Pef shook himself awake, and glanced around the new Archdemon's inner world.

As expected, it has grown tremendously, from a single planet full of lava and magma pits, to a dwarf galaxy containing a million stars.

The former planet had become quite large, and had changed dramatically, now containing a large continent full of forests and lakes and even a small ocean to the south.

A copy of the capital city had also appeared, as it was before the Archdemon obliterated most of it with the scepter.

"Good work, Reason." Pef said in a pleased voice.

"... It is really amazing." he heard Arazmodel mutter beside him.

Pef glanced to the side, where the JadeTrader had appeared in avatar form. A bit frayed and shredded by the song, but he was already healing himself.

"How do you feel, Arazmodel?" Pef asked with a curious look, measuring the avatar with his senses.

The demon had no experience in managing his new cultivation and abilities, and it showed. But that was probably for the best.

Arazmodel hesitated, glancing to the sky and then around with wide eyes. "My soul. You changed it. Changed me." the demon muttered in suspicion.

Pef nodded slightly. "You are better now, Archdemon. I changed your cultivation a little, to make you able to feel. You will need a lover, or more lovers, else your soul will decay and vanish. Then you will die."

Truth.

Arazmodel sighed and nodded. A leash of some kind then.

"Those of your bloodline will have the same abilities as you. I think you'll find managing half the galaxy much easier with competent administrators, who won't try to backstab you." Pef explained in a softer tone.

The new Archdemon mused in silence, going over possible advantages and disadvantages of such a loyal family line. "Half the galaxy?" he asked instead.

"More at first, but as the other races recover, they'll want their teritory back. Don't worry, the Legion will still be around, keeping an eye out."

Arazmodel sighed in despair, then realized what this meant. Trade and new markets. He and the new guild would just have to meet their demands as they grew.

Plus, he had the rank now. Archdemon.

A hundred Greater Demons would need to join together to oppose him, not that any were left anyway, while he could grow his own loyal enforcers.

"You won't recruit demons for your Legion?" Arazmodel wondered.

"My wife, Nellie Xi has elected to deny demon applications at this time. That might change in the future, but for now there's lots of bad blood between demons and their former subjects. Give it a thousand years of good relations, to let the scars heal."

"So, you're leaving." Arazmodel deduced from that.

"I still have to visit all these demon guilds and see what treasures I might need. But, yes. I'll leave soon." Pef replied in a far away voice.

The Archdemon smiled. The human wasn't that different after all. He opened a portal to the outside and the human walked out, back into the guild's offices, all silent and empty now.

Everyone had gone home, except the secretary. "Lord Arazmodel, I had to stay and make sure you're alright." she said in a worried tone.

Pef rose an eyebrow and vanished.

"Oh, thank you Elsbeth. Well, you must be starving. Join me for dinner?" Arazmodel asked on a hunch.

The demoness blushed and nodded shyly. The Archdemon smiled and warped them both to a luxury restaurant. Perhaps this lover thing wasn't so bad.

Pef returned to the former Fateweaver base, where his wives were still searching through a million jade slips full of maps and prophecies.

A dozen old jade tablets were placed apart, Lia going through them slowly.

"Anything good?" Pef asked in a low voice.

Lia shook her head. "Nothing good, beloved husband. These Fateweavers were preparing a cataclysm. Or perhaps remembering the distant past or even the future. It's all very confusing." she answered in a tired tone.

The Elf King materialized silently next to her, and picked up the tablet and scanned it at speed. He picked another one. "Visions. Mad ramblings. Door into eternal cold. The silent one who eats all stars. A maiden made of light. The too-many eyes. Thought listener. The voice of truth." he said, poking each tablet with a disgusted face.

Pef blinked at the last words. 'Maybe not that mad, eh?' he asked inward.

'Prophecies can only occur in the light-cone of that same event. These demons are poor oracles, but what they saw wasn't wrong. Nor were they right. Only the past is fixed.' the glove said in a dismissive tone.

Pef nodded but was still worried. If Reason was right, everything in this universe was happening in an eternal present, an infinite dream that would only end when they stepped out. Someday.

"We'll deal with those things as they come. I completed my task here. Where next?" Pef spoke towards the Elf King.

"The Far Explorers Guild, then the Treasure Makers. Then Formations and Talismans Guild, maybe the Alchemical Masters too, though I doubt those have anything of value." he said in a more interested tone.

Pef smiled widely. "Okay, we visit the alchemists first!" he said exuberantly. The Elf King cursed and warped them all away, and brought them to their next bounty.

Over the years, they had amassed an impressive amount of treasures and knowledge, confiscating whatever nice things the demons had found or looted over millions of years.

Cultivation methods from a hundred species, most of them extinct. Gems and precious metals. Artifacts and weapons. Sadly, most of the demons' own works, like ships or other artifacts needed either demon blood, or abyssforce or magic to activate or operate.

The Elf King collected most of those, since the elves had magic identical to the demons.

Even without those, Pef and the Legion had acquired enough riches to buy three galaxies.

Another year later, Pef checked on the Archdemon, only to find him back at work, ruling over an entire city of clerks and a dozen besotted secretaries. One of the demonesses was now a Demon Lord and pregnant.

He left her a storage ring with a couple of gifts inside, and blinked away.

It was time for the long way home. After a heartbreaking goodbye with Nellie, he saluted the Legion recruits and sped away.

In his wake, the galaxy was forever changed, with thousands of planets already freed from demon occupation, and local civilizations slowly rebuilding.

Small conflicts between demons clans or between old way demons and forces of the Legion and the elves still continued, but those would take a long time to come to end. Maybe never.

Pef was still content. Conflict would allow the Legion recruits to prosper and ascend to higher tiers, while the demons' yoke on the galaxy was broken.

Huge wars won't be allowed to occur again, since both the Elf King and the Archdemon were now bound by self interests and the Legion's looming presence. They wouldn't like it if Pef had to return.

In less than a year, Pef arrived in the Arden's galaxy, since his travel speed had increased again, with his new tier.

He descended on Ardenia with a wide grin, noticing his friend has at least become an Emperor, both in rank and temporal power.

Gaia's presence was seated beside Arden, symbolically represented by a sunflower in a pot.

"No councilmen. We will not deny women to right to work in any field they choose. And don't come back with such insulting demands again." Arden spoke in a threatening voice, while the sunflower nodded beside him.

Pef snorted out loud, and expelled the petitioners into a nearby lake.

Arden turned surprised, and then took in his visitors at the court. "Pef! You're back!" he exclaimed in disbelief.

"No wonder you're such good friends. Both of you like to state the obvious out loud." Qin muttered in a cheeky tone.

"Eh. Ladies...welcome to my court." Arden mumbled a bit embarrassed.

"Go and have fun girls. Vela you stay." Pef whispered as he summoned a table and some wine.

"Freedom!" Xie yelled and ran off, dragging Aria after her.

The other wives winced and vanished, leaving only Pef and Arden in the throne room, each with a goddess at their shoulder.

"Nice to meet you, Lady Vela. Lovely hair. New wife?" Arden said with a wide smile.

"Likewise, Emperor Arden. And no. I'm not planning to get married." Vela said in a stoic tone.

Pef grimaced and poured wine in four glasses.

"Vela was a slave-like vestal for three million years. Easy with the delicate questions, Arden." Pef admonished him with a frown.

"Oh, that sounds bad, I think. What's a vestal?" Arden asked curiously.

A petal flew from the sunflower and smacked Arden over the head. "Ouch! This is Gaia. She's invisible to people, but real none-the-less." Arden explained while rubbing his head innocently.

Vela sighed and glanced at Pef then towards Gaia's divine form.

"I see why you're friends. And well met, Gaia. That yellow dress looks lovely." Vela said with a pained smile.

"Wait, you can see her? I wish I could see Gaia's dress now..." Arden said longingly.

Another flower petal hit Arden in the arm.

Pef grinned. "Come, let's move inside. There's someone else you should meet." he explained gently, while offering a hand to the elf goddess.

Perspective changed, as Arden and his goddess entered the inner world.

"This is Reason." Pef introduced the armored woman.

Gaia took a step back, intimidated by what she sensed while looking at Reason.

Arden just nodded politely, trying not to step on his own feet again.

"A Veridian remnant, like I expected. And something I wasn't expecting, a Serghoul Lich. Well, a reborn one." Reason mused aloud, but without moving her lips.

Gaia stared in surprise at Reason, then at Arden.

"I was a lich? The other life?" Arden asked in wonder.

"A Consecrated Archlich, to be precise. A Tier 7 necromancer with some dominion over Life, Death, Entropy and Time. Bound to the Serghoul Master, a terrifying Tier 8 entity and the ruler of that Dominion." Reason explained with a frown.

"Wow, that sounds quite amazing. Well, you still died in the big war, I would guess, but you must have been scary when you were alive. Or undead. " Pef exclaimed in an appreciative tone, and poured more wine for both of them.

Arden gulped his wine, not that excited at the revelation. "This is bad. I don't want to become a lich, whatever that is." he complained with a sob.

"Hey! You're my friend, Arden. You can be whatever you want. But keep necromancing away from me, that sounds gross." Pef replied cheerfully.

Arden turned to look at Gaia instead, who was sipping some wine in deep thought.

"Gaia? You're not mad at me, right?" Arden asked in a pitiful voice.

"Pef is right. You can be whatever you want. But necromancy sounds gross." she whispered to herself.

Vela giggled, taking the scene as a big comedy. "You all realize that divinity means you can resurect people at will, right?"

Gaia nodded after a second. "I've seen Arden die and get brought back a dozen times." she said in a warmer voice.

"You killed Arden a few times yourself." Pef added helpfully.

"... That's different. He was acting stupid!" she defended herself, not that convincingly.

Arden grimaced and sighed. "I was twelve! And you're like a million. Aren't gods supposed to be wise?" he asked rhetorically.

Reason rose an eyebrow, and smiled a bit. "You dream big, kid." she said with a soft laughter.

Pef raised a finger and pointed at his guests. "Less jokes and more work. Can you fix them?"

"The boy is easy, since his rank is so low. But your friend Gaia...she might die. Wait until she has a physical anchor." Reason responded after a second.

"Her old Legion should have a better cultivation though. Can't you make Gaia remember?" Pef demanded with a wince.

"I can strengthen what is inside her, not what will be. Enlightment comes from within and her body lacks proper circulation in dreamsleave state. But there is a way. They are in love and I can enhance that." Reason said with a meaningful glance at Vela.

Vela drew a deep breath and glared at Pef, but it was too late.

Reason began to sing, while the inner world froze.

Arden, Gaia and Vela had golden auras that expanded and melded, filling the entire world with light.

The song weaved divine strands and repaired their souls, until Arden and Gaia were connected with a golden string, and a similar one linked Vela to Pef.

Years passed during this process, and yet no time passed at all.

Vela and Pef woke up first, and looked at each other with different eyes. Pef with amazement while Vela with curiosity and fear.

"I can feel your heart..." she muttered in disbelief.

"Not what I intended, Vela. I just wanted you to show how others look when they are in love. Even if they are so different in background." Pef said with a shrug, and glanced at Arden.

"And that's what Reason did. Now I know. And I was right. Your heart is too big. All that pain and loses, failures and disasters. And you still think about others. Trying to heal old wounds." Vela whispered with a sob.

"Hey! I did bad things too. Killed lots of people. There are no virtuous gods like Arden dreams of. You'd have to isolate yourself from the world, and never get the chance to do anything. You might as well be dead." Pef answered with outrage.

"Idiot! I was isolated from the world, for three million years. While my people fought against the demons, while my Queen died. I stayed away, kept pure and virtuous. I know!" Vela yelled back, tears flowing on her face.

Pef hugged her, and patted her back. "Don't cry silly. It breaks my heart." he whispered in her hair.

"I know. I feel it." she mumbled with a pained throat.

"Come, lets fly down the waterfall. You'll like it." Pef said with a grin, dragging Vela after him as he descended into the geyser and under the boundary layer.

Soon, he could feel her amazement at the improbable lotus plants, floating at the thermocline barrier.

'You have a wild imagination, Pef. Nothing like this can really exist.' Vela sent into his mind.

'Oh? There's one such plant for each meridian. How do you think we made the meridian pills?' he asked wryly.

Vela drew closer and kissed his cheek. 'I'd love to see them.'

Pef hugged her, feeling her embarasment and shyness. 'A kiss for each visit.' he demanded shamelessly.

'You're a moron.' she said with a short laugh.