Ashavar's lips curved into a faint, knowing smile looking at the new visitor.

"That's not how I expected to meet you again…Escanor."

His tone was calm and almost amused but even as he spoke, he quietly created layers of illusion through the air, ensuring that the man would not see what was happening far below.

The figure before him was Escanor Altharia or as the humans so fondly called him, the Emperor of the Altharia Empire.

"What are you scheming Ashavar?" Escanor asked without any formalities.

Straight to the point, huh?

"I don't know what you mean, Escanor?" Ashavar replied with a neutral expression.

His tone was smooth and almost lazy.

The man before him, Escanor Altharia, was the closest any mortal had ever come to ascension.

If not for the centuries of skill, the unending experience gathered across Ashavar's lives, even he would have found this man challenging to defeat.

"Why are you naming a human from my Empire, your successor?" Escanor spoke without reservation.

He had never been the type to measure his words.

He didn't need to.

When one's talent and strength were enough to bend the world, there was rarely a need for hesitation and Escanor Altharia had never failed at anything he set his eyes on except one thing.

It had barely been a few minutes since Ashavar had named Rael his successor and the news had already traveled across the world.

Still, Ashavar wasn't surprised… he had always known of the countless humans lurking in shadows, always keeping watch for the time the fragile alliance ended.

"He was an amusing boy… so I decided to name him my successor." Ashavar replied lazily with a wave. "And what I do with my realm is none of your business, Escanor."

His voice turned slightly serious as his serpentine crimson eyes glowed just for a moment and that moment sent shivers down the spine of Escanor.

His body remembered what his pride refused to admit…

The only thing he had ever failed to do was to defeat Ashavar.

And even now… even after becoming a thousand times stronger, he still had no confidence that he could.

Ashavar's eyes deepened into a darker shade of red.

"And remember, Escanor…" His voice cut through silence. "The next time you charge recklessly into my empire unannounced, you won't leave it alive."

He meant every word.

Ashavar could have wiped the humans or any other race from existence in any of his lives.

He had that power but he never did.

He kept the three races alive for one simple reason.

War.

He wanted chaos.

Because war and chaos birthed the kind of heroes that peace never could.

Escanor turned away, realizing there was no point in pressing further.

The Demon King would never give him answers.

His form shifted and then vanished into the air but his mind was far from still.

If Ashavar had chosen that boy, if he had seen something in him… then there was definitely more to him than met the eye.

Escanor was reckless but he was no fool.

And he intended to find out why the Demon King had chosen that boy and whether he was a blessing or a curse to the Altharian Empire.

—

[Rael's POV]

I had just been admiring my glorious self for not dying after falling from a height that would've killed all nine lives of a cat…

Okay, fine, the cloak might have had a little something to do with that but it belongs to me, so technically, I saved myself.

Anyway, I was in the middle of appreciating my own brilliance and my cloak which had just evolved into [Cloak of Arcane Trickster]

Which was basically the same thing but with a fancier adjective and just as I was about to check the details, I felt it.

A massive presence from above and more importantly, it didn't even bother hiding itself.

I looked up, adjusting my monocle to see who the hell was interrupting my peace.

The Demon King was there and if someone was approaching there with such aura and without hiding… then it had to be some big shot.

Maybe even someone with divine ties.

If so, my monocle should've picked it up.

But nope, it didn't work over such long distances.

Bummer.

Still, I had a few guesses about who it could be.

Judging by how the aura was literally pressing down on me from thousands of kilometers away, whoever that was, they were strong.

I mean, after getting slapped around by divine beings and cosmic psychos, I would like to think I have become somewhat of an aura expert.

And from what I could feel from this one, it was definitely SSS-Rank… maybe even higher.

But beings above SSS-Rank can't exactly stroll around the mortal world like it's their backyard,

which meant, whoever had just shown up was right at the peak.

And there were only three people in existence who fit that description…

The Three Emperors of the Three Races.

Well… at least the ones who revealed themselves openly. There were others, lurking in the dark but those freaks preferred their shadows.

That narrowed my options to one guy.

Because the Demon King was already here and the Dragon King would rather die than set foot here uninvited, that only left one option.

That bastard, Escanor.

The Emperor of the Altharia Empire.

The reckless brute himself.

He must've heard the news about me being named successor to the Demon King and thought, "Yeah, let's just casually barge into another race's realm."

Like, who even does that?

At least try using your brain a little, man.

I mean, if I was an Emperor whose subject just got chosen as a successor to the ruler of another race, I would rather think of ways to use that guy instead of uselessly showing interest.

And yet here he was, this guy showing up unannounced in the territory of another race.

Still, I had no time to be impressed by the sheer stupidity of the human emperor… because right then, a woman appeared before me.

And she wasn't just standing there, she was looking at me like a predator right before deciding which part to bite first.

"Let's have a chat, shall we, Rael?"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.