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Interrupting his thoughts, Leon sensed a few arrivals.

“Well done, Leon!” the Lord Protector exclaimed as he landed a few dozen feet away, his face breaking out into a wide smile. “A magnificently fought duel!”

The Grand Druid didn’t bother with so many words and simply landed and pulled him into a tight hug. Leon was taken by surprise and didn’t fight the embrace.

“My boy, what a good boy, what a fine man,” she gushed as she held him increasingly tighter. “No other man could’ve ever been worthy of my Cassandra!”

The Director and Penelope landed next, but to Leon’s relief, neither of them sought to replicate the Grand Druid’s show of affection.

“You’ve brought the Sunlit Emperor to a most deserved end, Leon,” the Director stated, the corners of his lips tugging upwards ever so slightly.

Penelope was more direct. “It’s about time that ill-mannered lecher lost his head! I’m only upset that I wasn’t the one to do it!”

The Director’s black-haired daughter sauntered over to the Sunlit Emperor’s remains and kicked them a few times. Leon cringed slightly at the sound of buckling armor and shattering bones.

After a moment, though, Leon turned his attention away from them and towards arguably the most consequential of the other tenth-tier mages: the Keeper of the Sentinels.

The Keeper hadn’t joined the others in the obliterated forest to ‘admire’ the Sunlit Emperor’s corpse. Instead, Keeper had maintained a healthy distance, hovering in the air about a mile away. His blank, pupil-less eyes were staring directly at Leon, though.

Leon tensed slightly as the Keeper’s aura fluttered, but then relaxed as the tenth-tier mage turned around and began flying northeast. He didn’t know what might come next with him, but at the very least, it seemed that he’d be able to deal with it later.

For the moment, he had some celebrating to do…

---

Leon’s return to his fleet was bombastic. Thousands of Tribesmen raised their voices and roared in recognition of his victory, and of theirs. Of Leon’s family and retainers, Cassandra was the first to come out to meet him, slamming into him in midair and wrapping her arms around him so tightly that he almost lost his magical hold on the Sunlit Emperor’s body.

“You did it!” she shouted. “You killed him!”

“Yes,” Leon replied with a warm smile. “He’s dead. Dead as dead can be, as it so happens. Deader than most dead things, and so dead that… he… well I don’t know where I was going with that, but he’s finally dead, and isn’t that just great?”

Cassandra favored him with a few loud guffaws before Leon had to field another ecstatic lady; Elise came out of Silver Spear and rushed over, embracing him almost as soon as Cassandra pulled away.

She didn’t say anything, but her shivering and glowing smile was all Leon needed to ascertain her mental state—still coming down from the anxiety of seeing him fight with the Sunlit Emperor while beyond joyous that he’d won. He pulled her close and pressed his lips against hers, and she reciprocated in kind. They didn’t need anything more than that.

The rest of Leon’s retainers came to meet him after that, led by Valeria and Maia who’d spearheaded the charge to take the heavy cruiser. Their greetings were no less loving than Cassandra or Elise’s, with Maia wrapping herself around Leon in a manner that almost suggested she was trying to compete for his attention, while Valeria kept a more dignified distance—though he could see through her body language to know that she was practically dying to get out of the spotlight and reveal her true happiness.

“Leon,” Valeria said, “we’ve seized the heavy cruiser.”

“A great prize,” Cassandra said, “but one that pales in comparison to this one’s death.” Much like Penelope had, and to everyone’s amusement, Cassandra gave the Sunlit Emperor’s corpse a few more strong kicks.

“Now, now,” the Grand Druid interjected, “let’s not go around desecrating the dead, young lady!”

“Although,” Penelope added, “if there could ever be an exception to that rule of propriety, it would be him.”

“Get in your kicks now,” the Lord Protector responded. “I’ll be watching over this boy’s body until the proper rites can be performed. There’s no reason to cause him any further degradations, is there?” Anastasios turned his nebulous eyes to Leon and patiently waited for him to respond. Unlike what he might’ve expected, Leon didn’t get the impression that the Lord Protector was trying to veil a command from a superior to an inferior but was instead expressing an opinion to an equal.

He was deferring to Leon on the matter.

Leon looked around at everyone else. He judged that he’d be able to get away with a lot; Sunlit was hardly well-liked among his circle… In the end, he didn’t need more than half a second of thought before coming to a conclusion.

“Do with him as you please. He’s dead. His Empire has been defeated. Hopefully, we can bring some semblance of order back to this land and make peace at least. Hopefully… we might be able to do the same with Keeper without having to go to the expense of invading his damned Empire and killing him to do so.”

“That may well be possible,” the Director stated. “But until then, how about all of us help you with cleaning up this whole mess?”

Leon grinned. “That would be appreciated. I’m not sure how well the locals would take me dictating terms to them, or how long those terms might last after my departure…”

Together with all of his followers and most of the other most powerful mages on the plane, Leon drifted down to the remains of the Imperial Palace. As they descended, he allowed the Lord Protector to take possession of Sunlit’s remains. And as they neared the ground, they began to debate their next steps…

---

Leon stared out at Thunderhaven from the windows of Silver Spear, joined only by his family. Hovering not too far away was the heavy cruiser, now crewed by his people as they worked to familiarize themselves with the ark and the jury-rigging that the Sunlit Empire’s military had to do to get the damn thing even semi-functional. Fortunately, three wisps had survived the past eighty-thousand years within the heavy cruiser, so after Leon boarded the ark, he was able to get them to help his people take control.

After taking a quick tour of the ark, though, Leon returned to Silver Spear, and there he stayed for a few days as the pieces fell and the rest of the Sunlit Empire learned the fate of their Emperor. During that time, he sent word back to Argos to have Arcaion, Apollonios, and hundreds of their subordinates who’d surrendered alongside them brought to Thunderhaven. He had been rather apprehensive about doing so since they’d passed many Sunlit fortresses on their way into the Empire, and he couldn’t help but wonder how many Sunlit generals might be wondering if this was their opportunity to make a play for absolute power…

Fortunately, after entering the Empire, the arks carrying Arcaion and his people weren’t challenged. When Leon got into contact with Arcaion, the Sunlit officer speculated that because so many high-ranking officers had been purged, there simply weren’t enough mages left to meaningfully challenge him. It was entirely possible that he was the only ninth-tier mage left in the Empire, though Leon privately doubted that. He couldn’t sense any ninth-tier Sunlit mages in the city, but given the ubiquitousness of anti-magic senses enchantments, that was hardly proof of anything.

Thankfully, the arks bearing Arcaion flew with all haste and arrived only a couple days after the battle. Only a couple days more had passed since then, but already Leon could tell that Arcaion was doing quite well with taking charge—the commanders of the local garrison had come out to meet with him and by all accounts, none were willing to challenge him. Helping to cement his rule, whether temporary or not, was the continued presence of the Lord Protector, Grand Druid, and Director, who all acknowledged Arcaion as the legitimate head of the Sunlit Empire, granting him more legitimacy than Leon could possibly give him.

Now, Leon stared down at the city as Sunlit’s body was paraded through the streets in an elaborate, if rushed, funerary rite. The people, though still apprehensive given the fact that Leon’s ark fleet was essentially parked only a couple miles outside the city, came out in droves to witness their dead Emperor as it was carried through the streets.

Leon was somewhat amused and shocked to see so many openly grieving for the Emperor. After a few minutes to think, though, he supposed it made some degree of sense—for all his flaws, the Sunlit Emperor was still their monarch, the embodiment of their Empire. His depravities were largely kept away from the people and reserved for those in his immediate orbit, not to mention Leon doubted Sunlit went out into his city much.

The people didn’t know him personally, in other words, and since the Sunlit bureaucracy kept itself between them and his cruelties, Leon saw thousands and thousands of people genuinely mourning for their dead Emperor. Whether or not it was Sunlit himself or simply weeping for their Empire, he wasn’t sure…

Thankfully, no one seemed to be making much of a fuss…

“We shouldn’t be letting this happen,” Cassandra growled at Leon’s left. “We’re letting them glorify him. Deify him. He should’ve been thrown into the river and left to rot. The people should’ve been told of his crimes and made to hate him. Instead, we’re allowing them to grieve for this monster.”

“They’re not really grieving for him,” Elise said as she gave voice to many of the thoughts that had just gone through Leon’s head. “What they grieve for is the defeat of their Empire.”

“I think there are plenty grieving for him,” Cassandra said as she shot Thunderhaven a disgusted look.

“I’m with Elise on this,” Valeria stated. “Their Empire was broken by their ancient enemy, and no greater symbol of that can there be than their dead Emperor. How can they not lament their fate? What remains of their Empire’s power? Can they even consider themselves equal to the other Empires?”

“No,” Cassandra conceded. “But they shouldn’t have considered themselves equal anyway! The Sunlit Empire has always been… well, I shouldn’t say. That would be improper.”

Leon softly snorted in amusement before turning to Maia. [Thoughts?] he asked her.

Aloud, his river nymph mate replied, “We could’ve fed the loud-mouthed one to Red. She would’ve liked that.”

Unable to help himself, Leon burst out laughing. After a few seconds, he managed to regain control over himself and choked out, “Yes… Yes, I think… she would’ve…”

“There’s still time,” Cassandra said. “We just have to drop on down there…”

“No,” Leon definitively stated. “We’re showing respect for the dead. And more respect for the living. Let’s give them closure and let Arcaion get some goodwill with the people by treating their Emperor with respect in death. Ancestors know that he’s going to have trouble keeping this Empire on its feet, so let him have this.”

Cassandra scowled and returned to glaring out of the window. “Can you not be right, please? I’d rather you weren’t…”

Leon hugged her from behind and lightly kissed her cheek. “I’d rather I wasn’t, but I’d much rather that we don’t have to come back to this place. Let’s just finish our business, make peace with Arcaion, and then leave.”

“And the Keeper?” Cassandra asked.

Leon took a deep breath and glanced to the northeast. In the past few days, Keeper had returned to Sentinel land, and it didn’t seem he was preparing for war. Instead, his armies, which he’d been using to keep Ilian and Evergold from interfering in Leon and Sunlit’s war, appeared to be standing down.

“That’s… up to him,” Leon said with some uncertainty. “I’d like to make peace with him, too, but making peace requires both sides to agree… I want access to my Clan’s old ruins to see what remains; I don’t want to fight them.”

“Speaking of,” Valeria said, drawing everyone’s attention to the map she pulled from her soul realm and planted on a table.

It was a detailed map of the Sunlit Empire, and multiple locations in a cluster around the southwest were circled in red, though nearly all had subsequently been crossed out. Only two circled locations remained.

Indicating the map, Valeria said, “These are the two only places where the Titanstone refinery that Nestor claims is here could possibly be and never have been discovered before now.”

Leon walked over and examined the map. He’d retrieved the locations of the most important Thunderbird Clan sites during their occupation of Aeterna from a map in the Cradle, the lab that Nestor had established in the Border Mountains between the Bull and Talfar Kingdoms. The stone giants had been born there as golems, and Leon had used the training array within to ascend to the fifth-tier.

That same map had pointed him not only to Nestor’s lab deep in the Forest of Black and White but also to the lab in the Sacred Golden Empire where he’d acquired thunder wood and Tikos as a retainer. The Titanstone refinery was a place he was hoping might still be salvageable, and if he was able to make peace with the Sunlit Empire last, he was hoping he’d be able to poke around and see if it could be found without much pushback from local forces.

To that end, Valeria had taken it upon herself to head into the city and find some records of what lay in the area. This map represented her results.

“Everywhere else,” Valeria continued as she indicated the crossed-out circles, “have either been surveyed, settled, or undergone too much geological change for much of anything to remain. But this forest and these hills remain largely unchanged and uninhabited. If the refinery has gone unnoticed, as it seems to have, then these areas are the only places it could be.”

“We’re going to have to see if we can get permission to explore that area,” Leon stated as he fought the urge to lick his lips. To fix Storm Herald, the personal ark of Jason Keraunos, he’d need a spectacular amount of Titanstone, more than was produced on the plane in decades. That refinery was a longshot, but could very well be the key to acquiring enough in a timely manner.

Of course, there was always the possibility that the refinery no longer existed—eighty-thousand years was a long time for facilities like it to break down and decay—and there was no guarantee that the refinery even had any Titanstone remaining within it. In fact, Leon almost expected something like that to have been heavily looted when the Thunderbird Clan’s vassals abandoned the plane after Jason Keraunos’ death. The amount of Titanstone that Nestor claimed went through that refinery was enough to make even an Elemental King turn his head in interest; only a fool would’ve discarded such a resource.

And yet Leon was hoping just such a fool had existed. Hells, even if none did and the refinery had been completely scrapped and looted, he knew he still would’ve gone looking for it. It was just as much a part of his Clan as the palaces in Sentinel territory, and he wanted to see if it was still around.

“I’ll make a note of it,” Leon said. “I’ll be meeting with Arcaion in a few days. Hopefully, we won’t have to stick around here for much longer and we can get the hells out with a peace treaty in hand. Then, maybe, we’ll be able to explore this area ourselves and see what we can see…”

“Even if we aren’t given permission, we’re still going to explore it, right?” Valeria asked with a roguish smile.

Leon returned her smile. “Of course, we will.”

“Ha! I knew it!”

“And we’re all going, aren’t we?” Elise said expectantly.

“I’m not staying behind!” Maia insisted.

“You’ll only be rid of me when I’m dead,” Cassandra added.

Leon smiled and promised his ladies they’d be brought along, too. He wasn’t sure how much time he’d have left for adventures for the next few years, so he wanted to make sure he could squeeze in one more before having to focus on being a King for a while. If anything, he was almost disappointed that he had nothing else to look forward to in the near future than the bureaucratic and state duties of being a monarch.

Peaceful, to be sure, but tedious. Not a duty he’d look forward to, but one he’d see to all the same. At the very least, he could start working on trying to achieve Apotheosis.

Although, he also couldn’t settle the feeling of unease in his stomach at the fact that the tau hadn’t yet shown himself again. Given what he’d told Leon, Leon thought that his near future might yet hold some excitement, though of what sort he still had no idea…