Five minutes later, once the women were finished changing, we set out immediately for the location where the Magic Knights were blasting their way upward. A few hundred feet below the surface now, they would reach the open sky in short order.
“Lord Aremus, if I may, why did you not kill the Holy Kingdom’s knights yourself? With your psychic powers, this matter could have been resolved with a single thought.” Hertrude offered an inquisitive look as she ran alongside me. “There is something else at play here, is there not?”
Her words brought our entire group to a sudden halt.
In the heat of the immediate crisis, the party had forgotten the immense, terrifying scope of the power I wielded. Now that Hertrude had spoken the thought aloud, the women demanded answers.
“What is really going on here, Leon?” Lucoa jabbed her index finger firmly into my abdomen. “Over the past few months, the world has become more volatile than ever before. If you know something, do not keep us in the dark. Party members do not keep secrets that could get their comrades killed.”
“Wait… Lord Aremus, they do not know what is happening, do they?” Hertrude realized only now that my party was blind to the broader reality. She had operated under the assumption that they were on the same page as Hertrauda and herself.
“What is she talking about, Leon?” Angelica stepped forward, the color draining from her face. “What have you shared with the Principality’s royal family while keeping the rest of us in the dark?”
A heavy, solemn expression settled across my features. I had desperately wanted to spare them from sharing my terrible burden, but now it appeared I was left with no choice. While my father had been heartless enough to alter the memories of those who cared for him without a second thought, I could not bring myself to do it. These women held a deeply special place in my heart. If I subjected their minds to such psychic manipulation, there was no telling what damage it would do to their psyches.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
“Listen to me carefully; I will only say this once. In this life, my name is Leon Fou Aremus, but in the ancient past, I was known as Klordius Aremus. My father was the Emperor of Mankind, and he ruled over a vast galactic nation called the Imperium of Man.” I looked directly into their eyes with absolute sincerity. “Ten thousand years ago, I left my home to seek knowledge, resources, and technology to save the people I loved from self-destruction. I only partially succeeded before I was struck down by a foe far beyond my strength.”
My party searched my eyes for any trace of deceit, but found none. Their expressions turned as white as sheets as the sheer weight of my words settled upon them.
“Why have you kept this information to yourself?!” Clarice stared up at me, her eyes wide with desperation. “As your fiancées, we can help you spread this news to protect—”
“No!” Hertrude grabbed Clarice’s shoulders and shook her with violent intensity. “The enemy is not of our reality. They hail from a hellish place called the Warp. We must keep their existence a secret at all costs! Their kind gain power through belief. The more people who acknowledge their existence, the stronger they become. I have seen these monsters with my own eyes. Without Leon’s strength, our world will die without a doubt. Vandel and his men are akin to children before them…”
The party looked to me for immediate confirmation. Instead of offering a verbal answer, I opened a psychic link and shared a single, ancient memory directly into their minds. They bore witness to the harrowing aftermath of a daemonic incursion.
It was a world I had been dispatched to bring into the fold during the Great Crusade. Near the Eye of Terror, about four hundred light-years away, my father had sent the Second Legion because of our heightened immunity to the Warp’s vile corruption. Just weeks prior to our arrival, it had been a thriving, technologically advanced star system untouched by the Old Night. When we arrived, however, it was a barren system devoid of all organic life. A population of over five trillion people had been annihilated by the powers of Chaos.
The air stank of fear, ash, and scorched ozone. Many unfortunate souls had been flayed where they stood, their husks frozen in eternal agony amidst endless mountains of mutilated corpses. The only remaining trace of life was a single, solitary AI sphere floating among the wreckage. I spent weeks scouring the system for any signs of survivors, but none were found. When I broke the news to the machine intelligence, it provided me with a complete copy of its creator’s data, and then deleted itself from existence. The AI refused to continue existing after losing the people it considered family.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Unable to stomach the grotesque images, my party fell to their knees and wretched. Their minds could not fully comprehend that something so vile was real. This world knew conflict and war, but nothing had ever approached that scale of apocalyptic horror. It was simply too much to digest.
“Leon… That will not happen to our world, right?” Deirdre looked up at me, wiping the bile from her lips as her breath hitched. “You will stop them before it reaches that point.”
“I cannot promise anything. My power is immense, but even I cannot hold back a full-scale daemonic incursion alone. What I need is manpower, resources, and technology. That is why I have placed so much focus on dungeon diving. Everything I bring back helps further my efforts to save our world.” I knelt beside her and gently patted her head. “No matter what happens, I will not abandon those I care about. If we are destined to fall, I will follow all of you into the afterlife.”
Their faces flushed bright red. That one sentence sent a jolt from the base of their spine straight to their brain. It was the most romantic thing they had ever heard. In their hearts, they swore to stay by Leon’s side to the bitter end. From this point onward, their fates were bound.
“You’re going to make me vomit…” Hertrude’s eye twitched with rage and jealousy.
‘Hehe! I have never seen you like this before. Just be honest with him, and you will be included too.’
Hertrauda playfully grinned at her older sister. She knew Hertrude would never be upfront with Leon; a helpful push was required. Right now was not the time to play matchmaker, though.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
“We should probably get moving again. Time is ticking.” Hertrauda elbowed her sister in the side.
Hertrude nodded. “That’s right! Sorry for distracting everyone.”
We helped Angelica and the others to their feet, then set off again in a hurry. Upon reaching the location, I turned to Olivia and Yunyun with a smile. Since they were always trying to do more to help me, today was their lucky day. Or unlucky, depending on how one looked at it.
“The two of you have learned how to use Magic Sense, right? There is something I would like you to do for me, if you have.”
“Yes!” They nodded in unison.
“Beneath our feet, I’ve gathered all the magic connections into a bundle for convenience. I want you to use your Magic Sense and Magic Control to extract them from the ground for me. Can you do it?”
They looked at each other before answering. What Leon was requesting was beyond anything they had done before. Olivia and Yunyun’s initial reaction was to refuse, but they stopped themselves. If Leon were making this request of them, he was confident in their abilities. With a nod, they looked back at Leon.
“Leave it to us!” Yunyun confidently slammed her fist hard against her chest. “Ouch! That hurt…”
We all chuckled. As I prepared to do my part, Hertrauda spoke up.
“You never answered the earlier question: Why didn’t you kill them from afar with your power?”
I drew my sword and channeled mana into the blade. The runes radiated a pale blue light. “The simple answer: The people of this world must learn to defend themselves. I will not always be here to protect them from the horrors of the wider universe. Warp-based threats can only be handled by myself right now, but normal enemies are well within your capabilities to deal with.”
Leon was right. They could not rely on him for protection forever. One day, he would return to the Imperium of Man to help rebuild his homeland. When that day came, their world had to be ready to stand on its own two feet. Hertrauda understood that if they dragged Leon down, the galaxy would suffer for it.
“Enough questioning me about my reasoning for things. I need you to trust me first, and ask questions later.” I gave Olivia and Yunyun a nod. “You ladies ready? The next barrage will breach the surface.”
“Ready!” they said in unison.
“Do it!”
Their staves crackled with magical energy as they channeled everything they had into them. As their magic senses found the bundle I made, their mana wrapped around it and pulled taut. With great effort, they reeled it in. It got halfway up before stopping.
“It… won’t… move!” Olivia’s breathing turned ragged. “A little help, ladies, please.”
“On it!” Angelica rushed forward with the other women and grabbed hold of the staves. “Ready… One… Two… Three!”
Together, the ten women willed the magic threads to rise again. They groaned and grunted as they fought for every inch they gained. When the bundle became visible on the surface, I prepared for my part.
“Great job, ladies! Almost there now.” I raised my blade and waited.
Once it was completely above ground, the blade slammed down into it. The threads resisted the blade at first, but brute force won out. As the sword’s edge severed the connections, a violent explosion occurred. Mana violently dissipated into the atmosphere like a ruptured, pressurized air pipe. Using my body as a shield, I protected the women from the impact.
“Did we… do it?” Hertrude looked up, exhaustion plain on her face.
“We did! I can sense the Magic Knights are shutting down.” Olivia danced with joy. Now that they were up close to them, she could see them like Leon had.
“Yay…” Roxanne collapsed to the ground. “I’m going to take a little nap—”
Her mana pool exhausted, Roxanne fainted. Yunyun pulled a mana potion out of her pouch and kneeled beside her friend. With some gentle coaxing, she made the Beastman woman drink the potion. In seconds, Roxanne’s eyes snapped open.
“What happened?!” She shot to her feet and looked around.
“First time experiencing Mana Depletion Sickness, yes?” Clarice patted her on the back. “You are officially a mage now, Roxanne. Welcome to the club!”
Roxanne shook her head. Magic training was a costly venture for those not born with an aptitude for it. It would take her months of intensive training and thousands of mana potions to become a novice level mage. She would rather spend that money elsewhere.
“Actually, Roxanne, picking up a few Spellsword spells would make you even more invaluable to our team. I even have an idea on how to do it without making you learn long chants or spend money on costly Mana Potions. What do you think?” I reached out and ruffled her hair with a grin.
Roxanne’s tail became a blur. The excitement in her heart could not be contained.
“You think I’m an invaluable member of the team?” Her face flushed red. “Well… Since it will help the team, I guess I don’t mind learning a few spells. I’ll be in your care, Leon.”
“If you’ve got some suggestions to improve my value to our team as well, I’m all ears.” Angelica latched onto Leon’s other arm. She wanted to spend some quality time with her future husband.
“Same here!” Olivia squeezed in beside Angelica.
The two women looked at one another and smiled. In seconds, the rest of my party was begging to become more useful to the team. While their mouths said one thing, their competitive gazes told a different story.
“Get in there, sis! You are going to be left behind if you don’t act.” Hertrauda elbowed Hertrude again.
“Ouch!” She rubbed her side with a pained wince. “Will you stop that? I know what I’m doing.”
Hertrauda was not buying it. She grabbed Hertrude’s ear and forced her to squat down. Getting close, Hertrauda whispered to her.
“I’m being serious, Hertrude. You could spend the rest of your life searching, and you would never find a man like Leon again. Don’t let him slip through your fingers.” She forced her sister to look her in the eyes. “I know right now our people need us to guide them through these trying days. But what about the future? We have a duty as royals to continue our family bloodline. Do you want to have the offspring of someone the court forces upon you, or someone you love?”
“I… I know, but—”
“What would our parents want you to do, Hertrude?”
In that instant, Hertrude recalled one of the last cherished moments she had with her parents before their death. That morning, they were supposed to have a picnic in the garden when uninvited guests arrived unannounced. Several affluent nobles had come seeking to marry their sons to one of them. Their father verbally tore them apart for trying to force arranged marriages onto the two of them.
‘My eldest daughter has only just begun speaking, and my youngest is only months old. How dare you come before me seeking the right to their futures! What their futures hold for them is for my daughters to decide. No amount of money or influence will sway my decision on this. Begone!’
Back then, their discussion had gone over her head. Now, as an adult, she understood their parents wanted them to find their own happiness before everything else.
“Okay… Hertrauda, you win.” Hertrude teared up.
“I am sorry for being so forceful, but I want you to be happy, sis. Grandpa Vandel and you are my only family left in this world. We can’t bring back what we’ve lost, but we can build something new with Leon.” Hertrauda teared up too. “Besides, I’ve always wanted an older brother.”
The two embraced one another and cried. I watched them in silence as my party members mean-mugged each other.
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