A/N: Been busy with other things lately, but starting to get back into it. I'm also trying something new. For a while now, this story has been running as an Interactive Quest on Sufficient Velocity, and there was a discord server where readers gave me ideas on which worlds to go to next.

Now, this discord has been revamped so that you can join to discuss upcoming content, share ideas on what the MC should do, and offer your opinion on specific questions/topics I am interested in, or just talk about whatever you want. The main purpose of this server is to have discussions on things I don't necessarily want a numeric vote on, and to have more fluid discussion through the quick texting format.

The invite link is: ZyxZPRm

16 – The Battle of Newcastle

A vast fleet of wooden warships high in the sky surrounded the city of Newcastle.

One single ship stood out, almost twice as large as the second largest ship in the fleet. Bold letters spelled out LEXINGTON—the flagship that Cromwell must have been on.

The concentration of windstones was palpable to even my meagre magical senses. Some fifty ships I counted within thirty kilometres conducting the siege—nay, not just a siege anymore but an active assault.

I thought this battle should have happened a little later, when Prince Wales had returned along with Louise. Or was it simply that they had assaulted multiple times?

A continuous array of cannon fire was bombarding the outer walls of the castle at the centre. Screams and the clash of steel on steel resounded across the city. Fire and smoke were visible from kilometers away with the naked eye.

Within the Lexington, Agate found Cromwell pacing back and forth in his own room.

"…Emperor…an Emperor? Me? Oh my…" he muttered. "How far does Miss Sheffield want me to take this? If I claim that title the Church might finally do something…for Brimir gave only the right of kingship to his descendants…they may look the other way if the royals lose power, but if I dared to claim a position even higher than king…"

He brushed his hair exasperatedly. "We can't possibly win a crusade to the Holy Land without the support of the Church and the other Brimiric nations. She must mean for me to conquer them all!"

A hand lifted up as he stared upon the silver ring bejewelled with a deep blue crystal on his finger.

There it was.

The Ring of Andvari.

It was a nondescript object that did not draw one's attention. It didn't shine with a great luster, or reflect light in a piercing way.

But the moment I focused in on it, really looked at it, not only with Agate's visual sight, but also with our magical senses, there was no mistaking it.

There was something that lay deep within, even though we could sense no magical energy in it, as if it was a mirage with the promise of quenching thirst after a long drought.

Cromwell touched the ring to his lips and closed his eyes. "You will help me, won't you? My precious…"

Then his eyes opened and he began to laugh. "Hahaha…! Of course, of course. With this power, I can do anything! The Void is truly marvellous!"

Unfortunately, Agate could not simply seize a small object and phase it out when it was attached to something else much larger.

I'd need to physically take it from him.

But before that, I had to find out how to use it. Asking the Water Spirit, despite Derflinger's speculation, did not appeal to me, if only because I knew that the Water Spirit considered it a vital possession and would stop at nothing to reclaim it. Myozunitonirun or Cromwell were just as likely to give me false or incomplete information even if I traded for or forced the information from them.

No, the prudent thing to do would be to actually observe how it was correctly used and copy it. It would also be incomplete as the ring no doubt had many functions, and it would be most unfortunate if they could activate it by sheer mental command or some form of magical energy channeling. Nevertheless, this was the most reliable means of discovering its secrets without falling into a trap.

"…!"

Cromwell suddenly stilled and his eyes darted about.

"What's this strange feeling? It's almost as if I'm being watched…" He murmured furtively, standing straighter and allowing his hand to drop back down to his waist. "Hmmm…"

There was no way. How could he…?

"Come out! Whoever you are, I know you're there," he said with a stern look as he held his hands behind his back, puffing his chest out.

'No, he can't see me! Could it be someone else?' Agate thought.

Or maybe it was just an act? Do it enough times and maybe he'll be coincidentally right for once?

"You think you can hide from me? I recognize that you are skilled to have gotten so far, but this shall be your last chance! I am the Lord Protector, chosen by the Void! Show yourself and I might show you mercy."

Obviously, we didn't reveal ourselves.

But what he did next took me completely by surprise.

"Hmphf! So be it. I may not be able to find you, but you shall begone from my presence! I, Oliver Cromwell, do decree, you are not welcome in my presence! Begone, vile spirit, and let it be known that none shall enter my domain without my permission!"

Then he raised up his hand with the ring and whispered in a low voice. "…dome est puru expeies."

For a moment, I thought he was just bluffing again.

Then it hit.

A wave of pain, then a mental scream, being transmitted from Agate as her sight, hearing, and all manner of other senses suddenly shut off.

She fled from the airship haphazardly but fortunately remained in agatespace where nobody could see her.

The last thing we saw was the image of a searing light, as if Cromwell held not a ring, but a star upon his finger pulsing with unbridled power.

That…was certainly not one of the abilities I knew about.

This changed everything.

I thought I could wait for an opportunity and quietly steal the ring, and maybe even revive Cromwell to use as my puppet for taking over Reconquista, but now that was a monumentally harder task.

Agate's ability to spy on others at will had been a tremendous boon for me on Worm, but such tactics had proven less effective here.

First, the vault and forbidden texts at the Academy had been protected by some form of ward, and now the Ring of Andvari had this strange ability to…detect and affect Agate beyond the normal layer of reality.

These magics seem to operate under mechanics I had yet to understand, seemingly on a conceptual level. And if the Ring of Andvari could reach into Agatespace somehow...it was even more powerful than I thought. If I used an analogy, it would be like comparing tools that operated using the principles of electricity vs electromagnetism. The latter had access to a more fundamental level of physics-or in this case, magical physics.

I was not particularly surprised when the Academy Vault's ward shielded its contents from view, because even though Agate used the Second Magic to be capable of viewing things from Agatespace and to break physical laws like the Observer Effect, the actual particles being observed still existed in the real world. This meant that a ward could conceivably shield the physical components in the real world, acting only on the real world, without necessarily directly challenging what should have been a Magic of a much higher fundamental level.

This ring though, actually seemingly detected Agate's presence and even hurt her on top of warding off the area. How it did so was still unknown to us, and maybe there was a trick to it that bypassed clashing with Agate's high level Mysteries and didn't really reach into Agatespace, but the obvious answer was that its magic was genuinely just at a similar level to True Magic.

Which, on second thought, was perhaps something I really should've expected given that it could resurrect the dead complete with dragging back the soul, if the revived Wales' last words in the canon were anything to go by.

Derflinger didn't have much insight to offer either. "Maybe you can try swinging me at the general area?"

Agate recovered once she was out of the vicinity of the warship, but the same thing happened every time she tried to go back there in Agatespace. A few experiments later and we found that she could still see things if she stayed in the real world, but then she couldn't communicate with me anymore until she left the area. She also couldn't hide herself that way, not having the ability to turn invisible—and I did not want to experience what else Cromwell could do to her if he actually found her in the real world.

In the end, she retreated and returned to me.

It was becoming clear to me that I needed to embrace a new way of doing things. I could not expect to have better information than my opponents. I could still try to spy using technological options but they were much less powerful than Agate, and not really useful in this situation even if they weren't also somehow blocked by conceptual means. Without the aid of accurate metaknowledge or undetectable spying, I couldn't play on this board like a chessmaster looking down on the pieces from afar, hiding in the shadows while using others to do my bidding.

But nor did I need to now. I was no longer the same powerless human that first arrived on Worm with nothing but the clothes on his back and a mind full of schemes.

My opponents had powers unfamiliar to me, but I too had powers and means of my own now, that were unfamiliar to my opponents.

It was time to start using them.

O O O

[Interlude]

Oliver Cromwell was an ambitious man. He came from a humble background, an orphan with no known parents, and only a modicum of talent in magic. He was only able to rise up in the clergy to the rank of bishop because the clergy didn't require much in the way of magic, or a noble background.

Even commoners were permitted to join the clergy, if they were well educated and followed the Church's doctrine well.

But without magic, there was a ceiling. One could not hope to claim to represent the teachings of Brimir without being strong in his Gift.

For years, he had stagnated, unable to see a way to rise beyond. The stations of archbishop, cardinal, or even the Pope—these were out of his reach.

Until one day, he had taken pity on a haggard and mysterious woman with an exotic, foreign look, and given her a piece of bread, as he usually did with those who prowled about like beggars and desperate folk. It was in his job description, after all.

But unlike the others, she did not only accept his bread, but asked him a question in return.

"You are a kind and honorable man. I think someone like you ought to rule this nation. How would you like to become king?"

He laughed, and took the compliment in stride, and humored her with an answer. "Why, if only I could. If only I could. But Brimir chose his heirs, and who am I to question His Will?"

Little did he expect for her to suddenly find him again a few days later bearing a gift unlike any other, proclaiming that she would make his wish come true.

Wary at first, and still wary to this day, he accepted the gift after a demonstration of its power, and what a power it was!

With the ring, he knew he could do great things, reach untold heights, and the woman offered to help him along the way.

The past few years had seen him amass followers, an army and a grand fleet. Under the banner of Reconquista, he had obtained more power than he could've ever imagined.

And it was almost all thanks to the ring that he never took off. It was the source of his power, his legitimacy as chosen champion of Brimir, and even…his only way to defend against Miss Sheffield, when the day came for her to seize the puppet by the strings.

He knew very well that one did not simply hand over such power for free, or act like a beggar when one had such power at their hands. That meeting was no coincidence, he had been sought out to play a specific role. Miss Sheffield was blatantly using him, even though he knew not to what ends. The ring was obviously not an artifact of the Founder's Void, or even if it was it would most certainly not be accepted by the Church, considering its blasphemous powers to resurrect the dead and enthrall the minds of lesser men.

Nevertheless, he was an ambitious man. It didn't matter where the ring came from, only that it worked. It was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. And Miss Sheffield was frequently away doing who knows what, so he had plenty of chances to figure out how to protect himself.

That was why, when he felt that presence watching him earlier, he knew exactly how to get rid of it.

From the Lexington's bow, he looked down upon the castle under assault. They had planned to maintain siege for another week, but Miss Sheffield urged him to finish the war sooner, so they attacked today.

His forces vastly outnumbered and outgunned the final royalists holed up in the castle, and he could easily revive any lost soldiers, so it was no trouble for him to do as she suggested.

Today he would proclaim himself Emperor, and a new era would begin.

His army on the ground advanced steadily toward the castle inner gates, after breaching the outer wall. Led by ten monstrously large golems, the army moved almost unimpeded. Mages up on the barely manned watchtowers and battlements rained spells down that merely glanced off the golems. Cannons were misdirected by a horde of wind mages before they could even hit the golems.

A team of four mage knights stood grimly blocking the entrance to the keep.

"We will never surrender to you Reconquista scum! The 1st Royal Battalion shall fight to the last man! For King and country! For Albion!" Their apparently leader shouted mightily with his swordwand pointed at the incoming forces. The shout was loud enough for Cromwell to hear even without a wind spell, given how close the Lexington was hovering over the castle.

Cromwell considered whether to simply use the Lexington's on board cannons, which were the most advanced and powerful cannons in the world. He could blast the castle gate into smithereens together with the mages guarding it, or even send the whole castle down on the king's head.

But no, he needed a total, absolute, and righteous victory. One that nobody could deny, and to do that, he needed to have the king killed in front of witnesses, killed gloriously with the power of magic—with the Void, guided by the clear will of Brimir.

He prepared to join his troops for the final push.

He was startled when a loud bang resounded through the air. Eyes searching for the cause, he quickly found a smoking part of the castle walls that was crumbling down.

What was that? He wondered. He hadn't ordered any ships to fire on the castle.

Through a smoke, his keen eyes saw a shadow flying into the breached wall of the castle.

"One of mine? Or an interloper?"

He turned around quickly and pointed to a couple of knights. "You there, take me down to the castle. And you, go tell General Fairfax to push in as fast as possible, we need to find whatever caused that explosion just now. If it's a rescue attempt, do not allow the king to flee! If it's a third party trying to interfere, capture them!"

"Yes, sir!" They saluted.

Meanwhile inside the castle where said king was preparing himself to face the end…

From his throne, the King of Albion gazed appreciatively at the men who stayed resolutely with him until the end. A mere three hundred men was all that was left of his forces, mostly scattered about defending the castle.

Twenty of his most loyal mage knights and the captain of his guard stood with him in the throne room, while another twenty men defended the hall outside.

A great sigh escaped his lips as the castle shook with a tremendous bang.

He stood up and the men turned their eyes to him.

"It seems that our final hour is at hand…at least my son may keep the line of Albion alive. One day, perhaps…he may return to take back the throne from these treacherous usurpers."

"If he can gain the support of the Church and the other Brimiric nations, there may yet be hope. I fear that our allies in Tristain would not be enough, unfortunately," said his trusted guard captain.

"No, they are not. Even if I were inclined to drag my still grieving cousin into this war, which I am not, they simply do not have the military power to contend against Reconquista. Especially not with that horrible man Cromwell at its head," the old king said.

"A vile man indeed, to claim to wield the Void and represent the will of Brimir. Another crusade to the Holy Land? And after such a terrible war…what madness has gripped these men I cannot understand. I pray that the people of Albion will not suffer for long. The Church must do something soon."

"Haha…as if they care. Or maybe they will even support the idea of a crusade. How many wars have there been among the Brimiric Kingdoms that they did nothing about? Fellow nobles, all holding Brimir's gift shedding each other's blood. They do not care, except when it impedes the effort to crusade against the elves. Why, I doubt they even give a damn about whether the ruling kings of Halkegenia are truly descended from Brimir or not. If you listen to them preach, it's almost as if we kings ought to be subordinate to the Papacy, rather than equals heirs of Brimir."

At that, the captain and the king fell into a moment of silent contemplation.

It was interrupted when the sounds of battle came from just outside the throne room. The thudding of things hitting other things, the crashing of metal on the ground, and the clang of steel on steel.

"M-monster! It's a monster! No, a demon!"

"Impossible! How?!"

Strange shouts could be heard among the screams.

Monster? What manner of magic has Cromwell unleashed this time? The king wondered with a little trepidation. The Reconquista had made use of many unusual troops, demi-humans and beasts that were rarely tamed for battle. He could only imagine what they would use for this final battle.

The body of a knight smashed open the double doors to the throne room and fell in a heap on the red carpet.

Groans escaped from his mouth but he otherwise didn't move.

Before anybody could go to help him, a single dark figure strolled through the open doors, drawing all eyes.

Black armor with jagged edges and dark red lines decorating it like veins pulsing through the body of a demonic being. Baleful red light glared out from its full helm.

The figure held out a blade of what appeared to be a very dark crystal in his right hand. One might mistake it for obsidian, except that its crystalline lustre and translucency was on full display as light refracted through it.

After a moment of hesitation, the remaining mage knights burst into action.

The first knight cast a massive burst of fire, a Triangle class spell, hoping to melt whatever was inside through the armor.

To their surprise, the figure simply walked through undisturbed as if the fire wasn't even there. Then the fire seemed to bend and get absorbed into the blade in the figure's hands, and only served to make it shine more menacingly in an orange-red hue.

Another knight added a wind spell to the still ongoing fire spell, creating a powerful combination effect of rapidly expanding air—a fiery explosion that engulfed the figure entirely.

When the smoke finally cleared, the figure once again appeared apparently unscathed.

Other knights bombarded the figure with even more spells. Blasts of compressed air, whips of water, even lightning. All such spells either barely fazed the figure or were blocked with the crystal sword.

Metallic golems went forth to engage in a physical battle, but were quickly slashed apart like they were made of paper.

Finally, several knights personally charged into the fray, reinforcing themselves with Earth spells and bursting with the speed of advanced wind spells.

A furious high speed exchange of swordplay ensued, and this time it appeared that the knights finally had the upper hand.

They were faster and more skilled, outnumbering the sole figure whose relentless walk forward was stopped in its tracks as it fended off numerous attacks by the thinnest of margins.

It wasn't long before one knight found an opening and slashed onto the figure's sword arm with a loud clang.

However, his swordwand did not even dent the armour, and he fell back.

Yet he was not surprised either, because it was only a test. Most knights in Halkegenia favored cuirass and hard leathers over heavy full plates, because a battle between mages often came down to a contest of speed—whoever could dodge spells more effectively and cast faster would win. For this reason, wind mages who specialized in speed, and dominated the air on their flying familiars, were usually the elite of the military, regardless of which nation they belonged to. That wasn't just unique to Albion.

But the knights had learned to recognize different forms of armor as well as methods to deal with it, so when the exotic armor was shown to be of the highly durable kind, they used their standard counter.

Other knights from afar had seen the result, and targeted the figure with an Alchemy spell to weaken it.

Except that too seemed to be repulsed by a magic of the figure's own, and the same occurred when they tried to weaken the figure's weapon.

It was then that a knight got creative and cast Alchemy on the ground beneath the figure, causing it to misstep into cracked and soft, uneven ground.

"Now is our chance!" The knights in the melee applied enhancement spells to their swordwand's tips for maximum penetration and thrust towards the intruder.

As if sensing that the outcome of a clash between its armor and the highly sharpened and reinforced swordwands might not be in its favor, the figure declined to put its armor to the test—by suddenly shooting up into the air.

The knights watched carefully but did not follow it into the air. They could levitate, but the concentration required to both levitate and maintain their other spells was enormously taxing.

Thus they fired off numerous spells at the figure expecting that its defenses would have been weakened from split concentration.

Contrary to their expectations, the figure continued to shrug off the spells.

Whatever magics made the enemy knight's armor and sword so powerful, it was highly irregular, or the enemy was at a level of mastery far beyond even most Square class mages.

Unless…

"Enchanted artifacts? Or…spirit magic?"

The captain of the guard murmured as he analyzed the situation. Typical human magic was cast and had to be maintained by the mage's own concentration at all times. It was possible to enchant objects to sustain a magic themselves, but that typically required the use of the rare Earth stones and other reagents for the more advanced spells. The only spells that could be enchanted into objects without extra reagents were at the dot level.

Clearly whatever spells on this intruder's equipment were of a far higher quality, capable of resisting all manner of actively cast magic in addition to taking serious physical punishment without a scratch.

A dark chuckle interrupted his thoughts.

"Not bad…so there is at least some fight in the kingdom's true elite," said the figure with a deep male voice.

"Did Reconquista think it could defeat us all with but a single warrior? Are you supposed to show us the power of the Void that Cromwell has been claiming to wield? If so, I'm afraid you'll have to do better than that!" The captain said firmly.

"Reconquista? Don't misunderstand, I'm not with them."

"No? Then who do you work for? Or are you an opportunist looking to take advantage of the kingdom's weakness for your own ends?" The King demanded.

Instead of answering, the dark figure turned his head back as if looking at something beyond the walls. "Hm…I didn't think he'd come out in person so early," he said, as if to himself. Then he turned back to face the king. "I suppose there's no time to play nice with you lot anymore."

Play nice? The king shared a look with his captain. Both were flabbergasted at the intruder's sense of propriety. If assaulting the royal knights and barging into the throne room was being nice, what passed for aggression in his mind?

"I'll make this simple. Hand over the Founder's artifacts in your possession. In exchange, you may yet keep your throne, King Henry. Otherwise, you will all be destroyed with Reconquista this day."

"How dare you! You think you can defeat us so easily? By yourself? The sheer arrogance! Your Majesty, allow me to dispose of this fool!" The captain shouted with a red face.

The figure scoffed. "Pathetic. You are the fool, captain. I don't need to defeat you. You've already lost this war. All of you will die here when Reconquista's forces get here. Unless…you accept my offer."

"Even if we must die, we die with honor, protecting the kingdom and royal lineage! Why should—"

The king put a hand on the captain's shoulder to stop him.

With an interested look in his eyes, King Henry questioned the dark figure. "Are you saying you have the power to destroy Reconquista? And if I'm understanding you correctly…you are essentially offering to help us win this war if I give you the Founder's treasures?"

"But, Your Majesty, you can't possibly believe him! And those are precious heirlooms—" The captain's shocked face turned to bitterness when the King looked at him sternly.

"Old friend, it is clear that this dark knight is a powerful warrior. Perhaps he exaggerates the extent of what he can do, but what he asks for is hardly a high price to pay. Besides, he is right. We are already on our last legs. There is nothing to lose. And if by some miracle he is capable of doing as he says…he would deserve what he asks for and much more besides."

"Indeed. A couple of useless trinkets in exchange for your life, the lives of your men, and the throne of Albion. It is quite a bargain."

"Useless trinkets, hah?" The King said bemused. "Well they certainly are useless to me, but I don't doubt that you have some use for them, or you wouldn't go to this trouble. Which trinkets specifically do you want? I suppose you're after the Founder's Music Box?" The King reached into his robes and pulled out a little object. "I've prayed to this thing many times these days and no music was forthcoming, much less a miracle of the Founder."

"That is correct. And I also desire the Ruby of Wind."

The King gave the dark figure a strange look. "You must not be from around here. The Music Box, I can certainly give you. But I don't have the Ruby of Wind anymore. It is tradition among the royal families for the heir apparent to be given the Founder's Elemental Ruby. That means it's with Prince Wales, and I have no idea where he is, nor could I find him now. I can only assume that he is hiding and preparing to go into exile."

"I see. No matter, you can order his return and reclaim the Ruby from him after I deal with Reconquista. So, you accept then?"

The King idly played with the music box in his hands. "Are you really capable of destroying Reconquista? From where do you get your confidence? And if you are, is this artifact really worth so much to you?"

"The Music Box is of minor interest to me. I will destroy Reconquista regardless of your answer. The only difference is whether I do it before or after Reconquista destroys you."

"…why? What's your motivation in regards to Reconquista? Do you have some grudge against them?" The King asked with a confused expression.

A few loud tremors shook the castle and the sounds of many men moving reached their ears.

"There is no time left. All you need to know is that Cromwell has something that belongs to me and I shall permit him to hold it no longer. It is the source of his so-called Void powers, and the reason you never stood a chance of winning this war from the very beginning. There are greater forces at work than you know, King Henry, and you must choose now whether to trust in my power or be discarded to the dustbin of history!"

As soon as he said that, his posture shifted and the atmosphere in the room changed. The crystal sword glowed with power, and magic radiated like a bonfire.

"…!"

He was holding back! This is…this is beyond Square class! What sort of monster is he? The captain realized with a grimace. The sheer magic energy on the dark knight was now at such a high density that advanced mages like himself did not need the Detect Magic spell to sense it. It was similar to the sensation mages felt when other mages were in the process of stacking more elements together to form a higher level spell, and they were able to get a rough idea of how powerful the magic being cast was going to be.

Another great tremor shook the castle and broken sections of wall crashing to the ground could be heard just outside the throne room.

On unstable legs, the king shouted out his decision. "So be it! Stranger, I agree to your terms!" Then he threw the music box up into the air.

The stranger caught the music box in his free hand and quickly put it away into a hidden compartment on his armor that seemed to open of its own accord.

"Good. You are a wise man, King Henry. Now, I must take my leave. My forces will aid you in this battle." Then he abruptly flew up towards the ceiling.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?!" The captain demanded and levitated himself upwards as well. "We had a deal, get back here!"

The stranger proved to be much faster at flying though, and smashed into the ceiling within seconds with his left hand.

The stone ceiling shattered in chunks by some strange magic and the debris fell towards the ground, forcing Captain Leonard and the knights below to dodge.

"Stay and protect your king, you fool. I am going to coordinate my forces!" The black armored knight took out a wand and a strong blast of wind blew the captain back to the ground. Then he flew up and away out of the keep.

"You bastard!"

The king watched the proceedings with a nervous gulp. Had he been swindled, or would the black knight bring forth a miracle?

O O O

A/N: Once again, the discord invite link is : ZyxZPRm