"Linda? Not to sound disrespectful, but are you sure we can trust her?

" David asked.

"I am seventy percent absolutely certain that we can,

" John answered.

David turned to Jeanny with a weird face. Jeanny just shrugged in response. Spring Crown was giggling behind them.

While they were talking, Chris changed the image in his projection to show Thereath. The image went into Thereath palace and zoomed into the throne room. Inside, they saw Master sitting on the throne.

"Well, there you have your answer,

" John said.

"I don't understand. Why does he return to Thereath instead of finishing the job?

" Four Winds asked.

"He is pissed,

" Jack said.

"Huh? What do you mean?

"

"I can't say for sure, but I think I know him enough after fighting him for so long and spending some time with him inside Euphosine's dimension,

" Jack answered.

"He is a very emotional man, but he has learned to suppress his emotions to such an extent that he appears cold. I think after gaining this God power, which allows him to no longer play by anyone's rule, his true color has surfaced.

"

"In other words, he is a selfish child in an adult's skin. Now that you mentioned it, I do believe I glimpsed that narcissistic side of him occasionally when I was working for him,

" Spring Crown said.

"Okay, he is pissed, but I still have the same question. Why did he return to Thereath instead of going after the other divine factions?

" Four Winds asked.

"He can kill two birds with one stone, venting his anger and completing his objective.

"

"Because he knows his flaws. Like I said, he has learned to suppress his emotions, which means he sees them as a problem,

" Jack explained.

"He doesn't want to continue his work while his emotions go rampant. He is afraid he might commit a mistake if he goes under that condition.

"

"Are you saying he is cooling himself off right now?

" Jeanny asked.

"If we put it simply, yes,

" Jack answered.

"Whatever the case, he has given us a breather,

" John said.

"This allows us to act, but we must move fast! We will send five people simultaneously to warn the divine factions. Cleo, you go to warn your sisters in the Cult of Lytta.

"

Red Death gave John an irritated stare. She didn't like it when someone called her by her real name unless it was from people she considered close. She was even more upset when John considered her as a part of the Cult of Lytta.

John acted like he didn't notice Red Death's stare. He continued,

"Jeanny, you go and warn the Council of Hybris. Grace, you go and warn Greed's faction. I don't know what his faction is named.

"

"He doesn't have a faction anymore. He wiped them out,

" Grace said.

"He is one weird God. In that case, you stay. Wilted, you go to the Village of Peace and warn the Harmony Keepers,

" John resumed.

"Next, Spring Crown. You go to the Devotee of Passion and warn them.

"

"Why me?

" Spring Crown protested.

"Because I say so,

" John replied.

"When you arrive, tell them what has happened to the three divine factions Master destroyed. Tell them if they don't want to face the same fate, they need to relocate immediately. Better yet, tell them to split up and hide until we bring Master down. Don't waste too much time there. If they are stubborn or don't believe you, leave them. We don't owe them anything. We can't have you risk yourself being there when Master decides to resume his operation.

"

When everyone was silent, John stressed,

"I mean it. Do not spend more time than needed. Do not try to convince them more than you need to. If you think you are not up to it, I will send a more cold-blooded person... I will have Cleo go to the divine faction one by one for the task.

" Red Death's irritated stare turned to one filled with killing intent. Jack hurriedly stood between her and John, to prevent anything untoward from happening.

"Hey, do you forget about Hope's faction?

" Four Winds asked.

"I never forget a thing,

" John returned.

"We won't be warning the Council of Elpo. I, however, will go there to talk to them. After we finish warning the other divine factions, we will all go there.

"

"Why?

"

"The base of the Council of Elpo, the Sky Haven, will be the place where we make our final stand against Master,

" John answered.

"Even though Master will most likely come alone, I don't want to take any chance. We will wait for him there and ambush him before he acts. Once we strip his Godhood, we will gang up on him together with the most powerful natives in this world. We will leave him with no chance of victory!!

"

John was making a victory pose with his fist held high while saying that. The others looked at each other, not sure if they should mimic his enthusiasm.

"Uh... Yay...?

" Jack uttered while lifting his fist in the spirit of solidarity.

John returned to normal pose as if nothing had happened. He calmly said,

"All right, the five

of us will depart at once! Chris, use your Anywhere Portal and send us to the divine factions I mentioned.

"

"If anything, I admire his ability to feel no shame,

" Spring Crown remarked.

"I agree with you,

" David said.

"Stop chatting and come!

" John yelled at Spring Crown and David.

"Okay! Okay! I swear, you are worse than Master in some ways,

" Spring Crown said. He followed John and the others who were heading to the Anywhere Portal.

Wilted stayed inside the lakeside pavilion. Chris had set the monitoring device so she could operate it. She was the only one allowed this privilege. She continued to monitor the projection. Master didn't move from the throne, so she left the image as it was. John asked her to keep an eye on Master and messaged him if anything happened.

Inside Thereath Palace's throne room, Master remained silent on the throne with a brooding face.

Linda was in a meeting with Thaergood and the other native advisors in the throne room when Master showed up. They stopped their meeting and waited for Master's instructions, but he just sat there without saying anything. After a long and uncomfortable silence, Linda decided to resume the meeting, ignoring Master's presence.

It was almost half an hour before they heard Master's voice.

"I will be unavailable for one or two days. Tomorrow morning, if anyone disobeys my earlier decree to join the Reconstruction Force, capture them. You may slay them if they resist.

"

"Are you going to finish off the remaining divine factions?

" Linda asked.

"How do you know I want to finish them off?

" Master asked in return.

"You have taken out the Council of Virtus and the Council of Charites in this capital. You also took out the Cult of Phobos soon after. It's not difficult to guess your next action.

" When Master narrowed his eyes, Linda explained,

"After the war, I tasked people to tail the retreating divine factions to find out the location of their bases. We never know if those divine factions can accept your rule. They might try to do something. That's why I have people remain in the vicinity to monitor them. I received a report not long ago of a huge cave-in burying the base of the Cult of Phobos. It is not difficult to hazard a guess about what had

happened.

"

"Hmph,

" Master harrumphed without asking for more explanation. He answered Linda's previous question,

"I'm not in the mood to finish them. I will do that after I return. I am doing

something else.

"

"May I know what it is?

" Linda asked.

"You may not,

" Master answered. He then vanished from there.

At Chris' secret garden, John was madly messaging the ones who had not yet returned. He had started doing that when Master said he would be leaving. He received a message from Linda regarding this, which was unnecessary because he could hear their conversation from the projection device. Linda didn't know that, though.

Linda conversed with Master to delay him. Even though Master said he wasn't going to the divine factions, no one knew if he was telling the truth. John didn't want to take a risk. He insisted those who had not yet returned to do so immediately. Chris had sent them the invitation to teleport back here. But unlike when they completed their pinnacle class trials, they had to accept the invitation before they were teleported.

Out of the five, three had returned. The first who returned was Red Death. She warned Likokira with one simple sentence about Master's attempt to wipe out the divine factions. She called Chris to teleport her back afterward. Whether Likokira heeded her warning or not, she didn't

care.

The second to return was Spring Crown. He was not as indifferent as Red Death, but he didn't care too much as well. The third was John. He spent more time talking with Honuren because

they would use that place as a battlefield.

The two yet to return were Wilted and Jeanny.