Chapter 524: Chapter 518: The birthplace of all evil

Phillip transformed, producing a thick deluge of mana not unlike Erredis when she transformed on the moon, despite being of a similar shape, he was about twice her size, and his scales looked like giant cut and polished emeralds, shining with vibrant green hues.

A bubble of green light appeared around Sofia and Cinthia, and with a clawed dragon paw, Phillip grabbed the bubble. Then, with a bang, the Dragon departed.

The bubble protected them from the acceleration and the wind, leaving them to observe the world zooming by between Phillip’s giant claws.

“We’re going so fast!” Cinthia exclaimed, looking at the outside, it was hard to focus on anything, even the clouds below turning to a mere white blur because they were going too fast.

“It’s not that fast,” Sofia answered, “I’m relatively certain Erredis could fly all the way around the planet in a few seconds if she wanted to, so he must be the same.”

“Can you even be impressed by anything anymore?” Cinthia asked curiously.

“Yeah, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t getting harder when I’m out here paying a visit to Death and Taxes like I’m just going shopping for a new sword. I’m almost surprised that you’re not more jaded than I am considering you have a bunch of Recessed watching you all the time.”

“Ah… Well… It’s not that serious, most of the time there isn’t really anything impressive about them. The other day when we were having dinner before leaving Vasperia they were taking bets on how many Ice cream cups I was going to order…”

Phillip had been slowing down, and suddenly stopped before Sofia could think of an answer, looking outside, they were above a large archipelago, in the middle of thousands of small islands under a cloudy sky.

“We’re here,” Phillip announced, opening his hand, “I believe you can take it from here. Now is time to pay old Erri a visit. See you ‘round, girls,” he continued, before he disappeared with a bang. The clouds disappeared in his wake, pushed far away from the islands in an instant, changing the weather to a bright blue sky.

Sofia and Cinthia looked at each other. “I want to learn that move,” Cinthia finally said.

“What? Dispersing the clouds?” Sofia asked, which Cinthia approved with a nod. “Rain is annoying but that might be a bit of an overcorrection,” Sofia said, watching as several black dots flew toward them from the isles. “I think we’re going to have some explaining to do…”

It wasn’t long before they were surrounded by an army of black-armored dwarves of varying levels ranging from one to three-hundred, flying on a diverse array of creatures, and all keeping their distance.

It’s not like we’re attacking so… Are they not going to send anyone to talk to us?

Finally a dwarf approached, unlike the other ones, not wearing any armor, but carrying a mithrium scepter taller than himself on his shoulder. He just walked on thin air like Sofia did with [Dodge - me], approaching quite slowly, his long red air flowing in the wind behind him.

[Artisan - Lv.450+]

“What’d we have here?” he hollered in a loud voice as he walked up to them, his eyes then bulging out as they locked in on the dagger sheathed at Sofia’s hip. The dwarf then disappeared and reappeared right in front of Sofia. “A crown, a scepter, a divine artifact… Are you trying to impersonate my wife?” he asked Sofia before erupting in a loud laughter.

Wh- What?

“Must’ve some important business to have a freakin’ dragon drop you off here in my kingdom of all places,” the muscular dwarf continued, “so what’s it? Goblin’s got your tongue?”

“Your kingdom…” Sofia repeated, “King Zargdess?” she asked, remembering Cinthia’s story.

“That be me,” the dwarf answered, flashing his white teeth with a proud smile, “So whatcha here for?”

“Sorry, we didn’t mean to cause a commotion,” Sofia then quickly explained, slightly embarrassed by the situation.

“We’re here to conduct a trade with the temple of Taxes,” Cinthia explained in tow.

The dwarf king raised an eyebrow, “An orc and a human Saintess brought by a dragon to trade with a god of the dwarves…” The king said, "That's it?”

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“That’s it,” Sofia answered, “Phillip, uh, the dragon, just took us here because he was moving anyway…”

The king then raised a hand, and the army of black-armored dwarves dispersed just like that. “Alright, wait a second,” he finally told Sofia and Cinthia, as he watched the other dwarves go.

What the… Is he asking them to leave so that there aren’t any witnesses to what he’s about to do?

I have my runes up just in case but Cinthia doesn’t have anything like that…

When they were finally alone in the sky, the dwarf king guffawed again, slapping his chest, “Man! Y’all scared me shitless! I was already wondering how’d I piss off the lizards this time. Here,” he said, two glasses filled with ice cubes and a blue liquid appearing in the air in front of Sofia and Cinthia, “Drinks on me, Taxe’s shrine is the black tower right there,” he continued, pointing at a tall building on a nearby island. That being, said, and without waiting for thanks or an answer, he started walking away, talking loudly to himself, “Good god, I thought I really fucked up this time. Just before the festival too, maaaaaan… This job is killing me…”

His voice disappeared in the distance as he returned to the largest island around.

Cinthia and Sofia silently looked at each other.

“He’s not even going to ask for anything else?” Cinthia finally said, surprised, and eyeing the drink still floating in front of her.

“Guess not. We were dropped off here by a Dragon, after all.”

“Right…”

“Any reactions from the viewers?” Sofia asked.

“They’re laughing a lot, I don’t know if it’s at us or the dwarf, though…”

“Probably just the overall situation?” Sofia grabbed the glass of blue liquid and started flying in the direction of the black tower.

The black tower turned out to not be exactly what Cinthia and Sofia had expected, the gold-rimmed sign above the entrance reading the words ‘Ridoni Bank Headquarters’. Dwarves were going in and out, as the tower was actually in the middle of a mid-sized dwarven city.

“A bank?” Sofia asked Cinthia.

“Judging from the comments I am getting, this is the right place…” Cinthia answered, uncertain, her eyes lost in her invisible chat window, reading line after line of text Sofia couldn’t see.

Sofia and Cinthia walked in, lining up behind a queue of dwarves at one of the four bank counters. The interior of the bank was lavish, and there was a level 400 dwarven guard sleeping sitting on a tall chair overlooking the hall.

It’s hard to imagine someone at such a level working such a boring job…

The dwarven women behind the counters worked fast, and it only took a few minutes for it to be Sofia and Cinthia’s turn.

The short dwarf adjusted her glasses, as she looked up at Sofia and Cinthia, “Hello and welcome to Ridoni, the most secure bank this side of the planet. Do you already have an account?”

“Hi. Sorry, we’re not here for this, we’re looking for the temple of Taxes…” Sofia explained.

The dwarf lady behind the counter looked at Sofia like she just said something stupid, “Lady, this is Taxes’ temple, the Ridoni bank. Do you need to open an account?” she continued.

“No, no, we’re here to conduct a trade with Taxes,” Cinthia added, panicking as her chat had suddenly fallen silent.

“Oh! You mean to make an offering?” the dwarf lady said in an understanding tone, “You could have simply said that,” she continued, jumping off from her chair. She turned around and called out another dwarf who was hanging out on a couch in the space behind the counters, “Ginnie, take over my line for a bit, offering,” she told her, before turning back to Sofia and Cinthia, and pointing at a door on their left, “Come through there, I will be joining you in a second.”

Behind the door a dwarf in a black suit with a thick red beard was standing guard, he greeted Sofia and Cinthia with a nod, pointing at a couch they could sit on, and they sat there to wait for the bank teller to join them. She arrived about half a minute later and almost dropped the file she was carrying when her eyes met those of the dwarf in a suit.

“S- Sir Ridoni, is anything the matter?”

Ridoni?

Sofia and Cinthia’s eyes locked onto the unassuming dwarf, which is when they both realized that [Identify] did not work at all on said individual.

“You blew my cover!” Ridoni answered the bank teller with a hearty laugh, “It’s nothing, I will take care of these two, you can get back to work,” he told her with a wink.

“U- Understood, sir,” the lady answered with a deep bow before turning back and closing the door.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Cinthia and Sofia, right?” Ridoni asked rhetorically, “My office is on the top floor, better to have a proper introduction there, follow me,” he told them as he turned to walk up to an indoor lift a bit further down the corridor.

Cinthia followed but Sofia had a feeling that something was wrong.

A discreet skeletal hand appeared from within her robe, grabbing her ankle, and her vision quickly turned white.

In the spiritual plane, Cinthia’s soul was following a giant mass of eyes down the blurry corridor. As Sofia looked at them, they stared back, and she was kicked out of the spiritual plane, the graveyard dispelled without even causing any backlash.

“Are you not coming?” Ridoni asked Sofia, waiting with Cinthia near the lift.