ã€ŠMarked Ones: Advent of the Demon Princeã€‹


 Chapter 1: Prologue

    Darkness settled over what was once a beautiful field of flowers and farnd. Its beauty had long since been adulterated by ash, smoke, and blood. The same irrigation trenches that once fed crops were now filled with crimson and the homes that once housed hopes and dreams were splintered by the aftermath of war.

    The observer of such a scene felt both a part of it and separate from it at the same time. They could feel the wind on their face and taste the soot permeating the surroundings, yet they knew that nothing they tried would allow them to intervene and end the chaos.

    Men and womeny along the road; many struggled to breathe, and many others were covered hastily with tarps. These scenes felt as though they had been ripped directly from hell. Among those resting were people in long, green robes who ran from person to person, trying desperately to save as many lives as they could.

    "It''s HIM! ¡­They did not tell us that a monster like that would join the field¡­."

    "I thought he was in the elven kingdoms¡­ what is he doing here!"

    "Help me! Please! I can''t feel my arms¡­ someone, please ¡­save me"

    "Don''t worry, I''ve got you! [Lux: Heal]!" A bright golden light erupted from the hands of one of the men in green. The light slowly enveloped a soldier''s stump of an arm and stopped the bleeding as it sealed the wound. He would live, but he would never be the same.

    All those who wore green slowly began to cast simr spells among the injured and dying. A few even cast darker magic. "[Umbra: Numbness], there. I can''t help you¡­but maybe this will keep you from suffering in yourst moments¡­"

    Metal rattling against metal approached from the north. The first to approach the patients was a massive man who stood at least seven feet tall. His chest was as broad as two men, and his longsword, held by any other, would be considered a greatsword.

    Emzoned on his chest was a red shield with a golden eagle, the symbol of the kingdom of Arcadios. This man was clearly a high-rankingmander, but what confused the strange observer was that they had seen this person somewhere before¡­

    "Status report," the man ordered.

    Several minutes passed in silence, only being interrupted by moans of anguish.

    "I said a status report, damn it! You might be dumb, but you aren''t dead, so someone answer me! What happened here?!" Red veins threatened to burst from the sides of his head.

    A small woman in green stepped forward, trembling. "Sir¡­I don''t know¡­themander of the southern garrison she¡­didn''t make it."

    "And? Who''s in charge now?"

    "I don''t know¡­"

    "Well, since you are the only one who grew enough of a spine to answer me, it''s you. So tell me what happened."

    The woman''s teeth chattered as she ryed the events of thest hour. The rebel army had advanced quicker than expected, but themander was already prepared for this possibility. They hadid traps in advance in the hopes that it would slow the enemy down long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

    However, the rebel army stopped directly in front of the hidden traps as if they knew where they were.

    At that moment, a strange ball of fire erupted above their heads and showered the fields with sparks. It was a signal, and several people amongst the garrison turned on their brethren with a crazed look in their eyes.

    It was as if they weren''t in their right minds; something was controlling them. Brother shed brother without regard for bonds. One of the traitors under the control of the enemy was the vicemander, but she failed to execute her target and was beheaded instead.

    Around the moment of the vicemander''s death, HE showed up. The entire mage battalion fired spell after spell at the target¡­but nothing happened. It was as if the magic was being swallowed up before it could even reach him.

    "Where is the rebel army now? Did you cowards let them pass by instead of fighting to thest man as you were ordered?!"

    "No sir¡­the army did not advance. The army never engaged¡­"

    "What?"

    The massivemander looked down the road past the temporary battlements that were now nothing but charred and shattered wood. She was not wrong. Just beyond where the traps had beenid, there was no sign of advancement. It was as if the enemy showed their presence and then retreated instead of advancing.

    While the man stood there pondering why such a thing would happen, his own second-inmand ran up to him, panting and wheezing.

    "Sir¡­I have a message for you. Someone has infiltrated the eastern garrison! Our forward tower has fallen!"

    "What do you¡­"

    "Sir! News from the west! The western tower has fallen!"

    "Sir! The imperial gates have reported an unknown intruder! There are heavy casualties amongst the men but no sign of damage to the interior."

    "What is happening? These people cannot possibly move around the battlefield this quickly! Let alone without me seeing them!" Themander was enraged. It took every ounce of willpower in his body to maintain some form of calm, though it was mediocre at best.

    He began to gather the highest-ranking soldiers from the southern garrison and his highest-ranking personnel for a strategy meeting. Everything inside him told him that he needed to return to the capital; however, it could easily be a ruse to pull him from the battlefield. Clearly, they had some sort of objective¡­but what was it?

    Why did they cease moving after destroying the forward defenses? By this point, the rebels could have advanced on the capital from three directions without much effort¡­ yet all they did was send a small force to disrupt the gates, but nothing further¡­

    "You! Marked. Come here."

    A disheveled man in tattered gray clothes quickly approached themander before kneeling on one knee in the muck. Rain began to fall on thendscape, quickly turning the dirt roads into mud. Themander saw a demonic rune on the Marked One''s left hand, as usual, but he could not quite make it out due to the cloak partially covering it.

    "Present your left hand."

    The disheveled man trembled and hesitated momentarily.

    "Well?! Present your hand or your head, your choice!" Themander''s voice rose to an inhuman volume.

    The man continued to quake in his boots but managed to shakily present his hand.

    Themander nodded at his second to move the sleeve up the arm and fully reveal the mark. His second paused and gave a quizzical look to her superior.

    "I don''t recognize it. He''s an Unknown."

    "Let me see, dammit," themander mumbled.

    He approached the Marked One. While most of the rebels were Marked Ones, not all of the rats had betrayed the kingdom. However, under his orders, they kept a running list of the names and types of marks assigned to each garrison to avoid anyone slipping in unnoticed.

    It would have been wiser to simply execute the bastards, but they had their uses as either weapons of war or forcedbor to save the real warriors'' strength.

    In front of themander''s face was a strange-looking mark. He was not very well educated in the Demon Language that these marks were derived from, but this one looked a little like an upside-down mountain¡­

    Suddenly a chill ran down themander''s spine. He slowly looked into the eyes of the Marked in front of him. Meeting his gaze were a set of glowing eyes. One was silver, and the other gold, but both had feline-like slits for pupils. The man was smiling broadly, though it never reached his eyes. His exposed teeth showed off extended fangs next to the canine teeth.

    "You¡­," themander said with his voice trembling. "Everyone! Now! Fire every offensive spell now! Don''t worry about friendly fire! Kill him now even if it takes us with it!"

    The robed man slowly removed his hood, showing off his ck hair which glistened in the moonlight that began to illuminate the battlefield. He slowly looked around and locked eyes with the mysterious observer. He was the first person to even notice their presence, but when the man did, he gave a wide, terrifying smile that made the observer''s heart shudder.

    "[mma: Lance]!"

    "[Tempestas: Lighting Strike]!"

    "[Umbra: Darkness bolt]!"

    Dozens upon dozens of spells fell upon the group of people. Every remaining member of leadership was in the target range of this onught of spells, but they epted their fate in the hopes that their sacrifice would make the world a better ce. A world without this monster in it.

    The cloaked man''s smile grew as he looked away and pulled the right sleeve of his robe up his arm, revealing another Demonic symbol. A second mark. The observer gasped. A person should only have one, yet this man¡­

    He locked eyes with the invisible observer once more, his smile never wavering. He then waved his hand at the spells and whispered "[Devour: Spellbreaker]"

    In an instant every spell that had beenunched at them fizzled out and vanished, like a candle dunked in water. The man held his left hand forward, shifting his gaze to themander who had fallen backwards on his ass. Themander trembled in fear.

    Every human in the area fell to their knees, unable to move, unable to speak. The man looked proudly at his handiwork. Before he whispered again. Despite the quiet, his voice echoed in the mind of everyone, including the observer.

    "[Abyss Break: Endless Nightmare]"

    ---------------------------------------------------

    A/N: Interested in Discord?

    Here you go!

 Chapter 2: The Oracle

    A beautiful blonde woman threw herself to a sitting position on her bed. Her sheets were soaked with sweat, and her normally gorgeous hair fell like strings around her shoulders. A momentter, nausea overtook her, and she quickly leaned over the side of the bed to release her stomach contents into a bucket she kept by her bedside for such an asion.

    Two men in armor opened the door with a loud m and entered the room, followed by a tiny woman in a maid uniform. The woman''s eyes were glistening, and her face was painted with worry. "Lady Adellia, are you okay? Please speak to me. What is wrong?" The kind maid looked rapidly between Adellia''s face and her swollen belly.

    Adellia put on a brave face and rested a hand on the maid''s shoulder tofort her. "Fear not, my dear. Just a bad dream. Also, I am afraid it will soon be time for the twins to make their appearance." Adellia ced a hand gently on her stomach and felt a pulsing, squeezing sensation near her pelvis. It did not quite hurt at the moment, but there was a rather intense pressure.

    These feelings had been urring for a few days, but they had be steadily worse since yesterday.

    "Oracle. We shall fetch the midwife. Until the time of the birth, she shall stay with you." One of the armored men stated tly.

    He waspletely unphased by the woman''s beauty. In fact, he would often nce at her left hand, which held a demonic symbol that one could easily mistake for a tattoo. Every time he looked at it, his expression would momentarily contort in disgust.

    Adellia smiled lightly at the guard and nodded her head in understanding. She did not miss his nces but could do nothing about it. Such was her fate as a Marked One. Even though the Kingdom of Arcadios relied on her ability, granted by the Mark of Prophecy, she was still treated like a stain on her race.

    She was the current Oracle, descended from a long line of Marked Ones who held the Mark of Prophecy. The very reason she was pregnant now was that the King had ordered her to attempt to start raising the next in line for her position.

    Every Oracle''s job was to grant Arcadios prophecies that would help it avoid disaster. In addition to that, it was also their job to sire at least one child who shared the Mark of Prophecy so that the kingdom would always have an Oracle to rely on.

    "I am sorry to bring you into a world where, even though you are relied upon, you are despised," she whispered to her belly.

    The maid looked on in sadness and sniffled.

    "Mydy¡­." The maid paused and looked to ensure that the guards were not paying attention. One had left to fetch the midwife, while the other had already stepped back out of the room. "What will we do if they don''t have your mark¡­"

    "The kingdom will do what they have always done. Any children without my mark will be¡­cleansed," Adellia said while squeezing the sheets.

    She had specifically identified the father of her children as someone who had the highest likelihood of helping her produce a child with the same abilities.

    Something she had not expected was to conceive twins. It was not that her visions were wrong but that it simply did not show her the second child. When she identified the beastman who would help her give birth to a child with her power, she simply saw herself pregnant and feeding an infant with her mark on their hand. She was never shown a second child, and this terrified Adellia.

    "Mylene¡­" Adellia said in a hushed whisper. "I need you to do me a favor. It is the most important and likelyst one I will ever ask of you."

    "Anything, mydy."

    "You have family who serve in the Petra house, yes?"

    "I do. My husband''s cousin is a head maid there and her husband is a guard."

    "When my child is born¡­I need you to use your dark magic on my baby. One will share my mark. I have seen this¡­but the other¡­I never saw them in my visions. What I need you to do is to curse them with sleep, blind, and paralysis."

    Mylene gasped as she struggled to contain a small yelp. She quickly looked towards the door to ensure the guard had not heard her or their conversation. Once she verified they were in the clear, she spoke, "Mydy¡­that could kill the infant. Maybe even permanently disfigure them."

    "I know. But there is a chance they could survive, and if they do, then we can make it seem like they died in childbirth. Maybe, just maybe, they can survive and live some kind of life elsewhere."

    Tears fell freely from the woman''s face as she thought about losing one of her unborn children. She had quickly fallen in love with the life inside her and wanted nothing more than to experience the joys of motherhood. Though this life was far from ideal, her children had be a light in her life, a future worth seeing. Adellia locked eyes with her maid who looked conflicted.

    "If it fails, and my child dies, I will not me you, because, if we do not try, the Kingdom will execute them anyway. I would like to give them a chance. Of course this is on the basis that your husband''s cousin would be willing to actually care for a Marked One."

    Mylene gulped and thought in silence for a moment before steeling her resolve. "Don''t worry mydy. My husband''s uncle was Marked and he was very close with his daughter and my husband. She will no doubt take on this child. She cannot have one of her own anyway."

    "Thank you, Mylene, thank you." Adellia continued to weep until there was a knock at the door. An elderly woman with a sour face entered and behind her was an elderly man in white robes.

    He was one of the many people who attended to the Oracle and wrote down her prophecies. Adellia never cared to learn anyone''s names other than Mylene because of how she had been treated her entire life in the castle.

    "Oracle. I hear you had a ''bad dream''. I came to make sure that, if you saw a prophecy, it is recorded," the elderly man grumbled.

    He had a collection of parchment under his arm and ced them on a desk next to the entrance of the room.

    Adellia thought back to the dream she had and remembered the terrifying smile on that unknown man''s face. She remembered the mes of war and the deadying in the mud. The Oracle then thought about her sad life in the castle. A life full of solitude and devoid of love, kindness, andmon decency.

    She looked at the elderly robed man and gave him a gentle smile. "Fret not. It was only a dream."

 Chapter 3: Escape Plan

    "Lady Adellia!" Mylene shouted. "Please hang in there. Breathe, breathe. Slowly. In. Out.

    In. Out. Please remain calm." She held her charge''s hand tightly in support. The midwife had several steaming buckets of water and clean towels beside her. She was positioned between the blonde woman''s legs while Adellia screamed in pain.

    "Mylene! I can''t do this, I can''t¡­" She begged. "Please¡­"

    "Come on now! You have to push Oracle." The midwife growled.

    Adellia''s silver eyes shed brightly, and she became silent for a second. They faded quickly, and she returned to shouting. Mylene noticed that the woman was motioning for her toe closer, so she leaned her ears closer to the oracle''s mouth.

    "I saw¡­the first¡­you must take the first child."

    Mylene gulped and moved away from herdy''s hands to where the midwife was and prepared to take the first infant when they were born. Several agonizing minutes passed as sweat began to bead on the maid''s forehead.

    Several thoughts passed through her mind: ''Can I do this, will the child survive, what if I fail¡­my life will be in danger¡­no¡­I will do this, I can do this. Mydy requested to be told the child had died regardless of the oue. She asked to never be told the truth so she can live in ignorance and hopefully let the child live a life safe from persecution for his origins.''

    The midwife shouted for a wet towel. She held in her hands a small creature. It was a boy, and he was easily half the size of a normal newborn. Mylene quickly grabbed a towel and soaked it in warm, sterile water. She grabbed the baby from the midwife before any of the assistants could. The newborn had yet to make a sound, which worried the mother and the maid.

    Mylene turned her back to the group and walked to the desk to keep the appearance that she was cleaning the child. She whispered, "[Umbra: paralysis], [Umbra: numb], [Umbra: Silence]"

    Three motes of light appeared in Mylene''s hand and floated into the infant''s small chest. The spells took effect just as the baby opened its mouth to cry. Instead, its mouth was stuck open, and no sound came out. The chest rose so slightly that it appeared not to move at all.

    Mylene continued to clean off the child. He was a boy, and on his hand was a mark. Mylene did not know a lot about marks, so she did not know what it was, but the child indeed had something on his hand different from his mother''s. "Mydy¡­I¡­am sorry. He did not make it," The maid stated, tears falling freely from her face.

    "Does it have the Mark of Prophecy?" A guard asked coldly.

    "No, he does not." Mylene red at the man who spoke, who seemed to recoil under the pressure of her anger. She shifted her gaze onto herdy, who was screaming and sobbing. "Do you wish to name him before¡­"

    "There is no need." The elderly man from before walked into the room. "The creature was to be executed for not bearing the Oracle''s mark anyway. Dispose of the corpse, it is of no use to us."

    Mylene nced at Adellia and nced back at the elderly man. "As youmand, my lord."

    The maid quickly left the room to ''dispose'' of the body. She ran down the curved stairs that led down from the tower where the Oracle resided. She was eager to avoiding into contact with other people, but she also needed to rush to her husband to try and cure the curses she ced on the boy''s tiny body.

    She could ce the curses, but she could not remove them, and if she were to wait until they were dispelled on their own, the child might not survive.

    Mylene quickly checked the child and noticed that, though faint, he still breathed. She rounded multiple corners as she ran past the pce gardens and quickly located one of the many servant tunnels. One such tunnel was right off the garden and was essentially abandoned. In fact, it was usually covered up by a bookcase for use in emergencies.

    Thanks to her husband the bookcase was no longer in the way. He was also standing next to the tunnel entrance, waiting for his wife. Her husband was off duty today and was wearing his inclothes. He quickly stepped forward and embraced his lover.

    "Derrik please, quickly. Light magic." Mylene huffed, pushing her husband away momentarily.

    "Right! Sorry. You just...never mind. [Lux: Cure], [Lux: Heal], [Lux: Enhance Vigor]." Three motes of bright light jumped from Derrik''s palm and settled in the child''s chest. A momentter, the child began to cry. Mylene cried some more and gave the infant a small kiss on the forehead.

    "Please¡­take him to Rubellia and Martin. The boy is marked, but he deserves a chance at life. Please, my love." Mylene begged.

    Derrik cradled the baby in his arms, wrapping him in a dry cloak to keep him warm. He then grabbed up a bag which contained bottles of goat''s milk and slung it over his shoulder.

    "Of course, love. Marked or not, he deserves a chance, just as you said." Derrik whispered gently to his wife, pecking her on the cheek. "I will return in a few days. Stay by Lady Adellia''s side. She will need you more than ever."

    Mylene nodded gratefully and watched her husband vanish down the tunnel. It had a path that led outside where he had a horse waiting for him to travel to the Petra domain. Mylene listened to the infant''s cries slowly quiet and vanish, every second shattering her heart.

    "Back to mydy, but first¡­"

    The maid wiped her tears, grabbed a sack that her husband had left for her by the entryway to the room, and left to head towards the pig pens outside the castle. On the way she quickly wrapped the sack in the same towel she had the infant in before.

    Normally nobility, let alone royalty, would never deign to allow such smelly animals to live so close to their residences. However, the King of Arcadios was obsessed with a rare species of pig from the beastman kingdom of Eroa after having visited once. Due to this, he imported a few breeding pairs from the kingdom for his personal consumption.

    This time, Mylene made sure that people were able to see her rush towards the pig pens. When she finally arrived, she purposefully stepped into the muck and threw the sack and towel into the pen. Pigs were voracious eaters and would eat anything down to the bones, leaving nothing left.

    "With this, the young boy will certainly be believed deceased." Mylene turned around to finally return to Adellia. She locked eyes momentarily with the herder in charge of the pigs. He quickly rushed off, likely to report his sightings to his superiors. Mylene was not worried because this would only help sell the story to her superiors.

    When the maid finally returned to the top of the spire where Adellia lived, she saw something that once again tore at her heart. The beautiful woman was cradling a small child, with tears dripping upon the baby''s face.

    "Ah, maid, you have returned. I trust you have properly disposed of the failure." The same elderly man stated.

    Mylene clenched and unclenched her fist opposite of his view. "Yes, my lord. I have disposed of the child in the royal pig pens."

    "Ah yes, free sustenance for his majesty''s prized pets." The man praised as he stroked his beard. "Well, the Oracle has given birth to a girl who also bears the Mark of Prophecy. So take care that you provide for the Oracle and help her raise the next generation."

    He quickly left, taking with him the midwife, her assistants, and the guards. Left in the room was only Adellia, Mylene, and a crying baby girl.

    "Her name is Lyrah¡­She has my eyes." Adellia whispered between sobs.

    Mylene looked at the child. Her eyes did not open much, but she was able to see hints of silver. Lyrah had a full head of jet ck hair.

    "She''s beautiful mydy¡­" Mylene whispered as she stepped forward and embraced Adellia, allowing her to cry into the maid''s shoulders.

 Chapter 4: A New Life

    Rubellia nearly leaped into her husband''s embrace. Hisrger frame towered over her as he held her closely yet gently within his arms. The woman, a short brte, pulled her gaze from her husband and looked lovingly down at the infant in her arms. He could not seem to open his eyes, so she could not see their shade, but he had a full head of jet-ck hair.

    Rubellia leaned down and kissed the baby on the forehead. The baby happily snoozed away, feeling warm and safe in her embrace. The man gently stroked the child''s cheek with a single finger.

    "What will we name him?" The man asked gently.

    "How about¡­Lucius." Rubellia said with a smile.

    "Wonderful choice. Wee to your home, little one. I hope you will like it here."

    Neither of the two seemed to care that the infant in their arms had a mark on his left hand. They seemed overjoyed to simply have him with them.

    "You''re a father now, Wayne. Make sure you shape up, mister! No morete nights at the bar anymore!" Rubellia scolded, her eyes ring with anger.

    Wayne sheepishly looked around the room as if she were not talking to him and let out a low whistle. "So ... anyway¡­ what will we tell his lordship?"

    "That''s simple. We found an infant abandoned in the woods. Likely because he is marked. As a couple who could not have children, we took the only chance to be parents we had¡­Even if¡­" Rubellia nearly gagged. "It''s marked."

    Wayne knew what his wife meant by her statement. The disdain she held was not for the boy being marked but for the fact they had to put on a farce that this was a difficult decision. In truth, when Wayne''s cousin came to them the day before, drenched in rain and holding a small child, they did not know what to think.

    Derrik declined to exin where the child came from or what happened, but he warned that they shoulde up with a story that did not include him. ording to Wayne and Rubellia, they never saw Derrik.

    Rubellia looked back at her husband once more and gave him a kiss. "Thank you. I love you, Wayne. And I love you too, my little Lucius. More than life itself."

    *****

    Inside a lovely little cottage, a young boy sat in front of a table, his legs dangling off of the stool he sat upon as he slowly began to draw on a sheet of bark.

    The family had a stand of trees outside their home that shed a soft, pliable bark that was easy to draw on with charcoal. It was difficult to use, and they could never get bark in any sort of usable size to do anything important with, but they were perfect for providing entertainment for a small child.

    The boy hummed happily to himself while doodling the image of a bear eating honey. asionally he would stop and check his work before returning to it.

    After a few, he appeared to grow bored and hopped down from the stool and wandered around the home. It was notvish by any means, but it was cozy. There were only two rooms: a small one with a child-sized bed and a single trunk, which belonged to the boy. Then there was arger one with a two-person bed, some shelves and tables, and a few other odds and ends. That room belonged to his parents.

    Neither of them was home at the moment, which was strange for the young boy. Normally his mother would have been home by now. She worked from early morning to about the afternoon, when his father normally left for his job.

    It was rare to have both his parents at home at the same time, but it was even rarer for neither of his parents to be present. Soon enough, the door to the home rattled and opened. In stepped a tired-looking woman in herte twenties, beautiful with shoulder-length brown hair and hazel eyes.

    "Momma!"

    "Oh, my little Lucius! I am sorry I''mte, my love. How are you? You were such a good boy to stay inside while I was gone." Rubellia rushed to embrace her son in a tight hug and showered him with kisses, eliciting giggles from the boy.

    "Momma, momma! I drew''d a bear and he eated hummy!" Lucius beamed as he showed off his creation. His two eyes glowing with excitement.

    "Oh, how sweet, my love. That is definitely a bear eating ''honey,''" Rubellia smiled as she stressed the right pronunciation. She stood and began to prepare dinner for her son and herself.

    Her husband Wayne received a meal as part of his work as a guard for the Petra estate, so they really only had two mouths to feed with their ie. This lets them live a little better than those around them, though not by a lot.

    Rubellia looked at her son with pride and joy while she started a simple venison stew. She started a simple fire by casting a small spell: "[mma: Embers]" and poured water from one of their basins, which Wayne filled with his water magic every morning when he arrived home from work.

    "Mommy! When can I go work with you!" Lucius asked. His beautiful eyes stared up at the woman who regarded him with some sadness.

    "My love¡­I don''t know¡­I know I can; it''s just¡­"

    "Momma? I''m a really good boy! I''ll be good extra, extra good!"

    Lucius stared at his mother, begging to have her take him to work with her. His pleading gaze slowly began to melt her heart. Her will was wavering already at the thought of being able to take her sweet son to work with her, but this was really wearing on her resolve.

    Somehow, she managed to push through it ande to apromise with her son¡­by letting hime to work with her tomorrow. Lucius jumped for joy at the possibility of seeing therge mansion where his parents worked.

    "Yay, momma! I''ll be so good! What do I do?"

    "Tomorrow, it is my turn to tend the garden, so you will join me in that. Do not worry about much; just stay by my side and behave!" Rubellia advised.

    Lucius immediately went and hugged his mother''s leg.

    "Thanks, momma!"

 Chapter 5: Garden Encounter

    Rubellia quickly walked to the gates of the manor where she worked with a tired four-year-old boy. He limply held on to her right hand with his left while wiping his eyes with his free hand.

    The guards recognized the wife of one of theirrades and allowed them entry into the estate without issue. Normally, servant staff would reside in servant quarters; however, Wayne was a guard captain and had been rewarded for saving the lord''s nephew in a bandit attack by being granted the home they now lived in.

    As such, Rubellia was allowed to move out of the servant quarters to live with her husband.

    "Miss Rubellia, Wayne is still sparring with one of the new recruits at the moment, if the young man would like to see his father in action?" one of the guards called out as the pair passed.

    "Momma! I wanna watch Papa!"

    Rubellia gave her son a gentle smile. "Of course, my love."

    They quickly walked away from the gardens and to the training area next to the guards'' barracks. It was just inside the gates along the massive fence that enclosed the enormous estate. The house itself upied a massive portion of the fenced-in area, easily holding over a hundred different rooms.

    The grounds around the manor included the front gardens, with a massive cobblestone pathway leading from the gates directly to the mansion''s double doors. Behind were the rear gardens, where the estate held outdoor parties amongst well-manicured shrubs and fields of flowers.

    As they approached the barracks, sounds of metal against metal and shouting filled the air. A once sleepy Lucius suddenly snapped to attention, miraculously gaining energy. He began to rush ahead to where his father was sparring.

    Wayne was in the center of arge, square arena. Around him were four other men. All five of them were wearing light leather armor with metal studs and wielded wooden swords. The four men slowly moved in arge circr pattern around Wayne.

    Wayne simply stood with his sword held downward in a rxed position. By all counts, he was wide open, but his men knew better than to fall for such a trap¡­or so Wayne believed.

    The youngest and smallest of the four lunged forward, swinging his sword in a downward arc. Another two of the four took the opportunity to attack as well, leaving only one to continue holding back.

    Wayne easily parried the first soldier, then countered with a fist into his gut, quickly knocking the wind out of him. Wayne allowed him to copse on the ground as he prepared to take the other two attacks.

    Wayne raised his sword to block another overhead strike. The moment the attacker recoiled, he spun and kicked the other attacker in the gut. Both men took steps back, while Wayne returned to a rxed state, and the fourth man stayed outside of striking range, simply observed.

    The second and third attacker recovered. They stayed back and silently locked eyes with man number four. All three men then lunged forward, with man number four moving a few seconds faster.

    With one target a few steps ahead, Wayne moved to meet man number four first. The moment Wayne made his move towards him, man number four changed pace and jumped backward, messing up Wayne''s timing.

    Wayne attempted to recover by moving to meet men two and three, but the moment he turned to face either of them, they also jumped back.

    Taking advantage of his surprise, man number four shouted, "[cies: Ice Spear]!" a two-foot-long spear of ice shot out of the man''s hand and sped right for Wayne''s side. Wayne moved to dodge, but the other two also cast spells. "[Aqua: Water Ball]" and "[Terra: Stone Bullet]"

    Three different magic spells surged towards Lucius'' father. Not realizing that this was simply a sparring match or really understanding what sparring even meant, Lucius shouted out in fear. "Father! No!"

    He did not know what was happening, but he felt like those spells were bad. Rubellia moved tofort her son but noticed something strange. The pupils of his eyes turned from normal ck circles to feline-like slits. His canines elongated, and the teeth before the top canines had fallen out and turned into a third set of canine teeth, though these new ones were now twice as long as normal

    "Lucius! Lucius, my love, please calm down¡­Your father is okay." Rubellia snapped out of the sudden daze her son''s appearance left her in. She knew that the boy had to be special in some way, but she did not expect him to be half-beastman.

    Wayne heard his son''s cries and shouted, "[Lux: Enhanced Leap]!" In an instant, he jumped twenty feet into the air,nding outside the ring and leaving a massive dust cloud in his wake. He ran quickly up to his family and checked on his son.

    He, too, saw his son''s eyes and teeth. However, he was not surprised. Up until now, Lucius had been a normal boy, but if he truly were just that, then his cousin would not have brought him to them.

    Wayne quickly removed his gloves and patted his son gently on the head to calm him. His men rushed up to make sure everything was fine. One of the four in the ring, man number four himself, to be exact, looked at the boy with disdain.

    "Sir, I knew you were unlucky enough to find a Marked One, but to think you were so unfortunate for it to be a half-blood¡­hwuuugh!"

    Just as the man finished his sentence, he found a massive fist meeting his face. Wayne spun around and struck the guard so fast that no one was able to see what happened until it was over. Man number four''s feet lifted off the ground, and he flew back about five feet beforending on his back with a solid thud.

    "Any otherments? No? Good. Tenps around the perimeter. Wake the idiot and have him do twenty."

    Lucius sobbed and hugged his father''s leg, d that he was okay. Now that he was calm, his canines shrank in size, but his pupils were stuck in the same feline slits. He also now had six canine teeth; four on top and two on bottom.

    Rubellia checked her son from top to bottom to make sure everything else was fine with him. Thankfully nothing else was the matter.

    "Are you going to be okay with him continuing to stay with you today? He might receive morements than we originally expected¡­" Wayne asked his wife carefully.

    "Yes, I''m tending to the rear gardens all day, and his Lordship is out of the manor today at the capital. It will be fine."

    Wayne nodded slowly, patted his son on the head, kissed both his family goodbye, and went home. He was clearly exhausted after working all night, so he did notin when he was told he would not have to care for Lucius in the meantime.

    Lucius and Rubellia left the area quickly and headed to the back gardens, where Lucius was met with the most beautiful sight he had ever witnessed.

    The rear garden was filled with gorgeous flowers he had never seen before, and in colors, he could never have dreamed of. There were so many different shades of blue and purple than he ever thought could exist¡­and yet, here they were.

    "Wow! Momma! It''s so pretty! Can I y!"

    "Of course, but stay within my eyesight and do not pick any of the flowers," Rubellia warned. Lucius nodded and smiled widely at his mother before scampering off to y among the flowers.

    After several hours he began to grow tired of the flowers and found himself looking at the fun shapes of the hedges. Some were cut to look like people, others like animals, and still others like the monsters his parents told him to avoid.

    Many of them resided in forests and magical ces called ''dungeons'', but sometimes they would venture near towns. However, Lucius is not scared of these monsters because he knows his father will protect him.

    While looking among the bushes, Lucius found a small gazebo hidden among the taller shrubs. Sitting inside the building was a young girl, maybe a little older than Lucius. She had deep, crimson hair and wore a long, beautiful dress. With her stood two maids wearing uniforms simr to his mother''s.

    They refilled the girl''s cup with some sort of drink and served her small, fluffy-looking food on a tiny te. Lucius did not know what it was, but it looked very tasty and made his mouth water.

    A few momentster, the girl looked over and locked eyes with the boy. Her eyes shot wide, and she began to open her mouth. Lucius was terrified she was going to yell at him for staring at the food, so before she could say anything, he quickly ran back to his mother.

    "Momma! I''m sorry, I''m sorry!"

    Rubellia stopped her pruning and turned to her son. "What''s the matter? What happened?"

    "I found this weird building, and in it was a girl, and she had red hair, and she looked at me, and I think I made her mad, but I ran away before she could say anything¡­" Lucius rambled.

    Rubellia pulled her son in for a hug. "Don''t worry, you are not in trouble. You are allowed to be here, so do not fret. However, make me a promise."

    "Yes, momma?"

    "Anyone you see here with red hair. Do not speak to them. They are the masters of this house, and while they let me bring you here, they do not want you to interact with them. Am I clear?"

    "Why, momma?"

    "Just do as I say and promise, or I will never bring you again."

    Lucius nodded quickly. He definitely wanted toe back. So far he had seen two scary things, but they were something different than the inside of his home. He felt like these were valuable experiences, even if they were not the most fun.

    Lucius resolved to listen to his mother. He also thought back to his father''s fight. ''Papa is so cool,'' he thought, ''I want him to teach me to do that.''

 Chapter 6: A Trip to the Woods

    Lucius woke up earlier than he had ever done before. The morning sun''s light had not even risen, yet the boy moved quietly about his home, full of energy and excitement.

    After three years of begging and pleading with his father to teach him, today was the day that he would finally learn how to fight with a weapon. He was still too young to earn the right to be taught magic, but the sword could be taught at any time.

    Wayne had cautioned his son that while he could teach many weapons, his specialty was with a sword and shield. As such, his Weapon Arts only worked for those items. If Lucius did not possess his natural Compatibilities with swords and shields, then he would never be able to progress further than an average person.

    Wayne had other men under hismand with different Compatibilities, but whether or not they would help train Lucius was another story. While they respected Wayne as their leader, he could not force them to change how they felt about Marked Ones or half-bloods. Unfortunately, Lucius was both.

    Wayne groggily stepped out of his bedroom and proceeded to use the coals still heating the home overnight to boil some water for a quick cup of coffee. He and Rubellia used to work opposite shifts from each other, but since Lucius started going to the manor with them, they no longer needed this exception.

    Lucius had also been extremely careful to avoiding into contact with anyone with red hair. A few times, he almost ran into the girl he saw in the gazebo, but he managed to run away before she found him.

    On a handful of asions, he had almost run into a scary-looking man with red hair as well. His eyes seemed to pierce through anyone he deigned to look upon. Lucius managed to avoid this man every time as well.

    Talking with his mother, he learned that the scary man with red hair was the lord of the house. He also learned that while he was allowed on the property, now that it wasmon knowledge that he was a Marked One, he should never interact with the lord. It seemed to the Lord that he was content to ignore that which he could plead ignorance of.

    "Lucius. Come."

    Wayne had finished his cup of coffee and dawned a set of hunting gear. Lucius was already dressed in his own hunting clothes and eagerly followed his father outside.

    The trees had begun to turn their leaves beautiful shades of oranges and reds, though not many had started to fall upon the ground. The beginning of autumn had started to arrive, which meant that monsters were going to start bing more active in their territories as food sources became more scarce.

    This was exactly what Wayne was waiting for, though, since he needed an example to show his son the dangers of the world. Lucius had witnessed his father''s sparring and felt fear at the time, but even Lucius had learned over time that it was nothingpared to what the real world had to offer.

    His father told him that at the beginning of Autumn, the parents of the viges around the Petra domain would walk their children into the wilds, leave them, and wait for them to find their way home.

    It was a right of passage in the Petra domain, one that ensured only the best warriors would make it. Not every child went through this. However, only those interested in learning Weapon Arts or Magic took this test. This was true for any child who turned nine years old by the day of the ceremony.

    Lucius had only turned seven just a few days ago, so he had time, but he knew his father was resolute in getting him started so that he could survive.

    "Do you know why I wanted to bring you to the woods?" Wayne asked to break the silence. They had been walking for a few miles by now, and the question broke Lucius out of his own little world.

    "So I can know what monsters are like and know what I will face in the test," Lucius answered proudly.

    Wayne''s face became grim, though Lucius was walking a little behind him and was not able to see his father''s expression.

    "Something like that."

    As they continued walking, the edge of the forest grew closer and closer. Something ominous hung in the air, and the feeling made Lucius''s hair stand on end. The back of his neck and all of his arms almost bristled. His pupils darted back and forth and his sense of smell seemed to improve.

    Wayne noticed his son''s demeanor change and nodded approvingly, "Good. You sense trouble. That will keep you alive. It must be the beastman instinct you were born with."

    Lucius looked to his father, who now held out the handle of a weapon for him. Lucius'' instincts were in overdrive at the moment, but he slowly began to breathe to try and settle them a little before grabbing the sword from his father. It was more like a dagger to Wayne, but in the hands of a seven-year-old boy, it might as well have been called a sword.

    The boy fastened the sheathe to his hips and had his father double-check to ensure it was secure. When Wayne was satisfied with Lucius'' equipment, he led them past the tree line and into the forest proper.

    Lucius''s ears seemed to twitch at every sound. Every branch snapped, every rustling de of grass, each sound felt like it could be the source of untold horrors. Wayne simply observed the boy, but said nothing to correct his behaviors.

    They continued on for a few more hours before they came across a corpse. It was older and had already been swarmed by insects. The mass was ck and gray and twice the size of a normal wolf. Yet it still possessed a wolf-shaped face and paws. Its fangs seemed as long as Lucius'' weapon.

    "Father, what is that?"

    "A Dire Wolf. It is a C-Rank threat normally. Rathermon in the woods, though rarely this far out. This one is just a pup, so it was probably more like a D or E-Rank threat at its level."

    Lucius gulped. He could not believe his father had called this monstrosity a ''pup.'' To the boy, this was an insurmountable wall of power. Despite his trepidation, he moved to the other side of the corpse to inspect it.

    The belly had several different kinds of wounds in it, and so did the head and neck. Even to Lucius'' untrained eyes, he could tell the beast was swarmed by something.

    "It''s the trial participants. Seems the ones that took down this beast all survived. I don''t see any human corpses¡­and if it''s this close to the entrance of the woods, then they likely already made their way out."

    Lucius felt fear grip his heart at the possibility of having to fight a monster like this himself in two years. He did not know if he could do it, but he would have to if he wanted to be like his father.

    "Come on, Lucius. I have more to show you deeper in the woods."

    "Are we not going to train with the sword? And should we be here? What if we run into kids taking the trial?"

    Wayne locked eyes with his son. "I''ll teach you to use the sword once you learn its purpose. Come on."

 Chapter 7: Monsters

    Lucius continued to follow his father deeper into the woods. The sun had long since risen and even passed its peak before he finally asked for Lucius to stop again.

    This time Wayne asked him to stay quiet and motioned for Lucius to crouch down. The constant attention he paid to every sound in his surroundings had begun to overwhelm his senses. After working on overdrive for hours, it seemed they were burning out. Whatever it was that his father wanted to show him, Lucius could not see, smell, or even hear it.

    Regardless, he did as instructed and crouched next to his father behind the trunk of a massive tree. Now that they were deep into the woods, the trees became taller and thicker, reflective of their advanced ages since humans did not venture in this far to log.

    Lucius waited quietly, hidden next to his father for several minutes. He was still confused at what it was that his father wanted to show him, but as he was about to finally speak up, his ears twitched.

    Lucius threw his head to the right where the sound came from. It sounded like shouting. Soon he also picked up heavy breathing and footsteps.

    Momentster, a group of three children appeared between the trees. One was a girl, and two were boys. All three were a few years older than Lucius at most; they were definitely trial-takers.

    Another thing they had inmon, aside from age, is that they each had a ck symbol on each of their left hands. They were Marked Ones, just like Lucius. He was tempted to say something since he had not spoken to another person like himself, but he knew that this was not what his father was trying to do. As such, he continued to observe the children.

    All three of the children were panting and doubled over, gasping for breath. Cuts and bruises were stered all over their faces and arms. Their shirts and pants were also partially shredded.

    "Are they gone?"

    "I don''t¡­I don''t know¡­blugh." One of the boys answered before vomiting from the physical exertion.

    The girl stepped up and began massaging his back, soothing him. He stood up and began to say thank you, but his voice seemed to catch in his throat.

    Lucias, who had tuned into their conversation, understood why the boy stopped. A few more children stepped out of the trees, surrounding the first three. These new additions only numbered about five, but they were in a lot better shape. They also had weapons, whereas the first three did not.

    "Looks like we caught you!" One of the new kidsughed.

    "Leave us alone!" The girl shouted, her eyes red with defiance. Unfortunately, this only made the new childrenugh.

    Lucius felt another ominous feeling travel down his spine. He noticed that some of the children gripped their weapons a little tighter as they taunted the injured. Lucius looked to his father, who simply watched the interaction with a nk expression.

    Lucius did not know what was about to happen, but he could tell it was not going to be good. He was tempted to rush in, but he was smart enough to know that he could do nothing alone. In addition to that, he was making assumptions, but he did not know exactly what was happening in the first ce.

    Other than the weapons and theck of injuries, the five new children had another simr trait¡­theycked marks.

    "My papa told me that your things were dangerous. More dangerous than the monsters." One of the unmarked called out. "Dangerous and disgusting. He said that if I met you in the woods, that I should fight. Besides, no adults are here, so we can do what we want."

    "Why!" The marked girl shouted. "Why are you doing this? We fought together, and you said we could work together to get out of here!"

    "Ha! I said if you fought with us, WE would get out of here. Not you. You Marked Ones can stay in the woods and die."

    "No! I''m going home. I''m going to see my mom and my little brother again!" One of the marked boys screamed angrily.

    "Well, since you don''t wanna stay here and die by yourself, I guess we have to make you!"

    Suddenly four of the unmarked ran forward with their weapons held high. They were clumsy and could barely swing their weapons properly, but it did not matter much since their targets werepletely unarmed. All three Marked Ones turned and ran away.

    It would have been good if they had run in different directions, but they did not. Instead, they all ran the same way, hoping to stay together in these woods. This worked against them in the end.

    The fifth unmarked child smiled and tly called out, "[cies: Ice Spear]"

    A sharpened spear made of ice formed in his hand andunched forward towards the three Marked Ones. It managed to avoid his allies as it flew. Seemingly sensing her impending doom, the girl turned around while running just in time to have the spell impale her chest. She was hit with such force that it lifted her off the ground before sticking her to a tree.

    Lucius was able to see as she choked on her own blood, before going still. Her twopanions shouted in anger, before turning around and running at the unmarked children. It was futile since they only had their hands. One of the boys held up his left hand and a strange energy seemed to fill the space. His left hand seemed to glow with a white light, emanating from the mark.

    The boy who could somehow use magic already, despite his age, smiled. "Looks like the beasts are trying to fight back. You know what we do to rabid dogs like these? We put them down. [cies: Ice Spikes]."

    Instead of anything leaving the boy''s hand, the ground below the two remaining Marked Ones began to frost over. They looked down at their feet just as several spikes rose from the ground, piercing their vitals and killing them both instantly.

    "Great job my lord! As expected of a nobleman''s son!"

    "Yeah! You are so awesome!"

    While the unmarked continued to smile andugh among each other, Lucius could barely contain his anger and his fear. He did not know which feeling was stronger, but he felt a tightness in his chest and mouth. The world became clearer, every sound and smell became more intense.

    He felt himself rising from the ground, but before he could get far, his father pushed him back down.

    "There are more than beasts in this forest son." Wayne whispered, to the background ofughter and praise being thrown upon a murderer. "Be careful of the monsters we don''t expect."

    Lucius could hear his father speaking, but he was having a hard time understanding him. His emotions were getting the better of him.

    "Did you learn? The true purpose of a sword?" Wayne asked. He maintained a calm and measured tone that seemed to help calm Lucius just a little.

    Lucius simply nodded his head and whispered. "The true purpose of a sword is to kill, father."

 Chapter 8: Truth and Training

    Wayne led his son back to their home in silence. He used his own skills to ensure that no monsters came close enough to be a threat, so Lucius would not be on edge the whole time. He knew the boy needed some time to process what he had just experienced.

    Even though he was only seven, a much-needed reality check was in order. Up until now, Lucius was kept safe from the opinions of the world. Wayne had never lied to the boy and quite frequently reminded Lucius to be careful when interacting with people, thanks to his mark.

    However, they did shelter him so that these actual interactions never urred. After all, it was one thing to hear about something and quite another to experience it yourself. While on the trip home, the man thought to himself if they may have spoiled their son too much.

    Even though he was so young, he was luckier than most Marked Ones, who started experiencing the horrors that Lucius was only told of from birth. Lucius also had another thing running against him, and that was he was a half-beastman.

    While half-blooded races were extremelymon in the world, they were not observed much in a kingdom like Arcadios, which was deep within human territories. As such, this led to many misunderstandings about how half-blooded races behaved.

    "Father¡­"

    "Yes, son?"

    Wayne stopped and turned to look at his son. He figured that now, of all times, he deserved his full attention.

    "Please teach me how to fight. I won''t be like the others." Lucius gripped his hands tightly and looked directly into his father''s gaze.

    Wayne noticed a slight change in his son. Even though he was no longer stressed, Lucius'' canines had retained their sharpness, and his left eye began to turn from a bright silver to a cloudy gray. His right eye still shone as bright as a treasure despite what the left had done.

    Wayne had no idea what was happening, but he assumed that his son was not hurt in any way. This allowed him to chalk the situation up to something weird rted to his actual parentage, whoever they were.

    "I cannot promise that you will survive, but I can absolutely promise to teach you how to fight."

    "Can we start when we get home?"

    "It''ll be dark."

    "Tonight is a full moon. We will be able to see."

    Wayne gave a resigned smile. "Yes, we can start tonight."

    *****

    Rubellia watched sadly from the window of their home. Her husband and son had returned from the woods hours ago, and it approached midnight. Yet, they still sparred.

    Arge part of her desperately wanted to rush out and stop them, to allow Lucius to rest. However, Wayne had told her what happened in the woods. In addition, after seeing the look on her baby''s face, she could not bring herself to say no.

    Lucius swung wildly at his father, trying anything he could to get in a hit. Wayne, however, was a Master Rank swordsman, meaning he could fight toe-to-toe with any C-Rank monster alone.

    This, of course, tranted to a mere seven-year-old beingpletely incapable of getting past the warrior''s defenses. A single blow could also end the boy''s life, even if he were to block it sessfully.

    "My little boy isn''t so little anymore¡­ I hope that he will be ready in two years. Even if he wasn''t going to be a warrior, the vige would have forced him anyway." Rubellia mumbled.

    She also could not help but think that was the situation that the dead Marked children were in. Likely, they wanted or attempted to live normal lives but found themselves dumped in the forest outside of the viges.

    Their hometown of Pelith was thergest town in the Petra domain, and it, too, still participated in the trials despite how frequently it interacted with other areas. Rubellia had hoped that one day, the influence of the travelers to Pelith and visiting Lord Petra would push the locals to do away with such an archaic tradition.

    It was not to be, though. The trial was a key part of the people''s history here. Not to mention that many other nobles and the kingdom atrge appreciated the talented warriors that the domain provided their armies.

    Rubellia finished the final additions to the stew she had simmering in the pot. It was done when the boys originally had gotten home, but when they informed her of theirte-night training, she gave them each a small bowl so they would not fight on an empty stomach.

    However, she kept the stew going and added additional meats to it when they were done. She had hoped to help add more protein to her son''s diet now that he was going to be training with his father. It was filled with potatoes, carrots, and onions, as well as bear, venison, and boar. The stew was extremely gamey at this point; however, it was necessary to use what they had.

    Once it had reached almost midnight, her boys finally entered the home. Lucius was drenched in sweat and covered head to tail in bruises. Of course, Wayne had not shed a single ounce of perspiration and was perfectly healthy. Both sat down at the table while Rubellia served them each arge bowl.

    She smiled warmly while watching her son scarf down the food in seconds before asking for another serving. She happily obliged and refilled his bowl a second time and added a piece of bread to sop up the liquid.

    "Thanks, momma, for the food." Lucius said quietly, making Rubellia leap up and smother him with a hug.

    After a few seconds, Lucius seemed to tap her arms in a panic, running out of air from his mother''s abundant affection. Wayne simplyughed at the sight. It was clear on his face that he was mostly relieved that some parts of their family appeared to be unchanged despite what he forced his son to witness.

    Rubellia was against the n entirely at first, but Wayne had worn her down. He warned that Lucius would run into problems the moment he entered the forest. Hell, it was likely he would run into problems the moment the adults took the children into the woods.

    And while they were not allowed to provide any support on the day of the trial, leading up to it they could give him all the training and preparation he needed.

    In order for Lucius to survive, he needed to be able to understand the dangers of the trial. He needed to see that humans were sometimes more monstrous than beasts. When Wayne had exined it that way, she reluctantly agreed. Anything to help her baby live.

    Almost immediately after finishing up his second bowl, and surviving his mother''s love, Lucius fell asleep with his head on the table. Rubellia smiled at him gently, before picking him up and carrying him to bed. The boy wrapped his hands around her neck out of instinct andid his head on her shoulder.

    His soft breaths slowly turned to deep before he began to snore lightly. Once he had truly fallen asleep, Rubelliaid him down in his bed, kissed him on the forehead, and closed the door to his room.

    "What exactly did he see, Wayne?"

    Her husband sat in silence and stared into the fire. After a few minutes he finally answered. "It was bad Rubellia."

    He stood up and grabbed a mug of wine that they had stored in a keg under the counter. Wayne was not one for drinking, so it was mostly used for cooking.

    "That bad, huh?"

    "Worse. One of the Petra boys was there. The lord''s oldest nephew. It seems that he learned his magicalpatibilities before the exam."

    Rubellia''s eyes opened widely in shock. "He what?!"

    Wayne nodded slowly after downing the mug in one,rge gulp. "Yeah¡­I know, I was surprised too. Kids aren''t supposed to learn that until they finish the trial. It''s their reward¡­but what happens in the forest¡­stays there."

    "What rotten¡­"

    "It also seemed he was told to hunt down Marked Ones. That was his secondary purpose. The lord''s brother knew his son would survive thanks to the magic and set some sort of¡­hunting challenge."

    "You will make sure Lucius survives." Rubellia said coldly. "I don''t care how. You just do it."

    "I will try, my love¡­but the lord''s brother has a second son Lucius'' age¡­and the lord''s daughter is¡­I will try." Wayne started to exin the situation to her, but Rubellia''s res warranted no arguments. What she said was thew of the world at that moment.

    "Do you think he has Compatibility for Sword Arts?"

    "None. Not even a little bit. If the boy has Compatibilities for any other weapon, I don''t know, but it''s not the sword."

    Rubellia sighed quietly and began to sob.

    Wayne continued however, since he knew his wife wanted the whole truth. "I already checked with my men. None of them are willing to do it. So if he''s capable of using any weapon skills, we won''t know until after he survives the trial."

    "Even if he became a master at using the sword in two years¡­without the ability to use their arts, he would still lose to a Novice!"

    "I know¡­I know¡­"

    Wayne quietly held his wife as she sobbed into his shoulders. She quietly hoped and prayed that something, anything, would help her son.

 Chapter 9: Life Continues

    Two women sat on a balcony sipping tea. One was an otherworldly beauty with long, blonde hair and silver eyes like those of the moon. She smiled throughout the conversation she was having with her counterpart, a kindly-looking woman dressed in a maid uniform.

    Despite the smile, the blonde woman''s eyes held a deep sadness that she had carried with her for seven years.

    "Mydy, I thank you for allowing me to enjoy tea with you again," Mylene said with a slight bow.

    "Stop it, Mylene. You are my ''maid'' in name only. In reality, you are my only friend, and as such, when it is just us, please just call me Adellia. How many times must I tell you?" Adellia groaned. Though she sounded exasperated, there was a slight tone of amusement behind it.

    "I know my¡­Adellia. It is a hard habit to break, though."

    "Please, at least do it for our daughters if not for me," Adellia asked. "They do get along so well, and I would love for their parents to appear that way as well."

    Mylene let out a small sigh and gave a wide smile. "Of course."

    Mylene found out she was pregnant not long after Lyrah was born. Derrik and her were ecstatic about the news; however, she quickly found herself concerned about who would rece her when caring for Adellia while she gave birth.

    It was only for a week or two at most that she would be away since Mylene was amoner and a simple servant, but a lot of damage could have been done in that time. Especially so, given Adellia''s state of mind.

    Thankfully, that time had long sincee and gone. Over thest few years, Mylene and Adellia had grown even closer, bing the best of friends. Mylene would do anything for Adellia, includingy down her life.

    When Mylene''s daughter was just turning four, Adellia gave Mylene a warning that she had to return home right away. Of course, she listened to the Oracle without hesitation and headed straight home without dy.

    When she arrived, smoke wasing from the windows of her home. Derrik and her daughter were nowhere to be seen. Instead, outside her home, a gathering of people was watching her livelihood burn away.

    Without hesitation, Mylene ran forward and began to hear criesing from inside the building. This made her dash wildly for the door and throw it open.

    Smoke was billowing out of the windows and the open door, blocking all of her vision and searing her nostrils. The woman had ducked low to the ground and crawled along the floor to stay clear of the smoke.

    She continued to search wildly for the source of the hoarse cries, which became quieter. After almost a minute, Mylene had located her daughter, who had been trapped inside. She was able to drag her outside and provide her with water and fresh air.

    Mylene heard Lyrah''sughter, which brought her back to the present. She turned to her dearest friend, the savior of her daughter''s life. "Thank you for this life, Adellia. Without you¡­just thank you."

    *****

    Lyrah sat and listened for her mother and Aunt Mylene to begin talking again. Once she had determined the adults were properly distracted, she gestured for her friend, Natali, toe closer.

    "I had a weird dream again, Natali. The one about the scary man."

    Natali''s ice-blue eyes looked at her excitedly. Her silent friend never said anything, but she was always happy to listen to Lyrah''s fun and exciting stories from her dreams.

    "Yeah! I had another one. He was fighting people again, but he looked so little! And it looked like the other people were winning!" Lyrah exined in an excited whisper.

    When Mylene overheard Lyrah telling Natali about the scary man from her dreams, she told her not to tell her mother about them ever. She was allowed to talk about any of her other dreams, but the ones about the man were only supposed to be told to Natali.

    Natali loved listening to the stories about him, and Lyrah thought that Natali might have developed a little crush on him. She was always extra excited to listen to Lyrah''s stories about him. Natalie especially enjoyed when Lyrah exined what his eyes looked like when he fought.

    The first time Lyrah had a dream about him, she cried when she woke up. It did not show much in that first dream. The only thing she remembered seeing was a dark, scary cave. Even though she could not see them, she sensed monsters all around her.

    In darkness, steps had approached her, but still nothing could be seen. Suddenly two glowing eyes lit up the darkness, one silver and the other a striking gold. When the man''s face came into view, it was contorted in anger, like Lyrah had never imagined possible.

    It was a look that seared into her very soul as if her existence was an abomination to the being who possessed them. If given the choice of falling into the darkness behind those eyes, or the ones of the monster-filled caves, Lyrah would have happily fled into the caves.

    She would have other dreams about him asionally, but none were as intense as that first one. Natali gently tugged at Lyrah''s shoulders, trying to urge her to continue talking about her favorite character.

    "Okay, okay! It was definitely the same person, but he was so little! And his eyes were different¡­" Lyrah began. She noticed Natalie''s eyes begin to water because she thought that Lyrah would not tell her about him because his eyes were not the same.

    "No, no! It was the same person, but his golden eye was not gold yet. It was gray! He still had one silver eye. Kinda like mine! Oh, and his hair was the same, and he still had the six sharp teeth, too, so I know it was him."

    Natali''s tearful eyes vanished, and she got up onto her knees to sit. She waspletely engrossed in the story now. The excitable girl made Lyrah giggle, so she tousled Natali''s snow-white hair.

    "Anyway, he was in the woods, and he was standing next to this girl with really, really pretty red hair¡­"

 Chapter 10: Sword and a Test

    "Again."

    "Graaaagh!" Lucius swung at his father. A year ago, he would attack wildly and recklessly. However, nowadays, he learned to conserve his energy between attacks, so he always had stamina left to block, parry, or¡­run.

    In fact, that is most of what his father has been teaching him and training him with. Every single day he was tasked with starting training by running ten miles and then another ten miles after training.

    Most of the time, Lucius passed out or vomited from the effort before being able to finish after training. When that happened, Wayne would simply carry him back home and put him to bed to recover before dinner.

    However, after a year, Lucius started to be able to finish the running portion of his training. He was in his second week ofpleting the run after training without issue, in fact.

    Due to the training style''s focus on running, dodging, and parrying attacks, Lucius started to develop light muscture at a young age.

    At this point, his body was not too different from that of some athletes whopeted in the games at the capital. Lucius was worried that his frame did not resemble a warrior like his father''s and felt concerned that this would hinder his future ability with the sword.

    "Do not worry about it, son. You have no Compatibility with the sword. I am teaching you enough to survive and flee. Not survive and fight. If I teach you too much now, it might ruin the training you need with any weapons you might have Compatibility for in the future."

    "Yes, Father¡­"

    He knew that his father was right. He only needed the basics of the sword to run away. Even if he were a master, an entry-level Novice Sword Arts user would be able to kill him easily in a full-on fight.

    Unfortunately, Lucius could not find out if he had any Weapon Arts Compatibilities since none of his father''s men had been willing to train with him.

    Lucius could not figure out on his own without someone to guide him, and there were so many different kinds of Weapon Arts that it would be impossible to simply discover them. You typically found out such things with weapons through training or a life-or-death scenario.

    Sometimes, these Compatibilities and knowledge of them are gifted by the many gods that govern in the heavenly realm above, Celestia. However, that does not happen frequently.

    Lucius also knew that if he imed any sudden ''revtions from the gods'' came to him, then he would be executed on the spot. Marked Ones were not allowed to hear the ''blessed word'' of the gods, so the only other alternative was the whisper of the devils of the Abyss.

    "Father¡­" Lucius began with a measured tone. "Do you think I actually have a chance?"

    Wayne paused momentarily. "As you are now? Maybe."

    "And if I keep working at my current pace?"

    "Then most likely."

    "But it isn''t certain?"

    "Nothing is ever certain. Other than the fact that one day we all die. We will never know when or how until the time itselfes."

    "Never? But what about the Oracle? Doesn''t she know?" Lucius had heard of this person the other day while gathering supplies in town with his mother. Apparently, there was a Marked One in the kingdom that was somewhat respected.

    She was the Oracle and possessed the Mark of Prophecy. When Lucius heard that because her mark was so necessary to the kingdom, she was treated well, he felt envious. His own mark was unknown. His father and mother tried asking some of the schrs who visited the Lord''s manor, but none had seen it before.

    Lucius had these thoughts while his father processed his question. "I would say that no, the Oracle doesn''t really know for sure either. After all, the reason she exists is so she can prevent tragedy. To change the future she saw. So in that respect, she won''t know the alternative until we make it happen for her."

    Lucius thought for a moment as his father''s words seemed to make sense in a way.

    "That''s enough chatter. Training is done. Run fifteen miles."

    "What?! Fifteen?"

    "You''ve adapted finally to the ten. So we are increasing it. Fifteen before training, fifteen after. Go. You might be done by dinner."

    Lucius groaned and sheathed his sword. His father made him run with his equipment so he could be used to the load when he was in the forest. ''Dammit¡­I shouldn''t have been so proud of being able to do the two sets of ten¡­'' He thought to himself.

    ****

    A young girl, no more than eight or nine years old, was doubled over from exhaustion in arge square room. There was only one entrance, with a staircase heading upwards. The walls of the room were lined with padding, and the floor was made of stone.

    This was the basement training room within the Petra Manor. It was specifically designed for use by the Petra family members and their personal guards.

    Standing in front of her diminutive frame was one of the lord''s guards. Different guards hade in to train her in various different weapon arts in the hopes she had a Compatibility, but after today, they had exhausted all of their options.

    There were a handful of other Arts that she could have been Compatible with; however, she and her father would rather consider her incapable of Weapon Arts than use those.

    One such family of Arts was the Forsaken Arts, a series of skills that specialized in using weapons deemed dishonorable for use by a true warrior. Only vagabonds used those, and even then, many of the skills were too much for them to use.

    "Lady Petra¡­I think we should consider trainingplete for the day. I am sorry. I heard yourst chance was my Spear Arts¡­" The man apologized and bowed deeply in front of the girl.

    "It¡­is¡­no¡­matter¡­" She answered between ragged breaths.

    Another figure approached them from the stairway on the opposite side of the room. It was another of the Petra family, a young boy with red-orange hair and green eyes. He was a year or two older than the youngdy.

    Beside him was his father, the youngdy''s uncle. He shared the family traits of the Petra family, but unlike her own father, her uncle was much skinnier and leaner.

    "Lady Rena von Petra, I, Simon von Petra, greet you." The boy grinned. "I see you have been unable to find your Art. That is unfortunate. Maybe you instead possess skills in magic."

    "Maybe so, Simon," Rena said coldly. "Where is your brother Thomas?"

    "Training, of course. He cannot very well fail to pass his trial next year after I passed mine." Simonughed.

    Rena scowled. It was no secret among the family that some members of their branches had secretly taught their children magic before partaking in the trial. Rena viewed this behavior as cowardly.

    It was a long tradition that even those who only possessed Compatibility for magic had to survive without it during the trial. As such, Rena''s father forbade her from learning magic so that they may follow tradition.

    "Coward¡­" Rena mumbled.

    Simon, who did not hear her, continued to chuckle as he turned to leave. "I apologize, but we must take our leave. I simply wanted to take the time to see if you had any luck with yourst chance¡­but s, it seems not. I do hope that the main branch does not lose its only heir in next year''s trial."

    Rena''s grip tightened to the point her nails began to draw blood. Her cousins infuriated her. They picked on her her entire childhood simply because she was smaller than them and a girl.

    Many branch families believed that because Rena was a girl, she would make a poor heir to the Petra domain. It was difficult to convince reputable noble families to allow their sons to marry into a family and take their name after the woman''s side.

    As such, they believed that this weakened the family''s position in the kingdom''s political future. Rena''s father held no such opinion. For him, the strong led the family, and there was no exception to that.

    Rena had no doubt that he would require some great task outside of surviving the trial for her cousins to inherit the domain since he also knew they were cheating in the trials. Her father had no time to give those who were weak.

    This was why Rena was so adamant about trying every possible Weapon Art, at least among the epted ones. She set her training schedule and ordered various guards to assist in her training.

    All of the guards were happy toply, hoping that their Arts would match Rena''s. If they were to be her personal tutor, then they would be set for life both in money and honor. One guard, however, declined her invitation.

    This was none other than their strongest warrior, Wayne. He was a Master Rank Swordsman with Sword Arts and Shield Arts for weapon and defensive skills. He declined saying he was busy teaching his own son how to survive. Rena thought about asking her father to force Wayne''spliance, but he would never have listened to her because Rena was being tested long before the actual trial began.

 Chapter 11: Foreign Relations

    Several dozen maids rushed around arge circr room. It was nearly a hundred feet in diameter and was filled with several dozen tables, all filled with chairs. In the center was arge circr table with only five seats spread around it.

    The maids worked together to prepare the space for today''s meeting, which would start in a short while. The kitchens had started to bring food out to the room and ce them at the serving stations. Special meals would be personally cooked and delivered to the five individuals at the circr table directly, while other attendees would serve themselves from buffet tables.

    Only the finest wines were selected to be served for tonight''s meeting. Watching over this all was Commander Arturo Hiroth, a powerful warrior and leader within the Arcadian army.

    The man stood about six feet tall and wore heavy-te armor. Strapped to his side was a longsword, and on his back was a tower shield emzoned with a golden eagle over a red shield. He had watched the preparations for hours, making sure everything was perfect for when his majesty and the guests arrived.

    Arcadios was part of the Five Kings Union, a coalition of the five human territories united under a single council. The council was made up of the leaders of each nation and would make decisions together on when to go to war and how to enact diplomacy.

    No outside kingdom could interact with any of these five nations without going through the Union in its entirety. The Union had been around for nearly a century and helped mobilize the human nations against any outside threat, like those presented by the Beastman Kingdoms and the Elven Kingdoms.

    Individually, humans were weaker than beastmen and elves, but they outnumbered both races by arge margin and used their numbers to their advantage in war.

    Arturo''s brow furrowed at the news his liege had told him. Apparently, the beast kingdom of Alorek had been making hostile movements against its neighbors. The three beast kingdoms had a tenuous peace, but Alorek was always the one who pushed the lines of these agreements.

    In fact, thest war that caused the formation of the Five Kingdoms Union was against Alorek, which had annexed the current nation, Eroa. If they were making waves again, it would likely not be good news.

    "Commander, it is a pleasure." A voice called out.

    Arturo turned around and was met by the beautiful visage of a woman with long, purple hair. It had subtle curls that fell along the middle of her back and framed her sensuous form. Themander had to swallow the lump that formed in his throat and calm the pounding in his chest.

    The woman was none other than the leader of one of the Union nations, Lady Voltara al Famyn of the Wisteria Concord. Her beauty was such that she could begin wars if she offered herself as the prize to the winner. Thankfully, she had no such desires.

    Lady al Famyn giggled at themander''s reaction. She was not so dense as to be ignorant of how others viewed her. "My apologies, Commander. It seems I caught you by surprise. Might I be the first guest to arrive? Where is his majesty Aleksander?"

    Arturo''s mouth flopped like a fish for a moment before he finally recovered enough to answer, "He is dyed mydy, however, he shall join us shortly. Might I escort you to your seat?"

    "Why yes, you may." She giggled again while shing her long eyshes.

    Arturo gulped again and steeled his will to avoid being charmed by the woman. She enjoyed ying with the hearts ofmon men because there were no repercussions like those of teasing nobility or leaders of allied nations.

    He led her to her designated spot and pulled out the chair for her to sit in. As he did so, another few men walked in with their own entourages. They were the leaders of the kingdoms of Paede, Kainydd, and Docia. The kings found their own ces at the table while their attendants and noble escorts dispersed amongst the room.

    Several minutester, the final leader of the Union entered the room. Normally, such men would receive announcements when entering rooms; however, other than the food, these meetings had very little fanfare. Instead, the leaders wished to keep things as business-like and direct as possible.

    King Aleksander Verall von Arcadios took up his ce at the final seat around the circr table. Arturo immediately moved to stand behind his liege, as a goodmander should, and act as the king''s bodyguard.

    Every leader at the table had one or two guards at their nks for protection. While interactions between the kingdoms were always amicable, one could never be too careful as the leader of a nation.

    In particr, Lady al Famyn had to be careful since her position was an elected one by the powerful nobles of the Wisteria Concord. It was not an inherited position, being instead something that was voted upon by the noble houses of their nation. It was not umon for the representative to be assassinated by rival families for the purpose of triggering a vote.

    Thedy, though, was as cunning as she was beautiful. She managed to avoid such problems with ease and kept her seat for thest fifteen years.

    "Fellow members of the Union, I thank you for your attendance today." King Aleksander began as the guest of honor''s food began to be delivered to the table. "Today''s meeting shall be held immediately after we enjoy our meals and our illustriouspany. Thank you, and may the gods of Celestia bless our nations."

    The king finished his short speech by lifting a ss of wine. Everyone in the room, other than the guards, lifted their sses in response, shouting, "Cheers! Blessings of Celestia upon us all!"

    Everyone immediately began a light conversation, doing their best to avoid the heavy topic toe. All of the representatives were aware of the content and purpose of the meeting, but for now, they simply enjoyed their time.

    After a few hours, the food was cleared, and King Aleksander tapped his knife against his ss. It echoed throughout the room and gathered all eyes on him.

    "Today we begin discussions concerning movements in the East. I now open the floor to Lady al Famyn."

    "Thank you, Aleksander," the woman stated while she stood. I have informed King Aleksander of this already, but our spies in the East have confirmed that Alorek has been making concerning movements and aggressive posturing near their borders with Eroa. Despite that, we do not believe this to be a sign of future invasion to Eroa, but rather a warning."

    "A warning in what way?" A random noble asked.

    Aleksander stood to answer, "There are also movements at our own borders. The Wisteria Concord shares a small border with Alorek as well, and we have seen simr troop movements in that area. From our intelligence, we believe the troops gathering at the edges of our Union are three timesrger than those near Eroa.

    "We believe the Eroan border movements are a threat that the smaller nation should not make a move against Alorek or receive retaliation."

    "Do you believe they will make their move soon?"

    Lady al Famyn shook her head. "No, we do not. Alorek is aggressive, but they are not stupid. We believe them to be gathering allies amongst the tribes of the Verdant Jungle to the South. We also believe them to be seeking weaponry from the Elven nation Aedrider. Until they secure such support, we don''t believe them stupid enough to invade any of our territories.

    We are simply too well armed to lose such a defensive war."

    "Then what do you suggest we do?"

    "How long do we have?"

    "What of our allies in Eroa? Will they really not move to assist us?"

    The nobility began to panic and threw question after question at the council. Arturo grimaced because he understood their fear. A war against Alorek could be won, but it would result in countless deaths and an incalcble amount of damage to their nations'' economies.

    "Calm yourselves please." King Aleksander pleaded. "We have spoken to the Oracle. With what she said, we believe that the invasion will ur. We also believe it to be within seven years. Our own estimates put our best guesses at about five years from now at the absolute earliest.

    "What I ask of all the houses of every nation, is to ready your warriors. Increase your training, improve your strength, increase your stores of food and stockpiles of weapons. Of course, gather any and all avable Marked Ones to send to the front."

    Lady al Famyn nced at King Aleksander who sighed and nodded. Arturo was able to witness the interaction and steeled himself for the inevitable outcry of the nobility at their nned announcement. Arturo himself, was also against their n because he thought it pointless, but if they truly needed to strengthen themselves, it was a good idea to focus on the weakest links.

    Lady al Famyn stood and took a deep breath. "We also suggest that we return home and improve the quality and fighting abilities of our Marked Ones. The Arcadios and the Wisteria Concord are opening eligibility at all of our academies, training schools, guilds, everything to allow entry of Marked Ones. We must hone even the skills of our cannon fodder if we are to survive this uing war."

 Chapter 12: The Unions Decision

    Commander Arturo grimaced at the torrent of shouts and outrage that the noble guests hurled at their leaders. Under normal circumstances, such behavior towards royalty would be met with death. However, the Council was different.

    Not only were the five leaders of each nation present, but a selection of noble families from each nation also partook in the meetings as a sort of senate. As such, this behavior was excused so long as they did not make actionable threats or continue this behavior outside of the room.

    "You want to allow those demon-spawns ess to our dungeons? To our guilds? To our children?"

    "Fodder is always fodder; they serve only as a shield for the true warriors!"

    "Yeah! What she said!"

    The shouts continued for several minutes, but the five leaders allowed them to voice theirints. It would not do to have them bottle these thoughts up, or that would breed additional animosity beyond what already existed.

    ''Can''t say I don''t me them¡­'' Arturo thought to himself.

    Finally, Aleksander stood and raised one of his hands, a motion for silence. A few seconds were required, but eventually the nobility calmed themselves. Though, looking at their faces, they had plenty more to say.

    "We of the council understand your concerns. And we share them of course¡­the thought of a Marked One fighting alongside a noble son or daughter of my nation in a dungeon¡­or walking the halls of our esteemed academies as students rather than servants¡­sickens me to my very core.

    "However, it must be done. The Marked Ones have always been our first line, absorbing the attacks our enemies would have caused our actual armies. They serve as a shield to protect those more valuable¡­but¡­what good is a shield if it crumbles too easily.

    "We wish to strengthen that shield, if ever so lightly. So please inform your towns andnds. Adventure guilds will now allow registration of Marked Ones as members, dungeons will now allow their entry, and our academies and institutions will now ept them as students.

    "When we finally pass beyond this war, and prevent unspeakable tragedy¡­we will put those creatures cursed with the blood of demons back in their ce. These measures are not intended to be permanent. However, if individual nations find it to have been useful, or helpful¡­we will also not stop you from continuing these endeavors.

    Aleksander sat down eliciting nods of approval from the other leaders. Slowly the angry faces of the nobility softened as they began to understand the purpose of these measures. Once King Aleksander hadid them out so inly, they were able to logically process the idea.

    The council then put the measures to a vote. All five of the leaders raised their hands in favor. Afterwards, the rest of the ''senate'' were also asked to vote, for which a majority voted in favor.

    Arturo stood in silence throughout the entire thing, simply observing. He had discussed these measures with the King and several other generals andmanders prior to the announcement. While hepletely agreed with and understood the purpose, Arturo was adamant that his own soldiers would always be unmarked.

    *****

    Natali sat in her small room, alone and stared at the candle burning by her bedside. Her icy-blue eyes reflected the mes as they danced about the wick. She found herself lost in thoughts of her only friend, Lyrah, and her mother and father.

    Just like Lyrah, Natalie too was born as a Marked One. Her mother and father were not like most parents thankfully and still treated her just as well as they would have if she was born normal.

    Still, after the house fire her mother and aunt Adellia saved her from, she was not na?ve to how the world viewed her. Natali had never spoken of the incident with her mother, because it was a hazy memory. Truth be told, most people would not have well-formed memories from that young of an age.

    However, she did remember. And she also remembered that somebody had set that fire. Natali figured her mother had her own suspicions about it, but she never voiced them. Instead her mother and father simply doted on her as best they could.

    Things were easier now, though, since they had moved into the castle tower where the oracle lived. Since Natali was also a Marked One, those in charge did not hinder her from interacting with the young Oracle. It was even likely that they would have Natali take over as caretaker to the Oracle when Lyrah took the position.

    Other thoughts also flitted about her mind. Thoughts of a man with jet-ck hair. A silver eye that shone like the moon, and a golden one that rivaled that of the sun. Lyrah always described him as having teeth as sharp as fangs, and a gaze that pierced one''s very soul.

    Realistically, if Natali had ever met him, she would probably be terrified. However, as a character from a story she found him verypelling. All of her friend''s stories revolved around him fighting others. She had asked Lyrah if he was the savior of the Marked Ones, since he was described as having a mark on his left, and a mark on his right¡­something that should be impossible.

    Lyrah''s face had gone pale as she had stared off into the distance before she looked back at Natali and answered resolutely, "No."

    Natali began to stare at the mark on her hand¡­the Mark of Recall. She was told it was an ''Abnormal'' ss mark, but she didn''t know what that even meant. Something she did learn was what it did.

    As part of her daily practice, she grabbed an empty mug that she kept by her bed for water with her left hand. "Recall¡­" she whispered. It strained her throat horribly to talk louder than a hushed whisper. Damage from the fire.

    A dull glow emanated from her mark and when it faded, she threw the mug at the wall with her right hand. Just as it was about to smack the wall and cause a ruckus, the girl snapped her fingers. The mug vanished and instantly appeared in her right hand.

    Natali continued to practice with her mark until she began to experience the beginning of a headache. This was how she knew she was done for the day. Each and every day though, she was able to do more and more throws.

    "I should have daddy teach me how to fight¡­" She whispered with a small smile. "Besides¡­if I want to make it through school¡­I need to protect myself. I don''t know if serving as a caretaker for Lyrah will keep me from that war Lyrah warned me about¡­but I will need to if I want to have a chance to meet him."

 Chapter 13: The Hunt

    "You are to go into the woods and find me an Alpha Deer by midnight two days from now."

    The words hung in the air. They were an absolutemand, and the tone at which they were said implied negative consequences if not met.

    Of course, the person who was told these words was none other than Lucius. Only six months remained until the trial would began, and because of that, his training had been exceptionally arduous. He was still struggling to run his thirty miles per day, but he could at least finish it without vomiting.

    He also managed tond at least one hit on his father over thest several months, something that felt like arger-than-life aplishment. Lucius was not stupid enough to assume he was able to do so without his father holding back so much, but still, the fact that he did it made him happy.

    "Dear¡­surely you don''t mean that¡­" Rubellia muttered. "He''s still so¡­"

    "Rubellia," Wayne interjected. "He turns nine in six months; the trial begins a few days after. He is to head into the woods outside of Pelith, perform his task, and return home. Alone."

    Lucius gulped. The creature he was tasked with hunting down was an F-Ranked monster, which is the weakest of monsters, however Novice Rank fighters were supposed to be about equal if not a little weaker than their F-Rank monster counterparts¡­and his father wanted him to hunt one down?!

    "Yes¡­father¡­" Lucius muttered. He was terrified but had no choice. If he could not survive this, he had no hope of surviving the trial.

    Rubellia hugged him tightly and kissed all over his face as if terrified this was thest time she would see her son. Considering the factors, it may well be¡­

    Lucius shook the sour thoughts from his head. A fierceness settled into his gaze as he looked at the woods. Survive. That was his goal, to survive and make it through this. Then he could get through the trial, and after that¡­well, time would tell.

    Lucius'' options had begun to open up for him. A few months ago, announcements were made all over the domain. The Five Kings Union had unanimously agreed to open up pathways to futures other than just military service for Marked Ones.

    Before, Lucius had no future other than living with his parents until he came of age for conscription. Others like him would have to suffer on the streets until conscription came, and they were carted away to join the military. However, now he could train and be an adventurer¡­ A hero who fights monsters and conquers dungeons for the sake of the world.

    These dreams were never a possibility before, but now¡­now it could be something he could actually pursue.

    Lucius quickly hugged his mother back and separated from her embrace. He also hugged his father before he finally exited his humble cottage home and headed out into the woods.

    It was extremely early in the morning¡ªso much so, that the sun had yet to rise. The moon was partially covered by clouds, so the meadows and farnd between his home and the tree line ahead were dim and hard to navigate.

    At least they would be if Lucius was not half beastman. He learned his heritage in that respect shortly after an incident when he was four and saw his dad sparring. Thanks to his heritage, he had a few advantages. Most importantly at the moment, he could see quite well in the dark.

    In total darkness, he could still see better than the average human but would still struggle to spot the finer details. In dim light such as this, it might as well have been daytime. Using his exceptional sight and speed from all of his training, Lucius bolted for the woods without caution.

    A trip that had taken almost an hour with his father now took only twenty minutes at the speed he was moving. Once at the tree line, he leaned against the side of a particrlyrge trunk to recover the energy he just expended.

    Though he could continue if he wanted, it was better for him to enter the area with all of his energy and wits about him. Lucius stood and meditated for a few minutes, regaining his energy and clearing his mind.

    He focused his ears and nose on the sounds and smells around him. Alpha Deer were not typically very deep into the woods, but they were not very close to the edge either. From what he could remember, they were usually in the part of the woods that was about as deep in as the Dire Wolf, his father and him had found a long time ago.

    Lucius checked his equipment. He had a sword strapped to his hip, a small hunting bow on his back, and a quiver of arrows. He also had a dagger strapped to his thigh for emergencies.

    "All set, I think¡­ Well, let''s get this over with, I guess."

    Lucius focused his ears and eyes on his surroundings and stepped into the woods. There were plenty of tracks on the ground; it was just a matter of time before he found the ones he was looking for.

    Alpha Deer were reallymon monsters. They were not all that different from a normal deer, with the exception that they were nearly twice asrge both in body and the size of their antlers. Alpha Deer meat was also highly valued for its vorful taste. That, plus their size, meant a single kill could feed a family of four for a few weeks. If not, a month!

    Lucius continued deeper and deeper into the woods, paying careful attention to his surroundings. Suddenly, his ears twitched. The sound of rushing feet arose from his front right side. Acting quickly, Lucius ran to a tree with lower branches that allowed him to climb.

    He flew up the side of the tree, using each branch like the rung of adder until he was almost twenty feet off the ground. Once he found a solid ce among the leaves, he sat very still.

    asionally, he would shiver, thanks to the air still being rather cold. Other than that, though, he remainedpletely still. The steps grew closer and closer before he was finally able to see the source.

    It was a group of three men. Their breathing was ragged, and their armor was dented and scuffed. A few cuts and bruises peppered their arms and faces.

    "Dammit all¡­" One said.

    "I know! We lost to a fucking deer¡­"

    The third one, who hadn''t spoken yet, finally recovered enough of his breath to say, "Well, if you had listened to me and stopped moving so close to it before we were ready, then maybe we would have been able to ambush it! Instead, your blundering almost got you, and then all of us killed!"

    The three continued to argue but moved on towards the forest''s exit. Once they were well out of sight and sound, Lucius finally moved. He figured he was actually quite lucky since they failed to kill the animal, and that he still had a shot.

    Also, even though they got their asses handed to them by a low ranking monster, then maybe they left it with a few injuries that would make this job easier for him.

    He quickly and quietly moved the direction they hade from, keeping his senses peeled for any clues to the creature''s whereabouts. That was when he saw it.

    It was absolutely majestic. Other creatures up to this point could not hold a candle to this one. As expected, it was about twice asrge as a normal deer, but this one had perfectly white fur and deep ck eyes. Its antlers were wider than any that Lucius had ever seen decorating the walls of the Lord''s manor. However, the most beautiful thing about it, had to have been the fur.

    Despite its beauty, it was also a bit of a warning. It seemed it had fought off those three men and received nary a scratch¡­

    "Fuck."

 Chapter 14: A Mysterious Offer [Part 1]

    Lucius felt the world around him melt away. The only thing that seemed to exist was himself, the Alpha Deer, and the open clearing in between them. He didn''t think that the monster had seen him yet, but he also could not be sure it hadn''t.

    Cautiously, he moved to the right, to attempt to get more behind the beast. Currently he was facing its right side and he would need any and all advantages to y it.

    While making his move, he also eyed all of the trees, mentally mapping out the ones that had easily scble branches for a quick escape. As far as he could remember, Alpha Deer only relied on physical strength and had no special skills or magic they could use.

    Lucius prayed to the gods that he was right. Or this battle was going to get messy. At least messier than it likely already would have.

    The way the monsters versus humans were ranked in this world were as follows:

    Monster Ranks--------Human Ranks

    -NULL------------------ Novice

    F------------------------Beginner

    E------------------------Intermediate

    D------------------------Advanced

    C------------------------Master

    B------------------------King

    A------------------------Empyrean

    S-------------------------NULL-

    In general, each gain in rank meant a roughly four times increase in strength. That meant an S-Rank monster was over four thousand times stronger than an F-Rank monster. The same rule applied to human warrior and mage sses.

    However, they were not equal. An F-Rank monster was supposed to be equivalent to a Beginner Rank human. Since Lucius was not even ranked¡­he was fighting a nearly impossible battle.

    ''Maybe that''s the point.'' A quiet, gentle voice whispered into Lucius'' mind. ''Maybe you are being taught to run from a fight you cannot win.''

    "What was that?" Lucius whispered in a hushed panic. He looked around furiously, but saw, heard, and smelled nothing other than the monster in the clearing.

    The sudden rustling of his equipment attracted the attention of the Alpha Deer, and it perked its head up and began to scan the area. Lucius quickly hid behind the trunk of a tree and held his breath.

    ''Maybe you should prove him wrong.'' A voice whispered again. This one was raspy and had an almost snake like quality to it. ''Prove your father wrong. Take it down. Fuck his lesson, show him. Show him.

    Show him. Show him.''

    The voice began to repeat that phrase again and again, echoing throughout his mind. It overwhelmed his world momentarily before it stopped.

    Lucius stood still for a few more minutes, both waiting for the Alpha Deer to calm down, and also to ensure that whoever was speaking inside of his head would stop.

    He took a deep breath and continued to move around the monster. It had calmed down by now and continued grazing as if nothing in the world could go wrong. Though given the kind of being that was attempting to ''hunt'' it, those thoughts were kind of founded in reality.

    "Well¡­now is as good a time as any¡­" Lucius took his bow off his back and slowly drew an arrow. He aimed slowly, moving inch by inch until he believed he had lined up the perfect shot. Alpha Deer had a weak spot right behind the head. It was a nerve that when struck, inhibited their ability to run.

    Slowly, he exhaled, inhaled, then on the second exhale, released his arrow. It flew straight and true towards the intended target, but the whistle of the arrow zipping through the air caused the Alpha Deer to twitch its head.

    This minute amount of movement threw the target off, and while the arrow embedded itself into the neck of the beast, it missed the mark.

    It yelped in pain from the shock and wheeled around in the direction of the pain. Instantaneously, it was able to lock eyes on the boy.

    "Shit." He couldn''t think of any other reaction than that.

    Hitting that nerve was his only shot at potentially walking away from this, but now that opportunity was gone. Panic began to set in. He thought about running up the trees, but the charge attack that the monster was known for made that a moot point. Escape into the branches was contingent on hitting that nerve so the power of the charge couldn''t take down the tree itself.

    Now it could.

    Lucius screamed as he released arrow after arrow at the charging creature. He was able to hit it with about two out of the six additional arrows he shot, before he tossed the bow aside to run.

    Lucius drew his sword and dashed to the left. Following him instantly, the monster wheeled on its hind legs and changed direction. Trunks shattered, spraying shards of splinters everywhere. Several hit him, but still Lucius kept running.

    Despite his long hours of training, running twenty miles a day for a year, 30 for thest few months, stamina wasn''t the issue. No, his problem was speed and it was failing him. The Alpha Deer closed on him. It lowered its head and swung its antlers like a club.

    They connected with the boy, striking his left side and sending him hurling over a hundred feet into another clearing. Dirt and rocksunched into the air, leaving a human shaped skid mark behind the boy. He finally came to rest at the base of arge boulder.

    Blood poured like water from his head, arms, mouth, and legs. Consciousness came and went. A nket of white approached Lucius'' limp body. The Alpha Deer leaned down, sniffing at him. Its breath smelled like the inside of a barn and it was hot, and wet.

    "It stinks¡­" Lucius managed to mumble.

    ''Ouch. That one hurt, didn''t it?'' The raspy voice from early on stated. There was a hint of amusement in its tone.

    ''Lucius, do you want to survive? To make it home to your parents?'' The softer, gentler voice asked, which elicited a scoff from the raspy one. ''I can help you. If you let me.''

    "Why¡­who are you?"

    ''A weakling. I would be much better to help you.'' The raspy one stated.

    ''Stop. I am your future.'' The kind one whispered.

    ''Hey! Now, now. Just cus you can help him now, doesn''t mean I can''tter¡­just wait kid. When I help you out, you will appreciate what I have to offer. For now, I''ll let the other one take over. Ta ta for now¡­Lucius¡­''

 Chapter 15: A Mysterious Offer [Part 2]

    Time slowed to a crawl as the massive beast before Lucius rose onto its hind legs. With every intention of turning his small body into a paste, it brought down its front hooves with every ounce of its strength.

    Just before the attack met his face, everything stopped. The space around Lucius turned from forest, to a nk white space. No trees, no monster, no leaves, no wind¡­it was simply a void.

    ''I¡­we want you to survive, Lucius.'' A calm voice echoed. It was formless, as if the void itself spoke. ''But I cannot help you unless you agree. You aren''t strong enough to use my strength without consequence¡­but it is better to face those instead of death.''

    Lucius looked around in confusion, still not believing that the void was the source of the voice. However, before he could turn around, he felt a cold hand on his shoulder. He looked down and saw a greenish-gray hand. It looked like a desated corpse had ced its hand on his shoulder. It had long, ck fingernails that looked sharp enough to slit his throat.

    ''I wouldn''t do that. You aren''t ready to see what''s behind you Lucius. As much as I would love for you to turn to me, I need more from you first.'' The same raspy voice from earlier advised. It chuckled lightly before the hand disappeared as if it was never there.

    ''You walk between two worlds Lucius and there wille times where you must make hard choices on which path to follow¡­but more on that at ater time¡­I can grant you ess to your heritage. Your bestial strength given to you by your father''s blood. However, if you ept, those skills will be lost to you forever.''

    "What do you mean?" Lucius asked, "Forever?"

    ''Beastmen have special arts they can use that are gifted to them by their very blood. You too can use these arts¡­but you are not ready for them. If you wish to survive, I can draw out thistent power, but you will never be able to draw on them again. Such is the price for power beyond your means.''

    He had no Weapon Arts. He would not be able to know if he had any Magical Arts until he finished his trial¡­and here was someone telling him he would have ess to Beast Arts.

    At the moment, they were his only chance at a future he could fight for. To lose his future potential for power in the present seemed like a bad idea. Was he really ready to sacrifice it?

    Lucius then thought of his mother and father. Their crying faces shed before his eyes. Death was final. There was no returning. What future would there be to sacrifice if he met the reaper''s scythe¡­

    "I want to live. I want to make it home. Help me kill it. Take what you want"

    Lucius was met with silence, before the terrifying raspy voice began tough hysterically.

    ''Kill it? Hahaha! Boy I like you even more, you are so funny.''

    "Yes." Lucius growled. He didn''t try to turn around. He was not sure the face of the being would be something he wanted to see. "If I don''t kill it, I will fail my father''s trial."

    ''What are you on about? You don''t have to kill it¡­hell, you didn''t even have to fight it.''

    "Huh?"

    ''Your orders were to find the Alpha Deer. Well boy. You found it. We are just going to get you out of here.'' The raspy voice exined, clearly still amused at the idea of the boy thinking he could fight the creature.

    The white void sighed, before a pale blue hand appeared in front of Lucius'' face. It was simply a floating hand attached to absolutely nothing. It moved towards him with a finger pointing out, and touched the center of his forehead.

    Merely a secondter, intense pain coursed through Lucius'' head and body. Every fiber of his being screamed in pain as if it had been lit on fire from the inside. He screamed, but no sound came from his lips.

    Knowledge of Beast Arts flooded his mind, skills up to the Beginner Rank of those arts became known to him instantly. Lucius felt his body grow stronger, faster, more energized. At the moment, he was equivalent to a Beginner Rank Warrior, though he knew it was temporary.

    Even though Beginner Ranks and F-Rank monsters were on the same level, he was still a child facing a fully grown beast.

    ''This won''tst for long. So I suggest you run. However, your body is your own. I''ve given you the knowledge and enough power to use it, so it is up to you to survive, Lucius.''

    Instantly the void faded and the forest returned. Above his face was the hoof of one of the Alpha Deer''s feet. Time was still not moving.

    ''Good luck! Don''t die, Lucius'' The raspy voice teased in the back of his mind.

    At that moment, time resumed and Lucius shouted out, "[Beast Arts: Iron w]!"

    Lucius'' nails instantaneously grew in length and became as hard as metal. He shed at the hoof, creating a shower of sparks and earning a yelp in surprise from the monster.

    He jumped to his feet and found himself in a battle position he was unfamiliar with, butfortable at the same time. Lucius was low to the ground, two feet and one hand touching the dirt, with his left hand raised and ready for the attack.

    To put it inly, he looked like a rabid beast. Fangs grew from his mouth and his eyes took on an unnatural glow.

    "Let''s do this you damn monster."

    The Alpha Deer looked on with disdain and scraped its hoof on the ground like a bull readying for a charge. Clearly it had underestimated the boy, but it also knew that it was in for an easy win.

    Every possible opening for a retreat was closed at the moment. Information of his surroundings, escape routes, ambush locations, filled his head. This was even more intense rity than when he would experience when stressed.

    If an opening was not avable¡­ then he would just have to make one.

    "[Beast Arts: Predator''s Presence]"

    This skill created an unsettling presence behind someone who was being perceived as prey by the user. Thankfully it worked, since he was able to observe the monster''s fur prickle as it shuddered and looked behind it.

    Lucius took the opportunity to jump away from the clearing. He could disappear into the woods behind him, but unfortunately thanks to how the fight started, the Alpha Deer happened to be standing in the direction of the exit.

    The best option would be to run at a diagonal from the monster so he would not have to retreat deeper into the woods to circle around. Something like that would increase his likelihood of running into a monster stronger than this one.

    Honestly, Lucius thought it was an excellent n, and in truth it was. However, the Alpha Deer recovered quickly from the skill and realized it was a distraction. Dust spewed from the ground where it had been standing and like a blur it essentially vanished from ce before reappearing directly in front of the boy.

    Just like before, it swiped at Lucius with its horns. However, at the moment, he had the power and speed of a Beginner Rank, so instead of taking the hit, he jumped upwards and out of the swing''s path.

    Next thing the deer knew, it had a small child sitting on its neck, gripping its antlers. Lucius'' eyes were wide in shock because he had moved on instinct and fully expected for the strike to hit.

    Even more surprising was the fact he was on the deer''s neck. The shock vanished a secondter and was reced by resolve. He was not going to die. He knew his time was limited, so every ounce of his focus needed to be on getting out of this.

 Chapter 16: A Mysterious Offer [Part 3]

    Inside a forest on the outskirts of a town called Pelith, there was arge concentration of monsters. The deeper one went into the woods, the stronger and stronger they became.

    Eventually, at least for any person who was insane enough to travel as far as the center of the woods, the king of the forest would be found. He was the legendary S-Rank beast known as Fenrir.

    Normally he slept at the heart of the forest, waking only every few hundred years to cull the monster poption within his home, both to feed and to ensure no creatures could fight their way up to his strength.

    Despite it not being another few decades before his rest was over, themotion currently near an outer part of the forest had caught his attention. Presences he had not felt in a very long time had suddenly appeared and they were fighting against a weak monster.

    "Well, this era will be quite interesting won''t it¡­I could nip it in the bud right now but¡­no¡­he would scold me if I bothered them¡­so annoying¡­"

    Fenririd its head back down on its massive paws and closed its eyes to return to its long rest.

    *****

    Sweat beaded on Lucius'' forehead. There was a strange calmness as both he, and the monster between his legs tried to understand what happened. Neither could believe how things had progressed.

    The first to recover was Lucius, who gripped tightly on the deer''s antlers. Thankfully it was just in time to avoid being thrown off by his ''mount'' as it began to jump, twist, and throw its head side to side.

    Lucius quickly felt like his brain was being turned to mush as it bounced around in his skull. His muscles also screamed and begged for relief from their efforts to keep him from flying off.

    After failing to throw and buck the boy off, the deer opted for a new option. It charged. Trees cracked and split as it mmed its head, neck, and sides into the trunks of the trees around the clearing. Lucius held fast onto the antler, but moved his body to dodge the iing splinters and branches.

    Pain was the only sensation that made up his world at the moment, but at least it told him he was alive. Suddenly, he had a moment of rity. Or maybe it was that one of the voices in his head gave him the idea¡­really he couldn''t know for sure.

    Lucius leaned to the side of the deer''s head and brought his mouth close to its ear.

    "[Beast Arts: King''s Roar]!"

    An inhuman scream erupted from his small frame. Any sounds that were in the forest, were drowned out by the massive, bestial utterance.

    The roarsted for ten seconds and after it was over, the deer waspletely stunned. Blood flowed from its ears and it wobbled from side to side trying to maintain its bnce.

    Lucius'' throat screamed at him. He attempted to call out another skill, but all he got for his efforts was a cough with a smattering of blood.

    Quickly, he grabbed a loose branch from the tree nearest to him. He stood and bnced on the deer''s neck, twisted his body, and using the branch as a club, attacked the antlers of the monster.

    One of the two massive antlers cracked, so he swung a second time. Then a third. Then, on the fourth hit, arge section of antler cracked off.

    Lucius quickly picked it up, and jumped into the trees. Hopping from branch to branch, he moved faster than he had ever moved before. Even though a single mistake could result in him losing his footing and falling to the forest floor below, he could not stop.

    His body moved quickly and naturally through the treetops. A pained cry erupted from somewhere behind him, but instead of getting closer, it seemed to be fading. Either the Alpha Deer decided to give up and stay in the clearing, or it ran deeper into the woods to hide away and recover.

    It was likely the second option so that it could avoid being taken advantage of by a predator that felt like it now had a chance to take it down. Regardless of why, Lucius was home free, and with a trophy.

    After nearly twenty minutes of leaping between branches like a primate, the light of day began to break through the leaves, signaling he was almost out. At this point, his body began to give way.

    The boost he was given by adrenaline, or the mysterious voice in the void¡­whatever one it was, started to leave him. His jumps got slower, the distance between them shorter. Until at thest leap, the one that got him free of the forest, everything he had left him all at once.

    Pain returned to his mind. His muscles screamed. Every fiber of his existence was enveloped by pain, with a singr exception. He had no energy to move. No energy to focus his eyesight. No energy to listen for danger.

    The one thing he did have left was his sense of smell. Thanks to this he smelled something familiar.

    "Fa¡­ther."

    This was thest thing he was able to moan out, though it was scarcely a whisper.

    "Good job Lucius." Wayne said sadly, although Lucius had long since passed out, unable to hear him.

    ****

    Wayne looked down on his son with pride and sadness. Sadness was among the emotions because of two reasons. First, his son was only eight, going on nine, and yet he wasying in the dirt covered in bruises, cuts, and various different kinds of other wounds. Secondly, he was the reason his son was in this state.

    Death was a very real possibility in this mission, but so was it in his son''s uing trial. He had felt that if Lucius managed to survive this, then his shot of getting out of the forest for his real trial was an actual possibility.

    However, whatever his ns were, things beyond his understanding urred. Everyone in town heard a cry from the forest. It was as if a monster could shake the heavens itself. People in Pelith had started to panic, worried that a Monster Swarm was going to descend on their homes from the woods.

    Thankfully, Wayne knew the likely source and was able to calm many people when telling them it was not a monster. He had traveled the world during his youth and spent a long time in the Beastman nation of Eroa. It was the one with the closest ties to the human kingdoms of the Five Kings Union, so his time there was very pleasant.

    It was because of his time there that he recognized the sound as the Beast Art known as King''s Roar.

    "Good one son¡­though, that is an Intermediate Rank skill¡­how in the world did you pull that off."

    Wayne was a Master Rank swordsman and as someone of a higher rank, he was capable of assessing someone''s current abilities. When looking at Lucius, it was clear he had not even reached Novice Rank. Power beyond one''s means was dangerous and there was always a cost. He could not help but wonder what price Lucius had paid.

    Again that feeling of sadness settled on him as he cradled the small boy in his arms. He noticed the antler of an Alpha Deerying on the ground.

    "Well son of a¡­I expected you to tussle with it and then escape when you saw it was too much¡­but it seems you couldn''t help but take a piece of him with you¡­that''s my boy."

    Wayne carried Lucius back to their home. When they entered, Rubellia ran to the doorway with a concerned look. Lucius was back on the same day he had left, though he had a few more days. Of course she was concerned about his well-being.

    Her concerns appeared to be founded in truth given the state their son was in.

    "Wayne! What happened!? Why is he so hurt¡­I thought you were nning to step in if¡­Why didn''t you¡­"

    "I only told you I was going to step in so you would agree to let him go. He needed to do this on his own Rubellia or else¡­"

    His sentence was interrupted with the echo of a p. A red mark appeared on the side of his face and a stinging sensation took over his cheek.

    "You bastard!" Rubellia muttered with tears in her eyes.

    She took Lucius from him and carried the boy to his room. Wayne watched from the doorway silently. He was not going to apologize for what he did. It was necessary to give his son a fighting chance.

    Rubellia came out of the room, grabbed a bucket with clean water and a few rags. She went back into the room and began to slowly clean the wounds on Lucius'' body so they would not get infected.

    Wayne finally moved from the doorway and headed into town with the Alpha Deer antler still in his hand. As a token of Lucius'' test today, he would have a memento made for him.

    There were no longer any doubts in his mind. Regardless of the consequence he would face for unleashing mid-ranked arts before he was ready, Lucius would survive this. Wayne smiled to himself.

    "My kid has to be the strongest one in this year''s trial¡­no doubt."

 Chapter 17: Preparations

    Wayne walked through the town center of Pelith, which held most of the shops and artisans of the area.

    As the main thoroughfare of the town, every noble and merchant hoping to greet Lord Petra had to pass through here. This helped the area grow into a thriving mercantile district. As such the specific artisan he was looking for could be found here.

    Wayne found a small, unassuming building that was nestled a few dozen yards from the main street. Those who did not know of it, could easily miss it. While it would have been an issue for most other merchants and craftsmen to be so hard to find, this particr individual preferred to choose his customers.

    His great work basically traveled by word of mouth alone. Wayne had no doubt he would take on the job, since it was his best friend from childhood.

    "Wee, you ungrateful bastard¡­" a cranky looking man with sandy-blonde hair sneered at Wayne as he walked through the entry door.

    "Is that any way to treat an old friend?"

    "Old friends don''t pay bills."

    "Okay then how about a paying customer."

    The man''s demeanor changed instantly. A bright smile reced his scowl. "Then wee! How can I assist you?"

    Wayne couldn''t help but shake his head at his friend''s antics. He had known Kart since they were children, and even back then the man was obsessed with money. This often ran counter to his desire to only work with specific customers¡­so really he was just a hypocrite.

    "I have the antler from an Alpha Deer. I would like you to turn into a memento for my son."

    Kart looked carefully at him and then the antler in his hands. Quicker than lightning, his hands darted to a piece of parchment and charcoal. Kart''s hands moved quickly across the page as he drew up several designs.

    Wayne waited patiently while hepleted his work. Whenever Kart got like this he would vanish into his own little world. So, to kill time while waiting, he simply looked around the shop.

    Kart''s specialty was in jewelry and every piece he created was a masterpiece. Many of his works actually decorated the necks of nobles across the kingdom, including Lord Petra''s wife.

    Something with a faint magical presence caught Wayne''s eye as he nced along the disys. It was a small pendant in the shape of a feather. He did not have the ability to use any Ritual Magic, so he couldn''t identify the ne to find out what it did, but he could sense that it was a powerful item.

    Checking the price tag, Wayne choked on his own spit and began a coughing fit.

    "What''s wrong?" Kart asked, looking up at themotion.

    "Seven hundred thousand gold for a fucking ne?! Are you nuts?!" He sputtered.

    "Oh that, yeah, no it''s worth every copper. Trust me."

    Wayne stared at his friend incredulously. He had no idea how he got his hands on such a powerful enchanted item, let alone how he imagined he would sell such a creation. A family of three like his own could live veryfortably for a year without working on only a hundred gold coins.

    "And done." Kart said with a sigh. "Take a look."

    "No, no, no. What''s with the pendant?"

    Kart nced up with a smirk pasted on his face. Clearly he was proud of his enchanted item.

    "That, my friend, is an Ancient ss enchanted ne. It holds the enchantment [Wind Walking]. The user should be able to take up to one hundred steps into the air as though it were as solid as the ground beneath us."

    Wayne''s expression paled. Ancient ss enchantments were extremely rare. It was only one step away from Divine, which was the most powerful level of enchantment capable of being produced by mortals.

    The Ranking for enchanted items were as follows:

    Common, Umon, Rare, Legendary, Ancient, and Divine.

    If one were topare the same enchantment, like fire damage for example, that enchantment would be twice as strong for each ss of enchantment, meaning a Divine ss fire sword was thirty-two times stronger than a Common ss fire sword.

    There was onest rank above Divine, which was Primordial, however there were currently no known Primordial ss items, all the ones from legends had long been lost.

    Primordial ss items were from the Age of Strife when the mortal races rose against the demons and wiped them from this world.

    "Good luck selling it¡­I guess."

    "Thanks! Anyway, look at these designs already. Also, you should be grateful I normally don''t work with material as low ranked as an F-Rank beast. Why did you waste the time killing it anyway? I''m sure it took you a few seconds at most. Hardly worth remembering¡­" Kart pointed out.

    "Like I said, it''s for my son. He was the one who fought it off. He didn''t kill it, but he got away with this¡­and his life."

    Kart paused. "Your son that has no Weapon Arts Compatibility? He fought against an F-Rank beast and managed to escape with a trophy?"

    "Yes."

    Kart grumbled and closed his eyes while gripping his own arms. He threw his head back and groaned in frustration.

    "Ughhh¡­ Erghh¡­ Fine!" He said finally, confusing Wayne. "This one''s on the house¡­but it''s for the boy, not for you."

    Wayne smiled and selected his favorite design, a pendant carved in the shape of a deer.

    *****

    "Thank¡­you¡­daddy¡­" Natali beamed as she struggled to speak to her father.

    "Don''t worry about it. And don''t strain your throat talking just to say thank you!" Derrik chastised.

    Natali was beyond ecstatic that her father had agreed to teach her to fight with weapons. Currently they were in the barracks training area. It was her father''s day off, so he took the opportunity to use that time to spend with her and teach her how to fight.

    Their first step was to have her try out all the weapons and see if she had any Compatibilities. Derrik handed her a single-handed axe and instructed Natali to take a few swings.

    She attempted to swing the weapon, but it felt awkward and unnatural, so Derrik quickly took it from her before she could hurt herself.

    "Nope, nope¡­that one isn''t it¡­here, try this."

    Her father handed her a shortsword to try. Unfortunately, the same result. Next she was given a bow, but she could not even draw the string.

    "Daddy¡­"

    "Stop talking Natali¡­you''re gonna ruin all your progress if you force yourself." Derrik stated while taking the bow back. "What to try next¡­spear? Mace? Hammer? Longsword¡­"

    Natali giggled at how serious her father was in trying to find a good weapon for her. She did not expect him to agree to her request when she asked. She had assumed he would scoff at her and im that she was too young to learn how to fight.

    Not only did he agree, but he even agreed with great enthusiasm. Obviously her mother was concerned, but Natali maintained a resolute and firm stance. Thanks to that, her mother eventually relented.

    Natali began to look along the weapon rack for anything that looked interesting. Her eyes settled on a small de. Something called out to her, making her reach out and touch the handle.

    The next thing she knew she had the weapon in her hand. That feeling she had of something calling out to her was sated, but only partially.

    Natali continued looking around, trying desperately to figure out what was calling out to her. Panic began to set in. Something felt unnatural to her with the weapon in her hand, yet natural at the same time. These conflicting feelings only served to give her anxiety.

    Suddenly her eyes locked on a second de simr to the one in her hand. Feeling like it was the answer to her problems, she reached out with her left hand and grabbed it as well. Derrik had turned around and watched the entire situation with an inquisitive gaze.

    Information flooded into Natali''s head the moment she had both daggers gripped in her hands. Momentster, she began to twirl the daggers in her hands as if she was a circus performer that had been doing it her whole life.

    She stopped, then shouted, "[Dagger Arts: Rapid Strike]!"

    Natali made two swings back-to-back at such great speed her hands appeared to be nothing more than a blur. A look of surprise settled on her own and her father''s face.

    Natali not only had the knowledge of how to use the weapon, but part of her felt stronger somehow, like she was slightly faster and stronger.

    Somehow the volume and noise that escaped her was clearer than she had been her entire life. It also didn''t hurt!

    "Well, well¡­that was a Novice Ranked skill you just used¡­Congrattions on your Dagger Arts¡­and wee to the Novice Rank!" Derrik grinned proudly.

    "Mmm!" Natali confirmed with a smile. She was happy to know that she sessfully found a weapon with which she had a Compatibility.

    Eventually she would learn if she had any Magic Compatibilities, but for now this was enough. She felt arge hand settle on her shoulder that then guided her to a practice dummy.

    "Alright, I guess it''s time for you to start practicing. I cannot use Dagger Arts myself, but I can still teach you some things." Derrik advised. "It''s going to be up to you to keep practicing¡­but promise me one thing."

    "Mmm?"

    "I know you have been practicing with your mark, but don''t do it here, okay? I think you have great potential forbining your mark with Dagger Arts¡­just don''t do it here."

    She paused and thought about what her father said. It was true she had been practicing a lot with the Mark of Recall. However, it didn''t dawn on her that it could be useful to use with her newfound Weapon Arts.

    Derrik noticed the look on her face and sighed. "Alright, we are alone in here right now¡­so one time, okay?"

    "Mmm!"

    Natali turned to face the training dummy and whispered, "[Recall]".

    The mark on her left hand glowed before it dimmed and stopped.

    "[Dagger Arts: Pierce]!" When she shouted out the skill, the dagger in her left hand seemed to magically sharpen. Using every ounce of strength she had, she threw it at the target.

    In an instant, it buried itself deep into the chest of the wooden dummy. Not even a secondter, she snapped her fingers on her left hand. Derrik''s eyes widened as the dagger vanished from its spot and reappeared instantaneously in his daughter''s hand.

    Derrik couldn''t help himself from gulping. "That is going to be quite the deadlybination one day. Alright Natali, once a week I will guide your training. However it is your responsibility to train your mark and practice your forms on your own every day. Understand?"

    "Mmm!"

    "Good. Don''t neglect your lessons from your mother either. This will give you the tools to prepare you if the worstes to happen, but in a perfect world, the gods will see to it that you protect the next Oracle."

 Chapter 18: The Day Before

    Months passed quickly after Lucius'' test in the woods. His family continued to care for him, but for some reason, he would only regain consciousness every few days to eat, and then he would pass out again.

    During this time, he had spoken a lot with the voices in the white void. Though, he wasn''t sure if the void was still white where the raspy one was, because it still wouldn''t let him turn around to look at it.

    While the kind voice seemed to be formless, he knew that the raspy one had a shape. He remembered clearly the hand he had seen ced on his shoulder back in the woods.

    Because it was getting tiring referring to them as ''kind voice'' and ''raspy voice,'' Lucius decided he would just ask them their names. Of course nothing in life was ever easy, so they declined to provide them, saying that they would just go by whatever he wanted to call them.

    Since they didn''t seem to care, he readily agreed and named the raspy voice, Grimm and the kind voice, Luz. Thankfully, they seemed rather happy to have names given to them. Grimm was particrly fond of his.

    "So why have I been asleep for so long." He finally asked the two beings.

    Grimmughed. "Cus, kid, Luz over there gave you the ability to use BEGINNER Rank Beast Arts. And you went and got all power hungry and pulled an Intermediate Rank skill out!"

    "What do you mean?"

    Luz chimed in, "The cost for using the arts before you were ready was keeping you from using them ever again, however you took more than was offered. As such you paid an additional cost, some of your life energy."

    "Yikes¡­how many years did I shave off?"

    "Not sure, but enough!" Grimmughed. "Though you might earn it back."

    "I can?"

    "Eh¡­maybe?"

    He couldn''t see Grimm, but the tone of voice Lucius just heard told him that it had just shrugged during its response. All that Lucius could do was sigh.

    "Will I wake up in time for the trial?"

    "Oh yea, don''t worry about it, kid. You''ll be up in time to run around the woods pissing your pants from monsters in no time!"

    "Thanks¡­" was all that he could say to the being who seemed to derive joy from teasing the boy.

    Since he was stuck in this¡­void for several months, he did take time to learn some things from Luz. Grimm still refused to provide any advice on how to use his power, only ever saying ''it wasn''t time yet'' or ''you aren''t ready for it.''

    Luz on the other hand was ready to assist and even helped Lucius figure out how to tap into his power in the real world when under duress.

    Both of them hoped that he would never have to use the technique since it was dangerous for others to see, but it was good to have a trump card prepared in advance.

    *****

    "Rena." A deep, booming voice called out to his daughter.

    A cute girl with crimson hair and green eyes quickly stood to attention after hearing her father enter the room. The man was none other than Richard von Petra, lord of the Petra domain.

    His entire being was imposing from his facial expressions to his body, to the way he carried himself. Every aspect of his being demanded respect and awe.

    "Father, how can I assist you?"

    "The trial begins tomorrow. I take it you have prepared appropriately."

    "Yes, father."

    "Good. Did you learn any magic?"

    "No, father."

    "Good."

    Her father was not a gentle and kind person, and it was hard to know what he was feeling. However, this interaction was his way of showing his worry for his only child.

    Going on this trial put her close to death''s embrace, so it was natural for even him to be concerned.

    Rena had been preparing for a long time on how to survive this, because she knew that it wasn''t only beasts that she would be fighting. Everyone knew that she had a target on her back for the children of the Petra branch families who had children participating in this year''s trial.

    If Rena could be taken out, or somehow failed to leave the forest alive, then one of the branch family''s heirs would take the position as head of the house next.

    This person would have to pass some sort of test that Richard would provide, but it was a more open path to power than allowing Rena to live.

    Warmth began to envelop Rena. The sensation wasforting, but also¡­unfamiliar. She looked up and saw that her father had approached and hugged her.

    "Father¡­"

    "Stay alive Rena¡­and stay away from Thomas."

    "Mmm." Was all she could say to respond. She didn''t want to ruin the moment and took in the once in a lifetime opportunity at physical affection from her father.

    After a few minutes, he released her and left the room.

    Rena continued to pack things and prepare for the trial. One of the first things she did was rece her standard dress that she was required to wear as the youngdy of the house.

    Instead, she put on a set of breathable clothes; a white shirt and tan pants. Her shoes were reced by lightweight leather boots. Over the top of her clothes, she donned a set of leather armor that covered most of her vitals, but not much else.

    Finally, she ced a shortsword around her hip and then strapped a dagger to her thigh. The goal was to survive, so she wanted to have just enough equipment to fight, but not enough to weigh her down when she ran.

    A maid handed her a small satchel that she was able to wrap around one shoulder. Inside of it were a few rations and cloth wraps for bandaging wounds. One of thest things she attached to herself was a water skin.

    "I think that about does it¡­right?" she asked.

    Three maids had been in the room helping the youngdy, Rena von Petra, prepare for tomorrow''s trial. All of them held back tears due to their fear for her safety. Rena knew they enjoyed herpany, and she enjoyed theirs in return.

    "Don''t worry. I will be back in a few days'' time. Thank you all for helping me. I suppose I should get going."

    Most trial participants showed up the day of, however Rena had already decided that she would be staying at an inn on the edge of town. She did not want to risk being ambushed on her way to the trial from the manor. If something dyed her, then she could end up banished from the domain for failing toplete the trial.

    This would be one of the first times she ever stayed outside of her manor and she noticed a hint of excitement beginning to pound in her chest at the thought of experiencing something new.

    Even though she was just as equally terrified, she was ready for something interesting to happen in her life that was different than the monotonous days in the manor.

 Chapter 19: The Trial Begins

    Arge group of people gathered together outside of the forest outside of Pelith. There were at least a few hundred people. Among that number were twenty-seven children. All of them were nine-years-old and getting ready to take their trial.

    In the center of the crowd was a group of men who all Advanced Rank fighters or better. It was their job to drop the children off at various locations in the woods.

    A town elder provided prayers to the children, and blessed them with anointing oil¡­well at least the ones who were not marked.

    "The gods who reside in Celestia watch over us all. May they guide your des, quicken your arrows, and fortify your bodies so that you may survive the trial ahead."

    A number of the gathered crowd said in unison, "So shall it be."

    When the elder finished, he stepped back into the crowd as another member of the town leadership stepped forward. He gave each child a packet filled with a strangely sweet smelling, yellow powder.

    Rena recognized this as the drug they used to knock the children unconscious. The men who would deposit them in the woods had the antidotes and fed them to the children the moment they dropped them off.

    The antidote was extremely fast acting and the person would bepletely alert and awake as if nothing happened only ten secondster.

    Rena looked around at the other children in her group. She recognized several of them.

    Among those were her cousins. Thomas was grinning at her while sitting next to a few other cousins; Peter, Marl, Jakoby, and Vik.

    She quickly turned away from them and locked eyes with a friend of hers. Rena smiled gently at Elena, a daughter of one of the bakery in town that Rena loved to frequent.

    The final person who caught her eye was a strange looking boy. His head was held low like he was trying to remain inconspicuous, but his eyes darted around from person to person as if sizing them all up.

    Something about his jet-ck hair seemed oddly familiar, but Rena would have remembered seeing a boy with one silver eye and one gray one.

    It shocked her to look at him though¡­she had to admit, he had quite a lot of potential if he survived and grew up. His looks put most of the noble children in the capital to shame.

    This was not time to be ogling farm boys however, so Rena steeled her resolve and swallowed the yellow drug. A secondter, she passed out, copsing to the ground.

    *****

    Thomas woke up from his drugged stuporpletely surrounded by trees. The light from the sun only barely trickled through the leaves above, and most of it never actually made it to the ground.

    "So. This is what this horrid ce is like. Terrifying."

    First and foremost, his task was to find an ally, or rather, bait, to use against monsters so that he can increase his chances for survival. They were all ced roughly deep enough into the woods toe into contact with both E and F-Rank monsters.

    Since his family had already helped him awaken to his magical Compatibilities, he figured he would have a good shot at getting away on his own. Even though he had the magical advantage, he was still only a Novice Rank with those skills and that simply was not enough to fight against an F-Rank monster alone.

    "All right. Let us see if I can find one of those other idiots from the other branch families and then we will work on finding perfect miss Rena¡­maybe catch myself a few Marked Ones on the way."

    Moving swiftly, he ran through the woods to find others. Thanks to his training, he had a general sense of the way out of the forest, however that was not his goal. He had also trained to sense other people.

    Thanks to this ability, he was able to get a general idea of where a few people had gathered. He had no way of knowing if these were his people, but beggars can''t be choosers.

    Three people were gathered together at the base of a dead tree. One of them was one of his people, Vik. The other two were unknown, but one was a Marked One.

    Vik gave a wink to him and indicated that they were not quite ready to take care of it yet.

    "Hold! Friendly. My name is Thomas von Petra of one of the minor branches. I see you already gathered with my cousin, Vik."

    Vik and the two others greeted themselves, which made Thomas'' skin crawl. It took every ounce of his self-restraint to not cut the Marked One''s head off right there, however, it was still a useful tool for now.

    "Well, I havepatibilities with Sword Arts and Shield Arts¡­you all?"

    The Marked One answered first. "None here¡­I just had toe because of my mark. I can''t use it either though¡­I know how to use a knife a little, so I have this hunting knife."

    Thomas breathed an inward sigh of relieve. Since it couldn''t use the mark it had, he had one less thing to worry about. After that, Vik and the other child shared their skills, so they held a strategy meeting.

    Thomas pretended not to know the way out of the woods so that he could continue gathering his allies and searching for Rena.

    She would be his, and he could not wait to sever her head from its shoulders. The title of Lord of house Petra would be his, and the she-devil will stand in his way no longer.

    Besides, not only did he have his Sword and Shield Arts, but he also had Fire Magic and Water Magic at his beck and call. Rena had no weapon Compatibilities at all, and she wouldn''t be allowed to learn magic untilter.

    All of thisbined into making her a perfectly easy target. He just had to be the one to find her before a monster did, so some random beast wouldn''t take away the satisfaction of his first, real kill.

 Chapter 20: Gathering Allies

    Rena woke from her slumber, alone and surrounded by trees. The woods were eerily silent. No birds were chirping, no squirrels chittering, not even wind rustling the leaves. Everything was simply still.

    Being surrounded by such quiet filled her with an extreme sense of foreboding and dread. Blood rushing through her ears soon became one of the only things she could focus on aside from her rapidly increasing heart rate.

    "Calm down, Rena¡­calm down. You''ve got this." She whispered to herself.

    Willpower was a trait that she excelled at, but it still took every ounce for her to breathe and calm herself. Once she was able to settle her heart, she looked at her surroundings.

    Truly there were four real directions to choose from. Two would lead her neither out nor deeper. One would lead out of here, and the final would take her closer to death.

    Thankfully, even with herck of experience, a general sense of dread was concentrated in one direction which helped tell her that was the area she wanted to avoid. The concentration of magical beasts and monsters deeper in the forest could even be felt by unranked people.

    Almost an hourter, she continued to stumble around the woods. Wind had started to rustle the treetops above her which helped settle her nerves more, but still there still weren''t any other sounds. That was until she heard a loud scream.

    It was definitely a girl''s scream, which meant two things. First, it was another living being. Secondly, she was under attack. Since it was clearly a dangerous situation, Rena unsheathed her sword and charged toward the sounds.

    Screaming and shouting continued, but it was one-sided, which told Rena that the other party was a beast. In short order, she burst into a small clearing which had a young girl, Rena''s age, and a boy standing over the corpse of a wolf.

    Rena paused for a moment, taken aback by the fact that someone else had beaten her to the scene. However, she was also surprised she did not hear the sounds ofbat.

    A momentter, the other girl screamed again.

    "What''s wrong! The wolf is dead, don''t worry!" Rena cooed, trying to calm the girl down.

    She was a simple girl, clearly amoner. At first, Rena was confused why she was here in the woods, but then she caught a glimpse of something ck on the back of the girl''s left hand.

    "What''s your name?"

    "E-E-Edra¡­" the girl whimpered. She looked up at Rena with wet, brown eyes. Tears stained her cheeks.

    "Why are you still screaming, Edra? The wolf is dead. You are safe now."

    "N-n-no¡­I''m-m-m screaming cus of tha-a-a-t¡­" Edra squeaked out while pointing her finger behind Rena.

    She turned around and followed the finger which seemed to be pointing the direction of the strange boy who was quietly observing them. Rena put herself on guard, wondering if the boy had been attacking other participants.

    Nothing about his demeanor showed any hostility, however. He was in a rxed stance and had put his sword in its sheathe. His hands weren''t even touching the hilt of his weapon.

    "What is your name?" Rena asked. Even though he didn''t look like a threat, he still took out this wolf without alerting her. And something about him terrified poor Edra.

    "Lucius." The boy stated. Rena noticed as he talked that he had an extra set of canine teeth. His eyes were very feline in nature. One was a gorgeous silver and the other a dull-gray.

    "I saw you before the trial." She said to him.

    "You probably saw a bunch of people."

    Rena noticed the boy was particrly gruff in his responses, but she could also tell he wasn''t being rude, rather he just seemed¡­shy?

    "Why is she screaming? What did you do to her?"

    Lucius simply responded by gesturing to his general face, indicating it was his teeth and eyes.

    Before Rena could say anything else, the boy called Lucius jerked his head to the side while drawing his sword. Rena also stood at attention and drew her own sword. She gazed in the direction Lucius faced. However after about five minutes of this awkward silence, nothing happened.

    "Why are you¡­"

    She was interrupted by a group of people emerging from the woods. They appeared to be other participants and they were all exhausted and terrified.

    It appeared to be a group of about five people. Each of them was a stranger to Rena, but they appeared to have been through a lot.

    "Who are you all?" Rena asked. She put her sword away, but her hand still hovered near it. Lucius moved slowly away from the group as they exited near where he stood.

    She watched as the handsome boy stepped slowly near her. He ced himself just inside her striking range, and kept his back turned partially towards her. Rena smiled since this appeared to be a sign of trust towards her.

    "We''ve been running for an hour¡­we were attacked by a monster¡­some of us didn''t make it¡­"

    "Okay, who are you all." Rena asked. She continued to rx, but noticed that Lucius was still operatingpletely on caution.

    One by one, every child introduced themselves. There was Landon, the son of a guard. Michael, the son of a butcher. Maribel, the daughter of the mayor''s concubine and marked. Pavi, the son of a prostitute. Finally, was the de facto leader of their group, Nate.

    Nate was someone who Rena was able to recognize after he started talking. His current appearance did not make him easily recognizable because of his swollen cheeks. It looked like he may have broken a cheekbone or something. Nate was a noble''s son from the wealthier part of town. Rena interacted with him a fair bit growing up when his parents visited her father.

    "Lady Rena von Petra, I beg your pardon for my desheveled appearance¡­and if I may¡­could we inconvenience you to allow us to travel together¡­" Nate had asked. He had piercing, blue eyes, but only one was really visible at the moment. He was never a prideful boy, like most other nobles, so Rena got along with him okay.

    Her main concern now was whether the strange boy called Lucius would join them or leave. He did not seem to trust them.

    "Was it a deer?"

    Rena blinked. Lucius asked a strange question out of nowhere.

    "Why do¡­"

    "No, good sir. We were set upon by a pack of wolves. One of them appeared to have been born as a Direwolf."

    "Was it grown?"

    "No¡­thankfully it was only an infant¡­yet it was still almost asrge as the adults in the pack."

    Rena watched as Lucius seemed to rx. Why was it so important to know if they were attacked by a deer?

    ''What a strange boy¡­'' she thought.

    After a few minutes of figuring out who everyone was in the new group, Rena and Edra finally introduced themselves. The other children made it awkward by attempting to bow or kneel or something strange like that, but Rena quickly put a stop to it.

    Finally everyone looked at the odd-one-out, Lucius.

    "I''m Lucius. Son of Guard Captain Wayne. I''m a Marked One¡­and half beastman." He pointed to his left hand and his eyes to emphasize thest two points.

    "What does your mark do?" Rena asked. She knew a handful of marks. Mostly just the dangerous ones though, so she could be careful. She did not recognize this boy''s but that didn''t really mean anything.

    Lucius thought for a moment. "Dunno. Not really anyway."

    "Can you use it?"

    "If I need to."

    Rena sighed. This boy clearly needed to get out more. She knew who is father was. And since she also knew almost all of the maid staff, she knew who his mother was too.

    She had heard that Miss Rubellia and Sir Wayne had adopted a child, but her other maids advised her to stay away from him since he was a Marked One.

    Once again Lucius snapped to attention. This time however, he looked the direction that scared everyone shitless. His gaze was settled towards the center of the forest.

    "Have you guys fought an Alpha Deer?"

    Rena looked at the boy like he was insane. She wasn''t the only one either. All of the children stared at him nkly.

    "No!" They shouted in unison.

    "Well¡­that sucks. Because we are about to fight one¡­and this one is particrly unhappy."

    Rena had heard rumors of a child that fought against such a beast a while ago. Their family''s preferred jeweler, Kart, had been talking to their procurement staff regarding a child who had fought against a white Alpha Deer and brough back one of its horns.

    The story spread like wildfire so almost all of the noble children had heard of the story.

    Nate''s jaw dropped. "You''re the one that fought off a heard of Alpha Deer? That''s amazing! Your mark must be very strong!"

    Lucius looked back at the boy like he was the world''s biggest idiot. "I only fought the one¡­and at great cost. Also, I didn''t use my mark. I couldn''t use it then."

    "What was the cost?"

    "I lost ess to one of my arts forever."

    Rena''s heart sank. For a moment she thought that they would be fine, having heard that the very same person who survived against one of these things, was with them to fight off this one. However, he couldn''t use the same skills asst time. She was well and truly worried about what was going to happen.

    "Should we run?"

    "No use. It''s here." Lucius said inly.

    Exactly at that moment, arge creature with pure white fur stepped out of the woods. It was a magnificent looking beast, but when looking at its head, Rena was able to notice that its normallyrge rack of antlers, was missing on one side.

    "Did you miss me you bastard?" Lucius said.

    He sounded confident, but Rena could notice an ever so slight tremble to his voice. It was clear he was terrified. She didn''t know why, but something called on her to step up and put one hand on the boy''s shoulder.

    "We are with you. You aren''t alone this time." She said confidently.

 Chapter 21: Finishing the Fight

    Lucius looked around the small clearing at the other children. All of them were shaking and the girl called Edra had lost consciousness from fear. His best option was to run and exit the woods alone. If he did, he would be out in under an hour.

    Something kept him there though. There was a hand on his shoulder and connected to it was a cute girl with crimson hair and green eyes. A quiet ferocity stormed behind those eyes and held him in ce.

    "Alright. I guess we are doing this." Lucius shouted, "Surround him from all sides. Make him have to choose a target!"

    Rena, Nate, Pavi, and Maribel instantly jumped to action and spaced themselves around the monster. It chose to ignore them ring squarely at the ck, haired boy. The other children gathered around Edra protecting her, but also waiting to be called upon for backup.

    Nate went to the deer''s left side and held an axe at the ready with a small shield in his off-hand. Everyone else carried a shortsword, with the exception of, Pavi, who was muchrger than the rest of them and was capable of holding a longsword without much effort.

    Rena had gone to the deer''s right side, while Pavi and Maribel took up the rear. Of course, with being the monster''s chosen target, Lucius had the front.

    Unfortunately, no one in the group focused on the bow. Rena had one strapped to her back, but Lucius really needed her on the front since she was one of the children brave enough to stand up against the monster with him. Also, something about her presence calmed him somehow.

    Once everyone had settled into position, the deer finally started to make its move. It tossed its head back in a manner that suggested it was allowing them to get ready because they would need it.

    Lucius knew he was weaker now than before, and it was more than likely the monster knew that too. He gripped his sword tightly and crouched down into a ready position.

    His fighting stance was much lower than what was taught by his father. Lucius'' sword hand was ced forward and in front of him, while his off-hand was held back and in the air in a w-like position.

    Rena side-eyed him with curiosity because she had never seen this fighting style before. Whenpared to the standard sword styles in Arcadios, this looked unrefined and sloppy.

    Lucius knew that he looked odd, but his time unconscious as well as the short time exposed to the Beast Arts gave him basic knowledge of the instinctual fighting styles that he gained from his parentage¡­whichever one that was.

    A snort interrupted his thoughts as dirt was kicked up in the air. The Alpha Deer pawed the ground and charged towards Lucius. He jumped backwards to create a momentary gap. Using this small opening, Nate lunged forward and struck at one of the deer''s legs.

    Rena followed suit with taking on a second leg, while the two children behind it jumped up to strike the monster''s haunch. It seemed to notice the danger, and wheeled around to block Nate''s axe with it''s remaining antler. This movement also pulled it''s hindquarters out of reach of Pavi and Maribel.

    Thankfully Rena''s sword was able to make contact, but it left only a shallow scratch due tock of power.

    Nate flew backwards from the monster''s counter and struck a tree with a dull thud. He groaned, which told Lucius he was still alive.

    "Michael! Jump in for Nate. Nate, rest for a moment and swap with the next person." Rena shouted.

    Lucius was shocked, it seemed she was a strategist more than a fighter. He grinned to himself despite the situation.

    Next, the monster wheeled back around at Lucius, though not before throwing a backwards kick at Pavi. Sparks scattered as he was only barely able to block the hoof from striking his sternum. Despite that, he was still pushed back several feet and his arms visibly shook from the effort.

    Maribel was able to avoid the attack thanks to Pavi, and attempted to counter by aiming for the beasts more sensitive bits. This proved to be a bad idea, as the monster chose to wheel around and body check the girl with his side.

    She too was thrown back, though it was a much lighter hit due to the awkward positioning. Both children were still in the fight.

    Lucius was not hanging back and chose to strike at the monster''s neck. He jumped up and brought his sword down for a powerful strike at the Alpha Deer''s wide-open neck.

    What he didn''t realize, until it was toote, was that the monster was rather intelligent¡­which meant this was a trap. One that the boy had fallen for.

    Having been waiting for something like this, the monster swung its head around again. It was able to recover from its attack against Maribel because it was waiting for someone to take the opening it had created.

    Lucius felt all of the air leave his lungs and heard a few unhealthy cracks around his chest before he too was thrown backwards. Memories of his first fight with this monster flooded his mind. Though from his perspective, it felt like it was literally yesterday.

    Thanks to his time spent unconscious after the first fight, he had felt¡­out of ce. His perception of time a little¡­loose. Lucius attempted to grab for his weapon next to him, but when he brought it up to his face, the sword was snapped in half.

    "Fuck. Fuck¡­" He groaned. He moved to grab the simple bow on his back, but it too was broken. "Gods dammit all!"

    Good news: his bones weren''t broken¡­most likely. Bad news: the cracking sounds were that of his weapons breaking.

    Rena nced his direction, but saw he was still alive and moving. She jumped back into action, assuming that he would take care of himself. Nate also jumped back into the fight, taking over Lucius'' opening.

    Seeing that he wasn''t needed for a moment, he took advantage to gather his breath. However, the monster had other ns.

 Chapter 22: Changing Tide

    Lucius thought that he could take a brief moment to recover and figure out his next move, however, the Alpha Deer had no ns to let that happen.

    All of the efforts made by Pavi, Rena, Nate, Maribel, and Michael were simply being shrugged off. It appeared none of them had any weaponpatibilities, so the Alpha Deer simply let the attacks hit it.

    The children started to feel dread set in. Apparently, the monster could have simply shrugged off their attacks any time it wanted. Lucius noticed the monster seem to puff its chest up in pride.

    This thing could crush them any time it wanted, but let them think they had a chance to work against it. Slowly, the monster walked towards Lucius who was still sitting on the ground.

    He began to stand, but still had no weapons in his hand.

    ''Hey kid. Want a hand?'' Grimm whispered into his head.

    ''What you going to help me now too. Just like Luz?'' Lucius asked him. His heart started to beat faster.

    "Run! Quickly! It wants me!" He found himself shouting. He didn''t know why he did that. They were just a bunch of strangers¡­though two of them were marked like he was¡­was that why?

    ''Nah, you still aren''t ready for me yet, kid. But¡­I know the other guy gave you a technique¡­I know how to make it stronger.'' Grimm offered. His raspy tone took on deeper and deeper dark undertones.

    ''What''s the price?'' Lucius gulped.

    ''Free of charge this time. See it as¡­a thank you¡­for the name. I like it. Do you ept? It is only a hint, does note with any power from me.''

    He shuddered as he could almost feel that the being was smiling.

    ''Sure. I ept.''

    ''Good. No take backsies! Look at the ground behind you, just to the right of the tree you''re slumped against. Use that to fight. Trust me¡­just this once at least.'' Grimm''s voice faded away, followed by an echoing chuckle that sent shivers down his spine.

    Lucius of course did what he was told. Even though its prey was moving around, the deer simply let him move. Just to the right of the tree was a weapon¡­of sorts¡­sticking out of the dirt.

    The de was heavily rusted and the cutting edge was beyond dulled by time. It was a machete. Likely one used by a farmer kid that had taken the trial a long time ago.

    He looked at the rusted weapon incredulously, but at this moment he had nothing to lose. Even the dagger strapped to his thigh was rather pointless given how everyone else had done nothing to really hurt the monster on their own.

    At least the machete was bigger and had further reach¡­

    Lucius cleared his head and grabbed the handle of the weapon. He was prepared to use the trick from Luz, so why not listen to Grimm as well. Grimm was creepy as hell, but he seemed to want to keep Lucius alive for some reason.

    The moment that Lucius wrapped his hand around the handle of the junk de, he felt a rush of knowledge enter his brain. It was simr to when he was granted the knowledge of Beast Arts, though much, much less intense.

    "[Forsaken Arts: Gouging Strike]!" he shouted while spinning around and swinging towards he beast that had finally reached him.

    The monster yowled in pain and leapt back. It wouldn''t put it''s front, right leg on the ground and blood dripped from a massive tear just above the knee.

    Lucius eyed the monster. "Tough luck, huh?"

    He was only feigning confidence. This still was not anywhere near enough to defeat this monster. Despite the fact he found himself with increased strength, speed, and reaction times thanks to suddenly being granted the Novice Rank thanks to his Forsaken Arts, he had struggled to survive when he had ess to Intermediate Rank temporarily.

    Lucius also did not fail to notice the confused and concerned looks he was being given by the noble girl, Rena. There was aplicated expression on her face after he used his skill.

    A few seconds after having backed off from its opponent, the deer''s leg stopped bleeding and it rested it''s hoof on the ground again. Lucius had forgotten that magical beasts and monsters could often heal quickly from smaller injuries.

    "Alright then¡­Onest trick¡­" Lucius hissed. He took a deep breath and slowly released it. A pale glow began to erupt from the mark on his hand. His breathpletely visible as if they were in the dead of winter.

    Rena and the others couldn''t help but subconsciously step back. Lucius looked the deer straight in the eyes before calling out the skill Luz gifted him. "[Celestia''s Grace: Heavenly de]"

    Rust that was marring the entire de slowly began to evaporate. Starting at the tip, a dull, blue glow spread downward towards the hilt.

    The entire area was filled with this blue light for several seconds and when it finally dissipated, Lucius stood there with a glowing, single-edged de. Rena''s jaw dropped.

    Lucius had no idea what this meant for his mark, but Luz told him it had two meanings. One that Luz represented and one that Grimm represented. This ability was from Luz.

    "Let''s try again." He taunted, "[Forsaken Arts: Gouging Strike]!"

    Faster than the first time, he swiped at the Alpha Deer''s leg. It was able to jump out of the way, but Lucius did not let up. He continued to press the attack. Swiping once, twice, three times in rapid session, he continued to push it back. None of the strikes connected, but he beat the deer back all the same, creating many openings that Nate, Pavi, Maribel, and Rena attempted to press.

    Confidence started to build, when suddenly¡­

    "[mma: Fire Bolt]"

    "[Aqua: Water Shot]"

    "[Ventus: Wind de]"

    Three different spells smacked the deer in the neck simultaneously, knocking it to the side. When the smoke and steam disappeared, Lucius was met with the dying eyes of an angry monster.

    It seemed the deer was insulted to be taken out by someone who was not its mortal enemy. To be honest¡­Lucius felt much the same.

    "Hello, cousin." A voice called out.

    He had not noticed their approach before, but a group of six children entered into the same clearing. Three of them were boys who had hair in different shades of red, and looked somewhat simr to Rena.

 Chapter 23: Pushed Too Far

    "Oh what a surprise to see you here, cousin." The boy who had cast the fire spell said. "I see you found yourself a few pawns to use."

    Rena''s face developed a deep scowl. "I just met up with these people. And they are not pawns."

    "Oh right, my bad."

    "Rena¡­who is this guy?" Lucius asked. He was very confused, but after hearing they were rted, figured things couldn''t be too bad.

    However¡­there was a sense of unease among them. The talkative one continued to speak with Rena, but after a short while, started to stare at him. The boy''s eyes were glued on the glowing sword.

    Lucius probably could have deactivated it since they were around people Rena knew¡­but again¡­that strange sense of unease was there, tingling in the back of his mind.

    "Well¡­what kind of magic is that¡­oh wait¡­your hand¡­you used your mark¡­well we know what this means, right Vik; Peter?"

    "Right you are, Thomas¡­using your mark in the trial is grounds for death." One of the two other boys, either Vik or Peter smiled.

    The main boy, identified now as Thomas, turned his smile towards Rena and Lucius. Rena had stepped in front of him and ced a hand on Lucius'' chest to keep him from attacking. It seemed she had noticed he was preparing to jump at her cousins.

    "[Ventus: Wind de]"

    There was a small yelp and then a sickening, wet thud that emanated from behind Thomas, Vik, and Peter. One of the other party members tossed a limp body in the direction where Edra and Maribel were standing. When itnded, the body''s handnded palm down, with the back showing an unknown mark.

    "Eugh¡­thought it was time to take out the trash. We had it following us as potential bait if we ran into anything that we needed to distract¡­but now that I''ve found you Rena, I can just leave. No need to carry it around anymore." Thomasughed.

    Lucius felt his hands tighten around his machete. Grimm whispered into his mind, ''Oh? Did that make you mad? Interesting¡­''

    Lucius knew that Luz was weakened still, so he had no input to offer. Though he could feel the kinder voice give off a feeling of unease at Grimm''s observation.

    "Now, surrender yourselves vermin. Rena¡­you know why we are here, so youe along too."

    "You bastards¡­" Maribel who hadn''t talked much up to now looked up at the red-headed boys with a re that could kill.

    "[Aqua: Water Ball]"

    "[Ventus: Wind de]"

    Two spells rapidly shot from Vik and Peter''s hands. Maribel was able to move, but Edra was not. Noticing the terrified girl couldn''t move, Maribel shielded her body with her own. Both spells connected, and instantly ended the girl''s life.

    Edra began screaming again and was rewarded with an arrow in center of her head. She copsed, unmoving and not breathing.

    "So annoying¡­" Thomas muttered while shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders. "Well that leaves two. Oh hey! Nate! I couldn''t recognize you with your whole¡­face thing going on. Help me take out thisst one will you?"

    Nate looked at the bodies of Edra, Maribel, and the unknown child that was with Thomas'' group. He then looked at Lucius, who returned his nce with a fierce re.

    "I¡­think I will sit this one out. I believe this to be a family issue¡­so if you will allow me to take my leave with my friends¡­"

    Thomas began tough harder. Lucius knew all too well after what his father showed him so long ago, that this world was cruel to people like him. But even he could not fathom how a mere nine-year-old child could harbor such¡­hatred and cruelty.

    "You''re sick."

    Those two words escaped the lips of the crimson-haired girl Lucius had fought with. He didn''t expect those toe from someone like her¡­someone unmarked by demons¡­and nobility.

    All Lucius could do was tilt his head quizzically.

    ''Ohe on! It was getting good¡­oh I know!'' Grimm whined. He found himself taken aback by what the voice was saying since it made no sense.

    Suddenly images of the trial he observed so long ago shed before his eyes. Faster than what he couldprehend, the visuals, smells, sounds of screaming filled his senses. The scenes of the murder of the three Marked Ones in this clearing reyed again.

    Lucius looked at the three bodiesying near each other¡­not even fifteen feet from him. His blood began to boil.

    "Why?"

    "What?" Thomas asked. He pointed the question at Lucius, who had subconsciously let lose the question in his mind.

    ''Why do they hate us¡­what did we do¡­I couldn''t leave my home except for joining mother at work. I could not train with father properly¡­I could not buy bread¡­make friends¡­my life was that of a garden and the inside of a hut¡­and yet¡­and YET¡­'' Lucius thought to himself. His left-hand, which didn''t hold his weapon began to bleed from the force of him pressing his nails into his own skin.

    ''It''s their fault you know.''

    A voice burst through his cloudy thoughts. It was deep¡­dark¡­and terrifying. He only barely recognized it as Grimm. Itcked the signature rasp and instead took on a growl.

    ''Those boys killed them. People just like you¡­you know its because of people like them you can''t be normal¡­that will stop you from ever being normal¡­it is because of them that you will live¡­and die like a dog. A mere beast.''

    Grimmughed evilly causing Lucius'' blood to turn to ice. He opened his eyes, but what he saw caused a primeval fear set into his soul. It was as if his entire being gazed into an unending abyss of darkness.

    Then the abyss spoke¡­with Grimm''s voice. ''Nice to finally meet you face to face, kid¡­I think you are ready to borrow a taste¡­of what I can offer you. Ite''s with a price of course, since you aren''t really fully ready for it¡­for now.''

    "Again with the price?"

    ''Power beyond your means alwayses with a cost, boy. And thankfully I already paid up our debt, so I can exact a new price¡­''

    "What abilities will I lose out on in the future¡­what parts of my future self, will I lose to you?"

    Grimmughed. ''Ha! No¡­I''m not so kind as Luz to trade potential for power¡­no¡­my prize is so. Much. Sweeter.''

    "What is it?"

    Lucius obviously couldn''t see anything from the yawning chasm of darkness in front of him, but he couldn''t help but think that it¡­smiled?

    ''Pain.''

    "Fine. Do it. Make me hurt, I don''t care."

    ''No takebacks boy¡­I hope it was worth it¡­ try not to borrow more than you can handle too much¡­I might gain weight!'' The voice continued tough, until it faded away into nothingness.

    Lucius regained his sight, the first thing he saw was his machete still glowing with the radiant blue light from Luz''s ability. Rena was looking at Thomas who was grinning at the two, waiting for their decision. Nate and the others had backed off, but they didn''t really leave.

    "Well? What''ll it be you two? Gonna try and fight me? Or going to give up and ept the inevitable."

    "The gods reside in Celestia." Lucius said. He locked eyes with Thomas.

    The leader, boy stared back with a slightly confused look. "Yea and?"

    "Mortals reside on the earthen ne."

    Thomas continued to stare back at him, but did not say anything.

    "But¡­what resides in the Abyss?"

    "The what now?" Vik scoffed. He and Peter stepped forward and began to walk towards Rena and Lucius. "That''s enough time. Time for you both to kick it."

    Lucius smiled. "Since you don''t know¡­why don''t we find out together¡­[Abyss Break: Cloak of Darkness]"

    Rena, Vik, Peter, and even Thomas all subconsciously took several steps away from him. The very shadows themselves seemed to dance and move before they tore themselves away and surrounded Lucius'' small frame.

    His one Silver Eye began to glow. The gray one began to turn ck¡­and then slowly took on a golden hue. Darknesspletely enveloped him, but piercing through it all, were those two glowing eyes.

    Lucius raised his weapon and pointed at the remaining boy standing behind Vik, Peter, and Thomas. It was the one that had killed the Marked One they brought with them.

    ck Tendrils shot out of the weapon and flew towards the boy. They wrapped around his legs, arms, and throat before yanking him into the darkness. He screamed and begged, wing at the dirt as he was dragged towards Lucius.

    A secondter, the screaming stopped and Lucius advanced. Rena and the rest of Lucius'' group stared in awe and fear at the mass. Every cell in their body screamed at them to run, but fear froze them in ce.

    "Where are your strong words now, Thomas? Are you ready to give up?" Lucius'' voice took on a raspy quality, not unlike Grimm. Though, the other children had never heard Grimm''s voice.

    "[mma: Firebolt], [Aqua: Water Ball]!" Thomas shouted in rapid session.

    The two spells sped towards Lucius, but before they could reach him, an enormous de erupted from the shadows and sliced both spells in half, forcing them to dissipate.

 Chapter 24: Nightmare

    Rena stood still, pinned in ce by her own body. She tried everything in her power to move, but she simply couldn''t. The boy, Lucius, had activated a different ability¡­it wasn''t magical in nature¡­she could tell that much. This had to mean that it was from his mark¡­but didn''t he use his mark earlier?

    Rena had learned a bit about marks recently and apparently they were broken down into sses: Basic, Abnormal, and Lethal. There was also a fourth ss known as "Unknown" but it simply meant that no one had tranted the mark''s meaning and did not necessarily mean they were dangerous.

    All "Lethal" ranked marks were tracked and not submitting notice of one being found was a crime in the kingdom¡­however¡­it was still possible this mark was unknown¡­which would have been fine.

    Rena decided that if she survived this, she would certainly report this to her father. Such power was unimaginable to her, and yet here it was being wielded by this boy¡­

    Lucius continued to advance towards Vik, Peter, and Thomas. The shed away spells caused them to wet themselves and a dark spot spread around their pants. This seemed to amuse Lucius as he let out a deep chuckle.

    Next, he raised his hand and reached out towards the boys again. Tendrils wrapped themselves around Vik and Peter, just as they had done before. Vik wed towards Thomas, who had fallen backwards onto his butt, however, Thomas simply kicked Vik''s hands away, terrified that he would be dragged into the darkness.

    "No! No! Monst¡­" Peter screamed as he was the first to be enveloped.

    Vik continued to be slowly dragged into the darkness, crying out "Mommy¡­please¡­daddy¡­no¡­no!"

    Their screams turned to silence, and the shadow advanced once again towards Thomas. It was at this moment that Rena finally felt like she could move. However, she locked eyes with her cousin.

    Her body screamed run, but her head told her that letting Thomas die here was a mistake for some reason. So, gathering what little courage she had, she jumped in front of her horrible cousin, or at least the only one that was left.

    As much as she hated him for his personality and his scheme to kill her, she needed him alive. He had better potential than his older brother, and that was an asset she could use to her advantage, politically.

    Suddenly she was struck with a realization¡­what changed? Why could she move¡­how could she think so clearly? And how did she jump in front of this being?

    Rena looked at the glowing eyes in the center of a swirling ck storm. She could barely make out a body in the center of it.

    "Girl."

    A voice echoed through the woods, it was raspy and bone chilling.

    "I like you¡­you have¡­potential¡­"

    "Thank you?" Rena mumbled. She couldn''t pinpoint the source of the voice with her ears, but she felt like it came from the ck mass in front of her. "Lucius?"

    "Keh! Not quite¡­Lucius isn''t with us at the moment. He''s tough¡­but killing humans¡­oh he isn''t ready for that. He was angry enough for it¡­but to actually do it, no."

    "What happened to him, what did you do?"

    "He''s fine¡­Girl, do you want to live?"

    Rena gulped. "Y-y-yes"

    "Protect this boy¡­or you and your family will join your cousins in the Abyss." The voice then seemed to focus its attention on Thomas. "And you¡­boy. I''ll let you live for now. Happy nightmares¡­Thomas."

    Before Rena could respond the darkness surrounding Lucius disappeared, and the boy dropped to the ground, unconscious. A chillingugh echoed throughout the woods before fading into nothing.

    Nate and the others came back into the clearing, doing their best to avoid making eye contact with the bodies of Edra, Maribel, and the unknown child. Rena scanned the area, but the bodies of the children taken by the shadows were gone, only small drops of blood were visible on the forest floor.

    Rena cautiously ced a finger on the boy''s neck and was able to feel a pulse. The machete he was holding was previously a rusty mess¡­but now it had a bright shine to it and almost seemed to hum with some sort of power.

    "Alright. We are going to leave here. Nate, Pavi, grab Lucius. I''ll get his weapon¡­Michael¡­keep an eye on Thomas and make sure he doesn''t start any funny business while we leave."

    Everyone snapped to attention and did as shemanded. Thanks to her father''s influence on her development, she did have a knack for ordering people around and them listening to her. Though she would also admit that since she was already identified as a member of the Petra family, that they decided to listen to her.

    The group soon left the area and made their way slowly towards the exit of the forest. The trip took a few hours due to getting turned around, avoiding other monsters, and dragging an unconscious person with them.

    When they were about to finally exit the trees, seeing shining light increase in brightness, Lucius finally awoke. Rena immediately noticed that his gray eye was still gold in color like when he used that mark¡­

    "I got him from here, you go on ahead¡­" Rena moved to help support Lucius since he was awake and able to move on his own a little.

    Nate and Pavi nodded and headed out of the woods with Michael right behind them.

    "Listen Lucius¡­I don''t know what happened back there¡­but, you are going toe serve me. In my manor."

    The ck-haired boy stared at her nkly. "Okay."

    "Look I know¡­" Rena paused and then blinked a few times. "Okay? Wow¡­didn''t¡­alright then. I will talk to my father, I guess."

    "Good."

    Both of them stepped into the light from between the trees. The evening sun had started to set in the sky. It gave of beautiful bursts of oranges and reds which stood in stark contrast to the horrors these children just witnessed. Waiting for them were a handful of guards that were stationed around the perimeter of the woods.

    They maintained this perimeter non-stop for three days, which was the maximum time allotted for the trial. After those three days, any children who had not returned were simply assumed dead.

    "Lady Rena von Petra¡­please allow me to carry that thing for you." One of the guards stepped forward to yank Lucius away.

    "Don''t touch him." Rena warned. She felt Lucius tense as his hand tightened on her shoulder.

    The guard didn''t hear her and kept reaching for the boy. This time his eyes widened and start to glow. An ominous aura began to fall off of him.

    The guard shuddered for a moment before Rena spoke up again, though louder. "It really is for the best if you don''t touch him¡­he''s like¡­a feral kitten that I found in the woods."

    Lucius'' threatening aura stopped immediately as he looked at her in shock. "Wha¡­"

    "I''m going to ask father if I can keep him. He''s just too cute."

 Chapter 25: Guilty

    "Absolutely not." Richard von Petra locked eyes with his daughter. She had brought a disheveled looking boy with ck hair and strange eyes. He of course recognized the boy as Wayne and Rubellia''s son.

    The child had visited the estate many times throughout his childhood and was always careful to avoiding into contact with either him or his daughter, as was requested. From what he knew, the boy was a good child. It was unfortunate that he was marked.

    His half-beastman lineage wasn''t a concern since that meant the boy had great potential and would have been a great addition to the domain''s military¡­though with the recent changes in the kingdom''s policies¡­maybe¡­

    A strange sensation tingled at the back of his mind and it continued to increase in noticeability as he continued to think about the situation. Richard looked around the room to try and find the source of the feeling. His daughter and Lucius looked at him quizzically, and suddenly the situation was gone.

    The strange anxiety having been exchanged for quiet calm. Soon his thoughts turned to the events of the woods he had been told of. Rena and Lucius admitted to the boy using his mark to defend themselves, a crime worth the punishment of death in his domain. However if one considered how the boy saved his daughter¡­the sensation came back momentarily.

    ''No, a crime is a crime and rules like this cannot be bent,'' Richard thought. When that thought passed through his mind, the ufortable sensation dissipated again.

    "Lucius. You havemitted the crime of using your mark during our sacred trials. Do you know the punishment for this?"

    "Father!" Rena objected.

    He silenced her cry with a hand. Thomas was also present along with his father, and the parents of Vik and Peter who were reportedly killed by Lucius'' mark. Standing in the back with solemn looks were also Lucius'' parents, Rubellia and Wayne.

    Rubellia''s face was surprisingly stoic, just like her husband''s, though his was expected. This told Richard that they were prepared for this to have happened because of the trial. Of course, Marked Ones resorting to using their marks in times of stress was decentlymon¡­

    As he began to think of leniency for the boy, the ufortable tingle returned. It seemed that some part of him subconsciously would not allow him to pardon the boy. Though, that made sense. He did personally y two of Richard''s nephews inbat, yet another crime punishable by death¡­

    He was sure that Thomas, Vik, and Peter had attempted to harm his daughter, but at the moment it was Thomas'' word against Rena''s. Richard had attempted to interview the other children present, but all of them imed to have not witnessed the events.

    ording to them all they saw was a shadow attacking his three nephews. It was strange though, since their eyes would cloud over every time they tried to recall what happened in the clearing, and as such they could not provide an urate ount of what really urred.

    Of course, Lucius was the used, amoner, and a Marked One, so his word held no weight; leaving this entire situation as Rena''s word against Thomas'' word. No matter how much he wanted to believe his daughter, and knew in his heart that she was telling the truth, the other branch families would rise against him for blindly choosing ''favorites'' in the situation.

    Since the only thing for certain was that Lucius admitted to the deaths of Vik and Peter, and admitted to the use of his mark¡­his hands were tied.

    "Rena. Thomas. I am unable to corroborate either of your ounts due to the other children present being unable to exin what they saw. As such, any allegations regarding Thomas'', Vik''s, and Peter''s attacks on Rena are dismissed as hearsay." Richard sighed.

    "But¡­I understand father¡­" Rena sighed. She looked indignantly at him, and then red at Thomas who had a slight smile teasing the corner of his mouth.

    "As for Lucius. Since all three parties confirm that you indeed used your mark in our sacred trial as well as confirmed you were responsible for the deaths of two members of the Petra household¡­You are sentenced to death."

    "Father! No! You cannot do that! I''m sure he did not know of the crime of his mark¡­and for my cousins, he acted in self-defense! He had no way of knowing who they were¡­" Rena cried out. Tears fell from her face.

    He found it strange that the girl seemed so attached to the boy she only met yesterday in the woods, however there was something else there¡­fear? Why would she be afraid?

    "Rena¡­" Richard said slowly. "Ignorance of thew does not relieve one of the guilt of breaking it."

    "Yes¡­father¡­" Once again the look on his daughter''s face was one of abject horror which faded into a strange defeated eptance¡­

    "Lord Petra¡­if I may?" a voice called out from the back of the room.

    The source of the words was the boy''s father, Wayne. He stepped forward calmly. Only the sounds of nking metal could be heard in the room as he strode forward. Everyone maintained an almost reverent silence, as if they knew what was about to happen.

    Wayne was a very aplished swordsman, was the guard captain, and was a Master Rank warrior, which made him one of the strongest fighters in the domain. Richard''s brother began to open his mouth and speak, but one look from the Lord of the house shut him up quickly.

    "Ignorance of thew indeed does not absolve guilt¡­however, guilt should be ced upon the source. Especially if someone else manipted him intomitting the crime. For years I have exposed Lucius to the truth. The truth of how people like him are treated.

    "For years I trained him and groomed him to be a survivor. I told him every day that in his trial he must do anything it takes to survive, no matter what it takes¡­"

    Everyone listened to the warrior speak. They all knew what he was doing. Even Rubellia, who was still at the back of the room, seemed aware of what was happening. It appeared that they both resigned themselves to this fate as if it were always a possibility.

    "It is well-known that my father was also marked, and so I have a soft spot for people like him. Of course, Lucius is my only son as well, so I did what I could to give him the best life one like him can have. As such¡­his actions were not out of ignorance of thew, but rather a result of maniption by an adult who should have known better."

    Richard simply stood their and looked at the man who had fought beside him in countless battles. Wayne''s face was that of stone-cold resolution. His words, his posture, and his eyes begged no other options. Wayne was willing, ready, and desired to shoulder the weight of his son''s crimes.

    "It is as you say, Sir Wayne. Being manipted intomitting a crime does indeed shift the me to the one who did the manipting." He muttered. "¡­very well¡­my friend.

    Lucius shall be absolved of guilt, and instead you, Sir Wayne of Pelith, Captain of the guard of house Petra, are hereby found guilty of inciting violence towards your lord''s family, encouraging a Marked One tomit heinous acts, and viting ournd''s sacred trials."

    Richard paused and took a deep breath. "You are sentenced to death."

 Chapter 26: Time to Collect

    Lucius looked at his father, distraught, tears beginning to blur his vision. "Father, no! Please, no! I did it, take me!"

    Lucius lunged to grab his father, but felt a sudden force throw him back across the room, only being stopped by the wall at the other end. He was forcefully deprived of all the air in his lungs from the impact. A dull throb began to take over his sternum. When he looked up, Lucius saw his father recovering from a striking position.

    Right before he had reached his father, Wayne delivered a powerful palm strike to his chest. Rubellia ran up to him and put her hands around him, stroking his ck hair.

    "It will be alright, my love."

    "No! Mother, please! I did it, don''t let them! Father didn''t¡­all he wanted¡­I should have¡­NO!"

    Despite putting everything into his struggle, his mother managed to hold him back. Whatever kind of strike his father delivered had temporarily paralyzed him.

    "No sto¡­"

    "Lucius." Wayne interrupted. "Your mother and I were prepared for this. We discussed all possibilities. I know in ournds, our children must grow up before they are ready¡­children like you, doubly so.

    "Despite that¡­you are still my son, and I wanted to give you the world if I could¡­but since I can''t do that, I can at least give you a chance at life. Rubellia, be well, my love." Wayne turned his back to them and faced the Lord. "Lord Petra. I am ready."

    "So be it, my friend." Lord Petra drew his sword and waited for Wayne to kneel before him.

    Lucius could not see his father clearly through the tears streaming down his face. No matter how hard he wailed, sound seemed to note out. He couldn''t hear anything anymore, but he saw Rena desperately trying to argue with her father, tugging at his cloak and arm. She seemed desperate to do anything to stop this from happening.

    The Lord called for a guard to pull her away. She iled, but could do nothing towards a grown man, so she looked over at Lucius with sad eyes.

    "Thank you for your many years of service. Anyst words, Sir Wayne."

    "Yes, Lord Petra. Please continue to provide for Rubellia¡­and if you can, allow my son to protect the youngdy. On my honor, he will protect her till his dying breath. To break that promise, he would spit on my grave."

    Wayne looked at his son as his words echoed throughout the chamber. All Lucius could do was nod in confirmation. If his father demanded it¡­then as repayment for his sacrifice, he would do as requested.

    "If that is your dying wish my old friend¡­So be it." Richard von Petra sighed. He raised his sword hand and with one quick sh of light, it disappeared and then reappeared on the other side of Wayne. For a moment nothing happened, but then Wayne''s head slowly slid off his neck and rolled along the floor. There was a wet thud as his body soon toppled.

    Lucius felt his mother''s hands tighten around him, pulling him closer into his embrace. The entirety of the world turned into a blurry mess. Tears fell onto his hands as he sobbed. His hair became wet as his mother too grieved at the loss of her husband.

    For an hour the two wailed and sobbed until there was nothing left inside them to cry. They continued to sit there with shaking and trembling shoulders. Life, for a moment, felt meaningless to both of them.

    Rubellia of course whispered into Lucius ear that she did not me him and that they knew this would happen one day. No, she med the world. Not Lord Petra. Not Lucius.

    Of course he was inclined to agree with her. It was this world''s fault. All because he was born differently¡­with power they feared¡­though unlike his mother, Lucius also med himself for not being strong enough to survive this without resorting to his mark''s power.

    Lord Petra and Rena stood in the room, still as statues. They did not move tofort the grieving duo, nor did they speak. Instead, they simply listened to mother and child break and allowed the weight of what had happened press down on them both.

    For a moment, everyone felt a simultaneous chill run down their spines. Though for Lucius, he also heard in his head in Grimm''s voice, ''It was time to collect¡­and your payment was oh so sweet. Kekeke.''

    "Lucius. You are to report to the manor at dawn in two days. You and Rubellia will be provided rooms here at the estate. Gather that which you value and be here. Lucius, you will serve as my daughter''s protector. Fail, and you will pay with your life, and Rubellia with hers.

    I am taking the final words of my friend to heart. Do not disappoint." The lord stated before leaving the room with his daughter and staff.

    All that remained in the room were Lucius and his mother, neither of which were eager to return home and remove all their memories from their quaint little cottage.

    *****

    "Mylene¡­what is wrong with Derrik, he seemed out of it this morning when I caught him on his way to his post. Speaking of, you also seem¡­off today." Adellia pressed.

    She had been worried about her friend sincest night after they received an urgent letter. Apparently someone paid a pretty penny to put that document in their hand quickly, so it was clear that it was important.

    Mylene looked at her with sad eyes. "We received poor news. A member of Derrik''s family passed away."

    "Oh my! Do you need time? Lyrah and I can care for ourselves while you take care of your husband." Adellia touched Mylene''s shoulder, stopping her from continuing to clean the room. "Please, Mylene, tell me."

    "Do you wish to know, Adellia? Truly?"

    "Yes."

    "Wayne passed away."

    "Oh, Mylene¡­I know that he and Derrik were close¡­I am so sorry for your loss."

    Adellia carefully pulled Mylene into a tight embrace and felt small sobs begin to wrack her body. Natali and Lyrah peeked into the door, but closed it gently before leaving after seeing their mother''s hugging and Mylene crying.

    All she could do to offer her friendfort was to be there as a support. Adellia attempted to focus her thoughts on Wayne''s wife, Rubellia, and activate her mark to see if the woman would be alright. She thought that maybe it could provide some form of constion to Mylene and her husband. However, the moment she attempted to do so, she felt a strange blockage.

    "Hmm. That''s strange¡­"

    "What is Adellia?"

    "Oh¡­nothing¡­I just tried to look for something."

    "Mistress, did you try to look for the dream you had before Lyrah was born? You know you haven''t been able to see it again since that night."

    A look of consternation stered itself on the woman''s face. It was true. Ever since Mylene had taken the other child away from her that night, she had been unable to repeat the prophetic dream she had prior to their birth.

    She still remembered every part of the dream and every ounce of fear. The block on trying to see Rubellia felt very simr to when trying to see that dream again. This was something that struck Adellia as very odd.

    asionally there were things that she was not allowed to see, but it was very rare to ur.

    "Tell me, Mylene, how is Natali doing in her training?"

    "Oh¡­yes¡­Derrik says she is doing well. She tries to be quiet, but I can hear her practicing every night in her room with her Mark of Recall." Mylene giggled. "I let her think she is seeding with hiding her secret. It''s just too cute!"

    "Ah, yes. They are adorable at that¡­age¡­oh¡­" Adellia began to feel faint.

    She moved to sit on the bed, slowly losing strength in her legs. Her vision clouded over, one of thest things she saw in the room before it with something else, was Mylene rushing over with a concerned look on her face.

    Once the cloudiness faded away, Adellia found herself watching over a battlefield. There was a beautiful young Lupine-Beastman with blonde hair. She had ''shifted'' to her more bestial form, which was showcased by her teeth having turned into fangs and fur covering parts of her arms and legs.

    She had had cute wolf-ears on her head and an adorable tail. Though, despite being so cute, Adellia noticed that the girl was covered in blood. Soon, she realized that she was observing a battlefield.

    The terrain was rocky and barren. Bodies were strewn across the ground. She recognized the symbols on the armor as crest of Alorek, five ck w marks. The girl wore light, leather armor and had a small shield with the face of a roaring bear, which was the symbol of the beastman nation of Eroa.

    "Where is that boy¡­" the wolf-girl muttered.

    She was currently alone on the battlefield, surrounded by fallen soldiers. It was in as day that she was a powerful warrior. Suddenly, Adellia felt another presence on the battlefield. It was familiar, yet not, and she could not ce where she had felt it before.

    The wolf-girl''s ears twitched and she turned around with an excited look on her face running towards the source of the presence. She jumped into the chest of an unknown figure. For some reason, no matter how hard Adellia tried to make out what the person looked like, she could not see his face or body.

    All the same, the girl squeezed the waste of the boy tightly. "There you are. You were supposed to meet me a while ago."

    "Sorry."

    Even with just the one word, Adellia could tell that it was devoid of emotion. The words of a broken man. What had he seen? What had he been through to sound like that? She did not know why, but for some reason the thought of this unknown entity feeling that way, broke Adellia''s heart.

    A momentter, the vision faded and she opened her eyes again to see Mylene sitting beside her and dabbing her head with wet cloth.

    "Everything okay?"

    "Yes¡­I just saw a vision of a lupine-beast man¡­a girl¡­maybe fifteen, sixteen? She was with a boy¡­though I couldn''t make out his face¡­" Adellia exined while Mylene began to write down the exnation to give to the Elders.

    "They stood in the middle of a rocky outcropping¡­it was rather barren, though littered with bodies donning the symbol of Alorek. The girl was Eroan¡­she had been looking for this mysterious figure, though I don''t know why."

    Mylene nodded along as she wrote down every detail of the vision. She then left the room and pulled a rope that was connected to a bell on a lower floor. This signaled that the Oracle had a vision and the notes from that vision were ready to be retrieved.

    Adellia had no idea why she had such a strange vision. It was short¡­and seemed pointless in a way. All it really showed was some powerful girl and a boy she seemed to have a crush on¡­though she could not help but wonder who that mysterious person was and why she could not make out his features.

 Chapter 27: New Normal [Part 1]

    Several weeks after Wayne''s death, Rubellia fell into a new routine. She had returned to living in the manor as she did before she married Wayne. Though now, she had a proper room and was not made to stay in the servant''s quarters.

    Originally, the n was for her son to stay in the room with her, but apparently the youngdy requested that he be ced in a servant''s room joined to her own. No matter how hard Rubellia thought, she could not fathom why the youngdy took such an interest in Lucius, but it was good for him.

    The kingdom as well as its ally nations had paused forced conscription into the military for Marked Ones, and opened avenues for them to really participate in society. They could now be adventurers and attend schools¡­though the suddenness of the change was sketchy to say the least.

    Prior to these changes, all that she and Wayne could have hoped for Lucius was to make it to the age of fifteen where the conscription took effect¡­now he had other options.

    Though it was always possible for him to avoid conscription by being directly brought into the service of a noble house, like what ended up happening anyways, that was not a future that she and Wayne could count on for him.

    Rubellia sat on the edge of her bed. It wasrge enough for two people and every day, it felt more and more empty. Every night, she would sit and think about the past¡­the beautiful rose petals that Wayne had scattered on the steps of her parents'' home when he asked for her hand¡­his handsome smile twisted into nervousness, fear, and love when holding Lucius for the first time¡­

    "I miss you so much¡­" Rubellia whimpered as she once again cried herself to sleep.

    *****

    Richard sat in his study and sighed for the fifteenth time in just as many minutes. The documents in front of him were the same ones that he had read a few times already thanks to him being distracted.

    Something told him that what happened with Wayne was the wrong solution. In essence he had traded a strong, loyal warrior who was a Master Rank and traded him for a boy with an unpredictable and unknown mark as well as had Compatibility with Forsaken Arts.

    Ever since the boy''s recruitment as a personal attendant to his daughter he had failed to activate his mark. From the ounts of Rena, Thomas, and Lucius himself, it seems his abilities have two sides. It was very rare¡­but some marks have multiple abilities.

    Essentially a mark was a symbol from the ancient demonnguage. That power, ability, or sometimes¡­concepts¡­that those symbols represented, told you the power the mark possessed. For example, a mark that said ''fireball'' would allow the user to use that spell, even if they have zero magic capability.

    Sometimes these symbols had inverse definitions. Like anguage whose letter said one thing when read normally, but said the opposite when read upside down.

    It was thatst one that seemed to be the mark on this boy''s hand. Everyone present remembered that Lucius had called out an activation phrase for the mark before using it''s ability, which was also unique.

    Activation phrases were used in magic and skill activation, but not usually with marks. That was why a warrior might say "de Arts" before saying the skill, or a mage might say "mma" before using a fire spell. A mark usually has no requirements, so a mark of fireball, the user would literally just say "fireball" or sometimes, not even say anything at all.

    Only exceptionally powerful marks required activation phrases¡­so regardless of what the mark said, it was clear that Lucius had a lethal-grade power. The reason Richard was sighing while thinking about this was that he had settled the boy into a training regimen that was designed to help him activate his mark.

    Nothing was working though. No matter what they put him through, it resulted in nothing, and it was clear the boy was still trying. Many times he would return from his training pouring sweat and covered in bruises. He certainly did notck for effort.

    Though, even if he did not awaken his mark''s abilities again, he was at least still getting formal weapon training. Of course, he could not find someone to teach the boy about Forsaken Arts skills and styles. Hiring someone like that would besmirch the Petra family name merely by association.

    Lucius was exempt from that rule since he was a Marked One. He was not viewed by society atrge as a hireling so much as a possession or a tool, and tools themselves did not inherently possess honor.

    Another thing that bothered Richard was that his daughter seemed rather¡­taken with her new attendant. When he was not training, he was by her side. She even demanded he be ced in the servant quarters connecting to her room.

    There was nothing Richard could really do to stop her, as having quick ess to Rena was certainly something that a personal guard would have¡­but still it did unsettle him a little.

    Thankfully the boy did not seem to care one way or another. He seemed rather unsocialized even for amoner and did not seem to take notice of Rena''s behaviors. Rather he seemed to view it as just some quirk of nobility. Rubellia also attempted to assure him that Lucius was a good boy and would do nothing to vite Wayne''s final promise.

    Being reminded of Wayne''s words and promise of his son''s service did help calm Richard a little. While Lucius was surprisingly hard to read, he was very clearly a fiercely loyal boy and if that loyalty could be redirected to his daughter, it would be great for her.

    Richard quickly returned to his documents. In front of him was a letter confirming that a messenger from the Royal Academy in the Capital was arriving to test his daughter for her magical Compatibilities¡­

    "Huh¡­guess I should test the boy too. We only know of his currently useless mark and his Forsaken Arts¡­he might have talent in magic." Richard mumbled

 Chapter 28: New Normal [Part 2]

    Rena winced as she watched Lucius get thrown out of the ring again. Today was hand to handbat. He was disallowed the use of his Forsaken Arts during training and was responsible for incorporating his movements with those skills on his own. None of the trainers were willing to put up with being in a match with those skills if they could avoid it.

    Some trainers took out their dislike of Lucius'' abilities on him while training him. Most did not even want to be in charge of teaching him at all, but were forced to do so by her father.

    Lucius for thest few months had been training with unarmedbat and swordbat. He also had a random old mane to try and help him activate his mark. The old man was rather¡­odd. His name was apparently Wace Carmichael and he was a rtive of the Carmichael family, another powerful family equal in strength to the Petra family.

    Wace was¡­an odd duck to say the least. To Rena, he looked like your typical great-grandpa with a long white beard, balding head, and too many wrinkles to count. Yet despite his obvious age, he moved around like a young man.

    He was also quite the aplished mage, being a King Rank magician with Compatibilities with all four Elemental magics; fire, water, earth, and wind, as well as all four Transcendent magics; magma, ice, thunder, and metal.

    He spent most of his life as a researcher and was absolutely obsessed with marks, especially strange and unknown ones like Lucius'' mark.

    "You okay?" Rena asked the boy who hadnded on the ground next to her.

    They were using the training room that she had used since she received special permission from her father.

    "Eurgh¡­" Lucius groaned and wretched. However, he did not respond and simply got up from the ground.

    Rena could tell he was starting to get a little mad because his extra canine teeth started to sharpen, and his eyes began to glow. As a half-beastman he could not ''shift'' like a normal beastman could. He also wouldn''t gain any crazy advantages like a normal beastman either, his senses would improve, but his body strength, agility, all pretty much stayed the same or only improved slightly.

    A full-blooded beastman who shifted would double, triple, or in some cases quadruple all their physical abilities. Lucius had at best a chance to get a fifty percent improvement across the board.

    Still, the boy got up, jumped back in the ring and resumed his sparring session. The trainer got into a low stance with one palm held out, and his other hand held back in a fist. Lucius matched his stance and waited for the trainer to make the first move.

    She was barely able to see the trainer leap forward, leaving a cloud of dust where he was once standing. He almost instantly closed the gap between himself and Lucius, leading with a punch towards the boy''s sternum.

    Lucius then twisted and ducked, making the strike only catch air where he used to be. He used this opening to make an uppercut aimed at the trainer''s elbow. It seemed he was worried about striking a more vital area like the chin or throat for some reason. Maybe there was a false opening or something? Rena was not quite sure.

    The strike connected and resulted in a strange cracking sound. Unfortunately, the sound did note from the trainer. Rather, it came from Lucius as the unarmed master had taken advantage of Lucius exposing himself for this uppercut by striking with his opposite hand. Hended a sharp jab right into the side of Lucius'' ribcage.

    Once again, the boy was flung backwards, though this time he managed to recover and roll into a crouched position. He was heaving and wincing at every breath as if he might have broken something.

    "Ouch¡­that had to hurt." Rena mumbled. Which earned her a re from Lucius.

    The trainer grinned and leapt forward again, but even faster than before. This time he nted his foot solidly within Lucius'' sternum which sent him flying out of the ring entirely once again. He again came to a stop right next to his crimson haireddy.

    Rena smiled slyly and leaned down. "Nice one. I think you almost had him."

    She had grown ustomed to teasing him and when in private, he would tease her back. Of course, he would never do it around anyone else for fear of being overheard, but Rena did not miss the opportunity to tease him no matter where they were. Whenever they were around other people, Lucius could do nothing about her remarks other than take it.

    "Pft¡­whatever." He grumbled before spitting blood onto the ground.

    A maid who specialized in Light magic came over to tend to his wounds. She was a friend of Rubellia''s and had been Rena''s personal maid for her entire life.

    "[Lux: Advanced Heal]"

    Golden light shone from her hand and formed a series of orbs that floated to various parts of Lucius'' body. She made sure to heal the underlying injuries, but she left behind the bruises and scratches.

    Rena did not understand, but Lucius had directly requested this. Something about reminders of his loss or something like that.

    "Thank you so much Meriam." Lucius whispered in gratitude. It was about all he could do since he had been holding a majority of his breath so as not to hurt his broken ribs by simply breathing.

    "Of course. It is a pleasure to assist another of mydy''s servants." Meriam acknowledged in a monotone voice.

    Rena smiled at her. Even though she showed little emotion on her face or through her voice, Meriam was a very kind and gentle soul. She was happy to learn that Meriam apparently knew about Lucius'' existence for many years and had no issues working alongside him as another of Rena''s retainers.

    "Well¡­tomorrow you meet up with Lord Carmichael again! Shall we return to our quarters and rest, Lucius? You seem rather¡­tired." Rena said with a wide grin.

    "Ugh¡­" the boy groaned. "Wally is back already¡­that old fogey is nuts I tell you¡­always poking and prodding me like I am some sort of caged animal."

    All Rena could do was giggle. Even Miriam had a small smile tug at her lips¡­or at least as much as one could on her stone face. It was true, Lord Carmichael demanded that he be called ''Wally'' instead. He had a great interest in Lucius and the fact that he had an unknown mark with inverse meanings.

    Rena made it a habit to attend all of Lucius'' training and education sessions because she thought it seemed fun. She particrly enjoyed the ones with Wally because he was so sweet and always brought her chocte cookies as a present. Lucius onlyined because he would only get his hands pped with a ruler for not paying attention.

    While Rena was busy teasing Lucius, a butler entered the room with a strange man in robes following him.

    "Lady Rena." The butler dered. "¡­and Lucius¡­Lord Richard von Petra has requested that the Royal Academy of Arcadios send a representative to determine your magical Compatibilities, if any exist."

    The robed man produced from his clothes a white orb about the size two adult fists. One could almost mistake it for a pearl that was the color of freshly fallen snow.

    "Please Lady Rena von Petra¡­I invite you to touch the orb. Nothing else is needed from you."

    Rena smiled because she had heard from her fatherst month that she was getting herpatibilities tested for magic. She had long given up on finding any weaponpatibilities. She had even secretly held Lucius'' machete on the off chance she did have Forsaken Arts, but that resulted in nothing.

    Rena eagerly walked up to the man and ced her right hand on the orb. Lucius stood directly to her diagonal, behind her, as required of his position.

    A moment after making contact with the orb it quickly shed several colors; a deep blue, a pale green, a dull gray, and finally a bright white.

    "Congrattions. It seems you have Compatibilities in Water, Wind, Metal, and Light magics Lady Rena." The robed man said with a bow.

    "Yay!" she shouted as she jumped up and down for joy. "Okay, okay¡­ Your turn Lucius¡­what kind of awesome skills does my personal guard have?!"

    The robed man rose from his bow and casually offered the orb to Lucius, who casually ced his right hand on it. For a moment nothing happened, then it began to yellow hue before fading into nothing and returning to its original state.

    "It looks like the boy has Compatibility with one magic, Thunder Magic. Extremely rare for humans, but it appears you have beastman lineage? Still even for them it is rather rare. Congrattions."

    "Oh my you are so cool Lucius!" Rena said excitedly, momentarily forgetting she was aroundpany. Miriam and the butler gave her a raised brow, but said nothing.

    Lucius of course shook his head at her, but smiled nheless. As for Rena she could not take the massive grin off of her face that she finally had skills to master. She was also a little sad since she would not be able to spend as much time watching Lucius train though, since she would likely receive tutge from a personal instructor as well.

 Chapter 29: Tea and History

    "Mistress, please." Natali whispered.

    "Oh,e on Natali, can it with the mistress crap! We''ve known each other for our whole lives!" Lyrah stated.

    She eyed her best, and only, friend with mild annoyance. As per usual, there was no reaction. Her face was as stoic as ever. Natali had a problem with expressing how she was feeling with both her words and her face.

    Granted the words part was hard for her since she still struggled with her childhood injury¡­but that did not exin why she couldn''t fix her face.

    All Lyrah could do was sigh in resignation. They were currently sitting on the balcony of the Oracle''s tower enjoying some tea together and chatting about the same things they always talked about, Lyrah''s dreams and prophecies. She was still receiving training from her mother on how to interpret prophecies appropriately so she was not required to report any of them to the elders like her mother was.

    However, if in the process of determining what the interpretation of a prophecy was they found out that it was important, they would still provide notice just in case. Unlike her mother, she was also still unable to purposefully trigger her dreams.

    While neither of them could choose to receive a new revtion, their mark does allow them to see a previous revtion again at will. It was this along with interpretation that her mother was still trying to help Lyrah with.

    "Mistre¡­Lyrah." Natali interjected. "Have you had any more of¡­those¡­dreams? You know¡­the ones about¡­him?"

    Natali maintained her expressionless face, but she began to fidget in ce a little and fumble with her hands. Lyrah could not help but squee in her own mind at how adorable her friend was.

    "No new ones again unfortunately¡­you know I''m starting to get a little jealous¡­are you developing a crush on the broody bad boy? What are you going to do if you ever meet him?"

    "I¡­don''t know¡­" Natali whispered.

    Lyrah smirked and sipped her tea. They were thirteen now and after all these years, her friend''s interest in the boy had basically developed into an obsession. It would be a few years until it happened, but if her dreams were right, Lyrah already knew what Natali would do after finally meeting this strange boy.

    "Never mind that now I guess¡­" She said with a dismissive wave of her hands. "How has training with your father been going?

    "Mmm¡­good. I broke into the Beginner Rank yesterday. Father thinks at this rate I might make Intermediate before we are eligible for the Royal Academy. My mark pairs amazingly well with my Dagger Arts."

    Lyrah had learned that Natali not only had Dagger Arts, but it was also found out she could use both water and ice magic. Unfortunately for Lyrah, she had no Compatibilities with any Arts or magic. Granted, Lyrah would never be required to fight anyone since she was the next Oracle, but it still made her pout.

    "Mistress, you are pouting like a child." Natali pointed out.

    "I am a child! And so are you!" sheined with her lower lip sticking out even more.

    At this point, she was d that Natali could still onlymunicate at a whisper level. Around two years ago, when Natali was around eleven still, she started being able to whisper a sentence at a time without pain. Now she could carry on hours long conversations, though increasing volume seemed impossible for her to do.

    The moment she did try to speak any louder than a whisper, her voice would crack and disappear. Strangely, this did not apply to activation phrases for her Arts or her magic¡­

    "Mistress¡­I believe it is time for us to return to our studies. We have dyed long enough."

    "Noooo¡­I don''t wanna." Lyrah whined.

    "Mistress. If you wish to ever attend the Royal Academy, then you must keep up with your studies. You were lucky to be granted the opportunity to attend, where your mother was never able. Do make sure to take advantage of your circumstances and do not dither them away."

    "Ugh¡­fine."

    Both girls looked at each other and giggled before pulling out their notebooks and returning to studying their notes. Their current focus was on ancient religious history, specifically the Age of Strife. This was entry level knowledge that was required to be known by any potential student to any educational institution in the world.

    From what Lyrah had learned so far, the Age of Strife ended over two-thousand years ago when thest Great Demon fell in battle. For five hundred years before that, the demons ruthlessly ruled over the other mortal races with an iron fist. The other races served one purpose, to be pawns in games of war between other demons, not unlike how Marked Ones are treated today.

    Demons rose to power over the other races when they tricked the gods into blinding themselves to the events of the earthen ne. No one knows how they did it, but it was believed the demons had ess to a power separate from the mana that empowered Arts and magic that the other races could use.

    It was originally thought that the demons had gone extinct and were hunted down to thest being, but a few hundred years after thest Great Demon fell, and thest bastions of their civilizations had been overgrown by nature, the Marked Ones first appeared; children born with symbols of the demon''snguage permanently adorning the skin on their left hand.

    The first children born this way had their hands removed, but the marks would return elsewhere on the child''s body, only being stopped when the child themself was dead. Only at that point was it finally realized that some demons had to have hidden among the other races and spread their seed amongst the popce.

    Soon the other races began putting Marked Ones to death at birth, but the number born continued to rise. Finally, it was decided that they could be put to use the way the other races were used by the demons; pawns in war.

    "Do we really have to know all this Natali¡­it is sooo depressing to have to read all this stuff about our marks." Lyrah whined yet again.

    Natali simply sighed. "Yes mistress."

 Chapter 30: The Adventurers Guild

    "Hey¡­wake up."

    "Mmm¡­"

    "Dumbass, get out of bed or I''m going to zap you."

    "¡­as if you could, you useless cat." Rena finally mumbled as she pushed away the finger prodding her cheek.

    Today was like any other day, she simply wanted to sleep inte, but her annoying, formerly feral cat was once again pestering her for his morning meal.

    "Ass¡­anyway if you don''t get up we will bete getting to the guild, you still wanted to join right? You have been pestering your father for permission for a few years now for it¡­but I know you noble girl types; so quick to change your mind on a whim."

    Instantly, Rena shot up and threw off her nkets. The covers softlynded on Lucius'' head, covering himpletely. He did not move to remove it because he was aware that his mistress was currently changing while he was in the room. Rena giggled with excitement as she quickly changed out of her nightclothes and into her adventurer outfit.

    She put on a in white shirt and skin-tight pants that allowed her a full range of movement while still providing at least some barrier between her skin and the elements. Over the shirt was a lightly padded leather chest piece that protected her chest and abdomen. Her legs had leather shin guards, thigh guards, and simple leather boots.

    Finishing off the ensemble were a set of bracers, fingerless gloves and a light cloak with a hood.

    Essentially, she looked like a blend between a mage and a scout. This was her preferredbat uniform since she was a midrange fighter despite only having Compatibilities in magic. Other than magic, her other specialty was strategy and she did her best in the midrange, being able to rapidly respond to problems as they ur and instantly issue orders.

    When she was finally finished changing, she walked over and pulled the nket''s off of her friend''s head. Underneath it was a pair of shining eyes, an annoyed face, and ruffled, unkempt hair.

    "You really should be more presentable, you know. You are a servant of the illustrious house Petra." Rena giggled as she teased out Lucius'' hair to put it back into a somewhat presentable fashion. The boy normally kept slightly longer hair that he mostly finger brushed for a few seconds once he got out of bed.

    "My hair was fine before you covered me with a nket you know."

    "You preferred that I didn''t cover your face? What a perverted thought about your benefactor."

    "Shut up." Luciusughed.

    Rena gave him a small smile. He had served as her bodyguard for the better part of four almost five years. Their current rtionship started off thanks to running into each other during a deadly trial in the woods outside their hometown, and then proceeded to end with his father''s death by her father''s hand¡­

    Thinking back on things like this gave her a sense of guilt every time.She also had vague memories of being forced into a promise of protecting Lucius by whatever dark entity was in the woods with them that day, but honestly that promise had basically no impact on why she chose to be his friend instead of just protecting him.

    All of these thoughts passed through her mind as she bid goodbye to several of the staff on her way out of the manor. She followed Lucius as he led the way through town. It was rtively early in the morning for her, but apparently for themon people in town, this was already a booming and active part of the day.

    The cobblestone street down the main thoroughfare was littered with people visiting stalls, shops, and bars¡­though for the life of her, Rena could not understand the need to drink at so early in the morning.

    "Hey, Lucius." Rena asked. "Are you really sure you are okay with joining the Adventurer''s guild?"

    She was worried about him because despite having shown his strength in the woods so long ago, he had not been able to advance beyond the Novice Rank. Rena had advanced into the Beginner Rank a long time ago and was currently well on the path to Intermediate already. On top of that, even though he had Compatibility with Thunder magic, he had still yet been able to activate a spell of any kind.

    "Yeah, it should be fine. I canpensate for my rank a little bit thanks to my beastman senses. I make a good scout¡­besides I have to follow you around wherever I go, don''t I?"

    "Aww what a sweet kitty you are!" Rena giggled, which earned her a loud groan.

    He was not wrong though. Lucius'' exceptional sense of sight, smell, and hearing were a boon to any group wanting to track creatures or people. His body was also built for it since he was tall and lean. Essentially the boy had the perfect build for the job. He could also at least hold his own against Beginner rank fighters long enough to escape or hold out for help.

    Rena found herself lost staring at his back, tracing his muscles outlined by his clothes that had grown tighter around his upper body¡­

    "Hey, weirdo, you there?"

    Lucius'' voice snapped her back to the present. "Huh, wha?"

    "I said we are here like five times, but you were just zoning out."

    In front of them was arge, stone building with giant oak doors. One was currently propped open and a number of strange looking people kept walking in and out of it. They varied from massive warriors carrying axes the size of Rena''s whole body, to short and thin mages equipped with only robes. This had to have been the first time that she had seen so many different types of people in one ce.

    There were plenty of humans and a few elves.

    She also kind of expected to see beastmen, but apparently they don''t tend to make it this far into human kingdoms due to general racial issues. It made sense though, the same could be said for humans when one got deep into beastman or elf territories.

    "So this is it, huh?"

    "Yep. The Adventurer''s guild you''ve been begging your father to let you join for several years. Every bit as grand as you expected?"

    Rena sighed. "It is actually rather in, though the people seem¡­interesting."

    "Wee to reality, Rena."

    A small blush came to her cheeks. It did not happen often because of their respective positions, but she loved to hear her namee from Lucius'' mouth. ''Thank the gods he isn''t looking at me right now.'' She thought.

    "Anyway, what was the n again?"

    "We were going to be adventurers, earn the rights to enter the dungeon between here and the capital, then fight through the dungeon until the next Grand Raid."

    She nodded in affirmation. A Grand Raid was supposed to be happening in a handful of months. It was a massive raid on a dungeon where arge group of adventurers would band together to fight through the dungeon in an effort to get as deep as possible into its depths.

    Dungeons were rather strange phenomenon in this world. Many were small, and consisted of only a handful of floors, but some had dozens or even up to a hundred. Those dungeons were named, and no one had ever made it to the bottom. Monsters in the dungeons would regenerate over time, allowing people to constantly fight them for experience and high-quality materials.

    The Grand Raid that they were trying to get into was for the named dungeon between the Petra domain and the capital of Arcadios. It was known as the Demon''s Stomach thanks to its nightmarish creatures and the unfortunate habit it had of absorbing fallen adventurers'' bodies and equipment.

    ---------------------------------------------------

    A/N: Interested in Discord?

    Here you go!

 Chapter 31: Entry Exams [Part 1]

    "Wee to the Pelith Adventurer''s Guild. Are you here to submit a workpletion form or do you need to sell materials?" a in looking woman said who was standing behind a short wooden counter.

    Then entire first floor of the building was an open concept and at the far end taking about a quarter of the length of the back wall was a wooden u-shaped counter. There were about ten receptionists lined along the counter and each one had a line. Lucius and Rena had to wait for almost a half hour just to get up to the desk.

    "No, we are here to join up as new adventurers." Rena stated with an equalck of energy as the receptionist had.

    The woman sighed which was followed by a cacophony of groans from behind them as the others in line shifted to other lines. The receptionist pulled out a few documents and put them in two neat piles next to each other.

    "First fill those out. If you can''t read, then it will be two copper pieces for me to help you one on one, if you can, then just fill them out here. I will step away to locate a proctor."

    Lucius and Rena each took a packet of documents as well as a quill each to begin filling out the forms.

    They asked simple things like name, race, Arts, magic, and also mark. Thatst one was thetest addition they had only been asking for during thest couple of years. Prior to that, Marked Ones were not allowed to register as full-fledged adventurers. Outside of private employment with nobles or extremely wealthy merchant families, Marked Ones of age to be an adventurer were already conscripted.

    Lucius easily filled out the documents on his own thanks to the fact that his mother and father were adamant that he learn how to read and do basic math, like addition and subtraction.

    Rena also knew how to fill out the forms because she was a noble. The other pages were filled with the documents only applicable to children of nobles that consisted of a bunch of agreements promising the families of any nobility that died while adventuring would not seek out damages against the institution.

    These obviously did not apply to Lucius, but they did for Rena, so it took her a few extra minutes to read through them all. While they were working through the paperwork, the receptionist''s ''search'' for their exam proctor consisted of her shouting out several times if someone of Advance Rank or higher was interested in doing it.

    Lucius hoped that inrger cities, the guild had actual designated staff to do such a thing, but something also told him that was not really a likely scenario. A young, adult woman¡­maybe just around twenty, ended up being the person to volunteer.

    She was dressed as your typical adventurer, in a mix of leather armor and a smattering of metal ting over the important bits. The outfit was protective, but still kept many of her joints just clear enough to not hinder any freedom of movement.

    Honestly, to Lucius, she was a rather attractive young woman, though the massive sword on her back that felt like it was as tall as he was, kept him from having any hormone driven thoughts¡­mostly.

    "Heya brats. Looks like I''ll be in charge of your exam. The name''s Jen. As you can tell by the weapon on my back, I use the two-handed version of Sword Arts."

    "My name is Lucius. And this is Rena."

    "A pleasure, Jen." Rena acknowledged with a curtsy.

    "Eh cut that shit out. I recognize the hair from the lords house, but quit it with the manners here. You leave the noble shit at the door. Got it?" Jen huffed.

    "Right." Rena answered resolutely.

    Next, they turned in their papers to the receptionist and went to follow Jen into another room, where she exined the ins and outs of the way things work. Were they to pass their exams and be epted into the guild, the rules would be a good thing to be aware of.

    Apparently, the way ranking worked in the guild was very easy. Your guild rank matched your warrior or mage ranking. Essentially if you were a Master Rank swordsman, you were considered a Master Rank adventurer.

    Most jobs and quests to hunt down ingredients and monsters were also not locked down by rank. So, if a Novice Rank kid wanted to track down an S-Rank monster, the guild would let them sign up for it. If they wised up and quit before dying, they would pay a fee to the guild, and if they died¡­well natural selection took its course.

    Next, whenpleting a quest, an adventurer was not allowed to ask clients for additional rewards, mary or otherwise, outside what was promised in the initial posting. Such behavior would result in the cement of a bounty for either capture or killing depending on the severity. Gifts of gratitude were an exemption from this rule.

    Thirdly, any items or resources found or obtained through the process ofpleting a quest belonged to the adventurer and their party. This meant any monster materials, rare alchemical ingredients, or items found belonged to the guild. Of course this did not apply if the quest were to have been for the specific procurement of those items, in which keeping them would result in charges of theft.

    Thest few things were rtively simple; don''t steal quests, money, or items from other adventurers, don''t attack other adventurers, and don''t ''camp'' on quests. ''Camping'' on a quest was when someone would register for a quest then wait out the deadline to prevent someone else from taking it. Experienced adventurers have done this to bully weaker ones by making them lose out on jobs.

    "¡­And that about sums it all up. It make sense to you two?" Jen said with a wave of her hand. She sat in a chair across from them at a circr table while exining the ins and outs of how the ce worked. In one hand was a mug of ale that she asionally sipped from and the other she had some strange smelling jerky.

    Lucius had killed some of his sense of smell to be able to handle being around so many sweaty warriors and dead carcasses that were being harvested, but he could still smell the strange odor wafting from the oddly purple cured meat that Jen was happily munching on.

    "Yeah that makes sense to me¡­though I do have one question." Rena answered.

    "Shoot, kid."

    "What is that you are eating? It looks odd."

    "Smells like ass¡­" Lucius mumbled.

    "Oh? You can smell it? Must be part beastman then." Jenughed as she waved the meat around with her hand. "This here is Swamp Rat jerky. The curing process takes away most of the odor of the meat, at least enough of it to not bother humans and elves. Tastes like shit, but you won''t find a better food to restore mana."

    "Most of the odor?" Rena asked while patting Lucius on the back. He was probably seconds from vomiting if Jen kept waving it around like that.

    "Yeah for some reason, beastmen hate the stuff. From lupines and felines, to rhino and reptilian beastmen, it drives all of them up the wall." Jenughed again, before she tossed the jerky across the room. It made arge arc andnded right into a garbage container that was set up at the end of the bar on the opposite side of the building.

    "Thank you." Lucius sighed.

    "Sure, kid. Shoulda'' guessed ''cus of those freaky eyes you got. Anyway¡­for your exam you are going to tell me your ranks then you are gonna prove them to me by hunting down a monster of my choosing. Pass, you get a card. Fail, you pay a gold to the guild the next time you waste our time."

 Chapter 32: Entry Exams [Part 2]

    "Alright, I''m a Novice Rank warrior. My mark is unknown, but estimated to be Lethal Rank." Lucius said in a heartbeat.

    "Oh, ho? Lethal, eh? Interesting. Kind of sad that you are Novice though, I meane on, at your age you should be decently into Beginner by now." Jen stated as she put a strange box on the table. "Alright, now you girl."

    "Beginner Rank mage." Rena answered.

    "See, kid, that''s normal. Alright, each of you put a hand on the box, one at a time though please." Jen said casually.

    Rena was the first toply and reached towards the box and ced her hand on top of it. An opaque white mist formed above the center of the table and showed information about Rena''s rank and Compatibilities.

    "Alright, no Arts, but you got Water, Wind, Metal, and Light magic. Nice going girl, that''s some good shit. Alright, time for the disappointment, go on kid." Jen said with a low whistle, and following up with an insult to Lucius.

    Rena retracted her hand and stifled a small giggle seeing Lucius'' eye twitch at being bullied by the pretty adventurer. He ced his hand on the box, and waited for the mist to appear. For a few moments nothing happened.

    "Uh¡­"

    "Give it a minute, the marks always take a minute for the box to figure out."

    "Okay¡­"

    After he acknowledged Jen, the mist started to appear as well and showed Lucius'' skills.

    "Alright, we got¡­Oh Thunder magic, that''s a rare one." Jen mumbled, reading aloud. "Forsaken Arts, sucks for you but hey if it works¡­Half-Beastman from a feline lineage, coulda guessed. And for your mark¡­oh? That''s odd¡­"

    "You''re right, it isn''t showing my mark¡­I thought this would identify it for me." He said.

    "No, not that you idiot. If this could identify unknown marks, we wouldn''t be able to afford one. It only identifies known ones. What''s odd is that it''s showing two sets of question marks instead of the one."

    "Oh, that''s all? It is an inverse mark. Two abilities. Neither of which I can activate¡­at least not for thest few years."

    Jen stared at the letters projected by the magical mist for a few moments, pondering something. "Welp, that was fun, but looks like you weren''t lying about your ranks, so how''s about we go and track down a monster for you guys¡­I''m thinking since you came in together you want to form a party?"

    "Yes." They said in unison.

    "Cute. Okay then, lets find some¡­oh! Dire rats. They''ve been causing problems in the farms outside of town and the current quests aren''t really able to keep up with the current poption boom. That should be good to see both your skills." Jen said with a grunt as she stood and began to walk away.

    Rena grabbed Lucius by the arm and dragged him after Jen. The veteran adventurer had no intentions of slowing down just for them to catch up, but guided them through the streets until they reached the outer walls.

    The gates were open with one side allowing travelers inside the gates after inspection, and the other being a simple exit. Jen casually shed a small, metal te at the guards on the exit side, who nodded and nced quickly and uncaringly at Rena and Lucius who had finally caught up with her.

    The Dire Rats that Jen requested they hunt were rather weak monsters. In a direct confrontation, they were as weak as fighting amon house dog, which was also about how big they were. However, they were still F-Rank beasts due to their penchant for sneaking up on enemies and their ability to hide.

    They also dug burrows into the ground for hiding, storing food, and raising their young. Dire Rats came into being as a mutation of amon rat and still asionally pop up in towns now and then because of that, though they were also able to proliferate on their own in grasnds, meadows, and lightly wooded areas.

    One of the things they were best known for was destroying crops and attacking domesticated livestock like chickens, sheep, pigs, and calves. They were omnivorous and ate basically anything they were able to gnaw on.

    Just as normal rats spread disease, Dire Rats also carried severalmon infections, so it was important to have items, potions, or mages capable of curing poisons and diseases; something Rena was more than capable of doing.

    "How far out are we heading?" Lucius asked.

    "Only a few minutes, the farm facing some issues right now is just a short walk up the road here. Also, get your asses up here, this is your test, so you should take the lead. Do you know your positions?" Jen shouted back to them. She was walking with both hands behind her head and strolling along as if this were a leisurely trip through the countryside.

    "I''m a scout. I can fight pretty well, but don''t have the power to truly back it up. With support from at least one other person of Novice rank or better, I can hold up against a Beginner Rank. Thanks to my blood though, no one in the Petra domain hold a candle to my eyes, ears, and nose." Lucius said with a smile.

    Rena also grinned along with him, saying, "And I am a midrange mage. Strategy is my forte, and I''ve trained to cast spells at that range pretty reliably."

    Jen gave out a low whistle. It was very umon for a mage to fight anywhere but the rear line, something that was as much a result of necessity as it was a result of cowardice. This was something Lucius knew as well, but Rena learned a bit about magic from their shared tutor Lord Wace Carmichael¡­rather¡­Wally.

    Thinking about the crazy old man sent slight shivers up his spine because it reminded him of his delirious cackles while forcing Lucius to dodge lightning bolts, fire spears, and giant icicles¡­sometimes all at once.

    Jen gave him a strange look. "Sooo anyway, scout. Get up in front of us and do the scouting thing. Keep an eye and ear out for any Dire Rats. It is possible we make contact with them prior to arriving at the farm since we don''t know where their nest is."

    "Oh, you don''t? It''s over there." Lucius said with a cocked head. He thought the guild knew where it was and was just testing them.

    He pointed to a lightly wooded divot on the side of the road filled with reeds and muck that had yet to drain from thest rain. He had heard their squeaks, chitters, and gnawing sounds for thest several hundred feet. Once again Jen gave him an incredulous look.

    "Right¡­"

    "Oh hey Rena, do the thing. It should flush them out." He suggested casually.

    Rena thought for a moment, smiled, then nodded. "[Aqua: Downpour]"

    At the Novice Rank, that particr spell was good basically only good for getting someone soaked as a prank. It was basically as effective as stacking a water bucket over a slightly open door. That changed though at the Beginner Rank, where the caster could elongate the casting time. It still provided no damaging force, but it was able to fill a space with water rather quickly.

    Since the burrow entrance seemed to be slightly up the side of the gutter off the side of the road, they needed to fill it quickly with a bunch of water. This would cause water to start filling the burrow and flush out the beasts.

    "Wait a minute! If you do that, we don''t know how many wille rushing out! If they swarm us that could end badly."

    "Don''t worry, from the sounds of it there are probably five or six, not including the pups. We can eliminate those after though." Lucius said.

    "Well alright then¡­" Jen muttered, mildly impressed, which earned another giggle from Rena after showing yet another person how amazing her ''pet cat'' really was.

 Chapter 33: Adventurers Life

    Jen watched as the ditch on the side of the road rapidly filled with water. She honestly never thought about using magic to flush Dire Rats out of their dens. Normally when the little shitheads retreated under the ground, that was it. They wouldn''t use that entrance again and would dig a new burrow exit elsewhere.

    This new revtion on fighting amon pest brought a huge smile to her face. It seemed these newbies had something to offer after all. Though, it still remained to be seen if the boy''s estimates on the number of monsters was urate. If she was being honest, she was more than skeptical.

    Jen knew that beastmen had excellent senses, but this was a bit much, and that was not including the fact that this kid was only a half-blood.

    Suddenly, from her peripheral vision, she noticed that Lucius'' head snapped towards the center of the road. His eyes and head seemed to track something under the ground until his eyes once againnded on the ditch.

    "Heads up, here theye."

    "Alright, thanks Lucius. I''ll keep the watering to make sure we really drown them out if you can keep them off me?"

    "Got it."

    Jen watched as the boy sank into an odd crouching position with his machete drawn in his right hand. His left pulled back and held in a w-like position. She had seen this before as it was a fighting style used by many different beastmen. It was a style based on instinct and not training, so most armies did not utilize it.

    A few moments after Rena''s orders, two massive gray rats the size of arge dog crawled over the edge of the road. They made loud squeals not unlike a wounded pig when they saw the three humans.

    The first one that made it onto the road lunged at Jen while the second lunged directly at Lucius.

    "[Forsaken Arts: Goring Rush]"

    Luciusunched forward, spraying dirt behind him and almost flew towards the rat charging Jen. His de was held out and had taken on a dull glow as it was enhanced by the mana infused into it from his Art. The Dire Rat he targeted noticed the sword and jumped to the left and out of its reach.

    However, the moment Lucius flew past it, the glow in the sword vanished and suddenly reappeared around his hand. His fingernails rapidly took on a w like appearance as they dug into the rat''s flesh and rend through fur, skin, and muscle. By the time Lucius finished flying past the monster, it had five massive shes down its side all pouring blood.

    From the lower two shes, guts began to spill onto the ground.

    Jen watched as he came to a stop, kicking up a cloud of dust before once againunching away, this time back at the rat that he left behind. This time he flew over it''s head, creating an opening for Rena whounched a spell at it.

    "[Ferrum: Iron Bullet]"

    Her concentration on the water spell ceased, and a small metal ball the size of a fistunched towards the Dire Rat Lucius flew over. Since it was distracted by its targetunching over its head, the spell connected with the side of it''s face and turned it to mush.

    "Good one Rena! Three more en route. They should be thest ones, after that there are a handful of pups in the depths."

    Sure enough, another secondter three more sets of ws reached over the side of the road and ''roared'' with all the ferocity a dog-sized rat could muster.

    "Lucius, hold ''em for me."

    "Got it."

    Once again, he charged at the enemies, though this time he moved at a more normal pace. With all her experience, she could tell the boy wasn''t tired, which meant that he was holding back this time on purpose. All three rats jumped at the boy who made himself a clear and easy target. Without much effort he quickly blocked each wed strike, leaving a shower of sparks with each one.

    "For a Novice, he fight''s pretty damn good¡­" Jen muttered in appreciation.

    Rena had been gathering mana in her body for a particrly strong spell, or what she would consider one. Her concentration caused a faint collection of glitter-like particles to hang in the air around her.

    "Lucius, now! [Ferrum: Spike Field]" The red-headed beauty ce a hand on the ground at the same time her partner leapt into the air.

    A trail of metal surged from her hand and in a line towards the rats. When it was only a few inches away from them, massive spikes sprouted at every angle from the line of metal. Instantly, all three rats squeaked in pain and twitched on metal spikes for a few moments beforeing still.

    A few secondster when she was satisfied they were well and truly dead, the girl released the spell, causing the metal to evaporate into mana and vanish. She then went over to the side of the ditch and looked around for a few minutes with Lucius. When they located the actual opening to the burrow, Rena repeated the same water spell from before.

    She held the spell for a few minutes before following up with an ice spell.

    "[cies: Freezing Touch]"

    Pale blue light glowed from her finger tip, which she pressed into the surface of the water filling the ditch and burrow. All of the liquid rapidly turned to ice, and with a satisfied, yet tired look, Rena sat down on the ground.

    "And that should take care of the pups. One nest down. Did we pass?"

    Jen smiled at the two. "Sure."

    *****

    Ten people stood around a campsite several miles outside of arge city called Lelvern. It was arge trading city in the kingdom of Arcadios and was, like essentially the entirety of Arcadios, surrounded by forests and farnd.

    Thomas who had lived in the town of Pelith for his entire life was bored of the constant trees and greenery, having desired for something more exciting once bing an adventurer.

    Of course, the red-headed boy had no intentions of staying an adventurer, it was simply a request by his father to join his older brother''s party to train and earn entry into the Grand Raid in a few months.

    He had already been an adventurer for a little over a year how and was very close to being granted entry. Simon, his brother, already had a spot for himself, so if he did not also get one, his brother would remain a step ahead.

    All of this was for one single purpose though, to gain wealth and power for their branch of the Petra family. They had given up attempts on Rena''s life since the forest trial attempt ended in such spectacr failure.

    They also could not touch her adopted body guard since the boy''s father, a powerful warrior of the domain, sacrificed his own life to pay for the lives of two young children who, technically, failed their trial.

    In reality, the domain would have been better off by keeping Wayne over the two boys, Vik and Peter, but since the blood price was paid, and with interest, there was no recourse for going after the marked half-blood.

    Thomas muttered various profanities under his breath while he chewed on dry jerky and stale bread. This fair was far from what he would prefer, and he still had not gotten used to it. This was the adventurer life¡­but why did it have to suck so bad.

    "Come on everyone, lets move out. We still have a few more Dire Wolves pups to hunt down. Cant let them grow up and pose more of a threat than they already do." The party leader, Simon von Petra called out.

    Thomas grumbled yet again and readied his sword. "Bunch of bullshit."

 Chapter 34: Preparations

    Aleksander Verall von Arcadios was a regal looking man. One look at his facial features, outfit, and general aura and they could recognize him as royalty.

    He had been bred and raised to be as such, being formed from a young age to inherit the responsibilities of his greatnd. From birth he was given the responsibilities to govern the masses and ensure that his children''s children had a ce to live.

    Yet, all those decades of experience, education, and drive failed time and time again to steel his nerves against the whispers of war. Years ago, they had announced major changes to thew and incorporated Marked Ones into various aspects of society to ''train them'' to be stronger.

    The government had to focus their coins on strengthening their true soldiers, fortifying cities, and stocking up weapons and relieve supplies.

    As such, there was no room left in the budget to spend military funding on supporting those creatures, so it was best to let them train themselves. Despite knowing that, he despised the idea of letting them have the run of his kingdom unchecked.

    Aleksander sighed and picked up his morning coffee for a sip. He also grabbed a set of documents that had beenid beside it for him to read.

    They contained information on additional troop movements by Alorek. It seemed that the problematic beastman nation was still maintaining arge ''warning force'' on their border with Arcadios'' ally kingdom of Eroa.

    It had reached a level that maintained a threatening presence, and since then ceased to grow. The force bordering the Five Kings Union, however, continued to grow year by year. By this point, it had almost developed into a town made up entirely of soldiers and mercenaries.

    Like Arcadios the other four human nations had been building up their armies and followed the samews. For the most part, themon people seemed to adapt well. The Adventurer''s guild especially seemed to adapt easily to the changes. A few of therger yers in the organization had also sent formal requests to the Union to maintain these policies after the war.

    Aleksander shuffled to the next set of documents after taking another sip of his coffee. This set discussed some of the ns regarding various requests for entrance into the dungeons. He recently approved the Adventurer''s Guild to host a Grand Raid of about a hundred and twenty adventurers into the infamous Demon''s Stomach.

    This deadly dungeon was a short way outside the capital of Arcadios and was a great resource for the kingdom to continually harvest rare resources from for the purposes of making enchanted armors, weapons, and various alchemical concoctions.

    Normally, the guild was allowed free reign to simply allow their parties to enter the dungeon as they will, but for something as lucrative as a Grand Raid, they needed permission. Aleksander smiled because he had been all too happy to agree.

    The terms were rather good for him since the guild would turn over fifty percent of all resources gathered in the run to the kingdom without him having to worry about losses to his forces.

    These current documents detailed a few notable people that had been granted passes for entry. About a quarter of the slots were filled by well-known and powerful parties before being made public, and the guild allowed additional parties to fight for the chance to raid it.

    Even though it was only ny slots, they were filling somewhat slowly due to the dangers of this particr dungeon. It was deadly enough to have been given a name, something most dungeons do not get.

    "Steward!" Aleksander shouted. A momentter, a scrawny man in a nice suit and sses walked through the door.

    "My liege, how may I assist?"

    "Fetch the generals for a war council. I would hear the state of our forces this afternoon."

    "As youmand."

    *****

    A beautiful, buxom womany in arge, circr bed covered in pure, white silk sheets. From the outside, one could only observe the shadows of her form due to the veil that surrounded the massive bed. A light haze also filled the room due to arge collection of incense burning in the corners of the room.

    The womanzily climbed out of bed, loosely tightening the waist band on a thin robe she draped over herself. Somehow she managed to disentangle herself from the other two bodies in the bed, a young man and woman who had stayed the night with her.

    Lady Voltara al Famyn stretched her armszily and walked over to a desk in the corner. A maid stood beside it and bowed while gesturing with a single hand to a cup of tea awaiting her.

    "Thank you very much my sweet." Voltara cooed while running a finger across the maid''s cheek, which brought a faint blush to her face.

    The maid bowed even deeper and excused herself quietly from the room and closed the door behind her. Voltara silently sprinkled a special, gray powder into the liquid and around the rim of the cup. After a few moments, nothing happened, so she proceeded to enjoy the drink.

    Many people were after her life and this poison detecting powder was a personal concoction from her family that she used before eating or drinking anything.

    She sighed to herself, enjoying quietly the rose tea she requested every morning. After that, she clothed herself and left the room to prepare for the day. Following her from behind, but maintaining a safe distance and hidden in the shadows was her personal bodyguard. He was a powerful assassin specializing in Dagger Arts and Dark magic. He also had a very useful mark, being the Mark of True Sight.

    Unlike most leaders in the Union, Lady Voltara did not really care much about Marked Ones. She put on a front around nobility of her own and other kingdoms, but for her, they were just as much a tool as everyone else in the world was.

    Voltara smiled because she even viewed herself as a tool. In truth, every person was a pawn in someone else''s game. It only mattered the skill of the yer to determine which pieces would move and how.

    At the moment, one of her more favorite pieces was moving in the northern provinces. A mountainous region inhabited by the northern Elven Kingdom of Aedrider. Unlike your typical vision of nature loving, fair skinned beauties the elves of Aedrider were a strong sort. Though they were as limber and lithe as their names would suggest, their thin and tall frames held a surprising amount of strength.

    The elves of Aedrider specialized in forging powerful weapons and armor.

    Her favorite piece was currentlyying the groundwork for usurping a shipment of enchanted weaponry bound for Alorek through underground channels and redirecting it to Eroa. She could try to have it sent to any of the Union nations, but were the ploy to be discovered, the me would fall on Eroa.

    And if the ploy were to go unnoticed, then an ally in their uing war would gain strength in resources. Truly, it was a win-win situation.

 Chapter 35: Alorek

    Alorek was a nation of strength. Only the strong could live, and only the truly powerful could lead. Those whocked strength,cked rights. Such was thew of this harshnd.

    Alorek was a nation covered in sands, rocks, and the asional fertile oasis. Because of this unfortunate geography, most of the poption developed around these rare oases as well as along the only river that ran through thends, the Lion''s Tear.

    It was at the base of the mountains where the river was sourced, that the capital city of Alorek sat and built into the stone was the pce where the King and his family lived.

    Inside this massive and imposing building, sat upon an ornate throne was a man that easily stood over eight feet tall. His arms were as big around as a normal man''s chest. His name was Zethis of the Raging Sands.

    Raging Sands was the n he was born from, and is currently the leader of. His n won the rights to the throne after the death of the previous king twenty years ago. Since Zethis was the strongest of his n, that meant he was crowned king.

    Zethis looked down the length of his throne room, which lead directly to a balcony through a set of massive stone columns and overlooked his city. The territories of Ranging Sands were vast, and bordered the kingdom of Eroa, but also included the capital city.

    For thest twenty years he had worked out deals with all of thergest ns in Alorek, and those that did not deal, were forced to bow. Through these dealings he had amassed great wealth and power for the purposes of returning to their possession thends of Eroa, and if things go well, the fertile ins of the Five Kings Union.

    These dreams were shared by every king and queen of Alorek since their defeat in thest great war. Zethis, was different though, because he would be the one to do it.

    "Lord Zethis, your entertainment for the evening has been sourced."

    "Excellent." Zethis grinned. His cruel smile showed his extra set of canine teeth. Like all feline beastmen, he had six canine teeth, four on top, two on bottom.

    He stood from his seat and walked to follow the servant that had fetched him. asionally he would pass one of his many maids and concubines, giving them wink''s and silent promises of pleasant nights ahead. Despite his massively imposing figure, he was quite the handsome man. His light brown hair, dark skin, and brown eyesbined with his chiseled face to create quite the specimen.

    A few minutester, he walked out onto a tform that overlooked arge arena that was circr and nearly a two hundred feet in diameter. It was a private arena for noble guests of his and also served to provide himself personal entertainment.

    Currently standing in the center of the ring was a C-Rank beast known as a Minotaur. Approaching it was a warrior or spy captured from Eroa. It was a young man with gray hair and eyes. Zethis could not tell from this distance exactly what rank the man was, but he was strong enough to be entertaining, though likely not strong enough to survive.

    The minotaur was ''tamed'' by Zethis'' personal acquisition team of Dark magic users that specialized in taming contracts. He grinned cruelly again as he held up one hand.

    "Eroan spy¡­fight or die." He shouted. At the word ''die'' he dropped his hand, which signaled for the monster to begin fighting.

    Zethis simply leaned against the railing of the balcony and watched the fight ensue. The Eroan put up quite a good fight, though it was inly obvious he specialized in speed and not power.

    The spy quickly darted between the legs of the massive minotaur which stood twice his height, dodging m attacks from its fists repeatedly. Normally with opponents fighting using raw power, his tactics would have been to wear the opponent out by ousting them through stamina. Unfortunately, the minotaur was beyond him in both power and stamina.

    He had the edge in speed, but that was useless in the long run if he couldn''t keep it up.

    "[Ventus: Wind de]"

    Several des of wind sped towards the minotaur, but they were batted away easily by it''s hand. As a follow-up attack, the beastman slid between its legs again and shed at the ankles while casting another spell.

    "[Ventus: Wind Strike]"

    That spell created a second cutting edge made of wind magic right in front of the actual weapon which allowed the user to get two shes out of a single swing.

    Unfortunately, all it did was leave a cut across the skin and did not cut deep enough to cause any real damage. The only thing it actually did was piss the minotaur off even more.

    It roared in defiance and began to stomp its feet like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Though not a graceful mode of attack, it did close out any chances for the beastman fighter to get close, so he jumped backwards to create distance.

    "Raaaargh!" The beastman roared and began to shift to his more powerful form. He was a lupine beastman, likely a gray wolf. His speed and strength multiplied over five-fold.

    "[Beast Arts: Savage w]"

    The beastman''s fingernails extended into sharpened ws surrounded in the dull glow of mana. He leapt towards the raging monster, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake. The man continued to leap past the minotaur, pinging around the arena, stopping on the ground just long enough to make another jump.

    Every time he passed by the monster, he wouldnd another strike. Several seconds and dozens of strikester, the minotaur was covered head to toe in shes. However, they were barely skin deep and began to rapidly heal thanks to the monster''s powerful constitution.

    "Oh¡­that is just too unfortunate. Sad to see an Eroan warrior cannot best a single monster. End this farce. Finish him." Zethis ordered. His voice boomed throughout the arena.

    The moment the words reached the monster''s ears, its tantrum ended and it ran after the beastman, who was still much faster. Since it was the only tactic that seemed to work, he started his repetitive leaping attacks again.

    This time, the monster had learned the pattern, so on the fifth leap, it stuck out one hand, and caught the enemy in its grasp.

    "Fuck!" The beastman coughed. "You will fail, Zethis¡­Alorek¡­won''t¡­win¡­"

    At thest word, the minotaur squeezed its hand causing the beastman''s chest to crack and cave. He coughed up blood and his eyes bulged and turned ssy. The minotaur nced at its prey uncaringly before it popped the body in its mouth and began to chew. After all, it expended some energy during the fight, and needed to refill it.

    Zethisughed at the spy''s final disy of bravery. "We will certainly see now won''t we? I''ll be there to see the truth at the end of this fight¡­but you won''t."

 Chapter 36: Warriors Heart

    "Next!" a deep and gruff voice shouted at people who appeared to be students that were waiting in groups on either side of a rectangr arena.

    This mock battlefield was designed to help put into practice the lessons these students have been practicing for thest few months. At the age of ten, all children in Eroa were required to join various academies that were pocketed around the kingdom. These academies trained them in the ways of war and battle.

    Some sses did provide education in reading and arithmetic, but the primary focus was on swordy and magic. Most other kingdoms did not open these kinds of academies up to students until they were sixteen, basically adults.

    Eroa did it this way because they could also monitor nutrition and training, and tailor it to the growth rate of the individual''s body from a young age. It took quite a lot of effort and funding to get off the ground, but once it had been in ce for a few generations of warriors all the ns understood its value.

    Sure, at one time the secret family techniques and fighting styles that used to be the only way of passing down the art ofbat were effective, but if everyone in the kingdom had a shared base knowledge, then as an army, the entire kingdom would be more effective.

    These were things that had been drilled into Kalliope''s head since the age of ten, and now that she was fifteen, she understood and believed in these truths with her entire being.

    "I said, next! That means you Kalliope!"

    "Sir!"

    She walked up to the center of the arena and bowed to her opponent. It was a student from the year above her, as were every person on the opposing team. They were in theirst year of training and soon would leave the academy and join the military or go on to live a normal life as a farmer or merchant, or something else mundane.

    After raising their respective heads from the bow, both students readied themselves. Today''sbat training was in unarmed fighting, so Kalliope steadied her fists and settled into a slight squat. Her opponent matched her positioning and they stared at each other, waiting for the signal to begin.

    The proctor for the training whistled, starting the fight. In less than an instant, Kalliope shot forward, cracking the floor beneath her feet. Her opponent jumped backwards while initiating a block in an effort to lessen the impact damage gained by Kalliope''s momentum, but still took a powerful hit to the chest.

    The other student coughed as the air was forcefully expelled from her lungs, but recovered quickly enough to throw a counter attack. She jumped in the air and came down with an axe kick aimed at Kalliope''s head. It was a rather slow attack, so it was dodged with ease forcing the impact into the ground.

    Kalliope took advantage of the slight opening to go in for a grapple, but the dust from the kick had lessened her vision and sense of smell, so the effort was in vain. Dust continued to spread with the assistance of the slight breeze and acted as a cloak for both students. Neither one seemed at the advantage at the moment.

    Kalliope''s ears were very sensitive naturally thanks to her lupine heritage, so they came in handy during this fight. However, the opponent was of reptilian descent so she likely had a general sense of Kalliope''s body heat.

    Both students appeared to circle each other for several moments before the opponent closed in on Kalliope. This was exactly what she had been waiting for. She managed to dodge a punch, then a kick, then a grapple. When the reptilian student went for the grapple, Kalliope was able to hide her footwork with the dust and trip her up just enough to create an opening for a swift chop to the neck.

    Without much else fanfare, the opposing student fell to the ground, unconscious. The proctor was able to keep an eye on the entire fight, and the moment one student fell, cleared the remaining dust with a swipe of his fist. Such was the power of a Master Rank Brawler.

    "Excellent work Kalliope. Next!"

    Kalliope bowed and left the arena, allowing herself to be briefly examined by a light magic user. She only suffered minor bruising, reminders of her mistakes, so no treatment was provided. After the short evaluation, she returned to the back of the line where a few other students were discussing the fight.

    "You know, you do pretty good for someone who doesn''t use any Brawler Arts." One said.

    "Yeah, you''d think you were a natural." Another admired.

    "Not by any means. Everything I have is because of hard work. Besides, I''m already Intermediate Rank and well on my way to Advanced. It gives me an edge in all fighting, not just those in which I have Arts."

    "Of course, the great Kalliope of the Gray Wolves, first in our ss to make Intermediate." Yet another student groaned.

    Theirint earned a few chuckles and jeers from other students. Most of them were annoyed that she had been the first to make Intermediate. Everyone had already caught up for the most part, though they were at the lower end and still getting used to their powers, while she had been in Intermediate for the better part of a year and had limated to her current body strength by this point.

    Out of all her many siblings and cousins, Kalliope''s heart beat the strongest for battle. From the moment she could walk, she fought. When she was just a toddler she was prevented from ying with other children her age because of her penchant for violence.

    Of course, now that she was older, she had reined in those tendencies and molded them into the drive to seek out strength and discipline. Luckily for her, she was born in Eroa where she could put that work in from an early age and get a head start on other children her age.

 Chapter 37: A Game

    Two unknowable entities faced each other. The space they upied was filled with nothingness; simply an unending void. Despite its emptiness, the void was colored, half in white and half in ck.

    "Hey, you. Other one¡­uhhh Luz" the ck void called out.

    For a moment the call went unanswered, but then the white void replied, "What is it Grimm?"

    There was a sense of annoyance being projected by the white void, called Luz. This tonality brought joy to Grimm''s ''face'' and if he actually had one, it would be taken over by a toothy grin.

    "How much longer you going to hold back? I know you''ve been getting in the way of the kid''s ability to use his mark." Grim questioned.

    "It is for his own good. As long as I can''t make a move, neither can you."

    "Oh,e on, you know I followed the rules. You let him borrow power first and collected your toll. What was so wrong in me doing the same? Fair is fair, right? That''s what we agreed on after all." He whined.

    It was true. When they felt a window into their space open for the first time in a millennium, they both felt ted at finally being able to break this stalemate between them. Unfortunately, the window was small, weak, and unable to really ept their power.

    Over time this window grew bigger, stronger, more stable, until one day they were able to cast their voices through it. On the other side was a boy, young and weak, fighting for his right to survive. Grimm of course saw an opportunity, though it was risky. As per the rules they set, they could only move in turns, at least until the boy could call on them on his own.

    Grimm and Luz yed a waiting game to see who would be the first to make the opening move. The second one to make a y had the advantage of responding to the opening gambit, so Grimm waited and waited.

    The boy drew closer to death, fighting against a weak beast. Grimm felt the urge at the time to keep this window open, but then he realized something. If the window opened once, it would open again. It could be millennia before it did, but it would. With that realization he settled in to watch the show and see if Luz hade to the same conclusion.

    Luckily for him, his counterpart was a softie. It was likely that Luz realized the truth the same as he had, but Luz also knew that this window was connected to a life and for the white void, life was important.

    "I know you are keeping me from talking to him, Luz. Afraid of what I''ll say?" Grimm teased.

    Again, he was met with silence.

    "You know, he''s discovered that I was the one responsible for his father''s death. That his death was my price¡­and yet, he doesn''t me me. Instead, he realized something much better for me¡­the fact that he was the one who made the choice." Grimmughed. "He did not have to take the deal. He could have run, or died, something other than taking my offer.

    "Yet he did not. He took it, happily. After all, it was his fault for misunderstanding the kind of pain I desired from him. But I never lied to him. I told him what would happen. That there was a price¡­just like you did!

    So even though he knows I took this as my price, he won''t me me¡­"

    "You are talkative today." Luz growled. It was clear the white void was extremely irritated, which brough pure joy to the ck void.

    "But hey¡­Luz¡­will he feel the same way about you? After all, you are blocking his mark and by extension his growth. You did not let him make a choice in this. No, you made it for him. Will he be happy to learn that you are making him weak? That you are putting him at risk of needing borrowing power he cannot afford to pay for?"

    Grimm smiled to himself once again at Luz''s refusal to answer. "You know, Luz¡­after that battle in the forest, I couldn''t help but notice your light dimmed a little. Sure it became brighter for a while¡­but all in all, it''s a loss. You still have enough to hold against me, but will it stay that way?"

    "Shut it, Grimm. You talk too much." Luz sighed. "He needs to make his own choices, grow his own strength without relying on us¡­I am sure that once he is able to realize that¡­"

    "At least until he breaks through on his own that is."

    "What?"

    "Oh,e on! Don''t tell me you didn''t realize it? If he''s filled with enough anger¡­enough hatred¡­I can just slip right on by your little blockage."

    "The same could be said if he has a strong enough desire to save someone¡­to protect them." Luz countered.

    Grimm smiled once again. "Sure, that is true¡­however¡­what do you think is more likely in this world? He''s a boy marked by ''demons'' and is the son of a human and a beastman¡­he''s amoner in service to a noble. A weak child stuck in the Novice Rank¡­do you really think that he won''t be struck down by the negativity and cruelty of the world first?"

    "You don''t know for sure, Grimm."

    "Of course¡­but it''s a risky gamble you are ying, old friend. I do enjoy seeing you y it though¡­time will tell. Oh hey, did you notice?"

    "Yes."

    "I wonder how they are doing that. Watching¡­so interesting! I don''t know who they are¡­where they are¡­but to think, someone can peer in here¡­can they hear us¡­do they fear us? Hey Luz¡­want to make another bet?"

    Once again, Grimm was met with silence. Luz''s power and concentration at the moment were split between holding him back and blocking his path to the window into the earthen ne. The realization that someone else was able to look into their void made him wonder if there was another exit to use, but he discarded the thought.

    After all, even if there was a second window, he probably would not want to use it. This one seemed so fun and the game he was ying with his counterpart was just oh, so enjoyable.

 Chapter 38: Newbies

    Lucius and Rena approached the reception desk with their proctor. Thanks to Jen''s adventurer card, they were able to bypass the check at the gate. Even though they showcased excellent fighting skills, tracking, and cleanup, both of them had struggled when it came to proper butchering.

    Jen had to show them both how to skin a monster as well as identify the important body parts that could be used as alchemical ingredients. Apparently, each monster has a body part that they use as a focus for their strength or powers.

    It was that body part that an adventurer would want to collect. For Dire Rats, their ws and teeth helped them inflict poisons and diseases on their enemies, so it was important to collect those two as ingredients for selling.

    Dire Rat meat was in abundant supply as an additive in cured meats and such right now, so there was no point in harvesting any of that, also Jen informed them that the hide of a Dire Rat was too flimsy to be desired by anyone.

    Lucius could not help but sigh to himself.

    "What''s wrong?" Rena asked him.

    They were waiting for the receptionist to return from the back where she had long since disappeared with Jen.

    "Oh nothing, just a lot of stuff to remember¡­also I''m sorry." He replied.

    "Sorry? What for?"

    "I''m just going to be dragging you down. When I was younger¡­life was¡­rather intense, even before the trial. But since joining your side things have been¡­calm?"

    "Is that a problem?" Rena asked.

    "N-no¡­not really, I enjoy spending time with you, but I cannot help but wonder if I lost my edge¡­I train, and train, and train¡­but nothing."

    His friend put aforting hand on his shoulder. It was nice, but did nothing to assuage the tumultuous see of feelings inside him. Given everything he had gone through growing up, the things he had seen, the things he sacrificed, the things he had done¡­he had hoped that he would be destined for great things as he got older.

    Sure, as far as technique goes he had begun to master the sword and unarmedbat, but technique, like raw power, only got one so far. It was only when one was able tobine the two that they were truly strong. And for Lucius¡­this was a strength kept out of his reach.

    Of course, another thing bothered him that he could not share, even with his friend. That was the fact that since his father''s death, he had not heard even a whisper from either Luz or Grimm. It was strange, but for a while after they stopped talking he felt somewhat lonely.

    He spent a few months in aa-like state essentially non-stop speaking to them, so it felt natural to worry about losing that connection.

    The reason he could not talk about this with Rena was pretty obvious too. What could he say? ''Hey, I''m freaking out because two voices in my head that I named have not talked to me for years and I kind of miss them''? Something like that was NOT going to fly.

    All he could do was sulk and let his friend gently pat his back to soothe him, even though she did not really understand what was happening. After a few minutes of this, Jen and the receptionist returned. The receptionist gave a light cough to get their attention and then passed each of them a small metal card along with a simple metal ring.

    "This is your guild card. It acts as a form of identification when entering cities and passing over borders between countries. For you, boy it tells people that you are not in the military so they don''t confuse you with a Runner."

    "Runner?" Rena asked.

    "Don''t hear much of them anymore since Marked Ones can join the guild now before joining the military, but before, any Marked Ones that skipped their drafting was considered a Runner."

    "Oh¡­"

    "Anyway, the ring is a special enchanted storage ring. Its only a basic model so it holds up to two hundred items and each item can be no more than fifteen cubic feet. Every adventurer gets one as a sign on bonus. Jen went over the rules for you,e back to reception if you take a job."

    With that, their registration waspleted and they were released to do what they wanted. They quickly moved out of the way to allow the other adventurers to continue taking and turning in quests. Rena gestured for Lucius to follow her outside, so he obliged.

    "Wow! Look at this! We are really adventurers!" Rena shouted gleefully. Lucius could not help but smile at her enthusiasm, it was simply too contagious.

    "Want to grab¡­" Lucius began before being interrupted by a familiar voice.

    "Hey you two. Newbies. Come over here." The voice came from their proctor, Jen, who was being followed by two other people. One seemed to be an elf with a sword on his hip and a shield on his back. The other seemed to be a human dressed like amon hunter. His weapon even appeared to be a standard hunting bow.

    Rena and Lucius looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and walking over to them.

    "What''s up Jen?" Rena asked.

    The three other adventurers looked and nodded at one another before Jen finally answered, "We want you to join our party. Weck a mage."

    "Not without Lucius." Rena answered instantly.

    "Heh, don''t get your panties in a twist girlie, we want him too. Kid may not have power, but he''s fast and he will make a good scout, of that I can attest." Jen smiled proudly.

    "What do you think Lucius? Are you okay with that¡­we were going to be a duo¡­" Rena asked while twisting her foot into the ground.

    Lucius eyed the two other adventurers behind Jen that started to snicker amongst themselves, but since they seemed harmless enough, he let it go. Instead he turned to Rena. "Sure, besides if its just us or us in another party, we are still together, so I am good!"

    "Good line, kid." Jen muttered behind her hand.

    "What was that?"

    "Oh nothing, let''s go get some food newbies!"

 Chapter 39: Meeting the Party

    Rena and Lucius found themselves being led through town by their new party to a restaurant. It was only a few hours into the evening so some of the inns in town had started serving dinner. It was one of these inns that Jen was taking them to.

    Apparently, it was well known for good ribs and cheap booze, so it was an adventurer favorite. The outside was rather unassuming and had a simple sign hanging over the door that read: ''Whistling Wolf'' and had a picture of a wolf with a metal whistle hanging out of its mouth.

    "A little on the nose don''t you think¡­" Lucius muttered towards the sign.

    "Wee to the best food in town!" Jen said loudly, ignoring him.

    When they walked inside the two-story, wooden building the entire first floor was filled with circr tables and half of them were filled with people. The smell was¡­less than pleasant to Lucius'' senses, but did not hold a candle to that awful jerky that Jen had been chewing on when they met.

    Many of the people inside were clearly the adventuring type and had many different kinds of builds, equipment, and injuries. Some people were missing eyes, other''s limbs. All in all, it was quite the eclectic bunch of people.

    Jen guided them through the maze of feet and tables to take a spot near the back of the room and right next to a set of stairs that went upwards. It seemed that the stairs led to the rooms that one would stay in if they rented a room.

    "Oh, hey Lucius do we want to rent a room here?!" Rena asked excitedly. Her eyes shone like they were filled with glitter, which made him feel a little ufortable with the fact that he had to tell her no.

    The primary reason, they did not bring enough pocket money for dinner and a night''s stay thanks to her excited hurrying out of the manor this morning. The secondary reason is that he did not want to be part of any rumors that suggested the youngdy of house Petra spent the night in some seedy inn with her bodyguard.

    "Maybe next time, Rena. For tonight, we should return to the manor and speak with Lord Petra regarding our actions moving forward." Lucius said with a sigh.

    "No fun¡­"

    Their back and forth brought a lot ofughter to their new friends who were content with watching the two kids bicker. Such events seemed like they would bemonce after joining up with them. Jen ced an order for the table for a round of drinks, and juice for the two younger ones. She also ordered several tes of food.

    "Alright, tonight''s on me. I know, I know. She''s the lord''s daughter, but as long as you ain''t wearin'' a dress, girlie, I''m gonna treat you like an adventurer. As such, tonight''s celebration is on me." Jen stated with a confident smile.

    "Whoo!"

    "Yeah! Drink up!"

    "Not you two idiots, you pay for your own shit." Jen red at her cohorts who thought they also got a free pass for the night. This response quickly deted their moods, but when a cute serving girl brought over the table''s first round of drinks, their tune quickly changed.

    "You''ve got a deal Jen." Rena agreed.

    "Right, so introductions. You know me, Jen. These two beside me are my party. We''ve been a group of three since we joined up a few years ago. The elf is Lethel, prefers the simple sword and shield. Like most elves, got a knack for that wind magic stuff."

    The elf gave a short wave with his hand since his introduction was given while he was mid-sip of his foul-smelling drink.

    "The other one is Paul. As you can also tell from his own weapon, man is an archer, and a damn good one. Till now, he was also our tracker. He''s pretty good at that too, but his shooting is better. No offense Paul, but Lucius here is taking over tracking and scouting."

    Paul simply grunted in affirmation, but he had a slight smile which told Lucius that it was not going to be a problem.

    "And so that''s us." Jen said with a mock bow, or as good as one could give when sitting down. "So, your turn."

    "Wait! What about your party name?!" Rena asked excitedly.

    "Pft!" Paulughed. "You''re too pure kiddo. Parties don''t do the whole name thing. The ones that got ''em were given one. You don''t name it yourself."

    Rena''s shoulders slumped thanks to the information that had deted her excitement a little. But she recovered quickly and began to exin who they were.

    "I am Rena! I''m a mage, but I fight midrange. And this is Lucius! He''s my best friend and he fights with a single-handed weapon and a damn good scout and tracker."

    "We can see the machete you know? Plus, Jen told us. Kiddo uses Forsaken Arts. Might wanna do something about hiding the weapon you carry." Lethen stated.

    "Right, gives too much away just by looking at you. It''s fine for us, but for you, not so much." Paul agreed.

    "Right, thank you." Lucius agreed. They were right. He could do a better job of hiding what his weapon of choice was. Honestly it was a dead giveaway to what his Arts were and besides giving him a disadvantage in a fight, it also affected how others would view him from a single nce.

    The group spent the next couple of hours eating and drinking to their hearts content. Since they were still young, and Rena''s father would literally murder him, they personally only drank juice and water. However, they devoured their own fair share of food.

    Honestly, for a seedy looking ce the food was fantastic. Even Rena was even enjoying herself and she was raised exclusively on professionally prepared meals.

    "Anyway, so I guess we should call it a night!" Jen shouted. Lucius had no idea how she was still standing, but that was not really his concern.

    "Right, meet you tomorrow at the guild? First light?" Rena asked.

    "If you pull my ass out of bed at first light, I will fight you." Paul groaned. He was a rather quiet man, but as he drank more, he talked more.

    "Ha, got it. Catch you guys tomorrow." Lucius agreed before heading back to the manor with Rena walking by his side. She had a skip in her step and a huge smile on her face. To be honest, she was rather cute like this. When they were at the estate she was a reserved and quiet girl, someone befitting her station. But in private like this, with Lucius, she was childish and sweet.

    This was who his best friend really was.

 Chapter 40: After the Party

    Rena skipped along the road with her friend, Lucius. The air was still and had a rtive chill to it. Without wind, it was still ratherfortable, though. The stars in the sky twinkled as usual, setting the stage for their friendly stroll.

    A handful of people shambled through the streets, drunkenly trying to find their way to their rooms or homes. Some guards also patrolled the streets and alleyways holdingnterns and lighting the streetmps down the main road.

    Pelith was not such arge ce for many roads to have streemps, but the main road did in the event of night time arrivals of important nobles. The town still used slow burning candles to light the lights instead of magic since the cost of purchasing so many enchanted items was a little too costly for now.

    "Thank you, Lucius, for following along with my whims."

    "Of course, you tried to fight for my life¡­and even begged for my father''s¡­also you are my first, best, and only friend." Lucius said. He reached his finger up to his cheek and scratched it awkwardly.

    She giggled at his awkwardness. "Seriously though, it''s so exciting that we are adventurers now. Next up is to get a slot on that Grand Raid in a few months¡­and then¡­" her voice continued to grow in volume and pitch as her excitement grew. Other people walking began to even take notice of their conversation.

    "I go to war."

    Lucius'' words cut through the air like a dagger to the heart. Reality settled onto her shoulders like a sack of rocks. He was right. The only reason Rena was able to enjoy bing an adventurer with her friend was because the kingdom allowed it.

    Once war broke out, all Marked Ones would be conscripted. There was an agreement in ce that the Adventurer''s Guild would turn over all documentation of registered Marked Ones to the kingdoms and perform the first outreach.

    Sure, the risk of creating Runners was extremely high, but they could simply be dealt with after the war was over. Really, the greatest benefit was cost free training for the kingdom''s front line.

    Rena knew this to be true, yet she tried to ignore it.

    "You might not have to go¡­you could¡­" she began.

    "Die in the dungeon."

    "No! You could¡­"

    "Be a Runner?"

    "Stop!" Rena screamed loudly.

    Her anger filled screech caused a few people to look their way before awkwardly walking away to ignore two children fighting. Lucius turned to face her with a nk expression on his face.

    "These are my only options Rena. You know that. I go to war, die in the dungeon, or be a Runner. I''m not going to do thosest two. My only real shot is to go to war."

    Lucius'' words hung in the air. They left a rotten, bitter taste in Rena''s mouth. She hated it. Why? Why were people so unfair to him? The adventurers did not seem to care¡­Jen barely noticed it¡­why can''t everyone be like that¡­

    Twenty minutes after their little spat, they walked through the gates of the manor. Only a couple of guards were present and doing patrols. Most of the maid staff were also asleep, though a few did have nightly duties to attend to in the event any members of the household required attending to in the middle of the night.

    The moment Lucius and Rena entered the gates, he fell back and stayed two steps behind Rena, immediately returning to his position as a bodyguard.

    "Mydy, your father requests your presence in his office. Please make sure you attend as well Sir Lucius." A maid had approached them from the grand staircase that was directly in front of the entry doors.

    "Of course. Thank you." Rena responded. She quickly walked up the stairs and followed the maid to her father''s study.

    The halls were adorned in various paintings of past lords anddies of the house, each framed by fine wood and gold trim. It was a rather audacious disy, even her own father hated it. Rena smiled momentarily at the childhood memory of overhearing her father whine like a petnt child to her mother about having to put his own portrait along the wall.

    Rena approached the door at the end of the hall and gave a quick series of knocks before entering. "Father, I''ve arrived as requested, Lucius as well. Lucius, please enter."

    The ck-haired boy stepped inside the door and moved to the left side of it, staying against the wall and at attention. Rena kept her eyes locked on her father, but this was something they had done many times before, so she already knew by heart what Lucius had been doing.

    "Thank you, Rena. Please sit." Her father ordered. "How was it? Do you still wish to be an adventurer? I am aware of you fighting Dire Rats, joining a party, and eating at¡­the ''Whistling Wolf''?"

    "You had me followed?"

    "Yes, mydy we were followed the entire time. The beginning of the day there were four." Lucius stated from behind her.

    She turned to look at him and saw her father do the same.

    Lucius continued, "After we exited the city I noticed that one of the four had vanished, but the other three scents remained. I imagine that the three remaining scents were tails set by your father, and the fourth belonged to a third party."

    Richard sighed. "You are correct, boy. I always forget you have such a strong nose¡­the fourth was likely someone from one of my brothers or another branch family. I don''t know who, but yes, you have the right of it."

    Rena had no idea that it had happened and red at Lucius for not telling her. He simply bowed in response.

    "I am sorry, mydy. I figured that your father wished for his agents to remain unnoticed, especially by you." The boy apologized.

    Richard let out a small chuckle, which earned him her ring gaze. "Well, father. I had a great time, and I intend to continue being an adventurer. The head of the house has yet to be selected and I need to gain power. Lucius also needs to gain power¡­both for the house and by royal decree. Also, father, I ask your leave to leave the manor during my tenure as an adventurer."

    To tell the truth, she had no idea if her father would acquiesce to her request. If she were to be an adventurer, she needed to truly fall into the life style. This had no rtion to Lucius whatsoever, none at all. This was purely for being true to the adventurer lifestyle¡­

    "Fine."

    "And no agents following me."

    "No promises."

    "Lucius, you are to tell me immediately if you sense any of father''s agents or agents of any kind following us." Rena ordered. Her father''s face contorted into frustration.

    "Yes, mydy." Lucius agreed.

    "By that Lucius as your lord¡­"

    "Sir." Lucius responded. Rena saw his head snap up. Suddenly his good natured spirit vanished and his eyes seemed to glow by the reflection of the candlelight in the room. "I follow Lady Rena''s word above all. Above yours. Above the king''s.

    Above the world. Above the gods. Make no mistake. On my father''s promise and on my own honor, I will make no concessions to this."

    A long, awkward silence ensued. Rena''s father locked eyes with the young teen who maintained his gaze despite the difference in strength. Yet, despite the aura of power and anger that seemed to start spilling out of her father, Richard gave in. "Very well."

 Chapter 41: Confrontation in the Night

    Lucius followed Rena back to her room. While she entered, he merely closed the door behind her. Technically he could enter his own room through hers by using the servant door that connected them, but it was improper to open the service door for any reason than being called to attend to thedy.

    Instead, he closed Rena''s door behind her and moved further down the hall to enter his own, small room.

    "How long are you going to stand there?" Lucius asked with one hand on the handle to his door.

    For some reason, Lucius could smell this person the moment they returned home, but thought nothing of it since he visited quite frequently. However, for him to still be present even at night was a strange circumstance. Lucius turned to face the person he called out to.

    Standing in the hallway was a short, innocent looking old man. He had a long white beard and a bald head. Normally one could not separate him from any other geezer taking a stroll on the town, but this man was dangerous.

    He was Wace Carmichael, or Wally, a King Rank mage who mastered all Elemental and Transcendent magic. In other words, he could use Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth as well as their evolved counterparts; Magma, Ice, Thunder, and Metal.

    "Ohe now young man, can''t you pity this old man for a moment of your time?"

    "Sir Carmichael, I¡­" Lucius began before being interrupted by a shock.

    The old man had suddenly appeared right next to him and poked him gently on the shoulder with one finger. His entire arm crackled with electricity. "Come now, boy. I told you to call me Wally, didn''t I?"

    "Sorry, Wally¡­my head was still switched into formal mode since I am in the manor. I also just got back from speaking with Lord Richard so¡­"

    "Bah! Phooey on that. Come with me." Wally dismissed before grabbing Lucius by the wrist.

    He tried to pull away from Wally''s grip but he felt like his wrist had been pinned in by a vice. Lucius could not help but thing that this must be what people mean when they refer to ''old man strength'', seriously¡­what is this?!

    All he could do was let himself be dragged around by the feeble looking, possibly senile, old man. The ce he was being dragged to? None other than the private training room meant for Rena and her father, though Lucius was granted special exception to use it, courtesy of Rena''s begging.

    "What do you want with me this time Wally? Going to torture me again to see if I suddenly awaken any magic?" Lucius teased. Even though he was slightly joking when asking the question, it was not really that far off the truth of how most of his ''training'' sessions with the man went.

    Wally put one hand on his chin and slowly turned his back away from Lucius. "Hmm, I could¡­but no¡­that''s not what I want¡­[Terra: Earth Wall], [Ferrum: Iron Spikes]!"

    Wally quickly called out his two spells and spun around. Gray and brown motes of light shone from his hand. Suddenly the single stairway down into the training room mmed close as a solid wall of rock filled the space. A line of metal shot around the walls of the room making aplete circuit before massive spikes formed, pointing outward. Basically¡­Lucius was trapped.

    "What are you doing here Wally?" Lucius questioned. His hand had already drawn his weapon the moment the word ''Terra'' left the old man''s lips.

    "You n to leave my training so soon, boy? Without aplishing anything? Without telling me?" Wally growled. "What a stupid, young pupil you are. [cies: Ice Spike]"

    A conical spike of ice flew towards Lucius'' face as fast as an arrow. His body prepared for a counter the moment he heard the trigger word activate, so his de managed to barely meet the spike before it met his head. The spell split in two and mmed into the wall on either side behind Lucius.

    "[Ventus: Wind de], [mma: Fire Lance]"

    Two more spells shot towards him from his teacher''s hands. These flew faster than the ice spell did, so he could not block. On top of that, these were not the kind of spells that could be blocked by a simple weapon. Instead, he had to opt for dodging these.

    The wind spell would strike first, though it was hard to see wind magic with the naked eye, those who trained hard enough could see them. Lucius was also blessed with stronger eyes than most, so he could see it in as day. He instantly dropped to the ground on all fours, allowing the Wind de to cut past him.

    Wally had predicted this response, so the Fire Lance was aimed at the ground where Lucius had gone.

    Due to all his time spent training with Wally, he figured this is what the bastard would do. Since he had dropped to all fours, he was prepared for this follow-up movement byunching himself up into the air, letting the spell fizzle out into the dirt. Luciusnded on the ground on his feet, weapon up ready for more.

    "Good one boy." Wally grinned evilly.

    Lucius was beginning to sweat, not from the effort but from concern about what move his teacher would make next. The best option for him was to press the attack. Lucius gathered all his strength and pushed off the ground with his feet. In his wake he left small cracks in the ground and a cloud of dust.

    The boy flew towards the old man with his weapon held out to the side, ready for a swing. He folded his arms to his chest and started a spin. Wally had leapt backwards to try and create space to cast another spell, but that simply gave Lucius more room toplete his maneuver. After his spin started, he once again extended his sword arm out. "[Forsaken Arts: Gouging Strike]"

    Golden mana enveloped the de of his machete. Thatbined with his spin made him look like a golden drill as he bared down on Wally.

    The old man simply smiled in response, but Lucius was unable to see it given his current state.

    "[Ferrum: Steel Wall]"

    A giant, mental wall appeared between the twobatants. Lucius collided with the wall with full force, sparks flying from metal on metal. The attacksted for a few seconds, before Lucius ran out of steam and dropped to the ground.

    The boy watched as Wally stepped around the wall and investigated the damage. He responded with a low whistle.

    "Not bad, boy. That was leveled down to an Intermediate Rank spell and you still managed to drill through about a third of it with that attack. Impressive." Wallymended.

    After that, he waved his hand and dispelled all the spells he cast. The metal wall and spikes ringing the room vanished, and the rock wall that blocked the exit dropped into the earth where it was summoned from.

    "Alright. You can go." The old man said with a massive, toothy grin.

 Chapter 42: Start of the Adventure

    Two, young adventurers walked into the stone building that housed the Pelith Adventurers Guild. No one seemed to particrly pay attention to the two of them since they did not really stand out.

    They walked through the building till they reached the far right corner where a female adventurer sat with a massive sword strapped to her back.

    "Wee you two! Gods, kid you look worse than I feel. I thought you stuck to juicest night."

    Rena looked at her friend and giggled at the massive ck circles under his eyes. Though he had never been drunk, and by extension, never had a hangover, he could not help but wonder if that would be better than the state he was in now.

    His former master kept him up all night lecturing him on how to use magic and the theory behind activating marks. But that was after he attempted to beat the ever living hell out of him. Every muscle in his body screamed in protest at even the slightest movement.

    Now that he was out of the manor, he did not need to keep up appearances, so he freely groaned and moaned about his aches.

    "You sound like a grandfather." Lethen chuckled.

    "I feel like I wrestled with Fenrir¡­"

    The dull roar of voices in the guild hall quieted down. It was especially noticeable to Lucius.

    "What did I say?"

    "Bad luck to mention the Forest Lord''s name. I''m not really that superstitious, but a lot of adventurers are." Jen advised before mping a hand on his shoulder. Of course it caused a lot of pain, so he yelped a little in response.

    "Oh right, I can help." Rena remembered. "[Lux: Heal]"

    Light enveloped her hand then vanished into Lucius'' body when she gently touched his shoulder. A secondter he felt a warm energy envelop his being from the inside out, like drinking a hot tea on a winter night.

    "Oh that feels nice¡­" Lucius said. "Hey¡­why didn''t you do that earlier?!"

    "Revenge." Rena pouted. "For what you saidst night."

    She puffed her cheeks like a chipmunk and turned her face slightly away from him. Obviously he thought it was adorable, but there was no way he was going to say that. The other members of the party simply chuckled for a moment before Jen brought everyone to attention with a small p.

    "Alright, since we are all here, I already took a job. I''m registered as party leader so I figured we can do something a little easy to get us limated to working as a team."

    "Good idea." Paul said.

    "Agreed, you''re the boss!" Lethen said with a mock salute.

    Lucius shook his head with a slight smirk. ''Guess this is going to be more fun than I thought. I like these people,'' he thought.

    "Our target is an E-Rank twin-headed bear. Should be fine since Lethen and I are Advance Ranks. Paul is Intermediate so should be no issue."

    Everyone nodded in agreement and they started to pack up to leave. Lucius checked his pack one more time like he did before they left this morning to ensure they had the basic supplies. He currently had a few days'' worth of rations, arge canteen for water, spare clothes, and polishing equipment for maintaining his weapon.

    "Oh, I picked this up for you by the way Lucius, consider it a gift." Paul said while passing him a new weapon sheath.

    It was simple enough in design, a basic leather sheath by all ounts on the outside. The inside though was where the trick was. It was made to amodate a machete on the inside while looking like a broadsword on the outside.

    "Oh, for hiding my Arts. Thanks, Paul." He said while swiftly changing out his sheath for the new one. It looked quite nice and would hopefully prevent him from getting crude looks by simply walking through town. Well, at least less than he normally does. A single look at his strange eyes got him all sorts of reactions.

    "You got it, kid."

    After that, they gathered their things and made their way out of the building. The day was nice and warm and filled with sunshine, so tons of people lined the streets visiting various shops and doing errands around town. A lot of the working folk were out hunting, logging, or in their workshops doing other forms of menialbor to make their daily bread.

    The sight made for quite the enjoyable view, foreign to him only a handful of years ago. Even since he had be Rena''s guardian at her request and his father''sst wish, he had not been outside enough to truly enjoy what society had to offer him.

    While walking to the gates, Rena tugged on his sleeve. "Hey, everything okay?"

    "Yeah, I just haven''t¡­been out much. Since we aren''t returning to the manor until after the Grand Raid is over¡­the town looks different than it used to."

    "I take it you didn''t get out much as a kid?" Lethen asked.

    His only response to that question was holding up his left hand for all to see.

    "Ah, right, forgot you were one for a second."

    Rena gave the elf a sideways nce, but quickly turned back to Lucius. "Hey, I haven''t been out on the town a lot either, how about when we get back we go check things out?"

    "Sounds like a great n." He replied with a smile.

    "How utterly adorable." Jen teased.

    Like the first time when they went on their test, the gate had two lines, one for entry with inspections, and one for exits with uncaring guardszily eying everyone who walked past. This time, Rena and Lucius had guild cards to sh, so they hurried in front of the group to be the ones to do it.

    The fanfare was much less than they hoped for, though Lucius did not know why he expected more than azy wave from the guard in the exit side.

    Once again their partyughed at the antics of the fresh faces. Oh well, it didn''t matter, as long as Rena was having fun that was all that mattered to him.

 Chapter 43: Sidetracked

    "Lucius, out front. Keep us apprised of any approaching monsters or people. It''s going to be about a day or so travel to the small vige where the quest was based." Jen ordered.

    "Understood." Lucius responded mechanically. His tone surprised everyone, even himself. It seems that the loyal bodyguard act has been so ingrained in him that Jen''s stiff orders brought it out for a moment.

    All Jen did was smile at him. She seemed rather clever and had a knowing air about her as if she understood everything there was to know about Rena and Lucius. Not that this was a bad thing really; she seemed trustworthy so what was the harm?

    They had been walking for about an hour before the road from Pelith began to fork. They took a right down a much less traveled path than the main road. In all likelihood, the only traffic this road saw was foot traffic and the asional cart bringing crops at the end of harvesting season to the town.

    Everything around them smelled so new to Lucius and unlike the woods where the trial urred, there was no ominous sense of foreboding, so he was able to simply enjoy the scenery. Birds chirped happily and leaves rustled in the wind. Essentially, it was a perfect, picturesque day.

    Something inside him made him feel uneasy despite everything going well. Honestly it was one of those going ''too well'' situations. It was entirely possible that he was imagining it, having never had a peaceful experience like this, but it always paid to be cautious.

    asionally one of the party members would chat with another regarding various different events and past adventures. Mostly, it was Rena asking the party about things that they had seen. Ever since she came back from the trial, she''s been enamored with adventure, action, and excitement. Her childlike awe of the situation amused Lucius to no end.

    After a few more hours the sun reached its zenith, so they stopped for a quick rest. It was not time to eat yet as they wanted to reserve rations in case tracking down the monster took more than they anticipated, so it was mostly to sit and drink water.

    Paul took primary watch, iming the walk was nowhere near enough to wear him out, but Lucius kept his ears peeled all the same. It took little effort for him to be able to monitor the situation like that, so why not?

    His ears suddenly twitch, and he swung his head toward the woods.

    "What is it?" Jen whispered, noticing the change in his mood. Even Paul was intrigued because he had not seen anything.

    "A group of people are traveling through the woods. Sounds like they are heading the same direction we are¡­roughly¡­"

    "Theying towards us?"

    "Mmm¡­no, doesn''t sound like it, in fact they might be getting ever so slightly further?"

    Lethen waved his hand. "Probably just some hunters from a vige nearbye."

    "Doubt it, there''s a ton of feet¡­maybe ten or twelve people? More than ten, less than twenty." Lucius answered. He did not take Lethen''s tone to heart as he was way too focused on listening to the people in the woods and ensuring they would not be a threat.

    He continued to listen as the camp sat in silence. Time passed slowly and it felt like hours, but in reality it was only a few minutes.

    Finally, "And they are gone. Can''t hear them anymore." He said to Jen.

    "Thanks, kid. Let''s get moving. No need to be stealthy, but let''s not do anything to purposefully draw attention to ourselves." She answered before ordering them to mobilize once more.

    The group in the woods concerned Lucius. They were just barely in range for him to hear them moving around, but they were not close enough for him to tell if they were heavily or lightly armored. If they were heavily armored, it was likely arge group of adventurers or mercenaries, which would not be all that big of a deal.

    Being lightly armored presented more potential issues. Namely the possibility that they weremon bandits. If they were bandits they were probably changing locations to set up along a road. Lucius was unsure how this road moved around and through these woods, so if they were bandits there was no doubt they would see them again soon.

    The least likely scenario if they were lightly armored would be a group of hunters, but thatrge would only be if they were hunting down something big and dangerous. Since the nearest viges gathered money together to request assistance with the Twin-headed bear, it was unlikely that simple hunters would go and take on the quest alone after submitting payment.

    These thoughts continued to whirl around his head until he heard a scream. It sounded like a young woman screaming at the top of her lungs. She did not utter any words, it was just a pure, primal scream.

    "Hmm" Lucius said.

    "What''s up?" Paul asked.

    "Oh I heard a woman screaming in the distance. Probably further down the road?"

    "Wait what? Is she calling for help? Is she being attacked?" Jen asked.

    "Mmm¡­can''t tell. She just screamed, probably scared. No words, just a in old scream."

    "Lucius¡­why are you being so calm?" Rena asked.

    He looked at the party and noticed they were all antsy and had their hands on their weapons, like they were ready for a fight.

    "Why are you guys prepping for a fight?"

    "Because we are going to go after the screaming woman!" Jen answered.

    Lucius could not understand why they wanted to. It was just some random person screaming. She was probably dead now anyway if it was bandits or monsters. Honestly, if they tried to rescue her, it would only sidetrack them from their true mission, which was to hunt the bear monster.

    "I guess we can go find her¡­but I already am smelling blood since we are down wind, so I don''t know if we are going to find what you think or want." Lucius stated inly.

    "Kid¡­just¡­let''s go." Jen stated. And with that they all ran down the road. Lucius followed as well since it was his party, but he really did not understand why it mattered to save some stranger. They were adventurers hired for a job. Not heroes in a story.

 Chapter 44: Bandits

    As Lucius lead the way to the source of the screaming and apparently blood, Rena could not help but wonder what was going on with her friend.

    He was rather stoic and monotone when they were in the manor for the purposes of maintaining appearances, but in private he was friendly and warm. So why? Why did he act so¡­well cold isn''t the right word. She had seen him act cold and malicious a few times. This was simply ack of caring. For some reason that felt¡­worse?

    She had never seen or heard her friend behave in such a way before, so Rena was extremely unsettled.

    Before they knew it, she too could hear the screaming that Lucius had referenced. By now everyone in the party had drawn their weapons in preparation for whatever they were going to find. Lethen had his sword and shield drawn, Jen had her greatsword, while Paul had his bow in his hand.

    Lucius had yet to draw his weapon, but he did seem to be focused on making sure they were maintaining the right direction.

    "Twelve people overall. There are a handful that seem to be injured. There is a lot of blood. Be ready." He called out before running ahead even further.

    Rena sometimes forgot how fast he was because in under a second he had tripled the lead he had on the rest of the group. At some point he ducked into the treeline and away from the road. He would periodically leave the safety of the forest to show that they were still following in the right direction and soon enough they began to understand what was happening.

    In the middle of the path was a collection of wagons. There were at least three of them, each being pulled by an ox. Or they would be if the oxen were still alive. Instead, strapped to each cart was the bleeding out corpse of an animal with its throat slit.

    The cargo seemed to be simple food and animal goods like grains, fruits, and furs. Scattered around the carts were a handful of bodies of young men in leather armor as well as a few people in tattered furs and ripped underclothes. It was clear now that the people Lucius had heard earlier were bandits and it seemed this caravan of people were their target.

    A few people were still alive and milling around. Specifically, there was a group of eight men who wore tattered fur armor with a random assortment of weapons surrounding a group of four people, three women and a small child. On second nce, Rena saw that one of the women was also cradling an infant.

    As they rapidly approached the attack sight, one of the bandits finally noticed them. He yelled out some sort of unintelligiblemand and he and five others ran towards their group of four. Lucius was still in the forested area, likely waiting for his chance to strike.

    "[Ferrum: Iron Spikes]"

    A line of metal surged in front of the party and raced towards the oing bandits as Rena cast her spell. Once it reached the bandits, giant metal spikes rose from the ground to catch the enemies. However, it seemed these ones were smarter than they appeared as all six of them jumped to the side and dodged the spell.

    Jen was the first to reach the enemies so she swung her sword in arge sweeping attack from the right. The attack was so strong that two of the bandits had to work together to block it. A third attempted to catch her unaware, but was met with an arrow from Paul who had stopped and stayed back with Rena to provide cover.

    The shot was not fatal and only struck the man in the bicep, but it was enough to stop him fromnding a strike on Jen''s nk.

    Lethen met with another of the attackers as well as the one who had an arrow in his arm. This left two to circle around them and rush after Rena and Paul''s positions.

    "[cies: Ice Spike]"

    "[Bow Arts: Twin Arrow]"

    A conical spike of ice shot towards the two, followed by an arrow from Paul. When the spike was less than three feet away from the two bandits, the single arrow split into two with each targeting one of the bandits.

    "[Shield Arts: Deflection]"

    One of the two bandits swung his shield in his off hand towards the attacks. It glowed for a moment with mana, leaving behind a trail of light that solidified for a moment in front of the attacks, preventing them fromnding. The ice spike and the twin arrows shattered against the wall of mana which dissipated right after blocking them.

    "Shit they have an Arts user." Paul muttered while loosing another set of arrows. "[Bow Arts: Pierce]" One of the arrows he shot glowed with mana and targeted the Shield Arts user.

    Unfortunately the shot did not connect.

    "[Sword Arts: Quick Strike]"

    The bandit''s arm and de glowed and quickly sliced through Paul''s enhanced attack, rendering it useless.

    "Fuck, another spell Rena!" Paul ordered while jumping backwards to create additional distance.

    "Right! Here¡­"

    "[Forsaken Arts: Severing sh]"

    A ck blur shot out of the woods at the bandits bearing down on Rena and Paul. The first of the two that took the hit was not the Arts user. Lucius'' machete cut through his arm and across his chest, leaving a massive cavity behind and dropping the man to the ground in a heap. The second bandit was able to react and blocked the sh with his shield.

    Lucius attempted to back away and prepare for another strike, but left himself open for a counter. He received a foot to the center of his chest which sent him flying backwards several dozen feet before he rolled to a stop, coughing.

    This pissed Rena off, so she took advantage of the distraction to cast another spell. "[cies: Frozen Ground]"

    Ice formed over the earth underneath the Arts user and up his feet, sticking him to the ground. Paul loosed several arrows one after another, forcing the man to block instead of focus on getting unstuck.

    "[Ventus: Wind de]"

    A magical sh of wind sliced at the bandit''s feet, severing one at the ankle. He roared in pain and dropped his shield and sword in response. As he fell forward three of Paul''s arrows sunk themselves into his chest and neck.

 Chapter 45: Hostages

    Paul and Rena each quickly moved to distract two of the four bandits that Jen and Lethen were fighting. They were holding their own without issue, but the fight was going to go nowhere and Lucius was still trying to get out of the dirt. It seemed the kick from the Arts user was rather strong and knocked the energy out of him.

    Rena shot spell after spell at the bandits attacking Jen, but in her caution to not hit an ally, the spells were easy to dodge so none connected. Paul was suffering the same consequences of missing shots because he was working to avoid hitting Lethen in the confusion ofbat.

    Rena nced over and noticed that Lucius was no longerying in the dirt and had vanished from his spot. When she nced back to Jen, Lucius was behind one of the bandits.

    "[Forsaken Arts¡­]¡­Erugh!"

    He attempted to make a strike at his back, but after hearing the trigger word, the man he was going to hit swung around with his fist and nted it solidly in the boy''s face. The hit caused him to stagger back several steps and blood poured from his nose while tears automatically welled up in his eyes. The bandit moved to take advantage of Lucius'' opening, but Rena would not have it.

    She quickly gathered the mana required for one of her stronger spells. "[Ventus: Wind Spear]"

    A near invisible spear instantly pierced through the bandit''s chest, right through his heart. Blood spurt from the wound and sprayed Lucius in the face.

    Jen, now having only one enemy to worry about was able to finally take the advantage in her bout. "[Sword Arts: Heavy sh]"

    Her sword began to glow as she swung it in a downward motion using her strength, the weight of the de, and the enhancement provided by the mana for the art to create a devastatingly strong impact. For a second, her foe was able to block the overhead strike with his sword, causing the ground beneath him to crack. However, his weapon was not up to the task and it was broken in two from the force.

    Jen''s sword bisected the man from head to groin.

    Lethen and Paul began to finish off their own foes. Paul''s onught of arrows was able to create a spot for Lethen to shield bash and stun one of them before piercing them in the gut. Paul continued to pepper the other bandit with arrows until he looked like a human sized porcupine.

    Rena looked to Lucius who had his back to them now and was looking calmly at the remaining two bandits that were still next to the captives. They each had one of the women in one hand and a de to another. Rena watched as Lucius'' body began to twitch. He was about to attack.

    "Lucius, hold!" she shouted quickly.

    Suddenly all the tension in his muscles rxed and she sighed in relief. She was sure that if he attempted to attack them that those vigers would lose their lives.

    "Smart girl. Tell you what. You can keep the other woman, the brat, and the baby. Then you let me and my friend here leave with these two." One of them offered.

    "Okay." Lucius said simply.

    "No! Not ''okay'', kid. Gods, what is wrong with you?" Jen asked.

    "This was not our job and by stopping the fight here, Rena is in less danger. There really was not a point in getting involved in the first ce anyway since we were supposed to be hunting down a bear, not bandits." Lucius argued.

    Again, Rena could not believe what she was hearing. Who was this¡­it reminded her of when they were in the woods¡­when something else was in charge.

    "Lucius, is that you?" she asked.

    He looked at her with soft eyes. "Yeah? Who else would I be?"

    His eyes clearly showed that he was her friend. His bodynguage and facial expression rxed while looking at her and even remained that way while looking at the party, but when he looked at the bandits and hostages, that caring gaze just vanished.

    "We are going to save them Lucius. Okay?" Rena said.

    The boy simply nodded in response. The air was still between the two groups. At first the faces of the two bandits were ecstatic that they were going to be able to leave, but now they were frustrated that the two girls talked the boy down.

    They did not seem too happy with them at the moment, but that was not Rena''s problem. As the two groups stared at each other, she thought frantically about how to fix the situation. If they made a move, then the bandits would slit the women''s throats without hesitation. If they did nothing, then they could be stuck here for hours.

    If they let the bandits get away, then who knows what would happen to those women.

    "Rena, if you want to save them, I know you cane up with a n."

    Rena nced at her friend who offered those words of encouragement. "Mmm," she acknowledged.

    If he still had the ability to use his mark, then this would not be a problem. Gods, if he could use his thunder magic, this wouldn''t be a problem. It was well known for explosive bursts of power and speed¡­

    "Paul. I have an idea. Can you use your Art to split that arrow and hit them without hitting the girls?" Rena whispered.

    Paul thought about it for a moment before nodding. "Yea, but I don''t know if they will get their fast enough to stop them from slitting their throats first. Or even putting the girls in the path of the arrows."

    "I have a n for that. When you are ready to activate your Art, whistle and I will do my part."

    "They might die if we do this you know?"

    "They might live too."

    Paul nodded and waited for a few seconds tightening and loosening the grip he had on his bow several times over. Faster than Rena could almost see he pulled his bow up and drew the string, he let out a sharp whistle before letting the arrow go.

    "[Bow Arts: Twin Arrow]!" "[Ventus: Tailwind]"

    Rena and Paul activated their abilities at the same time. The arrows split in two and were boosted by a massive gust of magical wind that multiplied their speed at least three times over. Before the bandits could react, each of their skulls were pierced by the arrows and the copsed to the ground, dead instantly.

    Everyone rushed up to check on the vigers, that is except for Lucius who kept a watch out for them. The vigers thanked the party profusely over and over again with a the woman with the infant offering to rename her child after Paul.

    The offer made the man blush and mumble and plead for her to not do that, which made the rest of the groupugh at him.

    After tending to everyone''s wounds with a few casts of her healing magic, Rena moved to heal Lucius'' wounds.

    "Take off your shirt please."

    "Okay."

    Underneath his shirt, Rena saw his toned muscture and she began to blush a little, however the feelings quickly dissipated as she noticed the severe bruising and one of his ribs being misshapen. She panicked and cast her healing magic multiple times in a row, rapidly healing the wound and repairing the broken bones.

    Thanks to the speed at which they set themselves and moved, the healing process seemed about as painful as the process in which the injury was obtained.

    "Sorry." Rena mumbled.

    "I''m fine." Lucius answered.

    Things felt a little awkward at the moment, but she did not know what to do to break the tension while Lucius put his shirt back on. Luckily, Jen was able to break the silence when she approached.

    "Looks like these girls were transporting goods with their husbands to Pelith. They are from the vige that we are hunting that bear, so we are taking them with us back to the vige for now. You good with that kid?"

    "Not a problem." Lucius nodded.

    Rena did not miss the curious nce Jen gave her friend, though she could not me her. This felt so odd¡­

 Chapter 46: Inconsistencies

    Lucius felt the stares of his friend and his new allies on his back as he lead the way to the vige that requested assistance with the bear monster. He also felt an ufortable intensitying from the three adult women that were saved.

    He could not really exin it, but when he heard them screaming for help, something told him they weren''t worth it. This was far cry from when his father took him into the woods to observe the trials. It was also different from the anger he felt during his own trial when he saw other Marked Ones being treated like beasts. But something since then¡­just has not clicked.

    There were marks on a few of the bodies in the wreckage of the carts that they had examined after the fight was over, but even then, there was nothing. So, he was able to determine it was not a prejudice against unmarked people¡­so what was it?

    He felt an itch at the base of his skull momentarily, as if something was nagging at him to realize something. There was a small hint of guilt? But then it was reced again by apathy, then hatred¡­what is this¡­

    Suddenly, he vomited. Memories of the fight he just had rushed into his mind. He reyed every second of it, piece by piece. Images of blood and torn flesh filled his vision as he remembered the bodies of the fallen vigers and the look of surprise and fear on the face of the bandit he personally killed.

    Rena and Lethen ran over to him while Paul took over watching for enemies and Jen stayed,forting the women. They were saying something to him but his ears could not pick up anything. The only sound that filled his ears was that of his own heart pumping, increasing louder and louder. His vision faded away again and filled with darkness¡­this was the first time he killed someone.

    Why did it not bother him?

    Wait¡­no¡­it wasn''t¡­he killed before. In the woods, he killed two boys at least, Vik and Peter. They were Rena''s cousins who tried to kill them weren''t they?

    More visions flooded his mind as he remembered tendrils of darkness pulling the children closer and closer. They screamed, begged, called for their parents to save them, but Lucius did not hold back. He remembered their bright red hair, how it darkened with blood before the shadows themselves seemed to swallow them whole.

    "Lucius¡­what''s wrong?! Speak to me dammit!"

    Rena''s voice finally reached his ears. So, he responded with a simple, "I''m fine. I''m fine."

    The dead calm in his voice startled even him. It felt like something else was controlling his emotions again. Every time he started to feel sick, remembering what he had done¡­calm washed over him and brushed the feelings aside.

    "When we get to the vige, Rena. We need to talk." He whispered to his friend.

    "Understood."

    Lethen watched the two whispering back and forth, but simply shrugged and assumed everything was fine. It was clear something was up with Lucius for him to be behaving so strange and inconsistent, but it was alsomon for adventurers to have things going on that they did not talk about.

    Some had pasts they ran from, some had strange curses or illnesses, some had even stranger things going on, but one thing was shared among them all: live and let live. Basically, don''t bother or judge.

    The vige was still several hours away by the time night began to fall and traveling with the extra baggage was slowing them down even more. In the end they decided to camp out to rest everyone up for the final leg of the trip. With Lucius'' strange behavior, they tasked him to do his watch with assistance.

    Jen volunteered to do the watch with him. Her reasoning was ''Don''t want him to get distracted by the alternative.'', which confused him and annoyed Rena for some reason. He had noints though since Jen was an aplished warrior.

    The party started a small fire, enough to give off a little heat and light. The vigers huddled together close to it while the adventurers settled into a ring around them. It was colder for them, but overall saver for the civilians and the infant. When Jen felt that everyone had finally settled down to rest, she turned to Lucius to talk.

    "What the hell kid?"

    "Huh?"

    "First you don''t want to rescue vigers in trouble, then you mercilously behead a bandit without a care, then you vomit for no reason, then you turn ice cold against your best friend right after¡­Too much at once, Lucius." Jen whined.

    "I''m sorry. I don''t really know what is going on, but I have some ideas¡­and questions¡­all things I can only talk about with Rena." Lucius stated.

    "Why only her? I''ve seen a lot, Lucius. I know more than I let on."

    "I know¡­but we did our trial together and have been together for five years, or soon to be when the autumn hits."

    "Trial? Oh, that''s that thing the Petra domain does. The one where all the viges send wannabe warriors and mages into the woods to survive and escape?"

    "That and all Marked Ones. Since we have to be warriors eventually anyways¡­but yeah, that''s right. I take it you aren''t from here then?"

    "No, I''m not. I''m actually from the Wisteria Compact. Small, nameless vige. Came here after serving in the military for a few years, liked the scenery here better. What happened to you two?"

    "Long story short?"

    "Sure, that works I guess."

    "We fought an Alpha Deer that had a grudge out on me for taking it''s horn a few months before the trial. Got our kill stolen from us by a handful of her cousins. I murdered two of those same cousins, then as punishment after, her father sentenced my father to death and beheaded him in front of me."

    Jen sat in stunned silence for several minutes before finally breaking it. "That''s rough buddy."

 Chapter 47: Tamers

    When the morning sun rose, Lucius felt a strange weight on his side. He looked over and wrapped around his arm was a girl, slightly shorter than him with beautiful crimson hair. Heughed to himself because when they traded off watch shifts, he simplyid his things next to where she left her things. He guessed she must have snuck into his bed while he was asleep.

    He looked around stealthily to see if anyone was looking at them, thankfully no one else was awake other than Paul who must have takenst watch. He locked eyes with Lucius and gave him a knowing smile. In response, Lucius held up a finger to his lips that Paul just gave a nod in acknowledgement to.

    This let him breathe a sigh of relief as he gently untangled his arm from between Rena''s, but before he could pull it all the way free, the jostling roused her from her sleep. Her eyes blinked open slowly and nced down at her hands that she tangled around his. Her gaze followed the hand up until she finally reached his face.

    "Oh¡­good morning." She said quietly.

    "Yeah¡­morning Rena. Did you sleep okay?" Lucius put on his best poker face and gave her his gentlest smile. He figured any other response might make her feel embarrassed. He was sure that she was just missing being home and she needed something familiar to cling on to.

    "Y-y-yeah¡­I slept just fine¡­" she stuttered for a moment before coughing and quickly letting go of his hand. "I hope you were able to sleep okay too, considering yesterday''s events. I trust you still n on talking with meter?"

    "Yes, when we settle for the night in the vige. We will have time to talk without the need for staying on watch."

    "Well, good."

    The girl swiftly got up and moved to gather her own pack. At this point everyone started to move and wake from their own resting ces. Thanks to his great hearing, he did not miss the fact that no one''s breathing changed from sleep to waking, other than the small child and the infant who were actually asleep.

    This meant that basically everyone was awake before he was¡­great¡­this could reflect badly on Rena''s reputation. He needed to be more careful in the future.

    After getting everything together Lucius once again took the lead and stayed several hundred paces ahead of the group to ensure that nothing and no one would get the drop on them. The rest of the trip was rather uneventful until they were about thirty minutes out from the vige.

    That was when every hair on Lucius'' body stood on end. He heard the milling about of dozens of monsters and beasts. The smell of wolves permeated the air, the scent as thick as soup.

    He retreated back to the group, eyes clearly wide enough for everyone to notice his concern. "I smell and hear dozens of monsters ahead. I''m worried the vige may have been overrun. The majority of them are wolf type monsters, any closer and they will smell us, unless they already have."

    Rena''s hands twitched as if she was about to cast a spell in response. Lethen and Paul''s faces became clouded with concern and confusion. He couldn''t me them, the likelihood of a monster attack on a settlement that was thisrge was very rare.

    When they began to start discussing the next steps, one of the women they had rescued interrupted them. "Um, actually those monsters you sense¡­they''re friendly."

    When the woman informed them of that, Jen''s eyes widened. "Wait a minute¡­is this that vige of tamers?"

    "Yes, most of our people possess dark magic and specialize in taming monsters. We don''t interact with others in the domain a lot because they look down on partnering with monsters, but its tradition."

    "Why did you not have any with you on the trip?" Lucius asked.

    "Like I said earlier, people do not really like that we tame monsters, so we do not bring them with us on trading runs to other towns and viges."

    Lucius put his palm to his face. "Right, sorry."

    With that brief moment of confusion out of the way, the party continued forward. This time the boy stayed with the party. He still stayed on alert, but even with his senses, so many monsters in the area threw them off a bit. His built in rm bells were ringing nonstop, so the only real option was to tune everything other than his vision out.

    Everyone approached the simple entrance to the vige. It was less of a gate and more like an opening in the simple fencing that surrounded the vige in its entirety. The guard seemed to recognize the women and saw what state they were in, so everyone was immediately guided to the vige chief''s residence.

    Most of the homes were simple cabins, very reminiscent of the one that Lucius had spent his younger years in. The vige chief''s home however was muchrger. It was two stories and could easily house four, maybe five families in it and still have room for the dining room, an office, and a kitchen.

    Once they arrived, the guard knocked and announced his presence to the household. The door opened and everyone was brought inside by a butler. They were taken to a massive study that had a few luxurious couches and chairs. In one of them was a portly older man with balding hair and a wiry moustache.

    The firece was lit and hanging over the mantle was a painting of a young, heroic looking man fighting off monsters with a twin-headed bear standing at his back. It looked like they were fighting together.

    "Please,e in, sit. I''ll have our vigers taken to their homes to rest and try to regain some normalcy in their lives. Please wee." The man said as he rose from his seat. He gave the group a deep bow in gratitude.

    Everyone moved to find a seat around the firece and began to share what they had happened upon in the forest. Other than the three women, the young child, and the infant, no one else survived. Even the oxen were not spared so the carts had to be abandoned.

    Per custom, the bodies of the deceased vigers had been burned so as not to attract monsters or allow the bodies to be undead. Undead were very umon outside of extremely mana rich areas like the deepest depths of the forest outside Pelith or dungeons, but it was still possible for any old corpse to turn.

    "That is awful news. We were relying on that set of wagons to provide us with some extra ie to the vige to support us till the main harvest in a few months¡­I will send some of our warriors with other carts and some of our beasts to gather what we can. Of course it is most likely all looted by now, but we might get lucky. Thank you all."

    "Of course, vige chief." Jen replied. "On to our real purpose though, we are adventurers from Pelith, and we havee to take care of your twin-headed bear problem."

    "Ah yes! That, thank you. Thank you very much for responding to the request. As you know we have many different beasts and monsters in the vige, in fact you may have seen some of our finer specimens¡­"

    "Chief, the quest." Jen interrupted.

    "Oh, right. This painting here¡­it is of our founder, my ancestor, it is said that he tamed a twin-headed bear as his mount and used that to carve a home for tamers here¡­my idiot son thought that he could do the same, and sought out one to tame.

    "These monsters do not normally dwell near human poptions since they do not like humans and tend to hunt other monsters, but my son went to this bear''sir and attempted to form a pact. After it failed, he figured he would have a better chance if it was at a disadvantage, and attempted to lure it into a trap outside of our vige¡­" the chief exined.

    "I take it he failed." Paul deduced.

    "Quite badly. He lost his life and now the bear will not return home. It smells all the many monsters we tame here, as well as the abundant poption of weaker beasts in the area¡­it seems to have made itself quite the home here¡­so please. Rid this beast for us will you?"

 Chapter 48: The Hunt

    The vige chief had a few things to discuss with the party regarding the task. It seemed that the target had been staying in the hills just a bit north of the town. Since they approached from the south, that made sense as to why there was no sign of such a creature during their travels.

    It also was most active during the day as it actually had rtively poor eyesight. At night, it retreated to a small cave in the hills that were a little hard to get to without attracting the attention of other monsters.

    Their best bet was to wait for it to get hungry and begin hunting. Lucky for them, they arrived around noon, so they would be able to get started on tracking it down. The n was to enter the twin-headed bear''s hunting grounds and wait for it to attack something. They would then wait to strike until after the fight was over so as to avoid having to fight multiple monsters.

    If they stayed close enough to the bear, then the weaker monsters would avoid the area and they would be able to fight it alone. Also, by attacking it right as it is about to eat, it will have already expended at least some of its energy prior to them having to take it down. It was an E-Rank Beast, so they could manage it well enough.

    Lethen and Jenbined should be able to manage a D-Rank monster well enough.

    However, it was important not to get cocky as one small mistake could end everything. As per usual, Lucius was put in charge of tracking. Rena and Paul provided covering fire, and Lethen and Jen would take the front line. They agreed to replenish their stock of supplies in town before gathering at the northern exit to head into the woods.

    "Everyone have what they need? Once we head out, we aren''ting back till the job is done." Jen informed them. She looked at each member''s face and nodded with satisfaction. "Alright, Lucius, put your nose to the ground and lets go."

    "You know my the beastman half of me is feline, not lupine, right?" He protested.

    "Well, the way we rely on your nose, I''m beginning to wonder about that." Jen joked.

    Everyone had a shortugh, even Rena. In all honesty, it was a funny joke, so he chuckled a little as well. They headed into yet another set of woods, this time to track down a beast that would make the Alpha Deer piss itself.

    For the most part, the trek was simple. With his sensitive hearing and nose, he was able to avoid most interactions with monsters. His eyesight also helped, but since the area was forested, the other ones were a little more useful. They saw all kinds of monsters just like the ones in the vige.

    There weremon wolves, as well as monstrous variants, both ranked and unranked, like the Fanged Wolf (F-Rank), a Red-Eye Wolf (unranked), Shadow Wolf (F-Rank) and a few others.

    Unranked monsters were usually stronger than their non-monstrous counterparts, but were not quite strong enough to contend with Beginner Rank fighters. They were maybe one and a half to two times stronger than their non-monster brethren.

    There were also a handful of Goblins (unranked) and Hobgoblins (F-Rank) patrolling the woods. They were low in numbers and each group appeared to be separate from the others. Normally they were not threatening because their territorial nature lead to them fighting with other groups rather than joining up with them.

    On the asion they would band together and present a rather dangerous problem to cities and towns since their breeding members would work together to rapidly produce an army that would outnumber a vige in a matter of weeks. Something like that required a C-Rank variant of a goblin though, and they were extremely rare.

    While they could easily have thinned the poption of these monsters, since humanoid monsters were much harder to tame, they decided against it. Avoiding all fights was better in the long run for them for both energy conservation as well as preventing their real foe from discovering their whereabouts early.

    A few hours passed and by this point, Lucius had to guess that it was about four in the afternoon. He could not reliably check the sun''s position in the sky thanks to the treetops filtering all the light through to them, but he felt like he was rtively close.

    "It''s getting close, but the bear should still be¡­" Lethen started before Lucius shushed him quickly.

    He thought he picked something up off in the distance, somewhere to the northwest. He waved the group to lower themselves to the ground and wait, while he darted off between the trees. Ever since bing a retainer to Rena, he still maintained his father''s training regimen on top of the one his various trainers had for him.

    Because of this he was able to maintain a rather lithe form despite all the different workout regimens his trainers put him through.

    This fact helped him quickly dart in, out, and between different trees and clearings as he tried to pinpoint the source of the sound he had heard. For a little while there was nothing. But then there was a strange roar, as if it was two slightly different pitches opposing one another.

    "That should be our guy¡­" He muttered to himself before returning to the group.

    Thanks to him remembering where he left them and the path he had taken, he reached them much quicker than it had taken him to get to the spot where he pinpointed the target.

    "It''s several hundred feet off in the northwest. I heard it''s strange two-tone roar. I don''t know if it''s attacking anything yet, but I found it."

    "Good enough, lets go before it tries to flee to it''s den." Jen said with a nod.

    Lucius turned around and led the party the direction he had identified the bear in. Since he had returned to them it had slightly changed location, but it was still in the same rtive area. Once again he gave the group non-verbal signals to quiet down and let him scout a little bit ahead.

    Just a few hundred feet in front of him was a small gap between the trees. It was not a natural gap. Several of the trees in the area had deep w marks as if the bear was marking its territory to ward off anything dumb enough to wander nearby.

    Some of the trees had been snapped at the base orpletely uprooted and there were hundreds upon hundreds of divots in the ground which appeared to be signs of previous battles against other beasts.

    The monster was nning on making this a permanent home and was cordoning off its little slice of the forest. That vige chief''s son certainly was a fool.

    Finally, Luciusid eyes on the creature in question. It was easily two or three times the size of a normal bear. Even when down on its four legs, it stood about twice as tall as he did. Also, as the name would suggest, it had two massive heads joined at the neck. It seemed to give it just shy of perfect three hundred sixty-degree vision.

    There was no way in hell that it could see directly behind its own massive form, but it definitely was close.

    The beast exuded power spades beyond what Lucius was capable. Every step it took shook the earth around it. He felt a cold sweat run down his back.

 Chapter 49: Twin-Headed Bear

    Lucius backed away quickly from the monster before it could catch a sense of him. He was able to circle back to where the party was waiting and informed them of what he saw.

    Jen formted a n off the information. Essentially, Lucius would circle around to the back of the beast and wait for a few minutes for the party to get into position. He wouldunch a surprise attack on its backside, and when the bear turned around to attack its assant, he would back off and at the same time, Rena wouldunch a spell while Paul shot an Arts enhanced Arrow.

    Finally, Jen and Lethen would jump into the fray to engage in direct melee with the beast. Lucius would continue to pester it from its blind spots, and Rena and Paul would continue to provide cover.

    "Sound like a n?" Jen whispered.

    Everyone nodded in agreement and they moved into their positions. Lucius circled around the opposite direction he originally went and got the bear within eyesight again. He made sure to watch its lumbering movements to ensure that it was not suddenly aware of his presence.

    Even though he was doing everything he could to keep himself hidden from it, these monsters could be quite clever sometimes or extremely intuitive. Intuition was one thing you could always count on to exist, but you could never guarantee when it wille into y.

    Every breath and every step was measured and steady so as not to ruin the n. After a few agonizing minutes, Lucius was in position. By this point, the rest of the party would be as well, so he began to focus the mana in his body and forced it to travel into his de and feet.

    "[Forsaken Arts: Severing sh]!"

    By siphoning some of the mana from the skill and forcing it into another part of his body, like his feet, instead of the weapon, he would lose some of the damaging power of the strike itself. However, the energy would instead be put into his leap, speeding up the attack faster than he would have been capable normally.

    He was way weaker than other children his age, physically, so he had to be tricky and learn how to manipte the mana used by his skills as best he could. This was how he had learned to change the weapon focus from his sword to his hands in the Dire Rat battle. It was also how he was able to perform such zing fast strikes.

    Sure, it weakened the impact and lessened the already middling physical power he possessed, but it enhanced his natural speed that even some Intermediate Rank fighters would struggle to keep up with.

    Dirt and leaves scatted in the wake of Lucius'' attack and he shot like an arrow at the bear''s backside. The target of the Severing sh was the monster''s hamstrings. It would not be a deadly blow, or even likely a debilitating one considering the terrifying regenerating abilities of monsters, but it would slow it down just enough to provide another advantage to the team.

    Before the monster could even react to the sound of his voice and attack, Lucius was on top of it. His de, coated in a golden sheen from the mana, shed across the back of the bear''s leg. It was deep, but not deep enough to cause the damage he had hoped for.

    "[Bow Arts: Piercing Shot]"

    "[Ferrum: Metal Spikes]"

    A golden arrow followed by a trail of gray flew towards the bear as it was turning around to face Lucius. From the gray trail, dozens of metal spikes burst from the ground before instantly disappearing.

    The arrow sunk into the bear''s side and the spikes pierced the hide on its belly, though neither did much other than cause a flesh would. But since this wound was more annoying than his own, it quickly redirected its attention from Lucius and back towards the other attack.

    It was at this moment that Jen and Lethen ran out from between the trees. Jen had her greatsword held out to the side and made arge swing from the right. Lethen had his shield in front of him and his sword held down and to the left before he made his attack.

    "[Sword Arts: Overpowering Strike]!"

    "[Sword Arts: Rapid Strike]!"

    Jen''s attack instantly became faster and it almost appeared as if the weight of the sword had grown as well. Lethen''s attack also increased in speed to the point that his sword hand was a blur.

    Both swords shed towards the bear''s front legs, Jen''s cut almost cleanly through while the one from Lethen left over a dozen smaller wounds, though each was twice as deep as Lucius had managed with his one attack.

    Not one to leave an opening gone to waste, Lucius took the chance given to him to attack the legs once again. Since the two attacks from the front made its front legs unusable for the moment, the bear decided to stand on its hind legs and roar in anger and defiance. This was the moment that he made his attack.

    Once again using a Severing sh, Lucius sped towards the bear. This time though, he used his natural speed and allowed the mana to be fed into the sword in its entirety. Again, the attack did not do much more than cause a flesh wound, so instead of pressing his luck, he once again retreated into the trees.

    "[cies: Ice Spike]"

    "[cies: Ice Spike]"

    Two spells were activated back-to-back as twin conical spikes of ice appeared between the trees and targeted the bear''s heads. Using the arm that was still somewhat attached, it attempted to swing and strike the attack down.

    "[Bow Arts: Multi-Strike]"

    Before the block could stop the spikes, a group of arrows caught the arm right in the shoulder, preventing the movement from urring.

    Both spikes struck their targets, one eye on each of the two heads. At this moment, Jen took advantage of the situation and leapt upwards before spinning and kicking the back of one of the spikes, pushing it further into the bear''s head. When shended on the ground, the twin-headed bear''s entire body shuddered and twitched.

    It wentpletely stiff and then fell backwards onto the ground, making a loud thud.

    "Not bad guys. He went down a lot easier than I expected. Lethen, pierce the second brain just in case." Jen said. "We got lucky that we were able to stop it from using its ws. That''s where its mana infused attacks originate. Let''s get to skinning it.

    Keep the ws for alchemy ingredients, I''ll collect the heart. Everything else, leave for the other monsters."

    Jen''smands were set and so the group set about on the corpse. It took everyone to break down the body of therge creature. Even Lucius took part even though he was also monitoring the area around them. After a few hours of tedious work, the deed was done and they had a freshly skinned fur, ten ws, and one massive bear heart.

    "I''ve never seen a bear heart before¡­but that one looks¡­odd." Rena pointed out.

    "Oh, have you ever seen any sort of monster heart?" Lethen inquired.

    Both Rena and Lucius shook their heads. The strange thing about the heart was that it was¡­ck with deep red veins surrounding it.

    "Oh, well the difference between monsters and the base creatures they are descended from, is that monsters can use mana like humans. It flows through their blood. However, its in much higher concentrations and causes strange mutations and gives them powerful abilities. One of the results of that is that all monsters have these strange, ck hearts." Lethen exined on their walk back.

    They did not have to be as cautious since they smelled like the twin-headed bear. It was the strongest thing in these woods, so none of the other monsters wanted to be anywhere near them at the moment, so it was a rather peaceful trek back.

 Chapter 50: The Talk

    The party returned to arge amount of fanfare, it seems one of the vigers had been trying to find a monster to tame and saw the party moving through the woods with the spoils of their hunt. They had run ahead and informed the rest of the vige who gathered near the northern entrance to wee their new ''heroes'' back from the dangerous hunt.

    "Thank you so much adventurers, you really saved us! And you only did it in a day!" The vige chief came out to greet them upon their return as well. Rena noticed him greedily eye the monster''s pelt for a moment, but he did not say anything since he knew the guild''s rules on spoils.

    "Oh it was no problem! Honestly it went down a little too easy for a beast of its rank." Jen answered.

    Rena was about to agree before she heard her best friend mutter under his breath, "For some of us anyway¡­"

    After hearing Lucius say something like that, she could easily tell that he had a hard time. She was not able to see how things looked from his end. All she knew was that his distraction worked and helped to pull attention away at the right moments for them to attack. Granted, after the first attack he did not participate much.

    It sounded like he had made a few other attacks, but they did not seem to be all that impactful.

    That was when it hit her¡­he must have been feeling a little inferior after the fight. It was so easy for the rest of the party, and yet, for him¡­the bear must have seemed like an insurmountable wall¡­

    "Hey Rena? You with us?"

    Jen''s voice broke through her inner thoughts.

    "Sorry, I was thinking, what''s up?"

    "We are going to head over to the vige chief''s house to discuss some financial details rting to the pelt and ws we gathered. He gave us a house on the southern end for the night. It''s just a ways before the gate we came here through when we first arrived. Can you and Lucius go set it up for us?"

    She nodded in affirmation, then grabbed Lucius by the wrist and pulled him along after her. For a moment he looked a little confused, but soon enough simply went with the flow. It seemed he recognized the look on her face that said something like: ''you''re not getting away from me this time'' or something.

    Since there was no longer any rush, they were actually able to take in the sights of the vige a little bit. Rena had noticed that there were arge number of monsters and wild animals all around the vige. There were so many kinds of F-Rank and Unranked Wolf monsters that it almost rivaled the amount they saw in the woods.

    Rena had long known of the existence of tamers in the world. It was a subsect of dark magic. In fact, the same magic was once used to enact ve pacts during ancient times, though, thankfully those spells have long since been lost. However, taming magic has held on. The stigma behind it can be rather hard to shake due to the historical rtion it has to the ancient ve magic.

    However, it was tempting to wish for the ability to tame monsters. Whenever she thought about being able to cuddle up to a giant wolf every night, her heart nearly swooned.

    Things in the vige did not look like this was something they just did for fun. Rather, it appeared to be a necessity. The monsters were working on tasks and jobs throughout the vige and it was often side by side with their masters. In truth, it was quite cute to watch.

    They finally made it to the house that Jen directed them to. The inside was rather in, but workable. There was no furniture, so they would have to make due with their camping supplies and such for sleeping¡­ but this was not the time for that.

    "You said you needed to talk with me, right? So what is going on¡­" she asked him.

    Rena listened as Lucius exined to her what happened after the fight with the bandits was over. From the outside, he had vomited, and began to groan as though he were in pain. Everyone thought he had been poisoned for a moment, but other than a punch and a kick, nothing hat hit him to suggest he was poisoned.

    However, after what she heard Lucius tell her about his side of the story, she could not help but pale in the face. She remembered the trial in the forest very well. She even remembered whatever the entity was that took over Lucius'' body tell her that it had blocked his memories of the incident.

    Now, it seemed like it no longer held those memories back¡­but why? Did the shadow entity want Lucius to start feeling all of the sudden? That did not make sense, what would it gain from such a situation. If anything, the apathetic Lucius that did not care if innocent vigers lived or died would probably suit whatever nefarious deeds it wantedmitted on its behalf.

    "Okay¡­so you remember what happened in the forest, that you killed my cousins as well as how you did it¡­but what does that mean? Did not remembering it make it easy to ignore the cry for help?"

    "No¡­I feel¡­like I want to feel bad about it. I also feel like I want to feel bad about your cousins. Hell, I even feel like I want to feel bad about killing bandits¡­but every time I start to experience those feelings, something gets in the way and pulls it away from me." Lucius admitted.

    The look on his face was pathetic. Rena had no idea what to do tofort him. What she suspected was the thing that ''pulls away'' his emotions had to be the shadow entity from the trial. Nothing else made sense to her. One thing she knew for sure, was that she was going to be here for him. She promised to protect him, both to the entity in the trial, but also she made another one to herself.

    "If you ever feel like you can''t decide what is right and what is wrong¡­rely on me. I''m not perfect, I make the wrong choices a lot¡­but if you need someone to double check your thoughts with¡­rely on me." Rena offered. Her hand was ced over her heart, a sign of her sincerity.

    "Thank you¡­I will." Lucius said with a slightly sad smile.

    Rena could not help herself, so she pulled him into a tight hug. There were a lot of unknowns right now for him: his isck of power, the loss of his mark''s activation, the inability to cast magic, and the control that he lost over his own emotions¡­it was all too much for a single boy to bear, so she would bear it with him.

 Chapter 51: Allies for the Raid

    After a short while, Jen and the others entered the borrowed house. Apparently, the vige chief paid a hefty sum for the pelt and ws. Rena was curious why the did not just store the items in their storage rings when they collected them, but apparently it was specifically so the vigers could see the spoils of victory directly as well as do a little advertising.

    The vige chief clearly had a fondness for his ancestor that had tamed one of the twin-headed bears in the past, so it only made sense he would be interested in at least having the pelt of this one decorating his home. It would probably make a nice rug in the center of the office they first met him in.

    She and Lucius had a nice long talk before the party showed up and she felt much better after it. The n from now on was that he would rely on her judgement calls when it was needed as it rted to helping those unaffiliated with him.

    From their discussion, he had no problem with going the extra mile to help people he viewed positively, like his mother, Rena, and the rest of the party to an extent.

    It did make her feel a little ufortable because it seemed like she was taking away some of his agency, but to avoid future conflict it would be for the best.

    ''At least this behavior will suit him well when the war starts and he¡­'' She didn''t want to think about it, but she could not help but remember that after the Grand Raid, Lucius would likely be sent off to war. It was not a guarantee, but talk of rising tensions were heard along every street and whispered around every table. It was truly only a matter of time.

    If they were really unlucky, it would happen before they could partake in the raid¡­

    "Hey Rena, what made you guys be adventurers anyway?" Lethen asked. He had broken a decently long and awkward silence that had fallen on the group. Paul was busy stoking the fire and preparing some dinner for them. Jen was cleaning the weapons, and Lucius said he needed some air and was meditating outside.

    "Well, I have always been interested in the idea of being an adventurer since I was a real little kid, but over thest few years that interest developed into a desire." She exined.

    "Also, House Petra has this thing where the most aplished of the younger generation inherits the head of the house, so a lot of us be adventurers since that is the easiest way to aplish something¡­well that and war."

    "Oh right, I thought I heard something about that." Jen interrupted. Rena guessed she was listening in, but that confirmed it. "You Petras are really weird. Forcing your own children to y some sort of survival game, making them fight each other to get their inheritance¡­gotta say, never heard of a family like yours."

    All she could do was nod along, because Jen was right. Rena''s family was quite different. "You''re right, but the Petra domain regrly churns out the best soldiers in Arcadios. Our house heads are also usually some of the strongest warriors and greatest tacticians¡­it has toe from somewhere."

    "Just feels like a bit much sometimes. Like the reward is not worth the cost, ya know? Some of those kids who die in your trials could change and go on to be great warriors or artists." Lethen exined.

    "Again, you aren''t wrong. But other than those who are marked, only those who want to be warriors or mages partake. So it''s not mandated¡­well I guess all of the Petra children have to partake too." Rena attempted to exin. However, even she knew her words were empty.

    She really could not argue for it too well and all she could do was regurgitate the same exnations the adults in her life always gave her. She never really believed in the words.

    "What about Lucius?" Paul chimed in finally.

    Silence once again fell on the room before Rena broke it with a sad smile. "He became an adventurer because I did. He is my bodyguard. A promise made by his father with his final breaths."

    "What about the war? Itsing and even I know all the marked adventurers are tracked. He''s going to be forced into it." Paul continued. His monotone voice was starting to piss her off, but she held in her frustrations¡­though only barely.

    "Yes he will¡­but to put it in his words¡­" Rena inhaled deeply to calm her rising anger. She remembered what he had said to her on their way back home on the day they joined the guild. "He might die in the Grand Raid¡­so maybe it won''t be a problem."

    Jen, Lethen, and Paul all looked at her with shocked faces. "You want to join the Grand Raid?"

    "Yes. If I survive it, it might just be enough to take on the mantle of the heir to house Petra. Lucius will join me because¡­if he survives the Demon''s Stomach, he might be able to surviveing back to me. And if he doesn''t, then he won''t die as a pawn in a game of war."

    With that, she killed the mood. It was not great to begin with, but now it was not only awkward, but somber. Who could me them though? Talking about someone who has a n for death is not a pleasant topic. It was not pleasant for her when Lucius said it, so why would it be different for them?

    They did not know him for very long at all, only a handful of days at this point, but still; he was a young man who was nning for death.

    "Kid may not be strong, but he''s fast. Maybe he''s fast enough to outrun death? Who knows¡­but you know what¡­we wille too." Jen said. Paul and Lethen sat for a moment and then nodded in agreement.

    With that, the rest of their party agreed to join them on the raid to the Demon''s Stomach. Jen, Paul, and Lethen absolutely already qualified for entry, but their entire party had to qualify for them to take a spot.

    They would need to get at least nine more quests at Intermediate Rank or above to qualify and with the help of Lethen and Jen, who were Advanced Rank warriors, and Paul who was Intermediate himself, they could probably pull it off.

    "Alright, sounds like a n!" Rena smiled.

    "We will pick another one out when we get back. Probably good to take a few lower quests just so you guys can get your sea legs. But before that¡­you two kids have a date around town when we get back if I remember correctly!" Jen teased with a sly grin.

 Chapter 52: Castle Training

    Natali let out a long exhale. Her breath was visible in the chill morning air. It was early enough that the sun had yet to rise, so the air still felt slightly frigid. With her was her best and only friend, Lyrah who had chosen to join her on this excursion to the training area.

    Since they were granted the approval to attend the Royal Academy in a few years, they were also gifted a small location to practice their skills from the prying eyes of the public and foreign dignitaries. Lyrah had no Compatibilities to speak of, but that did not stop her from practicing a few simple things that would keep her safe from a mugger or at least buy a little time from an attacker.

    Most of Lyrah''s training was spent on developing her noble manners. Since this was the first time the Oracle was being allowed to make a public appearance, they wanted to set the example that all who reside in the king''s pce were held to the highest of standards.

    It also looked good upon the royal family for appearing as though they had such ''kindness in their hearts'' to provide education and resources to a pitiful Marked One, even though the mark that they carried had saved the kingdom from many hardships.

    Natali on the other hand had Compatibility with Dagger Arts and Ice Magic, which suited her overall appearance very well. She also had the Mark of Recall which would allow her to bind one object to each of her hands, then at will recall that object from any location to instantly appear in her hands. When used in concert with her Dagger Arts, it was a potentially deadly weapon.

    It was for this special reason that Natali was also granted permission to train with Lyrah as well as attend the academy by her side. Natali was essentially a built in body guard for the Oracle and so very little expense was spared for her training.

    At first, her father secretly trained her in the barracks, but one day the training sessions were discovered by someone who reported it to the Elders in charge of the Oracle. Instead of anyone getting in trouble, they saw this as a golden opportunity to train a body guard that doubled as a personal maid to the Oracle.

    That maid was also marked, so they would not have to struggle finding a normal person willing to care for a Marked one.

    "Nataliiiii¡­" Lyrah whined. "Are you almost done? My arms are tired¡­"

    The white-haired girl looked at her friend and gave her an exasperated sigh.

    "[cies: Icicle Lance]"

    A massivence shaped of ice pierced the target on the other end of the modified archery range they had. The target was wearing beat up and worn out te armor, and even though it was damaged, the armor was still solid and strong in many ces. Yet despite it being thick te, thence pierced it as though it were paper.

    "Woooo!" Lyrah cooed. "That''s awesome! What rank are you again, Natali?"

    "Intermediate." She whispered.

    "Oh that''s so cool! I will never be ranked since I don''t have any Compatibilities, but it''s soooo cool that you got so strong."

    Lyrah''spliments made her blush a little. This was pretty normal behavior for the excitable Oracle in training, but it was still pretty embarrassing to receive such legitimate praise.

    "Shall we return to your training? You were supposed to be meditating and trying to call forth a vision if I am correct."

    "Oh,e on, not you too? I just want to take a little break¡­"

    "Lyrah if you don''t get back to it, I will inform your mother." She threatened. "Besides, you''ve been taking a break by watching me for thest hour, I think that is plenty of break enough."

    Natali was in charge of babysitting Lyrah when she got like this. No matter what Lady Adellia tried, Lyrah would just get frustrated and stop listening while trying to train her. Natali''s own mother could not train her because she had responsibilities as Adellia''s caretaker, so Adellia gathered up a bunch of materials to try and have Natali teach Lyrah on her behalf.

    In truth, activating the Mark of Prophecy was not too different from other marks. The general¡­feel that it had was very simr. They had made great progress, but there was one major issue. It was the fact that Lyrah could not tell her mother the visions she had.

    They had been lying to Adellia about not being able to sessfully induce a vision as Lyrah has been able to do so with regr sess for a few months. The reason they had to hide it was because of a promise that they both made to Natali''s mother, Mylene, years ago. They swore to never tell Adellia about any visions regarding the strange boy with the multicolored eyes.

    While Lyrah was able to sessfully induce her visions, every single one was about this boy. They were able to determine that he was currently about their age thanks to the variations in age from their dreams.

    The Oracle could not see into the past, they could only see the present and possible futures, so when Lyrah had seen him fighting as a child when they were both around eight and nine years old, that meant he had to be near their age.

    "You still have not seen another vision aside from him?"

    "No! And the ones I do have, don''t make sense! I need help on how to make sure the events I see happen out of order¡­but its all jumbled. Like someone took a picture book and bound the pages in a random order. But I cannot tell my mom about these visions because of our promise to Auntie Mylene¡­" Lyrah whined. Tears had started to form on her face, likely from frustration.

    "Can you tell anything at least from those? At all, even if it is just a feeling, an inkling. Just go with your gut." She advised the young Oracle.

    "Hrm¡­" Lyrah hummed with one tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth. "Something big ising for him. I don''t know what. I don''t know when. But if he might not survive it."

    Natali''s face grimaced. She really hoped he would. She had been hearing about this mysterious boy her entire life. The only people she knew were Lady Adelia, Lyrah, her own mother, and her own father. Aside from them, she also knew a lot about this nameless person so she was rather invested in meeting him one day.

    However, whatever was happening was something he needed to deal with on his own. And even if he needed help, there was nothing that she could do. After all, she was stuck in this castle for a while yet.

    "I hope everything works out¡­" Lyrah mumbled. Natali knew that her friend felt much the same about this person as she did, but there always seemed to be something that Lyrah held back. Natali felt that there was still something that her friend was holding back. Though it did not really matter in the end since they may not ever meet him in the future.

    "I do too. Hey want to get some tea? We can call it a day." She said to her friend while activating her Recall. Two bright yellow shes glowed in her hands and materialized into a pair of daggers. She stowed them behind her back where there was a set of sheathes to hold them.

    Lyrah happily agreed and trotted along behind her, thankful for practice for the day to be over. Natali could not help but pat her adorable friend on the head. Technically, the ck-haired girl was older by almost a full year, but you would not be able to tell from the way they interacted. It was almost like Natali was the big sister who spoiled and doted on the younger one.

 Chapter 53: A Day Out

    After Lucius and the party returned to Pelith, they turned their quest in to the guild receptionists. It was then that the party expressed their interest in joining the Grand Raid in a few months.

    Jen, Lethen, and Paul were immediately approved, but the party was not given a pass for entry unless Rena and Lucius left the party, orpleted nine more Intermediate Rank Quests or higher. They were allowed toplete these quests with their party of course, so that made the prospects a little less daunting.

    The payout for the quest was split evenly five ways and so were the proceeds for selling the materials to the vige chief. Thanks to that, everyone had a good amount of pocket money.

    Rena had a decent amount at first, gifted from her father, but she ended up donating it to the Church of Celestia after they received their first payment from their quest. She was adamant that she live her life as an adventurer exactly as how a normal adventurer would.

    Lucius wanted to object because it would mean Rena''s life was harder, but the girl was exceptionally stubborn about some things, so he had no choice but to relent. He could not help but smile to himself at her dedication to being an adventurer though, so that was the only time he provided an objection.

    As promised, they took the day off and would pick up a quest tomorrow to get a move on for their second Intermediate Quest. Jen had offered to do some lower-level quests to bnce things out a little better for the newbies, but they refused. It was him who was the staunchest in refusal this time though.

    His argument was a simple one: if I''m a burden on an Intermediate Rank quest, then I''ll just be a burden in the dungeon. When he shared that sentiment, Jen had no choice but to agree. It was a valid point, and he was very d that she agreed with him on it.

    "Lucius, let''s go!!!" Rena crooned. "You promised me a day out on the town!"

    The red-headed girl eagerly tugged on his sleeves, pulling him out the door and into the streets. It was the middle of the day so they were bustling with people. Crowds grew thicker as they reached the main road where most of the stalls were. Rena''s eyes sparkled as she looked at the busy shops, restaurants and bakeries.

    "Do you want to get a cake? That bakery over there seems to sell them by the slice?" He offered.

    His words were met with the happiest look he had ever seen a person make and it was apanied by vigorous head nodding. Lucius could not help butugh at his friend as they made their way over to a bakery called ''A Crust Above'' with a sign adorned with pictures of bread and cake.

    They ordered a slice to share since it was rather pricey to buy a single slice. Though it made sense because the store advertised itself to nobles and merchants. Lucius decided to be the one to pay for it this time as a thank you for Rena always being there for him, and it just felt like the right thing to do now they stood on an equal ying field, financially speaking.

    "Aw! Thanks so much Lucius!" Rena said in between mouthfuls.

    The cake was a tripleyered cake with a bottomyer of chocte, then vani, then finally strawberry and the icing was a simple vani icing, but the top was decorated beautifully with shaved chocte pieces and arge strawberry.

    It was a little too rich for his taste, but Lucius enjoyed the happiness it seemed to bring Rena. They had chosen to sit at the back of the restaurant with Lucius'' left side facing the wall. This way any other customers would not see his mark and they would not be kicked out of the establishment.

    Sure, Rena could use her position as the lord''s daughter, but he did not want that to happen. She wanted to live as normal a life as possible away from the manor until the Grand Raid was over, so he wanted to ensure that happened no matter what.

    "Where to next?" He asked Rena when she finished thest bite of cake.

    "Oh! I know a ce! Come on!"

    She eagerly dragged him along outside of the bakery and down the street. She turned down a small street that was basically an alleyway, but for some reason there was a simple shop sitting, hidden from in view.

    "Let''s go inside!"

    "Um¡­this ce looks a little¡­"

    "A little what? You annoying little shit."

    An annoyed voice called out to them as they entered the building. Apparently he had heard the beginning part of Lucius'' sentence, so he decided to shut up before finishing.

    "Sorry¡­" he apologized with a deep bow.

    "Hmph. Take a look around, can''t promise I''ll sell to you though."

    Lucius raised one eyebrow. He was always under the impression that a shop owner would want to sell his wares, but this one appeared like he could not care if they bought anything or not. In fact, he almost appeared like he would prefer if they just left¡­

    "Mr. Karl! Hi, it''s me, Rena!"

    "Yeah, nice to see you, Lady Petra. Who is the brat?" The shopkeeper grumbled.

    Lucius was starting to get annoyed at the man''s attitude and started to turn around, however when he grabbed Rena''s sleeve to bring her with him, but she pulled a reversal on him and yanked him back around so suddenly that he almost lost bnce.

    Rena put her hand on his chest and held up his pendant, a gift from histe father. It was the shape of an Alpha Deer and was carved from the very horn he had taken from the beast.

    "Recognize this, Karl?"

    The merchant, apparently named Karl, leaned forward and eyed the pendant suspiciously.

    "What are you doing with that, kid?" He growled.

    "It was a gift. From my father. He had it made from the horn of an Alpha Deer I fought." Lucius answered simply. He had just about enough of the grouchy man''s attitude at this point and was more than ready to leave.

    "I see." Karl stated inly. "So you are Wayne''s kiddo, huh? Good friend of mine. Tell you what, I''ll let you buy something if you want to."

    "Um, thanks?" Lucius had no idea why he phrased it as ''let him'' buy something. "But you knew my dad?"

    "Yeah, good friend. Shame he was killed by the Lord. Heard it was for betrayal or some other bullshit. In fact, I''m the one he asked to make that pendant there."

    Lucius eyed the jewelry on his chest and gripped it tightly with his hand. He kept this ne on day and night, even sleeping with it. The only way someone would take it from him would be from his cold, dead body.

    "Thank you. I keep it with me always." He finally muttered after a long pause.

    Karl simply huffed, "Sure. Looks like you''ve taken good care of it, so it has a good owner at least. Anyway, you wanting to buy something? Oh, Lady Petra, I have a delivery for your father here somewhere¡­"

    Rena jumped in to stop him before he could grab the package. "No! Actually, I''m not affiliated with the estate at the moment. I''m working as an adventurer, separately from my family name, so I will not return to the manor until I aplish something worthy of bing heir."

    "Oh right, fine then. I guess you just came to introduce the boy to the creator of his treasure then?"

    "Yes." Rena answered with a gentle smile.

    "Thank you both. I hope I will have enough funds in the future to visit your shop and actually purchase one of your many beautiful wares." Lucius said with an even deeper bow than before.

    Karl simply dismissed them with a wave and they left the shop. After all the touring of the city and visiting the bakery, Karl''s shop ended up being thest stop before the evening set in. The day was nearly perfect in every way and it was nice to take time away from fighting and protecting.

    Unfortunately, the day was still marred by many angry and disgusted stares andments made towards him and his mark.

    It was illegal for him to wear anything to cover it, so unless he was being blocked by an object or person, his mark was free and clear for all to see.

    "Hey, want to go get some dinner and stay at an inn? I''ve never stayed in one before, this is so exciting!"

    "Don''t get your hopes up, it is likely nothing like what you are used to." He warned.

    "Yeah, I know that! Let''s go to that Whistling Wolf ce! We will rent a room with double beds!"

    "Wait, we are sharing a room?"

    "Um, yeah? The only difference between that and how we used to sleep is there''s no door separating us, besides you or I could have opened the door between our rooms at any time, it is not that different¡­"

    "Um¡­okay, sure. Let''s get something to eat and get a room."

    Lucius felt a little bit of a headacheing on. He knew that none of her father''s men had been following them or trailing them since they left the manor for Rena''s trip, but if this were to ever get back to him, he was sure that Richard would kill him.

 Chapter 54: War Plans

    "It what?" Zethis growled at the messenger who delivered him terrible news.

    "The shipment of enchanted weaponry¡­it has been lost." The messenger whimpered.

    They were an impish looking individual and whenpared to the massive frame of the king of Alorek, Zethis, they looked even smaller. Zethis stared at the impish looking creature like a wolf would to a baby.

    "Cage him with the minotaur¡­no better, the Sand Wyrms. If he survives the night, he can live." Zethis ordered.

    The messenger screamed and begged for his life as a pair of guards dragged him away by his arms. No amount of kicking and screaming could break him free from their clutches. Not only were they much stronger, but the guards knew they would be the ones locked away with the terrifying beasts known as Sand Wyrms.

    Sand Wyrms were rtives of dragons. They did not have any wings and instead would burrow under ground to rest as well as ambush prey. They did not haverge teeth, but instead hundreds upon hundreds of tiny, razer-like teeth meant for ripping.

    They could only eat food in small chunks, so it was in their nature to tear prey apart with abination of teeth and ws. They were also C-Rank beasts like the Minotaur, except they were slightly easier to control due to a lower level of intelligence whenpared to the bull-type monster.

    "Anyone care to tell me why our shipment from Aedrider was lost? What does it mean to be lost?" Zethis roared. His yell echoed through the almost cavernous throne room.

    All of his retainers cowered momentarily as an automatic reaction to his fury. He was not known to be a patient man, and his patience had already been worn out by the messenger. Knowing this, one of the retainers stepped up to speak so that way none of them would end up in a cage with one of his pets.

    "We do not have a lot of detail on what happened. But it appears the caravan was attacked by an unknown group of elves. Aedrider feels it may have been perpetrated by a pro-human faction of rebels." The retainer managed to choke out.

    "A pro-human faction? Interesting¡­I did not know they struggled with such a thing." He responded. Zethis knew very well that Aedrider was an equipment manufacturer through and through. They held no allegiances to other nations and freely sold and traded during war time and peace on a firste, first serve basis.

    "Yes, apparently some among their younger generation as well as a fringe faction of their elders are part of a pro-human faction. Though the name suggests they wish to ally themselves with the Union, it would be more urate to say they oppose Alorek''s aggression more than anything."

    "This has that bitch''s scent all over it." Zethis growled. His eyes began to glow fiercely and the arm of his chair began to groan from the pressure his hand was exerting on it.

    "Your majesty?"

    "Lady al Famyn from the Wisteria Concord. I would bet my left nut on her hand being involved in this mess."

    "Your majesty, shall we mobilize ahead of schedule then? Retaliate for Wisteria''s hand in this theft of our property?" the retainer asked carefully. His tone was measured so as not to offend Zethis.

    "No. We are not ready to strike. My insiders say that their kingdom is participating in a series of dungeon raids across their kingdoms. I want to wait until those begin. That is when we will strike." Hemanded.

    "Sire, I read those reports as well, but are the particpants not just simple adventurers and Marked Ones? How will waiting for that¡­"

    The retainer stopped talking because his words were interrupted by a hearty and terrifyingughter from Zethis. "That is true¡­however, I have some people nning on providing some¡­assistance when those dungeon raids begin.

    Even if they do not have any of their own resources sunk into them, the Adventurer''s Guild will have its hands full trying to clean up the mess that they will not be able to devote resources into managing monster quests, which in turn will require the human kingdoms to devote more personal resources into protecting their own towns inside their borders."

    Once again, he let out a greatugh. The retainers nervously began to chuckle alongside him, but no one got carried away.

    "As youmand, your majesty."

    Zethis gave the retainer a curt nod of acknowledgement. "By the way¡­" He began before pausing to look at the others in the throne room. Seeing that the necessary people were all still present, he continued, "How goes our shadow enforcement of our border with Eroa?"

    "Sir, the cities and towns near the Eroan border are nearlypletely reced with inclothes fighters. The citizenry of those towns have also been relocated further into our borders. So far there have been no reported issues with their integration and resettlement."

    Zethis nodded with a happy smile. Many of the former leaders of Alorek believed that strength was all that was needed to takemand of the nation. And while they were correct, it was not what was necessary to keep thatmand. A truly powerful leader needed strength and cunning.

    He long had a n to quietly disce the poptions of the cities near the Eroan border to make it seem like the actual garrison was simply a threat to stay put, rather than an actual invading force. It would temporarily keep Eroa from making moves against him when he begins the invasion of the human territories.

    With that pause, he wouldunch a surprise attack with forces that suddenly tripled or quadrupled in size out of nowhere.

    Eroa had reinforced its own borders topensate for the amount of troops they knew about, but it would not be enough to fight off the actual size of the army that was hidden in reserve. He could not contain his glee and began to chuckle once more at his own cleverness.

    "We will not have time to rece that shipment from Aedrider before the war begins, but its loss, while great, does not mean much in the long run. Continue pouring a minor amount of resources into the search. If Wisteria is behind this, we want them to think we care.

    If we act like it was not important to begin with, then it will tip our enemies into realizing we have other contingencies that we view as more important." Hemanded.

    ""Yes, your majesty!"'' the entire room erupted in a singr affirmation of his orders.

    Once again, he smiled. Alorek''s greatness will rise again and it would be because of him. His name will go down in history as the greatest Warrior King to lead this great nation. He will be the one who brings thends of Eroa back under their control, and they will be the ones to subjugate thends of the humans, once and for all.

 Chapter 55: The Second Quest

    "Finally! Did you guys decide to sleep in or something?" Jen teased as Rena and Lucius walked into the guild the morning after their day out on the town.

    Lucius rolled his eyes at her because the sun had literally just started to rise as they entered the guild hall. Honestly, they had figured they would be hanging out in the guild for a few hours before Jen dragged herself out of bed.

    "I''m surprised you are up so early. I seem to remember you threatening us to not wake you up this early when we first met¡­" he mumbled under his breath.

    "I heard that, kid." Jenughed. "Anyway, I got a new job for us. You remember those bandits we ran into on the way to the tamer vige? Well, I reported the incident to the guild and it seems we''ve been issued an emergency quest. They are considering it an Intermediate Rank."

    "Yep, seems like they have be a bit of a problem for a number of viges and the city is getting tired of its shipments of food, goods, and taxes being hit, so we get to go bandit hunting." Lethen finished.

    "Okay." Lucius answered. For a moment he felt a twinge of panic at the thought of fighting humans again, but then that sensation of it being taken away from him appeared again. It was like a deep chill at the base of his skull.

    Rena seemed to have noticed the rapid expression change that must have colored his face because she looked at him with concern for a moment. Jen and the party did not seem to notice, or if they did, they did not let it affect them.

    "Any data on numbers?" Rena asked a momentter.

    "Six less than there used to be?" Paul answered from his seated position behind Lethen and Jen.

    "No matter, I should be able to scout it out before we approach the camp and assess the numbers, then we can decide if we want to continue with the attack." Lucius offered.

    "Sounds like a n, let''s get going!" Jen shouted with her fist pumped in the air. Lucius had no idea why she was so excited, but decided to leave it be. If she was in a good mood, then good for her.

    They assumed that the bandit camp would be rtively close to where they first met them at the ambush site, so that was where they headed. It took them only a short while to get to the spot they had rested at before when Lucius first heard people moving through the woods.

    It felt logical to assume that those people were the bandits that attacked the caravan since there were too many to be a hunting party.

    Once arriving at the site, they went ahead and rested for a short while as Lucius patrolled a few dozen feet into the tree line to see if he could hear or smell anything out of sorts. For the moment there were only a handful of normal sounds for a forest like this. In fact, he only heard normal animals like deer, birds, mice, rabbits, and the like and not even a single monster.

    After about thirty minutes of sweeping the site, he returned to the group to inform them of what he found, or rather, didn''t find.

    "Paul and I should go a little deeper and see what we can find. I could do it my own, but I think two heads are better than one and he is still a pretty aplished tracker." He offered.

    Paul nodded his head in agreement while Jen put her hand under her chin, pondering their options. Before she could say anything, Rena spoke up.

    "If I may, I think this would be a good idea. Lucius is our scout and best tracker, but with Paul they can sweep the area twice as fast. Plus, since Lucius will be able to keep an ear out for Paul, they would be safer working together and would be able to find each other in an emergency."

    "That''s a fair thought, but what should we do?" Jen countered. "I don''t want to rely on the kid doing things like this alone all the time."

    "We can help by checking out the ambush site again. It isn''t that far away and we might get lucky to find some sort of signs near where they exited the forest." Rena answered confidently.

    "Sounds like a n. You two good with that?"

    Paul and Lucius readily agreed because it was the best way to handle the situation. It was entirely possible the bandits were camp much further away, but this was the only lead they had.

    Paul gathered his weapon and supplies and vanished into the woods. Lucius dove into the trees behind him. Paul went a little further north, closer to where the ambush had happened while Lucius went to the east. Since they were both patrolling the woods no, he was able to go much deeper.

    The woods here really were devoid of monsters. He came across families of deer and other small animals, but no signs of people yet. A few hours had passed and still nothing was showing up.

    Just as he was about to give up, he caught a whiff of blood. It was a little to the north, the direction Paul was in. Concerned for his party member, he quickly leapt through the branches as fast as he could move. He still attempted to be as quiet as possible, but not so much so that he would slow himself down. Any scout worth their salt would be able to hear him instantly.

    Lucius continued to smell the sent of blood as well as something else. There was another person, different from Paul, nearby. But for some reason, he could not hear them. It felt like whoever this was had hidden every part of their presence except for their scent. It took a lot of effort, but eventually he was able to pinpoint the direction of the person''s scent.

    It was a little bit to the east again which put Paul out of harms way, so he was able to slow down in his pursuit and maintain silence as best he could.

    Birds continued to chirp and the rustling leaves echoed through the forest. Lucius did everything he could to calm his breathing and heartbeat, worried that his prey would be able to hear them from his approach.

    He had tracked the scent to arge tree with a trunk that was easily a dozen feet thick. This area of the forest was filled with old growth trees so many wererge, but this one seemed to be the oldest andrgest of them. Its lower branches were as thick around as the trunks of the trees near the forest edge.

    Lucius slowly drew his sword and climbed up the tree. He could not see or hear anything, but his nose never lied. He rapidly approached the branch that the person seemed to be hiding in, and though he could not see anything there, he swung his de with all his strength at the area that seemed to be emitting the scent.

    His sword connected with something solid, but there was no sound from the impact. Instantly, the seemingly empty space shimmered and a person in a dark cloak and mask covering their mouth appeared. She had bright, green eyes and pointed ears. It was an elf¡­no, a half-elf. Her ears were too short to be a full-blooded elf.

    She held a dagger in her hand and was holding it against the cutting edge of Lucius'' machete, blocking his strike. Her eyes seemed shocked and angry at the same time.Who the hell was this?

 Chapter 56: The Marks

    Lucius locked eyes with the half-elf girl for a few seconds. It was clear she was not one of the bandits, so he gave her a proposition.

    "I''m going to loosen up the pressure and back off. You are going to stay very still and we will both put our weapons away. Deal?"

    The girl nodded slowly, so after taking a deep breath, he slowly released the pressure and stepped back out of her and his striking ranges. She came to a standing position and they simultaneously put their weapons back in their respective sheathes, though they also both kept their hands on the des, just in case.

    "Who are you?" he asked.

    The girl put up a hand, holding up her index finger. The back of her left hand shed momentarily and she let out a deep sigh. Suddenly Lucius was able to pick up her breathing and heartbeat, which was not present before.

    "I''m Mia, a member of an adventurer party out of the capital. We decided to move down south and stopped through Pelith, but heard rumors of a gang of bandits, so we stopped to help. Who are you?" She finally answered.

    The sh of light put Lucius even more on edge, but he recognized the feel of the power. It was not mana, it was something else, so he knew she was a Marked One. "I''m Lucius, my adventurer party is based in Pelith and we are on a quest to hunt down those same bandits."

    "I see. Have you been able to locate their camp yet?"

    "No, that''s what I was doing when I found you."

    "How did you do that by the way?"

    Lucius simply responded by tapping the side of his nose. "However you hid your sound and visuals, it is very hard to hide your scent."

    A look of mild rm mixed with disgust shed through the half-elf''s eyes before she presented him with an offer. "My group is nearby, we have found the bandit camp, I take it you and that other man in the woods I was watching are together? How about we meet here, together at this tree, introduce our parties and do this together?"

    "I can''t make that promise on my own, since I''m not the party leader, but I will bring them here. Meet back in twenty minutes?" he asked.

    "You got it."

    With that the mark on her hand shed again and her breaths and heartbeat vanished once again. Then he saw a dark glow surround her body and she disappeared into the shadows. Following his nose, he was able to track her as she left.

    asionally when light shined on her, she would be visible again, so Lucius was able to deduce that however it was she remained invisible had to do with staying in dark or shadowed ces.

    He waited till she waspletely gone from sight before he went to collect Paul and return to the group. Paul was shocked to have Lucius suddenly appear behind him, but they were able to avoid an incident.

    "Find anything?" Paul asked when his heart rate settled from the scare.

    "Something. Come on, let''s get to the ambush sight and talk with the party. I have quite the interesting lead." He answered.

    Paul nodded and they both dashed through the trees to the meeting site. When they arrived, Jen, Rena, and Lethen were scanning the edge of the woods for any signs or clues that could have been missed.

    Lucius noted that the carts had beenpletely cleared already and since it had only been a few days since the ambush, the char marks in the grass where they cremated the dead were still inly visible.

    "What''d you find?" Jen demanded. She sounded frustrated, which was probably because she could not find anything at the investigation site.

    "I did not find the bandit camp, but I met with another adventurer group in the woods. Well, just one. Her name is Mia, a half-elf. They want to meet us at the tree I found her in and discuss the possibility of working together on the bandit quest."

    "Wait¡­" Lethen mumbled. "A half-elf named Mia¡­did she have a bow?"

    "I''m not going to lie, I was more focused on the dagger she had her hands on to pay attention to a bow." He admitted.

    "Hmm¡­" Lethen trailed off.

    "Do you know who she might be, Lethen?" Paul asked.

    "Maybe¡­Anyway, let''s go meet them. Take us there?" Lethen answered.

    Lucius nodded and guided the group back to the tree he had promised to meet with Mia and her group. He still did not trust her and was making sure to track her scent the entire time, in the event she was going to ambush them, however that proved to be unnecessary as Mia and three other people stood openly next to the massive tree.

    There was one guy and two other girls standing beside Mia. One appeared to be a warrior, one a mage, and the other might have been a monk or some sort of unarmedbat specialist.

    "Nice to see you again. Let''s get started on this conversation shall we? To start, I am Mia, leader of the adventurer group lovingly known as ''The Marks'' and it is very nice to meet you." Mia said with a devilish grin.

    Lethen was unable to hold in his loud gasp so everyone turned to him. "No fucking way¡­it really was THAT Mia! The Marks are an adventurer group out of the capital that made a name for themselves as a party made up fully of Marked Ones. To think we would meet you all in some random forest!"

    "Nice to know we have a fan!" Mia said ufortably. "A-a-anyway we should introduce ourselves to each other."

    Lucius agreed and his entire party introduced themselves to Mia and her group. It felt only right to do so, since she identified their group name first. Also, they were clearly the senior party in terms of experience, so it was only fair.

    "Nice to meet you all. So you are marked as well Lucius? Unknown and won''t activate¡­strange. Anyway, we are all marked as well. I bear the Mark of Silence. Anything I touch, including myself will never make a sound for as long as I concentrate on it."

    The sole guy in the group stepped forward. "I''m Renton, Warrior, Axe Arts, and I bear the Feather Mark. Any single object I touch weighs as light as a feather until I choose another, or cancel the ability."

    Next up was the unarmed warrior. "My name is Lynn, Unarmed Arts, Fist Arts, same thing. Mark of Blindness. I can make any single target suffer from blindness as if I cast the Dark magic spell."

    The final person to introduce herself was the mage. "H-h-hi. I''m Marie¡­mage¡­I can use all Elemental magics and I have the Mark of Light. I can create and dispel up to three orbs of light that each are about as bright as a torch."

    "So that''s us!" Mia confirmed proudly. "Anyway, we figure we should work together. That bandit camp is a bit worse than we thought. There are probably thirty or more there that I was able to count."

    Jen and the party looked at each other and silently confirmed with each other that they were okay with this. They all nodded in agreement. It would be an impossible fight with just the five of them, but with an allegedly skilled party like The Marks, they might stand a better shot.

 Chapter 57: Assault Plan

    Mia, Jen, and Rena went over the n and details with each other off to the side while Lucius and the others chatted and prepared their equipment. They went over their abilities with each other as well so they could know what to expect from the other fighters during the battle. It would be bad if someone did something out of the blue and became a target out of panic or surprise.

    Renton was particrly surprised that Lucius was able to get the drop on Mia or even find out where she was. ording to them, her mark allows her to silence people as well, though unlike the Dark magic spell, it silences the entire being, not just their voice, so she makes no sound as she steps, runs, yells, or breathes.

    The way she was able to be invisible under shadows or darkness was because of a Dark magic spell called, Invisibility. Because it was a Dark magic spell it is rendered ineffective in the light, but as long as you are touching at least one shadow, it is as though you also be one. It was quite the deadlybination of skills.

    She was also a user of Bow Arts, so she was an exceptionally effective assassin.

    However, like Lucius had told them, it was much harder to hide your scent. Without that ability, he would never have known that Mia was even in the woods, let alone watching Paul''s movements to see if he was a member of the bandit camp.

    The Marks had been in the woods, gathering intelligence on the camp''s movements, fighter count, supply locations, and any hostages. From what they found, there did not appear to be any hostages currently at the camp, which was good for him, because he did not want to get on the party''s bad side again for being too careless.

    He could not rely on Rena''s opinion since they would be in the middle of a battle. Time to ask thoughts and opinions in a fight only afforded the opportunity for someone to kill you.

    "So¡­you sniffed out our Mia¡­crazy¡­how did you do it?" Renton asked, giddy that someone had bested the party leader against her stealth skills.

    "Well, I smelled blood. However, the only animals in this area seem to be passive creatures, there are currently no predators like wolves, bears, coyotes, or even any monsters. So, the smell of blood left only one option. A human." Lucius exined.

    "Ah that must have been from a scout she took out or something then. She has a habit of collecting her arrows and using them as long as possible instead of one and done. It''s risky because they could be damaged, but she can''t break the habit." Lynn mentioned.

    "Probably. Though I could also just smell her general location. I could tell there was a person nearby, so even without the blood, I would have found her eventually. She smelled different from Paul anyhow and I knew the others were not in the woods, so by process of elimination¡­" Lucius continued.

    "What are you part dog?" Renton asked. His question came out a little louder than intended and it made Rena and Jen burst outughing. Rena came over and mockingly pet the top of the boy''s head.

    "No, he''s not a dog, he''s my pet cat!" She joked.

    Lucius sighed in resignation. "I''m half-beastman but from a feline lineage. All of us have extremely sensitive noses apparently, regardless of lineage." He mumbled.

    "Oh, that makes sense that I don''t know that then. Since we are from the Capital of Arcadios, we see basically zero beastmen and only a handful of elves. Though, there are quite a number of half-elves, like Mia." Renton admitted with Lynn and Marie agreeing.

    "Alright, look alive everyone." Jen shouted. "We have a n formed up so let''s get to work."

    The bandit camp was about a mile East of their location. They send out regr scouts though they only venture a quarter of a mile away from the camp at most in any given direction. Mia, Paul, and Lucius would take out any scouts actively on patrol before the others moved in.

    Paul and Mia would try to hide the bodies as best they could, but Lucius could leave some of them alone. With his Forsaken Arts, if he were to use those with his unarmed attacks, it would look like they died from a monster instead of a human. Such was the savage nature of the Forsaken Arts, feature shared with Beast Arts.

    What Lucius had not shared was that there were more abilities given to him by the Forsaken Arts¡­a lot of them¡­but he did not use them because they were extremely dishonorable, even in a fight against bandits and monsters¡­

    After the scouts were dispatched and everyone moved in, Marie and Rena would seal off the entrances and exits of the camp to keep anyone from escaping. Paul and Mia would take positions in the treetops and shoot from above the camp''s walls, while Jen, Renton, and Lethen would jump over the walls with assistance from the mages and take the fight inside.

    Lucius would join them in the camp as well to take out any stragglers, potential escapees, and anyone trying to catch the fighters from behind.

    Everyone was in agreement with the n, so they exchanged some basic goodbyes and well-wishes with each other. Rena came up to Lucius, saying, "Be careful out there and don''t get cocky, okay?"

    "You be safe too Rena. Watch out for anyone trying to get over the walls and take them out before they get too close." Lucius warned.

    "Isn''t that what you are there to prevent? Do a good job in cleaning out the forest and keep the baddies caged in their own camp and it will all go fine!" Rena teased while gently patting him on the shoulder. "But yes, I''ll be careful."

    After everyone finished their preparations, Lucius, Paul, and Mia vanished into the forest. Mia activated her stealth skills and vanished like a ghost from view. Paul and Lucius had no such skills, but they were able to sneak around with the best of them thanks to their backgrounds hunting in woods. Everyone else waited for about twenty minutes before they followed.

    That should give the advanced party enough time to handle the scouts.

 Chapter 58: Camp Assault [Part 1]

    Lucius kept his senses on high alert so he could make sure that he could get the drop on any enemies before they got the drop on them. He also had his de sheathed so that he only used unarmed attacks. Lucius would attack first, that way any other scouts woulde across therades looking like they were attacked by a monster. During that panic is when Paul and Mia would take out the others.

    It took a short while to travel through the forest for the almost three quarters of a mile to make it to the outer edge of the enemy''s patrol zone. When he started to think about it, it was rather odd that a group of bandits had gotten thisrge unnoticed¡­let alone were able to organize themselves in such a way¡­

    "Dammit!"

    A voice called out several hundred feet away. It was followed by the sound of breaking twigs and crunching leaves. Basically the idiot tripped and fell. Realizing this was a great opportunity, he smiled cruelly and jumped into the trees. He quickly approached the bandit''s location from above and saw him massaging his ankle.

    It was simple enough to realize the bandit was weaker than he was, which meant this would not be a problem.

    "Fuck that hurts¡­ stupid forest and stupid trees and stupid¡­"

    "[Forsaken Arts: Gouging Strike]!"

    The bandit''s words were cut off by Lucius'' attack from above, he dove straight down from the trees which let him maintain all of the mana used by the attack in his hand, thus maintaining one hundred percent of the power.

    His hands were surrounded in a golden light turning his fingers into ws at the moment of contact. The ws tore through flesh and bone as he flew past the man raking from his neck down the length of his spine. The shock of pain so intense the victim could not scream.

    Were this person to have had anypatibilities at all, Lucius may have had to leave him for Paul or Mia, but since these were bandits, they usually did not, save for a few nasty customers.

    He pushed the body to the side so it was syed outwards like he had run from an attack before moving on to the next target. From what he could tell there were a few more patrolling the woods. Given the numbers alleged by Mia, there should be no more than three or four scouts total, but there seemed to be at least five different scents shuffling through the woods.

    Paul and Mia were trailing behind, waiting for any targets that Lucius could not take out as well as making sure they took out any potential reinforcementsing to look for their missing scouts.

    Lucius rapidly approached the second bandit, but noticed that two of them were actually standing really close together whispering about some sort of ''haul'' that the ''boss'' pulled off. They were apparently nning to steal it from under his nose with some help from some other men inside.

    Lucius was not equipped to take out both of them in a single strike at the moment, plus one of them felt a little more dangerous than what he could handle quickly.

    Instead, he put his fingers to his lips and let out a shrill whistle. Both of the bandits looked up at the tree he was in, but as they opened their mouths to shout, two golden colored arrows connected with the backs of their throats.

    "Nice shot guys¡­" He muttered before jumping off again. From what he could tell there were a couple more, though they were a little further away.

    Lucius made sure to pay attention to the surroundings as well to see if there were any traps that might present a danger to the assault team, but thankfully there were none so far.

    The fourth bandit was, like one of thest two, too strong for him to handle alone, so he whistled again and for the trouble of trying to shout, he received a set of arrows in his face.

    Lucius simply moved on to the next target since Paul and Mia would take care of the bodies. He was starting to get a little antsy and excited for the uing battle, but he used every ounce of self-control he had in order to calm himself. Getting too eager too early leads to mistakes, and since he was outnumbered and outssed in many cases, mistakes were something he could not afford.

    After taking a quick breather and calming his nerves, he then put his energy into expanding his search range. He wanted to find thest of the scouts as quickly as possible. After a few moments he was able to figure out the general direction of the scout and leapt through the trees towards the target. As he got closer, he was able to pinpoint him. This time it was someone weaker than him.

    It was a young man, probably no older than twenty.

    Lucius watched the young man move about, closely examining the woods and holding a wooden club tightly to his chest. It was almost like this was his first time doing something like this. In all likelihood, he was a simple viger who ran away from home or was abandoned and this was the only life he could make.

    Most bandits were like that, people whocked options and banded together and used strength in numbers and surprise to abuse those weaker than them. However, the young man''s circumstances did not matter to Lucius. Eventually he would kill someone and be a ruthless marauder and that would put Rena in danger. Lucius would not allow that.

    He slowly gathered mana in his body and focused it in his right hand. "[Forsaken Arts: Goring Rush]!''

    Lucius lunged forward with all his strength plus the added force of using the branch he was on as a spring board. Before the young man could react, a ck blur zoomed past him. He turned around to look at the mysterious figure and saw a boy with multi-colored eyes staring at him nkly.

    Lucius watched as the bandit slowly looked down at his own stomach and realized that most of his insides were now on his outsides. The man took two steps forward and attempted to raise his club, but all his strength left him and he facented and remained still. Lucius tapped him a few times with his foot before kicking the body to ensure no reaction. Sure enough, he was dead.

    Lucius scanned the surroundings for another ten minutes and sensed no signs of any more scouts in the woods. He let out a short whistle, which was followed up by a second, then a third. After several minutes of silence, he felt a massive surge of mana in the direction of the bandit camp. A smile crossed his face as he realized that Rena was not holding back, just like him.

 Chapter 59: Camp Assault [Part 2]

    Rena sat next to Marie quietly waiting for the signal they agreed upon with the advance team. The assault team was a little further away, waiting for the mages to do their job.

    Rena was slightly distracted with thoughts of Lucius fighting out in the woods without her there to fight with him. Ever since they were children they have never been separated. She was very worried that he might go a step too far and face off against someone stronger than him. Losing him would devastate her, so much so that she would probably just give up on the battle for the spot as heir.

    It just was not worth it if he wasn''t around¡­

    She quietly shook her head to dispel those negative thoughts and feelings. Rena was aware that the timid woman, Marie, was watching her the entire time. Honestly, she probably looked very weird just sitting there and shaking her head back and forth for no reason.

    "You aren''t like most nobles." Marie whispered.

    "You know I''m a noble?"

    Marie nodded. "It''s the hair. Not a lot of people have red hair, and you live in Pelith, so I just assumed you were a Petra."

    "You know about my family then?"

    "Yes¡­I was in the military before we were allowed to be adventurers. All of us were, except Mia¡­she was a runner before this¡­ a-a-anyway, everyone in the army knows about the Petra''s. Your family is filled with powerful warriors." Marie continued. Rena could tell there was a hint of admiration in the woman''s voice as she spoke.

    Marie probably ran into a number of extended rtives of Rena''s. The Petra''s were a massive family. In fact, her own father was the strange one of the group because he only had the one child: Rena.

    If she were to try and count them, the number of cousins and second cousins she had probably numbered in the triple digits. Most of them were not eligible to be part of the generationpeting for bing heir due to their ages. They were either too young or too old when the time of selection came.

    "Yeah, my family loves to fight, that''s for sure¡­ Say, Marie, are you guys going on the Grand Raid?" Rena asked, swiftly trying to change the subject.

    "O-o-oh. I think Mia said that was the n? Are you guys going to go too?"

    "Yeah, that was what we settled on as a party. Though Lucius and I had nned on doing it from the moment we became adventurers." Rena said with a proud grin.

    "Why?"

    "Because I want to get stronger, and I need to aplish something great to prove my worth as the next heir to House Petra." She proudly ced her fist over her heart .

    "What about Lucius? Why does he want to go?"

    Most of Rena''s act of pride crumbled instantly. "He wants to gain the strength to survive the war with Alorek¡­or die in the dungeon."

    Marie was about to say something when they heard the signal that the advance team had cleared the forest. Both of them stood up and ran straight for the camp. This was the first time that Rena had seen the camp in question. It had ramshackle walls made of roughly tied logs and bits of scrap metal nailed in various ces.

    Unlike city or somerge town walls, there did not appear to be a tform behind them from which to walk along them on patrol. Instead near the openings of the walls that served as the entry and exit points, there was a single tower that was so poorly constructed it looked like a strong wind would blow it over.

    Atop this tower was a pair of people who saw the approaching mages and started pointing and shouting something. Marie broke off from Rena to head to the second gate. Mia had done some follow-up patrols around the camp and found that there were only two gates and the rest of the camp was surrounded by this wall.

    "[cies: Ice Wall]!"

    Rena channeled all the mana she could muster at once into the spell and erected a solid wall of ice that blocked off the gate. The wall extended a little past the opening on either side, partially enveloping the wall itself to make sure that there were no gaps.

    Off in the distance she heard a small voice shout, "[Terra: Earth Wall]!

    Rena felt a surge of mana from the same direction and watched as a giant wall made of dirt and stone covered the other exit. At this point the two people in the lookout tower had begun panicking and were shouting down to the people in camp.

    She felt a burst of wind rush past her as she caught a glimpse of Jen and Lethen run by. They quickly approached the wall and began to scale it. Rena watched as the people in the tower drew their bows and started to take aim at her party members who were defenseless while climbing.

    "Not on my watch! [Ventus: Gust]!"

    Though she could not spend too much mana or focus on casting the wind spell without losing concentration on the Ice Wall, it was enough to throw the bandits off bnce. One even tumbled backwards and fell off the tower. Though she could not hear or see it, based on the height and how he fell¡­he probably did not survive thending.

    The distraction was enough for Lethen and Jen to finally get over the wall. She then got prepared for the next phase of her task: keeping an eye on the walls for any enemies trying to escape. If they did, she was to either push them back into the camp, or use a spell to take them out.

    The one restriction ced on her and Marie was to not use fire magic. Because if they did, they risked setting the wall itself on fire, which could defeat the purpose of the walls they made in the first ce.

    Not to mention the fact that their allies would be fighting in a literal ring of fire and smoke. While Rena did not see them because they approached the camp from closer to where Marie was, she figured that Renton and Lynn were already inside and fighting alongside Jen and Lethen. She heard a number of shouts and screams as people began to fight to the death.

    For both the bandits and them, the only way out of this now was to win or die.

 Chapter 60: Camp Assault [Part 3]

    Joval grew up as a poor farmer''s kid. He was a middle child among five. His mother and father could not afford to pay for so many mouths to feed, so him and his oldest sibling who were the only two boys of the family, were sent to the local town to find work.

    On the way to town though, they were set upon by a group of marauders. They gave up their possessions as requested and did not fight back when they were captured.

    As a form of entertainment, the leader of the group liked to capture travelers and force them to fight. He would let the victor live and leave. Him and his brother were thrown into a pit that had been dug into the ground. Around the outside the boss and all the bandits sat, watched, and jeered at them both.

    Two swords were thrown into the ring with them. One behind Joval, and one behind his brother. Forever the honorable and noble of the two, his foolish brother threw the weapon down and swore he would never harm family.

    Joval did not share that sentiment. While his brother was giving a rousing speech about the importance of family and that he would rather die than be forced to kill his little brother, Joval grabbed the sword he was given and drove it through his brother''s heart.

    The bandits booed at the oue since there was no fight that actually happened. Instead, the leader kept Joval around, then threw in another viger with him. Joval won that fight too. Then one after another, Joval fought and killed and fought again. It wasn''t even for survival anymore, no he just enjoyed it.

    Eventually the boss got bored and decided he wanted to fight Joval himself. He felt like he had a point to prove or something, but unfortunately for him, Joval was stronger. All those fights developed his skills, his cunning, and his bloodlust. The boss had no chance against him and as a result, lost his life.

    This was how Joval came to be the leader of this group, and in the years since he had grown the group considerably and acted as a pseudo-mercenarypany for people willing to pay what it takes to get a job done dirty.

    No one had put up much of a fight since he took over the reins, which was why he was so confused that his men were running around yelling about intruders.

    Joval grabbed his weapons and equipped them as quickly as he could and threw his leather armor over his clothes. He stepped out of his tent to see his men fighting against four attackers. His jaw nearly dropped to the floor as he saw that the two gates in their walls were blocked by a giant block of ice and mound of dirt.

    "So, this is it innit? The big''un. Heh, bout time we got some real action, been feelin'' a lil'' rusty." He chuckled evilly while approaching the fight.

    He had nearly fifty men under hismand and even though most of them had no Compatibilities, numbers could still overwhelm even the best fighters. He wondered for a moment what would be the best way to motivate his men. After all, proper motivation could go a long way in a battle¡­

    "Oi!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. The fighting continued, but he knew everyone had heard him. "The four lucky sods that bring me those guys'' heads get a thousand gold pieces each."

    Those of his men that were not actively engaged inbat began to shout and cheer as they simultaneously charged forward. The four attackers appeared to be a woman without any weapons, a woman with a big sword, an elf with a sword and shield, and some otherrge man with an axe that he seemed to be swinging around as if it were nothing.

    With every powerful swing the big guy took, several of Joval''s men were sent scattering across the ground. The man simplyughed and pushed off attacker after attacker.

    The woman using her fists seemed to be using speed and agility to dodge most of his men and counter attacking their blind spots. Joval cursed under his breath as he realized all four of them were people with Arts and they were decently high rank too.

    As he was pondering what to do, he felt a chill behind him. He did not have any Compatibilities, but he had developed quite the reliable sixth sense for predicting danger from all the fights he had fought in. That was how he was able to narrowly duck underneath a strike that had been aimed at the back of his neck.

    "Lucky dodge."

    The voice came from a boy, no more than fourteen. He was wearing light leather armor that only covered the vitals and had a machete in his hand. He had these freaky eyes that were a different color too.

    Joval gripped his axe tighter. The chill he felt was still there. He knew the kid had some kind of Compatibility with Arts or magic; he could just feel it. However, he could also tell that the boy was not much stronger than he was, so he had a decent chance at winning. Despite that, something about the boy''s eyes and expression left a chill running down his spine.

    "You are one freaky kid." He muttered.

    The boy said nothing in response and simply swung again at him. Joval was able to block the strike with the hilt of his battle axe causing sparks to fly around him. This boy was no joke, he was prepared to kill despite being so young. This realization brought a sick smile to Joval''s face. His blood was pumping, adrenaline was rushing.

    For the first time in a long time he was able to fight and feel excitement. The possibility of death felt real, but was not certain.

    "Hey kid. You might just be the most fun I''ve had in a while. Try to keep up won''t you?"

    ---------------------------------------------------

    A/N: Interested in Discord?

    Here you go!

 Chapter 61: Camp Assault [Part 4]

    Joval grinned at the boy and lunged forward, making a downward sh with his battleaxe. The boy dodged to the right, making the attack miss and send up a plume of dirt. He was not going to end there however, instead he used the fact that his weapon was stuck in the earth to yank himself forward into a kick at his opponent''s chest.

    The boy parried the kick with his free hand and attempted to grapple around Joval''s leg and trap him, but he overpowered the grip and yanked himself free from the boy and his axe free from the ground.

    "You are pretty good, boy. Too bad I don''t think you are going to win this one." He taunted, before making three swings in rapid session.

    The first came was aimed at the boy''s sword arm on his enemy''s right, however the boy simply used his machete to parry the attack over his head. Joval allowed the momentum to flow into a spin attack that struck from the same side, but stronger.

    The speed of this follow up was too quick for the boy to parry, so he had to go for a straight block, sending a shower of sparks into the air and the boy skidding a foot in the direction of the strike''s force.

    Joval''s final attack was another overhead strike which the boy was also able to block, though required his off hand to support the de from the back.

    "Come on, boy. Give me more entertainment than that! Fight back why don''t you?!" Jovalughed.

    "You talk too much." This boy''s words were colder than ice and once again he felt a strange chill in the air, but that only served to excite Joval more. He desired the threat of death in a fight. He was not so stupid as to fight someone that would win instantly against him. No, Joval craved the struggle between two people fighting for their right to survive.

    Still pressing down on the boy, Joval heard his opponent shout out, "[Forsaken Arts: Sand Veil]!"

    "Wha¡­" Joval''s words were cut short before his mouth and eyes were filled with dirt. A moment before he was blinded, he saw the glow of mana form at the boy''s feet.

    Even though he could no longer see, he maintained his pressure on the boy. If he backed off to clear his eyes, then it would leave him open for a sh from his enemy''s machete and that would not end well. Also, Joval was familiar with the Forsaken Arts a little bit as he has fought beside and against a user before.

    Sand Veil was a cheap skill that sent mana into dirt or sand the user scattered into the air and forcibly made a storm of dirt that clung to the eyes and mouths of the enemy for a few seconds.

    "Oh ho, ho? A noble adventurer resorting to dastardly tricks. I like it¡­" Heughed while sputtering dirt.

    Suddenly he felt the air be forcibly expelled from his lungs as a foot nted itself in his gut. Joval released one hand from his weapon and grabbed the foot that kicked him and threw it to the side. All the resistance against his axe vanished as the boy was thrown a few feet to the side. Joval quickly cleared his eyes and watched the boy roll to a stop in the dirt.

    "Alrighty, boy. ytime is over now!" Joval roared. He reached into a satchel he kept on his waist and pulled out a potion bottle filled with a mysterious liquid. He flicked the stopper off with his thumb and chugged its disgusting contents before tossing the empty container aside. It had the texture of snot and tasted like a horse''s ass smelled.

    Joval felt the veins throughout his body press against his skin. Every muscle screamed at him in pain. Yet, he felt stronger than he had ever felt in his life. His once heavy battleaxe suddenly felt as light as a feather and he was even able to swing it with one hand. He took a few practice swings and smiled widely.

    "Oh that was worth the money¡­Let''s y for real now, boy." Heughed.

    Joval jumped into the air, the ground cracked from the force. He brought both hands to his weapon, swung the axe behind his back so far that his back arched. As he fell down upon the boy, he swung the axe forward with all his strength.

    Along with his improved strength, he also felt fast and vision seemed to have improved. Joval watched, almost in slow motion, the boy''s muscles contract in his leg and jump out of the way. Joval''s axe nted into the ground only inches from the boy''s body. However, faster than what he thought possible, his handshed out and grabbed his enemy by the chest of his shirt.

    He pulled the boy close to his face andughed. "Got you."

    "[Forsaken Arts¡­]!"

    "Nope!" Joval interrupted the Arts activation by punching his newfound captive straight in the face. The hit stunned the boy and blood gushed from his nose. Joval punched again and again. Slowly, but surely, the boy''s face changed shape as he pummeled him till his cheekbones, nose, and jaw were shattered.

    "Looks like I win, boy." Heughed. "I thought I told you to make this fun for me."

    A woman''s voice shouted out from behind him, "Let Lucius go you rotten bastard! [Sword Arts: Grand sh]!"

    The woman that had been fighting using the big sword against his men had disengaged by activating an Art that used arge shing attack. Several of his men fell instantly to the attack as she created an opening to attack. Finally bored with his toy, he threw the boy''s limp form to the side.

    "You damn monster! Die!" the woman yelled.

    "Yea, you seem fun. I don''t know if I can beat you, but with that potion I might have a shot! Come at me!" Joval screamed while grabbing the axe once more and running to meet her charge.

    The exchanged blow after blow, neither giving or gaining ground. Metal nged against metal, both fighters'' arms and weapons moving faster than eyes could track.

    "Oh this is fun!" Jovalughed. He knew he was going to lose now. Slowly, but surely and inch by inch, the woman was going to be gaining ground. He felt his body begin to slowly weaken as the potion''s effects wear out.

    Joval was about to make another strike at the woman, but felt a familiar chill take over his being. Before he could finish his attack or turn around to see the source of the feeling, he felt a sharp pain in his back, then his front. He felt the sudden urge to cough as he felt unable to release or take in any breaths. Slowly, he looked downward at his body that refused to listen to hismands.

    Jutting out from his chest was a jagged de.

    ''Heh, should have checked if the boy was still breathing,'' were thest thoughts before he fell to the ground and felt his world turn dark.

 Chapter 62: Camp Assault [Part 5]

    Lucius looked down at the body of the bandit leader that had nearly beat him to death. By all rights, he should be unable to stand, but he was willed to move by his own anger and stubbornness to have thestugh at the man whoughed at him throughout the fight.

    He could not understand what the bandit thought was so great. It was just a fight after all. He probably had many, just like Lucius. What enjoyment was there in fighting? It was only a means to an end and when it was over, only one of them was left living. So what was the point?

    ''To protect.'' A warm voice echoed in his head for a moment. It feltforting and warm.

    Then like a dark whisper a different voice came through, ''To prove your strength.''

    For a moment the second voice sounded like Grimm and Luz but despite his attempts to call out to either of those beings he had been ignoring for years now because they no longer spoke to him, nothing responded. He sighed, just as confused as before.

    The adrenaline flowing through his body, keeping him conscious began to fade and he began to stumble. Thankfully Jen was there to catch him and gently helped him to the ground. Lucius could not see more than a few inches in front of his face.

    Pain made up most of the totality of his existence, it was enough to make him pass out, but despite how close he was to cking out, he stayed just conscious enough to sit on his own.

    "Damn, kid¡­you okay?" Jen asked carefully. She had one hand on his shoulder, likely to try and keep him steady even though he was not at risk of falling over anymore.

    Lucius tried to speak but realized that his jaw was broken and his face was so swollen that even if it wasn''t he still probably could not speak. Instead, he merely pointed his hand towards the sounds of battle which were still raging. He could still hear even though he could not see or smell anymore.

    "Alright, I''ll go, but don''t move."

    Lucius simply waved her off andid down on the ground. He concentrated on slowing his breathing and calming his heart rate. It was likely that people would just think he was dead. Not that he could do anything at the moment to fight back if someone wanted to make what he looked like, a reality.

    *****

    Jen quickly left Lucius'' side and watched from her peripheral vision as he simply copsed backwards onto the ground. She realized that she would have to protect him from any more enemies so they did not actually finish the job.

    Thankfully, none of the remaining bandits seemed interested in the unmoving boy while there were several living and moving targets trying to end their lives. At this point the numbers had dwindled to almost twenty. Renton, Lynn, and Lethen looked exhausted, but continued to fight.

    Jen was also feeling exhaustion start to settle in. By now, they were supposed to be receiving archery support from Mia and Paul, but something must have been keeping them from being able to take a position where they could shoot over the walls.

    Jen was able to notice that some of the enemies who tried to climb over the walls fell backwards with arrows sticking out of them, so they were definitely alright and participating.

    "Well¡­looks like it''s up to us!" She shouted as she ran back into the fray.

    She decided to join up with Lynn since she seemed to be the most exhausted. There were at about six men targeting her and they were starting to corner her. They seemed to have figured out some of her retreating and counter techniques so they did not seem as effective anymore. They began closing off openings that she had exploited previously, leaving less opportunities to even try and counter.

    Jen rushed up and shed one across the back. He screamed and fell to the ground, this attracted the attention of the others, which gave Lynn a chance to grapple one of the men who turned his attention from her. She wrapped around his back and pulled him into a hostage hold with her hands held around his head, ready to snap his neck.

    He tried to struggle, but then her left hand glowed and instead he started to w at his face. "My eyes! I can''t¡­I can''t see! Help! Someone!"

    Jen had been wondering why she was not using her mark until now, but it seemed it required physical contact to function. Lynn backed away from the group, holding the man hostage. He was too busy panicking to really fight, so she was able to hold onto him with minimal effort and gain a bit of stamina back.

    Jen continued making strike after strike at the remaining four. Every strike was a power attack so that way if she struck home, it would kill, if not, the recoil would push them back enough for her to strike a different target.

    She was able to take down a second man by shing across his torso, opening up a torrent of blood. He fell to the ground screaming. Another yelped as he broke a wrist trying to hold up against another of her attacks and backed off to try and nurse his wound.

    Jen wanted to use another Art, but her mana reserves were running low and she did not have the stamina to recover it enough to use too many more. She had to save it for an emergency. Honestly, that Grand sh earlier should have taken her out, but she thought she could pull off one more before it became a serious problem.

    "Sorry about that!" Lynn yelled before she snapped her hostage''s neck. He crumpled like a puppet without strings and she returned to a ready position. "Let''s get back in this."

    Lynn stepped forward into a swing by another attacker. She used her palm to deftly push the t of his de away from her as she stepped directly into his personal space and headbutted him straight in the nose. He recoiled automatically, but she remained on him and threw a throat jab followed by a stomach jab.

    He grabbed his throat and doubled over at the same time. Lynn stepped to his side, cradled his head under her arm for a moment and yanked upward with a twisting motion. A sickening crack echoed across the battlefield as the man fell to the ground as well.

    "Damn, girl. Nice moves." Jen admired. That left only two more to take on. Jen figured her ally could take them on alone, so she turned around to check Lethen and Renton. They had started to clean up the remainder of their own groups and were fighting back to back against a remaining eight enemies from their original group.

    Thinking she had nothing to lose, Jen shouted, "[Sword Arts: Grand sh]!"

    A golden arc of mana flew outward in an arc, matching the swing of her sword. It flew towards the group and shed through the back of four of the men. Her lips turned blew and her vision narrowed as though she were looking through a tube.

    She felt the sudden urge to vomit and fell to one knee. Lethen nced in her direction and with a look of rage on his face, bashed one of the two remaining people he was fighting in the face. He followed it up with a kick, forcing the man to fall backwards. Lethen swiftly turned around and swung his sword with reckless abandon at the other one.

    Overwhelmed by the sudden onught, the bandit fell to one knee as Lethen shed, shed, and shed again.

    A loud crack reached Jen''s ears as she watched the bandit''s sword break in half and Lethen''s de continued through it and shed into his neck.

    He then turned around and kicked the bandit he had knocked down just a second ago back onto the ground before stabbing his sword into the man''s chest.

    By the time Jen''s vision cleared, Renton and Lynn had finished off their opponents as well. Lynn whistled the all clear signal and the wall of earth and stone and the wall of ice dissipated into a smattering of light that looked like someone scattered glitter thrown into the air.

    Mia, Paul, Marie, and Rena ran through the now open gates. Jen watched as Rena scanned the battlefield, but she could not see the person she was looking for amongst those standing or squatting.

    "The kid, is over there. He''s alive¡­I think. But he does not look pretty." Jen managed between ragged breaths. "Damn¡­why does mana exhaustion hurt so much. It doesn''t ever get easier¡­"

    Rena''s eyes widened as she panicked and her eyesid upon the boyying in a small puddle of blood. She yelped and ran over to his side. Jen couldn''t keep herself up anymore and let herself fall t onto the ground. Even if she wanted to, she could not muster the energy to stand back up.

 Chapter 63: Cleanup

    Luciusid on the ground, blood pooled on the ground from the wounds on his face. He had turned his head to the side so the blood would pour out of his mouth and nose and not interrupt his airways.

    Rena rushed to his side and began to cry. She ran her hands gently over his chest. It seemed like he was only barely hanging on to consciousness.

    "It''s okay Lucius. I''m here. I got you." She cooed in his ear. She hoped he was able to hear her, but had no clue if the damage to his head had hurt his ability to hear or not. His mouth and nose looked like someone had pounded out a b of beef. "[Lux: Heal]!

    [Lux: Heal]! [Lux: Heal]! [Lux: Hea¡­]¡­"

    Rena suddenly felt faint and her lips began to turn slightly blue. Her head pounded with the worst migraine of her life. Lucius'' body glowed brightly with the light of her magic spells as they took effect one right after another.

    "Hey! Stop that, you are going to suffer mana deprivation and pass out!" Mia shouted from a few dozen feet away. She quickly ran up and pulled Rena away from Lucius whose breaths had started to normalize. His face had also started to return to its once handsome form. It was clear his cheekbones were still broken, and his jaw was still heavily bruised, but he no longer looked like ground meat.

    "Sorry¡­I panicked¡­" Rena muttered.

    "I can tell. Do you have any potions?" Mia asked.

    Rena blinked. "No? Why? I can use my magic?"

    Mia simply rolled her eyes and sighed. "And what would you do if you suffered mana deprivation, like right now? And you couldn''t heal anyone?"

    She felt a flush of embarrassment color her cheeks. What the half-elf said was true. It was foolish of her to not keep any potions with her. She knew other party members had purchased some, but she thought that she would not need them. In fact, she even dissuaded Lucius from buying any because he just had her to heal him.

    "I''m sorry¡­" she choked out. Tears started to well up in her eyes. She felt so stupid! How could she put the party, and Lucius, in danger like that?!

    Mia patted her shoulder gently. "We all have to learn lessons as we gain new experiences. Sometimes those lessons have a harsh reality to them. You two should know that better than most considering your domain''s traditions¡­here, I have a pretty strong one. Do you know how make sure they are able to swallow it?"

    Rena shook her head because she did not. This was a skill she was not required to learn growing up. She was taught how to fight, use magic, strategies, and proper noble etiquette. Mia nodded in understanding.

    She took a rag out of a pouch on her hip and poured a little water on it to soak it. Rena watched as the woman took the wet cloth and gently dabbed it around Lucius'' lips and let a little trickle of liquid seep into his mouth. Rena watched in awe at the process because she saw Lucius make a swallowing motion with his throat.

    "Looks like he is able to swallow. Okay, next open his mouth slightly and turn his head ever so slightly to the side. We are going to drop a little bit in at a time, close his mouth and see if he swallows. If he coughs at all, we stop." Mia advised.

    She handed Rena the potion, intending on this being an educational lesson as well. Rena gingerly held the ss up to Lucius'' lips as she cradled his head in herp. The first pour went well and he safely swallowed it. The wounds on his face and body began to close ever so slightly. Bit by agonizing bit, Rena trickled the potion into her friend''s mouth until the entire thing was gone.

    "Okay. Now, while the potion is still in effect, it shouldst about twenty or so minutes, use another spell. That will amplify the effect of both. Little trick of the trade most people don''t know." Mia informed her.

    "[Lux: Heal]"

    Rena had gained back enough mana to cast the spell without issue. Lucius'' body glowed brightly once more and when it faded, she saw hispletely unmarred face looking as though nothing happened. Were it not for the wet blood still on his skin and soaking his hair, one would think he was simply asleep.

    "Thank you, Mia."

    "Sure thing. You are a good egg¡­caring for someone like us."

    "I thought if I made him my retainer I could keep him out of the war¡­" Rena mumbled.

    "Normally¡­ yea it would, but nothing will keep us out of this war. I used to be a Runner, but this gave me a chance to restart. Most other Runners that tried to restart like this were arrested, but they saw potential in me, so gotta make the best of it¡­ Don''t worry, I''ll keep an eye out for him out there." The half-elf promised with a smile and a big thumbs up.

    Rena nodded back happily epting her words. Jen, Lethen, and Paul came up and checked on the pair. They smiled happily after seeing that Lucius was still alive and well.

    "Kid cleans up good! He wasn''t looking so hot earlier¡­ though he did take some good hits." Jen chuckled.

    "What happened?" Rena asked coolly. A thinyer of mana enveloped her body and caused her hair to move as though blown by a gentle breeze.

    A nervous sweat ran down Jen''s face. She wasn''t threatened by Rena, since she was exponentially stronger than the teen, but still, the tone was rather startling.

    "Well, the boss dude took an enhancement potion. Damn good one too because he went from being a normal man almost as strong as a Novice Rank to just shy of being Advance Rank. Lucius took a number of hits from a guy that strong, so I''m honestly impressed¡­" Jen answered nervously.

    Mia jumped back into the conversation. She had started to back off to let the party talk to each other, but the information Jen shared seemed to have piqued her interest.

    "Unranked to almost Advance? What the hell kind of potion goes that far, was it made from dragon nuts or what?" Mia questioned.

    "I don''t know, but that''s what happened. He clearly had no Compatibilities, but after swallowing a potion, boom he held me off quite well for a little bit."

    "That is highly concerninge on, lets get to clearing the ce. Look for any signs of who these people were working with¡­he had to have gotten something like that from someone important. Renton, Lynn work with the other meatheads to gather and burn the corpses. Paul, you know where the scouts bodies are, take one of the big guys with you to collect and burn them too.

    Don''t want to risk any undead raising around here."

    Rena watched in admiration as she watched Mia quicklye to a series of hypotheses about what could have happened and provided clear orders for her party. Rena wished she could be that good at leading a party in the future. She briefly imagined herself leading a party of adventurers with Lucius at her side acting as her scout and spy.

    The image brought a smile to her face as she brushed the matted hair from his face.

    "You know¡­ after the dungeon¡­I think I might follow you to the front lines myself¡­ screw the position as heir¡­ I''m going to bring you back myself so we can do stuff like that forever." Rena whispered into his ear before nting a gentle kiss on his cheek¡­ after everyone looked away of course.

 Chapter 64: Gray Wolf Clan

    A beautiful girl, maybe fifteen or sixteen years old sat on her feet with them folded underneath her. Her hands were calmly ced in herp and her eyes were closed while she waited for the head of the family to enter the room. A breeze blew through the open window, gently teasing her long blonde hair.

    Two wolf-like ears sat atop her head and twitched in reaction to the sound of the door knob turning.

    The girl humbly took up a bowing position, waiting for the person entering to sit at the table across from her. Once she had heard himpletely settle, a gentle,forting voice filled the room. "Raise your head daughter."

    "Yes, father."

    His eyes were a faded gray, simr to that of a cloudy day threatening rain, the same as her own. Before her sat a document that had been rolled up. She reached for it and unfurled the sheet.

    "We received that news a few weeks ago, Kalliope."

    Kalliope''s ears twitched. She could pick up on the faint hint of sadness that colored the man''s voice. She quickly read through the document and fought the urge to rip the parchment to shreds.

    "So, brother is dead then." She growled.

    "So, it would seem. We believe someone from Eroa betrayed him to Alorek. However, we do not know who that might have been. Unfortunately the mission was not as¡­private as we were lead to believe and there are many dozens of people who may have done so." Her father stated.

    Once again, Kalliope swallowed the anger in her heart and took a series of deep breaths. "How did he die?"

    Her father paused before continuing. "Forcedbat, against a minotaur under King Zethis''mand. His body was consumed by the beast and as such we have been unable to retrieve anything for funeral rites."

    "I see. At least he died in battle."

    "It would seem that he was granted one honor in death at least."

    Both beastmen sat in an ufortable silence. Their ears twitched simultaneously as the door opened once again and a gorgeous woman who bore a striking resemnce to Kalliope entered. It was her and her brother''s mother, one of her father''s five wives.

    Kalliope and her brother were the only two children between her father and her mother. As such the anger of the loss weighed even heavier on her heart.

    She nced at her mother whose regal form betrayed no emotions, as befitting the first wife of the head of the Gray Wolf n. However, the unmistakable salty scent of tears brushed past her nose. On the outside, her mother was as strong as steel and as graceful as a bird, but this pained her greatly to lose her eldest child and only son.

    "I will avenge brother. Send me father." Kalliope demanded.

    "No. You are stronger, faster, and even smarter than your brother was. But youck the two most important things that your brother had hand over fist above you."

    Frustration welled up into her throat. "And what is that¡­father?" Her anger and rage were barely contained as her words came out with such a growl they could almost be heard as the warble of a beast than the speech of a person.

    "Experience andmon sense." Her father pointed out. "What good is knowledge if you don''t have the ability to put it to use? What good is strength, if it cannot be harnessed? What good is speed, if you do not know where to run? Your brother knew these things, but you do not."

    She could not argue with that. It was true. Shecked worldly knowledge. She was among the strongest of her peers, but that meant little in the real world. She was not like the monster king of Alorek, whose power was such that he did not need clever tricks to win. And despite that, he still did.

    The one man in the world who had the strength to not be clever, still was. So what could she do?

    Compared to her brother, father, mother, and even the weakest warriors of her nation''s army, she was still a pup.

    "I understand, father. May I leave?"

    "No."

    Kalliope had already started to shift her position so she could stand, but halted at her father''s words. She eyed him cautiously, not knowing what he was going to propose.

    "I will be sending you to Fort Se near the border with Alorek. There are frequent skirmishes there and it will teach you much of true battle."

    "And of my time in the academy?"

    "It is finished. I have spoken with the king personally and you are being considered as a graduate with full marks. Congrattions."

    "Father! I still have much to learn! There is¡­"

    "You are still going to be learning. In fact, an old friend of mine is currently at Fort Se. He will be overseeing your training."

    Her eyes started sparkling. Her father was an abrupt and gruff man to most people outside of the n so he did not have many close rtionship outside of the n. However, he referred to every Gray Wolf as ''family'' and none were called ''friends'' so it was definitely someone outside the family. This left the options slim as to who it may be¡­

    "Is it¡­" Kalliope began.

    "It is Sir Kalivas."

    Despite the somber nature of the start of the meeting, Kalliope could not contain her excitement. Kalivas was a hero among the people of Eroa, and a very close friend of her father. He had left his n due to the distaste they had for his mark, but he became a powerful warrior that the Kingdom relied upon.

    "I can''t believe it¡­Uncle Kalivas is going to train me?!" She squealed.

    Suddenly the mood shifted to a much brighter one. There was no one in the kingdom who was better suited to teaching her how to fight in a real battle. Kalivas and her father, Atil, were old friends from battles long past and as a pup, Kalliope had seen him fight many, many times. While she did mourn the loss of her brother, he was able to die honorably in battle, as all Gray Wolves wish.

    So the best way to honor his memory would be to do as her fathermanded and venture to Fort Se and train.

    She bowed deeply to her mother and father. "Thank you, father, mother, for this opportunity. I shall not disappoint."

    "You better not. I have put a lot of faith in you and pulled a lot of favors with the king to grant you exception from the Academy. Be grateful and learn well. I do not wish to have a second child follow the path of my son. Honorable though it may be, death is death."

    "Yes father. I understand."

    Kalliope bowed once again and left the room quietly. She swiftly walked through the halls and past dozens of servants as well as children who were running through the halls. Thepound of the Gray Wolf n was always packed with people and children. Like many of the great ns in Eroa, they had many rtives and many children.

    Were it not for her mother''splications with Kalliope''s birth, she may have been one of a dozen rather than one of two. Unfortunately, those thoughts brought her down from her excitement as she remembered that she was now one of one.

    Kalliope dodged past the children and made her way outside to the family''s private garden. It was a ce reserved for her father, his wives, and their children as a way to escape the chaos of the rest of the n. She sauntered over to arge, smooth stone that stretched over the pond and gentle stream that ran through the garden.

    Forfort, she grabbed her tail and cradled it in her arms. It had been a long time since she had done that¡­likely since she was a child. She stopped pretty early because her brother had started making fun of her for seekingfort in her tail ''like a baby,'' and that angered her to the point that she stopped just to prove to him that she was not a baby anymore.

    Those fond memories filled her mind as she stroked the fur on her own tail.

    "Don''t worry brother¡­ I will train with Kalivas¡­ and I will gain the strength to feed Zethis'' head to his own beasts. I swear it." A brief surge of mana burst from her body, standing all her fur and hair on end for a moment before returning to normal.

 Chapter 65: Fort Sella

    Kalliope sat in the back of carriage that her family ced her in for the trip to Fort Se. It was only a day''s ride by carriage so they were likely only a short ways away now.

    Her family''spound was most close to Fort Se, but was essentially in the middle of nowhere. It was isted and peaceful, such was the case with all the great ns.

    The road was uneven and rough, so much so that it might have been asfortable, if not more, just to sit on an actual horse. However, this was something her father insisted on. He did not want anyone to see that he was sending his daughter to the fort. The officers inside were aware of the n to have her train in realbat there, but other ns did not need to know that information.

    It was suspicious enough that she had been granted permission to graduate early from the Academy, so the Gray Wolf n did not want to reveal any more of their hand. Too many of the great ns knew about her brother''s mission and it lead to his death, so by keeping as much secret about Kalliope as possible, they would lessen the risk to her life.

    Granted fighting inbat was threat enough, but it would be beneficial to not have to worry about betrayal. Many of the soldiers at Fort Ste were members of the Gray Wolf n as well, so there was lessened concern about information leaking out of the fort. Plus, her father Atil, knew that Kalivas would be there and that would scare most rats into scurrying into the darkness.

    "Lady Kalliope, we are approaching the gates." The voice of the driver called out.

    She quickly gathered her things. She was already wearing her leather armor, but set to the side were her shield and then her sword in its sheathe. Kalliope stood up in the rocking carriage and secured the weapon on her hip and the shield on her back. She also checked boots to ensure that her daggers were properly secured as well.

    As the strongest member of the younger generation in her n, Kalliope was blessed with Compatibilities for Sword Arts, Shield Arts, Dagger Arts, and light magic. Though she waspletely inept at the healing side of the magic, she was capable with the boosting and enhancement spells that it came with.

    Enhancement spells were rather difficult to use and so most people could not use them until the Intermediate Rank.

    The carriage jostled her around roughly as it came to a stop. Once she had regained her bnce, she ced a hand on the door and pushed it open. The fresh breeze filled her senses. Wind blew her hair back and the gentle sun warmed her face. However, it was only gentle because it was early in the morning.

    Due to how close Fort Se was to the border with Alorek, it was actually a rather barren and rocky ce. Normally the sun scorched and the wind scarcely blew except for the transition from day to night or vice versa.

    Her boots crunched against the rocky ground as she stepped out into the morning light. Turning to the right, she saw the magnificent walls of the fort towering over her. They were nearly three stories tall and encircled the entire fortress. The gates that stood before her were made of iron so that they could withstand a full assault, long enough to prepare for a counter-offensive.

    ''Of course if Uncle Kalivas were to attack them, he would shatter them with a single swing.'' She thought to herself while grinning stupidly.

    "Hold! Who approaches?" one of the guardsman questioned. He was adorned in chainmail and a bucket helm and held a pike in his hand. His cohort wore the same armor, but was equipped with an axe and shield.

    "Kalliope of the Gray Wolf n, daughter of Atil. I am stationed here starting today." She called out.

    The guards looked at each other and smiled at how resolute and determined the girl sounded. The one with the pike let out a long, monotone whistle that fluttered between a high and low note at the end. A momentter, the sounds of chains rattling was heard and the gate began to slowly rise in front of her.

    "Wee to the fort, Lady Kalliope."

    "Thank you."

    Once inside, she took in the surroundings. Inside the wall looked like a small vige with a few dozen buildings. Though there were no civilians in the fort. Each one served a purpose for the garrison here which was set at almost two thousand strong. It had a capacity for nearly ten times that in emergencies, but adding additional forces at the moment may cause early provocation towards Alorek.

    Eroa was much weaker in terms of military might to their neighbor and heavily relied upon the joint threat that they posed with their alliance between Eroa and the human kingdoms.

    The young woman moved through the pathways between the buildings and followed a scent that she was familiar with. Passing a few interesting ces, like a smithy, alchemist, and a healer''s hut, she swiftly made her way to one of the several training grounds inside the walls.

    This one was meant for close quartersbat training. There was also one set up for magic and rangedbat as well. Keeping them separate was more costly, but it allowed them to specialize each location for their respective needs.

    Standing like a giant against the other soldiers, there was a man with darkened skin, rippling ck muscles and short ck hair. He had a long, skinny tail poking out behind him and two cat ears on the top of his head. One was torn in half though, likely from a previous battle. However, the injury only served to increase his intimidating presence.

    The man held a two-handed battle axe in one hand and was standing in the middle of a circle of other soldiers. Three of the man''s opponents attacked him at the same time, however with a single swing of his axe, all three were thrown backwards and out of the practice ring they stood in.

    Four more attempted to attack him, mid swing. However, his left hand glowed right as he began to recover from his earlier swing. The glow quickly faded and a simrly shiny aura covered his body, though it was barely perceptible. Faster than even Kalliope''s trained eyes could see, he quickly changed direction and swung back against the four men who thought to take him unawares.

    They two were tossed out of the ring by the strikending on the ground like a heap of ragdolls.

    The giant beastman''s back straightened and he quickly turned around, locking eyes with the much smaller blonde girl.

    "Kalliope." His voice was deep and gravelly. To an enemy it would strike fear. But to her, it was a familiar voice of her father''s closest friend that she basically considered an uncle to her.

    "Uncle!" Kalliope ran up to Kalivas and gave him a huge hug with all her strength. Not that it would do anything since she was Intermediate and he was a King Rank. Her head only came up to his pectoral muscles so from far away it looked like a child hugging a grown man instead of a nearly fully grown young woman hugging a giant.

 Chapter 66: Conditioning

    "Hey I wanted to ask you a question."

    Lucius was in the middle of slurping down the soup that went with his meal. His face had long since healed thanks to Rena''s spells and the healing potion he was given, however there was still a dull throb in his jaw that had yet to go away and the warmth of the soup helped soothe it.

    When he was finished gulping down his food, he let out a satisfied sigh, wiped his face, and then finally answered. "What''s up, Jen?"

    "Why haven''t you used that ''Sand Veil'' thing before?" she asked.

    Rena looked curious too. It made sense why though, he had never used it around her. There were a lot of skills he never used around her.

    "Hmm, no reason other than some of my skills look bad on Rena. I respect her so I try my best not to make her look bad." Lucius answered.

    It was the truth. If he did not care about what his skills would make Rena look like as the person with a servant using the kind of skills he possessed, then he would simply use everything. A win was a win after all.

    "You should use that one more often in battle. Especially against monsters. It might even have helped with the twin-headed bear. It definitely would have helped with that hostage situation too."

    "Eh, wasn''t worth it."

    "Saving those people wasn''t worth revealing your skill?" Paul asked. His voice was as in as ever but he seemed slightly annoyed.

    Lucius sat for a moment and thought about it. Before, when he thought back to that moment he felt regret for a moment, then that cold sensation took it away. Now¡­he did not feel regret. He just did not feel anything. It truly felt like it wasn''t worth his time.

    "No. It wasn''t. I didn''t know them anyway so why should I risk Rena''s image with something as pointless as a few vigers. Besides, no guarantee they wouldn''t have just slit their throats anyway. In that position, being blinded wouldn''t impair their ability to finish off those hostages in their arms." Lucius said with a shrug before taking a drink of his juice. To him, the logic was there.

    Should he be concerned that the initial feelings he had about it were gone?

    ''Nah, it''s probably nothing. Just maturing and recognizing the logic of the situation.'' He thought to himself.

    "You''re kind of a bastard aren''t you?" Lethen blurted out. He instantly received harsh nces from Rena.

    "I don''t know¡­maybe? I was adopted so there has to be a reason for that. One is on my hand. Another is because of my race¡­so bastard could be an option." Lucius mused.

    The air around the table became still and awkward. Lethen ufortably rubbed his neck, Jen averted her eyes, Paul began staring at his cup and Rena simply looked at her hands that she had ced in herp.

    "Well, I''m going to go take a walk¡­" Lucius said while standing up. Rena began to get up as well, so he followed up with, "Alone."

    His friend sat back down in silence, so he turned around and walked through the sea of tables and feet that made up the first floor of the Whistling Wolf. Once outside, he was greeted by the cool night air and a bright moon. It was so bright that even a normal human would not need to use a torch to see.

    Lucius turned and walked in no particr direction, just walking to walk. He did not have to clear his head or anything, he just saw the party getting ufortable so removed himself from the situation.

    After a few minutes he heard the sounds of an argument off in the distance and decided to follow it for curiosity''s sake. In order to locate the source he had long since left the main road and towards a less affluent and safe part of town. The buildings became so tightly packed that the bright light of the moon barely reached the ground.

    After turning through multiple corners, he closed in on the sound. He had been following the people arguing for quite some time and wondered if they were ever going to stop moving. It was at that moment, they ducked into a shabby looking warehouse that looked like it had been abandoned decades ago.

    "¡­I told you it''s too risky! She has those two Advance Ranks with her¡­plus there''s that boy. He could smell us from a mile away! He''s going to recognize me if I get close somewhere strange¡­"

    "So what? They have my family¡­what am I supposed to do? Also, you were supposed to make sure he died out there¡­"

    "I did! How was I supposed to know that The Marks would show up?! And don''tin about family to me! They have mine too, you know!"

    One voice was that of a man and the other was a woman. He recognized the woman''s voice instantly, but while the man sounded familiar, Lucius couldn''t ce it exactly¡­ He shrugged and walked through the door.

    Both of the people arguing stopped talking and gasped when the saw Lucius enter the building and then m the door closed behind him. He saw that there was no way to lock it, so he simply let the door be and turned around to face the two people.

    The man, looked somewhat familiar, but he still could not ce who it might be. On the other hand, the woman was very familiar. She was even still wearing her receptionist uniform from the guild.

    "So. You guys are trying to hurt Rena? And you miss¡­gosh I cant remember your name. You took off your name tag at least but next time you scheme, maybe remove the uniform as well." Lucius called out.

    The two people''s jaws swung open. They had no idea that he had been following them, let alone listening in on their conversation.

    "So¡­you rmended that bandit quest to us in the hopes we would die out there, huh?" He asked in a low tone.

    "Y-y-yes¡­ I-I-I had too. My husband¡­my son they have them so¡­"

    "Same here! They have my wife and children! Please¡­ we had no choice!"

    Lucius felt a twinge of understanding and concern for these two¡­ but it was reced with that strange chill again and the emotions were gone. It felt as though whatever was making him feel this way was¡­conditioning him?

    "Please¡­ Lucius¡­"

    "You, man over there. Who hired you?"

    "I can''t answer that! They''ll kill my family. Please if you save my family I''ll tell you everything you want to know. Please."

    "Answer my question." Lucius growled. He felt the familiar feeling of his teeth growing in length. His senses sharpened. He was angry, and yet¡­the chill never came.

    "I can''t do tha¡­" the man began. Before his voice caught in his throat. Blood dribbled down his neck as he felt the sharp edge of Lucius'' machete pressed against him.

    "How old are your kids?"

    "Ten. They''re ten."

    "I don''t know any ten year olds unfortunately. And I don''t know you. Sorry" Lucius informed him. With a quick flick of his wrists, the weapon sliced cleanly through the man''s neck. His body dropped to the floor and his head rolled away.

    "Alright. Miss Receptionist. Who hired you to harm Rena?"

    "What about his family! You killed them, you¡­"

    "And?"

    "Please¡­I don''t know who hired us. They simply left us letters in our home after work one day. Our families were gone and there was a warning and orders. I swear¡­please."

    "How old is your child?"

    "He''s only five¡­ please¡­I told you what you wanted¡­ so please¡­" The receptionist begged on her knees, tears poured from her eyes like waterfalls. She was desperately clinging on to Lucius'' leg.

    "That was useless information. I can''t do anything with a letter." Lucius muttered as he kicked the woman away from him. Shended on her back with a thud that knocked the wind out of her. She quickly got onto her hands and knees again, and clutched her chest, trying desperately to get her lungs to allow her to breathe once more.

    Lucius slowly walked up to her and shed the back of her neck, separating the head from the body like he did with the man. He let out a deep sigh and looked at the scene. The warehouse was mostly empty, save for the bodies and random trash and old boxes and crates. Lucius gathered the crates and trash and piled them in the center of the building.

    It was mostly made of wood anyway, so his idea would probably work.

    He took out a set of matches and oil. After dousing the pile with oil, he poured a trail over to each of the bodies. It took him about three bottles of the stuff, but he was satisfied with the oue. Lucius struck a match and tossed it into the pile he made. It quickly caught fire thanks to the extra fuel.

    The warehouse caught fire quickly as well, so he jumped to the rooftops to flee the area. He was not worried about the crimes being linked to him, and even if they were, he felt he had the right of it anyway for protecting Rena. What he wanted out of this was to dy people in finding out these two were dead.

    The longer it took for people to realize they had been killed, the longer the people who hired them would take to find recements that would put Rena in danger again.

    Because he took the long way around, by the time he returned to the Whistling Wolf, most of the crowd had left. On top of that, many had been distracted by the sights and sounds of a fire breaking out in town. It was easily doused thanks to some people who could use water magic, so there was no real threat to the neighboring buildings.

    Even so, by the time it was fully out, the bodies would bepletely unrecognizable.

    "Lucius! Are you okay? You''ve been gone a while and then a fire broke out!" Rena''s voice greeted him from across the now empty dining area. She ran up to him and wrapped her arms around him. "Look¡­I''m sorry about what they said to you¡­ if you want, we can find a different party. It will be hard to find someone that can take us on Intermediate Rank Quests, but we can do it."

    He patted her on the top of her head. "I''m fine. I wasn''t upset. I actually left cus everyone else was feeling awkward. I only got distracted while I was out. So it''s okay."

    "Alright then. Jen found another quest for us!"

    "Perfect."

 Chapter 67: Conversations in the Void

    "Grimm." A soothing, yet furious voice called out. It seemed to echo from a space made entirely of white light.

    A deepugh echoed throughout a space filled with darkness which was pressed up against the light.

    "Yes, my dear, old friend, Luz? What can I do for you?"

    "What are you doing? How are you doing it?!" Luz roared. The typically calm being within this liminal space had somehow lost his temper with its longtime rival.

    "Why, what ever could you mean Luz? I haven''t done anything. You are the one blocking the window to the earthen ne, you would know if I slipped through it even a little bit! I''m strong, but not so much that I can just get by your wall. We''ve had this conversation!"

    Grimm continued tough at Luz. Even though he was taunting his brighter counterpart, he was not lying. He really had not reached through the window. Thest time he reached through the window was when hest gave Lucius his power. Almost five years ago¡­in terms of the calendars of the earthen ins anyway.

    "You are affecting his mind, Grimm." Luz used.

    "Well now, that''s quite the usation."

    "When did you do it, Grimm?"

    "When he was unconscious after the whole deer incident."

    "You mean when you refused to help train him while we kept him in our space with us?"

    "I did to help train him! Very rude of you to assume otherwise. You taught him techniques that would help his physical body, and I¡­"

    "You what? What did you do?"

    If an expanse of pure darkness could smile, it did. "I gave him a tool to help his mind. That''s all. It''s a tough world out there for our boy. You have to train his body and his mind. Not just one, Luz."

    Luz roared in anger, spewing insults and curses so ancient one would have a hard time finding a rock that was older.

    "Temper, temper my friend. All I did was leave a little¡­whisper to help him along! Help him make the decisions he needs to make."

    "He killed those people. He could have saved them. Saved their families!"

    "Oh yes, and if he wasted the time doing that whoever was behind it could have moved on that girl he''s so protective of. Also in the end, the puppet masters would have been informed immediately of the need to find recement toys to manipte¡­ this way, they bought time."

    "There was another way, Grimm." Luz argued.

    "Oh absolutely, I don''t disagree. There were many, many options avable¡­ but this one got the results he wanted, the fastest. It''s more efficient that way!"

    "He killed people."

    "So? Don''t act so high and mighty. Following your path would lead to death as well. How many people do you want to lead down the path of self-sacrifice Luz? Want to turn this kid into another one of your ''heroes''? Someone so righteous and just that they turn a blind eye to those they love to save the world?

    Boring, I''ve seen it before. Let''s do something my way this time." Grimm whined.

    "The world was better for their sacrifice." Luz countered.

    "Is it though? Have you looked at their world recently? Not sure it did as much as you think it did. I mean look at poor Lucius. Ha, fate really fucked him over, huh?"

    Luz paused for a moment. Or maybe it was a year? An eon? Time was tricky in a ce like this. It flowed forwards, backwards, and sideways all at once. Everything that was here, simply was.

    "He would have been stronger for it."

    "Probably. He could also have just died. Not that I mind, at least I''m honest about it though. You are just pretending to care about him to fulfill your purpose. I''ve told him from the start I simply thought he was interesting." Grim chided.

    Grimm felt the rage boiling inside the bright light called Luz. A while ago he had dimmed a little and right now he was looking a little dimmer still. Of course it wasn''t enough for the dark void known as Grimm to overwhelm his enemy, but it was noticeable after all this time trapped together.

    "I haven''t had this much fun in a while if I''m being honest Luz. Lucius makes a fun game piece. You get rather boring with time. So dull and predictable. These mortals though¡­ so intriguing to watch. That girl especially, I like her a lot.

    Think they''ll hook up?"

    "I don''t know, Grimm. That is their decision."

    "Oh? Normally you tell your little heroes to stay away from that kind of thing! So surprising! Always thought you were a prude, but wow times have changed. Growth is good Luz. Don''t let anyone ever tell you different."

    Luzughed sarcastically. "Like who? You?"

    "I mean maybe? I have a short memory, I might forget after Lucius dies."

    "Ha. Short memory. Grimm you''ve beenying the groundwork for this fight for a millennia."

    Grimm smiled again. "Oh that''s right¡­I have. My bad."

    Luz fell silent once more, likely exhausted from talking and guarding the window to the earthen in at the same time. Grimm let his counterpart rest. There was no point in trying to weaken him alone. He probably could, but there was no need.

    The boy was developing nicely and the whisper he left behind when Lucius was stuck here with them was doing quite well in its job. Of course, Lucius had the willpower to ovee its effects as it rtes to friends, family, and loved ones. To be fair, it was quite the shock to him that Lucius could suppress it at all!

    However, it was not a bad thing. Just another aspect to the strange boy that Grimm found to be interesting. He was watching Lucius and the people around him constantly. Rena was a given. The girl was absolutely smitten with thed, and that was oh so very funny.

    What would Lucius do if he, a Marked One, a bastard child of unknown origins knocked up the daughter of one of the most powerful families in a human kingdom?

    Grimm cackled to himself at the possibilities. Would he run? Fight? Die? What would she do? Keep it?

    Hide it? Pronounce it proudly to the world? Honestly with her little confession while Lucius fell into unconsciousness, it was probably thest one.

    Oh the look on that nobleman''s face were he to be told that would be absolutely priceless!

    "What are you on about now?" Luz growled.

    "Oh, I''m sorry, I am just over here daydreaming about love. You know, pretty typical of a bleeding heart like myself!" Grimm answered in a singsong voice.

    Grimm was smiling to himself, wondering what fun things he gets to see next.

 Chapter 68: Journey to Lelvern

    "Our next quest takes us to out of town for a while so make sure to say any good byes if you have any." Jen stated the moment everyone was present.

    Everyone had gathered at the guild hall as per the usual and were mostly geared up and ready to go. Having learned from their mistakes, Lucius and Rena were a bitter than usual because they had picked up some healing potions on the way.

    "We are heading to the merchant city of Lelvern!" The warrior woman shouted with glee and a raised fist in the air.

    Rena''s eyes sparkled with excitement. She had heard many stories about the wonderful kinds of items that one could find in the many shops and stalls that filled the city. It was a ce of wonder and excitement for the young noble girl.

    Lucius on the other hand felt slightly ufortable. He had also heard of Lelvern, though the stories he heard did not excite him. The first reason was because it was the most populous city in Arcadios and he was worried that they would be packed together like a bunch of pickled vegetables.

    On top of that, the forest out side of the city was known as the Silverthorn Forest. It was home to a very high poption of extremely dangerous monsters known as Quillow Beasts. They were Rank D monsters individually, but tended to group together in pods of five or six, which could easily be considered a C Rank threat.

    Quillow Beasts were about twice as big as a full grown bull and looked giant porcupines. They had the ability to spray the spines on their bodies quickly loosing enough tobat that of a squad of archers in only a second. The spines they shot out were a gray-silver color, hence the name of the woods.

    "Speaking of¡­we will be passing through the Silverthorn forest on the way. So, watch out. Oh hey kids. Why do you guys not have a name for the woods outside town? It has a lot of monsters and¡­. You know who, at the center." Jen asked suddenly.

    "Wait, wait¡­you learned some obscure rule about not mentioning the Forest Lord''s name in the guild hall¡­but you don''t know why the forest doesn''t have a name?" Lucius asked incredulously. "Are you stupid?"

    Before Jen could reply with an equally insulting quip, Rena interrupted. "It is because of the Forest Lord himself. Since such a majestic and powerful beast beyond most of ourprehension has made it his home, we do not give his home a name in case he should dislike it enough to¡­take it out on us."

    "I see¡­ wait¡­ how can a monster dislike a name?"

    "Oh, the Forest Lord is, by all ounts, more intelligent than people. He''s probably as smart and wise as a dragon." Lucius answered. "Of course he hibernates for centuries at a time, so we only know what is passed down to us."

    "Right¡­right. Okay, let''s go!" Jen shouted, before something strange caught her eye. "Oh, that''s weird?"

    "What is it now Jen?" Paul''s voice sounded more annoyed than usual. He seemed to want to get on their way already.

    "I just see that our usual receptionist isn''t in today¡­weird."

    "Probably sick or something." Lucius said nonchntly.

    There was no reason for him to share what happened the other night. It would only cause problems and he was pretty confident that what he did would be considered an ''issue'' with Rena, so he just kept his mouth shut. Again, it is unlikely he would be punished if found out, because he acted in such a manner as to protect the domain lord''s daughter. Many things were forgiven for such actions.

    The group headed towards the stables near the outskirts of the town. It was outside the city walls because of the concern forck of space as well as horse manure inside the walls. Their n was to catch a ride on a carriage heading towards Lelvern so as to save a lot of time on the trip. It would still be a multi-day trip, potentially up to a week of travel time.

    However, it would be much longer if they tried to book it on foot.

    In exchange for participating in the guard rotation, a merchant caravan was happy enough to take them on for their own trip to the merchant city, which saved them a lot of money. Charting a carriage for five people was not cheap. It was actually enough to make Rena blink a couple times at the sum.

    What the merchant caravan had to offer was much lessfortable than a carriage though. They were put into a wagon at the rear of the group to keep an eye out for threats behind them. The other guards were split seventy/thirty at the front and back to ensure full coverage.

    Not including their own party, the number of people on the trip amounted to almost thirty people. With this many people traveling together, it would absolutely be closer to that week timeline before they arrived.

    Sitting in the wagon did give Lucius a lot of time to think though. After they had cleared out the bandit camp, Mia and The Marks searched all the tents and belongings in the camp to find clues at how they managed to organize in such a fashion. They also needed to figure out how the leader got his hands on a potion that bumped him from unranked up to fighting on par with an Advance Rank.

    When he was conscious, he had been told that such powerful enhancement potions were extremely rare and also deadly. It was why it was so hard to get your hands on one. A single use could actually cause your heart to explode from all the stress of having topensate for what the potion did to your body.

    They never found an answer to their questions and there were no other signs of potions like the first one anywhere in the camp. Lucius did not expect that there would be any evidence behind. As far as he was concerned, they would be lucky if any of the bandits knew how to read.

    He concluded that interactions would have urred either magically at some distance through the use of a special enchanted item, or physical contact and conversation.

    He highly doubted that those idiots living in the woods were smart enough to cover their tracks so well, but still, they did not find anything.

    Another hypothesis that Lucius had was that whoever it was that bribed the receptionist and the other guy, who Lucius found out today was apparently an apprentice monster butcher for the guild, also helped those bandits organize in such a way that they actually became a threat.

    "Hey Jen¡­I never asked, but since we are on the road. What is our quest?"

    Jen''s smile gave Lucius an ufortable feeling. "Hunting down a Quillow Beast."

    "Dammit Jen¡­" Lethen muttered while shaking his head.

    Lucius sighed deeply to himself. It was the one monster he did not want to run into, but here they were specifically tracking one down.

 Chapter 69: A Rough Start

    "Dammit! Take it out! Fuck! It hurts!" Lucius cried out in pain. Paul and Lethen were holding him down by the arms, preventing him from moving to much. At the same time Rena and Jen had pinned down his leg and were trying to remove a handful of Quillow Beast spines from his leg.

    They were only a day''s travel away from the city of Lelvern when the caravan came under attack. On the main road through the Silverthorn Forest, there was a pack of Quillow Beasts that had decided to graze on some of the flowers growing by the roadside.

    Being the territorial creatures they were, they postured threateningly at the group of wagons, but the guards in the front of the caravan did not know how strong these things were.

    As such the situation quickly devolved into a massive fight. The pod was only a group of three, but it was way beyond what the front line was able to handle. In a single barrage of spines, most of them fell instantly. Silver spines were sticking out of their bodies as if they were human shaped pincushions.

    After the initial attack, Rena put all her strength into a massive earthen wall to separate the monsters from the rest of the caravan. She then used a follow-up spell that created stairs up to the top of the wall which allowed those with ranged attacks to hit the monsters from above.

    Jen, Lethen, and Lucius skirted around the sides of the wall to take the fight directly to the monsters, while Paul and Rena ran up the earthen stairs to attack from above. A few of the stronger guardsmen joined both groups, while the rest attempted to help those injured from the initial barrage.

    "[Forsaken Arts: Sand Veil]!" Lucius used his ability since it was out in the open to momentarily blind the creatures, however only two of them ended up affected by it.

    "[Forsaken Arts: Muttion]!" Lucius set upon one of the blinded creatures with another attack he kept back. Since he was surrounded by the mana infused dirt cloud he made, others wouldn''t have to see the skill directly. However, instead of the standard golden glow that signified the use of Arts, Lucius'' de glowed a bright red.

    His machete''s edge became sharper and formed a serrated edge made of this red mana. Every sh at the monster''s body caused the receiving creature to howl out in pain as pulling his weapon free from it resulted in repeated sawing like motions.

    The Muttion skill was not an attack meant to deal massive damage up front, rather leave painful wounds that made the target slowly bleed out. Of course, the only thing this caused were painful wounds that would slow the monster down, since it was many times stronger than he was and would not sumb to the attacks a Novice Rank fighter would leave behind.

    "Gods, that''s disgusting¡­" a guard mumbled as the dust finally settled and the Quillow Beast that Lucius had attacked was finally visible. Its face and front legs werepletely covered in weeping gouges, but even though it looked awful, it was still capable of fighting. If anything, what Lucius had done was piss it off.

    "Run!" Paul shouted from the top as he ducked behind the cover of the wall. Lucius looked to where the man had briefly pointed. The third Quillow Beast, the one that was not hit by the Sand Veil, had turned its back to the group again and its spines were raised up.

    Everyone quickly dove behind a bunch of trees if they were too far from the wall to get back around it. However, Lucius was dead center of the road and was too far to run to either side.

    Just as he watched the entire half of the monster''s body quiver, a sign that a barrage of spines was iing, he heard a whisper in his ear: ''Here, a little bit of strength¡­'' it was a voice he had not heard in a very long time. In an instant his head was flooded with knowledge of a new set of abilities.

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Charge]!"

    Electricity crackled around Lucius'' body, the smell of ozone flooded his nostrils. Pure energy seemed to course through the lower half of his body as he darted to the left for cover. The world around him turned into a blurry mess as one second he was in the middle of the road, and the next he was behind the tree line off to the side.

    Unfortunately, before he had made it all the way there, he felt a sharp pain in his leg.

    ¡­And all that was what led up to the current moment he was in right now. He had managed to dodge most of the barrage, but his leg still caught a few of the spines on his way out. Immediately after thatst attack, the three Quillow Beasts retreated into the woods. Rena dismissed her spells, and everyone took a rest by the side of the road.

    The caravan pulled all the wagons and carts to the side of the road as well so as not to impede passing travelers.

    The bodies of the guards that perished were also burned as per the custom, though not before being relieved of any important items they had. No point in burning gold, now is there? All said and done, out of the thirty people, not including Lucius'' party, they lost about ten to the attack. All of them were guards and none of the merchants were harmed.

    There were a handful of injured too, though not many and Lucius was one of them.

    "Hold still! We are going to take them out, but we have to make sure they didn''t pierce anything important. You have some important areas in your legs that we don''t want to damage any more than they might be." Jen chastised. "Then we are going to talk about what happened."

    "Okay, Lucius¡­bite down on this." Rena shoved a piece of cloth into his mouth that was wrapped around a stick.

    No matter how badly he wanted to tense up in preparation for what would happen next, he fought against those instincts by closing his eyes and forcing himself to rx.

    "Okay. Let go of me. Grab them all at once. Lethen, help Jen. If we have to do this multiple times, I won''t be able to stand it." He begged. The stick and cloth fell out of his mouth, which Rena promptly shoved back in with greater force.

    Lethen moved down to his leg and Paul secured both of his arms.

    "Three¡­two¡­"

    There was a horrifying ripping sound as Lethen and Jen simultaneously ripped out four different spines that were stuck in his thigh. The pain made him chomp down hard and tense his entire body. The stick crunched into pieces as he bit through it.

    "Gahhh! What happened to one?!"

 Chapter 70: The Forsaken Arts

    Rena cast a simple healing spell on him so they did not have to waste any of their potions. Potions were usually reserved for really serious injuries or even near-death injuries whenbined with healing magic. Lucius was thankful that the spines had not prated a major artery, or the potion and magicbination might have been necessary.

    He then looked down at his hand and noticed a residual amount of mana flickering like lightning down his fingertips. It was only at thest minute, but it sounded like Luz granted him enough strength to finally activate his Thunder magic.

    That was great and all¡­ but why was Luz able to do that in the first ce? It did not sound like the first time he used power from Luz, the time that made him lose permanent ess to the Beast Arts.

    Luz would have told him if there was a price, right? Also, he still could feel his connection to his spells. The connection to his Forsaken Arts was still there too. How was Luz able to give him power without a price? What changed¡­

    "Hey! Cat-boy! Look alive!" Jen shouted while gently pping his cheek repeatedly.

    "Huh, oh, sorry. Did you need something?"

    "We''ve been trying to talk to you for the past minute, did you hear anything we said?"

    "No."

    Jen covered her face with her hand and sighed. Rena put her hand over his head with a worried look on her face. Paul and Lethen had stepped away to talk ns with the caravan guards and the merchants.

    "We asked about your magic. How were you able to use it? Can you still use it? What about the red mana? Lucius, did you increase your Rank?" Rena pummeled him with questions and from the look on Jen''s face, if she hadn''t then Jen would have done it for her.

    "I don''t know. I was just suddenly able to. As for the mana, that attack always does that. How much do you know about the Forsaken Arts?" Lucius asked.

    "Um, well nothing? That''s kind of the point. They are ''forsaken'' meaning no one is using them or should be using them. So what''s with the red mana."

    "Some attacks in my arts have different colors of mana. Usually my strongest ones. That is the only one I can use right now. Muttion. It causes bleeding damage to an opponent and hinders the healing process of the wounds I inflict."

    "Nasty stuff. Well, spill. More please." The strong warrior woman urged.

    "I''m not going to divulge all my secrets you know¡­ but I''ll give you a little¡­ some skills within the Forsaken Arts ovep with other Arts¡­ however, they can only used under specific circumstances."

    "Circumstances like?" Rena pushed. She was extremely interested and he could not reject the pleading look in her eyes. He grunted as he sat up and reached for one of the smaller quills that had been in his leg. He then asked for one a dagger, which Jen happily provided.

    "[Forsaken Arts: Pierce]!" The quill glowed with the golden color of mana and rocketed out of his hand as he threw it at a nearby tree. It simply shot through the trunk of the tree as if it were made of paper.

    "That was a Dagger Arts skill!" Lethen shouted as he ran over. He was interested now in their conversation as he had overheard some of the best parts.

    "Now watch this." Lucius said. "[Forsaken Arts: Pierce]!"

    This time there was a flicker of mana, but it quickly disappeared and when he threw the dagger, it simply smacked against the tree before falling to the ground.

    "Why didn''t it work this time?" Jen seemed both confused and surprised. Which made a lot of sense.

    "The Forsaken Arts are filled with skills deemed dishonorable. Like my Sand Veil. Really, its just a mana powered version of throwing sand into someone''s face. Goring Rush, Severing sh, all things designed to specifically maim your opponents, causing immense damage and pain. Muttion also is designed in such a way, but adds in that the wounds it creates are hard to heal.

    Many see these things as ''disgusting'' ways to fight.

    "However, the Forsaken Arts also provides a lot of options when you have none. No weapon in a bar fight? Shatter a bottle of booze and you can use the Forsaken Arts version of Dagger Arts. Or like I used here, one of these quills was used for a throwing attack from the Dagger Arts. Or maybe all I can find is arge rock or arge stick. I could use bludgeoning attacks from the Hammer Arts.

    Of course, there is a lot more to it than that, but that is what I am willing to share." Lucius informed them

    "Others see them as ''disgusting ways to fight'' but how do you see them, kid?" Jen was eying Lucius carefully, expecting the truth. Not that he had any reason to lie about his feelings. They were rather in and simple.

    "Whether some view fighting as ''disgusting'' or ''honorable'' or ''dishonorable'' the result is the same isn''t it? Someone dies? Why does it matter how they die, or how you kill? The end is the same, so what is the point in caring?" He answered inly.

    It was the truth. Death was death and it was final. Everyone reached that end at some point and when your time came, after you are dead, would you really care how it happened?

    "That''s a bleak way to look at it, kid." Jen answered finally.

    "I don''t think so at all. I think it is a realistic way of looking at it. Regardless of if Paul hunts a deer and shoots an arrow through its heart or I hunt the deer and sh through its neck, the result is we have dinner. Nothing more, nothing less. Fighting is just fighting and the Arts and magic are simply tools to do that. Same with marks."

    "You make a valid point, but I don''t necessarily agree with you. There''s an order to things. Gods, you even worried about exposing these skills before, so clearly it matters to you." Lethen argued. He waspletely invested in the conversation now.

    "Not true. I did not care what people thought of my skills. I only cared about how their thoughts affected Rena. But since she no longer seemed concerned, I don''t have to think about that."

    Lucius stood his ground on the issue. He did not see what the problem was. His skills had their uses like any other, to pretend something isn''t useful just for the sake of appearances was pointless. The group continued to argue their points, but he simply tuned it out and refused to engage in the conversation. Rena wrapped her arms around him from behind and hugged him, quietly.

    "I am always on your side, Lucius. You do what you think is right, and I will follow it." She whispered.

    He patted her arm in affirmation. It wasforting to know she stood with him in this. Honestly, over the past few years, and especially these past few weeks being adventurers¡­ Lucius was starting to feel even more attached to Rena. Not as her attendant or thanks to some promise made by his father. Somehow, those reasons did not seem to matter. It was simply because he wanted to.

    He needed to.

    As he reveled in those thoughts about her, a sinister voice whispered in his ear, ''He''s hiding more from you¡­'' and then vanished.

 Chapter 71: Tracking

    Everyone watched as the merchant caravan continued on its way to the city of Lelvern on its own, without Lucius and his party joining them. After he had told everyone that the injuries done to the Quillow Beast will be slow to heal, they figured that this was a good time to track it down and finish the job.

    After all, their job was to hunt one down and turn it into a merchant who dropped the request off at the guild.

    Many of the injuries inflicted on it were on the front legs which would slow it down majorly. Because of the type of monsters they were, the injured ones were often kicked out of their pod if they were deemed a potential risk or threat to the others.

    All of these factorsbined set up a rather golden opportunity for them to actually take one down now, instead of having to either locate a solo one or separate one from another podter.

    Being the person with the best skills for tracking and scouting, Lucius thought about doing the standard procedure of scouting several hundred feet in front of the group, but after taking those spines to the leg, he was not so enthusiastic on running into the monsters alone.

    Rena agreed with the idea and felt like it was a good idea for the party to remain together while in a new location. Jen could not really offer up a good counter argument to convince even Paul and Lethen otherwise, so she simply agreed with the group assessment.

    One thing that Lucius did fail to mention about his Muttion skill was that anyone who survived his attack with it would be branded with an invisible mark made of mana that Lucius would be able to identify at any time in the future. It did not let him track the monster down, but if the monster were to fully heal, he would be able to tell it was the one he attacked if he ever saw it again.

    The secret trick to Muttion is that it was a skill that a victim was not meant to survive from, either directly or as the result of their injuries after. So, the mark was left as a part of the skill to ensure the user would be able to finish the jobter. Really this was how every skill that used red colored mana worked.

    It was a curse built into the rules of the skill as a ''punishment'' of sorts for surviving the attack.

    There was no way he was going to share this information with his party. Maybe Rena in the future, but not everyone else. He only trusted them as far as adventuring together goes, but you never know when a friend could turn into an enemy. There were exactly two people living in this world that he trusted. One was his mother, Rubellia, and the other was Rena.

    The sun began to set on the horizon by the time the group felt like they were getting close to the monster. As they had theorized, the injured one was slowed down and actively bleeding from most of its injuries. It helped leave a trail, but it was not enough to be life endangering.

    Per the information they had on the Quillow Beast''s behaviors, it did seem that it had been ejected from the pod for the safety of the other two.

    That would make the hunt so much easier for them. However, they wanted to get it before the sun fell. It was a bad idea to fight in the woods at night, unless you were Lucius who could basically see in the dark.

    His ears began to twitch as he heard the yelps of pain of a familiar sounding creature up ahead. Lucius held up his fist to the group and whispered in a low tone, "It is up ahead and still hurt. I think we can take it quickly if we n this right. Rena, what are your thoughts?"

    Jen cocked an eyebrow at Lucius'' sudden disy of rebellion against her. She was the one who normally made the ns as the leader of the party. The reason behind this behavior were two-fold: one, he wanted Rena to have more decision-making power to put her brain to work, and two, Jen kind of annoyed him with her prattling earlier about his opinion on ''honorable'' versus ''dishonorable'' skills.

    "We will leave it up to Jen. She is the party leader."

    "Of course, Rena. Jen¡­what do you want us do?"

    "Paul will take position in the trees, Rena as well for any long-distance coverage. Lethen and I will jump in to take melee after you distract it." She ordered.

    "Done."

    Lucius quickly skirted around where he felt like the face of the creature was. He figured that Jen and Lethen could deal with the much more dangerous ass-end of the creature this time around, especially for making him a distraction, yet again.

    There was another thing he could do to get back at them¡­ he never did tell them what his signal would be before he left, but how could they miss it?

    As predicted, the creature was limping along and trying to nurse its wounds. It had stopped to take a short rest, but was hyper-aware of the surroundings. It jumped at every little sound worried a predator might take it unawares. Lucius could almost see the sweat pouring down its face as it seemingly sensed his hungry eyes ring at it from afar.

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Bolt]!"

    A pale blue mana in the form of electricity danced around his body once again. Dark clouds formed in the sky, and the air began to smell of ozone. A sh of bright, white light illuminated the surrounding area, searing the eyes of anyone looking at the creature. In the instant the light disappeared there was a loud crack of thunder that echoed through the woods as a result of the strike.

    He was still a Novice, so the power left a lot to be desired. Honestly, it was more of a show piece at the moment than a serious threat. Right now it did not do much damage, but most of its power led to temporary blindness and deafness of the target.

    Jen and Lethen rushed at the monster that was hissing and screeching from confusion.

    "[Shield Arts: Double Bash]!"

    "[Sword Arts: Grand Swing]!"

    They opened up with a skill each. Lethen''s shield glowed golden and a second ''skin'' in the same shape of his shield formed in front of the real one. He smacked the lower jaw of the Quillow beast once, but the sound of two impacts met Lucius'' ears. The monster recoiled from the hit, then took a powerful uppercut swing from Jen''s greatsword.

    "[Bow Ars: Twin Arrow]!"

    "[cies: Ice Spike]!"

    Two golden arrows followed by an Ice Spike shot towards the beast''s now exposed underbelly. The monster roared in pain, though still seemed to be blinded from the earlier Lightning Bolt. Despite having no sight, it still faced its backside to it''s foes and prepared a spine barrage.

    "Not this time!" Lucius growled. "[Forsaken Arts: Goring Rush]!"

    His machete glowed gold with mana once again and he lunged forward at the monster. His target was the center of it''s forehead, intending to sh directly at its skull. Just before the weapon connected, he called out a spell. "[Tempestas: Thunder p]!"

    Electricity surged down his body and coated the de of the weapon. At the moment of impact between the sword and Quillow Beast, a massive explosive ''BOOM'' filled the air and a wave of wind pressure sted everyone back several feet. The source of the explosion was the intersection of the machete de and the monster''s head.

    The explosion weakened and cracked the Quillow Beast''s skull and jostled its brain from the vibration. Thanks to the weakened bone, the de simply cut right into the monster''s brain like a hot knife through butter.

    When everyone''s ears stopped ringing, they stared wide-eyed at the ck-haired boy who only just awakened his magic mere hours ago. His lips felt cold and all of his strength was gone. The only thing keeping him standing was the fact he had fallen back onto a tree, yet his knees shook in desperation to keep him from copsing.

    "I think that one needs a little more practice before I do it again." He shouted. Something wet tickled the side of his head and when his hand reached to feel what it was it came back red with blood. "Oh, yeah, that move needs work."

 Chapter 72: An Admission

    Rena red at her friend who was hurt for the second time in one day. There were bruises all over his body, most of which were concentrated on his arms and chest. Blood flowed freely from one of his nostrils and both of his ears. On top of that, his machete was broken in half andy in pieces next to the Quillow Beast''s corpse.

    Lethen and Paul worked together to work on skinning the hide and breaking down the body. The quest was specifically for the spines and hide from the monster. Thankfully the one they attacked was the only one that had not used them to attack, so they would receive arger sum for the additional spines that were collected.

    It was a time-consuming process to break down because you had to remove every single quill before skinning the body, otherwise even more damage would ur. They already had to contend with the shes and attacks on the underbelly, neck, and face, so if they could avoid destroying more of the pelt, it would work out in their favor.

    ording to Jen, Quillow Beast meat was rather vorless and was mostly used as filler for low quality meat blends, jerky, and emergency rations. Despite theck of desirability, they still nned on collecting arge amount of it for selling. Such was the way of the adventurer life.

    "Drink this potion." Rena demanded. Lucius merely cocked his head to the side since he could not hear her at the moment. She huffed and shoved the bottle into his mouth. It didn''t matter if she hurt his teeth, because her magic plus the potion would fix it anyway.

    His body started to glow slightly, after which she activated her spells, "[Lux: Heal]"

    The blood stopped flowing and the bruises slowly faded from blue/ck to a sickly green before finally fading away.

    "Thanks, Rena. Too bad for my weapon, huh?" the boy grumbled.

    His eyes were locked on the machete that had been with him for thest several years. Originally it was a rusted hunk of metal that was simplyying and rotting away deep in the forest outside their home. When he grabbed onto it, he awakened his skills and was able to push back the Alpha Deer that seemed to have tracked him down for revenge.

    "Yeah¡­ but hey we can pick up a new one in Lelvern?"

    Her friend paused for a moment and gave a weak smile before nodding his head. He then pulled a hunting knife out of his pack and began to assist the party in breaking down their quarry. Since he was no longer paying attention, Rena went over to the weapon and stored it in her storage ring.

    Jen had told them that relying on the storage ring for too much was a bad idea because if someone managed to steal it you lost everything in your possession at once. For this reason, most adventurers only stored monster parts in it temporarily. It felt like a waste that it could store so much, but was used for so little.

    However, given the fact that a bad actor could easily steal the ring, it made sense not to use it for absolutely everything. She did however, use it to store potions because it would have been too much to carry in her hip pack, plus banging around in there in the middle ofbat could spill it and waste the potion.

    "Well, looks like that is that." Lethen said while wiping his brow.

    The skin was foldedin out t on the ground with the skin side down, so the gory side was facing up. On top of the skin were piles of cut and broken-down meat that were pre-cut into desirable shapes for butchers. If they did that part themselves, then they could make just a little more money by saving the butcher the work.

    One should only do that if they could cut the meat properly of course, because otherwise you actually receive less than just the full corpse being given up.

    Next to that was a pile of Quillow Beast spines. There wasn''t anything on these monsters that were good for potions, but the spines weighed about the same as a stick of the same size, but was stronger. Because of that, many hunters paid well for arrows made out of them, so fletchers loved these things.

    Since the Silverthorn Forest was named after these very creature''s spines, they were very abundant in the area, which meant for a lot of profit for fletchers and hunters.

    "Alright, let''s find a good ce away from the rest of this corpse to camp. Then, in the morning we can get to town." Jen ordered.

    The sleeping shift was split into four, with Lucius being left out of the rotation per Rena''s request. Since he had been badly hurt twice in the same day and finally unlocked his ability to use his magic, he was likelypletely exhausted. Plus, since it was his first day using his magic on top of trying tobine it with Arts use, his mana was likely near zero.

    Like normal, she set up her sleeping bag right next to his. She volunteered to take first watch so she could watch over him until he fell asleep. If she did not do so, she couldn''t trust that he would actually get rest.

    Staying awake in the dark forest was also somewhat traumatizing for her. It reminded her of the oppressing darkness of the trial. That forest seemed to have almost a magical property that seemed to press down on a person and make them feel small and alone. That same magic also seemed to keep away the normal aspects of a forest, like birds and bugs.

    Other than the monsters and asional hunters, it was like it was dead.

    Even though this one was dark and foreboding as night fell, it at least felt like a normal ce. Bugs buzzed in the night, crickets sang to one another, and annoying moths and other insects attracted to the dull light of the fire almost broughtfort. And of course there was the sleeping boy next to her.

    She watched as his chest rose and fell gently and the sound of a quiet snore escaped from him. She brushed a lock of his hair out of his face and said, "You''re so amazing Lucius. Whether you are powerful or weak, does not matter to me. But you keep trying and you stay by my side no matter what, despite that you could easily hate me.

    You protect me because of a promise made by your father, but¡­ Gods¡­ I love you so much."

    "Well, isn''t that sweet." A teasing voice startled her and she had to hold back a yelp so she did not wake up the group. Staring at her from across the camp was Jen.

    "Y-y-you heart all that, h-h-huh?" Rena sputtered.

    The party leader gave her a toothy grin, "Yup, every word." She then reced it with a more serious look "If you want to stay with him you might want to give up on this whole dungeon raid endeavor. One or both of you might die."

    She sat in silence for a moment. "I know¡­ it is a major risk¡­ but I need to do it. He''s going off to war, whether I like it or not. I''ll follow him if I have to, but to prove that I can do it, I have to make it through the dungeon with him. Besides, even if I don''t go, he told me he would still do it to prove to himself that he will make it. If he dies¡­ then I might as well do so beside him."

    "A little young to be thinking that way, don''t you think? What are you, thirteen?"

    "I turn fourteen tomorrow."

    "Hmm¡­ well you can make your own decisions I guess, but you should really think about it, if that''s what you want. I still suggest you avoid the dungeon at all costs, but if you still want to go, we will help you. Get some rest."

    Rena nodded at what Jen said andid down next to Lucius. His gentle sleeper sounds felt soothing to her ears and she was able to quickly doze off. No matter what anyone else said, she was going on the Grand Raid, and with Lucius.

 Chapter 73: Into Lelvern

    "Next!" the line to get into the city gates was massively long and they had been waiting for about four hours despite showing up before first light. Normally Adventurer''s Guild passes would let someone into the city and bypass the lines, however, Lelvern was different in that respect.

    The guards were extremely meticulous regarding the inspections and even temporarily confiscated the storage rings to check their contents. Since part of the magic was for the wearer to instantly know what was inside the ring, they only had to put it on to examine the contents.

    One guard who was chosen to examine Rena and the party''s things could not hide the minor look of disgust when he saw the amount of Quillow Beast meat they possessed. Guards and the military were well aware of the vorless food since it was used to extend meat supplies for making what they hadst longer. It was a cost saving method that was necessary, but unpopr.

    "Pass."

    They were quickly waved through having nothing on them that was banned from the city. In the past, Adventurers could just slied through, but merchants who served the ck market were using them to smuggle illicit materials, potions, and substances through the checks. It was stupid to assume that this stopped the flow of these goods, but it at least closed one avenue of possibility.

    Once inside the city, Rena was immediately overwhelmed by the sights. The streets were crowded with people despite being fairly early in the morning. It wasn''t even noon yet.

    Almost all of the buildings were a mix of stone, brick, and wood which was a massive difference to Pelith where most buildings were primarily made of wood, save for the Adventurer''s Guild Hall and a few other buildings around town.

    Each of the buildings were squeezed together so tightly that the gaps between them almost couldn''t be walked through in some cases. There were even buildings that seemed to have multiple residences inside of them that dwarfed the size of her father''s manor.

    Since they were near the gate, there were also a number of inns and with that, it also meant lots of food. A multitude of smells permeated the air from the different kitchens preparing their menus for the inevitable lunch rush in a few hours. A lot of the stalls by the entrance were also selling different kinds of street food that she had never seen before.

    One was a strange sausage that was coated in a weird looking batter before being dunked in a pot of boiling oil. There were also other stalls serving boiled corn on a stick that was coated in a white-colored sauce and then sprinkled with a red spice and some crumbly looking cheese. All in all, it smelled like heaven had descended.

    Rena nced at her party which had started to leave her behind because she was getting distracted by all the different kinds of food. They only had a small breakfast so it was hard to not feel hungry from all the food on disy.

    "Rena,e along, you can¡­ spend some time with Lucius after we stop at the guild, that way you two know where it is. The guild has rooms we can rent for much cheaper than the inns nearby, so we will also be staying there while in town." Jen let out a small giggle at the ''spend some time'' part, which made Rena blush a little.

    Lucius seemed to have a clueless look on his face at what was happening, which only served to add a level of annoyance to what she was feeling.

    While traveling to the Guild Hall, they had to dodge hundreds and hundreds of people who were doing things from transporting goods to buying groceries, to simply taking in the sights and sounds the city had to offer. Thankfully the roads were nearly twice as wide as those in Pelith, which they had to be to amodate the poption of residents and visitors.

    It took them about twenty minutes or so to get to the Guild Hall, which was closer to the center of town and was surrounded by a bunch of other important buildings. There was also a building for the Merchant''s Guild, several different courierpanies, the city guard headquarters, and different buildings for the city leadership.

    The Adventurer''s Guild building here was easily five times the size of the one she was familiar with and housed nearly ten times the amount of adventurers. Unlike Pelith, she saw people of all races in this guild, including several beastmen.

    There were some with lizard tails, tiger ears and tails, one that looked like a fox, and even one that had ears and a tail that resembled a ck and white bear from arge country to the east she had read about.

    Just like the one they knew, the entire first floor was an open concept with several pirs supporting the second floor. There was a reception desk that easily amodated a few dozen different receptionists.

    Over in one corner there was also a massive harvesting area and in the opposite corner was where the quest boards were. This guild had a different set of boards that separated the quests based on rank. There were stairs on either side of the reception desk that led up to the second, third, and fourth floors.

    "Well, here we are. We will turn in the quest items and sell off the other goods to the harvesters over there. We will get the receipts for the exchange and split up the funds when you guys get back."

    "Got it. Thank''s Jen. Rena, let''s go." Lucius stated quickly.

    Rena looked down as the boy quickly grabbed her hand and led her out of the building and back into the chaotic streets. She could tell he was nervous about the crowds, but he seemed to be ying it tough for her sake.

    "Where are we going?"

    "Shopping?"

    "Oh, okay." Was all she could respond with.

    He brought her to a part of town that seemed to be filled with stalls for weapons, armor, and various tools. Suddenly Rena realized what they were doing; they were finding him a new weapon. Of course! He broke his!

    She quickly took the lead from him. "I have a nose for these things, let me look for the store with the best stuff!"

    Lucius simply smiled at her and nodded, but kept looking around at the different stalls and stores. Rena was looking as well, but found herself slightly distracted by the hand that was still intertwined with hers. She told him it was to make sure they did not get separated in the crowd so he would not pull away.

    It was not untrue, but it also wasn''t the only reason she wanted to keep his hand in hers.

    Rena kept her ear out for the different conversations people had and spoke to a handful of warriors and residents as they popped in and around the different smithies and stalls. It took a few hours, but she eventually picked up on exactly the kind of lead she was looking for. As someone who frequented Karl''s shop back home, she wanted to find somece simr, a diamond in the rough, so to speak.

    They walked down a less popted street than the main one they had been on. It was still extremely full of people, but it was much less crowded than before. A little way down the road she saw the shop she had heard about. It was a shop called ''Ironvein'' though the sign had the ''ei'' scratched out and above them was an ''ai'' so it now read, ''Ironvain''.

    "This is it! Let''s go!" She pulled Lucius into the doorway.

    The owner was a woman named Molly and her shop was affectionately renamed Ironvain by the locals because they thought she viewed her work as too important than the customers. Essentially¡­she was the smith version of Karl, which was exactly what she wanted.

    "Who''re you?" A deep voice called out from behind the counter. The sounds of hammering had stopped when they entered the shop and the woman manning the forge had stepped up to the counter to see who it was that hade to bother her.

    "Hi, I''m Rena, and this is Lucius. We are here looking for a weapon. Doesn''t need to be enchanted, but it does need to be¡­unique. I heard this was the best ce to find something like that."

    "Pft! Right, you probably heard this was the worst shop in town, get lost you little liar, ttery doesn''t loosen my pockets."

    Rena smirked at her. "You''re right. I heard you are a pain in the ass that likes to work with customers on a whim. That tells me, you are the best around here. I''m not going till you sell me that."

    The woman, who Rena had heard was named Molly, turned around and followed where her finger was pointing. The moment Molly''s eyesnded on the dark-gray de of a machete that was hanging off the wall she smiled.

    "Now why would you want a farmer''s tool. You need to cut down some brush?"

    "No." Rena answered. "My friend uses the Forsaken Arts and he broke hisst sword when using his Thunder magic."

    "Rena! Why are you telling her about my abilities?!" Lucius shouted.

    "Honesty is the best policy, girl. Alright, you can buy stuff. Since you are with her, you can too kid." Molly ced the machete on the counter and wiped it down to remove some of the dust that had settled. She looked it over for a moment before heading back to her forge and sharpening it up on the grindstone.

    While she was doing that, Lucius stepped away from Rena and began to look at the other items in the shop. Rena watched Molly''s work closely. She could tell the woman was a bit of a perfectionist, wetting the stone, cleaning the de, sharpening it, and repeating it for several minutes before finishing the process. Molly brought the weapon over and held out her hand, waiting for the money.

    "Twelve-hundred gold."

    "That''s a bit much for a farmer''s tool. I could buy twelve potions in of the Intermediate Rank for that. Eight hundred."

    "Fine. Are you buying your things together?" Molly directed the question at Lucius who was eyeing something in a disy case. His body was in the way so Rena could not really see it.

    "No, separate." Lucius said.

    "Well what you want over there will be¡­"

    "Deal. I see the tag." He interrupted.

    "How much was it?" Rena asked.

    Neither of them answered her question. Molly simply handed Rena the weapon, went over to Lucius, who dropped a ratherrge sack of gold into her hand. Molly turned her back and counted out the money so Rena could not see how much it was. She appeared satisfied with the number, so she handed Lucius whatever was in the case.

    After he received it he walked over to Rena and asked her to turn around and close her eyes. She did as he instructed and felt his hands gently slide around her neck and sp something around it. He then moved around a little more and finally said she could open them.

    In front of her was a small mirror. In it she saw a beautiful young woman with Crimson hair, green eyes and a gorgeous ck, chain choker with a pendent hanging from it in the shape of a cat. She couldn''t help but giggle at the implication.

    "A cat from a cat, how cute!" She smiled.

    "Happy Birthday, Rena." Lucius said while returning her smile.

 Chapter 74: Mana Manipulation

    Kalliope wasying on the ground gasping for air that seemed to refuse to enter her lungs. Every breath brought pain, but that pain told her she was alive. She had been at Fort Se for a week or two now, and she had still not seen anybat. Kalivas refused to let her join any of the scouting missions until he thought that she was ready.

    To prepare her, he offered to train her personally until he was satisfied. At first, she was ecstatic to receive tutge directly from him, but if she knew that it would have meant the hell she has endured thest several days, she might have felt differently at the time.

    The training he tasked her with was to use her Arts non-stop for several hours at a time, pushing her to the brink and sometimes over the edge into mana exhaustion. Allegedly this was to increase her ability to push past her limits by limating to the feeling of mana exhaustion, but it also was supposed to increase her mana capacity as well as fine control at the same time.

    Kalivas had said when she is able to direct the mana for an Art to different parts of her body instead of only the part the respective skill actually uses, then she could be done. Kalliope thought she was insane. Everything she knew about Arts was that the mana was exclusively used for the part of the body, or the weapon, that it was designated for.

    If she used a Dagger Art, the mana would concentrate in the dagger or daggers she was holding. If it was a Sword Art or a Shield Art, then the mana would collect in her sword and shield respectively. However, Kalivas told her she needed to siphon some of that mana away and pull it to other parts of her body? What does that even mean?! Is that a thing?

    "You look like crap." A deep voice called out to her from above. Even though she had her eyes closed, she could still see a shadow cover her eyelids.

    "Well, Uncle, I feel like it. Whose fault is that?"

    "Yours. The longer you take to master the skill, the longer you have to spend feeling like this."

    "I don''t even know what it is supposed to look like, Uncle! Can you at least show me?"

    Kalliope opened her eyes and looked up at the strongest warrior in Eroa who was watching her with curiosity. He put his hand to his chin as though he were pondering something. Kalivas then reached down and picked her up by the back of her clothes like a parent does to a pup.

    "I had hoped you would be able to do it without a visualization. Your brother was able to after all." Kalliope''s brow twitched. "Watch me closely, I will slow the activation for you."

    "[Axe Arts: Heavy m]!"

    Kalliope watched as mana collected in his battleaxe as per normal. Then she caught something strange. She watched as some of the glow of the mana seemed to dim from the weapon, the mana then started to collect in his feet and legs, making his boots give off a soft glow. He then allowed the Art to fully activate.

    Kalivas rocketed into the air and came down with a massive m attack with his battleaxe spraying dust and rocks everywhere. Left behind was a massive crater. The height of the jump he made was physically impossible for a normal person. Even he shouldn''t be capable of jumping that high by normal means.

    Kalliope''s eyes were left wide open. "How in the world could you jump so high?!"

    "The mana gathered for the activation of an Art can be manipted somewhat. The energy released by activation can be used in creative ways. It is a rather difficult skill and only a handful of people I met can do it. However, it can add a near endless amount of possibility into your fighting tactics."

    "How so?"

    "What you saw was me splitting the energy between the attack and jump about fifty-fifty. But, you can also split it other ways like forty-sixty, ten-ny, or eighty-twenty. By having these differentbinations of speed versus power from your attacks your opponent never knows how fast you are going to hit, or how hard. It can trick them into making mistakes." The man exined.

    "I see¡­ okay, I will do my best. Thank you, Uncle, for showing me." She said while bowing.

    She felt arge hand ruffle her hair and ears on the top of her head before he chuckled and walked away. There was no way she could pull it off tonight since she was already beyond tapped out. But tomorrow would be a new day and a new opportunity to grow.

    "I''ve got this!"

    *****

    Lucius stood alone in the room he rented. It was small, butrge enough for him to swing his weapon around a little without hitting anything. Now that he had ess to his magic abilities, he felt a little stronger. Though, he was still stuck in the Novice Rank.

    Most of his magical skills could not inflict much damage on the kinds of monsters they faced, but if they were fellow Novice Rank warriors or unranked monsters, then they would feel a world of hurt.

    He remembered something that his master, Wally, had taught him regarding mana maniption. It was how he was able to use his Arts to boost his speed and strength or switch up the weapon or part of the body that he could use the attack with.

    After the fight with the Quillow Beasts on the road, he had wondered if the same thing was possible with his magic. Turns out it was, which was how he was able to make the Thunder p spell activate from his de instead of his hands like the spell would normally activate.

    "I just need to figure out how to channel it better¡­what if I¡­"

    He closed his eyes and thought about the spells he could use at the moment and their abilities. The one that best suited his needs for his training was the Lightning Charge. Though, when he looked around at his room, he decided to go elsewhere. Apparently the Guild Hall had a training area in the basement and some of them were private and could be rented.

    The whole space was free use, but if you were trying something you wanted to keep close to your chest, it cost money.

    Even though it was the evening, there was an overnight staff of receptionists. About five of them were stationed at the desks to help out any adventurers who needed to perform any duties at night time. You could not take a quest after hours or turn them in, but you could use the other services.

    Lucius quickly went downstairs and rented a training room in private. It only cost a handful of gold.

    He was thankful he had received his share from the Quillow

    Beast quest and materials. Rena''s gift wiped out nearly his entire savings, costing nearly ten thousand gold coins. He saved up every single coin he was paid as her retainer, the quests they did, the items they sold, everything. Rena insisted on covering the costs of their stay at the inn since it was a shared room and she was the one buying potions.

    He had offered to do these things, but she adamantly refused him.

    It was her birthday and he just had to celebrate it with a big gift both for that, and for repaying her for everything she had done. The reason for its price? The cat-shaped pendant on the choker. It was a single-use item that would take a one-hit-kill attack before shattering.

    He shook his head clear of the thoughts of her beautiful smile after receiving the present the moment he entered the private training room.

    "Alright, let''s give this a try¡­" he mumbled. "[Tempestas: Lightning Charge]"

    Electricity danced around his body, just like the first time, however instead of letting it settle into his muscles and increase his speed, he forced it to dance along the outside of his body and then flow into the tip of his sword. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he felt like doing this was taking more mana than usual.

    When doing this with his Arts, it always used close to the same amount of mana. Sure there was a little loss, but this felt like a lot. However, it did not matter. The first few times would be tough, but eventually he would master this like he had before.

    Wally was a master at this maniption skill. Eventually he hoped he could perform ''channeling'' like the old magician could do, however he would need to be much stronger than a Novice Rank to do that, and have ess to much, much more mana.

    Lucius swung his sword while the electricity danced up and down the de. It hummed as he swung it and left behind arcs of lightning as he swung it through the air. For his next experiment, he struck a target in the center of the room.

    He watched as his de sunk into the straw dummy and it exploded outward with a loud crack as the energy of the spell was dispersed instantly inside of it.

    "Well that will be useful¡­" He muttered while panting with sweat pouring off him. It was a really useful application of the skill, but it was nowhere near ready yet. For now, this would be added to his growing list of hidden trump cards. Ones that even his best friend did not know about yet.

 Chapter 75: The Fourth Quest

    "Nice ne, Rena."

    "Yeah, I agree. It suits you."

    Jen and Lethenplimented Rena on the gift that Lucius had given her. She probably should have taken it off to go to sleep, but she was so happy she could not bare to remove it. Especially since Lucius put it on her himself.

    "Thank''s! It was a gift from a stray cat." She giggled.

    Lucius sighed loudly. "Real original, I''m pretty sure you''ve NEVER used that line before."

    The partyughed together. They had all gotten really close with each other over thest few weeks and interacted with each other like actual friends. Theyughed together, argued with each other, and shared many meals at this point. This life was everything that she had dreamed of when she read those stories of adventurers as a young kid.

    When she had gotten up in the morning, Jen had once again found them a quest to do, so that''s what they were doing now. Unlike entering the city, the line to exit was much faster moving. There was still a line because on exit, any adventurers working quest got priority entry on return so they did not have to get locked out of the city at night due to waiting in the main line.

    It still took about twenty minutes to get through that line despite them getting going so early in the morning. In a city asrge as this, people were everywhere all of the time. She started to understand why the thought ofing here made Lucius nervous. Honestly the sights, sounds, and smells of the city were overwhelming to even her normal, human senses.

    It was hard to imagine what this was like to him.

    He had once said he was able to turn the strong parts of those off, but now he really cannot do that anymore. It''s like it is permanently on all of the time for him now. Something like that had to be ufortable at times¡­

    "Hey, what''s the job this time again?" Paul asked Jen.

    When she came to them with another job this morning, everyone simply went along with her. It was not until they had actually exited the city that they thought to ask what it was they were even doing.

    ording to the quest, there was a small hunting camp a few miles east of the city. There were tons of them spread throughout the forest that worked to supply the city with food and materials from the vast Silverthorn forest.

    This particr one was dedicated to only hunting down weaker monsters and normal animals for the purposes of food. It was by no means equipped to hunt down tougher monsters like Quillow Beasts.

    Many of the hunting camps and viges near the city were simr, since the frequent traffic in and around the city were frequently cleared out by the Adventurer''s Guild as part of a long-term contract with city leadership.

    Thest three scheduled shipments from the vige never arrived; neither the goods, nor the people to provide an exnation. Lelvern sent out a representative to check on the status of their promised goods, but that representative also never returned. Next, the guild was contracted to send an investigation team made up of some Novice and Beginner Rankers, but they also never returned.

    Because of that, the mission was upgraded to an Intermediate Rank quest, making it eligible for their quest count to get permission for the Grand Raid.

    "Has there been instances of a hunting camp going silent before?" Rena asked.

    "Not in a while. There have always been signs even when it has. Monster attacks that take ces like this out often result in increased activity in the area, but ording to reports, there have been no excessive sightings in the area." Jen shared.

    She had done a bunch of cursory questioning at the guild the day before when she took the job. While Rena and Lucius were out shopping, Jen was looking into the quest on her own by asking questions of the guild and the city officials who posted the job.

    "I can''t see, hear, or smell anything out of the ordinary. Most of what I''m picking up are just normal animals. Deer, rabbits, birds, and a few foxes." Lucius advised from the front of the group.

    "That makes sense seeing as we are still quite a distance away from the ce in question, and even you can''t pick up things a few miles out." Paul mentioned.

    Lucius did not respond. Technically he could, but only when he went through what he called a ''partial-shift,'' which usually only happened when he was exceptionally angry or hurt. Most half-blood beastmen do not have the ability to shift at all, but Lucius was a rarity in that respect.

    All it did was sharpen his teeth, senses, and make his eyes take on cat-like pupils. Rena then got lost momentarily in the image of what the boy would look like as a full-blooded beastman with cat ears and a tail¡­it looked cute¡­

    "Hold on." Lucius held up his fist for everyone to stop moving and talking.

    "What''s wrong?"

    "Shut up a second."

    Lucius'' ears seemed to twitch and his head swiveled left and right, slowly. Rena watched in real time as the hairs on the exposed parts of his body, the back of his neck and his lower arms, began to stand on end.

    A light mist rolled in a secondter. It settled gently on the forest floor and did not seem to rise past their ankles.

    "Lucius." Jen whispered. "What is going on?"

    "I don''t know. The mist, its thicker further ahead so I can''t see through it. Also, I can''t smell anything; not even you guys¡­I don''t like this." His voice was basically a growl at this point. It seemed to Rena that this deprivation of his senses brought out his inner, bestial nature. That happened sometimes when he was extremely ufortable too.

    "Lucius, you need to calm down. We can still see the way out of the mist, and you can still hear right? Focus on that and help us find the source. This is clearly not a natural mist." Rena whispered in a soothing tone. She noticed his body posture rx a little, but his hair was still standing up on the back of his neck.

    She sighed to herself, hoping that it was good enough, and the party advanced deeper into the woods in the direction of the hunter''s camp.

    It took them traveling for a good, few miles before Rena began to realize something. "Lucius¡­does this remind you of¡­"

    "The trial, yes."

    Jen chimed in, "How so?"

    "Listen."

    The entire party remained silent, only the sounds of their footsteps indicated there was anything there. "I don''t hear anything."

    "That''s the problem." Rena advised. "There are no bugs, birds, small animals. Other than our footsteps, the forest ispletely still. It should not be like this. The only other ce is the woods back home."

 Chapter 76: In the Mist

    Instead of heading back, the party continued on the route to the vige. At this point, it was obvious the mist was centered on the rough location of the hunting camp, so they would not get lost if they kept heading to where the mist thickened.

    Lucius continued to lead the party, though his skills that made him the best scout were still hampered by the mist for some reason. He still had the full faculty of his hearing, so he was still at a major advantage over the rest of them.

    Being here made him exceptionally nervous. If there were any sounds, he doubted he would be able to suppress the urge to jump. His sanity felt like it was on a razor''s edge. No doubt the others were feeling the same, if not worse, since they did not have the luxury of a heads up on anything that would approach them.

    When they finally reached the location, Lucius'' eyes settled on the center of the camp. For some reason, like the eye of a storm, the camp itself waspletely free of any of the strange mist. Also, inside this circle of perceived safety, he had his full senses return to him, which let him exhale a slight sigh of relief.

    "Well this is strange¡­" Paul said while pointing to something next to one of the cabins.

    On the ground was what appeared to have been a person at one point. Their face was gaunt and the clothes they were wearing seemed to be too massive for their frame. Paul cautiously approached the body and lifted the shirt.

    "Skin and bones underneath. The fingernails are yellow¡­ it looks like starvation." Paul deduced.

    "Starvation? How?" Jen seemed extremely confused. She conversed with the other brain in the group, Rena. While Jen did not let her make many, if any,mand decisions, she still valued the girl''s knowledge. Lucius only partially listened to their conversation.

    ording to Rena, it could take up to two or three months for someone to die of starvation. That tracked because they had missed two or three drop of exchanges with the city. However, when they found more bodies, they noticed something else odd. When faced withplete starvation, and without other options, people would likely turn to cannibalism as ast-ditch effort to survive.

    Here in the camp, there was no sign of any such behavior.

    Also, every single person, all fifteen of them, died of starvation. If they did not resort to cannibalism to survive, Rena suspected they would choose to end things themselves, but there was no sign of that. Finally, the representative from the city was nowhere to be seen. Every person here appeared to be one of the actual residents of the camp.

    "I don''t like this at all." Lucius grumbled.

    "And you think any of us do?" Jen countered.

    He chose not to respond because he thought he had seen something move in the mist on the edge of the camp.

    "Something is definitely there. But I can''t see, smell, or hear anything beyond this camp. Now that we are here¡­I have a feeling we aren''t going to leave until we catch whatever is causing this."

    "Lucius¡­ please don''t say that¡­" Rena whimpered. One of her weaknesses was horror stories. He always wondered how that would impact her when they went to fight undead, but it had not yete up. Undead gave off a strange sort of mana that the repulsed the living though, so undead were not responsible for this. It was still a clich¨¦ setting for a horror novel though.

    "Jen¡­ do you know of any monsters that emit a mist?" Lethen asked.

    The party leader put her hand on her chin and closed her eyes, pondering for several minutes. "I have heard of a few¡­but they live in swamps and near the ocean as well askes. There are none of those things within several miles of here. And for thekes in the forest, none of those monsters inhabit this region either¡­so I don''t know what the cause is."

    "Great, so we are potentially stuck in an abandoned camp, surrounded by corpses, a mist that impairs our senses, and we probably can''t leave unless we figure out what is causing and either stop or kill it?" Lethen''s tone was pure annoyance andint. You couldn''t me him though, because it was rather inconvenient.

    Once again, Lucius eyed the movement of shadows on the edge of the camp¡­ before it came to a stop. It seemed humanoid in shape and for some reason he felt like it was staring at him. At the foot of the shadow was a log that extended out of the mist. He quietly motioned for the party to look where he was looking.

    While they watched the shadow, he watched the log. It seemed to get shorter¡­less and less of it was sticking out of the mist. Their circle of safety was closing, and the rate at which it was threatening to swallow up the camp was increasing.

    "Everyone. Get to therge cabin. The mist is closing in and if we are going to be surrounded by it, at least we should be in the same ce." Jen shouted.

    They darted for thergest cabin in the camp, which happened to be the one closest to the shadow''s location. Once inside, the rate of expansion of the mist increased more and more. From the windows of the cabin, the watched as one by one, the other buildings were swallowed up, until the world around their safe haven was pure gray.

    "Well ain''t that just great¡­" Paul muttered.

    Rena was close to hyperventting. It seemed she was scared out of her mind as a horror story came to life around her. Lucius reached out to her and pulled her into a hug, pressing her face into his chest.

    "It''s okay, I got you." He stroked her hair gently whileforting her. As he did so, he could not help but wonder to himself if she was always this soft¡­and small¡­and did she always smell this nice?

    "Alright everyone¡­ looks like this is home for a little while¡­thankfully we all have several days of rations, and I haven''t found a buyer for the Quillow Beast meat yet, so we have several weeks worth of that avable if we ration it appropriately. It will be a while for the same thing to happen to us like the residents." Jen advised.

    Her words made Rena shrink herself into his hold even closer. She lightly sobbed, though it wasn''t loud or obvious enough for others to notice. If anything, they seemed to be purposefully avoiding eye contact with the two. However, he could not be bothered to worry about what the party may or may not think.

    He kept his eyes glued to the window at the shadow moving slowly through the fog, as if pacing in front of their cabin.

 Chapter 77: Insanity

    Hours passed by and the group simply sat and watched the shadow move back and forth in front of the cabin. Lucius was spending most of the time trying to discern what it was that was moving, but the mist had turned into dense barrier that blocked sight, smell, and sound. If it did not exist inside the cabin, it was as if it did not exist.

    "I think I want to try something." Lucius said finally, breaking the silence. "Rena, give me a bit of fire please."

    He broke off a leg of a chair, wrapped it in cloth, and then soaked it in oil. Rena struck a match and lit the torch he had made. Using magic would have worked, but therees a time when spells are overkill for simple tasks.

    When the me seemed to take well enough not to be snuffed out, Lucius stepped up to the door and opened it. For a moment, the other party members took in a deep breath, worried what might happen with the mist. He then quickly tossed the torch out the door and closed the door. He moved over to the window to watch his experiment.

    Sometimes with the fog, light could help push some of it back, but he did not know if that was the case with this unnatural mist. Sure enough, when he looked at the torch on the ground, he saw nothing.

    "Rena, give me a light spell. A simple one will do." He requested while moving to open the door again.

    The girl took a deep breath to prepare herself for the fear that threatened to grip her heart. "[Lux: Floating Lantern]"

    An orb of light formed in the palm of her hand and floated gently out the open door. Once again, Lucius swiftly closed it again and moved over to the window to observe. He requested for Rena to move the light to roughly where the torch hadnded previously. Rather than disappearing into the mist, the magical light endured and the mist seemed to disperse around it.

    "Rena can you make it bigger or brighter?"

    "I can¡­but I won''t be able to do it for very long. With the current size and light level, I can maintain it for a few hours maybe¡­but it is almost like the mist is siphoning the magic from it at an insanely fast rate because I should normally be able to hold this spell for a day¡­"

    The area of safety granted by the magical orb was a circle roughly twenty feet in diameter. Arge area, but not really one for arge-scale fight¡­

    While Lucius was pondering the options, the shadow in the mist began to move again, towards the light spell. As it approached the edge of the mist, a foot stepped out of the fog. The shadow had belonged to a frail looking man with gaunt skin, yellow eyes, and long fingernails. His clothes were tattered, but they looked like the uniform that the Lelvern city officials would wear.

    "No forgiveness, only atonement. Suffer as I have suffered¡­no forgiveness, only atonement¡­ Suffer as I have suffered." The individual continued to repeat the same phrases over and over again while shuffling endlessly back and forth.

    For a moment he stopped talking and moving, then turned his head to face the window and locked eyes with Lucius. The poor creature''s eyes went wide as he darted towards the cabin, making Rena jump back with a shriek.

    "The mist, its there. We did this to ourselves. Don''t go in the mist. Don''t make them suffer! It''s your fault. Its my fault.

    It always was our fault!"

    The former city official ruthlessly bashed his own head on the side of the building while repeating these new phrases non stop. Blood streamed down his face until finally he stopped and copsed to the ground.

    Another figure then appeared in the fog, moving towards them with purpose. However, unlike who turned out to be the city official, this figure did not step into the illuminated space. Instead it stayed obscured and then spoke, somehow audible in this strange phenomenon.

    "Wee to my home¡­you are not like those who lived here¡­but you might be like those who came for him. Are you here to kill me too?"

    "What should we do?" Jen asked. "I''m open to suggestions, because this is just¡­well¡­you know¡­"

    Lucius felt something strangeing from the figure. It was something familiar. He thought about that feeling and what it reminded him of. The figure seemed to stare at them from it''s imprable wall of fog, waiting for a response.

    Finally, Lucius disentangled Rena from his back because she had returned to clinging to him, and walked outside.

    "What the hell kid, what are you¡­"

    Lucius mmed the door close before Jen could finishining to him, and stepped into the area of the fog cleared by Rena''s spell.

    "Are you here to kill me, like those others?" The figure asked again. This time it was more aggressive, as if Lucius being outside was a threat.

    "I know what you are." Lucius said inly as he raised his left hand and faced his mark towards the being. "I am like you. Marked."

    The figure stood in silence for a moment before it began tough and stepped forward into the light. He was a scrawny man, looking scarcely better than the vigers or the city official from earlier. However, he was healthy enough to still be alive. His hair was long and stretched down to his waist, but it was stringy, matted in ces, and had clearly been left unmaintained for quite some time.

    "I am like you?" the man whispered after he had finished his dry cackling. "You and I are not the same. We bare the same sin, but we do not share the same past."

    "That may be so."

    "Are you not going to ask why I am doing this? The other''s asked. They had a lot of questions. They acted like they cared¡­then they tried to kill me." The man gave Lucius a toothy grin. "They lied to me. They wanted to kill me."

    "No, I''m not going to ask why." Lucius answered inly. He was telling the truth. He simply did not care about the man''s motives.

    "The vige suffered the way I suffered. They did this to me." The man gestured to his general form.

    "So, I did the same to them."

    Lucius simply said nothing. He had no idea why the man was monologuing to him when he already told him he did not care. There was one simple truth that this boiled down to. This man opposed Lucius and threatened Rena. The lives of random vigers and hunters meant nothing to him. He did not even know them.

    "I can tell you want to kill me. I know you want to. I can feel the threat of death in your gaze¡­ but you cannot defeat me. Not here. Not in my mist. This is my domain.

    Here, the world is what I desire. With the Mark of the Mist, anything I desire can be made here! Including killing you¡­"

 Chapter 78: Breakthrough

    "Stay inside!" Lucius shouted towards the cabin as the mist began to press in around him. The glow from Rena''s light spell was dimming slightly, but it seemed she was trying her hardest to keep it going, even though she likely could not see through the barrier that now separated them.

    He nced around the shrunken space that was maintained for him thanks to the light spell. He could not hear anything from his surroundings, yet he could tell that the man was watching him from the mist. The pressure exerted by this person''s hateful gaze was immense.

    "You were not one of the ones who imprisoned me. You did not starve me. You did not hate me simply because of this mark¡­not like the hunters did. They got what they deserved. They earned their punishment."

    Lucius tried his best to locate the man from the sound of his voice, but it seemingly came from every direction at once. He kept his head on a swivel, looking for anything that would give him a sign of where his enemy was located. A faint whistling sound echoed from behind him, which he recognized for an attack and dove to the left.

    Where he was standing was a massive, five-foot long spear that seemed to be made out of the same fog as his surroundings.

    As soon as it had appeared it vanished and rejoined with the barrier that had created it. More whistling sounds filled the space, forcing him to jump out of the dirt. First there was one, then two, then three. Soon the entire circle was bing filled with these vanishing spears.

    "[Forsaken Arts: Weapon Breaker]!"

    He focused on another of his hidden skills, making his weapon glow golden. Using some of the sensation he had felt when using his Thunder Magic the first time, he urged nearly seventy percent of the mana forming to spread through his whole body, leaving only the remaining thirty percent to concentrate in the weapon as intended.

    Lucius had long since mastered the skill of mana maniption, but this was the first time he used it across his entire being, instead of just specific areas.

    The sensation was indescribable. It was eerily simr to what he remembered when using the Beast Arts, but there was another sensation¡­a feeling that he was missing something¡­however there was no time to focus on that.

    As more spears continued tounch at him from all sides, he felt his speed and reaction time nearly triple. The concentration of mana in his weapon was not enough to actually break the weapons, but he was granted the speed and power to knock them back into the fog.

    "How are you doing that¡­ no matter. When in my mist, my every desire can be created! You cannot win!"

    ''I need more. At this rate, I will be skewered.'' This thought yed repeated through Lucius'' head as he jumped, ducked, sidestepped, and parried countless weapons and objects made from his opponent''s mark. He was assailed by spears, swords, boulders, animals, and countless different things that materialized long enough to hurt him before vaporizing yet again.

    ''Fuck. If I don''t get through this, Rena is next.'' He thought. ''Okay, I can''t break these objects, I might as well switch to dodging. I''ll equally distribute the mana everywhere now. That should give me enough extra speed.''

    His entire body was now bathed in a dull glow. Every inch of him was flowing with mana as though it were a second skin.

    ''Hi there kid. Been awhile.'' A dark, yet teasing voice pierced through Lucius'' mind.

    ''Grimm. What do you want?''

    ''You are so close to a breakthrough. Close enough for me to sneak a little chat without my old buddy Luz holding us back. Figured I could help you¡­with a push over the edge. Free of charge, its your own power after all.''

    ''Do it, but if this hurts Rena in any capacity¡­anything at all¡­''

    ''Down, lover-boy¡­use the mark¡­then it''ll be clear.''

    Lucius continued to dodge the different things being thrown at him while he conversed with the dark creature in his head. The attacker was getting angry and had begun roaring and screaming incoherently. The attacks continued to pick up in speed and intensity.

    "Okay, let''s give this a go¡­ [Abyss Break: Cloak of Darkness]"

    The very shadows themselves seemed to rise to Lucius''mand and shot towards him, covering his weapon, armor, and extremities. Some stayed at his feet, stretching upwards to deflect some of the attacks that he was struggling to dodge.

    "Oh this feels familiar¡­ Oh! That''s what Grimm meant¡­ I see¡­" When his mark activated, and the shadows enveloped him, he maintained his control over the Mana for his Art. This intensified the feeling of missing something. There was only one thing left for him to add.

    Lucius stopped moving and willed the shadows cloaking him to hold off the attacks for a few moments. He focused on the part of his mana that contained the Thunder Magicpatibility and willed it toe forth. For the moment, the one that came to mind was the one that gave him the sensation of filling his whole body with mana in the first ce. "[Tempestas: Lightning Charge]"

    Lucius felt thebination of the Arts and Magic, both made of two different kinds of mana, swirl together in his body. Encapsting the two, was a different power from that of mana. It was the source of whatever empowered the marks. They danced together and merged with one another as they began to merge into a single sensation.

    Lucius opened his eyes, that he had subconsciously closed. Even he could tell that his irises emitted a dull glow, barely containing the strange power welling up within him.

    A wave of energy exploded outward from the boy, instantaneously dispersing all of the fog that filled the area. The camp and the forest werepletely clear of whatever this man''s mark had done.

    He looked at the source of the problem coldly. The scrawny man with scraggily long hair quaked in fear, hurriedly looking around as if unaware of what had happened to his power.

    Lucius uttered a single phrase; perhaps one that had not been heard by the world in eons. Though his voice was a mere whisper, it was as if reality itself shuddered weight of his words.

    "[Primordial Ascension]"

 Chapter 79: Potential [Part 1]

    Rena, Jen, Paul, and Lethen sat inside the cabin, staring out the windows. They had watched as a man who looked on the verge of death had stepped out into the area of safety Rena''s light magic had created. He appeared to be talking to Lucius, but thetter appeared about as interested in whatever this man had to say as a miser was towards a beggar.

    An ominous feeling settled in around them as the fog thickened and surrounded Lucius once again, cutting him from view. Rena knew her spell was still active and it began draining even more magic than before. Lucius was likely still in need of any assistance he could get, so Rena simply kept funneling power into the spell.

    If she increased its strength she would suffer mana deprivation in minutes, so she simply maintained it''s current level. She had maybe thirty minutes until the spell failed, but she figured it was better than nothing.

    "Do you think he''s still okay?" Lethen asked. No one wanted to voice the question, but it was shared by them all. They could not see or hear them, so they had no idea what was happening in behind this veil.

    "I don''t know. But I am pretty sure that whoever that man was, is the source of this phenomenon." Rena answered. The fear she had felt earlier vanished. It was still a scary situation, but now that she knew it was nothing paranormal, she felt a lot better¡­which was good because Lucius was not in here tofort her.

    "It is." Jen answered. "That man was marked. This fog is from his mark."

    "How can you tell?" Paul asked.

    "I''ve seen some very interesting things in my life and some terrifyingly powerful Marked Ones. When it is something of this scale, you can sense the power behind it. It''s almost alien and feels nothing like mana." Jen answered, her eyes still glued to the outside as if hoping that she might catch a glimpse of something. There was a strange curiosity in her eyes that Rena had not noticed before.

    "Marks feel different from mana?" Paul asked.

    Rena knew from experience that they did. However, like Jen said, once you have seen a terrifyingly powerful mark in action, the power behind them became so thick and oppressive that even normal people could feel the energy.

    "Yes. Arts use Physical Mana to enhance the body and objects, like weapons or armor. Magic uses Metaphysical Mana to enhance the mind, allowing the user''s mind to create the forces we know as spells and make them reality¡­ but marks¡­ they use something different¡­ and to those without marks it feels like this." Jen exined while making a general gesture to towards the space around them.

    "I see¡­ so that''s why the air feels so¡­" Paul began.

    "Thick" Lethen finished.

    There really was not a way to describe it well, but what Lethen said was not far off. Rena could only describe it as walking outside on a horribly muggy day, but multitudes worse. While she agreedpletely with Jen''s description of this, she could not help but wonder what kind of Marked One she had run into that gave her such experience.

    A brief sensation of Arts activation shed through the air, pulling the group''s attention back to the windows from each other. Jen''s brow furrowed and she nced over at Rena, but did not say anything. It was clearly Arts, but it felt¡­ off somehow.

    The world was still for what seemed like an eternity and Rena''s breath became ragged. There were maybe a few minutes left on her spell at most by now. When they felt the surge of mana from the Arts, they knew for sure that Lucius was fighting, so she was terrified what might happen when the spell vanished. He would bepletely at the mercy of this fog.

    While she was beginning to panic another sensation washed through the cabin.

    "Holy¡­ is that what I think it is?" Paul asked.

    Lethen nodded with a smile. "Yeah, our boy is experiencing a breakthrough. Watch out Rena, someone''s going to join you in the Beginner Rank. No more Novice fighters here."

    "In the middle of a battle too¡­that''s rare." Jen had a massive grin. "That mystery man might be screwed, though it only matters if Lucius can ess his Potential."

    Rena''s earstched onto her leader''s words. "Potential?"

    "Yeah. Everyone has Potential granted by the gods. It''s their maximum power that they can reach. For a brief moment on a breakthrough, you have ess to your full potential. It''s the gods'' way of protecting you in the middle of a rank up."

    "If he can¡­" Rena started. However, yet another sensation washed over the building. This one felt like the activation of a mark. Rena remembered this one and once again looked outside in panic. It felt worse than what happened five years ago.

    "Shit, that one took them out." Jen said, pointing her thumb back at Paul and Lethen who seemed to have lost consciousness. Rena couldn''t me them. Sweat beaded on her and Jen''s faces. The amount of pressure they were feeling was immense.

    Rena was holding back the urge to vomit when suddenly the mist vanishedpletely. The entire camp was in in view, as were the trees of the forest surrounding it. Standing in the center of the vige was Lucius'' opponent. Lucius himself was standing a mere ten feet from the door to the cabin. Tendrils of shadow twitched and writhed on the ground, while some were wrapped around Lucius'' armor.

    There were brief crackles of electricity that danced around the surface of his skin, which gave off a simr glow to the Arts.

    "[Pri*$#*@al A*#en*@%on]"

    The world shook as strange words escaped Lucius'' lips. They echoed in Rena''s mind, but save for a few letters that were discernable, most of it was simply a series of opposing tones, squeals, and crackles.

    "Amazing." Jen whispered. "So that''s the potential of his mark. I feel his magic and Arts too¡­he''sbined them all into one¡­that is¡­"

    Rena saw a strange glint in Jen''s eyes. It was a look she had never seen the woman make before. Frankly, it was a look that the girl had never seen before in her life. There was no time for her to analyze this strange expression however, as most of Rena''s attention was settled on her friend.

    If what Jen said was right about the potential thing, then this state was temporary and would notst forever. While she could not see her face, the girl could tell that Lucius was in extreme pain. He was moving slowly and his legs and arms quaked with every movement. Each step he took seemed to send out a shockwave of energy that felt unlike anything she had experienced before.

    The enemy had fallen to the ground and scrambled to get up, but every time Lucius stepped towards him, he was knocked down once again. Several shes kept emitting from his left hand as he appeared to be trying to activate his mark. Weapons of different sizes and shapes appeared in his hands, in the air around him, and above Lucius.

    They seemed to be made of the same fog that had entrapped them and there were enough to arm a garrison all pointed directly at her friend.

 Chapter 80: Potential [Part 2]

    Luciuszily gazed at the weapons aimed at him. The hummed dangerously with the strange source of power of the marks. His face seemed to shift downwards and cast an unknown gaze at the man on the ground and took another step. Instantly, the weapons vanished, vaporized by the pressure the ck-haired boy was exuding.

    "No. No. I can''t. The world hasn''t paid for what it did to me. You are like the others. You are supposed to be like me.

    Why are you like the others!?" the man cried out. He curled into a fetal position, rocking back and forth, muttering intelligible words to himself.

    From this distance, Rena was able to pick up on the man''s cries, but whatever he was mumbling about was impossible to say. Jen rushed out of the building, so she followed by instinct. She knew what was going to happen next. Lucius was going to kill that man.

    Both of the girls approached Lucius cautiously from behind. Rena knew that he could tell they were, but he did not make any moves to acknowledge them at all. Instead, his gaze was locked on the man trembling in fear with his face covered in tears and mucus.

    "Lucius. He''s finished. Let''s take him into custody." Jen said, gently moving her hand towards him. Rena grabbed it before Jen could make contact.

    "Don''t. That is a profoundly BAD idea." She warned. Her point was proven by the fact that until they moved their eyes away from each other, Lucius'' de was gingerly pressed against Jen''s neck.

    "She''s harmless, Lucius. But she is right. We can take him into custody and take the city the proof needed to show what happened here."

    "Proof?" Lucius asked, the air seeming to vibrate from the sound of his voice. "Okay. We will get proof."

    "Good¡­" Rena whispered.

    Lucius gave her a smile, one that did not seem to reach his eyes. There was a strange squelching sound, followed by a strange crunch, and then side of his face turned red as something sttered against it.

    "Lucius¡­" Rena whispered sorrowfully. She knew what happened immediately, but still looked down. The perpetrator wasying on the ground, no longer shaking. No longer mumbling. Laying next to him and no longer attached to his body, was a severed hand that was cut just below the wrist and on the back of it was a mark.

    "This will be proof enough." He stated inly.

    "Okay." Jen answered, carefully prying herself free from Rena''s grasp. She mouthed the words ''thank you'' at the girl and stepped backwards out of reach of Lucius'' weapon. Though they all knew that it meant nothing. Lucius was currently powered what the world considered his peak potential.

    Given the state of things, until that temporary protection passed, Jen was equivalent to Lucius stepping on an ant.

    For a moment they stood there awkwardly while Lucius closed his eyes and pointed his head at towards the sky. He seemed closed off from the world somehow and because of that, neither Jen nor Rena could bring themselves to interrupt whatever it was he was doing.

    *****

    ''Congrattions on your breakthrough, Lucius.'' A kind, gentle voice echoed through his mind.

    ''Heh¡­right, congrattions.'' Grimm added. Lucius was confused, but ultimately chose to ignore the strangely annoyed tone Grimm had. It was not directed towards him, but rather at Luz for some reason.

    ''Thank you both.'' He answered. He closed his eyes and looked upwards, letting the light from the sun peaking over the trees warm his face. This was for two reasons. The first was that he wanted to calm himself after his small outburst towards Jen. He was moving on instinct and everything seemed like a threat for some reason, even her attempt at a guiding touch.

    The second was that it was easier to focus on talking to the voices he had not heard from in a long time.

    ''With this you will be able to use your Thunder Magic and your mark¡­to an extent.'' Luz advised hesitantly. ''I doubt you will be able to do much other than strengthen your sword, but it should help you immensely.''

    Lucius smiled at him growing in strength. He was finally a Beginner Rank, like Rena, and there were more skills he could ess and the ones he had were stronger.

    Grimm seemed to grumble and pout for some reason but joined in. ''Yeah, yeah, I have a sword thing too¡­but with Luz''s technique¡­how about something else¡­ahhh. I know!''

    Grimm did not tell Lucius what ability he was nning to give him. For some reason, he thought it was for the purpose of not exposing the ability to Luz directly¡­but surely that wasn''t the case¡­right?

    The experience and understanding of his mark''s new abilities entered his brain. He was reminded on how to activate the Heavenly de ability from Luz and was filled with understanding of Grimm''s gift¡­ it was a much less powerful version of the shadow tendrils and armor that he had used in hisst fight. Abyss Armor.

    While using the ability, his current armor was covered with living shadows that increased his defense and he had one shadow tendril that could control as though it were an extra appendage.

    When the information was fully absorbed he finally understood what his mark was. It truly was an Inverse mark. The symbol from one orientation was that of a valley and when flipped it was that of a mountain. The meaning: Celestia, the realm of the gods and light, and the Abyss, the realm of demons and darkness.

    Lucius had a feeling that there were way more abilities this mark granted him beyond a powerful sword and armor enhancement, but for the purposes of filling out the registration of his mark when he returned to town, as wasw, he would only share that information.

    Luz and Grimm''s presence in his mind diminished alongside the unbelievable well of power he had been experiencing and soon things felt normal. He was much stronger than before, as one would feel with an increase in rank, but he was not even a drop in the ocean to the power he just witnessed. Still, it was something he was proud of.

    Lucius opened his eyes and looked softly at Rena who was giving him a gentle, yetplicated smile, and then fell to his knees.

    "Lucius!"

    "I''m fucking tired¡­"

    "I bet you would be, kid. What rank are you now? Did you break through once or did you get a double breakthrough?" Jen asked in a measured tone. It seemed she was still nervous about the sword to the throat thing, which was understandable.

    "Just the one. I''m Beginner now. And I understand my mark." He answered. Each word felt difficult as exhaustion began to overwhelm him. "We can talkter¡­can we rest¡­and you guys can burn the bodies¡­I need to sleep. Keep the hand though."

 Chapter 81: Return to Lelvern

    Paul and Lethen woke up about fifteen or so minutes after Lucius'' powers calmed down and returned to the normal scope for a Beginner Rank. It was simultaneously fortunate and not that he did not have ess to such strength all the time, but if he did, his back would simply be arge target and nothing more.

    When the two men did wake up, they came outside and saw the body of the man from the mist and his severed hand that Lucius was holding onto. He wanted to put it in his storage ring, but apparently there was a block built into the enchantment that prevented the collection of human body parts.

    To be fair, that felt like a smart move, otherwise murderers and assassins could simply hide their kills and that would be a nightmare for everyone.

    The city official was also deceased, having died of blood loss from his self-inflicted blunt force trauma. The party did a cursory scan of the area surrounding the camp and ended up finding the bodies of the previous adventurers that hade here. They were pierced by various kinds of weaponry, but none of the weapons that caused the damager were found.

    This was absolutely due to the mark of the mist that the man used.

    Jen, Paul, and Lethen gathered the bodies together and when they did Rena stepped up to start the pyre. They also burnt the unknown man''s corpse, but did so separate from his victims.

    Lucius was feeling a little tired from all the effort he went through, but did find some spare cloth that he wrapped the hand with so the random merchants waiting to enter the city on their return would be scared out of their minds.

    The walk back to Lelvern waspletely devoid of anything interesting or entertaining. The normal sounds of the forest had returned to the areas that were once silent and it became quite the rxing walk. No one felt like discussing things at the moment, but Lucius definitely felt eyes sizing him up.

    Before, when he was a novice, he did well in holding his own in fights against those stronger than him. This was mostly due to his mana maniption ability that he had learned from Master Wally. It allowed him to shift the mana drawn in by his Arts to other parts of his body to enhance it beyond what the Art would call for. It made his attack strength and speed nearly impossible to predict.

    If one paid attention, you could tell that it was happening, but it was impossible to tell the actual distribution ratios. Essentially you knew you were being messed with, but you never knew exactly how. Now that he added in his ability to use Thunder magic in, along with his mark being able to be activated, he was confident that with training, he could stand a good chance against other opponents.

    In fact, as he was now, with his training and abilities, he was pretty sure he could take down an Alpha Deer alone and with ease. Lucius mentally noted that he had a personal task toplete when they returned to Pelith. The deer that he fought personally was long deceased¡­but fighting another one in the woods back home would still feel like a form of victory over his old foe.

    Rena rushed up to walk side by side with him for a little while. Everyone had been hanging back out of habit and concern. If they really wanted to kill him, they absolutely could right now.

    "So, your mark¡­you said you learned about it somehow?" she asked. Her bright green eyes locking onto his intently.

    "Yes. I carry an inverse mark. The Mark of the Abyss and its opposite, thee Mark of Celestia." Lucius answered. He made sure his words were loud and clear enough to be heard by the rest of the party.

    "Can you use it now?" Rena continued.

    "Sure¡­if I want to pass out. Though, I should be fine to activate each ability once when ites time to file registration of my mark at the guild. I can do that there right, Jen?"

    The leader of their group chimed in, "Yup. You got it. You can file it with the guild and they will file it with the government on your behalf. I''d be careful though, kid. People aren''t going to like that you have a mark that bears the name of thend of the gods. Kind of a built-in paradox.

    As if you are iming the blessing of the gods while being steeped in demon blood."

    "I know. But I cannot lie. Besides, their activation phrases prove my point."

    "Oh? Your mark abilities require an activation phrase? That is quite rare." Jen pointed out.

    Lucius simply nodded and continued walking with Rena at his side. Every so often while walking together, the backs of their fingers and hands brushed against each other, as if tempting him. To try an experiment, he stuck out his pinky slightly and made sure that his hand made slight contact with hers. Rena quietly reciprocated and wrapped her pinky finger around his.

    They continued like this, awkwardly holding each other by their smallest fingers until they finally reached the gates of Lelvern and separated from each other. They were able to move to the front of the line with the pass they received earlier and though it was getting close to closing time for the gates, they were able to quickly make it through.

    One of the guards who examined their goods though was given a slight shock when Lucius revealed he had a severed human hand in his possession, but they allowed him passage given the circumstances in which they came into possession of it.

    They quickly moved through the streets which started to bustle with night life. Bars started to open their doors and different inns started setting up tables outside of their buildings where temporary stalls used to be in order to amodate the increased traffic that dinner rushes usually brought them.

    No matter how many times he saw it, Lucius was still extremely ufortable with the city. Every sound and smell blended together and they were nearly impossible to separate and gave him a migraine. He did think to ask one of the full-blooded beastmen he saw at the guild when they first arrived, but they simplyughed at him and told him he would get used to it.

    However, he thought that would be a bad thing.

    "Hey guys. Do you mind if we turn the quest in tomorrow? I need to talk to Rena about something." He looked to Rena with a serious gaze and she returned one that was a mix of confusion and a hint of anticipation.

    "Uh huh. That''s no problem. Right boys?" Jen said while elbowing Paul and Lethen at the same time. They both reeled from the strike.

    "Yeah, sure¡­also, boss you are suppose to elbow someone when they aren''t answering¡­we didn''t even get a chance¡­" Lethenined while Paul nodded in solidarity and rubbed his gut.

    The three of them rushed on ahead, leaving Rena and Lucius alone in the streets. Well alone was a strong word, but they at least weren''t being paid any mind by the people moving by them.

    Lucius pulled his friend over to the side of the road to get out of the way of traffic and to gather together some courage for what he was about to say.

    "Rena¡­ I know¡­" He stumbled and swallowed the lump in his throat. "I know this might be presumptuous of me. And if so, I''ll ept any punishment¡­but¡­ if there''s a chance¡­ I wanted¡­"

    Lucius paused, the lump returning. This was much harder than he was expecting this to be.

    "You wanted to?" Rena prompted. Her deep red hair framed her gorgeous face, all of which was entuated by her glistening, green eyes. She was the absolute representation of beauty in Lucius'' eyes. Until now he refused to let himself see it. He always thought she was gorgeous, but it was as if he was finally looking at her and really seeing this truth for the first time.

    "Gah!" He yelled. "Rena¡­ I love you."

 Chapter 82: Re-Registration

    Lucius awoke the next morning after his confession to his long-time best friend, Rena. Remembering the fact that he thought to say such a thing brought a blush to his face. He was not one for emotions and sentiments, but Rena was his weakness¡­well her and his parents.

    However, he did not regret his actions, because the moment he shouted out those words, the crowds in the street suddenly stopped and stared at the two. Lucius began to panic not realizing that he had yelled out his feelings so loudly. Before he could turn away from embarrassment, two small hands cradled his face.

    Rena stood on her tiptoes and pulled herself into his embrace and gave him a deep kiss on the lips.

    Lucius gently ced two of his fingers on his lips and smiled, remembering the sensation. However, he did not have to wait long to experience it again as the somewhat familiar weight on his chest seemed to move, as Rena gently rose from her slumber at his shifting.

    Her eyes locked on his and she smiled at him, her cheeks rosy with slight embarrassment. "Good morning."

    "Good morning to you too." Lucius returned the smile. Though they had slept in the same room and bed, nothing had happened between them. Rena only just turned fourteen and Lucius was still a little away from turning fourteen himself.

    They had decided to wait until they were of proper age. Even though Lucius and her could not get married, due to thews that banned Marked Ones from doing such a thing, it was still important to them and would make it feel more real even if thews of thend would not let them.

    Lucius pulled his love towards him and nted a small kiss on her forehead, which left her with a small pout. He chuckled to himself and gave her a second, small kiss directly on her lips.

    "Better." She smiled. "Though¡­ maybe you should do both. Every morning. Oh, and every night. And when we have lunch. Oh and when I do a good job.

    And maybe¡­"

    Heughed again. "Rena, that is a little too much for now. How about morning and night for now. We can y the rest by ear?"

    Rena''s pout returned. "Fine. But we hold hands whenever I want. Even if you feel embarrassed."

    "Rena¡­"

    "Don''t ''Rena'' me¡­I''ve been waiting for at least two years for you to say something to me. I''m going to have my fun dammit."

    "Okay, you win, I give up." He held his hands up in mock surrender. They both looked at each other andughed before getting up and getting dressed for the day. Changing in front of one another was slightly different now.

    There was nothing between each other that they had not seen, though the context was different, such as his duties as a servant and when they needed to change or clean up out on the road.

    Despite that, both of them seemed to have a flush to their cheeks and they shyly turned their backs to one another while getting ready for the day. When everything was settled they walked out of their room together, with Rena clinging to his arm and giggling all the way down to the main floor where the party was awaiting them.

    Jen and Lethen had giant grins on their faces and even Paul had a slight smirk.

    "Well, well, well!" Jen shouted. "Looks like we get to save money on rooms at the inns from now on!"

    "So, it would seem." Rena giggled.

    "Right, so let''s turn the quest in. You still got the thing on you freakshow?" Jen asked.

    "I do." Lucius responded,pletely not caring about the insult. Together, they all walked up to reception and waited for a spot to open.

    Jen informed the reception they hadpleted the request to investigate the missing hunters camp quest that also included a missing official and adventurers. She handed over the official''s insignia and personal effects they removed before burning as well as the guild cards of the adventurers.

    They did not gather any equipment because it was customary to take what you needed from a dead adventurer and burn the rest. It was a strange way to honor their sacrifice by having the dead support the living, then sending them off with the rest of what they earned.

    "Ah, and proof of this¡­ mist man?" The receptionist asked. Her tone was that of disbelief. It was likely that she thought they had simply skipped the quest and found some other dead adventurer''s cards, or even stopped after they found the previous adventurer''s corpses and left thinking it was too dangerous.

    It was for this moment that Lucius had kept the hand. He ced the wrapped object onto the desk and said, "There''s the proof."

    The receptionist eyed the cloth warily, but unraveled nheless. She gasped momentarily before collecting herself after she remembered where she worked. She then pulled out a book and flipped through the pages while asionally ncing at the hand.

    Finally, she stopped flipping pages and said, "While we don''t have exact matches in our encyclopedia of known marks, it does share characteristics of other ''mist rted marks'' that are documented. So, this quest isplete. I will distribute your rewards, you may pick them up further down the desk. How else may I assist you?"

    "I need to register my mark. I finally figured out what it is. It was previously listed as ''unknown'' and Lethal Grade."

    "I understand. We can help you. Follow me to the area over by the harvesters." She advised.

    They walked over to the harvesting area where there was another reception desk and a small area they had set up for testing marks.

    "Please share the name of your mark, and showcase its ability. If your ability requires additional space, please let me know so we can set up a proper venue."

    "This is fine. I have an inverse mark, so there are two meanings. The first is the Mark of Celestia. The second is the Mark of the Abyss."

    Several eyes locked onto them as he finished his sentence. Most were in anger, though many were also out of curiosity. Lucius simply sighed and activated his mark''s abilities.

    He could not use them simultaneously at the moment, so he activated them one at a time.

    "[Celestia''s Grace: Heavenly de]" Lucius'' had drawn his weapon and it took on a bright blue glow that hummed with energy. He swung it around several times leaving behind a streak of light as it moved through the air.

    He then cancelled the ability and activated his other one from Grimm. "[Abyss Break: Abyss Armor]"

    Shadows from around the room shot towards Lucius and wrapped themselves around his existing armor, amplifying its protective capabilities. He also felt a sensation that he thought was the tendril the skill gave him. When he thought about moving it, the tendril snaked its way out of his own shadow and leaned over his shoulder, giving the receptionist a slight wave.

    "There you have it. My mark." He said inly. All eyes were on him now and every one of them were confused. It was clear his words were the truth, but none knew what to do with the information.

    "Alright, thank you. The information has been recorded. I have rmended that the ssification for your skill remain at the Lethal Grade. If there is anything we can help you with, please don''t hesitate to ask." If the receptionist was bothered or affected by Lucius'' abilities, she hid it rather quickly and very well, unlike the momentarypse with the hand.

 Chapter 83: Panic in the Academy

    An aging man with a long, white beard and balding head sat at a table surrounded with simrly decrepit old people. The table they sat around was octagonal in shape and each face sat a chair, with each chair hosting a person. All eight of them nced about the room nervously, save one.

    The only person who was acting as though nothing was wrong was the infamous Wally Carmichael. He had joined his colleagues of the Arcadian Royal Academy''s Magical Studies branch in their main gathering hall. Each seat was meant for a representative of the different areas of study.

    The primary studies performed at the academy included; Elemental Magic, Transcendent Magic, Light Magic, Dark Magic, Enchantment, Arts, Alchemy (which included the study of magical flora and fauna), and finally, Marks.

    Wally was the head of the research on Marks and though he had very little in terms of staffing and facilities, he was an exceptionally powerful mage and that fact had earned him a ''seat at the table'' so to speak.

    "Has anyone pinpointed the source?" the head of the Elemental Magic department asked, finally cutting through the tension in the room.

    What they were all gathered here for was that while sses were being held during the day there was a massive surge in an unknown energy source. Following the initial burst were a series of much smaller shes.

    Though the first was able to be detected by their most sensitive magical specialists, the subsequent smaller bursts were only detected thanks to specialized equipment installed in a number ofbs that were used to monitor the concentration of mana in an object or area.

    "So far no one has located the source location. There have also been no additional events since. Whatever it was that caused it seemed to have been a single urrence." The elderly woman heading the Alchemy Department stated.

    "Would it not be foolish to assume that such an event would be isted? If it happened once, it is possible to happen again. And if it happens again then it can happen many more times."

    "He''s right, it is idiotic and dangerous to assume it was a singr incident, What if it happens again? What if the thing that caused it were to attack us?"

    A few of the department heads continued to argue with one another while Wally just sat there patiently. When the voices started to calm down a little, he asked, "Has the Alchemy Department detected any movements or changes in behavior of the identified S-Rank beasts? It has been a long time since a few of them woke up.

    I would not put it past Fenrir or one of the ancient dragons to cause something like this. At least from what I have read of the tales."

    The alchemy head shook her head. "No that is one of the first things I had checked. I used ourmunication crystals to reach out to our monitoring teams and there have been no signs of any disturbances with the S-Rank beasts in Arcadios. I did find out that none of the other nations'' institutions detected anything like we did, so whatever happened does seem centralized to our homnd."

    Wally pondered for a moment. He felt something familiar about the sensation of the strange pulse that rocked the nation''s leading academics. Thankfully only the most advanced of Magic and Arts users were able to detect the incident or panic might have been widespread.

    The flow of the energy seemed simr to Mana Maniption and Channeling, things that he was highly proficient at, but it also was not quite the same, simply a simrity. Simr was a strong word though, as the simrities between what he knew and this energy were about asparable as an apple to an orange, both were fruit and both grew on trees, but that was about it.

    "Director Carmichael, you seem lost in thought, care to share your opinions with the rest of us?" Wally was brought back to the space around him by the obnoxiously nasally voice that belonged to the director of the Light Magic Department.

    "Mmm¡­ not sure. It reminded me of Channeling in a way, but also not." Wally answered with a wave, though his hand froze halfway as a bolt of curiosity struck. "Say¡­some of us, namely me, can use Channeling¡­ of course that uses mana¡­but what if someone used the same technique¡­ on a mark!?"

    Wally''s eyes were wide with excitement, but no one in the room seemed keen on entertaining his flight of fancy.

    Most likely the reason for that was that he had not so gently reminded them that he was the only person in the room who could use Channeling, a form of mana maniption that circted mana throughout the entire body evenly allowing the user to potentially even cast magic or use skills from Arts without using an activation phrase.

    It also had the added bonus of increasing their strength and imbuing each attack with raw energy of the type of mana being channeled.

    "You old coot! Are you simply trying to one up us again?" the Light Director shouted.

    Others in the room grumbled with disdain at Wally who shrugged his shoulders in resignation before leaning back into his chair and beginning to clean under his nails in boredom. He waited patiently for the final guest to arrive.

    The moment he felt the pulse he was aware of one other person who was sensitive to changes brought on by such events even though that person had no Compatibilities with any Arts or Magic.

    As if on cue, the sounds of heeled shoes echoed through the halls outside the rooms. The reverberation of the distinct cking sound also caught the notice of the other heads as they silenced themselves to wait for whoever it was that would enter. Due to the measured steps being taken, it was someone of some higher status.

    Of course, Wally already knew who it was, he asked her toe after all!

    The doors to their meeting chamber opened slowly, two guards entered first and nked the door, followed by an exceptionally beautiful woman who wore a floor length dress that threatened to kiss the ground. Her steps continued to echo throughout the room as the Department Heads were in awe of who entered. She had long, blonde hair and bright, silver eyes.

    "Hello, I am Adelia, the Oracle of Arcadios. A pleasure to meet you all." Her voice was as smooth as silk and captured the attention of all those in attendance. It was not every day that they would see the Oracle.

    Normally she was never allowed to leave the castle, however Wally had many strings he could pull and he had started a personal rtionship with Lady Adellia many years ago during his time as a court mage.

    The woman turned to face him and shed him a kind smile before continuing. "I also brought with me my daughter, Lyrah who will be attending this Academy starting today as an underssman."

    Behind her a pretty, teen girl with ck hair and simr eyes to her mother came forward and gave a slight curtsy. Just behind her was yet another individual who wore standard maid clothes and had stark white hair.

    "T-t-to what do we owe this pleasure, Lady Oracle."

    Though many of the guards in the tower have long graduated past the shock of seeing the Oracle and now viewed her no differently than other Marked Ones, to most others she was still a nearly mythical being.

    "My dear grandfather invited me to discuss the surge. I am here to attempt to divine a prophecy connected to this surge. Shall we begin?"

 Chapter 84: A New Prophecy

    Wally watched as the woman who he once carried around the halls of the castle on his back as sheughed and giggled, now stood in front of an audience of some of the most advanced minds in the kingdom. She was a woman of great renown and importance, a far cry from that snot-nosed crybaby he once knew.

    Adellia once again looked at him and smiled. The mark on her hand shed and her silver eyes went nk. For a moment nothing, then Adellia began to speak.

    "Betray not, thest of the House of Kane, lest the curse of death fall on thends of man, elf, and beast. A threat forgotten by all, save the gods above and devils below, will walk the earth.

    Heed this call or Creation will crumble at his touch. Reality will bend to his will. And the gods will fall under his might."

    The glow from the Oracle''s mark ceased and her eyes returned to normal. Strength left her body and she nearly copsed on the floor were she not caught by the white-haired maid as well as the maid known as Mylene that Wally had met before. He had not seen her till this moment, likely due to where she stood just outside the doorway.

    It was rather odd for a prophecy to be shared in such a way. Normally Adellia would receive dream like visions as if she were present and watching the events of the future from a third-party point-of-view. After which, she would analyze the dream and deliver an exnation of it to the elders¡­ not once had Wally witness a prophecy that was simply words repeated directly from the Oracle''s mouth.

    He could not hold himself back and think about it at the moment because he too had rushed over to Adellia''s side to ensure her well-being.

    "Grandfather¡­ did the prophecy help?" Adellia muttered weakly. Normally such visions did not impair her in such a way either.

    He smiled at the beautiful woman cradled in the arms of her maids with one of her hands being held by her daughter. He was not Adellia''s real grandfather¡­ as far as she was aware, but she did refer to him as that because he was still rather aged when he was in the royal castle while she was growing up.

    It always amused him because he truly was her grandfather. The woman Adellia called mother was his daughter, though no one save Adellia''s grandmother and the king at the time were aware.

    They could not find a suitable match for the Oracle at the time to have a child with a Marked One, but her grandmother had a prophetic vision that siring children with a great mage would continue the line of oracles.

    Wally was the greatest mage of his generation, so the decision was made.

    "It''s is okay my dear. You did wonderful."

    "Well, what is house Kane? We must find them and do what we can to not betray them¡­if this ''house'' has someone powerful enough to cause this¡­I fear who it is we may be working with." The head of the Elemental Magic Department shouted.

    The room devolved into chaos again which made Wally rub his temples. He had been acting aloof this entire time, but now he just wanted to spend time with his precious granddaughter and great-granddaughter¡­who did not know that he actually was the real deal.

    "House Kane does not exist." A voice echoed through the room.

    A new person had walked in behind everyone,pletely unnoticed, a fact that seemed to irritate the esteemed elder who was used to everyone he met almost bowing at his feet.

    "House Kane died out many years ago. Thest of their descendants died when the Five Kings Union first formed. There can be no ''Last of the House of Kane" because the house of Kane is gone." The elder shouted out.

    "Then do you suggest that for the first time, the Oracle is wrong?"

    The elder shook his head. "No, I am not. What I am saying though, is that whoever this ''Last of House Kane'' is, they are a long separated descendent of a family long dead. There is no way to find who this person is after all these many years. Those who would know are long dead. Oracle, did you see the face of this terrifying person."

    Adellia shook her head. "No, I saw no visions, I was only granted words that I was forced to speak against my own volition."

    "Quite unfortunate. Anyway, Oracle. You may leave your daughter and her maid here. We must return to the castle so you may attend to your duties."

    Wally red hatefully at the ''esteemed elder'' and felt tempted tounch a wind de at the back of his neck. However, Adellia who saw the look in his eyes, lightly tugged on his sleeve.

    "Come now, grandfather, please don''t do anything rash. Besides, I need you to look after Lyrah and Natali for me. I know they will be safe in your care." Her eyes pleaded with him to not do anything, which made him relent. He was powerless against the woman.

    "I thought they were not to attend for a few more years."

    "Things change grandfather. Besides, Lyrah seems incapable of growth under my tutge, and you are the only other person who knows as much about the Mark of Prophecy as me. You did spend time with three generations of us after all grandfather."

    Adellia smiled slyly at him when she stressed the final word, which made him return the grin. "How long have you known you clever little creature?"

    "Since I first called you it." She said happily. Adellia gave his hand one final squeeze and stood up with help from Mylene. She bowed to the other people in the room before turning to leave. However, she could not resist and quickly turned around and gave the old man a massive hug.

    "Please watch over my baby for me. She is all I have in this world."

    "You have more than you know, my dear." Wally said quietly while gently patting her back. His statement earned a dangerous look from Lyrah which surprised him, so he simply winked at her and put one finger over his lips while still holding Adellia against him.

    He was slightly surprised, but it seemed to him that Lyrah was already aware of what he had meant. This time, the Oracle really did turn to leave. Lyrah and Natali silently followed behind him as he returned to his seat. The other heads were still arguing, having not noticed that people had left and moved about the room.

    Typical of them to be so enthralled in debate with each other that they lose sight of their own surroundings. Wally could not help but sigh and lean his head on one hand with his elbow on the desk.

    He turned to the two teen girls. "So¡­ wee to the Academy¡­ and all it''s glorious wonder." His tone was full of sarcasm as he gestured to the old people yelling at each other. "This is what you can expect for the next five or so years, except them and people like them will be yelling at you instead. Have fun, will you?"

 Chapter 85: How Long?

    "How long have you known about your brother?" Wally asked Lh. They were back in his office at the Academy. It was a homely looking space with three out of the four walls of his study being made of bookshelves that were filledpletely with various tomes and recovered notebooks.

    A firece sat in the middle of one of the walls and was lit, giving off afortable warmth and gentle glow to the room. He was quite proud of his little study that he had created using the space the Academy had given him. It was one of his favorite ces whenever he was not out and about collecting notes and performing research.

    The young Oracle-in-training quietly sipped her tea while her attendant stood behind her with her hands sped together over her belly. After a moment, Lh set the teacup down. "Since I was very young. Four, maybe five? All the visions I have had are exclusive to him. I cannot seem to see anything else.

    How about you? How long have you known who my brother is?"

    The young maid, Natali, normally wore a stone-faced expression, however, even Wally could see that she was starting to develop a confused look. "Pardon me¡­ but you do not have a brother?"

    Lh smiled warmly at her friend, "I do. The person in my dreams is my brother."

    Natali''s demeanor suddenly changed as she processed this information. She cradled her head in her hands with a warm blush on her face and began mumbling to herself incoherently.

    Lh returned her gaze to Wally. "So, again I ask. How long?"

    He smiled and shook his head, "Not long I''m afraid. I only realized it for certain when I saw you for the first time today. You two really are twins. Though, there is one unmistakable difference¡­"

    "His eyes, yes I am aware. Please, Lord Carmichael, tell me about this brother of mine?" the girl pleaded. Natali had returned her attention to the conversation as well. Her demeanor had returned to the expressionless one she seemed to constantly wear, though her eyes were also pleading in a way.

    "On one condition¡­ call me Gramps!" Wally said with a big, toothy grin. "Oh, it has been so long since I''ve been able to dote on a granddaughter. So, I won''t tell you a thing unless you call me Gramps from now on!"

    Lh sighed with resignation, but had a big grin on her face. "Alright, Gramps. Tell me about my brother."

    Wally smiled and shared everything he knew about the boy. He started with the fact that his name is Lucius and he was raised by a lovely couple named Rubellia and Wayne. Wayne was executed by Lord Richard von Petra to pay for a crime that Lucius hadmitted.

    Wayne''s final wish was to allow Lucius to serve the Lord''s daughter, Rena, and so that is what he had been doing thest five years of his life.

    "So Rena¡­is she a red-headed girl with green eyes? Exceptionally pretty?" Lh asked with great curiosity. While her face was enraptured by the stories, whenever Wally mentioned Rena, the maid seemed to get depressed for some reason.

    "Yes, she is quite the looker and a very powerful mage with a lot of potential. Though she is part of the generation that ispeting for the next head of house Petra, I doubt that she will continue that path¡­ though I don''t know what they are up to now, I imagine that the girl would much rather start a new house with thed." Heughed aloud.

    With thatst statement, the maid really seemed defeated. It was as if his every word stabbed through her, causing pain.

    "Is she going to be alright?" He asked with great concern.

    Lh giggled. "Yes, she is fine. I have shared with her most of my visions and I think the poor thing has developed a little crush on the boy, even though she has never seen him."

    Natali''s entire face became beet-red, it appeared as if any moment steam woulde out of her ears.

    "Would you like to, youngdy?" the old man offered with a sly smile. "Be warned, you might fall harder. Thed is quite the looker."

    Wally stood up from his chair and stepped over to one of his bookshelves that had some items on it instead of books. On it was a small, ss cube that he had purchased in the elven kingdom of Aedrider many years ago.

    "This is a memory box, it is quite a nifty little thing. It allows the user to show still images from one''s memory. The elves of Aedrider had a wonderful King Enchanter who created this beautiful item." He exined. "Oh! But do not worry, it can only disy memories when wishes to share them, so there is no concern of seeing something you shouldn''t."

    He walked back to his desk and ced the cube at the center of it. Wally gently ced a finger on one of the faces and it began to glow and projected an image in the air above it. In the image was a handsome teenage boy with tousled, ck hair, one silver eye and one gold one. His facial expression was rather nk, but his eyes radiated a fierce tenacity.

    "Oh let''s see if I can still get it to do the trick¡­ if I change the image fast enough¡­ it almost looks like we are watching it in real time. It is not supposed to be used in such a way and risks damage¡­ but for my sweet great-granddaughter how could I not show her how wonderful her brother is?" He chuckled.

    The image suddenly changed and before them the images began to sh by quickly, giving the illusion of movement, albeit very jerky and rough movement. They watched as Lucius dueled against the old man. It was rather rming to them that this same man who begged to be called ''Gramps'' was such a powerful fighter. It was easy to tell that he was holding back in the duel, but it was still scary.

    Lucius however, was noticeably weaker than the old man and still put up an impressive fight. Lh was not aware of how Arts worked, but it seemed rather impressive whenparing it to the drills she watched the knights do as well as those that Natali did.

    Natali also watched the images shing by with great interest, her eyes seemed to sparkle as she watched the boy fight and she seemed especially interested in the final move where he had managed to damage a wall made of metal.

    "As you can see he is quite¡­tenacious. Honestly, I would not prefer to be his enemy. Since he was doing this while still only a Novice Rank!" Wallyughed.

    "No way!" Nataly blurted out. Her voice was quiet, but the surprise was evident. "He is that strong as a Novice?"

    "Mmm. Yes, he is. Unfortunately, the boy seems¡­ stuck, as it were. He has been unable to advance beyond it and is incapable of using his mark or his Magic. And his only Art is that of the Forsaken Arts. Quite the tragedy as he seems to have a lot of potential¡­" he let out an exasperated sigh.

    "He can dish it out pretty well, and his fast and clever. Also he can use mana maniption like myself, so that covers for a number or disparities, but tricks only go so far when faced against something truly powerful."

 Chapter 86: First Day

    Natali and Lh stood side by side in the front of a ssroom full of about twenty or so students. The professor of the ss called them in to introduce them. While most students at the Arcadios Royal Academy did not start attending in earnest until they were older, there were still those who started around the age of thirteen or fourteen as part of an undergraduate program.

    Lady Adellia had worked alongside Lord Carmichael, or rather, Wally, to allow the two girls to attend the Academy earlier than intended. Natali was unsure if this was an okay thing to do as she was still practicing with her fighting techniques at home and training would ur less frequently now, though Lh had assured her that this was the best course of action.

    Lh normally told Natali everything, but over thest several months she had grown more mysterious regarding her visions rting to Lucius and events around him. She would say things like "don''t worry this is best" or "we should do this for a better oue" but never told her what the oues were. Lh also refused to use the memory cube in front of Natali.

    She used it with the help of Wally so that it might make his research regarding the Mark of Prophecy easier, but Natali was not allowed to watch these experiments. When she asked her friend why, the only answer she would get was, "It is better if you don''t see what I see."

    Such behavior was vexing to say the least, but there was nothing she could do about it. The only thing she could do was go along with it and continue to stay by Lh''s side.

    The other infuriating that that had happened was she learned that Lucius was spending a great deal of time with the beautiful red-head known as Rena. Apparently they were inseparable as children and Wally predicted the same still held true, since he onlyst saw them a short time ago.

    Thinking of the boy she had developed a crush on spending such quality time with a cute girl who was absolutely into him¡­was terrifying. On top of that, Lucius was quite handsome. He was almost exactly as she had envisioned and the ferocity hidden in his eyes were exciting.

    "Miss Natali, if you could please take your seat now?" the professor asked, breaking her out of her own little world.

    She quickly apologized and hurried to sit down next to Lh who was giving her a smirk.

    "Daydreaming about my brother again, huh? I knew he was your type. He''s about as handsome as I am cute, isn''t he?" Lh giggled quietly.

    Natali put her finger over her lips and shushed the incorrigible girl next to her. They were being stared at quite closely. Though the Academy has been allowing Marked Ones as students for quite some time now, and it has be a norm, Lh being the Oracle''s daughter and next in line to inherit the title made her quite the interesting subject for gossip.

    It also helped that both youngdies were extremely beautiful, so it gathered a little extra attention from the male ssmates, and a few female ones. Though the ones that did not sport marks tried to feign some form of disinterest when they remembered what the two girls were.

    ording to Wally, the curriculum at the Academy included sses on mathematics,nguage, Arts, Magic,bat, etiquette, and many other things in the form of electives. When they signed up for school they were required to list their Compatibilities to give them ess to certain electives that would help their specific specialties.

    There was no need to attend a lecture on fire magic if you could not use it after all.

    Since Natali was also registered as an attendant and bodyguard for Lh, Lh was given exemption to attend the Arts and Magic courses for Natali''s Compatibilities so that they may always stay together. This arrangement was also thanks to the influence of Wally, whom most of the Academy leadership were terrified to anger. Thanks to their fear of him, he got away with many things.

    "Say, you look rather familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?" a handsome man came up to the pair after ss was dismissed for a short recess. He had short, red hair and green eyes, very simr to the Rena girl that spent time with Lucius.

    Lh smiled at the boy, "No, I can''t imagine you do. I am the daughter of the Oracle, so until now I have had little in the ways of interaction with members of the nobility."

    The boy smiled back, "Ah yes, that is right. Then as someone whom I am sure you will see many visions of for my heroism on the field of battle, I shall introduce myself. I am Thomas von Petra. In line to inherit the House of Petra and former adventurer. I have been at the Academy for a few days now and if needed I can show you around some time as an escort?"

    Natali maintained an expressionless face and said nothing. She simply waited for her charge to answer. In a conversation like this it was improper for one in the position of a servant to interact with either party.

    Lh smiled again, though Natali noticed a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth. "I thank you, Sir Thomas. You know, I believe I remember having a vision about you in the past."

    "Oh, my greatness has already made itself known to the next Oracle. Do tell, which of my heroic feats were you witness to?"

    Lh''s smile turned cruel. "One set in a dark forest where you watched your rtives devoured by the very concept of darkness itself."

    Thomas'' face turned pale and he quickly turned around and walked away, however before he leftpletely, he warned, "I''ll be watching you¡­ Oracle. I do not take embarrassment lightly, and I will find a way to make you pay."

    After he had left them alone, Natali turned to the girl. Her silver eyes seemed to sh from the amount of anger she felt. "Lh, was that wise to anger a member of a powerful family on the first day?"

    "It doesn''t matter. He has a part to y as one of the many pieces on the board. I will say, I did not expect him to y it so well." The girl mumbled. "Though he is necessary, it does not mean I will forgive him. Disgusting trash¡­"

    Natali let out a small sigh. She was no longer as excited for attending the Academy as she was, because if this was any indication of Lh''s future behavior, then they would not be making many friends in their time here.

 Chapter 87: Fifth Quest

    The party spent a day or two resting in town, taking in the sights and scenes provided by the city of Lelvern. It was not only the main road that was bustling with shops and people, but the entire city seemed to be constantly rife with people buying, selling, and exchanging wares.

    Even the residential areas had different stores and stalls run by the residents of the area who wanted to exercise their entrepreneurial spirit. Lucius and Rena spent these two days thoroughly enjoying one another''spany as a couple, rather than as the friends they had been for almost half their lives.

    Wherever they went, Rena was hanging off Lucius'' arm as though he would disappear if she ever let go. She also slept next to him every night and pouted when they had to get up every morning. Essentially, she was being spoiled.

    Lucius was not going to say or do anything about it though, she had earned it. Also, it was just too cute for him to stop and he truly enjoyed the moment of happiness that their time together brought him. Throughout his life there were very few happy times, and most of the happy memories he did have were overshadowed by negative experiences, but nothing could take away this.

    "I think it''s time to meet up with the group at the guild. They gave us a few days off to celebrate, but it''s time to get with Jen to see what she''s got for us now." He informed the beautiful girl snuggling up against his chest.

    They were sitting outside a small caf¨¦ and had started to attract the attention of onlookers passing by. No one seemed offended, rather the majority shed the pair teasing smiles.

    Rena sighed quietly in a strangebination of contentment and resignation. "Alright, we should get going. We have six more quests to go, after all. At least we know we are guaranteed a spot the moment we hit the minimum, thanks to Jen."

    He nodded, "We were very lucky to have met her, she''s been an incredible resource."

    "Resource? She''s our friend, Lucius."

    "My only friend is you. Everyone else is a resource. Some more reliable than others." Lucius sighed. He stood up and paid for their meal while also leaving a generous tip for the wait staff.

    "Friend?"

    He subconsciously shuddered from Rena''s harsh re, but he held his ground. "Yes, friend. You are my lover as well as my best and only friend and I wish it to remain that way for as long as possible."

    Lucius gently ced a hand behind Rena''s head and pulled her face close to his, then nted a light kiss on the center of her forehead. "Let''s go."

    "Mmm."

    They meandered through the streets on azy route back to the guild. When they arrived, the party was chatting amongst themselves at some tables off to the side.

    "Ah there they are! Ready for our next job?" Jen shouted across the room.

    Lucius and Rena walked over to the group and sat down at the saved seats to listen to the details of the next quest. ording to Jen, they were being requested to provide assistance to another party already working a job a little further west of the city.

    There was a grouping of hunting camps and a centralized logging vige that had requested assistance with an incursion of goblins in the area that had begun harassing the loggers and hunters.

    Apparently the first party had gone out on the job, but reported to the guild that their own group was not equipped to handle the monsters alone. Since it was a quest made by the city, city officials approved a sub-quest to provide the first group assistance.

    The original was considered a Beginner Rank quest since it was only for goblin clearing, but the party that went on it was rather famous in the area so the guild upped the difficulty rating to Intermediate for the time being. They were even considering retroactively upping the rank and subsequent rewards uponpletion, if the reports supported the change.

    "So we are going to help out some famous party? Why are they letting us help? We are new in town, wouldn''t the city want someone more established to go save their special favorites?" Lucius questioned.

    "Well, normally, they probably would. However, thanks to a certain someone that took out a dangerous Marked One and then had the gall to im to possess a mark representing both Celestia and the Abyss¡­ they are making an exception. Honestly, the guild approached me with this offer instead of the other way around.

    If we take it, we could win a lot of brownie points with them!" Jen had a massive grin on her face.

    Rena giggled in response to their leader''s behavior and teasing tone. Lucius could not help but shake his head, but agreed nheless.

    After taking a bit of time to make sure they werepletely stocked up, which did not take long seeing as how they had done nothing but run around the city of merchants for two days, they set out on their journey to help another party solve some sort of goblin infestation.

    It was a few days of a journey to the area where the quest location was located. From what Jen had been told, the goblin infestation started bing a problem a little over a month ago. Goblins are decentlymon creatures, but they don''t tend to live inrge forests like this one. Lightly wooded areas close to grassy ins were more suitable habitats for them.

    "What do we know about the other party?" Lethen asked.

    "Not too much, I know that they''ve been operating out of Lelvern for the better part of a year. Used to be that there were a pair of brothers in it, but ording to gossip, the younger one ran off. They are pretty popr with the locals because they take a lot of quests rting to clearing roads and supply routes, you know, some real ''help themon man'' type stuff."

    Lucius wondered why they would choose such a route. There were plenty of other quests that paid more and were much less dull than cleanup duty. Though, good publicity could help with favors down the future¡­ he would have to make a point to ask them when they met them.

 Chapter 88: A Familiar Face

    After a few days of walking through the forest, the party eventually made it to the main vige at the center of a few dozen hunting and logging camps. The road to the ce was rather clear since the vige served as a sort of stockpile zone for the various camps to deposit their materials and then send out inrge shipments all at once.

    Thanks to that, and also probably because the other party that came through here specialized in clearing roads, the trip was rather uneventful. The only thing they ran into weremon animals. The few monsters Lucius did detect were rather far from the road and did not seem interested ining close to it. Because of that, they had simply camped right on the road itself for the sake of convenience.

    Rena had noticed that Lucius still took the time to vanish into the woods throughout their resting periods and before they went to bed to try and train. He made sure to find locations far enough away from the group that any monsters attracted to the noise he made did not manage to stumble upon his resting allies.

    Rena could not help but admire her lover. He was always so strong willed and even when stuck at the Novice Rank, he still persevered and fought. Now that he was Beginner, he was much stronger and finally learned that he was capable of ranking up, where it almost seemed impossible before.

    All in all, this trip was extremely productive both for his physical growth and their own personal one. These happy thoughts filled her mind all the way until they reached the vige and met with the other party on the quest. When she saw who appeared to be the leader of said party, her face immediately frowned and her mood soured.

    It was a tall, young man with red hair and green eyes. He was muchrger than when shest saw him, both in height and muscle mass, but she recognized his familiar features anywhere.

    "Simon." Rena grumbled.

    "Oh? You know each other?" Jen asked, genuinely curious why seeing this person named Simon made Rena upset.

    "I would say so. That is Simon von Petra, Rena''s older cousin." Lucius answered.

    The boy had no expression on his face as if he had no opinion of Simon whatsoever. At first, she was shocked by this, but then remembered that she never saw or heard of Lucius interacting with Simon. Lucius did interact with Simon''s younger brother Thomas, and rather intimately at that. However, Simon was not Thomas, so Lucius did not care about him one way or the other.

    "Well that will make working with each other so much easier!" Jen said happily, then saw that Rena''s face turned even more sour. "Or maybe not¡­"

    Simon stepped forward, leaving his group behind. He approached Rena slowly, causing Lucius to step in front of her and put his hand on his machete. While he did not have an opinion of Simon, he was still a member of the Petra family and he could easily have been one of the ones that hated Rena.

    Simon stopped and looked at Lucius for a moment. "Lucius right? The bodyguard that my cousin hired after he murdered two of my other cousins and then attempted to kill my brother?"

    Lucius said nothing, but neither did his body posture change. He simply remained and stared down the muchrger young man. Rena instinctively stepped up closer to Lucius and cradled herself into his back.

    The action sparked a strange look in Simon''s face. "I see. So, from bodyguard to boyfriend, eh? Well there''s no way for you to marry into the family, so I''m not sure what you want to achieve."

    "I don''t care for the Petra family, Simon. Only for Rena." Lucius'' sudden confession made Rena blush shyly for a moment.

    Simon chuckled, then stepped back and bowed. "Rena, Lucius, I am sorry if any of my behavior made you ufortable, and I wish for us to start fresh. You should know that I have renounced my name. I am no longer Simon von Petra, simply Simon the humble adventurer."

    "You did? Why, Simon?" Rena gasped.

    "Well, I am not in the running for heir, but even so, I fell in love with the adventuring life. This is more my style, fighting monsters, partying with my friends¡­ bedding exotic women." At thest part Simonughed, joined in by a few of his party members, save for the female scout.

    Lucius had known the scout was watching them, but he was able to tell she was an adventurer right away. After all, the scent of Lelvern was basically ingrained in her being now.

    "Aren''t you only a little older than me, Simon? Have you no propriety?"

    "Haha! Who needs propriety in this life of adventure! I could die at any moment, hell a stray arrow from a goblin could end me here and now. Why not live life as it was meant to be lived!" Simon smiled at the party. "Anyway,e!

    We have a small house that was given to us as a base of operations, a little crowded with all of us, but if we send Lucius and our scout, Zira to keep an eye out on the green bastards, we should have enough room."

    Lucius squeezed Rena''s hand momentarily and then darted off into the woods. The scout named Zira widened her eyes in surprise and took off after him. It seemed she was going to try andpete with Lucius on who can get the most information the fastest.

    "Ha, poor Zira¡­ she''s one of the best scouts I have ever seen, but I''ve known your boyfriend for many years and he''s grown strong. If that''s really the case, I have no doubt he will win whateverpetition those two loners cooked up in their heads." Simon continued tough and guided everyone to the empty house they had been using.

    Rena felt slightly out of sorts, having not expected to meet one of her cousins out this far in the woods. Even more surprising than that, was the fact that he had also renounced the family name. He could have kept his status as a noble and lived quitefortably. He was also a rather handsome man, so he would basically have the pick of the cream of the crop amongst the other nobledies.

    However, he truly seemed happy this way and she could not me him. In fact, he seemed to be living a version of the life that she, herself, desired. A life separated from the requirements of nobility and from the pressures of the political strive among their own family.

 Chapter 89: Goblin Incursion [Part 1]

    Once inside Simon''s little base, they saw a decently sized tablepletely covered with a roughly drawn map of the nearby area with several dots, circles, X''s and other symbols drawn all over it. The center part of the map wasbeled as the vige with the various circles being logging and hunting camps.

    A few of the circles had X''s through them, indicating that the camp had been attacked and/or abandoned.

    "Before we get started, I should let you know Rena. Thomas is no longer here. He left the party a little while ago, deciding that he was not meant for this adventuring life. So you have no need to worry if you heard rumors about brothers running my party." Simon advised.

    "Where is he now? It is probably for the best if we avoid him. Lucius might actually kill him next time he sees him."

    "I am not so sure about that, Thomas has gotten rather strong¡­"

    "So has Lucius."

    "Of course¡­" Simon mumbled before getting to business with a p of his hands. "Alright, so the incursions started about neen days ago. It was originally thought to have only been a little over a week ago, but we found a small, solo cabin with signs of attack dated about neen days ago or so."

    "How could you tell?"

    "A rough guess based on the dposition of the bodies. Zira is good at that sort of thing."

    "Right¡­"

    Simon nodded solemnly. Rena could guess that it was not a positive experience. "Since then, we have either lost contact with or abandoned at lest four additional camps. We made an attempt to fight back, since we assumed they were just goblins, but there are quite the number of them and they appear to be led by some mutant variants of their ilk."

    "Do we know what kind of variants?" Jen asked.

    "We have confirmed reports of Shamans, Witch Doctors, and even a few hobgoblins." Simon answered. With each addition of the variants he pointed to the different dots where those variants hadst been sighted.

    The variants appeared to be concentrated around the captured camps as though they were iming bases among the forests.

    "Any idea on numbers?" Rena asked, closely examining the map. She focused a lot of her education on learning Magic and strategy, so she felt it was time to put her knowledge to work.

    The two cousins plus Jen stood around the table and discussed all the necessary details. Simon informed them that they had only seen one Shaman, but there were at least three Witch Doctors and nearly five or six hobgoblins. The number of standard goblins were estimated to be between fifty and seventy-five.

    The reason for the wide range in count was due to the constant influx and loss of their soldiers as they also contended with the other local monsters.

    Goblins bred extremely fast topensate that they were barely considered F-Rank monsters and known to be exceptionally weak. Their numbers often did more than enough topensate for their individualck of power.

    Variants, however, threw a wrench into the n. Shamans were leader-type monsters and possessed great intelligencepared to other goblins. They also possessed the ability to use magic and could think and strategize. Witch Doctors specialized in poisons and curses and then Hobgoblins were physically ten times stronger or more than a standard goblin.

    "I can see why you asked for help. With these numbers it would be hard for a single party to really do much. Unless they had a Master Rank fighter among them. I take it you don''t?" Jen pointed out.

    Simon smiled and shook his head. "Afraid not. Our strongest is an Advance Rank, and that is myself. The other three, including Zira, are all Intermediates."

    Rena barely listened to their conversation as she analyzed the information and the positions of the enemy on the map. It was going to be a tricky fight. Witch Doctors and Hobgoblins could vary in strength between E and D-Rank, while the Shaman was guaranteed to be a D-Rank monster.

    "How long has it been since thest camp was taken?" Rena asked, interrupting the conversation Simon and Jen had going.

    "Thest camp was taken by the goblins about five days ago. The one before that was about eleven or twelve days ago."

    "Any signs of scouts?"

    "Yea, there were a few sightings over here and here just yesterday. Zira took some of them out, but the others fled." Simon answered while pointing at a few of the circles to indicate which camps were being scouted.

    Rena took that information into ount and collected a little more history regarding the rate of capture, force strength, movement patterns. Using a charcoal stick she roughly sketched out a timeline of the events on the map.

    After several minutes of marking the map up and eyeing it from a few different angles, she came to a determination and pointed at one of the camps on the map.

    "This one will be the next target. Currently, the shaman is capturing one camp at a time, however, I believe that after they take the next camp, they will make arger push for multiple.

    They seem to be escting and given what I have read regarding goblin incursions in the past, I believe this will be the most likely oue." Rena provided her reasoning and work on the map to the two party leaders.

    Jen was rather impressed having not really given Rena a chance to show her excellent strategic mind. Simon simply gave a knowing smile because everyone in the family knew how clever of a girl she was.

    Together, the three of them came up with a n to ambush the next wave of attackers. They would likely be able to take out a few hobgoblins and a number of low-level goblins. If they were lucky one of the Witch Doctors would show up and they could take them out as well. The only thing they don''t want is the Goblin Shaman. If he did show, they would have to take out what they can and then retreat.

    Killing the Shaman would make the other goblins disperse since only the Shaman was capable of leading.

    If they truly wanted toplete the quest to satisfaction, they would need to eliminate the entire force, which would mean taking the Shaman out as one of thest enemies they kill.

    Once Lucius and Zira returned from their scouting mission, they would add the information they provided with what they have and ensure that their data is correct. Once that was done, they would move out and begin setting up the first trap.

 Chapter 90: Goblin Incursion [Part 2]

    Lucius stood next to Zira on the outskirts of the camp that Rena had identified as the next target. It was smaller than the one he had fought the Marked One in the mist.

    Rena''s n was for them to wait for the attack on the camp to begin, but they had evacuated the actual residents and reced them with Simon''s party and some of their own party. Though, some also remained in the forest.

    Zira was with Lucius, while Rena and Paul were together. The n was to wait for the attack to begin and then the members in the forest would rain down attacks from outside. Zira and Lucius would skirt around their back lines and perform blitz attacks to sew confusion.

    Previously, Lucius would be slightly concerned about running into one of the higher rank goblin variants, but now he was much less concerned. When he was a Novice Rank he could hold his own against a rank above, but now he was a Beginner and had ess to three additional skillsets.

    Zira seemed to specialize in single-handed sword techniques and was able to use Wind Magic and Light Magic. Her two magical affinities were rather fast activating whenpared to their others, though not as fast as Thunder Magic, they still were very beneficial to someone who operated mostly as a scout.

    Lucius and her had a friendlypetition between themselves when they first arrived in the vige on who could gather the most information as it rted to goblin troop movements. It was apetition which the boy had easily won, seeing as he did not need to get as close to the enemy to track them.

    Goblins were very simple creatures and were very easy to track. They also smelled very, very badly and had a tendency to be incapable of staying quiet. All these thingsbined yed very well into the boy''s strengths.

    Zira did not really take it well and had used him of cheating in their littlepetition, however, his argument back was that he was simply using the tools he always had at his disposal, just like she did. Plus, they never set any guidelines.

    From the outside it might have appeared that he was indulging in fun and games. However, what really drove Lucius to entertain Zira''s antics were that she challenged him to something he knew he was one of the best at. Unfortunately for her, he could be rather prideful about certain things.

    Until now, he was rather weak, but he had a few strengths that he leveraged to his benefit and he would be damned if he let some uppity scout that served Simon take any of that away from him. When they had returned from their mission, Rena informed them of the general n.

    Zira nudged him lightly on the side of his arm. "Hey, so is it true you are only a Beginner Rank?"

    "Yes." He answered tly.

    "Hard to believe."

    "Is that so?"

    "Yeah, I mean you move so fast and you are so confident¡­I could almost mistake you for an Advance Rank on that alone."

    "Thanks. Now shut up."

    Zira red at him, but he did not pay her any attention. Right now he was focusing his senses on the approaching goblins. No one else had spotted them yet, but he could hear and smell them approaching. It was hard to guess their number since they were in the woods and so closely packed together that many of the sounds blended.

    "They areing." He whispered back to his cohort who nodded back to him.

    Zira whistled out a special bird call that their party used. She had apparently learned them while being raised a hunter and Simon adapted it to information sharing in the forest. The signal she sent indicated to the ''bait'' party that the enemy approached.

    With their allies warned, the two scouts rushed into the woods in opposite directions to prepare for circling around the enemy. Lucius had rushed past Rena and Paul''s position, but other than giving a brief nod to the two of them, made no other acknowledgements. It was nearly time for battle after all.

    It only took another twenty minutes or so for the goblins to finally close their approach enough for the group in the camp to see the army. By Lucius'' estimation there were at least twenty normal goblins, three Hobgoblins, and a Witch Doctor

    One Hobgoblin and five normal goblins stayed back with the Witch Doctor who was acting as the leader of the group, while the others advanced quickly towards the camp.

    Lucius watched as they all raised their weapons and began to shout in their own, gutturalnguage. Before they left the Witch Doctor''s area of reach, it raised its crooked staff and seemed to chant some strange spell. A purple energy covered the weapons of the charging goblins.

    Lucius heard as the mage of Simon''s group shouted out a warning, "Try not to get hit! That seems to be some sort of Curse or Poison effect!"

    Thankfully, Rena was still hidden away and was waiting with Paul for the main force to hit the camp before attacking. Thanks to that she would be unlikely to be hit. Goblins also could not useplex weapons, save for other rare variants, so there were no archers or long-range attackers among them.

    He gripped his machete tightly and waited for the enemies to pass his location. Zira should be on the opposite side of their ranks as him, waiting for the same thing.

    Simon, Lethen, Jen, and the rest of Simon''s group shed with the first line of enemies. Since normal goblins were very weak, they were cut down rather quickly. However, their numbers and speed made them a threat whenbined with the unknown effects they had on their weapons.

    This extra caution when fighting continued to put them at a disadvantage since they needed to really avoid being hit and potentially given a deadly curse or poison that could not be healed mid-battle.

    Finally, the Witch Doctor and it''s guards passed Lucius'' and Zira''s imaginary line and he readied for their part of the assault. Paul loosed a set of golden colored arrows infused with his Arts that sank into the arm of the Hobgoblin, enraging it. The goblins around it also joined in the yelling, adding to the distraction they had built up.

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Charge], [Forsaken Arts: Goring Rush]!"

    Electricity crackled around him, causing the hair on his body to stand on end. It traveled down his body and concentrated around his feet. Thunder-like rumbling filled the air as Lucius allowed the spell to propel him directly at the Witch Doctor.

    His machete glowed with a brilliant light as the Arts infused into the cutting edge. The Witch Doctor barely had time to register his death before blood sprayed from his midsection and the top half of his body separated from the bottom. The glow surrounding the goblins'' weapons faded and allowed the front-liners to fight without concern.

    Zira cracked Lucius a look with a raised eyebrow. "Beginner, huh?"

    Lucius ignored her and prepared to ept an iing attack from a very angry Hobgoblin.

    ---------------------------------------------------

    A/N: Interested in Discord?

    Here you go!

 Chapter 91: Goblin Incursion [Part 3]

    Lucius leapt to the side, dodging a clumsy strike from the Hobgoblin. It was physically stronger than him and faster, however its moves were easily read and were not the attacks of a well-trained fighter.

    Zira jumped into the fight to make it a lot easier for the two of them. A full-grown hobgoblin was about twice Lucius'' size in terms of muscle mass and stood a whole head and a half taller than him, so having her assistance was wee.

    Both scouts took turns parrying blows from the monster as they worked to tire him and slow his movements. Zira took openings given by Lucius to make a few stabs and shes at important body parts like the arms or legs.

    Seemingly because of his rage, these attacks did not do much to weaken or slow him as he simply fought through the pain. Lucius nced over to the rest of the group that was quickly finishing up their fight against the normal goblins and other hobgoblins.

    Rena had cast an Earth Magic wall to create an extra barrier between her and Paul from the rest, she also pelted the Hobgoblins with ice and wind spells to keep them from focusing too much on the attackers. Paul joined her in that endeavor by pelting them with arrows.

    He sent the asional shot towards Lucius and Zira''s foe as well.

    "Give me a moment to cast, I have something to finish this up." Zira shouted before stepping outside of the monster''s striking range.

    Lucius grunted in affirmation and then activated his Arts. "[Forsaken Arts: Gouging Strike]" However instead of allowing the Art to take effectpletely, he rerouted the mana all over his body.

    The sudden increase in strength and speed allowed him to start blocking the strikes directly instead of having to use tricky movements to lessen their impact. It also made up for the fact that Zira was not present to take a few of the attacks and give him a moment to reset his positioning.

    The Hobgoblin roared in anger because a smaller creature than itself was giving it so much more trouble. The fresh surge of anger and frustration seemed to add additional strength to its strikes, but it was not enough to overpower Lucius with his Channeling active.

    "Alright Lucius! [Lux: Enhance Strength]!" Zira''s voice reached his ears just a moment before an orb of light mmed itself into his back and was absorbed by him.

    The spell took effect and increased the dull glow of mana from the Arts to a rather bright one. Lucius felt his body be stronger in an instant and soon his blocks caused the Hobgoblin to recoil from the impact of weapon against weapon.

    "End of the line." Lucius mumbled as he moved the concentration of mana in his body to focus on his upper body, sword arm, and weapon. With the additional mana and enhancement from Zira''s spell added to Lucius'' Arts, the strike cleaved right through flesh and bone, nearly severing the Hobgoblin''s sword arm.

    It reeled backwards in pain, instinctively clutching the wound with its good hand. Lucius pressed the attack and shed at the monster''s leg, forcing it to its knees. With an emotionless re, he aimed the final strike at the monster''s neck, the force of which scattered the monster''s blood like a mist in the same direction as the swing.

    "Nice one!" Simon shouted from the camp. He wiped his brow and gave Lucius and Zira a thumbs up with a goofy smile.

    Lucius could not help but be confused because this was theplete antithesis of Simon''s younger brother, and it is nothing like the Simon he had heard of as children. Even though he truly seemed changed, Lucius would not let his guard down around him.

    Honestly, he would have preferred if Rena had kept quiet about their rtionship in the event Simon reported it to the family, but there was nothing to do about that now.

    The scouts checked the body for any items they might have been carrying and found a few loose coins but really nothing else of use. Goblins and their variants did not possess any body parts that were useful for crafting or alchemy, so theychose to just leave the bodies to rot in the woods, or be eaten by local wildlife.

    There was no concern of them turning into undead like there was with human, elf, or beastman bodies, so it was fine to just leave them be.

    Rena came up to Lucius at the end of the fight and shed him a beautiful smile, which was quickly returned, but he did not say anything to her. Even though Simon was aware of their rtionship already, he did not want to provide more evidence than already existed.

    "So, the next n is to do what?" Lethen asked. He was polishing his sword while sitting on a log that had been carved by the camp''s usual inhabitants to be a bench.

    Simon rubbed his chin slowly, "I believe themotion andck of response by this force will make the Shaman do one of two things. He will either move to a different position and reinforce there, or press for a second attack here."

    Rena nodded her head. "Those really are the only options. He has not suffered enough losses to retreat, though this was about a third of his remaining force. It is most likely he will press for new ground soon. We need a way to force his hand to the option we want, instead of waiting for his move."

    Lucius raised his hand. "Why don''t we just move the vigers back here and the second camp. The only options are this camp and one other, right? If there are vigers in both camps they will serve as distraction long enough for us to respond."

    All heads turned on him. "What?" Simon nearly growled.

    The boy shrugged his shoulders. "I''m just saying if we use both camps as bait, then we will have enough time to respond. It''s only a couple of hunters and loggers, what''s it matter?"

    Rena gently tugged on his sleeve and whispered, "You are doing the thing. It would be more usual to not use innocents as bait."

    "I don''t see why not. It is more efficient that way." He shook his head.

    "These are lives, Lucius." Jen chastised.

    "And?"

    Simon, Zira, and Jen red at him. Rena had a tinge of sadness in her eyes, but did not say anything further to him about his moral stance.

    "We are not doing that." Simon finally said after realizing that Lucius was not going to change his mind from a handful of angry res.

    "Fine. If our concern is that they will fortify the position we don''t protect, then burn both camps down." He countered.

    "Lucius! No! These camps are their livelihoods!" Zira shouted. Her party agreed with her and showed it by vigorously nodding their heads.

    "So? The way I see it, it''s their livelihoods or their lives. I presented both options, so unless you have something better, we should choose one."

    After several more minutes of exhausting debate, the group finally agreed on one of Lucius'' ns. They were going to torch both camps.

    Lucius nodded in understanding and looked at the map they had brought with him. After orienting himself slightly, he took off in the direction of the other camp to set it on fire with his Thunder Magic and some oil.

    Meanwhile, the rest of the group would set the camp they were just at aze before meeting at a secluded spot in between the two locations.

    Lucius would wait outside one camp, hidden and keeping an eye out, while Zira was at the other. Whichever one saw the enemy first, would be the spot they call the main party members to for engaging in battle.

    The downside to the n was that they lost their own fortifications, but at least the goblins would not gain any

 Chapter 92: Goblin Incursion [Part 4]

    Lucius watched as the camp burned in front of him. This one had a few spread out buildings so he had to take care to catch all of them on fire. He also made sure to burn the supplies that had been left behind so that there was absolutely nothing usable by the goblins if they arrived.

    He thought about suggesting that the same be done for the other camp, but decided not to say anything in case it started another argument. He truly could not understand what the problem was, his solutions were efficient and effective and that was all that mattered.

    After a few hours the mes began to die down. The charred remnants were still putting off an intense heat, and likely would for a few days unless it suddenly rains. Lucius was also thankful that there was quite a sizable empty space between the buildings and the actual tree line, so there was very little risk of a forest fire.

    Lucius continued to wait in his position in the trees outside of the second camp for a few more hours until night finally fell. Goblins could not see well normally, so there was very little chance of them falling asleep at night. However, he maintained his position in the tree and used rope to tie himself in ce so he would not fall in his sleep

    *****

    When Lucius woke the next morning, there was still a bit of smoke rising from the camp. The morning dew had little impact on the coals burning in the ashes, but it was present nheless.

    It took him about a minute to pack things back into his pack and reposition a little further away from the vige to try and pick up on goblins. However, before he could get too far, he heard a series of bird calls from who he assumed was Simon''s party.

    "Well, looks like Zira gets to be the lucky duck. Time to move." Lucius mumbled.

    He leapt through the treetops forgoing any attempts at remaining stealthy and choosing speed instead. It was not long before he felt a surge of mana in the surrounding area, something he had gained additional sensitivity for after his breakthrough and using his Thunder Magic.

    It could be any of their party that uses magic, but it could also be the two remaining Witch Doctors.

    When he arrived on the battlefield, he saw a pair of goblins rushing up behind Zira who seemed to have gotten herself surrounded. Like Rena had predicted, with the loss of a third of their estimated fighting force, the numbers present appeared to be the remainder of their strength.

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Charge], [Forsaken Arts: Goring Rush]"

    He shot forward like a literal bolt of lightning while he split the Art between both of his hands and added a spin to his attack. Spinning around in air like when he had fought the old man, Lucius found himself almost instantly behind Zira with the two goblins desperately trying to gasp for air through the new holes in their throats.

    "Thanks." Zira said before retreating.

    Lucius saw that an additional five goblins were bearing down on him. "[Tempestas: Lightning Bolt]" The sky darkened momentarily and thunder rumbled, before the space between him and the five goblins suddenly shed white with light.

    He had already jumped out of the path of the spell and averted his eyes from the sh. The goblins were unable to scream from the pain of their eyes being seared by the bright light because the attack itself had electrocuted them instantly.

    Zira and Lucius quickly joined the rest of the party line who were facing off against a few dozen more goblins and some Hobgoblins.

    Like before, their weapons had an eerie, purple glow. Once he saw this, Lucius nced about the battlefield for signs of the Witch Doctors.

    "The far back line! Circle around, fight them off somehow you too! No matter what, don''t let the Shaman escape when things turn south for him!" Simon barked.

    Knowing it was the right thing, he listened to the young man and wheeled around from his advance. Zira followed him as they darted deeper into the woods, but still keeping in asional sight of the battlefield.

    The goblins were angrily shouting in their primitivenguage, likely cursing and threatening their allies, but no one could understand what the idiots were saying anyway, so it did not really matter.

    A group of seven goblins were hanging several hundred feet back into the woods, just out of sight of the battle. With his senses though, Lucius had no trouble pinpointing their location. Among the group were four Hobgoblins, Two Witch Doctors, and the Shaman.

    One Witch Doctor''s staff was glowing with the same purple as the weapons of the other goblins, indicating it was concentrating on the curse or poison spell. The other one''s staff had a pale blue glow that matched a magical bubble surrounding the Shaman. Meanwhile, the Shaman''s staff had a yellow-ish glow that matched a yellow glow around the four Hobgoblins.

    "Great." Lucius whispered to Zira. "Alright, looks like the Shaman is clever like Rena said. They are stacking protections and effects on each other. I think the Shaman is using a strengthening spell on his Hobs there, and they are protecting the Witch Doctor that is enhancing weapons and making the protective sphere around the boss."

    "So, ns?" Zira whispered back. Her eyes were locked on the group ahead of them and was clearly trying to formte a n of her own.

    "I have an attack that can take out the Witch Doctors in one go¡­but I will be out of mana for magic for the rest of the fight, and that will slow me down. Since I would still have mana for the Arts; I won''t suffer deprivation¡­but it won''t be good." Lucius answered.

    "Can you take out at least one Witch Doctor with a normal attack?"

    "Of course, but getting back out will be another problem. I can''t guarantee I will be quick enough to get out before those enhanced Hobs turn on me."

    Zira sighed. "Alright, another enhancement spell it is. Here you go, [Lux: Enhance Speed]."

    Lucius felt lighter on his feet from the spell and with this, he could probably pull it off. He would not be able to stay in the battle, but it would likely get him back out. Though it would not remove the risk entirely.

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Charge], [Forsaken Arts: Muttion]"

    The lightning that surrounded his body this time was tinged red thanks to his Muttion Art. Zira looked at him strangely because she had never seen red-colored mana from an Art before.

    There was no time to answer her question, so Lucius simply charged the goblins. His target was the Witch Doctor implementing the curse effect on the enemy''s weapons. His thought process was that if the barrier was dispelled over the Shaman, it would increase his chances of running.

    A boy, d in dark, leather armor and jet-ck hair seemed to materialize in front of the poor goblin. His eyes glowed with opposing silver and gold light. To the goblin, Lucius must have seemed like a nightmaree to life.

    His machete made three strikes in quick session. The first shed upwards and removed one arm, the second came down on the other arm, then the final shed up the monster''s chest with enough force to lift its body into the air.

    Lucius felt the spells wearing off, so he quickly made a few additional strikes across the back of the knee of two of the Hobgoblins before he vanished with a loud crack. The blitz attack had surprised them enough that he thought he might actually have gotten away with it without Zira''s boost, but it was better safe than sorry.

    Zira jumped as Lucius appeared in front of her the way he had the enemies.

    "Dammit, don''t do that."

    "Sorry. What now?"

    "Explosives seem like the best option. The rest of the party is bogged down by those other goblins and Hobgoblins, but your choice to hit the Witch Doctor enhancing the weapons should speed that up." Zira advised.

    "Explosives? What is that?"

    Zira pulled out a small, ck crystal. "This is a special crystal mined on the outskirts of Aedrider. It absorbs mana, and when it reaches capacity, it makes arge explosion like a powerful fire spell. It''s hard to find, but I think we need to use it. You and I cannot wait too long, nor can we fight those four Hobs alone."

    "Do it."

    Zira nodded and began to forcibly push mana inside the crystal. The ck slowly turned gray, then began to glow white. In a few moments the sounds of ss being stepped on seemed toe from the small object.

    Zira quickly stepped into view of the goblins and lobbed the crystal at them. Lucius watched as itnded between the two he had cut behind the knees. A secondter there was a loud sound like an entire storm worth of thunder going off at the same time. There was also an intense sh of heat and light.

    He had to shield his eyes after not expecting a reaction like that. Zira seemed to know what was going to happen and it was then he realized he was a little stupid. She did say it was like a high-level fire spell. Of course it would be bright.

 Chapter 93: Aftermath

    Lucius'' ears were ringing and the side of his face felt wet. The world around him waspletely white. There was also an intense, burning sensation along his chest and neck that made breathing difficult

    He felt around blindly, trying his hardest to control the little ability to breathe he had to remain calm. He felt the tree he was standing next to and used that to maintain his bnce.

    Slowly, the brightness faded and the world''s other colors returned to his field of vision, though it was blurry. His eyesight was damaged. His ears were also damaged again and continued to ring with no sign of returning to normal.

    The air smelled like soot and it felt hot. He turned his attention to where the battle with the main force was happening with the rest of the party, but all he could see were shapes moving frantically.

    In the direction the Shaman was, there was nothing but a giant ck and brown crater where there used to be forest, but again that was all he could make out. He attempted to take a step forward, but his legs buckled beneath him.

    Copsing to his hands and knees, Lucius began to retch and release the contents of his stomach onto the forest floor. The pain in his chest and neck was worsening and his ability to breathe continued to lessen. He looked upwards and saw a red blob running his direction before his vision wentpletely ck.

    *****

    Rena watched as Lucius seemed to instantly appear in the group of goblins around the Shaman. His body glowed and crackled with electricity that had taken on a red hue.

    She recognized the Art as the Muttion skill and he hadbined it with his movement spell to take the enemy unawares. His target was the Witch Doctor that was enhancing the weapons of the goblins she and the party were facing off against.

    Rena could not help but smile to herself at him choosing to help the rest of the party first, but she also knew that it was only for her and had nothing to do with the others.

    ''Silly boy.'' She thought as she sted a goblin in the face with a spell. "[Ventus: Wind de]"

    Suddenly, two of the Hobgoblins around the Shaman fell to their knees and Lucius vanished from his position. A few momentster, a girl that Rena could only guess was Zira had thrown something at the group.

    Simon saw this as well and his eyes went wide in panic. "Everyone! Dive backwards, face in the dirt, hands over your ears! NOW!"

    Simon''s party instantlyplied, ignoring the fact that goblins were still right on top of them. Feeling like it was the best option given how terrified Simon looked, Rena and her party did the same.

    Just as her face hit the dirt, she felt an intense heat fill the air and heard a massive explosion that caused her ears to ring and shook the earth. When the rumble and heat had stopped, she rolled over and got onto her feet.

    The ce where the Shaman had been was a crater and the goblins that had been fighting against them were either dead or writhing in pain on the ground. The two parties quickly got to work finishing the monsters off while rubbing their ears to try and get the shared ringing to stop.

    Everyone seemed to return to normal quickly thanks to the rapid advice of Simon, who seemed to know what had happened. Rena and her party were confused about it though, including Jen who seemed to always know a little bit about everything.

    Just as Jen was going up to Simon to discuss what that was, Rena watched as Lucius stumbled out of the trees. He was leaning against one that had been blown to pieces and was smoldering on the side that had faced the explosion.

    Her face paled as her eyes fell to his neck and chest which had a massive gash stretching from below the left side of his jaw and down a jagged diagonal to below his right breast. Where armor should be covering, there was only skin and ripped tissue.

    "Lucius!" She shouted in a panic and began running towards him.

    The boy was looking around, but his eyes were unfocused. He attempted to walk forward but copsed and began to vomit on the ground. By the time she reached him, he had lost consciousnesspletely.

    Zira walked out of the trees as well and rushed up to them, profusely apologizing. "I''m sorry! I told him it was going to be like arge fire spell! I thought he would¡­"

    "You did this?" Rena screamed. "You bitch! If he dies, I swear I''ll tear you limb from limb before hanging your corpse outside the gates of Pelith!"

    Zira quickly scrambled backwards from the unbridled rage leaking out from Rena. There was a surge of mana filling the area as the red-headed girl seriously contemted simply ending the scout here and now.

    Simon and Jen rushed up between them to ensure no blood would be shed. The male warrior ced a protective hand in front of Zira before looking down at Rena cautiously.

    "I knew you were¡­ with him. But I thought you were simply ying around¡­ you really have feelings for that boy." He observed.

    "And what of it Simon?" Rena growled without looking at her cousin. She was too busy pouring a healing potion directly on the wound.

    "He''s a Marked One you know." Simon said inly. "It would be fine if you were just messing around, but you can''t actually consider being with him?"

    "You left the family to do what you want. Why can''t I do the same?" Rena answered coldly. "[Lux: Heal]"

    Her cousin did not say anything in response to her words and simply continued to talk to Jen about what happened. Rena''s panic and anger had distracted them from the conversation before.

    What Zira had thrown was a special sort of item from Aedrider that could be filled with mana. It''s only purpose was to absorb mana, and depending on the size, would cause different sized explosions simr to powerful fire spells.

    Their party had gotten ahold of one somehow and Zira shared she used it because of the levels of protection the Shaman was using. She was concerned that it would try to flee before the two scouts could get backup from the main line.

    They had already agreed that they could not take down the Shaman''s guards alone, so they went for the best option avable. By her opinion, if something has turned to ash, then it can''t run away.

    Rena''s healing spell had taken effect and her boyfriend''s breathing settled. The wound slowly stitched itself together, but because of the intense magical power behind the damage, it would not heal all the way. The amount of mana in the wound interfered with her healing spell, so it would leave quite the nasty scar.

    Rena sighed to herself. ''At least he''s alive.'' She thought.

 Chapter 94: A Letter Home

    After confirming that all the goblins were gone by visiting each one of the known sites, everyone ended up returning to the central vige. Rena would still asionally re at Zira, but Simon remained sure to stay between the two.

    He could not allow his cousin''s momentary anger deprive him of his friend and party scout. Zira was an extremely talented member of the party and they had grown close over the nearly year that they had been partied together.

    When they finally returned to the vige, they had the chief sign off on the paperwork for the guild to mark both party''s quests aspleted. After that was said and done, he asked if he could borrow a spare room in the chief''s house to handle some personal matters.

    Seeing as how they had saved the viger''s livelihoods, the chief was quick to agree to help Simon with such a simple request. When he was alone, he gathered some paper and a quill to write a letter back home.

    Though Simon was not on good terms with the Petra family anymore, at least on paper, he was still personally close with them. After all, it was not umon for members ineligible for the House Head position to find other lines of work, such as adventuring or joining the military.

    Simon no doubt had countless rtives kicking it around at various guild halls around the world due to how numerous there family actually was as well as the fighting and adventuring spirit that seemed instilled in their very blood.

    It was because he maintained a close personal connection to the family that he had to send a letter home to his father. As he had told Rena before, if she was just messing around with Lucius, then he would have no problem. Let her do what she will¡­ but if she actually had fallen for him and was going to be with him¡­ that was a different story.

    He had feigned eptance at the possibility in the beginning because he thought it was an act on Rena''s part, but in the fight with the goblins, it became clear that it was no act. She truly did seem to love the boy.

    Such a thing could not be epted. Even if she forsook the rights to the family and gave up the family name, were she to actually have children with that¡­ creature¡­ it would taint the Petra family blood regardless of their eligibility for the house.

    There would be cretins with demon blood gallivanting around the world and staining his family''s legacy. It was hard enough feigning eptance during battle, but if anything it got worse after actually interacting with the boy. His behavior andck of morality as it came to nning only cemented in Simon''s mind that the boy was not fit for Rena.

    Simon did not dare to presume he could simply write a letter to Rena''s father directly, so instead he addressed this letter to his own father. There was no doubt in Simon''s mind that his father would take advantage of this information to help instill Thomas as the heir to the house.

    Thomas was better suited to it after all, and any additional resource that could bring that possibility into reality was fair game for their father.

    Simon sighed to himself when he finally finished the letter. He would not be able to mail it out until they returned to Lelvern, but he would make sure to send it. The door behind him then opened and Zira entered slowly.

    "Everything okay boss?"

    "Yes, it will be. What do you think of him? He looked stronger than Ist met him, but I was not able to watch him fight as closely as I wanted." He asked while rubbing his temples.

    Zira ced her hand under her chin as if thinking how best to answer. Simon could almost see her brain working overtime in order to provide him with an urate assessment of the boy''s abilities.

    "With what he showed me¡­ I would believe you if you told me he was Intermediate Rank. Honestly, I don''t think there are any Beginner Ranks that could hold a candle to him. It would be courting death." She finally answered with a solemn tone.

    "Is that so?" Simon mumbled. "That strong, huh?"

    "I think he''s stronger though."

    Simon''s spit caught in his throat. "Stronger?"

    Zira nodded her head. "Yeah¡­ I made my assessment based on what I saw. He never used his mark in the fight. If it is anywhere near as lethal as the stories you heard from your brother, then this Lucius kid is going to be quite the power yer in the future¡­ if he isn''t considered one now."

    "And they want to go on the Grand Raid, do they? What kind of monster might he turn into if he gets stronger in that dungeon. It''s not umon for experiences there to trigger breakthroughs¡­" Simon was developing a headache thinking about it now.

    Zira walked up behind him and threw her arms around his neck. She whispered into his ear. "Simon¡­e on enough talking about the boy¡­ we have things to do you know?"

    A sly grin came to his face as she teased his neck with her breath. His heart began to beat a little faster and he felt a heat rising in him. It was true. It might be time to rx a little.

    His only responsibility was to report these happenings to the family. What they did with the information was none of his concern. They could choose to act and cut down the weed threatening to grow in their garden, or they could choose to let it flourish and see what kind of eyesore it bes.

    "Yes, Zira¡­I think you are right. Let''s not worry about the boy¡­ or the girl that chooses to cavort with such a creature. Our time is precious after all." Simon grinned at her.

    Both of them slipped out of the chief''s home and away from the vige.

    *****

    Jen sat on a log on the outskirts of the vige simply enjoying the evening air before they rested for the night to head back to Lelvern. They could have left earlier, but Lucius needed to rest.

    Her mind was still gued with thoughts of that time against the Mark of the Mist and what she had seen. Neither Paul nor Lethen were awake to witness the incident as the pressure emitted by Lucius was more than their minds could handle.

    She could not me them. It was like an otherworldly force had descended in front of them. Every second in his presence was as a battle against conscious thought.

    It was impossible to think that he had such potential, let alone the fact that he was able to harness it the way he did. Somehow, he hadbined the power of Arts, magic, and the mark into a singr energy¡­ honestly it was not something that should have been possible.

    While she continued to think about their party member and what had happened, an arrow sunk itself into the ground near her feet. Attached to it was a small piece of paper. When she opened it, she immediately recognized Paul''s handwriting.

    She did not trust the warrior who imed to be Rena''s cousin at all, so she had Paul¡­ pay close attention to them¡­

    After reading the letter he had written, telling her of the conversation Simon had with his scout, Jen felt a smileing to her face.

    "Interesting, Simon¡­So this is what you want to do with that information¡­ well¡­ far be it from me to interfere with the business of a noble family. Here''s hoping they don''t move while Lucius is with us. That would not be fun."

    The woman took out a match and struck it against the log and lit the letter alight. She watched it burn until the mes licked the tips of her fingers and she allowed it to drop to the ground, turningpletely to ash.

 Chapter 95: Its time

    Rena''s party and Simon''s party returned to Lelvern at the same time, both havingpleted their quests. There was a tension in the air between the two parties and Lucius was at the center. The focus himself was either ignorant of the situation or was purposefully ignoring it.

    He went about the return to the citypletely uncaring of the res and stares he received. However, at camp time during the return trip, he did make sure to disappear into the woods and then returned when they were about to leave.

    If she were not slightly concerned about potential negative interactions, she would probably haveughed at the boy''s behavior because it very much reminded her of a cat again.

    She was somewhat down because she could not heal his injurypletely. Lucius'' eyes and ears were on the mend, but the neck and chest wound left a nasty scar. Of course, she knew that it would when she was healing it, but it still weighed heavily on her heart.

    Rena wanted nothing more than to cuddle and apologize to her lover, but he made ament about not doing too much around Simon. Simon did not appear to care one way or another, in fact he seemed rather supportive when they first met, but she also trusted Lucius'' instincts.

    Thankfully, Simon and his party members did not say or do anything suspicious during their travels. When they arrived inside the gates of Lelvern and then the guild, the groups finally prepared to part ways.

    There seemed to be no love lost between the parting because the tension never really died down. Rena was worried about it at first, but ording to Jen, it was not umon for different parties to have conflict and disagreements.

    Jen also made the point that if they had gotten along famously, they would have probably just blended the parties. Typically, you only party with people you like, so it actually worked out that they did not get along.

    While they approached the reception desk, Rena noticed something strange. The guild hall was emptier than usual and by a significant amount. Eyes of various people were concentrated on their party and a lot of them focused on Lucius specifically.

    "Wee, how may we help you?" The receptionist took their group next and began to work on the paperwork. When she confirmed their group roster, she paused after saying Lucius'' name.

    "Lucius, you are the one with the inverse mark, yes? Celestia and Abyss?" she asked in an even tone.

    "That is correct."

    "Please wait a moment."

    The receptionist walked away from the desk and disappeared into a back room. At this point, Rena''s heart was beating in her chest; her hearing was taken over by a dull roar that only she could hear. Her breathing became rapid as she started to panic.

    Suddenly, she felt a warmth surround her, gently caressing the back of her head. A finger slowly traced the middle of her back and she felt the panic attack threatening to overtake her begin to settle down.

    "Rena¡­ I love you and everything will be okay." Lucius whispered before kissing her on the forehead.

    He then released her from his embrace and stepped back. She tried to reach out to him, but he sidestepped her grasp. Jen seemed to understand what was happening as well because she ced a firm hand on Rena''s shoulder, holding her in ce.

    That was when the receptionist returned to the desk, followed by tworge men in full-te armor. The breastte on both men was emzoned with the symbol of the kingdom of Arcadios. They were knights.

    "You are the Marked One known as Lucius?" one said in a near shout.

    "Yes."

    "Bymand of King Aleksander of Arcadios, you are toe with us to perform your duties to the kingdom as is your duty by right of birth."

    "No!" Rena shouted unintentionally. Her hands were balled into a fist, her fingernails digging into her palms and drawing blood. "You can''t! We still have the Grand Raid!"

    "You must be Lady Rena von Petra. Mydy, by decree of the king and the Five Kings Union, all Marked Ones are to suspend other activities and report to duty. War hase, and it is their duty to protect our people."

    Her face went pale as all the blood seemed to drain from it. Were it not for Jen''s hand firmly holding her back, she might have done something terribly stupid. Rena looked to Lucius forfort, support, anything!

    All she received however was a warm smile, which was then reced by an apathetic expression as he resumed a persona she had never wanted to see again; the one of her bodyguard and servant, not the one of the friend and lover she had grown ustomed to.

    Lucius bowed to her and was escorted away by the two knights. For some reason, the energy required to allow her to scream or cry was absent. All that was left was the hollow feeling of emptiness and abject loss.

    Every person in the guild hall was silent as Lucius was escorted away. Based on the looks on their faces, this had been happening all morning, if not thest few days. Many faces were solemn, likely from having lost valuable members of their respective parties.

    Unlike the rest of the world, the Adventurer''s Guild had built a culture of eptance andradery between Marked Ones and normal people. By sharing blood, sweat, and tears on their jobs, they became brothers and sisters with one another. Based some of the other tearful looks, there may have been a few instances where that developed into something more, like it had for Rena.

    Simon approached the group and stood in silence for a few moments. The look on his face was conflicted and hard to read, but after a few minutes of silence, he finally spoke.

    "It seems war has finallye Rena. I advise you return to the family estate. I don''t know if Lucius will return from war. I don''t know if Marked Ones will be allowed to return to the guild. So in the meantime, if you want to ensure that you can be with him¡­ try to be heir to the house.

    "If Marked Ones cannot return to the guilds, and are required once more to serve as only soldiers, only has the head of a noble house can you pry him from that fate as a retainer. Do your best, cousin."

    Rena felt a rage swell up within her. She did not know if it was at Simon, the kingdom, the world, fate¡­ it did not matter. All that mattered was she was furious and there was nothing she could do. At the moment, she was helpless.

    This day was always meant toe, she knew that, but it did not make it easier on her. She thought she had more time; that maybe the Grand Raid would be their final send off, but now she no longer has that.

    Instead, all she earned was the scene of the love of her life being taken away by knights of the kingdom, without even being able to return Lucius'' heartfelt goodbye.

    He had known what was happening. He probably understood the moment they entered the building. Tears welled up in her eyes and her vision became blurry. Jen pulled her into a tight hug and patted the back of her head, allowing Rena to simply be there and cry.

 Chapter 96: Found Out

    "Father¡­ what is the meaning of this?"

    Rena stood in front of her father, whom she had not seen in some time. They were in his personal office after he had summoned her to speak with him.

    Richard''s back was facing her from behind his desk as he stood from a seating position. Laying on the desk was a letter that he had apparently been reading before she arrived.

    "Read it."

    "What?"

    "I said, read it, Rena." He growled. "Now."

    Rena cautiously approached the desk and picked up the letter. She did not recognize the handwriting, but at the bottom was signed Simon''s name. The letter was addressed to his father.

    The contents of the letter detailed their mission fighting the goblins as well as some other, less savory details. Apparently, his scout, Zira had witnessed some of the interactions that she had with Lucius leading up to their arrival to the vige. It then detailed the disclosure she made about her feelings and how she reacted when Lucius was injured.

    As she read the letter, she felt more and more faint. The evidence was damning and there was no way to deny the information to her father. Even if she did, he would be able to tell if she was lying.

    "Are you finished?"

    Rena tossed the letter back onto the desk. "Yes."

    "And?"

    "Everything in the letter appears to be urately described as I remember it." She answered firmly.

    Lucius'' instincts were right. Simon could not be trusted. Even though he imed to leave the family, he still expressed loyalty to his brother''s im to the position of heir.

    "Is that so." Richard sighed. "I am disappointed in you, Rena. To soil yourself by being with a Marked One¡­ I doubt anyone will marry you now, knowing that you are used goods by a Marked One."

    "Excuse me? ''Used goods''¡­ is that how you see me, father?" Rena shouted, shocked at his uncouth terminology. "I''ll have you know that Lucius has ''used'' nothing about me, yet. Secondly, I have no intention of marrying anyone."

    "Yet¡­" Richard said while turning around. His eyes radiated anger. "Interesting choice of words, daughter."

    Rena shuddered under her father''s gaze.

    "No matter." He said a few momentster. "He''s gone now and I doubt that he will return from war. As for you¡­ Rena, I am sending you to the royal capital. You are going to be attending the Academy there until I decide what to do with you.

    "Consider yourself removed from the line of session. You are now to educate yourself further and interact with other noble families. Maybe a minor family will ept you. You leave tomorrow morning. Rubellia will pack your things. You may leave."

    Unable to stand looking at the man she called father any longer, Rena did not hesitate to exit the room and m the door behind her. Waiting for her outside of the office was Lucius'' adoptive mother, Rubellia.

    She stood there with a kind smile on her face. "Hello, mydy. I have already packed your things for you trip tomorrow."

    "Miss Rubellia, pleasee with me." Rena said quickly as she rushed past the maid.

    When they arrived in her room, Rena released all premise of her position as the daughter of the head of the house and dived into Rubellia''s arms.

    "I''m so sorry¡­ I was trying so hard¡­ I wanted to save him from¡­" Rena began sobbing uncontrobly

    Rubellia gently consoled her. "Don''t worry. This was always going to happen someday, and you know that. May I speak freely, as a mother and not as a servant of your house."

    "Yes, please. When it is just us, always speak freely¡­"

    "Thank you for caring for my son. I''ve known you''ve had feelings for him for some time, and I am thankful that he finally recognized them. Whatever you do¡­ please hold onto those feelings until he returns.

    "If there is one thing I have learned about Lucius from watching him grow, it is that he has a tenacity that far surpasses expectation. If things do not go his way, he makes them and he does not let any obstacle stand in his way. You know this too, right?"

    All Rena could do was nod her head slowly.

    "Then as a mother, I selfishly ask that you wait for him to return to you. It may take a while. But he will return to you¡­ and maybe you can grant me some grandchildren in the future?"

    Rena could tell by the smile and giggling that Rubellia was kidding and teasing. However, Rena decided to be honest and open, since Rubellia was doing so for her.

    With redness filling her cheeks, she responded. "I''ll do my best to give you as many as you want."

    "Oh my¡­" Rubellia said behind her hands that were now covering her mouth.

    After that, Rubellia bid Rena good night and gave her a gentle hug before leaving. Rena stood in the room alone, letting tears fall to her face. She had no intention of meeting other nobles.

    In fact, she contemted simply making it known that she was in a rtionship with a Marked One to keep other nobles away from her. It was a simple enough tactic to protect herself from unwanted advances, but she still apologized mentally to Lucius for using him in such a way.

    The girl sat on her bed and sank into the soft nkets and mattress. It was a feeling she was no longer used to as they were much higher quality than the sleeping bags and simple inns that she was ustomed to.

    Despite theirfort, she was still sure to have a poor night''s rest. There was one other thing that she had grown ustomed to and that was Lucius'' arms around her, his shallow breaths on her neck, and his gentle snores.

    "This is going to be a lot harder than I predicted¡­" She mumbled to herself before sleep finally took her.

 Chapter 97: War Begins

    A beautiful woman dressed in fine, purple silks sat next to a coffee table, sipping a steaming cup of tea. nking her was her bodyguard who had stepped out of the shadows and purposefully made his presence known.

    Across from her sat King Aleksander of Arcadios, behind him was a massive man, Commander Arturo Hiroth. The two leaders had been discussing some unfortunate news they received. The border of the Five Kings Union had been attacked. Alorek was on the move.

    ording to reports, they simultaneously attacked Eroa. The troops next to the Eroan border suddenly multiplied in numbers, seemingly overnight. Alorek had taken ground in the first fight, but Fort Se and the Gray Wolf n that controlled that area had only barely managed to hold them off.

    Eroa''s strongest warrior, Kalivas, had been stationed there without anyone knowing and it wasrgely thanks to him they were able to prevent the initial attack from taking too much territory at once.

    The Union was not as lucky to have such capable fighters on the borders. However, Alorek was more open about their numbers with their troops on the Union''s borders, so there was still some preparation that prevented overwhelming losses.

    Even though losses could have been worse, did not mean that they were still eptable. Whether it be due to pride or something else, the Union would not allow such a disgrace to stand and they would stop at nothing to regain the foothold Alorek scraped away from them.

    "Lady Voltara¡­ it seems your n to weaken Alorek by preventing shipments of weapons did not go the way you intended. From what reports say, they were just as destructive, if not more so than we anticipated if those shipments had made it." Aleksander pointed out.

    A small cracking sound echoed through the chamber as Lady Voltara al Famyn squeezed her teacup tighter than intended. The handle threatened to snap off entirely.

    "So it would seem." She managed through a tight smile with a slight twitch in her eye. "Somehow those muscle-headed monsters in power outsmarted me. It seems their leader is not just brawn, but possesses brain as well. It was unexpected to say the least.

    "I''m sure it was. Where did you send the shipments?"

    "To Eroa. I will say, though it did not have the effect we had hoped, things would have been a lot worse had we not interfered at all." She rified.

    Aleksander nodded his head in agreement. Though she knew she was right in her assessment that ess to those shipments would have been worse, her own words were not of any constion because she had been outwitted.

    Alorek had sent agents to try and determine the cause and acted as though they were important. This meant that Zethis of the Raging Sands had done so as a ploy to make it seem like he cared.

    "Regardless of that, we are now at war. Eroa as well. Any word on the other kingdoms?" she asked.

    "Aedrider is neutral as always. We received word that neither Raleron nor Haedda will be participating in the war as well."

    "I expected as much from Haedda, it is a nation of elves after all¡­however, Raleron abstaining is quite unique for a beastman kingdom. One would think they had a vested interest in Alorek not conquering Eroa."

    "One would¡­ but apparently they are struggling with session and threats of civil unrest within their ownnds. They don''t really have a unified leader that would be able to stand in a war even if they were interested."

    "So it is just us against a power-hungry Alorekan king." Lady al Famyn grumbled.

    "So it seems."

    Both leaders sat in ufortable silence for several minutes, neither desiring to speak to the other. Though this would not make the situation go away.

    After a short while, Aleksander finally spoke. "I have mobilized our extra troops to reinforce the border. I have also suggested the other member nations do the same. I have made the decree to gather all Marked Ones throughout my kingdom as well."

    "Yes, I have done the same within the Wisteria Concord. From what I know, Docia, Keinydd and Paede are doing the same. Soon ourbined forces will be at the border while we take time to mobilize and strengthen our main forces"

    "Good, Lady Voltara¡­ we will find a way out of this war. From what I have heard from the Oracle, this will not be a pleasant war. Though we have no indication of who will win. She has seen both oues." Aleksander sighed. He stood and walked to a window.

    Voltara stayed seated, but followed his movements with her eyes. "Speaking of¡­ I heard that there has been another prophecy."

    "You''re rats in the dark hear a lot of things¡­ but yes, she has granted us a prophecy regarding the House of Kane."

    "Do you know who that might be? I know that family to long be extinct."

    "In the Union¡­yes."

    "Why so specific?" Voltara asked.

    "We do not know what nation¡­but apparently there are Adventurer''s Guild records stating that one of thest heirs to House Kane disappeared on the border between Aedrider and what is now Eroa." Aleksander answered quietly.

    "So¡­ this person could have left descendants in either country¡­ alright then, simple enough, we make sure we do everything we can to remain on good terms with those two countries."

    Voltara barely believed her own words. Knowing that someone could be alive that fits the description and could be a member of this war is¡­ concerning. In the centuries since this person''s alleged disappearance they could really have moved anywhere. People did have a habit of staying close to their birth ces.

    However, some adventurers im the desire to travel and seek out the very thing that gives their profession its name is passed down through the blood. All in all, it is quite poor timing. All it would take is one tiny mis-step, one stray arrow or spell toplete the prophecy.

 Chapter 98: Watchers Retreat

    Wagons were arriving by the dozens every day to arge fort on the edge of a vast in. At the other end of the ins, the terrain began to turn into rocky hills painted in different shades of browns and grays.

    The two biomes seemed to blend somewhat in the transition, though from far away, it simply appeared to be a hard cutoff from one ce to the next, as if the gods cut out thend between and stitched these two together.

    The fort on the edge of the grasnd was called Watcher''s Retreat. It was the main fort on the Union''s border with Alorek and reporting to it were a series of lookout towers.

    One such ce, Urntote Tower, had been taken almost overnight a few weeks ago, and just over the rocky hills on the edge of the grasnds, the Five Kings Union have been holding back the Alorekan army from advancing, but things were not looking good.

    Currently the forces outside of Watcher''s Retreat were untrained soldiers with little to no cohesiveness. Though individually, a significant number of them were powerful, they had all been thrown together and simply told to fight.

    Such was the way of things for ones like Laris. He was an old and grizzledmander of the human forces and specifically had been trying to keep a handle on the Marked One forces. Laris himself was a Marked One and had survived many battles and skirmishes.

    The Five Kings Union equally gathered their Marked Ones into a singr group of forces and supplied little in the ways of equipment and training. Often, border forts like this would be pseudo cities for Marked Ones with different people specializing in weapons and goods to support each other.

    Truth be told, he wanted to be out on the front lines, issuing orders and fighting alongside the men and women he has worked with for years as well as help whip the newers into shape. However, that was not his ce currently. Rather, his current job was to process the new arrivals and outfit them with what he could, for war.

    Many that arrived were adventurers and already wore their own armor and had their own weapons, those individuals would be fine. Others who had spent their years in academies or other guilds were less equipped and had to be given anything that could be perceived as a weapon.

    Laris made his way down from his position on the wall and approached the wagons that had entered the gate. There were twelve different wagons today and each one was filled to the brim with people. His personal task was to scan over the new faces and search for the ones with the most potential.

    For a few minutes, Laris'' eyes passed over the horde of people and saw nothing interesting. Before he gave up and turned around, he gave a second scan over the group. Something was eating at the back of his mind that he was missing something.

    That was when a group of people caught his eye. It was a woman with dark armor, a mask over her face and a bow strapped to her back. Standing side by side with her were a warrior with a massive axe, a female mage, and then another woman wearing what looked like monk garb.

    "Ahhh¡­ I think I''ve heard of them before¡­ The Marks I think they called themselves. Powerful adventurers led by someone that used to be a runner. Quite interesting. Let''s go say hello." Laris mused while stroking his white mustache with one hand.

    He quickly made his way down to the staging area where people were being separated into groups. They had rosters of who should be arriving and made sure that all those that were supposed to be in attendance, were present.

    Laris hurried to where he saw the interesting group was so that he could intercept them and prevent them from simply being lumped into differentpanies. He wanted to keep groups together when at all possible and with these people, he might be able to create a strike force to hit the enemy hard and in specific ces.

    When he reached them he called out, "Hello. You must be The Marks. My name is Laris I am themander of the Marked Ones at Watcher''s Retreat."

    The woman with the bow pulled down her hood and mask exposing elf-like ears, though much shorter than a full-blooded elf''s would be. "My name is Mia. With me are Renton, Marie, and Lynn."

    "Wonderful to meet you all. If you could be bothered for a moment of your time, I would like to discuss special arrangements for your group." Laris offered casually while trying not to wring his hands with excitement.

    "Sure." Mia said with a shrug.

    The group followed Laris through the crowds. It looked as though they were looking for someone, but he ignored their gazes. Everyone in such a situation would try to find any familiar face if they could. Luckily for them, they came together so they had everyone they truly needed to survive.

    Laris showed them a handful of buildings on the way to his office, but they seemed uninterested. They also did not jump at his sly offer for special amodations if they epted his offer. That was unsurprising, though, since they were an adventuring party. Luxury amodations were nice, but not a requirement.

    "So what is it you want to offer us?" Mia finally said.

    Laris coughed awkwardly, but stopped and turned around. He wanted to wait till they were at his office, but now was as good as anywhere. "I want you to be a special strike team. Hit the enemy hard, then get out before you''re caught."

    "Sure."

    "It will be a helpful and useful job so I hope you¡­" Laris stopped. "You''ll ept it?"

    "Sure." Mia said. Her party nodded their heads in agreement. It was unanimous.

    "Great then¡­"

    "On one condition. There is a boy here, Lucius. We want him." Mia demanded.

    Laris looked to the faces of the rest of the group. They were stonefaced and stern. It seemed they would not back down.

    "How old is he¡­"

    "I don''t know. Thirteen, fourteen? Something like that."

    Laris rubbed his forehead. "You want to bring a boy onto a special operations team? Are you insane?"

    Mia cocked her head to the side. "Yeah? He''s going to fight anyway, so why not have him fight with us?"

    "Can he even fight? No offense¡­ I don''t want him to get you all killed."

    "That won''t happen. Trust me." Mia said with a grin.

    "I''m going to test him first before I agree. If he doesn''t pass you will refuse to take him and agree to my request¡­that''s the best I can offer. It''s risky, so I need to know he''s up to the task." Laris relented.

    For some reason he felt an intense sensation of unease wash over him as he saw Mia''s grin turn dark and knowing as she said "Deal."

 Chapter 99: A Duel

    "Lucius! Lucius of Pelith, please report to the front of the line!"

    Laris stood beside The Marks waiting for the boy toe forward. They imed they had seen him and the rosters said he was picked up in Lelvern and would be present today, so all they had to do was wait.

    What he saw approaching him was unexpected. It was a young teen, no more than fourteen like Mia said. He had jet-ck hair and had two differently colored eyes, one gold and one silver. His teeth were also indicative of a mixed bloodline with a beastman.

    On his hip was a scabbard for a standard longsword, though the hilt sticking out of it did not match the de design. The boy also did not exhibit any of the telltale signs of a teen sent to the field of battle. There was typically a lot more anxiety, worry, and/or fear.

    The boy before him had none of those emotions on his face. In fact, the more concerning thing was the sheerck of expression. It was as if nothing mattered, not in a "given-up" way, but like he could not be bothered by the circumstances of reality. Something about it made Laris shudder internally a little.

    When the boy stopped in front of the recruit organizer, Laris called out. "Lucius. Youe with a rmendation from Mia, leader of the famous band of adventurer''s known as The Marks." Laris paused for effect. "They wish for you to join their group for a variety of tasks I will be assigning. However, before I ept you, I have a task for you toplete.

    You must survive ten minutes in a fight with my son without dying or losing consciousness."

    Several of the soldiers and other personnel listening to the decree shed concerned gazes at the boy. This made Laris chuckle because his son was a powerful warrior of the Intermediate Rank. He was verging on breaking into the Advance Rank and it was only a matter of time before hepleted that transition.

    In the old man''s mind, it was only right that he set such high requirements because the boy would either die or suffer severe injury here, or worse on the battlefield. Lucius had no reaction to the announcement, but that made sense because he had no idea who Laris'' son was.

    "Fine. Shall we do it now?"

    "Hmph, fine. Someone, fetch Dravel! Bring him to the staging area, he has a challenger."

    Lucius stayed in ce while the spectators created a pseudo-ring where the match would be held. Several people gasped as the crowd parted and a massive man wielding arge hammer approached. He was easily over six feet tall and looked as though his body were pure muscle.

    Laris eyed Lucius haughtily, but was still met with the same empty expression. Per the paperwork, Lucius was a Beginner Rank. Mia was actually surprised to here he had ranked up, which meant she had every intention of bringing along a Novice Rank.

    "Marks allowed? No penalty on death?" Lucius asked calmly.

    "Free for anything." Dravel grinned.

    A self-appointed referee stepped between them before dropping a cloth to start the fight. The moment it hit the ground, Dravel had leapt towards the much smaller opponent. Dirt, grass and dust scattered behind him, bathing spectators in filth.

    Lucius did not seem to move and prepared to meet the strike. "[Tempestas: Thunderp]"

    Instead of the typical firing of the spell, Laris watched as mana seemed to concentrate in the boy''s sword. Seeing that his face turned white and he slowly turned to look at Mia, who had a massive grin on her face. The smile did not reach her eyes, yet she still seemed so happy.

    "Did I forget to mention he can use Mana Maniption techniques?"

    He watched helplessly as the boy''s sword collided with the face of Dravel''s hammer. A massive p of thunder made the ground shake as Dravel was thrown backwards a few dozen feet, grinding to a stop in the dirt.

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Charge]"

    Electricity crackled around Lucius'' body, making his hair stand on end. For this spell, the energy typically focused on the legs and feet, but to Laris'' trained eyes, it seemed to flow through his entire body.

    "[Forsaken Arts: Muttion]"

    It was at this point that Laris finally focused his attention on the weapon Lucius was holding. It was a machete, and the fact that the boy had mentioned Forsaken Arts solidified that this skill he was using was dangerous. On top of that, instead of gold, the weapon glowed red. Soon this energybined with the magic spell to cause red lightning to pulse around the boy''s body.

    "Oh, that''s new." Mia said with wonder. "It doesn''t feel like Mana Maniption anymore¡­its more like something else."

    Laris gulped. He had witnessed Channeling once in his life and it was terrifying. This was very reminiscent of that, however it was not true Channeling. It was close enough to be a threat.

    "Stop!" Laris shouted leaping in front of Lucius. "You win the duel. Please¡­ don''t kill my son."

    Lucius'' eyes glowed with power and intensity. They were the eyes of a man preparing to kill, and mercilessly. Laris could not let such a person near his son, not with those skills. Dravel''s death would be painful, slow, and without shred of dignity or honor.

    "Mia, Lucius may join your group." Laris decreed in resignation.

    Lucius did not power down his abilities, despite the decree. "The match is over when one of us dies or gets knocked unconscious. He has done neither."

    Lucius began to advance on Dravel who was still trying to get out of the dirt. The impact of the spell and the ground bent his arm at an odd angle.

    "Stand up so I can strike you down." Lucius ordered.

    "I yield." Dravel muttered.

    Laris could hear the pain in his son''s voice. Not from the broken bones, but from the embarrassment of loss. The aura pouring off of the younger and smaller of the opponents felt oppressive.

    "Fine."

    Laris was genuinely concerned that he would not ept such a win condition. Everything about the boy''s presence screamed death, as if the moment he took the field, his intention was to end his opponent''s life. For Laris, that alone would have been proof enough that he was ready for the task. Everything after was icing on the proverbial cake.

    "Winner, Lucius!" Laris yelled quickly.

    A couple of healers and Dravel''s friends rushed out to help him stand and reset his broken bones. If they weren''t set before healing magic set in, he might lose some functionality of the damaged areas. The old man wanted to make sure his son was okay, but first he needed to ensure that everything would be alright with Lucius and The Marks.

    Mia had a strange look on her face. It seemed she also was surprised by the oue of the event.

    "You seem different now." She said towards the boy.

    "I''m the same as I have always been."

    "Mmm¡­ that girl¡­ Rena, was she your handler or something?" Mia asked. Laris perked up at that, if the boy had someone that could control his tendencies, it would be a great boon to them on the field of battle. As things stood, the boy was strong, but a loose cannon.

    "Rena is a daughter of the Petra family. I did do my best to not reflect negatively on her house." The boy''s tone was emotionless and clearly practiced.

    Despite that, Laris sighed. There was no way in hell that he would be able to get a daughter of the Petra family to the battlefield. He would have to find other ways to ensure this boy''s loyalty¡­ and sanity.

 Chapter 100: The Assignment

    "So¡­ will you be able to listen to me out there? I''m already the leader the others respect. Can you view me the same way?"

    Mia sat across from the young teen she had met a while back on a quest. Originally, when she saw him while themander pulled her group from the others, she thought that she would be able to make use of his excellent scouting skills, mana maniption, and speed.

    That alone was enough to want to bring him into the fold. However, after seeing how he had grown by just growing in a single rank cemented in her mind that she absolutely had to have him.

    Lucius could not join them, though, if he was unable or unwilling to follow orders. While he had the potential to be a great asset, he also could be a massive hinderance under the wrong circumstances. His demeanor was different as well, which did cause some concern.

    "I can."

    "Good! Then d to have you aboard! So, other than your newfound Thunder Magic, any other secrets you''ve got to share?"

    "I''m able to activate both of my mark''s abilities."

    "Both?"

    Laris chimed in, "ording to his records, Lucius here possesses a Lethal Grade, Inverse mark. It has two opposing abilities."

    Mia sat and listened as her new team member filled her in on the details of his abilities. His mark represented Celestia and the Abyss. One skill was the Heavenly de that greatly strengthened his de and imbued it with a powerful energy that made cutting through armor seem like it was paper.

    The other was Abyss Armor, a defensive skill. ording to Lucius it was a lesser version of a different skill he could no longer use, but it essentially covered his body in an armor of dark energy while also providing a tendril of the same energy that he could manipte as though he had another limb.

    "That is very interesting!" Marie stated. She had been quiet and simply listening for a while, just like the others. Given all this new information, she could no longer contain her excitement.

    Marie''s antics made Mia shake her head. The woman was obsessed with magic and marks and because of that, she was extremely interested in what Lucius was telling them.

    Laris looked like he was going to have an aneurism from trying to process all the information that the boy hadid out for them. After thinking through things, he finally calmed down and began to fill everyone in on the situation.

    Alorek had made their attack a few weeks ago, without warning. Even though the Union forces had been prepared for an attack at any moment, the strength of the attack was much greater than anticipated and they lost a lot of ground in the initial assault.

    Currently, they were in the Wisteria Concord''s territory, since that was the member nation that shared a border with Alorek. Several spies employed by Wisteria had informed the garrison at Watcher''s Rest that a simrly surprise attack happened on the Eroan border.

    While Alorek was tantly open with the number of troops they stationed next to the Wisteria Concord, they had secretly reced an entire city of people with soldiers and mercenaries without notice of Eroa. Because of this, the Eroans were under-prepared for the additional numbers.

    Unlike the Union forces, who lost several miles of ground as well as Urntote Tower, Eroa did manage to prevent any major loss thanks to their forces at Fort Se. This was due to a powerful warrior named Kalivas being present among the forces at Fort Se, as well as the sheer tenacity of the Gray Wolf n''s soldiers.

    Mia''s force was going to be ced in charge of operating behind enemy lines. While Watcher''s Retreat would maintain their defensive line as long as possible, their unit would strike supply caravans and try to take out any major targets.

    Laris'' forces were at a major disadvantage in other ways as well. Alorek''s army wasprised of trained soldiers. Unlike the human kingdoms that simply threw Marked Ones into service, the beastman kingdoms incorporated their Marked Ones into training.

    "Alright, so what''s the n?" Mia asked after listening to the information intently.

    "I have a few units set up like yours. What we are going to do is send in additional forces to the far side of the enemy''s line in tomorrow''s push. That should create enough of a distraction for the strike teams to sneak past enemy lines.

    "Once there you will use thesemunication crystals to stay in touch with me. I will use them to issue orders and you will report your rtive position at the end of every day."

    He held out his hand and dropped a small, clear crystal attached to a metal earpiece. The metal part hooked around the ear, while the crystal itself was ced within her ear.

    "That crystal will constantly absorb a minute amount of mana to maintain a connection with my control crystal back here. Touch it directly with your finger to allow it to absorb more mana and send me a message. You will hear my voice directly in your mind. Be warned, when sending a message, you must vocalize what you want to say."

    "Thanks, this piece of kit will be useful. You said we leave tomorrow?" Mia asked.

    The oldmander nodded his head. They would not know who the other units were in the event of capture, so they would bepletely reliant on their own abilities once across the lines. After the push is finished, Laris will update them on how many teams made it through.

    Their first target was a series of supply caravans that made regr trips to the enemy encampment from their main headquarters just over the border. They were light on protection because of the safety of being behind their main force, so it was assumed to be a soft target.

    They would likely be easy to handle for the first few engagements, so it was in their group''s best interest to hit as many as they could and as fast as they could before security caught up.

    "Onest thing." Laris warned. "Eroa has a few units doing the same. One very specificmand we have, direct from the Union''s leaders¡­ do not, under any circumstance, harm an Eroan or an elf. We do not expect any elves in the area, but those are orders. Anyone who disobeys is to be immediately executed."

    Everyone nodded in understanding. Not hurting Eroans made sense, as they were allies, but the specific order to not harm elves was quite interesting. The look on themander''s face screamed that he had no intention of exining why. It was even likely he did not know the full reason, but they had no choice but to do what they said.

    ---------------------------------------------------

    A/N:

    Happy 100 chapters!! Celebrate reaching this point by gifting Powerstones and Golden Tickets! Also please share your thoughts and opinions with the story so far!

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 101: A Farmers First Battle

    Morning rose on Watcher''s Retreat; the grasnd surrounding it was wet with dew. Were it under any other circumstances such a sight would be a pleasure to behold.

    However, all the spectators of such a beautiful morning wore nothing but grim expressions. They were all aware of what the first light of the morning meant, and it was a march of death.

    Before the day was through many of the faces that made up the forces marching through the grass would mark today as thest sunrise they would see. Such was a fact of war and such was the fate of a soldier.

    Even though he had never fought anyone before, a soldier''s fate was the only one that awaited poor Zeb. He was a simple farmer by birth and instead of taking the opportunity to train in a guild or take on some other opportunity, he used the reprieve Marked Ones had received to spend more time with his family.

    He was lucky in the fact that his family treated him like they treated everyone else despite the fate handed to him by birth. Though it could be rted to the fact that Zeb''s mark was the Mark of Downpour. It was a measly mark that had no real use, beyond producing a small rain shower in a one-hundred-foot diameter circle.

    Though it had no realbat potential, for someone born to farmers, it was quite useful to the family. On more than a few asions his mark had saved his own family''s crops as well as the crops of nearby farms during short droughts.

    Because of his ''weak mark'' he was able to live a fulfilling life. Though now he was dressed in a strange amalgamation of armor that was essentially pped together of whatever pieces of spare equipment that was avable. In his hand was a simple mace and in the other a round, wooden shield.

    Despite the hopelessness of the situation, Zeb pressed on. A wise woman visiting the vige had once said to him: "Fighting against one''s fate may only give you a small chance to change it, but resigning yourself to it will only guarantee it¡­ and isn''t it always better to take a chance?"

    He had no idea if he had the power to change the hand he was dealt, but like the woman said, it was always better to take a chance. That was why he would not let himself feel defeated before the battle had begun.

    They were not the entirety of the force heading into battle today, rather they were reinforcements made up of the new arrivals that would be bolstering the lines already present, and so they marched on.

    After what felt like hours, though really was at most only one, the force Zeb was a part of finally reached the rear guard of the front lines. Those present looked haggard and beaten, many had faces hung low in defeat. To put it bluntly: morale was rock-bottom.

    After seeing the state of the current forces,mand shouted out amongst the ranks that the new faces would take the front on the morning''s assault to provide some reprieve to those who had already been fighting.

    This news made Zeb grip the weapon in his hand tighter. Not long after, the horn signaling the charge sounded and the roar of thousands of voices echoed across thendscape. His own voice joined the cry of his brothers-in-arms, though he could not tell his own sound out from the cacophony of shouts.

    The very earth beneath them seemed to shake as they charged towards the enemy lines that awaited them. Zeb could make them out, they wore matching sets of armor, each one emzoned with a matching symbol on the breastte and shields of five, ck w marks.

    The symbol representing the kingdom of Alorek. Zeb heard as some of his allies activated their marks using voice activation techniques. Others who did not haveplex marks, simply activated their abilities silently.

    Zeb possessed one such mark that did not require an activation phrase, so as he ran towards his first opponent, he held out his left hand, which had his shield strapped to it. The mark on his hand glowed and a small raincloud appeared over the heads of the enemy and sparked a tiny rainstorm.

    It was simply rain and had no force or damagingponents to its activation, but it did spark confusion as well as began to turn the ground beneath their foe to muck.

    Not powerful, but useful when used correctly. Zeb smiled to himself at his genius and continued his charge. Balls of fire, water, and gusts of wind burst around him.

    Some were spells, but most were the result of marks. Though Zeb had no Compatibilities and hadcked the ability to sense mana, his mark granted him the understanding of the strange power behind others like him, and right now the air was thick with it.

    Over the course of a few hours of fighting, it had be so thick with the power of the marks that it felt difficult to breathe. It was almost like walking through a horrifically muggy day in the summer.

    Still, that feeling paled to the other sensations Zeb had awoken too. He watched asrades and enemies alike fell beside and before him. Somehow he managed tost this long, though it seemed that the forces supporting Alorek were not stopping.

    For every soldier that was in, two more seemed to take their ce. All the while, their own side dwindled as the battle continued.

    A sh of light caught his attention from the periphery, and he barely managed to catch a sword swing with his shield. The warrior that attacked him continued to hack and sh at his sword, not giving Zeb a chance to counter. He felt himself being pushed back, step by painful step.

    Another attacker came at him from the other side and he somehow managed to block the swing with his mace. Every part of his body screamed in protest as he was defending two attacks at once. There was a strength to him that surprised him. Maybe it was all the hours hauling hay, satchels of feed, and clearingnd that gave him more strength than he realized.

    Or maybe it was simply luck and adrenaline. The fear and pain pushing him past his limits.

    The ground around him was wet with mud thanks to his and many other people''s water spells and marks shing on the battlefield. His body was caked in mud and blood.

    It was only a momentter, when he thought that his strength was going to fail him, that he felt a new sensation enter the space. He was not the only one who felt this as his attackers seemed to weaken their own assault.

    The very air itself felt¡­ charged¡­ like it would before a bad storm. Zeb looked down at the exposed parts of his arms under the ripped armor and clothes. The visible hairs stood on end.

    Off in the distance he caught sight of a boy with ck hair. One of his eyes glowed a brilliant gold and his hand was held outward. He stood on a hill overlooking the battlefield.

    His words echoed across the silence that had permeated the battle momentarily. "[Tempestas: Lightning Strike]"

    The charged air began to burn and a massive bolt of lightning descended down between the two forces. Zeb''s vision was taken over by white light, his hearing destroyed by a deafening p of thunder. He felt his muscles spasm uncontrobly as his entire body felt like it was on fire.

    For a moment the world went ck, but then when his vision returned, the fighting immediately around him had ceased. His body would not listen to hismands to move.

    Zeb had no idea what happened, however he witnessed as a few arcs of electricity seemed to periodically jump between bodies around him. He then remembered the water that surrounded all their feet and immediately realized the after effects of that spell.

    Darkness began to take him over again. There was no pain and even the sensation of water against his face began to vanish. Zeb knew it wasing¡­"I took a chance¡­ but I still lost by fight against fate."

 Chapter 102: A Distraction

    The assault had been going rather poorly, but the human forces were doing better than could have been expected. Though the beastman soldiers were individually stronger and had more unit cohesion, the fact that the entirety of the human army was all Marked Ones gave them some advantages.

    The biggest one is that marks were about as varied as the people themselves. Some had abilities as mundane as creating a water spout, or lighting a campfire. While others had grand abilities that healed major wounds or cracked the very earth beneath them.

    This massive variation between every one of their soldiers made the enemy cautious, and being overly cautious was just as dangerous as being ignorant of the danger. They both led to mistakes.

    Lucius stood on a hill overlooking the battlefield. His group had been waiting for Alorek to reinforce their lines and draw even more of their units away from the border. While the drawn-out battle did draw some of the reinforcements out, there were still not enough pulled into battle to allow them to make a move.

    He had watched as many of the Marked Ones had used water spells and abilities throughout the battle and saw that most of the terrain had turned into a watery, mucky mess. This gave him a brilliant idea.

    "Hey Mia, go ahead and get ready. I''m going to ensure we get the opening we need." He informed her tly.

    "Alright, but make sure you get back here. I don''t really want to do this without you on my team, got it?"

    Lucius smiled to himself. He and Mia hade to an agreement. She would look the other way with some of his tactics as long as she did not know about them and was able to maintain usible deniability. It was quite the improvement over how Jen and other adventurers would yell at him for his ns.

    The boy moved further up the hill, which did expose him visually to anyone that paid attention to him. Thanks to the battle ensuing though, he doubted anyone would care to pay attention to a lone person on a hill.

    It took him a few minutes to find a good spot to ce his distraction and settled on a space with a lot of Alorek soldiers concentrated together. There were also a lot of allies in that spot as well, but it couldn''t be helped.

    Lucus gathered his mana and focused on his strongest offensive spell that he could use at long range. "[Tempestas: Lightining Strike]"

    He uttered the activation phrase with a voice as cold as ice and uncaring as stone. The air crackled with electricity as the mana gathered together the power of a lightning strike.

    Though he was only a Beginner Rank, the water across the battlefield inbination with all the people wearing metal armor and holding metal weapons would amplify the damage of his attack several times over.

    In an instant the bolt of lightning hit the ground, throwing dirt into the air causing it to shower down on friend and foe alike. Electricity arced across the battlefield expanding both the range of effect and the damage dealt.

    Lucius couldn''t help but whistle to himself, surprised at the oue. It was more impressive than he imagined. Though his interest was short lived as he turned on his heel and slowly walked back to Mia and the others.

    "That was some light show." Mia blurted out.

    "Probably best to treat it as such." Lucius advised. "Let''s go, the way forward should be clear now."

    Everyone had a general look of unease on their faces, especially Marie who could probably tell what happened since she was a very adept magic user herself. Despite that, no one said anything to him as they simply gathered their things and began to move on.

    Mia ced two fingers on the crystal earpiece she was given. "Moving out."

    There was a pause as she seemed to be focusing on something being transmitted to her.

    "I don''t know what it was. All Lucius said was he was going to create a distraction."

    "No, I don''t know what he did, he did it on his own."

    "Yes, sir."

    It was only a one-sided conversation from their perspective, but from the sound of it Commander Laris had also seen the effect of the spell from far away. It was certainly hard to miss an errant lightning bolt on a clear day.

    Mia gave him a concerned look as if asking if it was really okay to just ce the me on him like this. However, Lucius merely gave her a shrug. In his mind this was only holding up his end of the bargain; giving Mia usible deniability.

    No doubt Commander Laris would be furious when he found out the details, but Lucius would be behind enemy lines and inessible for now. Besides, if they won the war, would it really matter in the end?

    Everyone moved quickly across the rocky hills they had been waiting in. As they got closer to the Alorek border, it would be harsher terrain and eventually turn into a sandy desert. Once there, finding supplies like food and water would be difficult.

    Thankfully Marie was a mage that could use all Elemental Magic, so through her spell they could conjure water to drink as needed. Food would be harder to figure out, but they packed arge number of rations and would replenish their supplies from the caravans they were to target.

    For a moment Lucius wondered if what he did earlier was the right thing to do, they were his allies after all. However, the moment that sh of regret came to mind, a familiar chill at the base of his skull dashed the worries away.

    It had been a while since he felt that sensation. It seemed whenever he just did as he wanted without regard for others, nothing would happen. But if he showed concern for anyone other than those close to him, it would appear and seem to swallow those feelings up.

    It wasn''t painful, but it was unnerving. Slowly, but surely Lucius was sure that he would not have those thoughts any more. Not that it bothered him, but he could foresee it being a problem for those close to him.

    One person in particr shed in his mind, Rena. She had wanted to be his¡­ moral guide or filter before. Though after they started dating and expressed their feelings for each other, she did not seem to care about that responsibility as much.

    Lucius was fine with being who and what he was, but he was not too sure about making Rena out to be that way.

    ''Pushes to shove, I''ll just handle it all myself, no need to involve her in those situations in the future,'' he thought to himself. Then he remembered that in order to be concerned about such a future, he needed to first survive this war.

    Renewed in his determination, Lucius rushed forward. As always, he was the forward scout. His senses were as sharp as the other beastmen, if not sharper. He also knew how to circuNovelFireent those senses, so in order to best perform ambush attacks, he would take the lead.

    He found himself suddenly excited for the battles toe.

 Chapter 103: Uncertain Futures

    Lyrah confidently walked through the grand halls of the Arcadios Royal Academy. Following behind her, quietly, was her maid and best friend, Natali.

    They had been here for a short time, but had already fallen into a nice rhythm rting to their scheduled ss work and free time. Free time was what they had right now, and Lyrah was excited for what she had nned on doing to spend it.

    Her excited steps echoed across the granite floor as she began to pick up pace. Natali was able to keep up, but her steps began to sound frantic, something that was in opposition to her in expression.

    "Come! We have somewhere to be and something to do!" Lyrah basically giggled.

    The sea of students moving about the halls parted ways to allow the excited, young oracle through. She and Natali were now the only Marked Ones at the academy as all the others had been shipped off to battle, so they stood out even more than they usually would have.

    "Mydy, what is it that has you so motivated today?"

    "You''ll see! Oh this is going to be fun!" Lyrahughed out in sheer joy.

    Her friend simply sighed and continued to follow along. Some of the other students seemed entranced and bewitched by Lyrah''s beauty and melodic voice and also began to follow them. One swift and dangerous look from her attendant, however, scared them off.

    Over thest few weeks, Natali had made a name for herself with her skill in Ice Magic and Dagger Arts. Her Mark of Recall truly did blend perfectly with her other abilities and her potential downright terrified some of the teaching staff and students that shared her sses.

    Even though many of the male students desperately wanted to make some pass at the next Oracle, this dangerous girl always at her side prevented them from doing so.

    Granted, none of them wanted anything of substance with her. She may be the next Oracle, but she was still a Marked One. There was no future in a rtionship as she could not marry, could not inherit property, and could not join a noble house.

    Essentially all these boys were looking for was a distraction and reprieve from the stresses of school life and had assumed their position of power would grant them the ability to do just that.

    After a ten minute or so walk, they entered the female student dormitory. Lyrah and Natali lived in Grandpa Wally''s personal quarters, so they did not frequent the dorms often, save for attending tea parties out of politeness and duty.

    This time, though, Lyrah was on a mission and she was prepared for anything that mighte. With a dangerously mischievous glint in her eye, she nced backwards once at her best friend and smiled before she entered the dorms and knocked on a specific door.

    When the door opened, she heard a slight gaspe from the white-haired girl behind her. Standing in front of them was a stunning girl, about their age, with crimson hair and striking green eyes.

    Her beauty seemed otherworldly, but was marred by redness and puffiness around those green eyes. It was in to see that the girl was crying and Lyrah knew why.

    Another slight gasp escaped the red-head''s lips as well as she nced Lyrah up and down. The girl made no moves or attempts at conversation and simply allowed the red-headed beauty topletely take in the sights.

    "Hello, Rena von Petra." Lyrah said finally after determining that the girl had seen all she wanted to see. "My name is Lyrah, I am the daughter of the current Oracle. This wonderful girl behind me is Natali, my best friend and personal attendant. May wee in?"

    Rena nodded and stepped to the side with a gesture for the girls to enter. The room was rather untidy as it seemed she had made no effort to unpack, but the space was hers and hers alone, so it did not really matter how she kept it.

    "How do you know my name?" Rena asked when she gently closed the door behind them. She had a handkerchief in her hand and was gently dabbing around her eyes.

    "I thought I introduced myself as the daughter of the Oracle? As such I am the next in line to take the title¡­ ites with some advantages when ites to knowing things." Lyrah smiled gently. It seemed by seeing her face, Rena was again reminded of the reason for her tears.

    Natali''s expression had long since returned to its in emotionless state, but from her subtle bodynguage, it seemed the girl was rather annoyed. Maybe not with Rena, but probably with Lyrah for bringing her to meet the red-head she viewed as a rival.

    "What visions have you seen to know my name?" Rena asked with a blend of suspicion and hope.

    "Well to be frank¡­ my visions do not give me people''s names. I actually learned of you from a Lord Carmichael." She admitted.

    "Wally is here?!" Rena almost shrieked.

    "Yes. And he''s told me a bit about you¡­ and about Lucius¡­ now I have had only a few visions that included you, Lady Petra." Lyrah''s face turned serious. "Lucius on the other hand¡­ oh I have seen a lot about him."

    Rena''s eyes opened wide with shock. She nearly fell to her knees before Lh pleading with her hands and eyes, "Please. I need to know. Is he okay? Will he be okay? He was taken from me and I have heard nothing since¡­please¡­"

    "Taken from you? What is the boy to you?" Lyrah did her best to maintain a neutral tone. She already knew the answer. She had seen many things after all¡­ including some that she would prefer to not have seen.

    Rena''s shoulders fell as she seemed to resign herself to the mercy of the woman before her. It was as if she was willing to ept the ramifications of giving the truth.

    "He''s the love of my life¡­ my reason for being. We grew up together. Fought together. He was always by my side, and I his¡­" Rena finally answered.

    A single nce was all it took for Lyrah to realize that Natali was on the verge of breaking. There was a real possibility that if the girl squeezed her fists any harder, she might pop a blood vessel.

    Lyrah sighed to herself. Not everything in the future was set in stone and putting things in motion to achieve the future desired would take effort. However, for the best oue, it was something she had already decided to do.

    These two girls needed to bond and the only way to do that was through shared concern and uncertainty. It would be a painful road, but a necessary one.

    "I have seen a few oues. Unfortunately, the boy''s future is shrouded in uncertainty. Every nce yields a different result, so I cannot truly say what his future really holds." Lyrah finally answered. "I am sorry."

    "No¡­ I understand¡­" Rena whispered. "By the way¡­ why do you look so much like him?"

    "Hmm, you know I found that quite interesting as well when Master Wally showed me what he looked like. The world is certainly filled with fun coincidences, isn''t it." Lyrah''s voice returned to her cheery and peppy tone, which shocked both of the other girls in the room.

 Chapter 104: Stories

    Rena was sitting next to Lyrah at a long desk. Currently no one else was sitting around them. Other members of nobility and evenmoners with exceptional Compatibilities with Arts or Magic, had no interest in interacting directly with the young Oracle, her maid, or the red-headed disgrace.

    It had gotten out at the academy that Rena had been in a close, romantic rtionship with her body guard who was also a Marked One. When she realized that her cousin Thomas was also in attendance at the Academy, she realized who it was that had spread the information.

    Though, she spent no effort to deny the allegations. At first a fewdies of smaller noble houses attempted to interact with her, to curry favor with the daughter of the lord of the Petra family. After all, they were a household of such high ranking, it would only benefit them to curry some sort of favor despite the cost.

    However, when these nobledies attempted to provide Rena the opportunity to vocalize her denial, she refused to take it. Instead, she loudly proimed that she was in a rtionship with a Marked One named Lucius and that when he returned from war, she would continue to be with him as an adventurer.

    This deration of intent while surrounded by people dashed any potential conversation about the validity of the allegations and cemented the truth in the minds and hearts of the academy students. There were other rumors that spread, however, that continued the allegations in to much seedier territories.

    In reality, being known as the ''disgrace'' was quite tame whenpared to many of the other names that she had been called by fellow students. Though, they would never refer to her as such in anything more than hushed whispers.

    "You know, Rena." Lyrah giggled. "I am quite impressed the disy you made the other day. To think that you would confirm to the masses that you tossed the sheets with your body guard. Such topics would be the focus ofscivious novels, and yet here you are living out a noblewoman''s darkest fantasies!"

    Rena rolled her eyes at the girl''s behavior. At first she had thought that Lyrah was some sort of rtive of Lucius from his birth family, but after spending some time getting to know her, she realized that such things were almost impossible.

    First off, the girl had theplete opposite personality to Lucius. No matter where she went, she maintained a childlike aloofness, treating life itself as if it were a game to be yed. Nothing was ever serious with her, where for Lucius everything was serious.

    There were times that he was yful and teased and joked with her¡­ but those moments were few and restricted to the eyes and ears of Rena only.

    She found herself subconsciously touching the choker on her neck. No matter the situation, the attire, or the time of day, Rena never took the choker off. Were the cat-shaped pendant anything other than enchanted, she might have worn away at the intricate designs in the metal from how frequently she brushed it.

    This ritual had be a soothing practice to her and any time she was sad or worried, she would gently touch the choker and be reminded of Lucius'' warm embrace.

    "Was that a gift from him?"

    A soft voice, barely more than a whisper, interrupted Rena''s thoughts. Looking directly at her were the icy-blue eyes of Natali. They were not close¡­ for some reason the girl did not like her, but when it came to Lucius, there was a strangeradery with her that she did not quite understand.

    "Yes¡­ he gave this to me as a birthday present. It has an enchantment, though I do not know what kind. However, even so it is my most important treasure." She thumbed the cat charm and giggled quietly.

    "Why a cat?" Lyrah asked.

    Rena couldn''t help but blush. She could feel the tips of her ears burning from embarrassment. "Well¡­ when we first met I noticed his feline eyes and saw he was half-beastman. So when I brought him to my father''s estate, I told a soldier that I had found a stray cat to bring home."

    For some reason she thought she saw the corner of Lyrah''s mouth twitch, and not the pleasant kind. Though it vanished too quickly to really know for sure.

    "Ever since then, I would often refer to him as my pet cat. He was quite simr to one in his personality."

    "Do share. I would love to know more about how this Lucius boy is, and maybe how it was that he seduced the heart of a fair noblewoman." Lyrah teased.

    With a grin that grew wider as she spoke, Rena divulged many of the stories of their childhood. She did her best to leave out the worst bits, because she did not want to relive those horrors again.

    There were plenty of holes in the story from Lucius'' side because he never talked much about life prior to when they met. She also never asked. Something felt wrong about asking for stories before his father''s death since she med herself and her family for it.

    She did her best to portray his best qualities and how he was fiercely loyal to his friends and family. Lucius was also extremely tenacious and stopped at nothing to achieve his goals even when they seemed impossible.

    It was easy to share the stories of how he never gave up and continued to fight against the fate the world tried to throw against him.

    The story that really piqued the interest of the other girls was when he fought in the misty vige against an insane Marked One. He had only awakened his Thunder Magic after years of trying a little while before that battle, yet he still managed to break through into the Beginner Rank.

    Again, she left out several important details that would expose Lucius. Though Lyrah gave Rena a knowing smile as if she had witnessed the incident already. This fact did not surprise Rena one bit due to her own abilities.

    "It sounds like you two have been through a lot. The love you developed must have taken time." Lyrah finally said after Rena had finished the stories.

    "Yes¡­ I felt this for him for some time¡­ but it took that slow idiot almost five years to finally say that he loves me¡­" Rena pouted.

    "Well! Maybe in the future you can grant his adoptive mother her wish for many grandchildren!" Lyrah said with a wink before she yelped.

    Rena looked at the source of Lyrah''s difort and saw that Natali''s hand was firmly squeezing the ck-haired girl''s waist.

 Chapter 105: Assignment

    Kalliope sniffed the air. Other than blood and dust, there wasn''t much else around the area of interest. The blood was from their battle with a supply group that was trying to provide relief to Alorek forces outside Fort Se.

    A few weeks had passed since Alorek initiated their attack on the kingdom of Eroa and the human kingdoms simultaneously. Their forces were at least five to even ten times higher than was estimated thanks to their tactic of recing a whole city of people with soldiers in in clothes.

    However, Fort Se''s walls were strong and the forces of the Gray Wolf n that manned it were both tough and tenacious. The first attack was quick and unexpected and they lost arge number of men and many of their scouting and vanguard forces.

    When Alorek reached the walls, the fighting only intensified. It was the first time that Kalliope had seen such destruction and death in one ce. Even she could not keep her hands bloodless, having made her first kill directly on the field of battle.

    She remembered what it felt like, to take the life of another person. It was an enemy¡­ a pawn of the king that killed her brother. It was either him or her, and she had no other option than to make it her. And yet¡­

    The adrenaline in her body kept her focused for the rest of the fight. They had the advantage being the defenders on the walls, since the enemy had to approach the fort under fire, then either breach the gate or scale the walls.

    Kalliope was stationed up on the walls themselves, as requested by uncle Kalivas, while he protected the gates with a force of his own, personally trained elites. He was not trying to keep her from fighting; on the contrary, he fully expected her to have to fight. He simply wanted to put her in a situation that gave the most benefit.

    Five lives¡­ that''s how many she personally snuffed out of existence on her first day of battle. On the second day, she took ten more, then more, and more¡­ Alorek would not stop its advance, trying to rely on numbers to overwhelm the strongest fortress in all of Eroa.

    Everything they tried was in vain. Fort Se still stood. Kalivas, Eroa''s greatest soldier, still stood at its gates; defying the enemy''s might and daring them to continue to try.

    Currently, there was a lull in the fighting. The opposing armies watched each other carefully from across the battlefield. There were asional skirmishes from different scouting parties, but no more all out battles had happened since thest one two days ago.

    Kalliope desperately wished for the fighting to resume. She needed something, anything to distract her from the reality of her situation. Her new truth. The truth that she was the cause of death of another living person.

    As she noticed before, the air smelled of blood, and though her hands were clean, she could not see past the imaginary stains that covered them.

    Kalivas told her it was normal to feel this way. A warrior''s first kill is almost never easy. Even for him, taking a life was a heavy burden to bear. His only advice was for her to remember that the burden of loss was worse, and that in this world taking another''s life was often the cost of protecting those important to you.

    Try as she might, reframing her understanding of the situation in that way did not erase the pain from her heart. Though, it did lessen it to some extent.

    "Kalliope, Sir Kalivas requests your presence at the gates."

    A grizzled soldier wearing heavy armor and wielding arge hammer approached her from behind and informed her of the request.

    "Understood, I shall go to him at once."

    The soldier gave her a stiff salute and took over her position as watcher. There wasn''t much to see, aside from a sea of burnt corpses. One thing that all kingdoms followed in war was to burn the dead. Fighting against people was something they had prepared for, the undead, less so.

    A massive beast of a man with jet ck hair, ck cat ears, and a ck tail was standing just outside the massive metal gates of Fort Se. He was joking with some of the soldiers standing guard with him about one thing or another.

    Despite the morbidity of the situation, they did their best to keep up their spirits. Kalivas'' ears twitched as he noticed her approached and he turned to face her with aforting smile.

    "Hey there, my dear niece." His smile stayed on his face as he did his best to use aforting tone. "How are you feeling today. The quiet after battle is often the hardest to deal with."

    "That is true, Uncle. Thank you for your concern, but it is a problem that I must solve on my own. What do you need from me? You requested my presence?" She answered with a smile.

    Kalivas gave a nod of approval. "I''m assigning you to a special squad. You and a small team will be cutting around enemy lines. We have been inmunication with the Five Kings Union and they requested assistance in this endeavor."

    "Uncle?"

    "We are trying to interrupt their supply lines. Without supplies, enemies often be desperate, and when desperate, you make mistakes."

    Kalliope gave Kalivas a stiff salute. "Yes, sir."

    "Good. Now, be careful and do not attack any human forces. It is possible you run into our allies; if so, work together. Onest thing, they have a half-blood among their forces. They advised that we should avoid him if possible."

    "How will I know if it''s him? What does he look like? What is his name?"

    Kalivas'' face turned into aplicated expression. "He is called Lucius, and I do not know what he looks like. ording to the humanmanders, you only need follow the corpses to find that one."

    "I will avoid him."

    "On the contrary, they told us to avoid him. But if they made such a request, he must be powerful. I want to meet him, so I would request that if you can, make contact."

    "But the humans¡­"

    "Ignore them. You are a powerful beastman warrior. I doubt a half-blood will truly be a threat to you."

    Kalliope could not help but sigh. What she imagined her uncle meant was that he simply wanted to satisfy his curiosity, and maybe even fight him. She gave a slight bow and returned to the barracks to gather her things.

    Uncle had told her that her squad was already waiting outside the gates, she need only join them. It was unknown how long the mission wouldst, but he gave her amunication crystal so he could keep in touch with her.

    She was also to deliver daily reports and check-ins to ensure her safety. Knowing that her uncle was worried about her made her feel warm. If he was watching her back, then she would make it through this war just fine.

 Chapter 106: Reports

    Commander Laris looked at the reports in front of him and clenched his fist. He struck his desk so hard that the wood splintered under the blow.

    "That damned¡­"

    Written on the documents were the tallied losses for their own and the enemy''s forces in the battle they used as a distraction for their special units. At first, the battle was going well, then it turned ever so slightly south.

    They lost too many men and too quickly to draw out the reinforcements in the numbers they needed for the operation to be a sess. It was a purposefully destructive mission, but it would help buy time until the main army arrived.

    However, it was not supposed to be like this. ording to the observation teams, a few hours into the battle, the ground turned into a muddy mess from the water spells and mark abilities being used. Taking advantage of that, someone cast arge-scale Thunder spell.

    Witnesses report that a young man with ck hair was seen on the edge of the field was the one whounched the spell. Laris reached out to Mia to get confirmation that Lucius was the one who performed the spell, but she did not know.

    Her response still confirmed his suspicions because Lucius had apparently told her he was going to cause a distraction. Laris did not put it past the boy to have done such a thing.

    After the duel against his son, he realized that something was not right with the boy. He was too ustomed to killing. It was fortunate that he did not seem to relish in it, but he had long since epted the idea of causing death. Though, themander started to wonder if the sheerck of emotion rting to killing was worse than relishing in it.

    At least if someone enjoyed killing, you could expect that from them. For someone like that boy¡­ it was harder to predict when he would resort to such action.

    Granted, it was a war, so turning that mindset on the enemy was useful, the thing was, his attack hurt friend and foe alike. The staggering number of losses currently staring Commander Laris in the face numbered in the hundreds. It was hard to say how many were caused by the boy''s spell.

    They could have taken the time to locate corpses without any damage save the burns from the Thunder spell, but even that would not be an urate tally. The estimates for Alorek''s losses in that incident were almost double¡­ but it was not worth the cost.

    Laris sighed as he wrote up his report and sent it to the general he reported to. All the generals were normal humans, so none of them had left to join the front yet, but Laris did his best to keep his direct superior informed of all things.

    No doubt that upon receipt of this information, they would order his execution. Even though the humans did not care for Marked Ones as more than fodder, the fact that there was a warrior with such power that they likely could not control was not something they would deem as eptable.

    Once he had detailed the entirety of the battle, he made sure to include all the details he knew of the boy and then included a copy of the reports he had read. Waiting outside of his office was a guard assigned to follow him.

    "Take this to themunication post. Have a messenger hawk deliver this directly to Lord Richard von Petra. It contains information he absolutely must receive." Laris ordered.

    The guard snapped to attention and left to carry out his orders. The oldmander sighed again and went to go check on today''s batch of recruits. By this point their numbers were starting to dwindle day by day.

    He did not know how much longer they would have to hold out before the regr forces arrive, but they would have to do their best. Even though they were treated like garbage, the human kingdoms were still their home.

    If they stepped aside and let Alorek advance, their homes would be razed to the ground. It was not like they would receive better treatment under the rule of the Alorek king. If anything, that kind of future would be much, much worse.

    Once again, he found himself outside of the medical tent. There was no one impressive in today''s batch, so he was content to simply walk past the staging area without paying too much extra attention.

    Inside the medical tent, his son wasying in a bed surrounded by guards. They were stationed there to keep anyone from disturbing Laris'' son. After the duel with Lucius, he had been emotionally scarred.

    Losing so soundly was hard on his warrior''s pride, especially since it was his first loss in general. It was also such an overwhelming defeat it was no doubt that his dear son was in such a state.

    Even though his physical wounds have long since healed, the trauma kept the boy in bed, refusing to move. Any other soldier would have been tossed on the battlefield and told to fight and survive or cower and die, but he would not do that to his own son.

    "You''ll get your''s Lucius. I am sure that your sins will follow you to the depths of hell where you belong." Laris growled, looking at the whimpering form of his precious son. "Count the days, boy."

    Richard von Petra was an extremely honorable man and he would not stand for the atrocity Luciusmitted. He may not care much for the Marked Ones on an individual level, but to kill one''s allies was one of the greatest attrocities a warrior couldmit.

    One thing Laris wanted now, that he knew he could not have, was the opportunity to be the one to present that boy''s head on a spike. He vowed that whoever would be assigned to do the deed would be given every resource he had. Everything and everyone in Watcher''s Retreat would be at their beck and call.

 Chapter 107: Fated Meeting

    "Lucius, can we talk about this?"

    Mia was absolutely exasperated. They had been behind enemy lines for almost two weeks now and had taken on a handful of caravans. Most of them had deliveries of weapons and armor, but this current one seemed to be food and water.

    Instead of being manned by groups of soldiers, the escorts of this one were clearly civilians. The head of the group was currently on his knees in front of their scout with a machete pressed against the man''s neck.

    "Lucius, they are civilians. We just burn the carts and leave." Renton agreed. He tried to step up, but was cautious. He was worried that one sudden move might set the boy off.

    "No one is a civilian in war." Lucius growled.

    "Come on, they have no weapons, no guards, no will to fight, step back Lucius." Mia said quietly.

    She watched the boy''s bodynguage and it showed no sign of him relenting. However, she noticed his eyes flick off to the distance.

    "Be ready." He said with in a low tone.

    The caravan leader sighed in relief as Lucius pulled his weapon away from his neck. A secondter he leaped backwards and brought his machete into a defensive position in front of his chest. At that same instant, a golden blur collided with him and they rocketed backwards into the sand.

    Quickly following suit, three more blurs suddenly appeared from across the horizon as the bared down on their location. From what Mia could tell, they were also beastmen, and they all seemed to share simr qualities, having wolf-like ears and tails.

    Renton and Mia intercepted the attacks of the other two, while Marie and Lynn moved to secure the wagons and make sure the civilians did not try to escape with the supplies while they were distracted.

    "Who are you?" one of the beastmen shouted.

    "I could ask the same of you!" Mia roared as she pushed the warrior away. Close quartersb was not her specialty and they were basically surrounded by desert sand with no cover, so her usual tactic of disengage and disappear would not work.

    Thankfully, her decision to disengage gave her a moment of rity to process the situation. In that extra moment, she looked at the breastte of the enemy''s armor. On it was the symbol of a roaring bear.

    "Wait! You are Eroans? Look! We are humans!" Mia shouted out.

    Both of the warriors facing off against them stopped in their tracks immediately. They scanned the faces of the people present carefully and were able to discern that they were telling the truth. Granted it was not hard to tell, since theycked ears, tails, or scales.

    "But the boy with you¡­ he smelled¡­ Shit!" one of the Eroans shouted. "We have to stop Kalliope! Stay here!"

    Just as he was about to run off, a massive shower of sand rained over them, temporarily blocking out the sun. It filled Mia''s mouth and eyes and she shielded her face as best she could, using her cloak. When she finally felt the sand stop raining on her, she nced up and saw arge divot in the sand dune near them.

    Laying inside it on their back was a beastman girl with blonde hair, wolf ears, and a bushy tail. On top of her with his hand around her throat was Mia''s ck sheep.

    "Lucius! Stop they are Eroans! Our allies!"

    "Lucius?" one of the warriors blurted out. "So that''s him?"

    "You know of him?" Renton asked. Mia was not paying attention to the conversation because she was worried that the boy was going to kill that girl.

    However, just as she thought hope was lost, he let go of the beastman''s throat and began to walk over to them.

    Mia had no idea what happened over the sand dune, but Lucius clearly won, though not without cost. He seemed to have several scratches on his face and armor and there were definitely more than a few red marks that would probably turn into bruises.

    The wolf-girl, Kalliope, stood up and was coughing while gently rubbing her neck. She also was covered in a few scrapes and cuts, but otherwise none the worse for wear.

    "Thank you for listening this time¡­" Mia said.

    ******

    Kalliope and her two team members had been scouring the desert territories of Alorek for about a week after she was given the order by her Kalivas to do so. In that time they had only run into a few supply groups.

    Of the ones they ran into, most had recovered from attacks by other people. It had seemed that the human forces had been doing their best to participate in the joint mission to disrupt the enemy''s stocks of goods and necessities.

    They ran into a few of the human groups, though they did not appear to be faring all that well. From what Kalliope could tell, they were very poorly trained, if at all. Their armor was basically pped together.

    Their movements were sloppy, cohesion was basically zero, and it made her wonder how they managed to survive as long as they did. The only thing they all had inmon was the fact that they appeared to be Marked Ones.

    That was when it hit her. In every country, Marked Ones are looked down upon due to the demon blood in their veins that cursed them with the marks. However, things were worse in human territories than beastman ones.

    While both groups forced Marked Ones into service, beastmen at least provided proper support and training to them as soldiers. A few special Marked Ones were granted additional leave, like Kalivas, who was basically treated like a hero thanks to his prowess.

    Beastmen respected the strong, no matter their origin. And while being a Marked One made things a lot harder, it did not make them impossible. This was different for humans, where being marked was a life sentence to a sub-par existence.

    However, none of these things mattered at the moment as Kalliope was flying forward with every ounce of her strength towards this new supply group. It was manned by simple civilians, yet the attackers currently confronting them were about to murder innocents.

    Her target was a ck-haired boy who looked prepared to take the head of a man groveling on his knees. Unfortunately, the boy saw hering somehow and managed to block her strike.

    He had jumped into the air and allowed himself to be forced back by the impact of her attack. They continued to fly backwards through the air before skidding to a stop on the other side of a sand dune.

    Her men were following behind her but they stopped to confront the others that appeared too be on the boy''s side. The facial expression on this person before her shocked her.

    It was devoid of emotion. There was no sign of anger, frustration, confidence, anxiety¡­ simply nothing. She could not help but produce a low growling sound from her throat as she felt her body strengthen itself as she initiated a shift into her more bestial form.

    Fur grew along her legs and arms, her teeth became sharper, her senses improved, and her muscles rippled. She could not maintain a shifted form for a very long time, but she assumed it would be enough to fight the boy off.

    "[Lux: Enhance Strength], [Lux: Enhance Speed]" Kalliope had no talent for healing spells, but she could use enhancements spells from the Light Magic she waspatible with.

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Charge], [Celestia''s Grace: Heavenly de]"

    A strange aura burst from the boy. Magical lightning danced formed at his feet, wrapping itself around his body like a thousand snakes wrapping around their prey. His weapon began to glow with a pale light as it became coated with some sort of unknown energy.

    The heavy feeling pouring off of him felt simr to when she saw Kalivas use his mark, which was something he did not do very often. She also recognized the feeling of mana weaving throughout the boy''s body.

    "Mana Maniption¡­ but it''s slightly different¡­" She mumbled.

    Kalliope blinked and her opponent was gone. When she blinked a second time, he reappeared right in front of her, with a glowing weapon narrowly missing a sh at her neck. If she had not used her enhancement spells and shifting to speed up her movement and reaction time, then her head would be rolling in the dust.

 Chapter 108: Clash Between Allies

    The onught of attacks pushed her back at first, but she managed to begin to hold her ground. At first, the speed and force surprised her, but after gathering her wits, she realized that speed was the main problem.

    The actual impact of the hits was rough, but not difficult to manage. She was at the high end of the spectrum for Intermediate Rank and was pushing at the door to a breakthrough.

    Whatever rank this boy was, it was enough to hold her off, but she could still win, as long as she kept her guard up. It was not impossible for her to still lose if she faltered.

    "[Sword Arts: Heavy sh]!" Mana wrapped around her de as she made a powerful downward sh.

    The attack missed it''s target, but the force of the blow sent a wave of sand off into the distance. This closed off one area of attack since it was likely the enemy would avoid the cloud she had made, meaning she only had to defend three sides instead of four.

    "[Sword Arts: Grand sh]" This attack would send out a de of energy that matched the shape of her swing.

    There was no set target for her, but the arc of the swing would cover two more of the three sides, meaning the boy only had one more ce to attack from.

    However, when she turned to defend that space, no one was there. Her wolf ears twitched as she heard the whizzing of a de cutting through air. Kalliope only just managed to bring her sword up to deflect the attack, but the impact was stronger than expected.

    She rolled backward in the sand beforeing back to a standing position. "[Beast Arts: Predator''s Presence]"

    Mana projected the sensation of a predator bearing down on the boy from behind him. It was a skill meant to momentarily distract someone to create an opening.

    The only thing the Art did was bring a slight grin to the opponent''s face.

    "[Forsaken Arts: Weapon Breaker]"

    "Shit! Forsaken Ar¡­"

    Before Kalliope could finish her sentence, the boyunched at her again. She had no need to block his blows because he seemed to be purposefully targeting the sword in her hand.

    It was all she could do to keep it from being knocked out of her grasp. In that moment, she had an idea. On the fifth swing from the boy, she let go of her grip. The suddenck of resistance through the enemy off his rhythm.

    Kalliope used this opportunity to reach for one of her hidden daggers. "[Dagger Arts: Pierce]!"

    A mana infused dagger flew from her hand at the boy''s head. He only barely managed to dodge the attack, having the weapon only graze his cheek, leaving behind arge cut.

    "[Shield Arts: Double Bash]"

    Not leaving the opening unexploited, Kalliope pressed her slight advantage and mmed into the enemy with the full force of her Shield Arts. He was staggered backwards as he was struck by a wave of mana in the shape of her shield, then a second time by her actual shield.

    He looked upwards with fury in his eyes. "[Forsaken Arts: Sand Veil]"

    She barely noticed his sword as it shed into the sand, spraying it everywhere. Instead of following a natural path, the sand seemed to instead target Kalliope''s eyes, ears, and mouth, drowning out her senses. She began to panic as she struggled to breathe.

    Suddenly, she felt a hand grab around her throat, and the sensation of standing on the ground soon turned into a feeling of weightlessness. A momentter, thest of the air in her lungs escaped as she mmed t onto her back.

    "Lucius!"

    She only barely registered that someone had called out the name of the boy she was supposed to look for. The boy who was now on top of her with his hand firmly pinning her in ce red at her with glowing, cat-like eyes. He had four sharpened canines and an extra set of fangs.

    Just like the reports said, he was a half-blood. Lucius released his grip on her and began to walk away. Kalliopey there for a moment before bringing herself to her feet with a heavy series of coughs. She touched her throat lightly and winced at the pain.

    "That''s going to leave a mark."

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Bolt]"

    The boy that was walking away from her casually flicked his wrist and sent a spell towards the gathering of wagons. All of the people that were in them seemed to have been gathered near her and Lucius'' allies.

    Still, the wagons and their supplies went up in mes and the sand underneath seemed to turn to ss. From what Kalliope knew, Lightning Bolt was a much less powerful version of Lightning Strike. Thetter could only be used outside because it the attack came from the sky, where the former could be shot out of someone''s hand.

    The n was to destroy the supplies anyway, so it wasn''t like he did anything bad by taking that action. Something about it still irritated her though. Maybe it was the switch from the anger he had in thest part of the battle to a calm demeanor again? Kalliope had no idea.

    "So, what will we do with them?" a woman wearing a dark cloak asked.

    Kalliope found it odd she was wearing dark clothing in the desert, but it was far from her ce to judge these humans. Of the other units they had run into, a simple nce alone was enough to determine that they were much more skilled at working together.

    Though they shared the same feature as the other humans they ran into, they were all Marked Ones. There was the cloaked one, a monk, a warrior, a mage, and then the boy, Lucius.

    The supply group coward behind the humans in some sort of weak effort to get away from Lucius, which Kalliope found odd. Something else she found odd was the presence that Lucius gave off. There was something strangely familiar about him.

    No matter how she racked her brain, nothing seemed to click. Where is this feelinging from¡­

    "Kalliope, was it?" The cloaked woman approached her. "My name is Mia, and this is my unit. Thank you for cooperating with ending the altercation."

    "It''s no matter. I was told explicitly to get along with that boy with you." She answered.

    Mia raised an eyebrow. "With Lucius? How do you know about him?"

    "Your leadership warned us about him. I don''t expect your return home to be a positive experience for him." Kalliope said. "However, mymander at Fort Se ordered me to work with you if we found you. So, shall we continue hunting down these caravans?"

    "I don''t see the problem with that at all." Mia answered with a smile. "Having more beastmen on our side will help us ambush with more efficiency. We have been relying mostly on him, so the more the merrier."

    "Sounds like a deal. One thing I will ask. Mymander wants to meet him. So, if when our mission ends, or if we end up within a reasonable distance of the Eroan border, we will detour to Fort Se." Kalliope requested.

    Mia nodded in agreement. It seemed they were in agreement. The entire time, Kalliope kept sneaking nces at Lucius, but was unable to discern anything. His attention was simply focused on the horizon as if he was looking for something.

    She reached her own senses out to see if she could pick anything up, but she felt nothing. After a quick conversation, they agreed to release the civilians and allow them to run free. If they survived the desert, then they kept their lives, if not¡­ well natural selection took its ce.

    Lucius voted to simply kill them, but everyone dissented arguing that they should at least have a chance. He eventually relented and the argument was settled.

    When night fell on thendscape, the heat changed to a deep chill that seeped into the bones. Everyone had prepared for such temperature differences and had a plentiful supply of gear to keep them warm at night.

    There was no shrubbery nearby to use as kindling for a fire, but lighting one would be a bad idea anyway. Since there was not much out here, it would immediately reveal their positions to monsters and enemies alike.

    They could run into another allied unit, but that was far less likely than simply exposing themselves to the enemy. Kalliope''s rest that night was restless as she kept one eye open. She had no qualms with the humans, but Lucius was not someone she trusted. He caught her careful nces at him and met them with a sly smile, however he did not say anything.

    "What a strange and terrifying boy."

 Chapter 109: Correcting Mistakes

    Two dozen men and women in both armor and fancy outfits bickered with one another around a long, rectangr table. At the head of the table was an empty seat, though that empty seat was nked by two guards.

    Everyone in the room fell into silence as the person that chair was waiting for arrived. As he approached his ce everyone stood out of respect.

    The man was King Aleksander of Arcadios. Also present at the table were the other leaders of the Five Kings Union as well as their greatest generals. The topic of discussion today was regarding troop movements.

    "Nice of you to finally join us, Aleksander." A seductive voice cooed. It came from Lady Voltara al Famyn.

    Richard was not a fan of her, seeing her as a dishonorable seductress who slept and stabbed her way to the top. Though he held that opinion of most of the nobility of the Wisteria Concord.

    "Yes, I have. I hear the vanguard forces at Watcher''s Retreat are faring poorly?" Aleksander stated.

    "That is correct, my liege." Richard interrupted.

    It was rude to interject into the conversation, but as one of the highest-ranking nobles in the kingdom, and the general overseeing the forces installed at Watcher''s Retreat, he wanted to get the meeting moving quickly. Besides, he had information to share.

    "Richard, you have information for us I take it? Normally, while blunt, you do not act so rashly without cause." Lady al Famyn said with a sly smile.

    "I received a letter recently from Commander Laris detailing a recent skirmish." He said, ignoring Voltara''s gaze.

    "Welle, spit it out. What information do you have for us?" The king of Docia demanded. His name was Martin Docia and he was known for being impatient¡­as well as his ugly, rat-like face.

    "In a recent battle, our forces suffered massive casualties numbering just under two thousand after all losses were tallied. In that same battle, Alorek was assumed to have lost almost twice that number."

    "That is good news, is it not?" King Aleksander asked.

    Richard shook his head. "Normally, yes. However, the cause for concern is that it is estimated that just about a third of those losses, were the cause of a single person."

    "A single soldier wiped out that many Alorek warriors? That is good news!" King Docia shouted out with a massive grin.

    "No. It is not." Richard countered. He knew the look on his face was rather grim. "That individual is assumed to be responsible for about a third of all losses. Both allied and enemy."

    The room erupted in gasps and shouts. To think that a single person was responsible for so many deaths, let alone friend and foe alike. They could notprehend the ability to do something like that.

    "How? How was one individual able to do that?" Lady al Famyn nervously asked.

    "Luck and timing mostly. But we should not discount their power."

    Richard went on to exin the details that Laris had included for him. The other generals and leaders of the Union listened with rapt attention, as though they hung on his every word.

    Many of those in attendance had dark expressions of fear, anxiety, and general concern. Though the person was not inherently powerful alone, the situation in which they were able to amplify their magic due to the circumstances of the battlefield was concerning.

    "What is the identity of this individual?" Aleksander asked in an icy tone.

    Richard sighed and looked over to his brother, Thomas'' father, Andre von Petra. Andre had a sly smile on his face and gestured for him to continue. Richard nodded in understanding.

    "It was a Marked One from my domain. He was formerly employed by my house as the bodyguard to my daughter, Rena." He said to a room filled with quiet. "He possesses the Forsaken Arts, Thunder Magic, and has an Unknown, Lethal-Grade mark."

    "This boy was in the service of your house? Yet you do not know his mark?" King Docia questioned.

    "Correct. I spoke with the Adventurer''s Guild and it was allegedly reported to them that he had discovered his mark''s abilities. However, the receptionist who tested him, as well as those present during his testing, all report having no memory of his abilities." Richard answered honestly.

    It was true. While Rena and the boy were running around the countryside doing quests, he kept tabs on them through contacts in the guild. He found out that Lucius registered his mark, but for some reason everyone involved either disappeared, or forgot that it happened in the first ce.

    "What is the boy''s name?"

    "Lucius. He was the adoptive son of the former captain of my guard and a maid of my household. When he left for battle, he wasst recorded as a Novice Rank. However, he is likely stronger than that now. Also¡­"

    "Also what, Richard?" Aleksander pressed.

    "He can use Mana Maniption. He was educated along with my daughter by Lord Carmichael."

    Some of the faces in the room turned even darker. People with the ability to use Mana Maniption were rare, and dangerous. What made them even more dangerous is they might eventually break into Channeling, which opened the possibility of silent casting of magic.

    "Well, what do you have nned to deal with this?" King Docia demanded. His statement was met with a few hearty shouts of agreement.

    "I have hired a special assassin, with the help of Andre. He and Thomas have had dealings with this individual a few times in the past, for reasons I will pretend to not know." He informed them.

    "Will it work?"

    "Yes, the assassin and their group on their way to the battlefield now. Currently Lucius is behind enemy lines disrupting their supply lines. So, for the moment, he is rtively harmless."

    There were some murmurs of agreement and nodding heads from the other members. Finally, King Aleksander spoke. "Thank you for the report, Richard. We appreciate your cooperation, and your expediency in solving the matter. For that, as well as to not disgrace you further than your daughter already has. Your punishment provided by the gods is sufficient."

    The king''s statement inspired a few chuckles from some of those who disliked him, but that did not bother Richard. He knew that it would get out no matter what. Andre would have seen to that. On top of that, he has been made aware of Rena''s antics at the Academy.

    At this point there was little to do. So he simply bowed his head. "Thank you for your mercy, my liege."

    Aleksander nodded. "Now, onto troop movements."

 Chapter 110: Mobilization

    Commander Arturo walked swiftly through the halls of the castle, his footsteps and the clinking of his armor were the only sounds he made. His eyes shined with determination as he made his way to the barracks where his personal forces slept and trained.

    After the meeting was over, it was determined that Arturo and his forces would be mobilized alongside the Petra forces simultaneously to reinforce Watcher''s Retreat first. After that, Docia would send in its forces. Wisteria had already ordered its standard troops to mobilize before they held the meeting.

    After Docia''s arrival to the field, Paede and Keinydd would remain on standby waiting for providing additional reinforcements, or until the Union made arge push.

    Granted these ns included simply the first fewpanies of soldiers. There was still no massive mobilization of the five human kingdoms'' full military. However, each nation did move the bulk of their armies to the furthest edges of their own borders to ensure rapid mobilization.

    Only Wisteria held back because then they would have ced their entire army on the field of battle and that would put an unnecessary amount of strain on one single nation. Since the entirety of the Union were under attack, the different nations needed to equally participate.

    As Arturo approached the barracks, he heard the rhythmic sound of steel shing against steel. Currently his troops were running through their basic drills and exercises. Knowing this, he could not help but have a smile on his face.

    His men always made him proud with their firm resolve to train on a daily basis. The moment he made his presence known in the training grounds, everyone immediately stopped and snapped to attention with firm salutes.

    ""Sir!""

    "At ease men!" Arturo barked out. "Ready yourselves and rest for the day. Tomorrow at first light we march to Watcher''s Retreat to reinforce those sorry excuses for an army made of Marked Ones! They softened the target for us, so let us advance and show them how its done!

    "We will take the fight to Alorek, regain ournds, and put those filthy sand-loving beastmen back in their ce: Under the thumb of the Five Kings Union!"

    His rousing speech was followed by roaring cheers from his men. Arturo gazed at his soldiers with pride, satisfied with how well they have adapted to his harsh regimen.

    There was no doubt in his mind that this war would be long, difficult, and deadly. Many of these faces greeting him with smiles and cheers would vanish from the world, but they would do so with honor.

    Arturo then dismissed them to gather their things, write letters to loved ones, and rest before beginning their march the next day. He turned around and saw a noble, red-headed man looking at him.

    "Lord Petra."

    "Commander Arturo."

    "Do you really think those assassins will be enough to correct your mistake? If he had the ability to kill that many people on that scale, what good will a few assassins be?" Arturo did not measure his tone. He allowed every ounce of vitriol to seep from his words.

    "You are right that it presents a risk. However, one thing I know, is that if he survives that¡­ and somehow returns to our kingdom, he will seek out my daughter at the academy. We can strike then, should all else fail." Richard said.

    The man then gave him an description of the boy per hisst known appearance. While his physical description could change somewhat from the field of battle, the dead giveaway would be his strange eyes.

    "Look for those eyes, Arturo, and you will find him. I will not get in the way of anyone who wishes to end that boy. The promise I made to his father has long since run its course, so please, disseminate this information to your men. The bounty I set for the assassins will be given to any person who brings me his head."

    Arturo eyed the nobleman closely. It truly appeared as though Richard wanted this boy dead. "What of your daughter? Given what information you shared today, there is little doubt that this is the same Marked One that seduced her. What will you do if she finds out about this?"

    Richard answered quickly, and without hesitation. "Her opinion does not matter. She made her choice in regards to the family already. These are consequences she created for herself, now she must pay for them."

    Arturoughed, and then waved the nobleman away. They were to be travelingpanions on the way to Watcher''s Retreat. Petra had brought his forces with him and they were currently camped outside of the capital awaiting orders from their lord.

    Though he knew that he would feel the same way given the situation, Arturo could not help but feel a little sorry for the girl that Lord Petra called his daughter. Many fathers liked to spoil their daughters, especially so when they were their only child.

    However, it seemed that was not the case for such a staunch and resolute man as Richard von Petra. He was well known for putting honor and duty above all else, even his own family and friends. For him, duty to the kingdom came first. It was something Arturo respected, but that did not make him like the man any more. An ass was still an ass, even if he has a reason.

    By the time light peaked over the horizon the next morning, the troops were already on the move. With Arturo and Petra''s forcesbined, they numbered nearly fifteen thousand men. Five thousand belonged to him, while the rest served Lord Petra.

    He found himself excited to finally see the fighting prowess of the infamous Petra domain. Every single soldier in this formation experienced untold horrors and hardships beginning from a young age to be epted where they were. Petra epted no weakness among its troops.

    Arturo could see it on their faces. They were already battle hardened and prepared for death and blood. It was impressive and slightly terrifying in a way. Though the biggest emotion Arturo felt for the battles ahead, was excitement.

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 111: Ruined Plans

    "Lord Zethis! Lord Zethis!"

    The king, who was swiftly walking through the halls of his pce, turned around and closed his hands around the throat of the messenger who interrupted him. There was a sudden cracking sound as he then pinned the messenger against the wall.

    "What is it?" He growled at the man. Zethis'' eyes shed and fur began to grow along his arms, neck, and face. His muscles rippled.

    Out of rage, Zethis identally shifted to his more bestial form. The hair on his neck grew into a massive mane, showing off his bloodline of a lion. Sweat dripped from the messenger in response to the aura of fear his king exuded.

    "Speak."

    "My king, our supply groups areing under attack. Over thest month we have lost contact with at least two dozen different supply groups."

    "And the depot at Alvora?"

    Alvora was the city that they had reced the citizenry with military personnel. It became the residence for additional reinforcements, acted as a rear guard, and was the central supply depot for both the Eroan and Union fronts.

    Alvora was the key to their war efforts and without it, the war would fail. Their entire offensive was pinned on Alvora being a supply depot. There should be enough supplies to wage war for nearly a decade before needing to reinforce it.

    If Alvora fell, Alorek would have no choice but to concede defeat. There was no worry about a counter offensive, since neither Eroa nor the human kingdoms wanted anything to do with their kingdom''snd.

    Zethis spit in frustration. "Send word to the garrisons. Reinforce the city with as many Master Rank and Advance Rank soldiers as we can summon. Also, from now on, deliveries ur without a minimum of four Advance Ranks. Go."

    He threw the servant to the ground whonded with a loud thud and let out a sharp yelp. The servant rapidly stood up and limped away at a speed that impressed even the king.

    Zethis was furious at the whole situation. The war was not supposed to start when it did. Thanks to the early start, the dungeon raids in the human kingdoms, particrly the Grand Raid in Arcadios did not ur and his distraction was unable to bear fruit.

    Before being interrupted by more bad news, he was on his way to find out why. The formermander over his forces at the border was currently imprisoned in the pce under charges of treason for initiating an assault early.

    The fool''s actions might very well cost Alorek the war. There was still a chance, so Zethis would not back down, but if the odds were slim to achieve anything other than a stalemate. He would be yet another foolish king who bit off more than he could chew.

    Sounds of screaming and yelping tickled his ears as he came closer to the dungeons. They were dark, damp, and smelled of blood, sweat, and other unspeakable bodily secretions.

    At the far end of the rows of cells was the source of the cries. Inside this particr cage was a female beastwoman of reptilian descent. Instead of ears, she possessed a row of sharp teeth in her mouth and a forked tongue. However, she did have a tail like most other species did.

    Every time her prison guard struck her with the whip in his hand, she would cry out in pain and blood would spray on the wall behind her.

    "My, my, my¡­" Zethis announced his presence in a hushed voice. The prison guard bowed and stepped to the side, ceasing his charge''s punishment. "General Elzha¡­ taking time getting to know the other residents of your new home I see?"

    Her pink eyes, with reptilian slits glowered at him in defiance. "Zethis, the pretender."

    Elzha screamed as her words earned her another strike from the guard. Zethis held his hand to have the man refrain from continuing.

    "Heh¡­ how merciless a king you are." Elzha choked out. "What do you want my liege?"

    Thest two words dripped out of her mouth like a poison. It was clear she held no respect for her lord that stood before her. Zethis was surprised, though it did not show on his face.

    Before now, General Elzha was a fiercely loyal servant to the throne. Many times, Zethis had met with her and he truly respected her ingenuity and battle prowess. Never before had she given any indication of defiance to him, or the kingdom.

    Even if she hated him as a person, she would never be so reckless as to endanger the very kingdom out of her petty dislike of him.

    "I only wish to know why. Tell me why and your death will be swift."

    "Death¡­ death means nothing! Fast or slow, in the end it is the same. Today or tomorrow, in the end it is the same. You, me, or the kingdom¡­ in the end it is all the same."

    The once proud general began cackling on the ground. Tears fell from her eyes as theughter became louder and more maddening. Not many things scared him as a proud and powerful warrior, but this scene definitely unnerved him.

    "Oh, Mighty King Zethis¡­ Alorek will not fall. Eroa¡­ will not fall¡­ the human kingdoms will not fall¡­"

    "That''s good."

    Elzha beganughing again before a tiny cracking sound echoed out of her mouth. Zethis immediately recognized it as the cracking of a tooth. He and the guard attempted to rush the prisoner before she could swallow the poison, but they were toote.

    Elzha''s eyes turned milky-white and foam began to pool at the corners of her mouth. She copsed on the ground and began to spasm uncontrobly.

    By the time her body settled, she moaned out herst words, "¡­world¡­rejects¡­gods and betrayers¡­ beasts¡­ devour all¡­she showed me¡­ the Throne of Creation."

    It was a horrible way to die, though Zethis found himself realizing she deserved it, he could not help but shudder at what he had just witnessed. He quickly turned around and left the dungeon. He needed to get to the council chambers immediately.

    It did not matter how long it took or what it took, he needed to find the name of every ''she'' that interacted with Elzha from the time of her assignment to her imprisonment.

    "Gods, beasts, world, and devouring¡­ ramblings of a lunatic in the throes of death. No more, no less." Zethis mumbled, trying in vain tofort his own unease.

 Chapter 112: Assassins

    Ever since birth, Andre has yed second fiddle to his eldest brother. All that could ever be heard in his home was ''Can you believe Richard did..'', ''Richard was able to¡­'', ''Why can''t our other sons be more like Richard''

    Everything in his parents'' pathetic lives revolved around his elder brother. The perfect warrior, the perfect strategist, the perfect student, the perfect man¡­ the perfect son.

    Oh, how he would have loved to see the horror on their parents'' faces to know that their ''perfect'' child could only sire a daughter. Not only that, but the daughter he created opened her legs for a filthy Marked One

    It brought Andre great joy to see his perfect brother be brought so very low¡­ and by the same child he graciously spared at the cost of a retainer''s simple life. Revenge tasted sweet after all.

    But this was not the end, no Andre had more he wanted. More he needed. Under no circumstance would he be able to take over the mantle of the house, but his son Thomas could. Thanks to Richard''s little slut, the path was clear¡­ but it still was not enough.

    Richard needed to be brought lower and lower. It would not be enough until the great leader of House Petra was nothing more than a shell, a husk of his former self.

    The one thing he held dearer than any other, was his honor and loyalty to the kingdom. Nothing could strip his loyalty, but his honor and reputation could be shattered.

    Andre had rmended the assassin group to hunt down the boy to Richard. They were rather infamous amongst the more unscrupulous nobles for being efficient and ruthless. He had them in his employ for quite some time and simply loaned their services to his brother in a time of need.

    The leader of the group was a Runner. A Marked One that avoided military drafts. She was swift, ruthless and a master of infiltration. Her twopanions were dangerous as well, the perfect supporters for the assassin leader.

    When he first met the elven woman, he was terrified of her. She had jet ck hair and amber eyes with a slightly red hue. Her very presence threatened him, even though she had been so rxed. At any moment she could have taken Andre''s life and they both knew it.

    She asked him for the details of the job and instantly informed him that it would not be a problem. The price was much less than expected and that surprised him, but Andre would not look a gift horse in the mouth. That was several months ago, and when he met with the assassin again to discuss them helping Richard, she readily agreed to that as well.

    Though she demanded that the contract with Richard be done directly and alone. Andre had no concern with that, though he would not have voiced something so rash in front of her.

    Now that they were on the march to Watcher''s Retreat, Andre spent more and more time with the elf and her party. None of them spoke much and that was very unsettling.

    However, Andre found himselfpletely distracted after a few days of marching by staring at his brother''s back and imagining all the ways he was going to make him fall. The rage nearly consumed him and only grew the longer he stayed on the march.

    At times he was tempted to simply ask the assassin to just kill Richard, but they would have refused since it would void the contract they had with the lord.

    Even though they were murderers for hire, they at least had some honor.

    Days and weeks passed by slowly as they marched from before dawn until dusk, hurrying to reinforce the front lines and hopefully push Alorek back.

    Loathe though he was to admit, it was good this battle would have Richard for it. Andre was not a tactician, so he would get the use he could while he had the time.

    "Hey, porky."

    One of the assassin''s henchmen, a human wielding a bow, called out to him. He had gotten ustomed to the rude behavior and let it go.

    "Why do you guys want this kid dead so bad?"

    "I don''t really care whether he lives or dies. Honestly a live would be better because it would give him more opportunities to besmirch Richard''s name¡­ Hell! If the boy asked me, I''d lock him in a room with my niece and let them go to town! Ha!"

    Andre noticed the archer mimic a gagging motion. "You nobles are gross. But hey, money is money. I was just curious if the boy was a big shot or something."

    He couldn''t help but snort. "Hardly. He''s amoner, adopted by othermoners, and is a Marked One¡­ need I say more?"

    "Watch what you say, the boss is liable to hear you and I ain''t too sure she will take a liking to you insulting marks and whatnot."

    Andre began to say something, but he felt his blood turn to ice as he felt something sharp and cold against the back of his neck. Someone clicked their tongue before a voice as sweet as honey, but as deadly as venom, spoke, "My dear Andre, please say it isn''t so! Don''t think highly of us Marked Ones?"

    "No! no no, I could never think of YOU that way, madam."

    "Aw how sweet! You are too kind."

    The woman''s de slowly traced its way around the side of his neck before resting under his chin. He felt the t of the de force his chin and face upwards so he met the gorgeous assassin in the eyes.

    They glowed in the darkness like Elves and Beastmen eyes typically do. There was a sense of excitement behind them due to them being only one more day''s travel from their destination.

    Slowly, she smiled and removed her dagger from his throat. He finally felt able to breathe again and took in a big breath of fresh air.

    "Once we reach the fort, make contact with the Commander of the Marked Ones¡­ Laris or Larry¡­Leroy¡­ something like that." Andre advised, subconsciously rubbing his neck.

    "Of course! The man with the supplies. I hear we can have anything we need."

    The smile on her face was seductive, yet terrifying and made Andre gulp despite himself.

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 113: The Ambush [Part 1]

    Lucius peeked out of from the sand that was covering him. Several dozen feet behind him, the rest of their task group were also hidden in the sand. It was the only surefire way to hide from the noses of beastmen.

    Alternative ways of inhibiting their senses would also negatively affect Lucius and their threerades from Eroa. If it didn''t also risk affecting himself, Lucius would have simply done unleashed a vile concoction they carried that was made from a blend of rotten fruit and Swamp Rat meat.

    Hey there under a pile of sand for several hours, unmoving and waiting for their prey. A group of wagons was scheduled toe through the small valley a little further from their position and the easiest path to it was through this t area they hid themselves in.

    When the wagons began to approach, Lucius took count of the visible personnel. There appeared to be about fifteen warriors. Each of the five wagons were being manned by people in in clothes, but they did not seem to be true civilians, rather soldiers trying to hide what they were from onlookers.

    The sight put a slight grin on his face. It seemed they were finally adapting to their attacks over thest few weeks. Supply groups were fewer and less frequent, but they brought with themrger groups of guards. This one in particr smelled like a trap, but in his mind, the best way to handle a trap was to trigger it under his own circumstances.

    Soon, the caravan came within range. "[Tempestas: Lightning Charge]!"

    Sand sprayed everwhere as the young man seemed to appear out of nowhere. The guards were mostly unable to react from the sudden movement. Those that did react, still weren''t fast enough to track Lucius'' speed.

    "[Forsaken Arts: Sand Veil]!"

    Using his Arts in concert with the massive amount of sand being spewed into the air by his spell, the sand became imbued with mana and began to attach itself to the caravan. From a distance, it looked like there was an isted sand storm that had swallowed up the wagons and soldiers guarding it.

    "Now!"

    Kalliope''s voice echoed across the battlefield and a series of arrows sailed through the air at the caravan. Several soldiers yelped as their arms and torsos turned into pincushions.

    "[mma: Wall of Fire]!"

    Marie cast a spell that formed a massive wall of mes in a partial arc behind the wagons, cutting off anyone''s ability to escape without first confronting their ambushers.

    "[Spear Arts: Whirlwind Strike]!"

    A massive gust of wind filled the space, tossing away the sand around the caravan and dissipating Lucius'' Sand Veil. Despite standing in the middle of a scorching desert, the wind bit like it came straight from the coldest day of winter.

    Lucius'' eyes widened. "Enchanted spear¡­and that man is a Master Rank."

    Suddenly his excitement and confidence began to waver. Lucius could punch above his weight ss and take on Intermediate Ranks and even some Advance Ranks, Master was beyond his abilities.

    Quickly looking around, he caught a glimpse of a dusty, sand colored cloak ripple a little in the distance. It looked like Mia was going to make a move, so all they had to do was fight and distract the Spearman.

    Of those present, Mia and her party were all Advance Ranks, and if given the opportunity, Mia would be able end the Master Ranker''s life.

    Kalliope, Renton, and Lynn rushed towards the battlefield. Marie and Kalliope''spatriots stayed away from the center of the fighting using long distance attacks. Marie also maintained concentration on the Wall of Fire.

    "Cover!" Lucius shouted quickly as he ran up to the guards.

    He shed one who was closest to give him some space, sending a spurt of blood into the air. Lucius then stabbed the de into the man''s chest to both finish him off and have someone hold his weapon for a moment.

    "[Tempestas: Thunderp]!"

    Electricity whirled around his legs before traveling up his body, then down his arms before concentrating in the palm of his hand. Using the spell was risky for him because of his own ears, but he had practiced a little regarding the directionality of the spell.

    Lucius brought the two balls of energized mana in his palms together in a pping motion. Instantly it was as though the sound was amplified thousands of times over. A cone of force, centering on his hands exploded outwards towards the enemy, sending sand, supplies, and people flying backwards.

    Those that kept their footing were still not spared as they cradled the sides of their heads. Lucius smelled blood as he realized his spell worked and impaired the enemy''s hearing. He stepped back and yanked his machete free from the body at his feet and swung it downward to flick off much of the blood staining the de.

    It was not a permanent solution, but it created an opening for his allies to press the attack. Quickly rushing up from behind him, Renton and Marie entered the fray. While several guards were still reeling from the spell, the quickly finished them off.

    They were not worried about the small fries and only focused on taking out those standing between them and the Master Rank Spearman, who was also dripping blood from the ears on his animal-like ears.

    Lucius and Kalliope locked eyes and gave each other a nod of acknowledgement as they also resumed the battle. There were a small number of Advance Rank fighters, at least four or five, in addition to the Master. With his own skills, and their impairment, they were still difficult, but doable to fight against them.

    While they focused on the stronger ones, the covering team focused on their spells and arrows to take out the small fries. The onught from a distance made many of the enemy warriors tip wagons over to take cover behind.

    One of the Advance fighters wielded two short swords in a dual-wielding fashion. It was a fighting style that Lucius had not confronted often, but of those well-versed in it, they could be a pain in the ass to deal with.

    With that in mind, he chose that man first. He was about the same size as Lucius, so he did not have to worry about fighting overwhelming physical differences.

    Lucius swung his weapon in a low strike, aiming for the man''s leg. Metal nged as his strike was deflected upwards. Instead of losing momentum, Lucius allowed the energy to carry his de into the air.

    The move surprised the warrior and his eyes briefly flicked up to follow the weapon. Expecting that to be the reaction, the ck-haired teen nted a foot in the warrior''s chest and sent him tumbling backwards.

    As the man skid on his back a few feet, Lucius leapt into the air and came down with a two-handed strike. His hit was blocked by a pair of crossed swords.

    "You¡­ Won''t¡­ win this." The enemy growled. His arms were shaking from the awkward position he was in while blocking.

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Field]"

    The spell was normally a wide area attack, but he kept the magic contained to form a thin coating of lightning around his body as a pseudo-armor.

    It did not block any physical attacks, but the results were still rather shocking. Metal was conductive, and so were people. Once the spell was activated, the warrior beneath him began to involuntarily spasm from being shocked by the spell.

    It did not do enough damage to kill him outright, but it did loosen his grip enough to allow his assant to break through the block and slice deep into his neck.

    Lucius jumped back to avoid the arterial spray and nced around. He saw Kalliope breathing heavily with the slumped body of another of the Advance Rankersying at her feet. She had received help because he was also peppered with a few arrows.

    "Next." She whispered before giving Lucius a slight grin.

 Chapter 114: The Ambush [Part 2]

    Several arrows sunk into her opponent''s back in rapid session causing him to falter in his swing. Taking advantage, Kalliope bashed his chin upwards with her shield before sinking her sword into his belly.

    She nced over and saw Lucius crackling from a thin veil of lightning surround his body, the man on the ground in front of him was spurting blood from a gash in his neck, and Lucius was not even breaking a sweat.

    "Next." She whispered. She couldn''t help but smile in appreciation for her newrade''s prowess.

    She still could not ce what about him seemed so familiar, but even if she never found out, she wanted to keep spending time with this boy. He was a powerful warrior and that excited her.

    asional bursts of cold sted in her direction. Several feet away, two of the humans were trading blows with the Spearman with an enchanted weapon. It clearly had a cold enchantment, and based on it''s activation with every swing, it simply imbued his attacks with ice magic.

    That meant that they were safe from any hidden spells that it might have had. The dangerous thing about enchanted items is that you never knew for sure what they were enchanted with unless you made it, bought it, or fought it.

    In the past Kalliope had seen powerful warriors lose fights to weaklings because the weakling had an enchanted dagger that could cast a much higher rank spell.

    Shaking her head clear of these thoughts she turned to the next target. There were two more Advance Rank fighters on the field. Her best bet was to at least hold him off until she got support.

    "No¡­" She mumbled. "If he can do it, I can too. [Lux: Enhance Speed], [Lux: Enhance Strength]!"

    Mana surged through her muscles and legs. Her body felt lighter, faster, and stronger. Kicking up a cloud of dust, she rushed towards a swordsman that was attempting to hound the humans from behind while they were distracted by the Spearman.

    The swordsman barely managed to block her strike, but the force of her impact sent them both skidding several feet. It wasn''t an impressive distance, but it was enough to stop him from breaking off and hitting her allies.

    "Nice hit girl, but you aren''t ready for this! [Sword Arts: Heavy sh]"

    Mana glowed in his de and he shed from the left, instead of the typical overhead strike that was used with the Art. Thanks to her enhanced speed, Kalliope was able to duck beneath the swing and also made an attempt to sweep the man''s feet.

    He jumped back out of her reach and both of them huffed with neither attacknding. He roared and charged at her, swinging from the left, then right in rapid session.

    Kalliope deflected blow after blow with her shield, waiting for an opening. She felt as her shield began to weaken and cursed herself for not having attempted to rece it before heading out. Though they did fight more battles than she had anticipated.

    "[Shield Arts: Shatter]"

    This skill was not one that was really rmended to be used, because it destroyed the shield being wielded as the price. Mana surged into the metal and wood, causing it to swell before it exploded into pieces, sending shrapnel straight at the enemy''s face.

    He cried out in pain as metal and wood shards peppered his face and chest. It was not a deadly skill, but it helped.

    "[Dagger Arts: Phantom de]"

    Kalliope swiftly followed up with a throw of one of her daggers with her left hand. Mana surrounded the weapon and suddenly four more appeared around it, looking as though she threw five daggers at once.

    The swordsman was unable to tell which was real and jumped far to his left, straight into the path of Kalliope''s real attack.

    "[Sword Arts: Heavy sh]!"

    She mimicked using the skill as a sideways sh instead of an overhand one and felt her de sink deep into the man''s side. Blood sputtered out of his lips, but he held on long enough tond a punch right in the center of Kalliope''s face.

    Tears filled her eyes out of reflex and her nose and lips felt wet. She instinctively staggered backward and felt as her sword was wrenched from her hand. The moment the metal was no longer in her grasp, she jumped away from the enemy so he could not immediately hit her.

    Unfortunately it did not work, because he had anticipated the direction she went and immediately followed up. Kalliope could only tell that he was a blur, but she could see that he was still basically on top of her.

    "[Beast Arts: Savage Fang]!"

    Instead of continuing her retreat, she unexpectedly moved closer into his range. Kalliope felt her teeth sharpen and grow as every tooth in her mouth turned into veritable daggers of their own. She sunk her teeth into the swordsman''s neck and bit before yanking her head away.

    Coppery wetness became the dominant sensation in her mouth aside from the dusty, grittiness of sand. She spat out the chunk of flesh she had torn away and watched as the swordsman gasped for breath through the additional hole in his neck.

    That particr skill was not one that beastmen liked to use because it was disgusting and dangerous, but Kalliope had no choice. Her opponent fell to the ground and twitched repeatedly while she extracted her sword which was still stuck in his side.

    No doubt her sword strike would have been his death, but he had enough strength to keep fighting after taking the hit to at least try and take her with him.

    Kalliope swiftly looked around and saw that the battlefield was still. The weaker soldiers were all dead or dying from spells and arrows, a few of well-ced shes across their necks.

    Lucius was standing over yet another corpse, still looking as rxed as ever. Where the Spearman was, there were two bodies. One belonged to the Spearman himself, and the other was a young woman with a sand-colored cloak draped over her.

    Another woman stood over the deceased one with a stone-faced expression. The warrior human had tears streaking down his face. It seemed their battle, though a sess was costly.

    Kalliope approached Lucius who was standing a few feet away.

    "Sorry for your loss. She was a strong warrior." Kalliope whispered.

    "Hm?" the boy looked confused.

    "Your friend? They died?"

    "Oh! That¡­ well it happens. You should never get in a fight if you don''t expect someone to die."

    "You are a heartless bastard aren''t you?"

    Kalliope locked eyes with the boy. There was no sign of guilt, remorse, or even concern.

    "Hm. I''ve heard simr things in the past. Kalliope, if we are to work together you should know something about me."

    "What''s that?"

    "Grief for the dead, does nothing for the living."

    Kalliope mulled over his words. He was cold and heartless, that much was true. She could not agree with his methods, or his wording either¡­ but he was right. This was war, and people die. If she spent every moment weeping over arade, then she would suffer unnecessarily.

    "The time for griefes after then." Kalliope said, thinking she realized the truth of what he was saying.

    "Um, sure."

 Chapter 115: The Ambush [Part 3]

    While Lucius and Kalliope took on the Advance Rank fighters, Marie and the two Eroan beastmen rained down covering fire on the remaining warriors.

    Most of them were Beginner and Intermediate Ranks, so they could not hold up to the strength of Marie''s spells or to too many of the arrows from the Eroans.

    Because of that, the covering group was able to keep the small fries off the backs of those holding off the more powerful opponents. Mia was grateful that it worked out this way and used the opportunity to shuffle among the battlefield to sneakily take out a few men herself.

    Her sand-colored cloak and outfit that she received as a gift from Kalliope kept made her hard to pick out in the midst of a battle, especially in concert with her stealth skills. Though there was no shade and they were under the oppressive light of the desert sun, she was still able to maintain a surprising amount of stealth without the ability to use her dark magic.

    She was still stuck using her daggers instead of the bow with which she was the most proficient, but this was the best n for them.

    Renton and Lynn traded blows with the Master Rank fighter several feet away from where Mia was currently hidden. She was awaiting an opening toe at the warrior from behind and finish him, but he was surprisingly aware of his surroundings.

    Fighting against the two warriors was no problem for him and the speed with which he could block their simultaneous attacks was impressive. Spear Arts was a rather rare skill that someone possessed and for someone to have taken those abilities into the Master Rank was nothing less than impressive.

    Renton shed at the man with his axe with repeated overhead attacks, trying to overwhelm his defenses, while Lynn continuously aimed jabs and punches at his midsection and upper legs. With expert flicks of his wrist, the Spearman would block these attacks with the body of the weapon and deflect them away from himself to give space to block the next attack.

    Renton and Lynn could only keep it up for so long because of the Ice Magic enchantment on the spear. Every single strike and block seemed to inflict damage and spat out a burst of cold air. These waves of Ice Magic were wearing her two allies down; Mia could see it in their faces.

    Still, when everything in her told her to jump in and help, she held back and waited for the opening.

    "[Axe Arts: Double Edge]!"

    Mana whirled around Renton''s axe and created a secondary cutting edge just in front of the axe itself. He swung at the enemy from the right with full force. Mia also noticed Renton''s mark sh momentarily during the strike.

    Renton''s mark was the Feather Mark. He could make an object temporarily a fraction of it''s normal weight and then return it to normal with a though. Using this with his massive axe allowed him to swing it with even more force, then after initiating the swing, increasing the weight of the weapon again while maintaining the same momentum.

    This technique was exhausting for Renton, but it resulted in massively powerful attacks many times stronger than "what he would normally be capable of. With that, plus his Double Edge, the impact was not only stronger, but would hit twice in session.

    Renton''s and Mia''s faces broke out in surprise after the Spearman not only took the first hit without issue, he barely reacted to the second impact either. Both blows simply nced off his spear.

    "Nice attempt, but weak." He taunted. "[Spear Arts: Triple Thrust]"

    Lynn jumped backwards to get out of the strike range and managed to avoid two rapid jabs from the spear that were both aimed at her torso. Renton cried out in pain as he took a hit to his upper arm. It was shallow, but ice began to form around the outside of the wound.

    He was given no room to rx as their opponent followed up with additional strikes, the first was a thrust to Renton''s head, which was easily dodged. However the follow up was a sweep of the feet with the rear of the spear.

    Mia watched as Renton became airborne. The Spearman continued to follow the momentum of the sweep and spun in a full circle with the spear, striking Renton in the gut with the t of the spearhead.

    Spittle sprayed from Renton''s mouth as reaction to the sudden impact. Mia took this opportunity to rush the man with her dagger out. Her Mark of Silence was already active, so she made no sound as she swiftly approached him from behind.

    Unfortunately in her haste, she forgot to ount for the fact that he could probably still smell her, on top of his rank and experience likely giving him a sixth sense in battlefield awareness.

    Mia was barely able to duck under a thrust from the spear, which was made without him looking. Before he could turn around, Lynn rushed him as well.

    "[Unarmed Arts: Flurry of Blows]"

    Lynn''s punches assailed their opponent faster than before, with each sessive punch, her hands continued to speed up. Even to Mia, who was the same rank, could barely keep up with the blurs that were once her hands.

    "You stubborn bitch¡­"

    "Take this!" Lynn shouted in response as shended one final blow straight on the Spearman''s nose.

    "Gah!"

    "Hurgh!"

    Mia watched in horror as the Spearman ran Lynn through the gut with a single hit. She felt her body be weak for a moment as she watched her friend''s eyes go wide with shock at the realization. Then, Lynn smiled. The woman reached out her hand slowly and ced it on the shoulder of the Spearman.

    "What? Going to congratte me on killing you?" He sneered.

    The mark on the back of Lynn''s hand glowed. "Now Mia¡­"

    The strength returned to her as Mia swiftly took advantage of the opportunity her friend sacrificed herself for.

    "My sight! What''d you do?! Why cant I¡­ Urgh!"

    While the spearman began to panic, having damaged hearing from Lucius'' spell, damaged smell from Lynn''s strike on his nose, and now being blinded by Lynn''s mark, Mia wrapped herself around his back like a snake.

    "Die." She whispered as she sunk her dagger into his neck.

 Chapter 116: Next Move

    Mia separated Lynn''s corpse from the man that killed her and tossed him into the sand, not caring how hended. She gently stroked the cheek of her long-time friend.

    "I''m sorry."

    Lucius and Kalliope were mumbling about something a little ways away, and despite not hearing them, she knew it was probably for the best that she did not know whatever it was Lucius was spouting.

    At this moment, the only thing that mattered was Lynn¡­ and honoring her sacrifice. Marie and the Eroan soldiers hade down from their vantage point at the top of arge sand dune. Marie focused on healing Renton''s wounds, while the Eroan''s searched the cargo and checked the bodies.

    Kalliope said something about looking for a shield, but it was clear she was unsatisfied with the options avable since they all bore the insignia of Alorek.

    "Mia. I''m sorry I couldn''t keep up." Renton said between gasps of pain. Marie''s healing magic was working slowly because while she could use it, she was not very proficient in it.

    "Don''t worry about it. You survived and you held off against a Master Rank with an enchanted spear¡­ be d for just that." Marie answered on Mia''s behalf.

    Mia fully agreed with the sentiment and nodded her head affirmatively before ncing back down at Lynn. She had pulled the cloak off her back and covered most of Lynn''s body already, but she moved the hood to cover her face.

    "Break down one of the wagons. We are building her a pyre. Leave the Alorek bastards to rot in the sand or be food for some desert beast." Mia ordered.

    She walked over to where the speary and ced it inside her storage ring. It was valuable enough to keep there, and as the one who finished him off, it was her prize by rights. No one seemed to care to argue the point, which made her sigh in relief.

    "Hey."

    Kalliope''s voice caught her attention. When she looked up at the beastman, she noticed how very close she was able to get without Mia noticing. Mia stepped back out of habit.

    "What?"

    "I think now is as good a time as any to resupply and report in at Fort Se. Actually, we are about a day and a half walk from the fort as it is. We managed to circle around very close to my base from our attacks, so let''s take the opportunity while it is here."

    "Sure, I have to report this in to my Commander first."

    Kalliope nodded and walked away to help construct the funeral pyre.

    "Commander Laris, this is Mia. We took out another supply group on it''s way to assist the Alorek forces at the Eroan border. We are a day away from Fort Se and intend to detour to resupply and refresh. Also, we have taken one loss¡­Lynn¡­

    "Also, it seems Alorek might be adding additional forces to their supply caravans. We faced a Master Rank and four Advance Ranks in this group. Be advised other teams may run into simr situations."

    For several minutes she received no response. Then, "Understood, Mia¡­ Is Lucius still with you?"

    "Uh, yes sir? I''m not sure where he would go in this desert if I''m being honest."

    "Keep an eye on him. Do not let him leave your sight. I''m sending you reinforcements."

    "Understood, sir"

    Renton and Marie looked at her with puzzled expressions. Lucius was still sorting through some of the supplies in the overturned wagons and on the people''s bodies. It was obvious he had heard at least Mia''s half of the conversation, so he was probably curious about the orders.

    "We are clear to head to Fort Se. Also, Lucius you stay with me at all times, Commander''s orders. Also, we are getting reinforcements. Likely due to increased support amongst our targets."

    Everyone nodded in understanding, even Lucius. It took them a little while, but soon enough they were ready to start Lynn''s funeral. They would stay long enough to make sure her body was burned to ash, then they would set fire to the remaining supplies and leave the Alorek soldiers alone. She was adamant about that specific order.

    Mia thought back to all the battles she fought with Lynn while they adventured. Lynn was the first one of the group she had met and how Mia found out about the Union changing itsws temporarily. She inspired Mia to be an adventurer and try to change her fate as a Runner.

    Mia never really wanted to fight in the first ce, so that''s why she became a Runner. She used her mark and her Dark Magic to hide from pursuers and trackers, but never to fight and kill.

    When Lynn talked her into being an adventurer, she realized she was able to adapt to such actions¡­ if it meant she could have a more normal life. It was thanks to her that Mia got to experience even a few years of ''normal'' and for that she was eternally grateful.

    "I am sorry for the loss of your friend. Grief is powerful, so do not let it take you over on the field of battle." Kalliope said quietly.

    "Of course. Thank you."

    "By the way¡­"

    "What is it?"

    "When we arrive, since you ordered Lucius to stay by your side, that means you must also stay by his?" Kalliope inquired.

    "Yes, why?"

    Kalliope giggled. It was strange hearing such a girly sounde from someone who was clearly a well-trained warrior. "Then I suppose you will also meet my Uncle when we arrive. He is very interested in the rumors regarding Lucius."

    "Oh right¡­ you said someone was interested in him¡­ who was that again?"

    "Kalivas."

    Mia nearly spit in surprise. She did not expect that Eroa''s strongest warrior would be someone interested in Lucius, let alone imagine a world where she would meet him herself.

    "Who is Kalivas?" Lucius'' words cut through Mia''s shock.

    Kalliope answered for her, "He is my uncle. Though, not by blood. He is also the most powerful warrior Eroa has to offer and a Marked One like you."

    "What is his mark?"

    "The Mark of Enhancement. It grants him the ability to use enhancement spells at will and without casting or using an activation phrase. He is also able to use Mana Maniption like yourself."

    "What else can he do?" Mia was shocked to see an excited glint in Lucius'' eyes. It was strange to see him interested in something that wasn''t Rena.

    "A lot of things¡­ but I feel it is better that you talk to him about that. Besides, he''s going to ask to fight you and I kind of want to see you get your ass kicked as punishment for how you treated me when we first met."

    Kalliope''s honesty broughtughter to the solemn air around the group. Everyone here seemed interested in watching theirpatriot get knocked down a few pegs. They were also excited to see the great Kalivas fight. That was a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity.

 Chapter 117: Eager Supporters

    "My Lord¡­ I wee you to Watcher''s Retreat."

    Laris knelt on one knee and bowed before the imposing form of Richard von Petra, the general ced inmand over the fort. Though Laris was not from Lord Petra''snds, he knew well of his battle prowess and ingenuity.

    Laris was but a child fumbling in the dark when it came to the art of battle, especially whenpared to the likes of Richard von Petra.

    "Rise, Laris. I appreciate your consistent and thorough reports. You have done as well as could be expected with theckluster troops you possessed. For now, I would like the current list of all remaining Marked Ones and their abilities. We shall incorporate them into my troops and attempt to match them with the toons that suit them best."

    "S-s-sir¡­ truly?" Laris struggled to respond due to shock. He was expecting for Lord Petra to run the Marked Ones into the ground until nothing was left, then pick up where they left off.

    "Yes. I understand Alorek does this, and it has shown a rather decent amount of sess in various skirmishes. So, I shall try to do the same."

    "I shall fetch the documents at once."

    Laris looked to the group before him. Not only was there Lord Petra, but he also saw someone with simr eyes and hair that was likely a brother or cousin. He also recognized the massive seven-foot-tall frame of Commander Arturo.

    Behind them were a shady looking group of characters. Two elves and a human. One elf was a woman with flowing ck hair and amber-colored eyes.

    Once he locked gazes with her, she smiled and stepped forward. "Hello, my name is Shiyani, a pleasure, Commander Laris."

    His back straightened and the hair on his neck stood on end. This woman was very dangerous. She was also likely the assassin that would be eliminating the thorn in their side.

    He kept up with reports from Mia regarding their activities. He had also given orders to one of the other units behind enemy lines to exclusively check on the ambush sites led by Mia''s group. The details of their reports were disturbing.

    Lucius seemed to fight with brutal efficiency and it was always easy to tell which unfortunate souls were the ones to do battle with him. Their bodies were often left dismembered, missing massive chunks of flesh, or had ragged wounds. Such were the results of his disgusting and dishonorable Arts.

    They also ran into a few civilian survivors that told of their interactions with the group and how on multiple asions Lucius had to be talked down from simply killing innocents. From the reports, some of them included children and teens who were roped into performing supply tasks because their parents in charge were their only caregivers.

    "I find this kid''s methods interesting. I''ve fought against the Forsaken Arts before. Nasty business. You never really know what one of those users would do in a fight. Every second is a guess."

    "And he can use Mana Maniption." Richard said.

    Shiyani nodded. "Right, and that. Quite the wildcard. And you are sure about our agreement?"

    Laris watched as Richard nodded grimly. "Yes." He said.

    "Honestly¡­ if you were going to agree that quickly I should have charged more for the kid¡­ alright. Laris, I need stuff."

    Laris nodded and motioned for them to follow him to their armory and supply depot. They were in separate locations so one massive spell or attack would not take out both, so they went to the armory first. It not only held weapons, or what little they had, but it also had some magical equipment that was not approved for their use.

    Shiyani stepped into the building and gave out a low whistle when she approached a box of small crystals. "Hey, this is that explosive stuff, right?"

    "Yes. We were instructed not to use it, but I''ll look the other way if you need any."

    Shiyani grinned. "Why thank you. Don''t mind if I do."

    The elven woman pocketed a few pieces of the explosive crystal before moving throughout the rest of the equipment. Nothing else seemed to catch her eye, so they then moved on to the supply depot.

    Again, not much caught her attention it seemed, but she did gather a few extra supplies including a crystal that generated clean water when mana was poured into it. A surprisingly useful item, especially since they were going to be trekking through a desert.

    She also picked out a few cloaks designed to keep the sun off of them and keep them cool in the scorching sun.

    "That should do it I suppose¡­ Thank you, Commander Laris." Shiyani gave him a seductive smile that made him sweat from fear more than attraction. "Any information regarding the kid''s whereabouts?"

    "I received word that they are heading to Fort Se with some Eroan soldiers to resupply before returning to their mission. I expect it to take a few days, so if you are swift, you might be able to catch them as they leave."

    "Good¡­ thank you Laris."

    "Also, please do not kill the Eroan''s if you can. We don''t need a war with our allies¡­ Kalivas is stationed at Fort Se, so if we upset them badly enough, he mighte at us and I worry about our ability to hold him off¡­"

    "Don''t worry sweetheart, I won''t harm a single strand of fur on their little heads. I was only paid to take care of the kid. Anyone else costs extra and I don''t work for free."

    Laris nodded in understanding and sighed with relief as the elven assassin quickly moved away. He dared not look at her. Like a child fearing a monster under their bed, he pulled the metaphorical covers over his eyes and hoped that if he didn''t look at her, she was no longer there.

    Soon the pressure the woman exuded disappeared and he sighed in relief. "Watch your back Lucius. I don''t think you''ll be able to get out of this one as easily as you have in the past. I''ve done some research on you and you''ve gotten lucky a few times¡­ that luck ends here, boy." Find your chapter at m_v_l_e_m_p_y_r

 Chapter 118: Warning

    Lyrah woke up in a cold sweat after a series of rough dreams. All of them were visions of possible futures, dozens, hundreds even. All of them centered on one person: Lucius.

    The worst part about having the Mark of Prophecy was that while she could control it during the time she spent awake, her dreams and sleep belonged solely to the mark. In thend of dreams, she simply followed along as it took her to whatever possible futures it wanted to show her.

    "It looks like brother dearest will be meeting father soon." She muttered while stifling a yawn.

    Outside the window, the first light of the day began to color the horizon. The sun had yet to show its first rays, but the sky was beginning to brighten. Lyrah had gotten ustomed to waking up around this time recently thanks to the different dreams and nightmares that possessed hertely.

    Most of these dreams she would not tell Natali, or anyone else for that matter. Some things are best left unsaid and unseen. Were she to share some of the visions she had she could either guarantee their oue, or prevent them entirely. To achieve the best possible future for her friends and her brother, she needed to be careful.

    Every step was a guess, every move a risk of failure, but this careful dance through a field of eggshells was a necessary one.

    "You don''t know me yet, brother, but I''ve seen you¡­watched you since I was a little girl. Though we never met, it was like you were always there with me¡­ just like Natali. I will get you and mother the future you both deserve. I promise."

    "Mmm¡­ Lyrah¡­what are you saying." Natali grumbled from the other side of the room.

    They shared a spare room in Grandpa Wally''s personal quarters and as such, Lyrah''s early rising behavior was starting to rub off on her best friend, who was very much not a morning person.

    "Oh, I am so sorry my dear Natali!" Lyrah sung out. "Since today is a day off, and I wish to apologize how about I treat you, me and Rena to some lovely food at the markets!"

    The white-haired girl stared at her nkly with an annoyed expression on her face. To others she looked the same as always, but Lyrah was able to tell. "I want a crepe."

    "Okay! Let''s get crepes¡­ oh and some tea¡­ oh and I heard this new bakery in town has these sweet and puffy cookie-like things called macarons! Shall we try them?"

    Lyrah giggled as Natali let out a small groan at the amount of energy being disyed so early. However, she got out of bed and got herself and Lyrah ready for the day. Natali was in her standard maid attire, while Lyrah wore a simple, green gown that was ented by her dark hair and silver eyes.

    Her hair had a single braid running down the back of her hair that was topped with a silver hair clip that matched her eyes.

    Stay tuned with m,v le,mpyr

    "As beautiful as always, mydy."

    Lyrah smiled and allowed the ''mydy''ment to pass this time. Since they were nning to go out in public, they needed to maintain the image of master and servant.

    Grandpa Wally was also already awake, something that old people tended to do for some reason. He was making himself some breakfast in the kitchen area while also brewing a special blend of coffee that was¡­ processed¡­ by a cat-like creature that lived in the jungles of Raleron.

    "Oh, good morning my lovely youngdies. Care for some morning coffee? I am preparing some eggs, toast and a side of oatmeal for myself, shall I prepare servings for you as well?" the old man offered with a smile.

    "I shall take a cup of coffee Grandpa!" she chirped. "Also, Grandpa, I wish to treat my friend Rena and Natali to some crepes and sweets at the market, maybe some light shopping, might I borrow some funds?"

    "Oh, my sweet granddaughter, you need borrow nothing. Will ten thousand gold coins do?"

    "Yes Grandpa! That will be more than enough!"

    Lyrah jumped up and gave the old man a hug and kiss on the cheek while he passed over a sack of coins, which she divided in half and ced one half in her own storage ring and the other in Natali''s.

    The maid gave her a judgmental re for being so brazen to ask for money from her grandfather, but Lyrah was simply helping him out. Grandpa Wally loves doting on children and as his only great-granddaughter, it was her turn to be spoiled.

    Besides, when they moved in he urged her to not hold back and tried to give her a few million gold coins the first time she asked to go to the markets, so ten thousand was pocket change for a man like him.

    After enjoying a cup of coffee, Lyrah jumped up again and gave her grandfather another hug and kiss. "I will see you this afternoon grandpa!"

    "Be careful you two. The young miss as well when you see her. I''ve heard rumors of strange lunatics in the capitaltely, so be weary of strangers!"

    Lyrah smiled and nodded before finally exiting his residence and heading towards Rena''s dorm. Natali followed behind at the appropriate distance for a servant. Few students wandered the halls this early on a day off, but there were a few others meandering through the ce.

    One such boy was a redhead that Lyrah, Natali, and Rena particrly disliked. Thomas von Petra, the person who would almost certainly take over the Petra family now that Rena was excluded from the running.

    In his time at the academy he had gathered quite the posse of cronies who were more than willing to do his every bidding. Most likely, they did not respect him any more than Rena and them did, but they were too shameless to admit that and wished only to ride on his coattails to the top of nobility.

    Lyrah avoided eye contact with him, but she could feel his and his gang''s eyes on her back. After their first meeting when she exposed that she knew of his whimpering and sniveling at Lucius'' feet in the forest trials, he had a strong dislike for her.

    Granted, he had a strong dislike before that as well, but he was willing to put it aside to try and get the next Oracle on his side, politically. Thanks to her little stunt though, his pride would not allow him to continue those ns so he settled for res in the hallway, like a child.

    "Natali, I must tell you something before we see Rena. You must not utter a word. You must also agree to listen to what I have to say, and ask me no further questions. If you do, I will never divulge a prophecy to you again. Am I clear?"

    "Yes, mydy." Natali whispered.

    "Things will be tough for you and Rena. But trust me when I say all three of us will get through it¡­ together. It may take a while to recover, but remember that all three of us are in this together. Okay?"

    "I understand, mydy."

    She nodded satisfied with Natali''s answer. "Alright, let us fetch the redheaded girl and eat some sweets! Oh I''m just so excited to try a macaron!"

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 119: Surprise Battle

    Kalliope could not hide the skip in her step as they approached the gates of Fort Se. The trip back took a bit longer than they expected because they had to skirt around a few extra miles to avoid being caught by enemy patrols.

    It seemed there had been a few more skirmishes and the Alorek army had gained another two miles ofnd since she had set out on her task, but it looked to be extremely hard fought. It made her wonder if it was really worth it.

    Sure, it was a surprise when they attacked with much stronger forces than anticipated, butpared to all the anxiety surrounding the war leading up to it, Kalliope could not help but feel that it was¡­ underwhelming.

    Over thest few weeks though, things had been pretty easy, so she was also aware that her viewpoint might be colored. The reason for that ease? Lucius.

    Put simply, he was a prodigy. He was a Beginner Rank, clearly on the verge of Intermediate and he took out two Advance Rankersbining together a host of abilities. Not lonely did he possess power beyond his means, but his innate knowledge of battle seemed to make up for even more of his shorings.

    All these thoughts made Kalliope blush to herself from abination of attraction and embarrassment. She was embarrassed because she could not believe that she thought she could defeat him and battle. The attraction part¡­ well as a beastman, it was natural for her to be attracted to strength. No one had made her heart skip a beat like his did.

    Thinking back to him standing over his defeated enemies, lightning dancing along his body, a serene look on his face while his weapon dripped blood¡­ it was enough to make her swoon. In all her young life no one had made her feel this way.

    ''I''m going to make him mine.'' She thought to herself with a devilish grin. ''Mother and father''s other wives taught me a few things to capture the heart of a man¡­ I never thought I would be able to try them.''

    Not realizing that her lecherous thoughts had distracted her from her surroundings, Kalliope suddenly felt as though she had ran into a wall. The impact knocked her onto her rear and she coughed at the dust that was kicked up. Standing over her was a massive being¡­ her uncle Kalivas.

    Stay updated with m-v le-mpyr

    "Girl¡­ why are you not paying attention to your surroundings?"

    "Well¡­ you see Uncle¡­ I¡­." Kalliope tried searching for words that could get her out from beneath his ire, but there were none avable. "I have no excuse."

    Her two allies, along with the humans chuckled gleefully at the fact that she very much looked like a little girl being chastised by her father. Only Lucius said nothing as he simply stared at Kalivas.

    "Wait a minute¡­" Kalliope started to say as something dawned on her.

    Before she could finish her sentence, Kalivas vanished from in front of her and a loud, metallic ng rang out. Lucius too, vanished from where he stood and a cloud of dust and sand was all that was visible to track where they were.

    Everyone''s jaws dropped in surprise, not expecting the warrior Kalivas to suddenly attack theirpatriot. For everyone else it was a shock that Lucius seemed able to react fast enough to block the attack, as was evident by the sound of metal hitting together. Kalliope on the other hand, knew that Uncle was holding back so as not to kill the boy.

    Strong though Lucius may be, Kalivas was strong enough to fight the strongest warriors the world had to offer. The world in which Kalivas existed wasprised of King and Empyrean Ranked warriors.

    Each kingdom had one or two of each avable, though they were often rather aloof individuals that did whatever they wanted. Kalivas was one of the few who actively participated in his home''s affairs.

    If her uncle truly wanted to fight, Lucius would be turned from a handsome young man into a fine red mist before anyone could blink. With this fact in mind, Kalliope had no idea why the warrior wanted to fight someone so far below his weight-ss.

    Though, they could not see anything through the artificial sand storm the two fighters seemed to have whipped up, asional shes of lightning and the rumble of thunder revealed that the battle was intense. The intense pressure of mana pouring off the two warriors was enough to make Kalliope''s skin prickle.

    Were she not an ally of them, she would have long since turned tail and fled. Looking to the others, it seemed even Mia, Marie, and Renton were unaware of this level of capability from the boy.

    "Mia. If I may, you seem rather shocked, were you not aware of Lucius'' capabilities?"

    The woman shook her head, along with Renton and Marie.

    "No," she answered. "Honestly, we recruited him as a scout because west fought beside him when he was a Novice Rank. Even then, he survived a fight with someone who should have been far stronger."

    "So he''s always been capable of holding his own against stronger opponents?"

    "Yes, though he did so through clever tactics, ingenuity¡­ and honestly, luck. Every battle I see him in now though, surprises me." Mia whispered.

    No one could me her, especially when faced with such an oddity.

    "So, you are saying that you have not known him for long? Were you not adventurers together?" Kalliope continued.

    "No, we were not. He adventured with another group, as well as a young girl he was in charge of protecting."

    Mia''sst statement made her ears twitch. Who was this girl? What was their rtionship? Kalliope simply needed to know.

    "Th-this girl¡­ she was?"

    "A friend of his I believe. Though since then, I had heard things developed¡­ deeper than that. She was clearly head over heels, but I was not aware that the boy was capable of such feelings."

    This news took a little of the wind out of Kalliope''s sails, but it did not deter her. Though she may have lost the potential for first wife, her father had several. She could be second, third or fourth, it did not really matter. Lucius made both her warrior''s heart and her maiden''s heart skip beats, so she absolutely had to have him.

    More and more mana poured over thendscape as the fight continued to rage. Alongside it, there was another oppressive energy. It was simr to when Kalivas used his mark, but it felt darker, more sinister than his.

    While she was taking a moment to process this new sensation, a massive, ck projectile entered her vision. Everyone dove to the ground to dodge the sudden missile, which soared over their heads before impacting with a loud crack on the fortress wall behind them.

    They turned their heads to see what in the world it was that had nearly taken their heads off and saw a ck-haired teenager with bruises covering his body. One of his eyes was swollen shut and it appeared that his cheekbones may have been fractured.

    A small groan escaped his mouth as he somehow pulled himself free from the stone and copsed on the ground. Through some miracle of fate, or perhaps strength of will, he managed to get off the ground and at least push himself to his hands and knees.

    It seemed this was the best he could do, as his movement stopped and he began to relieve his stomach of its contents into the dirt.

    Kalivas strolled up to them with a massive smile on his face. It was one of excitement and¡­ pride? For some reason the warrior was showing a shameless expression of pride. Why?

    "Excellent potential, as I expected. I knew I could expect great things from you. It is nice to finally meet you, especially after I was informed of your death." Kalivas said with boisterousughter.

    The entire situation confused everyone around, but no one was willing to pry into whatever it was that was toiling around in the great warrior''s head.

 Chapter 120: Impassable Obstacle

    Well before they actually approached the towering walls of Fort Se that they were being guided towards, Lucius could sense a very powerful warrior. The pressure being emitted by this person was unlike anything he had experienced before and for one of the first times in his life, Lucius felt the pang of fear settling in his heart.

    He knew that the source of this power was an ally, and likely was this ''Kalivas'' everyone was talking about, but the reaction he felt was instinctual. Like prey frozen in fear when cornered by a predator.

    There was no way he was going to let these emotions show, especially when everyone else around him seemed perfectly at ease. He was starting to wonder why he was the only one reacting this way, when he finally realized that Kalivas was doing this on purpose.

    The warrior had sensed their approached and was forcing this aura onto Lucius, likely as sort of intimidation tactic or test. This was proven when they finally came within visual range of arge, muscr man with ck, cat ears and a ck tail standing in front of a huge, metal gate.

    There was no doubt that this being was Kalivas. The moment they stopped and finally began to greet him, the pressure vanished and he lunged at Lucius.

    Just in the nick of time, he was able to draw his machete against what appeared to be arge battleaxe that the warrior seemed to be wielding with only one hand, despite it being a two-handed weapon.

    It was all that Lucius could do to keep the strikes off him, yet every impact sent shockwaves deep into his bones threatening to rattle him apart.

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Charge], [Forsaken Arts: Sandveil]"

    The sand their battle kicked into the air began to surround Kalivas''s face, attempting to choke him out or at least slow him down. Simultaneously, the Lightning Charge amplified Lucius'' speed. He forced the mana to circte through his whole body, which decreased the speed gain, but allowed him to strengthen his entire self.

    "Not bad, try harder." Kalivasughed out. "[mma: me Cloak]"

    Heat washed over Lucius so intensely he felt as though he had stepped into a zing inferno. Fire momentarily covered his opponent''s entire body, turning all the sand from Sand Veil into ss, making it tter to the ground, no longer affected by the mana.

    "What''s your next move?" Kalivas roared. There was a strange surge of power emanating from his feet as he became faster. Then his already overwhelming strikes began bing harder to handle.

    "Guah!" Lucius spat out a glob of blood as a fistnded into his abdomen.

    The strike sent him flying backwards, but instead of knocking the wind out of him, it energized him. Rage enveloped his mind and a darkness seemed to take over his world. Color drained from his surroundings and everything became shades of gray.

    He should be despairing, quaking in fear at facing such an overwhelming opponent. In front of him was an obstacle he could not hope to ovee, and yet even Lucius could tell that Kalivas was still holding back, toying with him.

    The thought that he was being yed with, that his efforts were nothing but a game to someone else¡­ that is what enraged him, what quelled all other emotions¡­ if only he had more power.

    ''Now this is interesting¡­ you''re not quite there, but you are oh so close¡­ here, a taste of what''s toe.''

    A familiar raspy voice echoed in his mind. From behind it he could almost make out the voice of Luz, but it sounded so distantpared to Grimm, as if it was fading somehow¡­

    The mark on his hand glowed with a deep purple light,pletely different from all times before. Even Kalivas seemed intrigued by what was happening, and it made him back off out of caution and curiosity.

    The purple light spread to Lucius'' wrist and began to cause a searing, burning pain. He screamed from the intense pain which was unlike anything he had ever experienced. It was as if the burning sensation reached into the depths of his soul.

    When the light faded and the sensation stopped, the mark on his left hand had grown. What once looked like a symbol depicting a valley, gained new markings that swirled around his hand and wrapped around his wrist.

    Though the world around him was now simply shades of gray, his target, Kalivas, the strongest warrior in Eroa was crystal clear. Lucius could see every vein in the man''s body, witnessed every muscle twitch and jump of his eyes. Everything else lost importance as his sole focus rested on this one, overwhelming opponent.

    "[Abyss Break: Demon Sword]"

    Tendrils of darkness swirled around his feet, wrapping themselves around his body and enveloping his sword. It grew in length and took on a serrated edge.

    "[Forsaken Arts: Muttion]"

    The lightning still dancing around his body from the Lightning Charge became red. The darkness and shadows dancing about his de also took on a slightly reddish hue.

    "Oh now this is interesting¡­ you can use Mana Maniption on both the Arts and Magic simultaneously¡­ no¡­ it''s not that, it''s more like Channeling in nature¡­ you are so close to a breakthrough boy¡­e at me with everything!"

    Reason left Lucius long ago. Currently his body was running on pure instinct. There was no longer any thought to his action, only the desire for the utter annihtion of the man before him. Nothing else existed at this moment.

    In an explosion of force that cracked the very ground, Lucius jumped into the air. He came down with a two-handed, overhead strike. Kalivas ran to the right and dodged the hit, forcing the attack into the dirt.

    Without a moment''s break, Lucius followed his opponent and was on top of him. The speed at which he changed direction with such little loss of momentum brought a smile to his enemy''s face.

    "Good! More, show me more, boy!" Kalivas shouted as he brought his axe down from above.

    Lucius met the attack with an explosion of mana as he focused his lightning to create a small barrier that deflected the strike. He countered by swinging his machete at Kalivas'' leg in the opening that was created, but the veteran warrior was too quick for that and managed to catch the swing with his bare hands.

    The dark energy whirling around Lucius'' de began to eat away at Kalivas'' flesh, which surprised him and made his eyes widen. It seemed it had been a while since someone injured him, though it was by his own mistake.

    "Mmm. I''ve seen enough. You fight like an animal, but I can work with that¡­ [Axe Arts: Heavy m]"

    Kalivas swung the t of his axe into Lucius'' side sending him flying hundreds of feet like bolt from a ballista. Pain became the totality of Lucius'' existence for a moment as he came to a sudden stop, finding himself buried an inch into the stone walls of Fort Se.

    His group ofrades stood staring at him as he managed to pull himself free and fall to the ground. It took every ounce of his remaining strength and willpower to lift his torso off the ground so he could wretch without drowning in his own vomit.

    His entire body was drained as his Arts, Magic, and his mark all ceased working. While he waited there, Kalivas approached him.

    "Excellent potential, as I expected. I knew I could expect great things from you. It is nice to finally meet you, especially after I was informed of your death." Kalivas wasughing, though Lucius found little about the situation amusing.

    When theughter died down, Kalivas leaned in to him. "I''m going to train you, boy and while we do that, we have a lot to discuss. Just the two of us."

 Chapter 121: Prelude to the Fall [Part 1]

    Mia stuck close to Lucius the entire time they were at the fortress. They were only nning to meet Kalivas, resupply, then head back out into Alorek to continue their mission. However, they were ''convinced'' by Kalivas to stick around for a few days because he took a liking to their resident sociopath.

    Each morning, they would wake up and Lucius would be requested to join Kalivas at the gates facing Alorek. There, they would train from dawn till dusk, taking breaks only for meals. The fights would continue even when receiving a message from a scout.

    Mia was always present and watching these bouts from the ramparts above because she felt like she would get sick from the sheer concentration of mana produced by the two fighters. It amazed her how the boy could keep up with such daily rigors. By this point, she knew that she would have been beyond useless.

    "Wow¡­ I''ve never seen Uncle get so in to training someone. I knew he had potential¡­"

    Those words came from an excited wolf-girl with blonde hair and gray eyes. She was peering over the edge of the walls and basically drooling over the men fighting. It was hard to tell if she was just a battle junkie or if something else was going on.

    "You alright in the head?" She asked the wolf-girl.

    "His mate, this¡­ uh¡­ Rena! Is she prettier than me?" Kalliope asked.

    From behind the girl''s body, Mia could see her tail wagging from excitement. Mia sighed and took a long, hard look at the girl''s face. Her features were rounded with an angr chin and she hadrge eyes. Her hair was cut short forbat purposes and she had clearly trimmed it up a little.

    Underneath her armor, Mia was able to make out her extremely toned body. Where the tights under her armor gripped, left little to the imagination. To put simply, she was absolutely gorgeous.

    Was she prettier than Rena though? Probably not. Rena had that pure beauty about her. Even while wearing dirty adventure gear, she had this aura of grace about her. Thebination of her crimson hair and bright green eyes were striking and stood out among the crowd.

    "Honestly?" Mia shared. "Rena is a peerless beauty. You too are very attractive, but Rena is a cut above."

    "Hmm¡­" Kalliope put a hand to her face and began to think.

    At first, she was worried the girl would look crestfallen after hearing that herpetition was prettier than her, but she did not appear to be upset.

    "Well, I bet I am stronger than her." There was a look of total confidence on her face.

    "I can definitely say you would win in a fight."

    "Then it''s settled. She is the beautiful wife and I shall be the strong one."

    Words escaped Mia for a moment. "Wh-wh-what? You want to marry Lucius? You know he can''t get married right? He''s a Marked One¡­ also more than one wife? That''s¡­"

    "What, do humans do it differently? My father has many, many wives. It ismon for beastmen to have several partners. Well, except Uncle¡­ father said that Uncle only ever loved one woman, but they could not be together. Do you think Lucius would be against multiple wives? He is part beastman."

    "I¡­" Mia was stunned. However, she did not know the answer. "I don''t know¡­ he does not tend to follow the norm when ites to morals¡­ but I do know that there are few people he holds dear, and one is Rena. So¡­ good luck with that."

    Mia turned back to the battle below and continued to watch while overhearing the asional mutterings of several ns that Kalliope was cooking up.

    *****

    Three individuals walked through the sands of the Alorek desert. Though the sun beat down on them and the wind whipped sand into every orifice on their bodies, they moved with purpose and haste.

    Shiyani was currently leading her two party members along the path marked for them by Commander Laris based on the reports he had received from Lucius'' squad leader, Mia. Shiyani was very aware of who Mia was because of the woman''s history as a famous adventuring party.

    Shiyani had even seen the woman fight and was excited to meet with her. They had no intention of fighting with anyone other than Lucius and had devised quite the interesting n regarding how to pull it off.

    "Hey boss. How much longer?"

    She rolled her eyes. "What are you, ten? We will get there when we get there."

    "Right, but we are stuck in a desert, it''s hot, I''m thirsty, and we''ve been walking for days now, I feel like we should be there by now." Herckey continued.

    "Gods, if you weren''t so damned good at your job, I would knock you out and leave you here in the damned ce. Stop whining. We will get there when we get there."

    While they had been walking, they made sure to look forndmark signs of the battles to ensure they were on the right path. Granted, they were not following every battle, and instead opted for a more direct line. However, Laris apparently wanted to confirm that the battles that took ce, actually took ce.

    Since they knew that the group was at Fort Se, they could mostly just head that direction, but as thanks for all the explosive crystal they had ''acquired'' it was the least they could do to repay such a kind favor with a little extra effort on their end.

    A lot of the ruined carts they had passed showed signs that they had been burned, so nothing could be scavenged, and though the blowing sands did a lot to cover up the signs of battle, there were still asional char marks in sandstone and rock that peeked through to the surface that showed the battle''s intensity.

    Most of the battlefields had shards of ss, likely from Lucius'' Thunder Magic spells. From what Shiyani knew about the mage, Marie, her fire magic was not all that powerful to create such heat, so it had to be the kid.

    As they kept walking, Shiyani swapped out another explosive crystal. She had been spending time filling them up so they were just under their containment limit, then storing them in her storage ring. She had no clue if she would really need to use them, but it was always better to have multiple ns in ce.

    Lucius had a few ring weaknesses. Above a certain level of strength, one could just overpower him, however Shiyani was not at that level. She was an Advance Rank fighter and from what she knew, he would be able to fight her off. That made a one-on-one tricky.

    Even adding in her two subordinates, might not be enough and he could escape from their clutches. They really needed to ensure they took him out. No doubt upon their return they would have their memories scanned regarding the fight, so if they tried to im his death when he really ran away, they would not get their payment.

    He also did not have fantastic defense against powerful magical spells. The best he could do was dodge, but if facing simultaneous attacks, he had yet to disy any abilities to avoid injury in such a scenario. Finally, the best option was to use one of these explosive crystals.

    "Hmmm. I found the spot. Alright you idiots, let''s backtrack a little bit, I will meet up with you, I have something I need to prepare."

    "Got it boss."

 Chapter 122: Prelude to the Fall [Part 2]

    A little over a week had passed since arriving at Fort Se. Each and every day was hell for Lucius, but he knew that his teacher, Kalivas was pushing him so hard because of his potential. Despite going to bed every night with sore muscles he never knew existed, Lucius relished in his growing strength.

    Even though such a short time had passed, he already felt his mana capacity increasing. He could fight longer, use more Arts and cast more spells before running out of steam. The only thing he had not been allowed to practice with was his mark.

    During his ''trial,'' as Kalivas called it, Lucius had awakened something in his mark that triggered some sort of evolution in its abilities. When discussing the matter with the warrior as well as Mia, Renton, and Marie, no one had a clue as to what was going on. Never before had anyone heard of a mark undergoing any sort of change as they were the same from birth to death.

    Yet, here he stood with a mark that no longer looked like a valley on his hand, but now took up most of his hand and wrist as though he had received a warrior tattoo from a tribe.

    Grimm and Luz had been crickets too, which had been pretty usual. They seemed to only speak to him at times convenient for them and would never respond to his inquiries to them. Something that confused him when Grimmst spoke to him was that Luz could be heard mumbling in the background, but he sounded so far away.

    It was disconcerting, but there was no way to figure out the cause if they would not speak to him.

    Just as he had every day, Lucius was making his way through the fort from the lodgings they had been granted. His destination was the same as always, the gates to the fortress where Kalivas seemed to always be.

    Before he could exit the gates though, he found himself blocked by Mia, Renton, and Marie.

    "I take it that it is time to go?" he asked.

    "Yes, we are to rendezvous with reinforcements at the valley near where we fought the Master Spearman. You have all your things?"

    "Always."

    "Good, let''s go." Mia and the others turned around and exited the gates.

    Kalivas who had heard the entire thing, as well as Kalliope who was standing next to him, stopped the group. "Leaving already?" Stay updated with m-vl-em,py-r

    "Yes, we received orders to meet with our reinforcements and return to our mission. We thank you for the hospitality while we rested and resupplied, but we have overstayed our wee." Mia answered.

    Lucius eyed her carefully because she was being more direct than usual, but simply chalked it up to the loss of her friend Lynn. He remembered what it was like to lose his father, Wayne, so he could only imagine her behavior was rted to that.

    Kalivas nodded his head and gestured towards the wolf-girl. "Kalliope and her team will escort you to the rendezvous point."

    "No, our orders were to cease joint operations. Our reinforcement group possess sensitive intel that we cannot share with even the Eroans. I am sorry." Mia said, firmly denying the offer of a guide.

    "Hm, so be it, if these are your orders. Lucius!" the man turned towards him and mped a hand firmly on his shoulder. "I wish to see you again in the future. You get closer every day to a breakthrough. Though I cannot use Channeling, I have seen it used and I can tell you are close. Return to me some day and I will ensure that you take the next step in your growth."

    "Sir. It would be my honor." Lucius gave his teacher a stiff salute.

    Kalliope stood still with an upset look on her face, but said nothing. She simply stepped forward and surprised him with a strong hug. Itsted for nearly a minute before he tapped himself out by patting her stiffly on the arm.

    "If that''s settled, we are off. Thank you all again for your hospitality." Mia gave a salute to the two beastmen as well before the party turned around and headed to their next destination.

    "Lucius, I will be the scout for now. I can tell by the way you are moving that you have yet to recover from your training." Mia said as they had made it out of sight of the fort.

    "Understood."

    Renton and Marie nodded in agreement. Though they had strange looks on their faces. It seemed they also were worried about the leader''s state of mind.

    *****

    "Understood, Commander Laris."

    Mia woke up this morning with amunication from Commander Laris at Watcher''s Retreat. It seemed that their reinforcements were on standby at a location near where Lynn had died inbat.

    He also informed her of something else, something that presented her with a choice.

    After Lynn died, they had spent a little over a week at Fort Se. While Lucius was training day in and day out, the rest of the group simply rested, which gave her a lot of time to think and process.

    One of the reasons she became a Runner was to avoid being taken to war, yet here she was anyway and it had taken one of the few people in the world important to her. As a girl she was ostracized like many Marked Ones were, and had no friends or family to speak of.

    Life remained that way until she met the others and formed their adventuring party, The Marks. Now the three people that mattered most to her, dropped down to only two. She would do anything to make sure Renton and Marie survived this.

    Commander Laris¡­ or rather his leader, General Richard von Petra, knew this and they offered her a choice. Help them kill Lucius, and the three of the remaining members of The Marks could return home for the remainder of the war.

    The ''reinforcements'' that Laris had sent were actually a group of assassins hired to kill Lucius. Understandably, they did not take too kindly to his stunt at the battle that got them through enemy lines. Also, each and every progress report she provided to them was simply grim detail after grim detail.

    Lucius had promised to behave and give her usible deniability, but due to the nature of their mission, such a thing no longer existed. She knew of everything he had done and in great detail. Truth be told, she was terrified of him now and regretted asking to have him join their mission.

    But was she ready to betray him to save her own skin? No, she wasn''t¡­ but could she if it meant saving Renton and Marie? That was a higher likelihood.

    ording to Laris'' n, she was to take over scouting duty and pick up a dead drop that the assassins had left for her filled with supplies that would be useful for their ambush. It seemed that the Commander and the General were not content with her simply leading him to the trap, but wanted her to actively participate.

    Mia knew the decision that had to be made. It was better after all. For her, for her friends, and even for countless unnamed people that would have met the boy in the future. This was the right choice; the only choice.

 Chapter 123: Prelude to the Fall [Part 3]

    Kalivas and Kalliope stood side by side watching the group leave. She was uneasy about letting them leave without an escort, but her uncle had seemed to think it was okay. Something else unsettled her and that was the strange behavior from Mia.

    "I would not worry too much about them." Kalivas said after almost fifteen minutes of silence.

    "Why is that, Uncle?"

    "Things will just simply work out. However, I do want you to do me a favor."

    "Anything."

    "In about an hour, start tracking them. Do not get within range of Lucius'' senses. Simply follow them."

    Kalliope looked to the man beside her. His eyes were locked on the horizon with a critical gaze. She could tell he was thinking about something, but whatever it was, was beyond her.

    Nevertheless, she agreed to his request and fetched her two men. About an hourter, they prepared to leave the fortress. She was stopped once again by Kalivas and handed amunication crystal. Kalliope tucked into ce over her ear and gave a slight bow before they left.

    It was difficult to follow their tracks, but ording to Uncle, they were heading to the valley near where theyst fought. She knew where that was, so if the information was correct then they would be rather easy to find.

    However, they needed to also stay out of range of the boy''s senses, so they would be unable to get within visual distance of them. The best they could do ise within sight of the valley and its cliffs and wait for something untoward to ur.

    They waited for what felt like hours, but was really only a fifteen to twenty minutes. It felt like they were wasting their time. Truth be told, that would be for the best.

    When she thought about it, Kalivas and Mia both were acting strange. Did they both know something she didn''t? If so, what would it have been? Was it rting to Lucius? To the reinforcements? Something changed this morning, but there was no clear reason why.

    At that moment there was an explosion of mana.

    "Lucius!"

    Without thinking too deeply about what was happening, Kalliope rushed toward the cliffs as fast as she could. Both soldiers on her team yelped at her sudden movement and tried to shout after her. They attempted to follow but their speed simply could not keep up.

    As she approached the cliffs, the mana became denser and stronger. Sounds of battle echoed through the valley below. shes of lightning and explosions of mana from Arts colored the horizon.

    Whatever was happening was too much for Lucius. Something told her that he was in a lot of danger. Kalliope just knew she had to get to him and fast.

    "I have to get to him. This feels wrong, everything feels wrong. Mia¡­ What did you do?"

    ***** Stay updated with m-v le-mpyr

    While scouting ahead, Mia made her way to the location of the dead drop. There was a rock set between two, Y-shaped cacti. Underneath it were two gray colored crystals. Along with them were instructions.

    They informed her that these small crystals were partially charged with mana, and when fully charged would let out an explosion equivalent to a Master Rank fire spell. Mia carefully ced them under her armor and made sure to consciously remind herself to not use any mana abilities while they were there.

    Thest thing she wanted to do was set them off before they were ready, let alone while they were on her person. Shuddering at the thought, she swiftly returned to the group.

    Lucius had his nose in the air and seemed to be sniffing something. He looked slightly confused, but did not say anything.

    "Everything alright?" Mia asked, ensuring she had a measured tone.

    Many times she had gone on assassination and espionage missions. Never before had she felt as nervous as she did now, but she put as much energy as she could into calming her heart and steadying her voice.

    "Hm. I thought I picked up on something odd, but it''s fine. It''s gone now. Though, we should be careful." The boy finally answered after walking around and sniffing the air in various ces.

    "Sure, let''s move. Renton, Marie, keep an eye out for whatever it is that has Lucius on edge." Mia ordered.

    She felt bad, but she kept them in the dark. No doubt they would judge her for what was going to happen, but this was for them. Hopefully they would understand, but if not, then at least they would be alive and that was enough for her.

    The group carefully made their way to the top of the valley and waited at the edge of arge cliff overlooking the bottom of it. The cliff itself was bereft of any sand due to its height and angle allowing the wind to blow sand away from the surface.

    Lucius stood several feet away from the edge and continued to sniff the air. "Hey," he said. "I think our new members are here¡­ but I think I recognize this scent¡­"

    Mia did her best to calm her heart. It felt like it would pound out of her chest and she was worried that Lucius would hear it. If he did, then he would know something was up. However, his statement of recognizing the scent of the assassins shocked her away from those thoughts.

    "Hey Mia, Lucius. Long time no see!" A familiar voice called out to her, surprising her even more.

    Three people stood shoulder to shoulder. A human man with a bow, an elven warrior with a sword and shield, and a woman with a greatsword strapped to her back were all approaching them.

    "Jen? Paul and Lethen too? You guys are our reinforcements?" Lucius said with genuine surprise.

    Mia understood why he was taken aback. She was too, though she was expecting an elven woman with dark hair. Not Jen. Were the assassins dyed? Did they change their ns because Lucius'' old allies showed up?

    What was going on?

 Chapter 124: Prelude to the Fall [Part 4]

    "Jen. What are you doing here?" Lucius looked at the woman with wide eyes.

    Thest thing he expected was to see the adventuring party he spent so much time with out here. They weren''t Marked Ones, so why were they here? Did they volunteer for the war? Rena had mentioned something abouting out here, but where was she?

    "Hey kid," Jen said in the same teasing tone he had gotten used to over their time questing together. It was ratherforting¡­ "I heard you''ve been up to a lot out here. You''re strong."

    "Yeah, that''s what happens when you spend every day of your life fighting for it." He shot back. He found himself realizing he had missed these back and forths.

    "Hiya kid, how you been?" Paul asked. He broke his normally silent demeanor and shed him a soft smile.

    Lucius was happy they were here, but why? He could not hold it in any longer. "Why are you here?"

    Jen shrugged her shoulders, "We got an offer from Rena''s father¡­ Richard I think his name was? Anyway, him and his brother Andre reached out to us for a job toe and take care of you."

    Lucius'' heart skipped a beat, but not out of attraction, love, or excitement. Something about her phrasing startled him. He knew Richard very well. Andre was Thomas'' father. Neither of them would want to ''take care of him'' in any other capacity than¡­

    "Lord Petra was very unhappy you know." Jen continued. "That whole thing with Rena? Man¡­ I didn''t know a face could get as red as their family''s hair color! It was quite a sight!"

    Herughter made his hair stand on end and he found himself slowly reaching towards the weapon on his hip. When his fingers grazed the scabbard, he remembered that it was a gift from these very same people.

    "Why are¡­"

    "On top of that you have upset some very powerful people¡­ I mean I knew you were ruthless Lucius, but damn kid! Do you know how many of your own allies you killed with that Thunder Magic Spell?"

    His and Rena''s mentor seemed to be taunting him a way that was different than he was used to. What was once a lighthearted series of jabs became something more nefarious. It was almost impossible to believe that she was who he though she was, but he recognized her scent, her mannerisms. Paul and Lethen were the same as well. These people were the friends he once knew.

    Yet they felt like imposters. They felt like someone he had never met before. Lucius felt something inside him begin to crack as his small world, became smaller. They were never his friends¡­ were they?

    "Jen¡­" Lucius felt his hands shaking.

    "I think Laris said it was in the couple hundreds¡­ almost a thousand maybe? I can''t quite remember, but man! Talk about overkill. You really took advantage of the battlefield conditions to pull that one off. Honestly surprised me."

    The hesitation he felt from touching the scabbard vanished and he slowly pulled the machete free from it. Mia was eyeing him closely, her hands already held two daggers. She was too close to him to back off and use her preferred weapon of the bow.

    Her mark was also glowing, which meant she used it to ensure he could not hear her preparing her weapons. Renton and Marie were looking at everyone. They were very clearly confused, which meant they had no idea any of this was happening.

    "Careful Lucius. You are surrounded you know." Jen warned.

    Lethen had his sword and shield at the ready with a look showing he was prepared to kill. Paul had his bow with an arrow prepared and leveled at his head. Mia had gotten into a ready position. Only Jen did not have a weapon in her hand.

    "W-w-wait!" Marie stuttered. "Surely we can talk about this¡­""

    "Yeah, we don''t have toe to blows you know!" Renton agreed.

    "Quiet." Jenmanded in a deadly tone. She waved her left hand towards the warrior and mage. A small light shed from the back of her hand, and the two individuals'' eyes rolled into the backs of their heads as they crumpled to the ground.

    "Jen¡­" Lucius mumbled.

    "Oh! I forgot to tell you, kid. You see¡­" Jen said with a cool smile as she showed the back of her left hand. "I''m a Marked One too."

    Sure enough, there was a symbol that looked to be tattooed on the back of her left hand. It was something he had never seen before. After all the time they spent together, Lucius was sure he would have remembered seeing that.

    "You see, Lucius. I possess the Mark of the Mind." Jen exined. "I can make people see things I want them to see. Hear things I want them to hear¡­ forget things I want them to forget. The minds of man, elf, and beast are my ythings."

    "Is that so?" The boy growled.

    "Yes! Exciting isn''t it¡­ however, since I''m in a sharing mood, I will reveal one more thing." Jen offered.

    Her hand reached into a small pocket on her breast. In it was a strange golden oval with a series of multicolored crystals iid within it. At the center of the object was a singr, clear gem. It would almost be invisible were it not for the reflection of the light.

    Currently, the multi-colored crystals around the clear one were glowing, but with a simple brush of her fingertips, they darkened. Jen''s very visage seemed to quiver and fade. Where the proud human warrior once stood, was a beautiful elf with ck hair and amber colored eyes. She was striking, but despite her change in appearance, it was still Jen. There was no way to hide that fact.

    "You know, I really do like you Lucius. I even made sure your mark was hidden after you registered it. That took a loft effort. You should thank me¡­ though it seems my efforts to shield you from scrutiny were undone by your own stupidity." Jen said with a sigh.

    "Why¡­how¡­"

    "That Andre fellow¡­ he was very interested in Rena, so we were hired to tag along and see how things were. We were supposed to kill her, but we took a liking to the two of you. Honestly we were on the verge of canceling the contract before the war started. What a shame that was. We could have kept adventuring¡­ maybe even brought you into the business¡­ you''d be good at it, you know."

    Lucius treated her to the most threatening re he could muster. Mana seemed to pour off of him in amounts that would shock even Kalivas.

    "Yeah, Yeah¡­ Oh! Allow me to reintroduce myself. The woman you once knew as Jen was simply the product of a wonderful item from Aedrider. Nice to meet you Lucius¡­ I am Shiyani, and I will be your downfall."

 Chapter 125: Downfall [Part 1]

    For an eternity there seemed to only be the sound of wind rushing through the valley below. Sand skittered across the rocky surface of the cliffside. Sweat dripped off the brows of all five warriors.

    The twang of a bowstring shattered the peace.

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Charge]!"

    Lighting surged around Lucius'' body while at the same time he twisted out of the path of the arrow. He rushed forward to strike at Jen/Shiyani and Lethen.

    "[Bow Arts: Curving Shot]"

    The arrow glowed and made aplete u-turn,unching back at Lucius from behind. Thankfully he was able to hear the buzz of the arrow cutting through the air, and side stepped it a second time. There wasn''t enough sand or dirt to properly utilize Sand Veil, so he was out of options for Arts, at least that they were aware of.

    "[Sword Arts: Heavy sh]"

    "[Sword Arts: Double sh]"

    Shiyani and Lethen simultaneously made strikes at him. Lethen''s Double sh was the more worrisome of the two and wasing from his left side. The Heavy sh came from above, leaving only the right side to contend with, however¡­

    The moment Lucius jumped to the right, Mia materialized out of nowhere and shed a dagger at his throat. Not being able to hear her was a major liability for him on the battlefield. The tip of her de missed his neck by a hair as he managed to duck beneath it.

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Field]"

    This time, he allowed the spell to take full effect. Mana poured from his body and into the ground below. For a twenty foot radius around him, the ground became charged with Thunder Magic. If his opponents made any attempts to move by even a single step, they would be shocked. It was not lethal, but it would create an involuntary spasm and create an opening.

    There was one way around it and that was to make sure both feet left and returned to the ground at the same time. This resulted in Lethen, Shiyani, and Mia having to jump around the battlefield like crazed rabbits while the spell was active. This movement restriction helped even the ying field a little, though did nothing to inhibit Paul in the distance.

    Lucius attempted to make an attack towards him, but was intercepted by attacks from the melee fighters. At the moment their range support was untouchable which made him click his tongue.

    He was up against two Advance Rank fighters and an Intermediate¡­ that is unless Paul was also an Advance Rank¡­ there was no telling what information he knew about his old party was a lie. Caution was key and the flow of information for this battle was entirely controlled by his enemy.

    "What are you going to do, kid?" Jen¡­ Shiyani, questioned.

    "[Forsaken Arts: Merciless]"

    Mana exploded out of him as the Art artificially enhanced his body''s strength, simr to a Light Magic enhancement spell. This particr ability was difficult to control and exhausted him after a single use, though he kind of hoped that his training with Kalivas would allow him to keep fighting after it was finished.

    "[Tempestas: Thunderp], [Forsaken Arts: Weapon Breaker]"

    With the spell channeled into his de, he lunged towards Shiyani, targeting her neck. She reflexively moved to guard herself with her de, which is exactly what he wanted. There was an explosion of force as the Thunderp spell activated at the same time as the Weapon Breaker skill, sending the top three-quarters of her de skittering across the rock.

    Without skipping a beat, he followed up with a kick to her abdomen, sending the elven woman flying almost thirty feet. Mia once again came up from behind him and managed to sink a dagger into his side.

    "Gragh!" He shouted in pain as he twisted away from the de.

    Mia was able to yank it free and jumped forward into another attack.

    "[Tempestas: Lighting B¡­]¡­ gurgh!"

    "[Shield Arts: Double Bash]"

    Lethen charged in out of nowhere andnded two powerful strikes into Lucius'' back, sending him sprawling into the dirt. The boy quickly regained his footing, but felt the muscles in his shoulder des scream in defiance.

    His breathing became heavy. The Merciless skill was still active, so his physical strength was probably in the range of a high, Intermediate or maybe a low Advance Rank. However, the ability wouldn''tst much longer.

    "One shot¡­ [Forsaken Arts: Savage Strike]" His machete glowed and he dove towards Paul''s location. Lucius forced every ounce of mana in his body to enhance his feet.

    Beneath him, the rocks shattered, sending a cascade of falling boulders into the valley below as the cliff face became forever changed. Paul''s eyes barely had time to widen before Lucius was basically on top of him. Lucius went to swing his de, but the world in front of him shimmer and suddenly one Paul became twenty.

    Lucius'' de cut through the same one he had targeted and blood spurted into the air as he severed the archer''s head from his body.

    Luciusnded on the other side of the man and blinked. When his eyes refocused, the thing he had cut looked to be a cactus instead of a man. Paul seemed to be several dozen feet away and looked perfectly fine.

    "Nice try kid, but it''s not going to be that easy."

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Strike]"

    Instead of worrying about the fact that his mind was tricked into killing a nt instead of his target, Lucius quickly made a follow-up attack. The clouds swirled above for a moment and a massive bolt of lightning struck the ground blinding everyone and generating a massive explosion of noise and heat.

    "So close, kid." Shiyani tried to taunt. However the words fell a little t as everyone in the area, save Lucius had smoke rising from their bodies. All of his attackers had taken at least some amount of damage from his spell.

    Lucius felt his body slowing down and weakening. Merciless was running out.

    "Are you ready to surrender your head, kid? It''ll be easier for you, and for Rena."

    Hearing his lover''s name fall out of the traitor''s mouth boiled his blood. He would not stand for it. Lucius had been trying to hold back from using it because of his promise to Kalivas.

    The warrior''s words echoed in his mind about how relying too much on his mark too early would ruin his potential. In a situation like this though, it was likely such behavior would be forgiven. After all, there''s no potential in a grave.

    "Alright you fucks. Let''s y for real."

    "Oh?" Shiyani had a sick grin on her face. Lethen and Paul seemed worse for wear than she did, and Mia said nothing, not that they would be able to hear her if she did. Instead the woman simply tightened her grip around her daggers.

    Lucius took a deep breath. This was his only gambit, if it failed, he would have nothing left in the tank to keep fighting.

    "[Abyss Break: Demon Sword], [Forsaken Arts: Muttion], [Tempestas: Lightning Charge]"

 Chapter 126: Downfall [Part 2]

    Red and ck lightning whirled around Lucius. It felt as though the energy of an entire storm was centered on this one boy. All the other magical affects and Arts that he previously engaged had vanished, so the enemies were able to move around like normal again.

    "Oh, now that is interesting. Not even a fraction when we fought in the mist, but powerful indeed. Alright everyone, buckle down for this one." Shiyani shouted through the crackles of electricity and the constant rumbles through the sky above.

    It was very rare for a storm to ur in a desert, yet the sky above appeared as though a torrential rain would begin at any moment. The once overbearing sunlight was gone, covered by dark, gray clouds.

    "Shiyani, Mia, Paul, Lethen." When he spoke, the air itself seemed to vibrate. "Die."

    Shiyani cursed to herself as she barely managed to sidestep a strike from the boy. He sailed past her and continued towards Paul. Just before the archer took a blow, Lethen dove in between them. "[Shield Arts: Bulwark]!"

    Golden mana created a massive wall of light that stopped Lucius in his tracks, though the wall of light quickly began to crack.

    "[Ventus: Air Step]" Shiyani cried out.

    From her storage ring, she called out a bow of her own. It was a weapon she rarely used in front of others because Paul already fulfilled their group''s needs for range attacks.

    With her current level of Air Step active, she was able to take about two dozen steps into the air as though it were solid ground. It was a rare spell that many Wind Magic users would never be able to use. Honestly, it was her ace in the hole, but she had to use it now.

    Shiyani climbed higher and higher into the air until she was one step away from the spell ending. If she held herself here, she could maintain her position for about two minutes. Taking a deep breath, she trained her sights on the boy below her, beating on Lethen''s Bulwark.

    Mia was behind him and making stab and shing attacks, which Lucius was able to block and dodge. None of Mia''s hits were going tond like this, but it did prolong the life of the Bulwark.

    "[Bow Arts: Multi-Shot], [Bow Arts: Pierce], [Bow Arts: Powershot]"

    Shiyani felt her vision blur momentarily trying to supply the mana required for all three of the Arts to activate. When she finally steadied herself, she released her breath in a steady manner, and loosed the arrow.

    At first there was one, single arrow surrounded by a massive bubble of mana, however about halfway to the target, the arrow split into four identical missiles of equal strength. Lethen, Paul, and Mia jumped backwards, surprising Lucius for just long enough for the shots to impact, near simultaneously.

    The resulting explosion made their ears ring and scattered dust and rock everywhere. At first there was quiet. Then as the quiet continued, Paul, Lethen, and Shiyani started to feel a sense of aplishment.

    None of them expected to witness what was hidden behind the cloud of debris. When it began to settle, they saw two shadows which soon revealed themselves to be Mia and Lucius. Mia wasying on the ground, with Lucius crouched over her. He had an arrow sticking out of his left bicep and a few more puncture wounds peppering his body.

    However, he did not look to be in pain, rather the only expression on his face was that of determination. His hand was wrapped tightly around Mia''s neck as she wed and struggled to pull herself free. She scrambled her hands along the ground, grabbing rocks and bashing them against the boy''s arm, face, and chest in a vain attempt to loosen his grip.

    Like a predator who had snagged it''s prey, Lucius would not let go of the girl and he lifted her up with only his left hand. Her body asionally twitched involuntarily from the lightning coursing over his body zapping her.

    "Mia¡­" Lucius said quietly, before plunging his weapon through her torso. Mia''s face and mouth contorted in pain. Were her mark not active, the scream she would make would likely haunt the memories of those present.

    When her face and body became limp, Lucius threw her body free of his de and turned to face Shiyani. Currently, Lucius was on the edge of the cliff with Mia''s body in between him and the others. Shiyani was still in the air, though she released her magic before her mana ran out and dropped to the ground, absorbing the shock with a well-practiced roll.

    "Well. Doesn''t look like you have much left in the tank, kid. Too bad you didn''t hit a breakthrough. Don''t think we would have won this if you did." She said to the boy.

    His legs were shaking and the energy swirling around him was flickering. Even the shadows licking his de had shrunk in size. Even with her normal, elven hearing she could hear the wheezing.

    Sure, she was exhausted, and the boy put up a great fight, but Paul and Lethen barely acted in the fight and mostly full tanks. They took damage from the area of effect from the Lightning Strike, but not really much else.

    "Give it up Lucius." Shiyani warned, drawing her bow and aiming it at his head. Paul also moved to her side with his bow drawn. Lethen stood on standby, ready to move into a defensive position at a moment''s notice.

    "Why? Why did you start to change your mind back then, but all of the sudden took money to change it back?" Lucius yelled. For once, he looked like a hurt boy, and not a ruthless killer. "You fought with us. Helped us. And now, for simple coins, you take my life.

    Coins you were going to reject from Andre!"

    Shiyani sighed. "The world is moreplex than you can imagine kid. yers y a game that we don''t understand and sometimes to make a good move, they have to sacrifice a piece."

    "So that''s all I am. A piece in a game? A pawn?"

    "Most of us are, Lucius. Unless you be a yer, that''s we will ever be, kid."

    She witnessed something she never expected from Lucius. Tears welled up in his eyes and peppered the ground at his feet. "That''s all I have ever been since I''ve been born. A pawn that people tried to get rid of¡­ I won''t ept it¡­ no. Instead of y the game, I''ll simply overturn the board." He growled.

    From somewhere unknown, a strange energy began to fill the area. It was a familiar sensation. Paul and Lethen fell to their knees and it was all Shiyani could do to maintain her consciousness.

    "Damn it¡­ where¡­" she struggled to speak.

    At Lucius'' feet, Shiyani noticed a slight movement. Mia seemed to still be alive and she held in her hand, two small, gray crystals. The gray color started to fade and became white. The white light began to glow and the sound of cracking ss echoed.

    Lucius recognized the sound and looked down. He quickly dove backwards towards the cliff, but before he could make it over the edge, Mia shouted out. "Nice try, Lucius. We win this one!"

    A massive explosion, centered on Mia filled the space. Light, heat, and sound took up the space where she and Lucius once were.

    Shiyani and her group dove to the ground in an effort to minimize the damage done to them. me licked over her back and scorched her armor and singed her beautiful hair. For the next two minutes, the heat of the air was unbearable.

    When things finally began to cool down, they got to their feet. Where Mia and Lucius once were, there was a ck crater. There was no debris, no dust, nothing. It was as if the entire cliffside was vaporized instantly.

    "No doubt the Eroans had someone follow us. We need to go. Now. He''s gone."

    "Right, boss. Sorry kid."

    "Grab Renton and Marie. They''re still out of it. Let''s go. Now."

 Chapter 127: Letters Home

    An imposing man with red hair and green eyes stared at the elven woman across the desk from him. Sitting on the surface of the desk was a document, formally detailing the events of her mission. She was currently in a daze from having also had her memories read and shown to him as proof ofpletion.

    Though there was no physical evidence, from the scenes he witnessed, he doubted he would be capable of surviving such an explosion himself. Even Kalivas and possibly even Arcadios'' own King and Empyrean Rankers would escape from that unscathed.

    "And you believe he''s been eliminated?" Richard finally asked after the elven woman came to full alertness.

    "I believe he''d have to be one hell of a monster to survive that. Kind of hard to get proof when he was likely vaporized. Hell, even Mia waspletely erased by the explosion and he wasn''t much further away from the origin point than she was." Shiyani said with a shrug.

    Richard absentmindedly ran his fingers through his hair. Instead of beingbed and smoothed like a noble typically does, it was a bit of a shaggy mess. His facial hair was also unkempt. The stress and pressures of the battlefield distracted him from focusing on basic hygiene.

    In truth, Richard probably would have let himself go a little even if he wasn''t distracted. It made the men under hismand feel a little at ease knowing that theirmanding officers were experiencing the hardships of war like them.

    "Fine. Your payment then." Richard tossed a sack filled with coins across the desk. "The agreed upon amount. Ten thousand tinum coins."

    "Thank you kindly."

    "Pleasure doing business with you, Shiyani." Richard said with a sigh.

    "If that''s what you want to call it."

    The woman''s disdain for him was palpable. ording to his brother, Andre, Shiyani did not get along well with members of nobility, even though they were her primary clientele.

    "Now, I have another¡­"

    Shiyani held up a hand, cutting him off before he could finish his sentence. "Nope. That''s it. Contract isplete and my partnership with the Petra household is done. Besides, I have another job for a more valuable client."

    Her words caught his attention. Who was it that was more valuable a client than his own family? Of the highest-ranking family''s, House Petra was among the strongest and wealthiest in Arcadios, the Union even. Very few people in the worldmanded more wealth than the Petra''s.

    The reason for their vast wealth was that they were, by nature, a very frugal household. Their focus on martial training and military education took up most of the time of the members of the family. They seldom had time to spend on worldly desires.

    "Fine." Richard decided to let it go. As a professional, there was no way that he could convince Shiyani to reveal the identity of her clients. Besides, even if he did, she would probably make him forget.

    She was a risk, but most of the world''s powers deemed the woman to be a ''necessary evil'' for it to turn. Though she was a Runner by definition, no one made an effort to hunt her down or kill her. Though, it could not be ruled out that the people who met her had their memories and feelings altered by her to think that way¡­

    "You are truly terrifying." He mumbled. His statement elicited a small grin from the woman who then stood, bowed, and exited the room.

    "Well. As themander of Watcher''s Rest, I suppose Lucius was under mymand. So, I suppose it is on me to write a letter to his family." He muttered to himself.

    In the letter he detailed the death of Lucius. The story was modified slightly so as to make it more ptable to the public should the letter get out. As such, he left out any information rting to his misdeeds, the specifics of his mission, and the actual cause of his death.

    In the letter to Rubellia, he said:

    ~Miss Rubellia,

    I regret to inform you of the loss of Lucius. While on special assignment behind enemy lines in Alorek, he lost his life in a major battle that also imed the life of one of hisrades.

    Lucius is survived by two additional members of his team and many lives were saved as a result of his sacrifice.

    The boy was a powerful warrior and contributed to many of our army''s victories while on his special assignment. Due to confidentiality, I cannot divulge the specifics of his duties, but I assure you hepleted them to the best of his abilities.

    Experience more at m_vl-em,pyr

    I understand that you are saddened by your son''s death. Were Wayne still alive, he would have been impressed by the boy''s growth. No longer was he small, weak child, but a strong and resolute warrior.

    As a special favor to you, for so loyally serving my house, from my own funds I will instruct my estate to bequeath to you the former residence you and your family once shared. You shall also receive a monthly allowance till the end of your days that will allow you to live a life unburdened by the pressures of servitude any longer.

    Yours,

    Richard von Petra~

    Reading over the letter, he sighed to himself. The allowance and returning of the cottage he had given to Wayne was less of a repayment for Lucius'' service and more of a way to pay back the spirit of his deceased Guard Captain.

    Lucius was simply a Marked One and it was already a step beyond the norm to even write a letter, much less bequeath a death benefit. No, this was his pathetic way to finish repaying Wayne since he had broken his promise to let the boy serve as his daughter''s protector.

    "I suppose she should receive one as well. After all, I hear she has isted herself from other noble houses because of the boy. Maybe when she finds out the future she wanted is no longer possible, she will give up and move on."

    With that in mind, he set about writing another letter to his daughter. It was much shorter and to the point. It also included an order to find herself a partner within nobility. With Lucius gone, he doubted that she would have the energy to defy him further. After all, there was no longer a point to do so.

    When he finished his letters, Richard stepped out of his office. Waiting for him was Commander Laris who was already in a bowing position.

    "General, I heard that the task was done?" the oldmander questioned.

    "You heard correctly. You and the remainder of your men may rest easy. Spread the word to those who care." He ordered.

    "Sir."

    When Laris disappeared to bring the news to his subordinates and likely his son, Richard turned around and ordered another soldier who was stationed as the guard to his office.

    "Send these letters out. The one for Rubellia is to be sent to my estate. The other is for my daughter and shall be sent to the Royal Academy in the capital of Arcadios."

 Chapter 128: Crumpled Paper

    Natali slowly sipped a in, ck tea while sitting at a small round table in front of a bakery that she had grown fond of. Her best friends, Lyrah and Rena had also grown fond of the ce called ''Petite Treat'' and they frequented it every weekend or day off they had.

    Of course, they would only stop by after a long day of walking around town. After all, just because the name suggested thinness, in order to maintain such a body, they had to work for those treats.

    Their setup worked out quite well. Since Rena and Lyrah were out in public, they chatted to one another the entire time. As a maid, she was already pushing the line by sharing a table with her master, so she was able to avoid participating in the conversation actively.

    She still listened to them on the asion, but relished these moments where she could simply enjoy the wind in her hair and the fragrant scent of high-quality tea leaves. The specialty of this shop was these small, airy cookie-like treats with different kinds of fillings called macarons. Ever since Lyrah had introduced them to the girls, Natali had developed a slight obsession.

    Once upon a time, that obsession was put towards crepes, but no longer did they hold a ce in her heart of hearts.

    "Natali, are you doing well?"

    Rena''s voice pulled her out of her little world. She kept a frown from forming on her face because she was enjoying her peace, but since she was directly addressed, she was required to respond, even in public.

    "I am quite alright." She whispered.

    Rena gave her a gentle smile. They had grown closer since the first time they met. With the odd shove towards each other from Lyrah, they developed a kinship of sorts. The red-headed girl found it odd that they both expressed interest in Lucius, but when Lyrah casually exined that growing up she had several visions about the boy and that led to a childhood crush of sorts.

    Natali fumed, in her own way, when her secret was revealed to the lover of the very boy that had captured her heart, but Rena did not seem to mind. Nor did she give off any air of superiority for having been the one to ''seal the deal,'' as it were. Granted, the deal was not TRULY sealed, after all, they only kissed¡­

    "Are you daydreaming about my boyfriend again?"

    Natali scratched herst thought about the girl not lording her position over her.

    "No. I was thinking how much closer we have gotten, but maybe I was wrong if you were going to act like that¡­" Natali answered quietly.

    The response elicited a series of teasing giggles from Lyrah and Rena. Even Natali smiled warmly, though for only a moment.

    "Well!" Lyrah said, pping her hands. "Shall we go? Oh, there was a novel you wanted to share with me Rena, shall we go to your room?"

    "Oh yes! The one about themoner turned hero! Yes,e back to my dorm. We can continue our discussion there and Natali won''t have to act so distant with us!" Rena giggled.

    Natali quickly finished her tea, stood and dusted her apron before bowing and gesturing for the two girls to move ahead of her. The too stood and they headed together back to the academy.

    When they approached the school, Thomas von Petra was there along with his most ardent supporters at the school. With him were sons of the Rolf, Arnold, Burgess, and Kirby houses.

    "Ah, cousin, what are you up to this fine morning?" Thomas said to a concert of snickering from the other nobles.

    "I am spending time with my dear friends. Why do you care?" Rena jeered. If looks could kill, Thomas would have been sent to his grave several times over.

    "Don''t waste your time cozying up to the next Oracle. It won''t win you your spot back in the running for the head of the household you know¡­ the best you could hope for is to listen to Uncle and marry into a minor noble family. Oh! How about House Arnold. Warren, what do you think of my cousin?" Thomasughed.

    Warren, who had both a non-descript personality and appearance, stepped forward while chuckling. "I appreciate your kind offer. I would love to cement an alliance between our houses. Though, Lord Petra, I am concerned about the diseases I might contract from having a Marked One''s sloppy seconds."

    "I''m sure that''s something several hundred castings of Terrance''s light magic spells could cure. Or maybe we can have her purified by a priest?" Thomas chuckled. One of the other boys, Terrance Rolf,ughed along with him and mocked the movements of casting a spell. Though, he made no effort to actually use any mana.

    "I would caution you against even acting as though you are casting a spell in the presence of Lady Lyrah." Natali red icily at the boys. "I would hate to mistake it for an act of violence and need to protect her."

    A few of the boys gulped because they had seen her fight inbat sses. The maid was seen as quite the formidable opponent and not one of them were interested in crossing des with her. As the guardian and servant of Lyrah, the castle and crown would side with her for assuming that the next Oracle was under perceived threat.

    "Besides." She continued. "We are all about to start as official first years soon. And we would hate for anyone to miss the senior exhibition as well as ss assignments."

    This time Thomas gulped. They were all considered ''early entrees'' to the academy. They were allowed to participate in some sses, though those avable to them were limited in scope and space. However, they were old enough to be considered official students and could register as first-years in just a few weeks and would be considered true students.

    Thomas needed to excel at the academy to get the recognition he needed from his uncle and earn his position fully as the next head.

    Thomas spit. "Whatever¡­ let''s go."

    After the group left, the girls simply shook their heads in judgement and entered the female dorms. Upon entry into the room, Rena had noticed a letter cedying on the ground. Apparently someone had dropped a delivery under the door.

    "Oh?" Rena said in surprise while picking it up. "It appears to be from my father."

    "Open it." Lyrah said quietly.

    For some reason Rena did not seem to notice the tone in the girl''s voice, but Natalie did. She even perceived a slight crack in her speech, as if something was wrong. The maid stared at Lyrah, who refused to meet her gaze.

    Rena, opened the letter without concern, though a bit apprehensive since she had not spoken to her father, nor been on good terms with him. Her green eyes slowly scanned the page and Natali witnessed her fingers slowly dig into the paper, crinkling the edges.

    "N-no¡­" She whispered. Tears formed at the edges of her eyes.

    "No!"

    Rena copsed to the ground; all the strength having left her. Her shrill screech attracted the attention of the other girls in the dorm and they gathered outside of the still open door.

    Rena was sobbing uncontrobly, like a child who had lost their parents. Several girls gathered outside at this point and one spoke up to ask, "What''s¡­"

    "That is enough for the audience." Lyrah said with measured frustration as she closed the door on their faces. Though it was gentle, there was a firm finality to it.

    "Lyrah¡­ Rena?" Natali tried to get the words out, but she struggled to speak. Her voice quaked despite herself. Discover new chapters on m_vlem,pyr

    "No, no no no!" Rena continued to sob and had now copsedpletely to the ground. Her hands both clung to her hair, having pulled her hair essories out. The letter had fallen to the ground beside her.

    "It is best if you read it, Natali." Lyrah said while gently stroking Rena''s back. "I cannot speak it aloud, lest all three of us be inconsble."

    Natali carefully picked up the partially crumpled paper and unfurled it enough to read the words. Each and every line was more painful than thest. Natali''s world came crashing down around her suddenly. Though she had never met him, it was like a longtime friend suddenly vanished from her life.

    While isted in the Oracle''s tower together, all she had around her were Lady Adelia, Lyrah, her own mother, and her father. Other than them, she had the stories of Lucius that Lyrah would share with her every day and every night. Now, that person was gone.

    "Lucius is¡­" Natali stuttered. She locked eyes with Lyrah and remembered her warning a little while ago. "Together, right?"

    Lyrah nodded affirmatively. "Yes."

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 129: In the Rubble

    Kalliope had begun to slow down after her initial burst of speed, allowing the two beastmen with her to catch up slightly. None of them cared about staying out of Lucius'' sensory range after the massive discharge of manaing from the cliffs overlooking the valley.

    Before they could get too much closer, there was a massive burst of heat, rush of air, followed by a sound louder than anything they had ever heard. They simultaneously covered their ears in pain in reaction to what could only be described as an entire storm''s worth of thunder sounding off all at once.

    It was bad enough to leave her ears ringing and her feeling some disorientation, but she could tell her ears were not permanently injured in any way. What she wanted to do was rush up to the cliffs immediately, but the disorientation she was experiencing threatened to topple her over.

    "Lady Kalliope, are you alright? What was that sound? Did someone cast a high-level fire spell?" one of her men questioned. He too was nursing his ears by rubbing them gently.

    Read thetest chapters at m-vl-em,pyr

    "I don''t know. Come on, to the cliffs!"

    Kalliope finally felt herself be steady enough to walk and began to move towards the human meeting spot. Slowly, but surely she regained confidence in her stride and returned to a run.

    When the Eroans reached the top of the cliffside they saw score marks, gouges, and small craters pocketed all over the rocky surface. The biggest among them was a massive crater at the edge of the cliff that was colored ck. Upon closer inspection, the edges of the crater had turned into a ss-like substance, reflecting the sun''s rays.

    "How powerful was that spell¡­" one of her men asked while carefully inspecting the edges of the crater.

    Panic was starting to set in. Kalliope began to frantically inspect the battlefield for signs of Lucius or bodies, but there was nothing. The shifting sands already covered up tracks of anyone who fled the area¡­ so what happened here? Who attacked them? Was it Alorek?

    Everything about this situation was sketchy. If it was Alorek, they would still be nearby or their other scouts would have reported enemies in the area.

    "It must have been a setup¡­" she mumbled.

    "Lady Kalliope! Over here!"

    One of her men was standing on the edge of the cliff and pointing down into the valley. At first all she saw was rubble and devastation from parts of the rock wall having cascaded onto the valley floor. However, upon a closer examination, among the rubble was a body.

    Without any further reservations, she jumped off the side of the cliff. "[Shield Arts: Negate Impact]!"

    As she approached the ground below, she activated her Arts to cancel out any of the impact and damage from the fall. The shield took increased damage aspared to what it would have taken upon a normal block, but in exchange the user felt zero residual effects of the strike.

    In this case, it absorbed the impact of her fall and in repayment, her shield exceeded its durability and shattered into splinters. The cost of the Art was worth it though.

    Scrambling across the rubble, she made her way to the body. The person had dark colored hair that was coated in ayer of dust and sand. On top of his chest and stomach were armfuls of rocks and sand, but the face was unmistakably Lucius.

    "Gods! Lucius!" Kalliope ran to his side and began to dig him out from the dirt. "Come on, don''t be dead. Don''t be dead. Don''t be dead."

    *****

    Like he did every day, Kalivas stood as the solitary guard and watch at the gate of Fort Se. He took breaks of course. He would trade with a squad of fighters at the twilight and dusk for a period of three hours each. As a powerful fighter who trained himself in nearly every martial style, there were times where he had to train his stamina and mental fortitude.

    It was thanks to this intense training that he had been able to maintain his solitary watch. On top of that, he knew that every moment he was not protecting the gates, was a moment that Alorek would choose to attack and he was not about to be taken by surprise.

    The times of day in which he took his rest periods were also openings in his defense, however they were also disadvantageous times to begin a siege, so the risk of his guard being taken advantage of was low.

    Right as he was thinking about that someone came up to him to deliver his lunch, which he ate on duty.

    "Thank you. After this war is over, I am going to devour the stock of every luxury restaurant in the capital. This dry jerky and stale bread just doesn''t cut it." Heughed.

    The soldier who delivered it to him had a sour look on his face. In his defense, Kalivas had been making this joke every meal, every day, ever since Alorek attacked.

    "Sheesh, tough crowd¡­" He mumbled to himself as the man disappeared.

    He was half way through chewing on a piece of jerky when he caught wind of Kalliope and blood. Off in the distance he was able to see a group of shadows running towards him. Slumped over Kalliope''s back was the familiar form of a boy that he had only just seen off earlier today.

    "I knew it." Kalivas growled, trying to calm the rage in his chest. "Healers! To me! We have a severely wounded soldier iing!"

    His order''s echoed through the air and a number of men behind the gates started scrambling around to find their best healers. It did not matter to them if those healers were off duty, because the tone in Kalivas'' voice was fierce enough to imply the oue of failing to meet his request.

    "Uncle! It''s Lucius¡­ they¡­" Kalliope stammered between gasps. It seemed she had run the entire way back despite the protests from her body.

    He carefully moved to remove the boy from her back, but she warned him before he could move further, "Don''t touch his back. You have to hold him stomach down¡­"

    Kalivas was stunned by the strange request, but moved to do as she said. When he finally shuffled the boy into his arms, he realized why she had said so.

    The skin along his back was covered in burns and deep gashes. Not only would holding him on his back be immensely painful for him, but he''d likely drip even more blood than he was already losing. Several of the openings were deep enough to see bone and severed muscle. He also did not miss the fact that there seemed to be a handful of wounds on his front from being pierced by arrows.

    "What happened to him¡­" The anger he had quelled up until now threatened to spill over. Even the other soldiers started to shake from the pressure.

    Kalliope was unphased, focused solely on the boy in his arms. "I don''t know¡­ but it seems their ''reinforcements'' were a trap, I don''t know if it was for him or all of them, but I only saw him. No one else was present."

    "Okay¡­"

    "We did what you asked, but when battle started to break out, I charged forward. I wasn''t able to make it in time. Before I could get close there was a massive explosion, like someone set off a King Rank fire spell." Kalliope continued.

    Kalivas nodded. "Come, let''s get him inside and heal what we can. Guard the gates! I''m going to be busy for a while. If anyone cks, I''ll feed you to Sand Wyrms myself."

 Chapter 130: Truth Revealed

    Lucius found himself floating in a sea of emptiness. His vision was working and he could see his entire body. It was simply that there was nothing else to look at, the very concept of ''nothing'' was all that stared back at him.

    However, he was not unsettled, rather there was a strangefort to it. He had been here before.

    "Luz. Grimm. Show yourselves." He shouted out.

    For a moment there was nothing, just silence. Then the void became filled with a bright white, light. Then opposite of it, a deep, never-ending darkness. They were two entities he had known for a long time, but had not spoken to for a while. A smile breached his face as he spoke to two of his oldest friends.

    "Grimm, Luz¡­ nice to see you, though I cant remember exactly, I feel like the circumstances of this are less than ideal?" He said while moving to some sort of seating position.

    There was no up or down, nor was there a concept of left or right, everything simply¡­ was. However, he ''sat'' as though he were resting in a friend''s room.

    "Long time, no see Lucius. Well, for you I suppose. We''ve been watching you for this entire time. Also time isn''t really¡­ a thing, so it kinda feels like we just talked!" Grimm''s raspy voiceughed out.

    "Lucius¡­ hello¡­" Luz on the other hand seemed to somehow struggle with speaking.

    Now that he was paying attention, his overwhelming light that sometimes hurt to look at was actually somewhat manageable. It was as though the being had gotten weaker somehow.

    "Everything okay, Luz?"

    "Bah, don''t worry about him!" Grimm chuckled. "He''s just feeling a little gloomy."

    "That''s one way to put it¡­" Luz whispered. Stay updated with m-v le-mpyr

    "Hey, you get what you deserved. Keeping our boy held back like that¡­ how rude of you good sir!" Grimm continued.

    Lucius was confused for a moment, then felt a rush of rage. Was what Grimm said true? Was the reason he was unable to advance for so many years because Luz was holding him back?

    "Uh-oh! Someone''s in trouble!" Grimm teased.

    "Luz¡­"

    "Listen Lucius, it was necessary. For your growth." Luz tried to argue in as convincing of a tone as he could manage. "The hardships you experienced made you grow as a person, forced you to learn. That''s all I wanted for you so that way you did not use your power as a crutch."

    "Yes, Luz. You did do that. Meanwhile I tried my hardest at first to breach through your little wall, but s when I saw that I could not best you, I had no choice but to give up and let you torture our poor boy to your heart''s content."

    If darkness could shrug, that seemed to be what Grimm had just done. Lucius thought back to the times he struggled and how he was underestimated and mocked for being weak and unable to advance. His job of protecting Rena itself seemed to be a joke the universe yed on him because she was a rank higher than he was.

    However, the universe was not ying a prank. No, the culprit of that particr breed of misfortune was someone he had considered a friend.

    "You know Luz¡­ out of the two of you, Grimm was the one I expected to trick me, betray me." Lucius growled. His eyes red in anger. "But it was you. Do you know what I faced. What I had to do?"

    "But you grew, did you not?"

    "Grow? You did that so I could grow? Was my suffering as a child not enough growth for you? Was the world hating me not enough growth for you? Was being ripped from the love of my life not enough growth for you?" Lucius was shouting now, his voice echoing through the vast emptiness. "Huh Luz?

    Was all that pain not enough for you?!"

    "I wanted you too learn how to use the power you had¡­"

    "If you didn''t stop me from using the power I had, maybe I could have! Instead, I learned to work with scraps!"

    Luz was silent for a while. Then, "Heroes struggle through adversity. To be what¡­"

    "Fuck your heroes."

    "What?"

    "You heard me Luz. Fuck. Your. Heroes. Why would I want to be one?"

    "To change the world¡­"

    "There are a lot of ways to change the world Luz¡­ but even if there were. I don''t want that." He whispered. "I don''t want that at all. I just want to exist. To that end, I take the steps necessary, no matter the cost."

    "You''ve murdered so many people Lucius." Luz whispered, his voice was getting weaker and the light grew ever dimmer.

    Grimm simply stayed silent and watched as he argued with the other half of the void.

    "What would they have done to me even if I had done nothing Luz?"

    "You did more than what was needed to make your point. Why did you go further? Every time you killed, you went further than you needed to. You could have gotten the same results without resorting to the amount of violence you¡­"

    "Enough, Luz." He said with serene calm. "You''re right. I went further than necessary. I killed more than I needed¡­ but so what if I did? This is a kill or be killed world, Luz, and for me? I would rather be on the killing side."

    "That doesn''t¡­"

    "Shut up Luz¡­"

    Grimm''s cackle echoed through the void, taunting his counterpart. Still he said nothing. He simply continued tough as Lucius'' vision faded.

    Just before his vision faded entirely, he heard the darkness call to him, "I''m proud of you Lucius¡­ let''s continue to work together."

    *****

    Kalliope sat by Lucius'' side, holding onto his hand. There was no way for him to know that she wasforting him, but she remained that way regardless. If anything, it was afort for her instead.

    Uncle Kalivas also stood by Lucius'' bedside as multiple healers cast spell after spell on the boy in sections. Theybined several different grades of potions with their magic to try and quickly heal the worst of his injuries.

    Eventually the open wounds began to close and the burns began to fade. However, many of the wounds would leave permanent scars. It was a testament to the intense amount of mana that went into causing those wounds. Without some of the greatest healing potions known to man, and the strongest healers in the world¡­ no one would have been able to heal the scars away.

    Lucius would walk the world forever with these. Kalliope did think they looked pretty badass though. She especially liked the one on his chest and neck. It was almost sad to think that most of these would be covered up by his clothes¡­ but if she were too¡­

    "Kalliope."

    She yelped after her name was called out. "I wasn''t thinking anything!"

    Kalivas'' questioning eyebrow made her look away in shame for a moment, but he thankfully left it alone and continued. "I guess you figured out something when he first arrived here."

    "Lucius? I know he smelled kind of¡­ wait¡­ that''s what it was! Before you attacked him¡­he''s¡­" She was so shocked she almost dropped Lucius'' hand. "Is he rted to you uncle?"

    Kalivas nodded slowly. "Yes. In fact, he''s my son."

    For a moment, she thought she heard something break. It was the sound of her mind shattering at this news. Never before had she heard of her uncle having a son. Let alone a half-blooded son with someone of another race.

    "What do you mean? When did you¡­ what about the woman¡­" hundreds of questions filled her mind, but none of them could reallye out.

    "His mother is the one woman I loved, though I do not believe she ever loved me. For her, I believe I was a means to an end yet¡­ I was with her long enough to create him. I never thought I would meet him. I was told he did not survive the birth¡­ imagine¡­ just¡­"

    Something Kalliope had never imagined in her life greeted her. Tears. Tears from the face of her great, uncle Kalivas. To her, he was an unshakable hero, a force of power and might, the very representation of strength. Yet here he was, in front of her¡­ crying.

    She quietlyid Lucius'' hand down beside him and walked over to her uncle. Kalliope gently wrapped her arms around him and gave him a wordless hug.

    After a few moments, he patted her on the back to let him go. "Thank you."

    "Of course."

    "When he pulls through¡­ you are to stay with him at all times. I''m not going to let him go this time. I was unable to be a father all these years¡­ so the least I could do is protect him and train him to be stronger."

    "What if the humans find out he''s still alive?"

    "They won''t."

    -----------------------------------------

    A/N: Hi all! Thank you so much for reading! The beginning of the story and the origins for most of our cast has beenid bare! Please enjoy as we start Volume 2: Academies!

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 131 : Four Years

    A woman, d in shining, te armor stood at the edge of the walls of the city of Alvora. She had short, round ears on top of her head that were ck in color and a small white, nubby tail behind her.

    Ever since she tookmand of the supply depot four years ago after the betrayal of General Elzha, she had made it a point to patrol the city''s fortified walls every dawn. The city had essentially turned into a fortress during the time that she tookmand, and it''s citizenry had started to slowly trickle back into the city.

    It was no longer just a supply depot for the army, but a functioning city under martialw. While not an ideal situation, after such a long and drawn-out war, the locations the citizens had been relocated to were running out of space and supplies to care for them. There was no option but to return home.

    "General Pana! General!"

    Pana turned around to look the fresh-faced boy in the eyes. He was sweating profusely and gasping for breath. He had probably run nonstop around the walls to locate her.

    "Speak."

    "Ma''am¡­ Eroa has pushed further into our territory. They''ve taken the hills five miles to the north."

    Pana felt a rumble in her throat as she failed to hold back an angry growl. They had faced loss after loss and yet their king, the almighty Zethis, refused to yield. Not only had his ns been derailed by a traitor, putting them at a disadvantage, but his own foolish pride would not let him sue for peace.

    One of the few things that kept them from losing Alvora more quickly was that Kalivas had chosen to remain within Eroa''s borders. Likely to keep the King and Empyrean warriors of Alorek from joining the war. However, they did face a new foe on the battlefield.

    Recently they had been receiving reports of a unit of fighters that were under the direct order of King Verdayl Eroa. These fighters were members of his elite guard known as the ''King''s Shadow'' that served to be his eyes and ears in the dark. However, instead of operating as a ndestine group resolving internal affairs, it seemed a number of their ranks had been sent to the warfront.

    "How many Shadows were seen?"

    "ording to reports, only four or five at the most."

    "That''s too many¡­ They are nning something. Inform the popce to prepare supplies and fortifications for a potential siege. Our soldiers will assist the merchant guild in providing supplies based on family size and need. Triple the guard at all checkpoints and double the number of scouts. All reserves are considered active duty as of now." Pana barked.

    The messenger saluted her, took a deep breath then ran of to ry hermands to other messengers. Pana had great instincts and intuition and something told her that the end of the war was on its way.

    *****

    "Oh Renaaa!" a sing-song voice reverberated through her room. The pitch was unnecessarily high and energetic. "It''s morning and it is time for our weekly outing!"

    Rena reached out and grabbed something hard off of her night stand, then chucked it at the door. The loud thud acted as an indicator that the visitor coulde in. Seeing as she had a key, there was no need to unlock the door for her.

    A young woman with white hair slowly stepped into the doorway, moving to the side so a much more energetic woman with ck hair and silver eyes could rush inside. The second girl took a flying leap andnded right on top of the poor redhead still covered up by her nkets.

    "Lady Rena, it does you no good to stay in bed all day! I know it is the weekend, but to waste the day away by sleeping is by no means an excusable action!" Lyrah teased while poking her cheek.

    "Lyrah¡­ get off me." She grumbled in response.

    The girl let out a sigh. "Alright¡­ so be it. Natali?"

    "[cies: Freezing Wind]" The maid generated a low powered version of a debuff spell. It was useless at the power level she used, but it was enough to create a smallir of frost to form all over the room.

    "Fine! Gods, you two are persistent, I''ll get up¡­" Rena acquiesced to their demands and threw off her nkets. Since they were all girls, she did not bother to cover her modesty despite the fact that her nightgown had slipped off her shoulder, exposing one of her breasts.

    "Oh my, Lady Rena, how bold!" Lyrah giggled with a hand over her mouth.

    "Please, were I interested in seducing you, I would try harder than simply exposing my chest."

    "Is that so? I don''t know, it seems like a pretty viable option for seduction."

    "If you were a man maybe it would be, but I like to think you are a little more intellectual than that." Powered by m_vl_em_p_yr

    Natali giggled in the corner of the room. It had been four years since Rena had joined the academy and they spent every day off and many evenings after sses hanging out and talking. So much so, that conversations like this became the norm. The three of them were considered outcasts at the Academy. Rena because of her past, and Lyrah and Natali because they were the only Marked Ones in attendance.

    Rumors had it that because the Adventurer''s Guild leveraged its weight as an international organization, to request that thews that the human nations put in ce to prepare for war, be maintained after the war.

    This meant that when war was finally over, there would likely be an influx of students of various ages in schools and guilds around the continent. However, until that actually happens, these two girls were the only ones of their kind currently here.

    "Who do you pick to be the winner of the Senior Showcase this year, Rena?"

    "I am unsure. Unfortunately, my idiot cousin has be quite adept in the ways of bothbat and magic. So, he stands a good chance."

    "Hmm, that he does. None of the other iing seniors have quite the same spunk that he has. I only wish he would direct that energy into being less of a dickhead."

    "If only."

    What Lyrah was referencing was the annual ''Senior Showcase'' as the students had taken to calling it. Essentially it was abat tournament held every year as part of the opening ceremony for the Royal Academy in Arcadios. Students of the iing senior ss would volunteer in abat tournament showing off their abilities and talents as an inspiration for the iing freshmen.

    It also served to pander to members of nobility that wished to see their donations were worth the expense.

    Rena could care less who won the tournament. The only thing the winner got was the fawning of any iing students who were interested in getting to know, either politically or carnally, strong warriors.

    Lyrah started audibly sighing as she watched Rena choose the outfit she was going to wear today. It was a pair of pants with leather armor over the top, a in undershirt under a set of studded leather and topped with a thin overcoat. Essentially, she looked again like the adventurer she once was. The girl finished the look by tying up a small ponytail with her short hair.

    "It is quite a shame you don''t dress moredylike anymore. You have such a nice figure."

    "I have no one I need to impress. What is that old saying¡­ Dress for the job you want? Well, I''m going to be an adventurer after the academy. So here I am. Come on let''s go." Rena led the girls out of her dorms so they could visit the marketce and bakeries like usual.

    Rena sighed to herself at Lyrah''s behavior. ''Today is his birthday¡­ isn''t it...we''re eighteen now Lucius... I wish we could have seen it together'' She thought sadly as she gently rubbed the choker around her neck.

    -----------------------------------------------

    A/N: Thank you to all those who have purchased privilege and tickets, and powerstones!

    Special thanks to:

    bashuwen, DarkElven6, Aldiir_Di_Oz, darkde875, azazel867, alex_molsbee, Jesse_Michaels, and MultiEye.you keep a newbie like me writing! <3

    Hope you enjoy volume 2 more than volume 1!

 Chapter 132 : Zethis Resolve

    Zethis stood, overlooking his city again. The look on his face was serene in a way. His once great n for reconquering Eroa for his kingdom and enving human nations was in tatters. All of the advisors to the throne and representatives of the different ns begged him to push for peace.

    Despite the stupidity of it, Zethis could not relent. His pride would simply not let him. He still saw a way out of this with him stilling out on top, though it would be difficult.

    As long as Alvora stood, they had a way to win. General Pana was one of their best. All she had to do was hold the city until the next wave of reinforcements arrive. Granted their passage through that area of the desert has been slowed thanks to the migration of Sand Wyrms currently happening.

    It was an annual event and piss poor timing.

    "Hold out Pana. We will send reinforcements soon." Zethis mumbled.

    Over thest four years his temperament had cooled a little. His demeanor took on a more mellow tone. No longer was he the genius king that could crush their enemies, but the stubborn fool who did not know how to quit while he was ahead¡­

    "King Zethis! Your presence is requested in the council chambers."

    "Fine."

    He meandered through the hallways, in no particr rush to get where he was going, taking time to admire the art that hung on the walls for the first time in his life. There was a beauty to the pce that he had not known before. While he was gazingckadaisically at the paintings lining his pce''s halls, he felt a slight tremor in the air. It was a terrifying, yet familiar sensation.

    "Her¡­"

    Zethis'' calm demeanor quickly changed to one of excitement. He had felt this a few times in the past, both as a younger warrior and a child. Though it had been many years since he hadst seen the woman in question.

    Bursting through the doors of the council chambers, he quickly gazed about until his eyes rested on a small woman with cat-like ears and a stripped orange and ck tail. Though they were hard to discern there were also light stripe marks all over her body as well.

    "Lady Tierga!" Zethis said,ing to a kneeling position before her, much to the surprise of the council members around him.

    "Stand, Zethis! You are a king! You should not kneel before your subjects." The woman shouted.

    "King, Emperor, or god, I will always pay respects to my master." He said while standing up.

    The woman before him was the person who trained him to fight. She was Alorek''s Empyrean Rank warror, Tierga. Though she was easily in her sixties, she did not look a day over thirty. The massive maul on her back was almost as tall as she was as well.

    Zethis exchanged pleasantries with his old master for several minutes,pletely ignoring those who had requested his presence. When the woman started to show signs of annoyance, he backed off and returned to the matter at hand.

    "So, Lady Tierga, what has you blessing our pce with your presence?" Zethis stated in a tone befitting a ruler.

    All of his previous mncholy vanished and for a moment, at least to the eyes of those around him. He returned to the strong king he had made himself known to be in the past.

    "I hear enemies encroach upon ournds, ande to give you guidance and support. Though Kalivas has not entered our borders, nor are there signs of the warriors of the Union kingdoms participating, I find myself growing concerned for those who bully those weaker than them."

    King Rank and Empyrean Rank warriors and mages rarely, if ever, participated in their homes'' wars and squabbles. To fighters of their caliber, it was decided that for the safety of those weaker than them, they would not fight unless provoked by another individual of their weight ss.

    To them, the kings and queens of the continent''s nations were akin to children ying a game. When two nations warred, that was simply a pair of toddlers fighting over a toy. These powerful beings did not intervene in the fighting of children, only when another adult tried to bully them would they step in.

    Usually, they did not care for the changing of rulers over the ces they protected, but some, like Kalivas, did. Tierga was one of the ones who did not participate in protecting the homnd, unless another of her level were to participate.

    Something concerned him though. If neither Kalivas, nor any of the other possible King and Empyrean Rankers were joining¡­ then what was the cause for concern?

    "Mydy¡­ I apologize for my ignorance, but just what kind of bullying do you think is urring? Our king simply started a war he cannot finish, there is no bullying, rather divine retribution perhaps?" One of the elder members of the council stated. Zethis red at him, butpared to the aura of Tierga, his threats meant nothing to the old man.

    "So you reject my offer for assistance then?" Tierga asked dangerously.

    "I-I-I wouldn''t say that, mydy it is just¡­ you and your cohort do not typically care to intervene even in past skirmishes. I just find it strange that you would fight on our behalf¡­"

    The powerful warriorughed, making the others in the room tremble. "Do not assume I will fight this war for you. No, these are your own problems. However, I will support you. By my name, the capital will not fall, Alorek will remain sovereign. This is what I promise."

    There was a collective sigh of relief, including from Zethis. Though he knew it was basically impossible for Eroa or the Union to want to annex them, the concern was still there as a possibility always existed. With Tierga''s promise, their sovereignty was assured no matter the oue.

    "Ah, but one more offer. The Sand Wyrms¡­ I shall take care of that problem. Advance your armies as you wish."

    With thatst statement, the woman left the room. No one made moves or statements to stop her. That would be like trying to ask an earthquake to stop shaking. Zethis gradually felt his energy reserves rekindle. The me and passion in his heart burned brightly again.

    Those in the council room noticed as the slump in his shoulders disappeared and once again his posture regained the regal positioning of a king. "Advance the armies. We march on Alvora. Then, we push Eroa back to their borders. Though we may not win this war, we will not lose it either. This I promise as your king!"

    When he raised his fist in the air, the soldiers, guards, and several council members roared with confidence and eager resolve. Zethis smiled and thanked his old master for her appearance. Though it was unlikely, he could not help but wonder if she did this to help him out of his slump.

    No matter her reasoning, he was not about to let this opportunity for recovering his honor go to waste.

    -----------------------------

    A/N:

    Today will be thest day of writing three chapters a day. I have been making mistakes to meet the goal (see the idental Dual Chapter and chaps 144-156, which had horrendous grammar and spelling errors I needed to fix), and I want to improve quality over quantity. I am very sorry I could not do the whole month of three chapters a day! I just do not want to sacrifice the story to meet this goal.

    ----------------------------

 Chapter 133: Divine Strength

    Two masked individuals stood together atop a sand dune. Each had a pair of binocrs and were observing the migration of the Sand Wyrms from a safe distance. Every year they would move directly across the main roads of Alorek to the opposite edge of the desert where their breeding grounds had replenished.

    The timing was great for Eroa and the Five Kings Union as it meant that the forces at Alvora would be more cautious in their approach to battle. At present, Eroa''s advance lines were a mere five miles away from the city''s walls. The human kingdoms had regained the entirety of their borders, but had yet to push into Alorek yet. The forces there were holding strong still.

    Eroa would have offered to attack from the rear, but they were only barely able to push their lines forward. If they detracted from that force to support the humans, then they risked losing the ground they gained. Simrly, Alorek could not spare their forces to hit Eroa''s rear guard, because then they would be pushed back by humans.

    Essentially, though allies, the two enemies of Alorek were operating independently of each other at the moment. These two masked individuals were soldiers for Eroa and were scouting out the path leading to Alvora ensuring that reinforcements were still stalled.

    They heard through their spy channels that something ''big'' was happening, so they wanted to be as prepared as possible. What they were witnessing though was beyond their expectations. The descriptor of ''big'' was an understatement. One of the two masked figures recognized the personage of Tierga, the Empyrean warrior slowly approaching the herds of Sand Wyrms scrambling across the desert.

    Even from the vast distance between her and these watchers, they could feel the strength and mana pouring off of her, making the air feel thick. They watched slowly and with a terrified sense of awe as she drew the massive maul from her back.

    Her mouth moved to call out her Art. Thankfully, the watchers could read lips. "[Hammer Arts: Thundering Impact]"

    A plume of sand, dirt, debris and monster chunks spewed into the air, rivaling the heights of Alorek''s tallest mountains. The shockwave blew past them as though they were next to an explosion. The wind ripped at their cloaks, threatening to tear them away.

    The smaller of the two observers stabbed their sword into the sand in an effort to not be blown away. The winds caused by the shockwavested for a full minute before finallying to rest. Sand was still raining from the sky and visuals were now zero.

    The smaller of the two stood and addressed their partner. "So that''s the strength of an Empyrean Rank¡­ amazing."

    "¡­"

    "Hello? You going to say anything? Is something the matter?"

    The smaller observer kept waving their hands in front of the face of their partner, who was still staring into the distance despite being unable to see anything. It was impossible to tell the look on their face because it was covered by fabric, but it was obvious they were in shock.

    "Everything okay?"

    "¡­ she looked at me."

    "Huh?"

    Therger of the two turned his head slowly. "Tierga. She looked right at me when she activated the Art. She saw us."

    "Should we run?"

    "No point. I don''t think she will pursue, otherwise she would be on top of us already¡­ let''s return to camp and inform them of what we saw."

    The smaller of the two became pale as they came to the realization of being discovered and what that meant. However, there was nothing they could do but try and return to camp. If they were going to be attacked, running or walking would not matter, they just needed to hope they could return at all.

    What they had witnessed was the peak of power avable to mortals. With a single swing of her hammer, one person changed thendscape of a nation and wiped out an untold number of monsters. Though she was mortal like them, that amount of strength felt almost godlike.

    If she could change the face of thend, what else could she do? To these observers, the answer was probably anything.

    Though they were never witness to the divine, this strength was the closest thing they could imagine. They were surprised she was involved this much, but it was unlikely she would involve herself further. However, she did open up the path. When the dust settled, Alorek could continue the advance towards Alvora, so any ns they had needed to be elerated now.

    "We have to tell the Commander."

    "Do we have to? Themander scares me."

    "We can talk to the Vice-Commander instead?"

    "Yea¡­ she''s better."

    These two observers were scouts for the King''s Shadow. A group of specially selected operatives and warriors under direct service to the king of Eroa. They had been tasked to watch the routes behind Alvora and monitor the migraton, but this new information changed their priorities.

    Neither of them wanted to bring the bad news to their leaders, but it was necessary nheless. There were ns in motion to attack Alvora in theing days and this new information could change the way that battle looked. They needed time to prepare for the fight, but that time had been cut by several days if not more than a week.

    Though from what little they knew of the Commander''s n, it should be fine to execute a little early.

    "Did the King really approve of the Commander''s n?"

    "No, from what I heard he didn''t approve anything. He simply gave the orders to take Alvora ''out of the picture'' and washed his hands of everything else."

    "So then, we are really going through with it?"

    "It seems that way¡­ the infiltration teams should be finished by now. Or if not, done enough to get the point across?"

    "Hey do you think we will get our masks for this?"

    "Oh, I hope so¡­"

    The masks they referred to were given to the most skilled of their order. Instead of the mouth coverings, they were granted in ck face masks. The only slits were for the eyes and nose. Beyond that they had no defining features.

    Only the strongest of them were given masks. Even among their unit, only the Commander had been granted a mask. There was a rumor that the Vice-Commander had one as well, though no one had seen her go on a mission, so she never really wore it. Unlike the Commander who wore it all the time.

 Chapter 134: Infiltration

    A cloaked figure stands inside of arge tent with a table at its center. On the table, a map of the city of Alvora is pinned down. The figure appeared to be deep in thought and pacing around the edge of the table mumbling under his breath. asionally he would stop, move around a few pins that were on the map, then restart his pacing.

    Covering his face was a in, ck mask with slits for his eyes and nose. Over his head was a sand-colored cloak. Under it all he wore dirty, leather armor that had numerous scratches and divots from past battles. Normally such heavy armor and coverings would be unbearable, but on the outside of his armor was a small ne, enchanted to regte body temperature.

    Though every inch of the figure''s skin was covered by clothing or armor while in the middle of the desert, he was probably the mostfortable person in the camp.

    Watching him from the opening of the tent was another figure wearing simr style armor to him, but with additional metal tes affixed to it. She carried a sword on her hip and a shield on her back. Strapped to her thighs were a set of daggers.

    She strode forward, seductively, and ran her fingers gently across the table until she reached the masked figure. Her fingers trailed up his hand and arm until her palm rested on his shoulder.

    "Commander, are you not finished yet?" She whispered to the man.

    "No. nning takes time and effort."

    "Aww, but you''ve been nning all day and night. I think it''s time you rest." The woman continued to whisper with a pout on her face. "I know, how about I show you a few ways to¡­"

    "Enough. I''ll go and rest."

    The woman pouted more, but let her Commander leave the tent without her. She then turned to the table and looked over the ns he had spent thest three days pouring over. Everything looked almost perfect. It was a simple matter to imprint the cement of the important locations in her mind with a few minutes of analysis.

    While she was in the middle of doing that, two other simrly armored individuals ran up to the tent. "Vice-Commander! We have urgent news."

    "Speak."

    "Lady Tierga of Alorek took to the field. She cleared the Sand Wyrm migration with a single attack. When the damage is settled, the reinforcements will be able to advance towards Alvora."

    "Understood. Thank you. Luckily it seems that our dear leader had prepared for such a possibility." She gestured to the map. In several ces where there were no pins, there were several ''T''s drawn in various locations. She took some of the pins next tobels of the letter ''N'' and moved them next to the T''s.

    "You two, memorize this. Distribute it among our men."

    ""Yes ma''am!""

    Both rushed out of the tent the moment they had memorized the map. Every member of King''s Shadow was an elite warrior and thinker. Being able to memorize orders and battle ns was a tip of the iceberg. Even though the two that had left were some of the lowest ranking members, they were just as skilled and would be able to recreate the entire battle map from memory.

    The Vice-Commander pressed her finger to a small magical device in her ear. "My liege, we are beginning preparations."

    For a moment there was no response, then, "And your Commander?"

    "Resting currently. He''s been going for about seventy-two hours without rest."

    "Understood. When he wakes remind him to do what you must. You know the risks, but I trust you both to get the results promised, Vice-Commander. No matter the cost."

    "Yes, my king." The woman said as the crystal became silent.

    Before leaving the tent herself, she grabbed her own mask from her storage ring, one like her leader possessed. It not only physically hid the face, but was enchanted with a spell that when active would add a blurry, shimmery effect to the user''s body that hid their identities.

    While it was not so grand as to change their facial features like some items from Aedrider, it was enough to make the wearer seem physically ambiguous.

    The woman activated this effect and set of towards Alvora where they had a number of scouts monitoring the walls. Each team was lead by a member of the King''s Shadow. It was time to move on the grand n their leader had devised.

    "No matter the cost¡­ dangerous words, my king." The woman smirked.

    *****

    "This is the n? Seriously?"

    A member of the King''s Shadow was looking at the orders he was handed. There was no doubt they were real because the messenger was the Vice-Commander herself.

    Each of the Shadows stationed around the city were to infiltrate the city under the cover of night and don the guise of warehouse workers. Each one had been given a storage ring with a ''special resource'' themander had prepared for their mission.

    When the resource was dropped off at key positions around the city, they were ordered to monitor the drop locations to ensure they were not moved or discovered.

    The monitoring would onlyst until the Eroan army assaulted the city. When the battle horns sound, they were ordered to evacte.

    "What kind of¡­ whatever, orders are orders." The man mumbled. His name was Horace and he had been a Shadow for a little over two years. It was only recently his unit had been switched to his current one.

    When he heard about the transfer and that the unit was going to be acting within Alorek, he was honestly surprised. From everything that he had known about his order was that they operated throughout the kingdom as the king''s eyes, ears, and daggers for anyone meaning to do harm to the royal family or the nation from within.

    It was not within their purview to operate outside their own borders. However, despite his skepticism, he took the post with pride. Each day of thest several months had been an adventure. Horace was so busy that he barely had time to clean the blood from his de between assignments.

    It was exciting though. Having to figure out how to use his skills for espionage and assassination and mold them to a barren battlefield in the middle of a desert¡­ it was new and new was fun.

    This new assignment was a return to the norm though, so he would not get rusty when they inevitably returned home.

    A few hours after being given his orders, night fell and Horace made his move. The scout team he was in charge of was ordered to return to the main line as the Shadows entering the city hadmunication crystals to speak to their superiors, so they would take over much of the monitoring of forces.

    When Horace made it to the wall he cast a spell, "[Umbra: Shadow Walk]"

    As long as he stood still in perfect darkness, he would remain invisible for the length of the spell. A momentter he scaled up the sides of the walls using special climbing ws attached to his armor. When a guard passed by he would hold and vanish from sight.

    After almost fifteen grueling minutes, Horace finally made it over the wall and into the city. His first target was to locate clothing to blend in. For that, he headed to the residential district, dodging between patrols by hiding in alleyways. Horace needed to recast his Shadow Walk a few times before he finally locatedundry that had been left out to dry for too long.

    Next, he settled into a safe ce tucked between some bunk houses and waited for the next day, where he would locate his designated warehouse locations. After that¡­ he only needed to wait.

 Chapter 135: One More Push

    Richard von Petra was fully dressed in his battle armor. They were nning a massive push against Alorek today. Their forces for the assault numbered nearly fifty-thousand. All of them were veterans of the war at this point.

    His ns of incorporating Marked Ones into the individual core of the army versus having a shield wall of them at the vanguard proved unpopr at first, but ultimately effective. Those that had powerful skills were able to use them without the impediment of other Marked Ones using their abilities at the same time right next to them.

    Magic and Mark usage shared one thing and that was if the power''s collided with a simr power of an opposite element, then they would cancel out. When the disorganized Marked Ones fought side by side, this happened with simultaneous mark activations of opposing natures from their allies, greatly reducing the effectiveness of the attack.

    With the users now spread out, the powerful ones stood out and were much more helpful in battling their opponents. Arcadios still seethed over the decision and absolutely refused to allow any Marked Ones to work with the forces under hismand.

    Since Richard was in charge of the front, the could force him to follow orders. However, Arcadios was under the directmand of the king and was simply on loan to Richard for the duration of the war. Even though it had been four years since Lucius'' rampage and subsequent silencing, Richard still wanted to be careful when interacting with the crown.

    For this battle, he brought himself to the field. He made sure to spar with his men to keep his sword arm from getting rusty, but this battle was going to be a deciding factor for the oue of the war. Apparently their allies had some sort of n cooking up and there was a risk of Alorek sacrificing their lines against the human army to stop Eroa''s attack.

    Whatever they had nned was allegedly going to be big. How big? Richard didn''t know.

    The moment the sun''s rays first erupted from the horizon, he nodded to queue the signal for the start of battle. A low hum of a bugle blew across the battlefield and soon the rhythmic beat of marching feet created a dull roar in Richard''s ears.

    His heart was beating heavily, excited for battle. While atop a horse, he held the reins with one hand while pointing his other at the battlefield.

    "Mage Group Blue, target the area I signal with a barrage. Archer group Blue hold ten and follow-up!" His voice echoed across the army lines. He rode his horse through the gaps in the marching groups. "[Lux: re ¨C Blue]"

    He cast a simple re spell colored blue over the heads of a group of enemy infantry nearly a thousand feet. It was a long range ask for their archers, but with their longbows they should be able to reach it without Arts.

    "Other groups! Same orders, follow your signals!

    "[Lux: re ¨C Red], [Lux: re ¨C Green]"

    Richard sent out several different colors of res indicating requested targets for each of the ranged units to hit. First the mage groups wouldunce a series of spells, then after a ten-count, the Archer groups wouldunch a swarm of arrows.

    The enemy forces had simr tactics prepared and Richard did his best to dodge stray arrows that may have struck him, including casting the asional barrier with his light magic.

    When Richard made it half way to the front lines heunched a massive, orange re straight into the sky, signaling a full charge. Alorek met their charge with one of their own and the two armies shed.

    Steel met steel and spell met spell as both sides shed. They were equal in size and strength, though beastmen did have a slight edge in physical strength. Human forcespensated for this discrepancy by being better at magic.

    Separating the infantry from the magical and archery units were Shield Arts users and Light Magic users who could cast barrier spells or arts to protect their ranged groups from the enemies groups. Since their magic was stronger, they could block more spells from the enemies while also breaking more of their barriers. Check out m_vl_em_p_yr stories

    It was a few minutes after the initial charge that Richard felt it. A rumble from the ground started to shake thendscape. He felt a pressure from the enemy''s army and saw a fellow Master Rank fighter sitting atop a steed of his own. His left hand was held outwards and emitted a bright glow.

    "Damn! Earth Magic users, brace the ground below!"

    The enemy had fielded a terrifying Marked One. He was a general in their army that possessed the Mark of Tremors and was also a Master Rank Earth Magic user. He was a very bad enemy to have around. His only downside was that his ability was less effective in the desert¡­ but they weren''t in the desert right now.

    "All Archer units concentrate on target at my signal! [Lux: re ¨C Violet]."

    Thousands of arrowsunched at once towards the marked one, but he created an Earth Wall to shield himself with ease.

    "Non-Earth Mages, on my signal! [Lux: re ¨C Green]"

    Hundreds of piercing spellsunched simultaneously from every school of magic, save Earth Magic. The enemy mage''s Earth Wall began to be torn apart by the barrage.

    "Archers! Arts! [Lux: re ¨C Violet]!"

    He signaled a second round of arrows. This round was enhanced by the Arts.

    ""[Bow Arts: Pierce]""

    ""[Bow Arts: Multi-shot]""

    The sea of arrows was many timesrger and now glowed like a golden wall of light as they fell onto the enemy mage. Richard smiled grimly as the tremoring earth seemed to stop and the enemy twitched as hundreds of arrows pierced his body.

    Master Rankers were strong, but even a dragon can be killed by enough ants.

    "One down, only tens of thousands to go¡­" Richard muttered while striking down a beasman that broke through the lines.

 Chapter 136: Assault on Alvora [Part 1]

    "Commander."

    "What?"

    "Awwe now. Can''t you be a little warmer to me? We''ve known each other for so long."

    The oneining was his second inmand. She was a beautiful woman with gray eyes, blonde hair, and an adorable set of wolf ears and tail. She was a strong warrior and a decent strategist. However, she was always throwing herself at him.

    He was not unaware of her advances, nor was he unphased by them. But regardless, he was not interested. At least not right now.

    "Kalliope."

    "Eep." The wolf-girl yelped. He almost never used her name anymore, so its usage startled her.

    "Settle yourself, or I''ll tell your uncle that you''ve gone into heat." He threatened.

    "Hey! You know we don''t do that!" She yelled defiantly. "Don''t be an ass, Lucius! Besides, he''s your father. Why do you insist on¡­"

    "Enough."

    Lucius asionally entertained these back-and-forth conversations with her to ensure her that he still thought of her as a friend and ally. It took him a long time to get there after what happened to him, but he eventually allowed himself to trust Kalliope.

    Even though Kalivas spent over four years training him, he had issues with trusting people stronger than himself. If he couldn''t beat their face in to hold them responsible, then they couldn''t be trusted. Simple as that.

    Seeing as he had already beat the shit out of Kalliope when they first met, and he''s only gotten even stronger since then, she was one of those that could be trusted. This was not a hard and fast rule though, because he could also easily take any of his subordinates without issue, however beyond simply following orders, he would never actually trust them implicitly.

    "Kalliope, are they in ce?"

    "Yes, Commander. I have heard from all our agents in Alvora, all of our assets are in the T locations."

    "Good. Let the armymander know we are ready to begin. They can assault however they like. Just get me close." Lucius directed.

    As he walked away, he gently brushed his fingertips across his mask, which he always wore. It activated it''s perception warping effects and he moved to take a position in the middle ranks of the army.

    When they got within range of the city, they would attempt to locate General Pana and force her into view, if she did not already present herself of her own ord. Intel on what Pana was like was low because she normally served on the opposite side of the kingdom and interacted with the third beast kingdom, Raleron.

    It was Lucius'' hope that she was a valiant fool of a leader so that his job would be easier. Valor was great for a show, but piss poor for reality and survival. Reality and survival depended on logic instead. He could not help but wonder which side of leadership Pana fell on.

    Lucius fell in line as the army began it''s march on to the walls of Alvora. Hopefully finishing this war, once and for all.

    *****

    Horace had received word, their forces had begun their march on the city. After having infiltrated it, he realized that a muchrger percentage of the poption had returned to being civilians than they originally estimated.

    From prior estimates it was thought that the percentage of civilians was about twenty percent of the popce. However, after being in Alvora for a few days and monitoring things from the inside, him and his cohorts put the real numbers closer to twice that at about forty percent of the poption being civilians.

    Unfortunately for them, their hands were tied and they had their orders, which were going to be followed to the letter. After all, the one bearing the responsibility for the oue is the one who made the decision. That was what theirmander told them.

    Horace found that strangely kind of him though, because it kept the guilty conscience at bay. Granted, themander''s words were most likely not said out of kindness. After all, everyone knew the man didn''t have a conscience to follow, so what did it matter if he took the guilt? He wouldn''t feel bad about it.

    "Man''s a monster isn''t he."

    Horace continued to wait. Their signal was the sound the horns indicating a charge. When that happened, all the Shadows within the city were to disperse. If they failed to do so, then the consequences were on them.

    He had no intention of staying behind, so he focusedpletely on the sounds of iing battle to ensure he would have his chance.

    A little whileter, the sound of the horn went off. Alvora had spotted the Eroan army and were charging their vanguard to hold them back while they reinforced the walls. However, Eroa would not make it to the walls. That wasn''t part of the n after all.

    The man quickly left his position within one of the warehouses he was in charge of. He darted past a group of children ying kickball in the street and moved between buildings in an effort to get to the wall. Unfortunately, as he as about to start scaling, he was discovered.

    It was day time, so his Dark Magic would not have worked to help conceal him.

    "Halt! Step away from the wall!"

    Horace did as he wasmanded, at least for a long enough period of time to thing about his next steps. The guard that located him seemed to be alone. And he was a regr soldier, he had no Arts and no Magic Compatibility. Horace on the other hand, had Dagger Arts, Sword Arts, and Dark Magic all at his disposal.

    "[Umbra: Dark¡­] hurgh!" as he was activating his spell to take the guard out he winced and grunted in reaction to a sudden pressure on his neck.

    Instinctively he reached his hand to his neck and felt something sticking in it. He yanked it out and noticed that it was a dart and it was likely coated in poison.

    "Well, shit¡­" he mumbled.

    The source of the dart was blurry and unclear, but it appeared to be someone of small stature. They closed in on him, slowly, taking each step with purpose. Even though their gait seemed regal, Horace''s rapidly worsening vision would not let him make out their clothes or facial features.

    "Looks like we caught a rat¡­" a garbled voice stated tly.

    His hearing was going next as every one of his senses slowly dulled and faded away.

    "Take him to the prisons. The general would speak with him."

    "Urgh¡­fuck¡­" were thest words he uttered before hepletely passed out from the narcotic injected into his system.

 Chapter 137 : Assault on Alvora [Part 2]

    General Pana gazed down on a rat-faced beastman. His face was bloodied and one eye had swollenpletely shut. ording to her guards, he was caught suspiciously trying to climb the walls of the city. His behavior was clearly that of a spy, so they needed to figure out why he was here.

    Seeing that the beating did not work to get any information out of him, Pana decided toe down herself and speak to the man. If he could not be swayed by violence, then maybe he could be tempted by mercy.

    "I am Pana. General overseeing the city of Alvora. And you?"

    The man spat on the ground, with it came a tooth and a glob of blood. "Your new dad. Your mom says hey."

    His guard stepped forward to strike him for his insolent behavior, but Pana waved them off.

    "Charming, young man, but I am old enough to be your mother. And thanks to my wizened years, I am above that taunting. So, shall we try again? Who are you."

    "King Zethis of Alorek. I came to piss away my honor in a backwater hovel."

    Pana stepped back and sighed. This was going nowhere. He was currently wearing nothing butmoner clothes¡­ but he must havee in with something else right?

    "What did he have in his possession? Did he have a storage ring with him?"

    One of the guards deposited a ring into her hand. Using it''s interface which told the user what it contained within the user''s mind, she scanned through the items. Most of them were simple things such as armor, weapons and rations. Nothing out of the ordinary. However, something was sticking in the back of her mind.

    To satiate this strange curiosity, she took out the set of armor to visually inspect it and maybe see where it came from. When the armor fell onto the floor, the prisoner seemed to make a tiny amount of noise. This made Pana very curious as to what it was that she had stumbled onto.

    The pattern of the armor as well as its color made her realize that this prisoner they were dealing with was not a normal scout, spy, or soldier. She was, however, aware of the reports that detailed sightings of people wearing armor like this. It belonged to one of the King''s Shadow warriors.

    "I see. So you are a Shadow then. Now why would such a valuable resource be sent into my humble home? You clearly had no intent to assassinate me or else you would not have been scampering around the city before leaving without at least tailing me once."

    Being identified as a member of the King''s Shadow organization made the man tense up. At least one of the things she said here today was urate, though he would likely not do anything else to potentially expose whatever n they had going.

    Based on the contents of his ring they likelypleted whatever mission it was that made theme here.

    "Alright, mister King''s Shadow. Why were you here?"

    "To inform you of something."

    "Oh? And what is that, little rat messenger?"

    "Deathes for you, will you answer the call? When ites knocking at your door, will you face it with a brave look on your face or will you die pitiful and forgotten."

    The moment the man stopped speaking and explosion rocked the city, making dust fall to the ground as the buildings were shaken in their ce.

    "General! General! Enemy mages are bombarding the walls. They are ignoring our primary infantry and other men to try and break through!"

    "Fine, I''ll go and takemand and keep our forces from dispersing. I swear, I have to do everything around here."

    She did not wait long enough for the messenger to respond to her words. Pana simply pushed past him and headed for the walls. They were already filled to the brim with soldiers slinging spells and arrows down to the earth below. However, since the enemy was targeting their walls, those very same walls they were standing on, the concentration on casting spells had gotten difficult for their mages.

    "What''s the status?" she asked of the man in charge.

    "Our forces on the field have dropped by nearly twenty percent. Our losses along the walls are much smaller, but those are sure to rise."

    "And of the enemy? What moves are they making aside from attacking our walls?"

    "Nothing specific. They are simply trying to push the vanguard forces back. They could be fighting harder but I don''t know why¡­"

    "It might have something to do with that spy we captured. I bet you he might know what the n why they are pulling their punches."

    Even though she said it, she knew it was an impossible ask to get the Shadow to speak. There was absolutely no reason for the man to betray his leader. After all, Alorek was just going to kill him too, so it was actually in the prisoner''s self interest to not say anything at all and just let nature take its course.

    "Pana!"

    A voice echoed across the battlefield. She saw a man in a sand-colored cloak with leather armor underneath. Every time she tried to focus on a piece of his body to see if she recognized him, she was met with a strange dizziness and was forced to move her eyes from the man.

    "What is it!"

    The cloaked man raised his hand and fighting around them seemed to stop, as if waiting for their orders toe down and resume the war. However, Pana felt something off¡­ why was he talking and why like this.

    The man slowly approached the gates as if he were not walking across a battlefield.

    "I''ve been excited to talk with you a while." The man said.

    Pana tensed. "About what?"

    "Mostly about your surrender."

    Panaughed hysterically. One nce at their avable forces told her that even if they did wipe out her men on the outside of the walls, they would not be able to breach the city defenses before their reinforcements arrived.

    They had already received word that the Sand Wyrms had been dealt with by Lady Tierga and the additional forces were on their way now that the march could proceed unimpeded. When those forces arrived, not only would they have the advantage of fighting from a defensive position in the city, but they would also out number Eroa''s forces nearly two to one.

    "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but all you lot will be doing is throwing your lives at my walls. In a few days'' time we will not only route you, but also crush the remnants of your army. Alorek will be victorious."

    The man fell silent. Though she could not see his face behind his mask, or even really look directly at him without feeling ufortable she felt like her words gave her a little bit of a victory.

    "Let the record show that I tried to do this amicably, General Pana." The man said in a deeply sinister tone.

    Though it seemed like she held all the cards, something in her heart told her that was not actually the case.

 Chapter 138 : Assault on Alvora [Part 3]

    "We are done talking. Men! Resume the attack! Push these Eroan bastards away from the city!" Pana shouted out.

    "Is that so?" the man''s words carried an unnatural weight to them as if they were empowered by mana. "Well let''s see about changing your mind¡­ shall we?"

    Pana watched cautiously as mana swirled around her enemy, forming small bolts of electricity. "[Tempestas: Lightning Strike]"

    As he activated the spell, a bolt of lightning struck a building inside the city.

    "Are you mad?! Are you targeting civ¡­" before she could finish her words a massive explosion that shook the ground went off in the middle of the city.

    When the sound dispersed, screams and shouts for help began to echo throughout the city. She hesitantly looked behind her and saw that several buildings around where his spell struck were obliterated and fires had started to spread along the city streets.

    "Wait¡­"

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Strike]"

    Another bolt of lightning struck another seemingly random building and another massive explosion racked the city with intense heat and force. More buildings turned to dust and the screams of soldiers and citizens became louder.

    "Kill him! Men kill him now! All mages, target that monster!"

    "This ends when you surrender Pana. The longer you wait, the more lives you snuff out. You can end this."

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Charge]"

    The mages along the walls began casting spells of every school of magic. However, the Thunder Magic spell he used increased his speed and dodging the attacks seemed to be like a game to him. The man was dodging spears of ice, metal, and rock as if he were dodging stones thrown by children. Though his face was covered by a mask, Pana could not help but think the man was smiling.

    "[Tempestas: Lightning Strike]"

    Again, another explosion reverberated through the city. Pana was at a loss. The amount of damage each explosion caused was more and more intense. It was as if they had purposefully left some of their explosives in less popted areas and then moved to more popted ones with each sessive attack.

    Pana could not contain her outrage and roared before jumping off the ramparts. The drop was nearly three stories, but she absorbed the impact of thending without issue. White and ck fur had grown around her face and neck as she shifted into her more bestial state.

    Her opponent eyed her and quickly charged in her direction. Spells continued to target him, but still none had struck him directly. His cloak had several holes and char marks from near misses, but other than that, he looked unaffected.

    Consumed by rage, she began to go berserk, a rare art that few people possessed and even fewer could use effectively. "[Berserker Arts: Rage], [Beast Arts: Empowering Roar], [Beast Arts: Savage w]"

    In the time it took to close the distance with her opponent, she activated three of her arts. With these,bined her strength pushed into the lower end of Master Rank. Though far moremon than King Ranks, Master''s were still not extremely abundant.

    Even all of Alorek had a scant few hundred avable to them at any given time. Intermediate was where most warriors could reach and then stopped and Advanced was for the ones who were a cut above that could push through.

    She could tell this man in front of her was not a Master Rank fighter. So, she assumed that she would be able to take him on without concern.

    "I see. Berserker and a beastman. What a deadlybination." The man shouted while dodging a swipe from her ws.

    She roared in defiance. Under the effects of her rage, she could not speak. Though she had learned to control it enough to maintain her proper fighting techniques, speaking under the rage was not possible for her.

    "So serious already." He taunted, continuing to side step each of her strikes with ease. His feet crackled with lightning, showing he was still under the effects of his Lightning Charge.

    Since she was in melee range with him, the mages had stopped casting spells to avoid hitting her, which was appreciated. Though it meant she was fighting him one-on-one and could notmand her forces, she was at least able to keep him fromunching any more attacks on the city.

    It was clear that the rat beastman they captured had assisted in nting the bombs that this Eroan bastard used. And since they caught the man while leaving the city, it is likely he hadpleted his mission, so there was no way of knowing how many more bombs were spread in unknown locations.

    "Rargh!" Pana roared again as yet another one of her strikes missed the man by a hair. Her mana was starting to run out and soon she would not be under the effects of her Rage or other enhancements. When that happened, she knew that she would not be able to beat this enemy.

    He was strong, but worse than that, he was fast. Despite how close her attacks came to hitting him, she always barely missed, as though he was ying a game with her.

    In onest-ditch effort, she dove for his midsection to get him into a grapple. Somehow the gamble worked and her arms wrapped tightly around him. She attempted to maneuver him into a throw, but felt resistance as though she had hugged a tree and not a person.

    The masked man leaned down to her ear and started to whisper, "[Tempestas:¡­"

    "Wait!" she cried out. "You have men inside the walls! At least one, maybe more. If you destroy the city they''ll be caught up in it. And the civilians! Most of my soldiers are on the walls, please!"

    "[¡­Lightning Strike]" he cruelly sounded out each syble slowly so she would feel a pang of fear with every sound.

    Yet another massive explosion went off, as big as the first fewbined, erupted from behind the walls. Arge, mushroom-shaped cloud of fire, smoke, and sand filled the sky. Pana felt fear and guilt stab her chest as she lost the will to fight. The general fell to her knees sobbing.

    Pana brought her hand to her ear andmunicated to hermanders. "Surrender. All forcesy down your arms. Alvora has fallen."

    She looked at her surroundings. Their fight had blown away the sand in the surrounding area exposing the sandstone beneath. While rushing at him furiously, she failed to notice the battlefield around her. Not only had they fought down to the stone, but the ground was littered with bodies of her men.

    Dozens of fallen warriors wearing armor and shields emzoned with the five ck w marks of their kingdom surrounded them.

    "We did it!"

    An excited looking wolf-girl beastman bounded up to Pana''s opponent, and excitedly hugged him as though all was right with the world. Meanwhile she simply sat there, unable to move or speak, imagining the horrors that awaited her inside the city.

 Chapter 139: A Gathering of Kings

    Two weeks after the fall of Alvora, King Zethis of Alorek met with the king of Eroa as well as the representative kings of the Five Kings Union. The meeting was set to ur within the city of Alvora as a testament to the destructive aftermath of war. It was also an intimidation tactic towards Alorek about the consequences of starting a fight they could not finish

    Zethis was painfully aware of the reason for the selection of the location. It was intimidation and a reminder of Alorek''s sound defeat. Even when they managed to gain ground in the enemy countries, they did not have any victories as decisive as Eroa did in the battle for Alvora.

    He seethed internally and raged against the traitor general Elzha who he med as the cause of this defeat. Had she not lost her mind and initiated their ns ahead of schedule¡­ He could very well be standing on the heads of the very kings he shared a room with.

    King Verdayl Eroa, the Tigerking stood confidently next to Zethis with a masked figure by his side. It took a lot of his willpower to not try and wipe the person''s existence from the earthen ne. ording to General Pana, who surrendered Alvora, this was the man responsible for the destruction that their conference room looked over.

    What was once a prosperous city full of life, trade, and people was now ruins with skeletons of buildings that had withstood the powerful sts that Eroa bombarded them with. The loss of life stood at a staggering sixty percent of the poption of civilians and soldiers. Those that remained could be seen shuffling through the rubble even now, still searching for remains and items.

    The cleanup of such devastation would take months and the rebuilding would take much longer than that, even with the help of earth mages.

    "King Zethis. The terms of the deal are that Eroa and the Five Kings Union will return to your nation thend that we upied during the duration of the war. Alorek''s borders will remain unchanged.

    "You also agree to a ten-year non-aggression pact with our nations where you will make no moves to directly attack our borders. Finally as restitution to our lost resources, for that same period of ten years, you will pay Eroa and the Union ten percent of your annual revenue. The Union will split that ten percent evenly amongst ourselves. Do you agree?"

    Verdayl was the one who read off the terms to the group. They had been discussing the terms of the ord for a few hours and this seemed to be the agreement that they had reached. Zethis would spend ten years operating his country on only eighty percent of their usual budget, which would also make it difficult for them to rebuild their army.

    It was essentially a set up to receive ten years of peace, plus however many years it took for Alorek to rebuild after the non-aggression and restitution were both over.

    "I agree to these terms." Zethis said with a sigh.

    "Then we shall refer to this as the Alvora ord. All signatory nations please pen your names along the dotted line."

    Zethis watched as the document moved along the table. With each person that it passed through the hands of he was got angrier and angrier. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a bit of movement. The masked individual was still standing next to King Verdayl, but his eyes were locked directly on Zethis.

    He felt sweat begin to form on the back of his neck and drip down his back. Something about this warrior, aside from the backdrop of destroyed city made him extremely ufortable. No matter how hard Zethis tried, he could not get a read on the warrior''s strength.

    It was likely one of the many effects of the man''s mask. As a King''s Shadow, to be granted a mask was indicative of one''s abilities and service to the kingdom. Though Zethis knew this much, he was unaware of all the effects of the mask. There was no way a powerless individual would be granted one, nor could he unnerve the king of Alorek without hiding something¡­

    "King Zethis? Are you going to sign?"

    Breaking the locked gaze he had with the warrior, Zethis quickly turned back to the table and quickly signed the document before returning it to Verdayl who was the first to sign.

    "And with that we have struck a deal. It has been a pleasure, King Zethis. May our next meeting be under better circumstances and maybe¡­" Verdayl paused and gestured to the city below the balcony. "In better environs?"

    The group of leaders dispersed, returning to their various nations, leaving only Zethis and his entourage within the room. Zethis roared in rage and mmed his fists down on the table, shattering it with ease.

    "Someone, bring me General Pana. I will execute her for her failures myself." He growled.

    No one dared defy him and rushed to bring Pana to him from the dungeons below. Though her death would bring but only a moment of peace, it would still help calm his nerves. The true target of his ire was that Shadow and King Verdayl.

    "I don''t know who that man is¡­ but when I find out¡­ I will y him alive before his family and loved ones and feed each and every scrap to the Sand Wyrms before dragging his still conscious body across the desert until he is ground into nothing¡­"

    A few minutester, a gagged, bound, and blinded Pana was brought to kneel before him. Without ceremony or announcement, he walked up to the woman and lifted her from the ground by her neck. The once great general was currently dangling from his hands while wearing prisoner''s rags.

    "For your failures to uphold the honor of Alorek and bringing about our defeat, you will follow Elzha down in history as one of Alorek''s greatest failures¡­ but should I fail to exact my revenge, I may very well join you." He said.

    A sickening crack sounded out as he squeezed his hand into a fist, snapping Pana''s neck. She twitched for a second and went limp before he cast her body to the side.

    "Dispose of her and leave me. We return to the capital at first light."

    For the remainder of the night, all he saw in his dreams were visions of that featureless mask.

 Chapter 140: Applicants

    "How go the preparations for the Senior Exhibition Tournament at the academy?"

    Wally Carmichael was chatting with other heads at the academy when the question was raised. He simply raised his eyebrows because his department had only one person who could enter the tournament and there was no way she would because she would be glued to his great-granddaughter''s side.

    "Well, the preparations are doing fine, but we are getting arge influx of transfer andte term application requests."

    "Oh yea, the war is over now, right?"

    The conversation started to twist in a slightly more interesting direction all of the sudden. He expected the topics to be constrained to the event that he didn''t even have students to participate in¡­ however¡­

    "Yes, now that the war is over, the Adventurer''s Guild and Merchant Guilds have formally requested the Union nations to continue the practice of allowing Marked Ones to join their institutions."

    "Yeah, it seems that the elven and beastman nations had begun and are keeping that practice as well. I take it the King is nning for Arcadios to continue the practice?"

    "Not nning, he made the announcement this morning. Since then, we''ve received hundreds of applications for Marked One students. Plenty of transfer and foreign exchange requests from other countries on top of that¡­"

    Wally found himself extremely interested. "Is that so?" He said, interjecting himself into the conversation.

    "Yes¡­ many are general studies, so if you want, you can fill out your ss rosters with them. A lot are requesting other areas of study¡­so we might have to take some on as well¡­ we are only nning on epting first year applicants though."

    Wally''s eyes glinted with excitement. "Oh, I''ll take a look at all the applicants for any course above first years as well."

    The other two head looked at each other before shrugging and indicating for their porters to drag over piles of documents. "All yours, Lord Carmichael."

    Wally eagerly stacked the documents on his desk and made them a priority. Many of the Second-, Third-, and Fourth-year aged applicants included with their applications, military records and achievements. Which only made sense considering that''s where they would all have been over thest four years.

    There were plenty of interesting applicants this year. Some had letters of rmendation on top of their records, which Wally found interesting. He had heard that Rena''s father integrated the normal military force with Marked Ones when he tookmand. It seemed to the old man that it closed some of the animosity between the two sides, if only a little.

    Wally mused on the thought. "What was that saying from the old stories¡­ something like ''The bond between brothers in arms is forged in the heat of battle¡­'' I think¡­"

    Among the documents there seemed to be a lot of promising people, but there were a few specific ones that stood out. However, among them was one particr document. It was on a stationary that Wally had seen on asion and recognized it instantly.

    "Lord Carmichael, what is with your smile? Find a student with promise?" The other department heads chuckled among themselves.

    "More than a couple. I dare say you lot are missing out on quite the number fantastic prospects."

    "Remember, even if you find someone with a powerful mark, we already have longstanding rules before the war started that marks were not allowed to be used in opponents who did not also have a mark."

    "I remember. Thank you."

    The others returned to their work while Wally happily sorted through his letters. The pile of epted applicants was muchrger than the rejected ones. By the time he was finished here, he would have filled every open slot in his roster of sses. Finally, he would be able to be a proper professor!

    After several hours of back and forth with the other heads, he finalized his selection list and then returned to his quarters. When he reached the main halls however, he saw his granddaughter and her maid waiting for him. Beside them were a group of guards.

    Natali had a torn skirt and there was blood staining the white apron thaty over the top of it.

    "My dears! Are you two alright?" He shouted, running over to check both of them for injuries.

    Though the maid girl was technically just a servant of Lyrah, they were such close friends and had spent so much time with him, that he simply felt like adopting her as his other granddaughter. The same went for Rena of course.

    "Yes Grandfather, we are fine. While in the markets, we found ourselves under assault by some strange lunatics." Lyrah said while patting his back.

    One of the guards stepped forward. "Yes, there was a small incident in the market''s main za today. Another of those¡­ crazed cultists."

    "What happened exactly?"

    "Well grandfather, we were wandering the markets since Rena was preparing for the exhibition today. While there, someone shouted and then several people screamed. One man came running towards Me and Natali with a crazed look on his face and a dagger so¡­" Lyrah exined.

    "I killed him." Natali finished quietly.

    "I see, and you are not hurt, are you?"

    "No¡­ grandfather."

    "Good, my dear. Please, let me know if either of you need anything after such an ordeal. Please, head up to our quarters and rest. I shall finish up with the guard. Natali, my dear, please take a bath and rest. I shall purchase you new clothes tomorrow."

    Both girls smiled, hugged him, and excused themselves. When they were gone, the guard and Wally began discussing the details of the incident more thouroughly.

    This was the third such incident in the capital in just as many months. ording to the guards different cities all around the union had suffered simr situations, though no one is talking much about it. It was clear there was a pattern, but no one knew what to look for.

    When talking with the families of the deranged, they all reported that their rtive was perfectly fine up until that day. There was no rhyme or reason for the sudden change in behavior. Nor were there any simrities between individuals. The deranged included members of almost every social ss and upation.

    The prevailing theory at the moment was that there was a Marked One that was influencing people''s minds. However, that was not possible. As far as anyone knew, only one individual could do that and she had no way to be in multiple ces at once.

    The limitations on the assassin were two-fold. One: Shiyani was she could only target two individuals at a time. Two: she had toy physical eyes on the target. Fact number two circled back to the prior issue which was her needing to be in multiple ces at once.

    "Did they say the same thing as the others?" Wally asked the guardsman.

    "Yes. While most of the perpetrator''s words were simply insane babbling, witnesses specifically remember him saying the words ''Throne of Creation.''"

    "If only we knew what that was¡­ Thank you good sirs. And thank you for bringing me my granddaughters."

    "Worry not, Lord Carmichael. It was our pleasure to escort the next Oracle. By your leave, sir." The guard gave a polite bow before leaving.

    Wally gazed into the distance trying to think about what it was these psychopaths were referencing.

    ---------------------------------------------------

    A/N: Interested in Discord?

    Here you go!

 Chapter 141: Training for the Exhibition

    Smoke rose from a small crater. The ground was cracked and smoldering. Laying several feet away, shattered into pieces was the remnants of a target dummy.

    "Excellent work Lady Petra. I daresay you will have an excellent showing at the Exhibition."

    "Not Lady Petra. I am just Rena, professor."

    "Apologies Miss Rena. Either way, you have a fine set of skills with four magical Compatibilities no less. I am surprised you chose to fight this year! Of course you are not representing any of the departments, but to put your name in the general contestant pool was not something I expected." The professor continued while analyzing the damage.

    "Yes, well. I have something to prove to myself." She answered inly, stepping over to another target.

    Rena took a moment to think about how she wanted to attack this one. Her specialty had be Metal Magic and of her Compatibilities, Water Magic had fallen far behind. Of course, since it was Elemental Magic, while Metal and Ice were the superior Transcendent Magic. Light Magic was a ss of its own. Basically, all her other skills were stronger than Water, inherently so.

    With a heavy sigh, she pointed on handzily at the target. "[Ferrum: Iron Needles]"

    Dozens of small metal needles formed in the middle of the air and shot towards the target, turning it into a pincushion. Rena squeezed her fist, forcing the needles deeper until they forced the target to explode to pieces.

    "Yet another excellent showing Miss Rena. However¡­"

    "What''s the problem?"

    "I don''t believe that spell will be allowed for usage in the tournament. Purposefully attempting to kill your opponents is forbidden in the rules, you know."

    "Unfortunate. And here I was hoping to use that trick against my dear cousin¡­" She said a little louder than intended, prompting a look of horror to appear on the professor''s face.

    "Rx, I was only joking." She relented, though only partially telling the truth.

    After she finished assisting in cleaning up the training room, the door to the room open and in walked two young women. Her friends Lyrah and Natali.

    "Gods! You two! I haven''t seen you in nearly a week! Are you alright?" Rena shouted as she ran towards her best friends, tightly bringing them both in for a forceful hug.

    "Yes, Rena. We are fine. We ran into a little trouble with one of those psychos people have been talking abouttely. My mother was worried so I spent some time in the castle cating her." Lyrah answered with a giggle as she gently ced her hand on Rena''s cheek.

    "Enough of that though!" the girl continued. "I hear that in my absence you have decided to enter the tournament. What is that about?"

    Rena shuffled her feet nervously. "Well¡­ I was hoping I might have a chance to¡­"

    "Beat Thomas'' face in." Natali answered dryly.

    All the red-head could do was nod shyly, having been found out. Though discovering the truth would not have been hard. Even she knew that she was a rather easy person to read. It''s just as well though, since she was no longer a member of nobility, failing to hide her feelings was not something she needed to worry about.

    Or at least it wouldn''t be¡­ she wrote the letter renouncing her title to her father¡­ but things got away from her and she had yet to send it.

    "Well, I cant say much." Lyrah began. "But your chances of winning are¡­ not very good Rena."

    Though the statement did dete her ego a little, it was a truth that she was already aware of. She was talented with her magic, but there were otherpetitors that were more talented with magic. Also, she did not have a good track record for fighting against Arts at a close range.

    So she was still rather vulnerable. Rena had no intention of winning the tournament outright. Her main goal was to simply go as far as she could, impress a few people while her father was in attendance¡­ then publicly renounce her name in front of the other nobility. It was the biggest p in the face she could think of that would hurt her father.

    Never in a million years could she imagine herself being able to get a leg up on him in a fight, but this was something she could conceivably pull off.

    "Don''t worry Lyrah. I have no delusions of my victory. I only wish to do my best."

    Lyrah gave her a gentle smile. It was a smile she had grown fond of over thest few years. It brought greatfort to her where littlefort was to be found. "I can promise you this, the tournament will at least be somewhat entertaining. Or it should be."

    "Lyrah¡­" Natali mumbled.

    "What?" the ck-haired girl protested. "I cant be certain! I''m still working on these new visions. It''s been four years since¡­"

    Lyrah put her hands over her mouth as she realized what she was about to say. Rena smiled sadly and simply brought them both in for a hug again. She had been told about her friend''s situation. That for some reason she could only have visions involving Lucius.

    Since his death, Lyrah has reported visions of other things, though they are never as clear as her old ones were. Which, ording to her, was saying quite a lot since even the ones with Lucius in them were reported to be quite difficult to understand.

    "Any way. Let''s get a move on. You need a shower after all that training and we should get dinner together. Let''s go to the cafeteria? I am none to keen on getting out on the town at the moment." Lyrah offered.

    The other two nodded in agreement and they went off to the academy''s massive cafeteria. They ordered simple meals of a cream-based stew and bread. It was simple in vor, but packed full of meats and vegetables. All the nutrients they could need were given in a single meal.

    For some reason, Lyrah was extremely fond of cream- and milk-based treats and foods. Sometimes it made Rena chuckle because Lucius was like that too. Though he was part beastman with a feline heritage, so it was a lot more funny.

    "You know, Lyrah¡­ we know who your mother is¡­ but who is your dad?"

    "Hmm a good question." Lyrah answered thoughtfully while tapping her spoon on her cheek.

    "So you don''t know?"

    "I did not say that."

    "So, you do know."

    "I didn''t say that either."

    "Which one is it!" Rena nearly shouted, starting to get exasperated.

    "One of those two¡­" Lyrah giggled. "Look. Every question deserves an answer, and your question will receive answers. Eventually. So just trust me that you will find out whether I know or not at the right time."

 Chapter 142: Wisteria Concord

    Lady Voltara al Famyn sat in her chambers sipping on an expensive ss of wine. It had been aged for nearly two hundred years in a cliff by the ocean. A very rare vintage.

    Unfortunately, the ss of wine did not do much to assuage her frustration at the oue of the peace talks. Alorek was only paying ten percent of their yearly revenue to the Union and of that ten percent, Wisteria Concord''snds were only given a fifth of it.

    Even though the majority of losses incurred over the course of this war was the Wisteria Concord. It was theirnd that was attacked first. It was their fortress and towers that were damaged. It was their fields that were ransacked.

    By all rights, Wisteria deserved a bigger piece of the restitution. The Kingdom of Arcadios devoted arge portion of the forces that held Alorek off, but the other three nations scarcely sent a single percentage of their avable men.

    "Worthless old men, the lot of them. Aleksander is the only one who doesn''t utterly infuriate me. They will need the funds to rebuild their lost forces, as will we for our army and ournds. However, Paede, Keinydd, and Docia¡­ they will simply be resting on theirurels and padding their treasury."

    Voltara was a vindictive creature by nature. She was self-aware of that fact and would not argue it with anyone. After all, knowing oneself was very important. It was because of her vindictive nature that she was currently looking over ns to ''interfere'' with the three fat nations who did nothing but watch the war from the sidelines.

    There were several options to choose from. She could go as far as assassination if she wished, but disrupting leadership immediately after the war ended would be a poor decision. Instead, the more likely scenarios for her to choose would be things that disruptive the flow of coins to level the ying field as it were.

    "But what shall we do¡­"

    As she was pondering her next moves, her eyes nced upon a stack of reports and requests from other nations. Since the Wisteria Concord was a nation well known for its information gathering and spyworks, their allies had been making requests for searching for any details regarding strange psychopaths.

    When she remembered that, she hit upon a wonderful idea. She could hit two birds with one stone. Immediately, Voltara began drafting letters to the kingdoms of Docia, Paede, and Keinydd. The letters would indicate her eptance of their requests to investigate the incidents of random attacks by deranged citizens.

    In her mind, she could hit two birds with one stone. While she was investigating the source of these attacks, she could also instigate other forms of civil unrest within the rival nations while essentially being given a free pass to do so. Her agents would have royal authority to operate within their borders and could do many things unhindered. Enjoy new stories from m-v l''e-NovelBin

    Voltara giggled to herself at her genius n. When she finished drafting the responses she pondered once more. Her eyes were resting on a few documents. One was an invitation to the uing Senior Exhibition at the Arcadios Royal Academy. Several of the best students from other nations in the Union would also be in attendance, including the top seniors at the Wisteria Academy for Arts and Magic.

    She had yet to give a response to the invitation, so she figured that she would go ahead and grace the event with her presence. It was likely that she could get some time to speak with Aleksander regarding the behavior of their fellow Union rulers.

    The other matter she needed to address was what would she do with Eroa''s request¡­ they already had quite the formidable informationwork known as the King''s Shadow. Though, they tended to operate less on the information gathering side of things and more on the opposition elimination portion of this line of work.

    King Verdayl requested for some of Wisteria''s information specialists to work alongside King''s Shadow¡­ Voltara''s thoughts drifted to the masked Shadow that was at the signing of their non-aggression pact. ording to her sources, that man was the person in charge of the assault on Alvora and was the one behind the destruction they witnessed inside the walls.

    When she had first arrived outside the city walls, she had already heard whispers of the devastation, however seeing it in person was quite different than reading reports and hearing rumors and gossip.

    As the gates opened, the first thing that had hit her was the smell of ash and charcoal. Though the buildings were primarily constructed from stone and other sources rather than wood, the fact remained that fires had broken out. Some parts of the city had been subjected to such intense heat that the sand and ground had been turned to ss.

    The sheer amount of heat to cause such an effect was staggering. Though Verdayl admitted to providing his King''s Shadows with the resources required to aplish such a feat, he did not detail what those resources were. ording to him it was all done under the order of one of hismanders, codenamed: Titan.

    Titan''s presence was striking. His mask covered his face and his cloak hid the shape and size of his body. However, one thing remarkable about him was that there were no obvious beastman features that could be seen. Titan had no animal ears, nor a tail, both of which would be seen even under a cloak.

    "If I assist with Eroa''s information gathering I could figure out just who this ''Titan'' is¡­ If what happened at Alvora was their doing, then he is certainly someone to avoid at all costs." Voltara muttered to herself. "Eroa is certainly blessed.

    They have a King Rank warrior who actually defends their borders in war¡­ and the king has a capable fighter personally at his beck and call in the form of this Titan¡­"

    She felt envious of Verdayl for his luck. It was as if the gods themselves had blessed him with excellent subjects. But it was no matter. She hade to a decision. The Wisteria Concord wouldply with Eroa''s request as well, though with only a small portion of the requested agents.

    They would work on the side to uncover Titan''s identity and see if there''s anything that can be used against him to prevent him froming after her nation.

 Chapter 143: Old Friend

    Kalivas returned to his personal residence outside the capital city of Eroa. The area around the capital was flush with jungle trees and wildlife. Many trees were hundreds of feet in circumference, which led to many buildings being built off the ground.

    His personal home was a massiveplex with around ten buildings spanning several trees, with both covered and uncovered walkways between them. His training area was an open clearing he had made by cutting down a section of the forest so he could practice unimpeded.

    Though his power was not likely to decrease by simply enjoying life, the way his cohort, the Empyrean Ranker that lived in the middle of nowhere, did¡­ Kalivas did not feel right when he did not move his body.

    By letting not training and practicing every day, his sword, or rather his axe, would rust away. Power was well and good, but expertise could ovee it.

    Perhaps there was no better example than his own son. In his first test match against Lucius, he realized that the boy had spent arge portion of his life training on how to fight. He did not rely on pure power because hecked it for most of his existence.

    To make up for that shoring, he mastered the sword, the spear, fists, and many other weapons. Though he did not have the Arts to supplement hisck of strength with those weapons, knowing how to use them allowed him to understand their fighting styles and react to them quicker in battle.

    On top of that, Lucius'' Mana Maniption and Pseudo-Channeling closed that gap even more. It reached the point that he could easily fight against experienced opponents a rank above him. Or even two ranks if the idiot he fought relied only on power, not skill.

    While thinking about fond memories, Kalivas swung his battle ax at a massive tree, cutting through itpletely in a single swing. He was admiring his handiwork when he realized someone was approaching.

    Two familiar people appeared from the jungle. The first was Kalliope, the girl he treated as a niece, and the second was her father, Atil. Atil was the leader of the Gray Wolf n and Kalivas''s sworn brother.

    "Atil! What a surprise to see you here. You rarely make your way towards the capital! I figured you thought yourself too cozy in your leisure pce near the border you made for yourself." Kalivas called out.

    Atil chuckled and walked up to him, giving him a massive embrace. The two brothers held each other momentarily before separating and putting one hand on each other''s shoulders.

    "My Kalivas, it has been years! To think you would see your son alive and breathing. When I heard the news from Kalliope, I was beside myself with joy!" Atil said, nearly wiping a tear from his eye.

    Atil was one of the few people who knew Kalivas had sired a child. However, everyone who did know was informed that the child had died in childbirth. That was apparently not the truth of the matter.

    He was keen to pursue the reason the truth was hidden, but without good reason, the King and Empyrean Rankers within the human nations would not let him into their borders to investigate. This would be considered a personal matter that was not their problem.

    Of course, those who knew of Kalivas'' child also knew he had fathered two. One was reported to have survived and was to seed her mother as the next Oracle.

    "So, does the boy know who his mother is? He did not know who you were, after all. Also, given what Kalliope told me of him, I doubt he lived in the castle."

    "I offered to tell him about her, but he insisted it wasn''t something he was concerned with. He told me he already had a mother. A woman who raised him named Rubellia."

    Atil looked at him sadly. "Did he also not care to learn you were his father?"

    Kalivas thought back for a moment to the time he told Lucius. It seemed the boy was suspicious because Kalivas apparently smelled like himself to an extent. However¡­

    "It took him a good while to treat me as a father. I think the best way to describe our rtionship is student and master. Rubellia had a husband named Wayne, who raised him. That is who I believe Lucius sees as his true father." he answered.

    "Oh, I see. And of¡­" Atil nced at his daughter, who cocked her head curiously. "Is he aware of that final matter?"

    "No, though I tried to tell him. He simply does not care."

    They exchanged stories over drinks at Kalivas'' ce for a few hours. Kalliope stayed by her father''s side calmly. She was asked why she had strayed from Lucius'' side when she normally stuck to the young man like glue. ording to her, he was at a meeting at the castle. The likes of which she was not invited.

    "Ah, I had heard your ''prot¨¦g¨¦'' had made his way into the ranks of the King''s Shadow, but to think it would be your son. Astounding." Atilughed. "I was even more surprised when my eldest daughter informed me of her eptance."

    "Yes, I am proud of both of them. I consider Kalliope as much my student as I do, my dear niece." He agreed.

    "Speaking of, how about we make her your daughter-inw! Then we can truly consider ourselves brothers! But don''t think I will lose to you as the favorite grandpa!"

    Kalliope''s ears perked up, and her eyes became excited.

    "Woah, girl. Calm down." Kalivas gave her a cating gesture. "You know as well as I do that Lucius is his own person. Whether or not he epts you is his prerogative. You know he is smitten with that Rena girl."

    Kalliope''s mood calmed slightly, but there was still a fire in her eyes. "Do not worry, Uncle, Father. I will win Lucius'' heart. I know I will not be the first wife, but I will be his strongest wife!"

    Atil grinned widely. "Yes! Though your children will not be members of my n, but Kalivas'' house I am excited to see the bloodline grow stronger."

    "Atil. You know as well as I do that they cannot wed. Her children will be members of no one''s house or n. The king would have to personally acknowledge them, and I doubt he would do so. He only just¡­"

    His dear friend narrowed his eyes at him. "If they would not be children of your illustrious house, I will take them into the Gray Wolf n myself. The ns follow ancient bloodws that predate these kingdoms and ''houses'' so they will be treated as family no matter what."

    Kalliope''s face blushed, likely due to thinking about having children with Lucius.

    "Well, first, Kalliope has to get him to agree¡­ so far, she has had no such luck, so let''s not put the cart before the horse, yea?"

    Atil thought for a moment and nodded. "Kalliope! You are to seduce Lucius and give me no less than five grandchildren. Consider this a direct order from the n leader."

    "Yes, father!"

    "Good luck, son¡­" Kalivas muttered, barely containing a grin.

 Chapter 144: Gathering of Shadows

    Lucius walked swiftly through the halls of the grand pce in Eroa''s capital. It was the home of the royal family as well as the base of operations for the organization that Lucius had joined.

    Two years into his training with his biological father, Kalivas, he was told he needed more field experience. However, given the amount of people who knew his face and knew his abilities, bing a normal soldier would not do.

    Instead, Kalivas put him in contact with an old friend who was an acquisition specialist for the King''s Shadow. He observed military and knight recruits regrly to see if any applicants held the skills or the personalities required to join the organization.

    On his first contact with the geezer, Lucius was epted instantly. Six monthster, Kalliope followed him. Lucius was sure she would not have passed since she did not have a stealthy bone in her body, but apparently, brute force was deemed necessary at times, so she was epted in the end.

    Though he was the youngest to join, Lucius quickly showed how much he excelled at the work. Tracking down rebels, sorting through misinformation, and threatening informants, all seemed to be things he was very good at.

    In no time he was grantedmand over a small unit, then arger one. And finally, about six months before the end of the war, he was named amander and granted the codename, Titan.

    Having reached the doorway to the room he was searching for, he breathed deeply in preparation for what was going to be an exhausting meeting. Satisfied with his preparation, he opened the massive door and stepped inside.

    Waiting for him were five other people, all dressed in the same armor as him, with cloaks, and ck, featureless masks. The armor they wore was a ckened leather and fur armor that covered most of the body. Underneath it they all dark, skin-tight clothes. The ensemble was finished off with the masks and a hood.

    Cloaks were the only part of the outfit they had a say over. Each member had a different colored one. Lucius kept his sand-colored one because he had no care about fashion and had yet to rece it after his Alorek Campaign.

    "Titan, so d of you to join us. I was beginning to think you wouldn''te." One of the othermanders said with a judgmental tone.

    "Spider. A pleasure as always." He answered while taking a seat.

    "Well, now that we are all here, we are to discuss the next steps." This time the man who spoke was thergest, physically, of the people here. He also had a booming voice that exuded authority. He was the Grandmaster of the order. Codenamed, Crown.

    Crown passed out a series of documents to each of the individuals surrounding the table. Lucius kept his closed, waiting for his turn to have his assignment announced.

    "Spider, we are sending you into Alorek. I know we tend to keep our people in the borders and Titan was an exception to this, however, we simply need to keep an eye on their movements, at least for the next few months to ensure that peace is the option they are sticking to."

    "Sir, I understand but¡­ the desert doesn''t agree with me."

    "In what way?" Crown growled.

    "I''ll deal with it," Spider said, retracting a little into his chair.

    Continuing the meeting, Crown individually divided out the assignments one after another. Before getting to Lucius, he dismissed the rest of themanders.

    Spider, of course, had to get one more word in edgewise "Good luck, Titan. The fresh faces always get the worst assignments."Heughed the entire walk out of the room.

    Lucius sighed and shook his head before opening up his folder. As he read the document, his eyes tracked across the page faster and faster.

    "Crown, is this urate? This is my mission?"

    The grandmaster looked at him and slowly removed his mask. "Yes, Titan. As a reward for your service and efficiency in resolving the Alvora assault, we have selected you for this specific mission. The king gives you his well wishes on this assignment."

    "Sir, are you sure? I know I''m only six months in, but will the order be fine while I''m gone? This is rather long-term."

    "We are aware of that, Titan. However, it has been agreed upon already by both myself and King Verdayl. You may still receive assignments from time to time, and are required to report your position every time you change location, but yes. This is your long-term assignment."

    "Thank you, sir. And his majesty as well."

    Lucius bowed and exited the room. He needed to rush back to Kalivas'' house¡­ though now it was technically his as well. When Lucius made it into the rank of Commander as part of the King''s Shadow, he was also formally acknowledged as Kalivas'' son and an heir to his father''s house.

    The news was kept private and only Kalivas, Lucius, Crown, Atil, and Kalliope were there along with the king and his aide.

    It was some sort of problem for people to know that Kalivas had a son at the moment. The time wouldeter for the information toe to light, but when he was granted his position in Kalivas'' house was not that time.

    In the months since he did find it curious that Kalivas was the only member. It was a small house and at the moment it was only Lucius and him that were part of it. Kalivas inherited it from his father and his father''s father.

    Lucius was under the impression it that his biological father was a member of the Panther n since that was where his mother was from, but that was not the case. His maternal bloodline had renounced him due to his status as a Marked One. Even in a nation where strength was the primary source of respect, the hatred of the Marked Ones'' cursed blood was a point of contrition.

    Discover hidden stories at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    "I need to inform Kalivas and Kalliope of this. Potentially Lord Atil as well. I will most likely be bringing his daughter along on this and it may be some time before they see each other again. Though¡­ I have a feeling that won''t be a problem for him."

    Lucius thought about the amount of desire that Kalliope had for him and shuddered for a moment. Sometimes he could not tell if she was looking at him through the lens of love, admiration¡­ or hunger. Most of the time it felt like hunger¡­

 Chapter 145: A Challenge

    "Hey. Titan."

    Lucius stopped in his tracks as he heard his codename called out. When he turned around, Spider was standing next to one of the columns in the main hall. He strode up to Lucius with all the swagger in the world. Behind him were some of his men and another two of the King''s Shadowmanders.

    "What do you want?"

    "I hear you are getting an extended mission. Years long even. I don''t think you deserve it."

    "That''s too bad."

    He attempted to turn and leave, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. At the same time, the two othermanders with Spider stepped into his path. It seemed none of them wanted out of this without getting something from the interaction. He wasn''t an idiot. It was clear what they were aiming for.

    "You''re upset that you didn''t get a chance to test my worth?"

    The threemanders and the subordinates with them started tough. "No, no. Test you?" Spider said. "Not in the slightest. I simply don''t think you''re good enough for our order. So, I am going to challenge you to a fight."

    "If I refuse?"

    "You''ll ept it, Lucius."

    Another voice called out and surprised the group of people. Looking up a set of stairs they saw King Verdayl himself descending from the family''s royal quarters which were on the upper floors of the pce.

    "As youmand, my king." He said with a deep bow while pulling himself free of Spider''s grip.

    The other Shadows also bowed to the king. Though Spider''s face was concealed by a mask, Lucius could tell he was smirking, thinking he had won.

    "Lucius."

    "Sire?"

    "You are not to hold back. Is that understood? Show them why I gave you that mask."

    "Yes, Your Majesty."

    Lucius stood and walked to the private coliseum that the royal family maintained. It was for battles for their personal viewing as well as events for any guests they hosted. asionally the battles would include warriors against beasts, professional diators, or even high-level training sessions amongst the pce''s strongest knights.

    Today though, it would host a fight between twomanders within the King''s Shadow. It was not something that urred frequently. Barring a few exceptions, members of the order made it a point to not be showoffs too frequently. It defeated the purpose of their organization.

    However, this would be a private match. Only the royal family was observing, alongside a number of the King''s Shadow currently within the pce.

    When Lucius was ready, he stepped into the center ring and drew his weapon, a simple machete that was purchased for him by Rena several years ago in Lelvern. Spider stood opposite of him and drew a shortsword and a dagger.

    His specialty was using Sword Arts and Dagger Arts simultaneously. He practiced dual-weapon fighting and used a different Art in each hand. It made him a dangerous fighter.

    Lucius began to remove his cloak and then his mask. Before he could, the king called out from his seat in the stands. "Uh, Titan my boy. Please leave the mask on. And don''t use your mark."

    "As you wish, my liege. Though I thought you asked me not to hold back?"

    "I changed my mind. I prefer not to pay for the reconstruction of my personal arena."

    Spider scoffed at the conversation, thinking that this was an intimidation tactic on Lucius'' part. What didn''t ur to him was that the king had no benefit of ying along with such a farce. Still, he readied himself and waited for the sound of the start bell.

    "[Tempestas], [Forsaken Arts]" Lucius whispered his Compatibilities under his breath and felt the two types of mana swirl around his body. He felt his muscles twitch slightly as they adapted to the influx of power.

    Lucius felt the veins in his neck bulge for a moment. He opened his eyes and saw a blend of blue- and then red-light sh down his arms and along the edge of his de. For a moment, his opponent started to look concerned. Discover more stories at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    "[Dagger Arts: Quick Strike]"

    Spider vanished from where he stood and reappeared behind Lucius. Just before his de struck the back of his neck, a small bolt of lightning zapped his hand, forcing him to recoil and retreat.

    The man nursed his hand momentarily as white smoke rose gently from it. "What in the ever-loving¡­" He started. "No¡­ you can''t¡­"

    Lucius looked at his opponentzily and pointed the palm of his right hand directly at him. A mote of blue light shed for a second in the center of his palm, then instantly transformed into a bolt of lightning that shot forward and struck Spider in the chest.

    He watched as the othermander was lifted off the ground and thrown nearly fifty feet out of thebat area, stopping only thanks to the wall of the arena.

    Lucius looked up into the stands and saw the gawking faces of many of the lower-ranked members of his order. He locked eyes with King Verdayl. "Your majesty. I trust that my performance was satisfactory?"

    The tiger beastman looked down at him with a massive grin on his face. "Yes, Titan. You performed admirably."

    He gave a deep bow and left the arena, deactivating his Arts and Magic. Somehow, he was thinking the fight was going to be more impressive than that. Though, Spider was only an Intermediate Rank, so it made sense it was easy. Still, Lucius was hoping that the man had some bite to his bark.

    "Titan¡­" Spider coughed. "What the hell was that? You didn''t¡­ call out a spell."

    He paused for a moment, debating on how to answer. "That''s ssified Spider. Maybe I''ll tell you next time you beat me. Or, maybe you should do some research and find out yourself. I''m sure someone can tell you why you got your ass kicked."

    Taunting his opponents was not normally his style, but Kalliope had rubbed off on him over the years, though he would never, ever admit that to her.

    Spider continued to call out to him several more times, but Lucius simply ignored him. After all, he had a few errands to run before heading out on his next mission.

 Chapter 146: Representatives [Part 1]

    "Lord Lionel, are you ready?" A slender, man in a perfect butler''s uniform was bowing deeply to a young man that was currently polishing one of the many swords hung along the walls of his room.

    The gentleman in question was lord Kristof Lionel. He was one of the most renowned members of the younger generation of nobility in the kingdom of Docia. As the first seat in the Docia School for Combat, he was a very talented young man.

    Kristof''s servant was asking him if he was prepared to leave for the Kingdom of Arcadios to participate in their special exhibition this year. Every member nation in the Five Kings Union was participating in this joint exhibition as well as Eroa and Aedrider. The beast nations of Alorek and Raleron as well as the elven nation of Haedda had all chosen to abstain.

    "Yes, yes. I am prepared. Shall we head to this nation of forest dwellers?" Kristof said with a sigh.

    Arcadios had thergest and most number of forests of any nation and many of their cities and viges looked like specs of civilization popping out from seas of trees. They had a few areas of t ins and farnd, but most of theirnd was taken up by trees. Due to this, a richer nation, like Docia, looked down on Arcadios'' citizenry for being a country of simplistic huntsmen.

    Kristof returned his sword to the wall and left his study. He thought of stopping to say goodbye to his father but remembered that he was in the pce today to have a meeting with the King, who was Kristof''s uncle. He would see his father and uncleter in Arcadios anyway as they would also be in attendance as guests.

    None of his cousins would be participating in the exhibition, though they were strong fighters like him. They were the ones most likely to inherit the throne, so the pce could not risk their safety by allowing them to participate in this event. His father had told him that some of the other human nations were teetering on whether to attend or not, but ultimately decided to do so.

    It would do well for them, politically speaking, to participate in such an event. Many members of nobility across the participating nations needed to show one another that the war had not worn dulled their des, but sharpened them.

    Kristof smiled cruelly, imagining being showered with fame and fortune after he was dered the winner of this event. ''To be honest, calling it apetition is a farce¡­ really it is just the opening event for my inevitable rise in power.'' He thought to himself.

    *****

    In the middle of a stone room, a lone woman was hammering away at a piece of metal. The sounds of her tools banging off her project resounded throughout the room. While under normal circumstances, the echoes created by this would have long made someone either deaf, mad, or both, that was not the case here.

    Some of the stones had crystals iid into them and these stones put out a constant glow. It was thanks to these stones which had enchantments on them that negated soundwaves within a certain radius of them. Such enchanted crystals were extremelymon and were as easy and cheap to purchase as a daily loaf of bread.

    As for the woman, she was sweating profusely and wiped her brow with a look of satisfaction. The project she was working on was a dangerous-looking war hammer. She had been working on this weapon for months now to create a special alloy for this piece and wanted to ensure that ityered correctly.

    "I think it''s ready for the next step." Her excitement was easily seen thanks to a slight wiggleing from her long, pointed ears.

    "Lady Corva?" a voice called out. "Are you finished?"

    "Just a bit longer then I will be ready. It is time for the enchantment!" Corva giggled as she bounded over to a different workbench covered in books, parchment, an assortment of magical crystals, and various kinds of strange, runic circles.

    Corva was one of a very select few who was born with the Compatibility for Ritual Magic. Elves like her were more likely to be born with the skill over humans and beastmen especially, but it was still umon.

    Among elves, only a handful for every few thousand people born with any Compatibility at all would be able to use Ritual Magic. This allowed her to use Enchantment Magic and Identification Magic. It wasn''t a kind of magic she could usually use on the fly and they needed preparation in the form of runic circles, but it was a rare and lucrative skill set.

    It was thanks to this wonderful set of skills that she was able to be the representative for Aedrider in the uing Exhibition Tournament in Arcadios. Her professors wanted to show off her skills to other nations as a sort of advertisement for their special crystals and enchanted items. Discover more stories at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    Despite her excellent enchanting abilities, Corva was a little bit of a meathead and excelled in Hammer Arts as well. She nned to showcase her abilities in the best possible way: overwhelming her opponents with sheer power and force. The best way to do that? Bash their faces bloody with a hammer she personally enchanted.

    Several hourster, with more sweat pouring off her body, Corva finally sighed in relief. "Finished! Ooooh, it is just like I thought. This alloy I concocted took to the enchantments so well!"

    "Might I inquire what it is you imbued the hammer with mydy?" the servant who had been waiting patiently for her charge to finish, asked.

    "You may!" Corva shouted excitedly before giving a teasing grin, "But I won''t tell you. I can tell you, that I believe this hammer would now ssify as a Legendary ss item. Oh, those poor souls won''t know what hit them!"

    Corva continued tough until she passed out from exhaustion right there. She thought she felt herself being dragged along the ground at some point, and she might have heard a handful of unkindments, but she was much too tired to understand or realize any of it for what it was.

    At some point, she realized she was inside of a carriage and inpletely different clothes. Corva reached around and felt her hammer leaning against the bench seat she was lying on. Out of reflex she grabbed it and clung to it tightly, falling back asleep with it as if she were cuddling a teddy bear.

 Chapter 147: Representatives [Part 2]

    Hundreds of students gathered in the halls of Royal Paede Academy. They were all gawking at a pair of students who were walking hand and hand through their school and were the star couple that everyone admired. One was a beautiful woman and the other, her betrothed the Second Prince of Paede, Prince Augustine Delthra von Paede III. Known lovingly as Prince August.

    August simply gave all the students a wave, making scores of young women swoon. His loving fianc¨¦e too waved at the crowd eliciting a barrage of uncouth whispers from the men, and a few women as well.

    "My lovely Prince August, it seems we have gathered another crowd on our day off." The woman giggled into his ear.

    August smiled, "Yes, so it seems. Rather unfortunate for us to have our private time interrupted time and time again. We really must use less predictable paths on our afternoon walks my fair Lady Irina."

    In truth, they both performed this ''song and dance'' with their fellow students every week. Both of them enjoyed the attention and it reflected positively on both of their families if the public was knowledgeable of how close they appeared to be.

    Irina''s family, House Tryn, was thergest military supporter of the royal family, so their future marriage would cement ties between their houses for this generation.

    "It saddens me that I will not be able to join you immediately on your trip this evening my dear prince. Though I will be joining my father and yours in a few days." Irina whispered.

    "Yes, my dear, it is unfortunate that we would not be able to entertain one another during the long journey. I imagine my heart shall remain wanting until the time we reunite within Arcadios." August said back, though louder to ensure some of the other students could hear hisments.

    In truth, their marriage was but a political one. Neither of them had any real feelings toward one another. They simply acted this way in the public eye for the look of it. The reality was that Irina despised his guts and regrly saw her own being rearranged daily by one of her guards. Meanwhile August had a few trysts of his own with several among his maid staff.

    Readtest chapters at m_v-l''e|-NovelBin

    The only time they would participate in ''entertaining'' one another would be after their marriage when they were required to produce a few heirs. Beyond that, they had no intention of being beside one another in their private lives. However, he hoped it would note to that.

    August heard that the victor of the tournament would be granted a request by King Aleksander, and he hoped that by winning he could actually escape from this sham marriage and instead ask for the hand of one of Aleksanders'' daughters, whom Augustine desired from the moment he saw her.

    *****

    Keinydd was a kingdom with an abundance of water. They were on the coast of the continent as well as possessed a massive number of rivers andkes. There was even a rumor that the royal pce sat atop a holyke created by the gods before they ascended to Celestia.

    No one knew if it was due to the amount of water within the kingdom, but Keinydd possessed an inordinate amount of individuals who were Ice and Water Magic users. Even their most esteemed institution was headquartered on a small ind off the coast to amodate the number of their students that possessed those two Compatibilities.

    All of their representatives possessed both of those traits, including their top student; a young man named Desmond Adler. He had wed his way to the top of the food chain among the other students at Keinydd Mana Academy. The Adler family was a powerful noble family in the Keinydd Kingdom, but Desmond was a disgraced son.

    He held his family''sst name but received no formal support in either the political realm or the mary one. Desmond earned his spot at the Mana Academy by defeating hundreds of challengers and excelling in academics. There was no other senior at the institution who could hold a candle to him.

    Why was Desmond so resolute in fighting for a ce in society despite being all but banished from his family? The reason was simple. He fought on behalf of his sister. Desmond had a younger twin sister named Jade Adler who was born with a mark. While the rest of their family attempted to emunicate her and deny her existence, Desmond refused.

    He fought not for a ce of his own, but for a ce for her.

    When he heard that the victor of the Exhibition Tournament would be a request granted by the king of Arcadios, he knew he was going to win it. When he did, he was going to request assistance in emigrating to one of the beastman nations where power mattered more. While he had no illusions of an infinitely better life for himself and his sister, it would be many times better than in the human nations.

    Desmond was entertaining thoughts of victory while he was sparring with some other students in the waters surrounding the Mana Academy. Though he was surrounded by all sides, none of his opponents stood a chance against him. It was child''s y to knock them into the sea over and over again until they all surrendered.

    "Lord Desmond Adler¡­ your boat to the maind has arrived."

    "Fetch my sister. She ising with me."

    "Lord Adler¡­ we did not¡­"

    "The fees for her travel have been covered already by me. Fetch her or I will personally sink the boat and Keinydd Mana Academy will lose one of its spots in the tournament due to my absence. Though it would be a great loss on my part, the shame the kingdom would face would be greater, would it not?"

    "It is as you say, my lord."

    The staff member bowed stiffly and left to perform what was requested of him.

    "I will win this."

 Chapter 148: The Days Events

    Aleksander and Commander Arturo were conversing politely in the king''s study. Arturo was asked to visit his liege earlier in the day to discuss the ns for the uing tournament.

    Shortly after the announcement of the end of the war, the king announced that Marked Ones would be allowed to continue participating in the Adventurer''s Guild, and Merchant Guild, and attend academies, including the one in the capital. The forced conscription was still in effect, but would only be utilized during times of war.

    During times of peace, Marked Ones would be allowed to participate in those different aspects of society. They still could not purchase property, get married, or hold legal offices, but they would be able to earn a living asborers, adventurers, or whatever else.

    Another decision that the king had made was that the Senior Exhibition at the Arcadios Royal Academy would instead be the ''Exhibition Tournament'' and all nations were invited to register students from their nations'' state academies. Only three nations chose not to participate in the end, but all the others were all too happy to ept the invitations.

    The leaders of those nations were also invited to observe the fights and would be in attendance for those as well. Every leader would be in attendance for it. The reason Aleksander invited him specifically, was to discuss security measures in the capital for the event.

    "So, your thoughts Arturo?" the king asked in between sips of his coffee. Normally, it was proper to drink tea in the presence ofpany, but the nation of Arcadios was different. They were the nation that consumed thergest amount of the stuff and imported it in massive quantities from the mountainous regions of Eroa.

    "I believe it would be best for us to avail ourselves of Lord Petra''s military force. Many of his men are still present around the capital and I believe that through their excellent training, they would be more than sufficient to supplement the city guard as well as the royal army."

    Aleksander pondered it for a moment. "And you are sure you are okay with this?"

    "Yes, though I distrust the man for allowing the likes of that¡­boy to exist in his domain and even his own house¡­ he proved himself trustworthy of at least this much." He admitted. "He even foot the entire cost of the assassination after being unable to prove that Marked One''s death."

    "Yes, that is true. Richard believed the boy was dead and even showed us the recording. However, he also admitted that this¡­Lucas or whatever his name was¡­ was quite the survivor." Aleksander agreed.

    "Yes. Though one cannot rule out that Lord Petra did not act in such a manner for honor, but rather covering his ass¡­ if I may be so crass, my liege."

    Aleksanderughed so hard he spat out his coffee. "Arturo, I appreciate your candor always. In private you may speak freely¡­ but yes, I agree. Richard''s actions may be for a multitude of reasons."

    A few moments of silenceter Aleksander continued. "I think your rmendation is a good one. I shall reach out to Richard and request a portion of his men to assist with security. For the sake of assisting you in keeping your sanity Arturo, I will request that these additional forces be ced under yourmand.

    Richard himself is attending the event, so he will not be avable to give or receive orders. Is this eptable?"

    "Yes, my liege, more than eptable."

    The two continued to discuss security measures and the like for a few more hours before they settled on a finalized n for security checkpoints and patrols. Eventually, they moved on to some of the entry applicants.

    Several entrants would be considered ''seeded'' and guaranteed a spot in the final rounds of the tournament. The thought process is that it would be a bracket-style tournament. There would be a total of ten seeds. Seven of which belonged to the number one picks from each country.

    The remaining three spots would be decided by a free-for-all group elimination match. The remaining three participants would be selected. For these three winners, the tournament would provide advanced healing spells, potions, and stamina recovery potions so they could immediately turn around and fight if needed.

    "Who are the participants from the other kingdoms?" Arturo asked.

    Aleksander passed him a document with the names that he had received. On it was a list of seven names. "So¡­ we have a prince of Paede, a disgraced son of a noble family, an elvenmoner, a nephew to the king of Docia, a member of the al Famyn family¡­ and¡­"

    "Are you serious?"

    "Very."

    "Interesting¡­"

    They finalized the brackets and sent them off to the Royal Academy so they could make preparations. On the day of the tournament, the free-for-all battle would start at first light. There was no telling how many people would participate in that elimination tournament, but shortly after, the normal tournament would start.

    They agreed that if the elimination battlested longer than two hours, then a team of judges who were watching the participants would select the ones with the most eliminations and choose them to fill the three open spots.

    The setup was sure to rile up anymoners who wished to participate andin about the number of nobles in the guaranteed slots, but those positions were earned based on performance. The second opportunity for them to participate would be to win the group elimination battle royale.

    The tournament consisted of four rounds. The first round would be two fights to determine the final eight. The second round would consist of four fights. Then two fights in the next round, to determine the championship fight. In the second tost round, the four fighters would each have an opportunity to announce their request that they would ask of King Aleksander.

    The king believed that the audience would be more invested in the final rounds if they knew what the fighters were trying to achieve. If they were aware of their hopes and dreams, then it would encourage them to do other things¡­ like betting on the fights, which was something that the kingdom was setting up.

    "Onest thing Arturo."

    "Your majesty?"

    "The Oracle will be in attendance as will her daughter. King Verdayl of Eroa will be bringing Kalivas with him so they may interact. Be mindful of any rumors you hear spread. And inform our Empyrean Rankers of his presence. I would hate for them to think he was attacking when in fact he is just observing the fights."

    "Your will be done."

 Chapter 149: Saying Goodbye

    Lucius quietly walked his way inside his father''s vi. He was wearing only a set of pants and his leather boots. A towel was wrapped around his neck and he gently patted himself dry with it.

    Kalliope was waiting inside for him as she had known he was training before she arrived at Kalivas'' residence. At that moment her eyes traveled up and down Lucius'' naked upper body. He was far from thergest warrior she had seen, but his muscle definition was extremely attractive.

    "You can stop staring anytime now, Kalliope." The young man called out without even looking at her.

    "I''m aware." She answered back. "Anyway, I heard from Father that you wanted to speak to me?"

    "Yes. We have a new assignment." Lucius tossed her an envelope with a document inside.

    Kalliope looked at it curiously before opening it and reading. The contents of the document were¡­ jarring, to say the least. The biggest part of it was that it would be a long-term mission with no real end date. It seemed like King Verdayl was cutting Lucius loose, but allowing him to continue essing the order''s resources on the condition he does a few odd jobs here and there.

    "That''s quite convenient for you." Kalliope sighed.

    "So it would seem."

    "When do we leave?"

    "Tomorrow night."

    "I''ll pack my things. Are we wearing standard issue?"

    Lucius paused for a moment, clearly thinking. "No, you can wear whatever you like. However, I''ll be in my standard issue gear for a time, so don''t be surprised."

    "Understood! I will meet you outside the main gates of the capital tomorrow night then. For now, I''ll go see my father." She said before trotting off happily.

    It seemed only they would be doing this mission together. Lucius'' team was being reassigned to Crown while they were away so they would not be waiting for his return. They were also given several contacts throughout the various kingdoms that would get word to the rest of the order if needed. Of course, this list was memorized and subsequently destroyed.

    Kalliope made her way back to the capital which was only a short jaunt away from Kalivas'' vi. At least it was a short distance for a powerful warrior such as her. When she arrived at the gates, she shed a small identification tag. It was made of a jet-ck metal. It did not reveal which part of the military she was in, but it did show she was rather high-ranking.

    The guards at the gate quickly waved her through without exnation or inspection. Once through the massive gates, her eyes were treated to the wonderful city. It was a blend of buildings that were on the ground and in the massive jungle trees that made up arge portion of the kingdom.

    Massive walkways spanned many of the trees and there were even suspended markets hung between the trees as well, leaving massive shadows on the ground below.

    It made for quite a sight even to her, as she had only been inside the capital a handful of times. The lower levels of the city on and near the ground had magicalmpposts constantly on due to the shadows of theyers above as well as the canopy. Yet that only added to the fantastical scenery.

    Her father''s property in this city was much closer to the pce, so she quickly made her way to it so she could say her goodbyes and collect as many of her personal effects as she thought she would need.

    After several minutes of walking, she finally made it to the building, which was on an upper level of the city. It was a smaller building than her family''spound in their territories because it only needed to house a handful of the Gray Wolf n at a time.

    Currently staying there were herself, her father, and her biological mother. Her mother and father were sitting together in the main room just inside the entryway. In front of them was a small table with a few cups of tea waiting for them.

    Eroa had a more popr drink, called coffee, but her father thought it was much too bitter and enjoyed tea as well. Her mother agreed as she often said it was too strong of a vor to pair with most foods. Once upon a time, Kalliope thought this way too, however, Lucius had shown her the wonders of coffee as an emergency energy source out on missions.

    When he was still a bodyguard for a noble family in Arcadios, he spent a lot of time learning how to prepare drinks like tea and coffee and had somehow made the poor-quality grounds provided to soldiers taste pretty good.

    Seeing as she had gotten used to the stronger vors¡­ the gentler tea that her parents had prepared felt almost¡­ vorless and watery.

    "Kalliope, my love¡­ is something wrong with your tea?" her mother asked.

    "It tastes like tea?"

    "Well, that is what it is so¡­"

    "And therein lies the problem." She mumbled.

    Atil coughed. "Anyway, I take it you have spoken to Lucius?"

    Kalliope exined to them that she was going to be joining hermander and longtime friend, on a mission outside Eroa''s borders. The length of time she was gone was unknown, and it was even possible she might not ever return. Put simply, there was no way to predict where they would go or what they would do. Read new chapters at m_v-l''e|-NovelBin

    Her mother pulled her into an embrace, a form of affection that Kalliope had rarely seen from the woman. It seemed after the loss of her brother at the start of the war, her parents had softened their expressions of love. She had noticed they were less distant not only with her but with her many other siblings as well.

    "I want you to make sure you eat every day. And do what you can to stay by that boy''s side. He may be rough around the edges, but he is Kalivas'' boy and I know he is tough and loyal to those close to him." Her mother whispered into her ears while stroking her back.

    "Yes, and please send us letters when able. They may take time to arrive since they would be routed to us from the capital here, but we do have an aviary to receive messenger birds." Atil agreed.

    "And we hope that one of those letters contains good news." Her mother finished, matched with an intense amount of head nodding from Atil.

    "I''m trying! No luck so far but¡­ I will not give up!"

    "Have you tried drugging him?"

    "Mother!"

    "Calm down Kalliope¡­ she was only giving you a suggestion."

    It was all she could do to not shake her head at her parents'' behavior. Before Lucius, they had never pushed her into a family life before. However, before Lucius, Kalliope had never shown interest in anything other than fighting. So it was likely they were making up for lost time.

    That night, Kalliope stayed with her parents and even slept between them like she had as a small child. It was onest expression of love she shared with her parents before she left them behind for things unknown.

 Chapter 150: A Chance Encounter

    Rena groggily got out of bed to a series of rapid knocking at her door. However, since the person knocking already had a key, she did not have to get up to open it and simply stretched while it opened itself, and the person in question let themselves in.

    "Renaaaa!" Lyrah sang while giving a twirl in a beautiful, short gray dress. Natali followed, wearing her standard fare.

    "Yes, yes¡­ I know. You want to peruse the markets before the tournament starts?"

    "Yes! Oh, there are so many people in town I hear! Elves and beastmen as well! Come on! Let''s go!"

    Rena quickly donned the standard gear that made her look like a rough-and-tumble adventurer rather than the daughter of a noble and joined her friends on their trip to the marketce.

    Lyrah was not lying one bit about the sheer amount of people. Normally the markets were packed with people, but right now there were easily three times the amount of people. With the increased traffic there was also an increase in the amount of guards walking around on patrol.

    For the first time in some time, Rena observed the presence of beastmen in the kingdom of Arcadios, before now, she had only really seen them in Lelvern many years ago. It seemed for every three or four humans present, there was an elf and a beastman as well. Thanks to the number of guards on patrol, it seemed the different races were getting along decently at least.

    "Was there anything in particr you wanted to look for?" Rena asked her friend who was skipping down the path.

    "Nothing in particr! I simply wanted to enjoy the sights. Oh, look there! What is that they are setting up?" Lyrah pointed to a group of elves that were wearing some sort of worker uniform. They all had belts around their waists that held all sorts of tools. And they appeared to be putting up some strange metallic post in the middle of the market.

    Looking around, Rena saw that there were quite a number of these posts already standing around the market and several more being carried by more elves. "What are these things?"

    They looked like streetmps, but they instead of a ce for a candle or light crystal, there was a strange orb sitting atop them. Hearing Rena ask the question, one of the older-looking elves with the tool belt came up and answered. "These are projection towers."

    "Projection towers?" she asked as the man also gave her a pamphlet.

    "Yes, by order of our queen, we are installing these around the pce, temporarily as our donation to the running of this tournament. A magical device will transmit the sights and sounds of the tournament to these towers which will show them on magical disys in the air."

    "So people not in the stadium will be able to see the tournament fights?!" Lyrah nearly screeched with excitement.

    "Why yes youngdy! You are correct. What a smart girl, here I have a caramel somewhere¡­" The older elf patted his pockets for a moment before handing the excitable girl a small, wrapped candy.

    "What a sweet girl¡­" The man said with a smile as he returned to supervising the instation of more of those projection towers he had talked about.

    "Rena, if I may have you do me a favor?" Lyrah asked, turning back to the redhead.

    "What is it?"

    "I have something I need to buy, however, it is a surprise, so I need you to wait here if you could?"

    Rena smiled because announcing she was buying a surprise for her was antithetical to the idea of a surprise. Still, it tracked for Lyrah and all Rena could do was smile at her adorable friend. "Of course. I shall wait here for you."

    "Thank you so much. Natali! Let''s go."

    "Is it the¡­"

    "Nope! I''m not telling you either, but you have toe since you''re my bodyguard. I''ll just make you wait outside the door."

    Rena shook her head at her friends as they disappeared into the crowd. She continued to people-watch for a while. The different races interacting and moving about the markets reminded her even more of Lelvern.

    "I should go back sometime." She whispered to herself. "I wonder how Miss Molly from Ironvein is doing now?"

    While reminiscing she found herself distracted. She did not notice that someone was approaching her from behind before she suddenly felt a knife pressed against her throat and felt the hot breath of some person tickling her ear.

    Someone in the crowd pointed at them and screamed causing people to begin to scatter in all directions. The man who had Rena held hostage wasughing maniacally and muttering somethingpletely unintelligible, despite it being right in her ears.

    Rena slowly started to reach for a weapon on her belt, thinking the man was too out of his mind to realize what she was doing, but unfortunately, he was grounded enough to notice and pressed the knife even tighter.

    "Don''t move girl, or you will be ascending to the realm of the gods!" somehow his inane chatter became clear enough to issue that threat.

    Rena rxed her hands and swallowed, thinking of any possible ways out of this. Several guards surrounded them and pointed their swords at them both. "Let the girl go and you might get out of this alive you cretin!"

    "Haha! Alive? Dead? It doesn''t matter¡­ the throne lies empty you knaves! Nothing matters until the seat is filled!" the man shouted.

    "Gods, it''s another one of them¡­" one of the guards shouted out.

    "Gods cannot help you! They are powerless! When have the gods done anything? Nothing, they upy a ce never meant for them and pretend to possess a power beyond their understanding. No.. no, no, no, no, no!

    There are no gods! You lie!"

    Rena gulped subconsciously. Every second she stayed here, she could tell the man was getting more agitated. He was more lucid than he was a moment ago, but it was fading quickly.

    The dagger pressed even tighter against her neck and a little bit of blood began to trickle over its edge. Rena looked to the sky and breathed trying to calm herself. When she nced back down at the guards, right in front of her face was a strange being.

    Their head was covered in a hood and they wore a in, ck facemask devoid of any features. She tried to look into the eye slits to discern anything more, but she seemed unable to focus on it and started suffering a headache.

    Her captor began to say something, but the masked figure seemed to blur even more and suddenly the sensation of metal against her throat vanished. She looked behind her and found that the criminal was lying several feet behind them and his dagger was shattered to pieces, only the hilt remaining intact.

    Rena slowly turned back to the figure. "Thank you¡­ wait, what?"

    Before she could thank the person, they had already turned around and began walking away. One of the guards tried to stop him for an exnation, but the figure simply said, "If you need me, ask for Titan at the Eroan embassy."

    That shut the guard up for a moment. As the figure walked away, a female beastman with blond hair and wolf-like ears bounded out of the crowd beforetching onto the figure''s arm. Rena watched in confusion as the figure shoved the girl off before they disappeared into the crowd of people.

    Lyrah came rushing towards her and jumped into her arms. "Rena! By the gods are you okay?" Lyrah''s face was soaked in tears.

    Natali also rushed forward and had a look of genuine concern in her eyes as well. "Rena?" she whispered.

    "I''m fine. Thanks to that person from Eroa¡­ he said his name was¡­ Titan?"

 Chapter 151: The Eroan Representative

    Commander Arturo was brought to the center of the market district where an incident had urred only a handful of minutes before.

    Lying on the ground was a man whose face was unrecognizable. It almost appeared as though his nose had been inverted. The force of the impact he received liquified his brain and killed him instantly.

    ording to witnesses, the individual was a figure in leather armor, wearing a hood, a cloak, and a ck facemask. No one seemed capable of describing any other discerning features. They could not estimate the person''s size, gender, or any other defining features about them.

    Guards did state that as the individual left, they referred to themselves as ''Titan'' and to reach out to the Eroan embassy for additional information. After the person left, a blonde woman who appeared to be a wolf beastman, mped onto the masked person''s arm.

    "Has anyone been to the Eroan embassy yet?"

    "Yes, Commander. However, the guards at the embassy state that the men we sent do not possess the proper clearance to interact with the individuals inside." One of his soldiers answered.

    Arturo nodded, understanding perfectly why they ran into issues. "That makes sense. Currently staying within the embassy are a small number of high-level individuals. I will go myself."

    Arturo pointed for a few men to follow him then proceeded to leave. However, as he was leaving he noticed a strange char mark in the stonework that appeared to be the shape of a foot¡­ "Strange¡­" he wondered aloud before continuing.

    When he arrived outside the appropriate embassy, he saw some more of his guards standing outside patiently. The Eroan guards seemed to be in a pleasant mood, which meant that his men did not do or say anything untoward out of frustration.

    "Hello, I am Commander Arturo of Arcadios. His majesty, King Aleksander Verall von Arcadios, assigned me over city security during the events. I wish to discuss the events today with a ''Titan'' who stated he was here."

    The guards for the embassy turned to look at him and bowed. "Commander Arturo. You may enter the grounds. Your men may join you, but only two of your men will be permitted inside the building itself. The rest must remain in the garden."

    He thanked the two men and instructed all but two of his guards to stay outside of the embassy gates for the ease andfort of the kingdom''s guests. Though they were granted permission to at least enter the grounds, it looked better to not have them join as a show of trust towards Eroa.

    The inside of the embassy was rather beautiful. Though only a few dignitaries normally stayed on the grounds, the individuals in charge of caring for the exterior had done a wonderful job in tending to the native nts of Eroa that were able to survive in Arcadios'' different climate.

    The inside of the embassy was also gorgeous. It was more rustic than one would expect, being furnished with many wooden pieces of furniture and items that still possessed the rougher exterior of bark, rather than the finished polish of fully processed lumber.

    This was a nod to the standard furnishings of Eroa as well. Since most of the poption lived in and amongrge trees, the more rustic style wasmon formoners and nobility. Though the kingdom of Arcadios also had a vast sea of trees, the human nation spent a lot of time processing their lumber to create their goods.

    "Commander Arturo, was it? Did you have something to discuss with our representative in the tournament?" A voice called out to him as he was admiring the surroundings. It came from a handsome man with cat-like ears and a thin, ck and orange striped tail.

    "King Verdayl Eroa¡­ it is my pleasure," Arturo said with a deep bow.

    "I have brought my representative, Titan, to speak with you."

    *****

    "Rena, are you quite all right?"

    Currently fretting over her well-being was the old man, Wally Carmichael, who insisted that both she and Natali also refer to him as grandpa, for reasons she did not understand other than they were close friends with Lyrah.

    A little while ago, the old man had let slip that Lyrah was his biological great-granddaughter. Hearing this made Rena swoon a little because it meant that she had been made privy to a massive state secret without her intending to and all thanks to the absentmindedments of a nearly senile old man.

    "Grandpa Wally, I am fine. I healed the wound myself."

    Your next read is at m v|l-e''-NovelBin

    "I know that, dear, but¡­" He sighed with exasperation. "You said you were saved by someone?"

    "Yes¡­ a strange person in a t ck mask¡­ they said their name was Titan," Rena answered.

    Wally stroked his beard slowly, pondering the name. "I do believe that¡­hmmm¡­"

    "Grandpa?" Lyrah asked carefully.

    "I believe this uh, Titan fellow¡­ I believe he is a representative for Eroa in the tournament. He is one of the seven representatives."

    Rena''s face paled. "So you mean I might have to fight him?" She asked timidly.

    "Yes, that exists as a possibility." Wally nodded.

    She could not help but gulp. Unless it was a one-time trick, which she doubted, the speed at which Titan moved was astounding. In a one-on-one fight, she doubted that she could overwhelm him. Though she did not see him use magic, she could not rely on the fact that he was not also adept at that as well.

    As a representative for the kingdom of Eroa, he was likely extremely skilled. He had to be at least as skilled as Thomas. Rena already knew she could not realistically beat him, though she wanted to, very badly. If Titan was at least as strong as that, then there was no way to win.

    Her only hope now is for Thomas to get beaten out by someone else so that his promotion to head of the household is dyed long enough for her to formally remove herself from the family and strike it out on her own. If Thomas was granted his position as head before she did that, then there was no telling what would happen to her.

    "Make sure you get plenty of rest. Stay here with us. You have quite a busy day tomorrow, Rena." Lyrah said with a quiet voice and kind smile.

    "Thank you, Lyrah, Natali, Grandpa Wally. I appreciate you all so much." She said back.

    Tomorrow was the tournament and first thing in the morning she would have to survive a free-for-all fight against an unknown number of eager fighters. If she made it through that, then she would have to figure out a way to potentially fight Titan.

    She brushed her fingers over the cat pendant on the choker she never removed. "Wish me luck, Lucius, my love."

 Chapter 152: The Night Before

    "What do you mean he''s here?" A female voice was screaming at a person inmoner clothes.

    Though the person appeared to be a simplemoner, like one would see wandering the streets of any generic town or vige, they were one of an army of spies employed by the nation known as the Wisteria Concord.

    "My Lady, it is as I said. There was an incident in the markets this morning and someone fought off one of those strange fanatics. They imed to be ''Titan from Eroa'' and then left the scene before being questioned by the guards."

    "Urgh¡­" Lady Voltara al Famyn grumbled. She looked through her pile of documents and pulled out a letter she had received regarding the participants in the tournament.

    The day she received it, she tossed it aside as she had many more important matters. However, she opened it up now and saw on the list of names ''Titan, representative from Eroa'' written in in font.

    "Dammit¡­" She grumbled again.

    "Auntie, is something the matter?"

    "Elize, pleasee here darling."

    A young woman who looked like the spitting image of a much younger Voltara stepped into the room. She was wearing thin nightclothes that made the spy nearly stop breathing when he saw how they gently draped over Elize''s form.

    "What can I do for you, Auntie?"

    "My dear¡­ I will be needing your assistance with something. A young man is attending this tournament and I need you to do one of two things for me." Voltara said sweetly.

    "Of course, what can I do for you?"

    "I need you to crush him with all the power you possess. Or, failing that seduce him and bring him to our side. You can do that for me, can''t you darling?"

    Elize thought for a moment. "I think it can be done. Though, I have to ask¡­ is he handsome? Is he strong?"

    "Handsome¡­ I don''t know. He always wears a mask." Voltara said truthfully.

    "Why a mask?"

    "He is a member of the King''s Shadow. The order that serves the royal family directly. He is also the individual responsible for the capturing of the city of Alvora. Which means that he is personally responsible for the event that ended the war with Alorek."

    Elize''s eyes widened. She had heard what had happened in Alvora and had read many of the reports Voltara had. On top of that, her auntie had informed her of what she saw while signing the non-aggression pact.

    Elize al Famyn''s face became flush and her breathing slightly ragged. "He''s that powerful is he¡­ auntie, if I bring him to our side, or even if I beat him. Can I keep him¡­ I would love to keep him."

    Voltara smiled as she looked at her niece who appeared to be almost writing in pleasure at the thought of seducing a powerful warrior. "Calm yourself, my dear. We do not even know if you will be able toplete either of those tasks. Promise me to do your best and that will be enough to satisfy me, darling."

    "I will give it my all, Auntie Vra," Elize said with a bow before exiting the room. As onest show, she winked at the spy who had been staring at her immodest dress the entire time.

    "Lecherous fool." Voltara snapped at the spy. "Get back out there and find me anything and everything you can on Titan. I want you to look for everything. Get in contact with the teams in Eroa. If he''s a member of the King''s Shadow he must be a native.

    "From our reports, he may be a half-blood of some kind, so look into any illicit rtionships between powerful Eroan noble families with trysts and love children between other races. Go!" Explore stories at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    Her beliefs about his possible origins were simply a guess. There was no hard evidence to show that he was a native of Eroa or he was from some other country. One thing she did know is that all the other known members of King''s Shadow were natural-born citizens of the country.

    However, another thing to know about the order was that they prided themselves on recognizing the strong. Eroa was like that as a nation, for the most part. Which did not necessarily rule out other possibilities for Titan''s origin. The only thing that was truly known was that he appeared suddenly on the battlefield about six months before the end of the war.

    Each battle he participated in was a resounding sess for Eroa.

    Honestly, it was getting to the point that Voltara was wondering why she was so obsessed with the young man. Was it the fear of the devastation he wrought? Was it possibly the strength he had that made her want to possess him? Or was it something else she had yet to identify? It was hard to tell at times with so many different possibilities.

    Voltara bit her thumb out of frustration. She was angry that herwork had found nothing, but even angrier that she thought the tournament information to be useless, when in fact it gave her a massive clue as to Titan''s location. Had she known, it would have been so much easier to look into him and set ns ordingly.

    However, now those chances were ruined, all because of a simple oversight. "It''s no matter," she stated. "I will likely learn what I need in due time. From what King Aleksander told me, the final four will address the crowd. I find it unlikely that Titan will not make it at least that far.

    "If he does, I will be able to learn more about him. If he does not, then he is of no use or threat to me. I still have yet to determine the exact way that Titan was able to cause such destruction. All our sources have been very tight-lipped, though there are only a handful of ways to perform this task, and most of them make this Titan a scary person.

    It is simply a matter of what to fear: his power, his intelligence, or both."

 Chapter 153: Exhibition Tournament

    "Ladies and gentlemen, wee to the Kingdom of Arcadios!" the voice of an announcer wearing vibrant clothes that would make even the most over-the-top nobles blush. "Today is the first-ever International Exhibition Tournament! Thanks to the involvement of the kingdom of Aedrider, our wonderful event is also being broadcast to every corner of our fair capital. So please watch and enjoy!

    Your next chapter is on m v|l-e''-NovelBin

    Allow me to exin today''s series of events¡­"

    The entire city was buzzing with excitement. Nearly every business that did not deal with food and drink had closed down for the day to watch the matches. This was the first time for most people in the capital, both citizens and visitors, to witness such an event. More often than not, tickets were either sold out or prohibitively expensive for themon man to purchase.

    Aedrider''s temporary donation of the projection towers was a massive sess with the poption and many tavern, restaurant, and food stall owners were nearly ready to start worshipping the elven nation because of all the business it generated. Every one of them was prepared to make money hand over foot.

    Rena on the other hand was not as excited as them. She was sitting in a waiting area with a random group of fighters. The first round was a massive elimination brawl. She would have to make it to the final three topete in the mainpetition.

    They were told that there were nearly a hundred participants. In the room she was in, ten other people were sitting or standing and preparing themselves for the match. That meant there were at least ten other rooms with a simr amount of people waiting for their chance at bing number one.

    In the room with her were mostly humans, but there were two beast-men as well as an elf. No one did or said anything to one another out of fear of giving away any hints about theirbat styles. Doing so would be giving your opponent an edge.

    The most they could do was guess at fighting styles and potential tactics based on the weapons they were carrying or the armor they were wearing. Rena''s ensemble was a tactic in and of itself. She carried a thin sword on her hip and wore light armor that suggested she was a Sword Arts specialist focused on speed.

    The truth of the matter was she was a pure mage and the armor and sword were simply for buying time in between spells.

    As she continued her deep breathing exercises, a small woman walked up and sat beside her. It was the elf. "Hi there. Nervous like me?"

    "Mmm" was all Rena said.

    "I get it." The elf said with a smile. "Like everyone else, trying to keep your cards close to your chest. I understand. Though, if I''m being honest I don''t have much to hide."

    "Mmhm."

    "I''m not going to tell you what I have going on. It''s just¡­ when I get nervous, I need to talk and well. You looked like the most likely to at least acknowledge me." She continued.

    "I see." Rena finally said. Though she did not continue to speak.

    "I do appreciate you at least letting me babble¡­ it''s nice. I wish you good luck miss. That''s all I''m going to do since you at least let me air out my anxiety. Just know that if we meet in the ring, I''m not holding back." The elven girl gave Rena a small smile and bowed before walking away.

    "Good luck to you too," Rena said as she walked away.

    Shortly after that, the announcer called the contestants to the stage. A group of officials entered the room and escorted the fighters in double file through the halls of the coliseum and out onto the main stage.

    The arena was nearly a perfect circle that was nearly fifteen hundred feet in diameter. It was simply a massive arena, but considering the number of fighters that used Magic and Arts, the space could be taken up quickly as fights progressed. Rena looked above her and noticed a faint shimmer of golden light.

    It was a barrier powered by a team of mages that was designed to keep stray attacks from hitting the crowd by ident.

    "Wee to our dear contestants!" The announcer shouted out; his voice amplified by a simr technology to the projection posts around the capital. "We have our first event of the day, a battle royale between a hundredpetitors!

    "For our contenders and our amazing audience, let me break down the rules. This fight is a free-for-all battle where almost anything goes. Arts, Magic, and enchanted items are all permitted! There are only two hard no''s: First, no marks! Second, no killing blows may strike your opponent!

    "Finally, there is a barrier protecting the crowd, so do not worry about the trajectory of your projectiles, spells, or maybe even people! The barrier is designed to take the hit from a King Rank warrior. As all of our participants are Intermediate or Advanced, there should be no problem, as any damage you deal will be restored before you can break through."

    Everyone in the arena had walked to different starting zones. Along the ground were designated circles to stand on. Each circle was equidistant from the circles around them to ensure the fairest starting positions. Granted those that were lucky enough to be given spots around the outside edge had a slight advantage over others.

    Rena felt sweat dripping down her back. She was nervous and when looking around her, she saw thatpetition was fierce. These hundred people were all vying for three single spots. It was the first step in getting to have one request granted by the king of a nation. It was a very lucrative deal.

    Rena had doubts about winning. She would have to be both skillful and lucky in her matchups, but she had to try. At one time, when she announced her entry, she was so confident in her ability to win, but after watching Thomas train as well as seeing that that person named Titan would be here, doubt spread in her mind.

    As she started to think about that, she nced into the crowd. Up in the stands, there were many private boxes. In one of them, she saw Lyrah and Natali next to a beautiful woman with long, blonde hair. In the box next to them there was a strong-looking man with ck, cat ears. In other nearby boxes, she saw the leaders of various nations, all intently watching the match.

    As her eyes traveled down from the stands and back to the arena, they stopped on a familiar figure. Though she could not be certain, it felt like the person was staring directly at her. His face and eyes were hidden by a ck, featureless mask. When he noticed that she was looking at him, he gave her a curt nod, then turned and left the stands.

    "Warriors! At the ready!" the announcer called out. "Let the show¡­ Begin!"

 Chapter 154: Then There Were Three

    The moment the announcer finished his sentence, a fire spell exploded in the air over the arena, and spells, arrows, daggers, and all sorts of other weapons began flying around the arena. Rena barely sidestepped a wild swing from a young man from one of her sses as he attempted to strike her with his mace.

    Using her foot and his momentum against him, she quickly tripped him, making him sprawl onto the ground. "[cies: Ice Bullet]" a small projectile shot from her hand and struck the man in the head, knocking him unconscious.

    "[Ventus: Wind de]"

    She quickly cast her Wind de spell as a horizontal slice and retreated in the opposite direction she sent the spell. It was hard to tell if it struck anyone, but she simply needed to create an opening. Directly behind her though, was a group of fighters in a melee with one another. There was no clear way around them, so she elected to go over them.

    "[Lux: Enhanced Leap]"

    Light magic swirled around her legs and she jumped over the warriors andnded safely on the opposite side.

    "Rargh!" a woman with an axe charged from Rena''s left side, crying out in anger and revealing her position. "[Axe Arts: Heavy m]"

    The woman''s axe burned with golden light as the weapon came down on her, however before Rena could react, she saw the light vanish and the raging woman copsed in a heap with an arrow sticking out of her back. ncing in the direction of the shot, Rena caught a familiar smile from a kind-looking elven girl. The same one who wished her luck before.

    Rena gave her a nod and then shot off another spell. "[Ferrum: Spike Wall]"

    She squatted onto the ground while spinning aroundpletely, everywhere her hand touched the ground, metal spikes with dulled edges erupted upwards and smacked into a handful of fighters rushing towards her. While still empowered from her Enhanced Leap earlier, she jumped over the wall and ran from the spot.

    Since she had no Arts to assist her physical weapon beyond some Light Magic enhancements, it was best for her to keep moving so the other fighters did not pin down the mage.

    By this point, most of the other mages seemed to be out as those that were still in the fight were all using some kind of weapon art. Rena felt her breath starting to be slightly ragged from all the physical exertion. Her magic reserves were still more than fine and she could likely keep up this pace for the remainder of the battle.

    Looking around, out of the original one hundred contestants, they were already down to seventy. Mostly mages had been taken out since this type of battlefield was not suited to them thanks to magic being taught in the academy for long-range use.

    "[Ventus: Gust]"

    The wind rushed from her fingertips towards a bunch of enemy fighters with their backs faced towards her. They each were upied with their opponents, but the sudden burst of Wind Magic threw them off bnce enough to create openings for the other fighter.

    As a mage, she would run the risk of burning through her magical reserves quicker than she wanted if she relied on single attacks strong enough to knock someone out alone. Discover more content at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    With that in mind, she instead opted for a trickier approach. If she was unable to take them out head-on consistently, then at least control the fight. It was a tactic she learned from Lucius when he was too weak to fight head-on. He instead relied on battlefield awareness and clever tricks.

    "I still use the lessons you taught me every day, my love," Rena said with a smile. "[Aqua: Gush]"

    Rena sent a torrent of water across the surface of the battlefield creating a somewhat slippery terrain. Water mixed with blood along the ground which created a gruesome painting along the surface.

    Rena rushed out of the middle of the battlefield, trying to gain a little space for another barrage of magic casting. Around her people fell in battle. She dodged the asional spell and ducked beneath and beside de and axe swings.

    With several more castings of Gust and Wind de, she finally managed to carve out a small safe area for herself on the edge of the battlefield and was able to take a short breath.

    Beside her, another person had created a space for them away from the battle. It was the elf girl again.

    "Nice to see you again." She giggled, shooting another arrow into a crowd of people.

    Rena was able to see that the bow had a strange shimmer to it. Every few seconds, a small sh of green would run down the length of the weapon.

    "Is that enchanted?"

    "It is!" The girl said, wiping off an absurd amount of sweat. "It takes a lot out of me, so I can''t use Magic or Arts, but it has a paralysis enchantment. Doesn''t work on Advance Rank or above though."

    Rena was impressed. It sounded like quite a powerful weapon in all honesty. She was about to say something when she saw someone slowly sneaking up behind the elven girl with a dagger in their hands. "[Ferrum: Iron Spike]"

    Arge, blunted spike of metal shot out of the ground beneath the would-be attacker and mmed into the underside of his jaw. The force lifted him a foot into the air and he fell onto his back, unconscious and missing a few extra teeth.

    "Thanks!"

    "Returning the favor."

    After that, both girls decided to team up and face the remaining participants together. Slowly, but surely, thepetition dwindled to only fifty, then thirty, then finally, only ten remained. Among those ten, it seemed everyone had formed teams. There were two teams of two and two teams of three. Together, they were all at an impasse.

    The ground was littered with unconscious fighters who could not be moved, so they needed to be careful not to cause any deadly blows that severely limited Rena''s options¡­ so instead she pulled out her wildcard. She wanted to save it forter but now was the best option.

    She and the elf came close together and pulled further from the other groups, allowing them to fight it out. All of them were melee fighters, leaving Rena and her partner as the only ranged attacker. Unfortunately, everyone remaining was an Advance Rank, so the archer''s bow was out. Renaunched the asional metal spell and water spell, peppering them with tiny impacts from a distance.

    One warrior with a mace and shield powered through a team of three on his own, leaving the other three-person team and his ally. When those five started to fight, Rena readied her mana. She got a little excited and was on the verge of running out, so she focused on recovery and concentrating on the mana she needed to pull it off.

    "I need you to trust me, okay?"

    "Got it."

    The man with the mace roared at his victory over the final group of three, leaving Rena, the elf, the man with a mace, and his partner who seemed to be using a longsword.

    "[Ventus: Air Step]"

    Rena felt Wind Magic coat the bottom of her feet and she jumped into the air while pulling the elf into her arms. Rena continued to jump, taking five more steps until they were a few stories into the air.

    "Oi! Get down here!" The man with the longsword shouted. The mace wielder simply stared at Rena and her partner for a moment, then swung his mace at the back of his ally''s head.

    "And that''s it, folks! With only fourteen minutes left on the clock, we finally have our final three! These three fine warriors will be entering the ten-person tournament that will begin in a few short hours! Please allow our fighters to rest and recover, and make sure to return to your seats before the next round of fights begins!"

 Chapter 155: Unwilling Observer

    The first battle of the tournament had just concluded and the crowds erupted in massive apuse. Men and women stood and cheered as the three victors were shown off at the center of the stage. It seemed everyone was content to ignore the defeated fighters being dragged and hauled off in bruised and battered heaps.

    Such a sight was somewhat¡­ distasteful to Adellia. She was never one for finding enjoyment in violence. Too much of her life was spent dreaming of it and finding ways to prevent it. In some cases, finding ways to cause it.

    Her job as the Oracle was to protect the kingdom. Every vision she had and every piece of advice she gave was for the sake of protecting the kingdom. Sure, she was not treated as well as she could have been, but her life is not what she would call bad. She had a ce to live, a ce to raise her daughter and a very good friend.

    When she turned her head towards the very friend she just thought of, she found herself reminded of the one time that she did not act to save the kingdom. The night Lyrah was born she had a vision of the Arcadios'' fall. She had never had the dream before, but when the elder attended to her and she was given a chance to reveal it¡­ the Oracle remained silent.

    Since that night, she has never had that vision again. It was something for which she was grateful because it was one of the most terrifying ones she had, but she also felt¡­ sad that she could not see it.

    Adellia looked towards her daughter, who was seated closer to the railing of their box seat. The girl''s eyes were fixated on someone. There was no emotion on her face. No interest, no anger, no curiosity, no happiness¡­ it was simply a nk expression in the truest sense of the word.

    She thought about saying something but instead chose to follow her daughter''s gaze. As she did so, her own eyes rested upon a figure standing in the crowd. Had Lyrah not been soser-focused on the figure, Adellia would never have seen them. They wore dark, leather armor and a hood.

    She could not quite make out what was under the hood, but even if she could see beneath it, she was much too far away to discern any facial features.

    "Lyrah, my dear what are¡­"

    "Did you know that father was here, mother?" the girl interrupted.

    "I''m sorry?"

    Lyrah turned to look at her, the nk expression gone from her face as it had returned to its normal cheerful tone. "Father! He''s here in the capital. I believe him to be only a few boxes away from ours. Shall we meet him?"

    Natali coughed to hint that the young woman should calm down. In public, the Oracle was to maintain a certain air of aloofness while also remaining kind and approachable. At the moment, Lyrah was exhibiting none of those behaviors.

    Adellia could not help but smile. She had missed her antics now that she was no longer in the castle, but staying at the Royal Academy. "I think we can make time to see himter this afternoon, however, I think it would be a little too improper to meet with him without an eptable pretense."

    "Oh, I suppose that makes sense, mother. Are you enjoying the event?"

    She pursed her lips. "Um¡­ I think I might enjoy singles fightster more than this. You said you had a friend in that brawl yes?"

    "Yes! Rena! She was the red-headed mage that was in the final three!" Lyrah squealed in excitement.

    "I see¡­ you have quite formidable friends." Adellia said with a smile while ncing at Mylene and Natali. Mylene smiled and rested a hand on her shoulder as an acknowledgment of their friendship.

    "I think you will find this evening to be quite entertaining, Mother," Lyrah whispered.

    Adellia paused. Something about the tone she used was strange, but when looking at Lyrah''s face it was unchanged. "Did you see something?"

    "I just mean that the contestants in this tournament are quite interesting. Win or lose all ten of the fighters will be attending the banquet at the end. I cannot wait to meet them!"

    Adellia looked back at the arena which was currently being cleaned and fixed by a team of Water Magic and Earth Magic users. asionally a shimmer of light would flicker across the air, showing where the barrier was. It was quite an interesting sightpared to the alternative she saw. Had Alorek won the war, things would not have been so jovial.

    She found herself momentarily haunted by visions of a future that didn''te to pass but shook her head to clear it and reced her expression with the neutral, approachable one that she had perfected.

    "I hope to speak to your dear friend at the banquet tonight."

    Explore more stories with m,v l''e-NovelBin

    "Oh! If she loses in the main tournament, I invite her here to sit with me. I already got permission from Grandpa Wally. He said if the king didn''t like it, he would take care of it. She''s strong, but I don''t think she will win. So you will see her soon!"

    Adellia found herself simultaneously surprised and not at the amount of forward-thinking her daughter was capable of. Like a bull in a fine china shop, she raged forward without regard for the potential damage¡­

    "Well, whenever I meet her, I will be d to do so¡­"

    "Oh! And she knows about Grandpa. He adopted her and Natali as his granddaughters!"

    She felt her eye twitch at the old man''s audacity. He seemed rather careless about spilling state secrets¡­

    "Is that so¡­"

    "Yes! Oh, I can''t wait to introduce her to Father! It will be so exciting. What would she think when she finds out that¡­"

    "No, no, no!" Adellia hurried to her daughter and covered her mouth with her hands. "You mustn''t, Lyrah. Gods¡­ Grandfather had rubbed off on you too much. Be careful with that information, silly girl."

    Though her mouth was covered, Adellia could see with Lyrah''s eyes alone that she was grinning ear to ear. What was she going to do with this girl¡­

 Chapter 156: The True Fight

    Aliana could not believe that she had made it through the first round. She finally had a chance to grant her deepest wish. All she had to do was defeat her next opponent.

    When she found herself in the waiting area before the first match, she was sweating profusely. So much so, that she was worried her shirt would have be see-through. Everyone else in the room appeared to be doing just fine and were meditating, praying, or simply stretching before the match. However, there was one girl who seemed to be just as nervous as she was.

    The girl had beautiful red hair and striking green eyes. Though she was trying to act calm, Aliana recognized the same anxieties in her as she did in herself. So, as a kindred spirit, the elf girl saddled up to her and started a conversation. It went about as well as she expected, but the girl did at least acknowledge Aliana was there.

    In the end, she even wished her good luck! As thanks for that, when she saw an opening, she shot an arrow at someone who targeted the girl, whose name she found out after the fact, was Rena.

    Near the end of the fight, Rena fought side by side with Aliana and they managed to be one of thest three fighters standing. Though she would have been among those defeated and soaking in their blood without her, Aliana had truly made it.

    Now she stood in the arena again. This time, there were two raised stages in the circr coliseum. From what the announcer said, until the final fight, matches would be held on these smaller stages two at a time. The one to lose is the first to lose consciousness, be knocked off the rectangr battle area, or concede.

    Aliana red at her opponent, bowing at the ready. She was confident she could beat this person. He was one of the pre-selected fighters, which meant he was a representative of one of the countries. She already knew who Aedrider''s representative was, so that narrowed down the options, but it did not matter in the end.

    What did matter was that this strange fighter had no presence. There was no emission of mana at all as if he were not even a Ranker. If that were the case, likely, he''s just very proficient at the arts. The figure had summoned a strange spear that seemed to have a constantyer of frost over the de.

    "I see we both have enchanted weapons. May the best fighter win." Aliana called out.

    The other fighter simply nodded and got into a ready stance. She found it strange, but he was wearing a t, ck mask with no defining features. She could see pupils through the eye slits, but not much else.

    "Fighters. At the ready!" The announcer shouted. "Begin!"

    "[Bow Arts: Multi-shot], [Bow Arts: Pierce], [Bow Arts: Phantom Arrows]"

    She quickly activated her triple threatbination of arts and then flooded her magic bow with the mana needed to empower the enchantment. The figure on the other end of the arena started slowly walking towards her but showed no signs of rushing. He was letting her get prepared.

    "Arrogant¡­" she growled and released her shot. The arrow glowed with golden light and split into multiple copies of itself. Some were real, others fake. Each one that was real was enhanced by the Pierce skill and the paralysis enchantment from her bow. The figure continued to walk towards her slowly as nearly a hundred arrows bore down on him. They converged in an explosion of light and dust.

    The crowd ''oh''s'' and ''ahh'' in surprise at the sudden light show. However, when the dust cleared, her opponent was not there. Feeling like something was wrong, she went to turn around, but felt someone picking her up by the scruff of her armor, like she was a puppy or a kitten.

    "Because Rena seems to like you, we will end it this way." The man mumbled. Before, he didn''t seem like a guy or a girl, but his voice was that of a man.

    "What do you¡­" she started to ask before he walked her over to the edge of the ring and dropped her outside of it unceremoniously.

    "Winner of Ring B, match one is¡­ Titan!"

    Aliana sat there and blinked, unable to process what just happened to her. However, she looked back at the ring and saw a glimpse of the man''s true power leak out from behind his mask. He allowed her to understand his true strength, so she did not have to feel bad about the way she lost¡­ and when she felt that, she was very d he decided to take it easy on her.

    "That man is a monster¡­" She shuddered. "I should still have time to ce a bet on the winner. Make me some money Titan." She mumbled, leaving the arena and returning to the stands.

    ******

    Though her match had started, Rena and her opponent with the mace found themselves distracted by the one next to them. The speed at which the masked person, Titan had moved was unbelievable.

    "And that person is supposed to be Intermediate or Advanced Rank?" Rena found herself muttering.

    "All right, girlie¡­ let''s get our started, eh?" The mace wielder asked whileunching himself at her.

    Rena sighed because he was nopetition for her. Sure, he was a very strong fighter, however, he had shown a weakness already. He was not confident in aerial defense. Luckily for Rena, she already revealed that card, so it was no problem for her to fix it.

    "[Ventus: Air Step]"

    Rena bound into the air and held herself at the second tost step she could take. She was able to hold this spell for a handful of minutes by this point, as long as she did not use other spells. However, it was her very intention to use spells, so at most she had a minute.

    "[Ferrum: Iron Spear]" "[Aqua: Water Ball]" "[cies: Ice Spear]"

    From high in the air, Rena fired spell after spell at the mace wielder, who attempted to block as many attacks as he could with his shield. Unfortunately for him, he did not seem to possess any Shield Arts that could have granted him additional protection. In no time at all he was battered and beaten by the number of spells that she had cast on him.

    Struggling to speak, he almost copsed to the ground before saying "I forfeit¡­" Then he passed out.

    "The First Round of the singles matches isplete! We have our winners advancing to the next round! Please give a warm round of apuse to, Rena von Petra from Arcadios! As well as Titan of Eroa!"

    Rena nced over at the ring where Titan had fought and muttered to herself. "That man over there is the true fight here. Good luck to whoever faces that guy¡­"

 Chapter 157: The Stronger Goal

    "We wee you all back after a short break for our contestants to recover. Now that they are all in peak fighting condition let''s get the next matches started!" The announcer shouted out to thunderous apuse across the capital.

    "Competing in Ring A we have Rena von Petra from Arcadios! The opponent facing off against her is the Keinydd representative, Desmond Adler!

    "In Ring B we have Thomas von Petra! A cousin to our dear Miss Rena and the chosen representative for Arcadios in thispetition. Facing off against this handsome man is none other than Lady Elize al Famyn! Do not let her beauty fool you folks, I hear she strikes as quickly and deadly as a viper!"

    Desmond Adler looked at his opponent. She was an attractive young woman, who was very clearly trying to downy her noble heritage. It was something Desmond could understand. Though he did not know her circumstances, his issues with his family led him to sympathize with whatever it was she had going on.

    Looking at the other ring, he noticed that Thomas von Petra was undoubtedly Rena''s cousin. They looked simr and had simr colored hair. Though, Rena''s was more crimson than the young man''s. Thomas'' opponent on the other hand was a peerless beauty. If Desmond did not have as good of control over his faculties as he did, he probably would have lost all sense of reason right there.

    "Are you quite finished gawking at someone other than your opponent?" Rena called out.

    Desmond rubbed the back of his neck from embarrassment. "Yeah, sorry about that. I will put my all into this fight. So don''t hold it against me?"

    "I will only hold it against you if you hold back," Rena shouted.

    "Of that, I have no intention. I assure you." Desmond responded with a smile.

    She was right. He needed to get his head in the game, otherwise he would not achieve his goals. If he let himself be distracted now, there was no way he would win.

    "Fighters, at the ready! And¡­ Begin!"

    Desmond opened with an ice spell, paired with a spear attack. "[cies: Ice Spear], [Spear Arts: Twin Impact]"

    The girl Rena blocked the ice spell with a spell of her own. "[Ferrum: Iron Wall], [Lux: Enhanced Speed]"

    The Ice Spear shattered against the Iron Wall without leaving so much as a scratch. Then, with the assistance of her light spell, Enhanced Speed, she was able to dodge the spear just as it split into two. They impacted the ground without issue, one disappearing as the Art ended.

    "It looks like you missed," Rena said with a smile, holding up her hand and preparing to cast a spell. "Too bad you lost your weapon. I''m confident my magic is stronger."

    Desmond only smiled, then snapped his fingers. His spear, which was several feet behind the girl, vanished and reappeared in his hand. "Sorry. You think I would throw my only weapon without a n?"

    "It''s enchanted?!" the girl shouted. Then in a panic, she cast several more spells. "[Ferrum: Iron Spikes], [Aqua: Water Shot], [Ventus: Wind de], [Ventus: Air Step]"

    A surge of spells flew towards him including a line of metal spikes that shot out of the ground. Desmond was able to weave around the spikes, dodging them with ease. However, the opening he thought he had was a trap for him to take a hit from the Wind des. One nipped his shoulder, leaving a small gash that began to bleed.

    "[Aqua: Waverider]"

    The water covering the ground that was generated by Rena''s spell flew toward him and added to an additional body of water swirling around his feet. Desmond rose into the air on a wave as it surged towards the redhead. He was at the crest of the wave, holding his spear at the read.

    "[Aqua: Crushing Pressure]"

    The wave became even higher, threatening to engulf the entire ring. Rena was using her Air Step, but if she had not she would have been sucked into the body of water and might have drowned. However, the height that Desmond had reached now overshadowed the height she gained with her spell, and the wave crashed down on top of her.

    The girl attempted to cast several spells. Desmond had to dodge several wind des that sliced through the water. At this range, without the water showing where the invisible des were at, he would have taken more than his fair share of hits. The girl was tenacious and it reminded him of his sister for a moment.

    Once again he found himself distracted and had to shake his head clear. ''Dammit, focus Desmond. Focus!''

    Desmond maintained the pressure of his spell, making sure she wore herself out from the struggle. When the water dissipated, Rena was on the ground, face up and locking eyes with Desmond. He had the head of his spear pressed slightly against her neck.

    "Good fight." He said.

    "So it was." She agreed, though her face belied a hint of sadness. "I concede."

    *****

    Renay there on the ground, drenched from head to toe and to the core of her being. Her opponent was a handsome-looking young man with Violet hair and blue eyes like the depths of an ocean. She could tell that he had a reason for being here as much as she did.

    Though she felt sad that she had lost to him, she could not bring herself to be upset with him. In the end, the stronger of the two won. Rena had already heard in the middle of her fight that Thomas had won his battle with Lady Elize. This meant that Desmond would go on to fight Thomas in the final four.

    "Do me a favor, Desmond."

    "Yes?"

    "Thomas¡­"

    "You want me to go easy on your cousin?"

    Her face contorted in anger. "No, I want you to humiliate him."

    The man paused for a moment thenughed. He offered a hand to her to help her to her feet, then nodded and returned to the entrance to the arena. Waiting for him was a young woman who looked a lot like him with the same color hair and eyes. Shetched onto Desmond the moment he approached, which brought a smile to her face.

    "It seems that is who he is fighting for. Good luck Desmond."

 Chapter 158: Intermission

    With Desmond Adler and Thomas von Petra being the decided winners of their fights, they were moved into the final four. It would be two, one-on-one fights with the victors of each facing off in the champion fight. That winner would have their request from King Aleksander granted.

    After her fight against Desmond, Rena was escorted to the viewing box where Lyrah and Natali had been watching, but only after she had been healed and recovered first. It was there she was introduced to Lady Adellia. The woman''s beauty was astounding. She had the same silver eyes as Lyrah, but they were paired with long, silky blonde hair.

    Beside her was a maid who looked a little like Natali, who must have been her mother Mylene. After introducing herself to the woman, she gave her a kind smile. "It is quite nice to meet you dear. I hear you are good friends with my Lyrah and little Natali. Thank you for being their friend."

    "I should thank them for being mine. If they were not at the academy, I would be isted and alone." Rena responded with a bow. "Thank you for making them such kind people Lady Adellia and Miss Mylene."

    "Why would you be isted? You seem like such a sweet thing?"

    "I¡­"

    "She fell in love with a Marked One and her father found out so she was stripped of her rights and sent to the academy, then her cousin spread the rumors among the other students." Lyrah blurted out quickly while stuffing her face with cookies.

    Rena looked at her friend with wide eyes. Lyrah was about to defend her actions when she suddenly yelped in pain from Natali smacking the back of her head.

    "Oh my. Well as a Marked One myself, I must say I am surprised¡­ I hope that he treats you well?"

    Rena felt a lump form in her throat, keeping her from speaking. Adellia noticed the silence immediately and apologized. For a while after that, things were awkward and tense, then Rena asked, "When do the next fights for the final four begin?"

    "Huh?" Lyrah blinked. "They already happened."

    "What? I wasn''t gone that long!" Rena nearly shouted.

    "No¡­" Lyrah said. "But, the fights ended quickly. That Titan person was fighting some snobby prince from Paede and wiped the floor with him using a lightning spell. It was quite interesting. The other one was an elf girl from Aedrider. She used this wicked-looking hammer¡­"

    Lyrah continued to regale her with a recap of the fight between an elf and a nobleman. The elf was an Enchantment specialist, which is quite rare. She used the battle less as a way to show off her strength, but rather to advertise her work.

    From what it sounded like, this ''Corva'' girl seemed like quite an interesting character. It made her wonder what it was her request would be. For that matter, what would Titan want?

    "I''m sorry you did not win your fight, sweetie," Adellia said while Rena was contemting these matters.

    "Oh, it is quite all right." She responded with a shrug. "I had hopes early on, but as the list of applicants grew and I began to see other fighters practice¡­ like my cousin¡­ I figured my winning was an impossibility.

    *****

    King Aleksander found himself staring at the documents he had in front of him. Though he had managed to push back most of his paperwork so that he could focus on watching the fights, however¡­ there was something that bothered him. One of the fighters seemed out of ce.

    In the box with him were the other leaders of the kings in attendance. All of them were extremely interested in the final four. Fighting for it was Corva of Aedrider, Titan of Eroa, Thomas von Petra of Arcadios, and Desmond Adler of Keinydd.

    Of those, the one that had the shared interest of everyone was Titan of Eroa. Like a dark horse, he showed up as ast-minute submission from the king. ording to Verdayl, he was ate-start senior from their academy and his abilities impressed him so much he requested for the young man to attend.

    Of course, the mask was a dead giveaway. Also, every leader in the viewing box, save the queen of Aedrider, was there at the signing of the Alvora ord. Titan was the reason that Eroa took the city, though King Verdayl declined to answer how. The only exnation he gave was: "Titan asked if I wanted to take the city at any cost. And I said yes. He took it from there."

    It was as about as much a non-answer as anything the man could have given, but he refused to say much more. Eroa asked for a lot for this tournament as well. They wanted permission for Titan to enter. They also wanted to allow Kalivas into the border to observe the match. Aleksander agreed to the requests, but on the condition that they prove that Titan was eligible for the tournament.

    To do that, he needed to be Intermediate Rank or Advance Rank.

    To his great surprise, they agreed to the terms and brought the young man to the embassy where he was tested using the same devices the Adventurer''s guild used. Due to the fact Titan was not his real name, they used a modified one that simply showed one''s Rank. Lo and behold, he was a simple Intermediate Rank.

    Aleksander immediately shared this news with the other members of the Union, which Verdayl was fine with surprisingly, and none of them could believe it either. If the gods judged his abilities to only be at the Intermediate Rank, he was honestly terrified of where the young man would go when he got stronger.

    Everyone in the room, they were convinced that this young man was likely the next King Ranker if he survived long enough to be one that is.

    "Verdayl¡­ what is it the boy is going to request?" Aleksander asked.

    Verdayl put down his drink, which was a fortified wine they were serving for their esteemed guests. "I''m unsure. I did not think to ask. Whatever it is he wants though, I am sure will be entertaining."

    "I''m sure it will be."

    "You know, Titan joined the order of the King''s Shadow before he was even eighteen. Did you know that? I was shocked when I found out someone so young was so talented. In only six months he even rose to the rank of Commander within the order! I presented him with his mask. Quite a unique fellow that one!" Verdaylughed.

    Kalivas coughed lightly. "My liege¡­"

    "Oops it seems the liquor has loosened my tongue. As an apology for making this disy Aleksander, allow me to assist you in providing the fulfillment of the winner''s request. You have conceded much to my kingdom for this event and now must deal with my drunken state. It is the least I can do!" Verdaylughed.

    Aleksander felt his eye twitch a little from annoyance. "Thank you very much, Verdayl." He managed.

    Every other leader in the room clenched their fists in frustration. It seemed most of them had spent countless manhours looking for information on the elusive and mysterious ''Titan'' and here Verdayl was simply providing them a wealth of knowledge because of a simple bottle of liquor.

    "Ah!" Lady Voltara al Famyn called out. "It looks like it is about to begin."

    --------------------------------------

    A/N:

    There was a glitch in my inte that caused a double-pasting of the next chapter. I did not catch it till after it was posted. As such, I could not delete it or correct it. So the next chapter contains 2 in 1. I am SO sorry for this. Please feel free to berate me in thements

    Discover exclusive tales on m,v l''e-NovelBin

    --------------------------------------

 Chapter 159: The Requests/Final Four Pt 1 [Dual-Chapter]

    -----------------

    A/N

    There was a glitch in my inte that caused a double pasting of this chapter. I did not catch it till after it posted. As such, I could not delete it or correct it. So this chapter contains 2 in 1. I am SO sorry for this.

    --------------------------------------

    Rena waited eagerly for the start of the penultimate matches. The final four would be held simultaneously, then the final match would begin after another short rest.

    The announcer had left his original podium, which was set in the center of the stands. He was now walking within the arena itself, surrounded by an entourage of knights in a fantastical procession.

    The four tournament finalists were waiting for them in the center of the arena. Two of them stood calm and unmoving, a stark contrast to Corva and Thomas, who were avidly waving at the crowds cheering for them.

    The announcer pulled Corva from the group and presented her front and center. A team of people carrying a recording crystal connected to all the towers around the city was with him. Rena''s viewing box even had one for this part of the event so that they could see the interviews closely.

    "Hello, citizens of the Union, Eroa, and Aedrider! Here we are in the final four! We only have a little bit longer to go, and we will have our champion crowned today! Before we get on to the fights, we wanted to take the opportunity to speak with each of the contestants!

    "As part of these short interviews, they will share the request they wish to make of King Aleksander. We have recently been informed that King Verdayl of Eroa will work alongside King Aleksander to grant these requests. I also wish to remind our contestants that you must share your requests truthfully, honestly, and fully! Once you share them with the crowd, you are unable to change your mind!

    "So¡­ let us begin! Miss! Can you share your name, a little about yourself, and your request?"

    The young elven woman looked cheerfully at the recording crystal and spoke, "Hi! I''m Corva, a cksmith and Enchanting specialist from Aedrider! I''m amoner, but still, my inventions are the top of the world, including my special hammer!"

    The announcer pped his hands gleefully, "Oh yay! And what is it that you''ll be requesting of these two generous kings?"

    "That''s easy! I want a delivery of at least a hundred S-Rank monster items! They''re for my next projects!"

    Her response surprised the crowd and nearly caused King Aleksander and Verdayl to fall over. What she requested could be done, but it would be intensely expensive.

    The next person to be interviewed was Desmond Adler. He walked up to the stage rather awkwardly, clearly ufortable speaking in front of such arge crowd.

    "So, Mr. Desmond Adler, I hear you battled your way to the top of your ss and are the representative of the coastal nation of Keinydd. So¡­ what is it that you wish to ask?"

    Desmond paused for a moment. Even Rena found herself on the edge of her seat.

    "I wish to be allowed to immigrate to the nation of Eroa and make myself and my twin sister, Jade, naturalized citizens."

    Rena could hear from the royal''s box a little ways away as someone shouted, "Deal!" Extremely loudly. It seemed that King Verdayl was excited about the prospect of bringing a talented young warrior to his nation.

    After Desmond walked off the stage, Thomas walked up full of swagger and confidence. He had won all of his matches handily and his behavior made Rena feel like vomiting, however she settled for simply rolling her eyes.

    "Sir Thomas von Petra, representative of the Kingdom of Arcadios and top student at the Arcadios Royal Academy. Tell us¡­ what is it you want from our esteemed kings?"

    Thomas cleared his throat and gave a haughtyugh. "When I wipe the floor with my opponents, I shall simply ask for one thing. My victory will result in me being the next head of the house of Petra. However, what I wish to ask is for royal support in changing our sessionws to not be earned but inherited like every other noble house."

    "Oh, ho! We are all aware of the strange inheritancepetition of House Petra¡­ and you wish to change them? How interesting¡­ thank you for your time, Lord Thomas!"

    Rena clenched and unclenched her fist to calm herself, thanks to Thomas'' sheer arrogance and brazen disy of disrespect to their house''s ancientws. However, then she remembered that she was nning on separating herself from the house and that whatever it was that Thomas wanted to do¡­ was no longer her concern.

    Rena''s interest in Desmond''s interview had already waned when she saw Thomas heading to the stage, but it returned the moment he left because the next person walking up to the stage was none other than Titan. What is it that brought a person like that to this tournament?"

    "And finally, we have our most interesting fighter. Every fight you''ve been in has been short and to the point. I dare say that Prince Augustine will be lucky to walk again, thanks to you. So, my lovely, mysterious warrior. Tell us about yourself. Clear some of the mystery."

    For a moment, there was silence as Titan said nothing. With a second prompting by the announcer, he finally spoke. "I am called Titan. I work for the kingdom of Eroa."

    "Our dear audience has been murmuring that you are a higher rank than you let on. That, for some reason, a Master Ranker snuck his way into thepetition."

    "That is false. King Aleksander was concerned for the same and had me independently tested by the Adventurer''s guild. I am an Intermediate Rank."

    The crowd burst into a roar of chatter and conversation. No one present could believe it. Though many in the crowds were not fighters and had no way to gauge someone''s strength the way other Rankers do, it was simple enough to tell that he was strong.

    Rena herself had her jaw hanging open in disbelief. How was it possible for someone that powerful to be such a low rank? Equivalent to her, even!

    "So, you say you are an Intermediate Rank. Other rumors say you were at the battle of Alvora. Care toment?"

    "ssified."

    "How many years did you fight in the war?"

    "ssified."

    The announcer was getting a little bit flustered that his questions were not being answered, so he hurried it along. "Fine, Titan. What is it that you truly desire?"

    Titan looked directly at the recording crystal, and Rena felt that even through the projection, he was looking into the depths of her soul.

    "Simple. I wish them to permit me to take Lady Rena von Petra as my wife."

    -------------------[The Final Four Part 1 starts here]-------------------

    Everyone sitting next to Rena in the Oracle''s viewing box had their mouths open and were looking at her. Rena herself felt so shocked that she did not know what to do or say.

    "Dear¡­ is that the¡­"

    "No," Natali said quickly. "Lucius is dead. That Titan person is not Rena''s lover."

    "I see¡­"

    Though she could not see it, she could only imagine what look must have been on her father''s face at the moment. He was in the viewing box with the king, so she was unable to see him.

    *****

    Shortly after Titan answered the announcer''s question, the man in question and his entourage left the arena. Titan moved to Ring B, where he would be facing Corva, while Desmond and Thomas moved to Ring A.

    "Nice to meet ya, Titan! You are one scary-looking dude!" The elf known as Corva called out. By her side was a warhammer nearly asrge as she was, and it radiated a shocking amount of mana.

    "This here is my baby! She doesn''t have a name yet, but I''m thinking of naming it after you¡­ how about ¦Ó¦É¦Ó¦Á¦Í¦Ï¦Ê¦Ó?¦Í¦Ï? (Titanokt¨®nos), Titan Killer." She continued with a cocky grin.

    "Try." He answered inly.

    The moment the announcer signaled the start of the match, the elf stepped forward and activated her hammer. A spellunched out of the back of the weapon, it looked like a fire spell, but it was being maintained as a solid me instead of just a burst. Lucius noticed that Corva was sliding along the ground a little as if she was trying to keep the weapon from pulling her forward.

    She smiled at him and stopped resisting the weapon''s pull. When she lifted her feet, she shot forward like the bolt from a crossbow, straight towards him. Lucius sidestepped to dodge, wondering if she was going to throw herself out of the ring on ident.

    She had nned for this, so she did not do that. Instead, she flipped the hammer around and had it fling her back towards him. This fight had suddenly be very strange as he was dodging a flying hammer carrying a strange,ughing elf along with it.

    If he was honest, this was not quite what Lucius was expecting for a final-four fight. After a few more unsessful attempts to chase him down, Corva finally canceled the enchantment and instead activated a second one on the opposite face, the one pointed in front of her, instead of behind.

    This time, Lucius felt a rush of air as he realized this separate enchantment was using wind magic to pull things toward her weapon.

    "As you can all see!" Corva called out. "I have treated each face of the hammer as a different weapon, so it is carrying a dual enchantment. Oh, wait! That''s a lie." She gave another cocky grin.

    This time Lucius noticed yet another shimmer, this oneing from the shaft of the hammer. Suddenly the ground around Corva turned to ice and it rapidly spread and covered the whole of the ring. Lucius looked down and kicked the frost off his boots.

    Now that the ground was ice, there was no resisting the suction of the wind enchantment and he found himself sliding towards her at a faster and faster pace.

    The fact that he did not resist the pull seemed to shock Corva and she ceased the wind enchantment, worrying that he had cooked up a n for it. Little did she know, he did not. He was just bluffing. He nned to figure it out when he needed to.

    "This ice. It is annoying." He growled.

    "What do you¡­"

    Lightning crackled along Lucius'' body. He felt his muscles pulse from the extra energy. He flexed his fingers and hands to get ustomed to the added power. "Hmm¡­" he mumbled. "This should be enough."

    Corva looked at him with horror in her eyes. The look on her face gave him a strange sort of satisfaction that he did not expect. The elf''s legs trembled as she seemed to realize what was happening. Lucius took a single step, sending Thunder Magic into the ground around him.

    Lightning Field, activated and shattered the ice beneath them, sublimating it in a second. Every subsequent step created a slight rumble in the air and a shower of sparks to dance along the edges of the ring.

    "Corva." He said with a slight chuckle. "Do you concede?"

    The elf''s lips trembled, but then a steely resolve shed through her eyes. She stood and readied her hammer for a strike. "[Hammer Arts: Thundering Blow]!"

    Corvaunched an overhead swing, which was instantly powered by the strange fire magic she used to propel herself around the ring earlier. The blue lightning shed red for a moment, as his fist connected with the shaft of the hammer, shattering it in an instant.

    What was a moment of hope that Corva had built in her eyes, was instantly dashed and reced with horror as the head of her hammer flew towards the stands, impacting against the barrier that kept the crowd safe from the fighting.

    "I¡­ concede¡­"

    "And there we have it folks! The first fighter in the championship! Titan of Eroa! With a stunning disy of¡­ whatever that was, he destroyed the impressive weapon belonging to Corva!"

    *****

    "What was that?" Aleksander whispered. He looked over at King Verdayl and Kalivas whose eyes were both locked onto the battlefield with serious looks.

    "Kalivas. Is he going to¡­"

    "I believe it is a strong possibility, my liege."

    "Well, I did grant him free reign¡­"

    "That you did."

    "Verdayl!" Aleksander shouted. "What the hell was that? Was that what I think it was?!"

    Verdayl looked at him with a somber expression. "I may have made a slight miscalction when assigning Titan to this task. Don''t worry though! No one should end up hurt¡­ I don''t think."

    He could not believe what he was hearing. Everything bad that might happen because of this man, Aleksander was sure he would pin on Verdayl. The damned bastard would take responsibility for unleashing something like this on his kingdom.

 Chapter 160: The Final Four [Part 2]

    --------------------------------------

    A/N:

    This is part 2, part 1 is attached to the previous chapter due to a posting error with ''The Requests''. The previous chapter contains ''The Requests'' and ''The Final Four [Part 1]''

    I apologize for the inconvenience, please feel free to yell at me in thements.

    --------------------------------------

    Desmond heard the signal to start and immediately threw his spear. He knew that his opponent, Thomas von Petra was no slouch when it came to fighting. He had a lot of swagger and possibly too much confidence, but it did note from nowhere. Thomas was a skilled fighter.

    "[Spear Arts: Triple Thrust]!"

    Desmond rushed forward and stabbed his weapon into his opponent. The redhead was able to block the attack but was pushed back a few inches as the single strike became three at the point of impact. He was not going to let up, fast and hard was the way to win this.

    "[Aqua: Water Shot]"

    A small orb of water formed at the tip of his spear and shot at Thomas, who countered with a spell of his own. "[mma: Incinerate]"

    The two spells canceled each other out and fizzled in the air. Thomas immediately followed up with, "[Sword Arts: Aura de], [Sword Arts: Heavy sh]"

    Thomas swung his sword in a diagonal cut, creating a massive arc of golden energy that was targeting Desmond. It cut through the ground as it flew towards him. With only one clear option, he chose to attempt to block the attack, "[cies: Ice Wall], [cies: Ice Wall]"

    He quickly cast two versions of the spell, back-to-back, creating a doubleyer of protection. It was unfortunately not enough as he quickly heard the barrier begin to crack before it shattered into microscopic pieces. The arc of energy continued through it and struck him square in the chest.

    Though the attack broke the barriers, they did weaken the energy of the blow considerably, and though he was cut and bleeding, he was still in decent fighting condition.

    "Oh, my Sir Desmond. Does the disgraced son of the Adler family need to concede already? You know¡­ I hear that your bitch of a sister followed you here as well. Like a lost little puppy." Thomasughed, bringing out a roar of rage from Desmond.

    He began to lose his temper and charged forward, caring little for the consequences of his actions. "[cies: Ice Spear], [Aqua: Water Shot], [Spear Arts: Empowered Thrust!]"

    Two spells and a golden bullet in the shape of Desmond holding a spearunched at Thomas who simply scoffed. "I know another sick noble obsessed with those filthy Marked Ones."

    "[Shield Arts: Barrier]" Continue reading at m|v-l''e -NovelBin

    Desmond bounced off the barrier, and both spells shattered against it. Thomas dismissed it and then smashed Desmond in the face with the back of his shield. "Truly, is this all you have? A little taunting and the best of Keinydd Kingdom falls apart. A shame."

    Thomas'' strike, threw him backward and Desmond fell to his butt, with his spear skittering away. His Recall Enchantment only worked once a day, and he had used it in his fight with Rena. With no other option, he brought his fists to bear and rushed at Thomas a second time.

    "[Unarmed Arts: Stunning Strikes], [Unarmed Arts: Illusory Fists]"

    The first of the two arts caused a momentary stunning effect on the target when struck directly. Itsted maybe 6 seconds at most, but that was often enough to turn the tide of battle. Illusory Fist added a mirage-like effect to his fists so that they would asionally appear to being from ces they weren''t.

    To the recipient of such an attack, it was like watching a fiste at you in slow motion while drunk.

    "Toote for that, up close is not your forte¡­ it''s mine." Thomasughed, "[mma: Incineration Barrier]"

    A massive column of fire exploded around Thomas, stretching several feet into the air. Feeling the intensity of the heat, Desmond had no choice but to back off, or potentially lose a hand.

    "You see, Desmond Adler." Thomas continued. "The moment you entered the ring with me was the moment you sealed your fate."

    "[mma: Fireball ¨C Multishot]"

    Unable to wrap his head around the fact that a student like Thomas could use a modified spell, Desmond stood there stunned as three, massive balls of fire closed in around him from all sides. Each one that exploded created a massive burst of heat and force that he would not be able to withstand.

    "I concede!" he shouted. It was his only option. It was better to lose face here than his life or any of his limbs.

    "Good choice Desmond." Thomasughed, canceling his spells and turning to walk off the stage.

    "Brother! Brother! Are you all right?" A sweet voice called out to him full of concern. A girl with violet hair like his rushed up and pulled him to a standing position.

    "Yes, Jade, I am quite all right." He answered. "It seems our goal is postponed for now. Though I have lost here, I have not given up. We will get somewhere better for you. Somewhere you can live a normal life."

    She simply smiled at him and assisted him in walking off the stage. It was true that he was handed his defeat here, but he had more paths open for him. He should have at least been able to show some of his prowess by getting into the final four.

    *****

    Off in a far corner of the arena, an elderly man sat, watching the matches closely. One in particr interested him the most. It was of course the fight including Titan. He had done something that everyone saw, but not many understood.

    Truly what Titan had shown off was a powerful technique, something only a handful of mages and warriors could perfect, including this old man.

    "Hehe." Wally chuckled. "I wasn''t thinking about attending this farce, though with Kalivas present I suppose I had to on behalf of my teacher. However, I did not expect to see this!"

    He looked at Titan, who had a mask hiding his face. However, watching him use mana, Wally was able to see the truth. "Congrats, boy. It looks like you''ve finally done it." He gave a big toothy grin. "Cannot wait to see what happens next! Keep Grandpa entertained, won''t you, Lucius?"

 Chapter 161: What Comes Next

    Silence permeated the arena. One could probably hear a pin drop in the center of the coliseum. After Titan''s impressive disy of power, no one even cared about the result of Thomas'' battle against Desmond.

    Even though the announcer continued trying to incite excitement in the crowd over the finalpetitors, no one wanted to take their eyes off the back of the mysterious figure known to them all as Titan. Many of those who were highly talented in the ability, recognized Titan''s feat for what it was.

    He used Channeling. A very rare skill that takes extreme practice and an understanding of the limits of one''s body and mana. It required a user to know their limits and be able to push beyond that point.

    When Channeling is used, they can push mana around their bodies, like Mana Maniption, but beyond that, they can even use it to create spell effects, use arts, and use spells themselves, all without using an activation phrase.

    In essence, fighting a Channeling user was akin to fighting the blind. You could never know what to expect and when. In a typical battle between warriors, activation phrases indicated their next move, whether it was a spell or Art. This left little room for interpretation of how those spells or Arts would be used, as they were usually straightforward.

    The result of the world developing fighting styles reliant on this behavior was that warriors and mages alike simply relied on being powerful enough to break through their opponents. However, this resulted in ack of fine control which was antithetical to the concept of Channeling and Mana Maniption.

    To everyone else who had no idea about the impressiveness of the technique, they simply saw someone use some sort of magical effect without speaking. They began to wonder if Titan may have had enchantments that silenced his voice, or if his armor was enchanted with those magical effects.

    A flurry of rumors overtook the capital in a matter of minutes as people made assumptions as to how this feat urred.

    Kalivas knew this better than anyone since he was the one who spent so many months and years training his son. In their first fight, he knew that his son was close to a breakthrough. His Mana Maniption had almostpletely passed into the realm of Channeling. All it took was one,rge push. He was happy to be that push.

    With each battle of the tournament, Titan, or rather Lucius, showed his power little by little. Now that he had shown his ace¡­ what was he going to do in the final match?

    "What are you nning, boy?"

    *****

    Rena''s mouth was agape. She was entirely disinterested in the rumors buzzing through the stadium. She knew the truth of it because she had seen Channeling being used before. Watching Titan use it turned the blood in her veins to ice. The moment he took that first step, the mana hidden by his mask burst outward to an impressive degree.

    Then when he broke Corva''s hammer, there was another burst of mana just a second before impact.

    There wasn''t a doubt in her mind, he was Channeling. Not only that, he was able to do it with Magic and Arts¡­ Grandpa Wally could only use Channeling with Magic, since he was not able to use any Arts, like herself.

    "Ladies and Gentlemen, if I could point your attention to the center of the arena!" The announcer''s voice cried out, breaking Rena''s thought process. "Atst we have arrived. The main event. On one corner of the arena, we have Thomas von Petra. Ace warrior of the Arcadios Royal Academy. Representing the heart and soul of this great nation!

    "In the other corner, we have the dark horse, a mysterious figure known as Titan! Ast-minute entry by the Kingdom of Eroa! Though we did not know what to expect, we can certainly agree, that each match with this mysterious warrior has been a spectacle above all others!"

    While the previous fights, the recording crystals did not show close-up images of the battles, thest fight was being projected up close and from multiple angles. It seemed they wanted to pinpoint every part of the action as it happened.

    Thanks to this close-up view, Rena noticed something interesting. In Titan''s first fight, he used an enchanted spear. In his second fight, he used magic and his bare hands. Now, he was standing in the arena with a single scabbard on his side that looked to belong to a longsword.

    The man simply stood,pletely nonchnt. One might mistake his posture for one that someone would have while waiting for their turn at the counter. To the outside observer, he looked¡­ bored.

    "Now, fighters. At the ready!"

    Thomas drew his sword and readied his shield. He had a confident grin on his face. Titan on the other hand had an unknown expression, covered by that same, ck mask.

    Slowly, Titan reached for the handle of his weapon. As he drew it, Rena let out a shriek. What Titan held in his hand, was a machete, one that was sitting in a sheathe that disguised it as a longsword.

    Rena stumbled forward to the railing of the viewing box, tears streaming down her face. Her chest heaved with ragged breaths and her heart threatened to beat out of her chest.

    Lyrah stepped up beside her and rested a gentle hand on top of her own. Natali also joined them, but seeing as Rena had her other hand in a fist in front of her mouth, the maid settled for resting her hand on Rena''s shoulder.

    "What''s wrong?" Natali asked.

    "We are here for you. No matter whates next." Lyrah whispered.

    "If you do not wish to marry him, you do not have to." Natali continued. "I''m sure that if Lady Adellia and Lady Lyrah, both request it, they can shield you from that man''s request. You do not have to marry anyone you do not wish to."

    "She''s right you know,`" Adellia said, stepping forward. "Your life is what you make of it. As someone with the freedom to choose, I do not want to see it taken from you. We will be with you should you choose to run."

    Rena continued to sob, staring purely at the masked figure projected in front of her. "That''s¡­ not it." Rena managed between sobs.

    The other girls looked at each other curiously, unsure what the matter was if it was not the likelihood of being married off to this stranger. They also knew that if Thomas won, then the same fate might befall her when he took over the position as the head of their house.

    "I think we should let Rena make the choice she wants to make," Lyrah said finally.

    Natali and Adellia started to speak up but found themselves unable to as they paid closer attention to the girl''s sobs.

    Rena blinked away some of the tears, still intently staring at the figure. She had started to ignore the conversation around her and it felt like the world faded away. In a plea to the world itself and the gods above it, she whispered, "Please¡­ don''t give me hope¡­"

 Chapter 162: Unbreakable

    "Begin!"

    Lucius heard the announcer''s words cut through the crowd''s murmuring. Yet, instead of making an attack, he stood and red at his opponent. It had been quite some time since he hadst seen Thomas.

    If memory served him correctly, it was at his father''s execution¡­

    "So," Thomas called out. Clearly, he was using his tactic of taunting his opponent to try and goad Lucius into making a wrong move. "I hear you want to marry my cousin. You know, Rena von Petra?''

    Lucius said nothing, standing still and watching every step Thomas took in his advance towards him. He gave nothing away and let Thomas choose to believe in his self-assuredness.

    "You see. I happen to know a thing or two about her. Since you are from Eroa, you may not know this yet, but the girl is damaged goods." Thomas continued with a cruelugh. "You see, a few years ago, she decided to get into a rtionship with a Marked One, of all things!

    "Not even just that, but it was also her bodyguard! She used the idea of bing an adventurer so she could have her private honeymoon away from the house with her sweet little toy. Are you sure you want second-hand goods? With your abilities, I am sure so many other options are avable to you."

    Thomas continued to talk and attempted to goad him into attacking first, but while the boy made him angry, Lucius had no intention of falling into his petty tricks.

    ''I don''t like him anymore. He hasn''t grown at all from when he was a child.'' A dark voice echoed in the back of Lucius'' mind.

    ''Grimm¡­ what do you want?'' Lucius questioned.

    ''Nothing at all¡­ I just think you need to make a show of this.'' Grimm whispered, his voice dripping with temptation.

    ''No, I can''t use my mark. Go away.'' Lucius responded. He felt the presence give an annoying ''huff'' of sorts before receding back into his mind to an area he could no longer sense it.

    "Come on, why won''t you do anything?" Thomas growled. "Fine. I''ll move!"

    "[mma: Fireball], [mma: me Javelin]"

    Two spells hurdled towards him, the me Javelin being the quicker of the two. Lucius sidestepped that spell at thest moment, letting it sear into the stone instead. The fireball was directly behind it, so he kicked the ground andunched over both the explosion radius and the caster.

    "[Aqua: Water de]"

    When hended, he immediately had to duck under a Water de that Thomas timed to strike the moment hended on the ground. Discover stories with m,v l''e-NovelBin

    "Dammit! Fight back!" Thomas screeched. "[Sword Arts: Heavy sh], [Sword Arts: Aura de]"

    His opponent lunged towards him, forcing Lucius to defend himself from the strikes with his weapon. He was already channeling his Arts, so it was no problem for him to stand up to the man''s mana-empowered attacks. Sparks flew from the collision of steel as well as opposing mana sources.

    Thomas attempted to force his attack through by pushing down with his sword with both hands, but Lucius simply stood in opposition using only his single hand to hold Thomas back.

    "Try again." He said coldly.

    Thomas roared in defiance. "[Shield Arts: Shatter]!"

    It seemed his n was to sacrifice his shield using this Art at close range. Honestly, it was a brilliant n under many circumstances. However, this situation was not one of those. Lucius was able to counter this easily.

    The single most important rule of ''Shatter'' was that it required you to sacrifice your shield. Meaning without a shield to sacrifice, the Art would fail to activate. Knowing this, Lucius squeezed his fist and felt a surge of Thunder Mana gather within it.

    In one massive strike, his fist collided with the shield, splintering it and throwing Thomas backward several feet. Lucius had channeled a Thunderp into his punch, instantly destroying the shield.

    "What¡­ did you do?" Thomas demanded. "How did you do that?"

    Lucius casually rested the back of his machete on his shoulder and shrugged. There was no need to answer the man. To do so would have been a waste of time since there was no way Thomas would understand how it had happened.

    "When I win this, I will take control over House Petra, and I will force Rena to work in a whorehouse for the rest of her days to pay for the embarrassment she wrought on this family for daring to dirty the bloodline with a Marked One.

    "You will never marry her. So, take note of her beauty now because next time you see her, she will be a used dried-out husk!" Thomas roared.

    ''Uh-oh,'' Grimm whispered. ''Bad move.''

    Everyone in the capital could see and hear everything that happened in the arena for the final fight. This included everything that Thomas had said. Truthfully, for everything Rena did to ''embarrass the family,'' Thomas had just done more with his uncouth behavior.

    When Thomas finished his threat, he had a wide grin on his face. He was so happy with the result of his taunting because he and everyone else could see how that statement made Titan tense up. He lowered his machete with the de facing downward.

    "Enough." He growled. With one word, Thomas'' knees began to quake.

    Lucius began to feel the rage build up in his chest. A rage that he had nurtured for years started to boil over. It had been a long time since he let this anger out.

    The mask he wore hid one''s mana output. However, everything had a limit, and so mana beyond a certain threshold could not be held back. It was this excess of mana that started to pour off of Lucius that made Thomas'' knees quake.

    The air around them became thick with it, and a faint shimmer developed, not unlike what happens on a hot summer day on a stone road. Thomas looked like he was struggling to breathe from the intensity of the mana.

    "Do you concede?" Lucius asked calmly. The air trembling as though his voice was the very thunder of a storm itself.

    "Never." Thomas croaked.

    Lucius let out a small sigh and held out his sword arm. His machete was pointed roughly in Thomas'' direction but not quite at him. He carefully evaluated exactly where his weapon''s tip was pointing and activated a very powerful skill.

    "[Overcharge]"

    All the mana that had gathered in the air around him, as well as every ounce of it throughout his entire body, gathered at the tip of his de and formed a ball of electricity that crackled with barely contained destructive potential.

    When he was satisfied, [Overcharge] activated. A beam of light shot towards Thomas. It was as bright as a thousand suns and created a sound simr to an entire orchestra of brass instruments ying out of tune. The beam reached the barrier around the arena, and for a moment, nothing happened.

    However, as the beam continued to discharge, every citizen in the capital heard the sound of crunching ss.

    In a mere moment, the ''unbreakable barrier'' around the arena shattered and fizzled into nothingness. Satisfied with thepletion of his spell, Lucius walked up to Thomas and asked once more. "Do you concede?"

    Thomas simply responded with a nod. Satisfied with that answer, Lucius walked back to the center of the stage and waited for an extremely terrified announcer to approach him.

    "W-w-well it s-s-seems we have a winner, folks¡­ Give it up for Titan!" The announcer shouted.

    "Actually, I have a few words." He said, interrupting the announcer''s final speech.

    "It seems our dear champion would like a few words with the audience! Please, by all means." The announcer said.

    Lucius looked straight at one of the recording crystals. "I am Titan of Eroa. I entered thispetition on behalf of the country of Eroa, which became my home. However, Eroa was not my first home."

    Lucius lowered his hood and slowly removed his mask. The crowd collectively gasped at his shaggy, ck hair and piercing eyes, one silver, and one gold. "My name Lucius, formerly of Pelith and servant of House Petra."

 Chapter 163: Surprise

    After Titan revealed his true identity as Lucius, formerly a native of Arcadios, the crowds all across the capital roared with excitement. The overwhelming power to force his opponent to yield as well as shatter the ''unbreakable'' barrier was astounding to everyone.

    Though the masses were ecstatic to receive a champion, not everyone viewed the situation in a favorable light. Chiefly among them was Richard von Petra, and everyone else in the same viewing box as him, was also from Arcadios. For them, this situation was almost literally the worst possible oue.

    One of the first things that came to Richard''s mind was thinking how he could turn this situation around. Their world threatened toe crashing down around them, but at the moment, the only thing they could offer each other was stunned silence.

    After several moments of shared silence, they all nced at King Verdayl and Kalivas, who both had solemn expressions. Kalivas seemed to be holding his breath, waiting for the inevitable bacsh both of them were about to receive.

    *****

    Lyrah watched quietly as Rena''s tears resumed, and she copsed to the ground, unable to support her own weight. Her noble beauty and attitude werepletely ruined by the puffiness of her face from the intense crying. The girl was far from the only one acting this way.

    Though normallyposed and hard to read, Natali''s jaw was agape, and she clutched her hand over her chest. Hope filled her eyes, as did frustration, anger, and sadness. A host of emotions yed rapidly across her beautiful face.

    Perhaps though, the most profoundly affected person was Adellia. Lyrah had known about her brother''s identity for years. Mylene knew as well since Lyrah confided in the maid in her younger years. Mylene assisted them in keeping these visions a secret because Adellia wanted to ensure she knew nothing of the fate of her firstborn child for his own safety.

    However, that same child now stood in the center of the stage at the end of an exhibition that showed me was most likely the most powerful warrior of the next generation. His eyes glowed with power and pride. Though there was no way for him to tell, the way he looked into the recording crystal made it seem like he had locked eyes with each of them inside the viewing box.

    "Lyrah¡­ how long have you known?" Rena sobbed.

    "Since the beginning."

    "Why did you not tell me?" Rena screamed. "You could have saved me so much pain! So much heartache¡­ he was alive this whole time, and I thought¡­"

    Lyrah simply let her friend hurl a series of expletives at her, allowing the anger to flow. It was a reasonable reaction, and Lyrah did not fault her for it. To those who did not understand the truth of the way things work, it would have been impossible to exin her thinking and her actions.

    "Lucius," Adellia whispered. She had walked up to the projection and brushed her finger against the young man''s cheek. Of course, it was not a solid object, so the projection shimmered a little at her touch. "His name is Lucius¡­ he''s beautiful¡­ and strong¡­ my baby boy¡­ is alive¡­"

    Next, it was her turn to copse to the ground. Her dress threatened to swallow her in its folds. Mylene rushed to her side, "Mydy!"

    Almost timidly, Lyrah turned to face Natali, who had given up on maintaining a stoic expression. Now, her face was contorted in anger. "I think you might have gone too far, Lyrah¡­" she whispered.

    Adellia, who was still sobbing on the ground, lightly tugged at the hem of Natali''s maid outfit. As the other person with the same power, she seemed to have understood why things happened the way they did. "You must understand¡­ the both of you. Lyrah did what she had to do to make this future happen. I do not know the details of everything, and it is unlikely that Lyrah will ever choose to share them.

    Sometimes we must make tough decisions to achieve the best oue."

    "Is¡­ is that true?" Rena asked.

    The young oracle looked at her two best friends with guilt written all over her face. "Yes. Lucius can be the one to tell you what he went through if he chooses to. But it was dangerous for anyone to know the truth about him. Just know that the fewer people that knew the truth, the safer he was. Lucius was strong¡­ but he needed to grow stronger."

    "Where has he¡­"

    "I will say no more. Though I may be reading the pages, Lucius'' story is his own to tell." Lyrah answered.

    Thatment seemed to strike a chord with the girls in the room. Mylene and Adellia were aware of Lyrah''s reasoning from the start. Eventually Natali came to realize it as well, since she had been privy to simr actions as it rted to keeping Adellia out of the loop.

    "I do have to ask though¡­" Rena said. "Your mother said ''my baby.'' He is your brother?"

    "Yes."

    "And you knew the whole time."

    "Yes."

    Lyrah was about to say something in else, but her words caught in her throat. To everyone else, she looked like she had note to that realization of what that meant. Rena announcing it also made Adelliae to the same realization. She was so absorbed in the fact that she learned that her other child was alive and well.

    "Will he be in trouble for that?" Mylene asked, gesturing to the broken barrier.

    "Maybe? Though I guess he''s a citizen of another nation now, and there''s that whole diplomatic immunity thing right?" Rena asked.

    Everyone turned to Lyrah for an answer. Their eyes seemed to dig into her soul, trying to discern the oue of this event. "Um¡­ I don''t know?" She shrugged.

    Her answer clearly left everyone extremely dissatisfied, but there was not much she could do about it. She truly did not know what the legal ramifications were. The only thing she knew was that Lucius had a lot more hurdles to ovee before his journey was over.

    For a moment, she paused and thought about something. This drew the attention of Natali and Rena. "I guess I can tell you one thing."

    "What?" The two girls said simultaneously.

    "Lucius will be attending the Arcadios Royal Academy!"

 Chapter 164: Questions

    Lucius found himself sitting in themon area of Eroa''s embassy. His father, King Verdayl, and Kalliope were sitting with him. The wolf-girl was excitedly wagging her tail and practically drooled on his arm. He ufortably attempted to shake her off, but it was to no avail.

    Kalivas and King Verdayl stared at him as he calmly sipped his tea. They appeared nonplussed by his performance. It was only fair; Lucius had not shown off such an ability before.

    "What did you do?" Kalivas finally broke the silence by asking the question everyone shared.

    "It is an ability I learned when I broke through into the Intermediate Rank. It is an extension of my Thunder Magic. So far, I have been unable to use it voicelessly under the effects of Channeling; however, because of my Channeling, I can pour the mana from Arts and the mana for Magic into it." He exined.

    "How did you break through that barrier?" Kalivas continued. "Even I would need a few hits to break through."

    "Overcharge summons every speck of magical mana in my body andpresses it into a single, overwhelming attack. Thanks to Channeling, I can manipte it so I can use my Arts for it as well." Lucius answered.

    King Verdayl spoke up next, "Are you saying you are an Intermediate Rank on par with a King Rank?" He eyed Lucius suspiciously.

    "No. It leaves me extremely drained. Honestly, I''m so weak right now that I''m sure a strong breeze would knock me down. Also¡­ I cannot use that ability again for another month, maybe more."

    "Why not?"

    "It puts an enormous amount of strain on my body. On top of leaving me on the verge of mana deprivation, it pushes the mana pathways throughout my body to their absolute limits. Trying it again before I have fully recovered would most likely kill me. Instead of a targeted attack, I would turn myself into a bomb."

    Both the king and his father sucked in a deep breath. They agreed that it was an extremely useful and powerful ability, but what Lucius had just exined to him was a series of drawbacks that would hinder the usability of the skill.

    After that initial exnation, Lucius decided it would be best to cover all the downsides. Not only did it leave him without mana and was unusable for more than a month after one use, but it also had other drawbacks. The biggest one was already shown: it took time to charge.

    This meant that an opponent would have more than enough time to counterattack. Not only could someone attack him while charging the skill, but it was a slow-moving spell that could easily be dodged while firing.

    "I see. Though it could be used to kill someone like me," Kalivas pondered, "we would need a King Rank to stand still long enough to charge it and fire it. By that point, every single warrior of their rank or higher would have time to sense the mana and move or attack. So what is it useful for?"

    Kalliope finally spoke up after observing their conversation for so long. "For starters, he makes a good barrier buster. Also, it''s good for intimidation. It did a good job embarrassing that Thomas guy as well."

    She then nuzzled her head deeper into his arms, continuing to fight off his attempts to ward her off. Since he was utterly drained, he had no physical strength left to fight her off truly, and the girl clearly had every intention of taking advantage of it.

    Giving up on Kalliope, Lucius then said, "It would probably work against a city, a fortress, or some other stationary target."

    King Verdayl''s hair stood on the back of his neck. "Is that what you did at Alvora?"

    Lucius shook his head and smiled. "No. Let''s just say I have experience with a special crystal mined in Aedrider, and I learned it has a rather violent reaction to Thunder Magic."

    Discover more stories at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    For the next few hours, the group continued to talk over tea and snacks. Lucius was forced to entertain arge number of questions from his father and the king, but he made sure to answer all of them fully and to the best of his ability. After all, he owed them both, so it was the least he could do to answer their questions.

    Finally, as time for the afterparty of the tournament drew closer, Lucius asked a few questions of his own, "Is everything prepared for my transfer into the academy? Kalliope''s as well?"

    Hearing her name, she perked up. She had assumed that she would simply act as a bodyguard and errand girl for him; she never expected to be a student. She was technically too old to be one since she had already graduated from Eroa''s institution for education prior to the war.

    "Yes, everything is in order. Kalliope is actually going to be hired on as a teacher''s assistant to assist Old Man Carmichael." Kalivas exined. "You are being epted as a student specializing in Marks. Only the Old Man seemed interested in taking you in as a student. Though I imagine after today''s events, the other departments are eating their shirts!"

    "You know Wally?" Lucius asked.

    "Of course I do. He''s a powerful mage. Do you think I wouldn''t know him? Other than you, he is the only other person that I personally know who can use Channeling. Do not misunderstand, there are certainly others, I just don''t know them." Kalivas answered.

    "Hmm."

    Kalliope chimed in again, "So, when am I going to meet this Rena girl?"

    "At the party, most likely."

    "How''s that going to go, by the way? You are going to be in close proximity to a number of people who worked together to kill you." The girl growled. The fur on her ears and tail began to bristle a little.

    "True, but they failed." He answered. "At least for now, my status as the champion and my little n for the party will keep me safe until I regain my strength. I will not be so easy to entrap again."

    Lucius stood up and went to his room in the embassy to prepare for the event. He was forced to ask his father to hold Kalliope down from sneaking in after him since he would be unable to fight her advances off. A part of him wondered if she would really even try since she seemed to love the hunt as much as the idea of actually being with him.

    He carefully put on a nice suit and tie and checked his appearance in the mirror. There were burn scars on the back of his neck that were slightly visible from the front, and he still had the scar down his neck and chest from fighting the goblins with Rena''s cousin, Simon.

    Finally, he touched his left ear. He had pierced it when he got his position as a King''s Shadow. Kalliope tricked him into thinking it was a thing that warriors did to celebrate. However, that was not the case, something he would have realized if he paid attention to Kalivas'' or Kalliope''s own ears. Despite that, he kept it because it became a part of himself.

    "Time to go," Kalliope called out from outside the room.

 Chapter 165: Party Preparations

    "Oh, my gods," Rena whispered.

    Lyrah giggled at her friend while Natali rolled her eyes. The three of them joined Adellia and Mylene back to the castle to prepare for the banquet that would urter. Right now, they were fitting a beautiful white dress onto Rena that entuated her hips and bust. It was reminiscent of a wedding dress in design with long,cey finger loop sleeves.

    "He''s alive¡­ he wants to marry me." Rena continued to mutter the same handful of phrases and was almost unaware of the world moving around her.

    "I''ve never seen her like this," Natali said with a twinge of jealousy.

    Lyrah gave her a sly smile but made sure it was not seen by the girl, lest Natali hit her again like she did in the arena. At the moment, Natali was working on the makeup for Rena while Mylene was working on the hair.

    Lyrah, for the most part, was sitting beside her mother since she was utterly useless at putting together makeup and a dress. Getting dolled up and ready was Natali''s thing, not hers, and whenever she had to, she was not the one to do it.

    "Lyrah¡­" Adellia asked softly, so the others could not hear. "How long have you known about your brother?"

    "Since I was about four."

    A sh of concern crossed her mother''s face. "What have you seen?" She asked cautiously.

    "A lot. How about you? What have you seen?"

    "More than I care to¡­"

    Lyrah sighed and took her mother''s hands into her own. When Adellia''s silver eyes met hers, she spoke, "Mother¡­ the son you thought dead may finally walk back into your life. For once, maybe focus on the present and not worry about the future. You know better than I do that living for the future means ignoring the present, and he is here. Right now."

    Adellia''s concern faded, and her expression softened until she shed a kind, gentle smile. "You are so right, my love."

    Lyrah giggled as her mother leaned in and gave her a small kiss on the forehead. "Besides Mother, now you have a daughter-inw. Hehe, maybe more in the future."

    "What was that second part?"

    "Nothing."

    Having chosen to ignore the new cause for panic that started to well up in her mother, she stood to leave the room and check on the party preparations. Things appeared to be going well, but as far as she could tell, the important guests either had not arrived or chose to have a meeting with one another first.

    Frankly, she thought that they were discussing ns of getting rid of Lucius once and for all. After all, they tried and failed to kill him once, so no doubt some members of the nobility would try again. If they had been afraid of him before the beginning of the war, they would certainly have been more scared now.

    The simple thought of it made Lyrahugh. Their endeavors would all be for naught. Lucius was going to survive tonight, in fact he was going to survive for a while yet.

    "Hmm¡­" Lyrah said out loud. "I have a feeling that I shouldn''t wake Rena up at the academy tomorrow morning¡­ or maybe I should?" She maintained a slightly mischievous grin on her face as she said that.

    She wandered around the castle a bit longer before returning back to the room where everyone was doting on Rena. The girl had finished being decorated from head to toe in fine silver jewelry to ent her beautiful white dress. When Lyrah walked in, she was staring at herself in the mirror, awestruck.

    Experience tales at m v|l e''-NovelBin

    "Rena?" Adellia asked. "This isst minute, but are you sure you want this? It feels so sudden, and I don''t know if¡­ he''s a Marked One. If you have children, they will be basicallymoners. If they are also Marked Ones, then worse, so¡­ are you sure? You can still back out of this if you want¡­"

    "No." Rena''s voice was strong and firm. "I''ve known Lucius for most of my life. I remember seeing him asionally around my father''s manor since we were four or five. Then from about nine until fourteen, we were together constantly.

    "Then, when we finally admitted our love, he was ripped away from me¡­ after that, I thought my world was stolen away¡­ nothing hurt worse until one day my everything was shattered."

    "Rena, I¡­"

    "I don''t think anyone understood quite how lonely my life was. The only people who spent time with me were adults. I had no friends. My cousins were taught from birth to want to murder me. My father was an emotionless prick, I had no mother to speak of¡­

    "Lucius came into my life and became my first friend. He was there under obligation of his own father''s dying wish at first, but in private, we became such close and fast friends.

    We would secretly train together after his training was over¡­we would stay up and talk and y¡­ Lady Adellia, I''ve known and loved him for most of my life; it is not sudden; if anything, it has been a long timeing." Rena finished.

    Lyrah looked at her friend in a new light. Her resolve was stronger than the barrier that was shattered in the arena. She could not keep the smile off her face realizing the loyalty and desire behind Rena''s passionate deration. Giving in to her emotions, Lyrah wrapped the redhead in a massive hug.

    "Things may get tough at times, but know that he is always with you, and you are always with him. Though times maye when you may part, your souls are one," She whispered into Rena''s ears.

    "Thank you, Lyrah." Rena returned her smile. "You were like a sister to me and now you will actually be one! I cannot wait. Natali¡­I¡­"

    "Rena?"

    The girl took a deep breath. "I know you love Lucius as well."

    Mylene began to choke on her own spit and Adellia''s eyes opened wide with shock. All Lyrah did was giggle at the announcement.

    Rena continued, "I know you love Lucius and¡­ I don''t know what to do about that yet. However, I will think of something. You were as devastated as I was. I''ve seen the depths of your feelings for him, it honestly seemed like you had known him for longer than I have.

    "Gods, knowing Lyrah and how she likes to gossip, its no wonder you fell for him after the fantastical stories she no doubt shared. All I ask is that you give me time to enjoy my happiness¡­"

    Natali shook her head. "Rena, do not fret over me. Honestly, for now, I am content knowing he is alive.

    Mylene spoke up for a moment and asked, "For now?" However, no one chose to rify what Natali might have meant by that statement.

 Chapter 166: Proper Introduction

    The castle grounds of the Arcadian capital were massive, covered in lush greenery and various fruit orchards. With the assistance of magical implements, many fruit varieties that were impossible to cultivate in the country''s natural climate thrived here.

    Not only were there rare fruits and flowers nted on the grounds but there were also a handful of private pastures with animals notmonly seen. A short distance away from the castle was a pig pen with a rather rotund species that Lucius had remembered seeing in Eroa. They were prized for their excellent vor and high-quality fat.

    It seemed that the royal family was rather invested in having rare and exotic foods avable to them at a moment''s notice. While it was impressive, something Lucius could not get out of his mind was the wastefulness of it all. Though beautiful, the fruit orchards and animal pastures so close to the castle simply made it so that it would be easy to sneak onto the grounds.

    It provided too many avenues of infiltration.

    "Honestly," he muttered, "I will never understand nobility."

    "Ha!" Kalivas chuckled, walking beside him. "You say that, and yet¡­"

    "Zip it."

    His biological father simply continued to chuckle, satisfied that he almost ruined his son''s ns for the evening with a single slip of the tongue. Tonight had to go perfectly. Everything was set in ce.

    When they approached the gates, the guards saw the marks on Kalivas'' and Lucius'' hands. For Lucius, his mark was covered inbat. While not technically legal to hide one''s mark, it was permitted for his fighting since he was not allowed to use it anyway.

    After seeing their marks, the guard pointed his halberd at them. "Halt. What business would you lot have in the castle, eh? Filthy Marked Ones don''t need to soil its grand halls."

    Kalliope stepped forward to answer on their behalf. "We are the entourage for King Verdayl Eroa. The beastman is Kalivas, the warrior, and the half-blood is the champion of the tournament, Lucius of Pelith. Stand aside."

    "You rotten¡­"

    "What in the world are you doing, you fool!"

    Someone who appeared to be the captain of the guard walked up to inspect themotion, and when he realized what was happening, he pped his subordinate upside the head.

    "Youplete fool, let them through. What thedy says is correct, I ought to have you fed to the pigs for your idiocy¡­"

    Kalliopeughed as they walked past the checkpoint. From behind them, they could still hear the captain yelling at the guard who had attempted to harass them. Though Lucius cared little about what happened, he found himself slightly amused by the karma that befell the man.

    Once inside the castle proper, they could admire the stonework. The walls were made of beautifully carved stone, with each piece locking together without so much as a gap for air. The ceilings were vaulted, not unlike a church, and the rafters were made from dark brown wood. The floors were mostly made of finely polished granite.

    Because of all the hard surfaces and high ceilings, their footsteps echoed throughout the halls. They were gathered with another group of people and led through the castle until they reached what could only be the ballroom.

    From the entrance, a set of majestic stairs curved down to the main floor below. The stairs themselves were covered with a vibrant blue carpet with gold frills, while the floor of the ballroom appeared to be made of marble.

    Various tables lined the edges of the main floor and were filled with every cuisine imaginable from each of the participating countries. Drinks were being served by wait staff carrying trays of sses filled with champagne, wine, and other alcoholic beverages.

    There was also a quartet of string instruments off in the far corner, to the side of where King Aleksander was seated. They were ying a soft, gentle tune to create an atmosphere for mingling and idle chatter.

    Sitting in a half-circle formation around King Aleksander were the other representatives of the participating nations. The only seat that was empty was that which was set aside for the Queen of Aedrider. It seemed she would not be in attendance.

    "Announcing Sir Kalivas of Eroa, Kalliope of the Gray Wolf n, and Titan of Eroa, formerly known as Lucius of Pelith." The man who led them to the chamber announced their presence to those gathered below.

    After the introduction, the three of them descended the stairs to join the party. King Verdayl Eroa was already present and maintained a neutral expression as he nced at their group. Kalivas bowed deeply and took a standing position behind his king, while Kalliope and Lucius moved to a table that their announcer gestured to them.

    They each took a ss of champagne from one of the wait staff moving about the room in the meantime. Lucius was waiting for the arrival of another guest before he greeted the leaders. However, while looking about the room, he settled his eyes on the source of a very familiar scent.

    Meeting his gaze from across the massive ballroom was a stoic man of average build. He had red hair and green eyes. At one time, this figure wasrger than life and more imposing than Lucius could ever imagine, but now he was not. It wasn''t that Richard had gotten weaker or that a fight between the two would be easy or even end in Lucius''s victory.

    What was true, though, was that his strength was no longer unattainable.

    These thoughts brought a small smile to his face. He had grown, and that excited him. How much more could he grow? How powerful could he be?

    "Announcing: Lady Adellia, the Oracle of Arcadios, and her daughter, Lady Lyrah. Also announcing Lady Rena von Petra."

    Subtle gasps and murmurs erupted around the room, but Lucius tuned them out. Strange scents in the air surprised him, but they were nowhere near as interesting as the ethereal beauty of the love of his life.

    As she descended the grand stairs to the ballroom, every step made the slight curls at the end of her hair bounce. Her bright green eyes contrasted sharply against her deep, crimson hair, and they were locked right onto him.

    The dress she wore was a beautiful white that matched her fair skin. The material on her chest was a thin, nearly transparentce. The sleeves were simrly semi-transparent and went all the way down her arms and looped around her ring finger on each hand. Around her neck was a familiar ck choker with a small cat-shaped charm, though it contrasted with the rest of her outfit.

    For Lucius, it only served to increase her beauty several times.

    As she finisheding down thest few steps, Lucius made his way to her side, offering his hand to assist her onto the ballroom floor. "My Lady, it a pleasure to meet you this evening. Might I say you look absolutely ravishing."

    Rena giggled, a sound that he had not heard in years and nearly sent him to the realm of Celestia. Even for him, it was a struggle to fight back the tears teasing to escape from his eyes.

    "You know, Titan, while ttery may get you everywhere, it doesn''t feel as though it suits your tongue." Rena said with a teasing smile.

    "I think you might be right about that. Come." Continue your adventure with m|v-l''e -NovelBin

    He guided her across the marble floor until they approached the slightly raisednding that held the seats of the leaders present.

    They bowed together and Lucius spoke, "I apologize for my dy in paying the proper greetings, however, I felt it would be more worth your graces'' time to greet you along with my would-be wife."

    Aleksander rose from the his seat and waved over Richard. "Lucius, from what Lord Richard has informed me, you are not only amoner, but a Marked One. Though we promised you one wish, we cannot allow the intermarriage of amoner with nobility, not at the risk of dishonoring one of our kingdom''s great houses."

    Rena let out a slight gasp and looked as though she might cry. Lucius felt her hand tremble, but gave her a warm,forting smile.

    "Your majesty, were I a noble, then it would not be a problem? Even though I bare a mark?" Lucius asked.

    Aleksander gave a strained smile. "That would be correct, however a Marked One¡­"

    "I beg your forgiveness from all those present." Lucius said,ing to a fully standing position. He turned around and threw his arms wide while shouting out for the rest of the ballroom to hear. "A proper introduction is in order it seems.

    "I am Titan of Eroa, formerly Lucius of Pelith. However, I am also the son of the Oracle, Lady Adellia, as well as Lord Kalivas Kane of Eroa. You may refer to me as Lucius Kane, sole heir to the illustrious House of Kane one of the great houses of Eroa." Lucius gave a small bow and a flourish, before he turned back to King Aleksander and the other kings.

    "Does that fulfill your requirements, your majesty?"

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 167: Lady Kane

    "Does that fulfill your requirements, your majesty?"

    The young man''s words echoed throughout the ballroom. All of the attendees stared in stunned silence as Lucius dered himself a member of the nobility. In addition to that, the house he reportedly belonged to was a ''great house'' of Eroa.

    For the leaders of the Five Kings Union, this information meant something¡­ more profound. All five of them had dedicated a certain number of resources to tracking the whereabouts of the descendants of House Kane, yet here he was, right in front of them.

    Aleksander sat there, his mouth slightly hung open after the young man''s reintroduction of himself. He felt the blood in his veins turn to ice as he remembered the actions they had taken. The king found his eyes tracking up and down Lucius''s body and settling on the slightly visible burn marks on the back of his neck that curled around the front.

    "Oh?" Lucius said. Aleksander watched as his eyesnded on Richard von Petra. "Simply a wound I incurred during the war against Alorek. Many soldiers walk away with scars¡­ don''t they, Lord Petra?"

    Richard maintained his silence but acknowledged the question he was asked with a curt nod. It was with that statement that Aleksander suddenly realized. Once again, he eyed the man up and down. He knew. Aleksander did not know how, but Lucius survived the attack against him, and he knew who was behind it.

    The prophecy echoed in the back of his mind:

    ~ "Betray not, thest of the House of Kane, lest the curse of death fall on thends of man, elf, and beast. A threat forgotten by all, save the gods above and devils below, will walk the earth. Heed this call, or Creation will crumble at his touch. Reality will bend to his will. And the gods will fall under his might." ~

    Though he could not sense a single ounce of manaing from the young man before him, his glowing eyes showed a look of hunger. It felt as if they stared into the depths of his soul and found something delectable.

    "W-well, if that is the truth of it, then yes! Let them be wed. Richard, you have no objections?" Aleksander looked over to Lord Petra and made sure to give him a look that would brook no arguments.

    He also intended to ignore the fact that the man had disclosed the parentage of the young Oracle, Lyrah. It was almost unthinkable to believe that Lucius was indeed the older twin who was said to have died in childbirth; however, a single nce at Kalivas, then Lyrah, then Lucius told everyone everything.

    Though Lucius had one golden eye, the silver one matched that of his mother and sister to the letter.

    "Of course. It is a momentous asion that my daughter should marry into another powerful house. May their matrimony also lead to closer ties between the human nations and Eroa." Richard answered tly.

    "Then! Without further ado, with my right as king of the nation of Arcadios, birthce of my ancestors, home for my descendants, I hereby dere Rena von Petra and Lucius Kane to be husband and wife." Aleksander proimed and then stamped the sword by his side onto the marble twice.

    King Verdayl then spoke, "As part of my promise to assist King Aleksander, so to do I, King Verdayl Eroa, proim that Lucius Kane and Rena von Petra are now wed. Congrattions, Lady Kane. A joyous asion for you and your husband both."

    An uproarious apuse overtook the ballroom, drowning out the music being yed by the quartet. The loudest among the cheers came from the young Oracle, Lyrah. Even Lady Adellia abandoned some of her social manners to celebrate the marriage of her son.

    Such behavior made him wonder how much the Oracle and her daughter knew. How did the infant that supposedly diede to live and grow this strong¡­

    "Ah, your majesty," Lucius¡­or rather, Lord Kane, called out as he began to step away from their seats. "I was raised by amoner family in Pelith. From what I know of how I came into their home; I was stolen away in the night and delivered to them. Whoever brought me to them are people who I owe my life. Perhaps it would be best to let their good intentions exist in memory.

    I believe we owe it to their endeavors to leave the past where it lies?"

    "Perhaps you are right, Lord Kane," Aleksander answered with an exhausted half-smile.

    He noticed that his cohort, Lady Voltara al Famyn looked like she was about to have a heart attack. She was likely nning to do as much digging into Lord Kane''s past as she could, but with a clear threat such as that, she would not dare, at least for the moment.

    Something that he needed to understand was whether they had already triggered the prophecy. Or did they have time to backtrack from it? For now, there was no way to tell. Their best option would be to ingratiate themselves with Lord Kane where they could and leave him be at all other times. Until such a timees that they could determine how badly they had screwed up, they had few options open.

    Experience new tales on m v|l e''-NovelBin

    Aleksander watched the two newlyweds walk away. It was far from a standard wedding, which was typically performed by a priest in the Church of Celestia. However, the church would never have agreed to perform the ritual due to the young man''s mark.

    Lady Kane was undoubtedly more than aware that this would be the way of things. The look on her beautiful face, the smiles, and the threat of tears show that this may be the happiest day of her life. In a different universe, the girl may have eloped.

    Aleksander then looked to Richard von Petra. The man''s eyes were full of anger, and he tracked his daughter and now son-inw as they danced across the ballroom floor. The quartet began to y a louder and more upbeat song for dancing, and several other couples moved to the floor to join in the fun.

    All the final four from thepetition were present, and so were most of the final ten. The only one not present was the young man who wielded a mace in the match against Lady Kane. As such, the ballroom was filled to the brim with thepetitors, their families, and various nobles from all of the participating nations. This certainly was a night to remember.

 Chapter 168: Reunion

    Lucius and Rena walked to the center of the ballroom after leaving the leaders of the representative nations behind. Her hand felt small and delicate within his own. As she trained with magic more than the sword, her hands were still soft and smooth, unlike the roughness of a warrior like himself.

    When they reached the center, the musicians noticed and began to y a tune meant for dancing. Though he was not well-practiced, Lucius did take some lessons in dancing and other basic skills required of a noble. His father insisted that getting the basics down was a necessity as the son of House Kane.

    It also helped that he had been made into Rena''s partner many times over their youth as she was taught the lessons ady should know. Many of those included dancing. It was those lessons of the past, along with the reminders of the lessons, that allowed him to gracefully glide along the marble with his new bride in hand.

    Rena seemed to have a permanent blush on her cheeks as she looked at him with eyes full of love. His hand rested gently on her waist while the other firmly grasped her hand. Lucius could feel the slight tracing along his back that she was doing with her free hand.

    "I never thought a day like this woulde." She whispered.

    "I know. It seems too real to be true, and yet¡­" He answered, then sighed, "I am sorry I could not give you a proper wedding."

    Rena smiled like a maiden in love, "Lucius, this is more than I imagined we would have. If anything, you should apologize for making me wait. I''ve thought you dead for many years¡­"

    Her enchanting green eyes began to shimmer, tears threatening to fall. "Thank you for waiting for me all this time, Rena. Also, I am sorry for making you wait for so long. However¡­"

    The music picked up a slight pace, and Lucius swung Rena along the dance floor. Their feet picked up speed to match the pacing of the instruments. Eyes tracked them, seemingly impressed by either their performance or his wife''s beauty.

    As the music began to reach a crescendo, Lucius finished their dancing with a flourish, spinning her into his arms. Lucius embraced her, ran his fingers up the side of her neck, and lifted her chin with his finger. "¡­you will never have to wait again." He whispered before kissing her as the final note rang out.

    Additional apuse rang out around them, and as Lucius pulled back, Rena grabbed him by the back of his head and pulled him in for a second, longer kiss. "Tonight." She panted. "You''re mine."

    "Okay."

    They separated from their embrace and walked to one of the tables on the side where Kalliope was standing. Standing beside her were Adellia and Lyrah. Mylene and Natali were also present but stood slightly separated from the table for the purposes of proper manners.

    Lucius stepped forward and gave a polite bow. "A pleasure to meet you, Lady Adellia; you as well, Lady Lyrah."

    He looked at his birth mother and the woman who must have been his sister. She looked and smelled very simr to him, which must have meant they were twins. Kalivas attempted to tell him about these two, but he never cared to pay attention.

    What made Lucius realize his rtion to them was their scent. Lyrah smelled simrly to both Adellia and Kalivas as well as to himself. Lyrah also looked like a female version of him, save his unique eye. Basically, it was obvious that they were all rted.

    "Lucius¡­" Adellia said with a slight crackle in her voice. "Nice to meet you¡­ after all this time, you''re right here. Truly, right in front of me."

    The woman attempted to step forward and touch his cheek as if to see if he was real. However, it was an ufortable move, and Lucius stepped just out of her reach. "I apologize, but I do not enjoy being touched," he said coldly.

    "I¡­I see," the woman said softly. "Maybe with time, we might get to know one another better. You seem close with your father¡­"

    Lucius''s hair bristled, and he subconsciously nced in Richard''s direction. "My father is dead. However, Kalivas did spend four years training me, so it makes sense that we have gotten to know each other well."

    Having read the awkward air left by the pace of the conversation, Lyrah stepped forward and gave a polite curtsy. "It is simply wonderful to finally meet you, Lord Kane. I am Lyrah, your biological twin sister."

    "Your words are formal, but your tonees off as familiar." Lucius pointed out. He was not keen on strangers assuming to know him.

    "Ah, about that, you see, though I am the Oracle, I am gued with quite a unique issue, one opposite to my mother, actually. While my mother seems to be unable to see visions of you with any semnce of rity. Almost all of my visions are exclusively about you. I know what you''ve been through, Lucius. I know the scars you carry on both your body and soul."

    Something about this ck-haired girl gave Lucius a sense of familiarity. Was it due to her being his twin? Or was it something else? For a moment, she seemed like a kindred spirit.

    Finally, Kalliope stepped forward to talk. "Lucius, you''re being so formal; I don''t like it." She grumbled. "Besides, you haven''t introduced me to your first wife."

    "First?" Adellia asked.

    "Ignore her." He advised, "Kalliope, can you hold back for at least a few days? I know you won''t listen to me asking you to stop permanently but give me a few days to enjoy a moment of peace."

    The wolf-girl grumbled but reluctantly nodded her head in agreement. "Fine, but after a few days, all bets are off. My father wants at least five grandchildren from you, so make it snappy."

    Her brazen words made Adellia yelp in surprise, but Kalivas, who had excellent hearing, smirked in the distance. Lyrah was smirking as well, though Lucius did not know the reason. Rena simply gripped his hand tighter and clung closer to his arm, but she said nothing.

    It was exhausting work, but the next few hours of the banquet and ball went by quickly. As a recognized noble from a high-ranking family, he was inundated with requests for conversation by many nobles. Though they hid their disgust at his mark through thinly veiled masks of pleasantries, they at least had the decency to ignore it in conversation.

 Chapter 169: The Wedding Night [Part 1] â€“ R18

    As their work was done, Lucius and Rena eventually excused themselves from the party and left the castle grounds. The sky had begun to take on hues of purples and oranges as the day transitioned into night. Magicalmps along the roadways began to illuminate themselves in preparation for the evening hours.

    The Arcadian capital was abuzz with activity. Many shops, inns, and restaurants were filled to the brim with people continuing to celebrate the day''s festivities. Because of that, the streets were filled with people who were nearly shoulder to shoulder.

    Knowing that his face was recognizable all over the capital, Lucius put on his mask and activated the enchantment that encouraged people to avoid him. People could still see him and avoid him, but it made him ufortable to focus on, which made people subconsciously want to look away.

    "You know, Lucius," Rena said while leaning her head on his arm as they walked. "This almost reminds me of Lelvern. The day you confessed to me. It feels like there''s the same amount of people."

    Lucius smiled underneath his mask. "Yes, it does remind me of that time. Four years ago is a long time. So much has happened, yet here we are. I''m surprised you aren''t mad at me for not speaking to you or reaching out while I was gone."

    Rena''s face took on a pout for a moment, then settled on a conflicted expression. "Truthfully, I am. I''m confused, sad, angry¡­ I want to know everything. I want to know why you did not try to reach out to me¡­ but Lyrah told me that knowing was dangerous."

    "Are you close with Lyrah?" he asked cautiously.

    Rena smiled, "Yes, very. She and Natali, the maid with white hair. They both care very deeply for you. For them, they''ve known you their entire lives... what you have been through; what you have done. They supported me all this time.

    Honestly, they are like sisters to me."

    "I see. Then I should probably have been nicer, huh?"

    "You have time to fix that at the academy. Lyrah told me you were attending. Since you are new to the academy, how about I show you around? Perhaps starting with the dorms?"

    Read thetest on m_v-l''e|-NovelBin

    Rena quickly led them both through the streets until they arrived at the exterior of the academy. The guards on duty recognized her, and when Lucius removed his mask, him as well. They were allowed to pass without issue.

    Once inside the walls of the academy, Rena giggled as she pulled Lucius toward the dormitories. While being dragged through the halls, they passed several students who seemed surprised at Rena''s behavior. Before long, though, he had been yanked into the female dorms and then into Rena''s room.

    ******

    Once inside, the energy from before seemed to calm, and her nerves began to get the best of her. She quietly walked over to her bed and sat down. Lucius quietly locked the door behind him and walked over to where his beautiful wife sat.

    He reached over and lit themp by her bedside, illuminating the darkening room. The me revealed the deepening pink color that had taken over Rena''s face. He smiled and removed his mask, setting it beside themp with a light thud.

    "You know, Rena. For all these years, you have been the primary thing on my mind. Revenge for what happened to me. The urge to grow stronger. They felt like nothing inparison to the desire to return to you." He whispered, gently stroking her cheek while his thumb teased her lips.

    Her breathing began to be heavier, and her heart rate quickened as Lucius leaned in for a deep kiss. She parted her lips, allowing his tongue to entwine with hers. Rena''s hands draped around his shoulders as they embraced.

    She could feel his hands caressing her back and slowly inching closer to the ties on the back of her dress. He pulled the knots free one by one, and the usually snug dress began to pull away from her skin.

    Rena removed her arms from around him, and he pulled her to a standing position. He gently moved from her lips to her neck, leaving a small trail of kisses. While attacking her neck, she let out a slight moan from excitement, and he removed the dress from her shoulders. It fell into a pile around her feet, now free from her body.

    "Beautiful." He whispered; his voice slightly strained as he nced at her in her undergarments.

    "Allow me." She said back.

    Lucius allowed her to step forward and unbutton his undershirt. The anticipation was killing them both, but at the same time, it increased their thrill.

    When the final button was free, her hands slid under the shirt and across his muscr chest. With a gentle nudge, she pushed his shirt and jacket off his arms, allowing them to simply fall to the floor.

    For a few moments, she stood there in awe of his physical form. She traced the lines of muscle along his chest and abdomen. Her fingers settled along an old scar he had gotten shortly before being taken from her. While she traced over his body, Lucius removed his belt and pants. She hurried to unsp her bra.

    As it fell to the ground, she felt his gaze settle on her chest. Lucius desired her mind, body, and soul. That hunger sparked a me in her body that she never expected. He quickly scooped her off her feet into a princess-carry andid her gently on her bed. The young man ced his arm on the bed beside her face, positioning himself over the top of her, pinning her down.

    Her eyes stared at his eyes and trailed down his body, lingering on his mouth, then moving further down. Eventually, they settled on a bulge between his legs. It was dangerously close to her own leg.

    In a moment of weakness and desire, she brushed her leg against it, feeling an intense heat and surprising thickness. The pink that once covered her face started to darken, almost matching her hair. Out of reflex, she moved her hands to cover her face.

    Before she could do it, she felt his tworge hands grab around her wrists. In an instant, her arms were pulled away and pinned above her head. Lucius''s face hovered only an inch above her own.

    "Do not hide your face, Rena." He panted into her ear. "I want to see your beautiful face tonight. You are mine, and I am yours, and I want you to see it."

 Chapter 170: The Wedding Night [Part 2] - R18

    Lucius felt an ache in his chest and groin as he stared at Rena''s helpless form. He had pinned her arms against the bed and had them secured with a single hand. She slowly nodded her head in understanding of hismand, so he let go of her wrists.

    He leaned in and kissed her soft lips again, flirting with her tongue using his own. He felt her chest push against his, her nipples hardening slowly, poking him. Excited by this, he left her lips and trailed his kisses to her neck. His hand gently cupped one of her breasts.

    Rena moaned softly from his kisses that were sure to leave a mark in the morning. His hand gently massaged her chest as his fingers teased at her nipples. Lucius continued his trail of kisses down the center of her chest, slowly moving to encapste her other breast in his mouth.

    Rena''s hands rested gently on the nape of his neck in a warm caress as he suckled on her. The anticipation of what was toe began to almost feel torturous to him; his lower half threatened to take charge of the situation immediately. However, he managed to contain himself by focusing on making Rena feel good.

    "Lucius, kiss me more¡­ please¡­" she breathed.

    In response, he released her chest from his mouth with a slight popping sound and returned to her lips. While doing so, he moved toy beside her. His hands, free from their activities, slowly moved down her chest. Then over her navel until his fingertips brushed against the fabric of her undergarments.

    Lucius felt the seductivece of the lingerie she had chosen to wear give way as his hand ducked under the band. Rena slightly arched her back and sucked in her belly to make it easier for him to slip past the barrier. She gasped momentarily as he brushed against her lips, gently massaging the outside of the soft mound of her flesh.

    "Lucius¡­ please¡­ I can''t¡­"She whimpered.

    "What do you want, my love?"

    "More. I want more."

    He moved his hand slowly over the edge of her lips, feeling the heat from her body warming the tips of his fingers. He slowly pressed inward, lubricating himself with her own fluids while massaging her. Then, he moved his----- hand back up and spread her lips open slightly using his index and ring fingers.

    Rena acted as though lightning had sent a shock through her body as his middle finger slowly began to rub her clitoris in a circr motion, first slowly to get her used to the sensation. In response, she began to slowly rock her hips, inciting him to move faster. Discover more stories at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    As her breathing became quicker, he moved to kiss her on the neck again. His movements became easier and faster as Rena''s excitement grew. He felt her hands grip his hair and squeeze, her toes beginning to curl.

    "It''s okay, my love, finish. We have more to go." He breathed into her ear seductively.

    With that simple phrase, she let out a loud moan. The moment her back settled into the sheets once more, Lucius gave her a mischievous grin and slid down her body. His fingers entered her, curling towards her belly a short distance inside her.

    As he flexed his fingers back and forth, slowly so as to taunt her and let her breathing return to normal, he kissed a slow trail down her abdomen. He slowly began to tease her with his tongue and mixed in slight suction.

    Rena''s hands gripped his hair even tighter as she cried out, "Lucius, please¡­ I¡­"

    Encouraged by the sounds of pleasure she emitted, he increased his pace. Her legs squeezed around him as her insides pulsated around his fingers.

    "Fuck¡­ Lucius!" She shouted while throwing her head back.

    Satisfied that things would be easier now, he removed his fingers and mouth from her and positioned his body over her; the separation between their faces was almost nonexistent.

    "Please¡­ inside me. I need you, Lucius. I want you, now." With unexpected speed, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a kiss. Her hips slightly bucking from anticipation. Lucius lowered himself, the stiffness of his body surprising her.

    "Rena¡­" He moaned as she epted him into her. For a moment, there was resistance, though it quickly faded. Rena gasped, and her fingernails dug slightly into him. Lucius waited for her to rx before beginning to move.

    The sensation of being inside her was like none other. Their bodies blended together in perfect harmony. Her passion and pleasure are being shared with the world through gasps and moans. Lucius, too, felt an indescribable amount of pleasure as he pumped himself in and out of her.

    "More! I need more!"

    "Okay." His voice was hoarse. He had been desperately holding himself back slightly for her sake, but it seemed pointless.

    Endeavoring to fulfill his and his lover''s desires, Lucius sat up on his knees and pulled her closer to him. Rena began rocking her hips, desperate to not lose the sensation of his being. With a deep chuckle, he ced his hands around her hips and pulled himself into her with force.

    Skin pping against skin jumbled together with Lucius''s groans were both drowned out only by Rena''s own cries. She continued to beg for more pleasure, wing at her sheets, her knuckles white from the force of her grip.

    "Rena, I¡­"

    "Me too. Me too¡­"

    "Should I¡­"

    "Never leave me, Lucius. Please."

    After begging for him to stay, she wrapped her legs tightly around him. Lucius was more than happy to give her what she wanted, no matter the consequence, so he returned to a more passionate position and continued pushing into her. As he reached his climax, so too did she. Rena began to cry out one more time, and to seal her mouth closed, he kissed her.

    His hips twitched as he released his essence inside her while Rena tightened the hold she had around his waist with her legs.

    When he finished, he rolled over, pulling her on top of him. He panted, feeling exhausted from the exertion in the tournament as well as the passionate experience they shared. Rena panted but had a bright, satisfied smile on her face. Lucius stretched his hand and turned out themp so they could rest properly.

    He tried to remove himself from Rena so she couldyfortably, but she threw a pout on her face andined, "I thought I told you not to leave me¡­"

    "But don''t you want to sleep? From what I understand sses start tomorrow for you and¡­"

    His voice was cut short by her finger pressing into his lips. "Hush. I will sleep like this. I think I have earned that much at least¡­ my husband."

    Lucius could only smile at the spoiled girl. "Of course, my love."

 Chapter 171: The Morning After

    A ray of sunlight awoke Rena. She rubbed a little bit of sleep from her eyes and began to sit up. Seeing as it was the first day of sses, only the new students were up already; most of the older students, like herself, did not have sses until around noon, which meant she still had a little time.

    When she tried to stand, she felt a pinch ofint from the muscles around her hips. At that moment, memories of the night before flooded her mind, raising the temperature of her face by several degrees. Over in the corner of her room, she heard the sound of rustling clothes.

    Standing there, looking at her, was the man of her dreams. He was only slightly taller than she was and had shaggy ck hair and piercing eyes. Though he was not a bodybuilder, he was nicely toned and defined. She stood and walked over to him, holding his face between both hands, testing to make sure he was real.

    "Good morning, my love." He said with a smile before leaning in to give her a kiss. "Perhaps we should get ready."

    She wordlessly nodded her head and gathered together her clothes. Realizing that he was all hers now, she cheekily decided to turn around and watch him get dressed. However, what she saw made her gasp.

    His back was marked and burned beyond belief. There were more scars than she could bare to count, several of them stretched along the entirety of his body. Rena found herself being pulled to him, and she hugged him from behind.

    "What happened to you?" she asked quietly.

    "The reason you were told I was dead is because someone tried very hard to make it happen," Lucius answered inly. "It was no ident, and it was nned."

    "Do you know who?"

    "I do."

    "Does Lyrah know?"

    "I don''t know."

    "Are you going to tell me?"

    Lucius chuckled and turned around, giving her another kiss. "No. At least not yet. The knowledge is not yours to bare just yet. Please let me grant you a small amount of peace before I tell you."

    "Okay. I trust you, Lucius."

    They finished getting ready. Apparently, her husband had readied himself a set of clothes in his storage ring. He was wearing the academy''s uniform, which was a pair of ck pants meant for both standard school work and training. The knees had leather patches on them for wear prevention. The shirts were white button-ups for men and blouses for women.

    They, too, had leather patches, though on the outside of the elbow.

    A pair of leather boots and a belt for holding your practice weapon finished the ensemble. Lucius had clipped his actual weapon to it by mistake, though.

    "Lucius, you are supposed to equip a practice sword instead of your¡­"

    "I''m just as capable of killing someone with my magic and my bare hands as I am with this weapon. It stays." He answered, cutting her off.

    Rena simply shrugged and decided that it was his problem to work out with the school staff and not hers. When they walked into the hall of the female dorms, they were greeted by dozens of sets of eyes. All the girls on this floor seemed to have congregated outside of Rena''s room. Many of their eyes were wide, and a lot of faces were flushed.

    "What''s the matter?"

    Lucius cleared his throat. "I''m guessing the walls of the dormitory are thin."

    He grabbed her by the hand and weaved through the gaggle of female students who wanted to catch a glimpse of the man who had won Rena''s heart. She had made herself known for not getting along with anyone at the academy, save Lyrah and Natali, and yet this man had not only gotten into her good graces¡­ but her heart as well.

    Lyrah and Natali were waiting for them outside of the dormitory. Lyrah had a massive grin on her face. Natali had no expression, as usual for her in public. However, Rena did notice the asional nces she kept stealing at Lucius.

    "So, shall we head to ss? From what I know, we got lucky, and brother dearest¡­ I mean, Lucius is in our ss."

    Everyone nodded and began to follow Lyrah to their ssroom. Natali walked slightly behind her while Rena took a position right next to her friend.

    "Lucius, would you mind keeping Natalipany back there? Walking more than two wide is considered rude here in the academy." Rena said.

    Lucius simply nodded and walked beside the maid, whose face was starting to turn slightly pink.

    Discover hidden content at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    "Rena¡­ know that I am your best friend when I say this¡­ but maybe you should check the mirror more frequently before you leave your room?" Lyrah said while tapping the side of her neck.

    "[Lux: Heal]," Rena said in a panic, healing the marks that were peppering her neck. She thanked her best friend profusely for saving her from a modicum of embarrassment.

    After a few minutes, they found themselves in their ssroom. For Rena and the girls, this was the fourth year they had been assigned to this exact ssroom. However, there were a handful of new students in the room this year.

    Of the new students, a few were actually Marked Ones, though most were transfers from other academies hoping to get another chance at facing ''Titan'' in battle.

    It seemed that among the popce, they had thought the barrier was weakened by the strain of maintaining it all day. What Rena believed is that some of the mages who were in charge of powering the barrier felt slighted that it was broken by someone of a low rank, so they fabricated an excuse.

    Put simply, many of themon people believe that Lucius''s victory in the final match was a fluke. A mistake they would likely learn soon.

    "Well, well. If it isn''t my dear cousin, Rena. It seems you finally reunited with that worthless bodyguard of yours after all." Thomas was apparently in their ss as well.

    "Thomas, it seems you were not paying attention at the banquet, or maybe you left early to entertain the maids¡­ but Lucius is not my bodyguard." Rena red at her cousin who blocked their way. "He is my husband."

    The ssroom had filled with people by this point and all their conversations came to a sudden halt. What Rena had announced was that a member of a noble family had married amoner and a Marked One. At least that was what they believed. Lucius''s family name had not made it out of the castle yet, the same as their marriage.

    Thomas sneered. "Is that so. Well seeing as how you married amoner, then its fine if I do this!"

    Thomas reached for the choker around her neck, something he was acutely aware of being precious to her, though he did not know the reason. Before anyone could react, there was a small crackling sound and the smell of ozone that filled the room.

    A loud crack came from the wall to her right. Lucius had moved from his position behind her and took Thomas by the throat. He held him aloft and pinned to the wall with one hand. Crackles of electricity flicked around Lucius''s body. Several threatened to zap Thomas but at thest second they would pass by him and strike the wall instead.

    "Do not touch her." Lucius growled. His eyes were trained directly at Thomas, not caring that their professor had entered the room. "Hey Thomas¡­ remember Vik and Peter?"

    "What are you¡­" Thomas tried to choke out.

    "Do you not remember? I asked you all a question that day in the forest. ''What resides in the Abyss?'' They found out¡­ if you are not careful, so will you."

    "Lord Kane, Lady Kane. Please return to your chosen seats. We do not care for violence in the ssroom. Should you and Lord Petra wish to settle differences, please do so in your practical courses."

 Chapter 172: More Transfers

    Desmond woke in his temporary room at the dorms of the Arcadios Royal Academy. ncing to the table at his bedside, he once again saw a letter that had been addressed to him.

    After the banquet at the castle, he returned with his sister to the Arcadios Royal Academy. He had hoped to speak with Titan, or rather, Lucius Kane, before returning to his quarters, but he disappeared from the party with his new wife before Desmond could catch up to him.

    When Desmond did return to his room, he found the letter sitting in the center of his bed. On it was his name and a stamp of a shattered sphere of some kind. As mysterious as the presentation of the letter was, the stranger part was its contents:

    ~ Desmond Adler,

    We observed your performance at today''s Exhibition Tournament and appreciated what we saw. You made your desires known to the world, yet you lost your best chance of achieving them.

    Hope is not lost for you. There is another chance for you and your sister, Jade Adler. The paperwork has already been filed; all you need to do is sign the final documents at the registration offices, and you will be a student at the Arcadios Royal Academy.

    If you do this and await further instruction, then we will ensure your sister has a happy, normal life the way you want it to be. Should you ept, the first thing we wish for you to do is to approach ''Titan'' also known as Lord Lucius Kane. Befriend him and support him.

    More instructions wille. Wait for them and know that we are always watching. ~

    The document did not have a name; the only identifier was the broken sphere on the outside of the envelope. The entire thing was suspicious. However, when he went to registration earlier today, he found that the paperwork for his and his sister''s transfer had beenpleted.

    It had taken him no time at all to sign the documents with Jade and ept the transfer fully. Since they had only just be students, they were allowed to wait until tomorrow to start sses. He had returned to his dorm and fell back asleep to take advantage of the extra time.

    Now that he was awake, he focused more on the implications of what he had done. Without so much as consulting his sister or any of his teachers, he unterally decided to ept a mysterious offer from a letter that someone had snuck into his room. Perhaps it was the shock of losing his only other clear chance at achieving his goals, but he felt like he had certainly jumped the gun.

    "I suppose it is easier to be wise after the event¡­" He mumbled.

    There was a light knock on the door, so he called out to let the person know they could enter. His sister, Jade Adler, stepped inside and greeted him with a kind smile.

    "I figured you would be awake and questioning your life''s decisions." Jade teased. Find adventures at m_v l|e-NovelBin

    "Yeah, well¡­"

    "You know you are going to give yourself an ulcer for always questioning yourself. Desmond, you havee so far doing things the way you have been. Why question it now?" She asked pointedly.

    "I question everything, always¡­ well, almost everything. Saving you from our family is one thing I will never question," Desmond expressed.

    "So you always say, but¡­"

    "Jade." He stood up and cut her off. "As my younger twin sister, the way they treated you affected me as well. We are the same, and after all you have endured, you deserve happiness. You deserve a normal life after the childhood you suffered. I will make it happen."

    Jade simply grinned and gestured for him to continue getting ready. She then excused herself and left the room. Her room was the one next to his for now, but now that they were students, she would be reassigned to the female dormitory for a permanent room.

    Desmond continued to get ready again, putting on recement academy clothes to match the Arcadios Royal Academy rather than his old ones from Keinydd. While doing so, he was upied with thoughts of how in the world he was supposed to get close to Lord Kane.

    While the man maintained a positive demeanor at the party, it was clear he was putting on a face. Desmond had the sneaking suspicion that the way he was acting as Titan in the tournament was his true personality, rather than the noble face at the party.

    A hint of that true personality leaked out when he reintroduced himself to the leaders of the Union and King Verdayl. Something else he had noticed was the shift in confidence from the Union leaders after he announced his house. Something was going on with House Kane that worried them for some reason.

    Not only that, but even Rena''s father, who held a clear distaste for the young man, changed his demeanor. In the beginning, he looked ready to rip Lord Kane to shreds, but after his announcement¡­ that anger turned into frustration as if something held him back¡­ but what?

    "You." A rough, feminine voice called out to him as he exited his dorms. He was about to walk up to his sister, who had been waiting outside, but someone seemed to want his attention.

    "Yes?" He answered while turning to face the person. She was a beastman woman with wolf ears on her head and blonde hair with gray eyes. Her expression was that of curiosity, and she was clearly sizing him up.

    "You fought against Rena and Thomas in the tournament, right?" She asked.

    "I did."

    "Would you say they were strong?"

    "Well, I lost to Thomas, so¡­"

    "I don''t think that was reflective of his strength but rather your inability to resist his taunting." The woman said. "Anyway, I came to fetch your sister. The professor who leads the sses she''s assigned to is having a gathering of transfer students, and they are all required to be in attendance. That includes her."

    "What professor is that?"

    "Professor Carmichael. I am his assistant, Kalliope." The girl almost seemed like she spat the word assistant out as if it left a bad taste in her mouth.

    Desmond wondered if it was because she didn''t like the Professor. It really didn''t matter either way since he requested Jade''s presence; she had to go. Desmond was still free all day, so he elected to follow. Kalliope did not seem to mind him following, so he allowed the woman to lead them through the academy to wherever the professor was gathering the students.

    When they got to the ssroom, the very person he was supposed to meet with was there as well. Lord Kane stood at the edge of the room, away from the other students. Kalliope''s mood seemed to flip aroundpletely when she saw him, and she practically skipped to his side.

    All the students in the ssroom intrigued him because they all shared one thing. Every student was a Marked One, including Lord Kane. He had forgotten that he was a Marked One from all the excitement of the day yesterday, but the reminder served to calm Desmond''s nerves a little. Since he was a Marked One, it was likely he was more down-to-earth and approachable than other nobles.

    "This will be much easier to get along with him. Thank the gods¡­" Desmond said under his breath.

 Chapter 173: Old Man

    Lucius''s eyes settled on the two new arrivals to the meeting room. Kalliope had been sent by Wally to fetch ast-minute registration, but it seemed someone else had tagged along. The two people who followed her were a pair of siblings, twins, no doubt, with vibrant violet hair and blue eyes.

    The woman had a mark on her left hand, while the man looked slightly familiar. It took him a few moments, but then Lucius remembered that the man was a contestant in the tournament, and he had defeated Rena. Lucius watched the fight closely and respected the contestant''s honor. However, honor alone was useless without the strength to back it up.

    "Lord Kane, a pleasure to meet you." The violet-haired man walked up to him immediately for an introduction. "My name is Desmond Adler. This is my sister, Jade Adler. It is a pleasure to finally meet you."

    "Yeah, cut the formalities. I don''t like it. Save the fluffed-up speech for parties."

    Though he was abrasive, Desmond responded with a smirk. "Got it, I like it better that way. You can call me Desmond, then. Do you prefer Lucius or Titan?"

    "Lucius is my name. Titan is for work."

    "What work?"

    "ssified."

    "Understood. Anyway, I found a strange letter on my bed and wanted to know if you knew anything about it." Desmond said while pulling out a letter.

    On the outside of the letter was a cracked and broken sphere. The contents were somewhat concerning. It appeared someone wanted Lucius to be watched; however, the only identifier was the strange symbol, and he did not recognize it.

    "Do you mind if I keep this? I want to have some people look into it."

    Desmond gave him an affirmative wave. "Sure, do with it as you please. I will let you know of any other letters thate my way. I don''t enjoy secrecy and games such as this. I was interested in getting to know you before the letter."

    "Why is that?" Lucius questioned with a raised eyebrow. Desmond was certainly interesting as a person.

    "You are a powerful noble in Eroa; connected to one of the strongest warriors on the continent¡­ I want to get my sister to Eroa, and I think working with you might be a good way to do it." Desmond stated inly. "Well, think about it; I''ll talk with youter."

    "A pleasure, Lord Kane," Jade said while giving a slight bow.

    Lucius eyed the woman as she followed her brother to a set of open seats. Other students flocked around them, men around Jade and the women around Desmond. At first, Lucius was interested in how he would react to speaking to so many Marked Ones at once, but as Lucius had assumed, Desmond waspletelyfortable.

    "Kalliope. Take this and notify some of our contacts in the capital. Also, contact Kalivas and ask him to have some people look into this. Whatever you do, don''t let anyone know that you have this. People have been tailing me non-stop, and I don''t want to deal with them right now."

    "Got it."

    Kalliope secreted the letter away in her armor and exited the room hastily. She breezed past Wally, who was about to enter the room and start the meeting. Wally gave Lucius a single nce, then shrugged and allowed Kalliope to continue on her way.

    King Verdayl had told him that Wally was aware of much of their circumstances and that they would be performing tasks on behalf of the King''s Shadow on an irregr basis. All Wally had to do was take the Kalliope in as an assistant and let her and Lucius do what they needed, within reason. Enjoy new adventures from m-v l''e|-NovelBin

    "Lord Kane¡­" Wally started.

    "Wally,e on, you used to beat the snot out of me as a kid; just call me Lucius."

    His words made the old man smile. "Alright, Lucius¡­ please remove your sword, academy rules state¡­"

    "Wally, you know as well as I do that having my weapon on me or not on me does not matter. I''m just as capable of killing someone with my fists or a random object as I am my de."

    Wally opened his mouth to say something but then decided against it. It seemed that Lucius had won the argument, much to the old man''s chagrin.

    After a short exnation of the department''s expectations for students, Wally greeted each one individually. He took down their names, backgrounds, and marks so that he had a good understanding of who they were as people. He was able to get a lot of that from their applications, but that was simply not who the old man was.

    "Lucius¡­ before you leave. Shall we have a sparring contest?" Wally was looking at him with a cocky grin.

    As much as Lucius wanted to, he knew it would be foolish to try and fight him¡­ but it would also be fun to see how much he had grown. Thest time he tested his mettle against Wally was when he was a young teenager.

    "Alright. Let''s do it."

    "Should we fetch your wife to watch, or would it be too embarrassing to have your ass trounced in front of her?"

    Lucius felt his eye twitch slightly at his old master''s shenanigans. He was always like this. However, it was one of the reasons he came to respect the old man. He was not afraid to act true to himself, even when doing so would reflect poorly on him.

    They agreed to meet in the main training grounds, which are centralized in the academy''s main garden. The sparring session would be in a few hours. Wally''s reasoning was that he had other tasks to finish first; however, a part of Lucius already knew that the real reason was him wanting to let the rumor spread throughout the academy.

    The old man definitely wanted the entire school to bear witness to Professor Wally Carmichael beating the absolute snot out of Lucius. He had no confidence in his victory, but he felt that he could hold his own better than the first time. All that remained to be seen was how much he would hold back. Letting loose too much would reveal information that Wally liked to keep hidden.

 Chapter 174: Old Versus Young

    Wally stood in the middle of the training ground at the heart of the academy. It was a circr arena depressed into the ground. Seats for viewing were ced around it, while stairs to descend into the arena were ced exactly opposite one another.

    Lucius walked down the steps, having donned his standard-issue armor, though he chose to leave off the mask, cloak, and hood. Wally wore his typical robes, as he did while being a professor. His bald head glistened in the sun, and his mouth was turned into a massive grin.

    "Ah, doesn''t this bring back memories, Lucius? The days of me beating your rotten head to a pulp because you could not seem to grasp my lessons." Wally taunted. "Though it seems you were able to learn something from someone. Was I not a good enough teacher for you?"

    Lucius grinned. "Not at all, Wally. I just found that the best teacher was experience."

    Hundreds of students and several members of the staff had gathered in the viewing area. Rena was also present. She knew how this was going to end, yet she still showed up to support Lucius.

    "I promise I will love you even with a few missing limbs!" She shouted from above.

    Lucius shook his head and got into a ready position. He had recovered his mana by this point and would be able to go all out without concern. However, he would not be able to drop his Overcharge ability, even if he wanted to. There was also the slight issue that neither of them wanted to kill each other, so his deadlier abilities were out of the question¡­

    "Don''t worry about me, Lucius. Show me everything you have¡­um, except for the one that shattered the barrier¡­ let''s avoid that one."

    He nodded in agreement and watched as a white-haired maid walked down the steps. She moved to a small rectangr stage on one side of the arena where the referee was to stand. After she got into position, she quickly turned and threw a dagger into the stone between Lucius and Wally.

    The speed at which she threw the weapon surprised Lucius, as he had not expected such skill from a maid. He quickly noted that the girl was not to be underestimated in the future.

    "Alright, Lucius. When Miss Natali''s dagger vanishes from between us, the battle will start. To give you a handicap, I won''t use my channeling." Wally instructed.

    The next few seconds were tense as Lucius kept his eyes split between the dagger and the old man. Speed was his specialty, so he intended to capitalize on that here.

    From the small referee stage, Lucius heard Natali, the maid, snap her fingers. Instantly, the dagger vanished, and Lucius lunged towards Wally. Lightning wrapped around his body and was switching between red and blue streaks. The air crackled, and the sky rumbled as a result of the Thunder Magic''s intensity.

    Wally appeared genuinely surprised by Lucius''s power and speed and had to jump backward to gain time to cast a spell. He also elected to cast a rare type of magic just as umon as Lucius''s Thunder Magic.

    "[Eruptio: Magma Field]"

    The ground below their feet rapidly heated up and began to liquefy. Lucius''s footing became uneasy, slowing him down as the heat and give ruined his timing. Forced to leap away to avoid being swallowed up by the field of molten rock beginning to form around Wally, he growled in frustration.

    "Damn." He grunted while pointing his sword at Wally. Mana condensed around the tip of his de, and a bolt of lightning fired towards the old man.

    "[Eruptio: Magma Tendrils]"

    A dozen writing tentacles made from the molten earth shot out of the magma field and blocked Lucius''s attack. Hot magma sttered around the arena, forcing Lucius to make efforts to dodge being hit. Though his attack destroyed most of the tendrils, they were able to stop his attack.

    "You see, boy. Thunder Magic is strong. Earth Magic of the same level is too weak to stand up to its strength. And I feel the intensity of your lightning would turn metal magic into molten g. So, I figured I would fight you with this. First time, right?"

    Lucius simply growled in response and began to run in circles around Wally. He was frustrated that he had not made the old man move, let alone did so little he felt like he had the time to teach.

    Lucius dodged several swipes from the remaining Magma Tendrils. A few came close, but Lucius was able to knock them away using Thunderp infused into the snaps of his fingers.

    As the battle continued, options for a way were getting fewer and fewer. Wally''s Magma Tendrils continued to grow out of the Magma Field, which seemed to contain an unlimited amount of the stuff. It was during this point that he wished he had another type of magic to counter. Ice magic would be perfect to turn the liquid material back into a solid.

    "Urgh!" Lucius expended a massive amount of mana and began to drag his sword along the ground. He ran a circle around Wally. With every ng of his weapon striking the stone surface, Lucius sent out a Thunderp aimed directly at the old man.

    Bits of Magma flew everywhere and collided with the barrier around the arena, keeping the audience and referee safe from any blowoff frombat. As Lucius had feared, the massive waves of force blew away the field between him and the old man, but it only took care of the surface. The magma was too deep for him to truly blow it away, which meant he was forced to fight at range.

    The old man had him right where he wanted him. There was still one option, though it would be difficult. He also couldn''t use it voicelessly yet¡­

    Lucius gritted his teeth and decided to go ahead and use it. Through his Channeling, he pushed his Forsaken Arts and Thunder Magic into a spell he had not used yet in battle. Lucius raised his weapon into the sky and shouted, "[Tempestas: Roaring Thunder]!"

    The sky darkened, and the bright sun suddenly vanished under gray storm clouds. A bolt of lightning surged down from the sky, connecting with his de.

    Lucius''s weapon began to glow blue, then shed to red, then back again. Meanwhile, Wally waved his hand and sent dozens more Magma Tendrils at him. Thankfully, they were scattered apart from the waves of mana pouring off of him.

    Lucius lowered his weapon, aimed it at his master, and released the spell. Right in front of his weapon, a head of a dragon made purely of lightning with glowing red eyes and red streaks down its neck formed. The dragon roared in anger, vibrating the ground, and flew into Wally. It forced aside dozens and dozens more Magma Tendrils without effort, making Wally smile.

    "Good show, but¡­ "[Tempestas: Thunderp]," Wally said with a huge smile at the same time as pping his hands together.

    A glowing dragon made of red and blue lightning suddenly met a wall of force and was forced back. It was able to resist the pressure of the man''s spell for a second but then was scattered into nothing. Lucius felt as the spell collided with his body and threw him into the wall, making him nearly pass out.

    There were a few ufortable cracking sounds, but he was unsure if it was the stone or his bones. Natali raised her hand in the air and voicelessly pointed at the old man, indicating his win. Rena ran down into the arena and hurriedly cast several healing spells. For a moment, he felt as though someone was ring at him, but the pain was affecting his ability to think.

    "Good job, boy. You got very strong, but you have a while to go yet!" Wally said with a grin.

    Lucius gave him a smile. For once, defeat wasn''t so bad¡­ but to think¡­ he didn''t even use channeling. "I''m going to beat that man silly one day." Heughed.

 Chapter 175: Tailed

    Kalliope had just finished delivering the strange letter to Kalivas at the embassy. The king''s party was going to be in town for one more day before they returned to Eroa, so it was fortunate that Desmond came forward with the letter as quickly as he did.

    Enjoy new tales from mvl

    After bidding a series of long goodbyes to Kalivas, she began her trek back to the academy. There was still arge presence of people throughout the city, and they would trickle out over the course of a week or so. Most of the important people would be leaving within the next day or so.

    Some people thought that Kalliope would leave the city even sooner than that, but they felt themselves sneaky enough to surpass her heightened senses. They were doing a very good job staying out of range of her hearing, however their scents lingered. If they had swapped out observers while she was in the embassy, she might not have noticed, but since their scents remained, she could pick them out.

    Kalliope was a warrior, not a spy, however she was trained in some useful skills for that trade. One of those skills was how to lose a tail¡­ a skill she was not going to be using. Rather she began to weave through town on a specific path, not to lose them, but to make them anxious about losing her that they close the distance.

    Spying on a beastman like her was risky because you had to bnce distance from their senses with being able to keep a reliable tail. The paths she was taking by weaving through a mixture of small streets andrge roads yed on that requirement and made them forget the sensory range over maintaining their tracking.

    When they finally got closer enough for her to pick up their movements with her ears, she was able to get a good count on the number. It seemed there were at least three of them following her. She was not able to determine their strength, so an attempt to fight them off alone would be risky¡­

    "Titan," she whispered as she touched her ear while pretending to scratch her head. At that moment, she was trying to look like she was lost to make her strange pathing make sense. "I have a tail¡ªat least three. Strength unknown. Permission to engage?"

    "Permission Granted. Provide me your location."

    After giving Lucius her rough location, she began a route that would allow her to corner her followers. Before they arrived in the capital, Titan made her and a few others memorize the maps of the current streetyouts. Thanks to that, she had the map of each road she needed to aplish her task.

    With one final update to Titan for her current location, she turned two more corners and came face to face with three people in dark gray clothing. They were all wearing cloth masks, but they were distinctly human. Something about their clothing smelled¡­ strangely herbal.

    "Alright. So, you''ve been following me since the academy. Who are you, I can already tell you aren''t from the Wisteria Concord." Kalliope asked.

    They chose to remain silent, as they should have done, but that didn''t work for her. Kalliope kept her weapons sheathed, but she quietly flexed her hands and prepared her sharpened nails for an attack.

    "[Beast Arts: Predator''s Presence]"

    All three of the stalkers visibly tensed as a response to the skill. One of them even looked behind him for a beast that was not there. Kalliope took that moment to rush after the one that looked back. Her right hand was outstretched and grabbed him by the back of the neck while her left hand prepared for a follow-up attack.

    The other two were visibly surprised at the speed of her attack and could not react as she mmed her first target face-first into the dirt.

    "[Dagger Arts: Quick Strike]"

    One of the other two managed to recover quick enough tounch a strike at her, but his dagger bounced off the metal bracer on her left arm. Though his attack used an Art, she was able to deflect the blow with the proper angle. However, her bracer cracked, and her arm hurt, so it was likely she would not be able to do that a second time.

    "Rargh!" fur grew along her face, neck, and body as she began to shift. Her eyes took on a more lupine form, and her muscles nearly doubled in size.

    Gravel sprayed along the street as she pounced on the man who tried to use his dagger. Unfortunately, all she caught was air as he saw her attacking. Kalliope refused to give up and continued to swipe with her hands which now had sharpened ws instead of fingernails due to her shifting.

    "Damnit! [Ventus: Wind de]"

    Kalliope narrowly dodged the spell, which took a chunk of her hair as it passed by her and carved into the side of a building. Two more Wind des came at her in rapid session, with one connecting across her left shoulder. Blood sprayed into the air from the hit, but her adrenaline kept her from feeling the pain.

    Seeing that the attack failed to take her out, the two conscious fighters nced around as though they were preparing to flee.

    "[Lux: Enhanced Speed], [Lux: Enhanced Strength]"

    Kalliope growled out two Light Magic spells and felt her body surge with more power. The two men looked even more scared and started to turn. However, they stopped when they saw two people in dark leather armor with hoods, cloaks, and mouth coverings.

    It seemed that Lucius had ryed her location to some of their agents in the capital, and they came to assist. Kalliope could have taken the two men, but she was grateful for the help in preventing her from having to track them down.

    "Now. You are going to tell us who you are."

    "Never, you damn mutt¡­ urgh!"

    While they tried to be defiant, they were unable to react as Kalliope vanished from her ce and reappeared behind them, right in between them. They each took a swift punch in the stomach that was hard enough to knock them out cold.

    "That''s three. Take them to the safehouse, I''ll contact the Commander to let him know we have guests."

    The two King''s Shadow agents nodded silently and moved to collect the men. Kalliope looked around for a moment and sniffed the air. Other than these three, no one else seemed to stand out, so she released her spells and shifted back to normal. For a moment, she felt sorry for what was about to happen.

 Chapter 176: The Church

    Lucius rubbed his chest, still feeling sore after his fight with Wally earlier in the day. Though Rena had worked her healing magic, his muscles still remembered the pain of being smacked by Wally''s Thunderp spell.

    Wally was a master of all Elemental magic which meant he could use the four primary elements of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water. He could also use all four Transcendent magic; Metal, Thunder, Magma, and Ice. Because of those skills, he could counter almost any kind of magic user. On top of that, the old codger could use Channeling.

    Basically, Lucius was doomed from the start. However, it was a good test of his skills. He was happy with his performance, though he also realized that he needed to find a way to counter Magma Magic. Though it was about as rare as Thunder Magic, it was a perfect counter to him when used correctly.

    Continue your saga on mvl

    None of that mattered at that moment, though. What was more important were the three men tied to chairs in the safehouse the King''s Shadow set up in the Arcadian capital.

    What was more interesting was in the men''s belongings were pins that indicated they were affiliated with the Church of Celestia. Lucius had not had the displeasure of interacting with many of their members. It was the dominant religion on the continent, but since he was a Marked One, their most devout, as well as their priesthood and nunnery, avoided him like the gue.

    Their higher-level clergy interacted very regrly with nobility to obtainrge donations from their wealthier adherents. Now that he was a recognized noble, they were forced to interact with him in the future.

    "You," Lucius said while pping one of the men awake. "Why did you follow my subordinate."

    The man spit onto Lucius''s ck mask in defiance and remained silent. Such behavior earned him a punch to the gut. Painful, but not enough to cause injury.

    "If that''s how we wish to do it." He said, "Once more, why did you follow¡­"

    Before he could finish the question, the man began to prepare to spit again. However, Lucius would not stand for that behavior. Right as the man puckered his lips to aim the strike, Lucius''s de shed across his neck as fast as his Thunder Magic spells.

    A wet thud woke the other two men, who turned and saw their now headless partner. One of them screamed and fainted while the other stared in silent horror.

    "Alright, since you''re awake. You tell me what he wouldn''t. Why did you follow my subordinate." He pushed a little mana into his voice, causing a faint rumble inside the house that rattled the furniture and caused much of the dishware to click together.

    "We were ordered to keep an eye on you and your servants. A Marked One of nobility was something our leaders could not tolerate. They wanted us to ensure that you were not lying about your heritage."

    "How were you going to deduce that by following Kalliope?"

    "It was our thought that if we caught her doing something illicit, then we could petition the king tounch a formal inquiry into your background." The man said, his voice quivering with fear. "That was all we were told to do. Follow your subordinates and then report everything they did."

    Lucius nodded in understanding and began to pace the room, thinking. The logic simply was not there. Launching a formal inquiry would not do much because his noble house was from another country. It would be on Eroa to perform the inquiry. Even then, it would not do anything. It was King Verdayl himself who inaugurated him into House Kane.

    Even if he was not blood-rted to Kalivas, he was given the name of Kane, so by all rights, he was a noble.

    That meant whoever issued orders to these men lied to them. They were after something else. That much was clear already.

    "What else do you know?"

    "The church refuses to ept a Marked One as a noble."

    "Good for them. I''m a noble of a country that does not have arge church presence, so do what you will with that. Anything else?"

    "Are you going to let me go?"

    "No."

    Lucius put his hand on the man''s head as he started to shout and beg for him to be released. No matter how hard he twisted, kicked, bucked, or moved, Lucius''s hand maintained a solid connection with his face. Lucius activated his magic and sent a constant flow of electricity into the man''s body, forcing him to convulse uncontrobly.

    After a few seconds, the convulsing slowed, and soon, it became clear that the body was only reacting to the electricity and no longer contained life. The smell of burnt flesh and boiled eyes filled the air.

    Kalliope puckered her nose in disgust while Lucius simply looked at the two dead bodies. "Hey, Kalliope, do you think the beheading is better or the electrocution? I heard a head stays active for a few seconds¡­ but I''m not really sure¡­"

    "If you''re going to do it in an enclosed space, go with the beheading. Burnt flesh is disgusting." Sheined. "Also, with how well-behaved you''ve beentely, I almost forgot how¡­"

    "How what, Kalliope?" He interrupted. His eyes shed momentarily.

    "Forget it." She sighed.

    Lucius figured the third person did not know much else, so while he was still passed out from fear, he swiftly separated the man''s head from his body. Maybe Kalliope had a point. This was better from a smell standpoint, at least.

    "Monitor the church''s movements. Keep an eye out for any more of their spies. They''ll likely have simr pins as these fools. It''s like their badges. If anyone has to engage them, do so quickly and quietly. I would rather not interrupt Rena''s school life by having to return to Eroa due to one of my subordinates misbehaving." He ordered.

    "She''sing with?"

    "She''s my wife, Kalliope."

    "What about me, though? You''ll be taking me next, right?"

    Lucius sighed. "A discussion for ater time. Have the men clean this up. Burn the bodies and dispose of them¡­hmmm¡­"

    He walked over to where the pins they collected were. After picking them up and thumbing them in his hand for a bit, he walked over to the bodies and dipped them in the blood pooling on the ground.

    "ce these on the steps of the grand cathedral at night as a warning."

 Chapter 177: Bloody Present

    Father Urd stepped outside the Grand Cathedral to greet a bright, shining morning sun, just as he had done hundreds of times since. The air was crisp and fresh, and the sounds of the city had yet to taint the calm.

    However, something seemed off. There was a slight breeze, and it carried a strange metallic smell. Urd nced around for the source to no avail but then felt something underfoot. He noticed a partially dried, red liquid under his feet as well as three small pieces of metal.

    Panic set in as he immediately recognized them as items that identified members of the priesthood to one another. These three, in particr, were rather umon to find as they were given to special members of their church who specialized in collecting information.

    Father Urd used to be one of these specialists when he was much younger, which was how he was able to recognize them for what they were so quickly.

    He bent down to pick them up and discovered they were coated in blood. Allmon sense pointed to the fact that the blood belonged to the men who used to possess these pins, and that thought made him say a quick prayer to the gods above.

    "Please open the gates and ept the souls of our brethren with open arms." He mumbled quietly.

    Urd then gathered the pins and cast a simple water spell to wash away the bloodstains. "[Aqua: Water Ball]"

    Satisfied the blood was gone, he rushed inside the ornate building once again. Its floors were made of white marble, and its walls were a beautiful stone. Countless paintings by famous artists throughout history lined the halls, and gorgeous carpets quieted his steps as he hurried toward his office.

    Once inside, he pulled a book from a hiddenpartment underneath his desk and thumbed through the pages. While he used to run information-gathering missions for the Church of Celestia, he now handled the assignments of their information-gatherers. Currently, only a handful of men were assigned to the capital; the rest were on jobs elsewhere.

    On the back of the pins were secret numbers that determined the person''s identity. Most people could not see them; however, when a special charm fed mana, the numbers became visible. Urd grabbed his charm from the desk and matched the pins to three men and their mission.

    "It seems they were to track the newly announced Lord Kane, Lady Kane, and his subordinates¡­ If rumors are to be believed¡­ then they must have been caught by his people." Urd sighed while copsing into his chair.

    Though his day had only just started, he was already tired. It took him a few minutes to recover enough to start nning solutions. What those men were supposed to be looking for was anything that could be used to submit a formal request for an inquiry by the kingdom. If the church admitted to having him followed¡­ then they could use this as evidence forunching said inquiry.

    However, that was a double-edged sword as it also admitted to having a noble from a foreign ally being followed, and that would certainly be something that the King would frown upon.

    "Clever man that Lord Kane," Urd admitted. "You realized you could taunt us openly with these men''s identities and are making me choose whether or not to call your bluff."

    Urd sighed once more before he penned a letter. After he finished writing the request, he left his office and walked back through the halls. There was a dead drop location for disseminating orders just a little down the hall from his office.

    About halfway down the hall, before it hit a corner going left, there was a statue of a cherub. Urd ensured no one was around and turned the head in a clockwise direction. After doing so, the base of the statue clicked and ejected a small tray. He ced the letter in the tray and pushed it back into ce while leaving the cherub''s head turned.

    "If'' it''s a war in the shadows you want, Lord Kane. Then it''s a war in the shadows you will receive."

    Urd quickly walked away and returned to his standard duties. In a few hours, someone would pass by the statue, look for the rotation in its head, and retrieve his letter.

    While it was possible to usemunication crystals, the amount of people they would have to outfit with the items was prohibitively expensive. To purchase ones that were resistant to magical interference doubly or even triply so.

    Urd reset his expression to a neutral smile more beholden to a priest of his station and walked to the cathedral''s main worship chamber. Pews lined the sides of the main walkway, which led to a stage at the far end with a wooden lectern with intricate carvings of various gods.

    Though the gods did not have names, their followers knew they were innumerable in number. To know or assume a deity''s name was the height of hubris, so the mortal races simply worshiped the gods as a group of their own and the realm of Celestia in which they resided.

    There were many ways that worshipers celebrated the gods all around the world, and the design of the main hall reflected that. The pews and lectern existed for those who wished to participate in daily sermons. Offering bowls and braziers were also avable for those who wished to offer food, wealth, and magical items to the gods.

    Some wished to write prayers and burn them in the church''s holy mes.

    In short, there were many ways of worshiping the gods that the Church of Celestia epted. For Urd, he believed in burning prayer sheets to send the words and feelings directly to the gods. He pulled one of his daily prayers out of his robes and cast it in the fire of one of the many braziers lining the wall.

    "Watch over us as we suffer through trying times." He whispered as he watched his prayer sheet turn to ash and smoke.

 Chapter 178: Close Calls

    Voltara al Famyn nervously sipped her wine. She had returned to the Wisteria Concord only a few days ago, and every day had been nerve-wracking. At this point, she was worried she was going to develop a drinking problem.

    Back when the war first started, they had heard of a Marked One who, while able to force Alorek back and allow passage for his own team as well as several other teams behind their lines, sacrificed an unthinkable amount of lives. With the casting of a single spell, hundreds and hundreds of sparks of life were snuffed out in an instant.

    Thankfully the casualties were almost exclusively Marked Ones; however, the horror of the action was so sudden and terrifying that it had the military''s leadership scrambling for an exnation.

    After piecing together a series of eyewitness reports and corrting that information with the soldiers'' known skill sets on the field, they were able to narrow it down to a single teenage boy, Lucius, a boy with an unknown mark from Pelith.

    The boy''s name had been floating through noble circles at the time because of a romantic rtionship he had with the daughter of Richard von Petra. It was such a scandal that nearly half of the Union had heard of it within a week of the rtionship''s discovery. So, when Voltara heard that same boy was a deceptively powerful and clever fighter.

    She heard about his execution and said nothing about it, thinking it was only just given how much of a harmful element he was to their military. On top of that, Richard seemed all too happy to rid his family of a thorn that had festered in their side.

    What it turned out they had done was attempt to murder the same boy who they were warned not to betray. The heir to the House of Kane¡­

    "Shit¡­" she breathed out. Though the wine in her cup was a fine vintage, she was in such a state that she likely could not have told it apart from cheap swill served at a whorehouse.

    On her desk was a collection of reports and mission orders that would be left unfinished. The moment that she was free, she ordered her agents to cancel all operations rted to searching for information on Titan. Voltara also had to field requests from other nobles who wanted to look into Lucius Kane''s Origins.

    All of those requests would be rejected until the leaders of the Five Kings Union gathered together to determine the next steps. The question on all of their minds in the meantime: had they already fallen on their swords? If they did, then why wait for death toe when they could fight against it? However, if they were still safe, then¡­ it would be best to y nicely.

    *****

    Rubellia heard a knock at the door of the home she had lived in for many years in the past with her husband and son. When Wayne was killed, she and Lucius moved into the Petra family manor, and the home was taken back into Lord Petra''s possession. During that time they were living in the manor, no one else had moved into the small cottage.

    Thanks to that, when she moved back into the cottage after Lucius''s death, not much had changed. It was as much nice as it was painful to be back in the home. Every room reminded her of years long gone. However, after Lucius''s death, she was not sure that she would be able to work in the manor anymore, or at least not without the urge tomit a horrible crime against Richard von Petra.

    The knocking on the door had increased in speed by the time she made it to open the door. Standing there was a strange figure in ck leather armor with a fabric face covering. They wore a hood over their head as well, but it did nothing to hide the animal-like ears atop their head.

    "Are you Miss Rubellia?"

    "I am, who is asking?"

    "My Commander, Titan of the King''s Shadow, requests your presence in the kingdom''s capital."

    "Titan? King''s Shadow? What are you on about?" she asked the person. None of the things the person had said made any sense to her, but the tone of their voice made it sound like it was urgent.

    "Ma''am, I hate to rush you, but we must leave soon. We will apany you to the capital and keep you safe, but if we fail to leave on time, then we might run into¡­plications," the man said while ncing down the path back to Pelith.

    "But who are you? Who is this ''Titan'' person?"

    "Miss Rubellia¡­ the Commander asked that I show you this if you are hesitant¡­"

    Rubellia was unable to hold in the loud gasp that escaped her lips when she saw a familiar ne being held out in front of her face. It was a simple strap with a pendant shaped like a deer made out of Alpha Deer antler. It had been more than four years since shest saw it, and it was hanging around her son''s neck.

    "I can''t say much more. But I will return this keepsake to you so you can give it to it''s rightful owner, but we have to leave now."

    The man''s voice was frantic. A lot of things were not adding up, however enough of the right things were. The ne, the fact the person was clearly a beastman¡­ it had to be Lucius¡­ right?

    As she stuttered to respond, the beastman''s ears twitched, and he looked towards the woods. Rubellia stepped outside and looked in the same direction. She could not hear anything, but she felt a sickening presence and a familiar scent outside her home. It was the smell of monster bait that her husband used to make for trips into the woods. Someone was trying to lure something to her home.

    "Okay." She answered, grabbing the stranger''s hand. He quickly draped a cloak around her and picked her up in a princess carry. "I apologize for the rude behavior, but we need to go quickly. Whatever you do¡­ please don''t tell the Commander I did this when you see him¡­"

    "[Lux: Enhanced Speed]"

    Light enveloped the man''s body, and he took off as quick as an arrow away from her home. She did not have time to gather anything from the ce, but as he had warned, there was no time. When she looked back and was about to ask for a little more time, she saw a massive creature step out of the forest.

    The monster was nearly three times the size of a bear and had massive fangs that were toorge to fit in its mouth. From some angles, the creature might have resembled a pig, but the massive muscles and hulking form cast a fair amount of doubt on that presumption. Thanks to herte husband''s penchant for sharing knowledge, she was able to recognize it as a Fanged Boar immediately.

    They were supposed to be rare monsters and were considered B to A-Rank beasts, depending on their size.

    The Fanged Boar charged at her home, attracted to the bait that someone had scattered around the outside. Wood splintered and sprayed into the air as the monster rooted through thend around the house and the house itself, seeking the substance that called it out of the woods.

    Had she been inside, Rubellia would have been dead from the initial charge. Someone tried to kill her, and were it not for this strange man, they would have seeded.

 Chapter 179: Lord v Maid [Part 1]

    Natali stood in her training gear at the edge of the practice room for her practical course on weapons. She was always the first one to exit the changing rooms out of concern that other female students would pester her about her mark. Even though there were now other students with marks, four years of habit did not change immediately overnight.

    As usual, Lyrah sat next to Natali on a soft chair, enjoying a rxing break in the middle of the day. Since Natali had to attend practical courses and Lyrah did not, they had gotten permission for Lyrah to have a ''free period'' by registering her for this ss and allowing her to not participate but still receive credit. They were allowed to do this, thanks to Grandpa Wally.

    "Do you know why Grandpa hasn''t told Lucius yet?" Lyrah asked, looking up from a romance novel she was reading. The cover had a strange title that made Natali wonder how little Lyrah truly cared about how people viewed her.

    "Interesting book." A voice called out. It was a deep, masculine voice that nearly made Natali melt into a puddle right then.

    She turned and saw Lucius walking into the training room with his shirt bundled under his arm and a towel hanging around his neck. He swapped out his normal weapon for a wooden one of the same shape and size from his storage ring.

    Practical training allowed for the use of standard armaments under most circumstances now that they were all seniors, but it seemed Lucius was trying to be considerate of the other students.

    Natali had a hard time looking at the young man, however, which was why she paid so much attention to his weapon. With Lucius shirtless, she could see his toned body and an old scar along his neck and upper chest. Rena had informed her of the event that caused the injury, but it was still shocking to see. It wasn''t that it was unattractive¡­ rather, it made him more desirable.

    Lyrah finally answered Lucius''s question after smirking at Natali for staring at the man. "Yes, it is quite popr among thedies. ''Dragonfire & Desire.'' Perhaps a quick read might spice up your nights with Rena? Oh, wait. I''ve heard that it''s not needed; forgive me, dear brother."

    Over thest several days, Lyrah and Lucius have interacted a lot. At first, when she called him ''dear brother,'' he would react extremely negatively, almost to the point of physically recoiling. However, Rena had several conversations with him and told him how close she was with the rambunctious girl and her maid.

    After many conversations and a lot of Lyrah not giving up on her¡­ well, personality, Lucius finally relented to allow her to call him ''dear brother.'' Quite frankly, Natali was surprised he gave in so easily, but Lyrah said something about Rena being Lucius''s weakness.

    Apparently, whatever she wanted from him, she would get. ording to the young Oracle, they had been like that all their childhood, too. This truly made Natali jealous of her redheaded friend.

    "You know. The main heroine of this series just so happens to be one of many wives. Have you ever thought of having more than one wife, dear brother?" Lyrah continued.

    "It is amon practice in Eroa and among many beastman ns there," Lucius responded.

    "Ah, so you have thought about it?"

    "You''ve met Kalliope, right? The girl practically breathes down my neck whenever she''s not busy with something else. Hard not to think about it when she asks every day, you know?" Lucius said with a sigh.

    By this point, Lucius had leaned against the wall closest to the door while facing them for conversation. This was the first time he had attended the practical ss because of other ''issues'' he reported needing to take care of. Whenever one of these issues arose, Grandpa Wally provided him with an excuse.

    It was not long after Lyrah asked herst question that other members of the ss poured in. Among them were many nobles like Thomas and his gaggle of goons, as well as more honorable people like Desmond Adler. Desmond had attended every practical ss since he joined the academy and had asked Lyrah for Lucius''s whereabouts a number of times.

    It seemed as though the nobleman was interested in Lucius for one reason or another. She was present when they interacted for a little while several days ago when Lucius and Wally dueled, but beyond that, they had not spoken much in front of others.

    "Alright, ss." A grizzled man with many scars walked into the room. He was the practical weapons instructor. "Pair up. Except you, Lord Kane. I would prefer not to file death reports today."

    Lucius nodded and began to walk towards a set of free weights on the opposite side of the room. As he left the wall, a number of people gasped, watching him walk away. Natali was confused at first, but she understood immediately as he passed her. His back was covered in burn marks and scars from extremely deep wounds. She was impressed he lived through whatever caused it.

    "And that¡­" Lyrah said, "is why I said it was better for the few people who knew. Someone tried very hard to make sure he was dead."

    Determined, Natali walked up to Lucius and whispered, "Spar with me."

    "Hmm?" he raised an eyebrow, then gave her an appraising look. "Fine."

    "Are you going to hold back?" she asked curiously.

    "No."

    "Is it because you think I''m strong?"

    "Hmm, not really. It''s more like holding back would inhibit your growth as a warrior." He answered truthfully.

    Like Lucius, Natali was often told she was not allowed to spar with the other students. They could not keep up with her rapid attacks in concert with her mark. As she was training to protect Lyrah, she was allowed to train with all aspects of her fighting capability at her disposal. For a while, at the beginning of her time at the academy, people only refused to spar with her.

    Over time, her training alone became a requirement instead of a hapenstance.

    "Fine, but if you kill each other, I''m not responsible. Everyone else, clear the ring. We are getting Lord Kane versus Natali. Everyone, take a look."

 Chapter 180: Lord v Maid [Part 2]

    Natali stood opposite Lucius in the practice arena. The rules were simple. Weapon arts and marks were allowed; magic and Channeling were not. Natali would normally have chosen to include magic, but the instructor stated he was already risking enough letting them fight as is and did not want to push his luck further.

    Natali grabbed out her two daggers that were always under the effect of her Mark of Recall. They were specialty made for her size and fighting style as a gift from Lyrah a few years ago. The material they were made from was a lightweight material that was lighter than iron but stronger than steel.

    It was a hard to find substance called mithril and it did exceptionally well as a base for enchanted weapons.

    These two des were not enchanted, however they took well to her Arts and seemed to improve her activation speed somewhat. She half expected Lucius to look rxed and not take her seriously, however he had his weapon at the ready, de tip pointed to the ground. His stance looked sloppy as if he was a wild beast rather than a trained fighter.

    As much as she was wanting to attack the multitude of openings his stance created, there was something in the back of her mind that told her they were traps. Normally she could fight at primarily medium to long range since she could return her daggers to her hand instantly, but the same thing that warned her to be cautious also warned her to mix things up a bit. Lucius would not be an easy opponent.

    While they watched each other carefully, Natali felt a nervous sweat trickle down her brow. She wiped it away quickly and returned to her ready position. Lyrah shouted out something from behind her, but at the moment, the only thing in her vision and focus was Lucius Kane, the man she basically considered her hero.

    The professor tossed a red cloth into the center of the ring, the moment it hit the floor, both fighters moved in a counter clockwise motion. They wanted to test each other''s reflexes to see who was faster and so neither made a move. For a few more seconds they changed up direction and movement patterns.

    As she had predicted, his beast-like stance was intentional, just as the fake openings he left in his form. He wanted to entice her to strike and give him a defensive advantage. However, she was not so foolish.

    "[Forsaken Arts: Goring Rush]"

    A sickening amount of mana weighed down on everyone in the room as energy flowed into Lucius''s de. The amount of mana he was controlling felt well beyond the capabilities of a normal Intermediate Rank. Even the professor''s face paled slightly, and he was an Advance Ranker.

    Lucius''s feet cracked the floor as he shot towards her. At thest moment Natali was able to block the attack with both of her daggers, but was sent flying backward, almost flying out of the ring. If he had not held back in that attack just slightly, she would have been flung into the wall. Explore stories at mvl

    "[Dagger Arts: Pierce], [Dagger Arts: Phantom des]"

    Natali hurled her des towards Lucius''s legs as they glowed with mana and turned from two daggers into a group of over twenty. She had been practicing her Phantom de Art for years and had gotten the maximum amount of ghost des to a few dozen.

    Just before they struck, Natali snapped her fingers and repeated the same attack the moment her des returned to her hand. She repeated the same maneuver two more times.

    "[Dagger Arts: Phantom des], [Dagger Arts: Phantom des]"

    In the span of a few seconds the air was filled with just under a hundred semitransparent weapons that all glowed with the same blinding light. This technique made the glow so powerful that her opponent would truly not be able to know which des were real.

    *ng*

    Lucius somehow managed to block at least one of the two daggers. When that happened, the Art released and Natali was able to see one of her daggers on the floor and the other was embedded in Lucius''s thigh. Blood leaked from the wound slowly thanks to the weapon plugging up the hole.

    For a moment she felt excitement and then a sensation of dread washed over her.

    "[Abyss Break: Demonic Gaze]"

    Both of Lucius''s gorgeous eyes turned pitch ck. Before she could listen to her instincts which screamed not to look at him, she found herself pulled into his gaze. It was terrifying and enchanting all at once.

    The world''s color drained away, simply bing a sea of gray. Sound no longer existed; the only thing before her was the unending ocean of darkness known as the Abyss. She could feel the anguish of souls long forgotten, searching for any way out of the despair they found themselves in.

    It was beautiful yet terrifying. Natali wanted to peer into the depths of his eyes for eternity. She wanted to fall into the darkness and never return. Slowly, she raised her hand and reached outward. A hand reached back, thin and skeletal, with jet-ck skin clinging to it. The fingertips were long and pointed.

    She had to grab the hand¡­ she needed to see what it had to offer.

    "Natali!"

    Lyrah''s voice called out to her, shocking her awake. For some reason her eyes were pointed to the ceiling and she felt a pain in the back of her head. She made an attempt to turn and look at her friend, but something was stopping her. Around her neck was Lucius''srge hand.

    She was pinned beneath him with his hand on her throat and his sword stabbed into the floor next to her face. She stared at him, seeing two striking colors looking back at her, silver and gold. No longer was the endless abyss pulling her inward.

    He leaned down to her ear and whispered, "I win." Before standing up and walking away. He yanked her de out of his thigh and tossed it onto the ground. When she looked at his left hand, which was the one that threw her dagger, she saw that his mark was no longer contained to the back of his hand like a normal Marked One''s. Instead, it wrapped around his wrist like a tribal tattoo.

    "Good jobnding a hit on me. You did better than Thomas." He said loudly, knowing that the redheaded noble was in the room.

    From that, in the first time in years, Nataliughed. Sheughed so hard she cried. Lyrah patted her on the shoulders and helped her to her feet. Lucius stepped away to get healing a simple healing potion from the room''s supply. It would not heal the injury right away, but it would make sure it was gone in a few hours.

    "Well what do you think?" Lyrah whispered to her.

    "I love him."

    "¡­ that''s not what I meant."

    "I love him." It was all Natali could think or say at the moment. She saw Lucius freeze when she repeated it and she recalled that he was half-beastman. He nced at her curiously over his shoulder before wiping some sweat off his face and finishing off the potion.

    "At least he knows¡­" Lyrah sighed.

 Chapter 181: A Mothers Tears

    Rena and Lucius walked side by side. Following behind them were Lyrah, Natali, and Kalliope. Rena was shocked when Lucius told her earlier in the day, but apparently, King Verdayl provided him with unrestricted ess to Eroa''s embassy. They were out on the town because they were on their way to meet someone there.

    Lucius declined to answer who would be present, but he was in a hurry to arrive, so it had to be someone important. Rena pondered who it could be, but nothing seemed to make sense logically.

    By this point, the capital of Arcadios seemed to return to normal. The shopping stalls returned to being concentrated in the market and the streets were no longer overflowing with people. Rena was d things had returned to normal, mostly because even though everything else went back to the way it was before, Lucius was still here.

    There was a small part of her that was concerned. He was not really built for the hustle and bustle of city life. Negative interactions with him and a stranger had the potential to go very poorly. In the past, he had to be concerned about people''s perception of her as a pursuant to the position of heir to House Petra. However, now that was no longer the case.

    Not only was she out of the running, but her father formally disowned her in a private letter. All that was on top of her marrying into a new house. Her reputation was no longer considered as important as his own¡­ which did not matter to him.

    Rena released an exasperated sigh but then smiled. They reached the gates of the embassy, which was manned by a contingent of beastman guards twenty-four-seven. They had arge collection of guards, maid staff, and diplomats staying at the embassy, but there was still plenty of space for Lucius to have a small section of it granted to him for his own use.

    The guards let them pass through the gates with a simple nod from Lucius. They also gave a polite bow to everyone as they passed by. The interior garden was rather pretty, but most of Rena''s thoughts were upied by whoever was waiting for them.

    "Don''t worry," Lyrah whispered. "I''m sure everything will be¡­"

    "L-L-Lucius¡­ is that¡­ you?" a familiar but slightly older voice called out the moment they shut the door behind them. Standing there with a hand covering her mouth was Rubellia. Her hair had a few streaks of gray that were not there before, but other than that, she looked about the same.

    She slowly walked forward and stretched out her hand towards Lucius'' face. Rena watched tearfully as Lucius, like a child, rested his cheek in Rubellia''s palm.

    "Mother."

    "Lucius. Lucius, my sweet boy." Rubellia pulled him in tightly for a hug. Tears flowed freely from the woman''s eyes as they pooled on the ground. Her soft sniffling turned into loud sobs as she held in her arms the child she thought was long gone.

    For a few minutes, Lucius stood there, gently hugging his mother as she sobbed. He did and said nothing, only letting her express every ounce of emotion she felt. Members of the embassy staff peeked in a few times but had the courtesy to not interrupt the reunion.

    When everything had been let out, Rubellia''s face was swollen and red, her eyes puffy and bloodshot. Rena knew all too well what it was like to realize he truly was here. No doubt, by the time she woke in the morning, she would have wondered, just like Rena had, if everything was simply a dream.

    Remembering what that felt like, waking up wondering if things were a dream¡­ she resolved for them to stay the night so that mother and son could spend much-needed time together. If she was able to confirm that her time with him was real, then so too should Rubellia.

    Eventually Rubelliapletely calmed down and they moved to amon area where they were served tea by the embassy''s maids. It was inly obvious that her mother-inw was ufortable sitting and being served rather than being the one doing the serving. When she started to get up out of instinct, Lucius pulled her down with a gentle tug.

    He also indicated that Natali remain seated by Lyrah, stating that in private, she is a friend, not a maid. His words made Rena smile because it meant that he was truthful when he told her he would be nicer to her friends.

    Lucius shared the story of the tournament, of his reunion with Rena, and the expedient wedding that urred shortly thereafter. Rubellia was beside her withughter, hearing that her son essentially had ''stormed the castle to wed the princess'' and did so right under the nose of the ''king,'' who was Richard in this tall tale. Readtest stories on mvl

    Lyrah eventually introduced herself. "Hello, Mistress Rubellia. I am Lyrah, daughter of the Oracle, Lady Adellia. And Lord Kane here is my dear brother."

    "Oh my." Rubellia gasped. "Lucius, your mother is the Oracle?"

    "The person who birthed me does seem to be the Oracle, yes¡­ though I think something more interesting is Miss Natali''s connection to us."

    "Oh?"

    Natali cleared her throat and attempted to talk at a normal volume. Her voice came out scratchy and broken, but Rubellia could hear her at least: "Mylene and Derrik¡­ Wayne''s cousin. I am¡­ Derrik''s daughter."

    Rubellia started to tear up a little more and rushed to hug the girl. "Oh, my dear, I know Wayne received letters about you from Derrik after your birth. To think I would get to meet you. Oh, you are just so precious."

    "Mother," Rena squeaked out. She was slightly nervous calling her that. "I want you to know I have not forgotten what you told me before I left for the academy. I want you to know I am trying my best."

    "Mother!" Kalliope shouted out from the corner. "I ask for your permission to be Lucius''s second wife! He is heir to a beastman house so having multiple wives is normal."

    Lucius sighed and red at the wolf-girl, but she held firm in her resolve. Rena had gotten used to this behavior by this point. Lucius had told her that Kalliope was the reason he was alive, so there was no way she could look poorly on the girl. On top of that, she wanted to be subservient in the wife role, cing Rena at the top of the hierarchy¡­ if it was normal for beastmen¡­ then maybe¡­

    "Can it, Kalliope," Lucius growled

 Chapter 182: Work Studies

    When the sun rose the next morning, Lucius was woken up by a familiar smell. It had been years since he was able to experience the wonderful aroma of his mother''s cooking. For a brief moment, he thought he was back in the small cabin he called home for the earliest years of his life.

    However, it was gone now. His mother told him about what happened just before she left Pelith. She was startled to be rushed out of her home by an unknown beastman hiding his face, but she was able to be convinced to leave just before a massive Fanged Boar demolished her home.

    Her story was corroborated by the reports he received just before he went to bedst night. His men reported after the fact that there were signs of monster bait strewn about the home. Seeing as it used ingredients different from that which they were familiar with in Eroa, they assumed that it was simply a background smell from a small town like Pelith.

    It wasn''t until Rubellia had told her she recognized the scent as monster bait that they looked into it deeper after the monster left. Someone intentionally wanted that creature to kill Rubellia, and by the time someone thought to look into the situation, any evidence of bait would have long decayed.

    This was something Lucius expected, though. He made himself untouchable for the most part, so the only thing left were people close to him. Rubellia was a particrly prime target for them. She was out in the middle of nowhere, in a territory far from the capital where Lucius was, and if made to look like an idental monster attack, then it would be an easy way to hurt him.

    There were not many suspects avable, and at the moment, the most likely ones were members of the Petra family. He could not rule out the Church of Celestia either, though, because he did kill three of their spies. However, the turnaround time on retaliation for that was too quick for it to be realistic. It was possible but unrealistic.

    As much as he wanted to rampage and destroy the Petra''s¡­ he was still far too weak. Richard was a powerful Master Rank warrior who also excelled at magic. On top of that, he was extremely skilled at using his warhammer. There was no way for Lucius to ovee the gap in rank by using skill when it came to Richard.

    Not only that, but the family was still extremely connected to the core of the kingdom. While Lucius was untouchable, so too were they¡­

    While pondering the situation in the early morning light, he heard the rustling of sheets next to him and a soft moan. Rena was beginning to stir after a long night''s rest. Her stunning hair was syed out around her on the silk sheets, and it reminded Lucius somewhat of a rose. The thought made him smile, and he leaned down to kiss her softly on the forehead.

    As a reaction, the woman scrunched her face somewhat and pulled the remainder of the covers into her arms. Had Lucius been under them, she would have pulled them right off him. Unable to resist her cuteness any further and realizing that she peeked at him through squinted eyes and was actually awake¡­ they worked together to ensure the embassy staff had extra cleaning to do.

    An hourter, they finally made their way to breakfast, with Rena hurriedly casting healing spells on herself. Everyone was waiting for them at one of the many tables in the dining hall. They conversed politely with one another while Rubellia served each person a bowl of stew.

    Stew for breakfast was notmon in the capital, but in his household growing up, it wasmon to keep a stew going all morning, adding liquid and ingredients as the day went on. It was simple, cheap, and perfectly nostalgic.

    No oneined about the food, partly because it was delicious and partly because they knew that he needed this. Their quiet eptance of his desire to be babied a little by his mother was vastly appreciated. However, the calm was short-lived, as they needed to have a serious discussion about the next steps.

    "So as some of you may know¡­ work studies are starting soon," Lucius said after finishing his breakfast by sopping up the soup with the morning bread.

    The work studies were a requirement for senior students at the academy. Essentially it was like adventure work. Except they did not just go out and kill monsters; they also held the responsibility of trying to learn something about the world. As such, many students took work details for excavation teams who were investigating ruins.

    Others chose to specialize in a certain type of monster and form reports on their behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses.

    Essentially there were a near limitless number of ways toplete the task. What Lucius wanted to discuss with everyone was their n. The way the group would work was Lucius, Natali, and Rena would work together on the task. Lyrah was not allowed to leave the capital, so she was exempted from the requirement.

    Natali was unable to get the same exemption, so she had to join a group on the work-study project. Lucius''s n for that, at Wally''s request, was to loan his biological twin Kalliope and his men in the city. Though he would not tell Lyrah their identities, but working things out with Kalliope, she would have ess to his resources for the purposes of protection.

    The only thing left for them to discuss what they nned on doing for their work-study. "Any ideas?" Lucius asked the group.

    Rena thought for a moment, then brought out a small metal card. It was her adventurer card. Lucius also still had his with him, but it had not gotten any use since Lelvern.

    "I say we do something interesting like guarding an excavation team. No offense, my love, but you are more suited tobat tasks. While you are good at quick thinking and rapid response situations¡­ your smarts are oft better forbat and intrigue.

    "I think that if we do that, then Natali and I can learn from the researchers on-site while you focus on the fighting part. Of course, we will still help because neither of us are helpless maidens after all." Rena exined.

    "That''s a good n," Lucius said.

    "A word, brother dearest." Lyrah interrupted.

    "What is it?"

    "I have a feeling you should take Desmond and his little sister on this excursion of yours." The girl said while sipping tea and smiling. "I think it would behoove you to have another warrior on your side. The truth of it is that he is quite the fighter. His sister also has a wonderful head on her shoulders. Very bright."

    "Is this from a vision?"

    Experience tales at mvl

    "Who can say, brother." Lyrah teased. "Probably better to call it a hunch. Besides, you told me of that letter he received. Though he was honest with you about it, would it not be better to have a potential threat closer where it can be watched? It will also help you determine how to address Lord Adler in the future."

    Lucius looked at the ceiling and thought about it for a moment. It wasn''t that he distrusted Desmond more than he distrusted anyone else¡­ it was more that he did not want toplicate matters. Though Lyrah did have a point¡­

    "Fine. I will ask Desmond. He can onlye on the condition of bringing his sister. If he says no, then he''s out. She''s as much an asset as a hostage."

 Chapter 183: Visions of Blood

    Adellia had difficulty sleeping every night since she found out Lucius was alive. She was filled with feelings of regret, longing, loneliness, and, most of all, guilt. The guilt of not being there for her son haunted her day and night, keeping her awake.

    Mylene did what she could to provide for her. She talked things out, helped make tea, used calming aromas, and tried all sorts of other things to help Adellia de-stress. However, nothing seemed to work.

    The night of the party continued to rey in her head. She reached her hand out to him, but he simply recoiled. There was a sh of disgust on his face¡­ as if the thought of her skin touching him was¡­ Adellia turned and threw up into a bucket by her bedside.

    "I deserve this. Truly I do." She mumbled. "The things I did were to save his life, but¡­ those scars. The pain he must have¡­"

    Kalivas and her had some time to interact after the party as well. She knew he loved her greatly, and she wished she could return his feelings, but she was incapable of doing so. However, that did not change the fact that they created two children together¡­

    When they spoke together after the party, he informed her of what he knew about Lucius. She already knew that Wayne had passed away a number of years ago, but it wasn''t until she learned about Rubellia that she realized the connection. He also suffered a major set of injuries during the war against Alorek that nearly killed him.

    Kalivas declined to answer what happened, but it was reported to have been a very bad situation. It was lucky that Lucius was alive, much less able to recover to a point to move around as well as he does now.

    After his recovery, Lucius trained with Kalivas and Kalliope for a few years before returning to the war front in earnest. It was under the name ''Titan'' that he conquered the city of Alvora only six months after being givenmand over a team of his own.

    Given the way her son acted and carried himself. She realized that much more had gone on than even Kalivas knew. Because of all that, she felt that every ounce of suffering he endured was her fault.

    Adellia went to sleep that night with the same thoughts passing through her mind as they had every night. All of them were about Lucius.

    *****

    The capital looked perfectly serene. Everything was as it should be. Birds flew high over the city, dancing among the clouds in the bright blue sky. The sun warmed the stone streets and reflected off the wide eyes of children admiring toy shops and food stalls while shopping with their parents.

    It was a day like any other. Peace and tranquility in the heart of the Kingdom of Arcadios. But something was amiss. There was a strange tension in the air that seemed invisible to the people enjoying their normal lives. There was something they could not see, feel, hear, or understand.

    There was a strange buzz in the background of it all. A sensation of a power, ancient and unknown. It was an echo of times long forgotten when powers believed to be buried beneath the sands of time ruled the world. Experience exclusive tales on mvl

    No one knew what was about to happen, but the observer knew. The observer could see it. The thrum of this almost alien energy pulsating through the capital. They tried to follow it through the streets and past market stalls. The energy led them on a chase through taverns and inns.

    Soon the observer soared through the air, following the source of the power. It settled overtop the Arcadios Royal Academy, then rapidly descended. Left with no other choices, the observer chased it down as well.

    When they reached the center of the school''s facilities, the power mysteriously vanished. Panicking, worried they had somehow lost this energy, the observer began looking around. They looked behind trees, benches, and statues, yet they found nothing.

    The observer took a step onto the grass and felt something wet. Thend let out a squelching sound as though it had just rained. But that could not be possible; the sky was clear and bright and sunny. To confirm what they thought, they looked to the sky. It was dark and gloomy. The sun had long since vanished, yet there was no rain.

    The observer took another step, each movement creating that same ufortable noise and feeling as though they were walking on the surface of a sponge.

    When they finally reached the stone pathway, they were ovee with the urge to look behind them. What they saw was a line of footprintsing out of the grass and trailing along the stone until they reached the observer. The footprints were a deep shade of crimson, like fresh blood.

    After realizing what the liquid was, they heard the sounds of screaminging from all around. People began to rush by the observer, iling about wildly. Arrows rained down from the sky and struck several of the students, scattering them along the ground. Their blood mixed with that already soaking thend.

    The source of the arrows was unseen for the moment, hidden by waves of people fleeing in absolute terror from the attackers. The observer willed themself forward, through the crowds, to find the source of the attack.

    They were met with countless scores of people. Their faces were clouded over, unable to be observed. They were human, there was no doubt about that, but the way they moved felt strange. All of them were mumbling nonsense and letting out maniacalughter. No sane human would move like that; sound like that¡­

    After several minutes of trying to sort out the haze that covered their faces, the observer felt another pressure. It was simr to the one that led them to the academy. Turning around, the observer was met with a pair of familiar eyes, one silver and one gold. They locked onto the observer, who was supposed to be unseen.

    The eyes were not attached to a face or a body, yet it felt like they smiled¡­

    *****

    Adellia woke in a cold sweat, panting and gasping for breath. Her vision, or potentially even nightmare, gave her the urge to vomit again. She quickly reached for her feet, desperately hoping that there was no blood on them like in the dream.

    She sighed with satisfaction after seeing her handse away clean. It took her several moments to calm herself, even if only slightly.

    "What are you going to do, Lucius?" She whispered, trembling despite herself.

 Chapter 184: Twins

    "So, let me make sure I am understanding this correctly." Desmond said in disbelief, "You want Jade and me to join you for the Senior Work Study?"

    The young man who had asked him to join was none other than Lucius Kane. He happened to be someone that Desmond was very interested in getting to know, however every opportunity so far had been dashed.

    Lucius was impossible to find in the ss or practical lessons for the first several days to weeks. He seemed to have some other business that kept him from normal academy life. On days when he was on campus, Lucius spent most of his time surrounded by his wife, Lady Kane, and his biological sister, Lyrah. Of course, with Lyrah, there was always that quiet maid.

    Rena and the maid would be joining him on the trip as well. He had not gotten time to learn the maid''s name because no one else in ss wanted to talk with her, but apparently, she was quite the aplished fighter. When he tried to talk to her, she would not speak to him.

    Talking to others about her was not helpful either, as they simply referred to her as the ''deadly maid'' or ''the oracle''s assassin,'' which was terrifying in its own right.

    For a while, he thought the others were joking, but then he saw her fight against Lucius. She had managed tond a blow to his thigh, which surprised many of the spectators. After the dagger struck, Lucius managed to do something to counter her.

    He used his mark, which caused her to enter a trance-like state. She raised her hand to him and let him simply walk up to her. When he reached her, he simply grabbed her by the throat, lifted her into the air, and then mmed her down on the ground, sinking his machete into the floor next to her.

    No one knew why she stopped moving exactly, but whatever it was he did was a strong move¡­ it made Desmond morbidly curious. "Why my sister?"

    "Does she not need credit for this? Would you prefer she travel with someone else?" Lucius asked.

    "What about your sister?"

    "She''s exempted as one of the Oracles."

    Desmond locked eyes with Lucius. The man''s statement was logical, but he was no fool. Not everything was being exined to him about this offer¡­ but he could not afford to pass it up. This was the first real conversation he had with Lucius Kane since joining the academy, and here he was, offering him an opportunity to get closer to him and maybe a shot at meeting the king of Eroa.

    "Brother." A soft voice broke his concentration for a moment.

    Desmond looked to his side, where his sister was sitting. She was ring at him with a face full of indignation. She seemed to realize that one of the sources of his concern was bringing her on a mission of any kind. Jade was a willful and smart woman, but she was not a strong fighter. In fact, the girl did not have any Compatibility with magic or Arts.

    Her only usable ability that separated her from a normal person was her mark.

    "Brother. We should go. Take Lord Kane''s offer. It is the best one we could get. He is right, I am not exempted from this work study. Honestly, among the people here, I feel that Lord Kane is the most powerful and would be the best one to rely on for protection." Jade continued.

    Desmond sighed and put his hand towards the ck-haired man. "Alright, you have a deal. But! My first priority is Jade''s safety, but anything else is secondary. Just like I expect yours is your wife''s¡­"

    "Fine, but I will not allow coddling."

    "Excuse me?"

    "Rena is more than capable of handling herself. She is a strong magic user. Though I may be stronger, she is not useless. Your sister appears to be stronger than you think. Though not in body, then definitely in mind." Lucius said.

    Desmond looked over at Jade, who had taken on a bit of a blush. Was that really all it took for her? Just a few kind words from some puffed-up noble¡­ no¡­ Lucius was not a puffed-up noble. He was a hardened warrior who experienced a hard life to get where he was. It was clear the man needed no ttery, which meant he was telling the truth.

    "Jade, I am sorry. Lucius, I am in your debt for allowing us to join you and for helping me see my sister''s strengths."

    "Fine."

    Shortly after a few exchanges of pleasantries between Rena, Lyrah, Desmond, and Jade, the group of peers left to go inform the staff of their partyposition. ording to the discussion, they were nning on investigating some ancient ruins near the border with the Wisteria Concord.

    Discover more content at mvl

    The location was a joint excavation by researchers from both Arcadios and the Wisteria Concord. It was deeply nestled in a forested area, as most things were in Arcadios, which was home to a rather unpleasant number of strong beasts and bandits.

    "Jade, are you sure you are okay with this? It will be tough to do. The ce we are going to is not a vacation resort or something."

    "I am aware, brother. However, I have learned a lot from Professor Wally regarding marks and the Demonnguage from which they originate. What I gathered from Lucius''s exnation was that these ruins were believed to be remnants of the demon civilization.

    "Imagine, brother, what things might be unearthed there? What secrets could we find? Even if the answer is nothing, the sheer exposure to such ancient history is a tantalizing prospect of its own!"

    Desmond smiled ruefully at his sister. He often forgot how much of an intellectual she was, but it was good to see her motivated by something after such a long time. Though he was still worried about the actual excursion itself, at least she would end up having a good time.

    Also, her earlier statements were not wrong. Working with Lucius was probably one of the best options they could have hoped for. Anyone else in the academy would be far too much of a ''wildcard'' in terms of reliability and power. That would have made him and Jade do the work studies alone, which was something neither of them wanted to do at all.

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 185: A Gift

    A light knock at the door to the room she was in woke Rena out of a peaceful sleep. Lucius was already awake as well, having heard the knock himself, but he stayed in bed to fully wake up. Ever since returning to her side, he had been getting used to the creatureforts that normal society had to offer.

    Rena stood up, realizing she was missing her night clothes. She quickly wrapped a sheet around herself so she could answer the door. She tried to crack it open a little, but when she fully unlocked it, the door swung wide open.

    On the other side was her dear mother-inw, who had been enjoying them staying at the embassy with her. She wanted to ensure that her husband had a lot of quality time with his mother after all these years before they left for the work-study today.

    It had been hard to keep secret, but she had actually been working with Rubellia on a special surprise. Together, they found they had some interesting connections within the city and wanted to put together a nice gift for Lucius after all he had done for them.

    Though she was excited to see her mother-inw, Rena realized that she was not exactly dressed for the asion. The moment that realization hit her, she froze and nearly lost grip on the sheet that protected the remainder of her modesty.

    "Miss Rubellia, I am so very sorry you had to see me in this state. You see, we just¡­ well it¡­ I¡­ and¡­ you know¡­"

    Lucius sat up, letting his nket fall off his body and cover hisher regions. "Rena. We are husband and wife. I am sure mother is aware of what two people in a situation like ours do." He said, stifling a yawn. "What can we do for you, mother?"

    "Oh, I just wanted to remind Rena that the¡­ thing¡­ is ready." She answered with a wink.

    Rena''s eyes went wide with excitement. "Truly?! Oh, yes! Lucius,e, we must get dressed!"

    "You know, I was pretty sure I already¡­"

    "Do not make me p you." Rena snipped, throwing a paperweight at him while heughed.

    Rubellia excused herself long enough for the two to get dressed. Since the gift was ready, they were going to retrieve it with him together. It would be one final day out on the town before they had to leave for a few weeks to go on work study.

    They would return in short order, and Rubellia had permanent residence inside the embassy. Lyrah and Kalliope were also staying with her. Lucius had made sure to request such an arrangement because it was easier to keep track of both of them if they were in the same ce.

    After finally getting dressed, Rena and Lucius met Rubellia at the exit to the embassy. Lucius took both women in hand, and they set off to the marketce.

    The air was crisp and refreshing. Baked goods were being set out, sending their aroma through the air. Many people hurried about to get their stores or stalls set up for the day''s business. With all the hustle and bustle, one might assume that the city was having an event, but this was just how the capital was on a normal day.

    All of the crowds that had gathered for the events a few weeks ago had all left, so the world was the same once more. Slowly working their way through the morning crowds, the group made their way to the day''s destination.

    Lucius was visibly confused about what was going on, however he looked even more confused when he saw that they had taken him to a cksmith shop. It was no ordinary cksmith shop. In fact, it was one of the best shops in the city known as the Hammer''s Strike.

    Many members of nobility wouldmit heinous crimes to be put on the waiting list tomission a piece from the famous brothers, Mason and Carter Hammer, who ran the store. Hammer''s Strike did not sell weapons off the shelf, they exclusively dealt inmissioned pieces. Rena giggled as she saw the look of consternation on her lover''s face.

    "Well, my love. Have you figured out why we are here?"

    "Did you two somehow get the Hammer brothers to make me a weapon or piece of armor?" He asked dubiously.

    Rubellia decided to answer this time, "Not so much make as¡­ well let''s just go in and look."

    The two women led the man by the hand inside the store where they were greeted with a rather cozy waiting area. It was small, butvishly furnished. The building itself wasrge, but most of it was dedicated to the workshop that made the weapons.

    The shop also had very thick walls that were enchanted with special crystals from Aedrider that kept the sound froming into the waiting area or outside.

    At the desk there was a woman dressed in fine silks who put on a warm smile. "Hello, how may we assist you today?"

    "Yes, we are here to retrieve amission. My name is Lady Rena Kane." She answered.

    "Ah! Lady Kane! Yes I remember the order, please wait, I will have the item brought out to you at once."

    The woman''s calm and kind demeanor became almost an excited panic as she rushed to through a door behind her counter. She did not seem to care about her appearance as she darted away in a way that would be unbing of ady in the noble district.

    When she returned, she had a weapon with an unusually long handle for a de of its length. It was wrapped in a gorgeous ck silk and wasying in an intricately carved box atop a red velvet cushion. Given the type of weapons Lucius used, it was clear he was thrown off by the delicacy and presentation of the weapon.

    "What is this you two?" He asked quietly, approaching the weapon with care as the clerk set it on the counter. Explore more adventures at §Þ??

    Rena smiled. "Remember the day you finally awoke to your Thunder Magic? That very same day, you pushed yourself to force your Thunderp spell into your machete and it snapped in half.

    "That same machete was the one that awakened your Forsaken Arts on the day we met. It had been by your side for many years and I have kept it safe all this time. I decided that I wanted to have someone reforge it so we might return it to you.

    "As it turns out, your mother and I both know people close to the Hammer brothers, and when they heard the story and who the weapon was for¡­ well they took the job on a rush order."

 Chapter 186: An Old Friend

    Lucius carefully approached the box. The length of the de was just like that of his normal weapon, about twenty-eight inches. However, the length of the handle was more than twice of what it used to be. It was no longer a handle designed for one hand, but if he wanted, he couldfortably grip it with both at once.

    The look on his face seemed to make the clerk realize why he was confused. "Oh! Let me fetch one of the brothers. They can exin any questions you might have."

    Once again, she left in a hurry, and when she returned, she found a shirtless man with sweat mixed with soot rolling down his chest and arms. He had a set of goggles resting around his neck, and around his eyes, there was a clear color difference from where the goggles kept the soot out.

    "Hi there, you must be Lord Kane. Ah and Miss Rubellia and Lady Kane, a pleasure to see you again."

    "Yes, nice to meet you. I''m curious¡­ why is the handle designed for a two-handed hold?" Lucius asked immediately, cutting through the idle chatter.

    "Ah, that. Well, the de is enchanted now, you see. The enchantment does not extend to the grip, so we had to design the grip in such a way that you could use it in both forms."

    "Both¡­ forms?"

    "The enchantment on it allows you to extend the de to about three times its length. The hilt is designed and weighted to still usefortably with one hand when the de is not magically extended, however you basically have to use a two-handed grip to wield it at its full length."

    Your adventure continues at §Þ??

    As the smith exined the capabilities of the weapon he reforged, he pulled it out of the box and unwrapped the cloth cover.

    "I made sure to use the original pieces of the weapon. I had to reforge the entire thing, but your weapon''s soul was kept intact. At its core, it is the same weapon that fought by your side."

    The smith passed him the weapon gingerly, encouraging Lucius to take hold of it. The de of the weapon was beautiful. Along both sides of it, there were intricate carvings and engravings that were abination of decorative and functional.

    Runes were required for some forms of enchanting, so the design used the required runes for the extension of the weapon as the centerpiece for the intricate engravings around it.

    When Lucius gripped the handle of his old friend, he could feel mana rush from himself to it as if it was hungry for his power. It was not so draining as to cause concern, but it was noticeable, especially for someone with such fine control over the flow of mana in his body as he was.

    "Ah, it seems you noticed. When I heard the story of what happened, we imbued a secondary enchantment into the weapon. Not only does it extend the de, but it also has a fortification aspect. The fortification activates any time you push a spell through the de. A small fraction of your mana will strengthen the weapon so what happened in the past will not happen again.

    "That''s not to say it is unbreakable, mind you, but because it uses the power from your Arts or your spell to strengthen itself on activation, then at the very least, you won''t be able to break it yourself." The man finished exining.

    Lucius was ecstatic to receive such a gift¡ªso much so that he forgot the need for decorum in public and wrapped his wife and his mother in a massive hug at once. "Thank you for the wonderful gift, you two."

    "Of course." They both answered while gently patting him on the back.

    Since his weapon was already paid for, they were able to leave with the weapon in hand and not have to hand over any more money. Lucius stored his other weapon and the sheathe that made it look like a longsword in his storage ring. For the new weapon, he had clipped it behind his back and wore it proudly.

    There was no longer any need for him to pretend not to be carrying such a weapon, as everyone already knew what his weapon of choice was. Originally, he used a spear that he managed to salvage from the storage ring that managed to survive with what was left of Mia''s corpse.

    However, as the tournament went on, he wanted to slowly show more of his identity as a way to taunt the people who tried to hunt him down. When it came time to fight in the final battle, he fully revealed his true skills and preferred fighting style, which was broadcast to the entire capital.

    For those who did not see him using a weapon like his, the unique shape of the handle would throw them off and make them not realize what it was truly used for.

    For the rest of the day, Lucius decided to focus on visiting the market stalls with his family. They stopped by a bakery that Rena enjoyed visiting with Lyrah and Natali. She was very excited to show it to Rubellia and him.

    By the time the evening rolled around, they bid goodbye to his mother and set off to the Adventurer''s Guild headquarters in Arcadios''s capital. Whenpared to even Lelvern, the building dwarfed every other Adventurer''s Guildhall. It was a massive six-storey building with a stone spire attached to the rear of the building that seemed to be two or three floors taller than the rest of the building.

    From that spire hung the guild''s emblem, a simple red shield with crossed axes. It was by far not thergest or most grand building in the capital, as those titles likely went to the Grand Cathedral, the castle, and the Merchant''s Guild headquarters. However, it was still a majorly impressive building.

    Lucius had already rented space on the second floor for them to meet with their party as well as scheduled time with a guild receptionist to meet with them to discuss their mission. To make things easier on the academy, they agreed with the Adventurer''s Guild to provide quests and missions relevant to the annual work-study.

    The mission they were taking was already chosen; they simply needed to discuss the specifics with the guild''s receptionists and formerly create a party.

 Chapter 187: Business Expense

    "Wee to the Arcadios Adventurer''s Guild. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lord Kane and Lady Kane. I imagine the rest of your party will be those in this room?"

    A homely-looking half-elf woman stood at the opposite end of the long table centered in the conference room they had reserved. Shortly after Rena and Lucius arrived, the guild sent one of its receptionists up to assist with the scheduled meeting.

    It wasmon for parties to reserve rooms and timeslots with receptionists at this branch due to its size. Though Lelvern was a more densely popted city, the capital of the country was much physicallyrger and had a much higher standard for what the government considered ''safe'' for the territory surrounding the seat of their nation.

    Because of this abundance of caution, adventurer work was never-ending, and the guild in this city was thergest in the country. In most countries, the guild halls in their capitals were also thergest and busiest branches.

    "Yes. These others with me will be joining my party. We are students at the Arcadios Royal Academy, so registration examinations are exempt for them. Lady Kane and I are already registered, though our registration might need some updating."

    Lucius passed the woman his and Rena''s guild cards they received back in Pelith all those years ago. Neither of them had visited any guilds in the time since, so now was as good a time as any for them to renew the information.

    "Ah, so Lady Kane will need her surname changed. Yours will need added¡­ oh, that''s strange¡­"

    "What seems to be the matter?" Desmond asked from his seat, a few positions away from the receptionist.

    "Oh, it''s just that we did not receive notice of a party being disbanded, yet there hasn''t been activity recorded for any of your party for thest four years¡­"

    "That makes sense." Lucius sighed. "Go figures the bitch would ditch their disguises after trying to kill me. Seem''s like she thought I wouldn''t die so easily."

    "What do you mean?" Rena asked.

    "May we have a moment alone? I take it you have the information you need from the documents we submitted. Would you be willing to register us as the protective detail for the Grimspire ruins? Thanks."

    "As you wish, Lord Kane."

    Lucius sighed once again. "I hate this nobility shit¡­"

    "I know," Rena said with a teasing smile.

    "Anyway. Our previous party was a group of five, Rena and myself, along with an elf named Lethen, a human named Paul, and another human named Jen, the leader." Lucius exined. He had yet to tell this story to Rena either, so she was curious where it was going.

    "As it turns out," he continued. "They were hired by an entity that shall not be named for now to kill me while I was out in the Alorek desert attacking supply lines with the former party known as the Marks.

    "Their leader, Mia, along with Jen, Lethen, and Paul, all tried very, very hard to kill me out in the desert. That''s how I got all these scars on my back. Fun fact, by the way, Jen was using some sort of disguising device from Aedrider, and she''s actually a ck-haired elf named Shiyani."

    Desmond seemed to freeze. "Did you say: Shiyani?"

    "I did. Know her?"

    "Enough to know she''s not one to fuck with. She''s one of the best assassins out there."

    "Well, assassinating someone unawares in a city or under the cover of night is vastly different than confronting them in the middle of the day directly to their face."

    "From what I know, she''s not a specialist in one-on-one frontalbat¡­ sure she can handle herself, but anyone who knows a few things about wielding a sword could fight her off¡­ why would she put herself in such a disadvantageous situation¡­"

    "Don''t know, don''t care. When I find her, I''ll be sure to ask her as the light of life slowly drains from her eyes." Lucius stated coldly.

    A light knock on the door indicated the receptionist had returned, so they allowed her inside. She quickly went over the standard rules and guidelines of being an adventurer, then threw on a few additional rules that came with being a student applicant to the guild.

    The only major differences were known failure fees and the registration expired after six months of non-activity for the guild. The temporary registrations could be upgraded to permanent registration upon submission of documentation of either graduation from the academy or dismissal.

    No one else seemed to have any questions, so they bid their goodbyes to the receptionist and headed to the nearest carriagepany to reserve a ride to the Grimspire ruins.

    Grimspire was given that name because there was a singr massive tower that was somehow still standing even though the ruins were estimated to be in the realm of two thousand years old. No one knows what the ruins used to be called, how big it truly was, or really much of anything. The only known fact was that it was a city belonging to the long-extinct demon race.

    Renting a wagon out that far, especially since it was not a regr stop, was rather expensive. The final feended at almost two thousand gold coins to cover most of the distance. Even then, they only stopped at the nearest vige with a dedicated road, so there would still be some walking required.

    Desmond was about to offer to pay for it, but Lucius declined. "Actually, do not worry, I will cover the expense."

    "Oh, how wealthy are we? Honestly, I''m alright if we go back to being adventurers to live. That was my original n anyway, but just out of curiosity?" Rena asked.

    Lucius thought back to thest count of their treasury and then did some mental math on the family''s assets and businesses that were not as liquid as their coinage. It took him a few minutes to think of an answer, which was starting to worry Rena.

    "I thinkst count was somewhere in the range of two or three billion gold, give or take a couple million. Then we have a bunch tied up in some bars, inns, transport businesses¡­ oh, there''s a joint venture for a salt mine that we co-own with Kalliope''s family. I don''t really have numbers on value for those right now."

    Find more chapters on §Þ??

    His answer dropped the jaws of everyone in the group. "So yeah, no need to worry about me," He continued, "However, since technically I''m on assignment from the King of Eroa. This is ssified as a business expense. King Verdayl will cover the bill of all rted costs."

 Chapter 188: Oracle Troubles

    After Lucius left the capital with his group of fellow students, Kalliope felt slightly alone for a few days. For thest four years, she had been by the man''s side every single day for training, fighting, or talking. They had gotten to know each other very well.

    Lucius regaled her with every story he had about his childhood over those four years. She even knew about his mark and how it seemed to be connected to two entities, one named Grimm and the other named Luz.

    Grimm was apparently a darker entity with tendencies towards mischief and mayhem. It whispered ideas into Lucius''s head on asion and asked him to do many unspeakable things. Luz, on the other hand, spoke of only positive things he could or should do. Essentially, the two entities were pr opposites.

    Under any other circumstance, Kalliope would have assumed him to be insane rather than believing that voices inside his head were separate individuals. However, he also informed her that Rena had a run-in with Grimm once as a child, though they had never really had an in-depth conversation about who or what she spoke to.

    Because they never spoke about it, that meant Rena did not know to what extent Lucius was familiar with the two entities, nor was the woman aware that Luz also existed. Knowing this made Kalliope feel a little happy and prideful that she was aware of something that his primary lover was not.

    "Miss Kalliope, I have returned." Lyrah''s sing-song voice rang throughout the embassy.

    It seemed the young woman had returned after being out on the town for a while. When Lucius assigned her to watch over Rubellia and Lyrah, she understood the importance of the mission. Kalliope swore that she would not let a single hair on their heads be disturbed as she would keep constant vigil over them.

    However, on the very next day after they departed, Lyrah went missing. Kalliope searched through much of the capital to find the girl, but she was nowhere to be found. She had managed to evade a master tracker and beastman such as herself.

    Kalliope returned to the embassy early the next morning exhausted, and wanted to rest before beginning the search again. Lyrah was happily humming whilst cooking breakfast with the maid staff and Mistress Rubellia.

    Every day was like that since and eventually Kalliope just gave up. Any time she asked what it was that Lyrah was doing all she would answer was, "Just running some errands." After giving that non-answer, she would follow it up with ament of, "Natali had no problem keeping up with me."

    Kalliope felt a strong urge to p the girl right there, but restrained herself so she did not cause an international incident on top of angering Lucius¡­

    "Kalliope."

    The wolf-girl rolled her eyes. "What is it, Miss Lyrah?"

    "Would you like to join me on my errands tomorrow?"

    "Really? You aren''t going to leave me behind again?" She gave the ck-haired girl a dirty re which only served to make the girlugh.

    "Yes, I think I should be nicer to my future sister-inw."

    "Wh=wh-what? Wait! Did you see that happening in the future?" Kalliope squeaked out. Her tail had given away her emotions and was wagging fast enough to create a nice breeze.

    "Who knows? Maybe I just thought I would say something nice to you to get you to let your guard down?" Lyrah ced a hand over her mouth and giggled before excusing herself to go prepare the cement.

    Kalliope could not keep the frustrated growl that was forming in her throat. The rumbling sound made Rubellia smile at the two girls'' antics. Kalliope was about to leave and sulk, buta shout from the dining area apanied the sound of breaking ss.

    "Kalliope! Come, quickly! It''s Lyrah!" Rubellia shouted.

    Following the sound of panic, she quickly darted into the dining room and saw Lyrah copsed on the ground surrounded by the shards of a broken te. Her eyes had rolled into the back of her head and her lips were moving silently.

    Experience new stories on §Þ??

    Kalliope hurried and ced her on her side to ensure she would not swallow her own tongue or choke on saliva. One of the maids brought over a decorative pillow to rest Lyrah''s head on as well. Everyone fussed over the unconscious oracle for several minutes and wondered if they should get a healer or not.

    Thankfully, before they sent someone out, Lyrah awoke and shouted, "No! Stop¡­ I''m fine¡­ if you fetch someone, they''ll know."

    "Who will know? Know what?" Rubellia asked quickly.

    "The elders. They have been wondering where I have been. I have been trying to avoid them so they do not lock me away with my mother while Natali is away. I also do not wish to give them any prophecies." Lyrah answered quietly.

    Kalliope sighed and nodded in understanding. It was most likely that the ''errands'' the girl was running were trying to confuse any trackers that these so-called ''elders'' would have out searching for her. It was perfectly reasonable to not want to be locked away somewhere for any length of time. Especially after you had experienced freedom.

    "Alright. So, tell us. You had a vision? You can share. Everyone in thispound reports directly to Lucius. You can share any information you have freely." Kalliope promised while eyeing the maid staff who all nodded quickly in the affirmative of her statement.

    "Alright¡­ It was a vision of the academy. It was under attack. So much blood¡­" Lyrah whispered.

    "I thought you could only have visions of Lucius?"

    "I did as well¡­ however I did ''see'' his eyes, though I never saw his face¡­ so it was connected to him somehow¡­" the oracle continued.

    "Wait, Lucius would not attack the academy would he?" Rubellia asked. "If he did, Kalliope would stop him."

    "No, I wouldn''t." Kalliope said instantly. "If it''s him against the world, I will stand at his back, sword at the ready Mistress Rubellia."

    "Don''t worry¡­" Lyrah interjected. "I do not know who was attacking, but it was not Lucius. That I can assure you all. I do not know who they were¡­ but it will happen and¡­ I do not know when."

    Kalliope nodded and helped Lyrah get to a morefortable seating position on a chair instead of the floor. For the next few hours they spoke back and forth about what to do and other ns for the eventual attack. Lyrah insisted that they do not make the information public at this time, until or unless they figure out who it might be.

    Revealing it now would result in the im being ignored without evidence. And if they revealed that the information came from an oracle, it would bring them back to the issue of Lyrah being found out and exposed to the elders. Their best solution at this time was to utilize the King''s Shadow agents avable to try and look for whispers of anything academy rted.

 Chapter 189: A Fathers Scorn/Spire Hollow [Dual Chapter]

    Richard mmed his fist into the wall of his office for the dozenth time since he returned to Pelith. Many things had gone wrong for him over thest few weeks.

    The chief among them was that Lucius survived the assassination n that was put in ce. He left the entire plot up to the elven bitch known as Shiyani and assumed she would take care of it. Richard was not one to n, he preferred the more honorable route of direct confrontation, so he had left the n to her.

    He had already dirtied his hands more than necessary by using an assassin. However, he also recognized that he was given little choice. There was absolutely no way for him to have been able to leave hismand at Watcher''s Retreat, make it past enemy lines unnoticed, track the Marked One down, and then kill him. After all that, he would have to somehow return to hismand in a reasonable time.

    It was practically impossible.

    Another issue that gued him was that not only did Lucius survive¡­ he was also the son of the King Ranker Kalivas from Eroa. With training from him, the boy had gained the power to overwhelm every opponent in the Exhibition Tournament withplete ease.

    After all that, the bastard had the gall to trap King Aleksander into a promise that allowed him to manipte the king into approving the marriage of Lucius and Rena. There was not a doubt in Richard''s mind of the question he asked, "Would it be fine if I were a noble" was one he specifically structured as a logical trap.

    Had the king reneged on his word after Lucius was revealed as a noble but one simr in rank to Richard''s own¡­ it would have been an international embarrassment.

    "That bastard defiled my daughter''s innocent heart. I will kill him." Richard growled. "Wayne, I know that you are turning over in your grave, likely cursing me from the afterlife, but I cannot let this slide. Lucius¡­ I will find a way to get back at you. Prophesied heir of House Kane or not¡­ you will die by my hand."

    "Lord Petra, your investigators are ready to provide a report on the destruction of Mistress Rubellia''s home." A maid said from outside the door.

    "Let them in."

    A man and woman entered the room simultaneously, with a handful of documents between them. They were simple-looking folk, but they were very good investigators and information gatherers. Rubellia''s home had been attacked not too long ago by an enraged Fanged Boar.

    The beast alone was a rather rare sighting in the forest outside Pelith, but to have one leave the confines of the sacred woods was rarer still. For the beast to have also targeted Rubellia''s home alone and caused no other damage¡­ was too convenient, to say the least. Richard was not a man who relied on convenience; it was only a fact.

    After hisst inability to follow through, he would not leave this incident alone.

    ording to the investigators, Rubellia did make it out alive. People reported seeing her with a strange hooded man with animal-like ears. They left town on a rushed carriage headed toward the capital. This was likely the doing of Lucius.

    As for the attack itself, it seemed someone had lured the monster out using a string of bait traps in the woods. The investigators found signs of monster bait around the destroyed home as well in periodic locations trailing deep into the woods where the beast would normally dwell.

    After providing their findings, Richard handed them their payment and waived them away. Someone seemed to be attacking Lucius indirectly in such a way as to hurt him without making it obvious. Knowing how resourceful Lucius was, he would see through such incidents immediately.

    Given how little time there was between Rubellia escaping and the monster attack urring, it was clear he had anticipated something like this well in advance.

    "Smart kid¡­" Richard grimaced.

    At least one thing he agreed on with the boy was avoiding involving the innocent in their feud. Richard had no concerns that Lucius would find him responsible for this, as it was something below Richard''s station.

    "However, it is not below my idiot brother''s¡­" he muttered. "Andre, you fool¡­ if he finds out it''s you¡­ well, just keep Thomas out of it. He''s the next in line, after all. If you get yourself killed, then it''s your own damned fault."

    Of course, he would not put it above Lucius to kill Thomas as payback for Andre''s actions. However, starting a war like that between House Petra and House Kane could break the centuries-old alliance between Eroa and Arcadios. Such a thing would likely be something the boy would avoid.

    After pondering the situation longer, he decided he needed to take a walk. It had been a long time since Richard had taken in the simple pleasures of life. He found himself amongst the flowers in his rear garden, walking and enjoying the smells and beauty of the cultivated flora.

    It took little time for him to happen upon the gazebo that his daughter had loved so much when she was younger and the sight of it brought a pang of sorrow to him. Richard knew he was a poor excuse for a father. Too much of his focus was spent on his duties and almost none of it on his own flesh and blood.

    Other than the maid staff, the girl was virtually isted from social interactions of any kind. Her cousins were not those he wished her to be around. Also, the country nobles were much too timid to assume that he would let their children interact with her. Though he would have, they were not brave enough to ask, and he was too much of an idiot to make it known that it was okay.

    "Lord Petra, a letter regarding Lady Rena arrived for you from the Arcadios Royal Academy."

    "Oh? Why would that not be sent to Lucius or Kalivas?" he asked.

    "I believe that you are still listed as her guarantor, so it wille to you directly."

    "That makes sense, is she okay?"

    The maid shuffled ufortably for a few moments before Richard finally said, "Well out with it."

    "Um¡­ my lord, it seems there have been a number of¡­"

    "Of?"

    "There have been noiseints¡­ from Rena''s room¡­ in the female dormitory, and the academy wishes for it to be addressed or for Lady Rena to find residence outside of the academy''s facilities." The maid answered, her red flushed.

    "Gods be damned, you fucking marked bastard¡­"

    [---------------------190-Spire Hollow---------------------]

    The first few days of the carriage trip went by rather smoothly. The roads were well-maintained and there were little in the ways of monsters or bandits to worry about. This was due to the capital''s policy on making the area around it extraordinarily safe.

    However, the safe and easy times would notst forever. The party eventually passed into the areas that were less maintained. The roads became bumpier and harder to travel. Natali in particr was ufortable from the constant jostling. As someone who had spent her entire life with Lyrah, riding in a carriage of any kind was something that she had never done.

    The poor girl had it rough. She looked rather sick in the face even on the smooth parts of the trip, but now that they were rocking back and forth onrge bumps and dips in the path, she looked like she would empty her guts at any moment.

    "Miss Jade, could you please assist Natali in calming down? Unfortunately, there is not much we can do about the motion sickness she must be feeling." Lucius requested.

    "Of course, Lord Kane." Jade answered with a smile before saddling up to the maid and rubbing her back. Jade also provided pieces of bread and water to try and settle the girl''s stomach a little.

    Neither would really aplish much, but it was clear that Natali appreciated the gesture from Jade. Desmond looked on in pity at the girl, but said nothing. He had been remarkably quiet during the trip so far and even maintained a healthy distance away from Lucius.

    Lucius did not know why this was, but assumed it had something to do with trying to earn his trust. Desmond had already self-admitted to receiving a letter from some unknown organization and handed the evidence directly to him.

    It would have been just as easy for him to have kept it quiet and tried to worm his way into Lucius''s inner-circle another way. However, it seemed that was not the kind of person Desmond Adler was. He was much more honest than that and freely answered the questions asked of him.

    The only thing that ever seemed to put Sir Adler on edge was anything that rted to his sister, Jade. It was clear he was extremely overprotective of her. Which is why Lucius used her to his advantage. Though he felt like Desmond was a decent enough guy, it never hurt to have insurance.

    "Stop the carriage." Lucius stated suddenly while smacking the side of the wagon. Almost immediately, the driver stopped, making the horses whinny out of confusion.

    "What is going¡­"

    Lucius quickly shushed Desmond who had grabbed his spear and began to question why they were suddenly stopped. "Everyone out of the carriage. We have guests. They don''t seem hostile." He said finally.

    Lucius quickly jumped out and then proceeded to help the girls out of the back. The drop was not sorge that they could not handle it, but something told him it would be the right thing to do. Natali and Rena could have easily made the leap without issue, but they were not going to decline his offer for assistance.

    Jade, however, was not what one would call¡­ athletically inclined. When she attempted to hop out, she stumbled over the side by catching the tip of her toe on the edge. Thankfully, Lucius was there to catch her, though they ended up in a slightly awkward entanglement.

    Jade''s face ended up buried into Lucius''s chest as her arms were wrapped around his neck from her panicking and grabbing onto anything that would stabilize her fall. He could hear the pounding of her heart quicken and be louder while he simply sighed, put a hand on each of her shoulders, and then pried her off.

    Desmond watched the situation with a raised eyebrow, visibly unsure of what to think about the situation. Rena simply smiled and stifled augh. However, the worst reaction from the situation came from the maid girl, Natali. Her usually stone-like face twitched at the corners of her lips; likely out of jealousy.

    Choosing to ignore the situation in favor for the greater concern, Lucius turned to face down the road they were traveling on and awaited their guests. After only a short wait, a group of ten people, each wearing a hodgepodge of armor that did not quite go together, appeared.

    It was easy to recognize the men as former soldiers from the war with Alorek. Since they were very close to the border with the Wisteria Concord, it only made sense that a number of the soldiers dismissed from the battle settled rtively near the area of engagement.

    Of course, Lucius did not recognize any of the people explicitly. He was able to deduce the information based on their armor, the fact many of them had marks on their left hands, and the fact they moved in a military-like fashion. It seemed that after he was secreted away to train in Eroa, the Marked Ones were given some form of training.

    At least Richard was good for something while he oversaw Watcher''s Retreat.

    "Halt!" The person who appeared to be the leader of the group shouted out. "You are approaching Spire Hollow. What business do you have in our vige?"

    "Spire Hollow?" Desmond asked. "I''m unfamiliar with the ce. We looked over the maps meticulously, but there was no mention of such a ce."

    "Spire Hollow is the name of our vige. I''ll ask again, what business do you have?" the leader continued, getting a little impatient.

    "We were sent on a quest from the Adventurer''s Guild to assist researchers at the Grimspire ruins. I take it your vige is the one near them?" Rena said. She had put a hand on Lucius''s arm to indicate she would take charge of the pleasantries.

    Rena and the former soldiers continued to exchange information with one another so that they were each aware of the other''s intentions. A few minutes went by, but eventually the armed men agreed to escort them to their vige. It would be dark soon and traveling the rest of the way to Grimspire would not be a wise idea.

    Even though it was very close to the vige they were going to, such a short distance was still dangerous at night.

    The vige they called ''Spire Hollow'' was supposed to be a small vige that specialized in hunting and lumber, like most of the viges in Arcadios. However, it seemed that the vige had grown a lot in poption. There seemed to be arge number of veterans from the war that settled here.

    Houses were constructed quickly and inrge rows, and the vige had even set up a ratherrge and formidable barricade around itself.

    "Not bad." Lucius remarked.

 Chapter 190: Bar Troubles

    Jade was nervous to join in the excursion right from the beginning, but when Lucius and his cohorts came to her and Desmond, there was no way they could reject them. She would not be given any special permissions to avoid participating in the work-studies, and it was unlikely that anyone would take her in.

    Since Desmond would not join anyone without bringing her along as well, he also would have been left out. That would have meant the two of them would be doing the work alone and that would present a lot of risk. Though umon, it was not unheard of for senior students to go missing or die on the work-studies. That was why only the senior ss participated.

    If it was only the two of them, the risk of them being among the negative statistics were higher. On top of the practical reasoning, Jade was also acting a little selfish on behalf of Desmond. She knew that he had been trying desperately to get closer to Lucius and though she did not know the reason, she wanted to help her brother achieve his task.

    However, once they started the actual journey, she found herself oddlyforted. Jade was fearful of what they would run into, but out in the field, Rena and Lucius exuded such absolute confidence that it washed away her worries. They revealed prior experience traveling as adventurers, so that was likely the reason for their calm.

    Everything was also going well for Jade, until she messed up. Lucius requested they file out of their carriage, which was more like a glorified wagon cart, and she tripped and ended up wrapped around him. The entire incident was mortifying. From the outside, it looked like she was making moves on a married man, and that was terrifying.

    For her part, Jade could not hide the blush on her face remembering the incident as they were led into the rapidly growing vige named Spire Hollow. His piercing multi-colored eyes haunted her every thought and his brooding expression heated her cheeks.

    "Jade, are you alright?" the kind voice of the wife of the very man viting her private thoughts called out to her.

    "Oh yes, Lady Kane, I am fine." Jade answered hurriedly. "I apologize for my behavior earlier; I assure you it was entirely an ident."

    Rena simply giggled. "It''s fine. I promise you that you are far from the first to ''make a move on him'' and inparison to what Kalliope tries to pull¡­ your efforts are rather tame."

    Jade nodded along. She had seen the wolf-girl''s shamelessness, so it was no wonder Rena was rather calm about the situation. Also, Lucius was nobility from a beastman nation¡­ so maybe the woman had made peace with that?

    "We are here. It''s a small inn, but there should be rooms enough for all of you. The food is good too. The liquor is shit, but it still gets you drunk." One of their escorts pointed them to one of therger buildings in town that he had guided them to.

    It was simple in construction, but it had two floors. The ground level was a bar and eatery with dozens of round tables lined with stools. Many of them were packed with vigers who were getting drunk to ease the day''s stresses. A few homely waitresses moved deftly between the sea of legs to deliver pints of alcohol and trays of food.

    The smell was far from pleasant with the smell of sweaty workers and stale beer, but when the tes of food passed by, Jade''s senses were assaulted with a wave of pleasant aromas. The sights and smells caused her stomach to rumble, prompting Lucius to look directly at her.

    "Let''s eat. There''s a table in the far corner, away from the door. I''ll reserve some rooms for us. Natali, would you prefer to sleep alone or share a room with the twins?"

    "I will share with the twins. Less rooms are better." The maid answered.

    Lucius nodded and left to speak to an elderly woman at the main counter. Jade followed the rest to the table he had pointed out and sat down. Their orders were taken quickly and they settled into light conversation.

    They did not discuss anything particrly important or deep. After all, they were not close enough with each other to share anything important. Desmond and Rena led the conversation primarily and Natali simply sat and observed the surroundings.

    Her behavior made Jade remember that she was normally tasked with watching over Lady Lyrah, so it made sense that she was constantly surveilling their surroundings.

    Their de facto leader, Lucius returned and passed a room key to Desmond while keeping another for himself. "Anyone pick up any rumors yet?" he asked sitting down.

    "Just that the researchers apparently have a camp set up right in the ruins that they stay in when not needing any supplies. Tomorrow is supposed to be one of their scheduled runs to town for a refresh, so we can probably link up with them then." Rena answered.

    Jade looked at her incredulously. She had no clue how the woman had picked up on such a rumor while she was engrossed in conversation with Desmond. Jade was only half-paying attention to her brother''s conversation with Rena and she still had not been able to pick out anything among the roar of voices.

    "You¡­" An angry, deep voice called out to them. It came from arge man with crazy eyes and a scraggily beard who stepped up behind Lucius.

    Lucius sighed and put down his ale Rena had ordered for him earlier. Hezily turned around to address the man, "What is it?"

    "I knew it. I recognize those eyes." The angry man said through clenched teeth. "You were the one responsible for that day. Awfully stupid of you to show up here. Did you know that most of this vige is full of men and women from Watcher''s Retreat?"

    "And?" Lucius''s expression was one ofplete boredom, however the man addressing him clenched every muscle in his body. He looked like a person on the verge of murder.

    "You will pay for what you did. Step outside. Now."

    It was by this point that Jade had realized the entire floor had grown quiet and watched their interaction. Several among the crowd had looks of anger, realization, and fear in their eyes when they settled on Lucius. On Lucius''s part, he maintained his look of boredom up until the moment a challenge was issued. He epted the challenge with a huge, toothy grin on his face.

 Chapter 191: Angel of Death

    Jade watched as Lucius downed the rest of his drink and walked outside of the inn. The rest of the patrons followed him silently, no one daring to speak a single word. When everyone finally got outside, Lucius looked around for a moment before walking to a rtively sparse spot ofnd where a few paths were interconnected.

    The pissed-off gentleman from earlier was the closest one behind Lucius as he led everyone to this spot, but a number of people from the crowd joined them. All of them had looks of hatred on their faces and all of that energy was directed right at the ck-haired man.

    "Why don''t you tell everyone here what you''ve done." The angry man shouted.

    "My men here remember, but the rest of the vige doesn''t know who you are. Do your friends? How about we share?" he continued while Lucius watched him.

    "All of you have heard about the Angel of Death, right? Four years ago he descended on the battlefield and used a grand spell that took hundreds of lives. Over a thousand men and women died that day on our side¡­ the Angel''s spell was directly responsible for more over half of that number¡­ maybe even more.

    "He overlooked the battlefield; a ck-haired boy with glowing eyes. We were overwhelmed and losing ground against Alorek. A single entity appeared, looking like the savior we needed in that moment. Our Angel sent to save our sorry hides¡­ but instead all he brought was death. Death to Alorek and death to the Union forces.

    "This boy¡­ I saw him back in Watcher''s Retreat before the battle. I recognized him as one of our own. Weunched the offensive to get you past enemy lines¡­ but that sacrifice wasn''t enough for you was it? You needed more so you took them; all those lives, you took them with your own hands." The man ranted.

    His story was followed by a series of jeers and shouts from the crowd. More individuals walked out of the gathered people to join the angry man in his confrontation against Lucius.

    Jade looked towards Lucius, her eyes almost pleading for him to deny the allegations levied against him. Yet, he remained silent. Worse still, his face contorted into a twisted smile.

    "What of it?" He answered. His tone chilled the crowd to the bone. Several people, including Jade, shivered.

    "They died because they were weak. You were failing to fulfill your mission alone, so I helped you achieve your goal. Thanks to the sacrifices made, I was able toplete my mission. Without them the war might still be ongoing." Lucius continued before he finished. "You''re wee."

    "Is that all you have to say for yourself, you monster?!" The crowd shouted. "You should die for what you''ve done."

    Lucius''s eyes glowed and Jade felt the building of a tremendous amount of pressure. She looked to her brother for reassurance, but saw that sweat poured off of his brow. Rena and Natali also had expression simr to Desmond''s. Jade felt her knees begin to quake and saw as most of the vigers gathered were also shaking.

    "You are more than wee to im my head." Lucius shouted out gleefully. "I wee your challenge. But you should know the cost of such actions."

    The buildup of mana continued and the sky above rapidly darkened until it almost looked like night. Thunder rumbled above as a storm seemed to settle over the vige. Cracks of lightning shot across the clouds and a few struck thend outside the vige. A gust of air whipped around Lucius and the cloak he wore, which was now ck, fluttered furiously.

    "The death of your cohorts was by my hand. The fall of Alorek was by my hand. If you move against me, I will not stop you. However, know that that if you do, Spire Hollow will also cease to exist by my hand." Lucius shouted above the roar of the wind. "Take your vengeance if you must, but know the innocents in the vige will share in the cost of your actions."

    Slowly, but surely the former soldiers backed away, unwilling to face the being in front of them who appeared to be a force of nature. Jade could not me them for backing off, there was no way she could face something like that.

    "One more thing." Lucius continued to a symphony of lightning strikes. "We are staying in town tonight. I prefer that I not be bothered. It would be a shame for any mistakes to happen."

    Thest sentence was emphasized by a loud roll of thunder as the clouds above dissipated, letting the evening sun shine through. All the vigers quickly left the area and vanished into their respective homes and back to the inn.

    "Lucius." Desmond called out. "Is it true what they said?"

    "It is."

    "They were to be your allies. Did you not care they were caught up in your spell against Alorek?" Desmond questioned.

    "Against Alorek? No, the spell was against everyone, Desmond." Lucius answered. He then looked at Natali and Jade before continuing. "This is the man I am. The man that Rena married. Make your decisions wisely if you still wish to interact with me.

    That goes for Desmond as well as you two. I assure you this will not be thest time something like this or far worse happens."

    With that final warning, Lucius returned to the inn with Rena on his arm. The look of concern she had was reced with a look of content. Natali''s expression also returned to normal and she continued to follow right behind the other two as if nothing had happened.

    "It seems those two are locked into their decision." Desmond mused. "What shall we do sister?"

    "I think we spend longer feeling things out. Though I would say, your interest in him does not seem to be one of respect or idolization. Does what kind of man he is matter if he can still get you what you want?" Jade answered.

    "I suppose not. You make an excellent point."

    Jade nodded along with her brother and they both returned to the inn.

 Chapter 192: Night at the Inn

    Rena sat quietly next to Lucius on the bed of their room. After the show in front of the townspeople, neither of them said much to one another. She always knew what Lucius was capable of, however the extent was always somewhat clouded in mystery. He willingly told her how he took over Alorek.

    With consent from King Verdayl, he purchased a massive amount of the explosive crystals that Aedrider mines. Since Kalliope''s family runs a number of mining operations as well, they had connections with families and merchant groups within that trade all around the continent.

    Using that, they collected arge quantity of it and began to tamper with it, trying to figure out all the qualities it possessed. It was thanks to their experimentation that Lucius found out that it could be filled with mana remotely by using Thunder Magic. The specific wavelength Thunder Magic used was exactly what was needed to charge the crystals.

    Normally it had to be done through direct contact, but this remote absorption opened many avenues for them.

    Using barrels of the stuff, they secreted agents into the city to cause as much devastation as possible to primarily ''soft targets'' to force the military to surrender or risk the lives of more civilians.

    ording to Lucius, the attack was going to be much grander, likely resulting in the total destruction of the entire city, however when one of Alorek''s Empyrean Rankers moved to help their army reinforce the city, he had to change targets and opt for isted impact over wide-ranging destruction.

    Today, however, was the first she had heard the truth of what happened prior. It bothered Rena that he was so cold and callous to have done such a thing, but she also knew that he was someone who weighed his options. Lucius did not go out of his way to be cruel, unless that cruelty earned him something. Every action he took was with purpose.

    "I know you must think poorly of me right now." Her husband said. There was no hint of pain or guilt, his tone was that of indifference. To him, he was stating a fact.

    Rena sat for a moment before answering, "No, I don''t. I think you had your reasons. Though I don''t agree with your actions taken, I know they had purpose. At least to you. You know me, if I can sway you towards a gentler path, I will. But I will never stand in your way, my love."

    "By choosing to ept me for my sins, it paints the blood I spill on your hands as well." Lucius continued.

    "I''m aware. I feel like I''ve known that for a long time." Rena said quietly. "However, even knowing that I still chose and will continue to choose to be on your side. If the entire world rises against you, then I alone will stand at your back. Though I have to ask¡­ what made you so cold, Lucius? Many have suffered as you have, though not as many act the way you do."

    He remained silent for a moment as if pondering some great mystery. For a while, Rena thought he was ignoring her question and was content to let the silence stay, however he did eventually speak up.

    "Grimm." He said.

    "Who?" Rena asked, though she felt her skin crawl when Lucius said the name.

    "The entity you spoke to during our trial. He is¡­ an entity that exists within my mark. When I feel guilt for some of my actions, there is a sensation at the base of my skull, like someone ced ice against it, and then it fades. After it is gone, I feel nothing. Simply apathy." Lucius exined. "Yet other times, when I feel pain or loss, that same sensation that takes away my emotions does nothing."

    "That sounds terrifying."

    "It is. I know Grimm is not trustworthy. Though in a way I suppose I can trust him to be at least that¡­" Lucius chuckled for a moment. "Since I was a child, I have been experiencing this."

    "Like when you said you were conflicted, back when we faced those bandits with the hostages¡­"

    "Yes." He answered. "That was a strong sensation. It was when I really started to question things. Over time I recognized that¡­ Grimm has been trying to hone me. To guide me to feel and act a certain way."

    "So it is not your fault then?" Rena asked carefully, which elicited another chuckle from her lover.

    "No. I take responsibility for my actions, but it certainly is a factor in how I got this way. I asked Grimm for help when I was a child, not ready for my own power. This was one of his¡­ gifts to me. To help hone me into a weapon of sorts."

    Rena remained quiet for several more minutes before reaching her hand out to her husband. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards the bed. He looked at her in surprise as she gave him her the most seductive look she could manage.

    Like putty in her hands, he folded to her gentle tugs as she gingerly helped him remove his armor, letting each piece fall to the ground. She ced his hand on her chest and cupped his face with her own.

    "Through good and bad, I am with you always Lucius." She whispered. "As long as I am yours, nothing else matters."

    "Rena¡­" Lucius breathed. "You y a dangerous game."

    She smiled at his words. "You do not know the half of it my love. Though, as long as it is with you, I''m willing to flirt with all kinds of danger."

    Lucius took her by the chin and pulled her into a deep kiss. She felt the world around her melt into nothingness as he pulled her over the top of him.

    "You know, our cohorts are sharing the other side of this wall." Lucius said with a smile.

    "Then I guess we will have to be quiet." Rena smiled back.

    "I don''t think you have it in you. You are strong, but not that strong."

    They both gave in to one another as passionate sounds of kissing and moaning echoed throughout the room. By the next morning, neither Jade nor Natali would look at Rena in the eyes. She did not know if apologizing would make it better, or if admitting to what happened would make things even more awkward between them.

    Desmond on the other hand did not seem to care much, however she did notice a slight smirk on his face.

 Chapter 193: Channeling: 101

    While under the watchful gaze of the vigers, the group eventually left town. The awkwardness of their party members'' gazes and the hateful res of the townspeople seemed to have little impact on Lucius, who simply walked along the paths without a care.

    Desmond found himself in slight awe of the man, and one thing that piqued his curiosity was the sheer amount of mana that Lucius manipted to make his threat. It weighed so heavily on him that once they had left the town and entered the woods, he finally brought himself to bring the subject up.

    "Lucius." He asked carefully. "If you are truly Intermediate, how do you possess so much mana? You wear it like a damned cloak sometimes, yet others, I sense nothing special. How do you do it?"

    Natali and Rena nced between Desmond and Lucius as if they were also expecting an answer. Rena''s ignorance surprised him because he thought she would at least know, but apparently, that was not the case.

    "It is true that I possess arger mana pool than most; it''s not as much as you think," Lucius answered honestly. "I think it is about thirty to forty percent more than someone of equal rank?"

    "While thirty to forty percent more is astounding¡­" Desmond replied, "It doesn''t exin how much we are experiencing when you pull those stunts like in the vige."

    Luciusughed before answering, "Channeling."

    "What do you mean? How does that work?"

    "Well, think about when you are fighting; there is a physical limit that you have¡ªa maximum amount of strength you can use and a maximum amount of time." Lucius exined, "However, there are times, like under great duress when you can push past those limits¡ªtimes where you fight harder andst longer."

    Desmond nodded in understanding, "Yes. Adrenaline. It pushes you beyond your physical limits. I know what you mean."

    "Good." The ck-haired man said with a smile, "Magic and Arts are the same as it rtes to your mana pool. There is a limit to what you can use. However¡­ under times of duress, you can push into untapped potential and ess a normally inessible amount of mana."

    "I see¡­ and you can tap into this?"

    "Yes. One of the many aspects of Channeling. With it, I can cast many Arts and magic spells without the need for activation phrases. But the core of the skill is that I have an extreme amount of control over every drop of mana in my body. Should I really choose to, I have the ability to use all of the mana I possess¡­ which would result in my death.

    "While I may possess thirty to forty percent more than the average person of my rank, the amount I have ess to makes it seem like many times that amount." He informed them.

    It took Desmond a lot of time to understand the truth of the matter. To think that he could ess the entirety of his mana pool, including the reserves that keep him alive. If he used all of that, he would suffer from more than just mana deprivation; he could die. An ability like that took a lot of skill to use.

    "Are you not at risk every time you use a spell?" Jade asked the question everyone was thinking. "If you mess up and use too much mana¡­"

    "Sure, I could inadvertently hurt myself. Thankfully, I''m not an idiot."

    His gruff behavior and responses were starting to eat at Desmond a little, but he held his tongue. Desmond was rather grateful that the man was willing to answer so many questions, especially about the features of an advanced technique. Many schrs and practitioners were loathe to share such secrets.

    "Are you not concerned that we might take this knowledge and use it ourselves?" Desmond inquired.

    "You can try if you like. I wee it."

    After that, the group was rather quiet on their journey. Rena held a map and was navigating for them. asionally Lucius would run ahead and vanish into the trees while they stopped for a rest. The married couple exined that this was how they did things back when they adventured together as children.

    Their party possessed two warriors, an archer, Rena as the mage, and Lucius as their scout. Desmond had known that beastmen had exceptional senses, but as a half-blood, Lucius had inherited that trait as well. She exined it had be quite useful to her husband and his party members.

    It did not take Desmond long to understand how such an ability could be utilized, and he found himself slightly jealous of the man''s innate abilities. Of course, he was not jealous of Lucius''s strength because strength could be earned and obtained, but no matter what he did, Desmond would never possess those senses.

    They had traveled for a few more hours and were only about an hour away from the Grimspire Ruins when Lucius appeared out of the trees. He dropped to the ground from above like a monkey and made very little sound despite the armor he was wearing.

    "Monster iing. I don''t know what it is, but it''s an E-Rank threat, or at least that''s the feeling I am getting from it." He advised, "Think you can handle it, Desmond?"

    "Sure," Desmond answered resolutely.

    A few momentster, a strange, two-legged beast stepped out of the woods. It looked like a strange mix between a humanoid and a tree. Desmond was able to recognize it immediately as an Ent. They did not have many in his home country, but they were rathermon in heavily wooded areas, which made it sound strange that Lucius did not recognize it¡­

    Ents could be quite powerful monsters the older they got, but as they grew, they eventually became immobile. This one was rather young, so it had not yet rooted itself into the ground as it was likely looking for unupied territory to im.

    The monster raised its arms made of twisted branches and charged towards Desmond, who was front and center. He readied his spear to attack and activated an Art. "[Spear Arts: Triple Thrust]"

    Three rapid strikes of his spear hit the charging Ent in the chest, sending it tumbling backward into the grass. It screamed in pain andunched a wave of splinters out of its mouth.

    "[Aqua: Water Shield]"

    A wall of water materialized in front of him and absorbed the impact of the monster''s attack. The Ent looked puzzled for a moment allowing Desmond to run around the side of the shield and take advantage of the surprise.

    "[Spear Arts: Heavy Impact]"

    With a massive crack, the Ent flew into a tree, crushing the bark and leaving an indent of itself in the wood. Completely disoriented, it attempted to stand but fell over multiple times. Desmond stepped forward and used his spearhead to stab through its heart, killing it.

 Chapter 194: Making it to Camp

    Lucius found himself mildly impressed by the speed at which Desmond took down the Ent all on his own. Granted, he did not know the monster was called that until everyone told him after the fact. Since he had spent such a long time in the deserts of Alorek and jungles of Eroa, he was most familiar with the flora and fauna of those areas.

    Back when he was an adventurer, he learned about monsters as they faced them, so he never really spent a lot of time learning about them. Rena was sure to chastise him for his behavior and demanded he devote more time to studying things like this especially since he was a student now.

    Rena, on the other hand, made sure to learn a lot about many kinds of creatures since she was going to be an adventurer again after the academy. Because of this, she was able to instruct them on the parts of the Ent they wanted to harvest. It had a core in its stomach that housed its mana, which was shaped like a seed. They were very popr ingredients in mana restoration potions.

    "Stronger and older Ents have bigger cores, but once they get to a certain age, they be almost impossible to harvest without damaging. The diminishing return makes it unpopr to hunt the older ones." The redhead exined while expertly carving away at the monster''s corpse.

    Once she had everything taken care of, she ced the materials in the storage ring. Normally it was customary to burn the bodies of dead creatures, however, Ents were an exception. Without their cores, the bodies would rapidly decay and fertilize the ground they died on.

    It was only an hour or soter that they happened upon the ruins. Grimspire was so named because of an ancient tower that still stood tall amongst the trees of the forest. Many people believed there were many such towers, but the one the one that gave the ruins their name was the only one still standing.

    Another marker of the ruins was that the rest of them were carved into an artificial ravine. Coming up to the ruins, it would first look like you were stopping over a small ledge that dropped straight down almost twelve feet. However, the ledge was artificial as well. The walls of the ravine were perfectly smooth and lined with gorgeous stonework and carvings.

    The area was covered in these perfect ditches and it was a dangerous ce to walk if you were not paying attention. From above, it looked like the roads of a city were forcefully sunk twelve feet into the ground and then the walls of the stone were smoothed out and carved into. There were no other buildings of any kind save the one tower.

    Along the ''streets'' of the ruins there were carved out rooms with doorways and windows, indicating that the ancient inhabitants lived partially underground with the areas over their streets being opened to the sky. There were a handful of demon ruins across the continent, but this style of building and design was unique to Grimspire.

    Off to the north, rising up from the sunken pathways, was a series of smoke towers. They were small, but there were a few of them, indicating the research camp was off in that direction. The group opted to carefully leap over the gaps in thendscape and approach the research camp from above. That way they would not get lost in the veritable maze of roads.

    Jade required some extra assistance from both her brother and Lucius on a few spots, but otherwise everyone handled the short trek alright. When they approached the campsite, they decided to go ahead and drop down into the ruins before finishing their approach. The idea was they would look less threateninging up to the research site from the same level rather than from above.

    "Hold!" a man yelled out as they approached the site.

    He looked to be a standard adventurer who was on guard duty for the moment. Behind him a number of men and women in robes were rushing about and trading notes. Two of the robed people grabbed another adventurer by his wrist and yanked him along with them as they hurried away from camp.

    Lucius deduced they wanted to go somewhere and the poor adventurer who was eating a meal, was the closest escort they grabbed.

    "Lucius Kane. We are students of the Arcadios Royal Academy. We have taken up assignment to assist with guarding the research camp." Lucius proimed. "We have heard you experienced trouble with monsters."

    "Aye, that we have."

    "Yet, on our way here we met a single Ent, and while I am not perfect¡­ I''m not detecting anything at the moment."

    "Aye, you won''t. Not till the night falls."

    Rena and Natali cocked their heads inquisitively while Desmond''s face paled slightly. Even Lucius himself felt his body shudder momentarily.

    Jade spoke up first, "What''s the matter?"

    "The undead, littledy," The adventurer answered, "During the day they vanish below ground and are nigh untraceable, but at night, they resurface to stalk the living. Naty beasts.

    "On their own, they usually aren''t much of a threat, but if they reach greater numbers, they be a bit of a problem. We are getting close to that problem part over thest few days. All we have been able to do is protect the researchers at night, so we haven''t been able to cull their numbers."

    Desmond and Lucius continued to speak with the man as the girls found themselves pulled away by a couple of female adventurers. Thanks to his acute sense of hearing, he was able to determine that the girls'' conversations were not meant for virgin ears.

    When Rena disclosed her marital status, the adventurers began asking Jade some rather private information that Lucius was sure a sister would not know.

    "And that about sums it up." The adventurer finished.

    The n was for them to rest during the day and send out the new fighters to assist with thinning their numbers. For some reason the undead were only appearing on the sunken streets of the ruins and none were appearing up on the surface. It was a blessing as they were able to avoid worrying about an undead mob falling atop their heads.

    Of course, they did not rely on this pattern and made sure to maintain a presence up above, just in case that changed. Once they agreed on a n, everyone dispersed which included Lucius being guided by Rena to a private space just for them to use.

    They were on a mission in a dangerous area, so they had no intentions of disturbing the camp, however it appeared that she had something rather important to discuss.

    "Lucius¡­" She started. "I have something that I really, really need to talk to you about. It''s about our future. I''ve been meaning to have a conversation with you about this for a few weeks now but¡­"

 Chapter 195: The Future

    "I need to know what Kalliope means to you." Rena requested.

    Her beautiful green eyes stared directly into Lucius''s own. They were firm and resolute in their determination. Lucius detected no hint of jealousy, frustration, or really any emotionsing from his wife. Her question was purely and simply, a request for knowledge.

    He sighed for a moment and closed his eyes. His mind was filled with haunting memories of the many dozens of times the wolf girl attacked him and attempted to woo him. Some of the more aggressive ones had even gotten some of his and her clothes off and involved arge quantity of powerful wines.

    *****

    In the years he had known Kalliope, they had never actually taken that final step. There was one instance, the night that Lucius was given a ce in the King''s Shadow, that they had almost sealed the deal on their rtionship.

    Lucius had turned seventeen a few days prior and on the day of his celebration, he decided to enter into a small tournament for one of the Eroan academy locations. He thought it was nothing more than a simple fight to showcase the prowess of the school''s students.

    It was his idea that he could burn off some steam and have a little fun by showing up as a no-named half-blood that wiped the floor with these highly trained academy students.

    By that point, Kalivas had trained him for three years and he had more than enough understanding that his strength, knowledge, and ability to control the pacing of the fight were more than enough to make him stronger than almost anyone else in his age group.

    As he predicted, the fights were easy and he won without much effort. It wasn''t until after everything was over, he realized these fights were for entry exams into the academy and he found himself swarmed by different teachers and martial artists who all begged him to join their respective programs.

    Kalivas was able to rescue him from their clutches because while he was excellent at fighting, Lucius was always terrible in social situations. Thoughts of simply killing them and being done with it had crossed his mind multiple times, however, the knowledge that it would burden the man who took care of him as well as the woman who saved his life, kept him in check.

    A recruiter with the King''s Shadow watched the entire incident, including the parts where Lucius fought against himself to kill the flies pestering him. When Kalivas pulled Lucius far enough away from the fight, they cornered them in an alley where Kalliope was already waiting. She clearly had no idea they were there and was surprised when they showed up out of nowhere.

    That very moment was when the organization decided to recruit Lucius into their ranks. Out of reflex, he answered immediately: "Only if Kalliope cane too."

    Even to this day, Lucius had no idea what possessed him to say that. In reality, it was likely because she had been his faithfulpanion, training partner, and savior. The thought of being separated from her hurt him. However, he also knew that whatever feelings he had for her were still secondary to Rena.

    On the night of their induction into the order, they had a celebratory meal at Kalivas''s home. Before the meal was over, Kalivas received a request to handle some situation in the castle and he had to leave which left Kalliope and Lucius alone.

    Neither of them had anything to drink other than water, yet they found themselves drawn to one another. Even with his mind and heart filled with Rena, Kalliope found herself a ce there. It was a ce all her own that was separate from Rena''s. It was a ce that only Kalliope could fill.

    In moments, they found themselves holding one another. Lucius''s tongue and her own mingling with each other passionately, neither stopping long enough to breathe. When they pulled back, they both panted with their faces flushed.

    Lucius attempted to lean in and continue, but shockingly it was Kalliope who pulled away. With tears in her eyes, she ced her hand on his chest and pushed him back from her. She was still panting and he knew she wanted to continue. He was willing to fulfill her wishes.

    "Don''t." She pleaded. Her eyes continued to water. "Not until you are doing it for you. I don''t want this because you want to fulfill my wish. I want you to do it because you want to be with me. When you make that decision Lucius¡­ then¡­"

    Lucius shook his head and found himself back in front of Rena. Her eyes were still trained on him, but he felt different. He brought his hand to his face and they came away slightly wet.

    *****

    He sighed again after returning to the present and looked Rena directly in the eyes, "I love her."

    "Okay." Rena answered while sighing as well. She did not seem mad or upset, rather it felt like she was relieved.

    "Okay?" He asked, "What do you mean okay? If you are worried Rena, you are my first love and my wife. I have no intention of leaving you for Kalliope or anyone else in this world."

    Rena turned her back to him. "If I asked you to abandon her, to forget about her, would you do it?"

    Lucius was about to say yes; however, the word would note off his tongue. Instead, he answered what he felt in his heart. "No. I may not be willing to leave you for her, but I will not abandon her. She is my friend and she saved my life. As much as I would never abandon you, I could never abandon her."

    "Alright then." Rena turned around and had what seemed to be a proud smile on her face. "Honestly, I''m happy you are being honest with me. I know the rules of your homnd, where your father''s bloodline hails. You can have multiple wives, so I will permit Kalliope to be one of them."

    Lucius opened his eyes wide, "Truly?"

    Rena walked into his arms and allowed him to embrace her. She ced her head on his chest and listened to the thrumming of his heart from beneath his armor. "I do have one condition."

    "Name it, my love." Lucius answered.

    "Im not asking you to love her, or even be friends with her... but can you try to get closer to Natali? The girl basically idolizes you. She grew up listening to stories of you." Rena requested, "I would like for you to at least start interacting with her, outside of sparring sessions. It would mean a lot to me."

    Lucius sighed, but nodded his head, "For you, I will try."

 Chapter 196: The Undead Horde [Part 1]

    Natali woke from her sleep a few hours after they had arrived at camp. The people here were rather nice. The researchers appeared to be employees from the academies in both Arcadios and the Wisteria Concord. They worked together to try and uncover some of the mysteries of the past.

    By andrge, the demonnguage was dead. The only indication of what any of the symbols used in their alphabet meant were the marks that existed on the bodies of the Marked Ones. Those symbols represented the powers they had and by figuring out what those symbols represented, then the gaps in the demonnguage could be filled.

    Their alphabet was strange. Some symbols stood for letters or sounds, yet others stood for an entire word or phrase, and others still referred to concepts rather than a specific word or phrase. Those symbols that stood for concepts were rather concerning as they could mean any multitude of things when paired with surrounding symbols.

    Natali had never fancied herself a schr, but she was interested in learning new things. Jade on the other hand was utterly fascinated by the information. The researchers at Grimspire kept a constant staff at the camp. So much so that a couple of merchants had moved in and started up shops in a couple of the carved out rooms.

    Because of their constant work here, they also possessed the most up to date copy of the world''s current understanding of the demonnguage. Jade was ecstatic to learn about this and requested to see it, which the researchers were all too happy to do so long as she agreed to provide them with the definition of her mark.

    One of the researchers went up to Lucius to ask about his mark, but then saw how it stretched around his wrist and thought he had tattooed around the original symbol. That made the researcher furious and the rotund man began to scream and berate Lucius for his stupidity.

    Before anyone could react, Lucius had quickly struck the researcher in the gut, knocking him unconscious and kicking his limp body to the side of the ravine. From that point on no one was willing to go and talk to him from the researcher''s group, though many adventurers had no problems continuing to try andmunicate with the man.

    All of this, of course, happened before Natali fell asleep. What she was hearing as she woke up was nothing like the series of events she went to sleep to. Screaming echoed through the walls of the ruins and the sounds of metal beating against stone and other hollow-sounding materials. Something akin to the rattling of marbles also met Natali''s ears.

    Jade was asleep beside her and had woken as well and began to clutch the shortsword she always hid under her clothes. Natali pulled her daggers at the ready and stepped to the doorway. The nighttime fires were still going, but the people monitoring them were missing. Most of the camp was empty and the mocked-up doors to several of the rooms were closed and sealed shut.

    The lights inside werepletely doused to further conceal their presence.

    The shadows created by the moonlight trying to peer over the ledges above created a strange jumble of shapes that prevented Natali from determining what was going on without getting closer. When she fully stepped outside, she saw one of the researchers from earlier, the one that got along well with Jade and introduced her to their documentation, panicking and rocking back and forth on the ground.

    "You¡­what¡­happened?" Natali managed to say. She was getting better, but talking with any sort of volume above a whisper was still very difficult.

    "The undead. They appeared again. More than before¡­ they broke through the lines. So many adventurers¡­"

    Natali quickly grabbed the researcher, threw them into the room with Jade and sealed the door aftermanding them, "Stay."

    She hurried to the nearest sound of battle and thought she smelled the familiar scent of ozone, which indicated that Lucius had activated his Thunder Magic. Even though she could smell the results of the spell, she could not hear the telltale signs of him battling.

    Rounding one of the corners, she caught the eye of a few of the adventurers who were talking with her and the other girls about boy talk earlier. One of them was dead, her eyes zed over and in her hand she held her partially severed leg. She was surrounded by a pool of blood which indicated she died from blood loss.

    Rena was frantically casting healing spells on another one of the girls who had arge sh wound across her chest. Fortunately, it looked to be healing with Rena''s help and would soon no longer be life-threatening.

    "Natali, good, you''re here. Lucius left camp an hour ago to prepare for tonight''s horde, but it''s bigger than we anticipated. We lost contact with them and the horde is closing in on the camp from both sides." She exined quickly then moved to another injured warrior.

    Rena''s face was pale, but she swallowed the contents of a rather foul-smelling potion, which returned some of her color. "We need a moment to regroup. The creatures can''t seem to climb, can you maintain an ice wall?"

    Natali nodded and rushed towards the fighting. The adventurer who greeted them when they first arrived wasmanding the front lines like a veteran sergeant. In betweenmands he wouldsh out with attacks of his own.

    It was here that Natali finally saw the enemy. There were hundreds of shambling creatures filling the once empty streets. Almost all of them were made up of bones, though a few had strips of desated flesh still clinging to their bones. Among the shambling bones were a handful of creatures that looked to be rotting corpses. They moved faster than the skeletons did and hit harder.

    "Stand back!" Rena shouted.

    The entire front line retreated backward several paces, opening space for Natali''s spell. "[cies: Ice Wall]!"

    Pale-blue light poured out of her hands, fell to the ground then surged toward the gap between the monsters and them. It spread across the width of the ravine and sprouted a ten-foot-tall wall of opaque ice.

    "Normally, I''d ask if we could get that to be see-through, but I think a bit of ignorance of the enemies'' faces would do us a hell of a lot of good. Thank you, little missy." The grizzled adventurer was clearly exhausted and his light chuckle even sounded forced. No one could me him though.

 Chapter 197: The Undead Horde [Part 2]

    Desmond was supposed to be a part of Lucius''s group pushing deeper into the area where the undead tended to originate every night. However, at thest-minute ns were changed up and he was asked to assist in the defense of the camp.

    Desmond held noints about the request because it did mean he could keep a better eye on his sister who was not capable of fighting in a ce like this. She had no Compatibilities at all and her mark was rather useless in an area like this.

    Jade possessed the Mark of Water Control. If she were near a body of water she could manipte it to her heart''s content. At their academy back home, she was a rather terrifying opponent as it was on a small ind and they were surrounded by infinite amounts of ammo for her to use whenever and however she desired.

    The only water near here was reserved in canteens, buckets, and other containers. The nearest body of water for her to use to defend herself was almost a twenty-minute walk away. Jade was no slouch with a shortsword, but she would likely struggle with fighting off the undead.

    Shortly after Lucius left with a small group of experienced fighters, the undead suddenly appeared. They materialized out of the ground and from the walls of the ruins. Among the monsters were skeletons, zombies, and other strange abominations like flesh golems.

    Individually, most undead were weak, but their strengthy in numbers. ''Numbers'' was certainly something they had. In mere moments, the front line was overwhelmed and hundreds of undead creatures poured into one of the camp entrances.

    Desmond flew into action with a strong opening attack meant forrge groups of targets, "[Spear Arts: Aura Sweep]"

    Arge wave of golden mana arced at the oing skeletons and cut through their aged bones like a hot knife through butter. Desmond repeated the process a number of times, but was only able to use it at the center of the group. The creatures pouring in through the sides were not able to be targeted or else his attacks would hit his allies.

    He was relying on the other adventurers to take care of the stragglers, but the numbers were great enough that several researchers and nonbatants fell to the onught. Even a small number of veteran fighters fell to the horde.

    Sweat beaded on his brow as he felt mana exhaustion start to hit him. The consecutive use of his Aura Sweep drained much of his reserves. Everyone else was able to hold back while he took the brunt of the initial assault, but they managed to push the enemy back into the narrower streets and away from therger space the camp upied.

    Someone handed him a rancid tasting potion, but he recognized it as a mana restorative and drank it with gratitude, doing his best to ignore the taste. A few momentster he was fully restored and ready to fight. His fellow warriors continued to push the enemy back, but were starting to struggle against some of the worst monstrosities.

    While most undead were weak, some could be rather strong. Among the stronger ones were flesh golems. They were creatures made of an amalgamation of bones and rotten flesh jumbled together into a creature that very loosely resembled a bulbous troll. They were nowhere near the size of the creatures they resembled, but they were equally as hideous.

    "Shit those things are uglier and smellier than I thought." Desmondined and pinched the bridge of his nose in a vain attempt to block the stench.

    Ultimately, he gave up on the effort and stepped into battle once more. "[Spear Arts: Heavy Impact]"

    A sickeningly wet sound erupted from the point of impact as the flesh golem was thrown backward as though it had taken a direct hit from a catapult. If the sides of the ruins were not made of the ridiculously strong stone-like material the demons used to build this ce, then the force would have cracked the wall too.

    Since the creature was unable to feel pain, it simply stood back up and continued to limp forward to continue its attack. One massive swing with its arm knocked aside three of their men. Two hit the wall and groaned in pain, but still alive. The third was not so lucky. The force threw him directly into a group of zombies that were fighting against a few other people.

    The ones in the back immediately turned around and set upon the man and tore into his flesh.

    Screams of pain and anguish echoed through the ruins and everyone present did their best to ignore the man''s pleas. They were unable to save him now and if they did, the damage to his body would be impossible to heal. Even moving to end his misery would distract them too long from the fight with the main enemy force.

    Desmond stepped forward again andbined two Arts. He was never very good atbination Arts, but when push came to shove, he could pull it off. "[Spear Arts: Heavy Impact], [Spear Arts: Triple Thrust]"

    Three rapid strikes, each with the same force as his first Heavy Impact, struck the body of the flesh golem. Since all three attacks hit simultaneously, the creature erupted into a fountain of gore, coating the monsters behind it. With the flesh golem dead, they were able to quickly dispose of the current wave of undead.

    Based on the sounds, even after they cleaned these ones up, more were on the way. ording to the men still alive, the first wave was already many times worse than it was before.

    "We need to regroup and refresh. Those who feel like they can push on for a bit longer, to the front. Those who are in absolute need of immediate recovery to the back. Prioritize healing potions to the most injured. Anyone with Light Magic, step away from the fight and do that. Don''t kill our healers."

    Everyone quickly grouped themselves together. Since they were all adventurers, and experienced ones at that, everyone was honest about their capabilities. They ended up with a pretty even number between those needing immediate help and those who could push on. Desmond was in the group that could push on. He took no attacks and all he needed was a mana recovery potion and he was good to go.

    Thanks to all the undead attacks, the research camp was very well stocked. In terms of supplies, they had enough recovery supplies tost three nights of this before running out. The hope was that they would not have to use them though. Chapter Find:

 Chapter 198: The Undead Horde [Part 3]

    Even though he had yet toe to trust Desmond, and doubted he ever would, Lucius was not too pleased to hear the change in ns that separated the man from his side. He was not afraid to admit that Desmond had great potential and for someone of the Intermediate Rank, he was a skilled fighter.

    Lucius knew that hispatriot was no match for him with his Channeling, mark, and generalbat prowess, but Desmond was still useful in a fight. Instead, he was stuck with a team of five Advance Rank fighters. He did not bother to learn their names, but one was a mage, one was an archer, and the other three used various one-handed weapons with a shield. Chapter Read:

    For a moment, he was unsure if the six of them would be enough to figure out the source of the undead and destroy it, but he had to make due with what he was given. One thing that helped keep his sanity was knowing that Desmond would assist Rena and Natali.

    There was no need for him to hope that Desmond would protect them as they were powerful in their own right. Lucius also believed with his whole heart that Natali would wipe the floor with Desmond in an all-out fight with her general attack speed as well as the way she seamlesslybined her Dagger Arts with her Mark of Recall.

    "Let''s go." He growled before leaping from the ruins up to the surface twelve feet above them. With channeling mana into his muscles, he was able to clear the hurdle with no effort and waited for the others to have to climb up.

    While waiting for them he did his best to sniff and listen to the surroundings. He was somewhat hopeful he could pinpoint something that felt out of the ordinary, but so far no luck. While he was rather uneducated about the types of monsters in various areas, he did know a little about undead.

    As part of his education for the battlefield, he learned the importance of burning bodies in a warzone. He also learned the consequences of not doing that. Over time the residual mana in the bodies would coalesce into a singr mass that would absorb the bodies and weapons.

    That mass would take on a physical form that resembled a living human with pale skin and red eyes that fed on the deceased and added their flesh to its own.

    This abomination of undeath was known as a vampire and they could get to be very powerful if left unchecked. They were easily killed by sunlight and were extremely weak to Light Magic and Fire Magic. When fighting one, they were most powerful when they were alone and not using their summoned undead army.

    In order to create their soldiers, they needed to use the mana and corpses that they gathered to generate the monsters. This pulled away from their personal stockpile and would make the vampire physically weaker as their army grew stronger. Basically, the smaller the army, the more powerful the vampire, the bigger the army; the weaker the vampire.

    Once the other warriors joined him on the surface, they headed in the direction they tended to see the horde appear from. Even though it could have been a misdirection, it was their only lead on where to start looking.

    Almost twenty minutes after running across the forest and dodging the entrenched ruins, Lucius heard the cries and shouts ofbat from the direction of the camp. At the same moment he felt a strange presence that was oddly¡­ familiar.

    ''Oh my¡­'' a raspy voice echoed in Lucius''s head. It had been a while since hest heard Grimm''s voice. ''Lucius¡­whatever you do, you must kill that vampire¡­ it has something you want¡­ after that, head to the tower. Oh, this is so exciting!''

    After sharing that bit of advice, and a little bit of a demand, the voice faded. Somehow the odd, yet familiar feeling became stronger and he was able to pinpoint the source''s location. If Grimm was really that interested in whatever it was that the vampire possessed, then it was likely he helped in locating it.

    "Let''s move, the vampire is this way."

    "Vampire?! That''s what we are up against?"

    "Dumbass! Of course! That''s how undead work¡­"

    "Cut the chatter, let''s go." Lucius whispered angrily.

    The others quickly silenced themselves and followed his lead through the forest. From what he could tell, they were very close to the vampire''s location. They were so close that it took just a handful of minutes to locate the beast''sir.

    In the middle of an open space simr in size and shape to the location the research camp was in, a pale skinned man stood alone. His arms were outstretched and his eyes were closed. Moonlight bathed him in an eerie glow as if he were a cat basking in the sun.

    Lucius felt his heart clench as the vampire slowly put its hands down to its side and looked directly at him. He cursed under his breath and jumped down into the open space just in time to dodge a spike made of blood that had been aimed where his head used to be.

    It shattered against a tree trunk like an ice spike, but the shards dug deep into the surrounding trees like shrapnel. Noticing it had missed, the vampire''s face contorted in frustration and it snapped its fingers, generating a red whip in its hands. The whip was several feet long and had razor-like spines along the length of the weapon.

    Vampires were incapable of human speech, but they were capable of high-level thought and nning. It was not umon for them to act uponplex strategies like attacking the weakest link or the healer while engaging groups. They had even been known to use party members as bait or shields, knowing that their allies would try to save them.

    A scream sounded from behind Lucius as the party''s mage was forcefully yanked into the hands of the vampire. It had the ability to use Dark Magic and Blood Arts. While it distracted Lucius with the whip made from its Blood Arts, it had manipted a shadow spell to wrap around the mage and pull him into his grasp.

    Lucius simply sighed. "Nice try, but that won''t work."

    He held out his hand and casually struck the monster and mage with a lightning bolt. Electricity wrapped itself around the creature and caused both it and the mage to twitch uncontrobly. Unfortunately, it was nowhere near enough to kill the monster, but the mage was more than dead.

 Chapter 199: Fragment of the Abyss [Part 1]

    "What in the world are you doing?" One of the men following Lucius shouted. "That mage was our ally!"

    Lucius chose to ignore the man''s outrage and focused purely on the vampire in front of him. Its injuries from the Thunder Magic spell were already healing at a rapid pace, making many of the char marks vanish quickly. The creature twitched its wrist, sending a wave of dirt and debris directly at Lucius.

    Instinctively, Lucius drew his sword and shed into the center of the debris, forcing the blood whip to fall back to the ground. It attempted to hide its attack using the dirt, but he was able to see right through its attempt.

    The creature bared its extended fangs and angrily hissed at Lucius. It jumped towards him with one hand extended forward with fingernails as sharp as daggers. The other hand was held back, but still maintained its grip on the whip. Lucius sent mana into his legs and dove to the left, leaving behind a trail of electricity.

    Instead of striking him, the vampire collided into the wall with a loud crack. The beast roared in defiance and pain. While watching this happen, the other men finally descended into the ravine to join the fray.

    Both warriors rushed to surround the vampire while the archer maintained a healthy distance to fire their arrows. "[Bow Arts: Piercing Shot]"

    "[Sword Arts: Double Strike]"

    "[Shield Arts: Double Bash]"

    As the mana infused arrow shot towards the target, a mana de and mana shield mmed into the back of the vampire who somehow maintained its concentration on Lucius. Immediately after the impact of the mana attacks, the actual sword and shields hit the monster.

    Once the warriors made physical contact with it, the creature wheeled around and flicked the whip at them. The man with the shield and mace was able to block the attack, but the tail of the weapon continued past him and struck the swordsman in the neck. The tail-end of the whip had a sharp hook that dug into the man''s neck.

    Having caught one of its prey, the vampire smiled and pulled the whip back. The swordsman screamed in terror and pain as the vampire picked him up by the neck. The hook dug deeper into his flesh and pierced his spinal cord. His arms went limp as he lost the ability to control everything below the injury and he began to gurgle and choke on his own blood.

    Once the man was in its clutches, the monster sunk its fangs into the now limp body and drained itpletely of the remaining red liquid and turned the corpse into a dried husk. The other two men watched in wide-eyed horror while Lucius simply stood in fascinated awe. He had never seen something like that before.

    "Fascinating." He muttered, eliciting a disgusted look from the archer who was closest to him.

    While the three warriors attempted to attack it alone, Lucius simply stood back to observe and see if there were any patterns to the creature''s attacks or behaviors that he could exploit. However, he started to notice that the deceased swordsman''s body began to twitch and move, so he decided to prevent adding an additional adversary to the battlefield.

    Red and blue lightning swirled around his wrist and into the shaft of his custom-made weapon. As he drew the weapon from his back, the de elongated to a nearly sixty-five inches from its original twenty-eight. Now that the de was fully extended, he needed to wield it with both hands.

    The electricity continued to dance along the de as he imbued a [[Thunderp]] spell into it. Lucius raised the weapon up and mmed the de onto the ground. A massive wave of concussive force mmed into both the twitching corpse and the vampire. Even the mace-wielder was struck and thrown backwards.

    What used to be the swordsman was shredded into pieces of flesh and bone. The vampire''s hand that was holding the corpse in ce was destroyed along with the rest of its arm up to the shoulder.

    "Gods dammit all, you struck one of ours again you rotten¡­" The archer started to shout, but his anger turned into confusion when his world turned upside down.

    Lucius stood still as the archer''s head tumbled from his body. After losing its arm, the vampire immediately counterattacked. He was able to use his mana enhanced body to quickly duck beneath the whip''s strike and close the gap. However, since the archer chose to talk instead of fight, he was struck down by the weapon, forfeiting his life.

    "No! You damnable¡­"

    The mace wielder charged towards the monster at the same time as Lucius, his movements became filled with openings and mistakes caused by his blind rage. He failed to notice the shadows that had entrapped the mage earlier had begun to wrap around the man''s legs and yanked him to the ground. Losing his bnce made him panic more as he struggled to break free.

    Luckily for him, the vampire was not interested in him as prey. A far more delectable meal stood before it and was putting up more of a fight than the creature expected. It found itself smiling, which made Lucius wonder if beasts could enjoy things¡­

    More red energy flooded into his de, creating jagged red teeth along the length of the cutting edge. He activated his [Savage Strike Art] to enhance the attack power of his next swing.

    Lucius lunged forward while the mace wielder continued to shout and il. He was forced to dodge stone, dirt, and the iling blood whip that seemed to have a mind of its own now, no longer requiring being flicked about by any movements from the beast.

    Just as Lucius was going to swing his weapon, he found his wrists bound by some unknown force. He looked down and saw a shadow tendril wrapped around his wrist. The shadow continued to wrap around his arms until they were pinned together up to his elbows.

    Chapter Explore:

    "Very interesting¡­ this isn''t Dark Magic¡­" Lucius mumbled. "Where is this powering from¡­"

 Chapter 200: Fragment of the Abyss [Part 2]

    Shadows wrapped around him, continuing to press his arms together. The vampire gave out a halfugh, half-hissing sound, thinking that it had won the fight already. When it saw that its prey was no longer resisting, it naturally assumed that it had given up.

    Even the mace warrior had tired out and was no longer struggling against the shadows wrapping around him like a cocoon. His mouth and eyes were soon covered and the dark capsule that contained him began to shrink andpress his form. It seemed the capsule blocked sound, so nothing could be heard as he was slowly crushed to death by the vampire''s strange ability.

    Meanwhile, Lucius continued to look intensely at the ability, tracing it to its source. At first he thought it was a magical ability, but the skill seemed to not emit mana of any kind. This meant it was neither Magic nor Arts. There was only one other kind of power in the world, but how could a vampire use the strange source of energy that marks could use¡­ was it even possible.

    At no point in time during their battle did he witness a mark on the vampire''s left hand, so it had to be something else. Lucius tuned into the sensation that powerful marks gave off and tried to hone it down to search for the source of these tendrils. By the time he figured it out, he was wrapped from his fingertips to his shoulders and from his feet up to his knees.

    Following the source of power that empowered this strange ability, led Lucius''s eyes to a ring on the vampire''s still attached hand. It was a in, silver ring with a ck gemstone set into it. The power seemed to being from the gemstone itself.

    ''That''s the one. You will want to take that.'' Grimm whispered into his mind.

    Chapter Continue:

    ''Why should I?'' Lucius demanded.

    ''Ugh¡­ such an impertinent child sometimes. I liked you better when you just listened to me¡­ fine, take the ring and go to the spire in these ruins. If you do that¡­ I''ll give you a little bit of information.'' Grimm grumbled before his presence vanished.

    "Well, that''s enough of that," Lucius said with a sigh. "You seem to be used to using these things, but I''m a little more experienced than you. [Abyss Break: Abyss Armor]"

    The vampire''s eyes opened wide in surprise as it felt the control of the ability granted to it by the strange ring be ripped away from it. The shadows rapidly covered Lucius''s entire body before they slowly faded away from his hands, face, and neck. Everywhere else on his body became a shining set of metallic ck armor that reflected the moonlight from above.

    What was once a hint of dark power that pooled around the vampire, became a tidal wave of oppressive force that made even the creature of darkness tremble. Lucius slowly advanced and tried to get limated to his upgraded ability.

    It had been a few years since hest used this specific ability and there were a few notable changes since then. For one, instead of looking like shadows covering or enting his original armor, it instead generated a temporary set of its own design.

    Additionally, instead of the one shadow tendril that assisted in watching over his blind spot, he now had a set of six that folded off of his back like a set of demonic wings.

    "Alright, Grimm¡­ the look is a little much, don''t you think?" He asked aloud.

    With a panicked roar, the vampire swung its blood whip furiously at Lucius only to have each strike effortlessly pped away by the shadow tendrils protecting him. Blood sttered across the walls of the ruins with each impact, shortening the length of the whip with every strike.

    Lightning once again crackled around Lucius''s body before concentrating at his feet and fingertips. The vampire had no time to react as Lucius''s hand mmed into its face and a massive bolt of energy shot down its throat. Its eyes boiled from the inside out while its body twitched.

    All six of the tendrils then pierced into the creature''s body and pinned it in ce as it attempted to force its body away from Lucius.

    "Not good enough." He growled while swinging his sword downward and cutting the vampire''s head in half.

    The twitching stopped instantly. A few momentster the body began to turn to ash. The ring ttered to the ground and began to ''call out'' to Lucius. He felt himself drawn into the beautiful darkness of the gem. Once his fingers touched the piece of jewelry, it jumped onto his finger and began to absorb into his skin and vanish.

    ''Good job, boy, on retrieving a fragment of the abyss¡­ tomorrow¡­ visit the spire and I will share more.'' Grimm whispered before disappearing again.

    Once the ring disappeared, Lucius felt a sense of panic rise in his chest. Before it could get too bad, an almost forgotten sensation spread from the base of his skull. It was a chill that seemed to eat away at the anxiety in his heart, returning him to a state of apathy about the situation.

    ncing around, he saw the deceased bodies of the other warriors and torched them with a strike of lightning to prevent any more undead creatures. After he was satisfied with their level of destruction he returned to the research camp.

    While he had been gone, they suffered a number of casualties from the waves of undead. Dozens of people were breathing heavily while a few others ran around and cast healing spells while constantly draining mana restoration potions. One of those doing healing was Rena.

    He decided to leave her to her task and searched for the other party members. Desmond had a few cuts and scratches on him but was otherwise okay. Natali looked perfectly fine, though a bit tired. From what he overheard while asking around for her, she was able to cast multiple Ice Walls between waves to allow for frequent regrouping.

    "Lucius, are you alright? I take it you found out what was the source of the problem?" Desmond asked.

    "It was a vampire. The rest of the task group is dead. Tomorrow we are going to the spire," Lucius answered.

    "There''s no point. There is no way to enter the spire that we have been able to find. Why do you need to go there?" a portly researcher asked while raising his sses.

    "That is none of your concern. Desmond, Natali, Rena. Rest. Everyone else can split up the night''s watch. We have earned our keep." Lucius stated inly before disappearing into the small room that he and Rena shared.

 Chapter 201: Fragment of the Abyss [Part 3]

    Everyone part of the work study woke up the moment the sun rose and gathered in themon area of the camp. The dead bodies had been gathered and burned in the hours before the morning started. Since the undead had been absorbed and summoned by the vampire, their corpses simply vanished and needed no additional efforts to remove.

    All ounted for, the losses among the camp included five researchers and eight adventurers. ording to the camp leaders they were expecting a supply run in a few days which would also refresh their missing staff members.

    Jade received several copies of notes and trantion cyphers for their visit to the spire. In case they needed to read any runes that looked important it was possible it could help. However, the Grimspire ruins were heavily researched and the spire itself was a particrly well investigated construct in the area.

    No one had figured out how to open it over the decades it has been studied, but the researchers granted them copies of the material anyway.

    Once they gathered some rations from the camp supplies, the group of five headed to the ominous tower in the distance. In order to skip jumping and dodging the ravines from above they took the longer trip there by navigating the ruins themselves. Jade was not athletically inclined and Lucius had no intention of wasting time trying to help her across every single jump.

    "Lord Kane¡­" Jade managed to squeak out. She was nervous and she was twisting her hands. "Why are we heading to the tower? It''s inessible and everything to be studied about it has been studied."

    "The reason is simple: I need to go there." He answered in a t tone.

    "Okay¡­ but why do you need to go there? What is there to find?"

    "I don''t know, but it will be something." Lucius grumbled.

    Jade went silent after the useless exchange, more confused now than she was a few minutes ago. He wasn''t trying to be ambiguous; it was simply that he was told by Grimm to go there so he could learn something. Whatever it was, he had no clue.

    For the rest of the trip, no one said much of anything. The ruins themselves were very much unchanged. Along the walls of the ''streets'' were various carvings of the strange alphabet of the demonguage. However, something strange stuck out to them. Every three hundred feet or so, the symbols would repeat in endless patterns.

    Jade started to pull out her notes, but Desmond coughed and shook his head at her to keep her on task and moved forward to their primary destination. She looked somewhat dejected, but he assured her that they would be able to take a look at the symbols around the tower itself.

    Almost an hourter, they arrived at the base of the tower. The area around the base was a massive circr depression in the earth that was hundreds of feet in diameter. At its center was the Grimspire itself. Stones of various shades of cks and grays extended hundreds of feet into the sky.

    The circumference of the tower was quite small and it seemed like the interior was a single spiral staircase leading upwards.

    There were no signs of possible entry into the building except for what appeared to be a blocked off doorway where an arch surrounded by jet ck stones was filled with bleached white bricks.

    Around the exterior of the arch were symbols in the strange demonnguage. Jade stepped up and began to touch the stones and trace the symbols with her slender fingers. She had a notebook in her other hand and nced between the two trying to read what was there.

    "What does it say?" Desmond asked.

    "I don''t know¡­ no one does. The demonnguage is extremely contextual when the symbols are put together. They can sometimes change meaning whenbined with the symbols around them. Too many of the symbols here are unknown, so the ones that are known cannot really be pieced together until the key subject is determined." Jade rambled.

    "What are you¡­"

    Jade pointed to the symbol centered on the keystone of the arch. "This. It is the primary subject of the surrounding symbols. Without knowing what it means¡­ we cannot determine the surrounding parts."

    Lucius looked at the symbol Jade indicated and smiled. "Abyss."

    Jade looked at him for a moment. "Excuse me?"

    "The subject. The symbol is the Abyss."

    "What abyss?"

    Lucius shook his head. "No, Abyss, the noun. It''s a ce. Think of it as the opposite of Celestia. It is home to darkness, pain, chaos, and destruction."

    "How do you know¡­"

    "[Abyss Break: Abyss Armor]"

    Shadows gathered around Lucius and created a ck metallic armor around him. The mark on his left hand glowed while darkness danced around him. Rena coughed as she pointed at his hand where a golden ring with a ck gemstone had appeared on his pointer-finger.

    It gave off a strange glow of its own separate from that of his mark. Acting on instinct, he pressed the palm of his hand on the white stone. The shadows surrounding him sank into the archway and began to fill in the cracks between the stonework.

    ''The gateway shall open to those who understand the depth of the abyss and its endless hunger.'' Grimm''s voice echoed in his mind. ''You have an inkling on what the Abyss is, but until you understand its hunger, the gate will not open¡­''

    ''So what information are you giving me then?'' Lucius asked.

    ''I will let you ask three questions, and I will answer them honestly.''

    Lucius thought carefully about the questions. What could he ask? What would Grimm even know? He only witnesses the world through Lucius''s eyes as far as he could remember, so what of it could he have to offer that Lucius did not already know himself?

    ''What waits for me at the depths of the dungeon?''

    ''Power.''

    ''What waits for me in the tower?''

    ''Knowledge.'' Grimm chuckled, ''Onest question¡­ Lucius, ask wisely.''

    ''Aside from going to the dungeon, what should I do next?'' he asked after a few moments.

    Grimm sighed, ''I was hoping for a juicier question¡­ fine. You aren''t strong enough to reach the depths¡­ so your next task should be to return to the academy¡­ and hurry.''

    The shadows vanished and Lucius pulled his hand away from the tower. Rena stepped up and inquisitively ced a hand on his arm. Natali also stepped up to him and asked, "Lord Kane, is everything alright?"

    Her voice was quiet, but her eyes showed genuine concern. His conversation with Rena the other night entered his mind, so he contemted what to do for a few moments.

    "I''m alright. We must return to the academy at once. The tower won''t open right now, but it will." He ordered and walked back in the direction of the camp. Lucius stopped and turned to Natali, "You can just call me Lucius, Natali. I want to get to know you a little better, per Rena''s request. I don''t like speaking formally with¡­ friends."

    Natali''s eyes began to water and a small smile pasted itself onto her lips. She turned to Rena and gave her arge hug. Lucius could overhear her repeatedly thanking his wife for helping them bridge the gap.

    He was not opposed to getting closer to her. She did help take care of Rena after all¡­ and she had never done anything to upset him. If anything, she almost reminded him of himself with how she separated herself from others in a way. They used different methods to do so, but the core of their actions were the same.

    It also helped that she was rather cute¡­ but it would take time for him to look at her in the way he was almost certain that Rena wanted him to. For now, they would start as friends. The promise he made to Rena was to try and be friendly, where it wentter was something he did not know.

 Chapter 202: Lady al Famyn

    Elize al Famyn had spent a short amount of time licking her wounds from losing in her first fight at the Exhibition Tournament. She was not given the chance to fight against Titan¡­ or rather Lord Kane, let alone time to speak with him.

    Several hours after the tournament concluded, the banquet began and she lost any and every chance to interact with Lucius on the floor of the ballroom. Nobles continued to introduce themselves to him as a powerful nobles from Eroa and left her little opening to try and advance.

    However, the moment he was free, the aura around him was oppressing, like he was forcing people away from him. Elize had no choice but to give up the chance of interacting with him. She returned to her aunt in defeat.

    When she approached her aunt Voltara, the woman had a look of horror stered on her face and several empty bottles of wine scattered about her room. Voltara told her to forget about the mission and ignore Lucius Kane. Their ns to bring him to their side had halted for the moment, but she declined to exin why.

    Elize thought back to those moments sometimes, but she no longer cared. Instead, she had a better distraction at the moment. Rustling around in the sheets next to her was a young-looking elven man. His arms were wrapped around her with one of his hands cupping her chest tightly.

    She disentangled herself from his grasp, leaving him toy in the bed alone under the silk sheets. The elf was her aunt''s personal guard, Alerion. He was marked and very good at his job, among other things.

    "Mistress, the information you requested." A woman in a fancy maid outfit bowed and gifted her a letter sealed with wax.

    Elize took it gingerly and gave the maid a sweet smile before kissing her on the cheek. As she pulled away, she dragged her finger down the maid''s neck. "Thank you my sweet, you may go for now."

    The letter was from her aunt Voltara who had been visiting Aedrider. She granted Elize temporarymand over her spywork in passing. The letter discussed a few actions that were explicitly banned. One of the most prominent requirements was to leave Lucius Kane and anyone rted to him alone.

    Elize was not supposed to help them, hinder them, investigate them, or even interact with them in any capacity.

    Everything else felt pretty standard for her aunt''s wishes. This had been done a few times before, so Elize had a good understanding of how things worked by this point.

    Rustling nkets sounded out behind her as Alerion climbed out of bed and approached her quietly. He was not trying to conceal his presence, so much as he was choosing to not interrupt what she was doing.

    Elize recognized his presence immediately and turned around to look at him with a sly grin. "You know," she giggled, "I have to say this is the greatest perk of Auntie leaving the country. Having you serve under me, Sir Alerion."

    "And here I was thinking that I was protecting you from above, Lady Elize al Famyn." He returned her giggle with a shy smile. "What is it you would ask of me? Though I enjoy mixing business and pleasure on asion, business is still important."

    "Ah, I don''t really have anything pertinent for you specifically. I was going to ask you to look into someone for me, however, Auntie expressly forbade it. So, we will skip that one for now." She advised. "I have a few more documents here, let me see if there''s anything that could use your attention¡­"

    While she slowly thumbed through the documents she had been gifted, Alerion read the direct order from his master, Lady Voltara al Famyn. "So you do not want me to investigate this¡­ Lucius Kane?"

    "Hmm?" Elize muttered, fully distracted by her reading. "Oh, no. You should definitely not do that. He is not what you would expect from an Intermediate Rank. There also seem to be a number of people moving on in the background for various reasons right now, so I think the waters surrounding him have been muddied with confusion for now.

    "Though, I might have something. This¡­ cult that Auntie has been looking into. I''ve heard that attacks are bing more frequent. There was even one in the capital city just before the event started¡­ We are tracking down some leads. Can you help in that investigation for now?"

    Alerion bowed and kissed Elize''s hand. "Of course, mydy."

    "Good. You are dismissed, Alerion¡­ but do return, I have other assignments for you to perform." She said with a wink.

    Without a sound or any warning, the elf stepped away from her desk and vanished into thin air. He was extremely adept at his job and stealthing around, so she was not surprised he simply vanished like that.

    Thinking she had spent enough time with thoughts of Alerion, Elize returned to looking over her data. It seemed that Voltara had overstretched herself by offering a number of men as resources to assist in researching the nut jobs that have been randomly attacking cities and popted areas.

    So far, none of the attacks had any clear reasoning or pattern between perpetrators. The only thing that matched them to each other was the fact that they attacked out of nowhere, used slurred speech, and mumbled incoherent words that mentioned a ''throne of creation''. Even then, most of them couldn''t be understood well enough to hear even that.

    It was unclear if it was directly rted to what was happening, or if there was a secondary religious group taking advantage of the chaos caused by psychopaths to co-opt the notoriety that gave them attention, then direct that attention into the religion''s fame.

    Something Elize had heard long in the past was ''there''s no such thing as poor advertising'', came to her. That referred to the possibility of multiple groups being involved with one taking advantage of the negative fame to garner attention¡­ however would that apply if the attention referred to multiple counts of attempted murder? That was not very likely, or at least it was not like that to Elize.

    The next few steps she took were to organize all the units she was aware of being out of the country and focused on tracking down the strange attackers. Though there was unlikely to be something new, she simply had to look.

    Of the countries, it seemed like Arcadios was experiencing a higher rate of violence than the other countries around it. The situation was strange and it felt like it was pointing to a big event on the horizon. Either way¡­ something exciting was brewing in the air.

 Chapter 203: Old Enemies?

    Kalliope and Lyrah had started getting closer since she had her vision and exined some of her strange behaviors. At first, the girl was a bit of a brat. However, knowing the truth behind her methods smoothed things over.

    Now, Kalliope had every agent they had in the capital posted in and around the academy, save for a few on standby for their critical projects. Just as Lyrah had said, they could not work jointly with Arcadios''s forces because it would require them to reveal how they obtained the knowledge.

    Lyrah was still avoiding returning to the castle and avoiding being found by the elders that monitor the Oracles. She also continued to go out on her strange errands. A few times, she invited Kalliope and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The woman would asionally give her the slip for a few minutes, butter returned with a smile on her face and a teasing gaze in her eyes.

    To Kalliope, it seemed like Lyrah enjoyed making a game out of disappearing from an excellent tracker and beastman like Kalliope.

    "Lyrah¡­ you are half-beastman as well, since you are Lucius''s twin¡­ do you also possess the same strong senses that your brother does?" she asked out of curiosity. They had never discussed it before, but it was a question that popped up asionally.

    Lyrah shook her head slightly. "No, it seems that he got all the good genes. He has the senses, thepatibility, the strength¡­ though I think we were equally lucky in the looks department at least."

    There was no other option but to agree. Kalliope had to admit that her crush''s sister was a very attractive young woman. Her and Lucius looked quite simr, save for thetter''s scars and one golden eye.

    "Did Lucius always have that strangely colored eye?" She asked while sipping a warm cup of coffee.

    "No, from what I remember of my visions, he started life with the same silver eyes as mine. However, a traumatic event triggered some sort of change in him that I don''t understand¡­ maybe he always had it and the incident triggered the trait''s expression¡­ I honestly do not know, but it''s pretty cool, right?"

    "Yes." Kalliope answered dreamily.

    They continued to converse while walking through the markets and sipping drinks in these new ''to-go'' containers that had been introduced during the Exhibition Tournament. They were made of ceramic and if you brought it back, the drink was cheaper because you did not need to buy a new cup with it.

    "Have you found anything about the incident?" Lyrah asked.

    Kalliope had to answer honestly, which was that they had not. So far everything they looked into came up empty. It was like the threat that Lyrah had seen waspletely spontaneous because there was not so much as a whisper of anything regarding an attack on the academy.

    At the moment, there weren''t even any conversations about frustrations with it, aside from wishing their representative would have won in the tournament.

    Every once in a while, they would check with Lyrah to see if the attack had been thwarted somehow because of the sheerck of evidence. However, each time, Lyrah would inform them that nothing had changed and the academy would stille under attack. Your journey continues with M-V-L

    Since they could not seem to figure out how to prevent it, they moved to the next best option from prevention, which was mitigation. King''s Shadow agents could support the academy when the attack began and assist in keeping as many students and faculty members alive as possible.

    The two of them continued to browse the marketce when Kalliope caught a whiff of something familiar. It was the scent of people she had met before, but a very long time ago. She looked around quickly to find whoever was the source of the scent because she could not ce who it might have been.

    Her eyes settled on a human man with arge axe strapped to his back and a much smaller human woman wearing light clothes and robes. The woman appeared to be a mage. Once they turned slightly so Kalliope could see the sides of their faces, she immediately bared her teeth in anger. It was Renton and Marie, the two surviving members of The Marks.

    Without thinking, Kalliope lunged at their backs. They were unable to react in time, so both her hands found purchase on the backs of their necks with ease. The strength of her attack forced both humans to the ground without issue, which shocked onlookers whopared Renton''s size to Kalliope''s.

    Marie yelped in pain, but Renton said and did nothing, only moving his hands above his head in a surrender-like pose. "Lady Kalliope¡­ we mean no harm, we are only shopping."

    "K-Kalliope? Gods¡­ we¡­ we d-didn''t¡­" Marie stammered.

    "What do you two creatures want in the capital?" She roared. "Tell me why I should not just kill you right now. I need only to apply a little more pressure and your lives will be snuffed out."

    There was a crowd starting to form around them. People looked on in panic and started shouting for guards. Though they were far away, Kalliope could hear the metallic nging of running soldiers rapidly approaching. She needed to end this quickly and started to squeeze her hands tighter. Marie began to whimper.

    Renton on the other hand remained calm and shouted out, "There is no need for rm everyone¡­ this is all a misunderstanding, please do not fault the young Lady here. We have not properly exined ourselves for an incident. Everyone please remain calm."

    His request to the crowd surprised Kalliope enough for her to rx her grip and remove some of the threat to their lives the two former allies felt. Marie still sobbed slightly, but attempted to control her emotions through a series of breaths.

    "May we move somewhere else to talk, Lady Kalliope?" Renton asked. His hands were still raised awkwardly in a surrender and his face was pressed against the ground.

    Kalliope thought about it solidly for a few seconds before releasing them and standing up. Marie and Renton immediately stood. Renton approached the guards that had finally appeared and indicated that there was no need for any actions on their part.

    They looked reluctant to let such an incident slide after such a public disy, but since Marie and Renton were the victim party, the guards would look the other way for them.

 Chapter 204: The Meeting

    After the kerfuffle at the market, the group of four individuals found themselves sitting together in a private room at the adventurer''s guild. The suggestion was made by Lyrah to head there because fights break out in the guild all the time and no one would immediately call the guards if Kalliope lost her temper again.

    Lyrah sat in the small room eating some of her favorite deserts absentmindedly while the other three looked at each other intensely. Kalliope''s ears were perked straight up and her tail was ever so slightly bristled. Every movement that came from either Marie or Renton made her hands reflexively twitch in the direction of the daggers in her boot.

    For Renton and Marie''s part, they could not have approached the situation any more differently. Marie was extremely timid and shy as a person so she looked exorbitantly ufortable with the situation. Renton simply looked at Kalliope with a patient gaze waiting for a moment he felt like it would be safe to speak without her snapping at him.

    Every few minutes of silence or so, Marie would awkwardly nce in Lyrah''s direction, which she responded with a teasing smile and wiggle of her fingers. Lyrah chose not to say anything and simply enjoyed the scene spread out before her. Despite the tension, now that things had softened after the market incident, Kalliope would not do anything to cause permanent damage.

    Kalliope sighed deeply and waved her hand to indicate that Renton could start speaking. Lyrah smiled at the gesture. This very situation was pre-determined by Lyrah. It was a future that she was able to guarantee.

    Depending on how things went, it was hard to say there would be no fighting¡­ but at least no one would die. Rather, that''s what Lyrah had foreseen happening today. With prophecies things were seldom guaranteed. There was always a room for chance and randomness, though in general the overarching theme of the prophecy woulde to pass.

    For example, she knew that Lucius would go to war. That was a fixed oue that nothing could change. However, when and how he went to war was something that could be different. Had he gone on time after his dungeon raid was over, then the next fixed point would have been his death. However, if he went to war early, then the fixed-point would be his survival.

    Part of the Oracle''s powers were to dive down these branching paths and find the fixed points. Their rmendation to the kingdom would then manipte the factors leading up to the event in question.

    Just like today, since Renton and Marie survived the war, they were guaranteed to run into Kalliope. Because they did so while Lyrah was present, they survived. Lyrah then suggested the guild hall to meet in, not because of preventing fighting, but rather the long walk would allow everyone to calm down and gather their thoughts, leading to a productive meeting.

    She continued to smile and quietly enjoy her desserts, wondering what would happen next. There were a few oues, but she decided to see which ones woulde about on their own.

    "Lady Kalliope," Renton began after taking a deep breath, "I want to start off by saying that we had nothing to do with the attempted assassination of Lucius. Truly, we had no idea that Mia was nning such a thing."

    Marie furiously nodded her head in agreement. Though she was still on edge, Kalliope did seem to visibly settle a little after Renton''s resolute tone. Even she could tell that he was not built for lying.

    "Say what you are proiming is true¡­ tell me what happened." The wolf-girl demanded.

    Renton and Marie carefully exined their recollection of the events. They noticed that Mia was acting strange as they approached the ridge over the valley where the assassination attempt urred. She had even volunteered to scout ahead alone just before arriving.

    When they had recruited Lucius, he took over all of their scouting needs because of his superior senses. Though Mia was better at hiding thanks to her specific skills and mark, Lucius was able to scout further ahead without traveling the immense distance that Mia would need to in order to cover the same area.

    Though they thought it strange, no one thought anything of it because they had just lost their member, Lynn. Everyone had agreed to give her the benefit of the doubt on ount of loss and grief.

    Renton then went on to exin that the assassin was a ck-haired elf with amber eyes that seemed to have known Lucius. Kalliope was not privy to this new information because Lucius had declined to exin much about his connection to everyone.

    She knew he had been betrayed by people he looked up to, but that was it. Apparently after the attack, Mia and Lucius were presumed dead and the three assassins took Renton and Marie back with them. Richard von Petra and Commander Laris kept their promise to Mia and shipped Renton and Marie away from the battle lines, allowing them to be dismissed from the war effort.

    The elf, Shiyani exined some of her backstory with Renton and Marie for reasons they did not understand. Even though Kalliope had calmed down at the beginning of the exnation, her discovery of the details of the betrayal served only to infuriate her more.

    Lyrah''s untrained eyes could almost see the residual mana falling off the woman from the amount of anger she was expressing after the two former party members of Lucius finished exining everything. The room fell silent once more as neither of the two wanted to do or say anything that might further trigger Kalliope''s anger.

    "Thank you for your information." She managed through gritted teeth. Herrge canines had lengthened slightly as she seemed to barely be able to hold back shifting. "Do you know where Shiyani is now?"

    Marie shook her head, "N-n-no¡­ we separated from her the moment we arrived back in Arcadios four years ago. We have not seen or heard from her since. Though I did overhear that they might have been going to Aedrider. Again, it''s been a long time since then, so I doubt they are still there¡­"

    "Thank you both." Kalliope almost whispered. "I am sorry I attacked you, I just¡­ well I''m sorry."

    "It is understandable, Lady Kalliope." Renton affirmed. "You were simply wanting to protect him. Even though youcked the information to truly understand everything, I believe anyone else would have made the same conclusions, and we do not fault you for that."

    "Th-that''s right!" Marie stuttered, "If y-you need anything at all¡­ please let us know. Our party has kept its name, though there are only two of us now. We are at your service."

    Kalliope bowed her head slightly and the two adventurers left the room. Now it was empty save for the young Oracle and the wolf-girl. The only sounds were those of Lyrah snacking. Enjoy new chapters from M-V-L

    "So!" Lyrah sang out, "How are you feeling?"

    "Ill¡­"

    "Understandable!" She continued, "I knew this would happen of course, but it was interesting to witness!"

    "You knew?" Kalliope''s brow furrowed. "I thought you could only see visions of Lucius. He''s not here and I doubt that it only needs to be about him for you to see it."

    Lyrah gave her a smile, "Perhaps."

    "Have you been lying to us?" Kalliope used.

    "That''s funnying from you, Lady Kalliope."

    "What do you mean by that?"

    Lyrah put down her te. The vision of amusement and yful attitude she normally portrayed vanished in an instant and was reced with a stone-cold expression. She leaned in close to Kalliope and locked eyes with her, "You''re a liar."

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 205: Liars

    "You''re a liar."

    Kalliope felt her body stiffen. She was not aware of what lie the ck-haired girl was referring to, but the steely gaze she was receiving made her body reflexively shudder. Her beautiful silver eyes were cold and held none of the warmth and mirth they normally did.

    "What do you mean?" Kalliope demanded.

    Though she intended for her tone to soundmanding and direct, she could not help but feel that it came out more like a whimper. She felt like a child who was being scolded by a parent and could not understand for the life of her why.

    Every decision and secret she thought she had rushed through her mind, but she was sure that at least Lucius knew them all. Kalliope could not think of anything she might have told Lyrah that was a lie either. So, what was the woman referencing? What did she lie about?

    "You put on an act." Lyrah continued. "Don''t forget that I have seen everything my brother has done, might do, and will do. Nothing about his life is a secret from me. By extension, anything you have done around him and to him is known by me.

    "You throw yourself at my brother like a whore, desperate for attention. Pining for a connection you might never have. You do this despite him having a wife. You did this despite him loving another. You tried to take what isn''t yours before you were allowed to have it."

    Kalliope felt her blood boil. The surprise she felt earlier was gone and no longer did she feel like a pup being punished; now she felt like a woman being attacked. Her pride was insulted by this brat who was trying to y tough in a fight she could never win.

    "I''ll have you know that there was a time where I could have taken everything I wanted from him. If you ''know everything'' little girl, then you should have known that too." Kalliope growled. "For a moment I had the future I desired in my hand, but I didn''t take it. I knew it wasn''t meant for me, so I let it go. If you are such a god damned know it all, then why are you spouting such utter bullshit?"

    The room felt hot. Kalliope could feel her body temperature rising from the frustration she felt. She had even stood up and got into Lyrah''s face to yell at her. Where was thising from? Everything made no sense. One minute, they were chummy and getting along and now the woman was criticizing things about Kalliope that she knew nothing about.

    Instead of backing off, Lyrah stood and matched Kalliope''s energy. A sly smirk momentarily graced Lyrah''s face before fading, "I''m aware. Yet, here you are, every day since then continuing to act like a bitch in heat. You finally have a connection and then you pushed him away, only to turn around and mock him by continuing to openly pine for him.

    "Why? Was it all an act? Do you love my brother? Or is this a game to you? Do you find enjoyment in looking like a homewrecker?"

    A loud p echoed throughout the room. Lyrah''s cheek turned red as a handprint began to rapidly form on her cheek.

    "Don''t you dare act like you know Lucius better than I do." Kalliope roared. "All you are is an observer. Sure, you have ''seen everything he''s done,'' but it is no different than reading a book. You sit there and watch the pain he goes through. You see his failures and triumphs sure, but I have so much more. Rena has so much more.

    "I was there. I watched him work himself to the bone every day. He took beating after beating without rest from one of the strongest beings on the continent. He faced brutal training regimens and faced terrifying hurdles all in the name of bing stronger.

    "You know nothing about what kind of man he is. What he felt. What I felt. Seeing his determination tested constantly, watching him break, being there to pick him back up¡­ experiencing those things mean so much more than just watching it happen.

    "Compared to me, you are nothing to Lucius. So don''t act like you understand us; like you understand how we feel."

    Lyrah ced a hand on her face and rubbed where she had been struck. "Do you even love him?"

    Kalliope red at the woman in silent anger. She took a deep breath to keep herself from striking Lyrah a second time. "I love him with all my heart. At first it was out of duty, desire to have a strong bloodline¡­ but seeing who he was, changed things. Then one day when it seemed like my feelings were being reciprocated¡­ I was scared.

    I pushed him away because I was afraid that he did not truly feel the way he thought. Everything he had done up to that point was for revenge and for Rena. I was afraid that the moment I gave in¡­ I would simply lose him the moment she returned.

    "Judge me if you will, to maintain a mask of normalcy. I''m sorry for wanting things to stay the same. If I couldn''t let myself have more, then I wanted to at least keep what I already had. I made it hard on Lucius to remain true to his goal by letting my feelings through. If I acted yful and disingenuous, he would be able to say no and focus on what he really wanted."

    Both women stared at each other. The tension between them was so thick you could cut through it with a knife. Neither knew what would break this stalemate they found themselves in. Kalliope felt herself about to break when Lyrah spoke first.

    "At least you are finally being honest." The young oracle said with a smile. The stern look she had vanished immediately. "I have a lot of respect for those who can lie well for others. To lie to yourself as well as him, so that he may achieve his goals is worthy of respect. However, things are different now and I was worried you might be a lost cause, but there is hope for you yet."

    "Of course it was you who saw through me." Kalliope admitted. "You''ve ''seen everything'' anyway¡­"

    Lyrah chuckled and shook her head. "Even if I had not¡­ a liar knows a liar."

    "What do you mean?"

    Lyrah''s face took on a sad expression and her tone became somber, "To see what I see and make what I want to happene true, I often must tell lies. My friends and my family¡­ I must lie to them for their own good. It is lonely and painful¡­ I don''t want you to have to do it anymore, Kalliope."

    Kalliope pulled Lyrah into a hug and rubbed her back gently. For a moment, the oracle stood there stunned, but slowly returned the embrace. "Lyrah, if you ever need to escape from your lies, you can tell me. I will help with your burdens¡­ from one liar to another."

    "You are sweet."

    Somehow, Kalliope knew that the girl would not take her up on the offer. There would probably be times when Kalliope would be lied to, and there was nothing she could do about it. For Lyrah, she would probably continue walking this path alone to create the future she desires¡­ Yet, Kalliope wanted to know what kind of future her new friend was trying to obtain.

 Chapter 206: Teacher Kalivas

    Dozens of young men and women grunted in rhythmic patterns together as they practiced swings and martial techniques in unison. They were a part of the current round of knights being trained in Eroa''s capital. Almost all of them were fresh-faced graduates from their national school, but a small number were guards and soldiers who wanted to try their hands at moving up in the world.

    Kalivas toured the grounds as repayment to his friend, King Verdayl, for allowing Lucius free reign in the tournament. Originally, Verdayl was only going to allow Lucius to announce his title while crashing the banquet as a guest of Eroa. Things changed when Kalivas realized that there was going to be a prize for first ce as well as representatives from a majority of the nations on the continent.

    He argued that if they sent Lucius in as their representative, then they would guarantee the prestige of winning thepetition on top of showing off that they have the strongest warrior of the generation.

    Unfortunately for Kalivas, Lucius went a little further than necessary which created the need for King Verdayl to apologize to the other nations'' leaders for the day''s events. Neither the king nor Kalivas were aware of what Lucius''s ns were, save winning the tournament.

    In fact, neither even knew what ''wish'' the boy was going to request be granted. It could have been almost anything, but they were pleasantly surprised at the actual request itself.

    Kalivas knew a little about Rena, mostly from listening in to conversations between Lucius and Kalliope while they were training together. His son was not one to divulge information freely with anyone really, so there was no way that he was going to have a heart-to-heart about his crush with him.

    Though, through the snippets he heard, it was easy to glean just how much the boy felt for this girl. Seeing her fight was rather pleasant too. Though she was eliminated by the spear fighter, Desmond, she showed a remarkable talent for someone who only fought with magic.

    Truly, she performed much better than anyone expected without being able to utilize any Arts at all. She had a lot of potential and that made Kalivas proud of his son for choosing a strong partner.

    "Widen your feet. Square them up with your shoulders or you will lose your bnce." He barked at a trainee that stumbled after making one of the wider swings. "Alright, enough. Five minutes of rest, then pair up for non-contact sparring."

    All the recruits quickly put down their weapons and copsed to the ground where they were. Kalivas was a devil of a trainer, but he was going easy on these knights. Of course, his methods were many times more intense than the ones normally used by the regr trainers, but he was also being many times less aggressive than with Lucius and Kalliope.

    "How goes the training, Kalivas?" King Verdayl''s voice called out from behind him. The man was in a disguise so the knights-in-training would not jump to attention and be distracted from their studies.

    "It''s alright. They are performing as well as could be expected." He answered.

    "Is that all? You are not impressed?"

    Kalivas eyed the king like he was insane. "You know who my son is, right?"

    Verdayl grimaced, "Painfully slow¡­ I had to marily appease King Aleksander for the situation. Though we did not vite the rules, he imed we vited the ''spirit of thepetition'' so he made me reimburse them for a quarter of the cost in setting up the tournament."

    "You know, I could just pay you back myself so I don''t have to waste my time training newbies. In fact, I would dly reimburse the entire amount if I could just leave." Kalivas was almost begging with his tone.

    Verdaylughed and denied the request. To him, having their country''s King Ranker train a group of their knights, even if only for a short time, was many times more valuable than the preparation costs for an international event.

    There was no way he was going to pass up on the opportunity. Verdayl admitted that he would dly experience many more far more embarrassing moments than what Lucius put him through to achieve this oue.

    "Have you heard anything from the boy? From what I hear he has left the capital on a ''work-study'' with some other students. I don''t know if you have heard anything else about that or not." Verdayl asked.

    The trainees all stood now that their break was over and began to pair up for no-contact sparring. Their goal was simply to hone the feeling and movements of their maneuvers in both the attacking and defending formations.

    Satisfied everyone was paired up and there were no ring corrections needed made, Kalivas finally answered. "No, I have yet to hear anything from him. I know that Kalliope was left behind to take care of things in Arcadios''s capital in his stead. They might be having some run-ins with the Church of Celestia."

    "That does not bode well. Such an institution has little reach here, but in the heart of the human nations¡­ that is a different story."

    He nodded along with the king''s words. "That''s true. However, I don''t know how that will y out. The human nations seem very interested in the House of Kane for reasons we haven''t really figured out. Something about a prophecy was whispered in some circles, but the context is unknown."

    "I see¡­ So you don''t think the church will make a move while the human leaders have an interest in him?"

    "Yes, but I also believe they will make moves to try and pin the boy for something. Launch an inquiry into him and have him either expelled from the country or worse." Kalivas sighed heavily.

    "You know¡­" Verdayl said with a smirk. "If you want, I can pull some strings if ites to that. All we need to do is extend your little substitute instructor job. Say the word and it''ll be done."

    Verdaylughed as his friend''s face visibly paled at the prospect of training these whelps any longer than he had to. Though he wanted to be a good father and help his son where he could, Kalivas also understood that Lucius needed to stand on his own and figure these things out for himself.

    With that in mind he declined the offer and stepped through the lines of trainees to examine their movements a little more closely. He would be kinder with mistakes with them than he was with Lucius, but he still needed to correct them on asion to prevent any bad habits.

 Chapter 207: An Unexpected Alliance

    It had been a few months since their defeat and the leaders of Alorek were still licking their wounds. Lady Tierga, their Empyrean Ranker, was assisting them in moving their troops past the blockage preventing them from supporting Alvora.

    However, they were unable to reach the city before it was taken and mostly destroyed. Because of the distance between Alvora and the nearest city or fortress, Alorek would have lost a significant amount of ground to the enemy and would be facing a two-on-one fight without the benefit of the natural bottleneck that Alvora created.

    Pana was punished for her failure as an example to their forces, but her call was a difficult one. That warrior, Titan, held the city''s civilian poption hostage, and then proceeded to eliminate a majority of its citizens without restraint or emotion.

    Truly, what Pana had done was an honorable thing and she saved many lives. However, she failed to notice their infiltrators until it was toote and created a scenario where their loss was all but assured.

    "King Zethis, there is someone requesting an audience." A messenger entered the room with a bow and pulled him out of his thoughts.

    "Who is it?" If at any other time he would have been furious to have his alone time disrupted, however the energy for such behavior simply wasn''t there anymore.

    "They im to be an envoy of another nation¡­" The messenger began.

    "If it''s from Eroa or any of the Union nations, send them away, I''m busy."

    "Sire, they im to be a representative of Haedda." The messenger finished.

    Zethis''s interest was already piqued. Haedda was the second of two elven nations. Aedrider was in the northern part of the continent, while Haedda inhabited the south. Aedrider had open borders and trade with every country on the continent, but Haedda was the exact opposite. Very rarely did the istionist nation interact with the other countries and their peoples.

    There was a vast mountain range that isted them from all the surrounding nations with only two natural passes leading in or out of theirnds. One entrance connected to the nation of Docia, while the other connected to Alorek. Seldomly they would allow trade caravans through the pass, but very few people ever left the country and even fewer people were allowed in.

    Zethis quickly moved to the throne room to receive a rare and honored guest. With his powerful legs, he sprinted there in a very short amount of time, leaving the messenger in the proverbial, and literal, dust.

    Once in his throne room, he sat in hisrge chair, overlooking the main floor which hosted a single,rge rug that led directly from underneath his chair and all the way to the doors. With a wave of his hand, the guards at the door slowly opened it and allowed an enchanting elven woman to step into the room.

    She wore a long, flowing white gown that hugged her figure tightly. Though the dress went all the way up to her neck, the way the clothes fit left little to the imagination of Zethis on the exact size and shape of most of her body. Trailing behind her was a longce train with the tail of the material barely kissing the ground.

    nking the woman were a handful of guards and servants. Each of the guards wore strange, glittery armor. It looked like steel te armor that had flecks of emerald infused throughout the metal. Zethis had absolutely no idea what kind of material it was that was folded in with the steel, but it looked expensive and intimidating.

    Once the entire procession had entered the room, the woman in white kneeled before his throne. Her luscious, pink hair entuated her perfect face and pale, blue eyes.

    "I, Princess Enaeria of Haedda, greet you, King Zethis of the Raging Sands, ruler of the nation of Alorek." The woman spoke with a voice as smooth as silk and sweet as honey. Her manners were perfect and everything about her felt otherworldly.

    Zethis couldn''t help but gulp in response. "Greetings, Princess Enaeria." He stood and walked down the steps. Zethis offered his hand to her and helped her to a standing position. "I greet you, but please do not lower yourself to kneel to a person such as me. A woman of your caliber should never have to kneel before another."

    Honestly, he felt like he wasying it on thick in his response, but for some reason he could not help it. The princess smiled at his words and made his heart jump.

    "Thank you, your majesty. Ie as an envoy of my great nation, Haedda, the kingdom in the mist." She continued before pausing.

    She then looked at her gown and frowned at the bit of dust that had dirtied her perfect dress. With a simple wave of her hand, water formed over the dirt and pulled it out of the cloth. A single snap of her fingers and a small gust of wind quickly dried the fabric, leaving her just as perfect as before.

    Zethis almost had to pick his jaw up off of the floor. What he had just witnessed was an effortless example of Channeling. The elven princess had used it as if it was a trivial matter for her.

    "Apologies, my liege." Enaeria said with a smile. "I havee as an envoy for two purposes. One is that my king and queen, or my mother and father, wish to form an alliance and trade partnership with the nation of Alorek. As their third daughter I have been sent to offer my hand in marriage to you as a token of our desire to ally with you."

    The king of Alorek stood there dumbfounded. Not only had he witnessed Channeling ur in front of his very eyes, but this heavenly vision before him was also offering herself in marriage. If that wasn''t enough, the very reason for her visit was because the infamously istionist nation of Haedda was wanting to enter into an alliance with them.

    Truly, today was an interesting day. "Of course. I graciously ept both the offer of alliance and my fairdy''s hand in marriage. As a show of respect, I offer the forfeiture of my nation''s traditions of multiple wives. Out of respect for you and your kingdom, I promise myself to you and you alone."

    Enaeria beamed at him with a smile brighter than the desert sun. "I am d to be shown such a measure of respect, my lord husband. Or rather my lord husband-to-be." She giggled at her own words, lightly covering her mouth with her spare hand. "There is one more matter to attend to, however. I have brought with me the representative of another nation who wishes to speak with you."

 Chapter 208: The Far Shores

    After Enaeria informed him a second guest entered the hall. They had short elf-like ears and animal-like slitted eyes. The figure was a towering seven feet tall with a torso nearly half again asrge as Zethis''s own. Though he was wearing nice clothing that appeared to be made in Haedda, he also wore various pieces of jewelry made of animal bones around his neck and arms.

    Bangles with small animal bones decorated his wrists. Where a warrior might have metal pauldrons on his shoulder, there was the top half of a beast''s skull. His arms were exposed and he had a series of ck and green tattoos covering the entirety of his skin. It was clear the artwork went underneath his clothes as the piece continued up to his neck.

    It was umon to see a half-elf, half-beastman in Alorek which was already a slight shock. What was more shocking though was the rest of his aesthetic. Tattoos were not something that weremon to find on the continent. Save for small pieces kept in hidden locations on the body, this man unted the art for everyone to see.

    "My lord husband-to-be," Enaeria cooed, "Please wee Sir Mer''Krul, a representative of the nations of the Far Shores."

    If everything up till now was not a surprise, this was certainly one. Everything seemed to be moving faster than he couldprehend. Mer''Krul''s presence here represented nothing short of a miracle of the highest caliber.

    Haedda was known as an istionist nation, the famed ''kingdom in the mist,'' so named for the magical mist that epassed their borders which seemed to magically prevent entry by people not granted ess to the kingdom. This same mist prevented many countries with ess to the oceans from venturing beyond the shelf surrounding their continent.

    Any ship that moved into the deep waters of the ocean found themselves turned around or disappeared forever into the mysterious mist that surrounded their continent. One exception to this ancient barrier''s rules were the mysterious ships belonging to a country simply known as ''The Far Shores.''

    "Greetings, King Zethis." Mer''Krul said with a bow. "I am representing my homnd in this endeavor. We of The Far Shores are allied with Haedda through marriage with their second prince and the daughter of our Great Chieftain. Haedda wishes for us to trade with Alorek as well."

    "Trade?" Zethis was shocked. Ships from The Far Shores were rare sightings among nations who actually had ocean ess and they would frequently trade with the ports theynded at, but no ships ever agreed to make long-standing trade pacts. They were also extremely secretive for how it was that they could navigate the mist barrier.

    The goods they typically possessed included extremely unique and powerful charms that would make the likes of Aedrider jealous. Along with that, they possessed powerful alchemical mixtures with far more potent effects than the ones avable on the continent. He found himself wondering where these offers were before the war''s end.

    "Perhaps we should discuss the details at length over dinner?" Zethis said, trying not to sound too desperate to establish trade rtions with the elusive foreign power.

    "As you wish," Mer''Krul stated. "Would you mind if I invite my wife, Mar''Dena, to join us?"

    "Of course, please, all and any of both of your entourages are invited to partake in a grand feast. I shall inform my kitchens to spare no expense in the preparations." Zethis nodded at his messenger to prepare the kitchen staff.

    Mer''Krul excused himself and left the room. One of the pce maids directed him and his party, who stayed out in the hall, to their quarters. Zethis was about to have his new fianc¨¦ taken to quarters of her own, but she ced a hand on his arm as he started to wave over for another maid.

    "My lord husband-to-be, I think it best that we retire to your personal quarters. You see, in Haedda, those to be wed offer their hand while wearing white clothing. On the eve of epting the offer, the one asked will remove said clothing, sealing the marriage in the eyes of the gods." She whispered into his ear. "Let us be wed now, under the watchful gaze of Celestia."

    Zethis did not try to conceal his nervous gulp and could barely contain his excitement as he led the beautiful woman on his arm away from the throne room personally. He was not stupid. The entire situation was extremely convenient and there was no doubt that he was getting the short end of some aspect of the deal. However, Alorek''s future was stagnant and sealed as it was.

    The way he saw it, no matter what it was these two nations wished of him, their offers were far more likely to benefit Alorek if taken than if left to its own devices. Zethis decided that even if they wanted his soul, his money, or his country, if they could destroy the Union¡­ or even that despicable man named Titan, then they could take whatever price they wanted.

    "Lord Zethis, what is it that is bothering you?" Enaeria questioned, though her tone indicated she was already aware what weighed on his heart.

    Zethis took a deep breath before asking in a dark tone, "What do you want from me? Haedda and The Far Shores possess many secrets and wonderful technologies. Things that Alorek could only dream to possess. What do you want?"

    Enaeria smiled and cupped his cheek in her hand. "Sweet Zethis¡­ your time for thinking is done, my sweet."

    Before he realized it, his mind became foggy. Thoughts became harder to form and grasp and any words he wanted to say simply caught in his throat. He noticed a dull glowing from the back of the princess''s left hand from a ck sigil that he had not noticed before.

    For a moment he thought about raging against the charm effecting from the elven princess, but those thoughts faded and all he could bring himself to feel was desire. He had to make this woman his. She offered herself to him. Her mere presence brought promise of greatness to his country. Though their children would be half-elf, their blood would be strong. They would be perfect.

    Zethis tensed his arms and picked his bride-to-be off her feet. "Enaeria, my love.Let''s make our nations prosperous and powerful. With you by my side, we will move mountains."

    Any concerns he had before were gone. Zethis went to bed that night content in both heart and body, with a perfect vision of beauty clung to his arm. Nothing else mattered; only Enaeria.

 Chapter 209: The Flames

    Deep in a densely packed forest, several people stood together outside of a log cabin. Once upon a time, this area was nothing but a few small houses surrounding amunal fire. Now, there were dozens of buildings and many people to fill them. A vige was forming.

    Though there were new buildings, the original source of the vige and the buildings within it were unchanged. No one dared to rece them or encroach upon the former hunting camp, treating it as a vige center of sorts.

    The cabins themselves at the center were far less fancy or cozy as the new ones, but the vige leadership still took up residence inside these lesser buildings. It was their right as leadership.

    Inside one of the smallest of the three cabins was a frighteningly beautiful woman. Though her very visage would make men and women swoon, none dared approach her. One word and she could make someone vanish as though they had never existed. Even their families would forget that their loved one went missing. Not due to the loss of memory, but out of fear of reprisal.

    Verona Fangorath was an illegitimate daughter of a snake-kin beastman from the country of Raleron. He had sired her with a human prostitute in Lelvern almost three decades ago. She grew up on the streets of the trade city, barely scraping by until she managed to get herself a job at the Merchant''s Guild as cleaning staff, then worked her way up to receptionist.

    Roughly ten years ago, she worked her way into the position as the Head of Acquisitions of the Arcadios branch of the guild. Her name and fame as a cunning and ruthless negotiator became well known in mercantile circles among merchant families of bothmon and noble blood.

    That was when her father finally decided to show himself and ept her into the family as a legitimate daughter so her sess would boost the prestige of his family.

    Insulted though she was, she was also a clever merchant and epted his offer even if it was only to have an extra leg up in negotiation tactics.

    This same woman would spend a few days out of every month in one of the more rundown cabins in the center of this unmarked and unnamed vige. She did so happily.

    "Mistress Verona, good day to you."

    "Lady Fangorath, a pleasure as always."

    "By the Fire, may we be cleansed."

    "Long may the mes be fanned."

    Everything frommon greetings to phrases of their holy sect greeted her every day she spent in this vige. She epted these greetings warmly and happily spent time among her fellow adherents.

    Currently she and the other followers of The me had begun to gather for the daily ritual of lighting themunal fire at the center of the original camp. Today''s bonfire was spectacrlyrge and would be more beautiful than ever. She had obtained through her trade routes a strange metal powder that would change the color of the fire to a brilliant gold, representing the radiance of godhood.

    She slowly stepped to the small stage they constructed for their sermons. Slowly, but surely more of the residents and devotees poured in from the surrounding buildings and trees. When a sizable enough crowd finally started to form, she began the sermon.

    "Wee brothers and sisters of The me." Verona began. Her voice wasmanding and deep for a woman. Even if the crowd were not already invested, her presence and tone would havemanded their attention. "I am once again leading us in our glorious lighting of the holy pyre.

    "Though in our daily lives we experience different things, travel in different circles. Wee from all walks, from beggars to nobles, from warriors to schrs; The me that burns within us all is but a piece of the One True Fire.

    "One day The me shall consume all, and through its consumption we will all return to its warm embrace. Though the world is not ready for the truth, it is our duty to burn it into them. It is our duty to fan the mes of destruction. It is our duty to spread the truth to those who are unaware of the bliss we offer.

    "May The me burn brightly in our souls and in our hearts." Verona mmed her left fist into her sternum before sying her fingers outward, simting the me burning in the core of their being.

    Everyone in the crowd imitated her actions simultaneously. Then a man passed her a ming torch which Verona took and threw onto the pyre. The dried leaves and twigs at the heart of the construct lit first and began to rapidly grow into a roaring me; the peak of which reached a dozen feet into the air.

    Once the fire started to burn in earnest, she pulled a leather pouch out of her pocket and cast it into the heart of the fire. Slowly, the mes changed from the normal reds and oranges to a brilliant gold. This elicited a series of sighs and cries of devotion from the crowd as they witnessed the beauty before them.

    "Golden mes represent the divinity of our god. By the righteous fire we will burn." Verona whispered to herself while shedding a tear.

    Each of the devotees present then gathered and took turns sacrificing things into the fire. Some sacrificed food, some money, and others mementos of their lives and memories. Verona had long since burned her painful memories away in the pyre.

    As one of the oldest devotees, she learned the truth of The mes over eleven years ago. Which was just before she worked her way to the top. Verona gave everything to the fires of their god and in return she was granted what she needed to seed. In a single year she worked her way from a receptionist to the Head of Acquisitions for the country.

    Verona Fangorath became the youngest person in the position in the history of the guild and has the most amount of sess. She no longer relies on the wisdom of The mes to make her decisions within the guild, but she did use the guild to siphon off resources to feed to the cult.

    Once things died down a little, she smiled as her direct subordinates took over managing the rest of the ceremony. Verona bowed and left her station to begin her meeting.

 Chapter 210: A Tale of Two Faiths

    Verona walked back into her small lodging and flipped up a hatch that led to the basement of the building. This was an addition they had added for their faith''s purposes. It was a basement that led to arge chamber under the center of the vige.

    The hall leading to the central chamber spiraled downwards until it reached a massive room with arge domed ceiling. Along the entirety of the dome were scenes of fire and destruction, buildings burning, and at its center sat a broken throne. The Throne of Creation.

    Standing at the center of the chamber were four other people. Each one led a sect of their faith in another nation. Four of their number were unable to make it to the meeting, which was understandable due to the distance they needed to travel.

    Verona represented the country of Arcadios and the other four each represented the four other nations in the Five Kings Union. The other four had been waiting for her arrival and even though they wanted to join in on the service above, they knew their presence would prove too much for the other devotees, so they remained hidden.

    "Mistress Fangorath, a pleasure for you to join us. I hope the service went well." One man said. Each wore a mask covering the top half of their faces. Even Verona had one on. They knew each other''s names but still stood on decorum by wearing the mask as requested by their leader.

    "A pleasure as well. Shall we begin?" She said with a smile.

    Several hourster when the meeting was over, she returned to her home in Lelvern. The sights around her disgusted her. The home she lived in inside the walls was gifted to her by her biological father. It was the height of excess. Every wall possessed a fine painting from various artists. Each painting was wrapped in expensive wooden frames from different rare species of trees or tree monsters.

    The very vision of such things was enough to make her vomit. Frankly, her job disgusted her. She was constantly handling money and goods for people who had an obsession with things, but her position was useful. Other than what was required to keep up appearances, everything she possessed was given to her faith. All her money, all of her possessions, all of her heart belonged to The mes.

    She sighed with satisfaction despite her surroundings. In their final meeting, the Council of Nine, or at least the five of them that were present, discussed the uing celebration at the Arcadios Royal Academy.

    Arge number of their adherents had decided to fan the mes in the heart of Arcadios and it was their responsibility as the Council to support them. Though it set back some of the ns they had in ce, the faith these devotees wanted to show had to be nurtured. It was truly awe inspiring that they wished to spread the word.

    *****

    Father Urd slowly walked down the marble halls of the Grand Cathedral. He walked past the usual statue he used as a drop and noticed that its head was turned slightly askew. With a smile, he looked around before gently turning it back into its normal position.

    A small click could be heard from inside the statue and a tray popped out of its base. Inside was a small scroll tied up neatly, waiting for him to retrieve. Urd quickly pocketed the document and closed the drawer, locking it back in ce.

    He swiftly walked back down the hallway back to his office, preparing to read the report that was provided. Contained within was a list of known associates of the ''Lord'' Lucius Kane. Among them were his ''wife,'' Rena Kane, Kalliope of the Gray Wolf n, Desmond and Jade Adler, as well as the young Oracle and her maid.

    One final person was his adoptive mother that someone had attempted to assassinate in her home by way of artificially triggered monster attack. She managed to survive by being rescued moments before the attack urred and was now staying in the Eroan embassy with Kalliope.

    The younger oracle''s maid was out on a work-study as part of her education, but the young oracle herself has been difficult to locate. Many of their men had tried to track her down, but they seemed unable to tail her for very long. Somehow the woman managed to give them all the slip in a matter of minutes.

    "Of these members, it seems that the most valuable targets would be Rena and Rubellia¡­ if we can find a way to use them to manipte Lucius Kane into making a mistake that we can use¡­"

    Under normal circumstances, the actions that Lord Kane had taken would grant him a private room in the castle dungeons while he awaited trial. However, everything he had done was already punished, and those that had been unpunished were forgiven. What the church needed was something new that they could use as leverage.

    "If only we could tie him to something¡­ because of the prophecy all of the leaders are petrified into doing nothing against him, but if it''s not framed as a ''betrayal'' but rather was considered a natural consequence, then the prophecy should note to pass.

    "However, barring that, if we could just get him removed from our borders¡­ that would be ideal. It goes against everything holy in this world to have a Marked One parade themselves as a noble, let alone be married to an actual member of nobility."

    Father Urd had a habit of speaking to himself, but thankfully he had sound dampening crystals from Aedrider to keep anything he said inside a secret to him alone¡­

    "Aedrider¡­" he muttered, "That''s it! The queen requested assistance for a long-term need. If we could get the king to at least force him to do that, then we can be rid of him while we look to find a more permanent solution!"

    Father Urd quickly penned a set of instructions to his normal recipient and hurried to ce it back in the dead drop location. No matter what happened, they would put their best on tailing Lucius at all cost upon his return. If men died, they could be reced. It was callous, but having a noble Marked One in their midst was dangerous.

    King Aleksander''s decision to continue allowing them ess to the Adventurer''s Guild and Merchant Guild was enough of a pain to deal with. It only served to make the beasts think they were better than they truly are. Lucius parading as a noble made other Marked Ones have hope that it was a future they could achieve as well.

    If the Church of Celestia had any say at all, then the demon cursed cretins would never see the light of day. He had to crush their spirits. It would take time¡­ but the church would prevail, just as it always had.

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 211: The Church of Celestia

    The church teaches that Celestia is the realm of the gods. Though there are many and all remain nameless to the mortals of the earthen ne, the truth was they watched over all the mortal races and guided all their actions.

    Every child born was graced by Celestia and the gods within to be given life. Each person was gifted their favor in times of need when they showed their piety. Though the mortal races knew not which gods governed which forces of the world, it was known that the gods were always there through everything.

    Of course, every rule has an exception. Celestia''s grace had its own limits and could never grant its blessings to the demon-cursed. The demon-cursed were those who had high enough concentration of demon blood in them to be marked by Celestia. This mark showed the other members of the mortal races which beings were deemed unfit for the grace of the gods.

    These marks branded the heathen creatures that could never stand beside the pious among them. These marks even went so far as to gift these beings powers as if the curse ced upon them for their sins became the very source of their power gifted by the demons.

    As such, ording to the teachings of the Church of Celestia, these creatures could not be allowed to mingle withmon society. Every sermon was filled with warnings about the truth of the sins of the Marked Ones. How they are cursed to be denied the blessing of the gods.

    Of course, the church also taught that anyone among them could suffer the same fate. Before thest of the demon armies fell centuries upon centuries ago, some of the vile beasts decided to y onest trick upon the gods who deemed their destruction. Some of them hid themselves among the masses of humans, elves, and beastmen.

    As such their blood runs through the veins of almost every living being and at any point a cursed child could be born to any family.

    Yet despite the warnings that the church preaches, some ignore the information. They choose to avoid the truth and continue cavorting with the children of demons granted power by evil. By rtion, those people could never experience Celestia''s grace.

    These were all things that Father Urd knew to be true. This was why he was so resolute in his desire to be rid of Lucius. The monster had shown his true colors time and time again, yet no one seemed willing to listen. Somehow, he is given chance after chance and the benefit of the doubt.

    Such a thing could not be stood for. He massacred almost three thousand people in the battle against Alorek. A thousand of them were the human nation''s own men. Then, under the mask of another name, he personally destroyed a city with the intention of harming the innocent.

    At the Exhibition Tournament, he took the winning seat from a true believer such as Thomas von Petra and the other nobles who had entered the match.

    To top it all off, he sullied the heart, mind, and soul of an innocent woman by pretending to take her as his wife. Though it was recognized by two kings, the church would never ept their bond. The gods did not bless their union, so it did not ur.

    "Utterly disgusting¡­" Urd mumbled.

    He had been thinking a lot about Luciustely and it triggered in him a series of thoughts and memories about both him and Marked Ones in general. Unfortunately, he caught himself toote and the look of disgust on his face had already been seen by some of the worshipers in the temple.

    He bowed profusely to the young woman and her children that had just dropped off an offering to one of the many braziers in the church. Though his look may have scared them or worried the mother that his feelings were about her, he assured them he was simply pondering the existence of Marked Ones and that his thoughts had simply leaked out.

    The statement did little tofort the woman for reasons Urd did not understand, but he still apologized for his behavior andck of decorum. She swiftly left the church building with her small children in tow.

    "Ugh¡­" He grumbled, now in a poorer mood. "I really must be more careful."

    He turned to one of the several nuns that were managing the prayer hall and advised that he would be canceling his duties for the day in favor of resting. He acted as though he was under the weather, but really he needed time to think.

    Urd found himself wondering if there was time for him to review scripture again when he found himself suddenly being osted in his study by one of his agents.

    "Father Urd, I apologize for breaking from protocol, but you must know immediately. Is the room safe?"

    The priest red at the nameless agent who barged into his office as well as vited their protocol for dead drops, but decided to wave for the man to continue, indicating the room was safe.

    "It seems that Lucius''s forces in the capital are gearing up for an attack on the Academy."

    Urd instantly started choking on his own spit. Then he turned to the man with a voice filled with excitement, "Truly?! When? Do we have all the proof needed to take it to the authorities."

    The agent shook his head. "No, we have nothing that we would be able to legally share with the kingdom. Also, we have heard they might be trying to protect it from an attack? However, we have heard no mention of such a thing until now."

    Urd snorted, "Of course you haven''t! The ones nning the attack are those infernal demon''s forces. Move at once, ignore all previous directives, recall all avable agents. I want double¡­ no triple, the amount of men monitoring every known agent of that demon. Monitor them and watch for the first sign of betrayal of the kingdom. Once we have what we need¡­ we can finally rid ourselves of the beast."

    Suddenly he found himself feeling happier and rxed than he was before. He found himself wondering if he should read scripture anyway, but instead of it being used as a calming method, he could view it as his reward.

 Chapter 212: Investigating the Dungeon

    "How goes it?"

    "Morning, milord!"

    "d to see you up and at ''em so early, sir!"

    A dozen or so guards in full te armor bearing the crest of the Kingdom of Arcadios patrolled a medium sized vige that sat next to a massive cave. The cave itself was not set into the wall of a mountain or anything, like one would expect of a cave with an entrance asrge as this to be.

    Instead, the opening was a perfectly symmetrical rectangle that looked as though it had been carved into arge hill.

    Starting at the cave mouth there was a massive set of stone stairs that spanned the entire width and led down several dozen feet to a set of bronze-looking doors. They were engraved with various unknown symbols and depictions of different monsters that would be found behind those very doors. Each one also had a massive ring that one would use to pull the doors closed.

    This was assuming, of course, that someone would even be strong enough to do so. Each door easily weighed several tons due to their size, thickness, and the density of the strange metal they were made of.

    An elderly man gingerly ran his fingers across the doorway, appearing as though he was gleaning unknown knowledge from the carvings on it. Yet he pulled awaypletely dissatisfied. Whatever it was he was looking for, the door seemed to refuse to give him an answer.

    Wally Carmichael was the foremost expert on marks and by extension demonguage and culture. The construct before him was the infamous dungeon, the Demon''s Stomach. A few days ago the doors began to refuse opening to allow ess to any of the adventurers that wanted to fight through its floors.

    The dungeon was a major attraction to adventurers, schrs, mages, and warriors from all over and to lose ess to the resources held within that those individuals would bring back to the surface was a massive loss for the kingdom. King Aleksander himself requested that Wally personally investigate the dungeon and see if he can find a cause.

    If he can, then he was to try and fix it or at least confirm when it would open again.

    Thanks to the stairs in the rectangr cave being made of the same, strange stone that made up the ruins of demon cities, the door itself had demonic runes and strange markings on it that indicated it too was constructed by them. What was not known was whether or not the dungeon was somehow created by the demons or if it was found and modified by them.

    "Lord Carmichael, how go your investigations today?" one of the guard captains asked him.

    There were a contingent of soldiers under the kingdoms employ that lived in the sizable vige outside the dungeon entrance. Their entire job was to monitor those who challenged the dungeon and what they retrieved.

    Once everything was categorized, the adventurers would take the equipment into town and exchange or register it at the guild with a small percentage taken off the top as a tax to the kingdom. There were also several resources that appeared in the dungeon that were required to be sold to the kingdom no matter what.

    asionally there would be extremely valuable pieces that the Adventurer''s Guild and the Kingdom would ''persuade'' the challengers to part with forrge sums of money.

    While not perfect, the system did provide the nation with a fair amount of ie and valuable pieces of equipment that was provided to valuable soldiers and nobles, or sold at auction to make many times more money than they purchased it for.

    With Wally''s experience studying marks, he was rather attune to the strange power the demons possessed that flowed through Marked Ones when using their special abilities. This same power also flowed through a dungeon at varying concentrations. It was as though this power was part of the core functionality of the entire construct, though no one knew how it functioned.

    "Lord Carmichael?" the guard prompted a second time.

    "Hmm?" Wally said, finally noticing the man. "Oh yes, sorry Captain. Well, from what I can tell, the power that runs through the dungeon seems to be¡­ fluctuating for some reason. It is as though the dungeon itself has be unstable.

    "We have some records of instability in the past that caused the doors to close, but they all opened again within a few weeks. I am thinking this is simr. Though, thest recorded incident was well over a hundred years ago¡­"

    The guard captain sighed, "Well, the Guild Master in the vige is going to have an aneurism over this¡­ he hates when things affect the guild''s bottom line."

    "Well, he can take it up with the demons, I can''t do a thing about it." Wally said with a sigh. "I had toe all the way out here only to learn a fat lot of nothing. That whelp Aleksander needs to sit down and apologize to me properly when I get home¡­ making an old man like me venture out to the sticks¡­"

    "Sir? Are you sure you should talk about his majesty like that?" The guard captain flitted his eyes around nervously to make sure no one overheard what Wally had just said.

    Technically his statement was a crime, to talk ill of the king. However, Wally was a very strong mage and the guard captain had no inclination to try and arrest him.

    "Bah! I taught the boy and his father how to use magic. If I have the mind of it, I can put him over my knee." Wally said. "You know, I''m about half way to Pelith right? Maybe I should go give Richard a piece of my mind about giving my grandson a hard time¡­"

    Wally stomped off leaving a bewildered country guard to stare at his back. It was likely the man was questioning everything he ever knew to be true about nobility for such a crass old man to behave in such away. Even as a member of nobility himself, Wally was not excused from behaving appropriately.

    The other guards above quickly moved out of his way. Even they could tell that the old man was annoyed at his inability to figure out a solution to the dungeon situation. It just so happened that being unable to solve this problem led him to be angry at other things.

    Without much word to anyone else other than sending a child to tell the Guild Master what he found out, Wally got into a carriage and ordered the driver to head directly to Pelith and to do so without stopping.

    "I think its time I give that redheaded prick a piece of my mind¡­" Wally grumbled.

 Chapter 213: Lord Carmichael

    Richard walked amongst his guards going through their basic training. Among them were a number of different age groups. Some were children as young as nine. This year''s batch of trial participants was ratherrge and because of that, his forces had an influx of trainees.

    The training groups were broken down from nine to eleven, twelve to fourteen, then at fifteen they joined training with the adults. Other than surviving the trials at age nine by entering the forest, the other factor that granted his domain the strongest soldiers in the kingdom was that their training began at nine and continued until they retired, deserted, or died.

    Richard would not let even veteran warriors rx when it came to daily practice and maintenance. To rx your training was to weaken your senses and in essence dull your de. One thing he was particrly proud of that he felt bore great fruit was to make sure the different training groups still trained at the same intervals so the young could learn from the more experienced.

    "Attention! Your lord is present!"

    With practiced precision, every person on the field ceased their movements and knelt before him with their heads hung and their weapons leaning against their shoulders. Looking at the perfection before him as everyone had organized themselves into perfect ranks gave him a sense of satisfaction.

    Something about himself that he struggled with was appearances. He always needed to look the part of the noble. To be the perfect representation of nobility in the kingdom. To that end, Richard worked to build the perfect life, the perfect military, the perfect domain. Everything was perfect¡­ or it should have been.

    "Lucius¡­" he grumbled to himself as he nced about the grounds. He then shook his head and called out to the trainees, "At ease, return to your drills."

    Richard felt the urge to join in on some of the training so he would not lose his edge and moved to grab a practice weapon. Just as his fingers grazed the hilt, one of his servant staff came up to greet him with a curtsy.

    "Lord Petra, you have a guest calling for you." She said while maintaining her position. "One Lord Carmichael has requested to speak with you."

    Richard felt his hand twitch for a moment, then he turned around and thanked the maid. She bowed before him as he passed, then followed behind him slightly to the left. This way she could be called upon before or during the meeting if needed.

    The two stepped into his luxurious parlor decorated with trophies of his achievements in hunting and war, along with a number of gifts he had received from foreign dignitaries. He had gifts from the royal family as well, but those were saved and held in his office for private viewing.

    "Wally!" Richard said with a smile. He felt isted recently after everything with the war, Lucius''s survival, and his daughter''s marriage to a Marked One. It wasforting to see a friend.

    Instead of the old man''s jovial smile and rambunctious personality, he bore witness to a refined gentleman with a well-maintained beard and perfect robe. Normally he was a little unkempt to suit his actual personality.

    "Lord Petra." The elderly man said calmly. "I believe the proper greeting would be to refer to me as ''Lord Carmichael.'' I assure you that I would prefer you pay me the respect I am due. Our families are of equal rank, so please use the correct manners."

    Once again, Richard felt like someone had sshed him with a bucket of ice water. Yet another person had turned against him. After everything else he had gone through, Richard once again found himself more alone.

    He straightened his face from the seemingly useless smile he originally had on it. "Apologies for my behavior, Lord Carmichael." He stated with a small bow. "How can I help you today?"

    "I came to discuss Lord Kane with you."

    Richard''s back stiffened and he reflexively clenched his fist and teeth. "What, pray tell, do you wish to discuss about that man?"

    "That man? I do believe that Lord Kane is your son-inw, is he not?"

    Blood leaked out of tiny cuts in his palms as he managed to clench even harder. "Apologies. You are correct. Lord Kane is in fact my son-inw. It seems that I am still getting used to the change in our rtionship. He was once a guard to my daughter, if you recall."

    "I do." Wally answered. "I figured that since you and him share a connection as sacred as the vow of marriage between your families, that you should be more aware of his roots."

    For a moment, Richard felt a sensation spread through his heart. It had been so long since he felt hope that he almost forgot what the sensation was¡­

    "What is it that you have for me, sir?" He nearly shouted, his desperation for anything against the boy.

    Wally''s next words shattered what little else remained of his delicate psyche.

    "I wanted to let you know, that since you are part of the family, that you should be aware that the Oracle, Lady Adellia, is my dear sweet granddaughter. By blood mind you."

    Richard felt like screaming. He could no longer maintain his noble demeanor. The servant staff watched in horror as the perfect noble fa?ade he constructed began to crack.

    "As such, that would make Lucius my beloved great-grandson. I do not know how well you treat your own family, Lord Petra, but I look upon my own very favorably." Wally continued. Each word sunk into Richard like knives.

    "I figured now would be a good time to let you know that while I am unable to make certain moves¡­ I am not required to make any. I have two jobs in my position, and defending the honor of nobles is not among them. Take care to watch what you do from now on, Lord Petra." Wally finished before turning to leave the mansion.

    When the great doors to his home mmed closed, Richard finally snapped.

    "Ha¡­.haha¡­hahaha¡­" Richard''sughter sounded foreign to everyone in the room, including himself, but no matter what he did, he could not stop himself fromughing.

    How could he? The life he built for himself and his family went up in smoke. He raised a killer and failed to put him down. He raised a perfectly noble and beautiful daughter, and she chose to whore herself out to a Marked One.

    Richard was givenmand over Watcher''s Retreat, and he failed to do more than push Alorek back by a few miles. Meanwhile Eroan forces defeated their forces under themand of the same child he failed to kill¡­ everything he had done to ingratiate himself to the crown¡­ was taken away.

    His prior sesses meant nothing in the face of all his failures. All of it was one man''s fault: Lucius Kane.

    "Lucius¡­ You will regret this. I will make you regret this as much as I regret choosing to kill your father instead of you. In fact, maybe I should have punished the whole family for the sins of the son."

 Chapter 214: What Do You Want?

    After seeing nothing more than some shadows dancing around only to be absorbed by some rocks, the group felt more than a little defeated. Desmond expected a little more fanfare when they arrived. Lucius seemed so sure when they went to the tower that it would open for him. However, now he was saying they had other things to do before it would work.

    They went ahead and returned to the vige of Spire Hollow, bypassing the camp. Since their paperwork had already been signed showing that theypleted the request, there was no need for them to trek back to the camp when they could simply head back to the vige proper.

    Once they left the perimeter of the ruins, Lucius moved to the head of the party, staying a few dozen paces ahead of the group. Desmond watched with admiration at the skill and concentration the man had when it came to scouting. Though Lucius was only a half-beastman of a feline lineage and had no ears, Desmond could almost imagine them twitching at each and every sound he heard.

    Every once in a while, he would ask them to stop and hold while he vanished into the trees away from sight. He would then reappear silently and advise them to continue towards Spire Hollow.

    The vige came into view several hourster at the pace they moved. ording to Lucius, he made sure to avoid monsters on the return trip because he had to get back to the academy in a hurry. When he was asked if they could have avoided the Ent from before they went to the ruins, he looked at Desmond like he was insane before answering, "Of course."

    At first the vigers were hesitant to let them back inside their walls, but after one of the vige women informed them of Lucius''s feats at the battle against the undeadst night, the guards relented. It seemed that the research camp sent word to the vige for supplies while they went to investigate the spire.

    When they fetched the supplies, they of course exchanged information which was how they knew that Lucius had killed a vampire. If that vampire had crushed the research camp, it was highly likely that it would have continued and attacked the vige next.

    Despite knowing of what he aplished, many of the vigers still looked at Lucius with scorn. Not that any of it seemed to bother him. Like a duck in the rain, the insults rolled off his back.

    Desmond could not fault the vigers for feeling this way, though the man was their savior by circumstance. There was no way it made up for what many of the people felt about him. Some of them were among the survivors of the spell that Lucius used at the beginning of the war.

    "Two rooms please." Rena ordered from the innkeeper, who seemed like a kind and homely woman. "Meals and drinks for all of us as well. To prevent conflict, perhaps we shall take them in our rooms?"

    "Yes dearie, that sounds like a fine idea. I will have the food delivered to your rooms. They are next to one another for ease and security."

    Rena took the group to one of the rooms and found that one had three beds while the other only had one,rge one. It seemed the innkeeper remembered them from theirst visit and already knew the sleeping arrangements.

    "Now I want you to behave this time, Lucius." Rena chastised lightly, "My cat seems to have gone slightly feral since thest time we lived together."

    Desmond, Jade, and Natali all choked on their spit simultaneously. Rena looked at them confused while Lucius seemed to have what looked like a slight tinge of flush to his cheeks. Honestly that part was more surprising than what Rena said.

    After they entered the room with three beds to talk and share their meal, Jade chimed in with a question they all had on their minds¡­ "Why did you call him your cat?"

    Rena exined that one of the first things she said to someone about Lucius was that she had ''found a feral cat'' in the woods and thought he was ''quite cute'' so she asked her father to keep him.From that moment, throughout their childhood she would tease him by calling him a cat or her pet cat.

    Once again, that strange and rare flush entered Lucius''s cheeks as he listened to his wife tell the story of their pet names. Which then devolved into the telling of their love life, and almost continued into Rena exining to the girls the more rigorous parts of their love life.

    Lucius cut the chatter clean when he turned to Desmond and asked, "What do you want?"

    "Pardon?" he answered.

    Lucius sighed and exined, "You receive a letter to befriend me and join the academy. So, you join the academy, then give me this letter, and still continue to try and interact with me despite literally telling me that you were doing it on orders. So, what do you want, Desmond? Jade?"

    Desmond knew this talk wasing, but did not expect it to happen so soon. However, if they could at least start on the same page, then maybe they could improve their rtionship.

    "I want my sister to live a normal life." Desmond answered. "She is marked and I am not. Even though we are twins, I was always treated as her better, but she is part of me. When our family treated her like trash¡­ I felt it too. I felt her pain, I felt her sorrow¡­ from a young age I knew it was us against everyone else.

    "My dream was to get her to Eroa, where one''s mark was less likely to determine one''s fate. Strength determined your fate, and I figured if we went there, and I showed them how strong I was¡­ then maybe Jade could¡­ finally be free."

    "I see¡­" Lucius nodded.

    "Then I lost to Thomas." He continued, gritting his teeth. "I lost my chance. However, you won. You were a champion of the very nation I wanted to join. Not only that¡­ you are a noble, and still a Marked One. Lucius, you are the proof I needed that my goals could be realized."

    "I''m a special case, if I am being frank. My house is not a normal one, so I cannot say that your desired future is guaranteed even if I could help you." Lucius exined.

    The words dashed Desmond''s optimism and hopes before they could be realized. "I see¡­" then he had a thought. "Wait, you''re a beastman, maybe if Jade could¡­"

    "Desmond, I advise you not to continue with that line of thought." Lucius said. His eyes burned with intensity and the words he had for Lucius crumbled into nothing. Food arrived a short timeter and the group ate in silence.

    When everyone finished, Rena and Lucius stood to leave. Desmond caught a nce from Rena who tugged gently on her husband''s sleeve before gesturing towards Jade and Desmond with her eyes.

    Lucius looked at his wife, then up at the ceiling and sighed. "Desmond Adler." The man turned back to face the twins. "I make no promises for the oue. I will not try to persuade anyone of anything¡­ but, I am required to write reports to King Verdayl on asion.

    Should you continue to work with me, the likelihood of your cooperation being mentioned is quite good¡­ so, think about what I said thest time we were in this vige. Have a good night."

    The duo left the room quietly, leaving those words and hopes dangling in the air for the twins to grab, should they choose to.

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 215: Another Day [Part 1]- R18

    Rena and Lucius walked into their room together, quietly, and locked the door behind them. Lucius walked to the bed first and sat down on the edge of it while letting out a breath.

    "You are certainly something, my love." He said with a slight grin.

    "I haven''t the foggiest clue as to what you are referring to." Rena answered innocently. "Might I have done something to upset you, dear husband?"

    Lucius shook his head, "No, nothing at all. Just making my life a little more difficult. Are you trying to make friends with half of the world?"

    "Not really, but if I am being honest, you need more people in your corner than your wife, your mother, and your illicit lover."

    "Hey, Kalliope and I have done nothing of the sort, and you said¡­"

    Renaughed, "I know what I said, and I meant it. Nice of you to acknowledge that Kalliope was the illicit lover though!"

    The red headed woman''sughter was akin to a choir of angels singing to Lucius. There was nothing in the world that he loved more than her smile and her joy. She was his everything and always had been. However, her tendency to tease him seemed to return from childhood now that the honeymoon phase was settling down.

    Lucius stood up suddenly while Rena was preparing herself for bed. She stood by the nightstand preparing to wash her face with the small basin and some water magic. The rapid movement from the corner of her eye, apanied by the rattling of Lucius''s armor shocked her into turning around.

    When she did, she was face to face with her husband who had pinned her in ce by cing his hands on the nightstand with her stuck between them. Her lips were mere fractions of an inch from his. She gulped from abination of nervousness and excited anticipation.

    "Umm, Lucius¡­" She squeaked. The look in his eyes was one akin to hunger.

    "Seems like my lovely wife has found her tongue. Teasing me again like we were children?" Lucius said with a sly grin. "How shall we handle this?"

    Lucius leaned in and kissed her. Heughed as her body seemed to quiver and weaken from his passionate teasing. His tongue intertwined with hers in a delicate dance. Rena began to feel sad and lonely as he pulled away, continuing to tease her.

    "You know, Rena¡­" Lucius grinned at her, making her heart skip a few dozen beats. "You''ve spent a significant part of our lives calling me your ''pet cat,'' but if I remember correctly. I''m not the one who is cored, my sweet kitten."

    She felt her abdomen tense for a moment as her husband said those words and slipped his fingers underneath her choker. With a gentle tug he pulled her back in for another kiss. The second one was much more aggressive than the first.

    Rena felt her lover''s hands reach around her back and tug her shirt up. He swiftly pulled it over her head and threw it to the ground. As they continued kissing each others'' lips, cheeks, and neck, bits and pieces of Lucius''s armor ttered onto the floor boards.

    The moment he had shed all but his inclothes, he aggressively ripped open the front of his shirt, no longer caring about keeping it in one piece. Rena traced the scars on his neck and chest with her mouth, savoring every muscle and inch of skin along the way.

    She yelped as her feet suddenly left the floor and shended heavily on her back on the bed, shaking the frame against the wall. Lucius climbed on top of her, pinning her down.

    "No more waiting, Rena." He growled. The hunger in his eyes she saw earlier had worsened and for a moment, she was concerned what he would do.

    Lucius reveled in the blend of excitement, lust, and tinge of fear in his lover''s eyes as he stood over top of her. Her heavy breathing made him lose his sense of reason and he ripped off her bra and pants, exposing the entirety of her body to him.

    At one time she was nervous and shy, but they had explored nearly every inch of each other several times by now, so there was no need. Instead Rena slowly slid her hands up her own body, starting with her upper thigh and ending with cupping her own chest. "Lucius, now."

    Those two words ended any hesitation he still had. Lucius trailed down her body, starting at her neck, leaving small, red marks every few inches. As much as he wished to stay at her chest, his goal was much lower.

    Rena''s body shuddered with every kiss he left on her stomach until he reached his goal. Using his lips to part her own, his tongue twisted and coiled around her. His fingers slowly teased her as she grew more and more wet. Rena''s hands tightly gripped the side of his head and her thighs pressed against him while she contorted in ecstasy.

    Not satisfied with his performance yet, Lucius pushed into her with his two forefingers. Attacking her most sensitive areas simultaneously forced her to breathe out, "Lucius, I¡­ again, I can''t¡­ Please!"

    Once again his hearing was deafened by her thighs squeezing the side of his head, her hands now locked in his hair. Finally happy with his abilities to help his wife, he moved up and gently pressed himself against her. Lucius yfully teased her with his tip eliciting a number of gasps tinted in excitement and disappointment.

    Finally having enough, he felt her legs wrap around behind him as she pulled him into her in one quick go. The instant rush of pleasure made both of them gasp and she clung to his back with all her might.

    "Gods, Rena¡­ every time, you are¡­ amazing."

    The look of pleasure on Lucius''s face only served to excite Rena more as he pressed into her harder and faster. Each thrust increased in strength and speed brought each of them to the highest peaks of pleasure. When Rena felt herself reaching one more peak, she gripped his shoulders tightly.

    "Rena¡­ where?"

    With a teasing grin, Rena leaned into Lucius''s ear and whispered, "Inside, my love. Stay with me."

    Lucius let out a groan coupled with a slight whimper as they wrapped tightly around one another,pleting simultaneously. When they were satisfied, they stayed within one another and copsed into a satisfied slumber. Rena fell into a deep sleep with the love of her life gently stroking her hair, while Lucius experienced the joy of her soft breaths tickling the side of his neck.

 Chapter 216: Another Day [Part 2] â€“ R18

    Lucius awoke to a strange sensation. Unlike usual his wife was not in his arms. Not only that, his body felt hot and tense as though his night of passion had not ended.

    The gentle sounds of licking and slurping came from further down in the bed. They were apanied by very pleasant sensations somewhat unfamiliar to him. He saw the beautiful and familiar red hair of his wife bouncing up and down just below his stomach.

    One of her hands was on him while the other held some of her hair back, exposing one side of her face and her ear. When she noticed that he was finally awake, she slightly changed her position so that she could look him in the eyes.

    Her gaze was one full of mirth while Lucius''s own was contorted from the joy she was giving him. She seemed to relish in the fact that his own body was moving against his will, the way he would often make her feel.

    Lucius could not help but wonder if this was some form of payback. Though, even if it was, it was a form of payback he was happy to receive.

    "Rena, wait a moment¡­" he breathed, slightly panicked.

    Instead of stopping Rena''s eyes took on a look that could only be described like a sadistic smile. The hand on his lower extremity as well as the one holding back her hair both moved and gripped the sides of his stomach, just above his hip. She took him into her mouth deeper and faster.

    Lucius groaned from the pleasure and noticed the gentle rubbing of her chest against his legs. Unable to contain himself, he called out her name as a warning, but she continued despite it, only stopping her movements when Lucius had surpassed his limit.

    A momentter, she raised her head, leaving himpletely clean. She gulped and gave him a yful smile. "I heard about this technique from one of the female adventurers at the research camp. I heard that it was an enjoyable method to employ. I must say, I enjoyed it considering how you do much the same for me. You, my love?

    What do you thi¡­"

    Rena was unable to finish her sentence as she felt herself be yanked upwards and towards the head of the bed once more. Her facended in the soft embrace of her pillow and she heard the bedsheetsnd on the floor. Her stomach and face pressed against the bed while her husband held her in ce.

    She felt herself quiver as she felt his heat radiating against her. "Oh? Well then, my love. This morning is yours." Rena moaned with anticipation. "Do with me as you will, as penance for my behaviorst night."

    Though neither of them thought that she needed to pay penance for her teasing, she desperately wanted to coax him into continuing. Rena felt her body warm up and prepare itself for him. She needed him to keep going.

    "As you wish, Rena."

    Rena gasped from the sensation of him entering her once more. Lucius felt an intense amount of control over her while holding her down from behind. He felt as though anything he wanted he could take and she could not stop him. The amount of trust she gave him in this moment was something neither could ignore.

    Lucius leaned down and gently raised Rena''s head. The ends of her messy hair bounced rhythmically since he made sure to continue his movements. "You know, carrying on like we have can be dangerous."

    "A-and?" She breathed. "I''m aware of the risks. I don''t care. I will take them all on for you."

    Her answer brought a smile to his face. Lucius kissed the back of her neck and leaned back up. Though surprised, sheplied with him moving her to a position on her hands and knees. He remained behind her and grabbed her hips tightly.

    "Lucius, wait, this is a lot¡­ to take! Gods, how are you so¡­ every time¡­"

    Rena''s words served only the purpose of spurring him on. His movements became wilder and faster and prompted her to move with him. As their bodies collided with one another, Lucius decided not to warn her this time. He took her words to heart, she knew what could happen, but neither of them cared. Why should they? They were married after all¡­

    Once again, both of them copsed onto the bed in a pile. Though the light of the morning had already begun to filter through, they continued as they had for another hour, leaving both of them with a number of small red marks and Lucius with a few extra scratches.

    No one in their party dared to look at them or ask questions as they made their way out of the vige of Spire Hollow. Rena''s face held a deep flush as she held her hand over her abdomen. She did not know what the future held, but she meant every word she whispered, or rather shouted in some cases, this morning andst night.

    Though the world was tough, it always had been. Truly nothing now was different than it was before other than their connection finally being realized. On top of that, they were fabulously wealthy and would be able to afford anything they would need.

    "Is everything alright, Lady Kane?" Jade asked quietly. "Are you feeling okay?"

    "O-oh, yes¡­" Rena answered with a flushed expression. "I was simply imagining the future is all."

    "I see, I can only believe that it will be wonderful. The feelings you two share, despite all that urs, is simply beautiful. No doubt anything that is created from such emotion would be as well." Jade''s knowing blue eyes locked with Rena''s own.

    "Yes." Rena smiled while looking at her husband''s back. She felt herself pulled back to when she was thirteen and she admired a simr view under far different circumstances. "I''m sure they will be."

    "Come along you two, no carriage runs this way unless you request it, so we have quite a long walk back to the capital. A few weeks if we are slow. I would prefer to get there sooner rather thanter if I can at all help it." Lucius called back.

    The two girls giggled with each other and hurried to catch up with the others.

 Chapter 217: A Fading Light

    Two halves of a void faced one another. One half of the space was bathed in a white light, while the other appeared to be made of endless darkness. Neither time nor substance existed here; only these two halves.

    The darker of the two was an entity known as Grimm, so named by the boy whose mark they could interact with the earthen ne through. The other was Luz, Grimm''s counterpart.

    "Luuuz¡­" Grimm called out. "You haven''t been talking to me as muchtely. Are you perhaps getting tired?"

    There was no response from the light.

    "Come on Luz, I''m getting bored. Lucius is taking a long time to get things done. So, entertain me." Grimm continued, but still the light said nothing.

    "Bah, who needs you. At least I know you can hear me. You don''t really have a choice in that after all. You know¡­ he hasn''t used your gifts hardly at alltely. It seems to be taking its toll on you, old friend.

    "Meanwhile he uses the abilities I grant him all the time! It really feels good to be needed, you know? Oh¡­ right, I guess you wouldn''t. Ha, it''s okay buddy, I''m sure the world will change any day now and Lucius will turn over a new leaf!" Grimm began tough.

    "You really never shut up do you?" The white space answered.

    "Luz! Finally! Come on, I was bored."

    "I fail to see how that is my problem."

    Grimm continued tough. Luz was not wrong. It wasn''t his problem that Grimm was ''bored.'' However, his boredom was vastly overexaggerated. Grimm simply wanted to gloat that for the first time in their long history together, someone had finally chosen to work with him.

    No more were they attached to self-sacrificing and self-righteous nutjobs that Luz tricked into calling heroes. Every time a window to the earthen nes opened, the people they reached always took Luz''s offer. Of course, because Luz was big on the whole ''self-sacrifice'' thing, they often led meaningful, but very short lives.

    They experienced loss like no other and had most of their lives and possessions taken from them. This time around, Grimm vowed to make something different happen. That was when he found Lucius. Now, he was not going to pretend his motives were pure as to protect the boy from self-sacrifice.

    No, the reality of it was that he was just bored of seeing the same kind of idiot make the same mistakes every time they were granted another host. It had be almost too much monotony to bear.

    Eventually, Grimm shrugged, or he would have if he had a body. "Yeah, you are right. I can resolve my own boredom¡­ maybe by taking Lucius to the dungeon that the mortals call ''Demon''s Stomach''? Oh! Or how about I help him ess that tower they named ''Grimspire.''¡­ Honestly I can''t say I disagree with the mortals'' naming sense. I kinda like it."

    "Grimm¡­ you wouldn''t¡­"

    "I would and I am. Lucius knows what to do and where to go next. Granted he still isn''t strong enough for the dungeon, but we can fix that¡­ Okay well he''s strong enough, but the timing is off!" Grimmughed at his counterpart.

    "You know," he continued. "You look dimmer and dimmer every day. I''m worried you are going to disappear at this rate. Don''t worry, from someone with experience, you''lle back when Lucius dies and we get a nice little reset. It''s the curse we share after all, forever tormenting one another."

    "I think you are the one tormenting me, Grimm." Luz muttered.

    "Yeah? How about you try to watch hundreds of people do the same thing over and over again on repeat. Excuse me for trying to make life have a little extra spice to it." Grimm whined.

    "You''re a child."

    "Maybe."

    "What are your ns then?"

    "Hmm?"

    "Your ns, surely you wish to aplish something in the earthen ne. I highly doubt that you are doing this solely because of the need for entertainment. You are up to something, you always are." Luz used.

    Grimm thought for a moment. What was he trying to achieve? He didn''t know if there was anything he found important. Honestly, he started this journey thinking it would all end the same as it always had; Luz winning the affection of the wielder and Grimm eventually fading away until the wielder died and they started over again.

    "Nope! I just think it will be fun! Truly I enjoy Lucius because he seems to defy my expectations. He knows I try to manipte him and he doesn''t seem to care. In fact he seems to appreciate the fact that he can always trust that I am untrustworthy. Haha!

    Such a fun guy." Grimmughed. "However, there are others around him that I find interesting and I don''t know how I feel about them. Time will tell."

    "Who might that be? I''m partial to that Desmond fellow."

    "Yeah, you would be¡­" Grimm then felt something strange. "Wait a minute, hold off there Luz! I don''t think so!"

    While engaging Grimm in conversation, Luz attempted to take control of the gate they shared to talk with Lucius and grant him power. If Luz took control, there was no telling what damage he would do. Blocking any of Lucius''s progression now would be deadly to him.

    "Are you trying to get him killed?" Grimm used.

    "I have no idea what you are talking about."

    "Oh you sick bastard." Grimm began to chuckle. "That is downright dastardly! You would think I was the one who came up with it, props to you, Luz. Trying to forcefully reset our little game before it''s ready."

    The only response he received was simr to that of someone clicking their tongue. It seemed that Grimm was right on the money. If Luz had gotten through, then it was entirely possible that he could have blocked Lucius''s progression again. Doing that now would set not only him, but those close to him up for failure and eventually death.

    "Not very heroic of you."

    "I don''t want to hear that from you."

    "Then don''t be a dick?"

    "Where did you learn that phrase?"

    "You know what, you are going to keep trying to distract me, so I''m going to ignore you now. We will see how you like it." Grimm then stopped speaking to his counterpart.

    Instead, he busied himself with thinking. The biggest thought on his mind was what their host would feel when he reached the bottom of the dungeon.

 Chapter 218: Time to Reminisce

    Rubellia looked around therge building that she had recently learned to call home. It was filled with d¨¦cor from a nation and culturepletely unfamiliar to her, but she had grown used to it day by day.

    The moment she arrived here, her world was turned on its head once again. There had been many times in her life that things took a sudden change. Not all of them were good. She still remembered the night that herte husband, Wayne, walked into their home with an infant in his hand.

    The baby had been no more than a few days or even a week old at that point, but he was opening his eyes and greeting Rubellia. When the child was passed to her it was the most gorgeous pair of silver eyes that she had ever witnessed.

    Never before had Rubellia witnessed someone with eyes as beautiful as the baby that she had been passed. Yet, she knew that despite their beauty, the reason he was given up was because of the curseid on him that showed itself on his left hand.

    As the child grew, it became clear that he wasn''tpletely human either. From what they gathered, he was some mixture of human and beastman. After several traumatic incidents, finishing with the trial in the forest, one of his mesmerizing eyes had turned a deep gold color.

    That was where her son was today. Sometimes she would think back to the day he was brought home and when that happened, she would feel a sense of nostalgia for his original eye colors. However, she could not deny that her son had grown into quite the handsome man.

    Despite his physical scars, she knew that the boy she raised had be quite the looker. Many of the servant staff and diplomats of all persuasions were smitten with him. The strangeness of his eyes helped add to the mysterious and brooding aura he had.

    Rubelliaughed to herself as she realized that one of those people infatuated with him was the beautiful and perfect Rena, formerly thedy of House Petra.

    Rubellia could not help butugh at the humor behind the nobledy falling for the ''bad boy'' bodyguard turned prince¡­ Well not that Lucius was a prince, he was simply a noble¡­ but it still sounded like one of thescivious novels the maids would exchange with one another.

    "Lady Rubellia," One of the servant girls walked up to her with a look of concern. "Please, do not sully your hands by helping with the cleaning. Leave it to the staff, please."

    That was the first time anyone had asked her to not clean something. It was also the first time someone acted so deferentially to her and it made her burst outughing, which shocked the poor girl.

    "Sorry, sorry." Rubellia said. "I am no Lady. I am a humble maid who used to work in service to a noble. I am no better in rank than you are, sweetie."

    "I beg your pardon Lady Rubellia¡­ but while you may not carry noble blood or title, you are still the one that Lord Kane calls his mother." The servant exined. "It would be impertinent to treat you with any less respect than we do the Lord and Lady."

    Though she knew it very well, it still shocked her to once again be reminded of her son''s position. Apparently he was the long lost son of the Oracle of Arcadios and the heir to a forgotten and mysterious noble family.

    "Hmm¡­ to think my little Lucius would be such a man one day." She mused. "You know, when he was a little boy, he was so obsessed with watching his father train anding to the lord''s manor with me for my duties¡­ He was once afraid of being seen by a girl with red hair hiding amongst the flowers¡­"

    "Was that¡­"

    Rubellia giggled. "Yes, it was the first time he saw Lady Petra¡­ I mean Rena. I told him not to get caught wandering around and he ran like a scared animal when she saw him. Of course I had to warn him to be more careful, but to think¡­ all these yearster¡­"

    The servant quickly passed Rubellia a handkerchief to wipe her nose with. Other servants quickly surrounded the former maid and offered words offort. Many of them were also mothers and some of them had sons of their own. Because of that, they were able to sympathize with Rubellia''s feelings knowing that one day their own children would leave the nest as hers had.

    Having gotten all of the tears out of her system, Rubellia moved on to talking with the other women about Lucius as a child as well as Lady Rena. They seemed to have a lot of questions about the two of them. Most of them revolved around their young love life.

    Rubellia was not privy to much, but she was aware of their young love blossoming. Though she was sure that Lucius was not aware of it at the time, Rubellia was convinced that Rena understood her own feelings right from the beginning.

    Tales of the two''s childhood interactions, at least those she was aware of, made the girls among the staff swoon and giggle at young love as well as the many attempts Rena made at showing Lucius her affection. The boy was more stupid back then and did not notice her actions for what they were.

    Rubellia smirked to herself at his growth. Apparently, years of being pined for by a woman made him understand some of Rena''s actions when she was younger. Whenever Natali was around, he seemed slightly ufortable, which meant he was likely aware of how she felt. Of course, it was obvious to everyone, so she probably would have pped her son if he didn''t already know.

    Suddenly the door to the embassy was thrown open. Kalliope and Lyrah charged in followed by a number of embassy guards who were hot on their tails. They mmed and barricaded the door. No one looked injured, but Lyrah, who was not used to physical effort, was visibly heaving and gasping for breath.

    "What happened?" Rubellia questioned. She felt her chest tense as she clenched her fist over her heart.

    "The road outside of the academy. Suddenly people just¡­ changed. Everything was normal, but then¡­" Lyrah started.

    "The academy is under attack. A bunch of strange people in robes and masks have blockaded the streets. Guards are having a hard timemunicating between each other due to pockets of confusion throughout the city."

 Chapter 219: Lady Lindtforth

    Thomas walked from ss to ss today with his group of friends as he did every day. They had gotten back from their work study just the other day and were able to pawn off the written portion to a group of mages who fancied themselves future schrs.

    He promised to help them find positions in a noble court after graduation if they did so and the better the score they got him, the better the position he would grant them. Many different people were given this promise, but only the talented among them would be given anything of import.

    "Lord Kirby, what do you think of this year''s first years? We have seen a number of their practical lessons. Anyone stand out?" Thomas asked one of his friends.

    Alex Kirby was the heir to his family''s title, though he was only a minor noble. They ownednd on the outskirts of Arcadios that was of little importance, but the man himself was quite talented with his sword and shield. In fact, of the senior ss, Alex was given the nickname ''Bulwark'' because of his skill with his Shield Arts.

    "Honestly, Lord Petra, I do believe there are some potentially talented people within the Martial Courses. There is one young gentleman who seems to use a Halberd. Arts like his are a rare find." Alex answered.

    Thomas had also heard about this student, but had also heard he was amoner on schrship. Worst case scenario he could make him a retainer if he had enough prowess, but really it would have been better if he was from even an unded knight family.

    "I don''t know much about magic, but I hear there are a few talented individuals amongst the Magical Courses this year?" Alex continued, "What are your thoughts, Lord Arnold?"

    "I hear there is a Ritual Magic user among the first years, though shecks talent in any other capacity. She is also a Marked One."

    "Absolutely not." Thomas growled. "I will not work alongside creatures like that. They could be King or Empyrean Rank for all I care."

    While he was busy fuming and raving, he felt a gaze fall upon him. It was intense and unfamiliar to him. Feeling concerned someone might have been trying to assassinate him, he moved his hands to the practice weapon on his belt out of instinct and began looking around.

    From the corner of his eye, he spotted a small woman sitting on a bench looking directly at him. Her eyes were unphased by him catching her gaze and she gave him a kind smile. The girl stood and made her way over to their group.

    "Good afternoon, my lords," the woman said as she bowed, "Especially to you, Lord Petra. What an honor it is to meet the heir to the illustrious House Petra."

    "I am sure it is." Thomas said carefully, "To what do I owe the pleasure, miss¡­"

    "Oh, do forgive my manners." She said as she went into a perfect curtsy, "I am Lady Briene von Lindtforth, third daughter of the Lindtforth family. Once again, it is a pleasure, Lord Thomas von Petra."

    A massive grin spread across Thomas''s face. The Lindtforths were one of the great houses of Arcadios, along with the Petra''s and Carmichael''s. They were one of the wealthier groups and excelled in trade. They were also known for being a family of extremely devout followers of the Church of Celestia.

    Knowing of their connection to the church, he was confident that she was an ally worth making. Though not profoundly religious himself, he certainly agreed with many of the church''s tenants. Especially those having to deal with Marked Ones.

    "Actually, I believe the pleasure is all mine, mydy." Thomas smirked and kissed the back of her hand, "I believe this to be quite the fortuitous encounter. The future of the Petra family and Lindtforth family looks bright indeed if we were to cooperate. Our goals may align more than we think."

    Now that he was thinking about it, she was a very attractive young woman. She was a senior student like himself, despite her diminutive size, so upon graduation he could see himself marrying her. Since she was the third daughter, the Lindtforth''s would be in a weakened position for any marriage negotiations because the primary heir to House Petra was the one seeking to be wed.

    He could not help but smile at his cleverness as he continued toy on the charms. If he made her fall for him before the year was done, then the negotiations would go even better.

    "Say, Lady Briene, might we continue our discussions over lunch? I heard of an excellent shop just inside the noble district that serves a small selection of Eroan Pig from the castle''s personal ranch." He offered.

    "Why of course, I would love¡­"

    Her response was cut short by a series of screams near the entrance to the academy. The jarring sound shocked everyone around them, not just Thomas and his group. Quickly jumping into action, he and his friends pulled their real weapons out of their storage rings, casting aside the practice ones they usually had equipped.

    Briene also pulled out her weapon which was a thin and light rapier with a beautiful golden hand guard. "[Lux: Enhance Speed]"

    Golden light wrapped around her and the men as they all felt lighter than before. Thomas quickly thanked her and they darted toward the source of themotion. Students were in chaos, running different directions. Even though they were trained in Arts and Magic, the surprise of everything scared the training out of many of them.

    Academy guards attempted to rally themselves and some of the older students into groups. Though everyone was reacting to what seemed to be an attack, they had yet to see who it was. That was when it hit them. Thomas could smell the fire before they saw it.

    At first it was no different than the smoke of any other me, however as they drew closer to the source, the odor changed. It became a sickening, rancid smell that he had experienced once before when fighting bandits with his brother back near Lelvern. It was a smell many people would never forget because of how bodies were treated in this world after death.

    "Everyone, be prepared for what we are about to see." He warned.

 Chapter 220: Smoke

    The entrance to the academy had fallen. Arcadios Royal Academy''s grounds were surrounded by arge wall to prevent any mishaps from escaping into the city. Spells and Arts were frequently used all around the facility and the walls were put in ce to contain them within the academy and prevent any errant fireballs from heading into the city.

    This meant the academy looked like a fortress on the outskirts of the capital. There was also only a single entrance on the whole of the walls and that was the one that led to the city. This entrance had fallen to the control of these unknown attackers which had cornered the students inside.

    Due to the speed and suddenness of the attack, the guards were pushed back and those that resisted were killed easily. The attackers themselves used a mixture of weapons and magic, though the primary spells being used were fire spells. It was unclear if it was because those were the only type of mages that were present, or if there was another purpose to it.

    Thomas looked on as he saw his home of thest four years going up in mes. Trees on the grounds that were used for resting and shade by the students were turning ck and cracking from the intensity of the mes.

    Bodies of students and staff littered the stone footpaths that winded through the beautiful scenery. Blood seeped into the ground, so much of it that the air had a tinge of copper intermingling with that of burnt flesh.

    Still, the residents of the academy were not giving up. Though many people were dying, there were still those that refused to give up. They worked together to form groups to fight off their attackers.

    While assessing the situation Thomas noticed a group of people rushing in their direction with swords drawn. Some looked like normal townsfolk while some others were wearing strange robes and masks to hide their faces.

    "[Umbra: Silence]" Briene calmly cast her spell on two of the robed people attempting to cast spells of their own. The mana umting around their hands dissipated as they found themselves unable to verbalize the activation phrase.

    Thomas rushed forward with his men at his back to meet the attackers. Swords and shields shed in a shower of sparks. The first person he struck was thrown into the dirt immediately, unable to withstand the force and speed of his blow.

    One by one the attackers fell to their might. Just as thest two were dispatched, an arrow sunk into the neck of Terrance Rolf, one of his men. He coughed and choked on his own blood and desperately pulled at the arrow as he fell to the ground.

    Thomas rushed to try and help him, but was stopped by the tip of Briene''s de. The look on her face was one of sorrow as she shook her head. Of course, he knew that his friend was beyond saving, but he could not help but try and reach out to him. With a sigh, he plunged a dagger into the back of Terrance''s neck to swiftly end his suffering.

    "Let''s go¡­"

    The remaining members of their group charged off to meet another bunch of students who were fighting off warriors actually capable of using arts. Of those that remained there was Thomas, Briene, Alex, Warren, and finally Gregory Burgess. They were some of the elite of the senior year and they knew that their presence would embolden their forces.

    Thomas tookmand of several of the survivors and began to issue orders to the ones specializing in defense. He put those students under a unit led by Alex. Any students versed in archery were put to the back and under Briene''smand. The mages were put under Warren''s lead.

    Finally, Gregory took charge of the warriors while Thomas took position over the entire operation. His orders were swift and clear and proved why he was the heir to his house.

    Alex and his men stepped to the front of their lines while he used one of his arts to quickly block a barrage of [Fire Lance] spells. "[Shield Arts: Grand Bulwark]"

    The reason for Alex''s nickname was that he was able to produce a [Grand Bulwark] despite the art being above his rank. Everyone assumed he was simply sopatible with his shield arts that he was able to pull this stunt off. It was what made him so valuable as a retainer in the future.

    Centered on Alex''s shield, a wall of golden light erupted in front of them, covering the entirety of their lines. The others in his squad put up their own [Bulwark] Arts to reinforce the lower parts of Alex''s. Since he was of a higher rank, the wall he created was three times taller than their own and intercepted severalnces that tried striking the rear lines.

    Alex canceled his Art, but ordered the rest of the line to maintain their own. Briene countered by ordering a volley of arrows from their archers. It appeared as though none of the enemy had anyone with shield arts and they fell one by one under the assault.

    It was beginning to feel like they might have a chance. Maybe they would have a way out of this nightmare and now that they had a functioning strategy, they could choose to either advance and retake the front gates, or look for survivors.

    Thomas quickly looked towards the very gates he was thinking about when he saw another horde of people rush in. They easily quadrupled the number of people they just fought off which made his next decision an easy one.

    "Everyone, retreat to the main building. The gate is lost, we can only hope to hold it while awaiting reinforcements." He shouted.

    His voice was much louder than before and almost hurt his throat with the amount of force and volume he used. It also exposed him as a leader which made him a target. However, he wanted to ensure that his voice carried to the other groups of students and staff trying to fight back.

    "We need something more than just our Shield Arts to hold them off¡­we need to buy time." He muttered aloud.

    Briene tugged on his sleeve. "My lord," She said, "I can do something to hold them back, but it will drain the remainder of my mana. Run, take everyone and flee."

    Briene quickly left the cover of the [Bulwarks] and held her hands firmly out in front of her. Arrows whizzed by her head, threatening to end her life in a moment.

    "[Eruptio: Magma Field]"

    A surge of energy shot out of her small frame and sank into the dirt. The ground quickly heated up and turned into molten rock. The field expanded toward the gate and created a giant U-shaped barrier between the rest of the grounds and the entrance.

    As she had predicted, the spell wiped her out and she fell to her knees with sweat pouring off of her face. Three enemies charged at her and she attempted to draw her rapier once more. Unwilling to let her bravery be wasted on self-sacrifice, Thomasunched forward with a massive swing of his sword, "[Sword Arts: Heavy sh]"

    The first robed figure was cut clean in half, but the other two were simply thrown backward into the pit of magma that had rapidly begun to cool. In only a short amount of time, her barrier would coolpletely and the enemies waiting on the other side would be able to rush across.

    "I can still use you, let''s go." Thomas said, picking her up in his arms before running to catch up with the rest of their group that he had sent back to the main building ahead of them.

 Chapter 221: Infiltration

    Shouting and crying people along with the barking of orders among guards and soldiers echoed throughout the streets outside of the Eroan embassy. Some of the servant staff were ordered away from windows as they tried to peek at what was going on.

    Kalliope stood with the embassy guards and tallied up her men. Unfortunately she was at least two heads short. Two of their King''s Shadow subordinates were unounted for and were likely on or near the academy grounds. Whatever was going down must have prevented them from bringing word to her.

    She silently cursed to herself because she felt responsible for their well-being. If they had gotten hurt while following her orders to monitor the academy grounds, then she would be directly responsible for anything that happened to them. Of course, in their line of work conflict was inevitable and often led to death or injury¡­ She was still concerned for them.

    Though Lucius thought of his men as tools, Kalliope simply couldn''t. She had to make sure they were okay. All of her attempts to reach them through theirmunication crystals provided no answers. It could mean they were already dead or too injured to respond. Or it could mean they are surrounded by a high concentration of mana and the messages couldn''t get through.

    "Lyrah, Lady Rubellia," Kalliope whispered, "Stay here, I have to get to the academy. Some of my people are missing."

    "No," Rubellia cried out, trying to grab her by the wrist. "It''s so dangerous out there¡­ if you get hurt¡­"

    "That''s my job. It is also my job to make sure my men are alright." Kalliope answered, cleanly breaking away from her grip.

    Since the door was already barricaded shut, she immediately headed to an upper floor. Once there she opened up a window, double checked that her equipment was equipped and that she was wearing her armor properly. Satisfied that she was up to snuff, Kalliope leapt out of the window andnded solidly in the streets of the city.

    Her bestial body allowed her to take the impact in her knees with little effort. The people running through the streets stopped for a moment to stare at her in awe. There was a little bit of a storm rolling in so there was wind making her hair and the fur on her wolf-ears flutter a little.

    From what she could tell immediately, there were not really any issues along the streets. asionally there would be a single psychopath screaming about ''throne of creation'' and ''fiery truth'' that would be swiftly put down. However, it seemed the concentration of their forces were around the outside of the academy.

    The guards were being kept at bay by a series of magical walls of fire that the enemy continued to cast to keep the city''s forces from advancing. Most of their dedicated magic users were already inside the academy itself, so the soldiers were having a hard time getting earth or water mages that could beat down the barriers.

    "This is like hell on earth¡­" Kalliope whispered as she looked at the walls of the school and the pathway up. Walls of fire littered the roads and [Fireballs] were beingunched from the gates. Whoever it was that was behind these idiots had nned well.

    "[Lux: Enhanced Leap], [Lux: Enhanced Speed]"

    Kalliope quickly cast enhancements on herself then triggered her shifting ability. Starting at her neck before trailing down to her hands, fur sprouted out of her skin. Kalliope''s fingernails turned into ws and her muscles twitched and grew to twice their normal size.

    With a massive roar, she jumped over the first then the second [Fire Walls]. Enemy mages fired spell after spell at her to stop her advance, but they were outmatched by her speed. Still, there were too many of them to face directly so she used her Arts to assist her in getting over the wall. "[Beast Arts: Iron w]!"

    The ws on her hands took on a metallic shine. At the same time she jumped onto the wall and sunk her strengthened ws into the stonework, using it to assist her in scaling the academy''s defenses.

    Unfortunately, this slowed her down enough for a [Fire Bolt] to strike her in the center of her back. She felt the skin underneath her armor begin to boil and crack. Blood leaked down her leg, trailing from the injury. Most likely it was able to pierce a piece of her armor, but she could not let that stop her.

    Another spell struck her shoulder de, but adrenaline, her enhancements, and the shifting kept her from feeling too much of the pain. Gritting through it, she finally made it over the top and was able tond safely on the other side.

    Once over the top, she saw a number of students and staff holding off against the robed attackers. Kalliope rushed over since her [Iron w] was still in effect and shed across the back of a few of them, cutting through their skin and bones like butter.

    "Lady Kalliope!" One of the students shouted. They appeared to be one of the Marked Ones that attended Wally''s sses and had recognized her.

    Kalliope gave the students a quick nod before asking, "Where are the other students concentrated?"

    They all pointed to the main building where they had been trying to get to while being harassed by arrows, fire spells, and the odd robed fanatic. Based on their screaming and shouting, this seemed to be a mass attack by the same people that have been terrorizing cities and viges all over the continent.

    "Alright, let''s get there as well. We need a solid location to hold on," Kalliope stated quickly. She could feel her adrenaline leaving her and the pain in her back was beginning to intensify. "Has anyone seen any beastmen?"

    All of the students shook their heads, making her curse in frustration. She could not smell them either. With all the smoke and blood in the air, it was nearly impossible to differentiate between the various other smells.

    She shook her head clear and rushed towards the main building with the people she rescued. On the short trek there, she had to use four of her five daggers that she kept strapped to her thigh which left her with one more there and then one in each boot. By the time they reached the building, the pain in her back was almost unbearable.

    The students and staff inside the building saw them and allowed them entry. Once inside, Kalliope immediately noticed one of Lucius''s least favorite people: Thomas von Petra. They locked eyes for a moment before she felt her vision go blurry. The pain and stress of fighting and running with her injury became too much and her body gave out the moment she was able to rest.

 Chapter 222: Temporary Allies

    By the time Kalliope had infiltrated the academy, the guards and soldiers had more than enough time tounch a counter-offensive to retake the walls and the school. Their numbers far exceeded that of the insurgents, but they had one thing that kept them from making a move and that was hostages.

    Not only was the academy the location where most of the city''s mages stayed to perform research and teach, but it was also home to arge concentration of the heirs of many of the country''s noble families. There was no way to know how many noble children were alive, but if they made a move too rashly, it could result in more deaths.

    They were paralyzed into inaction. After Kalliope''s infiltration, the enemy had tightened their defenses and spread their barriers to epass the entirety of the walls around the academy. Infiltration of any kind moving forward would be nearly impossible.

    Thunder rumbled in the distance and the wind began to whip at their faces. A storm was rolling in, however since the fire barriers were made from magic and were maintained through mana, winds and rain from natural sources would do little to impact them. All this storm would do was make fighting harder.

    Thomas was aware of all of this. Trying to think of a solution had him chewing at the fingernail on his thumb. It was not behavior befitting a noble of his stature. However, this was not the time for him to be concerned about such trivialities.

    When Kalliope first appeared, Thomas recognized her immediately. He almost did not want to let her into the facility out of spite, but given the state of things, there was no reason for him to turn her away. Simrly, he had no choice but to dedicate resources to healing her because she was a strong fighter and had made her way past the enemy forces.

    It was likely she came here for a reason other than freeing the students and staff, but now that she was stuck here too, she would have no choice but to help them sort this situation out.

    Kalliope started to stir to consciousness and Thomas was able to observe the visible wincing in her face as she attempted to move. The healers in their group had spent nearly an hour trying to heal the horrible wounds on her back. They were mostly gone, but the residual pain wouldst for some time.

    Luckily for her, the spell that hit her was not so powerful that the healers couldn''t overwhelm the residual mana left in the wound. So after all was said and done, her skin would look as good as new. Not that Thomas really cared about that of course. As long as she was in fighting condition, that was the only thing that mattered.

    "Lady Kalliope of the Gray Wolf n, right?" He asked to confirm her identity.

    If looks could kill, then Thomas would likely have been dead several hundred times over. Kalliope''s face was morphed into a mixture of pain, anguish, and hatred. She did not seem to be his biggest fan.

    "I am." She finally said. The fur on her ears and tail were bristled, but she made no indications she would hurt him.

    "I take it you don''t like me very much?"

    "No."

    "Because of the tournament?"

    "No."

    "Then¡­"

    "Shut it, you vile Petra worm." She spat. Though she was baring her teeth which made his men grip their weapons, she was still making no moves to attack.

    "Well, strongly though you may feel about me, it seems that you are aware that in-fighting is not something we need right now." Thomas sighed. "We are surrounded, cut off, and buying time. We can thank the gods that they don''t have anyone capable of magic other than fire. Since this building is stone, we should be mostly fine.

    "A storm is brewing outside. It might make them more cautious of us since we have magic users with Compatibilities for Wind Magic and Water Magic. Though the storm will do nothing to inhibit their fire spells, it will strengthen ours."

    "You have none with Thunder Magic?" The woman asked.

    "No." His answer was curt, mostly because Lucius was currently the only student with Thunder Magic. And though it would be helpful, he was not present. Even if he was, Thomas''s pride would not let himself ask Lucius for any kind of assistance.

    Kalliope grumbled something about if anyone had seen any beastmen, but their answers were in the negative. Other than students, staff, and the enemies attacking them, no one else had been seen on the grounds. Their answers seemed to upset her, but she did not press further.

    With her question out of the way, everyone set about putting together a n for counter attack. ying defense alone would aplish nothing. If they wanted their best chances of survival, then they had to make a y to push back.

    The enemy''s numbers were finite and there was no way for them to get reinforcements, so if they could push back¡­

    "Wait a minute¡­" He mumbled to himself.

    Realizing the enemy was surrounded and that their numbers were limited, made him realize something he hadn''t thought about until this very moment.

    "What is it, Lord Thomas?" Briene asked.

    "They don''t intend on surviving this. Whatever their n is, it involves dying here."

    His words hung in the air like rocks. Everyone could feel the looming threat of death, like a dozen daggers were pointed at their necks. Facing off against an enemy was dangerous. However, facing off against one prepared to die was infinitely more so.

    "It''s fine. If they want to die, then let''s just help them." Kalliope said, her voice firm.

    Everyone began to share as many aspects of their abilities to each other as they feltfortable. If they were going to fight together, then they needed to know who would work with who.

    In the end they separated everything out the way they did before, except now Kalliope was tasked with taking over for a small group of students who excelled at guerri tactics.

    She would use enhancement spells on them to increase their speed and they wouldunch hit and run attacks from behind their shield wall. The first attack they would be in charge of was the blitz attack that would open space directly outside the building so the rest of the students could assemble.

 Chapter 223: Problem at the Capital

    Jade stared at the sky darkening overhead. Though she had no magicalpatibilities, she was able to tell that the storm was not mana induced and appeared to be a natural phenomenon.

    After witnessing Lucius whip up a storm in the center of Spire Hollow, she could not help but immediately jump to the conclusion that he was causing this. However, he wasn''t. Not only was there no mana in the air, the man in question was fast asleep and napping on Rena''sp in the back of the wagon they were riding on.

    The side of him facing her revealed many of his scars along his neck. On the back of his neck were several severe burns and then there was a long, jagged scar from some sort of cut along his face and neck that continued underneath his armor. Rena seemed to catch her staring at his wounds.

    Jade tried to apologize to her, but she simply waved her hand dismissively, "No, it doesn''t matter. After all, it is a wonder that someone like him could have so many scars."

    Rena paused and rubbed her lover''s cheek gently. "This," She continued while beginning to trace the scar running down his face and front of his neck, "is from an incident outside of Lelvern. We faced off against a series of goblins much stronger than we were capable of at the time.

    "We joined up with a cousin of mine who became an adventurer. One of his party members used an explosive crystal from Aedrider. The mana infused in the st made it impossible to heal this scar."

    Jade nodded along to the story as Rena exined in detail some of their early adventures. She could not help but smile at the parts Rena liked to focus on. Especially of interest was the part where he first confessed and also the part where she received the choker on her neck.

    "What about the other ones? I''ve heard his back is littered with them." Jade asked.

    Rena''s face darkened. "He won''t tell me the full story, but someone betrayed him and tried to kill him. All of those are from that. Though I suspect he gained a few more through his training and deployment after the fact."

    Jade continued to listen to the rough exnation of events that Rena had been told by Lucius. Both women knew it was not the full story and that it had a lot of missing pieces. However, there was enough to at least get a general understanding of what happened.

    "That sounds¡­" Jade started before being interrupted by Lucius shooting up off of his wife''sp.

    "What is it?"

    The man looked into the sky and began to sniff. "Smoke and burnt flesh."

    Everyone tensed and watched as he looked and squinted at the sky. They followed his gaze as he pointed towards the capital.

    "The storm clouds are covering it and the wind is blowing it the opposite direction of us, but there is no mistaking it. Something in the capital is burning." Lucius said calmly.

    Desmond and Natali stood next and the carriage driver began to halt their wagon. Desmond reached over and threw a sack of coins at him to keep him going to the capital at all costs. Meanwhile Lucius simply watched the skies for anything strange.

    Dragons were very rare creatures and tended to live in more mountainous areas. Their cousins were wyverns however Arcadios was not home to any breeds of wyverns capable of breathing fire. It was unlikely that someone was able to advance their army this far into Arcadios without anyone hearing about it, so whatever was going on waspletely in the air.

    Natali tightly held her hands to her chest in a sort of hopeful prayer. It was likely the girl was worried about her only other friend, the young Oracle. Desmond looked prepared to fight at a moment''s notice and had a white-knuckled grip around his spear.

    "It''sing from the academy." Lucius finally said while pointing out a terrifying sight.

    As their vehicle rounded a bend, the walls of the academy came into view. The entire length of the walls were ringed in a giant wall of fire. They could not hear or see much else, but ording to Lucius, he could hear sounds of fighting and shouting.

    "Who would be stupid enough to try and attack the capital?" Jade questioned. "It''s the heart of Arcadios and the center of all human nations¡­ I doubt that any of the other union members would betray them without cause¡­"

    "It''s not. Only the academy itself appears to be under attack. There might be shes throughout the city, but as far as I can tell, the only ce they focused on was the academy¡­ that''s just a guess though. I don''t see or smell smokeing from any other part of the city, however the wind makes it difficult so we will find out once we get inside." Lucius interrupted.

    They continued to watch in careful silence until they approached the gates of the city. As their cart pulled up to the stables, the guards at the gates moved to block their path forward. It was clear they had no intention of letting anyone inside. The exterior of the walls was surrounded by merchants and travelers who simrly were not allowed entry.

    "Hold, the academy is under attack by unknown zealots. No entry is allowed until the situation is resolved." A small man squeaked.

    Lucius raised his eyebrow at the guard and looked to someone else. However, it was clear no one else intended to speak to him or disagree with what the small guard said. Instead of simply joining the others waiting, like the guards thought their group would, Lucius grabbed the man in front of him by the shoulders and shoved him to the side.

    "I am Lord Lucius Kane. Apanying me are my wife, Lady Rena Kane as well as Lord and Lady Adler. Of course, we also have with us a direct servant of the Oracle. Allow us entry. Now." His eyes shed brilliantly for a moment at thest word, which made a few guards take a step back.

    "We have no way to confirm you are not involved with this incident. So just like everyone else, you will remain outside our walls until the problem is solved." A woman shouted from inside the guard station.

    The woman''s armor was a little more ornate than the others. Because of that, Jade deduced she was in charge of the men here. Her face was stoic and showed no signs of concern about Lucius''s promation or threatening tone. Instead, she had a slight smirk of contempt.

    "You know¡­" She sneered, "I love small moments like these¡­ where I can tell nobles where to shove it. You aren''t allowed inside the city at this time, Lord Kane."

    The captain''s voice dripped with venom and her lips turned from a sneer to a mocking smile. Jade was concerned about how Lucius would react, but he lookedpletely calm.

    "One more time." He said slowly, "Let me into the city."

    "No, I don''t think I¡­"

    As expected, the woman''s finalment met dead air as her body flew into the air and rolled to a stop along the dirt. Left in front of where she was standing was Lucius who was slowly returning to a normal standing position from having punched the woman straight in the face.

 Chapter 224: Barricade

    As the guard captain finished rolling along the ground, the others drew their weapons and surrounded Lucius in a semi-circr formation. He made no moves to engage the others and simply stood and waited.

    Before making his move, he had realized that a handful of people were watching them. A few of them stayed just outside of his sensory range and he felt like a few others had managed to evade his nose and ears. However, the one he was waiting for was making his way down from the wall to join the other guards.

    "Stop at once!" A loud voice boomed, making everyone sheathe their weapons immediately.

    The voice came from a man that Lucius had not spoken with directly, but was somewhat aware of. He participated in various training drills for the military and the guard units at the capital and many people knew him as a very harsh instructor; hence the rapid response to hismand.

    The man himself was Commander Arturo Hiroth and he was considered to be the right-hand man of King Aleksander. Though Lucius was notpletely sure why, the leaders of the Five Kings Union wanted to stay on neutral terms with him as much as they could. Of course, Lucius was gambling with that behavior at this point in time.

    "Lord Lucius Kane," He said with a stiff bow, "please beg our pardon for the captain''s behavior. I will be more than happy to let you into the city. If you would just follow me¡­"

    His response was mechanical and forced and that made it clear that he had no desire to help Lucius at all. Luckily for him though, Lucius did not care about his tone or politeness since he got what he wanted.

    The group followed Commander Arturo through a series of smaller doors separate from the main gates which were muchrger. They were the doors and pathways used by the city guard for changing staff without interacting with the public who was entering and exiting the city.

    "As you have heard we are under attack." Themander exined, "Whoever is behind itunched a blitz attack from inside our city and specifically targeted the Arcadios Royal Academy. Unfortunately we haven''t been able to route them with¡­"

    "I don''t care." Lucius cut themander off in his exnation.

    Commander Arturo had started to walk in the direction of the school, likely believing that Lucius would help them sort the situation out. However, he had no interest in that. Lucius''s only concern was ensuring that his mother and Kalliope were okay at the embassy.

    ''Lyrah is there too I suppose¡­'' he thought to himself with a sigh. He found it inconvenient that he was starting to think of her in a positive light. The feelings he held were nowhere near a sibling or even an acquaintance. Rather, if something happened to her, then he would feel that it was simply unfortunate.

    Arturo''s jaw dropped as Lucius led the group away from the academy and towards the Eroan Embassy without another word. Lucius continued to stare forward despite the man''s shouts andints at his behaviors. Eventually the mountain of a man threw his arms up in resignation and continued to the academy on his own.

    "Are you sure that was wise, my love?"

    "I need to check on Mother and Kalliope."

    "As you say."

    Wordlessly they continued to the embassy where they saw the Eroan guards fortifying the building. Outside of it there were a handful of corpses wearing strange robes and masks over their faces. They had been piled in one location but no one wanted to burn them until they had been properly searched.

    "Lord Kane!" One of the Eroans ran up to him panting. "It''s chaos sir. The academy is up in mes¡­ Lady Kalliope¡­"

    Lucius felt his heart stop momentarily. "Where is she?"

    "At the academy sir¡­ we tried to¡­"

    Before the man could finish his sentence, Lucius had already taken back off towards the academy. Without hesitation, Rena was already on his tail. Jade and Natali stayed behind as Desmond moved to follow.

    "No! Stay here. Protect my mother and Lyrah!" Lucius barked at him.

    Rena was keeping up but only barely. She cast enhancement magic on herself to keep up, but it almost wasn''t enough. "I am sure¡­ she is okay." The woman panted.

    He continued to stare at the ming walls of the academy with his nose honed in on any hint of Kalliope''s scent. If so much as a whiff of her hit him, he would instantly adjust his trajectory. As he was, it took no time at all for them to make it to the barricade that the Arcadios military had set up.

    Between the two sides, no one was exchanging either an arrow or spell. There was an uneasy calm between them. The military knew that if they pressed, they risked the lives of those inside. The enemy knew that if they attacked, it would force the military''s hand.

    "Lord Kane¡­" Arturo grumbled. "So kind of you to join us¡­"

    "I''m going inside." Lucius stated.

    "No!" themander shouted. "There are many noble sons and daughters inside that school. If we provoke the enemy into¡­"

    Lucius was no longer listening to what anyone was saying. Rena gripped onto him, but he continued to move, dragging her along with him.

    "My love, please¡­ remain calm. I am sure¡­" Rena tried to calm him, but it wouldn''t work. He already smelled it.

    She followed his gaze and his hand as he pointed to the top of the walls. She could only faintly make out severalrge streaks of red along the stone. "That is her blood." He said simply.

    The storm above continued to swell and the wind began to pick up once more. The walls of magical fire, which hadpletely resisted the storm until now, began to flicker and fight against the storm. Lightning crackled across the sky and thunder shook the earth.

    "Lucius¡­ please calm down." Rena pleaded. "You can''t do this here. We have to be smart about this."

    He continued to ignore her words as he drew his weapon from his back. A ring with a gem cker than night appeared on his hands while his shadow danced beneath him. Lucius saw his reflection in his lover''s eyes and noticed the twisted grin on his face.

    "Hmmm¡­" He muttered. "Interesting¡­"

    The ring imbued him with a strange power. It felt as though his connection to his mark felt stronger and more stable. Grimm chuckled in the back of his mind as Lucius came to realize this. ''If you find more¡­ you can have a lot more fun.''

 Chapter 225: Gatecrasher

    "Lucius¡­ please calm down."

    Rena continued to try and sooth her lover''s rage, but nothing was getting through to him. Mana continued to swell around him and throughout the air. She began to feel heavy. The brilliant mes of the enemy''s barriers had almost dwindled to nothing and they scrambled to close the gates to the academy.

    Rena watched as shadows and dark tendrils danced around Lucius''s wrist and arms as he stretched his sword arm outward with the tip pointing directly at the gate. She noticed that the source of the darkness was the ring on his hand that seemed to vanish asionally.

    Apanying the ring''s appearance was a dull glowing from Lucius''s Mark of the Abyss. The look on his face was a dark and twisted smile that struck fear into her heart for a moment.

    "I want you to know the name of the spell that killed you." Lucius shouted at the gate. "[Tempestas: Roaring Thunder]!"

    Rena looked on in abject horror as Lucius raised his empty hand to the sky. Clouds swirled in the air above him and a massive bolt of lightning struck down and absorbed itself into his palm. The energy of the lightning twisted around his body and up his sword until itpressed into a ball at the tip of his de.

    Thunder reverberated through the air in rapid session and it began to sound like that of a dragon''s roar. Thepressed energy exploded outward and a massive dragon colored in red and blue lightning with streaks of darkness down the length of its body suddenly appeared out of the energy.

    It impacted the gate of the academy and instantly tore through the wood and stonework. Many people in the line of the attack were instantly vaporized, some leaving behind sizzling husks of body parts that had managed to escape the spell.

    On the other side of the destroyed gate was a small army of robed figures who had prepared dozens of fire spells that they were ready to release the moment the gate came crashing down. Lucius quickly grabbed Rena and twisted her into his arms as he threw up a [Wall of Lightning] to block a barrage of fire spells from striking them.

    When the spells ended, he released her from his grip and began to walk calmly into the academy grounds.

    *****

    Kalliope did not like the idea of taking orders from Thomas von Petra, but the other students and staff had already deferred to his judgment. If she created any issues, then it was unlikely anyone would take her side as a neer to the situation and the academy in general.

    His n was solid though, and he yed well to each of their strengths. Kalliope was a fast and hard hitter, so ying gueri tactics was something she was pretty well-versed in doing.

    Simrly, they had a student that was exceptionally proficient in using the [Barricade] skill as part of their shield wall. The only odd one out was the woman, Lady Briene Lindtforth. Kalliope could not ce a finger on it, but something about her smelled off.

    Not literally, but metaphorically she seemed very suspicious. Regardless of how Kalliope felt, the woman did save her life, so she was grateful enough to let the feeling go for the time being. However, she found herself d that Lady Lindtforth was not assigned to the same unit as Kalliope.

    "On my count, we will exit. Kalliope, prepare to create us an opening." Thomas called out.

    "Got it." She grumbled.

    "Now!"

    Kalliope and five other warriors who specialized in hit and run attacks quickly threw open the double doors and struck against the enemy. Blood and sparks flew through the air as the surprise attack gave them plenty of openings to keep the enemy from counter-attacking for a few moments.

    Thomas and the others made sure to use the opening and began to advance out of the building as well. They worked together to create a small foothold and push the enemy back from the building. That was when they felt it.

    It was a feeling of intense pressure. Off in the distance, along the tops of the academy walls, the magical [Fire Walls] began to flicker from the storm. At first the storm was natural, but it seemed that someone had infused their mana into it and began to use it to their advantage.

    Kalliope smiled because she recognized the sensation as someone extremely familiar to her. "Everyone better dive to the ground, and fast!"

    Instead of continuing to fight, Kalliope dove to the ground. The sudden change in behavior threw the robed men for a loop and they found themselves stunned long enough to not attack. That was when everyone found themselves showered in debris. Moments before the gate exploded, they found themselves momentarily stunned by what sounded like the roar of a dragon.

    Kalliope stood after the falling wood and stone ceased to pepper her back. Many of the robed people had either been vaporized by the spell or heavily injured. Unfortunately, a small number of people on their side ignored her warning and also received some of the damage from the spell. Many of their own injuries were minor, but they still were struck by Lucius''s spell.

    She felt her heart swell with excitement watching the very man she hoped would appear step through the cloud of dust and smoke. Red mana emanated from his sword which was currently elongated into a two-handed weapon. He had a smile on his face as he slowly cut down anyone who attempted to stand in his way.

    "Lucius!" Kalliope called out from excitement. However, that excitement was reced with fear as she saw a dozen archers suddenly appear along the top of the walls. They aimed their bows directly at Lucius from behind.

    He waspletely distracted by her call out and he probably couldn''t tell they were there given the amount of distractions on this side of the wall. "Lucius! Watch out!" Kalliope called out in panic.

    At that same moment, the archersunched their arrows with the assistance of several Arts. Rena was able to react quick enough to bump Lucius out of the way andunch a spell of her own. "[Ferrum: Iron Wall]!"

    The arrows were blocked effortlessly, save two, which sunk straight into Rena, making her fall to the ground in a spray of blood.

 Chapter 226 Congratulations?

    Thomas watched as his cousin fell beneath the volley of arrows. For a moment he felt a sense of relief that she might have finally been taken care of, but then a sense of unease settled in its ce.

    His eyes locked onto the man she called her husband. The look on his face was one of horror as he rushed over to protect her from the next wave of arrows. Lightning danced around him striking down every projectile that threatened toe close to them.

    That was when he heard a series of words that cemented the sense of unease into terror. "[Abyss Break: Touch of Corruption]"

    Lucius gently moved Rena and ced her against her [Iron Wall] from earlier. She seemed to be both breathing and conscious as Thomas could see her chugging down a series of high quality potions. Even from this far away, however, he could tell they weren''t working very well.

    "Lady Briene¡­" Thomas whispered, "I think it would be highly advantageous for us at this moment to lend your healing magic. Loathe though I am to assist those two¡­ I have a feeling that being in his good graces for the moment might be safer."

    Briene locked her jaw and did her best to hide the look of disgust on her face. As someone very close to the Church of Celestia, the idea of helping a Marked One or someone cavorting with one made her sick.

    "It is unfortunate, but I think you might be right." Briene looked to Kalliope, "Lady Kalliope, may you assist me in getting close to Lady Rena so I may use my healing magic on her? I fear that the Marked One¡­ ahem¡­ Lord Kane might not react well to my solo approach."

    Kalliope clearly sized them up, but nodded in agreement as she took Lady Briene von Lindtforth by the wrist. They quickly darted across the open space between them and the injured woman. Lucius nced at them momentarily, but ignored them once his eyes fell on Kalliope.

    *****

    Briene steeled herself and gritted her teeth before casting a series of spells. The red headed woman who looked just like Thomas was downing another potion and cursing under her breath.

    The wounds appeared to be closing, but for some reason the potions did little but slow the bleeding down. From what Briene could tell, the potions Rena Kane was drinking were extremely high-quality. They should have healed the wounds almost immediately.

    "This is strange¡­" Briene muttered before casting a spell to aid in the healing process. "[Lux: Heal]"

    She watched as a golden mote of light floated towards Rena. However, just before it sank into her skin the light split into multiple smaller orbs and spread along her body. Each orb of light sank into Rena''s body at the location of an arrow wound.

    Briene grumbled again because the spell looked like it only worked about half as well as it should have.

    "Why isn''t the magic working¡­" Rena said through gritted teeth.

    "I¡­ I don''t know¡­ has this happened before?"

    "No." Rena answered. "I''ve never had an issue. I also cannot seem to cast my healing magic on myself. It''s like the spell is being absorbed by something before I can cast it¡­"

    Briene''s eyes widened as she examined the woman in front of her. Once again, she cast a healing spell, "[Lux: Greater Heal]"

    This time she watched more closely as the spell split into pieces. Each piece entered a wound site, but one additional portion of the spell sank into the woman''s abdomen, despite there being no injuries.

    Rena''s eyes opened wide, matching Briene''s own expression. "W-w-what does that mean?" Read new chapters at empire

    Briene looked away from Rena and towards the man known as Lucius Kane. His ck cloak billowed in the wind and dark veins ran along his neck and arms, looking as though they might pop out of his very body. Surrounding him was a pile of corpses that each looked to be withering away and decaying at a rapid pace.

    The very air itself reeked of death and corruption. The aura around him was oppressive and unnatural. Despite her extensive training, Briene could not keep the hint of fear from showing on her face.

    She watched in twisted wonder as he cut down person after person with a sick grin. Every wound he inflicted appeared to immediately turn ck and rot. Some people were left alive, if only barely. They suffered as their flesh rotted around them, leaving them with the look of hopelessness and writhing in pain.

    Lucius Kane danced along the battlefield swinging a magical sword that would grow and shorten depending on the attack he made. It felt as if she was watching death itself at work. It was, put it bluntly, like watching a demon at work.

    Briene turned to Rena, who was still staring at her, waiting for an answer expectantly. With a tone that was a lot more sardonic than she intended she answered, "Congrattions?"

    The wounds on Rena''s body had finally healed after the more intense spell and she put a hand gently on her belly. Briene felt her hand twitch and she contemted the possibility of getting away with gutting the witch right there.

    However, one more quick nce at Lucius who was already slowly walking back in their direction told her that the answer to her question, which was that doing so would lead to her immediate death.

    "Step away." Luciusmanded.

    Briene locked eyes with him for a moment. They glowed with an otherworldly intensity. Without hesitation she stepped away from Rena and Kalliope as Lucius moved closer. He pulled the wolf-girl into a tight embrace with a look of relief.

    In an instant, the aura was gone and the man almost appeared normal to her eyes, but only for a moment. Lady Briene shook her head and left the trio behind to go to Lord Thomas''s side. They needed to have a very serious discussion.

    "Is everything alright?" Thomas asked her when she approached.

    "That depends on how you look at things." She answered inly.

    "Well, it seems that Rena survived, so maybe we can buy a moment of calm from her¡­ husband."

    "Maybe." Briene agreed. "I have some things to inform you about, we should talk in private. Do you mind?"

    "Of course not. However, perhaps it should wait until after this fiasco is resolved. I imagine many people will want to talk to us."

    All Briene could do was nod along. Though the topics of discussion between them were of great importance, they would indeed have to wait until they spoke to the military and city guard. There would no doubt be many questions they would be required to answer and it would be a long night before they could talk.

    She took onest nce at the red-haired woman who was smiling at her husband while he embraced another.

 Chapter 227 What Are Their Goals?

    Discover stories at empire

    After the incident was resolved by an exceptionally angry noble, the military moved in to take control of the campus. They sent additional patrols through the entirety of the academy to ensure that all remaining students and staff were ounted for.

    Commander Arturo ordered his men to work with professors to collect copies of their directory and student lists topare them to the body count. So far things were not looking very good for them. Current estimates looked fairly grim with estimates on the low-end putting student casualties at about ten percent. Staff mortality for the incident was closer to thirty percent.

    Another thing that made things difficult was that Lucius Kane made moves on his own, separate from the wishes of the military. They purposefully were working on a n to break the enemy''s control, but they needed to do something that would not have ced the students at any additional risk.

    It would be hard for Lord Kane to prove that he was innocent in any of the deaths of the noble children at the academy because his attack did cause several injuries to some of the survivors. It was likely he would be med for many of the deaths he was not responsible for.

    None of this was any concern to Arturo though, because he was going to ask for the man''s assistance and was tly rejected and ignored. Since Lucius Kane decided to only join the fight when it proved convenient for him, Arturo would offer him no assistance in his defense.

    "Lord Kane, a word." Arturo called out as he stepped up to the man in question.

    Lucius was grouped with two women. One was a wolf beastman and the other was his wife, Lady Rena Kane. It seemed they were having a discussion about their injuries. Lucius appeared to be checking over both women for any signs of lingering damage.

    "What is it, Commander?" The ck-haired man answered with a twinge of annoyance.

    "We need to discuss your brazen disy of arrogance."

    "Excuse me?"

    "First, you ignore and dismiss me as I prepared to ask for your assistance in this matter. Then, you turn around and provide that assistance the moment it directly impacts you." Arturo shouted. "On top of that, the ''assistance'' you provided was a reckless disy of power that resulted in numerous injuries, deaths, and damage to the grounds.

    Finally, we now find ourselves without anyone among the enemy who was inside the academy to interview about the incident."

    Arturo''s face was flushed with anger. The more he yelled, the more his frustration increased. He was aware that he was pissed off at the man, but did not expect how much. When the Commander really thought about it, the biggest issue for him was actually the strike to his pride that he took.

    When Lucius made a move and resolved the situation himself, it made Arturo and his men look ipetent in a way. It would not be beyond the nobles to paint Lucius as a reckless idiot while also berating Arturo for his inaction. It did not matter if these two things were diametrically opposed, they would attack them both if it suited them¡­

    "So what you are saying¡­ is that you are pissed off I did what you couldn''t?"

    Arturo clenched his fists to keep from pummeling the young man to death. He was a Master Ranker and could easily smash Lucius into a fine paste. However, he was not allowed to due to the prophecy.

    The prophecy proved to be a muchrger annoyance than they expected. Mostly thanks to the man in question being a thorn in everyone''s side. He was utterly impossible to work with and stepped on so many people''s toes that it felt like he was being obtuse on purpose.

    "I would refrain, Lord Kane, from acting in such a manner. Immortality in politics is not something that exists. You will be brought down a peg one day, I can assure you. Have a good day, sir." Arturo warned.

    He gave Lucius a stiff bow and returned to his investigation while the man and his friends left the premises. Some guards made moves to intercept them, but Arturo waved them off and allowed Lucius to leave. Honestly, the man was a hindrance to have around. It wasn''t like he would disappear without them present.

    "Lady Lindtforth, Lord Petra," He said while giving a proper salute. "Might we discuss what happened before Lord Kane''s¡­ intervention?"

    "Of course." They answered simultaneously.

    They regaled the series of events that brought everyone to this moment. It seemed the attack at the academy happened at the same time as the random attacks throughout the city. He had figured that the random violent outbreaks in the city were a distraction, but this confirmed it.

    Every attacker at the academy also wore the strange robes and masks, unlike some of the people in the city who wore a mix of the robes as well as in civilian clothes.

    Another thing of note was the fact that all the attackers using magic, focused only on using Fire Magic. There was no way to know what everyone''s truepatibilities were, but if they had anything, they refused to use it.

    A fair amount of them showed off Arts inbat, so it was likely they purposefully were avoiding using magic that was not rted to fire. The perpetrators also randomly shouted things regarding ''throne of creation'' just like the random attacks that had urred all over the continent.

    All this information confirmed that the random attacks and this one were connected. This attack also meant that whatever group these people belonged to was elerating their violent tendencies. This begged the question: what were their goals?

    "Commander, our data collection ispleted. Cross checking this with the list we have only a few individuals unounted for. We simply need to check with the Adventurer''s Guild to see if they are out on work-studies, then our count of the deceased will beplete."

    Arturo took the report from his subordinate and sighed in resignation. The list was too long even if there were only a handful of names. Unfortunately, this list had many more than a handful. "Today is a sad day for the capital¡­" He whispered while sending a silent prayer to Celestia.

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 228 Confirmation

    Rena slowly walked back to the embassy with Lucius and Kalliope. She walked hand-in-hand with her husband while Kalliope gripped onto his other arm. For once, he did not shrug her off or chastise her for the behavior which surprised Kalliope.

    The look in her eyes was one of caution and concern, wondering if she did something wrong. It seemed that Lucius was not nning to have the conversation with Kalliope yet. Rena also felt it was not her ce to bring it up to the woman herself. Their rtionship was between them after all.

    In addition to that¡­ Rena had something else on her mind that was distracting her. Her head was somewhere among the clouds and she failed to notice that they had eventually arrived at the embassy. It was still heavily guarded and the lower floors were barricaded tightly.

    "Lord Kane! Lady Kane! Lady Kalliope!" one of the men rushed toward them with an expression of relief on his face. "I see you have returned. Are you all okay?"

    "The incident at the academy is resolved. We should remain on alert in the event anyone else decides to pull something in the city. Should things stay calm over the next few days, then we can rx procedures." Lucius ordered.

    Everyone saluted him and shared the orders among the other men around the perimeter. One went inside to ry the information to those inside the main building.

    Lucius turned to the two girls and kissed Rena on the cheek. "Both of you head inside. Let everyone know you are alright. I will be back. I''m going to look for our still missing men."

    Kalliope had told him her reasoning for heading to the academy in the first ce. He scolded her for her decision, but he could not say too much since she could protect herself and was currently fully healed. The amount of blood she lost initially scared him, but she was fine now, so he relented.

    Before he left, he gently squeezed Kalliope''s wrist, which shocked both women. Rena giggled at his antics because he was acting just as shy as he did when they were younger.

    With Kalliope still trying to figure out what was happening, they both entered the embassy. Lyrah called out her name and began to dive at her for a full-body hug. Rena reflexively stepped back and gripped herself for protection.

    Natali, Rubellia, and Kalliope looked at her oddly because she had never recoiled from a ''hug attack'' from Lyrah before. Not only that, they all looked at her strangely. Rena followed their eyes and noticed that she had her hand hovering protectively over her abdomen.

    Lyrah was the first to say something and did so with a sly grin. "Something to share with the ss, dear sister-inw?"

    Slowly, Rubellia''s eyes opened wide and tears started to form at the edges of them. Natali was next to realize what Lyrah was referring to. Kalliope was thest to react, but picked up quickly.

    Rena''s hands started shaking and her vision became blurry. It had been a little while since she found out, but it had not sunk in yet. She found herself in disbelief still about the situation. After all, it could be a mistake andpletely unrted to why she was having difficulty processing those healing potions and spells.

    "I-I-I can''t say¡­ isn''t it too early to tell¡­"

    "Anyone in this damn building use Light Magic and can cast healing spells?" Rubellia shouted.

    One of the cooks came running out of the kitchen with his hat in his hand and imed he could cast healing magic. He was immediately ordered to cast the strongest level healing spell he could manage and pulled out a more powerful one than they expected. "[Lux: Greater Heal]"

    Everyone watched as the orb of light split into two. One sank into Rena''s chest and the other sank into her lower abdomen. The cook bowed and quickly returned to the kitchen with a face slightly flushed.

    Lyrah stepped up and smiled gently, "Congrattions, Rena!"

    "No way¡­" Rena began to sob. Despite how she sounded, she could not contain her happiness.

    They had only been together for a short while, in the scheme of things. However, Lucius and her were both sure to make up for lost time with nearly every free moment they had. Truth be told, it was liable to happen sooner orter.

    "Am I really?" Rena whimpered.

    "Do you want to know if it is a girl or a boy?" Lyrah asked.

    The simple phrase triggered Rena to cry even harder. "N-n-no. I want to find out when the timees¡­" She cried out.

    Rubellia pulled her into a tight embrace and gently patted her head. Rena could feel the drops of tears falling on top of her head, but happily epted the affection. Though she could not see them, she heard and felt the other girls surround her in arge group hug.

    Kalliope''s tail was wagging in excitement for her and she kept whispering about how excited she was for her. They continued to give her messages of love and support until one of them asked the question weighing in the back of all of their minds. "When are you going to tell Lucius?"

    Rena paused and felt panic rise in her chest. How was she going to tell him? Would he be happy? Would he be a good father? Would she be a good mother?

    All of these questions whirled throughout her mind and she had answers for exactly none of them. "I don''t know¡­ Do you think¡­ Do you think he will be happy?"

    "Of course! He loves you so why wouldn''t he be? Besides we''ve all heard you two¡­"

    "Stop it, stop it!" Rena quickly covered Lyrah''s mouth. She had no issue with sharing details of her love life, but she did not want to talk about it with Rubellia present.

    "I don''t know how to bring it up. Or when¡­ Oh! What should we name it? Should we choose names now or wait till it''s born¡­" Rena continued to rant to the background of several people smiling at her.

    The kitchens and staff worked themselves into a frenzy as they started to prepare arge meal. Rubellia took the lead on the preparations for the event as the girls started to talk with Rena about the method of her disclosure to her husband.

    Rena eventually decided that she woulde up with something on her own which triggered them to start making bets on how he would react. Lyrah was left out because they could not trust that she would not have cheated. Of course, Lyrah pouted, but she had no choice but to shrug and agree. However, she did lord it over them that she knew the baby''s gender and what the baby would look like.

 Chapter 229 Does it Matter?

    Though he had searched all over the capital, Lucius found no signs of the missing men. He had located a few of his people blending into the general crowd, but still, two remained missing. It was highly possible they had fallen in battle and their corpses burned¡­ but the attackers were not particrly strong.

    He had picked up from conversations among many of the investigators that the predicted rank of most of the enemies was around Intermediate Rank. This exined why Lucius was able to take care of so many and so easily. There were definitely people of higher ranks including at least one potential Master Rank.

    However, the higher ranked fighters were nowhere to be found and were believed to have fled in the confusion.

    Their motivations remained a mystery. It was unknown if the attack on the academy served a greater purpose or to simply create fear. The idea that someone could raise such a force in the middle of the capital without warning raised a lot of concerns. It also created seeds of doubt among the popce on whether the kingdom could protect them or not.

    Lucius sighed to himself and started to wonder if he could ask Kalliope to write the reports of his men''s missing status. The King''s Shadow would send letters to the men''s families on his behalf, but he hated writing them. He simply found the task tedious. The one time he did write one, Kalliope berated him for nearly an hour about the level of insensitivity in it.

    When a King''s Shadow went missing, they were assumed deceased immediately. It was up to the individual unitmanders on if there would even be a cursory search or not.

    While he was walking random soldiers or citizens woulde up and try to engage him in conversation, but he saw no purpose in interacting with them so he chose to ignore them. Many of them made insultingments, but it did not bother him in the slightest. Whatever problems they had did not concern him.

    There were also people watching him. Just like at the front gates, they were able to keep out of his sensory range, but he could basically feel the eyes on him. It was like a sixth sense he developed¡­

    "Some sixth sense¡­" He muttered, thinking back to Rena just a few hours ago.

    Lucius was so enthralled by the battle that he let his guard down. Not one, but several archers had lined up to shoot him and he did not notice they were there. Kalliope called out just in time for Rena to react with an [Iron Wall], but she still ended up taking a few arrows as a result of her trying to protect him.

    It was his fault and it bothered him immensely. As he was thinking about it, he heard a small crack beneath his foot. When he looked down, he saw that the stone had cracked. That was when he noticed his mana was leaking out from his frustration.

    Allowing his mana to run rampant like that was dangerous. Since he could exhaust himself so much that it would kill him, he needed to be constantly conscious of how he used it.

    He shook his head clear of those thoughts and opted to ignore the people watching him. Since taking up residence in the capital, he had been under nearly constant surveince. It was strange these new people were much more skilled, but he assumed they upped their efforts after the incident with the church.

    "Lord Kane. Wee back."

    The guards at the embassy greeted him with a salute and opened the gate for him. Sounds of food being prepared and excited chatter wasing from the embassy''s interior. Curious, he opened the door to the sights and smells of arge dinner that had been prepared.

    Callous though he was, he was slightly confused as to why everyone seemed to be in a celebratory mood. Natali calmly walked up to him and gave him a slight bow before gesturing with a wave of her hand for him to enter the dining room.

    "Natali!" Rubellia called out, "In this ce you are not a maid, you are a dear friend of my daughter-inw as well as my family. Don''t act so formally girl. Come sit, both of you."

    His mother had one of the biggest smiles that he had ever seen her with since his father''s death. The other women in the room also had huge grins. Desmond looked out of ce and slightly confused, but generally happy to be included.

    "What''s going on?" Lucius asked apprehensively.

    His wife stood up from her seat and walked over to him. Her eyes were slightly puffy from crying. For a moment he felt his heart start beating, furious at whoever it was that had brought tears to her beautiful eyes.

    "Rena¡­ who made you cry?" He demanded.

    Her response was to simply giggle and give him a beautiful smile that made his heart skip several beats. Despite knowing the truth, seeing her in this way was still surreal to him.

    "I guess¡­ that you did, my love." Rena answered in a teasing tone.

    "What? What did I¡­" He stammered, thinking back to everything he had ever said and done with her around.

    While he was panicking to figure out how he upset her, Rena gently grabbed his hands and ced them gently on her stomach with hers over the top of his. Still confused, he began to mouth his next question, but was interrupted by a finger on his lips.

    "Lucius, you are going to be a father." Rena said, tears once again pooling in her eyes.

    Lucius felt his world shift. It felt like before this moment, his world was gray and empty. Everything almost appeared to take on a rose-colored hue. He gently removed one hand from his lover''s belly and ced it on her cheek. With all the care and tenderness in the world he wiped away a tear with his thumb and kissed her.

    Suddenly, Kalliope shouted out, "I win! I called it for the kiss!"

    Natali clicked her tongue in response while Jade giggled. They both passed small pouches to the wolf-girl whose tail began to wag. It was unclear if she was happy for winning the bet or for the lovely couple.

    Lucius turned to Lyrah, "Is it a boy or a girl?"

    "I promised sister that I would not say, brother dearest."

    Everyone began tough, but their amusement was stifled by Lucius''s next question, "Will they be marked?"

    His words hung in the air like lead. No one knew how to respond until Lyrah returned his question with another, "Does it matter?" Her silver eyes glowed, something that none at the table had seen before. Even Natali was slightly baffled by the situation.

    Before Lucius could answer, Rena moved in to hug him tightly. She smiled at the table before answering with confidence, "Not in the slightest."

 Chapter 230 Fragment of Celestia

    A few weeks had passed since the incident at the academy and a lot of things have happened since then. One of the more morbid things was the academy had installed a bronze memorial with a list of all the fallen students and staff at the entrance to the campus.

    Several smiths and artisans in the city chipped in to offer supplies and time to make sure the disy was ready as soon as possible. After that, many of the city''s finest stonemasons worked around the clock to repair the walls themselves which had been destroyed by Lord Kane.

    When everything looked to be back to normal physically, sses resumed. A few ss periods were a little more empty than they had been prior. The final total of deceased put the student loss at about nine percent. The final total loss for staff was a little under a third.

    It turned out more people were still on work studies than they originally thought and after news of the attack spread, all those out on their assignments returned to the school as soon as they were able. Even though the numbers were lower than they had feared, the loss of life was still tragic.

    Briene Lindtforth spent several of the days she had off speaking with Thomas von Petra in her estate in the capital. His father and uncle allowed him to attend these meetings alone since he was going to be the new head of House Petra upon graduation from the academy.

    Briene was aware that her family was negotiating with Thomas from a weakened position, but since she was so far from session, it mattered little to her. For Briene, there was a much more important factor in trying to marry into the Petra family. That was the proximity to Lucius Kane that it gave her.

    Though Rena Kane was technically disinherited from her family prior to her marriage into House Kane, she was still a close rtive to the current head and the next. This proximity to her and Lucius would give her the advantages she needed when monitoring the marked noble.

    Negotiations went well and they would likely be wed shortly after he takes ownership over House Petra. Currently though, Briene''s mind was focused on something else. She was on her way to the Grand Cathedral to speak with a close friend of her father and a mentor to her.

    "Ah! Lady Lindtforth, wee back." One of the nuns greeted her with a smile. "Here to see Father Urd again?"

    "Of course, might he be present to speak with me?"

    "For his beloved niece I am sure that he will make time." The old woman finished with a smile before disappearing into a hallway.

    Briene stood in the main hall of the cathedral and admired the beautiful stonework. Just as the gods were not given names, they were also not given faces. Instead, the art decorating the space was that of previous Archbishops and images that evoke happiness and warmth.

    Several beautiful murals of fields of green bathing in warm, golden light were painted across different walls. She felt aforting warmth being surrounded by the walls of her faith.

    "Briene! My darling niece, how are you?" The voice of her uncle Urd called out to her from behind.

    Briene quickly rushed over to him and gave him a strong hug. "Uncle! I''m well. I don''t know if you have heard, but I am engaged now to the heir of House Petra!"

    "So big now! To think you used to be small enough for me to change your diapers. Come! Join me in my study and let''s chat over some tea." The man offered with a smile.

    The nun smiled at the two a bowed gently as they passed by her and went to Father Urd''s study. Once the two were inside, Urd quickly sat down behind his desk while Briene locked the door behind her.

    "Tell me, what have you learned." Urd''s voice was no longer warm and inviting as it was earlier, but it did not surprise Briene. Rather she hade to expect this rapid switch in behavior.

    "Lucius Kane''s¡­ wife¡­. Is pregnant. I confirmed it myself with healing magic." She exined. "During the battle, the smell of blood and smoke seemed to overwhelm his sense of smell. He also used this horrible skill from his mark that turned bodies into rotten muck¡­

    She went on to describe in great detail the aspects of Lucius''s "Abyss Break" as he had said. When she uttered those words Urd shuddered as if he recognized them.

    "You are certain he said ''Abyss Break''? Absolutely sure?" He questioned.

    "Yes, I heard it inly. Though I was healing his wife at Lord Thomas''s behest, I paid very close attention to Lucius for any openings¡­ that was when I heard him use that phrase. The moment he used it, his left hand glowed and a ring appeared out of nowhere¡­"

    "A ring you say? What did it look like?"

    "I don''t know¡­ it had a ck gem on it."

    Urd pondered her words for a moment before he collected a few loose bits of notes and some dust-covered books from the upper parts of the shelves behind him.

    "What do you know of the other realms¡­ the ones that man does not reside in?" he asked.

    "There is Celestia, where the gods are¡­ and¡­"

    "The Abyss." Urd finished. "The Abyss is the home of the remnants of demon kind. Those who were not killed and did not hide, were sealed in a realm known as the Abyss. It is a ce of endless darkness and nightmares. It is the exact opposite of Celestia.

    "Within the Abyss resides the worst of mankind''s sins. As well as the horrors of our past. Put simply, you can think of it as a prison in our universe for all that is considered evil. There are some born that can tap into this ne and ess its power."

    Urd sighed before continuing. "These Abyssal marks are gateways to that ursed ce¡­ and I believe that Lucius Kane''s mark possesses quite a powerful gateway."

    "Truly?" Briene whispered. "Such an evil thing is allowed to exist¡­ how¡­"

    "Where there is darkness, there is also light." Urd said with a smile before opening one of the books. "There are artifacts from the times of demons that possess fractions of the power of the gods. We call these Fragments of Celestia¡­ sometimes they appear to great men and women who use them to help humanity thrive¡­ but many are lost to time."

    "Why are you telling me this¡­" Briene began.

    She watched in amazement as her uncle slowly unsped the ne he carried on him at all times. From what her father had shared, Urd carried a ne passed to him through their family for generations.

    Once he had fully unhooked it, he ced it into Briene''s hand. "This is yours. It is one of the fragments I spoke of. Carry it with you so it might protect you from the whispers of the Abyss¡­ if you ever meet someone who makes it glow¡­ no matter who they may be, what their background¡­ trust them."

    "That sounds¡­" Your next chapter awaits on empire

    "I know." Urd whispered. "Thank you for the information Briene. Congrattions on your engagement and whatever you do, keep an eye out for that monster and his spawn."

 Chapter 231 Founding Family

    Rena felt several eyes on her in the ssroom which made her sigh for the third time in the past twenty minutes. The reason for her ssmates staring at her was thanks to the behavior of her loving husband. He stood slightly behind her as if he was her bodyguard once again.

    Ever since she told him about her condition, he had gone to sometimes excessive lengths to protect her or help her. His behavior was endearing of course, but was a little much when in the ssroom. Truth be told, she certainly appreciated and relished the special attention she was paid outside of school, but in public things were different.

    Lyrah and Jade giggled at her while Natali have her asional looks of quiet concern. Desmond sat nearby awkwardly and seemed unsure of how to address either Lucius or Rena.

    "Love¡­" Rena said with an even and patient tone. "Can you at least sit next to me? I''m sure the time it would take for you to move to a standing position to defend me from these non-existent threats is less than it takes to blink. Sit."

    Lucius sighed and took a seat, albeit reluctantly. She felt his hand intertwine with hers under the desk. With a contented smile, she rested her head on his shoulder while they waited for the professor to enter the room.

    A short, old man walked up to the front of the ssroom a few minutester and began his lecture. "As all of you know we have had to initiate a number of changes to the way we do things. So from today, I shall be your instructor for both sswork and practical work.

    "Also, sses will be broken down into sections for standard work, Magic Application, and Arts Application. Everyone in this room will stay together for each of these courses."

    Jade raised her hand, "What about those of us learning about marks?"

    "Professor Carmichael will be busy for some time with other matters. As such students enrolled in his coursework will be presented the opportunity to practice their mark usage during the Magic and Arts Application portions of ss. Any other questions?"

    No one else had anything to say, so the professor moved on to the next topic which was about the addition of new students to each ssroom. Since sses now stayed together instead of moving between electives, they also condensed the number of separate sses.

    This meant they were getting an influx of students that they would be seeing every day until the end of graduation. None of this mattered to Rena because she was already spending time with her only friends at the academy, so not seeing a handful of students did little to dampen her mood.

    After the professor''s announcements, the new students entered the room to introduce themselves. A small number of them were new faces to Rena which was likely due to them focusing on the Arts rather than Magic. However, one of the new students was a rather familiar face.

    Lady Briene von Lindtforth introduced herself to the ss and included that she was now the fianc¨¦e of Lord Thomas von Petra. While Rena felt thankful to the woman for healing her and helping her find out about the baby, she felt her skin crawl that the woman was engaged to her cousin.

    Rena also noticed that the gaze Briene had when looking at Lucius was not one of respect, admiration, or even indifference. No, when Briene''s eyes settled on Lucius, there was nothing but contempt, disgust, and malice to be seen.

    Again, Rena shuddered. If she was this bothered by Lucius, then what did the woman think of Rena? It was likely not a positive set of thoughts which made her decide that avoiding Lady Lindtforth would be a good option moving forward.

    After all the technical information was out of the way, they moved on to the actual coursework. Today''s coursework was on the history of the Kingdom and the Five Kings Union.

    ording to the founding documents, the Five Kings Union was founded by a number of different human ns that were running from Alorek. At that time, Alorek controlled the entirety of the eastern part of the continent.

    When the human ns found themselves cornered, they fought back with the assistance of the elves and dissenting beastmen, fracturing Alorek into three kingdoms: Alorek, Eroa, and Raleron.

    Most of these human ns that led thebined armies against the oppressive Alorek became the leading families of the different kingdoms. The ns in question were Keinydd, Docia, Arcadios, Paede, and the most powerful of them all, Kane. Stay updated via empire

    Instead of taking over thend assigned to them, they simply gave control of it to the people who eventually formed the Wisteria Concord. The Kanes kept to themselves for a number of years before disappearing into obscurity.

    "No one knows why they vanished from our borders." The professor finished. "It is a great mystery and for a time we thought their line extinct. However, in recent months we havee to find out that this belief may not be correct."

    Rena also wondered what the truth was. It was possible that Lucius knew, but she had never asked much about his blood family. There were many things they both still needed to talk about it seemed.

    "Lord Kane. Might you be able to shed light on the subject?" the professor called out.

    "I am."

    "Will you?"

    "Hmm¡­" Rena looked at her husband with a hopeful gaze. He sighed in response before standing.

    "House Kane chose to leave the human nations because of one main reason. They were despised."

    "borate young man. Why would House Kane be despised for leading us to our freedom?"

    The room was dead silent as they waited for his answer. Rena looked to Lyrah who had a sly smile on her face. Lyrah noticed her gaze and gave her a wink. "This is going to go over well." She whispered to Rena sarcastically.

    "Many families have lines of session that differ from the norm. The Petra''s for example, require apetition for great deeds. The Carmichaels measure mana capacity. House Kane had the most abhorrent among these rules. Or at least that''s how the Five Kings Union viewed it with time."

    The entire ss continued to wait with baited breath for Lucius to continue.

    He smiled and held up his left hand, "The requirement to take over as the head of House Kane is that you must be marked. Man or woman. Elf, beastman, human, or any mix of the above. None of these things mattered. The person with the closest rtion to the current head that also bears a mark, is the next in line."

    A chorus of shouts erupted throughout the room from the various nobles. Many of them called him a liar and used him of besmirching the name of a founding house. Others imed that this strange tradition only happened after the war against Alorek because there was no way such a house would have been allowed to work alongside the other founding families.

    Just as Lyrah had predicted, the information went over very poorly. Lucius simply shrugged and sat down, waiting for ss to continue.

    It seemed like he felt the need to stir the pot more, so Lucius decided to continue from a seated position. "It was often imed that we were the adventurous sort. That we could not be held down¡­ of course this was a lie. We simply enjoy being left in peace. Everything a Kane does is a response to what was done to them. Take that information to heart."

    Rena noticed thest few words contained a barely concealed threat. She also realized that Lucius was ring directly at Thomas when he said it.

 Chapter 232 A Mysterious Resource

    Princess Enaeria¡­ or rather Queen Consort Enaeria smiled at her handsome husband who was still asleep thiste into the morning.

    Ever since their bedroom ceremony, she had been trying her best to cement their rtionship even further by ensuring a physical representation of their union woulde to be. These things took time though, and it was not as though the man would be able to leave her in the meantime.

    He was thoroughly entranced by her Mark of Charm and would do everything for her until the end of his or her days. Once ensnared by her mark, no one could escape without dying or by intervention by someone with a closer rtionship.

    Through thorough research, they were able to determine that King Zethis had no ties or bonds of any kind save with one of the country''s Empyrean Rankers. Even then, their rtionship was one born of fear, not of trust. Without a trusting bond, it was unlikely Zethis would ever escape her clutches.

    Since they spent every day together from now on, their own bond would grow stronger and stronger as well. Essentially, the Beast King himself was now her pet.

    Experience tales at empire

    "My Liege!" a knock at the door brought Enaeria back to reality. Outside the door there was a servant needing to speak with her husband.

    Enaeria wrapped herself loosely in a robe and opened the door slightly. "I am sorry, my husband is still asleep. I shall rouse him for you."

    "Th-thank you, my queen."

    Zethis was already moving to a standing position by the time she had turned around. His bestial senses alerting him to themotion well before she even answered the door on her own.

    "Thank you for giving me time toe to sorts." He mumbled as he put on his clothes.

    Enaeria stepped forward to assist with adjusting his cloak and then moved to dress herself. As Zethis kissed her neck before leaving she giggled. "Thank you darling, now go. You have duties to attend to. Do not forget we have another meeting with Mer''Krul this afternoon."

    "Of course."

    Before Zethis left, a few maids walked into the room to assist her in preparing for the day. Though the climate of this nation was not well suited for her, she was getting used to it slowly. The people were earnest and hard-working which presented them in a good light.

    Frequently she found herself thinking that this situation was not so bad. With her Channeling capabilities she was able to cool herself off easily and slowly adjust to the heat. The sunlight was a different story. There was no way she would allow her perfect skin to be marred by the desert sun.

    Because of this, she spent precious little time outside of the pce itself. Not that there was much else to look at. Though she looked favorably on the people, they were still quite simple whenpared to her ownnds. Haedda was a ce deeply steeped in magic and knowledge.

    Its citizens benefited from the power of the Grand Mages of their nation and the instruction provided to all the magically gifted. Because of this they had advanced their culture to a point beyond what the beastmen of Alorek could imagine, which made her feel quite sad for them.

    After several hours of dealing with her own ns, the afternoon meeting was ready to begin. Zethis, Enaeria, and Mer''Krul sat around arge, circr table and enjoyed a series of snacks. Or rather, Enaeria enjoyed them while Zethis drank the country''s foul swill they imed to be wine.

    "Are things going well Mer''Krul? Those of the Far Shores and Haedda have been working for several weeks in the untamed sands outside our cities. Did you find what it was you were looking for?"

    "We have found some, yes. There is a cave that was inhabited by a few of those ''Sand Wyrms'' as you called them. When we cleared them out, we found a small amount of Orichalcum. We believe that it might be connected to a muchrger vein and have begun mining." The muscr and tattooed man answered.

    He too was sharing in the same drink as Zethis. Though Enaeria charmed the king to feel the way he did towards her, she was unable to change his feelings towards others. Zethis and Mer''Krul truly did get along.

    Though even those in Haedda knew little of the Far Shores, the culture shared a lot of simrities to those of the beastman nations. Strength was valued highly. These two men recognized each other''s strength and used that to form a beneficial rtionship.

    "I must say, when you informed me of this strange material and that it might reside in ournds, I was skeptical. However, I now have no choice to believe you. I find it strange that our own smiths are unable to utilize this material as of yet." Zethis sighed. "I wish you would share your knowledge of it with us, but I do thank you for being honest about its importance."

    "Of course, King Zethis." Mer''Krul chuckled, "Though taking advantage of yourck of knowledge would have worked well for us, those of the Far Shores are an honorable sort."

    The two men chuckled together and clinked their sses in a toast to friendship. Orichalcum was a very rare resource. So rare, in fact, that most countries were unaware of its existence. A handful of schrs knew of it, but even those that did had no idea that it was valuable.

    The only nations with knowledge of its potential were the Far Shores, Haedda, and Aedrider. Aedrider did little to try and utilize it because they were so far away from anyrge sources. Instead, their growth and technology was based along the magical crystals that grew in the deepest of their caves.

    Haedda and the Far Shores had worked together to discover the secrets of the strange material over the course of decades of cooperation and found that it behaved in ways that were simr to mithril, but was capable of so much more.

    There was no way for Alorek to figure out how to properly utilize Orichalcum alone, so there was no concern in them knowing of some of its capabilities. Besides, there was no way for them to pretend it was useless when it was folded into the weapons and armor of every soldier they had brought with them as escorts.

    "This one mine is all that I grant with our current terms though, Mer''Krul. Any future expansions into locating this strange metal will require new negotiations."

    "King Zethis, do you have in mind what it is you would like for that? I can ry that information in advance to our leaders so that way when the timees we can work more quickly than before."

    Queen Consort Enaeria smiled because she already knew what the bloodthirsty lion wanted. Zethis leaned forward and gave a massive, toothy grin, "Weapons, Mer''Krul. Weapons to annihte my enemies. Weapons to bring all of beastman kind under our great banner and erase the Five Kings Union from the continent."

    Mer''Krul returned the king''s smile. "It will take time, but I can promise that if you are patient, we can fulfill your greatest desires, oh mighty Beast King of the Raging Sands."

 Chapter 233 The Long Sleep

    Corva had spent every waking minute since her fight with Lucius in the tournament reviewing every move and step she made. The hammer she had forged and enchanted for the event had been broken as if it were another stick along the trail. It was her masterpiece.

    ''Titan Killer'' was a weapon with three different enchantments on it. This was a new record for Corva in her work and a rare feat in general for weapons. Currently, the limit for high-end weaponry was two enchantments. Though items with two enchantments were exceptionally rare and expensive.

    Her reveal of the weapon she named ''Titan Killer'' was supposed to be a grand reveal of her prowess in Enchanting and forging, but they were overlooked by her opponent, Titan.

    "Ugh, what a monster¡­" She whined as she copsed onto her desk in a heap. "If he hadn''t been there I might have won and then everything would have been fine. Right, Yue?"

    Her maid, a rabbit beastman, gave her a defeated smile. "I''m sure you would have stood a better chance had that man not been there."

    "He entered under a false name! He wasn''t even really called Titan! Which means my baby''s name was pointless¡­ I even made a big show out of saying that¡­ I looked so cool¡­"

    Yue continued to give her master a defeated smile as she set down a cup of tea. The gentle young woman then grabbed a damp cloth and dabbed it around the exposed parts of Corva''s face and neck, cleaning away the soot from her hours in her workshop.

    "Mydy¡­ you have visitors soon. Perhaps it would be best if you readied yourself for them?" Yue advised.

    "I really don''t want to¡­" Corva grumbled, "Besides it''s natural to feel pride as an elf of Aedrider to be caked in soot after a long day of work."

    "Perhaps that is so for people in other positions, but, mydy, you are in a different position than others."

    "Who is even visiting?"

    "Representatives of your mother, I believe. Though I think one or two of your sisters are visiting with them. Shall I rouse my sister?"

    Corva shook her head. "No, let her rest. She will rise as the sun sets. No need to wake her for this¡­ ugh, fine I will get cleaned up. Will you bathe with me Yue? I love how you shampoo my hair; it is very rxing."

    "Of course."

    The elven cksmith and noble, stood and made her way to her massive bath on the first floor of her residence. Near to the door that led to the hot spring fed bath were a set of iron doors that called her name. Every part of her body desperately begged her to abandon Yue and head into her workshop.

    Just as she took a step towards her workshop doors, Yue coughed and lightly grabbed her by the scruff of her shirt. Corva found herself surprisingly helpless as the rabbit-eared woman dragged her effortlessly into the baths.

    After having a few days'' worth of grime washed from her body and hair, Corva''s natural beauty once again shined through. Her slightly tanned body was as enchanting as any other elf''s and her upper body was well toned from her time in the forge.

    Though a normal smith would have muchrger muscles than she did, her magic assisted in her forging techniques and allowed her to develop a body that was much more physically desirable to most. Not that it mattered to Corva. Even if her hands and arms were calloused, muscr, and rough, she would not care. To Corva, all that mattered were her projects.

    "Mydy, you are ready."

    Yue was the one responsible for maintaining Corva''s presentability around other members of Aedrider''s nobility. Without the woman, Corva would have long since been abandoned by the rest of her family for sheerck of manners and presentability.

    "Lady Corva, your guests have arrived, I will escort them to your parlor." Yue said with a bow.

    A few minutester and several deep breaths, Corva finally stepped into her parlor room to greet her mother''s representatives as well as two of her sisters. Seeing as they had different fathers, her sisters looked only slightly simr to her.

    Not only that, but they were the epitome of elven nobility. Their skin was fair and unmarred. Their hair was silky and gorgeous. Unlike Corva, her sisters were ephemeral beauties that represented the pride of Aedrider¡­ just like their mother, the Queen.

    "Dear sister, so d you could take the time to host us."

    "Yes, thank you for hosting us, little sister."

    Corva was the eighteenth princess of the kingdom of Aedrider and was the youngest of her siblings. She also had thirteen brothers, though as men, they were not in line to inherit the throne. As such, they were not considered princes, since the position did not exist in their culture.

    "Princess Corva, a pleasure. We bring you news of your mother''s condition." Experience new stories on empire

    Her breath caught in her throat and she forgot the manners that Yue reminded her of out of concern. "Is she okay? How is mother? After she left the tournament she did not show up for the banquet and I have not seen her since¡­"

    Her mother''s retainers had a sad look in their eyes. The lead retainer, a handsome elven man with deep purple eyes and golden, blonde hair answered her with a crack to his voice. "The queen is showing signs of falling into the Long Sleep. As weeks go by, she spends more and more time asleep. We fear it may not be long until her position passes to the next chosen queen."

    The Long Sleep was what happened to elves who died of old age. Normally, an elf would live for up to four hundred or five hundred years. When they reached full maturity at age thirty, they remained unchanged in appearance up until their death. As their death approaches, they sleep longer and longer, until finally they fall into an unshakable sleep and pass peacefully.

    The queen of Aedrider, Corva''s mother, was one of the rare elves that had lived for almost a thousand. Precious few of their people remained who had the wisdom and experience of their mother and it was a great loss to their people to lose her.

    Not only that, Corva deeply loved her mother and as the youngest of her thirty siblings, she was the spoiled child who was granted all that she wanted from her mother. The queen did not expect to have had a child aste in life as she did, so Corva was only in her thirties. Though she was an adult, she was so much younger than her closest sibling who was still over a hundred.

    "I see¡­"

    "We needed to discuss the terms of session. Many of your sisters have already been informed of the next steps as they still live in the pce. However, we wanted toe out to your personal manor and discuss the situation with you directly.

    "I am sorry to bring you such terrible news and then immediately move on to business, but we must discuss the next steps. We must decide on the next queen of Aedrider, Princess Corva."

 Chapter 234 Two Factions

    "I don''t want it. There, that should make it easy." Corva said inly, trying to suppress the tears threatening to fall. "Now, go."

    "It isn''t that simple. We know you possess no interest in presenting a im to the throne. The reason we have decided to visit is that we want to gather your support for our sister, Lethaya." One of her other sisters said. "She is a much better candidate than Aya."

    "Why should I care?" Corva questioned. As long as she could do her own work, what did it matter who sat on the throne? All that mattered was her work and that her mother would soon be gone from this world¡­ What did session matter¡­

    "Aya would turn our country into Haedda. She would have us close our borders and cease trade with other countries. Aedrider prides itself on our technology. It was at Mother''s and Lethaya''s request that we attend the tournament in Arcadios¡­ You enjoyed that right?"

    "I did¡­"

    "You wish to see your inventions in the hands of others, yes? Then by supporting our sister¡­"

    "Leave¡­ All of you. Get out!"

    "Corva¡­"

    "I said, get out!"

    Corva''s scream echoed throughout the manor and left shocked and saddened faces among her guests who quickly nodded and left the premises. She found herself alone in a beautiful room filled with fine furniture she never used and gorgeous art she never looked at.

    The very building she lived in and called home was a gift from her mother. The freedom she enjoyed was a gift as well. Everyone knew that Corva had no chance at being queen. Nor did she have any interest. It was her mother who recognized that first and opened her eyes to an alternative path¡­ one of an artisan.

    "Mother¡­"

    Yue gently opened the door and was nked by another individual. Corva''s scream had awoken one of the scant few other residents in the home. Yue''s sister, who only went by ''Snow'' much as Lucius once went by ''Titan'', entered the room.

    Her skin was as white as that for which she was named. Her eyes a pale blue. The woman''s hair fell gracefully down her back, reaching almost to her butt and looked as though it was made of silver.

    "Lady Corva¡­" Snow whispered. "Shall I follow them?"

    "No¡­ it was just some of my sisters¡­"

    "I see."

    "They informed me of Mother¡­ she is not far from the Long Sleep¡­" Corva sobbed. "Snow¡­ can you¡­ watch over her. Report everything to me. I can''t make an appearance in the capital just yet¡­"

    Snow nodded and quietly hugged Yue before leaving the room. Though they were unrted, the two women treated one another like siblings. Corva often found herself jealous of their rtionship because none of her siblings cared for her as deeply as they did.

    ***** Continue reading at empire

    The pce of Aedrider sat halfway up the side of the tallest mountain in the country. The city was built in tiers below it all the way to the base. It was one of thergest and most grand cities on the entire continent.

    The reason for the city being built on and into a mountain? It was the fact that the mountain itself was the source of over half of all the magical crystals that their country relied upon and used for trade, research, and daily life.

    Unlike minerals that were finite and could be exhausted from mines. The crystals that Aedrider used regrew over time. Each type of crystal had different rates of growth and as long as the core of the crystal remained intact, it could be replenished. The process was like a blend of mining and farming.

    Snow found herself in the sprawling metropolis at the base of the mountain. She was unable to use her employer''s name and identity in order to ascend higher up the tiers of the city, so she needed to find some way to move up. She was a master at infiltration, so she would be able to do that. Though, bypassing eachyer of security would take time.

    She would need to analyze rotations, habits, and gaps in patrols at each gate before finally making it into the pce. However, Lady Corva gave her and her sister a home to belong to, so she was willing to do it.

    Snow found herself yawning again fromck of sleep. It was still daytime and was normally when she would still be asleep. However, night woulde in a few hours and she would absolutely need to stay awake through it. Deciding that a few hours was better than none, she quickly searched for an inn to rent for the next few nights.

    As a ce with many tall buildings and one with which she waspletely unfamiliar with theyout, Snow found herself lost on a few asions. She carefully avoided alley''s with little or no light, which made navigating the sprawl more difficult. Many of the ''helpful'' shortcuts she was provided by local residents included paths she refused to take.

    Without Yue with her¡­there was no way she could brave the darkened alleyways of the city. All of her resolve would be needed for her investigation. The whispers could wait to assault her until then.

    The sun began to set by the time she found a suitable ce. Her time with natural daylight had been wasted by herck of foresight into investigating theyout of the capital. The ce she chose seemed to be rather expensive, but it was worth it. The more expensive ces supplied light crystals instead ofmps and fireces.

    The inside of her chosen base of operations was a warm and inviting bar with a kind woman behind it. The woman greeted her with a smile and offered meals and a drink. Snow declined and requested only a room.

    "That will end up being ten gold coins a night, dear."

    "How much for extra light stones?"

    "Extra? Do you have children with you?"

    "I do not. I simply need extra light crystals."

    The proprietor looked at her strangely but offered her three extra stones for a price of one gold per crystal per night. Snow readily agreed and took the crystals to her room. She strategically ced them around the room to eliminate as many shadows as possible.

    She also made sure to purchase extra nkets for the room. One was to fold and stuff beneath the door to block the light from leaving and shadows from entering. The other blocked the single window when she draped it over the curtain rod.

    "This should help. No shadows¡­ no whispers¡­ no shadows¡­ no whispers." Snow gently chanted this mantra as she tried to fall asleep. Her n to investigate security was ced on hold for a day, but she needed to sleep.

 Chapter 235 How Many?

    Nearly a month had passed since the incident at the academy and things had been strangely calm. The people following Lucius seemed to stop for a while ording to Lyrah and Natali. If her daughter knew who they were, she did not share that information.

    Of course, it was unlikely that her daughter did know. After all, Oracles looked at the far future¡­ or at least that''s what Adellia had taught her. Looking into the future too frequently or too near to the present would result in debilitating headaches and pains.

    Often the Oracle would have to suffer through these experiences while trying to scan through the potential futures based on possible actions. It was an unpleasant experience that felt like someone split open your skull with a rock, healed it, and repeated the process over and over again.

    "Lady Adellia¡­" Mylene gently called out.

    "Oh sorry¡­ just lost in thought."

    "Is it about Lord Kane?"

    Adellia sighed. Her maid and best friend was right. Lucius had not even attempted to see her since the banquet after the Exhibition Tournament. Everything she knew about him came from her letters and conversations with her daughter.

    The fact that she seemed to hold no ce in his heart, hurt Adellia deeply. She wanted nothing more than to be reunited with him like a true mother and child, but from her conversations with Lyrah as well as Kalivas, before he left for home, indicated that such an event might as well be considered fantasy.

    Lucius held a lot of hate in his heart. The traumas of his past twisted him into a being who trusted few and loved even less. As Lyrah put it, the only people on this ne that Lucius would admit he loves are Rubellia, Rena, and Kalliope.

    Adellia desperately wished to be included in that number, but she did not know what she should do. Lyrah promised to help her, but asked for time. Time was something that an Oracle was used to, but when it came to this Adellia found herself impatient for the first time in her life.

    "Lady Adellia¡­ I¡­" Mylene looked as though she wanted to say something.

    "What is it? Is something the matter?"

    "Has Lyrah told you about Rena?"

    Adellia paused and turned to face the city beneath the balcony of her tower. At one time, this view was all that existed of her world. The inside of the castle and the single perspective her balcony provided. However, since Lyrah managed to get into the academy and her long-lost son returned¡­ slowly, her world becamerger.

    "Yes." Her voice took on a mncholy tone. "It seems my world growsrger still. And yet, like almost everything else, it is beyond my reach."

    "For now, anyway." Mylene spoke softly to her, but was still firm. "Do not forget that just because something may be out of reach for now, does not mean it will be forever. You just have to try and reach out."

    "Yeah¡­ I think you are right."

    The vision Adellia saw about the academy attack. She was thinking about whether or not she should have informed the elders who track her visions. However, Lyrah had asked her to keep the vision a secret. Her daughter had the same vision and advised her to think about the impact.

    From the vision, she inferred that Lucius was involved. However, he had many enemies in the capital and unless they knew what his involvement would look like, the kingdom might infer his involvement negatively.

    She had also asked her to not scan the oues of the battle and to make no moves. Lyrah told her the most important thing to do to handle the situation was to allow it to y out as it was intended.

    Adellia found this task to be difficult. Her guilt weighed on her mind after learning about the loss of life that urred. As Arcadios''s Oracle, she spent her entire existence trying to save as many lives as possible, but this time she didn''t. It was like the first vision she had prior to her children''s birth.

    In the vision, she witnessed a being that looked like her son destroying so many lives and doing so without mercy. What was she to do? Though at the time, she did not know that this man was her son, she felt a connection to him and hid the truth¡­

    Somehow it felt like she did the same with the attack on the academy¡­ How many lives would she sacrifice for a son that she could not reach?

    A knock on the door echoed throughout the chamber. It was stiff and unfamiliar. Adellia had no idea who it could be because she had no scheduled meetings today. Mylene bowed and went to answer the door. Discover more content at empire

    A handsome young man stepped in wearing fine clothes dyed in a charcoal gray. The clothes barely seemed to stretch over his muscr form. His eyes glowed with power and his hair lightly moved in the slight breezeing in from the open balcony.

    Scars ran along the side of his face and neck before disappearing below his clothing. His voice was smooth, deep, and calming. "Hello, Lady¡­" He sighed before closing his eyes and re-opening them, "Mother."

    "Lucius¡­" Adellia ced her hand over her mouth and stood to greet him. "You''vee¡­"

    "Yes¡­ I have something I wish to ask of you¡­ though it feels unfair to ask a favor of you as I have done nothing for you."

    "That''s¡­" She smiled. "That''s not how family works. You don''t need to do anything for me in order to ask for help."

    "I see."

    "P-please,e, join me for drinks. Mylene, please fetch us a fresh pot of tea and join us as well!" Adellia said excitedly. There was a hint of urgency in her voice as though she was terrified that this opportunity would vanish before her.

    Thankfully, Lucius silently sat down at her table and made no indications that he would leave or abandon her. Whoever it was that spoke to him had all the appreciation in the world from her and she silently scolded herself for any of the thoughts she had before.

    "I''m sorry for trying to touch you at the banquet¡­ your fa¡­ I mean Kalivas informed me of many things I was not aware of. Truly, I am sorry."

    Her son looked at her with an appraising gaze before he took her hand in his. She could not keep herself from giving out a slight yelp as he took her hand and ced it gently on his cheek.

    "I am sorry for acting in such a way. Rena convinced me that I should be friendlier to you¡­ Lyrah also told me that I should be grateful to you and Miss Mylene for my life. So I am here to make some amends where I can, as well as ask you for a favor."

 Chapter 236 A Favor

    Lucius sat before her and Mylene as they shared the details of his birth and what happened after. Though he seemed unphased by most of the story, his facial expressions did move slightly when he was told that Mylene and Derrik were the ones who transported him to the parents who raised him.

    He agreed that their gamble to curse a newborn with dark magic was risky, but it worked out in the end. Derrik had taken the infant Lucius directly to his cousins in a single, non-stop horseback ride. He brought with him two horses, both of which he ran into the ground to make it happen without notice.

    When Lucius arrived at Wayne and Rubellia''s home, he was in perfect condition thanks to Derrik''s liberal use of his Light Magic. However, the man himself was ragged and worn. It seemed his adoptive parents had never told him the entire truth of the matter.

    Lucius turned to Mylene and bowed his head. "Thank you." Then he turned to Adellia, "Thank you as well. Were it not for your efforts, I would not be here. I don''t know where Rena would be¡­ and¡­ well, just thank you both."

    Adellia smiled and gently stroked his cheek. She could tell by the look on his face that he was nowhere near ready to ept her the way she had epted him. But, he was willing to open up to her, if ever so slightly.

    "So, you never got the chance to try and name me?"

    "No, I did not¡­ you were taken before I could give you one."

    "What would you have named me?" He asked carefully.

    Truthfully, Adellia had thought of this question many times. What would she have named her son if she could have raised him¡­ or even if she was given just a second to name what she thought was his corpse. Adellia thought carefully over these many years, but there was only one true answer.

    "To tell the truth," she said with a smile, "I don''t think it matters. I think that your mother, Rubellia, gave you a wonderful name, my dear Lucius."

    Never in her life had she felt so much conflict within herself. She felt happiness, pain, shame, and loss. They whirled together inside her as if fighting for dominance amongst themselves. However, looking upon her son''s steady gaze and the strength behind his eyes, she settled on one: contentment.

    Though this was not the path for her life that she would have chosen, it was the hand she was dealt. Adellia yed her cards the best she could in the circumstances and it ended with her seeing him in the end.

    "Thank you." Lucius whispered. "Now for my request, if I may. You of course can ask for anything in return and it shall be yours."

    "As I said before¡­" she sighed, looked at him hopelessly, then continued, "Never mind¡­ What do you want me to do?"

    "I have reason to believe I will have to leave the kingdom soon. I do not want to send my pregnant wife on a trip to Eroa alone or with help¡­ so¡­"

    "You want my help?"

    "Yes. I need you to be there for Rena. Her mother¡­ she never really knew her and even though I never experienced it from you, I can tell that you care deeply for Lyrah. Can you please watch over Rena and¡­"

    "Your child?"

    Lucius nodded, but chose to correct her for a moment, "And your grandchild."

    "Lucius¡­"

    "My rtionship with you is my own. There are many things I have to sort out. However, my feelings are not my child''s and my rtionships are not theirs. You have not done anything that shows me you don''t deserve a chance to be in their life."

    Adellia could not contain herself and threw her arms around her beautiful son. The man awkwardly tapped her shoulder as she cried into his neck and whispered gratitude to him over and over. It was not until Mylene had to pry her off due to Lucius''s ufortable expression that Adellia finally pulled back. Her face was flushed and her eyes were puffy.

    "I don''t know if it will happen, but I hope that you will be able to help me."

    "Would it not be dangerous to have her here in the castle. I know you are not on good terms right now¡­"

    "There is nowhere in the kingdom that Arcadios protects more than the home of the Oracle. Only the King''s inner pce is under stricter guard and if I have to leave¡­ I don''t know that the embassy will be as safe. If you could house Rena and Rubellia¡­"

    "Of course." Adellia answered firmly. "I will do this, no matter the personal cost to me. I swear it."

    Lucius thanked her and awkwardly bowed to them before taking his leave of her tower. His request was an earnest one and Adellia had no reason to deny it. Not only did it give her a chance to show that Lucius could trust her, but it also gave her a chance to be a grandmother. She had never thought she would live to see the day that she could enjoy such a life.

    Mylene said nothing, but did gently pat her shoulders. The maid knew how much this meant to her that Lucius would speak with her directly. Though the young man made a request, he did show signs of at least trying to close the gap between them.

    "Do you think that the castle will ept their residence here, no matter how temporary?" the maid questioned.

    Enjoy exclusive chapters from empire

    "They can certainly try! I will not let anyone ruin my chance at being a grandmother!" Adellia shouted. "This is my best chance to hold a precious baby again¡­ the gods only know when Lyrah will finally take a husband. Even then, it would only be a rtionship like what mine was with Kalivas¡­"

    "Of course¡­"

    "Besides, you know how exceptionally handsome Lucius is. Couple that with Rena''s beauty¡­ I''m sure their child will be the most beautiful and precious baby on the continent!"

    Mylene could only roll her eyes at the Oracle''s antics as she ranted and raved about the potential adorableness of her unborn grandchild. Adellia noticed the judgement, but said nothing. After all, why shouldn''t she enjoy the moment?

 Chapter 237 Work Meeting

    Rena, Natali, and Lyrah walked through the halls of the academy together, cheerfully talking and enjoying the calm day. Lucius followed slightly behind them because he did not want to interrupt their friendly banter.

    He felt that he monopolized much of Rena''s time as it was. Even though he was more than happy to take all of it, he also knew that she deserved time with her friends. Lucius felt that he had to give in somewhere and that was where he decided to do it.

    However, he still improperly assigned one of his remaining men to guard her at all times even when Lucius was around. In his reports to King Verdayl he would always report that he was working on a "private task concerning the future of the House of Kane" when reporting on that specific assignment.

    It was a bullshit answer that the king and his retainers would see through instantly, but as long as his other endeavors bore fruit, they would be content to ignore it.

    On that front, Lucius had met with the remaining soldiers under hismand andpiled a list of possible locations to search for the brains behind the assault. Many possibilities existed including the city of Lelvern, Spire Hollow, a few small towns on the outskirts of Paede¡­ and a number of other viges and cities with strange movements happening around them.

    He did not have the manpower avable to address all the potential areas of concern, so he strategically chose to focus on specific areas instead of throwing arge. Given the amount of people wearing the same robes and masks, it seemed they would havee from or at least been provided supplies by locations with a lot of resources.

    For the most part this cut out many of the smaller towns and viges. However, cutting those out still left too many locations to scout even if he did only assign one person per location. Typically they would work in teams of two for safety and logistics.

    "Hmmm¡­"

    "Everything okay, my love?"

    "Rena, my ever clever darling, might I get your opinion?"

    "Of course."

    Rena smiled at his clumsy excuse for ttery, but let him off without any teasing. Lyrah noticed theck of fun and pouted ever so slightly.

    "Let''s hypothetically imagine that a group of people were able to simultaneously supply hundreds of people with simple robes and masks. However, they did not supply these people with weapons, potions, or any other supplies. What would you think?"

    "Well, if that were to ur I would say initially that the supplying of simple robes and masks would indicate that they were receiving their goods with a lot of the resources avable to craft such things¡­ however, I feel it would be a front. Rather you should not be looking in areas where such resources are abundant.

    "You should also not swing the opposite direction and look for areas where those resources are fewer. What you should look for are locations where the import and export of those goods are too normal and too stable for too long. It is natural for the market to ebb and flow. However, it is impossible to simte that natural flow for long periods.

    "Evidence of tampering with the local supply chain in order to amass such a specific need would be indicated by long and unnatural looking periods of stability in various locations."

    Natali and Lyrah looked at their friend in slight surprise. They did not expect her to have given such an in depth and thoughtful answer to the question. Lucius on the other hand, asked because he knew that she would have good advice.

    Prior to their separation and even before bing adventurers, Rena was a thinker. She was raised to have a mind suited for strategy and cunning. It behooved her to learn such things since she only had a talent for Magic and had no Compatibilities within the Arts.

    Lucius knew that Rena would never let such a tool go to waste, but it seemed she did not expose her friends to the fact that she was rather intelligent.

    "Thank you, Rena."

    "Of course," she responded with a nod, "By the way. Should one be wanting to look into matters like what we discussed, they might want to start with the merchant''s guild. By the way you have a meeting with Kalliopeter?"

    "Yes, business rted matters, I''m afraid."

    "So we will miss you for today''s coursework."

    Explore more at empire

    "Yes, I will see you at dinner this evening." Lucius took her into his arms and gave Rena a deep kiss in the middle of the hallway.

    Several students stopped and stared for a moment, but neither of them cared to pay attention or let others interrupt their moment. Ever since learning about the child, their affection for each other had only seemed to have grown.

    This was much to the chagrin of Natali, who was not a fan of public disys of affection. They tended to make her rather nervous and shy. So far, the increased amount of Lucius''s and Rena''s public affection had done little to temper her feelings on the matter.

    "Yes, yes, you love each other very much. Thank you, go now brother dearest."

    "Goodbye Lucius."

    "Bye for now, Lyrah, Natali." Lucius gave Rena''s hand a light squeeze before pausing and cing a gentle touch along her stomach. He then turned and went to Wally''s study where Kalliope waited for him.

    The old man was conveniently away on urgent business for the king at the time of the attack and had yet to return. From what his sources said, there were issues at the Demon''s Stomach, a major dungeon halfway to Pelith from the capital. Wally was a subject matter expert on dungeons and many things considered rted to the extinct demons thanks to his focus on marks.

    Kalliope was waiting inside the study. She was wearing leather armor ented by metal pieces on her shoulders, chest, and thighs. Lucius found himself slightly entranced by her for a moment, but quickly cleared his head and got into his business demeanor.

    "Commander, I have news."

    "Go ahead."

    "Eroa experienced a small revolt around the same time as the academy attack here in Arcadios. Simrly, every other Union nation as well as Aedrider suffered small instances of these violent outbreaks. However, none were asrge as what we experienced." Kalliope exined.

    "Any news on Alorek or Raleron?"

    "None."

    "And we are sure they are the same group?"

    "ording to reports at every location of incident the people starting the revolts were shouting phrases rted to fire, mes, truth and the ''throne of creation.'' Which is something we still have yet to uncover."

    "None of our information sources know what this ''throne'' is? I find that strange¡­ is it some object of worship?"

    "I do not know¡­" Kalliope shifted around ufortably for a few moments.

    "Say whatever it is that is on your mind."

    "I have more news. I learned of it prior to the academy attack. However, I needed to independently verify some of the details via more reliable and trustworthy channels¡­" Kalliope swallowed a lump that seemed to have appeared in her throat. "It''s about Shiyani."

 Chapter 238 Old Wounds

    "It''s about Shiyani."

    Kalliope''s words made the scars and burns on Lucius''s back itch and ache. His body felt hot as though his very blood was about to boil. The woman''s face appeared before him surrounded by Paul, Lethen, and Mia. Only one of the four that betrayed him died and it was by her own hand.

    "L-lucius¡­ c-calm¡­" Kalliope looked at him as though she was struggling to breathe. Outside the window clouds were forming in the sky.

    Lucius slowly began to breathe and try to regain his sense of reason. Kalliope gently ced a hand on his arm and looked at him with eyes full of concern. It was a rather sweet andforting gesture that he was unfamiliar with from her. He half-expected her to make a pass at him, but since Rena''s news and the academy incident, she has not said anything.

    However, he suspected there was more to it than that. He also noticed that the air between Kalliope and Lyrah seemed odd. It was not hostile, but something had happened between them and Lucius was at a loss for what.

    "What have you learned about her?"

    "While you were on your trip, Lyrah and I ran into Renton and Marie. I attacked them and almost killed them but¡­ they said¡­"

    "They weren''t part of the attack. I know. Shiyani used her mark to incapacitate them. They were innocent of everything that happened that day."

    "Well, they said that after bringing them back to the capital in Arcadios, Shiyani and her party made mention of heading north to Aedrider for their next jobs. That was four years ago, mind you, but it is more than we have had." Kalliope finished.

    He closed his eyes in quiet contemtion. She was right. Though the news was four years old at this point and any sane person would consider the trail long dead, it was still a clue. He could go to Aedrider and seek out any information he could about Shiyani.

    She was once a well known and used assassin in political circles. However, after Lucius''s attempted assassination, Shiyani and her cohorts had never appeared again within human territories. All their contacts lost the ability to reach them. It simply appeared as though they had vanished from the face of the continent.

    "I believe I read a report iming that Aedrider was Shiyani''s homnd. I figured it was obvious since a scant few natives of Haedda leave its borders, temporarily or otherwise."

    "That is correct. It is likely she had many contacts there that could get her a new identity or something else to hide her from the public eye."

    "Why would she do that though? I know for a fact the amount that Richard paid for my murder was high, but it was not the kind of sum that gets one to quit that line of work." Lucius pondered. "Perhaps without proof of a body she was worried I would hunt her down¡­"

    "Perhaps." Kalliope nodded, though she sounded unconvinced. "I choose to believe she has taken up another identity to start taking contracts again. Something tells me that she was less worried about you and more worried about the impact it would have on her reputation. Starting over would be a good way to avoid both scenarios really."

    Lucius nodded in agreement. What Kalliope said was the truth. Hiding her identity would solve both problems at once, so it would be hard to say which one was the reason for the behavior. Not that it mattered in the end. As the facts stood, she was gone and he could not find her.

    Frustration began to build as he thought back to the battle. If he found her again, it was likely she would be using the same magical crystal that disguised her under the visage she used as ''Jen''. Thanks to his keen sense of smell, he could probably detect her with prolonged exposure, but she likely had ways to mitigate that issue as well since she knew so much about him.

    The thing that caused his boiling frustration though were neither of those things. Instead it was the fact that he was unable to strike her with his [Forsaken Arts: Merciless]. Had hended even a scratch on her with it, then he would be able to noticed her the moment he saw her, no matter what lengths she went to in order to hide her identity.

    No concealment magic or technique could hide from that skill''s curse¡­.

    "What do you want to do?"

    "I want to hunt the bitch down."

    "Then shall¡­"

    "No¡­" Lucius shook his head. "I have to stay here for Rena as long as I can. Lyrah warned me that something might take me away from Rena for a while, but if I tried really hard, I could avoid it and stay by her side. So we should stay. For now."

    "Of course¡­ and about these attackers?"

    Lucius went on to exin Rena''s assessment of the situation. Kalliope agreed with every point that was made and took down notes as they discussed their options. What they settled upon was that they would have a team of two infiltrate the Merchant''s Guild to uncover as much information they had on shipping records and trade throughout the kingdom.

    They would focus on Arcadios for the moment and not worry about the other kingdoms. If anything did not show up, then they would move beyond the kingdom''s borders.

    While their team on the inside analyzed shipping and trade records, they would have another pair join up as caravan guards and see if they can find anything suspicious that urs on the trade routes themselves.

    It was not beyond the realm of possibility that any skimming of resources would happen between locations instead of at the trade destinations directly. Of course, all of this hinged on the idea that someone was skimming off the top from the most secure and money-minded organization in the world.

    "Anything else?"

    "No, I don''t¡­"

    Both of them stopped and turned towards the door of Wally''s study. A gentle thud grew ever louder as a group of men in heavy armor seemed to be approaching the door.

    Kalliope began to draw her sword, but Lucius held her back. She remained at the ready, but kept her de in its hilt. As much as he would have loved to fight his way out of whatever was happening, it would put Rena at risk.

    The doors to the study were thrown open as a group of almost thirty men in armor stood in the hallway outside. Standing in the doorway was Commander Arturo and some strange man wearing abination of robes and heavy armor.

    "Lord Lucius Kane of Eroa," Commander Arturo barked, "By authority of King Aleksander Verall von Arcardios, you are ced under arrest. You will yield to mymands and apany me to the castle to face trial at once. Do you submit?"

 Chapter 239 To Justice

    "You are to bring Lucius Kane to trial at once."

    Those were the words handed to Commander Arturo by King Aleksander. Though they were said through gritted teeth, the truth of the matter was that the man in question had finally pushed too far.

    Luciusmitted more than a few crimes on the day of the attack on the academy. On top of that, the crown was facing immense pressure from the Church of Celestia to remove the noble from the city.

    They could not do so without a formal trial and conviction of his guilt since the man was technically an envoy of Eroa. Both the King and the Church were aware of this. Due to the prophecy warning them about House Kane, the crown did its best to ignore Lucius'' behavior, but when the Church confronted them with irrefutable evidence and eyewitness reports, his behavior could no longer be tolerated.

    Arturo was a powerful warrior and as a Master Rank fighter, he could most likely handle Lucius in a fight. However, it would be a hard-won battle and result in a lot of coteral damage. If at all possible they needed to figure out a way to avoid direct conflict.

    The man sat in silent contemtion trying to muster up some form of n to carry out his orders. There was a decent amount of Master Rankers in the capital at the moment that could be used, but that would mean nothing if Lucius attempted to escape.

    Of course they could just as well go after him with a team full of Advance Rankers but then¡­

    Just as Commander Arturo was nning out how to make this work, a man walked up to him who was wearing pristine white robes. His demeanor and dress easily identified him as a high-level member of the clergy with the Church of Celestia.

    "Hello, Commander," the man said with a gentle smile, "I hear you have a task at hand that you might need assistance with."

    "Father Urd, it is a pleasure to see you. We do not typically have the pleasure of your visits anymore. You spend so much time holed up in the cathedral that we thought you had forgotten about us!"

    "Nonsense! I am but a busy man, nothing more, nothing less." Urdughed. "So, about this task I have heard about. It seems you will be going to arrest that devil?"

    Arturo sighed once again, reminded of his conundrum. "Yes. I must apprehend him. I know he hasmitted several crimes and generally is unpleasant to work with¡­ and I appreciate the Church''s desire to see justice properly served¡­ However, he is a particrly difficult case to deal with."

    "I have heard of this ''Lucius Kane'' and his exploits. I understand he is quite the powerful warrior¡­ such that he is."

    "Not only that, he is the son of Kalivas of Eroa and is also an emissary of Eroa¡­ it makes diplomatic rtions tense to say the least. There are other matters, though I am not at liberty to discuss them here."

    "Mmmm¡­ quite right, Commander." Urd paused and sighed. "Since I feel horrible for being the one to have helped thrust this responsibility upon you¡­ perhaps I might be able to be of assistance?

    "We have a number of our Church Guards avable at the moment. There are a few Masters among them, but there is one additional person who is particrly useful."

    As Urd said that, he gestured down the hallway. Approaching them was a man of simr build to Arturo, but he was d in te armor with a clergy robe draped over it. On his back was a massive warhammer and etched into the center of his helmet was the symbol of a lightning bolt.

    He was the most powerful tool that the Church of Celestia had at their disposal. The man was also one of the reasons that Arcadios had such close ties with the church. Losing their support meant potentially losing the support of this man.

    Commander Arturo was at a loss for words, but he mechanically stood and bowed to the visitor. "Sir Theos¡­ the Thunder King¡­ it is an honor¡­"

    Arturo was greeted with silence. The man known as the Thunder King was one of the two Empyrean Rankers that defended the Kingdom of Arcadios. His loyalty was owed to the kingdom second and the church first, which was why they had so much pull.

    "T-truly? Father Urd, you are lending his services to me?"

    "Yes. We know that this Lucius Kane person is quite the tricky customer. If he were to use his Thunder Magic, it could cause problems. Sometimes one must fight fire with fire, so to speak." Urd said calmly, "Sir Theos will assist you if necessary, but we don''t imagine that will be needed. I don''t think the man is that stupid."

    "You''re right. Thank you very much. I really can''t thank you enough¡­" Arturo bowed deeply.

    They bid each other goodbye and went separate directions. Sir Theos followed him to gather a selection of soldiers that they would use to confront the used. Though he did not know exactly how the incident would go, having backup in the form of one of the kingdom''s strongest guardians guaranteed them safety.

    Of course, the man could still resist. As he was about to turn the corner, Commander Arturo felt a hand ced on his shoulder. When he turned he found Sir Theos had ced his hand with a note in it on his shoulder. Themander awkwardly took the note and read its contents.

    What he saw inside piqued his interest. "With this, I know we can take him in quietly¡­ Honestly, the church is very terrifying when I think about everything you all prepared for this¡­"

    Sir Theos said nothing as he silently continued towards the barracks, intent on gathering together the men they needed to bring the demon, Lucius Kane, to justice. The Thunder King''s massive footfalls echoed throughout the empty hallway as he trudged ahead of Arturo. Though things appeared rough at first, everything the church had given them today made his life much easier.

    "Truly, thank you for your kindness, Father Urd." Arturo said with a smile while running to catch up to one of the ''gods among men'' that defended their great home.

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!