Chương 448: Chapter 431 - The Black Mantle

"You mean, THE Black Mantle!?" Pablo's eyes widened, one of his parallel minds already running through everything he knew about them. Alonso nodded, leaning back in the wooden chair, his expression not sharing much of his friend's excitement. They were in a private lounge he had requested and been granted, giving him enough time to speak with the others before he left with Virgilia.

"Well," Lukas said, his voice low for a moment before the amused glint surfaced.

"That is not what I was expecting." A pause.

"But it does sound interesting."

"What about the rest of us?" Leonie asked, her tone measured, already moving past the surprise and into the practical.

"Virgilia said you will be formally accepted into The Covenant without further procedures," Alonso said.

"Full member status, freedom of movement within their territory, and access to their networks."

"So you are going alone," Ayu said. It wasn't quite a question. Alonso looked at her for a moment, reading what sat underneath the even tone, and nodded slowly.

"Yes. I asked about bringing you along…" He exhaled.

"They refused." A silence settled over the room. Ayu held his gaze for a moment longer than the others, then nodded, forcing a smile that almost made it.

"Well… take care, alright?" Alonso smiled at her.

"We will be seeing each other again sooner than you think. I may not be close to the peak powers of this stage, but once I reach my Fourth State, I won't be that far either." His eyes narrowed slightly as his gaze shifted to the rest.

"With The Black Mantle's backing, I can close that gap faster, and we could be moving to the next stage sooner than any of us expected."

"Well," Lukas said from the side, after a silence long enough to draw everyone's eyes to him.

"Not that I want to be the one to pour cold water on the optimism… but are we all clear that this division in Alonso's path is tied directly to his status as Contender, and The Tower enforcing a new script upon him?" He paused.

"Which, by design, is not precisely meant to be easier." Another silence followed, heavier than the last. Alonso looked at Lukas, then at the rest of them.

"I know," he said finally.

"And I believe it's for the best. The road to the top was never going to get easier… only harder. That's how it has been, and how it will be. I'd rather suffer now and pay the price than be killed in a future stage by a Contender from another civilisation who did." He paused.

"I want to temper my path, and to do that, I have to go through hell and come back. I cannot even imagine what kind of feats it takes to earn Titles above Grade 7, but they will not come easy." He faced them all, his gaze steady.

"Power never comes easy… does it?"

There were mixed emotions in every pair of eyes around the room. Ayu was not worried about Alonso. She trusted his skill, his will, and his path with something close to blind faith. What pressed on her was different. The fear that this division would only widen the gap between them, slowly and inevitably, until the distance became something she could no longer close. The fear of being left behind. And yet she had grown enough to know that was the life they had chosen.

She had told him herself, more than once, never to slow down for anyone, not even her. He was doing exactly that. Which meant the weight on her shoulders was now that much heavier. If he was being pushed toward challenges none of them could even imagine, then she would have to go looking for her own. Willingly. Without waiting to be pushed. She would fulfill her path and take it as far as it could go. Because the next time they stood beside each other, she did not want to be someone he had to protect.

She wanted to be exactly what she had always wanted to be. A warrior at his side. As the emotions settled, she looked at Alonso and sent a single layered pulse, everything in it she did not want to say out loud in front of the others. Wishing him well. Telling him she would always be there, no matter what came between them or how far the road stretched. And beneath it, quiet and certain, the conviction that she and the others would carve their own paths forward, so he had better not slack off either.

Alonso answered with a pulse of his own, carrying a warmth that needed no translation. His path was his. His heart was hers.

Leonie stared at Alonso, more than a bit conflicted. All her life she had been the centre. The one around whom everything else organised itself, the one who set the pace and defined the standard. She had excelled at everything she had committed to, without exception, and had built her identity quietly but completely around that fact.

And now she stood in a room watching someone she had chosen to follow walk toward a road she could not follow him down, and felt, for the first time in her life, like a face at the side of someone else's story. It was not a feeling she had any experience managing. She had come to terms with many things over the twelve days on the airship. The escape from Brithelm, the burning of bridges with the Church, the uncertainty of the Far North.

She had processed all of it with the efficiency she brought to most problems, filed it, planned around it, and moved forward. But Alonso was harder to file. She respected him more than she had ever respected anyone, and that respect had grown into something more, which made the whole thing considerably more complicated. So she made a decision. She would take that feeling and compress it into something useful. She would let it become fuel rather than weight. She would not waste it on a road that led nowhere.

What she wanted, underneath all of it, was to stand beside him as an equal. To be someone whose presence on the field meant something, whose power was not borrowed from his shadow but built from her own foundation. Not to be chosen out of sentiment or connection or history. To earn it. And right now she was nowhere near that.

The gap between where she stood and where he was heading was not one she could close through discipline alone, through planning alone, through the sheer force of will that had carried her this far. She would have to find something more. Push further than she had ever pushed. Accept costs she had not yet been asked to pay. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it She thought about what Alonso had done to get where he was. The immense pain.

The countless fights that had nearly ended him. The price extracted at every stage by something that had never once reduced its demands. And she thought about what lay ahead of him now, a road The Tower itself had decided was not enough, that needed to be harder still, and felt something settle in her chest that was not fear. She would rather meet her end having given everything she had to give, than arrive somewhere comfortable having left something in reserve. Whatever it cost… She would pay it.

"Fair enough," Lukas said, breaking the silence, which was promptly followed by a cheerful beep from the mech suit around him as it disassembled mid-air and reformed into Gerald, the small domed unit floating back to its usual position at his shoulder with what could only be described as relieved energy.

"Gerald agrees on that one," he mused. The mood in the room lifted slightly despite itself.

"I just wanted to point out," Lukas continued, his tone settling back into something more measured, "that we are now moving on different scripts, and it would be wise to keep that in mind going forward." He glanced around the room.

"In The Tower's eyes, we are but Observers of a challenge that runs deeper than our current understanding, one Alonso has become part of." A brief pause.

"Unless we can bridge that gap, realistically speaking… we may share the same board, but we are playing different campaigns." Gerald emitted a single solemn tone.

"Anyway," Lukas grinned, "let's not linger in the awkward silence and untold emotions. There's a world of elves, dwarves and vampires out there for the taking." He straightened slightly, adopting a theatrical tone.

"'O brave new world, that has such people in't.'" Gerald rotated in the air beside him, emitting what could only be described as the rhythmic hype of a bard sending heroes off to battle. Lukas grinned, pleased with the smiles around the room.

"We cannot predict where the line goes, or what the die will roll, but we can decide our path amidst it." Leonie stared at him, somewhere between amused and fond.

"Aren't you quite the poet now, dear brother."

"I just find the world fascinating," Lukas said simply.

"And for all it's worth, sis… I made Ayu a very serious promise I would not slack off, so I have every intention of seeing this through to the very end." He glanced at Ayu, throwing a wink that made her smile, before looking back at the room.

"As I do hope… we all do." The words landed softly, drawing chuckles, slow head shakes, and more than one quiet smile.

"So," Lukas continued, his eyes sliding toward Pablo with a knowing look, "let's skip the goodbye that is not really a goodbye, and let our resident scholar share the exciting news I can see he is absolutely itching to tell us about this mysterious organisation that may or may not be run by vampires from the shadows." Pablo looked up, caught entirely, and had the decency to look mildly embarrassed about it.

"Well, ehm, yeah," he said, straightening up and composing himself.

"About The Black Mantle. Not sure how much each of you know, so I will cover it from the beginning." Alonso leaned forward. He had a fairly strong suspicion he was among the least informed in the room on this particular subject, and at the same time the one who needed it most right now. He found that strikingly amusing.

"In its essence, it is the classic underground organisation," Pablo began.

"Focused on the shadier side of business, operating on contract mechanics not unlike the Adventurer Guild, except with one key difference. Anything goes, as long as the right price is paid." He paused to let that land.

"And when I say anything, I mean literally anything. Records show The Black Mantle has accepted contracts to overthrow kingdoms, assassinate emperors, and remove Cardinals of The Church."

"Since we are now in The Covenant, may I suggest we start referring to The Church by its proper name, The Way," Leonie interrupted, glancing around the room.

"There are many religions and churches here, so it would be wise to avoid confusion going forward." They all nodded.

"Pardon the interruption," she said to Pablo.

"Go on."

"Right, The Way," Pablo continued.

"So yes, the point being, no power in existence dares antagonise The Black Mantle, because there is everything to lose and nothing to gain from doing so."

"So they are a neutral power," Imani said, less a question than a confirmation.

"Completely. They accept contracts from The Way, The Covenant, the nobility, whoever has the coin. They defer to no one, bend to no regional politics, answer to no authority." Pablo glanced around the room.

"And beyond the contracts, may I also point out that they hold the largest black market in the world, the most extensive records, and the broadest intelligence operation in existence."

"Seems like the perfect organisation to have someone in," Lukas smiled, glancing at Alonso.

"Let's hope we get some letters once in a while." Alonso chuckled.

"What about the vampires though," Lukas asked Pablo.

"I came across a record or two on The Black Mantle, but found no mention of them. Did you have better luck?" Pablo shook his head.

"Not a word. I have not even found the term vampire used anywhere at all. Either the natives use a different term entirely, or they are very deliberately keeping themselves out of the literature."

"Interesting," Lukas mused, finger tapping the armrest slowly.

"Any thoughts, Gerald?"

"Beep. Beep."

"Yes," Lukas nodded, expression perfectly serious.

"That is a reasonable assumption." The laughs that followed were genuine enough to ease the room considerably.

"What about their power level?" Ayu asked, leaning forward.

"Does The Black Mantle have Sovereigns?"

"Absolutely," Pablo said.

"How many or how strong, I cannot say with certainty. But the records hint at a core group, analogous to The Way's Seven Saints, that they call The Shadow Sovereigns." He looked around the room.

"If the name is anything to go by… you can draw your own conclusions."

"Wouldn't that be a cool title," Lukas chuckled.

"Alonso, or rather, Darius, the Shadow Sovereign. Gives real end boss vibes." Alonso was still laughing when a pulse hit him from afar. His expression shifted instantly. The others caught it immediately.

"Well," he said, standing.

"Guess that's my cue. See you all in a while." They rose one by one, each leaving with a word or a nod, giving him and Ayu the room at the end. They stood facing each other for a moment. Alonso took her hand.

"Keep an eye on the others while I'm gone, yeah."

"That's Imani's job," Ayu said, smiling. Alonso laughed quietly. She tilted her head, the knowing smile still there.

"So. How beautiful is this vampire lady?" Alonso considered it for a moment.

"Very. Though a bit too pale for my taste, and the fangs look like they would make certain things complicated." Ayu's expression shifted into a pout that lasted exactly two seconds before she grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him in.

"You better come back," she said against him, quieter now, the smile gone. Alonso wrapped his arms around her and held on.

"Always," he said, and kissed her passionately.

Alonso put the mask on, feeling the EM field slide over his signature and the light across his face shift with it. He caught his reflection in a mirror, a new face staring back at him. His features hadn't changed much, but enough to make him a completely different person. Slightly older, mid-thirties at a glance, with the kind of cold, hard look that didn't invite questions." Houston?"" Clean. It is doing exactly what she said. Nothing more." Alonso nodded slowly.

He had half expected something subtle underneath it, a layer of mental influence baked into the design, the kind of thing The Black Mantle could use to keep their members compliant without them ever knowing. Finding nothing was either genuinely reassuring or a sign they were better at hiding it than Houston could detect. He decided to take it at face value for now. His gaze then dropped to the gear laid out on the table.

When Virgilia had told him he could not keep walking around in his current gear, he had agreed without much thought. He had not expected her idea of a replacement… to be such an upgrade.