Scene-1:
Mare village,
It was one of the frontier villages of Solaris Empire located on the northern border with the Jovinia Federation, located near the Great Forest of Angora.
Mare village had a population of 180 with 32 families. The main occupation of the village was agriculture along with some forest hunters and gatherers. This was a remote village with its only visitors were the people who sometimes come for herbs, besides the tax collectors.
Life in the village was very simple, but very busy as the villagers work from very early sunrise to sunset.
Liza Reni was one of the people who woke up early to do the domestic chores. Liza Reni was a very normal village girl at the age of 18 years old. She had blonde hair, which was common in the Empire, and the height of 170 cm with a slim frame.
The first thing Liza did after waking up very early in the morning was to carry water from a nearby well and fill the big water tank in the house. By the time she's finished her mother would have prepared for their family of 4.
After breakfast, Liza would go to fields along with her parents to help them in their field work. Her 10 year old sister would either help in the field or collect firewood from the woods of forest entrance. When the bell in the village square rang to signal noon, everyone would break for lunch. The lunch would be baked bread and soup with meat jerky.
For dinner, they would have bread and bean soup, if the village hunters managed to find some prey then meat would go into the dinner. After dinner the family would finish the remaining chores in the light of hearth fire.
Almost everyone in the village would go to bed around eight.
Although uneventful, Liza cherished her simple, happy life. She thought her life would be this repetitive loop forever.
Until, one morning she had a scream when she was taking water from the well. That sound made a chill run through her spine and unease spread through her body.
She ran towards the source of the sound as it came from the direction of her home. She desperately wanted to deny that it was a human voice but deep down she knew that it was the truth.
She ran and ran. Liza ran with the fastest speed in her whole life.
As she ran, she started hearing different sounds. The closer she got to her home, clearer the sounds became, neighs of horses, screams and shouts of people.
Liza's heart lurched in her chest.
From far, Liza could see an armored unknown killing a villager with his sword. Basically, there were no strangers in the village because the village itself was very small. So Liza clearly knew that villager and she felt pain to see a pleasant getting killed. But she gritted her teeth and ran.
On the way towards her home, Liza saw similar scenes, she saw 5 to 6 people cruelly killing villagers whether they resisted or not . Her fear grew more just thinking of what was happening to her family.
The short distance towards her house felt immeasurably long to her.
She barged into her house as soon as she reached it, she shouted while frantically looking every direction in the house, "Dad! Mom! Riza!"
She found three familiar people: her father, her mother and her sister named Riza, who were hiding in a corner with a look of extreme fear which she had never seen before.
Her family was visibly relieved to see her. Her father and mother immediately hugged Liza tightly.
"Good, Liza is back, let's run!"
Before Liza arrived, some villagers had escaped into the forest before the entire village was consumed in assault. But Reni family waited for Liza, so they lost their chance to escape with those villagers.
"Escape through the window!" Liza's father shouted, but before they could do it. A man with knight armor entered the house through the door. The armor had a symbol of the Jovinia Federation.
Although a war was going on between the Solaris Empire and the Jovinia Federation for a few years, there was no incident where soldiers of the Federation harmed the civilians of the Empire, even if there was any possibility the Empire at least alert them.
So, their lives at this border retained their peace but it would end now.
The knight clenched his gauntlet holding the sword and started walking towards them. Liza shrunk back from the cold killing intent of the knight.
"Uoooh!" Liza's father tackled the knight out of the house with a knife in his hand.
Liza saw her father, with his blood streaming in the face which likely came from lunging at the knight, grappling with the knight.
"Hurry up! Run!"
It was the first time Liza saw her father fighting or with blood on his face. This scene made her mind go blank.
"Liza! Riza!"
Her mother's shouts returned Liza to her senses. Her mother, with a face of full tears and a heart broken expression, grabbed her hand and her sister's hand, then proceeded to run.
As they were about to run into the forest, her mother stopped in her tracks and signaled them to run away.
Liza saw another knight coming towards them. She took her sister and ran away from there without looking back because she did not want to see what was going to happen next.
The neighing of horses, angry shouts, screams, clash of steel and stench of burning flesh. All these assaulted the ears and nose of Liza from the direction of the village. She was angry, sad and desperate to flee. She could not think of any reasons why her family, her village and herself had to go through this.
Unfortunately for Liza, a knight had noticed their presence and followed them into the forest. Liza also spotted the knight and her heart beat raised frantically. She increased her speed but her little fell down by tripping her legs as she could not match the speed.
Liza picked her sister and resumed her running. But the knight easily caught up to the Liza who was holding her sister and slashed her back.
"Damn, girl. I finally caught you." Knight said in a mocking voice. Liza got up and shielded her sister with a stick she picked nearby.
"What a foolish girl! I would love to enjoy you but we were ordered to kill you and we have very little time, so die-!"
The knight raised his sword and was about to strike down Liza but his sword stopped mid way.
"W-What!?" knight muttered while backing away.
A sort of light came from behind Liza which shot through the knight and left a fist sized hole in his chest killing him instantly.
Liza could not help but turn around with a sense of fear.
She saw a half oval shape of darkness. It was the first time she ever saw something like that. It looked extremely thin but unfathomably deep. This reminded her of the door to hell she heard in stories when she was a child.
Two figures stood in front of it, likely both of them came out of it. One was clad in full body crimson armor. Other one resembles a man in his mid twenties in raven black robes.
The crimson knight was standing around 190 cm and a longsword sheathed with a golden handle sheathed in a black scabbard hanging at the waist.
The man had black hair with a few red hair strands and golden eyes with vertically slit red pupils. He was well proportioned and beautiful yet giving a muscular vibe. His body had a muscular frame and his robes gave the outline of his muscles. He was adorned in some ornaments. An earring in his right ear, some rings, bracelets and a silver chain on his neck.
Liza never saw a more handsome man in her life. Although he seemed humane, he was giving off an otherworldly feeling.
The man was none other than Rudra.
Scene-2:
Few hours before the assault on Mare village,
In the Vaikuntam Palace, on 21st floor, Arcanum tower:
The meeting with ministers was still going on.
Rudra said, "Michael, report what you saw outside of Arcanum."
Michael nodded and spoke in a diligent manner, "The immediate terrain surrounding us is a plain field. There are mountain ranges nearby. I found no intelligent beings capable of communication but small animals with no combat power in one kilometer radius. There are also no man-made structures in that range."
Originally, Arcanum was surrounded by formidable fences and walls. So, Rudra concluded that the entire Arcanum itself was teleported to some unknown place.
"Did you see any floating castles or islands?" asked Rudra to Michael.
"No, master. Just a night starry sky with no man-made illumination or objects."
"I appreciate your hard work, Michael." Rudra praised Michael for his efforts.
According to Michael's report, Rudra deduced that it was highly likely that they were not in the Nero game world. 'So where are they?" was a question Rudra did not know the answer to.
One of the greatest fears of people was fear of the unknown and reasonably so. Because one could not prepare for the danger they did not know of.
Rudra did not know where Arcanum and him were. For all he knew, this place might belong to someone else and they might come to fight him. Moreover there was a chance that they might be hundred times stronger than him.
"Minister, raise the alertness of Arcanum by one level. Increase the defenses to maximum. Mors, take your subordinates and guard the first 5 floors. Zodd, prepare the army to be commanded at any time. Elsabeth and Merlin, do not inform the current situation to the civilians. It may cause unnecessary chaos but increase the security inconspicuous way. Querehsha, send your insects to gain any useful information. Jatayu and Swamp, guard the one kilometer radius surrounding Arcanum but do not kill the intruders and capture them with as little fighting as possible. If possible make them your acquaintances to bring them to Arcanum."
All the guardians acknowledged the orders by nodding in unison while still kneeling.
"Tell me, how does the administrative and information sharing systems work in Arcanum?"
It was Elsabeth that replied, "Every floor is managed by its own floor manager. I oversee all floor managers, so I have direct contact with all of them. Mors, as the defense commander, can also share information with the floor managers. All the administrative operations are done by Merlin and her subordinates."
"Excellent. Elsabeth, Meet me later with Merlin and Mors to draw a more comprehensive administrative system for Arcanum."
"Next, we need to cover Arcanum, we cannot be in open space in this unfamiliar place. Michael, if we make artificial mountains to hide the Arcanum tower then does it look unnatural?"
"Master, if we could connect our artificial mountains with the nearby mountain range, then we could blend in and hide ourselves."
"Good, then Swamp, I will give this job to you."
"I.Will.Not.Let.You.Down.Master." Swamp accepted the work with delight.
"For now, this is all I wanted to talk about. I thank you all for following my commands."
"M-Master, why are you thanking us? Our sole purpose is to serve you." Elsabeth hurriedly responded.
"Hm. Then I shall dismiss the assembly of ministers. Please attend to your assigned duties."
Rudra teleported away from the throne room leaving the still kneeling ministers.
The throne room was filled with eerie silence with ministers neither moving nor making any sound.
The first one to move was Elsabeth who stood up and cleared her throat. It was followed by all the ministers who stood from kneeling.
"Such pressure just by mere presence, as expected of my master!" said Zodd while folding his hands.
"Master's power is surely intimidating. But I was more shocked by his wisdom. Master's thinking is truly on another level." said Mors.
"I.AM.JUST.GLAD.HE.IS.RETURNED." said Swamp.
"I want to be useful to the master." said Jataty Airborne curtly.
"I want to be useful to master for multiple purposes and his desires," said Querehsha with a blush on her face while twirling her greenish black hair.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU SAY, YOU INSECT WOMAN!?" angrily shouted Elsabeth. "Master intimate affection belongs to me."
"I HAVE ALSO RIGHT FOR IT, YOU LEECH LADY", Querehsha yelled back at Elsabeth.
"Know your limits, you bug!"
"Do not show off, you bat!"
CLAP,CLAP Merlin clapped her hands and said, "Calm Down, you two. It is not right to fight on the same day as the master returned. Elsabeth, you are the de facto leader in the ministers. Usually no minister will talk back on your orders unless the matter involves the master. Every being in Arcane life's goal is to serve the master, so please don't be so possessive, Elsabeth. "
"I-I am not possessive, I just want only worthy women to get close to him. Besides, how can the great ruler of the Arcanum only have one wife. He can have numerous women. I know that but it still pisses me off that I have to share him with others."
"Elsabeth, a cold calculative person like you, sometimes becomes too emotional and too impulsive when it concerns the master, i think you do remember that you have not confessed your feelings and both you, master are not a couple, yet." said Mors.
"Y-You are right, i almost forgot. I think I have to do it soon, there is too much competition." said Elsabeth with a hand on her chin. "Anyway, Merlin and Mors, let's visit the master as he ordered us earlier." by saying that Elsabeth along with Mors and Merlin went to Rudra while Michael escorted other ministers out of the Palace.
A working room was there on the second floor of the Vaikuntam Palace. Currently in that working room, there was a meeting going on between Rudra, Elsabeth, Merlin and Mors.
Rudra spoke to three of them, "The 10 km radius around Arcanum should be monitored at all times and the 1 km radius around Arcanum must be tightly guarded."
Mors answered to his liege, "I shall contact Querehsha and Jatayu to set up a high security around 1 km radius of Arcanum."
"Elsabeth, arrange a gathering for all the residents of Arcanum, I will announce my return myself to them."
"Yes, master. I will inform all the floor managers ,except the defensive floors, to notify the residents of the respective floors about the gathering." Elsabeth replied.
The initial floors of Arcanum were also called defensive floors. Most of the residents of these floors were just spawned monsters like skeletons, low level goblins etc.. So, Elsabeth excluded them from the actual residents who live a more social and sentient life such as Vampires, Demons, Kijins etc.
"My Master, Merlin and myself will arrange the gathering on the 16th floor, is that comfortable for you."
"If I remember it right, the 16th floor is the Plaza district right. Then arrange it in the Colosseum."
"I will do as you ordered, master."
"Now, let's take a look at the outside of Arcanum Tower." said Rudra, then took out a huge, wide mirror. Mirror shone for a moment when Rudra extended his hand while chanting, "Activate remote viewing mirror."
After the light faded out from the mirror, it showed a bird-eye view of Arcanum. As Arcanum was casted with multi-illusion spells, it was almost invisible. This was one of the weaknesses of Remote Viewing Mirror.
The Remote Viewing Mirror could enable one to view anything from anywhere in a bird-eye angle but it cannot go past some good anti-divination or illusion spells without enhancing its ability.
Rudra adjusted the viewing location with hand signals but for quite some time all he saw was open grasslands.
After adjusting the mirror to more than 25 km towards the west of Arcanum, Rudra saw a civilization.
It looked like a village from medieval Europe. There were huts made with logs and clay. But Rudra focus was not on the layout of the village because the villagers were getting slaughtered by some knights.
To Rudra's surprise, he did not feel while watching humans getting killed mercilessly. As villagers offered little to no resistance towards the knights, it seemed tonight was the end for that small village. But Rudra did not feel the slightest empathy or pity towards the villagers. Rudra realized that he truly became a Celestial Demon with no humane feelings.
"Awww.."
"Please don't kill me!"
"Die!"
"Someone save me, please!"
Rudra could hear various sounds from the mirror. Angry shouts, desperate yells, neighs of horses etc. Coincidentally someone died while calling for help in Rudra's direction. But it did not move Rudra.
Through the mirror, Rudra saw a village girl just outside the village ,who seemed to be in her late teens, running desperately from a knight while holding a little girl.
Unfortunately for the young woman, the knight caught up to them and slashed the young lady on her back. But the village girl courageously shielded the little girl and stood up to the knight with a stick in her hand.
The eyes of the young woman which showed desperation about a moment ago, now emitting killing intent towards the knight. The expression and posture of the girl conveyed that she was ready to die.
That young lady and her eyes intrigued Rudra. After watching this situation, he instantly knew that she was different from other villagers.
"Elsabeth, equip your battle armor and do maximum preparations for battle. We are going to save this village." Rudra said to Elsabeth who was watching the mirror beside him.
Elsabeth expressed confusion, "Please forgive me for my lack of understanding, but why do we have to save these humans? Their lives are not worthy of your efforts, master."
Rudra wanted to say his true reasons but decided not to do so, because he doubted that Elsabeth would understand what he was saying due to her extreme prejudice towards anyone outside the Arcanum.
"We can obtain information, conduct governance experiments and test our levels of power by comparing ourselves to the natives of this world." Rudra gave excuses.
Elsabeth widened her eyes, seemingly more than convinced. "Master, you are truly exceptional. You aimed for three goals with one task, a brilliant thought. Shall we take our army, master?"
"No need, let us go ourselves. From what I see, I doubt they are stronger than us, but it would not hurt to be safe. We must keep our guards raised to the maximum."
Elsabeth wore a full plated crimson armor and Rudra wore some extra artifacts from his inventory.
Rudra and all ministers were level 100, it was the maximum power level in the Nero game. But here there was a chance that their power could be insignificant. Finally, Rudra got the chance to see if he could survive in this new world.
"[Gate]" Rudra chanted a spell which materialized a black hole like portal. This portal will take you anywhere you wanted but it was not used in battles as it takes slightly longer than instant teleportation and you had to physically go through the portal.
Rudra entered the Gate along with Elsabeth. After a moment, they saw the back of the young lady and the little girl who was protected by her.
Rudra turned towards the knight who was facing him directly from the other side. It seemed the knight got afraid of him and started to back away. Rudra used [Death Ray] to instantly kill the knight.
Present time,
Liza was shocked by the sudden appearance of Rudra and Elsabeth.