A distance away, 5,000 cavalries charged toward the battlefield at full speed. Leading the charge was Adam. His giant golden sword was ready for blood.

Even as he rode, Adam’s eyes landed on the walls of the Immortal Fort. Even during the toughest times against the Empire of the Moon, he kept the cavalries inside the Border Army, 5,000 strong, in safety. He knew he would need them to be intact to successfully reinforce the Immortal Fort as soon as possible.

All he could hope for was that he wasn’t too late.

“Is that...that’s Adam.” From the communication with other Voyagers, Druid knew Adam has turned against the mission. To be honest, he felt like Adam was an idiot. Then again, what he thought about Adam’s choice didn't matter. All he had to do was dispose of Adam if he stood in his way.

Even as the cavalries charged forward to reinforce, Druid wasn’t worried. A single command from him sent all the beasts not all the wall, over 12,000 of them, turning around and engaging the horsemen. Adam thought he was the white knight that would descend from the sky and save the locals from death.

Druid wanted to prove him wrong. He’s not a white knight. He’s no more than another obstacle in the way of the unstoppable Protector Corps, and he will be removed.

On the fortress wall, the Empress felt tears of relief flowing down her cheeks. Adam did it! He really did it! He not only managed to defeat the Empire of the Moon but also arrive here in time to help. Her relief disappeared again as she saw the beasts changing their target.

Tens of thousands of Sun forces laid dead at the claws of these beasts. What could thousands of cavalries do?

The battle for the Immortal Fort was still going on, but it was no longer the heart of the battle. Rather, all eyes were trained on the newcomers.

On one side, 5,000 cavalries charged behind Adam. Their lances were ready for action. The power of runes ran through those long weapons. At this velocity, the lances could pierce almost anything. Even a Voyager couldn’t take a charge like this from this many horsemen easily.

On the other side, 12,000 beasts growled and howled as they rowed forward in a sea of flesh. Some of them were larger and others were smaller, but whatever the size, the beasts were in a frenzy. Druid’s influence made sure the beasts have lost their natural instincts for survival. All they knew was to rip through the human beings in front of them. Pain couldn’t turn them back. Fear couldn’t turn them back. Only death could put an end to their assault.

The two sides got closer and closer. Suddenly, Adam tapped his watch.

After all, he was a Voyager.

The next second, three metal objects appeared on top of the beasts. They were spread across the entire horde. As they solidified, the power of gravity started to factor in and pull the objects down.

The beasts ignored the objects, but Druid didn't.

He knew what the objects were all too well.

“Nuclear missiles!”

Druid didn't have a nuke in his watch, but he has seen these weapons in action. He could tell even Voyagers with half a dozen missions under their belt wouldn’t want to be hit in the face by a nuke.

It was Voyager Avatar’s trump card, and now it belongs to Adam.

Thankfully, Voyagers weren’t as defenseless as normal people against these weapons of mass destruction. As one of the nukes was about to land on him, Druid tossed something at his feet, which exploded into a puff of smoke. When the smoke dispersed, the Voyager was gone. Nukes were good, but they were in an awkward situation against Voyagers, who had plenty of ways to escape the blast radius before the explosion goes off.

But that mean of escape could only work for Druid himself. All his underlings were still in the blast radius, and none of them was nuclear proof.

BOOOOOM!!!

The nukes exploded into three balls of mushroom clouds. All 12,000 beasts were consumed almost instantly. The temperature in the field snapped up to millions of degrees of Celsius in just moments. At that environment, armor no longer mattered. Self regeneration no longer mattered. Beasts large and small alike were reduced to ashes.

The Sun cavalries turned around and retreated to a safe distance away. Before he came here, Adam examined the three nuclear missiles and made sure the side effect of using them could be controlled. All the nukes were adjusted to a certain, controllable blast radius. It took him a little longer to tell his men what would happen and not to panic.

In the back, Druid watched as most of the beasts he had left were melted alive. Even he felt a little disgusted. He was fine with seeing thousands die. But twelve thousand beasts in just seconds? This was just a massacre.

How dare he? How dare Adam do this? He has been gifted the privilege to travel through the Infinite Realms by the Protectors, and now he is using this privilege to go against the Protectors? He will pay for this!

But Druid was anything but a hot headed fool. If he could, he would have pulled back already and wait for another chance to take Adam’s head, but he couldn’t. Most of the Voyagers in this world were at a similar caliber, but their focuses were different. Druid, for example, was focused on controlling animals. He could easily overpower his comrades with an army of beasts behind his back, but that meant he also fell behind on other fields. Without the beasts, he might end up being backstabbed in a ditch somewhere by a fellow Voyager.

He couldn’t back down.

Druid stood back up and watched as the cavalries regrouped for another charge. The nukes turned the floor into frying pans, but Adam was ready for that. He took out a blue potion and tossed it into the air. The potion didn't fall. Instead, it automatically flew out of the container and spread itself across the burnt floor. The heat started to die down until the point that horsemen could ride over it.

Freeze Potion. Courtesy of Voyager Lucas.

The 5,000 Sun cavalries charged forward. The feet of the horses smashed into the ground in unison, forming a strangely beautiful sound. If Druid wasn’t on the wrong end of the lances, he might appreciate it a little more.

Druid wasn’t an expert at frontal combat. His beast army was in disarray. Those attacking the wall survived the nukes, but they were tied up by the Sun defenders at Immortal Fort, who, under the command of the Empress, launched a timely counterattack. The few beasts closer to Druid quickly fell victim to the horsemen lances.

But Voyagers always have a trick up their sleeves.

Druid tapped his hands on his temple.

“Mounts of my foes, hear me…”

The rides of the horsemen suddenly grew aggravated. Some stopped in their tracks while others hopped, trying to get their masters off their back. The charge was disrupted as the cavalries did their best to regain control.

Druid grinned as he bought himself so much more time. He was about to keep pressing the gas when, with the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw something.

A giant gold sword, completely composed of energy, dashed toward his position. Before Druid could escape, the sword smashed into him and exploded.

The smoke cleared. Druid was fine, thanks to his armor, but his spell was disrupted. Before he could restart it, Adam was already in front of him. He spent quite some energy with that strike, but he does this as a major.

Within the first exchange, Druid was hit three times. His armor was falling apart. As a spell caster, he didn't stand a chance against a melee warrior who was right in front of him. He needed a few seconds to manage any resemblance of resistance, but those seconds felt like an impossible task.

“I’ll deal with him! You go help the Empress!” As the cavalry caught up to the fight, Adam issued a quick order. While he could keep Druid from disrupting the mounted Sun warriors with constant attacking, sooner or later he would make a mistake, and he didn't want to give Druid the chance to fight back.

The cavalry quickly changed their direction. They smashed into the beasts near the Immortal Fort, generating a sea of bloodshed on impact.

“Die!”

Another strike from Adam was accompanied by his fierce words.

“What are you doing?” Seeing his army completely wiped out, Druid considered fleeing, but Adam’s attacks prevented him from doing so. The Voyager decided to use words to buy himself an opportunity. “What can you receive in helping these locals?”

Adam landed a kick on Druid’s helmet, sending him falling back.

“Something a selfish bastard like you would never understand.”

Adam waved his weapon again. It was a large, golden sword, and it was going straight for Druid’s head. Druid did his best to deflect the strikes while trying to turn Adam back to the side of the light.

“Your fight is meaningless. Even if we fail, the Protectors can just send more of us.”

“I’ll kill them too.”

“Then eventually the Protectors will personally step in and wipe this pathetic world, along with you, off the surface of the Infinite Realms. Do you really think you can win? Why throw your life away for no reason at all?”

Adam paused for a second and smirked.

“You don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what?”

“You don’t know what it’s like to make a stand.” There was a look of sympathy in Adam’s eyes. “You may be like a god, Druid, but you have never, not even once, fought for what you believed in. You fought for gold. You fought for power. But what’s the point? What’s the point in getting all the power and wealth and being a deity if you don’t believe in something?”

“And how is dying going to help with that?”

Adam glanced at his sword. It was getting brighter and brighter.

“If I die, at least I made a choice to die, and I will choose that over being a puppet of the so-called Protectors anytime.” He sighed. “These Protectors - they have reigned the Infinite Realms unopposed. Worlds burn at their command. Innocents are terminated for no reason at all. I will not stand by and watch it continue...not anymore.”

Druid nodded slowly, understanding. Just as he was expected to reply, he suddenly moved.

A psychic attack was sent at Adam’s direction while a teleportation device appeared around his wrist in the form of a bracelet.

Druid never wanted to convince Adam. He didn't give a damn about the rogue Voyager. He was merely buying himself some time for his escape plan to function.

Adam took a step back. Just before the psychic diversion hit him, he swung his sword and sent a dashing attack at Druid. The psychic attack hit Adam almost as soon as his energy blast hit Druid.

Adam tapped his forehead as the attack made him freeze for a second.

Druid’s teleportation worked. Well, sort of. His body was gone, brought to wherever the device had its destination set to. His head, on the other hand, was still here…

There might be Voyagers that could survive headless, but Druid wasn’t one of them.

In the background, the beasts, already crumbling under the Sun attack from two sides, suddenly went into a frenzy against each other. Having lost Druid, the urge to hunt among the beasts took control again. Countless beasts fell victim to each other before the Sun forces mopped the floor.

The acid spewing Voyager barely escaped. His acids formed a protective barrier around him and bought him enough time to flee.

But that was just a small incident. As Adam rode back to the gate of the Immortal Fort, the last beast lost its head.

The war is over...and they have won.

Adam walked onto the wall, which was covered in more dead than living.

He paused in front of a wounded Sun soldier. Half his face was melted off. He was trying not to scream, but it was physically impossible. A few of his less injured comrades sat beside him, worried, but there was nothing they could do. Almost all the medics in the field were killed. Medical supplies were non-existent. The most the wounded could do was try to toughen out their injuries.

The Empress saw Adam and struggled to get up. She was covered in wounds, blood, and sweat. Then again, that was the case with almost everyone inside the fort. Adam immediately ran over and helped her.

“I am glad my trust wasn’t wasted.” The Empress smiled weakly before glancing down on her wounds. Her eyes were starting to stick. “Adam...I don’t have much time left…”

“Nope.” Adam shook his head and cut the Empress off as he took out a green potion, which he handed to the Empress. The Empress glanced at Adam before pouring the entire thing into her mouth. After all that has happened, she fully trusts Adam.

The potion formed a warm stream as it entered the Empress’s mouth, where it was divided into dozens of smaller streams and was spread out throughout her body. Suddenly, the Empress found her strength coming back to her. The wounds started to heal. She stood up in amazement.

Before she could thank Adam, the Voyager turned to a few less wounded Sun soldiers and took out a literal mountain of similar green potions from his watch.

“Give them to those who need them.”

“Yes sir!” The soldiers quickly started passing the potions down. In just minutes, the pained groans across the walls disappeared. Adam watched as the soldier with half his face gone starting to nod off. His injury was too serious to be completely healed by just a single potion, but he was at the very least alive.

General Flores started to organize all the corpses to be buried or burnt to prevent a plague. Meanwhile, the Empress and Adam could have some time in private.

“Those potions.” The Empress started. “They were better than anything I have seen throughout the Empire. It was...it was nice of you to distribute them to the wounded.”

A potion that could cause multiple injuries to mend quickly was certainly precious. In many cases, it meant an extra life. Adam just gave away hundreds of them for common foot soldiers that he didn't really have any ties with. Even the Empress was impressed. She asked herself if she would do the same thing, given the power. The answer was a maybe, and she was their Empress.

Adam tapped his watch. He just gave away ⅔ of his healing potion storage, but glancing across the wall, he felt like it was worth it.

“Those were brave men. I know how dangerous Voyagers are, and they still stood the ground. They don’t deserve to die like this, not after the war is already won.”

The Empress nodded. “But is the war really won? We have fended off those attacks, but there are still hostile Voyagers in this world running free. They must be plotting against us. We will never be safe unless all of them are taken care of.”

Adam nodded. He appreciated the Empress’s ability to remain calm and collected after such a victory.

“You’re right. The Voyagers are still a threat, and it’s a threat we can’t terminate before it explodes. Maybe the only thing we can do is make sure when they strike again, we are ready.”

The Empress agreed wholeheartedly, but things like this were easier said than done. Prepare for this? How? Get more men? Build more weapons?

Suddenly, the Empress’s thoughts went back to the will she sighed before she left Crown’s City. The one that would give Adam the Empire if she was to die. She knew that, as the Empress, she would be the prioritized target of the Voyagers. When they come out of the shadows again, they will come after her, and they will likely succeed.

She needed to make sure even if she dies, Adam could take over the Empire quickly and form a defense.

But how could she give Adam claim over the Empire in the case of her death?

The answer was simple.

“Adam, I will marry you.”