As they were eating, the King finally apologized, “My apologies Archmage, I had overstepped my bounds yesterday.”
Ieros then stopped eating, looking at him, “You need not apologize, it was not your fault. I merely overreacted to the situation, please forgive me.”
Everyone at the table was surprised as the King accepted his apology, they had not expected the Archmage to be so humble, not after how he had reacted last time.
Encouraged by this, the King said, “So, I’ve heard rumors that you are the youngest Archmage in history, may I ask how old you are?”
Ieros replied, “I am eighteen years of age.”
There was an abrupt silence, not unlike the time when Ieros had revealed his age to the court of Seris.
The King was the first to break the silence, “But… you are so mature.”
Ieros said, “With great power comes great responsibility. In order to control my power with perfect precision, I had to mature so I can wield my strength with a cool head.”
The King laughed, “Haha, from that outburst yesterday, you don’t seem to be that mature yet.”
Ieros answered, “That was not out of anger your majesty, I merely did what I believed to be necessary in order for you to leave me alone. Besides, if I was truly angry, I would have razed this city to the ground and wiped all traces of its existence from history.”
Once more all were silent, the ambassadors finally laughing nervously, “Ah ha, what a joke.”
Ieros shrugged, “Think what you like.”
Once more there was silence, people unsure as to what to believe. They, of course, thought that Ieros was bluffing and yet the seriousness in which he said the threat was not something to be ignored. Perhaps he couldn’t destroy all of Amartia but he could certainly be able to kill everyone in the Dining Hall, that much they were certain he was capable of. So it was silently and mutually agreed that they should not piss off Ieros lest they be destroyed. Meanwhile, Ieros had finished his meal, the food was actually quite excellent. Meralia and Rose would certainly enjoy such dishes when he returned.
The Surveyor was suddenly surprised, why did Ieros have such a thought? It then decided that it wasn’t something of great worry, after all, Ieros spent most of his time outside the tower of time with Meralia and Rose, but it would keep careful watch just in case. Pushing such thoughts aside, for now, the Surveyor remained dormant as Ieros spoke,
“Your majesty, I shall be blunt. I wish that the negotiations start today but I am willing to offer something in return for this.”
The King asked, “What will you be offering?”
Ieros said, “I have noticed that the forest of Amartia is infested with monsters, I will cleanse them all by the end of today for you. I also hope that it will be the only time I ever have to use my army of stone here again.”
There were looks of disbelief, anger, fear, and curiosity from all gathered at the table, what this man had just offered was something on the verge of impossibility. To clear even a single monster nest required the efforts of five hundred soldiers backed by clerics and mages and even then, it would take at least a week to fully destroy. And here was this mysterious mage who claimed that he could destroy them all in one day.
One had enough and he stood, angrily shouting, “Impossible! You destroy one nest and then two pop up! You will just make things worse!”
Ieros turned towards him and said, “I am not you, I do not make make mistakes. But actions speak louder than words so you are welcome to watch. That is if you agree, your majesty.”
The Lord Saerus quickly interjected, “Your majesty, I know that it may seem rude but what the Archmage says is not entirely impossible. He has kept all of East Athera free of monsters, wiping out their nests which numbered in the hundreds out in half of a year. His words are not born from arrogance but of experience.”
Lady Elysant added, “I may not know as much as Lord Saerus but I do know this, that the Archmage has never failed a task that he has either proposed or been commanded to do.”
Still a bit wary, the King said, “Very well, I shall see the destroying of a single nest personally, if I am satisfied with the results, I will negotiate and sign the treaty.”
Ieros then stood, “Very well, I shall begin immediately, you may send someone you trust to oversee that I have done exactly as I said.”
He then walked towards the exit, the two ambassadors standing as well.
They asked Ieros, “May we accompany you?”
Ieros without stopping said, “Do as you like.”
The King stood as well, “I, of course, shall be attending as well.”
Many of those eating also decided to come, the two powers that Ieros acknowledged also accompanying them. Ieros was not troubled however, they were not of great import as of now. Ieros kept walking as he summoned a large gate, although this time it did not disappear when he stepped through. The others were hesitant to step through but the King gathered his courage and stepped through, the others quickly following suit. Upon stepping through, they found themselves high in the air, as if they were standing on a floating glass floor. It was slightly unsettling but there were seats for them to settle in which made the ordeal less unnatural.
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In front of these seats was a gigantic rectangular crystal which was what they assumed to be a gigantic observation crystal. And it was this world’s first example of a movie theater. Surprised, they waited expectantly as the crystal started up, showing Ieros standing on the ground. He then raised his left hand and along with the motion of his arm, an army of stone was conjured along with it, stone soldiers still and imposing. Without further ado, he sent them forth with a command, the soldiers marching towards the monster nest in perfect unison.
All monsters before they were slaughtered and as they neared the nest, the audience could see that there were other lines of soldiers, it appeared that these stone soldiers had circled a perimeter around the nest and were closing the noose. They watched in horrified fascination as the stone soldiers exterminated the monsters with mechanical ease. Soon this terrible wall of death had reached the entrance of the nest where the monsters cowered, having long since given up fighting against their invincible enemy. Their primitive weaponry had no effect on the stone soldiers, it was like… no, exactly like trying break a boulder with a wooden club.
The monsters, goblins, shrieked in terror as the wall of death entered their nest, scratching desperately against the unyielding walls of their home which was now their tomb. The stone soldiers slaughtered them without mercy, their blades cleaving goblins in two, splattering blood and innards all over the floor. Not even the prisoners of the goblins were spared, the women captured to breed more goblins had been killed as well although this was more of a mercy. Soon, the only thing left being left was a pool of blood and piles of goblin corpses. The scene abruptly changed to that of a troll village, who were fighting desperately against a similar stone army except these soldiers were much bigger than their predecessors, matching the massive trolls in height. But unlike the goblins, the trolls did not flee in fear, instead, they faced their enemy till the death, for there was nothing else they could do.
This ended the same, with the complete extermination of the trolls. Once more the scene changed and it was now a nest of gigantic tree spiders, these were personally taken care of by Ieros who slashed his hand horizontally, a corresponding black wave engulfing the spiders which then fell to the ground lifeless when the wave had passed. The following scenes were much the same, either showing the stone soldiers mercilessly slaughtering monsters or Ieros quenching the life out of them with that black wave. Finally, the scenes stopped playing and the observation crystal fell dark once more, Ieros’s voice startling the stunned audience,
“So your majesty, I hope my performance has satisfied you. For now, I shall retire to my room, I have spent much of my energy and I need to recuperate.”
So saying, he created two gates, one to return to his room and one to return the audience. The gate which he stepped through closed but the other gate remained, its dark depths flowing ever so slightly. Slowly, they entered the gate, each mulling on what they had just witnessed. Ieros had been true to his word, he would have exterminated all the monster nests infesting the forest in a single day, even less than that. The King had now come to the late realization that he could not afford to offend Athera, to do so would mean his nation befalling the same fate as those monster nests.
The ambassadors were likewise shocked, they knew that Ieros was powerful but not this powerful. They were suddenly uneasy, he possessed the power to overthrow any nation in the world and if he so chose, no one could stop him. They were worried, what if… what if he chose to attack Athera?
They put these thoughts aside when the King said, “Let us go to a more appropriate place for negotiations.”
As they left to make decisions that would decide the fate of Amartia, Ieros was meditating in his room, the Surveyor watching over the proceedings of the negotiations while Ieros did so. Of course, due to Ieros’s display of his strength, the negotiations went smoothly and by the end of the day, the treaty had been signed and the ambassadors were ready to return. Thus ended the negotiations with Amartia, Ieros being satisfied with the result. He would not be hassled by unnecessary problems and soon would return home where he could rest.
To be honest, Ieros had not expected things to go so well, he expected to meet with a lot of trouble but he was satisfied nonetheless the way that things had come to pass. He would not complain if things went well, especially considering his circumstances. One of his power would often attract unwanted attention and trouble, it was a miracle that those two powers had not come to challenge him. But then again, his title as Archmage must have discouraged them, after all, they were powerful but not at the level of an archmage. They were wise enough to know from the start that Ieros was something beyond their reach and his display merely confirmed those suspicions.
Then Ieros let loose a small sigh, why couldn’t all humans be as wise as these two? It realized that this was an impossibility as long as humans retained their free will which he had no intention of tampering with, otherwise, he would not gather meaningful data. Rather he was thankful that it existed, it allowed for random events that he could not predict to happen, thus making the gathering of knowledge enjoyable.
And that was precisely why it had not stopped the succubus from returning to the Demon Lord with information of a powerful human, her actions would only make things far more interesting in the future. Perhaps an alliance between demonkind and orcs which would then make it possible for the orcs to conquer Auster with ease and bring the Saurians to their knees. Of course, humanity would not have a chance unless Ieros were to “sacrifice” himself, pretending to expend his own life energy to cast a great spell that would do enough damage to the demons and orcs so that the humans could defeat them.
And he might not have to postpone the battle if things continued the way they were going, the battle that would decide the fate of man and orc would happen on the arrival of End, whose presence would first disrupt peace between nations. How troublesome, but then again, the data would not be interesting if it ended so easily. The Surveyor then turned its attention to the worlds beyond Agleon, specifically the one which End was in the middle of destroying, watching as the armies of mortals clashed with one another, leaving billions dead.
Feeling his gaze, she looked towards Agleon, a hungry grin on her face. She would enjoy destroying Agleon while the Surveyor watched helplessly.
As she entertained such thoughts, a voice that choked on blood said, “You won’t get away with this-*cough*”
The owner of the voice was an angel, one sent to answer the prayer of this world’s Pope although he was now reduced to a mere torso, his arms, legs, and wings torn off with a spear of destructive energy impaling his chest.
A tired laugh greeted the angel’s words, a demon in a similar shape lay just opposite of him, “Haaa, you angels never learn. You always preach on about how good will win in the end but don’t you see? She is just too damn powerful, I doubt even a god could defeat her. Her power is just like that time, a hundred years ago when that Thing came.”
The angel chuckled before giving into a fit of coughing, “Yeah, to think that there were such beings that inhabited this universe-*cough*”
End grew tired of their talking and killed them, the spears impaling them exploding, leaving no trace of their bodies. End then focused on the war going on in front of her and suddenly got angry, stomping her feet and causing the surface of the world to shatter, gigantic ravines opening beneath the feet of the clashing armies and swallowing them. Once all life in this world was gone, she sighed and fell on her back, lying on the barren ground. She gazed up at the sky, her face empty of emotion.