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Cain stood on a vast, endless plain. At first, he thought he was in the Great Plain of Aiyas, where the Tower of Trials was located, but he soon realized that he wasn’t. Although it was also an empty plain, there was one big difference.
‘That’s
?’’
Cain gaped dumbfoundedly at the horizon. He could see black dots gathering up like ants. The black dots were

‘
People?’ Cain wondered.
The group of people was running toward Cain, kicking up an opaque cloud of dust.
He then realized they were knights and were armed to the teeth. In fact, the group of people was a gigantic army that consisted of at least a hundred thousand knights.
‘Oh my god! Did the Hubalt and Swallow Empires really go to war against each other? I’ve never seen this many knights moving at once since the Blood Battle of the Great Plain of Kraden
!’
Cain had to stop thinking.
Time seemed to move much faster; the knights were quickly closing on Cain. He could already see the knights in the front and also the familiar flag that flew high up in the air above the army. Those crossed swords were the flag of

‘The Hubalt and Swallow Empire Alliance!’ Cain thought in shock when he recognized the flag.
Throughout the long history of the continent, that flag had only been used once: the Battle of the Great Plain of Kraden, which was the start of the Continental War and the main cause of the Avalon Empire’s downfall.
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Cain trembled.
‘They formed an alliance, but not to wage war against each other? The Hubalt Empire was already betrayed once, so they must be crazy
!’
The great army was right in front of Cain, rushing in as if they were a tsunami. They were so intimidating that Cain could feel his clenched fists sweating, but soon he noticed something was wrong.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaah!!!” The army’s thunderous roar shook the sky and ground, exuding extraordinary energy.
“Avalon’s Dark God is dead!” they shouted.
‘What?’ Cain’s breath caught.
“In the end, Emperor Marcus couldn’t hide his dark desires and launched a preemptive strike!”
“For the sake of the continent, the two empires have finally joined forces!”
“Let us eliminate our common enemy, Avalon, and bring peace to this land once more!”
“Get rid of all the remnants and trample everything in Avalon right away!”
The way they talked was quite weird. The events that they talked about had happened over three years ago, but they were talking about them as if they’d taken place yesterday. Cain might have understood if they were talking about the Allied Powers, but they wanted to attack Avalon, which was already crumbling on its own.
Therefore, it was unrealistic for the two empires to join forces again. Because the last time they had allied, the Swallow Empire had ambushed the Hubalt Empire and occupied Reinhardt as soon as they had achieved their common goal, turning them into archenemies.
‘Then
 I’m seeing the past, not the present!’ Cain concluded. That would explain everything.
After he realized he was watching a historical event that had intentionally been omitted from history, Cain quickly took a look around, hoping he might be able to find the answer to his question. However, his question wasn’t about why Avalon had lost the war: Cain wanted to find out how the man the people of the continent once called a god had died.
‘There is no way that monster died!’ Cain shouted in his thoughts.
When he had first heard the news of the death of Duke Agnus, the Dark God, Cain hadn’t believed it, and he still didn’t believe it. Cain himself had gone up against the man, so there was no way that Cain would not know how strong Duke Agnus was. Cain might have thought differently if he had seen Duke Agnus’s corpse or heard it from their allies, but he had heard about it from their enemies.
‘The problem is that that monstrous man hasn’t shown up since the Battle of Kraden, so maybe today I’ll discern
’
“Men in the front, halt!” the leading knight shouted.
Cain’s eyes widened.
The knights standing in the front were staring straight at Cain. He couldn’t help but think of the worst scenario.
“Who are you?” the leading knight asked.
Cain was shocked to realize that his worst scenario had come true.
“Who are you? Why are you blocking our way, alone at that?” the knight demanded.
‘Fuck!’ Cain unwittingly cursed.
Although he desperately wanted to speak, he couldn’t. It felt like someone had put glue all over his lips. It was driving him crazy.
“Wait
” the leading knight wondered. “That spear is
”
‘
A spear?’ Cain also wondered.
Cain felt something begin vibrating in his hand as if it had been waiting for this moment. He lowered his head and caught sight of a long spear in his hand.
‘Hey, hey! This is unfair!’ Cain screamed in his thoughts and shook his head in denial as he looked at the long, red spear. His premonitions always turned out to be true, and this time wasn’t an exception.
“Joshua Sanders?” the leading knight ventured. Cain’s eyes became as big as they could get.
“Do you know me?” Cain said, although he did not speak of his own will.
“Of course; is there anyone on the continent of this generation that doesn’t know of you?” The leading knight shrugged. “I’ve heard a lot about your achievements.”
Once Cain—no, Joshua—revealed his identity, the knights in the rear loudly stomped as if they were trying to threaten him.
“Are you going to stop us?” the knight asked Joshua. “Even if it’s you, it would be impossible to stop all of us.”
Joshua shrugged. “I guess we’ll have to find out.”
The leading knight smirked. “Being too arrogant will shorten your lifespan. Isn’t that the reason why Duke Agnus, your father, was killed by us?”
Joshua froze; his eyes turned cold.
“Well
”
The leading knight tilted his head.
“Did he?” Joshua said, making the knight flinch and his eyes lose focus. Joshua elegantly swung his red spear, drawing a curved line in the air. “Let’s stop with the small talk.”
The knight frowned. “So you’re going to stand in our way after all, huh?”
“I can’t tell if I’ll be able to do it or not, but if I can
” Joshua trailed off, but after a moment, he tightened his grip on his spear and continued. “You won’t be able to trample all over my country. Come.”
As soon as Joshua finished speaking, he and the enemy knights whipped the air into a frenzy as they drew up their energies and began an intense staredown. The fight was about to start among the strongest people of their empires, people that would be called heroes in most kingdoms.
“Fuck, is this what the tribulation is?” Joshua cursed. His spear had already changed into Cain’s familiar black greatsword, so he held it straight.
“Attack!” the leading knight yelled, and the knight flew at Joshua like a storm.
“Well, I guess it means I have to go through shit.” Joshua—or rather, Cain—discontentedly grumbled. He sprang forth as fast as his legs would carry him toward the knights that were rushing in like a tsunami.
* * *
At the entrance of the Tower of the Trials, the doppelganger wearing the appearance of Joshua stood still as a stone sculpture.
Icarus stared at the doppelganger for a long time until she came to a resolution.
“I want to ask you something,” she said, looking up at the doppelganger.
The red spear hummed as it continued to fly around the air as it had been for a while.
-You’re calmer than I thought.
Icarus shrugged. “I know you won’t harm us.”
-Huh?
The spear shook as if it were laughing at Icarus.
-You must not be aware of this, but I’m the infamous weapon of the demon spirit that you humans are terrified of. The demon spirit is at a much higher level than the demon king—
“Your name
 was Lugia, right?” Icarus asked.
Lugia didn’t answer, but Icarus desperately pressed on.
“Please tell me what happened to Sir Cain and
 where is my master?”
-Why should I?
“
Pardon?”
-Why should I tell you that?
Icarus was dumbstruck for a moment.
-Nothing is free in this world. Don’t you know the law of equivalent exchange?
“That means
” Icarus narrowed her eyes.
-What can you offer me?
Lugia ended its words with an ominous shine..
Icarus clenched her fists.
“
Anything.”
-What?
“I’ll give you anything you want if you give my master back to us
”
Lugia chuckled dumbfoundedly at Icarus’s unexpected answer..
-Huh? Listen, I think you’re misunderstanding something here because I DID NOT sell your master off or something, okay?
“
Is that true?” Icarus asked, still suspicious.
-Well, I did hear you sometimes act like an idiot, but I didn’t know it was this serious. Gosh, what a mess.
Lugia stopped moving as if it were sighing and slowly came down to the ground.
-I can’t tell you everything, but I’ll give you a hint.
“A hint?” Icarus repeated.
-Don’t forget about how you said you’ll give me anything I want.
“
Alright.” Icarus nodded nonetheless. The determination she showed made Lugia shake its head in disbelief.
-First of all, you don’t have to worry about your master. His mind is unstable and he lost a significant amount of his power, but there are still not many people who can hurt him in the Human Realm.
Icarus’s eyes widened.
-His time in this place stopped ever since that day.
The incomprehensible story Lugia reeled out only confused Icarus even more.
-You don’t worry about him that much, but even then, you'll be able to meet him soon since he only left to finish what he started.
“Explain it in a way I can understand!” Icarus shouted in frustration.
-He already knew that you would all come here, that humans would start this endless, bloody war
and everything else. Of course, he wouldn’t have expected that you and I would meet this soon

Icarus’s eyes narrowed.
“You mean
?”
-Before he left, he asked me for a favor. If you move quickly, then you’ll be able to meet your master much quicker

Icarus clenched her fists.
-Once that idiot named Cain comes back in one piece, I need you to be my guide.
“Where are we headed?” Icarus hurriedly asked, but it took a while before Lugia replied.
-It’s the country where I had been asleep. It was built by you humans, but it’s called the fallen empire in the present day.
Icarus stared almost maniacally at Lugia as it spoke.
-We’re going to Avalon, where your master is headed right now.