He had failed to fully regain his old strength, but he had made significant progress nevertheless. At the very least, he was now a silver knight. Varos no longer had to pant and gasp every time he used silver aura, like he had during the fight with future Leven.

"With this, I should finally be able to use some of the techniques I couldn’t before due to low stamina." After experimenting a bit more with his aura blades, Varos turned to Karnak. "But what about you, young master? Any progress? Aren’t you due for ninth circle soon?"

Karnak rolled his eyes. "Hey, I just hit the eighth circle not too long ago, remember?"

He had achieved the eighth circle just before leading the Strauss subjugation army, back when they were still in the Zestrad territory. But it had only been a few months since then. Going from eighth to ninth in that time was absurd, though, Varos and the others had been experiencing absurd growth.

"You people think the world is easy just because you’ve been handed everything," grumbled Karnak.

But Varos had a reason for his question. "I mean, you could probably cheat your way through it too, couldn’t you?"

Varos had failed to realize that he was holding a treasure—the Delphiad swordsmanship—in his hands earlier. But Karnak had another kind of treasure in his possession.

He possessed the three Anti-Time-Space Transcenders that granted him chaos mana and necromantic power. If not for the sheer power of those artifacts, Varos and the others wouldn’t have advanced so far, so quickly.

Karnak clicked his tongue. "Though calling it a treasure is a bit much, considering how evil its origins are."

"Strictly speaking, aren’t you its origin?" Varos asked him.

If Tesranach was another world’s version of Karnak, then Varos was right.

Karnak let out a sly grin. "Which means it’s definitely evil, right?"

"It seems you’ve finally gained some self-awareness," Varos muttered. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

He was secretly impressed. Unbelievable. He really is starting to become a proper person.

Well, either way, it was a good thing. Whether Karnak became more human or not didn’t really matter to Varos. What mattered was that Karnak continued to change in the direction he wanted, nothing more.

Karnak ran his fingers over the necklace and continued, "Still, even with this thing, breaking into the ninth circle will take more time."

Which made the others’ growth all the more fortunate. "At least now, even if Elezar or Dreltein show up, we’ve got a decent shot."

"You think we could beat them?" Varos asked him.

"If luck’s on our side," came the answer.

At the very least, their chances of escaping unharmed had increased considerably. Back then, they could barely even consider running from those two.

Karnak continued, "At least now, I’m not constantly on edge wondering when they’ll come knocking."

Varos was surprised. "You were on edge? You looked pretty relaxed to me."

"I was acting calm on purpose. Can’t exactly show weakness in front of everyone." Karnak’s expression hardened slightly. "Though, that’s assuming they actually do come after me."

Elezar and Dreltein still hadn’t left the empire. Of course, there was a possibility they were just pretending to stay and had already slipped into the Seven Kingdoms.

"But for that, they’ve been showing their faces in the empire far too regularly..."

"What if they’re fakes?" Varos offered.

Karnak snorted. "Why would the empire’s strongest mage and swordsman need to create fakes just to come chase us down?"

The very idea implied that they were wary of Karnak, and that just didn’t make sense. If they wanted him dead, they could clear their schedule and make their way. They had no need to conceal their movements behind substitutes.

"Then maybe there is a reason they’re staying put?" Varos offered.

There was no doubt that Elezar and Dreltein could no longer ignore him. He had already defeated Jedex and future Leven. In other words, there had to be a serious reason they were staying put.

"We’ll find out soon enough," Karnak said with a shrug. "If they have no reason, they’ll come. Even if they do... well, they won’t leave me alone forever."

Varos frowned. "You think they’ll send an assassin?"

"That’d be the standard move, but..." Karnak looked doubtful. "They’ve sent plenty of lackeys already, and none of them got anywhere. Maybe it’s about time they tried something new."

***

The Lacania Empire spanned half the continent. Though it was Emperor Gottfried II who reigned over this vast land, even he couldn’t hold the entire empire in his grasp. The ones who truly managed the nation were the many vassals under the emperor, and they had long been divided into two major factions.

On one side was the Relphrantz Duchy. They were the consort kin of the imperial family, and had developed a deep relationship with the imperial family over many years. They had the support of numerous old noble lineages.

On the other was the Kazemil Marquisate, which held practical control through its dominance in the imperial administration, producing high-ranking officials including the current chancellor.

On the surface, it looked like Duke Relphrantz and Marquis Kazemil were the true leaders of their respective factions, and the world believed this to be true. But they were merely figureheads.

There were others pulling the strings from behind the curtain. Relphrantz’s true strength lay in the empire’s magic tower, while Kazemil’s final bastion was the Kretas Knights. And the heads of those two institutions were the ones who truly ruled their respective sides.

For a long time, the faction wars had tilted in favor of the magic tower. Elezar de Reflasion, head of the magic tower, was an archmage. She was a tier above Paltos, the Commander of the Kretas Knights and a silver knight, and this imbalance gave the magic tower dominance.

But six years ago, that balance began to shift. Paltos’s disciple, Dreltein Thelix, rose to power and seized control of the knights. After taking over Paltos’s seat, Dreltein soon reached the gold-tier and surpassed his master.

He became the fourth martial king after Batalok, Beltia, and Gellard, and his name spread across the continent. This made the Relphrantz Duchy anxious. Now that the Kazemil faction had a martial king to match an archmage, the power struggle was no longer one-sided.

But oddly enough, just as things seemed poised for bloodshed, tensions de-escalated. It was the result of the Shadow of Doom. As darkness swept over the world, there was simply no room left for humans to keep fighting each other.

The two rival factions reached an unspoken truce. And since then, they had even grown... surprisingly close. So close, in fact, that Dreltein Thelix—the leader of the Kazemil faction—had personally visited the magic tower at the invitation of Elezar, head of the Relphrantz faction.

***

The greatest city on the surface was Thea Krahan, imperial capital of the Lacania empire. On the eastern side of the capital stood a modest white magic tower, in front of which a group of knights had gathered.

They were the entourage of the Martial King of Kretas, Dreltein, accompanied by his escort knights. As they arrived at the entrance, a pair of male and female mages greeted them with polite deference.

"We’ve been expecting you, Martial King of Kretas."

"Master Elezar is waiting inside."

At the head of the group was a man in his thirties with strong features and deep black hair.

He stepped forward without hesitation. "Understood. I’ll go in."

The other knights prepared to follow, their expressions tense.

But the mages held out their hands to stop them. "The rest of you will need to wait here."

It wasn’t particularly rude. When individuals of Elezar and Dreltein’s stature met, it was standard etiquette for subordinates to wait outside. The issue, however, was that this tower was the heart of a faction they had quietly battled against for over a decade.

"This is unacceptable, Sir Dreltein. You can’t enter enemy territory alone..."

"Why isn’t Elezar meeting us at the door herself?"

"Is this a trap?"

The knights refused to back down easily, their expressions full of suspicion. The mages' faces also began to harden in response.

Mana and aura, unseen but palpable, began to rise from both sides, coiling through the air.

A tense, explosive energy started to gather around the tower.

What broke the stalemate was a woman’s calm and graceful voice. "Enough of this nonsense."

An elegant beauty, appearing to be around the same age as Dreltein, stepped into view. She was Elezar, master of the magic tower and imperial court mage.

"Today, we meet under a banner of goodwill," she declared.

At her appearance, the knights visibly stiffened.

An archmage...

Even without displaying any overt force, her mere presence made their aura shrink. This was the woman whose name had been famed across the continent since before these knights had even first held a sword.

Elezar bowed in accordance with imperial custom. "Please, enter, the empire’s strongest sword."

Dreltein returned the gesture with a bow of his own. "I thank you for the invitation, tower of wisdom that shields the empire."

Both sides relaxed, albeit just a little. Though they were technically enemies, these two clearly acknowledged each other. With that level of mutual respect, it was unlikely either would orchestrate a betrayal during such a blatant meeting.

Even so, no one could completely drop their guard. And so, amid the tightly coiled tension, the two supreme powers of the empire stepped into the magic tower together.

***

With elegant and dignified strides, the two made their way to the reception hall. And the moment they were out of sight, their decorum vanished like smoke.

"Ugh, what is this farce?" Dreltein scoffed, casually tossing aside his helmet.

Elezar slumped into a nearby chair with a wry smile. "What choice did we have? It’s true that we were never on good terms in this era."

"Right, wasn’t that just a few years ago you were actively trying to kill me?" Dreltein responded.

Despite their apparent closeness now, the two had long been rivals. As recently as five years ago, Dreltein had been forced into hiding more than once to escape Elezar’s surveillance. After all, Dreltein had regressed over a decade ago, while Elezar, at the time, was still the Elezar of the present timeline.

It wasn’t until the future Elezar returned to the past that they were finally able to form an alliance. And that was why they had been so busy lately. They were already occupied expanding the Church of the Dark God, and on top of that, their respective factions were at odds.

They couldn’t just abruptly call a truce and merge their forces overnight. You can’t grind your teeth at someone for years and suddenly say, "We’re friends now!" Not when there were massive factions watching their every move.

So even now, they were still working behind the scenes to reconcile their forces.

Dreltein rested his chin in his hand and muttered, "Seriously... what the hell were we even fighting about back then? It’s not like there was anything in it for us."

Elezar wore a similar expression. "Exactly. No matter how it goes, once he arrives, everything will become meaningless."

The reason this long-standing conflict had finally ended was simple. The appearance of an absolute evil, the Monarch of Death, had united them all. Of course, in another sense, that same Monarch of Death had also brought them together in a different way.

Regardless, because of this, Dreltein and Elezar remained enemies in the eyes of the world. So normally, they avoided meeting in person and instead used the power of Tesranach to communicate.

"But why did you bother arranging this meeting in person today? Why not just use the Hall of Shadows?" Dreltein asked her.

The reason turned out to be surprisingly pragmatic. "Because we don’t have enough necromantic energy to open the hall."

Dreltein frowned. "Huh? Our reserves are that low?"

"We used up quite a lot turning Gellard into a death knight. Not to the point of being completely drained, of course, but I’d rather conserve what we have for now. Besides, it’s about time we started showing signs of being more friendly," Elezar responded.

"Ah, I see." Dreltein nodded before posing another question. "But is it true? That Sir Leven’s defeat is part of Tesranach’s will?"

Leven Strauss’s defeat was nearly impossible to believe. If Leven Strauss was controlling the body of Martial King Gellard, even Dreltein couldn’t be certain of victory. And yet he had lost?

Elezar opened her mouth. "His words were clear. Everything is proceeding as it should."

"No, that’s not what I mean. Are you sure it was truly his will?"

In other words, was there a chance they had misunderstood Tesranach’s intentions?

Elezar shook her head. "I don’t think so. The message came directly from someone who heard his words."

Then, as if remembering something, she glanced at the door. "They were busy preparing, so they should be arriving soon."

Not that Dreltein needed to be told. He had already sensed a presence. For a martial king, detecting anyone within a radius of several dozen meters was child’s play. "They’re here. I can feel them outside."

Moments later, a cheerful voice called out. "I’m coming in!"

And then, a girl stepped into view. She looked to be around eighteen, with a freckled face and dull brown hair, giving her an utterly ordinary appearance.

Her eyes widened as she looked Dreltein up and down. "Oh my, Sir Dreltein? You look so young in this era!"

Dreltein acknowledged her with a faint smile. "It has been a while, Valeria."

She was Valeria Verily, the Fallen Pope of Atima, the Goddess of the Sea.