Splash!
A cold blob of water had been dropped onto my face as it jolted me awake.
"What in the-".
The words were caught in my mouth as Yohan put his hand over my mouth.
"Shh. Others are sleeping, quickly dress and come up to the main palace. A fun event is about to occur." Yohan spoke and then quickly left the room.
Still half-awake, I groggily changed my clothes and made my way up to the main palace entrance as Yohan stood by the open door.
"Let's go in." Yohan led me in.
There were only the guards and the seer within the audience hall, the emperor was nowhere to be seen.
"Stand beside me and stay quiet, your master is coming." Yohan led me to a corner where he had stood yesterday and told me.
"Lady Sil-"
"Shh..." Yohan quickly shushed me before I could even ask.
Soon.
Boom! A door to the left of the throne opened up as Emperor Aragon walked in, in a complete set of black scaled armor this time. He nodded to us all before sitting down.
All this while, the palace doors had been wide open, as if they were expecting a guest.
"ARAGON!" I heard the loud, and quite angry, voice of Lady Silvia as a blast of wind pummeled me from the direction of the door.
I quickly hurdled myself to retain my balance and when I looked up, I saw Lady Silvia glaring right at me.
"This disciple of mine, fitting to go into the special corps huh?" Lady Silvia spoke.
I gulped but maintained my silence as she moved her gaze from me to Emperor Aragon.
"Hello, little boy." Lady Silvia smiled as she looked at Emperor Aragon who had long stood up before her.
He did a slight bow as he welcomed her. "I welcome the Eternal Guardian of Knowledge to the Capital. Hello Silvia."
"How far is the current camp of the special corpse to request my audience? Little boy, have you gotten lazy or are you taking advantage of me?" Lady Silvia's smile disappeared as her usual cold expression reappeared.
"Please stop calling me that Silvia, I'm now the emperor of this nation please give me some respect. Also, I'm almost 4 centuries old..." Emperer Aragon sulked. "Also this is all for your disciple, you told me to give him a position in the army and I did... The special corpse is currently within the borders of The Empire and would take months to reach."
"Are you out of your mind? Everyone who goes into the Special Corps is an elite, though a misfit. Yes, Deus may be a misfit but he has no experience within the military!" Lady Silvia annoyingly responded, ignoring Emperor Aragon's first request.
"But he wouldn't fit anywhere else..." Emperor Aragon protested.
"You...Ugh. Fine." Lady Silvia gave up but continued to glare at Emperor Aragon. "However, if he ends up dying then I'll make a personal visit to your father."
Gulp. Emperor Aragon's gulp could be heard clearly as a hint of fear was shown within his eyes. "Please don't do that... The last time you visited him he had to recoup for 4 decades..."
"Silence. I'll be taking away Deus to have a talk with him. Get one of your servants to bring him the supplies he needs and the coordinates. You know where I'll be."
"Understood." Emperor Aragon bowed.
"Let's go." Lady Silvia covered me with her space element, solidifying the area around me and carrying me behind her like a dog on a leash.
And yes, this whole time I did not say a single word.
As we left the palace, Lady Silvia walked into the northern side of the palace area where a smaller version of the central magus tower, with only 3 floors, stood.
She lead me to the top where a very simply decorated room was before letting me go.
She sat down nearby and stared at me.
"Deus. Do you know what you have gotten yourself into?" Lady Silvia spoke after a moment of silence.
"Y-Yes. I was granted the rank of Lieutenant and a position within a very unique army unit called the Special Corps. Yohan explained a few things to me last night."
"Ah, Yohan! That boy who was standing next to you? Good. However, did he tell you how dangerous the Special Corps is?" Lady Silvia asked.
"No... He said we accept 'special assignments' but didn't give examples." I replied honestly.
"The Special Corpse of The Empire, Deus, is where they train one-man armies." Lady Silvia spoke.
"One-man army? What do you mean?" I asked in confusion.
"It's a place where every soldier, who is able to survive and grow within it, grows strong enough to face an entire army all by themselves. A prime example of that is Yohan." Lady Silvia explained.
"Yohan is that strong? I didn't feel anything from him..." I pondered. Yohan really didn't exert any auras or display a tremendous amount of mana. Even when the elite guards within the audience hall were showing off, I remember Yohan standing still without batting an eye.
"It's because he doesn't enjoy displaying his own power. As for his true strength... Hmm. Let's say he can hold me back for a few minutes."
!!!
One man being able to hold back a three-thousand-year-old elder dragon who was a master of all elements except time and had seemingly infinite mana...
Gulp.
Only then did I realize how strong the man named Yohan had been and why he had been able to become the head of the Imperial Magi.
"One man army... Wait you said 'survive?' How bad are the casualty rates?" I asked after remembering one of her words.
"Deus." Lady Silvia looked at me, with a hint of worry within her eyes. "Out of 1,000 'elite' soldiers that go through the corps. 10 survive. 8 to 9 of whom become severely disabled or develop a serious mental trauma that they cannot return to the battlefield."
"What!" I shouted out in shock. "Why would such a suicidal corps exist? What do they go through to only have a 1% survival rate?" Fear started to creep up inside me.
"Assassinations of powerhouses, infiltration of top-secret organizations or even the palace of the enemy nations and even outright being the vanguard of a large scale battle by oneself." Lady Silvia Explained. "Let me explain to you why these soldiers who risk their lives grow so quickly."
I pushed away my fears as curiosity overwhelmed me as I listened on.
"Of course the majority of the soldiers who join the special corpse have are the cream of the crop, gems waiting to be polished with tremendous potential. Like yourself.
As one goes through life and death situations, one would be risked to push their strength to the limits and breakthrough it. Or die trying. Those who break through and survive will have to do it again on the next mission. And again on the next mission. Fail and you lose your life
But why do these soldiers continue going through with this?
Because of strength Deus.
Once you go through your first breakthrough, you will understand what differentiates normal magi from an experienced one and from an experienced magi from an advanced magi. Same for warriors and so on."
"I see..." Though I knew inside that dying just meant a 'soft-reset' on my part, it was something I would like to avoid. Also, I would lose all my possessions. Not a good idea. "I...I would like to go through with it still."
"I knew you'd say that. Truth be told, when I wanted you to join the army I just wanted you to go through a few breakthroughs in the normal army and experience fighting others but... I guess this works." Lady Silvia sighed.
"Although I am scared... I've been feeling this strange, almost overwhelming, greed for power from inside me. I want to be stronger. I want power, master." I spoke out.
"Greed for power... How long has it been since I felt that as well. Sigh." Lady Silvia continued to sigh before looking back up at me. "I won't give you any more help than I've given already but I'll give you a bit of information."
"Information?" I asked.
"There are 3 empires in this world. There are also a few smaller kingdoms but they aren't as important as these three and you will learn about them slowly. Let me explain the three empires to you first.
The Empire of the middle lands, lead by the fire wyrm family of Aragon. The Empire holds the biggest and most land and the second strongest in terms of pure military prowess.
There is Frozenshire of the north, lead by the kirin family of Thunderhorn. They are the weakest in terms of strength but due to their cold and harsh terrain and their natural advantange, nobody had been able to fully conquer them.
Lastly, the strongest of the three, the dwarven empire Forgethorn lead by the 7 great dwarven families. Their territory is to the west and east edge of The Empire and mainly possesses mountain ranges." Lady Silvia explained to me the three empires.
"3 Empires... But what about these empires is it so important?" I asked after listening to her explanations.
"The two other empires, are the ones you will be fighting against Deus. These three empires have been at war for countless years, a war that started before I was born and continued up until this day." Lady Silvia looked out the window as she spoke. "An everlasting war..."
Silence covered the room but Lady Silvia soon spoke again. "There is a wand. In Frozenshire. It is the wand personally created by my now deceased brother. He used one of his main horns as the main material. Go retrieve it and it'll be yours, it is in the national treasury of Frozenshire."
...
How the hell was I going to do that?