Takeru stared at the arrays on their bodies that transformed into the silhouettes of their contracts with curiosity. Since he was the one to get a contract last time, it was unique to look at the process from an outsider's perspective.

The ten newly awakened tamers were outside now, testing their new contracts under Kaito's supervision, while Kain and Serena cleaned the tools. The room was silent except for the faint hum of residual spiritual energy.

"So…" Takeru said at last, rubbing the back of his neck. "We've done it. We proved it works. What now?" His gaze flicked toward his aunt, uncertainty clouding his features. "Oh noble and wise aunt, how should I go about rebuilding the Rising Sun Kingdom."

Queen Himiko reached out and, with a faint smile, patted his head just like when he was still a little boy. "Leave that part to me," she said softly. "You just focus on doing what only you can do."

Before he could respond, she turned and swept out of the room, her dark blue cloak trailing behind her.

-----------------

It didn't take long for her to act.

By the following morning, whispers had already begun weaving through the corridors of the Azure Serpent Palace.

The Queen had not called a council, nor issued a royal decree. Instead, she began her campaign in a more lowkey manner over the course of days—meeting nobles one by one in informal audiences, each under the guise of "routine briefings."

To the Minister of Supply, she spoke of the unexpected aptitude among certain Rising Sun refugees and that the combat ability of even the low-grade tamers among the refugees had exceeded all expectations. Then she claimed that some of the previously unawakened, perhaps stimulated while fighting and fleeing the abyss, had spontaneously awakened affinities.

To the Commander of the Eastern Guard, she described their discipline and unity, their potential as a supplementary force against the Abyss. Not to mention the stronger, destructive potential of fire-attribute contracts when compared to water.

And to the Treasurer, she mentioned—very casually—that their upkeep would cost almost nothing, since they were willing to work and fight for food and lodging.

The Queen's tone was measured, her words deliberate. Never once did she mention Kain or the true nature of their awakening. She simply allowed the nobles' imaginations to fill in the blanks.

"It seems," she had said, her eyes half-lidded in feigned modesty, "that some of these refugees carry the blessings of the old Rising Sun itself. Their blood still remembers how to burn."

By the end of the week, the plan had taken root.

----------------

Officially, a "refugee integration program" was announced: the formation of the Vanguard of the Dawn, a volunteer militia drawn from displaced citizens of the Rising Sun Kingdom. The nobles approved funding for their training and basic armament—after all, if it failed, it cost little, and if it succeeded, they gained a cheap shield between their estates and the Abyss.

Meanwhile, in the refugee quarter, Kain and Serena continued their awakenings in secret. Each night, Bea quietly swept through thousands of minds, sifting through memories, fears, and desires like a fisherman dragging a net through murky water. Those with steady hearts and strong will were marked as potential candidates.

"Over there are two more," Bea's voice would murmur in Kain's mind whenever a good target for recruitment was found.

And soon, stolen under the cover of the night, more would stand trembling under Kain and Serena's careful hands, becoming tamers before sunrise.

Within a couple days, the initial ten new awakenings became thirty, then fifty, then a hundred. Soon nearly a tenth of the entire city of thousands was quietly changed by Kain and Serena.

Kain and Serena didn't communicate much with the awakened. As mentioned previously, the plan is for Takeru to be responsible for leading them. Therefore, Takeru and Kaito rotated between supervising the awakenings, teaching the basics of resonance control, and fighting with contracts. This was also an opportunity for Takeru to indoctrinate them into becoming diehard loyalists of himself.

And somehow news of this 'miracle' had never spread beyond those that were awakened, much less to those in other cities.

Not because those who were newly awakened were so good at keeping contracts.

No, their covert army-building operation was a logistical nightmare barely held together by Bea's tireless surveillance.

--------------------

The training camps quickly filled.

In the large stretches of farmland north of the refugee city, tents stretched as far as the eye could see. Smoke from cooking fires curled into the pale sky as the air thrummed with the sounds of sparring, chanting, and the occasional burst of uncontrolled spiritual energy.

Most of the new tamers were weak and unskilled—and most of their contracts accidentally hit their allies more often than the target during training—but their enthusiasm was unmatched.

Many had been ordinary craftsmen, bakers, or laborers. Now, they wielded spiritual creatures for the first time in their lives.

Serena stood at the center of the camp, hands on her hips as she inspected a trainee, a sculptor, who was learning how to draw the awakening array. Eventually, she and Kain will need to leave, but more troops must still be added. Therefore, she had begun privately teaching how to draw arrays to a couple of recruits with potential. "That's not a spiral, that's a dying worm," she scolded, snatching the chalk and redrawing it in one fluid motion. "You want to rebuild the Rising Sun Kingdom? Then don't make arrays that explode when someone sneezes!"

The man stammered an apology while his companions laughed.

Even the Queen's son, who occasionally observed from a distance, found himself smiling. Serena's authority was effortless, the soldiers responding to her as naturally as to a general. Not to mention her extreme beauty.

'It's unfortunate that she appears to be taken already...' The Crown Prince lamented while looking at Kain on the other side of the field, who was helping to run combat drills with the new recruits.

Nearby, Takeru addressed a growing crowd of recruits. His voice—once uncertain—now rang with conviction.

"The Rising Sun may have fallen," he told them, "but its fire didn't die—it scattered! You, me, all of us—we are that scattered flame. Together, we'll ignite it again!"

The response was thunderous. The cheers rolled across the camp like a wave of heat.

However, the spread of their army wasn't perfectly seamless.

That night, as the camp quieted, Bea's whispers filled Kain's mind again.

'No threats detected. But…'

Her voice trailed off, uncertain.

'I keep finding minds that don't fit. Frayed edges. Thoughts that loop wrong. Like a tangled ball of threads.'

Kain frowned. "Abyssal influence?"

"Possibly. Or something else adapting to hide from me."

She sounded almost frustrated. Bea's network had spread across tens of thousands of minds in the refugee city, and she'd long told Kain that if she were to inhabit more and more minds at once, then she'd be closer to forming a fledgling Domain. But now this unknown presence is inhibiting that breakthrough.

Kain didn't reply, but his jaw tightened. "Keep watching," he said at last.

--------------------

Two days later, a messenger burst into the Queen's private audience chamber, face pale and breathless.

"Your Majesty! Reports from the northeastern wetlands—our outposts have gone silent!"

The Queen's gaze hardened.

"Silent?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. The scouts sent… none have returned."

Takeru's eyes widened. Serena straightened beside Kain.

Without a word, the Queen rose to her feet. "Have the legion of refugee fighters meet us at the Temple in Ice Stream City in the north. It is time for them to show their worth. We depart immediately."

Less than an hour later, Kain and what was now thousands of refugee fighters, stepped out of the whirlpool connecting the temple in the Refugee City (tentatively renamed New Dawn City, as influenced by a voting population that was predominantly from the Rising Sun Kingdom).

They emerged into what could only be described as purgatory on earth.

What were previously crystal clear riverlets running around and through the city, had turned black and sluggish, and seemed to even contain faint, distorted faces. As if the souls of the city's inhabitants were trapped beneath the surface.

Collapsed houses leaned at impossible angles, walls fused with shapes that might once have been people.

The trees even seemed to be distorted. Their trunks now pitch black, curved at unnatural angles and wept thick, red sap that shimmered like blood in the faint light.

The very air reeked of decay and wet ash.

Kain's eyes narrowed. Although the others weren't so sensitive to it, he could sense that every tree, every droplet of the river, and every blade of grass had been completely contaminated by abyssal energy.

Behind him, the newly awakened tamers clutched their weapons and summoned their contracts, faces pale but determined.

Some of the more brave ones even looked excited. After all, this type of battle was something ordinary people like themselves couldn't even hope to partake in not so long ago, their lives completely at the mercy of beast tamers.

Suddenly, the ground trembled, and the blackened rivers convulsed as if something was moving beneath them. And an off-colour mist began to grow and thicken coming off the rivers.

Some of the more timid recruits whimpered in fear as faint silhouettes began to take shape within the fog—twisted, humanlike figures crawling on all fours, their movements jerky and unnatural.

It was a scene from their nightmares.

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