Xero strode through the halls with Silith trailing behind him.

Passing through a group of maids, they bowed down with eyes downcast until his presence was out of sight. It seemed to be a similar trait with everyone that noticed him, just like the reverence and unwavering devotion they held in their eyes.

Inside, he felt slightly uncomfortable about the respect and loyalty he was being shown. It made the fragments of his old introverted personality to act up, making him want to hole up in some isolated room.

Then there was also the other side of him, a version of himself that felt natural about it---it was what allowed him to play out the role of the Overlord flawlessly, another thing he inherited from the original Xero.

As he walked, his thoughts returned to focus on Silith's report. In his hand was a folder that had the compiled information on the Shadowspire's situation.

He read through it already---his enhanced mind memorizing it word per word with barely a glance. The premise was quite simple...

'In summary... the Shadowspire in its entirety was moved to an unknown location, with the also unknown method of transfer causing a wave of mana to burst outwards with the Shadowspire as its epicenter. This would've alerted virtually everything that contained mana in their bodies to a rough estimate of our location, and of course, the perpetrator is still also a mystery...' It was troubling news for sure, especially since most of the other systems seem to have been damaged during relocation. Though Xero was already pretty sure that he was the one who caused the whole phenomena... one way or another.

He sighed, putting the file away into one of his storage rings.

"Silith, where are the twelve now?" He asked, twelve figures appearing in his mind---the twelve first creations he'd ever make.

Silith was smiling as she stared at Xero's back, her mind that seemed to have been wandering somewhere else was snapped back to reality at the mention of her name.

"M-most of them are already repairing the damages to the Shadowspire's systems, but Lord Amon and Zret's locations are currently unknown, while Lady Lilith is working with handling the regular functions of the realm," she answered somewhat hurriedly, a light blush on her cheeks.

Xero suddenly stopped in his tracks and felt Silith bump into him from behind.

A thought popped into his mind.

He turned to face the grey-haired girl behind him. "Silith, wanna go to the outside world with me?"

Silith nodded vigorously.

= 0 = 0 = 0 =

 A complete fucking hell, it was a quick summary of his current situation.

It was like a broken marriage---happening suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving you lost, confused and with half of your possessions gone.

He was the leader of this expedition, all was going well until dawn came... with it was the death of nearly half his men, all caused by mana poisoning. It left him, and the other remaining "lucky" survivors with severe mana sickness.

Not only that, things became much worse as he discovered that it wasn't simply the expedition members were affected, but so was the surrounding wildlife, and mana density only continued to increase as they got closer to their destination.

"God's be damned!" He cursed, his voice carrying outside his tent, and in frustration he slammed his fist on the table.

"The expedition force is too weakened to be able to continue on with surefire success on finishing the mission..." He sighed and rubbed his temples. The Emperor had personally given him the order to lead the expedition. It was all in order to retrieve a holy artifact that was hidden somewhere in the Ancient Shrike Forests.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

So much resources have been given to ensure the expedition's completion, especially since there have been signs that the demons have also made a move for the artifact. If he goes back now, empty-handed...

He shivered at the thought.

Although he didn't want to use "it", he knew that the only way of keeping his head away from being an addition to the Emperor's collection was to utilize everything at his disposal.

"Bring me the damned witch!" He yelled out.

"Yes my lord!" A man from outside the tent replied, the sound of his footsteps as he scurried away to fulfill his order quickly followed.

= 0 = 0 = 0 =

Xero quickly canceled the activation of his [Gate] spell before any more dust could get through the other side of the portal. He and Silith now found themselves outside the Shadowspire and its realm.

Xero found himself quickly disappointed at the sight around him.

For miles, there was only the dry rust-colored earth beneath his feet and the unusually hot air.

His senses told him that there was no living organism within a 10 mile radius from where he was standing. They were basically in a desert completely devoid of life. Though it seemed like there was something interesting a bit further away towards the north.

Xero crouched down and rubbed a bit of the soil in between his fingers.

Using the skill [Analyze], Xero immediately gained an in-depth analysis of the dust in his hands, just as the name of the skill suggests.

'That's strange... life here isn't built the same way as us. The earth here and what seems like everything else got eroded by the high density of the mana in the area,' Xero deducted as he cleaned away the rusty soil from his fingers using magic.

He turned to look for Silith and found her crouched down, attention occupied by drawing on the ground with her fingers like a child.

'Then again... isn't this the actual day of her birth?' Xero wondered.

When he tried to see what she was making in the dirt, Silith seemed to notice and quickly kicked away her work and stood back up and looked up at him in silence.

He simply gave her an awkward smile, not really knowing how to respond.

"Master are we going back?" The short girl asked in her usual timid and almost hesitant fashion.

There was a short pause as Xero thought about his next actions.

"We'll go north first, something interesting seems to be there," he replied, making his mind up. 

Xero searched his storage ring and pulled two other rings out from it, one a plain black and the other was silver with blue runes engraved on it. He handed both of them to Silith.

The girl seemed to have a floating question mark hanging over her head.

"The black one is a mana suppression ring and the silver one has a one time use [Resurrection] spell placed on it," he explained.

"M-m-master! A-as a low servant... I cannot accept this!" Silith said in a panic as she quickly handed the rings back over to her master.

Xero gently flicked Silith's forehead.

"Gu!" She made a high pitched sound in surprise.

Xero got down to her eye level and patted her head.

 "Silith, know that there is no such thing as a lowly being created by my hands," Xero chucked, "hmm, I just realized that I've been the one to give you your personality, but still... I think that it'll do you good to be a bit more confident in yourself," he said, ruffling her hair.

Silithi who was blushing nodded and quickly wore the two rings.

With a satisfied smile, Xero turned his attention north, towards whatever was there that seemed to have a semblance to divine energy. 'Based on the form and construct... seems to be a weapon artifact most likely.'

He once again looked at Silith and realized a small fact, 'her hair isn't getting dirty despite being dragged on the ground.' Getting the other unnecessary details away for now, Xero approached her. In a quick simple motion, he picked Silith off the ground and into his arms. 

The girl in his arms squirmed in embarrassment, her face and ears were progressively turning red. It almost looked like she was overheating, though her body's actual temperature was really cold as a result of her race.

Xero looked at her face and blurted out something in his mind, "you're cute."

Whether it was the work of imagination or not, he swore to have seen steam come out of her ears, before she covered up her face with her grey locks.

"It'd be faster if we fly since your race doesn't have access to any flight spells, I thought that this would be the best method," he explained, "also it'll be shameful for me if I brought you all the way out here simply to get you dirty."

Silith silently nodded in response, her face still obscured by her hair.

Xero simply smiled, he gathered his mana and cast a spell. On his back formed black phantom wings with feathers that looked like they were made out of glass, except it was flexible and much sturdier.

Flapping his wings, he was easily able to lift off the ground and felt very natural with wings.

After erecting a barrier that surrounded both him and Silith as a final precaution, he suddenly shot up in the air and flew north, going forward just a bit shy of supersonic speed.