It was only two hours later that the Passive Tyrant returned to Earth for the first time in two decades.
Every single dragonslayer and adventurer with [Dangersense] on Earth was inexplicably drawn to that location. Those with the most amount of self-preservation instincts left for The Realm immediately.
Ayla cared little for international laws, agreements with the nations of Earth, or hiding herself. She was pissed and it showed. No dragonslayer dared to come close, the American government was silent, and the whole world watched with bated breath.
People had been crying out for Tyrant intervention. It was no secret that the pillar of flesh was an adventurer that had attempted to copy the Passive Tyrant’s body and
It was just that nobody expected Ayla to move so quickly. Nor to ignore all accepted protocols and come deal with the problem herself.
After all, she hadn’t shown up publicly on Earth since the Trial System descended.
Ayla was here because Lihua had a point. Ignoring the obvious gaslighting, the Tyrants did lean on her far, far too much.
It wasn’t like they didn’t know what she was doing. They knew she had a hundred different plans in place for a hundred different scenarios and they were walking down one she expected.
The more they discussed exactly what a quarantine of Lihua would entail, the more Ayla got annoyed.
Because she was right, damn her.
They had leaned on Lihua far, far too much. To restructure The Realm and make sure it was prepared for disaster would take time and effort. It would require them to sit down and find talented people that they could delegate to. In other words, it would require people skills and maintenance.
And none of them other than LIhua was good at that.
Oh, they could punch things, break things, and generally be a nuisance to any powerful Trial boss, but maintenance? Not only maintenance but managing a civilization that was continuously growing at a blistering rate? Trying to figure out how to set it up so that it could thrive without them?
None of them wanted to do that.
So when the Tyrants sat down for two hours, stressing over details they could not manage, while Lihua was sipping her tea and the Secretary had disappeared god knows where?
Ayla got a little impatient. She decided to solve the problem that stuck out like a sore thumb first.
Only now that she was here, she was realizing that she didn’t really have a solution for this. Ayla didn’t want to kill Pinkie. While it wouldn’t be the first time she had exterminated a monster because it was a threat to civilization, simply killing Pinkie felt wrong to her. Not only had Ayla had promised to keep her safe but Pinkie… was clearly depressed.
So… it turned out this wasn’t a problem she could just punch either.
“Hey Pinkie, are you there?”
No response, though Ayla was certain that Pinkie had heard her.
“Hey Pinkie, Lihua’s been quarantined, Paul’s next to her, you don’t have to worry about her anymore, you can return to the realm.”
That was the most ideal solution. Try to get Pinkie into The Realm and try to help her that way. Maybe when she was stable enough she could be one of the Tyrants. That might help deal with Lihua.
Killing her was a waste. There was just so much potential, though Lihua’s words did rang in the back of her mind. Pinkie… might have actually gained more potential like this than before.
Ayla shook her head. That was just that sinister seed of doubt Lihua liked to plant. The one that said that she was still working towards the best possible future and that this was just a minor sacrifice.
She wasn’t like Henrik, she did not believe that the Tyrants were heroes that the rest of the world made them out to be.
Hadi was a murderous prick, Jai could be a ruthless assassin, and Xavien could be as cold as Lihua was. They had sacrificed more than just innocent lives for the greater good and Ayla didn’t believe in the idea that ‘it was only in wartime and it was necessary’.
She remembered when Ayla first suggested using civilians as bait so they could kill One-Eyed Rick. At how they had voted five to two for it.
Ayla and Paul had been the only ones against it. She wasn’t sure when it happened, but it seemed like the Tyrants had forgotten that.
People died all the time. That was just life.
It was a clear that they did rely on Lihua to make sure the world would end up in a good place while the rest of them pursued their own interests.
“Pinkie, can you tell me what she did?”
“Leave me alone.”
The words reverberated in the air with such force that it killed some of the weaker shades on the ground below. All of the flora and fauna in the islands were crushed.
“I can’t do that, or Lihua would win. She’s being quarantined and I can protect you. Come back to The Realm.”
“So many dead. My fault.”
“It happens. And it’s not your fault. It’s the Witch Tyrant’s fault. It’s Lihua’s fault.”
“What’s the difference? Leave me alone, I won’t hurt anyone.”
The undead shades that still spawned indicated otherwise.
“I can’t leave you here, I made a promise.”
“Then kill me, either way, I don’t want to return back to the realm ever again.”
Ayla clenched her fists, wishing she knew what she could do. She could feel the grief and depression coming out in waves from the flesh pillar. Lihua’s doing no doubt. It made her… remember little Gammy and wish she could turn back time… wish she had just ruled over the Earth with an iron fist.
Ayla shook her head.
“I’ll be back Pinkie. I made a promise and I failed. I’ll figure out a way to fix this, just you wait.”
And the Passive Tyrant departed, she did not greet any of the dragonslayers on the way out, nor did she take a glance at the reporters or government officials that were sweating.
The Passive Tyrant simply returned back to The Realm.
——
“Jesus fucking Christ.”
Seffara cursed as they all watched the altercation from Grettfield’s scrying spell.
Ryan let out a breath he’d been holding for several minutes.
“Couldn’t she have stood on the other side?! Away from the damned continent?"
It was one of the most irresponsible things Ryan had ever seen. The dragonslayers and Ryan had been sitting there relaxing, having conversation and introducing each other. And then all of a sudden, Grettfield shot up in alarm and summoned a projection of the Farallon Islands.”
The Passive Tyrant floating there between Pinky and the rest of the west coast of America.
No public announcement, nothing to other dragon slayers, nothing to the United States government.
Just standing there, not thinking about what would happen if Pinkie decided to fight and the entirety of the west coast would be under the line of fire.
“She really just does as she pleases, huh?”
A telepathic message came from Grettfield. Thrown at him because Ineza was here and she wasn’t trusted with the information.
‘Ryan Robinson? I want her removed from that location. If you have something that can do it, I am requesting you to go for it.’
And well, after seeing what just happened, Ryan wasn’t sure he could say no to that one.
…
Ryan and Seffara retreated to another room in the tent as other dragonslayers started coming in and Ineza was being particularly annoying.
After a round of phone calls where he had assured his parents that he was fine, came the video chat with his friends.
Or in this case, one where he finally got to lord over the fact that he was right to be paranoid.
“I told you all that this could happen. You kept calling me paranoid for everything, I told you I was right.”
Clara waved it away.
“Fine, fine Ryan, you were right and we were wrong. What I want to ask is why do you look like you’re going to do something dangerous?”
He didn’t even try to refute it. But he was still taken aback.
“What? How the hell do you know?”
Clara pointed behind him.
“Seffara’s being quiet and more focused on you than us.”
Ryan looked up at the ceiling in exasperation, then turned to Seffara.
“Goddamnit Seff, how the hell are you a dragonslayer with decades of experience?”
Seffara only looked a little embarrassed.
“Damned [Mages].”
“She’s a civilian!”
Clara cut off the banter before it could derail the conversation as Ryan had been hoping.
“No secrets, Ryan. What happened to lesson three?”
“It’s not a secret, I just don’t trust this video chat. We’ll have an after-action report after everything. I’ll tell Seffara what I’m planning, is that all good?”
Clara took a good hard look at him while he pushed Seffara off-screen so she couldn’t give anything away.
“It’s serious isn’t it? Why do you have to be the one doing everything?”
Ryan sighed. “Because I’ve got the right skills. Sometimes that’s just how it works, or maybe that’s just the way it’s set up. We can’t leave that monster alone as a threat to everyone else.”
Grettfield was right. None of them could have predicted that the Passive Tyrant herself would just show up on Earth. Anything could happen with such a major threat so close to them and it would be best to remove it if they could.
There was also an idea he had… that he would get his third feat needed to complete his quasi-legendary title quest.
Everyone had seen how the Passive Tyrant had failed to bring back Pinkie to The Realm. If Ryan could accomplish it, there was a good chance that it would fulfill all of the conditions of his title and transform it into a Legendary title.
Though Ryan was thinking too far ahead.
“Well Ryan, I’ve got something to tell you as well. Keep yourself safe alright?”
Clara looked a little guilty—like she was hiding something.
“What happened?”
“After, when you’re not so busy with everything. If you’re so curious then make sure you survive, okay?!”
And the conversation ended there. Seffara had her arms crossed as Ryan turned to her. She shrugged, she had no idea what the secret was either.
Though she was more curious about something else.
“Alright, tell me everything I’ve missed..”
…
It took about thirty minutes. Ryan got to his encounter with the Manager, the alternate reality of Dumb-Ryan and what happened when Seffara blew up his head.
“I’m surprised you’re sharing all of that with me.”
“We’re a team. I’m not embarrassed about some alternate reality that a delusional entity dreamed up in its free time. Besides, just wait until you hear about what I did next.”
And so Ryan continued, all the way until the end with the confrontation where he got his second Legendary feat.
“You tried to kill it too, huh?”
Ryan blinked. “Wait, you did as well?”
“Yup.” Seffara summoned her broken soul weapon. “Broke my axe over the Manager’s damned shield right after I got my class.”
“Huh, I did the same with my shattersword.”
“That doesn’t sound like you. You know stronger people than you have tried, right?”
“Me? I was testing to see if there was any sort of weakness in its defensive measures. Why did you think you would succeed? You must have known stronger people than you have tried, right?”
Ryan threw back her statement at her. Seffara actually didn’t seem to have considered the idea that someone stronger had tried to kill the Manager.
“You don’t try to kill a monster because you know you can kill it. Sometimes, you have to go for it when you have the chance. Besides, I had a better chance than you because I received a quasi-legendary class, then tried to kill it.”
She had her nose in the air, as if proud of the fact.
“Huh, same here. What’s your class?”
Both of them stared at each other for a moment, then they burst out laughing. Seffara slapped him on the back.
“That’s a good one, what is it? [Delusional Adventurer-Fan]?”
Ryan stopped laughing. He had been laughing because they were both stupid adventurers that tried to kill a monster they knew they would be able to kill, not because he was lying about the rarity of his class.
“Wait, that's why you’re laughing? I was serious about mine.”
Seffara stopped laughing. She stared at Ryan and tried to keep a straight face, then she burst out laughing again.
“Damn, I almost believed you for a second.”
“I’m really not lying. My current class is quasi-legendary.”
Seffara stopped laughing, her smile actually freezing. Then she put both her hands on his shoulders and a dragonslayer loomed over him.
“You’re trying to tell me that you got offered a Quasi-Legendary class before hitting dragonslayer?”
Ryan decided to kick her while she was down.
“Two, actually. One before I tried to kill the Manager and one right after.”
Seffara’s eyes twitched.
“You little shit. I’ve gone through countless warzones, ducked Wellarrioussa as he bombed The Realm. I’ve survived the Archmage Tyrant sniping an entire regiment of evolved adventurers from across an entire sector. I spent decades stopping the worst of the worst from attempting the tenth trial. I had to choke out a damned dragon in his lair as my tits were being melted from my chest AND YOU GOT OFFERED TWO QUASI-LEGENDARY CLASSES?”
Seffara was actually mad about this one. Her presence was fluctuating wildly and actually crashing into the silence barrier.
“In what world does that make sense?!”
“Would you like to say you wish to complain to the Manager?”
She squeezed his shoulders—just a little too hard. Then let go.
“Sorry. It’s probably a good thing you got such a high rarity class.”
Ryan rubbed his shoulders.
“No worries. What’s your class though?”
He was curious. There were so few quasi-legendary classes that it was hard to tell exactly what differentiated them from Epics.
Seffara scratched her nose, a little embarrassed.
“It’s uh, the [First and Last Heroine]. Hey, don’t laugh.”
Ryan was smiling broadly at her.
“I’m not. If there’s anyone that deserves that class, it’s you Seff.”
“Why is it that when it’s coming from you, it sounds like you’re making fun of me.”
“Well, adventurers are better after all.”
“Hmph, no they’re not. What’s your class then?”
…
Ten minutes later…
Seffara shook her head as Ryan stood in front of the System portal in San Kingsgrove. It was his first time going the normal way.
This is a Dimensional System Portal.
Please note that as a Destined, you will appear where your body was last. All items worn will not be transferred unless you use one of the dimensional portals in The Realm.
Return to The Realm?
Y/N
It was finally time to check out the sixth Trial and see what happened to the Kingdom of Valmere.
When Ryan appeared once again in the flattened outpost, Luneia [The Knight] was waiting for him. She put her visor down and started a slow march towards him.
Ryan grinned at the [Strongest in the Fifth Realm].
“I completely forgot about you. I guess you’ll be a good warmup.”
////