Meanwhile, four days had passed since the Beast Tide.
In the central courtyard of the Inner Fortress, thousands of soldiers and mercenaries had gathered in neat rows, waiting. The Black Raven captains moved between the ranks, calling out names one after another, while clerks behind long tables handed out pouches of gold and sealed vials... these were the elixirs House Ravencrest had acquired from House Bluemoon after their alliance was finalised.
The first to receive their rewards stared at the vials in their hands for a long while.
"Is this... really a Rare-grade elixir?" a young soldier muttered, turning the vial over as though it might disappear.
"It’s the highest quality too," the mercenary beside him said in a hushed voice, after downing his own in a single gulp, unable to contain his happiness. "Do you know how much one of these costs? A few hundred gold at least."
Further down the line, a unit that had held the eastern wall received Advanced Epic-grade elixirs. One of the soldiers simply stood there with the vial cradled in both hands, unable to say a word. An Epic-grade elixir, even the lowest of it’s rank could cost a thousand gold. But what they held was something none of them could have afforded even if they saved for their entire lives.
Normally, after a Tide, the soldiers would receive a modest amount of gold and some other resources as compensation. That alone was considered generous. But this time, the Commander had given them far more than any of them had expected.
Yet that wasn’t what had everyone’s hearts pounding.
"Everyone! Gather in your units!" one of the Black Raven captains shouted. "You’ll be taken to the Northwatch treasury!" the captain added. "Each of you may choose only one art. You’ll only be able to take an art one grade higher than yours."
The courtyard fell silent for a moment.
Then a wave of murmurs spread through the ranks.
The treasury... they were really being allowed into the treasury.
For most of them, these arts were even more valuable than the elixirs. A suitable cultivation art or combat technique could dramatically improve how effectively a person wielded their strength, and the difference grew exponentially with each higher rank. Most soldiers and mercenaries had spent years, sometimes decades, relying on the same arts they had received upon joining or acquired through their own efforts.
Noble houses and major organisations guarded their arts closely, rarely allowing them to circulate beyond their own ranks. Knights who pledged their loyalty to a noble house were generally granted arts according to their potential, including the rank of their cores and the talents they had awakened. Mercenaries, meanwhile, usually had to purchase whatever basic arts they could afford from the open market, the Adventurer Guild or the Merchant Guilds.
Among the rows of soldiers, Iron Wolf stood with the squad. After the Tide, he had taken the Ashwood family back to the estate and instructed both sisters to cultivate. He had looked for Ethan again but couldn’t find him anywhere. When the higher-ups announced that the rewards would be delivered, he gathered the squad so they wouldn’t miss this opportunity.
Usually, the Captain of a team had to be present to collect the rewards, but the Black Raven captain had made an exception for them. The squad had been reluctant to collect anything without Ethan, but Iron Wolf knew Ethan wouldn’t mind something so minor, so he told them to take it.
Stone and Corvus watched the proceedings with barely concealed excitement, sharing the anticipation of the others. Most of the squad had been stuck at the Knight Commander Realm for a long time, while a few remained at the Great Knight Realm. A higher-grade art could significantly improve their combat prowess, and as their mastery deepened, the insights they gained might finally give them the opportunity to break through.
The units were led to a wide stone hall deep within the Inner Fortress.
As the first group stepped inside, they found themselves standing on a massive magic circle carved into the stone floor, its runes spreading outward and rising along the walls.
A moment later, Marcus entered the hall, prompting the soldiers to straighten immediately. He walked to the centre of the magic circle, took out his Ravencrest insignia and placed it on the carved stone.
HUMMM!
The runes flared brightly, and the space around them twisted.
In the next instant, the hall was gone.
They stood in an entirely different space. Rows upon rows of shelves stretched into the distance, holding scrolls and books, each section separated by faintly glowing barriers. Cultivation arts in one direction. Movement techniques in another. Combat arts further ahead.
"You have two hours. Go."
The soldiers spread out at once.
The Black Raven Knights moved among them, checking each person’s current arts and guiding them to the sections they were allowed to choose from. Some soldiers spent the entire time moving from shelf to shelf, unable to decide. Others knew exactly what they wanted the moment they stepped inside.
Vera stood before the movement techniques for a long time before finally reaching for a scroll. When she read the first few lines, her eyes widened slightly, and she held on to it as though someone might take it from her. Stone came back with a heavy body-strengthening technique and a satisfied smile. Corvus had chosen a cultivation art. Finch had changed his mind four times before finally settling on a combat art.
When the time was up, they were transported back to the hall. One by one, they stepped up to the Black Raven Knights waiting at the edge of the circle, who checked the art each of them had taken and entered it into the treasury registry before letting them go.
———
In the guest house in the Outer District, the room was quiet.
Ethan lay on the bed, exactly as he had for the past four days. The frost encasing him had almost completely receded. Over that time, it had gradually seeped into his body, mending his injuries one by one. His damaged pathways had been restored, his battered organs had recovered, and the wounds covering his body had closed. More than that, the process seemed to have strengthened his physique beyond its previous limits. His face had regained its colour, and every so often, a faint pale glow pulsed beneath his skin before fading away.
Even without examining him directly, Aisha could sense that his body had become stronger than before.
Yet Ethan remained unconscious.
Aisha sat beside the bed, her hand resting on his. Rune lay curled against Ethan’s side, his blue eyes fixed on his face, looking at him worriedly. For the past few days, he hadn’t left Ethan’s side for a moment and had refused to take a single bite.
The door opened quietly.
Marcus stepped inside. For the past few days, he had been visiting constantly, staying through the night. But Ethan still remained motionless and unconscious... which only made Marcus’s worry grow by the moment.
Marcus pulled a chair beside Aisha and sat down. After a moment, he took some fresh bread and juice from his storage ring and held them out to her.
"Here..."
Aisha glanced at him briefly before accepting them.
———
Warmth and darkness surrounded him.
Ethan couldn’t tell how long he had been drifting. Time had lost all meaning, and he couldn’t feel his own body. There was only a faint warmth spreading through him in slow, steady waves, as though something deep within him were being reforged.
Gradually, the darkness began to thin.
When Ethan opened his eyes, he found himself standing in the courtyard of the Ravencrest estate.
Hmm...? His mind remained hazy, and he instinctively raised a hand to rub his eyes before looking around again.
The morning sun shone over the familiar stone walls. The training grounds lay to his left, the eastern balcony above, and beyond the walls, the snow-covered mountains of the North stretched into the distance.
Ethan stood still and watched.
W-why am I here? he muttered, but no sound came out.
The moment he said that, the sky began to change.
The blue slowly drained from it, and the sun dimmed. The walls of the estate blurred at their edges before beginning to dissolve into motes of light that drifted upward and vanished.
Ethan watched as the familiar courtyard disappeared piece by piece, until nothing remained around him but an endless grey expanse.
What is this...?
Then, in the middle of the grey expanse, something appeared before him.
A small black sphere hung in the emptiness, gradually growing larger as it pulsed with increasing intensity. Ethan recognised it immediately. It was the Unknown Energy, the same sphere that rested beside his Warrior Core.
But something else was entwined with it.
Several thin strands of purple mist coiled around the sphere, writhing as the Unknown Energy spread outward and pressed against them from every direction. Wherever the two came into contact, the purple strands gradually broke apart, consumed bit by bit by the black energy.
He immediately recognised it as the purple mist which affected the beasts and Mythralis.
Ethan studied the strands more closely. They were faint and barely held together, yet something still lingered within them. A will, weak and stubborn, but carrying such immense depth that even this tiny remnant caused the grey expanse to tremble.
Whose will...?
Almost without realising it, Ethan reached out towards the purple strands with his consciousness. The moment he touched them, the strands suddenly lashed out violently, and cracks raced across the grey world around him.
The next moment, he was floating high in the sky. He couldn’t feel his body, nor could he move it, yet he could still turn his gaze freely.
Ethan calmed himself and began to observe.
Below him, a mountain range stretched across the horizon, its jagged peaks buried in snow. The shape of the ridges, the way the valleys cut between them...
The Winterveil Mountain Range...?
But it wasn’t the Winterveil he knew. There was no Northwatch at its foot, nor any of the defensive fortresses built along its range. Only complete wilderness, with tens of thousands of beasts roaming freely across the land where Northwatch should have stood.
Then a massive shadow passed over the mountains.
Ethan turned.
A huge dragon unlike anything he had seen or heard was flying a short distance from him, its body covered in dark scales, its wings so vast that they blotted out the sun as it passed. Its eyes glowed a deep, murky crimson, and a suffocating pressure rolled off it in waves.
Is that a Demonic Dragon?
He had only ever come across them in ancient records and myths.
Yet the pressure emanating from this dragon was unmistakable. It was the same overwhelming presence he had sensed within the purple mist. He had already realised that what he was witnessing was not reality, or at least not the present.
Are these its memories...?
He didn’t understand what was going on, or why these memories were being shown to him. The only thing he could think of was the mysterious Unknown Energy.
The dragon flew past the mountains without slowing, and Ethan found himself being pulled along after it.
Then the scene shifted.
A massive city stretched out below, so vast that it ran for hundreds of miles. Its streets were bustling with people, and warriors patrolled its walls. Ethan studied it carefully, but he couldn’t recognise its architecture or a single banner flying over its walls.
The dragon dived.
ROOOAAARRR!
A roar filled with madness tore from its throat, and black fire poured down over the city.
Ethan could only watch as the towers collapsed one after another. The people below ran and screamed before disappearing into the flames. The warriors on the walls tried to fight back, but their attacks couldn’t even leave a scratch on its scales. The dragon circled the city once, then twice, burning everything that remained.
The memories were so vivid that it felt as if he were experiencing them himself. He could hear every scream, every cry of agony as people burned in the black fire... mothers calling for their children, soldiers crying out in pain as their bodies turned to ash.
He knew this was just a memory, but with every voice that fell silent, his heart tightened even more.
Before Ethan could think any further, the scene shifted again.
This time, a tower pierced through the clouds. It resembled the Grand Mage Tower, but the formations surrounding it were unlike anything Ethan had studied. Their patterns seemed far more ancient than the magic he knew.
Mages lined its walls, unleashing spell after spell at the approaching dragon. The attacks struck its scales and shattered without leaving a mark, yet the creature continued forward without slowing.
Ethan watched carefully, trying to gauge its strength from the attacks it endured. Those spells were at least on the level of Archmages, yet they couldn’t even scratch the dragon.
The scenes kept changing. Different kingdoms, different cities, different people... yet every one of them ended the same way. Hundreds of thousands of lives were taken without the slightest consequence. The dragon wasn’t hunting, and it certainly wasn’t protecting its territory. There was no purpose behind it at all. It was killing just for fun as if taking pleasure from the massacre.
Even as a mere spectator, Ethan could feel the fury rising within him with every scene.
His surroundings shifted once more, and darkness swallowed him. When the next scene emerged, nothing around him felt familiar.
A blood-red sky stretched overhead. The air pressed down on him with an oppressive weight, despite Ethan having no physical body in this place. Below him, the cracked earth was veined with molten lava, while mountains of bones stretched into the distance.
Amid that desolate landscape, a faint human outline gradually appeared. Ethan couldn’t make out his face, but the long silver hair flowing down his back was unmistakable.
Then the man turned.
A pair of golden eyes settled directly on Ethan, and a faint smile curved on his lips.
"You’re here."