It didn't take Gi long to reach the bottom after he'd hit the strange barrier. The shaft ended in a cavern that glowed red from the presence of a river of lava on the far side. Despite the closeness to the lava, it wasn't unbearably hot inside.

More importantly, he saw the survivors.

The cavern was the size of a town, but it didn't have much in the way to break up the view. Deft Golems, Fighting Drakes, The Faithful and assortment of other monsters were spread out across the cavern. Many of them lounged without much else to do.

"It's the Betrayer!" One of the Faithful said. Others perked up as they saw him and encircled him. The one who'd initially spoken looked to be the oldest, but Gi doubted they were even as strong as his Elites. "Have you come to finish off the rest of us, Betrayer?"

Their shouts drew everyone's attention to him and not in a good way. The Fighting Drakes stretched like cats before they moved to surround him.

"I have not come to fight," Gi said. "I've come to speak to old friends and old enemies so that we might protect ourselves from the growing threat of the Demon Empire."

"You're the only demon here!" The agitated Faithful shouted. Like always, the kobold race wore their masks with red marks as part of their faith. It must have been difficult for them to find the First One's ideology in the face of their loss.

"I apologize for any harm that I've caused you."

"W-we should kill him!" The small group was trying to hype themselves up to fight him which they had to understand was a disastrously bad idea. He'd already killed the strongest of them. What did these youth expect to happen?

Thankfully, they weren't the only ones there.

You will not fight. The voice that radiated in his mind came from one of the Fighting Drakes in front of him. Unlike the Faithful, this one seemed to be much older though it was hard to tell on the reptilian body.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Faithful listened. They backed up like scolded children to stare daggers at him from around the Fighting Drakes.

"You must be Versha," Gi said with a bow. "Noctua Dominus asked me to speak with you."

Versha's eyes widened at that. You spoke with our god? How? His silence was my Queen's greatest sadness. Why would he bless you with his words and not her?

Versha's words changed from hopeful to skeptical very quickly.

"They did speak. After the Queen and I died, we both passed beyond. An... evil god had imprisoned both Noctua and my own goddess and a human helped us to free them. Once Noctua was able to return to his Heaven, they finally met."

So he was trapped and that was the only reason his voice no longer reached us...

Murmurs erupted among the Fighting Drakes gathered as they seemed to share a relief from something that had pained them for a long time.

Of course, he wouldn't have abandoned us.

Guilt spiked in Gi's Heart. He had not approached this well. "Actually, that... was not the reason for his silence." He felt like he could physically hear the collective heartbreak from the Drakes, but there was nothing for it so he just pushed on.

"Noctua has lived a long time. Many have worshipped him across different worlds and the pursuit of knowledge sustained him through the years, but now... he's tired. He wishes to put down the burdens of divinity and disappear forever."

But... why? Were we not good worshippers? Why would he leave us?

"You weren't just good followers. You were the best. All others have stopped worshipping him since his silence and only you have continued the faith. It broke Noctua's heart to see your devotion and yet be unable to address it. His thought was that any sign of his would only increase your already tremendous faith, but he was wrong. He asked me to come here and explain so that you might work with him towards ending his life."

There was a pained silence and the Fighting Drakes looked between each other. There was a surprising amount of expression on their red serpentine faces and it reminded him of the moment that he'd seen them in the Child Stage bowed in prayer to Noctua. More than any other race, their worship was in their very beings.

"HE'S LYING!" One of the Faithful had marched back in, their tail swishing angrily behind them. "He betrayed Igna! He betrayed the Queen! You can not trust him!"

Gi sighed. It always came down to this. "I spoke to the First One as well. She told me that you were true followers so I wouldn't have to explain myself to you. All I had to do was show my power."

He funneled all the Aether that he'd managed to gather between the end of his fight with the King and now. Otters faded into being all throughout the cavern, surrounding the Faithful.

A small light of [Divine Commandment] appeared in each of their palms as though he was prepared to end them in any moment. That ancient aura spread throughout the cavern, mixing with the elements of divinity that had been incorporated in him since his death.

"Your choice is simple. Follow me... or die."

It was a bluff. As weak as they were, Gi might be able to take the Faithful with just his stats, but even maintaining the small light in his [Papal Legion] made his soul ache.

Thankfully, the First One was right.

The claws of the outspoken kobold gripped into a fist, and a glance around at their fellows, saw a similar mannerism, but they all bowed. To them, they were the First One's children and the First One's only law was power.

"We recognize your strength... for now. If you stumble, we won't hesitate to take your life."

Gi's rarely used [Religion] Skill recognized those words as a part of their faith so it wasn't a surprise to him when the others barked out a response. "As it should be!"

"Good," Gi said, letting his legion wink out of existence. He forced his body to remain standing tall as though he could resummon them at any time.

He didn't enjoy the extra sword of Damocles hanging over his head with them, but at least pulling them into line was simple. Maybe the Fighting Drakes weren't the only one defined by their faith as a race.

This is... much to take in, the Versha said. We've waited so long for news, but this is not what we expected. Would you give us time to process this new knowledge?

"If it was in my power, I would give you all the time you needed, but the sands continue to fall and we must make haste if we are to achieve what the gods hope for us."

Let us have tonight to pray and to grieve and then we will hear what our Lord's final command is for us.

A wailing song from a few of the Fighting Drakes in the back kicked up at the Versha's words. No words were projected into Gi's mind, but their distraught came across plainly. Gi thought it was supposed to be a celebration of life from his [Religion] Skill, but it had all the dissonance of happy song played in a minor key.

"I believe we can spare that time." He might could give them more considering the Thousand Island Kingdom wouldn't be able to fly over the waves, but perhaps they had some method of moving quickly in their ships.

He'd rather not wait too long.

Versha threw their head back and joined the keening song and the Drakes retreated to another part of the cave. The Faithful were still watching him, and while their white and red masks prevented him from seeing their faces, their body language was clear.

He didn't like playing the villain as it reminded him too much of his father, but they did worship the First One of their own accord so maybe it was better to think of it as honoring their religious beliefs.

"Faithful. You have one day to gather the supplies for a journey across the ocean. You can hate me all you want, but if your negligence ruins the First One's plans, I will send you to her so you can explain your incompetence to her yourself. Are we clear?"

Their group bowed low in response before the outspoken one started to bark orders to their other Faithful. With the Fighting Drakes engaged in mourning and the Faithful moving off to gather supplies, there was only one more group that remained that he needed to speak to here.

The Deft Golems had gathered around to listen to Gi speak. Ostensibly, they were a part of his clan as much as the Hidden Spiders were or the Gluttonous Slugs. He wasn't sure how much his death and resurrection affected them and their stony exteriors didn't give much away. No wonder they made excellent merchants.

The crowd of them parted, revealing one of their number who sported a big smile.

"Rocky," Gi said, returning the smile. "It's good to see you."

"Now there is a monster I'd never thought I'd see again. I thought even you would have some problems with dying. Clearly, I was wrong."

"I had plenty of problems with dying, trust me, but it does give one a better perspective on life."

"I can imagine," Rocky said, crossing his arms. "Please tell me our little friend didn't cross the veil with you, did he?"

Gi laughed. Poe was going to be so excited when he brought Rocky back that it almost made it worth fighting the King. "No, he's alive and well. You'll get to see him soon."

Rocky looked out over his clan. As their former Progenitor, they hung on his every word. They probably cared more about what he thought than they did Gi.

Rocky shooed them all away. "Go on. You heard the Progenitor. We've got a trip ahead of us. Go prepare."

They all reacted instantly moving around to various parts of the cavern and Rocky motioned Gi to follow him. As they moved from the front of the hole, he started to see the signs of life in the bottom of the mountain.

Mismatched fabrics and furniture likely pilfered from above were scatted everywhere. A few had hung curtains over little offshoots to provide themselves rooms and the Fighting Drakes themselves had a lavish carpet that they now all gathered on to sing.

Rocky led him to one of these curtained off sections and motioned for him to come inside. Gi sat on a chair that was present for him while Rocky took a metal pitcher of water and dipped it halfway through the shield over a river of magma. It instantly started boiling.

"I never knew this place was here," Gi said, "but it's incredible. How did you end up here? Why weren't you with Samba?"

Rocky shook his head. "While most of the clan was out fighting the Spiked Eagles, Myshk attacked. Normally, the spies give plenty of warning, but we had almost none. I mobilized all the Deft Golems to go and collect our wares from the Bazaar when we got trapped by the invading force."

Gi remembered how bloody that battle had been. Compared to the staged "battles" in the war up until that point, it was carnage. Monsters fighting outside their homes with nowhere to retreat. "How did you even get out of that?"

"Captain Mesano. That old monster fought up towards us and did a fighting retreat to get the non-combatants out. It's part of the reason that Igna was pushed back so hard. Once we made it to the Fort, he used the Toucans to fly us up to safety."

Gi had forgotten all about them. "What happened to the Toucans?"

Rocky just shrugged; the gesture followed by the sound of scraping rock. "No idea. The Fighting Drakes actually brought us here after the Queen was slain... erm, passed away."

"And you've been here ever since?"

"That's right." Rocky took the steel pitcher and poured the water into a clay mug with a small packet of some kind of herb. "So where are we going from here?"

He passed one of the mugs to Gi and he thanked him. "Main Continent. The Demon Empire is soon to conquer the humans and if we can't stop that they're going to spread out and take this whole world."

"Sounds bad," Rocky said wisely before taking a sip of his tea.

"It is. War, slavery, death. They won't be satisfied until they've taken everything. I'd try to stop that regardless, but the gods have unfortunately given me a mission to do the same."

"The God Stage."

Gi blinked. "The what?"

"That's the mythical end of evolving." He held up nine fingers and ticked them off as he counted. "Infant, Child, Adolescent, Individual, Clan, City, Kingdom, Empire, God. It's said if you reach the God Stage, you step into Divinity and become a god yourself."

Gi took a sip of his tea and it was still blistering hot. Only his C Rank Vitality stopped him from getting burned. "I see. That's roughly what the First One told me. Conquer everything even in name and I can become a god."

"The First One? Damn, so you really met her, huh? Was she scary?"

Gi laughed. It was such a Poe way to phrase that question that he could see the little dragonfly rubbing off on him. "Terrifying."

Rocky laughed as well and the two of them fell into a companionable silence. Rocky's face wasn't easy to read, but he could tell that the golem was thinking so Gi just waited and sipped his tea until he had something more to say.

It didn't take long. "Are we taking a boat to the Main Continent?"

"It will be too slow, I think. I'm hoping the Fighting Drakes can carry us."

Rocky nodded as though that was expected. "They probably can. Most of us at least. It's a shame though."

Gi tilted his head. "Why's that?"

"Well, I managed to... liberate quite a few items during the battle that would definitely help us in the war to come."

"As in... enchanted items?"

Rocky grinned so wide Gi thought a pebble might break off from his face. Gi just smiled back.

"Rocky, I think you're going to love one of my new Skill evolutions."