After settling down inside the shed, he looks around and sees that the place is full of children. Dirtied and tired, but well fed.

“I have a lot of things to ask, but one question I have is if any of you wish to leave this village?”

The children look at one another, a young blonde man comes to the front and nods.

“Alright. Alana, take them to our camp. Bahamut, check if the village has been alerted and keep a watchful eye on them.”

“Wait, aren’t you gonna come with us?”

“No, I feel something strange. I might be doing something stupid but I feel like this’ll give me answers, so you go on ahead. You two are way more powerful than I am but I can still stand up for myself, now go.”

Without question, the Vampress collects the children and leads them into the forest with Bahamut tailing behind them. Paul on the other hand looks towards the garden of the Manor. He swiftly unholsters his revolver from his hip and approaches it with his gun ready.

After walking for a few minutes, a sudden feeling of power rushes to him. He promptly summons his Eldritch Armor, like a black oozing shadow, it forms and materializes around his body and his sword is sheathed upon his hip. Looking at a big metal gate protecting the desolate Manor’s garden, he shoots the lock open with his specialized magic .357. The bullet was so powerful it opened the thick metal gate for him. After stepping inside, a scary emotion of someone watching him flows through his spine.

He starts looking around, the beautiful cut bushes of patterns and the dying flowers give the place a sad solemn atmosphere, as if the garden was a colorless noir. A quick impulse came to him and his right hand grabbed something inside the ground to his right, it was a blood like colored goop that was underneath the Garden’s surface.

It closes but the gauntlet of his armor prevents it from ripping his hand off. With sheer power, he pulls out the thing he had grabbed.

“I’ve felt this power before, is this… the capability of the Eldritch Knight?”

The thick oozing shadows that were seeping out of his armor started dripping like a faucet was turned on. Using some power, he manages to pull out the creature that was hiding inside the garden. It was nothing but a shadow being, but this was different. Shadow creatures are low level monsters, but this one was capable of speech.

Without a second thought, he shoots at it with the revolver on his left hand. The shadow quickly disappears. A distorted voice then comes out of the air, as if it was being transmitted through a megaphone.

“A Death Knight, I didn’t expect the Underworld’s best to be loitering on the plain of mortals.”

“IDENTIFY YOURSELF!”

“A Knight of Darkness. How interesting.”

“Perish Demon!”

He quickly points his revolver to his left and the shadow vanishes once again, he starts walking deeper into the Garden, his eyes constantly scanning his surroundings. He turns around and sees the shadow creature on the gate he once passed. Before being able to fire his revolver, he felt a sudden touch. But not on his body or organs. Instead, it touched the man’s soul.

“Ahhh, you aren’t from here. Explains the hostility to my kind.”

“This Village, what did you do to it?”

“The owner of this establishment was into the occult. I was sealed inside a box, it was opened and I was released. I’m merely feeding off the people of this village.”

“An ancient demon, I’ve killed unique demons like you before. Special occasions like you deserve a flashy death. Let me walk you back to the Gates of Hell.”

“I apologize, but I cannot take your offer. I have to encroach this world with my darkness and free everyone from pain.”

“Heh, pain is living, and living is a fucking pain. I won’t let you do what you want.”

“A normal Death Knight would’ve already aligned with me. Quite a strange one you are.”

Oozing blood starts pouring out of the ground the shadow creature was standing on. Not letting it go, Paul fires his revolver. The bullet went through the shadow and nothing happened.

“Tsk!”

He spins his Python revolver and holsters like a cowboy, just as quickly he unsheathes his longsword and starts casting spells on himself. Buffing his speed and health with magic, just as he finished. The shadow creature has fully sunk into the pool of thick blood and it started being mixed with a dark oil-like substance. Slowly rising was an extremely tall man, muscles on muscles and wearing a Viking outfit with a large battle axe pulsating with dark energy in his hand.

“Holy…”

Trembling a bit at the sight of the absolute unit, he takes a few steps back and summons his shield for good measure. After fully rising, the large viking man quickly rushes at him with supernatural speed, way too fast for someone that large.

The large man suddenly appeared in front of him and swung his gigantic battle axe, the swing was so fast that the air was being sliced as it traveled. Unbeknownst to Paul, his right arm where his shield was quickly catches the axe on its own. The sheer force sends him flying, smashing through some marble statues and a thick stone railing, he stands up once again.

Knowing that he lacks actual swordsman training, he starts running. Dodging the large man multiple times. After gaining some space, he tries to shoot it with his revolver. It penetrates his thick skin but no blood comes out. He can only utter the word “Fuck” from the uselessness of his weapons. The large man quickly starts dashing at him once again.

His heart was beating all over the place, trembling and preparing his body to be thrown like a doll. He breathes in to calm himself, suddenly. Like the adrenaline rush that attacked him that made him shoot the Countess while severely wounded. His hands grip his sword professionally, one feet in front and his stance changed.

Like a true Eldritch Knight, he uses teleportation magic just as the raging man gets close to him and swipes his back with his sword. It quickly leaves a big wound and black blood starts pouring out. Seeing this, he once again breathes in and calms himself. His body starts to move on its own and attacks the large man. Casting The Demon of the Night, his speed increases and he quickly closes in and the muscle man turns to the Knight and preemptively starts swinging his giant battle axe to meet his sword.

As his Longsword was about to meet the axe, time slowed down for him. He could clearly see the axe slowly but surely flying to meet his attack. Realizing this opportunity, he teleports above the giant viking and embeds his sword through his skull. The man quickly panics and is about to grab him when he teleports out of harm's way, but it stops him from performing his killing blow. The tall viking looked ten times angerier and blood was pouring from the top of his head.

He starts walking slowly which changes to a run, he has some sort of a strange fighting spirit in him. Paul quickly readies himself, halfway through his run, the viking suddenly gets his head bitten by a Dragon. Paul’s eyes widen as Bahamut in her larger form completely bites the Vikings head and neck, leaving a headless torso running after him.

He simply steps aside and the body stops after demolishing the metal fencing of the Manor’s garden. He looks back at Bahamut who was already swallowing the head and neck of the undead Viking man. Dumbfounded at what just happened, he just stood there. Processing the entire scene when suddenly he feels a hand.

Panicking, he uses his sword to cut the unseen hand. To his surprise, it actually cuts it and a trembling scream comes out of the ground below him.

“Impossible! That sword! Only a real Devil may wield it!”

“Fun fact, I got this baby off one.”

“Don’t make me laugh, such a being would not only be above the Demon King but any immortal being.”

“Two words, Walkthrough and Guides.”

Annoyed by the sound coming out of the ground, he pierces it with his sword and a bigger scream comes out.

“Oh, sneaky one aren’t ya? You were planning on swallo-”

He gets swallowed by the oozing blood. Sinking into an ocean, though he’s supposed to be floating, his body still seemed to be standing up right. He starts looking around but only sees darkness, with his sword up he starts walking forward. Once again in peril, he casts more health and recovery spells. Squinting his eyes, a silver arrow quickly hits his left shoulder and pierces his armor, forcing him to lower his sword.

The normal arrow managed to not only wound him, but also go through his Eldritch Knight plating. He knows that this is impossible and quickly starts finding a way out before getting struck by another one. Feeling like he’s slowly going insane, he struts along while putting pressure on his wounded shoulder.

Suddenly feeling a presence behind him, he pours the last of his energy into swinging it. It was quickly caught. Though knowing it would hurt him greatly, he prefers immense pain over instant death. He tries even harder to push the sword into the would-be attacker. A familiar voice then comes.

“Would you not try to kill me when I’m trying to save you M’Lord?”

“Wha? Who?”

“It’s me, the great Dragon of the Void. Bahamut.”

“Wait, how did you get here?”

“I’m connected to you, as you are connected to me. I simply followed you here. Now grab my hand and I’ll pull you out.”

“O-okay!”

He grabs Bahamut’s soft human hand and is quickly pulled out of the ocean of blood. He looks up and could see that the Dragon has her teeth biting on the collar of his armor. After getting dropped, he looks up and can see that the Vampire has already stabbed the shadow creature with her hands. It’s unable to move and is shaking violently, attempting to free itself from the Vampires grasp.

“It’s all yours M’Lord.” Bahamut whispered to him. Wounded, he drags his sword. It screeches as it scars the stone path he’s walking on.

“Ahahaha! Good show mortal, I shall answer one of your most desired questions. You wish to find a way home, Am I correct?”

Paul’s eyes were full of bloodlust, he hears but doesn’t care. As he steps closer, Alana could feel his violence and pulls her arm out of the creature. It plops to the ground, wounded and barely able to stand up.

“On the Continent of Geraldia, lies an ancient gate… one that can send you all home, but it has missing parts... good lu-” his sword cut clean through it. Slicing the shadowy creature in half. The upper part quickly drops on the ground and starts leaking black goop while the lower part completely disintegrates into nothing.

“Sorry, but I’m not some Hero that’ll wait for you to finish your monologue.” He spits on the corpse and carries onward, helped by Alana and the Dragon. He’s ferried back to the Village where the people seemed to be panicking, looking for their children.

It was after a while when they managed to clean up the aftermath, the village was saved and the Manor was left empty. The once inhabitants of the Gothic structure are said to have been eaten by the shadow creature. Paul was tired enough, noting to himself he’ll just send some people to check it out for any more anomalies. He immediately opens the player tab and chats that they have a hint now and requests for people to come to the Village.

The chat box blew up, players were ready to go to war and invade the Continent of Geraldia and rush the Gate home. The other generals popped up in the chat and started calming people down and the leader Hassan announced that all units outside had to return to base for a briefing and tag all of the other high ranking players. Some of the other generals have also found clues to a way home but will take a bit longer. It took Paul an entire week to get back home, entering City 01. To his surprise, it was flourishing. More cars and people are on the streets and roads. He notices a military patrol of two men and approaches them.

The clacking of his horse takes their attention and they get near him.

“Sir, Horses aren’t allowed within city limits.”

“What?” Annoyed, he opens a large pouch where his General uniform is stored and takes his cap out and wears it. The two soldiers immediately saluted the general.

“Sir!”

“Sir!”

Paul let’s go of the reins and steps closer to the two.

“What’s with the people? Do we even have enough food to satisfy all these souls?”

“Yes sir, so far we should have enough rations. Some of the players have also used their magic to start a farm a few miles outside of the city which has taken a big stress off our supply routes.”

“Okay, and the cars? We only have enough fuel for our units. We never took into consideration the ones here.”

“A group of players has taken over the gas station and has been providing gas for the masses. They have the permission of Major Black in the city hall.”

“Wait, Major Black is in charge of the city? I guess he did good controlling this. And the people, are these all… players?”

“Yes sir, they’re all players. Some came due to General Escobar. From reports, he tried to defend another player city down South from Slavers but failed. The surviving players have come up here for refuge.”

“Really? I’ve only been gone for a good two weeks. Some Kingdom or Organization is taking in players to sell as slaves? We might have to do something about that.”

“Yes sir, there’s also reports from other players that even Medieval style player-run Kingdoms have been invaded and overturned by the Church and ruling Kingdoms way before us.”

“Ah crap, so we might expect more then?”

“Yes sir. Something has sparked and tensions are higher than ever sir.”

‘Yea, I know. We all got called to return here due to that I’m sure. Okay, go back to patrol.”

“Yes sir, and uhh… There's a horse pasture near the defensive line where we keep most of the player horses. I recommend placing them there sir.”

“Ugh, okay. I gotta head to the airport first.”

“If it's the headquarters sir, it’s been moved to the recently renovated city hall. Military affairs are on the left wing.”

“Okay, keep safe and keep the peace.” He salutes the soldiers and the two salute back.

He gets back on his horse and puts his general cap back on the pouch. He tells Alana to follow close. After weaving through the streets and dodging cars and busses, they finally reach the city hall. Military vehicles were parked around it and military police were scattered everywhere. He quickly exits the horse and detaches the large pouch where his uniform was in and fastly walks inside.

The two soldiers guarding the lobby quickly notice him and ask him to go through one of the metal detectors. It rings and an X-ray shows he had his revolvers and pistols holstered. The men quickly raise their assault rifles at him, the Vampire and Dragon go into combat stance ready to fight.

“Okay! Let’s calm down!” He slowly reaches to the pouch of his carrying and pulls out the general cap. More soldiers arrive at the scene and one of them approaches him and checks the pouch.

“CLEAR!” the soldiers calm down and lower their weapons. A Lieutenant arrives at the scene and checks his uniform and whispers to him “On duty sir?” Paul nods, the Lieutenant makes an ear blistering order.

“GENERAL ON SCENE!” The civilian players and soldiers who were not part of the scene quickly take notice and the men around him salute. He quickly replaces his fedora with his replica US Army Service General cap. Quickly walking to the main lobby, he spots the comfort room for males. He looks at Alana who has Bahamut sitting on her shoulder.

“Two of you, stay here. I’ll go and change.” The two nod and he jogs to the comfort room where he immediately changes to his uniform. The Lieutenant who previously approached him stood next to the two.

“Tell General Paul he’s office is on the third floor, left wing. He also has a meeting at three o'clock with the Major.” Alana, curious about the city, asks a question.

“Lieutenant, may I ask.”

“Of course ma’am.”

“This city’s purpose, what was it meant to be?”

“Experiments. As you know, our skeleton soldiers are all born and bred for battle. But before that, we had to check if they’re actually capable of handling anything more than a sword and shield. Hence, we built this city. It’s also to test if they can use modern machines and equipment effectively.”

“Uh huh, and you're all looking for an exit, am I correct?”

“Yes ma’am, to my knowledge, a majority wants to go back. Though some want to stay, we don’t belong here as our leaders have said.”

“And up to what lengths will you go to achieve this?”

“I don’t know ma’am. Better ask the general himself. If they’re willing to take it all the way, then so do we.”

“Alright, Thank you Lieutenant.”

“No problem ma’am. Now if you may excuse me.” The Lieutenant tips his cap and heads to the staircase in the main lobby to the second floor. Outside, the cloud slowly turns dark. Signifying a rainy day is about to come. Alana is very perplexed by the atmosphere of the modern city. People wearing modern clothes and suits going left and right. It seemed as if the world didn’t care that she’s there or even existed. Everyone had their own thing going on and were too busy to even bat an eye on her. After a few minutes, she’s suddenly startled by Paul who was in his uniform.

“You okay?”

“Of course, it’s just this place. You live like this don’t you?”

Curious, he looked behind her and could see the busy main lobby, people going in all directions, minding their own business and the rain started pouring outside and umbrella’s open.

“Ah, it’s calming isn’t it? Maybe you’re not yet accustomed to it. But this is my world. It’s a bit sad and at the same time, comforting. I don’t know, just the stream of people minding their own business, makes finding genuine connections better.” Bahamut then steps in.

“It must’ve been hard in your world, M'Lord.”

“It is. I’m not gonna lie, to some others, they can still make fruitful relations, rarely does it actually mean anything other than two people leeching off of one another. My entire life I’ve given to building my company, I was no different from each and one of these people. Going about their day, trying to make something out of themselves.”

The rain was pouring hard outside. The lights of the city hall and the street lamps turn on. It was cold, even though the city hall was full of art engraved on its marble floor. The color of the place was darb and grey.

“But let me tell you this Bahamut, there’s still a lot of good people even with this atmosphere. You just gotta find them.”

Alana then steps in, reminded of what the Officer said.

“Excuse me, but the Lieutenant said you have an office, left of the city hall on the third floor.”

“Okay, follow me you two. I get the feeling I know where it's specifically located.”

Paul immediately starts walking, he leaves the pouch on the main desk. The soldier on duty slides it underneath. He goes up the staircase on the main lobby and goes up another flight of stairs on the second floor. The place was very busy, players were everywhere. Both Eldwood and the new settlers of the city. Asking to open businesses and others calling for help as their friends has either been enslaved or gone missing.

After entering the third floor, it was full of people wearing officer uniforms like him. Though none near his rank of general. They salute as he passes them by, the entire place was very modern even though the city hall had the classic 80s white hall look. Going to the leftmost corner of the place he scans the doors and finds an office with his name on the plate.

He enters it and is met with a large office with a table and a comfy office chair and a couch with a small table located to the right of the door. Bahamut immediately flies to the couch and wraps around herself tightly to rest. The big window on the right gives him a clear view of the street. Though the rain was pouring hard, he could see the players underneath their umbrella’s. Some were still wearing medieval outfits mixed with modern clothes.

Taking in the atmosphere, he removes his cap, putting it on top of the table. Alana on the other hand sits down on the chair in front of his table. Touching name plate with his name and rank engraved. The smell of the air changes as the rain continually pours and the humid air turns to cold.

Curious, Alana accidentally turns on his desk lamp.

“Ahahahah, be careful not to click something. Don’t wanna blow up this nice office.”

“As if.”

Paul sits down on his chair. Reclining it a bit back and resting himself. As water accumulates on the street, the sound of liquid splashing from the various vehicles passing through the street can be heard inside the room. He picks up the remote for the air conditioner and turns it on and sets it to 22 Celsius.

“Ahhh, this is life. After spending some time sleeping in random Villages and underneath trees. This is great.”

The Whorls of the wind came blowing through the building, screaming like a ghost.

“So, what’s the next plan? You have a meeting by the way with the Major at three o’clock.”

“Eh? A meeting? What for? None of the other generals are here. We might have to wait for a few days till they arrive.”

“Don’t know, but it seemed very important.”

“Ugh, alright. Later, I will.”

He looks at the clock and sees it’s 1:32 in the afternoon. Feeling lazy, he puts his general cap over his face and reclines his chair to the max. Slowly dozing off to sleep. Deep in his slumber, a very hard slap comes from his back. His cap falls into the ground and he immediately stands up, visibly angered.

“OI! WHAT THE HELL!?”

John could only laugh at the comical look on Paul as he angrily looks at him looking like a made man with his Blue replica US Air Force General uniform.

“The fuck do you want from me?”

“Dude, it's two thirty.”

“What? I’m planning on going when it’s two fifty.”

While the two dabbles, The Vampire’s face looks like she’s watching two children converse with one another.

“Just stand up already Paul. Hassan’s here.”

“Muhammad’s back from his expedition. He has something big to tell us. Also, why’s the Inverter at twenty two celsius?”

“I mean why not? I’m wearing a thick general’s uniform. I’m covered from toe to top.”

“Well, there’s an elegant lady here wearing a party dress bro.”

“Look, she’s a vampire, she also told me heat or cold doesn’t really affect her since she’s already technically dead.”

“Whatever, c’mon. Stand.” John grabs Paul’s hand and lifts him up like a wounded soldier. Absolutely lazy, he let John do all the work and carried him to the door.

“Where are we headed anyways?”

“The freaking Conference room adjacent to your Office dumbass.”

“Eh? I thought it’s on the second floor.”

“No, you dumbass, the one on the second floor is the Break room.”

“Wha-, I’ve been lied to.”

The two prepare near the door, cleaning and checking their uniforms. They exit out and are immediately met with a blonde elf. Paul and her lock eyes as he heads off to the conference room where the old man is waiting.

“Who the heck is that?”

“Oh her? She’s from an Elven tribe. Rescued her from a burning Village. Attacked by the Red Dragon Terva.”

“Ah shit, but she looks capable and pretty hot though.”

“Hell yea, she can cook, use a bow, and all that whizz.”

“Hahahaha, lucky bastard.”

“Says the man that has a hottie vampire on his roster.”

“I don’t know if I should be happy or scared, not gonna lie. Someone like her, with her smarts and experience could easily turn the table against someone like me with two brain cells.”

“Look alive bro. We’re about to enter the Big Boss’s presence.”

The two approach the conference room doors and open it. The city Mayor and Hassan were having a little chat already. Around the table were other high ranking officers, they joined them and sat down. The table was finally complete, and after the opening remarks and some updates on the situation, their leader Hassan tells them the reason why they’re called back.

“Hassan: As you know, the organization was part of the League of Modernized Guilds. They’ve made a return and have officially renamed themselves to the United Nations. Currently, they’re requesting all leaders of Guilds and groups with modern equipment to come together at a massive conference. They called it the Apex Summit, a Seven-four-seven will be arriving tomorrow on the airport, seeing as our other generals are still out and about, we three will have to represent Eldwood.”

“Paul: I see, and I guess the leader of the United Nations calls himself the General Secretary?”

“Hassan: That is indeed true.”

“John: A Boeing huh? That’s nice. So I guess the Russians and the other folks with modern stuff will all be there, this might be a good chance to strike up as many alliances as we can and start performing joint tasks and operations.”

“Hassan: That’s what I’m planning on doing, right now we have the operational capacity to wage war but not on the scale of the Kingdoms here. We might have the technological advantage, but a long drawn campaign is not optimal for us.”

“Paul: Okay, knowing that. I propose we strike up to the UN to make a massive expeditionary force to search for a way home. Right now, all the Guilds and player groups are performing their own expeditions. One united force might be able to make things faster for us.”

“Hassan: I’ll take that up to the General Secretary but I think they already have something like that in mind. Anything else?”

“Major: What will be our task now though? General Trevor is still on the Demon Continent, performing recon. He’s been bringing back a lot of information and you might want to see it sir.”

“Hassan: Okay Major, later I shall take a look but for now, we must prepare for the Summit. This will be big.”

After adjourning the meeting, Paul immediately heads back to his office and sees that Bahamut and Alana are asleep on the couch. Noticing this, he heads to the second floor and asks one of the people in the storage room for some blankets. Back in his office, he covers the two up. Wrapping Bahamut’s small dragon body in cloth while removing the Vampire’s high heels and putting the blanket over her.

“Ah well, you two have a good sleep. I still have some managerial stuff to do.”

With a smile on his face, he leaves the office for the day and walks out to the cityscape. Though the rain was pouring hard, it didn't stop him from going out on the street and checking the Military Police and the new citizens of their city. Entering the main lobby, he approaches two MPs on the door.

“Gentlemen.” The two perform a snappy salute to him.