Reivan stood at the edge of the pool of blue-green energy, glaring at it hatefully.

"Father, do I just dive into this?"

Rodin nodded his head while watching from the side. "Indeed. It'll feel... strange. As if water is entering through all your orifices, but don't panic. The feeling will disappear in a moment."

"I understand." Reivan didn't spare the others in the room a glance before diving head-first into the abyss.

"Goodness. It would've been troublesome if he was too afraid, but this?" Rodin chuckled in exasperation. He glanced behind him, where a wide-eyed Roland watched as his little brother's heels sank into the portal. "Well, at least I didn't have to kick him in this time."

"I still resent you for that, you know?" Roland sent his father a hateful glare before rubbing his chin as if pondering something. "Was it my imagination that he seemed to be furious?"

"I sensed it too." Stella voiced out as she equipped her Soul Attire, the armor that the knights of Aizen could manifest from their Soul Armament after rigorous training. Hers was a silver color, with a blue battle skirt that reached just above her knees.

"Mm. He did seem quite agitated for some reason..." Rodin mused as his body was encased with his own Soul Attire, which was silver, just like Stella's except for certain parts, which were golden. However, his armor had a battle skirt that dragged on the floor and a blue cape with golden trimmings. The golden wolf motif engraved in the middle of the cape looked alive, as if it would jump out and tear Rodin's enemies apart, while the blue gemstones socketed into the golden crown on the armor's head shined with a regal light.

"I sensed his intense emotions from the start, but I thought it was because of his anxiety or fear..." Vianna tapped her chin in thought. She had already donned her Soul Attire before anyone else. Unlike the others, hers did not look like it had any metallic parts at all. It was apparently based on the garb that priestesses in her homeland wore, a white and silky robe-like top as well as icy-blue bottoms. There were also a few golden bells hanging from her hip, which was something she copied from her master, the Sword Star.

"Well, no use thinking about it now." Roland shrugged, outfitting himself with his own Soul Attire, which looked much the same as Rodin's, except for the lack of a crown. "Let's go?"

Rodin nodded before jumping into the portal, quickly followed by his wife and the other two.

'Ugh...!' Reivan inwardly groaned.

It was just as his father said, it really felt like something was entering through every hole in his body. Fortunately, the hole in his lower body wasn't included, but it still felt quite disgusting.

A sticky, voluminous sludge could be felt enveloping his entire body and even filling up the pathway from his mouth to his lungs, making him want to vomit out everything he'd eaten during the feast. His ears and nose stopped working as well, seeing as they were being pumped full of whatever the hell it was.

He thanked his lucky stars that the feeling only lasted for a second. Although it felt like an eternity or two for someone experiencing it.

Insufficient willpower to maintain [Killing Intent] [Killing Intent] has changed back to [Intent]

The short ordeal not only snapped Reivan out of his rage but also made his knees buckle, making him seem like a newborn fawn. But before he could collapse to the ground, he was held up by a warm hand.

"Your Highness, excuse me." a deep voice spoke out from behind a helmet.

"Thank you, Sir..." Reivan tapered off as he checked the knight's name with his insight. "Valter."

The knight who'd helped him, Valter, stiffened at being called by name for a moment, but then he remembered the information circulating amongst the knighthood about Reivan's various powers. When he saw that the young prince regain his footing, he let go, took a step back, threw his chest out in a salute.

Looking away from the knight, Reivan inspected his surroundings. But when he saw how eerie the place was, he couldn't help but curse inwardly.

'Holy shit...'

The sky was an ominous blue-green color, and the forest they were apparently in had trees as tall as skyscrapers. However, the 'trees' looked strange. In fact, it looked as if the trees were merely shaped to look like trees, but were actually made of some kind of black substance. The occasional breeze, ominously whistling by, would bring with it the stench of filth and decay, making the young prince's sensitive nose wrinkle in disgust.

"Ugh..." Reivan couldn't help but groan as his feet sunk into the soft earth below, feeling as if he'd stepped on shit. Looking down, he could see that the ground looked to be made of the same material as whatever the trees were made of.

He unconsciously walked up to one of the trees, poking it with his finger to see if it would sink into it.

"Forgive me, Your Highness. But please do not stray too far." Valter warned. "You might get lost in the fog. Even Ascendants cannot completely see through it."

"Fog? What fog..." Reivan's brows furrowed in confusion, before his eyes widened in realization. He intentionally tried to suppress his [Supreme Insight] as he squinted, glaring deeper into the fog-less forest.

After a while, he started seeing what Valter meant. Without his ability, Reivan couldn't even see five meters in front of him.

It was a rare occurrence of a person's vision getting worse as they strained themself.

"How far can Ascendants see?" he asked the kneeling knight.

"About a hundred meters, Your Highness." Valter secretly eyed the prince. "Respectfully... how far are you able to see?"

Reivan grinned. "I wouldn't have known there was fog at all, had you not mentioned it."

Valter gulped down a mouthful of saliva. "The second prince is truly formidable. Glory to Aizen."

"Mm." the young prince nodded, then looked around, finding the lack of people strange. "Where are the others? I saw about three hundred knights dive in, but now there's just you."

"They are clearing the surroundings of any... Nightmare Spawns," the knight replied, after some hesitation. "They are, from what we've experienced, the main denizens of this strange land. Strange creatures that materialize out of nowhere. We've also observed that they manifest when someone sleeps inside this realm, which is why we started calling them Nightmare Spawns."

"So they come from dreams...?" Reivan rubbed his chin in contemplation. He glanced behind him, where a portal to their world swirled around on the ground. He used [Supreme Insight] on it.

Phenomenon:

[Intra-Hall Spacial Tear]

A tear in the space between worlds that belong to the same Hall. This is caused when an unstable world anchors itself to a stable one as it tries to stabilize itself.

The tear can only be repaired by someone of the [???] realm.

The portal, unlike Warp Gates, doesn't require any energy to function, as it is merely a hole.

The portal, in addition to connecting worlds, has a minuscule connection to the [???], which causes an incredible amount of unharnessed energy to be released by the portal.

The portal on the unstable world's side may change locations after a certain period of time.

'Dammit. I haven't even read it yet, but those question marks are standing out like sore thumbs.'

But he was already somewhat used to it, so he moved on. After reading the whole thing, he came up with certain conclusions.

First, Aizen's rapid growth was probably due to harnessing the energy from the portal.

Second, the Darkins that Zell — the World-Devouring Serpent who helped him so much — mentioned were probably in this world.

Even with the heavily censored history books he'd read, Reivan was able to understand just how quickly Aizen's level of civilization grew.

Free public transportation using trains, which he had no idea why they were named the same as the ones on earth. Home-owning royal citizens were provided free lighting and temperature management artifacts, whose power sources would also be free. Airships could be used to carry large shipments across the sky. Medical technology was also highly advanced. Although Reivan wasn't too knowledgeable about it, apparently, surgery was a fairly common practice with a fatality rate of 0%, since they had access to healing magic if the surgeons ever made any mistakes.

And that was for the common people. Reivan had no idea what other technology Aizen was hiding. Obviously, a country wouldn't reveal all their cards, even to their own people.

As for the second realization, it was because he'd felt out the people around him for traces of the Darkins. Reivan was very thankful for Zell's help, so the favor she asked of him never completely left his mind.

However, no matter who he asked, nobody knew anything about the Darkins.

Of course, he hadn't asked outright. He asked them roundabout questions, only revealing certain qualities he expected the Darkins to have.

But he was unable to find anything

According to the Aizen's knowledge base, there were only six humanoid races.

Humans.

Warbeasts.

Methuselahs, which were this world's version of elves.

Dwargs, or dwarves.

Tyrantas, basically, were humans with draconic qualities.

Finally, Orcs, who, strangely enough, were named the same as the ones on earth.

There weren't any races that could be called Darkins. Not in their world, at least.

Then perhaps they were in this one.

'No. They're definitely here.' Reivan felt somehow convinced of the idea.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when three armored people appeared out of nowhere, together with his mother.

Reivan's eyes widened in surprise for a moment when he saw his mother wearing a shrine maiden uniform for some reason. Albeit a modified one, since the bottoms were a different color.

At the front of the group was a knight with a crown. He spoke with his father's voice. Or rather, it seemed that he was Rodin.

"So? Do you like the place, Rein?"

"I hate this place." Reivan spat.

"'Hate', huh..." Rodin's helmet disappeared before he started to rub his chin. "Why do you hate it here? Normally, people feel afraid, instead."

"It's not that strange, is it?" Vianna sniffed the air as she walked to her son's side. "First time I saw this place, I also felt it was quite disgusting. Maybe our son feels different from us cuz he's... different?"

Reivan sensed the hesitation to call him a "half-breed", but he wouldn't have been affected by the world at all.

It was true, after all.

Rodin nodded in understanding. "Perhaps that's it."

"Anyway, it's good that he's not scared." Another armored person, Roland, it seemed, voiced his thoughts.

"True." Stella, the final armored person, nodded. "It took me a while to get used to this place. Every time I had to go here for exposure training, I'd have nightmares when I got home."

"In any case, Rein." Rodin gestured toward their surroundings. "This place is called the Outlands. Or rather, that's what we chose to call this strange land that suddenly became connected to our world."

"The Outlands..." Reivan echoed involuntarily inhaling the putrid smell that plagued the air around them.

"The portal leading to this place initially showed up somewhere else, but the Sword Star, our nation's only transcendent, managed to move it to where it is right now." the king manifested his helmet again, trying to reduce the foul odors wafting into his nose. "He couldn't close it no matter what he did, but managing to move it somewhere we could hide it was the next best thing. Since it's literally in the most well-guarded location in our kingdom, nobody will be able to find out about it unless we want them to. We'll also be able to manage and study the portal better this way, which is what we've been doing for the past few centuries."

Just as Rodin finished talking, a swarm of knights came down from the sky and stood at attention all around them. Some of them also continued floating in the sky above, warily eyeing their surroundings.

"Did you know, Rein? Despite our nation holding only a tenth of this continent's land, Aizen has more ascendants than the other two nations combined." the king gestured toward the knights around them, his tone filled with pride. "Of course, the other nations don't know this, though. We're hiding a portion of our strength so they don't find it strange that a large portion of our ascendants are always gone. But at our current state, we'd be able to dominate the continent if it weren't for this place demanding most of our attention."

"Then couldn't we just defeat the hostile nations quickly, then turn all our attention to this place?" Reivan couldn't help but voice out his thoughts.

From his understanding, they were only enemies with one of the two other nations on the continent. They didn't need to take out both of them. Just the Argonia Empire.

It was Roland who shook his head and answered in his father's stead. "It's not that simple, Rein. The Republic isn't really some sworn ally to us, just a nation with a common enemy. If they discover our true strength, then the other two nations will likely team up against us."

"Oh..."

'Damn. I guess that's true...'

"Besides, it's not like the two nations don't have trump cards of their own. It'll likely take quite a bit of time to take them over. Time that Outland's denizens won't allow us to have." Roland sighed before he continued. "For now, just having a few hundred ascendants more than both of them won't be enough. We'll need at least another transcendent, that way one of them can guard this place while the other joins the war. If the two nations team up, we'll need at least two new transcendents to handle them."

"Luckily, the saintess of the Sun God's church is allied with us. Her supportive abilities coupled with the Sword Star's fearsome offensive capabilities would be enough to easily handle Argonia's First Emperor and Arkhan's Arch Sage together." Vianna boastfully voiced her opinion about her teacher's strength.

"But what about if the Pope or the Golden Star conglomerate's Gladiator King intervenes?" Stella tapped her cheek as she asked.

"Those merchants won't interrupt in a war directly like that, it's one of their core tenets. But the Pope may side with the Empire." Rodin answered as he raised a finger in the air. "Which is precisely why we need at least one more. It acts as a deterrent for that cowardly old priest to back off. If they don't know about the Outlands, then he'll think we're just holding the other transcendent in reserve."

"It's also troublesome because the Saintess' nature won't let her take our side if we're the aggressors," Roland added. "If we start a war, she'll probably stand by and watch from the side. Worst case, she teams up with our enemies instead."

'The continent's power balance is more complicated than I thought. So the three nations aren't the only people with a transcendent? From what they said, the saintess that Father briefly mentioned is one. Then there's a pope and the Gladiator King who's part of some sort of merchant faction? So there are at least six transcendents in this continent?'

That was actually a lot less than he'd thought.

'Maybe this'll be like one of those Xianxia novels, and there's a whole bunch of transcendents meditating in caves all over the place.'

That would actually really alarming though. What if Reivan met one when he was gallivanting about, and that person didn't like him very much?

Wouldn't he just die without a fight?

He was lucky enough to live for a second time, so he really didn't want to die in such a stupidly unfortunate way.

The young prince was snapped out of his thoughts when Rodin cleared his throat. "We digressed a bit. Anyway, the reason we have to put so much of our military power here is to prevent those Nightmare Spawns from flooding our world. Specifically, we must stop them from flooding Aizen. Even though the Sword Star was able to move the portal, he can't move it too far away from its original spot, which means secretly putting the portal in some other country's territory isn't an option."

'So they actually tried to do it...? My mental image of my nation is crumbling... wasn't Aizen a country of knights? Where's the Chivalry? The Honor? Didn't it feel like they were the villains?'

"Countless benefits have been obtained from the portal, but the potential danger it poses makes it hard to appreciate those benefits. But well, you don't need to know about the specifics, for now, Rein." Rodin knelt down to his son's eye level as his helmet vanished, revealing his serious expression. "Now that you've seen this place, do you still want to be a prince? Know that saying yes means that you'll be frequently involved with this place."

"I do." Reivan nodded.

"Are you sure?" Rodin grasped his shoulders. "You can live as a royal in name only. I'll give you a manor somewhere and a few knights to serve as your vassals. Even a pension sizeable enough that you'll want for nothing."

"I'm sure."

"Even if it means going through rigorous training, body conditioning, and all sorts of other unpleasant things?"

"Yes."

"Even if it means never being allowed to back out?"

"Of course."

Rodin looked into his son's eyes, peering into the boy's soul. "I'm not just joking around here, Reivan Aizenwald. If you ever give up or try to throw aside your royal duties..."

A chilling gaze that could freeze the flames of hell itself made Reivan's spine tingle. The frosty glare that swept through him made it clear that the man talking to him at the moment wasn't his father.

It was the king.

"I will never forgive you."

For a moment, Reivan's breath got caught in his throat, but he still knew what his answer would be.

He'd always known.

"I understand." the young prince nodded with resolute eyes.

"Good." Rodin nodded, his lips breaking into a smile. From the start, he'd also felt what his son's answer would be. "Well, Reivan Aizenwald. This life of yours, will you live it for yourself? Or will you live for Aizen?"

Reivan smirked. "None of the above."

"Very goo—" Rodin stiffened before his eyes widened like saucers as they bored holes into his son's skull. "What?"

"This life, I will live it for my family."

'The one I have in this life, as well as the one I lost in the other. And for the ones I'll gain in the future.'

"Aizen's people are part of my family now, Father," Reivan smirked. "so it can count as living for Aizen as well."

'It counts as living for myself too. Though I won't mention that part.'

"Pfft." Vianna suppressed a giggle.

"This brat..." Roland shook his head in exasperation as he chuckled.

"Hmm~? Is that allowed?" Stella's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Sophistry." Rodin scoffed. But then a smile crossed his face before he reached out to ruffle his precious son's hair. "But I suppose that'll do."

The king stood up straight, manifested his Soul Armament, and raised it high, pointing toward the heavens. It was unknown whether it was through the force of Rodin's movements, some unknown phenomena, or mere happenstance, but a gentle breeze swept past them all, carrying with it the scent of death.

"Rejoice! Another true Royal is born!"

""For Aizen!"" the knights around them roared in unison, shaking the air.