Chapter 425 In times of war, all help is good to take.

425 In times of war, all help is good to take.

Shadow's sudden appearance, his strange reaction, and that of Alvine forced many people to question themselves.

While following Alvine, the planet's strongest pack headed towards the city's border.

Arriving on site, Alvine looks at Shadow and questions him. "How much space will we need to accommodate others?"

Shadow's face lit up when he heard Alvine's question. "...We may need to clear 70% of the forest that extends to the border of the Arctic lands."

His answer made Alvine's eyebrows. "Aso much space?"

"Yes, labor won't be...refused." He mutters the last lines of his sentence while continuing to sigh with bitter eyes.

Instead of focusing on Shadow, Alvine's eyes were on his shadow which constantly flickered under his feet. "Get me out of the doubt, Shadow; do you have trouble calming them down?"

"...I still don't understand how this is possible. But my lord, I still see myself obliged to ask you which of these dimensions is real. I know it's rude but...-

Alvine interrupts him before he finishes his sentence. "Shadow, why are you asking me a question that you already know the answer?" He frowned at him while he pronounced these lines.

Shadow sighs with a bitter smile on his lips. "They had more time than us; that probably explains their...powers that exceed us." He mutters with distressed eyes as if his pride had taken a big blow.

Alvine didn't know what he was talking about, but knowing that it wasn't the time, he decided to put the suspense for later.

But the challenge he faces won't going to be solved with a magic stick.

'If I clear up such an expanse, the magical beasts in it won't have a habitable place. But there is too little space to accommodate all the beings in the five dimensions. In such a situation, I see myself obliged to proceed differently.'

With this conclusion in mind, his shadow lite up under his feet and falls over the ground like a black anchor poured on a white sheet.

In a second, all the other shadow soldiers, who were in the castle or on a mission outside the planet, began to appear up in his shadow which was like a large black veil on the ground.

He finally focuses on the shadow army with billions of heads.

The show was magnificent in the wrong sense of the word. The greenish forest was black and all kinds of races stood in front of Alvine with their unique (black) auras and threats beyond the imagination.

Seeing their curious expressions, he scrapes his throat. "I put the meeting on hold for a good reason. But before explaining why, let me officially introduce you to Isolet, a descendant of a tree in the world.

-As I briefly explained earlier, she comes from the era you call the gods' era. In short, those you will soon meet won't be your enemies; so I expect you to cooperate with them." He made this introduction while ignoring their desire to question him.

He then looks at White and Black Fy. "You two, move forward."

The latter stood out from the crowd and stood in front of everyone, alongside Alvine.

"Zakiel, in the absence of the monarchs, you are the one I consider the most insightful." His sharp eyes land on Zakiel, who was on the front line with the other two generals.

"It's too much honor, my lord." He responds with the same tone in his voice.

By the way, even Darka, who was supposed to take care of extracting sensitive information from Adonis was on the ground. Alvine was able to see him behind Zakiel; when the latter bowed to his compliments.

"Now, look carefully at these two and tell me, who's the true Fy." He simply asks Zakiel this question.

The latter frowns with sharp eyes which scrutinized the two women on each side of Alvine.

Alvine's question made Shadow sigh, knowing the answer in advance.

But even after a minute of silence, Zakiel could not give his verdict.

At the same time, Sabrina and the others also came to the meeting.

Alvine frowns and asks coldly. "Zakiel, would you be unable to give me such a simplistic answer?"

The question has reached the goal desired by him. Zakiel no longer held back; he closed his eyes and opened them in the same sec.

His dark green eyes were darker to the point of confusing them with the darkness in Alvine's eyes. His vertical pupils were constantly vibrant; giving a sense of danger to the two women who were with Alvine.

But even after an additional thirty seconds, Zakiel could not answer Alvine's question.

"Well, what's your verdict?" Alvine then asks.

"Their spiritual bodies, consciences, and souls are not fragmented. It pains me to make you hear it, but these two are independent souls while being one." Zakiel spoke these words in a sad tone.

"What do you mean by that, Sir Zakiel?" Heepha mutters next to him.

"I can't explain it since I don't know who the original is or who is the clone. I had tried to discover this again and again during the meeting, but the result is always the same." Zakiel explains himself by seeing Alvine permit him with a nod.

But before Heepha continues with her questions, Alvine is ahead of her by speaking.

"Zakiel, your magical perception is as I thought. You didn't disappoint me, quite the contrary; you gave the most accurate answer."

"...Excuse me for my ignorance, but I don't understand where you're going," Zakiel asks the question that burned everyone's lips.

"It's simple, neither of these two is a clone, but an entity independent of the other with her history." He answers Zakiel's question.

He then looks at Feyre, one of the former leaders of the order who carried the Pinky code. "I know that many of you know about the parallel dimension, they also know that it's impossible to show existences above the primordial rank in one of these parallel dimensions. But that's where you're wrong." He frowns towards Feyre, who was between Sabrina and Henia.

"This limitation applies to them because they aren't strong enough to go beyond the universal laws which they cannot transgress.

-And that's where Isolet and the other Fy come in the race. I don't want to explain too much since some things still escape me; in short, she created dimensions with the effigy of this planet and everything it contained before I woke up. She did this to accomplish the mission I had given her." He looks at the perplexed eyes of others with a somewhat disturbing smile.

'I feel I'll need more time to solve this problem. But if I leave a single confusion in this case which exceeds the limit of delicacy, Isolet will be held responsible.' He mutters in his mind before regaining his coldness and continuing.

"It may not have been her method the right one, but I'm responsible for all this. To remedy this, I ordered Shadow to bring together all those who have always lived in the other dimensions and who are looking forward to my return...here!" With this last sentence, he put an end to the explanations.

"..."

"You can ask me questions; I gathered you here for that," Alvine adds when he sees the other silencers.

The others looked at each other as if they were looking for an intermediary between them. But finally, all eyes were on Zakiel.

"My lord, speaking of the dimensions, how many dimensions did this little gir...- Lady Isolet create?"

"Five."

"... Fi...five!? You mean that there are five other me, who are in these...dimensions?" Known for his cold blood, Zakiel became his antipode because of the agitation in his voice.

Alvine nods his head nonchalantly. "Not only you, but every shadow soldier, every beast, and every race on this planet." He speaks while enumerating with his fingers.

He then looks at the vassals. "You are also concerned."

He couldn't help smiling when he saw the six become tense.

Heepha looks at Shadow next to her, finally understanding why he was in this distressed state. "Shadow, did you meet...the others? Are they like this woman? Or maybe...

"Kuku, you will know soon. You already know your arrogant temperament; I was almost transformed into cooked meat because of the others Heepha, who wanted to fight with each other." Shadow responds with a sadistic smile by seeing others share part of his spiritual suffering.

Heepha's face turned pale when she heard Shadow's words. "What are you hiding from me?"

"Heh, you'll know soon. Don't ridicule yourself by asking the same question I asked our master."

"Tsk, I hope your fellow human beings won't be as twisted as you." Heepha slams his tongue with frustration when he sees Shadow refuse to accede to his request.

Shadow's smile grows surreptitiously. 'You won't be disappointed, dear sis.' He whispers in his mind and looks at Alvine.

mutters then with, somewhat, worrying eyes.

13:51

As soon as Shadow disappeared, ‘he’ reappeared by using Alvine's portal.

As for the latter, seeing no one had any other questions for him, he opened a dark portal. "Well, this portal is linked to your shadow; join my clone and help him escort others into this place." He orders Shadow who nods before vanishing into his own shadow.

'I hope he (his clone) was able to raise awareness among others who are on the other side.' He mutters then with, somewhat, worrying eyes.

As soon as Shadow disappeared, ‘he’ reappeared by using Alvine's portal. n0velusb.c0m

But everyone frowns when they saw that he was wearing a long red dress that was different from his previous dress.

Alvine also frowns when he sees him looking around with the same sneaky smile that never left his lips.

'I don't understand, why is his rank higher than that of Shadow?' Despite this anomaly, which made Alvine's heart beat faster than usual, he didn't change his expression even a little bit.

In the same second, other Shadows came out of the portal. And just like the first, they had a similar level but a little higher than the original.

As this anomaly occurred, Alvine and the others had more confused eyes.

**Isolet, those who are in your dimensions were always conscious, weren't they?** Unable to let this puzzle go at least, Alvine asks this question to Isolet.

**They were unconscious at first, but not for long.**

Alvine's frown was accentuated. 'Sigh, since those in these dimensions were disconnected from the outside world, they will naturally be stronger than those who had sacrificed almost all of their energies to help me hibernate. But--!

Alvine's blood froze in his veins when he felt the unexpected and familiar presence in the portal.

'It looks like I wouldn't need to wait for the return of two other leaders of two races to free Askald and Elena.' He mutters when he sees a male elf coming out of the gate.

But unlike him, the others had dark expressions when they saw guys resembling them coming out of the gate.

The most frustrating thing was that they didn't know who to hold responsible for this.

'Sigh, I understand them; the creation, manipulation, and experimentation of souls are abolished by a non-dictated law. No one likes to see someone else have fun doing experiments on his soul.' Alvine mutters in his mind feeling the hostility of Zakiel and his other minions towards the residents of the dimensions.

Seeing five of his look-alikes appear outside the portal, Zakiel's expression became more entrenched. "My lord."

His voice was abnormally colder than usual as he addressed Alvine.

"What’s springing, Zakiel?"

Despite Alvine's intrepid eyes, Zakiel didn't back down or abandon his intentions. "I know that in times of war, such allies will be indispensable. But they must be killed!” He told while clenching his fist to keep up his wrath.

Alvine frowns at him, But he let Zakiel goes on.

"I don't like the idea that one or billions of entities with the same soul’s signature as mine, which neither I nor your greatness created, stand up before me."

His words forced Alvine to think deeply.

'I expected them to show their discontent, but not in such a blatant way. I‘m the best to understand them. I couldn't keep my cool when I saw my look-alikes with Feyre. This rage wasn't due to my immaturity, but to something I'd not accept, even if it happened to me now.

-But it's disappointing to hear him tell me these useless bullshots; no one’s wrong in this story, neither Zakiel nor the others, who seem to agree with his proposal.

-Isolet is not to blame either; she did what she thought was right to accomplish the mission I had given her. The only person at fault in this story is none other than me.

-I knew that the best solution was to shave off these dimensions as soon as I learned about their existence. But we are at war; at war against enemies whose number and power exceed us... and not just a little.' With this decision, Alvine looks at Zakiel with dark eyes.

"Zakiel, I know what you think, I also know how hard it's hard to accept this situation; believe me in words, I know it."

"So...

"But!" Alvine interrupts him before he has false hopes. "We are at war. In times of war, decisions won't be made with personal feelings, but with the spirit and strategist. Therefore, I cannot respond favorably to your request. It's not only for my survival but also for the family, including you, that I want to protect.

I didn't expect you to have an understanding but useless ideals in a time of war; even less to share them with me! Don't forget one thing, all I do is to preserve everyone's life. It is naive and unrealistic to have such objectives in times of war, but I would do everything in my power to ensure the survival of all!

In times of war, any ally is good to take; it's the b-a ba that every strategist must know. Even an enemy, who pretends to be an ally, will be useful if a strategist uses it with ease!"