"I'm certain the people of Minastoma would mind their businesses."
He grabbed his chin and pondered. He looked at the spot where the city stood on the map.
'It has been so long. How many years did I sleep through?'
The thought crossed his mind once more.
"I doubt I can teleport to the city. My memory is in bits."
He suddenly stopped thinking and nodded to himself.
Like a flickering image, he disappeared.
Sounds of people talking permeated through his ears. He let out a sigh.
"No use huh."
He was back at the town–at the last row of trees just before it.
He teleported back to his previous spot.
'It is pitiful that such a little town in the middle of nowhere lacks strongly in its defense, are the times that peaceful?'
Once he cleared his thoughts, he took for the skies again soaring in the air at a moderate pace.
It was noon and the bright sun was out, he was quite visible up but he had no worries about people spotting him, unless he was near a fortress, people would just assume he was a bird of some sort and go on with their lives and that's if they do spot him, barely anyone chooses to look up above with the sun flaring its bright light.
He flew overhead the town. At the other end of the town stood a large mansion with a number of guards positioned near it.
'So that's the Lord's abode.'
He flew past it and met trees as far as the eyes could see, he continued his journey, and a few minutes later, he spotted the black stronghold.
Fortresses in this continent were equipped with not only warriors but powerful mages with great mana detection over a large area, they were needed to contain threats before they reached cities and kingdoms.
Even up above, Tiagon wasn't safe.
'Should I fly around?' he pondered.
'No, I'm the Demon Lord, I won't be compromised. I have never been good at masking my mana, I've never needed to and besides, I'm certain I will still be spotted... It's no use, I'll have to break through.'
On Fort Endsege, on its topmost point sat three mages, all responsible for guarding the area against Intruders that meant harm. Most of the knights below had scattered patrolling the city's border.
"Huh? What's that?" One of the mages spoke.
He looked above and saw Tiagon simply zooming towards their fort.
"Is he an idiot? Does he wish to get shot down?"
The other two looked at the direction their fellow mage faced and they spotted him, the bold intruder that dared come their way without proper evaluation.
"He's powerful." One of the two said picking on Tiagon's reduced mana.
Tiagon was still about two hundred meters away when the one that spotted him first chose to attack.
He thrusted forward his right hand rather casually and the ground beneath Tiagon burst with wind sweeping up sand and shaping into a tornado. It swallowed Tiagon up, and the mage followed with a powerful flame spell.
"Bagerat!" he muttered and the tornado lit up in flames with Tiagon in it.
Suddenly, the flame tornado tore apart and out hovering was Lexar with whirling wind over him. He was unaffected and his new clothes received no damage.
"An impressive spell, must pack a lot of mana."
He locked on the mana of the mages.
'Sizable Mana reserves as well. The mages of this era are monsters. Mages with so much Mana wasn't a common sight back in my days and in just a day, I've met four that are incredible.'
"He brushed it off."
"I can see that, it looks like I'm going to put some effort in ridding this one." The mage said with a light smirk.
He thrust his right arm to the side.
"Leave this to me. He's mine."
His feet left the concrete structure and he zoomed at Tiagon.
In just a second, he appeared in front of Tiagon just a few meters away, the whirling wind still protecting him.
"I see that you're a seasoned mage, I've come to face you with honor. My name is Wünder Ayn. Unfortunately, it'll be the last name you'll hear" he declared.
Tiagon eyed the battle-hungry mage in front of him, he assessed him.
'He has more Mana than that mage. Not enough however.'
The mage before him was an old human mage, he was large, and his scalp had lost most of its white hair. He had on a long white garment and equipped a short staff with a uniquely shaped tip.
"Hmmmm."
Tiagon suddenly thrust forward his hand, he was so quick even his opponent was shocked as his blue eyes widened.
Mana from around coalesced at instant speed around his hand and morphed into glowing chains of white that lunged at the mage.
The chains didn't try to entrap him however, they swung powerfully at the man striking his hands and his upper chest.
"Aghhhh!"
He wailed in pain as he fell, the chain broke his hands and ribs tipping off his balance.
"Wünder was hit!" The younger of the two mages blurted in surprise.
The other frowned with clenched fists.
"Just a strike." He uttered.
"Ready the bows!" He yelled at the few men below.
"We will have to take him together, be careful."
The other responded with an affirmative nod.
In sync, they took for the air and flew at Tiagon wary of leaving openings for him, however they felt that he wasn't the type to ambush opponents.
The younger mage wore a purple-fitting shirt and trousers, his hair was green and short, and equipped with him was a short wand.
The older wore a black robe with a white shirt and brown trousers, his hair was black and long and he was with a long hovering staff that had a little blue stone at its top.
Tiagon smirked, The younger mage felt a cold shiver seeing him do so, he slowly gulped.
The two of them pointed forward their staffs. The hovering staff moved by itself.
"Zalpf!" The two mages cried.