Races that transformed from Narija to Rotan were called Alphas. However, even though humans said they hit the limit, or the wall, it didn’t mean there was a level above it. The Seven-Horned Harijan was good evidence for this. Even among the Rotans, there were some who surpassed their limits to reach the next level.

They were also called Alphas, meaning the first of its race. But there was a difference between Narija and Rotan. Unlike the Narijas who could become Alphas with just one mutation, Rotans needed to overcome many barriers to become an Alpha.

Those beings that encountered the barriers but weren’t Alphas yet were named Betas.

‘Hm… so I am a Beta?’

Sian was on his way so he was probably a Beta then.

“The serpent you saw was a Beta. It’s a Beta of the ancient race called . This is why the Gerna are dangerous.”

“You mean-”

“Yes, they were controlled by the Gerna. No, they overcame the barrier when they were infested by the Gerna. Both races are able to overcome the barrier together, which makes the infestation even more dangerous.”

That was why they attacked the Gerna before more Betas appeared. They were strong, but there weren’t that many Betas yet so the combined number of Swarms and Murakans barely managed to destroy them. All in all, Lorvall thought they would be a useful food source for the growing Ciculus Trees so they buried them underground.

“So that’s why all the Dukes who trained by the tree were able to obtain the power.”

Karltonheim nodded.

“Yes, it grew with the power of Betas… it allows you to gain the magic that the Beta had.”

Karltonheim’s magic wasn’t something to be considered lightly. It was powerful magic used by an ancient race. Karltonheim smiled bitterly.

“But it’s not mine… and I was controlled. I am ashamed.”

“Don’t be. You would’ve become a Duke anyway. It is why you have been in control of the twenty-one Ciculus trees.”

Sian curiously asked, “But can we leave it like that? I thought that tree is what reinforces the barrier.”

“It’s not okay, but we can’t do anything now. We can’t maintain the barrier until those people get up to their feet and send Akra to the tree. Luckily, the tree wasn’t destroyed.”

“…”

There was no way to gather all those commoners now since it was going to take time for them to recover.

“What are you going to do now?” Sian asked.

Conrad shook his head. “I just fixed the barrier so I’m not sure. I just made sure they could not destroy this entire tree but we can’t create a barrier without the core. So, we have one thing to do.”

“What is it?”

“We should ask the person who planned this.”

“Huh? Is there a twin connected to the Lorvall Estate? I have never heard of…”

Karltonheim spoke as he never heard of such thing, but Conrad smiled.

“There’s a way.”

Conrad then began preparing to activate the magic. Sian sensed the familiar flow of energy and spoke.

“Communication magic?”

“Right. We don’t need a twin to talk.”

“Don’t you need to have the same frequency on the other side? And a lot of energy?” Sian asked as that was what he heard. Even at Ra-Sian, they needed an artifact or a building made for communication purposes for it to work. Yet Conrad seemed to not have such limitations.

“I am a Duke here so I should be able to do such a thing. But I’m the only one who can use magic here so it relies on me… but we have the twins for another method.”

“I see.”

Conrad was the Emperor of the Old Empire and had studied magic endlessly. It would be weird if he couldn’t do such a thing. Conrad then seemed to have successfully connected and began talking.

Stiel and Sian eagerly watched Conrad.

“He must be talking to Lorvall.”

“Hmm.”

After a while, Conrad finished talking and turned back to the three people.

“Okay… I talked about what to do next. It’s good that you are here.”

“What is it?”

“I have good news and bad news for me, and the same for you Sian. What do you want to hear first?”

Sian answered, “Let’s start with yours first.”

“Oh, okay. The good news is that the barriers can be restored. Only the tree’s core was destroyed so we can replace the core before the tree dries out. Luckily… this Ciculus Tree is the last one we have to fix so when we restore this tree, the barrier will be complete.”

If Conrad had managed to finish the barrier quick enough, the core wouldn’t have been destroyed.

“Oh, so the barrier will work then,” Karltonheim answered brightly.

“Yes. We just need the core, send Akra into it, and the barrier will work as intended.”

Sian then became confused and asked, “Didn’t you say that there are no more Ciculus Tree cores? I heard these twenty-one trees use special cores…”

That was what Sian heard from Conrad’s explanation.

“Yes… that is the bad news. Lorvall says he has no leftover cores. He knows where to go to get it, but it’s really hard to get it.”

“Oh no,” Sian answered. That wasn’t any good even if the barrier was fixable.

“Well, let’s talk about you, Sian. You said you came to see me because you want to go back?”

“Yeah,” Sian nodded. He was looking for Lagaope, but he remembered that Conrad was probably in charge of the installation of Ra-Shar-Roa since Lagaope did not know how to use magic.

Conrad answered, “The good news is that you can go back home.”

“Wow, really?”

“Yes. The first thing I did when I got here was that I tested to see if I could install Ra-Shar-Roa. I did manage to find out that if we alter Akra and Ciculus a bit, it could let us use Ra-Shar-Roa. It would take a lot of energy and alteration to go across the continent, but it can be done.”

“What’s the bad news?”

“It’s the same for both of us. Since our barrier isn’t finished yet, we don’t have the manpower to focus on alteration. That’s why I couldn’t install Ra-Shar-Roa yet. I needed to fortify the barrier first.”

“Oh…”

“To be exact, you will never go back home at this rate. The Gerna will keep invading and they will keep trying to destroy the barrier. There’s a small room for now but they will surely attack Ciculus first. We can’t travel far without Ciculus.”

“So, I need to get the core then.”

Conrad nodded.

“Yes, while we hold back the Gerna… it would be great if you could go and get the core for us. But don’t worry. It won’t be much of a problem if you came through Apental. For us… it’s better for us to fight the Gerna.”

“Hmph. I’ll do it.”

Sian nodded. There was no other way.

“Let me explain on the way. It’s a very remote place but it’s hard to miss.”

Conrad then started explaining.