Absolute Loyalty

Kael looked around at his surroundings and found he is sitting in classic theater. He were seated in a vip room alone and he saw others who is sitting in a room just like his.

But they were clearly not humans...

He questioned his sanity few times before trying to remember how he arrived here. Charlotte shooting him, then hearing his father's words as his heart beats its last, arriving at different world then meeting Charlotte again... after that, after that he was tired so he left things to Cass and went sleeping.

What is even happening? Am I really just lying unconcious at my bed in hospital and swimming in my subconciousness? If so my brain sure is something.. building such a realistic place. Everything here feels so real, oh right "Cass are you there?"

"Itami??"

What? I can't feel them? What is happening.. I never got my conection to them cut like this before... ever since their birth, we were able to feel each other even if they are asleep... not to mention observers. It is bit risky but I got no choice but to try.. "ISANO! "

Wow I can't even get to Isano? Are we seperated in our dreams? It feels so strange... ever since they appeared they were always together, but now he can't get to even one of them. They always protected him till now, but no one is here anymore. He is lost and alone once again, he didn't feel like this ever since Cass's birth...

Every person inside this body were born from his strong emotions. They appeared one after another everytime he went under major events of his life...

Among them Cass is the one closest to him, because he is born to protect him from his weakness. He is most reliable brother, friend and comrade. Kael was fat and slow during his early days so Cass is born with swift and fast.

Kael never managed to win a fight against anyone and was often bullied so Cass is born with natural talent to fight.

While he was feeling sad for not being able to feel other's presence a figure wearing pure black robe walked to the center of the stage. His robe fluttered in the air freely like it is made from thousands of small black particles with no weight. Even without wind some part of his robes hovered in the air.

The guy clapped his hands loudly to get atention of those who were present. Well even without doing that, from the moment he appeared he had all the attention anyway.

"Greetings, My name is Rasha. I am the last guardian overseer of Manaar.

I hope few days you spent in Manaar were enjoyable"

"Why are we here? Are you the one who summoned me to Manaar?" one of whom was sitting in one of the vip rooms asked. He was almost 2 meter tall and he had pure white eyes. Except from these he looked pretty much human.

"No, but you could say I had a hand in it though. Well as you all may know or guessed, you lot are already dead."

"Oh i knew it "

"As i thought.."

"Roarr"

"So it is afterlife..."

"Where is the banquet? I died with glory.. "

Rasha once again clapped his hands to get their attention on him.

"As for why you are here... How should I explain it?hmm... Right you are chosen by your gods"

"Chosen? To do what? " it was once again white eyed guy who asked question.

"Since your days spent in Manaar was short you may not know it but there are 8 different intelligent races living in Manaar.

Also none of them are natives of the Manaar. You see gods power up as they rule over more planets. And Manaar lost its god few thousand years ago..."

" A big godless planet like this is nothing but a big round cake for your gods... So with 8 gods vying for it you will have to play a very dangerous game..."

"Game?"

"Yes, Ultimate survival game between the chosen of 8 gods. In other words between you guys, well not just you guys... I will explain rules related to the game soon enough"

"Survival game? Why do I have to go through that?" Kael asked with slightly irritated voice. Although he didn't hate gods like Itami, he still disliked being toyed by an existence far above him, manipulating everything at his will.

"Why?" Rasha smiled "For a chance to go back and restart your life from the very start. That is the reward belongs only to the sole victor of our game"

"..." Kael went silent. A chance to correct his mistakes and erase the deep regrets... He can't let this opportunity pass no matter what. Probably because knowing this god has chosen him to participate in this game.

"So can I continue to explain the rules of the game?" facing him Rasha asked.

"Please do so"

"Alright then about the game... Basically your goal is to find and kill each other. There are really no rules about how you do it but please remember If you die your god will be out of the game and your whole race living in Manaar will lose your god's blessing.

Without god's blessing living being from other planets cannot survive a week in godless world. I think you may have realized your race living in Manaar is lot stronger than the ones in your own world."

"Yes, they have some abnormal strength" White eye chimed in again.

"It is all thanks to blessing of your gods, If they lose the blessing they will die in a week suffering from various diseases and plagues.

So it means the fate of millions of life living in Manaar rests on your shoulders.

Now some of you maybe thinking things like 'why don't we hide ourselves till only last one remains' or other versions of it.

But you see, defeating others grant you immense advantages.. Lets say you managed to kill one of the competitors. Then one god will lose his right to interfere and that slot will be granted to your god! With it your god can upgrade power of blessing, technology or other things of your whole race living in Manaar.

Not only that, each of you are here because you have your own unique abilities to begin with! And the moment you kill, that ability of your opponent will transfer to you!

So it is pointless to hide, it means you are just prolonging your death. Besides every month your god can help you out by giving you a simple advice or warning. But to make things fair that will be done through me."

"Advice from god ? " one with scales covering all of his skin like a snake asked through hissing voice.

"Yes, first day of every month we will be meeting here. Just like now. And at the end of meeting I will tell you a simple advice or warning your god has for you"

"I see"

"Ok now let me explain to you about quests. Quests are missions for you to complete. And if you complete it you will receive various rewards from it. Quests will be divided as public and personal, further divided by main and side.

Public quests are as it says, every one will be able to know about it.

Personal quests are only given to you, unless you tells others about it there will be no one knows about it.

Main quests has time limits and if you cannot complete within set time, you will receive major set backs. Also rewards for main quests are very good.

Side quests doesn't have time limits and although rewards are not as good as main quests, I advice you complete it when you got the chance. " here Rasha paused for a while then spoke

"In fact today I got a Public Main quest to announce!

'Unite your race under one name. 70 percent of your race must be under the rule of the King/Queen.'

Time to complete is 4 years.

Rewards for First to complete:

Upgrade blessing of gods by 1 rank (whole race)

Upfrade blessing of gods by 1 rank (personal)

3 teleport gate construction

10 gold mine discovery within territory

5 moonstone mine discovery within territory

Harvest blessing of gods

For others who manage to complete quest: Upgrade blessing of gods by 1 rank (whole race)

For those who fails to complete the quest within set time:

Harvest decline for 2 year.

Decrease in blessing of gods by 1 rank (personal)

Earthquake disaster in the capital of 3 major kingdom.

Yeah that is pretty much it. This is your very first public main quest. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. Since we won't be meeting another month., I will try my best to answer you"

"What is this rank of blessing?" one with dark skin and long eared elderly looking guy asked.

"Blessing of gods are divided by low, medium and high. Further into 8 ranks each. Low-1 rank is rank of babies from the moment they born. Low-6 is pretty much normal rank for a.d.u.l.ts but really it varies depending on races. If you train from young age genius among geniuses can reach up to Medium-8 in their prime. But only blessed knights or mages can reach High-1 or above . These guys are born with strong blessing from the start. Please don't ask how and why... even gods don't know about this.

Oh by the way, all of you should have received blessing of High-1 from the gods. Though some may get some time lag before it is fully adapted to your body "

"So that is why..." White eye muttered nodding.

"How do we know the rank of others?" Long ear asked again .

"Mages can tell you after you go through their inspection "

"Mages.. who are they?" Snake guy asked while his lips going in and out of his mouth at very fast speed.

"It is one of occupation of the those who live in Manaar. It is totally understandable that you do not know it.

There is an special energy exists only in Manaar, It is called "Mana". Those who can gather this energy inside their own body is called 'Mana holders' while those who can change its forms freely are called 'Mages'. Mages can be divided into science type and combat type.

Although I say science type their technology is just far too behind... Combat type mages are pretty formidable but because of one fatal flaw they are useless.

You see for mage to cast spells that can actually hurt people with blessing of gods they need enermous amount of mana. Mana they acc.u.mulate within their body is just not enough.

To counter it science type mages invented 'Mana tower' where they built tower that collects mana from suroundings and mana holders injecting mana directly, so that combat mages can fight within 2 km range from the tower.

But their spells are still somewhat weak... they can put up pretty good fight with tower nearby so they are good at defending and acting as sentries."

"Alright any more questions?"

"Do we have to become king to complete the quest? " One with 4 arms and purple skin asked.

"No as long as you can unite your race under one ruler it counts. "

"Any other? No? Ok then I will send you back one by one. I still need to pass the advice and a personal main quest to you all."

One by one they disappeared from their vip rooms. When it came to Kael he heard the following:

Personal main quest:

Assassinate Arnaud Alderman prime minister of Rimun kingdom within 2 month.

Rewards upon completion:

Blessing of gods (mage) high-1 for Itami.

Punishment for fail:

Isano's death.

Advice from god: Kill Foulque while hiding your identity.