The Storm King

There wasn’t much Emilie could do to hide Naiad’s colossal aura, but she did have a charging amulet, a simple gold chain with a clasp that could hold a gem of moderate size. The amulet would then use the mage’s power to charge the gem with magic, reducing the amount of magic power that leaks out of their body and into their aura in the process. Emilie put a sapphire, the highest grade of magic-storing gem known, into the clasp and gave it to Naiad.

When the nymph Queen put it on, the gem began to pulse with power, and a tiny light within its depths could be seen. Simultaneously, Naiad’s aura noticeably grew dimmer, though it still hadn’t fallen to the point where Leon and Jordan could really tell what it was. However, Emilie could now perceive it, so Naiad at least appeared to be of the seventh-tier. Still absurdly powerful for the Bull Kingdom, but it wasn’t putting her mind-bendingly intense power on display.

Emilie appeared more than a little crest-fallen at how little the amulet seemed to work. She wanted to burst out and ask just how powerful Naiad was, but given the circumstances, she didn’t think she was in any position to make demands of this strange, freakishly powerful woman that appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

Naiad wasn’t human, though, that much was crystal-clear to everyone given how she acted. She wasn’t in any mood to talk, so despite everyone but Leon and Elise being quite willing to express their gratitude to her for killing those last few powerful vampires, no one was able to get her attention long enough to actually do so.

And so, after Emilie gave Naiad the amulet, the villa was almost completely silent until the first Legion knights arrived at the villa a few minutes later, more than half an hour after the vampires first attacked.

‘What a terrible response time…’ Leon thought. Thirty-plus minutes meant that the Legion had all-but abandoned the noble district to be run exclusively by the resident nobility. How the place hadn’t yet fallen into complete anarchy was beyond him. ‘Though, I suppose since the Legion headquarters is still within the city, it might discourage the nobility from trying anything too overt…’

Leon’s thoughts were interrupted when the fifth-tier Legion knight in charge finally made his way through the courtyard and ruined front door to emerge in the living room.

“… What happened here?” he asked in shock and disbelief as he stared at the eight people sitting in the living room, his blade in hand and looking ready for a fight.

---

When Trajan arrived at Leon’s villa, the place was swarming with Legion soldiers. There wasn’t much remaining from the vampires, but what little was left still had to be recovered and the incident analyzed and recorded. Other than that, the Legion was busy sweeping through the villa, which Leon and Elise would’ve both been dismayed and aggrieved by, though both had long since left the premises.

Seeing the place being ransacked, Trajan had to clench his jaw not to immediately start shouting in anger, but the knights he had in tow weren’t so controlled. Minerva and several of Trajan’s other fifth and sixth-tier knights went around ordering the Legion knights to stop. Trajan and his retinue were already upset that so many vampires had somehow infiltrated the capital, let alone assaulted one of their number, so seeing Leon’s villa being taken apart by other knights wasn’t something they were going to be quiet about.

“Your Highness!” the Legion knight in charge called out once he realized that Trajan had arrived.

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!” Trajan demanded as he saw the mountain of Leon and Elise’s possessions piled up in the courtyard.

“Orders from the top, Your Highness,” the lead knight responded. “We have to search this place for any sign of demonic activity.”

“Are you saying that my knight had something to do with the vampires that attacked his home?!” Trajan demanded to know.

“I’m not saying anything,” the knight respectfully replied, “all I’m saying is that we have orders from Sir Avidius to search this place for any sign of demonic activity, Your Highness!”

“By my authority as the Consul of the East and Prince of this Kingdom, I order all of you to stop this instant!” Trajan roared, his sixth-tier aura spiking and exerting immense pressure upon the Legion knights.

Fortunately for them, these Legion knights weren’t particularly enmeshed in the politics of the capital, so they all stopped, for the most part. Whether or not any more knights would arrive who were more loyal to Octavius or the Central Consul, Trajan couldn’t say, he simply wanted to make sure that no one would go digging around in Leon and Elise’s things again.

If there was some genuine concern that Leon was involved, then the proper course of action would be to go through Trajan first, not ransack his home at the first opportunity. Needless to say, Trajan called bullshit on the entire thing, though he would never say it in such a manner.

When Trajan saw that his order was being followed, he retracted his aura and approached the leading knight.

“Where are Sir Leon and Lady Elise?” Trajan asked. Given what he’d found the knights and their soldiers doing, he was feeling extremely apprehensive about Leon’s current condition. At the least, Trajan wasn’t able to sense either Leon or Elise anywhere around the villa.

“They gave their statements and we let them go,” the knight quickly replied, not wanting to anger the Prince any more than he already had. “All of the people here gave their accounts of what happened, and since we had no orders to keep them here, we allowed them to leave.”

Trajan didn’t pursue that line of questioning; he could already guess where Leon and Elise were right now if they hadn’t been detained by the Legion. Still, he wasn’t about to leave their villa unattended and risk letting Avidius’ knights come by later to plant false evidence against one of his most trusted knights.

“All of you can leave, my knights will handle this investigation from here on out,” Trajan said, his tone brokering no argument. Avidius would argue that Trajan was stealing his authority, but given the Prince’s relationship with the high officials, he didn’t foresee it being anything more than a pain in the ass.

The Legion knight had the good sense to order his people to leave and not further provoke the powerful Prince, while Trajan’s knights began to sweep the premises for anything unusual. Trajan himself left Minerva to lock the villa down while he quickly made his way over to Emilie’s estate, moving through the empty midnight streets of the capital fast enough to reach the estate several miles away in less than five minutes.

Despite the lateness of the hour, he was well-received at the estate and promptly taken to Leon, Elise, Emilie, and Jordan—the others who had taken part in the fight had gone home after the arrival of the Legion, and Naiad had been given a guest room to stay in while this mess was dealt with.

Leon was as stoic as usual, but within his mind, he prayed to his Ancestors and to every god worshipped by men for Naiad to stay in her room until Trajan left.

“Leon!” Trajan called out as he entered the room. Leon and the other three had been waiting for him in a comfortable sitting room in the main palace complex, and as soon as he looked up, Leon rose and bowed slightly in greeting.

“Your Highness,” Emilie said with a smile. Officially, she was much higher ranked socially than Leon was, and it amused her that Trajan greeted Leon first.

Trajan nodded and got the rest of the greetings out of the way. Then, he turned back to Leon and asked, “What in all the hells happened?”

“We were busy celebrating Elise’s birthday…” Leon began, and he quickly summarized the vampire attack as best as he could without leaving out any crucial details. He didn’t mention Naiad, he simply stated that the vampires were defeated and left it at that, implying that he, Emilie, and Jordan managed to prevail in the end.

“Any idea why that happened?” Trajan asked.

“You know what I think about these vampires, that they’re worshipping a single demon,” Leon stated. “At this point, I’ve encountered followers of this thing twice, and come out alive both times. Maybe it’s just angry and wanted some payback…”

“No other indications of their motivations?” Trajan asked with a skeptical tone. “Nothing to indicate why they would attack you, of all people, instead of someone with more authority in the government?”

“They weren’t particularly chatty when they broke down my fucking door!” Leon replied, his fury at being attacked in his own home while surrounded by people that he mostly cared about breaking through his usual neutral demeanor. “They didn’t say and I had no chance to ask. They’re dead now, so why they did it is between them and their master.”

Trajan sighed and leaned back in his chair. He hadn’t seen much of Leon since the triumphal games months ago, and it was only now striking Trajan just how quickly Leon was rising up the magical tiers. He was nineteen and sixth-tier! He had power that Trajan hadn’t ever seen in anyone who hadn’t taken copious amounts of potions to boost themselves up the early tiers.

It seemed to Trajan that Leon was growing strong enough to more directly involve him in their affairs. He wasn’t yet old enough for Trajan to trust him with leading any meaningful command, but ending his effective exile from the Royal Palace wasn’t out of the question. Plus, it would keep him close, just in case something like this ever happened again.

“I understand that you think that they’re all serving the same demon, but without concrete proof, there isn’t much we can do about it,” Trajan said as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back in exhaustion. He had been woken up after only getting a few scant minutes of sleep with this emergency, and he was truly feeling the fatigue. “What are you going to do about your home?”

“Have it rebuilt,” Elise chimed in. “It won’t be too long, a few weeks at most…”

“I also have a few ideas about the enchantments we can put up within it,” Leon confidently stated. “Gonna turn that place into a damned fortress!”

“What about until then?” Trajan asked.

“They can stay here, as they’ve been doing prior to this,” Emilie said. Leon and Elise had been in their villa for all of a single day, so it would hardly be that big of a deal to move back in. It would certainly inconvenience Emilie’s servants to buy more furniture and clothing for Elise to replace what was lost, but Emilie paid them generously to deal with things like this.

Trajan nodded, at least confident that they wouldn’t be attacked when in the Tower Lord’s own home… though a crack appeared in that confidence when he remembered that the Tower Lord had been with them when they had been attacked. Regardless, now that they had been attacked once, he trusted Leon and Emilie to take the appropriate security measures for their respective homes from now on.

“I found the Legion going through your things,” Trajan said. “I’m going to have a strong conversation with Sir Avidius tomorrow morning, as I think he might have been trying to strike at me through you, perhaps by planting evidence that you conspired with these vampires somehow, or perhaps trying to do something else nefarious. Regardless, I don’t want him poking around in the home of one of my knights any more than I think you want him in your home…”

“What?” Emilie asked in shock, speaking for both Leon and Elise at the same time. Her tone was one of extreme fury, and Trajan couldn’t help but shiver at its sound. Emilie was, after all, leagues stronger than he was, both magically and politically. He was a Prince of the Bull Kingdom, but she was the highest representative of an international organization that even the Four Empires had to take seriously enough to consider an equal in all but name.

“I put a stop to it, but I figured you four should know,” Trajan said, nodding to Leon, Elise, Emilie, and the silent Jordan, though the latter’s expression was one of abject rage.

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Your Highness,” Emilie said, a dangerous smile on her lips. “You won’t be the only person having a conversation with Sir Avidius tomorrow, something like this won’t stand…”

Trajan nodded in understanding. To target Leon at this point was to indirectly target Heaven’s Eye. He had no doubt that there would be repercussions for the Consul later that would strongly discourage him from trying to frame Leon in the future, and most definitely make him think twice in searching through Leon and Elise’s belongings.

“Report to my office tomorrow,” Trajan said, intent on ending the conversation so he could go home and sleep. He’d touched on the critical things, and anything further could wait until the morning.

Leon nodded. “Anything in particular we have to do?” he asked.

“A few updates, but other than that, nothing,” Trajan said. “I’m going to keep you near me for the time being, just in case. If you’re right and you’re being targeted… well, I’m not entirely sure what I can do about that given your… circumstances, but you can trust that I’ll do what I can.”

“You needn’t worry about protecting him,” came a voice from a nearby doorway that caused Leon’s heart to nearly stop.

When Trajan turned his head to see who was talking, he saw the gorgeous figure of Naiad in the doorway staring back at him. Her aura was intense and incomprehensible to him, sending a current of shock running up his spine, and he had to fight the urge to draw a weapon from his soul realm.

“Who… are you?” he asked.

Ignoring his question, Naiad put on the smile of a hungry shark with prey in sight and said, “You don’t have to worry about Leon, because if anyone tries to harm him, I’ll tear them to pieces…”

---

The first responders to Leon’s villa was a squad of ten, and they had all gotten a good look at everyone in the villa when they arrived, including Naiad. For the most part, none of them thought anything of it, but one man took particular notice of everyone there.

He saw Valeria, he saw Emilie, and he saw Naiad.

Once Trajan dismissed all of them, including those Legion knights that arrived after the first responders, this young third-tier knight left with the others, but he remembered everything that he had seen. After his shift was over, he went directly to the home of Justin Isynos to report what he had seen.

Justin knew that Valeria knew Leon in passing due to their connections with Elise, so that part didn’t surprise the former Exarch. What did take him by surprise was this mysterious woman who seemed to appear out of nowhere, since he was sure he already knew about the few connections Leon had in the capital. He sent one of his most trusted agents, the tall man, to get close to Emilie’s estate and see what he could see of Leon and Naiad. Emilie’s estate was within range of Justin’s powerful magic senses, of course, but the place had been warded to scatter magic senses, so Justin had to send someone in person if he wanted to know what was happening within.

He needed some kind of proof if he wanted to take more direct action, something that tied Leon Ursus to Leon Raime. Infiltrating the estate of the Tower Lord was risky and brazen, but he was growing firm in his belief that he was right and considered the risk necessary.

When the tall man arrived so late in the night that it was early in the morning, he found the estate quiet. Leon was asleep, as was Elise, Emilie, Jordan, Anzu, and just about all the others within, save for a few guards…

… and Naiad.

She wasn’t wearing the charging amulet, leaving her aura bare for the tall man to see once the estate’s defenses had been penetrated if he spared her more than a cursory glance. However, once he realized that she wasn’t Leon, he moved on.

When the tall man’s magic senses washed over her, Naiad easily noticed, and she released her own intense magic senses. She instantly found the seventh-tier tall man, hidden in a shadow in a corner of the estate close to Elise’s wing. Naiad was in the main estate building, but once she started moving, she reached the tall man’s location in a matter of seconds, only slowing as much as she needed to avoid ripping doors from their frames. The tall man was too confident in his skills in shadow magic and too focused on assessing Leon’s current condition after the vampire attack that he hadn’t spared Naiad enough time to realize the difference in their power. If he had, he would’ve run from the estate as fast as he could, but that opportunity had passed as soon as Naiad began to move.

The tall man barely had time to scream in terror as Naiad arrived before him, killing intent pouring out of her body that chilled him to his core. She reached into his shadow, grabbed him by the shirt, and pulled him out of the darkness so quickly he barely realized it was happening; such a thing wasn’t something he’d ever considered possible, but that lack of belief didn’t stop Naiad.

Naiad conjured a large globe of water, and as the tall man began to properly process what was happening and call upon his own magic, Naiad completely submerged him within her water. This water pressed itself deep into his body, entering any way it could.

The seventh-tier tall man was killed so fast he didn’t even manage to get off a single attack before Naiad annihilated his body and scattered what few entrails were left throughout the grounds of Emilie’s estate. He died miserable and in great pain.  When he failed to return, the shocked Justin decided to play it safe and pull back his observance of Leon. The tall man was one of his best men, and if the tall man disappeared within that estate, then Justin was going to give it a wide berth until he had more information on Leon, Naiad, and the estate.

His conviction that Leon Ursus was the Leon Raime he sought grew, though he hadn’t yet the information he wanted in his possession, and so he could do nothing but sit back and wait for an opportunity. So long as Naiad was around Leon, he would have to act with extreme care.