Dio

"I've told you, I'm nothing special."

Our strange savior evaded my questions, and let me say, I was not convinced. It was no easy feat to dispel a tornado.

"Right, I am still most grateful," I told her and stopped prying to remain on her good side. We advanced slowly and thanks to carrying a wounded ogre with us, had to stop often. She stuck around even at night when we set up camp. "Not anyone can do what you did, and you did it without hesitation. Allow us to repay you."

"Aww, stop. It was nothing." She grinned although she didn't have an actual face, the shell she possessed was humanoid, yet completely featureless. Every time she had strong feelings about something, an image of that magically appeared in my head, nothing like I'd ever seen. Her voice felt organic too, and she liked to talk a lot.

The mental pictures reminded me of someone, but it could have been part of her magic. Maybe she didn't do it on purpose, her shell couldn't contain her thoughts, and the body sometimes emitted light and illuminated the valley around us. All in all, she was most certainly powerful, but her behavior was strange. So far she was friendly, and I did not want to upset her.

"I expected nothing in return." She claimed but asked a lot of questions. "So where are you headed now?"

"We try to... Ouch." Fang kicked my ankle, looking angry and pale. He carried Bastion on his shoulders and was wary of the creature. I couldn't blame him for it when we treaded on thin ice. "We want to descend from the Gates of Hell towards the north."

We weren't dressed for this climate, Fang lost most of his armor pieces and wore the padding from underneath. His gray outfit and silver hair blended in nicely with the snow, but the huge green creature he carried did not. Bastion had a tremendous body, incredibly muscular legs, and arms, but a barrel-like torso, in a sense, he looked like a gigantic goblin baby.

He dressed somewhat similar to one too. I almost froze in my dark cloak just by looking at him, but he had plenty of fat to shield him from the cold, punches, or anything else.

"Is your friend all right?" Our follower asked curiously, nodding towards the ogre. He was still half out, his limbs healed nicely, but because of the potion and lack of dinner, he was practically sleepwalking all day. In a way, this was fortunate since he wasn't the brightest one in the shed. If he were to anger the creature, that could have led to a fight.

And none of us had our weapons anymore.

"He will survive, at least I hope," I told her. "Maybe if we had an extra healing potion or some food..."

"Man, it's crazy to think how easily Cranta crumbled, right?" She completely ignored what I said. And I had no answer to that, even those who lived through the Collapse couldn't believe it. "How did the Lesser Races come out of it? Are they treated better nowadays?"

"Oh, we most certainly are. All the slave contracts broke once the owners disappeared." I answered. She did not know much about the world after the Collapse. "The tribes that worked for the humans all earned their freedom. Most of them set out to find a new homeland, and the old cities became deserted. Many of them are nomadic now, others sought to unite with the rest of their races, but most are scattered."

"Is there no central government anymore?" She asked curiously.

"Not really. Cranta completely fell apart, even their old kingdoms. The humans will never recover from this." I said, trying to skip all the information regarding the New Order. While it covered just a small part of the continent, it certainly counted as the central government of the Lesser Races now. "As the distances suddenly became an issue, and they couldn't rely on their vast slave empire to work for them, the humans retreated north. A few city-states remained at first, but they starved out fast."

"So the Lesser Races didn't form any kind of empire either?" I wanted to avoid that question, so I improvised.

"Nothing larger than the individual tribes," I said, looking away. "A few might have reached a county or a duchy size, but that is all."

"So technically, the strongest race and the largest empire still belongs to the humans?" I heard her ask, and she wasn't wrong in thinking that.

"Only the Inquisitorias hold them together at this point, but they are far from beaten." I nodded and felt the confusion coming from her.

"Beaten? Is there a war going on?" She asked.

"There were some skirmishes," I noted, unsure how much I should reveal to her. I stuck with mostly outdated news. "I guess they are not to be trifled with. But the monsters are holding up nicely."

"I've been holed up for a while. What's the current state of the continent?" She asked, but Fang behaved as if I said too much, even though I did not reveal any secrets. And with nothing better to do, I wondered where her questions led us. Maybe they helped me uncover who she was.

"Mostly chaos," I explained, saying as little as possible. "After the Collapse, the big cities were all but abandoned, wildlife took over much of what remained, and beasts and monsters multiplied quickly."

"Are there any new saints?" The cogwheels of my brain slowly turned. What should I tell her? She asked questions as if she lived under a rock, or came from a different planet entirely.

"If there are, the humans did not announce it to us monsters..." I gave the most vague answer possible. The New Order had a vast spy network, so I knew more than the average monster but didn't want to give away something that wasn't common knowledge. Revealing a little extra might have been worth a shot though. "But There were two demon class monsters..."

"Demon class? What is that?" She took the bait.

"The church created new terminology for the non-human spell casters, now that they are more common," I explained. "They didn't want them to be referred to as initiates, wizards, mages, and saints like the humans."

"Oh, I didn't know that. So what are they called now?" She asked, sounding genuinely curious. This confirmed my suspicions.

"Acolytes, sorcerers, warlocks, and demons respectively." These terms were widespread for half a decade, so I didn't reveal any secrets. She did sound like someone, who holed herself up, or rather who left this world entirely for the last ten years.

"And there were two demons?!" She yelled. "Where are they now?"

"One is unknown." I lied, not wanting to be executed for treason. Live first, then go on with the mission, this was my simple plan, but who knew if I could survive another day in the mountains? "The other one tried to attack Sanctuary, and was banished by the Inquisitorias."

"Sanctuary?" She asked, confirming how much she was behind the times again. She broadcasted visions of her worried face, and I felt like she reacted to the news of banishment like that.

"They used to call it Nordhaben," I said, while my brain pieced the puzzle together. "That's the last retreat of the humans, but they are well prepared to defend it. And banishing a demon-class monster was certainly no small feat, the Inquisitorias grew insanely large."

I had no illusions. If I were to upset her, she could kill me in a matter of seconds, but probing her a bit further promised to reveal vital information. We weren't equipped to survive in the mountains anyway so I wished to put her to good use. I had to figure out what was her deal first.

Why was she here? Why now? She asked questions about stuff that happened a decade ago, both about humans, and Lesser Races.

Then it suddenly clicked. Everything made sense.

"They burn villages, and kill the Lesser Races, even though both humans and monsters want peace." I colored the facts just a little, to see her reaction. It was the right choice, the mental image appearing in my head had her nervously sweating.

"Why are they doing that?!" She sounded angry but naive. I figured her out and understood why the Inquisitorias was on the move too.

"They roam the lands, searching for anything or anyone to punish for Cranta's fall." It even used to be true, but the monsters now overwhelmed them with sheer numbers. "We were sent as envoys, to negotiate a peace with them. Everyone is tired of war."

Fang looked shocked for a second but knew me better than to question it. This seemed like a dangerous gamble, and I placed my bets.

"I'm an ambassador of the Lesser Races, my name is Dioneras. While I'm on a secret mission, the least I can do to thank my saviour, is to be honest." The die was cast. Within minutes, it was decided if I was right or wrong, but I needed to force a calm expression on my face until then. "We were to meet the human representatives in the old Kingdom of Cranta Proper but without our mounts, we won't make it in time."

She had a simple solution if I was right about her. That didn't mean she'd help us, so adamant about keeping her identity a secret after all, but I had a hunch that she'd aid us if I guessed her identity right.

"Hmm... What if I told you, I could get you there in time?" She mumbled, pondering. There was only one way to pull that off, meaning I was right. I couldn't contain my excitement.

"That would be Godsent, how could I repay you?" I didn't even have to act, but I needed to keep my real motivation secret. "You'd do a great service for the Lesser Races, it will change history.."

This was a historical event in its own right, after all.

"So you said you need to get to Cranta Proper?" She asked helpfully.

"Yes, we planned to meet north of the Cyreneian pass." I nodded.

"If I know the exact location, all four of us can be teleported straight there." She claimed, confirming my suspicions. I saw Fang's jaw drop from the corner of my eyes which meant even he figured it out by now.

Which was unsurprising.

Every child and adult, monster or human knew this after all. There was only a single person who could teleport on their own, nobody else pulled it off for centuries, but the Goddess of Luck, Alexandra.