In a time after the ascension of the Old Gods, their children thrived under the protection of the Five Dragon Gods.

Calling themselves the Aruna, which roughly meant ‘Children of Dawn,’ their kingdoms flourished and spread throughout every corner of the world. As the firstborn of the Old Gods, they were immortal and powerful.

In time, their power only continued to grow, but so too did their arrogance...

Eventually, some among them began to think radically and even started to believe that the world was rightfully theirs, left to them by the Old Gods.

To face the Five, they obtained a power, which gave them a false divinity that could rival even the Old Gods.

 

However, such power would always come at a price…

 

A price so great that it destroyed most if not all of their entire civilization…

 

All was not lost, however, and once more the Dragon Gods aided the surviving few at the cost of most of their powers. Despite their transgression, the Dragon Gods decided to help them due to a promise with the Old Gods. With their combined powers, new mortal races soon came to be in the world.

While the Five could do nothing for their civilization and the price they paid, they instead gave them a hope to live on by passing on their lives and teachings to the mortal races that they referred to as the ‘Children of Dusk,’ as a reminder of the dusk of their majesty.

Fulfilling their promise, the Five Dragon Gods believed they no longer owed anything more to the once mighty children of the Old Gods. Wanting nothing more to do with them, they left one by one leaving traces of their passing until eventually they faded to obscurity.

Moved by their benevolence, some of the Aruna decided to honor the Five through their teachings to the Children of Dusk of their mighty existences. As for the others…

A part of the remainder believed that this was their punishment… that the Five could have truly saved them but chose not to on account of their actions. A few accepted this… while others… raged, believing it an insult.

Hoping to one day return and have their revenge on the Five, these radicals waited… waited… until their power had grown once more.

 

…

 

In a high dark tower shaped like a malevolent spear that would pierce the black-red sky, a tall dark wisp-like entity stood within and stared at a world that reeked of malice and filled with endless fire, and black stone.

Its entire body was shrouded like a formless wispy shadow while its face beheld a skull worn like a mask in the shape of a malevolent beast. In the sockets, pupil-less eyes shone in a sickly green luster. As if staring into the distance, it stood there unmoving while its shadowy form continuously swirled like smoke.

 

“Gosphaem!”

 

A sudden booming and monstrous voice echoed from within the tower calling towards the entity. As if an unoiled machine started moving, it turned its head towards the direction of the voice. With thundering steps as if a giant of stone was moving, a large bluish-purple skinned creature with three faces and six arms started to approach it. While wearing armor like a gladiator’s, the being was twice the size of the shadowy entity. Strange vein-like violet glowing markings spread out all over its body while pulsing like eerie blood vessels.

While it had three faces, each one was different. The front one had the shape of a bald man with horns like a bull’s. On the left was that of a one horned beast, while the right was that of a one-eyed skeleton shrouded in black fire. On all of its eyes, they had no pupils and glowed a ghostly violet.

 

“Tyrannos.”

 

Sensing the agitation in the other’s voice, the shadowy entity replied back, “What is it?”

 

“I felt a small ripple coming from beyond the Nether. It seems someone called upon my ‘blessings’.”

“…and?”

“It was small, almost negligible. I don’t know what anyone could do with that tiny bit of borrowed power, but you should know that any level of power borrowed from us would return, right?”

“Indeed… and your point?”

“That power… was extinguished.”

 

Upon hearing this, the shadow, Gosphaem, shuddered violently – his shadowy tendrils writhing as if trying to grasp something.

 

“…are you certain?”

“You know very well I don’t like to joke around.”

 

Upon this confirmation, a gnarled black hand rose up coming from within Gosphaem and came to rest under his chin as if he was in thought. Whenever a God’s Blessing would be called upon instead of given, that means a proper sacrifice or payment must be made in accordance to the level of ‘blessing’ one was requesting. In other words, to summon an Avatar of a corresponding god, the payment would be no small amount. This means that a ‘blessing’ on the level of an Avatar could be felt by the god directly. On the other hand, an Avatar was one of the highest forms of ‘blessing’ that one could request from a god since it was akin to borrowing a portion of the god’s power as a whole. The strongest Avatar a mortal could summon possesses a tenth of the original God’s power. This is only appropriate since a god’s power could affect the entirety of the mortal plane. Since Tyrannos claimed that the undulations he felt were hardly noticeable, this would mean that the Avatar summoned was of the weakest variety, possessing only a hundredth of Tyrannos’ power.

However, it was his last statement that made Gosphaem look upon this situation in a grave manner. To summon an Avatar is in effect borrowing a portion of the god’s power. This means that once the purpose has been fulfilled, the power would be returned to the corresponding god. To claim that this power that was borrowed had been ‘extinguished’ would mean that whatever this power confronted had the ability to destroy their divine energies. In other words, an enemy on the level of a god… or at the very least… an Archlord!

 

‘Our brothers and sisters of the Light wouldn’t be so bold as to disrupt our fragile balance… On the other hand, none of the current Archlords would be so brazen as to provoke our combined might… Could it be? The one from the ‘Cradle’?’

 

After his thoughts, Gosphaem suddenly looked up and stated in a cold voice.

 

“I’ll send out the Viper Hounds… once they’ve confirmed it’s the one we’re after, you must prepare your Horde Lords.”

“Very well.”

 

With a nod, Tyrannos was about to head on out until a playful and coquettish voice echoed out within the hall.

 

“Hello, boys! Now don’t tell me you’re all going out to play without even telling me?”

 

A woman with pale-red skin giving off a moon-like luster appeared from the shadows. If any words could describe her, then it would be seduction incarnate. Even then, that description seemed to do her form no justice as she gracefully walked out of the shadows, the darkness seeming to caress her entire body as if not wanting to let go.

Wearing something that seemed like a cross between a robe and leather lingerie with a deep plunging neckline, exposed hips and cheeks, she swaggered while swaying her hips and emphasizing her womanly parts. With waist-length platinum hair and a pointed heart shaped face with black thin lips, she was an image of absolute beauty with perfect proportions. If one would include her slender goat-like horns, pointed fleshy tail, small bat-like wings, and third eye on her forehead, one could even say she was the pinnacle of exotic beauty.

 

“Zenistra.”

 

Despite her having an image that could normally set anything’s loins on fire, Gosphaem called out the woman’s name in a slightly irritated tone.

 

“Gosphy, are you and little Tyr planning to leave me out of the fun again? How mean!”

 

Contrary to her mature looks, however, the Dark Goddess Zenistra balled her fists and puffed her cheeks acting like a little girl being left out from a party.

 

“This… is none of your concern, Zenistra.”

“Oh pooh! Can you really say that to your darling sis? Little Tyr, our big brother is being mean to me again! Won’t you help out your poor big sis?”

 

While pouting like a puppy, she daintily flew up to Tyrannos and tickled one of his chins. Unlike Gosphaem, Tyrannos currently has a stupid grin on all his faces with his eyes curving upwards like crescents.

 

“Brother Gosphaem, would it truly hurt our plans letting sister Zeni join us? After all, her Dreamlings could aid in our search greatly and would be much more convenient than sending out the Vipers.”

 

While it may have appeared that Tyrannos’ response was due to his infatuation with Zenistra, his statement was in fact one made with deliberate calculation. Because it was such and indeed her Nightmare Creatures would be more useful in their plans, Gosphaem could only groan his dissatisfactions while accepting her offered help.

 

“…Very well… I shall concede the search to you… but none of your foolishness, Zenistra. This… is a serious matter. The ascendance of a new Archlord could very well tip the scales of power. This… cannot… be tolerated.”

 

Giving up, he pushed the responsibility of locating their target to Zenistra. After all, they were still allies and any infighting would endanger their position within the balance.

 

“Oh fine, Gosphy! Even I know when not to mess around, you know! Toodles!”

 

Winking cutely while waving, Zenistra turned and left the two other Dark Gods to their plans. However, once out of sight, her bright cheerful expression soon turned solemn, as if the previous playful her was all but a joke. A cold and cool beauty soon replaced her earlier façade as she passed through a mirror-like object that opened up with swirling colors like a gateway. Once she re-appeared at her destination, before her was a bedroom that was akin to the inside of a large fleshy organism. With pulsating surfaces and veiny walls, most of her décor appeared eerie as if they were fleshy organisms in the form of furniture.

Without stopping, she made her way towards her makeup dresser and looked at a crystal ball placed on the center. Within it was swirling dark purple fog while revealed on the center was a long yellow slit giving it the appearance… of an eye.

 

She soon moved to sit in front of the crystal ball. Despite her earlier request to assist Gospahaem and Tyrannos, she actually neglected to mention that she too felt such undulations. Having felt them much sooner, she acted quickly and even already found the cause. Had she informed Gosphaem of what she experienced and found, he would have realized that the situation was an even bigger problem than they currently realize. The being that’s able to destroy the energies of their divinity was one thing, but the bigger problem was that someone or something was able to circumvent the power of their ‘blessings’ and alter it to possess multiple properties based on all their divine powers. This was a very grave matter since it meant someone was capable of manipulating their divinities… but then as to why Zenistra didn’t inform them…

 

‘Now then… I wonder how my darling little dragon is doing?’

 

Because she became ‘interested’ in one of the beings involved. Giving out a look that could somehow combine the ability of both firing up a man’s heart while evoking coldness and fear, she continued to watch the ‘little dragon’ that appeared like a moving image on her crystal.

 

…

 

“Take thiiiis!”

 

In a swift motion, a spear tip was aimed towards my shoulders in an attempt to probably disable me. Out of reflex, I caught the spear in my hand preventing it from going any further.

 

“What!?”

“Hold on, I’m not – !”

 

I tried to explain, but before I could even begin, she immediately let go of the spear and ducked, attacking me from below with a low leg sweep. I usually ignore such attempts to take me from below since my legs are sturdy enough to put most trees to shame, but surprisingly her kick was incredibly heavy and was even successful at knocking me off balance. In a skillful maneuver, she followed up by attempting to mount me, but of course being someone with an extra limb (tail), it’s not that simple to knock me down.

Catching myself with my tail, I then caught her by the arms as she tried to make the grab, twisting her then turned to toss her over my shoulder in a sort of Judo throw. Amazingly, she was still able to maneuver herself in the air while falling nimbly like a cat. She then stared at me in a much more serious expression as she took on a fighting pose.

This is bad… after that exchange, I could feel that in terms of pure fighting skill alone, this woman is much more experienced than even Ellen. Trying to subdue her as I did Ellen while she was in Berserk mode is like trying to take on an experienced soldier instead of a drunken brawler. With such a sharp battle-aura coming off from her, if I try to explain myself now, she’ll use that opening to attack me. It’s not that I can’t beat her, but I’m not confident that I can incapacitate her without hurting her. I really don’t want to do that since it’s just a misunderstanding, but if she gives me no choice… I guess I’ll just have to apologize and heal her with a potion afterwards.

A few seconds passed and just as we were about to make our move…

 

“Azula! So this is where you were!”

 

The clear voice of a young girl echoed out and poured cold water over the tension between us. The woman in front of me did a 180 and started fidgeting while having a panicked look on her face.

 

“C-Cheshi!? W-What are you doing here? I-I’m not causing any trouble, I swear!”

“Tell that to Madame Sorena yourself! You were supposed to escort Emi and me while we bought supplies, remember? Besides, who’s going to believe you when there’s people lying all over the place!”

 

Looking towards the one replying to the woman I fought, I saw in front of me… a little catkin girl. She looked like a little girl no older than 12 or 13, and wore red robes with flower designs in an eastern style. She had long straight black hair with shades of dark blue, and silver… cat-like eyes. On her head were two cute cat ears while I could see a tail sticking out from behind her.

Aside from her tail, I also noticed another girl hiding behind her while shaking… Though I say hide, she’s actually taller than the catkin girl. She wore dancer-like garb with one shoulder exposed and had her hair in a bun, but what really caught my eye… was that she somewhat looked like a panda!

She had fur all over her body in the color scheme of a panda! Especially the black patches in the area around her eyes! She mostly had human like features except for her bear-like ears and short muzzle-like nose and mouth. If I were to describe her, she looks very similar to that race of panda people from that MMO I used to play… no, not the really popular one made by the company with the snowstorm-like brand name, but a less known one that had a more cartoon-like art style(*).

She’s the first person I’ve seen that has the most animal-like features so far, though it’s limited to her face and fur. Wait, does that mean she’s a Demon Beast? That can’t be right…

 

“… Hey, mister. You’ve been looking at us for some time now. Are you perhaps interested in us?”

 

I nearly choked on my spit after hearing the catkin girl say such an un-childlike statement. Though I was indeed staring rudely, but what the heck is wrong with this kid? And how did she notice while my head was hooded?

 

“…uh, that’s not… *cough*… do you girls happen to know a place called the All-Treasure Pavilion? I’m looking for it in hopes of receiving its services.”

 

Wanting to save some face, I decided to awkwardly ask a question to completely change the subject. Another surprise, however, was that all the girls reacted strangely to my question.

 

“Wait, he’s a customer?” <Azula>

“Oh yay! We hadn’t had one in a long while! Come on, mister! Let Cheshi show you the way!”

“…”

 

The warrior woman seemed to be confused, while the catkin, Cheshi, became very friendly and held on to my arm as she pulled on me to follow her. The panda girl just switched hiding places from Cheshi to the warrior woman while making a cute gasp.

This situation is… really awkward… and from the side, suspicious-looking since a little girl is leading me while two other girls were following from behind. Somehow, I have a bad premonition about the Pavilion.

After a short walk, we’ve arrived in front of an eastern-like building that seemed to exude an alluring air. At the entrance…

 

“My, my. What have my dear little girls brought me? Ho ho… I see. Dear sir… Welcome… to the All-Treasure Pavilion!”

 

…was an extremely beautiful foxkin woman with white hair and a voluptuous body in an elegant kimono-like gown greeting me while being surrounded by many women of beastkin or non-human origin.

 

As I feared… there’s nothing for it… the All-Treasure Pavilion… was a demi-human brothel.