'What do you think it will be this time?' Reika asked her ghostly companion.

With his arms crossed over his chest, Mofolo answered, 'Well, the last three rolls were all lightning strikes that were unavoidable even with his well-placed metallic rods. I'm surprised he only lost one use of his halo for that. Hmm... This time, I'll wager he gets struck by a meteor.'

Reika nodded in a sagely manner. 'We personally think the earth beneath him will cave in to reveal a massive tunnel with spikes at the end, but we shall see.'

'That's not how luck works, dear Reika. Luck does not bend and alter reality, it simply adjusts things and moves them to follow its will,' Mofolo tried to explain. 'You are thinking of fate. They are very different.'

Reika stuck her tongue out at her fellow spirit. 'Splitting hairs.'

"I'm about to split my hairs here if you two keep hemming and hawing," Daz grumbled. "Whatever bet you're trying to set up, call it off. I'm done here with these stupid fucking dice."

He leaned over and pushed his hand through the thick charred black grass to pick up the few dice he'd been rolling. "I need to stop seeking additional confirmations from these things..." he muttered under his breath.

Daz had rolled the dice of Altros' Unlucky Dice Set a total of eight times. Each time with different ideals and intentions in mind regarding his Skill Empowering Tokens.

The first dice made it so he couldn't move without 'accidentally' hitting himself at full power.

The second dice seemed to have a sense of humour since it forced his pants to slip down to his ankles repeatedly. It didn't matter how many times he pulled them back up or how tight he set his belt. Even holding them at his hips didn't work since they'd just slip through his fingers.

The third dice made his wrist twitch uncomfortably, resulting in him rolling the fourth dice prematurely and without any thoughts behind it, essentially wasting the roll.

That fourth wasted roll somehow led a leaderless pack of angry and very strong monsters to his rural and isolated location. It had taken him a good 10-minutes to slaughter them and he came close to using up one of the Halo of Judgement's chances to save his life then and there.

Daz considered going home after that but he needed to do just a few more rolls to solidify his decision.

That had resulted in the three unavoidable lightning strikes, each more powerful than the last with the seventh dice's one activating his halo to move his body out of the way of fatal harm.

"Rimmy it is," he said as he dusted off his clothes.

Daz then summoned his Ridomochi Final Model and drove back to Fort Skip after picking up his useless lightning rods. On the way home, he used his Skill Empowering Tokens on Rimmy.

Now, while still being only in his basic form, the big lumbering friendly giant of crystal was immune to being turned to ash.

However, Rimmy was only immune so long as whatever was trying to make it ash was unnatural in nature.

Unlike Daz's Ashborne skill, the Skill Empowering Tokens didn't grant incredible resistance to heat and room for growth, sadly.

In regards to his rewards from completing semester one's goal, Daz still had the 25,000 goal exemptions to think about, but all in all, he was free now to focus on his personal training while his generals and most trusted allies figured out what was going on with the recent disappearances.

A month later, Daz was under the tree atop his castle focusing himself entirely on his shovel, Hamson, as he swung it around with purpose and vigour.

Trails of energy seemed to follow his every swipe as the crimson-red and jagged blade of the root slayer shovel seamlessly flowed through the air.

Were someone to be watching him they may have mistook his movements for dancing. They wouldn't be entirely wrong either.

Right now, Daz and Hamson were as one and the reaper had lost all sense of self many minutes ago.

Power emanated and fluctuated from and all around him as he scooped at seemingly nothing. Minutes turned into hours and hours into days while he moved as if by instinct.

Eventually, his breath has turned ragged and sweat oozed out of his every pore. With one final scoop of Hamson's blade into the soft earth beneath his feet, his eyes opened for the first time in half a week.

"I did it..." he murmured to himself as a change happened to his Ember of Digging.

Congratulations! The host has gained complete mastery of the entry-level state of the [Ember of Digging]. The host now has a rudimentary understanding of the beginner-level state of the [Ember of Digging]. Ember of Digging [Beginner-level Ember] [Up from Entry-level] ✧ The host [Daz] has come to gain some insight into the concept of digging, and thus, can draw on the power of its Ember. Mastery

Initial: 1%

He had been focusing on just this Ember for almost an entire month now. It had taken him a week of concentrated sleepless effort to reach 100% mastery over the initial stage of the entry-level.

Another week and a half and he had completed the next stage of mastery; intermediary.

The last push through the final stages of mastery needed guidance from Cecil, his often neglected dreamscape advisor.

After all of his concentrated effort, he was quite frankly ecstatic to have accomplished his short-term goal of empowering one of his means to combat the Truthians.

"It took me a few more days than I had expected, granted, but this lifts a weight off my mind," Daz said before he stretched and cracked all of his bones.

He left the rooftop garden of the castle only to immediately find Mu waiting for him. "Hey, Mu. It's odd to see you here."

"Well, you told me you'd be announcing the declaration of war once you were done meditating, thus, here I am," the young man smiled as he scratched his exposed calf with a sandalled foot. "How did that go, by the way? I can already sense progress from you as a fellow Ember-wielder."

Daz nodded softly as he walked alongside him through the castle halls. "I broke past the entry-level barrier for my Ember of Digging."

Mu smiled proudly. "As expected of you, Brother."

Daz gave Mu a funny look. "You say that like I'm impressive. Did you forget your own incredible accomplishments in the field of Embers?"

Mu shook his head. "I am me and you are you. Do not try to belittle yourself merely because I have done what you did only earlier. Do remember that I delegate all of my lordly responsibilities to my vassals to instead focus on my training. You still work as high king personally, even in spite of your clones being more than suitable for the task."

"I know. By the way, is Shúzuì ready to enter the full-scale lockdown yet?" Daz asked, changing the subject to a more pressing and important one.

Mu nodded. "Yes. Is everywhere else?"

"From the reports I've received, seems so, yeah," Daz answered happily. "It's taken a lot of work from everyone but we should be as prepared as we possibly can be right now to fight the Truthians."

"Did we ever get solid proof that they were the ones behind the disappearances?" Mu asked with a ponderous expression on his face.

Daz shook his head. "No, but I trust Rose."

"I see. Is war really the only answer?" Mu pondered aloud. "I am more than willing to end lives on a mass scale if needed, of course, but we are few enough as it is already. I would much rather we didn't kill more of our own kind."

"Something feels wrong about the Truthians. You would understand if you had my instincts and went to the cathedral I visited," Daz explained. "Trust me, they need to go, one way or another. Peace was on the table until I went to their territory myself."

'And there's the issue of whatever 'Aren' is. I just can't fight the feeling that if I don't strike first, I'll be burned badly for resting on my laurels,' Daz thought.

As if on queue, the sound of explosions rang out in the distance, alarming both reapers. The very next moment, A notification filled Daz's vision. A very familiar notification. One he hadn't seen since before Timothy Marglow died.

Declaration of War! Mother Danielle, Pope and leader of the Church of Truth, has formally entered a war with you, High King Daz, Monarch of New Earth. Conditions for Mother Danielle's Victory All citizens of New Earth join the Church of Truth or are delivered to the Lord's side. High King Daz offers up his own life. [Will prevent the Church of Truth from harming New Earth or her people any further.] Rewards for Mother Danielle's Victory New Earth will make the Church of Truth its one and only faith. Conditions for High King Daz's Victory [Undecided. Please choose your conditions.] Rewards for High King Daz's Victory [Dependant on the conditions.]

Daz grit his teeth with enough force that the air around his mouth rumbled and threatened to shatter. "That bitch. Fuck. A few more hours. Literally a few more hours... This can be dealt with later, for now, Mu, let's go. We need to see what the fuck just happened in the city and we need to stop it from getting worse."

Mu nodded grimly. "These war conditions, they are public. I see them too. This is not good, but you are right. let us go, Brother."

"I know I have the strength to do it and not notice it, but must I really carry all of your bags, Ellie?" Idris asked in perfect English.

Ellie stuck out her tongue at him before leaned over and kissing his cheek. "Yes, you must. It's like the chick flick movies from before the apocalypse. I've always looked up to their protagonists so stop complaining and continue being handsome while I continue acting out my fantasies, okay?"

Idris couldn't help but smile as he sighed. "What a sorry fate to be beholden to the charms of a witch..."

"Hey! Just because you can speak perfect English now, that doesn't mean you get to make fun of your girlfriend by using fancy words like 'beholden'," Ellie said with a frown as they walked down the high street of Fort Home.

"Ellie? Idris?" an old and gruff voice called out from across the street. Jogging towards them, Sandy smiled and said, "I thought that was you two. It's been a while since we last met, hasn't it?"

Ellie smiled awkwardly. "Yeah. We just haven't found the time to help with any construction work since everything local has been finished for weeks now."

Idris nodded. "I enjoyed my time working under you, Sandy, but as the 'protagonist' says, we had to move on to other ventures... Like shopping..." That comment earned him an elbow to the gut.

Sandy shrugged with a smirk on his lips. "Don't worry about it. Carl handles most of the work now anyway. I'm only called in for the big jobs since the kid went and got the power to make his own buildin's system ones too."

He eyed the pair of young adults mischievously before asking, "Have you told Daz yet that you two hooked up? I'm sure he'd like to know the girl who used to crush on him has properly moved on."

Ellie laughed. "No. You know how busy he is. It's crazy, almost. A few months ago I could have lunch with him casually but now that he's a ruler of almost a million people and we have news networks again... It's like he's a celebrity. Everything he does gets reported on and is treated as 'breaking news'."

Idris smiled warmly at Ellie. "He is just as famous as you are. Tales of the woman who helped our monarch fend off a laser-shooting robot still spread throughout the city from time to time."

Ellie blushed. "You know I don't fight anymore. There's no need."

Sandy nodded in approval. "Leave the fightin' to the weirdos like Daz, Mu and Crusher. Knockin' heads together is in their blood."

"I still wish I was there to see you," Idris said. "I bet you looked beautiful as you defended High King Daz."

"It was Lord Daz back then, and smooth-talking won't get you out of being my personal bag carrier," Ellie said with a smirk.

Idris wore a wry look while Sandy chuckled. "As much as I miss my wife, I sure don't miss shit like this, hahah- What the..."

Ellie and Idris both saw as Sandy's expression turned grim and confused in an instant.

That certainly wasn't normal behaviour from the grizzled old man so they both took on a serious approach to his shift in attitude.

"Is something wrong, Sandy?" Ellie asked in concern.

"My hero title is warning me... GET DOWN!" he suddenly yelled as he flung himself to the ground.

Idris wasted no time dropping all of Ellie's purchases to grab her and follow the kingdom's best mechanic, blacksmith and construction foreman into throwing his body to the floor.

The very next moment blasts of fire and explosions of light consumed the area around them, destroying buildings and eviscerating people by the dozens.

Glass rocketed through the air and tore past the spot the three of them had been standing mere fractions of a second ago.

"What the hell is going on?!" Ellie shouted from within Idris' arms.

Sandy grunted and held his hands to his ears as he said, "I've not got a clue."

It was then that all three of them saw two system messages, both of which left them with nothing but a sense of hopelessness.

Declaration of War! Mother Danielle, Pope and leader of the Church of Truth, has formally entered a war with New Earth and High King Daz, Monarch of New Earth. Conditions for Mother Danielle's Victory All citizens of New Earth join the Church of Truth or are delivered to the Lord's side. High King Daz offers up his own life. [Will prevent the Church of Truth from harming New Earth or her people any further.] Rewards for Mother Danielle's Victory New Earth will make the Church of Truth its one and only faith. Conditions for High King Daz's Victory [Undecided. High King Daz must state his conditions.] Rewards for High King Daz's Victory [Dependant on the high king's chosen conditions.] Warning! The host's access to the system is being suppressed! All skills, items and any changes made to the host from the system will be inaccessible during the period of suppression.