Ryker’s speed on the way back was on a completely different level. After three consecutive breakthroughs, much of the lingering fatigue and injuries had already been dealt with. It was, unfortunately, not perfect. But it was enough that he didn’t need to worry for a long while.

Healing after a breakthrough was never perfect. For example, if you were only at 70% after a series of injuries, your breakthrough would allow you to display 100% again, but only because your relative strength and durability had increased.

There would be some marginal increase in healing capability, but it would only last for a short burst as the body evolved. It would be unable to deal with everything.

What was curious, though, was that it seemed with the help of Temporal Weave, the original sapping of his lifespan in exchange for healing was gone… in part.

At the very least, rather than losing weeks and months at a time, it was seconds and minutes instead. However, it was still not something that Ryker would lean upon. It was very easy for that to add up over a lifetime of battling.

‘I’ll find another way… Hm?’

Ryker’s gaze sharpened and his figure blurred.

In his Silver Mirror, there was a reflection of something far ahead.

He had almost returned to the Palace entrance, but there were actually people here?

‘That doesn’t add up. There was no way anyone but Auberon knew of this place. If not, there would be no way for him to hide the secret of that gate…’

The cat lady had said that he was the fourth person, meaning there were two others aside from Auberon. But Ryker had just made the assumption that those individuals were the former Crimson Supremes of the Federation, likely Patience’s grandfather and great grandfather.

This was the simplest explanation and the one he found the easiest time accepting.

‘Is it my fault?’ Ryker’s gaze narrowed.

The vanishing of the gate had caused a huge void of space to appear, which might have led to some unforeseen consequences. It was also possible that his battle with Auberon had led to this location’s discovery. After all, the Crimson Supreme had likely expected an easy kill, not a long, drawn out battle.

Rather than rushing into an unknown situation, Ryker suppressed his childish impulses and tapped into his usual cautious approach to things. He would definitely have to take some large risks if he wanted to reach the God Realm in just half a month, but that didn’t mean he would casually play with his own life.

So long as he was alive, he still had a chance.

If he was dead, what chance would he have?

Soon, the Silver Mirror reflected an image for Ryker to see.

‘That Crimson Regent bastard, huh? But it’s not just him…’

There was another man that Ryker didn’t recognize there, and they seemed to be in a hushed discussion.

‘They’re both only in the Lower 9th Enlightenment Realm. I’m probably being too cautious,’ Ryker thought to himself.

Despite thinking this, he didn’t move immediately. The duo was still about half a kilometer away from him, and he had sensed them from over ten kilometers away before he hid himself. At this distance, he could easily use [Soul Ripple] to both amplify their images and read their lips.

“… I already tried exploring this place for the last half day, there is nothing but a vast nothingness here. There’s nothing to gain at all,” the Crimson Regent said with a shake of his head. “Plus, we’re under no obligation to report every little detail. Are you resigned to being a lapdog for the rest of your life?”

“Don’t speak to me this way, Sebastian. You’re in the same boat I’m in.”

“Indeed. So I know your situation even better than you do. You were never the sharpest tool in the shed. Auberon does nothing but keep secrets, he didn’t even snap at his son’s death, and now his daughter’s brought home this wildcard and he’s likewise done nothing about it.

“Then, all of a sudden, he disappears with the boy and there’s a commotion that rocks the entire Palace, but now we don’t see a single trace of either one of them? There’s obviously something going on here.”

“Oh, you’re such a great genius,” the other man rolled his eyes, an action that was a lot more… flowery than his enormous size would lend credence to. “How do you know this isn’t a ploy by Auberon? Worse than that, how do you know that this isn’t a ploy by the Shadow Clan, and they’ve both already been taken out? What if they’re just waiting to see how we’ll react to test our loyalty?”

The Crimson Regent seemed surprised to hear this. It was a surprising amount of cogent analysis from a man who barely had two braincells to rub together.

It was too bad it missed the forest for the trees.

“You idiot. If the Shadow Clan could just get away with killing Auberon, why would they wait this long? They clearly have their own worries, and they’re also worried about Auberon’s strength. If they wanted to straightforwardly take over everything, why send Vie in the first place?

“They still have to worry about the Enlightened Empire’s strength. They can’t divert their attention to quelling civil unrest. They need to take over in legitimate fashion, assassinations and coups will not work.”

The burly man snorted. “And what about my first point?”

The Crimson Regent almost wanted to slap his own forehead. If this man wasn’t his brother, he would have already thrown him to the wolves. It was worse to have a shitty teammate than a formidable enemy.

“If it’s a ploy by Auberon, where is he? Why hasn’t he ambushed us yet? Only one of us entered initially, and there’s nothing here.”

“If you’re so smart, what do you think is going on?”

“I don’t know! That’s the problem, none of this is making any sense. I think that something out of Auberon’s expectations must have occurred, either that or he and the boy are being occupied by something unexpected. In that case, I think we should blow this matter up as big as possible.

“If Auberon appears, then we can easily take a step back and say that we were only fearing for his safety. If he doesn’t appear, then we can directly take over the Federation and—”

“And become the puppets of the Shadow Clan,” the burly, yet flowery, man interjected.

“For now…”

The burly man rolled his eyes. “Didn’t you just say something about not wanting to be a lap dog for the rest of your life?”

“That was because you were being an idiot! Why would we report the existence of this place? Do you think it’s normal to have such a huge, unknown catacomb beneath an entire country? This place is huge, and even after half a day, I still didn’t reach the end of it. I would have even gotten lost had I not marked my direction.”

Ryker’s gaze flashed when he heard this. He hadn’t considered it because the key had led him directly to the gate, but it was true. These underground catacombs weren’t just a straight path. It was huge, an array of floor to ceiling pillars littered the region. If you weren’t paying attention, it would be easy to get lost and find yourself wandering aimlessly.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The question was… why?

Was this a natural formation? Certainly not, or else the gate wouldn’t be here.

As he thought about it, he couldn’t find an immediate answer so he shelved it for now.

“So you want to comply with the Shadow Clan on the surface, then keep exploring this place in secret until we find something? You’re putting a lot of faith into this place having something.”

“No,” the Crimson Regent shook his head. “I’m not doing this out of expectation that we’ll definitely find something, I just think that there’s no other choice anyway, we might as well leave a small light of hope for ourselves.”

“I don’t like it.”

This time, it was the Crimson Regent’s turn to shake his head and roll his eyes.

“Be less of a stereotype, would you? You’re the Crimson Guard. Your job description might be war-related, but you don’t have to also be such an insufferable meat head.”

“Save the insults and just tell me the details. Don’t forget you’ll need this “meathead”.”

“Vie will be returning from an expedition against the Bloodstone Kingdom. He could have entered the 7th Enlightenment Realm by now and—”

“Who’s that again?”

The Crimson Regent was speechless. “You can be serious.”

“Not Vie, the—”

“I know what you meant! But how can you not know who the Bloodstone Kingdom are! They’re literally a neighboring power who’ve already fallen to the Enlightenment Empire! You’re the Crimson Guard for god’s sake! What do you guard, exactly?!”

The Crimson Guard rubbed his nose. The answer was not much in recent days. All these political games and such had been wearing him down for a long while. He spent most days stamping things, he couldn’t even remember the last time he got to go into battle.

“Alright, alright. Just get on with it.”

The Crimson Regent exhaled a heavy breath and shook his head.

“… Like I was saying, he should return from that expedition soon with a few victories under his belt, but it still won’t be enough to allow him to receive the Crimson Medallion without any issues. I think we should first allow the disappearance of Auberon to spread and cause a small, but manageable panic. Then when he returns, we’ll make a big deal of it to quell the public’s nerves. That way, subtly, he’ll become the new pillar in the hearts of the people.

“We’ll allow this to continue on, and the longer Auberon is gone, the better it will be.

“I think that by the time he’s ready to enter the 8th Enlightenment Realm, the situation will be set. We can okay a large military offensive against the Bloodstone Kingdom and wipe them out in a single sweep. By then, he’ll have earned his Crimson Medallion and he can rise to the standing of Crimson Supreme without much pushback.”

“And the Princess?”

“In the past, she would have been a good pawn to use, but Auberon publicly announced a son-in-law. Vie would never accept someone else’s leftovers and it would be a slight the Shadow Clan wouldn’t accept either. That makes things more complicated. It might be possible to have her take on the role of a concubine. We still have time, we’ll play it by ear.

“Go do what you have to do. I will try to explore this region more and see if there really is nothing to find or not.”

“Alright.”

The two separated and Ryker stood in silence.

Honestly, it took quite a bit of self control on his part to not erupt when the two were speaking about Patience. He was so close to ripping both their heads off.

Unfortunately, killing them now would be more of a headache than not. It wouldn’t help him, it would only harm him.

Even they couldn’t just plop Vie onto the throne, they had to consider so many other things first, trying to stoke and manipulate public opinion.

Ryker took a breath and closed his eyes, trying to settle down his beating heart.

When he opened them once more, he had managed to calm himself.

‘I don’t have the time to go around playing these political games…’

Their mention of Vie’s cultivation struck him.

After all this time, Vie had only gone from the 6th Enlightenment Realm to the 7th, and the two were talking about waiting for the 8th before they crowned him.

How long would that take? Months?

That was laughable.

Vie was about as old as Ryker, but while Ryker had only been able to naturally cultivate for barely a month, Vie had been doing this his whole life. He only had one breakthrough every few years even if you accounted for the fact the people of this world began to cultivate much later than they did in Ryker’s world.

The “plan” he had just overheard was just the starting seedlings of one that would be brewing for at least the next two to three years.

‘But on the other hand… if I just outright kill them, it’ll be too troublesome. It might end up turning an entire country’s army against me, and I’m not even remotely prepared to deal with that. And what of Patience?’

Ryker stood in silence, his mind churning until his thoughts came to a conclusion.

Suddenly, he moved like the wind, his body shifting into a shadowy green hue.

Before the Crimson Regent could even react, he found a fist crashing into his chest.

The Crimson Regent’s eyes bulged, all the air in his body being violently ripped out in a single blow.

He couldn’t even see who attacked him as his consciousness faded.

Ryker’s hand formed a claw and he swiped down, grabbing a handful of the Crimson Regent’s hair before he could fly away. The sudden jerky motion almost snapped the latter’s neck.

Holding him up, Ryker checked him over.

“He’ll live,” Ryker mumbled to himself before tossing him into the same place as the cat lady and Auberon.

Luckily, he had been able to keep the whole gate and its inner world, or else he would have long since run out of space.

He plucked Sebastian’s beast pouch out of the air and checked it.

“Mm, more food for Phoenix.”

With that thought, Ryker stomped a foot again and swiftly caught up to the Crimson Guard. He moved so fast that the latter didn’t even get the chance to return to the palace before he sensed a wild wind behind him.

Ryker didn’t bother to hide his presence. Quite frankly…

They were too weak.

The Crimson Guard reacted quickly, touching his pouch and allowing a beast with a flaming blue mane to appear.

Ryker’s body swayed as his soul pulsed. Divined Chains appeared and locked around the beast’s maw.

Almost the instant it took shape, the mane of the lion snuffed out and it became no different from a lioness. It might as well have just been neutered.

He didn’t even bring out his chain, Temporal Weave pulsing to life as he slapped down with a palm.

The beast's head practically turned to meat paste, rebounding against the ground in a rain of shattered teeth and blood.

He activated [Divined Step], side stepping the beast without losing his momentum and approaching the Crimson Guard before he could even tap his beast pouch again.

Fist collided to chest, splintering the armor the burly man wore.

Realizing it wasn’t enough, Ryker had already shifted his stance, using the momentum of the rebound to balance his weight heavily on his back foot and erupting with a roundhouse kick that sliced through the air with the viciousness of a descending cyclone.

BANG!

The Crimson Guard tried to block with both arms, but the result was them snapping and then smashing against his own face.

He was sent flying to the side, crashing into a pillar of earth connecting the ground and ceiling above.

Ryker landed lightly on his feet, stretching his neck.

‘Not bad,’ he thought to himself, evaluating his new strength. It was a considerable change for sure.

The 9th Enlightenment Realm felt good.

He bet the Ascension Realm would feel even better.

**

“Ryker!”

Patience leapt into Ryker’s arms, her worries unleashing in a torrent. Words couldn’t properly describe the amount of relief she felt in the moment.

She had thought the worst for the longest time, especially after she heard from Sofia that her father and Ryker had disappeared together.

It had only been two or so days since their disappearance, and she was used to not seeing her father for much longer, but this was the first time she had been separated from Ryker since the change in their relationship.

For a long while, she thought that even in the best case scenario, she would never see Ryker again, that he had had his fun with her and couldn’t be bothered to stick around anymore.

And in the worst case… that her father and Ryker had ended up killing one another.

Ryker smiled and patted her back.

Eventually she had gotten everything out and pulled back, a hint of embarrassment on her expression. Honestly, she never expected Ryker to be so accommodating to her emotions.

“… What happened?” Patience asked softly.

“Well,” Ryker’s face scrunched up a bit. “You could say your father and I had a bit of a tussle, you’re right about that.”

Patience’s expression paled and she looked down to the ground. Although Ryker didn’t say it, she assumed that since he was here… her father was dead.

She hadn’t had a good relationship with her father in the last few years, but the idea that the man she liked had killed him… she wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that.

Ryker chuckled. “He’s in bad shape, but he’s not dead.”

Patience’s head shot up. She looked into Ryker’s eyes, almost as though to check whether he was lying or not. What she saw made her sigh a breath of relief.

“He’s lucky he has such a good daughter, or else I really would have lopped his head off. Now tell me, how are you going to reward me?” Ryker grinned.

Patience blushed down to her collarbone, looking away from his gaze. “L… later. But can we check on him first, we should probably treat him. There’s also a lot of stuff happening right now that we need to deal with.”

“Oh? What happened?”

Patience frowned. “The Crimson Regent has been making some oddly bold moves since you and father have been gone… He’s commandeering a lot of resources for the sake of Legion Commander Vie’s return from his campaign against the Bloodstone Kingdom.”

“Ah, gotcha. Good. The larger, the better,” Ryker said with a grin.

“Hm—?”

Patience squealed with surprise as she was suddenly swept into Ryker’s arm.

“Wait! Wait! Later!” She put up mock resistance.

Ryker laughed uproariously. “Don’t worry about all that. Your man is here, why worry your pretty little head?”