Master spy Salin had never felt so much terror in his life before.

He had been a common soldier before his recruitment. A captain in the glorious liberating army of Solaria, but still a common soldier.

He wasn't one of the pillars of the kingdom, the ones that were able to wipe out armies within minutes but were mostly there to keep the other kingdom's pillars in check and to also be kept in check in return. Their powers were the things of nightmares and legends, and he wasn't even a quarter up to their levels of powers. He had seen them fighting in the skies during wars or one of the dark operations carried out in enemy kingdoms. Operations that kept the empire safe and protected, with techniques that lit up the heavens in a myriad of colours.

Having been recruited into being one of Solaria's hidden protectors. People from outside the empire referred to them as spies, but he liked the term 'Hidden protectors' more, it made him look more important any time he went on operations outside the empire. He liked how Solaria's hidden protectors were spoken of in fear.

Recruited into the sanctum for discovering a plot that had saved a pillar's son from being kidnapped by spies from one of the empire's enemies, he had been sponsored by said pillar, and then given an opportunity to become a realm cultivator as a requirement for joining the ranks of hidden protectors.

He hadn't taken much time to rise through the ranks of protectors, becoming a master in the art of assassination and espionage. He had infiltrated dozens of enemy strongholds and put to permanent sleep people who were unlucky enough to have their names written down in the sanctum's book of death. They didn't need to be powerful people, just people who had information that they were never supposed to have.

That was why he had been wary at first when he was approached by someone who boldly identified him as a hidden protector, even though the stranger had used the unsavoury term.

There were only a few people who could successfully see through his disguise and identify his origins, and it was not possible to see any of them in a small city like this in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing of interest here to warrant their attention. So he had concluded that the stranger must have gotten information that he should not have had. He had been very curious about the stranger's origin to identify which of the empire's enemies were beginning to set their eyes on this city. And to find out how the stranger had gotten his information.

Since the only people who knew about his assignment were the pillars and officials who answered directly to the emperor.

When he had told the stranger to not bother running, he had still expected him to flee but was surprised to easily track him down to an establishment not too far and with a straight path to the city's temple.

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Infiltrating the stranger's room had been child's play. He had begun to have this feeling of unease when he found the stranger sitting on the bed like he was waiting for him, but had tamped it down and gotten to the business of acquiring information.

How painful his methods were going to be depended on how stubborn the stranger was, they always tried to prove stubborn.

And he loved the thrill of breaking them.

He had silenced the room as a way to put fear of the unknown into the stranger, of the idea of the pain he was about to face, but it had quickly turned around when the stranger just laughed and replied. "You seem to be getting things the other way round. You're going to happily answer all my questions without me even laying a hand on you,"

Salin had seen something in the stranger's unsettling grey eyes that had sent deep shivers up his spine and had quickly sent him running for his life. He hadn't gotten more than two steps when he felt the sudden lightheadedness that always came with dimensional travel. He had quickly gotten over it, but what he then saw outside the window made him take a step back.

The stranger had stood up and then moved to go sit on the chair across from his bed. "Now, where should we begin," He said.

Salin had begun contemplating whether to jump and take his chances in the strange dimension that the stranger moved them to, even though he knew with certainty that he wouldn't survive for more than half a second, at least it was better than experiencing what he knew the stranger would do to him.

The man seemed to read his mind. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. The realm of the metaphysical is filled with terrible creatures that a mere mortal shouldn't lay eyes on," He then smiled. "Consequences range from instant death, your brain melting and blood pouring out of every orifice on your body, or you starting to tear yourself apart. If you're lucky, you might just go instantly dead, if you then get unlucky, then a creature might just open a hole in your consciousness, and then make itself comfy there, and you wouldn't be alone again. Creatures of the unreal are very curious about mortals, and they have none of the moral qualms that comes with making you take yourself apart piece by piece to see what makes you tick," He said.

The stranger sounded nonchalant about all he had just said like he wasn't even fazed by all the horrific things he just described, but Salin only felt his horror growing. What had he just gotten himself into?

The stranger gestured at the bed "Have a seat," He said.

Despite his fear of moving one more step, it paled compared to the fear of what the stranger would do to him if he disobeyed. He walked up to the bed and sat.

"We haven't properly introduced ourselves yet, I'll start, my name is Damien,"

Salin kept staring until the man raised an eyebrow.

"I am called Salin, lord?" He didn't know whether it was permitted to call the man by his birth name. He had always been told that when meeting powerful people, never to call them by their birth names.

"Just call me Damien, I do not like overly submissive people, bad memories and all," The man's eyes flashed and Salin's heart froze.

"Sorry about that. Now that we have the formalities out of the way, I am going to ask some questions, and you are going to answer them truthfully to the best of your abilities. You do not want me to have to forcefully draw answers out of you," Something in the man's tone changed, Salin didn't know what, but any growing plan to lie to this man was forcefully tamped down and smothered.

The man must have seen this in Salin's expression because he then smiled and nodded.

"Now, tell me why the empire has suddenly gotten interested in this desert city?" He asked.