Tyrants of Earth - The Legend of Artigan

In the days since departing with Zedart, Ryan continued the back and forth between The Realm and Earth. Mudriff and Anjalith had both managed to learn their desired Trial skill and gave Ryan a long list of desperate adventurers willing to sign away their souls for the chance to learn a Trial skill so they could progress.

Grevich also wanted more test examples to solidify his research paper and was working overtime trying to implement Ryan’s examples without him being present.

To show that some results were reproducible without him. Apparently he was still having mixed results… which were better than he had hoped.

On the third day…

“I’m telling you somebody tried to access my laptop. I have security measures in place the Secretary told me about and whoever this invisible person is triggered two of them.”

“What did they access?”

“Nothing they could find, but… well…”

The thing was, Milock had installed a keylogger into his own laptop. It gave him the exact time and presses.

02:02:32 ‘Mirelda recording.’

02:02:35 ‘recording evidence.’

02:02:37 ‘blackmail’

…

The list went on.

“Did she find it?”

“No, of course not. I’ve got better security than that. Even if she did find it I have backups on backups on the Secretary’s private server.”

“But we’re going to have to operate as if she can see through that ring of yours.”

Milo shook his head.

“Talked to Ella about it—”

“Ella?”

“Get off it. I’m not saying she’s nice but she's pretty straightforward when you get to know her.”

“Right.”

“Anyway, the reason why the ring failed to detect Pinkie last time was because I wasn’t using it properly. Apparently if I start the bubble from my finger and then expand it, even dragonslayers can’t bypass it without having some very specialized Rare skills.”

That did change things, Ryan hadn’t realized the bubble itself was what was removing invisibility and not just being in the silence sphere itself. Still something like that…

“The Secretary really gave you something crazy, huh?”

“I’m telling you, she hates the idea of the rest of the world finding out about everything. Chaos isn’t really what she wants.”

“I’d believe that if she hadn’t been sleeping with Pinkie.”

“Well… I mean, you know, Pinkie’s a shapeshifter. I totally get it. Wouldn’t you?”

Ryan shook his head.

“She’s got you completely wrapped around her finger.”

“What are we going to do about Mirelda?”

Ryan used his [Spellweave Perception], he dashed to the window and pulled back the curtains, seeing something hover over, watching them and—

It was Chester. Flapping its pages, annoyed that its invisibility was seen through easily by him.

Ryan facepalmed.

He forgot, they had more than one stalker.

——

Mirelda had barely flown down in time to avoid the erratic sudden movements of Ryan. One moment he was talking pleasantly to his friend, the next he had dashed towards the window like a madman.

It wasn’t that she was afraid of a fifth realm adventurer.

It was just that they had blackmail material on her and she was not willing to interfere with the Witch Tyrant’s plans or break her own bargain.

——

The Realm:

Ryan yawned as he took a break from jogging across the leveled zone. Cerul, that not-so-little shitbird hadn’t let him sit on his back since he’d gotten those mana patterns around its feathers. Every time he got close, the crow would nip at his left arm.

Cerul was likely worried that his volatile mana might do something to its patterns somehow.

“If you’re that worried about it then maybe they’re weak?!”

“CAWW!”

As demonstration that Cerul’s new patterns weren’t weak it shot up into the sky and started siphoning mana en masse.

“Oh shit.”

A hail of actually dangerous feathers started bombarding the leveled zone of Sector Five. Cerul did not actually aim at him… just around him in a neat circle to demonstrate just how much the cerulean bird had gotten stronger.

It was likely that there was no amount of realm five adventurers that could take the cerulean crow down while it was in the air.

Messing around aside, not being able to ride on Cerul’s back meant that he had to jog. It wasn’t a terrible thing on its own. It just left him in his own head… which was a weird place to be at the moment.

Normally he was frantically planning ahead, trying to see everything from different angles. Figure out what he’d missed and optimize his build… at the moment it felt like he had nothing.

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Just clear skies, a clear road and time to practice and take it easier.

Seffara was back and she was stronger than ever. He had managed to worm some information out of her and knew that she was d

She had been one of, if not the strongest ninth realm already. She had soloed a dragon, she had fought in countless skirmishes in the big war. Gone up against the greatest of odds and had survived them all.

And she knew the stakes.

Ryan closed his eyes and let the worry flow out of him. He enjoyed traveling in Sector Five, making banter with Gamielle and Cerul, watching great lakes of ruby red with vibrant purple-black plants surrounding it… and causing minor stampedes when the monsters saw him approach.

In front of a lake with towering spires of dirt around him, Ryan went back to his sword routine, not even really thinking about anything, he was just letting loose.

Trying to see if he could repair the [Aura Tyrant] with what he had.

He let his mind wander, taking in the lessons he had learned working with adventurers struggling with their classes and skills and put it into his own.

Not just move but act like the [Aura Tyrant].

Ryan’s sword routine turned into wide blows of overwhelming power. He threw his aura around like he would overwhelm anything that got in his way.

Not just act but become the [Aura Tyrant].

To look down upon the world and believe you had the right of rule over everyone else. It did not matter what they thought because you were stronger. Let them see your power and kneel or flee.

Not just become but make the [Aura Tyrant] mine.

Ryan stopped as he stared out into the ruby lake. A moment of reflection where he questioned whether he wanted to be a tyrant at all. Not the answer of the Tyrants where people saw them as saviors but a real, true tyrant.

One who would stamp out everyone in his way to get what he wanted.

That was where Ryan was having a problem. He was fairly certain he had more than adequate amounts of the concepts of tyranny and aura. It was somewhere where the concepts didn’t form into an overall whole.

And for once, Ryan sat down and closed his eyes, trying to focus inwards. Remembering that figure staring up at a statue trying to find the answer to a stupid question that had no satisfying answers.

Oh.

But why, why was the answer to that question so important for the [Aura Tyrant]?

He thought about it, then frowned in annoyance, unable to figure it out. He went back to his sword forms.

[Conceptual Meditation]

“Ah.”

He found his answer at last. He had the concepts around him, the quality and quantity was there, the problem wasn’t any of that… the problem was that he himself was uncertain whether or not he wanted to be the [Aura Tyrant] any longer.

It was that damned question. The question that the [Aura Tyrant]... no that Ryan himself had been trying to figure out the entire time.

How did you truly make a civilization everlasting?

He couldn’t—no wouldn’t be a tyrant unless he found his answer.

Look at The Realm, ripping apart at its seams because a single Tyrant had lost her daughter and had gone mad. A civilization that relied on powerful individuals only lasted for as long as they were sane or alive. Then it would collapse and everything would come to ruin.

It was him.

Ryan didn’t want to be a tyrant if there was no answer to this that would satisfy him.

What was the point of being a Tyrant if you couldn’t replace the current system with a better one? One that lasts?

He sighed and made his decision to move forward.

He opened his system screen.