While the Half-Elf slept, his Named Creatures were hard at work, completing the mission that he had entrusted to them.

Diablo, Ishtar, and Asmodeus waded across the marshlands under the cover of darkness.

The glowing embers of their eyes within their eye sockets were the only things that anyone could see.

As per their Master’s orders, they positioned themselves between the Ammar Kingdom’s Encampment and where the Yelan Army had built their defenses.

The Half-Elf ordered them to make their way to the Yelan Camp two hours before midnight to allow the darkness of the night to hide their movement.

When they were only a thousand meters from their destination, they no longer hid themselves and walked leisurely towards the Yelan Camp.

All three of them were wearing a black robe with a hood in order to hide their faces. As Undeads, they didn’t need much light to see in their surroundings. They could clearly see the heat that emanated from the living, even from afar, allowing them to pinpoint their location even in the darkness.

Diablo held a white flag in his hand, and raised it high in the air. The one thing they didn’t want was to make the Yelan Soldiers start a bombardment of magical spells, forcing them to leave before they could finish their mission.

When they were only five hundred meters from their destination, they heard a humming sound, and immediately stopped walking.

A few seconds later, an arrow embedded itself on the ground, just a meter away from Diablo’s feet.

“They have finally decided to greet us,” Ishtar said as she looked at the arrow on the ground.

Truth be told, she was tempted to take the arrow, and fire it back at the one who shot it. But, she knew that doing so would just make things complicated, so she stayed her hand, and behaved like her Master ordered her to.

Diablo kept the white flag raised in the air and didn’t move from his spot. He simply waited for someone from the Yelan Camp to meet them because they didn’t want to create any misunderstandings.

Ten minutes later, they saw dozens of soldiers on horseback, running in their direction.

All of them were carrying weapons and, according to Diablo’s estimate, half of them were Initiates, while the other half were Grade C to Grade A Apostles.

The one riding at the center gave a more powerful vibe, which made Diablo assume that he was someone important because he was giving off the aura of a Ranker.

“Are you guests, or are you pests?” the Ranker who sat on horseback asked after he, and his troops, stopped a dozen meters away from the three black-robed individuals that came to visit their camp this late at night.

“Friends,” Diablo replied. “I came here on behalf of my Master. I don’t know if you know of him, but his name is Lux Von Kaizer.”

“Lux Von Kaizer?” the middle-aged man on horseback arched an eyebrow after hearing Lux’s name. “I have heard of him, but most of the things I heard are not good. According to the reports, he is a Necromancer that used Corpse Explosion to annihilate the Ammarian Bastards who dared to invade our Western Borders. Are you saying that he sent you here to meet me?”

“Yes, and No,” Diablo replied. “I came here to meet with the Commanding Officer of the Yelan Army stationed in this part, hoping that the one in charge was either Watson or Sherlock.”

“I am the General stationed here. The two you seek are the Great Generals who are commanding the army at the Central Plains,” the General of the Yelan Army replied. “If you plan to meet them then you came to the wrong place.”

The General’s words were calm and collected, which made Lux’s three Named Creatures have a good impression of him.

“Then, can you pass this letter to one of them?” Diablo asked as he took a sealed letter out of his storage ring. “This letter contains important information, and if possible, I want to hear their reply as soon as possible.”

Diablo made a gesture of “Please take it” to the General, and the latter ordered one of his men to take the letter from Diablo’s hand.

After using some special magic to check if the letter was rigged with any kind of dangerous spells, chemicals, or form of poison, the soldier then handed the letter to his General, which the latter accepted.

“Before I consider taking this letter to our Great Generals, would the three of you remove the hoods covering your heads?” the General asked. “I want to get a better look at your faces.”

Diablo nodded and took off the hood covering his head.

The Yelan Soldiers gasped when they saw the Death Knight’s true form. They had heard about Lux from the stories that were passed around by their fellow soldiers, but they didn’t have the opportunity to see him or his Skeletons up close and personal.

Ishtar and Asmodeus also removed their hoods, showing their true forms to the General who wanted to confirm if they were telling the truth or not.

“Your names?” the General asked.

“Diablo.”

“Ishtar.”

“Asmodeus.”

The General nodded his head in acknowledgement.

“Your names match the Named Creatures serving under the one who calls himself Lux Von Kaizer,” the General stated. “As for whether I will believe you will depend on your answer to my questions. For now, follow me.”

“G-General? Are we taking them to our camp?” the General’s close aide asked in disbelief.

“Don’t worry,” the General replied. “If they do anything stupid, I’ll immediately dispose of them. There’s no need to be alarmed. Also… I am very curious to know more about the Half-Elf that helped Watson and Sherlock drive the Ammarians off our lands.”

For Diablo, Ishtar, and Asmodeus, this was the ideal situation. If they could talk more with the commanding officer of the camp, and have their letter sent to Watson and Sherlock, the chances of keeping the worst case scenario from happening was high.

If possible, Lux didn’t want to fight against his old comrades, despite the mission that was given to him.

He was trying to experiment with something, and if it worked then he would have more leeway in the future when it came to the sudden quests that appeared out of nowhere.

———

Morning the next day…

Lux woke up feeling refreshed and full of energy.

The first thing he did was to wash his face before lightly rubbing Eiko’s head, telling her to wake up.

The baby Slime sleepily opened her eyes before yawning. In the end, the Half-Elf picked Eiko up and placed her on the top of his head, allowing her to continue to sleep, while he looked for something to eat.

However, before leaving the tent, Lazarus suddenly appeared in front of his face, almost giving the Half-Elf a heart attack.

“D-Don’t do that, Lazarus,” Lux said as he patted his chest in order to calm his heart. “Do you plan to give me a heart attack?”

“I’m sorry, Master,” Lazarus replied. “I’ll keep that in mind next time. I came here to give you a report about what happened while you slept.”

“Okay,” Lux replied after regaining his composure. “Did something happen last night?”

Lazarus nodded. “There were several people who peeked through the tent to check if you were sleeping or not. One was Cai, the other was Henrietta, and the third one was Malcolm. They just peered at you from a distance then, after seeing that you were asleep, they left without doing anything else.”

Lux blinked because he didn’t expect that people would come looking for him in the middle of the night.

“Thank you,” Lux stated. “I’ll talk to them later and ask them if they need me for anything. Thank you for your hard work.”

“I live to serve you, Master,” Lazarus replied. “Should I continue to guard here, or should I follow you around? I can remain invisible, while I’m with you.”

Lux firmly shook his head because he thought that this was a bad idea. Although ordinary people wouldn’t be able to see Lazarus, the General Phobus might.

The Generals of the Ammar Kingdom had heard news from the survivors that the one who attacked them was a Necromancer. If General Phobus saw Lazarus, he might connect the dots and become suspicious of Lux, jeopardizing their mission. Google seaʀᴄh Nov(l)ꜰre .t

Lux explained his worries to Lazarus, and the Great Flame Skull nodded his head in understanding.

“I understand,” Lazarus stated. “Just call me again if you need me, Master.”

“Thank you, Lazarus. I’ll ask you to guard me again tonight.”

“It will be my pleasure.”

The Half-Elf unsummoned Lazarus just before he left the tent in order to look for something to eat.

An hour later, the Half-Elf received some good news from Diablo, stating that his letter was now on its way to the Central Plains where Watson and Sherlock were stationed.

‘I just hope my assumptions are correct,’ Lux thought as he sighed in his heart.

He didn’t know if the quests he received could be tampered with, but if the possibility existed, he was more than willing to give it a try in order to not burn the bridges that he had built some time ago.

While he was deep in thought, he saw Cai, Keane, Xander, and Henrietta eating together, so the Half-Elf headed in their direction.

To his surprise, Cai, Keane, Xander, and Henrietta had also broken through the Initiate Rank, just like him, which proved that they had also absorbed the Beast Cores that they received as rewards from their last mission.

‘Finally, I have two more strong fighters in my Guild,’ Lux thought as he greeted the four people with a smile.

He hoped that his other Guild Members would be able to raise their ranks also, so that all of them could work together in order to protect their Guild from those who would try to overturn it in the future.