Apocalypse's identity

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"Let's get straight to the point, so what's the purpose of lady coming here?"

Rohzen stared at Anastasia with a poker face, no discernible emotion in his eyes. Anastasia, who heard the question, immediately answered it.

"The reason for my visit today is to hand over the Moon Sword to its original owner, your son, Aeolus Avel Von Ferdant."

"What, then the young master is the Apostle of the Moon...?"

Zander was stunned in shock, he then looked at Aeolus with surprised eyes. Aeolus answered his gaze with threatening eyes.

"Ah, forgive me for my mistake."

Zander bowed respectfully, answered by one of Rohzen's raised hands. Indicating this is not a problem. Rohzen was lenient towards Zander because he considered him his own son even though he had no blood ties, Zander was Rohzen's first and last student. It was said that, before the birth of Aeolus, Zander was hailed as one of the greatest geniuses on the continent. He was a pure genius who increased his power just by pure talent and luck, in contrast to Aeolus who had a special system and physique and Anastasia who had decades of experience from her regression. Literally, he would be recognized by most of the nobles as the official son of Rohzen. Just by looking at his brilliant talent, he would be respected by everyone. Moreover, the Ferdant family was in the Imperial Family faction, which made them have one more potential future Sword Saint. Not to mention he was the best graduate of Avalon Academy at that time. There are many stories about his stories, there are even books that reference Zander as the main character.

"Is that what you see in the future?"

"Sure, doing it now is the best choice I can make at the moment."

"Okay, if that's the case, what will happen? We would be happy if you could stay here until the festival arrives, surely that's what you're looking forward to, right?"

Anastasia does all the things that can change the world under the pretext of being able to see the future. Anastasia's attitude became a little friendly and her expression was happy with what Rohzen said.

"I apologize if I have to bother you all these few days."

'I slightly feel that my presence is useless here...'

'Just stay still and observe calmly, Master.'

***

After Anastasia and Aeolus left, only Rohzen, Zander, and Emilia remained who had been silent since the start of the conversation. Emilia spoke up at this point.

"Father, should we believe it?"

"For now. Judging from her behavior from earlier, she is acting a little relaxed. It is rare to see the little lady from the Astel Hero Family who is famous for her cruelty and indifferent attitude being tame here. Besides, the sword she is carrying is clearly Moon Sword just by looking at its sharpness and the negative energy of the moon. So we can entrust Avel to him."

"But Lord, I'm still a little suspicious of his intentions here. It's possible that he wants to cause chaos in the Dukedom without our knowledge, there are so many rumors with Lady Anastasia at the center of them."

"Doesn't it sound like he's a destined protagonist, Zander? I believe in destiny that will lead him to the top. As foretold in the Oracle of the Sun Goddess. Well in the end we can only hope that everything goes as it should."

"Father, even though Lady Anastasia doesn't care about it, you're full of loopholes, you know?"

"Hey hey, relax a bit Emilia. I know what your father has to do."

"Again, father is acting childish, for example brother Zander. He has become more mature at his young age."

"My daughter, your father is still young, you know? Look at this smooth, wrinkle-free face which is proof of how young I am."

The conversation that was originally serious changed in an instant, this was the time when the father was playing with his daughter. Meanwhile, Zander watched this all from the side with an expression of boredom that he had been hiding for a long time. He just hoped to be able to relax at home again.

***

"Head butler, prepare a guest room for lady Anastasia."

"Yes, young master."

Aeolus immediately ordered the butler to prepare Anastasia's room. Anastasia spoke to Aeolus.

"While my room is being prepared, how about you give me a tour of the castle?"

"Of course."

They walked side by side together, passing through the many quiet alleys of this place. The atmosphere became a little awkward because no one was talking.

"This castle is dominated by yin energy, isn't it?"

"Yes, the place where this castle was built was originally a Moon Flower field which contained extremely abundant yin energy."

"It's just that, why not just build a palace instead of a castle. This place is as large as a vassal royal palace of the Empire, but is also full of defensive fortifications covering it. By making this very large fortress I doubt whether the Imperial family will have a problem with that."

"As long as the Ferdant family is in the Imperial family faction there will be no censure on the part of the various nobles."

"Apart from that, this place is very quiet, considering that the yin energy here is so dense that it will cause someone to freeze easily. Then where have you lived for the past 5 years?"

"Behind this castle there is a palace which is slightly smaller in size for use as a guest room and for other events. That is also where we will go. Apart from that, my father and sister all live in the castle, so the palace is only used by just me. So your room will be next to mine."

'What! Doesn't that mean I'll be living under the same roof as Aeolus!?'

Anastasia's face flushed slightly at the thought. His mouth started to grin evilly.

'Only walls separate us. With my senses that have been trained for decades, peeking at it is not impossible.'

By the time Anastasia was thinking about other things, they had arrived at the Castle fortress.

"This is the last location in this Castle, a triple fortress that protects the Castle and the palace of Duke Ferdant's family."

A fortress tens of meters high and hundreds of meters long stretched out before their eyes. This three-layer span surrounds the entire castle and palace area. Making it one of the most difficult places to penetrate in the Zenith Empire.

"Equipped with thousands of different types of high-level spells, with a large number of attack and defense magic as well as mass teleportation magic that can move the entire surrounding area. In addition, a magic circle that can gather the surrounding natural mana can be used as a backup power source if there was an attack. Apart from that, with a castle that stands very high, it can be used as a place for magic equipment."

"... How much did it cost to build this place?"

"I don't know... It is said that this place has been continuously strengthened for a thousand years. In addition, with many magicians in this area, the magic circle embedded in the fortress can be renewed stably without damaging a single part. Maybe with an annual treasury of one kingdom only enough to take care of about 2/3 of these?"

"Tsk tsk, you guys really spent so much money on this. Where I live there isn't even any defense at all, just a place hidden from the outside world."

"The Hero Village never even appeared in the outside world... I ask how much mana is needed to maintain magic that can separate a dimension?"

"I don't know even more, those old people just lived quietly considering how strong they were. However, when the Apocalypse happened they just kept quiet."

"Do they not care about human life?"

"Yes and no. They just couldn't get out with the strict rules that befell them, until in the end the Apocalypse came to them with no place to escape to."

"So what exactly is Apocalypse?"

Aeolus looked into Anastasia's blood red eyes. Meanwhile, Anastasia just stared at the sky far above them. Anastasia's hand pointed in a direction- the sky.

" Invaders. They are otherworldly creatures who come with incredible powers that can destroy our world. I heard from the Oracle that they came with a huge army, they made a base in space above us. They will come in about 8 years, the Creator God who wanted to destroy them was blocked by the Invaders God and disappeared. With the existence of the God of Creation gone, the 4 Heavenly Branches could only deal with their forces by working together. All-out war is the beginning of true destruction. At that time, I was just an ordinary human who had a selfish desire to survive. With that in mind, I wanted to have immense power just to live. Dragons, Gods, Angels, Devils, Demons, even secondary races such as humans also have to work hand in hand with each other to survive. We join the war together by holding our respective beliefs. At that time, you who had become an Absolute became the only hope to end this war, all Gods, Dragons, and even Demons also recognized your amazing talent. They passed on everything to you to make you stronger. But, after decades of war the world was destroyed. With your remaining strength, you protected me in that destroyed world alone. Then came someone who gave me regression."

Anastasia, whose pupils had lost their light, became bright again, looking at Aeolus who had been silent all this time.

"Everything is fine now. Let's start a new beginning once again."