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The air was thick with buzzing carrion insects. Avian beasts circled around in the air, their wings beating like a low rumbling thunder.

Despite their low levels, the pests were bold enough to fly close to someone and peck at the remains on the ground, unless it was Zarian. The insects and the birds left him alone.

The smell of rot and decay was heavy. Many of the acolytes lost some nerve or suffered nausea while a few soldiers looked about in horror. Zarian kept his features darkened, and his emotions in check, though he didn’t blame anyone for feeling unnerved or distraught.

After walking around for half an hour, Zarian had reasons to believe there were definitely no survivors. He returned to the effigy in the middle of the town’s square where a market place and park had once stood as the central meeting point of the village. All that remained was ruins, desecration, and the signs of desperate fighting against a relentless and inevitable force.

“Zarian,” Bianca called sternly. She was standing in front of the effigy, her hard light sabers in hand. Little bulbs of light circled furiously around her in a cyclone.

“No wolf dragons or kobolds sighted in the nearby area,” Zarian said. “The spectral spiders are scrambling fast to the north, the north east, east, the north west, and west from this very location. This is the most southern village in North Crown Peak. If they haven’t found anything yet, then the enemy force hasn’t seen us yet.”

“What are we going to do?” Bianca asked.

“We need to leave.” Gilbert looked back at the mortified group of soldiers and acolytes who’d followed them in. Most of them waited outside of the wall with Stony and nine skeletons watching over them.

Loner was the only skeleton patrolling within the village walls.

Gilbert held his cowboy hat to his chest. “We came to help with a monster hunt. This is looking like an outright war barreling down on the kingdom. As horrible as this sounds, we have to leave and think of somewhere else to relocate these kids.”

“There’s no better place than here to toughen them up,” Naomi said, arms crossed.

She was looking into the side of a home that had its wall blasted down. There were bodies in there that were mutilated to the point of being unrecognizable. Something had eaten half of them and left what remained.

“You know what I’m thinking, sir.” Naomi tipped her witch hat back and looked over at Zarian. “We hunker down. Set up defenses. And we go hunting.”

“I agree with Naomi. We can’t leave this place. Not after seeing this.” Bianca’s grip tensed around the handles of her hard light sabers. The flurry of lights orbiting her spun faster. “This is horrible. This is the type of evil that must be cleansed.”

Her good +3 pulsated and made the surrounding air heavier. The nearest soldiers and acolytes wobbled, with a few backing away to rejoin the others outside of the walls. The ones who remained watched with wide-eyes and pale faces.

“Maybe we can fight, but this is way above their level,” Gilbert argued. “It isn’t just us we have to consider. Do we have enough food? Hell, can we even find water that hasn’t been turned putrid around here? All I smell is rot. We’re risking these children’s lives if we don’t settle them somewhere else.”

“We have forty wagons, fifty beasts, five Floridians, ten skeletons, one giant, one hundred and thirty-three soldiers, and one hundred and fifty-six acolytes,” Zarian said while looking up at the sky.

It was cloudy today, which would’ve normally improved his mood, but he felt nothing. There were too many squawking and flapping birds in the air and annoying insects buzzing about even if they kept out of his way.

He continued where he left off. “Overall, that’s three hundred and fifty-five living creatures to care for. We have enough food for another week, maybe two, if we stretch it. We only have enough water for one more day.”

“We can find water going back where we came,” Gilbert said.

“Hannah, can you make an enchantment for purifying water?” Zarian asked.

“Yes,” Hannah answered.

“Are you willing to sacrifice the lives of these children if we get overrun?” Gilbert asked, not backing down.

“I haven’t made my decision yet, but whether we stay or go, I need you all to know this. None of these children will get sacrificed. None of them will die,” Zarian said. “Not when I have kids under my watch and leadership. I won’t allow it.”

Gilbert hesitated to respond to that.

Naomi took over. “We need to get stronger for Castle Grimrock. This is our best chance.”

“We can’t go back.” The flurry of lights and Bianca’s swords shone brighter.

“What does the Star System say?” Hannah asked.

She’d kept mostly to herself with her Roller Golem at her side. In her hand, she tossed up and down a cube of stone the size of her palm. In the crook of her other arm, she held the evolving core against her side.

“Funny, I was thinking the same thing,” Zarian said. “What do you have for us, Star System?”

There was no response.

Zarian wasn’t convinced by that. He formed a pillar of darkness beneath him and rose slowly into the air.

From behind him, the Parasite Cloak shifted and snapped, clawed and cawed, sniped and raked, and reformed and transformed over and over and over again. The cloak stretched out far behind him and waved like a giant, monstrous flag of many predatory forms.

Para was hungry, but she knew not to eat from the dead here. She would save her appetite for the living who were more deserving of her teeth, needles, hacksaws, scythes, and more.

“Let me repeat myself,” Zarian said smoothly. “What do you have for us, Star System? If you have nothing, then I’m going to take Gilbert’s side and move the kids elsewhere. We’ll come back and finish the job ourselves.”

“Please, let me win this one,” Gilbert muttered.

A moment later, a notification appeared over the entire village. Gilbert didn’t win this one, not when the System offered something too irresistible to turn down, even despite the trouble.

<You’ve arrived too late to help the people of North Crown Peak. The damage, the horror, the loss of life resonates in the wake of the wolf dragons and wolf kobolds attack. This is an event that goes beyond a mere side quest. This is an event that can decide the fate of a kingdom.>

<Regional Event (Mythical): Defeat the Wolf Dragon Invasion in Three Parts>

<Wolf Dragon Invasion Part 1 (Level 40): Create a fortress at this village and prepare for siege warfare. Ensure that everyone in your ‘guild’ aids in the defensive effort against an unknown amount of enemy waves to come. The better your ‘guild’ does as a group, the better the rewards for the leaders (the Floridians).>

<All members will have increased experience gains and high value levels rewarded for participation. Part 2 will commence once you’ve turned back the attacking forces sufficiently. Retreating or loss of position will result in failure of the Regional Event and possible destruction of the Eternal Garden Kingdom. You have until tomorrow morning to prepare.>

“This is not what I expected,” Zarian said. “But it’s a pretty decent offer.”

“Well, there you have it. Even more of a reason to make ourselves at home,” Naomi said. “What better way to ensure the kiddos can survive on their own than to make them grow fast and hard here?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“We can’t be serious, right?” Gilbert pointed up at Zarian. “You’re no puppet of the System, chief. We don’t have to follow through with this.”

“Puppet, no?” Zarian responded. “But I don’t mind the Star System when it lays out incentives like these. Besides, we have friends like Arnold and some others who live in the Eternal Garden Kingdom. I suppose we can do them a favor and protect them while they deal with their civil war.”

Zarian turned about on his pillar of darkness and looked down at everyone. “I suppose we have a guild now, as temporary as that is. What shall we call it?”

“Ride-or-Die,” Naomi said.

“I like it,” Zarian admitted. “We’re the Ride-Or-Die Guild now, even if it’s temporary.”

“Fuck it. I give up. I guess we’re just going to do this thing,” Gilbert grumbled.

“While your concern for the children is amiable, Gilbert, I’m more concerned about the gamified nature of this regional event,” Hannah said. “I may be wrong here, but for an event like this to be structured into certified parts, that would mean our enemies are going to be made aware of this event if they haven’t been made aware already. In other words, wouldn’t this mean the Star System is playing both sides of the field?”

“Huh, that’s actually a good point.” Zarian checked through the Spectral Spider Network.

The spiders have traveled for miles now in all directions, even south just to keep a watch of their backside. They hadn’t found the wolf dragons and wolf kobolds yet.

Instead, the spiders found many signs of the enemy’s passing in the form of demolished fields, ruined villages, and water sources that had been made undrinkable. There were few corpses that remained whole, the rest had been gruesomely torn apart in gory displays.

“I’m not finding them. They must’ve pulled back far. Or they could’ve holed up in the main fortress further north,” Zarian explained. “Nonetheless, it’s best we play this as if they’re aware of our position here. This works in our favor, in a sense. If we’re going to set up a proper siege warfare for the System, they’re going to play by the rules of the game as well.”

“How do you know that?” Gilbert asked.

“The wolf dragons are actual monsters,” Hannah explained. “And monsters aren’t as natural compared to beasts and sapient creatures such as humans or even the gnolls. The Star System has more influence on the monsters, and if the monsters hold their position to play along with the game, the wolf kobolds will probably do the same. I believe I’ve read somewhere that kobolds idolize dragons while worshiping the First Evil King. So they’ll hold back as long as the monsters themselves would.”

“Also, I imagine kobolds would want mythical rewards from the Star System if they play along,” Zarian said.

“That’s a lot of guesswork without much proof to me,” Gilbert said. “But this is the damn Star System we’re talking about, and I imagine ain’t nobody out here trying to go against it all willy-nilly. And you all probably know more than me. Still a shit situation.”

“Thank you,” Zarian said.

Gilbert cocked his head to the side. “For what?”

“For not rolling over and staying silent,” Zarian said. “I appreciate it.”

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t be me if I agreed to everything. Someone has to ground us crazy-ass Floridians.” Gilbert shook his head before muttering. “But it ain’t like I’m going anywhere. So let’s have ourselves a god damn medieval Alamo.”

The dark pillar under Zarian lowered into the ground. Everyone was turned toward him except for Bianca. She was still glaring at the effigy.

Zarian waited for her as she finally threw her flurry of lights forward and burned the effigy to ash. Then she marched over to join the leaders of the temporary Ride-or-Die Guild. Zarian looked past his fellow Outsiders and found Roland and Lora standing hesitantly ahead of the soldiers and acolytes.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Zarian asked. “Come on over here. We have a siege to plan for.”

***

The set up for the main defenses hinged on Stony and Hannah. Stony was a Level 105 Wall Crusher Master, which was appropriately suited for knocking down the current walls around the village and leaving the rubble for Hannah to vacuum up with her cube maker skill.

That wasn’t enough for Hannah, though, so she rode on Stony’s shoulder as the giant escorted her to neighboring villages and knocked down their walls and structures for Hannah to vacuum up. By the time they returned and got to work on walling their fort, the suns were setting.

Hannah was going to have to work fast and hard throughout the night. But she was getting paid back with extra experience and high value levels.

Zarian wanted to have a private chuckle when he remembered the time Hannah felt insecure about her support-based class. Look how important she ended up being.

While Stony and Hannah worked on the defenses, Naomi, Roland, and Lora led the soldiers and acolytes in cleaning up the village and finding all usable food items and containers with drinkable liquids.

Not everything was completely ruined, and the acolytes were good at scavenging from various homes, shops, and vendor stalls. The soldiers carried out the remaining body parts and buried them far enough south where they wouldn’t be a problem. Zarian let them drink their fill of water and eat as much food as necessary as they worked and cleaned up the village.

Gilbert took some soldiers to establish a stable to keep their beasts. The ox-like beasts and large ground drakes might serve as extra meat for when times were lean, but Zarian had plans to deal with the food and water issues. That depended on if he wanted to spend the best resources they had now or wait for later.

He wasn’t sure just yet and kept pondering as he walked around and supervised the fortification effort. He was also paying attention to the spectral spiders who scouted out the way north. They found the kobolds.

Zarian had guessed right that they would gather at the main fortress, but he hadn’t realized how heavy their numbers would be. There were too many of them to count. And from what he could observe through the spiders, the kobolds were indeed holding their position while making preparations for tomorrow’s battle.

“We can end this right away,” Bianca said, following Zarian around like a shadow. “You can do it, Zarian. Go straight to the heart of the wolf dragons and kill them all.”

“No,” Zarian said.

Bianca huffed in aggravation. “What happened here needs to be avenged.”

Zarian stopped and turned to the Light Princess, who kept radiating an intense glow to bleed off the anger inside. He’d never seen Bianca so aggressive before.

He wouldn’t have minded if it wasn’t for the machinations and plots the good gods were cooking up in the background. Zarian took his time to answer as Bianca glared down into his darkened face.

“They will be avenged. But we’re going to do so while building up the children,” Zarian explained softly. “We’ve started something by taking responsibility for these youngsters. It’s not enough for me to just fly off and protect them from all the horrors and evils of their world and the wider universe of Infinita.”

Zarian looked to the side as soldiers and acolytes ran about, working together, moving frantically while trying to keep the obvious fear they felt in control. “When we do a job, I want it done the best way we can do it. And the best way we can do the job is to see the game to completion. The Star System is giving us what we want from the ashes of ruin, so there’s no reason to turn this down and go against the game. Not yet, at least.”

Zarian turned away to watch the suns set. In the distance, he saw Stony scooping up huge ditches further out of the perimeter. Hannah was already moving fast and placing down cubic blocks of stone for the new walls. The unified sounds of tons of dirt being shoveled up while Hannah popped into place cubes that followed their own magical rules was an interesting background noise.

“Is that your evil alignment talking?” Bianca accused, eyes flashing.

Zarian frowned and held his tongue, choosing not to respond.

After enough time, Bianca realized her mistake. Her light dimmed, and so did her self-righteous attitude. She looked down at her bare feet. They were dirty and covered in flakes of blood. She grimaced at the mess before letting out a sigh.

“Lo siento. I’m sorry. Maybe I should be the one accusing myself of letting my good alignment talk ahead of my mind.” She looked up and met Zarian’s gaze.

“You did let your good alignment talk ahead of your mind,” Zarian said firmly, then with a softer touch, he added, “You don’t really know what my evil alignment is telling me.”

“Should I ask?”

“It says to dangle the kids as bait, and when the wolf dragons and kobolds are distracted gobbling them up, I’ll hit them all with my most impactful magic,” Zarian said. “There are various versions of that idea along with something similar to what you are saying. So do keep in mind I’m dealing with myself and dealing with you.”

Bianca shrank back a bit. Maybe his last words came out with a little too much bite, but he wanted Bianca to understand how serious it was to accuse him of his alignment taking over.

For the most part, Zarian wanted to believe he had a tight control over it. So if he was acting a little tense in response, then the accusation truly struck a nerve, and he was letting Bianca know it.

She nodded and apologized a couple of times more. She looked and sounded genuinely sorry. Zarian reached up and patted her shoulder.

“Don’t let your good alignment take over, Bianca. Try to resist,” Zarian said.

“It’s hard sometimes. It feels better to give in,” Bianca muttered.

“Try your best, okay?”

Bianca threw her arms around him and hugged him close. That was answer enough, so he hugged her back.

In the old world, something like this wouldn’t have ever happened. Zarian and Bianca came from two different walks of life and would’ve never concerned themselves over the other. But here in Infinita, after all they’d faced together, they were the closest of friends.

Even when they disagreed, they remained friends.

“I will help you no matter what,” Zarian said. “I won’t let them win if they try something with you.”

“Thank you,” Bianca said.

Slowly, they separated. Bianca looked calmer now and in more control of herself. How long that would last, Zarian didn’t know, but at least she was trying.

Moving on, Zarian said, “I’m going to use three boons before morning arrives, two from Lovewar and one from Shadowfell.”

Bianca accepted the change of conversation gracefully. “What boons will you ask for? And are you sure you want to use those so early?”

Before Zarian could explain, he felt an emergency ping from Hannah through the Spectral Spider Network. Immediately, he wrapped his arm around Bianca’s waist and cast Void Step to reach Hannah’s location.

Because of the recent advancement to the Grimoire of the Mad Voidling Exile, it was safe to take friends through the void for a quick trip. When Zarian and Bianca stepped out from the wrinkle in the air, they found Stony looming hugely above, with Hannah holding Reiki’s dungeon core out to them.

“It happened,” Hannah said breathlessly.

“What happened?” Bianca asked.

Zarian answered. “The dungeon core finished evolving. We can plant her now.”