Chapter 50: The Arbiters' Training
It was three days after Leornars and his subordinates had been summoned to the Lord's manor.
He woke up feeling refreshed, pulling on a simple white vest and a pair of fiery red shorts. His ensemble was accessorized with a striking red moon necklace and his signature red dragon earring. Slipping his feet into comfortable brown slippers, he turned to see Stacian still deep in slumber.
"Hm... guess she really was tired. Who knew it was possible to move from Vurnam to my land—a thirty-mile journey—in twelve seconds? I won't lie, she did beat me to it, but I suppose I've adapted well enough to hit Mach 12. Worth it," he mused internally.
His thoughts were interrupted by a familiar, irritating clamor from the next rooms. He frowned.
"Seriously, those two imbeciles," he sighed, turning back to find Stacian's eyes now open, gazing at him.
"Morning," she mumbled.
He stared at her, a flicker of confusion crossing his face.
"I thought you said you were... never mind," Leornars trailed off, letting the sentence hang unfinished.
She looked sleepy and completely out of it, punctuating her confusion with a wide yawn.
"You know, you're going to start spreading rumors that I'm sleeping with you," Leornars stated, his tone perfectly calm and his expression utterly neutral.
"I thought you said you wanted to stay in another room" he asked
"I can't do that, after all I'm your shield and sword. Your safety over embarrassment"she said seating on the bed.
"We're just sleeping, nothing else, really," she replied without a hint of concern. She got up, walked to the wardrobe, and pulled out her practical blue shorts and matching top.
Leornars stepped out of the room to investigate the commotion, only to find the root of the issue downstairs: Zaryter was pinned unceremoniously to the floor by Ayesha.
"Lord Leornars, help me! They wanna dissect me!" Zaryter cried out in desperation.
Leornars looked at the ridiculous scene and simply sighed.
"Leave that idiot alone. Today, we're training for the request," Leornars commanded, his voice sharp and absolute.
"Yes, Lord," they instantly replied in unison.
"Bellian," he called out.
Bellian, the shadow retainer, instantly materialized.
"Lord," he acknowledged, bowing.
"Go and see what the other undead are doing in My lands," Leornars ordered.
"Understood, Lord," Bellian said, vanishing back into the shadows as quickly as he appeared.
An hour later, they were outside, the air thick with the dust of their sparing.
Zaryter, the self-proclaimed magical prodigy, was currently being tutored by Stacian and Zhyier on the finer points of magic manipulation and defensive barriers.
Leornars, meanwhile, was engaged in a spirited match with Zhyelena.
He threw a lightning-fast kick, which she effortlessly dodged. She then seized his ankle and hurled him toward a stone wall. Leornars instantly corrected mid-air, landing softly on the vertical surface like an insect.
Zhyelena smirked, her eyes alight with the thrill of the fight. "I guess throwing you won't be enough, huh?"
Leornars lunged, unleashing a flurry of rapid-fire kicks. Zhyelena confidently evaded each one, a growing sense of superiority blooming in her chest.
"Don't get cocky," Stacian's voice cut through the air. She emphasized the point by landing a swift kick on a complaining Zaryter. "Lord Leornars adapts instantly. He'll begin to mirror your moves as you make them, finding the flaws."
Zhyelena snapped her attention back to Leornars—but he was gone. Panic flared in her eyes. A second later, a hand rested lightly on her shoulder.
"You lose," he whispered, simultaneously channeling a bolt of lightning magic that sent her crashing into the nearest wall.
While this was happening, Zaryter, under Stacian's harsh but effective tutelage, was finally beginning to master fire magic and was learning how to increase the range and mobility of his signature chains.
Next, it was Leornars's turn to demonstrate his skills against Stacian.
"No need to hold back," Stacian challenged, a fierce glint in her blue eyes.
"I knew you'd say that," Leornars said, and he was gone, rushing her at a terrifying Mach 12 speed with a kick aimed at her center mass.
She was caught off guard, dodging by the barest margin, and looked up just in time to see Leornars descending with a powerful stomp. She flipped back just as the strike hit the ground.
"My, my," she murmured, impressed.
Leornars instantly cast a simultaneous fire spell and water spell, flinging the dual attack at her. She erected a barrier just as the fire and water mixed, engulfing the area in a thick, blinding mist.
"Was this his goal?" she thought, peering into the gloom. Then she heard a distinct crack. Leornars burst through her barrier with a kinetic kick. She instantly grabbed his foot, slammed him hard onto the ground, and then swiftly lifted and twisted his arm behind his back.
"I win, Lord Leornars," she stated confidently, a victorious smile gracing her lips.
Then, the body beneath her hands melted.
She gasped in shock, looking up to see Leornars descending from above, wreathed in a terrifying triple-cast: lightning, fire, and purgatory flames.
"Three incantations?!" Zhyelena exclaimed in shock.
"It was an illusion, and I fell for it," she realized.
A tremendous blast echoed from within the barrier, followed by a grunt. Zaryter and the others watched in confusion. When the smoke cleared, Leornars was neatly tied up, suspended in Stacian's restrictive magical ropes.
"My, my. Lord Leornars, that was a good battle," she said, a playful smile replacing her surprise. "Or is this another illusion?"
She activated her Divine Gift: Eye of Shalba, which allowed her to peer into a person's soul to detect deception, lies, or non-human essence.
"Aaaah, it's you," she declared, laughing, before untying him.
" I guess I win, again" she added smiling.
Zaryter and Zhyelena exchanged a look of profound respect.
"I will just say this: if I fought either of those two, I'd be dead," Zhyier admitted, and Zhyelena and Zaryter quickly agreed.
Just then, Bellian reappeared from the shadow realm.
"Lord, two undead have collapsed. Six houses are completed. The total number of houses is currently seventy-three. No further problems," Bellian reported, bowing before vanishing instantly back into his shadow.
Leornars immediately summoned him again.
"Train Zaryter on speed and precision," Leornars ordered.
As Bellian materialized beside Zaryter, a new disturbance approached. Voices.
Three knights—two men and one woman—rounded the corner and spotted the group.
The female knight's eyes instantly fixed on Leornars, and they seemed to sparkle. She rushed toward him with alarming speed, her hands immediately seizing his.
"She moved at Mach 12," Leornars noted, a silent, internal smile forming on his face. "I can use her."
"Hey there, I'm Nepheline, and who are you?" she asked in a soft, bright voice.
In a terrifying display of loyalty, Bellian, Zhyelena, and Zhyier materialized around her. Bellian's blade was instantly against her neck, Zhyier had thrown up a protective barrier around Leornars, and Zhyelena had her hand locked around Nepheline's throat, a dagger poised to strike.
"I suggest you leave the Lord," Stacian said, her eyes suddenly bloodshot, cold, and empty. Her voice was like grinding ice. She shifted her glacial gaze to the other two knights. "Unless you want me to kill all of you for touching the Lord, you better have a good reason. If not, I'll kill you," Stacian added, her clear blue eyes slowly morphing into a terrifying, deep red.
Leornars placed a calming hand on her shoulder. The female knight, Nepheline, looked utterly horrified.
"I'll ask you this, you insolent fools, who are you? And what are you doing here?" Leornars demanded, his calm demeanor entirely gone, replaced by an expression of chilling coldness.
The three knights looked at him, and it felt as if a colossal, venomous snake was glaring at them, its eyes glowing with malevolent power. They looked to the other retainers, whose auras had all shifted, becoming darker, more predatory. Zaryter's chains had already silently snaked out, covering the entire manor grounds.
"You better answer the Lord's question or I'll turn you to ash," Zaryter snarled, all traces of his friendly demeanor gone.
"What kind of demons are these?" the knights thought, frozen in fear.
A polite clap sounded from behind Leornars as Rachael Suvallina and Marrielle appeared.
"Now, now, let's not kill each other," Rachael Suvallina said, though her hands were trembling slightly.
In response, Leornars activated his Aura of Depravity, a mental force that crushes morale and willpower. The knights immediately fell to their knees, paralyzed by terrifying illusions of Leornars killing them in endless loops.
Rachael Suvallina stumbled back, catching a horrifying illusion of her own dead mother. Her hands shook violently as she managed to walk forward toward Leornars, who met her gaze with a completely expressionless face.
"You see, Leornars, they are the knights in charge of protecting our borders," Rachael Suvallina explained.
"Protect? Oh, I see," Leornars said, deactivating his aura.
The knights instantly gasped, sucking in ragged breaths of blessed relief.
Leornars and his group retreated to a separate area to rest, giving the terrified knights space.
"Lady Suvallina, who are they?" the shaken Nepheline finally whispered.
"That," Rachael Suvallina said, her voice low, "is the prophesied king, the White Plague."
The knights looked utterly shocked.
"Him? When did he arrive?" Bryan, one of the knights, asked.
"He arrived in Vurnam about a week ago," she replied.
"So that's him, huh? Then the Age of the Gods has ended, and it's a new age," commented Lloyd, the third knight.
Rachael Suvallina nodded solemnly.
"He's strong," Nepheline stated, her initial spark replaced by fear-fueled awe.
"I felt as if I was about to die," Bryan agreed, wiping sweat from his brow.
"He had you on his palm and let you go so he could know who you were. He was fully aware I would come to see what the commotion was, then used his aura to show intimidation so he could gain superiority. Nice move, Leornars," Rachael Suvallina thought, a complex smile returning to her lips.
"What houses? What lands?" Zaryter asked Leornars, his curiosity finally winning out over the terrifying morning.
"I guess I never told you," Leornars said, a hint of pride in his voice. "I acquired a piece of land from the late king of Lurtra and began construction there. I already deployed two hundred undead two weeks ago to build. We should have a nation ready in two months or more."
"A nation?! So you're going to be King?!" Zaryter cried out in pure, unadulterated joy.
Leornars simply nodded.
"So what's the nation's name?" Zaryter pressed.
Leornars turned to Stacian, granting her the honor of the announcement.
"THE IMPERIUM OF AVANGARD," Stacian proclaimed with a wide, confident smile.
"Avangard? Doesn't Avangard mean to rule over the privileged and the unprivileged?" Zhyelena asked, a thoughtful frown creasing her brow.