The sight of a battlefield was always unique: the fishy scent of dried blood, the array of severed limbs on the ground, the fallen arms and probable looters, the broken buildings and most importantly the celebrating victors. Most of the times, the victors would stay at the battlefield for a day or two to enjoy their victory, and, of course, loot the dead. Some victors stayed behind to bury their fallen comrades - or carry them back to their families.

Well, this battlefield was different. There was no blood, no severed limbs on the ground and no broken buildings. Hell, the city behind the battlefield was good as new. The fallen counted in thousands, and none of them had a single wound on them. They were just.. dead. No any sign of injury; internal or external. The victors were a group of one hundred knights clad in black. Their leader was surprisingly... a child. He sat on a potable chair, facing another child strapped to a guillotine.

"Two more arrows to the heart." The child admiral said, pointing at the strapped child.

The knights looked at him questioningly. There were already four arrows stuck in the abdomen of the strapped child. He was dead beyond any reasonable doubt.

"Shoot the damn arrows, you idiots, he's not dead. I know these people. The only way to kill them is to kill them."

"Yes, admiral K'yandir." The knights shouted in unison.

Two arrows flew straight into the child's chest. His lifeless body splattered more blood on the ground. Some of the knights rushed forward, twisted the arrows in his torso and pulled them out. A significant part of his intestines and lungs poured out of the holes.

"Yes, that's more like it. Now, two arrows in each eye, another in the nasal bridge and two in the mouth." The child admiral said.

The shooters didn't see why they would be wasting enchanted arrows on a corpse but they fired the arrows nonetheless.

"Good. Now, pull out the heart."

The closest knight did as he was told, and brought the heart to the child admiral.

"Leave the arrows for twenty more minutes before you removed them. Then cut him to pieces and bury the parts miles apart. And don't remove the Nestone chains. I have been called back to the Eternal Palace, let's meet up at the Bridge in two months."

The child admiral put the dripping heart in a wooden bottle and pocketed it.

That's the one hundredth. He thought just before he disappeared.

The knights looked at each other and heaved a deep sigh of relief. It was time to loot. None of them gave the mutilated corpse any heed again.

And that was their mistake. After twenty minutes, the corpse regenerated back. As the knights laughed and looted, the corpse was becoming whole again. The arrows were pushed out by the sheer power of regeneration.

Twenty minutes later, the corpse spoke. "...I will not die... "

It was a weak cry and took everything from him. Blood came out of his mouth, eyes and nose, and he slipped back into unconsciousness. The guards were too busy looting the dead to notice.

Several minutes later, the corpse moved again. This time it's speech was a little more coherent. "I will not.. die. Not today, not tomorrow. I refuse to die."

The corpse looked at its hands and saw the chains.

Nestone chains

Quality: unknown

Longevity suppression: 100%

Life energy suppression: 100%

Soul suppression: 100%

Shit. He tried removing the chains but that set off an inbuilt alarm.

All the guards turned around and looked at him the same way you would look at a talking ghost.

"He's... damn it. Everyone, with me."

The knights ran forward with potent killing intents. But they were warned before they took ten steps.

You are running low on longevity.

00:00:59

All of them were at the peak of Renaissance. The amount of longevity in them was unspeakable. How could they lost it all in a split second?

But that's wasn't all.

You have been Cursed to lose 100 hours every hour for the rest of your lives.

Every step you take, the amount will be upped by 90%.

That was at least 90 minutes every minute, which equaled to 1.5 seconds per second, thereby reducing their remaining 59 seconds down to less than 15 seconds. And if they took a single step forward, that amount would reduce by half.

Even the child, who recently came back to life, was surprised. He didn't have the energy to free himself, and he certainly didn't have the energy to Curse anyone.

"What's your name, little one?" A voice asked him. He turned around hurriedly but there was no one behind him. He blinked and shook his head. Could it be his increasingly deteriorating imagination?

"Right here." The voice spoke again.

The child turned to his right and he saw a beautiful red-haired woman standing there.

"You weren't there before..." He said.

"Did I startle you?" The woman asked.

The child tilted his head in confusion. "Y... you are a Dragonelf too?" He blurted, not knowing what to say.

The woman smiled. "I asked the question first."

"I... am Didier Ikenga."

"Didier?" The woman widened her eyes slightly.

"I'm from the weakest branch of the family, so what? What branch are you?"

She smiled at his sudden nervousness. "Wilberforce."

"Wilberforce? I should have known. The direct descendants, huh? Why should a direct descendant helps her eleventh-degree cousin? If it were the first-degree cousins or the second-degree, then maybe, but why waste a penny on the last weakling branch?"

"I just saved you so stop with your sarcasms and tell me what happened here?"

"Er... sorry... that was rude. I just didn't expect you here, that's all. Can you.. please, set me free."

She pointed at the chains and a thin laser of amber light blasted the chains to dust. The child sighed in relief. He stretched out his limbs and checked out his newly formed heart and intestines.

She didn't interrupt. She instead checked out the hundreds of intact corpses on the ground and the undamaged city behind.

"URÚRÚ happened. It was that bastard child admiral. He came in the morning asking for the location of a... Book-sword. No one knows anything about a Book-sword but he didn't agree. He released his willpower and everyone just died. Everyone except me. He found out I am a Dragonelf and he wasn't so happy."

"Why did he left?" She asked.

"I don't know... he said something about being called back to Eternal Palace."

The woman fell silent for a long time before she sighed. Because of the Memorandum, she could nothing to the child admiral, no matter how cruel he hunted down her kind.

"Do you want to follow me to the main branch castle? I'll help you get started." She offered.

"Really? You will allow your eleventh-degree cousin to set foot in the ancestral castle? You are not teasing me, are you?" Ikenga was startled.

"Why not? You aren't a threat. Besides, the matriarch can do whatever she wants."

"Matriarch? Like matriarch Hidaya Wilberforce? Like Hidaya the death dealer?"

She just smiled, then asked again, "do you want to come or not?"

"I have nowhere else to go. Please take care of me, big sister matriarch."

**

"Wake up, wake up." Dylas shook her hands gently.

Hidaya opened her eyes and the dream ended there.

"So you are telling me that you need only two hours sleep in four months?" Dylas asked as they prepared to continue their journey.

"It ain't necessary. I just feel like resting a bit. Besides, we are reaching our destination in a few hours."

"Speaking of destinations, I still don't know where we are going, nor why. Care to tell?"

Hidaya had released him from custody and the first part of his mission involved accompanying the woman North.

"We are visiting my underground lab." She answered.

"Does that have anything to do with me or Ed?" Dylas asked with a annoyed tone.

Hidaya stopped and turned around. "You still don't approve of my decision?"

"Am I free to speak?" Dylas asked, making another annoyed gesture with his hands.

"Why not? Are you in a prison?"

"Am I? Because I pretty much feel I'm in..."

"Speak out your mind. No harm will come to you, I promise." She said.

Dylas clenched his jaw. He would say it even if he would lose all his longevity. "It's pretty stupid to send your brother away, just because you have to go to the Spirit Realm. I don't care what your reason is, the four of you can take him with you. Hell, you can leave him here in Màsar and he would be safer. The Memorandum is still active so no one will dare harm him. I always see you as an overly protective sister, but I was wrong." By the time he finished he was gasping.

"You are right." Hidaya said, not a trace of anger in her voice.

"...I am right?" His brow curled up.

"Yes, you are. And I have to be the stupidest dragon alive if I am sending my brother to an unknown planet just because I can't take care of him. Why would a parent gives birth to a child they can't protect? Do you know why my great grandpa lost the war against Urúrú?" She asked.

Dylas nodded reluctantly. He knew what the general public knew but, he had a hunch, that wasn't what she was looking for.

"King Wilberforce II lost because of the alliance. Thirteen noble Houses, which were originally loyal to House Wilberforce, betrayed the House at the last minute and sided with House Urúrú." Dylas explained.

Hidaya sighed softly. This was the general perception, but it was actually a lie. Three Houses betrayed house Wilberforce on the eve of the battle but they already had contingencies.

"We lost because we were weak."

"The old Wilberforce dynasty was weak? You gotta be kidding me. Record has it that you had more than one hundred class 3 Devas. And Urúrú had significantly less."

"That was true as well. But listen, Dylas, do you know about the Awakening after Deva?"

Dylas shook his head. "There's no Awakening after Deva. Even Ed has tried countless times but to no avail. Deva is the limit."

"Well, that's why you are all wrong. There is one final Awakening after Deva. Urúrú Kuyúru, the founder of House Urúrú, has broken the final bottleneck and has stepped into the final Awakening."

This was too much for Dylas. The mere fact that there was an Awakening after Deva was crazy. It was against everything he'd known and believed.

"Hey, big sis, I know my basics so don't toy with me. There's no Awakening after Deva. If there is, Ed would have found it. He has broken into Deva six times, each time he would cripple his cultivation back to Primary Awakening, just to get the right skills. Do you think a person like that will miss something so glaring?"

"There is an Awakening after Deva, Dylas. It's just difficult to reach its requirements, that's all."

Dylas gasped. "How difficult?"

"Well, difficult that in Màsar there's only one person who has achieved it."

"That difficult?" Dylas braced himself and calmed his breathing.

"Yeah. You see, the Memorandum won't stay active forever. The minute Urúrú realizes they don't need us, we are done for. All of us. Our only option is to break out of Deva and reach the Awakening beyond. The problem is Urúrú won't just back off and allow us to do it peacefully. They will try to kill us during the process, and they will definitely murder us if we fail. I have to insulate my brother from anything that might happen. The truth is, the whole visiting Spirit Realm thing is just a sham. But if I told my brother the truth, will he agree to leave?"

Everything was happening too fast but there was one thing that stood out. He stopped walking and turned around to face her. "Who will attempt first? You or your parents?"

"It's me. Our parents will stand as my Longevity Protectors during the process."

"What are the chances of succeeding?" He asked.

"Success is 8%. Failure is 72%. Unknown outcome is 20%. There's a chance that the founder of Urúrú himself will descend and try to stop us."

"If that man is coming down then I can predict your chances as well." Dylas gave an exasperated sigh.

"Listen carefully, Dylas, I can die, my mom and dad and grandpa can all die, but my only brother can't die. I..."

"Is there any reason for that or it's just sentiments?" Dylas cut in.

"Is there has to be a reason? He's my brother and it's my responsibility to protect him till my last breath."

The way she mentioned that last sentence sent chills done his spine. She was the same overly protective sister he'd known.

"I'm in, 100%. So, what's the plan?"

As if answering his question, a notification appeared.

Congratulations, you have entered a B-rank dungeon.

No requirements needed for subordinates of Hidaya Wilberforce.

Damn it! Even the system recognizes this woman. Who exactly is she again?

Dylas thought as he read the notification.

A young, handsome man stood at the entrance of the dungeon. He'd a short yellow hair and bright red eyes. His beaming smile greeted them as he ran forward to hug Hidaya.

Hidaya took a step back and kicked him in the groin.

Aaargh! He groaned and held his privates.

"What the hell was that for?"

"It is a greeting, King in the North." She bowed teasingly. "Down in the South, we don't hug, but we do this."

"What the hell! Don't speak as if I have never lived there. Besides, I still don't have any... Er... hello, Dylas." He noticed Dylas and waved at him.

"H... hello, Ikenga... I didn't know we were meeting you..." Dylas stuttered. They knew each other several years ago when Hidaya brought Ikenga home. EID (Ed, Ikenga and Dylas): the trio of trouble makers.

"Ehem... " An old man, sitting by the side, cleared his throat. "Hello, dylas, I am here too."

Dylas cut his greetings with Ikenga and turned to the old man. "Y... you...? What the hell are you doing here? Hidaya, that man is a criminal! His bounty is 3.5 billion. He is the infamous T... "

"He's the infamous Triple-factor?" Hidaya and Ikenga completed the sentence for him.

He just stood there dumbfounded.

"Look," Hidaya started, "He isn't the actual Triple-factor, but you will have enough time to socialize. Right now, the three of you are my most trusted friends. You will protect my brother even after I die."

"Yes, ma'am!" Ikenga saluted in a very dramatic way. "What's the plan?"

Year 8019

Present day

Dylas was startled for several minutes. His mind went blank as his memories came back to him. The man in front of him was the King in the North, their old friend and ally.

Edard was his best friend and mentor. He was there for a mission. A mission that would determine the fate of the entire world.

"I see you have regained your memories, old friend." Ikenga said, smiling.

"And what is the King in the North doing here? In a chain, no less." Dylas asked, returning the smile.

"It was your damn fucking idea that I have to be in these chains... What was it again? To make it more believable! My ass. Fuck you, Horse."

"Fuck you, Scaly Snake. You insisted that my dreams have to emotionally epic. Do you know what I have gone through?"

They gritted their teeth and faced off for several seconds before they burst into a laughter again.

"Now, shall we begin?" They said in unison.

Edard

His Mind Read didn't work on him. He just somehow instantly got all his memory back. Though he'd lost the skills of his old self, he had all the knowledge. He was like a reincarnated person, only better. He remembered all his combat experience, his fighting stances, his knowledge and more importantly himself. He was Ed, a scion of House Wilberforce, a son of Tydara Wilberforce, and a brother to matriarch Hidaya. Not some helpless, ignorant brat transported from Earth.

Time to repair the old plan, and get back on the fucking front pages.

The last time he'd tried to destroy the immortal dais, his family shipped him off to Earth. Now he was back. Would he be able to accomplish his old mission and conquer the Final Dungeon (immortal dais)? Everyone got to live forever if the immortal dais fell, but Ed's intentions were to avenge his fallen House. Talking about his fallen House, he wondered what they had achieved in all the time he was absent.

But first, how would he survived his current situation?

"Back together again? I beat the living daylights out of you, but, I didn't expect you to lose all your memories. Poor thing." The child admiral said. The disdain in his voice was palpable.

Edard was three heads taller than the child, so when he looked at him he was naturally looking down. Even among Urúrú, the child admiral was the greatest enemy of his family. For as long as Edard could remember, the child had hunted down and killed almost all the Dragonelves that weren't direct descendants, leaving the latter because of a Memorandum signed by the old Wilberforce dynasty and the Eternal Empire.

"That makes us even, little Kyandir." Edard replied with an expressionless face. At the same time communicating with his clones.

[Clone A, we didn't have any isolated castle in a forest before I left, go back into the dungeon and ask Dylas for any useful info. Tell him to charge my eleventh cousin three times the original amount, for he had a part in my misfortune. Then hunt down my sister.]

[Hunter clone, quickly deplete all the dungeons of the empires and find a secluded place to meditate. We need all the energy we can get.]

He created two more clones and immediately merged with one.

You have merged with a messenger clone: life energy and stamina regeneration is raised by 25%.

All attack and defensive skills have been upgraded by 25%.

He sent the other clone to hunt.

I was once a Deva, I know all the secrets and loopholes.

He made a complicated hand gesture and pressed his thumb on his forehead.

You have activated the Undying Ritual.

Processing dragon magic...

Activating dragon ball...

This may take a while.

Emperor Fáyra, emperor Djinn and emperor Daljári lunged forward. But the child didn't move.

Edard took a step back. He most definitely needed his dragon magic before he could act. Luckily, it didn't take long.

Dragon magic has been sealed away for so long, it can't be activated remotely.

What the fuck!

Emperor Fáyra was the first to reach him. He created a powerful wind blade and imbued it with his life energy. This was the second function of a Deva core: it enabled the Deva to wield his raw life energy. Fáyra's life energy was completely scarlet. When it mixed with the wind blade it produced a scarlet wind blade that emitted a powerful buzz. Edard knew he couldn't be hit with it, else he would die.

As he prepared contingencies, emperor Djinn sent an invisible fire blast at him. Though, he was a little merciful by not mixing it with his raw life energy.

Emperor Daljári hesitated. His target was Bihanzin, not the defenseless child. After a little debate he focused on Bihanzin.

"Violet Push."

Edard Pushed emperor Djinn's attack away because it had no raw life energy. But the scarlet wind blade passed right through the violet shield, like it wasn't even there. His Lightning Ancestor wouldn't help as well. Leaving him with only Skin Tempering.

The scarlet wind blade slashed through his left shoulder.

Skin Tempering activated.

You have sustained a phenomenal laceration.

Tempering is overwhelmed: cool down time is five minutes forty seconds.

For the next five minutes, he wouldn't heal any wound. His Push and Lightning Body were utterly useless against any attack that had the tiniest raw life energy.

Emperor Daljári didn't attack Edard. His target was Bihanzin. Their enmity was over three thousand years old, and both were ready to settle it today. No matter who won, the world would change.

It was time for the final showdown.

Emperor Bihanzin retrieved his unsheathed sword. It was a very simple, single-edged sword. Even when the emperor imbued it with his raw life energy, it changed little.

Sereyenkov narrowed his eyes, then said, "I guess I should put on some clothes."

Prince Kyru smiled wickedly. He turned to the five Renaissance lords at his back. "We will attack as soon as father opened the floor. Remember, the mission is to kill every one of those bastards, in one hour."

Emperor Bihanzin raised his blade, he waited for a few seconds, as if giving the enemy time to prepare.

Not only the three emperors and the child admiral, everyone present noticed Bihanzin's actions. The fifteen thousand soldiers facing Bihanzin's army became suddenly destabilized. They knew that sword.

"Dammit, Bihanzin of the Perpetual Damage is unleashing his sword."

"That's the most powerful blade in Màsar. It is only fair that it belongs to the most powerful swordsman. Its cut is perpetual; absolutely impossible to repair or heal. Deep into the Wastelands, there are still mountains cut in half by this sword. They had been like that for thousands of years, and would forever remained like that."

"Forget mountains, princess Báyir, the elder sister of prince Rafiyan Báyir, still has a cut from that sword she has sustained a century ago."

"Its blade is very thin and short, it's hilt is almost nonexistent. How can such a small sword creates so much power?"

Prince Rafiyan Báyir, the crown prince of Báyir empire, was appointed the leader of the fifteen thousand fleet on the ground. He was young, just one hundred and eight, but had already reached the peak of Renaissance realm. He'd four classes, one of which was the Aristocrat. It enabled him to imbue magic in his voice to control people. He'd been upgrading that class from Primary to Renaissance Awakening. Now, he could actually raise the attributes of the people within range of his skill. He could remove fear from his army and install it in his enemies. When he spoke, everyone listened.

"Stay calm, look for the direction of his slash and avoid it. I will take care of the rest."

As soon as he closed his mouth, the crowd calmed down. They focused on Bihanzin's sword, waiting to see when and where he would slash.

Emperor Daljári looked at his son proudly. Though it was only for a second, prince Kyru saw it and he was determined to show the emperor he was a better son. He would defeat their fifteen thousand soldiers with just five thousand soldiers.

Emperor Bihanzin was oblivious to all these, he focused on his blade and slashed down at the enemy.

The entire world dimmed, the area around his blade warped and shattered. A thin line of grey energy wafted out of the sword and formed a giant sword which descended on the enemy murderously.

The world shook violently and the ground beneath was cut in half.

Wherever the ethereal sword passed, the wind would shatter and disappeared forever.

The sky darkened and lightning bolts descended from the newly formed clouds.

So many things had happened but the duration was just a split second from the time Bihanzin slashed to the time the slash reached the enemy front line. The soldiers on the ground did as they were told: they ran to the opposite sides, away from the sword. The emperors turned their attention away from Edard and the child admiral carefully gauged the Perpetual Slash.

A single slash that would determine the fate of the battlefield.