Read ahead on Patreon.
Let me know if you spot errors
---------------------------
'I expected her to try to recruit me alongside Lauran to fight in the war but that wasn't it?'
While it's still too early for Lauran to be considered a worthy candidate, her potential was already clear for all to see so all she would need is time. Reaching a point where she can use Teleportation Magic is simply unprecedented for any ordinary human at this age, or any age for that matter.
"You thought I was here to ask for your help to fight the demons when the barrier falls, right? That's not exactly the case but I won't deny that demons are involved."
"What do you mean?"
Nowhere in the game did Freya approach Lauran this early so this is a new thing. But he does recall her becoming very active in investigating ways to travel to the demon realm after the School Arc (when Luke awakens and the empire suffers heavy losses).
"I won't lie that this is somewhat related to the demons. With Lauran being a promising student, I considered her for the role as well…"
"Stop beating around the bush."
'Only he can speak to the Archmage this way…' Lauran thought with a sigh.
"I want to gather a special group of individuals, tasked not with destroying the demon armies, but eliminating their leaders."
"How is that any different than the Hero Party?" it sounded absurd to him.
"The Hero Party fight on the frontlines, while our group moves in the shadows. We're a strong force supporting the heroes and weakening the demons by causing distraught amongst their kind. A leader dying in human nations can cause many problems in society, but we aren't ruled by strength and birthright alone. We are ruled by order and hierarchy. And our leaders can't decide everything, no matter how much they try to convince themselves they can, whether in a democracy or a kingdom system. A king must still listen to his nobles as they are the support pillars holding the palace upright."
She continued, noticing he's still skeptical, "But demons are different. Remove a Demon Lord, and you don't simply weaken a region—you fracture its entire identity and everything they built."
Lauran frowned. "So, you want to cause instability, Lady Archmage?"
Freya did not correct her immediately.
"The Demon King maintains unity through dominance, but even she cannot personally govern every domain. Each Demon Lord acts as a stabilizing pillar beneath her rule. Removing every one of them causes the entire weight of their species to fall on them."
"Does the emperor know you want to do this? It even sounds like you want to go over there before the demons come here." He interrupted, thinking it was a ridiculous thing to suggest.
While he can understand her reasoning somewhat, doing this will be dangerous.
"His Majesty doesn't need to know. It will cause unnecessary panic. And yes, I intend to go into those lands to take care of the demon lords before a large conflict can arise."
"You're crazy, Freya."
She smiled wryly, "Just like you had no choice but to fight Valtraak, I have no choice but to do this."
"Is instability in their forces really your end goal? I can understand wanting to remove more responsibility on Luke and his future comrades, but are the risks worth it? How would we even get there?"
"…"
'This woman… so she does know a way without breaking the barrier itself.'
"I'm still not sure you would succeed, Freya. The demon lords might be weaker than Valtraak but they're a force you can't take on even if there were ten of you. Valtraak just didn't fight us seriously, believing he could just regenerate from any wound."
But they had Sylphy, their trump card.
"With Guinevere and Ceru, we'll succeed."
"So, this is where your confidence comes from…" he sighed.
"Uhm, I need to go to the bathroom." Said Lauran, but she was obviously feeling left out, not understanding the conversation so far.
She quickly got up and left. Waiting for a few seconds after she disappeared from view, he spoke again:
"Does this plan of yours involve Lauran in any way?"
"Your eyes tell me you're displeased. Is she your woman?"
"…She's an important asset in a project I'm working on."
"I see. To answer your question, no. But I do intend to keep her by my side to get her ready for the future. She's in no way going to be involved in this plan of mine. I won't force her to fight alongside us but I want her to… carry on my legacy if I can't return."
"You've prepared yourself for death, huh? How noble." It probably sounded like mockery but he was being sincere. She might fear competition but it's for a good reason—she doesn't want anyone else to take on the responsibility as Archmage.
But maybe there's another reason…
"What's your end goal, Freya? This is probably not something that just came out of nowhere, is it?" he pointed at the notes on the table.
"...If I told you there are bigger threats than the Demon Kings, would you believe me?"
He didn't have any particular reaction to that sudden question, as he knew there were beings much more dangerous than Arsnoria. They just choose to leave mortals alone and won't get involved unless provoked.
"I heard from Guinevere that the portal that appeared in that town leads to a dimension that has monsters as strong as or above Valtraak in strength. It's a prison, of sorts, for many malevolent beings." He came up with an excuse.
"It's not that surprising that she also knows about it. That's exactly why I want to do this."
"What? Are you afraid the demons will try to team up with other species?"
He also had this worry once upon a time. With Ladiath, that is. But Ladiath is so incomprehensibly strong that he wouldn't care about mortal conflict or care enough to kill the mortals, even as a way to pass the time. His threat to use the offspring to flatten the world might've been sincere but that's only because he doesn't want to be troubled by the divine realm by doing what he ordered Arnold to do, himself.
His sole mission is invading the Divine Realm, after all.
"I might sound paranoid, but if you know what I know, you would agree that it's best to strike early when they aren't attacking us."
"Anyone in particular that you're concerned about?" he wanted to ask if the spell fits somewhere in her plan but this is the most important thing at the moment.
She nodded, "I've… never told anyone this but… I didn't get to where I am just because of my own strength or hard work. Yes, I've studied all kinds of spells and practiced until I collapsed from exhaustion, but at the end of the day this power isn't my own." she looked at her hand and slowly closed it.
"The person—no, thing I'm about to tell you about gave me this power."
"…Huh?"
That's… not something he expected. He thought the Archmage is just another blessed being like God's Champion (the hero). No one bothered to dig deeper than that. No one did that for Luke so why do it for his other comrades?
"I wouldn't call them a single thing since their true body is imprisoned on a distant prison world in the divine realm while their power is fragmented and weakened. Instead of attempting to free themselves, they intend to use me as a vessel for their power… That is why…" she closed her eyes, "…why I have to do this. I don't know their true name but I know they're called… the Progenitor."
This might be why she also wants to keep Lauran nearby… to monitor the influence this being might have on her.
'…Where have I heard that name before?' it feels like he's seen it dozens of times but just never intended on researching who or what that was.
'Progenitor means origin and since she implied that they're even stronger than Valtraak… that means they could be the creator of magic. But… didn't the Gods teach us magic in the past? That doesn't add up.'
But it's not like they're dead so the Gods must've forced them to teach the divine realm magic.
'Melis is the Goddess who created humans—could it have been one of those spells? Seventeenth-Tier is… just beyond comprehension so it's likely the case.'
Did humanity just appear one day in the history of this world or evolve throughout history like on earth?
The system is oddly quiet. Sometimes it answers him unprompted if it's something he doesn't know.
Freya frowned slightly.
Has she been keeping this to herself?
"The only prerequisite is me casting all seventeen tiers of magic. That would mean I'm the perfect vessel to hold all that power. Fortunately, and I am ashamed to admit this, I am incapable of breaking through the fifteenth tier."
"…."
'Lauran, on the other hand, reaches 17 tiers in the game... She disappears after the war and no one knows where she went. Maybe there's an unfinished storyline where she goes to rescue the Progenitor after being mind controlled by them.'
This must be why Freya wants to keep Lauran by her side.
"I've been using the excuse that the spells beyond Fifteenth-Rank would alter the world and cause major damage but sooner or later it will come out and I'll be seen as lesser than my predecessors." She lowered her head and went silent, as if imagining losing the trust of others would break her.
He didn't point out this flaw of hers and continued to ask:
"Is your goal to breakthrough that limitation yourself despite the risk?"
In other words—Ascension.
He's no stranger to it. Hell, even Selia ascended to a higher species after finishing her Ascension Trials. Supreme Sorcerer already underwent an evolution so there was no need for him to take the trials as well.
Freya nodded.
"Does the spell have something to do with that?" he wasn't surprised by her answer in the slightest.
Freya was just that kind of person. One who takes risks to handle a problem. Up until now, there's just never been a situation that requires much risk.
She shook her head, "The spell is meant to protect humanity if I'm gone for too long. I chose this spell specifically because it can work whether you have the capabilities to cast spells in its tier or not. It's almost like the barrier that split the world in half—I can maintain it but I can't cast anything like it. My mana reserves are far too low and my control is inadequate at my level."
"What does the spell do?"
"One of its abilities is to disrupt the energy of demonic portals. Unlike the World Tree and mana, this method is more reliable because the spell can't be bypassed or broken. Mana might be our natural shield, but it can be thinned, just like the oxygen we breathe. If there's not enough of it, we suffocate, and in this case the portals will form."
"Will it be a dome-like barrier? I don't see the point of casting it over every settlement on the continent if some underground cave or desert in the middle of nowhere could become a spawn point for demons."
"No, this spell can be formless or solid—which is why I chose it out of the many ancient spells I found."
'She's thought about everything, it seems.'
"You said one of its abilities is to disrupt demonic energy… What about its other abilities?"
Asking for its name would be strange since he wouldn't need to know that. Like she said, it's from an ancient era so its abilities are more important than its name.
Plus, he might just out himself as a player to a potential player and that would just be trouble. Sure, he has the Halo but Freya has terrifying casting speed so it's difficult to say who would be able to succeed with a first strike.
"The other is to imprison demons." As if hesitating to continue, she stalled for a moment, "…That's also one of the reasons I picked this spell."
"Wha? You intend to imprison them? Are you...crazy? Just... why?"
"During my travels throughout the years, I've found many ancient secrets lost to time and even absent from historical texts. Some were quite worthless to a magician like me. When I went through a relic tomb that was the grave of a powerful sect leader from thousands of years ago, I stumbled upon a tale about a certain cultivation method, recorded in scrolls." She recounted everything, "Evil demonic practitioners of the Heavenly Demon sect could suck out the lifeforce and energy of their captives, using it to increase their own strength without relying on the traditional way of leveling up. I wanted to study the martial art to create a spell that can do something similar."
"…What happened to the cultivation technique?"
"I didn't find the cultivation method itself, only records of what it does. I can give you the preserved notes if you want. A martial artist such as yourself could find it useful. Anyway, 20 years of work bore no fruit so I've now decided to take a different approach which works the same way as the cultivation scroll."
He had a premonition that what she was about to say was going to something absurd.
"The Succubus Queen Lilith can do something similar as it's an ability of her subspecies. She has an ability to extract the lifeforce of living things. She uses this during intercourse to rejuvenate her own reserves but can also resupply others—which is exactly why I intend to capture her alongside the demon lords."
Freya just said something that was crazy.
"You want to use Lilith's ability to suck the Demon Lords dry?"
it was such an absurd thing to hear. Wouldn't that just make Lilith stronger!? She's the Demon King's trump card for when the Demon Lords and their armies are defeated! She's the Monarch Watcher's disciple so she's an incredibly powerful magician as well.
"I can tell by your reaction that you think I'm crazy." She smiled wryly, "But don't worry, I have my own precautions for when things go wrong."
"That doesn't fill me with confidence…"
"I've been preparing for this for a century and have gone through every possible scenario in order to avoid failures." There was no jest in her words. It was like she had absolute confidence in her plans, "Once I have Lilith in my hands, I will use the lifeforce of the Demon Lords to ascend my limits and face the Progenitor on equal footing."
"Freya…" he wanted to dissuade her because that will end up bringing trouble.
But she cut him off, stepping closer with a determined glint in her eyes.
"I know this is possible because ascension requires divine souls. Demon Lords are an ascension of their own species and aren't mortals. That's why I think they're the perfect candidates to help me ascend." She clenched her fists, "I know I have the Monarch Watcher magician to worry about but so long as our plans don't leak, they won't expect their Demon lords to be our targets."
She held out a hand towards him, an anxious glint in her eyes, "…Please help me take down the Progenitor, Arnold. If they're defeated, nothing will stand in our way in eliminating the demons."
The world froze over and Freya's trembling stopped.
--
-Ding!
-Major Hidden Quest – Freya's Ascension triggered!
Requirement(s)
1. [Mandatory] Capture Demon Lords/Divine Souls (0/4)
2. (Optional) Charm Lilith
Reward(s):
1. Unlock all sealed skills
2. Enhance stats by 60% in true body
3. Star-Class Divine Weapon
4. Class Ascension
5. Apply 100% buff Duration: 200 days
Note: All rewards will be distributed only if four beings possessing Divine Souls are given to Freya York.
Important: This quest has a time limit of 700 days.
--
'A time limit, huh… 700 days past after the School Arc, the demons will plan out their first invasion while Luke is still training in the divine realm shortly after awakening. These rewards are insane and incomparable to what I've received so far.'
But when you consider the requirements, it all but makes sense.
'Hmm, seduce a demon? I don't think it will be hard to make Lilith become sexually attracted to me since her entire race is filled with sluts but the system specifically mentions charming her. This must mean I need to make her fall for me… I can see why that would be important since I would have her abilities on my side. But I'm not a fan of a woman whose entire purpose is to get as many dicks inside her as possible.'
He was unsure if he should accept the quest before this notification popped up but he was now tempted.
He looked at Freya's hand for a second—it was a small hand. then he looked at her eyes, which still had her youthful features. Freya looked no older than the average 15-year-old girl despite being almost 200 years old. That small back of hers wants to carry such a burden and this small hand of hers wants to reach an almost impossible goal.
'That spell she researched all this time. Not only is it the perfect prison for demons, it's the perfect counter to the Perdition Core Terraformer. On top of that, she will receive a power boost by using Lilith. Shit… Why did you have to find this convenient spell now?'
He glanced to the table. The system said earlier that Lauran's studies seem to be 98% completed. How far ahead are the others?
He was hoping Freya was wrong in her assessment when she said this spell can be maintained by any magician.
Time began to flow normally when he made up his mind.
"…When do you think you'll be ready?"
Even if the terraformer is countered, all that needs to happen is Luke must suffer enough to awaken. This is the bare minimum in order for the story to advance.
"I still need to do some relic hunting for better equipment, following historical records I found. We can't go in unprepared and must have divine artifacts at the very least. There are also some old friends I must still convince. If I had to give a time limit, we'll ready within two years at the very least."
She went silent for a moment then her eyes widened, "Arnold, are you—"
"…How can I help?"
Color returned to Freya's face and her eyes sparkled.
**
Freya told him that she can't share details yet since everything still needs to be finalized but she will drop by every once in a while, to update him on her plans.
Lauran returned shortly after and stared intently at Arnold.
"Let's keep what we heard to ourselves for now. Freya's plans haven't been finalized yet."
"Oh…" she offered no objection, "It sounded dangerous and I don't think I'm ready to fight yet…"
"If Freya came here for you, it means she's willing to accept you as a disciple."
"Is this assignment a sort of test…?"
"I'm not sure. But it looks that way. Then again, it could be separate from it since she said whoever can maintain the spell the longest will be her vice-chairman and right-hand. You're different, though."
"How?"
"You'll be able to cast the spell on your own. Did you think it's a coincidence that you can use Teleportation, a 7th-rank spell?"
But if Freya met Elora, a Magic Manipulator, things would be different. In terms of usefulness, she's far more powerful than Lauran but one day Lauran will be her equal. Freya might try to recruit people from high-class adventurer parties so it won't be that long before she discovers Elora.
"I-I don't know what to think… My life changed so drastically that I can't keep up with it."
"Just finish the assignment. From what she said, she still hasn't gathered enough people yet. I'm not sure when she plans to start this operation, but she won't let a prized jewel like you go into a battle unprepared."
In others, they'll have to wait and see.
"…"
"You can always refuse—" she shook her head at this.
"I don't plan to waste my potential in this academy. What life will there be for me when I graduate while others are fighting and dying on the frontlines?" her fists clenched in her lap, "It might be fate that I'm not only this gifted but the maid of the Hero. That means we're destined to fight together."
He shrugged and said dismissively, "If you want to die alongside Luke, suit yourself then."
"…"
"I'll continue working with you for an hour. I have to be somewhere soon." He checked his watch and said, noticing that the sky was dyed orange through the windows.
"Okay."
Anyway.
Even Arnold is a little shaken by what Freya said.
'If Lilith manages to escape, she'll be able to suck us all dry and become a threat as big as Valtraak. Fuck, I don't want to deal with that.'
In order to have Luke ready for when that happens, he'll need to make sure he awakens.
The Perdition Core might not be needed, as mentioned before.
He recalled what happened in Eswick Valley and to Rachel in Melissa's lab.
'Norn will have to turn into a monster, Luke.'
Luke's innocent smile appeared in his mind for a mere moment. His loving calls to Arnold "Big Brother~!" lingered in his mind.
But Arnold has no love for that boy so even if he does lose something and gets sad, he won't care. Luke is merely a tool—not just any tool. A shield against the demons so that Arnold can enjoy a quiet life with his wives in the countryside once he graduates and runs his city full-time.
Making her get killed on the street won't have the desired impact. He'll direct all his anger to a single person.
But if demons are involved? He'll make it his life's goal to end the entire demon race.
'And in order to turn her, we'll need Demon Punch. Looks like we're going to work together, demon cultists.'