Chapter 125 Rune

"There is, your majesty. The trainees were only following my orders, and as such should not face any punishment." General Zogarth said.

"Your orders? Were you not the one who ordered them to stand down?" King Randall asked with a puzzled expression.

"Yes, officially I ordered them to stand down, but I secretly I gave them the order to pursue their friend and to report any information they uncovered involving the Cult."

"I believed the Cult would underestimate their potential due to their age and as such they were the perfect choice to achieve success. The strength they have thanks to their abilities also allows them to close the experience gap during combat, meaning they had a good chance of surviving if attacked." General Zogarth explained without hesitation.

"I can understand your motivation behind choosing them but why did you keep this mission a secret?" King Randall asked.

"It was my belief that the Cult had allies within our ranks, be it our military or nobility, I couldn't be certain. Due to this I chose to keep the mission a secret to increase the safety of the trainees involved, as well as to improve their odds of success." General Zogarth answered instantly.

Leo had heard enough and was about to step forward and reveal the truth to the King but before he could Lieutenant Anders grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.

Leo looked at Lieutenant Anders with a confused expression but all he got in reply was a head shake.

'Is this what they meant when they said they would take care of it?' Leo thought in disbelief, unable to understand why General Zogarth would do this.

"I can understand your reasoning but I can't condone your actions. You still defied your orders and must recieve an appropriate punishment." King Randall said before he went into deep thought trying to decide on a punishment.

"If I may, your majesty." General Zogarth said and the King gestured for him to continue. "I have acted in a way that is unbefitting of my position and as such I am willing to resign as penance."

"That would be an acceptable punishment... Very well, you are hereby relieved of your position as General. Thank you for your service." King Randall said with sincerity.

Lord Zogarth moved to the back of the group and stood there quietly while waiting for the meeting to continue.

"Now that we have resolved that issue, there is another matter I wish to speak of. This incident has shown me that the military is incapable of understanding and utilizing the power of ability users."

"As such, I will be creating a new organization that will be comprised primarily of ability users. This organization will have the political and judicial power to rival the military."

"Unfortunately, the ability users are quite young and mostly inexperienced. Because of this, I will place someone with experience in charge until those with abilities obtain more experience."

"Lieutenant Anders." King Randall called out.

"Yes, your majesty." Lieutenant Anders replied as he stepped forward.

"You have been chosen to lead this new organization as its Commander, congratulations." King Randall said with a smile.

"C... Commander? Me!? But, your majesty, that's four ranks higher than Lieutenant. Those of a higher rank than me will not be pleased with this." Anders replied with a dumbfounded expression.

"If they have the nerve to complain then they can bring their complaints straight to me. Also, there is nobody of higher rank than you now, Commander." King Randall said bluntly.

Commander Anders was too shocked to speak and so he just stepped back and stared at the ground trying to process what just happened. His reaction was understandable, after all, Commander is the highest rank within the military.

"Leofalor."

Leo stepped forward, surprised to hear his name called "Your majesty."

"You are currently the most powerful ability user within the kingdom. You are also the most experienced ability user both in combat and regarding the cult, which is currently our biggest threat."

"it is because of these reasons that I am appointing you as the first General under Commander Anders within the new organization. Congratulations." King Randall said, once again smiling.

"Thank you, your majesty." Leo replied. Too shocked to think of anything else.

"Now that you hold such a high position, I believe it's time you receive a family name as well, something to seperate you from others that may share your name. Hmm... What do you think of Rune?" King Randall suggested.

"I think it sounds good, your majesty." Leo awkwardly replied, unsure of how he should reply.

"Then it's settled, from this day onwards you will be known as Leofalor Rune. I look forward to your future achievements, General."

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"Thank you, your majesty." Leo was confused and surprised and as such he just stepped back and assumed a similar position to his new Commander.

"Commander Anders and General Rune will be selecting those who they deem worthy to fill the rest of the ranks within the new organization."

"The organization needs a name, something that seperates it from the military.

We shall call it... Infernum."

"You'll be receiving details about where you will be setting up your headquarters and other important information soon. Until then you should prepare yourselves mentally for the extermination of the Cult."

King Randall stood up from his throne and exited the room while everyone gave a small bow. This left only Leo and those he entered the castle with standing in the throne room.

"What just happened..." Cain asked, dumbfounded.

"Uh...Well, Leo recieved a last name and became a General, Lieutenant Anders became Commander Anders and Lord Zogarth lost his military rank. Oh, there's also a new organization called Infernum that Leo and Anders are in charge of that will rival the military." Clay replied with a shocked.

" That sums everything up." Lord Zogarth said. He was the only one who didn't seem to be too shocked by everything that had happened.

"So Leo is now General Rune? How did that even happen? He's probably the youngest General in history!" Rene basically shouted.

"That's true, he is." Commander Anders said "I'm also the youngest Commander in history. Although, I don't know which of these two shocks me more." He added in a tone of disbelief.

"Well what's done is done. Losing my rank isn't so bad, especially when these two managed to get promoted right to the top. Overall this was a positive outcome." Lord Zogarth said with a smile.

"Why did you do it? Why did you take all the blame for us?" Leo asked Lord Zogarth.

"Because I didn't want your futures to be affected by this, especially when you did it for all the right reasons. Also, my daughter is involved and I couldn't watch her suffer any punishment." Lord Zogarth replied while shrugging his shoulders.

"Thank you for helping us." Clay suddenly said, followed by the others.

Lord Zogarth smiled "Come on, let's go back to my estate and tell my daughter what's happened."

***

Trent and John were standing in the middle of an empty room. The cultist that had teleported them had already left the room through one of the doors.

"You did good stopping his attack. It might actually have hurt if he had hit me." Trent said with a smirk.

"I didn't do it for you. If you and I weren't working towards the same goal, I would never have defended you. And don't flatter yourself, that wasnt even half of his full power and it still could have killed you." John replied with an annoyed tone.

"Tch! You have no right to talk. You couldn't even defend yourself from me, so what makes you think you can judge who's stronger between me and Leo?" Trent replied with a tone of superiority.

"Yeah, right. I could have used a barrier to defend myself at any point, but my mind was too weak to fight back against you. I was too afraid of the consequences, so I hoped you would just stop once you got bored. That's not the case anymore."

"I will never back down again, not for you or anyone else. If you so much as try to harm me again, I'll make sure you die a death so horrible that you'll be harder to recognize than I am." John said with a fury in his voice as he turned and left the room.

'So what? You become some kind of red monster and you think I'm suddenly scared of you? I'll take care of you after I kill Leofalor, until then I'll make sure I get a good amount of use out of you." A sadistic smile appeared on Trents face as he imagined the future.

'Everyone who's wronged me will suffer and burn. Leofalor, my father... All of them. It's only a matter of time.'

***

After walking away from Trent, John was approached by the cultist that had teleported him and Trent.

"The Master wishes to speak with you. Please follow me." The cultist said and then started walking down the hallway.

John followed him until the reached a door with the Cults symbol of the basilisk engraved on it. The cultist that John was following opened the door and gestured inside.

John walked inside and the door closed behind him. Sitting behind a desk, wearing his black wooden mask, was the Master.

"Let's have a chat about your condition, John."