A tense silence flowed between Aerin and Leiu, but it didn’t last long as the former returned to his cheerful mood and looked at Julie Lernon.

“Greetings, Miss Lernon. I am Aerin. A traveling bard. I’ve come to help you get rid of the anomaly downstair-”

The minstrel paused as Leiu turned around and walked away, clearly about to go to check the anomaly.

“Wait.”

Aerin ran in front of the youth, a deep frown on his face.

“We need to discuss things first.”

“Out of my way.”

“Leiu… listen to me first. This isn’t a simple-”

Surprisingly, the Nameless Knight grabbed Aerin by the collar and slammed his body against the wall.

This act of violence startled everyone, but no one dared to intervene. Even the Undead Jester, which had acted brave a second ago, cowered back.

Albeit not saying anything, Leiu’s hostile and cold stare conveyed his meaning pretty well.

After a couple of breaths, he let go of the minstrel and left.

Feylord hurriedly chased after him, leaving only Elyna and Julie.

“I’m sorry, Miss Lernon. It’s unbecoming of us to cause a ruckus in your home.”

Despite what happened, Aerin apologetically bowed while wryly smiling.

“I-it’s okay.”

The young Baron nodded while constantly glancing at the horrifying Undead Jester.

…

Leiu soon reached the dimly-lit underground corridor, his eyes landing on the silver-haired demon standing outside of the room.

Likewise, Lucy also noticed him. With a creased brow, she unknowingly backed away. Even though he was greatly weakened, she could feel the Primordial Darkness within his body, dreadful and all-consuming.

Feylord was surprised to see a familiar face, but he paid her no heed. Instead, he stayed behind the Nameless Knight and looked at the inside of the seemingly normal and dusty room.

With an expressionless face, Leiu stood right outside of the room, his eyes scanning every corner of it. Eventually, he focused on one particular spot at the back.

He had been told what it was, more or less, but he expected it to be some sort of a unique Spatial Tear or a newly-formed Void Rift, but he was wrong.

This was unlike anything he had ever seen.

After a brief pause, he stepped inside as a formless Darkness crept from his body.

The pitch-black energy spread to the entirety of the room in an instant, however, it quickly dispersed into nothingness.

A cacophony of unfamiliar voices rang inside Leiu’s head, making him feel incredibly dizzy. His surroundings distorted and his body was frozen stiff.

After what felt like an eternity, he hastily backed out of the room and took a deep breath.

“D-do you know what it is?” Hesitantly asked Feylord.

Instead of responding, Leiu went back inside and unleashed even more Darkness. Alas, his second attempt at overpowering this ‘anomaly’ failed. The selfsame occurrence repeated itself.

The very laws of reality were being undone. This was more potent, more terrifying that the Void.

“Unlife.” Muttered Leiu as before clicking his tongue and, at last, stopped his futile resistance.

He was breathing faster than usual, his complexion getting noticeably worse. He had already over-exerted himself by opening a portal with the finite quantity of Primordial Darkness in his body, and his two failed attempts exhausted him even more.

If he was at his peak, he might’ve been able to do something, but right now, he was useless.

…

Half an hour later, in the Living Room of the Baron’s estate.

Including Julie and Feylord, all the guests were gathered.

Elyna, Aerin, the Undead Jester, Lucy, and even Mort.

“Why is she here?”

Feylord looked at the pale-faced Lucy, who snorted and ignored him.

“She’s a Demon.” He added.

Even Julie was confused by Lucy’s presence, but with everything that has been going on, she didn’t get the time to question anything.

“A friend! My friend!” The talking zombie puffed his chest and declared with an energetic voice.

Mort was standing behind Aerin, and though he was as laid-back as usual, he didn’t dare get close to Leiu, who would occasionally glare at him.

“First of all, I want to thank you, Miss Julie. You are accommodating all of us despite our abrupt arrival.”

“It’s fine.”

In contrast to the brooding and gloomy Nameless Knight, Aerin was a breath of fresh air for Julie. From his polite tone to his friendly attitude, it made it easier for Julie to feel less nervous about this whole conundrum.

“For now, I think it is better to ignore how we all gathered here and focus on why.” Aerin paused and looked at Feylord, “Mort and Miss Lucy are people I brought here to help.”

“Having an Undead and a Demon in a Baron’s estate would only bring attention to us. You understand this, right, Julie?”

Technically, Feylord was also a guest, nevertheless, he was trying to convince Julie to do something. Then again, he was only doing this to please Leiu, whom, he noticed, wasn’t particularly fond of Aerin or anyone ‘with’ him.

“So you’re the Phoenix’ vessel. You better shut the fuck up while adults speak, okay?” The Undead Jester leaned its lanky body over the sofa and closer to Feylord, its abyss-like eyes menacingly warning him.

“Hye, please.”-Aerin

“What? I hate kiss-asses like this idiot.”

“...”

“Fine…” The Undead Jester crossed its arms and backed away.

“Moving on. Let us talk about the matter at hand. Leiu, you noticed it too, right? One of its properties is Stasis. We’re going to need a type of Active energy to counter it. Plainly speaking; Darkness.”

“You want to destroy it.” Rebuked Leiu.

“Yes.”

“I’m against that. We need to figure out what it is first. It can help against the Void.”

Aerin pinched his temples while sighing, “It’s too dangerous. We remove it, Leiu. This isn’t some long-forgotten magic. This ”

“...”

The Nameless Knight maintained the same solemn expression.

“With enough preparation, Mort can counter that Stasis. After that, I can try to-”

“No.”-Leiu

“We need to destroy it!” Aerin raised his voice while gritting his teeth.

“If we play our cards right, we can use it to our advantage.”

“Are you even listening to me? This thing is expanding. What if it suddenly engulfs the entire town? Or all of Astria? It’s distorting the very laws of reality. How can you hope to use it when you don’t know what it is? Haven’t you learnt that messing with the unknown will only beget disasters?”

Even then, Leiu remained adamant and quiet.

“No matter what you think, I’m going to proceed as planned.”

When he heard that, Leiu stood up.

“What? You’re going to stop me?”

“If I must.”

“So you’ll kill me?”

“I’ll do whatever it takes. Also, don’t forget that I let you live, Aerin.”

The confrontation between the two made everyone else unable to say anything, they apprehensively watched the dispute with held breaths.

“N-now now… let’s calm, okay? I’m sure we can find a common ground.”

Julie tried to act as a mediator, but neither the Nameless Knight nor the Minstrel of the Ages looked as if they would back down or change their minds.

As atmosphere grew more tense, Julie’s elderly butler rushed into the room,

“Miss! An army is heading our way!”

“An army?”

Before he could explain, there was an explosion North of Wilsden, which made the entire place shake for a couple of seconds.

A loud ringing sound reverberated everywhere, followed by the panicked and scared screams of the townspeople.