Will climbed his way after me.

- That was... Not the best. She is pissed, and pissed bitches bite, I can tell you that much.

- She can bite my ass. I'm not gonna become leader of her cult, and just dance around ash she wants, because she this or that, and make few girls flash me with their tits. I'm better than that. I'm not Mark.

- You definitely are not, but now she will try to get her revenge. That's for sure.

- I won't allow that. I'll live as an example for those people. I make them go in the right direction, and they will soon realize that she just wants to use them.

- I'm not convinced she does want to use them. Maybe she genuinely believes in what she says?

- Then there won't be any revenge. She will just accept that it's this way. If they want to follow me, they will. If they want something else, then that means this whole religion was just a bunch of bullshit from the beginning, and they really didn't think I'm the chosen one or whatever.

- One way, or the other, Hatta needs to know.

- I'll tell him myself.

- How about we go now?

- Sure.

Like this, we headed straight to the office of the leader of Wuxia. He was buried under papers when we got inside, but immediately stopped focusing on those, and turned his attention to us.historical

- What brings you two?

- We had a little incident involving Maia, and her lovely group of fanatics - stated Will.

- Should I be scared? - asked Hatta, turning his gaze from him to me.

- I think it went well.

- What does that mean? Just tell me what happened - he said, and stood up from his chair, to get to the other side of his desk, and sat on its corner.

- She wanted to show me her army, and make me officially the head of her... organization? Anyway... I said yes, but instead of becoming a boss, I told them to be good, work hard and follow my direction. That's it. They liked it. She didn't.

- Well... I'm not gonna pretend like you did a great job, Peter. Fortunately, it's not terrible either. Maybe we can work with that...

- What do you mean by that?

- Just... I need to speak with Aisha and Blue. We need to find out how it looks from the inside. You also should introduce me to them. Tomorrow if not today. We need to put them to work when we still have a chance. Maybe we can dismantle the whole thing, or at least undermine Maia's position so they lose the respect for her, and really will follow in your footsteps. Eh... Peter, you are really not making this easy for me.

- I did what I thought was the right choice.

- I know, I know - he sighed. - I need to go to the Velvet Lotus, so if you could excuse me...

- Yeah go - I said, and turned around to leave.

They both followed me, and we went outside. Hatta kept walking, but we stayed.

- So what now? - I asked Will.

- I have an idea. Come with me.

And I did. He headed straight to the device, and bought a big barrel of some liquid, then picked it up, and started going somewhere.

- Where are we going?

- Just come.

Pretty soon I realized our destination. We were about to visit the neighborhood of Followers of Divine Tree. They were after some kind of gran talk with Maia as we entered, and few people were all ready to go about their businesses, but they stopped upon noticing us.

- Gather, people! Gather! - Will yelled while putting the barrel down. - Bring mugs, or whatever you have, and come here! Let's sit, and talk!

His words made a bit of ruckus, and soon the first bunch decided to go for it. Will in the meantime cracked the top of the barrel open.

Very soon we found ourselves surrounded by people slowly sipping their alcohol.

Will started asking them about their names, and generally what they were doing before they ended up in the city. He already knew a few people. He even managed to engage me in the conversation. We answered many questions and told many stories. At some point, we even started cracking jokes.

Soon we found ourselves in need of more beer and food. It transformed into some kind of picnic. I told everybody how I managed to stop the first war, and then how we ended up under the invasion.

I told them about the canyon, and how we met Uhm's. I even told them about the swamps, and bear forest. They were really curious.

I realized that they are not fanatic, but just normal people, like me. They just wanted to make sense out of it all. They wanted purpose. They also wanted to feel needed and special.

It went through half of the night, and we needed to light up a few tocheses. I made my shadows work as stands for the sources of light.

I had no idea how Will did it, but he transformed that evening into something I really enjoyed. He defused the bomb, that could explode in my hands.

Maia left us pretty soon, but nobody seemed like they needed her there.

In the middle of the night, I made my way back to the barracks. Many people were wasted because we drank really heavily, but not me or William. We were sober as ever, even without trying. There was just too much difference in our bodies.

I lied on my bed with a smile on my face. Obviously, that was not the end, but what happened made me feel positive about the future. It kinda felt like a nightmare that ended with 'happy ever after'. With my friends around me, I didn't need to be afraid about what was about to come. They were the hidden strength that I actually never considered.

The day came to an end with 13 271 090 points remaining on my account, and forty-two class points.