In front of the door was a perfectly still armor that reached the ceiling of the hallway. It didn't look like it was going to move but after Seron pulled out a crest out of his pocket and showed it to the armor. Its empty eyeholes started glowing.
"I am here with knowledge about the newcomers." The glow in the eyeholes was still intense as he looked at Seron in silence before abruptly moving to the side as it pushed the door behind it open.
The two stepped inside the door and saluted to a middle-aged man with a royal and dignified appearance. The door behind them closed by itself but nothing seemed to attract the man's attention as he didn't look up and continued to scribble on his paper.
It was only after he put the pen and paper away that he looked at the two new additions in the room. The man started speaking slowly with a deep voice, "You are here to tell me about some newcomers. They have to be… different from the last few batches if you come here personally, General Seron."
"Indeed, Mr. Governor. They are invitees of the Deadman's island." Seron stated as he took a few steps forward to place the folder holding the forms of the group on the governor's desk. The governor calmly opened the forms and started to read them.
Even after finishing reading through them, he didn't show any emotions throughout. He closed the folder again and put them aside on the corner of his desk.
"So? What do you think about them?" The governor asked while directly staring at Seron, who already knew that this was a loaded question.
"They were honest, showed to qualms about answering our questions and even helped another invitee get here, but they didn't seem to be naïve either.
It felt like they were prepared to fight at any point during our short meeting apart from Sarah, but retrospectively this was to be expected since she had an affinity with the Green. Leo was a prominent figure in this little group as he felt rather strange.
It was like he was going to attack me at any moment while simultaneously being completely relaxed."
The governor gave a nod at that as he pulled out some papers from a drawer of his desk. "Indeed. He has proven himself as extraordinarily capable. He seemed to be in a constant relaxed meditative but also alert state. The report of the agent that observed him since he got his invitation proved as much. So, how are our chances if we tried to recruit him?"
The general Seron held his chin in thought. "I am not sure.", he started saying.
"If we invited him with his friends and with the benefits, we would be offering him, it will be likely for him to join us. However, I don't think we will be able to hold him here for long. If he is as capable as I think he is, it won't be long before he outgrows this region and sets his aim towards the land of the gods."
The governor nodded again at that. "No, we won't be able to hold him. Maybe for the first decade he will stay here and grow as much as he can, but afterwards, he will probably leave for the legion to join the war. Well, if he truly is as eager for strength as the reports assessed him to be."
The guard that had come with Seron started to open his mouth but quickly closed it again. It was clear that he was incredibly nervous and wasn't confident with whatever he thought about.
The governor saw this however and zeroed in on him. "If you have something to add, feel free to join in on our conversation."
Seron looked at him reassuringly which took the edge a bit out of his nervousness. The guard wiped away some sweat that had accumulated on his forehead before giving voice to his thoughts.
"Leo and the girls that he came with are probably in a relationship. Maybe we can leverage that to our advantage, making him want to stay here."
"We won't threaten him or the girls." The governor firmly said.
Seron added to that with a frown on his face, "There is probably only 5 years until our methods to bind him through our contracts become insufficient. Afterwards he will probably go on a rampage to free him and his little harem. Besides, we need him to be strong enough to complete our missions we give him.
It would be counterproductive if we stunted his growth to keep him in our service for longer. With threats he won't take his missions as serious, and his resentment will grow until he can take it out on us. We want him to advance faster not slower, we want him stronger not weaker and if he wants to do it on his own that would be infinitely better."
The guard was surprised but could only nod in agreement to Seron's reasoning. "Yes, that may be true, but we don't need to threaten. We can just nudge them into having children to take care of. They would want to raise them before even thinking about moving to the legion!"
Seron thought about that for a second. "Tame him through family? Perhaps but he will lose his edge if he lives in comfort for too long… Though a tiger without claws is still more dangerous than all the other sheep."
"You two are missing the point." The governor finally interjected. "Leo might be exceptional, but the others aren't something to scoff at. They are talents only seen once every few centuries. Even with Leo out of the way there isn't much we can do to stop them once they have grown formidable.
Besides, I won't lock them up to gain only one strong person if I could have a powerful full squad to help me. I also want to know why rare talents come in a bundle now. It will be easier to get the information by befriending them than to make them our enemies. So, don't harm them and just treat them like anyone else and with anyone I mean our best friends. Is that clear?"
The other two saluted and shouted, "Yes, sir!"
"Oh, and before I forget it, tell our men to at least treat them neutrally if they don't like them. Don't want some of those idiots to provoke them and let it all fall back on me." The governor said as pulled out another paper to scribble on, making it clear that they were being dismissed.
The two gave a salute before stepping out of the room again. Strangely, they didn't come back out in the hallway through which they entered.
They had entered an almost empty room and Seron didn't hesitate to go towards a larger board that hung at a wall while the other guard sat down at a chair next to the board.
The guard fanned his face with his hand, "Man, I can never get used to the pressure. I feel like I suffocate every time I am in a room with him."
"That's because you are lazy and have neglected your training." Seron answered carelessly as he skimped through the various posts that hung on the board until he ripped off a paper that had 3 large 'S' written on the top.
"Taking a mission already? We just came back from an undercover mission and even came across some invitees with high potential right before we returned. You should rest occasionally, might do you some wonders. Even the governor will give you some slack now." The 'guard' said as he reluctantly stood up to look at the mission the general took.
"We were lucky that we saw them first, so it wasn't really due to our effort that we could make a good impression on them. Besides, we can't rest on our laurels when our enemy is still strong as ever." Seron said sternly as he looked at his friend disapprovingly.
The other guard waved his hands defensively, "Alright, alright. Since you don't need me for your mission anymore, I will finally take one appropriate for me." Seron only nodded to that as he went over the mission again that he held in his hands.
The other guard looked at the board before casually picking one that had a big 'A' at the very top. He waved the mission's paper at Seron. "See ya!"
Seron nodded before quickly turning towards his leaving friend and ran after him, "Wait! Change me back first!"
…
Leo woke up naked in a comfy bed. A situation he had missed dearly for the last weeks. Although, the beach was nice and a million stars ceiling sounds nice on paper, it wasn't such a nice sleeping experience one would imagine it to be.
After getting up he drank some tap water and then went to the toilette. As he was relieving himself, he realized that the technology seemed to be on par with earth's, even if je only saw the sanitary facilities sides of things.
He hoped that he would be able to still enjoy the benefits of modern society. After he was done, he looked outside onto the now bright street. He hoped to see a car, motorcycle or even a scouter race down the street but he was sorely disappointed when he saw a carriage being pulled by what appeared to be a horse.
If a horse was overflowing with muscles, donned long fur, and growled like a pissed off tiger. "Great, guess this means more legwork." Leo mumbled in dissatisfaction. As he looked out of the window, he noticed that the city, even with smaller buildings, stretched itself across his view.
He enjoyed the view for a second before he sat down at the desk in their room. There was the reference guide that Seron had mentioned the previous day several times. Finally, Leo could read through it, he disliked not knowing something that seemed to be either common sense or otherwise important.
He opened the book and found it describe the main differences of the worlds. The obvious one was the anima that seemed to be everywhere and the resulting power of the inhabitants of this world.
It seemed like this anima was a pure energy source that one could use to fuel one's body. In theory one could even abstain from food with just anima but of course that wasn't practical since most anima accumulated inside vessels like living things or ores.
There was also another concern that the book quickly pointed out for newcomers. Things that were saturated with anima wasn't appreciated by earth. It seemed like earth had a will of its own and it didn't like anything that was powered by anima.
Which was why it is warning any being that want to cross the gap of the words. If a being crossed the gap than they would be as good as dead to the world as it wouldn't accept their return which seemed to be an empty threat.
Since most cells in the human body die to be replaced by new one's it takes some time when the amount of anima in the cells of the body become too much for the will of the earth to accept back. In general, it takes about 7 to 10 years until earth rejects someone and tried to suppress the anima that was carried over.
While on earth the affected person would be under immense pressure, making the person use up their anima as an energy source to resist it until any anima accumulated was being dispersed. So, if someone crossed over, they would need copious amount of energy to compensate their loss just to not die from being drained.
The reference guide therefore advises to leave for earth occasionally, to be able to have an easier time crossing over. Obviously, it will take some time to adapt to the different energy source, making the progress for the person halt until they have transformed their energy source to the other. Therefore, it took time until reached their former strength.