With all that going on, how could we not Feast while everything was calm?

***

"""CHEERS!"""

We were eating and laughing, happy to be able to gather together in our <Mess Hall>. Dehlia told us a lot. Svilran and Elma were so interested in how Dehlia's son became deific. Myself, I could imagine it--I had read many stories where the protagonist became a god, so I just figured something similar had taken place.

Dehlia told us about how she adventured across the oceans of Nemo with her eventual husband and other companions. Eventually, she returned home and had her son. Her husband later died during a large-scale conflict while she stayed home with her son.

One day, her teenage son found a girl washed up on the shores of their island, and that was where his story started. He set out on his own adventure, armed with his Father's weapon and the skills Dehlia helped him develop.

She wasn't exactly sure how he reached his current level, but she knew he and his true companions were currently locked in a dangerous struggle with the mysterious girl's Father.

Honestly, I felt like I could fill in the gaps as to what was going on. Dehlia also mentioned that, while her son was very powerful, there were still many that could rival him. Back during her prime, Dehlia was also a fierce competitor.

Overall, we were learning some wild stuff. At the end of that conversation, Svilran came up with a theory.

"So, my big question really revolves around how Dehlia was recognized as a Hero that was cut short..."

"You mean, ignoring the fact that demons--ones that should never have been there--cut her down?" I asked.

Svilran grimaced. "I know how it sounds, but this is important! It tells us what Heroes the Hub is willing to intervene for as worlds become more complex!" I nodded with a smile, and Svilran continued. "I think... maybe Dehlia could have gone to do more, but her potential was cut short when she retired."

Dehlia cocked her head as she looked at Svilran.

"I think there was most likely a future where she would have gone on to do enough to be considered Heroic. When she made the choice to retire and take care of her home, those options were lost... But not really. In a way, maybe her son inherited her destiny, so to say."

"Hmm..." Dehlia said, deep in thought. "So... my son's destiny may have been affected by me standing down?"

"I don't mean to say you were wrong, Dehlia. It's clear to us, that even though you were locked to your home, you undoubtedly had a heroic spirit. We, as Hero recruiters, however, are in a position where we are at the mercy of how our facility determines a Hero. That's why we have to examine your situation and understand."

"But, with this line of thought, you're saying that Heroes can literally miss or flat-out ignore the call to heroism," I said.

Svilran responded with a confused look. "What's wrong with that? If would-be Heroes didn't have the freedom to do that, would we even be necessary?"

I sat there, silent. I get it. "Right. If there was never choice, then everything would be going along a script. All the suffering would be pre-determined... so would all the victories..."

"Wait, wait," Elma said, putting down her watermelon juice. "What if Demons show up in a scripted world?"

"In that scenario, I could see a world crying out for help," Svilran said. "Yeah, that is one situation where the Hero Hub could certainly intervene with minimal ethical questions asked."

"Okay, so where does that really put us, Svilran?"

"Well, it just means that we might one day recruit a Hero who may have been living an ordinary life prior to their relatively mundane death. You have to remember the Causality Module. This module is able to calculate potential futures. In the case of a Hero that refused the call, the module could still have its calculations in the Hero's favor and be able to make the determination that 'this choice' led the Hero away from the most amount of Heroic futures."

"So, not only do we have Heroes like Elma who never got the chance to be a Hero, but we also have Heroes who ignored their chance..."

"On a previous point, I think there are definitely many worlds where everything is pre-determined. I just don't think the Hero Hub will ever intervene in them. I have this sense that worlds without free will are just a natural part of evolution. For instance, some of the early iterations of human society lacked free will. That will only became more prevalent as the gods governing those societies themselves developed. Oh, actually, I remember a friend of mine saying that the more free will a society has, the more complex the gods governing that society have to be."

"Huh... Worlds without free will... Interesting..." I said as I looked up at the ceiling. "And they're just part of a developmental cycle?"

"The physical realm saw that reality everywhere too. The idea of evolution in creatures in particular. For instance, the microbes of Earth. Would you say they have free will, or would they have an instinct-driven will? See, the lack of free will isn't so much an evil thing. It depends on the context. A world that lacks free will because its governing entity itself isn't developed enough isn't in as much trouble as a world where an entity is actively trying to remove free will that should be there."

Dehlia raised her hand. "Could I just say that I never expected to be an audience for such a conversation?" She sipped her wine. "I really feel like I'm in a strange realm now..."

"I, for one, found that conversation riveting," Kanae followed.

Elma chuckled. "And they just so casually dived into it... I'm curious what a world without free will looks like."

Svilran smiled. "You wouldn't notice it, really. Everyone would be living their life, making choices they would think were theirs. Honestly, only we would know if there was free will as outside observers. Oh, if someone discovered time travel, and tested to see if they could alter the past, then they would know what type of world they lived in too."

"How so?" Elma asked, sincerely curious. Kanae leaned in, too, while Dehlia poked Dorthaunzee's lantern.

"If the past changed, then it would usually indicate they lived in a world with multiple potential paths, indicating some degree of free will. If everything stayed the same after the alteration, it indicates there is a self-correcting force, which would suggest there is limited free will, if none at all. It gets a little tricky with the time machine because in a world without free will, the discovery of a time machine is planned, and therefore, anything that follows is in the plan too. You could have a world where the development happens, and the time traveler is made to believe they have free will, only for it to all be as it was ordained."

I scratched my head. "Trippy. So even the search for free will--and the confirmation of it--could be the product of the script. Well, I guess that makes it no different than a story penned by an author."

"That's why outsiders like us are the ones who would truly be able to confirm, since we can interface with the world's causality systems."

"This is just going over my head," Dehlia sang.

"Sorry, Dehlia," Svilran laughed back. "We got quite side-tracked, didn't we?"

Dehlia waved Svilran's concerns away. "I was just teasing. Well, it was a little much, but I love hearing people talk about things they're passionate about."

I looked over to Svilran. "Yeah, Svil, you knew a lot. Way more than I'd expect from you."

"Aww," Svilran said. "I just liked Free Will a lot... Wait, hold on--what do you mean more than you expected?!"

I let out a laugh, with Elma joining me as Svilran fumed.

"Still, Svilran wasn't so off the mark with me," Dehlia said. We quieted down and looked over at her. "My heart was always out in the oceans of Nemo... Just a few days ago I was sitting at the beach looking out to the world I abandoned... It's not to say that I regretted my choices, it was just hard. I had retired because I thought that was the right thing to do when I became pregnant. And then, I just never found that I could leave. There were a lot of people that needed my assistance at home... When Martilde got to leave, I was happy, but maybe just a little jealous," she said, pinching the air to show us just how little her jealousy was. "Yeah... I'm happy I've been relieved of my duties at home. I leave everything to Martilde, Domaz, and Rudda... They wouldn't be too angry with me, right?"

"I can't see why they would!" Svilran happily replied.

"I'd say that given that you died for them, you've earned your freedom," Elma followed.

"And it's not like you're resting. We still have to work," Kanae said.

"That's true," Dehlia said.

"On our side, we'll bookmark your world--Nemo--and we'll scan it for Missions regularly. If something comes up, we can dispatch Heroes," I said.

Dehlia smiled at me. "I would appreciate that."

This was nice--what a warm atmosphere. We had started with just two, and now we had six people sitting in this <Mess Hall>. One day, it would be filled to the brim with good people of all backgrounds, all trying to make the Imaginal Realms safer.

Dehlia summed it up nicely. "I can't wait--this is gong to be the adventure of a lifetime."

"Thanks for joining the team," I said.

"The pleasure is all mine."

Suddenly--

"Oww!" Svilran yelped, holding her head.

"What the--" I followed, feeling the sensation of a hammer beating my skull open.

The girls all stopped what they were doing and looked at us, confused.

Svilran and I exchanged glances.

""Someone's breaking in,"" we said in unison.

***

In the 'skies' of the Hero Hub, a crack appeared, and then the pieces of the sky fell, revealing swirling, static-y darkness.

"This is where the trail leads..."

"So this is where pretty women go when they die..."

Cracks spread out from the main incursion point, and many more holes appeared in the glass-like sky. Ahead of those holes were two familiar figures--the silver-haired child and the bespectacled Dominguez, his damaged eye replaced with a gold orb.

The two looked down toward the Hero Hub, and the child sneered when he saw the inhabitants pouring out of their <Mess Hall>.

"Great, let the Angel Hunt recommence."

Shrieks erupted from the cracks as oily, boil-and-wound-ridden humanoids with misshapen faces and demonic wings poured out into the skies of the Hero Hub.