“Excuse me?” Said the herald of commerce as I showed him the contract. We had only spent one hour and a half in Kyiv, so we didn’t need to stay in Ukraine for another day. Exploring the country sounded fun, but we could do that after we earned our freedom. “What is this? You think you can just… Look, this contract is nice and all,” He ripped it in two. “But I need them to be slaughtered. Is that understood?”

“What?! Why? You’re a business, not a warlord state. You shouldn’t want a resentful nation that will never be pacified under your control.” Said Anna. I noticed her hair flaring up a little as it burned the magical colour off. She was quite literally a fiery redhead now.

“You’re suggesting that they can resist us after you’re done.” Christian attempted to reply, but Anna’s intense aura made him back off. It was her argument to manage.

“The country would be butchered! What use is it if it doesn’t have adventurers?” The herald sighed before moving his hand to summon portals around Anna, but Sam grabbed it with a chain of solid light.

“Fine, if you want answers so badly, then here they are. Ukraine is a farm. Farmers don’t fight. Farmers don’t kill dragons. Farmers know their place. I don’t want a farm to think it can stand up for itself. So go over to the farm and–” Anna slapped the herald so hard that the chain holding his arm broke as he flew into the shelf of books behind him.

“You’re not going to doom my country because you think they’re only good for farming!” The herald laughed before summoning a portal beneath all of us. He moved it up to send everyone, including himself, into a frigidly cold tundra.

“What confidence you people have! Striking a new worlder? That’s unheard of. Now, little miss, your entire group is cursed. The two ‘negotiators’ think themselves able to do my job, the reincarnator thinks himself capable of restricting my movement, and you think that you have the right to strike a superior.” The demoness, unphased by the whole thing, interrupted him before he could go any further.

“What about me?” She said before the herald summoned a portal above her and brought it down to send her away.

“I’ll deal with her later. Now, I’ve been keeping up a facade of civility. It was easy enough to trick you into thinking I’m reasonable. You old worlders have this idea of equality. You think that I hold you to my level just because I’m being polite. Now, I’m going to remould all of you into perfect pawns that realise their place on the pecking order.” I was still unphased by him. What could he really do to us? We were the strongest people in the world. Sure, the demoness wasn’t here, but we could still take on the herald, even if we were separated.

“Really now? I’m giving you one last chance. You already know that at least one of us can teleport, so your little charade is a waste of time. Just give up and surrender.” I said before the herald chuckled.

“You old worlders are just something else aren’t you? I’ll give YOU one last chance. Do the mission I told you to do, and get out of my sight. That’s all you have to do for me to forgive your ever growing debt.” I performatively laughed to show him how little I valued his threat. Before I knew it, I was inside an array of portals and surrounded on all sides. Every portal led to a portal that still pointed inside the room. I quickly ordered the nano-chatte to teleport the both of us behind the herald to shoot him, but he summoned a portal above and below himself, and made them swallow him up to teleport away before I even got through the nano-chatte’s portal. “Alright, you chose the hard way. It would be respectable if you were a reincarnator, but you’re nothing more than a pretender.”

A portal swallowed me up again, and when I teleported back, everything was gone. The nano-chatte could barely hear the faint sound of a portal closing, which meant he teleported away again. I didn’t know where he teleported, so I was stuck.

“Alright, no need to worry nano-chatte. Anna can probably handle–” Before I could continue, I was swallowed up and sent into the Revifier’s void.

“That wasn’t me.” Said the nano-chatte. I knew it didn’t do it, but I didn’t care. I would have to endure the Revifier talking again. She towered above me at what I could only assume was twenty feet tall.

“Why hello there my dear! How nice of you to pay a visit.” She said before I got up.

“Explain why I’m here. I know you probably know my situation isn’t urgent, but I still need to find them sooner or later, so I’d really appreciate it if you let me go.” The Revifier chuckled before her void transformed into a nice lush garden as she shrunk down and telekinetically pulled me into a chair which was itself pushed next to a table with a cup of tea on both sides of it.

“You need to slow down. If life wants to–”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“No! You don’t get to be a wise figure. Just tell me the facts.” I interrupted the Revifier. I couldn’t stand to hear her talk, especially when I knew her words were always detached from reality.

“Fine, fine. If you want to be hostile, I’ll just have to be twice as positive to cancel it out.” She smiled, much to my annoyance. “What? Can’t stand my kindness?”

“Just get on with it already.” I was already growing impatient. She clearly summoned me here for a reason, I just had to find out what it was.

“Well, your party may be very…” She paused, as if searching for the right word.

“Fucked?” I said to make the meeting go by faster. She could either confirm or deny it, which gave me more information than whatever descriptor she would use.

“A little crude, but yes. They’re ‘fucked’. The three musketeers will fall one by one. Anna can’t match the skill of the herald, and the other two can’t even teleport. The demoness will need a little more time to be subdued, but if they chained her up once, they can do it again.” Wait… what? “Yea, I know, shocking.” I went back to my blank expression after getting past the initial shock.

“So you’re telling me that he’s actually dangerous?” I was skeptical of anything she told me. She could be lying just to make me feel scared and agree to a deal she undoubtedly has queued up.

“See for yourself.” She summed a window in front of me showing the battle between Anna and the herald.

Anna stared at the herald as he teleported everyone to the forest floor of a jungle. She felt herself glow as the power of her righteous anger made her body exude power. Christian and Sam were still trapped within the portal arrays, and they were not getting out soon if Anna didn’t take care of the herald.

“What’s taking you so long? Come at thee, little miss redhead.” Anna’s anger only grew as she didn’t notice how the herald’s challenge was obvious bait. She couldn’t help herself. Not only did his insulting attitude towards her people and Earth empower her anger driven by her righteousness alone, but his irritating attitude and dismissal of everyone else made her ego centric anger flare up as well.

She unsheathed her sword and teleported right behind the herald, who just summoned a portal behind him that Anna slipped in. The portal led into the sky, where another two portals were prepared. If she kept falling into them, she’d gain more and more momentum, as the top portal was right above the bottom one. Anna could’ve just teleported out, but that would’ve been a waste. She could gain momentum, and then hit the herald with all of it after she teleported out.

It was a game of chicken. Waiting indefinitely was a good move for both of them, but only to a point. If either of them decided that the damage they would inflict by letting Anna hit the ground, or by Anna hitting the herald after teleporting out, was satisfactory, then the other party was screwed. Anna chose to gamble, and it blew up in her face.

The herald unsummoned the bottom portal, and Anna couldn’t react fast enough, so she hit the ground with enough force to destroy a tank. She only grew more powerful as her anger increased from a new potent source, which was pain. Anna got up and rushed at the herald, already preparing several back up spots she could teleport to if the herald decided to summon a portal to block her.

“Do you really not learn anything? You new worlders are all the same.” Said the herald before summoning a portal in front of Anna. She put her plan into motion and teleported to her first backup position, which was situated at the herald’s side. “Oh! Clever!” The herald simply kneed her in the stomach. Anna couldn’t even swing her sword at him thanks to the herald’s speed. “But cleverness never beats experience.”

“But grit does.” Anna had to do this. She was the only one that could. She was always the only one that could. Everyone that tried helping her was a hindrance in her mind. What was the point of strength if you needed someone else to help you just so you can use it? Anna teleported right back and slashed at the herald, who was busy putting his foot down.

“Ouch! What a feisty one.” Said the herald before teleporting back. “It’s such a shame your little slash did nothing. Now, I would just love to fight you for hours on end, but we both know you can’t handle teleporting too much. Let’s see how you perform under pressure. Besides, I want to see your resistance die out with a bang instead of a whimper.” The herald waved his hand in the air, opening up a cascade of portals, all of which led to pre-prepared cannons ready to strike down metallic justice upon Anna.