Others Summon Dragons, I Summon Legendary Knights

When the television came on, the news anchor was already speaking about the crisis in Brooklyn, with short clips of the situation.

"The situation in Brooklyn has gotten worse, and the threat can already be classified as a red gate disaster. Despite the large number of freelancers, the monsters from the dungeon are able to keep growing in numbers. We think their numbers are already over twenty thousand, with the weakest of them being a mid-level Elite Tier."

Isolde frowned.

The anchor stretched her hand to a clip of the Brooklyn Bridge.

"As we can see, a mass evacuation is currently going on, as several high tiers and lord tiers have been brutally torn apart by the swarming army of ents that is supported by an actual forest. The fight is in their terrain, hence the disadvantage."

The clip showed a view of Brooklyn. Some portion of it was swallowed by tall green trees.

"The death rate is rapidly rising by the moment, but fortunately, one of this region's biggest guilds, the Gate Defender's Guild, has promised to attack this threat, stating that their guild master will be present. Thankfully, Justice Guild's Vice Guild Master has promised to also take action with the Justice Guild's secondary combat team, as the primary team is out on raid with the Guild Master to face the biggest blue gate yet in Antarctica."

The anchor said the next words with relief.

"It seems Gate Defender's guild master's refusal has turned out to be one of the deciding factors of Brooklyn's survival. The criticisms toward him will surely see a turn."

The female doctor gasped inwardly, trembling softly as she remembered her husband, Charles, who had been made the head of the secondary combat team after his summon's evolution due to the mana fruit.

Knowing he was heading for such a place made the doctor uncomfortable. She quickly rose to her feet and excused herself as she brought out her phone.

***

Two days later…

"Thinking about Isolde?" Percival's voice made Godfrey tilt his head toward him. They both stood on the north wall, Godfrey in a white top, black pants, and sneakers, while Percival wore a white top, pants, and white sneakers, but his facemask was black.

He lifted one of his eyebrows as Godfrey began to chuckle.

"I consider myself lucky. I got a girl great-looking guys like you dream about."

He snickered and squatted, surveying the landscape beyond the wall.

"Who told you she's yours? Have you told her about your feelings?"

"Of cour—!"

"Explicitly. Isolde, I love you. Have you said that?" Percival snickered as Godfrey stared at him, at a loss for words.

"You live with two women and still haven't understood that word work wonders on them." Percival shook his head, smiling softly behind his mask.

"I've made enough declarations to insinuate my intentions," Godfrey retorted.

"I know. You don't need to shout, I'm just a few feet away," Percival replied in his usual calm and collected tone.

Godfrey sighed. "Alright, I know you're jealous."

Percival scoffed.

"Hey, I think I need to tell you something. I've been pondering about it for some days now." The sudden gravity in Percival's tone made Godfrey rise up.

Percival shut his eyes. "I saw the mana tree."

"What?!"

"After my fight with Leander, I suddenly found myself before this tree that pierced right through the sky. It was so big I couldn't even see how wide it was, and the roots are even bigger than Leander's serpent. It seemed like that entire planet was just for that tree." Percival began to explain softly. The gentle wind rustled his blue hair.

"I thought thousands of king/queen tiers ate tens of thousands of those fruits and brought even more back, but when I saw that tree, it was filled with fruits like it hasn't been touched since forever." Percival looked at the landscape filled with tall grass and back at Godfrey.

"Then two fruits fell before me. I could tell they came from above, as the clouds were torn apart by their fall. I came back after feeding them to my summons." Percival concluded.

Godfrey was silent. He thought the mana tree was a one-time thing, but it had appeared again, and this time a little more selective.

"I could feel the vast potential opened up for King and Levi. King can almost bring the sea right here. He can call for it and it will answer, he can command most of the evolved sea beasts, and there's more my leviathan can do. I can feel the pump of growth surging within me for the past few days. Once their evolution is done, we'll ascertain their tier"

Godfrey blinked. This was the first time Percival sounded so emotional about something other than his family.

In that moment, the very space before them tore, like it was cut open by a knife. They knew only one person who could do something like this.

Gabriel, Paradise watchman.

The tear grew wider, and a voice rang.

"Come."

"I think it's because of you," Godfrey said to Percival as they walked through the space tear. They were about to meet the most mysterious man in Paradise.

"Welcome." Gabriel's voice made the young men look up. They were inside a tree with lots of books and spiral steps leading up. It was over seventy stories tall, with two towering pillars from the floor to the lofty ceiling.

This was the tallest building in Paradise. The tower of the watchman.

At the top stood a man in a black woolen coat, holding the railing and looking down. His golden hair fell to his shoulder blades and had a beautiful sheen that Godfrey's ordinary-looking golden hair couldn't match.

It felt like they weren't even looking at a man. He was pale-skinned and looked like he was in his youth.

"Couldn't you have teleported us to where you are? Do we have to climb these stairs?" Percival couldn't help but ask.

"I fear you have to. Using your abilities might affect my books. These books are dated back to the age before the apocalypse, and some even beyond that age. The rest are my findings on other races. I love writing." Gabriel smiled softly.

"Besides, I don't trust lightning wings before fragile books." While Gabriel was speaking, Percival formed a water droplet beside Gabriel and appeared there.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow.

In the next moment, a golden diagram appeared, and Ballista walked out. He held out his cloak, which now looked like it had the galaxy within, and gentle swirls of golden light began to appear.

Godfrey walked out of it and Ballista lowered his head.

"The entrance of a king," Gabriel chuckled. "Highly impressive."

Godfrey felt good. Coming from someone like Gabriel, who he speculated could be an Origin Tier, it meant a lot.

Looking around, he discovered there was a telescope and nothing else on this floor.

"Look through that telescope." He pointed at it.

Godfrey and Percival looked at each other. This man had been the one protecting Paradise all this time; if he didn't want them here, he wouldn't have opened the doors of Paradise. This meant he should have no agenda of hurting them.

Godfrey was the first to look through the telescope. His eyes widened when he saw the mana tree, at least a portion of it. It was even more magnificent than Percival's elaborate descriptions.

But what shocked him the most was the white-haired young man looking at a fruit at his feet.

It was Snow.

"What's going on?!" Godfrey turned to Gabriel, who smiled.

"I expected that question. What you see is the mana tree doing its work. That young man has given up, locked himself. His potential has reached its limits and his mind seeks rest, but the mana tree wants evolution. It wants war, endless fighting, endless competition to ensure evolution, and that's why it brought him there, to open a new door of vast potential."

Gabriel tilted his head to Percival.

"Like your friend here. It evolves you to make you a vessel for the evolution of others. In the case of that young man, you, Godfrey, are one of the vessels used to force him to evolve as he once was for you."

"So the one controlling the dungeons is the mana tree. That's the cause of all these deaths," Godfrey said.

"The cause of death is conflict born out of desire. The source of the cause is the mana tree. As much as you would want to hate it, you enjoy its privileges."

"What privileges?" Percival asked with a frown.

"Your summons. The ability to fly, to punch through walls, dodge bullets, command the sea, sprout wings made of lightning, heal your wounds without bitter drugs, or preparing your minds for a shot. All those are privileges," Gabriel replied.

"Both of you, your strength has caused lots of death, and it has saved few. It's down to reason. The mana tree sees evolution as a way of helping every lifeform become better versions of themselves through adapting to harsher circumstances, and the circumstances are not just dungeons, it's also the laws and rules we intelligent beings built because of this strength."

Gabriel waved his hand, and space tore open. Godfrey and Percival could see ents killing soldiers, combatants, and civilians whose summons were no match. The entire place was in chaos, and the ents were marching for Brooklyn Bridge, which was filled with lots of people in vehicles in a massive traffic jam.

Brooklyn had almost turned into a thick forest.

"A dungeon break." Godfrey's expression hardened.

"Go. I want you to stop it. Your friend's summons are still transitioning to their new strength. Besides, in the entire world, only your summons are bred for fights like this," Gabriel said to Godfrey.

"You want him to stop an army of monsters?!" Percival's face changed.

"The world needs to see a humanoid summoner save them. Even if you're not one, you look a lot like us. If higher-level summoners get there, they'll level the place. This fight should be an army against an army," Gabriel stated, summoning the Divine Tier hoodie with a casual wave of his hand and the golden mask.

After wearing it, Godfrey walked toward the rift, took a deep breath, and walked through.

'I have questions, but that will wait until I return. I also need to see the full capacity of my army.'

'He doesn't have a bad heart. This proves it.' Gabriel smiled softly.

***

"Oh, no! Please God, please! I don't want to die!" A woman's scream made many people on the bridge look up. From a few dozen to thousands, they looked at the space slowly tearing open above one of the bridge's stone towers.

Screams burst out as people took it as the ents opening a gateway to the bridge. It meant their doom.

Lotus, who stood beside her pink orchid mantis along with other members of the Gate Defender's Guild, maintaining order, looked up.

Her pupils shrank. Her heart began to pound as she prepared her mind for combat.

Meanwhile, helicopters of the media flying around zoomed in on the space tear.

Still in the hospital, since the doctor had to empower her blood cells to devour the cells of the Halfmoon Fanatic's summon left inside of her, Isolde watched the television.

"Just now, it seems like the ents have opened a rift above the bridge. This doesn't look like good news," the news anchor said, already agitated. This live video was to showcase humanity's powerful counterattack, but if ents fell from that rift and slaughtered people, it would only instill fear.

In that moment, a man fell, landing on the stone tower. The cameras zoomed in.

"Wait! That isn't a monster. It's a human being!"

***

A/N: Thank you for the golden tickets. Enjoy this long, juicy and delicious chapter that will leave you tingling. It's 2k words people!

Yes, Isolde's bills were paid... In full.