About eight years ago, a group of adventurers came to the rescue of a sizable village in dire need of aid. And through the case, the group of five ended up at six.

The village itself stood near a forest, more importantly placed by a river in the closest position safe for a logging camp. But in time, the forest’s importance as a lumber source decreased, while the adequate source of water and food drew in more individuals. In time, this became known to the beasts of the forest, and the steel tiers agreed on a border where intelligent beasts would never step beyond. In exchange, the humans stayed outside.

These rules worked rather well around the continent, and in fact, throughout all eight worlds. The only time humans broke them were in cases of surging populations which even the beasts failed to cull, besides, sometimes, the two sides just wanted to kill one another.

Why? Just because they could. Violence cropped up every now and then for rather small-minded reasons, but obviously, the cases remained, even if rare.

But what made this so different was the consistency. A dozen or so men, and even a couple women, died whilst in the forest for whatever reasons, clearly within the safely demarcated areas. At first, they thought it a troublesome wild bronze tier, but some local hunters who entered soon returned… Or rather, a measly two of the original seven returned. Ambushed by several bronze tiers, all intelligent, the villagers feared for their lives in case a large-scale assault came up.

They prepared a letter and almost sent it to a nearby town, effectively begging for some soldiers to repel this threat. But it turned out for naught as a group of five, coincidentally there at the time, offered to deal with it.

Such cases happened throughout the world; the right people in the right place at the right time.

The beasts all fell, and eventually, they killed a few steel tier beasts who appeared to have instigated the attacks. The king of the forest discovered them from that series of battles, but left them alone when truth came to light. From there, the village returned to a peaceful situation, but the five adventurers happened to meet a person who lost family to the beasts.

A young lady, barely nineteen. Her younger sister, elder brother, and father all died. Left over was her mother and a younger brother, but he already left the household to train as a warrior in a city. Ordinarily, nothing to worry about, but two nights ago, she returned to an empty home with some possessions missing. And in their stead, a carefully written note from her mother, one filled to the brim with excuses about her escape. Never before had the spritely girl felt so lost and alone.

So, she chose to find the group that avenged her father and brother, two hunters who died in that ambush. As for her sister… She just went into the forest to secretly meet with a boy. The two were mauled to death as they simply walked about in their puppy-like love. A pair of fourteen-year-olds dead in a snap.

“Look, Annabelle. I understand the loss and grief you feel, but we can’t take an unevolved child with us. Leaving aside the danger, your stamina can’t even keep up when we travel.” She met with firm rejection from the group’s leader, a terse yet well-mannered behemoth of a man. The words inspired an unopposed confidence, strange since such his body did it just as well, if not better.

Of course, she knew from his eyes that he couldn’t possibly understand the pain she felt. The endless fog which descended and clouded all directions, her nightmares where her sister cried out about her death. Where they begged it should have been Annabelle who died, not the younger sister with so much more to live for. Of what remained, her mother couldn’t bear to stay and ran away, and a younger brother trained for years to one day protect what he cared for. And that left the poor girl all alone. In a matter of days, the world crumbled and fell to ruin. She barely ate or left the house. This was the only option available… Perhaps the last on her path.

So, she revealed everything to them. The only people she still felt a link to and could stomach the sight of. Whenever even the kindest face from her friends appeared, the memories flooded back in, and she considered drawing the dagger once more.

She unveiled the little sprite which danced to her wills, a power that she once saw as a great opportunity undercut as it possessed no strength. A power she suppressed and hid away, but right now could only beg that it amounted to something. And with her reveal of that hidden side, the group’s wizard took centre stage. They charmed and intimidated her with beauty and confidence she aspired to one day reach, but simply listened with childishly hopeful eyes.

She became a part of the team, her unbelievable worth was discovered by them. And for a moment, it all felt like a lie. The way they honestly explained her powers, and just how valuable and rare her existence was…

And they said she could stay with them or simply travel until someone more powerful hired her at a fair price. Their kindness appeared boundless, but reality crashed those pastel dreams. They made it clear that this truth came from expectations. If they lied and she discovered the truth, who’s to say no resentment formed?

They certainly were kind, but more than that, they knew to stay realistic. They hid it well, but at least the wizard looked at her in a greedy fashion. To obtain the young lady with a contract, many dreamed of such an occasion.

“Welcome to the group then! Glad you chose to stay with us, but don’t think it’ll be that easy because of our strength.” She made her choice, and they immediately welcomed her in. But already their leader confused her.

“It won’t be easy?” She replied and cutely frowned.

But the muscular leader didn’t get an answer as the archer to the side butted in and answered for him, “Of course, you’re far too weak and squishy. And your spirits have next to no growth.” His sentence ended and she waited for the next, but for some reason, he just went back to fidgeting and it left her at a complete loss. Three of the other members all massaged their heads at this, with the exception of the bald, kindly priest, who just smiled humorously.

The wizard mumbled something under her breath, but she only heard the final word, ‘asshole’. A few breaths replaced it with a calmer demeanour, which gave off a deeper intelligence, and answered, “We’ll be making you train to catch up to us. So we do hope you don’t give up.”

Her playful smile somehow felt more like an evil smirk… And while Annabelle’s bones and muscles feared their future, she felt as though a huge weight lifted off her shoulders with the others here.

Korridan, Mala, Jaren, Darak, and the former youngest, Rebecca. Five names she engraved in her heart.

* * *

In the considerable white palace, a large set of double doors opened up to an almost unnecessarily tall room. The floor here used a similar white, marbled stone, and the various walls appeared blank of decorations beyond some simple patterns.

Only the ceiling, several times higher than the corridor outside, deserved some interest in design.

However, in the room’s centre stood a stone pedestal with a large, spherical red gemstone embedded into the top. From this object, one saw arrays projected into the air above in the form of a hundred or so layers, all neatly stacked. For those who understood the basics, they’d immediately realise that all the layers actually formed just a single array, but as knowledge increased then so did the amazing properties of such a sight.

At the base, a small dragon carefully stared up and observed the various layers. Parts morphed and tweaked as he wished, and sometimes entire layers vanished or reappeared. For some weeks now, he tried to get this array to work, but the blasted thing always failed at a number of places.

Fortunately, the pedestal allowed for these simulations, because his calculations showed that the cheapest cost of materials ran up a bill of around 1.2 million crowns… Although, in reality, this amount of money couldn’t buy certain things on the list. Meanwhile, a stabler alloy with adequate efficiency required so much wealth that it simply wasn’t feasible to estimate with mere things like currency.

This coinage existed for countries to trade and contain functional economies, not for the beings who wanted to build such arrays.

“You’re not meant to be in here!!! Icry, come onnnn… Even if you don’t care about Pondralle, you should still listen to your fiance,” a mock-angry girl’s voice came from the doorway. While he heard the young woman’s complaints, followed by a weak attempt at emotional blackmail, everything left him completely unaffected as he studied the array above some more.

The young woman, or at least someone on the cusp of adulthood, possessed silver hair which actually reflected light quite well, much to the annoyance of any nearby. It only rode down to her back, and beside that trait just wore a pointless corset and tight, frilly dress. A pair of black opera gloves covered most of her slim arms, and aside from a thin necklace, nothing particularly stood out about her appearance. She looked like any other pale, noble girl, perhaps with exception of her irises which switched between light-blue and grey every so often.

More importantly, one would think that since she watched over three months of a young child’s success at emotional blackmail, she’d have learnt something… But not in the slightest.

Icy didn’t bother to look at her. He desired a perfect Origin Force array which slaughtered Great sages.

Unfortunately, a mithril tier dragon wasn’t qualified to complete such a thing. Even if he completed the third growth phase, and two folded wings hung by his sides, the level of power meant nothing to him.

“Don’t ignore me!!” She tried to throw a tantrum, but it only furthered that inane immaturity he saw of her. Even after so many months, he failed to understand how she was twice his age, but at least the nuisance tapered off soon after. Her far more normal voice asked, “Why are you stuck in here as well? This is the third time this week. Aren’t you normally in the lab room? And what even is this array? I see seven– No, eight Bases? I think like 15 dedicated Trigger arrays… And what even are the rest?”

Icy gave a small gaze towards her at that comment. The last two times she just gawked at the stacks of arrays without any understanding, but he appreciated that she bothered to put in some time and learnt the basics. Though, such things lost their worth in front of this array.

“Twelve Bases, Eighteen Triggers, Seven Subsystems, Fifty-seven Effects, Five Focusers, and Nine Boosters. And it’s all a pile of shit.” Icy huffed at the 108 layer array, but continued his work on it, continually pulled back into his memories as he tried to grasp why he failed in so many regards.

“It all looks great though? Anyway, they all want to know if you’ll be joining for dinner, even if they’ve bet against it…” She grew faint towards the end, but every word still sounded clear to Icy, not that it mattered. If this meal mattered, then one of them would’ve come personally.

“Sure, let’s go then. And another thing,” he replied without any emotion, simply in the mood to mess with all their bets.

The layers of arrays dispersed to fragments of light and the red gemstone below paled in its deactivation. This ended as a light-pink and he walked towards the girl, her eyes opened wide from surprise at first, but regained some modicum of control as he approached.

She turned towards the small dragon who walked beside, and he finished his statement.

“Do not call yourself my fiance. You are betrothed,” Vitriol formed on his face as he spoke down to her. For the past three months, she followed him about, and in all that time, the only change between them was that the annoyance he felt by her presence morphed into true disgust.

The smile on her face dropped, and still, she failed to understand just what she did wrong.

If he hated the marriage so much, then surely his anger ought to sit with the clan who pushed it through? Dragons very rarely cared for such ceremonies too, considered contrived and farcical events that never mattered. The few who voluntarily went through with such things more often did so out of deeply intimate shared goals, nothing related to love. So, even as a betrothment forced by their species…

Why did he direct that hatred to her?