A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale

“The operation is pretty clear! Prevent that damn elemental emperor and its army from arriving at Iceskale!” I shouted through my streaming setup, reaching Vifi as she showed me a fearless smile.

“Your orders are received, General!” she replied in a sinister tone as red electricity started to surge around her body. Her black hair discolored into red as her demonic features appeared. “Thanks for pissing me off, elemental!”

Huh? Wait, why are arms appearing on her back?

For the first time since Vifi and I had our battle to the death in Elyonda, lightning formed on Vifi’s back, forming appendages like arms in a matter of seconds. They floated along her body, looking like her solidified red lightning weapon and demonic features. In fact, some of the lightning wrapped around her body started to form into armor.

No way! She broke through the 25% limit!

“And thanks for further opening those damn mana paths inside my heart!” Vifi shouted as she formed her trusty halberd. Stomping on the ground, she stabilized herself before she threw the polearm with all her might at the elemental emperor. “Voltaic Red: Thunderspeed Roar!”

However, just like Nong’s and the twins’ attacks, Vifi’s lightning spear was completely neutralized the moment it touched the violent storm around the emperor. In retaliation, the elemental roared as gusts of wind were shot at Vifi like spears, but before they could reach her, Nong swooped in and rescued her.

In and out. Like a single frame. Dammit, that guy is still too fast for my eyes to track. I sighed, just happy that my siblings were all pretty kind. If my family had been more cutthroat, or annoying like those dragonkin in Inferno Nest, I probably would be sweating buckets just to survive.

The stream wasn’t exactly the most popular right now if you only went by the number of viewers and how fast the chat was moving. The reason for the first was to count as a view for the stream, you had to have obtained the party bracelet function—the “app,” in other words—and the reason why the chat was moving so slowly was that the bracelet’s keyboard function was pretty much unused up until now.

Unless you were blind or mute, where you could use the keyboard to speak to others through System messages, there was no reason to use it until now. Writing was just faster. Since we couldn’t make a new bracelet function, like a telepathic writing function, in the time we had, we salvaged the old keyboard for the chat, and people needed to get used to it. The young dragons and drakes, probably, had a ton of problems since they wouldn’t be carrying their party bracelets around all day.

Hopefully, seeing the chat move as the stream, the popularity of the app would also spread to them.

Yikes, Chat, you guys are totally distracting me here.

Ignoring the chat for a moment, my eyes darted to the sky where I saw Nong flying above with Vifi on his back. They were surveying the position at an appropriate distance, determined by Nong’s testing in the last eight—actually nine now—hours. The monsters and smaller elementals had trouble hitting anything at this distance, and the only thing able to do it—the elemental emperor—was more preoccupied with moving forward.

… Though that was before Vifi got ejected. The emperor’s hostility was entirely targeted on our demonkin, and since our attacks weren’t even hurting them in the first place, Nong called for a retreat. Ahem, a “tactical regrouping to acquire new information,” as he called it when he threw Vifi and the twins into the subspace after flying as far away as possible. The elemental emperor did chase after him, but eventually gave up before continuing their march south.

[“Talk things out, first. I’ll keep a watch,”] Nong ordered.

I nodded before I turned the camera to Gravy as they were still playing with the ground of the arena I was preparing. I then turned to the subspace opening, making sure I wasn’t entering it as Vifi and the twins came into view. Svena and Lorena were already bringing out some dishes for the former to devour.

With a mouth full of food and a hand constantly holding a glass of water, Vifi gave us a quick summary of what had happened to her since we last spoke. As her trip with the ice elementals before they reached the glacial peaks was pretty uneventful, Vifi glossed over most of it. In return, she immediately threw out the bomb to hook us in.

“It’s as your grandfather said in that Quest, Donut. The damn elemental is trying to return to its demi-god form. The lake at the peak wasn’t as natural as we thought, having been made from the siphoned mana of the Water and Wind Elemental Emperor when they sought refuge with the Ice Elemental King. I guess it was true… the lake was there to remove the excess mana from the glaciers, but mostly the wind and water mana. Wind goes up, water goes down, and ice is the one keeping things in balance,” Vifi explained, giving some explanation why the weather was so disastrous at the glacier, far more than the rest of the country.

So many different types of elements in one area, and all of them highly potent. No wonder my mana was regenerating so fast.

“This place is just like the Twin-Elemental Lakes in a way. Presumably, the number of dragonkin visiting the glaciers to train here is why no aberrant or mutated monster has risen to a competent state until now. That monkey was a disaster that would have eventually appeared anyway. Then all the pieces fell into one neat stack when Yothmlak decided to erase the last bit of friendliness the Ice Elemental King had for the draconic race, and this is how we got to this point,” Vifi stated. “The two emperors merged into one being, now obsessed with absorbing the true ice mana of the king from Tasianna and the demonic energy of your grandfather’s necklace. The asshole snuck into our memories. I’m not sure how they did it—I’m pretty sure they didn’t exactly enter my soul like the envies would do—so it has to be a skill, or something I don’t understand about their former demi-godhood.”

“So they know about us? Our skills and so on?” I questioned, but Vifi shrugged.

“If they perused through our memories, then very likely. They made a lot of references to you during Tasianna’s brainwashing and when they tried to pin my past issues on me. However, if you ask me, what they sought wasn’t a way to defeat us, but more information on the Origin Gods. About how to reach apotheosis. Faith, you see, is mana carrying the emotions and desires of people,” she replied.

I see… so that’s why [The Light] worked on the adoration and devotion of those who see me as an idol. Ha, Aurena really is using me like a vacuum cleaner so she can get the ‘faith’ I gathered… arrrgh, already knew that, so why does it matter to get a proper explanation for the process now? In a way, it is like an aura in how it conveys our emotions and mood to others.

“Then where will they be gaining their faith?” Shay asked, his dragonewt appearance still looking the same even after he had evolved into a rank A. The only big change was the fact that he now had wings growing from his back like a dragon. “You said the elementals regard Tasianna as the next Ice Elemental King. They only regard her as the one to rule them, not the emperors.”

“And you’re correct with that assessment. In fact, even the nymphs we met might not be on their side. From the look of it, when the emperors turned into that giant slime, they probably consumed a few elementals and fae, with their minds being used to replicate the people we knew in that dreamscape. I can’t say for sure the nymphs were among them, but the way they spoke sounded exactly how Tasianna translated their words to me.”

“If there is a divide, then we can use that!” Beth added, but was quickly shut down with Vifi clicking her tongue.

“Didn’t you hear? Tasianna is the only one they will listen to, right now. The reason why the king made Tasianna their heir was that she is a fae who can already use true ice. She didn’t need the core to gain true ice mana, but with the core, Tasianna can accelerate her progress. The emperor cannot use true ice, as they are aligned with the wind and water elements. Elementals can only control their own element,” Vifi explained. “Which is why they need Tasianna and the core. Not only to use true ice, but also to garner the faith of all those following Tasianna. Like a parasite, they leech the faith Tasianna is supposed to earn since ‘faith’ is simply mana carrying strong emotions. That’s how the gods become stronger. That’s how Donut’s [The Light] works.”

Shay growled, his elven body’s face grimacing to the point it almost looked like a goblin’s. “While Aurena siphons Princess Hestia’s faith and grants her boon and Quests in return for her loyalty and service, the elemental emperor does the opposite. Everything is taken from Tasianna while she is deceived in a veiled illusion that keeps her trapped inside like a bird in a cage. Neither option is entirely beneficial, but for a god who wishes to patronize the faefolk, they seem to be doing even less than Zephira.”

“Usurping the mana of the next ice elemental king, and then leading child-minded elementals towards a possible war… I think this demi-god doesn’t understand what it should be doing,” Beth added. “Did the fae even retaliate during the War for the Faefolk? I think it was only their elven allies who fought for them before the dwarves came to their aid. This might be the first actual war started by a fae.”

“It’s very unlike a fae,” I agreed. “Tasianna is already an outlier to all the fae we’ve met. Even those onnikai we’ve met had a whimsy side to their sadistic, trickster nature. It’s been a while since we met the Earth Elemental Emperor, right? Was that guy similar to the two wind and water emperors? Well, outside of being dominated by the Prince of Greed, I mean.”

“It isn’t like we met them for too long…” Vifi shrugged. “Nevermind that, really. If you want correlation, then it’s the fact that all three emperors are influenced by something demonic. What we should be more worried about is how we’re supposed to stop this thing. Considering your brother is around, it seems the elemental is warding off even his attacks?”

“He hasn’t tried using his fire attacks yet,” I argued. “But, yes. Anything wind-related is completely ineffective.”

“Ice as well,” Shay added.

Vifi tilted her head and stopped shoving food in her mouth. “Huh? Those elements make sense since the emperor controls wind, water, and ice right now, but why was my lightning unable to do anything? Am I that weak? No way, not after that elemental kindly helped me unlock 27%.”

“So I wasn’t imagining it!” I said. “Those were your floating arms. It’s not six, but you got your Asura look again,”—I paused as I saw Vifi groan in confusion—“Asura is a mythological titan, or demigod, depending on the interpretation, back on Earth. Creatures with six arms and three faces. A bit different for you, of course. We’re going off-track. How?”

Vifi frowned. “Contact with demonic energy; pretty ancient one, too. First, when I got close to that necklace, and then when I was inside the elemental. They were stealing my mana, I took it back, and it seems some of the mana from the necklace entered me.”

“So, there is a chance the necklace can potentially bring you back to your full power?”

“Will there be enough mana in that necklace for you?” Vifi countered. “Think about your own strength, first, General. Donut, you still aren’t strong enough to beat me in a duel. Even if you were to weaken me with [My Darkest Thought], I hold the confidence that I will beat you every time.”

“Sheesh, you can’t just—” I tried to argue back, but slammed the table and stood up.

“As your imperial guard, I declare it thus—on my honor, I, Vifi of the family Yok, shall always be stronger than you. Seek your own strength, so that you may drive me forward until the fire in my heart dims and dies. Our dreams will become the fuel to push us to burn brighter, but I need you to make me fear becoming weaker.” Lighting sprang from Vifi’s head as her horns formed. Holding her hand over them before saluting me in the Bole’Tarian way, Vifi strifling continued her declaration. “Let me bring you war. Let me bring you victory. Let me make your ambitions come true, General! I am your Warbringer, and to one who seeks peace like you, I swear to become the weapon you need when words do not suffice. When compromises are impossible!”

… Something stirred in my chest as Vifi’s proud, powerful voice resonated with my heart. Her charisma was beaming like never before. Yes, she had made these sorta declarations before, and even said something similar when you swore her loyalty to me, but this felt different. My head was telling me somebody else was speaking to me, but my eyes could clearly see it was Vifi.

Her voracious appetite for food was undeniable as sauces, liquids, and bits of food stuck on her face and stained the table. Her table manners were non-existent as she stuffed her slim waist like a beggar who hadn’t eaten in days. It was all very Vifi-like, but then why could see inspire so much faith and confidence in me?

She looked like a slob—even more than usual—but it felt like a light was shining from her back. It wasn’t even her aura, so what exactly happened to her inside that dream of hers? What did she relive that made her seem even more reliable than before?

“I couldn’t have said it any better!” Shay shot up, saluting as he learned from the dragoons. Beth hesitated a moment before doing the same, but before I could say anything, our discussion was interrupted by the sound of clapping.

I turned around, seeing Skardvro approaching us with Rhekk standing next to him. “Every word has shaken my heart, Vifi. You might not be knighted, but the title of ‘Dame’ is surely not inaccurate. It is with that conviction that our princess will grow up into a venerable dragon! I must do my best as well, then.”

Skardvro then bowed, leaving me little chance to speak before he did. “Princess Hestia, I would like to report that, while your emergency call has successfully roused the representatives of the various senators, it would still require time for us to properly build a capable military. As you know, our combat-experienced dragoons, soldiers, and dragonkin have been sent to the skirmish against the leviathans. Including the empress, who is still mediating the peace settlement, we do not have a force strong enough to live up to Frozen Nest’s reputation.”

“My mother said that she would be finished in around one month, no?”

“Certainly, but both sides have taken casualties from what I heard. Only to the newts and lesser dragonkin, yes, but that still damaged the relationship to the point I believe they might still be arguing,” Skardvro reported. “So—”

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“I do not care, send the message, Skardvro. We need a rank S back,” I ordered, prompting Skardvro to bow.

“Then I shall do my best. As such, your highness, I must demand that you do all you can to thin out the horde and delay them. Rescuing those outside of Iceskale will require a lot of wyverns to fly at an accelerated rate. You know exactly how long it will take, as you have flown from and back to the glaciers.” He bowed once more. “That is all I can say. Do not worry about the rest. Clan Nordor and Iceskale shall support you with all our capabilities.”

“Thank you. You are dismissed.” Once he left, I turned to Rhekk, sighing. “Did it work on your side?”

He nodded. “Although I am the second son, I am still a scion of the current Dragon Ruler. As you asked, I did ask my friends while you did the, uh, stream. The fledglings like me are all inside Iceskale or close to their nest, so some of them will probably help their dragonewt relatives to safety. Though that does mean most of us are rank B.”

“How about the rank As?”

He nodded. “The younger ones were left behind, yes. Do you remember the ones when we, uh, you know?” Once I nodded, he continued, “Good. Those guys are also around. They are, though, on the younger side, even if they are adults. If I have to compare them to Hannathala, then they should be significantly weaker than her, as they haven’t leveled since they evolved.”

“Nice. Then, did you also have your clan members inquire about the Kleodrastia clan?”

Rhekk squinted, scratching his head before nodding. “Their matriarch was sent with the other elder scales. Obviously, as she is a rank S, even if she is weak to the leviathans. Some of her clan members were also included in the war—to prove their loyalty to Frozen Nest, I presume. Her sons and about five other younger fire dragons weren’t, though.”

“Fehrkatruk didn’t go?” I widened my eyes as Rhekk confirmed my confusion. “That guy is as old as your brother, you know? So—What a stroke of luck then! Rhekk, you know what your job is, right? You are the one responsible for leading the dragonkin during this operation. This is the responsibility I am giving you as your princess and the leader of this operation. Do you understand?”

Rhekk’s face told me he was still unconvinced he was worthy or capable of this trust. Seeing this, I raised my voice. “Rhekk, this is your responsibility to show your brother that you aren’t some failure! It doesn’t matter if you think you are ready or not, as this is my order. We will protect our home. Do you understand? No buts!”

Rhekk nodded and went outside the room. In the one month I spent on my preparations for the original “Yothmlak” plan, I had also sent Rhekk back to Iceskale so he could explain everything that happened, and also to act as a liaison for my orders to finish the information tower.

Since the plan had changed to combat the elemental emperors, the need for him to be in Iceskale had just grown. He had connections to other ice dragonkin, and as a true dragon of clan Thalaxarus, he had an appropriate amount of authority, even if he was considered a failure by his brother.

Skardvro would build up the army of dragoons and wyverns, while Rhekk was responsible for the true dragonkin side. Meanwhile, our party had to do something about the army on the frontline.

I turned to the twins. “… How many rank As did you two see?”

Beth nodded. “Excluding the mandril, the current army mostly consists of rank Bs and a large assortment of elementals—from lesser to greater. The giant rank A ice worm we fought wasn’t the only one, and the mandogongas also had two rank As leading with him. That is all I could see, but that doesn’t exclude the possibility of them gathering more as they head down south. There are plenty of rank As all around Frozen Nest.”

“If I may give a suggestion,” Shay asked, and I allowed it. “Even with Vifi and Prince Nongramos, it is clear that we cannot contend with the elemental emperor in a fair fight. It is more prudent for us to engage the army. However, with the number of greater elementals and the two rank As currently in the army, such an action would be suicidal even for Prince Nongramos. He might be strong, but even he struggled when he got ambushed by them when he tried to retrieve Tasianna and Vifi.”

“Then what do you suggest?”

“We proved we can contend against a rank A at this point, Princess Hestia. You have risen to a point of power that younger rank As are similar in threat to an older rank B. As such, I suggest we employ divide and conquer—isolating one target and then defeating that greater elemental or rank A. After all, you now have that option to do so, although we haven’t properly tested it yet.”

[Spatial Rend], right.

“Otherwise, we deal with the army as we always do against weaker opponents—bombard them. Unlike our usual hunting sessions, we have Prince Nongramos on our side. Not only is he a capable rank A fire dragon, but he is also fast. If needed, he can rescue us from a difficult situation,” Shay stated. “I am still weak for a rank A, but I can participate in the bombardment.”

“Sounds good, but how are we delaying the army, though?” I asked. “Our job isn’t to defeat them, it’s to delay them as long as possible. In fact, fighting a rank A is dangerous as hell, Shay. Even if you’re—”

“You have me,” Vifi interrupted. “Honestly, I support this plan.”

“You do?”

Vifi nodded. “I am specialized in wide-ranged attacks, as you know well. I do well in group battles since all my attacks, including my Territory, are very beneficial against multiple people. I can even isolate certain targets when needed, remember? Though—and I haven’t exactly practiced this in a long time—I am formally trained as a duelist.”

“Well, I don’t doubt you. You showed Neill and me how much you can—”

“Hold on,”—Vifi raised a hand—“what I am trying to tell you is that I’ve been fighting with my self-taught style. The ‘Voltaic Red Style’ if you want to put a name on it. The style my father taught me is completely focused on dueling, to the point that the other two Warbringers and even his battalion would try to move the battlefield around to allow him to duel strong targets. People like the Hands of Heaven. I want you to help me in that same manner.”

“… But you said you haven’t fought in that style in a while. Now, I’m not the best when it comes to martial arts, but each style has different stances that allow you to quickly connect to your various Abilities. Mix-and-matching something you haven’t done in a while—hold on, is this about your dream?” I raised an eyebrow. Vifi did explain how the emperor tried to brainwash her with a memory of her father, but didn’t exactly explain the details.

Vifi nodded. “First, we don’t know why the emperor is charging down south. Yes, they are probably in it for revenge against the true dragonkin, but what exactly is their goal? It can’t be a full-on war against Frozen Nest, right? Second, you don’t need to worry about Tasianna. As I said, Tasianna is the ‘crown.’ That is why they tried to bring Tasianna over to their side, as they cannot have her die. The moment she does without announcing an heir, the ice elementals will most likely stop following the emperor. That is how the elementals think, so we don’t need to hurry to save her, even if saving her would end this entire problem.”

I groaned, feeling that such a suggestion was just careless. Leaving Tasianna in such a state without even trying to help her seemed selfish as heck. Sure, maybe Vifi knew best since she was there when the emperor kidnapped them, but I couldn’t just be patient when my friend was in danger.

Fae were made from mana. The more mana the emperor stole from Tasianna, the more it would sound like the “Ship of Theseus,” as Saori would say, no? Not to mention, wasn’t all this mana draining just similar to the way the humans drained mana from fae back during the War for the Faefolk? Or how those fae hunters drained the onnikai and lesser fae during the alchemist incident?

How could I even think of letting Tasianna go through that damn process?

“No,” I shut Vifi down. “Tasianna’s rescue is top priority. I am not letting more of her mana get drained. We are doing something about that first, or I won’t follow up with your wish, Vifi.”

Vifi snarled, grunting with irritation. “Killing one of the rank As will slow down the army. That will weaken the army’s hold on the weaker members, especially for those monkeys. Weakening the army means weakening the elemental. Didn’t you hear the entire speech I gave? The fewer people worshipping Tasianna, the less the emperor will get in faith. The less faith, the less likely their plan of becoming a god would succeed. Also, it’s just a basic war tactic. Shay literally gave us something from the manual and you’re saying no to it?”

“It’s because Tasianna’s safety is equally important here!”

“B-but, Your Highness, what is your plan for such a suggestion?” Beth asked, causing me to turn silent and Vifi to sigh.

As I bit my lips as I couldn’t figure something out, I turned around and went back to the stream, only to remember that Shay and Beth were currently in the subspace. I had no eyes outside and couldn’t appraise the emperor as such. Although it wasn’t like it would have helped… the last time I did, the description was quite unhelpful.

Slime Cocoon Of the Emperors: A mana golem made by the Wind and Water Elemental Emperors as they are preparing to return to demi-godhood According to Nong, the area around the peaks was supposed to be turned into a dungeon, but instead of that happening, the emperor emerged, destroyed the peaks, and the dungeonification was forcibly canceled. Now, I couldn’t see their Profile or any other information. It was always that damn slime.

“General!”

I jerked up as Vifi shouted at me. As I turned around, Vifi wagged her index finger, gesturing for me to come back to her as if I were a disobedient puppy. Considering the glare she was giving me, looking a bit like Master Kush whenever he wanted to chastise me, I couldn’t ignore it at all.

“Yes?” I responded meekly.

Vifi sighed. “Ever heard about taking somebody hostage? You are falling into the pits of how to deal with a situation when an important hostage is being held by the enemy. You are letting your rational side go to the wayside. You cannot think about anything else than Tasianna’s safety. Naturally, because you thought so, it helped me get away from the elemental. So, I can’t exactly complain about it… But, General, get a grip.”

I grit my teeth.

“We are currently on a defensive operation to delay the approach of the elemental emperor, as we currently have no solution to breaking through its control over water, wind, and ice. We have no way to break Tasianna’s illusion, as she was completely brainwashed. Our focus should be on the containment of this force, but you are putting your focus purely on a single person, when the rest of the country is equally important. You said it yourself—you will protect Frozen Nest. You are its princess. You are currently the highest authority who can compel both dragonewt and dragonkin into action. General, you are essential, yet you aren’t almighty even if you have your moments.”

I nodded, feeling ashamed by her bringing all this up for me to reflect on.

“You have qualities of a leader. You’ve proven it with your biggest victory—the defeat of the Prince of Envy. You’ve proven it again with your one-month preparations. So, General, I will ask you now to trust in me.”

“… But I do already.”

“Then trust in my intel. The emperor cannot harm Tasianna without ruining their own plan. Yes, mana is drained from her, but it is quickly replaced by a new one. As a fae, she can survive in that grail of mana better than I ever could,” she argued. “Trust Shay’s plan. We need to thin out the horde of its members. Do you know the concept of the ‘burning castle?’”

“Uuuuuh, no?”

Vifi nodded. “As you know, castles are difficult to siege, no matter how prepared you are. As a commander, you should expect there to be casualties. If both sides possess mages, the ones with the weaker one or the one who runs out of mana earlier loses. There are more nuances, though, and this is where the ‘burning castle’ comes in. Do not break the castle through conventional means; break it down from the bottom. You don’t gain victory by destroying the castle—in fact, sometimes you want to keep the castle intact to use it afterwards. You succeed by making the people inside surrender. Fire, dividing the people inside, causing the ground to fall, eradicating the food stocks. ‘Burning castle.’ The castle isn’t burning, it’s the people inside.”

… Yikes. Morbid.

“The ‘castle’ in this case is the emperor. The ‘people’ are the elementals. And the ‘food’ is the monsters. We get rid of either the people or food, and the castle will fall. After all, if there aren’t people inside, how can they maintain the castle? If the elementals vanish, how can the emperor become a god?”

My eyes widened as I understood her plan, causing Vifi to smile with a devious look. If she wasn’t sad, I probably have shivered as it was the perfect villain face.

I gulped but nodded. “We just need to isolate them, right?”

Vifi nodded.

“Good.” I turned around as I cast a space-time in front of me, taking quite a while to form the complicated magic circle. After some time, I ripped the magic circle in two, causing a rift to open before me where I could see Vifi’s back. “Spatial Rend!”

Father dearest, this shouldn’t count as entering my subspace, right?

“Vifi!” I yelled as she snapped around, looking at me, all confused as she turned her head back and forth, unable to compute the craziness of space-time magic. “Get in!”

I couldn’t test it properly, yes, but that didn’t mean I didn’t play around with it!

Spatial Rend: Opens a one-time use portal before the caster. Closes instantly upon the caster’s control or once an approved living being completely enters through. Mana cost is determined by the type of being transported and the distance to the area From the tests, spatial rend could even intrude into my subspace, although the whole permission thing still applied to any visitors. In addition, it also counted as an exit point for the person on the other side, and—here was the interesting point—since the spatial rend is in contact with me, I could also dedicate it as a teleport location for the nexus.

Yes, my father might have forbidden me from entering my subspace, preventing me from teleporting people around. Touching the subspace runes also didn’t wor,k as I had to be inside the subspace to teleport people around.

Which was where [Spatial Rend] decided to break the damn rules of time and space. The portal was the magic circle. The moment I ripped it in two, a gap in space was created for a destination that I could see. This meant line-of-sight was mandatory, unlike with [Warp Point]. If I couldn’t see the area, I couldn’t use [Spatial Rend] to escape somewhere, unlike [Warp Point], which made this the biggest weakness of the spell.

Yet, I didn’t really care since I had “birds in the sky.” And the benefits, the fact that I could hold the broken magic circle, made up for everything. As Master Kush said, creative use of spells was the hallmark of a master mage. In this case, I was touching the [Spatial Rend], but I could still change the “exit point” for the people inside the subspace as if I were inside the subspace. Muhahaha, breaking the rules made using [Space-Time Magic] so damn fun!

“Here!” Vifi said as she left the subspace through my [Spatial Rend], entering the arena that I had been preparing for an entire month. The fearless demonkin jerked back, almost tripping back into the subspace if the [Spatial Rend] hadn’t closed up.

Uurgh. The mana cost is good, though. The ‘distance’ was just a few feet since the subspace is close to me. Good. [Spatial Rend] solves two problems at least—people paying the price to use the nexus and me unable to teleport people. Skardvro, get that message to Mom this instant!

Ignoring my thoughts for a moment, I turned to the twins. “Guys! I need the stream back up! We’re following your plan, Shay, so get to it!”

“Yes, Princess Hestia!” Both twins shouted before exiting the subspace.

After waiting for a moment, the stream of the emperor’s army was back online, and I already got my first target. I pulled Vifi towards the camera.

“Vifi, this is chat. Say hi to chat! Chat, say hi to one of my personal retainers and friends, Vifi!” I grinned, causing chat to explode now that I was back in view. I then pushed Vifi into the front to take care of the chat to her chagrin.

Meanwhile, I turned the stream Beth was recording for me before casting [Spatial Rend] again. This time, right in front of the second rank A ice worm. With how unintelligent it was, it simply wandered into the portal without a thought. Sadly, I couldn’t just close the portal the moment the worm’s head entered my arena, meaning it was impossible to decapitate people with [Spatial Rend].

Though… did it matter? Either I got the exp, or Vifi. It didn’t matter.

“Ohoho…” Vifi smiled as the sound of a bulldozer rammed right into my arena. “Is this… a gift wrapped in an icy, stone box?”

“You’re quite chipper than usual.” I smirked with her, as we both had the same idea. “I’ll trust you, all right, Vifi. Sorry for doubting your better judgement. Just gotta stay calm, right?”

Vifi grinned deviously, giving me a look that seemed so out of place for this little Warbringer. “Gotta stay calm, yeah, but you know what is better?”

Vifi turned around as the portal closed and I felt my innards, figuratively, explode. My mana was holding up, but [Spatial Rend] ripped out an amount large enough that it made it feel like somebody had sliced my torso open with a knife.

Okay, this is the second problem with this spell… But who cares?

“Gravy…” I said as my little pebble moved up to me while the giant worm roared.

Gravy’s word appeared on a blue screen projected from the [Crystal of the Divine System].

“Kill that thing.”

With a single command, countless eyes opened inside this arena, all staring down at the worm.

Welcome to “Hestia’s Monster Room.”