'What the fuck was that?!'

Sloth, after whispering in his ear, crawled away and back to her throne, then began napping again.

Taking the opportunity, Vale wasted no time in getting the fuck out of there the moment his legs decided to listen to him.

Who cared if he had questions for a damned oracle! He wanted to live!

With shaky steps, he sauntered off into nothingness. Putting one foot in front of the other until white consumed black, and found himself on the ground.

Vale lay on his back and stared up into the white expanse with an absent expression, taking taxing breaths.

Mias was kneeling nearby, inspecting the inky door as it closed.

"You okay?"

Vale continued to lightly hyperventilate as he forced himself up. He couldn't help but vocalize his thought from earlier.

"What in the hell was that…?"

Mias's face narrowed as he studied Vale's body as if something was wrong with it. But, soon his face returned to normal, and he asked:

"Care to explain?"

"I will. Just uh… need a moment."

***

Vale, after taking a 5-minute breather, having felt the closest to death he'd ever been, explained all of his findings and conjectures to Mias.

He gave his theory about a secondary enemy, and that they were most likely Envy.

Then, he told him of Sloth's odd actions.

Mias himself had a weird reaction to what Vale told him about Sloth, but whatever was going on in his mind seemed intent on staying there.

With that curt talk finished, Vale gave Mias his fateful order of mapping the surrounding area and the village as close to reality as possible.

Once he did, Vale would place a blueprint over a diorama made by Mias, and the workers would build a map of the surrounding land.

From there, they could get an overhead view and decide the best course of action and how to approach the battle.

After all, being able to control the terrain and using it to one's advantage was how one could win even the most desperate of battles.

To do Mias's task, a third mini Mias appeared, which would stay behind in the core and create the diagram while the two other Mias would relay the shape of the land.

The original Mias was sent off, and Vale went to find Salome, whom Toy had swapped guard for.

It didn't take too long, as the moment he stepped out of the core, he could see her hand resting on the side of the [Wingback Chair] and her wings jutting out to either side, her Aether fueling the comfy enchantment.

Before he even got in front of her, Vale began speaking:

"Salome, how would you like to take Awilix and go on a massacre?"

Salome's head shot up and back with a wicked grin adorned upon it.

"I wouldn't mind relieving some stress. What do you have in mind?"

Vale smiled:

"Purging the canyon..."

Vale went on about his goal, even though he knew the potential negatives.

According to Salome and Mias, when a beast, or anything for that matter, was killed, their entire being breaks down rapidly.

The soul ascends, descends, transports, or fades. Their Aether core crystallizes. Finally, the residual Aether running through their body is either lost and scattered throughout the world or trapped within the vessel until it eventually escapes through decomposition or consumption.

Meaning, a bit of Aether will be released and added to the overall density of an area, drawing even stronger beasts.

So, if they went on an uninterrupted and untamed slaughter, who knew what Rank and Class of beasts would take their place in time? And who knew who else would take notice?

Sure, Ophelia knew who and where he was, but she hadn't ratted them out yet. It seemed her goal was to defeat Vale on her own merit. Or perhaps she was plotting something else.

In any case, there was a high chance that if the Aether density increased significantly, Celestia or Akkuron might draw notice even without Ophelia's involvement.

Something Vale feared, even not know much of anything about them.

But, at the same time, dawdling in his growth any longer would lead to Ophelia and the villagers growing stronger by the day.

Therefore, his solution of mass slaughter, which would equal mass Aether.

Vale would have loved to include himself in this excursion, but it was much too dangerous given the circumstances.

Awilix sprinted out of the training hall and screamed:

"Did you say massacre? I'm in!"

In no time, the two, alongside Diana's squad, which was the best suited for the terrain outside, set off with the sole intent of carnage and Aether Shard collection for Vale…

Yeah, that was the sole intent.

Surely they didn't follow his order because they wanted to go on a killing spree…

'Right?'

Vale sighed as he walked a little in front of the throne and toward the tiny Mias, who only rose to about his shin and was in the middle of channeling his smoke to make a 3-D diorama.

'Wow.'

Even though made out of ashy smoke, looking down into the Terracotta Scar from above, it held an uncanny beauty.

Even more…

As the diorama continued to add more and more landmarks, it put into scale how big this place really was.

Even toned down to a small size, he still needed multiple steps to cross the distance of the diorama's gorge.

Furthermore, the waterfall was even farther than it appeared.

Vale watched in anticipation as the immediate canyon was finished and the smoky specter began to outline the land around — something he'd been mighty curious about as he had no hope of seeing any time soon.

Yet, something stood out in the canyon, begging his attention first before he was allowed to study the highlands.

'That's…'

At the base of the waterfall, there was a dam.

It looked normal at first glance, perhaps like that of a beaver dam. Sticks, rocks, and mud caked together.

But upon a closer inspection, the smoky lumps along the dam's edge seemed to resemble human bodies — human corpses.

While Vale would have dismissed it as a mere coincidence, he knew the village had that terrible custom. Therefore, his eyes were not playing tricks on him, and they were, in fact, what they appeared to be.

But what truly got Vale's attention was the quantity…

'At least a thousand…'

Just on the surface.

Who knew how many more lay beneath.

It was already a harrowing sight looking at it from above and in a smoky form; imagining it in person was something Vale didn't even want to fathom.

'How horrible…'

Even his mind, addled by Lust, hadn't degenerated to the degree to resist revulsion upon such a sight.

Vale forcefully drew his attention away from the horrid dam and toward the village Mias had begun to craft.

'It's that close?'

But beyond that…

When he heard 3,000 — '2,958' — people lived there, he expected it to be much bigger. He also expected it to be… less primitive.

At least, it appeared quite primitive from above and seemed small in its condensed size.

Well, actually, Vale had very little understanding of the technology of this world.

'Have they discovered electricity?'

What level of transportation did they possess?

Were there trains? Horse and carriage?

What about sewage systems?

'I hope to god they have that one figured out here…'

But what if they didn't even have the printing press!

The thoughts had crossed his mind, but none of this had truly been considered in earnest, Vale having been too focused on the problems right in front of him.

Even now, addressing the thought straight up, the only practical relevance was…

'Guns… do they have guns?'

If they did, that would be a problem, but that seemed not to be the case. Vale didn't doubt that niter and sulfur had been discovered and weapons created from them, but it didn't seem this poor village had access to them.

Their arsenal, from what Mias described, consisted of farm equipment and weapons made from Ophelia's power. Nothing that bridged the power gap between the average villager and one of his Legion.

But, he'd keep such a possible threat in mind when facing the forces of a large nation — if such a situation ever happened.

As for Liora itself, the village, it was, according to Mias, ~31 acres, with a small church and marketplace squeezed in there. and then add the two farms on the outskirts, which together span a whopping ~200 acres.

But overall, it was still small for the population,

All of these thoughts and more continued to seep into Vale's mind as the mini Mias grew smaller and smaller, exhausting more of his power in the diorama's creation.

At the same time, Vale began carefully laying the blueprint over the smoke outline, trying to preserve each detail as best he could.

It wouldn't turn out absolutely perfect, but Vale needed it to be as close as possible for an accurate battle strategy to be formulated.

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