mixture of grief and fury. "Return the god's bone to the Behemoth, now! If you don't, this entire world will collapse!"

  Kael, of course, had no intention of complying. This relic was the entire reason he’d come here. He wasn't about to give it up.

  "Calm down," Kael said evenly. "We'll find a way to create a portal out of the Land of the Behemoth. You'll all be able to leave with us."

  But Simbra knew Kael wouldn't yield so easily. He had already noticed the Guardian Elder’s weakened state. This was his best chance. He raised his hand, preparing to give the order to attack.

  Just then, Kael held up the Right Hand Bone of Apollo. "Don't try anything stupid," he warned, his voice cold. "If you make a move, I'll destroy this."

  The threat stopped Simbra cold. He quickly lowered his hand. The two groups stood frozen in a tense standoff.

  Orion sidled up to Kael and whispered, "Dude, why are we even dealing with this guy? We got the phat loot. Let's just hearth out." He gestured to a nearby Recall Stone. They could indeed leave whenever they wanted.

  Lila looked at Kael, her expression showing she agreed.

  The Kael of his past life would have teleported out without a second thought. That’s exactly what he’d done after snatching the Relic of Apollo from the middle of a chaotic scrum. But in this life, something within him had subtly changed.

  After a moment of thought, Kael said to his party, "You guys go on ahead. I'm going to stay and see if I can find another way."

  Lila, seeing his resolve, said nothing more and simply stood silently behind him. Orion glanced from Kael to Rena, then planted his feet, not moving an inch.

  The sky grew darker still. A fierce gale kicked up, whipping sand and grit into the air, forcing everyone to shield their eyes.

  Captain Simbra was beyond listening to reason. He turned his back on Kael and bellowed to the villagers behind him, "Brothers! Do you remember your sacred duty?"

  "We remember!" they roared back as one.

  "Forward!"

  Kael watched, stunned, as they completely ignored his threat. He tightened his grip on the god's bone, his mind racing for a counter-strategy.

  But Captain Simbra and his hundreds of warriors simply streamed past Kael's small group, making no move to attack. As Simbra passed the Guardian Elder, their eyes met for a brief, heavy moment. Then he marched on.

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  The procession continued without stopping, stepping through the great doors and into the Sanctum.

  Simbra’s reaction had caught Kael completely off guard. He walked over to the Elder. "What are they doing? Where are they going?"

  The Elder sighed, his voice heavy with sorrow. "They've gone to offer themselves to the Behemoth, hoping their piety will earn its forgiveness. But it's a suicide mission. And I was too weak to stop them."

  A few minutes later, the oppressive twilight began to recede, and the sky slowly brightened. The howling wind and sand died down.

  Orion's eyes lit up with realization. "Hey, looks like everything's going back to normal! You think their devotion actually worked on the Behemoth?"

  The Elder sighed again. "Things may appear normal, but I fear it is not so simple..."

  Kael and the others nodded grimly.

  "Regardless, we should go. We must hurry," the Elder said, taking the lead.

  Hazel had been listening to the whole exchange in a complete daze. One minute they were fighting, the next they weren't. The sky went dark, then it was light again. She moved closer to Lila and whispered, "Lila, what happened to all those annoying guys?"

  Lila’s voice was low and somber. "They fancied themselves the Behemoth’s most devoted followers, but their god treated them like caged livestock."

  "What?!"

  "It was a foolish, desperate act, but it seems to have had an effect. For now, things have stabilized. That's a good thing for us."

  "Oh..." Hazel nodded, not quite understanding.

  Before long, the six of them arrived back at Behemoth's Watch. The village was a shadow of what it had been. Many buildings had crumbled, and terrified citizens huddled in clusters in the open squares. A powerful tremor had clearly rocked the village in their absence.

  When the villagers saw the Elder returning with Kael’s group, their eyes filled with disgust. In their minds, it was the Guardian Elder who had brought this ruin upon their peaceful world.

  The Elder ignored their glares. With a flick of his wrist, a large cornerstone materialized on the ground before him. Kael recognized it; it looked like a piece of the Behemoth’s throne.

  The Elder turned to Kael. "Champions, I must establish a link to the outside world, a teleport nexus. Can you help me?"

  Kael nodded. "What do you need? Just say the word."

  "Two things," the Elder said. "First, 2,000 units of essence. Second, an authorized connection point in the outside world."

  For the average player, the first condition was easy. The second was next to impossible. What random player had the authority to establish an inter-realm teleport nexus?

  But as luck would have it, Kael could. He was the Lord of Starlight Village.

  He handed the monster essence he'd collected over to the Elder, then opened his NPC administration panel. He navigated to the Starlight Village teleport nexus management screen and, sure enough, there was an option to establish a new connection with Behemoth's Watch.

  With the essence in hand, the Elder began constructing the nexus. Kael watched in awe. This was the Guardian Elder of Behemoth's Watch, after all. It took him just over ten minutes to erect the entire structure. Kael remembered the nexus at Beryl Creek—that had taken a team of ten people an entire night to build.

  As the swirling blue portal of the teleport nexus stabilized, Kael and his friends finally breathed a sigh of relief. Now, all that was left was to get the villagers to leave.

  However…

  "I'm not leaving," a village representative stated flatly. "My family has lived here for generations. Why should I abandon my home?"

  Their stubbornness gave Kael a massive headache. After all this, were they really going to have to give up on them?