Man's first nightmare was War. Their lives were relatively peaceful, but they were also tribal and had a tendency to start wars for territory, so the fear of the Other was always in their minds, and the first monsters took that form.

Our Light reaches about one hundred meters away from the wall, but further than that, there's only the Darkness, a place that we really don't want to go. And it's precisely there that hulking, human-like shapes begin to rise, their outlines barely noticeable as some of our Light reflects off their shrouded forms. Then they walk forward until they're revealed, and an army of brutish and grim soldiers begins to surround the entire settlement.

These are monsters designed to induce fear in humanoids, the Symbols of War, but no two of these Symbols are alike. Steaming skin, sharp scales, skeletal skulls with glowing eyes, pointy horns, long spikes, drooling mouths full of fangs, bleeding claws, charred skin, flayed bodies, multiple eyes, twitching limbs, pulsating chests, jagged blades, glossy black armor, flaming weapons, growling voices, rumbling steps. There are even a few known monsters that aren't Symbols of War, like proto-orcs and the Nalusa, the blood-bender, one of my favorites to summon in mass combat.

This army would be right at home in a metal album cover, but seeing them first-hand, with their threatening postures and bulging muscles, dampens our excitement. Even experienced adventurers would be hesitant to fight one of them, not to mention a whole horde.

But now's our time to shine. As Lords, we're supposed to lead, and so we shall.

I once again let the dragon out of his cage, and the endless hunger for power and women floods my veins with energy. I just need to think about that werecat adventurer's face, and my cock gets hard in anticipation.

Everyone is watching us… watching me, waiting for me to show them what it means to be a weredragon, to display the power of a Royal Crown Lord, to establish my superiority over the average commoner. And that makes the proud lizard within me very excited.

The monster army starts to slam their feet against the ground in a rhythmic fashion, and then they growl in an attempt to intimidate us. If allowed to continue, they'd begin to perform the Rupegian equivalent to Haka, but for the sake of looking cool, I need to crash this party.

"I'LL TAKE THEM ALL ON, MYSELF!" I shout, then jump off the wall, starting the delivery of dramatic catchphrases in sequence as the others also jump off to cover their sectors.

"EXPERIENCE ON LEGS, BOYS!" Hana cheers.

"BLESSED BY THE LIGHT!" Yunia inspires the men, and they spiritedly repeat her words.

"NOW'S NOT THE TIME TO HESITATE!" Alissa encourages as she casts [Mana Arrow].

"GODDESS OF GROWTH, SHOW US THE WAY!" Ciel prays, and the pious follow.

"BEGIN THE CARNAGE!" Roxanne cries with a maniacal grin.

"ATTACK…!" Lina hesitantly orders.

Then Aoi roars, and her rumbling voice echoes throughout the entire settlement. She might've scared quite a number of people, but she doesn't even care and simply jumps out without looking back.

"ANOTHER HUNT FOR US!" Léonne sternly shouts, then she mounts her husband.

"THE SILVER STRIKES!" Silvano delivers his famous catchphrase.

Alissa and Roxanne stay on the walls along with everyone else for obvious reasons. Allura and Ofilia also remain behind, both using longbows, and the idea of a battle maid excites me so much that my boner gets even harder.

And then they all unleash their ranged attacks, which fall on the monsters just a moment before I crash into their line. The Symbols are too busy dancing to defend themselves, so the preemptive strike inflicts massive damage.

"WATCH FOR THE LORDS!" The knights and Sworn Hunters shout.

We'll have to be careful about "friendly" fire. I have fire elementals floating above the wall and a bunch of birds on overwatch while Gify plays Big Brother and watches through them. The problem is that it's hard to see where the arrows are going because of the darkness, though it's basically impossible for an adventurer or an Imperial soldier to make even a dent in our armor.

We all crash against the line of monsters in disarray, then we reap their lives like harvest day. Not that many of them actually have good or practical armor, so they aren't much harder to kill than the average orc.

A horn blares, and the monsters try to swarm us, but we can just [Fly] up, and Aoi and Jacques are both unstoppable, so we merely play with them while arrows and spells fall around us. Unfortunately, the monsters are smart enough to not get bogged down by us, and they start charging the walls.

My [Wind Armor] enchantment flares, and an arrow harmlessly plinks off of the back of my armor.

This actually angers me, so I turn around and shoot a [Fireball] towards the wall as I roar, "WATCH YOUR AIM, YOU FUCKS!"

"WATCH FOR THE LORDS!" The knights shout again, and the fire-Hana starts scanning the wall for the son of a bitch, but it's unlikely that she'll find them.

The monsters start climbing the walls with a variety of methods. You don't need ladders or siege towers when you can just shove your nails or daggers into fucking cement. But Aisco and the handful of high-level Fire mages unleash [Abyssal Fire] upon the fucking geckoes to slowly consume everything. The wall will also get damaged, but nowhere near as fast as monster flesh.

Meanwhile, the monsters desperately climb over the bodies of their fallen brethren in an attempt to reach me, but the tentacles keep them at bay and continue to make the pile higher, which forces me to slowly float up to stay out of their range.

Hana spins like a madwoman, dicing, kicking, bashing, and breathing fire on anything that comes near her. One manages to grab her wing, but she briefly unsummons it and switches to her armor's [Fly] to keep herself above them, all without even slowing down her storm of blood, steel, and fire.

Lina freely [Blink]s across the battlefield for safety while abusing the teleporting property of [Equip] by repeatedly [Throw]ing her javelin into the monsters, which nets her a kill about every two seconds. But her warhammer is also kept busy as it cracks skulls and helmets, aided by the momentum of her constant [Fly]ing.

Ciel casts [Wind Storm] on the biggest clumps of monsters, almost immediately drawing out a red mist as they're diced into pieces. Her glaive also has good reach, and with the [Tiretiera Maire Style], she safely splits heads with every swing.

Aoi uses her massive body to fly into the monsters and crush scores of them while breathing fire at anything nearby. Their weapons are too flimsy to pierce her armor, not to mention her scales and hide, and anyone who tries to get a ride is easily zapped away by her recently discovered prowess with lightning.

Yunia literally dances atop their heads like a heavily-armored Legolas. The way she moves is just so uncanny that the adventurers and Imperial soldiers become distracted by her, earning themselves angry reprimands from the officers and knights nearby.

Léonne and Jacques act similarly to Aoi, though his fox form's hide is definitely softer than a dragon's, so the spears start to get stuck in his underside, not that he seems to mind or even get slowed down at all.

Silvano is the one with the least raw power, but he's so fast that the monsters don't even register him as an enemy until one of his swords is already in their brains, so he's still quite lethal, though he won't stay on the battlefield for long because of his high mana consumption.

Due to having to watch out for betrayal, I'm keeping myself from going off the deep end with my berserking, though this also leaves me with the mental capacity to appreciate the girls as they fight. While doing so, I also notice that the people in Roxanne's sector are getting a bit disgusted with the constant brainsploding.

But the [Abyssal Fire] starts to get awfully close to Jacques, pushing them further and further away from the wall and towards the Darkness. We don't have [Bind] to recall Alissa's parents, and the idea of anyone deliberately putting them in danger makes us nervous. And it also really ticks Alissa and me off.

Gify pops into existence on top of the head of a fire-Hana, then chirps angrily at the Imperial soldier mage, "Gih! Geh gih guh gen gon goh!"

"What the fuck…?" He blurts out in confusion as he looks back.

The elemental-wife lowers towards him and raises the temperature to uncomfortable levels.

"Gih, gih!" Gify chastises him.

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The mage's eyes fly between the elemental and the little spirit. Then he leans back as his skin starts to feel the pain from the heat. "A-alright, alright…! I'll try to control it!"

Then he casts [Fire Wall] in the [Abyssal Fire] to help wrestle control over it, but that only slows down the spread, so I summon two fire-Hanas to help him, and the all-consuming flames start to recede. My mana is at a premium here, so it's really vexing that I'm forced to do this.

The carnage continues for a good half hour, and then the flood of monsters coming from the Darkness starts to diminish until it's merely a trickle, and that's the sign of the second phase starting.

While Earth and Rupegia share their fear of War, the presence of magic in this world gave rise to an additional fear: Devastation, not to be confused with the God of Destruction. In some interpretations of Trox Mael, this phase is called Ruin, especially because of the monster that's coming next, but Devastation is more general while the latter has direct connotations with both Necromancy and the God of Order.

Devastation is merely the result of War escalating the use of more destructive magic to the point that it either affects the landscape or triggers a Mana Storm. But, in this event, it means that since the monsters have failed to breach our walls, they'll take more drastic measures.

A pillar of "liquid" Darkness quickly rises until it reaches about five meters tall. Then it solidifies into the shape of a robed person, and within its black hood and sleeves, we see a perfectly white skeletal skull with glowing purple eyes and long, skeletal fingers. Then it points its right index finger towards the wall.

The Greater Lich is in Ciel's sector, but it's better if we let it cast its spell, so she just [Fly]es back and ensures that the wall is evacuated. Meanwhile, Bell-end mobilizes the reserve, moving them towards her sector.

The chaotic mana in the air suddenly passes through me like a flood as it all gathers at the tip of the Lich's finger, which begins to glow with a sickening, and very dangerous-looking, purple light.

A trumpet plays a call, telling the adventurers that they should gather at its source. I join up with Léonne and warn her of the Lich, then I return to the settlement to herd the cats as they reposition. The Imperial soldiers and our men will continue to man the walls since we can't trust the adventurers to remain at their posts and not follow the Experience.

The purple light gradually shines brighter over a long minute, and everyone waits anxiously for the fated moment.

Suddenly, the world turns purple as an extremely loud buzzing pierces our ears, and a purple lightning ravages the wall, quickly tearing it apart until it's nothing but dust. The proto-[Ruin] spell ends after a mere ten seconds, having opened a large hole in our defenses. It even cleared the [Abyssal Fire] that was in the way.

A horn blares from within the Darkness, and it's followed by the enraged roars of the Symbols as another wave arises and surrounds the settlement once again. But this time, most of them aim for the breach, and they dash forward with inhuman speed.

"AIM FOR THE PURPLE LIGHTS!" The men shout. There are Heralds of Ruin among the horde, which are enhanced versions of the Symbols of War, and they glow with purple magic, so they must be killed ASAP!

I make sure that my archer groupies are well-positioned, then I leave them and [Fly] back into the fray.

This time, the wives and I are all fighting together, which is a lot more comfortable for us, but now the "friendly" fire incidents increase in number, and it's a lot harder to say whether they're intentional or not.

"You need armor like me!" Aoi yells to Jacques as they meet on the battlefield.

"True. [Equip] makes it viable…!" He shouts back. Then he pounces onto a Symbol with his massive body and swipes his tail, sending a number of them flying.

"I find it ironic that a dragon wears armor!" Léonne jokes as she unleashes arrow after arrow, never missing a single shot.

And Aoi grins cheekily. "I can also do this!" Then she [Equip]s her halberd and sweeps it around her, slicing open the bellies of two Symbols, but it gets lodged in the third Symbol. Her swing doesn't even slow down, and the Symbols clump up until they fly away like ragdolls.

Both Chiefs freeze for a second in disbelief, then they laugh out loud as they continue the carnage.

The Greater Lich starts to gather more purple light at its bony finger, but this time, there's nothing to fear. There isn't much mana left in the air for it to absorb, and we also have our own countermeasures.

"HOLD! HOLD!" The men shout as the wave of monsters quickly approaches the opening. It's a bad idea to douse these ones in [Abyssal Fire], so the mages use "normal" fire.

"IGNORE THE BIG ONE! KILL THE PURPLE ONES!"

An arrow pokes one of Hana's wings, and then a damn [Earth Bullet] hits Lina's back, too heavy to be pushed away by her [Wind Armor], but she only feels a weak shove. One of the fire-Hanas spots a suspect, and she'll keep him under watch until she catches him in the act.

Roxanne begins gathering her mana for [Explosion] and aims it at the Lich, who is quite far from her, so it takes a while for the spell to actually reach its target. Then she simply blows its hand into smithereens.

The proto-[Ruin] goes wild and unleashes its purple lightning in all directions, hitting the Lich and a number of the rising Symbols. The chaos lasts for only a few seconds, but it causes massive damage all around it.

Then the dashing monsters reach the breach, and Change gives us the second Blessing: Sanctuary.

The Light in our bodies seeps into the ground wherever we step, creating small protective zones that harm the monsters and make it difficult for them to cross, blunting their charge as they reach our line defending the breach.

The buff also protects against the proto-[Ruin], but it makes the Blessing run out faster, so it's best if we can stop [Ruin] in other ways.

The Lich quickly grows back, effectively unkillable while in the Darkness, but now that it's made the breach, allowing Sanctuary to be activated, we might as well kill it and add another monster to my list of summons.

Ryders, assemble!

I [Fly] towards the Lich and join up with Hana and Aoi on the way. The first thing we need to do is to strip the Lich of its Darkness cloak, which is a Blessing from the God of Destruction, and the best way to counter godly power is with more godly power.

"I'll test my fire against it," Aoi asserts through [Bind].

"I'll help you out a bit," Hana follows up, and the two unleash synchronized fire breaths against the Lich.

The adventurers notice what we're doing, the glowing fire very visible in such a dark landscape, and they begin cheering, "Lordling! Lordling! Lordling!" Which feels very nice for my draconic ego but terrifying for Lina's.

Meanwhile, I summon an air elemental and begin pulling out the orbs of godly power, handing the diamond orb Artifact to Lina as she [Blink]s beside me.

"What if I try to absorb the Darkness with this Artifact?" Lina suggests, and I freeze as the realization takes a moment to sink in.

"That's a great idea, actually!" I exclaim, and her face, though already flushed from exertion, becomes a tad redder.

So, I put back the other orbs, and we land at the edge of the Darkness. Then Lina presses the Artifact against the absolute blackness on the ground, which begins to be absorbed like a vacuum sucking up a blanket.

Yunia and Ciel arrive just in time to help me keep the monsters away from Lina while she controls the diamond orb. At the same time, the fire from both dragon girls begins to stick to the Lich, making its grim form look quite ghastly as it's covered in fire.

But big skelly won't take it lying down, so it raises both of its hands, palms up and fingers spread out, and we immediately realize what it intends to do. Hana and Aoi try to fly away, but a Tesla coil of purple lightning hits them both on their backs, throwing them towards the horde, though Sanctuary protects them from any harm.

The lightning then comes towards us, but the Artifact absorbs most of it while the rest of it destroys the monsters around us. No longer the focus of the lightning, Hana and Aoi recover quickly and start coming back to us.

"[Explosion]!" Roxanne casts, blowing up one of the hands and halving the Tesla's output. She [Fly]s closer but remains high up with Alissa, both of them far outside the range of anything on the ground.

The Lich opens its jaws wide and lets out a bone-trembling screech, "GRAAAH…!" Then it unleashes a powerful arc of lightning towards the orb, making us go blind and deaf from the bright purple light and very loud buzzing.

Something tells me this one isn't supposed to be killed…

The artifact absorbs all of the lightning that comes near us without a problem, but there's so much power flooding in that Lina starts to get a bad feeling about this.

BALANCE IT OUT!

Everyone turns to the orb, and we unleash all sorts of spells at it. The overwhelming amount of purple pseudo-mana inside the Artifact starts to give way to a small rainbow, but it's far too little in comparison to the Lich's huge mana pool.

"LEMME AT IT!" Hana shouts through [Bind] as she darts towards the orb.

Lina begins to pale at the still-increasing amount of [Ruin] pseudo-mana, and even I get the feeling that this is becoming a ticking nuclear bomb.

Hana reaches us in time, then touches the orb and draws out the purple energy within. She immediately flies away, now gripping a long shaft of pure purple light that starts to take the shape of a huge sword.

What the fuck…?

The Lich stops screeching and closes its mouth as it notices that it's only feeding her weapon. Then she swings the purple lightsaber that's five times her size, and skellington raises its hand to block it.

The monster's hand glows with power, and their [Ruin]s collide in a quickly growing explosive ball of chaos as they immediately begin to annihilate each other. But the real eye-catcher is the orb, which now glows with mesmerizing divine light.

Oh… shit…!

Ciel delicately takes the orb from Lina's hands and offers it to me. She'll act as the conduit and regulator, leaving me free to do with it as I wish, so I land my claws on top of it and draw out all of the power within.

We've already done something similar to this together, and she and Hana have had some first hand-experience with divine power, but now it's my turn to look cool.

[Light Magic] is the power of the Gods, but it's only borrowed. Now this, this divinity that I now have within reach, is something else entirely… and I feel the dragon within me straining against its chains, trying to swallow it all. I'm a lover of women and a reckless researcher, but the hunger for power isn't really a big part of me, it's just that divinity is very enticing.

I also have the feeling that it'd be a bad idea to do that, so I put the stupid lizard back in its place. But I've stalled enough, and now that the balls of [Ruin] have ended each other, the Lich once again points its bony fingers at us.

I extend my hand towards the burning skeleton and make a wish with [Godly Language], "Disappear," just as I snap my fingers, and a flash of divine light blinds us all.

"You are now level sixty-two."

The battlefield grinds to a halt, falling eerily silent as even the Symbols stop and search for their Lich, but there's nothing there anymore. Nothing.

"Holy fuck…" Gandalf mumbles in disbelief, and even Fran and Bell-end look frightened.

The adventurers start to murmur, but then familiar voices start a cheer, and soon, everyone else joins in.

"LORDLING! LORDLING!" They shout fervently, and my ego grows three sizes this day, but then the Symbols all roar in rage and resume their attack on the breach, cutting the party short.

Ciel takes my hand off the Artifact and [Heal]s it as I'm far too light-headed to do anything right now. I feel absolute bliss, just like when I link our pleasures and make everyone orgasm at the same time.

Wait… I think I actually came in my pants…

But I'm not allowed to bask in the glory for long as two pillars grow from the Darkness in front of us, each one spawning a Greater Lich.

Well… we weren't supposed to win this phase, anyway…

Maybe someone more powerful could kill all of the Greater Liches, but that ain't us.