Dyon grunted as Ri gently lowered him to the bed. He would need a few more hours before he was in perfect shape. Although he had melded together grandmaster level pills, it seemed the energy the young man had used was quite special…

“You’re such an idiot.” Ri said for what must have been the millionth time. Her hands flashed with blue as she spun spatial transference arrays into existence to help Dyon take his clothes off in the least painful way.

Dyon smiled watching Ri act so flustered. “You think I could just let that happen to you?”

“YES!” Ri pouted. “Risking your life for me isn’t something I want.”

“Hmph.” Dyon tried to roll over in defiance, but the stinging pain in his torso made him change his mind. “What kind of man sneak attacks a woman. He’s as good as dead.”

Ri flicked Dyon’s forehead. “He’s too powerful for you, don’t be stupid. He didn’t put everything into his attack because it was only meant to divert our attention from him killing Commander Draven.”

“Yea, yea. He’s still dead.”

Ri giggled at Dyon’s antics. She fully understood he was only pretending to take this lightly. An event like today to someone like Dyon was very much etched into his psyche. Fairness, age, background… These were all irrelevant things to him. In Dyon’s mind, there shouldn’t be anything in this world able to catch him off-guard, and the fact something had was grating on his nerves.

Gently pulling Dyon’s clothes from him, Ri knelt on the bed and kissed Dyon’s forehead. “We’ll take him down together, okay? Who told him it was okay to hurt my man?”

Dyon sighed in relief as Ri’s ice will washed over his body. ‘This is better than any ice bath…’

Ri smiled, lost in her own world as she kneaded Dyon’s tight muscles, trying to ignore the pain in her heart from seeing the horrid bruises on his torso.

“Akash will probably want to head to Lotus Tower soon.”

Dyon nodded. Each God level Clan had a specific tower they usually gravitated toward protecting. The reason for this was because each tower usually had quirks and tendencies of their own, despite their overall unpredictability. As a result, many had towers they had gotten used to the oddities of, thus making them more comfortable under those conditions. For the elves, it just happened to be Lotus Tower.

In terms of the key towers themselves, there were a total of nine. Other than the Earth Tower and Gautama Tower, which were both at opposing ends of the gate, the Epistemic Tower was found directly in the middle of the two. The remaining six towers were left three to each side of that midline connecting the Earth, Gautama and Epistemic Towers.

In the end, it was an asymmetrical arrangement that resulted in four towers being closer to either side, with the Epistemic Tower being placed directly in the center of everything, oddly connecting it all.

“Things are about to get very dangerous, Ri.”

Ri paused her massage, before continuing. “Were there things you didn’t tell them?”

“I would love to be part of a world where I didn’t have to scheme and hide anything, but unfortunately, that’s just not possible.” Dyon always instinctively put up concealment arrays when he and Ri were alone, and this time was no different. “Especially when we consider the caliber of enemy we’re dealing with right now…”

Ri nodded. “His movements odd, but also oddly planned. The reasons behind them seem obvious, but it also seems that it was designed that way intentionally. I don’t have any idea what his motives are.”

“I can’t claim to know either. I only have some guesses.” Dyon winced a bit as Ri’s hands glided over a particularly sore spot. “What I can say is that the memories I took from the Vice Commanders and Liska had nothing to do with this gate being an Ancient Game.”

“It is not one?”

Dyon shook his head. “It is. I’m about 80% sure that it is. But, that’s only something I figured out learning about how they crossed the gate without losing their massive beasts.”

A pensive looked appeared on Ri’s face. “So… He wants us to think that his focus is to attack the other three towers by not fainting, by actually doing it. All while his goal is something else.”

Dyon smiled, Ri’s leap in logic went at least three steps ahead. She was clearly getting sharper because of her awakened aurora. 𝘪𝘳.𝒸𝘰𝑚

She was also exactly right.

This was clearly a test run. And it was a test run that served two purposes. The first was to pull all of their most powerful members back to the Earth Tower. This was executed perfectly because of how painfully easy it was to scout an attack directed toward Earth Tower. After all, there was only one entrance. By making it obvious that Earth Tower was about to be attacked by the very powerful Scaled Elephants, the campaign heads would have no choice but to pull back.

The second purpose was as an actual test run. How else would they know if their method of traversing the gates worked unless they tried it? But, it was very important that this test run be to Earth Tower, or else it would slow down the timing of everything else. Completing two steps in one was most efficient.

To any outside observer, that was it. The opposing universe wanted to attack the three gates while their best defenders were away. But, anyone who thought that would have missed one important fact: The fact the innate aurora wielder had come personally.

This wouldn’t have been a point worth bringing up if it had only been Bas and Liska, but, the very fact a young man who had spent so many years diligently hiding his identity would come out just for this even after watching the Phantus get decimated with no sign of stepping in? Something else was going on.

But, even that wouldn’t have been enough for them to assume this was a ploy. It would have only been enough to raise an eyebrow. However, what Ri was banking on was what Dyon had taken from the memories of the Vice Commanders and Liska. Memories he still had yet to say a truthful word about.

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