In a dark cave within the forest were nine people huddled inside.

Hannah was carrying Houston on her back while Aya was doing the same for Reinhold. They were both unconscious and heavily injured but alive.

“What happened to them?” Heinster dropped the box of supplies in his hands and rushed over to meet them.

He immediately focused on Reinhold’s injuries due to Reinhold being completely mortal. Houston could naturally regenerate his own body but Reinhold couldn’t.

He immediately took out a few sleeping bags and laid them on top of each other and brought Reinhold down to rest. After seeing Reinhold weakly breathe out, he then focused on Houston. He laid out another sleeping bag and let him rest there.

“Big sis… what happened?” Chris, Aya’s little brother, has been kept away from danger the entire time mostly due to Reinhold’s arrangements.

“That golden armored inquisitor turned into some kind of terrifying reptilian monster. It was already bleeding out when I got there. How Reinhold managed to kill him I don’t know, I don’t even think I could scratch that thing,” Aya replied.

Hannah was silent the entire time, no one could read her expression, and no one dared to bother her.

Everyone was currently in a state of confusion about what they should do next. Everything Reinhold planned out was already executed, and although there were a few issues along the way the final outcome was more or less the same.

Luke started to speak up, “We should rest for now, think about it when they recover.”

Everyone agreed, it has been quite a traumatic experience. They felt that if they were asked a month ago what they would be doing now, what was currently happening was the last thing they would’ve said.

Last month, they were talking to their neighbors about how their lives were going. Now, they didn’t even know if their corpses were intact.

Everyone took out their own sleep bags and slept except for Luke.

After waiting in his bed for everyone else to sleep, he got up and brought the sword he got from Yio, and stood at the entrance of the cave. He felt that he hadn’t done anything despite everyone else playing their part so to ease his mind he stood as lookout.

Yio’s sword lost its numerous symbols and merged into an Eminence. This Eminence’s effects were unknown since Yio didn’t use it in his battle against Reinhold. Even more, the sword warped into something much more ordinary looking, it’s devastating sharpness, however, was extremely extraordinary.

Aya was too preoccupied with Reinhold to notice Luke pick up this sword, the only people who knew about this fact were Reinhold since he fought Yio and Hannah who was struck frozen in fear, and helplessly watched the battle unfold.

Luckily enough, there weren’t any issues that came up other than a few curious beasts that were quickly cut in half by Luke.

The rising sun eventually showed its brilliance as the dim cave reflected the light inside. Aya was the first person to wake up, she muddle-headedly looked around. Her heart dropped when she realized Luke wasn’t there, she frantically ran outside only to find Luke leaning against the entrance, his eyes almost drooping.

“Luke! What are you doing here?”

“Oh… Aya… good morning…” Luke could barely keep his eyes open but he still pulled through to greet her.

“Why didn’t you sleep?”

“Someone… has to…” Luke fell down.

Aya quickly propped him up. She looked at his sleeping face and slightly eased, he was peacefully sleeping. She easily carried him to her bed and covered him in a blanket. She sat down and passed the time by looking at him.

A few minutes passed by and the second person woke up, it was Miss Howards. She was extremely lost, she was alive but on the other hand, everyone she held dear was gone. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be, she wasn’t supposed to experience the loss of her loved ones.

“Aya, good morning,” Miss Howards greeted Aya.

“Good morning…”

Miss Howards started to get some food from the supplies that Heinster brought. She took some and gave Aya some. They both ate in silence.

Aya woke up Chris, her brother. She gave him some biscuits and water from her share, nothing luxurious but enough to fill his stomach. None of them could bring up a topic to talk about, resulting in an awkward atmosphere.

All of a sudden, Houston woke up with a frantically wide grin on his. He was subconsciously using his Law of Madness creating a dark mist that started to spread out from his body. Miss Howards started to tremble as Chris ran away from Houston’s terrifying expression.

“Hehe... haha… ha?” Houston jumped out as Aya reacted and held him down. She overpowered Houston’s crazed state and used her elementary comprehension of her Law of Sacrifice to give up strands of her hair to suppress the Law of Madness.

Houston’s cloudy eyes turned crystal clear as he realized where he was, “Aya?”

He looked around to see that half was still asleep, realizing he was safe he reeled in the dark mist that slowly evaporated into his body.

“I apologize, that was unbecoming of me,” Houston looked serious, one of the few times Aya saw him like this. He was usually so carefree but this further escalated how dangerous the situation they escaped was.

He tried to get up but he noticed that his body was trembling from the pain. He tried to pull through but couldn’t.

“You need to rest, I’ll get you something to eat,” Aya said.

“Thanks.”

She took more biscuits and water from the supply stash and brought them to Houston. He greedily devoured everything and slowly eased up.

“What happened to Rei?” Houston’s eyes were still serious, Aya could feel an extremely terrifying chill from this. It didn’t come from Houston’s law rather it came from guilt. Where this guilt came from, Aya did not know.

“That inquisitor turned into a monster and Rei killed it. I don’t know how he did it but it had countless holes in its body, it bled out as I arrived. I saved him before he was struck down by the sword Yio threw.”

Houston tried to recall what happened before he lost consciousness. He managed to take Higher Deacon Raxor out of the equation, he was about to recover when something interrupted his Madness Siphon, causing his laws to burn out, losing a bit of accumulation. He didn’t feel the ‘terror’ because he was numbed from his own madness. Aya’s words helped Houston fit the pieces together.

“He managed to… with that body…” Houston felt a headache coming on, he couldn’t understand just how Reinhold with his broken body managed to kill a transformed Yio. It was something that went against common sense.

Time passed until everyone except Reinhold was awake. They finally managed to get together and discuss how they should continue to move.

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Houston declared, “I’m bringing Reinhold to Heran City. You guys can plan for yourselves.”

From her complete silence ever since the beginning, Hannah said, “I’m coming as well.”

Houston didn’t mind and nodded.

“Wait, why are you deciding this on your own?” Luke spoke up.

“You may not know but Aya should. Go tell her.”

Aya was startled by Houston’s words, she didn’t understand what he was trying to say.

Houston pointed to Reinhold, “Tell me what you feel about him.”

Aya didn’t blush, her mentality was stable, “I already have Luke.”

Houston shook his head, “I meant do you feel something off about Rei?”

At this point, Aya blushed, she misinterpreted the situation. Luke laughed and made a few jokes on Aya’s behalf.

This one lighthearted moment eased up the tension in the cave.

After this short moment, Aya replied, “He feels… off? Like something’s missing, something that should’ve been there but it’s not anymore. I don’t know how to describe it.”

“He lost his Eminence. It’s gone,” Houston didn’t sugarcoat his words.

Everyone’s earlier lighthearted mood suddenly turned dark. Everyone knew what this meant. Everyone was born with their own Eminence, this signified their own unique existence. To deprive someone of their Eminence is to steal their individuality, they could never pave their own path to supremacy.

It didn’t mean that they would die but one could say it’s a fate worse than death. Similar to how an athlete that used to be a track runner suffering from broken tendons, forcing them to give up their ability to run. Fortunately, there is a way to re-etch an Eminence into someone, but this was usually an extremely costly process.

Heinster bluntly said, “Can you bring his Eminence back?”

“It’s impossible, it's completely wiped from existence. I can ask someone I know to etch one that will heal his body. Since…”

Houston didn’t need to speak further. Everyone knew that Reinhold’s body was in complete tatters. His healing leg suffered extreme stress from running away from Yio and was now almost crippled. He already had his vitality drafted way before this, using cheap medicines and self-destructive methods to quickly heal himself. The lack of sleep and physical exhaustion further pushed his body beyond its limits. To put it simply, he was barely alive.

“Ugh…” Reinhold grumbled as he slowly opened his eyes.

His lips were cracked, Hannah noticed this earlier and had a waterskin of water ready. She immediately brought this to Reinhold’s lips so he could drink. After being refreshed, his mind finally started to clear up on his current situation.

The very first thing that Reinhold asked was, “Did any of those reinforcements find us?”

“They didn’t.”

“Good. There should be-” Reinhold was interrupted by Hannah bringing out sedatives, Reinhold took some and continued to sleep.

After Reinhold slept once more, everyone noticed Hannah oddly taking care of Reinhold. No one wanted to talk about it.

Everyone else continued on with their planning.

“I’m planning to move to Freir Empire. Who’s willing to come with me?”

Aya was curious, “Where’s that?”

She only knew the surrounding cities, so she already knew about Heran City. The city that relatively well off than Green City with actual military power. They have a stronger economy, greater quality of life, and closer access to some kingdoms. There were a few rising geniuses there compared to the seemingly untalented people of Green City.

Heinster didn’t know how to explain to Aya and just said, “A safe place, not even the Church of Trials nor any other religion for that matter could overthrow.”

Aya privately talked to Chris and Luke about their next course of action.

Aya first spoke up, “I think we should follow sir Heinster.”

Chris just agreed with her older sister. He was going along with her sister’s wishes.

“I was thinking of joining up with Reinhold…” Luke solemnly said.

“What? Why?!” Aya was completely confused about why Luke wanted to go with Reinhold.

“I want power.”

The reason was self-explanatory.

“You don’t need power! I can protect you!”

“But who will protect you?”

“I can protect myself just fine!” Aya was starting to get agitated, she didn’t want to see more bloodshed, but Luke was actually going out of his way to throw himself into the slaughterhouse.

Aya started to tear up, she no longer wanted the feeling of fear to ever come up in her life. This traumatic experience was more than enough for a lifetime. Luke started to hold Aya in his arms.

“What if you couldn’t handle it? What then?”

“Then I’ll just get strong enough that no one can stop me!”

“Can you?”

“Of course!”

“I don’t think you can, Aya. You’re too soft. You shouldn’t need to burden yourself with this. I’ll take care of you,” Luke held Aya tight. An unknown strength surged within himself.

Aya bit her lip and looked at Heinster, “There’s someone who can train Luke in Freir Empire? Right?”

“There is an academy for people to learn but it’s expensive. If you want to go there, I’m afraid I can’t help with the expenses.”

“Ok! There, I’ll work so that you could learn there instead! How about that!” Aya offered Luke an alternative.

“Go with them,” unexpectedly Houston offered his perspective.

“Why?”

“That was the initial plan. For you guys to leave together while we move on somewhere else.”

Luke looked down, clearly understanding that this was what was meant to be. He held a slight hope that he could travel with Reinhold but everyone else was thinking otherwise.

“Fine.”

The thought of Aya working for him to attend the academy made Luke uncomfortable. Aya was younger than him yet she was taking more burden than she should. He decided to talk to her about this later on in privacy.

After deciding where everyone was going to go, Hannah went out to scout the surroundings. What she found made her relaxed, an army was currently residing within the city and the citizens were being treated.

The army had the symbol of the sun and moon intertwined with each other as if one was trying to consume the other. A subtle-looking man was currently spewing out orders as he observed the wounds on a reptilian monster.

Hannah came back to the cave to spread the news.

Dvar was looking at Hannah from a distance, her presence was completely obvious to people of this caliber.

“You’re going to let that rat leave?”

“I owe someone a favor, it's best to not make him hate me too much now.”

“You? Owing someone a favor? Is the world ending?” Dvar had his mouth open wide in disbelief.

“Is that really so unbelievable? I do believe I did owe someone a favor not too long ago.”

“You mean Fray… the greatest genius from the Land of Science,” Dvar said sarcastically.

Dvar continued, “Regardless… you made everyone so scared that we thought we were going to war. Turns out you were just returning a favor. He really wasted this chance, if it were me, I would’ve asked you to make me king! Gahahaha!”

“However, it seems that I was a bit too late for this one. I can’t consider this as returning the favor. Dvar go send someone to relay the information.”

Dvar accepted Gerald’s orders and promptly sent someone to follow Hannah.

“I don’t get it, if he was in danger, why didn’t you go on your own?”

“Fate plays cruel tricks on people. Very cruel tricks,” Gerald answers cryptically.

He continued, “Besides, how could I possibly take care of the survivors on my own?”

Dvar noticed something off with Gerald, he usually only does things he is sure of. It was as if Gerald was certain of the outcome.

Gerald was casually looking at Yio’s body which was filled with multiple holes. He recalled the scene when he saw Reinhold trapping both Yio and Higher Deacon Raxor into a corner.

The cylindrical object contained Gerald’s own laws, he could perceive the exact situation at the time of usage. He determined that everything was under control, he only needed to annihilate the opposing side and care for the survivors. It turned out a little bit more unexpected when two incarnations of the strongest gods appeared.

“The Land of Fate, truly mysterious,” Gerald trailed off on his own.

“Unfortunately, something has already changed. I wonder how far it’ll affect the future,” Gerald looked up at the skies, a slight golden mist was covering the skies. Oddly enough these skies started appearing all over the nine lands, only concentrating on places that had massive changes.

Gerald came back to observe the holes in Yio’s body. He touched the clean holes, only tainted by guts and blood coming from the sides.

“Not meant to die yet.”

Back in the cave, Hannah was explaining the current situation to everyone else. Finally, things were looking up for everyone. Although they could no longer, go back home, they could still go forward, to see new horizons.

As Houston was about to grab another bite, he felt a presence appear in front of the cave. He warned everyone and brought his half-recovered body and summoned his own Law of Madness.

The intruder said, “No need to worry about me, here catch.”

Houston grabbed the item the intruder gave him, it was extremely odd to see this item once more. It was the very item Reinhold gave Bran to use as the signal for reinforcements.

“Why’re you giving us this?”

“General Gerald told us that he didn’t come in time, so he still hasn’t repaid his favor. We’ll take full responsibility for what happened. That’s all,” the intruder walked outside the sun and moon symbol behind his armor was extremely eye-catching.

“Oh, by the way, if Reinhold doesn’t want it, we don’t mind someone else using it. All that matters is that if someone uses it.”

“Wait! How good is this favor?” Luke spoke up, he’s trying to gain information from the intruder.

“For you? Enough to kill a Path Treader. For Reinhold? Enough to kill a World Breaker. How that translates is up to you,” the intruder disappeared in front of them.

Houston was a little unnerved, this random intruder was stronger than him at his peak, possibly as strong as the transformed Yio. They might’ve seen one of the upper-tier organizations of the nine lands.

They all waited until Reinhold woke up to decide what happens next.

Time passed.

Luke and Aya were talking privately, although Aya’s occasional blatant refusals made it pretty obvious what they were talking about.

Chris and Johnny were playing on the side, being supervised by Miss Howards and Heinster. Small talk made them understand the pains of being parents.

Houston was by the cave entrance with his eyes closed. He was protecting everyone from the occasional beasts that came by while focusing on recovering himself.

Hannah was by Reinhold’s side, patiently waiting for his next move. She felt that she needed to make it up to him but didn’t know how.

Finally, Reinhold’s eyes opened once more.