"I know him too well." Lizana smiled softly.
Ark tapped his throne; his eyes fixed on Asher. He already had so guesses—ones he wished wasn't the case.
Lizana walked closer, her eyes dilating before she spoke.
"The man standing before you is your father. Sorcerer King, Asher.
Arkel froze.
For a brief mont, the world seed to stop moving.
The throne room, the mana in the air, even his own breathing—everything was suspended.
crack!
His grip tightened against the armrest. Slowly, his gaze glowed neon gold.
"…My father?" he repeated, voice low and uneven.
Then his lips curled—not into a smile, but a bitter sneer.
"So, you're him," Arkel let out a hallow laughed. "The man who vanished on us."
BOOOOM!
His mana surged outward, and the entire castle resonated in response. The whole city was designed so he could siphon its power at will, multiplying his capacity by thousands-fold.
And right now, all that power was converging upon his throne—veins of golden mana flowing toward him, forming circuit-like patterns.
Asher opened his mouth to speak, but he knew too well that this reaction was justified.
Unlike the demon world, he had left Eryx without informing anyone, believing he would never return.
"I'm sorry,"
"Sorry?" Arkel sneered. "You think that's enough? Do you have any idea what my stepsiblings and I went through? Growing up without a father?"
"And what about my mother and my aunts?" He pointed forward. "You used them, then went sowhere else to sleep around with more won. Aren't you ashad of yourself?"
Just as Asher expected, he left behind more than one son in this world.
"I…"
Before Asher could finish, the chains tightened and discharged a bolt of electricity—powerful enough to lt tal.
Lizana gasped, fully aware of her son's capabilities, but she remained silent as she watched Asher stand there casually.
He didn't even look as if he had taken any damage.
She was both amazed and confused at the sa ti.
His son's current level and mastery were at least triple what Asher's strength had been before he left.
"Your magic is impressive, but you won't defeat with ordinary lightning," Asher comnted.
That only fueled his son's anger. "Then how about a lightning that can erase a city in a blink of an eye?"
Outside the castle, the sky darkened as clouds thickened and rain began to pour.
The wind howled like a beast, and with a thunderous roar, hundreds of lightning bolts struck the highest points of the castle.
Each bolt carried a staggering 1 billion volts—and with the amplification of the magic circles, that power was multiplied tenfold.
They converged toward the chains, energy crackling and searing the air.
The sheer intensity was enough to lt tal, shatter stone, and reduce anything in their path to nothingness in a split second.
However, Asher remained standing. His invisible barrier effortlessly shrugged off the attack.
"I'm not done yet." Arkel raised both hands and muttered a series of incantations.
Hundreds of magic circles blood into existence, each glowing with a different color.
In the next instant, he unleashed them all at once.
The throne room drowned in light, layered spells colliding and roaring—each circle radiating overwhelming power, a testant to his mastery.
Not even the very first Sorcerer King had ever wielded strength like this.
And yet, when everything faded, Asher was still standing.
Unscathed.
The gap was simply too vast.
Unwilling to believe lose, Arkel cast another spell.
He layered multiple magic circles into a cone-shaped formation—the very sa spell Asher used to kill the previous Sorcerer King.
But this version was far deadlier—and it required only three seconds to unleash.
A beam of light tore through the air—but the mont it struck, it shattered and dispersed, breaking apart as if it had never existed.
"It's pointless. No matter how much you struggle, you cannot beat with your magic. Right now, I stand as the strongest in the universe."
There was no arrogance in his tone. Only certainty—clean, unembellished fact.
"Strongest in the universe?" Arkel repeated, sinking onto his throne with a bitter laugh.
All this ti, he pushed himself to grow stronger in order to prove that he was far better than Asher.
And now… all of it had been for nothing. How could he ever make the strongest being in the universe even acknowledge him?
"Let's talk." Asher snapped his fingers. The chains shattered, scattering into nothing more than confetti.
Lizana said nothing. She simply watched, letting her son and husband sort things out.
"So why are you here? Don't tell you ca back because you missed us. It's not like you're the type of person who value families." His voice was still filled with resentnt.
He refused to respect a person who abandoned them intentionally.
"I need your help. My real body is trapped sowhere and what you're seeing now is just a projection."
Arkel fists clenched. "And you expect to just… help you? After everything?"
"I know I failed you all before. But right now, I need your strength. Don't worry—I'll make up for everything. Whatever you desire, I can grant it."
Arkel laughed loudly, the sound echoing through the throne room.
"Wow… should I be grateful? What a great father you are—just throwing gifts around to absolve your sins. How convenient. You really think that makes up for all the people you hurt when you just vanished on us?"
"ARKEL!" Lizana could no longer hold back. "What are you doing? Don't talk to your father like that!"
"Mother, you're the one being unreasonable. This man left us for his own selfish reasons, and now you're defending him."
"This why he kept taking advantage of his wives? Can't you see? He is just a bastard who doesn't even appreciate all your effort!"
Asher didn't say anything and just lowered his head.
"Lizana, you don't need to speak for . He is right. That's why I'm asking him to help in exchange for a reward—not because of any familial bond."
With a snap of his fingers, a pile of treasures appeared—tos, magical artifacts, and even alien technology that he gathered along his journeys.
"If you reverse-engineer all of this, you'll beco far more powerful, and you could accelerate the magical technology of this world by at least a thousand years. Not a bad deal, right?"
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