"Where are they now?" Edward questioned the man made of bones standing across from him.

"Here." Shamesh replied and pointed to a specific place on the map. The caravan that Isaac and Lenna were guarding had continued on its way without any further issues. It had been entirely quiet and they were already only a day away from Ben's End.

"I do not know if I am glad that they have made it that far unmolested, after their report, or not." Izen sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I think that fact has actually crossed a few of my worries off of the list." Alexander spoke from between the brothers by marriage and former party members. "A black dragon might have come to investigate, like the red one did a few months ago, a shadow elemental definitely couldn't have fought its instincts to attempt to devour him, no matter how intelligent it might have become with age, and a Night Guard most likely would have met with him by now. It is rare but not an impossibility for a Night Guard of the Queen of Shadows to speak with mortals when on the hunt for an escapee, and someone like Darkness would definitely be someone a Night Guard would want to talk to. Not only does Darkness have All-Speech, but he is capable of communicating via mana itself. Then again, a Night Guard was not so much a worry over what it might have been hunting."

"What exactly is a Night Guard?" Shamesh questioned.

"No one really knows. The Plane of Eternal Darkness is something that is unknowable simply by its nature. We only really know for sure about things that escape and end up in our world, typically through weak points in the barrier between our worlds deep inside the Innerworld. Anything or anyone who had gone into the domain of the Queen of Shadows has instantly been burned away, by the slightest bit of light as their entire physical beings had been turned into shadows, as soon as they returned." Alexander lectured his pupil. "Even then, while safe within total darkness, their voices were like shadows on the wind and their memories were like silhouettes of whatever they had actually gone through."

"But you spoke of things having escaped?" Shamesh questioned.

"I'm getting there." Alexander replied. "Sometimes the natives use those weak spots to enter our world in an attempt to escape their mistress. We do not know why they wish to escape but we do know that the Night Guard are sent to find and either execute or capture and return the escapees. Both the Night Guard and escapees are beings whose souls and bodies are entirely made out of shadows. They can be hard or soft to the touch but they are always entirely devoid of friction. The actual capabilities of both the escapees and the Night Guard are entirely unknown, but what is known is that they are capable of conversing in the same manner as dragons though only really in intent and not in words. At least we have not discovered a language that they use. Since the last dragon surge, there has been one sighting of a Night Guard according to the records stored in the Guild Leader's Record Library where I made the inquiry."

"So it's a Vampire, Lich, Shadow Demon, powerful doppelganger, or a cautious black dragon." Edward said with a frown.

"I do not think that it is a doppelganger." Alexander countered. "A doppelganger has proven to be not of the 'dark' alignment. If it was a doppelganger then that would make it some kind of dark mutation akin to a sorcerer but within the power restrictions that mortals have on their souls. I could maybe see more dark aligned creatures starting to appear in the areas that Darkness frequents, or is in close proximity to, but for one to evolve entire by itself, when we haven't seen any records of an elemental doppelganger, make it so outrageous that I continue to question why it had even been one of the answers to my inquiry."

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"Even so, that still leaves four possible outcomes that range from bad to apocalyptic." Izen sighed. "Edward, which do you believe would be the absolute worst possible option so we can attempt to prepare against it in the background?"

"Honestly, the lich." Edward replied, which surprised everyone else standing around the map in Izen's war room. "If I am understanding Isaac's Polarity Sense properly, then he is only truly feeling a dark creature's power level along a scale of black mana. That means that a being like a shadow elemental would feel much more powerful than something like a lich, simply by the amount of dark attuned power that they are made of. A lich would be able to be the most powerful yet feel like the weakest among that list. I have full confidence in Isaac fighting a Shadow Demon to the death, but if he is up against another mage with more dark mana, a fragment of the mana spectrum, than he has, well, we are all screwed."

"You are and aren't understanding it properly." Alexander chimed in. "The power of the creature itself, that is, its level, is also taken heavily into account. A level ten shadow elemental might show up like a level twenty lich would to Darkness's Polarity Sense, but a Shadow Demon might show up somewhere around level twelve in this case. But that is not what Darkness told us about what he felt. He said that it was darker than he is. That would mean that it is on par, according to his Polarity Sense, to something akin to an eighteenth level shadow elemental. I agree that a level thirty six lich would be terrifying but a level twenty one or twenty two Shadow Demon is not to be underestimated either."

"What about the vampires?" Izen asked. He had never been one to believe the theories and rumors about there being a civilization of vampires hiding deep inside of the Innerworld but if it did actually exist, and they were now aware of the humans of and on the surface, things could get really bad really quickly.

"I am still not convinced that the rumors, accounts, and supposed proof of the vampire civilization are not just accounts of strangely acting doppelgangers and drow." Alexander replied with a shake of his head.

"We could go on like this for hours." Edward said with a sigh. "Honestly, my Lord, I believe the best course of action to be a simple message with Shamesh's transcription and Alexander's inquiries sent directly to the Guild Leader and Lord Judgment. If it does end up being something too powerful for Isaac to handle, a demigod will need to be called for. Judgment is the obvious pick as long as whatever it is cannot heal as quickly as Isaac can."

"I will also prepare one for the crown." Izen agreed. "Alexander, I will have you hold onto one copy of the letter to the crown for me. If any of our fears are realized, then the crown will need to be notified as soon as possible. I would request aid immediately but the kingdom's soldiers cannot move on hunches and feelings alone. They need proof or enough evidence that it can no longer be ignored."

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"You would not believe what I found while on a walk this evening." A woman who looked like a twelve year old girl spoke while she swirled a glass of an ominous red liquid. Her eyes were crimson, her skin was ghostly pale, and her hair was snow white. She wore ribbons in the rough shape of a gown over a bandeau, which was tastefully wide but still left her midsection and shoulders open, as well as a high split skirt. Every piece of clothing she wore and owned was the same color of freshly drawn blood.

"And what might that have been, my Lady?" A woman who looked to be in her late twenties replied while she sorted through all of the paperwork that the first one was supposed to be doing. She was wearing a plain black dress with a modestly deep neck cut and slits that just barely went up past her knees. Unlike her boss, she was also wearing sandals and was pointedly not propping her bare feet up on the desk.

"A mortal." The first said with a satisfied smirk at the drink in her hands.

"There are a lot of those up above." The second commented dryly.

"He had enough mana to pop a mid level warrior's soul, and he isn't even level twenty yet." The first spoke towards her assistant and proxy.

The second turned her head and looked up, without tilting her head up from her paperwork, so her eyes could meet her mistress's just in time for her to see the first woman raise her eyebrows a few times suggestively. "No." The second stated in no uncertain terms.

"Oh but come on, it has been so long since we had an outsider join our ranks, and you keep saying that you won't have children with anyone weaker than you." The first prodded.

"As long as you keep dressing like the richest brothel princess while looking like a child, I do not think that I will ever be able to have some of my own." The second countered.

"Mildred, you know why I look and dress like this, your condition is purposefully unfair, and it is not that bad." The first replied flatly. "At least come up with something reasonable next time."

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