"Brother, the goddess—" Lana tried to speak but was interrupted by Logan.

"I don't care what she said! He's a Rogue! I forbid you from serving him!"

"I am a Learner, not a Rogue," Aaron revealed. Now that he had leveled up and was strong enough to protect himself from anyone in this kingdom, there was no point in keeping the facade.

The Paladin frowned. "Don't you dare lie to me! Your skills and the way you attacked the tiger have Rogue written all over it!"

Aaron squinted his eyes when he was called a liar, but the man was the brother of his new maid and thought she was throwing her potential away by following Aaron. Aaron would at least explain things to Logan. Once. Right before he threatened the man.

"I have skills from all possible classes in the world. Or rather, I have the equivalent skills to any other you might find in this world. All of them self-created, and all of them beyond your comprehension. Your sister is now my maid and I want you to understand that not only is this a great honor, but that she'll be much safer by my side than anywhere else on this planet. I am powerful, skilled, and take care of mine."

Logan seemed more pissed off by the claim than reassured, but Aaron wasn't done. He put his hands behind his back and stared at Logan.

"That said, you almost raised a weapon against me for the third time. Your sister protected your life, and I'll honor her in not reaping it from you, but you are permanently banned from my presence."

"Oh, you arrogant piece of shit!" Logan yelled and tried to wield his sword again, but Lana threw herself at his arm to prevent it.

"Brother, please!" she yelled. "The Patriarch spoke and his word is law in the clan. I don't want to have to attack you." She had understood her role in the Ironblood clan well and was already acting according to her new position.

"You would... attack me?" asked the Paladin, incredulous, and stepped back with eyes and mouth agape

That, more than anything, seemed a shock he couldn't recover from.

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"I would do anything for my goddess." Lana's voice was full of sadness. "She ordered me to serve the Patriarch, and the Patriarch has ordered me to follow a set of rules that would make me attack you if you do not leave in two minutes." She bit her lower lip. "Yes, I would attack you." Her voice came out almost as a whisper.

It had hurt to speak those words, but she was glad for saying what needed to be said. The keyword was "speak."

To be honest, no matter what she had said, Lana wasn't sure if she could attack him, even if it cost her life by going against her Holy Vow. That was her brother! And yet, she believed the Patriarch would kill Logan in the blink of an eye.

So she had done her best to send him away for his own good.

Logan's shock quickly turned into fury. He looked at the Patriarch, yelled, "This isn't over," then mounted his liguru and disappeared into the Red Forest under Lana's tear-filled gaze.

The Patriarch put a hand on her shoulder. "He is foolish and proud," he said softly. "He would end up attacking me if he stayed with us, and a direct attack is something that I would never forgive, not for anyone's sake. Banishing him is the best way to keep him safe and sound."

Lana wiped her tears away and nodded once, but said nothing.

Her heart ached.

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Aaron looked at Tia. "Are you coming with us?"

She took a while to answer but ended up copying Lana in nodding silently. Aaron could guess that she had nowhere else to run now that he had put her in the spotlight and so many people had seen her. Her family would probably hear about her whereabouts, and being close to him was her best chance to stay away from them for slightly longer.

As for her becoming a burden for himself, he already needed to protect Alys and Lana. One more wouldn't make much difference, no matter how low her level was.

"Come, then," he ordered as he moved towards the cave complex's entrance.

They found corridors wide enough for everyone to walk side by side, but Aaron ordered them to move in a line. It was safer that way.

Alys took the lead, closely followed by Tia. Aaron was third in line. Only Lana didn't stay in line. She walked beside him, slightly behind, as a maid should.

"Alys, you aren't using any detection skills," he said after a while.

"I don't know any that can be used while I move, Patriarch," she replied.

"You are a Shaper, you control Space itself. You don't have to be a genius to think of a way to do it."

Tia flinched at his cold words, but Alys smiled gratefully. If he had said she was capable of it, she knew it was true and was grateful that he had informed her and trusted her ability.

She stopped walking and focused for a long time. Memories of Aaron's morning training instinctively came to her mind and inspired her. Then, Space Energy left her body and filled an area of ​​approximately one hundred meters around her.

Dizziness followed. She could feel everything her Space Energy touched. It wasn't the same as seeing, but she could detect the shape of everything instantly, as if she were running her palm over it.

Aaron nodded. "Your energy usage is wasteful, and calling your control mediocre would be an undeserved compliment. But at least you found a solution by yourself and developed a skill, which many geniuses cannot do. Congratulations."

Alys had never heard any praise given with so many negative words, but he had called himself someone who had once been a supreme being. How high were his standards? Just hearing him say she was better than many geniuses was a compliment she had never received before.

A compliment that made her try even harder. She immediately did her best to correct the two errors pointed out.

To decrease energy waste, she cut the skill's energy in half and put some distance between the energy particles, thus keeping the same range around her covered. It was like throwing half the water out of a full glass then creating tiny air bubbles between the drops of water still in the glass, thus keeping it "full."

Improving her control was much more difficult and couldn't be done so easily, but just the way she was covering the same space as before with half the energy already made her reach her limit.

"Good," Aaron said simply.

Tia could hardly believe what she was seeing. Aaron had said he knew all sorts of skills, but she had been sure it had been just an empty boast. Yet, he was analyzing a Four Star Sorceress's Space Energy skills!

Well, at least he was pretending to. Tia couldn't feel Space Energy, so she wouldn't know if Alys was in on it. Why were they doing that to her?

Lana, on the other hand, was slowly understanding why the goddess valued that man so much. He wasn't a Rogue, but he had fought perfectly as one. He wasn't a Sorcerer, but he could give hints to a Four Star Sorceress. Despite his cold words, there was a touch of gentleness in his tone, as if he were a strict father talking to a beloved daughter — a daughter who was almost twice his age!

A shroud of mystery enveloped him, and Lana was becoming more and more intrigued about that breeze-windstorm.

The walls and ceiling of the cave were made of stone, and the floor was mostly earth. Moss and small plants were everywhere. To ward off the darkness, Alys created four orbs of light, one floating over each member of the expedition. Creating them was easy, it barely required her to focus at all, and they could keep going even when she fell asleep. Still, casting that spell while maintaining the detection skill required the last of her control and her focus.

Soon, the corridor's roof became too low, and they had to dismount. Aaron had Lana tie the ligurus together and pull them at the end of the line.

After entering a tight corridor and walking for an hour, Aaron told them to stop.

"This is enough, it's late and we need to sleep." He looked back at where they had come from, his eyes gleaming with Qi, and shook his head in silence at what he was seeing. "Set up camp," he ordered.

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They ate in silence and everyone but Aaron went to sleep right after. They were tired from everything that had happened and fell asleep almost immediately.

He stayed awake, meditating. There was no difference between day and night in the caves, but that was no problem for him, who was deeply familiar with the Laws of Time. When the sun had just risen outside, he woke everyone up.

He wanted to train using the Rise to the Heavens cultivation method, but that required an outdoor forest with at least a certain number of living things around it so that the elements could harmonize properly. Training in a cave would cause a collapse or even leave his internal energies in a chaotic state. Both possibilities could be lethal.

"Stay sharp," he said after the breakfast of dried meat and water. "I heard at least two different beings come near us last night, and I bet Alys felt nothing. If they were smart enough to detect the energy perimeter created by her spell and not break into it, they're smart enough to set up an ambush."

As if he were a prophet, the first attack came shortly after an hour.

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The king was in a large room, looking at the three-dimensional map that occupied the floor and contained the city and its surroundings. Beside him were his Minister of War and some advisers.

Seeing the Arcane Tower in ruins, even if in mere representation, left him divided. He wished he hadn't been forced to do that, but his survival came before the Arcane Circle's.

The problem was that even with their surprise attack and heavy usage of spies to increase the inner chaos of the Arcane Circle, his troops had eliminated less than a tenth of the Sorcerers. To his surprise, the battalion stationed at the Tower quickly got rid of the spies when they revealed themselves and simply fled through a magical teleportation formation that he had never heard of, even after decades of spying!

The formation took the defending battalion and Sorcerers to the outside of the city walls, far enough to be able to continue to flee if the king attacked, but close enough to be a threat. To complicate matters further, the Circle's support battalion was returning from the Red Forest, where it had previously gone, bringing Madam Selna with it.

He had planned to destroy the defense battalion and then deal only with the support battalion, one at a time, before the mobile battalion could arrive. Having to battle them both in the future would be a big problem. Now, he needed the support of the nobles and great clans in the city, which would require complex and costly negotiations.

That wasn't even the worst part. The worst was the resurgence of a new Herald of Light after hundreds of years.

And he was none other than Aaron Ironblood!

The moment the Goddess of Light declared him the Herald of Light, the local Temple of Light's deacon made two declarations. First, he let everyone know about the new herald. Then, he told everyone that the Herald of Light had declared an irreconcilable feud against the Guardian Sword clan.

All Devouts of Light went crazy in anger against the Guardian Sword and started a small scale crusade against them. Tens of thousands of sympathizing citizens attacked the buildings and members of the Guardian Sword throughout the entire city. Even one of the Big Five had joined the attack and started a huge and illegal battle within the city!

Now, the king had two of the Big Five battling each other in the capital of his kingdom, almost a fifth of its population in chaos, and a Royal Guard that, when it tried to do something, was beaten down!

On the map, golden spheres represented the Devouts of Light and their allies; silver, the Arcane Circle forces outside the city; red, the Guardian Sword's men; and blue, the king's troops. The spheres varied in size and were scattered all over the place. The larger the sphere, the more powerful the troops represented there were, whether in numbers or levels. The golden ones were the largest and most numerous of all.

The king had to decide whether he would continue to try to contain the situation, ally himself with the Devouts of Light, act against Aaron Ironblood again, or simply let things work themselves out without intervening.

"What do you think?" he asked his Minister of War.

The Minister of War was a short, fat man, wearing what he called a "suit, tie and top hat." He was a foreigner from the northeast of the continent. With excessively white skin, he had a long, curved mustache and a monocle attached to his eye.

"Let them kill themselves and preserve our troops," the Minister said. "The real enemy is the Arcane Circle."

The king then turned to a Priest of War present there, a man completely covered by red armor. "And you? What do you think?"

"Kill them all," said the Priest. "Kill enough Devouts of Light and their goddess will tell them to lay low or she will risk losing them. Kill enough civilians and the others will be intimidated. Then, rescue the Guardian Sword clan using imperial law as the reason, and in the process get rid of the other clan. They have no problem rebelling against the law and are likely to become a problem in the future. Seek an alliance with the other clans to get rid of the rebel clan and promise spoils of battle so you can give them a taste of what allying with you can bring them. Then it will be easier for them to team up with you against the Arcane Circle."

The king contemplated the map for a while before answering, "Tempting, but stupid. Such a battle would use all my resources. If the Circle attacked before such long operations were over, we would be easily slaughtered. Moreover, the rebel clan is the Sublime Light, a name you refused to utter because you know that they are firm allies of the Temple of Light. To act against them would only increase the chaos in the city." He looked at the Priest again. "You said you were my ally, but you just want war, no matter who wins. You are removed from your position as Royal Counselor. Leave." The man didn't even try to argue and just left the room in silence.

The king's next move would change his entire fate, but he didn't know that. Four things made him decided on it.

First, simple math. The two times he had acted against Aaron Ironblood, he had incurred losses, so he didn't need to be a genius to conclude that it was time to switch sides.

Second, using the imperial law that forbade battles between the Big Five against the rebel clan was valid, but following the Goddess of Light even against a law that would benefit him would give him the moral high ground. That would become good publicity when he negotiated with the other clans.

Third, the goddess' troops were stronger at the moment, and joining the winning team was always easier and less costly.

And last but not least, the king had also offended Aaron Ironblood. What if he were the next whom the Temple of Light turned against? Showing regret now was his best option.

"We will answer the Goddess of Light's call to arms," said the king with regret. "Send the entire army against the Guardian Sword. The sooner I regain control of my kingdom's capital, the better."