At Mt. Eirene.
The mountain that previously had a sharp peak now looked like a plain.
The platform that was hidden inside a cave was now open for all to see. The characters engraved on it were glowing, indicating that it was currently in function. However, because it was noon, the light it produced was not very eye-catching.
The scene behind it, instead, was.
A purple mass of whirling clouds was now situated behind the glowing platform. Sometimes, flashes of lightning could be seen from within, but none really escaped to hurt anyone. The clouds were adjacent to the ground, and from time to time, a person would exit from it.
Yes. A person would emerge from the purple clouds from out of nowhere.
There were armored warriors who exited the cloud, but most of the time, people wearing ragged clothing who looked extremely famished would walk out of it.
From the side, a person wearing white clothing observed silently, his long white hair swaying in the breeze.
"My Lord, one of the towns we captured was attacked," a messenger addressed the white-clothed man as he kneeled.
The man turned his head towards the messenger, his expression, empty.
"How did it go?" the man asked.
The messenger was frustrated, but he tried his best to appear calm in front of his lord. He shut his eyes as he said, "We lost about 1000 men. But we were able to force the enemies back. The town was abandoned afterward."
"How many enemies?"
"They numbered 2500 to 3000."
"How many did they lose?"
"Two thousand, more of less."
"I see."
The white-clothed man spoke no further.
The messenger opened his eyes as he found himself sweating. Was their conversation going to end like that? They lost a lot of people! In a battle of numbers, even if the exchange was two to one, they would eventually be wiped out. Unless…
Unless the elders arrive!
"Uh, my Lord. When are the elders supposed to arrive? The locals here are certainly dangerous. We may need their help," the messenger said, his voice full of hope. But then he realized that he asked something that he shouldn't. He dipped his head further as he bit his lip.
Thankfully, his master did not see it as an offense.
"They are still taking care of things on the other side," the man answered.
"My apologies for asking!" the messenger immediately said afterward to redeem himself.
The white-clothed man simply lifted a hand to express his nonchalance. He then asked, "Do they have people like Devon Morgan?"
The messenger was still gleeful about his lord's response when a question was suddenly thrown at him.
Devon Morgan? Who was that again?
The messenger struggled to remember for quite some time before finally recalling.
Ah! The person who was responsible for their Lord's injuries!
Being reminded by this, the messenger felt his anger build up. If not for that man, they would've been able to conquer the current Empire without too many losses. They might have been able to conquer the continent already, even.
"No, my Lord!" the messenger confidently replied. "Only people comparable to the General with the surname Melbark."
"Good. I'll assume then that they only have one person comparable to Florentine, the ruler, then," the white-clothed man said. He turned his head towards the base of the mountain. There, he saw thousands of people gathering together.
Those were the common citizens of their origin. Most were wearing torn clothing and were only skin and bones. Based on these features alone, one could already tell that they haven't been living lavishly.
The white-clothed man closed his eyes for a moment to think.
He then said, "Begin the attack."
Hearing this, the messenger was visibly shocked and forgot to keep his head bowed. His mouth hung wide open. Then his lips began to tremble as he attempted to voice out his worries.
"But my Lord, our numbers are still not enough! As of the moment we only have—"
"Munak…"
The white-clothed man mentioned the messenger's name, making him flinch.
"The gate for a better future has opened. What do you think is happening on the other side of the portal?"
Munak found himself speechless. His eyes also fell on the base of the mountain where his people rested.
What would happen on the other side? What does this mean? Of course, they would want to cross over to the other side...
Wait… No.
"The people are fighting to be the first to cross."
It was the white-clothed man who answered his own question.
"Unfortunately, we don't have enough land to cater to all of them, so we had to limit the people who entered the portal."
Realization dawned on Munak.
"We have been delayed for too long."
He hurriedly bowed his head and said, "Sorry for questioning you, my Lord!"
The white-clothed man turned his attention towards the portal once more. "Prepare our army. Attack immediately."
"Yes!"
….
Aeon rushed towards the castle, his head full of questions. He now completely forgot that he lacked sleep.
The streets were quite busy with the people in a state of panic, so Aeon did not catch any unwanted attention.
After reaching a certain street, he entered an alley. It wasn't really a shortcut towards the palace, but there were fewer people who used that path due to how many people get mugged there.
Aeon was obviously not worried about that.
Aeon took a quick right at a crossing. He was extremely familiar with the route and didn't even need to think about directions.
Who would've thought that at that moment he would bump into someone.
With a thud, Aeon stumbled backward. He cursed his luck for encountering a person on such a narrow passage at that point during the day.
He was about to apologize when he heard the person he bumped into exclaim.
"Aeon?!"
Hearing his name, Aeon hurriedly opened his eyes. When he saw the person in front of him, he was shocked.
"Uncle?!"
Aeon and the Emperor stared dumbly at each other. Then, they both yelled at the same time.
"What are you doing here?!"
Aeon was about to bombard the emperor with his questions when the man suddenly dragged him by the shirt. Aeon was dumbstruck, but the man was too strong for him to resist. He could only cry inwardly as he felt the soles of his boots scrape the ground.
Lucian was wearing a commoner's clothing in order to blend in with the people. He hurriedly pulled his hood back up as they entered the busy streets. Thankfully, none were able to recognize the emperor with his simple disguise.
Aeon was puzzled about where his uncle was taking him, but he then realized later on that the man was just retracing his steps.
"Hey old man, are you… taking me home?" Aeon asked with difficulty as he was being forcefully dragged.
"Shut up! I need to see something there!" Lucian replied.
Aeon was still confused, but he didn't struggle.
Eventually, the two arrived at the Morgan residence.
Lucian entered the familiar house and rushed towards the room at the back. He dropped Aeon in front of a door and said, "Hurry, open the study!"
"Wait, what?" Aeon asked in confusion, but he still fumbled for the keys inside his pocket. He unlocked it and the door swung wide open.
Lucian rushed inside and started searching through the books.
Aeon just stared at the man as he searched without any light. Shaking his head, he turned on the gas lamp for the old man.
"Damn it! Why isn't it here?" Lucian asked.
"What are you even looking for?" Aeon asked, unamused.
"The Tenro manual!"
"The manual? You should've said so earlier."
Aeon left the study and instead went back to his father's old bed. He casually lifted the pillow, revealing a thick book leaning on the bed's frame. "He always kept it here, so I thought I should do it too."
"Nice!" Lucian said. He picked up the manual and started skimming rapidly through the pages.
At that moment, he didn't look like the calm emperor of Meredith. He just looked like a panicked old man.
Aeon leaned over to see what the man was searching for. He then realized that the original Tenro Manual of the Morgan family was a lot different than the copy his dad wrote in the Florentine Empire. There were random scribbles drawn at the edge of the pages. Maybe the person reading was only drawing it subconsciously.
"Woah, there are symbols drawn there?" Aeon asked.
"Haven't you read through this book already?" Lucian asked, annoyed.
"Not really. I only started reading the manual in Florentine. And that one was just a copy. No symbols," Aeon explained.
Lucian cocked an eyebrow at him and asked, "And you didn't bother reading it again here?"
Aeon shrugged. "I memorized the entire book. Didn't know there was actually more to see."
Lucian scoffed. He knew about Aeon's excellent memory. And he hated it when he had a point.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up.
"This!" Lucian suddenly said as he pointed at a circle-looking scribble. Then he rummaged through his left pocket to take out a piece of paper.
Aeon was about to ask how his uncle knew about the symbols in the book when he started acting all weird.
Lucian laid out the piece of paper beside the symbol he was pointing at earlier.
"Do you see the resemblance?" Lucian asked Aeon.
Comparing the two, Aeon nodded in agreement. "What about it?"
"This symbol was used to take out more than half of Shilla's army of 900," Lucian explained with a grave expression.
"What?! Take out? You mean kill?!"
Lucian nodded with a grim expression.
"According to the report, this symbol was drawn on the ground. It had a radius of half a kilometer. Then it just exploded, freezing everyone inside and killing them," Lucian said. He then resumed skimming through the pages to look for more similar drawings. "The drawing in this sheet was created from multiple testimonies. It was just too big."
"What the fuck? But why do we have a copy of that shit here in this manual?" Aeon asked, utterly confused.
"That's what I want to find out," Lucian replied, his hands never stopped moving.
Aeon was now also absorbed into the search. All of his questions were pushed at the back of his mind.
The two were going through page after page, finding more similar drawings.
Their frowns were getting more intense the more pages they turned.
The heat of the moment was only broken when a piece of paper suddenly flew from a page and Aeon had to scramble to catch it.
Curious, the two checked the paper as well.
Similar to others, there were a bunch of symbols written on it too.
However, this page was much more special.
It was so distinct that Lucian and Aeon couldn't help staring at each other with shocked expressions.
This wasn't part of the manual!
It was a map!
Bang! A soldier suddenly burst inside the room carrying a stone that was glowing—a tracking stone. The Emperor's.
"Emperor! Enemies incoming!"
Lucian and Aeon's expressions turned grim.
….