Waking up in the morning, Shiro checked up on Revel to see how he was. She needed him to be at full power for the raid.

  Arriving in his room, Shiro could see Revel in front of his computer with a grin on his face.

  He was tapping away furiously and Shiro decided to glance into the servers to see what was happening.

  Seeing that he was taunting Khionah as usual, Shiro facepalmed.

  She didn’t know what happened between the two of them, but it seemed like Revel was adamant on making sure Khionah never reaches third place or higher.

  "Revel." Shiro called out, ignoring what she had just seen in the servers.

  "Oh hey, didn’t notice you. If you’re wondering about injuries then I’ll probably be ready by tomorrow. There’s just one last spot now and it’s being a bit annoying. I’m healing it while playing since I don’t need to focus that hard to stop this person from reaching third." He smiled as Shiro nodded her head.

  "Alright. The raid won’t happen soon since I still need to arrange it with Syradil. But since she is the Dragon Empress, does she have any control over you? I know you are a leviathan but you are rather…… ’dragon’ like in some ways so I was just curious." Shiro asked.

  "She shouldn’t have control over me. With how the system is, I’m guessing her control is strictly with dragons, wyverns and anything belonging to that branch of family. To put it bluntly, I’m a very powerful fish, not a dragon or anything of the draconic species. Even when I was just a hydra, I counted as a mutated water serpent rather than a dragon." Revel shrugged.

  "So you’re just a powerful fish." Shiro raised an eyebrow as she didn’t think someone as prideful as Revel would call himself a mere fish.

  "Yup. If we do start a fight, I won’t be controlled so don’t worry." Revel reassured.

  "Mn, I have some trust in her but it’s not bad to have some contingency plans. I probably won’t need it in the future but right now it’s good to keep my guard up." Shiro nodded.

  "Good mindset. Speaking of which, are you able to tell me who she is? I want to gloat in her face." Revel asked with a grin as Shiro facepalmed.

  "I’m pretty sure you can arrange that with one another without dragging me into this." Shiro sighed as she turned and left.

  They can handle this dispute with one another.

  ###

  Wrestling a demon to the ground, a giant twisted its neck before sinking her mouth into its flesh.

  Ripping out a giant chunk, she summoned a sword and quickly cut it up into smaller chunks before storing it into her inventory.

  Spitting out some of the bone, she wiped away the blood on the corner of her lips.

  "Stupid old man, this one doesn’t sting anymore. How many more poisons do I have to gain resistance against?" Madison shouted out into the sky as her physique shrunk down to her normal size.

  [Madison LVL 800 Demon Queen]

  "Just a few more now. You still need to gain resistance to curse and other forms of poison. Becoming an Empress isn’t easy you know? You must have the proper physique. Especially when it comes to Demon Empress’." Makron replied as he was laying down on a tree that seemed to corrupt everything around it except for Makron.

  "Naturally, that means acquiring a resistance to corruption and the chances of becoming Fallen." He added as Madison nodded her head.

  She wanted to go back soon but according to Makron, she wasn’t ready.

  "Why can’t I go back? I’m already level 800 with a powerful physique. Isn’t it enough?" Madison asked but Makron shook his head.

  "You know what happened a while ago? Since we’re in the demon realm, we didn’t get this notification but I received this news from one of my spies. There was an Empress in the new age that slew a God. Not Demi God, not pseudo god. They killed a GOD. Which means she can pose a certain threat to me as well. I won’t downplay her achievement even if that god has a low divinity. But do you know who can do this?" Makron asked with a knowing smile.

  "Shiro."

  "Yep. She is the only Queen in your world that is classified as a Demi God. But the worst part of everything is this. Why did she even get the chance to kill a God?" Makron asked as his smile faded away.

  "Gods and Demi Gods shouldn’t even appear before the second half but here she managed to kill one. That can only mean one thing. Her actions of reaching Demi God status has prepared the world ahead of time. Weaker Gods and Demi Gods can now materialise in the world sooner than expected. Of course, there are still backlashes but it won’t be as harsh as before. The world is almost ready after all." He explained as Madison stood in silence.

  "You’re only ready once you can run hands against a Demi God. And you can only achieve that by becoming an Empress then attaining your own divinity but that’s in the future. For now, just focus on cultivating your body. I’m already making preparations for your ascension as Empress. Why else do you think we’re travelling towards the heart of the Demon Realm." Makron smiled as Madison nodded.

  Quickly eating her dinner, she left the area to look for her next prey to hunt.

  Watching Madison leave this area, Makron had a smile on his face since her growth during the last few months has been great. If he was being honest, she could probably become Empress now but he wants her to be ready. He wanted to do everything he could to make sure she could stand up for herself.

  ’The world is too abnormal right now. Gods are making an appearance, Empresses are getting stronger and the war in the divine realm is becoming more chaotic. Zeus is surprisingly holding on pretty well with the support he’s been getting.’ Makron thought to himself with a frown.

  He did get an invitation to join the war but he rejected for now. Rather than fight the war, he wanted to use this time to cultivate Madison’s strength.

  ###

  Slashing apart the mana beast in front of her, Lyrica conjured up a myriad of swords to help out with her party.

  Controlling the battlefield, she summoned a tier 6 array that caused the mana within the monster’s body to run rampant before transforming into swords that shredded their body.

  [Lyrica LVL 740 Awakened Sword Saintess]

  Looking at how exhausted everyone was, Lyrica flexed her fingers and stabbed her swords into the corpses of the monster.

  Absorbing all of their essence until they were nothing but a dried up husk, she distributed it amongst the party.

  Feeling rejuvenated once more, they thanked her before looking for somewhere to camp.

  "Have you found what you’ve been looking for?" Lyrica asked but the dragon shook his head.

  "Nope. I figured that I should have found what can help me surpass level 980 but I’ve been stuck here for a while now." He sighed while transforming back to his human form.

  Scratching his hair, he looked up at the realm and frowned.

  "Maybe we’ll have to go deeper. But this realm is unstable, it’s risky to keep going." He cautioned.

  "How risky is it? And what are the chances of us surviving if we go?" Lyrica asked curiously while dismissing her sword.

  "How risky? Even with me, I’d say there’s a 50% chance that I might get trapped and lose my way, slowly becoming a mana beast that lives here. For you lot…… an optimistic guess would be 70% chance of being trapped. At worst…… 90%." He said after observing all of them.

  "The risk is that high huh?" Lyrica frowned.

  "Well if it was when we first came here, even if I was to try looking at it optimistically it would be 100% guaranteed death." The fact that you have a 30% chance of survival is pretty good already." The Dragon explained as Lyrica nodded.

  "I don’t mind taking that risk but I’m not sure about others. For now, let’s go look for an exit and discuss it there." Lyrica suggested.

  "Sure, let me spend some time in this form first. The human form is strangely effective at finding a comfortable resting position." He said while laying down on a broken pillar.

  After resting for a little while, they set off with Asher riding on NItha’s back and everyone else on the dragon.

  Flying through the Beyond, Lyrica could see the ever changing skies that looked like a swirl of mana. It would occasionally reflect what happened in the real world but so far, she hasn’t seen anything to do with Shiro just yet.

  Thinking back to Shiro, Lyrica looked down at her hands. She wanted to see if she could upgrade her class one more time. If Shiro could do this, it means there is a chance for others to do the same. She just needed to find this chance.