The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 1693 Head Count

Karl returned to the healing area, where Dana was washing blood from freshly healed injuries, and thousands of exhausted Immortals were scattered on the ground.

”Are you alright? Is everyone still with us?” Karl asked, as he did a mental head count, and hugged Dana before stroking her hair to help her relax.

”Iʼm here. I donʼt think that we lost anyone, but I havenʼt seen Opal in a few minutes.”

The little Fae appeared on her shoulder and giggled. ”Iʼm here. I just sent a bunch of Immortals to hell for a vacation.”

Dana wasnʼt sure if the mischievous former butterfly meant that literally, or as an illusion. But she didnʼt really want to know. She had enough to deal with already, and finding out that Opal had literally used her illusions to dump a bunch of hapless warriors into a portal to hell would require more mental effort than she was feeling up to right now.

The ten Supremes of the Darklight Host landed all around her, and took turns to gently place a hand on her head before turning to speak with Karl.

”Wait! You donʼt get to just pat my head and then not tell me what that is about!” Dana shouted, exasperated and out of patience.

A Supreme with white feathered wings on his back laughed. ”Relax, itʼs a Darklight Host tradition. It started with the bunnies, but kind of spread to all cute and fluffy things.”

Dana turned her glare on Karl. ”These are your people, I can tell already.”

He couldnʼt even argue with that.

”Branch Leaders, thank you for coming. Things were looking more than a little bit dire there before you arrived,” Karl greeted the group.

”No trouble at all. There isnʼt much to do in our world these days. Ever since. the outreach program converted the last city, things have been incredibly calm, and our titles as Branch Leaders are mostly ceremonial.

Really, weʼre more like dungeon team leaders at this point.

However, we still have the title, so we all got the message when another Branch Leader declared war in the Immortal Worlds. How could we miss out on that?

This isnʼt a world with an outreach program, though. How did you end up here?”

”I was brought here from a mortal world after I advanced. There wasnʼt enough energy there to keep up my advancement rate, so the New Home Merchant Clan volunteered to take me and my people in.”

The Supreme with the white wings nodded. ”That makes sense. The mortal branches are generally isolated and left to their own devices, as weʼre prohibited from interfering in their affairs.

Wait, I recognize your branch. Youʼre from the world that Legendary Matilda claimed, arenʼt you?”

”Thatʼs the one. I was actually assigned the role by the System, though. I only met Lady Matilda later, when I was setting up a branch house.”

The Supreme sighed. ”Ah, to be back in the glory days of the early unification. To think itʼs been a thousand years already. But Iʼm getting sidetracked, and itʼs likely been much less for you.

You still feel young, and your wife is barely twenty.”

Dana cleared her throat. ”So, you came from another Immortal World to help, just because you felt him activate a skill?”

”The War Banner isnʼt just a skill. Itʼs a blood feud. Win or die, those are the only options when the banner goes up. Of course, we had to come and lend a hand. We canʼt have the Darklight Host being embarrassed on some backwater world that doesnʼt even have an outreach program.”

As they talked, a group of hundreds of white winged constructs in short togas came their way, with the leader carrying something black and furry.

”We have returned the badger, Branch Leader. Kindly ask her not to lick inappropriate places.”

Dana gave Cara an unimpressed look.

”{It was her arm! ARM!}” The badger complained.

”All parts of me are off limits for licking.”

Dana giggled, and the summoned Seraph put Cara down, so the badger could transform.

”I rescued a huge amount of loot from the ruins, and Iʼve got it sorted by origin, so the invaders couldnʼt loot anything on their way out. Once things are settled, I will label it by address and give it to the Loot Warehouse to return to its

owners.”

”She is remarkably reasonable for a badger,” The Supreme noted.

”There are, or were, a hundred thousand people in the Clanʼs territory before the attack. Do you have any idea how much stuff the warehouse is going to have to sort? This is definitely a case of the badger being a badger.”

That made the others chuckle softly.

Now, it made much more sense why the badger was being helpful. She was causing chaos while protecting the loot of her allies. Plus, she got to touch and examine all the shiny things before giving them back.

”I think that you need to know that spell. Look at them, But did you know that if you try to look up their...”

Cara stopped as the construct bonked her on the head.

”Damnable badger.”

The Supreme patted Cara on the head. ”Itʼs a Holy Blessing. No matter what angle you look from, there is no way to get an up skirt view of a Seraph. Many perverts have tried, and just as many have failed.”

Now Danaʼs glare was extremely unimpressed.

”Hey, donʼt look at me like that. I thought that there were hidden pockets.

Dammit, why am I being painted as the pervert here? Did anyone even ask Opal what she did to the Immortals?”

Opal giggled. ”Hey, no throwing me under the bus to hide from your own

misunderstandings.”

Nobody else needed to know that she had pranked an entire group of

Immortals by making them think that they had been transported to a Demonic brothel, only to have all the rooms filled with Oathbreaker Demons in lipstick.

It was glorious.

”Is there anywhere suitable to sit? It looks like the majority of this city is destroyed.” One of the other Supremes asked, exhausted from her battle.

”Of course. I can still feel the spells on our apartment, so itʼs intact, and you can come rest in my Tiny World.” Karl offered.

They were Guild members, and Supreme Ranked Branch Leaders. He shouldnʼt

have anything for them to be envious of. And if he did, he could likely make them a copy, or teach them the skill.