After displaying his full strength, Rory stood in place and started to laugh. His laugh didn’t sound like it came from one person, it was like a group of people were laughing together. Not only that, the laugh made all who heard it felt like they were about to lose their minds.

“He’s corrupting our minds?!”

Amelia said as she and Reina held their heads. Their minds were become fuzzy and it became hard to think. They both back away with all of their strength at the same time. When they moved almost a mile back, they finally escaped the effects of Rory’s dark anima.

“This is no joke. How are we supposed to stop him, when just being near him makes you go crazy?”

Reina asked while covered in cold sweat.

“I don’t know, but we gotta do something or else this country is a goner.”

Amelia replied.

She could tell from the power Rory just showcased that he alone could destroy this country. She had to admit that she now saw Rory in a new light.

“To have such power which you can’t control, yet you still can act carefree…..Just how thick skinned are you?”

She mumbled to herself.

“We gotta do something, but I can’t think of anyway to stop him.”

“I might have a solution.”

The girls heard a familiar voice behind them and turned around.

“Richard.”

“It is I.”

Richard gave a courtesy bow and said.

“Why are you here?”

Amelia asked.

It was obvious that she was very anger at everything Richard did.

“Why? I’m here to stop Rory, of course.”

He said and approached the girls.

“Rory is now in a state where he’s using power that the current him still can’t handle. If left alone, his body will crumble under his own power.”

“Why do you care? Didn’t you already sellout him out earlier?”

Reina asked. She too was angry towards Richard. If Richard had helped them earlier, then they wouldn’t have to fight so desperately and suffer so much damage.

“But if I did that, you two wouldn’t have grown as much as you did in a short amount of time.”

He suddenly said.

“Wha?”

Reina was shocked to see him directly respond to her thoughts.

“Ajna….You can use it too.”

Amelia glared at him and said. She didn’t want him peeking into her heart, especially now when she didn’t know if she could trust him.

“There’s no need to be that cautious of me.”

Richard smiled when he saw the girls expressions.

“You won’t believe it, but I’m the last person who would want to harm you two in this whole country. After all, you two were handpicked by me.”

“Handpicked?”

The girls were confused by what Richard meant.

“You’ll understand in the future. Just know that everything I allowed to happen today, was all for your own benefit, and Rory’s as well.”

“You….Just who the hell are you?”

Amelia asked. She had the feeling for a while now, but Richard seemed somewhat familiar to her. Not only that, the more he spoke the faker he looked to her. It was like the person in front of her was a mere illusion, and the real person was hidden behind that illusion.

“Me? I’m just a clown, no one important.”

Richard replied.

“Now then, I think it’s time to save Rory from himself.”

He walked past the girls and started to walk towards Rory with a smile. Despite the horrifying power that Rory wielded, Richard walked towards him like he was a friend and that he would never harm him.

“Hm?”

Suddenly he stopped.

“You’re up faster than I expected.”

At that moment, someone appeared behind him. It was Serket, who were bloodstained clothes.

“Move, Pierrot. This is were a mother comes into play.”

She said.

“As you wish, Queen.”

Richard instantly gave her way and she walked towards Rory who was still laughing uncontrollably. She stood in front of him and frowned. Rory noticed her and stopped laughing.

“……..”

He looked at her in silence and then swung his hand to slap Serket away. Serket didn’t even flinched as the hand rushed towards her. Just as the hand was about to hit her, it stopped.

“Good. It looks like even in a deranged state, you know that you can’t strike me seriously.”

Serket said.

The girls were shocked that she was able to standing in front of the current Rory without a hint of fear. She even talked down to him.

She placed her hand on his shoulder.

“While I find it sweet that you got this angry because of me, I don’t want you to destroy yourself.”

She showed a motherly expression. And then-

“So return to normal, you stinking brat!”

She suddenly slammed Rory on the ground so hard that cracks at least a meter thick spread through the area.

“…….”

The girls were speechless after seeing what Serket did.

“Your expressions says that you thought that Serket would hug and console Rory to calm him down.”

Richard said with a laugh.

“Unfortunately, stuff like that only happens in the movies.”

He started to mock the girls.

“The only way to stop him is to beat the shit out him until he settles down. But I admit that it’s fortunate that he won’t attack those he considers family. However, how can a hug pacify someone like that?”

He laughed.

“You won’t stop causing me trouble until the end, will you?”

Serket said as she flung Rory, who had returned to normal over her shoulder. .

When they saw that it was safe, the girls approached them with Richard following behind them.

“Is he okay?”

Amelia asked.

“He’ll probably be sore for a couple days, but other than that he should be fine. His body haven’t suffered any permanent damage either.”

Serket replied.

‘Even so, I heard that he was able to control himself somewhat. So I guess he’s recovering from his injuries. Give him some time and he should be able to control his strength like he once did.’

She thought to herself.

“Are you okay, Your Highness?”

Reina asked. Serket was covered in her own blood, so it was normal to be concerned.

“Yeah. I got careless and that brat was able to get one up over me.”

Sometime back.

When Serket was still holding Dumah captive, she suddenly felt the release of Aficionado Sacrament forms. This had shaken her a lot, because she knew that her love ones would need to go to the extreme to win against these forms.

There was even a high chance that some of them would die. She didn’t want that so she started to panic.

“Huh?”

That’s when she felt a warm liquid on her skin. She looked and saw that blood was flowing from her chest.

“What?”

This shocked her because she didn’t felt like she got hurt, yet her heart was definitely stabbed.

The blood flowed rapidly and she started to feel weak from blood loss.

“I was finally able to get an opening.”

She looked in front of her and saw Dumah smiling at her.

“You…an animus?”

Serket fell to her knees and asked. At that moment, the Scorpion lock restricting Dumah vanished. Seeing that, Dumah stood up and walked in front of Serket.

“It’s called Silent Death. I can silently inflict wounds on my target, and they won’t even notice. The more I’m able to concentrate, the more severe the wounds I can inflict.

Dumah explained.

Serket looked and saw that more wounds were opening up on her body, causing her, who was already feeling weak to collapse on her stomach.

Her lips moved but no words came from her mouth.

“Looks like you’re even too weak to talk, so let me answer your obvious question.”

Dumah spoke with a smile.

“Why could I still use my anima while under the effects of your animus? It’s because my Silent Death only requires a small amount of anima to use, so small that I might as well didn’t need anima to use it.”

He said.

“Where did I get that small amount of anima? You should already figure it out.”

‘I see. When I was distracted the effects of my animus had weakened but only for a little bit. So little that I didn’t notice. Since my animus is so powerful it requires lots of concentration. I’m a veteran anima user, so concentrating in battle is child’s play to me; yet, even I can get distracted.’

Serket thought.

She remembered when Dumah said she should’ve killed Rory, she realized that he just wanted to test if he’s able to disturb her concentration, and if her animus affects would weaken in any way when she’s distracted. When he realized that was indeed the case, all he had to do was wait. After all, he was confident that his comrades could distract her by putting her family in desperate situations.

“Well, I guess it’s time for me to reenter the stage. See ya, Scorpion Queen.”

That was the last she saw of Dumah.

“I let my guard down and almost died as a result, but that brat was too cocky. He thought that I was that easy to kill. I have several ways to survive having my heart crushed much less stabbed.”

Serket boasted.

“Dumah had such a skill? That explains why he could move in silence, and go unnoticed even when he’s close by.”

Said Reina.

“But wait, if he could silently inflict damage on others, why didn’t do so against Rory?”

Amelia asked.

“He probably couldn’t concentrate when facing a raging Rory. So his animus was useless.”

Serket replied.

“Either way, thanks to this brat going on a rampage, this crusade should be finished now with our victory.”

She smiled.

“We beat the Sacred Church.”

“I suddenly feel beat.”

Amelia fell on her butt and said.

“Don’t start relaxing yet. We still have some clean up to do.”

Serket led the girls back to the capital, while carrying the unconscious Rory over her shoulder. When they arrived, she sighed at her destroyed city. She turned to the direction of her mountain. She then raced over there.

“Mother!”

When the princes saw the girls return with their mother, they were delighted.

“Jamie!”

Serket however wasn’t delighted. She saw her sons with various wounds, James looking the most severe. She stooped down and started to treat them frantically.

“Where’s your father?”

She asked while attending to James wounds.

“He’s over there.”

Liam pointed to a spot that was crowded and surrounded with people. These were servants and doctors who were attending to those who were severely wounded. Xavier, being the king had the most skilled and experienced among them attending to him.

“He got hurt pretty badly.”

She looked and saw Allan, Roc, and others being treated.

“Father…..Father….”

She looked and saw the Brooks Sisters crying over their father’s dead body, with the Brooks family servants. Even now his satisfied expression was still fresh.

“I see that we also lost a lot of people.”

She said while glancing at Liam.

“Was it worth it?”

Amelia asked.

“Yeah, I thinks so. At least the country still stands. If it wasn’t for this troublesome brat, we might’ve lost more.”

Serket replied.

“Also, I doubt the church will send more people for another crusade.”

“Why?”

Amelia asked.

“Because they’ve already gotten what they wanted from this war, the confirmation of Rory’s current strength. Now that they know that he’s still as strong as ever, they’ll have to think twice before entering into a war with him.”

Serket replied.

“Also, they know that my family and I aren’t pushovers and are willing to fight them to the death. So they’ll most likely declare this country a heathen nation. When that happens, the church will cut all connections to us and advise their believers to stay clear from here.”

“That doesn’t sound all that bad to me.”

Reina said.

“Considering everything they’ve done, I doubt the citizens would accept them again.”

Serket nodded.

‘Well, even if that happens I’ll ask her to do something. Considering all the crap she did during this war, I doubt she’ll refuse. If that doesn’t work, I’ll ask Arisa to pressure the Sacred Army.’

She thought to herself.

“Either way, with this Rory’s return will become a hot topic worldwide.”

She looked at Amelia and Reina.

“Well, you guys will have it rough too.”

“Huh?”

They looked at her with confusion. She smiled when she saw that.

“You’ll knew pretty soon.”