Aygor's Citadel.

With a low rumble, the doors to the exclusive glass dome swung open, announcing the exit of its current occupants: Kashi and Kira, in a smaller direwolf size (just about reaching Kashi's chest). The daeben, who had been in deep discussion with Kira over the direction his painting should go, raised a brow in surprise at the dwarf resting against the opposite wall, a massive mallet by his side, evidently having waited for a long time.

Yngvar Kernode, leader of the warrior clan, and main chief of security pushed off the wall with a humph as he approached the daeben. His gaze, albeit hostile, held a hint of grudging respect, a luxury rarely afforded any not of the dwarfs. He measured the daeben with his eyes as he questioned, "Are you aware of a man called Absalon?"

Rather than be offended by the hostility, Kashi chose to focus on the respect in the dwarf's tone, answering amicable, "Yes, I am aware. He is a general in my guild."

Yngvar nodded. He lifted the mallet and balanced it on his right shoulder. "Follow me."

Kashi was mildly surprised to see Paaie Nilsen and Ulla Tav join them as they exited the palace. Both women were garbed in tough, practical leather armor most likely crafted from some Level 100 monsters. Unlike the more revealing styles of other races, these women looked more battle-ready than most male warriors. It was a look the daeben knew the player community would not really take to, but he had to admit there was a renegade beauty to their simplicity. He made a mental note to ask the craftsmen in his guild to also make some practical armor for women in the future. After all, there was no rule that stated that female warriors must be dressed in nonsensically revealing attire.

Of course, that did not mean he would completely do away with them. There was a substantial market for a good reason.

"Paaie(pay) Nilsen and Ulla Tav," Yngvar introduced as they walked to a post where a number of igudas were tied. "Responsible for internal security and external diplomatic relations."

Igudas were similar to komodo dragons, they were about the length of a horse minus their tail, but they were much closer to the ground than their mammal brothers of burden, standing at about the chest of an average man. Brown hard scales and a stocky build completed its imperious form.

Kashi politely bowed. "It is my honor."

The women appeared amused by his politeness and returned his bow with ones of their own, albeit with slight smirks. "Likewise," they chorused.

Yngvar untied one of the igudas and deftly hopped onto its back as it rose to full height. Stirrups in hand, he turned to the daeben. "You ride?"

Kashi approached one of the igudas, only for it to snap at him with numerous rows of extremely sharp teeth. He bitterly smiled, "Seems they do not like me."

Yngvar shook his head with a sigh. "I suppose it is to be expected. Igudas have a trace of dragon blood in their veins and as a side effect, are extremely arrogant in nature. They do not permit just anyone onto their backs."

Kashi rose a brow as Paaie and Ulla easily climbed onto two igudas.

Paaie noticed the daeben's confusion and explained with a chuckle. "These igudas have been raised since birth by us, mostly to serve the Order for transportation. However, they are familiar with our scent and so our kind can ride them." She teasingly patted the free space on the saddle behind her. "You can get on mine. She shouldn't act up if I'm here."

Kashi smiled but resolutely shook his head. He turned to Kira, his pleading gaze clashing against her obstinate one. Luckily, in the end, for one reason or another, the proud direwolf gave in to the pressure.

"I'm only doing this because it's important," Kira grumbled as with a low growl, she explosively tripled in size, nearly towering over Kashi at over six feet (182cm). "You have a horse. This would not be necessary if you did not forget him all the time."

With a chuckle, Kashi hopped onto her back, reveling in the comfort as he sunk into the furry mass. "I can see why Zuri got attached. We should do this more often." A suggestion to which Kira replied by hardening all the fur on her body till they were as hard and straight as needles. Kashi, easily visualizing the horror that would follow should she run in this state, quickly patted her back as he apologized, "Ha... haha... I was only joking of course. Joking." Only stopping when with a satisfied snort, the fur once again relaxed to its luscious softness.

"Shall we?" Assured his behind would not become a pincushion, Kashi said as he turned to Yngvar, only to see the dwarf staring at Kira, memories of the carnage in the arena floating through his mind.

Probably because the direwolf had taken to remaining in her compact form, Yngvar had almost forgotten just how terrifying the beast could be. She was just as strong—if not stronger—as most of the daeben's subordinates. It would seem nothing around the daeben was ordinary, even down to the beasts that followed him. However, though it was a bit surprising, the old veteran was not overwhelmed. After all, he had seen much worse during the war.

"We shall," replied Yngvar as he shot towards the south gate, with Paaie and Ulla in tow. Kira followed, easily keeping pace with them, running at speeds that would shame a lot of modern vehicles.

Some time was spent waiting for the gigantic gates to open at an irritatingly slow crawl, but apart from that, the journey was mostly uneventful. It appeared Syèl and the extermination team were doing a bang-up job clearing the monster population.

All in all, it took roughly an hour and a half traveling at over 100km/h to get to the main entrance gate, allowing Kashi to truly experience the city's size for the first time. The daeben's brow rose as numerous dwarfs in armor came into view, a good number of which were on their very own igudas. He roughly estimated about two thousand men and women. Even if this was not their full force, it should be a considerable amount.

Just as Kashi was wondering what could possibly warrant the entire army's presence, the gates opened, allowing the daeben to come face-to-face with the answer.

And oh what an answer it was...

Blade ran a hand through his newly-dyed sky blue hair, staring at the massive gate ahead of him with no little amount of shock. "What in the hell?" Ever since his humiliating loss to Kashi back at Grissa Crags, he had gone for massive training, spending an entire month's worth of money to pay for Genaco's extra service, the virtual trainer. He had worked his ass off, utilizing the time dilation to train under a virtual master and get his basics straight.

Right now, even if he did not dare call himself a master, he believed at the very least he should be considered a pro with the spear. Setting the daeben as his goal, he had fought his way back to Absalon's side by proving himself on the islands expedition, allowing him to stand with his chest pumped out and a straighter back. Hell, he even had a division directly under him, though it had shrunk from its initial thousand to three hundred since the soldiers lent by the Rosen army returned to post. Which was why, when Absalon summoned him, Asha and Nyte, with the news that they were going on a high priority mission to save the daeben, he had been so excited, believing it an opportunity to show the daeben his improvement.

However, all of Blade's enthusiasm shattered, when a few days ago, they received intel that the daeben had resolved everything and the [God's Apparition] they saw in the night sky was triggered by him.

However, since they were already three-quarters into their journey, it would be even more embarrassing to just turn back. So, with a supposedly heavy and slightly confused heart, Absalon ordered them to continue with the mission of 'ensuring safety and providing assistance where possible.'

Of course, Blade knew the real reason Absalon continued the mission. Although hunting for monsters and leveling up swiftly was fun on the monster populated islands, the red mage had always preferred large scale PvP battles. And it seemed the mage's strong nose for war had sniffed some trouble brewing in Merriheim and wanted to make camp here for a while.

For this, Absalon had arrived with roughly 1500 soldiers, eighty percent of which were Summoned. In the past, such numbers would be bordering on madness in a game, but L.N.E's unique nature of having only one universal server meant that all the millions of players who would usually be scattered across several servers were now congregated into one. In fact, if it wasn't for Hopeful Maggots' stringent requirements and as of yet lack of absolute trust in the red mage, his army might even be far larger! In fact, to Blade's memory, the only division in the entire guild with more Summoned than Absalon's was the Raid Division headed by Stryke and his party.

Blade stood to the side, watching as Nyte explained the army to a company of dwarfs who kept glaring beyond the humans to the seemingly endless mass of dark brown behind them. Just when it seemed like the dwarfs were reaching the end of their patience, the gates began to swing open.

Blade's eyes shone with anticipation as a certain dwarf came into view, seated upon the direwolf who had massively grown since the last time! The young spearman let out a chuckle at the dumbfounded look on the daeben as he stared at the army. Blade could empathize with the daeben. Sure, the thousand-five hundred warriors atop warhorses were impressive. But even more overwhelming was the three-thousand strong drakul army silently standing to either side of the human retinue.

Absalon, Asha, and Blade took the initiative to drop from their horses and walk towards the daeben who was still a little shell-shocked.

Absalon regarded the daeben with an amused smile. "I suppose I should say good to see you again boss..."

Although Kashi had been the one to bring Absalon into the guild, he had never really followed up on his day to day proceedings, choosing to leave that to Leila's capable hands. Although Leila had told him Absalon had an independent army, he had pictured somewhere between 500-800 warriors tops.

But not only did Absalon lead twice his highest estimate, their discipline could be seen in how they were all extremely still despite the heat. Even the drakul army which would usually kneel each time they saw the daeben (one of the major reasons he refused to take any of them in the first place) was extremely still, barely a flinch from them. And the red mage only had them for a few weeks!

Kashi was so surprised, he barely caught Absalon's greeting. It took him a moment to comport himself then he hopped off Kira's back and held his hand out to the red mage, a huge smile plastered on his face, "You are one hell of a general. Seems I did not pick the wrong man for the job."

Flattered by the daeben's praise, Absalon grasped the daeben with a firm handshake. "Heh, if there's one thing to praise about you, it's definitely your foresight when it comes to personnel. Speaking of which, there's someone I think you would like to meet." Noticing Kashi's slightly raised brow, a mischievous glint flashed in the mage's eye as he called, "Blade..."

Kashi's eyes widened as the spearman came forward, leading a very pissed off Drixlia in tow, the great stallion clearly none too pleased about being left behind for over five weeks. Kashi guiltily tore his gaze away from the beast which looked just about ready to chew his head off, and might just have done so if not for the reverence it held for the direwolf behind him. Kashi turned his attention to Blade as recognition flashed in his eyes, "Hey, it's Blade right? I didn't see you at the Riven Battle."

Blade scratched his cheek with an embarrassed chuckle. "Yeah, I stayed off the game for a while." Upon seeing the slight hesitation in the daeben's eyes, he quickly added, "Don't misunderstand. I went for some training. Figured you were right. I didn't know the first thing about spears. Only used them cause I'm a fan of Zhao Yun."

"Haha... that explains it. The aura around you has completely changed."

"You too," Blade pointed out. "You no longer talk with that disgustingly olden day's polite speech."

This time it was the daeben who scratched his head with embarrassment. It wasn't that he had completely dropped the polite speech, but after spending a lot more time with other people in-game, he found it rather pretentious to use it with other players. Some residents sure, but even then he had toned it down a lot.

A loud cough paused the conversation, causing Kashi to shake his head with more embarrassment. "Where are my manners." He quickly introduced Absalon and his lieutenants to Yngvar, Paaie and Ulla, and vice versa. "I can vouch for them," he continued. "They are all from my guild."

Yngvar frowned. "That's a large number of soldiers. What's your purpose?"

"We were originally on a rescue mission," Absalon stated. "As you aware, Kashi is our Guild Leader and thus his safety comes above. Since we were not privy to intel on the enemy number, we squeezed out every free soldier available."

"And now that you see he is alive and safe?" Paaie asked, her gaze no less fierce than Yngvar's. After all, no matter how much the daeben helped them, they would be crazy to have over four thousand non-native soldiers camped right outside the gates or even worse, inside their city!

"With your leave, we wish to remain a week or two in the event of possible retaliation from the kidnappers." Absalon absolutely refused to call them 'The Order,' and Order of Unsung Chaos reeked so much of chuunyinbou, he could feel himself seating in eighth grade every time it came off his tongue.

"You believe there is a possibility of retaliation?" Ulla cautiously probed.

"From what I understand, they suffered heavy losses, and their leader was humiliated here," Absalon stated. "Furthermore, [Gods' Apparition] and the pillar of light appeared in this location within a week of each other. It would be stranger if they did not attack. It would also mean our opponent is far more terrifying than we thought."

"By your estimates, how long would we have before this retaliation takes place?"

"I do not have the faintest idea on the enemy's logistics, but I would say, given the severity of losses, and the possible gains from obtaining something created by the [Gods' Apparition], it should be a month at the most." Absalon's words, powered by his intimidating presence gave the dwarfs pause. "All I ask is that my army be allowed to camp within ten kilometers for the next month or sooner if Kashi leaves before then."

"And if he doesn't leave by then?" Paaie questioned.

"We will leave regardless. We are an army, not a bodyguard unit. We certainly do not wish to waste valuable resources and manpower longer than we have to."

Yngvar exchanged glances with Ulla and Paaie, the same uneasiness prevalent in their gazes. The warrior chief sighed. "Your words are wise. We will consider it. In the meantime, your men can camp outsi—"

"Let them in," Xafier interrupted as he approached on an igudas. The future king hopped off his steed and nodded at Yngvar. "My apologies for giving you so much work, but I will be relying on both you and Paaie to watch over them while they stay with us."

Yngvar visibly darkened, creases forming on his squeezed forehead. "Xafier, we cannot let an army not of our own into our land."

Xafier nodded with an amicable smile. "I understand Kernode-san. I do not mean completely into our homes of course. Just keeping them within the outer ring will be fine."

"This is?" Absalon lightly coughed, trying to gauge the chain of command.

"My manners," Xafier mumbled an apology as he shook his head. He held out his right hand as he introduced himself. "My name is Anton Xafier."

"Soon to be coronated king of the dwarfs," Yngvar added with a heavy scowl when Absalon accepted Xafier's hand and introduced himself.

Absalon, upon the esteemed identity of this man, slightly bowed, "This time, I offer my apologies for my lack of manners earlier."

"Do not worry about it please," Xafier shook his head. "Do come inside, we have a lot to talk about."

With a pleased smile, Absalon and his subordinates climbed onto their horses, then trotted into the city with a well-drilled machine behind them.

As the army pitched up tents and prepared themselves for their stay in this region, within a sector of the camp, a daeben and horse stared each other down, waiting for one to crack.

***************

A/N: Merry Xmas or Honicker to you all!

Chapter was a bit on the short side, but it was supposed to serve one purposeL Bring back Absalon. Once it did that, I did not see the need to drag it on pointlessly.Well, battle preparations are almost done. I can't wait for the battle chapters to start.I always enjoy the challenge of choreographing a new fight in new environments... heehehe!