As we went through the gate which was set to the destination Staria, I began to feel light. It was as though I was falling down. Everywhere I could see was white. No one was with me, I was alone. However, for some reason, I was not concerned for the others. It was scary being in an environment with no visible land, walls or ceilings, but at the same time, it was oddly soothing.
Suddenly, I was being pulled with force. I saw a bright blue light coming from the direction I was heading to. As I got closer, the light was too blinding for me to see through.
As I opened my eyes about a second later, I was standing in front of my mansion, Staria. I looked around and saw Alice and Arthur were with me.
Looking towards the mansion, I noticed that it had been completely renovated. The same mansion that was covered with vines and greenery, was looking like a freshly built mansion. This is the first time in years that I've seen Staria so clean.
As my mansion was in a forest, the vines and moss provided for a good disguise. As this new and clean mansion stood out too much, I was wondering if I should use magic to grow the vines again. I decided not to do so for now.
"Kage," I called my shadow.
"Are the shadows done with the mansion?"
"Yes, master."
"I see, you may go now."
"As you wish," he said as he disappeared into the unknown.
As I entered the mansion, I realized that there was one survivor who was able to recover, one of the butlers of the mansion. He was an aged human. An eye patch on his right eye. His other eye was a beautiful shade of light blue. And his hair was completely white. His name was Albert and he was the one in charge of maintaining the mansion after I was gone.
The reason why they managed the mansion even after I was gone, was because I told them to keep doing their work as I was going to be revived anyway. Respawning was a popular concept in games, and it was no different in this one. As they were working, looking forward to my return, they were attacked and many were killed. Albert had managed to survive the attack but the others couldn't.
"Albert, I see that you are well."
"Yes, master. Thanks to the secret room you built, I managed to take shelter there."
I did that? Oh, I completely forgot about that. I showed him a hidden room, the entrance of which was in my room. It was behind a painting. The room was not very small but wasn't huge either. It was stored with emergency food and water as well as a bed and a bathroom.
"By the way, master… A-are you… alright?"
"Oh, this… About that…" I explained the details to him after taking Alice to the medical room for rest.
***
About a week later, I was completely healed and the doctors said that Alice would take another week. I wore a red suit with a slight touch of black. I wore capes only when I was going out for a formal meeting.
Immediately after my recovery, I started my search for Ains. Originally, there were four of us; Hevop - The Dragon God (me), Ains - The Shadow God, Arthur - The Fenrir God, and Arnold - The Serpent God. Some of our ranks were different though. I was a Void Legend, Ains was also a Void Legend, The Fenrir God was a Legend-God and The Serpent God was a Legend-God too.
I only managed to find two out of three of my friends. We were called the Four Legendary Gods. However, that name was lost in the false history. Remembering this, I wished to find Arnold too. I was determined to find both of them, but as for now, I decided to focus on finding Ains first.
As I was about to get up from my bed to go to the library in order to learn more about this, I heard a knock on the door.
This knocking pattern, it could only be one person,
"Come in," I said,
It was Albert, as I thought.
"Master, I've learned that it is possible to bring back the lives of your people."
"How is that possible?!"
Albert explained to me that if a black artifact was provided with enough thunder magic, it would be able to bring back a maximum of 100 people at once. However, the conditions were that I'd have to have a minimum of 1,000,000 mana at my disposal. The average amount of mana a mage has is about 10,000-20,000 mana. That won't be a problem as 1,000,000 mana was just a little less than a percent of my total mana. The second condition was sacrificing a hundred years of lifespan. That was also not a problem as I am not limited by a lifespan. I can only die when I'm killed or I want to willingly die, if none, then It's not possible for me to die.
"I see, thank you for letting me know, Albert."
"Please don't mention it, master." I couldn't help but smile. A keen learner with an abundance of knowledge, as always. After all, he was always in the library, trying to learn new things in his free time. It was a little embarrassing to admit, but even I was less knowledgeable than him.
…
Luckily, the black is the most common type of artifact in a dungeon. A dungeon usually contains multiple artifacts including duplicates of the black artifacts. But it's only the first day after I've been fully recovered and there's still a week left for Alice's complete recovery. I'd better not rush things and focus on learning more about where Ains may be for now. I'll also visit Alice before I go to the library.