Jonathan watched the rest of the fight, smiling as he saw his allies easily deal with their monstrous foes. Going by what he saw here, their path through the Hells would no longer be a tortuous one. The Great Farmer was their target now, and Jonathan was quite confident in his abilities. Although the creature would certainly be of a higher level by this point, it probably wouldn’t be of a higher Tier. Normally, Jonathan would have been happy with that, but given his ridiculous fifty percent damage boost against enemies of a higher Tier, the difference in power might actually have been made up for by it.

  He still wasn’t sure what exactly the System had meant a year ago when it professed that the circle lords could now fight on the level of Lesser Gods. They had previously been as strong as Minor Gods, given that he had been one while fighting Slothari and Granath. Now that he was a cut above, to the point that he had slain Ashokan while being of a lower Tier, Jonathan didn’t know where the parallels were drawn.

  He gathered up the others, leaving the corpses of the demons lying on the ground. “I think it’s time to summon the army. From what I’ve seen here, they should be at least able to help. Especially against lower Tier monsters.”

  Edgar nodded. “Considering that Circle Lords give a lot more essence than normal, even the Tier 3 or 4 creatures here should pack quite the punch in terms of leveling opportunity.”

  “Would these monsters count as Circle Lords?” Arkanon asked.

  “Aren’t we forgetting about something?” Eva interjected. She pointed over at the small crowd of recently freed slaves standing around, seemingly cowering in fear. They were about four miles away, but for some reason, had chosen to stay in place. Edgar, who had put them there, had had little opportunity to protect them beyond moving them out of harm’s way.

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  “Not much of a survival instinct there, eh?” Arkanon observed.

  Jonathan shot him a glare. “They’ve been slaves for most of their lives. Any hints at rebellion have been beaten out of them by now. Cut them some slack.”

  Arkanon frowned. “Alright. I’ll try to understand. I guess we need to find something to do with them first. It does little good to simply cut them loose in the middle of nowhere.”

  With that in mind, the party headed over to the former slaves. There were about two hundred and fifty of them, with the highest level barely being Tier 2. That meant that any attempts at rebellion against their masters would have been as fatal as diving into the Sun.

  “You’re safe now,” Jonathan called out as he neared. “You can make a new life for yourselves now.”

  Most of them were glassy eyed, but a few of them seemed to have a bit more wherewithal. One of them, the Tier 2, mustered the courage to speak up. He was a human, clad in ragged linen clothes. Still, beneath the shirt and pants, and the layer of caked dirt, he was quite handsome, with curly blond hair and a surprisingly well kept beard. “What are we supposed to do? There’s nowhere to go. We’ll simply be killed.”

  “I have my own realm that you can go to. It’s filled with people just like you, who have been freed from a circle lord’s tyranny. Does that sound appealing to you?” Jonathan asked.

  A sudden change spread through the loose gaggle of low leveled people. “It’s you!” the Tier 2 shouted. “The Hellbreaker. We had all thought you dead. It’s been a bit more than a year since the circles merged, and a year since the Circle Lords became like gods.”

  Jonathan nodded, smiling beneath the helmet. He snapped his fingers, and the purple portal that led to his realm opened next to the former slaves. “A new life awaits you in there. Freedom to do whatever you want. To explore, to level, to craft, whatever your heart desires.”

  The slaves hardly needed any more encouragement. They surged through the portal. Within a few seconds, they were all gone, save for the Tier 2. A fire burned in his eyes. “I hope to see you again, Lord. Maybe even fight alongside you.” Before Jonathan could say anything, he ran through the portal.