I spent the next few minutes after Esta's abrupt departure calming myself. My anger had spilled over to my puppets in the distance, causing them to tremble in place. I normally tried to keep my emotions hidden from my puppets, but my conversation with the shadowy Ascendant caused me to lapse in my control.

Shall we remedy our mistake, Master? Mr. Marion asked mentally as I gathered myself.

“What? What are you talking about?”

Master said that the suspicious Ascendant, Esta, should not have been spared back in Halros, Mr. Marion said. Give the word, Master, and I shall hunt her down personally for angering You so. My siblings will also be glad to help, I am sure.

“N-No, no, I didn't mean what I just said,” I stammered. Even I was surprised at my own words. I was just so angry that it spilled from my mouth without thought. I didn't even know why I had been so furious in the first place. Esta was just fulfilling her side of the obligation, and it wasn't her fault that the mercenary army that numbered ten thousand decided to camp so close to the kingdom's capital. Everything we had to deal with was outside both of our control and she wasn't to blame, yet my anger still flared unnaturally as I spoke with her.

Nilara's warning echoed in my mind. Your power changes you from within and without.

I shook my head to get her words out of my head. Truthful they may be, but it had nothing to do with me. I am still myself. I am still Brogen. Nothing will ever change.

My mind involuntarily brought up the memory of how I lost control of my urges back in Halros, but I forcefully purged it from my mind. That was a one-time thing brought about by my Awakening. Never again would it happen. I wouldn't allow it.

“Let's go, Mr. Marion. We have a mission to do,” I said as I assumed control of his body once more.

When we returned to the clearing, everyone was ready to depart. The Dayadra were scattered on one side while my forty puppets stood in neat formation on the other, carrying bulging rucksacks full of supplies. Manny stood in front of my puppets giving what I initially thought was a motivational speech to his siblings. When I went closer to listen, I realized he was threatening the puppets of demotion if they returned with failure. Since when did he establish a corporate ladder in my company, anyway?

“…And that is why you will not disappoint me, and especially the Master. Understood?” Manny asked the gathered puppets, his featureless face somehow exhibiting the aura of an asshole corporate boss. The forty puppets nodded in perfect synchronization.

“Thank you for that, uh, rousing speech, Manny,” I said. “I'm sure they're very motivated to succeed now.”

“They will not let you down, Master,” Manny with a bow, shooting a threatening glare at his underlings a moment later. I was impressed at his ability to express so much emotion without having a face. Or maybe I was only picking up on it because I created him?

“Are you finally ready to leave, human?” Elder Ennoren asked impatiently as she approached us.

“That's right. I have here the fastest route we can take to the kingdom's capital,” I said as I patted the folded map within my coat. The map was part of the intelligence report that Esta gave me, detailing a secret route that led to Edrana covertly. It was not patrolled to keep its secrecy at a maximum, which meant it was probably frequented by monsters. Fortunately, most monsters were wise enough not to attack a powerful warband like ours.

But Elder Ennoren snorted at my words as she spoke smugly. “I will not tread the animal trails you humans call roads. An entire generation of Dayadra would be born before we manage to reach our destination.”

My urges spiked in indignance at the Elder's words, but I forced them down to the back of my mind. “You have another route in mind, then?” I asked, keeping my annoyance out of my voice, which was starting to come easier to me the more I interact with the Elder.

Elder Ennoren grinned. “Yes. The Underfares.”

“The what? I've never heard of this Underwears before.”

“The Underfares,” Elder Ennoren hissed in annoyance. I heard it the first time, but I wasn't going to let an opportunity to annoy her pass. “An ancient network of spatial tunnels created by the ancient Daspeodor Empire. It allowed their citizens and armies to traverse thousands of miles in mere days.”

“How come this is the first time I'm hearing it?”

“Because you mortals are forgetful fools,” the Elder sneered. I bet she was preparing to say that the moment I asked for clarification. “After the Empire's fall during the Dark Ages, the Underfares were abandoned and, after hundreds of years, eventually forgotten. It is still operational, but only a handful of people know about it.”

“I guess if we mortals are forgetful fools, then people like you are selfish fools,” I chuckled derisively. “You knew about it all this time and you didn't bother to tell anyone?”

“We are not obliged to,” Elder Ennoren scoffed. “And the Matriarch has deemed it dangerous to reveal to mortals, and for good reason. If you humans learned of it, your leaders would scramble to use it for world domination again.”

As much as I hated the Elder, I had to agree with her on that one. “So where are these Underfares and how do they work?”

“The Underfares is a subdimension beneath this reality with access points scattered across the former Daspeodor Empire. One such access point is located beneath this very mountain,” the Elder said. “Once we enter the Underfares, we will find ourselves in a system of tunnels that lead to various places in the world. All we need to do is find the exit that leads to this kingdom's capital.”

“That sounds pretty convenient. So what's the catch?”

The Elder smiled. “The Underfares have been abandoned for centuries. Without proper maintenance, the subdimension is filled with spatial tears. They appear randomly and without warning, and whatever touches it will be sliced cleanly through.”

“You don't look too concerned about it. It's not a big issue, then?”

“It's a big issue for sure. But there's an even bigger one. From these spatial tears come creatures from the void. They've made the Underfares their home for centuries, and they do not take kindly to trespassers.”

“Of course there are monsters,” I muttered. “How strong are they?”

“There can be creatures as weak as a goblin or as powerful as the Matriarch,” the Elder shrugged. “The Archmages of old have outdone themselves. The Underfares is so large it can be a world of its own. And like our world, there are areas where ancient creatures of immense power reside. We just have to stay away from those.”

“That doesn't sound reassuring at all,” I sighed. “Still, if it means getting to our destination faster, then I think the risk is worth it. If we used the land route, I'd estimate our travel time to take at least a month.”

“If we do things right, using the Underfares should take us to our destination within a day,” Elder Ennoren said. She reached over her back and retrieved a small roll of parchment inscribed with several magic circles of Preservation. “The Matriarch has entrusted with me a map of the old Empire. Compare the old map with your new one, and see where our destination overlaps with the old map's. Be careful with it. Damage it and I will use your skin to make new parchment.”

“Sadly for you, I don't have skin anymore. I heard the wood from your Hometrees would make good paper, though,” I shot back absently as I accepted the old map.

The Elder recoiled at my words and shot me the bloodiest glare I've ever seen from her. “You will not make fun of that topic again. You are ignorant of the past and so shall I forgive you once. But talk of our Hometrees being used for parchment again and I will kill you even if the Matriarch punishes me for it.”

I was taken aback by the Elder's fury. I did not expect my half-assed retort to have such an impact… unless it had some semblance of truth behind it. Their Hometrees used to be hunted for parchment, huh?

I filed away that knowledge for later use. Maybe I could use it against the Elder in some way in case they become my enemy in the future.

“You have the gall to threaten me and you become indignant when I threaten you back?” I scoffed.

“Then I will avoid making such unnecessary insults from now on,” the Elder replied seriously. Thankfully, she chose to be the more mature one out of the two of us, because I knew I wouldn't.

I brought out the map I got from Esta and compared it side by side with the map of the old Empire that used to own the Underfares. Judging from the torn edges of the old map, it was probably just a portion of a far bigger one that showed the entire continent. The one the Elder gave me showed only the region where the current Kingdom of Edria was.

“I'm assuming these waypoints are the access points to the Underfares?” I asked as I traced my finger along the red markings on the map.

“Obviously,” the Elder affirmed.

There were a total of five access points in Edria, one of which was located extremely close to us. Then I realized that its proximity didn't mean automatically mean it'd be easy to reach. If this old map was to scale, then the access point was dead center on the mountain we were on. But without any labels indicating the access point's elevation, it could either be on the peak of the mountain or deep beneath hundreds of meters of soil and rock.

After voicing my concerns to Ennoren, the Elder hummed in thought. “The access point is certain to be located deep beneath the ground. The Underfares was one of the most important strategic assets of the old Empire, and the arrogant Imperials loved hiding their assets beneath hundreds of layers of dirt and rock.”

“Sounds reasonable. The question is: how the heck are we going to reach the access point if it's underground? You don't happen to know where the entrance is, do you? Because I'm not a fan of digging around under the mountain until we find it by sheer luck.”

The Elder shrugged. “We know not of the entrance's location. But we know several spots where the entrance is likely to be.”

“That's better than having to dig randomly, I guess. So, where do you think it is?”

“The Underfares' access points leak large quantities of mana into its surroundings. Where mana gathers, strong monsters also gather. We just have to look for the strongest monster in the mountain and hope that it made its lair by the entrance. The most likely candidate is the forest wyrm that resides in the north face of the mountain.”

“Do you happen to know what rank that monster is?”

The Elder gave me a look of utter disdain. “Your people's tendency to classify everything you deem as threats into ranks is ridiculous. Does knowing a monster's rank matter if you'll end up in its gullet all the same? But I digress. Based on the old Empire's standards, the forest wyrm should at least be a B-rank, though keep in mind that the old Empire's former military might was leagues stronger than the best that the present world probably has.”

“You mean the wyrm is B-rank based on the old Empire but is probably ranked higher nowadays?”

“Exactly.”

Then that meant the forest wyrm was probably at least an A-rank. To be honest, I had no idea how I would fare against a monster at that rank. The strongest monsters I've ever fought were the grisly bear whose cave I took for my own, and the forest troll that attacked Wildpost long ago. Both instances took a lot of effort to kill them, and they were only at C-rank. Even if I had grown far stronger since then, I wasn't confident that I could take it on alone.

Fortunately, Elder Ennoren was there to tip the scales heavily in our favor. As much as I hated her guts if she even had any, she was the most powerful Sentinel I'd seen during the Sanctuary's defense against the Spring Wave. Powerful enough that I was confident she can also be classified as an A-rank threat, though I wasn't exactly sure what the criteria were for each threat level.

With nothing else to delay us, we finally departed from the clearing. Our final lineup consisted of me and Mr. Marion, Spider, Elder Ennoren and her fifty Sentinels, and the forty puppets I brought with me to carry supplies.

Taloress had been quite unhappy when I told her she'd be staying home, and as much as I'd also like to bring her for more firepower, I had plans in place once I arrived at the capital. Those plans required subtlety, and Taloress was the farthest thing from it.

That was why I brought Spider instead. Unlike Taloress, I never brought my resident monstrosity into cities anyway. Staying outside the city should be fine for him. If I left Taloress alone in the woods outside, I'd only be returning to a sulking puppet.

And besides, Spider never had the opportunity to venture outside the Wild Woods yet. His debut had been put off long enough.

●●●

“By the way, did you guys leave your Hometrees at the Sanctuary?” I asked Ennoren as we slowly marched our way to the forest wyrm's den.

“Our Hometrees move slowly, so we already sent them near the wyrm's den ahead of time,” the Elder replied.

“Then how are we going to venture through the threat-filled Underfares if your Hometrees move so slow?”

“They're not going inside the Underfares. They'll only be staying in the entrance of the Underfares.”

“I thought you can't stray far from your Hometrees or you'll die?” I asked. “I'm not asking out of concern, though. If you suddenly dropped dead when we arrive in the capital, I'm not complaining.”

Ennoren rolled her eyes at me. “We don't instantly drop dead if we are separated from our Hometrees. There is a time gap before we start weakening from our separation. That is why we must finish all business in the capital within three days. If the mercenary army still stands after three days, then you'll be on your own, human. I'm bringing my Sentinels back home by then, no matter what.”

“I would've appreciated it if you told me that sooner,” I said blandly. “Well, it's not like it heavily affects things. The fight to eradicate the mercenary army should take less than a day since we only have one shot at it. If we fail the first time, then there's no point in going for a second try. By then, they'd probably be reinforced by Edrian reinforcements from the capital.”

“You still haven't told me how you plan to eliminate the entire army,” Ennoren said.

“You never asked, and you said that you'd never follow my orders, didn't you? Clueing you in to the plan would serve no purpose. All I need from you is to point your claws in the enemy's direction, anyway.”

Ennoren grumbled. “I am not so immature. If I find your plan having merit, I am not beneath considering your suggestions.”

Ignoring the sheer arrogance of her words, the last thing I expected from the Elder was to be reasonable. “Care to share the reason for your change of heart?”

“I do not do this for you, human. I do this for my Sentinels. There is no point in putting their lives in more danger if cooperating with you means fewer risks.”

“Fair enough, I'd do the same for my puppets,” I shrugged. “My plan is pretty simple. I will infiltrate the capital and create a distraction that would force the city to keep its soldiers within its walls so that when we attack the mercenary army in earnest, our enemy won't have reinforcements to lean on.”

“I didn't know you were a saboteur-type of combatant,” Ennoren sniffed. “But then again, your kind was always good at being shifty little curs.”

“That's what my Authority is good at, after all,” I said without shame. Admittedly, I seldom used this aspect of my power and usually employed a more direct method of attack. Nowadays, however, I was starting to see the appeal of utilizing the art of subterfuge to battle my enemies. The primary reason was that my enemies this time were too powerful to fight head-on, but the secondary reason was that moving behind the scenes also gave me a sense of weird satisfaction. As much as I loathed the time I lost control back in Halros, everything I did back then felt so good. I didn't know what being high from drugs felt like, but I'd wager it was the same feeling.

“So what's the story behind the Empire that made the Underfares?” I asked as we neared the north face of the mountain. There was a deep gorge running up the mountainside that looked like a wound on the earth.

“If every human is as ignorant as you about history, no wonder you buffoons keep on making the same mistakes century after century,” Ennoren scoffed. “The Daspeodor Empire was the most powerful civilization in all known history, its territory encompassing two entire continents. Their greed and ambition pushed them to reach unseen heights in magic, allowing them to discover the secrets of immortality and dimensional travel. The former made their Archmages nigh-unstoppable, and the latter brought about their fall.”

“Dimensional travel?” I asked with extreme interest. If the old Empire knew about dimensional travel, then that might explain the reasons behind how I was reincarnated in this world. “How did dimensional travel cause their fall?”

“The Imperials, arrogant bastards that they were, couldn't conquer the entire world because of the difficulties of intercontinental warfare. Even the might of their magic couldn't hold a candle against nature as the oceans swallowed their fleets whole. So they developed a way to open portals to the other continents to skip past the issue of crossing the oceans. But that presented its own problems, because opening large portals took them weeks to open, and it wasn't subtle. By the time the portal opened, armies from the other continents would already be ready and waiting to blast their forces into oblivion. So instead of conquering the rest of the world, they decided to conquer another world. A world that knew nothing of the Empire's might and would be unprepared for their invasion.”

“Wow, calling them ambitious is a bit of an understatement,” I muttered as the story seemed to tingle a faint memory in my mind. I think I already heard this story.

“And just as their ambition had allowed them to reach the peak of their power, it also caused their fall as well as almost ending all life on Thera, because the portal they opened led to the world of the Eldritch.”

“Hold on, I know this story!” I exclaimed as I finally remembered. Liz told me about it right after a pack of dire wolves attacked Erfeld. My cheer died down a bit when a strong sense of longing for my friends came to the forefront of my mind.

“I'd be even more surprised if you didn't,” Ennoren said. “We're talking about the threat that almost ended the world. Even for your short-lived kind, twelve centuries is too soon to forget about the monsters that brought Thera to its knees.”

“You know, I never did get to know what an Eldritch is. I mean, what does it even look like?”

“Enough chatter, we're here,” the Elder cut off, though I could tell from her expression that she didn't want to answer my question.

Our already-sizeable group grew even larger as we joined the large gathering of Hometrees and the Sentinels stationed to guard them. They had been waiting for our arrival by the gorge's entrance. One of them approached us, her eyes briefly scanning me and the troop of puppets shambling along behind me.

“Elder,” the Sentinel greeted respectfully. “We have confirmed that the forest wyrm is within the cavern at the end of the gorge. It has not moved for the past hour, which means it is likely to be asleep.”

“Good,” Ennoren said as green veins of mana snaked through the bark that served as her skin. “This should make things easier for us.”

Cracking noises emanated from the Elder's body as her already-huge body grew even larger. Thick plates of wood covered her body like armor with menacing spikes jutting out of several spots. Her head was similarly encased in a helmet of thick wood that completely covered her face, with two curved spikes growing out of her temples. When the Elder finally stopped growing, what stood before me was a heavily-armored, bloodthirsty, and probably sadistic five-meter-tall Sentinel.

“Like what you see?” the Elder asked smugly.

“I'll admit, you look intimidating as hell. The spikes kind of ruin it a bit though. What's the point of even adding spikes to armor?”

“The points are coated with a potent poison. They are not pointless,” the Elder said, a tad bit defensively. She probably liked how the spikes looked on her.

“Yeah, sure. Anyway, what's our plan of attack for killing the wyrm?” I asked as I looked at the rest of the Sentinels. There were quite a lot of us, and with the Sentinels' strength and my puppets' survivability, I was confident in our chances of success.

“I will battle the wyrm in close-range, you provide support,” the Elder said as she started walking to the entrance of the gorge.

“What about the Sentinels and the puppets? What are they supposed to do?” I asked as I started following behind her.

“They're not joining,” Ennoren replied without looking back. “They'll only get in the way. The wyrm will chew through my Sentinels like paper, and it could just set your puppets on fire with its breath.”

“It can breathe fire?” I asked as I felt a pit open in my stomach.

“Of course it can. It's a wyrm,” Ennoren said like I was an idiot, which I probably was at the moment. I should have spent some time in the past studying which monsters could breathe fire given that fore was my damn weakness.

“Are you coming or not? I won't blame you if you back out like a coward,” the Elder called out as she entered the gorge.

“Fine, fine, I'm coming,” I grumbled as I ordered my puppets to stay. With the wyrm having the capability to breathe fire, letting them join was out of the question. Mr. Marion was obviously an exception since I was riding inside him, so I'll have to be extra careful that not even a single ember reaches him.

I'll have to make it up to Spider next time, though, because he looked like a kicked puppy as I left him behind.

●●●

The gorge was just wide enough to allow Ennoren's large frame to pass through unimpeded, though the spikes on her armor did snag on the rock walls a few times. Every time, Ennoren would look back to glare at me, challenging me to speak out about the spikes' practicality. It was very tempting, but I didn't want to get on Ennoren's bad side even further right before we went to battle against an A-rank monster.

The deeper we went into the gorge, the more the ground sloped downward. What little light managed to trickle in from above barely reached this deep beneath the earth, so that when we finally reached the mouth of the wyrm's cave, the only illumination I had came from the glowing green veins on Ennoren's body.

“Can you sense the wyrm within?” Ennoren asked quietly as she peered into the dark cave.

“No. I can't even see shit,” I replied. The only fibers I could feel inside the cave with my fabric sense came from a few scraps of cloth and debris from leaves. As for anything that belonged to the wyrm, there was nothing. It was a bit disturbing, given that I was always used to detecting most living things by their hair. But given that the wyrm was probably reptilian, it would have no hair or fur for me to sense with. Without light to see or fibers to sense, I'd be going in blind. The odds were not in my favor.

“You can use Life magic, can't you? Don't you know how to use a simple life detection spell?”

“Firstly, I did not think of that. Secondly, how the hell did you know I was a Life mage? I'm pretty sure I never revealed that to you.”

Even without light, I could almost see Ennoren's smile as she replied. “We have our ways of getting information.”

“That loud-mouthed Disserla probably just told you,” I muttered as I tried to make up a Life spell on the fly. If Mother Betha could see me now, she'd be whacking me on the head so hard, and I wouldn't even complain. One simply didn't try to improvise a spell in the middle of things. That was the easiest way to suffer from a magic backlash if the spell failed.

Unfortunately for me, I had no choice in the matter. It was either risk a backlash or fight an A-rank monster blind. Both sounded awful, but at least the former had higher chances of survival.

I conjured a magic circle and started incorporating the necessary runes I thought I'd need to let me see vitality. Most would normally think that having a spell that allowed one to see vitality was a must-have for Life mages like me. But the thing was, it required casting a spell directly on one's eye, and if a healer didn't have the ability to regenerate organs, they wouldn't be stupid enough to practice the spell on themselves. A backlash could easily cause them to lose that eyeball.

Now, I'm not stupid, alright? It's just that desperate times call for desperate measures.

The magic circle slowly coalesced as I added the runes. Casting magic was just like writing a computer program. The runes I incorporated into the magic circle would be the ‘codes,’ and they had to interact with each other such that they'll be able to conjure the effect that I wanted. A single bug in the code meant a backlash would occur, and the severity depended on what type of bug occurred.

I finished the spell a moment later, and after checking it over a few times to make sure there were no ‘bugs’, I moved the magic circle inside my left eye. It was for this reason that I couldn't make the magic circle out of thread to remove the risk of backlash. I couldn't exactly put the threads in my eye, could I?

“Here goes nothing, I guess,” I murmured as I finally activated the spell.

“If it's safe, cast it on me too. I also can't see shit,” Ennoren said.

Before I could muster a reply, a sharp stabbing pain bloomed in my left eye. I felt my insides freeze in fear as I expected the spell to have backlashed and blinded my left eye, but that didn't seem to be the case. As proof that my spell had been successful, if a little bit wonky, I could now see a huge mass of glowing vitality inside the cave.

More specifically, it was at the mouth of the cave, right in front of us. The damn wyrm had woken up and was about to eat Ennoren.