"Is this your idea of a joke?" Liya asked.

The High Chieftain chuckled again. "No."

"Anyway," Tuk'Url said quickly, "it was a good thing that you did it. The High Chieftains were enlightened by how the Ritual of Fornication can be misused and changed it. They were also intrigued by the boy. Our damn Rising Star forgot to mention to our rulers he had gotten himself an alien apprentice. But when questioned, he did not forget to mention my name and that it was all part of my joke. One thing led to the other, and I was called to sacrifice myself to you in an attempt to placate your ire. I'm just a nobody, and I should be held accountable for the mess I started."

"I'll not accept it," Liya refused firmly.

Uk'Gaar had been the one to wrong her. Whatever the motivation, he had to pay for it. She still hadn't even decided if it was worse for the betrayal to be out of laziness rather than malice.

"Nor am I here for that," Tuk'Url said. "I talked to the High Chieftains. Remember when I said my brilliant brain was essential to this talk? Well, I showed them that we have a common enemy now. The boy might be your apprentice for all the Alliance cares, but he still has a drop of Uk'Gaar's blood essence inside him and is thus one of us by Right of Blood. The Cultivators' Association will not let either of us have him, and we might be forced to deliver him to them if we were alone. But together..."

Liya frowned. "Are you proposing an alliance between orcs and drow?"

"A wartime coalition," the High Chieftain said. "I am Bik'Ar, High Chieftain of the Orc Race, and I'm here to attest that this is what the High Chieftains decided."

"That makes no sense," Liya said. "Everyone knows we have a lot of enemies, to the point we grow children in labs to feed them to our war machine. Anyone not at the peak C-rank cannot even leave our homeland for fear of getting killed. For centuries, we have sought allies, only to be told time and time again how it would be too much trouble. And you're telling me you want to form a coalition now because of a random F-rank human?"

"That's what one of the High Chieftains said," Tuk'Url agreed. "But Bik'Ar enlightened them to other matters."

He turned to the High Chieftain and repeatedly nodded toward Liya as if asking Bik'Ar to say something they had previously agreed on.

Bik'Ar looked silently at Liya for a few moments before asking. "How old are you?"

Liya's reply was frowning again. A lot could be inferred based on one's race and age. It was both rude to ask about it and unwise to reply. Bik'Ar saw her reaction and rolled her eyes.

"I'm probably not as old as you," the High Chieftain said, "but I have studied the Alliance's history. The Void is our common enemy, but it's the Guardian System that truly keeps us together. It provides seemingly endless resources, opportunities, lower crime rates, and a clear path to grow stronger. However, it's just too good at its job. You drow were almost broken by the Dreamer..." Liya frowned deeper at the mention of the True Enemy's name. "...yet you survived because of the Guardian System. The last hundred races all survived too, though most would argue what happened to some of them is no true survival."

Liya struck her spear to the ground and crossed her arms. "Are you planning on boring me to death? It's working."

"There are too many mouths to feed," Tuk'Url interjected. "The Alliance cannot find the resources to produce new System Nodes fast enough to deal with the populational growth at peace times and the addition of different races to the fold. System breaches are becoming way too common because many of its functions are being forced to run at a lower priority than recommended so it can cover everyone."

The Guardian System was like a mortal overseeing a bunch of children. The more children, the less aware of each one of them it became. When it was told to pay extra attention to or do something for one child, it had to sacrifice some time and attention given to the others.

System Nodes were like assistants. They let the system do more, but it was still limited in the end.

"So what?" Liya asked. The Guardian System's situation was no news.

Bik'Ar was the one to reply. "When something is as old as the Alliance, it's common to find repeated mistakes being made over and over again. Strength doesn't always bring wisdom. I had to ask our race's A-rank special permission to confirm it, but I found out that similar scenarios happened three times in Alliance history. All three led to war one way or another."

Liya frowned once more. If that was true, it explained a lot of external politics from the older races and some prejudice toward new ones.

"If war is coming," Tuk'Url took up where Bik'Ar stopped, "it's time to find allies that are good at it, and it's always better to strike first, so we're not waiting around. As you said, the drow have been fending off multiple enemies for almost a thousand standard years, so you're good at it. That wasn't enough to convince many races, but the steel dwarves and ice phoenixes are in. And after we deal with some of your people's enemies, others will join us."

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"That still doesn't explain why you picked the drow." Her people had been backstabbed too many times for her to trust them so quickly. Goddess' titties, Liya herself had been betrayed too many times. She had the scars to prove it. "There are other warlike races, some more successful than us. Some stronger than us."

The drow had produced more B-rank than most races in a very short time, but they still had no A-rank. Their standing in the grand scheme of things was fragile, to say the least.

Tuk'Url sighed. "We can discuss the details with your leaders, but one of the reasons we want to help the drow is as an apology for Uk'Gaar's actions. He is a genius fighter but an idiot in everything else.

"We all know you're technically an exile, but now that you're being forced to return to your homeland, you'll retake the mantle of Drow Maiden. A word of yours speaking of Uk'Gaar's betrayal, and the drow will attack us.

"We don't fear your people, but if war is coming, we might as well have you as allies rather than enemies. The boy will be an excuse to hide our true intent of striking the Cultivators' Association first.

"Anyway, can you just put on some clothes already? You're so bloody gorgeous it's distracting."

"He's right," Bik'Ar agreed and googled.

Liya had long ago shed away any shame, but it didn't mean she liked being looked at like a piece of meat. Still, she took her time to take her blacksmith clothes from her Inventory and put it on. Rushing to clothe herself would make her look like a flustered silly youngster.

"Could you contact your people and get them in touch with us at amicable terms?" Bik'Ar asked.

Liya considered it. They sounded a little too eager to forge a coalition with the drow. If she had to guess, they already had trouble in some other front or were scared about something they weren't telling her. But they were right when they suggested it wasn't for her to decide on such matters, nor was this the place for such talks.

The only thing she had to decide now was whether she would accept that as an apology.

That wasn't a hard decision to make at all.

Her people needed allies badly, even if it came with strings attached. That was the main factor that led her to get exiled. Only by doing that could she go against some drow rules and sell the weapons she forged to other races. She had gotten a lot of money and connections like that.

Not it seemed it was finally time to bank in on said connections.

Liya had been betrayed by Uk'Gaar, but the drow endured, and she was their Maiden. If she couldn't endure one more betrayal in silence, who would?

"I cannot contact them until I'm back to Shar'Talon. I'll accept an escort."

"Will I alone suffice?" the High Chieftain said.

"Yes," Liya said and grabbed her spear.

Being escorted by only one B-rank was a bit risky, but if this turned out to be a trap after all, it would be better to try to escape from a single orc.

Bik'Ar waved her hand, and Liya let herself get teleported away.

----------------------------------------

Shen stayed in shock for a long time, feeling the loss of his father once again.

He had no reason to doubt any of the things the wolf had said. If Achr had spouted any lies, they would get revealed sooner or later.

So he mourned for almost an hour.

Then he raised his head, screamed to the heavens, and decided what to do about the decree.

It had brought so many questions. What was going on? Why had he been abandoned? What kind of sacrifice had his father done for him, and why was it needed?

Well, he could guess the reason for the sacrifice. From Alicia's tale of the world's history, he had stayed alive for many, many years. His father was probably the one who made that happen.

Or maybe not? The Immortal Emperor was aware of Shen's life. Shen might've been saved by his ruler.

A ruler who seemed to know a lot about the Multiverse Alliance and even had some influence in it. Achr had ended the decree with the familiar words found at the end of official missives: "May his Empire be Eternal." Did it still exist then? Had it been assimilated by the Alliance? If so, why couldn't Shen look for it?

What of his clan? Was it still around? Was he supposed to rebuild it or not?

So many questions yet so few answers.

He only knew for sure that the Immortal Emperor had given him a dos and don'ts list.

The dos were to find trustworthy allies, join the Primordial Bridge and do his best in there, and live his life to the utmost. All very straightforward, and he saw nothing wrong with any of that—unless the Primordial Bridge was an assassin organization or something.

The don'ts were to not give up on cultivation, not mention the Eternal Empire, and not investigate it. The second item came with further instructions if he had already broken it, which he had.

Interestingly enough, there were no contingency instructions if he had already given up on cultivation. Did that mean the Emperor could somehow track some of his actions, or was Shen simply predictable? Probably a mix of the two since the Emperor had known where to find Shen.

Shen also had no issue with those orders, except with the contingency for the secret.

He had already told Alicia a lot about the Eternal Empire. Now, he had been ordered to get her silence on it one way or another. Supposedly the fate of humankind rested on that.

A month ago, he wouldn't have thought twice about bowing to the Emperor's wisdom. Damn, he might have seriously considered it yesterday.

But not today.

There was no proof that it was really the Immortal Emperor who had sent the message. If Shen killed anyone in an impostor's name, he would never forgive himself.

But even more important than that was that Shen had a problem accommodating honor and duty in his Path.

Even being in that hut showed how much he didn't want to mindlessly obey any orders. He should've already gone to the final boss so he could hopefully meet Alicia as soon as possible. Instead, he had stayed, and her life wasn't even the main reason.

Shen simply wanted to get to the E rank before doing what he had been told.

Achr's words had cut deep into Shen's heart. The wolf had said the Emperor's plans came before his desire for advancement. But to Shen, his personal goal came first.

Oh, the irony. He had thought of mortals as fickle, honorless things not long ago. Now he was bringing shame to himself out of his own choice.

His very soul stirred. Who was he? An honored cultivator, set on doing his duty whatever the cost? A power-hungry beast, never to be satisfied with what he had? A fool, forever fated to live in shame?

Could he even live like that? Was that a Path worth treading?

'Maybe not,' he thought. 'Maybe it's better to end it all. To join the Void in eternal, blissful rest.'