Enigma of Sin

The continent was in shock. The undead under the reign of the current Lich King made a major move against the other two empires and several other factions that were spread around the land.

No one knew about the Carnet Empire's traitorous actions, at least those who would tell, aside from two people, but they were nowhere to be found. Thus, Carnet acted as if they were the same as everyone else and even asked Mancea to go to war with them against the liches and undead.

Even the orc tribes that typically preferred peace agreed to attack the undead. The one reason that the undead didn't have reign over them in the first place was because of the drastic behavioral switch in orcs once war began.

They were like crazed battle machines, ruthless and powerful. Never in the history of the orc tribes had the entire coalition gone to war at once, but the result was clear, either they would be completely wiped out, or the undead would. That was how orcs warred and it wasn't going to change anytime soon.

The Mancean Emperor was completely enraged with the entire situation. He was personal friends with Charlotte Erving, so when she didn't appear in the first wave of people who teleported back to give their reports, he became exceedingly worried about her.

He knew about her secret room for teleporting to and from the convention as he was the one who she had to go through to get it approved. They had known each other for countless centuries and he wasn't about to let some undead sully her body, it was the least he could do after all she had done for him.

He had decided to wait in her teleportation room for a full week before taking action himself to track down Mitas the Lich King and personally free Charlotte from the afterlife even at the cost of his own life. But a few days into waiting, a glow appeared around the room and when the light receded, Charlotte was standing there.

She was barely able to keep herself up. It was easy to tell that she had no mana reserves and her injuries were severe. It looked like she had tried to patch them up a bit but ran out of mana before she could do so.

He ran to her as she passed out and then he called the best healers that were available to him at the moment and not recovering from injuries. When she eventually woke up and proceeded to tell the Emperor about what had truly happened at the convention.

This only further angered him as not only did they have to deal with the undead, but also the Carnet Empire whom he used to see as an ally.

The war preparations were going smoothly until just at the end of the first week when Mancea made a sudden announcement to their new allies in the south. Carnet was the reason they were attacked and why they were unable to escape.

The Southern Coalition of Dark Elves and Orcs were skeptical about the information at first as no evidence was given, but then they were told where the new information originated. 

Charlotte Erving, one of the most renowned healers in not just this continent, but the entire world, claimed that she witnessed the sealing rune herself and that the ones guarding it were from Carnet.

The Emperor or Carnet denied these claims of course, saying that his people were also turned into undead, including his Head Healer.

Charlotte scoffed at this, he was probably turned because he failed to protect the sealing rune, but she truly didn't have any other evidence other than being an eye witness and fighting to destroy the rune.

The Mancean Empire took her words at face value and immediately made preparations to go to war with the Carnet Empire as well. It was going to be a two-front war for them, but if they put all of their resources into it and drafted soldiers, it would be doable.

The Southern Coalition decided that they would stay out of the battle with Carnet for now as they needed more proof. However, they did commit to fighting against the undead still.

The difference was that they only sent troops to meet up with the Mancean Empire as until the Carnet Empire could prove its innocence, they weren't about to risk their soldiers fighting with people who could possibly stab them in the back.

Thus, a three front war began.

Mancea against Carnet.

Mancea and the Southern Coalition against Inmortuea.

Carnet against Inmortuea.

Most of the upper government officials and war generals of Carnet were unaware of the shady dealings that their Emperor had with the Inmortuea Empire, but there was nothing they could do at this point. They would have to defend from Mancea while also throwing whatever else they had towards Inmortuea.

It was at that point that the Emperor himself changed their tactics. He wanted a full push into Mancea, leaving only minimal forces against the undead. He stated that the undead would always be there and were not actively pushing into their territory while Mancea was the bigger threat currently.

The generals and commanders of his army agreed with his conclusions, but they also couldn't help but feel that something was fishy.

Thus, millions of soldiers ranging from normal people to powerful mages gathered for each Empire or faction, and marched towards the battlefield.

When the fighting started, Mancea was caught off guard as they had initially sent equal amounts of troops down south to assist the Southern Coalition as well as to the east to fight Carnet. But it seemed that Carnet focused the majority of their forces on the Mancean front as they had twice as many troops stationed at the border compared to Mancea.

Meanwhile, inside a secure residence inside of the Astaro Academy, two women, one man, and a toddler sat opposite to each other.

Sadness was etched on the face of one, worry on the face of another, solemnness the last. The toddler just seemed confused about everything that was happening.

"So, you're telling me that Kayn is currently stranded somewhere without the ability to gather mana, but is trying to find his way back?" Kinzie asked as she looked straight into Charlotte's eyes.

"That's correct. I don't know how long it will take for him to succeed though, he's in a complicated situation currently that even I have no answers for. However, he did ask me to tell you that he is safe and will see you again.

"In the meantime, he asked that you two take care of his sister in his stead. I will also be staying here starting today to ensure her safety as it's the least I can do for him. I already talked with the Headmaster about the allowance for us to keep this place, and he readily agreed after a few more details about the situation." Charlotte spoke, sighing at first, but quickly changing to a tone filled with resolve.

"But how did you make it back and he didn't? What about his teleportation scroll?" Kinzie asked as she couldn't understand how one made it back but the other didn't. Was Kayn really okay and alive?

She pulled out the communication crystal that connected the two of them, but it was dull and lifeless, just like the first time she lost contact with him.

Seeing the anxiety and worry beginning to take over Kinzie's mind, Charlotte sighed once more. "Let me start at the beginning, okay?"

Kinzie nodded and Charlotte started to recount what she remembered, starting from the Lich King's attack. She didn't have any issues telling Kinzie and Rowen this information as they deserved to know, and Kayn trusted the two of them with his life.

…

Going back in time a little bit to just after Kayn escaped from Lich King Mitas with Charlotte inside of the Wanderer's Villa.

Kayn had passed out as soon as he activated the teleportation scroll and the light engulfed him. His mana reserves were already running low, but for some reason the scroll emptied him out and more, causing him to lose consciousness.

When he awoke, he noticed that he was currently inside of the living area of the Wanderer's Villa and Charlotte was laying on a couch nearby. She was still unconscious and due to her injuries, looked like she might slip into the afterlife at any time.

Kayn began moving to sit up and try to help her out, but his entire body was screaming at him in pain. He looked down at his body and noticed that it was covered in bruises from his blood vessels exploding, some places the muscles were torn, he was covered in blood, and even his mana pathways inside of the vessels had ruptured. In simple terms, he was a complete mess.

'I guess this is the drawback of forcefully using the power of Wrath to go far beyond my means.' Kayn thought to himself as he tried to summon the Villa's avatar to go fetch him a couple of the most powerful healing potions he had in the treasury.

However, Kayn then noticed something was amiss, or more so something was missing. His avatar wasn't appearing, but more importantly, there was no mana here!

Kayn had been hearing an alarm in his head since he awoke, but he ignored it since he had other priorities to take care of first. However, he now thought about it and the message from the alert appeared in front of his eyes.

(ERROR: Due to the environment and mana restrictions, the Wanderer's Villa will go into emergency power mode. Some functions may not be available. All formations deactivated. Currently accessible rooms include: Library, Kitchen, Bedroom, Living Room, Treasury)