It's the week before the attack. I'm currently in director Goodsky's office alongside Viron, Tess, Varay, Alea and Aya. Right now we were going over the plans to defend the academy one last time to make sure everything was accounted for.

"Do we have enough healers?" Varay asked.

"Yes, we do. And before you ask, I already hired enough adventurers to stand guard and help clean up the mana beasts. That way we can focus on capturing Draneve." Cynthia answered, putting the Lance at ease.

"What about Uto? Since the attack was moved to an earlier date, he might be present." Alea asked, a bit of unease escaping with her words.

"No need to worry about him. Uto is still on dungeon duty according to Seris. I'll also be paying him a visit the day before the attack." I told Alea.

"What for? Won't it be a problem if a retainer goes missing all of a sudden?" This time it was Aya who asked.

"I'm not going to kill him, that's for Alea to do when the war begins. I just want to use him as a courier." I said with a smirk.

They all looked at me weirdly before Aya spoke again. "Will Seele be helping us? I know we are more than capable of handling the situation, but having an Asura as backup would be nice."

"No, she will just observe from a distance, Seele doesn't want to risk giving Agrona any reason to renegotiate the treaty." Tess was the one who answered this time.

"I don't see how just being here risks anything, but whatever. I don't have any more questions, you guys?" Aya said as she looked around the room.

No one said anything so Virion took that as his queue to finish up our meeting. "Alright, let's go over the plan one last time then. The Lances will approach each from one side while eliminating any mana beasts they come across and incapacitating any enemies on the way. Tess will mobilize the student council to evacuate and defend the students. Sylvie will direct the adventures to make sure no one is left behind. Meanwhile Arthur will have the disciplinary committee roam the campus to deal with any stragglers while he keeps the radical faction busy. Is that clear?"

"Yes commander!" We replied in unison.

"Good. Once this is finished we will use the artifacts Arthur and Varay got from the Archivist to remove the limiters on all Lances except Olfred. Far away from any Asura in the case they are present, of course. With that, the meeting is adjourned."

We all left the room to go make sure we had our equipment prepared. For everyone else it was just armor and weapon maintenance, but I needed a few extra things. The first thing I did was visit Gideon to get my mask back.

I had asked the artificer to make some changes to the voice altering component, so that the message I was planning to send Agrona was more convincing.

After picking up my mask, Gideon kept pestering me for my ideas but I managed to convince him to wait a little longer, since there were still plenty of incomplete projects he needed to work on. Now with my mask in hand, I had everything I needed for my next encounter with Uto. All that was left was to wait.

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"Ready to kick some ass, princess?" Regis asked as we approached the chamber beneath Widown's Crypt, where Uto was commanding a small force of Alacryan soldiers responsible for corrupting mana beasts in the area.

"Couldn't be more ready even if I wanted." I replied while giving him a mental nod.

I had been waiting for the retainer to send his forces away before engaging for the past hour or so. It was a good thing I did, as I managed to learn quite a bit about the process of corruption. Things like the equipment needed, the tactics used to subdue the beasts and how long it took the process to complete. I had a vague idea before thanks to Agrona's journal, but little details like this were usually skipped as they didn't matter as much in the grand scheme of things.

Thinking on how to best make use of this information, I waited for the soldiers to be further away before revealing my presence. There was no need to waste time on them when I knew Uto would be pissed enough to do it for me.

When I felt they were far away enough, I activated Conditional Domain in conjunction with Realmheart to lock the earth mana in place as I jumped down from the vantage point I was in.

Uto immediately reacted from the sound of my landing and turned around to face me.

"Oh my, what do we have here? It seems I will be having some fun before the war starts." He said with that creepy and sadistic smile I was all too familiar with.

Not in the mood to talk right now, I took out a spare sword I prepared just for today and dashed at him, aiming at his knees. Uto dodged my blade before speaking again. "Not much of a talker, are you? Good. From my experience your type has the best screams, can't wait to hear them." He said with confidence and enthusiasm that soon crumbled when he realized no spikes were coming out of the shadows. "You! What did you do!?" He asked, anger filling his voice.

"Not much really. This is just what happens when you're fighting the Legacy." I spoke, my voice came out feminine thanks to the changes to my mask as I landed a large cut to his chest.

Uto snarled in response as I kept a steady rhythm with my sword, slowly injuring the retainer. He healed just as quickly as I damaged him, but that was fine, the goal wasn't to kill him.

I kept up the pressure as I waited for an opening to cut off one of his horns, so I could use his rage against him and cripple the retainer. I wanted Alea to be the one to kill Uto this time, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to give the guy some form of payback for what he did. Plus, it made Alea's job easier. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't do this much for her.

A few minutes passed as we exchanged blows. At some point Uto realized it was only his use of ambient mana that was restricted, so he was somewhat able to keep up thanks to augmenting his body. But it still wasn't enough, I had fought and defeated Cadell, bested the young genius of the Pantheons that was Taci and even managed to outsmart Agrona in battle. Though that last has some asterisks and I doubt it was something I could pull off a second time.

But that didn't matter now. Uto was not my match, the only reason I hadn't ended this fight yet was that the retainer had something to report other than he was simply defeated before he could fight back. I wanted this fight to reach Agrona's ears.

I went so far as to dye my hair and get the voice changer function of my mask changed just to sell the idea that the Legacy was already in this world. I knew Agrona wouldn't believe it, but as long as that seed of doubt was in his mind, it would serve as enough distraction to buy Dicathen some time in this war. It also had the added benefit of dragging Nico out to the battlefield early, thanks to his desperate obsession with Cecilia, giving the Lances a chance to use him as a stepping stone to become stronger.

I was broken out of my thoughts when I spotted the opening I had been waiting for. Swiping Uto's feet, I used burst movement as he fell and cut his left horn clean off at the base. Grabbing it midair I jumped back and waited for realization to hit the retainer.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKER! PATHETIC LITTLE SHIT! I WILL HUNG YOU FROM YOUR INTESTINES! DO YOU HEAR ME, YOU LESSER!"

Not wasting another second he dashed at me, trying to skewer me with his bare hands, but I expected as much and with a simple sidestep a swing of my sword, Uto's right arm was flying.

He screamed in pain and turned to me, rage being the only emotion Uto was capable of feeling in the moment, but I didn't give him time to say anything and punched the retainer in the face.

"Tell your High Sovereign I won't be his weapon anymore. Tell him the Legacy is after his head." I said in the most authoritative tone I could muster before delivering the final punch that knocked out the retainer.

Deactivating Conditional Domain, I walked over to Uto's arm and set it on fire. After confirming it would turn to ash I Godsteped back to the surface and began my trek back to Xyrus.

"You sure letting him live is a good idea? Don't get me wrong, I want to see Alea tear him to shreds just as much as you, but he could be trouble in the future." Regis commented.

"It's fine."

"If you say so. What about this little show you performed? Think it will lead to anything?"

"It will, even if Agrona doesn't believe it, Nico will take the bait."

"So we get to bully Darth Emo some more." Regis' excitement leaked a little through our bond.

"I get to bully him." Sylvie interjected. "I already lost one chance back in the Dire Tombs, so when he shows up, he's mine." She was clearly angry for not being able to deal with Nico like she wanted to.

"Can I tag along to at least insult him?" Regis asked.

"I'll think about it. By the way Arthur, what are you going to do with the horn?"

"I'll give it gramps, he'll know who needs it more." I answered, still not sure on what to do with it. Would've been nice if Agroan sent a Wraith squad my way. We really could use their horns.