A familiar sight greeted Dyon as he witnessed the massive world tree-like Earth Tower for the second time in his life.

An uncontrollable grin spread across his lips, his blood pumping with vigour he hadn’t felt in ages. The events that seemed like such a distance pass had stolen two years of his life from him, and although most of those who were responsible had paid, Dyon still felt like it wasn’t enough. He wouldn’t feel better until he could truly stretch out his wings.

“Shouldn’t we be rushing to the Epistemic Tower?” Zabia asked. He had little understanding of situation, but everyone did seem much too relaxed to him.

Technically speaking, if they managed to get to the tower first this time, wouldn’t this all be over?

Ri shook her head, “We tried this during the second campaign. But, it seemed they were willing to weather the danger of the gate’s closure in order to make sure they had a leg up on us.”

Zabia nodded in acknowledgement. It wasn’t exactly common knowledge that it was possible to survive in the gates while they were closed, but Zabia was a very straight forward kind of person. Since Ri said it, and she had no reason to lie to him, he would accept it.

That said, it was common knowledge to Ri. After all, Alidor and his sister did this very thing in order to survive the destruction of their clan. Of course, that was mostly due to Alidor’s intelligence and array alchemy specialty, but the Uidah weren’t ones to care about casualties of their lesser clan members.

All this to say, staying in the gates during their ‘maintenance’ periods was difficult, especially in large numbers, but not impossible.

The group stepped off of the large boat to walk along the dock. Much like the last time Dyon campaigned, there were already hundreds of thousands, if not millions of youths here already. The number was likely even higher than in the past considering only Earth Tower was left under their control. However, Dyon hardly cared about that.

“We can head to the Epistemic Tower directly. I can teleport us there in a few moments using the key.” Dyon stated nonchalantly. He hadn’t really explained to anyone just what his plan was, so no one understood just what the Epistemic Tower Key could do. So, when they heard his words, shock was clearly evident.

Only Alidor, who was quiet as usual, didn’t react. He had already assumed much of the possible functions of the key. After all, much like Dyon, he had figured out the special nature of the tower without anyone needing to tell him. The only thing he had been brooding over as of late was his disbelief that his soul strength still hadn’t caught up to Dyon’s.

Alidor, although he hadn’t told anyone, had already resigned himself to following Dyon, not because he liked playing second fiddle, but because anything was a secondary matter to him if it meant he would be able to destroy the Uidah. He was smart enough to understand that Dyon was his best chance at this, in addition to his best path toward a bright future.

However, that didn’t mean he wasn’t depressed about the fact Dyon’s seal on him was still going strong even after his two year coma.

Alidor knew, much like Dyon did, that as long as his soul strength surpassed Dyon’s, the seal would become ineffective. He also knew that his soul talent in through the universes was matched by only a handful of people. In fact, before Clara came into the mix, he would bet that only Dyon could compare to him in terms of age and talent.

But, Dyon had clearly not cultivated in two years. And that was all on top of the fact his soul was damaged! So, how was it still stronger than his?!

This feeling of frustration was unfamiliar territory for Alidor. He was currently stuck at the peak of the 6th stage, unwilling to be a mad man to soar into sainthood without a strong enough body.

Maybe if he knew Dyon technically had 6 months training in a time locked space he’d feel better. But, not by much.

Hearing Dyon’s words, though, Ava was the very first to complain, even under the bitter smile of her elder brother. “Why couldn’t you tell us these things before? You’re always going off and doing your own thing. Tsk.”

Dyon laughed, “I would have, but I’m not a fan of authority. Plus, I was on vacation.”

“Psh,” Ava was about to say more, but when she noticed the entourage of people approaching from the distance, she changed her next thought, “Speaking of authority.”

Dyon turned toward where Ava was referring to, and sure enough, a familiar figure with purple hair and a red and blue eye was approaching.

Much like in previous campaigns, the Belmonts always took charge of Earth Tower. It was the last line of defense, so as the Royal God Clan, this made perfect sense.

Unlike what one might think, Elwing, and not Lionel, had always been the head of this specific operation. This was because Lionel was often increasing his stock and rank. Staying here was mostly administrative work, which was exactly why Elwing never ranked despite being a prince.

This may seem useless, but it allowed Elwing in ingratiate himself with the lesser known clans. Clans that weren’t quite God Clans, but were on the cusp. After all, between the hierarchy of places like Focus Academy and the God Clans, there were many in between clans as well. For example, Madeleine’s step mother was from one such clan. A Sapientia branch that was higher than her father’s, but lower than the main branch.

Meaning… If Elwing wanted to cause trouble, he could very well make use of these eager youths who were just waiting in the wing to replace the fallen God Clans of Earth. And considering the look in his eye, he may just do so.