It was clear that the two girls who enjoyed all the glory of being Princesses in the past were under a lot of stress now, not even realizing just how long they could've lived in a situation like this. In fact, living so far had already surpassed their expectations.
Gabriel understood what they were thinking. It was clearly written on their faces.
"You don't have to be scared. I just came here to tell you that you're free from this moment on."
"Huh?" The two girls raised their heads in surprise. "Free?"
"Yeah. You can leave the room if you want. You can even leave the Empire if you want. The guards won't restrict you anymore." After informing the girls, he turned around. "If you decide to leave, go to the Saint Knight. I'll tell him to give you gold and other things for you to start a new life in a safer place."
Even though Gabriel had to control an entire Empire, he didn't really need gold for personal use. Moreover, even though the two girls didn't actually have the right to rule the Empire, he still didn't want to leave them empty handed after taking the Empire from them.
Not only did he arrange for a few servants and carriages for the two princesses, but he also arranged for more than enough gold and protection for their departure.
As much as he wanted to protect this Empire, he knew that this place wasn't safe. In the coming days, even the Royal Palace wasn't certain if it was going to stay safe, let alone the other places in the Empire.
The place was at the eye of the storm after all.
After Gabriel left, the two princesses looked at each other in surprise. Not only did Gabriel not kill them, but he also gave them an opportunity to leave and live a life of luxury in some other place?
For a moment, they didn't know what to even think.
****
After dealing with the two Princesses, Gabriel finally walked back to his room. The little girl was still asleep while Avilia was engaged in a task, which left him with some privacy for the moment.
"Can I meet you again in the dream to train?" Gabriel asked, sitting on the bed in his room.
"Not for the next few days. I am busy with the task at hand." Alion instantly answered. He was at the Palace and didn't have time to leave that place. Because of that, Gabriel also couldn't strengthen his physique in his dreams.
Fortunately, there were still other ways to strengthen himself.
Gabriel cast a barrier all around his room, making sure that not even the slightest of his aura leaked outside.
At the same time, he brought out the remaining spirit stones that he had robbed from the Academy of Elements to absorb them and increase his strength.
At the moment, he was as strong as the other Holy Lords, despite just being an advanced tier mage compared to the others who were peak tier mages.
He wanted to reach the peak tier and even surpass that since he knew what dangers laid ahead of him. Even a peak tier mage couldn't compare to a Demigod after all, let alone the gods above.
Gabriel sat in meditation, surrounded by the Spirit Stones from all sides, absorbing the energy.
While most Holy Lords could only absorb a few hundred spirit stones in a day to strengthen themselves, Gabriel could absorb thousands, even though it put a lot of burden on his body.
After seven hours straight and using thousands of spirit stones, he finally reached the threshold between advanced tier mage and the peak tier. It was as if there was a small curtain that separated the two realms. It wasn't easy to pass through that threshold right away.
Even though the jump was small, it took Gabriel one more hour to pass through that small step. Fortunately, he succeeded and became a peak tier mage, finally stepping on the same realm as the other Holy Lords.
After succeeding, Gabriel dropped on the bed, completely exhausted. He was covered in sweat and multiple crushed spirit stones were around him that had now become useless.
It took him a few minutes before finally regaining some strength. Even with the breakthrough, he was more exhausted than anything else.
He walked through the mountain of ruined spirit stones in his room, taking off his clothes. He straight went for a shower.
It was only inside the shower where he wasn't wearing anything that he noticed another strange thing about him.
The strange mark of Necromancy that was only covering the back of his hand up to his wrist had spread even more! It was as if it was a tattoo that was covering his entire right arm upto his shoulder now.
The tattoo looked good and also emanated with the power of the dead. However, this also made it impossible for him to hide his aura anymore without using a shroud of light.
The gloves could only restrict the mark upto his hand. However, now that his entire arm was covered, it was impossible to cover it.
What he didn't realize was that it wasn't just his arm that was covered in that dark yet beautiful mark. Some traces of it could also be seen on his back.
He asked Alion about it, wondering if he knew anything about it or if it was worth worrying about.
Unfortunately, there was no response from Alion this time, as if the man was more busy than anything.
In the end, Gabriel could only finish his shower in disappointment before stepping out and wearing clothes again. He didn't notice that his skin was visibly different now. It was much better than it used to be. Moreover, his skin shade was now almost identical to what Karyk used to possess.
If in the past, he only looked similar yet different from Karyk, then now it was much harder to differentiate between the two. The only difference that could be seen between the two now was that Karyk didn't have such long hairs like Gabriel and the color of their hairs were also different.
After wearing the clothes, Gabriel looked out the window from his room. The City was still seemingly peaceful and nothing out of the ordinary could be sensed. It was as if what happened just a few hours ago near the garden was nothing more than a dream and a figment of his imagination.
Unfortunately, only Gabriel knew that things were about to get much messier from now on.
