“Did you find anything?”

El asked her husband after he entered the house and put his bag down.

He shook his head with a defeated sigh. It had been well over a few weeks ever since the mysterious “Half” or “Divide” incident occurred. This name refers to what happened to the kingdom and some of its people. Half of all the kingdom’s land and resources had disappeared from the face of the continent. Many people also disappeared along with it.

Clyde Astley. Arielle Luxembourg. Third royal princess Charlotte Rosemary Colchis. These are three of the many that disappeared without a trace.

“...”

Eleanor held her hands on her face as she cried. Her two six year old daughters, seeing their mother sad, went up to her and patted her hair with their small hands.

They’ve already thought about the worst possibility. What if he’s dead? What if he’s in a land that’s impossible to reach through normal means? Or even worse; what if he landed on the Demon side of the continent ruled by demon lords?

The current king was also going through the same turmoil as El and her husband. Charlotte’s mother’s illness has even worsened after she heard her daughter disappeared.

Duke Luxembourg gave George multiple soldiers to aid in finding their children but it bore no fruit. It would take months to get permission to cross the Republic’s lands. Even the king had to wait that duration because of the damn republicans. If anything ,they are happy that a potential successor to the throne is missing and that the kingdom lost half its land. This greatly weakened their opponent and allowed an opportunity to strike to appear.

Philip Colchis received help from the Holy Kingdom’s matriarch. She and Melodia were close friends so she wasn’t reluctant to aid the kingdom while the queen was bedridden.

Due to that aid, the kingdom managed to recover, albeit slowly.

Thankfully, not a lot of their military was damaged by the “Divide”. The council called for a conference to hear what happened from the leader herself.

They already told the public what happened but left a few things out. They only said that the enemy was powerful enough to be a threat to the entire continent.

Eleanor and George went to attend the event.

Clark, the Spear God who was the representative speaker informed everyone of an enemy even they could not defeat.

Although they couldn’t catch him for his deeds. It was now the ideal time for everyone member of the Order to undergo their training to improve themselves.

Every nation considered training important if there were more enemies like Zero in this world.

**

“This is her...?”

In the Sky Fortress reception room.

Philip Colchis was reading a report of the ‘incident’ that recently took place. The sword ‘Heaven Piercer’ had finally found its wielder.

It was a boy named Arthur. He comes from Duke Luxembourg’s house and underwent training at the knight order recruit camp.

For some odd reason his gender changed right after he took the sword. After the surrounding witnesses looked at the boy glowing with a bright light, a beautiful maiden wearing a white robe and a golden tiara was holding the sword.

Breath-taking. That was the word to describe her beauty. The girl looked about 18 years of age compared to her previous gender which looked 13 at the most.

“What is this...?”

Philip had a look of disbelief on his face. Not only had someone finally managed to wield that sword, but they even switched genders? Magic to change your gender must be ranked in the Upper High rank. That is magic right below God Rank.

There are no mages capable of casting magic like that in this kingdom.

Transformation magic exists but it still had flaws like being unable to copy another person’s voice. It also had many limitations.

“That’s concrete evidence supporting what happened, your majesty. She is currently resting at my manor.”

Duke Luxembourg was the one in front of the king. After he heard what happened to the kingdom, he hurried to the palace to offer his help and resources. And yet another incident happened which involved that boy that came to his residence years ago.

“What is she doing at the moment?”

The king put down the documents.

“He–She is currently resting so I couldn’t get out any information. Her physical condition is good even though she’s been asleep for a whole week already without receiving food or water.”

Many of the nobles of the court whispered amongst themselves. They were also awaiting permission to enter the conference hall.

Even the White Order’s two leaders Eredhel and Iris were interested in this mysterious woman that took the boy’s form. The sword was in her possession which meant she was the one worthy of it.

They didn’t know how to react to this incident. Many suspect that it’s a fluke and that she’s an agent sent by the Republic.

Many others disagree with this since the boy grew up in this kingdom and even trained under the Knight Corps.

There were a lot of arguments over what was the truth of this incident.

Is she an enemy? That was the question on everyone’s minds right now.

Chances are that she’s as strong if not stronger than some of the members of the White Order. If she managed to lift the sword of legend and she’s not an enemy of their nation then they might have already found a new member of the White Order to fill in the 9th seat.

*

“Did you beat him up at least?”

A familiar old voice spoke to Iris when she was about to turn a corner.

“No, master.”

Iris fell on her knee and bowed her head.

The woman who she called her master sighed.

It was a few weeks ago that Iris called her.

-Please help me train.

The woman before Iris was the one who was one of the Sword Kings of the continent.

Rosetta.

Even at the age of 60, she was still as strong as she was in the past. No, after living so long and polishing her skills she could even be stronger than the younger Rosetta.

Her first debut was during the war that happened 45 years ago. It was the war against demihumans.

Many powerful warriors from the beast tribes fell before her power.

Rosetta’s name struck fear in the hearts of many. She was one of the few who was able to ascend to the Master realm in swordsmanship.

“I’ll scold you later. The council is waiting.”

Rosetta pushed open the two large doors. What appeared behind the doors was a clear view of the sky.

They were in the Sky Fortress that was located right above the Red Abyss dungeon. It was built there to make it impossible to enter through normal means. Even flying over the sea is forbidden since S rank monsters could potentially try to hunt you.

The Sky Fortress is a stronghold that is used to house national threat prisoners. If Zero was defeated then they would’ve brought him here as well.

Iris could see her fellow members who were already standing at the corner of the room. All of them had their heads lowered in shame.

The powerful heroes of the continent lost to the enemy. This was a disgrace in the face of many who aspired to be like them.

Many lost their trust in the White Order after what happened.

The conference members all turned towards the door when it opened.

Their eyes instantly sharpened when the leader of the White Order came in. Iris faced their animosity head on without flinching. It was her fault for not being able to protect their kingdom.

“Iris.”

Rosetta looked at her.

“Do not feel ashamed. All they did was sit behind their desks while they ordered people around. All of you did what you could against someone of Zero’s might.”

“Yes...”

Rosetta went to the corner of the room.

All of the continent’s leaders were present.

The Mage Association.

The Holy Paladins of the Holy Sol Kingdom plus the matriarch.

The Council members that included all the monarchs.

The scholars of the Graponia Royal Academy.

Three nations’ leaders were gathered there. The demihumans, humans and elves. Since the dwarves seclude themselves from the rest of the world, they were not present.

“Your report, Iris.”

A warm and gentle voice spoke to Iris. It came from the Holy Queen, Rosalinda IV. She was a woman with golden blonde hair and green eyes. Her curvy body could be seen above her white robe. A crown rested on top of her head.

Two individuals wearing white cloaks with their faces covered were beside her seat. They were the Holy Paladins.

Iris nodded.

“The enemy...” Iris looked at everyone present before speaking. “Can use god rank magic.”

The entire conference room was thrown into disarray. The ones who made the most noise were those from the Mage Association.

“God rank!? We have to fight an enemy on the level of the Great Sage!?”

Fear was seen on the robed man’s face.

It was unthinkable for any god rank mages to exist within this world. Odette who heard Iris closed her eyes with a sigh.

‘They came earlier than I predicted...’

She used Destiny Magic to send herself 150-200 years in the future. She was certain that that was the expected timeframe for them to arrive.

‘What changed...?’

She quietly listened to Iris who spoke again.

“I know that it sounds preposterous but it’s true. He used two spells of that rank so far. First, it was the spell he called [Ra]. The spell was the reason the Divide happened. The second one was when he summoned those meteors using large magic circles. Miss Viria confirmed that magic circles of that scale was something no normal person could summon...”

“Weren’t all of you supposed to be 8th stage mages and Master Rank!? How the hell were you so weak against one 9th rank mage!?”

Another person shouted.

The White Order could be called the heroes of the continent. They were the ones tasked to protect the people against disasters or fight against the Magic Empire who had their own powerhouses.

“I...”

Iris lowered her head.

Another person spoke.

“We shouldn’t think a 9th stage mage could be dealt with just because they were 8th stage and master rank.”

It was the Holy Queen.

“There’s a significant gap between how powerful an 8th rank mage is compared to someone of the Great Sage’s level. All of you know her legend, right?”

She was a mage herself and studied magic during her youth. Rosalinda knew quite a bit about the nature of magic.

“This is why we have a magic system. It is to determine how powerful the individuals are that we rank. God rank is something on the level of gods.”

The person who argued with Iris stood down. Despite him being a member of the Mage Association, she quickly shut down his words using logic.

Iris bowed her head slightly.

“But that wasn’t what made the man dangerous...”

Everyone’s ears perked up at her words.

“What do you mean?”

“A strange purple energy was the reason for his immense strength.”

‘Purple energy?’

Odette felt like she remembered something but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was.

“His power grew significantly after he used it. It was thankfully only a temporary power-up. We managed to match him in strength again after he lost that power.”

“Huh? Then how did you lose?”

A high ranking mage of the Mage Association asked.

“There was another person who was with Zero...”

This was what they should’ve been worried about.

There wasn’t just one of them. There was an entire race of those immortals somewhere out there.

The conference room was silent.

“He looked exactly the same as those homunculi described in history books. A dark figure covered in miasma.”

A hologram appeared behind Iris. On it was a picture of the figure she mentioned.

“This is the constructed video we managed to make. It was crafted using memory magic. It is in the perspective of Viria but we couldn’t capture a lot since she was knocked out as well.”

The video played.

Everyone felt a chill up their spines when they laid eyes upon the man.

A purple energy came out of his body before he disappeared.

!!

In a blink of an eye all of the members of the White Order was knocked out.

They lowered their heads in shame when they saw how they were one-sidedly beaten.

“No way…”

Odette muttered in disbelief.

“It’s the same as Him.”