Inside the most central and sacred room of an unusually large Japanese temple, a single white fox idly sat on a purple red cushion. Surrounded by the tranquility of the old temple he listened to a single tender voice singing in a language that had long since been forgotten by the world. The notes were faint and pure, soothing the mind and calming the soul.

Even though there were few archaic beings who still spoke this ancient language to this day, the fox clearly understood each single word.

It was the miserable story of a long-lasting tragedy, the story of a peaceful tribe's decline due to the greed of the impure world. The pain of losing one’s kin, the pain of losing even the last remaining shimmer of hope.

Melancholy glimmered in the foxes round black eyes as he felt the words touch something he had suppressed for a very long time. He pitied the fate of that ancient tribe, but that was not what caused his mood to change. It was the slight but ever-burning wronging that was hidden inside the sadness of misery that reminded him of an old story.

Ever so slightly the enormous hate and ambition he had buried all those centuries ago flared up provoked by this glimmer of defiance hidden inside the song.

In front of him stood the singer of the sad melody that had such a miraculous effect on the fox. It was a beautiful and rather tall fairy with rare Asian facial features.

Those who were more knowledgeable would recognize her as an Tibetan fairy.

The fairy was completely naked with the only exception being a small black collar on her neck. Magical symbols shone on the black leather and glimmered in the relative darkness of the room.

She did not seem to be embarrassed by her lack of clothing and simply performed her song. A look of melancholy and longing flickered in her dark brown eyes.

Suddenly a tremor run through Sha's fox body and he silently indicated to the fairy to stop her song. She immediately closed her mouth and politely bowed.

"You can go and do whatever you want inside the forest.", Sha indifferently told her. The fairy bowed once again and walked out of the room, gently closing the door behind herself.

Sha rose up and trotted down from the cushion. A leave appeared from nowhere and fell onto his body triggering the transformation. In the next moment he had assumed his typical white haired, human form.

At first, he was frowning, but the more he thought about what he had just felt from the far away city of a billion names, the more the frown turned onto a wide, somewhat sinister smile.

"That bitch has finally done something she should not have!", As he mentioned a certain woman hate flashed in his eyes.

"It seems like it is time to repay her for that time.", his eyes flashed, and he incensed the air around himself. Turning into a blue ball of fire he floated in the middle of the room. Suddenly all two hundred doors inside the temple sled open and a blue flash shot outside disappearing into the crimson of the evening sky.

…

“The heavenly dragons within the city are already gathering and heading towards us, unfortunately it will take some time to gather those scattered in the outside world. I will have to message every temple and most of the rivers by sending messengers to each one individually!”, Tian restlessly coiled in his dragon form when Saji entered the pub.

After the initial shock that had resulted from the dechlorane of war she had given a bypassing phenix almost all her money, so it brought her back to the pub as fast as only possible. Attracted by the huge amount of wealth the phenix had not only agreed to her offer, but also completely exhausted itself during the short flight.

As such it had only taken her a few minutes to reach ‘A Dragon’s Dream’. When she had arrived there, the first thing she saw was a giant array with the form of a dome completely covering the building the pub was located in. Terrifying undulations radiated from the translucent blue surface of the dome, a thousand times more intense than the combined might of all the arrays and magical shields that had isolated Sha and her during the fight with the giant.

An array of this power was enough to stop a full-blown assault of a few dozen gods!

The array however did not pose any threat to Saji as it recognized her as ally and let her pass through even while carrying the still terrified and confused Alea.

Inside the pub she only found the restless and bloodthirsty Tian, a fierce looking Raja and Kan who had at this time already changed into black steel battle gear.

“What happened?”, she asked warily. It was obvious that something horrible had happened or else those three wouldn’t look like they were about to slaughter their way through the entire city.

Raja turned around and as he saw Saji his features eased up for a moment.

“Ji was attacked and seriously injured.”, his expression remained serious and his voice was grave. There was no time to give lengthy explanations so he plainly told the most central aspects.

Saji’s heart jumped in shock and her mind blanked out.

She had already suspected that the sudden chain of events had been caused by something that was connected to Ji, but it never crossed her mind that someone could have ever injure him!

A barrage of important questions appeared inside her mind, each feeling like burning iron as they demanded an immediate answer. But Saji gritted her teeth and focused on the most important of all. She could vividly remember the three words that had rocked the magical world only a few minutes ago.

“Who is the enemy?”, her voice trembled a little.

Raja looked at her and shook his head. There was pity in his eyes. He really felt bad for this young mortal girl that had been caught up in events that even scared the most powerful of gods.

“Come with me.”, he suddenly crossed the space between them and took Saji by her hand. Turning his head to Tian he halted.

“I will take her with me while I assemble my Buddhist faction’s forces. For the time being it will be safer if she disappears from the city and stays at the temples.”

Tian slightly nodded his large, fierce looking dragon head.

With this Raja tightly embraced Saji and recited an ancient Buddhist verse. A holy presence built up around him and golden light suddenly radiated from his body. Underneath his feet a golden lotus bloomed, and abstruse hymns echoed through the room.

Raja, now a true golden buddha opened his mouth.

“Amitabha.”

The golden glow intensified until it became impossible to see the two figures within it. Then it suddenly finished, taking the buddha and Saji away with it.

Only Tian and Kan were left behind inside the pub, both solemn and grave. The usually relaxed atmosphere of the pub was cold and desolate now that it’s owner had almost lost his life. Even here it was obvious that war was lurking on the horizon.

“So, Mr. Sherevile went on a rampage?”, Kan asked respectfully.

Tian nodded heavily.

“Only a fool provokes a dwarf’s ire and only a completely suicidal genius manages to provoke the ire of the dwarf emperor. Now that this stupid bitch started a full-fledged war he has to release a bit of energy to clear his head before leading his race into the war.”

Kan nodded with an agreeing expression.

“A true emperor should have the temper of an emperor!”, he really admired this mighty leader that in his eyes had a temperament suitable for his position.

While the two of them had this solemn conversation in another part of the city blood was tainting the streets. Hundreds of dead bodies were already scattered onto the cold asphalt and over a dozen survivors defended against the furious whirlwind that was continuously attacking them.

Mr. Sherevile’s hair was loosely fluttering in the wind as he furiously chased after the retreating gods. His eyes were blood red and his face had become a war mask of wrath. A wrath that would destroy anything that provoked it.

With a powerful swing of his giant axe he created a violent whirl storm that teared at the fleeing god’s and slightly slowed them down. With a second mighty swing he decapitated two and sliced another one’s body into three pieces.

Horror shone in the dying gods’ eyes as their godly spirit dissipated into the chilly air. Furious and despairing shouts came from the remaining gods as they used every trick they knew to escape this maddened god of death.

Unfortunately, they had no chance to escape. Suddenly all ten of them felt a dreadful presence closing in upon them. Then, before they could realize it, their heads had already tumbled to the ground. Four pairs of eyes turned glassy as another batch of immortal beings had found their end in this battle.

Next to Mr. Sherevile the sleeping lady appeared and used a handkerchief to wipe off the blood on her left hand. Unlike Mr. Sherevile she seemed to be calm and collected, no emotions were visible on her aphetic face. Yet if one looked into her eyes one would realize that the burning abyss of rage hidden behind a mask of apathy was in no way lesser then Mr. Sherevile’s was!

“There is one last snitch I have to kill tonight.”, her emotionless voice even caused the maddened Mr. Sherevile to shudder. She was truly a terrifying woman!

Despite that he simply nodded.

“I still have to kill a few more until I have completely calmed down.”, he said. Unlike his crazed appearance his voice was calm. Scarily calm to say the least.

The sleeping lady smiled coldly.

“Have fun.”, she faded away from sight.

The burly figure of the dwarf tightened his grip on the giant axe and shouted a war cry in an ancient language. Then he continued his advance.

At the same time hidden inside a small and almost unnoticeable alley trembled a seductive human goddess. It was Lilith, the goddess of seduction that once had an affair with Raja. Normally her beautiful face always carried a relaxed smile, but now her tender features had become a mask of horror.

“I did not know about this!”, she screamed in despair as she felt a cold hand tightening around her neck. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she knew that she was about to die.

“You are one of the more important figures amongst the human council, how is it possible you did not know about this trap? Truly I am disappointed, Ji treated you as a friend and yet you little dirty snitch betrayed him for that crazy old hag!”, the sleeping ladies voice was harsh and cold. Even she could just hide her disappointment and rage when confronted with an old friend that had betrayed them.

Lilith’s sobs became even louder. “I really did not know about it! They did not tell us even after it happened. She must have had decided to take no risks and eliminate Ji with one try!”, her voice was breaking as she almost fainted from the stress.

To bring a goddess, and even a quite powerful one, to this point only showed just how terrifying the sleeping lady was once she moved.

“That bitch will pay”, the sleeping lady mumbled into Lilith’s ears. ” And I already know what I will do with you!”

She suddenly injected a fast quantity of her own energy into Lilith’s body and manipulated it to form a complicated seal within the goddess’ body. When the seal was finished Lilith’s presence suddenly shrunk from that of a power goddess to only a little more than that of an ordinary human girl.

The sleeping lady had completely sealed her powers and even included a couple of seals that made the goddess completely obedient to her orders. Lilith remained to be immortal, but she could not use any of her usual power.

“I cannot bring myself to kill an old friend who had no other choice.”, the lady slowly said.

Lilith cried even more, but this time because of relieve. She wrapped her arms around the sleeping lady’s legs and thanked her profusely.

“T-thank you.”, she sobbed and shuddered completely drained. “Thank you for not killing me!”, she cried even more. It seemed like the psychological shock had left a trauma on her mind. Even as a goddess it would take a long time until Lilith would return to her confident self.

The sleeping lady had a placid expression, but somewhere amongst the sea of rage and fury there was a sliver of pity. Pity that she had reduced a good friend to this state.

She silently propped Lilith up and took her hand. Then their figures blurred, and they disappeared. The lonely, desolate alley had once again regained its millennia old