This time, they’ll be able to have a real adventure.

  Oooh, I could do a betrayal, or make my city have a little more mindfuckery.

  Maybe have them meet the people I trapped in my city to help them escape.

  Ohh, but then they’d recognize me.

  Guess I need to appear as an evil guy trapping them in another world, of which they have to escape.

  It took a bit of time to get this close, so it’s dark out now.

  Honestly, I probably should’ve waited until tommorow.

  Ohh well, too te now.

  As I walk, I feel the ground beneath my paws.

  Do I need shoes? Probably not, it’s not like I’m gonna get punctured by a pnt.

  “Why don’t you wear footwear?” asks Elowyn as we walk.

  Is she a mind reader?

  How would she read mine though?

  Probably a coincidence.

  “Because I prefer to feel the ground beneath me” I reply while running a bit further ahead.

  “Is this it?” I ask, still under the guise of knowing nothing much about it.

  “Yes” replies Elowyn while inspecting the portal.

  “Does it look the same?” asks Durn while inspecting the portal as well.

  “Yes” replies Elowyn while Hercle throws a rock in.

  Meanwhile, I begin to touch the portal, and then purposefully fall in.

  With my projected grace, I probably look like an angel or something.

  I fall into the city while looking at my own city.

  I try to look suprised and shocked, but it’s hard.

  Maybe my fur will make it hard to tell for them, they aren’t beastkin so shouldn’t know my facial expressions.

  Serne probably has some trouble due to my Asterios body being a foxkin.

  I wait for a minute, when they quickly stumble in after me.

  “Are you okay?” asks Elowyn.

  “Yes” I reply.

  Hercle comes up to me and asks while poking me, “you are you? right?”

  What kind of question is that?

  There is no reason to wonder about that.

  “Yes” I reply.

  I think for a moment while they check themselves and me making sure we’re all okay.

  Should I pretend to be evil now or ter?

  Now so that I have time to orchestrate things.

  Time to close the portal, only for a bit though.

  “Hey guys?” i ask, which prompts them to look at me.

  “Yes?” responds Durn and Elowyn together.

  “I’m sorry, but I lied to you.” I say while smiling.

  “I knew he was evil!” says Durn while looking at me.

  I point behind them while trying my best to look evil.

  They look and their faces get panicky as they see no portal.

  I try to smile wider, but can’t.

  “Why?” asks Elowyn.

  “He’s snarling” says Hercle.

  “He’s an evil bastard” says Durn.

  “You are trapped here.” I say, then ask them, “do you know what I lied about though?”

  Hercle starts prepare himself for a fight, while Elowyn asks “what did you?”

  I smile, or I guess to them snarl, “I lied about my retionship with a god.”

  Elowyn frowns further than she had before, “you are godless? Are you a mage? Or an otherworldly necromancer.”

  I smile wider than humanely, or mortally possible without repercussions.

  I point to myself and say “I am the god Asterios.”

  I then gesture to the city, “this is the city of the collective. I want to py a game with you all here.”

  “What type of game?” asks Durn while occasionally gncing at the ring on his finger.

  “Do you have a wife?” I ask Durn.

  He looks a little confused, but there is a hint of determination in his eyes “I have someone I fancy, yes.”

  Elowyn interrupts my little searching with “you are an actual god? One of the evil invaders?!”

  Should I paint myself as more pyful or evil at this point? I’ve already got the evil stuff set up, I guess kidnapping people to py a game is quite evil.

  But there will be a reward at the end, so it all bances out.

  “I’m less evil, and more pyful.” I respond “I like to mess around.”

  I need to get back on track with the game/rescue.

  “I have trapped three other people here” I say, “Your goal is to return them home, once you do the portal for you will open once again.”

  “And where are these people?” asks Hercle while holding his fists clenched tight. He looks really mad.

  I should check on them, but before that I’m gonna make sure that this body can partially be damaged, just so they can win the fight at the end. Not enough to kill me though.

  I smile at them while searching for the “prisoners”, then I frown.

  They aren’t anywhere?

  Nowhere in the city.

  The couldn’t have possibly…

  Is this the losing Serne thing all over again?

  But I had my collective watch over the portal!

  That’s it.

  I make a random tree in my city have a view on all of my previous prisoners.

  They are all busy.

  One is in some type of research base, one seems to be talking to a doctor, and one is in some space station.

  It seems familiar.

  Then I notice it’s my house.

  The little me’s house.

  Aster is using a tablet pying a game.

  And then Myra brings him to the door where the “prisoner” is.

  The little me excitedly shows him something they made.

  IT’S MY CITY?!?!

  How did I-he find it?

  In his dreams?!

  The prisoner just stares off into the distance until Myra tells Aster to not bother his cousin.

  His cousin?

  Wait, is this guy little me’s cousin?

  I kind of recognize him, I think there were some pictures of him in Aster’s room.

  It was around 6 years ago, so of course I didn’t recognize him.

  I trapped someone who was reted to me in my city.

  Damn.

  He might figure out the connection.

  I bet he already has.

  I gotta figure out something to resolve this quick!

  But what about the adventurers?

  I shift my attention back to them.

  “Sorry about this, but I have to cancel the game.” I say while opening up the portal.

  “What?” asks Elowyn.

  I reply, “the people I trapped escaped and there’s… a bit of a problem.”

  “You act as if this is only a game, as if you aren’t messing with others lives!”

  I reply “isn’t that what all gods do?”

  Suddenly Durn says, “NOW!”

  What? Now what?

  I start to say “wha-?” before i’m cut off by a bang on the back of my head, and I’m knocked out.