Kaiser turned back to see an ancient ruin, housing the portal from which they exited. 'Interesting' thought Kaiser. The space element was very rare even during his lifetime, "The Era Of Geniuses" which was named due to the many young geniuses unraveled in his lifetime including him.
He would definitely ask about it later, but what mattered more was his new surroundings. To call9 it pleasant would be an overstatement though it gave a 'comfortable' ambience.
It was a rather small village located in the countryside. Children could be seen playing around and laughter of the old could be heard.
Eva seemed rather well recieved by the village though Kaiser could sense some malicious intent in the glances of some villagers, but it quickly changed with one glance at Kaiser who was wearing a very eye-catching white robe. though they were mainly thugs with a couple of the elders of the village mixed in, some opposition to them could be seen.
One could somewhat infer the situation connecting the dots, though there could be more than it seemed at first glance.
Some children around Eva's age came, one boy he seemed the youngest came up and asked Eva "Lady Eva, who is this man?". He had vibrant and lush green hair and bright green eyes. Some of the older boys who saw that practically zipped his mouth shut seeing Kaiser's garments and face. Kaiser didn't really mind, but some nobles might've executed the boys on the spot if they felt offended by such behaviour.
Eva glanced at Kaiser who then gave a nod. She replied while glaring at the boy who asked. "Joseph, this is Mr. Thorne, he will be a new teacher in the academy". The group of children flashed in confusion while discreetly glancing at Kaiser every few seconds.
They all thought 'This Man will teach us?'. Though one girl thought it out loud.
They all looked back to see a girl the age of Eva's with green hair and dark brown eyes, with features somewhat resembling Joseph's. Eva sighed seeing who it is and muttered "This sibling pair is really too oblivious".
He glanced at the group of children once more and left with Eva leading, though the group followed.
Occasional glances followed them but disappeared once they saw Kaiser. Fearing of incurring his wrath.
They soon reached a mansion with an Emblem of Thorns. The gatekeeper immediately greeted them and they entered.
The children stayed outside the mansion in a building a bit smaller than the former. It had separated itself from the primitive buildings of the villagers and the luxurious mansion belonging to the Thornes.
Once they entered the mansion Kaiser immediately asked "What year is it?". Eva, somewhat interested why her summon would want to know the date, replied "1700 of the Holy Calender". 'Hmm, 450 years have passed' thought Kaiser. He had thought that possibly millennia could have passed since he was trapped.
He was still enthusiastic about magic even though he had been trapped for so long. He was after all a 8th Circle mage. It required monstrous effort and talent to reach the 7th Circle, which he was at the peak of before he got trapped.
He had already created a few mana circulation techniques to help him survive while he was trapped. Even though he was cursed with 'immortality', he still felt everything a normal human could. It took sheer willpower and determination which even Kaiser didn't know he had to keep his sanity.
They were soon lead into a room which was decorated with beautiful chandeliers and portraits were littered around the walls. They walked a bit and then sat on a luxurious, velvet couch.
They made eye-contact, then abruptly halting Eva who had started to make some small-talk, Kaiser muttered something and casted a spell. He cased a fragile dome around them and then cast a silencing spell outside the dome.
Two shadows could be seen subtly traversing the room once the two were encased by the dome. A humanoid clad in black robes transformed itself from a shadow with another one following suit.
They glanced at each other and made some hand signals. They both nodded and took out some pointed weapons similar to kunais but then inserted them to some wrist-mounted crossbows. They both poured a vial of viscous liquid onto the kunai-shaped bolt and closed their eyes.
Slowly they both turned into shadows and roamed the room, aiming at different places but always around the same point. They stopped while transforming back into their humanoid forms and quickly shot their bolt, hitting the seemingly fragile dome.
They pierced through the dome but seemingly stopped in their tracks mid-air. The assailants darted without hesitation after seeing the unnatural phenomena. They were clearly experienced in their craft.
Spikes made of ice quickly impaled the two in their chests while they were in the midst of transforming into shadows. A drawback of ice magic was that like most elemental magic, incapacitating people quickly without killing them was an issue.
Thought it may seem simple, magic like that usually needed to have a domain established by the user, or needed a lengthy incantation to do so.
Kaiser wasn't an exception to this rule, even with his skill "Parallel Minds". Due to his weakened state from bring trapped, many of his ''Minds" had gone a hibernation similar to that of Alex's, and needed time to safely awaken from their slumber.
Kaiser quickly removed the structure and rushed to freeze the bodies to preserve them, Eva followed him. Many clues could be discovered from their body if investigated properly, not including the fact that some memories could also be extracted by unorthodox mages.
He used his hands to remove the masks. Even though the bodies were covered in ice, his hands still moved with little resistance as if in water.
What was revealed was alarming. Two deformed faces, both of men, with patches of blood red scattered along their faces. Removing the tightly worn hood exposed two short and pointy appendages on the scalps of both of the men.
Eva gulped and put on a grave expression. She could deduce that they were demons. Kaiser followed the trend and put on a grim expression as well.
The demons were notoriously known for their violent temperament and greed. They desired to take control of the world and put all other races into servitude to them. Though, the reason why they are feared the most was due to the King of Demons, 'Asmodeus' who lived 1700 years ago.
Within a century under his rule, countless kingdoms fell and were conquered by the demons. With a kill count reaching in the millions, even though each kingdom housed at most 100000 individuals within.
A treaty was made by each race to ally against the demons, and a last-ditch effort from all the races and the sacrifice of the strongest champion of each race stopped their tyranny.
The church had just started out a few years before his rule began and using their beliefs and 'holy' magic served as a beacon of hope during the war, with it becoming a superpower respected by most by the end of the war.
Though the biggest problem wasn't the fact that they were demons. It was the fact that they were humans in the middle of transforming into them!
A few knocks could be heard on the door. "Your tea is ready Lady Eva" a voice could be heard coming from the other side of the door.