Isaac POV
Isaac rushed toward the two remaining enemies the moment Beroga disappeared. Ki Beli and the Third Priest were in terrible condition. Their bodies were broken to the point that it was difficult to tell how they were still conscious. Both of them were trying to gather mana, but they were failing miserably.
Ki Beli managed to pull in a tiny amount. It was so little that Isaac almost missed it.
’This...’
’Looks like the Elemental Spirit of Machines didn’t know how much force to use to incapacitate them.’
The situation reminded him of an ant. A person could crush an ant and still find it crawling away moments later. It wasn’t because the ant was strong. It happened because the ant was so weak that a human wouldn’t know exactly how much force was needed to stop it without killing it outright.
Compared to the Elemental Spirit of Machines, Ki Beli and the Third Priest were no different.
A moment later, the frozen city began moving again. Sounds returned. Wind flowed through the streets. People started moving.
Time had resumed.
Isaac stood up and looked toward the others. "Sera, go and rest. East Sea Dragon King, and Dwarf King, I know both of you have many questions. However, I would request that the two of you hide for some time now. I will explain everything later."
The two kings exchanged looks. Isaac already knew what they wanted to ask. The existence of his cloning ability was impossible to ignore.
He still planned to use Averon’s Lord Talent as an explanation. The problem was that the nobody—not even the citizens—would believe Averon could casually create copies of powerhouses at the level of the East Sea Dragon King and the Dwarf King. At least not without raising even more questions.
For now, it was better if they remained hidden.
"Okay, but I expect a proper explanation," Oz said as he folded his arms. "About everything."
"You’ll get one." Isaac nodded.
With a wave of his hand, he allowed both kings to enter the Moon Pendant. After that, he turned toward Sera. She hadn’t moved.
"Sera, go and rest."
He walked closer and checked her condition. Although he had already healed her injuries while he talked with the two kings, he could still feel the effects of the System restrictions disrupting her body.
Sera shook her head.
"I’m fine. We need to deal with the one who ran away."
"Don’t worry about it. I have a plan."
"A plan?" Sera frowned.
Isaac simply pointed toward Ki Beli and the Third Priest. For a moment, she looked confused. Then realization appeared on her face.
"You want to use Emily."
Isaac nodded. That was exactly what he had been thinking.
Of course, he would ask Emily first. If she was uncomfortable with taming people, then the idea ended there. However, if she agreed, he could kill Ki Beli and the Third Priest and have Emily raise them as Spirits.
Once they became Spirits, questioning them would become much easier. There were far too many things Isaac needed to know. Beroga’s organization, their involvement with Florathi, and the number of powerhouses they had. All the answers were hidden inside their heads.
After making his decision, Isaac immediately got to work. First, he brought Selene out of the Moon Pendant. The unconscious girl looked peaceful despite everything that had happened.
Isaac carefully moved her into the Soulbind Pendant. Once that was done, he placed Ki Beli and the Third Priest inside the Moon Pendant.
Two clones of his remained behind to monitor them. Isaac wasn’t taking any risks. The clones continuously interrupted any attempt to gather mana while also making sure their broken bodies couldn’t regenerate.
Afterward, he dealt with the remaining Florathi members. Most of them were already incapacitated. One by one, he gathered them and placed them inside the Moon Pendant as prisoners.
Only after everything was secured did he finally turn his attention toward the city.
Sera still refused to rest. Despite his repeated suggestions, she remained beside him. Isaac eventually gave up trying to convince her.
There were more urgent matters to handle.
He opened the Soulbind Pendant and began bringing people out. Families, children, awakeners, and ordinary citizens started returning to the city.
Three Sectors had been destroyed during the battle, but fortunately the recent expansion of the city had left a large number of apartments and houses unoccupied. Isaac immediately began assigning temporary residences. It wasn’t perfect, but it gave people somewhere safe to stay.
At the same time, he organized a task force of awakeners to help stabilize the situation. Vale, Freya, and the principal of Horizon Institute took charge of the effort. They directed volunteers, answered questions, and helped prevent panic from spreading through the crowd.
As Isaac moved through the city, he noticed something interesting. The nagas were calm. The Ashfang ogres were calm. Even members of the Crawling Serpent Tribe looked relatively unaffected. The same was true for most noncombatants from their races.
The humans, however, were noticeably more agitated. Arguments broke out, questions spread, and fear traveled quickly through the crowd.
Isaac understood why.
The other races had lived through disasters like this before. Many of them had experienced attacks, invasions, and large-scale destruction multiple times throughout their histories.
Humans weren’t strangers to such tragedies either. The difference was information.
When disasters happened in the past, most citizens simply died. Those who survived rarely learned the full story. The previous governor had always suppressed information regarding these incidents.
He believed ignorance created stability. As long as ordinary people didn’t know what lurked outside their daily lives, society would remain peaceful. At least, that had been his belief.
Isaac never agreed with it.
Now he was seeing the consequences firsthand. People didn’t know what was happening. They didn’t know who had attacked. They didn’t know whether another invasion was coming tomorrow.
Uncertainty created fear.
So Isaac stopped hiding. Whenever citizens approached him, he answered what he could. He promised compensation for damaged homes, temporary housing, and an official explanation regarding the attack—no, the invasion—as soon as possible.
The reactions were mixed. Some people remained angry. Some demanded immediate answers. Others simply looked exhausted.
Yet surprisingly, not everyone approached him with complaints.
A few citizens thanked him. Others told him to stay safe. One elderly woman even grabbed his arm and told him not to overwork himself.
The reactions caught Isaac off guard. These people hadn’t seen the battle. They hadn’t witnessed the enemies. They didn’t know how close the city had come to disaster.
But they knew one thing. Their homes had suddenly disappeared, and an attack had happened. Emily and the others had been inside the Soulbind Pendant alongside them.
Which meant Isaac had been outside facing everything alone.
The realization had apparently spread among the citizens. As Isaac looked around the damaged city, he heard more words of thanks from the crowd. Some were quiet while others were shouted from a distance.
For a brief moment, the tension in his shoulders eased.
Only slightly.
Because he still had too many problems waiting for him. Beroga was still out there. Ki Beli and the Third Priest needed to be questioned.
Purification Cult had not been destroyed. Not even close. They must have more powerhouses. Those would come for Isaac’s city.
Still, as he continued helping citizens find shelter, Isaac couldn’t help recalling one final detail. Time had resumed normally for the city, but inside the Soulbind Pendant, it had never stopped in the first place.
Alice, Emily, and the others had repeatedly tried to come out during the battle to help him. Thankfully, as the owner of the artifact, he could completely seal it shut.
Otherwise, they would have forced their way out long ago.
Once everything that required his immediate attention was handled, Isaac finally entered the Soulbind Pendant. The moment he appeared, several figures rushed toward him.
Emily reached him first. Before Isaac could even say anything, she threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around him. Her eyes were red and watery. She had clearly been trying not to cry while trapped inside the pendant, but now that he was standing in front of her, she couldn’t hold it back anymore.
Alice arrived a second later. She didn’t hug him immediately. Instead, she stared at him while biting her lip.
Isaac could tell what she was thinking. This wasn’t the first time she had ’nearly’ lost him. For a moment, she had probably been reminded of his death.
As angry as she was, she couldn’t bring herself to scold him. His actions were simply too similar to what she herself had done inside the Great Dungeon. Back then, she had recklessly risked everything. Isaac had done the same.
Celia stood a short distance away. She remained silent, but Isaac could already guess what was going through her mind.
Unlike Emily and Alice, who were worried about him, Celia seemed more focused on herself. Or rather, she was blaming herself. She believed she had been too weak to help.
As for Catherine, she wasn’t present. Isaac could sense one of her clones somewhere nearby, but her real body was nowhere to be found.
Knowing her, she had probably dispatched clones across the city while simultaneously sending others to search for Beroga. Even though the battle was over, nobody knew whether hidden enemies remained. The city was safe for now, but it was still a mess.
"It’s alright. Calm down."
Isaac pulled Emily and Alice closer. At the same time, Telekinesis wrapped around Celia and gently dragged her toward him before she could resist. The three women ended up pressed against him.
His arms weren’t wide enough to hug all of them properly. A pair of draconic wings unfolded from his back and wrapped around them instead, creating a warm cocoon around the group.
"I won, okay? I beat them easily."
The words came out confidently. They were also a complete lie.
"...Show us the footage," Celia muttered.
Isaac froze for a moment.
"I know you recorded it," Celia continued.
Emily immediately looked up. Alice narrowed her eyes. The atmosphere suddenly became uncomfortable.
Isaac coughed awkwardly. "I’ll show you later. But first, stop crying."
He quickly changed the topic while wiping Emily’s tears away. There was no way he was showing them the recordings right now. The footage contained far too many moments where he was nearly killed, injured repeatedly, or pushed into situations that would only make them worry even more.
After a moment, his expression softened. "Stop blaming yourselves or thinking that you’re weak. I’m only alive because of all three of you."
His wives looked at him.
"If Emily and Alice hadn’t won the competition, I would’ve been forced to serve other Lords. If Celia didn’t have such powerful skills, I would’ve been defeated by the Third Priest."
Celia smiled weakly. "I didn’t do anything. Honestly, I feel like I should have—"
"No." Isaac cut her off immediately. His voice was low, but it carried enough firmness to stop her. "I’m not trying to make you feel better. I’m being serious."
Celia blinked.
Isaac continued. "Without the twenty percent stat increase from your Demon King Vessel passive and without the boost from your recent Physiques’ Upgrade, the Third Priest would’ve easily apprehended me. He was stronger than you think."
Celia opened her mouth. Then closed it again.
Isaac reached over and gently brushed some hair away from Emily’s face before looking at all three of them. "I didn’t keep you inside because I didn’t trust you. The artifact used by the Purification Cult stopped time. If not for that thing, I would’ve brought all of you out to help me. So stop blaming yourselves, okay? When you cry, I also feel sad."
The atmosphere gradually relaxed. Emily nodded first. Alice nodded as well. Even Celia nodded.
However, Isaac could still see traces of gloom lingering inside her eyes. Knowing Celia, she was probably comparing herself to Emily and Alice. Both of them had played important roles inside the Great Dungeon, and Celia likely believed she had contributed less.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t something he could solve with a few words. All he could do was reassure her.
So he spent the next several minutes explaining everything that had happened during the battle. The invasion, the Florathi, Beroga, the Spirit of Machines, and the destruction throughout the city.
The more they listened, the colder Emily’s expression became. By the time he finished, she looked ready to murder someone.
"I’ll tame them."
Her voice was calm. Far too calm.
Isaac looked at her carefully. "Are you sure? Florathi aren’t monsters. They’re still people. If you don’t feel comfortable, then—"
"I don’t mind."
Emily interrupted him. Her answer came without hesitation.
"This is the easiest way to get information out of them. Besides, you already know how I feel about people who try to harm you."
Isaac smiled wryly. That answer sounded exactly like something Emily would say.
In her eyes, anyone who threatened him automatically lost most of their right to sympathy.
Eventually, Isaac nodded.
"Alright."
Now they simply had to wait for the cooldown on Emily’s artifact to end.
After discussing the prisoners, Isaac told them about the Elemental Spirit of Machines and what had happened at the end of the battle. The conversation inevitably shifted toward Selene.
For a moment, Isaac found himself becoming quiet.
His relationship with Selene had started in the worst way possible. When they first met, they had practically been enemies. Trust had been nonexistent, and he had attacked her.
Yet today, everything was different. The city still existed because of Selene. Thousands of people were alive because of Selene. Even Isaac himself might have died without the intervention of her Elemental Spirit.
A small smile appeared on his face. Once her evolution finished, he would thank her properly. She deserved at least that much.
Meanwhile, several of Isaac’s clones were busy elsewhere. Some met with Eleanor and other important figures to explain what had happened. Others continued helping stabilize the city.
One clone eventually headed toward a different meeting.
Althea.
The Florathi princess.
When Isaac’s clone arrived and explained the situation, silence filled the room. Althea stared at him. Her expression slowly changed from confusion to disbelief.
"...What did you just say?"
"I killed Elyndra and incapacitated the rest of the Florathi team, including the Third Priest. I’m planning to kill them and have them tamed soon."
For several seconds, Althea simply stared at him. Then she slammed her hand against the table.
"Isaac!"
The sudden outburst surprised even him. This was the first time he had ever seen Althea genuinely angry.
"Are you trying to start a war with Florathi?" she demanded. "Are you trying to have war with Florathi!? The Third Priest—"
"I should be the one asking that. Do the Florathi want a war? How dare they think they can harm my people without any consequences?"
Isaac cut her off with a cold tone. Althea flinched immediately. It was the first time she had ever seen Isaac angry.
For a brief moment, even Charlotta looked surprised by the sharpness in his voice. The atmosphere inside the room became noticeably heavier.
Seeing their reactions, Isaac realized what he had done and let out a sigh. Some of the anger faded from his face.
"Sorry. I guess my nerves are still stretched because of what happened. Don’t worry. There won’t be a war with Florathi. I have evidence against the Third Priest."
As he spoke, Isaac took out a palm-sized white plate and placed it on the table between them. He tapped the surface lightly.
A hologram immediately appeared above it. The recording began from the moment the Purification Cult launched their attack.
The footage showed the beginning of invasion. It showed the appearance of the Florathi forces and everything that followed afterward, including the confession of the Third Priest.
Neither Althea nor Charlotta interrupted. They watched quietly from beginning to end.
With each passing moment, their expressions became more serious. The shock on their faces gradually turned into disbelief.
By the time the recording reached its conclusion, both of them looked completely frozen. Silence filled the room.
Eventually, Althea took a slow breath and looked at Isaac.
"...Is this true? And how were you able to record any of this when time was stopped?"
"Yes, it’s true," Isaac replied. "The camera was on me. I think it became unfrozen when Sera used her artifact to resume my time."
Althea fell silent again. Her eyes remained fixed on the hologram even after it disappeared.
Countless thoughts ran through her mind. This situation had long since surpassed her authority. The Purification Cult wasn’t just another hostile organization.
They were a public enemy. Every citizen of Florathi knew that standing orders existed to eliminate Purification Cult members whenever they were encountered.
Yet despite the severity of the situation, Althea didn’t panic. Instead, she forced herself to calm down and organize her thoughts.
As a princess, she had been trained for situations where emotions only made things worse. Breaking down would solve nothing.
When she finally spoke again, her voice was much steadier.
"I apologize on behalf of Florathi. Please do not worry. We will provide compensation for the damage caused."
She paused briefly before continuing. Her expression became serious.
"As for the Third Priest and the other prisoners, you may do whatever you wish with them. However, I would like to ask one thing of you. I request that you do not turn the Third Priest into a Spirit until we return to the Florathi Kingdom and obtain an official statement from him."
Before Isaac could respond, Althea quickly raised a hand. She clearly wanted to prevent any misunderstanding.
"Please understand. We trust you. Verifying that the attackers belonged to the Purification Cult will not be difficult. We also have Technomancers capable of confirming that this recording hasn’t been altered in any way. The evidence itself isn’t the issue."
Her expression became complicated.
"But the Third Priest is still one of the leaders of a major faction within Florathi. Regardless of his crimes, there will need to be a formal investigation and trial. The Kingdom cannot simply ignore something of this magnitude. Too many people are involved."
For the first time since the conversation began, Althea lowered her head. The gesture surprised Isaac.
A princess bowing her head to him wasn’t something he had expected. Charlotta looked uncomfortable as she watched from the side but didn’t interfere.
"I am asking this as a representative of Florathi. Please delay turning him into a Spirit. At least until we return to the Florathi Kingdom," Althea said quietly.