Another couple hours with some terrible ideas about dramatic poses and Eli arrived at a small creek. Stopping to enjoy the feel of the cool water on his feet, he stood perfectly still as he felt someone approaching him from behind. The magic wasn’t familiar and it was coming from the direction he had just come from so it was either someone following him or someone hunting him. He stayed still as they closed in, it was definitely a person, but not like any person he had felt before, it felt like there was static in their magic. Similar to how an old TV antenna would lose reception and the screen would go fuzzy. Then a piece clicked, it was Gwen, and she was much stronger than she had been.

  He waited for the inevitable ambush, preparing himself to have to restrain her, or even kill her, but nothing happened. She was just out what would normally be the range for anyone to notice, hearing or seeing her. Her soul shook so hard with anxiety that he could feel it in his chest, she wanted him for something, but was so scared she was shaking all the way down to her soul. This was just a reminder of what he had done to her and a flash of guilt hit him in the back of the head so hard it almost staggered him. He didn’t stagger though, he reached for his will and resolve so he could do what was needed, which got him ready but it didn't stop him from lowering his head and letting out a long and intentionally loud sigh.

  It had to be obvious that he knew she was there, stopping, standing at the ready, then sighing loudly was plenty to let her know he knew she was there. Eli was about to attack but stopped himself when she slowly moved closer to him. Curious as to what she was planning, he turned around and locked eyes with her and what he saw nearly floored him. She was crying, but with a wild and manic look in her eyes. Her clothes and armor were torn to pieces leaving nothing to the imagination, but they were clean, no blood or dirt on them. This led to another hammer of guilt to the back of his head, she tore her own clothes and armor up, she might be further gone than he thought.

  Without breaking eye contact he lifted a hand, “That is far enough, state your reason for following me.”

  She fell to her knees and lowered her head putting her hands behind her knees and fell to her butt trapping her hands. “I mean you no harm, I only wish to ask a favor from the only god I know to exist.”

  “Speak your peace, I will listen.” Eli said. He really felt like he had to crank the cheesy drama up to eleven since she was being so sincere. Also, there was something with the look in her eyes, it was mostly terror, but there was a bit of awe in there too. He walked slowly up to her and stood about three steps away.

  “Am I allowed to live? I was trapped as a punishment, I did not escape on purpose and do not wish to incur further wrath.” Gwen said as she lowered herself closer to the ground.

  Eli scratched his chin in thought, more for her sake than to actually think. As best as he could gather, she went a bit nuts and rationalized the whole thing as a god’s punishment to keep what little of her mind together as she could. “What is your name?”

  “Gwen, your divineness… uh, sir.” She said, obviously trying to figure out how to address him.

  “That was your name before, what is your name now?” Eli asked, hoping that her renaming herself will help this all feel like a new start and not the end of something else.

  She got a puzzled look on her face, “Do you wish me to have a different name?”

  “Yes, you choose one to mark yourself as a wholly different being than you were before.”

  She thought for a while, about a third of the tension he had felt already dissipating, he just hoped this would help her start over and move on, preferably away from him. The last thing he needed was some crazy girl hanging around causing problems while he was focused on other things. That thought triggered a chain of thoughts in his mind about priorities and what he should actually be focusing on. He didn’t need to worry about public perception or what the people thought of him or his group, what he needed was to grow. He would focus on growth, for himself and his people and everyone else could just go suck an egg.

  Eli would not forget his destiny, he just didn’t need the people to like him or even know he had done anything at all. If he had to worry about public perception, then what if he needed to take down a popular lord or city ruler that had a secret dark side? He would have to spend months getting the people on his side before he could do anything. But if he doesn't have to care about what they think then he can just take care of business and not worry about what people know about what he did. And that is only if they even find out, if he has to enter a safe zone to handle a cruel or depraved lord or ruler, there is probably a way he could do it quietly.

  “Aria,” She said, breaking Eli out of his thoughts.

  Eli did his best to not smile at an ‘A’ name like his pseudonym and Alora, “You are free Aria, go out into the world and find out who this new you can be. Do not kill unless your life is threatened, that is my only rule.” Then he started walking away, heading back to his town and sending messages to everyone to leave her alone and come back home. She got up and started walking in the opposite direction, the manic fear on her face replaced by an intense focus and determination. She had been trapped inside her own soul for an uncountable amount of time and she came out stronger and with a new purpose, she would not let him down.

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  Everyone returned to camp and Eli instructed everyone to make an emblem to represent their guild, something they could wear to the conference and would let the world's most powerful know when they encountered one of his people. It would either condemn them to death or spare their lives, which is why he would only force Bethany and Alora to wear it along with himself. In addition to the art contest, they were getting ready for the coming monster horde that was coming in under a day. This one seemed to start at midnight and since the sun had just come up, they had about 15 hours to get everything ready.

  To start, Bethany and Alora were getting everyone ready, checking items from Theodore and upgrading gear as they could. Alora didn’t know everyone very well, only knew some of their names but they had all been told she was Eli’s apprentice so her words held even more weight than Bethany’s in the town. The problem was, she had no idea how to lead people or even how to organize anything like this, so the situation devolved into her becoming Bethany’s assistant. They gave people assignments, having them pair up to help each other or so they could trade off and get rest.

  Lucy had her group near the pond on the ground, she would lead them so they could get some experience. Tara would be down there with her during the fighting to make sure the people didn’t get hurt in any way that wouldn’t heal over time, but she wouldn’t be fighting full on since using the magic in her body that comes from Eli shortens her lifespan. During the planning and preparations however, she and Eli were taking another few attempts at getting her pregnant. Beau and Arinya were going to the west with Alora helping them and the center where the town was. She was not experienced enough in fighting to help new people, but she would be able to do a lot of fighting if someone slips up and gets hurt.

  The east, from the town to the ocean was going to be covered by Bethany and Umber. They got along really well and she wanted to work out a way for them to fight together more cohesively. With them covering such a large area for the entire event they would be able to work it all out and Umber can get some more levels. With the highest level of monster being only 100, they didn’t think it would be difficult and everyone was ready to work on technique and magic usage so that they could fight for hours and not be hindered by running out of magic. And at the same time, everyone also wanted to go with Eli on his next dungeon run, the last two he went into, everyone came out stronger and with some amazing gear.

  Just as they were leaving to take up positions as the sun was going down, Stevens showed up with a girl who he was apparently trying to impress by taking her into the ‘Castle in the Sky’ and the people in the safe zone were calling it. He was introducing her to everyone before they took to teleporting stone pillar down to the ground when Eli came out of his ‘castle’ and walked up to them with Tara walking up beside him. Stevens looked proud of himself when introducing her to everyone, she was in her early twenties with shoulder length red hair, pale skin, and freckles. She was skinny, obviously not a fighter, but absolutely adorable, the kind of wholesome and kind looking girl you would see in a movie about a small town.

  Stevens put his arm around her and faced toward Eli. Their closeness seemed to be for his benefit just as much as hers as they braced themselves for Eli, who had obviously grown even more powerful than the last time Stevens had seen him. Both of their bodies were tense but for different reasons, Stevens was worried that he would seem lesser in her eyes after meeting Eli, and she was scared. She wasn’t afraid for her life, it was more like she understood that if she wanted to stay with Stevens, there was a test to pass and the only question on it was ‘Does he approve?’.

  “Eli, this is…” Stevens started to say before Tara cut him off.

  “She can speak for herself Stevens,” Tara said, “Speak up girl, tell us who you are and why he has brought you here.”

  She froze for a second, glanced at Tara, then back to Eli, then back to Tara. “My name is Mint, I changed it to that in the tutorial, my real name is Amanda. Stevie here saved me from a bad situation and got me started on some crafting and we just started to get to know each other when this event was going to take him away for longer than he wanted to leave me alone. I told him I would be fine and that he has responsibilities to help the whole safe zone and not just me so he told me about all of you and this place. I didn’t believe him, I just thought he was trying to get me in bed before the monsters came, but here we are.”

  “So you two are not a couple then?” Tara asked. “Because if you aren’t then he must really care about you, putting your safety above his fears.”

  “Fears?” Mint said with a confused look.

  “There's no need to…” He tried to say before being cut off by Tara again.

  “He fears that you will fall for Eli here since he seems to hold a lot of attention from the women already in our group.” Tara explained.

  “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t attracted to him but I want nothing to do with that. Powerful leaders are how I ended up in the bad situation that he saved me from. I just want a man that can keep me safe and love me for my heart while I focus on my cooking.”

  “Cooking!” Tara yelled excitedly. “You come with me.” Tara put her arm around her and they walked off together discussing the future food they were going to eat.

  “Well?” Stevens asked Eli.

  He put his hand on Stevens' shoulder, “I think she’s a keeper, she suits you.”

  “Well we aren’t anything right now, but I think she is great. Saving her gave me a taste of what you must experience.” Stevens explained.

  “How so?”

  “The way she looks at me, like I’m the whole world. It's similar to how Bethany and Tara look at you, only without that slight hint of fear that they have.”