The Jiron stronghold of the Realm of Monsters, Storm Haven turned into a full blown city in just the span of a week. Narukami allowed people from Earth to move to this new world, hundreds of thousands of players flooded into the stronghold, and trades were set up everywhere.

Earth mages worked none stop for several days, creating houses for people to live, digging out a trench to connect to a nearby river. At that time, players fought the monsters under the banner of the Thunder Sword Alliance.

The Thunder Sword Alliance was an alliance between Isbel, Jiron, China, Japan, South Korea, and Russia. All six countries agreed on a treaty that allows portal access to any players from these countries. There was a tax system to which Narukami placed up, for access to the portal a player was required to pay only a single silver.

The city was getting bigger every single day, many picking the earth mage class to be able to build whatever they want. Narukami himself have been following Han Ling’s map, moving from one circle to another and taking the powers of the humans as his own. Soon enough, Narukami had the strength of 500 thousand men, a large number but nothing against the Empires.

At the span of Han Ling’s disappearance, Ash Blade and the other elites trained themselves, from hunting monsters to invading monster kingdoms. In the second week of arriving in the Realm of Monsters, Storm Haven was attacked by a nearby kingdom of Vampires, stealing young girls for food. But Narukami dealt with the issues deftly, single-handedly killing one of their Vampiric Barons and ending the attack alone.

But then, Gentle Sun returned from the Tengu home.

“You… are very different.” Iron Heart tried his best not to blush, the fiery red hair, those sparkling mischievous eyes, her luscious red lips. Gentle Sun transformed into a completely different woman, the previous Gentle Sun was always nervous with some shyness that Iron Heart found adoring.

But none of that could be found on Gentle Sun’s demeanour, instead she seems mature, calm and gentle. Gentle Sun gave Iron Heart an alluring smile, “Why? Am I prettier than before?” That smile beat Iron Heart, he blushed beet red and mumbled something under his breath until Narukami entered.

“Sun? Where is Blood Mask?”

Gentle Sun’s smile disappeared, “He ran into some trouble and is staying at the Tengu’s place.” Narukami tilted his head to the side, “Tengu?”

“People like us.” Narukami whipped around to find a man with a red Tengu mask standing right in the centre of the room. “Greetings to the King of Jiron, Narukami.” Lightning Emperor widened his eyes, clearly unable to sense the Tengu that was nearby him.

Gentle Sun bowed deeply towards the man, “Head Chief Sojobo.”

The Tengu bowed slightly back to Gentle Sun, then he glanced at Iron Heart who flinched slightly at that piercing gaze. “Hmm… You’re a lucky man.” Then he paused, and saw Gentle Sun’s eyes flare, a cold pressure pressed on Sojobo. The Tengu coughed slightly and avoided the girl’s fiery gaze. “I bring news to the King of Jiron.” “What is it?”

“The 500 Tengu shall join the alliance, along with the Kitsune in the North and the Komainu of the East. Blood Mask has convinced us to help you in the coming war.” A smile bloomed on Narukami’s face, and he shook Sojobo’s hand with an extreme enthusiasm. “A pleasure to be your acquaintance!”

Sojobo laughed at Narukami’s enthusiasm, and the others around sighed at Narukami’s evident happiness.

“MY KING! MY KING! I bring news!”

Narukami turned to the side, seeing a skinny boy running up towards group, the scout kneeled on the ground, “The war between the three empires have ended and the Goblin Lord Zafar is making his way here as we speak!”

Narukami’s smile froze, “What! How many are on their way?” “Around 4 million troops are heading to Storm Haven sir.”

Despair hit Narukami’s gut and his brain went numb. “4 million… even with the players we’ll only amass a million troops, we’ll be heavily outnumbered.” He held his chin, eyes closed as he tried to find a way out of this situation.

But then…

Silent Death exploded from the shadows, “My King! The vampires are coming!” Narukami’s brain froze again, “Another? How many?” Her expression darkened, “A couple of million sir… and a vampiric Duke and Baron is on the way.”

Everyone’s face turned ashen, Ash Blade himself groaned into his palms. But Gentle Sun was calm, she turned to Sojobo, “Teacher, could I ask you a favour?” Sojobo turned to the red-haired woman, “Hahaha, I think I know what you’ll ask, consider it done.”

“King Narukami, leave the goblins to the Tengu. We’ll hold them back and leave you to handle the vampires.”

Narukami smiled weakly, “Head Chief Sojobo, I do not intend to belittle the Tengu, but isn’t 500 against 4 million a little too much?” Sojobo laughed heartily at that question, “Do not worry, we Tengu are hard to kill, we’ll hold them back as much as we can.”

With that, Sojobo disappeared with a flash of feathers. Narukami sighed, turning to the rest of the team, “Prepare for battle, have the players from the alliance get weapons from the Jiron storehouse, I heard Blood Mask collected a ton of them for this purpose.” After he said that, he paused, “Could he have foresaw this?” Blood Mask didn’t sell the weapons for a large sum of money, instead he gave all of them to the armoury, saying it was for future use.

Narukami shook his thoughts out, barking orders to the Elites, until Gentle Sun came up to him, “Please put me on the frontline, I have received a domain skill that will help.” Narukami’s eyes widened at that, “You have a domain skill?! How did you get one?”

Gentle Sun grinned, “Master Sojobo taught me. The Tengu are advent knights of the goddess Amaterasu, so they have some powerful skills for those who wield the sun.”

Narukami nodded with satisfaction, “Alright. You’ll be on the walls overlooking the situation.” He then turned to the others, “Rest well and get ready for battle!”

>>>

A day later…

Lord Zafar sniffed the air, frowning slightly as the wind carried the faint familiar taste, yet they seemed unfamiliar.

He held a hand, and the marching goblins behind him came to a stop. A chief at his side grew puzzled, “Is there something wrong, Lord Zafar?” The lean goblin scanned the air, his frown deepening. “There’s something wrong in the air, I feel a powerful presence.” The chieftain beside had an expression of wariness, “Even stronger than yourself, my lord?” Zafar’s eyes shook slightly, “Much stronger…”

Zafar’s eyes found the source, a man wearing a white robe, a fan in his right hand, and a blood red mask with a long nose on his face.

The man floated slowly down, but Zafar’s face turned paler by the second. “T-This…”

The chieftain next to him flinched in surprise, “The lord is actually afraid!” He turned to the floating man, “What kind of monster is he?”

The floating man landed in front of the Zafar, fanning his face slightly as if in a hot weather. “We meet again, Goblin Lord Zafar.” Zafar nodded rigidly, “It has been a while, Head Chief Sojobo.” The Chieftains behind him flinched grandly, “Sojobo? The Wind Demon? Oh gods! We’re going to die!!!” Fear streaked past nearly every goblin’s face, and some of the weaker ones fell on their butts.

Sojobo laughed at the sight, “Do not worry, I am not here to kill you.” Zafar eyes sharpened, “Then what is it you want with us, Head Chief Sojobo?” the Tengu stared at Zafar and the goblin had the feeling of being stripped naked in front of this man.

“I am here to warn you…”

Warn us? Then Zafar realized it, “Do you side with the humans?” Sojobo continued to stare at him, “If you wish to fight the humans, you’ll be insulting the goddess, and you know we hate it when people insult our goddess.” The Tengu’s glare turned cold, a heavy pressure pressed on every goblin’s shoulder, an immense fear sprouting in their hearts as bursts of cold sweat flooded their skins.

Zafar himself couldn’t help himself from shuddering, “O-O-Of course Head chief Sojobo, we do not dare insult the great goddess of the Sun.” It may seem Zafar mocked Amaterasu, but every word he said, he meant it. The fear of the wind demon wasn’t small, Sojobo was one of the few monsters in the realm capable of defeating the goblin king, he was someone goblin lords should never mess with.

Not to mention the Tengu themselves, they were a force to behold despite being so few in number. There was a saying that there could only be 500 tengus, for everything has a balance, they were so strong the world forced a limit on their numbers.

The humans got lucky… Sojobo’s icy stare warmed slightly, but the goblins were still terrified to the bone. Zafar stuttered unlike a lord, “I-I-If that is all… w-we’ll be on our way. TURN!” Zafar barked an order that had a bit of a quaver, but all the goblins turned, shuffling away quickly. Once the goblin army was out of sight, Zenkibo appeared behind Sojobo, “Head Chief, the Kitsune and Komainu will need some time to gather their strength.”

Sojobo nodded in silence, "We were lucky... the enemy is afraid of the us and the three empires will surely be wary of us... with the humans, Tengu, Kitsune and Komainu. We'll be able to ammass a force as large as one of the empires. Theres bound to be issues there..." Zenkibo nodded, before realizing he forgot something,“Also…I hear the Kyofu No Kakashi has made its move…” Sojobo’s eyes widened greatly, then he laughed, “Hahahaha! That Blood Mask is quite the lucky man, he gained the eye of the god of knowledge, and now his scarecrow searches for his master.”

He looked at a certain direction, “It seems the old monsters might make a move as well…”