The Mage Emperor

(AN: I'm sorry for the long wait, it's just that I'm very very busy these days. I have no excuse. Chapter 20 should be up on patreon in about two days)

Holiday

~ Seth’s POV ~

After a long and satisfying night, I woke up to the gentle light of the sun shining on my face. Although it was just an artificial sun, its light was just as warm and pleasant as that of the real sun on a beautiful spring day. As I laid on the bed with my wife in my arms, a gentle breeze playfully entered the room through the window and rustled my hair.

Glancing at my wife, I couldn’t help but feel warm inside seeing her looking at me with a smile. “I can see that you are awake now,” I chuckled, knowing that the wind was her doing.

“Mmh~ no, I’m still sleeping,” she said as she snuggled even closer to me and kissed my cheek. Caressing her arm, I just laid there in silence for minutes.

My heart was writhing in pain because I knew that I had to wake up, but there was no helping it, we still had things to do. After a few long minutes, we somehow managed to get out of bed and started dressing up.

“What are your plans for the time being?” Lien asked as she carelessly leaned forward and took out a matching pair of panties and bra, not even minding that her bottom was in full view. Turning around, she winked at me and then stepped into her panty which was red in colour with black laces on the front and the side. I was already looking forward to taking it off of her.

Shaking my head and remembering that I was supposed to answer, I said, “As you know, it’s the end of the month so I’ve got to take a look at the newcomers and prepare the teachers for the next semester. After that, we’ll hold a meeting and I’ll share the information that we’ve got from the germs. I want to get rid of those people as soon as possible.”

“The latter I understand but isn’t school stuff my job? Why’d you want to do it personally this time?” she asked, raising her brows.

“No, it’s not that, let me correct myself. I’ll help you with your stuff so that we can start the meeting earlier. After that, we’ll go on a two-day long holiday, just the two of us, and once we return, we’re going to attack the germs.”

“I see, it makes sense in that case,” she nodded but then the sides of her lips curled downwards.

“What’s the problem?” I asked, knowing that something was bugging her. I’ve always paid a lot of attention to her, there was no way I wouldn’t notice if something was on her mind.

“Well, you probably won’t like this idea and I can also see that it’d come with some drawbacks but I’ll ask anyway,” she said.

“What is it about?” I asked with a frown, having a bad feeling about it.

“Uhm- What if we took everyone with us to that island? What was its name again, Hawaii?” she muttered, scratching the back of her head.

“You were right. I don’t like it but there seems to be more to this than just bringing everyone along with us, so out with it,” I sighed loudly, shaking my head.

“It’s just that this place is way too nice to live in, and everyone feels at home and doesn’t want to leave. That’s a good thing. The problem is that once we actually manage to create a sufficient amount of mana, which you still have to check by the way, about two third of the residents are likely to lose their motivation to continue fighting. We could simply live here and even leave the planet to die because it wouldn’t matter to us.”

“At least, that’s how some would think. I mean, the residents are nice to each other and all but I don’t think that they feel a strong obligation to save all kinds of random people all over the world. As for why that is the case, there are several reasons for that,” she shook her head. Interested to hear more, I just kept silent and waited for her to finish talking.

Raising a finger, she added, “First of all, most of them don’t have loved ones or a family to go back to, so they would have no reason to care about the future of the planet. Still, maybe helping others would be a good enough reason for some” - she sighed loudly, raising another finger -”but that’s where the second reason comes into the picture.”

“I’m all ears,” I said.

“Thought so. You see, whenever they go on these missions to help, all they see is that people are trying to kill, shame, and betray each other for their own good. Sometimes even I can’t help but ask myself why are we doing all this when people are like that. Of course, I know that there are many good people but still… you get the point.”

“So basically you’re saying that living here is too comfortable and peaceful and that many of them might question why they have to risk their lives against all these organisations just to save a bunch of selfish people. And so if they come with us to this holiday, then…? What’s the point?” I asked, still not understanding how would it make a difference.

“I’m honestly not sure about this. It was just a fleeting idea but maybe if they saw the beauty of this planet then they’d also want to protect it. That island seemed to be beautiful on the picture so that’s why. Of course, I don’t believe that it’d affect many but I’m unsure of what to do.”

“Hmm, I can’t really disagree with you and I also agree that not many people would change their way of thinking just because of a beautiful sight,” I said. Rubbing my eyes, I couldn’t help but shake my head as I realised something, “Honestly, after hearing your words, now even I can’t help but ask myself why am I doing this. I can create plenty of beautiful places and lands in Leviathan and I could also increase its size over time.”

“Hell, maybe I could turn it into another planet in the future and make it grow slowly over the years. There are many options-”

“Wait, wait, slow down! If you start thinking about stuff like that, it’ll be hard to come back,” she waved her hands frantically.

Furrowing my brows, I said, “When I built Leviathan and found out about Sylvanus and the five great organisations, I believed I had no way to survive unless I killed them all. I thought it’d be a survival of the fittest situation and ever since then, I was focused on getting rid of them. I was kind of caught up in work. Now a single pause after two years, a question, is enough to make me falter and think, so my resolution must be really shitty.”

Seeing her looking at me with a worried face, I added, “I can see that you are regretting telling me about this but I think it’s better if I make up my mind right now instead of ignoring this kind of problem. If the residents feel the same then it’s really a problem that I should solve before it gets out of hand. You shouldn’t regret pointing out stuff like this.”

Shaking her head, she asked, “Really now, what am I supposed to do when even you have to think about the answer?”

“I didn’t intend to make you falter by telling you about this slowly emerging problem. I was hoping that I’d hear your opposition which would help me in resolving myself to continue with all this ‘save the people’. You know me well, I’ve seen their shit many times and I’ve seen even more shit since we started helping all over the world. I know that there are many good people and all but they seem to be the minority.”

“Still, this is something that you wanted to do so I gave it my best to help you in achieving your goal. If not for you, maybe I’d have been taken by some bratty noble in Balan and would be living my life as their toy. I believed that this was the least I could do for you.”

Pursing my lips, I said, “Well, I’m sorry about that. It’s just that back then it was the best I could think of and somehow I got stuck in this helping and hunting game. There is also the fact that the score-system of Leviathan was built on top of the missions, so we’d have to reorganise everything if we wanted to change things now. I know it’s not going to change anything but I still apologise-”

Chortling, she cut into my words and said, “You don’t have to. I didn’t say that I dislike doing it. Hell, I even came to like it. It’s quite fun to boss around people and I still have my fair share of magic research, and most importantly, you, so it’s all fine. I just wanted some confirmation but I didn’t think that you were just going with the flow.”

“That’s why I regretted bringing up this matter but you seem to be fine, right?” she asked as she walked up to me and hugged me strongly.

“Of course,” I chuckled. “Since you want confirmation, I shall give it to you. Regardless of what people are like, I want to get rid of the five organisations and Sylvanus. Even if others don’t care about humanity, I’m also a human and I think that we should do at least this much for ourselves. On the other hand, who is to say that once they grew stronger, they wouldn’t threaten other worlds and planets in the future?”

“We are ‘gods’ and ‘goddesses’ who are capable of destroying and creating planets. I also don’t think that we’re the only people in the universe so we should take care of our own shit before thinking about leaving. I also want to see what people are going to do once the endless forests disappear and they can once again start improving on their own. I want to see what’s going to become of this world once humans regain their freedom entirely.”

“On the other hand, even if Leviathan could exist on its own and move around infinitely, what makes you sure that Sylvanus won't destroy every planet and star as it grows stronger? I don't think that leaving a creature like that alone would be a good idea.”

“Now, that makes much more sense,” she smiled at me, snuggling even closer. “By the way, what will you do if people continue killing each other, or the planet? Based on history, the planet was in a crappy state before mana appeared.”

“I don’t know yet. We are quite influential right now and it wouldn’t be hard to maintain our superior status, don’t you think?” I asked, kissing the top of her head.

Shrugging her shoulders, she said, “It’s fine by me, I’ll follow you anyway.”

Looking up to me, she asked, “So what about bringing the residents with us? Are you willing or is it going to be only the two of us?”

“I’ll bring them along with us but for the most part, it’ll be just the two of us. I’ll leave them to the other leaders and it’ll be a good chance to show my face to them and form some new bonds. I mean, about half of them know me only through hearsay and gossips…”

“Great. Are we going to the city hall now? Can we go together then?” she asked, grabbing my right hand with both of her hands.

“Yes, but do you mean that you want to walk?” I asked, raising a brow.

“Yeah, it’s only a minute of walk away,” she nodded.

“Haha, fine then. It’s been a while since we last walked together anyway,” I replied. We always used magic to move around, sometimes even in the house, so it was quite rare that we moved on feet.

Once we finished dressing and got to the city hall, we went straight to our office. It was usually Lien who used it but when I had to do some review and stuff like that, I also used the same office. It was quite fun to watch over my wife when she was working. Well, and I'd be lying if I said that we used it only for work…

The office was on the third floor with a large window right behind Lien's desk. The inner walls were covered by shiny and polished wooden planks, which went really well with the large plants in the room. It made the place look much more natural, not to mention that they filled the room with the scent of flowers. For some ‘unknown’ reason Lien made the room soundproof when she built it. She clearly wasn’t expecting this room to be used for playing around…

Usually, the office would be empty but this time the other leaders were also present because I notified them on the way here. Ma’at was standing in front of the window, gazing at the backyard which was filled with flowers.

Skadi, Lug, and Mazu were sitting on the sofa while chatting, stopping only for a moment to greet the two of us. There was one more person who as usual, tried to ambush me hoping that things would be different this time.

Catching his wrist before he could touch me, I threw him against the floor and continued on my way to the desk. Not even minding the guy, Lien just stepped over him and followed me to her desk.

“Why do you even try?” Lug just shook his head, seeing Xbalanque standing up from the floor and dusting off his clothes.

“One day I'll catch him by surprise, I swear,” he replied as he turned towards me with a fierce look on his face.

“That was your two hundred and twenty-third try and the gap just grew larger between the two of you. Do you really think you can change the outcome?” Lug asked as he started laughing.

“Who cares about numbers? One day I'll succeed,” he shrugged.

“The statistics are against you but fine, I’ll just wish you good luck,” he replied.

“Could you guys stop bickering? We're here because we have important things to talk about and you are not going to agree anyway,” Mazu scolded the two, shaking her head.

“Fine, you're right about that. So? What did you call us all together for?” Lug asked, turning towards me as if nothing happened.

Seeing that they all calmed down, I leaned against Lien's desk and asked, “You've probably heard that we want to go on a holiday, right?”

“Yeah, it's nothing new,” Lug waved his hand. “Do you want to ask us to take care of school stuff and the newcomers in the meantime?”

“No, you see, we decided that we'd take everyone along with us to the island. For the most part, I think that you'll be able to rest but you guys will be in charge of the residents,” I replied.

“Wait, do you really want to take everyone with you?” he asked with wide opened eyes.

“Isn't that what I've just said?” I replied.

“Haha, okay then. But I imagine you didn't call us here for something so trivial.”

“Of course,” I nodded. “Ma'at, it's your turn,” I said.

Turning around, she ran her eyes over the others and then said, “Yesterday we interrogated the germs Seth and his team captured and although he couldn’t say anything, he was thinking about the location of their base the whole time.”

“Another good thing is that the germs couldn’t escape so their leaders have no way to find out that we captured one of them. Even if they knew that one of their team disappeared, they would probably think that they died or suicided, just like every other group that died by our hands.”

“As it turned out, they have multiple bases which is nothing unexpected. What matters is that we also found out that their main base is on a large island east of Japan. Although neither of the germs thought about the exact location, I managed to narrow it down to three islands. I’m pretty sure that it won’t be hard for us to find their base.”

Ma’at was definitely one of the most important members of Leviathan because I wouldn’t be able to find the germs’ base anytime soon without her abilities.

Making a thoughtful face, Lug said, “Germs often appear in the northern areas of Asia while Necrons usually attack the southern areas so there is a good chance that their hideouts are similarly spread out through the islands.”

“That’s indeed possible but they’ll have to wait for their turn,” I said waving a finger. After sharing everything that we’ve pulled out from the germs, we made plans for the attack and distributed our forces. Once we were done with that, I used my soul force to notify the residents about the holiday that would start tomorrow. I also told them that if they had something important to do then they were free to stay or go somewhere else unless they wanted to join the school in the next semester.

When the others left to do their own thing, Ma’at stayed behind to tell us about Gil’s meeting with his big brother and his brother’s wife. She said that it started out a little ugly but after some arguing and much apologising, they managed to come to terms with each other. It’d definitely take some time for both sides to heal but Ma’at said that things ended up in a positive way.

While Lien went home to start cooking, I called over our parents for dinner to spend some time with our family. They were really happy whenever we called them over or visited them, but that was probably natural for any parent. Well… there were some exceptions for everything which I had seen a few times during the last two years but it couldn’t be helped.

~ 1st of May, 2260 - Gil’s pov ~

Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes and stopped meditating. I felt grateful to Seth for encouraging me to talk with my brother and Ma’at for coming along with me. She even helped me in the conversation a little, so things ended up much better than I imagined. The only thing left for me to do was to train hard and repay my debt to the people who helped me.

Standing up from my bed, I went to take a quick shower and then left for the gathering place on the great plains of Leviathan. There was only a couple sitting on a bench under a lonely tree, the woman in the man’s lap. They seemed to be a little bit over twenty years old, somewhere around my age. Since I didn’t want to bother them, I stayed where I was and started meditating. It wasn’t like I had anything better to do.

My meditation was quite short-lived since the appointed time was nine in the morning and I arrived only ten minutes earlier. Barely a few seconds after I started meditating, the other residents appeared one after the other and grouped up with their acquaintances. Seeing that everyone was chatting with someone and that only I was standing there alone like a tree, I couldn’t help but start feeling awkward.

Feeling the air suddenly rushing towards my back, I quickly turned around only to see my friend, Brian, his hand raised high into the air, about to slap my back. But since I turned around, he slapped my chest instead. I was really happy that I turned around else his slap would have surely made me stumble and fall face-first to the ground, not to mention how much it’d have hurt my back.

Seeing that he wanted to pull back his hand before I could retaliate, I caught his wrist and gripped it with all my strength. “Good morning, my dear friend,” I said, gnashing my teeth.

“Hahaha, don’t take it to heart. I was just trying to cheer up your lonesome figure-”

“So you have to slap my back?” I asked, using a bit of magic to strengthen my body.

“Ou-ou-ou, okay, okay, I give up!” he cried out, hearing his bones popping in my clutch.

Letting go of his hand, I said, “Don’t do that again because I swear I’m going to break your goddamn wrist next time.”

“Hah- as if you could do that, you weakling,” he snorted, waving his hand.

“Do you want to try again?” I asked, smiling at him.

“Nah, I’m not in the mood,” he shook his head.

“I thought so. Also, I wonder what is that purple mark on your face?” I asked with a smirk, seeing a fist-sized black-eye under his left eye.

“This? Oh, I just fell, okay?” he laughed, knowing that it was me who sold him off to Lien.

“It’s true that I was beaten up for it, but I also managed to get back at her for last time!” he said, raising a finger.

“You’re saying it as if it was some kind of achievement… but in fact, you just got yourself beaten up for the second time, didn’t you?” I said filled with glee.

“You’re gloating, you know,” he grumbled, seeing that his misfortune made me so happy.

“It’s your fault for always messing with me. But anyway, how is your training going? Have you learned anything useful yet?” I asked.

“No, the good stuff is being taught at school so I simply sparred against the others but I always let them win,” he replied.

“Let them win, huh… I can imagine,” I chortled.

“Of course, do you think that I’d lose to them? Lien beat me only because I don’t hit women,” he waved his hand dismissively.

“Is that so? Then why did you not heal your face?” I asked, patting his shoulder.

“Maybe because I told him that I’d replace it if he did,” a familiar voice resounded behind my back. Turning around, I was startled to see Seth and Lien standing right there without any presence at all.

Glancing towards a clearing with no people, Seth used his magic to make a podium rise out of the ground and then walked past us holding Lien’s hand. Noticing that Brian was staring after them, his eyes focused on a specific point, I couldn’t help but follow his eyes only to find myself staring at Lien’s bottom.

My eyes twitching, I grabbed his forehead and made him face me. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Do you have a deathwish staring at her like that?”

“Dude, I’m a guy. I’ve got to appreciate what’s put in front of me and I can tell you, she’s top class in every area!” he said, raising his thumb.

Glancing towards their backs and seeing Seth stopping in place, I could feel my blood freezing in my body for a moment as a wave of magic power rushed through the area, almost making me collapse. I held my breath as I waited for him to turn around but after a loud sigh, he just continued on the way.

Most of the people present were stronger than us but as I looked around, I could see that everyone was sweating buckets after feeling the pressure, while some of the stronger ones also shook their heads, looking at Brian.

As the pressure slowly disappeared, Brian cleared his throat and said, “I think I’ll make an exception for this person, but only because I’m a generous person.”

“Generous my ass, you’re fucking retarded, I swear,” I rolled my eyes.

As they walked up to the podium, Seth pointed behind his back in a rather half-assed way, creating a square-shaped portal. It was about twenty meters wide and five meters tall and yet he could make it so easily. Whenever I saw him using magic, I couldn’t help but get a little excited. It’d be really cool if I could use magic like that as easily as him.

This time the portal wasn’t like a swirling black mass but a transparent window, displaying a beautiful beach on the other side with water as blue as the sky. Considering that I grew up in Panama, I didn’t think that it was anything too special and Leviathan also had a similar beach, though much smaller. Regardless, it was still one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen.

“As you all know, this is going to be a two-day long holiday on this island called Hawaii. You can rest easy and relax for the time being but those who want to join the school will have to go through a little trial beforehand. We also prepared a few events and games so that everyone can enjoy their stay,” Lien spoke up, following up with a short explanation of our schedule.

"Now that everyone knows what’s on the plate, please enter the portal," she added, once she finished talking. I was expecting Seth to speak but he just stood there in silence, clearly just for a show… For some reason, he seemed to be a little embarrassed to stand up there, which made me remember that he was also a person with feelings and not some super god of gods.

“Hey, do you think he has stage fright?” Brian leaned closer and whispered into my ear.

“Do you think so?” I muttered, this one time agreeing with him.

“That’s quite strange, but I guess that’s why Lien is the one doing the talk,” he replied.

“Mhm.”

Hearing Lien’s last words, the people in the first line jumped up to the podium and walked into the screen without any hesitation, clearly trusting the stability of Seth's portal. A single mistake and they would be shredded to pieces and yet nobody hesitated. Even if he had some stage fright, it was clear to me that everyone believed in him.

Following the waves of humans, I also went through the portal and stopped only when I could feel the sand-covered beach under my feet. Without any clouds to cover for us and the sun glaring, I’d have surely felt hot if not for the pleasant winds coming from the direction of the ocean. Once everyone came through, including the leaders, the portal closed behind our backs, marking the start of our holiday.

I counted myself quite lucky since right after joining Leviathan, I not only got one step closer to making up with my brother, I was also taken along to a holiday! When Ma’at took me back to Panama, she also got rid of the doppelganger that the ten of us couldn’t beat. To be honest, it made me feel quite bitter but there was no helping it. The only thing that made me feel better about it was that Ma’at was one of the leaders so it was only natural for her to be strong.

“Hey, do you have a thing for Ma’at? You keep staring at her whenever she’s present,” Brian asked, following my eyes.

“No…” I shook my head, but upon hearing his words, I couldn’t help thinking about her.

“Hoo~” he mused, leaning on my shoulder and wrapping his arm around my neck. “That’s what you say but look at that beautiful blonde hair, those thin brows, and rosy lips, and let’s not mention her knockers. I’m sure it must be hard to play the nice guy and punish yourself eternally for what happened in the past,” he said, waving his hand in exasperation.

“Maybe I should make a move on her in your place?” he asked.

“Leave me alone,” I muttered, secretly hoping that he wouldn’t go that far.

“You’re no fun. Anyway, shall we explore the island first? The Missy said that we’ll have two hours before the entrance exam starts,” he said, pulling back his arm.

“The ‘Missy’? Her name is Lien… but you’re right. We don’t even know what’s going to be our task so it’s better if we get to know the place in advance,” I replied.

“It’s also going to rain,” I muttered, turning towards the tall mountains and lush forest that covered the island.

“Oh? Is that so? I wonder if that’s something they planned,” Brian raised his brows, seeing that the sky was still crystal clear. Thanks to my commandment, I knew that it’d start raining exactly two hours and seven minutes later, which seemed to be too coincidental considering that the test was supposed to start two hours later.

Without any hesitation, we quickly entered the rainforest and started our exploration. On the way, we also marked some of the trees with a spell so that we could find the way back easily, and built a small camp about a day’s walk away from the beach. Of course, we got so far only because we used spells to move quicker. Since we still had an hour left, we set up a few more camps on the island and then returned to the beach in a hurry.

Seeing thousands of people crowding on the beach, we also joined them and waited for that remaining one minute to pass. As we slowly got to the front of the crowd, I noticed that there was a podium prepared for someone once again. As soon as the time was up, a group of five appeared on the stage, drawing everyone’s attention.

“Look, those two aren’t even here,” a guy next to us said.

“Hehe, of course. I bet they’re already having fun,” another one replied.

“Oh, come on, don’t be like that. They might be preparing something for us,” a third one chimed in.

“Hmm~ would you dare to bet your neck on it?” the second guy asked.

“Well…”

“Haha, I thought so. Anyway, let’s keep quiet and see what they have to say,” he said and in just a few seconds, everyone quieted down without the need for the leaders to do a thing.

The golden-haired guy on the right side took a step forward and started talking, “Welcome everyone. Most of you probably know me by now but let me introduce myself to the newcomers. My names is Lug, and the illusions you experienced during your entrance exam was a result of my power. In school, I’m also the person who teaches illusion magic to you lot so if you have any questions regarding illusion magic or want to learn it, feel free to join my classes.”

“The person next to me is Mia, my wife, originally the vice-president of the tribe I built in Africa. She’s responsible for the management of missions, and helps out in magic researches. Contact her if you have any concerns regarding your missions in the future,” he continued, pointing at the blue haired woman next to her. Sometimes our commandments had some side-effects on our bodies and considering her deep blue coloured her hair, I was quite sure that it was natural. I heard she was some water goddess, so it made sense.

Looking at the silver-haired beauty next to her, he continued, “The next person is Skadi, the one and only queen of Helvaria, a country she created all by herself. She’s also responsible for management stuff, but her area is related to housing and other life-related things. If you dislike your neighbour and want to move… or you aren’t sure if you’re allowed to build a house in a specific location, or you want to breed a kind of animal, or grow a kind of plant, turn to her.”

“Following right after her is Shawn, also known as the guy with the strange name, Xbalanque… who is responsible for scouting and preparing things for the missions. Those who have fitting abilities are always welcome to join his team.”

Hearing his introduction, Shawn didn’t interrupt him but reading his lips, I could have sworn that he said ‘fuck you’.

“And lastly, I imagine everyone knows Ma’at since she’s the first person you meet after passing the exam. In case her role isn’t clear to someone, she’s our ‘interrogator’ and ‘receptionist’ at the same time. Don’t bother her with trivial things, if possible,” he chortled as he finished introducing everyone.

“Now then, come forward,” he said, and in the next moment, Seth appeared on the stage, Lien by his side.

As his aura slowly spread out and covered the crowd, he started talking, “My name is Seth Clearfall and I’m the one who built Leviathan. You probably know the person next to me but just to make sure, her name is Lien and she is my wife. Now that we are done with introductions, let’s get to the point. I formally welcome everyone to Leviathan and I hope that you lot will keep working hard to become stronger and be of use to our growing community.”

“You seem to enjoy your stay in Leviathan but don’t forget that I don’t tolerate slackers and will kick them out. You have to do your part if you want to stay, even if it’s the minimum. Now then, on to the first event, you may have been looking forward to.”

“As Lien said it earlier, it’s going to be a game with a few simple rules. Please rest assured, it’s not going to affect your stay here or your school life either since any of you can start attending classes. There will be winners, though, three of them! Their reward will be an advanced spell and a weapon of their choice made by me. Additionally, the second place will be exempted from work for a whole week, so that they can focus on practicing magic. Finally, the first place will get all of these and I’ll also teach them a spell from the list I’ve sent to your AIs just now. Those are all spells that you won’t be able to learn in our schools.”

“Each one of the leaders, including Lien and me, has a small totem,” he said as he raised his hand, showing a small green statue to the crowd.

“We all chose a location on the island where we’re going to spend our holiday, but you’ll have to find us, either with tracking abilities or pure luck. We’ve left behind some traces so that it won’t be too hard for you, but that’s not all. Once you find the totem keepers, you’ll have two ways to take them from us.”

“The first is to pass the trial that the totem keeper prepares for the visitors, and the second is by force. There are some of you who are strong enough to do that if you group up, but there is a catch. You have to bring the totems back here to win, and if you run out of mana because of your battle, others can easily take it from you.”

“There is one more thing. You may have noticed that while I was talking, six yellow circles appeared on your right arms. Those are representing a chance to use a powerful spell. If you try to use powerful spells seven times, the tattoo is going to disappear and you’ll automatically lose, even if you return with six totems. This mark is placed upon the leaders as well, so if you can force them to use up all their chances and their mark to disappear, you’ll get their totem.”

“In case you use any kind of spell that can take you from one place to another instantly, or almost instantly, the tattoo is going to disappear and you’ll be disqualified. Anyone who can take my totem will win the game right then and there. Otherwise, if everyone has one totem when they return, the first one will take the first place. If someone has two totems, even if they arrive last, they’ll take the first place.”

“If there will be multiple people with two totems, the quicker one will take the first place. If there is someone with three totems, they’ll take the first place and it’ll keep going in a similar manner. I hope that the rules are clear for everyone. I don’t think it’s complicated… but please tell me if it isn’t clear to someone,” he said, running his eyes over the crowd.

“I see, so everyone understands everything. I laid down a powerful formation on this stage and the people with the totems simply have to get up here. The formation will notify me about everything so I’ll know who came first and with how many totems in their possession. The time limit is three hours.”

“You may gamble and return quickly with one totem to secure your place in the top three, but it’s also possible that two people will return with two totems and you’ll take only third place, despite returning first. It’s also possible for you to win the game because everyone else will return only with one totem. Are there any questions? Anyone?”

Seeing a guy raising his hand, he asked, “Yes?”

“How do we know what counts as a powerful spell?”

“Good question. I forgot to mention that. Anything that uses more than ten percent of your mana pool is going to consume one of the circles. This also means that if all six marks are empty, the person you’re facing has no more than forty percent of their mana left,” he replied.

“Anyone else?”

Furrowing his brows, the same guy said, “Hey! But what about you? If you used ten percent of your mana pool for a spell, the whole island would disappear… how’s that even fair then? You can keep using any kind of magic!”

“Hehe, that’s why my totem makes you win instantly, even if you lose all of your marks. But don’t forget that every totem keeper has a trial. If you pass it, you still win, you know?” Seth replied with a large smile splattered on his face.

“And what’s going to be your trial?” the guy asked, rolling his eyes.

“You’ll have to find me to hear my answer,” Seth replied. Although it was only for a moment, I could see his lips curling upwards. I had a feeling his trial was something that’d make people curse at him.

“Now then… since there are no more questions, the game will start in three- two- one- Good luck!” he said as he clapped his hands, and suddenly all seven of them disappeared. What made the situation strange was that it started raining as soon as they did.

"This rain… it's their doing," I muttered.

"Hahaha, of course, he'd do this," hearing my words, the guys next to me started laughing.

"Tracks my ass. The rain is going to wash away every trace and we have no way to find them by simply scanning the island. Maybe if I used WORD magic, I could find their locations but then I will start out with five marks instead of six. They've never had any intention of making this easy," a brown-haired woman said, shaking her head.

"Well, they're here to enjoy their holiday, so I imagine they'd rather stay out of sight for as long as possible. I have a feeling it won't be too easy to find them," I said.

"You're right about that. Are you new? I haven't seen you before," she asked.

"Yes. I've joined only a few days ago," I nodded.

"I see. You've made the right choice. Half a year ago I was also wondering about this place and even feared that they were some evil sect or something. Regardless, I'm here as you can see and it was probably the best decision of my life," she chuckled.

"And you are?" I asked.

"Oh- haha, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Fortuna, and I'm the goddess of luck."

"No problem. I'm Gil, the incarnation of Chaac, the god of rain. This guy here is Brian, the incarnation of Cabrakan," I said, pointing at my friend.

"Well, it was nice to meet you but I should be going now. I'm sure I'll be lucky enough to run into someone who used WORD magic to find one of the leaders!" she left laughing in the rain. Obviously, everyone erected a small water barrier around themselves which blocked the rain but it still washed away the tracks.

Turning towards me, Brian started contemplating about something and after a few seconds passed he said, “Considering the rules of this game, even if we team up, we’ll have to beat each other to win, so I think that it’s better if we separate now.”

“Erm, yeah. I think that teamwork will be necessary only to get a totem but once it’s taken, it’ll be all to their own,” I nodded my head, agreeing with him.

"Mhm. Good luck," he muttered, and then quickly ran away.

Raising my head, I looked at the gray sky and took a deep breath, feeling the rain flowing down on my face. The rain was my domain, so I was the only person who didn’t erect a water barrier. Spreading out my senses, I could feel everything the rain touched, all the trees, all the bodies. No matter what kind of hiding spell they used, nothing could hide them from the rain. If they erected a barrier to stop the rain, I could also feel that the raindrops were blocked by something.

It took only a moment for me to find the four locations of the leaders. Lug and Mia were definitely together, so Shawn, Skadi, and Ma'at were the remaining three, each with their own place. Seth and Lien were also together but I didn't know their location because I could sense them. It was because they made a hole in the clouds to let in the sunlight. They clearly didn't care about the fact that everyone would be able to find them.

They were also the closest to me, so I decided to take a look out of curiosity. I had a feeling that very few people had the chance to clear Seth’s trial and it took only two minutes to reach their place anyway. Who knew, maybe Lien’s trial wasn’t that hard, so it was worth giving it a try. There was a large villa on the beach and a smaller crowd stood not far away from it, surrounding something.

Since everyone was standing there openly, I didn’t try sneaking up on them and simply walked to the front. There was a young girl with short blonde hair standing on the side, watching the scene with interest. Tugging her arm, I asked, “Miss. Could you tell me what’s going on? And what are their trials?”

Lien was sitting on her sunbed with her legs crossed, a muscular guy facing her in the same position. They were both quiet and had their eyes closed, and Seth was lying on another sunbed right behind Lien. I knew that Lien was a beauty but seeing her in her two-piece black bikini, I found it really hard to take my eyes off of her. This time she wasn’t sitting in the water either so I could see her curves clearly.

Glancing at me, the girl replied, “Miss Lien’s trial is called Soul Maze and she set up some kind of maze where the walls are made from soul force. Its difficulty is the same for everyone, even if one is S ranked and the other one is D ranked because the strength and pressure of the walls are adjusted to the challenger. She said that we will have to overcome our limits during her trial if we want to get her totem.”

“Oh, that sounds like a fair trade for one of the three places,” I said.

“Indeed,” she nodded.

“And what about Seth?” I asked.

“Well… you might as well go home if you want his totem. His trial is to beat him in a battle of magic, using nothing but elemental magic. It’s true that he won’t be allowed to use his crazy spells, but I think we both know that we’d need more handicaps to win. Maybe if all of us could fight him at the same time,” she sighed, shaking her head.

“We can fight him at the same time if we don’t want to take his trial,” I chortled, obviously not meaning it.

“Haha, like anyone here would be stupid enough to do that.”

“Ah, look! She’s opened her eyes,” the others in the front started whispering, seeing that Lien woke up.

“You failed,” she replied, looking into the guy’s eyes sitting across her. Clicking his tongue, he stood up and left in a hurry to find another leader. He was definitely an S ranked resident since he used WORD magic right in front of us and he didn’t lose a single mark. The word he wrote was ‘find’, but it probably revealed only one location at a time.

“Who’s the next -*Slurp~*” not minding our presence, Seth started slurping his drink while Lien was talking.

Turning towards him, she said, “Would you please…?”

“It’s not fair. Everyone is challenging you but nobody bothers with me. I feel left out,” he waved his hand in exasperation as he turned on his sunbed and looked at us. Spotting me on the side of the crowd, he waved his hand, making the others look at me with questioning gazes.

“Do you want to have a go at it?” he asked with a smile.

“Erm, can I refuse? I’d use up too much of my mana if I were to fight you and it’s very likely that I’d fail to get your totem,” I replied, shaking my head.

“Then how about this? Those who dare to take my trial will get the chance to take Lien’s trial first, even if there are stronger people who would cut the line,” he said, raising a finger.

“We’d still lose our chance to get other totems.”

“Yeah, it wouldn’t be worth it,” similar sentences could be heard. Although I agreed with them, my instincts were telling me that I should try taking his trial. I wasn’t sure why.

“Let me think about it,” I replied, and moved a bit further away from the others, feeling their gaze on my back. It was quite bothersome, to be honest, but there was no helping it. Seeing his lips curling upwards, that strange emotion just grew even stronger in me.

Sitting down on a large rock on their right side, I continued looking at the two of them and ignored everyone else present. They weren’t unreasonable people and Seth surely wouldn’t make it so that his trial would be impossible to win. Or even if it was, it should have some kind of meaning.

Why would the person who fights him get the chance to take Lien’s trial? As far as I know, they’re very close to each other, so could it be that their trials are connected? That S ranked guy from earlier had an aura as powerful as Lien’s, so it doesn’t make sense that he couldn’t beat her trial. Hell, maybe he could have broken her whole soul maze. He was someone that could probably fight her, even if he would surely lose.

Let me see a bit more about souls… I thought to myself as I delved into the library in my mind, filled with all kinds of knowledge. Finding the soul-related spells, theories, and truths, I looked for possible connections between mana and soul, and soul power regeneration. The first thing I found was that sex could speed up both mana and soul power recovery speed, but that was basically common sense.

After looking for clues for a few minutes, I finally stumbled upon an interesting theory, which stated that the fewer mana particles there were in our bodies, the more powerful our souls would become. Mana was also something like a balancer for our souls and that was why running low on mana made us feel bad. The less we had of it, the worse we felt.

Theoretically, I could get a boost of soul power if I had little mana left because it’d become unstable and dangerous at the same time. But certainly, that bit of boost and imbalance should be enough to overcome our own limits. Seth probably knew even more than what I inherited from my commandment, so if he wanted me to fight him, there was a chance that he knew exactly what kind of effects it’d have on my soul.

“Fine then! Lien is also going to restore the mana of those who try her trial after fighting me, even if you fail. Now it should be worth trying to fight me, no?” he asked, clearly desperate to get someone to fight him.

“It’d be still unfair.”

“Yeah, what if we couldn’t pass Lien’s test even after fighting you? We’d lose our chance to win this game!” the people just shook their heads.

“What does it matter? Come, let’s have some fun~” he said playfully, noticing that some of the people became suspicious.

Hmm, it might be stupid but I’ll risk it. No pain, no gain!

Deciding in my heart, I stood up from the rock and walked over to him. Seeing that I was looking at him, he asked, “What’s up? Wanna fight?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“Hahaha, your senses are quite keen, aren’t they? But I won’t go easy on you so you better be prepared,” he chortled. “We should get a bit further away from them or they’ll be hurt. Oh, right, and just for clarity’s sake. Once we finish, he can try Lien’s trial straight away, even if someone is already in the middle of it. That’s what I meant by ‘first’,” he added, turning towards the crowd.

The second strongest in the group was already in the middle of taking the test, so if Seth beat me too quickly, he’d have to fail the trial because of me. I honestly didn’t want that, so I was better off doing my best and hold on until he finished.

“To make things fairer, I’m not going to transform into my elemental form since you can’t do it either. Now then, you may pick an element and fight me using only that one element. Of course, we can also fight with all elements, but the choice is up to you,” he said.

He’s younger than me so normally I’d go for multiple elements since I’d be able to use a wider variety of spells and could get an advantage over him with my battle experience, but he’s surely not an amateur. He’s quite nice to me, isn’t he? He keeps making things easier, though it’s not like his offer was up only for me. I guess if I had seen his power more times like the others, I wouldn’t dare to fight him either. Being a newcomer might be an advantage during this trial.

“I’ll choose the wat- actually, scratch that. I’ll pick the wind element,” I said. As the god of rain, I thought that using the rain to my advantage would be a good idea, but the rain couldn’t reach this place because of his barrier. If I chose the water element, he could utilise the rain outside but I couldn’t, which would put me at disadvantage, not to mention that his casting speed was quicker and his spells were stronger. A shame, but there was no helping it. It wasn’t like our commandments made us the best in something.

“Hehe, a wise choice not going for water,” he chuckled as he glanced at the rain outside.

“...”

Picking up small a piece of rock from the sand, he showed it to me and said, “I’ll throw this up and our battle will start the moment it touches the ground.” Seeing me nodding my head, he threw it up right away and then turned towards me, his eyes focused on me. He probably thought that I’d look at the rock and wait for it to touch the ground until the battle began, but I wasn’t that stupid.

With my senses, I could easily tell when the rock would touch the ground so there was no need to look at it. Instead, I prepared my mana to attack the moment it did.

“Try to survive this,” he warned me only a moment before the rock landed. Paying attention to his warning, I changed my mind and instead of attacking, I strode backwards. The air where I stood exploded with incredible force, followed by a powerful shockwave that smashed into my chest and threw me on my back.

As I sat up, I coughed up some blood so I quickly wiped it off and then healed myself with magic. Seeing him standing there without doing anything, I knew he could have killed me already if he wanted. He was a real monster but luckily, he was willing to teach us! It really made me wonder what did he have to sacrifice for that kind of power and knowledge. He probably had very little contact with other people early on in his life.

“What if I stayed there and decided to take it on to attack you?” I asked as I stood up.

“Well, it’d have blown off the lower half of your body and you’d have lost instantly and I’d have had to heal you. It was just compressed air being suddenly released, he chuckled.”

“A lot of it, I guess… but really now, I didn’t even sense that you were casting magic,” I shook my head helplessly.

Seeing him raising his brow, I quickly jumped away from my location and then hurled a blade of wind towards his head, only to see the sand explode where I stood once again. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought that he was trying to kill me. He gave me a handicap to get Lien’s totem, but he had no intention of making things easy for me, I was sure of that.

Not even minding my wind blade, he simply countered it with his own which was at least thirty meters tall. It was quite terrifying since wind blades weren’t visible and I could only sense the shape and direction of the spell. As I moved out of its way, it flew past me and stopped only when it reached the mountain wall behind me, cleaving it in two and then exploding, causing huge boulders to fly all over the place.

“Haha, I guess he must be a newcomer and didn’t know what he was getting himself into.”

“Well, I can’t imagine anyone who would willingly fight him, even if it was just sparring,” some of the people on the sides whispered.

Paying no heed to them, I started bombarding Seth with blades of wind using as much mana as I could, also covering myself in a layer of wind to decrease the damage I would suffer from his spells. I was a hundred percent sure that he could finish our battle any moment he wanted but he was intentionally dragging it out so that I could use up my mana.

Of course, he also made it so that I had to watch every movement and reaction he made if I wanted to survive our battle until I ran out of mana. Waving his hand, he simply dispelled my wind blades and then said, “I can see that you’ve understood my intentions but I don’t like it when someone wants to cut the line, alas, intentionally wasting your mana is something punishable.”

Shit.

“I don’t want to cause a calamity so I’ll limit it to you,” he added as he raised his hand and made a grasping motion. As his fingers closed, six blades of wind came towards me from six directions with incredible speed, cutting off my escape routes completely. Quickly making my decision, I ran towards the one coming from his direction and wrapped my whole body in a thick layer of wind. Jumping straight towards the blade, I started rotating in the air like a drill and flew past the blade, slightly grazing my left arm against it.

As the six blades connected in my previous location, they blew up and the dust and sand caught on fire, engulfing a huge area in the flames. I landed on the ground a good fifty meters away and rolled a few times before coming to a halt, and then quickly stood up. The moment my left arm touched the wind blade, it cut straight into my flesh and removed a huge chunk of it, also burning the wound.

His wind blades were incredibly hot and whenever they reached their destination, they exploded and burnt everything viciously. He could have made them explode whenever, which was also the reason I knew that he was only toying with me. Gritting my teeth, I subdued the pain and focused on the battle as I started healing my body.

“That was pretty good,” he said with a nod of his head.

“Did you see him? He charged straight towards the wind blade.”

“Yeah, dammit. I wouldn’t have dared to do that.”

“Me neither. This guy’s fearless!” hearing the others praising me, I couldn’t help but feel happy inside. It wasn’t like I didn’t fear the wind blade, but even losing my arm would be better than to die instantly. I simply chose the better over the worse.

As we continued trading blows, I was wounded seriously many times but after about ten minutes of battling, I finally ran out of mana. Seeing another wind blade flying towards me, I jumped to the side without any magic but the expected explosion didn’t come. Instead, the wind blade changed its direction and flew upwards… making me feel like puking as I realised that he even had the ability to control a spell that he fired.

He was a bastard, a true cheat.

“Since you have no mana left, shall we consider it your loss or would you rather continue?” he asked, raising a brow.

“...”

“Haha, okay, don’t look at me like that. I was just kidding,” he waved his hands. Walking up to me, he patted my shoulder and said, “You did much better than I expected. You may be weak right now but your battle senses are superb and you are quite experienced in combat as well, it seems.”

“I’ve been fighting monsters for years, and the first few years were quite hard. It became easy only recently,” I replied.

“I see, they are surely good for gaining experience and honing your battle sense. Anyway, go ahead and try Lien’s test,” he said.

Looking at him with a smile, she said, “You were having a lot of fun, weren’t you? But you went a little overboard with that,” she pointed at the destroyed mountain walls.

“What does it matter? I’ll fix it while he’s taking the test,” he shrugged his shoulder but even while he was talking, the boulders flew up and started returning to their places.

“Okay. Would you mind fighting like that against me next time?” she asked, her eyes glimmering with hope.

“I won’t,” he said bluntly. Clicking her tongue, she just tapped the sand in front of her, indicating that I should sit down.

“You did well, man!”

“Yeah, it was an amazing battle!” the others also started praising me.

“Ah, thanks, thanks,” I scratched the back of my head, a little embarrassed by all the praises. Turning back towards Lien, I finally focused on her. I  could feel my soul power swirling around uncontrollably, quite a bit stronger than it was supposed to be.

This totem will be mine. I’ve suffered for over ten minutes to get it!

That was what I wanted to believe but I didn’t forget that the others present were waiting for someone to get the totem so that they could steal it. Even if I won Lien’s totem, I’d have to get out of here with it somehow.

“Close your eyes. The trial is very simple. There is a maze which is going to pressure your soul the closer you get to the exit. Your task is to move your soul through the maze without knocking yourself out. You can use whatever methods, even soul attacks. It doesn’t matter even if you destroy the soul walls,” she instructed me using telepathy.

Doing as told, I closed my eyes and then she pressed her index finger against my forehead. Since my eyes were closed, everything was dark but once she touched my head, a pale blue coloured maze appeared in front of me. It took me about two minutes to cross the soul maze and find the exit and since my soul was strengthened, I could break the walls of the maze and get out easily.

Once I got out of the maze, I could feel her mana pouring into my body, quickly replenishing my depleted mana veins with energy. “The totem is in your right pocket. I won’t say that you failed but I won’t declare that you won either. Whether you can keep it a secret or not is up to your acting skills. I’ll wait a minute before revealing that you’ve got the totem and will say that I want to take a rest. If you can’t get away by that time then it’s bad luck for you,” she said as we both opened our eyes and she pulled back her hands.

“Thanks,” I replied.

“No problem. I’m glad to see that there are some people who don’t think that my husband is an unreasonable battle manic,” she said through her soul force while she sighed loudly and held her forehead.

“Haah- keeping up this soul realm is quite tiring.”

“Do you want to take a rest then?” Seth asked, glaring at the others present.

“I’d like to if that’s fine by the others. A minute is good enough, of course, they could just attack me to take my totem?” she replied, partly asking them.

“Eh- I’d rather not,” many of them replied similarly, sneaking glances at Seth. I haven’t talked much with him but I believed that I had a good understanding of his personality. If anyone dared to bully Lien in front of him, well… they’d better be prepared to take on his wrath. On the other hand, Lien was strong enough to beat any of us present. The stronger guys left while I was fighting with Seth, after all.

I shouldn’t go overboard with my acting or I’ll be suspicious.

Massaging my forehead, I just sighed loudly and muttered in a loud enough voice for the people close to me to hear, “What the hell was I fighting for if it still ended up like this? At least I got back my mana.”

Standing up from my place, I silently continued cursing and walked towards the edge of the barrier. I couldn’t believe that I was lucky enough to get out without being stopped but maybe they just didn’t want to bother me and take the totem from me out of respect for what I had to go through. As soon as I reached the rainforest, I charged towards my next destination, Shawn’s place.

He was a master of hiding and assassinating techniques but it was raining. I was kind of hoping that his trial would be something like finding him. The only strange thing about it was that he kept moving and to top it all off, he was moving in my direction. After another five minutes of running, I quickly stopped because I could sense that he was really close by. Noticing that he stopped moving, I focused all my senses and the rain in a small area around me.

Stopping in front of a tree, I looked at it with a frown, sensing his presence coming from inside the tree. “Shawn? Are you in there?” I asked, feeling retarded even just by asking.

“You… how did you?!” he jumped out of the tree like a shadow and returned to his normal human form.

“What do you mean by how?” I asked, raising my brows.

“How did you find me?”

“I could sense you?”

“How?”

“Well, it’s because of the rain,” I pointed upwards.

“Do you want me to believe that?” he asked with a frown.

“Whether you believe it or not, that’s the truth. As the god of rain, I can sense everything and everyone when it’s raining,” I said, nodding my head.

“You better don’t joke about this because if that really was the case, we could find the base of the five great organisations with your help, you know?” he asked.

“I wasn’t joking but now that you mention it, I’ve never thought about that. Should I go tell Seth about this?”

“No, it’s fine. It can wait until the end of the game but you should tell him once the game has ended. If you don’t, then I’ll tell him personally,” he said.

“No, it’s fine, I’ll tell him,” I shook my head.

“Good. Now then, you should focus on getting our totems for the time being-” he said as he started walking away.

“Wait! What’s your trial? That’s why I came to you!” I said.

“It’s already friends with Lien’s totem in your right pocket. My trial was to find me so… good luck!” he waved his hand and then disappeared from my sight in the blink of an eye. Reaching into my pocket, I really found another totem laying there.

Hahaha, how come I’m so lucky this time? Is this what it feels like for other people to be lucky every time? Damn, it’s such a great feeling! I couldn’t help but cry out in my mind. Maybe it was because I talked with Fortuna that I became lucky for the time being! There was only one problem. It was too dangerous to walk around with two totems in my pockets when the others were most likely chasing me by now.

Seth’s totem surely wouldn’t get out of his hands which meant that there were six totems in the game. Two of them were with me, while Skadi, Mia, Ma’at, and Lug’s were still free to be taken. The only way for someone to beat me would be to either return with three totems or to return earlier than me. Regardless, two was enough to secure my place in the top three, so after making up my mind, I quickly made my way towards the stage.

I could sense hundreds of people coming my way, so I knew that I had no time to waste. The stronger ones had yet to find out that I had two totems on me, so I used my usual water disc to move through the forest with ease. Since I could sense my pursuers’ location, I continued making detours and avoiding them, but they definitely had a way to track me since a few of them always turned towards my direction, no matter what I did.

Although they almost caught up with me by the time I reached the beach, somehow I managed to reach the stage before they caught up with me. Right when I jumped onto the stage and turned around, I could see them stomping on the ground and cursing on the edge of the rainforest. I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much but there was a good chance for me to take the first place. I just really hoped that the stronger residents wouldn’t return with three totems. Instead of waiting without doing anything, I started meditating in the middle of the stage.

It happened about an hour later that I felt the need to open my eyes because I sensed three powerful presences charging straight towards me. A moment later I saw them appearing on the edge of the forest, fighting each other with flashy spells. Their spells were about as powerful as Seth’s wind blades and yet they were using one after the other, reducing their surroundings to a pile of broken trees and rubbles.

One of them was a red-haired woman and there was also a black haired guy chasing the third person whose shape I couldn’t even see because of their quick movements. The man and the woman kept bombarding the shadow-like person who continuously deflected their attacks and got closer and closer to the stage.

Most likely fearing that the person in the lead would reach the stage, the red-haired woman stopped using small spells and decided to use up the last circle on her arm. It was definitely a miscalculation on her part because while she wanted to finish casting her spell, the black-haired guy stopped attacking and also charged towards the stage instead.

“NO! For fuck’s sake!” the woman screamed, most likely expecting that the guy would lock down the one they chased. The shadow-like figure stopped right next to me, panting heavily and looking at me with wonder in her eyes.

“You’re…”

“Awilix?” I asked back, remembering her name. She was one of the people who I talked to the day I joined Leviathan. Standing up straight, she took a deep breath and turned towards the black-haired man, “You two really made me sweat a lot.”

“Heh, it’s your fault for taking three totems,” he replied.

“Damn you, now it’s only two because you took one…”

“What? You can’t expect to get three totems and still keep all of them. Two is obviously the winner so you should be happy. As for this guy, I imagine he doesn’t have more than one in such a short time. He isn’t even strong enough to explore a large enough area so quickly,” he said, glancing at me.

“Ah, but please don’t misunderstand me. I didn’t mean to belittle you,” he added, seeing me frowning.

“Oh, no, it’s fine in that case,” I waved my hands. “But you’re still wrong,” I added, showing him my totems.

“Are you serious?” he cried out, holding his head. At first, Awilix was also looking at me with bewilderment but after a long second passed, she closed her fingers into a fist and stomped on the stage, turning towards the black-haired man.

“You… if not for you, I’d have won, but now I’m only second. Tell me, how do you plan to make up for my loss you bastard?”

“Eh? But you can’t blame me! Everyone wants to win, you know?” he waved his hands frantically.

Cracking her fingers, Awilix stepped closer to him and snapped her finger, making a strange leopard jump out of her body. It was strange because I could see only the outline of its transparent body which was filled with… stars. It totally looked like as if it had miniature stars in its body.

“Suku, go and teach this bastard a lesson,” she growled, pointing at the black haired man.

“Aaaah- no, wait! I don’t deserve this treatment! Please, call back your damned beast!” the man started begging.

“I think you shouldn’t forget about the rules. No fight is allowed once we reached the stage,” I remarked, hoping that she’d stop.

Turning towards me, she said, “I know, I didn’t forget about it. I was just playing around with this fool. Do you really think I’d take so much time to attack if I was serious?”

“Fair enough,” I nodded.

Seeing that things calmed down, the black-haired guy stood up and asked, “By the way, whose totems did you get?”

“Me?” I raised my brows.

“Yes, of course. I know that Awilix got Mia’s, Lug’s, and Skadi’s, but when she finished Skadi’s trial, I stole it from her,” he said, earning another glare from Awilix.

“I’ve got Lien’s and Shawn’s,” I said.

“Oh, so Ma’at’s totem is still out there,” he muttered. “Wait! Lien’s? I also tried her trial but I failed. How did you get it?”

Furrowing my brows, I remembered that when I got there, a black haired guy was in the middle of taking the trial. “Oh! I remember you now! You were the one who was in the middle of it when I got there. I then asked a girl what did we have to do and that was when you failed and then left.

“Yes, yes,” he nodded. “So?”

“Seth gave some clues and said that if somebody tried his trial, they could try Lien’s trial immediately and he’d also restore their mana. I found it a bit weird so I looked up my inheritance and read about a theory, which turned out to be true. Basically, if you have little mana left, your soul will become unstable and a little stronger.”

“Damn, there was actually something like that. But honestly, I don’t feel bad about your position if you fought Seth and you’re still here. I sparred against him about three months ago and I can tell you… it’s not a nice memory,” he shuddered.

Remembering my battle with him, the sides of my eyes also twitched. Noticing my reaction, the man just laughed at me. “Haha, I can see that you’ve had your fair share of beating. By the way, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Zhong.”

“Nice to meet you, my name is Gil,” I shook his hand.

After some time passed, I couldn’t help but ask, “Since the three of us have five totems altogether and people would have to beat Seth to get the last one, aren’t our places set in stone? How come he isn’t coming?”

“Hmph, what do you know. Who told you that the leaders aren’t players? I can sense some incredible waves of mana coming from that direction. I bet they’re already preparing for battle,” Awilix replied, pointing towards the beach where Seth and Lien resided.

“So my first place isn’t sure yet, is it?” I sighed loudly, realising that I was too naive.

“I dare to say that you’re going to keep your position,” she replied as she sat down and closed her eyes. Knowing that she started meditating, I didn’t want to interrupt her so I also shut up and did the same. Some of the residents returned to the beach and started chatting but I believed that not even half of the residents were present. They probably went to watch the leaders’ fight, which made me quite jealous. I also wanted to see it but I had no way to leave the stage. My friend hadn’t returned either, so he was definitely there as well.

“You three can leave the stage, if you want to,” Seth’s voice resounded in my mind a moment later. Opening our eyes, the three of us looked at each other at the same time and smiled. Jumping up, we left to see their battle in a hurry.

--- Seth’s pov ~ after the trial ~ ---

“He’s gone,” Lien said through Link, sensing that Gil left my barrier.

“He did well, you can wait about ten more seconds before telling them. I’m willing to teach him some stuff if he can get back with the totems,” I replied.

“Alright. By the way, is this really alright with you? I mean that you have to sacrifice your time for the sake of this game and we can’t have fun by ourselves,” she asked, clearly bothered.

“I’d tell you if that was the case but this event turned out to be more fun than I expected, so no problem. Maybe we should turn this into a regular event with a small restriction on the participants. Those who placed in the top three shouldn’t be allowed to take part again,” I replied. This game was initially her idea and since we thought that it was a good one, the seven of us came up with the rules and the rewards.

Since the ten seconds were up, Lien also stood up when I finished talking to her and looked at the people surrounding us. Seeing them looking at her with confused faces, she said, “Since my totem has been taken by Gil, the person who just left, I ask you, people, to leave. That’s only if nobody wants to fight us or take my husband’s trial, of course.”

Fear, surprise, and anger appeared on their faces one after the other as she revealed the truth to them. Fear because of me, surprise because Gil took the totem even though three S ranked people failed to do so before him, and anger because he managed to leave with it without their notice. They probably felt stupid for not realising it right away and unlike people outside, they didn’t start blaming their own stupidity on others.

With my soul force, I could tell clearly that their anger was all directed towards themselves. Of course, they weren’t some pure saints either and some also felt a little angered because we helped him in getting away, but only a small part of their anger was directed towards us.

“Quick, let’s go and catch him,” some guy said and then bolted off.

“I think that he deserved it after that battle, so I’ll go look for other totems instead,” a blonde haired girl said and about half of the group nodded when they heard her words. It wasn’t like I knew everyone. I remembered only the names of those who talked to me in person or whom I had heard of multiple times.

Leviathan had both kinds of people, the kind that sought power more than anything and also the kind that was willing to give up on things out of respect. I believed that I was in the middle but if I had to be honest, I was more likely to fight for every bit of strength instead of giving up on it. I needed a lot of power to protect my loved ones and keep running Leviathan, so it wasn’t something that I’d give up on easily.

Since the other residents left in a hurry, the two of us were finally left alone. Me and my cute wife. Right after the trial started and we teleported to this beautiful beach, she took off her hotpants and her shirt, revealing her sexy bikini underneath. I was really looking forward to playing around with her, sadly, I knew that wouldn’t be possible before I took care of my foolish underlings.

“Honey, are my senses wrong or are the other leaders really coming this way?” Lien asked with a frown.

Placing my hands on her shoulders, I pulled her closer and gave her a long, deep kiss. Surprised by my actions, at first she just stood there with wide opened eyes but after feeling my tongue moving into her mouth, she closed her eyes and started enjoying it. Slowly pulling back, I licked my lips as I looked deep into her eyes and nodded my head.

“Shall we fight together this time?” I asked with a smile.

“You have no idea how much I wanted to do this. It really makes me happy that after this much training and well… sex, I can finally fight such powerful opponents,” she replied, her eyes shining with happiness.

Although I wanted to protect her forever, I understood that she wanted to be more than a doll which was being protected. I also didn’t want her to be hurt but her dream was my dream as well, so if she wanted to fight alongside me then the only thing I could do was to train her to be capable enough. Luckily, she worked hard for her dream and had good senses for both magic and battle, so teaching her was a bliss. I was really proud of her. She was proof of that not only god incarnations could be powerful.

It was true that her soul wouldn’t have grown this strong without me but even without having sex with me, she had the ability to catch up and surpass many of the god incarnations. With my help, though, she became the second strongest person in Leviathan. There were some with stronger souls or magic power, but neither of them knew enough about magic to be able to beat her.

“Haha, don’t forget that we’re connected. I can feel your emotions so I understand how happy you are right now. Anyway, I believe that we’ve sparred against each other many times so we understand each other’s capabilities really well. Fighting together should be no trouble either,” I replied, caressing her face.

"I think that we'll be fine," she smiled at me.

"Good. Now then, since the other leaders were daring enough to take part in the game just to learn a spell from me, I think that I should discipline them with some of the stronger ones. With thousands of words at my disposal, I guess it should be no trouble to teach them a lesson," I couldn't help but sneer as I thought about those fools.

"I'll cover your back but you also shouldn't go overboard and destroy this island," she warned me, seeing that I was getting too fired up for the upcoming battle.

"Hmm- how about no? It’s a bit annoying that I can’t use my full power anymore,” I grumbled.

“Well, what do you expect when you are strong enough to destroy the planet with a single spell? There are many legends about the lands being reshaped because of gods’ battles, so I guess they were similarly powerful in the past,” she said, placing her hands on my chest.

“My ancestor was also powerful enough to do that but since I didn’t have to find out so many things by myself, I achieved even more than him in just nineteen years. Sadly, I’m still not strong enough to sense Sylvanus’ main body, which is quite unnerving,” I muttered.

“I don’t think it’s much stronger than you and even if that is the case, don’t forget that you have many people by your side,” she replied, slowly caressing my chest. Her touch was so gentle and comforting, it made me calm down so easily.

“My my, aren’t you two getting a bit too warmed up?” a familiar voice came from behind.

Raising to her toes, Lien looked over my shoulder and said, “Warmed up? We’re going to be much warmer when the night comes.”

“I’m not sure I wanted to hear that,” Mia replied.

“Are you jealous?” I asked as I turned around and embraced Lien from behind.

“Hmph, who do you think I am?” she snorted.

“A horny woman,” Lien replied, sticking out her tongue.

“...”

“The next time you come over to my place, I’ll put so much chili into your food that you’ll breathe fire,” Mia said with a frown.

“Haha, you’re free to try but I don’t think that you can sneak it in without my notice,” Lien mocked her.

“So? Why don’t you attack right away?” I asked, knowing that she came here for my totem, just like the others who were on the way here.

“Against the two of you, alone? I’m not so stupid. I’ll just wait for the others,” she replied.

“And what if I attacked you before they got here?” I smiled at her.

“As if you would do that,” she waved her hand, knowing all too well that I intentionally made it possible for them to take part in the game. The real main event was our battle with the leaders, after all.

“Do you want a drink?” Lien asked as Mia walked over to us.

“Mhm, what do you have?” she asked, nodding her head. While they started chatting and drinking as if nothing happened, I laid down on my sunbed and closed my eyes. The other leaders wouldn’t come over unless their totems were taken so we still had some time before the ‘main event’.

After making some simple cocktail for themselves, they both came over and laid down on their own sunbed. Seeing Lien holding one more glass of it in front of me, I took it from her with my brows raised, “Did you make one for me as well?”

“Of course, have I ever forgotten about you?” she asked, smiling at me.

“Well, no,” I muttered, sticking the straw into my mouth.

“By the way, before you two warm up to each other once again, how is the game going? Who has the most totems right now?” Mia asked as she started slurping.

“Gil has two and Awilix also has two but she’s being followed by a bunch of people so it’s likely that she’ll lose one if not all,” I replied.

“Gil? Who’s that? I don’t remember hearing his name before.”

“He has joined only recently and then left right away to deal with some personal business, so you had no way to meet him. Regardless, he was the only one who figured out the clues that I left for Lien’s trial and fought me without taking any too serious damage. He has great senses for battle and is fearless even when facing my magic,” I couldn’t help but praise him.

“Oh? I kind of want to meet him now. If not for having the power to resist your spells, I think that I’d rather avoid fighting you. I imagine it was quite hard on him since he had no way to block your spells, right?” she asked, shaking her head.

“Haha, you know that I don’t go easy on anyone but Lien, so yeah, he had to jump around and use as little movements as possible to avoid my spells,” I chortled, recalling the image of him jumping around like a rabbit for ten minutes. It was quite fun for me, though he probably didn’t enjoy it as much…

“Back in middle school you also had to jump around when fighting stronger classmates. Don’t you feel sorry for him?” Lien asked, shaking her head.

“Yes, so I know what it was like and I still beat them with barely any mana,” I stuck out my tongue.

“If only you had to face yourself, I’d like to see how you beat your opponent,” Mia also copied Lien’s movements.

“What? Don’t tell me that my teachings aren’t worth a bit of suffering? Even the five of you are willing to fight Lien and me just to receive my guidance, so are you really one to talk?” I asked with a frown.

“Fine, fine, you’re right,” she waved her hands.

As we continued chatting, the leaders whose totems were taken kept arriving one after the other, leaving only Ma’at. Shortly after Awilix got her third totem from Skadi, Zhong had finally made his move and stole it right away. Joining hands with Nü Wa, they chased Awilix straight to the stage and got on. Sadly for Nü Wa, she couldn’t get anything.

Soon after, some guy took Ma’at’s totem and returned to the stage, only to find out that his efforts were pointless. I honestly thought about rewarding the top four instead since there were seven totems in the game, including mine.

Maybe next time I’ll make my trial something they can complete but I’ll also revoke the instant first-place from it. Yeah, that’s how it should be.

Seeing that Ma’at arrived as well, Lien first offered her a drink and started chatting with her as usual. If looked at from outside, you’d probably think that we were getting ready for some friendly camping but in fact, all seven of us were ready for the battle.

Once Ma’at finished her drink, I jumped up from my sunbed and stretched my body. The stronger ones who felt our auras spreading out all knew that we were preparing for a battle so they came over in their interest, bringing along a bunch of lower ranked members who didn’t know what was good for them.

Walking over to the bunch, I drew a line in the sand and looked at them, “Don’t cross that line and you guys should protect them in case a spell goes astray.”

“Okay,” Chronos replied.

“We’ll do our best,” Poseidon’ and Zeus’ incarnation also agreed, along with a few others. There were about twenty S ranked people in the crowd that grew to the size of a hundred people, so I believed they would be safe. I also sensed more coming this way so I notified everyone on the island that they were allowed to leave the stage and come over if they wanted to watch our battle. It wouldn’t do any harm if they learned something from it.

Making my way back to the others, I stopped next to my wife and faced the other five. “How do you want to start this? Should I throw up something?” I asked as I used my trait to create a marble. Seeing them shrugging their shoulders, all seven of us transformed into our elemental forms.

In the complete elemental form, our bodies still looked humanoid but we all grew two meters tall, our bones became much sturdier and our muscles stronger. Our eyes also turned eight coloured, which looked quite weird in my opinion, but it clearly reflected that all the elements were imbued into our bodies. The main difference was that Instead of feathers, scales, and other similar mutations appearing on our bodies, they all turned into elemental barriers around us, still retaining their shape.

The barriers were very thin and were stacked upon each other, tightly fitting our bodies and covering them in a layer of pure elemental energy. The fire barrier was made up of red scales of energy, the wind was made from white feathers, the earth from rocks, and the nature element from vines. The lightning, wind, water, light, and dark elements all looked like thin gowns, each in their own colour.

The complete elemental form gave an incredible boost to our bodies but the reason none of us left it ‘turned on’ was that it was way too colourful. It’d have looked quite weird if I had to walk around while being surrounded by all kinds of magical armours and barriers, shining in the colours of a rainbow.

Seeing that everyone’s transformation finished, I wasted no time and threw the marble into the air which marked the start of our battle. The moment it touched the ground, Shawn, Lug, and Mia charged towards us with the speed of light while Ma’at and Skadi moved backwards in the same manner, planning to use their numbers to their advantage.

The reason they didn’t attack right away was also simple. Neither of them could beat me when it came to casting speed, so by the time they used an offensive or defensive spell, they’d have been caught up by my spell. The first step was very important in determining the outcome of a battle but I knew that they’d all move away, so I didn’t waste my time casting magic which targeted their original positions.

Rather, I cast a black hole right in front of me, followed by the most powerful gravity spell that I could use without wrecking the whole island, while Lien set up a defensive spell, surrounding the both of us. It came in handy since Ma’at and Skadi attacked from afar right away and we didn’t have to dodge their spells. They also cast two black holes right around us, with two gravity spells following right after.

Obviously, Lien’s barrier was meant to disrupt spatial spells while the gravity was something we could deal with easily. Thanks to our elemental bodies, in high-level magical battles, most of the spells were space related since we had to destroy each other’s bodies to kill one another. We planned to simply cancel the spell that’d finish our opponent and the loser would have to stop fighting. In my case, it’d obviously mean my loss.

They were truly at a disadvantage because my magical power was much stronger than theirs so they needed at least two people to stop my spells, and even then, they’d take some damage. Only three of them together were strong enough to nullify my spells.

They were really lucky to come forward with three of them. Combining their forces, Shawn, Lug, and Mia disrupted the mana particles in my spell, making it go wild and collapse into itself. It was still dangerous to get close to but with their speed, they easily sidestepped from its range and continued on their way towards me. Sure enough, physical strength had a limit and we all reached it, so if they started attacking us from a close range, we’d quickly get in trouble. Ma’at and Skadi could keep firing spells at us, even if we could block every physical attack with telekinesis.

The only problem was that there was no way to block them with telekinesis since they all had the weapons I made specifically against high-level opponents, such as myself. Their blades were enchanted with magic that could disrupt telekinesis, so they could easily cut me in half if I just relied on my usual defense. The blades also distorted space, completely removing everything from existence in their trail.

Seeing all three of them pulling out their weapons, Shawn with two daggers, Mia with a sword, and Lug with a spear, I really wanted to just destroy them right away, but killing them wasn’t an option.

“I’ll take the front, can you take care of Skadi? Ma’at is too troublesome,” I told Lien through telepathy but as expected, there was someone who was really annoying.

“Poor you, I keep telling everyone your next moves and plans,” Ma’at remarked while Lien just nodded.

Her power was quite concerning so I secretly started researching her commandment, after all, every commandment was possible to replicate. Although she told people that it couldn’t be turned off, as someone experienced in magic, I didn’t believe her and pressed on until she admitted the truth, though that happened quite a long time ago.

She just got used to peeking into other people’s minds ‘just for a moment’, and couldn’t stop herself at some point. That was why her ability was being used continuously instead. She gave up on trying to not to peek. Although I wasn’t there just yet, I at least found out that both traits and commandments were deeply related to our souls.

Her commandment made it possible for her to see right through our souls, giving her the ability to hear other people’s thoughts. Dorje Ta’og’s third eye had a similar effect but instead of thoughts, he could see our commandments, and glimpses of our past and memories.

Moving my fingers with the speed of lightning, I wrote the SOUL SEAL words in the air, creating a barrier around Lien’s and my soul. Seeing Ma’at frowning, my lips curled upwards. It wasn’t like this was the first time I used this spell, I’ve practised it on her plenty of times before and she never realised that I could block her mind reading.

“What did you do?” she shouted, though it wasn’t like anyone answered her question. Seeing Lien jumping towards her, instead of Skadi, her eyes opened wide, clearly not expecting it. Even when we moved our limbs, we subconsciously thought about the direction we wanted to move in, so she probably thought that she’d hear it if Lien wanted to change directions.

While she pulled out her whip to defend against Lien’s longsword, I used light magic to get past the three in front of me and arrived right behind Ma’at. Skadi wasn’t just standing around idly either and attacked Lien from behind by creating a supernova right next to her. Knowing that she couldn’t take that head-on, Lien focused on defense and stopped attacking while Ma’at was forced to accept defeat since I managed to grab the back of her head.

Her trait was also Alchemist but mine was Blank Alchemist, and considering the difference in magic power, I could have easily destroyed her body in the blink of an eye. Seeing her moving out of the way with light magic, I took on the other three who all launched their own WORD magic towards Lien in the meantime. It was easier to take her out so they wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible to focus entirely on me, but I wouldn’t allow them to touch my wife. It was also much more advantageous to have her helping me.

Using light magic, I moved my hand with the speed of light, writing three words in the air, LIFE, STOP, and BARRIER following one after the other. They clearly didn’t hold back the least bit since they used words such as DEATH, CRUMBLE, and ROOT.

First, the black and green energies clashed head-on, engulfing each other. Since my magic power was stronger, it easily devoured his WORD magic and then returned to me to heal me, though I had no wounds.

The other two words’ effects ended up similarly but I didn’t even wait for the outcome and moved towards Skadi. With the help of dark magic, Shawn appeared right behind me and thrust his daggers into my back. His stealth trait was really annoying, to say the least since it made it very hard to sense him in the middle of a battle.

Following up by activating his commandment, the light photons were sucked away from our surroundings, blinding us instantly. From the onlookers’ point of view, we probably disappeared along with our surroundings. Although there was no light and he could appear anywhere in his zone with his magic, I could still sense him.

They once again aimed for Lien but I quickly pulled back the photons, making us regain our eyesight, and while the photons were on their way back, I used dark magic to appear in front of Shawn and grab his face. Returning the favor from earlier, I smashed his head into the ground and then wanted to help Lien, only to see her utilising Shawn’s commandment to catch Skadi off-guard. Although Mia and Lug wanted to disrupt her, I used WORD magic to block them and so Lien managed to capture Skadi with a spatial spell.

Noticing that something was wrong, I wrote the DISPEL word in the air, clearing Lug’s illusion magic. Shawn’s dagger was still in my back and the other three were on their way to finish off Lien, who was still caught up in Lug’s illusion.

“Wake up,” I told her through Link, which caused the illusion to break.

Ma’at and Lug were the most annoying to fight but I had a way to deal with Ma’at so she wasn’t as much of a threat anymore and she also lost already. On the other hand, Lug covered everyone’s weapon in his soul force so no matter who wounded me, I’d be put into an illusion.

Surprised to see me breaking out of it so soon and that Lien also opened her eyes, Shawn used the LOCK word to stop me from moving. Much to his dismay, his magic power wasn’t enough to restrict me, so I broke out of it right away. Getting behind him with light magic, I elbowed him in the back with all my weight while I applied some physics law changes to my body. Much to his surprise, he flew towards the other three like a bolt of lightning.

Lug tried to catch him, just as I expected but the laws I applied to Shawn’s body got stuck to him as well, making him fall with the same speed as Shawn. Not having enough time to react, Mia couldn’t get out of the way either, and got caught up. Seeing them rolling in the air like a bunch of feathers, Lien quickly jumped after them and engulfed Lug’s body in spatial magic.

Knowing that it was his loss, he didn’t stop his rolling until he got further away from the battlefield. Of course, the other three were glad to see that it wasn’t their turn but realising that it was only three versus two and that we were still alright, their faces turned pale.

While Lien finished off Lug, I also moved over to the other three and caught Shawn and Skadi by the neck. Drawing the letters with my eyes, I used the SHACKLE word to stop them from moving while Lien used the DRAIN and REDUCE words to lay waste upon their mana pools. Normally that kind of spell wouldn’t work but since I restricted their movements and their mana for a moment, they couldn’t resist it and a huge portion of their mana poured out of their bodies.

Having no more than a few words remaining at their disposal, they understood that it was already their loss but they still continued fighting until they eventually got caught by me once again. With barely any mana in their bodies, I could destroy them with my trait instantly so they both gave up, leaving only Mia.

Landing on the ground in front of the sea, she sighed loudly and asked, “Can I forfeit?”

“If that’s what you want, but I won’t take it as a joke so don’t attack us afterwards,” I replied.

“No, no, I have no such plans,” she waved her hand. The wound that Shawn caused had healed long ago so we came out unscathed, just like the other five. At this level, victory and loss were mostly decided by casting speed, knowledge, and magical power. All of us could heal our bodies as long as a single cell remained from it so in case it was a real life and death battle, it’d have taken much more time to win.

Naturally, we had to watch our surroundings and couldn’t use any large-scale spells during our battle, limiting our possibilities. They did quite well fighting me in such a close range with so many limitations, so I was satisfied with the end result. If our battleground was the whole planet or space, Lien and I would have had a harder time.

“You guys did well,” I said, seeing them coming closer.

“Tsk, next time it’s going to be your loss,” Shawn clicked his tongue, probably fed up by continuously losing against me. He tried to ambush me every single day and he always failed, so losing in a direct battle surely didn’t make him feel good.

“Haha, you’ll have to work harder for that to happen,” I replied while the other residents just kept looking our way in awe. “You did great, dear,” I praised Lien as well.

“Thanks. I had a lot of fun,” she mused.

“Now then, if there are no more challengers, I’ll declare the top three,” I said in a low voice, using wind magic to carry my voice to everyone. Since nobody had any objections, I declared Zhong as the third, Awilix as the second, and Gil as the first place. Zhong had joined our ranks only two months ago so there weren’t many people who knew him, but Gil was even more of a mystery.

“Huh? But he doesn’t even feel that strong. Could it be that he can hide his aura?”

“I don’t think that’s the case. It’s not like you had to be the strongest to get in the top three,” people started whispering amongst each other as usual.

Since the three winners lined up in front of me, I erected a barrier around us and said, “Now then, do any of you know which spell you want me to teach you? All of you can request me to teach you one advanced spell and Gil can also choose a spell from the list.”

“I’d like to think about it. Mind if I bother you tomorrow?” Awilix asked, raising her brows. “I’ll, of course, notify you through my soul force in advance,” she added.

“It’s fine then, and you guys? Do you also want to think about it?” I asked, glancing at the other two.

“Yes,” Gil nodded.

“I know what I want. I’d like to learn the portal magic,” Zhong said, raising his finger.

“Alright, I’ll teach you after the holiday. Your one-week long break is also going to start once we return,” I added, turning towards Awilix and Gil.

“That’s great. I have a few ideas about what I want and that much time should be enough for me to learn any of them,” she smiled at me.

“Good. Now then…” stepping to the side, I once again talked to all the residents on the island, “With this, the first event has come to an end. You may spend your time here with whatever you want until the start of the next event, which is going to take place tomorrow in the morning at nine.”

“In case some of you don’t want to attend school this month, you aren’t required to make an appearance tomorrow. In case it’s something very important, you can find us here but otherwise, please contact the other leaders.”

“Wait a moment,” Gil chimed in, seeing that I finished talking.

Out of curiosity, Awilix and Zhong both stopped to hear what he wanted to say while everyone else started leaving the area.

“What is it?” I asking, raising a brow.

“Is this about your commandment?” Shawn stepped forward and asked.

“Yes,” Gil nodded and then continued, “As you probably know, I inherited the commandment and knowledge of Chaac, the Mayan god of rain. What may interest you is that when it starts raining, I can sense everything and everyone under the clouds.”

“Oh? Could it be that you can sense Sylvanus’ doppelgangers as well? Despite being weak, they’re still covered in Sylvanus’ mana so I can’t seem to find them by normal means,” I said with a frown.

“Yes, when it’s raining, I can sense them and there is one more thing. One of them is here… on this island,” he said. “It’s also different than the one I’ve sensed near Panama.”

“A different kind of doppelganger?” I couldn’t help but frown upon hearing that.

“Well, yes,” he nodded.

“Could it be…?” I muttered, thinking that maybe it wasn’t just a doppelganger. If that really was the case, our holiday would be very short-lived. Regardless, I had to check it out personally.

“Show me the way,” I commanded him.