It was midnight in the grand duchy's heart; calmness had vanished.
A gate had opened near the palace within their territory.
This was not a normal gate. It was a red gate, second only to the black gate in danger. The red alert sounded. Security officers yelled for everyone to run. People grabbed what they could and bolted, afraid of the gate.
Shane Leonheart, with black hair, black eyes, a perfect face, and a sturdy build, landed decisively near the gate. His troops followed, their intimidating presence causing every monster emerging from the gate to tremble.
But they knew these monsters were just minions emerging from the darkness, so they readied their weapons, preparing for the powerful ones yet to come.
Lucy, the knight commander, was visibly tense.
Lucy approached Shane Leonheart and asked, "Your Grace, the gate has just opened—how could monsters be breaking out already?" Her voice shook with tension as she voiced her concern.
Shane Leonheart was also clearly confused, but he kept his expression neutral.
"I'm not sure. I have never seen this happen. Whatever the cause, we must first close this gate," Shane Leonheart replied.
"We are going to clear this gate!!!" Shane Leonheart declared in his majestic voice.
"Yes, Your Grace! We shall obliterate every monster that dares to oppose us!" the Troops roared in unison.
Just as he was about to enter the gate, he paused, sensing a presence he knew all too well.
His wife, the Duchess of Leonheart, Sera Azurestorm, stood nearby—a beautiful woman with long blue hair flowing to her waist, azure eyes, and an untainted face.
Seeing his wife present instead of resting, Shane Leonheart's expression became clearly upset. He strode purposefully toward her, conviction evident in each step.
"Why are you here? You're eight months pregnant; you should be resting," Shane Leonheart said to Sera Azurestorm, tension in his voice as he glanced at her belly.
"How can I rest when a red breakout gate has appeared? I am a sage-level magician," Sera Azurestorm declared with resolve to her husband.
He tried to send her away. "I'm not leaving," she insisted.
Realizing he couldn't persuade her, Shane finally relented. He instructed Sera to remain at the back of the group and assigned four knights specifically to guard her closely.
Sera accepted Shane's arrangements, stayed toward the back with her guards, and joined the others as they entered the gate.
When they entered the gate, the scene before them was shocking.
A huge group of goblins ran at them. The area was wide. Goblins came from all sides, and goblin archers aimed at them from far away.
Shane Leonheart stepped forward and raised his sword, commanding, "Dear, stand in the center. Knights, form a circle. Mages and long-range warriors in the middle; knights at the back."
All followed in and started fighting.
Mages and long-range warriors began shooting the archers, taking them down.
The rear-end knights move to intercept the incoming goblins. Healers and support types cast buffs on the knights as they prepare for battle.
"Your Grace, they are too weak for it to be a red gate", Lucy voiced out her opinion loudly, and all knights clearly felt these goblins were too weak.
"They are for distraction, the real enemy is clearly hiding in the back waiting for us to lose our stamina", Shane said out loud.
"Just use minimal force and don't waste your energy on unnecessary movements, only buff when needed, keep your reserve intact," Shane ordered his troops, and they all complied.
This kept going on, and there was no end to them. Sensing a bad premonition, Sera Azurecrest turned to the north, focused her energy, and saw an even larger army approaching. These were not the normal goblins they had been fighting; these were stronger, all mutated goblins led by the goblin king.
What's even more shocking was that there was one goblin emperor, whose imposing aura surpassed hers, sitting on a throne carried aloft by goblins.
The goblin emperor looked in her direction, licked his lips, and started laughing maniacally.
Sera Azurecrest felt a shiver run down her body as she looked at her belly with tense sadness.
Just as Sera was about to inform Shane—"Dear, take care of this area and stay in the back. I am going to fight the enemy leader."—Shane gave the order and vanished. At the same moment, Lucy and several other high-ranking knights and mages also disappeared.
They knew Sera was strong enough and that there were enough troops to face the goblins and archers.
Shane landed near the goblin emperor with his sword blazing fire in his hand, and Lucy and the others landed behind him, forming a circle.
"HOHOHOHO KIKIKIKI, you have come here, Leonheart. I will erase your lineage from this world. KIKIKIKI HEHEHE", Goblin Emperor started laughing maniacally.
"Your Grace, how does he know about you? They should have no knowledge about you unless it was some scheme by someone," Lucy voiced her thoughts to Shane Leonheart.
"Yes, I have been feeling something is wrong ever since this gate appeared; someone must have planned all this", Shane Leonheart said
"HOHOHO, you still have time to talk here, kill them, my champions", the Goblin emperor orders his troops.
There were four goblin kings and several goblin lords.
Because only Lucy can fight goblin kings, Shane ordered his troops to confront goblin lords while he and Lucy focused on the goblin kings.
"Struggle all you want, but you are going to die here, KIKIKIKIKIKI", the Gobling emperor burst out laughing.
Shane took on three goblin kings while Lucy started fighting a remaining goblin king singlehandedly.
Lucy was a grandmaster rank, one the verge of being sage rank, but Shane was a different monster; he was sage rank already, on the verge of breaking into paragon rank.
Shane slashed his sword forward, severing the goblin king's hand. The sword's blazing fire began consuming the goblin's body. To stop the fire, the goblin king severed his other hand and then started frantically attacking Shane.
As two goblins attacked him at the same time, Shane parried their strikes, slashed back, deftly defended, and counterattacked so rapidly that the Goblin Emperor became visibly upset.
Lucy was not faring so badly; she gained the upper hand in the battle and cut off the goblin king's head.
Just as Shane cut off the goblin king's head, the goblin emperor descended from his seat and ate the goblin king, who had already lost his hand to Shane.
Goblin Emperor licked his lips, and the remaining goblin king backed off, seeing this, and started fighting against Lucy.
But, other knights that came with Shane were not flaring so well; the number of goblins they were dealing with was huge.
Goblin Emperor released an aura equal to Shane's. Though Shane was tired from constant fighting, he did not back down and matched the Goblin Emperor's aura.
Shane looked at his sword, named Darkred, and said, "Today, we will bathe in his blood." Feeling its master's resolve, the sword began to emit more fire, so red it seemed to be burning blood.
Shane launched himself toward the goblin emperor with his sword, aiming at his neck, but just as his sword was on the verge of cutting his neck, the goblin emperor defended himself with the huge axe that he was wielding.
They clashed, so powerful that their collision sent shockwaves everywhere, and debris began flying out.
Shane was not faring well, and he found himself on the defensive side quickly as he had already used up so much stamina dealing with others.
Goblin Emperor, seeing Shane's state, started laughing and kept on attacking him with his axe without stopping.
Goblin Emperor saw an opening and punched him in the chest, sending Shane flying backward.
Shane managed to steady himself, but the damage was so severe that he started coughing up blood violently.
The Goblin Emperor appeared in an instant in front of Shane and aimed his axe at Shane's neck to cut it off, but just as he was about to do so, Lucy appeared and tried to stop, but the Goblin Emperor threw a punch at her and sent her flying back.
Just as the axe reached near Shane's neck, the air suddenly shifted. To everyone's shock, Sera Azurecrest appeared between them, grabbing the axe with her hand to stop its swing. Her eyes were blood red as she forced her body to exert more power than she was capable of, desperately trying to keep the axe from reaching Shane's neck.
Sera channelled her magic, threw her axe aside, and unleashed a shockwave, flinging the goblin emperor backward.
Sera didn't stop there and started chasing down the goblin emperor and started sending one after another powerful spell, but he defended himself and attacked her with an axe, cutting her deeply in her chest, and it cut her deeply in her chest, and blood came out.
Seeing this, Shane grew so angry that his blazing aura made the air tremble as he approached the goblin emperor.
"So, now it's your turn to die after your wife..." Goblin Emperor was about to finish his sentence, but then his head fell to the ground. Disbelief filled his eyes as he died.
Shane had entered the paragon rank after being on the verge of death.
All the goblins started running after seeing their leader dead, and the troops chased after them and hunted them.
Shane approached Sera with tears rolling down his face, who was lying there and was on the verge of death, but healers had kept her alive.
Shane looked at her as she was giving birth to their child there in this wilderness with death dancing in the air.
Sera looked at Shane, coughing blood. She whispered that she kept their child safe."Baby wants to come out and play with you, take care of him, dear", Sera said to Shane with tears rolling down her face.
Shane couldn't hold back and hugged her tightly, saying that she couldn't leave him.
Time passed, and he kept on holding her hands. Baby came out of the womb with a loud cry, and mana particles shimmered around him as if happy to see him.
Shane took the baby in his hand. They have given birth to a son, and he was crying loudly.
Seeing son and father together, Sera felt relieved, but her happiness was short-lived, as she was on the verge of death.
She knew it clearly because she had burned away all her life force to exert more power to fight the gobling emperor.
Shane handed the baby to his mother, Sera. She saw him and was happy, but sad not to be able to see him grow.
"Grow up to be a strong and loving person, will you be my son. I will not be with you but will observe you from Heaven, so, don't be a naughty boy and don't trouble your father, your father and mother love you both", Sera said to her son.
As if the baby was intelligent and could feel the situation, he started crying even more. Seeing this, Sera couldn't hold back her tears and hugged her son tightly.
Shane joined in hugging them, and his tears couldn't be rolled back; he cried with them.
[!Ding Fated System has been awakened!!!][Host will get basic skills every day]
[Host is being scanned and system is synchronising.. 10%....30%....60%....70%...90%...100%]
[!Ding System is completely assimilated with the Host]
[Seeing the host in this state. Desperate measures are being taken to preserve his well-being.]
[Calculating the skill to be given to the host]
[!Error!Error!Error: Host is still an infant, and this skill isn't a basic skill.]
[!Error!Error!Error: Fate-Defying skill is being assigned to Host.]
[!Error: This skill doesn't fit under basic skill]
[!System is forcing the burden on itself and will go to slumber for 7 years]
[Host is given "Last Light of Miracle" Skill]
[!Error!Error: Host can use this only once, as it doesn't fall under basic skills.]
[!Host is still young to use, Forcing system to use this on his behalf]