“He is clear”, Adotinus announced, closing the door once Edward entered the room. Twenty-something people were gathered in what seemed like a very large cellar. A few torches were lined on the walls providing some light, several trunks were pushed against the walls, and there were even a few beds which were far from enough compared to the number of people present.

Edward’s attention was immediately captured by one man who was also at the patriarch stage. He seemed weary but still emanated unquestionable authority. He was wearing full heavy armor and had a longsword within reach. His red hair and his armor reflected the light from the torches. On his plastron, a griffin was depicted flying in a blue sky. He was surrounded by sixteen royal knights in the same get-up as the one Edward had saved, each one with a faintly glowing medallion. This must be the emperor. In another part of the room stood three lone knights with the Regalis family crest. They too had a faintly glowing medallion, although it seemed a little out of touch with the rest of their outfit. Adotinus joined their group.

“Another patriarch, this is a piece of news as pleasant as it is unexpected. Welcome to our modest refuge.”, the emperor declared.

Edward nodded. “The honor is mine. You must be the emperor.”

The man laughed dryly. “Indeed, I’m Ignis the third. Although I fear there won’t be much left of my empire if we are unable to resolve this situation soon.”

Edward didn’t offer any comment, to him the existence of the empire was secondary, what was important was to stop the invasion and to prevent unnecessary deaths. “Could you tell me more about the current situation? Also, could you lend me one of those medallions?”

Light flashed within the emperor’s eyes, and with one gesture a knight brought a spare medallion to Edward who immediately put it on and removed his aura armor. “Thank you. It is much more comfortable this way.”

Ignis dismissively waved his hand. “It is but a small deed. Sadly, we are not lacking sacred pendants right now.” He paused, his eyes tainted with sadness before continuing. “You must have fought those mist creatures inside Pescara. No matter how many we kill they keep getting back. You may have noticed but most of their essence is getting sucked back by this cursed mist. We attempted to attack the mist directly with mixed results. Although the mist can be destroyed it attracted the attention of a nightmarish monster. This is when the Vega patriarch died.”

Edward’s eyes widened in shock at the confirmation of a patriarch’s death.

“A nightmarish monster indeed”, Adotinus added in a low voice.

“I have met my fair share of monsters over the decades, and I can count on one hand the ones able to evoke fear even for me. This one is in the same league. He is moving at such speed we had to rely on our own acceleration to compete with him, he is able to produce devastating attacks and he can mask his presence within the mist. Even the few attacks that we managed to land on him didn’t seem to faze him that much. And if it wasn’t enough, he seems to be the source of the madness affecting everybody. We weren’t expected to encounter something on his level and many of our soldiers got affected by his spreading insanity.”

“Him?” Edward asked.

“Yes. It may be a monster but he is fully sentient. Most monsters at that level of powers are.” Ignis explained.

“He managed to defeat you one against four?” Edward asked, flabbergasted by this level of power and wondering if his help would be enough to defeat such a monster.

“Four?!” Adotinus laughed angrily. “Oh no, that coward had already fled at the first sign of danger.”

The emperor cringed in disgust. “The Potentia patriarch chose to flee away rather than stand his ground. It seems it has been too long since he had fought any worthy opponent.” His voice hardened. “He has forgotten the consequences when someone at our level fails his responsibilities.” A silence ensued.

This statement resonated with Edward. The spider invasion was still fresh in his mind, how a whole region had been transfigured by the invaders, turned into something that could be comparable to a version of hell. On this occasion, a forest had been affected but depending on where the portal opened it could as well have been a city. The capital was the perfect example, they had been unable to stop the monsters from invading, and as a consequence, the whole city had been turned to a grave, its inhabitants massacred to the last one. He didn’t know how many civilians previously lived here, but given the size of the city it wasn’t a low number, just thinking about it made him feel sick. The way the emperor said it implied that he had experienced a similar situation in the past.

The emperor sighed. “I should have listened to my counselors. They warned me something was deeply wrong with this surge but I only saw it as an opportunity to raise our forces.”

Edward’s head peaked hearing this comment. They warned him about the surge. Did they manage to discover something useful about it? The knights have Damkinan medallions protecting them from the ambient madness. Maybe the Damkinan left some means to stop this invasion other than blowing the portals one by one?

The emperor noticed Edward’s attention. “I wasn’t completely in the wrong either. You are living proof that this surge was the perfect occasion to rise in rank. Nobody reached the patriarch rank without workings for decades and without gathering some attention. For you to reach this stage so quickly and without warning signs is unprecedented. Although saying we never heard of you would be wrong, you are that guy from Gobéliard who managed to slay the Vega family envoy aren’t you?”

“I am,” Edward answered tensing up. They are not going to give me trouble for that given the current situation, are they?

“I should have kept a tighter eye on the nobles’ families. Competition is good, but they have been squashing promising potentials for their own interest. I have grown complacent,” Ignis declared.

“If I may ask, what have you discovered about this surge?” Edward inquired.

“We discovered almost from the start that this surge was different from the others but we didn’t understand why. It is only recently, and with the appearance of that mist that we confirmed that this surge was the repeat of the events that led to the Damkinan’s fall.” Ignis told him.

He continued, “But let me recount you the Damkinan’s story first. From what little writings, we managed to recover, the situation was very different during the Damkinan’s age. The world was still wild, but monsters were very rare, inhabitants had only to worry about normal bears and wolves. As their civilization grew in both number and power those threats became negligible. They focused wholeheartedly on mana research.” He paused, “You do know what mana is, right? Nowadays, adventurers are only focusing on aura and powers which bring the most immediate benefits, and neglect to train mana manipulation when some don’t even know that mana exists. But spells have become rare as well.”

“I do know what mana is,” Edward answered without revealing much.

“Good,” Ignis replied before continuing his explanation. “Damkinans weren’t warriors but rather magicians. They didn’t have any powers like us and their bodies were very frail. They drew their power from mana only. They somehow managed to find a way to open portals toward other worlds. This became their golden era as they drew resources from those worlds. But with each portal they opened the mana of this world increased continuously. With the number of portals they opened, the mana increased uncontrollably and mutated the fauna, turning animals into monsters. They got surprised by the change of situation and suffered many casualties, but the increase in mana meant their spells became more powerful as well. They were a developed civilization relying on complex spells and runes. They survived this setback. However, it turned out that the apparition of monsters wasn’t the last hurdle. Soon after invaders came from different portals, even from portals opening by themselves. You can see the connection with what is happening now.”

Edward nodded silently waiting for the rest of the story.

Ignis resumed his story, “Not all those enemies were equal. Some were easy to take care of and others proved resistant to the Damkinan spells one way or another. The Andherians, which are more certainly the monsters attacking us right now, are one such enemy and the most powerful of them. It is uncertain how and even if the Damkinans managed to repel them.”

A silence ensued as everyone was musing about the Damkinan story. It explained a lot of things but didn’t offer them any solution to deal with the current situation.

It’s crazy to think there were no monsters before. It seems to confirm that aura resulted from mana somehow. This is interesting but from a practical perspective, it’s basically useless.

“I met a monster that gloated before its demise that it wasn’t the end of our trouble and that more portals would open. It mentioned the Andherians as well and seemed afraid of them. However, it thought it still had time before their arrival. If we take into consideration the time that the Vega family took to reach Gobéliard, I defeated that monster roughly at the same time that the capital was invaded.” Edward added what he knew.

“We don’t know enough about the Andherians to know if their invasion timing is strange. I will keep it in mind though.” Ignis replied with a calm voice.

“So, what is the plan?” Edward interrogated.

“Finally, the important question!” Adotinus exclaimed. “I’m fed up with waiting here without doing anything.”

“We didn’t have the mean to confront that monster. But Edward’s arrival changes things. Let us discuss what can be done.” The emperor suggested.

The three of them discussed about their different powers, strong points, and weaknesses. Although Adotinus was capable of long-range attacks his style was to engage in close combat. His powers were lightning manipulation, acceleration, and body strengthening. He shared the same style as Acanthio, the Regalis envoy at Gobéliard. Edward remembered how difficult it had been to tackle his lightning. A stronger version of him was definitely welcome as an ally.

As for the emperor, he specialized in wide areas of destruction. His powers were fire and wind manipulation, which had a good synergy and were able to enhance each other. His last power was acceleration. All three of them had acceleration power.

“We all picked up the acceleration power?” Edward asked intrigued.

“This not surprising,” Adotinus explained. “Once you reach a certain level of strength you realized how valuable this power is. It can allow you to either avoid or land a killing blow. Even if you can use it only in short intervals it makes the difference between life and death.”

Edward paused. That’s right they are only able to use it in short bursts since their perception is unable to follow this level of speed. However, that’s not the case for me. With the help of that Damkinan spell, the limit is my endurance and mana reserve and I can sustain such a speed for much longer. Should I share it with them? This is one of my main trump cards. But at the same time if that monster was able to beat three patriarchs alone my arrival won’t make much of a difference. In contrast, if they can move at a much higher speed for longer it could change the dynamic of the fight. I don’t have much of a choice, I just hope they will remember this favor.

“Actually, I may have something to solve this problem,” Edward told them after having made his decision.

Ignis and Adotinus’s attention focused on him like a hawk on its prey.

“I know of a spell that can enhance your perception speed. With it, you will able to keep control of your movement even while in an accelerated state.” Edward explained.

Adotinus laughed raucously. “This guy’s speed was one of the main reasons why that bastard was able to trounce us so easily.”

“Thank you. It is a precious gift,” Ignis stated.