- Death's side -
"Sir?" Xiao asked a glaring Death.
Death closed his eyes. "What?"
Xiao scratched his head, "Well..." he looked at Lina.
Lina was running her claws along a brick-shaped object while steadily breathing out. Xiao sighed.
"You've been letting out "murderous intent" that Lina can smell. It's driving her wendigo instincts crazy."
"Sorry," Death sighed. "I'll try to do a better job calming myself. Make sure Lina has her problem sorted before Dahlia's squad gets here."
"Course," Xiao nodded.
Xiao headed over to Lina and snapped his fingers. "Go hunt something in the nearest forest. Come back after your second kill," He turned to Sabu. "Go with her and keep a distance of thirty to forty meters."
"Hunt has to have a purpose," Lina responded in a deep voice.
"Bring back whatever you kill," Xiao signaled to Sig that Lina was leaving soon. "We'll eat or use whatever it is."
"Fine," Lina dropped the brick she had been raking with her claws.
"Second kill, then come back," Xiao repeated.
"I know..." Lina responded. "Sorry..."
Lina sprinted away, jumping from building to building as she gained distance. Sabu followed behind.
"Why the second kill?" Lao asked Xiao.
Xiao's eyes followed Lina's movements. "Some wendigos believe the bare minimum of kills for a hunt is two. In their minds one kill could be luck, so the second one and on are to prove that their skill is genuine," He looked over at Death. "Combining the deployed squads means the situation is beyond severe. Keep that in mind when Lia's squad gets here."
"I will," Lao acknowledged. "As someone who's traveled with Death more than most Grim, I feel it's important to note that I've only seen him this upset once -- Outside of combat that is."
"Oh?" Xiao's eyes filled with curiosity as he tilted his toward Lao.
"It was during the Demon War," Lao said. "When Death thought that Satan had betrayed us."
- Satan's side -
A white-haired demon slept atop a messy mattress. The room they were sleeping in was filled with sheathed knives and daggers. The demon's excessively long white hair was lying in a strewn pile around the demon's head.
"L.Z.!" Satan shouted as he knocked on the open door of the room.
"Wha...?" L.Z. opened a bleary eye in Satan's direction.
A swarm of flies shot from L.Z.'s hands and split into multiple groups. Each group grabbed and unsheathed a knife or a dagger and pointed it at Satan. L.Z. sat up and grabbed a dagger from under his pillow. He unsheathed it and spoke in a groggy tone.
"Day off and I was sleeping," L.Z. pointed the tip of his dagger at Satan. "The world better be fucking ending?!"
"Third time," Satan sighed as he held up three fingers. "The first two times you told me to return in an hour. Besides, it's not my fault that this arrived yesterday," He threw the envelope at L.Z.
L.Z. looked down at the envelope and noticed the World Council's sigil. He flicked his wrist and all the flies in the room sheathed the knives and daggers that had previously been pointing at Satan before disappearing. L.Z. used the dagger in his hand to open the envelope.
"Messengers already show up?" L.Z. asked Satan as he read the letter. "They're nothing if not thorough."
"Yes," Satan sighed. "All the previous steps have been fulfilled. You and Abby will be in charge when Lucifer and I are away for this farce."
"Why me again?" L.Z. scratched the side of his head with the handle of his dagger.
"Because Paimon did it last time," Satan said. "Ya'll are lucky to have Abby."
"'Ya'll'?" L.Z. snickered. "You talking to those country American humans again?"
"Yes," Satan walked away and returned with a cup of coffee. "I've been clearing my backlog of tasks since getting the first messenger. I need you to be properly prepared, so get up or I'm sending Abby in."
- Lucifer's side -
"FUCK!" Lucifer shouted before exhaling to calm himself.
"Do we need to go back?" Amaterasu asked Lucifer.
"No..." Lucifer groaned. "The actual World Council meeting won't have a date until all current leaders respond or miss the deadline to respond. Even if that happened tomorrow the meeting would still take a few years to confirm a date on. I'm just frustrated that I have to go to this one."
"Never been," Fensyr shrugged. "Last meeting was held long before I was leader. What should I expect?"
"Horseshit," Lucifer chuckled. "Pissing contests and a bunch of fuck-all getting done."
"Why did they request you specifically?" Tsukuyomi asked.
"Don't know don't care," Lucifer lied. "It's a future problem to plan for after we sort out what we're currently doing."
Lucifer's group's journey was mostly uneventful after receiving the news that Lucifer was requested to join Satan at the future World Council meeting. The only thing of note was Warden occasionally trying to explain what he did.
'I wasn't trying to switch places with you, I swear! I didn't know my power would work that way in this world. In my reality, that power only moved me from trial to trial, nothing more.'
'Right,' Lucifer doubted.
'I promise I have no desire to take your life from you,' Warden pleaded. 'I know you won't believe me but I swear to you that I actually prefer this to my previous life!'
'Uh-huh,' Lucifer responded.
One conversation was had between Fensyr and Yvere during the travels. Yvere asked Fensyr about why the lycans didn't worship Vazo. Fensyr revealed that it was Vazo's will. Vazo had told the lycans never to worship him and that he was okay with the lycans worshipping a different wolf or wolves in his place.
"What about Mara?" Fensyr asked Yvere. "I know your kind aren't spiritual anymore but surely some of them idolize Mara?"
"It might be because of Lord Gwyn," Yvere said. "Lord Gwyn to most of the living vampires is Mara's equal if not her better. From what I understand Lord Gwyn greatly respects Mara but doesn't want to be compared to her. That kind of thing can't be avoided but as time has passed it seems that Mara's ubiquity has faded, barring the name of the territory, obviously."
The group arrived in the territory of Adamantia. They were waved in by a large gray-furred being accompanied by multiple small green and purple beings riding it.
"The goblin symbiosis with trolls is strange to me," Yvere said. "I understand the idea of big protects small, small cares for big, but still."
"'Symbiosis'?" Fensyr mumbled to himself.
Peter leaned over and whispered the definition into Fensyr's ear.
"Hi-hi," One green goblin greeted the group as they walked. "Name is Mil-mil -- Candy?" he held a brown pouch toward Lucifer.
"Sure," Lucifer said as he grabbed the bag.
"Try it," He tossed the pouch to Elijah. "It's probably very sour, so be ready."
"How sour?" Elijah said while tossing a candy into his mouth. "Tha's nothin'," he sucked on the candy. "I expected worse given how strong the alcohol is in this world."
"Not really the same thing," Lucifer shook his head. "Thank you," he grinned at Mil-mil.
The goblin ran off with a big smile. Peter elbowed Elijah and held out his hand. Elijah dropped some of the candies into Peter's hand.
"Thoughts on goblins?" Peter tossed the candies into his mouth.
"Dislike how they speak but I like their candy," Elijah shrugged. "So, neutral I guess?"
A shadowy figure watched the group from a distance before disappearing into the ground. Lucifer guided the group through the territory, fielding every excited goblin that ran up to the group with more candy offers. Fensyr, Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Elijah were surprised to see Lucifer let the goblins climb him.
"I told you they like climbing," Lucifer conjured his wings.
Tsukuyomi whispered to Amaterasu, "Do you think it has to do with his protective nature of children?"
"Maybe," Amaterasu shrugged.
"While we're in the goblin-troll part of the territory," Lucifer said as more goblins climbed onto his wings. "I'm going to give those of you who haven't been here before a quick history lesson on Arryx. If you have further questions during the lesson, save them for Arryx."
It took the group a few days of travel through the outer part of the territory before they arrived in the dwarven capital. Fensyr looked up at the statue of Arryx and immediately noticed how many different stone weapons adorned the piece. A glaive in one of the statue's hands pointing to the sky, a hammer in the right hand, a bow next to the right leg, a sword on the left.
"Weapon master, huh?" Fensyr said as he glanced at Peter.
"More than this statue can properly show," Peter responded.
"Come on," Lucifer waved everyone to keep moving. "Alm's been following us since we arrived, so we should hurry before he gets too pissy."
The group arrived at what appeared to be a massive training ground laid before an even larger castle. Elijah remarked on the amount of diversity among those training.
"Elves, dwarves, goblins, lizard people, shadow people-"
"Enenra and Sergosians," Lucifer corrected Elijah. "The neutral zone trade routes to the east and west of the territory is one of the most frequented paths for merchants and shadows in the Godlands. Second only to the Cthulhun road."
A shadowy puddle appeared on the ground across from the group. Two figures rose out of the puddle, one a half-elf half-enenra whose entire body was covered in patches of shadowy smoke. The other was a tall sable-skinned man with a wrapping over his face and white lines snaking in a swirl pattern across his forearms.
"How's it been?" the sable-skinned man spoke in a deep rumbling voice as he smiled at Lucifer.
"Usual," Lucifer answered. "Alm," he nodded at the half-elf half-enenra.
"Fuck off," Alm disappeared into the puddle.
"He seems to be in a worse mood than usual," Peter said.
"'Cause of those two," The sable-skinned man pointed at Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi. "Y'know Alm's father hated the Izas," he walked over and held his hands out to Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi. "Arryx, welcome."
"Hello, Lord Arryx," Amaterasu shook Arryx's hand. "If you would oblige I would love to hear more about how you came to have the dwarven throne abdicated to you."
Tsukuyomi shook Arryx's other hand. "Or if possible, what you were doing before arriving in this territory."
Arryx laughed, "Teaching your team members about me again?" he looked at Lucifer. "You must be Fensyr?" he looked at Fensyr. "The last decent lycan leader since Vazo himself, or so I'm told by one of my knight captains."
"No chance Feng complimented a lycan," Peter said.
"I read between the lines," Arryx let go of Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi's hands. "The compliment was backhanded but for Feng that might as well be high praise."
"'Feng'", Fensyr mumbled. "Wait, are they a shēngxiào being?"
"Yes," Arryx sighed. "Please try to be respectful with each other when you meet or I'll have to hit you both."
"What-"
"So," Arryx clapped his hands together loudly, "let's get to the forge since I'm sure Peter's sword is severely in need of repairs."
"Sorry about that," Lucifer apologized.
"We'll see," Arryx grinned with a tinge of menace. "Oh!" he looked at Elijah. "Are you an American human?"
"Yes?" Elijah
Lucifer whispered to Peter, "You told Elijah about Arryx's habit right?"
"Slipped my mind," Peter held back a chuckle.
"Trench or Buck 110?" Arryx asked Elijah.
"Holy shit," Elijah mumbled to himself, "Uhh, Buck 110?"