“We have to adapt,” I shrugged, “besides our enemies lost much more than us.”

“But they have their worlds backing them up. They can just replenish their losses during the upcoming two quests. You know that we can’t take part in these.”

“I know,” she reminded me of such a punishment that I got from the paragons of other races. Of course the ones excelling in the past quests were none other than those paragons.

Who else would prove himself aside from me in such quests? Of course only paragons would be able to do that.

“And our forces? How do you plan to replenish them?”

“We will start on strengthening our forces,” I said before suddenly recalling something, “by the way, do you recognise that mysterious human army? Any past memories about it?”

If there was anyone else beside me to have valuable intel about the apocalypse then the jumper would come second and Hilary would be first.

“It’s my first time seeing such a thing,” unexpectedly she shook her head, “the only strong human forces here I’m aware of are Ed at West, Larry at South, and Emy at North.”

“The three kings and queens,” I muttered and she gave me a nod.

“They are deserving to be called this,” she said, “but I never met such an army before. You have to know that they faced a combined army of Dragons and Selvators and managed to defeat them.”

“They did?!” I already expected that, but hearing it like this was still surprising.

And she nodded.

“That means they are strong. A strong human force led by none of the famous names I and you are aware of is indeed a peculiar case,” she said before sighing, “what happened here also is the first time for me to experience or hear about it.”

“The illusion trap?”

“I never heard of an illusion that can trap millions inside and cause such considerable damage.”

“I saw your feed,” I bitterly said, “watching you endlessly fight was something torturing to me.”

“Baby,” she held my face with her little hand, “it wasn’t just a fight. At first it showed me bitter memories of my past, trying to crush my will. If not for my strong will, I would have crumbled back then.”

“This…” When I heard that, a face popped up in my mind, one that was wearing a mask.

So that was why that jumper dude acted all this crazy back then… That dude… it seemed what he saw was really taxing on his nerves and mind.

What did he see? Did he see that angelic dude sacrificing his life for him?

I knew such a memory would be deadly to him. Just bringing that past memory in any talk between us was enough to stir him up.

Experiencing everything again must have crushed him. Sigh, he wasn’t in any shape to be released free soon.

I intended to leave him here, lead the armies and defend this region. I thought he needed a few fights to vent his anger and frustration. But things seemed to grow much deeper than that.

“The one who did it is a really dangerous one,” I seriously said, “he did all this then vanished without a trace. We didn’t even get a glimpse of his origin.”

“I never thought such a terrifying person was in our apocalypse,” Hilary sighed, “even my nemesis of the angels didn’t show anything like this before.”

“He must be one of the races here.”

“But… Which race?”

“That’s what we have to find out,” I looked at the map before adding, “but first let’s go to a secured place from here. We are currently at the western borders of Illinois with Wisconsin. We shall move west from here, and start controlling the eastern side of Illinois, moving up north to control Michigan, then go south all the way to Georgia.”

“This…” she even stood up, walked around the map for a few minutes before adding, “it’s a very wide stretch of land. Can we secure it?”

“Don’t forget we have two archlords from two strong races on our side,” I reminded her of Fang and Wryly.

“They lost a lot, especially that arrogant and selfish Selvator dude!” she rolled her eyes before adding, “we asked him to come and join us but he refused, ending up getting surrounded and being attacked heavily by everyone. When we got to him, he lost at least half of his entire force.”

“He will replenish them,” I shrugged, standing up and holding her from the back, moving my hands across her slim and soft waist, “I’ll make sure the two will get enough.”

“You… never mind,” she looked at me and before I’d steal another kiss, she looked back at the map. Chick, were you trying to make me impatient here or what?

“Where do you intend to let them stay in such a big mess?” she pointed at the map before adding, “in this hot zone?”

She pointed at Illinois, Michigan, and Kentucky. Of course these areas were very hot, considering their presence near the other races’ forces in the region.

“I’ll leave Wryly here,” I pointed at Kentucky before adding, “as for Fang, he will control the southern regions down from Virginia to Georgia.”

“Doesn’t that mean…” she turned to me with a shocked face, and I nodded.

“The rest will be guarded by us. Don’t look at me in that way, it’s not that bad at all.”

“It’s that bad, and even more,” she pursed her lips in complaint and I had to admit… she was really a hot chick even when grumbling like this.

“What about that Berserker dude? Wryly isn’t it? Which parts will he control?”

“This dude is a war lover,” I sighed, “he won’t settle in any area without big fights.”

“So?”

That dude was the reason why I planned this territory in such a way. If he was slightly sane, I’d have assigned more regions to him.