“Damn. I was only out for ten minutes or so,” Eliza said. “What happened here?”

  “Monster attack,” Jonathan explained. “I had to kill it before it could get to you.” He smiled. “Looks like I might be ready to fight the Hegemon. Maybe you as well, with your latest breakthrough.”

  “You’re ready?” Eliza asked. “Weren’t you just saying you wanted to level up more?”

  Jonathan shrugged. “Never really dug into my true strength. Looks like I’m a lot more powerful than I thought. That monster was mid Tier 6, and I killed it in a few punches.”

  “I can see that,” Eliza said. Her eyebrows raised at the splattered circle of straw that was all that remained of the monster’s head. “That thing was the size of a mountain. What the hell did you do to it?”

  “Punched it really hard?” Jonathan said facetiously. “Seriously, though, I just hadn’t really had a chance to test out my Void abilities after becoming a Lesser God.”

  “Of course…”

  “What?” Jonathan asked.

  “You’re something else.” Eliza’s gaze softened. “You protected me during my ascension from something that could have turned me into paste.”

  “Well-”

  “No. Listen to me.” Eliza took a few steps forward. “We discussed our… feelings for one another weeks ago. You said that we could revisit it again soon. I think that time is now.” Another few steps. “If you intend to go after the Hegemon now, this might be the last chance we have.”

  “What do you have in mind?” Jonathan asked. “We can’t-” he was interrupted a second time, as Eliza leaned in and took off his helmet. Then, she kissed him. He froze, and a moment later, leaned in as well. They broke off a few seconds later, but the act lingered far longer than that. Both gazed at each other, until Eliza finally broke the silence.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “That felt a lot better than it should have,” she said. “I’ve had a few flings in the past, but none of them really meant anything.”

  Jonathan’s mouth opened, but he didn’t say anything.

  Eliza smiled. “Yeah, it did go a bit like that at the beginning.” She handed him back his helmet. “Now, we have a Circle Lord to kill, don’t we?”

  Jonathan quickly put his helmet back on, and nodded. “We do.”

  ***

  Nothing much in Cessation could threaten them at this point, and their journey to the center of the realm was a boring one. Jonathan’s mere aura pressure alone was enough to ward off the vast majority of the monsters, and his strength was enough for the rest. The various settlements of the realm of the undead were few and far between,. And those that Jonathan did end up seeing were filled with monsters that were far too low level to pose him any threat.

  Even Eliza was far above the average creatures of Cessation. Her strength might have sometimes paled in comparison to Jonathan’s own, but she was still a powerhouse by anyone’s standards. With the powers of a Nascent God, and all of the titles that came with that, she could fight up quite some distance within her own Tier, and even beyond it in certain cases.

  After a few days of travel, Jonathan noticed something alarming. Vast hordes of the undead roaming the lands. All of them were Tier 4, and far better outfitted than the rest of the wandering corpses that made Cessation home. There were hundreds of thousands of them, if not millions. A pain to fight, even with Jonathan’s new power. Besides, the essence would be wasted on him. It was time to find out what his allies had been up to back in his own realm. He needed an army, and a powerful one at that.

  Pausing on top of an isolated hill, surrounded by a grove of twisted, greying trees, Jonathan opened the portal. The purple disc looked much the same as before, and as he and Eliza stepped through, the landscape shifted.

  They emerged in the middle of the Oozing Bastion. Only, Jonathan barely recognized it at first. Standing on the mountain where Slothari’s palace had stood, he could see the entire city spreading out below. It looked like it had been repurposed for war. Dozens of barracks and training fields filled the city. Jonathan could feel a greater maan density than there should have been, indicating a purchase from the Universal Trading Hub.

  Far below, the two largest training fields were in use, and he could just about make out the instructors. Edgar and Arkanon were hard at work, the former training a cohort of mages, and the latter one of pugilists. Arkanon was a lot more brutal in his training, beating the trainees into the ground when they failed. They failed a lot.