“Tell me! Tell me everything you know!” Leona grabbed Robert by the collar of his robes. “Who exactly is she?!”

Xenovia, who was still lying unconscious on the table, seemed to have a troubled expression even as she slept. She didn’t wake up despite Leona’s shouting and soon after Robert let out an exasperated sigh.

“She is, or rather, was the Empress’ granddaughter.” He took her hand and shook it off his clothes. “But that matters little now, what matters is that we were able to change this timeline.”

She shook her head. She couldn’t forget the ruthlessness of the ‘Empress of Annihilation’. Her previous encounters with her were in her inner world but nothing came close to what she had just witnessed.

“But… how…? Why did I become such a monster?”

“It was all thanks to that dragonslayer sword.”

“You mean Avalon? But I first encountered that blade in Janno’s possession way back in Londria, that was never a family heirloom.”

“Not in this timeline, because Xenovia prevented you from ever knowing the existence of that blade in the first place.” He took a deep breath. “If I remember correctly, when I first met her she had explained how convincing your father to relinquish that blade was extremely difficult.”

“My father… knew of it?”

Robert was tapping the side of his head as his eyes wandered around the room.

“He was using it to produce frostburnt silver if I’m not wrong. Xenovia was only able to leverage it with knowledge about the upcoming war against the demons.”

“But this doesn’t make sense… if Avalon was truly the problem then I…”

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” He cut her short. “With that blade, you could’ve easily killed Alexander upon your first meeting. The man that plotted his entire life upon bringing destruction and chaos against your family and demonkind. How would ‘you’ feel if you could have snuffed out his existence with a flick of a blade? Would it have stopped there?”

“I…” She grasped her left shoulder. Her wounded stump throbbed in a sharp pang of pain. “I don’t know… so many people could’ve been saved if he didn’t exist. So many lives, so many futures… all because of a single man.”

“That is how war works.” He smiled bitterly as he moved Xenovia’s unconscious body back to the pedestal. “One vow, one betrayal, perhaps even one misunderstanding can cause sparks to ignite the flames of war.” After gently placing the warrior back floating on the runes, he returned and sat on the table. “With this knowledge in mind. Do you think you can make the choices that you, yourself would truly make?”

There was a long pause where Leona just stood there looking intently at the woman. She extended her right hand forward and caressed her left cheek while gently brushing the blonde bangs of hair aside from the front of her face.

“Yes. I can for sure this time.” She turned around with a sharp and confident gaze. “I can’t let that happen again.”

Robert let out a short chuckle.

“I was worried for a moment that you would have broken down by now after knowing the truth, but apparently it only served to make you stronger.” He started to grin. “Well then, I can assume you’re ready to go back?”

She nodded and turned around one last time to look at Xenovia. She lowered her head and tapped her forehead against hers.

‘Thank you for your efforts, Xenovia.’ She thought with a quiet smile on her face. ‘I promise I will make a better future for all of us.’

She slowly stepped back and smiled before turning around to face him.

“I’m ready. Let’s return.”

In another snap of a finger, they had returned to the main hall of their cavern home. Tomoe and Ren were cleaning the dishes as Leona sat down near the crackling fireplace.

“Welcome back, Master Robert, Miss Leona.” Tomoe greeted them before addressing Leona specifically. “Should I bring you a meal?”

“Ah, no. Thank you, Tomoe.”

There was a sense of duty mixed with relief growing inside her chest as she tilted her head upwards after leaning on the couch.

“So, can you see why you have been training so hard?”

Robert asked as he too sat down on the armchair near the fireplace. Leona stared at her own right hand before closing it tightly.

“Yes and if this is the same as the other timeline, there won’t be any time to waste. We need to band together to fight these abominations.”

“It won’t be easy. Granted how each of the different kingdoms near Arcadia are faring against not only the death angels but with their own struggles, many will deem you crazy or paranoid.”

Stolen story; please report.

“It matters not what they think.” She had a fierce gaze in her eyes as she looked at him. “My path is clear and I won’t lose sight of it. Not after what I experienced.” She turned to the fireplace, staring at the embers that were slowly dying out. “When I saw her memories as my own, I could feel every bit of her passion, her despair, her anger… it was nothing short of admirable how she could fight so valiantly even though she knew it could be all for nothing.”

He chuckled which prompted her to look at him.

“Ah, pardon me. It’s not that I was laughing at your determination. It’s just ironic how Xenovia came this far to change your path and yet even after accomplishing so, she isn’t able to witness it herself.” He had a nostalgic smile on his face. “Ah… how amusing it would be to see her face now…”

She tilted her head slightly sideways as she held her chin.

“It does make me wonder, why is she like that? Was that also part of her deal with you?”

“Hm? You mean in stasis?”

“Stasis?”

“As in, frozen in time.”

“Yes, that.”

“Well… our deal was that I would be able to study the spells that the other ‘me’ invented across the ages in order to end Lastraeous, in exchange, I would keep herself safe from the erosion of time through magic. However, my end of the bargain also included keeping you safe until you reached Nara and if you did and didn’t pose a threat to the world like the other timeline, I would train you to become a powerful mage.”

“A powerful mage huh?” Her eyes naturally drifted towards the frostburnt silver longsword that was still on the same wooden stool she had left it. “Does it have anything to do with Avalon?”

“Somewhat. I know it was thanks to that and my other self’s sacrifice that she was able to cross the rift of time and space but we weren’t sure whether or not Avalon’s memories would affect you.”

“Just how much did she plan ahead of time…?”

“Decades. The only thing she didn’t plan for was for you to obtain Avalon in Londria. We knew it would be there but to be handed directly to you was an oversight.”

“Hmmm…” She reached for the sword and unsheathed it. The silver blade emitted a light blue gleam akin to fog on a very cold day. “It certainly helped me fight against the kobolds and that kraken.”

“Considering it is a weapon capable of bringing down even the dragon god, I’d say it is legendary in nature. However…” He flicked his hand and the sword escaped from her grasp. “Given the circumstances, I still would prefer it if you didn’t use that blade.”

“I understand. But then what will happen to it?”

He sheathed the sword back and left it on top of the stool.

“I’m considering a few things, but for now no one will wield it.”

“It’s not because of silver decay is it? I heard continuous exposure to frostburnt silver can kill a person.”

“No, no. First of all, you and Krieg are effectively immune to it thanks to your dragon blood.”

“Huh?”

He glanced at her with a raised eyebrow.

“You do realize silver decay happens because frostburnt silver is technically a living thing and not a metal right?”

“It’s… not a metal?”

He pinched his nose ridge and lowered his head.

“Okay, Leona. Think. What is the material Avalon is made out of?”

“Frostburn-” She didn’t even finish her sentence but one stern look from Robert was enough to make her correct her mistake. “Sorry, parts of the silver dragon, Sylphia.”

“Correct. This type of material is actually more close to an organism rather than metal, the material is just exceedingly rigid that it may look like a metal.” He leaned comfortably against his armchair while continuing to explain. “For that reason, frostburnt silver is known to be an excellent mana conductor and it is partially the reason why you lost your arm.”

“Eh? How does that make any sense?”

“Think about it this way. If the sword you used to infuse with mana was of any other material, it would’ve broken off or shattered into pieces, but since it was frostburnt silver, it allowed you to channel tremendous amounts of mana through it, which resulted your arm to literally ‘burn’ with mana. Thus resulting in this thing.”

He snapped his fingers and a crystalized left arm appeared out of thin air as it fell on his hand. A few light blue crystals grew from the shoulder part all the way down the beginning of the forearm.

“Wait… that’s my arm, what are you doing with it?”

“Studying. Since I can’t really glue it back in your body I might as well use it to analyze crystallization of mana.” He tilted the limb and looked around the inner side of the forearm. The usually purple veins were darkened with crystals embedded in them. “It’s interesting that it took the shape of crystals even though mana doesn’t generally have a predefined shape unlike aether’s more gas-like state.”

She had a tired expression on her face.

“You’re really pragmatic aren’t you…”

“Knowledge is knowledge.” He raised a shoulder while still observing the limb. “Besides, it’s useful to know what happens to the body once the concentration of mana is much higher than it supports. I have never seen anything like this before.”

“Thanks, I didn’t know someone could make me feel like a bizarre attraction even though that arm is no longer attached to my shoulder.” She shook her head in resignation. “So? What now?”

“What now, what?”

“I want to know what you’ll be doing after me and Krieg go back to Arcadia.”

“Keeping Nara safe, what else? There isn’t much to do in this current day and age thanks to your kingdom’s little war of succession.”

“It wasn’t my choice, you know.”

“That is besides the point. What we all need is for you to unify the central continent under one influence. Namely, Arcadia’s.”

“That is exactly what I intend to do.” She had a decisive glint in her eyes as she spoke. “Akrapocalis, Windia and Londria shouldn’t be a problem as long as I have control over the kingdom. The biggest issue is both Aradia and Zenith…”

“Hoh? Are you not even slightly worried about the demon kingdom?”

She shook her head.

“Queen Eleonora paved the path to peace between our kinds and I don’t think the demon king would go back on his word.” She brushed her hair back with her hands as a quiet sigh left her mouth. “Then again, if I’m too late to return, Alexander might damage that alliance they fought so hard to build.”

“Well, you still have about twenty days left.” He snapped his fingers and the crystalized limb suddenly disappeared before he stood up. “Rest well and prepare for tomorrow. You got a lot to study,”

“I know.” She glanced at the fireplace as the last log broke in half. “This won’t be easy…”