Allen's party had succeeded in destroying the four altars that generated the streaks of light located all over the Confederation's Continent.
When the fourth one fell in the desert together with the Demon General guarding it, Allen reached Level 85 and the Kingship Skill that had been sealed so far became available.
Five days passed while he carefully investigated all its effects and properties.
That meant around a month had passed since the distress signal from the Holy Land had been heard in Baukis' palace.
"So you didn't find anything of value in the end?"
Shea asked Allen, who seemed to be deep in thought.
Allen's party was inside Tam-Tam, next to the floating island above the center of the continent.
They had not set foot on the island yet, everyone remaining inside of Tam-Tam Mode Eagle. Shea was also with them.
As Allen had expected, once the altars and the streaks of light were gone, the light bubble surrounding the island also vanished.
There was no sign of any barrier anymore, the island completely exposed.
A final meeting before venturing into it was happening inside Tam-Tam.
The surface of the floating island was mainly plain rock, similar to what newly formed islands looked like after a volcanic eruption in Allen's past world.
Other than that there were no signs of vegetation or wildlife on the island, which was completely barren.
A large mountain broke the monotony of the island in its center, and a temple was built at its peak.
The island had a roughly elliptical horizontal profile, ten meters by 8 meters. That temple was the only structure built on it.
Given its location atop the mountain, it looked imposing over the rest of the island.
On the roof of the temple there was something wavy, like it was burning.
There was probably something worth looking at on the top floor.
"Pretty much. I couldn't find any treasure."
Allen sounded disappointed as he answered Shea's question.
"Treasure... Nevermind."
Shea was baffled hearing Allen's response.
It seemed that Allen had simply been looking for things to loot inside the temple.
His Kingship experiments could have concluded in just two days, meaning they could come to the floating island much sooner.
But Allen wanted to carefully investigate the temple from afar to plan the best route into it first.
The interior of the temple was a den of undead and ghost type monsters, giving it a rather eerie appearance.
This was the first time Allen reached a place that looked so much like a boss level outside of a Dungeon, so his first instinct was to search for loot.
There was a high likelihood this was the stronghold of a Demon King's Army boss, so he wanted to open every chest before entering the fight.
Basque had been wearing very impressive accessories, so he had hoped to find others of a similar level, but found nothing.
Allen was annoyed at their rude manners, filling the temple with a multitude of monsters but not placing at least one treasure chest.
Apparently the people in this world did not know of the concept of leaving gear for adventurers trying to conquer a dungeon or stronghold.
Allen had learned all that information from his Wraith A summon's words.
The temple had somehow disrupted the connection of Allen's Sharing, so he had been unable to see the interior himself.
The temple seemed to have a similar defense to that from the bubble of light, which cancelled Allen's Skills.
That also meant that his Wraith summons could not pass through walls, so the smaller Bird A summons had to go inside through smaller openings.
But they could not place [Nests] inside.
That was why Allen had to rely on the spoken account from his summons to gain any knowledge.
After all the spying and investigations, Allen had decided on destroying the entire temple.
There was no need to go inside a building overflowing with monsters and no loot.
Not to mention that the temple had been disrespectful to him first, so he would answer in the same way.
But that did not work out either.
Cecile wore Makris' Sacred Beat, had her stats enhanced by the Spirit King's Blessing, and cast her Extra Skill [Small Meteorite] on the temple, but the red hot rock disappeared the instant it touched the building.
Merus' Judgement Thunder did not fare any better.
The lightning bolt of condensed destruction descended upon the temple, but it also vanished the instant it reached whatever was burning atop the building.
They had been able to get rid of the light bubble around the island, but the temple seemed to be protected by some spell that nullified any attack it received.
According to Merus, there was a rather powerful barrier on the temple itself, and the only way in was through the main entrance.
That prompted their current meeting.
Present were Allen's entire party, and Shea with her four warriors that had participated in the fight against Basque.
After discussing various strategies, they were ready to set foot on the island.
"And I'll be staying behind, right?"
"Yes, you'll be on stand-by here. We might find whatever is generating the barrier inside and destroy it, and then I'll give you a signal with Transmission to attack from outside."
Allen would use a Bird F summon to communicate with her, so Merle would stay a distance away from the temple with her Vulcan Cannon (Large) ready to shoot.
"Roger that."
They would go in through the main entrance and defeat whatever Demon Generals were inside, and the Evil Cult Leader Gushara.
It was a rather straightforward plan, but they did not really have any other options.
Allen considered plunging the entire island down to the earth below, but after looking all over the underside of the island they were unable to determine what kept it in the air.
His summons checked inside the temple, but could not find anything either.
(Well, time to stop sugar-coating things. Let's start with Lady Shea.)
Allen looked at Shea.
"So what are you going to do? This will be a rather difficult fight. There appear to be two, maybe even three Demon Generals on the top floor."
There was a door before the last floor, so Allen's Wraith A summon was unable to enter, but Bird A was able to see something through the cracks.
The leader of the Evil Cult, Gushara, and Basque were visible.
"I'm going, obviously. I have no other choice."
So far she had merely accompanied Allen's party.
It was his efforts that had taken down all the Demon Generals so far.
Though Cecile had done even more of the work.
There was no honor in watching a fight unfold.
On top of that, if the leader of the Evil Cult was there, she would lose her future by not joining the fight.
"Even if your subjects might not make it out alive?"
"Even then."
Shea valued her pride, and knew how wars were fought.
But that did not mean she had a heart of stone.
She mourned every time one of her soldiers perished, and she cried when Rath was at the brink of death.
Lud did not have any additional comments, so Allen just said "Alright then."
It was going to be a dangerous fight, but if she herself wished to fight, nothing would be able to stop her.
"And you, Dogora? Are you coming or not? You can stay and wait with Merle if you want. I can't teleport you out once we're inside."
"Huh? What are you talking about? Of course I'm going."
Allen also asked Dogora if he wanted to fight.
Astrologer Temi had read his fortune the day before they fought the final boss in the S Rank Dungeon.
There was a high chance that that prophecy would be fulfilled soon enough, and Dogora would have to face his trial.
There was even a high chance he could die.
Basque and Lycaoron were mighty foes that stood in their way while they worked on destroying the altars.
But Dogora had not been in mortal danger in either of those fights.
This was the first time they had fought against so many Demon Generals, so there was no guarantee Dogora was never going to be in danger, but so far even he did not feel like he was cornered in any of the fights.
Allen's Fish summons offered decent protection, and Kiel could also heal him.
On top of all that, Sophie also had protective spells and could disrupt the enemy's movements, unlike Cecile's purely offensive Skill set.
The Demon Generals surpassed the entire party in terms of stats, but Sophie's spirits offered enough protection to evade instant death from a single blow.
This time there was more than just one Demon General waiting for them.
The fight was likely to be far more violent than any they had faced before.
Allen believed the temple might finally be the trial that could put Dogora's life in danger.
He was not the only one with that feeling.
Everyone seemed unsure as they looked at Dogora.
Allen had thought he could teleport Dogora away if things got ugly, maybe even sending him all the way back to Rodan Village where his parents lived, but that was harder to accomplish now.
Since [Nests] could not be placed inside the temple, it was easy to conclude that sending someone out from the temple was impossible as well.
Gushara, the tyrant that had killed millions of people was there, so everyone wanted to fight him, but there was no reason why Dogora could not stay behind either.
With Kingship, Merus had become incredibly strong.
The other summons could also become rather strong with it.
But even with that extra help, no one felt safe knowing Temi's words.
"""..."""
"Allen, I don't feel like I shouldn't fight with you just because I could be in danger. We're a party, so we stick together."
Even though he was told he could stay with Merle, Dogora did not seem too mad at that.
He simply had made up his mind, and would stay with his friends no matter what.
Allen and Dogora stared at each other, as if locked in a staring contest. The rest of the party decided to let the two come to terms.
"Alright, let's go then!"
Allen decided that was the last time he would ask Dogora for his decision.
During the last three days, Dogora had essentially told him to choose between fighting together, or him going into the temple on his own afterwards.
While Allen was the leader, everyone in the party was on the same level, there was no one serving over or under another.
With Allen's loud voice, everyone got on a Bird B summon and went to the entrance at the bottom of the temple.
The temple was built atop the mountain, but the entrance was not on its roof, but on the lowest floor.
The party marched on.
"This place stinks. Turn Undead!"
This was the first time someone other than Allen had seen the entrance of the temple, and Kiel scowled as he complained about the stench of the place.
A group of skeleton warriors guarded the front gates, which Kiel defeated with Cleansing Magic.
Those enemies were too weak to pose much of a threat, and the temple was built rather simply, unlike a Dungeon.
The interior had been investigated by the Wraith A summon before as well.
"Let's go inside."
"Yeah."
"Dogora, try to relax a little, there's no need to be so stressed yet."
"I know."
When Allen put his hand on the gate, he noticed Dogora flinching and reaffirming his grip on his axe and shield.
The gate had many skeletons stuck in it, and it opened by itself the moment Allen touched it.
The entrances to the temple were not completely sealed, making it easy for the Bird A summon to explore it.
Kingship also helped it run away from all the monsters while keeping track of everything there was to see.
Allen knew there were three entities past the gates, and that there was an altar too.
The first thing that came into view was the altar.
It was larger than the ones producing the streaks of light.
The altar's shape resembled a campfire on the top, which made it easy to burn stuff on it. That part was identical to the other four altars.
The main difference was that a crimson plate seemed to float on top of the altar.
The plate looked more metallic than ceramic.
(So that's the Goddess of Fire Freya's Divine Artifact.)
That matched the description Merus had given to a tee, so Allen had no doubt about the identity of that plate.
The party was all inside the hall with the altar, but the pale man wearing around 40 robes piled on top of each other and praying at the altar, facing away from the party, did not seem to pay them any attention. He was Gushara.
According to Merus, there was a high likelihood he was a Demon Great General.
The Demon Generals referred only to Demong Great Generals and the Demon King as Lords.
A large carpet covered the floor between the entrance and the altar, and the building was supported by many columns placed on both sides.
Basque was sitting cross legged, his back supported against the column furthest inside the hall.
His two orichalcum swords were stuck on the floor in front of him.
Then next to Gushara was an expressionless skeleton wearing the robes of the highest ranking priest in the Holy Land.
From the robes and the cane it held, it was easy to assume that was the Holy Land's Pope turned skeleton.
'Oh! You're finally here. Alleennn, why were you so slowwww. You really do love making me wait, huh. Heehee.'
Basque noticed Allen.
He seemed completely relaxed, playfully complaining about waiting.
"So you are still alive after all. I figured you had escaped somehow, and this is where you scurried to."
Allen tried provoking him a little.
He knew that taunting the enemy could give them more openings to attack.
'Yup, this is where I went. Still, you seem pretty careless wandering in here like that. Are you sure that was the best idea?'
Basque ignored Allen's taunting, grinning in return.
With that, the fight between Allen's party against the Evil Cult Leader Gushara, Demon GeneralBasque, and the Skeleton Pope started.
Black flames blasted from the altar past Gushara, roaring like a grieving beast.
