[Mala Donkey Head]: Eh?!
Um, that…
probably doesn’t need to go that far…
Theresis is actually Her Highness Theresa’s older brother.
[Kansas Farm Boy]: Yeah, Leon, I don’t think you need to go to that kind of extreme.
Speaking from my own experience, sometimes you just stand there and let them hit you until they get tired, and things resolve themselves.
So that’s why you keep getting caught off guard, Clark…
Leon thought, privately.
Way too much of that “just tank it” mindset — his speed and reflexes weren’t weak by any means, but fighting like that was basically the same as unplugging his own dodge button.
Fine for most beat-em-up fodder, sure, but all it took was one sneaky bastard mixing in with the mooks to line up a Kryptonite shot, and things went sideways fast.
Viltrumites did things differently — friendly sparring, every single day.
Everyone’s roughly the same tier, so if you don’t learn to dodge and defend, you’re dead for sure.
[Viltrum’s Top Student]: But like Miss Kal’tsit mentioned on your end, little Amiya, one of the two pillars holding the Military Commission together is Theresis’s own strength and reputation.
If we take him out, there’s a good chance both the Royal Court and the Sarkaz under his command would switch allegiance to the Demon King’s banner, and things would reunify pretty smoothly.
[Mala Donkey Head]: But…
Miss Theresa said those Royal Court lords are actually hoping for a war themselves too.
[Viltrum’s Top Student]: Then take them all out together.
You know how it is — Viltrumites aren’t stupid, they just get straight to the heart of the issue without wasting time.
[Not-a-God Yellow Weasel]: Couldn’t agree more.
Decapitate the leadership with swift, decisive force, unify the people fast — that’s the most efficient method there is.
[Orange-Haired, Gold-Eyed Menace to Humanity]: Whatever else you can say, I think decisiveness is definitely the right call here.
Leon thought it over for a moment, then privately messaged Amiya and opened a video call.
“Leon!”
It’d been a while since she’d seen his face, and the little bunny lit right up — she’d started calling him just “Leon” now too, same as Yuji and the others.
Right after, she noticed the background behind him — pitch black, dotted with little twinkling points of light.
“Where are you right now, Leon?”
“In space.”
As it turned out, Leon had left school and started his daily training while keeping half an eye on the group chat.
“What’s space?”
“It’s the place above the sky.
Just keep flying up and up, and you’ll see this—”
Leon adjusted his camera, angling it toward his own blue planet.
“How about it?
Pretty, right?”
“Whoa— will Terra look like that too?”
Hard to say, Leon thought, raising an eyebrow slightly.
His memory of it wasn’t especially deep, but wasn’t Terra suffering from some pretty severe desertification?
And wasn’t there something orbiting outside the planet too, or something like that?
“You could try asking the Doctor about that?
Either way, since you’re awake this time, I can take you flying again.”
“Yay!” You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Right after, looking at Amiya, Leon’s expression turned serious.
“Alright, small talk’s over — time to get down to business.
What do you actually think about all this, little Amiya?”
“Dr.
Kal’tsit and the others said—”
He cut off the girl’s hesitation:
“No need to bring up what anyone else said.
You’re the one in this group, the one who requested this quest.
Do whatever you want to do.
Tell me, Amiya — how do you actually feel about this?”
Amiya looked down at her own hands, then glanced back at the Doctor and the other two, frozen mid-discussion behind her.
Slowly, she asked:
“Miss Theresa said Sarkaz return to the myriad souls when they die.
Does that mean…
the people who killed everyone in the convoy will end up there too?”
That obviously wasn’t the kind of question Leon had any real expertise in, but when it came to the unknown, Viltrumites had their own little trick.
“I don’t know.
But if they do, what’s the harm in going down there and killing them all over again?
I refuse to believe there’s some deeper basement level down there sheltering their cowardly little souls.”
“And if there is one?”
“Then it’s a hassle, sure, but we just go again.”
“Ha ha ha…
Leon, when you put it that way, they almost sound kind of pathetic.”
Amiya burst out laughing through what had been tears, and started laying out everything she’d learned over this stretch of time.
“The Doctor said this was an operation ordered by the Military Commission, but it wasn’t personal — it wasn’t targeted at us specifically.
And Miss Theresa’s told me a lot of stories about the Sarkaz, but even she says she can’t really tell how much of it is senseless tragedy, and how much is people bringing it on themselves.”
The girl shook her head, her young face set with resolve.
“I don’t really understand all that talk about grudges going back thousands of years, or hatred toward outsiders.
I just want to see for myself, with my own eyes, what kind of people are behind the ones giving these orders.”
She met Leon’s gaze.
“Leon, would you take me there?”
“Of course.”
Leon found this genuinely interesting — this Amiya was a little different from the one he vaguely remembered from before.
[Escort Quest — Group member Amiya wishes to travel to Kazdel and meet with Theresis.]
[Quest Requirement: Amiya survives and reaches the target location.
Time limit: 3 days.
Members who can participate: 0/1]
Looking over the quest details in front of him, he hit the join button.
Kal’tsit’s anxiety had been building lately.
Felicia had started showing some concerning symptoms in the course of her research into Originium.
But also because she still couldn’t shake the image of that young man from that day, hovering in midair, holding up a car.
She’d nearly bristled up like a cat right then.
For all her flaws — she’d freely admit her own abilities were nothing special — her knowledge base was unmatched anywhere on Terra, after walking this land for ten thousand years.
A being with boundless strength, capable of flight, bearing an eerie resemblance to a Predecessor.
She’d run through every ridiculous possibility — some tech-augmented Deep Sea Hunter, some demon that had been shaped by belief into human form, some Terran beast imitating the Predecessors — every implausible answer she could think of, before finally arriving at a conclusion she really didn’t want to believe.
This [untranslatable curse] was a walking relic of the Predecessors that not even a single prophet had ever managed to slot into her database.
And she was especially sensitive to things like that.
The sudden arrival of that creature from Talos II had been the spark.
And it was the Exiles — having obtained “the continuation of civilization” and then unsealed Originium — who’d kicked off this whole story to begin with.
Finding the mainframe of the PCS system, the Sarkaz who became Sankta, and yes, even herself, once released by the Doctor — every single time a relic of the Predecessors surfaced, it sent shockwaves through the entire world.
How could someone who’d spent this long carefully, painstakingly holding Terra together not be worried about that?
She needed to get a proper read on this man’s true nature…
So, after some discussion among the group, it was decided Amiya would “summon” Leon inside a large training ground.
And this had all been agreed to by the other group members as well.
Once Amiya, standing in the middle, gave a nod, it was as if an invisible door had appeared right beside her.
Leon stepped out, without a sound.
And there he saw Kal’tsit among the crowd, leaning slightly forward, her hair bristling faintly.
Well, better than that Spinosaurus he’d run into last time, at least.
“Shall we head out now, then?”
He’d just reached out to casually scoop up Amiya when a woman’s voice stopped him.
“Please wait a moment, Mr.
Leon.”
It was Theresa — the pink-haired Demon King, speaking up.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you.
It’s just that, more than anyone, I understand exactly how powerful the Military Commission—”
Leon raised a hand, cutting off her explanation.
The moment he’d arrived here, he’d noticed there were an unusually large number of combat personnel gathered around.
And the location they’d picked was, conveniently, exactly the kind of open space you’d need if you wanted to cut loose.
Not to mention, the instant he’d appeared, that group of what he remembered to be elite Operators — their slightly quickened breathing, the way their pupils had contracted, hands quietly gripping weapon hilts, some energy or another being mobilized — none of it slipped past his sharp senses.
Just like he’d said before — skipping past all the formalities and cutting straight to the point was its own kind of wisdom.
Leon rose up onto his toes, drifting slowly into the air:
“Got it.
You want a fight, is that it?”
To be continued…
Viltrum’s Top Student — Leon (Invincible) The Tiger of West Junior High — Yuji Itadori (Jujutsu Kaisen) Not-a-god Yellow Weasel — Neoth, the Emperor of Mankind (Warhammer 40k) Mala Donkey Head — Amiya (Arknights) Orange-Haired Golden-Eyed Menace to Humanity — Gudako (Fate/Grand Order) Kansas Farm Boy — Clark Kent / Superman (DC Comics)