While the sun remained fixed and unmoving in the sky, Momo filled Valerica in on the myriad surprises and twists that had occurred since she ascended the throne. From finding Nam’Dal in chicken-inspired ruin, to watching the downfall of a promising young dancer, uncovering the secret identity of the Holy Resistance, to finally being gifted the Wraith Box, which brought her here, to this very moment, gliding along the endless ocean.

In true Valerica fashion, the woman reacted with a simple, nondescript smile. It was as eerie as the first day Momo met her – like watching the tip of an iceberg meander slowly towards your boat. It was impossible to judge the size of the destruction it was hiding underneath.

“I’m too trusting,” Valerica said with a light laugh, her voice as smooth as cream. “I knew better, but I wanted to believe Sera had changed. That’s my greatest flaw, Momo. Yours too – it’s part of why I like you so much. You’re blithe naivete.”

Momo blushed, but her heart stung. She could hear the subtle insecurity in Valerica’s voice. It made her want to cry again. She swallowed it down; now wasn’t the time to be a baby. Valerica so rarely put aside the riddles and talked like this, so raw and clear.

“It’s a rather amusing irony, looking back. When I first met Sera, we were fast friends. Two hotshots at the top of our necromantic careers. I was running my first coven, she was Kalendale College’s first Professor of Dark Magics. But despite our similarities, she was leagues ahead of me. Millions of experience points beyond my own meager pool. She was such a rabid student, you see – she could concoct spells of enormous power in an afternoon. Revive enough undead to run a small country,” Valerica’s eyes glistened in memory. “I looked up to her immensely.”

Momo could barely believe that. It was hard to imagine someone outmatching Valerica’s power, even Sera. The former Necropriest was strong, yes, but her strength predominantly lied in her tools, her minions, her creations. Valerica’s power was raw and electric. If the two were to fight, to properly fight, it would be like a god dueling with a toymaker. Momo knew it in her gut.

“If she was so powerful, how did she mess up so badly?” Momo asked, prodding her further. “Wasn’t she basically single-handedly responsible for the Dark Calamity going off the rails?”

“Ah, Momo, what is the weakness of every powerful person?” Valerica asked, smirking. When Momo kept silent, Valerica helped her along. “Ego. Hubris. Sera’s ability to voraciously absorb knowledge and create new types of undead made her believe she was above everyone else. But as you know, power isn’t everything. When the powerful are done laying waste to each other, it leaves only the meek behind.”

Valerica took another long sip of her drink and sighed, looking out at the still waves.

“But it seems Sera is intent on leaving nothing behind,” she said after a moment. She was contemplating something, but Momo wasn’t sure what. “Her stupid death box. May I see it?”

“Oh, sure.” Momo obliged her quickly, digging the Wraith Box from her pant pocket and placing it into Valerica’s outstretched palm. The woman’s face went cold and serious as she studied it, the Nether around her flickering like a tormented flame.

“Drat,” she said.

The word did not seem to encompass the emotion behind it.

“And to think I was just getting the hand of Nether maintenance. Ugh. Every crisis begets another in this world, doesn’t it?” she asked rhetorically, in the tone of a preschool teacher who had just finished wiping up some toddler’s rejected lunch. “I would take this devilish thing back to Morgana and have her do away with it, but I fear doing so will destabilize it, and possibly activate it here, on this very ship. And sucking your soul – and every soul in a hundred miles – into a box is not my idea of a pleasant afternoon.”

“Agreed,” Momo squeaked.

“Gods. To think that scheming witch had the chutzpah to call her time away a research sabbatical,” Valerica all but growled. “This is just like her. She claims to have Morgana’s best interest in mind, but all she’s ever wanted is just this – complete, unopposable power over mortals. And what’s more unopposable than keeping all of them in a box, tortured for eternity? Gosh. How drab. How uninteresting. A mind like hers, and all she can think to obsess over is something as uninspired as eternal agony.”

Valerica let out an annoyed exhale, then curled her hands into fists on her lap.

“But enough of this talk. We are both women of action, are we not? Just as we solved the last problem, we shall go ahead and solve this one. Sure, there are some new variables – you have a queendom to run, I have a delicate, fragile universe to look after – but eternal death box or Nether implosion, these are all just details,” Valerica said, standing up. “What matters is you’re not stressing yourself out too much, dear. It’ll make your hair fall out.”

Momo stared blankly at her. At least then the rest of my head would match the bald spot you gave me, she thought.

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“Before I go, a few things. One, I’ll relay this all to Morgana, but I suspect Sera has already put some precautions up to evade her. She will have figured a backup plan if all things go south. Two, remember that it is three shots of the good stuff to get you over to the Nether, and take Nyk with you as a tour guide, things can get scrappy in there these days – the plumbing is still an in progress situation – and three, you have some rewards to claim, don’t you?”

Valerica winked. With a snap of her fingers, a courier whizzed in from the sky, the only moving thing in a hundred miles. It landed promptly in Momo’s lap, burning hot like it was fresh off the printing press. Momo held it in her Nether-black hands, and the edges sizzled.

You have collected 50,000 XP in Nether Dokkaebi.

Congratulations! Nether Dokkaebi has upgraded to level 2.

CLASS SYSTEM ADMIN NOTE: The skill [Nether Cultivator] has been renamed to its original classification, [Eye of the Nether Demon]. This Excalibur-grade skill was never meant to be distributed to an Intermediate Corrupted Druid, but due to UNFORESEEN ERRORS WITHIN THE UNIVERSE, shit happens. The skill will not be removed.

Momo’s eyes widened. Class system admin note? That was a new one. It seemed, under Valerica’s jurisdiction, the system was actually turning into a well-oiled machine. Her interactions with it previously indicated that the underlying mechanics were pretty much a disorderly gamble with a few haphazard balancing mechanics stapled to the side. But knowing the former Necromage, there was nothing she loved more than organizing chaos.

Also – [Eye of the Nether Demon]? That sounded way scarier than the original name. She didn’t like what it alluded to, either. Was there an Excalibur Nether Demon class? And given that she was already a Nether Goblin, would Nether Demon be her natural next step? No way. She hoped not. Demagogue had been her last straw; she very desperately wanted to put her eggs in a much cheerier, heroic basket. No more of this doomsday villain stuff.

With a sigh, she kept reading.

[Eye of the Nether Demon]: You can see and interact with soul chains, harnessing their soulpower to create undead forms (weapons, monsters, or utility objects).

Due to your previous actions, this spell has evolved a [See Injured Souls] option. This allows you to use [Eye of the Nether Demon] to view damaged soul chains. This does not impact your ability to repair them.

Her brow crinkled. Due to your previous actions… Did it mean her stunt with Culver? Back when she reached out and touched his soul chain, flowing every ounce of Mana she could manage into it until she passed out on the floor of the medic tent. She had assumed that managing to save him was a fluke, an unrepeatable one-off, but apparently the system had registered it.

You have also gained the following skill:

[Soul First Aid]: Repair injured soul chains on the verge of breaking.

Is the system actually encouraging my good behavior?

This was the first time in recent memory that Momo was actually happy that her actions had consequences.

[Maladaptive Daydreams] has been upgraded to [Maladaptive Daydreams II]: You can now control the narrative of the nightmare in order to elicit certain actions or dialogue.

“That is actually torture,” Momo said under her breath. I’m sure it’ll come in handy.

“Ooh, torture,” Valerica said, grinning.

Momo gave her a strange look. “Weren’t you the one calling torture drab like five minutes ago?”

Valerica pouted.

“As one’s main hobby, yes. But a girl can have side projects.”

Before Momo could properly digest that sentence, Valerica reached once more into her attaché. She withdrew two skill books and placed them in her lap. Then she gave her protege a wicked grin; much like staring into the open jowls of a wolf, Momo knew there was nothing wholesome waiting for her within those pages.

“You know, Momo, you owe me quite the thank you,” Valerica said mischievously, tapping the cover of the book on the right. “Have you noticed how light these feel in your lap?”

She had, actually. Remembering back to her session with Extrius, she knew that skill books beyond her comprehension level – so, Excalibur-grade ones – should be too heavy for her to bear. But this one was as light as your average novel. The only thing distinguishing it was the spine, which glowed bright yellow and shimmered in the light.

“I did,” she said, her voice small and reverential. Valerica never ceased to impress her. “How did you do that?”

“As part of my onboarding, I’ve been plagued with enough reading assignments to asphyxiate a school child. Since time moves differently in the Nether, that means I’ve consumed roughly forty-two thousand books in the last two months,” she said, rolling her eyes as if that was light work. “Anyway, the terrible exercise awarded me with the Librarian minor class, and the skill [Bless Student]. I casted it while you were reading your courier.”

“Huh? You did? I didn’t hear it,” Momo said, her mind still reeling at forty-two thousand books. Now that seemed like Momo’s idea of torture. She made a mental note to never go through goddess onboarding, no matter how appealing it might seem at the time.

“I cast it silently, dear. I can cast everything silently now. A feature of godhood, it seems – a mouth becomes unnecessary. At least for this sort of thing.”

She winked again. Momo nearly fell out of the bird’s nest.

“G – gotcha.”

True enough, when Momo checked her blessings scroll, she found the following status.

[Blessing of Literacy]: For the next 02:16 hrs, you can read skill books above your level.

“Now,” Valerica said, placing her hand over Momo’s and pressing it into the cover of the book. “Let’s get studying, shall we?”