When Luke’s friends woke up, they soon realized that something was off. They weren’t in the flying fortress, and unknown people surrounded them. They quickly raised their guard, but then Luke’s parents found Billy and his family, and they were all making complicated expressions.

"Where is Luke?" Shalia asked after she grabbed Billy by his collar.

"I... Can’t sense our link, but..." Rina said, shocked, and then she looked around and quickly realized that the humans around were Luke’s followers.

"It seems that something happened to master...." Nambra said. "I can sense his presence, but he is too far away."

For a while, things got pretty heated, but then Luke’s parents managed to calm things down as they asked things around. Everyone didn’t recall what had happened, but Luke and Aivern were missing. Soon after, they learned that Luke attacked and killed Frank, but he didn’t force them to do anything. Eventually, they also heard that Cresta and her friends had come to Earth to investigate Luke.

"Luke was seen alone... Does that mean that Aivern did something?" Mark asked.

"That asshole! I knew that he wasn’t good news..." Shalia clenched her fists.

"Did he make Luke do something in order to free us?" Julia asked. "If that is the case, where are they?"

Everyone didn’t know what had happened completely, and they stayed in the dark for several days. Until they began to feel a lot of mana crushing the cosmos and making all the worlds tremble, those who had good magic senses felt that veil of reality was being destroyed. Luke’s friends and his family looked for him, but they didn’t find any traces. Eventually, they found Cresta group, and they told them what had happened.

"Are you saying that my son crossed a black hole to solve all this?" Julia asked while her face was blue due to the shock.

"... He was in a hurry to save all you, when we arrived there, we just saw the tower crumbling and the relic disappearing," Cresta said. "After a few days, the black hole disappeared and nothing came out of it. I am sorry."

When they heard that, everyone was in shock. It seemed that the situation was solved, but Luke had to sacrifice himself to achieve that. Julia passed out there while Mark was clenching his teeth and biting his lips in exasperation. He didn’t believe that he had become a burden to his sole son... Luke didn’t seem the type who would accept that kind of outcome, but he was also someone who would do what needed to be done, no matter what.

"Since it has come down to this, I will explain all the details," Richter’s shadow said. "There is no point in hiding things anymore."

That shadow explained everything that it knew. The only thing that it was lacking in the explanation was what or who was planning the destruction of the universe. Only Luke knew and could say, but...

While they were thinking about that, many weeks passed. Things began to return to normal on Earth... As it was possible considering the number of humans alive and monsters left. Although the greatest threat had been dealt with, some people still were using invasion crystals, the system was there, and it would stay since it was a countermeasure created by some worlds, and it wasn’t something that could just stop existing.

"What are you going to do?" Rina suddenly asked after approaching Shalia, who was lying down on a soccer field.

"... I am preparing my resources to look for him," Shalia said nonchalantly.

Rina felt bad when she heard that. Several weeks had passed since they woke up, and she was thinking about visiting her home planet and checking things there. She also missed Luke, but the plan to rescue him was too unrealistic. They heard that the place where the tower had been was basically in a galaxy that didn’t have many planets, so it would be hard to find the precise location. Not to mention, the black hole sucked mana more than anything, so opening something like that was practically impossible.

Despite those thoughts, Rina couldn’t help but admire Shalia. She was working to do that, and Nambra continued to meditate day and night in a tower she had built. At the top of the tower, she faced the direction where she last felt Luke’s presence. She was the one who stayed less time with him, but her devotion was real. As for Rina, she had already lost too many friends and family and got used to it. She knew that Luke was amazing, and if he solved the problem, then he could return with ease, but If he didn’t return until now, then it meant that he couldn’t.

"The contract that Luke has with his followers still is working, so he is alive," Shalia declared as if she could read Rina’s depressing thoughts. "Are you going to use your people to help Luke?"

"... I don’t even know how we can help to find him, but I will do my best, everyone in this universe owes him a huge debt, after all," Rina replied. "I suppose we should start contacting Cresta and her group, while they kept their distance from us, they also feel responsible for what happened."

Rina decided to contact the others who had already settled down in Miami. Luke’s parents looked a bit depressed, so she didn’t know how she should bring the topic to them. Rina herself wasn’t sure if that was a waste of time or not. Giving false hopes to Luke’s parents might be something that she will regret later.

Before talking with Luke’s parents, those two reunited everyone to talk about their plan. For a change, even Nambra joined them since that was more like a plausible plan than just waiting for his presence to appear. If all of them work together, they might be able to achieve something. Cresta and the others knew a lot, and Nambra was also on their level. Richter could control almost all of the mana of Earth if his shadow gave him the permission, while Rina and Shalia could control who knows how many elves and dark elves.

"So, what is the plan?" Amanda asked. "He is in another dimension, right? In that case, we should hurry because we might need to consider time dilation."

Amanda dropped a bombshell that no one had considered, but she had a point. Several weeks had passed, and most people wouldn’t be able to survive for that long in harsh environments like the other side of a black hole for long.

"Aside from mana, what skills will we need to go to another dimension?" Richter asked.

"YOU WILL NEED SPACE MAGICCCC!"

A shout echoed in the area, and that made everyone frown since it sounded like Luke’s voice. At first, everyone thought that they were imagining things, but then Luke suddenly landed in the middle of their circle... And his legs snapped with the impact.

"Ouch... That hurts," Luke muttered while looking at his broken legs.

As one would expect, Luke’s sudden arrival left everyone speechless. They thought that it was a monster copying him. His powers disappeared, and his level was back to one. Still, those three could recognize his mana from kilometers away.

"Luke!" Shalia and Rina said in unison.

"Master!" Nambra said.

Those three hugged Luke like they weren’t planning to let him go anymore. While ignoring his broken legs, they also took him to his parents, and things got noisy there for quite a while. In the end, they returned with everyone while celebrating. Still, things eventually got serious...

"How, Luke?" Rina asked. "Visibly surprised. "I thought..."

"Before crying, can you please fix my leg?" Luke asked. "I am as frail as a newborn baby now. Once you do that, I will explain everything."

That seemed quite the tale, so Rina hurried up and did that. Everyone was interested in what happened and what he found on the other side. Thanks to it, they frowned when they heard about a creature born of evil thoughts of those that passed away. The monster didn’t even have a name, but thanks to the evil deeds that people had been doing since time immemorial, it wanted to destroy everything, and it had the power to do so.

"That was a tough fight, but the one who had the bigger brain won," Luke said. "Thanks to my IQ that probably reaches the five hundred mark, I also managed to escape that dimension. While I had become one with the dark energy, I soon found a way to get rid of it. I just found that stabbing myself with my sword would do the job. The only problem was the fact that I couldn’t use mana, but then when I used a high concentration of dark energy, I opened some fissures that drained mana and I used it alongside time Manipulation to speed up the working speed of the sword. Thanks to that, I managed to purity myself in just a few weeks. However, my powers were also drained with it since mana and the dark energy had essentially become one. Anyway, sometimes my genius frightens me."

Everyone looked at each other... didn’t that mean that all the creatures of the universe were a part of the problem? Also, it was pretty clear that a situation similar was bound to happen again...

"Well, don’t worry too much about it," Luke said. "My sword is there for a reason, it will keep draining the dark energy and I am pretty sure it won’t break no matter what since I increased its size. Even the original size was enough to seal all the miasma, after all. Now praise me, I cleaned everyone’s mess and even managed to escape from an impossible prison. I deserve that much, MUAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Everyone smiled a little. The old Luke was back. It wasn’t like he was getting carried away, but he didn’t have reasons to struggle with his confidence anymore. In any case, all of them felt like celebrating, so they decided to throw Luke in the air. He deserved at least that much. Stanley, Leah, Patrick, Olivia, Amanda, Celia, Rina, Shalia, Billy, Lucy, Mark, Julia, Royce, Abby, Chloe, Sheila, Jennifer, Danielle, Sylah, Rachel, and Richter... they all joined that. Luke didn’t have many friends, but he was happy enough with those he had, even more since they weren’t just friends around his age.

Luke finally felt free and not bound by the shackles of his past and lack of confidence. He knew that life wasn’t going to only be rainbows and sunshines and every day, all day from now on, but at least it was a chance for a fresh start for everyone, including him.

"I got a great idea, Rina, Shalia, and Nambra... why don’t we spend some time alone on a desert island to celebrate my return?" Luke asked while showing quite the perverted smile. "I am sure that we can find some around here."

Once Luke said that, everyone stopped throwing him in the air. Not everyone but those three got caught off guard, and Luke ended up falling to the ground. As for the others, they turned around and left... Luke changed, but to say something like that in the open and in front of his parents.

"What a scumbag..." Amanda said.

"I guess Luke lost all that cool demeanor that he had, now he is just a regular playboy," Celia said and then shrugged.

"We got worried about him for weeks and that is one of the first things our son says after returning..." Julia sighed.

"No comment," Mark added.

"... I guess I killed the mood, hahaha," Luke said while he looked at the blue sky.

Fortunately, that day didn’t end so badly for Luke. Those three girls ended up kissing him at the same time, on the cheeks and the forehead. Luke truly was looking forward to his future... He had proved his valor to himself and he was satisfied with that.

The end.

So, guys... another novel ended. This is my fourth completed novel... it is quite crazy. Maybe not so much since this one was a bit shorter. I wondered if it was because I wrote the outline before the story itself... the same thing happened with the First Magic Swordsman. The others I didn’t use outlines, so they got that long even thought I knew where I was going with them. Neverthless, writing Luke’s journey was quite fun. He was a goofyball with some problems of confidence, but he solved most of his issue by the end of the book. In any case, tell me your thoughts about this book and you can point out how I can improve! See you guys on my other books! Thanks for following this journey with me!