"What are you so fearful of?" Ivan asked, gazing at the frozen Keith.
At that very instance; Keith's mind reminisced of how he had met his end as utter horror devoured his mind. Even though the timer had yet to reach 0, and even though they were prepared to hunt down the dangers that were said to be the absolute, they, the Gods and another pair that still weren't acknowledged as Gods by the [System], weren't even able to feel a thing before they met their end.
The moments his mind had ignored at the momentary devastation had etched themselves in his consciousness after his regression, of course, without much time to understand the reasons for his extreme actions, he hadn't understood the fear enveloping him, but His Majesty Ivan's query made "those" memories resurface.
At the moment when the space carked according to Keith's inhuman senses, the [Fifth World Of Aerith] darkened abruptly, the notification interfaces flickered out of existence, world trembled as the lives of those God-like monsters' inhabiting the world ceased to do so, their lifeless bodies skeletonized as their flesh rotted at speeds that was known to be impossible according to Keith's common-sense before that moment; their bony bodies' shadows were reaped by the unknown, and every source of energy that kept the [Fifth World Of Aerith] alive was cut off.
Everything happened in an instant, before "that" object descended upon them and disappeared out of existence. As soon as the object disappeared; a thin, hollow, and imperturbable thread of something indescribable, indiscriminately enveloped Beatrice, Shirley, Ivor, Jasmine, Quinn, Amanda, Louie, Drake, Gary, Ulric, Oswald, Edwin, Kenelm, and Megan, who seemed to have stood in the disappeared object's path, gazing at Keith gain his own Job for the first time since his chronicle began.
Their [Divine Power]ed shields----which had enveloped them as long as he had known them for----were cut through without any resistance and their lives were relinquished in an instant. The thread began to descend upon their lifeless bodies as its trial faded, but instead of passing through smoothly like a perfect sword slash; millions of thin sword slashes appeared on each of their bodies and shredded them into mere particles.
And the [Fifth World Of Aerith] exploded under Keith's unconscious gaze and senseless mind; maybe the world too was cut into millions of pieces and the bigger chunks of land he saw were nothing but planet sized particles, he didn't know; even if the world really was cut into pieces, he wouldn't and couldn't have known.
The strongest mortal wasn't strong enough.
While Keith's mind wandered, his expression darkened in absolute horror as his body began to tremble unconsciously and uncontrollably; noticing which,
'I hit the mark....' Ivan thought. Reading emotions wasn't that big of a deal for him when he had been among beings and creatures whose emotions had turned into extreme and uncontrollable desires.
He could smell, see, and even taste those emotions and desires if he wanted, and he had learned to even hear them if concentrated deeply enough; of course, touching was nigh-impossible. Only "nigh" though.
He had gained enough control over himself that he could "select" a target, whose emotions he wanted to know, but now since you could say that most of his existence itself was sealed, you couldn't actually say he had much control over himself.
In Keith's case, he could smell a strong fear enveloping his unrestrained willingness and his gluttonous desire to grow stronger. But even as such strong fear enveloped him, he hadn't showed them on the outside except for moments when his mind dazed. It could be dangerous for those around him if he held on to the fear alone.
"..... It... Is nothing, Your Majesty." Keith muttered.
"I see. You may return your family then." Ivan stated in an uncaring tone which surprised Keith and even Nu, who stood next to Ivan, but only Zilla flashed an expression of concern on her face which disappeared before anybody noticed.
"Y-yes." Keith muttered as walked back, puzzled.
"Haaaa...." As soon as Keith was a certain distance away from them, Ivan exhaled a hot breath, slightly thankful that his magic powers were sealed since he wasn't sure he would be able to control its excitement to devour Keith's intense and alluringly delicious seeming emotions.
"That man is dangerous....." Ivan muttered; as for the reason and meaning behind his words, only Zilla was able to understand since she too would have been ensnared by her own desires to feed on such delirious emotions if she was ranked any lower than a [Demon] rank.
"Your Majesty, may I get rid of that mortal?" Nu asked as her skin began to turn scaly and pale green in agitation while her now grey-eyes with vertical black pupils were fixated on Keith's far away back.
"Nu." Ivan called out under his breath as he calmed down and tried to endure his throbbing head that gave him a splitting headache.
"Y-yes?" Nu muttered in unwanted agitation as she assumed that he was disappointed by her actions.
"Stop. I order you to call me by name from now on till it's time. I am but a normal mortal now, a weakest one at that. I shall be alright since I remember how mortals of 18-28 act, and I believe I can mend my habits, but if you keep calling me "Your Majesty," it'll be hard for me keep behaving like a normal, currently irresponsible, mortal. We shall adapt to human world like humans, hence I command thee to refer me by my name." Ivan muttered, involuntarily switching between formal and informal series of words that were forced upon him by habits and memories of Drayce.
"By yo.... Y-yes, I-I-Ivan!" Nu muttered in a high-pitched tone, involuntarily. Many glanced at them in curiosity, but a glare from Nu made them turn away.
"Good." Ivan nodded his head, but from his demeanour and actions you could understand that none would believe him to be a "normal" human. Of course, it was another matter if they, who stayed in the worlds of Aerith for a long enough time, thought he was a noble from Aerith.
"Alright! Gather around!" Velor shouted.
*
While the ground lit up in what seemed to be a grandiose and extravagant use of magic, the people standing in the magnanimous magic circle wore astounded and awe-inspired expressions which included Keith, who believed that not many mortals should be able to use such high level magic as it wasn't even yet time for the beginning of the actual chaotic changes to come.
All-while Ivan, Nu, and Zilla stood unfazed as it wasn't that grand of a magic to them. And while the magic circle's size made it seem like a difficult spell to cast, it was actually their size that the casting easier.
The bigger the magic circle, the lesser the strain on the caster.
Knowing which, it makes Ivan all the more impressive and explains why he was unfazed by the magic circle which he claimed to be insignificant as he was somebody who used [Teleportation] to travel from floor to floor in his [Underground Palace] with a mere flick of his fingers.
Thinking of which, Ivan missed playing with his magic power which he understood only now because not even a haze of his magic existed in his body.
[Greater Teleportation] was the word he heard when he saw magic power envelope his body. The spell casting method and their names perked his curiosity since there was nothing like a [Greater Teleportation] or [Lesser ....] teleportation if the latter even existed. It was only [Teleport], [Teleportation], or [Blink] which helped him walk through spaces. The former two were mere different casting names that could change their effects and how much strain they put on the caster, while the latter was a short distance teleportation which allowed the caster to shift places with something he/she could "see."
The "strain" that's being mentioned could also be called as aftereffects. The [Teleportation] spells drain half of the [Time] and [Stamina] required to reach the designated place from the caster while the other half is filled by the caster's magic power. Which would likely to be the same even if the effects of teleportation includes more than one person; the aftereffects aren't shared.
While Ivan was reminiscing, the blinding lights' sight that enveloped him morphed.
[Welcome to the [Worlds Academy]'s [Level 1]]