The fight hadn't lasted long. Still, it was lasting longer than Aiden had hoped. So far, he had dealt with a lot of opponents. He was down to only five now.

They moved quickly, almost acting in tandem. Fighting against him for as long as they had was given them some sense of teamwork. They were understanding each other to the point that he was beginning to wonder if they were all [Doppelganger]s.

Having dealt with all the long ranged opponents, he was free to calm himself. He didn't have to look over into the distance. He didn't have to worry about an exploding arrow clipping him just before he landed a precise blow.

As he spun away, however, a touch of hubris stained his expression. He hadn't counted how many opponents he'd fought against since waking up, but there were only five now.

Five.

Yet from the beginning of the fight, he had not taken any damage. His health was still at a hundred percent. Just how powerful had he become?

Pride comes before a fall, he reminded himself as he slipped through a swordsman's attack and slammed an open palm thrust into his jaw. The blow sent him flying upwards, and Aiden turned to the next man.

His spear shot out, taken from one of the fallen enemies. His opponent vaulted over the thrust. Aiden switched stances, redirecting the flow of the attack so that he moved from a thrust into a sweeping strike that clipped the opponent coming from his other side.

The opponent defended himself with raised arms so that the shaft of the spear struck them on the forearm. The sound of the impact cracked the air like skin flogged with a cane. Aiden was fallen into his comfort zone now, slightly enjoying himself. He had almost forgotten about the worry of his new skill [Dimensional Touch] and what it really was.

Like rage and pride, even comfort was something that a person could lose themselves to.

Aiden let the spear fall from his grip and stepped into the creature. As if anticipating him, the creature threw its head forward. Aiden met the creature blow for blow. Heads cracked on impact. His head kept going forward while the creature's was thrown back.

He wondered how his opponents felt as he ducked a blow from another and snatched it up by the neck. In his red hand, it weighed next to nothing. He stared at a female body. The creature even had white long hair to boot. He cocked his head to the side, wondering if it was real or not, yet knowing that he would not be able to tell.

It was one of the twins, though. He could tell even from the mess of hair. His grip tightened slightly, reflex wanted him to squeeze and twist. It was what he would do with an opponent that he wanted to kill. Right now he had enough strength in his hand to break the creature's neck.

We aren't here to kill, Aiden.

It was the downside of having worked with the Order for so long. Every fight left you with a killing instinct that you had to indulge. They were rarely ever sent on missions that allowed you the pleasure of restraint.

Well, you aren't on a mission, he told himself before slamming the creature's face into the ground.

[Quest Objective: Defeat Doppelganger 16/???]

Aiden checked the notification in surprise before looking at the bodies around him. Had they been that many? He wasn't even tired yet.

Now, four creatures stood around him. Each one was tired. Each one was panting. If left in a normal situation, he would've called for their surrender. But here, he could not.

They would not understand any words that came out of his mouth. And, even if they did, that was not how the quest worked. Only one person could be left conscious, and it did not have to be the person who had initially touched the crystal.

Aiden suddenly felt the urge to sigh. What had started out as intense was now… less. He'd awoken to the position of enemy number one to more than a handful of opponents. As wrong as it sounded, it had made his blood boil. Then he had gained his new skill and worry had joined his boiling blood. Now, however, he just couldn't be bothered.

His current opponents were not strong enough to give him a run for his money. He had dispatched the real threats first, after all. The ones that fought like Jang Su. The ones that controlled familiars and fought like Ted. The ones with ranged skills.

Right now, he was certain that none of his opponents were Jang Su or Ted, which meant that he could kill them and be confident that Ted and Jang Su were still alive. But he would not.

There were still the two dead [Doppelganger]s lying in the ground, though. He really hoped Ted wasn't one of them.

All four [Doppelganger]s looked at each other. The action was so human-like, as if they wondered if they all had the same thought. Aiden knew that they couldn't communicate so he didn't bother. If they could, then it would mean that they were all [Doppelganger]s, since there was no report of people being able to communicate when the quest started.

One ignored the rest and rushed him.

Aiden knocked it out without even cracking a sweat. Its movements had been too easy to read and it had been far too sluggish to be a threat. It had fallen to a well placed blow to the jaw. He almost felt bad for it.

[Quest Objective: Defeat Doppelganger 17/???.]

Now, there were three.

Was this how overpowered raid bosses felt? For the parties that came for the raids, this was probably a very daunting situation, tense and full of fear. This was a defining moment where everyone reached for their trump cards and prayed to whatever gods they served.

Their bloods would be pumping along with their exhaustion. Right now, they would be reaching into their pouches to retrieve whatever potions they could to restore their health. They would've if they could, but Aiden had watched enough [Doppelganger]s down enough white vials to know that every single potion that was useful had been used through the length of the fight.

What was a tense and important moment for them—a life and death moment—was nothing more than an anti-climactic and boring moment for him.

He just wanted to get it over with. If raid monsters possessed half the level of intelligence that humans possessed, then he was beginning to understand why they did some of the things that they did in situations like this. Why sometimes they often just stopped attacking in the middle of the fight and watched their opponents.

Why they seemed to change their minds out of nowhere and suddenly start attacking slowly when they had once been fast.

After all, here he was, walking up to the remaining opponents because he just wanted this entire thing to be over.

The three [Doppelganger]s shared a look once more and one attacked.

Were they communicating? Aiden wondered, throwing his foot forward as his assailant approached. He time it properly so that his kick connected with the creature's head just before it lashed out.

He could see the absence of confidence in them now. This specific attacked had been nothing but a panicked frenzy. There had been no life behind it—no intelligence.

The [Doppelganger] went flying back from the kick. Aiden realized belatedly that he should not have done that. All it had done was extend the period of the fight as the [Doppelganger] staggered back to its feet.

Uncertainty hovered between the three [Doppelganger]s. Aiden watched it happened, waited once more for another decision to be made.

When one was made, his eyes widened in shock. One of the [Doppelganger]s turned on the other one, drawing a knife out of nowhere.

Confusion laughed in Aiden's face but he did not allow it to win. He leapt forward, crossing the distance in the blink of an eye, and grabbed the [Doppelganger]'s wrist before the knife pierced the neck of the other one. As for the one that had been attacked, it staggered back, falling on its ass in terror.

Aiden broke the wrist of the knife-wielder in one motion, grabbed it by the neck, and slammed it into the ground with a little too much force.

[Quest Objective: Defeat Doppelganger 18/???.]

Unwilling to waste any more time here, he turned on the next.

Today, Aiden Lacheart was a raid boss, and he was bored.

…

Yul Kwen stormed into the study room like a petulant child. A frown marred her face as if she was a toddler dispossessed of her pacifier.

Bel, system sanctioned queen of Nel Quan, took a moment to pull her head from the map in front of her. Gently, she afforded her daughter a calm look.

"You shouldn't have done that, mother," Yul said with venom in her voice.

Bel raised a slow brow. Years and years spent on raising her daughter to be someone fitting of the crown and the child remained… problematic. She was almost perfect in everyway if not for one slight problem. She was entitled.

She believed that what was hers was hers, even if it was only hers because it had been given to her. It was a sad thing to know a person who did not understand that the world did not work the way it was supposed to work—it worked the way it worked.

Taking a deep calming breath, Bel walked away from the map on the wall and made her way to the chair behind her massive desk. The study was one she had inherited from her late husband. Her actual study remained somewhere in the castle, abandoned from disuse.

She worked here, not because it was more spacious or even better in any way, but because here, in this room, she felt closer to her dead husband. She remembered how it made her feel warm and safe and loved.

Not long after his death, she had hired enough [Mage]s and [Enchanter]s that they had successfully entrapped the room in the memory of her husband, locked it in place. It kept his smell and his presence and his very essence. It would be so until the enchantments and spells died away or were undone.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

She had heard a few whispers of madness and obsession and an inability to move on from those who knew of what she had done, but she could not be bothered.

Everyone had their flaws. You just had to pick what yours would be and make sure it did nothing to ruin your actual life.

With that thought in mind, Bel sat down on her chair, crossing her feet beneath the table, and looked at her daughter. Sometimes she wished the girl had ended up being a spitting image of her husband. Sometimes she was so petulant that she was glad that she was not.

Bel took her time, allowing her daughter stew as she waited for a response. The study fell eerily silent. The book shelves around, stacked only with parchments from different communiques as well as simple stories that her husband had most often enjoyed, waited with her. The reflective wooden floor that hid countless enchantments beneath it made no creaking sound under the weight of her daughter.

The orbs of light that cast the room in a sunlight glow couldn't be bothered to move in this moment. They hovered in place, keeping the cast shadows in an unmoving shape.

Bel watched her daughter. Studied her. Even her well arranged pony tail, were showing signs of wanting to be disheveled. A few strands of hair stuck out here and there.

Her daughter's lips were held in a tight frown. Her fists were clenched.

Bel waited.

Has she been crying?

Bel almost sighed. There was a time and place for tears. There were also reasons for tears. This wasn't even about being royalty anymore. She believed that it was every human's duty to know when to cry, how to cry, and why to cry.

She knew why her daughter was in her study and knew that it warranted no tears to be shed.

Have I spoiled her since her father's death? She wondered. She had done her best, though. Yul had been the jewel of her father's eyes and Bel had made sure to raise her carefully.

Perhaps I was too careful.

Yul continued to wait, knowing that she had spoken her piece, now it was her mother's turn. It was how Bel's husband had structured conversations in their family. It was turn based. You argued your case and waited while the other person replied. People were not cut off or cut short. If you noticed something in their speech that you did not agree with, it was your job to remember it and address it when they were done.

Bel's eyes glanced down at her daughter's fists. She watched them unclench very slowly. The heat of her ire was dying out. She remained angry, but all the energy was gone. Her anger was calm now, simmering down.

Once the fists were completely unclenched, only then did Bel Kwan meet her daughter's eyes.

"He will return when he returns," she said simply.

"You should've told me that he was going," Yul demanded. "Instead of sending me off with the others."

Bel fought back a smile. Sending Yul off to scout Dentis after hearing of the events that had transpired there from survivors had been the [Sage]'s decision. But she had been more than happy to oblige it—anything to reduce the level of attachment Yul was beginning to develop for the Jang Su boy.

With a shrug, she said, "It was all your grand uncle's idea."

Yul paused at the piece of information.

It was an unwritten rule in the castle that the [Sage]'s words were never to be questioned. And said rule worked very well because the [Sage] rarely ever had anything to say to anybody. The castle wasn't even in charge of his feeding. In fact, while he lived in the castle, he came and went as he pleased. Financially, he never bore any weight on the coffers of the kingdom.

Yul looked down and away. "He should've told me."

"You and I both know that that's not true," Bel snorted in amusement. "Now that we're done with that, what's the report on the issues surrounding Dentis? I remember saying that the invaders were not to be engaged."

"And they were not," Yul confirmed. "However, there was a fight."

"After the invasion?"

Yul nodded. "There are rumors of someone dressed oddly visiting the camp only for a brief moment. Nobody died at his hands, and he used time magic."

"Why?"

Yul shrugged. "I don't know. The rumors in the camp say that he pulled up the time of the invasion."

Time magic, Bel mused. She couldn't even begin to understand what was happening or why.

"And they simply allowed him to leave?" she asked.

Yul nodded. "Apparently, their king stepped in for that specific reason."

Now, Bel frowned, unable to stop herself. Someone had infiltrated the camp, used a skill, and had been allowed by the king.

There was only one organization capable of doing that from what she knew. But it couldn't be them, could it? They were highly inactive on this side of Nastild. They rarely showed their face or engaged with the people. For the longest time all they had been doing was gathering information in secret.

But what if it was them? Then why would they have come this close to Nel Qwan? What was so important about the attack on Dentis that had brought them here?

Bel paused, a terrifying realization coming to mind.

Do they know?

They had to know. They were the Order. No matter how much you thought your secret was yours, history claimed that all secrets belonged to the Order. It was to the point that at some time in history, people had begun to refer to them as the Order of secrets.

She took a calming breath. What would the Order do if their investigations confirmed what hers was already implying?

With the arrival of the summoned and the growth of the rising darkness, what would the Order do once they confirmed that the castle of the [Demon King] was somewhere close to her kingdom?

"There is something else, mother?" Yul said, drawing Bel's attention.

Bel did not know when she had turned her attention back to the map of her kingdom on the wall. However, she returned it to her daughter now.

"Yes, Yul," she said in as calm a tone as she could muster.

"My return was delayed because I had to wait to bring you urgent news."

Bel sat up. "Has Terlernor responded to our request?"

Everyone knew that Dentis was loved by the unsanctioned king, but no one knew why. The moment news had reached her of the events in Dentis, she reached out to the man. A tyrant he may be, with the true system sanctioned king of his kingdom—information possessed by a select few—locked within his dungeons, Bel was willing to work with anyone to protect her husband's kingdom.

Yul nodded. "He replied."

"When are we to meet him?" Bel asked, rising from her seat.

"I don't think we are," her daughter answered.

"Why?"

"Because I think he already sent someone. Before we began our return from Dentis, I left a spy behind. On my way here, he sent me a communication."

Bel paused. "That?"

"Yesterday, the king of the invaders met an armored knight on the plains in combat," Yul said, as if reading from a parchment. "They fought for hours, exchanging blows befitting of their levels. The challenger is said to have shed enough blood to spawn a new river."

Bel's fists grabbed the edge of the armrest of her chair.

"In the end," Yul continued, "the battle came to an end only a few hours ago."

Bel was left on the edge of anticipation. What had happened? What was the outcome?

"It is my duty to inform you, dear mother," Yul said, standing at attention. "That as at this moment, King Oyedi of the people of Mba-chukwu, is dead."

Bel fell back onto her seat filled with a mix of relief and terror. The best and the worst had happened at the same time.

Her eyes grew distant. Fear came close to negotiate with her.

She could see the confusion on her daughter's face but couldn't bring herself to address it. She had greater worries on her mind.

For now, her kingdom was seemingly safe with the death of Oyedi. All that was left was to gather the troops and sack the rest of the soldiers of Mba-chukwu from Dentis and, maybe, take the fight straight to their home.

That was the good news. The bad news was simpler.

The Immortal, a force of reckoning with a level unknown by almost all including her, had just singlehandedly slain King Oyedi, a person of the same species and a person over level two hundred.

Just how many levels, she wondered, running a hand through her hair, will he have gained?

The Immortal had, no doubt, just grown significantly stronger.

Unsanctioned king Terlernor had just grown significantly stronger. A balance had just been broken.

Bel Kwan looked to the map of her kingdom on the wall and wondered. Just how long will it be before Terlernor decided that he wanted Nel Qwan.

"Yul," she said in a quiet voice.

Her daughter, noticing the tone, bowed. "Yes, my queen."

"Draft a message, a new one," she said. "We will be changing the request of aid already given to our allies."

"And who is it to be addressed to?"

"King Brandis," Bel said. "Fourth of his name."

…

Aiden dusted his hand, then cleaned some of the blood on it on his coat. At his feet was a [Doppelganger] with a bleeding face. He'd done his best not to bash its head in too much.

[Quest Objective: Defeat Doppelganger 20/???.]

…

[Quest Objective: Defeat Doppelganger 20/20.]

…

[Unique Quest: Fragment of Nastild.]

You have found a crystal of existence, a fragment of the world of Nastild. By the existence of an anomaly, you have activated its hidden potential. Now you must wield it. But first, you must survive it. Defeat its protectors and return with your life intact.

[Quest Objective Completed: Defeat Doppelganger 20/20.]

[Reward: Fragment of Nastild.]

[Reward: Crystal of Existence]

The bodies of the [Doppelganger]s that littered the ground began to turn into mist. Aiden watched them dissipate, rising up. But the mist did not scatter. Instead, it pooled towards him. Curious, Aiden held his hand out, reached out to touch it.

The gathering mist began to take physical form. He held his hand under it now, curious as he watched the physical form take shape.

Once it was done, it settled gently on his hand. It was as large as a person's head. It was the crystal that he had picked up from the stalagmite that had started the quest.

The crystal of existence.

[You have received reward: Crystal of Existence]

I've got to move, he told himself, heading over to one of the remaining bodies that had not dissipated. He crouched next to it and checked the person's pulse. It beat at a steady rhythm.

Good, Aiden thought. Ted was alive.

He looked like he was sleeping. Aiden patted him on the cheeks, rousing him from his slumber.

"We've got to go, Teddy," he said in a restrained voice.

He looked around as Ted groaned, picking out another person. His eyes softened in sadness when he was met with the sight of one of the twins, Nesa, if he remembered correctly. Her skin was pale. She had bled out at some point in the fight.

She did not deserve to die in such a place. But such was the life of a mercenary. Anywhere was your grave. Your duty was to make peace with it.

Aiden returned his attention to Ted who was looking at him with a frown.

"No time," he said, then pointed at another unconscious body. "Go and wake Jang Su. We've got to get out of here this instant."

"Why?" Ted asked, groggy.

"Because we are about to have guests that we are not ready to deal with."

At some point in time, the notification he'd received in the beginning about the [System Admin]s being contacted, had come up again. He'd ignored it during the fight, but he still remembered what it had said.

[System Admins successfully contacted]

The problem was that it had needed three minutes to contact them, and he had no idea how long he had been out before waking up to join the fight. Additionally, there had been no timer to judge it with. For all he knew, they could've been contacted while he had still been unconscious.

He had no idea who they were or what they were capable of, but he knew that he did not want to know.

"Hurry," Aiden told Ted, getting up, then pointed off in the opposite direction from where they had entered through. "Get him and wait for me there. I'll come to you and then we can get out."

Ted paused, as if everything was finally making sense.

"Elami," he said.

"We'll give him an interview before we decide if he will join," Aiden said, moving towards the entrance.

Ted grabbed him by the hem of his coat.

"Aida," he said. When Aiden looked at him, he added: "Don't be angry with him, I granted him permission to do it."

"To do what?" Aiden asked, remembering how Ted and Elami had always been whispering between each other ever since they'd met Letto and the others.

"It was necessary," Ted said. "Just don't fight him. Bring him along."

Aiden hesitated, then nodded.

Once he did, Ted released him, and he headed to where the others were waiting for them. different thoughts crossed his mind on what Elami could've possibly done under Ted's instruction. As he drew closer to the entrance, nothing came to mind.

Once he got to the entrance, however, he froze in place.

Oncot stood where he had left him, holding onto his sword as he had instructed him. Oncot looked at Aiden but said nothing, signed nothing. Aiden was too perplexed by the sight in front of him.

Letto stood in one corner with terror in his eyes as he stared at Elami who stood at the center of the scattered group. His eyes glowed a bright green and he stood as if he was unwilling to move.

People groaned around the place, including Sir Thompfer who was lying on the ground, his spear broken in two while he bled from his ankle.

But what stood out glaringly was the outcome of the fight. Taeli lay dead on the floor, eyes wide in horror. Aiden knew the look. She possessed no visible injuries, but she had died in pain.

His interface popped up.

[You have received reward: Fragment of Nastild]

Aiden ignored it, along with the prickle in his blackened arm that had returned to being black.

It was necessary, Ted's voice echoed in his mind. Just don't fight him.

Aiden did his best to keep his confused anger in check when he finally spoke.

He ignored everyone present and focused his attention on the [Healer] who stood with glowing eyes.

"What have you done?" he said, and his voice was steel.

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