On the battleground where the two parties were currently facing each other, what seemed like a meteorite fell from the skies and caught everyone’s attention. With a loud deafening sound, akin to an explosion, rang out as this seemingly strange activity occurred. From the huge dust storm that swirled around the area of impact, a man with ghostly looking eyes walked out. This was Svecko who had landed and disrupted the current squabbles.

“Sir Svecko!” the Minya warriors called out in joy.

Svecko ignored their calls and immediately dashed towards Ducarte and his daughter. Without saying a word, Svecko grabbed both Ducarte and his daughter and immediately flew towards the sky again. Everyone’s expression became confused as they had no idea what Svecko’s action meant. Both parties were equally nervous as Svecko’s actions were not entirely clear. On the one hand, the Minya warriors were nervous and secretly hoped Svecko was not abandoning them, and on the side of the warriors were hoping Svecko wasn’t going to interfere. No one knew what the conclusion of the battle between Svecko and Willard. Each side could only hope for the best.

After waiting a couple of minutes and realizing Svecko wasn’t coming back, the Gerret warriors found a new source of courage as they quickly mobilized to kill fight the Minya warriors. To add on to their delight, they saw reinforcements in the form of the Marquis city’s primero knight join the battle. Allan’s fame as a knight within Marquis city was second to none. And for him to join the fight meant one thing, he had killed Aswan. Without Ducarte and their military leader, the Minya warriors knew they had lost the battle. At this point, the Minya warriors had lost the will to battle, one by one they each dropped their weapons and proceeded to kneel in submission. In a matter of minutes, the surrendering Minya warriors were all rounded and escorted to a prison camp.

The battle that had seemed almost impossible to lose, had been lost. A wild sense of jubilation filled every surviving member of the Gerret household. Who would have thought their suicide battle would have been won today? And in their celebrations, one person’s name rang the loudest. The youth that had had personally intervened to save their lives against ranked spells and had thoroughly held his own even against a saint. From that moment on, a new legend had been born to the people of Marquis city. For generations, people would tell tales of a youth that had fought a saint at the elemental level of power.

***************

A couple of hours later, within the Gerret household, a banquet was currently being held. All the Gerret warriors were celebrating their victory with wine and food. Within a private study in the house, stood Jayesh, Sebastian, Allan, Bryant and a couple of higher ranking warriors. This list included both knights that had joined Allan to reinforce the Gerret household and Baya. At this moment, everyone’s gaze was Willard who was currently laying on a bed. “This child

Is currently in a grave situation,” Bryant said as he touched Willard’s forehead.

“Is there anything we could do to help him?” Baya asked with a distressed look on his face.

“He used up all of his elemental essence during his battle with the snow saint and ended up using his life essence. At this point, it would really be up to him to survive this,” Bryant said.

“It is thanks to this child my Gerret family was not completely killed out,” Jayesh sighed as he stared at the Willard. As someone who had almost reached the level of a saint, he knew what dangers Willard was in right now. It was taboo for any warrior to use their life essence to battle because that meant suicide.  

Everyone remained silent for a couple of seconds before the silence was broken by Allan. “Esteemed saint, lord Jayesh. We would be taking our leave right now. We have to wait and report the outcome to the lord of the Marquis household.” With that, Allan and the rest of the knights paid their respects and left.

Jayesh looked at his son Sebastian and gave a gentle smile. “You did well,” he said.  “You might not have the body of a warrior, but you more than makeup for it with your bravery.” Hearing those words from his father brought a smile to Sebastian’s face, which was immediately overridden by a sense of guilt Sebastian felt for the current situation Willard was in. Jayesh felt a great sense of pride looking at his son and seeing how he managed the situation. Not only did Sebastian not completely cowering in fear, he also chose to fight rather than submit.

************

At the Marquis, a quiet maelstrom was slowly brewing. Rumors of the complete decimation of the Minya forces were flying around the mansion. Lyon was seated on a wooden bench behind his quarters and was in deep contemplation. “How is this possible? Even our spy network has confirmed every bit of this information.”  Lyon was currently frustrated at how things had turned out. He had previously refused to head over to the aid of the Gerret family and was heavily criticized by all the knights. Lyon had believed his actions were right, given the strength of the Minya resistance, there was no way the insignificant Gerret family would have survived this disaster. But somehow, the people he held in no regards had not only survived, they had won the battle without the official aid of the Marquis family. Lyon’s frustration mostly stemmed from the fact that Sebastian actually lead their family to victory.

“That damn Sebastian must be gloating now,” Lyon said with burning rage. “Those useless Minya dogs couldn’t even win against the Gerret. This was supposed to be my glory, those fools couldn’t even handle that much.”

Lyon got up from the bench and walked towards the main hall of the inner mansion. He frowned all through the way there. He sat at the head of the war chamber and patiently waited for the arrival of the knights.

It took about an hour for Allan and his company to arrive back at the Marquis household. On arriving the atmosphere was much different than when they had left. At their arrival, all of the knights that had assembled back for a meeting, all got up.

Lyon who sat at the head of the table, stood up to address the incoming knights. Before he could utter a single word, a big wave of praises came flooding the room. “Congratulations primero knight! Lord of the sword prevails again!”

More praises kept pouring as the other knights joined in congratulating. Within the congratulations, a sense of guilt could be felt from every single one of their praises. They were sworn-knights with the duty of protecting their city, but they had hesitated in doing their duty and instead chose to obey the word of the next city lord. Especially after the victory of the Gerret household, they all had faces covered in guilt and praises of the strong primero knight.

“Congratulations primero knight, your battle was successful. This entire city owes you a great deal of debt,” Lyon said with a smile on his face. Although he showed a glowing smile, he was inwardly causing at his terrible luck. Not only had the primero knight undermined his authority, he had also returned successfully. How could he not be angry? His entire actions were nothing short of cowardly.

“No need for all these praises. The battle would have been won by the Gerret household with or without our intervention,” Allan said in response to Lyon’s comments.

“What do you mean primero knight?” Lyon asked with a startled expression. Not just Lyon, all the other knights were equally as confused. What did the primero knight mean by his statement? Was he trying to say one household, had more power than the combined forces of several households? Everyone had thought it was the efforts of the primero knight that would have won them their victory.

“The next generation of the Gerret household is quite commendable,” Allen said taking a slight jab at Lyon. “Especially the youth called Willard,” he said before pausing with a slight look of adoration. With that, Allen kept quiet and silently sat on the table. Following his lead, was Agness and Tadea. The look of frustration on Lyon’s face grew more apparent, but he couldn’t say a word. Allan and the rest of the group spoke about some of the events that had happened but left out some of the important matter like the appearance of the metal saint.

*******************

A week had passed since the advent of the Minya uprising. At the Gerret household, Willard was still in a coma. Nana stood by his bed tending to his body. Within a world shrouded in gray clouds, Willard was walking in a straight direction. “What the hell is this place? I’ve been walking for how long now and I still can’t find a trace of any life,” he said in a frustrated manner. “How the hell did I end up here? I can’t even remember anything.”

While Nana was tending to his body, tears slowly started falling from her eyes. She leaned on his lifeless body of Willard and started crying. She felt quite miserable seeing Willard in his current state. After the death of her parents, she had always been at the side of her teacher, and after the departure of her teacher, Willard had assumed the position of the most important person in her life. “Please come back. Don’t leave me. Don’t leave Nana” she said with all the grief she held in her heart.

Within the strange world, Willard stood in place as a strange sensation gripped his entire body. Slowly Willard heard the words “Please come back.”

“Who was that?”

“Why does that voice sound so familiar?” When suddenly something akin to sunlight pierced through that gray world of his, but this sunlight was red and ethereal in feeling.

“What is this? Why does it feel so familiar?” When he then heard the words, “Don’t leave Nana!”

“Nana!” Willard said with a strange look on his face. Memories of a smiling young girl came to his mind. Suddenly, like an egg cracking, the gray cloudy world broke apart leaving nothing but that red sun. At that moment, a flurry of memories flashed through Willard’s mind. In the real world where Willard’s body laid, his fingers moved. Nana was too engrossed in her sorrow and failed to notice the movement of Willard’s fingers.

Within the red world, Willard stared at the red sun with a look of astonishment. “What is this world? Is this due to the red substance I cultivated?” Although Willard had gained a complete understanding of what lead to his current situation, he still had no idea how to leave the red world.

Willard sat down and stared at the red sun, and while he stared at the red sun, he felt something familiar about this red energy, he couldn’t quite put his fingers on it, but he knew that there was something peculiar about that energy. For a brief moment, Willard started thinking about all of his experience, both as the god of destruction and the mortal Willard. Like a bolt of lightning, Willard gained a sudden insight. The insight wasn’t a new found knowledge, it was more like a reminder of something he already knew. “That’s right. This red energy has the same feeling as the substance in Gaya’s eternal fountain. But why do I feel like it is still different from Gaya’s eternal fountain?” Willard continued pondering on his current findings.

In a vast world of complete darkness, void of any life, a formless figure in the shape of a woman smiled.

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