Chapter 77: The Aftermath [2]

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RUMBLE!

The ground trembled as Mirai clashed against the sharp claws of Selene. The wild, beastly girl unleashed her full power without holding back. Her hair turned completely red, her skull-like face pitch black, and her glowing eyes burned bright red.

Despite her youth, Selene was incredibly strong. Each blow forced Mirai to block carefully. She instinctively tried to evade but forced herself to stand firm after realizing how quickly Selene adapted, surprising her with dozens of wild, unpredictable attacks.

Selene roared, firing beams of moonlight from her jaws. Whenever she swung her claws, cutting waves of moonlight slashed Mirai’s skin, leaving superficial scratches that healed slowly on their own.

Yet Mirai had always been highly resilient. Just being scratched and made to bleed this much showed Selene’s incredible potential. Mirai quickly understood why Louis had chosen to recruit her.

“You’re amazingly strong, Selene! I can’t believe you’re so talented!”

“Heheh! Really?”

Selene giggled cutely as she leaped around, avoiding Mirai’s attacks by spinning midair and altering her trajectory, striking Mirai’s head with full force and pushing her back.

Mirai smiled, getting serious and unleashing part of her true power. Demonic Energy enhanced her strength and speed exponentially.

Suddenly, Selene could no longer keep up.

“Eh?!”

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t match Mirai’s speed. She constantly bit the dust, falling to the ground whenever she thought she could land a claw strike.

“M-Mirai got fast…!” she said in surprise.

“I was playing around before. This is where the real training begins,” Mirai said, taking some inspiration from Louis. “You cannot improve if you don’t push yourself to your limits, you know?”

“…Okay!” Selene nodded, her eyes gleaming as she chased with even more determination, sometimes catching Mirai only for her to kick the claws away and push her back down.

Selene wasn’t the type to sit and cry when she got hurt. She was wild and energetic, making her a great training partner for Mirai.

Nearby, Melisa and Juliette conjured magic against one another—Light against Darkness. Explosions of bright light and shadows erupted across the skies.

They were engaged in a Spell Duel, where magicians tested their spells by pitting them directly against each other.

“Your Holy Magic should be the weakness of my Dark Magic, dear, but it seems far too weak,” Juliette provoked Melisa. “Put more energy into it!”

“B-But how do I do that?!” Melisa asked, clenching her teeth.

“You have to put Intent. Expand your Mind into your Magic!” Juliette said. “Think about the strongest spell you can imagine and try to materialize it through your spells!”

“That sounds so complicated…!” Melisa complained.

“I know, but you have to keep trying. Even if it’s complicated, this is how you improve, Melisa!” Juliette guided her.

On the other side, Agustina was performing her exercises, letting energy flow through her body to reinforce her physique and awaken her dwarven power.

“Wow, Agustina, you’re improving very fast,” said Anastasia, who was swinging her sword against imaginary foes within her Mindscape.

“A-Am I? I’m doing my best, but… Haa… sometimes it feels like I can’t get strong enough in time…” Agustina sighed.

“Nah, you can do it! You just started yesterday, but you’ve already gotten used to the Five Elemental Spiritual Roots, right? That’s amazing by itself,” Anastasia praised her. “So you’re going to practice with a halberd?”

“I… yes!” Agustina nodded. “I haven’t found a sparring partner yet. Everyone’s busy.”

“Then I’ll be your sparring partner. It’s better to fight someone real than just enemies in my head,” Anastasia said, walking toward her. “Come on, get ready. I’ll go easy on you.”

“A-Ah, thank you!” Agustina nodded, gripping her halberd tightly, furrowing her eyebrows, and tying her hair into a long red ponytail. “I’m ready anytime!”

“Good, that’s the spirit! Let’s do it!” Anastasia charged, swinging her sword and clashing against Agustina. The half-elf and half-dwarf was incredibly sluggish, unable to even see her coming. She tried to defend while cowering—a bad reaction in battle that could lead to death. “What are you doing, Agustina?! That’s not a defending stance! Dig your feet into the ground and face me with your eyes wide open!”

“I-I’m sorry! I’ll try my best!” Agustina cried, still a little too timid about everything, but making progress at least.

Hours passed. Then, after a long interrogation of the souls of the two slain knights, Louis and his Necromancer subordinate emerged from the underground chamber, bringing both good and bad news. Louis called everyone to gather as he shared everything they had learned.

“We’ve uncovered quite a few things, so listen carefully. First, as Lady Red Leaf mentioned, the District Alliance is primarily led by a great leader with very lofty ambitions. His name is Verdant Bellflower, a member of a Noble Family from Yggdrasil who moved here and became one of the first Nobles of the country.

I had imagined it would be one of his descendants leading this strange ’revolution’ in these three districts, but I was wrong. Verdant’s descendants are mostly uninvolved, and some aren’t even in this district.

As I suspected, he and the other noble houses cooperating with him have been tampering and experimenting on the Dimensional Rift, extracting materials from it and slowly contacting the Rift’s Ruling Grievance, the Gardener. These fools have no idea that the Gardener’s sole goal is to expand his garden endlessly. He is using them just as they are using him.

The reason those knights had Summoning Runes capable of calling Entities was because they received blessings from the Gardener. In exchange, upon death, their souls would become part of his Garden. We delayed that as long as possible using the power of the Spiral of Desecrated Souls, but just as we were finishing our questions, both souls could hold no longer and exploded, turning into countless flowers with eyeballs. We burned them before an opening to the Gardener’s Domain could form.

Verdant Bellflower’s goals are many, but his primary one is to cut all ties with the capital and the royal family, turning the District Alliance into an independent country. For that, he’s been amassing forces—mostly mercenaries, ancient knights from elven lineages, and Entities provided by the Gardener.

His plan… was to invade the capital in two years once he had gathered enough power. The bastard has been working to destroy this country all this time!”

As Louis finished, everyone was shaken to the core. Not even Lady Red Leaf or her daughter had imagined Lord Verdant would go so far—not just declaring independence but planning to destroy the capital and kill the nobles.

Now that Louis’s mother, the Queen, was in deep slumber, he intended to kill her son, her husband, and even her. To this, Louis could not contain his anger. A man his mother had brought from Yggdrasil—a fallen noble shunned by his peers for greed and ambition—had been given a second chance in another world by Benladra, only to turn against her the moment she became powerless. It was astonishing how shameless he was.

“So Lord Verdant wants to kill Her Majesty? Not just the prince or King Gustaf, but even the sleeping queen?!” Agustina gasped. “W-Wha…! Why?!”

“I guess we’ve underestimated his greed,” Lady Red Leaf shook her head. “I had a few interactions with that man… my husband was a close friend of his. I cannot imagine how much he hid from him. Perhaps to Verdant, my dear husband was never a friend but a pawn he manipulated.”

“If they’re actively working with a Grievance, we should probably request reinforcements from the VPI!” Juliette said. “At the very least, a couple of Agents would help.”

“Yes, they’re on their way. They will arrive tonight,” Louis said. “I’ve already set up a new teleportation array with the pieces of technology they sent me. Aunt Helena and my father couldn’t come, but both handpicked their best available agents—experts who have gone through many battles, lived for quite a long time, and seen this planet change over the years.”

“I see. Then maybe we’ll have a chance with their help,” Juliette said.

“But what’s the plan now?” Anastasia asked. “You surely don’t intend to… attack the District Alliance Headquarters, right?”

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