Deep into the Ancient empire of man, a large palace existed in the middle of a mountain range, from outside it was near-impossible to know it even existed. From above, one simply saw what appeared to be more mountains as the roof blended into the terrain around it. And within…

One would notice that it only housed a few individuals.

A young girl played with the hundreds of magical tools given to her over the years, most of which she discarded due to boredom. Yes, the astrolabe which projected the stars into the space around her was interesting, but why had that Grandmaster engraver given it to her? Because she made a throwaway statement about stars being ‘cool’?

In the end, only a few of those toys actually mattered to her, the rest were nothing better than gimmicks. Very expensive gimmicks at that, not that the concept of wealth truly applied to her.

As usual, she wore a bright floral dress which extended just above her ankles, with a pair of slip-on shoes of inestimable power, not to mention a pair of ruby hairclips. These three things all contained the frightening mana within her at all times.

Without them, she might have left hundreds of small holes all throughout the large palace.

Besides that, a man leisurely penned the response to a few hundred letters in his study. Most of these quills were in fact high-grade magical tools which he controlled mentally, and in turn allowed him to write up to 10 letters at once. A large tray with a few hundred quills lay to the side, the only limitation in their use was that he lacked ability…

This was a rather standard day for Raccelline and her father, the emperor, and as such was a reason as to why he often nagged his brother to take her along on his adventures. The young girl had a few friends in the capital, but beyond that, she had very little experience in the world beyond these four walls.

While that seemed to continue today, the two’s day was cut short by a heavy gong sounding out throughout the polished marble corridors of their massive home. Moments later, the appearance of a large barrier encapsulated their home, several thin layers of light all merging together into one of white brilliance. A defence which could block several Great sages, or even temporarily block the power of a demigod.

Without hesitation, the emperor discarded the letters to grab ahold of his daughter who began crying from the sudden noises. The entire palace’s walls shook every few seconds as well, only worsening her thoughts. The two descended to the palace’s depths, moving beyond a secret necromantic research lab, and coming to a private alchemical lab which housed the place’s third individual.

“What’s going on out there!?” He shouted at his brother, still trying to soothe his daughter after the sudden attack.

“It’s not good… Something out there seems to be using a divine weapon to strike the barrier. Each of those attacks is at the demigod level.” As the bald man tried to penetrate through the barrier to see who exactly the attacker was, there was a strange obfuscation out there and all that came through was the power of Divinus. A type he recognised extremely well. “Look out!” he shouted and grabbed the two, flinging them towards a wall with no regard for safety.

A single golden blade infused with Divinus runes cut through the air they stood at, and he used all his power as a Sage to push back the runes’ attempts to cut towards them.

Both Raccelline and her father smashed into the black and gold stone used to make the walls, but neither were damaged. She started to sob from the pain of it though.

“How adorable. Before you leave, I must thank you all for being so ‘ambivalent’ of our plans. Honestly, it would have been so much tougher if you cracked straight away.” Through the fine hole made by the golden blade, a black ooze dripped through and eventually reformed at the bottom. It formed a tall figure, with a fine display of silver patterns all over their skin. Even with no mouth to speak of, all of them knew it was smiling despicably.

Not only was it an eternal…

But the one who stood before them was a Great sage. One the two brothers recognised quite well.

“Do you really think you can kill us with Prelonius here? You just had your chance and blew it!” They held absolute confidence in the strength of their empire, and their own Great sages, yet the eternal’s smile only deepened.

Seconds passed in silence, and the eternal’s maw opened to reveal two jaws of white teeth. It laughed with a faint chuckle at first, but grew louder by the moment until he almost bent over in the hilarity.

“That old miser’s occupied over in Galle, trying to stop it being wiped off the third world as we speak!” With the eternal’s laughter half-covering his words, the two took a few seconds to dissect what he meant, and responded with a pair of grave faces. “Looks like you figured it out. Keeping your spies from finding out was quite a task!”

The eternal continued to laugh. He took pleasure in the job. For years now, he dreamt of ending the Empire of man, but the race always lacked just one more being of their level to completely tear down the sprawling lands. But that changed just a few months ago…

Suddenly, the world came to a standstill. The emperor clutched his daughter tightly with one arm, whilst the other held a large pendant, containing a large amber gemstone which itself contained millions of swirling runes. The entire thing barely fit in the palm of his hand, and as it shone with golden light, only the three of them could move. Even little bits of rubble falling from the ceiling stopped in the air, frozen in time.

But at the same time, all three found their mana inoperable.

“You still have the divine relic, do you not? Use it and kill him! It’s our only chance of survival, brother.” The pain in his eyes could not be clearer, he knew the lengths they’d gone through to locate the relic, and now it would be all but wasted to kill a Great sage.

But more importantly, it would delay the rise of his brother for decades! Perhaps even a century!

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He knew it was a lot to ask, and the conflict in the bald Sage’s eyes couldn’t have been clearer. But when the two locked eyes, he smiled, letting his brother know it would all end well. A conviction appeared and his brother said, “I can’t… I can’t do it. I’m sorry.”

Silence fell in the room.

“What do you mean? Surely, You don’t plan to let us die?” His voice filled with shock, and with a thought, he excluded his daughter from the gemstone’s effect, so she didn’t have to hear what happened next. In his brother’s silence he asked once more, “What do you mean?” The rising anger could be felt by both of them.

“I’ll make sure every last one of them dies! None will remain when I’m done…”

“What do you MEAN!?” For the first time in a while, he shouted at his brother. Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes and he struggled to maintain his breathing.

“I can’t give it up… This chance…” He spoke in broken words, ashamed at the idea. But at no point did he refute it.

The emperor looked down at his daughter, frozen in place from the relic’s effect. Over the years the family acquired quite a few from the human race’s god, but he never expected for this one to ever be needed. A tenderness washed through his face, and for a moment you’d think he wasn’t the slightest bit mad.

“As long as I live, you will never be a part of the Manus family tree. And you will never, EVER, come near my daughter.” Without giving the Sage a moment to speak up, his figure froze in place and Raccelline’s body began to move again. The emperor held his daughter tight and almost cried for the first time in years. She didn’t know why, but she knew whatever came next would be hard for the two of them. “Dear… Do you remember the kind man in the woods who gave you that ring?”

Unable to speak with her head pressed against her father’s chest, she nodded and thought back to the somewhat musty log house in the middle of some strange woods.

Her father went to visit about a year ago, and brought her along around her 5th birthday. Nothing about the house itself appeared impressive, it was truly just made of the surrounding oak wood and possessed less mana than the surrounding bronze tier beasts.

But the man who owned it was very special, and extremely powerful… At least stronger than her uncle.

“Good. It’s not safe here anymore… So I need you to think of his house and I’ll teleport you there. Can you do that for me?” She didn’t really understand what was happening, besides that they were under attack, and she just nodded to her father again as he slipped the heavy necklace over her head. The glowing gemstone filled her with caution, but her father just looked into her eyes and said, “You’ll be alright, I promise. I love you so much.

With a small pulse, the pendant flashed and his daughter’s body transformed into a beam of light, carried off far to the west. If anyone could keep her safe, that man was amongst the few capable of it.

With the pendant’s departure, time returned to the room and allowed the others to see what happened. His brother only looked away in disgrace, and the eternal’s laughter doubled down as it saw who had left. “You gave up your only chance, for her? I’m not ignorant of parental love… But that goes a bit far!” He tried to trace the form of teleportation, but found all attempts blocked by a power above his own. Without hesitation, he gave up on killing the girl and focused on the emperor himself.

The golden blade in the eternal’s hand began to shake, and it no longer held back. But as the blade went through his heart, severing his soul in an instant, it was not yet the end.

Out of nowhere, he pulled out a marble of a similar amber gemstone to the one in that pendant. The eternal frowned at its appearance but did not dare approach whilst the emperor held it. But once in the man’s mouth, he swallowed and smiled, “I suppose I love her too much. But it’s not too bad for me.”

The eternals’ Great sage tried to redirect the blade onto the emperor, but a skin of that same gemstone already formed all over him. It formed a shell, and constricted his body of flesh and blood, at the same time excluding the relic which already cut his soul in two.

He did receive an attack that ordinarily killed, however, his soul found itself unable to escape the encased body. Things only grew more extreme as the shell of gemstone deepened, in just seconds pushing the soul into his heart… And then it froze in place.

His body transformed into a solid gemstone structure, and no matter what the Great sage tried, he failed to kill the emperor. With a frown, he sent his blade towards the only other human in the room, but it was too late.

With the castle to reinforce the Sage’s magic, a grand teleportation spell was cast and instantly transported him to another one of the eight worlds… He could follow through, but another Great sage would be on the other end.

A human one at that.

Rather than risk losing the relic in one of the many unstable spatial vortices between worlds, he set up a seal and left the emperor’s body in place. At the very least, if anyone ever broke the cursed state he placed himself in… the eternals would discover it near-instantly and come to kill them all.

After looting the castle, only to find a few items of significant value, the Great sage left.

And the empire found itself left in shambles and in anticipation of its foreboding future.

* * *

Beyond the borders of the empire, to the west, laid an inconspicuous forest in the nation of Caldrei. To the residents of a nearby town, it was said to be the home of an inestimably powerful being who watched over their small place. In the past few decades, during times of natural disaster, the situation would be magically resolved by a beam of light from the forest’s depths.

But to this day, no one had ever found anything resembling a home in the forest. And with many Blossoming wizards leaving empty-handed, it simply turned into superstitions. These days, most homes believed that the kingdom itself intervened and dealt with such disasters while using the forest as a cover.

However, deep within, surrounded by hundreds of wards and barriers to stop outsiders from finding it. A single log cabin resided without a single semblance of life to destroy the scenery. A beam of light pierced through all the barriers with ease and a young girl appeared in the room much to her own surprise. It had been way faster than any other teleportation she’d experienced, and it took a few seconds to adapt.

The wooden furniture and table of alchemical instruments appeared as usual to her. And she called out, “Mister! My dad said to come find you!” Her shouts echoed throughout the house, and she looked around to take a seat at the dining table behind her.

And when she turned, the table she remembered indeed sat there. With four oak chairs around it… And dried blood adhered to the surface.

A body sat at the table of an elderly man with a large scruffy beard and in simplistic brown robes. His face remained contorted and surprised even in death, and she stepped back in fear and shock. Its glassy, empty eyes, looked to the side, and perfectly lined up with her vision. On the table was a note, on it, a few words written in the man’s own blood.

She took it by a clean corner and read it aloud, “Be wary. A new Great sage.” It didn’t mean much to the six-year old girl.

But left alone outside her home for the first time in her life… She felt lost. Tears appeared in her eyes, but as she simply tried to understand what was going on, the overwhelming presence of it all crashed down and not even those tears escaped.

She sat down at the table and just thought about things.

Her father’s words… What happened at the palace… The note left by Mister Jelfin… And who she could even turn to.

What places did she even know she could go to?