Aiden walked through the halls leading to the throne room with Laela on his left side and Arianna on his right.

Soon they reached the entrance and Laela turned to him and asked quietly , "Are you ready?"

Aiden nodded once moved forward to push the heavy doors open.

The throne room came into view and the moment Aiden stepped through the entrance, a wave of shock and silence swept across the gathered crowd.

Most of them stared at him with widened eyes and mouths slightly parted as they took in his appearance.

The former captains especially, looked completely stunned as they parted ways instinctively to let him walk through the center.

Laela and Arianna moved quietly to a corner near the side of the room while Aiden continued forward until he reached a slightly heightened platform where he could look at everyone present.

Before he began speaking, the vision of his dragon's eye adjusted naturally silently and sharpened enough as he scanned through every person in the room.

Even though the Dragon's Sight skill wasn't passive, it also didn't feel like something that needed deliberate effort to activate.

He looked past their skin to examine their internal organs for any trace of those parasitic leeches. But found nothing suspicious.

He also didn't detect any malicious intent from anyone present nor did he pick up the stench that would have marked them as demons.

However his eyes landed on a strange face standing near the back.

A hooded figure with blonde hair visible beneath the cover and golden eyes that met his gaze directly.

Lucina looked at him with a faint smile on her lips.

Aiden exchanged glances with her for just a second, before turning his attention back to the rest of the room.

He cleared his throat once and spoke clearly, "Thank you all for coming here tonight,"

Then he turned his gaze toward the former captains standing among the crowd. "Even when you could have chosen not to," he added.

The former captains shifted slightly but said nothing in response.

Aiden continued without hesitation. "I'll start simply by telling you that I'm the Black Dragon. I'm sure most of you already know or suspected it."

Thamoryn wasn't surprised at all. Her expression remained calm because she had always harbored the most suspicion about Aiden's true nature.

Oberon's face contorted into a deep frown as the words sank in. He had been in denial for so long but this confirmation struck down every excuse he'd built in his mind.

Ursula's eyes widened in shock at first and though suspicion may have crossed her mind for a split second before, now it all finally made sense.

The other former captains exchanged glances with each other as understanding dawned on them as well.

It explained why Aiden had so easily bested them during the war.

Katherine wasn't surprised by this information at all since Aiden had already told the guild three days ago.

Aiden continued after a brief moment. "Now that I've gotten that part out," he said, "I want to tell everyone that the attack on Dragonhold wasn't a case of civil war like some might think. The mages who attacked were possessed by demon parasites."

A few murmurs rippled through the hall from those who hadn't fully understood the situation until now.

Aiden went on to explain that these acts by demons were happening because the Demon King was consistently trying to force himself back into their world.

He also explained that the Demon King's generals were all free now and they were possibly the ones who had overseen the attack.

And finally, he mentioned that most of the other kingdoms had suffered the same fate as Dragonhold, with their own mages being possessed and turning against their people.

The hall became tense and some of them shifted uncomfortably.

Aiden's expression grew more serious. "I'm here because I've searched this continent, i've gone beyond it and checked Dellheim as well but I haven't found them."

He paused and looked across the room. "Finding them and bringing them back will require everyone working together."

Then his gaze moved toward the former captains and he spoke directly to them. "That's why I'm going to give you all back your magic."

The eyes of the former captains widened as shock spread across their faces.

Oberon's frown deepened further as he clearly didn't like this decision but he couldn't argue with Aiden either.

Ursula stepped forward slightly with confusion written on her face. "How would you even do that?" she asked.

"The gentling spell was made to have permanent effect and no known methods of undoing it have been recorded."

Aiden gestured toward her. "Step forward," he said simply.

Ursula hesitated for only a moment before moving closer to him.

He gestured for her hand and she extended it toward him cautiously.

Aiden took her hand gently in his and activated his destruction skill;

[Zero Effect]

In that instant, Ursula felt the shift inside her as mana began flowing through her mana pathway system again.

The god-level spell Gentling was after all still magic which meant its effect could be destroyed by Aiden's destruction skill that directly eliminated all magic effects.

"Unbelievable," Ursula whispered as she stared down at her hands with wide eyes.

The former captains who witnessed this stood frozen in astonishment.

One by one Aiden gestured for each of them to come forward.

He used Zero Effect to undo the effects of the gentling spell on each former captain and they all felt their mana return to them as well.

When it was done, Aiden stepped back slightly and addressed them again. "I know there's history between us, but this is bigger than some pointless war over a throne. I hope you'll use your magic this time to fight with me instead of against me."

The former captains looked at each other for a moment but none of them spoke immediately.

After another stretch of silence, it seemed like the conversation had ended when Ursula suddenly spoke up again.

"I may have a method to find these people," she said.

Aiden nodded for her to continue.

Ursula looked around briefly before asking, "Does anyone have a personal item that belongs to any of the mages who were possessed?"

Oberon stepped forward with his gloomy expression, and said, "I can bring a personal item from my wife.

He had discovered upon returning earlier that his wife, Ayan, and his daughter, Amelia, had both been taken control of.

He left the room briefly and returned shortly after holding a hairbrush in his hand.

Ursula took it from him carefully and closed her eyes as she began channeling her celestial magic to divine into Amelia's location.

She was a very powerful scryer, especially with her celestial magic.

A faint magic circle formed below Ursula's feet as everyone watched in anticipation, with their eyes fixed on her.

The magic ended after a few moments and Ursula opened her eyes with a weird expression on her face.

Aiden stepped closer. "Did you find your target?" he asked.

Ursula shook her head slowly. "No direct location," she said. "The owner of this item is around us, yet at the same time she isn't."

She paused, and with frustration edging into her voice, she added. "It's like she isn't even in this world at all, and none of it makes any sense."

A small wave of frantic tension spread through the room as people looked at each other nervously.

Aiden then asked, "You're certain you can't be more specific?"

Ursula let out a weary sigh. "For now, I can't narrow it down to any precise point," she admitted. "Maybe when the moon reaches its apex tonight I can try again, but at the moment it's exactly as I've said."

Thamoryn spoke up from where she stood near Oberon. "Perhaps it's a cloaking spell?"

Ursula shook her head immediately. "No," she said firmly. "I'd be able to tell if it was and she would be much easier for me to find."

Aiden had considered the possibility of a cloaking spell, but he knew that couldn't be it. If it were, he would have seen through it long ago when his sight swept across the entire continent.

He considered what Ursula had just said for a while longer.

The words where she mentioned that the owner of the hairbrush was close to them yet also wasn't, made him remember when Elena had taught him the Limbo Dome spell.

He couldn't see her with Dragon's Sight while she was inside the dome, but he could still perceive her presence faintly.

But then again, it couldn't have been a Limbo Dome because if so he would have been able to perceive their presence almost immediately.

Additionally, some physical structure would have been claimed into its alternate space too which he hadn't noticed anywhere.

Oberon stepped forward and asked. "Is there nothing else?"

Aiden raised his hand, signaling for silence as he worked through his thoughts. Then he looked at Ursula again.

"When you divine into people how do you pinpoint them?" he asked. "Their magic or their physical presence?"

"It depends," she said. "If I had an item with traces of the person's magic then my divination could follow their magical presence."

She gestured to the hairbrush in her hand. "But this hairbrush has no traces of the girl's mana, so it was her physical presence that my divination detected instead."

"So, once again," Aiden said, "your readings show her presence is close, yet at the same time, it's not here at all?"

Ursula nodded.

"I had never considered this until now, but let me try something," Aiden said quietly.

He shut his eyes, and suddenly every background murmur and noise fell away as his supernatural awareness took full precedence.

Everyone else watched him in anticipation, and even the Goddess Lucina leaned forward slightly, clearly interested in seeing this.

It was the first time Aiden had really deepened the usage of Dragon's Sense supernatural awareness like this.

Then he picked it up, clearly now. As if it were an invisible boundary separating two spaces that existed side by side without ever touching.

He opened his eyes suddenly and turned to Ursula, with a fleeting look of relief crossing his face.

"Thank you," Aiden said sincerely. "You've helped me a great deal."

Ursula, along with everyone else, still looked confused, trying to understand what had just happened or how exactly she had helped him.

"I think I've found them," Aiden said while looking around at everyone present.

"They're in a parallel dimension."​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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