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How his mother had explained it was like a barrier protecting them had been lifted. A barrier protecting the empires and their kingdoms. Similar to the barrier around Avgi keeping random monsters from entering the forest.

With it gone, monsters could now flock to invade en mass. No longer just a few passing by chance.

The divine protection of the gods no longer limiting how many could enter and invade the kingdoms. There were some religious reasons for this, but Ceph had stopped listening when his mother had explained this. After all, he knew the true reason it had happened.

It was not because the gods were weakened, nor that the chaos gods overcame the gods of order and tore down their barriers. It was simply because those who had created the gods wished for chaos. Wish to stimulate an entertaining game, and wished to experiment and see the results.

\'I have no reason to believe that the true war hasn\'t started. But Mother should be correct in saying that things are going to get worse. Normal invasions lasted decades, sometimes even centuries. Just by that point, things are still only warming up.\'

\'But is it really so simple? The start of the invasion is simply the god lifting their protection? Allowing monsters to flood the civilized lands?\'

Ceph didn\'t know if he could accept that that was all that there was. Perhaps it was true for the side of order, for the \'good\' gods. But the gods of chaos had always been stirring their subordinates to action. Such was the case when they had sent someone to hunt and kill Eldrian.

The chaos lands stirring, however, meant something had changed. Whether this was now because of the devils themselves acting, feeling ready to conquer Taurus—or the gods initiating it and, subsequently, Miracle, Ceph wasn\'t sure.

Looking towards Ilmadia and Eldrian, Ceph realized that the danger might not be so far off. \'If she encounters them, things can turn out quite bad. I should warn—\' Ceph paused. Eldrian and Ilmadia had fallen silent.

Both appeared extremely awkward. As Ceph watched this, he nearly burst out laughing. \'To think, despite everything, he\'s still so easily distracted.\'

Ceph couldn\'t blame him. In fact, distractions were what everyone looked towards. Himself included. It might be training, it might be magical theory, it might be love, or it might be a drink. Whatever allowed you to move past their troubles and continue on.

They had talked in length on it after Eldrian had escaped via teleporting over. It was perhaps the topic they had dived the most into, outside of magic.

\'Hey, Ceph, please help.\' Receiving the plea for assistance, Ceph failed to contain his snicker.

"What\'s up?" Judith asked, and Ceph simply pointed towards the two. It didn\'t take Judith long to realize what was up, seeing as both were now beet red.

\'What did you say?\' Ceph asked, his tone accusatory.

\'I-it just slipped out, okay?\' Eldrian started, but avoided the topic.

\'If you won\'t say, how can I help?\' Ceph asked, drilling Eldrian for the juicy story behind their awkward silence. Refusing to come over until Eldrian explained what had happened.  Once he got the reason, he burst out laughing.

"Your talking with him, aren\'t you? No fair, share!" Judith demanded, curious why Ilmadia was acting like a shy little girl, twirling her thumbs while as red as a tomato. Which, for a moon elf, was really, really red.

"He called her a goddess." Ceph said, causing Judith to guffaw. Therdul contained himself, but his muffled laughter could still be heard. The surrounding players were simply left clueless.

"He\'s asking you to rescue them? Wait, I want to first take a picture." Judith pulled Ceph back as he took a step forward, her actions causing the surrounding players great alarm.

Of course, everyone knew not to speak without thought when near an NPC. There were slipups, but nothing major, despite the game now being launched for over two years. Slipups always caused the player to backtrack and try to explain things, since sharing impertinent information could lead to having your account banned.

However, Judith never backtracked or tried to clear the air. Instead, she continued right on. "Right, I\'ve got my stream going. Why don\'t you go over now?"

"You\'re going to share this moment with strangers?" Ceph asked.

"We\'re already surrounded by strangers, won\'t make a difference now." Hearing Judith talk with Ceph as if the information wasn\'t classified stunned the surrounding players. Their only conclusion was that the rules must be different for tamed beasts.

"Fine." Giving up, Ceph moved to save Eldrian. Who had by now failed over ten times to fix the awkward silence.

"Truly a beautiful song, Ilmadia." Ceph introduced upon their awkward silence, and both thanked heaven for the intrusion. Until Ceph started teasing them. "It was almost like a goddess had come down from the heavens and—"

Eldrian reacted late, still too stuck in the awkwardness to react before Ceph could reveal everything. \'I told you to rescue me, not dig my grave!\' Eldrian mentally shouted while blocking Ceph\'s mouth.

Ceph merely shrugged, pulling Eldrian\'s hand off his mouth and smiling at the now shaking Ilmadia. Whether because of embarrassment or anger, Ceph couldn\'t tell.

"Don\'t be mad. I get where Eldrian is coming from. I suspect he used his mana sense upon realizing the strangeness of the surrounding mana. And the sight when observing the surrounding mana is certainly serene."

"W-what do you mean?" Ilmadia probed. Trying to regain control of her body, but thanks to Eldrian\'s failed attempts that had only exasperated the awkwardness, this proved difficult.

While she wasn\'t a teenager, Ilmadia felt just like one at the moment. She knew she felt intrigued by Eldrian and fascinated by his way of understanding magic, but she hadn\'t thought she would feel like this.

"When you observe the surrounding mana, it appears like it is enveloping you. Dancing along with the melody and shining in a multitude of colors, as if to sing along. To me, it reminded me of my mother when she plays. But I can see how Eldrian thought of a goddess. That is the classical fantasy image you guys would have of them, isn\'t it?"

"Yes, yes, that\'s it!" Eldrian quickly hopped onto the escape. Only to suddenly paused and turn to Ceph slowly. "When your mother plays?" this time, his tone was accusatory.

"Yes, sorry, Ilmadia, but this isn\'t something unknown. Magic through song exists."

Ilmadia smiled. She had never thought it didn\'t. "That\'s fine. I assumed it must exist somewhere."

"Why have I never heard of this?" Eldrian pressed, suddenly angry.

"Why would you?" Ceph asked, not backing down. The trio the center of attention and a fight between master and tamed beast peaked all the players\' attention.

"What do you mean \'why would you\'? Why have you kept it a secret?" Eldrian pressed.

"It\'s not a secret. It is like your runic casting. It\'s something that exists, but is rare. You won\'t stumble upon it just because."