“Cosmagus? I’ve been waiting for you…” Selene stood up, the elemental waters turning into a seven-colored dress that highlighted her voluptuous and curvy body. The butterfly-like wings on her back fluttered to dry themselves. She approached the gate and passed through.

“We won’t be going to her?” Thorun was puzzled at Selene’s actions.

“A clean freak like her allowing you— a dirty, smelly dwarf— in her sanctuary? Please…” Lyriel scoffed. “Anyway, it’s been a while!” She went to hug the fairy.

Due to the height difference, Lyriel was like a child hugging her mother. After patting Lyriel’s head, Selene’s pink eyes quickly glanced at the muscular dwarf, to the Cosmagus who had just dispelled the gate, before eventually at Mordred. “Your Majesty…” She offered a bow, “Thank you for protecting my country’s army in the last expedition…”

As if responding to her own words, her shadows moved by itself. The two-dimensional projection suddenly gained volume as a masked figure materialized from it. If not for the difference in mask design, the shadowy figure behind Demiurge and Selene will look completely identical.

Thorun and Lyriel, not familiar with the spectacle, were shocked to the core. Both pointed at the two Mordreds, “Have Mordred grasped cloning Arts?”

“Nope, this is just Orichalcum-grade membership to Death Covenant.” Selene smiled. “There’s no way His Majesty would mobilize his true body, so he sent one of his high-rank undead instead, a Death Specter.”

“Huh?” Thorun was confused. “Mordred has always been known as ‘Death Specter’. If that thing is a Death Specter, does that mean he had never revealed his true form in front of us?”

“He’s a Lich, what do you expect?” Selene spat back. “Death Covenant is basically run by his Undead Legion. Ah, that reminds me, my membership is about to expire soon since I can’t afford it for too long. I might have to de-rank it for the next term.”

She turned her gaze toward the Cosmagus, “In any case, have you accomplished what you wanted all this time?”

“Somewhat.” He pointed at the map on the table. “You can take a look at it yourself.”

Selene’s eyes moved rapidly, deeply examining the map. “You’ve mapped thrice the area of the Seven Kingdom…” She took a deep look at Demiurge’s silver eyes. “You’re not specialized in investigative Arts… Did someone help you?”

Demiurge didn’t try to deny it, but he wasn’t confirming her conjecture either. “Something like that.”

“Who was it?” Being the Court Mage of the Lightning Kingdom ‘Fulguria’, the strongest out of the Seven Kingdoms, Selene is responsible for maintaining their power balance. If there was someone with investigative power capable of mapping three times the surface area of the Seven Kingdom, that person should be the peak of their field, someone worth befriending.

“Her callsign is Solaria…” Demiurge cut her off before Selene could ask for more detail, “She only works for me, don’t try anything funny.” He then signaled at the Death Specter behind him, who, in response, produced a contract. “I’m sure you’re busy with your work, so let’s get this done. This is an NDA for the dungeon dive I’m planning soon. If you sign this, I can start elaborating the details after we get Ulfrik.”

Seeing Demiurge’s eyes gleam with stubbornness, she sighed. “I don’t even need your help. What’s in it for me?”

Demiurge pondered for a few moments. “You’re right. I have no idea what to pay you with. I haven’t thought this far yet…”

Unlike the case of Thorun and Lyriel who are struggling guild masters, Selene is the court mage of the most powerful kingdom. Yes, she’s bad at finance, but in her position, such things are irrelevant. The kingdom will be able to fund all of her expenditures, given she produces some results. Money, power, position, she possessed all of them.

“There must be something that you want…” He offered.

“Solaria.” She mentioned the name that piqued her interest the most.

Demiurge chuckled. “It seems like I’ve failed the negotiation…” His expression quickly changed from the facade of a smile to grim determination and began to murmur towards himself. “Tsk, without the Celestial Arcanist, it’ll take a lot more time, but I should be able to continue.”

“Wait!” Selene was panicking. She wanted to negotiate, but it seems like Demiurge has no interest in doing so if that relates to the mysterious Solaria. “I don’t even need an introduction, I just want her to find something for me.”

The Cosmagus doesn’t seem to hear her as his gaze penetrates deeply into her eyes. “Well, I’m glad that I’ve met you while we’re still on the same side.” He began conjuring runes for Gate activation.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“This fluctuation…” Selene was quite familiar with the magic Arts known as [Gate] as she was capable of using it herself. However, she couldn’t create a Gate as accurately as him or have its range comparable to his. Despite this, she was still capable of somewhat pinpointing the destination of Demiurge’s gate, which was back into her home. “Cosmagus, I said wait!”

“Aren’t you busy?” Demiurge almost scoffed as his fingers paused, waiting for her explanation.

“Fine, you win.” She relented to his negotiation method. “I’ll help you with this once for old time's sake. You only wanted to dive into the quasi-rank 4 dungeon, right?”

“More or less.” He didn’t elaborate on the full picture, “Just know that this might be my last project, so I’m pulling all stops.”

“Oh?” Selene traded glances with Thorun and Lyriel who were as surprised as she was. “Are you saying that this project of yours is going to produce the results that you wanted?”

“No. What I meant was…” His expression turned solemn. “This project might trigger a war with the Seven Kingdom.”

“What the fuck?” Sensing the seriousness within his tone, Thorun expressed his objection, “Are you for real? I didn’t sign up for this.”

“Elaborate, Cosmagus.” Lyriel demanded, with Selene having the same expression.

“This is pure speculation, so our priority should be consolidating high-end manpower before proceeding with my Dungeon Dive.” Demiurge retorted. “Now, do all of you mind? I want to fetch Ulfrik. He’s balls deep in the frontier, so I need to focus to locate him.”

The trio was lost for words, so they gave him some space.

It was as Demiurge had said, the activation sequence of the Gate is longer and more complex than when he wanted to fetch the Celestial Arcanist. In the process, he failed to connect the coordinates due to the man he was looking for was no longer in that position. On his sixth try, he became frustrated and initiated a high-dimensional communication Arts to contact someone else.

Selene, as the most accomplished magic Arts user in the Seven Kingdom, was shocked to see Demiurge’s Arts. She could snoop on most telepathic communication Arts. According to the wavelength’s strength and frequency, it can provide her with information about the range and sometimes, even the content. However, she barely deduced that the Cosmagus’ telepathic communication Arts has a theoretically infinite range, with the content being completely encrypted in a completely alien language.

She realized that he might’ve just contacted the mysterious Solaria, but if she asked anything about her, he would just ditch her.

“I see…” Demiurge whispered as he re-activated Gate for the seventh time. He had grasped the accurate coordinate, so no obstruction blocked him.

“Hmm?” On the other side of the gate, there was a tall, red-haired man whose hands were caked with flesh and blood of dead beasts. The dark, decaying swampy forest was filled with toxic white smog, but it didn’t seem to affect the Dragonblood Berserker, Ulfrik. “I remember this Arts… Cosmagus, is that you? Dude, I’m balls deep in Earth Kingdom Tellanor’s frontier. I don’t know the way home, so can you send me back?”

“Just come here, I need your help with something.” Demiurge beckons.

“Shit, fam. That’s all you gotta say…” He then crossed over the gate. “Holy shit, everyone’s here!” The big man immediately opened up his arms to initiate a group hug, but Selene created a wall of frost to block this blood-soaked berserker.

Crunch! The frost wall which can block a rank 2 offensive Arts without breaking, actually turned into frost dust. The only reason why the two women and dwarf didn’t get hugged by the berserker was because Demiurge translocated them a few meters away.

“Damn…” Ulfrik relented when his unsolicited hugs were reciprocated with ice and short-range teleportation. “Anyway, what do you need me for?”

“First, sign this NDA, both of you.” Demiurge once more urged the Death Specter behind him.

Unlike Selene who read her portion of the contract with scrutiny and used several anti-tampering methods to check the authentications and ensure that there wouldn’t be any invisible inks being used, Ulfrik was the opposite. He signed the contract first before reading it. And even then, he only read the first sentence before approaching Demiurge with a smile.

“Cosmagus, I have to travel by carriage and switch to walking with my own legs just to get to the frontier. Even if I use the fastest Wyvern transport, it’ll take me months to return to Earth Kingdom ‘Tellanor’ from the frontier. Since you’re specialized in logistics…”

“Where do you want to go?” Demiurge was all too familiar with Ulfrik.

“Heheh,” the huge man rubbed his hands, “I’ll be thankful if you can send me to a location before we proceed with your Dungeon Dive or whatever you need.”

Demiurge blinked in surprise, “So you’ve read all the contract... Hmm. Very well, as long as it is in line with my objective, I can send you anywhere within the Seven Kingdom.”

“Even the bathroom that the Fairy Queen used?” Ulfrik inquired, his eyes shining with expectations.

“Lightning Kingdom Fulguria’s castle premise is extremely resistant to targeted teleportation and Gate, but I have my ways,” Demiurge whispered.

“Hey!” Senele heard his whispers and felt offended. She was the one who laced the castle’s premise with anti-teleportation measures to the point that she herself couldn’t teleport in or out. If Demiurge is still capable of doing so, then it means she didn’t do her job correctly. “Don’t do anything strange. I’m still the Court Mage of Fulguria.”

“Sheesh, I’m not even interested in the weak flesh of fairies.” Ulfrik waved his hands, “Let’s have some boys talk later.”

“As you wish.” Demiurge once more activates a Gate, “Now that all team members of Universal Truth have gathered, we can begin. But first, let’s switch our location. I think it's rude if His Majesty Mordred isn’t present with us.”

“Very well.” Everyone agreed.

It took some time but the Gate finally activated, with the scene reflected from the other side in complete darkness.

“We are about to meet the Death Covenant guild master’s true body, the Lich King. Is nobody hyped for this?” Ulfrik muttered condescendingly as he dived head-first towards the dark Gate.

“Shall we?” Demiurge urged the rest as he went through the gate.