Her face would be beet red, the veins in her neck bulging.

If Orion, Leonidas, and Makareth were all in the same room with Isabella, that's exactly what she would look like. Orion could picture it perfectly.

Leonidas: If I had to guess, Makareth's already in the middle of consolidating his body of faith. He'll be hitting archlord any day now.

That was a low blow.

By shifting the topic to Makareth, Leonidas was seemingly letting Isabella off the hook. In reality, it was a critical hit that dealt true damage, bypassing all her defenses.

After all, when Makareth was still below the peak of the Legendary tier, he had fought Isabella and her colossal dragon to a standstill. And now? Makareth had lapped her. He was at the same rank and already preparing for his next ascension. In comparison, Isabella's own minor progress felt pathetic.

Makareth: Bro, I was fine until you brought it up. Now I'm just depressed.

Makareth: I was this close to having enough faith energy. But the second the news about the Unhallowed dropped, my faith generation just… stopped. Dead in the water.

Maybe he was genuinely that frustrated, or maybe he was just oblivious. Either way, Makareth completely ignored Isabella's feelings and ran with Leonidas's topic. Orion could imagine Isabella's internal world: a tiny demon, looking exactly like Makareth, gleefully twisting a pitchfork in her already festering wound, inflicting a high-level, dispell-resistant soul-rot.

Makareth: I can feel it. My entire layer of the abyss is in a full-blown panic. I was wondering why all my neighbors were suddenly scrambling to find patrons, why my own elders were constantly testing my limits, pushing me to swear fealty to some other archlord. Now it all makes sense.

He had connected the dots. The panic he'd seen in the old demons around him wasn't baseless paranoia.

Leonidas: You're a real piece of work, you know that? Your situational awareness is garbage.

Leonidas: Give me your coordinates in the abyss. I'll send an avatar over to keep you from getting yourself killed.

Leonidas always took care of the apprentices in his crew.

Makareth: You got it, bro! When you get here, I'll round up every last Demondrake matriarch in the territory for you!

Leonidas: …

The temptation was real. Makareth knew his audience.

Hulk: I'll go. I've already got a city in his sector.

Orion cut in, volunteering for the duty. His fortress, Vigil's Point, was built in the heart of Makareth's territory. In defending his own land, Makareth was also defending Orion's. Makareth hadn't mentioned it, but that didn't mean Orion would let it slide.

Leonidas: Alright, then. It's on you, bro.

Orion taking over was fine by Leonidas; it let him off the hook. Besides, Orion was the one who had crossed paths with Makareth during his last abyssal campaign. It made more sense for him to handle it.

Makareth: Waiting for your return to Vigil's Point, bro!

Whether it was Leonidas or Orion made no difference to him. They were both demigod-level big shots. With one of them on his side, his foothold in the abyss was secure. And for an ambitious demon like Makareth, the second layer was just the beginning. He had his sights set on realms even higher than Orion's sixth layer.

Kraken: @MakMak, the abyss has oceans, right?

Kraken: Listening to all this is getting me hyped!

Kraken: You can't have an abyss invasion without your boy Kraken, right?

Seeing that the matter was settled, Kraken picked his moment to jump in.

Leonidas: Heh, don't you worry, Squiddy. The abyss has every kind of world you can imagine. Oceans are a given. Once this blows over, your big bro will personally pick out a prime slice of sea for you, a few big islands included.

Leonidas: Now that I'm a demigod, it's about time I moved my abyssal nest to a better neighborhood anyway.

It was clear. Once he had the time, Leonidas planned to push into the higher dimensions of the abyss himself. Ascending to demigod had infinitely amplified his need for resources and faith. For the foreseeable future, invasion and plunder would be his primary focus.

Kraken: You say the word, Big Boss, and I'll be waiting.

As Kraken's mentor, his relationship with Leonidas was different. While others might use the title, Orion and the others knew that for Kraken, "Big Boss" was a title reserved for Leonidas alone. When Makareth or Isabella used it, it only seemed to highlight the distance between them.

Leonidas: @Isabella, you're not sulking, are you? Giving me the silent treatment?

Leonidas: Where's your sense of perspective?

Whether it was intentional or not, Leonidas dragged the spotlight back to Isabella.

Isabella: I'm not sulking, you are! Your whole family is sulking!

It was a childish retort, born of frustration. But the fact that she responded at all showed she wasn't petty. She was just a woman, and some topics, some jabs, she couldn't brush off as easily as Orion or Leonidas could.

Leonidas: Hahaha… good to hear. When Alexander wakes up, you should ask him to take you on a little training trip to the abyss.

The implication was clear: once the situation in the Silverwood Realm was stable, he planned on getting the old crew together for a full-scale invasion of the abyss.

Isabella: I will.

***

Emerald Dream Realm, the Northern Dusk Continent.

Isabella stood on the walls of a city built upon the foundations of an ancient Silver-Eyed ruin, staring into the distance.

In truth, Leonidas's words hadn't been the thing that cut her. The real blow was Makareth's casual admission that he was already pushing for archlord.

They were all Survivors. Makareth had even joined the Champions Alliance after her. And yet, in what felt like the blink of an eye, everyone seemed to be surging forward while she was… not.

A wave of powerlessness washed over her, draining her of all motivation. Hearing them all casually planning to invade the abyss—a challenge she had never even conceived of for herself—made her feel like she was running in place.

Have I gotten too comfortable? she thought, a bitter taste in her mouth. Or is it because I'm a woman? Am I just… weaker than them?

No… that can't be it.

No one was there to comfort Isabella in her moment of self-pity. Everyone was busy.

What she had to do was pull herself together, put on her game face, and meet tomorrow head-on.

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