She mounted the giant crocodile toad, which was a little rough, given its bare-bones composition, choosing to ride inside its well-rounded rib cage like a coach. As they moved through the undergrowth, Elinor’s mind calmly cycled through her next options, Butter directing the toad woman to take them on a path around their hunting parties that would likely be coming.

  She received resistance in an unusual fashion when the skeletal figure threw her hands in the air and made exasperated gestures at what could be seen of the colorful shell, trapping them inside. Butter’s tone became dry in the Nexus.

  “I am quite aware that we are confined to this battle dome. Your job is to make what I want work, not offer me excuses. I’m sure it will be difficult. Get it done,” she demanded, causing the creature to make harsh tapping noises with her bony hands to get Elinor’s ride to move.

  Butter landed on her shoulder again to remain close and not get swept away by a sudden gust that blew past them. Their passage through the jungle became swift with their new unwilling warrior guiding the way.

  Elinor knew she should have been entertained by the proceeding conversation in their dangerous nighttime jungle escape mission, but the butterfly and alien creature’s back and forth helped to mitigate the stress she was feeling.

  It was becoming apparent that she really needed a proper translation ability; then again, when something like that would show up was left up in the air—her best option was to kill more of these monsters to gain experience. Luckily, Butter was proving to be far more proactive than she’d initially given her twin credit for.

  To her surprise, her little high monarch gave the toad a name—something the golden insect was quite proud of and the soul slave detested—but she did need one, if Elinor was being honest; they couldn’t continue calling her ‘hey, you’ or ‘toad.’ Mika was simple enough to remember.

  Mika and Eduardo seemed to connect on an emotional level of grumbling unintelligible feelings to one another about how utterly frustrated they both felt at being a part of this new empire she was building—more like forced labor camps—as the woman slowed their pace, allowing more enemies to pass.

  Now that they had a translator of sorts, quite a few details were coming to light as Butter continued to probe for information in their flight from the scene of their crime.

  Basically, the Hub-Crystals were the only real way for the human side to win this invasion; there were hundreds more of Mika’s race awaiting their turn to cycle into this one-sided invasion massacre, and the only way to stop it was destroying all the relay hubs.

  Each of the tiny transportation gems was a teleportation point; there were rules to it, but they didn’t have time to probe on less important topics. From what Mika attempted to explain, they had no control over how these things operated, and they were naturally occurring phenomena that had to be closed.

  Elinor didn’t like that answer, peering through the jungle foliage as the woman stopped them again for seemingly no reason, taking cover behind thick bush cover. The clicks she heard were likely more of the aliens, and Mika was listening to understand how to dodge the net they were casting to catch whoever destroyed their gateway.

  Something like this is too methodical to be random or to occur in nature, Elinor whispered, holding tightly to her boney ride as they took more maneuvers to hide their tracks as much as possible. This feels more like a tower defense game.

  It has rules and conquest conditions, which are methodical—intelligent objectives that need to be fulfilled—someone must be orchestrating this conflict. Mmhm. Must we go back for my body right now, Butter? It does seem like a terrible plan to recover it after causing such an uproar.

  She caught Mika’s gesture and feeling of agreement as she pointed at her, throwing up a sign Elinor couldn’t identify the meaning to.

  The butterfly ruffled her wings, sending a private ping to Eduardo to check for anything along the canopy and to keep alert; he wasn’t totally invulnerable, as Raul learned. He wasn’t happy to find out what happened to spirits that were brought back from the dead and returned to the afterlife.

  “Priss, Priss, Priss,” she grumbled, rubbing two of her six legs together. “They expect their target to be flustered and run away after setting off that beacon; the least expected thing would be to return to a more populated area like the town.”

  Uh-huh, Elinor sighed, seeing Mika’s stress rise through the roof while telling them to be perfectly still and not to make noise; someone big appeared to be coming to handle the crystal break issue. You just want to steal my body for yourself—which is fine, she added upon feeling the radiant doppelganger’s chest flare.

  I completely understand why you want to recover it. Perhaps we should focus on actually getting strong enough to retrieve it without upping the challenge level?

  Butter rubbed her head with a groan, being careful with her eyes. “We do have a large jungle that we can use to lure more in without tipping our hand… I just don’t like leaving it.”

  I couldn’t carry it myself.

  “Yes. Yes. Haaa. I just fear something happening to it. Fine. Let’s get your army, Priss… Exposing you to danger is… shockingly not appealing to me at this time. Humph. Mika, time to use your knowledge to welcome more of your brothers and sisters into our Empire! Doesn’t that fill you with sunshine and rainbows? Hehe.”

  The woman gave an internal grunt that rippled with shame; Elinor had about had enough of their complaining, though. Eduardo and Mika froze as her cold words followed the laced honey of Butter’s jabbing comment.

  I don’t want to hear it, she snapped. Eduardo…

  The man flinched at the icy flames touching his spirit. You were involved in kidnapping me, not to mention ruining the lives of how many other girls to satisfy your greed?

  He shifted uncomfortably in the air, still scanning for danger as they waited for the two groups of three toads to pass. “I had my reasons for getting into that life…”

  I don’t care, Elinor flatly denied. You were a part of the machine that destroyed my life. You’re not a ‘good person’ or ‘victim,’ but one of the villains that I found a use for. Do what you are told without making a fuss, and maybe… just maybe, you’ll find some measure of happiness on this new page.

  She turned her fire to the stiff toad woman, burning emerald irises searing her soul. Did I force you to kill your pet? Yes. I’d do it again. Your people attacked me, without a shred of remorse, I now hear. No matter what you say about it being necessary, you’ll receive no pity from me, she snarled, making Mika shrink.

  You’ve taken my normal teenage life away and forced me into this darkness I’ve been awakened to… I’ve died and was born again. You fired the first arrow, and now have my parents held captive. Again… You are not the victim.

  Mika made a begrudging salute against her chest that seemed to signify she understood her place; oddly, there was a hint of regret within her that Elinor could feel through their connection. Sadly, such emotions did little to soothe the crippling ice in her veins.

  Settle in, she finished, hearing Butter’s chuckling claps from inside their shared soul space. You’re not getting free any time soon. We’re all villains now.

  Changing directives, Elinor had Mika and Eduardo collaborate on drawing in victims for her to feed from, and Butter didn’t waste time, sucking dry life from nearby with the high monarch’s two butterfly minions.

  An hour passed, and her toad slave proved quite useful, tricking her former comrades into traps by using their language and markers, adding six more undead soldiers to her number. So far as they knew, the woman didn’t have the Grade to direct troops like a Staff Sergeant, so Butter did most of the coordinating.

  None of them turned out to be nearly as strong as Mika, and, through some charades, she reluctantly directed them to the crimson liquid imprinted on their skin—their own hands stained in placing the palm print across their body—they were ‘new bloods,’ or teens becoming men in their culture.

  Most of them ranked in the D to C-tier, making Elinor realize how clutch Eduardo’s freezing curse had been in blindsiding the mature female toad warrior at A-tier. It was somewhat of a nightmare for the youngsters; in essence, they were being hunted by their teacher, which made sense since she’d been left in charge of guarding the Hub-Crystal.

  Elinor didn’t even have to get her hands dirty now that Mika was able to do the swift and silent executions, conserving her strength to raise them as unintelligent undead. She learned a lot about this alien race over the hour, constantly changing locations to escape further probes when scouting parties went missing.

  Currently, their opponents were Mika’s tribe of discolored green toads, and Elinor wanted to keep it that way after deciphering the organization of the forces they faced. They’d been correct regarding the pure green toads; the clan had a unique power of light through something they wore that appeared to have the ability to affect spirits—Mika didn’t believe the rumors until now.

  It was somewhat ironic, but Mika believed the pure green toads were the weakest of the four tribes that were participating in this raid; she may have been right in terms of morals and overall combat potential, yet, to this new empire, they were a natural nemesis.

  Mika’s people were jungle warriors, breeding their battle mounts to act as horses, mules, and wolves, all in one deadly package. There were some that were ‘special’ amongst them, but she vehemently disregarded the topic of magic, which she put more in the specialty of the blue and pure green tribes.

  According to her, the closest pairs were the orange and blue, whom she recommended they completely stay clear from, considering someone very powerful from each clan was present. Strangely, the woman pointed at the jungle around them and made a hyped gesture, throwing her hands in the air to try and describe some potent magic from the cobalt-colored aliens.

  Butter got it first. “This leader can control plants?”

  Mika held up two fingers, indicating yes before holding up one, saying no. She pointed at the mud, a nearby stone, and made another sweeping gesture.

  Elinor sighed, rubbing between her eyes; this really was turning into a nightmare. He can control the earth and plants?

  She pointed at her mouth, spreading her fingers out and motioning between them.

  Butter hissed at the implication. “He can speak to plants and the earth?”

  She held up three fingers, saying she didn’t know, which Elinor took to mean it was rumored amongst her tribe. If it was true, it didn’t matter where they went, he would be able to find them by listening into the insane network of whispers these narking trees would give him.

  A low, internal growl rumbled through the Nexus as Elinor studied their little undead army of nine, hidden amongst the tree branches—two intelligent, seven unintelligent—and only her current mount being her only Common-Grade minion.

  She’d gone back into her earrings to check her status several minutes ago, discovering that her Feats were developing at a much slower rate after reaching D-tier. On the plus side, she only needed one more toad or three humans to advance her [Minion Pool] and [Raise Undead] to the E-tier.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Her Death Pool was sitting at its current max, eleven spheres, Butter put to use their newest butterfly warrior, using the two to dive-bomb-drain unsuspecting creatures with the blonde general like the parasites they were and sucking the life of the sleeping jungle critters they found.

  Yet, Elinor’s alarm rose when the blonde discovered something critical from their toad servant; she sat straighter as Butter groaned, having had personal communications with Mika as she thought.

  “A small snag, Priss… What would you say if these, ahem, alien toads had, say… over a thousand soldiers in reserve, and they keep cycling them in as a slot opens? It appears there is a limit on how many can be sent through or currently here… I don’t know the reason, but Mika says there is a cap.”

  She couldn’t comprehend it for a second, processing the news as she put it up against their little force.

  We… have eleven, Butter. I have a limit, as well… Fifteen. How can we possibly fight hundreds upon hundreds of waves? Sooner or later, they will discover more about my abilities and how to counter them; the musical orange one came up with a strategy on the spot after discovering we killed its friend.

  “Don’t bite my wings off,” Butter huffed. “As I said, a little snag. I’m sure we can come up with something to get by. Heh. I have this feeling you and I have seen worse odds.”

  Sure… Ugh. Keep on your calorie grind while I figure out something. I believe you’re getting me experience in it, despite gorging yourself on all the spoils.

  “To be fair, I do a lot of flapping and cardio,” she giggled, making Elinor smile. Her twin did have a way of making things not as bad as they seemed.

  Fair enough. See if you can learn more about their power structure from Mika. We need solid units, at the very least, to counter quantity since we’re limited on numbers at the moment.

  “To the top of the tower!”

  Her eyebrow lifted. Top of the tower?

  “Oh. Not a saying where… ever this place we ended up in? Forget it.”

  Uh-huh.

  Crossing her legs from within the ribcage of the creature she sat protectively in, Elinor dismissed the strange mannerisms of the golden goddess, focus returning to her status screen. It seemed she’d get different things at each level, considering the differences between the first and second levels. If she only got Feat Extensions or addons, then she was stuck in a rather limited range of abilities, which wasn’t ideal. Ideally, there would be more options going forwards, though what they might be, she had no idea.

  Then again, she was a lich empress, meaning her primary mode of combat was supposed to be through her minions. Perhaps at some point, she could get the Feat to use one of her unit’s abilities—a girl could dream—though she would have liked to have some kind of personal weapon at her disposal.

  A frown touched her lips as a chill swept through the jungle, and Mika felt a wave of traumatic panic that was transmitted through the Nexus; Butter provided the answer as she rose higher.

  “Priss… Is it supposed to snow in this world’s jungles?”

  A wicked smile lifted Elinor’s cheeks. No… No, it is not. A balancing act by whoever is overseeing or instigating this conflict since it’s become so one-sided? Whatever the case, we’ve already seen what snow does to these warm-blooded creatures, and Mika seems terrified of it.

  “It may have been me that did it; I’m sure I have weather powers,” Butter boasted, puffing up her chest with pride at the assumed credit. “Thank provenance, which is I!”

  Humble as always, Butter, Elinor chuckled. Just because you’re a butterfly, doesn’t mean a hurricane appears when you flap your wings.

  “Have you been afflicted by madness; is this what you consider a hurricane? It’s just a light snowfall, Priss. Don’t be so melodramatic.”

  Melodramatic… Elinor wanted to facepalm, but let it go; she had enough that was on her mind, and this could buy her the time they needed. Right. Right. Right. You keep doing you, Butterfly of Providence and keep climbing that tower.

  “No. No. No.” Butter sighed as if she were so innocent. “I don’t climb towers. I am at the top of them, and others come to worship me. Silly, Priss.”

  You are… really something, Butter.

  “Exceptional! Gorgeous! Beyond words of wisdom that baffle the greatest sages. You are so lucky to have me.”

  You have no idea…

  Puffing out a short stream of frigid air, she saw the vapor come out in a cloud; the temperature was plummeting quickly, which would draw the toads away, giving her time to ponder their next steps.

  She’d discovered a lot of information since first becoming a mythickin, but the problem came in how to best utilize it. Mika was also a wealth of solid data; if they could only bridge the language barrier easier, then so many problems could be solved.

  The intelligent toad was eavesdropping on the aliens’ response to the storm, and according to Eduardo, it was falling from the shimmering dome overhead. There had to be something or someone monitoring all of this, be it a god or advanced alien race, which meant it was for a purpose; she only hoped it was for more than simple entertainment.

  The snow helped, she had to admit, but the emerald fire of her minions—especially the massive toad pet—would mark her quickly once everything was covered in white. Problems—all she had were problems.

  Mom and Dad are separated, likely having been captured by different groups. I’ve almost hit my limit in my [Minion Pool], as well; only one intelligent and five unintelligent before I’m maxed. Hopefully, that increases when jumping to the E-tier, but if it doesn’t…

  Adjusting herself and plucking down the corner of her silky shorts, Elinor breathed out a long stream of air that left a short trail; it was funny how breathing helped relieve stress even when the action wasn’t required for her to live anymore.

  My only advantage right now is remaining a mystery. If these aliens really have over a thousand warriors between their clans, waiting on the other side of the crystal to send in this endless wave of soldiers… then I don’t stand a chance. I can’t see myself winning like this, despite Butter’s unending confidence.

  Her mouth tightened while glaring at the six guards Butter had left her as they hung around the trees. They stuck out like a sore thumb with the emerald flames licking over their bones, and it was only by Mika’s ability to speak their language and know their tactics that had kept them away from discovery.

  It was apparent that things would start ramping up as the conflicts in the town died down, allowing them to devote more people to searching for what was making their youth disappear. She needed bigger fish, yet that came with a lot of risks that could quickly snowball. Despite the fact Elinor couldn’t see a victory condition with only fifteen undead to her limit, she had to laugh—her joke was barely funny, only due to the weather; she had to find joy in the little things, however.

  If she ditched the young bloods for more of these toad hounds and maybe collected some of their more potent special forces from the various clans, then maybe she could become a credible threat, but the second anyone important went missing, everything would start coming down on her head.

  Ghosts were her big plan before—it just made sense—they were more debuffers, afflicting their prey with status conditions, and were supposed to be ethereal and basically invisible. Yet, that didn’t turn out to be the case, so… what was left? She had to have physical units to pad out her small force, and they had to be powerful.

  These pets worked for that, and yet a huge part of their offensive potential came from their meaty, muscular frame, powerful tongue, and natural, scaly armor, which was all burned away when revived. Maybe if they could get an Uncommon-Grade one that was mostly intact, but other than that, she was working with scraps against a literal army—scratch that—four armies.

  Entering her diamond again, she passively listened to Butter as her fatty blonde went through her own thoughts on the position and movements of the various factions of toads during the rapidly increasing snowstorm; it wasn’t quite a blizzard, yet it certainly was more than what Elinor expected.

  Her second-in-command had been having personal discussions with Mika regarding their culture’s structure, and if there were fractures between factions that could be exploited. One good piece of news was that most of the clans did not like the pure green faction, which was the ones Elinor was most concerned about. If there were troubles, they’d be left in the dark longer than any other, and they would only ask for help in the worst-case scenario.

  Elinor worked around her jaw while staring at her rather bare-bones status sheet. At first, it was fairly complicated as to how everything interacted, and the information kept pouring in, yet everything had slowed down after the first few hours.

  Her mood improved as Butter continued to give her the cliff notes on what she’d learned from their alien minion. Fortunately, the pure green aliens lived far, far away from where the rest called their home; basically, in the backyard of where this gateway of a crystal formed in their world, and had only been invited due to a single blue toad, much to the discolored green clan’s distaste.

  It was clear the dark blue tribe had a lot of sway between all of the factions, and that was because someone extremely important was running the show from within their faction that everyone looked up to.

  Elinor’s thoughts went to the wrinkled toad with the guard that was watching the hotel her mother took shelter in. If she could get him, then maybe her chances would improve, and from what she’d discovered via Butter’s thorough investigation into Mika’s mind, her raised intelligent undead returned to the prime of their youth. It was certainly a selling point she could give people.

  The orange clan that played musical instruments drew her mind away from her stats as Butter and she discussed it; they’d been extremely lucky in taking them out. They were supposed to be extremely dangerous, and Mika couldn’t believe they’d managed to kill two of the elite scouts.

  In order of rankings within the clan’s warriors, they were the highest tier of scout, numbering fourth on their hierarchy of powerful combatants. Elinor lamented the fact she hadn’t resurrected one, draining it instead, but she didn’t have much of a choice, given the circumstances.

  Plus, they weren’t exactly the best fit for minions when they relied on a flower—although, perhaps that could also be used when they were undead—she’d need to look into them more when she got the time.

  Looking back, Elinor could see why they were placed in such regard; the second flute player had somehow accurately determined its flower—a core aspect of their identity, it seemed—was a weakness for them against her and, without hesitation, discarded it to win, likely crippling its future military service.

  Sitting back in her chair, Elinor rested her cheek against her knuckles while glaring at her stats.

  What are we going to do, Butter? I can’t make Mom and Dad worry about me for too much longer… They probably think I’m dead, but I also can’t be stupid and just charge into certain capture.

  “Ahem.” Her soul bunk-mate chuckled. “Might I remind you, Priss, that it is snowing? Mika says they are retreating to their transport locations, leaving only a few soldiers around the town to observe what the remaining humans do. Some are staying behind—the pure green is leaving a small faction—but they seem to want to be cautious with so many young warriors going missing in the jungle.

  “It’s actually quite amusing!” she said, becoming inactive to appear inside her own throne opposite her, inspecting liquid gold locks and a completely restored figure. “They, heh, suspect some pack of stealthy, giant cat creatures due to what was left behind from your panther and the unusual scent of death in the area you left behind.”

  Straightening, Elinor’s expression lifted upon not seeing a scratch on her radiant twin, choosing to speak aloud now that Butter returned to their shared bunk. “I see you’ve completed your required ten Death Orbs for the day. Feeling better?”

  “Oh, you have no idea!” she groaned, stretching her arms high overhead and adjusting her silky gown. “The screw digging into my chest has stopped drilling, so that’s something positive. I can relax a bit… Hmm. How are you doing, Priss?”

  Elinor tapped her crossed knee, seeing the concern in Butter’s illuminated aquamarine irises; it was a bit uncomfortable having these sensations within her that were as a part of her as the relationship with her parents—possibly greater—but having no recollection of it, and the fact it was mostly negative. Things were changing, though.

  “It doesn’t matter how I feel; I have to do what I have to do. So, the toads are done with the first wave and giving the humans time to regroup?”

  “Meh. Probably for multiple reasons,” the blonde shrugged, summoning a hand mirror to scrutinize her face more thoroughly. “By giving the humans a chance to regroup, they’re saving themselves the trouble of rounding them up one by one. Spies will inform them of any sort of defense, but I suspect it will be quite troublesome for them to move in the frigid weather, which means…”

  “The perfect time to farm experience and gain more soldiers,” Elinor chimed, glancing one more time at her sheet. “Hmm. Do you know anything more about this status sheet or Feats?”

  Butter flashed her teeth, making Elinor a bit sour by how stunning her twin actually was when they were supposed to be identical; the tiny changes to her features truly did make her appear as a goddess.

  “Such as?”

  “When do I get new Feats? I started with 3, but I haven’t gained any more since leveling up.”

  “Ah,” Butter nodded. “I’m fairly confident I saw something about that; there will be more later. The first was probably a freebee, of sorts—quite generous, but maybe that’s due to me being attached to your soul.”

  Elinor gave her a dubious smile. “Whatever you say, Ms. Vanity. Ugrmgh. I suppose we’ll need to do some power leveling then.”

  “I suppose so…” The golden girl dismissed the mirror to direct a charming grin her way. “Be honest with me, Priss; when you have talent, looks, and power like mine, is it not natural to feel pride? I must say that it is more of a challenge to keep myself humble than you can possibly fathom…”

  She paused, lips drawing in as she tilted her head to the side. “Mmh…perhaps not so difficult. I don’t know what is wrong with you, or how you or I ended up like… eh-heh, we have, but I can confidently say you are at least… mmh, somewhat comparable to me. Now, isn’t that being humble?! I deserve a treat,” she clapped, rising to her feet to probably fetch another Death Orb. “I’ll even bring one back to you to celebrate this, heh, hurricane.”

  “Haha. Sure, Butter. Whatever floats your boat.”

  Butter paused, eyes narrowing while glancing to the side. “Do… boats not float in this world?”

  “What? No. Haha. Maybe they don’t.”

  “Odd… Well. I’ll be back!”

  Waving her off, Elinor scratched her temple; it was time to become a snow predator. Calculated to even the odds or by pure chance, she wasn’t going to give up this opportunity to boost her levels, and, if she was lucky, perhaps she’d be able to gain a language Feat for her minions.

  Returning to her artificial body, Elinor saw the snow already beginning to collect on the ground; it would soon be morning, but the winter veil would provide the cover she needed for the morning—it was time to hunt and feast on their misfortune.