While Phoenix was having her conversation, and Astaroth was duking it out with demons, in a faraway kingdom, Khalor was slowly returning to the undead kingdom.
After leaving the throne room, and letting the vice guild leader slash queen regent talk things out with the officers and Leon, he made his way into the city.
Like most players that had disconnected inside the Bastion, Khalor was surprised by how it had changed. It was more than just the cleared-out ruins and newly built buildings that took him aback.
People were walking the streets by the hundreds, and the mix of races was something that was rarely seen, even in the five great cities.
Many of the races mingled together in the five great cities, but all of them were usually the races you would find only on this continent. Not around him.
There were people from the Demonoid race and Undead race, walking amongst the masses, along with Orcs hanging around food stalls in the busy streets. The other races seemed to ignore their provenance and chatted merrily with them.
This wasn't something you could see anywhere else. Khalor wondered how Leon had made all these people accept each other so openly.
God knew that many other cities had tried this before, but the natural xenophobia of the races living under the light always resurfaced. It was hard to keep the peace for the masses, when a kingdom suddenly defended the minority, which led to most cities treating Demonoids, Undead, and Orcs as outsiders.
He even saw beast people mixed in with everyone, which was even rarer. Beast people were ostracized, even on the dark continent.
Most humanoids saw them as savages or outright monsters, to be killed on sight, aside from some very rare exceptions.
Walking forward, absorbed in everything he saw, Khalor barely noticed when he bumped into a large Tiger Beastman, twice his size, who turned around with an angry stare.
But seeing who he was about to yell at, his instincts kicked in, and he started sweating instead. The Tiger-man turned back to his haggling, the merchant giving him a shark-ish grin, as he ripped him off of every penny he could, while the Beastman was still in shock.
The atmosphere was lively, for a place that most likely sat in the middle of demon-contested territory.
But Khalor quickly understood how the city prospered so much.
Amidst the crowds, he failed to see a single person whose level was under forty. Even the merchants seemed to be battle-proven, since sporting scars on their bodies that would scare any weak-willed bandit away.
Khalor headed to a spot where there were fewer people around and summoned out his undead drake. He wanted to check out the fortress from higher up.
Launching from a side street, up toward the massive tree palace's branches, a small group of four people intercepted him mid-air.
One of them was flying while standing on a broom, two others looked like bird-people, and the last one was an undead with no physical body, similar to a ghost.
"Halt! Flying within the city walls is forbidden unless you have a permit. Please show proof of permit, or land your beast back on the ground. Failure to cooperate will result in your arrest and a fine."
One of the bird-people was the one who had talked. He was at the front of their small formation and was most likely the officer.
Khalor stared the man down, half expecting them to back down at any moment, but no such thing happened.
*Sigh*
"My name is Khalor. I am an officer of Paragon, the guild that controls this city. I believe I have every right to fly in these skies."
Feeling a wave of mana wash over him, Khalor turned his head to the man on the broom. He saw his face pale a bit before the man went into a perilous bow.
"Our apologies, Lord Khalor. We were not aware of the return of the members of Paragon. Captain, he is who he claims to be."
The bird man turned his hawk-ish head to the mage before nodding once.
"Our apologies, milord. We will be on our way."
But before he could fly away.
"Wait!"
The bird man gulped. Was he going to be punished for intercepting a ruling officer?
"Keep up the good work. I appreciate seeing guards doing their duty diligently."
Khalor was peeved they intercepted him like this, but ?it also made him happy. He was glad the city guard didn't slack or cower faced with something that could certainly burn them out of the sky.
After giving a thankful nod, the four guards flew away, resuming their patrol. Khalor instructed the drake to go up into the tree's branches, where he landed on a solid-looking one, to glance down at the Bastion.
As he landed, he noticed a few half-hidden huts in the branches, on many levels. Around them, he could see Elves, who were attentively looking outward to the forest.
'Lookouts. Good. Leon has kept the city on alert, it seems. I would have thought that humanoid Garfield would have slacked on the job.'
Looking down at the Bastion, Khalor could see many districts separated in cell-like circles. It was like looking at a pond with waterlilies all across its surface.
When he looked a little further outward, he noticed something that made him grin. Outside of the original walls of the Bastion, they had built another set of walls a couple of miles out.
In between those walls, a more city-like structure was stretched, with square planned streets, and more human-like constructions. From his vantage point, he could see many buildings with familiar markings.
Everything from an adventurer's guild to a mage's tower to what looked like military barracks was constructed, interspersed with many residential districts.
'This place exploded in size. It seems Phoenix made the right call appointing him.'
Further out, looking toward the walls far away, he could see a steady stream of people coming in and out. Turning his head, he also saw a side of the outer portion covered in fields, with a variety of grains and vegetables being grown.
'This city is practically self-sufficient as it is.'
But Khalor stopped admiring the view. He still had places to go, and things to do.
Jumping back on the back of his drake, Khalor launched upward again, piercing the tree's canopy in seconds, and heading toward the nearest Elven city. He wanted to take a portal back to the dark continent, and he didn't stay long enough to notice they had built one in the center of the main plaza.
He would learn later on, when Phoenix contacted him, and curse himself for being so quick to leave.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel