Arad sighed, sitting with Tempo on the rooftop of a tall tower. “I guess it is over here. Keep an eye on Damnation. She shouldn’t cause trouble anymore. And make sure to get the best use out of her.”

Tempo nodded, “We’ve got a lot of buildings to repair, hills to clear from the ash, and magical barriers to reinforce or even recast. Her skill, knowledge, and mana pool are going to be helpful.” Tempo stood and glanced at the city below.

“I would have to stay, but I should return to the university in a few weeks when everything is settled here.” He smiled, “I would’ve had to stay for years if not for having Damnation at hand. For that and for saving my kingdom, I’m eternally thankful to you, my friend.”

Arad stood, “Don’t worry about it. Just make sure to get back quickly.” Arad flew up and headed toward the university. On his way, he split into two incarnations. One of them headed of them changed direction and turned toward a part of the world that Arad never explored, where two races of people lived that he had almost never had contact with them.

The half-angels and half-fallen angels, the people that Gabriel and Lucifer rule.

The two kingdoms were side by side far behind the dark elf and the beast kingdom so he had to fly over those two. That had given Arad enough time to go over what all of his incarnations were doing now.

One is still in Alina guarding the refuge Titans, one is locked in a lab with Sena and her servants to study the souls, one is flying back toward the university, and he is the one heading to the two unexplored kingdoms.

Sena’s tests weren’t going as well as he planned, but with the new knowledge he got from Damnation, they should be able to make some progress. The only thing that bothered him was that no matter how much he tried, human souls were just too fragile for him. He had to work on his hands first, and then worry about the rest.

The Titans in Alina didn’t cause him any trouble at all, even when they saw Tyal and the rest return. He had expected some conflict, but the Titans seemed to be on great terms.

He did spare some time to check on Agnar, Ignis, and Yuwaku, but those three were still up to no good. He had received news that Agnar almost died fighting a troll and that if not for Ignis’s flames preventing the monster from regenerating, he would’ve kicked the bucket.

It was really nice to once again have a contact in the guild. Nina, his wife was now back at her desk job in the guild, stronger than ever before, and yet calmer than she had ever been. But that didn’t mean that the adventurers stopped fearing her as the raging berserker, they started fearing her even more ever since her axe shattered the guild’s ceiling to fly to her.

Isdis is still busy with the complicated and frustrating wedding procedures which now, thanks to Arad being an emperor, has become far more annoying to deal with. For example, words that Nina is now a queen, albeit not yet crowned, had pushed her barbarian family into the status of a noble house, earning them ownership of the barbarian’s wild lands, which Arad wrecked in his battle with Shi.

Speaking of Shi, she was now using a void body to live again with the barbarians, making sure to keep them safe, even though there was almost no danger in Arad’s land. But Arad couldn’t be sure with the recent demon attacks, so he had to agree with her decision.

Aella on the other hand was busy with another job, one that would even give Arad a headache. She was buying mirrors, thousands and thousands of them, and having a whole army of maids clean and polish them by hand. She was the one responsible for building a layer for Betty beneath Arad’s castle.

The part that had Arad beaten is that all of the mirrors needed to be arranged so they reflect all light to a single spot. It was a lot of work that he simply didn’t have time for, especially since he had to spend a lot trying to study Betty’s light and figure out a way to absorb it before she turned into a blinding beacon of radiant light.

His incarnation at Alina was also receiving daily reports from Meryem about the underground caverns and whether they found any traces of that mad Shadow Drakaina or not. In fact, they did. The problem, was the scouts that found her didn’t make it back, all one hundred of them.

Arad doubts that she managed to stealth-kill a thousand giant, draconic ants with ridiculous senses, so she probably just blasted all of them at once. That means she had grown stronger since the last time that Arad met her, she might’ve even grown older.

To be able to fight Arad, Arad did spare some hours to get taught more about the shadows by Ombre. She wasn’t the best teacher, but he could make up for that with his sheer learning speed.

Arad had a lot to do, and for example, his incarnation who was now flying to the university could’ve just teleported there, but he decided to fly normally for one reason. Two dragons disappeared from the area close to Croc City, they were Zul’s neighbors. Arad had a hunch their disappearance might relate to that shadow drakaina since both those dragons were earth dragons that lived deep underground. One was an adult, the other was a mature adult.

And speaking of the university, while his incarnation there spent most of its time with Sena, he had to attend class and deal with the students as well. Now that everyone knew he was an emperor, a lot of his relationships had changed drastically. Some feared him, some respected him, and some just found it hard to believe.

It would’ve been fine if they were scared of him. But what made Arad more worried was that most of them just wanted to earn his favor. Some were just that greedy, and some were pushed by their parents and families to get close to him.

But at least there was this one ape-woman called Ganta. Arad remembered her from the raid on the spider dungeon and would’ve branded her like the others if not for Aella praising her. That is why now, and on Aella’s advice, he was going on a hunt with her in the forest.