Xia Palace, Primus World.

Miko was in the palace’s library with hundreds of books surrounding him.

He was leaning back in a chair with a book titled “The Founding Of The Aloe Kingdom”. This book recorded the events that led to the founding of a nearby kingdom of the same name.

There were countless books that had information about the neighboring countries around him.

There were also books on alchemy as well as notes that he written down.

“Are you done?”

The one who asked that was Momo, who was sitting not too far away from him with a bored expression.

“I already told you that you don't have stay here with me. I'm going to be like this for the last couple days until it's time for battle.”

He said while tossing the book he had to the side, and picked up another book.

“But I'm bored~. You decided to cut your training short and hold up in the library. I don't have anything to do now.”

She complained.

“Like I said, what I'm doing is essential for my future plans.”

He closed the book and looked at her.

“Besides, with my current strength my victory is assured.”

“Quite the arrogant statement.”

Momo said with a smile.

“It's not arrogance if it's true. It's just stating facts.”

Momo laughed.

“Well, I'll admit that your victory is assured, but that doesn't mean that you'll win easily. You'll have to put everything on the line.”

“Just how I like it. An easy victory is a waste of time.”

“Is that why you haven't asked for your Regalia yet?”

Miko shook his head.

“I just don't want to reveal that I'm Tiamat's proxy yet. I believe that it would be more impactful if I do it after I become king.”

“Really? To me it just looks like you're belittling you're opponents.”

Miko smiled in response.

Momo didn't saw anything. She knew that if it was a battle to the death with no rules Miko would definitely win.

The rules of the Throne Wars were designed to restrict Miko more than Dario. Especially the rule that states that the king candidates must use their own strength.

This rule bars Miko from using [Primordial Chaos Lord] and fusing with Tiamat's creations.

If this rule wasn't there then Miko could've easily won by fusing with Gallu, or even the Secundus Branch’s Guardian Beast, Bašmu.

Miko might not be from the Secundus Branch, but if Bašmu was to discover that Miko was his mother's proxy, he'd turn on the Secundus Branch in a heartbeat.

With both Bašmu and Gallu’s powers at his disposal, taking the throne would be as easy as breathing.

So who created this rule that would prevent such an one-sided outcome?

Nero, of course.

Nero knows Miko's abilities. In fact, he knows them better than Miko himself. That could be seen from the fact that he included Miko’s abilities in his plans to crush Krow two years ago, before he even unlocked them.

As Tiamat's grandson, Nero had a clear understanding of how terrifying her powers can be.

In order to prevent a boring show, Nero proposed all of the rules that would bind Miko. It's just that Rouge misunderstood his intentions.

Miko and Momo didn't realize this, but Miko's Regalia was also banned by the rule that forbids power aiding weapons, since that's basically what a Regalia is.

So even if Miko did want to use his Regalia, it would be against the rules.

So if Miko wants to win he'll have fight while being heavily restricted.

Even so, Miko believes that his victory is certain.

“Hm…”

Miko twirled a pen in his hand and dotted down somethings on a couple sheets of paper.

“Appear.”

The moment he said that, a servant appeared out of nowhere.

“Young Master.”

Miko handed the sheets of paper to him.

“Give these instructions to your leader and have him pick the best people for the job.”

“Yes, my lord.”

The servant took the papers, bowed, and then disappeared.

“You work fast. Are you done already?”

Momo asked.

“More or less. All that is left is to wait for results.”

As he said that, Miko stood and picked back an alchemy book and quickly skipped through.

He then shut it after a few minutes and threw it on the desk.

He and Momo then left the library together.

After they left the library, Miko and Momo headed towards the east side of the palace.

They stopped in front of a door and opened it.

Inside that room, there were countless toys and games.

The room itself was incredibly huge. It looked like took up 100 square meters of space.

This room belonged to Ravel, who for some reason was playing with a 20ft teddy bear.

“Oh, Miko!”

When she saw Miko, she threw away the bear and rushed up to him.

“Yo, Ravel. I came to play.”

Miko and Momo entered the room.

Over the last couple months since he's met her, Ravel has become very attached to Miko.

Miko didn't mind hanging out with her, so he visited her every time he was free.

“Hello, Ravel. I'm here too.”

Said Momo.

“M-Momo, right?”

Momo nodded.

Ravel welcomed her with a smile and lifted her up.

“You're really cute!”

She then started twisting Momo around like she was a doll.

“Why, thank you.”

However, Momo didn't mind. After all, it's not much different from how Nero and Nova treats her.

“What were you doing, Ravel?”

Miko asked.

“Just playing with a few toys, but I got bored quickly. My brothers don't want to stroll around too much, so I mostly stay in my room.”

She said with a sad voice.

Both Ravel and Falcon were imprison for more than 10,000 years. However, their methods of imprisonment were different.

Falcon who was the first to be imprisoned, was frozen along with his children.

Frozen, meaning that his time was stopped with a powerful spell. This spell cut him off from the flow of time, and isolated him in a void where he and his children floated for millennia.

When he woke up, it only felt like a second had passed. He then found himself in a strange world were everything was different from what he remembered.

However, he quickly adjusted.

Ravel's imprisonment was completely different.

Unlike Falcon who killed too much and was punished, Ravel did nothing wrong.

It was just that she possessed some really abnormal abilities that terrified those around her.

What made it worst was that Ravel was an innocent child. It might not sound dangerous, but it was her innocence that made her all more dangerous.

To her, the concept of good and evil didn't exist. She just did things because of curiosity or whim.

For example, she once wonder what the inside of a person looked like. To quench her curiosity, she used one of her powers to gut her caretaker, and turned her inside out.

Ravel was only 3 at the time.

There was another time when her pet bird died. She became sad and wished for the bird to come back alive. So she unconsciously used necromancy and brought the bird back to life.

This made her very happy. However, the necromancy Ravel used was a low level spell used to create zombies.

The bird one day started to rot which freaked Ravel out.

She strongly wished for the bird to disappear, and wave her hand.

Not only did the bird disappear, but an entire town full of people too.

This town was later discovered at the bottom of the ocean, where the people were eaten alive by sea monsters.

There were several even more serious events caused by Ravel’s innocent behavior.

Finally, unable to sleep at night because they feared that Ravel might accidentally kill them tomorrow, the elders of the Dragna clan sealed her away.

Ravel was first put in an eternal sleep, before being locked up in another dimension.

Unlike Falcon who had his time frozen, Ravel’s body continued to grow.

Not just her body, even her powers too.

Because she was asleep, Ravel still possessed her child-like and innocent personality.

With her powers even stronger than before, she was countless times more dangerous than before.

Because of that, Nero couldn't risk her roaming about.

She only listens to four persons: Nero, Falcon, Miko, and Sherry.

She only listens to Sherry because she gave her sweets and played with her.

She's cautious around everyone else who isn't family. But only those four can tell her to do something and she immediately does it.

In other words, she might be naïve but she can't be easily used by just anyone.

“Well, I have some free time so how you bring us the Beast Continent for some fun?”

While Miko passing the time with Ravel, Ace was in heated battle with a gigantic stone bull.

*Boom!*

Ace's fist clashed with the bull’s horns, and sent a strong shockwave through the valley.

Ace used magic to maneuver through the air and stepped back.

The bull on the other hand took two steps backward.

“This mountain bull is the last boss of the valley. If you can beat him then your strength should be in the realm of [S Class].”

Said Aeon, who was floating in the air with use of magic.

“Last boss, huh?”

Ace grinned as he stared at the bull.

“Then if I kick this bull’s ass, I'll finally be free from this hellhole?”

“That's right.”

Ace's grinned turned into a beastly smile.

After a year of constant fighting against all kinds of beasts, he was nothing short of a beast himself.

“Then as my final opponent, I'll have display my dominance.”

Thick green Qi started seeping from his body none stop.

*Roar!*

A beastly roar came from the Beast Core inside of him.

“[Code Breaker]!”

The Beastly Qi devoured his figure.

“[Character Change: Monster Brawler]!”

The Qi spread out before condensing together. Ace's figure could be seen again.

However, his appearance greatly changed.

He was two times as big as his normal Brawler character.

His right arm was covered with a thick black crocodilian armor.

His left arm was covered with orange snake scales.

His fangs and claws were black.

His torso was covered with white fur, and his eyes were like a reptile’s.

This Ace looked like a variation of different monsters.

“Now then.”

“?!”

When Ace looked at the stone bull, it felt instinctively afraid and backed away from him.

Ace smiled and showed off his night color fangs.

“It's time to get out of here.”

He rushed at the bull.

*Boom!*

At same time, the others were also putting the finishing touches on their training.

*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

Sora was in an intense spear clash with a faceless shadow.

This shadow was holding a black spear covered in red haze.

While Sora on the other hand, was wielding a white spear.

*Boom!*

The spear tips collided, and then rubbed on the spear's staffs as they sought out the blood of their enemy.

“Woah!”

Sora moved his head and whipped his spear.

Something invisible flew off the spear and rushed towards the shadow’s head.

*Boom!*

The shadow block the sound spear with its hand.

“A chance!”

Sora and his spear suddenly disappeared and reappear behind the shadow.

The shadow quickly turned around and thrusts its spear forward.

“?!”

However, the spear didn't pierce Sora. It pierced a mirage.

“[Sonic Spear]!”

*Boom!*

Sora and his white spear appeared on the shadow’s right stab into its side.

Even though the spear only stabbed a few inches into the shadow's side and huge hole opened up on the other side and formed a tunnel in the shadow.

The shadow shook a few times before bursting apart.

Seeing that his opponent was vanquished, Sora drew back his spear.

“Good good.”

An applause suddenly rang out.

“You mastered the basics. With this if you continue to train your spear skills you'll reach the level of that sound spearman.”

Nova said.

“Thank you for your guidance!”

Sora said with a bow.

“Don't worry about it. I was just doing this to pass the time. It was fun to groom a rare talent every once in a while.”

Nova said with a smile.

“Speaking of which, its time for me to check on the other rare talent.”

He then turned his back to Sora.

“Rest for the rest of the time until the battle. Resting is also essential to growth.”

Saying so he disappeared into a dark gloomy room.

In the middle of the room Hina was surrounded by countless artifacts.

There were also a few humming bird size beast floating around.

Nova watched as another small beast appeared out of nowhere along with a beautiful dagger brimming with magic power.

“This girl is really something. She's creating dozens of illusions with Qi and even casting a mental prison to disrupt the minds of anyone who steps in. All while continuously creating artifacts and monsters. She can only created small beasts now, but in the future she should be able to create monsters standing several dozen feet tall.”

Nova said with an impressed tone, as he watched how focus Hina was.

“This girl and that boy, might be able to give Miko a run for his money in the future.”

Frost Valley.

Kimiko smiled as she watched the white and black flowers blooming around the meditating Sasha.

She could clearly see Sasha greedily devour the ice mana around her like she was a bottomless pit.

“[S Class] in a year. As expected as my daughter. The ice and death magic are now equal inside of her. It's a shame she couldn't improve on her dark, and mist magic in the year, but its still satisfactory.”

She then turned and looked at the twins who were beside Sasha.

They were also meditating and absorbing the ice mana.

“[B Class] at 11 years old. They're two years later but they can compare to Miko at their age. Although he was far stronger than they are now.”

She watched the death aura leaking out of Tessa. It was very thick.

“Not bad. Her aptitude towards death magic is as high as Sasha’s. If you include her demon traits she'll definitely become a powerhouse in the future…..I'll probably need to take her back to helheim in the future.”

Her eyes swept over Kristen.

“The demon aura is slowly strengthen…..Whats going with this father and sons. Are the three of them planning to become real demons or something?”

She mumbled to herself.

At Raven’s fortress.

A bloodstained Leon laid down on the corpse of several monsters with his eyes close.

“You know that you don't have much time left as a human, right?”

Raven stood beside him and asked.

Leon nodded.

“I know. However it's not like I'm scared or anything. Those old men in the Saevio Clan greatly misunderstood something.”

“Oh? Explain this to me.”

Leon smiled wryly.

“Since there's no need to hide it anymore, I'll admit it. I'm Beleth's vessel.”

“Well, I already knew that.”

“But what you didn't know is that Beleth has multiple vessels.”

“…..Are you sure?”

Raven voice had a hint of surprise.

Leon nodded his head.

“In a way the entire clan are his vessels, it's just that some vessels awaken without needing to experience [War Face].”

“And you're one of them?”

Leon nodded.

“Those like me will experience natural demonization in order to prepare our bodies for Beleth's resurrection. However, there has never been a successful rebirth before, even after a clan member gets their soul devoured whole. This is because Beleth can't just use any body to recreate himself. The body must be a superior heaven sent body.”

“And your body isn't up to standards?”

“Not even close. This is shown from the fact that I'm still a [S Class]. The Demon God blood in me makes my growth freakish, but compared to a perfect vessel it's not even worth mentioning.”

“Which means that a perfect demon body could still be born in the future?"

Raven said with some thought.

“If those old men really want to stop Beleth's rebirth, they should all kill themselves and their families.”

He said seriously.

“How do you know all this?”

“Apparently you gain a couple of Beleth's memories when you go through the demonization process. These memories might be standard to everyone like me though.”

Raven was once again surprised. To have the memories of a Higher being was priceless.

“Ahh. My personality is going to change big time after I turn into a demon.”

Leon said with a sigh.

“You've accepted your fate?”

“Yeah. It might be a side effect of being a vessel though. But what's done is done.”

He said with a smile.

“Oh, yeah. Miko has half of Beleth's soul in him right now, right?”

Raven nodded.

“He sent a message telling me this.”

Leon paused for a minute before saying-

“He also said that he'll become the new Beleth in the future.”

In a different dimension.

“Whew~. Now that's powerful.”

Said Nero, as he stared at the dozens of twisters and lightning falling from the sky.

There were countless craters in the earth, and there was a section of the world covered in ice.

“Roar!”

He could hear a draconic roar in the distance.

He smiled.

“I wonder what kind of face Miko will make when he sees the new and improve version of his [Dragonite]. As the creator, he must have something to say.”

Nero laughed out loud.

“With everything I thought her, this girl should be very entertaining during the Throne Wars. Plus I can't wait to see what the others learnt over the year.”

He turned his back to the destruction and stretched his body as he walked away.

“I really can't wait!”