CHAPTER 173: EX 173. THE FEDERATION

Leon stood in front of Eleanor, but it wasn’t Eleanor staring back. The eyes that glowed with a dark, sickly purple weren’t hers at all, they belonged to the thing bound inside her. Bal’ark, a demon lord, coiled in the shell of a young girl.

Leon’s voice carried a mocking calm. "I didn’t know Demon Lords liked to hide inside little girls."

Eleanor’s lips twisted, stretched into a grin that didn’t belong to her. Bal’ark spoke through her, his voice layered over hers, guttural and serpentine. "Have you come here to gloat?"

Leon didn’t bite. His gaze never wavered. "Is she still alive in there?"

The grin widened, teeth flashing like a predator teasing prey. "Wouldn’t you like to kn—"

"Ahhhhahahahaha"

Bal’ark’s words cracked off into a scream. A guttural, raw sound ripped through the chamber as Eleanor’s body arched, convulsing violently. It thrashed against invisible pain, collapsing to the floor. Twitching, and trembling, like a shadow of power crushed beneath something it couldn’t comprehend.

Leon remained where he was, unflinching, a small bead glowing faintly between his fingers. His expression was flat, almost bored. "Good. It works."

He slipped the bead back into his inventory.

Bal’ark, still writhing inside Eleanor’s frame, dragged out words through clenched teeth. "What... did you do to me?"

This time Leon answered. His tone was deliberate, edged like a blade meant to cut pride rather than flesh. "A gift from the Governor. To help with training you."

Insult flared in Bal’ark’s stolen eyes. A Demon Lord reduced to this... but it swallowed the rage. Survival first.

"Then... what do you want with me?"

It wasn’t a question born of curiosity. Bal’ark knew too well, if it was alive, it wasn’t out of mercy. Someone wanted something. And that someone was Akira, the Governor. The memory pricked like thorns. Bal’ark remembered his questions, and how he had answered all of them, so it didn’t understand what the governor still wanted from it . But what it didn’t know was that Akira had used Lost Time, leading to Bal’ark not knowing that the governor had asked a single question that was the most important.

Leon broke the silence. "You’ll know when we get there."

With a low grind of metal, the chains binding Eleanor’s frail body unlocked, links falling to the stone floor. Bal’ark flexed stiff fingers, forcing the girl’s body upright. Its eyes, burned into Leon.

Leon tilted his head toward the door. "After you."

Bal’ark resisted the urge to click its tongue, seething behind the façade, and stepped forward. The chains clattered away, leaving only the echo of its humiliation. As it walked out of the chamber, it asked, "Where are we going?"

Leon followed at an easy pace, his gaze forward, his words casual. "The Summoning Station." Then his eyes cut briefly to Eleanor’s frame, his voice low. "It seems this will be your first time in the Trial World."

For the first time, Bal’ark faltered. The idea Stunned it. A Demon Lord, dragged toward a world it had never set foot in, bound within the body of a broken girl.

Leon didn’t wait for the reaction. He simply kept walking, and Bal’ark had no choice but to follow.

****

Three hundred years ago, the Blue Planet knew peace. Its people lived simple, unbroken lives, untouched by the cruelties that would later define their age. That peace shattered the day the demons arrived, ravenous creatures born from another realm, bringing fire, ruin, and despair. Entire cities crumbled, and humanity stood on the edge of extinction.

But in their darkest hour, salvation appeared. A few chosen individuals began to hear it: a call that echoed from beyond, a resonance pulling at their very souls. That call;the Trial Resonance offered them a path to another plane. There, they could awaken powers to match the demons. Using the resonance as both key and lock, the people of the Blue Planet forged something unprecedented: a device that would forever change the course of history, the Summoning Station.

With this invention, those marked by resonance could step into the Trial World, a realm where battles forged strength and awakened powers. It was a revolutionary weapon against the demons, and over the centuries, as more and more awakened to the resonance, the station was refined and mass-produced across the Federation.

Now, another group stood before one of those stations.

This one differed from the ancient model used in the first summoning. Instead of an open dais under the sky, it was enclosed within four walls of reinforced steel. The summoning stage itself was round, etched with intricate inscriptions that shimmered faintly with energy, pulsing like a living heartbeat. Behind a pane of glass, operators monitored every rune and circuit, their eyes fixed on screens and dials.

Despite the glowing marks and steady hum of the machinery, the atmosphere was cold. Not from the room itself, but from the presence standing among Leon’s squad.

The girl. Or rather,.the thing within her.

Eleanor’s body stood silently, but when her lips curved into a sly smile, it wasn’t Eleanor speaking.

Bal’ark’s voice slipped through her mouth like poison-coated silk:

"What? Haven’t you seen someone this beautiful before?"

It took everything in Eden not to lunge across the platform and rip that smirk away. His fingers twitched on the bead in his inventory, itching to activate it.

Then a wave of killing intent cut through the room.

Leon’s voice carried no volume, yet it pressed like a blade against Bal’ark’s throat.

"Any more from you... and you’ll be squirming on the floor again."

The demon’s laughter caught in its throat, swallowed into an audible gulp. The chamber grew silent.

Each squadmate already knew the truth, Bal’ark had been bound to follow them, its existence tied to Eleanor’s body. And though none of them trusted it, all were prepared. Each bore a bead of their own, ready to restrain it at the first sign of rebellion.

Suddenly, the intercom crackled from behind the glass. A voice rang through the speakers, calm but firm:

"Summoning is about to begin. T-minus five seconds."

The countdown lit across the wall: 5... 4... 3...

Leon’s squadmates shifted uneasily, steadying their breaths. Though this was their second time stepping into the Trial World, the tension never dulled.

4... 3... 2...

Nikko, by contrast, stood serene. She had crossed that threshold more than a dozen times. To her, this was as natural as breathing.

1... 0.

The light consumed them.

Leon felt his body lighten, weight peeling from his skin. For an instant, the world stretched, blurred, and dissolved, one moment steel walls and inscriptions, the next, gone.

They had returned.

The Trial World awaited.

****

The humming of the summoning station had only just faded, leaving the chamber empty and silent. The air still carried the sharp tang of spent energy, the platform marked with glowing inscriptions that were already dimming. Leon and his squad were gone, pulled into the trial world once again. Behind the glass walls, the operators began shutting down the controls, their voices low as they filed out one by one. Soon, the station was abandoned.

And then, without sound, and without warning a figure appeared at the very center of the round platform.

She was a woman, tall and slender, her platinum hair spilling down her back like liquid silver. Her eyes matched; platinum, pale and endless. No aura stirred around her. No ripple of energy betrayed her presence. It was as if the world itself denied she was there, an outline that flesh and air refused to acknowledge.

But if Leon had been present, he would have recognized her instantly. The woman who had greeted him on his first arrival at the base. The one who had directed him toward the strongholds, her voice calm and knowing. She had worn the face of a guide back then, blending into the background of duty and routine. Yet here, alone, her presence carried a weight that no disguise could bury.

Jarvis.

Her lips parted, her voice low and cold, yet it reverberated as though the chamber itself bent to carry her words.

"The true heir has finally returned... I should go and inform them."

Her eyes lingered on the fading light of the platform for the briefest of moments. Then, with neither flash nor sound, she vanished. Not even a whisper of displaced air remained, as though she had never existed at all.

The summoning station stood silent once more, its inscriptions lifeless, its glass walls reflecting nothing but the cold emptiness of the room.

****

END OF VOLUME ONE: The Federation