Crickets, bats, fireflies, moths, and mosquitoes infused the area around the fortress under the slightest sliver of moonlight. Isaac and Lenna had left Philia and Walter to plan out how the Errantee Guard were going to handle the lindwyrm. After that, they had found a way up to the top of the central building's roof where they now laid on the mildly damp wooden roof tiles. They had agreed to wait three days before they would leave and were now just relaxing after the last ten days of moderate to harsh traveling conditions.

"We shouldn't keep the Fatebreaker waiting." Lenna thought aloud.

Isaac nodded in agreement. "We aren't, and we won't. Our guide might also be helping us get an audience with him so we shouldn't try and forge on ahead." He reminded her of things that they both already knew.

Lenna sighed. "I know. It's just…" She began but then let her voice trail off.

Isaac didn't need to hear the rest of her sentence to know what she was thinking: 'It's hard to wait when the end is so close at hand.' He glanced over at her. "I know. But think about it, we've crossed half of a continent in a month and a week. We've made good time." He assured her. "And everything that we skipped past we'll be able to see when we take the long way back."

"I want to meet the Heidenburgs directly." Lenna told him. "Maybe take part in their tournament."

Isaac nodded. "We have time. I have nowhere to rush to. The only thing I want to rush towards is right here next to me." He said with a warm smile that made Lenna really wish there was an inn, and not just what amounted to an inn room right next to Philia's room, which was right across the hall from her office. If the proximity wasn't bad enough, no one had any delusions about soundproofing.

Lenna licked her lips as she looked at her mate but then pulled her thoughts back onto what they had been talking about. "I want to see the fields. Miles upon miles of tilled land with waves of wheat rippling in the wind." She went on. "I want to meet the Guild Leader, and talk with the ancient dragon. If he really has been running the Adventurers' Guild since its beginning, he has to be around three thousand years old."

"I'm fine with taking a detour to see the wheatfields and meeting the Guild Leader is something that we absolutely need to do at some point anyway." Isaac agreed. "We missed meeting him when we were in Altesia, but next time we won't be in a rush, we can stop in and see Lucius too if he is there."

Lenna nodded. "That sounds fun." She told him. "We should also meet with the Victorias, just so we have met with all four ducal families." Lenna shifted partially onto her side and used her armored arm as a pillow so she could more easily stare into Isaac's eyes. "There is a logging town named Pleasantrees. It sounds like an interesting place to visit. Also, the plains on the other side of the Altian Mountain Range. I cannot even imagine such a massive flat expanse."

"After we've met with the Fatebreaker, we can plan our return trip." Isaac told her. "For now, just try not to forget about anything that you want to see. One day, not soon though, I want to see the other continents. Walter has been to them, at least peripherally, and I think he was right. This is a whole new world for us, you almost as much as it is for Walter and me, and it would be a waste not to explore it. We aren't struggling farmers who need almost every copper to survive. We are adventurers at the apex of power and reaching higher, we have the money and the means to make it happen, so we should."

"I agree." Lenna said with a smile. "Seeing the rest of the world sounds like a wonderful plan, but we need to make sure that we do not miss little Margaret growing up, and hopefully we will have children of our own. Seeing the world may come intermittently."

Isaac nodded. "That's fine. Who knows, maybe we can bring our children along on some of those adventures."

—

It was early morning, just after breakfast, when Isaac found Walter brushing Copper with a soft brush. As he usually was, Walter was awake with the first light of dawn and had already finished giving Copper a bath and was now just taking care of her coat. "Do you have a few minutes? Maybe an hour or so?" Isaac asked Walter.

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Walter glanced at Isaac just long enough to see that he was not overly serious but it was an honest question. "Sure, the only thing that'll be waiting'll be Lenna's cloak. I finished Shamesh's Jacket last night and the rest of the set finished cooking this morning." Walter informed him. "What's up?"

"Can you fight me again?" Isaac requested.

"Spar or fight?" Walter wondered.

"Fight. No magic, no weapons, just like in the arena in Nualt." Isaac replied.

Walter frowned for a moment in thought. "As long as there are healers present, sure." He agreed. "Are you looking to learn or for a rematch?"

"Both." Isaac told him honestly. "You are a better fist fighter than I am, I want to change that."

Walter smirked. "I can help you bridge the gap, sure, but surpassing me will be entirely on you. I don't like to lose." The older worldwalker told the younger. "And if we're doing this, I won't be taking it easy on you like I did last time."

—

"After the boys are done beating the snot out of each other like school children, want to spar?" Philia asked Lenna as the two women stood just outside of the training arena Isaac and Walter were using. They were under the barracks so the sun wasn't blinding and the packed dirt was mostly dry. The troughs and low walls surrounding the training yard helped make sure that even after the recent heavy rain, the training yard was still usable. "We are both half-casters right?"

Lenna nodded. "What are the rules?" She wondered. Phila was right, they were both half of a caster and half of a warrior, though of very different types on all accounts.

"We can use our normal gear and cast magic. We'll have to do it outside though because the training yard isn't built for fireballs." Philia replied. "My armor can take your unenchanted sword and your armor can handle my enchanted ones. We are both magic resistant too so that shouldn't be a problem, seeing as neither of us can cast the super lethal ones anyway."

"I agree." Lenna said with a nod. "It should be a good learning experience."

Isaac had discarded everything except for his pants and boots, just like Walter, as the two stood casually half a dozen feet away. "Ready?" Isaac asked Lenna and Philia.

Philia gave an affirmative hand gesture and Lenna nodded. "Be careful, I don't want to waste all my mana bringing one of you back to life before I've gotten a chance to spar with the Lady of Hellfire." Philia told them. "Begin."

Isaac and Walter clashed. Every kind of melee attack either of them knew was used in every applicable situation as Walter relentlessly forced Isaac to improve or get pummeled. And get pummeled Isaac did. He hadn't realized how tired Walter had been when they fought the first time until he disengaged and got dashed at.

Walter had taken a quick step towards Isaac as the dark mage had tried to back off. Isaac tried to counter it with a side kick to preserve distance but Walter easily stepped out of the way and slammed both of his forearms into Isaac's shin, throwing his leg away from him. Isaac tried to counter by using his new momentum to throw a spinning back kick, but during the brief moment that he lost sight of Walter, everything had gone to shit. Walter had spun out of the way of the kick that he knew was coming and used his momentum to slam a middle knuckle strike uppercut into Isaac's exposed midsection, more specifically, his liver.

Isaac was physically picked up off of the ground by the impact that had most of its force concentrated through Walter's middle knuckle right into his liver. Isaac's liver ruptured from the impact and the fight was over long before Isaac hit the ground.

The pain of the punch hit immediately but the ruptured organ pain did not. In hindsight, it was probably because his brain couldn't process that much pain at once without double checking to make sure it actually happened. Isaac could feel the open tear across an organ half protected by his ribs. He could feel the shredded muscles from the impact point just outside of the tear, and he could feel the increased pressure in the area from its contents and copious amounts of blood being displaced into the local area around the ruptured organ. Those disconcerting feelings were there but utterly trounced by the mind numbing pain from having his liver practically destroyed by a single, but incredibly powerful, well placed hit.

Isaac's body wanted to throw up but in trying to do so it moved the heavily damaged organ and used the almost as heavily damaged muscles to do so. The pain caused him to tense which only caused more pain even as he lost half of his breakfast onto the dirt. It only took a moment of that before his body started fixing itself almost on its own as death flames subconsciously radiated outwards from his core in heavy waves of injury and light destroying power.

Walter backed away and everyone else in the entire fortress froze as the intense feeling of Isaac's death flames ascended into the fortress like a portal to the hells. Lenna was the only one who didn't back away or freeze up as she ran over to Isaac and helped him out of his own discarded breakfast and into a sitting position. Isaac was coughing, spitting, and trying not to throw up again from the lingering tastes of stomach acid, blood, and breakfast.

"What did you do to me?" Isaac asked as he looked up at Walter. His eyes were only mostly focused as he was still reeling from the ordeal. His death flames had died almost completely with only a trace amount left lingering and flowing around his body to make sure that there wasn't any more damage and that he was thinking clearly.

"Get washed first." Walter instructed him. "Once I clean this up and you aren't so… gross, we'll go over what you did wrong and how and what I did to you." Walter told his new pupil.

Isaac nodded and Lenna helped him to his feet. "Where?" Isaac asked and turned to look for somewhere to rinse off. Philia pointed towards a well with a drainage pit only ten feet from it. Isaac nodded to her in thanks and started walking towards it with steadier and steadier steps.

Philia let out a whistle. "That was something." She commented. "I'm gonna need a minute to explain what just happened to-" She cut herself off as half a dozen of her men and women ran into the training hall. She held up her hand to stop them before they could say anything. "As I am sure that you are all aware, we have a human staying with us. That human is a double platinum ranked adventurer who is rumored to be, and claims to be, a demigod who has not reached level twenty yet, Lord Darkness." She told the leaders of each of the various sections under her command. "He is training with my," She colored slightly and gestured towards Walter. "He is training with Walter Walker, who I am sure you all know. This will happen again."

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