Within an underground area in the Emerald Fountain City of the Goldsand Confederation, a man wearing a mask in the shape of a black fox with glowing red eyes heard the reports of a servant walking to his side…
"Milord, the Miasmic Tree that was producing our monster troops has been exterminated… We've received reports from our magic devices saying the Evil God's Fragment has completely disappeared too- No, rather, it has been… absorbed."
"…" The masked man remained in silence while thinking about the situation. "So it must be them, who else has enough power to do this within the South of Midgard anyways? The Undead Dragon King, that Vampire traitor, the elf woman blessed by spirits, and… the ghost witch, Maria Belle."
"Precisely." Nodded the man. "That's what we believe…"
"This is not looking good, hahaha." Laughed the masked man. "Why would she get in this situation anyways? We never provoked her, nor we've ever tried to attack her people either, unlike the others… We're here doing our own business, why go so far? Why bother?"
"We speculate the elf that accompanies her had family in that area…" Sighed the servant.
"Dammit…" Sighed the masked man. "Well, another good project thrown to the trash… Hopefully, that woman stop harassing us. I don't want anything to do with her, we must continue preparing our troops to destroy the Empire of Light and the church. The Final Day is coming closer."
"Some think that… she might be on her way here. After all, Ash was someone from Goldsand, what if she wants revenge on his behalf? She's a righteous woman…" Sighed the servant.
"Tch, don't give her ideas now! If that were to ever happen… I would have to intervene myself; I can't let her destroy all we've built in this place." The masked man sighed. "Well, if push comes to shove…" He glanced at a black colored blade encapsulated on Demonite. "I'll have to use our secret weapon. Ugh, it costs so much Mana though."
"Should we prepare for the worst right away?" His servant wondered.
"There's no helping it. It is better if we are somewhat prepared than not." Sighed the masked man. "And about that kid… Make sure to keep him restrained this time, the powers he possess will be a pivotal part of our future plans, but we can't let him make a riot like before."
"Understood." Nodded the servant, quickly turning into shadows and disappearing.
The masked man sighed, drinking a cup of blood while glancing at the moonless night.
"Maria… You better keep yourself out of this if you don't want me to get serious." He sighed. "I've been evading you all this time because I didn't wanted a confrontation with a monster like you… But if you keep getting in my way, I won't have any other option."
As we traveled across the skies, we glanced at a map that we got from August. My Auto Mapping can map anything… Where I am, of course, so we can't earn everything completely in detail either. This is why this map come into usage.
"So according to this map, looks like Goldsand's divided into three big territories. And their names represent the biggest mountains there, where the commoners mine resources which feed on the entire confederation's wealth." I said. "The closest area is the Ruby Mountain Territory, then comes the Sapphire Mountain Territory, and lastly, the Emerald Mountain Territory."
"Sounds like quite the pain." Said Partner. "Do we have to look for your brother through all three?! Ugh… And why are the name so lame?!"
"Well there's actual real names for the cities. The Ruby Palace, the Sapphire Temple, and the Emerald Fountain. The Ruby Palace seems to be made up of warmongering merchant descendants, so there's always fights and disputes there. Then the Sapphire Temple is a much more peaceful area, well, "peaceful" for the nobles. The church of light is strong there, but they also have the church of the goddess of water, which is the primary church aside from the one of light… They're all allied churches anyways so it matters little." I explained.
"And what about Emerald Fountain?" Wondered Emeraldine. "It sounds a bit like my name…"
"It says in your uncle's notes that… It is the most protected place as there's the most nobles living there. It's the largest city too… Ash doesn't remember where he came from, and August told us to just quickly check the "underground" of each city, we'll find answers really quickly if we talk with ghosts or souls too!" I said with a smile.
"I see…" Emeraldine sighed. "It will be a hard job to find your brother… But let's do our best." She said. "Spirits, can you help us find him later?"
"If Emeraldine says so~"
"Jonathan, do you happen to have something that could have belonged to my brother?" I asked the hero. "A bit of hair or something?"
"No, sorry…" Said Jonathan. "It has been so many years since then…"
"Oh well, whatever." I sighed. "We've been traveling for the empty desert for a while now and the only thing we see are a bunch of cactuses and dunes…"
"Tch, you're just sitting around while I'm burning by the sun! Why are you complaining?" Lucifer said angrily.
"Hahaha, I'm sorry!" I giggled. "Tear, can you cool us down a bit more?"
"Sure." Tear nodded. Through the day and a half we've been traveling, she has become our living cooler, and by using her ice magic, she cool us down from the intense heat of the sun around here.
"Hahhh~ Much better." We all sighed in relief.
"I'm glad I can be of some help." Tear laughed. "Honestly, if it wasn't for my magic I wouldn't be able to resist this heat either… We ice giants aren't good with heat this high!"
"I've heard this area of Midgard is so hot because it is the closest to the Muspelheim Continent, a land of flames." I said. "And- Huh?"
Suddenly, the city of Ruby Palace finally made itself clear within the horizon!
"We're getting closer, everyone!" I said with a smile. "And- Eh?!"
However, the first thing that greeted our sight were dozens of gigantic Sandworms surrounding the small city!