Barn looked at the three figures gathered at the table—Duke Valerius, Lady Nyxara, and Lady Rosalina—each awaiting his agreement with bated breath.
The air inside the ward-sealed sanctuary was thick with expectation, the heavy silence broken only by the quiet thrum of floating mana crystals overhead.
Slowly, Barn retracted his hand and leaned back against the edge of the polished mahogany table, folding his arms casually across his shadow-black coat.
A faint, dry smirk touched his lips as he shook his head, his dark eyes fixed on the three powerful figures before him.
”You misunderstand my purpose,” Barn said calmly, his low voice carrying a bottomless, unbothered void.
“I have no interest in playing knight for a kingdom—not the kind, nor will I stand as your country’s guard dog against a beast horde.
I am a Master.
My role is to guide individuals to break their limits and claim their destiny—not to defend borders for politicians.”
The room fell into a stunned, suffocating silence.
Duke Valerius blinked, his formidable, oppressive military aura faltering for a brief second as his jaw tightened.
Rosalina and Nyxara exchanged swift, bewildered glances, caught completely off guard by his sudden rejection of what would have been an absolute power alliance.
”Then…
what is your true intent, Barn?” Rosalina asked softly, leaning forward across the table, her brown eyes searching his calm face for answers.
”The real threat isn’t just a mindless monster tide or the Demi-humans currently attacking our borders—or rather, who were, before they halted their onslaught upon hearing news of the dimensional cracks opening,” Barn revealed, his steady tone cutting cleanly through the heavy air of the study.
“If you look at the underlying script of this world, the monster horde is merely a distraction.
The conflict with the Beast Kingdom exists because of our kingdom’s foolish policies and ingrained way of thinking.
However, the true architect sitting in the shadows is the Holy Church.”
Nyxara’s violet eyes narrowed sharp as steel, her posture stiffening instantly.
”Well, I don’t like those scheming old hags anyway,” Lord Nightbane muttered, a dark grimace crossing his rugged features as he nodded in grim agreement.
“They’ve always smelled of corruption behind those pristine white robes.”
”They have been orchestrating the balance of power from the very beginning,” Barn explained, laying out his deep comprehension of the world’s underlying mechanics.
“The Church intentionally allows these calamity-tier outbreaks to escalate.
They wait until the noble houses and military vanguards exhaust their steel and blood.
Once the kingdom is brought to its knees in utter desperation, the Church steps in with their ‘divine miracles’ and Paladins, cementing absolute spiritual and political control over the surviving population.”
Duke Valerius’s hand tightened into a massive fist, the iron gauntlet creaking violently under his incredible grip.
“They use the monster tides to weaken the ducal houses…”
”But they need a huge amount of resources and people to finalize their motive,” Rosalina added, her mind racing as the pieces locked into place.
“Without a massive crisis, they can’t justify seizing complete authority.”
”Precisely,” Barn continued, his gaze cold and calculating.
“And right now, the Church is preparing their primary asset: the ancient, unmapped dungeons scattered along the kingdom’s borders.
They plan to trigger those dungeons prematurely, spawning controlled waves of high-tier beasts to crush your mobilization before you can even form a proper front.”
”But why?
If they unleash those dungeons, our supply lines will be severed before we even reach the southern pass,” Duke Valerius realized, a dark, dangerous scowl darkening his face.
”Yes.
But it is their necessary step, because they have a Hero,” Barn said.
”A Hero?” Nyxara asked, genuine confusion lacing her voice, mirrored by Rosalina’s puzzled expression.
”Yes.
A person born with the blessing of the world, possessing the raw power to destroy or save civilization,” Barn explained smoothly.
”So, a strong, foolish person,” Duke Nightbane grunted, his eyes narrowing.
“So strong that if we let him remain uncontrolled, he will only create absolute chaos—whether he lands on this side or the other.”
The revelation hung heavy in the study, leaving the three noble leaders visibly shaken.
They had prepared for armies, monster tides, and political betrayals, but not for a world-blessed entity manipulated by a religious hierarchy.
”Which brings us to my next step,” Barn said, turning smoothly and taking a deliberate step away from the table toward the open balcony doors.
The cool night air rushed into the room, fluttering the hem of his shadow-black coat.
“I won’t sit around waiting for their grand play to unfold, nor will I fight an endless war on their terms.
I am going directly to the source.”
Rosalina stood up abruptly, her chair scraping softly against the stone floor, her brown eyes wide with sudden realization.
“You’re going to destroy the dungeons?”
”I am going to completely dismantle the dungeon cores the Church intends to exploit,” Barn replied, a cold, dangerous smirk gracing his lips as his shadow-black coat rippled with hyper-condensed ambient mana.
“By wiping those dungeons off the map before the Church can trigger them, I ruin their play, strike a fatal blow to their divine authority, and leave them completely exposed.”
Nyxara stood up as well, her hand instinctively reaching out toward him, her core humming with a soft, divine resonance that pulsed around her delicate fingers.
“Master Barn…
let us march with you.”
”No,” Barn commanded smoothly, turning his head to cast a final, unbothered glance back at the three of them.
“Your job is to consolidate House Artecus and House Nightbane, secure the Capital, and prepare for the massive political vacuum that follows.
Leave the destruction to me.”
Without waiting for another word, Barn stepped off the balcony into the open night.
Before their very eyes, his physical form dissolved into a thread of hyper-condensed space and swirling dark mana, shooting silently into the starry sky toward the outer borderlands.