The invisible castle stood on a small hill overlooking a valley, in which Triton Capital stood proudly like a guardian blocking entry into the mountains beyond it.

On top of the throne room where the floor had raised to replace the roof a group of 50 soldiers slept on the floor like corpses, put to sleep by the sound of the violin.

“I DID IT!” a sudden scream jolts everyone awake.

“What?!” Rodger, the Princess’s personal butler and leader of her support team, was the first on his feet with his sword and shield ready. He looked around, trying to figure out what just happened and where he was. Then he remembered, he remembered the castle and Lord Aaron. He remembered the castle moving on its spider legs and the music Aaron had played for them. He looked at the throne only to find it empty. He also couldn’t find the Princess anywhere.

“You did great. You’re a natural at magic.” A voice sounded out from nowhere.

“You honour me with your words, my lord.” A second voice sounding like the Princess said.

“Princess? Lord Aaron? Where are you? I can hear you but cannot see you.” Rodger asked worried.

“Ooh sorry.” The Princess’s voice came again and with it a blurry image of her body slowly crept into existence before him.

At the same time, Aaron appeared on the throne catching all the soldiers off guard and scaring them.

“How did you do that Princess? I thought invisibility was one of the things you couldn’t learn because it needed affinity with Space magic, which you don’t have.” Rodger asked with excitement in his voice.

“Lord Aaron kindly showed me a different method of doing it using Light and Water magic. Can you believe it? I learned an invisibility spell!” the Princess’s excitement could be seen radiating from her as she faded from sight again.

“That’s great Princess. Thank you, Lord Aaron, for making the Princess this happy. It has been a long time since I saw her this happy about learning something new.” Rodger said as he bowed deeply towards Aaron.

“It was no big deal. She is a very good student and learns very quickly. I barely had to do anything. Just showed her how to mix Light and Water and told her how to use it to bend the light around herself.” Aaron answered with a smile, while his eyes were still locked on the Princess who turned invisible again, dancing around the soldiers. She was poking them and undoing the straps on their armour causing random bits to fall to the ground.

“OK Princess that’s enough for now. The soldiers will never feel safe around you again if you continue with the pranks.” Aaron said as Rodgers pants fell on the ground with a clank.

“Yes Princess, please stop!” all the soldiers pleaded in unison.

“OK, I’ll stop now.” The Princess said as her figure blurred back into reality and solidified back into her appearance.

“Ok, now that the fun is over I would like to ask you to look down into the valley and tell me if that is your Capital.” Aaron asked pointing at the huge white city bellow them.

The Princess and soldiers turned to where he was pointing and nodded their heads in unison.

“Yes, that’s it.” Replied the Princess.

“Good.” Aaron now had a mysterious smile and clapped his hands twice.

The floor beneath them began to slowly lower back into the hall and the roof closed again making it look as if nothing had changed since they came here the first time. With another clap, the mithril plates hovered in the air once more providing light to the hall.

“Now then, I know that if my castle suddenly shows up and heads for the Capital it would cause a panic. So, we’ll do this my way.” Aaron smiled and produced a piece of parchment paper and feather pen handing it to the Princess.

“Write a letter to your father, say that you have investigated the castle and that the owner is here to meet him. And make it as believable as possible, we don’t want him thinking you went crazy and saw a ghost or something.” Aaron smiled after saying so.

“Right. Give me a moment.” The Princess started writing quickly and finished in a few minutes.

“There. It’s done. But how do you plan to get it there. It would be quicker to go there by horse.” The Princess asked curiously.

“Come with me, all of you.” Aaron said as he got up and walked to the main entrance of the throne room.

“Where you going to take us this time?” the Princess asked.

“Just to one of the towers with some long-range observation equipment.” Aaron said without a care.

“No idea what that means, but it sounds useful.” The Princess said.

“It is.” Aaron replied.

After a few corridors and a lot of stairs they reached the top of one of the castle towers. Behind the heavy wood door was a room full of monitors displaying various parts of the castle and what looked like the amount of mana each section was producing or using. The largest monitor in the middle of the room showed a massive device with numerous pipes and thick cables running to and from it.

The screen showed a small string of numbers fluctuating between 1 million and 3 million mana per second meaning that the thing on the screen generated as much mana as a battle mage would use in 300 lifetimes, of 500 years each, every second. The numbers scared everyone into shock.

“What is that?” the Princess asked in a shaking voice while pointing at the largest monitor.

“That? That’s just the castles secondary mana generator. I use it when the castle is in low consumption mode and doesn’t need the main generators output.” Aaron said something ridiculous again.

“And this main generator produces more mana than this secondary one?” asked Rodger.

“Ooh yeah. A lot more. But I only use it if I need the castle wide shield at full power or if one of my experiments goes wrong and I need to use the time reversing array to fix something.” Aaron didn’t know why they were all shaking so much.

“So how much mana does this other generator produce?” asked the Princess having calmed down a little.

“Depends on my needs. But I’ve also never tested the limits. The most I made it output was about 300 million mana per second. Why?” the moment Aaron finished speaking everyone in the room apart from him fainted.

“What the…” Aaron was confused. Was it the stairs? Were they that tired from the walk?

“Please enough with the ridiculousness.” The Princess said after she woke up an hours later.

“Why is it ridiculous? I needed to use the castles main cannon to clear a path through a horde of giant worms in another world, so I used the main generator to make sure it had enough power to get through them all.” Aaron said pondering and reminiscing about his past.

“I’m not even going to ask.” The Princess said exasperated.

“So, back to the reason were here. Why don’t you use this right here? Show me where your father is most likely to be.” Aaron said pointing at a small screen showing the palace in the middle of Triton Capital.

“That would be this room right here, it’s a large room without walls. The ceiling is held up by the marble pillars and is used for meetings with the druid council. They had it built like that to let more nature in, is what they said.” Said the Princess after looking at the screen for a few seconds and pointed at a row of tall pillars holding up a decorated roof.

“Very good.” Aaron smiled.

“So why do you need this?” asked the Princess.

“Got your letter?” Aaron asked.

“Yes, it’s right here.” Said the princess as she pulled the rolled-up parchment paper out of the inside of her armoured gauntlet.

“Great.” Aaron tool the letter and snapped his fingers.

The sound of skittering claws could be heard from down the stairs and a few seconds later a waist height spider bot walked into the room with a foot-long crossbow bolt and what looked to be a larger version of Aaron’s original arm.

“And that is?” asked the Princess as she pointed at the arm.

“One of my other arms.” Answered Aaron as he neared the spider and extended his right arm taking the bolt and tying the letter to the shaft just behind the barbed head.

The spiders back carapace opened letting loose a few thin mechanical arms that quickly reached up to Aarons shoulder and deftly detached his arm from it.

“That looks painful.” Whispered Ryan to Rodger.

“Yeah.” Rodger replied while staring at the little arms lift the second arm and just as quickly attach it.

“There we go.” Aaron laughed as he rolled his shoulders and walked over to the door to the rooms balcony. Once there he loaded the bolt into his arm through the hole at the end where the wrist should be and pointed towards the palace.

“Wait! You don’t plan to…” the Princesses next words were drowned out by a loud hiss of air and the sonic boom of the bolt breaking the sound barrier.

“Yes, I do.” Laughed Aaron.

“Wow. He got it right in the middle of the hall.” Rodger and Ryan looked at the screen and then at each other. The princess heard them and looked at the screen. Aaron walked over and pressed a button on the side of the screen making it zoom in. On the screen, the image of a bolt imbedded in the floor in the middle of the large room could be seen. As well as the guards running around and the panicking nobles.

“Looks like my uncanny ability to mess up big meetings hasn’t left me yet!” Aaron laughed as he saw the people in the hall.

“That was dangerous!” shouted the Princess with teary eyes.

“Yeah, it was. What if someone walked in before the bolt got there? Or if the Emperor stood up from his seat? The power behind that bolt was probably enough to pierce the shields and armour the shield bearers wear a few times over.” Added Rodger.

Aaron just laughed and scratched the back of his head before speaking.

“The Emperor just sat down so he was in no danger at all and there was no one behind the door to the room either so, it was all fine.”

“How can you know that?” the Princess calmed down a little after hearing this but was still curious as to how Aaron could have possibly known that.

“I used the void sight of my right eye.” Aaron answered while looking at the group in the room showing his completely pitch black right eye.

“And what is this void sight?” asked the Princess having never heard of such a spell.

“It’s a Void magic spell that allows me to look through the void at a distant target of my choice.”

“That sounds convenient.” Commented the Princess.

“It is, considering the fact the eye itself is blind.”

As the Princess looked closely she could see the slight glint in the eye. This let Aaron see the world in a completely unique way. Instead of seeing things from his perspective, void sight allowed him to look at distant places through the endless void. Almost like looking through a keyhole. However, he could only see a narrowed image of the place he wanted to check.

“Why is the eye completely black?” the Princess asked not understanding what the eye had to do with seeing that far.

“It’s what happens when you use too much Dark, Death, Void, Space and Chaos magic spells on your eyes. It takes your normal sight from the eyes and instead gives you greater control over magic spells.” Aaron answered with a bitter smile.

“But I learned the void vision spell beforehand, so it was not too bad. Plus, now I have my left eye. This left eye, which I got as a gift from a dear friend, can see perfectly.” Aaron said happily.

“A gift? The left eye? How does one get gifted a left eye?” Ryan asked a little disgusted.

“When the one bestowing the gift is a dying Dragon God, one can never guess what they will get.” Aaron answered with a little longing and sadness in his voice.

“Dragon God?! You met The Dragon God?” shouted the Princess disbelievingly.

“Not ‘The’. I met ‘A’ Dragon God.” Aaron corrected.

“A Dragon God? But the Dragon God is the god and creator of dragons. How can there be multiple?” the Princess asked no longer understanding what he was talking about.

“Not multiple. Just the same one repeatedly.” Aaron answered as simply as he could.

“Wait. So… Reincarnation?” Rodger asked.

“More like the rebirth cycle of a phoenix. He dies, his body burns itself into ashes and he emerges from the ashes in a younger body with some memories missing.” Aaron corrected Rodger.

“How do you know all this?” the Princess was now very interested in the matter.

“I was there when it happened. So, I asked him what just happened, and he explained that there is no true immortality without complete mastery of Time magic. Even the body of a Dragon God can’t survive for ever. So, he found a way to use Fire and Light magic to set up a never-ending loop of burning his old body to ashes using Fire magic and then quickly creating a new body from the ashes using Light magic.” Aaron explained briefly.

“Something like that is possible?” asked Rodger not quite believing something so strange.

“For him and a few others, yes. For anyone else, no. It has to do with his god level soul being able to quickly activate the spell formation branded on it before it disperses into the either.” Aaron glossed over most of the information to keep it simple.

“Anyway, it looks like the Emperor got your letter Princess. He is sending a company of knights towards the castle on horseback to guide us.” Aaron said as he looked through the void into the hall in which the Emperor was giving out orders.

“That’s great, I knew he’d believe me if I said I found a descendant of the owner.” The Princess revealed part of what she wrote in the letter.

“So, that’s why he believed it so easily.” Aaron laughed.

“Yes, I tried sticking as close to the truth as possible but some parts of you have to be seen to be believed.” Answered the Princess with a smile.

“I guess after living for so long by myself a lot of the common sense of this world has escaped me.” Aaron commented dryly.

“Yes, it has.” The Princess added.

“A company of knights have just left the gates of the Capital.” Ryan shouted as he turned back from looking at the screen showing the outer walls and gates of the Capital.

“Good. Let’s get ready to leave.” Aaron said lightly.

The group left the tower and headed back to the entrance hall that the Princess’s group used to get into the castle after landing the floating ship in the courtyard.

The hall is devoid of any decorations save for a large diamond chandelier. The rest of the hall is empty and even the stairs in the middle lack any splendour. However, what the hall lacked in luxury it made up in the materials it was made from. The walls of the large entrance hall, just like the rest of the castle, are made of a combination of gold and darkstone. This gave the walls a solid black colour with golden lines running here, there and everywhere. The gold looks like golden veins on the black walls and gives the castle the look of being alive. Combined with the spider legs currently carrying it, it really looked like a gigantic spider. The floor of the hall is made of shiny, reflective mithril just like the rest of the floors in the castle. But the floor in the hall gives off a faint glow. The faint glow is spread by the chandelier all over the hall and reflected again by the shiny mithril floor creating a never-ending loop of light illuminating the hall brightly.

Outside, the cloaking device on the castle’s legs powers down. The castle is slowly revealed in all its black and gold glory to the incoming knights and soldiers on the walls watching for the guests that are supposed to arrive soon.

The sudden appearance of the castle startles the horses, knights and soldiers on watch. The horses try to run away by throwing the knights off. The knights try to suppress the terror rising at the sight of the huge, creepy looking castle while trying to stay on the horses. The soldiers on watch are scared stiff, having never seen something like this happen before they had no idea what to do.

They delivered the news to the guard captain who in turn reported the news to the Emperor. The Emperor read the letter and knew the castle was hidden on the hill top but when he arrived at one of the balconies facing the valley entrance, he was stunned at the sight. An enormous, creepy, black and gold castle carried on 8 equally huge and creepy spider legs. Nothing could have prepared him for the sight. He then spotted the floating ship belonging to the second Princess within the walls of the castle and couldn’t help but be worried.

What had she seen? Who had she met? Who could be the owner of such a strange looking place? All his thoughts were directed towards his second daughter’s safety when he spotted the knights he sent with the instructions of guiding the Princes and the guest to a place where they could leave the castle.

“There’s no areas large enough for that monstrosity of a castle anywhere near the Capital. Where should we tell him to settle? This is going to be troublesome.” Sighed the Emperor.

At the same time in the castle.

The Princess’s group waited at the gates for the knight escort to arrive and lead them to a place they could leave the castle.

Aaron was in a different tart of the castle. In a room in the centre of the castle’s basement Aaron was looking at the approaching knights with his void sight while using a console in the middle of the room. He was pulling levers and pressing buttons on a large console in the white room. The lights on the console turned from red to yellow, indicating that whatever it is, it is ready to use but not on. The room became noisy as the sound of devices powering on reached into it from a corridor leading to a bigger room. Inside the spacious room sits a strange device. The device is a mixture of rocks, crystals and metal parts. The whole device is connected to thick chains leading straight into the floor of the room as well as several spell formations engraved onto the floor, walls and ceiling. The chains also had strengthening runes and resistance runes carved into each separate link making the chain virtually unbreakable.

As the device awakens from its dormant state the sealing anti-gravity spell also activates, keeping the effects of the device within a close proximity of itself. The anti-gravity spell used on the device was a powerful and annoying spell if used against an opposing mage. The gravity well created by the spell is powerful enough to stop even the strongest of physical fighters in place. In addition to the power of the gravity well the spell is also self-sustaining, sucking in mana from the surroundings and the target making it impossible for enemy mages to escape. The spell in the large room seems to be sustaining itself just from the device it was enclosing.

The group at the gate finally met with the knight escort and began talking while waiting for the most important person, Aaron, to arrive.

Seeing the knights at the gate Aaron used a combination of Void and Space magic to instantly teleport into the entrance hall before making his way over to the gate to meet the knights.

Meanwhile in the royal palace in the Capital.

“Father! I heard sister Catharine is back! Where is she?” a cheerful yet mature female voice rang out from behind the Emperor.

“Over there.” Said the Emperor as he lifted a hand to point at the huge castle on the hill at the entrance to the valley without turning to look who it was. He knew the voice of his first daughter, Jade, very well.

“Eeek! Such a creepy thing. What is that, Father?” asked Jade.

“Apparently, it’s the castle that belonged to the man who helped the first Emperor conquer the continent.” Answered the Emperor, not quite believing his own words.

“Wow. That thing must be old then. Right? Like, at least 200 thousand years old. How is it still in one piece and in such undamaged state? And more importantly, why is it at the valley entrance?” Jade flooded her father with questions.

“Jade, calm down. Remember what we agreed on? One question at a time.” George sighed, not knowing what to do with his overly enthusiastic daughter.

“I remember father. Ok then, why is it here? I heard it would take little sis 40 days to get near it even with the speed of the floating ship.” Jade, now less giddy and with slower words, asked.

“Well, the letter, delivered by what we called express air delivery for lack of better words, sent by your sister said that… well, it walked… or rather ran here, and very quickly too from what we read.” The Emperor had to take a few pauses to finish telling Jade the story.

“Walked? Ran here? That’s ridiculous. Don’t tell me sis has gone crazy…” Jade’s sentence was cut short by the sight of the castle on the hill slowly making its way down into the valley using its 8 huge legs.

““Ooh”” Both father and daughter let out a weird sound at the same time after witnessing the castle walk with their own eyes.

“Well… Looks true enough to me.” Said Jade with a small voice as if still processing what she just saw.

“Well… It is true. The whole damn thing moves like a spider. Interesting.” The Emperor muttered lost in thought.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Jade? Where should we tell them to leave the castle? It has to be close enough so they can get to the palace quickly but also has to be out of the way.” Asked the Emperor, not sure if he could come up with an idea quickly enough.

“I’m afraid there is no such place within the Capital father. It’s too big and the Capital is too densely populated for that to even take a step in here without destroying at least a few houses with each move.” Said Jade worried.

“True. It’ll have to stay outside of the Capital. Otherwise there’s no telling the damage it would cause.” Said the Emperor.

As the castle slowly followed the knights on horseback and got closer more details of the castle became visible. The 12 towering spires. The low, no more than 10 metres tall, castle wall. The enormous size of the castle itself. Adding in the fascinating materials the whole thing was made of, this castle was like a walking treasure. In functionality, design and value of materials it was created from the castle could beat any royal palace, castle or keep without trouble.

The closer it got to the Capital, the clearer and louder its footfalls sounded. This got the attention of many residents of the Capital as the valley was normally very peaceful and quite due to the fact the Triton Empire controlled the whole continent. No enemies meant no war. This made the citizens very happy. No sending husbands and sons to never see them again. No loosing relatives in bloody conflict. Low taxes thanks to the growth and stability. These are all the things they thanked the hero who helped the First Emperor for. Who would have thought that the hero would return after such a long time and on top of it all have no idea how he helped the first Emperor?

The castle neared the 100-metre-tall castle wall and stopped. The legs lowered to let the gate rest near the ground and let the princess’s group out.

“I will be joining you soon, I just have something to take care of before leaving the castle.”

Aaron told the Princess as he turned around from the departing group and headed back into the castle.

“Ok…”

The Princess at this point was talking more to herself than anyone else as Aaron had already left and teleported back to the centre room in the castle basement.

When the Princess and her group of soldiers and knight escort were on the ground, the castle raised itself back up onto its legs and shook slightly.

The castle began to slowly rise into the air. First it was only a tiny bit with the bottom of the legs just above the ground. But as the legs folded under the castle and glowed a slight purple colour the castle began rising higher and higher. When the castle reached a height that allowed it to safely pass over the wall it stopped its upward movement and slowly floated towards the royal palace. That day the entire Capital stopped and stared at the strange sigh seen for the first time ever.

The second Princess was the first to break out of stupor and realised the now floating castle would get to the palace before them if they didn’t hurry.

“We have to go! Otherwise lord Aaron will get there first!”

If Aaron got to the palace first and was found by the Emperor, Jade or any of her brothers she probably wouldn’t get to see him again.

After the Princess’s shout, the soldiers and knights quickly began moving in the direction of the palace. The castle’s air journey across the Capital’s sky was closely watched by the Emperor and Jade next to him.

“” Wow”” the Emperor and Jade were awed by the capabilities of the strange castle.

“Can I…”

“No.”

The Emperor cut of Jade who was about to ask something stupid again.

“But…”

“We said no.”

The Emperor was still calm even with the persistence of his oldest child.

“I’m sure he…”

“It’s still a no.”

The Emperor left no room for Jade to argue.

“Fine.”

Jade left after one last look at the castle floating leisurely, like a cloud, towards the palace.

“Jeffrey, bring us all the ancestral records left by the first and second Emperors.” The Emperor spoke, seemingly to himself.

“As you wish, Sire.”

A gruff voice came from a shadowy corner behind the curtains covering part of the doorway leading to the balcony.

Seconds later the sound of a book falling on a desk is heard from behind the curtains. The Emperor turns his back on the floating castle with some difficulty and heads to search in the book. He is searching for any clues to the castle’s ability to float. The book has no mention of a castle at all. When the hero arrived at Triton Kingdom he had nothing with him and arrived on foot. The book describes him as a large man with long gold hair and a strange metal right arm. No mention of a castle.

“The castle was built after the battle with the demons.” The Emperor concluded after finding nothing in the book of the second Emperor.

“It would appear so, Sire.”

“Have you read these before?” asked the Emperor curiously.

“Only parts I managed to glimpse from your reading, Sire.” The butler answered after a pause.

“Well… Don’t just stand there, help an old man find some clues.” Said the Emperor with a jolly tone.

“As you wish, my lord.” The faithful butler answered as he walked over to the Emperor’s side to pick up one of the other books to aid in the search.

In another part of the royal palace.

“Big brother, do you see that? What do you think it is?” A young, around 15 years old, violet haired boy shouted while hopping around and pointing at the floating castle.

The man beside the boy looked like an older, more mature version of him with similar but shorter violet hair and a small violet goatee.

“It must be the present father prepared for my 25st birthday. I’m sure of it. It must be.” Said the older one with a hand on his hairy chin while talking and nodding in admiration.

“Wow! It’s so cool! How does it do that?! It’s just like a cloud! Accept black and metal and scary looking and fast!” the boy kept going on and on without pause.

“It sure is. Father must have had it made with intimidating enemy forces in mind.” The older one said nodding again.

From the door to the room another male voice sounded. This one slightly deeper and more mature than the young boy, who was currently hopping around the room trying to float like the castle outside, but not as much as the older males. His looks were somewhere between the oldest and youngest princes, not as rough as the oldest but not as immature as the youngest.

“I wouldn’t be so sure Leonard. Catharine just got back from her mission and arrived at the same time as the castle appeared in the sky. I would hazard a guess that it has something to do with her.”

“Nonsense! It must be for me! Look at the splendid architecture and decorations! It must be for my birthday!” the oldest, first Prince Leonard, shouted, being very sure of his own words.

At the same time as Leonard was denying the new arrival’s words, the youngest boy hopping around the room tripped on the corner of the desk in the middle of the room and fell flat on his face. As if not feeling the pain of the broken nose and not realising the blood flowing out of it the boy lifted his face and continued giggling. Looking at the scene the newly arrived young man strode over to the boy. Looking at the beaming face the previous mocking grin was replaced with a genuine smile as he lowered himself onto one knee and lifted the boy onto his feet.

“Thank you Will!” the boy beamed a smile at William, the 20-year-old second Prince.

“Now hold still for a second.” William said with a gentle voice as his hand lightly glowed with the light of a healing spell as it neared the boys nose. Lightly poking the tip of the boy’s nose, William made a funny face with his tongue hanging out causing the boy to giggle again.

“There, all better. Now Zion, make sure to tell me if anything feels strange, ok?” William asked the boy to make sure the healing spell was cast and used properly.

“It’s ok big brother, thank you, your healing spells are always the best.” The boy hugged William as he thanked him for the healing.

“Wow Will, did your healing skills improve again? I don’t think I heard a chant.” Leonard asked with clear mockery in his voice.

“Why thank you Leonard. Yes, it did indeed, I can now use it without a chant and it also takes less than 2/3 of the mana it used to.” William replied as if not noticing the mocking tone.

“Hmph!” Leonard ignored William’s words and turned back to looking at the castle approaching the palace.

“Come on Zion. Let’s go greet sister Catharine.” William said, holding out a hand for Zion to grab.

“Yey, sis Cat is back!” Zion held William’s hand and pulled him out of the room.

Leonard looked at the departing duo and coldly laughed.

“You’ll see soon. I’ll get what I want. I always get what I want.”

At the palace gates, the second Princess’ group just arrived. The castle slowly came to a halt, floating gently above them.

“We made it in time with the castle. Damn that thing is fast!” Rodger sighed, tired from having to run all the way to the gates just to keep up with the castle.

“The Emperor has requested your presence in the throne room, Princess. He asked you bring your guest with you.” A guard at the gates informed them as he opened a small side door near the main gate.

“Thank you, soldier.” The Princess having thanked the guard looked up towards the castle, a little concerned as to how to contact Aaron and tell him to come to the throne room.

The floating castle trembled slightly and momentarily shot up into the sky, stopping only after disappearing above the layer of clouds lazily drifting above the capital.

“What?!” everyone present was terrified at the speed the castle just moved at. If it could move so fast across the ground why would it need to fly so fast? No one considered the speed it maintained before was for the Princess’ group. Aaron intentionally slowed down to get to the gate at the same time.

From above the capital, a short scream was momentarily heard before being replaced by the sound of an object piercing the air around it at extreme speed. A small hole popped open in the layer of clouds and a small shiny object could be seen falling directly towards the Princess’ group.

“Did he just…” the Princess didn’t finish her question as every one of her soldiers nodded their heads at the same time. They had come to expect crazy actions from Aaron by now.

“Sigh. Let’s just wait here, shall we?” the Princess asked without looking up anymore and stood slightly away from the gate.

Up in the air above the capital, Aaron fell and laughed like a madman.

“Sitting in the castle for so long, I forgot how fun the outside world is!”

He plummeted towards the ground, headfirst, laughing and waving his arms around like a child. His hair, like a banner spread and followed behind him. It made him look like a shiny silver shooting star with a huge golden tail.

The Emperor and his butler looking outside at the falling Aaron couldn’t find their tongues, staring silently at the falling man. The first Prince looked slightly amused thinking one of the servants fell off his new castle while hanging a golden welcome banner. The second Princess looked slightly tired just thinking about what bizarre method he will use to stop himself before crashing into the ground. Zion, dragging William behind him, having spotted the falling man through a window in the corridor leading to the Emperor’s study, glued his face to the glass. He was excited and curious to see someone so high up and why the castle was nowhere to be seen. William, following Zion’s line of sight also spotted the falling Aaron and thought someone had fallen from the castle which had now disappeared.

“Come, Zion, let’s go see sis Cat at the gate.” William was worried for the falling person and wanted to be there when they landed to see if he could help in any way. Although he had never seen someone fall from such a height, he knew that if they weren’t at least at the level of a grand knight they would most likely die from the impact. A grand knight level human could survive a fall from the top of a flying mount at the height of the highest tower of the palace with only a few broken bones. Anyone below that level would die upon contacting the ground.

Meanwhile, Jade, having heard one of the servants talking about someone falling from the sky was instantly interested and headed for the gate where Catharine was waiting.

The Emperor, having felt that all but one of his children were at or going towards the gate decided to also go there himself.

“Come, everyone is waiting at the gate. Let us meet this ‘important guest’, as Catharine said.” The Emperor spoke to the butler who just came back from the putting back the Empyrean records.

“After you, my lord.” The butler bowed at the waist holding the door open for the Emperor.

Through the Royal Blood Bond, Leonard felt his father also heading towards the gate.

“Strange. Is he going to meet Catharine?” Leonard could not figure out why the Emperor himself would head towards the gate for no reason.

At the gate, Jade, William, Zion and the Emperor arrived at Catharine’s location and greeted each other after not seeing each other for over a month.

“Catharine, my child, how has your journey been? Smooth sailing, I imagine, with the floating ship. Even I wouldn’t mind going on a trip around the continent.” The Emperor smiled and said happily as he greeted the second Princess.

“It has been very leisurely indeed, Father. Thank you again for agreeing to get it.” The second Princess smiled.

Next, Jade greeted her sister with a hug.

“You know I’m really interested in the guy you brought back with you, right? So, tell me all about him.” Catharine couldn’t keep a straight face as she burst out laughing.

“For one, he’s way too old for you. And second, he acts like such a child you wouldn’t believe his actual age.”

Jade didn’t understand why her sister was suddenly laughing so much and neither could anyone save for the soldiers who had also spent a bit of time with Aaron.

“What could be so funny, Catharine?” the Emperor asked curiously.

“I’m sorry father. What I wrote in the letter was not quite right. The person I found in the castle is not the descendant of the hero.” Catharine answered while looking up towards the man now close enough to be able to make out some more detail of his body and attire.

“Who is he then?” the Emperor, a little dissatisfied at being deceived by his daughter, asked in a slightly lowered voice.

“He is the Hero himself.” Catharine said as Aaron shouted.

“Hello! Nice to meet you all!”

About 10 metres above the ground a pair of wings erupted from beneath Aaron’s hair that up to this point had been always hidden by the long flowing river of gold.

The left wing looked like a human sized dragon wing. It’s scales shining a dazzling scarlet colour as they reflected the sunlight. The right, as if to match his arm, was made completely out of metal and looked like an angel wing with blades instead of feathers.

As the wings unfolded and opened fully Aaron stopped mid-air, letting his hair catch up to him and arrange themselves while dropping to the floor, before slowly lowering himself onto the ground.

Everyone at the gate, the Emperor included, stared at Aaron’s wings. The wings shook slightly as they folded and retreated behind the river of hair and folded neatly against his back. Aaron rolled his shoulders and scratched the top of his head with his right hand. Everyone’s gazes followed the metal hand to the top of his head. Upon scratching his head, his hair slightly parted. From under the parted hair a pointy, golden furred fox ear popped out. It twitched from side to side before falling flat against Aarons head and being covered by hair with his hand.

Everyone was stunned into shock and silence. Gold fur? The only animals with gold fur are Divine Beasts.

The only possibility of gold fox ears could be the Legendary Divine Beast Golden Flaming Nine Tailed Fox. Have they not heard of the Divine Beast, the Golden Flaming Nine Tailed Fox? The legendary Divine Beast wielding the Golden God Flame capable of burning everything from solid matter to even incorporeal matter like the very souls of beings to mana itself. The same as everything in the material plain being made of atoms, everything in the immaterial plain is made of mana. All magic if fuelled by mana in one form or another. Either mana or mana infused substances, like mana infused blood for blood magic. Having the Golden God Flame means having the ultimate weapon and defence in one. Destroying anything the enemy attacks with or defends with, that is the nature of the Golden God Flame. Sometimes referred to as the All-Consuming Inferno in legends, this flame could burn the very fabric of time and space. The Golden Flaming Nine Tailed Fox is a legend within a legend to those who knew about it and practically didn’t exist to those who didn’t.

Every Emperor spent his last years writing down his life for the next generations to have a record of history within the Empire and the family. They naturally knew of the Divine Beasts their forefathers encountered and were helped by.

The Golden Flaming Nine Tailed Fox was a special case as it did not directly help the Empire. Instead it was recorded as having helped the hero who helped the first Emperor defeat the demons.

The question in everyone’s minds was clear.

[Was the Golden Flaming Nine Tailed Fox and the hero on and the same being?]

“Do you…” the Emperor stopped himself mid question as Aaron turned to look at him.

[That eye!]

The Emperor couldn’t help getting lost in the right eye of Aaron, as if peering into the infinite abyss and having it look back at you.

“Do I?” Aaron answered as if he heard the entire question and slightly turned his body to the side. Out from under his hair around waist level one white tipped golden fox tail popped out, followed by another and another, until nine white tipped golden fox tails slowly flowed up and down. After all the tails appeared a small sun like golden flame lit up at the white tip of each one.

Seeing the tails Zion began pulling on William’s hand. William looked at Zion who had the eyes of a puppy begging for a treat. William couldn’t figure out what little Zion wanted so he let go of his hand and lowered himself onto one knee to ask him what he wanted.

“What’s wrong? What do you want so suddenly?” William asked in a hushed tone not to disturb the rest of the people.

“Tail.” Zion said in a little voice, almost too quiet for William to hear.

“Tail?” William asked as he looked at Aaron’s tails.

“Zion!”

As soon as William took his eyes off Zion the later turned and ran towards Aaron. William was a second too late to grab the child and by the time he stood up to chase him, Zion had already neared Aaron. Aaron of course heard the short conversation and knew what was happening around him.

Even with his ears folded down and hidden under his hair his hearing was still much better than normal people could imagine. The reason he folded and hid his ears was so he didn’t hear as much because it distracted him from his work. Hearing everything within 100 miles wound distract even the most focused and he was not one of the.

Zion jumped and tried to grab one of Aarons tails. The later, without even looking, moved the tail slightly up causing Zion to miss it. Seeing Zion so close to the sun like flames at the ends of the tails the Emperor almost had a heart attack. He immediately used a strand of mana to pull the boy back, away from the flames. However, as soon as the mana reached near Aaron it was wrenched from his control and devoured by the flames. This scared the Emperor even more. At that moment, Aaron glanced at the Emperor again and let the hopping boy grab one of the tails.

“Fluffy!!!” Zion screamed in a childish voice as he buried his face in the tail, tip still burning with golden flames hugged tightly against his chest. Everyone stopped. It would have looked like time itself stopped if not for Zion’s little legs flailing around as he was lifted off the floor by the tail he was hugging.

“What? … But… What?” the Emperor couldn’t believe his eyes. No one looking at the scene could. The All-Devouring Flame pressed to the boy’s chest didn’t even singe the shirt he was wearing.

The tails spread out into a ring in the air leaving the boy hanging off the highest one.

“Let go for a second, would you, little Zion?” Aaron asked with a smile as he looked at Zion.

“Ok.”

As Zion let go of the tail everyone was surprised as instead of dropping to the floor like he should, he stayed hovering mid-air.

“Swim.” Aaron smiled as his tails started slowly turning.

As everyone watched, Zion began floating between the tails. From one to another, like swimming under water. Like a fish his body naturally twisted and turned between the tails, never leaving too far from one or getting too close to another.

Out of everyone present the second Princess, Catharine, was the most interested in the tails themselves. She quietly walked closer to Aaron and pounced on one of his tails, claiming it for herself. The other 8 automatically moved to compensate Zion’s field of movement after losing a tail from the ring. Aaron looked at the Princess and asked.

“And what might you want to do with that one?”

“I want to fly too.” The Princess answered meekly.

“Sure.” Aaron lifted her using the tail she was holding and brought her into the anti-gravity field he created between his tails. Catharine began happily swimming along Zion as they both giggled like little kids. Aaron looked around everyone and asked with a smile.

“Anyone else?”

“I…” the Emperor was about to ask, when a glare from Jeffery reminded him of his position.

The Emperor coughed to clear the thought from his mind.

“I would appreciate if you could let them…”

“Unhand my siblings, dirty beast!”

The Emperor’s words were interrupted by a loud shout and a fireball from the direction of the palace.

One of Aaron’s tails extended to his front before setting completely ablaze to meet the fireball. As the fireball neared the fiery tail it started shrinking and shortly after fizzed out of existence.

“Ooh, your good. I’m going to enjoy this!” Leonard’s voice once again sounded as he walked towards Aaron from the palace.

Leonard was the only one from the royal family, excluding Zion because of his young age, who had not read the Empyrean records and therefore didn’t know about the hero or the Divine Beast. Naturally, he also didn’t know just how fearsome the golden flames could be.

Everyone present looked at Leonard like he was an idiot. Winning against the Golden God Flame with magic? What kind of stupid idea was that? The Emperor was about to shout at Leonard but after meeting eyes with Aaron and exchanging a nod, he stopped himself.

Leonard stopped just in front of the line of people outside the gate. Leonard always tended to be hot headed and stubborn. Unfortunately, he was also part of the human supremacy group who thought humans should be the only ones on the continent. They didn’t like sharing the land with other races like the elves, dwarves and beast people. To them the other races were inferior and impure, leading to the creation of this human only faction within the Empire. The group consisted of mostly nobles, but also had some regular people and Leonard who had recently found them joined.

The flames died down and the tail retreated to reveal a mildly amused Aaron. Behind him, still floating in the air, Zion and Catharine stared daggers at Leonard for disturbing their fun.

“I must say… Rude! No introduction… No greeting? Just a fireball? And not a very strong one either? Let me guess… As the oldest son, you were left to your own devices as your parents took care of the younger children? Daddy issues and an inferiority complex fuelled by younger siblings better than you and your own inability to do something worth daddy’s time? No wonder you turned out like… this.” Aaron loudly mocked and gestured towards Leonard in front of everyone.

A giggle escaped Zion and Catharine looked like she couldn’t hold it in much longer. Everyone from the royal family tried to suppress their own laughs and the guards and knights turned around, escaping the scene after getting permission from the Emperor. They didn’t dare show the happy and approving expressions on their faces. Especially the beast people and elves among the guards were happy to see Leonard finally being stood up to. He had caused them a lot of problems in the short amount of time that he joined the human faction. No one could ever accuse him of being unreasonable as he always seemed to have evidence and witnesses against every non-human he had fired and replaced with human faction members.

“How dare you?! I am Leonard von Triton, crown prince of the Triton Empire. I will have your head for disrespecting the Empire!” Leonard was enraged as he shouted at the unknown beast man who insulted his pride.

“Idiot.” Catharine laughed behind Aaron.

“Why?” Zion innocently asked, not quite understanding the reason Catharine called Leonard an idiot.

“If he wanted to, Lord Aaron, this person here, could wipe the entire continent off the face of the planet. Just one of his so called ‘toys’ could destroy the Capital leaving no traces of ever existing.” Catharine said with a little fear in her voice remembering a few of the small spheres.

The demonstration for the grenade involved Aaron creating a huge pocket dimension with his space magic. The size of the pocket dimension turned out to be just smaller than Triton Capital and the grenade, thrown by Aaron to make sure it landed far enough away, covered nearly the whole field in scorching nuclear fire. The flames produced by the grenade had a green tint and ate their way through everything from organic matter like plants to rocks and even metal.

“Ooh? My head? That’s not going to be that easy you know?” Aaron said with a smile.

“Guards! Take him away! The charge is insulting the Empire.” Leonard said with a smile, so sure of himself he didn’t even realise that all the guards, soldiers and even servants had left at some point.

Not seeing anyone move to take Aaron away, Leonard shouted for the guards again yet received no answer.

Leonard looked around to find all the guards gone and the whole family looking at him as if he was stupid.

“What?” Leonard asked puzzled by the lack of guards and the looks.

“He didn’t insult the Empire. Just you, you idiot.” William couldn’t take it any longer and explained while laughing. This in turn caused everyone else to laugh.

“William!” Leonard angrily roared at William.

“Do shut up. If you haven’t noticed yet, even daddy dearest is looking at you without saying a word.” Aaron said while sharing a knowing look with the Emperor.

“But… Father! How can you stand there and let him insult us all?” Leonard asked slightly hopeful.

“We have been here the entire time and have yet to hear any insults towards myself or the Empire.” the Emperor spoke with a straight face, not even willing to support Leonard.

“The only insult to the Empire is you being the crown prince.” Aaron muttered just loud enough to let everyone hear.

Zion giggled again, still not quite understanding the fact the words were an insult towards Leonard, while Catharine and Jade erupted into laughter.

As Leonard was about to explode with rage, a grinding noise pierced the heavy atmosphere. All eye fell on the source, Aaron. Aaron rubbed his right shoulder with the scales of his left palm producing the noise of 2 pieces of metal rubbing against each other.

“That’s all nice and all, but I’m sure the Princess here invited me in the name of the Emperor to help with some pressing matters, no?” Aaron, after having everyone’s attention asked while pulling Zion and the Princess out of the air and deactivating the anti-gravity field.

“Indeed, she did.” The Emperor answered while stroking his beard.

“In that case, I would say it’s time for the adults to talk. And kids should stay quite while adults are talking.” Aaron said while looking at Leonard through the corner of his eye.

“Shut your mouth, filthy beast. If there’s no guards to do it, I’ll do it myself.” Leonard shouted, sure of himself due to not understanding the difference in ability.

A powerful lightning bolt charged up and crackled in Leonard’s hand before shooting towards Aaron. Looking at the bolt, as if time slowed, everyone had different thoughts.

[The idiot will hit Zion and Catharine if he’s not careful.] the Emperor couldn’t help but be worried about his other children.

[How will you deal with an attack that fast?] Leonard mocked in his mind.

[Zion! Catharine! This idiot!] Jade couldn’t be more worried for her siblings wanted to do something, but even with her speed she couldn’t catch up to lightning.

[If that idiot hits Zion or Catharine I’m going to kill him!] William stared daggers at Leonard.

[Pretty!] Zion, not getting how dangerous the lightning bolt heading towards them was, thought the lights produced by the bolt looked nice.

[This mana?] Catharine, being the only one close enough to Aaron that could sense mana, was shocked at how dense and quick the mana emanating from Aaron wrapped around all 3 of them.

The bolt contacted Aaron’s outstretched metal arm causing a large bang and a big dust cloud.

“Haha! Dirty beasts should do as their told!” Leonard, sure of his victory. Laughed and shouted.

“Really? Then I guess I should give you an order, huh?”

A cold voice sounded from behind Leonard as he fell to his knees, a wet patch spreading in his pants.

Just behind where Leonard was standing, Aaron stood with his right hand raised. The extended palm having just been in contact with Leonard’s back. In the brief time, Aaron had extracted all of Leonards mana and deprived him of control over his body causing him to fall asleep and piss himself.

“How?” the Emperor asked, looking between the dust cloud and Aaron’s new position.

“Nothing much, just a short-range teleportation.” Aaron replied light-heartedly.

“You… can teleport?” the Emperor asked. Having read the Empyrean records, he knew of some spells the ancient mages thought of as basic that could no longer be found in the world. Having just witnessed one of such spells, the Emperor was inclined to believe his second daughters words.

[Could this really be the Hero. The one said to have defeated most of the beasts on the continent by himself?] the Emperor couldn’t help but be doubtful before. How much time had passed? How long has it been since the records were written? No one could be expected to believe the person was still alive.

“Why don’t we move somewhere more suitable for a discussion?” Aaron asked while casting glances at everyone present.

“That would be a great idea. Let’s forget anything happened here and move on.” The Emperor said a little nervously.

Aaron nodded and bowed at the waist.

“My name is Aaron. I have forgotten any other names I might have had in the past so please, just call me Aaron.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Aaron, we are the Emperor, George von Triton and these are our children.” The Emperor introduced himself while gesturing at everyone else to do the same.

“Greetings Sir Aaron, I am Jade von Triton, First Princess and oldest child of the Emperor.” Jade was the first to speak, greeting Aaron with a light of admiration in her eyes.

“Greetings Sir Aaron, I am William von Triton, Second Prince and Head of the Council. It is a pleasure to meet someone with so much insight into the world of magic, I hope to bother you later to ask some questions I have had for some time.” William greeted Aaron with a straight back and bent waist asking to meet later and discus magic.

“I don’t see why not. Find me after the meeting with your father has finished and we can share some knowledge.” Aaron answered with a smile.

William just bowed again and smiled back.

“As you already know I am Catharine von Triton, Second Princess and leader of 50 of the finest elites the Empire has to offer.” Catharine said, trying her best to look dignified while floating around with Zion behind Aaron’s back.

Aaron just turned his head and chuckled.

“Zion, Introduce yourself to our guest.” Catharine said, prompting Aaron to slowly drop them onto the ground and retrieve his tails back under his hair.

“I’m Zion von Triton, nice to meet you mister fox.” Zion bowed slightly mimicking William and beamed a smile at Aaron.

“The one on the floor, as you already heard, is Leonard. Our oldest, and seemingly least intelligent, son. We apologise for his words and actions.” The Emperor Bowed his head.

“No need for that. He was clearly acting out of his own will.” Aaron simply smiled and waved the problem away.