Leffer frowned. He had just received notice that a Royal mage from the Capital was coming to assess the village. The only information he had gotten about this visit was that it was about the previously named Deadly Fish Lake. Of course, this barely told him anything.

Apparently, they had already caught wind of the village’s activities. This was too fast, even for the monitoring teams that the Empire had. They likely knew everything that had occurred, if they were coming to see him right now. Or did they…

Could they have had a ward on the lake beforehand? Something that could have watched the situation at the lake? How else would they know?

Leffer wasn’t sure, but he knew that a powerful mage would be coming. The Empire had notified him via communication Crystal, since they could tap into all of the Empire issued Crystals. The thing was, Leffer didn’t know the exact purpose of the visit.

It was either for ‘collecting’ all of their Crystals and Lumber, for their Mana Lake, or for the village war that had occurred. He hoped it wasn’t the former. The village really needed the resources, especially after the incident with the Mottor. They had families to repay and an economy full of holes from the battle.

Maybe he could have God Steve sort it out with them. The only issue was, he was leaving soon. Leffer wanted to persuade him to stay a bit longer, in order to help them with this issue.

‘Would it be unfair to take advantage of God Steve?’ Leffer thought hard about this. ‘He was kind to us village folk, and was the turning point in the battle. Hmm…I guess it wouldn’t be detrimental to him if we were to ask him to stay a few more days.’

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Steve came into the village hall, in human form. He greeted Leffer and explained his new form, telling him that he now knew how to shapeshift.

“As you know, I’m going to leave in two days to find my friends,” Steve told Leffer. He had stayed in Niti long enough. “I’ll need some supplies for the journey. Food, bags, mirrors, and other things.”

“God Steve. Would you consider staying for four days? There’s a Royal mage coming to ‘assess’ the situation at our village. I feel that it would be beneficial for you to be here for that. Some high ranking mages are known for cheating out poor villages of their wealth; in this case, yours.” Leffer let it all out, while motioning at the word ‘assess’. He held nothing back. “Only some, though. I don’t know about the one that’s coming.”

Steve thought about it. There wasn’t that much reason not to, right? It would set him back two days, but that wasn’t much. Plus, the dot on his map that was closest to him also wasn’t moving too much. It was fine. So he agreed.

He would explain the situation with his Elemental Lumber and Crystals, maybe even catch a ride to the border. There wasn’t much that could go wrong here. He was known as a God to these people, anyways.

Steve spent the rest of the days training his new form. He figured out that in order to use energy effectively in his new body, he needed to make his own way of using it. This involved countless hours of experimentation.

It was also beneficial to eat a ton of food, even though it tasted bad. It gave him some energy, though not as much as a Crystal. His previous form had been extremely efficient, Steve found after a day in the new body. Finding a sustainable energy source was going to be top priority from now on. The energy that he had currently wasn’t going to be enough forever.

He tried to take on other forms, but he couldn’t get them exactly right. The bird form had been too clunky to fly, and the ant form also hadn’t clicked. Steve just needed to hear the click. This was all the more reason to travel as soon as possible. He spent his time hanging around with Ash, Azra, Loop, and Fom until it was time. The kids were respectful, and it wouldn’t hurt getting to know them. Steve had a feeling he would be staying in this world a long time, more than just a few years. Possibly decades.

The fourth day had finally arrived. He had done everything he could have in preparation for the trip. It was time to go, right after he met with the Royal mage.

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Mottle felt wronged. He had spent the last two days foraging around the area for food, all the while thinking. The thoughts that went into his head were full of hate, regret, and sadness. He just didn’t know what to do, now that his clan was basically dead. If he had clan members who weren’t dead, they would be soon. The Empire never left anyone alive.

Why had that ball of light been there? No, that wasn’t the correct question to ask. They knew that it was there before they attacked. The correct question was: Why had it been so strong?

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Mottle followed the rest of the battle after his father went down on that rooftop. The ball of light not only knew how to instant cast powerful attack spells, it also knew how to instant cast high level utility spells. He saw it use Blink and some kind of powerful lifting wind spell to completely destroy the Mottor clan troops.

Even though his family had never been very kind to him, he didn’t want to see them all dead.

This was all that thing’s fault.

These were the thoughts that had run through Mottles head. He lurked around the surroundings of the village before meeting up with Reagan. Ronnie was still in the surroundings because he had to take care of Reagan, who was in a coma. Apparently a rock had hit him hard in the head, knocking him out. The two mages had lost their leader, their elder brother Remley, in the fight against the Niti Elder.

At first, he was pleasantly surprised to meet Ronnie. Mottle had found him near the opposite side of the village while he was roaming around. He saw his brother Reagan on the ground in a make-shift grass bed. Reagan didn’t look too good.

“That mage is a bastard. And so is Lord Mottor. You’re his useless son, aren't chu?” Ronnie had said when they made it into voice range. Mottle’s pleasant surprise had turned into dismay. They didn’t like him. Well, Ronnie didn’t.

It had been two days since that exchange. They immediately moved places because of the ant army that moved through the village. The ants had seen them, but they didn’t attack. It was weird, but Mottle didn’t complain. He was now a man with a mission, after all.

A mission to seek revenge against that ball of light.

Mottle returned to their small base in the forest with some berries he had found. Ronnie kept him around for foraging purposes and small tasks. He didn’t really complain, but felt anger whenever Ronnie lashed out at him. The man had been sarcastic and unkind to everyone, even before the battle. Now that Remley had died and Reagan had fallen into a coma, his attitude was even worse. He no longer had a limiter on his mouth anymore.

“Hey. Kid. Wow, nice grab today. What do we have here?” His tormentor ended in a singing voice. “Mmmm-Nice. There’s like ten berries. I guess this’ll be your dinner!”

Mottle had no choice but to take this from the sarcastic older man.

He had no backing, no strength, no magic, and no map. The outside wilderness was extremely dangerous. He had seen Ronnie prepare magic and destroy wild animals for food. If only he had that kind of strength! Mottle regretted not learning magic. Actually, he regretted a lot more than that.

He regretted not saying goodbye to his father. He regretted not training to become a warrior. He regretted not trying hard to make friends. He regretted not knowing his clansmen better. Now that he was all alone, he knew what he had lost. Mottle didn’t have the opportunity to get to know his own clansmen, because they were completely screwed.

The Mottor clan was done.

“Do you actually think you’ll be able to do anything to that ball of light?” Ronnie loved to bring this up. He had heard Mottle say it one time, and one time was enough. “You really think that you’ll be able to take that thing on? You’re a waste.”

Ronnie definitely knew that the Mottor clan had lost. He also knew that they had lost because of that ball of light, from Mottle’s own recount of it. That was enough information to give the young man shit about it.

The only time when Ronnie wasn’t angry was when he was watching his brother Reagan. He would go very quiet and stare at his face like a hawk. It was a bit unnerving, because he would do it for hours on end. After that, Ronnie would be at peace for about ten minutes before yelling at Mottle again.

For Mottle, this was a like a never ending pattern. He had been woken up several times by this maniac, and it didn’t seem to stop. Ever. Soon, he was going to have to risk going into the wilderness.

Or risk going insane.

He wasn’t sure how many days had passed, before one day he just lost it.

Ronnie had been going on about his dad being dead. Mottle wasn’t sure how it happened.

“Hey, kid. How come you’re so weak?” Ronnie had said. “Your grandfather was pretty good, I hear. Your dad wasn’t bad. Even your brother was decent.”

That was all it took that day. Earlier that afternoon he had tripped on a branch in the forest while foraging. He had skinned his knee. It had been a bad experience, because he couldn’t move in shock for two minutes. In that two minutes, anything could have happened. Luckily, it was only after two minutes that he regained his senses. When he did, he was facing a dangerous beast.

Mottle had run for his life.

Now, facing Ronnie was like nothing. He straight up went up to Ronnie in an awkward hurried way. They stood there, looking at each other. Ronnie was sitting down near his brother, who was still in a coma. He had switched to using his own mana to support his brother’s life force. There was only so much water droplets could do for a person before he started weakening.

Mottle punched Ronnie in the face with all his might. It wasn’t much, but it did catch Ronnie off guard. Nothing happened for a split second, before Mottle took off. He ran away from it all.

He ran and ran. Nothing stopped him. Until he realized he didn’t know where he was anymore. Mottle was far away from the village and the makeshift base. He then started walking. After a few more minutes of roaming, it had begun to turn dark. Night would fall, and he would die a horrible death at the paws of some beast.

It was then that he saw a light. It was a light, from a path up ahead. He hadn’t noticed the path before. It was too dark.

There was hope yet!

Mottle ran towards that light with the last vestiges of his energy.