Flying over the Abode of War monastery and valley, I checked for nearby centaur herds. There was one right there, taking the trials. I circled around the valley and started my descent. Feeling whimsical, I took my spear and held it with the tip as far down as it would go, then activated my horn light. Since the spear worked with these perks, the people down there on the ground got a treat of a shining flying centaur coming down at them.

I was showing off. And enjoying it. You know, some shock and awe. Until the arrows and spells started to fly my way from the market section of the valley. Putting up some shields, I tanked through them and landed at the gates of the Abode.

An orc and centaur priests were the guards this time. They saluted me as I approached. "[Heritor]! Welcome to the Abode of War! Queltphion warned us of your arrival. We'll call the high priest and priestess Galatea."

They led me to the front courtyard. I could hear the sound of hooves skidding in the sand and wood bashing on wood as the centaur children shouted.

"Surrender your gold, you filthy human!"

"Never! I must sacrifice it to my dark gods!"

"Get out of here, you savage! The dark god will blanket this whole plains in... darkness!"

"Yeah! Darkness!"

"To me, centaurs! Raid them!"

More bashing, more whinnying, and then a lot of grunts and screams of pain.

An adult woman said, "Hey, hey! Humans are weaklings. You took five hits on your chest, you are dead. Don't cheat!"

That was so nostalgic.

"I see you are reminiscing of old times, [Heritor]," Galatea's voice broke my reverie. "Magnificent wings. Truly worthy of a [Queen]," she added in a whisper.

She looked exactly the same as a few years ago. Not a single new wrinkle that I could remember. Behind her the ogre priest and another I've never seen, a seven-foot-tall human-looking person.

"Priestess," I approached and hugged her. Just to make a show of it, I extended my wings and covered her back and back with my feathers.

Then I brought them back and extended them up against one another before folding them against my sides again. I had a ridiculously long wingspan.

"I see you are enjoying the gifts of your heritage," She commented with a smirk. Then she leaned next to my hear as if to hug me again and said, "I was afraid you'd take Zacheia's advice and leave the plains after the ships."

My body became stiff. Was the priest of Zacheia trying to bamboozle me out of my heritage? Was that why the goddess offered to help put me on the ships? Could I trust either of the priests? Well, Queltphion never led me astray. Maybe there's more to it than what I can perceive but let it be a wake-up call. I shouldn't put too much trust in the Gods and travel my own path.

That when I was intending on entering business transactions with three of them very soon. But one thing at a time. Now, I needed to get some information on the heritage and priests to take over the temple I had to build for the quest.

Galatea took me by the arm and pointed at the too-tall man, "Let me introduce you to--"

"MOM! THE PRETTY WHITE LADY HAS WINGS AND A HORN! IS SHE A MONSTER?!?" A girl's voice squealed.

Just like a broken dam, the courtyard suddenly flooded with the foals playing in the training area, followed by their caretakers. They swarmed us and surrounded me, rubbing my fur and feathers with their hands.

"Are you a mutant?"

"Where did you get your wings?"

"Is that a spear in your head! Cool!"

"What's your herd, lady?"

"Marry me!"

"I saw her flying up in the sky!"

"Make your horn shine again!"

And so on.

The adults came and dragged the children away from me. The big man-priest stared at us and seemed pretty annoyed I wasn't giving his angry mood any of my attention. They threw some apologies our way before they dragged the children back to the training area. More like a barbarian's playpen, now that I thought of it. Every time I come here, that area is occupied by the children of the clans that come for the trials.

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Speaking of which, I could hear the wood clacking, the centaurs cheering and drumming on the stone floor of the bleachers with their hooves. From the arena side came a familiar and nostalgic smell that only appeared when lots of centaurs that hadn't bathed in weeks gathered together for physical exertion.

Galatea finally managed to make the introductions, "[Heritor] Snowdrop, let me introduce you to Warmaster Preponcius, the high priest of the Abode of War."

"Father," I nodded at him. I met Galatea's eyes and asked her mentally,

She shook her head apologetically. They were probably keeping my existence hidden from him.

"Were you the one that destroyed the human city?" He asked with a voice that made Batman sound like a girl.

"Probably yes. Pekothas? Haughty King, kidnapped centaurs, had an invincible throne, Mad Bounty, Galbarar's advent? If that's the one, then yes."

"What brought you here?" He asked like a tv show's bad cop. "Did you come to steal another of our relics?"

I sent to Galatea,

"Look, I'm not here for a fight. I need you to get off my back. I stole nothing."

"Arrogant litle centaur," He spat back. "I demand you return the relic you stole from this temple!"

I zoned his rambling out and looked at Gallatea,

The old centauress first made sure he couldn't see her face by taking a half-step back, then gave me a wry smile and a nod. "He was away," she mouthed and discreetly pointed to the north.

I checked his information. The priest was level 146 and had forty million HP. His species was called "half-dragon human." I couldn't see any draconic features on him except for the height. Maybe he had a cloaca, who knows?

"Do you mean the Unicorn King's Spear that is mine by birthright? I didn't steal that," I stated with the most neutral voice possible. "But here, have it."

I took the spear out of the item box and extended it to him. He yanked it out of my hand. "You should know better than to defy the Gods!"

I pumped my voice to the max with my talents. "You called me, Laconia's [Grand Duchess] a thief. That's Lese Majeste. Withdraw your words and apologize on your knees or I'll take it as a declaration of war. I hope you are prepared to take responsibility for your actions."

He seemed surprised, "You dare talk of war in this temple?"

"Yes? Why not? Seems fitting. Don't forget this belonged to my ancestor before you squatted in here. Wait, did your deity even tell you who I am?"

He ground his teeth silently. After a while, he said, "You are level 120! While that is amazing for someone quite young, you must've spent a lot of Perks on gaining Exp bonuses."

I rolled my eyes, "More than thirty," I snickered. "You better pray to Queltphion and beg for an augury. Because you're going to regret this."

He tried to stab me with the spear, I teleported it to my hand with but a thought. Then he stopped mid-attack and froze in place, barely keeping his balance. I could feel a surge of divinity in him.

Warmaster Preponcius adjusted his stance and said seriously, "Our Lord Queltphion has told me to settle our dispute in the arena, you and me. A solo fight, with no seconds, no restrictions on abilities except we cannot hurt spectators."

"Fine by me."

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We went to the arena. The centaur clan silently came behind us, along with a lot of people. I didn't see the usual bookmakers. Weird. And the other guys all had heavy limits on bets. I heard several of them asking the others if they'd already placed bets with someone else before handing out the bet chit.

I walked into the nostalgic sand-covered stage. I triggered my [Diva] Perks and got the MP regeneration portion from most of them along with what the {Wellspring} gave me. The guy I was about to fight was excluded from the wellspring, though it made me lose 25% of everyone else. My Energy was topped and I let it fill above the maximum. I was about to do something very stupid and Energy-consuming.

He was wearing maille armor like his deity and had a massive two-handed mace in his hands. "We need no referee," Warmaster Preponcius declared, "Queltphion presides over this duel."

"Then, begin!"

As Preponcius came at me with his mace, I was already humming my spell. Let's see what {Grand Fermata} does to it. 200,000 al-Mi'raj flooded the arena with a single order. Beat Preponcius until he stopped moving, do not engage anyone else. The arena and part of the bleachers flooded with enough murder rabbits to make it look like a giant claw machine. Some of the spectators hit the summons but they just vanished.

The ocean of white fur and horns moved up and down like a living organism, pulsating and churning where the dragon-man was. The damage notifications were pitiful, but he had enough enemies to reduce his active defenses to zero. He couldn't dodge or parry any attacks. Enough al-Mi'raj struck criticals all the time. The damage notifications climbed up like a PewDiePie Livestream chat.

He killed al-Mi'raj like a farmer reaped wheat. The outcome could be different if I told the summons to bite him and cling to his body. Maybe not. This guy's Strength score was impressive enough to move even with all these creatures on him.

"Holy Smite!" He shouted and an explosion of silvery-gray light rang from him, making the al-Mi'raj vanish as it touched them. Ten, twelve meters of the arena became clear of summoned creatures for a few seconds, then the others rushed in.

He repeated the same spell several times. I had only... ten thousand summons now. Their cost lowered as they died, but the mass summon multiplier was the square root of the amount. With room to move, he killed the al-Mi'raj at breakneck speeds. Once the last furry menace died, he turned on me.

"Fight!" He roared as he charged.

I dumped another batch of fifty thousand monsters on him. The spectators started to boo me. They wanted to see a "real" fight. I didn't care.

Rinse repeat a few times, he was running out of breath and me out of Energy. His HP was down to two million and he was covered in his own blood. His MP was all drained.

"Are you some sort of coward?" He taunted but didn't attack. Instead, he spat some blood and worked on catching his breath.

"No. I'm just showing you how out of your league I am. Summoning these things is one of the weakest abilities of mine. Seriously, It's the second time I play with summoning monsters, and all I can call are these al-Mi'raj. Do you wanna play with something stronger?"

He looked at the crowd.

"Fight me one on one. Like a warrior should!"

I readied my spear. "Get yourself healed and recovered. Then we fight as warriors should."