(Ashen POV)

The sight of what was previously one of the cutest of the maids was now a more than a repulsive disgusting blend of a person. In a messy pile in one of the hallways her body, not laid, but resided in an unmoving mound of flesh and shattered bones soaked in blood. What was left of her skin and flesh was left to be stripped and peel off as carrion, if I could feel any emotion I would have shed a tear if also able to. I took a look at her soul, only to find it in shreds as well, torn asunder. It would be hard but I could repair her, but the real problem was with the one who committed such an act.

Taking another examination at the body, which at this point was still horribly mutilated and grotesque, and finally started to heal her. To my surprise, she still had breath in her body, with the faintest of breathing and her heart beating a very irregular rhythm. She was practically marinating in her blood with her flesh being chock full. Most of the bones were ground into fine powder or shards, while the rest were protruding through her skin in all sorts of angles and varying levels of damage to her already demolished skin.

I started to cast a very simple healing spell, [Giga Heal]. That would at the very least collect her internal functions and keep her in the running until I finished. After that was finished, I used a spell that was more-or-less a critical role in healing back in Sugarea, [Life]. With the spell, her body quickly started to replay what happened to her in reverse, revealing a lot of details. Her body, if it could still be called that in its condition, started to twitch and with that, it ever so slowly started to heal.

Starting with her bones, the protruding ones were sucked back into her body and the powdered and shattered bits also seemed to mend together to reform her skeleton. After the bones were finished, her flesh seemed to be ripped open before being completely repaired to a normal skin tone that a human should have. After the major parts were completed, her organs mostly intact from the start, the spell quickly gave her a swift clean-up and she was now lying on her back in the stone passageways that were the hallway.

She ever so slowly came back to consciousness, her eyes a deep red and seemed to still keep a hint of fright in them from the attack. She slowly, and I mean slowly as in over a minute, sat up and started to glance around at her surroundings while clasping her head. Her skin a pale color and clammy with small tendrils of sweat dripping from her face as if she had either just ran over 5 kilometers or awoke from an insane nightmare. Her other hand reaching outwards clasping at the air for a moment before closing then she seemed to snap back to the present.

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(Mina POV)

I was just doing my everyday tasks, sweeping the halls, dusting, cooking and the like, when one of the guards that were supposed to be with Xylith, the new underling of the great lord Ashen, came storming down the hallway that I was working in. Quickly stomping past me in a fit of rage, he shoved me straight into the wall leaving a hairline crack in it while also greatly injuring me. Stopping for just a moment to stare at me deeply with anger and rage-filled eyes, he began to draw his large sword and without warning or reason, slashed me with it.

With what was most likely 30 swings in four seconds, I fell limply to the ground before he started to bash on me with the blunt end of the blade. Taking his time in making sure no bone in my body went un-pulverized, he slowly smashed, slashed, crushed, shattered, ripped and shredded my body until I was an unrecognizable mound of flesh and broken bones on the ground, slowly losing the little consciousness I had left.

Only after a few minutes, it seemed, my body was already back to its previous uninjured form as if nothing had occurred. I glanced around still grasping at the situation, I slowly sat up until the memories started to fade, and the outside world started to come back into my view. Huddled around me in a semicircle, stood several other maids whom I have made good friends with, Xylith, Aeyrs, and Ashen.

It seemed like Lord Ashen had used some magic to heal me, which I would be eternally grateful for until I would permanently perish. All of my maid friends looked extremely happy that I was alright and lord Ashen soon asked me a query.

“Who did this to you?” He asked in an almost hateful sounding monotone voice that all of the maids knew to be his one and only.

“...” a high-pitched screech as a response was the only thing I could muster.

“[Full Recovery].” He said in his normal monotone voice which sounded caring to me.

My body started to twitch and I felt better than ever, “it, it was one of Xylith’s guards, the one with the large sword…” Then the great lord Ashen just disappeared with my words.

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(Ashen POV)

As soon as I heard her words, I teleported through the guild building so fast I had visited every room in less than a second. Quickly finding the one responsible, I grabbed their arm, which completely crushed it, and teleported them back to the hallway with Mina. With a burst of air rushing from the now occupied space of the demon in my grasp, the entire room went quiet.

“Them?” I asked bluntly, only getting a slow nod in response.

Taking no time to even think I immediately removed his soul, shredded it, crushed the remaining pieces and then annihilated the rest of it, leaving a spec to be continuously repaired and start the process over and over again forever. Making his soul feel all of the pain thought possible for all mortals and so far beyond was punishment in itself, but I forced it to continue for the foreseeable future. His body just falling to the ground lifeless in less than a fraction of the time it took to find him. No screams, no sound, just gone, after a few moments, his body just crumpled and was completely incinerated. Leaving only a smudge on the ground, then I teleported away, leaving Aeyrs to clean it up.

With a loud and distorted voice in my head shouting “KILL THEM ALL! BURN THEM ALIVE! MAKE THEM SUFFER LIKE YOU DID! DEATH! NO MERCY! KILL! I tried to shake it away but it wouldn’t relent. “MURDER THEM ALL! NONE SHALL SURVIVE! SATISFACTION AT THEIR DEATH! BATHE IN THEIR BLOOD!” I tried everything but the voice never went away, always echoing in the back of my mind. “MAKE THEM SUFFER! NO SURVIVORS! RELISH IN THEIR DEMISE!” Then I finally got an answer to what was happening.

[Skill Gained: Dark Seal] [Awarding 0 Attribute and Skill Points]

No points? Dark Seal? What is going on!? With only Vron to accompany me along with this new voice in my head that sought out the death for everything, I slowly started walking towards the demon lands once more. Every few steps it would just start repeating itself, “KILL THEM ALL! KILL THEM ALL! KILL THEM ALL!”. It was getting hard to concentrate on even walking, and I only had a few spells that could have a chance at ridding myself of this.

“[Perfect Repair], [Life], [Perfect Restore], [True Restoration]” None seemed to work, but that wasn’t all I had up my non-existent sleeves.

“[Spirit Conquer], [Absolute Spiritual Domain], [Spirit Bomb]” After the last one the voice just shut up so I knew I was on to something. I continued to cast [Spirit Bomb] about 7 more times over the next few seconds until I felt a large presence enclose around me. A large blackish blob of smoke and ash started to coalesce into a sphere in front of me, seemingly from nothing but had the tiniest tethers connected to several parts on my body.

“[Absolute Spiritual Eradicator].” With that, a huge hole was burned directly through it before I was consumed in shadows.

In every direction, I looked just me and a solid black surrounding me, with a shadowy figure taking the appearance of a large lion-headed dragon stood towering over me. Looking down at me with anger in its eyes, it growled out at me and to its surprise, nothing happened. It lowered its head to a good meter above my own to still look down at me but to get much closer.

“PuNy MoRtAl! HoW dArE yOu AtTaCk Me!” Its voice was so distorted and groggy, and it seemed to be ‘breathing’ harshly, but it didn’t quite breath in or out.

“You hear a mysterious voice in your head one day telling you to kill everything, and you don’t try to rid yourself of it?” I said in an almost accusing monotone voice.

“YoU’vE gOt A lOt Of NeRvEs TaLkInG bAcK tO mE!” The mysterious figure said in an offended tone.

“I’ve things to do if you want a fight let’s get this over with, shall we?” I still got to take care of the cities development and the other issues that come with it.

“FiGhT? Me? YoU sTaNd No ChAnCe!” What was it, a level 400 maybe?

“Alright, what level are you? I’m level 1000, so we should speed things up.” At this it seemed to jerk slightly, I probably wouldn’t have noticed but I presume that my Perception was the factor that managed to catch it.

“liEs! BuT I WiLl AnSwEr YoUr QuEsTiOn, So ThAt YoU mAy TrEmBlE iN fEaR!” it did seem ever so slightly scared but probably because I had hurt it before.

“Alright, what is your level, race, and name for starters?” Basic stuff, besides, I didn’t need to even hear him out, if [Absolute Spiritual Decimator] would hurt it, I’ve plenty of spells to demolish it.

“VeRy WeLl ThEn, TrEmBlE bEfOrE tHe GrEaT ShAloUs, LeVeL 406! A pRoUd EtHeRiAn!” Damn, right on the coin? Regardless, not a problem, but it did take several hundreds of [Spirit Bomb]s and survived, so either I shackle it to me and control it or just kill it with [Erase Soul].

“Anyway, still want to fight or…?” It seemed to start, with no other way to put it, gross laughter.

It launched at me its left hand turning into sharpened spikes for fingers and attempted to stab me. Needless to say, it didn’t penetrate, but it kept trying. I lifted my hand and put my right hand in a fist pointing outwards with my left open hand directly next to it and pulled out a large spiked cleaver of fire. The fire quickly hardened into a reddish metal that resembled magmanium. With four large spikes lining the front and one at the top, with a multitude of smaller ones scattered around the entire blade, I slashed at it.

With but a single low-powered swing, a small piece of fire following the motion slamming into it. It burst into a disgusting mangle of black, green and purple flames alighting its black shadowy form. It reminds me slightly of the demon that was in Wheatberg, with its shadowy appearance but this felt a lot more intelligent and collected. With a small gleam of light finally entering the small dome around us I saw a different sight than the outside of the castle, a purple sky.

It started to do that same disgusting laughter again, but this time I had enough of this whole charade. “[Erase Soul].” With that, it seemed to be nearly shredded into pieces, with only a few remaining scraps remaining. I quickly used a low tier soul-stealing spell to gather them, “[Soul Harvest].” The few pieces were flooded into my outstretched hand and I gained several thousands of soul fragments and a shattered Eatherian soul. The dome of darkness seemed to shatter and I was now able to confirm that my surroundings were in fact, different.

Purple stretched across the sky with bright blue clouds scattered around in it. A bright green sun in the sky that made the landscape take a reddish hue. Instead of grass, the entire ground was filled with a repulsive field of miniature tentacles that acted similar to grass. They wiggled around and would sometimes trap some of the light yellow colored rabbit-like creatures that were scattered around. What the hell is this place? I pushed my thoughts away and attempted to send a message to Aeyrs, but the simple tier 7 [Message] spell failed.

Trying again, the tier 13 [Telepathy] worked, with a rough message to Aeyrs I told him what just happened. Only after a summary of what happened, the spell ended abruptly, and I felt a person behind me. Out of nowhere now stood erect a large gray stone throne with a woman in a black dress sitting upon it. She had her head resting on her left palm looking intently at me, I didn’t take any chances though. Silently preparing a tier 23 spell to kill the poor woman if she dared to make a wrong move.

She didn’t pay it to heed, however, and she slowly stood up and walked over at her own pace. With only a few strides between us, I started a series of detections spells and eventually got a pretty good read on what was before me. Sitting at a solid level 1000, with a mana pool just undermine nearing 80 million, and her health barely hitting 8 million. She quickly tried to do the same as her spells penetrated my defenses, not without the struggle of course.

We stood staring at each other if I had eyes that is, blankly until she spoke out. “Well, it would seem as though you are not exactly, pleased, to see me.” Her voice sounded amazing if I were one to care about such frivolous things.

“And you are to see me?” I am tired of too many people hiding information when talking and assuming the other already knows.

“Of course, but that is for another time, isn’t that right, Vron?” How did she know about Vron?

“Very well then, is there something you needed?” Whatever it was it wouldn’t stop my current plans.

“Oh, not at all! I was just curious about how you were enjoying your time here.” She asked, almost seeming as though she cared.

“Just fine, better than my last at least.” If she was asking that I would presume that she was the one responsible for bringing me here.

“I would only assume, I hope you enjoy yourself unless you’d rather go back…” She tapered off at the end, also having a saddened look on her face.

“If I can keep my body and brother, I would have no problem with either.” I would go as far as to take the guild base, the NPCs, Xylith and Hairz with me.

With a small smile on her face she said something strange, "At the very least, I do hope you enjoy your time in this world."

"And who exactly are you?”

“Ah, apologies, you may call me The Puppet Master.” What a strange title…

“Very well, Puppet Master, what are your goals?” I needed to know what her aim was to adjust my plans.

“Depends on the campaign you would like to run.” She had a slight grin on her face with her words.

“What do you mean?” I asked slightly confused.

“What do you seek for most in this new world?” She said with a slight sigh of frustration.

“Equality, happiness, freedom, is there anything else?” Now that I think about it, I don’t know why I want everyone to be equal so badly as if a part of my memory is missing or forgotten almost.

“Then you must keep doing what you have been, and listen only to your thoughts and reason on what you wish to happen.” I still didn’t know what her game was, but I wouldn’t do anything just yet.

“And what exactly do you want with me?” I need answers to questions sometimes, and this was one of those times.

“Oh, you’ll find out. But it won’t be for a long time, and that’s for the best. The longer it takes for you to find out, the better off you and I are.” The answer gave way more questions than were answered.

At this point I needed to inform my brother, with the use of [Perfect Communication], the connection was formed between us, “Aeyrs, long story short, I’m on the Eatherian Plane, there is this woman calling herself the Puppet Master and I need to talk to you extensively about this later.”

“Woah, calm down. Now calmly explain everything in order.” Calmly? I wasn’t even showing emotion, just trying to quickly sum up what happened.

“Fine, after leaving the castle I had unlocked a skill called [Dark Seal]. With it, a voice invaded my mind trying to get me to do as it said, but I resisted until a being appeared. With spiritual magic I killed it and in the process, I was transported to the Eatherian Plane. After a quick examination of my surroundings, a woman in a throne appeared before me which started to talk and called herself the Puppet Master. That good enough for you?”

“Good enough for now, what is currently happening?”

“Nothing as of yet, I’ll attempt to return to the Physical Plane soon, but if need be I can always use magic to create a dimensional rift to transport me.” And the rift would be a last resort, it costs nearly all of my mana to cross between dimensions depending on many factors, but the average cost was nearly 50 million mana.

“Alright, have you learned anything interesting form this so-called Puppet Master?”

“Depends what you call interesting, it appears she has a strange reaction towards me and seems to be holding back nearly the entire truth behind her actions.”

“Alright, I guess when you return we can discuss a plan for what to do.”

As the message ended, I stared back at the Puppet Master once more. We stared blankly at one another, her only smiling an innocent but secretive smile while I was trying to use my intelligence to piece together some of the information and get a clearer story but still had difficulties. One of the major problems with the situation was the reason she acted as though she cares about me. I didn’t get a good answer from her because she said it was better for both of us if I didn’t know, but sometimes you need to know certain things to do a better job.

“Vron, how did she know of you?” This was even more important at the moment.

“Father, I mean no ill will, it is for the best if you were not to find out. It would help you and everyone else, it isn’t important at the moment.” What? I don’t quite understand but I’m pretty sure this is something that I needed to know.

“Well, would you like to return to your new world?” The Puppet Master asked, her voice sounding sincere but I didn’t care.

“Naturally, but why should I trust you?” I’ve no reason to trust a person that keeps secrets and doesn’t benefit me in any way.

“Oh, trust me if you wish, I could never harm you even if I tried.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You’ll see.” Again with the secrecy.

“[Trans-Planar Gate: Physical Plane].” After my words, a large swirling vortex coalesced into a portal that was completely swarming with purple and black energy that was similar to my pocket dimension in its energy but was instead at nearly 5 meters in diameter.

“Oh, I see, well, take care, Ashen.” Not even bothering with her words, I stepped into the portal and a great weight fell upon me.

The weight caused me to slump a few centimeters but I still stood strong, if I were to estimate the weight, I would say close to ten thousand kilograms. After a brief couple of steps, I finally walked through and entered back onto the Physical plane once more. Looking about, I noticed I was no longer at the castle, instead, I was nearly surrounded by an army of foot soldiers on both sides. The one to my right donned blue and gray while the one to my right donned black and green.

I spotted a few select people on either side that were much more powerful than the rest and kept a mental tab on them. The two armies were nearly a kilometer apart and would most likely engage in combat shortly, but with my appearance, they probably called a makeshift ceasefire. On both sides, many started to have conversations as the higher ranking individuals tried to rid the armies of the chaos that my arrival had brought. After a few minutes, I mostly trying to locate myself and using some magic to mentally map the area I explore, a small number from either side slowly emerged from the large masses of troops.

Walking forward was eleven people, six from the blue and gray side and five from the black and green side. Quickly enhancing my view of the selected individuals, I noticed that the black and green selected people were all elves and the blue and gray was all human. I thought to myself, an inter-racial war perhaps? Brushing aside race, the individuals kept closing distance until they were all roughly a hundred meters or so from me.

On the elf side, there seemed to be two archers, one warrior, and two magic users, while on the human side there seemed to be two warriors, two magic users, one archer, and one martial arts user. Their gear was fairly well made compared to the pieces I’ve seen in this world, and so I thought they were most likely the most wealthy or at least the most powerful. The warriors had mostly plate armor with large swords and the two human warriors had kite shields while the elf warrior had a fancy buckler shield with a silver gem embedded into the center.

The magic users all had different colored robes and had large elegant staves that seemed to be made from various types of metals and gems. The archers had lavish bows and wore light cloth armor and had shortswords at their hips. The martial arts user had strange clothing that seemed to be worse than cloth in terms of magical and physical defense but was nearly covered in items ranging from gem pouches to metal rods. On of the human magic users finally spoke aloud, breaking the silence.

“Who are you? What side are you on?” A mid-forties voice that was fairly deep and steady called out.

“Ashen Fur, neutral party.” All of their faces seemed to gain an edge and started to ready for combat, even more than they were from being in a literal warzone.

“And why are you here then, Ashen?” The same man asked out.

“Just crossed planes, ended up here by mistake.”

“Planes? You mean you came from a different plane and ended up here? But what gateway would not have a designated anchor point?” The man and all the others looked incredibly shocked.

“No gateway, just a simple tier 17 spell called: [Trans-Planar Gate].” his face widened in surprise even more.

“But, how could someone cast such a spell!?” He asked in wonder and amazement while the others were even more on guard.

“Not an issue if you have the mana to cast it, it used up quite a fair amount just casting it.” While it cost a surprisingly low amount of only 35 million mana, it still made my mana plummet to nearly 40 million with all the other spells I had cast, so it was less than half.

“And what is it that you want and where do you plan on going?” The man seemed to be the opposite of on-guard and seemed more trusting of me than his comrades.

“At the moment, I wish to return to my home. Do you happen to know where the rib-cage mountains are?” Once I got enough information I’d just teleport in a straight line continuously until I returned home.

“Rib-cage mountains? They are not on this continent, but I do believe they reside on one south-west of here, where exactly is your home?” He seemed to be telling the truth, which meant I was on another continent than the demon lands, and hence the issue of the dark legion wouldn’t effect here as much if at all.

“Very well, I am currently residing in what is known to most as The Black Castle.” WIth my words, all of their faces showed shock and fright, even the man who had been talking to me.

“I-is that so, well, Ashen, do you have a moment to spare?” What would he need to talk about now?

“I have some time to spare before needing to head off, why?”

“I was wondering if you were available for hire, to join us in combat with the elves?” With his words, the elves tightened their grips and prepared to attack the man, while the humans did the same in response to the elves.

“Perhaps, what would you be willing to offer?” The man took no time in responding after hearing my words.

“Everything! Knowledge, items, land, wealth, anything you wish for! Even myself!” He seemed serious so I figured I’d help him out, only for the right price of course.

“Very well, I will notify you of what I will take as payment after the battle ends if I need to flee or am slain, then no payment of course.” He quickly nodded as did the other humans and the elves all backed up several meters.

“Take whatever you need from me!” I would most likely take him up on the information and maybe him as well, to have him protect Wheatberg.

“Elves, as usual with how I fight, I shall give you one chance to surrender, use it wisely.” Not a single one responded with anything more than clenched teeth, so I took that as a hard ‘No’.

With a swift motion of my hands, side by side but separated, the right hand moving down left and the left one moving up and to the right in less than a second. After my hands moved a powerful gust of wind broke from the line created in between them. The warrior that stood in its path was cleaved in two, the cut so fine it went unnoticed. With a spray of blood on both sides of him, he fell in two chunks onto the ground. The streak of wind causing the other elves to be either thrown backward or shoved into the ground.

The wave of air magic kept traveling into the army behind them, slicing through hundreds if not thousands, slaughtering the majority of those it touched. One of the elf magic-users quickly healed up the warrior and he slowly reconnected with his other chunk and was starting to get back up when the humans simply watched in shock and disbelief. Taking a few seconds to let the effects of the spell sink in, I had reissued my request for their surrender.

“Once more, surrender or fight.” It seemed that the elf archer was the only one to throw her weapon onto her back and kneel before me, but before I was able to continue the rest slowly joined her, even the one I had just cleaved in two.

“Very well, one of you inform your army of surrender or have them be annihilated.” After I finished, the other warrior ran back to the large army of elves, and after a few minutes ran back.

It seems like only a small percent of the soldiers were actually walking forwards and coming directly to me, only twenty to be precise. No other would join, so I quickly made to dispose of them. With only a flick of my wrist a large beam of blue light washed out before them, and a small bead of light was formed only meters away from the army. The bead quickly started to suck in all of the ambient mana, even ripping some from the elves themselves, and grew in size.

After a few moments of charging, the bead exploded in a brilliant display of blue and yellow intertwining in an eruption of mana. A simple [Mana Bomb], but quite effective, especially at max level. The explosion didn’t quite reach me but the shockwave did, it tore up the ground sending large chunks of dirt and rock flying off, but I created a barrier around me and the prisoners and humans. The explosion seemed to kill a good twelve thousand elves or so, and only set me back a few hundred thousand mana.

After the explosion, the elves started to panic, and they scattered around. Running in every direction except towards me, the entire army started to dissipate. Many who could use flight or hiding spells or skills did and ability that could be used to escape was used, leaving a small portion of the army still standing, only thirty thousand or so. I needed to see how summoning would work if I used corpses, something that was hard to do in Sugarea with how the bodies normally disappeared before you would be able to finish the spell.

With a flood of mana, the large mound of scattered limbs and body parts started to be lifted and swirl together into a large pile. After the vast majority of the corpses were gathered, the mana quickly jolted the mound and a large amount of energy was radiating from it, now I needed to decide what to summon.

“Come to me, let you feast on the flesh of those who dare to challenge you, [Summon: Oronix].” While the Oronix statue still summoned Oronix, it was only temporarily and was more or less, a fake or a copy, never the real one.

My thinking process was simple: if it had a physical body, it would be permanent and wouldn’t despawn, but what happened was even more surprising, even to me. A large golden beam, no, pillar came crashing down from the skies. Slamming into the mound of broken bodies, it eventually sent the scraps of said bodies flying as Oronix, in true form stood in their place. I had even received a message from the World System.

[Successfully Summoned: Oronix: The Dragon God] [Awarding 200 Attribute and Skill Points]

Now that was unexpected because not a single person form Sugarea could summon Oronix in true form, only ever was it just a fake or replica. If the message was to be believed, and I had no reason to doubt it, I had summoned the literal god of dragons, Oronix, in true form, into the Physical Plane. Either this would end well or horribly. I had killed gods before in sugarea, but Oronix? Only once, and dragons are much harder to kill than a beast of the same level. So at level 1000, Oronix would be treated like a level 1050 world boss at least.

But, if I had summoned it, then I would have control of it, hopefully, and it would be loyal to me. It stared at me and came stomping over to me before eventually calling out, only two hundred meters from me.

“You are the one who summoned me? Prove your worth to be my master, mortal!” Its voice sounded, and with no other way to describe it, epic.

“Very well, how would you like me to prove my worth Oronix?”

“You may pick from three trials: Survive my onslaught, best me in combat, or forcefully replace my mana pool with yours.” Alright, the mana one would be insanely hard, but I could do it in a pinch, the surviving one sounded fairly easy and the attacking one as well.

“Well, I thought I would surprise you, I’ll go for the mana replacement.” IT looked shocked for a moment that broke into laughter.

“You truly believe that you could overpower the dragon god using your mana pool? Hilarious!” It might be laughing now, but not for long.

Taking out a large white pearl from my pocket dimension, and completely absorbing it, my mana returned to its max. Then I took out several other gemstones and consumed them in the same way. After two hundred or so repetitions, I was sitting at a comfortable 4.2 billion mana, enough for what I needed. I used another item, in fact, seven of the same item. The cash shop item called ‘Mana Enhancer’ but to the players as ‘The Magic Multiplier’. Its name would be self-explanatory but to clarify, it would double the user’s current mana without drawback besides the consumption of the item.

Now at 537.6 billion mana, I walked over to Oronix which was still laughing and not paying attention anymore and placed my hand on his front left leg. With a surge of mana rushing into it, its mana pool started to fight mine and he snapped back to reality. Staring deeply into my non-existent eyes, it eventually noticed my mana pool was large, and by quite the amount as well. Its mana pool was at an ever decreasing amount of 4.6 billion mana. After nearly an hour, its mana pool was completely replaced, the entire process was spent in eerie silence and had cost me nearly 530 billion mana, mostly to its magical resistance.

“Very well mortal, I recognize you as a worthy master. What is your name?” It sounded Epic but slightly defeated

“Ashen Fur, call me Ashen.” It nodded and quickly responded.

“Very well, Lord Ashen. What is it that you seek for me to do?”

The elves were pretty much gone by now and the human army had started to fall back to their camp taking all but the magic-user that spoke to me with them. I could use him to take me and the new prisoners to the castle, but that would just make a literal god the same as a horse, wouldn’t it? Either I could have it hunt down the elves or, I could send it on a mission to help in the demon lands. I think I’ll just send him as an armored escort with these people to the castle, then have him tend to the demon lands.

“Oronix, are you willing to obey an order?” It’s heads all focused on me before it spoke.

“Depends on the task, what is it you require?” His voice, as epic as before, boomed out.

“Simple, armored escort then assisting Aeyrs.” It lowered its heads slightly, most likely disappointed.

“Very well, where to?” In its still epic but slightly bored voice.

“Quick question, do you carry the memories of the summoned Oronix Aeyrs is currently in control of?” It tilted one head, the white one, and spoke aloud once more.

“I do indeed, why?” It still sounded epic, even to me, but I had to continue, not praise its voice.

“Our castle, in the mountains. Escort these people there and hand them off to Premium then continue to Aeyrs.” At this point, the lot of elves were opposite the human magic-user, so it was easy to identify who to take.

“It will not be an issue, is that all, Lord Ashen?” I shook my head and it grabbed the entire group of elves in its massive claws, soft enough not to crush them and hard enough not to drop them, then flew off at Mach 20.

After a few seconds, the magic-user collapsed, “Something wrong?” I asked blandly.

“It’s mana signature! It was otherworldly! Surely you would have felt it!” He looked exhausted, but I still stood tall without a sign of fatigue.

“Of course, but compared to what I’m used to, it was negligible. Now, for the payment.” He gulped at my words.

“O-of course! And, what is it that you are going to ask for?” He seemed more nervous than ever.

“Simple, I would like you to become my subordinate and help govern a town. Also, you will help create magical items and the like for-profit and funding.” The magical items I could make were too powerful for this world, so a person that lived in it should make something more suiting.

“Is that all?” He looked relieved, at least for now.

“Unless you are willing to offer up anything in exchange?” He quickly shook his head at my words.

“Of course not! It sounds like a wondrous deal! But before I may join you I need to appear before the king…” He started to taper off and sounded frightened.

“It is of no issue, in fact, I think I should accompany you. Unless you have any objections?” To that, he vigorously shook his head negative.

“No, it is fine! You may go, it should be of no problem!” I’m not so certain if a king hated elves, which were similar to humans, I doubted he would appreciate a literal demon.

“Alright, shall we go then?” To that, he shook his head in agreement and motioned his hand back to the human army.

I followed him, taking a moment to think about my strength from the battle, I realized that using a tier 23 [Atmospheric Shift], let alone with all the bonuses to casting and it being a max level, might have been a little overkill, but I didn’t regret it. I quickly opened my console and mentally selected the Skills tab, upon opening it, I was once more assaulted by an onslaught of messages which have conveniently been condensed and compact as of late, but I could most likely disable it if I wanted.

[Skills Gained: Body of Fire, Body of Nova, Body of Death, Body of Decay, Shadow Step, Shadow Leap, Shadow Walk, Shadow Stride, Abyssal Step, Abyssal Leap, Abyssal Leap, Abyssal Stride, Silent Cast, Soulbind, Magic Sense, Magic Synth, Magical Control, Magical Shield Piercing, Sense Magic, Sense Good, Sense Evil, Spiritual Domain, Decay Life, Complete Heat Resistance, Complete Lightning Resistance, Complete Death Resistance, Mana Recovery, Advanced Mana Recovery, Mastery Mana Recovery, Godly Mana Recovery, Demonic Heart, Aura of Decay, Aura of Chaos, Aura of Healing, Flame Aura, Holy Aura, Demonic Aura, Demonic Radiance, Holy Radiance, Detect Enemy, Iron Skin, Steel Skin, Obsidian Skin, Titanium Skin, Diamond Skin, Body of Thorns, Body of Nails, Body of Spikes, Regeneration, Advanced Regeneration, Master Regeneration, Godly Regeneration, Appraisal, Advanced Appraisal, Master Appraisal, Godly Appraisal, Light Seal (Locked), Dark Seal (Locked)] [Awarding 1730 Attribute and Skill Points] [Skill Tree Unlocked]

Then not only a moment later another message arrived.

[Skills Gained: Skill Synthe, Skill Appraisal] [Awarding 35 Attribute and Skill Points] [Skill Synthe Tree Unlocked]

Taking another moment to appraise myself, I soon found out that I had 3,379 Skill points, and 2,321 Attribute points as well. I would use them when I had a free opportunity to, as I didn’t want to distract myself or be left vulnerable in the process. At the moment I didn’t think that increasing my Charisma would help much and it might have negative consequences that I can’t foresee, so I would just leave it where it was. At the moment, I needed to have a detailed explanation of what each Attribute did.

While I was doing all of this, we had arrived at a small tent near the human army and left soon after, I only briefly entered and left as I didn’t see anything worth being in there for. We also had a carriage drawn for us and would be escorted by a light escort, by my standards, not theirs, of twelve armored carriages, less armored than the one we rode in but still armored. We were being transported to some castle a few hours off, if needed, I could always teleport to Oronix then home, or even Aeyrs, so I wasn’t worried about it.

Back to the Attributes, as that was something far more interesting to me. Strength, one of the most commonly used parts of any RPG game, did what you’d think, it increased your strength. Although, it didn’t do it magically, or without reason. Every time it increase, your entire body’s muscle system would become denser, after reaching 50, it would be as tough as leather in density alone. With Strength increasing muscle density of all the muscles in your body, it also went well with the Constitution.

The next Attribute, Dexterity, was even more interesting. With it allowing your body to utilize your muscles faster by increasing the speed at which the brain, or whatever I had, could communicate to the body. When the brain reached instant communication, it would start to increase the speed at which the muscles could stretch and contract, and eventually even making your body lighter somehow.

Even more intriguing was the Constitution Attribute. Somehow making your entire body more resistant and more durable without increasing weight. It allowed for the entire body to become harder to damage and could also prevent damage if it were weak enough, say stubbing a toe or the like. By either compacting the atoms and cells in your body and somehow strictly increasing their resistance to separation it accomplished these feats.

The next didn’t even seem to be real at first. By allowing information in the brain, or whatever I had, it could allow for an increase in almost all knowledge-based functions. This caused an increase in thinking, comprehension, learning speed, remembering, language understandability and even experience points, or XP, gain. It also allowed the user to generally be smarter.

After that comes Wisdom, similar to Intelligence, but not quite. Allowing for an increase in magical affinity and perception and also increasing one’s senses and common sense. Not only allowing for general bonuses to perception and magic, but it also allowed for greater ease in controlling and utilizing information at hand much like Intelligence, but not based on logical conclusions that require mathematics or piecing together information and rather more robust and secretive answers, like detecting when someone lies.

And the one that makes no sense, Charisma. With no reason besides changing your voice and facial structure and even your speech patterns, it made social interactions smoother. It increased charming, social knowledge, attraction or beauty, made convincing and negotiating easier, and persuasiveness and even your presence.

Vitality seemed to be a more tame Attribute compared to what I knew of the other ones, but it was still fairly good. It allowed for faster recovery from injuries, sickness, and the like. Also providing more health and making one’s body require less substance to survive compared to normal. It would allow for the consumption of less food, water, minerals, vitamins, and even made it so rest and sleep were also needed less too.

The next was something even I wanted to increase, Willpower. It allowed for an increase to mana and how strong or powerful one’s mana was. To simplify, the stronger one’s mana, the more powerful it was and would power lower-tier spells for less mana or do more damage than normal. It also allowed for an increase to one’s ability to remain calm, patient, sanity, emotional resistance and even resistance to one’s mana, as in having it forcefully taken or replaced.

Luck was pretty self-explanatory, but it even did more than expected. By somehow increasing the chances to be in favor of one’s desires, it can allow for inspiring moments of success or can allow for a critical failure of a foe. Luck also allowed for random events to occur that would help or benefit as long as it wasn't too unrealistic that it couldn’t happen naturally. As I’ve found out in the past, it also can increase the chances of a powerful attack that could do far more than what it would do normally.

With Perception being last, it did as expected, increase perception and the like. By somehow making it easier to spot minute differences and memorize small key details it allowed for an easier time in perceiving or identifying. By doing such, it allowed for better chances at getting needed results from investigating, perceiving, searching, and other similar things.

All of the Attributes were great independently, but to have a high score in all of them would make one a near-perfect being, as I wanted to be. With such high-end stats such as mine, many would equate me to be a true god, which I technically was but still. I was more than a super-human and would be capable of doing more impressive feats than even gods could. I finally finished with my information recap and decided to mentally focus on other tasks until something was to happen, which didn’t take long, not long at all...