“Wait, hold on, we shouldn’t?” I raised a brow.

“This isn’t Shaturein,” Vangrim answered. “In our undercity there are plenty of relatively innocent people; even those who steal to survive would be ‘innocent’ in my book. However, the Hirsana Marketcircle isn’t the same. This is a black market, where the only innocents are all slaves. Urchins? Dead, escaped, or enslaved; if they’re lucky, they are working for one of the gangs here and can survive as a ‘free’ person, however their hands must spill some blood first. There is order in Shaturein, but here? You will find it even worse than Gleisvale’s slums, for the only law here is only that those who survive can do business.”

“And you don’t want to get involved when the best thing you can do is join up with somebody,” Vifi commented. “There are protection gangs running these kinds of places, and those people earn money by extorting others for protection or having them join their gang forcefully. You do not encroach in somebody’s territory without expecting a fight. They don’t need some vigilante tipping the balance against their favor—they’ll just see you as a potential ‘rival’ to be put down.”

Gael turned his head around, raising his head as he tried to take a peek at Vifi’s face. “… You know your stuff, lass. Who are you and when did you join up with the young lady? Pretty sure I’ve been kept updated on Aurora’s members and allies, but you’re a newbie?”

“Don’t bother.” Saori tapped his shoulder.

He shrugged, before turning around to the loud noises. “Well, she’s right, you know. It’s like what Mr. Vangrim said, we don’t need any attention on us. People mind their business here, do what they need to do, and then leave. This market doesn’t want to lose outside customers, so don’t worry about them annoying you, so long as we don’t annoy them first. In fact, they will protect you to make sure you come back with more money.”

He dropped that quickly. Once again shows he’s a professional despite being a drunkard.

“Question then, what happens when we find some enslaved kids?” Grimnir brought up, causing everybody but Vifi to turn their eyes at me.

“What?” I shrugged. “Last time one of Hamil’s scumbags kidnapped Abi and the other kids—people I know and have bonded with. Do you really think I would go out of my way to save everybody as if I was some ultra altruistic person?”

“Yes,” Saori replied, looking horrified at something. “You nearly went berserk on some lizardmen for kidnapping Rajah’s siblings, you nearly killed Hamil and were planning on burning a whole section of Shaturein down, and I heard from my Haruka-chan how you sent Grimnir’s birthplace into chaos for falsely imprisoning them. Just saying, I have nothing against you, but we do not need to repeat this discussion again.”

[“Rajah remembers!”] Rajah slipped his head out, followed by his two siblings. [“Master was amazing!”]

[“Yes, yes! Thank you for saving us!”] his siblings said. Cute.

I shrugged again, although I couldn’t hide my smile from seeing them. “Rhetorical question, sheesh. No need to be that worried, Saori … But, yes, I dislike criminals. I don’t like black mercenaries. I don’t like how any of this crap is even allowed, even if I know from a realistic standpoint it is inevitable and most is done for necessity. This is impossible to change.”

“Right you are.” Vangrim nodded. “Just … if you have to burn something down, warn us? I do have some friends here.”

Gale raised his hand. “Same.”

They lived in a different world from me and mine, even if I had to visit it here and there. Trying to judge them would just be narrow-minded, especially after I tried to recruit Vifi to help me stop the war between the humans and the demonkin. As they say, sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to reach your goal. This was why allying with Shaturein and Reajaen were necessities.

[Humanize (Major)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

As such, I accepted their requests and ignored the monster attack, simply having one of my parallel minds keep an ear out for anything. Once Neill and I transformed into humans to hide our draconic features, we snuck out of the water tunnel and entered the main street. To my surprise, it felt calmer here than I expected. It felt almost like Shaturein with its wild screams and roars happening in the distance while people were talking, hacking meat on the streets, or just eating, unhindered and unbothered.

Similar to Shaturein, most of the buildings were made from earth or rock, probably since it would be easier for earth mages to mass produce buildings from the surroundings than to import wood for a proper house. It also smelt worse down here, as I saw some farm animals walking around and even getting butchered right in front of a crowd. Blood splattered, hitting a few people as they raised their coin pouches, bidding to get the best parts of the animal before the others.

I noticed Vifi turn her head to the side for a moment, before noticing two men speaking in an alleyway. As I was about to turn my head forwards again, I caught sight of one of them stabbing the other in the stomach multiple times before punching them in the face. As the latter was growling in pain, dropping down on the ground and smearing the wall and ground red, I couldn’t help but want to help him.

Yet, I stopped myself when I focused my hearing, listening to the stabbed man cursing his attacker and telling him how his gang would “rip apart yer son and sell yer wife and daughter off.” I wrinkled my brows at this fact, only to see the stabber kick the other in the head, killing him before stealing a pouch of coin and some … green powder? He sniffed it, looking high before running into the darkness.

I took a deep breath. I took another. I looked forward and kept following Gael and Vangrim, sighing.

After making our way through the crowd, we finally ended up at a shady-looking bar. Gael went up to the bartender, intending to order something out of “respect” while he sent us up to meet our contact. There, we met a woman, whom Vangrim introduced as one of the girls from the Heartful Dance, one of Shaturein’s three pillars and the one responsible for information.

Vangrim then asked me to cast an [Air Shield]. Noticing other tables had people doing the same, I assumed this was par for the course.

“The Madam greets you, my lady.” Once nobody could hear us, she bowed her head slightly in my direction before noticing Neill and doing the same. “The two injured spies were disposed of here and thrown out to be eaten by beasts. Two of the assailants departed back to Aureolis, using the upper routes to make it faster. Three others decided to move south, either continuing their work in the Lecartiglio duchy or going to Atadoro. One stayed here, forced to deal with the Hirsana gang itself. I presume it is the continued support of their spy network in the south.”

Quick and to the point. She didn’t distract us with anything else.

Vangrim then had her go into detail, asking us about the information that got leaked, to which she affirmed it was mostly about the dealings between Duke Olivus and Cardinal Theodore. Quite some secrets were exposed about how the priests of Artorias were handling themselves after the previous cardinal was executed. The underground also knew everything around the pastry recipe, my dealings with House Helvas and Greenveil, and that Artorias and Shaturein were both my subordinates. That I had everything in my grasp.

“It isn’t completely true, but it practically is,” Vangrim said.

“The Hirsana’s leader is worried Kargyx is finally expanding, choosing to send their youngest daughter out to conquer everything from the shadows. The rumor is that Kargryx is trying to take revenge on the Empire for Saelariel for the War for the Faefolk. They are calling you the ‘Shadow-Light Tyrant’ in the Atadoro kingdom’s underworld, I heard,” the informant continued.

“What bullshit!” Neill clawed on the table. “In the shadows? If we want to take over Altrust, we’ll do it front-and-center! What do we Kargryxmors have to hide, huh? We would rain down dragon breath and we wouldn’t blink an eye! Father’s horns, where is that bastard! I’m not letting him blemish our clan’s name!”

“Calm down,” Saori stated, grabbing Neill to push her back into her seat, but was unable to. “This is not a reason to go out there with this sort of mood.”

Neill pulled her hand off her shoulder before sitting back down. “Saori, my sister gave you her blood to evolve. That means that, thanks to your Belzac blood integrating it, you are now part of the Kargryxmor clan too. Would you feel good if somebody insults your family like this? Why exactly are we waiting around like this? Here’s the thing, I don’t understand why we are doing this whole ‘under the cloaks’ thing, anyways. We have the information, let’s go get our man. If those little rats try to defend him, then we’ll show them what dragons will actually do if they want something crushed!”

Sis just wasn’t the sneaky type. Everything she did was pretty bombastic, for example, how she just destroyed a gigantic dwarven statue ‘cause she couldn’t control her [Battle Frenzy (Major)].

“I agree,” Grimnir stated. “The monster is still destroying this whole place from the sound of it. Let’s take advantage of it. Nobody can outspeed us with these four ladies around.”

Neill, Vifi, Saori, and I all had ways for superspeed or to outmaneuver somebody, even without our agility. Grimnir did make a good point.

[“I suggest not to waste anymore time in this pithole,”] Belzac chimed in, only sending his thoughts to Neill and us Aurora members.

Vifi nodded. “Horn princess and Grimnir are correct. I’m not much for sneaking around, either. We got the information, now we let the hounds hunt our target down.”

“I don’t think we can stop you, then,” Vangrim interjected. “Good. I’ll agree to that, but don’t announce your name. Keep to your human forms, Princesses. Just act as if you were gang members as well. Don’t give people any further fuel for the rumors. It might not seem serious to you, but it isn’t trivial for Shaturein. Unless you want to help us cover for every single smuggling route in the vast underworld, I suggest you follow my suggestion.”

“Do you remember how we spread Shaturein’s influence over to Gleisvale and Estralia as a whole?” Gael brought up, to which I nodded. That was one of our reasons for going there. “People quickly learned about it, and now they got the evidence with the leak. Underworld bases like this will feel threatened and they will make sure we will have a hard time in the future. They don’t even have to do it by attacking us, simply denying us trade because they don’t think we are trustworthy is good enough of a threat, and then we will have an even larger poverty problem. You get it?”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

I nodded before reaching my hand into my cloak, pretending as if I was pulling something from it, but instead pulled out some nuts from my storage. These ocran powder nuts could color your hair once applied and it was perfect for this subterfuge mission. I handed some to Neill, Saori, and Grimnir, plus kept several for myself, as I believed we were the most conspicuous, since people have seen us hanging around. Vifi rarely went out, so she was good as long as she hid her face.

As such, I created some masks out of my corrosive obsidian and handed them to my five members. Once we put them on, it was time to begin this extraction mission.

[“Master, what about our disguise?”] Rajah eagerly asked, representing the shadow pack. It seemed they felt left out.

“All of you rarely appear in public. Nobody will notice you,” Saori shot the idea down completely and I could imagine the sad meows and whimpers resounding inside the shadow world.

Vangrim and Gael would warn their contacts while helping our informant leave this black market to escape from being found out as a snitch. They would wait at the river tunnel entrance for us. With Saori around, we had the nose and eyes to wander around and find the information we needed to track this spy down. After the informant told us where the Hirsana gang’s headquarters were, she left.

With the shadow pack eavesdropping on everybody they could, we quickly pinpointed the location of the spy at a tavern; sadly, when we got there we also found out it was inside the attack area of the monster attack. The whole place was just demolished as monsters were rampaging around, fighting against a couple of people. Were they mercs or hunters? Well, it didn’t matter.

“Avoid the monsters, let’s just find that guy!” I ordered before Saori, Neill, and Grimnir went their own ways, while I stuck with Vifi.

“You think you can keep up with me as a human?” she asked me, to which I shrugged.

“Oh, shut it. If you had wanted to escape, you would have done it the moment I went [Humanize (Major)]. I’ll give you your donut later, or do you want a pizza?”

“Haha, can’t even tease ya, huh? Fragassa cake, that’s the price for today.”

And we were off. Vifi adjusted her speed to mine as we dashed around the streets, parkouring upon the broken down buildings as we avoided the adventurers and the monsters. A couple of the former called out to us, telling us to leave, but we disappeared before they could finish their sentence and it didn’t seem like they cared enough to bother chasing.

Others were literally demanding us to leave, as any corpse was “property of the Hirsana Marketcircle.” They actually responded to our presence by having hedge mages shoot spells at us, but Vifi and I simply dodge them. They were unbearably slow. They took so long with the chants it was childsplay to outrun their spells.

[“Master!”] Rajah suddenly spoke to me. [“Saori found a group of people. Bunch of sleazy people and somebody in a black cloak. It matches the one you described.”]

“Good job!”

We dashed towards the location with Rajah where we found the group he was speaking about was getting attacked by a monster. To my surprise, there was a small fire slowly starting to grow, but due to the stone houses, it barely was able to spread itself. That was when I noticed a couple of mages shouting out loud as they confronted a … Oh gods. I-it was an amphibian …

Shit!

A massive creature large enough to climb on a one story tall building and crush it with its grip, this monster had slimy, shimmering skin that looked like it had absorbed water like a sponge. However, instead of looking bloated, it looked sleek as its long body stretched onto the floor as I saw an alleyway-long slender tail wiggle around. Its skin was colored brown and green, giving this icky, venomous look most salamanders used to scare predators or camouflage themselves.

Yes, this was thankfully not a monstrous frog … but the fact an overgrown salamander existed was enough to make my heart skip a beat. That slimy skin nearly caused my phobia to resurface!

Grove-Bubble Salamandra: A mutated salamander with skin able to absorb and store vast amounts of water inside their pink pigmented skin, allowing them to discharge it as a defensive water shield. Able to absorb toxins from its surrounding to discolor its skin and shoot out a beam of water using a water sac. Rank B

However, this salamander wasn’t hiding. It reared its head down at the group of humans and beastmen, eying them like a snake. A couple of them were fire mages, praising Shiterno and slinging fire at the massive beast, only for water bubbles to be ejected from its body, fizzling the spells out. With this empty look as if it had nothing in its mind, it gave me the creeps.

“Praise, Danterno! For he has handed us a being of immeasurable value for us to burn! This creature of Plesia wields her disastrous power! Burn them, in honor of our blasphemed god! Burn down anything Plesia for suppressing his power! For the Pantheon of Fire! For our Saint!”

Saint?

“For the God of Trailblazing! For God Askaino! For Saint Sierras!” the group of eight fire mage shouted as they channeled their spells, shooting out multiple [Fire Magic Lv. 7] [Flame Spear] at the beast.

As its water bubbles shielded its body, it roared out as it jumped off the building, crawling on the ground as it gathered a bubble of green water on its mouth. At the same time, one of its green spots turned pink, its description finally making sense.

Two earth mages conjured up a wall to block the salamander as it slammed the green bubble on the ground, causing it to burst and release the water. It swamped everything but behind the [Terra Wall], protecting the earth mages and the man in the middle of it all.

I eyed him, immediately noticing the cloak. He was one of the people who shot their spells at us after I took the envy demonkin down. I pointed at him and Vifi nodded and we both snuck behind a ruined building, aiming to kidnap the man the moment the mages got too invested into the fight. I still wanted to fulfill Vangrim’s request and not bring too much attention to us.

Where is Saori? I wondered. This would be far easier if she was around. She could just [Shadow Dash] towards the man and get him for us, as she was the only one who could bring others into the shadow world with [Shadow Armament]. Rajah could shadow dash over, but he couldn’t do what Saori did and would then be forced to run from the mages while carrying the cloaked man.

As the fighting continued with the group unable to escape with the salamander perfectly countering the fire mages, two of them died, having been caught by the toxic water wave. The salamander consumed them whole, frightening the rest as it continued staring at them with those eyelid-less eyes.

“We need to do something,” Vifi suggested, sounding a bit alarmed. “Those people are rank C, at best; you can’t beat a rank B with only rank Cs! If we can’t hurry up, that guy will die and we’ll lose a chance to get some information! Choose.”

“Where are the others, though?” I replied, before directing my attention to Rajah.

[“I don’t know, Master. I haven’t left your side once Miss Saori found them. She should be here! She was here with Mom and the others before I left. What about your party bracelet?”]

Good idea!

I pulled my bracelet up and activated it, causing a blue screen to appear from the blue crystal embedded into it. I clicked on the “Party finder” option and had it tell us how far Saori and the others were.

Name: Saori Segawa Distance: 54 m

Name: Grimnir Luedbrumdar Distance: 54 m

Name: Fargryneill Qilinus Kargryxmor Distance: 60m

“They’re in the same area? Why is that wolf so far away when we need her here! Why hasn’t she just grabbed that bastard yet?” Vifi complained, but her brows suddenly wrinkled when she saw the distance of all three suddenly moving up and down. “Wait, they’re fighting some—”

Boom!

And just when Vifi finally realized the truth, a massive explosion appeared to our right, looking far enough to count as 50 meters. There, I also saw somebody flying through the air with flames flaring behind him like a rocket booster. As they came closer, I noticed they were a beastman with a staff on their left hand and a giant greatsword in his right … and that they were flying right at us!

Terra Wall!

Vifi ran and jumped away as I cast an earthen spell to send myself flying away, just before that person crash landed right before us, sending flames flying around like a volcano. As the dust settled, magic surged through my hands as I fully buffed myself, ready for the battle as the man growled in laughter.

<[Various Spell Buffs] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>

“Ahaha! Finally, we’ve found you, traitor! Traitor and thief! Pitiful blessed led astray by the blinding light, instead of accepting the soothing flames to warm your body! You stole our lord’s power, causing his downfall by Plesia’s hands! You are responsible for his punishment!”

The beastmen stepped out of the crater as flames gathered around him like moths fluttering around a light. He cracked his neck, smiling wildly as his full figure was revealed.

A pantheon beastman with the fur and stripes of a tiger, only that black stripes were flaring red, looking a bit like flames. Burn scars covered his two forearms, having turned his fur charcoal black. He was wearing a robe but had armor on as well, looking like a proper battlemage as he directed his greatsword at me.

“I can smell your blessing, mhmm, that searing hot flame! That grandiose power behind your figure! A blessing directly from the Inferno God and you dare turn your back on him, you dare let the White Scourge bring him down, you dare let the Abyssal Witch punish the most glorious and important Origin God?” The tiger roared, baring his fangs at me. “I am Saint Sierras, Saint of the God of Trailblazing, Askaino! The Fire Pantheon has revealed your sins, your crimes! I feel you behind that mask, Saintess Hestia! You dare fight in the name of the White Scourge when your inferno powers came from Danterno? Today you will—”

“SHUT UP!” I shouted. “I knew it. I knew it when I heard Askaino’s name! A Saint, huh? So my intuition was right. There really was another pyromaniac around, and … I had a feeling this day would come. Shiterno … Shiterno’s little posse of fading embers. Those gods finally sent somebody to attack me, huh?”

It was just as Crustacia and Bleidla said. His Church really was just a bunch of misguided fools, especially those subordinate gods of his. Did they feel threatened by me? Did they actually blame me for usurping Shiterno’s blessing unwillingly? Or, were they using this chance to off me for some plan of theirs?

It didn’t matter. What mattered was this couldn’t have been a coincidence. What was the chance of some fire Saint being exactly here to ambush me? Yet, it didn’t make sense in a way, as only the gods and my party knew about me usurpring Shiterno’s blessing. From the sound of it, this Saint knew about this truth, probably from his god.

As such, could he have possibly told somebody the information? It wouldn’t do him or the Church of Dantereno any good if he were to reveal his god got demoted by Plesia. It would only cause more religious issues when the religion was already the worst.

“HERETIC! Do not wield the Inferno’s name in such a distasteful light! White Scourge whelp! You and the rest of the Church of Aurena deserve destruction, for oppression of our race and the glorious Carmaniate! I shall drink blood wine as you die in ashes as the Church of Aurena burns into the ground!”

… The Prince of Envy. Of course.

“Then there is little left to speak of!” I announced, pulling my glaive out from my storage.

“Oi!” Vifi snapped her head around. “Are you sure about this, we—Hey, look!”

“Grrwwr!”

My eyes glanced to the side, only to see the salamander crash into the ground, nearly crushing our target, barely saved by the two earth mages. The man flew into the sky and landed roughly on the ground, crying out loud as it looked like he broke something.

You gotta be—Woah!

I dodged to the side as [Foresight] warned me of a fire attack, seeing a flame slash flying right past me. I snapped my head around, seeing the tiger roaring at me.

“Fire consumes fire! You will nourish us!”

You!

“Valeria!” I called out Vifi’s human pseudonym. “You take care of that salamander and the guy! This guy is toast!”

“Either one doesn’t matter to me, but you sure? Don’t you need to turn back? This is a Saint, not your ordinary mage or somebody from Aurena. Danterno’s religion promotes strong Saints and Champions.”

“Yeah, don’t worry … An idol should hide herself when off stage, but this was one right now. The Fire Pantheon has front-row seats as I show them what I can really do. They’re too late!” I called out as mana surged around my body as [Aerokinesis] began to play. “Fire consumes fire? I’ll show what a real inferno is! I’ve had enough of assa—”

My [Foresight] and [Danger Perception] both activated, causing my head to snap to the side as I saw an arrow fly right at my head. A chill ran down my spine.

I couldn’t dodge it.