Alendrias Dante, the grand god of Dronami, sat in the center of the Dronami Council, conducting a meeting regarding the approaching auctions. There were fifty gods present for the meeting.

  “Today we’re here to discuss the migration permits of those coming to Dronami for the auction, specifically to the First Domain,” she announced. “There have been over a million entry requests, many from those seeking to bring sizable forces. Everyone is expecting a conquering attempt, and unlike all of the other fruitless periods where a single person’s desire for cures or immortality drove armies to Areswood, Mira Hill’s historical successes have captivated the multiverse, and news of Elana’s Forbidden Elixir auction has attracted investors everywhere. We’ve spent the last year just trying to determine how we’ll allow contact with Mira—and if.”

  Elana’s eyes flickered with wrath as a few other gods sneered.

  “It’s my personal opinion that we should restrict all entrance permits to the planet until after we know the contents of the auction,” Alendrias continued. “We currently don’t have the security necessary to deal with the influx of armies.”

  “I agree, we shouldn’t allow armies,” Healina Melhan, another one of the seven patron gods connected to the First Domain, said. “But no entry? It would be financially irresponsible not to seize the financial windfall coming our way.”

  “And when you allow a million people in, you get spies, you get corruption, deal-making, and hidden deals. Then, you open up the gates and suddenly bad things are happening.”

  Elana leaned back with her arms folded. “You just don’t want Mira to obtain more power.”

  The council fell silent when a god openly defied Alendrias, the planet’s tenth evolution god. Alendrias was far more powerful than the other gods, the strongest of which were ninth evolutions. Since Alendrias alone could wipe out the rest of the council, it was shocking to hear.

  Alendrias’ eyes flickered with cold light. “You’re being rather bold. Have you forgotten who controls your auction permit?”

  “Let’s cut the grandstanding,” Elana said. “If you want to act like you’re the sole ruler of this planet, that’s fine. The founders’ll play along with you. But the second you cross forbidden lines, you can’t just do whatever you want. And you’re crossing lines that’ll trigger a war between gods.”

  “If there’s a war, let there be one,” Alendrias declared.

  “While every other tenth evolution god in the multiverse is eying Dronami?” Elana mused. “Will you really suffer injury right now?”

  Alendrias stared at her in silence, tension amplifying by the second. Most gods in the council were unaware of Brindle, but the founding ten were, and all of them were staring at Alendrias with cold gazes.

  Alendrias didn’t budge. Her Scion was going to lead the conquering, so war with Brindle was inevitable, so she said, “Entrance permits to Dronami will be processed in the last years before the auction, vetted by the Dante family, and that’s final. If anyone wants to fight me on this point, they’re free to do so. As for your auction… it’ll continue. So long as your recalcitrance doesn’t.”

  “Martyr me,” Elana said, standing. “And when do you—pray you’re as strong as you think you are.”

  The other First Domain legacy gods grumbled as they left. Alendrias was directly challenging their businesses, and there was nothing they could do about it.

  As gods.

  Alendrias could control certain aspects of the planet, but she couldn’t control the domains, even if she tried. She could pressure the patrons, but she knew that some, like Brexton Claustra, wouldn’t even listen to their patron gods. The Domain system had profound limiting effects on any given individual’s influence, and she knew that every god there would exploit them to the strongest degree that they thought they could get away with.

  And that was fine. Alendrias was successful because she allowed gods a degree of freedom within her most stringent laws, but consistently and evenly showed the consequences of crossing the line. This time, though, the laws were so important that she had to declare action forbidden to limit it to twenty percent—

  Because only twenty percent was containable.

  More than that, and Mira could run amok with gathering resources and allies in her fight—and that was simply unpermissible. It was bad enough that Elana was making waves with Brindle’s backing. If Elana and Mira obtained any more power, it would jeopardize the Dante’s hegemony.

  Thankfully, Alendrias still had full control, and as long as she limited Mira’s trade routes to the first and second domains, Mira would remain a local threat. No matter how big Mira got with local resources, it wouldn’t be enough to challenge the Dante, who held intergalactic resources.

  That said, Mira was wiser than expected. Instead of treating Areswood’s protection as a forest issue, she had developed an auction to bring in multiversal patrons and resources. Alendrias was finding it difficult to suppress Mira’s influence—if Mira obtained any more, it could trigger total collapse once Brexton killed Aiden Roe.

  At the end of the day, Alendrias had full control over the planet’s trade routes, but she held no direct influence in the domains. If the Claustra handled Aiden Roe incorrectly, and Mira sent her army to retalitate, it could severely damage the Dante. That’s why she summoned Romulan and forbid him to deal with Aiden until the last minute.

  Aiden Roe needed to die, but it would happen after the Dante finished building their army—and Hadrian returned. Otherwise, everything could be destroyed—and no one would be around to enforce her laws.

  Alendrias needed Hadrian to finish his training as soon as possible. Time had run out—it was time to move.

  2.

  That year, during the harvest, Trigan introduced me to a man by the name of Karigo Maina, a marketer with some rather obnoxious personality traits. Despite being aggravating, Trigan assured me that the meticulously groomed man was the best we could hire, even for the two-year contract we obtained him for.

  We took Karigo to Rall’s Fort and had him appraise it for marketing purposes. It was only then that he started to prove his colors.

  Tyler showed him around. “It’s not ready yet, but—”

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  “Still preserved,” Karigo corrected.

  Tyler looked at him. “Excuse me?”

  “I said, it’s not unready, it’s still preserved.”

  “Oh, that’s the spin.”

  “It’s not a spin. It’s a way of thinking. Until you convince yourselves of what you’re selling, you’re going to sound like a scam artist.”

  I rubbed a crumb out of my tear duct and examined it with a dull expression as Tyler’s eyes asked for my aid. I had gone through this for a week, so it was his turn to suffer.

  “Uh, okay…” Tyler said. “Anyway, most of it is still preserved,” but we’ve focused on some key areas that investors will be willing to fight over. Let’s look at Goliath’s Manor.”

  Karigo stopped walking.

  Tyler turned back hesitantly. “What?”

  “My guide translated that as Giant’s Manor. Is that correct?”

  “Yeah, something like that. I mean, everything’s large.”

  “And are you calling your buyers large?”

  “Uh… no?”

  “Then why did you call them large?”

  “I didn’t call them large. I called the space large.”

  “No, you called the investors large. Because it’s no longer a preserved space. It’s history you’re selling.”

  “So? It’s still large.”

  “No, it is whatever your—”

  “Enough!” I snapped. “Tyler, don’t speak. Karigo, you can speak but don’t ask anyone for anything. We’ll take notes after you’re done… annoying yourself.”

  Karigo rolled his eyes and followed Tyler into the home, making notes. He would often touch his lips and study things, murmuring in-depth musings before asking for the next tour. The whole tour took ten full hours, and Tyler and I would’ve preferred weaving baskets out of prehistoric tall grass than doing it, but when it was done, it was done.

  Karigo disappeared into his new abode and set to work while I met up with Malo, who was leading a large force to Rall’s Fort, alongside hundreds of skilled people. That took three weeks and was only possible because Aiden’s beast army was holding the supplies, and I had the ability to move them to Helfine and then back wherever I wanted using my teleportation disks.

  Despite the difficulty, it was the easiest part of the event. Karigo finally emerged from his hole and declared, to Trigan’s face, that—no matter how impractical it might be—Trigan had to follow Karigo’s instructions.

  To my surprise, Trigan agreed, and soon, the man was everywhere, pissing off everyone as people desperately tried to get set up in temporary housing as carpenters built new homes.

  Karigo was strangely charismatic, though. When many complained about leaving behind everything they had built in Wraithwood and starting over, Karigo scoffed and said:

  “Why are you complaining? You’re the founders of a bastion—a historical nexus that will determine the fate of billions in the universe. Take some pride!”

  Surprisingly, they did. It didn’t take long before his propaganda ate through the brains of everyone present, and they were excited about turning the dilapidated, oversized trash heap into a financial capital. And of course, Tyler, who was still young and full of bluster, had his chest puffed out, saying, “Yeah, what he said,” in every way he could.

  He was a surprisingly good leader. Malo had been teaching him for years, and with Trigan’s mentorship, he was soaking up all the knowledge he could. It wasn’t long before Tyler was the man. People came to him, and he had the answers. They respected him, and that was enough to temper his need for validation and focused on producing quality work. That was a good look on him.

  I returned to Wraithwood a couple of months later with Trigan. He then reassumed the helm, surprised that he didn’t need to spend as much time with Tyler as he needed. Instead, he returned to Wraithwood to train the new leaders to become assistants to Tyler. They worked on that as I spent time with my family, who had gotten settled into their new lives and routines.

  My father was on the accounting team, and my mother was in charge of building permits for downtown Wraithwood, overseeing the downtown’s development. It now had over fifty stores, housing multiple restaurants and luxury stores. There were also an ever-increasing number of amenities and trade services that had made Wraithwood feel closer to a resort town than a commune. It was starting to feel almost bougie to live there, which had its own vibe. I liked it.

  During the winter, I spent time culling the mountain around Lake Nyralith to obtain fourth evolution meat and get some training, but I was forbidden from truly entering the Fifth Ring, as it came with unnecessary dangers and beasts that were far stronger than the ones I was fighting.

  It wasn’t worth it yet.

  So I stuck to my routine until springtime, which would normally be my favorite season. Unfortunately, Elana’s face said that it would be nonstop business when I summoned her for our first meeting of the year.

  “The auction won’t be enough,” she said as soon as she appeared before me.

  “Nice to see you, too,” I said, watching her sit at a table. “And what do you mean, it won’t be enough?”

  “Alendrias has taken a side. She’s supporting Hadrian in conquering the forest.”

  I grimaced. “So what does that mean?”

  “It means she’s shutting down all off-planet resources for you. In essence, she’s trying to prevent you from getting stronger.”

  I laughed sharply. “Well, she’s a bit late for that.”

  Elana raised her eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

  “You wanna watch some promotional videos?”

  Elana’s eyes flickered strangely. “For what?”

  I smiled. “You’ll see. Lithco.”

  Lithco sent her the promotions, and once she watched them, her lips slowly turned into a grin. “Who made these?”

  “The most obnoxious person I’ve ever met.”

  Elana frowned. “The good people always are…” She chuckled darkly. “But you made the right choice. This? This is about to chop a permanent frown into that arrogant bitch’s face.” She slowly smirked in satisfaction. “Good job… Hmmm… is there any way you could bring him in for our auction?”

  “Absoutey not,” I said. “If I have to hear him contradict everything I say about alchemy, I’m going to break his neck.”

  “Legendary reward,” she reminded.

  I scowled. “What? Don’t gods have like… godly marketers or something?”

  “Unfortunately, no. Gods are sparse, and their minds are too detached from the masses. So we instruct our demigods, who give orders across the bridge of mortal society. Then, their people market to themselves. Having someone who could communicate like this in a way that can move mortals and gods… it’s a rare skill.”

  I groaned and accepted my fate. “Okay, but not during the spring. This is my time.”

  “Your time? It’s alchemy time. Just because you’ve lost all interest in it doesn’t mean it isn’t a requirement.”

  “I have not lost interest in it.”

  “Oh? That’s funny. I’ve seen a lot of improvements in your town, your power, your… pets. And I’ve seen almost nothing about alchemy.”

  “Well, it's not true.”

  Elana rolled her eyes. “Can we begin?”

  I sent her a malicious grin. “Sure thing.” I opened a bag and started setting herb jars on the table, and her bored expression instantly became flustered.