Richard Archeron/Plot

# **Summary**

## **Book 1 - Rising Star**

Winters in the mountains were always extraordinarily cold; they had been the first things to teach him perseverance.

Richard is sent to Goddess Alucia’s halls by his mother. Where he is presented with the choices of the blessing: Extraordinary Divinity (bestowing him epic strength), Currents of Life (giving him the power to heal), Wind’s Swiftness (increasing his speed and agility). Right after, a voice identifying himself as his "other half" gives him the options of wisdom, elemental compatibility and nature’s advocate. Then an unnatural seventh option named "truth" appears. Richard gets the blessings of **wisdom and truth** and in return he becomes a **target for nightmare creatures**.

Elena summons Gaton for Richard's protection, who sends Richard to Deepblue as Sharon's disciple.Sharon accepts him for the tuition Gaton will pay, but starts to pay attention to him when she sees his potential as a runemaster. Richard finds Naya to teach him killing and torture. Soon he creates his first rune: Elemental Agility.

## **Book 4 - Embracing The Vast World**

Richard enters the Battlefield of Despair with Beye and meets Saint Lawrence.

After returning from the battlefield with Beye, he went with Agamemnon and Nyris to the Forest Plane to help Lina fight against the plane's natives. Richard brought Rosie along with him.

Richard manages to frighten and strike a deal with The Tree of Life (master-servant relationship)

He goes to Archeron Cemetery and awakens his Truename Dizmason.

He calls Zendrall to help him locate the other trees of life on the forest plane, the natives discover and try to ambush Richard's troops, but Richard eliminates them, after which a forest son appears and after a bloody battle, Lina prevents her escape and commands Kaloh to burn the forest's son along with herself, so half of Lina's face is burned.

Richard returns to Norland and holds a runic convention to present his Grade 3 rune.

He completed his part of the deal with Alice and sent her the 2nd grade runes.

He goes to Klandor to find Mountainsea, after fighting some of her suitors and finding her, he returns to Norland.

He returns to Faelor after discovering that the Joseph family is invading Faelor to kill him. Richard has little trouble in this war, and gains many high grade warrior slaves as well as Raymond, who he keeps as a slave.

## **Book 5 - Flames Of The Eternal Night**

Richard returns to Faelor to find that the war between gods has ended with his victory. he learns that Raymond has created an alliance with Broodmother.

As the protection time given by the church of the eternal dragon came to an end, Richard raised the level of the Archeron island (through offerings) and helped the Anans fight against the Schumpeters' for the seventh island. Richard fought the Eight Day War against the Mensas, showing that he has the power to protect the Archeron island.
With Sharon in hibernation, Richard takes care of Deepblue. When Voidbones comes for Sharon, he beats Richard up. Richard gets beaten up by Ensio as well, and then gets sent off. Richard decides to go to the land of dusk to improve himself

Richard goes to Resting Orchid Plane . he finds the Godnest.

A letter from Emperor Philip calls him to the land of dusk to help defend against the new wave of Daxdians.  Richard spends his time crafting runes and training with his sword. he meets up with Waterflower. After the war ends, Richard leaves to the Fort of Dawn due to a problem with Hasting.

## **Book 6 - The Beauty Of Smoke And Fire**

Richard receives a call for help from Mountainsea, and goes to Klandor to save her. he decides to fight fair in the competition, but first faces assassins, then gets poisoned. A letter from Emperor Philip persuades the Azuresnow Shrine elders to compensate him for the poisoning and give him a fair chance. Richard wins all battles. at midnight Mountainsea and Richard return to Norland.

When he returned he discovered that Flowsand used up all the divine grace to help him at Klandor and, as a Chosen, to repay her debt of grace she was sent to the Darkness.

Richard decides to show the Church of Glory that he should not be provoked. He bring more than 400 rune knights and 2000 shadowspear knights and takes over Saint Louis Cathedral, dealing massive damage to Duke Solam and on the way.

Richard decides to improve the forest plane. there he finds the remnants of the Silvermoon elves, the Evernight Tribe. He fights against Iskara who curses and kills Tzu. Before dying she entrusted the tribe to Richard, who decided to move it near the portal so he can defend the tribesmen against an alliance of tribes lead by the Jadeleaf Tribe, the Duskword Tribe and a subordinate of Iskara.

* boulder highlands

## **Book 7 - Fleeting Glory**

Using his meditation technique Richard successfully absorbs one of the moons over Faust, the Blue Moon.

With Emperor Philip had been wounded during his battle at Fort of Dawn, forces start moving in Faust. With Flowsand gone, Noelene tell Richard that he urgently needs a Heavenly Guardian. Richard starts summoning a priest, but a soul takes control and summons herself. She calls herself Nasia, and says that she will help Richard until he can no longer get her offerings.

The Millennial Empire and the Sacred Tree Empire, noticing that Emperor Philip doesn't have much to live, decide to assimilate part of the Sacred Alliance Empire into their territory. During the negotiations, Azan territory is the only place the three empires cant decide on, as it belongs to the future legendary Runemaster.

With the loss of Emperor Philip, the new ruler was going to be selected from his sons. But Princess Apeiron comes and forces both empires away. She becomes the new Empress.

Princess Apeiron asks Richard to accompany her for a full day. During dinner, she tells him that she will return to her crazed state the next morning and that Voidbones has returned to Deepblue.

Soon after Richard reaches Deepblue, Julian when Apeiron appear to get the dragon (?). Apeiron starts fighting Sharon, While Julian faces Richard, Waterflower, and Nasia. Apeiron ends up saving Julian and injures Richard.

While Richard is recovering, he manages to gets another part of his truename: **Ruven** .

Richard returns to faelor and declares war on the Iron Triangle Empire. He kills his first legendary enemies: Lyos, (?)(?). He creates his first grade 5 rune from Lyos's soul: the Kingsteel rune. Nasia tells him that he is a Soul hunter: he has the ability to catch a part of the soul of the legendary beings killed around him.

Richard notices that the "Dragon Church" might be from an other plane. He finds a passageway to the Dragon Plane.

Richard starts a divine war with Runai.

Richard hosts his first saint rune conversion. He meets many famous legendary and epic beings including Ruben. He invites them to the Dragon Plane.
Richard takes Nyris away from Apeiron. Apeiron forces him to kiss her boots to allow Nyris to be free. Right after, Richard leaves the Sacred Alliance Empire.

## **Book 8 - Waning of the Moon**

After facing the suppression of his laws while fighting against Apeiron, Richard decides that he has to learn how to fight against this suppression. He decides to take part in the divine war between Runai and the three goddesses. With the Judge of Destiny absorbing the souls of Runai's soldiers, and Broodmother's newly created drones eating up the divine power which makes up the soldier's bodies, armor, and the divine land, the **divine war ends** 3 centuries earlier than expected.

At the same time, Sharon gifts Richard a **demiplane**. She created it in a place, where normal demiplanes will not be able to last for even a short time. However, with eighteen energy-absorbing trees the chaotic energy of the void is absorbed creating a storm eye where the demiplane can exist.

Returning to Faelor, Richard decides to invade the Dragon Plane. After clearing up the surroundings of the portal, he kills Kralkalor and returns to Faelor. His Intuition skill makes aware of a great secret hidden in the Genesis, the core of the Barbarian Highlands.

In Genesis, Richard finds a portal which leads to a fragment of a plane which has merged with Faelor. Here, a great battle was waged where an Archeron demon of epic level or greater died, and a portal to the abyss exists. Richard feels the call of the depths of the abyss.

Richard brings the Archeron lord heart (worth 5 rank 2 offerings), the vitaly being kept by faelors origin energy, with him. The heart forcefully swallows Richard and lets him go after a month. Richard gains a **fourth heart** and a **body comparable to an ogre lords**. He also learns that he has a **child**

Coco's body is unable to bear the burden of pregnancy. Richard decides to kill a world tree and feed coco its heart. However, he has to upgrade Mana Armament to grade 5 to have full confidence. Brahmas, a count from the Sacred Tree Empire and the nephew of a cardinal of the Church of Glory steals the Divine gold sold to Richard by Saint Martin. This escalates to a war between Richard, Saint Martin, and the Pope. Richard shows the power of the Battle edition of Midren. The Church of Glory loses all of its bishops and a quarter of the cardinals.

Richard goes to the Millennial Empire to give offerings. He uses Prince Tumen's channels. After losing some divine grace in a test orchestrated by Prince Tumen, Richard adds Saint Lawrence's Jelly legs rune on to Macy, alongside a grade 3 and a grade 4 rune.

Richard returns to the Resting Orchid Plane, kills Stardragon, and captures his first live soul.

# **Battles**

## **Volume 2**

No mage at the same level could ever defeat Richard. Forget the strange casting speed and the magic penetration, his incomparably keen reaction alone would leave him undefeated in most battles. Richard’s boosted thinking speed from the blessing of wisdom already put him on the level of a normal grand mage. On top of that, the endless bloodbaths in the Bloodstained Lands had honed his battle sense greatly.

Blaze was stronger than Eruption. Every time he activated it, Richard felt like his blood had turned into lava. As the Archeron bloodline grew more powerful, Richard felt like the way he did things was slowly changing as well. He didn’t know that the hot breath he just spewed out filled the air nearby with a blazing aura. This aura contained a faint scent of sulphur, just like the smell of magma.

Every rise of Gaton’s sword, every spur of his horse as he waved his army forward was always accompanied by a thick, volcanic smell. This blazing aura always increased the confidence of Lina and her companions a hundred times over, regardless of whether their opponent was a peerless powerhouse or a magnificent army with thousands of soldiers. They would always swing their weapons, charging forward without hesitation!

## **Volume 3**

His meteoric rise in the Bloodstained Lands of the Sequoia Kingdom cemented his status as a war god of the battlefield. Now, he was one of the most powerful beings in the Sequoia Kingdom, standing shoulder to shoulder with the three dukes and what was left of the royal family. This left the power structure of the Kingdom in dire straits.

Richard’s achievements in war were transcendent. The new Viscount had swept through the Bloodstained Lands in only two years, defeating Prince Salwyn of the Iron Triangle Empire, whom was a master strategist, twice in quick succession. He had then decimated the Sequoia Kingdom’s Mage Association in one campaign, forcing them to yield their monopoly over enchanted equipment for the first time in their existence. He had then gone quiet for a while before appearing once more, and this time there was no way to adequately describe his prowess. A few thousand armoured knights had raided the boundaries of the Iron Triangle Empire, sweeping through it like a tornado as if it was unoccupied land.

## **Volume 4**

### **Unrivalled General**

After numerous battles, Richard was an established planar war general. Not all knew just how good he was, but the very fact that he was still alive showed a modicum of success. On top of that, he had also obtained the Deepblue’s inheritance, and entered the ranks of great mages before even reaching twenty.

The pinnacle of his fame in strategy and tactics was seen in the fight against Raymond Jospeh. The great war came to an end after only a few weeks of the invaders' swift conquest, concluding with the complete defeat of the invaders. Songs would be sung for centuries about how the master general Richard of the Sequoia Kingdom smashed apart an invincible army of invaders in a heartrending battle. Legends would speak of the warflag that he had planted behind his back and refused to cross, tales already spreading that made him a hero to every commoner of the continent. Several generals had been gathering their armies from all corners of the continent to push back the fearsome force that had destroyed the Baruch Kingdom which was the home of Wargod Lutheris, but a relatively unknown viscount from the Sequoia Kingdom had crushed these invaders in their path.

The new spotlight also unearthed Richard’s other exploits as well, including the crushing defeat of Sinclair at Twilight Castle. The prior stories of Baron Fontaine’s astonishing achievements were now updated, the main credit falling to Richard instead. The realisation that Richard had eliminated not one but two powerful invaders shocked the populace, fully qualifying him to become a chosen of any deity he chose.

### **Rise of the Dukedom**

Richard had lost his title, but that only turned him into a free beast that could not be controlled. He wasn’t a subordinate of the royal family in the first place, and now there was no guarantee he would even serve the future Direwolf Duke. For all intents and purposes, he was now an independent noble who controlled all of the Bloodstained Lands. In effect, he had both the territory and the power to establish a kingdom of his own. A precursor to the rise of his empire was imminent.

Every noble who had joined the resistance was captured and sent to forced labour in the Bloodstained Lands. However, their possessions were left behind for their successors.

I’m confident I’ll eventually become a saint runemaster. I have no idea how far I’ll go as a mage, but at the very least a few more levels should be no issue. I control two planes with a combined annual income of over 10 million gold, and defeated an army sent by the Joseph Family and captured their prodigal son. There were elements of luck involved, but the truth remains that my ability in war cannot be belittled.” 4;157

So long as Richard was still present, nobody had the guts to attack. The incident with the fifth division of the Iron Triangle Empire clearly illustrated that point: his followers had failed to withstand their rapid charge through the Bloodstained Lands, but once he stepped out himself he had completely annihilated them with half the numbers. His forces had even struck back and captured the Empire’s garrison itself.

By this time, Richard’s military prowess was already acknowledged to be the greatest in the western mainland, far surpassing Salwyn and Rislant.

### **Reclaiming Lost Territories**

The final number was 150 rune knights with grade 2 sets of Savage Barrier and Savage Strike. The aide finally realised exactly what the Emperor had meant. Richard was announcing his ascent into the political arena of Norland. It was a different path from Gaton’s, but they were both similarly aggressive. This was the roar of a young dragon that had just come of age!

Richard sent out three announcements in succession. The first was an order to all of Gaton’s vassals to report to Faust and re-pledge their allegiance to him. Failure to do so within fifteen days would be taken as an act of rebellion, while those that proved their loyalty would be forgiven for past transgressions. The second was the sentencing of those who had looted his items from the Archeron island. The thieves would be stripped of all rights in the family and had one month to return the offerings or compensate him in money. Failure to do so would be taken as an act of rebellion and more severe punishments would follow. Anyone who housed these rebels would be considered to have declared war on the Archerons.

The third was a complete denouncement of the family council. Any so-called family councils were declared absolutely illegal in the Archeron Family, and anyone claiming to represent one who didn’t leave by the time Richard reached Blackrose Castle would be sentenced to death. 4;162

The more glorious Gaton was, the more tragic the fate of those he left in his wake. Eventually, Gaton had lost his footing on the cliffside he dared to walk; the Rosie Plane, taking more than half of his followers with him. However, the son grew up to replace the father. A mere teen exhibited talents that shocked the entire Alliance, eventually starting to regain control of Gaton’s assets. And now, that teen had burst out completely to become an adult.

Richard led his own troops to leave Faust on an expedition towards Blackrose Castle. The so-called army only had 500 people, including 150 grade 2 rune knights and 300 elite shadowspear knights. The remaining 50 spots were filled by a mix of Richard’s followers, clergy, and mages.

Most terrifying was just how precise Richard’s commands were. Goliath did his best to decipher Richard’s commands, but he couldn’t see the order in the chaos at all. He didn’t understand what team 1 was, what team 3 was. There were times that Richard called for defence, but all of the knights seemed to be on the offence. The thought that it was a farce crossed his mind, *but then how was the formation so exquisite and coordinated?*

Of course, Goliath didn’t know that Richard’s ‘commands’ were just meaningless words he was shouting to add to the confusion. The real commands were being transmitted directly to the minds of the shadowspear knights. Although 300 was too many to command individually even if he had another upgrade to his blessing of wisdom, he could group them into threes and thus command a hundred nodes simultaneously. 4;165

### **Family Head**

Warriors and mages, experts who carry the Archeron name; where has your courage fled? Those who gathered here for my sake, where are you? Show me your valour, show me your glory! If Sauron were truly qualified for the Archeron throne, he should be here right now for a duel to the death! Where is the coward?!” The voice resounded like thunder in the skies of the castle, surging into the hearts of every Archeron. The gathered free warriors started to stand up one after the other, staring into the skies in the direction of Richard’s voice.

By this point, Richard was flying even higher than Discra’s Ire atop the keep. His voice seemed to be the only thing in the world, “Archerons! Gaton may be gone, but that is fine; I shall lead you instead. Follow me, and I will plant out flaming warflags on countless planes!”

Richard’s hand pointed upwards at the crimson sunset sky, at the stars that were said to be reflections of the myriad planes, “**From today, I, Richard, am the head of the Archerons.**” 4;169

It was only then that Asiris, Lina, and Senma understood exactly why Richard had been so confident in the face of Discra’s Ire. It turned out that he hadn’t been waiting idly while his followers’ equipment was being made, instead arranging for many things on the sidelines. *The youth that had just come of age wasn’t just a capable general; he was also growing by the day in his role as a lord.*

The old president of the council was within the crowd as well. When he saw the youth being praised by Richard, he nearly fainted. He had never expected that the vain youth he employed as an assistant for lack of choice would actually double cross him. Nobody could have thought that the bumbling idiot who couldn’t even prepare tea properly was capable of stealing the Eye of the Storm and smuggling it to Richard.

His deadline for the council hadn’t been arbitrary,  so today was a rather special day. This very day a year ago, Gaton had led his army and entered the Rosie Plane. Now, Richard had recaptured Blackrose Castle and become the head of the Archerons. Sauron, Goliath, and Alice all remained silent in answer to Richard’s proclamation.

They had accepted their new ruler.

## **Volume 5**

The only thing he lacked now was in the absolute top end. Nobody would dare to provoke Gaton and his thirteen lunatics, but Richard’s team hadn’t yet reached that level. Lina had basically shifted allegiance completely now, while Asiris and Senma acknowledged him. Cyrden and Ward completely disregarded his orders.

All of the duties of the family head that neither Sauron nor the family council had worked to resolve were now on his table. On top of that, he needed to reorganise the army and create new channels of supply for equipment and materiel. Guards had to be arranged for the castle as well.

### **Divine War**

The Bloodstained Lands only had a single sub-legendary mage protecting it, making it evident that something important must have pulled Richard’s forces away. Without Richard and his terrifying followers, the 20,000-strong army left in Bluewater wasn’t much at all.

All they had to do was flatten the churches of the three goddesses in one go. Once Neian absorbed the powers of the goddesses, Richard would be rendered powerless no matter how strong the deity supporting him was.

Ever since the invasion of the astral beasts, this was the sixth time a war between gods had erupted in Faelor.

Within the void, Neian’s divine kingdom approached those of the three goddesses and countless soldiers flew out to attack. The three goddesses, in turn, had temporarily joined their divine kingdoms to suppress him with their combined might.

Thankfully, the Goddess of Spring Water had recently advanced to become an intermediate deity and Neian was currently weaker than normal. The three managed to withstand the first wave of attacks, settling into a war of attrition where each side tried to drain the other of divinity.

In the mortal world, a combined army formed from the Sequoia Kingdom, the Iron Triangle Empire, and six dukedoms separated into four parts and started boring into the Bloodstained Lands. Each lane of attack was incomparably powerful, quickly pushing through the perimeter defences set by Kellac as they headed for the many oasis cities of the Bloodstained Lands.

It was a catastrophic day for Neian’s forces. More than half of his powerhouses had been killed off in the ambush, and the second child he had sent to follow the Beetle Queen had disappeared alongside the remaining experts.

The mortal war thus came to a close. Amidst the rifts in spacetime, the Land of Turmoil now seemed like a sleeping beast of myth that had opened its mouth after a long time. The very thought made those of the Church of Valour feel extremely restless.

As Richard watched on blankly, Fuschia followed him up into the sky. She raised her brows in surprise at the grandeur of the city, but when she saw the three churches she suddenly lost control of her flight for a moment and almost fell to the ground. Turning a base into a city was one thing, but having churches as well was something different entirely! This meant Richard had either subdued some of the deities of this plane, or he had completely deceived them. Regardless, this was an astonishing achievement that should not have been possible within only a few years. 5;6

With things as they were, he gathered a thousand humanoid knights alongside the barbarian infantry and the few hundred javelineers the broodmother had created so far, leaving right for the capital of the Sequoia Kingdom.

Once Richard’s troops started to mobilise, envoys from all over the plane reached the Bloodstained Lands. The dukedoms who had participated in the attack were represented, as were Cerces, Runai, Lutheris, and multiple other gods. The envoys were only there for one thing: to persuade Richard to stop after he got what he wanted. With both the divine and mortal wars having come to an end, they wished for him to stop while he was ahead. 5;9

### **Defeating the Enemies**

Norland was not Faelor; the elite bats gave Richard a great advantage on the battlefield, but the Mensas had their own scouts as well. On top of that, Flowsand and her guardians could not participate due to the neutrality of the Church of the Eternal Dragon. However, Richard needed neither to display his prowess on the battlefield; his army was an intricate machine that heartlessly tore through the lives of its enemies. His orders seemed to be transmitted to every one of his knights at once, as the tide of soldiers ebbed and flowed with almost no warning until the opposing forces were ground to dust.

They fought nine battles in total over four days, and Richard won every single one of them.

The Mensas were losing soldiers at an astounding rate, while Richard’s rune knights collapsed one after the other.By this point, a little over ten thousand of the Mensa Family’s most powerful soldiers had met their end, while an equal number wouldn’t be able to return to the battlefield even if their wounds were healed. Richard had lost thirty rune knights while the Duke’s were unharmed, but still the old man didn’t dare to use his rune knight platoon to fight Richard.

It was only then that the Mensas realised what was happening. Richard’s plan had never been to coax out the rune knights; he was actually aiming for their core soldiers, depleting the assistance that the rune knight platoon would have. This would greatly increase the threat to these elites in any battle.

After an immensely tense meeting amongst the elders, the family finally sent a message to the assembly that they would withdraw from the battle and no longer interfere with the Anans heading to Faust. Once this announcement was made, another commotion broke out.

This battle would later come to be called the Eight Day War, the first of Richard Archeron’s many illustrious achievements. Another name was added to the list of famous Archeron generals, this one even ranked slightly higher than the goddess of war. 5;21

The Eight Day War had shown the Sacred Alliance a side of Richard that few had known of before. He was no longer just a runemaster, but also a valiant general that could not be defeated by any common powerhouse. At the very least, the Schumpeters had no warriors capable of guaranteeing Richard’s death. Dario still had a distant relative, a younger brother of his grandfather, that possessed legendary might. However, it had been decades since this grand-uncle’s name had even been mentioned; considering the flow of time in the Battlefield of Despair, it wasn’t impossible for the man to be long dead.

*Besides, which legendary powerhouse would even dare to lay a hand on Richard?* Sharon’s might was known to every expert of Norland; nobody wanted to awaken the sleeping dragon.

For the first time in ages, Dario Schumpeter set aside his hubris and started to consider the fate of his clan.

At this point, he was the king of the Archerons and the royal runemaster of the Sacred Alliance. He was a Duke of Faelor, and someone blessed by the Eternal Dragon himself! *5;30*

All the fury condensed within his sea of consciousness, calling forth the gold glow of his truename from the depths of his bloodline. The boiling Archeron blood immediately cooled down, growing dense with energy as it prepared to lash out.

Such was the nature of his truename. Dizmason, meaning destruction. It took a collected warrior to maximise one’s destruction on the battlefield.

In the face of Ensio countless insults were constantly ringing in his ears, drowning out the fierce winds. Through all the dizziness, pain, and confusion, the strongest blow had been to his faith in himself. He had always been proud of his courage, willpower, and fortitude. Now, these qualities seemed completely meaningless.

### **Land of Dusk**

His runecrafting was famous throughout the Sacred Alliance, and now that he was here word was starting to spread through the City of the Unsetting Sun as well. Anyone even daring to request runes from him was an expert amongst this gathering of experts, so their requests also granted insight into just what kind of requirements one had in the Land of Dusk. 5;45

Time was like a sieve, filtering those who were not fit to be friends and letting the rest join together. Richard constantly journeyed in and out of the capital of the Unsetting Sun, and eventually his drinking friends stabilised as well. However, all of his new acquaintances didn’t mind and just spent the days he was in the city in revelry. The number of sculptures in his warehouse started to grow, and they became more and more lifelike with every attempt. The marks on the wall now seemed to be impossibly precise, none any different from the other. A number of enchanted boxes with offerings inside were also thrown inside his bedroom. It felt like he had fallen into an entirely different world, himself completely different from whoever had come in. It was like he was drowning in mud but couldn’t feel it, yet even in the midst of this submersion something was constantly on the verge of breaking through. In the eyes of the rest he seemed to be content with this new, dangerous routine, but the fire within his heart continued to burn bright.

*Time could change a person, and it could change an entire world. Time could turn peasants into gods, or it could turn dragons to dust.* . 5;47

He awakened his second truename; Schloan

His biggest improvement after spending nearly a year in a battlefield of despair was that his patience was now vast. He could walk for an extraordinary length of time without feeling dull at all.

The entire city had become friends of his over the past year, and sometimes powerhouses from the other forts came to visit him as well.

He still drank all the time, especially after every excursion. The street in front of his house was now a small plaza with tables, parasols, and chairs, while the unremarkable stone ledge had some intricate railings installed. A few grand mages even grew climbers from below the ledge, feeding the plants their own energy to help them take root in this toxic land. This had made Richard’s doorstep one of the few green spots within the entire city.

bloodlines, of his astral world tree that was now so much taller than everything else in his spiritual sea. He dreamt of the crimson Archeron web that encircled it all, broken through by the azure branches of the tree’s crown. The two bloodlines were still competing, but the Archeron power no longer had the upper hand. Dizmason was a more powerful symbol, but Schloan was a testament to his elven bloodline’s growth.

A year in the Land of Dusk was equivalent to about a year and a quarter in Faelor, and a little over a month and a week in Norland.

*Was the path to power meant to be so lonely? 5;49*

For a moment, he was dumbstruck. Staring back at him was a long-haired man with a thick beard all across his face and chin, radiating a powerful aura of death. His handsome nobility was nowhere to be seen except perhaps in his beautiful elven eyes. He had to shake his head and confirm that it was indeed himself in the mirror, not Gaton.

*So that’s how that man had gotten his image.* The elegant youth returned, but now he no longer had that delicate air. The aura of death surrounding him was too strong to be concealed, just like with Beye.

At this point, he could kill a saint in a single stroke. This one slash would have been strong enough to kill a skaven in the Land of Dusk, and any saint without a boost to their power like the innate strength of the Daxdians or the runes of the Norlanders would end up dying as well. However, this enemy was neither; while the Resting Orchid Plane had totemic warriors, that didn’t pose much of a threat at all. He was still a little lower for Beye's level of skill.

### **King**

“My King, what should we do now?” a rune knight asked beside him, head bowed and one knee on the floor.

Seeing this one knight, everyone else assumed the same position. Outside of those still guarding from the few reckless enemies remaining, even his followers went down one after the other while facing his direction. The elite shadowspears had only rudimentary intelligence, but after a moment they too fell to the floor with a synchronised plop. Flowsand snuck a tongue out at Richard from a hidden angle before getting down on a knee herself. Nyra had already gone down before, and Io reluctantly followed despite his surprise.

In only a few moments, Richard was the only one left standing on the Unpassable Wall, a veritable river of blood flowing from the numerous wounds on his body while the ball of light still floated above his head. He suddenly understood that he finally had the recognition of the Archerons. He had declared himself the patriarch back at Blackrose Castle, but only with this victory was he truly their king.

For a moment, he stood rooted in place. It felt like his entire body had caught aflame, and not just because of the endless wounds. His mana had been exhausted to the point that the dryness was more unbearable than the pain, and his breath reeked of thick blood from his own internal organs. He could fall at any time.

And yet, he was more confident than ever in his strength. He truly felt like the ruler of the world. It was only now that he understood just why the thirteen knights would work under Gaton despite the low salary. It wasn’t purely because of their relationship, but because he would lead the charge at the forefront and they could follow. 5;64

All the rune knights saw was their master fighting without end, not taking a moment’s break as his dagger and sword danced from enemy to enemy without end. The sight had spurred themselves to detach from their pain, submitting to the fight for the sake of victory. That blind devotion to his commands had, in turn, given Richard the tiniest amount of leeway he needed to make it through.

Miracles were often created just like this; they weren’t the product of just one individual’s effort.

Although the death toll pained him, Richard knew that he had done his utmost. Even Gaton had been unable to conquer the Unpassable Wall, so it was inevitable that one would need to make sacrifices to do so.

Even at his peak, Gaton’s wealth hadn’t approached a tenth of what Richard could make. He didn’t have shadowspear knights to protect his core elites, and even if he did such soldiers had their own value.

Gaton had been a prodigy of war that expanded incessantly, backed only by the sheer power he and his knights wielded. He was a miracle that had saved his family from the consequences of Gaton’s recklessness, but there was no contingency for him being lost as well. His followers, rune knights, and the newly recruited soldiers all depended on him. He was no longer that stubborn youth with nobody to call his own; now, every decision of his affected thousands of lives, capable of shaking up the Archerons and the rest of the Sacred Alliance. Gaton had beat up the Schumpeters and hurt the Mensas and Josephs, while he had destroyed the Schumpeters and crippled the Josephs, hurting the Mensas greatly as well. At this point, his achievements weren’t much worse than his father’s.

While his top-end strength wasn’t comparable to Gaton’s, he had an endless supply of rune knights that could decide almost any battle. Even that shortcoming in high-end power was quickly being made up for, but that came with the side-effect that his responsibilities were ever-growing. 5;81

### **Daxdian War**

This was the first time he had come here in an official capacity, as a member of the Sacred Alliance helping the humans win the war. He knew that he might never return, but he was only filled with a sense of pride.

Nostalgia was a strange feeling. Years in the past, he had never expected himself to be capable of it. Now, however, he could feel it almost pulsing in his veins. A mocking smile appeared on his face as he pulled out the dagger form of Carnage, leaping down the edge of the cliff. 5;84

He was becoming sentimental, lonely, and agitated in this god-forsaken place. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if he was relatively safe— just like artists, runemasters could find inspiration in the darker emotions of life— but in a battlefield of despair where death was around every corner such sentimentality was nothing more than stupid. He hadn’t concentrated during his hunt and accidentally fallen into a trap, forced into a battle far beyond his mana and energy reserves as he ran for more than half a day. If not for the restorative power of his truename, he would have become a delicacy for the Daxdians.

Eventually, he dragged himself back to his house. The rundown place felt particularly warm as he approached, making him go faster and faster. Lawrence and Beye were his neighbours, and now he had Waterflower as a housemate; he suddenly realised that he didn’t want to feel lonely anymore. 5;101

Richard didn’t feel much of a difference in his lifestyle, but that was not true for the warriors of the City of the Unsetting Sun. Ever since the day Blacklight was seized, not a single rune had been sold to Rundstedt. Forget Lifesbanes, even elementary runes were off the table.

Despite going hunting frequently, Richard still spent a fair bit of time at home and had plenty of materials; it was obvious that he was still crafting. It was just that the runes he crafted didn’t land in the city’s hands anymore. However, nobody called him out on this decision. The requisition was public knowledge by now, and Richard still fulfilled his duty of repairing and maintaining everyone’s runes without the slightest drop in quality. Even the Marshal’s guards weren’t refused service, and because of his frequent contact with the city’s soldiers his work was far better than what Lunor offered.

At the same time, he had soared to near the top of the rankings when it came to sheer number of kills. Even many of the council members couldn’t match up to his military exploits, so they didn’t have the guts to complain about him. 5;103

### **Land of Friends**

Time passed quite quickly. As soon as Richard finished the tasks he had at hand, he gathered the entire city for a round of drinks near his home.

Almost everyone in the city was invited, and this time even commoners and sky saints mingled like equals; there was nothing more effective than bringing people together than an epic battle fought tooth and nail. The din in the small courtyard was deafening, and it only grew louder as cases and cases of wine were emptied out.

### **Fort Dawn**

Their strategy had now changed into a constant battle of attrition as before, trying to wear out the limited guardians of the Fort of Dawn.

Fighting was an indispensable part of life at this fort, but both Richard and Waterflower were almost bored by the routine nature of it all. However, they were both improving by the day, so much so that it felt like the enemies constantly grew weaker. Both of them had started to amass a sizeable reputation amongst the powerhouses of this fortress, the respect getting to the point that Richard started feeling awkward.

Of course, Waterflower only had two classes of people in her life: Richard and everyone else. She continued to remain cold to those she met.

Richard quickly approached the threshold of trying to comprehend laws. He started spending more and more time on runecrafting and meditation, only going out when he had new hypotheses to test in battle. Waterflower continued to grow more powerful as well, honing her sword strikes until she could kill most enemies with one well-timed blow.

## **Volume 6**

However, in the face of legendary might, extinguishing the great halo that had surrounded him as a great runemaster and unrivalled commander.

### **Klandor**

The time had come for him to return to Klandor because the sacred ceremony was moved up due to the scheming of the Sacred Tree Empire. Richard had to rush back and kill his way into the tournament for the right to claim her. However, he had been poisioned in order for him to lose the battle. Archbishop Hendrick almost killed me in Klandor, and he was planning to threaten me with a war in Norland.

* sixth prince Uriel: fought using Angel's' demise, laws, and abyssal flames against Heaven’s Armour [6;61]

* attack on **Saint Louis Cathedral**: due to the attempted assassination and poisoning by the sacred tree empire
	+ went through most of Duke Solams army as well
	+ Alice attacked Duke Jasper.

### **Declaration of War**

The sudden capture of the Saint Louis Cathedral shook the entire Sacred Tree Empire. Richard had charged straight into their lands and conquered Tobia in only a few days, embarrassing all the nobles of the northeast. The Emperor immediately issued orders to all nearby nobles to mobilise their entire armies, barring him from escaping the Sacred Tree Empire under all circumstances.

An even larger storm brewed in the Church of Glory. Saint Martin’s capture was grave news; although he hadn’t been confirmed yet, he was most certainly the most favoured candidate for the papacy. Messia would likely be sent to oversee the darker sides of the Church, including the Inquisition. The pope sighed in relief that there had been no shameful blasphemy of the cathedral and that the priests had not been harmed, immediately sending out an envoy to meet Richard and negotiate for Martin’s release. Knowing that the divine sword and robe were still present, they couldn’t care less about anything else.

Whatever be the case, Richard had already met his objectives for the surprise attack. He led his now-smaller army back through the Solam lands, destroying many scattered branches of the army in quick succession and disappearing before he could be found. After a total of seven battles, most of Duke Solam’s auxiliary forces had been completely wiped out. There were battles where the numeric advantage was dozens of times in the side of the defenders, but Richard still won by a large margin. 7;77

Attack on **Saint Louis Cathedral**: due to the attempted assassination and poisoning by the sacred tree empire

* went through most of Duke Solams army as well
* Alice attacked Duke Jasper.

While both sides had suffered an objective loss, he could rest assured that the Church of Glory wouldn’t aggress for at least the next few years. They had promised to forget all about the events in Klandor, and he had pledged to show the Sacred Tree Empire and the Church their due respect.

Once he returned to the Archeron island, he sat down to recalculate the effectiveness of his current military direction. Now that he had more funds, he had to consider where the investment would serve him best. A few quick calculations told him that a legendary being was equivalent to 200 rune knights, who in turn were equivalent to an army of 10,000 elites. These 10,000 elites cost the same as an army of 150,000 men, each of whom were level 5 or higher. Each force on this list would be beaten by the force immediately below it, but there would be heavy losses to both sides.

He ruled out spreading his investment across hundreds of thousands of soldiers. While such a number looked frightening, even he could just fly into the sky and cast his thunderclouds to eliminate the entire army without breaking a sweat. Despite a number of simulated battle scenarios, the intangibles of guerilla warfare and mobility that higher-end warriors brought was well worth the cost. Deciding his top-down approach was still the best option, he moved on to other tasks. 6;83

### **Battle of the Soul**

The souls of both Richard and the broodmother’s avatar were wrapped up in a storm of spiritual energy, vortices of power crashing into them from all sides. The barrier he’d rebuilt was like a tiny bubble being blown about in the midst of this storm, about to pop at any time.

The shield protecting his soul was on the verge of breakdown, but he knew that the forest could not sustain this for a long time. At one point, he was surrounded by powerful vortices on all sides. His Archeron bloodline immediately turned scalding hot as his entire soul form turned dark red, punching the energy that had snuck in.

He frowned at the pain, looking at the giant egg that was now vibrating as it cracked apart. A black worm-like creature crawled out from within, looking almost exactly the same as the broodmother when she had first appeared. It was rather nostalgic, causing his mind to wander to when he had first entered Faelor.

Watching this infant that had just weathered a battle of life and death with him, Richard felt an instinctive fondness for it.

It had been a long time since he walked the edge of life and death, but there was no fear in his heart. Without the perfect confluence of events during that battle he would have died, but all he could think of was that there were many aspects to his soul that he still didn’t have control of. He would use what he learned from this fight to grow for the future.

All his life he had thought of his elven and Archeron bloodlines as conflicting, as fire and ice that constantly pulled him between lunatic might and cold calculation. For the first time, the two had combined and worked in tandem to save him from his situation. Pure rage had fuelled him for what felt like hours on end, but his blessings had still been operating to chart out the best path at any given point in time.

He was trying to achieve this perfect balance once more. His current belief was that his bloodlines would only complement each other when he was completely focused, so much so that the rage and pride would only affect his heart and not his mind. Thinking of this, his right hand turned blood-red as he stabbed a lafite dagger into a practice dummy he’d set up. Space seemed to distort around the blade due to the extreme strength, and despite only a nick in the plate the entire dummy exploded at once. The blade had a twelvefold reinforcement with all five Lifesbanes active, which would be enough to tear a centaur apart with a single touch.

Feeling the trace of laws within that stab, he smiled despite the fatigue; he had finally truly achieved the same realm as Beye. He thought that such a strike deserved a suitable name, and decided to simply call it Decapitate. Book 6, Chapter 90

### **Battle of Wills**

* **Iskara the demon god**. cursed Tzu and attempted to take over forest plane. Richard and Tzu teleported to the void and fought against Iskaras armies for a month. At the end, Richard went back while Tzu had her last stand against Iskara. [6;107]
	+ Disintegrator - Far in the distance, Tzu remained motionless as she saw monster after monster pile onto Richard. Her eyes narrowed as red light started leaking through the mountain, and even she took a subconscious step backwards as dark flames burst out from within. The abyssal flames quickly broke the hill apart, freezing everything within a dozen metres. Even the demons outside of the range froze up; these constructs did not know fear, but their instincts still reacted to the destructive power.
	+ Richard stood at the eye of the inferno, no enemies left nearby. He was bathed in the dark flames and all of his clothing and equipment lay melted on the floor, but the blaze seemed to be a layer of armour unto itself.
	+ He slowly focused his gaze, revealing lava flowing in his once-emerald eyes. As the fiery glare scanned through the monsters dozens of metres away, the enemies subconsciously retreated from his might. Moonlight flew to his arm as he held it out, a strange flame of green, red, and black running across the entire blade.
* No matter what Tzu had said, he owed it to his mother to at least try to save her. He did not possess the power to do so right now, but he was a grand runemaster and that meant a lot. While the Duskword army was a threat, it was still a distance away and his personal power wouldn’t change outcomes much anyway. In only a single day he travelled the entire 2,000 kilometres, frightening the guards of Emerald City as he rushed over to the teleportation hall like the wind. Stopping for a minute to write a hasty letter to Nyris and Agamemnon, he quickly headed back to Norland. 6;103

### **Encirclement**

Richard returned to the Evernight Tribe so that they would escape death from the alliances of the nearby tribes. He had come with the Rosie Knights and his personal army, along with Alice. The first day of battle quickly drew to a close, and despite a lack of casualties Richard was not happy at all. His army had been trapped here, and the will of the forest had grown smarter and stopped attacking their minds directly. Now, it was strengthening the hunters of the alliance; even a level 16 archer’s arrows could match a saint’s blow. The barrier knights had been forced to take on these attacks repeatedly and were growing exhausted. The elves knew that entering the forest would only mean death, and Richard was even more thorough with his defence than they had expected.

Far in the distance under the tree of life, almost all of the evernight elves walked out of their homes and touched their mother tree with hand and body. They could feel the trembling of the earth, and the stronger amongst them could even sense the turbulence in the will of the forest. The distant battle was raging so fiercely that the forest itself was crying out in pain.

It didn’t matter to them whether he had rushed out for the late Grand Elder or he had done it for himself; Richard had rushed out into an ambush to protect her pride. Even if he lost the fight, his glorious figure would be imprinted in their minds unto death.

It was when Alice reached the edge of the forest that the black mist lingering within suddenly split apart, a magic mount jumping out of the fog and landing in the meadow. The horse’s head was lowered and its steps were unsteady, breath constantly spurting white mist. Large drops of a dark liquid that looked like blood were constantly dripping down its legs.

It was only then that Alice noticed the straight-backed man atop the ride, almost dropping her prepared sword. Even with his face pale and a wound that ran from the ear to the chest, it was difficult to look away from his charming smile. It was when Alice reached the edge of the forest that the black mist lingering within suddenly split apart, a magic mount jumping out of the fog and landing in the meadow. The horse’s head was lowered and its steps were unsteady, breath constantly spurting white mist. Large drops of a dark liquid that looked like blood were constantly dripping down its legs.

It was only then that Alice noticed the straight-backed man atop the ride, almost dropping her prepared sword. Even with his face pale and a wound that ran from the ear to the chest, it was difficult to look away from his charming smile. Book 6, Chapter 121

Hunters, treants, beast tamers, druids… They had encountered all sorts of enemies but everything in their way was torn apart. Richard was in the lead of it all, a simple orb of light floating above his head to give them vision of their targets. His own kill count was the greatest of them all, and not by a small amount. Every enemy that faced him was eradicated.

Hearing this, she shook her head and sighed, “You don’t. The family’s hopes are on you; if you die, there’s nobody who can step up. Remember what happened when Gaton disappeared? The family almost broke apart even with you present; what happens if that’s you? Think of your responsibilities, this little tribe doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Even if you feel something for the girl, make sure she can’t lift a finger against you before you do anything else.”

The topic made Richard smile awkwardly. He knew that it seemed like he was romantically interested in Melia to the outside world, but he didn’t really want to reveal Tzu’s full relationship with him either. Still, Alice’s words were not false; he had many responsibilities now, and his subordinates weren’t as united as before either. Years ago in Faelor, the goal was to live to see the next day; now, he had a legendary being’s strength with Disintegrator and many of his followers were closing in on the same. It was only expected that they would develop their own interests over time. Book 6, Chapter 126

* **Elves of the forest plane** (moving the evernight tribe).
	+ allies: Noelene, followers, Evernight Tribe, 300+ rune knights
	+ result: Destroyed the Thornleaf tribe, Rainmist Tribe, Tempest Tribe and their Trees of Life. multiple tribes ran away with their tree of live. Evernight Tree of life destroyed, as well as the other four tribes' tree of life.
* fought with **Ward the boxer.**
	+ allies: none
	+ result: Ward killed.

## **Volume 7**

ch 39

* The fall of Philipp and the rise of Apeiron.
* Sharon vs Apeiron
* Julian (weakened) using War Fanatic
	+ allies: Nasia, Waterflower
	+ abilities: Moonlight, War Fanatic and the church martial arts
	+ result: Julian almost killed. Apeiron severely wounds Richard.
* Start of the Faelor conquest. Iron Triangle Empire became a vassal under Richard through a defeated Salwyn.
* Godfrey [7;94]
	+ allies: Gangdor, Nasia, Phaser, Asiris, Tiramisu, Mountainsea, 200 rune knights
	+ abilities: War Fanatic (metal laws), fireball magic, javelins (gun powder)
	+ Result: Godfrey killed. some soldiers lost.
* Dragon Valley
	+ Invited to the Dragon Church headquarters.
	+ Killed off a legend.
	+ Entered the Dragon Plane
* Dragon Plane
	+ Invited Sharon to fight the dragons. Entered Faelor.
	+ Kralkalor
	+ Rune Convention. Invitied numerous legends and epic beings to fight in the Dragon Plane. Set up Dragon Valley

* Divine War
	+ Runai
	+ Discovered the remains of Lady of the Night

* Richard now had more than 500 rune knights under him, and the number continued to grow with no signs of stopping. Just how many rune knights did he think would be enough? 800? 1,000? It was impossible to know.
* Fought legendary mage Saunder and won.
* Became a legendary being.

## Book 8

Outside the Sacred Alliance, he was actually a mysterious figure with all sorts of secrets, the youngest saint runemaster who had turned the tables during the Archerons’ weakest moments. He was also a wargod second to none, the favourite student and lover of the legendary mage Sharon. He was also the thief that had gone to Klandor and stolen away its princess. Just the exploits in the public eye were more than enough to discuss for a full month.

Broke off with the Sacred Alliance and ventured into the Millenial Empire. Fought multpile legendary beings along the way, winning.

### **Might of an Empire**

Returned to Azan in the face of war. Richard stopped his unicorn and looked at the army of the Sacred Alliance that was a kilometre away. They had been on the same side not long ago, but they were now opponents on the battlefield.

On the ground, the black and red Archeron army sped up and stabbed deep into the enemy’s flanks, turning right in place and burrowing a hundred different holes into their formation. The superior forces of the Sacred Alliance were massacred in a matter of hours, only a fifth of the original 150,000 soldiers escaping with their lives were the rune knights were annihilated. A full third of all their saints were killed, while Duke Turing was captured alive.

Amidst this all, few noticed as Turing’s personal guard of twenty soldiers of whom many were saints were eliminated in a single stroke by Richard. The Duke himself was dumbstruck as he was captured.

After the battle, Richard ordered his army southwards, marching an entire day and night to appear on the flank of the Millennial Empire. This battle dealt a heavy blow to the Millennial Empire, allowing only 10,000 of their 100,000 soldiers to escape while the elites were completely wiped out. Two dukes, four marquesses, and a number of earls were taken prisoner, and a majority of the saints fell in battle.

At the end of it all, he had to leave his ordinary knights and soldiers to rest and reorganise as he brought 10,000 elites forward for a decisive battle with the Sacred Tree Empire at the foot of Blackrose Castle.

The engagement with the Sacred Tree Empire was the toughest of them all, but it was also the most brilliant display of command. Richard’s formations didn’t collapse or grow confused even for a second, and during moments of stalemate Gangdor suddenly brought 5,000 humanoids through from Faelor while Alice launched an attack with her own troops. The three-pronged attack slowly routed Solam’s forces and forced them away.

The Duke himself wasn’t convinced by this defeat, rising to the sky heroically to face Richard in a great duel. He was meant to possess a huge advantage as a shadow antimage, but Richard had promptly displayed the Apocalyptic Triad and sent an endless barrage of high-grade spells towards the assassin.

In less than ten days, Richard had mustered his army to secure the surrounding areas and killed countless powerhouses while winning all of his battles. The countless nobles of all three empires quickly fell silent, none of them daring to speak out against the Archerons any longer.

Richard’s losses were severe. He had lost nearly a hundred rune knights, and only half of the 100,000 troops had returned to Blackrose Castle. Most of the deceased were the broodmother’s elites and Archeron warriors, every death a heavy loss. In exchange, they had decimated nearly 300,000 from the three great empires, killing a staggering 250 rune knights and nearly a hundred saints. This was equivalent to destroying three of the sixth-level families of Faust, a heavy burden to bear even if it was shared.

The nobles of Norland experienced the lunacy of the Archerons once more, a family that was known to attack instead of defending. This time, a sea of rune knights and a powerful legendary mage had shown just how great the price for war was; one couldn’t conquer Richard quickly, which meant he had ample time to negotiate with their rivals to join the other side. The current situation where he was unaffiliated was much better, especially since he had implied that he would still take custom rune orders even from the Sacred Alliance. In that regard, it would be as though the war never happened.

### **Divine War Against Runai**

Whenever the fights started, all he wanted to do was kill, kill, and kill endlessly. Even with tens of thousands of enemies defeated, he still had strength left over to continue. What shocked Runai was that he didn’t make even the slightest of mistakes amidst the bitter hours of battle, something that he was impressed with himself for as well. When the next day’s battle started, he would continue devoting himself to his endless killing spree.

Over the following days, Richard felt like he was fighting through an endless horde of enemies. Every day he walked in just like any ordinary fighter, and after thousands of soldiers were dead he walked out exhausted. Amidst all the pressure and bloodshed, his martial arts improved to what he could only term as perfection. Battle after battle, day after day, even Richard lost count of how many divine warriors he had killed. Hundreds of thousands of warriors had been absorbed into the Judge as he grew more and more fluid in battle, only anchored to the rest of the world by carving the days away on a stone pillar where he rested. As the war raged on, the frontlines crept towards Runai’s divine mountain, with her reserves of divine force melting away.

Three months had passed. He finally went over the battles again for the first time since he had started, tallying up the warriors and valiant souls that he had killed. The number quickly blew up, and it took a minute before he arrived at an astonishing count: 340,000 divine warriors as well as 5,100 valiant souls. With his ability to steal the souls of those he killed, this was equivalent to anywhere between 1.5 to 2 million casualties if the three goddesses were attacking!

Today, he could finally claim that his powers had matured; all he needed was his own demiplane, and he would be able to call himself a true legendary mage.

* Genesis (Barbarian Planes)
	+ Barbarians/Demon Lord

### **Meeting Old Faces**

Back in the Deepblue, Richard had been an inexperienced youth who silently spent his life absorbed in the world of magic. The poor kid who knew nothing but work had now become a legendary mage who crushed all sorts of talents under his feet. He was now a venerated saint runemaster who qualified to be Sharon’s lover, someone whose every action sent ripples throughout the Empire.

To Minnie and Steven, Richard was already beyond their scope.

* Battle against the Church of Glory
	+ Pope, Celestials
	+ deaths of all the bishops and a quarter of the cardinals

Richard raised his head, calmly staring at the pope floating in the sky, doing nothing to stop the old man as he heaved a deep sigh and disappeared through the door of light. The distant Saint Martin was doing the same.

The moment the door of light started to fade, the corpses of the clergy started falling from the sky. The platform of light that Martin had formed remained, but the battle there quickly grew much less chaotic as the paladins lost their confidence in their cause. Only fifty or so of the holy child’s followers remained, fighting against hundreds of paladins, but with Michael’s death, the fall of the angels, and the slaughter of the cardinals, they were suddenly at the loss. Victory meant nothing anymore.

Richard obviously wouldn’t take that fight; the pope was still unscathed and had two divine items, while he himself needed his newfound strength, the fusion of Disintegrator and Midren, the Judge, and Moonlight just to battle an epic being once. Even if he somehow won that battle, there was no telling how much energy he would expend in the process.

The sheer difference in organisation between the Church of Glory and the nobles was painfully obvious, but despite the inferiority of both their combined strength actually dwarfed that of the Archerons. A third of Richard’s 30,000 men had been killed or maimed, and once one included lighter injuries only 17,000 soldiers were left. The combined army had lost far more soldiers at 70,000, but they still had more than 200,000 left which actually increased their numerical advantage.

The Church had actually suffered the greatest loss. Only three of the ten thousand paladins Thomas had brought along were still alive, while Richard had lost about 30 of his 200 rune knights.

One of the only instances when Richard actually lost soldiers up to 50,000 and above. Even the fight against the annexation of the three empires paled in comparison. Even an epic being wouldn’t be able to stop him from running anymore, and he still had control of the three Midrens under Martin as a blackmail chip. Martin wouldn’t even be able to touch him even if he destroyed the three rune sets and left, so the war was indeed over.

* Returning to the Forest Plane
* Took care of two tribes and their trees of life. Absorbed some members in Emerald City.
* Showed the power of Midren and Michael's sword

* Went to Millenial Empire
* Thwarted the arrogance of the empire's priestesses of the Eternal Dragon
* Gave Macy her rune set whilst causing her to get peak arousal.

* Went back to the Resting Orchid Plane
* Killed Stardragon.

* The Dragon Plane had chosen to be the aggressors of the fight. Injuring Ruben severly by the Dragon Goddess and pushing them back beyond the Dragon Valley. The Five-Coloured Dragon herself was just beyond the passage and sets up a barrier that cursed those that came in.
* Richard showcases the near-epic might of Midren's battle form, enticing many legends. As a result, Nasia created a reward system that equalled the zeal and greed of the Eternal Dragon's offering system. It was tailored to gain so much wealth even against Richard's own plane-toppling personal wealth.

Looking through the letters once more, Richard could confirm that the true intent of most people was to look at the child and determine how strong she was. After all, the family had produced Gaton and then himself in successive generations. While his father had died in his prime, limiting his achievements to within the Alliance, Richard’s own glory went well beyond. He was now truly the biggest runemaster in all of Norland, which alone would have been equal to an epic being, but he also had strength that matched.

At level 22 alone, Richard was now on the same footing as epic beings, destroying any excuses that those older nobles had. They would have to find new reasons to attack him if they wanted to. Not that they wanted to anymore. Midren had basically made him the top runemaster in the history of Norland. From that moment on, Richard had exceeded all the saint runemasters in Norland’s history, becoming its first divine runemaster.

## Volume 9

### **Guardian of the Alliance**

Strangely enough, the nobles of Faust had their heads held higher than ever. Richard’s unimpeded Blood Path was a slap to their faces, but now he was a member of the Sacred Alliance once more. The fact that he had defeated Empress Apeiron implied that there were now two epic beings in the Alliance, allowing them to match the other two human empires of Norland.

In fact, their situation was now better than ever. While Sharon had officially been the Sacred Guardian, that was only in name and she didn’t have much tying her to Faust. This was especially evident during the battles against Apeiron, leaving her support of the Alliance unknown. However, Richard was different. He now owned the highest island in all of Faust, and was also a noble who had been born and raised within these lands. He was similarly at odds with the Empress, but even before the two had embarked on their journey together people already had ideas to fix that disharmony.

With a few months having passed in Norland, the changes to the Archerons were rather great. Nasia had successfully pulled Dragon Valley and the Genesis into the special zones of the island, with portals leading there situated within Blackrose Castle and the island itself. Nobody had tried anything foolish with the island, and the reward point system had continued as usual. All the runes and equipment Richard himself had left behind were depleted, but Rosie had taken on the load and managed to keep people interested.

Richard had spent his time on the Blood Path crafting, so six pieces of Midren had been released by this point, with Ironshield collecting three of them and the rest going to other random powerhouses. The Mana Armament that Richard left behind in the exchange was also taken by a legendary mage. The family was out of goods, but now they were so wealthy it was mind-boggling. Even Richard himself didn’t dare believe his eyes when he saw the fifty top-tier offerings in his warehouse. He could definitely attain many difficult goals with these, especially Sharon.

He suddenly felt an indescribable sense of absurdity. Even as someone called a divine runemaster with an epic being’s strength, he felt rather insignificant in this world. There were only a handful of people on this entire plane who could rival him in either combat or war, but things like the Godnest, the broodmother, the Eternal Dragon, the Legion of Nightmares, and the Doomsday Imprint all exceeded his current understanding. Finding the end of the world was basically impossible.

### **Reapers Descend**

Richard then passed a map to Salwyn, containing defensive lines and their movements. Everything was organised around the most defensible terrain in the Empire; although this wouldn’t stop the reaper attack, Richard hoped it would slow things down.

However, Salwyn shivered as he looked at the lines. If he were to set up according to this plan, dozens of major cities in the east would be hung out to dry. That was tens of millions of people! Unfortunately, Salwyn was an outstanding general himself. He understood that this was the line with the highest potential, so he eventually nodded and agreed to the orders.

Time was scarce at the moment, and every second was precious. Richard didn’t have any time to console Salwyn, so he returned to Bluewater and started planning his next moves. He planned to use the Iron Triangle and the Land of Turmoil as defensive strongholds, stopping the reaper advance to buy time for his troops to withdraw. He could manage to get 500,000 people out from Faelor if he used the portal to its limit. Cost wasn’t the major issue; if he tried to push people through faster, the portal would destabilise and could even be rendered dysfunctional. Given what he had seen, his troops couldn’t hold the reapers off for more than a month.

That being said, a larger portal could have been just as dangerous as well. While reapers had never travelled through portals before, anecdotal evidence wasn’t something to base one’s actions on. He would withdraw and give up on Faelor, ready to close the portal off at the first sign of danger.

He looked out the window, looking at the bustling streets. The entirety of Faelor was panicking, but people in Bluewater seemed as upbeat as ever. After all, they lived under the protection of the invincible Richard Archeron, the End of Time.

He suddenly recalled a quote by Louis the Seventh of the Sacred Tree Empire: “A true emperor knows of his responsibilities the moment he sees his people.”

However, no title of emperor actually mattered to him. In this plane, his power and responsibility reached far beyond any emperor, beyond even any god. And he wanted to save as many of his people as he could.

Richard grabbed his sword case once Rosie left, leaving the room even as he bellowed mentally, “LET’S GO GIVE THOSE BASTARDS SOME TROUBLE!”

Many only just realised that he was now an epic being qualified to found his own country, with the power to wipe out a number of the strongest families on his own. No clan without an epic being of their own would be able to stop his wrath.

### **Opportunity**

This logic was something most assassins agreed with. Nothing was more suspicious than a mission that was too easy for its reward. The middle-aged man’s hesitation stemmed from his fear of Calamity, but such an opportunity was hard to come by. There were rumours from the Archeron ranks that Richard Archeron himself was prepared to take in more followers, regardless of their background or past. Such an opportunity was irresistible.

Even the strongest of beings harboured two near-invariant goals; eternal life and to break through one’s limits. There were times where these goals overlapped as well— becoming an epic being would allow thousands upon thousands of years of life. Richard was the only divine runemaster of Norland, and the number of legends he had built up along his way was mind-numbing. Joining his side was certain to boost one’s chances of breaking into the legendary realm, a deadly temptation to these sub-legendary assassins who had been bottlenecked for a long time.

The biggest bottleneck to the legendary realm came not in energy levels but in laws. In this regard, the sheer number of saint runes Richard could craft was proof enough of his diversity. In addition, Midren’s creation meant that he was even starting to control laws of other primary planes. If he managed to advance further in the future and could decipher the foundational laws of other planes, he was likely to become the premier powerhouse of Norland and unify the entire plane under his control.

Richard felt like he was perhaps the only one whose heart wasn’t really in this battle, quickly losing interest in the stomp. His thoughts shifted to the alter world, Arbidis, and the Darkness, all mythical places with responsibilities for him to fulfill. Once he was done, there would be more secrets and curiosities for him to uncover.

Norland simply couldn’t accommodate him any longer.

The massacre of the Sacred Tree Empire stunned all of Norland. Less than 20,000 of the 300,000 strong army managed to escape the battle, and more than half of the saints had been killed. Only a few tens of thousands had actually died in battle, while the rest were picked off during the following stampede. Only one of the seven dukes had even made it back, and that was through disguising himself as a common soldier. One more was dead, while the other five had been captured.

Recordings of the battle spread across the entire continent instantly, with every powerful lord researching it. Although the recordings were incomplete at best, the few moments that were captured were shocking enough. No one had a response to the nightmarish winter dragoons, night elves, and bladed hunters, all powerful troops comparable to rune knights that were in enormous numbers. While Richard’s massacre of the saints was one reason for the Empire’s defeat, this was just as much a factor if not more. The normal warriors quickly lost their morale in the face of these unkillable enemies.

Of course, one could consider this only obvious. How could a troop that went toe to toe with the reapers be deterred by the private armies of a few random nobles?

### **The Era of Richard Archeron**

News of the Archerons routing the reapers spread across Norland over the coming days, but the reaction this time wasn’t as obvious. Many lords fell silent as they heard the news, acknowledging it without much fanfare, but congratulatory letters flooded Richard’s study. Even knowing they would just be rejected, many nobles asked whether they could convey their regards in person; while the act itself seemed pointless, it was just one more way to endear themselves.

Duke Orleans, Prince Tumen, the commander of the Sacred Tree Army, Archbishop Hendrick, Hidden Sword… All sorts of powerful characters reacted very mildly to the information, discussing it only for a few minutes before moving on.

What could they even do at this point? Congratulate him? Richard didn’t lack such a thing. What he’d needed were people like Asa and Greyhawk to help him through a critical period, and those like Calamity who joined the Archerons at their worst. Even someone like Romney who wasn’t of much use would be valued far more than anyone trying to suck up to them now; the saint assassin had actually put his life on the line to prove his loyalty. While those like him weren’t hard to come by, his actions were an integral piece of the puzzle that allowed for Richard’s success.

Ever since Richard destroyed the Praton Family, the nobles of Norland had staunchly supported a military push to bring the Archerons down from their lofty throne. However, even in the worst moment of the war he had wiped out an imperial army that was 300,000 strong. With Sharon missing and Philip dead, he was now the premier powerhouse of Norland with the strongest army on the plane. Those like Duke Mensa could only hope they were insignificant enough for him to forget their feuds.

The reapers had been the best acid test of the Archeron war machine, and they had passed with flying colours. Now, any conflict with Richard was a death sentence.

### **Faelor's Overgod**

Inadvertently, Richard had absorbed the dead souls from the battle with the reapers. As a soul hunter, this granted him the very thing that all epic beings yearned for; to ascend.

He would soon come to learn that his true harvest came in the form of all the souls he had redeemed from the reapers. While each one had negligible strength, hundreds of millions of them had added together to give him full control of the laws of Faelor. Now, he was in essence the plane’s overgod. The entire plane was his divine kingdom, and there was nothing there that he did not know or could not do. With the backing of such a system, he would find it much easier to analyse other planes in the future, and even create a brand new plane if he so wished. So long as he had the time and energy, he could construct a new plane of existence in the void and supply it with wind, water, plants, and life. This would require strength that he currently didn’t possess, but the doors had been opened.

### **Souls of Millions**

Richard had spent his recent time rather idly. He had woken up every morning and travelled to the snowy north, simply standing there quietly for most of the day before returning to Faust at night to share dinner with Coco and Fiora or chat with his followers. He seemed to start living a commoner’s life, neither designing nor crafting runes and giving up all of his territory’s management to Alice, Goliath, and Sauron. His strange behaviour was so alarming that one day, Julian eventually rushed over in the morning to inform him that Empress Apeiron wanted to meet.

Richard sighed, “Faelor had more than a billion people, but only 30 million were left when I finally won. These souls aren’t even a quarter of the total; most simply dissipated with time. I’ve been looking through their lives and memories for the past few days.”“What use is that?” Apeiron frowned. To those at her level, a commoner’s memories and knowledge were rather worthless.
“I wasn’t sure at first, but seeing these stories is like having gone through an entire life. Even the most mundane of lives has its ups and downs, and these people have their own feelings, beliefs, and goals. As far as their souls go, they aren’t much different from yours or mine.”

### **Expedition into Arbidis**

Richard would end up remembering the encounter with Bermond Gauguin as a pleasant interlude. As he followed the elven path to Arbidis, his stress levels skyrocketed with every layer he passed. He ended up having to fight through enormous armies and even stall some archlords to allow his army to pass through the next seven to eight layers, and these ones were much more difficult to fool. Anyone could tell that something was amiss.

His first suspicion was that his plans had been leaked, but he quickly dismissed the possibility. Even if a group like the Scholars wanted to do something, the news about the expedition had been spread very recently and couldn’t possibly have made it into demon hands yet. In the end, it was Greyhawk who came up with an explanation— while millennia had passed since the elven expedition, that was only a nap to most archlords who were near-immortal. These armies had likely gathered as a reaction to the elven expedition, and it would be thousands of years longer until they were moved away.

Unfortunately, that meant they had a problem with no solution. Even with a multitude of enemies along the way, the elven road was at least a known path. There were maybe a handful of people on this expedition that could live long enough to find a way on their own. He eventually decided to simply get some time to rest whenever he passed through one portal before heading towards the next; there would be no shortcuts.

At the 78th layer, Richard personally joined the fray against an archlord, using the power of Issa and his over-a-billion souls to crack the demon’s will and kill it. It was the strongest single enemy he had killed to date.

Years passed by the time they finally arrived at the 96th layer, and all of Richard’s party was feeling numb beyond belief. Richard, Greyhawk, and Nasia joined forces to injure the archlord of that level, but instead of going for the kill the exhausted force pushed their way through the portal as quickly as they could.

### **Survivors**

All of the night elves had already died in battle by this point, with only a dozen of the broodmother’s worms being left alive. These worms had evolved during the endless battles, now each comparable to a saint. There were only three wasps as well, but they too had mutated to survive in the abyss. While all of the legends were intact, only half of the saints were still alive. With the corruption of the abyss accumulating within them, these survivors weren’t of much use at this point either.

Richard gathered the three remaining wasps together, drawing huge spell arrays on each before placing a shattered limb from a lesser demon lord on each. He then called all of the saints and handed them a map, “You can’t be involved in the next phase of this battle; your mission here is done. I’ve made some alterations to these wasps, making them look like powerful lesser lords to other demons. Be careful enough not to face an archlord, and you should be able to thread along this route to return to the reward point battlefield.”

The saints climbed onto the wasps in quick succession. If they returned to Norland alive, this battle experience would allow many of them to become legends in the future. These were amongst the most loyal subordinates the Archerons had, and Richard didn’t want to waste their lives for no reason.

As the three wasps entered a nearby passage, Richard turned around and sent out a dozen drops of fresh blood from the demon lord’s heart. One was absorbed by each of his followers, after which he used his laws to activate these drops and give them an abyssal aura. This way, they would seem like demons; even if they had to fight any devils they came across, that was much better than being targeted by everyone. He would also direct them mainly through areas occupied primarily by demons, reducing their chances of getting caught further.

### **Beyond Epic**

Over this period of analysis, he had concluded that he was indeed capable of breaking down the working of the poisonous essence. He would be able to unravel these billion-year-old mysteries in under a hundred years, giving rise to a shortcut of sorts that was truly astonishing. While he wasn’t a pure-blooded demon, he could still eat devils for power. The poison from the devils was laced with the laws of order, but his elven truename could break apart most of that power. He could thus absorb enemy archlords almost limitlessly, giving him a real chance to become the first person in Norlandic history to break past the realm of archlord.

That meant he would be beyond epic! Even with Richard’s strength of mind, he couldn’t help but be tempted to simply hunker down in this place for a few decades. Fortunately, he convinced himself otherwise with the fact that he had responsibilities to fulfil, and that pure energy didn’t have as much meaning in his realm of power. It was the control of laws that truly mattered.

As he comprehended more laws, Richard had started to feel a longing to be able to break through the limits of power. He wanted to explore the ends of existence, a dream that Martin had once expressed. At that time, he had thought it was just wishful thinking, but now he could truly understand the allure of those words. The pursuit of evolution was a final instinct embedded into every being with a soul.

However, this thought only briefly crossed his mind before he squashed it, continuing to lead his followers into the depths of this boundless land.

### **Eternal War**

Richard made sure his legendary followers left the Eternal Battlefield into Faust through a spatial technique beyond Norland.

Three more intense months passed as Richard and Nasia travelled into the depths of the Eternal Battlefield. Their battles grew more intense the deeper they went, and towards the end they were fighting an archlord virtually every day. The laws of Arbidis were strange, and Richard could feel that more powerful devils were being drawn to him as he grew stronger himself. The battlefield itself seemed to place a value on each demon and devil, sending out a corresponding opponent.

Before he set foot in the Arbidis, Richard would never have imagined that he would face off against dozens upon dozens of archlords. He hadn’t even known so many existed, but thinking of just how many levels the abyss and the hells had it was at least fathomable. This place was the final destination of all demons and devils, putting them into a vicious cycle of murder with no rest.

### **Return**

Richard teleported to his island in Faust, finding no changes to the place as everything seemed to be in perfect order. His sense of time had already been synchronised, allowing him to know that three years had passed since he’d first left for the abyss. Many things should have changed in such a long time, but the land before him seemed almost the exact same as normal with many more powerhouses bustling about.

Having learnt to control the distorted laws of the Darkness and seen the birth of new worlds, Richard’s power had grown in leaps and bounds over the past few years. Even he himself wasn’t certain of just how strong he was, but in terms of laws alone no one in Norland could compare to him. At this point, he felt like he would have the upper hand even if he fought someone like Philip. Outside of that man on the throne in Arbidis, no one was a match.

When Richard was around and in charge of the Archerons, he often had more important things to attend to than minor annoyances. He couldn’t be bothered to exact vengeance for petty things, and was too busy bringing the family to a peak where the Turings, Mensas, Josephs, and even Orleans Family were just pushovers. However, the same didn’t hold true for Nasia, who took hold of a family that was already the strongest in Norland. She didn’t let anyone go, even if they were friendly or humble now. All the plots of the Turings and Mensas were paid back with interest.

The Archerons were delighted to be suppressing their former enemies, but inwardly they also vowed never to offend Nasia. This was a woman who held grudges forever, digging up even the slightest offences from decades ago to crush her targets.

### **Ubridalled Power**

“Get the hell out of here!” she barked, grabbing him and teleporting to his demiplane. This fact shocked him once more; he had never even brought her to this place, and finding a demiplane in the void was like looking for a specific grain of sand in the desert.

She ignored his shock entirely as she snorted, “You just came back from the Darkness, and the distortion there has become a habit. You need to stay in a place where there isn’t anyone until you can control things. Here I was, assuming you’d already gained control of things, but you’re just a little twat!”

Richard went mum, examining what he had seen to understand what had just happened. He had given in to instinct the moment Norland’s suppression had eased off, and the activation of his laws had resonated with the foundational laws of the plane. If things had kept up for a few more minutes, Faust could have been shredded by the force he had summoned.

However, this left him a little incredulous. Had he already grown this powerful?

“Thinking of how strong you’ve become?” Nasia snorted again, grunting when he nodded in response, “Hmph, you don’t even know how to use the plane’s laws properly, you call that strong?”

Richard frowned, thinking of the man in Arbidis. The entire plane seemed to follow his will, gathering around his sword that contained unimaginable power. That was the true limit of controlling laws!

## **References**

1. ↑ Book 4 Chapter 5
2. ↑ ch0-92
3. ↑ Book 5 Chapter 21
4. ↑ Book 5 Chapter 32
5. ↑ Book 5 Chapter 35
6. ↑ Book 5 Chapter 55
7. ↑ Book 5 Chapter 83
8. ↑ Book 7 Chapter 44
9. ↑ Book 8, Chapter 29
10. ↑ Book 8 Chapter 35
11. ↑ Book 8 Chapter 39
12. ↑ Book 8 Chapter 53
13. ↑ Book 8 Chapters 70 - 75
14. ↑ Book 8 Chapter 98
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Book 3, Chapter 51
16. ↑ 6;134
17. ↑ Book 8, Chapter 6
18. ↑ Book 8, Chapter 13
19. ↑ Book 8, Chapter 19
20. ↑ Book 8, Chapter 64
21. ↑ Book 8 Chapters 70 to 75
22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Book 8, Chapter 74
23. ↑ Book 8, Chapter 116
24. ↑ Book 8, Chapter 119
25. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 17
26. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 25
27. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 34
28. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 69
29. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 74
30. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 75
31. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 80
32. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 80
33. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 85
34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Book 9, Chapter 106
35. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 108
36. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 110
37. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 111
38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Book 9, Chapter 127
39. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 129