The gods moved about the space, from major to minor, all were discussing what could possibly destroy everything they had accomplished since their battle long ago. Out of all the gods who debated this, only five were silent, four of whom were huddled around the game, contemplating what could happen if this was allowed, while the last one sat off to the side a smirk on his face as he rubbed the dice in his hands.

"This is ridiculous! Are we seriously considering a reroll of the dice?"

"Events had already been decided, we can't undo everything…can we?"

"We…we should not get directly involved in the lives of the mortals."

"What are you talking about, that all we ever do! This…this would be the ultimate meddling."

Illusion, Truth, Abundance and Earth Mother silently sat around the game watching the current events unfold. For Earth Mother, she was greatly concerned for the wellbeing of her little one as well as the man who watched over her, he had his own curse to deal with. Illusion too was concerned as she watched her adventurers she'd come to admire now separated into two groups, their worries were more focused on these people than what the other gods were discussing.

Truth and Abundance were also concerned, but not for these mortals, instead about what this would do to the game. Truth, who delighted in seeing those fail, wondered how this would affect all he had done and what unfair advantages it would give the mortals. Abundance too was concerned as to how this would affect the monsters he created, would this change in the game favor or impede the monsters them. As a god of chaos, he was not opposed to "changing things up", but for him that was directed toward the mortals, and was delighted to see them overcome his challenging creations. Suddenly everyone turned toward the side to see last individual chuckling as he held the dice in hand, smirking as he looked towards them.

"The die have been rolled, as gods we are not allowed undo this roll, and if events are meant to unfold the way I desire then so be it. This board has been in balance for too long…a little…chaos is in order."

xxxx

"What do mean change the past?" Rookie Warrior was confused by the girl's last statement.

"That's all I remember, they took my sister and said something about changing the past." Younger Sister started to cry once again as she thought about what was happening to her sibling. "Please…save my sister!"

The four young adventurers looked toward this little girl and then back to the villagers, seeing the expression of fear and uncertainty, and knew what they needed to do.

"Don't you worry, we'll do everything in our power to get them back." Priestess smiled as she nodded her head, knowing that unlike Goblin Slayer, the best thing now was to instill a sense of trust with the villagers.

"Just leave it to the adventurers." Rookie Warrior, taking a cue from Spearman, wanted to reassure them. "Just like a real adventurer!"

The villagers cheered and offered their gratitude as Priestess and her party exited the village heading off in a northern direction.

"I'm glad you were the one who spoke to them…I'm not really good at offering words of encouragement." Half-Demon Thief sighed as she shook her head.

"I'm sure you'll get better the more you interact with people." Priestess smiled brightly wondering what the others would have thought of her.

"That or you'll end up like Goblin Slayer…down to one or two word responses." Apprentice Cleric teased with a light chuckle then turned toward her partner. "Speaking of responses, I was really impressed with you back there."

"Well…I've got to do better if I'm to catch up to the others." Rookie Warrior smiled then focused on the road ahead of them.

"What are you looking at?" Apprentice Cleric confused by what he doing.

"Heavy Warrior mentioned to me that if you study the ground you can determine which direction your prey had gone." Rookie Warrior looked carefully as the footprints, there he could see several deep indentures from someone or something running away from the village. "Looks like they're heading off the path here…towards the woods."

"You saw that too…I see at ten sets of feet. These aren't trained warriors, they're too spread out." Half-Demon Thief walked off the path onto the grass towards the forest.

"Wow! I couldn't even make out any of that, just which direction they were heading."

"That's still impressive. Even after my time with Goblin Slayer, I would not have been able to pick up on all of that."

"Neither did I. I'm…I'm really impressed." Apprentice Cleric turned her head away as she could feel the heat from her blush.

"Th…thanks." Now it was Rookie Warrior who had a slight blush on his face.

"We best hurry then, no telling what these bandits want with the girls." Half-Demon Thief started to rush ahead as she continued to follow the footprints.

Priestess and the others followed behind her determined to save as many of the captives as possible.

xxxx

"What's the hold up? Hurry up and cast your damn spell already! We've been here three days now, so stop wasting our time!"

The angry shout came from a heavy set, unshaven man who, along with nine similar men, stood watch over a group of women. Away from the group within a clearing stood a human wearing a dark purple robe over his body, his black hair was down to his shoulders and as he turned; this man, appearing to be in his forties, was clean shaven, his dark brown eyes looked at these men with contempt.

"A spell caster does not rush his work. You've already been paid for your services, now stand there and keep quiet lest I turn you to ash."

The human bandit growled in frustration before spitting off to the side and turning his attention back to the scared young women. The spell caster, Dark Wizard, looked back to his tome within his hand and studied the designs before looking to the clearing. There lay a large stone slab with biding manacles atop it, around the manacles were small opening that would drain down into the stonework below, around this slab was a series of circular impressions in the stone floor.

"This site was used for sacrifices to the demon lord in ancient times…only fitting that they now be used to right the wrongs of the world."

Dark Wizard was one who had dreamed of becoming an adventurer, attending the grand wizarding schools, so talented was he that everyone assumed it would be he that destroyed the demon lord. This, however was not mean to be, as ten years ago, that dream was taken by a rag-tag group of adventurers, and each of them now given positions of authority…authority he felt he was due. He resigned himself to becoming a teacher, watching as failure after failure came to his school, making a mockery of his teachings.

"And now…some little girl, the Hero, springs out of nowhere and saves the day. What about those of us who have to work…to struggle to show how far we've come, that aren't afforded the luxury of being favored by the gods? I shall rectify all those mistakes. If I can't be the hero…then no one will!"

"We are ready to begin!" Dark Wizard closed his tome and turned toward the bandits. "These women…they are unsullied yes?"

"What does it matter?" The bandit leader asked with a sneer.

"In order for the spell to make you all stronger, to change the mistakes of the past as it were, I need the blood of an unspoiled maiden. If you or any of your men have defiled them in any way, all we'll end up doing is spilling blood wastefully. Now…I ask again, these women here are unsullied yes?"

The bandit leader was silent for a moment as he looked over his men and the women, though they weren't goblins themselves, these captive women were all rather pretty and dark thoughts had crossed their minds over the last couple days, but if their strength could be increased to where they were far stronger than even a dragon, then holding off would be well worth it.

"They are."

"Then bring me the first girl."

Dark Wizard smiled, in truth all he needed was one pure woman, the rest would serve as his personal salves when he returned. His plan was simple, he would travel to the Hero's village, kill her and take her place drawing forth the holy sword, and becoming the true hero he was meant to be.

"My only concern is running into my past self…according to the tomes, if we meet, my past self should absorb my knowledge as we become one…it would be a shame to have to kill myself if that weren't the case."

"Bind her to the table! Keep an eye on the rest!" Dark Wizard looked up at the sky and smiled even wider as the red moon was visible. "All is set…time to right the wrongs of history and be the Hero this world needs!"

Priestess and her comrades watched from the nearby trees, as the bandits took hold of one of the women and dragged her screaming toward the stone altar.

"What do you think?" Half-Demon Thief looked back to see the other bandits surrounding the remaining captives.

"We need to get to the other capture women, secure their safety then get the last one on the altar." Priestess could see them binding her to the alter, not sure what they intended to do, but knew it was not good. "I'll cast Holy Light from here, then you and warrior can attack the bandits, that will allow me and cleric to get to the captives…then we can focus our attention on the wizard."

All three looked toward Priestess with wide eyes, making her look at them with a look of concern about her face.

"Did…is that bad?"

"Bad, that's brilliant!" Half-Demon Thief smiled brightly.

"I'm just surprised at how fast you came up with that plan." Apprentice Cleric smiled as well.

"All that time being with a silver rank adventurer really has paid off." Rookie Warrior tightened his grip around his new sword reassured by its weight.

They suddenly heard a scream and watched as the Dark Wizard used a knife to start cutting the woman bound on the altar.

"No time to waste, let's put your plan into motion." Half-Demon Thief drew out both daggers and readied herself to attack the moment they were blinded.

xxxx

"Please…let someone save us! Gods above, I want to be able to see my sister once more!"

One of the bound women, a woman with long brown hair watched with tears in her eyes as her best friend was taken away by the bandits toward the stone altar. Their peaceful lives had upturned just a few short days ago, and now it would appear they were to be sacrificed or left to the foul desires of these brutes of men. She was forced to watch as the man in robes took a blade in his hands and started to cut her friend.

"Yes…just a little bit of blood!" Dark Wizard smiled as he slit the woman's wrists, ankles and throat and watched as the blood poured down the small openings and drained into the stone indentions.

"Holy Light!"

A burst of white light flooded the area forcing everyone to shield their eyes as they cried out in pain. Dark Wizard partially blinded by the light turned toward the men and the captives and could vaguely make out four figures charging forward. Two of which quickly went to work attacking the men he paid while the others two went for the captives. He growled as he held the knife in his hands, ready to attack or use his spells the moment he could clearly see again, but something caught his attention before that, the stone indentions where he was standing began to glow with a red light.

"It's almost here! Just focus your thoughts on that Hero! Very soon I'll…"

Before he could finish that thought, something struck him knocking him out of the stone indentions. Half-Demon Thief rushed forward, tackling the wizard and watched as he rolled away from the altar, she stood ready with daggers to attack should he try anything, completely oblivious of the red glow around her. Priestess and the other two immediately went about freeing the captives while Half-Demon Thief went after the wizard.

"Thank you." The woman with long brown hair sniffed as tears ran down her face.

"We'll get you back to your sister." Priestess smiled as she nodded her head toward this young woman.

"Priestess!"

Priestess turned to find Half-Demon Thief by the altar looking over the final woman still bound to the stone slab. She immediately rushed forward and like Half-Demon Thief, did not pay any attention to the red glow that now surrounded them. Priestess moved toward the bound woman and to her horror found she was already dead, the last of her blood running through the small opening in the slab.

"No…we couldn't save them all! It's like with Goblin Slayer, we want to save him, but always seem to be too late."

Dark Wizard grunted as he pushed himself up and growled as he looked toward the altar, but soon that glare turned to shock. The girls finally noticed the red glow, but it was too late, the light engulfed them and the moment it subsided both were gone.

"No…my…my plan."

"Priestess…Thief…they're gone!" Rookie Warrior's eyes were wide with shock when he found his comrades had disappeared.

xxxx

Priestess and Half-Demon Thief were thrown to the ground rather roughly and as they grunted to get back to their feet found their location had changed. They found themselves outside a small village, it was still nighttime and as they looked up could see the two moons overhead.

"That damn fool…it wasn't some time spell, he opened up a gate." Half-Demon Thief stood and looked around the area.

"A gate?"

"You know, a transfer spell. He must have thought he get to go back in time or some nonsense like that…he took that poor girls' like for nothing then."

"That girl…wait what about the others?"

"I'm sure they've already started to head back to the village, no point in them waiting around for us." Half-Demon Thief looked toward the village but noticed this one was not damaged like the one they had seen from earlier. "This isn't the same village is it?"

Priestess looked around and saw the village was well, like Half-demon Thief had said the village was different, and yet she couldn't shake the feeling that the area they were in was very familiar.

"It's a different village. Let's go see if we can figure out where we are."

Priestess and Half-Demon Thief casually made their way toward the village noticing the thin wooden wall around it. As they drew near the entrance they were met by a villager with a spear brandishing its as menacingly as possible.

"Who goes there?"

Priestess and Half-Demon Thief raised their hands to show they were no threat to the villager, and in the light of torches by the entrance, he could see their guild tags.

"Those…guild tags…are you adventurers?"

"Yes…were registered with the guild. Can you tell us…"

"Hey, everyone! The Adventurers are here!"

As the shout was heard, more and more people exited their houses to come and see what all the commotion was about. Half-Demon Thief and Priestess were shocked to see so many people, this village appeared to be much larger than they had expected.

"Thank goodness you're here!"

"Are you here for the goblins?"

"Goblins?" Half-Demon Thief was surprised by their sudden question about the goblins then a thought crossed her mind. "This must be one of the villages Goblin Slayer was heading towards. That means if we wait around here we'll find him and the others."

"Well actually, were…"

Priestess then caught sight of a young woman with light brown hair in a braid resting upon her right shoulder and beside her was a young boy holding her hand. Priestess looked toward the boy and saw his grey, almost whitish hair and red eyes looking back at her with curiosity and amazement.

"He looks just like Goblin Slayer. Won't he be surprised to hear that when we see him again."

"We…we came to this village by accident." Priestess was honest about their being here, but as she saw the looks of shock and disappointment, knew what they had to do. "But now that we are here, we won't abandon you."

"Don't you worry folks, the adventurers are here!"

The villagers looked toward these two with wide eyes before cheering happily that the goblins they had seen would soon be dealt with. Outside the village near the forest the horde of goblins heard the sounds of merriment from this village and growled angrily. How dare these humans be merry when they were miserable, when they had nothing, they would make them pay.

The men of the village were all given spears and told to be ready to fight the moment the goblins were in sight. The women, children and elderly were to remain inside the houses but to arm themselves should the goblins break through. Half-Demon Thief pulled Priestess off to the side to discuss her plan with her, all the while the young boy was watching them with wide eyes.

"The moment I give you the signal, use Holy Light to blind the little monsters, then the villagers can push forward." Half-Demon Thief nodded her head all the while smiling.

"I understand." Priestess smiled in return then noticed the young boy from earlier. "You should really get back inside the house with your…was that your mother?"

"My older sister…my parents are both dead." The young boy replied, still partially hiding behind one of the buildings.

"I'm so sorry to hear that."

"Are…are you really adventurers?" The boy came out from behind the building to see these two young women more clearly.

"We sure are? Well now that I get a better look at you, you sure are a cute one." Half-Demon Thief smiled as she saw the light blush on his face.

"Don't tease him. But to your questions, yes we are."

"When I grow up, I'm going to be an adventurer too." The young boy beamed as he looked at these adventurers. "My friend is going to be so jealous."

"Your friend?" Priestess was what the young boy was talking about.

"She went with her uncle to help on the farm and then she gets to go to the city. It isn't fair since I haven't been to the city…but meeting real life adventurers is so much better!"

"So why do you want to be an adventurer?" Half-Demon Thief enjoyed talking with this young lad.

"I want to see the world!" The young boy smiled then paused as a more serious expression crossed his face. "I…I also want to protect those close to me."

"What do you mean?" Priestess was confused by his expression.

"My older sister said I should never make those smaller than me cry. It's my job to protect those who need it. So…I want to be an adventurer to protect people."

The boy smiled toward the young girls before running back to his house to join his sister. Priestess and Half-Demon Thief were left there stunned by his statement and his devotion to protect those close to him.

"Priestess…didn't he look just like…"

"He sure did. Goblin Slayer will really be shocked when we tell him."

"Goblin Slayer…shocked?"

"…you're right…knowing him he'll probably say "Is that so?""

"That does sound like him." Half-Demon Thief laughed but soon stopped as her ears picked up the sounds of rustling nearby. "I'm off."

"Be careful. I'll alert the others."

Half-Demon Thief suddenly vanished before Priestess eyes as her Stealth ability was used to allow her to move through the village unseen and then outside overlooking the tall grass. She could hear the rustling even louder than before and her eyes could make out the small shapes moving through the grass getting closer and closer to the village.

She herself moved through the grass unseen, her rustling caused the goblins to come to a halt as they looked around for the source. Their eyes could see nothing by the village before them, but their ears were telling them that there was something moving with them.

"A horde of about fifty. Sorry you had to come up against a trained assassin!"

Just as the goblins readied their attack a cry ran out from the far back, one of their brothers had been killed, then another fell after him, and then another. The goblins in the far back were being slashed and gutted left and right by some unseen force. In just a few short moments, ten goblins had been killed from the horde, the remaining goblins looked around nervously wondering who would be next.

"Now!" Half-Demon Thief quickly shielded her eyes in readiness for the Holy Light!

The goblins looked around trying to find the source of the voice but soon caught sight of a beautiful young woman by the entrance to the village.

"O Earth Mother, abounding in mercy, grant your sacred light to we who are lost in darkness…Holy Light!"

A flash of white light flooded the area, the goblins were instantly blinded by the light as they screeched in pain and confusion. Then came the shouts from the villagers who rushed past Priestess with spears ready and began stabbing the confused goblins. The other goblins in the back saw this and prepared to run when a female figure appear before them and quickly moved from side to side slashing at their throats. The raid was over in a few minutes, not a single goblin was left alive and not a single villager was lost that night. The villagers cheered and gratefully acknowledged the adventurers for their arrival and support in stopping the goblin advance.

"It might have been an accident that brought you here, but thanks the gods you came."

"Look at them all, this huge number…we'd have never been able to beat them on our own."

The older sister and her brother walked forward to formally thank the two adventurers for their rescue of their village.

"Thank you, for everything." The sister bowed her head towards these two young women.

Priestess and Half-Demon Thief nodded their heads in return and smiled as they looked toward the young boy beside her.

"You grow up big and strong, become an adventurer and perhaps our paths will cross one day." Half-Demon Thief smiled as she extended her hand toward the young boy.

"I…I will." The young boy smiled as he took her hand in his and shook it.

"Take care to listen to your sister and be nice to your friend."

The boy and his sister smiled and waved as the two girls walked away from the village, even though it was late they were surprised to find that they weren't too far away from Frontier Town. As they made their way down the path they noticed a red glow surround them as before with the altar. At first they were unsure of what was going on then realized that this must have been the effect of the gate spell from earlier, this meant they might be able to meet back up with Rookie Warrior and Apprentice Cleric. In an instant they vanished as before once the red light engulfed them, no one in the village had seen this event as they were too busy celebrating their victory over the goblins.

xxxx

The gods were stunned by what they had seen, the board began to shake and familiar pieces were moved aside as new one arose or replaced the old. Earth Mother looked at this with wide eyes as new events were being recorded while the older records were shelved…to their surprise this one event had indirectly changed the scope of the game.

"Little one…what have you done?"

Off in the corner, one of the gods of chaos chuckled to himself as he stood and walked toward the board with dice in hand. The other gods looked toward him with wide, fearful eyes as they knew he was in the right to roll the dice.

"Now then…let's see what comes from this roll…" All the while he smiled sinisterly as he threw the dice across the board.