Duke Shadowblade

"Hello, granddaughter of mine and grandson in law. I hope you forgive my late arrival"

An old familiar man stood, imposing against the Marquis demon like a wall for Theo and Selene.

Duke Elliot Shadowblade, the father of the empress, the definition of veteran who went through the last war between Virtus and Vitoten, The man that slit the throat of the last executed the last emperor and the man that served Selene's father as his right hand man. 

The Duke uncuffed his sleeves of his black buttoned shirt and folded them, revealing countless scars from the tip of his finger to his elbow, hinting to Theo and Selene that the old man in front of them was no joke.

"Human! That item in that girls ring is our kind's rightful possession! Move or be killed!"

The demon threatened the Duke with its mouth full of needle-like teeth.

"Hoh? Then try and take it"

BOOM!

A massive wave of purple aura burst out of the Duke, reaching the high heavens above, completely erasing the aura the demon radiated.

If Expert tier and Master tier were like heaven and earth, Master tier and Grandmaster tier was a single ant and an adult human.

Grandmasters are weapons of mass destruction, capable of erasing a country with their own two hands.

At most, a Master can destroy a city on their own given time, but a Grandmaster? A couple of moves was enough.

The higher tiers above experts were vast in between that an entirely new tier was incomparable to the last.

The demon trembled in the face of absolute power, it froze in place unable to move from the crater. 

"Filthy demon. Here I thought I had incinerated your kind from our lands years ago in the time of the reign of the last emperor, but here you are, making a ruckus in the sacred capital of Vitoten!"

Elliot Shadowblade slowly walked forward towards the frozen and trembling unnamed demon.

"Now you dare lay hands on one of our people! My very own granddaughter!?"

The Duke formed a shadow-like hand with his aura and gripped the demon by the neck, lifting it in the process.

"Ack.. gah... foolish... human. You think this.... is the.... end?" The demon croaked as the shadow hand tightened on its neck

"It is the end, demon scum"

Crack!*

Thud

Duke Shadowblade broke the demon's neck and dropped its lifeless body on the ground.

The Duke dusted himself off and turned around to the two teens, who still had their weapons out.

"I'm glad that both of you are safe. Stay here, I'll deal with the rest" Duke Elliot conveyed as he held both Theo's and Selene's shoulders with comfort.

In a blink of an eye, the Duke disappeared, leaving no clue for the two to notice how the Duke left his spot.

"Holy Sh*t...."

"Holy Sh*t indeed"

Theo's shoulders relaxed in relief, while Selene slumped to the ground, utterly exhausted by the events that had unfolded.

The chase lasted less than five minutes. It was less than five minutes and for them, it felt like hours, because of the immense pressure that weighed on them.

The Crown of Wrath was safely secured in their hands and they succeeded in preventing it from falling into demonic hands.

"Hahaha, We did it Selene." Theo said as she sat beside the tired Selene.

BAM!

"OUCH! What was that for!?"

Selene punched Theo on the shoulder, of course with a bit of mana to damage his body.

"That's for unnecessarily headbutting me. Who hits a woman like that?" 

Theo, realizing what Selene just mentioned, scoffed at her, clearly showing his intention of mocking her.

"Then don't whine about useless stuff when I was busy saving our lives"

Theo stood up and dusted off his pants as he walked a few steps forward.

"I see, here I thought I could rest easy after the demon died. Looks like I also need to get rid of trash like you! Agnir, knock him out!"

A tall knight jumped out of Selene's shadow and pounced at Theo with his enormous sword.

TING!*

"Hey! Summoning your undead is cheating!"

It didn't take much effort to parry Agnir as he expected Selene to react this way.

"Cookie! Blaze! Get him!"

Great, he also whipped out the dogs. Looks like I have another hour of dodging ahead of me.

Theo, found it impossible to contend against Selene in her current tier with her summons normally. 

But with the help of a single skill-

"Sacrifice"

- he would be above her once more.

****

"Kids these sure are energetic"

Duke Shadowblade sat on top of a three story building, a kilometer away, observing his granddaughter and her fiance, fighting each other.

one of them is more on the defensive side, though.

The Duke couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of youth. He also remembered the days when his wife would pounce on him and beat him up whenever he showed signs of being with another woman, though all the meetings with such women were all either business or friends he was close to.

Despite being in the world of pain, he nonetheless enjoyed every single moment while it lasted.

"Do you see this, Fia? Our granddaughter has grown enough for her to fall in love. It reminds me of us in our own youth"

Whoosh!*

Shadows appeared behind Duke Elliot, all bowing in his lukewarm, now cold presence.

Duke Elliot kept his gaze forward as he spoke in a suspenseful tone.

"Did you get rid of all the trash?"

The Shadows bowed deeper into the ground, almost worshiping at the words of the Duke.

"Yes, Lord Shadowblade, we have gotten rid of all the demons and demon worshippers and captured a few suspicious individuals that might be a part of the incident." said the person that seemed to be the leader of the shadows.

The Duke simply nodded and replied to the report the shadow just made.

"Good. Reward one of the shadows that reported to me when the princess was in danger and tell them to come to my office personally."

The Duke who had a cold expression till now smiled warmly, seeing his granddaughter fiercely pursuing Theo with bloody intent.

"Now leave, I shall personally look over my granddaughter till she arrives back at the palace. If there is anything you can't handle, report to me once more"

"""YES, Lord Shadowblade"""

All the shadows dispersed in unison.

Duke Elliot then sat on the rooftop and continued observing the one youth chasing another.

He noticed a peculiar large knight that struck him as something intriguing

"Did the Emperor give Selene that undead? It looks exceptionally powerful than the rest of her undead. Maybe a gift from her fiance?"

As long as she's stronger, what she has doesn't really matter to me

The Duke simply stopped thinking too deeply and enjoyed the sight from afar.

****

Still, dealing with her with her superior cooperation with her undead is a pain to deal with.

Theo wasn't stressing much, it was the fact that he felt annoyed that everytime he dodged somewhere, blocked, deflected or parried an attack, he was met by another attack coming from his blind spot.

Obviously, with Theo's superior senses and base stats, he was able to easily dodge all of them.

It was nonetheless annoying to deal with the undead attacking him.

He found it especially burdensome that Selene was also in the fray, attacking him as well, making sure the pressure was as intense as it could be.

It's good practice against people who are weaker than me, I guess.

"I can do this all day, Selene"

"Tsk, using Sacrifice is cheating! Fight me with your base stats!"

Selene shouted as she pointed her scythe at Theo, who had substantial distance from Selene.

"So ganging up on me isn't it? You expect me to just get beat up willingly? You take me for a fool Selene, my dear"

Theo laughed cynically at Selene who had all of her contracted summons beside her.

"You're soooo dead! When I catch up to you-!"

"Selene!"

A familiar voice called out to Selene from behind her, forcing her to instinctively unsummon her undead and scythe.

Selene turned around and saw a running Violet on her way towards her.

"Uph!?"

A hug, almost a tackle, was given to Selene.

"I'm glad that your safe." Violet said with great relief in her voice.

Selene, initially tensed up from the sudden embrace of another person, relaxed and returned the embrace she received from Violet.

"I'm glad your safe, Young Lady" 

A familiar voice called out to her from Violet's back.

Selene released Violet from her embrace and glanced at the source of the voice.

"Elsa!" Selene ran towards Elsa who had some parts of her clothing tattered.

Selene, like Violet, basically tackled Elsa into a hug.

"No, I'm glad you're safe." Selene said, almost crying within Elsa's arms.

Elsa smiled in return and stroked Selene's hair with tender gentleness.

"I'm undeserving of your worry, Lady Selene. But, I am happy that you treasure this servant of yours"

Theo, seeing the scene, a bit away, smiled in resolution with a familiar face that was already beside him while Selene was occupied with Violet and Elsa.

"Good job, Bennet. I knew you'd come back" Theo said with a natural smile on his face.

"Of course, Young master, you can always entrust me with any task you assign me"

Theo glanced sideways and saw Bennet with a rumpled up appearance. He merely incurred small scratches, buying time for the duo. 

Bennet only fought for less than five minutes after all

While I wasn't as worried as Selene, I would be lying if I said I didn't have a drop of it.

Theo smiled in relief once more that everything went fine in the end, despite almost meeting their graves in the fifth sector.

This victory alone saved millions of lives.

Theo clenched his fist in glee. He was happy at that moment.

But he knew that it was only one of the disasters that will occur in the coming history.

However, a step to victory is a step nonetheless, even if there's a hundred other steps left.