Leave on a journey.

"Let's keep looking around. There's got to be a statue of you somewhere." Citrinas said, continuing to lead the nameless hero around by the hand. He didn't say anything in response, mindlessly going along with her whims as they wandered around Maran's temple. Citrinas bit her lip as they walked past a statue of Ariel, the rotund angel's presence doing nothing to help with the nameless hero's mental state. Rather than appearing like a small, feminine man with a thin build and slender face, he was a large, rotund figure and tiny wings that looked less like an angel's and more like a chicken's. Such was to be expected of an angel in charge of the cook fires. She subtly casted God's Eye on the nameless hero as they left, hoping that at the very least he'd show emotion at the sight of the statue. Instead, she found his status screen as disturbing as ever.

Name: N/A
Class: N/A
Race: N/A
Skills: N/A
Mood: N/A

It had been two days since he learned the truth, and his mental state only degenerated rather than improved as they hoped. His usual loud, boisterous attitude had quieted down to a quiet, subservient persona. He didn't even have the energy to feel depression as the mundanity of sanity set in. She hoped they'd find a statue of him somewhere, but Harvin said he knew that there was no such thing in the city. Based on what the aged butler had said, there was little chance they would find anything relevant to him in this city. There were no hints they could use to identify him outside of his appearance, the fact that he was well travelled, and that he was one of the more obscure heroes. Everything else was pure speculation.

According to Harvin, placing two monster cores in a person was unprecedented and was more likely than not to end in a critical failure, so using a quality hero corpse would be a waste. He was probably an obscure hero when he was alive that served mostly as a proof of concept before being disposed. There was a chance he was a former hero of the hearth based on his angelic blessings, but that was also unlikely. Blessings were either imparted by the artifacts used to revive him or remnants from his previous life, so there was only a 50/50 chance he was a former hero of the hearth. Furthermore, the few clues they had to his past was that he was a talented mage with a robust foundation in the sciences and well travelled considering his linguistic aptitude. The current hero of the hearth and most of his predecessors were close combat specialists who abhorred the use of magic.

Harvin's personal opinion was that the nameless hero was formerly a hero of peace or bonds based on his skillset and knowledge. Someone with lacking combat prowess and a talent for linguistics was a strong fit for those heroes. Citrinas was of the opinion he was a hero of magic in the past, since he had a robust understanding of magic and had a strong foundation in the sciences. Ultimately, these were just blind guesses in the dark. The only way of finding out about him would be a matter of chasing old statues and finding one that looked like him or finding the person that had altered him. Sadly, the former was tedious akin to finding a needle in a haystack while the latter was plain suicidal.

There was word that the hero of the hearth had personally attacked another city yesterday, stealing artifacts from the goddess of deceit, wiping out the local guard, then attacking the local nobility without so much as a scratch on him under the span of 3 minutes. Considering he had a vast list of exploits fighting creatures spawned from the Apollyon Gates, merely spotting him was a **** sentence. Furthermore, Harvin warned that the hero of the hearth might even try to abduct the nameless hero to try replacing the monster cores in his body with different, more potent cores if he found out his test subject was not only alive but capable of sentience. Overall, they had to make sure they stayed FAR away from him or close enough to Kolderia that Mathias could respond and arrive to fight him. It was this fear of the traitor hero that caused Citrinas to think about her next move.

She'd been content just traveling with the party on diplomatic missions since it gave her access to different alchemy guilds and by extension different places to restock on alchemy ingredients. Now her sister had come back from the dead, one of the people that might have had an idea of what happened to her lost his memories, and the traitor hero was getting more aggressive attacking cities across the continent. Staying in Kolderia was the logical choice since Mathias would be here and any monster or hybrid that attacked would be a fraction of their normal strength. Plus, the nameless hero's condition might improve and give insight into the traitor hero's motives. Steeling her heart, Citrinas prepared to tell the rest of the party that she was retiring from her duties and living in Kolderia from there on.

As they returned, they could see the rest of the party making preparations for their next destination with various professionals in the main hall. Due to the attack on the city, they had pushed back their visit to the Amazonians by two weeks, helping in reconstruction. Now with a majority of the city rebuilt, there was no further reason to stay. Elmeria was currently talking with some of workers from whatever temple she worshipped to determine just who had attacked the city while Alka, Tomoko, and Ruya were making travel plans on who to talk to and what topics they were to discuss when they arrived. It was all political intrigue that Citrinas never bothered to deal with. As the pair returned to the estate, the 4 of them stopped their tasks to greet Citrinas.

"Aw, did we cut your little date short?" Elmeria mocked while looking at the pair hold hands as the workers dismissed themselves, leaving the party alone to catch up.

"Um..." Citrinas said while scratching her neck awkwardly, trying to think of a way to bring up her demand to stay in Kolderia.

"Something wrong?" Tomoko asked as Citrinas swallowed. Tomoko and the rest of them were the few people she could trust in the world, the 5 of them suffering through the same horrors and staying strong in spite of it. It hurt to just abandon them out of the blue, but she knew that staying with them would only get them hurt considering her sister was still running around under the command of the traitor hero. Even though Alka and Tomoko were invulnerable to physical attacks, the hero of the hearth was not something to be underestimated. She had to stay away for their sake.

"I'd... We would like to stay in Kolderia." Citrinas said as the party stared at her, more puzzled than insulted.

"Really? You want to stay here alone with him?" Ruya asked, looking to the nameless hero before looking back at Citrinas.

"I'm... I'm so sorry. I just, I want to stay, but... Things happen. I can't say why I'm staying. I just am." Citrinas said nervously as their excitement turned to shock and disbelief as they looked to the nameless hero, her answer causing the expected reaction in them. There wasn't a good reason to abandon them, and she was a terrible liar. The nameless hero didn't speak up, unable to think of an excuse to get them dismissed like he usuaully did. Elmeria suddenly burst out laughing after a minute, her voice causing the nameless hero's hand to begin sloughing off, then regenerating in the same second. Though nobody could see it, she could feel his body breaking down and healing at the same time.

"HAHAHAHAHA. Tomoko, Tomoko, I can't believe he actually-this is incredible! I can't believe he actually-HAHAHAHA!" She said while laughing as Tomoko shook her violently.

"It's not funny!" She said before looking to Citrinas. "I-I knew you two were close, but, you two have only known each other for about half a year. You should've took it slower before-you should've gotten married first, but I know her parents would object, so I can understand eloping, but this is-" She stumbled out as Alka sighed.

"You know, when I said don't let anything stand in the way of your love, I didn't mean you should go THAT far." Alka said, only for the nameless hero to just stare at the ground. "Verdi? You okay bud?" She asked, suddenly concerned while waving her hand in front of his face.

"He's... Not doing so well. I don't think he wants to talk right now." Citrinas said, unable to make a proper excuse for the nameless hero's mental state. To her surprise, the rest of the party just accepted her answer without question.

"Okay, let's give him some time to think." Alka said as the rest of the girls nodded, giving him looks of pity and understanding. What exactly were they doing?

"Should we be concerned about the political backlash this would cause?" Ruya asked. "I mean, they've been trying to marry her off for years, and now... Well..." She said, her words confusing Citrinas even more. Did they think she was getting married to him? She wanted to correct them, but she also knew that she wasn't capable of making a better excuse.

"Don't worry, I'll think of something. Nobody has to know." Elmeria reassured as Citrinas blinked, still puzzled at their response. She had given them a non-answer on why she didn't want to join them, and they seemed to be overjoyed.

"Hey Verdi, if you're feeling a bit overwhelmed, try talking to Harvin. He's a grandfather, so he might have some tips." Alka offered as they heard a soft knock on the door to the main hall. It slowly opened to display Harvin and Fenri, the butler looking slightly worried as the hero of the hunt flashed a toothy grin while looking into the main hall. Rather than seeming like the butler did his usual trick of appearing when called, it looked more like he was forcibly dragged there by Fenri at knife point.

"Good to see you again. I'm surprised you're still in the city." Elmeria said, the dark elf flashing her usual winning smile at the hero of the hunt. She nodded while walking towards Citrinas, reaching forward and forcibly separating her from the nameless hero's hand. Everyone in the room just stared as she dragged him away. "Something wrong?" Elmeria asked as Fenri stopped and looked over to them.

"Nope. Just here to grab my new party member before I leave." She said as Citrinas first looked to Fenri then to the rest of the party, confused at just what she meant. Chaos ensued as the entire party ran to the door and stopped her.

"Hold on, new party member!?" Tomoko asked as Fenri nodded.

"Yup." She answered flatly.

"Did he agree to join you?" Tomoko asked while throwing Citrinas a worried look.

"You slimy bastard! This is how you're running away from responsibility!?" Alka asked in disbelief as Fenri snapped her fingers.

"Oh, that reminds me." She said while looking to the alchemist. "Hey, you're a part of my party now. Congrats." She said as the rest of the party realized what was happening.

"Hold on, are you just abducting him!?" Ruya asked.

"Yup." Fenri answered flatly.

"You can't just drag him away!" Elmeria protested as Citrinas nodded in agreement, letting the dark elf do the talking. She was the most politically connected of the 5, and knew every law quite well. There had to be at least a dozen laws against heroes forcibly abducting people into their party. She wanted to believe that, but Elmeria looked worried.

"Heroes have the right to conscript anyone they deem to be worthy companions. This privilege can only be used once every 2 years in a hero's career." Fenri countered while holding her hand up and summoning a slip of paper from her inventory. Elmeria blinked, grabbing the slip of paper as Citrinas read it over her shoulder. It was a conscription paper signed and approved by the upper echelon of both the goddess of the hunt and justice, complete with a stamp imbued with magic power. It was legitimate.

"The war ended! We don't need to conscript people anymore!" Elmeria said, realizing that Fenri had the law on her side. Meanwhile, Alka, Ruya, and Tomoko were going over the paper, trying to find some sort of loophole or out clause. Unless she personally dismissed him, there was nothing they could do.

"Take it up with the legislature." Fenri said, dragging her trophy out with her as Citrinas chased her out with the rest of the party behind her. As she ran forward, Citrinas felt a sinking feeling in her gut. She remembered this feeling quite well. It was last time she saw her sister before heading off to fight the demon king. She realized what was going to happen as she held a hand out to stop her party. The only person that could convince Fenri was her, and she knew it.

"Let me talk to her alone." She asked, turning back at the rest of her party. She didn't want them knowing about her sister or the mess she was in, or else they'd worry. She didn't want her friends to end up hurt because of her personal issues. Though Elmeria and Tomoko wanted to say something, they went silent at the determined look Citrinas had, nodding as they stopped following her and let her have some privacy with Fenri.

"If you need anything, call us." Tomoko said as the rest of the party gave the trio some privacy. Soon, it was just Fenri, Citrinas, and the nameless hero standing alone in the main hall.

"Hell do you want?" Fenri asked as Citrinas stood by the front door and blocked it with her arms. Fenri could have just ran around her, but she seemed willing to hear Citrinas out, the time they'd spent just chatting giving her pause.

"Why are you taking him?" She asked while looking at the nameless hero, the chaotic incident still not rousing him to full consciousness.

"I'm pissed at your bitch sister, and I need an ally I can trust to help me hunt her down. He's already tried to kill her, I know he can fight well, and he's got Status Effect so he's immune to mind control, so he's the only person I can trust to watch my back." Fenri said while grabbing his shoulder and shaking him. "Plus, he's obedient now. He's the perfect party companion." She said, viewing his current mental state as a positive trait rather than a negative trait.

"You're using him as a tool?" Citrinas asked in disbelief.

"He'll benefit too. I bet you were planning to stay in this city and hide, right?" Fenri asked, her words dead on the mark as Citrinas looked away. "Stay here and he'll never find out his past. If he travels with me, he'll have a better shot at finding out who he was." She said as the nameless hero twitched, focus returning to his eyes as he heard her offer. He was still far from his normal state, but she could see that he was tempted by the offer. For the briefest moment, she could see his personality return.

"So what's your plan?" Citrinas asked, dreading the next words out of Fenri's lips.

"We'll find that fox bitch, beat the hell out of her, have her spill her guts to him about who he was, then I'll spill her guts on the floor. Everyone wins." Fenri said cheerily as Citrinas clenched her fist. Monster or not, Tristiana deserved to explain herself. Considering that Elmeria had said Fenri was a faster learner than her predecessor, there was little doubt that she'd become strong enough to fight her by the end of the year. The matchup between a mage and a speed type fighter like Fenri was that bad.

"Let me come with you." Citrinas demanded. She couldn't just sit there and watch her sister get hunted down. There had to be a good reason for what she was doing, and she was going to make sure Tristiana had her say.

"Hah?" Fenri asked, as though she hadn't heard her words. Citrinas swallowed, trying to think of a way to **** Fenri to take her along. She wasn't one to be swayed by threats, and she knew she couldn't intimidate people very well. She did, however, seem to value the nameless hero's ability.

"I have a familiar contract with him. I can summon him back to my side whenever I want." Citrinas said as Fenri just smirked at her, unafraid of her threat. "We leave together or not at all."

"You can try it." She offered as Citrinas began sweating, as though Fenri predicted this threat. She merely continued talking while conjuring a knife from her inventory. "But I don't like people touching my stuff." She said while stabbing the knife into his back. He didn't even seem to register the knife digging into him as she felt around with the blade. Eventually, she seemed to hit something as she pried the familiar talisman she placed in his body out, the wound sealing itself over just as she threw the bloodied talisman to the ground. Citrinas swallowed a mouthful of saliva, realizing her major trump card was now gone as the spent talisman burst into blue flames.

"You need a high tier mage. Alchemist classes have severely decreased magic attack and magic defense in exchange for higher magic capacity. Best you can expect from him is for him to become a runesmith enchanting knives when he classes up. I can fight her right now." Citrinas offered as Fenri's eyes went wide and looked down at the alchemist.

"If I level him up, he'll be able to enchant knives too?" Fenri asked, viewing his class as a benefit rather than a blatant weakness. Alchemist class progressions were all utility or production classes with little combat ability. He would undoubtedly be a very useful craftsman in the future considering his dexterity, but he wasn't designed for combat.

"You need a mage to fight a mage. I'm one of the few arch-imagos in the world who can actually match her." Citrinas said as Fenri chuckled at her statement, her response worsening Citrinas' growing fear.

"I saw you give her a hug when you saw her. I saw him try and stab her the second he had the chance. One of you is more trustworthy than the other when it comes to hunting that bitch." Fenri said as Citrinas felt her face begin burning up, scrambling for something to sway the hero. She was never good at talking, but she couldn't rely on Tomoko or Elmeria to negotiate on something like this. There had to be some other argument she could use.

"I'll pay you as much as you want. I have enough to buy a kingdom." She said, throwing out her last card. She was wealthy, and with enough money, anyone could be-

"If that's the best you have, I'm done listening." Fenri spat out in disgust while pushing Citrinas out of the way and opening the front door. "Go back to your party. I'm not interested." She ordered as Citrinas stood there, unable to think of any other ideas. She watched helplessly as the hero of the hunt walked down the stone path, ready to pursue ever greater game while another panic attack ravaged her. 6 years had passed since the nightmare was supposed to end, but nothing had changed at all.

Her older sister was going to be killed, and yet again she'd be helpless to stop it. All the wealth and power she had amassed was worthless. She knew that Fenri could have been convinced to let her join considering she stopped to hear her out, but Citrinas was the worst talker of the group. She was useless. She couldn't even cry at her own incompetence, merely clenching her fist and looking down, trembling at her own helplessness. Fenri reached the outer gates as she continued to stare at the ground, her face a mix of rage and hate at herself above all else. Just when the servants opened them for her, the nameless hero glanced back at Citrinas, seeing her on the verge of tears as she watched the duo leave her sight.

Light returned to his eyes.

"... Oi wolf-bitch, let her join." He spat, causing Fenri to frown and look to him.

"And why should I? You won't cooperate unless I bring your favorite cum sock along? Cause I'm pretty sure I can drain you better than her." Fenri said as he let go of her and held two fingers up.

"Two reasons you should let her come with us." He said as Fenri cocked her head, interested to hear his argument.

"And they are?" She asked.

"One. I spared your worthless life and got torsofied as thanks. You owe me a favor, and I'm calling it in." He said, lowering his index finger so only his middle finger stuck up.

"And the second?" Fenri asked, his argument swaying her ever so slightly.

"Neither of us were fox-bitch's main objective. She was." He reminded her, the orders the kitsune had given her still fresh in her mind. "You're the hero of the hunt, and you're just gonna abandon the best goddamned bait for that shitty fox?" He asked as Fenri glared at Citrinas.

"She'll backstab us." She reminded, fully acknowledging that Citrinas was no loyal companion and intent on saving her sister rather than killing her. Rather than faltering, Verdi pressed the offense while chuckling.

"Oh, sorry. Were you scared another mage was going to take you down? Did I traumatize you that much?" He asked, kicking her pride as Fenri scowled. Though she looked to be ready to tear his head off, he wasn't afraid of her in the slightest. If anything, he was egging her on, his cheery grin serving only to aggravate her further. Just when it seemed like the two would come to blows, Fenri broke into a grin while walking away, waving at the two behind her while she left.

"Meet me tomorrow morning by the gates with your shit packed. Run and I'll kill both of you." She said, convinced by his argument as the nameless hero made his way back to the estate where Citrinas was waiting, shocked at how quickly he'd convinced Fenri. He wasn't anywhere as eloquent or concise as Elmeria or Tomoko, but he seemed to get the job done when it came to negotiations.

"... Thanks. This means a lot to me." She said as he caught up to her and closed the front door behind him.

"Save it. I'm not doing this for free." He said, grabbing her by the hand and taking her upstairs to his bedroom. She sighed, relieved to see that he was back. "Bring us into your Domain. I don't want anyone else hearing what I'm gonna ask you to do." He demanded as she sent the two into her pocket dimension once more. Silence fell over the area as he looked around her Domain, as though he were looking for unseen pursuers. The moon and the stars shined above them, her pocket dimension shifting to her personal demands as she prepared to have him pin her down and have his way with her again.

"Of course. What do you want to do?" She asked as he looked up at the moon, as though he were a werewolf attempting to transform underneath the illusory lunar body.

"No wiggling out, no negotiations. You either say yes, or you don't come with us." He warned as Citrinas nodded. He'd done some **** things to her, and as much as she denied it, her body enjoyed it. If he was putting on this much of a show, it was likely going to leave her changed even more.

"Just say it. I can handle it." She said as he sighed. Taking in a deep breath as though he were gathering courage to speak, he looked her in the eye and spoke. To her surprise, she wasn't compelled to look away from him like she did for most others.

"When we find your sister, get the bastard who did this to me, and beat my name out of him..." The nameless hero looked away from her while scratching his neck. For the first time he blushed, slightly embarrassed by his next demand from her. Considering he's explored her in ways no human could, he probably had something truly perverse planned for her at the end of their journey.

"Just say it." She says, slightly impatient at just what he wanted from her. For the first time, he seemed to stumble over his words, as though he were forcing them out. He'd been scared, panicked, and terrified, but this was the first time she'd heard him sound ashamed. It seemed even he had things he found debauched, but still within the realm of things he wanted to do.

"... I want you to promise that you'll be the first one to say my real name." The demand startled her as he scratched his head and looked away, continuing to talk. "Until then, I'll just keep using the one you gave me." He said, treating the request as though it were a perverse act that would make the dark gods retch at the sheer depravity. Somehow, Citrinas felt a bit weird at the request, her face burning up at the request despite how mundane it was. The two of them stood underneath the stars in silence, his words lingering in the air as the pair avoided looking to each other. She didn't know why he was asking this of her, and she had a feeling neither did he. Despite that, she looked to him and smiled.

"When this is all over, I'll say your name as many times as you want." She promised, the moonlight shining down on them as she gazed off into the distance deep in thought. It was going to be tough journey, she knew it would be far more dangerous than the war, but for some odd reason, she didn't feel scared.

End of Arc 1: The City of the Gods

---

Author's note (Read regarding scheduling):

First, thank you everyone for reading my branch until now. Comments and likes are helpful in keeping me motivated to pump chapters out. That said, I'll have to slow down my release schedule a hair. Since this is published chapter by chapter, foreshadowing future events without being obvious is tough and I HATE retconning stuff. That said, I'll probably take a hiatus for a week or so planning things out since there's a handful of mistakes I did writing arc 1. After I return, I'll probably publish 1 chapter every 3 days. I'm also going to retcon the following out of the story since I'm dropping the storylines associated with them.

1. Plant daughters no longer exist. He just fucked a bunch of elves then decided to let them go after a while since he felt kind of bad tricking them. I had a plan to use them, but I'm scrapping that plot.
2. All the extra classes acquired are gone. (I.E. He's a pure Sorcerer who JUST got a knight class. If you want a class, you gotta EARN it. Cheesing the system to get Final Form and getting Ice elemental infusion are all the perks I'm going to give him for free. New classes/powers should be something dramatic and have ample stakes.)

Reason for these retcons was because the initial plan was to have Verdi split into three separate secondary bodies, with one going to the heroes (main plot), the other going to the demon king, and the last one going to Orchid the nine tailed fox. I wanted to have the effects of one plot echo to the other, and vice versa. The extra classes was because I wanted to make a system where each body could use two classes, and make each story have a different combat style to represent it (I.E. We see in the light side plot line that Verdi uses magic, fights tactically, and focuses on deception since his fights are 1v1s against powerful enemies. The story with the nine tailed fox was going to be a game of cat and mouse, with him trying to use different skills to outwit assassins and hunters. The story following the demon king was going to fight more like a real time strategy focused on seizing territory, using the environment to his advantage, and slowly inching forward in a siege based fighting style against entire armies with his daughters serving as spec ops to eliminate targets). Abandoned this plan because I'd have to write a LOT to keep each branch updated, and I'm not that fast of a writer.

Spoilers/Dropped storylines ahead

Reason for the three branching narratives was because I wanted show how messed up a world with videogame-like mechanics can be, and why it psychologically broke the hero party so badly. I.E. Citrinas was described in the prompt as an autist with issues valuing life and inability to connect with others. I wanted the reason she acts so coldly to others and having a low value of life was due to warped values arisen from fighting in a war with isekai tropes/game mechanics. (Remember kids, the final hit gets the most experience points from a kill, and potions/healing magics are reserved for important people. If you've got a bunch of wounded soldiers you can't treat, why let the enemy get the experience points?).

I ended up abandoning the three narrative project for a few reasons. Main reason's that splitting the story would slow updates to a crawl. Second reason's that when I planned out the story, I accidentally left the fantasy genre and entered the grimdark genre when I showed the entire world as a whole. Wasn't even on purpose. I was just showing what happens when take the prompt's own world building and played them straight.

Cheap, readily available food + naturally high libidos of the populace from a smut prompt=HUGE population that grows exponentially with no upper limit on size

Eternal race war + existence of dungeons + necromancy/healing magic + the presence of a strict monarchic society + Huge population= dystopian nightmare realm of neverending punishment where life is cheap, powerful guilds/royalty restrict the common man from gaining the strength to change society, strength is king, logistics/travel is impossible since dungeons are constantly spawning, war is eternal, ****/crippling injury is not an escape thanks to necromancy/healing magic, and you have no prospect of salvation unless you lucked out and got strong enough to protect yourself. It became 8 layers of fucked up the more I thought about it.

I have no fucking idea how someone managed to make a world so grimdark it makes Warhammer 40k seem like a fun world to be in. There's still some traces from that initial plan such as the alchemist guild where Citrinas talked about how the nobility has a monopoly on potion reagents in addition to Verdi's offhand remark about how the world uses Verdure monsters as a cheap, renewable food source from their lunch scene.

Regardless, we're off to the next arc!