'What does she want with my Golems?' Will thought.
He knows better than anyone just how powerful his Golems were. They can overpower heroes with ease, not counting the Great Sage. They can bring down dragons, powerful monsters, and are convenient for collecting materials.
'Still… It's only for a day and it's very cheap since I am in desperate need of mana ores. And if she wants to use the Golems against me I can turn them against her in a heartbeat.'
Will replied back to her.
{The weapons are no problem, I can have them ready by tomorrow. But why do you want my Golems?}
{Instead of telling you through a communication stone I would like to tell you better in person tomorrow… no, two days from now once you bring the weapons. We can discuss the Golems once you show up}
Will didn't respond back, he placed the communication stone in a drawer and pondered.
There are only a few reasons why someone would want to use his Golems, because of their power and usefulness.
'Either she's planning on using it on the Reyes kingdom or the mountain dragon, but neither one makes sense. The Great Sage could obliterate all my Golems if he wanted to, at least I believe he can since I have never seen him fight. And my Golems would be crushed by the mountain dragon's foot alone. And why eight days from now? And she also wanted three hundred guns as if she's getting ready for battle.'
Neither choice made any sense to Will. The Great Sage and the mountain dragon are too powerful to fight against.
Still, he was very curious. He got to work on crafting and enchanting three hundred assault rifles. He was desperate for mana ores.
Valerie placed down her stone after realizing that Will wasn't going to respond back. She sent a message to some of her men.
{Gather all the mana ores we have in a magical item and place them in the throne room, you have two days. Also, ask our spies in the Reyes kingdom to see if the king or anybody else is acting 'weird'}
Valerie suspects that Will might realize that she's going to use the Golems on the Reyes kingdom, and she wanted to know if Will is to be trusted with her plan whether he tells the Reyes kingdom what she's planning to do. It is the reason she told Will to wait for two days.
The next day Will left his cave. After he was done crafting the required amount of weapons he decided to help his Golems mine for mana ores, his ability to mine far exceeded any other Golem, but the Golems have the upper hand with their numbers.
His effort in collecting mana ores made a tiny dent.
"It's been a while since I mined. I didn't miss it."
"Will." Sandra called him.
Sandra was sitting down, talking to a familiar girl before Will showed up.
"Hero!"
The young girl stood up to greet Will properly.
"Thank you for everything you have done for me!"
"You're… welcome?" Will doesn't remember doing anything for her, any aid she received was thanks to the people of the Reyes kingdom. "Where have I seen you before?" Will asked, curious.
"I was accompanying the other hero, Josh."
"Oh, yeah, you."
"Hero, I don't see Josh here, where is he?"
"He went back to the Reyes kingdom."
"Really? But he came here to ask you for help."
"He did ask me for help, but I said no and he left."
Will was glad he was wearing a mask to hide his face.
"Oh. By the way, hero, have you seen my friend? She's another girl named Naveah, she's a five striped sorceress."
"No, I haven't seen anyone like that."
"Okay. Is it okay if I stay here for a while? I am already working in a kitchen so I wouldn't overstay my welcome."
Felicia, just like everyone else, was given a house to live in as long as she was helpful and didn't break any laws.
It took Felicia almost two days to recover before she started to work immediately. All she needed was food, water, a shower, and plenty of rest.
Compared to living in the Reyes kingdom or accompanying Josh, her life in the Sun kingdom was better than it ever was.
Part of her did want to help Josh as he helped her from being assaulted by some thugs, but she also felt there was no other way to help Josh aside from emotional support and just being there beside him, and she also feels that she has already paid back what she owes Josh and more.
"I don't mind."
"Thank you!"
She felt like hugging him but held back. Everyone in the Sun kingdom knows that Will and Sandra are the king and queen.
"Sorry! Thank you! Really, thanks so much for everything! Sorry!" Felicia ran away to the kitchen.
"That was weird but fun in a way."
"Will, you were downstairs for a whole day, is everything okay?" Sandra rubbed off the dirt Will's armor has.
"Everything is okay."
"Kinda hard to tell if you're lying with that mask on."
"The mask stays."
"Okay… by the way, honey is becoming very popular in the kingdom. Did you know that almost nobody has heard of 'honey' until now?"
"Wow, really? I guess it makes sense."
"Sadly it really does. And there's still a lot. I mean one of your Golems keeps bringing a huge vase of glass filled with honey every few hours."
For the next few hours Will decided to talk with Sandra, other people, eat, shower, craft, and then continue mining the rest of the day. With the stamina ring he could go for days without sleep.
Then the day came to trade with the Empire.
Leaving his precious items behind and only carrying the weapons in a chest, Will teleported to the hidden waystone near the Empire.
Like last time Will had to go through the front door, remove his armor and weapons except his chest which was inspected by the Empress's men.
The Empress's men were informed by Valerie the items Will was carrying and so they let him pass. A few of her men led Will to the throne room.
The inside of the throne room was empty.
"Stay here. The Empress will be here shortly."
The man that led Will to the throne room was confused, the Empress is never late for anything unless something happened.
"Sure."
Will didn't expect the Empress to be late. He whistled, hummed, and was lost in his thoughts until the Empress showed up.
Feeling bored he sat down in the Empress's throne and thought 'this is uncomfortable to sit on.'
Five minutes later Valerie ran to the throne room sweating and panicking. She was wearing a white chef's hat and a white apron, on her apron and hands was blood.
"The hell?" Will said.
"Sorry, Will, give me like five minutes to clean up!" Valerie ran to tell Will to wait a little bit longer as she ran to the bathroom to wash the blood off her hands.
Will was left alone once again, only this time he was left confused.
Five minutes went by and Valerie returned while wiping her hands with a cloth.
"Sorry about that."
"Why were your hands covered in blood?"
"Just before you arrived, I was in the kitchen, someone accidentally chopped off two of his fingers while he was chopping lettuce. I came to his aid and that's the story."
"Is the guy okay?"
"I mean, he'll live, but he won't be able to use his fingers again."
"Okay."
"So you have the weapons?" Valerie asked after sitting down on her throne.
Will placed down the chest which grew in size once it left Will's hand.
Valerie signaled one of her men to take the chest away.
She reached for her pocket for eight rings made of iron and showed them to Will.
"Each ring has a large amount of mana ores. Here." Valerie threw one of the rings to Will.
Inspecting the ring Will confirmed that the ring alone carried thousands of low and mid-tier mana ores.
"Those are for the weapons you just gave me."
"I already know you want to use the Golems but I want to know why?"
Valerie squinted her eyes. Did she overestimate his intelligence?
'No, I didn't overestimate him, no one would believe that I or anyone could take on the Great Sage. I foolishly tried to do that, once. Thankfully I realized there was a better and easier way.'
"To attack the Reyes kingdom. Nothing more."
"Seriously?" Will thought that was a possibility, but even her resources and Golems combined aren't enough to fight the Great Sage.
He wished he could take out the magical ring of truth from his inventory, but he could faintly see people hiding behind the walls and aiming their weapons at him.
He didn't realize they were there the first time he visited, he only noticed because he was fooling around the throne room today that he barely noticed someone hiding and observing him.
If he were to take a ring out from nowhere he could be possibly shot or captured on sight to protect Valerie, at least it's what he would do. And he couldn't wear any magical items before entering because they had a magical item that detects magical items.
"You're probably thinking that I'm no match for the Great Sage, right?"
"Of course."
"Yeah, I also agree with you. But… Can I trust you to keep a secret?"
"Yeah, you can."
Valerie looked around the room, she realized her men were keeping an eye on her and listening to them as per her orders.
She walked up to Will until they were close enough to hear each other whisper.
The ones watching them quickly aimed their weapons away from Will, afraid that they could accidentally shoot Valerie.
Valerie close to Will's ears and whispered gently a secret to him…
Will's eyes were wide open from the shock of hearing her words.
"The Great Sage is going to die in six days."
Valerie knew she was taking a huge gamble telling him a secret she hadn't even told her closest friend.
She felt that Will could keep a secret, or at least she hoped he would.
She knew he hated the Reyes kingdom, they were the ones who sent out Victoria to possibly kill him and destroy his kingdom, however there is the slight chance he will leak her secret.
"Once he dies I am planning to attack the kingdom with everything I have."
Attacking the Reyes kingdom even without the Great Sage protecting it was still going to be difficult. But attacking them the moment the Great Sage dies is the greatest time to attack before the kingdom can recover.
The Reyes kingdom has many weapons, men, and power. They have nobles, descendants of heroes. They also have sorcerers whereas the Empire has none. The Reyes kingdom also has an impregnable castle.
The Empire really only has their abundance of resources, men, weapons, and their giant lizard mounts.
It is why she needed Will's Golems and weapons as they would prove to be useful in the battle.
"How do you know he'll die in six days?"
"Now that's a secret I don't have to tell you. As for how he'll die even I don't know, and that's all I'll tell you." Valerie placed her finger on her mouth.
The magical, enchanted earrings she's wearing can see one's lifespan as they can be shown above their head in the form of numbers, like a digital clock counting down.
Once Valerie found out about her earrings abilities she began testing out some theories she had in mind.
She began testing out many theories she had in mind by watching the people who were close to the end of their life, and she had found out many interesting things.
First, once someone's lifespan reaches '0' there is no way to save them and that death could come in many ways.
She once saw a healthy man get stung by a bee and die from a violent allergic reaction. Another time a woman died because a brick came out of nowhere and hit her head, the origin of that flying brick was still a mystery to Valerie even to this day.
She once detained a healthy young man near the end of his lifespan in a secluded room where nothing could possibly hurt him. He died on the spot instantly, cause of death was still unknown.
Secondly, she found out people who have yet to die are harder to kill as if they were being protected by an unknown force.
Using a bunch of prisoners who were on death row and near the end of their lifespan except one person, she ordered them to be executed on the same day by being pelted with bullets. The man who still had a long lifespan somehow survived being shot, his clothes however were grazed with the bullet shots, as if they had plot armor.
Thirdly, and this was the most surprising for her, even people who have a long lifespan can still be killed.
The prisoner on death row was eventually killed after being forced in a situation where he will die no matter what.
Funny enough, it took them nine attempts to kill the prisoner after a series of weird events happened.
After they failed to kill the prisoner with bullets, he was to be executed with poison injection. The poison had expired(somehow) and all he got was diarrhea. The third time he was to be hanged, the faulty rope broke instantly and didn't choke him nor break his neck.
The fourth time he was bound with shackles and was shot in the head and survived. Somehow the bullet entered his brain and lodged itself inside his brain without damaging him, only leaving a hole in his head and he was fine.
Fifth time he was to be blown up, the explosives used were duds, there were more than five explosives.
Sixth time he was exposed to the cold for an entire night wearing wet clothes, bathed in iced water almost all the time, the next day he wasn't even sick.
Seventh time he was ordered to be shot by five men carrying assault rifles, all assault rifles malfunctioned at the same time.
Eighth time he was fed a sandwich filled with shards of glass, he asked for another one.
By this point people have started to refer to him as the 'juggernaut.'
The ninth time whatever force was protecting him was gone.
They strapped the prisoner down to the ground, placed a large plank on top of him, and then placed heavy rocks on top of him. Even as there were rocks weighing tons on top of him it took him 100 hours to die by either suffocation or when his rips ruptured and pierced his organs.
"So it's a deal then?" Valerie extends her hand to Will.
"It's… it's a deal." Will shakes her hand.
The news of the upcoming death of the Great Sage greatly shocked him, but Will still wanted to get even with the Reyes kingdom for sending Victoria to his kingdom, destroying it and nearly killing Adaline in a process.
"Here, take them." Valerie placed the rings on Will's hands.
"You're just giving me all the mana ores like that?" Will thought that she was taking a risk by giving him the mana stones already.
"I'm hoping you'll keep your end of the deal when the time comes. I'll message you where I want your Golems placed in a few days."
Like that Will left the Empire after saying his goodbyes.
Valerie sat on her throne as she saw his figure leaving. Part of her was expecting Will to ask her her main motive on attacking the Reyes kingdom.
The reason was simple: to obtain the summoning circle. However, Valerie did not want to summon heroes, she would have to wait a little bit more than 99 years before they could summon more heroes.
Valerie intended on using the summoning circle for another reason, to get herself and her people away from this world by teleporting from their world to the world of the heroes, Earth.
There are two reasons why she wanted to get out of this world despite being in charge of a powerful Empire: First, the mortality rate in this world is high, the human population of the entire world doesn't even exceed one million. She has tried to improve the life of everyone in the Empire, she has, but most of the work has already been accomplished by her late father, she was just keeping the Empire as it was when she took over, but it still wasn't enough for her, she wanted to create a paradise for them and herself, but this world won't let her.
Even if she tries to make a utopia for the people of the world it would take countless years, by then she expects she would be nothing but bones. And who's to say that somewhere along the way someone won't screw it up even after she's gone?
If she can find a way to force a reverse teleportation she can protect everyone.
But there's a bigger reason she wants to leave the world immediately, she's afraid.
A few days before the heroes were summoned: she was with a dozen of her men scouting a goblin nest that was causing some problems near her fishing village.
Before they could make a plan they found something that wasn't there before, a long, dark, blade that had a dark aura surrounding it. It seemed it had been placed there on the ground sticking out.
The blade wasn't made of any sort of metal, it was as if it was made entirely out of energy.
The small area around the blade was dead. The trees were withered, the grass was black, no insects, animals, or even monsters went near it, as if they could feel its malignant energy.
Valerie knew immediately what it was, it was something she had once read in a book, a weapon from the Witch.
The Witch is one of the first three heroes summoned 300 years ago that could rival a young Great Sage. Ultimately she was killed, any weapons from her were destroyed by the Great Sage and he contained the virus from spreading, at least that's how the story goes.
At that point she knew that the Witch had to be alive, how else could that sword have been sitting there after 300 hundred years without anyone noticing? And it was located near her Empire.
She immediately dismissed her men before they could see the blade, except one who had already seen the blade and informed Valerie, he, too, recognized the origin of the blade.
After careful preparation she ordered someone to fetch her a metal case used for transporting fish, and thick metal gloves to touch the sword. She regrets not being more prepared but she wanted the sword out of there before anyone else saw it or worse touched it, she's seen enough stupid in her life to know that someone would be dumb enough to touch it.
She ordered the man who saw the sword to carry it for her inside the metal case in a secret location away from the Empire.
She and that man had to go alone as the less people who know the better.
The man knew the risk he was taking and trusted Valerie.
She would have carried it herself, but she was deeply afraid that touching it with or without protection would make her into a zombie. She has heard how even a cut from a weapon of the Witch can transform someone into a zombie that can spread the disease through contact.
But she also thought of using the weapon against the Great Sage and the Reyes kingdom, by sneakily poisoning their water supply with the virus.
That thought was soon dismissed.
Before they could make it to the secret location the man was showing signs of transforming into a zombie. He was sweating buckets, breathing profusely, and the veins on his neck were bulging purple. She couldn't see the rest of his body as he was covered in armor.
Both realized what happened. Neither really expected that by simply touching the blade it could infect others.
Valerie already had a gun loaded, before she could use it, the man threw the metal case and ran away. He knew what he was about to become, but he was deeply afraid, panicking, and just wanted to live. He let his emotions get the best of him.
Valerie gave chase, even shooting the man multiple times but the armor he was wearing protected him, not only that but he was faster and managed to get away from Valerie. Valerie quickly contacted everyone to find him and shoot him on sight.
It was one of the few rare moments that Valerie wished she had prepared a bit more.
Along the way the man found another soldier he was familiar with who hadn't received the news, stole his horse, and ran away successfully.
Valerie realized the man was gone and she needed to act fast. She gathered three men she could trust, the reason she trusted them was simple, they had families that they loved. The fewer people who know about the zombie the better.
She gave them three magical items to find and destroy the zombie and possibly anyone else that made contact with him: a ring that can summon an incomplete Hunger, an item that can give the wearer a bloodhound's incredible sense of smell, and lastly a knife that can stretch along to the handler's will, also weapons.
The three men had to be told of the zombie's existence to know what it was they were dealing with. Given no more information they were making up speculations about the Empress that she had found a way to create the zombie virus, and that the man they were after was a patient who had escaped a lab they weren't aware of.
The Empire remained on lockdown in case the virus had spread. It was the first time it had ever been on lockdown, and to this day no one knows why Valerie gave the order.
When they returned they were forced into early retirement with a huge settlement, and were forced to keep the existence of the zombie a secret and take it with them to their graves.
When she heard that the corpse was in the hands of the elves she didn't know what to feel, but there was nothing she could do against their Goddess.
The one who died by Clement's hands surprised Valerie as he still had fifty years left to live.
She would secretly lead her men to the last sight where the man who died was last seen, which was at a village.
She ordered a dozen of her men to be stationed around the area of the village and keep an eye on it, until most of the villagers migrated to the Sun kingdom due to the high taxes they were required to pay. By that point she was certain there wasn't anyone infected with the virus.
Before that happened Valerie went towards the black blade, and torched it before it could spread. Something else she has read is that the weapons produced from the Witch can be burned easily, like torching a body.
She even torched the area where the blade was found just to be safe.
Valerie realized that if she were to use the infected blade as she intended it would be like playing with fire, and it might come back to bite her in the ass.
At one point she wanted to tell the Great Sage what she found to acquire his help, but she knew he wasn't going to be of use, everyone knew that the Great Sage is weak, possibly even weaker than when he fought the Witch, not only that but his time was nearly due and there is nothing she can do to fix that.
Even if they prepare for the Witch with the Great Sage's help the Witch would ultimately win, unless time has also weakened her, but Valerie wasn't going to risk it.
How the blade appeared in that location was still a grand mystery to her and she may never know how it got there. Ever since then her desire to leave this world became more apparent before it was too late, before the Witch returned.