen supply as he was planning to use [Earthen Shield].

“What? What is Car Bon Monox Cid?”

“...”

He sighed.

“Can you make stuff for us to breathe in?”

“Yes, I can.”

“Great. Then do that starting… now!”

He put up the barrier as soon as the ceiling blew up. Different pieces of wood and metal flew around them as he did so and some parts were even on fire.

From the new hole that formed in the ceiling, water rushed in and filled up the house. The only good part, that no one knew about, was that the water level of the lake had decreased to about a third of its original amount.

Inside the earthen and stone barrier, it was quite cramped. It was about the size of two small closets and about the same height as them too. Rune had to crouch down and sit on his knees to keep from hitting the roof. Rouna and Lilac had to squish in to the other side as he took up a lot of space.

At the moment, he wasn’t paying attention to the way he was sitting or how much space he was taking up because he was trying to set up some more barriers.

Lilac, who helped when the roof blew up, was shivering in the corner. She filtered the air with one of her skills and refreshing air filled up the room and everyone felt like they could breath a little easier.

Rouna was trying to take up as little space as possible due to her not really doing anything helpful. At the moment, she curled up into a little ball, fell on her side, and closed her eyes tightly.

Even though the barriers, mostly because the vibrations and sounds came from around and underneath them where only the earthen barrier blocked, hey could hear the sloshing of water followed by the crackles of flames soon after.

In a cafe in the Sphinx village, Mya, Nya, Rena, and Hika were sipping tea. Erin was out buying a new sword or looking for ideas to make a new sword. In fact, once all the fighting was over for them, he became sad that his main weapon was destroyed by some lightning. He thought it was regular lightning, but it was actually lightning condensed with mana to be a bolt of electricity that was a hundred times more powerful than regular lightning.

He also needed to get some bandages and ice since he was slightly burned from that event. His front felt terrible after his adrenaline and shock wore off and, once he got to the ship, he collapsed into the wood.

Lacht and Nacht were busy governing the village at the moment: Nacht Had to deal with all the paperwork and expenses while Lacht was traveling through the entire village, which was more like a small city, to collect taxes from the businesses.

Henry was busy writing a book and was thinking about publishing it. Many of the books that were published were fairy tales and educational textbooks, courtesy of ALF, the Academy of Learning and Fighting. He wanted to make a book of fantasy that would be read for recreational purposes.

The ship was still on the docks and no one had actually went there other than Erin, Rena, and Hika. They were a bit too scared of Rune to do anything to the ship.

Some diplomats from the Manticore village came to tell Nacht and Lacht who their new village chief was. It was someone with enough knowledge and intelligence to actually govern the village and he had the capacity to learn politics via other advanced civilizations.

“Ahh!”

Both Mya and Nya sighed as they took a long sip from their tea. Hika was teaching for a biscuit that was on a pretty, little plate in the center of the table.

The biscuits at the cafe were sweet, but not too sweet. Here were some different iterations of the same biscuit with different sweetness or ingredients, but they all tasted amazing.

Hika munched in the biscuit and turned to look at Rena who hadn’t touched her tea at all. After two small nibbles of the soft pastry, Hika spoke to her.

“What’s wrong?”

There were many things that Rena was thinking about, but the main thing was how Rune decided, on his own, to drop the three of them off at the ship. She then thought about how she could have strengthened herself to be more powerful to be of use to him.

She sighed when she, once again, thought of the immense difference in their abilities. It was clear to anyone how much of a difference was between them. She was someone who rivaled rank A-S adventurers, but he rivaled some of the gods. He wasn’t as powerful as the gods of war, but, strength wise, he was stronger than the minor gods of tactics and revenge.

“I-I’m fine.”

She sniffles as she thought of how useless she was. She couldn’t even stand by his side.

Nya and Mya both looked at her in complete synchronization as the took another sip of tea. She was the one drawing the most attention in the entire cafe.

Everyone else who was not sitting with them wanted to her her up, but didn’t know how and that brought the mood down. Even people on the other side of he cafe were sighing due to the somber feel in the air even though no one knew what was wrong.

“Sure, you aren’t as strong as Rune, but you are great enough to rival even some of the strongest people in the world!”

That much was true. Mostly because the term “people” described humanoids that were a part of the Majin, Human, Dwarven, Elven, and Beast Folk races. Thus indirectly meaning that dragons, monsters, and other mythical beings were left out of that group.

“Really?”

She looked up with hope in her eyes. People would have called her cute, but no one wanted to get in the way of Hika trying to cheer her up.

“Yeah!”

Hika smiles as she spoke in a voice that was much louder than most would prefer.

Mya and Nya looked between the two of them and spoke in unison.

“... Don’t you two have school?”

It was Monday.

Hika looked at them and spoke, but with a tone that easily said that she forgot that she had to go back to school. Her eyes widen and she looked back at Rena who finally came out of her slight depression.

“Oh, f-”

“I didn’t think that the fire would burn through four barriers. What the heck is in this stuff?”

Since Jared made it without his knowledge and he basically took it after he got permission, he had zero idea what was in it.

Rune looked down at the smoldering ash that was the remains of the house and, quite possibly, random fish.

He looked around to see the scorched ground and burned remains of a variety of things. He kicked some of it and it crumbled before the night of his shoe.

“Oh, yeah. I forgot.”

He used [Control Water] to remove the water than had drenched his clothes. Then he burned it with a decent sized fireball.

“Did you feel something? Like the seal being lifted? I don’t know what lifting a seal feels like.”

Rune spoke while Rouna dusted the ash that had fallen on her when the barriers were dispelled. Part of her green hair and her skin was smudged with pure darkness as that was what the ashes looked like.

“Well, I do think that I felt something… but I was kind of, um, hunched in a corner trying to filter the air. It felt like a weight that was on my shoulders have lifted.”

“...”

“W-what?”

She looked at Rune whose eyes had turned from curiosity to disinterest. He spoke in a neutral tone.

“That… was the most cliche thing I have heard so far.”

“Huh?!”

She was confused as she didn’t know what he was talking about. When she started to speak, Rouna put her hand on her shoulder and shook her head. The message she sent to her via body language was something like, “Don’t ask. It will only end up confusing you more.”

Rune pulled out a book and looked through it. He scowled and out it back. He wasn’t sure of it at first, but he soon realized something.

All of the skill and magic books were about things that he already knew or had better versions of.