“Come on, Ashara!” I called back with a grin to the nervous looking demoness as we approached the fort ruins. “We can’t keep everyone waiting for us!”

“Yeah… Yeah, I know.” She nodded her head, holding the pendant at her neck and taking a deep breath before stepping forward. “It’s just… We’re finally seeing the third world! Nobody’s ever made it back after going there…”

I gave a small nod, but I still had my confident smile on my face. “Well, it’s not like we’re going alone.”

It had been ten years since Ashara and I had gotten married now. Ten of the happiest years of my life. I had finally been able to take Ashara back to meet my mother, who had fallen to her knees in tears when she saw that I was not only alright, but had really been able to become successful in the Legion.

After we got married, we stepped down from teaching and focused on raising a family of our own. Our own little imp, Ashton Salacin, had just turned nine not too long ago and was already starting to train on his own. Every so often I would find him drawing magic symbols on sheets of paper, trying to take them apart so he could better understand them.

The precautions that the gods had took had truly worked wonders. Ever since the cannons had been implemented, numerous monsters had come through. It was to the point that the entire fort had been destroyed, its walls blown apart and ceiling shattered. Yet through all of that, the gate stood firm, its foundation not even skewed.

Those cannons gave us time. Time to build a strong enough force that we could step onto the third world, and build a base of operations. There were so many questions that we needed to know the answers to, and they could only be found there.

As I grasped Ashara’s hand to lead her in, we saw the lamps around the fort illuminate our traveling party. Including the two of us, there were fifteen strong Legionnaires, each with a minimum level of a hundred and fifty. Leading them was myself, coming in at a total of two hundred and fifteen levels.

I wasn’t the strongest person of Deckan, not in terms of levels. However, my aeons had earned me special abilities. Abilities that people could not easily cope with. So while I was not the strongest, it could be said that I was in the top few.

That was why I had been chosen to lead this expedition with Ashara, as my aeons gave me the versatility to overcome most challenges. And while we did not know many of the people traveling with us, they all bore the same symbol, the same responsibility.

“Alright, everyone! Let’s go see what’s so special about this third world, shall we?” I asked with a smile, earning a round of laughs from the thirteen people that we came here to meet.

Moving towards the gate, I retrieved the key to the third world that was hidden beneath a trapdoor, and switched it out with the key to Desbar. Then, I walked up onto the gate, looking towards the group that I would be leading. In it there were fighters and craftsmen, mages and healers.

“Well, let’s go!” I told them simply, beckoning them all forward. There was no need for a fancy speech. No long winded talks to boost morale. Everyone here was already both nervous and excited, and I didn’t have any words that could change that.

Ashara shook her head helplessly as she stepped onto the gate, placing her hand back in mine as her tail intertwined with my own. Seeing this, the others began coming up one by one, until everyone had walked up onto the gate platform. Once they were ready, I placed my foot down on the key, pressing it in enough to activate the gate itself.

Everybody here had seen the gate activation before, at least once. So while there were some people who were still fascinated by the raising and breaking apart of the stone circles, nobody panicked during the rather disturbing flickering near the end when the gate travel was finished. Rather, everyone simply prepared themselves for combat, just in case there was something waiting for us.

And indeed, there was something waiting for us. The barrels of the same cannons that had protected Desbar and Deckan for nearing eleven years were aimed directly at the gate, causing cold sweat to trickle down my back. Around the gate, which seemed to be located in a dense jungle, there were craters and shattered, dead trees. Obviously, the outer world monsters had been attacking this place as well.

Thankfully, the cannons did not seem intent on attacking us. Otherwise, our group of fifteen would have been wiped out before we could have even known what was going on. “Alright, everyone!” I called out when I saw that there were no monsters in the immediate area.

“Look around the vicinity to find the gate keys! They put both at every other site, so we know that they had to have done the same here!” Of course, it was likely that the keys had been blasted away from any of the numerous cannon shots, or been carried away by a monster. Or, hell forbid, both.

Reaching down into my satchel, I pulled out a small packet of cards. These were my aeon deck, created over the years as I learned more and more about the summoner class. I looked through them trying to find the one that I was looking for until I came across a card depicting a token shaped like a bird.

Unsealing it, I then summoned the aeon that was stored inside. The token glowed for a moment, the lines carved into it lighting up. Then, a small bird flew from the token, looking identical to my first partner. “Alright Silver, time to do some scouting.” In truth, this aeon was created from the soul of the same bird, kept in the form of an aeon after it was destroyed in a fight.

The bird chirped, nodding its head to show its understanding before it spread its wings to fly off into the trees. With my connection to Silver, I was able to see everything it saw with just a little bit of focus, allowing me to get an accurate lay of the land without ever leaving the gate platform.

Going by the horizon distance… the world should be the same size as Deckan. I thought inwardly once Silver flew above the trees. There was a brief beep from the computer at my wrist, making me lift it up to access the quest log.

The quest for our first mission objective, finding the keys, had been deleted. That could only mean that someone had completed it, making me nod my head with a small smile. Sure enough, after a few minutes had passed, one of the kitsune that came with us came running back to the small clearing we were in, panting for breath.

In his hands was one of the gate keys, which I recognized as the key for Desbar. Only a moment later, and one of the demons glided down from a nearby tree carrying the other key. “Alright. Has anyone found any local monsters yet?”

I had to ask this because I noticed that I had not seen any monsters when viewing the world through Silver’s eyes. No matter how many trees it passed, there was no animal life to be seen at all. And sure enough, everyone gathered shook their heads at my question.

“Maybe the monsters were all scared off by the gate, and the cannons?” Ashara asked helpfully, standing next to me and glancing around. “I mean, every time a monster comes through, they’d sense a powerful predator, and then the cannons go off…”

It wasn’t an unreasonable possibility. But at the same time, it also reinforced that we could not set up a base camp here. “First thing’s first. Put the Deckan key into the gate, that way we can go back at a moment’s notice. We’ll keep the Desbar key with us while we move.”

I was about to speak more, but a dark shadow appeared in Silver’s vision, and I felt my aeon killed. I uttered a brief curse, holding up his token and waiting for his spirit to return to it. “Okay… there is something nearby.”

“My summon just died, roughly six hundred meters south.” At least, I assumed it was south, going by the placement of the sun. “So if there is a safe area, it likely doesn’t extend beyond five hundred meters.”

“Were you able to tell how strong the monster was?” Someone asked from the group, causing me to shake my head.

“No, it died too fast. I can send in something better, though.” I gave a small smile as I said that, pulling another card from my aeon deck. This one was a pair of identical tokens, each in the shape of a four-armed gorilla.

Passing the second token to Ashara, I glanced at the rest of the group. “We’ll be needing all of you to watch over us for a few minutes.” They seemed surprised by that command, while Ashara simply smiled knowingly.

The two of us moved, sitting down next to the gate and clutching the tokens to our chests. Like before, the engravings lit up. This time, however, the creature did not emerge directly from the tokens. Rather, a pair of lights shot out between us, joining together to form my strongest battle aeon.

Aside from the extra pair of arms, the large gorilla did not look all that powerful. It was five meters tall, giving it an intimidating appearance, but it did not carry the same strange feeling that most monsters gave. It simply beat its chest with its four arms, letting out a roar as it charged out to the south.

Both Ashara and I were now controlling this aeon, as well as fueling it with our energies. Like this, we were able to surpass the limit of what I could summon on my own. In fact, if I had more people that I trusted like I did Ashara, I may even be able to create something more powerful.

In the jungle, it didn’t take long for the gorilla to reach the site where Silver had been killed. Once again, it beat its chest and roared, sending out a challenge to any nearby beasts. Birds scattered at the noise, but the two of us heard a slight hissing from above.

Looking up, we saw a long white snake, over ten meters in length. At first, its appearance reminded us of the terrifying Deathfog Serpent that had destroyed the compound, but we knew that wasn’t correct. If it were, the aeon would already be dead. No, this was just something that appeared similar.

“My will is fire.” Ashara spoke in front of me, and I could feel a strong divine energy emerging from the body of the gorilla. The divine energy formed into four long swords, one in each of the aeon’s hands.

“My breath is a storm.” This time, it was me who spoke. Three spell diagrams appeared beneath the body of the gorilla, circling slowly around it. When the creature roared again, its voice shook the trees like thunder. The branch that the serpent was clinging to snapped, causing it to fall down towards the ground.

These chants may seem silly to onlookers, but for us it was a key way to communicate. When we each know what the other is doing, our focus will not disrupt the energies being sent through to the aeon. If that happened, then the aeon might scatter entirely, killed by our own attempts to control it.

The gorilla charged forward, its two eyes locked onto the falling snake. When it slashed its swords of fire out, long flaming trails burst forth to scorch the monster. While the snake hissed in anger and pain, and we saw the health bar appearing above it, Ashara spoke once more. “My body is iron, and my breath is flame.”

I relinquished control of the affected areas, allowing Ashara’s divine power to coat the aeon’s skin in an armored coat. As it grabbed the screeching snake, it forcibly pulled open its jaws, and let out another roar. This time, the roar turning into a torrent of fire that went straight down the snake’s throat.

The health of the snake rapidly plummeted, falling to nothing after only a few moments. Once the health bar disappeared, the body of the snake went limp. It was easy enough to gauge the creature’s strength from that, reassuring both Ashara and myself.

“It should be around level one hundred and fifty.” I guessed out loud, calling back the aeon. A beam of light broke through the trees, shooting into the two tokens held by Ashara and I. “If that’s the case… we should be safe here.”

Ashara smiled as she opened her eyes. “Here’s to our happy ending, then.” She teased, but I nodded my head happily. One way or another, this was going to mark the final chapter in our life. The chapter where we fought for the defense of our world, and our son. Someday, he would join us here, fighting to defend the lives of everything he held dear. Until then, he would live on with my mother, safe from the battles ahead.

“Here’s to our happy ending.” I told her with a soft smile, reaching out to take her hand.