The three of them were about to wrap up when two more entities arrived in the cabin. Nefertut and the new avatar of the Turtle Dungeon appeared right next to the conversation pit as if they had always been there.

  “Oh, it feels nice being back here,” the large turtle man sighed. “Hope I am not too late to the party. I was helping Nefertut with the northern dungeons.”

  The turtle man was built like a warrior. He stood eight feet tall and was all thick muscle beneath his spiked shell. His skin was a forest green with silvery undertones, and his head resembled that of a snapping turtle more than a box turtle.

  “If it were not for Nefertut just ascending, you would have missed everything,” Matthias teased with a grin. “But it is good to see you again, Rollumn.”

  “I was unaware you were part of the pantheon,” Xalt greeted, extending a hand to the turtle man. “I am the new god of the dead. What are your domains?”

  “I am only a lesser god,” Rollumn confessed as he opened the fridge and pulled out a pile of sushi. “Matthias used a miracle to rush my ascension to help me out. Thus, I am technically only a lesser god under him.”

  “You need to be more confident,” Matthias pointed out, only slightly exasperated. “His domains are endurance, hope, heroes, and turtles.”

  “Those are very important domains,” Xalt agreed. “I see great things in your future. You will probably be more popular than many of us.”

  Rollumn just shrugged. “I got the hero domain simply through self-sacrifice and by fighting the influence of the old gods so my fairy could make her own choices.”

  “He is far too modest,” Xalt complained to Matthias.

  Everyone chuckled at that—everyone except Nefertut, who stood apart with wide eyes. He looked like a deer in headlights.

  “Nefertut, grab a seat already,” Matthias encouraged. “We are all friends here.”

  “I honestly did not think I would get this far,” Nefertut admitted.

  “Oooooh!” the world spirit cheered. “He has the right domains—anarchy, demons, and punishment. He should be able to make that place for the rotten souls to go to.”

  “Oh? That is spectacular,” Xalt noted. “He should make a moon too. A big red one. Let that be where the demons and twisted souls end up.”

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  “That will be better than trying to make another pocket realm attached to ours,” the world spirit admitted.

  “What?” Nefertut responded intelligently as his eyes fluttered.

  “And if he makes a moon, he can bury the gates to the old heavens in the core,” Matthias pointed out. “So if they ever do get out, they have to go through his domain, where he has all the authority.”

  Nefertut seemed to lock onto that. “I can do that? Bury them in the fiery core of my domain if I make a moon?”

  “Yep,” Matthias confirmed with a grin.

  Nefertut responded with his own grin, though his looked quite a bit more feral.

  “So what was the whole plan?” Nefertut asked, just to confirm.

  “Create a red moon to be a furnace for the souls of wicked people who do not deserve a chance at reincarnation,” Matthias offered. “The surface of the moon can be your domain and that of the demons you create.”

  “And what are my duties in this pantheon?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” Matthias confessed. “As the god of anarchy, you should just do whatever you want.”

  “That hardly seems fair,” Xalt complained.

  “He would do whatever he wanted anyway,” Rollumn noted. “That is how anarchy works. Better to let him do what he wants than give him something vital and have him forget about it.”

  “That almost hurt,” Nefertut said with feigned offense.

  “It is how you led the infernal dungeon, from what I heard,” Matthias pointed out.

  “It kind of was,” Nefertut confessed. “It is hard to impose too much order when you cannot leave your domain.”

  “Well, if all things go to plan, there will be plenty to do,” Matthias added.

  “The desired distance has nearly been reached,” the world spirit added. “We can begin working on the new territories soon.”

  “New territories?” Nefertut asked.

  “Yeah,” Matthias began. “We are making the world bigger. The farther they travel from the current continent, the easier it will be to cultivate. Also, the beasts will get stronger.”

  “I thought that was the job of dungeons,” Xalt noted.

  “Dungeons will still offer that,” the world spirit explained. “But we did away with the rarity system. So dungeons will need to cultivate like everyone else. Much slower growth. They will need to handcraft everything. They will each add something new and unique to the world as they grow. I made a mistake with the old generation of dungeon cores.”

  “I still have some ascension energy left,” Nefertut noted. “I made my moon and put that accursed gate in the center. I could not bury it, but I could surround it with fortifications and lakes of molten metal.”

  “Empower yourself,” Matthias instructed before the world spirit could even try to beg. “You are the first line of defense if they ever break out. So we need you to be able to hold long enough for the rest of us to mobilize and support you.”

  “I second that suggestion,” Xalt added.

  “I as well,” Rollumn agreed.

  “What about me?” the world spirit protested.

  “You are the strongest of us,” Matthias pointed out.

  “I am only slightly stronger than you,” she whined.

  “If you are worried about me rebelling, then you have not been paying attention,” he scoffed. “I hate being in charge.”

  Everyone gave him a dubious look.

  “What?” Matthias protested. “I have the domain of the hearth. I am a house husband, not really a fighter. In fact, I also have the craftsman domain. Total house husband over here.”

  “I can hardly believe that this is the man who led us all down this path,” Xalt teased in an exasperated tone.

  Everyone but Matthias laughed at that. Even Nefertut joined in this time.