In the depths of a dark citadel with pulsating lights, runes inscribed on the walls, and robots patrolling the corridors, Anarak and Driima casually walked along as if they owned the place.

They came to a halt in-front of a couple of guards who had two halos floating above their heads.

“Y-You two are… Rae lords Anarak and Driima?!” they shouted.

“Mm, that’s us, where’s Mirdew?” Anarak asked.

“Rae Lord Mirdew’s in his workship,” the guard on the left said.

“Ah, okay.” Anarak said before vanishing with a single step along with Driima and appearing within a giant room filled with various pieces of technology. Stone age technology. Roman era technology. Classical era territory. Modern era technology. The technology of a vast intergalactic empire, this workshop had it all, it even had magic based technology gathered from a few… peculiar worlds.

In the middle was a black-haired man in his mid-twenties wearing a long robe with numbers and lines inscribed in it. He stared at a smartphone and examined it closely.

“How… Primitive… And yet, unusual.” he remarked before pressing down on the power button making the operating system logo pop-up along with the logo of the manufacturer.

“A picture of a penguin, how nice. Let’s see here. Hm. What is this, an ad? The latest in penis enhancement technology, is this what every Terran is preoccupied over? Does every Terran even have a penis?” he scratched his head and clicked on another icon.

“An AI assistant, you say? Okay, I just press this button. Who is Lord Ragnarok is?” he asked.

“No search results for search term ‘Who assed Nagnarok?’,” a voice rang out.

“They call this an AI? What a pile of garbage, it can’t even understand what I’m saying. Ugh…” The man sighed and turned to Anarak and Driima.

“Ah, Anarak. Driima. What brings you here?” he asked.

“Not much, Mirdew. We were just in the area and decided to pay you a visit,” Anarak explained.

“Ah, how’s things going with the fifth game on your end?” Mirdew asked.

“Slow as always. Ragnarok’s bringing several parallel earths into alignment, so the Terrans aren’t so tightly bound by their universe’s laws. Unfortunately, things were thrown way out of wack after the incident with the World Eater,” Anarak sighed.

“Yeah. Those Nillians are trouble. Even the Tecrati have trouble with them,” Mirdew sighed.

“Tecrati… Those technology maniacs…” Anarak mumbled.

“They aren’t too bad, although they’re a little too… Group minded,” Mirdew said.

“Not too bad? You only say that because you love technology yourself, but I find them… Frightening. Do you know how many Rae Lords they’ve killed?” Anarak shuddered.

Mirdew shrugged and said, “What’s scary about the Tecrati is not their technology, but their philosophies. They don’t believe in investing vast amounts of resources into creating a small number of gods. They’d rather elevate everyone, even if it means making a greater sacrifice.

As a Tecrati Leader once said, they have no use for false gods. True progress can only come by lifting up everyone. And it’s not like their policy doesn’t work, I’m sure you remember the incident with their 41st fleet, right?”

Anarak shuddered once he heard that name and quickly tried to change the topic, “Three rae lords died... Urm, anyway, what are you up-to exactly? I see you fiddling around with a mobile phone?”

“Ah, this thing? One of the information age Terrans you transported brought it. I wanted to see if I could retrofit it to get it to work with our systems, it’ll be a little on the tricky side, but I would like to give them an interface they’re familiar with,” Mirdew explained.

“Can’t you just give them the usual?” Anarak scowled. You just want an excuse to play with the thing.

“Haha, no. The neural interfaces would drive them crazy, I’d like to wean them onto something more familiar first before moving onto that,” Mirdew chuckled.

“Ah. Of course, I forgot about that. I’m used to races being able to pick it up really easily, those whatchacallits really are behind, aren’t they?” Anarak laughed.

“In more ways than one,” Mirdew smirked.

-----

Jake shot from one tree to the next, while staying extremely alert, one thing he noticed was an increase in the number of fireflies. The “Sun” is nearly under the horizon, it’s nearly night-time, I guess. I hope the goblins don’t attack, it’s bad enough fighting them during the day.

Jennifer gave a hand sign, and they moved out from behind the trees and jumped to the next set over and over, until they made it out of the grove. Jake glanced at the first tree they ran into on this journey.

Nearly there. Just a bit more and we’ll be back at the camp. I can’t believe it, but this journey was more stressful than when we fought giant spiders and goblins, probably because I had everyone else backing me up.

He caught sight of a couple of rabbits running around, Should I pick them up? No. I should report back first. Who knows what might happen, if I bend over to pick them up, a monster might take the chance to attack us.

He sighed and arrived at the outer perimeter with the others.

“Ah, you guys are back, did you find anything?” a guard asked.

“We don’t need to worry about food and water, there’s a little trouble with monsters, but… Well, what did we expect in this godforsaken shithole.” Gerry said.

“Fair enough, it’s great to hear that I won’t be starving to death though. What did you find out there? More rabbit? I hope I don’t have to eat fucking goblin meat,” the man said.

“Don’t worry, it’s just good old rabbit,” Gerry said.

“Great. That’s more like it. My stomach turns just thinking about eating one of those grotesque goblins,” the guard said.

“Mm,” Gerry nodded before heading to the rabbit pen with the others. To the side of it was Nathanial and several others meditating with a mobile phone in the middle playing the sounds of a mountain stream.

“Nathanial, what exactly are you doing?” Jake asked and Nathanial opened his eyes.

“Ah. Jake. Gerry. You’re back? Nothing much, we were just meditating. One of the folks here told me it was good for soothing the nerves. And I really need some of that after that battle,” Nathanial casually said before taking on a more formal tone, “Anyway, what happened out there?”

“The good news is that we have food and water. There are loads of rabbits over in the west. And lots of trees too. There’s also a pond of water. The trees are extremely sparse at first, but they get denser and denser as you head further out,” Gerry explained and Nathanial nodded.

“And then, there’s the pond.” Gerry said.

“A pond?” Nathanial asked.

“Yes, it’s fairly far in, and next to a giant tree. There’s also a ridiculous number of rabbits,” Gerry said.

“That’s great, a stable source of food and water. That’s more than we could ask for. I thought of setting up a pitcher to catch rainwater and to raise a few rabbits, but do you really think this is enough to feed 300 people? We’d be dead by the end of the week,” Nathanial excitedly said.

“There’s just one problem,” Gerry said.

“What is it?” Nathanial asked.

“There’s an ent. Jake went too close to the giant tree, and it tried to eat him. It was a miracle he managed to escape, as none of our weapons could harm him in the slightest,” Gerry said.

“An ent… I see. That might complicate things,” Nathanial muttered.

“There’s another problem,” Jake said and everyone turned to him.

“What is it?” Nathanial asked.

“The cat.” Jake said.

“The… Cat…?” Nathanial asked.

“Yes, we ran into a cat. It looked like a normal household cat. Something you’d find on Earth everywhere,” Jake said.

“Yes, that would be very unusual in a place like this, is there something else about this cat?” Nathanial asked.

“When it looked at me, I felt an intense pressure. And when it walked towards the ent, it was clearly frightened and immediately let me down. Asides from that, it behaved like a normal cat,” Jake explained.

“I see. That cat… Bastet? No. That can’t be possible,” Nathanial muttered.

“Bastet?” Jake asked.

“An Egyptian God who takes the form of a housecat, but it’s a little too ridiculous,” Nathanial laughed.

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“A G-God?!” Jake shouted.

“Well, it wouldn’t be that surprising, didn’t you look at the gods in the crowd when we were transported?” Nathanial said.

“The gods. They looked really strange and bizarre. Some had dog heads, green skin and other things. The only thing they had in common were the halos above their heads,” Jake said.

“Exactly. There’s a god in Egyptian Mythology known as Anubis. He has a dog head and looks identical to one of the gods there,” Nathanial explained.

“The God of the Afterlife…?” Jake asked.

“Exactly.” Nathanial nodded.

“So, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that Bastet is here as-well, however. Even if that turns out being the case, we can’t afford to make assumptions, especially unfounded ones like this in this crazy world.

Forget goblins or ents, if it’s her, then they’re nothing more than insects. That said, I doubt Anarak would have us encounter a god so soon, and there’s another possibility. A boss.” Nathanial said.

“A boss?” Jake asked.

“Yes, a boss. Games have bosses, right? With all these goblins, spiders, etc. all it’s missing is a boss.” Nathanial explained.

“Ah, that does make sense.” Jake nodded.

“Indeed, either way, we have this unknown threat out there, and it does make me nervous, but I think I’d rather take my chances with the cat than with the green skinned fiends. Not to mention, that the cat didn’t show any form of hostility, that’s a far better neighbour than that feather capped asshole,” Nathanial said.

“Agreed.” Jake nodded.

“We’ll move out tomorrow, but there’s something which unnerves me at the moment,” Nathanial said.

“What is it?” Jake asked.

“You said it’s a grove of trees, right?” Nathanial asked.

“Yes.” Jake and Gerry replied.

“Okay. So. Did the ent show any signs of being a monster before you walked towards it?” Nathanial asked.

“No, it looked like a normal tree, unlike any other until I did. The only unusual thing about it was its size,” Jake explained.

“That’s what scares me. We could be walking into a nest of ents and not even knowing it,” Nathanial sighed.

“There’s just one problem with that theory. When we walked through the grove, we moved in a formation where we moved from tree to tree to avoid being spotted by enemies,” Gerry explained.

“That doesn’t matter.” Nathanial said.

“I-It doesn’t?” Gerry said.

“It doesn’t. They might be nocturnal. If so, then that singular ent might be the night guard, so to speak. Or in their case, the day guard. Or otherwise an irregularity. The others might even be juvenile ents, while it is the adult. There’s no reason to assume there aren’t any others, just because they’re small,” Nathanial explained and Jake’s mouth dropped open.

“What should we do then?” Jake asked.

“Yes, what indeed. The good news is that if there are small ones, then we can experiment with them first before risking our lives against the big one. And I doubt every tree is an ent. Anarak wouldn’t be that obnoxious, would he?” Nathanial explained. Well… You never know with Anarak…

“We do have weapons capable of fighting against ents. However. We don’t have many. If we rouse up the entire forest, then we will get slaughtered, especially if they chase after us,” Nathanial said.

“I don’t think they’re capable of that, they have roots not feet.” Jake said.

“How do you know that?” Nathanial asked.

“Well, it’s obvious, we could see the trunk go into the ground,” Jake said.

“Mm. So, you don’t know. You see, this might be a ruse. If it wasn’t for that cat, it might have chased after you guys. Never underestimate the intelligence of these creatures, we never know what we might run into,” Nathanial scolded. Wow, he’s thought of everything, I think he’s being a little too paranoid, but I guess it makes sense after the incident with the spiders.

“The first thing we should do is rest. Everyone’s exhausted after the adventure in the forest, I fear that if I push them into another rut, then they really will go crazy. They need time to soothe their frayed nerves.

First thing tomorrow morning, we’ll march down there and find an isolated tree. One that is so far away from the others, that we’ll have little to worry about and we’ll rush in and attack. If it moves, then it’s an ent. If it does not, then well… We have timber.” Nathanial explained.

“What’re we going to attack it with? Spears? Guns? Are we going to set it on fire?” Jake asked.

“Nonono, if we did that, all the wood would be ruined. We’re going to use hatchets, with the rest of us standing by closely by.” Nathanial explained.

“We have hatchets…?” Jake asked.

“Yes, we do. Our not so benevolent god was generous enough to transport one of our lumberjacks with a hatchet.” Nathanial said.

“Why didn’t we use that in the earlier battles then?” Jake asked.

“I wish we could have, but if we did, then we would have ended up dulling the blades making it harder for us to chop down trees. And at the time, the goblins didn’t look like so much of a threat, so we didn’t bring them out against the spiders.” Nathanial explained.

“What about the big battle against the feather cap and the spider riding goblins?” Jake asked.

“He did. He smashed it into one of the bastard’s compound eyes, but you were too busy fighting a spider to notice it and I was having a showdown with the feather capped asshole,” Nathanial explained and waved gesturing one of the people who were meditating over.

“I’d like you to meet Harry. He was a lumberjack responsible for chopping down tree, he’s been in the industry for 15 years, and one day, he was summoned by Anarak.” Nathanial said.

“Hello there, yes I was summoned by Lord Anarak, and not in a normal way either. One day, a strange face emerged from one of the trees and told me that I was being summoned. It was really freak and it ended up dragging me into the trees. When I woke up, I was on that strange field.” Harry sighed.

Anarak sure is… Creative. He has so many ways to abduct people. I’ve heard many Anarak abduction stories, but no two stories are the same.

“I assume you heard our discussion?” Nathanial asked.

“How could I not? I was meditating right next you. I’m not sure how useful I would be against an ent. I know how to chop down trees, but I’m not so confident against one of Anarak’s abominations.” Harry said.

“I think you understand why I called you. While I could fire upon it, we’ll run out of ammunition long before we spray every tree in this god forsaken forest. Ammunition we desperately need for fighting the goblins and spiders. We still don’t know if we’ve escaped from them, if we’re lucky, they’ll just leave us alone, but I doubt that’ll happen.” Nathanial explained.

“I understand. I said that I’m not confident against them, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t have any plans in fighting them. If worst comes to worst, I’m sure you’ll send that thing back down to Hell,” Harry said.

“Mm. Okay. Harry will be our vanguard, he’ll rush in to attack, while a team of troops follow. We have several improvised explosives we’ve put together, but if things get really bad, then we’ll run away,” Nathanial explained.

“Nathanial.” Harry said.

“Hm?” Nathanial asked.

“Does it have to be tomorrow?” Harry asked.

“What?” Nathanial asked.

“I said. Does it have to be tomorrow? You really are a politician, Nathanial. The first thing you think about is keeping the masses happy, but have you thought about the consequences of not getting any wood?” Harry asked.

“Barricades.” Nathanial said.

“Exactly. Barricades. Stockades. All sorts of things we need to fight the goblins. Did you forget why we went in that forest in the first place?” Harry said.

“I haven’t forgotten about i-” Nathanial said before he was interrupted.

“What good will their feelings do us, if we’re all dead?” Harry shouted.

“I know. I know. However. Not only could the ent be far beyond our capabilities, but if any more people were to die, morale will drop like a rock, and if people go crazy, then it’ll jeopardise our chances of survival.

Also, we have no clue if things are remotely close to when the scouts went out. For all we know, some monsters may have migrated into the region,” Nathanial protested.

“There, you go again. What if this and what if that. What if the ent is beyond our capabilities? If it’s beyond our capabilities, we’re fucked. If we can’t even handle an ent, then can we handle anything? Will hiding here do us any good? Will hiding here save us from the goblin hordes? Are we even sure that tree is a damned ent?” Harry shouted.

“Harry. Harry. Calm down. It’s not like we don’t have barricades. Anarak transported loads of furniture over from Earth when we arrived. I’m sure you’re aware of this?” Nathanial asked.

“I know, but what good will busted up furniture from do? If we had something large like a truck, then we could sit on-top of it and fire, but do you think cabinets and desks will be enough?! This cheap crap?!” Harry screamed.

“Let me jump in here. Do we really need the whole group to fight an ent? And is a strong monster really going to drift there in such a short time?” Jake asked.

“Out of the question, remember the time you nearly died? I can’t allow Harry to go through that. And have you forgotten the forest? Everywhere we went, there were fucking monsters. We couldn’t walk 50 meters without a fucking monster rearing its ugly head,” Nathanial screamed.

“This area isn’t anything like the forest. We went a really long distance. A couple of miles without running into a single thing, only rabbits and trees. Asides from the cat and the big ent, it seemed mostly safe,” Jake said.

“Rabbits. Trees. Ent. Cat. Are you sure? Absolutely sure there was nothing else?” Nathanial stared at him.

“What do you mean? Asides from that, there were flowers and fireflies, but nothing important.” Jake said.

“You don’t get it, do you? The reason I suspect there are ents? Yes, it is partially because that thing could disguise itself as a tree, but it’s the other reason I’m have suspicions is because, that area seems too safe. Too quiet. Something about it is wrong. Really wrong. Especially, that cat.

Do you really think it’ll be safe after an apex predator like that leaves?” Nathanial asked.

“You mean… The reason there weren’t any monsters was because they scared of that cat…?” Jake asked.

“Yes. I still stand by the theory that the ents were sleeping or something, but yes. That area is too safe. Too normal. How convenient for us that it has wood, water and food? And just happens to have the most vicious predator on this side of the planet.

Harry, you brainless laggard. I appreciate the sentiment, but you would end up getting us all killed.” Nathanial grimaced.

“Tell us that in the first place then!” Harry shouted.

“Ugh… Wait. We need to see the guards at once,” Nathanial got up and walked towards the outer perimeter. What’s going on now?

Several people waved to Nathanial, as he walked through the field, even passing a man in a white coat cutting a goblin open with a kitchen knife, the ground was drenched with green blood, and Jake held back the urge to throw up seeing it. Urgh, that’s disgusting. They’re dissecting goblins? I can see why they would, but ugh, that was disgusting.

“Peter!” Nathanial shouted at a gunman patrolling the outer perimeter with two others, the very same man who saw Gerry, Jake and the others off.

“Chief.” Peter responded with a salute.

“We don’t have time for formalities right now. Tell me. Has anything changed in the hours you’ve been patrolling? Tell me everything.” Nathanial quickly said.

“Not much, it’s been surprisingly quiet. There’s been a lot of fireflies, but besides that, it’s the same as when we arrived. There’s also been a few rabbits which we caught and took back to the pen in the inner circle,” he replied.

“Jake. Was there an increase in fireflies in the grove too?” Nathanial asked.

“Well yes, there were far more of them than there are here, and they rose dramatically as we went back.” Jake said.

“I see…” Nathanial muttered.

“What is it? Is there something wrong?” Jake asked.

“Look.” Nathanial pointed at thousands of fireflies forming a golden carriage in the sky and a little person with wings stepping out. A-A fairy?!

“Quickly. Prepare for combat, everyone!” Nathanial shrieked, an air raid siren rang out, and hundreds of people poured out of the inner circle. They stood there with their guns raised staring at the little person, when the person’s face changed to a warped ghoulish look, as if the face of a tortured ghost.

The sky darkened, as the fireflies surrounded the group and people screamed as their skin began to shrivel up.

“Don’t touch the fireflies. They’re dangerous!” Nathanial shouted and people started smashing them with spears and briefcases to limited effect. Strange, the fireflies were never like this in the grove. Wait. Could it be. They let us go, so they could… Oh no… Follow us back… FUCK!

Nathanial began to sweat, when a man with a long ponytail showed up with twenty people with rockets, they lit the ends sending them into the clusters of fireflies which detonated and sent flames in all directions.

The fairy shrieked and the fireflies withdrew away from the group, before assembling in a formation in mid-air.

“Quick, put together something to swat these bugs! What was that?” Nathanial instructed his people before turning to ask the pony tailed man.

“I heard your conversation about the ents, so I took it upon myself to assemble a weapon which could light them on fire from afar.” The pony tailed man explained.

“Brilliant. You’ve really saved us this time, James. How many of those do we have?” Nathanial hurriedly asked.

“Only another eight or so, we didn’t have enough time before they started attacking. We have normal fireworks, but they don’t have the same cluster effect,” he sighed.

“Eight’s plenty. If we can take out the leader, then the rest should scatter,” Nathanial said.

“The leader…?” he asked.

“Yes, the so-called fairy,” Nathanial pointed at the little person with the distorted face who responded with a vicious grin.