Karl led everyone back outside, and then focused on the System Interface. He could see what Guild House they belonged to, and it had the [Recall] ability, which would let him open a portal to it from anywhere.

"Would you like me to open the portal? It's no trouble, and it will save the cooldown on the Guild House ability," he offered.

"If you could."

Karl opened the portal, and a massive head immediately poked through to see what was going on over here. It was a black dragon, and the scent of death was overwhelming all over the region.

Not to mention all the lingering soul energy and death magic.

Yewan climbed up on Karl's shoulder and pointed at the head.

"{I think you made the portal too small, he can't fit.}"

Karl laughed. "I was sending people back, not borrowing a new friend for you. Greetings, Avatar."

The black dragon turned to Karl and sighed. "It looks like we were too late." "No, the Guild was right on time. We won the battle, but things got a bit out of hand when the Templars brought their reinforcements. We've been

resurrecting our Clan members, so we won't lose too many."

The dragon nodded slowly. That was not what he was talking about.

"{You're HUGE! Will I get that big one day? You missed all the good parts. I even got to fight! I leapt and whoosh and claw and poof, and then I was in a Karl space, and now I'm back out again.}" Yewan informed him.

"That is a big adventure for such a small dragon." The visitor rumbled, clearly amused by Yewan's recounting of the battle's highlights.

Tian nodded eagerly. "{The little dragon really was heroic. Of course, it was an [Epic Guard] construct he was saving, but the intentions were one hundred percent heroic.}"

Yewan shrugged. He knew that the construct was not a living thing, but it had soul energy, so it had to count for something. Even if it had been borrowing that soul energy from the humans it was fighting.

Their chat was interrupted when Elder Socrate reappeared in the compound, looking like death warmed over, and still bleeding from a dozen different spots. "Karl, if we can get your team, please? It appears that the Gralpedrin Templars have strong opinions about the fact that they have been disbanded."

The Supremes chuckled at his polite political doublespeak.

"So, they are trying to refuse the claim? Perhaps we can leave a few of our Branch Leaders here with you and find replacements for the run." Joseph suggested.

Allie smiled. "I will stay with the baby dragons! Oh, and we can bring Merrick too. Nobody will mess with Merrick."

The black dragon with his head through the portal snorted in derision. He was a top Legend, even on their world. Of course, nobody would mess with him. The adherents of the Death God got respect everywhere that they went.

But on the other hand, he did rather wish to know why his god was annoyed with both Karl and the hatchling.

"Alright, I will come over," the dragon agreed, then transformed into a slender middle-aged man with hollow cheeks and stringy black hair.

"(Yes, we got a black dragon. ADVENTURE TIME!)" Yewan cheered.

Elder Socrate frowned at the little dragon. This hatchling had definitely been around the Pet Sitter for too long, it was influencing his thought process. Black Dragons were supposed to be the level-headed and reasonable sort.

The older black dragon took Yewan off Karl's shoulder and began to transfer death energy to him.

The little dragon wasn't even trying to collect and condense the lingering energy from the battlefield, so he likely didn't know that he was supposed to. He was very young, and while Merrick could smell another Black Dragon's energy on him, Yewan wouldn't have gotten much schooling yet.

He was barely past the age of constantly eating or sleeping.

"You need to absorb as much as possible, it's essential to the growth of young black dragons," Merrick explained.

"Oh, that makes sense. We should bring Auntie Nachtia here too, she's not Immortal yet."

Karl patted Yewan's head. "Don't worry about it, I'm working on that."

He had started transferring death energy into a slightly modified mana storage crystal. Once he had it filled, he would work on an energy conversion array to make more of it. It would be good for both Nachtia, and the Tiny World in general.

Death energy would help balance the growth of all sorts of things.

The dragon gave him a curious look until he realized that Karl was a

Runecrafter, and had created something to store it.

Obviously, he wouldn't be able to effectively use it himself, but that didn't mean that he didn't have a use for it, especially if he was trying to raise baby dragons. That didn't explain that odd feeling that something was out of order in this place, though.

Not in a chaotic way, simply in a way that was not as the Gods desired it to be.

"Alright, I've stored enough energy to help the little one. Let's get a move on. I dislike waiting to find out the truth of things." Merrick demanded.

Elder Socrate blinked slowly, still trying to understand what was going on.

Then he nodded, and opened a portal to the Templars compound.

"Fair warning, there is ongoing combat."

The black dragon gave him a toothy grin.

"Not for long, there isn't."

Yewan laughed. "{Don't wreck the fun, you have to see Karl and his friends in action, it's AWESOME! Plus, Auntie Rae still has her army of blood golems

active.}"

The older dragon patted him indulgently. That was what he had meant in the

first place.

It would hardly be sporting for him to go bully a bunch of Immortals.

Rae pulled all her golems into a Villa Stone from Karl's inventory, then [Shadow Stepped] through the portal to lead the charge into combat. Like the black dragon, she disliked waiting for things to die.

Karl followed her through, while Dana sighed, and picked up Tian, who was giving her puppy eyes.

He always did dislike walking when there was a chance to have someone carry

him.

The rest of the team followed Merrick and Elder Socrate through into the compound, which appeared to be in nearly as large of a battle as the New Home had been involved in, though with fewer invaders, and few Elders on the

defending side.

The battle was so intense that nobody had even noticed that a Legend had stepped onto the battlefield, but the dragon was hiding his aura so that the others could fight and let fate take its natural course.

"You see, little Yewan, this is how it is for black dragons. We have to let them kill each other. It's the way that the God wants it. You can resurrect your friends after, if you have the power, but you don't get involved in other people's fights just for the sake of killing things.

That is the behaviour of the Spider Goddess' followers, not the black dragon's."

"{She's really good at it, though.}" Yewan noted.

"Indeed she is. It's been all of five seconds, and she's already beginning to

create a lake of blood in an empty swimming pool."

Rae laughed as she tossed the dead Immortal into the bushes next to the pool.

That had been an accident, she had simply been near the pool when she appeared. But now that he mentioned it, a little magic would block the drains, and she could try to fill the whole thing up.