Michael sped towards Atrexia city at high speed. The flying beast wanted to resist at first but Michael sent some of his soul-energy towards it. The rich aura of death caused the beast to shiver and willingly obey Michael for the rest of the journey. It flew through the sky as if its life depended on it without caring for rest. It seemed as if it wanted this death-god to get off its back as soon as possible.
After a few hours, Michael reached could see the Atrexia city at some distance.
What good flying steed. Perfect-realm bird type beasts are pretty much the fastest travelling methods in Aterna.
It must be known that to use such a bird, one must have sufficient power or the bird would not submit to the rider.
Michael leapt off the beast's back. There was no further need for it. As soon as he was about to hit the ground, he burned his life force and set off in the direction of Atrexia royal castle. While he was still in the saint-realm, his understanding of laws was comparable to late-stage perfect-realm experts. Thus, Michael's movements were silent as a phantom. He suppressed the shockwaves by disturbing the laws around him.
As Michael was going to steal a treasure, there was no need to cause a commotion. He sped off to the underground dungeon below the royal palace. There were many guards but Michael's mastery in illusions backed by his powerful cultivation made sure that they were unable to perceive him at all.
Michael crossed them quickly to reach the centre of the dungeon. There were many obstacles along the way - a killing array followed by a reinforced and inscribed wall. Both the array and the inscriptions on the wall were connected in a way that one would have to break both of them at the same time. This was an extremely advanced mechanism - not something that Michael could solve.
Humans for millennia had protected the light of dawn. Every array genius born as a human had helped reinforce this mechanism. If not for the fact that their cultivation had not reached the immortal-realm, even immortals would have found it hard to breach this formation. But unfortunately, it was not so. Immortals could indeed break this formation through brute force. Michael burned his life force even more and activated his perfect persona blessing. His body reached the strength of immortal-realm. Followed by that, he used the Styx incarnation technique and his soul too reached the immortal realm.
As Michael released the full extent of his powers, his illusion techniques could no longer keep his presence hidden. The illusion surrounding him shattered in a moment and his aura spread out in all directions. Starting from the centre of the dungeon, the aura spread throughout the castle and immediately spread to the entire city.
Almost everyone stopped doing whatever they were doing at the moment. Most of the mortals were frozen due to the massive aura erupting from the centre of the city! Anyone below the saint-realm was unable to move for dozens of miles. This was an instinctual fear arising due to the difference in power! The saints could barely move but none of them dared to move closer to the centre of this aura storm.
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The Atrexia king - Desborn was holding the court meeting discussing war strategies before this incident. While it was true that Ragnar had declared war but he was alone. The elves had not moved as a whole and the elven king had maintained his silence on the matter.
The other immortals would have joined Ragnar but they did not for two reasons - for one, the light of dawn was able to reinforce only a single person. This treasure could not be shared. The second and most important reason was that the god-beasts were the original owners of the treasure. And while they rarely made any moves, they were still the overlords of the entire plane. Just the ancient immortals were comparable in numbers to all the immortals that were present in all the new races combined. While most of them were in slumber because they wanted to stop the degradation of their souls, it was not as if they could not wake up. In their ranks, there were many immortal-slayers as well.
They were the surviving members of Aterna who had seen the ancient war. Thus, they were not to be underestimated. The humans were holding the light of dawn for tens of thousands of years but ultimately they got it from the god-beasts. The other immortals were hesitant to anger the god-beasts if they took the treasure. Only Ragnar was thinking that he could bite more than he could chew.
Atrexia emperor was confident in holding his own against Ragnar with the light of dawn. But Ragnar's personal forces were also a source of concern. He had to make sure that the elves were beaten back as well. This was the reason why the war council had been set up. Almost all noble families were present including Millers and Zenids with only a single exception - Ragebergs.
The queen said:
> The Ragebergs have not sent their men during this calamity. They have clearly betrayed the race. I say that before mvoing against external threats, we should clear the internal traitors. Let us send someone to wipe them out completely! We must make an example out of these traitors!
>
> Paul Miller : Your Highness, you should know that the Ragebergs are still in mourning due to passing of their most talented heir. Also, it is the Atrexia family that has left us in this mess. What kind of deal did you make with The Deces? Your soul-guard was found with the assassin! We don't even know who you wanted to kill that badly. Michael's death's responsibility partly falls on your family as well. In this invited calamity, is it wrong for the Ragebergs to protest?
>
> Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
>
> Alice Atrexia : We gave contract to the deces to kill someone important. It was for the benefit of humanity. That person would have become a threat in the future. And the contract was given many years before. As for that kid's death, as I have said before multiple times - I had no part in it. It was unlucky that such a talented seed died but that does not mean that Ragebergs can be left off for backing out of this situation. How are they not siding with a foreign race in this matter? If this is not treason then what is it?
>
> Desborn Atrexia : Michael was the most talented seed that humans ever had but only talent means nothing in the plane. There have been many talents throughout centuries that have died before they could become sufficiently powerful. This was fate as well. But the light of dawn is a treasure of real power. If we loose it, we will loose our last defence against other races. It will incite war against the human territory and we might be subjugated and become a slave race! We must prevent that from happening! We must unite against this calamity!
>
> Reez Zenid : Your Majesty, you are right indeed. I agree that we must unite together for this battle. But you should know this - we are not supporting the Atrexia family in this but rather humanity. Your family moved without giving any explanations and has invited great trouble. The Zenid family will fight for you but you shall no longer have our support in ruling.
>
> Jerome Miller : It is the same for my family as well Your Majesty.
>
> Alice Atrexia : Humph! Then who do you plan to support? Duke Rageberg? You need a powerful leader. The josses are supporting us and so we have four perfect-realm experts on our side. Don't forget that we also have the light of dawn. If you don't agree to our rule willingly, we will force you to bend your knees!
The queen's belligerent attitude caused a frown to emerge on the noble's faces.
> Desborn Atrexia : Enough! We will decide the next course of action after the war. Right now, please focus on the war which is most important.
It was at this time that a terrifying aura emerged from the floor and shot to the sky!
The aura was clearly coming off a powerful expert. This was an aura that seemed to be thrumming with boundless life force and vitality but at the same time seemed to bring death everywhere it went. It was as if the eternal ruler of death had arrived!
The people in the war council were all suppressed. The normal guards and nobles were all unable to move. Normal saints were having difficulty breathing. Only peak-saints could still breathe and were aware of their surroundings. Even they were unable to truly move properly due to the suppression. Only the perfect realm experts could move.
Desborn, Alice, Paul, Jerome, Reez and Remur Joss - the six active perfect-realm experts associated with the human kingdom were all present in the assembly. They all rushed toward the dungeon to find the expert who had come. But even before they could leave the throne room, the entire castle shook violently! Cracks emerged on the walls and floor and debris fell off the ceiling. It was as if an earthquake had hit the building.
This was the royal castle of humans! It had been reinforced many times by the means of various arrays and inscriptions. For such a building to be rendered to such a state confirmed all their doubts - an immortal-realm expert!
Desborn had a very bad feeling as did the rest of the group. The dungeon held the light of dawn. It seemed as if an immortal expert had sneaked in to steal the treasure.
The Queen sneered and said:
> Ragnar thinks too highly of himself. Does he think that the tresure that had been guarding humans for several millenia is easily stolen? It will reject any other race with a terrifying repulsive force. There is no way to tame it in a short period of time. After all, blood essence of countless generations of humans has nourished it!
The rest of the group felt this as well. But there was another thing - Ragnar had mastered the law of plants. His powers had a feeling of nature and life. They were quite mellow. The expert down below seemed to have a power that was considerably dark and gloomy - as if death itself was encroaching upon them. It was likely that the expert cultivated the laws of death or something related. But they had not known any such expert. After all, laws of death were part of grand-laws. Much more powerful than normal laws. Such an expert remaining unknown to them was a mystery.
Still, whoever they might be, they could not be allowed to barge as they wished in the human Royal palace. Desborn was preparing to call the light of dawn to himself and fight off this expert. If possible, injure him too. They rushed to the dungeon. While their speed was slower due to suppression, it was still extremely fast. But when they were midway, the aura that had immobilized the entire city vanished as if it was smoke. This allowed the rest of the populace to breathe again. But none of them dared to move from their place! This was the first time that they had seen the aura of an immortal. How could they consider everything as normal?
The group felt that perhaps the expert found that he could not control the rejection force from the treasure and decided to run away. To check the situation, they rushed to the dungeon the very next moment. But the sight that awaited them there was the greatest shock that they had ever received in their lives.
The entire dungeon seemed to have collapsed due to the pressure. The guards - even the peak saints had all fainted with varying amount of internal injuries. There were some who were in a critical stage! The array and inscriptions on the wall were shattered as if someone peerlessly powerful had ripped apart the entire mechanism. Also, the treasure chamber was empty - the light of dawn was nowhere to be found.
But there was a message engraved on the wall -
The Atrexia family has broken ancestral laws and has placed the race in danger. They are no longer qualified to rule. I am choosing Ragebergs to be the new rulers. The light of dawn will rightfully go to the Ragebergs as is their right. As for how the Atrexia family atones for their sin, I will leave it to them. But if they make another mistake, the Atrexia family will vanish from the face of the plane.
There were no other words written and neither was the message signed. It seemed as if the expert did not want anyone to know about himself.
The king and queen felt as if the sky was collapsing on top of them. The power that they had tried to salvage by breaking the rules of their ancestors was taken away just like that. Not only so, but there was also now a calamity over the family.
A few things were clear to everyone - this was indeed the work of an immortal-realm expert. Also, this expert was naturally human or he was beyond the level of immortals who could suppress the rejection force. The first assumption seemed more reasonable. There were many hermits even among the humans who went into the wild to cultivate further and left the ruling to young ones. Many were part of the light tower as well. Thus, it was reasonable to expect that someone among them made a breakthrough and reached the immortal realm. It was also possible that this person had ascended newly or had not wanted to make his breakthrough public knowledge and hence the lack of information about him. The second assumption was less likely as such a person would not really care about a weak race like humans.
In either case, this was a blessing as well as a curse. The blessing was in the fact that now the treasure was in hands of someone very powerful and Ragnar would have no way to get it. But the curse was the fact that Ragnar had already declared war and they were even less equipped to fight him.
But one thing was definitely clear - the Atrexia family was facing a calamity!