As the one who once was a friend cast his frigid gaze toward the body of the fallen king…

He began to chant a spell.

A spell that would bestow upon him the unearthly powers of the man who once stood at the top of the world.

A spell that was borne out of his betrayal and greed.

“Your strength…shall become mine.”

Out of the body of the one he had slain, rose a single, pale blue orb.

A beautiful, shining orb of a thousand frosts, pulsating ripples of its ancient magic.

With shaking hands, the man reached for the orb…

Only to have it crushed, into tiny fragments, right in front of his eyes.

…

“You…how dare you!!!”

The man gave the newcomer a murderous glare, but the newcomer was not at all afraid.

He spoke, lifting up the body of the king in a gentle embrace, with the tenderness of a father carrying his child.

“If he could no longer possess these powers, then you shall not either.”

————————

“So…”

I tapped the ground in front of me with a stick, spreading the loose, dry soil apart as I doodled a few shapes. I drew a huge blob, and then a tiny star at the southernmost tip, a crown at the northern end and dotted lines toward an area that I circled in the west.

Erebus was peeking over my shoulder at the picture, and Novak tending to our campfire nearby. When we left the village, the moon was already high in the darkened sky. We trekked along the forest path for a few more hours, until exhaustion finally took over and we set up camp for the night. Novak looked like he could march on with no problems, but unfortunately, my body had no such inhuman stamina. To make matters worse, Erebus had refused to walk after the first hour, and I ended up piggy backing him for the rest of the time.

“What kind of childish drawing is this? Even tiny children could draw better, bwahahaha!”

Erebus had taken one look at my ‘masterpiece,’ and ended up in a fit of laughter. I merely smiled, and tapped on the star.

“This is where we are right now. Our destination…”

I moved the stick to the area that was circled.

“Gaea, a town around half a day’s worth of traveling from here. It’s on the other side of the forest we are in now, and a part of the region under the Terra clan’s control.”

It was the closest town in the west to us, and a good place to start gathering some intel on current events. The elder’s prophecy was helpful, but too vague to pinpoint any specific course of action we should take. For now, we just had to put our faith in him, and go west.

… A slight frown appeared on my usually carefree face, as I leaned in to whisper to Erebus.

“What do you think about what the elder said back at the village? About my missing core.”

Erebus blinked slowly at me, before narrowing his eyes. He thought about my question for a long moment, before staring into my soft blue-green eyes with his scarlet red ones

“Every magical being has a ‘core.’ You probably already know, a mage’s core is the source of his powers. It’s not easy to take away someone’s core, and usually…”

He trailed off, shadows of dark emotions flickering across his gaze.

“It involves killing the mage first.” I finished, earning a light nod from him.

It wasn’t a complete surprise for me that someone had extracted my core after my death. If anything, my core could almost be considered a part of the spoils-of-war. What I truly wanted to know, was what became of my core after its extraction.

“Let’s say you are this really evil, power-hungry person.” I began, smirking at Erebus, “What will you do with my core after you forcefully rip it out of my body as I lay limp and cold on the ground?”

Erebus gave me a disgruntled look, before answering me flatly.

“Toss it away, because I don’t want your dirty hand-me-down.”

…

I let out a long, helpless sigh, before pretending I’d never asked.

“I would want to consume the core and claim the power for myself.”

My reply to my own question was immediately shot down by Erebus.

“That, is only if the person is strong enough to withstand the power of the core.”

I raised my eyebrows, before smiling and letting him go on.

“…Regardless, you should be more concerned with the fact that you cannot sense its presence. With a core of that caliber, the moment you crawled out of that purgatory stink-hole, you should’ve been able to feel it call out to your soul.”

…

“Of ‘that caliber,’ huh? I didn’t know you thought so highly of me, Ere-ere~”

The serious look on his face vanished in an instant, and his face reddened in a mixture of annoyance and embarrassment.

“Shut up, human! I was trying to-”

“Yes, yes, I know, thank thee for setting my mind on the right track~”

I laughed as his face got even redder, imaginary steam pouring out of the top of his head. What he said though, weighed heavily on my mind, tucked away behind my happy-go-lucky smile.

Novak, who had kept silent while we were whispering, finally stood up. Erebus and I paused in our mini brawl, turning our attention to our companion as he began to walk away from the camp, heading in a particular direction.

“Where are you going, Novak?” I asked curiously, getting up to follow him.

“Fishing.” Came his short, and to the point, reply.

“…Right, fishing. But where do you plan on doing that?”

“…Here.”

He stopped in front of a rather dense cluster of bushes, before pushing the greenery to the side. My eyes widened in surprise, as I realized that there was a small stream ahead.

“As expected of a master swordsman, what amazing senses!”

“You were just too busy doodling on the ground to notice, fool.”

Novak ignored both of us, and rolled up his pant legs and sleeves, waddling into the shallow water. He stood still for what felt like an eternity, before suddenly reaching into the water with his bare hands. With lightning-quick reflexes, he grabbed a fish in one hand, lifting the flapping creatures into the air.

…

I began to clap.

Erebus, on the other hand, merely snorted, before putting his hands on his waist.

“That’s nothing. With my true powers, I can make those lesser creatures offer themselves up as my dinner-”

“Catch.”

Novak tossed the fishes over his shoulder, and I instinctively held out my hands to catch them. Erebus, who was still gloating over his prowess, was less quick to react, and ended up taking a fish to the face. The fish jumped around in my arms, and I had to struggle to hold on while Erebus unleashed a string of curses at Novak. Meanwhile, Novak had caught more fish, and in the end, we returned to camp with a grand total of nine.

As we gathered around the warmth of the fire, with Novak cooking up our dinner, I tried to break the silence by starting up the conversation again.

“About our destination, Gaea, what do you think? It’s a relatively lively town, and a lot of travelers pass through there from all over Eden. There should be plenty of information being exchanged.”

What we lacked most right now, was information. I was relying on the knowledge I had about Eden from a hundred years ago, and more than likely, things had changed. I had to learn about the new world that I had come back to.

Novak didn’t answer, and continued to stare into the fire. He never asked us any questions about our goals, and never tried to get to know us more. Apart from our nicknames, he knew nothing about us, and we also knew nothing about him. It seemed like he wanted to keep his secrets, and wanted nothing to do with ours either.

Of course, I was still deeply curious about why he chose to follow us. Perhaps only time would tell me the answer.

“…People don’t go there for casual visits anymore. They even avoid spending a night there on their travels. After the splitting of the four clans, people are cautious in foreign territory.”

He held out a stick of cooked fish to Erebus, and then one to me as he spoke. Erebus mumbled something inaudible, but accepted the offer, and I on the other hand…

“The splitting of the four clans?” I repeated, displaying my genuine interest in the topic at hand and not so much the fish.

He stuck the stick of fish into the ground beside me, leaving it for later. Returning to his fire-viewing, only the sounds of Erebus munching on the crispy fish could be heard for a long time. I thought the conversation was over, until he spoke once more.

“The Ice King was overthrown, and his children of water, the Aqua clan, and the children of the dark, Nox, were driven to near extinction. The remaining four clans fought amongst themselves for control. The splitting of the clans refer to the truce that ended a decade of war.”

He paused briefly, before resuming with his explanation.

“It’s an uneasy truce. Ventus, children of the wind, dominate the north. Lux, of the light, control the east. Terra, of the earth, the south and Ignis, of the fire, the west.”

His words left me silent for a good while. The leaders of the Ignis, Terra, Lux, and Ventus clans had formed an alliance against me back then, and I didn’t expect them to go easy on the Aqua clan that I led, nor the Nox clan that remained loyal to me until the end. The in-fighting that happened afterwards wasn’t too shocking either.

...

I was simply...upset, for a lack of a better word. Speechless...and deeply saddened by the fragmentation of the clans that once lived in harmony.

...

The Eden that I tried so hard to unite back then was no more.

“...The Ventus clan who led the insurrection against the Ice King rules in the Imperial Capital, but that place is a hotspot for trouble. From time to time, individuals and groups would try everything from assassination plots to rebellions. So far, none of them succeeded. The imperial army crushed them easily.”

The imperial army...

Just hearing that brought back nostalgic memories. Even now, my heart still pounded at the image of tens and hundreds of thousands of soldiers standing before me, all waiting for a single command from their king. Even if I wasn’t invincible...I felt like I could never be defeated as long as they marched beside me.

“The world is plotting against each other. Eden is crumbling, and Asteria turned its back on the alliance. Hyperion remains allies, but they have made ridiculous demands.”

His voice got softer, and more distant. For the first time, I could sense the deep emotions that were lurking beyond his placid demeanor.

“...Things have changed for the worse.”

Novak stopped speaking, and this time, for good.

Even the alliances between us and our neighboring empires have fallen into demise. The three great empires of the world...may one day shatter into many smaller nations or cease to exist altogether.

“Ah...truly...”

Things have really taken a turn for the absolute worse.

For me who no longer seemed to know how to show pain, there was only a smile on my face. A smile that didn’t reach my eyes, nor match the intensity of emotions shining in there. A hollow smile, accompanying the heart-wrenching urge to laugh until my throat was sore.

“Truly...a shame.”

I closed my eyes, and the conversation ended. The silence lasted the whole night.

———————

We arrived at Gaea at around midday. Just as Novak had foretold, there weren’t as many people around as I remembered, but still, the town was lively at this time of the day. Stalls advertising a variety of items lined the busy streets, and groups of people sat outside in open taverns, enjoying a hearty meal accompanied by large mugs of ale. Kids wearing capes and sporting wooden swords chased each other from shop to shop, acting out some kind of story.

“You have nowhere to run, traitor of the empire!”

“Surrender yourself, Ice Emperor!”

…

The child who was supposed to act out the part of the ‘Ice Emperor’ held his hands over his face, and dropped to his knees in front of the other two.

“I…I surrender!”

Erebus, who had been watching the children fool around, sent a smirk my way.

“Look who’s popular.” He commented, before snickering at my dismay.

… I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the situation.

“At least…they didn’t just shred my existence from history altogether…hahaha…”

As we walked along the street some more, a particular sign caught my eye. Glancing over at Novak, who hadn’t said anything since he used up a year’s worth of his speech reservoir last night, I tapped his arm with a mischievous smile.

“You are already a very powerful man, Novak…but there is something that you are missing. A thing that can transform you and help you ascend even greater heights.”

I wasn’t sure what kind of look he was giving me underneath his heap of midnight black hair, but he certainly didn’t seem too convinced. So, I placed my hands on his back, maneuvering him forward and into a shop. I was confident that when he came back out, he would be a completely different man.

————————

…

I was right.

“Where are you going, handsome? I haven’t seen you around here before~”

As we walked, heads turned. Excited whispers broke out, mainly from a female audience, and many love-struck gazes were being cast in the direction of our swordsman companion. Some of his female admirers were too shy to approach him, resorting to simply giving him helpless, adoring puppy eyes from the side. Others were quick to jump on the new hunk in town, like a pack of cougars descending upon a juicy slab of meat.

“Hey~ Don’t ignore me, sexy one~”

One bold beauty in particular sauntered up to him, grabbing his arm and shoving it right between her ample bosom. With a seductive smile, she smothered his arm in her chest, using her voluptuous figure to her full advantage.

“If you are new around here, let big sister show you all the g-o-o-d s-p-o-t-s.”

Her lips moved slowly, emphasizing each syllable. Novak’s brows furrowed, and he tugged on his arm, trying to get it out of her unyielding grip. The other girls who hadn’t made a move yet suddenly grabbed him too, clinging on to him and beginning a game of tug-of-war.

“He’s mine!!! I saw him first!”

“Who cares if you saw him first or not, ugly toad! You are too hideous to put beside him!”

“Stop pushing me! Wait in line!”

…

I leaned over to whisper to Erebus, loud enough for Novak to overhear.

“They say women love shiny things, the bigger the better. So what happens when a handsome guy with sparkling, cats-eye gems for eyes appears in front of them?”

I could feel Novak’s burning glare on the side of my head, but I merely laughed. To think a single haircut and shave could transform a scruffy-looking man in his forties to a young man in his twenties, with piercing golden-green eyes and straight, jet-black hair that curled softly at the edges. A dashing knight that seemed to have stepped right out of a heroic painting.

“Well, you look busy, so we’ll wander around on our own for a bit! We’ll come back for you, promise.”

I waved goodbye to Novak, whose eyes widened at our sudden departure. He tried to get out of the crowd of his loving fangirls, but only managed to get more sucked in.

“Are you sure you don’t want to rescue him.” Erebus said, earning a chuckle from me.

“I’m very sure. He’s a ‘killer,’ after all, a ‘lady killer.’”

With that, we turned our backs to our unfortunate ally, whose cries for help were drowned out by the shrieks and confessions of enemies that he could not beat.

Now that it was just Erebus and I, we began going from stall to stall, listening in on the casual conversations being exchanged. Most of it was idle gossip, but occasionally, we could catch bits and pieces of what was going on in the neighboring townships and the imperial capital.

“…Trouble seems to be brewing again near the Eden-Asteria borders. I wonder if a war would be upon us soon?”

“It can’t be helped if that was the case. In the beginning, we weren’t on friendly terms with them until the Ice Emperor formed an alliance, and with what ended up happening to him…”

“…It’s inevitable, huh…I guess I should think about moving to Hyperion?”

“If Hyperion doesn’t back out on us too, hahahaha…”

…

Asteria, the homeland of all the creatures of the night. When I was sixteen, I visited it during the midst of a civil war. It was precisely because of Eden lending its aid to the rulers in those crucial times, that the then demon king decided to form a pact with us. Him and I ended up getting along extremely well, so well that he even tried giving me his beloved daughter’s hand in marriage. That little girl was just five or six years old in human years then, so of course I turned him down as politely as possible.

…

I wonder how they were doing now.

“Hyperion…isn’t that where all those winged lunatics live?”

Erebus, who had gotten bored during the information-gathering, came back to me after sneaking off somewhere for a while.

“Just because they think of themselves as children of the heavens and blessed by a holy quack, they have this obnoxious, ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude.”

He took a huge bite out of some kind of meat on a skewer, before continuing.

“I bet they are the type to fix their hair in the middle of the battlefield because the wind messed it up.”

I imagined the angelic beings doing just that, and couldn’t help but laugh. Hyperion had always been unpredictable. Back in my days, I was always more worried about them not coming to the negotiation table rather than our friends in Asteria. The children of dawn were very secretive, and I had never met the one in charge.

“Jokes aside…”

I eyed the meat skewer, before leaning close to Erebus, my eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Where did you get that?”

My question was soon answered by a red-faced vendor, who came charging at us while waving his knife in the air.

“Little thief! How dare you run off with my meat skewer without paying!”

I gulped at the size and sharpness of that meat dicer in his hand. The blade was so lethal-looking that it reflected the harsh rays of the sun above, creating a miniature sun right above the man’s head as he held it in the air. We would both become meat on a skewer if I didn’t do something quick.

“Wait!”

I held up my hands, leaping in front of Erebus to shield him.

“We can pay! Just give us…”

I quickly scanned the area around us, looking for something that we could do to earn a bit of money. Normally, I would have to locate an inn to check its questing boards, but Lady Luck decided to shower us with her favor.

“…One moment.”

A smile appeared on my face, as I spotted a crowd of people standing around two men, who had their hands on the table in front of them, engaged in an arm-wrestling contest. I turned to the meat vendor, bowing to him.

“I’m very sorry for what my little brother has done, but if you would like to join us for a game of arm-wrestling, we will definitely pay you back. With interest.”

I looked back at the crowd of people, and the vendor followed my line of sight. He thought about it for a minute, before nodding.

“I might as well get some entertainment out of it if you two can’t pay. If you manage to win against those burly men…”

He smirked at me, before pointing a thumb back at his stall.

“Consider my meat skewers an all-you-can-eat. I’ll even toss in a few candy apples.”

… At the mention of apples, my whole demeanor changed. Rolling up my sleeves, a competitive gleam shone in my eyes, as I began to walk toward the wrestling table.

“For the one and only love of my life, apples, I shall try my best.”

—————————

“Victor, Zeph!”

The crowd around the red-haired young man went wild, as once again, he was announced as the winner. Everyone watching the contest of strength was dumbfounded by the young man’s overwhelming success. One after another, he had retired many bulky participants double or triple his size, and did so effortlessly. Each time before the round starts, he would lean in to whisper something to the contestant, and the latter would pull back in shock or completely lose his grip. The audience was intrigued by the young man’s antics, deeply curious about what he had whispered to his opponents to cause them to forfeit or lose so quickly.

“And another victory for Sir Zeph! Is he secretly harboring a monstrous power behind those dashing good looks of his?”

The young man laughed good-naturedly, but refused to share his tactics when the judge of the event pressed on. His miraculous feat was drawing a lot of attention from the civilians nearby…and from two men who were hiding around the corner, in a dark alleyway a short distance away.

Dressed in dark, hooded cloaks, the two men observed the young man for a long period of time, before speaking in hushed voices.

“Think he will work?”

“I think he would be a good choice. Looks like he and his child companion aren’t from this part of town.”

The first speaker smiled, his eyes gleaming from within the darkness of his hood.

…

“That just means nobody will bother to look for them when they disappear, right.”