[ ~ Chapter • Start ~ ]
{ Part 1: Rise of Claudia Levantine, Holy Knight of Resolution }
"Haaa!!!"
Two swords clashed against each other, over and over again.
And those two swords belonged to two people.
One of them was the Princess Knight, Claudia, who's hair was no longer in a braid, looking like a graceful bird inside her honorable battle against her father. Her eyes showed determination, resolve, and a force of will awakened through a "certain man". Even at a cost of, you know, her interactions with her husband becoming way smaller, shorter, and less frequent.
It's as if she was beginning to lose interest to her husband, Claus Curtis, and she didn't even realize it due to her pursuit of "saving Celestine" and gaining enough strength to "kill him".
Grave Levantine, the Father-in-law of Claudia Levantine, was covered in several different wounds and bruises around his body, even so..... he looked ecstatic.
"You've improved..... Claudia, my daughter!" Grave yelled, with an excited smile plastered on his face as he expertly dodged a swift swing that had a loud whipping sound from Claudia, before countering with a sharp stab that Claudia leaned back to evade.
"Thank you, father!" She replied, leaping backwards to evade three more cuts from her father, before skidding on the ground and jumping straight to him to deliver a swift metal boot to his chest that was quick and strong enough to have him react too late, making old ribs crack, and blow him away, coughing saliva before instinctively flipping and gaining ground.
"Kuff! Kuff!" Grave clutched his chest, and knelt down in pain, much to Claudia's worry. She sheathed her greatsword and ran towards her father. "I'm fine! Wounds like these are nothing for a Master Swordsman like me!"
Grave immediately got up, and with a sigh he stabbed his own greatsword on the ground upright. He looked like he has something in his chest to speak out loud.
Claudia, who still wanted to support her father even at this state, took the initiative to catch her father whom had began to fall under his wounds. Don't worry, he'll still survive.
"Claudia.... you have already surpassed me, a former Master Swordsman, in skill and strength, in just.... barely two months!" He admitted happily, while being carried by his daughter to their mansion with barely any difficulties.
A few priestesses approached the both of them to heal the wounds quickly, and after a while of rest and recovery, Claudia and Grave sat in front of each other, as warm cups of tea were in both their hands.
Grave looked relaxed, sighing with intent while taking out a small, metal plate the size of his hand and gave it to his daughter. The plate looked transparent, except it's edges and corners. It was also wide enough to fit two men's hands, too.
Such a beautiful plate had gained amazed looks coming from the maids around the room.
"Father, what is this?" Claudia asked, and Grave simply smirked.
"My gift. One of the lost relics called a [Status Plate], created by a pale skinned elven mage from centuries ago, it's said that there's only 20 of these at this current era, and we currently are unable to recreate such a thing. Try feeding it mana, then."
Once Claudia did as told, the plate glowed for a mere moment, before text appeared on it.
[ Claudia Levantine ]
Her name was displayed, and some of her information was displayed too, age, gender, likes, and dislikes. But was brought her attention was something strange.
[ Class: Princess Knight, Swordsman ]
[ Level: 60 / 90 ]
[ Spare EXP: 65,482 ]
[ Req EXP to Level Up: 5,000 ]
[ Please summon a Level God ]
[ Skills: Swordsmanship [Level 2], Leadership [Level 1], Magic [Level 1], [+10 Level 0 Skills...] ]
".... Strange...." Claudia muttered, then realized she wasn't even at her fullest potential just by noticing her Level and deducing something from it. "And what's with Level Gods? Aren't they.... just from legends alone?"
"No. Though you might need to visit Lady Celestine, or find a Level Shop." Grave replied, before shaking his head. "Sadly, my old head forgot where the Level Shop of Selenus is. But enough of that, Claudia! You have something to do, right? Then prepare, and carry the will of the noble lineage of House Levantine!"
"Yes, father!"
Still, Grave has doubts about Klaus Curtis, and due to her surpassing him already through immense, bone-crushing and muscle-twisting training, it was enough.
In a month, he might secretly visit Geofu and King Rance to know something crucial.
In fact, he really didn't like the fact that he knew that Rance declared that he will end the centuries-long war and Claudia is making a mistake by declaring war against him and uniting Feoh and Ur under her. Another reason was that he was afraid of his daughter dying because of it.
[ ~ Line • Break ~ ]
{ Part 2: Kuroinu's Retreat, Olga's Delight }
Meanwhile, somewhere deep in the Dark Lands.....
"So this is the City of Darkness, a city surrounding Olga Discordia's castle....." A tall, dark haired man spoke, looking at a semi-massive city in front of the force of 2,503, and of course this was Vult. ".... Strangely enough, there's no monsters around here...."
The Leader of Kuroinu was very skeptical about this form of event, they encountered not a single monster, even those whom had evolved or mutated to become significantly stronger than the ordinary ones.
"Kin! And the other mages under him! Check the area beyond the walls!" Vult commanded, as a young man in glasses nodded, walking towards the gate and with his eyes glowing, he began to search for anybody inside, only to look very disappointed.
"There's nobody inside, Vult." Kin spoke, before a frown appeared on his face, due to this he wanted to warn Vult. "We have to be careful, whatever is inside is probably well hidden by the Dark Queen herself."
In a careful manner, they infiltrated the city, and began to move through it to reach the Castle of Darkness, which was covered in a tall, crimson barrier. Maybe Olga had given up?
No, that can't be right. A prideful pure Dark Elf like her wouldn't just give up her fight against humanity and the Goddess Celestine.
The air here is cold enough to almost reach around 5°C, yet being battle hardened for decades, and being one of the current strongest humans in the Continent of Selenus, Vult shrugged it off like nothing.
When near the said crimson barrier, Kin and several mages of Kuroinu began their work of taking it down, and even if it took them ten minutes to deactivate it, Vult was patiently satisfied enough.
Knowing this was a signal to rally his men, he turned around and raised his gauntleted fist.
"Hey, everyone! It is time to take over this castle, and finally make our dream of turning every women into our slaves and make this continent OUR paradise, true!" He yelled as loud as he could possibly do, and his men roared in cheers. "Surround the castle! Let none escape if possible!"
He turned around and proceeded to lead his men through the castle's interior, until they arrived inside the throne room, where Olga awaited. There were a few Dark Elves standing beside her, all female and ripe for the taking.
The Dark Elf Queen seemed to expect their arrival, as she stared at them as if they were mere cockroaches that needed to be hit with La Chancla or deadly insecticide.
"..... So the insects have sent their soldiers against me, this early? Thanks to my loyal subjects delivering thousands of other insects to sacrifice for a forbidden spell, half of my divine powers have returned." Olga spoke nonchalantly, much to the surprise and horror of Kin and several people inside.
Was she lying?
And then, Olga stood up from her throne.
"Hm..... I must admit, there aren't enough human sacrifices for me to return to my fullest potential, but you're lucky to finally witness how powerful I truly am!" Olga continued with a prideful tone, though her subjects had flinched at the mention of not having enough human sacrifices.
But enough of such chatter, Olga began to walk forwards, and swiftly tapped the sharp end of her staff to the ground, covering her subjects, hidden or not, with powerful barriers to protect them.
"I am not beyond this, but leave my lands if your wish is to preserve your life, as much as possible until I decide to destroy your kingdoms." Olga spoke, with powerful authority that shook those who were weak-willed.
Yet.....
..... Vult escaped with the Magician Kin, the Bandit Hicks, and several hundred Kuroinu members, not without suffering heavy injuries from Olga's newfound power that was completely unexpected by him. Their informations were totally wrong and reality had slapped their faces with La Chancla at the form of a heavily empowered Olga.
The Dark Queen did sustain a few forms of injury, though they looked completely minor as she regenerated from all that with her magic. And after a long while, through killing a thousand troops of theirs, Olga decided to literally kick them out of her Castle and City as a sign of straight up mocking them.
Due to this, Vult decided to take over the seven kingdoms before going back to Olga, starting with Ansur.
[ ~ Chapter • End ~ ]
Extra Notes:
Author's Commentary: Presenting to you.... Levels! Skill Levels, and more! What? I'm just adding simple flavors here.
By the way, In terms of skill levels, Level 0 means you can do that with some training, and is the most usual level of all skills.
A skill level of 1 means you are a professional at that certain things.
A skill level of 2 means you are beyond a professional in terms of that certain thing, just train to nurture that skill.
If you have a skill level of 3, you have a totally natural talent with something, and with enough training, you will become godlike in that certain skill like Swordsmanship, magic, or even naturally have ridiculous luck.
Please note that skills need to be trained and nurtured, no matter the level.
There is no level 4 and you can not simply increase your skill's level or gain a skill without divine intervention or certain rituals.
By the way.....
Rance is currently a Level 135 Swordsman and Sill has already reached her current Level Cap of Level 100, and her class is Mage. Celestine is a Level 80 Goddess, Luu-Luu is a Level 55 Swordsmith, Kaguya is a Level 45 Mage, Rozen is a Level 37 Ninja, but these are to change later.