Sion Hart was rushing towards the dark mages, carrying Elwin on his side. He spotted a clearing where a large number of demons and onis were encircling a small group of people.

He came to a stop in the air and released his aura.

Mage king!

The dark mages and Hazezel all gasped in shock. What was a mage king doing here?

Damon could no longer stand still and rose into the air, releasing his aura as well, cancelling out that of Sion’s.

“Who are you?” Damon asked coldly.

“I am Sion Hart from Myriad Sword Palace; may I ask who you are?” Sion asked calmly, withdrawing his aura.

Myriad Sword Palace!

Hazezel didn’t recognise the name, but Damon and the dark mages surely did. It was a powerful sect located in the capital of the Holy Kingdom. It was led by immortal cultivators!

Although the Hidden Venom Cult was powerful, they did not have any immortal cultivators. Hence, the Myriad Sword Palace was even more of a powerful entity than their entire Hidden Venom Cult. Not to mention that they had cut their ties with the cult, making them a lone force now.

Damon was furious! Why was everything going wrong at the last minute?

“I am Damon Rogue. What is someone of your status doing here?” Damon asked, also withdrawing his aura.

Sion smiled.

“I was sent to investigate the strange behaviours of the demons in the Beast Woods.”

Saying so, Sion looked down at the demons who were all standing in formation.

“Now that I am here, I can’t help but think that you are somehow involved.”

“And what if we were?” Damon asked coldly.

Sion frowned.

He did not expect to encounter a mage king this far away from the Kingdom. He could probably fight him, however, he had a huge army, several grand mages, a commander class demon and over a dozen pseudo-commander class demons! He was not confident that he could deal with this group easily, especially given that he had to protect the unconscious Elwin.

If he had known about the mage king’s injury and weakness, however, Sion would have already attacked.

“Then I would have to ask you to come with me,” Sion replied with a sigh.

No matter what, given how much death and destruction this group had caused, he couldn’t let them go free.

“Ha! If you want me to come with you, then make me!” Damon replied, however, he was sweating profusely.

He could not fight a mage king!

But he also couldn’t just go with him to the Myriad Sword Palace. That would be the end of him!

“In that case, take this. Sword Angel!” Sion shouted, his voice booming across the battlefield.

A large number of swords materialised out of thin air and formed the figure of a large, winged angel. The angel had both of its hands wrapped around the hilt of a large sword, which itself was made out smaller swords.

Damon cursed.

“Fine then, Flame Phoenix!”

A large phoenix erupted from the ground and rose into the sky, even taller than the angel. It stared at the angel coldly before charging.

The angel retaliated by striking at it with its sword.

The two giants clashed in the sky, leaving everybody on the ground in awe.

‘Was the gap between the grand mage and mage king realm really this big?’ the grand mages thought.

Hazezel however, was worried. He had guessed that the mage king couldn’t fight at full strength before. And seeing his conversation with Myra and subsequently giving in to her demands, he was pretty much sure of it.

What did that mean?

That meant he was no match for this Sion Hart. So, once he lost, Sion would decimate their army and capture all of them… including him!

This was not good! There was no doubt that Sion would assume Hazezel was a dark mage too, given how he was interacting with them. Hence, his only option was to escape in the chaos of the fight and hide for as long as he could. If by some miracle, the dark mages won, he could return to them, but otherwise, he would have to head out on his own.

In a strange twist of fate, his situation ended up being similar to Drake and Astoria’s.

As Hazezel was wondering how to get away, a familiar voice rang out.

“Ha… Hazezel?”

The fighting had woken Elwin up and he was observing the battlefield. He was being held in the air by Sion’s wind spirit, however he could see the ground clearly.

As expected, he saw dark mages and a large number of demons and onis. However, he saw something that he completely didn’t expect.

Hazezel!

What was he doing here? Was he kidnapped by the dark mages? What would they gain from kidnapping him? Elwin wasn’t sure of the reason, but he was certain that Hazezel was kidnapped. He figured they might have wanted to use him in some strange ritual like Astoria or convert him into an undead like Jin Tong, or do something else.

Never in his wildest imagination would Elwin guess that Hazezel had actually been working with the dark mages for years.

His voice made Sion focus his attention on Hazezel too, and frown.

“Do you know that boy?” he asked Elwin.

Elwin nodded, “Yes, he is my brother. He must have been kidnapped by those bastards.”

“I see,” Sion replied with a frown.

The phoenix was slowly gaining the upper hand in its fight with the angel. Were he to be at full strength, Damon would actually be slightly stronger than Sion, hence the reason for him winning this clash.

However, only Damon and the dark mages knew that he couldn’t keep this up forever.

Sion was wondering what to do. He normally had a laid-back personality so he didn’t really want to come here in the first place. But, he had to obey orders so he had no choice. Now that he was facing a mage king who appeared to be stronger than him, Sion wanted to retreat and just give his report to the higher-ups and let them deal with this mess.

Making up his mind, Sion brought the angel back to his side. Damon raised his hand and made the phoenix retreat as well.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to play with you I’m afraid,” Sion told Damon.

Damon laughed in response, “Is that so? That’s unfortunate, I thought we could continue for a while.” However, he was inwardly glad upon seeing Sion’s intention to retreat.

Hazezel was surprised to see Sion wanting to retreat but then realised that he must not know about Damon’s weakness. For a moment, he considered telling Sion about the weakness but then thought better of it. If he did that, they would probably tell Sion about his collusion with them, and then both of them would have to face Sion’s wrath.

Sion looked at Hazezel and spoke, “Give me that boy and I’ll leave.”

Damon was taken aback for a moment and looked at Hazezel.

The two came to a silent understanding.

“Very well, take him,” Damon replied calmly. Sion was slightly surprised that Damon had agreed so easily but decided not to question his blessings. He took Hazezel who Elwin happily embraced and left. Damon waited until he was sure Sion was gone before dissipating the phoenix and falling weakly.

“Master!” the dark mages cried.

Damon stared at the sky as he fell, wondering who had cursed his fate to be so miserable.

…

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Hundreds of mana balls were crashing against a starfish-like parasitic spirit.

Drake had been trying to defeat the parasitic spirit for a long time to no avail. He decided to take a gamble and consumed all the mana recovery pills he had. Although it was dangerous to consume so many pills at once, he didn’t have a choice.

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He felt a large influx of mana which he immediately condensed into a huge number of mana balls to attack the spirit.

Hence, he used his mana to restrain the spirit and mana balls to attack it.

The parasitic spirit was very strong and continued attacking his mana core. However, its attacks were considerably slowing down, giving Drake more and more motivation to attack it relentlessly.

No matter what, even if just a bit of his mana core remained, he would have a shot at recovery.

Thinking so, Drake attacked the spirit with all his might.

After several hours, the spirit which had been eroded down to the size of a few millimetres, disappeared under the attack of the last mana ball.

Phew!

Drake woke up in the carriage, panting for breath, and sweating profusely.

“Master Drake!” cried Helen, but Drake didn’t even register her voice.

His mind and body were in chaos after being attacked by the parasitic spirit.

Drake panted for half a minute before finally composing himself. He took a deep breath and exhaled.

Ninety per cent of his mana core was gone, he was basically useless as a mage.

It was only now that he looked around to spot a girl sitting opposite him. From her attire, she was clearly a swordswoman. It took a while for the disoriented Drake, but he finally recognised her.

“Helen??” he exclaimed.

“Yes, it’s me. I’m glad you remember me, master Drake,” she replied.

“What are you doing here?” Drake asked.

“Master Hazezel arranged this carriage and asked me to safely escort you out of the village.”

Upon hearing that name, Drake was flooded with memories.

His dead father, black-eyed Hazezel confessing his collusion with the demons, seeing his village burn and his people screaming, before finally he was knocked out by Hazezel, forcefully made to consume the core-destroying pill, and being sent away on this carriage.

Drake grew quiet for a moment, and Helen wondered if she said something wrong. She didn’t know the truth about Hazezel, or even the internal struggle with the parasitic spirit that Drake just had. She just thought that he was knocked unconscious by Hazezel so that he would flee without protest.

Drake sighed and asked Helen, “So where are we going then?”

“The town of Basindale!” Helen replied excitedly.

Drake sighed.

‘I see…’ he mumbled, looking out the window.

So much had happened, and he didn’t know what to do about it. In fact, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do about it. He was so weak now.

He looked at his clothes and realised that he still had all of his artifacts. Drake wasn’t sure if that was because Hazezel didn’t realise they were artifacts, or if he did but still left them with him as a final gesture of good will.

If he really lost his rank one artifacts, he wouldn’t be able to make more in his condition any time soon.

Luckily, since the artifacts only required a small amount of mana to use, he could still use them similar to how any normal martial artist could. However, until he fixed his mana core, not only would his cultivation stagnate, but he also wouldn’t be able to use any of his mage skills or make new artifacts.

Drake sighed heavily.

To be honest, Drake didn’t care much about power and strength. He was initially excited at the prospect of magic due to its novelty since he was from Earth. However, the main reason he cultivated so diligently was so that he could be of use in the war, and to help and protect his family.

But now, that family was gone. Astoria had left to start her own life, Holt and Elwin were dead, and Hazezel had gone off with the dark mages. What was the point of having strength now?

Drake looked through the window.

‘Maybe I should forget about cultivation for some time. I can try to get a normal job, and just live a normal life.’

He had a vast amount of knowledge from Earth. If he used it to create some new technologies and started a merchant business or something, he could probably make a lot of profit. Then, he could slowly try to find a way to heal his mana core. Even if he didn’t, if he fell in love with some nice girl, started a family, and lived happily with her till he was old…

Drake shook his head.

After everything that he had been through, he wasn’t sure if he was cut out for a normal life. Although he wasn’t power hungry like a lot of other people, he still enjoyed learning about and using magic. How could he let it be taken away from him so easily?

Drake thought about Hazezel again and what he said. Once the mage king attacked in full force, all of them would have died. But with Hazezel getting his hands dirty, at least Drake, Astoria, and of course, Hazezel himself, was alive.

Was that worth it? Did that make it justified?

Drake wasn’t sure if Hazezel’s primary goal in joining the dark mages was to pursue power, or to get a chance to save his family.

Did that even matter?

When he was in prison, he thought he hated him. But looking back, he wasn’t sure if that was true. The fact remained that, whether he liked it or not, he was only alive now thanks to Hazezel. As someone who had faced death already, Drake understood the value of life more than most people.

However, the cost of that had been his own father’s life.

And Drake valued family.

Had the choice been up to Drake, he might have wanted to fight and die alongside him. However, he didn’t get to make that choice as Hazezel had made the choice for him. Hazezel made the choice to save him and Astoria at the cost of Holt and Elwin.

‘So do you expect me to be grateful, you bastard?’ Drake thought, remembering what Hazezel had told him.

There was no way Drake would be grateful to Hazezel. However, he also wasn’t sure if he hated him.

They had spent so much time together and been through so much. Hazezel might have broken his trust completely, and simply thinking about him, how he killed Holt, how he locked him away, all enraged him.

But… Drake sighed heavily once again. He felt like his brain was about to explode.

Drake decided that for the sake of his peace of mind and mental health, he should just stop thinking about it all. At least for now.

‘What’s done is done right?’

He couldn’t change anything. He couldn’t bring Holt back, he couldn’t restore the village, and he certainly couldn’t fight the dark mages on his own.

What could he do? He could only move forward with his life and do his best for the future.

He had learnt one important lesson throughout all of this.

He learnt that he couldn’t trust people. His own brother had betrayed him and his family for his own agenda. In a world where people didn’t hesitate to do that, could he really trust anyone?

He had to be very, very careful and shrewd when dealing with people.

Thinking so, Drake relaxed into his seat, feeling the ups and downs of the bumpy carriage ride, while looking silently out of the window.

…

Two figures were watching the retreating dark mages from the shadows. One was dressed in lavish, purple robes and the other in a simple white breastplate.

“They are the ones who took the inheritance?” asked the one in white.

The one in purple gazed at the group and focused in on one individual.

Henry!

“Yes, indeed it was them,” he replied.

Then, he turned to look at the one in white.

“Should we crush them?” he asked casually, but an aura of bloodlust was oozing out of him.

A chill went down Henry’s spine, and Damon opened his eyes with fear.

What the hell is that monster? Damon screamed internally.

They had to get away!

The man in white sighed.

“Forget it. They are a troublesome group. Besides, we’re close to the Holy Kingdom now. If we make a move, we might alert those old monsters. It’s not worth it for the inheritance of just a mage emperor.”

The man in purple looked at the man in white deeply and retracted his bloodlust.

Both Damon and Henry heaved a sigh of relief, but Damon urged his subordinates to start moving as fast as possible.

“Are you sure?” the man in purple asked again. “Even if it is just a mage emperor, his martial arts cultivation technique was quite powerful. We don't want it falling into the hands of the humans once more.”

The man in white went into deep thought again.

There was a powerful and famous mage emperor a long time ago, so powerful that he could fight and defeat a number of mage emperors on his own. The main reason why he could do that was because he also simultaneously cultivated a powerful martial arts technique.

When he was nearing the end of his life, he retired from human society and ran off to a remote place, to escape his enemies and focus on nurturing his descendants peacefully.

That mage emperor was the founding ancestor of the Jain village.

The man in white was thinking carefully.

This was a good opportunity to stop that inheritance from falling into the hands of the humans again. It would be a simple thing to kill those few dark mages and retrieve the cultivation technique.

The man in white made his decision.

“I am certain. That cultivation technique will be useless for us anyway, and unless they become immortal, they will not pose any threat to us no matter what cultivation technique they use. So let us just leave it for now. It is not worth the risk of alerting the Holy Kingdom cultivators. Now that we know who they are, we will just keep an eye on these humans and kill them if we get a better chance in the future.”

The man in purple thought as well and then nodded in agreement.

“In that case, let’s get out of here.”

The two turned and headed back deep into the woods where they came from.

Apart from Henry and Damon, everyone else were clueless about just how close they had come to being annihilated.

…

To the west of the continent was the Beast Woods, and the centre was the Holy Kingdom.

The north, however, was a mountainous terrain. It held the Titan Palace, the country of the fearsome giants.

Near the border of the Beast Woods and the mountains domain of the north, an old woman dressed in black robes was talking to an old man.

“So, you finally made it?” the man asked.

“Yes father, I have made the primal energy core.”

Around the time when Drake was transmigrated, an old woman had screamed the same name of the primal energy core from the middle of the ocean. At that moment, she had been attacked by a tyrant class demon shark, equivalent to a mage king.

She had killed that demon shark with one attack!

Eleven years had passed since then.

“However, it requires a lot of energy to power it. A million mortals, hundred-thousand true mages, ten-thousand warrior mages, a thousand grand mages, hundred mage kings, and ten mage emperors. I have been collecting their souls in secret, however, it has not been easy,” she lamented.

Suddenly her eyes lit up.

“But I, Dalia Krueger, the one who knows no defeat, will not give up! Once I complete powering up the primal energy core, I will become the most powerful immortal in the world!”

Saying so, she started laughing like a maniac and the old man observed her with a smile, rubbing his long beard.

After a while, she calmed down and the old man, her father looked at her.

“So, what is your plan now?”

Dalia looked in the distance.

“A few interesting people were causing some chaos near the border of the Beast Woods and the Holy Kingdom. There is a mage king and two grand mages there. Close to that location, there is also the large town of Basindale with many powerful figures too. I thought I’d pay them a visit after killing those fools.”

The old man shook his head.

“Those dark mages are fine, however, Basindale is not. Do you not know? That town is next to a dragon tribe and a faerie tribe.”

“What!?” Dalia cried.

“And, the dragon tribe has a rogue immortal,” the man continued.

“What!?” Dalia gasped again, then became quiet. “Fine, in that case, they can count themselves lucky. I will have to find some other place nearby.”

“There is another town in that location,” the old man spoke. “The town of Duskville. It has a mage emperor and several powerful individuals, but is small and relatively isolated. The news won’t travel quickly. You can easily slaughter them and be on your way before reinforcements have a chance of arriving.”

“I see!” Dalia exclaimed, her eyes widening.

She looked into the distance again.

“In that case, Duskville, here I come!”

…

Hazezel was travelling with Elwin and Sion. He had played along with the story of being kidnapped and both of them believed it.

They had been flying incredibly fast and now, a large city was coming into their view.

The walls of the city stretched as far and wide as their eyes could see, even from their altitude. The buildings and architecture looked majestic. For two boys who had grown up in a village, this looked like a whole new world.

Sion saw their stupefied look and smiled.

“Welcome to the Holy Capital. The capital of the Holy Kingdom. The capital of the human race!”

…

“Duskville, we’ve finally arrived!” Astoria exclaimed, stepping out of the carriage with Sam.

“Indeed, we have,” Sam replied softly. They both stopped outside of the caravan to see a large town.

This was nothing like their small village. The walls were large, made of stone, and coated in a paint of silver. The town stretched wide and far, easily at least five times as big as their village.

Looking at the town and its marvellous design, Astoria then turned back to see where they came from.

The Beast Woods and their villages were nowhere to be seen.

Astoria sighed and looked at the town again.

“This doesn’t feel like a town… it feels like a new beginning!”