Damaris appeared dressed up like a reporter. She had on a dress shirt and black tie and a black shirt, that you couldn’t see. She also wore some fashionable glasses to make her appear more serious and sophisticated.

“Welcome back Tryfing fans! This is your favorite support judge Damaris here!”

“You’ve been the only support judge the last two Tryfings!” Achilles snickered behind the camera.

His comment caused Damaris to pout and appear angry at him. “Doesn’t change that it’s true! Anyways, so far four of our retainers have woken their consciousness in the Fantasia world. But before we review the current actions of the retainers, let’s answer some fan questions.”

Achilles, who was also dressed like a reporter and wore glasses, placed a box with a few pieces of paper in it. Damaris then placed her hand into the box and wiggled around and pulled out one piece of paper.

Freya laid in her chariot which floated in the air, watching a mobile screen that she installed to view ETV was on as she ate chips.

She saw Achilles and Damaris dressed up joking around and having fun. It just made her jealous and bitter.

I need more chips, she thought, looking for anything to distract her from her feelings. She wanted to change like Charlie, and she knew her jealousy would prevent that change.

Achilles then grabbed the box and moved it out of frame. “Okay, Celtic death deity Arawn asks, can you explain retainer rankings to me? I vaguely recall what they stand for and the order. Also, big Achilles fan here, hi Achilles!”

Freya made an annoyed grunt. “Another fangirl for Achilles!” She threw the bag at the screen and crossed her arms in anger… only to quickly grab the chips off the floor.

At the same time, Arawn watched the celestial broadcast with Osiris and beamed with joy as her question was picked.

“No worries, young soon-to-be warden! I’ll explain all the details in a quick but precise manner.

The Tryfing system uses the book of life to peer into the souls of humans. Their experiences in life and how they lived and trained themselves affects the attributes that use the ranks.”

Weapon mastery: the skill in which a retainer can use their weapons. The higher the rank the better.”

Deity-sync level: how close one is to their deity. This allows them to tap into more of their deity's reservoir of power. Allowing them to circumvent lower stats on the humans end in order to be able to use more godsends or abilities.”

The highest rank is SSS rank, well the lowest would be F rank. But the Tryfing doesn’t allow humans with ranks that low to even be considered for the Tryfing.”

“Of course, some exceptions are allowed from time to time. A certain Norse twin deity and her retainer come to mind,” Damaris said with a slight smile and a wink.

“Hey!” Freya yelled. Did Damarias just make a dig at her and Charlie?!

Continuing the broadcast, Damaris gave the ranking order:

SSS

SS

S

A

B

C

D

E

F

“It’s very rare for anyone to have above S rank in any skill or sync level. Some angels theorize that certain human souls could be born specifically for certain roles and that could boost the levels up.

But there hasn’t been a human yet to prove that hypothesis true.”

Damaris pushed her glasses up after giving a thorough and quick review, proving just how good she was at this job of hers.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Well now it’s time for the retainer round-up!”

///

857 F.R

João was now eleven years old. Having worked the mines officially for two years was starting to truly wear him down. The ward of Noin that he recited in preliminary held groups of slave families. Most of the slaves there looked after each their own small families and would betray or steal from one another to make sure them and their families survived as long as they could.

João had no one to rely on and anytime he tried to get help, he was pushed around and belittled by the adults he would go to. They would look at the him and he would see faces of hate from the other slaves. He didn’t understand why, maybe they could see he used to be a noble?

A husband and wife had attacked him with a few men and stolen his cot bed. Unable to get another cot he had been sleeping on the cold ground for the last year.

Thinking about it made him laugh a bit, this reminded him of his first few weeks in America in that abandoned building that collapsed. Noin was a kingdom that was built on and around a mountain with many mines; the ore and minerals were the main source of aurum and trade (other than the slaves).

Usually the young slaves would start at the mines and then either stay there for the rest of their lives, or move to another job. Most men would just join the slavers army. They were glad to be in those positions and had their hearts tainted by it.

Others may be sold around if the leaders of Noin needed to thin out the mouths to feed, mouths they barely fed in the face place. They only served a small loaf of bread, some disgusting dark water, and a small helping of rice pudding.

João was at his breaking point, after living his entire life with the Machado curse, having his soul destroyed and being sent to the torture that is the eternal oblivion that felt like eons. He was now in another world being tortured in different ways that felt just like his past lives.

He had just finished a twelve hour shift of mining and had started to eat the moldy bread he had earned for the day. He ate outside and stared at the stars. Between each bite he thought about Nuada, what the other retainers were doing and how weak he felt. Behind him a boy ran into the sleeping quarters of their section, with urgency and fear.

João took a sip of his muddy water as he saw the pain in the boy’s face and saw him speak with his family members. At this point the food and the water didn’t bother João, what did was how little of the food and drink he was given. He was always so thirsty and hungry, which was what the Noin slavers were doing on purpose.

As he turned back to see the stars, he caught a fallen star coming down. It was bright and it looked like it twinkled red, light blue, purple, and orange as it soared down. Honestly, the star was looking as if it was a meteor that was falling into the Fantasia world. Behind him he heard the march of a few Noin slavers as they went inside the sleeping quarters, shouts and struggles were heard.

João took another bite as he watched from afar, then he saw the mother point at him and other slaves in the sleeping quarters started to nod and point at him.

“I need to run.”

But where was João going to run to? Who was he going to turn to here in the Fantasia world? As the Noin slavers marched to him, they picked him up. He tried his best to struggle but the collar on his neck made it so he was just a regular eleven year old who was famished.

“I see you’re eating some of the bread you stole.”

“Stole? This is the food I was given, I didn’t steal anything!”

The slavers threw João on to the ground causing him to start to bleed from his head, two of the slavers held his arms down and pulled his head up from his hair. “We saw a young boy steal a few loaves of bread from our barracks. All the slaves in your sleeping quarters told us it was you and gave them back to us. Stealing is a crime, punishable by death.”

João started to have an anxiety attack, much like the ones he had when the pressure from the curse started to affect him. One of the slavers sighed. “I know this one, he’s a pretty good miner, considering that he is also a kid. Let’s just chop off one of his hands and call it even.”

The slavers all agreed, and one of them pulled out his sword. “Which hand is not your dominant one, slave?” João was resisting and trying his best to get out under the men. He tried to see if maybe just maybe he could summon some weapon or power like Nuada had told he would be able to do during the information transfer.

But the only thing that came out of João's mouth was one word.

“Left.”

The boy screamed as his hand was chopped off. At least the slavers gave him some first aid and wrapped his arm before they left. He stayed on the ground outside were they had left him, as the boy and his father walked up to him.

“This is how it is here, sorry,” the father said as he threw a loaf of bread down for João to eat. He reached out to grab it with his left hand and remembered it wasn’t there anymore. He used his other hand to grab it and proceeded to slowly chew on the bread as he cried out.

“Nuada… please help.”

///

Nuada was currently in the mess hall of the main island. There was still time before João’s conciseness would enter into the Fantasia world. So, for the time being, he decided to relax a bit. João currently would be a son in a noble family and have a chance at a semi-normal upbringing.

As he drank his “Cu Chulainn cola” he watched Damaris on the screen explaining the question to Arawn. I hope her and Osiris are getting along, he thought. Damaris then changed to the next section, the retainer round-up.

This was the first retainer round-up, a segment were Damaris would give a small recap of what the retainers had done so far in the FW. Sanosuke was up first and it showed his battle against the slavers; this impressed Nuada. He knew how to handle a sword and was surprised at how good Sanosuke swordsmanship was.

He ordered another cola as Alessandro and Darren’s segment came by. As he finished the second cola he got up to recycle the glass and head back to his war room to prepare.

“The Fourth retainer to enter was João. Currently, he is a slave. Very strange choice but Nuada had told me that a true warrior needs to have hardship if they want to win the Tryfing.”

Nuada stood in place, he crushed the glass bottle in his left hand and slowly turned back to the screen. He saw the highlights of the last few years as his young retainer once again suffered. He saw the moment his hand was cut off.

For the first time in his existence, Nuada stopped overthinking. Instead, a rage unleashed out of his body, his eye and face turned red and he ground his teeth and clenched his fist. No one, no deity, not even Lucifer himself at his peak was as angry as Nuada was in this moment.

Everyone around Nuada froze as they felt the rage and wrath of Nuada coursing out of him. “ACHILLESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” He was so angry he didn’t fly or warp out to the location of Achilles or Damaris. No, he charged his silver gauntlet and destroyed the roof of the mess hall and jumped out the opening that he created.

On ETV, the force of Nuada’s attack shook all of Elysium and made Damaris fly around the studio they had set up. Achilles’ clothes turned back into his Greek battle outfit and he went to catch Damaris, who was being pushed around by the unknown shock wave.

As the doors to the studio were busted open, Nuada stood in the doorway, his eyes bulging with rage. It was as if all of his deity blood had rushed to his face, his eyebrows furrowed so intently and his forehead pulsed at his temples.

This was the first time Achilles had ever seen Nuada like that, even when he lost to Balor and had his arm cut off, or when Lugh saved him from Balor during his rematch. Nuada had never been as angry as he was right now.

It terrified Achilles. Not because he was scared of Nuada, no he was scared he would have to fight him and one of them would die. Achilles grabbed Damaris and pulled her closer to him, protecting her.

“Why…” Nuada muttered. “Why is João in that position! WHY IS HE A SLAVE AND NOT LIVING AN EASY LIFE!”

The King of the Tuatha Dé Danann’s rage shook all of Elysuim, Earth, the underworld, and the other planets in the universe.

His rage was so powerful it was even felt… in Eden.