Ulysses returned to the castle of Quisterion with a pained look in his expression. Oswald, who was the same, could only stare in worry.
"What do we do now...? With Arlesk knowing, it's pretty much impossible to hide anything from them..." Oswald brought up the topic, but there was a lot of concern when talking about what had happened. "Looking at Arlesk earlier... He was conflicted... Yet he looked like he wanted to abide to letting it slide... Though I believe we can no longer hide any secrets from them..." Ulysses only nodded to Oswald's words, as he couldn't really say anything to go against them.
After moments of awkwardness, the King of Quisterion arrived to the room where they stayed in to hide in shame. "Looks like you two have been got... However, we can't continue to mope around any longer. You have to explain the details of the deal and what you intend to do afterwards." "I..." Ulysses wanted to say something, but he held himself back as he didn't want to cause burdens to his friends and the family that he was made to protect. "Look young-un, there's still a long life ahead of you, if you throw that away, I won't be able to forgive you for making my family sad." The king wasn't smiling, nor he is showing any sign of sadness. He was talking to give encouragement and confidence to Ulysses that the decisions he made was not wrong. "Think about it, if you two didn't make that deal, we wouldn't have made any progress on ending the wars. In fact, we might've even fallen from the conjoined attack of those four countries."
Realizing even more now, Ulysses stood up and finally spoke his intentions.
"Your majesty, I intend to relinquish my status as the Hero of Quisterion, and throwing away the card that functions as my power source and proof." "What are your intentions after you've done that?" "I will join Preeliance as part of the [Order of the Brilliant Guardians], under Arlesk's command." The king smiled, as he fully understood what Ulysses plans are. Oswald, who was listening, felt somewhat relieved...
"With that however your engagement... Nah, I'll deal with it." The king thought about some things, and eventually thought out a plan for it." "Ulysses... Good luck out there..." Oswald gave his encouragement to Ulysses while feeling a little lonely as he was pretty much his best friend.
In Paladia, Pantheon quickly and resolutely had an audience with the king, along with various retainers. He quickly gave his report of the ruins, which shocked the king and the retainers.
"By the heavens, to think that the powers of heroes are to eventually be placed under control by the enemy! Why would you tell us this?!" "I cannot allow myself to betray the country I was born, raised, and vowed to protect. Thus I would like to relinquish my status as the Hero of Paladia." "Relinquish?! But without the card what would happen to you?!" "There is no need to worry, there is one place where I can for sure grow much stronger than my limits as a Hero." The king of Paladia, realizing what Pantheon's plan was, felt relieved. Since he knew he could trust the Preeliance with Pantheon's growth.
"Head Senator, I have something important to discuss with you." Claude arrived to Polytopia through a warp from Harold, which somewhat surprised the Head Senator of his arrival. "Claude?" Just as Claude opened the door, he signaled the other officers to exit the room for the time being, to which they complied just as quickly. "What happened to the expedition?" "We found out quite a lot actually... Along with the grim ones such as our power as Heroes eventually going to be controlled." "Controlled?" "Yes, my hero card is a ticking time bomb, eventually would be used to control me completely by the enemy." "I see... I figured something like that would have some sort of use on the enemy's side..." "You know that much...?" Claude was now shocked with how knowledgeable the Head Senator is. "Yes, I've read a few books regarding things ten thousand years ago... Which I am grateful for Emperor Serkyrio to provide us. I figured that the council might try to make use of the hero cards seeing that they once had control over such... What baffles me is why they still haven't made use of it...?" "The only likelihood for their strategy is to make them trust us for the moment... And eventually make us brutally betray everyone..." "So you're here to warn me for that?" The Head Senator felt a little disheartened, as Claude, the hero of his country was eventually going to betray them out of his own control. "No, I intend to discard my hero card, this is so we can't betray everyone. Ulysses, and Pantheon intend to do the same." "I see... Then let us announce it as such, but what are you going to do after you discard it?" "I still want to protect this country, my home... So I'll move to Preeliance... And act under Arlesk, among the [Guardians]." Seeing the determination, the Head Senator was proud, smiling as he allowed Claude to take action.
Back in Preeliance, Arlesk entered Serkyrio's room, as he wanted to discuss something to him regarding the heroes.
"I take it that you're here for assistance on extracting the heroic souls and and cards out of them?" Just as Arlesk opened the door, Serkyrio had already spoken what Arlesk's intentions are. "As expected, you know much more than what we merely know... Is this part of your... Fate...?" Serkyrio nodded to Arlesk's question, which he pretty much understood. "Then, go talk to Harold, he knows much more than us about souls. As for the council, I'll be present on the deal to prevent them from attacking." With Serkyrio's approval, Arlesk thanked him and left to search for Harold in the [Dimensional Laboratory].
In the meantime, Harold was underground, inside a section in the Dimensional Laboratory, working on what seems to be the area of the arena underground, he set the area to simulate what seems to be a pure white world, with white grass, crystal flowers, and what seemed to be a very clean world inside a cave. He smiled in nostalgia, as he spoke in a low voice. "It's just like home..."