The Mage Emperor

Training

Since the kids were excited to get into action, I took them straight to the training grounds while Lien changed her clothes. The air of the Great Forest was quite humid and hot, so we were all lightly dressed, my wife going as far as to wear a bikini with a very short skirt.

The place called the training ground was a giant colosseum that went through many changes over the years and improved in many ways. It was a hundred meters tall, two kilometers wide, and one kilometer long. It was the largest building in Leviathan, constantly bringing awe upon those that saw it, especially if it was their first time.

Its giant glass doors opened automatically as we passed through and a spacious waiting hall welcomed us. The circular hall had numerous food stalls and bars all around which were run by non-combatant people. The sparring partners usually sat down in those bars to exchange their experiences and opinions about each other’s mistakes and strong points, usually sipping on their favorite drinks in the meantime.

“Woaaaah! This is so cool!” Reiner jumped up as he looked upwards.

“Look, there is a weapon store!” Felice pointed out, quickly drawing her brother’s attention towards the tip of her finger.

“Father, can we look at it?” my son asked.

“Go ahead. Since you are here, you might as well check those out but be careful because they are dangerous,” I waved my finger as I warned them.

“Yay!” they ran off happily while I stayed in the middle of the door and stared at their backs.

“Hoof- I’m back,” Lien appeared next to me with a gasp, wearing tight black shorts and a shoulderless white blouse.

"You smell nice," I muttered as my eyes wandered into her cleavage. "Frilly white," I added, seeing her bra.

"Come on, don't be so hungry right away, you can look at them later," she said as she grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the kids.

“Greetings, Lord Seth, Miss Lien,” two ‘youngsters’ bowed as they walked past us while we were chatting.

“Hello…” I forced a smile on my face.

“Do I look like an old man? And why am I ‘Lord Seth’ now?” I frowned as I looked at Lien.

“Well, aren’t you the ‘Mage Emperor’? You no longer bother personally introducing yourself to the newcomers either and these two are about sixteen years old. I suppose they are new and don’t know that you don’t like these stupid titles,” she shrugged her shoulders.

Since the two were still close enough to hear everything, they turned around to apologize, “Sir, I’m sorry if-”

“Dude, there is no need for that. Just call me Seth and stop bowing. There’s no need for special treatment when you see me. I’m only twenty-six years old anyway,” I waved my hand.

Opening his mouth wide, he looked after my children and then back at me.

“What are you surprised for? We were nineteen when they came. They’re only eight years old…”

“Oh, sorry. I was just surprised because I thought you were older,” the guy replied, scratching the back of his head.

“When they came? It’s not like we found them on the street~” Lien mused as she secretly grabbed my ass and squeezed it.

“What a view right in the door!” a familiar voice came from behind.

It was Pele and Cu Chulainn who were with me when I went on a secret mission to catch the Germs. Despite my brand new shiny ‘title’, those who knew me were still behaving casually in my presence which I was really glad for.

“What view?” I asked as I turned around.

“Lien was squeezing your ass,” she giggled as she pointed at her hand.

Appearing next to her, Lien threw her arm around Pele’s shoulder and pulled her closer, “What are you talking about? What did you see?”

“Uhm- nothing, really nothing!” Pele rolled her eyes playfully.

“Good then.”

“Erm, we will be going then. It was nice to meet you,” the guys behind me chimed in and left in a hurry.

“Are you here to start training your children?” Pele asked, rolling her red hair around her finger.

“I could play around with them if you want me to,” she added.

“Hmm, thanks for the offer but they had plenty of those fights. You’re a Magister now so they wouldn’t stand a chance against you,” I replied.

“It sounds like you’ve had them fight before. Maybe you should just make some simple winning conditions like touching some part of your body or something,” she said, still not getting what I meant.

“As I said, they have gone through those already. They need someone at the same level as them,” I shook my head.

"Oops? I guess I misunderstood it and was talking pointlessly. I'm sorry."

"It's fine," I waved my hand.

“Have they ever won?” Cu chulainn asked.

“Well…” I started but seeing the look on my face, they immediately cut into my words.

“Don’t tell me… who were their opponents?” Pele rolled her eyes.

“It was either me, Lien, or one of her apostles. But they have won against each other and beasts,” I replied.

Covering her face, she said, “But you are all freaks of magic! How could they even win? They are going to lose all their confidence this way.”

The soul language was still a secret so I couldn’t tell her that I always watched out for that and knew that they had no such problems. Quickly coming to my aid, Lien replied, “There is no need to worry about our children. We know what we are doing and if you look at them, you can see that they are quite energetic and happy. Rest assured, we didn’t forget about their emotions either.”

“Fine then,” she nodded.

“She’s quite nosy now, sticking her nose into other people's stuff. What’s gotten into her?” I asked Lien through Link.

“She’s pregnant. I noticed it when I touched her,” she replied.

“Ohoho~”

“Are you worried because you are also pregnant?” I smirked.

“...”

“I see that your eyes can still see through me, even if I’m a Magister,” she shook her head.

“Although I could have seen it if I wasn’t lazy to scan your body but it was Lien who told me,” I replied.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, since you want to find someone at the same level, we will take our leave,” she smiled at us and then left.

“Felice, look at this, it’s so cool!” Reiner showed about the hundredth weapon to his sister while we were chatting.

“Hi, I wasn’t sure if I should help them in picking a weapon so I decided to wait until you come here,“ Jordan greeted us as we got closer. 

“Hello. You can go and help the others if they need it, I’ll take care of them,” I said, waving my hand.

“Alright then,” he nodded his head, going back to help a group of newcomers whose behavior was similar to my son’s. Jordan was a fanatic blacksmith nearing the end of his life when Leviathan opened its gates, giving him the opportunity to join our community and learn some new smithing methods. I also replaced his old body with a newer one, giving him another fifty years of lifespan. At that time, I told him that it was a one-time service and if he wanted to keep on living, he would have to become stronger on his own and learn how to stay ‘immortal’.

Considering that our smithing techniques required a lot of magic power and mana, he obviously chose to train and reached the Sage rank. If he was a bit stronger, he could have become a sparring partner for my children but that wasn’t the case, unfortunately. His job was to smith weapons for the training grounds and help out the newcomers in picking a weapon.

Looking at the newcomers, I noticed two guys in the group who were sneaking glances at Lien’s ass, so I quickly put my hand on her bottom to cover it.

“You’re so silly,” she snickered, still allowing me to keep my hand there.

As I continued staring at our children, pretending that I didn’t notice their sneaky eyes, I could sense that they looked at me and then back at Lien’s ass. Lightly squeezing it while they were watching, I couldn’t help but laugh inwardly.

“How can you be so childish?” Lien rolled her eyes as she looked at me and then gave a short glance to the guys who quickly turned away.

“If I always acted mature, I wouldn’t be able to laugh at silly things like these,” I chortled as she leaned on my arm, deciding that it was better to ignore whatever I was doing.

After scanning their bodies and souls, I was surprised to see that despite being newcomers, their power was close to the Warlord rank and that they were god incarnations. Moving Lien to the side, I went closer to Felice and Reiner and told them about that group of four who could serve as their sparring partner. Excited by the idea, they quickly put the weapons they held back to their place and ran up to the group.

The group had three guys and one girl in it, all of them reaching a similar level close to the Warlord rank. Although they were slightly weaker than Felice and Reiner, they were four people which was a huge advantage in a battle. I didn’t know how experienced they were but I was sure that they had a good chance to win.

For some reason Reiner chose to turn to the black-haired girl with his challenge and tugged on her dress to catch her attention. Turning around, her eyes stopped on us but seeing that we were a few steps away, she looked down and realised that it was a child that wanted something from her.

“Hello cutie, what can I help you with?” she smiled at him, throwing her black hair over her shoulder.

Felice quickly ran up to Reiner’s side and asked, “What did she say?”

“Wait, I’m about to ask,” he replied and then once again looked at the girl, “Hi, Miss. I’m sorry for bothering you but I want to challenge your group for a battle.”

Her eyes opened wide upon hearing his request but her silence soon turned into laughter, catching the attention of the people nearby. “I’m sorry but it would be too dangerous for you to fight against us. You should go and find other kids to play around with.”

Curious to see how this would continue, I even took a step back and pulled Lien with me.

“Miss, I can feel that your magic power is weaker than ours but you’re older and probably more experienced. I think that we could learn from you if we fought!” Felice said politely.

“This may be the best choice. They are new and don’t know who we are so they should have no problem accepting their challenge,” I told Lien through Link.

“Mhm,” she nodded.

“Where are your parents?” the girl asked as she squatted down and put her hand on Reiner’s shoulder.

“We’re right here. Is there a problem?” Lien asked, pretending that she didn’t hear any of the conversation from before.

“There is no problem. It’s just that your children want to challenge us for a battle,” the girl forced a smile on her face, glancing back and forth between Lien and me.

“Oh, I’ve heard that. What’s the matter with it?” Lien asked with a smile, staring back at the girl.

“Are you being serious?” the black-haired girl frowned.

“Can’t you sense their magic power? Or are you looking down on them because of their age?” Lien couldn’t help but furrow her brows similarly, but for a different reason.

Staring at Lien in silence for a few seconds, she sighed loudly and said, “I can’t sense anything so please stop joking. I thought that people were smarter in here and here you are, trying to pick a fight with us.”

Noticing a black ring both of Felice’s and Reiner’s fingers, I couldn’t help but cry out and cover my face as I realised what caused the confusion. “My goodness, of course, she can’t sense it. They are wearing the ring we gave them.”

“Oh… Didn’t we tell you to take them off when you come here?” Lien frowned as she looked at Reiner and then Felice.

“But Mother, you said that we should never take it off because it can save our lives and hide our abilities. I thought you were kidding,” Felice replied as she took it off.

I made and enchanted those rings personally for their fourth birthday. The ring had a powerful defensive formation and alert system in it, along with a masking effect that would hide their mana from outsiders’ eyes. This meant that while we could sense their mana, others probably thought that they were just common children with no power.

Once they took off their rings, their mana quickly rushed out of their bodies and wrapped around the girl’s body under their control. Sensing their magic power and realising that some kids were stronger than her, she gaped in confusion.

Her mates also stopped picking weapons and turned around to hear what was going on and seemed to be even more surprised than her.

“Gina? What’s going on?” the square-faced guy asked as he hugged the girl from behind.

“We’ve been challenged,” she muttered.

“Is that so? Let’s accept it then! I’ve been itching to have a go at it with someone from this legendary place," the guy said with enthusiasm.

"Ben… they are our challengers," Gina pointed at Reiner and Felice who stood side by side.

"Oh."

"Hey, youngsters, let me give you a piece of advice. You shouldn't look down on those kids or you will end up losing," Jordan helped out from the side, noticing that we didn't want to butt in too much.

"Thanks," I used wind magic to carry my voice only to him.

Winking back at me, he sat down in his chair and continued observing us.

"Let's just accept it then," Ben shrugged his shoulders.

“Is it really alright?” Gina frowned as she looked at Lien. Since they were still new here, they found it strange that some kids wanted to challenge them and that their parents supported the idea. I wouldn’t want to fight a kid either in their place so I found the whole thing relatable. For a normal person, it was definitely weird, but there were quite a lot of kids in Leviathan who were powerful enough to beat adults’ asses so those who lived here weren’t surprised when they came across this kind of situation.

“You’ll get accustomed to it in the future… but thanks to the positive effects of the high mana density and practical education, kids tend to be smarter and more mature here than in the outside world. Please stop making that worried face and either accept or refuse their request. As for your previous statement, nobody is going to pick a fight with you randomly just to bother you, even least so because you are all new here,” I chimed in from the side, finally having enough of listening to all this bullshit and thinking.

“I’ve heard good things about this place before so I’m going to believe you,” she finally made up her mind and agreed.

“Where should we go then? It’s our first time here,” Ben asked while the other two came a bit closer as well. They were the ones with the sneaky eyes…

“Miss, our challenge is against your whole group,” Felice said, hoping to clarify that it wasn’t supposed to be a two versus two.

“Eh?”

“If they lose, they lose, it’s their problem for overestimating their own abilities. But to be honest, I don’t think that’s the case. It depends on your teamwork,” Lien decided to help out a bit more, even though the plan was to stay away and just watch from the side. Then again, they challenged newcomers and not older members who would just accept or refuse their challenge.

“Alright then… may I know your names?” she asked.

“My name is Reiner and she is my sister, Felice,” Reiner replied while I was still thinking about what to say. I didn’t think that telling them my real name at this moment was a good idea but by the time I opened my mouth, Lien replied, “My name is Lisa and he is my husband, Lester.”

It seemed we were thinking about the exact same thing. After chatting with the group a bit more and getting more friendly with each other, we learned that the other two guys were called Set and Oliver. They had quite a lot of questions since they were new but they were in luck since we could answer every question they had.

About ten minutes later, they finally stopped asking questions and got ready to fight, “Thank you for the information. It was really helpful and easier to understand than the info book that we’ve got when we entered.”

“No problem, though I wonder what was hard to understand in the info book,” I replied, feeling a little bitter inside after hearing that remark.

“Well, who would want to read a book after entering a beautiful place like this with so many things to discover? I know it’s stupid that I haven’t read it but I was kind of excited to look around. I didn’t expect to be challenged right away,” Gina laughed as she explained what she meant, making me want to facepalm.

"I guess it's reasonable," I muttered.

"By the way, have you ever met the emperor?" she whispered as she leaned closer to us.

"The what?" I blurted out, my eye twitching.

"The mage emperor, that's how people call him. It's said that he could bring down any nation with a single spell. Is that true?" like some kind of fangirl, she threw another set of questions towards me. She seemed to be quite excited while talking about me.

I kind of wondered why so I asked, "I've met him and it’s kind of true but what about it? Are you some kind of fan?"

"Well, you could say that. But who doesn't look up to such a powerful magician? It’s not easy to become so powerful but you surely know that since you’ve been here for five years, as you said," she replied, making me feel more and more embarrassed just by listening. The five years was also part of our fake introduction, naturally.

“Ah, yes, my love. I can’t even imagine how hard it was to screw me on a daily basis for the past ten years. How terrible, you poor soul~” Lien sneered at me through Link, clearly enjoying the sight of my suffering.

Since I didn’t respond for some time, she seemed to misunderstand something and asked, “Why are you silent? You know that I was just joking, right? You’ve invented a lot of spells yourself which was the result of your own hard work. I’m sorry if you misunderstood it and I hurt you.”

“What? Hell, no. I’m just wondering about how to respond to her. I didn’t know I had fans since she is the first one I’ve met.”

“Are you sure she is the first? I’m also your fan~” Lien mused.

Stepping closer to her, I wrapped my arm around her waist and whispered into her ear - “I know, but you are a special fan who receives special treatment from me.” Since I blocked my voice from spreading elsewhere, the group just looked at us with suspicion. Although Gina was definitely a beauty, I could see that Lien didn’t consider her a threat even after she heard her openly admitting that she was my fan. It kind of felt nice to see that my love trusted me so much and she was right in doing so.

Just about a second passed by in reality while we were bantering and Reiner instantly opened his big mouth to spout nonsense, “But Dad, aren’t you the m-” quickly covering his mouth, I changed the topic, “Seth aside, why don’t you start your battle? I want to see if my children can stand their ground against you.”

“What about me?” the guy named Set asked cluelessly, not realising the slight difference in our names and their pronunciation.

“He said Seth, not Set,” Ben rolled his eyes.

“Let’s go then,” Gina replied, seemingly getting a little excited by the idea.

I quickly led them to the receptionist who almost blew our cover upon seeing us but I managed to shut her mouth and book a room before anything happened. Most people had good senses and while Gina’s group was wondering why some people suddenly stopped talking mid-sentence, I managed to draw the attention of other older members who realised what was going on.

Although they stayed away and kept quiet, I could see that almost everyone in the building started sneaking glances at us and the giant screens that hung from the ceiling. By default, the battles in the training grounds would be shown on the corresponding screen, though it was possible to request that the receptionist turn it off.

I naturally kept it a secret for the time being since I wanted to see the battle so Gina and company were left clueless.

“So what do we do now?” Ben asked as we left the receptionist booth.

Leading them to the middle of the building, I replied, “As you can see there is a small glass room in the middle. Once we get there, we can use the card we’ve got from the receptionist to open a gate to a separate space. I’ve picked plains as a terrain so both sides will be fighting frontally.”

“And how can we get out?” Felice asked.

“By using these,” I smiled at her as I placed a small cube-shaped rock onto her palm and then handed over one to everyone.

“Once you crush it, the gate will re-open and you can leave the separate world. Actually, it’s enough if only one of you crushes the rock since you can cross through the same gate as long as it’s opened. You also don’t have to fear getting stuck there because these spaces are just subspaces of Leviathan itself. Basically, Seth can get you out or move you to any space at any time he wants,” I explained, trying to ignore Reiner and Felice who were continuously snickering towards the end of my explanation. For some reason, they found it funny that I wanted to hide my identity.

“Yes, Seth can definitely get you out, right? Dad?” Felice laughed.

“What’s up with you little ones?” Gina raised her brows, confused by their change of behaviour. They were pretty quiet before but now they couldn’t stop giggling and snickering as if their brains would have turned into vegetables.

“It’s nothing,” I rolled my eyes.

“Alright, you two stop laughing and get prepared instead,” Lien quickly calmed them down by grabbing the back of their heads and leading them away to talk with them.

“Once you enter the battlefield, there will be two houses on both sides where you can change your clothes, one for women and one for men. You can obviously change together as well if you don’t mind it. While it doesn’t take much to rebuild them, I’d be happy if you-” realising that I almost blew my own cover, I cleared my throat and fixed my sentence by continuing it with a lie, “if you didn’t destroy it since I’m the maintainer of these battlefields and I would have to rebuild it.”

It was lucky they didn’t know that there was no such position in Leviathan. Then again, building a changing room could be done in just a second with my trait so it was really no big deal.

“And what should we change into?” Oliver chimed in from the side, confused by my lacking explanation.

“Ah, sorry. I forgot to mention that there will be multiple magic-resistant and enchanted bodysuits that will stop a deadly attack if the user can’t defend against it anymore. You can fight as you are but nobody can assure your safety if the fight turns a bit more serious and there is no overseer. I will go in with you in this case since it’s your first time but I still recommend using them,” I said.

“I’ve got it, thanks,” he replied, seemingly excited to check it out right away. Little did the people of Leviathan know that in reality, those bodysuits weren’t enchanted. Thanks to Lien’s commandment, I had a very powerful barrier on my body at all times and after experimenting a bit with her, we realised that her barrier worked on every part of my body, including my hair, even if I plucked one out.

I had to admit her commandment was quite broken, especially if it was mixed with my commandment. Those clothes just had a gem embedded into the chest-area which contained a strand of my hair. If someone was about to get shot to the death by a spell, Lien’s commandment would activate on my hair and protect the person’s most important organs and head. Many people had the ability to heal lost limbs but only those at the Magister rank had the ability to heal even if their heads fell off.

Since my body including my hair was full of high-quality mana cells and drew in mana naturally, those clothes were actually useful even during meditation. I never thought that one day even my hair would turn into a life-saving treasure and since my hair didn’t fall out naturally, it didn’t cause a problem either. I just had to replace it at the start of every week to make sure that they were in good condition and destroy the old ones.

Imagining some guy finding my hair in a cave and shouting in joy, that he found a protective treasure, I couldn’t help but cry inwardly. With my magic power going beyond two million, even if the effect was weaker than on my body, it was more than enough to stop any attack on the planet.

Felice and Reiner didn’t really need that suit though since all of their clothes were enchanted by me, not to mention that they were also protected by Lien’s commandment. They could easily survive a nuke without a scratch.

Once we crossed the gate, I led the kids to the men's changing room and made them wear the suits. They were still bathing together and weren't at that age yet so changing together was no big deal.

“So how do I put this on?” Reiner asked with a frown, staring at the green gem in his hand, standing there in his underpants.

“You don’t start with that,” I laughed at him as I opened one of the many drawers in the wall and took out a black coloured ball.

“What is that?” Felice frowned in suspicion upon seeing it.

“It’s a short story, are you sure you want to hear it?” I asked.

“I do,” Reiner replied.

“Me too,” Felice followed.

Smiling at them, I said, “You see, people often tore their clothes in the past during the battles when the fights got a bit rougher which was quite annoying, especially for women. As a result, they came to the training ground less often which also resulted in poorer quality and imbalance. This black ball was my attempt to address the matter and after some tweaks it turned out to be a huge success.”

“It’s made of an elastic composite material that is capable of growing indefinitely and repairing itself as long as it is supplied with mana, but there is a catch!” I waved my finger.

“It is creating something out of ‘nothing’ which as you have learned is very energy consuming and this caused problems for the low-ranked magicians who ran out of mana after casting one or two spells, or in extreme cases, just the cloth taking shape sucked them dry.”

“The gem you are holding contains a strand of my hair, but you know, you must keep that a secret,” I raised my hand to my lips as I winked at him.

“I know, I won’t tell anyone!” he replied.

“Well, that gem is also enchanted with mana-gathering runes that can draw in enough energy to feed this ball without using any of your own mana. Once you put them together, you’ll be able to see what happens,” I said as I passed the ball to him and then gave one to Felice as well, along with another gem.

Taking one myself, I showed them what to do, “Put the ball to your chest and then push the gem into it.”

Doing as told, the ball suddenly exploded like a bubble gum and covered their whole bodies from head to toe. Since the gem was pushed into the ball in front of their chest, it got embedded into the suit and supplied it with just the bare minimum to sustain its shape.

“You can now use your mana to sense the material and remove it from your head or anywhere you want by dispelling the mana in it.”

Seeing their suits popping and their heads revealed a moment later, I couldn’t help but smile knowing that others were being lousy and took up to five minutes to do this. Like seriously, magicians should always surround themselves with dispelling to prevent ambushes and weaken the effect of other magicians’ attacks.

That was how I fought most of my opponents in middle school when I barely had any mana in my body and was limited to my own mana. When I saw magicians who came here with the magic power of Sages and didn’t even know how to dispel mana, I kind of felt like kicking them in the face, of course, I have always restrained myself. Since then, the first lesson the newcomers take is always about dispelling and the wonderful possibilities they hold.

Ruffling Reiner’s brown hair, I said, “Alright, you two can go out now, but first~” grinning as I looked at Felice, I picked her up and gave a big juicy kiss on her face.

“Nooo! Dad, my face will be covered in saliva!” she tried to push my head away but unfortunately for her, she was far too weak.

Seeing that Reiner started walking towards the exit on his toes, I grabbed the back of his suit and raised him up while still holding Felice. Turning him around, I smiled at him as I asked, “Did you think you’d get away without my kiss?”

“No?” he asked, forcing a smile on his face.

Just as he finished talking, Lien appeared next to us and asked, “How are you doing? I have shown Gina how to use it so she is ready.”

“It’s kiss time here,” I chortled, giving one to Reiner as well who received it quietly. Although they were trying to push my head away and complained about it, I could see them smiling afterward like some fools. Placing them on the ground, I left to show the guys how to use the ball but by the time I arrived, they were all ready to fight.

There was a giant sign on the wall that explained how to wear it and considering that all the newcomers have understood and learned how to do it on their own up till now, I wasn’t surprised. I just wanted to check on them and speed up the process in case they didn’t get something on the first try.

Since they were all ready, I moved to the side of the battlefield and made a bench with nature magic, also adding some cushions with the help of my trait. Once Lien sat down, I turned on my side and laid my head on her thigh to watch the battle.

“You’re going to be in trouble if you plan to watch from there,” Ben spoke up once he came out and noticed our ‘strange’ position.

“You’ll probably move around a lot anyway but let me assure you, you don’t have to worry about our safety,” I simply waved it off, earning a short but defiant glare from him.

It wasn’t like people were some kind of angels in Leviathan, they just generally had a much better and friendlier mindset than people outside, combined with some good qualities like being hardworking and the ability to learn from their mistakes. In fact, the latter was one of the most important aspects of Leviathan’s entrance tests and ironically, the one that made most people fail.

He didn’t seem to believe my claim but he didn’t know who I was so it was understandable. Still, it was quite lovely to see that he also had that bit of arrogance and defiance that all the newcomers had who were powerful and thought they could live up to the standards of Leviathan without doing anything. It wasn’t impossible since half of my knowledge came from my commandment and I also did it somehow but I had yet to see a person like that who was also arrogant. Wise people with knowledge were much less likely to be arrogant.

I had to admit I always found joy in watching arrogant people getting demolished by their peers whose magic power was at a similar level. If I was the one who did it, it would be just bullying which I wasn’t fond of and it would be quite pointless as well. I never felt the need to show off to anyone, even if I had to for the sake of the greater good or because of the mood. Considering that most of the magicians in Leviathan were or would be capable of destroying countries once they grew strong enough, I had to properly educate and beat some specific qualities into them.

“How do we start?” Gina asked as she looked at me, ignoring the matter.

“Just shout start once both sides are ready,” I replied.

"We have our own plans, we are good to go," Reiner replied.

"In that case, START!" she yelled out and a giant number three appeared between the two sides. It was just a small trick with light magic.

As the number changed to two, both sides took a stance and stood up in their formations, focusing on the opposing side with a strong gaze. Once the number hit zero, it disappeared from the field and Gina's party lunged forward while Felice and Reiner recklessly teleported straight into the middle of the enemy and attacked Set who was the furthest in the back.

They were smart enough to focus on a single target instead of splitting up so while Reiner slid through between the guy’s legs and cut them off with a spatial blade, Felice jumped up and thrust a mini white dwarf towards the guy’s head.

It was a certain death for him so Felice stopped her hand in the nick of time and threw the white dwarf towards Oliver who turned around to help out his friend. With the help of telekinesis, I quickly pulled Set out of the fight and made him fly to our bench, along with his severed legs.

“Can you heal it or do you need help?” I asked while the battle continued.

Oliver set up a powerful gravity field to offset the pull of the white dwarf while Gina and Ben ran past him with a serious expression on their faces. They probably realised that this battle was really not some kind of joke where they could laze around and throw spells randomly.

“Uh- help!” Oliver yelled at them from behind, realising that his magic power wasn’t enough to create a powerful enough gravity field. Knowing that if they turned around, they would end up just like Set, Gina and Ben were forced to a halt and cast a barrier around Oliver to keep him safe.

While the white dwarf made the barriers crack and lowered to the ground, Oliver stepped to the side and ran up to his friends, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. The gravitational pull of the white dwarf was so powerful that it ripped up the ground even a kilometer away and made the splinters and rocks shoot towards its center.

In the meantime, my children combined their magic power to cast a giant gravity zone that was the size of a large mansion, capable of pushing away anything in its path. By the time their opponents wanted to attack, they had to face an even bigger threat than the white dwarf.

As they threw the gravity zone towards the trio, they moved to its sides to cut off their opponents’ escape path. If the gravity zone and the white dwarf continued on their way, the trio would be squeezed to death between them by the power of the gravity. As the zone got closer and closer, the stronger it pushed the trio backwards, straight into the white dwarf that grew to the size of a small hill in the meantime.

Looking to the left and to the right, they finally made up their mind to attack Reiner and ignore Felice to get out of that mess. While Oliver and Ben went straight to attack Reiner, Gina tried to back out instead while keeping watch on Felice. Unfortunately for her, the gravity zone was a bit quicker and more powerful than she expected and in just a moment, she could no longer offset its power with her own gravity magic and got thrown off of her feet, flying straight towards the white dwarf.

Since I didn’t want the battle to end because my children had to cancel their spell, I used my own spell to drag Gina out of the gutter and made her land next to Set. Seeing that they could safely continue, Felice hurled her hill-sized white dwarf towards Oliver’s back. Ignoring the threat from behind, Ben broke through Reiner’s barrier with a sword of light and Oliver struck him in the chest with his palm.

Seeing that Lien’s commandment activated, I knew that it was a deadly shot and quickly pulled him out with telekinesis, making him the third one to ‘die’ in the battle. He didn’t have to wait for long, though, since Ben and Oliver got engulfed in the white dwarf and their suit automatically protected them while Felice cancelled her spell.

Rushing back to Reiner, she looked at him with her eyes drooped and said, “I’m sorry that it turned out this way. You would have died if it was a real battle.”

“It’s fine sis. We still have a lot to learn, maybe next time it won’t happen,” he smiled at her.

I found it quite lovely that they cared about each other so much and seeing Lien secretly smiling at the scene, I knew she felt the same.

“Are you alright?” Ben asked as he slowly walked up to his teammates, his eyes reflecting a mixture of surprise, shock, and disappointment. He surely didn’t think that they would end up losing, though it was sort of a loss for my children as well since Reiner ‘died’.

“We are fine…” Gina replied, feeling equally low.

“Dad, Mom? How did we do?” Felice asked as she climbed into Lien’s lap and put her tiny hand on my forehead.

“It was fine for your first battle with limitations. You are used to using soul attacks as well but now that you weren’t allowed to do it, you had much more trouble dealing with your opponents. If not for the importance of soul force, I would make you fight this way more often,” I replied.

Attacking one’s soul was much more effective than casting flashy spells, not to mention that it didn’t harm the environment either. They were more used to casting soul attacks than these large spells but they did well in controlling their opponents’ movements. Considering that they were all Warlord ranked and that their magic usage was limited, their performance was quite impressive.

“Which reminds me…” noticing the mountain that formed because of Felice’s spell, I used some earth magic and flattened the ground.

“Can we go for a second round?” Reiner asked, hoping that they could do better next time.

“No, not now,” I shook my head, pointing at his opponents.

Realising that they were in a bad mood, Reiner walked over and put his hand on Ben’s shoulder, “Uncle, don’t mind it please. We’ve also lost many times before and I think that it’s normal that we’re stronger than others since we were taught by Father and Mother.”

“Thanks but I don’t think that’s a good excuse for us,” he forced a smile on his face. I would also want to dig a hole and hide if I lost to a kid, I could relate to their feelings.

Knowing that it was time to end this lie, I stood up and picked up on their conversation, “I’m sorry to interrupt you but I have something to tell you all.” Raising their heads, they all stared at me with interest. “I must confess something. I’ve lied to you about our identity and occupation earlier and even though it was a bit dirty, you were the best option so I went through with it."

“What do you mean?” Gina asked with a frown.

“It’s just that my real name is Seth Clearfall and I’m the creator and current leader of this place. As for my wife, her real name is Lien and she is the second in command in Leviathan,” I replied. I wasn’t fond of lying but for the sake of our kids, I was willing to do it this once. Although I knew I could have just asked someone at their level to spar against them, it would be more of a request that nobody would dare to refuse and I felt that it would be like abusing my own power.

I had no trouble ordering around others for the sake of Leviathan and ‘the greater good’, but the training of my children was a personal matter so I didn’t feel that ordering someone to fight them was a good thing. I didn’t want to mix things with my personal matters. I had to admit, though, lying to others to achieve the exact same thing wasn’t any better. Worst of all, we did it in front of Felice and Reiner, giving them a good example of what they shouldn’t do…

I guess I’ll have to talk about this with them in the evening.

“Are you serious?” Ben asked, forcing a smile on his face.

“I am,” I nodded. “I do feel bad for lying to you so how about I teach you something in return?”

“Of course!” Gina jumped up right away, forgetting all about her loss.

“Well, it’s totally worth it if it’s like this, so I can’t feel angry with you,” Ben scratched the back of his head, trying to hide his smile.

“Dear, it’s not like you were the only one doing it so how about I teach them something instead?” Lien chimed in as she leaned on the backrest of the bench.

“Are you sure about that? Aren’t your hands already full of teaching your apostles and others?” I asked.

“It’s fine. Or we could just let them pick someone,”  she replied.

Turning towards the group, we waited for them to say something.

“How about both of you teach us then?” Oliver asked with a smile, hiding some greed.

Looking at each other, both of us shrugged and agreed with it. "Fine then, I’ve also come up with an idea. Although you seem to be lacking in proper offensive and defensive spells, you will be able to learn many of those if you attend classes and train properly. I'll teach you how to divide your consciousness which is something you wouldn’t be able to learn unless someone taught you or you realised how to do it yourself. Is that fine with you?"

"Yohoo!" they all jumped up, sort of answering my question.

“It seems to be alright with them,” Lien giggled as she stood up and stretched her arms. Noticing that Oliver and Set were basically undressing her with their eyes again, I started massaging my temples as I thought about warning them, but realising that it was pretty much pointless, I just sucked it up and sighed loudly. It seemed I would never get used to seeing other men staring at my wife that way but I probably wasn’t the only man on the planet who felt that way.

“You like what you’re seeing?” Lien asked with a smile, much to my surprise. The only time she called out someone for staring at her was when it annoyed her. Maybe it bothered her because she knew she would have to teach them later.

Stammering for a moment, they quickly apologised and hung their heads in shame and fear, not even daring to look at me.

Whatever, it’s not like I would be any different if she wasn’t my woman. They were just twenty years old anyway so they were in the prime of their lives.

“What are you talking about?” Gina and Ben asked at the same time as they turned around, ignorant of the whole matter.

“The uncles were staring at mother like father does,” Felice pointed at Oliver.

“Hahaha,” Lien started laughing as she looked at me.

Squatting down next to Felice, I pulled her into my arms and then stood up. “You shouldn’t sell out your father like that, you know?” I whispered to her.

“It’s not like I didn’t know about it,” Lien replied.

“But Mom is doing the same when father comes out of the shover, though they usually go together,” Reiner came to my aid, though the last part was really unnecessary.

“It’s because I love your father and he also loves me,” Lien said with a smile as she picked up Reiner and opened a portal to go back to the colosseum.

“Then do the uncles also love mother?” Reiner asked as he looked at the people in question.

“No, it’s different in their case but you’ll learn about it later as you grow older,” she replied and then crossed the portal while the others went to change back to their clothes. In the meantime I sat down with Lien and the kids in one of the bars on the side and ordered some food for everyone.

When the others came back and started eating, I asked, “Would you mind becoming Felice and Reiner’s sparring partners for one week?”

“Do we get another extra reward?” Gina asked, winking at me.

“To be honest, I had no such plans. It’s not because I want to be stingy but because I have realised that you are quite lacking in combat experience so I think that it would be rewarding enough for you as well. On the other hand, while it’s true that the managers can find good opponents for you, that doesn’t mean the people in question would accept a challenge from your group, especially because you are new and know considerably less than the older members.”

“If you trained with my children for a week, the older members would be more willing to have a go at it with you, and if you stay alive for a whole week after hitting my children, maybe the others would also dare to spar against them. It would be like killing two birds with one stone,” I smiled back at her as I leaned on the table.

“Are we that weak?” Ben asked with a sigh. “We’ve banded together five years ago and have been training together ever since. After taking the entrance test of Leviathan, we got split up but we still managed to get through and even beat some opponents that appeared in there. And now, we can’t even beat some brats, aren’t we a joke? Who would want to spar with us if not them,” he said as he pointed at Felice.

“I understand that you are feeling down because of your loss but let me assure you, they have gone through much better training than you guys and their bodies are also different. They have inherited some stuff from Lien and me so you don’t have to feel down. In case you still think that some stupid inheritance can’t be that powerful, you can fight against me and I’ll show you just how different it is.”

“Erm… I would rather not do that, I believe you, it just feels a bit shitty,” he waved his hand.

“Well, I get it. Let me assure you that once you start taking classes and learn better ways to use your magic, your group will become much more powerful. It's going to be easy for you since you are used to fighting together,” I said.

“I hope so,” he nodded. “I think that we should agree, what do you guys say?” he turned towards his teammates.

“I think that it’s fine,” Set nodded, followed by Oliver and Gina.

“Wonderful!” I clapped, slightly startling everyone at the table with the sudden noise. “I’m sorry,” I laughed, not really meaning it.

“I can see that…” Gina rolled her eyes while Felice ‘punched’ my arm. Grabbing her hand, I was just about to destroy her with my tickling skills when Lugh and Shawn appeared behind me.

Placing his hand on my shoulder, Shawn said, “We’ve got to talk.”

“Did something happen?” I asked with a frown. “Wait, let’s go elsewhere,” I added as I hopped up and took both of them to our office.

“Leo appeared again in Lugh’s country and Ishtar has led an army to Washington, leaving it in shambles.”

“How is that possible? I have laid down a formation around every city that was capable of sensing god incarnations.”

“Well, based on the survivors’ information, Washington was destroyed by an army of men who were attacking like mindless brutes, showing no signs of fear during their assault. Some also said that many men were captured and taken away instead of being killed like women and children. Things have been calm and there were your formations as well so we had no scouts in Washington and didn’t know about it until today morning when one of my men went to check on some of the larger cities in his area,” Shawn told me everything he knew.

“And do you know anything about your own country? What happened there?” I asked Lugh as I massaged my eyes.

“There was some kind of civil war but it happened today and I managed to stop it before it turned too serious. The culprits were found dead so I couldn’t find out who instigated them but I think we all know the answer,” he replied.

“How many people died?” I asked, leaning on the table.

“In the case of Washington, you better ask how many survived because that’s better to hear-”

“I don’t care about how good or bad it is to hear,” I interrupted him.

“Out of the four million people, about five hundred thousand people remained.”

“...”

“I told you it was left in shambles, it was a carnage,” Shawn shook his head.

“I can’t believe they waited eight fucking years for this, and how the hell did Leo even got into your country?” I couldn’t help but slap the table, annoyed by the fact that they still managed to get around me.

“Well, the good news is that your soul force is working well since there have been no wars these past years, even though some forces really want the other one’s resources. This time was clearly the result of an army whose mind was manipulated,” Shawn said, trying to console me by saying that the efforts of the past eight years weren’t for nothing.

“Do you think it’s possible that when I caught Adro in Lonba, Leo also entered with him and stayed there all this time?” I asked.

“It’s possible…” he nodded.

“So he spent eight years silently in Lonba and he’s still there?” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes as I looked at Lugh.

“What? You can’t expect me to spend my life leading a bunch of selfish pigs who just want to destroy each other for more money and women, or men... I know my negligence made Leo stronger and resulted in the death of a few thousand people but I don’t want to live my life looking for some shady guy who you could easily destroy even if he killed a million more,” Lugh replied, seemingly a little annoyed by my eye roll.

“As a matter of fact, I announced five years ago in Lonba that I would leave and that it was up to the manager I appointed to lead the people. He was quite strong and capable with a considerable force behind him, you can’t blame me for this!”

“Huh? I’m sorry if you felt that way but I wasn’t blaming you. It’s just that I wondered why you even created that tribe.”

“When I was younger I wanted to help those people but as soon as I got rid of the monsters, what was most important for them? Guess what! They started killing each other to gain control and put their hands on more resources. Poverty and richness reappeared in no-time, along with oppression. That was when I decided to leave them be and do whatever they wanted. I was their king only in name anyway…” he replied. “I’m also sorry for my heated reaction,” he added, lowering his voice.

“Well, I can understand you. If people were more sensible, I wouldn’t have had to spread my soul force either. But I want a safer world for my family so those two bastards must die as soon as possible. I’ll go to Lonba along with you two and we will try to catch him if he is still there. How does that sound to you?” I asked as I stood up.

“It’s like the dream plan,” Shawn laughed.

“Wait, let me finish my meal with my family and then we can leave, alright? I’ll also call Lien to come with us and take the kids to visit their grandparents.”

“Where should we wait?”

“If you can wait five minutes then you can wait here, or you can start scouting Lonba in the meantime,” I replied.

“I’ll do the latter, Lugh can wait here,” Shawn nodded and then disappeared from the room.

After going back to the table, I finished eating and parted ways with Ben and the rest of the group. On the way to my parent’s place, I told the kids that we had some work to do and left as soon as possible.

It was time I put the nail in Leo’s coffin.