Chapter 32: The Legend of Aldric Riina [2]

I stared at the photograph.

"What was that?"

"An incident the World Government would prefer the public to forget."

My interest immediately increased.

I knew the general history of the apocalypse, the rise of the Overlords, and the establishment of the World Government. As someone who had played the game extensively, I was confident that I understood most of the world’s background.

Yet I had never heard of the Barrier Crisis.

Was this an event that had been omitted from the game’s lore?

Or had the developers deliberately concealed it?

Salvatore set down his coffee cup with deliberate care.

"At that time, humanity had three Overlords. All three had entered the Spirit Realm, conquering its territories. Their activities affected their Domain barriers— preventing portals from opening too frequently."

"Preventing them?"

"Without those barriers, monsters would have overwhelmed humanity in weeks. The barriers controlled the flow of catastrophe."

He tapped the photograph.

"Then the barriers failed."

I felt my pulse quicken.

"Hundreds of portals opened across the world in a single day. Cities everywhere faced simultaneous attacks. The World Government mobilized every available force—Masters, Saints, all of them."

"And they stopped it?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.

"They stopped it," Salvatore confirmed. "But not before making a choice about which people were worth saving."

Something cold slid down my spine.

"What do you mean, ’worth saving’?"

"The World Government had limited forces. Not enough to defend every territory. So they made decisions."

He placed a heavily redacted document before me. Entire sections were blacked out. Some pages were missing entirely.

"Strategic locations. Wealthy districts. Places where important officials and their families were taking refuge."

He paused, letting me understand what he wasn’t saying.

"And the rest?"

"Abandoned near the portals."

The words fell like stones.

"Unawakened civilians. People with no way to fight. No weapons. No defensive barriers. The government simply... decided they couldn’t be saved."

I stared at the document, trying to process that.

"They could have told people. Let them evacuate—"

"There wasn’t time. And even if there had been, it would have meant admitting that the World Government—the shield of humanity—had chosen who lived and who died."

Salvatore’s voice was level, but I could see the tension in his jaw.

"That would have undermined everything the government had built. Authority requires people to believe you’re protecting them. Not selecting which of them you’ll abandon."

I felt something sick rising in my chest.

This wasn’t abstract history. There had been people. Real people. Families who’d been told to fend for themselves against monsters.

"How many died?" I asked quietly.

"Thousands. Maybe more. The records were destroyed or classified. We’ll never know exactly."

Thousands.

The number was too large to really comprehend.

"So they just... buried it."

"They rewrote the official history. Presented the Barrier Crisis as a crisis they’d successfully managed. Acknowledged some loss, but nothing like the truth."

I wanted to ask why no one had exposed them, but I already knew the answer. Who could stand against the World Government? Who would people believe over official records?

"Then what happened to those people?" I asked. "The ones who were abandoned?"

Salvatore’s expression softened slightly.

"They would have died. The monsters—"

He stopped himself, then started again, more quietly.

"Unless someone intervened."

I looked up.

"Your father was in one of those territories when the portals opened."

The air in the room seemed to compress.

"He wasn’t part of the World Government’s response. He was there with his organization—small at the time, mostly low-ranked Awakeners. They were evacuating citizens when the government pulled its forces away."

Salvatore leaned forward.

"When your father understood what was happening—that the World Government had abandoned these people—he made a decision."

I could almost see it. Aldric, young and far less powerful than he’d become, watching the people he was supposed to protect get left behind.

"He couldn’t have fought the World Government directly," I said.

"No. Instead, he fought the monsters."

Salvatore’s voice carried a note I’d never heard before. Pride, maybe. Or something closer to grief.

"He took his men and led the civilians away from the portals. Established defensive positions. Fought creatures his men had no training to handle."

I could picture it. Low-ranked Awakeners, terrified civilians, a tide of monsters.

And Aldric, not retreating. Not giving up.

"His forces were outnumbered?"

"Severely. Most were facing combat power beyond anything they’d trained for. Men died."

The weight of that statement settled between us.

"But more survived than should have," Salvatore continued. "Because your father kept the monsters occupied while his subordinates moved the civilians to safety. When one defensive line collapsed, he established another. When his men fell, he took their places."

I swallowed.

This wasn’t the terrifying Overlord who could break another Overlord’s tooth with his bare hand. This was a young man standing between monsters and people who couldn’t fight back.

Standing there because no one else would.

"He had to have known he could die," I said.

"Of course. Your grandfather tried to stop him. His subordinates begged him not to go."

"And he ignored them."

"Completely."

Of course he did. That sounded exactly like him.

Salvatore pulled out another document.

"Then this happened."

I looked at the report—sparse details about the battle and something about a surge in Aldric’s mana signature.

"During the fighting, as he continued protecting the civilians, your father’s strength broke through its limits. He was a powerful Awakener already, but not yet Saint rank."

"He became a Saint?"

"His mana surged. His physical capabilities increased dramatically. The monsters that had been killing his men suddenly became manageable."

Salvatore paused.

"To the people watching, it was a miracle."

I understood why. One moment, they were being slaughtered. The next, the man protecting them had gained the power to actually fight back.

But the portals kept producing monsters.

"He couldn’t defeat them all by himself," I said.

"No."

"So what did he do?"

I already knew the answer before Salvatore said it.

"He went into a portal."

"Alone?"

"Alone."

"Against what?"

Salvatore’s expression didn’t change, but something shifted in his eyes.

"Leviathan. S+ rank guardian."

I nearly stood up from my chair.

An S+ rank monster was catastrophic. Facing one required armies. Strategic planning. Sacrifice.

And my father had challenged one immediately after becoming a Saint?

"Wasn’t anyone there to stop him?" I demanded.

"Many tried. Your grandfather was furious. His subordinates thought he’d lost his mind. The civilians he’d saved begged him not to go."

"Why did he do it?"

"Because as long as the portal remained open, the danger would never end. He looked at the people he’d saved, told them to wait for him, and walked into the portal."

I could almost see it. Aldric covered in blood and monster viscera. New power coursing through him. And ahead—a portal that had swallowed countless lives.

A newly advanced Saint walking toward what should have been certain death.

"What happened?" I asked, though something in me already knew.

"Thirty minutes later, your father emerged."

"And Leviathan?"

"Dead."

The word hung in the silence.

"He didn’t have a single injury," Salvatore continued. "He’d killed an S+ rank guardian in thirty minutes while being only an S-rank Saint."

I couldn’t process that.

That wasn’t just power. That was the kind of achievement that defined entire generations.

Salvatore leaned back in his chair.

"The civilians he saved spread the story. The Awakeners who fought alongside him told others what they’d witnessed. People who had doubted the Riina family began to reconsider."

He tapped the document.

"Your grandfather understood immediately. He recruited the Awakeners who’d witnessed your father’s strength. Secured new alliances. Expanded the family’s influence. People joined the Riina family because they believed an organization led by Aldric could protect them when even the World Government had failed."

I nodded slowly.

Aldric had provided the strength. Vincent had transformed it into something lasting.

Together, they’d turned a struggling organization into one of the most influential forces in the world.

The kind of organization that made even the World Government think twice.

"Then they couldn’t ignore the Riina family anymore," I said.

"Not when your father had killed an S+ rank guardian while being only an S-rank Saint. The government could no longer dismiss him as merely another powerful Awakener."

I looked down at the ring on my finger.

It was a legacy built by a man who’d stood between monsters and the helpless.

A legacy built by someone who’d looked at the World Government’s cruelty and decided he could do better.

A legacy that was passed down to me.

’How Ironic, In my last life I didn’t inherited anyone’s legacy nor passed it down my own but this time was different.’

The stage was already set for me.

All I had to do was bent the world to my WILL and I’m expert in that regard.

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Author Note:

Thanks for the reading novel.

I know this Chapter was quite bit info dump but it has to be done.