Ver'varia jumped as a portal opened next to her and Chris stepped out followed by the other three. She let out a relieved sigh. "Finally. I was wondering when you'd show up. Did you have any trouble with the soldiers?"

"We didn't have any trouble." Greg chuckled. "The soldiers on the other hand…"

Ver'varia groaned, burying her face in her hands. "What did you do?!?"

"Chris fucked- gah!" Greg stumbled as his heart exploded. "What the fu- oh, right, the oath." Greg grimaced as he healed his heart. "Damn it, I just lost all my ability energy!"

"I'll send you to the Maze to fill up once we figure out how we're handling the fallout." Chris waved dismissively.

"The fallout from what?!?" Ver'varia exclaimed. "And what oath did you take!?!"

"Oh, I just swore not to chastise Chris for fucking up." Greg explained.

"Why?!?" Ver'varia asked incredulously.

"To prove you could make an oath using a fake name as long as you identify with it." Greg shrugged.

"He used the name Commander Meatball Spaghettipants." Andrew added.

Ver'varia blinked at them for a moment, before turning to Chris. "How did you fuck up?"

"You believed that a person had to use their true name when making an oath, so when the captain asked me to take the oath, I didn't think I could do it without revealing who I am, and I said as much. Things devolved from there." Chris replied.

"Devolved how?" Ver'varia asked with a sigh.

"Well, Greg made his ridiculous oath, they asked who we were, there was some discussion but we seemed to land on demonic gods, Victoria threatened to twist someone's mind like a pretzel, Greg slammed the captain into a wall with a Dragon arm, and we got out of there." Chris recounted. "We also made it pretty clear we're here to depose Jer'tunal. We'll see how that plays out."

Ver'varia glared at him. "You people honestly have no idea how to lay low, do you?"

"Judging by our track record… Yeah, we suck at it." Victoria sighed. "The last time we tried to do something like this, we ended up kidnapping the leader of the city on the first day."

"I think things would have gone better if we didn't go straight to admitting we're demonic gods." Chris commented. "There should be tiers to our deception, so when we fail, we have something to fall back on. Step one, Elves. Step two, rebellious Elves. Step three, Doppelgangers? Anyway, you get the picture. We don't need to spill everything the moment someone catches us in something."

Victoria nodded. "He's not wrong… back when I first arrived in Rune World, I pretty much let everyone figure out their own explanations for any discrepancies in my story."

"Also, just because you don't think something will work, doesn't mean you can't try." Greg pointed out. "Like with the oath, Chris, you still could have read out the oath, which would have failed, but, it still would have told the rest of us what the oath would say, at which point I could have stepped forward and demonstrated that you didn't have to use your real name, and the rest of it could have gone off without a hitch. We could have explained away the flub of your first attempt as hesitance to actually take the oath, before you firmed up your resolve."

"We could also make better use of the Room." Andrew added. "Time is essentially frozen in there, so we can step out at any time to discuss the specifics of what we're doing. Sort of like Ver'varia does with slowing her perception."

"Of course, that does depend on us knowing someone is on to us. Ver'varia had us convinced we'd tricked her until she called us out." Greg commented.

"Well even then, it was clear we weren't Elves, but she didn't need to know what we actually were." Andrew retorted. "We could have convinced her we were some undiscovered race scoping things out or something."

"That's- actually what I thought you were at first." Ver'varia nodded. "Even if someone thinks there's something up with you, no one is going to assume they've somehow stumbled on demonic gods."

"Can I just say I hate how much that term is sticking?" Andrew grimaced.

"If the shoe fits." Greg chuckled.

"Then I need new feet." Andrew grumbled.

"Make way!" A voice called out from behind them. They turned to see a soldier bolting down the road towards them.

"Should we-" Greg began, before blinking as Andrew woke him up in the Room.

"I did just say we should use this more." Andrew grinned. "Wake up Chris, I got-" He glanced over at the red throne to check whether it was Victoria or Thomas sitting there. "-Thomas." They woke the other two up and got situated. "So, we have an Elven soldier running down the road, obviously on the way to tell someone about us." Andrew began. "What should we do about it?"

"Nothing?" Chris offered. "This can't be the only soldier they've sent, and it's going to be pretty clear where we're going if only one of them goes missing."

"See, what that says to me is we should stop all the soldiers." Greg replied. "Why should we let them spread any information on us? Hell, let's take the entire town and shove it into Chris's world! Sure, we screwed up, but a town mysteriously disappearing is better than Jer'tunal knowing Chris is out and about causing problems."

"Is it?" Thomas raised an eyebrow. "Obviously the recruiting they're doing is to build an army to attack the City. They're using peak physiques so that even if Chris captures them, he can't turn them into cultivators. If Jer'tunal knows Chris is out, then he doesn't have any reason to attack the City!"

Chris shook his head. "If anything that would make him more desperate to attack the City. The safety of the City is the only thing he has to hold over me. The fact that I'm out and capable of threatening him would probably get a cultivator sent after the City to force me into taking an oath not… to… go against him… huh. Well, if we ever need to stall for time, I have an idea, but once he learns that oaths don't work on me, we may have issues. Though, I suppose stationing a cultivator or two in the City with orders to destroy it the moment anything happens to Jer'tunal would be equally effective in forcing my loyalty…"

"He'd also learn about us, which would probably make him even more desperate." Andrew grimaced. "Who knows what crazy shit he might resort to."

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"So… we gonna disappear a town?" Greg looked around, grinning slightly.

Thomas sighed. "It's looking like we'll have to."

"It kinda does, doesn't it?" Chris muttered. "Do you think Ver'varia will be pissed?"

"I have no idea." Andrew shook his head. "But, hey, the Room worked great, right?"

"It did." Chris agreed. "Now let's get back to it." The others nodded and they all fell back asleep.

"Make way!" The soldier repeated as he continued to rush towards them.

Chris motioned for the others to step aside, getting some raised eyebrows, but he gave them a look and they, albeit hesitantly, moved aside. The soldier nodded to them as he passed, only to yelp as he tripped and fell into the portal Chris opened in the middle of the road. "One down." Chris grinned slightly. "Greg, track down the other runners, we'll handle the town."

"Handle the town?!?" Ver'varia exclaimed as smoke billowed out of Greg, turning into fairies that bolted off in various directions.

"Yeah, we talked in the Room, and we've decided that if we let news of our existence get back to Jer'tunal, it could be very bad for the City. So, we're going to disappear the town to keep word from getting out." Chris explained.

Ver'varia went pale. "Dis- disappear?!?"

"Ah, that does sound bad, doesn't it?" Chris muttered. "No, we're just going to force everyone into my world. Not ideal, obviously, but we'll make sure everyone is taken care of."

Ver'varia grimaced slightly. "I- guess that's better."

"Isn't it?" Greg chuckled. "Now come on, let's kidnap a town."

Chris opened a portal back to the barracks. "Hello, I know we just left, but it turns out we're going to need to insist you all come with us." He announced as he walked through, the soldiers jumping to their feet and grabbing their weapons. "Please do not resist."

"Evacuate the town, we'll hold them off!" One of the soldiers snapped at the guards before charging at Chris, fog rolling off his blade as a frost formed along its surface.

Chris sighed, dodging the soldier's attack and slamming a fist into his stomach, sending a jolt of electricity into him, stunning him as he opened a portal below him, letting him fall into his world. "I guess we're doing this the hard way then."

Portals opened around him as his subordinates flowed out, crashing into the soldiers. The Elves had them beat in both physique and ability, but his subordinates had them outnumbered and all they needed to do was pin them down long enough for a portal to open beneath them. Electricity covered Chris's fists as he charged as well, quickly taking down any soldier that put up more than a modicum of resistance.

The guards rushed out of the barracks, only to pull up short as several Greg's formed out of smoke, grinning and cracking their fingers. "Going somewhere?" He asked with a chuckle.

"The town is under attack! Evacuate out the East gate!" One of the guards yelled, his voice booming out under the influence of his ability.

"Well, I should have seen that coming." Greg sighed as panicked Elves began to run towards the East gate. "Oh wait." He laughed as smoke covered the gates, sealing them shut. "I did! Dome dome-dome dome~" He sang as the smoke continued upwards, forming a dome over the town, along with a rather large moat around it as he dissolved the ground for more smoke. A few Elves tried to fly out before the dome closed, but Andrew met them in the air, covered in carapace and sporting ant wings. Flashes of light blinded them before he smacked them back to the ground. Thankfully flight didn't lend itself to strength, so he didn't have that much trouble keeping them down until the dome closed.

"Attention people of Bar'rintla!" Victoria yelled. "We have no desire to hurt you! However, we must insist you enter the portals that are opening around town! If you do not, we will be forced to make you do so! Please don't resist! It won't help you!" The portals began to spring up as Chris's subordinates spread out around the town after handling all the soldiers in the barracks.

A loud sigh echoed out over the town. "And who are you to enforce such a declaration?" An Elf rose into the air, looking bored, idly flicking a finger at one of the gates, a burst of energy blowing a gaping hole into it. "You all may-" He cut off as the hole repaired itself almost instantly. "Huh…" He frowned, sending out another burst of energy, only for the hole to repair itself again. He tried a few more times. "What an interesting barrier. I wonder how much damage it can take before it runs out of energy."

"Enough." Greg chuckled.

"Guys, I think he's a cultivator." Andrew grimaced.

"What gave it away? The fact he blew a hole through four feet of steel like it was nothing?" Greg rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna go Dragon on him, y'all keep getting people out of here." More of the ground dissolved as smoke flowed towards Greg, wings forming first, flapping to send him into the air before the rest formed, a roar tearing from his throat as he charged at the cultivator.

"What the fu-" The cultivator cursed, eyes widening as Greg slammed into him, crashing into the dome. "Die!" The cultivator roared, sending Greg flying back in a burst of energy, a large hole in his chest that quickly healed.

Greg let out an amused rumble, bursting into smoke to avoid crushing any buildings, before flowing back into the air and reforming into a Dragon and going right back at the cultivator. *Let's take this outside.* He thought to himself as he rammed into the stunned cultivator again, turning the dome behind him back to smoke for a moment and taking the fight out of town. He didn't want a stray blast killing anyone.

"Damn it, what are you!?!" The cultivator growled. He'd vaporized the thing's chest, and it just shrugged it off! And while he didn't think this thing actually was a Dragon, it certainly hit like one. He hoped whatever it was doing took a lot of stamina, or he was going to be fucked. The two of them batted each other around for another minute or so, the cultivator's expression becoming grimmer and grimmer as Greg seemed completely unfased despite losing limbs, organs, and even his head! Twice! It became increasingly clear that there was nothing he could do to truly affect this creature. His only option was escape. He needed to warn the other cultivators, the King, someone! The amount of destruction this creature could cause… he shuddered as a burst of energy sent him flying away, the creature roaring behind him as it tried to catch up, which only encouraged him to put on even more speed, quickly outpacing it and leaving it far, far behind.

Greg let out a frustrated snort, before dissolving back into smoke and flowing back into the dome, reforming next to the others in the central square of the town. "Fucker got away." He grumbled. "He had an energy barrier I couldn't get through. All I could do was throw him around. I probably could have worn him out eventually, but he must have realized it was a lost cause, so he bolted."

"Fuck!" Andrew cursed, before letting out a sigh. "Should we just let the town go then? Kinda pointless to keep going."

Victoria shook her head. "No, we should still take them. The cultivator really only dealt with Greg. He may have heard something about portals, seen some subordinates, whatever, but that's it. Not enough for Jer'tunal to assume Chris is out, which is the problem. We should still take the rest of the town to remove as many clues as possible that might lead Jer'tunal to the conclusion that Chris is out."

Chris nodded. "Right." He turned to Greg. "Did you get the other soldiers?"

"Yeah, I got them." Greg nodded. "I mean, probably. I'm pretty thorough, but I'm not infallible. Maybe one of the fuckers turned invisible or went underground or something."

Andrew grimaced. "Hopefully not."

"We'll deal with it. We've done all we could, so whatever happens now is out of our hands." Chris shrugged.

"And if it ends up with dozens of pissed off cultivators tearing the City apart?" Andrew retorted.

"That's life." Chris replied. "We'll do what we can to stop it, but if we can't, we can't. No use beating ourselves up over it."

"And if one of those cultivators has psychic abilities and breaks Beth's mind?" Andrew continued.

"Then I'll throw them into my world and leave them burning in the center of a star for the rest of eternity." Chris stated in a firm, even tone. "But I won't beat myself up over it. As long as I've done all I can, it's out of my hands."

Andrew shook his head. "You're a freak." He sighed before walking off. "I'll do some rounds to make sure there are no stragglers. I don't care what abilities they have, they can't hide from my aura."

Victoria nodded. "I'll do some rounds too. They can't hide from me either."

"I'm going to start taking down buildings." Greg grinned. "They can't hide if there's no place to hide."

"I'll help my subordinates get everyone into my world." Chris shrugged. "There are some powerful people putting up a fight, futile as it is."

It took some time, but eventually they got everyone in the town into Chris's world, whether they liked it or not. Greg dissolved the dome and the walls, leaving a crater where the town used to exist. Hopefully they didn't need to do that to the next one… but given their track record, that was probably a vain hope.