The duo had arrived at what Almira called an endless amount of thralls. What was there didn’t appear to be an army. What Kyrion saw consisted of a bunch of old(young) women in very little clothing posing and indulging in acts of narcissism. Kyrrion already had a narcissist in his life. He didn’t need a conspiracy of them.

“Why do I have the urge to backhand you Kyrion?” Almira felt the back of her right-hand itch.

“There are a bunch of old women in there. How does that constitute an endless army of thralls?”

“Kyrion, the oldest of these women appears to be twenty five. That isn’t old.”

Kyrion stopped himself from saying it was. While it was older than him, Kyrion had to realize that he was also old. Although he didn’t expect twenty-five-year-olds to be wrinkly and saggy in weird places. Was it truly downhill from here? “Twenty-five hundred, maybe. That lady over there is knitting a scarf.”

Kyrion pointed to an elderly woman who wasn’t in a swimsuit and looked the part while wearing a white sundress. Her expression was wistful as she continued to knit.

“Kyrion, that woman looks about no older than twenty. What's wrong with your eyes?”

Kyrion decided to ignore her before a pang stabbed into his heart.

“Alexander? What are you doing here? This is the afterlife.”

“That name sounds familiar.” Kyrion muttered.

“That's your grandfather's name dunce.” Al’caris spoke through Kyrion’s eye.

“I met the guy once, and we were together for maybe a month of time. I did meet an impersonator though.”

“Alexander! Don’t tell me you forgot me?”

“Old people, I swear.” Kyrion was smacked lightly on the back of his head.

“She may have information. Go talk to her.”Almira said through her teeth.

“I swear, you're almost as pushy as my mom used to get when I had to take my medicine. Also, she has tentacles for fingers. This is some kind of trick.” Kyrion rubbed the area as he approached the old woman.

“Alexander. I’m sorry. I sent the kids with one of my aids. Did she find you?”

“Kids? I don’t have any kids.” Kyrion said with stupidity.

“Don’t say that. Alecordon, you must have met him, he’s your son.”

“That name sounds somewhat familiar but I don’t know where I’ve seen it.”

“Seen it? You can’t see sounds. Are you sure you aren’t going senile in your ripe age.” Almira added.

“Maybe I heard it. Not too sure actually.” Kyrion sighed.

“What about Cordelia? Did you at least save her?”

“Oh…You’re talking about my mother and Uncle. Alecordon is a lame name, although Demon Lord Alecordon does fall off the tongue so if that was the goal kudos.”

“Huh?”

“How many years do you think passed? Do I look old to you?”

“But you look just like my Alexander?”

Kyrion’s eye twitched. “Listen. That old fart was my grandfather.If I’m lucky he’s probably gone to the other world. You, I don’t know you, nor do I really care who you think I am. My current goal is to beat up that Errabus person and get the abyss out of here. If you want to meet my grandfather again I could try to get you sent to that other world via mail order.” Kyrion rolled his eyes.

“I could see him again?”

“Maybe. I think I can get you to piggyback on Charles’ ascension if he feels like sharing.”

“LIttle Charlie the stowaway?”

Kyrion was now no longer regretting the conversation. “Tell me more?”

“We all met in passing when I was fifteen, I believe your grandfather was only a little older then. Not sure, but it had been before they found that young orc. Charles had been dropped off at an academy a year prior and instead of continuing school after he graduated, he instead hid in a barrel, thinking it was going on Alexander's ship. It ended up on my trading vessel. We didn’t find out he was there until we were at sea for three weeks.”

“He was hidden for three weeks. How’d he get caught?”

“That's the best part. While we were in the middle of nowhere he tried to pretend like he was supposed to be there. Not realizing that our fleet was all female, five naval vessels full of our island’s natives. He received help from one of our younger cremates, Pok, who dressed him up a bit to help him better fit in as a female cremate. What Charles hadn’t known at the time was that Pok was bad with makeup. Most aboard the vessel knew not to let Pok play with their faces, including others around her age. Had he been left alone his long blue hair and young features could have been played off with good acting.”

“But he exposed himself through ignorance.” Kyrion nodded.

“Our lands are sacred in that way. Men usually aren’t allowed on our island due to our unique bodies. On occasion a young girl may kidnap a man that they intend to bring back as their husband but even that's usually not allowed for those in the upper caste of our society.”

“So Charles was caught.”

“Well by rights of our people, male stowaways were to be executed, regardless of why they were aboard. Although he was obviously a kid that got on the wrong ship so when Pok said that he was her betrothed, we turned the other way.”

“Charles was married.”

“Still is, unless Pok has passed away recently. She was the aid I sent with Cordella and Alecordon. I believe she had a son named Lok who was a year or two younger than them.”

“Wait… Something here doesn’t sound right. Wasn’t Charles eight or something?”

“They officially got married when he hit twenty four. But that's a different tale. A week after Charles became our ship's musician we came in contact with a giant sea monster that tore through our ships. That was when a higher practitioner who had been stowing away on another of our ships jumped in and tore the expert tier beast to ribbons in minutes. As it turned out, he heard that our island was full of treasure and was planning on stealing a bunch, along with a sea vessel to sail back home after his last ship was torn to bits by a mad swordsman that called himself his rival.”

“Grandpa…”Kyrion slapped his face.

“He admitted as much when questioned and as he was quite powerful when compared to our own practitioners there wasn’t much we could do to him. We had a hostage but we weren't heartless.. He came away with a full ship, his friend, and quite a few treasures we couldn’t carry due to one of our ships getting completely destroyed. I later learned that the ship was wrecked by that same swordsman challenging him to a second round.”

“How old is Maldain?”

Almira scowled. “A few thousand by now if not older. How something that demented was allowed to mature is concerning.”

“You met him?”

“He cut off my left arm and helped seal me in that tower. It took forever to heal.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Could he have killed you?” Kyrion steepled his fingers.

Almira scowled, yes. He was above my level somehow. Why is he still in the lower worlds?”

“He’s working with someone powerful. He took my left eye and I suspect he knew I had this prosthetic waiting.”

“If he’s there then I’m sure he’s number one.”

Kyrion shrugged. “Doubt it. Now then. Supposed Grandma, wanna give my mom a heart attack while she tries and fails to bring my uncle back to life?” Kyrion pointed to a bag containing his uncle's soul along with quite a few others.

“You can resurrect people?”

“I can give you a brand new body. Resurrecting is a bit tricky at the moment. It will be limited to my domain outside of short ten minute intervals and reasonably close. I don’t know what I’m basing this on but something feels right about that. As though I know my limits.”

“So… What do you know about Erebus?”

“What do I know? I do believe that I don’t know much. I may have been here for a bit but I don’t remember meeting anyone with that name.”

“You’ve been here longer than me but haven’t met the ruler of this place. Have you met anyone who claims to have a leadership role or be in some sort of elite guard?” Kyrion tilted his head to the side as he began to let his pressure spread across the land. The power pushed against one another briefly before overlapping and intertwining. Limiting his senses and teleportation to one mile.

“You should not have done that.” Said the supposed grandmother.

“Why is that?” Kyrion asked innocently before he noticed a sharp pain in his gut.

Almira, raised her hand to send out waves of shadow into the old woman. Only nothing happened as her body instead began to glow golden and float upwards.

“Bad timing you damned shepard!”

Kyrion wasn’t dead yet he swiped his hand across as a blade of distortion moved outward and cleaved everything it touched for a mile before teleporting a portion two feet to the right. “Now I can die.”

A calm and serene voice came from above. “You have upset the balance, young one. You should not be here while your body is living, even if time is in flux. The gravity of your world has been increased to assist its natural return but you will have to pay a price for causing disruptions. I will be taking the goddess you freed as well as increase your death delay to three months instead of a week. I’ll be nice and tell you that you have 8 deaths remaining until you need to escape. It sounds like a lot but you have just wasted one. Also slipping your consciousness into a flesh puppet shouldn’t have counted as a true death due to your body being too far away. I knew something was off when your soul lingered after your head was removed.”

That was the last thing Kyrion heard as everything faded to black and his body had gone limp. His thoughts however continued briefly as words slipped. “Guess my secrets out. At least I didn’t get sent back early.”

Kyrion’s body lay in a pond just a little ways out from the territory he was just slain near. His drawing continued even during his death, with consequences of his tower drawing from wherever his domain was located.

“Welp. That sucked. I went from five allies to none, and a traitor out to kill me.”

“That may not be your grandmother. Not your actual one, anyways. When your aura covered the area their face began to change. You were just too preoccupied with a being of the Shepherds level, speaking directly into your mind. By the time you died their appearance was that of the others. Elderly people wearing far too little clothing. Although I do believe that we’re seeing that due to my trained talent to see past illusions and your ability to sense one’s true nature when they are in your aura of influence.” The voice stated.

“Great. I can’t believe I just lost three months of time from a distraction.”

“I couldn’t believe you got off that easy for tricking your way into this realm despite being alive.”

“The first few weren't fully my fault. Now this one was premeditated when I learned what I needed to do.”

“And that is?” Alcaris asked.”

“Find my uncle's soul, rescue my actual grandmother, and figure out how to get home. The last thing can wait until I reach the expert tier but that won’t stop my research. “Also, Cecil met my mom and dad, I should at least meet his. It’s only right, we share that trauma." Kyrion thought evilly, Kyrion, co-captain of Cecil’s Harem, and main benefactor in terms of resource acquisition. He had filled his domain with everything he could find and hadn’t found his limits.

He had filled his domain with coffins meant to…

”Wait just a minuet!” Kyion rudely interrupted his inner monologue.

“What?” His ancestor asked.

“I forgot to take a friend out of his stasis coffin. I’m just curious how he’s able to move around in the real world while a part of him is with me.”

“You split someone’s soul in half.”

“Not on purpose. He was heavily injured and near death but…” Kyrion withdrew a stasis coffin containing Ander from his domain and grimaced as he felt a powerful soul within.

“What?”

“I’m going to have to train him by myself, since Mike is too busy to help.”

“What's wrong with that?”

“Ander has much more control over his magic than I do and If we spar, chances are he’d kill me more than once, as he adjusts to the new level of power.”

“What makes you think he can kill you?”

“He has absorbed the potential of a dragon and going off this presence, the one he bested has killed quite a bit more than a few. Although they were much weaker due to being younger dragons.”

“Ah. And with three years to increase their potential he could truly become a monster. The first jump for dragons is at age six, where they go from vulnerable to vicious, but still weak. Did he absorb its core?”

“I don’t believe so.” Kyrion scowled as he pulled the soul from the stasis coffin and felt a sharp pain behind his eyes.

“R-o-ar!” Ander yelled as the pain in his body subsided. “My head, my burns, my soul. This isn’t my body.”

Kyrion looked to Ander. “Listen buddy.”

Ander looked at Kyrion and sent a bolt of killing intent at him only for nothing to happen. Kyrion forced himself not to flinch.

“What have you done this time?”

“Well. It seems I may have accidentally split your soul in half. Temporarily, when we get back I can fully integrate you within your own body but…”

“You're going to keep me here for some reason. Why?”

“Because I have an army to fight and need someone who can help. Someone who doesn’t need three months to return from the dead.”

“Ah, so you angered someone powerful and need some help.”

“And you’re the first one I asked.”

Ander raised an eyebrow. “Don’t buy it. Don’t act like I haven’t noticed that you’re scared of my combat potential. In an all out fight to the death, how many times do you expect me to win against you?”

“To the death in our current situation? Six to five in my favor. While your potential is worrying, your attitude is holding you back. If you keep hiding your trump cards then they'll go to waste when you're caught off guard.” Kyrion said as he blinked behind Ander tapped him on the back of the neck and then blinked again thirty feet to his left without a tell showing that he had moved.

“So you had to get a head start first.”

“More of a, I forgot you were there, situation. Volain when he left is about how strong you are right now in terms of innate raw power. Which is concerning as he spent two whole years training here. He was also a full being, unlike you.”

“Volain is that weak?”

“Here, yes. In the real world, he could probably give you a run for your money. There I’d say he’s a little stronger due to his soul being enhanced and trained.”

“I see.” Ander tried to move the wind around to no avail.

“Magic doesn't work right here. You need to use Divine Essence, it's everywhere in this world including inside the native monsters. I could give you some if you want. Or you could meditate and absorb it from the air around us.”

“Where are the monsters?” Ander asked.

“North west is an area full of large destructive beasts and traitorous humanoids who live to kill. Its highly dangerous and you probably won’t survive as you are now, but hey in twenty four hours after death you come back to life in one of the ponds.”

“Is that so? And the other place?”

“Well there are a bunch of mean wrinkly old people who trick you into thinking they are your long lost family before killing you. I bet they are weak and give tons of soul…Divine Essence or D.E. I’d go there if I were you. Then when you’ve gathered enough power I’ll teach you how to allocate it to make you stronger and teach you how to access your soul armor. It’s like a full manifestation but quite a bit stronger and concentrated. Think of it as the next step.”

“I see. Why do I get the feeling that this knowledge will make me stronger than quite a few experts?”

“Because it will. You are on par with the weaker tier as a practitioner, but so are most at the tournament. I bet Damian can take on a mid-to-high expert at his skill level. Do you wish to fall that far behind?” Kyrion lied with a straight face knowing that the two were close in skill level and both could probably fight a high-tier expert already, so long as they weren't on the ranking. Ever since Kyrion learned about those numbers, true experts hid in their bodies he had become suspicious.

“Fine fine. Reaching expert is just the beginning. Outside of their immunity to attacks not of a certain tier of power they are also innately strong. Is that Divine Essence at work?”

“Experts get a taste of it when they reach that level, so do those who master their manifestations. It’s why you and Tiffany already have a taste of that power. Mine however had been sealed by an agreement that I’m now worried hadn’t been broken. Enough about me, dragon slayer. You need to get to work. We only have three years and I have some lesson plans to come up with.”

“You're just going to let me go with no understanding of how to use my powers here?”

“If you aren’t back in a week then I’ll start looking. I think you should be fine with your martial arts skills as you are. Get the power then come back. From there you can just do what you want.

“And that confirms that this was a spur of the moment situation. I’ll be back soon.”