Chapter 1489 1489: Familiar and Unfamiliar

The council was a small building at the heart of the inner city that Julia had taken as her base of operations. They could have chosen another place, more detached from the city, but they wanted to be close to the public.

It doubled as a civil office where people could log their complaints. Through the windows of the higher floors, one could see lines of people coming to file complaints about the spirits infestations.

The other side of the building, one used by the guild members, was closed off to the public. There were multiple artifacts guarding and regulating entry and exit from the West Wing. That ensured that the chaos of last night wasn't seen by the citizens outside.

Arthur sat in the kitchen, mostly to hide from Julia who turned into a fiend after she realized that she was also marked with a tattoo. Arthur assured her that he had a rune to remove it (although he didn't know what it was yet), but that worked very little to appease her anger.

Oriole, on the other hand, was also missing. Arthur had to use his detect spell multiple times to find the alchemist and send some guild members to retrieve him. He was unconscious near a river that was a few miles from Runera.

Arthur heard steps of someone coming into the kitchen, making him flinch. He feared that another person carrying his stupid tattoo was here to reprimand him. Instead, it was Diana, who walked into the room with a smile.

"I heard about what happened," she said as she walked inside to sit on the chair in front of him. "I still can't believe it."

"I'm assuming that you weren't there to see me in such a state?" Arthur asked with a sigh of relief. "I was afraid you'd come over carrying my special tattoo."

Diana let out a laugh. "I've seen that, too," she said. "I don't know what you were approving, but it looks heinous. I heard rumors about plans to overthrow you from your seat as the ruler of Runera."

"We both know I'm not the real ruler," Arthur said with a smile. "You were always the person to create this city. You know it better than anyone."

"Not anymore," she said. "Everything changed. I spent last night working, which is unfortunately why I missed the party, but I did manage to learn the current conditions of my people."

Arthur looked at her as his expression hardened.

"Don't look so serious. It's as bad as I feared, but nothing out of my expectations," she said. "It seems that the merge has connected the two worlds and reformed their timelines. For the people of Alka, it has been only a year since I disappeared."

"A lot can happen in a year."

"Far more than I realized," she said. "Alva is about to collapse into itself. The merge has torn it apart, and a civil war is looming on the horizon."

"I won't go into the second trial," Arthur said. "I'll help you here with Alva."

"You can't do that," she said. "You visited the Spirits Realm in hopes of gaining the support of its Sovereign. After the battle against Invidia, you met him, didn't you? How did it go?"

Arthur was silent.

"There's no way he would refuse to help you," she said. "This will be your chance to sneak into Devaheim and understand what we need to do to bring it down. I can't prevent you from such an opportunity."

"Diana…"

"We both have our destinies, Arthur," she said. "Yours has always been to fight against Devaheim. Mine, as I hope it would be, was to save the demi-humans from a millennium of corrupted rulers and looming calamities."

"We can do both."

"How? You have two more days before the second trial opens. I'm not sure when you'll be back, but I'm sure it's not going to be similar to the first trial. It's an open world, a realm that's a lot bigger than the first, so the flow of time might be equal or less than ours."

Arthur knew she was right. The second trial was going to be an open world, a realm designed by the gods themselves for a chance to enter Devaheim. Its size couldn't compare to Earth, but it had enough mana and spiritual energy to ensure that the flow of time was similar.

"Is this goodbye, then?"

"Don't be silly," she said. This time, she rose and walked to hug him. Arthur felt the warmth seep out of her and into his heart. He was assured that this wasn't going to tear them apart. "I'll never say goodbye again. We'll simply fight our own battles and then meet again."

"I don't want to leave you," Arthur said. His voice was weaker than he thought it would be. "I'm scared that something might happen to you."

Diana broke off their embrace and gave him a wide smile for the first time since he had known her. "Anything is better than the tattoo you gave to the rest. I don't think they'll let you leave before you remove it."

Arthur burst out laughing and hugged her tight. His laughter died down and was replaced by a serene silence in the kitchen. He felt his skin almost melt in the places that touched Diana. He didn't know where he stopped and where she began.

If anyone asked him to choose a moment, then this would be it.

It came to an abrupt ending as some guild members rushed inside while carrying Oriole, who was still unconscious. Arthur and Diana broke their embrace as they followed them into the nursery.

Oriole was simply unconscious without any wounds on him except for a few bruises. The healer at the nursery said that he was still suffering what she called a soul disruption, and it would be dangerous if they tried to awaken him by force.

After he made sure that his friend was alright, Arthur and Diana returned to their office. He took out the ichor again and placed it on the table.

"I think that I need to use it before I enter the second trial," he said. "I know that it's dangerous, but I think I might have a way to circumvent the side effects of the reawakening."

"Is that so?" Diana asked with a raised brow. "Please, do share."

"I researched enough to understand that reawakening can be done more than once, even though it has never occurred. In theory, I can reawaken it as many times as I want as long as I fulfill the three conditions."

Arthur then told her the conditions.

Diana's eyes flashed.

"I get it now," she said. "You plan on using the ichor you obtain from Devaheim to reawaken the legacy again. That will give you more control."

"It seems to be the case," Arthur said. "The legacy will become a means to an end. If I obtain more ichor, I can change that end if I see that I can't reach the Endpoint."

Diana let out a sigh.

"These are assumptions, Arthur," she said. "But… I think you're on to something. Just to be careful, I think that you should reawaken it with me around. If anything goes wrong, I can encase you in ice until I figure out how to fix it."

"That's why I need you," Arthur said with a nod. "I'll do it tonight in the Runic Dome. It'll be after the meetings with the rest of the guild members."

Diana looked hesitant as if she wanted to say something but refrained from it. She looked at Arthur, kissed his forehead, and then hugged him tight. Arthur couldn't understand what was happening, but he hugged her back.

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The guild meeting showed Arthur more unfamiliar faces than he realized. Their names and origin stories were so numerous that he asked Julia to create a list for him to memorize after his return.

Most of the guild masters were users of his Level Up Legacy. That proved their character and their experience in fighting against monsters.

Arthur was more surprised to see some familiar faces that had climbed recently to become guild masters. One of them was Amelia, the lightning user who had once attended the same school as him and kept following him. Arthur had given her runes at that time in exchange for a percentage of her father's guild.

The said guild, called Lightning of Justice, had disbanded after they had an unfortunate encounter with the demi-humans. At that time, Amelia sought out to join Ascent and had risen through the ranks thanks to her multiple abilities.

Another familiar face was Ellen, who was a dear friend of Arthur once. Her choice in the alternate timeline led to Arthur's misfortune in Alka, which made their friendship estranged. She wasn't a guild master but a Vice-Guild Master to Jonah, his friend from Jerano.

Jonah had the highest level in the legacy, a fact that Arthur found both amusing and surprising. His guild helped the most people during the merge, and that had somehow made the legacy see him as a hero.

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