Edward gorged himself on Thana’s essence with delight yet more than exhilaration what he was feeling was relief. It was done. No more unknown monsters threatening to destroy everything, no more imminent doom. His enemies were dead and he was alive more powerful than ever. He was probably the strongest individual who had ever walked the surface of this world, with no one strong enough to give him a challenge anymore. In time he might miss the sensation of a fight to the death where every move counted, running on the fine line between victory and death, but that time wasn’t now.

In the past months, he had been pushed continuously, forced to become stronger to survive, and the stronger he became, the more pressure fell on his shoulders. Now he could rest and enjoy his new status and power. It had already been too long since he last saw Leyla who must be worried sick by now. Gobeliard’s inhabitant had no way of knowing what was happening, and his friends knew that whether he succeeded or failed would decide the fate of this world, their fate being in his hands as they couldn’t do anything but wait for the result.

He could now tell them the news that everything was over, they didn’t need to worry anymore, and they never would with him being here. No menaces were sinister enough to threaten him at his level of power. A genuine smile bloomed on his face.

Thana’s essence had brought him more energy than any monster he had killed before and yet it didn’t elevate his abilities in the slightest. All the essence had been used to consolidate his power, increasing his aura capacity and mana pool, but not adding even one meter to his teleportation range. Edward shook his head. He had had trouble gathering the equivalent of four hundred predators of essence to break through to his current level, and that was something possible only thanks to the surge. This was not even mentioning absorbing Nephelin’s essence that finally allowed him to push his abilities forward.

With his teleportation having a range of five kilometers and the essence of a predator able to only add one meter to it, to climb to a higher rank he would need something like maybe five thousand predators’ worth of essence. This was impossible. They had passed the peak of the surge and with the invading Andherians dead, things would only calm down from now on. He would be lucky to amass even a thousand predators' worth of essence by killing every single predator-level monster living in this world.

This wasn’t something he was looking forward to, he couldn’t amass all of the powers for himself. Killing dangerous monsters was fine, but executing them when they presented no threat just to harvest their essence felt wrong. Moreover, that would prevent anyone else from achieving a breakthrough as others also needed blood essence to become stronger.

His path forward was stuck but he was happy with it. His power had already reached a ridiculous level. If he pushed it further, he wouldn’t be that far from the level of a god. What used was there for more power when you couldn’t use it as you became a threat to the very planet you lived on.

As for his life expectancy, he wasn’t sure how much it had been enhanced or if he was even aging at this point. But from what Ignis had let on, he must have been at least a hundred years old while looking no more than fifty, and that was by staying at the patriarch level. Edward hadn’t reached thirty yet and he had at least several hundred years in front of him. He was more concerned with bringing his friends to the patriarch level so that they could live longer than to increase his own lifespan.

Things were over now, well almost. Edward checked on Ignis and Adotinus, his clones were still with them, carrying them toward Sorrente. Given the intensity of the fight, taking them away from the battlefield had proven the correct decision. The lava pool under him hadn’t had the time to cool down yet, and it was bathing the crater and its surroundings in a red glow and radiating heat. Meanwhile, grass was still burning here and there from the heat wave produced by the lasers that had exploded in a single focal point.

His friends were not in a life-threatening condition but their state wasn’t good either. The mist had eaten at their skin, arms, and legs, and they were both still bleeding. Their weakened state coupled with the remnant of Thana’s aura clinging to them prevented them from healing.

With the fight over, Edward gave them his full attention, two teleportation and a couple of seconds were enough to catch up to them. With but a wave of his aura, he removed any trace that Thana had left behind. They would now be able to heal, but in their weakened state, and given that they were still bleeding, they needed at least first aid.

Given that they ended in that state because I was late and they had to stall Thana on their own the least I can do is to heal them.

He left his clones behind to monitor them and fend off any wandering monsters, and he teleported toward Sorrente. With the range his teleportation could reach he arrived in the city within two minutes. He teleported directly into Spurius’ office but the man wasn’t there and a guy he didn’t know stood behind his desk. “Where is Spurius?” Edward began before changing his mind. He deployed his aura over the whole city but didn’t find any trace of him. He couldn’t help but laugh. “He left, didn’t he? He may be a coward but he has a keen intuition.”

The man stared at him his mouth agape and shaking like a leaf under Edward’s all-powerful aura. “Never mind, he is not important right now. You wouldn’t have healing syringes on hand?” he asked the stranger while pulling back his aura.

The man pointed at a drawer in his desk. Edward didn’t bother and simply teleported the content on top of the desk. A batch of five healing syringes was present alongside a set of keys and a pouch of gold. Edward took two of the syringes and left the rest behind. He waved and added “All right, I’ll be on my way then.” before teleporting away and leaving an incredulous guy behind him, he hadn’t even been able to say a single word during the whole exchange as Edward had appeared and left like in a dream.

In no time Edward was back and used the syringes to bring back Ignis and Adotinus in a better state. It wasn’t enough to bring them back to full capacity, but it was enough to heal their injuries. They stood up with some difficulty being still a little disorientated.

“What’s the situation?” Ignis asked worriedly, while Adotinus complained “About damn time!”

Looking at their face Edward laughed once again, his mood cheerful with all of his worries washed away. “Sorry for the delay. Breaking through to the next rank took me some time.”

The trio soon erupted in laughter and loud voices as Edward told them about the current situation and his past adventures.

*****

After several hours of talking with each other, it was time for Edward to leave. Ignis and Adotinus were strong enough to take care of themselves. The situation in the empire had stabilized for now thanks to Edward’s work, and although it would need some time to come back to its previous state it was at no risk of collapsing overnight. With the surge coming to an end, the risk of monsters’ invasions would decrease, and what the empire needed right now was to rebuild its logistics and deliver supplies where needed.

Edward left a clone behind so that they would be able to call him if needed, and he then left for Gobéliard. He was eager to meet with Leyla again, his return trip had been delayed for too long already.

With the range of his teleportation when he had left Gobéliard it had taken him nine hours to cross through the ocean separating the two continents. With his improved capabilities, the return trip only took him an hour and a half, by now he was several times faster than a plane.

He stood above the sea watching Gobéliard spread out below him, he couldn’t help but smile at the familiar city. Although familiar might be stretching it since he already saw several changes, it seemed Leyla hadn’t rested while he was gone.

He deployed his aura over the city and found her immediately. His face bloomed into a smile and he teleported to her, appearing but a few meters away. Her eyes opened wide in surprise and happiness and she jumped at him, hugging him tightly. Edward reciprocated the gesture while laughing, not caring about the people staring at them.

After some time, Leyla let him go. “You are back,” she said while rearranging her hair. “Judging from how happy you look, everything is good, right? No more monsters’ invasions?” She asked expectantly, knowing the answer internally but not daring to hope for too much.

Edward smiled fondly. “It is done. No more invasions, no more imminent doom. We have all the time we want!”

Leyla’s eyes glowed with happiness “We are free! You have no idea how haunted I was by the idea of not knowing what was happening. For all I knew you could have been dead already and our turn would have come soon after. Now I can finally be at ease knowing there are no daggers ready to strike at my back. There are so many projects I wanted to do that I had to push aside until now. Discovering a whole new field of experimentation only to realize you could die before even dabbling in it is the worst feeling.”

Edward erupted in laughter. “I shouldn’t have expected anything less from you!”

*****

Later the same day, Leyla, Charles, Aquamarine, Brian, and Norte gathered together at the adventurers’ guild to celebrate Edward’s return and the unofficial end of the surge. The city hadn’t been that affected by Edward’s departure not knowing its significance but that wasn’t the case of his friends. Their joy at feeling Edward’s return was amplified as the possibility of impending doom was lifted from their shoulder.

“So now what? You are on a first-person basis with the emperor and he is indebted to you?” Brian shook his head in disbelief. “Every time I see you, you become more ridiculous. It was about time that the surge ended otherwise I don’t know what you would have done, probably kill a dragon or leveled a mountain or something.”

“Dragons are real?” Edward asked with a spark of interest.

Aquamarine laughed, putting a hand in front of her mouth. “Of course not. Could you imagine something that big flying? That would be terrifying, it would have the power to level whole cities.”

Edward chose not to reply that he already had the power to level a city by himself. Even though he recounted the events to them, it was sometimes hard to conceptualize the scale of things when you hadn’t seen them by yourself, the lava lake that Pescara had become was still vivid in his mind.

“Do you remember when we were sparring together?” Charles asked, “You have thoroughly left us in the dirt.”

Edward smiled stiffly “Don’t worry I don’t intend to hoard all the monsters for myself, you will have the occasion to catch up to me.”

Norte smiled slyly “I doubt it. Not from what you have told us. What you have experienced are a once in a lifetime event. We may be able to push through to the patriarch rank with your help, but going further than that is impossible. Encountering monsters the likes of Nephelin and Thana is a non-repeatable event, and that’s for the best.”

A short silence ensued which was broken by Charles proposing a toast raising his glass toward Edward, “To your success!”, he was soon followed by the others.

The night was spent laughing, drinking, and rejoicing with old friends.