In the next month after the defeat of the Demon Lord and the annihilation of the Demon Lord army, the Alliance army made their way back to the capital of the Kingdom of Victal, the city of Hinelyn. The Kingdom of the Victal is where the Hero Summoning was held because it was the country with the strongest military might among the human countries and thus could protect the Hero if the demons planned to assassinate him.
Ren came back to travel with the Hero and his companions alongside the Alliance army the next day. When he appeared it was already noon, Reiji confronted him about abandoning him in the Demon Lord's castle.
"Do you have any idea how many demon knights I had to kill!?" Reiji yelled out in frustration. When he got back, it was already morning and the battle with the Demon Lord's army ended before he could show up. They were in the process of cleaning up and he didn't have the opportunity to help out at all
"Well, if I have to give a number. I'd say around 931" Ren responded with a weirdly specific number, a calm expression on his face.
"SO YOU KNEW!" Reiji screamed with his face red and eyes wide. Because the number Ren gave was spot on, he definitely knew how many demon knights were in the castle when he left.
"Well, you came back alive and that's all that matters" Ren said nonchalantly, dropping the subject before flying off to the battlefield where the battle took place.
"HEY, I'M NOT DONE COMPLAINING YET!" Reiji yelled out and flew after Ren.
After 30 seconds of flying, Ren reached the center of the battlefield that is now filled with monster corpses. Reiji finally caught up, after Ren stopped.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Reiji asked calmly like his previous outburst was all just an act. He's been with Ren for 10 years already; him ignoring people just means he's focused on something else.
"Getting a power source for the World Path" Ren said, taking out a crystal ball and holding it out.
A light flashed out of the crystal ball before the aura of death spread out over the monster corpses. Screams of countless beasts echoed out. Reiji could see souls leaving the corpses of the millions of demons and monsters on the black plane and fly into the crystal ball.
He was completely baffled, he couldn't even say anything. Normally, the souls of people will go to the God they worshiped to be judged before being sent to the Circle of Reincarnation to be reborn. In the case of demons and monsters, their souls will turn into mana and condense into a magic stone. This process can be stopped, but only for a short amount of time.
These demons and monsters have been dead for half a day now, meaning the soul was trapped before they could into mana. Doing that would require an immense amount of mana, an amount that even Ren wouldn't be about to handle.
The only way he would be able to; is to use the power of the world, which only gods could do. But, Reiji just stops that train of thought. He knew that Ren never wants to become a god, he doesn't know why but his friend has always expressed this very clearly.
'This is Ren, he probably figured out a loophole or something' Reiji just calks in up to his friend being special.
Seeing that this "soul-sucking" process would take a while, he decided to head back and leave Ren to take care of it. It was already dusk when Ren came back and he just showed himself before heading out again.
The next day, the Alliance army sets off on the journey back. Ren came back in the morning to join the march back, but only till noon. He'd be gone for the rest of the day and show up at their camp in the morning.
This repeated every day for the entire month. The night when the army was one day away from Hinelyn city, Ren said "I have something to finish up, so I won't be able to join you guys in the parade the next day" to Reiji and the others in their private tent before heading out again. They're already used to his behavior. Whenever there was a big event happening, he would go off somewhere else and come back the day after. They've never stopped him from doing this because they knew he doesn't like to bring attention to himself. But…
"You know, I'm kind of worried about Ren" The Saint said, a concerned look on her face while sipping on her cup of tea.
"What is it, Meli?" Asked the woman sitting across from the Saint, Meliana. The woman has golden blonde hair and blue eyes, she is very beautiful and her appearance is identical to the Saint. They were twins, a pair of beautiful twins having a tea party in the private tent.
"Yeah, speak your mind" a man with black hair appeared from the shadow and urged Meliana to speak, very much interested in what it is she's thinking about. This man is one of the three that got dragged along with Reiji, he's a Rouge.
Reiji and another man with brown hair, who were maintaining their long sword, looked at Meliana with interest. The man with brown hair was also dragged along to this world with Reiji, he's a Guardian Knight.
"Well, I just thought of this, but…" Meliana said, nervously looking around the tent like she's searching for something.
"It's alright, I already checked. He's not watching us" Said Dominic, the man with black hair, seeming to know what she was trying to find.
When Meliana heard that, she eased up a little and starts speaking her mind.
"Have you guys ever seen Ren hanging out with a girl before?" Meliana posed this question. Everyone fell silent, seeming to stumble upon a sudden realization. Reiji, and Shuya, the man with brown hair, paused in the middle of wiping their sword. Liliana, Meliana's twin sister, halt her hand in the middle of taking a sip from her teacup. Dominic, who was about to sit down with the rest of the group, froze in his place.
The silence was broken by the three guys exclaiming "Wait!" simultaneously with surprise on their faces. All of them coming to the same conclusion, they have never seen Ren hanging out with a girl before. Ren has always been holed up in his room researching magic, exploring somewhere dangerous, fighting or traveling with them. In all these years, they've never seen him take a leisurely walk down the street or anywhere that would be a popular hangout spot.
"He's been isolating himself from girls all this time and yet, we as his friends, never noticed!" Reiji was devastated by this revelation, feeling a little guilt for all those times he had talked to Ren about his relationship with Meliana.
"I've been asking him for date locations all this time!" Dominic crumbled to his knees, guilt gripping on his heart, and shock colored his face.
"I went to him for love advice, it must have been painful listening to me talk about my love life" Shuya was saddened by this, lowering his head with a pained expression.
Liliana and Meliana were feeling guilt as well. Meliana had asked Ren about Reiji when she started having feelings for him 4 years after they were summoned. Liliana also consulted Ren when she discovered her feelings towards Shuya 4 years ago.
Ren has always been there to give advice everything they need help with, despite the fact that he's a least three years younger than all of them. This could probably be explained by him gaining the legacy of the last Sage and his photographic memory.
Silent permeated the entire tent before someone spoke up.
"Is this the reason why he wants to go back home?" Reiji is the one who spoke up first, posing this question.
"Reiji, you're thinking too much into this" Meliana said, trying to comfort him. She continued "Ren wouldn't take it that personally. Even though we were oblivious of it, he wouldn't put fault in us for not noticing"
"Yeah, knowing him if we brought it up he'd just say 'You guys just noticed?' or 'Took you long enough!' or something along those lines" Dominic agreed and got back up to take a seat at the table.
Everyone's moods lighten up a little and continued what they were doing.
"Let's bring it up again when we get back, we'll get a chance to speak to him then" Reiji suggested and everyone nodded in agreement.
The night goes on in silence. The next day the Alliance army arrived in front of Hinelyn city's gate where a camp was created for the soldiers that numbered in the millions, the city simply cannot accommodate so many. They didn't expect the army to come back with barely any casualties, only around several thousand deaths. Which is very low considering the enemy army was more than twice the size of the Alliance army.
The Hero's party and some of the other high-tier combatants of various races continued through the gate because they were the core power in the army. Only those of King-tier and above are considered high-tier. Hundreds of powerhouses walked through the gate moving behind the Hero's party, which are the ones that confronted the Demon Lord in his castle.
As they passed through the gate, they were greeted by a huge crowd of people of various races all cheering to them for their victory in battle. A path cuts right through the crowd, guarded by Royal Knights on either side preventing the crowd from blocking the path of these powerhouses.
The group walked on to the end of the path, the plaza. There, they were greeted by the leaders of all the countries within the alliance. In front of all the leaders is the King of Victal, the Head of the Alliance.
The leaders congratulated them for their victory then led them to the royal castle to officially reward them for their bravery.
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Another month passed and every leader and their respective force returned to their country. This very day, the nobles and even the King of Victal himself have gathered in a room. This room is filled to the brim with magic arrays, making it so that even Saint-tier powerhouses wouldn't be able to break in without spending weeks trying. This room was created by Ren to house the Continental Teleportation Gate, able to teleport you anywhere on the world's surface. This room is on the floor below Ren's personal room within the Sage Tower.
They were waiting for Ren and the Hero's party to arrive and they were being watched by a mage from the Sage Tower, but this mage wasn't simply a mere mage of the Sage Tower, he is a Saint-tier Divine Mage and one of the four disciples that Ren took in. He has a higher status than even the King; the nobles wouldn't dare act impatient in the presence of such an individual. They all waited patiently.
Then an indescribable power surged from below their feet. On the underground floor of the tower, Ren just reestablished the World Path, stabilizing the connection between Earth and Mirkaz. Mana starts to pour in from Earth, filling the Sage Tower with dense mana that didn't overflow outside due to the magic arrays on the walls keeping it from leaking.
All the nobles were shocked by the sudden increase in mana density. The King wasn't surprised by this, because he knew what Ren was doing on the underground floor, Reiji told him about it beforehand. While the nobles were still shocked, a spatial crack appeared in the room.
Stepping out of the spatial crack are the Hero's party, and Ren coming out last. The nobles snapped out of their shock the moment the spatial crack appeared and straightened their posture, one fitting of nobles of the Kingdom of Victal.
The King stepped forward to greet Ren and the Hero's party with a smile on his face. After a bit of pleasantry, the King got straight to the point.
"Ren, I will miss our talks while you're not here" The King said, sadness coloring his face.
His words triggered the start of the nobles voicing their thoughts out loud. "The Sage is leaving the kingdom?!" "Is it something we did?!" "Have we upset the Sage?!" "Is there no ladies that he fancies in our kingdom?!"...
The last comment made Ren's face twitch a little, a bitter smile on his face.
"Master! Is it true that you are leaving because you cannot find a suitable lover?!" The Divine Mage that's been standing there silently, questioned his teacher.
Ren was about to refute his student's question when Reiji followed up with a bombshell of a question.
"Ren, are you leaving because we never noticed your trouble in approaching girls?" Reiji asked with a concerned look on his face. But, inwardly he was enjoying this. 'This is for leaving me to kill a thousand demon knights' Reiji laugh in his mind, but kept up his concerned expression on the surface.
Ren's face visibly twitched even more. He is completely speechless by this misunderstanding and the fact that Reiji is just adding fuel to the fire on purpose. His expression quickly turned to that of tiredness and he just turned his back on them saying "That's it, I'm going now. See you next year Your Majesty" then activated the Continental Teleportation Gate and walked through it.
"Hey wait! Don't just walk out on us like that!" Reiji shouted before walking through the gate as well.
"We'll be heading out now Your Majesty" Dominic said while waving his hand and went through the gate. Shuya followed him after bidding the King farewell.
"We'll be going now, Father" Meliana said and went through the gate with Liliana. When the last two passed through the gate, it slowly closed until it shut down.
"I'll open a gate to the royal castle's courtyard, Your Majesty" The Divine Mage said, reactivating the teleportation gate to the royal castle for the King and the nobles to return to Hinelyn city. They only came here to bid farewell to Ren before his departure back to Earth.
"I look forward to working with you from now on, Sir Isaac" The King said to the Divine Mage, Isaac.
"Likewise, Your Majesty" Isaac gave a short response before gesturing to the gate, indicating that it is ready.
The King and the nobles eloquently walked through the gate, when the last person passed through, it deactivated. Leaving Isaac as the only one left in the room.
After a few moments, Isaac muttered "See you again next year, Master" before a magic circle appeared at his feet and teleported him out of the room. The room is completely silent, the arrays in the room rotate and transformed the room into a library disguising it completely.
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In an old decrepit room with walls made of stones, the walls have some cracks due to the passage of time. Small piles of rubbles were on the floor and the floors have cracks. Lights flashed and out came Ren then Reiji then Dominic, and Shuya then finally Liliana, and Meliana.
This is the place where the gate back to Earth resides, the World Gate. It's located at a very dangerous place hence why the King and the nobles did not come along; Isaac has to look after the Sage Tower.
After arriving, Ren started to set up the magic arrays needed for him to go back to Earth; this would only take a few minutes. The others decided to start saying goodbyes.
"So, it's finally time; huh? We've been through a lot" Reiji spoke first and looked up, reminiscing about all the times they spent together.
"Yeah, it's been a good 10 years" Ren responded with a faint smile, still continuing to work on the arrays.
"It was really fun going on adventures, definitely more interesting than going to college" Dominic said, half complaining about his college life back on Earth.
"Hey, at least you could go to college. I dropped out of high school and have to work at a shitty job every day" Shuya said, half trying to one-up Dominic and half complaining about his life back on Earth.
"Alright alright, let's not make this parting all about complaining" Reiji said, getting back to the subject of their past adventures.
About the ups and downs, about how hard it was starting off on their first adventure, about how they comforted each other when they first killed another human, about the celebration they had after they slayed their first dragon, all the different type of monsters they encountered, all the encounters they had with the Demon Lord, all the enemies, and allies they made along the way.
The memorable times the four of them had, that one time Ren blew up a noble's mansion, that time Shuya got chased by a bunch of young noble ladies, that time Dominic was hunted down by demons for stealing an artifact of theirs, the times the leaders of different countries gave Reiji their daughters hand in marriage after he defeated them, and many more moments the four of them had. They all laughed about the absurd things that happened. The four were like brothers, they were a family
The twins felt a little left out but decided to stay out of it for now. That was because the twins were doing their own things in the kingdom, they only get the chance to spend time together after the four came back from their adventures.
"Hahaha… Alright, I'm done" Ren stopped chuckling and finished up the arrays. As he finished, a huge hole in space opened up. It looks like a wormhole that distorted space around it. It tried to suck everyone in, but a few magic arrays forcefully stabilized the hole and it calmed down.
"Well, I guess this goodbye" Ren said as he turned around to look at his friends. As he does, he was hugged by both Meliana, and Liliana. He was stunned by this but became calm after a moment.
"What are you two doing?" Ren asked this simple question. The both of them slowly released him with teary eyes.
"You're going to be gone, so we wanted to give you a final goodbye hug" Meliana explained, a drop of tear fall from her left eye.
"I'm not going to be gone forever, you know?" Ren said matter-of-factly.
"But, you'll be on your own from now on. We're very worried about you being all alone" Liliana said worried about Ren, who was like a younger brother to her and Meliana.
"I'm going to be fine, I have my blood family back on Earth" Ren countered before smiling and continued "I'll be back in a year anyway, else this baby won't be able to meet his uncle Ren" his hand placed on Liliana's belly.
Ren's statements were met with silence then it was broken by Meliana shouting "What!? Lily, you're pregnant!?"
"Hehe, you worked fast Shuya" Dominic praised and wrapped his arm around Shuya's neck, half choking him.
Reiji was stunned speechless. He stood there dazed for a few seconds before his face warped into a huge smile.
"This is a cause for celebration! We will be having a wedding ceremony and everything!" Reiji announced, clearly more excited than the couple themselves at the moment.
"We've got to tell mother and father about this, he'll be super happy to hear that he's going to be a grandfather!" Meliana shouted with a bright smile on her face.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves; we're here to say goodbyes to Ren, aren't we?" Liliana said, steering the situation back on track.
Everyone's attention gets directed back to Ren, who has been standing there with a smile on his face.
"Alright, it's time for me to go. It's sad I won't be at the wedding, but I already prepared a gift for that occasion" Ren said, turning around and walking to the hole. But before he stepped in, he turned his head to look at Reiji and said "Also, there's a chest in my room with materials to upgrade everyone's equipment. The instruction is on a memory crystal, so drop by the Sage Tower to get it later"
"Yeah, will do" Reiji said nodding and said his goodbyes "See you again next year, Ren"
Ren just nodded then walked through the hole in space and disappeared from the room.
He traversed through time and space, the path back to Earth is long but he came prepared. He slowly sinks into his conciseness and his body kept moving along the path set by him even though he's no longer controlling his body. In his own conciseness, he is slowly creating the shape of his new body, one of his 15-year-old self. He bestowed it with a small portion of his skills and magic. He'll be able to live leisurely with just a small portion of his power, he would not be in danger and he could still protect his friends and family even if there were dangers.
And his main body? It'll absorb the mana on Earth and continue to gain more power. That's one of the reasons he came back to Earth because Earth has an astronomical amount of mana that hasn't been touched for more than a hundred thousand years and he will be the only one using it.
That's one reason why he came back. He'll live a normal life and accomplish the long list of tasks he set for himself to complete. It'll be a long time before he could finish it all, so he'll just go through it slowly.
'I will finally see them again' He thought to himself, as his body kept moving through the path towards Earth.
