“Hmm… They don’t make Soul Warriors like they used to. I don’t like to suggest you made a mistake, Lord Meruria, but maybe Shuuta had more resolve in him? Certainly more than a red-haired mage.” The Wolffolk named Remy happily watched the chaos happening below her. She loved to hear cute girls and handsome boys cry in pain.    

She loved it more than anything else in the world. 

Other than her beloved Lord Meruria, of course. 

She felt her crotch moisten when that chimera had his hands in Quella’s guts. Remy believed Team Quella’s enemy made a fatal mistake, yet the resilience of his kind was like no other.    

A chimera had a thousand ways to survive any encounter. They were masters of the unexpected—geniuses at wriggling their ways out of unwinnable or inescapable situations and living to fight another day.     

Even a Soul Warrior would have trouble fighting one. That was why this was a test. Remy didn’t expect to get involved. She wasn’t ordered to remain as only a scout to analyze Team Quella’s progress, so nothing forbade her from letting her presence known, but she spied on Quella and the others for a day or two before popping up beside them.     

She found it fun to watch the little mage act so sad and feeble at killing a couple of kids.    

They were already destined to die from the undead curse, so...  

But the queen with the crystal wings was the most interesting. Lord Meruria confided in Remy and said the useless teacher had the most potential if her abilities worked the way she thought they did. Storing fragments of the past into orbs of Holy Mana and freeing them from their dungeon shackles?   

Not even Remy’s lord could do that.    

No one could.    

That shattered balance was the sole reason why Soul Warriors essentially broke the equality of the game board. You needed instability to create stability.    

“Tsk tsk… Ugh, it’s so boring. It’s like reading a story when you know the ending,” Remy said. She bounced on her toes and wished for something interesting to happen. Her blood boiled with excitement when Keeth’s neck was punctured.    

And when Greggie continued to fight without his sword and shield, she loved hearing his bones break. Physical attacks were useless against the scales of an Iron Mammoth, but these otherworld-ers didn’t know that.     

Suddenly, a dark-skinned, broad-shouldered man descended from the skies, standing atop the shell belonging to an ancient turtle spirit. He had a bald head, wore a turtle shell necklace, and was extremely muscular. His soft, vibrant orange robes tightly clung to his powerful body.   

He jumped from the floating turtle and landed near the fallen mage with red hair.    

All eyes turned to him.    

The chimera metaphorically soiled his pants, for he knew the power this stranger wielded.     

All it took was one step for the monster to transfigure a set of wings and fly away towards the city of death and decay, located a hundred miles away from the bottom of the cliff.     

Sinem—the capital city of the Apival Duchy, had already fallen to the undead curse. There wasn’t a single soul left alive. The monsters inhabiting it weren’t worth saving.     

The mysterious man didn’t even have to think about chasing the monster because the lives of the injured were worth more than that. He brought his massive hands and prayed.    

"[Shellmender’s Grace],” said the turtle in a deep, low voice as it landed near the monk.     

A gentle aura of soothing light enveloped the turtle’s shell. A shimmering wave of energy rippled through the air, cascading over each person. The warm glow of the spell spread like a comforting blanket, embracing the members of Team Quella.   

Wounds closed, bones were mended, and weariness was lifted. The rejuvenating energy filled the air with a sense of calmness and tranquility modeled after the long-forgotten goddess the spell was named for.   

But those affected by the spell immediately fell asleep to recover the rest of their energy. That was a side effect of the magic, but it guaranteed the patients would wake up without soreness.     

“Kaiho.”   

“It’ll be done, Enele,” said the turtle. Kaiho used a spell called [Enchanting Shroud of Aquanis] to blow away the ruined, death-filled village in the blink of an eye. The whirlwind of force pushed it across the cliff’s edge, and in its place was a slice of nature only found inside the Kingdom of Aquanis. The vibrant trees and flowing rivers of water that encircled the safety grounds contained protective properties to safeguard those inside from further harm.    

One by one, the turtle ferried the sleeping bodies to their new haven while Enele turned his sights to Remy. She jumped to the ground. “I expected the Dark Lord of Justice to show up, but I didn’t think it would be this soon.”   

Enele, the Dark Lord of Justice, Head Arbitrator overseeing the Kingdom of Aquanis, remained quiet and disapprovingly shook his head towards Remy.    

He knew what she was like.    

He knew how Lord Meruria was.    

He knew there wasn't anything to say, so he remained quiet. 

---

I shouted at the nightmare chasing me through a maze of flesh and blood.    

I knew this was fake.   

I knew this wasn’t real.   

But it still hurt all the same because it wasn’t just Shuuta.   

It was Elly.   

Ami.   

Greggie.   

Keeth.   

Mary.   

And Melusine.   

Seven bloodied, tortured corpses were chasing me.   

Their hatred endlessly spewed my way, cursing me to death. I turned to the left and ran into a monster—the chimera stuck his hand through my chest and crushed my heart.   

I was dead.   

But the nightmare continued.   

It always happened like this.   

Even my nightmares didn’t end when I died. I was just brought back to the beginning of the maze—destined to repeat the same sick game until I woke up.   

But I didn’t know if…I was alive or dead. That chimera made a hole in my stomach. You couldn’t heal that with a song. Even [Minor Heal] wouldn’t have worked.   

So…this was probably the end.   

My mind was punishing me even while my body was on its last breath.   

It was what a failure like me deserved. People died because I was weak—because I wasn’t as strong as I needed to be. The world was too much for me to handle. If I had been tossed in the void…  

Maybe things would’ve been…for the better.  

Maybe I wanted to die.   

Maybe I didn’t want to pray for a miracle.   

This tormented maze—the sickening wonderland that most likely never had an ending… Perhaps I’d be here until I finished it.   

But I knew it didn’t have one.   

So I’d be here until the end of…time?  

Time was infinite.   

Once it began, it never ended. It was the one constant in the world that you could bet would never end.    

And this was my punishment.   

I ran.   

And I ran.   

And I ran, dying to the chimera—dying to the corpses of my friends. Melusine’s crystal wings severed my head during the second attempt. Greggie broke my neck during another. Keeth used a sword made of blood to skew me through the thighs on my fourth, and Mary clawed out my eyes on the fifth. Elly and Ami sang about my impending death and laughed. Their song caused the maze of flesh to turn over on itself, causing me to fall into the endless void below.   

Just like him…  

Just like Shuuta…  

I didn’t know how long I fell for.   

At some point…I believed I just stopped thinking…  

Maybe I wanted to stop?  

Maybe…this was the end?  

No, I wouldn’t get that lucky.   

Before I knew it, the sense of free falling vanished, and I stood back on the platform.   

Shuuta’s dead corpse and the others taunted me, saying I wouldn’t escape my punishment that easily.    

---

“I’M SORRY!!!!!” My eyes suddenly opened, and I leaned up, hitting something hard. I fell back to the ground and clutched my head.     

“Owwwie… Qutie! You’re up!” Elly threw herself on me and kissed my forehead. “You’re okay! You’re safe!”   

“I’m…what?” I was confused—my mind an abhorrent torrent of bewilderment. The blue-haired idol helped me sit up, and I…was surrounded by…nature? “Is that running water? What happened?”   

“You came close to dying, Quella,” said a deep voice. I looked to the left and saw a dark-skinned man sitting by the fire.     

“Where’s Keeth?! Is he okay?! He was shot through the neck, and— and my stomach?!” I touched my abdomen and felt…fine. I didn’t feel any scars or scabs, and the hole certainly wasn’t there.   

“He’s still asleep. Allow me to explain…” After he finished, I summarized it to ensure I had it right.     

“You’re Enele, the Dark Lord of Justice, from the Kingdom of Aquanis. You arrived to help end this undead curse because the Holy Lord Sajun, the previous ruler of Cridia, was your student?”   

“You’re correct. Sajun was like a younger brother. He loved Cridia, so I like to stop by and check on it.”    

“And you used a spell to heal our wounds after the chimera ran away to the capital city of the Apival Duchy?”   

“You’re right once more. The spell makes the targets fall asleep during the healing process. Your friends will wake up when exhaustion has left their bodies. Are you hungry?” Enele pointed to a fat slab of meat roasting in the campfire on a stick.    

“I am, but what about the…the Wolffolk?”   

“Remy?” I nodded, but Elly answered and said she went to the city to look around.    

I wish she wouldn’t return.   

“Ah, I’ve never thanked you. Thank you for saving us. Without you, we would’ve died.”   

“You’re most welcome. I can’t have Lord Meruria’s Soul Warriors die. It’s unbefitting of me after I had promised Lord Sajun to protect his country.”    

“So, you know?”   

“I do. Your Soul Weapon rests at your hip. Here, bite into this. Kaiho, can you prepare a glass of water?” Enele handed me the food he was cooking.    

It smelled heavenly.     

“Kai…ho?” I asked while taking a bite.    

It was deliciously fat and full of flavor.     

“Ah, that’s this little guy. See?” Elly pointed to what I thought was a moss-covered rock.    

But it was a turtle.    

And it faintly glowed with a golden light. It swam through the air slowly and hovered in front of me. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” said the turtle. His voice was heavier than Lord Enele’s. He used a spell called [Nature’s Refreshments] to make a wooden cup filled with clear, cold water.    

After I thanked him, Elly grabbed him out of the air and placed him in her lap.    

It was surreal, but Kaiho must’ve liked it. Enele laughed deeply.    

Elly was given a cup and some food, and we talked for a little longer. It was the dead of night, but it was darker because the smoke from my fires still filled the skies. That was why it also felt even chillier than usual.    

Kaiho was actually Enele’s older adoptive brother—even if the turtle was a spirit. Enele was adopted by a family of Turtlefolk that served as guards for the Kingdom of Aquanis when he was eight years old. His father had summoned Kaiho when he was a young adult, and he had been a part of the family for over 400 years, so... That put him at…over 1,000 years old?   

Turtlefolk lived for many centuries. In comparison to humans, his father would be in his sixties. But after retiring, Kaiho made a pact with Enele. And Enele was over 500 years old. Becoming a Holy or Dark Lord extended your lifespan. That happened a few dozen years before he met Sajun.     

The timeline is intimidating… I’m talking with a turtle older than modern history from my world. 

Lord Enele was easy to talk to. He seemed scary and frightening, but he had a gentle soul.    

If I used standard fantasy tropes, Holy Lords were supposed to be good, and Dark Lords were evil. But good and evil… They were varying shades of gray, not black and white. If we had been summoned by Lord Enele, everything would’ve been different.    

But when I asked if Lord Enele had summoned any Soul Warriors, he said he was forbidden. The Dark Lord of Justice was to be fair and impartial to all. They were never supposed to show favoritism to one side or the other. As the Head Arbitrator, he oversaw the annual Lord Conference, held at the beginning of summer, in the Kingdom of Aquanis.    

It turned out we were summoned just a few days after that conference. Every Holy and Dark Lord was required to go since it acted like the United Nations from my world—a place for Divine Countries—places ruled by a Holy or Dark Lord—or even Mortal Countries – countries without them—to share their grievances or concerns.   

The topic of summoning was brought up every fifty years, although each country needed to agree on a time frame. Lord Enele said the longest recorded gap was 198 years, and the shortest was 29 years.     

“It’s the rule that all summoners are to choose a squad of Soul Warriors and attend the Lord Conference following a summoning session,” said Lord Enele, finishing his tidy and easy-to-follow lecture. “It’s the oldest kingdom in the world. It’s full of rich history, legends, and fascinating fragments of the world of yesteryear.”   

It really sounded amazing. But would Meruria allow us—filthy defenders of trash—as she probably sees us—to attend something so prestigious?   

Probably not.    

She’d probably make up some reason why we had to stay in Junsa.     

As we talked and ate, more of my friends began waking up. Keeth was the last, and he cried for twenty minutes straight—primarily because Elly was hugging him tight enough to cause a little pain. Lord Enele was surprised to find out who Melusine was.    

Maybe it was a mistake to not return her to her orb. Although we didn’t know spirits needed to return to their spirit crystals until after he had deduced her identity from her name and appearance.    

Mary’s mana orbs were an alternative to these spirit and demon crystals. Each spirit and demon held a core somewhere on their body that killed them when broken. Melusine and monsters had cores hidden inside their bodies that you used in enchanting, as Lord Enele taught us when he was flabbergasted Meruria hadn't told us anything about this world and how it worked.    

“The core acts as a heart?”   

“That’s correct, Mary. Queen Melusine, please be careful when it comes to fighting. Do not tell anyone about your true nature. If word gets out about a way to extract boss monsters from dungeons containing Lore, I don’t want to imagine the trouble your tamer will find herself in.”   

“Your worries are valid, Lord Enele. I will take them to heart. However, I’m not sure where my core’s even at.”   

“We didn’t find any when we butchered the leopards for meat. Why was that, Nelly?” asked Ami. She already had a nickname for him. And he liked it. He laughed at her casualness and approved of it. He said cores came in all shapes and sizes. We weren’t digging deep enough to extract them. The guilds would buy them, but you were better off going to an auction house or a specialized market.    

Since Lord Enele was close to Cridia’s previous Holy Lord, I wanted to ask him about Meruria’s ascension. If she pushed him into the void, she took his Holy Mana. I was almost positive she did, but it wasn’t the right time to ask. I was about to ask something else when Mary patted her jacket and…   

“They’re gone?!” she exclaimed. The horror and dread on her face could have killed a gargoyle.    

That was right…   

That chimera had taken the pills she needed to halt her advanced aging. She was a test tube baby, and the accelerated division of her cells aged rapidly aged her. Without her pills…   

Lord Enele didn’t understand until Mary explained why they were so important. I didn’t think he understood, but he said Mary was a Soul Warrior. By default, they had longer lifespans. A 1-Star aged 20% slower, a 2-Star 40%, and so on.     

“Soul Evolution… That’s the key. It extends your life.”   

“But does that exist?” I asked. Melusine and Elly rubbed Mary’s back while she hugged her knees.    

“I’ve seen it happen with my own eyes. Most believe it to be a falsehood uttered by their summoners to give them a dash of fleeting hope. But it is true. I swear upon my life as the Dark Lord of Justice it is not unobtainable.” That cheered Mary up a little, but she was still shaken.    

It was almost funny because I had never seen her act like a teacher. She was a brilliant woman with a bright mind—she had to be to have been chosen to teach at Mekka Academy. But she wasn’t…useful…to help us further advance our studies. I hated using that word, but she was, until recently, a woman who showed up to class to do almost nothing because we were, on average, her intellectual superiors. 

She didn’t want to be called Ms. Mary or Ms. Mishel because she never wanted to be a teacher. She only did it to save her adoptive family from being killed by the group that made her.     

Honestly? Her life was a sad drama, filled with depressing downs with few uplifting moments. She was a fighter, though. She wasn’t so courageous, but I could tell she was trying to change that.    

She wanted to become better. Maybe if she did, she’d have the confidence to try her hand at teaching.    

But she didn’t act like one, and I believed that was fine.    

I liked Mary the way she was.    

The campfire continued to sizzle, and I potentially ruined the atmosphere by bringing up the chimera. It was just too strong and fast. Our attacks phased through it... It split into multiple copies and transfigured unbreakable scales to prevent melee damage…   

How could we compete with that? My spells didn’t do anything. Perhaps Ami’s aura could have done something, but she couldn’t gather enough.   

We were weak.    

Weaker than I thought.    

I was a fool to think of us as capable. How dumb was I? How many more times would I fail and put my friends’ lives in danger?   

Enele said we didn’t have anything to worry about. “When the morning comes, I’ll exterminate the chimera. The monster assimilated a necromancer and foolishly wielded its newfound powers carelessly.”   

I asked if it could run away from the city, but Enele shook his head and said it couldn’t leave the Apival Duchy. The curse it used made Sinem the epicenter of the ability. The chimera would undoubtedly be strong while inside it. Leaving it would immediately weaken him.  

Keeth passed the time by using a few spare ingots Mary's monsters were holding to create a replacement sword and shield for Greggie.    

---

When morning rolled around, Remy returned. She appeared from a flash of light and sat down, not even caring that her clothes and face were covered in blood and rotted flesh.    

“It’s a leveling gold mine, Cutie Qutie!” Remy was all smiles and laughter.

It sickened me.    

“So, here’s the deal. There’s not a single non-monster left within the city. You guys know about zombies and liches, right?”   

I didn’t want to answer her, but I nodded. “They’re weak to fire and holy magic," Remy continued. "You can also kill them with healing magic. Elly Belly, your horrendous singing would do the job."   

"It’s NOT horrendous!” growled Elly. She couldn’t look at Remy’s face across the campfire without feeling hatred surge through her heart like a spreading flame. "And don't call me that!"  

“It is to the undead. Anyways, I figured it's the perfect chance. Cutie Qutie, why don’t you use [Inferno Burst] and burn it away? Just destroy the city to the last goddamn ash.”   

“Is that what your lord wants, Remy?” Enele folded his arms and sat with his back straight.   

“It is. The Apival Duchy has been in decline for decades. Famine and disease accelerated the decay, and then a necromancer moved in to experiment. It doesn’t take a genius to foresee a chimera being born within the last decade and assimilating the foolish mystic to steal his power over the dead. The people were a lost cause.”   

“Why didn’t you do anything? What kind of a ruler is this Meruria if she allows her subjects to willingly suffer?”   

“I don’t know if a queen like you is allowed to say anything. May I remind you of Faedornia? Between Cridia and your lame-ass kingdom, which is a mere forgotten memory? You let your ‘subjects’ unceremoniously suffer while failing to find a cure. No wonder the Crystal Faeries are extinct if you were their leader,” Remy said with a smile. Although there was a murderous twitch in her eye at hearing someone badmouth Meruria.    

Her words hurt Melusine. She bit her lip, and then Remy taunted her more until I barged into the conversation and changed it. But by then, Melusine had returned to her mana orb. Enele looked disapprovingly at Remy.    

He was supposed to remain neutral. Punishing Remy would violate that. But maybe he wanted to?   

“We’re heading out in fifteen minutes, okay? I wanna find the chimera and finish this far because I want to return to Lord Meruria’s arms. I really, really, really want her to make me tingle. Her fingers are the best. And I wanna see her kiss and touch my sis, Willow. Oh~~~ I miss you so much, Lord Meruria…”    

Ugh…