Cain had just exited an Ancient Dungeon. On the lowest floor of that Ancient Dungeon he had been made to fight against a doppelganger, another version of himself. He needed to improve and understand himself more than anyone else during the fight in order to defeat it. While he fought it, he understood. He had an insight. Cain had already locked off his heart long ago. It was cold. He was alone, and he didn’t need anything else. All he needed was himself and that coldness as his companion. He opened a divine door that led to a World of Ice. He had become an immortal.

After Yashao’s death, Zieg had carried the fainted Alcantis back to an infirmary in Galvane before reporting the information back to the mission center. She needed to recover from her overuse of mana. He had been rewarded with two weeks of challenge immunity for the information he turned in, and immediately after went into closed-door mediation. He knew he could understand more if he dwelled on it.

Ryzel had been killing Zieg’s loyalists who had stalled the rise of a new Demon King for a week ever since the students’ return from the Ancient Dungeons before Chase took notice and decided to take action. When the headmaster noticed, he had called students ranked number 5 and number 1 within his school, Alcantis and Cain respectively, to handle the Demon King candidate. By then Alcantis already had her broken arms healed and mana stabilized.

Two defeated figures had recently returned back to Galvane and were now standing in the headmaster’s room. They explained the events that had just transpired from their encounter with Ryzel.

“So the mission ended in failure, and Ryzel said he’s going to lead an army here to destroy my school? Did I hear that right?” the headmaster asked the two.

The two students kept quiet.

“Well, we’re fucked. It’s been nice being your headmaster. You were both wonderful students. I’m relocating to another continent,” Chase said. He lied. In reality he didn’t even know their names, and called them by their badge numbers and ranks within the school instead.

The two students still remained quiet.

(God damn, these two are the most depressing people to hold a conversation with) Chase thought.

“Okay, okay, stop looking at me like that,” he said in defeat. He could no longer bear their stoic expressions and silent staring. For someone like him who lived off the enjoyment of seeing the annoyed expressions of people, those that gave him no reactions were his worst enemy.

“The most I can do is to make an announcement and prepare the students of Galvane to their best of my abilities before the invasion takes place. I don’t like personally getting involved with worldly affairs. Since my school is a gathering of some of the strongest people on the continent, it’ll work itself out somehow, right?” Chase reasoned. Like that, Galvane began its preparations for the inevitable demon invasion.

Ryzel smiled. It had been a few days since he successfully repelled two assassins that came after him. He sat on Zieg’s former throne. There was little opposition after he forcefully disposed of the majority of Zieg’s loyalists. Now there were only demons that silently remained neutral or supported Ryzel’s ideals. This time, the demons were set on taking back the center of the continent. The only thing standing in his path was Galvane.

Somewhere on another continent, there were five silhouettes sitting around a round table in a dark room. All of them were immortals. They were having a guild meeting that occurred once every decade.

“How is your progress, Alistair?” the silhouette that seemed to be the leader asked.

“I’ve already gotten rid of all the demons on the Vale continent,” Alistair promptly replied.

“Is that so? Good, good,” the leader said in a pleased tone.

“I’ve heard that there’s going to be a new Demon King on the Grandiel continent. There’s going to be a large movement there soon, should we do something about it?” a feminine voice added.

“Hmm…” the leader pondered.

“No, let’s leave it alone, Haku. Volheilm’s son, Hope is there. He needs the experience,” Julius said, and added, “Regarding Hope, I want to invite him into the guild when we have our next meeting. Only if he’s an immortal by then, of course.”

“What are your thoughts on that, Schwarz?” the leader asked his companion for his opinion.

“It should be fine as long as he’s stronger than Volheilm was. The Heaven Arena opens up ten years from now, after all. We need to pull as many strong immortals to our side as we can before it starts to have an advantage over the other guilds,” the man called Schwarz answered.

The other three silhouettes nodded their heads at Schwarz’ input.

“You’re right. Then, that should be all for the meeting this time. Let’s all meet again ten years from now,” the leader said.

“””””In the name of Paragon, I will purge the world of all vermin!””””” they all stated in unison.

Author’s note: Future story plans

Spoiler : -Galvane’s invasion / Zieg’s fight with Ryzel

-Zieg’s fight with Cain / Time skip

-Zieg’s fight with Julius and the other members of Paragon / Search for guild members

-Heaven Arena (immortal contest)