A group of five moved through the desert under a sun that was unforgiving. The air was without the slightest hint of moisture which made the journey even more perilous. Still, the group persisted and moved forward. That was until a dust cloud moved toward them.

“Hold on!” The apparent leader raised his hands and the group stopped. They eyed the approaching entities with caution.

The identity of the group was obviously Lance’s party. They made the trek to inform Ira of the Angels plot against him. It wasn’t an easy one as the Underground City was located in a harsh environment but they had come quite far.

“Monsters!” Lance yelled as they drew their weapons.

Moving toward them were beasts covered from head to toe in fur that stood more than six feet tall, Werewolves to be more precise. Strangely enough, the Werewolves wore leather armor that consisted of a leather chest plate and a skirt-like belt of leather strips that protected their lower bodies. Within moments they arrived and surrounded the group.

“Lance, what do we do?” Sarah asked while sweat dampened her forehead. She raised her bow laboriously showing that she, like the rest of her group, was in no condition to fight.

Suddenly, one of the Werewolves began to shrink and its fur receded until the shape of a human man could be seen, albeit a hairy one.

“Why are you trespassing on our land, humans?” The man asked while the rest of the Werewolves stood on guard, growling and gnashing their teeth.

Lance glanced at his group and then began to speak. “We’re here to warn Ira about the Angels.”

The eyes of the lycanthrope man narrowed, illustrating his doubt. “What about them?”

“They’re gathering an army to fight against Ira.”

“We don’t fear human armies, not anymore. Something as small as that isn’t worth the Keeper’s attention.” The man replied.

“You don’t understand, every country is going to take up arms against Ira and the entire Dark Elf Empire.”

“You speak nonsense, human.”

“Listen to me!” Lance shouted. “We risked our lives to get here in order to pass that information along. You have to take us to see Ira.”

The Werewolves became silent and then the man spoke up.

“I don’t like the way you refer to the Keeper, human. Even so, if what you’re saying is even a little bit true then we’d be idiots not to inform the Keeper…but if I find out you’re deceiving us we’ll rip each one of you apart while making your friends watch,” The lycanthrope said threateningly.

Lance nodded without fear since he had no intention of lying.

“Follow us, humans.”

The Lycanthrope turned back into a werewolf before rushing away. Lance and the others followed behind them but they were much slower.

After a bit of time passed, the group arrived at a wooden lift that overlooked the valley that served as the entrance to the Underground City.

“I hope you aren’t scared of heights.” The Lycanthropes were already waiting at the lift when Lance and his group arrived.

…

Inside of the Underground City, Lance’s information had to pass through a few people, namely Valkyries, before it reached Ira and as soon as it did Avery called an emergency meeting. Within a few minutes, the most important figures filled a room. Sylun and Casey were in attendance as well as the leaders of the newly found factions, Eloise, Jydar, Saren, and Gareth. Even Samantha was in attendance though her presence was somewhat minimized.

Sitting in the middle of the semi-circular table was Ira with Avery right beside. And standing in front of all those important figures was Lance and his group.

“Ira,” Lance said with a tone of uncertainty. After all, Gavreel’s accusations against Ira still filled his mind.

“Lance,” Ira replied. “If you don’t mind, could you repeat what you have to say?”

Lance decided to put his concerns in the back of his mind and began to speak, “The Angels are gathering everyone, Humans, Diavol, Elves, and Dwarves. They’re going to build an army to attack you and the Dark Elf Empire.”

The room immediately went into a stir as those who had yet to hear the information.

“An army? The humans are split into three different countries, no? Is it possible for them to reconcile their differences? Especially considering that the Tel’vians attacked the Grenitians not too long ago.” Sylun was the first to voice her skepticism while monitoring Ira’s expression.

Ira didn’t seem bothered by the info so others took that as an opportunity to speak.

“We’ll have to build defenses. We can dig deeper tunnels to hide civilians if need be.” Jydar, who had recently become a father one might add, wasn’t too keen on fighting.

“No, we should bolster our army. Although three years isn’t a long period of time our soldiers have experienced a great deal of training. I’m confident that one of our soldiers is worth at least ten of their own.” Eloise spoke in disagreement.

“That still puts us at a disadvantage.” Casey chimed in. “Look at their numbers. They’ll have Humans and Diavol at their front lines with most of the Elves as archers and mages. The Dwarves will also have built siege equipment to serve an army of that size...At the very least we’re looking at an army that numbers a few million all with Angels supporting them. Does anyone know the capabilities of an Angel other than their healing and seemingly endless mana?”

“No, but we can split them into different groups. The Angels with a single pair of wings lack faces according to Ira. I think it’s safe to think of them as puppets which a group of Valkyries could easily best. The ones with multiple pairs of wings will be the truly troublesome foes. Gavreel will be quite formidable and since even greater ones are around,” Avery replied.

“I know the ones you speak of,” Zella spoke up. “They don’t show themselves and they don’t interact with anyone. All they do is guard a giant stone sphere that floats in the sky.”

“Does anyone know what it is?” Sylun asked. When she received silence she spoke once more. “Does anyone have any ideas as to what it could be?”

“Uh…” Gareth started with a trembling voice. “It could be a weapon perhaps?”

“A weapon?” Saren inquired, motioning for Gareth to continue.

“Yes, uh, I think they’ll be most worried about the Keeper since he destroyed the Behemoth. I think it would be some sort of weapon to deal with him,” Gareth said.

“They did bring it out of that...Golden Aurora,” Ira added in a casual manner.

“So, if I understand correctly. We have more than one thousand angels, an army that numbers in the millions, and a weapon that will target Ira, to contend against?” Casey asked.

A stark silence descended on the room as no one could see a good outcome when faced with such odds.

“They can’t properly feed an army of that size. At least, not in an efficient manner. If we are to fight against them I’d target the supply lines first.” Samantha finally was able to contribute and it was a useful piece of information no less.

“That’s right. I bet they’ll have difficulty sending orders too!” Saren spoke excitedly.

“I doubt it. If they put an Angel in charge of, let’s say, ten thousand soldiers each. They’ll be able to act without much confusion.” Casey cut Saren’s theory down immediately.

“Still, couldn’t we exploit that? Take out the commanding officer and you’re left with an army made up of strangers of different races. They will lose all coordination in an instant and probably end up retreating.” Sylun was the one to suggest a different avenue of attack but Lance raised his hand.

“What about the abilities of the Angels? Didn’t a few Lycanthropes go to the capital and return in a strange state? If we assume the Angels can control the will of weaker beings then they’ll have a fearless army that can fight through those conditions. We can’t be sure that killing an Angel will deactivate that ability either,” Avery responded.

Avery closed her eyes and thought to herself for a few moments before continuing. “Our current advantages are as follows, the Behemoth’s materials, the Red Moon, the individual strength of our soldiers, the Valkyries, Ira, and the time we have before our enemy prepares. We should focus on what we can do with that.”

“Why don’t we just attack them first?” Ira asked while leaning forward, a devilish smile on his face.

“...What?” Avery furrowed her eyebrows.

“They don’t know we know, right? I can take a few thousand soldiers and we can attack each country to slow them down and thin their numbers out a bit. We can also take the opportunity to inspect those Angels. It’s the perfect plan, really.” Ira’s smile grew even wider.

“You’re right,” Avery said while her eyes widened in realization. “But I doubt it’ll work more than a few times, Ira. We’ll have to select the targets carefully and attack at once. Will you be able to do it?”

“Easily,” Ira answered simply.

“Ira.” Lance began to talk with a grave tone.

“Lance.” Sarah grabbed his shoulder to stop him but he shook his head.

“Is it true, Ira?” Lance asked.

“Is what true?” Ira’s smile slowly faded until it was a faint but ever-present grin.

“Did you kill all of those Diavol soldiers? Are you the City-Eater?” Lance asked and the room became still.

Ira laughed loudly for a few seconds and then replied. “Yeah, I killed them. Also, I’d appreciate if you didn’t call me the City-Eater. It’s not a nickname I want to go by.”

“Why?” Lance clenched and unclenched his fist. “Can I know why?”

“Does it matter?” Ira inquired with a genuine interest. “Giving a reason doesn’t accomplish anything except maybe letting you sleep a little better at night. Besides, they would’ve killed a bunch of humans if I hadn’t interfered so who cares if I went overboard. I wonder how many people are still alive because that one city went missing. Though if you really want to know why I guess it was because Avery almost died.”

Ira’s eyes became serious and all hints of his smile vanished. A rare appearance for him who always seemed to be chipper.

Lance felt the words he was about to say retreat into the back of his throat. He knew that Ira would kill him if he said something rude. The argument of one life for a few thousand wouldn’t work for Ira seeing as he valued Avery immeasurably.

“Keeper.” Sylun acted as if she didn’t hear the shocking revelation and spoke up.

“Oh, yeah.” Ira went back to his normal self in an instant. “Thank you all for bringing us some valuable information. I know you must be tired so you can get some rest here and I’ll send you all back tomorrow.”

“Ira.”

“Ira.”

Gerald and Zella called out in tandem.

“Hm?” Ira raised an eyebrow.

“We aren’t going back,” Zella said. “We want to stay here and help you.”

“What?!” Lance looked absolutely distressed at their words.

“We can’t go back, Lance,” Gerald said.

“Why? What do you mean by that?! Gerald, you have a wife waiting for you, right?” Lance asked. Although the two had changed after being brought back from the dead, he thought that he made some progress in getting his friends back to their normal selves.

“Lance, I–”

Just as Gerald was about to finish, Sylun spoke up. “Take this elsewhere.”

As she finished speaking, guards approached Lance’s group.

“Take them somewhere nice so they can enjoy their stay.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” The guards saluted before escorting the group out of the room.

“Ira, we can’t let them go,” Avery said suddenly. “If even one of them inform the Angels of our plans then it’ll be at risk of succeeding.”

“So, you want to kill them?” Ira questioned.

“It’s not necessary to, we’ll just keep them here until our plan is in motion. They have no room to complain and even if they do they don’t have a choice.”

“I get it,” Ira replied with a short sigh before turning to Sylun. “Can you handle it for me?”

“Of course, Keeper.” Sylun bowed her head slightly.

“Alright, I have children to get back to. We’ll gather again tomorrow and work out the smaller details.”

Ira and Avery stood up before they vanished from sight. The ones that remained in the room would be left to work tirelessly in order to figure out a proper plan of attack. The worst part was, Ira was likely to end up ignoring a large part of whatever strategy was produced in favor of doing what he wanted.