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The Early Spring suns were rising, turning the eastern skies a white gold color like new loot filled with shiny jewels. The morning sunbeams shone on the lingering ice that was melting off the surfaces of wild castles, tree tower forests, and fortress hillocks of the former North Crown Peak region.

There were new rivers, streams, and moats forming from the melted winter snow transitioning into cool spring water. Budding flowers, wild gardens, and mazes made of hedges were regaining their vivid colors as beasts of the land, rivers, and air became more active with the warming temperature.

Even as a dark entity, Zarian could get behind a view like this. But his Unraveled Mind wanted to uncover all the big and complicated mysteries, impeding the splendor. Ceaseless questions spiraled in his head like a drunk hurricane.

How did they make world themes seem so natural?

Gravity accounts for a randomness to what gathers together and forms up but all of this is through intelligent design that holds together seamlessly. Was this the System or the creator of the System? Or did the System come afterward?

Regardless of the System, the name itself and the belief in this world being natural can be the important glue filling in some of the seams. I wonder what Empress Ruvaria thinks about world creations. Does her grandmother have the power to create worlds? Maybe if I bug Lovewar or Serveserf hard enough, they will answer.

Zarian sighed wearily at his rampant thoughts. He was now seeing how annoying he could be when he was in constant nerd mode all the time.

Gilbert should be commended for having checked on him personally from time to time, reminding Zarian to be a human.

Hannah was probably too absorbed with Zarian being a wizardly freak to consider the humane concerns. But Hannah shouldn’t be blamed for that.

She’d sacrificed a lot of herself to make this village a functional place in only a few months. She was still trying to cope after having died, revived, and getting told that her existence depended on the whims of the Madness Wizard, his darkness, and his ultra god family.

Zarian started with his Level 0 Tranquil Mind to smooth things out. Then he used his cultivation technique. He cycled his breath rhythmically as his mind calmed further.

He felt his Overwhelming Darkness stir while threading its monstrous power through his channels and gates for a few slow loops.

He didn’t lean all the way in or he would lose days to his cultivation. He only did enough to help put his Unraveled Mind in check.

His Floridian Mindset acted as a heavy anchor between the spiritual discipline and the mental insanity, which led to his unraveling thoughts stabilizing.

The fractures in his mind only had a few deviations now. He couldn’t stop the deviating thoughts completely, but he could better mitigate it.

Once he had a better control of himself, the suns were above the horizon. The first parade was already marching through the slick, wet streets, with their horns blaring and their performers shouting and singing in the central marketplace as they headed down one of the big streets.

Para was finishing her study of a new spell from the voidling grimoire. Unlike the other grimoires, the texts were printed on metallic sheets with deep indents. It was easier for her to read them by touch without Zarian having to look ahead. Granted, Para was still evolving, so with time she would get better and better at stuff that humans take for granted.

“I have it now,” Para said, her arms and tentacles extended from around Zarian’s waist.

The red and leathery Parasite Cloak +2 was wrapped around his waist instead of her usual spot on his back. The materials and limbs hung over his black armored legs and boots, which were visible through the opening in the front.

The duo were going for a new appearance and tactic.

Other than the sealing gauntlets and his black wizard hat, his upper torso remained bare, showing off his muscles. He looked a little bigger after the giant breakfast he and Para had enjoyed earlier.

As the finishing touch, Zarian now had a pair of black sunglasses, which was a gift from Bianca that she’d requested from Hannah to make. The sunglasses were enchanted to be incredibly durable and to keep him comfortable even while under bright conditions. They also made him look more impressive.

That worked well enough for him, since the Infinita Dark Lord should be a striking figure.

They really love doling out multiple names for the big guys. Now I’m known as Darkness Lord and the Dark Lord, which aren’t the same thing and can have many meanings depending on who you ask. Though, I think Dark Lord is getting more widespread way faster.

Zarian chuckled a little at the quirkiness of his life. Then he turned to the humming, metallic grimoire that Para was holding with three feminine hands.

Thanks to a powerful combination of abilities and high Willpower, Para could speedrun Zarian through the fourth void spell. Zarian didn’t let his mind unravel except for a few interesting points that caught both his and Instructor Para’s attention.

The void spells were slightly the antithesis to the gravity spell. Especially when comparing philosophies. In fact, there was another way to look at void spells.

They reminded Zarian of the concept of entropy.

Zarian found that interesting since the empress had explained that all styles of teleportation used the void. That could mean every style of spell that defied space and dimensions was basically defying gravity in such a specific way that they were slightly entropic.

Before Zarian fell too deep into that rabbit hole – or black hole – Para guided Zarian into grasping the new spell in record time, which was incredible. The spell was the hardest void one yet. Now it was officially in their profile.

<Void Shout (Legendary): For a high expense of aura, shout with the power of the void. Nearby spells, enchantments, magical skills, and even weak boons will falter or fail depending on quality and/or power. Use more aura to reduce magical complications for friends. Scales with Wonder.>

“That was pretty fast,” Zarian said. “Then again, we’ve leveled up the wizard hat from all our studying.”

<Your skill, Summon Wizard Hat +2, leveled up from 25 to 28!>

“I’m curious to see how we conduct ourselves since we’re powerful in this region,” Para said. “The terrorists are so weak, it will be a pitiful showing if we don’t give them a chance. They will be less tasty if it’s too easy.”

“Well, it’s obvious we won’t be using Overwhelming Darkness. And they have a few tricks up their sleeve that make paladins unique,” Zarian explained. “I’ve caught a few tidbits here and there because of the spectral spiders. Check some of my memories from the fracture that’s focused on spider recon and surveillance.”

He felt Para dig around in his mind. Her delight bloomed and sent shivers across Zarian’s flesh.

Multiple mouths from around Zarian’s torso and Para’s limbs ripped open and let out a chorus of horrifying laughter. They spoke in unison, Para’s voice filled with monstrous glee.

“This is delightful. I will get to enjoy an exquisite meal if this comes to fruition. I hope they won’t disappoint us.”

“Same. If they do well enough, we can remind everyone why I am the Dark Lord.”

The horns from the parade blared louder. The performers danced harder, some of them dressed in colorful costumes depicting dragons, griffins, and pegasuses.

Early Spring Festivals in the Walled Continent called for a celebration that the early risers would enjoy, since the dark and night were associated with evil. Seeing a new spring was considered good for surviving the evil things that could lurk in the winter months.

For the Madness Wizard, it was deliciously ironic that the festival was happening in a village that was considered highly evil because of Zarian being the de facto big bad leader.

The festival was happening in other towns, cities, and villages across the continent, too. Zarian (with a lot of encouragement from Bianca) made sure the event organizers were properly funded to make the Ride-or-Die Early Spring Festival as big and merry as possible so anyone passing through would get something worth comparing when they went back home.

Better yet, it was multicultural, including small tidbits from most of the kingdoms.

For the gardeners, they had roses tossed onto the streets and beautiful women dancing about in flower patterned dresses. For the striders, they had pressurized casks that sprayed beer everywhere while bards yodeled the latest drunken tales – a lot of that depicted the Darkness Lord and the Shadowfell Lady having a couple’s fight that could put the entire universe at risk.

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For the nomads, who still hadn’t shown up, they dressed up travel drakes with ribbons and bright paint to honor them, since nomads relied on the domesticated beasts a lot in their empire. And for the chaste paladins, they had a very plain float with depictions of the Good Gods.

Yes, Zarian let all the Good Gods get represented.

He really, really liked the irony.

It made this day more exquisite as he worked on his last preparations.

He checked his stats.

Willpower: 414

Strength: 39

Agility: 40

Wonder: 267

Mysticism: 522

Free: 35

He was tempted to devote his Free points to Wonder. Void spells would normally scale with Wonder alone. However, his Void Mysticism trait made that less of an issue. He might as well save the Free points for later.

It was still surprising that he hadn’t gained that last point in Strength yet to hit 40. Maybe he needed to devote some time to pushing Strength by itself without excessive buffs.

I hadn’t done physical body training with Naomi in a while.

She hadn’t worked on his hair in a while.

They’d been too busy training and progressing or taking care of their guild and village.

I still need to get her a gift or do something nice for her.

Zarian felt a smidge sad over Naomi being gone to the Blood Prairies before putting it aside. He focused on his alpha skill set up.

Because of his darkness occupying the first alpha slot no matter what, he was limited on what he could move around between alpha skills and beta skills.

Parasite Cloak +2 and Spectral Spider Network +2 were non-negotiables. Zarian wanted them in his alpha section forever.

“Looks like we’re going to have to nerf ourselves a bit here,” Zarian said.

He switched two skills around. Now his alpha and beta section looked like this.

Alpha Skills (5/5): Overwhelming Darkness (Level 3), Parasite Cloak +2 (Level 34), Spectral Spider Network +2 (Level 25), Grimoire of Black Magic 102 (Level 24), Grimoire of the Dread Mire Hell Gator (Level 21)

Beta Skills (8/15): Advanced Grimoire of the Voidling Exile (Level 3), Summon Wizard Hat +2 (Level 27), Tranquil Mind (Level 0), Adrenaline Jolt (Level 0), Willful Might (Level 0), Wondrous Speed (Level 0), Mystic Toughness (Level 0), Rune Alteration (Level 0)

Immediately, Zarian felt the difference from Summon Wizard Hat +2 going from alpha to beta. The drastic reduction in efficiency, power, and capability was so sharp he was shocked.

He hadn’t realized he’d relied on his wizard hat being alpha for so long he’d forgotten what it felt like as a beta skill. Now he felt way less mystical and powerful, which was him coming down closer to a normal baseline.

However, his normal was way above the normal of others, so he could afford the drop.

At the very least, he increased the difficulty for himself and Para. So the paladins had a better chance against the duo.

No, not paladins.

They were terrorists.

There were plenty of paladins who weren’t involved with the terrorists. Old stubborn Bernard and his party were merely adventurers making the most out of the area. Other paladins were just like them.

The extremists were known as the Brothers of Original Good. Zarian thought of them as mainly terrorists.

For the last check, Zarian looked over his list of spells.

Spells: Bloody Lifesteal (Uncommon), Raise Advancing Skeletons (Rare), Black Fire (Rare), Quagmire Pit (Uncommon), Dread Mire Bite (Rare), Dread Mire Bellow (Epic), Void Authority (Epic), Void Layer (Legendary), Dread Mire Hell Gator (Legendary), Void Waltz (Legendary), Void Shout (Legendary)

“Ready?” Zarian asked.

“Yes!” Para flailed her arms, tentacles, and scythes from around Zarian’s waist.

The leathery article, which now looked more like a red battle kilt with a few sparkling glimmers, flapped from around his armored legs. Threads of Para wormed under Zarian’s flesh and around his muscles, his veins bulging with more physical prowess, raising his might, his toughness, and his speed.

Zarian pushed his black sunglasses up the bridge of his nose with a finger. He flicked at the brim of his crooked wizard hat. Then he spoke through a few spectral spiders to inform his people he was starting Operation Dead Terror Parade before he took the first step with his Void Waltz spell.

He ended up at the head of the main parade. The performers had known he would come, so they didn’t stop parading and celebrating.

The people lining the sides of the streets were shocked into disbelief. Many of them had never seen the Dark Lord before. They had only heard of him or had seen wildly fabricated depictions of him.

They saw how his skin was darker than a nomad in the desert. So dark that many of them thought he had fallen in boiling oil as a crime for being so evil.

They saw the crooked wizard hat, the strange gauntlets, the armored boots and leggings, the strangely shaped dark glasses shading his eyes. They saw how everything he wore was black except for the living kilt flapping from around his waist and legs, the ends of Para’s material reaching out with grasping hands and waving tentacles.

They couldn’t believe that such an entity like Lord Zarian, husband of Evil Goddess Shadowfell, could exist while at the head of a parade devoted to the rising of good in the Early Spring.

And he was dancing!

While he lacked the years of practice that the performers would’ve had, Zarian leaned on his Wondrous Speed to make him just decent enough to look on point with the performers. And since the style of dance was folksy, the steps weren’t complicated, and the music wasn’t hard to follow.

Zarian felt like he was celebrating in the Scottish Highlands. He whirled about, high stepping, and having a bit of fun while Para showed off by waving her limbs in sync with his movements.

The performers were paid well enough not to bat an eye and keep the parade going. Roses fell around the Infinita Dark Lord. Men and women dressed in bestial costumes frolicked around while presenting ferocious creatures from their own myths and legends.

The bards couldn’t help but join in around the Darkness Lord and throw about an excessive amount of beer. Zarian reached out, snatched a small cask from a bard, and drained it empty while he kept up his dance.

The hint of liquid courage helped him add a little swagger to his steps. It would’ve been better if Naomi were here, but he had the next best thing, which wasn’t Empress Ruvaria.

She hated parades, and they could only push the old elf so hard.

The empress was now in Hannah’s care, watching everything from the architect throne room, the brain of the entire village. They probably had a better view than even Zarian as Bianca fell from the sky like a shining star.

Her colorful elven dress fluttered tastefully, showing just enough of her slender long legs and bare feet without giving away the most important goods as she dropped right next to Zarian with the utmost of princess-like grace that had the audience swooning with adoration and infatuation. She bowed, blew kisses at the cheering crowds, then turned to Zarian and joined him in the dancing fun.

Seeing Princess Bianca with Lord Zarian was almost too much for some of the audience.

Good?!

Evil?!

Dancing right next to each other while at the head of the Early Spring Festival Parade?!

Many foreigners and visitors were still grappling with the concept of freedom. They still couldn’t get their heads around how it was possible for Zarian and Bianca to coexist, even with their high levels in their sub alignments.

Still, the audience became even more mind-boggled as Bianca’s free good +5 slowly emerged from inside of her. This performance was for a good cause, after all, since it would distract the innocent pedestrians from the violence that was about to start.

Bianca was looking better these days with her efforts to take care of Empress Ruvaria. Her smiles were brighter. Her laughter was louder. And she merrily linked arm and arm with Zarian as they danced and kicked about in circles.

Zarian wouldn’t have minded their day carrying on just like this if it wasn’t for his duty to protect the village and everyone who was innocent and following the rules.

“Is it time, papi?” Bianca asked in the middle of the performance.

“En tres, dos, uno,” Zarian said.

He, Para, and their spectral spiders performed a village-wide spell array centered on him dancing at the head of the parade. At five locations where the terrorists were planning to cause trouble, dancing spectral spiders had already formed runes linked to the Void Waltz spell that used their arcane webbing.

Many principles made the void antithesis to gravity. But there were still underlying principles that kept wizardry a structured practice.

The writings of the mad voidling exile, who was once a prince, had certainly stumped Zarian many times while learning the earlier spells.

But he was a much more learned wizard than before, and his spectral spiders were stellar little magic assistants. Add in Para, who was almost smarter than him in some aspects, and the void seemed almost too easy now.

And here was the kicker. They were doing this while the voidling grimoire and the wizard hat were in the beta section, making this feat of wizardry all the harder.

Yet, Zarian succeeded. He, Para, and the spectral spiders transferred themselves and the terrorists from their hideouts and into special underground sections under the village.

These sections were closed off from the public. They were all part of a side project Hannah had worked on when she’d found herself bored making a village for humans.

So … Hannah had made an artificial dungeon deep underground.

It wasn’t anything complex. Just some wide underground hallways and several giant atriums filled with enchanted traps and deadly obstacles. But it was still an impressive feat of engineering while servicing a place for humans.

What was the best part?

Zarian was the artificial dungeon boss.

And he was a boss who could move around instead of waiting for the would-be challengers to come to him. He also didn’t know the full depth of Hannah’s traps, some of which she had worked on hiding from even his senses. So there was some danger for him, too, which he was fine with.

As the paladins recovered from getting snatched up and dumped by a village-wide void spell, Zarian stood on a pillar of hard stone while surrounded by Hannah’s traps and maze-like obstacles. He let out a bellow so loud and monstrous it could be heard in every corner of the artificial dungeon.

“PALADINS! PALADINS! Come out! Come out! Come out and play with the DARK LORD!”

Okay, in this case, he called them paladins because it was more on theme. But the terrorists were still terrorists, and now they would get to savor a terror like no under while trapped with Zarian.

Granted, that was only one half of the scary part.

Hannah could make changes with a flex of her runic whim. And knowing her, the trapped men and women were less like humans, and more like test subjects for her to play with and eliminate at her leisure if Zarian didn’t get to them first.

The only person who could save the trapped paladins was Empress Ruvaria.

“Zarian,” Hannah said through a spectral spider on his shoulder.

“Yes?”

“The empress gives us her full approval. We can go full throttle on the terrorists.”

Zarian grinned. “Let’s see who gets the most kills, Hannah. You versus me.”

“Game on, Zarian.”