Villain Retirement

"Hm."

"You've been staring at the other side for a while now. Why not just ask me about it?"

Despite already solving his ever-growing distance problem, it would seem that the distance between each city was still quite vast. No, it was more than vast — from the calm speed Miss Peponvondosovich was leaping and hopping, they would have already reached Mars if they started from Earth. It was no wonder Riley was not getting anywhere when he first got to the Domain of the Gods, even without the Territory problem, this entire plane of land was probably the size of an entire star system, maybe even more.

And he hasn't even seen any sign of a river. They passed through a forest earlier and spent a couple of minutes weaving through it, and that alone was already a considerable distance.

And so, Riley slowly got bored and found himself just staring at the sky, a literal sea of grass and forests above their heads.

"What is it, Miss Peponvondosovich?" Riley asked while he continued to follow Miss Peponvondosovich, "Is the Domain of the Gods shaped like a sandwich?"

"It's nothing," Miss Peponvondosovich just shrugged her shoulders, "It is literally just what you see, a field above our heads. No one could really fly there for some reason — I tried hopping once, but there was like an invisible ceiling covering it. Like in video games? Do you have video games where you are from, Riri?"

"I think I know what you mean, Miss Peponvondosovich," Riley nodded, "I also tried flying up there, and the invisible wall felt as if it would not budge no matter what I did."

"Yup," Miss Peponvondosovich nodded several times, "It is a weird feeling, truly weird."

"Is the Domain of the Gods just one big prairie, Miss Peponvondosovich?"

"Oh, not at all," Miss Peponvondosovich's ears waved in the air as she shook her head, "The grassland is not even the most vast out of all the areas. I won't tell you more about that, it will be more exciting for you to see it for yourself… and trust me, trying to find exciting things will get harder and harder the longer you stay here."

"Hm. Is that why you decided to still guide me throughout the lands of the Domain of the Gods even though Grea and the others started to avoid me, Miss Peponvondosovich?"

"Pretty much," Miss Peponvondosovich let out a cheeky giggle as she increased the distance between her hops. The distance between her and Riley did not grow bigger for even a single millimeter, however, as he literally had an invisible chain attached to Miss Peponvondosovich.

Soon, however, Riley slightly flicked his arm up, causing Miss Peponvondosovich to quickly stop as she felt a force tugging and pulling on her waist.

"W… what's going on!?" Miss Peponvondosovich quickly turned around to look at Riley, raising her arms into a fighting stance, "Wait… were you just using me like a chariot!?"

"I was thinking more of a sled rabbit, Miss Peponvondosovich."

"You—" Miss Peponvondosovich was going to rebuke, but she could not help but notice that Riley seemed to be looking at something. She turned to look at what it could be, only to see a six-legged creature hovering a meter from the ground; seemingly swimming in the air.

"Hm…" Riley then slowly floated toward the 6-legged creature, curiously looking at it from head to tail. It looked like an armadillo, but its snout was flat and more similar to a pug — but most importantly, its fur was almost giving a sort of pink vibrance,

"Hello," Riley waved his hand at the creature, "My name is Riley Ross. Are you related to a cosmic entity called Cherbi, by any chance?"

"Brruh," the 6-legged creature only snorted before completely ignoring Riley and swimming away in the air.

"What… are you doing, Riri?" Miss Peponvondosovich could not help but stare at Riley's face as she followed and stood beside him.

"I was trying to make a conversation, Miss Peponvondosovich," Riley blinked.

"Wait…" A smile started to crawl on Miss Peponvondosovich's face, but she seemed to be trying her best not to, "...Did you think that was a god?"

"Yes, Miss Peponvondosovich."

"It wasn't! Pft!" Miss Peponvondosovich's head practically leaned back to the point that she fell on the bed of grass beneath her feet; clasping her stomach as she just allowed her obnoxious laughter to linger in the air, "That… all the gods in this place are, one way or another, humanoid."

"What about Aulus, Miss Peponvondosovich?" Riley squinted his eyes, "He was a giant lizard."

"That's because he's on a different domain entirely," Miss Peponvondosovich wiped the tear falling from her eyes as she finally stood up and calmed herself, "You are forced into your humanoid form once you step into the Domain of the Gods."

"...Then what did you look like before you transcended, Miss Peponvondosovich?" Riley turned to look at Miss Peponvondosovich's bunny ears.

"Oh, this is pretty much it," Miss Peponvondosovich started spinning in place, "Except I have more fur."

"Hm…"

"Anywho," Miss Peponvondosovich then gestured to Riley to follow her as she once again started hopping, "Since we already saw that weird creature, that means we are getting near. It should not take a hundred more hops…

…let's go!"

***

"Riri, I welcome you…

…to Summoner's City!"

"Oh," Riley clapped as Miss Peponvondosovich took one final hop and landed right in front of Summoner's city. And unlike the previous city, whose name Riley still does not know, Summoner's city did not really have any gates, nor a wall… nor any buildings.

It was just one big field of what Riley could only assume to be some sort of celestial asphalt, or it could also just be ordinary cement. There were tents set up here and there, but aside from that, one could really hardly call this place a city.

What it did have, however, were people. A lot of them… and all of them had some sort of creature by their side.

"Are there truly this many gods, Miss Peponvondosovich?" Riley could not help but slightly be impressed by their number.

"You have not even seen anything yet," Miss Peponvondosovich gave another cheeky giggle, "The Domain of the Gods has existed probably even before your universe, it has existed before mine. You have seen how old Grea truly is, right?"

"I have a grasp on it."

"Then it just makes sense that there will be this many of us. But enough of that… come with me!" Miss Peponvondosovich then started hopping again and weaved her way through the crowd. Riley just attached himself again to her so he could focus looking at everyone and everything.

Riley had thought he had already seen the weirdest creatures since he traversed across the multiverse, but the creatures that were either crawling, hovering, or walking beside the people here looked truly… weird. It almost as if they were drawn from a poorly bad image drawn by a toddler, that was the only way Riley could explain how they looked and felt.

"Ah, Riri. Quick! While there's no one using it!"

Riley turned to look at Miss Peponvondosovich as she stopped hopping, only to see her standing in front of a wide pool of what seemed to be mud.

"I am fine, Miss Peponvondosovich," Riley quickly sighed and shook his head, "I will just use the toilet once we happen to pass by one on our journey."

"Toilet? What…?" No!" Miss Peponvondosovich could not help but snort before placing her hand on the pool of mud, causing Riley to slightly look away in disgust. Soon, however, the mud began to boil; the ripples, getting more and more violent than the last. Within this violence, however, life started to form as the mud shifted.

And soon, a creature that reminded Riley of a stingray emerged from the mud… except it had thick and muscular legs, and its two eyes were literally floating from their sockets.

"Ah," Riley breathed out as he finally realized why all the creatures looked weird, "You have no artistic sense, Miss Peponvondosovich."

"W—who cares about arts!?" Miss Peponvondosovich pointed at Riley, "This little guy here is strong! It can leap from the deepest parts of the ocean straight to the surface!"

"Hm…" Riley looked at the legged stingray from top to bottom, "...I suppose it looks like you, Miss Peponvondosovich."

"...Now you're just starting to piss me off," Miss Peponvondosovich hopped away from the pool of mud, her creature, also doing the same as it stood beside her,

"That's the Well of Creation, Riri. You can basically make any creature you want and then make it fight with another creature. A bit morbid, but it's one of the only entertainments around here once you have practically done everything."

"Hm, is that why there are a lot of people here, Miss Peponvondosovich?"

"Exactly," Miss Peponvondosovich nodded her head and smiled, "Now, you do it. Trust me, you do not need instructions in making a creature."

"If the main purpose is to have them fight each other…" Riley look at Miss Peponvondosovich's summon again, before looking at the summons of the other gods, "...Then can I use a creature I already owned beforehand?"

"What? I thought it was your first time here?"

"Yes, I brought my creature with me before I was sent to this place," Riley then grabbed some sort of glass box from one of his many pockets.

"What… is that?"

"My creature, Miss Peponvondosovich," Riley shrugged before casually throwing the glass box, which suddenly turned bigger as it touched the hard ground, "I choose you…

…Undead Princess Esme!"