It has been a little more than 3 days since the special class returned from their trip. 3 of the longest days almost everyone around Mia ever had.

Maximillian upon hearing about The Steps forbid anyone from speaking about anything they experienced on the trip until they were completely recovered. Upon finally getting as much of the picture he could along with some other minor dealings, he now found himself in the throne room of the royal castle of Azuria seeing an angry father charging at him.

“WHAT HAPPENED TO MY DAUGHTER!? WHY EVERYONE TELLS ME THE SHE IS HALF DEAD AND I STILL CAN’T SEE HER? HOW COULD YOU LET SOMETHING LIKE THAT HAPPEN!” Huang shouted as he dashed towards Maximillian and punched the old man. It wasn’t a punch with all his strength so the old man managed to take the hit and not take significant damage.

Maximilian was cold. His gaze showed a boiling anger that was being kept at all cost beneath the surface. Upon seeing his face, Huang thought that the old man was angry with him for some reason and asked something else.

“I saw you talking with Marry when Mia returned and I haven't seen her since! Where is she!?”

Once again Maximillian didn’t respond. He just stared at Huang with his cold eyes. Huang was ready to punch the old man again when the doors to the throne room opened again revealing Marry.

“Huang, I love you but stop being an idiot and return to being the warrior you are.” Marry said with an understanding, commanding and caring tone at the same time.

“...Yes… I think I may have overreacted a little…” Huang said.

“I wish that you could ignore our impropriety, Your Majesty. As you can see, our dear daughter is not in the best of the states right now.” Marry said to The King as she did a little curtsy towards the King.

“I can only imagine how I would feel in a similar situation so I will pay no mind. What I wonder is why my dear professor over here asked for a little meeting between the four of us alone. In the throne room specifically.” The King said. His voice carried the weight of his title.

“That is why I am here. Huang give me my sword. The real one. The one I gave you when I fell in love with you.” Marry said seriously but still somewhat reminiscing about her past.

“So it really happened?” Huang asked, showing fear of something.

“No. It’s worse than I could ever imagine.”

“... Alright. Here.” Huang said after stopping for a moment. He removed a rusted and bloody sword from his magic ring and gave it to Marry.

“Before I do anything, I need to ask you this one thing, Your Majesty. Are you ready to do what is necessary to protect my daughter?”

“Of course. One would have to be a complete and utter buffoon to not see the potential of that girl.”

Marry then channeled her mana on her sword. A green and black frame sprouted from her hand and covered the blade. Seconds later the sword was now completely black and a strange symbol somewhat resembling a skull was visible on the hilt of the blade.

“Then let me ask again. Do you still think you are ready to do what is necessary to protect my daughter? If your answer is no, I will leave this land with her the moment she recovers and I promise to never set foot here again.” Marry said as she held her sword high, allowing The King to take a good look at her blade.

The King stayed silent for a full minute, clearly pondering what to do.

“Lady Marry, I am a man of many talents but military matters are not one of them. Do I have permission to summon my general?”

“If you trust him enough, then yes.”

After The King asked, It took about 3 minutes until the general arrived at the throne room and positioned himself on The King’s side. The man looked to be in his fifties. He was a tanned bald man, around 175 meters tall, no beard, dark brown eyes and a face that screamed ‘do 100 push-ups as punishment’. The man wasn’t all that muscular but you could feel power emanating from him.

“Your majesty. What is so urgent that you summoned me?” The general asked.

“Answer my question not just as my general, but as Gilihan, my trusted friend and the leader of all our troops. Can we and should we deal with them?” The King asked as he pointed at Marry’s sword.

“Is there anything special about that blade?” Gilihan asked.

“Sometimes I forget that being a general doesn’t involve reading the entire story of our kingdom. She is a Death Valkyrie.” The King said. Galihan still looked confused.

“Maybe you will know us by our more public name. The second army of Wanui.” Marry said. It took only a moment for the general's face to go from confused to panic and then to serious, as he began to calculate what it would mean to confront said army.

“I don’t understand enough about what is happening to truly give an answer.” He said after thinking for a few moments.

“No need to think that deeply. If Wanui and all its allies came at full force towards us, could we win?”

“They would have to cross the entire continent to reach us so there is a small chance. But why are you asking me about all of this?”

“Because we have the one thing the death cult that controls the country and the first two armies really don’t let other people have for free. Their members and their chosen. And given that I just heard that their daughter's situation is worse than expected, I guess she is a chosen, right?”

“No your majesty. She is The Chosen.”

“So we went from catastrophic to apocalyptic? I really am looking forward to the next few years.” The King said sarcastically.

“Your Majesty. I still don’t fully understand what is happening.” Galihan said, confused.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“May I speak?” Marry asked. The King nodded. “Seeing that The King is truly considering defending my daughter I will tell you the truth about Wanui. First, it’s just a front for the death cult that breeds and trains the first and second armies. The reason they are so feared is because every single member of both armies have at least a century of training before they are allowed to be part of it.”

“What?” The King and the general asked in confusion.

“It’s exactly as I said. Almost every single member of both armies were bred to be part of the army. I am no exception. The Death Knights or as you know, the First Army of Wanui, is where the males go and my former army is where the females go…” Marry said but suddenly stopped as she started to remember something and got visibly upset. “They cannot get my daughter. I will not allow them to brainwash them like they did to me and so many others!” Marry said with cold anger.

“If you don’t mind me asking. How exactly do things work over there?” The King asked Marry.

“...Until you are around 5 or 6 years old you are left with your parents or guardians to have a normal life. Then you are tested to see if you have the potential to acquire a death mana aspect body upon reaching the Core Creation Stage of cultivation. Something that they discovered can be passed down from parents to children if the parents have one themselves.

“Are you saying that every single member of the first and second army have death mana aspect bodies?” Gilihan asked as he interrupted Marry.

“Yes. It’s their sad reality. Usually when someone acquires a mana aspect body, that person will be completely in tune to that element but only that, but in the case of the higher elements like death, the situation gets a little more complicated, right?” The King interjected.

“Right…We are completely affected by the will of the element if you wish to call it that.” Marry said before pausing for a moment to gather her thoughts. “As for what that entails, it is a fanatical desire to live or to experience life.”

“You don’t seem any different than a normal person to me.” Gilihan said.

“That is because I sealed most of my power. Continuing what I was explaining about the cult. If you have the potential they will just take you from your family and train you. From a very early age they will brainwash you into thinking that serving the cult is what experiencing life is all about. As for training, it is quite brutal.”

“In what way?” The King asked.

“They will beat you up until you learn to fight back on your own while healing you just enough to continue to function. This can go on for decades if they have any expectations about you. All while giving you small rewards like new clothes, new weapons, better rooms, etc.. to keep you from rebelling. But that isn’t the worst part. The worst part is their lies about the true rewards of serving the cult…”

“Love, you don’t need to tell them about that.” Huang intervened.

“No! I have, I… I can’t have Mia be sent to the training camps. She is too pure for that. She…She woke up 3 times ever since Kat began treating her with my help. The first time she just asked if her friends were alright. Once I told that they were safe I could visibly see her relax a lot. The second time she woke up crying, saying that she killed Onyx. I learned what really happened the next day with the help of Mister Maximillian here. Then just before I came here she woke up again and said that the stair people won’t hurt anyone because she will become strong enough to deal with them alone…” Marry began to rant a little.

“Marry, it’s alright.” Maximilian said, training to calm the woman down a little.

“No, it’s not alright! Mia is half-dead and the only things in her mind are everyone else's safety. She barely left the Ki Gathering Stage behind. Acquiring a mana aspect body should be extremely painful to her but she is just enduring it. She is too pure for them! I will not allow them to take my girl and transform her into breeding stock like they tried with me!” Marry raged as she talked about Mia and herself.

“It’s ok now. Nobody will do anything to you.” Huang said as he hugged Marry.

“They put in your head that dying for the cult is the greatest thing you can do but to truly die you first need to live with all you have. The beatings, the rewards, the lies, it’s all so no matter how close to death you get, you will try anything to keep yourself alive, increasing the chances of you manifesting death mana on your own along with a better chance of you getting a death mana aspect body because of it. Then, when you reach that level, they tell you the other reward you can get, family.” Marry started to say angrily but began to somewhat calm down as she continued.

Everyone besides Huang got somewhat taken by surprise by what she was saying.

“They say that if you are strong enough not only will they give you a suitable woman but you can also choose someone of your liking if you want and they will try their best to ‘match’ you two. What they don’t tell is that if you are the trash of the army like I was, a mere foot soldier that could advance the ranks, they will just try to sell you to someone to make the cult stronger or just use you as breeding stock to pop as many babies as you can for them.” Marry added.

Once again, everyone stayed in silence, absorbing what was being said.

“They have the audacity to show these women around to the active members of the army like they are what we should aspire to be. Making them smile while carrying around as many kids she can, usually from different fathers since no one wanted her in specific. And when you either stop being useful or just start to understand what is truly happening to you, they sacrifice you to someone or something that only the leaders of the cult can communicate with, giving you the ultimate reward for serving the cult.”

“How can people become like that? No amount of brainwashing should be able to make you ignore the deep instincts we have, especially at that level of cultivation.” Gilihan said somewhat angry and confused.

“General. Do you know what the primary way the desire to live and experience life shows in people with a death mana aspect body?” Marry asked.

“No.”

“A fanatical desire to make and have kids. Something that the cult uses to their advantage by making it the ultimate reward one can get, besides death, as I said before.”

“I kind of understand the cult situation somewhat, but what does it have to do with them attacking us, or your daughter more specifically?”

“They don’t like deserters. For me to escape, another 10 valkyries had to sacrifice themselves and even then I had to seal my power so the leader could sense me. They have the power to sense any death mana anywhere in the world and right now Mia is a giant beacon of death mana. Sooner or later someone will identify her and they will try to take her. First because she is my daughter and they will learn about me if they learn about her and also because they think it is their right to have control of every user of death mana. Why do you think you never find them around? The cult gets them first.”

“I think I got the picture. But your majesty, why should we fight against one of the most powerful armies just to protect one girl?” Gilihan asked The King in a tone purely professional.

“Because if what my great teacher said is true, that girl will be worth our entire army and more in a few years.” The King said seriously as he looked at Maximillian.

“If you are still uncertain, I have a few reports about the girl in question. Take your time to read it if you want. They might cite The Steps a few times but you can ignore that group.” Maximilian said as he got a stack of documents from one of his many pocket spaces.

“The Steps?” Gilihan asked, confused.

“No need to worry about them. They are just a group of lunatics that will soon be dealt with by the relevant parties. What they did is unforgivable, right Huang?” Maximilian said, looking at Huang and expressing his desire for revenge against what they did to Mia.

“Yes! If that is the name of the group that hurt my daughter, they will pay dearly!” Huang said coldly but firmly.

“Then I believe we are all in agreement about our future plans. The Kingdom of Azuria promises to protect Mia from Wanui and its allies while you deal with The Steps. You are dismissed.” The King declared. Soon everyone besides Gilihan left the throne room.

“Your majesty, are you sure you should just have declared that?”

“My friend. I just got to peak at those reports but once you read it, you will know that we need to have that girl on our side if we hope to survive what is to come. War is brewing everywhere and now we just might have a chance of winning.”

“I will trust your word, Your Majesty.” Gilihan said as he began to read the documents.