To celebrate their first night in the city, Miko and the girls went for a tour where they visited all the famous spots one after the other. That said, this was a city that was considered the gambling capital of the world, every place was famous and it was hard to find a boring spot.

Whether it was day or night, this city was always lively.

They arrived at a casino called Rabbit’s Foot. The casino was bustling with people from every race imaginable. Even parasite demons who were known for keeping themselves hidden, were out in the open having a good time.

This was because, discrimination among races was forbidden in this city. Issues such as race, wasn’t important here. As along as you are a customer you would be treated kindly.

If someone were to harass others and made them uncomfortable or even do something as bold as to kidnap or kill them, they would be eliminated from the city regardless of who they are.

You could be prostitute or a queen, once you step into this city you’re an ordinary customer. Trying to swing your weight around, won’t work here. If you break the law or threaten the city’s business in anyway, you’ll be killed; and trying to seek vengeance was useless.

There was once a prince who came from a famous empire who broke the law and was killed as a result, his empire sought revenge and the only thing they got was complete destruction. No one knows how it happened, they were just wiped out over night.

After that, it became blatantly clear that there was a global powerhouse behind the city. As for which one, no one knew. However, because of that the city became a place where anyone with money could enjoy themselves without care.

When they entered, it was as if time had come to a halt not casino. Everyone froze in place and looked at their group that had just walked in.

The girls were all incredibly beautiful, except Ishma who was dressed like a man. However, she drew attention as well, especially beside Miko. The two looked quite handsome, despite having different forms of charm.

Miko had a young and regal look, which made everyone feel like he was a monarch among peasants. His green eyes charmed those around him.

Ishma on the other hand looked like a prince who had a bit of feminine charm. She was dressed neatly, but her aura was wild which in itself had its own irresistible charm.

Miko and the girls all looked around at casino, completely ignoring the people who were looking at them.

“This place is pretty nice.”

Miko said.

He walked into the casino with the girls following behind him.

“I feel like playing some games. What about you guys?”

Miko asked.

“Hmm…I’m not really interested but they seem to be a bar over there, so I’ll go check it out.”

Tia said, before heading over to the bar.

“Cool it on the liquor, you alcoholic. We still have some more places to visit after this.”

Miko said with a playful tone.

“I won’t get drunk with liquor of this level. Even if I do, you can just carry me home. You’re my husband aren’t you?”

Tia stuck out her tongue in a playful manner, before making her way to the bar. Her every step mesmerized everyone around her. They all wondered if she was a goddess, which she indeed was.

Miko smiled and turned his back to her. He soon heard her shout-

“Oh! They have Bacchus’ wine?!”

But decided to ignore it.

“What about you guys?”

“I want to play some games!”

Ravel answered.

“As long as I get to keep the money, why not?”

Regis said.

“All these games looks boring.”

Ishma said.

“Hm?”

She then spotted several rows of machines with people sitting around them.

“What’s that?”

Miko looked at what she was talking about.

“Pachinko? That’s surprising.”

He muttered to himself.

“Let me show you.”

Miko approached an employee behind the counter and gave them a card. Soon after, he received a bucket of silver balls which were smaller than pinballs.

He then approached a machine and sat down.

“First, you load in some balls. The amount is dependent on you.”

He loaded in 1 ball into the machine and hold the handle.

“You then press and release the spring-loaded handle, which is attached to a padded hammer inside the machine. This will launch the ball into a metal track in the machine.”

Miko did everything for the girls to see, as he said it.

The girls saw the ball shoot up the track and go around the a section of the screen that had dozens of holes that were barely the size of the ball. He pointed at that section.

“This part is called the playing field. The playing field have these small holes called catchers. The objective of the game is to get your ball into these catchers.”

The ball circled around the playing field once, before reaching the top and falling into the playing field and began bouncing all over the field after hitting a brass pin. The ball eventually slowed down and started to fall.

It looked like it was going to fall into a catcher, but that catcher suddenly closed and it fell straight to the bottom without going into a catcher.

“I lost.”

Miko said.

“That’s not fair! You were about to fall into a hole but it suddenly closed up!”

“That’s cheating!”

Ishma and Ravel protested.

“Okay, lets destroying it to teach it a lesson!”

Said ishma. Miko stopped her and shook his head. That’s a part of the game, the catchers will sometimes close at random times.

He took up 3 balls, loaded them into the machine, and repeated the process before. However this time, he got two balls in the catcher.

“You can you used multiple balls at once to increase your chances of victory.”

He said.

The machine then started spitting out countless silver balls.

“When you win you get more balls to either try to exchange for a prize, or continue play hoping to collect more balls, so that you can get better prizes. The choice is yours.”

He said.

“Wanna play?”

The two nodded. Seeing that, Miko ordered more buckets of silver balls and left them with the two so that they can play.

“Don’t overload the machine with balls, you might break it. 5 is your limit, just in case.”

“Okay!”

Miko nodded in approval and left to tour the casino with Regis.

They walked around and looked at all the different games that were being played. They were mostly the standard casino games like Black Jack, baccarat, poker, craps, roulette, etc.

They soon came across a table that was crowded and decided to take a look. When they got their they saw that it wasn’t actually a table but a screen which projected holograms.

It projected two armies fighting, with dozens of soldiers dying by the minute. It looked so real that if one stared at the events for too long they would be drawn in, and feel like they were overlooking a real battle.

“It seems that this is a gambling game where two armies clashed and you try to predict the events of the battle minutes before it happened. It’s similar to live betting.”

Miko said after observing and listening to the dealers and those betting.

“You can bet on which team will lose their General, which team will suffer the most loses, whether a team will retreat or not, and of course who will win. Basically, you can bet on everything that can happen in the battle.

A woman walked up them and explained the rules. She seemed to be one of the dealers.

“Would you like to play?”

She asked with a sweet voice.

“Regis?”

Miko looked at Regis, who nodded.

“I’ll play. It looks interesting.”

“I see. Then since you already have money, I’ll be leaving you to your fun.”

She nodded and followed the dealer to place her bets and joined in on the fun. Miko watched her for a bit before walking away.

“Now then, what should I do while they enjoy themselves?”

Miko looked around and saw a group of women chatting while occasionally taking peeks at him.

He smiled and waved at them, which seemed to have made them happy. That’s when he had an idea.

“They say that no one has ears like a woman who loves to gossip. Maybe they can tell me some interesting stuff about this city.”

(Go ahead. I don’t mind.)

He received a response from Tia who was at the bar drinking. He nodded, put on his white mask that was on the side of his face, and approached the women.

“Goodnight, ladies. My name is Malus Domine.”

Dragna Empire.

It was a little over a week since Miko’s departure. Everyone had taken his departure differently. Some were angry, some were sad, some were confused, and some were glad.

There were various reactions based on the person and his relationship to them. Of course, his departure hadn’t been announced to the world. There was various reasons for this.

The main reason was to ensure Miko’s own safety. If people knew that Miko had left the Silver Continent and was out alone without protection, there would definitely be those who would try to get rid of him and make a name for themselves. Miko was in a somewhat vulnerable state after all.

As for those he left behind, they were in a state of confusion as what to do now. His departure was just too sudden after all. However, whether they like it or not they had to choose a path to walk down eventually.

In the capital city, two persons were having a meeting in a bar in the lower class district. These two were Jin and Kaido.

They sat at a table in the corner of the empty bar. They silently shared a bottle of rum sitting across from each other.

“How’s Bloom holding up?”

Kaido broke the silence.

“She’s heartbroken, but who could blame her? She was practically dumped by the man she loved. Not many can easily bounce back after that.”

Jin replied.

He drank a shot of rum before continuing.

“But I don’t have the right to console her, or criticize Miko. I rejected her once before, and even abandoned my friends.”

He sat back in his chair.

“Everything that Miko has done, is the same thing I did back in Grim City.”

“You’re right about that.”

Kaido said.

“I’ve abandoned a fair amount of people myself.”

He said.

“Then it looks like we’re three peas in a pod.”

Jin said with a wry smile.

“That’s the reason why we accepted Miko’s decision, because we understand where he’s coming from.”

Kaido nodded in agreement with Jin’s words.

“But you know, although everyone was angry about Miko’s actions, strangely enough they served as a catalyst that revived their motivation. It’s like it gave everyone meaning again.”

Said Kaido.

“In my opinion, that’s a good thing.”

Jin nodded.

“Miko’s existence had truly devoured everyone’s individuality, their characters itself. I mean, if this was a story with Miko being the main character, the readers would only see us as people unimportant to the overall story. Just a bunch of side characters.”

He said.

“I don’t like the idea of being seen as nothing more than a character that makes the MC look better. I hate those type of characters the most when reading stories and watching movies.”

“Me too.”

Kaido nodded.

“I might not be outspoken, but I don’t like to be seen as a background character. I’m the main character of my own story after all.”

He added.

“Then I guess we need to start standing out more, just like we used to.”

Said Jin.

“Back in Grim City, Miko used his power to force me to live happily. I was upset at first, but I soon appreciated his help. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here now.”

He said with a smile.

“For me, he helped Hana and gave us a place where we could call home.”

Kaido added.

“We both thought about repaying him by being his comrades and help him accomplish his goals, but now its clear that that wasn’t what he truly wanted.”

“In the end, we never got to repay him and only added to the number of liabilities he had.”

Kaido recalled when he asked Miko if they were a liability, he responded with yes without a pause. This was Miko’s honest feelings at the time. During that war, Miko didn’t see them as comrades, he only saw them as his weakness.

“Since that’s the case, we know what we need to do.”

Jin said.

“We have to become his enemies.”

He said.

“Miko tends to appreciate his enemies more than his comrades, that can be seen from the fact that most of his current comrades were once his enemies. We included.”

“I honestly felt closer to him when we were fighting against each other, as strange as it seems.”

Said Kaido.

“Enemies might not be the right word, so let’s go with rivals.”

Jin said after a while.

“We don’t hate each other, but we’ll fight each other to achieve our goals.”

He said.

“Miko seeks equals and strong opponents, then we’ll become that. However, if we do this just for him there’s no point.”

Said Kaido.

“I’m aiming to destroy MYTH that’s a part of the new era, for what they have done to me, and make sure it never happens again.”

He said.

“I’m aiming to revive the family I’ve lost. Their bodies are no more and their souls might be lost forever, but I still want to bring them back.”

Jin said.

“There’s only one being that’s able to do either of that.”

The two smiled and spoke in unison.

“I am going to become the Supreme Being!”

They announced with pride and resolution.

“New Era is strong and will only become stronger. If I want to destroy MYTH that’s a part of them with 100% certainty, I need to become. Stronger than anyone else in the world.”

Kaido said.

“My family cannot be returned to me by ordinary means. Not even a death god might able to do it. As such, I need to become someone above a god, I need to become the supreme ruler over life and death.”

The two spoke again-

“I will reach the pinnacle of this universe!”

They had once again retaken their goals, thus regained their individuality as result. To reach their goals and fulfill their own selfish wishes they know what’s needed to be done.

Stand before Miko as enemies!

Since their goals are the same, they will need to clash regardless of their friendship. Even though they sit together now, they’ll be enemies in the near future. But for some reason, this felt natural for them.

“Looks like we weren’t meant to be friends after all.”

Said Jin.

He poured some more rum into their shot glasses with a smile.

“It’s unfortunate, but that’s just how it is.”

Kaido lifted his glass with a smile. Jin lifted his and two the hit their glasses together.

The two then looked to their side and saw an empty seat with a glass of rum. For a moment it looked like Miko was sitting there with an excited smile, but that was just their imaginations.

The two drank their shots and placed their glasses next to his.

“So that’s how it is, Miko.”

Said Jin.

“We won’t let you achieve your goal that easily.”

The two then got up and left together leaving the three glasses on the table. They were still comrades for now, but they knew that it would soon be time for them to be at each other’s throats. However, that was in the future, despite how near it was.

“Until then, let’s get along.”