As the massive blast of pure destructive force washed over the entire mountainside, Monarkea wailed in fury and sorrow. There was no way that Lord Vaile, let alone the entire upper echelons of the Domain, would have been able to survive that blast, and that was as much of a blow to the Domain as it was to the Alliance and her own position.

As sorrow turned to blind, frenzied rage, she lost herself to her fury and charged forward. Her father, no, the mongrel beast that had done this would pay, and she would make him or whatever was pretending to be him and that had desecrated his memory so horrifically would know a pain and agony hitherto fore unseen and unknown to any being, living, dead, past, present, and future.

She screamed, and flew towards her father, fangs bared and claws reaching out to rip and tear.

…

In fact, she was so overwhelmed with her primal rage that, as the light that had blinded her and everyone else faded, she and many, many others failed to notice that the tragedy that they assumed to have happened in fact had not. After all, though he had never been one, Vaile knew of a group native to a certain place on Earth that had a certain motto that he had learned to take to heart.

That motto, ‘Be Prepared’, had proved to be an adequate warning, and an adequate course of action, and though he had certainly desired to not have taken this course of action, Vaile had caved and gone through with it. For, you see, while Monarkea had been arranging all the pieces in the Dragon’s Domain as she had seen fit before the Trial had begun, so too had Vaile arranged a few of his own pieces, not that he had much control over them.

In fact, you could actually say that he had taken a massive gamble much to the same level as someone rolling a 100-sided die to bargain for their life, with only a perfect natural 100 being enough to secure survival. Because he, as Monarkea and Vyviir had occupied themselves, had reached out to a few people, some he knew were very, very interested in securing him for themselves and themselves alone.

It was one hell of a gamble, contacting a number of high-level Tamed Beings, of which included the crazy rat ladies of the Rattan Under-Empire, Zahra of the Solusand Dominion, the fuck-all massive spider-god Arachnaerok, a few Abyssals, a few Celestials, and a number of others, all while giving them a definite place and time where he would, without a doubt, be. If he was certain of one thing, it was that the threat that the strongest among them posed to each other would be enough to dissuade the others from trying to nab him for themselves, and, to be honest, that certainty was about as solid in his mind as a skyscraper made of sand.

As stated, it was a gamble that could very easily result in a massive war or even the utter destruction of the world, but he expected that something nasty would happen during the Trial, because when exactly had those glitchy bastards ever taken defeat with grace and humility? It was better to be prepared, as the American Boy Scouts had often proposed, than it was to find oneself erased by some unforeseen event, and besides, he still had access to his emergency teleport if shit went sideways.

And so, as the light faded away and the remnants of the breath attack rocket off into the sky, the entire mountain range and the other things that should have been utterly obliterated due to the possessed Vyviir’s self-damaging attack were revealed to be perfectly fine, all covered in a massive barrier constructed by the collective wills of at least fifty End-Game Raid Boss Level Tamed Beings.

And, as you might imagine, all of them were pissed at the floundering possessed ancient dragon that was currently being bodied by his own daughter and successor.

“I’ll flay that dumb lizard alive!” screeched a very angry anthropomorphized rat woman with glowing green horns.

“Not if I fed him to my little pet.” Growled an undead sun goddess from a land of sand and oases.

“Ah, but we must consider whom will have the privilege of tormenting that traitor’s immortal soul, right?” purred a hellish seductress whose form was both alluring and yet also horrifying.

“I smell the wretched stench of that monster from my ascension.” Spat a powerful Arachne who had recently learned to manipulate her own size. “That traitor is also not a traitor. Or at least not willingly, anyway.”

“That he even let himself fall to such a state shows his failings.” Mocked a being armored in gold and platinum whose unarmored body looked to be made out of a galaxy. “No one from the High Heavens would ever let such a parasite find its way into them.” The Celestial then shot a hateful glare at an Abyssal to its side. “Which is more than I can say for some.”

“Oh, come now, you little up jumped nightlight.” Replied the Abyssal that the Celestial had tried to berate. “We both know that Lord Vaile doesn’t need to know of that just yet. It has yet to actually happen, you know, and we do both wish to avoid any time-y wime-y nonsense, correct?”

“Ironic then that he arrived at our realm five thousand centuries before he even arrived at that place.” Spoke a cloaked figure whose words were spoken not in a normal language but directly into the will of the recipients.

“I thought we all agreed that you Lovecraftian types would not gloat openly about that.” Added a lich made of a small mountain of bones that had compacted its form into that of a 6-foot tall humanoid.

“SHADDAP YA LOT!” roared a massive green wall of muscle and bone as it swatted at the others around her. “SHADDAP AN LEMME WAHCH DA FOIT!”

“Ugh, Lord Vaile…” grumbled a dwarf with skin made of darkened steel and hair made of molten iron. “I do hope that your next incarnation gives you some better language skills…”

“AH, FUKOVV!” roared the green giant. “AH SPEK FOIN!”

And as the myriad colorful characters chatter and bickered, a single Player sighed to himself and wondered if he should have just said ‘screw it’ and rolled the dice and teleported far, far away the moment he saw the first kobold in this land.