“I told you already about our pyramid way of leadership. Your world is already arranged into zones. The entire world is divided into five main regions for each race, each ruled over by one heaven son.”

“One region for each big continent, right?” I asked just to make sure I got what he said right.

“You can consider it this way, but in fact it was arranged based on how your world will look like after the merge ended,” he tried to explain something I was already aware of.

The big five lands, each was supposed to be ruled out by one single big race of those aliens. As for humans, they were already wiped out from the picture.

“I get it,” I said to make him not waste time explaining this over, “what about these heaven sons then? You called them paragons, right?”

He nodded, and then shook his head. “Only one paragon is allowed for each race in any apocalypse. They are just competing with each other, as all races are competing to get more lands over other races,” he said in a solemn tone before adding:

“Our paragons are situated at the east from here, across that big water separating us from them. But the dragons have two paragons situated in this continent.”

“Two?!!” I was surprised to hear that.

“Not only them,” he still had more bad news to tell, “but the succubus race also has three paragons here, and the berserkers have two. But you can’t depend on these berserkers, after all they are here to fight everyone and not dominate anything.”

“This… It’s a big f*cking mess!” I never expected all of such attention would be focused on this part of the world.

What? Did the dragons already sat their gazes over this continent? Come on! I wouldn’t let that happen! Not under my watch.

“They have selected this part of your world to focus on,” he just confirmed my earlier guess, “and as two paragons appeared here, they also brought many strong and capable senators, vices, and even archlords. My bad luck was to be assigned here out of all places.”

“Don’t say it this way,” I said, “we are together in this. Don’t think I have no way to deal with these fiery lizards.”

“Don’t underestimate them,” he rolled his eyes, “once you do, you won’t know when or how you died!”

“I won’t,” I smiled in confidence, “just tell me everything you know about that dude near us.”

“He was supposed to go active in the centre of this continent,” Fang sighed, “but for some reasons, he abandoned his earlier plans after the first quest was over and came to this part.”

“Something forced him to be active here… Is it your race?” I asked and Fang shook his head.

“My best guess is that he met a hard rock to crack from your race.”

“Humans?” it came as a surprise even for me. I knew all about the life stories of big shots in human history in the apocalypse. They wouldn’t go active or show up their talents and abilities except after the tens quest.

Who would that be to show up his potential early on? Was there someone so strong enough to push such a deadly foe back and force him away?

“Is there a chance he might be faking all this?” I asked, trying to consider all options, “or perhaps he controlled many cities in the centre, so he is trying to expand his territory.”

“It’s not possible,” but Fang’s response was firm, “I already got the news. He lost, lost a big part of his forces in the centre. Then he came here to try and take more regions to compensate for his losses.”

“He lost big? Interesting,” I saw a chance in this.

“Don’t get your hopes high up,” but Fang kept throwing more bad news, “he got another army to support him from the big gate at the north west from here. He isn’t that weak, in fact he is so dangerous to face in my opinion.”

“Hurt and want to get revenge… Hmm… you said north west?” this point flashed back something, “so that dude was trying to go there. Does that mean his base is near?”

“He is,” he nodded in confirmation, “only one hundred miles north west from here.”

“Do you have eyes over him?”

“What do you have in mind?” he got my idea, “don’t go directly towards him now. I say we shall retreat and consolidate our forces at the shore side here. Let him vent his anger and expand his forces so we can hunt them down.”

“I don’t like that,” it was a safe and good plan. But it wasn’t an active one. “If we wait, he will consolidate his forces and be far ahead of us. At least right now his forces are all in chaos and low morale. And he will come at me anyway, right?”

“Don’t you have two cities? Why bother about this one?”

I looked at the other side of the Hudson river and couldn’t help but sigh, “the two cities are so close to not leave me in rest while he controls here. Besides, what’s the point in claiming a city then ditching it for someone else to control?”

He looked at me without saying anything for a long minute. I also kept my silence. After all, what I was proposing here seemed to be against what he had in mind for his future plans in this quest.

“If we fight him here, we will miss a lot of time and…”

“Victory isn’t guaranteed?” I grinned evilly, “just tell me, do you have eyes close to him and his forces?”

“Of course I have,” he said in a show off way, “every single archlord won’t be one without eyes in his enemy forces.”

“So he also has eyes in your forces?”

“I believe even in yours as well.”

“No,” I shrugged, “I already cleaned my forces before anything else.”

“You… don’t tell me you used that dirty compass!”

I grinned as I took one out. “Yes, you have it,” he sighed, “that means you already paid a hefty price to cleanse all of your forces.”

“That’s a must,” I said, “without doing that, how can I sleep at night.”

“Do you even sleep?”

“I’ll try to get some rest soon,” I shrugged, “anyway I want you to move slightly away from here and away from his forces… why not go south?”

“And?” he asked while thinking about my proposed plan.

“I’ll lure him to attack me while not shielding against your forces,” I said, “this way we can get him off guard.”

“But I’ll be far to the south by then!”

“It’s not you, but your main force,” I corrected.

“Do you want only me and my elites?” He read my idea and I nodded.

“I can show him a grand army of fodders, but against his elites I lose big without doubt.”

“Hmm… matching his elites means…”

“I’ll target him from the start,” I said in a serious tone as this was the base of my entire plan.

“He won’t show such weakness as you imagine,” Fang had such a defeated spirit even before we started the fight. “That toy you are happy with… I can say for sure that he has a one hundred force totally equipped with it! Can you fight such force? With only your chariot?”

One hundred? F*ck! I was almost this close to dance in joy to get one of these, and he had a hundred! And that was for his personal force to use! F*cking dragons!

“I say we play it safer… Why not let me be the bait? Go to the north and make him come to me?”

“Won’t work,” I sighed, “he will come at you with his full force. We won’t have a chance to ambush him at all!”

“Then let me go to the far north instead of south,” he proposed, “just going south will put me far from my territory.”

“Don’t set your gaze under your feet,” I noticed his issue with my plan now, “when we remove that threat off the world, then we can play as we want in a wider territory than what you have in mind.”

“But…”

“Just go south for now,” I said ending this discussion, “and let me think over the plan again. Also send me all the data you get about his force movement.”

“Why do I feel I turned into your lackey?” he glared up at me.

“It’s for our both sake,” I replied with a sly smile.

“Then let me go north and I won’t let him escape. But letting you use this damaged city as bait won’t work.”

“Just drop it, we will do it our way,” I rolled my eyes while wondering if this Selvator had a distant relative with stubborn berserkers or what.

“Alright, we’ll do it your way but you need to let part of my elites hide in your backyard.”

His tone told me he read already through my entire plan. Good Selvator, you guessed it right indeed.

“How many?” I asked before agreeing, “too much and we’ll get exposed.”

“Isn’t your force clear?”

“I’m worried about yours.”

We stayed silent for a few seconds before both breaking out in laughter. The all silent Karoline giggled and shook her head as if we were two big boys playing with each other.

“I’ll send two hundred at your other city,” he said while starting to walk away as if this was his own way to say goodbye.

“Hey, two hundred is a lot to hide!” I shouted but he only raised his fist in the air as he answered while getting away:

“I trust them with my own life. So don’t feel any worry.”

“Hey! Stop!” I tried to stop him but he simply opened up his speed and left in a hurry like he owed me money.

“Hahaha, you two… hahaha!” Karoline’s laughs made me finally snap out of what just happened.

“Did you see that? He ran away like a shameless dragon and not an honourable Selvator!”

“Hahaha, come, tell me first what Selvators mean,” she motioned towards me to come while she seemed to lose any control over her laughs.

Girl! What was funny about what happened? That dude used my backyard city as a garage to hide his own forces and keep an eye over my forces!

“Just chill out, you also got what you wanted from him,” she patted me on the shoulder while I felt more ease when she did that.

“I won’t let him spy on me,” I rolled my eyes towards the direction Fang ran towards.

“At least he is on our side, right?”

“For now, yes,” I said, “he is bound by a contract. But the contract is only limited to controlling this coastline for now.”

“This coastline? You say it as if this was a few miles area in size!!” she was surprised but I knew it wasn’t that much of a space considering the new world after the merge. “Anyway, what shall we do now?”

“We will rest,” I stretched my arms and realised I didn’t have a rest for a long time already.

“Rest and that dude is coming here for us?”

“He won’t come at once, he isn’t camping at our doorsteps or something,” I took a piece of meat out and ate it while drinking big mouths of water.

“Wow! Where did you get the meat?” her eyes sparkled when she saw my palm sized grilled meat.

“Oh, you haven’t eaten meat since the apocalypse?” she didn’t know how to cook monster meat for sure. I just missed this little detail, “come, let’s have a feast on the honour of conquering the city.”

“Only me and you?” she asked while I took out a big box filled with ammunition. It came from the dragon dude that I killed and his little elite gang.

“A lord and his girl… Why should others be with us?” I said it as if this was settled.

“You, stop it!” she poked me while holding back her laugh. And she got only a snort from me as a response while placing many pieces of meat and a big liquor filled with clean water on that table-like box.