Lakshman sat on a chair in the living room of his house reading through several documents that lay before him. In front of him stood a Phintex Raja, who was standing at attention with a phoenix mask that hid his face from view. Meanwhile, sounds of cutlery being used came from the kitchen as a young girl’s voice could be heard speaking excitedly.

“These plates are so sturdy yet feel like they could break easily! What are they made of, Emilia?”

“I’m not sure,” replied Emilia, who sounded like she was smiling. “I wasn’t the one who bought these. Ondine did.”

“Ondine?” The young girl asked and posed the next question by asking, “Do you know, Ondine?”

“I have no idea,” replied Ondine with a chuckle. “I just thought these seemed strong and the seller assured me that they are strong and won’t break easily, so I bought them. It was back when we first moved into the house, remember Emilia?”

“Ah, yes. I remember now. After building the house, you and I went shopping.”

“Wait. You built the house? All on your own?” The young girl asked, sounding mightily amazed.

Emilia laughed and stated, “It wasn’t just me. Together with Lucky, we built the houses.”

“Oh wow. No wonder,” the girl said, sounding impressed, “and it took you how long exactly?”

Emilia went silent for a moment before replying, “It think it took us about… a day or two.”

Her words seemed to have alarmed the young girl and made her drop the plate she was carrying because of the sound of a plate falling to the ground was heard. Ondine immediately asked her if she was alright as she seemed to bend down to pick up the fallen plate.

“Y-Yes. I’m okay,” the young girl stammered, sounding amazed before speaking to Emilia, “You’re amazing, Emilia and Lucky too. Back in my world, it takes a lot of people working together to build something of this size, and it takes them around a year.”

“Wow. A year to build this?” Ondine asked in surprise. “That’s long!”

“Yes, and that’s why it’s amazing how fast you were able to build your house so quickly,” the young girl said and finished enviously, “Magic is so wonderful. I wish I can use magic soon.”

“You will in time,” replied Emilia encouragingly. Then she said, “Take these to Lucky for me, would you?”

“Sure!” The young girl replied with delight.

A few seconds later, a young girl appeared out of the kitchen and walked quickly over to where Lakshman sat on his chair. The girl was none other than the monster girl that had caused some trouble to Nara, Dominic and Valerian when they fought her in the Mardana Kingdom.

“Here you go, Lucky,” she told him with a smile.

“Thank you, Geena,” said Lakshman, smiling at her and taking a piece from the plate she laid on the table before him.

She grinned with pleasure and returned to the kitchen while he watched her go.

It had been over a week since Lakshman brought the girl over from the Mardana Kingdom after she was defeated and freed from the control of the Ancient Evil, an enemy of the Phoenix Titan from the ancient times. He discovered that she was from the world, Alzard World, after diving into her memories to find out about her origins while she was in an unconscious state. It was here he discovered who her parents were in a shocking twist.

“No way…!” Lakshman had said when he saw who she was and whom her parents were. “Her parents are… William and Fred?!”

William Reigald was a warrior from another world that was summoned to the Alzard World as a hero bearing the title, Titanium Hero. Fred Seezer was someone that was summoned from another world as a hero bearing the title, Bulwark Hero. It was later that they discovered that Fred, whom they thought was a man, was actually a woman all along as she hid her gender to avoid circumstances that she feared were similar to her life in her home world.

“Her name is Geena Reigald, and she’s the daughter of William and Frederica,” said Asura with amazement on his face. “Seems like those two really liked each other.”

“That’s not the point!” Lakshman thundered, looking at the screen showing the young girl hugging her both of her parents’ goodbye in what seemed like the last time before she got forcefully summoned to his world. “She’s their daughter, and she got summoned to our world and been through so much! Argh! What the hell?!”

“Calm down, Lucky,” said Asura while letting out a sigh.

“How can I be calm in this crazy situation?!” Lakshman demanded, looking very disturbed. “She was not only summoned to our world, but she was summoned twelve-years-ago?!” It’s almost like she got summoned just as I and my wives went through a Dimension Warp as a safety means to escape the devastating attack of the Calamity Titan. Not only that, but she clearly came from the future from her home world! What does this mean?!”

“It means… nothing!” Asuras said firmly, causing his current-self to look at him in confusion.

“What? How is this nothing, Asura? She got summoned to our world from a future in her home world, a future that happened after I returned to this world. Could it be that… I… was somehow responsible for this to occur?”

While he was feeling a heavy pressure of guilt surging within him, Asura gave him a look that clearly said, “You’re out of your mind,” before telling him outright, “Don’t be stupid, Lucky. We don’t know how these space and time travel works, or how it affects the other people. Don’t you remember how you aged two years back when you got summoned to their world? You still look like what you were eighteen-years-old when actually you are twenty-years-old.”

“B-But—!” Began Lakshman, but he was interrupted firmly by Asura.

“Also, remember that Erza arrived in this world way back. Remember? You met her when you were kidnapped by the Shadow Dragon King when you were sixteen-year-old.”

Lakshman stared at his past-self in surprise as the realisation finally dawned on him by his words.

“Since Erza came before Geena getting summoned here or you getting summoned to that world, should we blame her as the problem that caused all this?”

“What?!” Lakshman exclaimed, looking alarmed.

His reaction made Asura smile and say, “We wouldn’t because it makes no sense. Erza arrived at that time because it was meant to happen, you got summoned to her world because it was meant to happen, and Geena got summoned here because… it was meant to happen. Nothing happens because of an accident. The gods… are not that sloppy. You should do well to remember that.”

Lakshman chuckled at that and replied, “Yes.”

Since then, Lakshman informed his family about the young girl, thus shocking them all. Erza was stricken with instant guilt as she felt the whole ordeal was her fault, but Lakshman assured her that was not the case as things happen for a reason and the gods are not sloppy.

When the girl awoke, she appeared to be in a trance like state, but after being encouraged and spoken to multiple times, she finally opened up and became instantly scared of them all. She was frightened of the abuse she might have to face them, but the Phoenix Titan’s wives soothed her, reassured her, and began to look after her. Geena was, after all, just fifteen-year-old kid that had suffered twelve years in a world she knew nothing about.

Slowly, by interacting with Emilia, Ondine and the rest of his wives, Geena was able to open up and within the week that she stayed with them, she reverted to her old cheerful self and began to lead her life as normally as she could. However, there was differences as Wolfenstine told them severely after inspecting her one day at the Chand’s household.

“She possesses qualities of a Vampire, Werewolf, Beast, and Demon. It’s like she is a crossbreed with multiple bloodlines mixed in her,” he informed them, which frightened the young girl.

“Am I… going to die…?” She asked worriedly.

“No. Of course not,” he assured her with a smile, and she sighed in relief. “It’s the contrary. Since you possess both Vampire and Werewolf blood, your lifespan is very great.”

“Oh. So, I can live for a long time?”

“A very, very long time, yes,” he told her firmly before warning, “but these comes with their own weaknesses, so work hard to get over them and try to lead a normal life.”

The weaknesses turned out to be a few that caused a bit of a problem when arisen. Having the blood of a Vampire, Geena would occasionally become thirsty for blood and so had to be fed with the blood of a monster to settle her. The blood of a werewolf made her transform into a mindless monster upon gazing at the full moon, although she would get knocked out instantly since she was much weaker than them. The beast blood made her feeling fluctuate wildly during her month and a demon’s blood made her behaviour towards things she disliked with destructive hostility.

Overall, the Chand family were taking care of a troublesome kid, but they did not mind the small trouble she posed. Geena was a friendly, cheerfully and fun-loving kid that was as free spirited as the wind.

After looking through the documents, Lakshman sighed with relief and said, “Alright. With this, the handover of the throne has been passed onto Lina Pricemark.”

During that week, Lakshman was working very hard on finishing several documents that would help Lina proceed after him in taking over the role of being the ruler of the Floria Kingdom of the Human Continent. He had already publicly announced her succession to the rulership much to the surprise and dismay of his people.

“Greeting, my fellow people of Floria Kingdom,” he spoke on the day of the announcement from the castle. “You all know me as the Phoenix Titan and as your king, but you also know of the rumours circulating around about me and my connection to the Calamity Titan. I am not going to negative those rumours nor am I going to agree to them. Instead, I am here for another reason, a very important reason as this day marks a new beginning for our kingdom.”

His image was being broadcast to all of his subjects of his kingdom, which was a first because he never did so in the past. So, many of his people were surprised and awed that their king was such a young-looking man.

“After the war with the Calamity Titan and facing certain situations, I came to the realisation of my faults and drawbacks that are not fitting for a king. The Phoenix Clan had been the protectors of the Human Continent for many generations, but it has clouded our minds on the greater focus that we must aim towards. As such, I deem it the right time for a new king to take over.”

Everyone gasped with shock and horror at his words, but he ignored them and continued to speak with firm resolution.

“Hear me, subjects of Floria Kingdom! I, Lakshman Chand, Phoenix Titan and the King of the Floria Kingdom, hereby step down from my role as king, and with the last of my powers as the King of the Floria Kingdom, I elect Lina Pricemark as the new ruler of the Floria Kingdom!”

This time, a lot of people were alarmed, taken aback, but mainly surprised because it was a name many of them were familiar with. Lina had a good reputation with the people as she often went around to different places on her duty as a noble woman to cater for those that were in need.

“She is a noble woman with a great strength of mind and a heart of gold! Moreover, she is a human and unrelated to the Phoenix Clan, so there is no cause for alarm or distrust as she cares deeply for the kingdom and its people. I have great hopes for her, and I feel much at ease by electing her as the rule of the Floria Kingdom as I am confident that she would bring peace and prosperity to her people!”

He was speaking as if this was an irreversible decision and began to hear the outcry of the people, demanding him to stay and others urging him to not step down as king. Lakshman heard them, but he did little to care for their words because he knew this had to be done otherwise there would be consequences that he would not be able to settle later on.

After taking a deep breath, he spoke loudly over the babble of the protesting crowd, “I… thank each and every person of the Floria Kingdom for allowing me to be your king till now. I apologise for any problems that I have caused, and I wish for your peace and prosperity in the future to come.”

Finally, he wrapped up his speech by smiling at them sadly and saying while raising a hand, “Till we meet again,” before a blinding flash of light occurred before he vanished from the spot.

“Are you sure, sir?” The Phintex Raja asked quietly. “There’s a huge uproar at the capital after your disappearance.”

“Yes,” he replied to his subordinate. “This is a necessary step that must be taken. This must be what the Emperor of the World once felt in the past; it’s better to quit while you’re ahead,” and he smiled sadly. “Don’t worry. The uproar will die down as people will come to accept it over time, and I’m confident Lina will do a great job of doing that. I know she can.”

The Phintex Raja nodded in understanding and took the documents before warping out of there. Once he left, Lakshman breathed a sigh of relief and stood up before walking out of the house. He walked for a few metes before coming to a stop and just stood there as the cool wild blew around him.

He stayed like that, still and silent as he enjoyed the wind when he heard a voice ask, “What are you doing?”

It was Emilia as she came out to see where he went and walked up to him with a curious look on her face.

“Oh. Just enjoying the breeze. That’s all.”

“Really?” She asked, and he nodded with a smile. They remained for a moment in silence before she asked, “I heard that you announced of your decision to step down as king and pass on the role to Lina.”

He chuckled and said, “You found out.”

“You weren’t planning on telling us, were you?”

“It was nothing major to let you all know about it,” he told her with a smile. “I’ve already gotten the Phoenix Clan to move out of their current location to somewhere far away… far away from this continent at least.”

Emilia was surprised and asked, “What? You’re having the Phoenix Clan move out of the continent? Why?”

“This is the Human Continent. It doesn’t need Phoenix Clan to be a part of it so it doesn’t matter whether we be here or not,” she replied to her with a smile. “Besides, I feel it’s high time the Phoenix Clan separate itself from the humans and be its own thing.”

“Just like the Dragon Clan,” she added, to which he nodded with a smile on his face. Then she sighed and asked, “We’ll be moving too, won’t we?”

He nodded and said, “Yes. Somewhere that we can finally settle down and not have to deal with problems, struggles, and the concern for others too much. We can finally focus on ourselves for a change. I quite like that.”

She looked at him for a moment and asked, “Are you okay with that?”

“Yes. I am okay with it,” he told her with a smile before looking back at the blue clear ocean. “In fact, I feel like a heavy burden has been lifted off of my shoulders, and I can finally breathe and stretch freely,” and he began to stretch his arms and shoulders experimentality.

Emilia laughed at her husband’s silliness and asked, “How come? I mean, what made you decide to do this?”

He remained silent for a moment before saying in a peaceful voice, “My parents.”

“Your parents?”

Lakshman nodded and explained, “You know, Emilia, that I was not from a well-off family, right? My father was an adventurer and my mother was a nurse. Both of them worked tirelessly to make sure I wouldn’t have the to face the struggles in life like they did way before anyone knew I was the reincarnated Phoenix Titan. I only got to see them either in the morning before they left for work or in the evening when they came home very tired, where I didn’t get to spent spend much time because of how tired they were from their respective work.

But the time we got to spend together during their off-days, I really enjoyed them a lot. I never once thought about making friends or going out because I found a friend in Mariana, who pretty much took care of me since I was just a baby. All of them worked hard tirelessly to give me, not a luxurious life, but a peaceful life so that I would have to work hard, not struggle through like them.

So, when I ventured out into the world and began to experience many different things, I started to get fascinated by them. The need to get stronger to face powerful opponents, the responsibility of protecting the world, and the desire to be a good person became the principles that I lived by since I found out that I was the Phoenix Titan. All of it went to my head and made me start to think different; that I am a hero, a saviour, the strongest warrior, and much more.

Yet, I couldn’t spend much time with my only family. Be it in the past when all of you were trying to gain my attention and fighting over each other for my affection, or the times when you gave birth to my children. I wasn’t there for any of you.”

“You were there for me,” Emilia interrupted him. “I had an accident and was in trouble, and you came to save both me and our baby.”

“Yes, because I sensed the danger you were in and rushed in, but the others? I didn’t even know when they gave birth, only finding out when Sevedant came and went frequently during our two years of training.”

“It’s like you said, Lucky. You were training for your battle with the Calamity Titan,” she tried to reason with him, but he shook his head resolutely.

“No, Emilia. There are no excuses to defend my absence,” he said firmly with a firm expression on his face. “At that time, I simply reasoned it away as me not being a good father so as to protect the future of my children, but now that I stop and think about it, could I have spared time to visit you? Check on you at the very least? You were my only family left. My parents had died, and my siblings will go their separate ways, and only you girls will be left for me as family and yet… I just let it go…?”

“Lucky…” she began soothingly, but he shook his head to reject her attempt to calm him.

“It was not only that. There were many times you seemed like you wanted to say something to me, perhaps you wanted to go somewhere, buy something, or do something together with me. But all of you refrained because you thought that my work might be disturbed or that I might get distracted.”

“You noticed those…” she said weakly.

“I am slow, Emilia, but I am not stupid,” he told her sadly. “I was aware of your numerous attempts, but I was so deep in my work that I just couldn’t spare it much thought till now. That’s when I realised the mistake I was making, the greatest mistake of my life… and the mistake of my past life, a mistake that I don’t plan on repeating in this life.”

He turned to her, and she turned to him and as their eyes locked onto one another, he said, “I want to be with you.”

In that instant, the wind around them picked up and blew a little faster around them as if to signify the weight of his words.

“I want to be with you, Emilia,” he told her as she looked at her. “Not just you. I want to be with Cantia, Sumara, Ondine, Tetra, Venezuela, Silvera and Sonia. I want to be with all of you, my one and only family. My parents worked hard so that I can live in peace. Yes, I admit that I should work hard, its only given, but I feel I am doing more than just hard work; I am struggling when all I ever wanted was to live happily together with my family from the bottom of my heart. I failed at it back then, and I don’t plan on failing this time as well!”

Emilia saw that her husband was looking like he was about to cry with such a desperate expression on his face. She finally saw all the bottled-up feelings he had for them being released as he expressed his reasons for stepping down as king and moving away from the Human Continent to somewhere far away to live a peaceful life. This made her also to form tears in her eyes by the amount of love he had for them.

Just then, Cantia rushed up to him and hugged him from the side while shouting, “Lucky!”

“H-Huh?!” He exclaimed at suddenly being hugged from the side by his wife and looked at her. “Cantia? Where did you come from?”

“It’s not just her,” said Ondine, and he turned to see Ondine standing next to the others, who were Tetra, Silvera, Sumara, Erza, Sonia and Venezuela.

“A-All of you…?” He asked weakly while blinking in surprise. “What are you…? When did you…?”

“Emilia teleported all of us here silently around the time you began explaining about your hard-working parents,” explained Sumara with a sweet smile.

“Oh…!” He said, looking both surprised and embarrassed.

“Oh, Lucky! I love you so much!” Cantia said, hugging him firmly.

“Cantia…!” He said lovingly and hugged her back.

At that moment, his eight remaining wives walked forward and gathered around him to hug him from all sides. He could not hug all of them, so he activated Elemental Coated Armor to create hands made of energy and enveloped all of them inside. Though he was not physically hugging each of them, they could feel his touch through the use of his power.

“So, this is why you’re doing all of this,” said Sonia with a smile.

“I don’t want to be the strongest warrior in the world, and I don’t want to be a king; I just want to live a happy life with my wives and children,” he said while struggling to hold in his tears from how emotional he felt.

There was a moment of silence as his wives patted him and hugged him to console him as best as they could while tears flowed down their faces. This moment had reminded them of their past incarnation, where their husband would either outright ignored them or spent only a bit of time before going off to deal with his conquest of the world.

At first, they felt he was a villain that wanted to kill everyone and was rampaging around on a blind bloodlust. They were offered to him to make peace with him, but were surprised when he threatened to destroy each of their cans for treating him like a monster. From then on, they began to see his purpose for waging war against the world and unknowingly feel in love with him.

They began to wish for the war to be quickly be over so that he could fall in love with them. However, their love was not meant to be fruitful as they tragically died before their wishes could be realised. So, they felt mixed emotions of sadness and happiness as their wish was finally granted thousands of years later.

“It took you so long to realise this,” commented Sonia as she grinned with happiness.

“I’m sorry! I’m truly sorry… for taking so long…!” He apologised to them with tears filling his eyes and streaming down his face.

For the next few seconds, there was silence before his wives began to control their emotions and urging him to do the same.

“Come on! We shouldn’t be crying like this on such a wonderful time!” Erza said brightly. Then she pointed at the setting sun and said, “Look how beautiful the sunset is.”

They all turned to look towards the beautiful scene of the sunset and watched with bright smiles on their faces as they hugged each other with Lakshman being at the centre.

“Yes. It truly is beautiful,” commented Lakshman serenely as he watched the beautiful scene before him, “just as beautiful as all of you.”

“Oh, stop it,” said Tetra with a chuckle. “You’re making me feel embarrassed.”

“There’s nothing to feel embarrassed about when its our husband completing us!” Silvera said happily.

“But… it feels like we waited a very long time for him to… acknowledge it,” suggested Tetra with a small smile.

“Oh you…!” Silvera said with a look of disbelief at the Phoenix Blade.

“I’m sorry, Tetra,” apologised Lakshman with a sad smile.

“You stop apologising!” Silvera rounded on him much to his surprise.

“Yes! You don’t need to be sorry anymore since we all agree that we love each other!” Ondine said brightly.

“Yeah! It’s almost like we got rewarded big time after waiting for a very long time!” Cantia said enthusiastically.

“Indeed! The greatest reward of that life and this life,” said Erza with a grin on her face.

“The love of our husband,” finished Emilia serenely.

“With a bright future awaiting us!” Added Sumara confidently.

“Yes,” agreed Lakshman, and as they all smiled while looking towards the ocean, he finished with, “Together.”

The Chand family looked at the ocean with the sunset creating a beautiful scenery to their bright perspective, signalling the end of an age and the beginning of a new age.