Abaud came to Guudnash inside the Riwa training facility. Guudnash, being the head trainer had his own lavish office. It was not as impressive as a lord’s throne room, but it still would bear pressure down on those who entered it. His large wood desk was made of Thibew wood which is said to be related to the Boyhrymm trees. The dark attribute of the Thibew wood was enough to cause an aura of oppression that only made others feel even more repressed when facing Guudnash. The rest of the room was lavish as well, with fine paintings and rugs. Bookcases filled with giant tombs and maps hanging on the walls.

Guudnash treated Abaud as his own son, so when Abaud came into his office there was no feeling of oppression. Guudnash had never settled down to have children, at least not any legitimate children that he would want to call his own. Abaud was a skilled Warrior and by the age of 22, he was already level 20. He had gotten Rank III in all his skills and the Riwa Kingdom even had a Skill Master advance a few of his skills to Rank IV!

But this was not even the best thing about Abaud. For Abaud had unlocked a Special skill! It had been a couple years ago when Abaud was on a mission to a dungeon. He had somehow gained a skill called . It allowed him to predict danger. During that mission, his whole team had been killed and only he survived due to his unique skill.

Guudnash put great value on this Special Skill . It had been days now and Abaud still felt the threat from some random kid and a crafter that had fallen into the Grimwar Caves. So Guudnash had made preparations.

“Is it done? Am I safe now?” Abaud asked nervously.

Guudnash replied, “It’s done. I had to pull a few strings at the lord’s citadel. We may part of the Riwa military force, but I honestly don’t have much authority here. Luckily, everything went smoothly at the citadel and I’ve also bribed the gate guards so there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Are they a part of any organization?” Abaud asked.

“It took a while to figure out their identities from the . The crafter should have no ties to any organization. She has been here a year already. The boy, Jude, on the other hand, is a different story. He has only been here one day so there was no way for me to determine if he is part of an organization. If he is, it’s not a local one. So I decided to continue with the plan.”

Abaud relaxed a little, “Good, then they will be caught at the gate then?”

“Yes, they are now marked as wanted Thieves and the posters have been spread throughout town. The gate guards will bring them to us instead of the Temple. There won’t be any need to verify either, we can simply eliminate the problem from the root.”

“Good, good! Ha ha.”

“But if they do survive the Grimwar Caves, I will really want to know how they did it.”

A dark glint came into Abaud eyes, “Permission to ‘interrogate’ them sir?”

Guudnash smiled, this kid was just like him, “You may assist me in the interrogation. And you are not allowed to start without me.”

***

In heaven stood a throne, with One seated on the throne. The One on the throne had the appearance of jasper and carnelian surrounded by an emerald rainbow. Twenty-four other thrones surrounded the main throne and on those thrones sat the elders wearing white garments and golden crowns. The powerful aura that emanated from the throne caused flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder. And before the throne burned seven torches which are the seven spirits of God. Beyond all this was the sea of glass, like crystal. **

In His right hand was an odd structure that was hard to describe, but it was the size of a football. It was composed of an organic looking lattice structure made of many tiny dots of light. This, of course, was the universe of mankind. He and those around him discussed the intricacies of the universe and ever so carefully made changes. After all, it was such a delicate thing that one wrong move could destroy the entire thing.

The avatar of the one once called Lucifer, the Morning Star, now called Satan, the Aggressor, appeared on the Glassy Sea. He could no longer stand before God and was now limited to an avatar, a fake presence projected into heaven. This incarnation could not fully see the glory of God or his throne. Nor could it see the universe that God held, though Satan knew it was there.

Satan had seen the creation of the entire universe. In seven days God had created everything. What would or should have taken billions of years, God had the power to create instantly. Not only created instantly, but fully formed, as if it had existed for an eternity. From the formation of atoms to the very genetic structure of all living races, God created each and everything in one week.

Along with all his creation, he had created several sub-dimensions that linked to this universe. One such dimension had been the dimension that recorded all the art of mankind. Not long ago, perhaps a few thousand years ago, it had been corrupted. It had been changed from its original purpose.

God looked down on his once great creation and knew full well why he was here.

“From where have you come?” God asked.

“From going to and fro across the earth, from walking to one dimension to the next,” Satan knew that he could not hide things from God. He did believe that he could be the god, even after witnessing the whole of Creation. So he believed that while he could not hide things from God, he could at least delay God from seeing them.

The corruption of the art dimension was old news. Even the formation of the Digital Universe was now widely known in the heavenly realm. Humans were quite clever with their new technologies, but then he did have a hand in some of its development, so it was no wonder that it was so great. Using their technology to further corrupt the Art Dimension was Satan’s natural genius at work and was nothing to mention. What was new and important to note was when a soul went from one universe to the other.

But news about souls getting sucked into the dimension was often delayed because of the speed at which the Digital Universe was currently running at. Especially one such soul that got stuck in-between the universes. That one should have died according to Satan’s estimations, but he had somehow made his way out and entered one of the of the Crucible Planet.

Satan’s goal was the same as always, to ascend heaven and place himself as the god. To do that he had to take control of the Universe, but after Jesus died and rose again, Satan had little hope of winning this Universe. It was still the Prime Universe, so he would one day have to conquer it. But if he had another universe already in his control, it would make things a lot easier. So he had gone about taking an existing dimension, corrupting it to the point that he could create his own universe from it.

Things like this don’t slip pass God very easy and Satan lost complete control of the Universe as it was forming. Now the universe was essentially ownerless. A computer like structure had taken control called the and the war between Heaven and Hell now existed in the Digital Universe as well as the Prime Universe.

Now that one who had been to the existed in the Physical Plane of the Digital Universe meant that this person might be the key to controlling everything. But his exact location was still unknown. The Crucible Planet of the Digital Universe was enormous and contained numerous worlds the size of Earth in it. Finding a single individual was quite the task, even for Satan. Now if he had control of the universe like he was supposed to, it would not have been a problem.

Satan despised God for having control over the Prime Universe. He would relish the day that he took control! But now was not the time to dwell on such things, he had to determine what God knew about the recent developments in the Digital Universe.

God said, “So you’ve been to the Digital Universe again? How is it there?”

“Personally, I don’t do much there, but some of the others really seem to enjoy it,” Satan replied.

“Yes, I’ve seen some of their enjoyment. Caused quite a bit of trouble for that Murl character.”

“How was it again that you converted him to your side? He was mine before he left and the rules of the Prime Universe should not apply to that one.”

God smiled, “You know that’s not how it works. But Murl isn’t what you came here for today is it? I suppose you are looking for that lost soul that visited the ?”

Satan frowned, it wasn’t what he would like, but at least he knew that God knew. “Yes I am; I don’t suppose you’ve found him?”

God chuckled but it sounded like thunder, “You are assuming that I lost him in the first place. Of course, you assumed that about Murl as well now didn’t you?”

Satan didn’t like where this was going so he decided to make things unpleasant. He smugly said, “This new one and Murl may not have been lost to you, but what about the others? There are so many who want to leave the Prime Universe. To leave your creation and go to mine.”

“Those so called, ‘summoned heroes’? Didn’t they stop your invasions into certain worlds?”

The summoned hero’s winning was part of his plan, but he wouldn’t tell God that.

They continued talking for a while. And it may have seemed simple, but there was a lot of meaning behind each one’s words. Each one had their own purpose, Satan was to gain information and to dominate. And God’s purpose?

Who can know the heart of God?

***

Jude had already studied the curse on the ground for two hours. Although now he referred to it as a Seal rather than a curse. After all, the curse is the effect of the Seal, it’s not what was drawn on the floor.

He had figured out that the Seal was some sort of circuitry like that in his Modicuit or in the Digital Plane. Well, more like the circuitry in the Digital Plane than the Modicuit. After all, this was outside his body and quite large. But even after studying it, he wasn’t sure how it worked. It was drawing mana from the world to activate the effect of the circuit. But what it was doing exactly and how it was doing it, Jude had no idea.

“Hey, why don’t you just sit in the corner, close your eyes, and think about it for a while?” Ellie said sarcastically.

She was clearly trying to tease him by taking what he had done in the past and applying it to the problem at hand. Much like he had told her during her quest.

“This time it’s not in my Modicuit, so I don’t see how that will help,” Jude replied.

“Jude, you just have to believe. Take your Modicuit and apply it to the situation. Just take your head and swing it into the Seal.”

“This is really not helping.” Although maybe it wasn’t a bad idea…

“You just need fai—”

“Stop, I think I have an idea!”

“Oh, what is it?”

Now it was Jude’s turn, “I’m going to first sit and close my eyes. Then I’m going to apply the Modicuit to the seal.”

“Ha ha, that was good! I don’t have a comeback for that one.” Ellie smiled.

Ellie was bored out of her mind. She had nothing to do and no materials to craft anything. She had already repaired everything from gear to broken chairs in this room. She had also reached level 10 on Divine Smith and unlocked new abilities. So she was also dying to use them, but couldn’t while she was stuck here.

Jude couldn’t blame her. This universe really needed some smartphones.

“I’m glad you liked it, now I’m actually going to do it.”

“Whaaat?!”

“Sssshhh!”

***

Abaud was itching all over. His was working on overdrive. But there was nothing else he could do. Over the past hour, it had only gotten worse. He had even gotten Guudnash to visit the Lord of Longdale to issue an arrest Warrant inside Allur Forest and the surrounding area, just in case they slipped away.

The Warrant stated that Jude and Ellie had stolen highly valuable Legendary equipment from the Riwa training facility. And that they had killed several trainees’ in the process. They had issued a reward of 100 gold to anyone who would capture them.

This had two effects, one other might just outright kill them for the supposed Legendary equipment. But if they didn’t, they would still acquire the two and would have the opportunity to both interrogate them and execute them for the crime.

Since they didn’t actually have any Legendary equipment, others would most likely give them a thorough beating then hand them over for the reward. This suited Abaud just fine.

What he feared though was if Jude actually was a part of an unknown organization and he had fled back to it. If that was the case then—

A notification popped up in front of Abaud… and everyone else in Longdale and Allure Forest.

His feeling finally came true.

Congratulations to Ellie Copper and Jude!

They have cleared the Grimwar Caves, purified the evil of the , and lifted the Curse of Grimwar set by the Myth of Murl.

The Grimwar Caves will now and forever be known as the Undead Caves. Spawns reduced and bosses mitigated to that of a Low-Rank Dungeon.

Everyone, celebrate the heroes: Jude and Ellie!