The battles were not going as well as Carthus had hoped they would. His people were holding their lands but the sheer number his counterpart had been throwing at them for the past few hundred years was mind boggling. He looked into the insectoid species after their first battle and found that they were somewhat altered. This of course was only capable of being done with the build points so, it was unsurprising that they were far more potent they they could have been otherwise. They had a higher intelligence than they would have but still retained their hive and colony structures. This meant that they had clearly defined roles and accepted them without question. Worse, they completed their tasks with an almost religious fervor. The world gods had also revealed themselves and even though there were multiple insectoid species they had only 3 deities. So, they were individually more powerful than those of his side. Still, the numbers of his side's deities combined still matched the strength of his counterparts.

They had been fighting large scale battles and smaller skirmishes and while it seemed to be a stalemate as far as the amount of ground covered, Carthus had already lost 3 of his heroes to the other side. He decided to summon three the first time around as he figured one for each of the major races would be sufficient to bring more stability for his people. He was not wrong in doing so and for a century they battled hard on the front lines keeping the insectoids out of their continent. Yet they were overwhelmed by a massive swarm that attempted to breakthrough the lines. The insectoids managed to break through and only through a concerted effort of the empire they were pushed back and eventually wiped out. Yet they had devastated the moral of the empire's people. They priests and priestesses of the different faiths collectively called upon the gods to send them a champion and this time Carthus was determined to funnel the power allotted into one. He had scoured the other universe for compatible beings and there were thousands upon thousands of planets with interesting intelligent life but he wanted someone that would mesh well with the people he had.

He searched for nearly 50 years while funneling the power he was allowed into the spell matrix then he found a planet filled with dwarves, gnomes, elves, orcs, beastkin and another race that looked to be a mix of elves and dwarves. It was a species he had never seen before and not one recorded within the concepts. All the people in this realm were all far more advanced in their technologies and magics than anyone in this infantile world could be and any of them would make a great champion. He chose a large male version of the species he couldn't recognize but the spell would not latch on him. He was confused by the failure and tried again with another of the species this time it being female. Yet, the matrix did not consider them viable targets of the spell. Even more strangely when he would try to grab them they would somehow know that something was wrong and they would become anxious and some even angered and aggressive by the invisible threat.

He tried several times to get one of these people but they just did not work with the magic of the spell. So, he turned toward one of the dwarven peoples that had caught his eye. She was a magnificent specimen of their race and while he was disappointed he had not been able to retrieve the other species. She would do well especially with the power he was going to pump into her. He watched her leave a bar where she and some friends entertained themselves and made her way toward her home. She stumbled along the road alone and he locked onto her with his spell.

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A deep dull ache woke Ruligret from her slumber. She groaned in pain and moved her hands up to her temples and massaged them with her thumbs. "How much did I drink?" She groaned aloud. She looked down and found she was wearing some sort of cloth gown that felt to be spun from some sort of silk. She groaned again and looked around at the room she was in. It was rather bare with a nicely made wooden set of furniture with delicate bronze work inlayed into them. The dresser, night stand, and small table with a chair that she assumed was a desk seemed to be a matching set. She looked down at the bed she was in and found it was fairly comfortable with a large pillowed comforter atop silken sheets. She didn't really care for silk sheets at home as they made her overheat at night but for some reason they were comfortable here. Wherever here was. She looked at the heavy stone blocks that made up her wall and that more than anything else confused her. "Oh Ruli, who'd you get off to with last night." She complained to her past drunken self.

Ruligret rolled out of bed and found a cheval mirror where she took in her appearance. She stood right at 161cm and had a fairly strong wide physique that had her weighing in around 68kg. Her hair was strawberry blond and fell down around her shoulders in a wave of messy curls. She had brown eyes that had a natural mischievous twinkle that had gotten her into trouble more than once. Her thick muscular arms that filled out the night gown she wore were a testament to her vast strength. She grunted in approval that she did not look nearly as bad as she felt and turned around to search for her clothes.

She looked around the large framed bed that she just realized had a canopy that was tied up at the corner posts. She whistled at the expensive looking frame and the beautifully crafted timber. "Where in the 9 hells am I?" She thought aloud. She could not find the uniform jumpsuit that she knew she was wearing last night but did manage to find some well tailored dresses in an ancient almost medieval style which were not really going to fit her. She looked at the nightgown which was stretched as far as it could without ripping at the seams. She was fairly large for her species and did have some trouble finding clothes in the normal woman's departments but she always made due with what she found. She looked at the dress in her hand. Then she stared at the furniture, and the walls. She looked at the mirror and then at the open balcony where the light was coming in from. She looked at the high arched ceiling and ancient architecture. She looked at what appeared to be an oil lantern at the bedside table. She looked back at the dress in her hand and grimaced. "Did I go home with one of them medieval knight reenactors?" I mean its kind of cute in passing but to live like this?" She shuddered at the thought and the very awkward conversation she was going to have to have. She was not going to play dress up for whoever this guy was.

Ruligret straightened up and moved toward an Iron banded oak door but it opened as she approached. A smaller dwarven woman with a light dusting of hair across her face entered. She had her brown hair in a twin braid that dangled over her cheeks and was tied together beneath her chin. She was pretty enough if you could get past the facial hair but Ruligret was not usually interested in the girls that went au-naturale. She liked her men big and strong and her women lithe and well groomed. This woman was smaller then Ruligret but still looked a bit to masculine for her to be attracted to. She knew her feminist friends would hate that she made these judgements but she couldn't help what she was attracted to. "Sorry love I am sure you were great its just that your not usually my type and I do not want to get to far along into a situation that was caused by my inability to control my drinking. Nice place by the way its very—yes well its"— Ruligret winced at her rambling and the befuddled look on the woman's face and sighed. "Where is the front door I'll just see myself out." She said as she walked past the woman and into a long stone hall.

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"Me lady please the Emperor be wantin t' see ye." The smaller woman yelled rushing out the door to follow. "Wow you are really leaning in to the whole archaic stereotypical dwarf there aren't you?" Ruligret asked. "I'm impressed to your dedication to the character but really I'm just not interested. It's a me thing. Well I mean its kind of a you thing too as your just not my type. However, that isn't your fault that's on me for living with to many humans. So see? Where back to it being a me thing and we can go our separate ways knowing we shared a wonderful night and that—" She paused as the dwarven woman's red face started to turn into a concerning purple.

She opened her mouth to say something about blood pressure but she paused as she noticed two armored dwarves round the corner. She looked back at the woman then at the medieval armored dwarves. "That is well crafted and an alloy I cannot identify." Ruligret said and ran toward the two dwarves. She stared poking and prodding at their armor and even picked one of them up to look at the underside of the cuirass. "Oy put me down." The dwarf said kicking its legs and shaking in an attempt to break free. "Oh my apologies Ruligret offered sheepishly setting the dwarven man down. I get a bit excited over new alloys. What is this? Where was it manufactured? Can I get a bit to test? I have a small budget for new materials I am sure I could get approval for a sample? What planet was it found on?"

The dwarves looked at her in bewilderment and stared at the dwarven woman behind her for help. Ruligret noticing their looks turned around and looked expectantly at the woman. The woman's face began to slowly return to normal and she held her head high. "Me lady I am priestess Udatred Rubybraid and Ive been charged t' be yer caretaker until ye meet the emperor." Ruligret raised her eyebrow and looked back at the armored dwarves. "Will this emperor of yours be able to get me some of this metal?" Ruligret asked. Udatred sighed and her shoulders slumped. "O course he can he's only the bleedin Emperor." She thought to herself instead she said. "I can take ye t' meet him me lady. We had been hoping ye'd awaken soon. Things are getting dangerous at the front." Ruligret nodded as if she understood. "Right, right, the front terrible thing that. So, do you think we can meet this Emperor of yours then?" She asked. Udatred sighed and nodded then took a position next to Ruligret. "Right this way me lady."

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Barnabus was confused. He did not enjoy the feeling. He was staring down at his champion with disappointment. The man was what could only be described as hedonistic. This was the source of Barnabus's confusion and disappointment. This creature was born for battle. It had a thin agile body and deadly quick reflexes. He had seen the man cut down many enemies with the sickles he kept at his waist. He was a monster on the field of battle and when he had clashed with the apposing heroes he had run them off two out of their three encounters. Unfortunately, the last encounter saw him injured and since he refused to head back to the front to do battle. He would only drink the sweetest nectar and lay with his harem of lesser queens. Which also confused Barnabus. These creatures all reproduced asexually. The guy was just laying around with the queens who would try to coax him to their chambers in the colony or hive to bless their eggs with his divine gift which helped them grow faster and stronger. The only reason they managed to kill the other champions was because two of the queens went mad at seeing his injury and sent nearly their entire colonies into the battle. Now two of his major forces needed to be replenished and the conquest was at a standstill. He just stared down despondently at this champion hoping that he either got over his issues or died off so he could summon someone else. He had enough stored energy to summon another powerful hero and yet could do nothing with it while this pathetic creature endured.

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Mika'hal was miserable. That goddess promised him the isekai life he always wanted. She promised great power to kill his enemies and bring his people to a new age. She promised him a harem of beautiful women to choose from. All he had to do was leave his old craptastic life behind. He did not expect to become an insectoid but thought he was quite a bit better looking now then he had been. He was an outcast on his home planet as he was born to two races that were universally despised. When he got the summon offer and met the goddess he was thrilled. She was the most beautiful ant woman he had ever seen. She remind him of the animated stories he enjoyed so much and he thought his meaningless life would finally be worth something.

He was right in his thinking at first. All of the insectoids queens were gorgeous and they all seemed to show him some interest. His body was fast and powerful and he was a terror when hunting and on the battlefield. The asshole dwarves were fun to slaughter and he felt a bit vindicated for how the species had treated him in the old world. Even the other beast races were cruel to him but the insectoids here treated him as though he were a gift from the gods. When he thought about that he actually kind of was. Still, battle was fun until he felt that damn lionkin's blade cut deep into his abdomen. The pain was incredible and it showed him how real the danger he was in actually was. This was not the game he pretended to play and he was terrified.

To make matters worse his harem of beautiful women was a sick joke. He had his old desires for sex and yet it was all an just an expectation in his mind. All of his queens just wanted him to spray down some eggs with this weird ability the goddess gave him. There was no pleasure in the actions at all, and the only other thing that he found satisfying in this world now terrified him. He looked over toward the one queen with whom he had thus far refused and she stared at him hungrily. He shivered in fear and revulsion. Unlike the others this one was not an insectoid or perhaps they were still labeled as such but he wondered if that was in oversight. The arachne queen was just as beautiful as all of the others but the red hourglass spot on her abdomen made him want to steer clear of her web. Still her species did reproduce sexually and he would be lying if he didn't harbor some socially awkward fantasies. He sighed and stared at the tray of what he guessed was mosquito legs and picked one up to eat. Even if it was never very fulfilling. he looked back over to the arachne and shuddered. No he wasn't quite ready for that yet.