Wotan opened the door for the Minister of the Interior. Glass of wine in hand, he genuflected before his triumphant lord. The glass was quickly snatched out of his hand as Lord Pentecost made his way to the desk. He perused the desk looking for a quill to begin drafting the report of his initial assessment of the champion.

“I trust everything went well, my lord?” Wotan asked.

“He is an arrogant little shit. Your research was wrong. The champion is not only a level fifteen monk like we thought. He’s now a level seventeen Nian of Five Hells. Whatever that means. Also he’s not human. Some kind of reptile hybrid. I think he may blooded. Not sure how that happened on the mortal plane.” Lord Pentecost explained.

“Blooded, sir?” Wotan asked knowing full well what it meant. He has found over the years that fanning the minister’s sense of superiority gets him to loosen his lips.

“Right, blooded refers to pure bloods of extremely rare races. They are often hunted and butchered for their unique magical components. Couldn’t tell exactly what creature it’s from but if they’re more of them in out kingdom we need to stamp them out.” Spoke Pentecost while he furiously wrote on a piece of paper.

“It wasn’t obvious?” Asked Wotan.

“Just some hard ridges where his eyebrows should be. No other tell tale signs. I didn’t have time to do a full reading on him since the damn dirty dwarves showed up again. I swear as long as I live, I’ll never understand their kind. They want the champion for their sham Stone Council. Must have something to do with their accursed tainted brethren down in those awful monster infested tunnels. If I could choose, they could have this troublemaker and the lot of them be damned.” Continued Lord Pentecost.

“Understandable. So are we ready to go?” Wotan asked.

“No we need to meet with dwarven delegation on terms for the champion. Then we are leaving immediately after that. We also need to inform the capitol that there is a new extreme level dungeon forming over the location we have cordoned off. This region is about to experience a huge influx of monsters and levels greater than thirty. Iron Mountain Plateau will become the newest hot spot for lunatic adventurers looking to ascend to the Earthbound Realm. The locals aren’t strong enough to manage the trouble that comes with that, we’ll need to reinforce this region even more.” Said Lord Pentecost as he finished off his message and gestured for Wotan to refill his glass.

Deacon finished giving Typhus the tour of the relatively small space within the dungeon cube. Alfred has been missing for some time after receiving the shard of divinity. Suddenly the beach that can be seen outside the windows lurched forward and pier began to build itself. Some tents popped up along the pier and what looked like a Ferris wheel materialized at the end.

“I hope you don’t master Deacon, but I drew on some of your memories from home. This one seemed happy, and I thought you might like to have it added to the landscape.” Came Alfred’s voice from behind him.

‘Thank you, Alfred. It was a good memory. Although I don’t remember so many sand guardians making their way up and down the pier. All in all it was nice of you to do it. How is the shard working out?” Deacon asked.

“Wonderfully, sir. I’m operating at peak efficiency. We can begin making more expansive changes whenever you are ready. Research time has not been affected though. I still don’t know how to replicate that powder you gave me.” Alfred said.

“Not a problem. You are confident in the sand though?” Asked Deacon.

“Yes sir.” Alfred responded.

“Ok I need to make a stop on our way to the keep then.” Deacon said grinning ear to ear.

“Are ya done yet? We really need to get things moving. It’s going to take several days to either get to the capitol or the Shattered Sky. They are of course in two different directions as well.” Typhus said. Just then Deacon received a new notification from his slate.

New Message from your patron: Don’t leave a safe area without talking to me. These are much cheaper now that we have more followers. - Chimera

“Nope. Gotta meditate. Just give me a few minutes to relax. Alfred, can you make Typhus comfortable while he waits?” Deacon asked.

“Of course, sir.” Alfred says leading Typhus back down the stairs to the common area.

Deacon went to his bedroom to get comfortable. It was very long after that he fell into a deep trance focused on his breathing. His consciousness spread out around him as the galaxy of his mind revealed its interpretation of the halo’s he has collected. The green bridge reached out into his expanse past the celestial bodies that represent his power. Only now there seems to be crystalline bridges that lead between them. Through the transparent crystal he can see energy from one source transferring to another. All with a hint of green along the outer edges.

“That is a visible representation of your soul matrix. I’m surprised it’s so clean.” Came the voice of Chimera from an enormous grin plastered across the cosmos of his mind.

“Too large! Must make smaller.” Deacon said reeling back.

“Oh don’t be such a baby. We didn’t know if you’d make it out of that Wode. They aren’t meant to be escaped. At least not by the being powering them. Good job.” Cheshire praised.

“Don’t give me that. That demi-god was way too strong! If I didn’t risk using Strike of the Phantasm Knight, would we even have survived?” Deacon asked scowling.

“Oh the chances of you getting out of there were in single digits. What you should be asking is, why didn’t you tear your body apart using that broken skill?” Cheshire asked back.

“I wondered about that actually. Everything’s been moving so fast I didn’t have time to worry.” Deacon answered back.

“It’s because of your new body. It’s a body that doesn’t belong on the mortal plane, just like it allows you to power your abilities from so many different hell planes, it enables you to endure the use of that skill.” Cheshire explains.

“Great, it still only works on stationary targets. Not like I can train it up.” Deacon pouted.

“I guess you’ll have to tailor your fighting style around preventing things from moving.” Cheshire replied. Deacon thought the God of chaos was grinning a little too hard at that last comment.

“So I met a guy who has psychic abilities. Anything you can tell me about dealing with that? He had me pinned to a wall and there wasn’t anything I could do.” Deacon asked.

“There are many things in this world you aren’t equipped to manage. Psychics are not one of them. That is only tier two arcanum. Your base abilities already exceed that. Think harder.” Chimera said.

“So what did you want to talk to me about?” Deacon asked.

“You need to move faster. There are things happening you aren’t strong enough to face yet. Stop nursing your wounds, use the unlocked subclasses, and get yourself to either of your next destinations. Also you need to avoid my brother Mantarok. He’s taking a liking to you that I believe is unhealthy for everyone.” Chimera said looking left to right. It was weird because from Deacon’s perspective the grin just tilted one way and then the other.

“Which one is that? I really don’t know enough about this worlds pantheon.” Deacon said.

“Mantarok, God of the Forge and War.” Cheshire said plainly.

“Oh good. Can I go now?” Deacon asked.

“Ungrateful little, of course you can. Have fun. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Cheshire said before spinning incredibly fast in place and winking out of existence.

Deacon sat up in his bed holding the side of his head. More cryptic warnings and more godly siblings is not what he needed. He needed to solve the glass vials problem, get to both the Crystal Cascade and the Shattered Sky, collect on his quest to increase the guilds finances, and training. None of what he was doing was helping him with his training. Constantly be thrown into one insane situation after the next was just grating on him. Deacons spent some time just imagining what he could learn from Old Pai. He knows Old Pai possesses a unique combat style that would fit just perfectly with his new claws. Thinking of the claws brought his thoughts back to Zageracks. He’s been quiet since the upgrade. The last thing he said to him was to focus on the breathing technique. Standing up from his seated position he decided to work on the technique while he traveled. Assuming the Minister of the Interior would be traveling in his carriage with his retinue of knights, that would severely cut down on the chances of fighting.

Deacon walked out of his door to see everyone already gathered in the main room discussing something. As he made it to the first-floor landing of the oak paneled room he could hear the voices rising in volume.

“That is precisely why you should slow down. You don’t even know where she is.” Ralph said gesturing with his hands to the door.

“When he finds her, I will be ready.” Amanda said defiantly.

“It’s only twenty percent resistance. You could really hurt yourself.” Tantus argued.

“I know what I’m doing.” Amanda shot back.

“Ok, what in the ten hells is going on here?” Deacon asked as he interposed himself between Amanda and the others.

“Looks like the young lady overdosed on some of her poisons. The mage had to heal her with a spell to wake her up.” Typhus answered.

“Deacon, are we or are we not about to go on a long trip?” Amanda asked.

“Well, I have to go, and you all are welcome to come.” Deacon answered with a puzzled look on his face.

“There you have it. You all know traveling with him leaves little time for preparation. If I don’t do this now, the abilities I just earned wont’ be available when we need them.” Amanda said.

“If you’re all done playing house, we really need to get going.” Typhus said not caring for the current interplay between the party members. All four stared daggers at him. Even Alfred appeared behind Amanda, leaned out and mimicked everyone else’s facial expression.