Edward was sitting on a lone rock outcrop in the middle of the sea. It was the same spot that he had used in the past to train his aura control. He was currently cross-legged on the bare stone while two copies of himself were engaged in a fight currently running in the air in front of him. They were using aura shaped in the form of daggers to fight. Just like the Arachne, Edward was able to infuse his copies with aura, boosting their utility far beyond a simple distraction.

His copies couldn’t use his powers, so there was neither teleportation nor acceleration, but they could still use his techniques. Edward had to control them mentally, and he was using the current downtime to train. Gobéliard’s battle had shown both what he could accomplish, which was already mind-blowing, and his current limits. In this battle, he had been able to destroy an army by himself, killing more powerful monsters in an hour than he had encountered since the start of his adventurer debut.

However, it hadn’t been a single-sided fight. It was difficult for him to kill powerful monsters with a single blow, and when the monsters organized themselves, it became problematic for him. Moreover, their sheer number meant he couldn’t squander his aura if he didn’t want to run out of endurance. In this fight, he had used most of his powers but the one enabling him to make copies of himself. He hadn’t had the time to train this power at that time, and controlling the copies was mentally taxing.

Edward didn’t dare relax, from what the Arachne had told him, he wouldn’t have to face local monsters who were still inexperienced with their newfound strength, but rather alien monsters who were already used to their level of power. Adding the fact that such monsters could come in the form of an army rather than lone monsters and it was a recipe for disaster. Edward wanted to master his current abilities before leaving on the dangerous endeavor of destroying all of the invader’s portals.

One copy was too slow to avoid a blow, and the other one’s blade cut right through it, dissipating it as if it had only been a mirage. Edward let out a long breath, getting up on his feet. That’s when his aura perception noticed several vessels sailing toward Gobéliard. While in the spiders’ domain, the range of his perception had been somewhat dampened by the layers of webs. But now that nothing was blocking it, his perception spread out in a one-kilometer radius. He wasn’t able to track down everything that happened in such a large area. Just like one didn’t immediately notice what was in one’s field of vision, what was happening in his perception stayed as a background noise unless he focused on it. But several vessels aiming for Gobéliard immediately drew his attention, especially since all trade exchanges had stopped with the monsters’ surge worsening.

A sword on a red background is the symbol of the Vega family. Are they coming back along with reinforcement from their main family for revenge? He frowned, looking into empty air, and focused on his aura senses. Something seems wrong, their vessels are battered they must have encountered several confrontations on their way. Let’s see what this is about.

A one-kilometer range of perception might seem large, but with Edward’s current range of teleportation, it wasn’t that much compared to his movement speed. He just had to use his teleportation twice, waiting for the duration of the cool down in between. Within four seconds he was back at the docks waiting for the vessels to reach Gobéliard.

The other advantage of his increased perception is that it enabled him to make greater use of his telepathy. Now he could contact anyone within this one-kilometer range. He sent a message to Cornélius, ‘Vessels from the Vega family are coming at the docks. Just thought you would like to know.’ Edward did not doubt that guards would warn Cornelius in time but he was by far faster than anything they could achieve.

With the establishment of a council, Cornelius wasn’t directly in charge of Gobéliard, but having ruled the city before he was the one with the most experience, and Edward had grown used to communicating with him.

Something is wrong, Edward thought while inspecting the approaching vessels. Their sails had been patched with burlap in several places ruining the imposing image that the noble families usually enjoyed. Moreover, there were more signs of hasty repairs, the railing was broken, and new planks had been added to plug holes on the deck and even on the hull. Of the four vessels, the one lagging behind was even missing a mast. From what Edward could perceive, even the crew morale was gloomy. This is not the attitude of someone coming for revenge.

By the time the ships came close enough to dock, a large group of city guards had gathered behind Edward, and even Cornelius was rapidly approaching.

The first individual to disembark had seen better days, he was a man in his forties, his hair originally black now turning grey. He had an unkept beard and was wearing battle attire that hadn’t been unscathed as well. His clothes were torn and one part of his armor was missing. He is at the predator level but injured, I can sense the remnant of foreign energy on him even if he is hiding it.

The man widened his eyes when he realized that Edward was at the patriarch stage, his eyes refocused and his posture strengthen. He stopped in front of Edward, dropping one knee to the ground. “I am Marcellius Vega, the current master of the Vega family. I hereby ask for the right of shelter in accordance with the Noblesse oblige treaty.”

One could hear a pin drop. Edward stood flabbergasted as Marcellius’s attitude was the perfect opposite of the Vega family’s usual inclination, always belittling people and thinking of themselves above the others. What has happened for them to behave like that? I expected them to come back for revenge with their master, not to beg for asylum. And he is saying he is the current family leader, but he is only at the predator stage, what happened to the actual patriarch?

“I can’t guarantee you shelter since I’m not the master of the city, but I imagine it won’t be a problem. Speak, tell me what has happened for you to end in such a state.” Edward asked more interested in the information the Vega family was bringing than their potential threat or value.

“The capital has fallen.” Marcellius began. “The current surge is beyond anything we have known. At the start when we noticed its unusual duration and intensity, we thought of it as an opportunity to increase our forces. As the empire expands, monsters are becoming rarer, in turn decreasing the number of predators in our forces and preventing us from expanding more as we are lacking men.”

“Our patriarch was particularly delighted and ordered us to form hunting parties as we couldn’t let the other families take the lead. This unusual surge was meant to reshuffle the cards, the one who would harness the most benefit from it would become the new strongest family.”

I can indeed sense a high number of predators within their crew, Edward thought.

“However, the excitement didn’t last. At first, it was only an increase in the number of monsters, meaning more prey for us. But as the surge continued, we started to take losses, the aim changed to killing the most monsters to decrease our losses both human and material. Voices started to raise, questioning how long the surge would last and what we really knew about it.”

“It was around that time, that the Gobéliard branch came back to us announcing the death of Quintus, not to a monster but to a previously unknown adventurer no less.” Marcellius paused to glance at Edward. “The patriarch was shocked and voices of outrage echoed with the family mansion asking for revenge, but with the uncertain period of time in front of us, it was chosen to delay the punitive expedition.”

“Soon, the population grew increasingly agitated as they were the first to suffer as food became scarce. However, no one was that worried yet. With our patriarch, losing was unimaginable, the question was only for how long we would have to endure those unpleasant times.”

“This changed when a mysterious shroud of darkness coming from the east covered the city as well as the whole sky.”

“What did you say?!” Edward interrupted him briskly.

He had never been to the capital before so it was hard for him to gauge its level of power, and its fall didn’t have that much of an impact on him compared to the natives whose faces were ashen. He hadn’t grown in this world and hadn’t learned to fear the noble families nor to hear their tales in awe. All he knew was that the capital had several individuals at the patriarch stage, which was a lot less impressive now that he was at the same stage himself. However, ever since his first expedition in the Damkinan’s ruins, he had wondered who their enemies might have been. He had supposed that the wall of darkness depicted as their adversary on their murals was a metaphor, something to do with the surge and the increase of monsters, or even the spiderwebs covering the sky with their webs. But from what Marcellius was telling, it could have been a simple rendition of what had happened. The true enemy of the Damkinan had revealed themselves, surging from the depth of history itself.

“A veil of darkness covered the city,” Marcellius repeated. “Within hours the capital delved into chaos strange monsters killing the populace left and right, the guards unable to stop them.”

“Tell me more about those monsters. What is their level of strength? What are their powers?” Edward asked avidly.

Marcellius shook his head. “Sadly, I can’t tell you that much sir. It was as if darkness itself was coming to kill us all. Darkest shades separated from the veil and massacred everyone they met, making no distinction between combatants, women, and children.” Marcellius’ voice shook from his restrained anger and grief. “I did fight some of whatever they were. They have no definite form, their appearance ever-changing. Normal impacts simply went through them without effect, only weapons coated in aura were able to do any sort of damage. Even then, I’m not sure how effective it is. Multiple forms were assaulting us from everywhere, I did cut some apart but they simply fell back with the shadows before more of them came back. I was unable to distinguish if those were the same opponents or new ones, but it didn’t make a difference anyway.”

“Our patriarch put his life on the way to open an escape path and hold those monsters for long enough for us to leave. Even then more of them came out of the shadows from behind. What you see in front of you is all that is left of the Vega family, one of the four pillars of the empire.”