Chapter 58: War

The whole Human Continent was waged in a three-way war as the Magic Academy, the Vampires and the Holy Kingdom of Goddess Ariel fought against each other without holding anything back. The Holy Kingdom even represented many other faiths in this war, as many of them joined hands against Julie, for the crime of tricking their Gods.

And the fuse who had lit this whole thing up was hiding in a cave in the Reach Kingdom.

Alex was inside a forest with a confused Lily looking at him weirdly. He had grown a little taller now, and his hair had turned unruly.

"Pork! Come out here!" He seemed to have a happy smile on his face as a huge Fire Boar came out, the size of an elephant as traces of flames moved around his body.

Lily was about to interfere, but he held out his hand and went to hug the huge boar.

Baam!

The result that she expected was half right, because while the Rank 3 Fire Boar did overpower Alex, unexpectedly it acted like a dog who hadn't seen his owner for years.

"Ara~ Alex, we have only been apart for a couple of months and you already forgot your dear friend?" A voice rang out through the forest, a sickly familiar voice that involuntarily brought chills down both their spines. 

Lily turned and looked at one of the trees that her instincts told her the danger was coming from. Slowly the tree morphed into the figure of a beautiful woman with snow-white skin and silver hair, her amused eyes were yellow like molten gold. "So, how about we squash our hatred for each other and make amends."

He smiled, knowing that she truly didn't hold a grudge with him. After all, it was all just business, nothing more between them. "Sure, I never hated you, even when you went and did something like that."

"Thanks," she smiled, her posture as confident as always, "Also, I will forgive you for telling people that I was part demon."

Alex's smile turned into a grimace because that was the worst thing for Julie when it got out. Previously, even though she had power, as a 'human' she was allowed to have that power. People listen to her because she was powerful and a symbol of humanity, Julie fought against the Dragon from the far Continent, she even fought against the vampire Camilla.

"Well, this is now all water under the bridge," Alex smiled, "So cheers to our new friendship. So how is the war going for you?"

"Terribly," she confesses, massaging her forehead, "I am fighting a war on both sides, and most of the Heroes have run away from Magic Academy and the ones who support it are almost all dead. So yeah, probably gonna have to start anew somewhere. Might pick the name Ain as a permanent thing, I did kinda like it."

"I… see…" Alex was hesitant at this. "So you plan to start anew? Well, I guess there could be worse ways to go."

"Heh, you make it sound like I will die soon. Is there something you are hiding from me, dear Alex?" Julie's eyes narrowed in suspicion, she would never underestimate Alex again. He had single-handedly gotten her Magic Academy destroyed, all within a year of when he had joined the establishment. 

"Well, let me apologize in advance." Alex bowed slightly in respect, of course, both he and Julie knew that he didn't mean it. He wasn't the kind of person that respected people, the only value he saw in them was just how useful they were to him. Contrary to most, Julie appreciated this, because even as they both talked flowery words, whenever the time was right, they would stab one another in the back.

"So, what kind of trap did you set up then?" Julie looked around in amusement, "I think you were smart enough to know that I would predict something like this. Is it Carmilla? Or maybe one of her many pets? Girmold of the Blood Field? Maybe she might have sent Brox of the Lonely Grass. Did she come here herself?"

Alex raised a questioning brow at this, he could see that she was nervous. 'So even what she said was a watered-down version? Well, it seems like things are getting even worse for my dear friend Julie.'

He knew that for someone like her to let panic slip, things must be bad for her… like REALLY bad. 'Does she feel endangered? No, someone like her should have dozens of contingencies against death… unless… a God had decided to send an Apostle down!'

A God's Apostle was a divine form the God took to create a physical body and breathe life into them. Then they would possess the body and move to the mortal realm, this would allow them to use the power of a peak Legendary Rank, though even amongst them, they would be distinguished since their power was originally higher than that and an Apostle's Mana is essentially endless as long as that God had followers.

But even then, Julie was a monster in power, no simple God's Avatar could challenge her. Still, even if they were a strong God, she was smart enough to be able to avoid and counter them. After all, they only got to the Mortal World while Julie had been here for hundreds of years, her knowledge of the Mortal World eclipsed theirs. Because while the Gods had a limited form of Omnipotence, most Legendary Mages put barriers around their buildings to stop such silly observations from the Gods.

Though, even through that, Alex had knowledge of the Gods from the Game too. He knew some of them very intimately as he was one of the players which had reached Godhood.

His mind worked through hundreds of possibilities. 'There are only two highly likely possibilities, and only one of them had over 80% chance of happening currently. The least likely to happen would be that Julie's father was chasing her, not an impossible, but a very unlikely option. The most likely was that a certain Goddess has descended in her avatar form. Damn, I feel sorry for Julie, that Goddesses' abilities are such a good counter against her.'

All of these thoughts happened in the blink of an eye, Alex already had many alternatives in his mind, now he just needed to confirm them. "Camilla? Why would I even involve someone like her in this?"

Julie smirked in amusement. "Oh, trust me, I know how she is. She will give you outrageous rewards if you give her information or something she needs. People like that about her, she was born strong. Unlike us, we are survivors, we never had the chance to develop a system that would allow us to help others. 

I tried many times, but Magic Academy was only held together by people's fear in me. Camilla was always different… her subjects love her, she has Legendary Rank Vampires who act like her dogs and follow each of her orders."

She seemed to get a melancholic look in her eyes. "Once the Mages that I taught reached Legendary Rank, they always left to do their own thing. I had Humanity on my side, yet was never able to defeat Camilla because of her immortal subordinates. Now that Humanity views me as some monster, they would rather kill me first before Camilla. So yeah, I no longer have the power I used to have."

Alex looked at her with a dull look as she ranted. 'Who are you trying to fool here?' He thought, knowing that Julie didn't just suddenly become some homeless Mage after her Magic Academy gets destroyed soon. Obviously, she will lose the people, but the resources that she has hoarded for hundreds of years will still be with her.'

That was when suddenly a golden cloud appeared in the sky. Julie's face paled. "No… you didn't bring Camilla here… you got in contact with someone worse… someone much worse."

Alex's smile seemed to split his face in half. "But of course, if one looks only at the rewards of an endeavor, they will blind themselves in one eye. So I let my creativity run wild!"

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A/N: The MC predicted that Julie (Headmistress) would be there and wait for him to appear, she also knew that he would know that, and he knew that she would know so he prepared a trap. 

Julie knew about that too, so she took some countermeasures against her enemy. But the MC had seen through that too and his edge of knowledge from the Game had put him in an advantage during this.

P.S: Yeah, their thought levels are on different degrees from normal. Even their plans have plans of their own.

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 Don't forget to throw some power stones :)

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