It was morning in Dicathen, and the sun was starting to shine into the royal palace of Elenoir, specifically the bedroom of one of the former kings. But the sun did not wake him, for he had not even fallen asleep. He was just lying there staring at the ceiling. He turned his head, wishing for the last few days to have all been just a nightmare. Alas, he was alone in bed, this was reality. Tears flowed freely from his eyes as he wept uncontrollably for the loss of his wife.

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Knock knock

"Good morning Elder Arth...oh, I'm sorry. I had no idea you were awake," An elven maid said as she entered Arthur's room, and saw him standing in front of a mirror dawning a set of black robes.

He smiled back, but the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. He then faced the mirror again as he tried to put his top robe on

"Oh, let me help you," she said as she saw him struggling..

This of course wasn't too surprising, in fact it was more surprising to the maids that he could even walk, being a three hundred and fifteen your old human and all. This actually made it hurt even more, as he outlived his wife, and today she was being layed to rest.

"There, everything looks...oh wait," the maid said as she turned and ran to a dresser drawer. She returned and handed him a handkerchief. "I think you'll need one, as we all will," she said as her eyes welled up.

Arthur placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled sadly. "Thank you."

He then formed an aetheric cane and began to walk down the hall. Despite his age he walked as dignified as a king. His back was straight and his expression stoic. Two hundred years ago the elders often compared him to Virion, not just because he led the continent through war, once as a Lance the other as the commander of the Dicathen military. However very few actually remember his former master outside of what they read in textbooks. Now only Arthur, Sylvie, and Regis remembered him clearly, and Arthur's children only vaguely due to their young age when he passed away. Despite being the strongest mage on three continents Arthur was far from his prime, though he could still go toe to toe with an Asura if the situation called for it, and make them regret challenging him.

Arthur approached a set of tall double doors leading to the dining room, both open as servants were moving carts of food in. Arthur entered to see five generations of his family sitting at the long table. Close to half were augmeters and he trained all but the fifth generation, mostly because they were still a bit too young to start more than basic physical conditioning and mana manipulation.

At the sight of him in the doorway everyone became silent and most stood up. Only Reynolds and Adam stayed seated, Reynolds because he hadn't aged as gracefully as Arthur and needed a wheelchair to get around, and Adam because he lost his right leg in the last war and not even Arthur wanted or expected him to stand for something this trivial.

Arthur looked at his family and smiled warmly. Ever since Arthur and Tess' wedding they always did their best to have family meals together. But it had been quite some time since so many members of the family had gathered around this table.

"Please sit, don't stop eating on my account," Arthur told them with a jovial smile that didn't reach his eyes.

The family looked at him sympathetically, knowing this was just a mask to make them feel a little better, and sat down. Arthur walked to the head of the table and grabbed the back of his chair, then looked beside it. There was an empty chair, Tess's chair. His mask broke and tears flowed as he collapsed to his knees.

"Father!" "Papa!"

Sylvie was the only close one who could get to him quickly, as his other children were too old to move that fast anymore. However she wasn't the only one who came to him. A tall man, an aetheric man with a set of black horns and slicked back amethyst hair was on the opposite side, knelt down to help him.

If not for her horns one would have assumed Sylvie were his great great granddaughter. No one could age as gracefully in this family as her, and she looked like a stunning young woman in her twenties. As she grew up many young men tried to flirt with her, and just like with Ellie so very many years ago, Arthur kept the little vermin away from her. However with her age Arthur couldn't keep her single forever, she would always be the little dragon he raised from an egg, his first daughter, but now she looked for love of her own. Trying to find the same thing her parents shared.

As for Regis, it took a couple of years, but he eventually was able to create a human form for himself. After that it was only small changes here and there until he was completely satisfied. And by satisfied, meaning him picking up beauties at parties and bars for one night stands. His words were smooth and his looks prince-like, he could get nearly any single woman he wanted, while also drawing in some he didn't.

He remained by Arthur's side as his trusted companion for many years, but after the last war that all changed. Arthur realized he should have left Regis behind to protect his family. After that loss he severed his connection to Regis, and bound him to his eldest conjuror Rinia. From then on began a family tradition, where both Regis and Dawns ballad were passed down from generation to generation like family heirlooms. Regis would go to the eldest conjuror while Dawns Ballad would go to the eldest augmentor. The only problem with this came when Arthur's granddaughter who inherited Regis fell for him. Thankfully Regis had long since seen himself as family, and developed boundaries of his own, and rejected her time and time again until she gave up and got married.

"You ok Princess?" Regis asked with true concern and sympathy.

"I'm fine," he said as he tried to calm down, smiling back at the aetheric wolf for his old nickname.

He slid up his left sleeve to reveal a series of artheric runes. Sylvie and Regis looked at them curiously. No one knew their purpose or when exactly they appeared, just that they first noticed them about a hundred years ago and he often hid them.

"Not yet," he thought to himself and covered them back.

Sylvie and Regis helped Arthur back up and into his seat.

"Are you sure you're going to be ok? I can help if you need me," Sylvie said with a sympathetic look.

Arthur patted her hand as he shook his head. The family ate breakfast as an aid explained the order of things for the day.

After breakfast the family exited the palace and entered a series of open carriages. They were to go as a precession through Zester so the people could pay their final respects to Tessia before she was laid to rest in the family grave.

Sylvie helped Arthur into the first carriage, where he would ride with Tess alone. Every carriage after was for a different branch of the family, which meant there were over a dozen since the Leywin family had become the largest family with not only the most living generations, but also like Arthur, all of his children and theirs after had large families. With each couple having three to five children each. Though since Sylvie wasn't married and had no children she joined Reynolds in the second carriage. As for Regis he took on his majestic wolf form as to lead the procession.

Once seated beside Tess for the last time Arthur placed his hand on her casket as his eyes welled up. "I'm sorry I keep making you wait for me, but I'll be there soon."

The procession began and exited the palace gates, where thousands of people gathered, elves, humans, dwarves, and Vritra blooded all bowed their heads in respect to the former queen.

Like some of the humans present, the Vritra blooded were descendants of those who immigrated to Dicathen over two hundred years ago, as refugees.

Roughly thirty years after Kezess had been removed from power and the Epheotus council had been established, war broke out between the Asura clans. Old blood feuds and rivalries were reignited. Kezess had long played a vital role in the peace of Epheotus that no one realized. His dictatorship prevented the clans from fighting one another, and instead forced them to fear and hate him.

After twenty years Sylvie returned to Epheotus to take on her role as clan leader. At the time her clan welcomed her, as did the clan leaders. However the clan leaders expected a weak child, not the strong decisive woman she became. They couldn't pressure her into any decision she didn't agree with and objected to her, what they called, radical ideas. She tried to bring change to Epheotus, something there had been little of even after Kezess eventually died a week after his battle with Arthur.

He decided to just die, but Myre wouldn't give him a mercy killing. So he slowly and painfully died over the span of a week, lapsing into madness after only a few days.

It all started ten years after her return, with members of one clan attacking the Indrath clan. Sylvie wasn't sure who they were, but they managed to kill Windsom and Myre in the same night. Sylvie rallied her clan, but by that time it was too late and the situation had spiraled out of control. Adlir and Kordri came to her aid along with members of the Thyestes clan, but it seemed they were up against nearly every other clan at once. In the end Sylvie was forced to retreat to Dicathen, landing in the Elenoir place garden where Arthur and Tess were currently residing, as Arthur and Tess were now King and Queen of Elenoir.

The royal guards moved quickly and locked down the garden, only knowing an intruder was present. However before they could even identify her Arthur godstepped in with Tess after feeling their bond again. They found her lying in a bed of flowers, in a bloody mess. But before Arthur could even begin healing her three Phoenix arrived to finish the job.

Although he had aged a bit, they were no match for Arthur, and he killed them all mercilessly. Before Sylvie even woke up Arthur called for the council to assemble, and for the Lances to be mobilized.

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The lances were very different from what they once were. With anticipation of a war with Epheotus Arthur took a page from Agrona and Wraiths, and formed teams of skilled silver core mages. Status didn't matter, only skill to become a member of the new Lance Corps. Of course in the beginning numbers were an issue, but thanks to Arthur and Gideon, the problem resolved itself after a few years.

After returning from killing Agrona, Arthur and Gideon got to work on developing an artifact to gradually force an awakening. Using a method similar to what Arthur used to help Lilia and Ellie awaken, and knowledge Arthur gained when he unlocked the Realmheart god rune. An artifact was developed that could be placed on a prospective mage and over time cause them to awaken.

After a child was tested with another artifact to confirm it was possible for them to become a mage, they were then taught the meditation method Arthur used with Ellie and Lilia, and they were brought into a special mana rich room where an artifact was attached to their abdomen that was connected to a larger artifact in the middle of the room. The larger artifact then forced mana through their bodies while they meditated and formed the mana into a core. The process of forming a core only took year, compared to the several years it took Lilia and Ellie, and several children went through the process at a time.

Of course Arthur placed an age limit, as to ensure not only the child was mature enough to understand and follow the instructions, but also to ensure parents didn't just make their children mages and begin training them, hence strip them of their childhood. In the end only children eight years old and older could use the artifact, which one was placed in every city and village on the continent, multiple in the larger cities.

At first one would say that this method was inefficient compared to the method used in Alacrya that formed a core in seconds, however they would later be seen as short sighted. Allowing cores to form naturally only one percent of people would form one, while the Alacryan method raised it to ten percent. However Arthur's method increased the number to twenty-five percent. With this sudden increase of mages, and the council and other academies offering scholarships for young mages to receive proper education and training, the issue of having enough capable mages quickly resolved itself in only a decade. So that by this time Dicathen had a total of four hundred lances.

As for the existing lances bound to the artifacts, the artifacts were eventually added to a second artifact that countered the damage that the first artifacts caused to their cores, and allowed them to break through their limits and strive to reach the integration stage.

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After Sylvie recovered enough to explain the situation in Epheotus, Arthur notified Seris, and the two continents prepared for the possible upcoming war. Both continents focused first on how to save as many civilians as possible, so expansion of their control of the relic tombs was the obvious first step. Dicathen had begun expansion into their second relic tomb, but also simultaneously worked on concurring the second floor of the first.

Alacrya on the other hand had already developed both floors in both of their relic tombs, so they began stockpiling resources for the short term, while asking for Dicathen's help with the third floor.

Without knowing what the surface would be like after the war or how long they would be in the relic tombs, they needed as much supplies as possible. In Dicathen farming and raising aether buffalo had been established on the first floor along with the mining, so they would be capable of surviving long term if need be. However in Alacrya the first floor was dedicated mostly to mining and just a little towards food production so most goods had to be brought in from the surface. This left the only plan to be to conquer another floor and dedicate it to food production.

To Alacrya it was impossible to control where they ended up, so getting to the third floor was a challenge for them. However they had learned Dicathen was focusing on the second floor already. When asked, Arthur made a short trip to Alacrya, and fixed a teleportation gate to the third floor.

The last artifact Arthur found on his first relic tomb dive in Dicathen, that he determined could be actively used to manipulate the floors, also worked in the other relic tombs. Meaning he could pick and choose which floor a gate would open to and make it stay that way.

A month later Dicathen had their first encounter with Epheotus, but not in the manner the council expected. A smaller lesser known clan called the Ppagpagi came seeking sanctuary. Unlike the other clans they believed in pacifism, that the power of the Asura was too dangerous to let loose, and that true evolution of one's self was gained by becoming one with nature.

Arthur was skeptical, but Sylvie confirmed that they were non violent, and even refused any action they could be taken by others that lead to violence. Apparently they were being threatened by the larger faction that was taking over Epheotus, and wanted nothing to do with the war. They also explained more about the war, and the other faction's objectives.

The Thyestes clan had been fighting hard, but were ultimately fighting alone and were on the verge of defeat. The other clan's plan was to absorb the survivors into their own force and prepare for the next war, against the lessers. The existence of Arthur and the Vritra blooded was seen as a threat to them, so they believed the only way to deal with this threat was to exterminate all of the lessers and then spread their presence around the world, making the Asura the only sentient species.

Arthur reluctantly convinced the council to give them sanctuary, but only under a certain condition. Years ago when Seris signed the peace treaty, she also gave Arthur the plans for a mana barrier artifact she had been working on with a Vritra scientist. In theory the barrier would be large enough to cover an entire city, while still strong enough to hold back an Asura. The only problem was the scientist wasn't able to come up with an effective power source, Seris however did. She had modified the artifact so that she could use a living Vritra to act as a continuous power source.

At the time Arthur knew he couldn't get an Asura, but he knew he was being watched. A mana core even from a dead Asura could be used to create a barrier for a few hours, just enough to protect a city in a sudden attack. With the plan in place, before Virion retired he convinced him to back him when he addressed the council to secretly have these built under every city in Dicathen. They approved, and a little over a year later Arthur had mana cores to power them.

Now he had living Asuras that wanted his help to avoid the war. It was a hard pill for them to swallow, but they agreed since they were only being used to protect the people.

With everything ready on his side, he decided now was the time to speak with the Asura. Using Wern as a mediator a meeting was arranged between Arthur and Seris, and the new ruling Asura faction. There Arthur tried a diplomatic approach, asking that they stay out of Alacrya and Dicathen and respect their sovereignty. The Asura representatives made no effort to hide their disdain and disgust towards them, telling them the only way to assure the survival of the people, would be if all the Vritra blooded as well as Arthur and his children committed suicide.

Seris and Arthur could not have been more alike in this moment. They had no response as they stared blankly at the Asura, until they shook their heads and stood up. If Arthur's next words could have been heard by the general public he suspected he would have made a quite a few people angry with him.

"This was clearly a waste of our time." He then created a portal behind him. "Starting today, if any Asura enter either of our territories, this will be taken as a declaration of war." He then directed the full force of his killing intent towards them. "But this war will not be one sided. I will come to Epheotus personally, and kill everyone who stands in my way until I find all of you and force your surrender." He then released his intent, and he and Seris left through the portal.