---
The morning after the alliance summit dawned clear and cold, winter's grip finally loosening on the Untamed Valley. Aarav stood on the repaired eastern watchtower, watching his people begin their daily routines. Two years until the Devourer main armada arrived. Two years to transform a single territory into a fortress capable of withstanding an empire.
Kiri sat beside him, her golden eyes scanning the horizon with the patience of a predator. Through their bond, he felt her contentment—not satisfaction, but the quiet peace of being exactly where she belonged.
You're thinking too much again, she sent.
"Always." He scratched behind her ears. "Someone has to."
Mira climbed up to join them, a steaming cup in each hand. "Elara made tea. She says it'll help with the brooding." She handed him a cup. "Her words, not mine."
Aarav accepted the cup, inhaling the fragrant steam. "I don't brood."
"You've been standing here for three hours, staring at nothing, not moving. That's brooding." She sat beside him, leaning against Kiri's warmth. "Talk to me."
He was silent for a moment, organizing his thoughts. "Two years isn't long enough. Not for what we need to build. An army of thousands, fortifications that can withstand orbital bombardment, alliances with hundreds of Lords who don't trust each other." He shook his head. "It's impossible."
"Impossible is just another word for 'hasn't been done yet.'" Mira nudged him. "You've been doing impossible things since Day 1. Remember when you told me about that first week? Eighty-seven starving villagers, a broken wall, no food? Now look at this place."
Aarav looked. The valley spread below them—fields of abundant wheat, workshops humming with activity, barracks training soldiers, children playing in the hall Tessa had demanded. Over two hundred people called this place home, and they were thriving.
"It's different. That was survival. This is..." He trailed off.
"This is building something that matters." Mira's voice was soft. "You're not just surviving anymore, Aarav. You're leading. There's a difference."
He looked at her—at the sister he had crossed a continent to find, at the woman she had become in his absence. She had grown strong, capable, wise beyond her years.
"When did you get so smart?"
"I've always been smart. You were just too busy being the older brother to notice." She grinned. "Now drink your tea and stop brooding. We have work to do."
---
The council gathered in the Lord's Hall an hour later. Elara, Marcus, Lira, Varen, and Mira took their places around the table. Kiri lay at the entrance, a silent guardian.
"Two years," Aarav began. "Seven hundred thirty days. That's how long we have to prepare for the largest invasion this world has ever seen." He projected the Devourer armada data for all to see. "One hundred thousand ships. Twelve noble houses. Three World-Eaters. The God-Emperor himself."
The numbers hung in the air like a death sentence.
Elara spoke first. "We can't fight that alone. No single territory can."
"Agreed. That's why our first priority is alliances." Aarav pulled up a map of Aethel, marked with the locations of every Lord who had responded to his messages. "We have commitments from seven of the top ten Lords. Seraphina, Drakos, Elara Mistborn, and four others. That's a start, but we need more."
"How many more?" Marcus asked.
"Ideally? All 252 million survivors." Aarav's voice was dry. "Realistically? We need to convince the top thousand to form a coalition. If we can present a united front, the rest will follow."
Lira leaned forward. "And how do we convince them? Lords don't follow. They compete."
"They'll follow when they see proof." Aarav gestured at the valley. "We destroyed a Devourer scout fleet. That's proof that they can be beaten. We share that intelligence, offer training, provide resources. We make ourselves indispensable."
Varen spoke up, his weathered face thoughtful. "Resources. That's the key. Most Lords are struggling just to survive. If we can offer food, crystals, equipment—things they can't get elsewhere—they'll listen."
"Exactly." Aarav nodded. "Which brings me to our second priority: expansion. We need to grow this territory to B-rank, then A-rank. We need more soldiers, more resources, more生产能力."
He pulled up a projection of his plans.
[ AETHEL - TERRITORY DEVELOPMENT PLAN ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ PHASE 1: DAYS 1-180 (6 MONTHS) ]
├─ OBJECTIVE: REACH B-RANK TERRITORY
├─ REQUIREMENTS:
│ ├─ 15 B-RANK BUILDINGS
│ ├─ 1000 POPULATION
│ ├─ 500 SOLDIERS
│ └── 100,000 RESOURCES (COMBINED)
├── CURRENT STATUS: 0/15 BUILDINGS, 214 POPULATION, 350 SOLDIERS, 23,000 RESOURCES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ PHASE 2: DAYS 181-450 (9 MONTHS) ]
├─ OBJECTIVE: REACH A-RANK TERRITORY
├─ REQUIREMENTS:
│ ├─ 25 A-RANK BUILDINGS
│ ├─ 5000 POPULATION
│ ├─ 2000 SOLDIERS
│ └── 500,000 RESOURCES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ PHASE 3: DAYS 451-730 (9 MONTHS) ]
├─ OBJECTIVE: MAXIMUM FORTIFICATION
├─ REQUIREMENTS:
│ ├─ ALL BUILDINGS AT MAX RANK
│ ├─ 10,000 SOLDIERS
│ ├─ 100 ALLIED LORDS GARRISONED
│ └── COMPREHENSIVE TRAP NETWORK
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The council studied the plan in silence. It was ambitious—perhaps impossibly so. But it was also the only path forward.
"We'll need every crystal we have," Marcus observed. "And then some."
"The Devourer core shards." Aarav pulled out one of the crystalline fragments. "Three hundred forty-seven of them. Each one contains roughly 1000 mana worth of energy. Combined, that's 347,000 mana—enough to fund our entire development plan."
Lira's eyes widened. "That much?"
"The cruiser's power core was massive. These are just fragments, but they're incredibly dense." He set the shard on the table. "We'll use them strategically. Not just for mana, but for research. We need to understand Devourer technology, find weaknesses, develop countermeasures."
Elara nodded slowly. "I know someone who can help with that. A Lord I served briefly, years ago. He was obsessed with studying the Devourers—collected artifacts, analyzed their ships, even captured a few warriors for interrogation."
"Where is he now?"
"His territory is on the southern continent. Isolated, but intact. If anyone can help us understand these shards, it's him."
Aarav made a decision. "Lira, you're our best scout. Take a team, find this Lord, and bring him here. Offer him whatever he needs—resources, protection, access to the shards. We need his knowledge."
Lira nodded. "I'll leave at dawn."
---
Days 1 through 60 of the long preparation passed in a blur of construction and training.
Aarav used his evolutions methodically, focusing on force multiplication rather than raw power. Every crystal spent was an investment in the future.
[ AETHEL - DEVELOPMENT LOG - DAYS 1-60 ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ DAY 1: NEW BARRACKS (C → B) ]
├─ COST: 600 MANA (B-RANK 500 ×1.2 STRUCTURE = 600)
├─ CRYSTALS USED: 12
├── EFFECT: RECRUIT 60 B-RANK SOLDIERS DAILY, CAPACITY 600
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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[ DAY 2: SECOND BARRACKS (NEW, C → B) ]
├─ COST: 600 MANA
├─ CRYSTALS USED: 12
├── EFFECT: RECRUIT 60 B-RANK SOLDIERS DAILY, CAPACITY 600
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ DAY 3: LUMBER CAMP (C → B) ]
├─ COST: 600 MANA
├─ CRYSTALS USED: 12
├── EFFECT: RECRUIT 25 WOODCUTTERS (250 WOOD/DAY)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ DAY 4: QUARRY (C → B) ]
├─ COST: 600 MANA
├─ CRYSTALS USED: 12
├── EFFECT: RECRUIT 15 MINERS (75 STONE/DAY)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ DAY 5: MINE (C → B) ]
├─ COST: 600 MANA
├─ CRYSTALS USED: 12
├── EFFECT: RECRUIT 10 MINERS (20 IRON ORE/DAY)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ DAY 6: FARM EXPANSION (C → B) ]
├─ COST: 600 MANA
├─ CRYSTALS USED: 12
├── EFFECT: FEEDS 2000 PEOPLE, 200 FOOD/DAY SURPLUS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ DAY 7: MANA RESERVOIR (C → B) ]
├─ COST: 600 MANA
├─ CRYSTALS USED: 12
├── EFFECT: +500 MAX MANA (TOTAL 2800)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ DAY 8: INNER WALL (C → B) ]
├─ COST: 600 MANA
├─ CRYSTALS USED: 12
├── EFFECT: HEIGHT 10M, REINFORCED CORE, ENERGY SHIELDS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ DAY 9: OUTER WALL (C → B) ]
├─ COST: 600 MANA
├─ CRYSTALS USED: 12
├── EFFECT: HEIGHT 8M, DETECTION GRID, ELECTRIFIED
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ DAY 10: WATCHTOWERS (2) (C → B) ]
├─ COST: 600 MANA EACH = 1200 TOTAL
├─ CRYSTALS USED: 24
├── EFFECT: +200% ARCHER EFFECTIVENESS, 3km SIGHT RANGE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The pattern continued for sixty days. Aarav evolved building after building, pushing the territory toward B-rank with relentless determination. By Day 60, he had transformed twelve structures to B-rank, with three more in progress.
[ AETHEL - RESOURCE UPDATE - DAY 60 ]
├─ CRYSTALS USED (DAYS 1-60): APPROXIMATELY 300
├─ DEVOURER CORE SHARDS USED: 0 (SAVING FOR RESEARCH)
├─ CRYSTALS REMAINING: 1434 - 300 = 1134
├── POPULATION: 214 → 847 (REFUGEES AND NEW RECRUITS)
├── SOLDIERS: 350 → 820 (470 NEW RECRUITS)
├── RESOURCES: WOOD 2847, STONE 1834, IRON 648
---
On Day 65, Lira returned from her mission.
She brought with her a small, intense man named Kael—no relation to the Kaelen who had died in Phase 3, though the name made Aarav's heart clench. Kael was a researcher, not a fighter, his territory a sprawling laboratory filled with Devourer artifacts and half-completed experiments.
"You have core shards," Kael said without preamble, his eyes gleaming with barely contained excitement. "Lira said you have hundreds. I've spent decades studying Devourer technology, and I've never had access to that much raw material."
Aarav led him to the secured vault where the shards were stored. Kael's breath caught as he saw the crystalline pile.
"This is... this is unprecedented. With these, I can finally understand how their ships work. Their weapons, their shields, their propulsion systems." He turned to Aarav. "Give me access, and I'll give you everything I learn. Weaknesses, countermeasures, maybe even ways to use their own technology against them."
"Done." Aarav extended his hand. "Welcome to the Untamed Valley."
---
Days 66 through 120 were a period of rapid growth.
With Kael's research underway and the territory's resource production soaring, Aarav focused on expanding his military and fortifications. He recruited constantly, trained relentlessly, and prepared for the challenges ahead.
[ AETHEL - MILITARY STATUS - DAY 120 ]
├─ TOTAL SOLDIERS: 1,847
│ ├─ 200 B-RANK ELITES
│ ├─ 647 C-RANK VETERANS
│ └─ 1000 D-RANK RECRUITS (TRAINING)
├── HEROES: ELARA (C → B), MARCUS (D → C), LIRA (D → C), MIRA (C → B)
├── KIRI: D → C (EVOLVED DAY 90)
Aarav had also used two of his talent shards—the remaining Legendary and Mythical—to further upgrade his abilities.
[ AETHEL - TALENT UPGRADES ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ DAY 80: LEGENDARY SHARD - DISTANT EVOLUTION II ]
├─ EFFECT: RANGE INCREASED TO 10km, COST 1.8x NORMAL
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ DAY 100: MYTHICAL SHARD - ADAPTIVE EVOLUTION I ]
├─ EFFECT: CAN EVOLVE TARGETS TO ADAPT TO SPECIFIC THREATS
├─ EXAMPLE: SOLDIERS CAN BE EVOLVED TO RESIST DEVOURER WEAPONS
├── COST: 2x NORMAL, 3x OUTSIDE TERRITORY
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Adaptive Evolution was a game-changer. Instead of simply making things stronger, he could now make them specialized—soldiers resistant to energy weapons, walls designed to absorb orbital strikes, traps keyed to Devourer biology.
---
On Day 150, the first major alliance summit convened.
Representatives from seventeen top Lords gathered in the Untamed Valley—some in person, others via projection. Seraphina came with her angels. Drakos sent a dragon-form envoy. Elara Mistborn's elementals swirled through the hall. Others sent warriors, mages, diplomats.
Aarav stood at the head of the table, his council flanking him.
"Two years ago, we were strangers," he began. "Competitors in a game none of us fully understood. Today, we face a common enemy—one that doesn't care about our rankings, our territories, or our rivalries."
He projected the Devourer armada data.
"One hundred thousand ships. Twelve noble houses. Three World-Eaters. A God-Emperor who has consumed twenty-three universes." He let the numbers sink in. "Alone, we die. Together, we have a chance."
A representative from House Valdris spoke up. "A chance? Against those odds?"
"A better chance than any single Lord has." Aarav met his eyes. "The scout fleet we destroyed thought we were easy prey. They were wrong. The main armada will make the same mistake if we give them reason to."
Seraphina stood. "I've fought beside Aarav. I've seen what he can do. His territory is proof—built from nothing in less than a year, now one of the strongest on the continent. If anyone can lead us, it's him."
Murmurs rippled through the hall. Not everyone was convinced, but no one left.
By the end of the summit, twelve Lords had signed formal alliance pacts. Five more had agreed to share intelligence and coordinate defenses. It wasn't unity, but it was a start.
---
Days 151 through 365 brought steady progress.
Aarav continued to build, recruit, and evolve. Kael's research yielded fruit—detailed analyses of Devourer weapons, suggestions for countermeasures, even prototypes for using core shards as power sources.
[ AETHEL - KAEL'S RESEARCH LOG - DAY 365 ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ PROJECT 1: DEVOURER WEAPON ANALYSIS ]
├─ STATUS: COMPLETE
├─ FINDINGS: ENERGY WEAPONS OPERATE AT SPECIFIC FREQUENCIES
├── COUNTERMEASURE: SHIELDS TUNED TO THOSE FREQUENCIES (90% EFFECTIVE)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ PROJECT 2: DEVOURER SHIELD ANALYSIS ]
├─ STATUS: COMPLETE
├─ FINDINGS: SHIELDS CAN BE OVERLOADED BY RAPID SUCCESSIVE IMPACTS
├── COUNTERMEASURE: COORDINATED VOLLEY FIRE (5+ ATTACKS WITHIN 1 SECOND)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ PROJECT 3: CORE SHARD POWER SYSTEMS ]
├─ STATUS: PROTOTYPE PHASE
├─ FINDINGS: SHARDS CAN BE USED AS SUSTAINED POWER SOURCES
├── APPLICATION: 10 SHARDS CAN POWER A TERRITORY FOR 1 YEAR
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ PROJECT 4: DEVOURER BIOLOGY ]
├─ STATUS: ONGOING
├─ FINDINGS: DEVOURERS ARE BIOLOGICALLY DEPENDENT ON CONSUMPTION
├── THEORY: IF DENIED CONSUMPTION FOR EXTENDED PERIODS, THEY WEAKEN
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
By Day 365, the territory had reached B-rank—a full six months ahead of schedule.
[ AETHEL - TERRITORY STATUS - DAY 365 ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ HOST: AARAV OF ORION ]
[ TERRITORY: THE UNTAMED VALLEY (RANK B) ]
[ TIME UNTIL DEVOURER MAIN ARMADA: 365 DAYS ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ PERSONAL RESOURCES ]
├─ BASE MANA: 482/2800 (RECOVERING)
├─ MANA CRYSTALS: 1134 - 834 (USED THIS YEAR) = 300
├─ DEVOURER CORE SHARDS: 347 - 100 (USED IN RESEARCH) = 247
├─ GOLD: 167,500 + 200,000 (ALLIANCE CONTRIBUTIONS) = 367,500
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ TERRITORY STATUS ]
├─ RANK: B
├─ HERO SLOTS: 3/3 (ELARA B, MARCUS C, LIRA C) + MIRA (B)
├─ POPULATION: 3,847
├─ MILITARY: 2,847 SOLDIERS
│ ├─ 500 B-RANK ELITES
│ ├─ 1,347 C-RANK VETERANS
│ └─ 1,000 D-RANK RECRUITS
├─ DEFENSES: DOUBLE B-RANK WALLS, 4 B-RANK TOWERS, COMPREHENSIVE TRAPS
├── ALLIED LORDS GARRISONED: 47
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━`
---
That night, Aarav stood on the watchtower with Mira and Kiri, watching the stars.
"One year down," Mira said quietly. "One to go."
"One year to prepare for the end of the world." Aarav's voice was heavy. "Doesn't feel like enough."
"It never does." She leaned against him. "But look what you've built in one year. A territory that rivals the top Lords. An army that grows stronger every day. Alliances that span continents." She smiled. "You've done the impossible again."
"We've done it. Not just me."
"Fine. We've done it." She nudged him. "But you're still the one everyone looks to. The Evolution Lord. The one who beat the scout fleet. The one who might actually save this world."
Aarav was silent for a long moment.
"I don't want to save the world," he said finally. "I just want to save the people in it. You, Kiri, Elara, Marcus, Lira, Tessa, everyone who trusts me. The world can take care of itself."
Mira hugged him tight. "That's why they trust you. Because you care about them, not some abstract idea."
Kiri pressed against both of them, her warmth a comfort against the cold night.
One year, she sent. Then we fight.
Aarav nodded.
One year.
He would be ready.
---
[ AETHEL - END OF YEAR 1 ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ PROGRESS SUMMARY ]
├─ TERRITORY RANK: C → B (ACHIEVED)
├─ POPULATION: 214 → 3,847 (+3,633)
├─ MILITARY: 350 → 2,847 (+2,497)
├─ ALLIANCES: 7 → 47 FORMAL, 100+ TENTATIVE
├── DEVOURER RESEARCH: 4 PROJECTS COMPLETED, 1 ONGOING
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ REMAINING CHALLENGES ]
├─ TIME LEFT: 365 DAYS
├─ NEED: 10,000+ SOLDIERS, A-RANK TERRITORY, 100+ ALLIED LORDS
├── THREAT LEVEL: EXTREME (ESCALATING)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
---
End of Chapter 31
One year has passed.
What began as a struggling settlement is now a rising power — thousands of soldiers, dozens of allied Lords, and a territory that has reached B-Rank.
But the real test hasn’t arrived yet.
The Devourer Main Armada is still coming.
One year remains.
And when that day comes… the fate of Aethel will be decided.
Thank you for reading and supporting the story!
