"Ok, but first, mind telling me how Eisenhorn can suddenly move through the layers of the world like this?" Reign suddenly asked as the others all nodded at him.
"My blade aura," Eisenhorn said as he lifted his hand and coated it in blade aura. The silver hue around his hand made even Reign feel some threat as the latter suddenly slashed to the side.
A tear suddenly appeared next to Eisenhorn, a small one that could potentially be enough to put an arm through.
"It happened when we were first attacked by the enemy." Eisenhorn suddenly spoke.
"Honestly, I think that even they were surprised by it."
"During the battle, they suddenly used some weird skill or perhaps even a hidden array that transferred us over to a different layer, one that had no mana."
"It was then that I found out that I can actually use my blade aura to actually cut through the layers and move through them at will."
"At first I had no idea what happened, it was only after we were able to get away and take one of the traitor's hostage that we were able to interrogate him and find out more information about the whole thing."
"It was only then that we found out what was happening."
"The whole layers between the world and universe thing, you being their primary target that they were trying to deal with by using such underhanded methods, and the fact that the whole kingdom was now pretty much our enemy thanks to them turning the populace against us."
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"We are now considered traitors in the kingdom, those that tried to usurp the throne and kill the royal family together with most of the higher-ups after our battle against the demons."
"I'm certain that they would have loved to out us as demonic worshippers as well, but they know better than that, the people would have never believed something like that, and neither would the army."
Eisenhorn sat down after speaking, it was obvious that the whole ordeal had taken a toll on him.
He was on very good terms with the king as they were friends for a very long time and the king was also partially responsible for him managing to reach rank Z with his glaive.
The same could be said for Raigon as well as his own father and uncle who had decided to take him down after he found out about their plans and disagreed with them. At that moment, it was as if the two were strangers as they acted completely differently compared to their usual selves.
He was deeply hurt by their attacking and trying to kill him, but he still fought back and was able to reach to safety thanks to his Creation ability.
The ability was one that was incredibly difficult to counter thanks to its wide use and adaptability, even the king and Lios were unable to come up with something that would have been useful in taking down Raigon and limiting his powers.
They had only seen the queen for a little bit, but her power was something none had expected as she was able to fight evenly against Eisenhorn who was using his blade aura. They knew just how powerful the blade aura was, and to be able to fight him to a draw, even in a short period of time, meaning that the queen was at the very least a high-grade, if not a peak Tier III being.
The princess joined the battle as well, and her magic was enough to change the battlefield and fight against Licht and the other powerful Tier II combatants they had.
Many had died during the battle, and only a few of them had managed to escape with their lives.
Upon hearing all of this, Reign was in shock. He understood that the time he had spent here was not long and that the relationships he had formed with the king and the others were mainly thanks to him being a powerful individual that had helped them win the previous war, but he still considered some of them his friends.
He spared with them, learned techniques, and exchanged thoughts with them for many times. Lios and the king were also welcoming of him and never made him feel suspicious of them in any way.
Lico's family had also joined the king and the others. He was proclaimed a traitor and his position of head of the family had been given to another person. It was one that had no great power previously in the family, but it seemed that nobody bothered with the fact that that person now held the greatest position in the family.
He was loyal to the kingdom, but he couldn't join them in their plans. They had joined hands with a being outside of the planet and he didn't trust that they had the best in mind for the kingdom and its people.
With them being out, the king and the rest were able to easily manipulate the story and present Raigon and the rest as traitors who had seen a chance of killing them and taking over the kingdom, immediately making the populace enraged and turning them against them with ease.
Now, they had a steep hill to climb if they wished to prove their innocence, something that they could only do if they found a way to defeat the enemy.
Luckily for them, the king and the others had denied the help of the kingdoms close to them.
With most of the area being void of any people thanks to what the demons had done, it was not as tempting to the kingdoms as before. They could gain more territory, yes, but they would also need to go through great trouble to populate the territory.
If the kingdom of Riplas was to take over everything, they would be getting the people that were in the territory of the smaller kingdoms of the area since the array did not turn them into demonic creatures as well.
Licht's kingdom was one that proved to be almost impossible to fool.
Some nobles had immediately jumped ship, but most of the population and the higher-ups that were close to Licht were still loyal to him. They didn't truly care whether the news of him betraying the kingdom was true, since he was their true king and they respected him.
They of course weren't ones to break their promise, after Licht and the others of the alliance had lost the war, the kingdom was made a vassal state and Licht had managed to keep his position. They knew that things could have gone very differently and were actually quite respectful and grateful to Riplas for going easy on them.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThat didn't mean they would simply roll over and accept anything that Riplas said, and right now, many of the higher-ups were arrested and thrown into cells.
They were still alive as Riplas didn't want to completely lose the goodwill of the people, but it was a given that they would be spending most, if not their whole lives in the cells.
For Licht, this wasn't only a battle against the kingdom and those that had joined hands with the queen, but a fight for the people that supported him and stayed loyal to the very end.
Every single person here had a reason for why they stayed and fought against the king and others, and even though their numbers were small, they had the advantage when it came to the heavy hitters as they had both Eisenhorn and Reign with them.
The queen was much more powerful than anyone had thought, that much was true, but so were Eisenhorn and Reign.
Nobody doubted that the two could defeat the queen if they were to fight her together, and there was also a high chance of them being able to take her on by themselves as well.
The kingdom now had multiple Tier III combatants, but when faced against Reign and Eisenhorn, they would amount little to nothing since the difference in strength was too disparaging.
Eisenhorn and Reign could deal with over ten low-grade Tier III combatants on their own with relative ease and keeping them busy would be incredibly difficult.
Still, what the party had to do was attack the capital and deal with the enemy there, which meant that they would be fighting their enemies at a place where they had the home advantage and they could only guess what might await them there.
After seeing the arrays and skills that allowed the enemy to move and force them into different layers, they knew that similar things awaited them there as well, but none were certain of just what they were going to face.
They also didn't know just how powerful the enemy might be there, after all, there were arrays that could boost the power of the defenders by a lot, and they would definitely be using those as well.
Reign only listened to Raigon and the others as they explained everything about the capital and the different ways they could approach this, and only opened his mouth to speak at the very end.