The train was on the move once more, making its way south to Merluka.

“So when do ye think they might attack?” The King asked.

“I would be more worried as to how they are going to attack. You heard about how a fanatic attacked them on the platform.” The Queen said.

“I can think of several ways they would attack. One, a large spell from outside, but I doubt it would do much. The rune protections on the train are quite powerful. Second, they can try to derail the train, but that also has rune protection to ensure it stays upward. If necessary, the train can run on the main road. It would just require extensive repairs later. Third, internal threat assaults all aboard the train. Either with a powerful spell or hostages. Fourth, internal threat takes control of the engine, stops the train at a specific location, then outer forces attack.” Phaestus explained.

“Phaestus.” Dite called attention to herself.

“I think you would be able to check people on the train using [Truth Seeker]. I will do the talking. All you have to do is mostly observe, make comments as necessary to not raise suspicion. It would allow us to find any internal threats.” Dite explained her plan.

“That is good and all, but would ye be able to get through the whole train in time?” The King asked.

“I think we would. We keep the interactions to a minimum and get through before entering the open fields outside Meerka’s military range. We should be able to vet everyone. We should start with the conductors first and make our way back. Ruby, you come with the two of us. Lady Delvirra, Athena, and Princess Lindi, I want you three in the Haven, watch over Leros. Your majesty, Prince Alfa, White, I want you three protecting the engine and conductors once they are cleared.”

They all acknowledged Phaestus’ plan, and they headed to the front while Athena, Queen Delvirra, and Lindi were sent to the Haven.

A young man up in the engine of the train sighed heavily. One of the four others in the compartment stopped and spoke to him.

“What ye be sighing about?” A female dwarf asked.

“Oh, uh, nothing really. I just... I just wish I could meet even one of the ladies of Lenmos.” The young man said.

“Hah! You jealous of the Duke?”

“Oh no! Not jealous, impressed if anything. Duke Hephaestus is so powerful, charismatic, humble, and loved. I guess, if anything, I would want to know what attracted such beautiful ladies to him. I want to be like Lord Hephaestus. A true hero!”

“If you are curious, it was mostly because he was kind, accepting, and easy to tease.”

All four conductors turned to see a smiling Dite and somewhat annoyed Phaestus next to her.

“M-m-m-m-my Lord and Lady! What brings you two here?”

Ruby popped around from behind Phaestus, her nose twitching.

“Ah! The legendary nose twitch!” The conductors cried out, causing Ruby to smile.

After a minute, they calmed down from the adorableness overload.

“Hah, hah, anyway, my lord and lady, what brings you three here?” The female dwarf asked,

“I wanted to ask a few questions if possible.” She said with a smile.

The conductors replied, saying they would be happy to answer any questions they had.

“Since you and the young man were speaking of Phaestus, I was curious as to all of your opinions. He likes hearing the voice of the people as to serve them better as their ruler.”

Phaestus smiled and nodded.

Each conductor spoke a few minutes apiece, praising Phaestus’ work, Lenmos, and even about the train.

“Truly, my lord, you creating this train was fantastic. We all appreciate it.” The female dwarf said.

“You’re welcome, but I was not the one who made it. I passed a rough design to Rexar of Alta. It was him and his team that made this masterpiece.” Phaestus commented.

The conductors went back to bring up different stories of Phaestus.

“Micah, Ruby, your majesty, Prince Alfa, the conductors are clean. Please come up to the engine.” Phaestus used a new spell, [Group Call], which allowed them to speak to each other telepathically.

“Alright. I am sorry to tell you all, there was more to this visit than just what you know.” Dite said, calling the curious attention of the conductors. Dite then explained to them the information they learned from Lady Vannil.

“Oh, dear. What should we do?” The female dwarf asked.

“We already have a plan. We believe the threat to be internal, so we will go through the train to ensure it is secure. We should not have to worry about an external threat too much. You all need to keep this train heading to Merluka while we complete our sweep.” Dite said.

“Understood, my lady! We will keep the train moving.” The conductors saluted them.

“I am thankful for all of you. In the meantime, Prince Alfa, the King of Dunlap and his guards, and White will be protecting you all.” Phaestus said.

Several guards entered and took up defensive positions by the door with White. The King and prince Alfa and their guards were on standby in the employee car behind the engine. Phaestus, Dite, and Ruby headed back toward the rest of the train cars.

They entered the first cargo car.

“Search and find any traps and dangers. [Danger Detection].” Phaestus used a new spell.

Dite asked if the spell picked up anything.

“Nothing that is not merchant wares. Nothing dangerous enough to threaten the train or more than an unarmed person.”

They moved to the second and third cargo train cars, repeating the same actions and finding nothing.

Then their group entered the first passenger car.

“Oh my! It’s Lord Hephaestus!” “Lady Aphrodite!” “Lady Ruby!” Many people cried out.

“Thank you, everyone. This is our first time riding the train, so we decided to walk about and speak to everyone.” Dite said, garnering multiple cheers.

They spoke to each group, asking and answering a few questions before moving on to the next group. After about thirty minutes, they got to the back of the car.

“Everyone in the first passenger car is clean. On to the next.” Phaestus communicated to every one of his group telepathically using magic.

There were six passenger cars in total, two employee cars, and five cargo cars. They continued through the second, third, and fourth cars with the same results. In the fifth car, the atmosphere was different... About half of the twenty passengers were happy to see the three, while the remaining toward the car's back had little to no reaction.

Dite went through her introduction and initial questions, working their way back toward the odd group. After twenty minutes, they arrived at the group.

“Hello, everyone. We were curious about your thoughts of my husband, Duke Hephaestus. Do you believe that he is doing a good job? Maybe some suggestions for improvements?” Only one of the men spoke up. The rest stayed quiet.

“Oh, Lord Hephaestus has done an excellent job. I could not think of a better person.” The man said.

“Yeah, that was a solid lie.” Phaestus communicated telepathically.

“Truly. Thank you for that, sir. Do you have any recommendations for us?” Dite asked.

“None. Now, if you could, we are tired and wish to rest.” The man said.

“Very well. Are there any others of your group in any of the other cars? We do not wish to intrude.” Dite said with a pleasant smile.

“No, just us.” The man said.

“They lied about resting but spoke the truth of it being just them.” Phaestus informed his group.

“Final question for you. Do you intend to hurt people of this train?” Dite asked.

The man immediately called out to his men, who pulled knives. Before they could do more, Ruby zipped around, dropping four of them with her rapid kicks. Using one of his rings, Phaestus sent out an electric shock that knocked out five others, leaving just the leader, who Dite dropped him into a painful hold.

“Now then. Who do you work for?” Dite asked.

“Like hells, I’m tellin’ you bitch!”

“Is it the Church of Light?”

“You would want that!”

“He is a part of the church.”

“What were your intentions? To take control of the train?”

“Shut-up! Like we would have such nefarious plans!”

“They intended to take control of the train.”

“How would ten of you be a threat? Do you have people lying in wait on the way to Merluka?”

“Hah! That’s right! When they don’t hear from us, they will bomb this train! We could have done this civilly, but you chose this route!”

“Looks like he chose to abandon hiding their help. He lied about them bombing the train, though. He also lied about doing things civilly.”

“Thank you for the information.” Dite knocked the man out.

The people who were in the car watched in concern.

“Sorry, everyone. These are bad people who meant harm to all of us.” Ruby explained to the people.

Phaestus called for the King and his guards to arrest the men. While they waited for them to arrive, Phaestus used his Haven ability to take all their weapons and put them in particular shackles he received from Douglas. They suppressed a person’s ability to use magic and reduced their strength.

After a few minutes, the King and his guards came and secured the men.

“So, who are they?” The King asked.

“Agents of the Church of Light. People are lying in wait on the path to Merluka. We will check the remaining cars just to make sure. If I remember correctly, there is a cell in the rear employee car. I will let you know once we get to that point.” Phaestus, Dite, and Ruby headed through the remaining cars, finding no additional enemies. Once the men were secure in the small jail cell, they headed back to the private car.

Those who were in the Haven were brought back out. Dite and Phaestus brought them up to speed over a few minutes.

“I see. Then will we deal with the waiting people?” The Queen asked.

“It would be difficult, dear. We don’t know where the bastards are.” The King replied.

“Phaestus, could you create a spell to find them?” Athena asked, the Queen and others getting on board with her suggestion.

“I, uh, I don’t know. I guess I can try. Uh, how to word it….” Phaestus fell into thought.

How can I do this? I could cast a spell to know their distance, but I might get the timing wrong.

“Why not split the task?” A familiar voice suggested.

“That is true, I could… Oh, hello, Aphrodite.”

The goddess Aphrodite appeared directly next to him, a bit disappointed by his response.

“How boring. You usually get surprised by ******.” She whined.

Phaestus looked to White, who said it was the senior goddess.

“Oh, well, I kind of got used to that a while ago. I guess I might never know her name.” Phaestus said.

“Really? I would be happy to tell-.”

“Aphrodite.” The senior goddess appeared next to a now, very tense goddess of love.

The senior goddess had a very intimidating aura about her and a pleasant smile on her face.

“W-w-w-why so angry *****? I was just going to say that I would be happy to tell them if I got your permission first.” Aphrodite said, her eyes shifting back a forth suspiciously.

Oh, since senior goddess is here.

“By the way, Aphrodite, I wanted to ask about you causing all kinds of perverted situations to happen to me. They have become a bit too extreme. I nearly died this last time.” Phaestus said.

“Aphrodite?” The Senior Goddess inquired, closing in on a now sweating goddess.

“I’m a, I’m sorry. I will stop messing with you. But you know, Wanda does genuinely love you.” She said.

“Love or lust?” Phaestus asked, causing Aphrodite to go silent.

“Aphrodite, I think we need to pay a visit to Elder Oribaba. Everyone, it was good to see you again, but we must be on our way.”

“Wait! Noooooo!” The senior goddess and the goddess of love vanished.

“What is this about perverted situations?” The Queen asked teasingly. Phaestus waved her off.

“Now then. Display an illusion of a map of the world that I can control [Display Map].” A world map appeared before him.

Let’s see, zoom in on the path to Merluka. Display current location. Display enemies… It only shows the ones in the train's prison. Let’s try the next spell.

“Make known to me and mark my selected targets across a far distance [Long Range Search: Fanatics of the Church of Light].” Phaestus felt an immediate and taxing draw on his magic.

Whoa… That used a lot of magic. I will have to tweak the spell to control the range, maybe. Now, display enemies.

Several red dots appeared on the map, nearly two hours out from their current position.

“Oh, are those dots the fanatics?” Ruby asked, using Leros’ arm to point at the map illusion.

“Those are, but I need to check something first.” He zoomed out on the map, showing only a few dots in the kingdoms of Meerka, Merluka, and a few in Lenmos, which those few were in the Lenmos prison.

I guess Captain Duragin found the remaining fanatics. I should get her a souvenir, extra pay, or maybe a paid vacation? Eh, I’ll ask her about it later.

The entire map was not revealed. The areas of Goun and Dawn showed nothing.

“I wonder why it didn’t work for those areas.” Dite wondered.

“Hmm, it is only showing them in places where he has been. Either that or the range is limited.” Athena said.

“I don’t think so, big sis, it is showing a few dots in Obai too, and that is further away.” Ruby pointed out.

They all checked the map seeing she was right.

“Well, either way, we know their position now. At the current rate, we are going, we should be close-in in a couple of hours. I will head into the Haven to recover some of my magic in the meantime. I messed up the spell and ended up doing an uncontrolled scan of the whole world. It nearly emptied me of all my magic.”

The others agreed, and he headed inside his Haven along with Dite and White. The others wanted to enjoy the train ride and rest before the battle to come.

Eric took off his disguise and got into the hot spring. Micah joined him while Luna headed into the house to play some games. He summoned a magic potion made with his divine water and some new herbs growing in his greenhouse.

The potions Micah made with them were very potent magic high potions. Drinking a few of them was enough to recover all of his magic, but he had to be careful not to overdose. An overdose didn’t have terrible side effects beyond disorientation. If one continued, it would lead to worse results like overloading their blood vessels, causing them to rupture. Most people, though, stopped at disorientation.

Micah leaned up against him.

“Hmm? What’s wrong, Micah?” Eric asked.

“Does something have to be wrong?” She asked.

“Come on, I can tell. You feel tense.” He replied.

She shifted around and hugged him from the front, looking up at him.

“I’m worried. About Moona and my fellow demon-kin.” She said.

“I see. Well, I did have plans to travel there at some point. We can speak to Douglas about it, but you have to remember, we did promise them a vacation for him and his wife.”

She rested her head on his chest. “I know. But after, I hope that we can go there. I don’t know if I have family there. My grandmother escaped there so long ago. I hope that I might be able to meet her for the first time in my life.”

Eric patted her head lovingly. “Then I hope we do find her. I would love to meet her and thank her for such a wonderful granddaughter.”

“Hey! I can feel you two getting lovey-dovey in there! Bring me in there too so I can join!”

He heard Athena outside the Haven and laughed. Micah asked for a pen and paper, wrote a brief message, and had him send it outside.

“Oh, okay! I will stay out here!”

He asked her what she wrote, but she said it was a secret.

“How are you feeling now, Eric?” Micah asked.

“Hmm? Pretty well recovered now. I think one more potion should be enough.” He answered.

“Good. Down another, and let’s head to the bedroom.” She said with a sultry smile.

You don’t have to tell me twice!

He summoned another potion, drained it, and shifted them to the bedroom.