I wouldn’t make the same mistake of hiding my power again, so I decided to share the video recording of this fight with every Wraith who joined me. That way, they knew my power—just like Dranta was figuring out.

  The man was a swollen art piece of twisted muscles and broken bones, but I had to give him credit—

  He was standing.

  That was worth something, I suppose.

  “Allow me to introduce myself,” I said to him. “My name is Mira Isabella Hill, Grand Guardian of Areswood Forest. I’m the commander of the Wraithwood Army, Scion of Elana, and your ruler. If I were weak, I wouldn’t have any of those titles, and that grand display of power would have overwhelmed me. Instead, I stood in one location and took you out with simple clones. So, despite your status as a Scion, despite your god’s teachings, despite your bluster, arrogance, recalcitrance, rudeness, and beliefs of your superiority, you’re nothing more than a third evolution entity—

  “And that’s not enough to win this war.”

  Dranta looked like he was trying to spit, but he hung his head and coughed out blood instead.

  “This fight came to be because I offered to train Dranta. He refused. He claimed that he was stronger; he called me arrogant. He clung to his title Savage of Geena, the name of his god, Marqui, and his status as a multiversal trial-of-woth-ranker.

  “But he lost. He didn’t lose because I was more talented; he lost because there are entities and magic in Areswood that far exceed anything he has experienced. It contains priceless alchemic resources, meat that will allow you to uproot trees, and wonders that you cannot imagine. He lost because every meal here contains an abundant supply of aura, and the weakest cores here are scarce where you come from.

  “To live in Areswood is not an easy journey. It’s fraught with peril, lacking in many comforts, and many find immense frustration in being unable to leave for the first year or two, and convince themselves that this forest isn’t as dangerous as it seems, only to delve in for the first time and die from poisons or beasts.

  “Areswood is a dangerous place to live—but it provides those who enter it with potential they cannot get elsewhere, potential to supersede individuals like Dranta, who were the pinnacle of multiversal strength before entering here. That’s what captivates the multiverse, and what makes countless civilizations destroy their empires at a chance to expose its secrets.

  “It’s also what makes this forest glorious and worth protecting.

  “That is our role—to protect this forest. And to that end, I will make you powerful beyond your wildest imaginations. I’ll help you stand before the strongest in the multiverse—supercede your experts and idols. But first, you must accept that you’re weak, and accept the majesty of this forest that you can truly become a Wraith, and stand first in the multiverse. So shed your ego, throw out your biases, humble yourself, and accept your role as a guardian. Only then will you achieve true strength.”

  I turned and walked away.

  “Finish me!” Dranta roared with the little strength he had left.

  I scoffed and kept walking. “You act like this was a fight.”

  I cut the video and left Lithco to sort out whether to add that sentence to the official propaganda. He'd better make it perfect—it cost a diamond request.

  A diamond request was wildly expensive, but the Oracle highly discouraged using it for personal gain. It took a diamond request just to send out a two-way letter to my parents once a month. Now it was simply showing a short video to everyone who joined Wraithwood—now and in the future. Either way, it was worth it. I watched it on the way back to the cheering crowd, and when I opened my eyes, I saw individuals swarming me. These were my new elites, the top talent in the multiverse that we’ve received so far. It was good to have their support. I was their leader after all.

  I wonder what effect it had on the other soldiers and those in Rall’s Fort. Countless came here to obtain glory, and I had just shown it to them in the most dramatic way possible. I hoped it would have a strong effect for years to come.

  “Heal him,” I said to a healer as I walked out of the pit.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Malo approached as the healing team rushed after Dranta.

  “How’d I do?” I asked.

  “Brilliant,” Malo said.

  “Means a lot coming from you.” I turned to Yaksa, Sika, and Wedden. “I think that I just spoke to Dranta in the only language he understands, but I’m sure you all have an appreciation for words. Right?”

  Sika and Wedden smiled.

  “Yes,” Sika said.

  Yaksa was a bit shocked by what she had witnessed and had initial difficulty replying. She nodded soon after and agreed, so we returned to the table in Wraithwood Cafe. The whole ordeal was less discreet, as the entire village now knew of my one-sided triumph against Dranta. I tried to flash them smiles to remind them I wasn’t a monster, but I gave up and just let people stare until we arrived at Wraithwood Cafe.

  We were served food and I ignored the stares of the four other tables in the room, as we hadn’t booked it private. It didn’t matter. We weren’t going to discuss anything confidential.

  “As I was saying,” I said, cracking a smile when Yaksa sent me a sassy smile. “We’re in the middle of a war. In just over a year, an information auction will trigger a conquest attempt the following year. That’s why we need you to train in the Fifth Ring. Once their armies get there, we need to hit them with such brutal and overwhelming strength that it pushes back the conquering efforts—or halts it.”

  A year and a half. As unbelievable as it was—that’s how much time was left.

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  Nine years had passed since I arrived in Areswood. I was alone for my first two years, but Felio joined me in my third. Tyler joined in my fourth—and that was also the year Brexton announced the auction, setting it for five years' time. I immediately started Wraithwood the next year. The year after, we built it; the following year, my parents arrived, and Tyler had his wedding. I gave him Rall’s Fort as a wedding present.

  Now, we were building it.

  We only had a year after the next harvest before the auction.

  “About that…” Yaksa said. “You want us to train in the Fifth Ring. Does that mean that you train in the Fifth Ring?”

  “Yes. I exclusively fight fourth evolution beasts.”

  Yaksa shivered almost imperceptively, but I didn’t fail to notice. The other two were calm as still water. That’s something I valued immensely.

  “We also need good leadership,” I continued. “Malo… a legendary general… is running the head army out of Wraithwood. My brother’s the general of the bastion in Rall’s Fort to the west—but he’s not ready. So I need one of you to act as his deputy general… or whatever the military here calls it. He also needs an advisor… and so do I.”

  I looked between the siblings and swallowed. “So I guess I need to ask—Aae you two like… a packaged deal? ‘Cause I’d like Yaksa, who’s a bit more brutal, to keep Rall’s Fort in check—and you can’t be my and Tyler’s advisors if you are stuck together.”

  The siblings looked at each other.

  “We hadn’t seen each other in years before Wedden asked if I wanted to apply,” Sika said. “We’re okay with anything; a few weeks' travel is insignificant even if it was.”

  “Thank God,” I sighed in relief and looked at Yaksa. “I assume that you’re willing to be a deputy general?”

  “Of course.”

  “Do you think you can handle Dranta?”

  Yakasa clenched her jaw and shook her head. “Dranta and I are different. He’s a mindless brute, but he has long-range siege destruction capabilities. I’m equally strong but stuck at a relatively short range. If he wanted to destroy things, I couldn’t stop him. If he wasn’t heavily pacted, I’d recommend killing him now.”

  I sighed and looked at the Iaska siblings. “Either of you have long-range magic?”

  “I do,” Wedden said.

  “I don’t,” Sika said.

  “Okay, it’s decided. Wedden will stay with me. Sika and Yaksa will journey to Rall’s Fort to be with Tyler. Sika, you’ll have some kinda check on Yaksa. Results are results, but as you know Wraithwood has a different culture. If anyone doesn’t abide by them, they’ll be demoted. Including you.”

  Yaksa nodded.

  “Any objections?” I asked.

  No one had any.

  “Okay, it’s decided. We’ll set off for Rall’s Fort tomorrow.”

  Once the meeting adjourned, I opened the presents from the Iaska siblings.

  They were simple: wind barrier pendants.

  “For your parents,” Sika explained. “If they need protection, they can use these pendants, and it’ll create a barrier and a massive gust of razor wind in an attempt to kill anyone who has surrounded them.”

  My eyes trembled, and I swallowed.

  “I have nothing that can compare with something so precious…”

  “You have released us from our soul pacts—allow us to do this much.”

  I nodded solemnly. “Thank you.”

  They nodded and went to sleep. The next day, we ensured Dranta was healed and set off for Rall’s Fort. The trip only took two days when riding with the lurvine, who didn’t seem to get tired, as Sika commented. They had naturally heard whispers of the undead lurvine, but no one could address them directly on the subject, as they were unaware and thus were straining their soul pacts to talk frivolously on the subject, so they weren't in the know. Sina and the lurvine were always wrapped in Dreamscape otherwise, so aside from not eating, they looked and breathed and felt like normal, sometimes lazy beasts. No one quite believed it—which was a good thing.

  We reached Rall’s Fort and were amazed. We had only been gone for six months, and it was already completely different from what it was before. Rall’s Fort could handle tens of thousands of Jacksmores, who were very large. We could double that space by splitting the rooms in half, and that’s what Tyler was doing. He had the soldiers renovating and fixing every unrestorable housing unit in Rall’s Fort—and they had partially completed thousands of rooms.

  There were also booming businesses. We had mastered our currency system and banks, so business owners found it a goldmine to set up shop in renovated Jacksmore buildings, as the buildings were already ready for use—and we had an abundance of supplies.

  No god had direct control over the First Domain, and the Melhans and other merchant families refused to entertain the thought of turning down billions in income every year unless Hadrian physically destroyed their business—and that would threaten the Dante’s multi-Domain hegemony. If they were tyrants, all of their enemies would link up with their “friends” to fight them.

  The First Domain had Hadrian—

  The others lacked an equivalent.

  Thus, we obtained unlimited supplies from the First Domain, and we were importing alien products from all across the multiverse when we brought people here with free transportation, as the Oracle found mana-powered spaceships cheaper than teleportation when practical. So we had a hundred people whose full-time job was to buy things from planets that our applicants were from.

  Every harvest, Aiden’s army had to make multiple trips.

  It was truly amazing how many resources we had stockpiled—but it wouldn’t be enough.

  We could be mostly isolated after the war started, as the invading forces could coerce the Melhans and other merchants into not selling to us. We still had my epic request, but alien imports were temporary, circumstantial, and wouldn’t be enough. Thus, we relied upon ourselves, and our trades workers were already serving a good chunk of our needs.

  We had brewers.

  Millers.

  Miners.

  Bakers.

  Tanners.

  Farmers.

  Butchers.

  Carpenters.

  Hell, we had full-time spicers for our cooks and canners and salters.

  These were in addition to the merchants and barbers, and massage therapists. If there was a need, we filled it; if there was a luxury, we were building it. Our goal was to be self-sufficient—

  And better.

  Our crops could absorb third evolution cores, and the instant newcomers entered Wraithwood and tasted our vegetable stew, they felt rich beyond comparison. We were, after all, eating food that exceeded the power enjoyed by nobles in the other domains. No, it was better. Whenever I was around, I helped fertilize the crops with third evolution meat, and the vegetables boosted the soldiers’ aura.

  Our food was incomparable.

  Our leather was stronger than steel.

  Our alchemical supplies were often worth millions.

  Our talent was quickly becoming amongst the best in the entire universe. Everyone we imported had the institutional knowledge to run trades for armies.

  Yet there was one program that would bring Wraithwood to the very top, and the first thing Tyler said when he saw me was, “Sis, you’re not going to believe it.”

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