Not only the residents of the First Meadow received the message. As a broadcast it reached all beings of Eas. A form of notification usually only employed to inform its inhabitants of the addition of a new realm once per cycle or the ascension of a new god. Though rarely, some bigger events were also transmitted across the realms to gather the competition.
And so it also reached a certain man in a distant realm.
Surprised by the sudden pop-up a middle-aged appearing man looked up from the documents he was buried in until now. Though buried maybe wasn’t the right expression as those documents were neatly stacked and ordered based on importance, expected processing time, distance to its writer, length of the document and lastly alphabetical. Unsurprisingly a lot of documents started with an “A” and tried to compress as much meaning as possible into very few words.
The blood-red eyes of the [Transcendent Law Dragonkin Lv 993], Isaac, stared sharply into the depth of the room, reading the message from Eas. A few cycles have already passed since the last unscheduled one.
[The Domain of Hannibal…]
“So Hannibal finally got done in?” Muttered the white haired man to no one specific. “Well, good to get that out of the way. In a few decades we probably would have needed to take care of it ourselves. Do we know who did it?”
Suddenly another person was in the room. Bowing. A wide white robe was covering their body and a helmet their head as well as face. Nothing could be seen which would offer information about the person inside the clothing.
Also were they always there and just hidden or did they just appear? It was hard to judge. “Yes, High Judge. According to our latest intelligence we have gathered, Hannibal was most likely preparing a summoning. Unfortunately we couldn’t get any further details due to his paranoia. However there weren’t any reports of the other powers moving.”
After pondering over the statements the High Judge continued his muttering. “Hm… so an inside job or a failed spell? Possible… Maybe what he summoned decided to go against him. Though i doubt he was dumb enough to let that happen. He wouldn’t have been where he was, if that could happen that easily.”
Getting back into thoughts for a moment Isaac then gave out orders. “Send a team of Officers to the First Meadow and prepare a Captain as backup on the Ice Sea Islands. I don’t want any surprises. Especially with the prophesied invasion happening soon. …I guess there are still no news on that?”
“Yes, High Judge. There weren’t any new discoveries and if there were you would know it first, as ordered.”
Isaac could feel a headache forming. The world endangering invasion was prophesied over one cycle ago and they still couldn’t find any clue. Well, the exact time of the invasion was never specified and a few decades were for that being basically less then a moment. But it was also true that more than two or three cycles probably wouldn’t pass before it happened. Unfortunately as the invasion came from outside they could hardly spy on whoever was targeting them. So until anything cropped up they could only wait and see and prepare.
At least the other powers had been informed so they weren’t alone on the lookout.
“Okay, you can go.”
“Yes, Hugh Judge. May the law be eternal.”
“May the law be eternal.” And the servant vanished similarly suddenly as they appeared, letting one question their presence in the first place.
Sometimes Isaac wished he was again just a cog in the machine, just following orders, not thinking too deeply about it, gaining power and making the world a better place. Sadly that time passed decades ago. Maybe the invasion would push him over the threshold and let him become a demigod…
But he still had a lot of work to do and couldn’t waste his time with meaningless thoughts about uncontrollable events. Work which should better be finished earlier than later. Work which could save millions of people.
“The time is ripe my children!” Aria proclaimed, as she walked out of a deeper part of the caves in the root system of a giant tree into the assembly hall.
Though the dignified appearance of the demigod with green tendril-like hair was quickly ruined as she had to dodge a jump kick of one of her followers. Well, teammates. And the assembly hall was also only a bigger cavern used for meetings with a few chairs. “Stop your over-dramatical entrance and get ready! We have also seen the message! I’m starting to question your ability to actually see the future or fate or whatever.”
Sighing the blindfolded young looking women conceded. “Fine, fine. But i am a demigod so isn’t such an entry expected?”
“For the hundredth time, if you had actual followers i wouldn’t care (as much), but we are only five, your team members at that, and we have to reach a realm before they select a new owner. Especially as it’ll probably be someone who doesn’t create a vacancy that easily without outside assistance.” Dusting herself off and lecturing their de facto leader, Ena walked out of the hole her kick had created.
Having her carefully crafted speech cut short saddened Aria, but she had to admit that they had only a day left, needed to reach the First Meadow and break through the level barrier. At least Ena had held back so they didn’t need to search for a new home, not that it would be necessary now, if everything worked out, but it was good to know that her divine realm wouldn’t be destroyed each time she tried to give a speech.
Walking out of the cave, they ended up in a forest with trees each more than big enough to qualify as a world tree in most fictions, according to some of the heroes of the past.
Unfortunately regardless of how peacefully a realm appeared, each one had its own dangers, as a dragon-sized sparrow, spiked with blades and crashing into the ground next to them proved.
A man wearing a light seeming coat and pants jumped down from the bird. Sturdy looking metallic shining scales under the coat covered basically the whole body of the lizard-like person. The giant blades then slowly moved out of the dead body and started to float behind their owner.
“Was that necessary?” Aria asked him.
“You never know…” Siegfried tried to argue, though he seemed well aware that it wasn’t truly necessary.
“Yes, we can never be sure, but what was this? A level 500-ish Giant Wind Sparrow? We all know well enough that the only reason they haven’t gone extinct ages ago is that Eas keeps respawning them. We even fought them often enough to know that it’s true and that was before you became level 999 and i a demigod!” At least it was only a sparrow, one who probably never had any other fate as ending up as prey. And so far Siegfried hadn’t attacked any more important beings without being provoked or asking her first. Though she would never tell him that. No need to give him the idea to force a precedent.
With the team assembled, again, after the sparrow incident, the demigod was about to speak, when she noticed a piercing glare from Ena. She quickly turned her head away. While Aria was blindfolded, with her abilities it was basically only a fashion choice and to reenact the legends of blind oracles.
“… anyway. To the First Meadow!”
And with those words the earth they were standing on started to float, while Siegfried positioned his swords around the platform to shield it from potential attackers and unfortunate Giant Wind Sparrows.
At a different place at a similar time, a chilly wind blew through the settlement built on ice, though it’s inhabitants didn’t notice much from it as they were already used to it.
A knocking disturbed the peace of a glasses wearing man, who was looking out of the window at the town covered in snow and ice as well as the dark sea in the distance.
Turning around and sitting down on his desk he turned to the person in front of his door. “You may enter.”
“H-Hello sir.” A frail looking young man entered the office.
“Hello John. Please close the door.”
With no entrance or exit remaining the barriers and wards around the room reactivated again. Not that anyone who didn’t know what to look for would notice them, and they would most likely also easily be destroyed by potential spies, but that was fine. They existed to not only prevent information from accidentally leaking, but also to notify anyone present over the existence of enemy forces. Barriers which were too stable and could be breached through space magic or similar techniques were far more problematic, at least according to the upper management. A notion the branch manager shared.
“I’ll make it short. You’ve seen the message from Eas, i assume?” Without waiting for an answer he continued. “Good. You’ve been promoted to branch manager. The location is the First Meadow. Here the documents. Please read them now, don’t take them out of the office and don’t speak with others about their content. Well, the usual.” The man pushed a parchment to his, now former, subordinate, though again continued without waiting for a response from John. “That’s all. Good luck and much success at your endeavors.”
Without wasting another thought about the other man in his office, the branch manager turned back to his documents.
A couple minutes later the man still standing in front of his desks suddenly spoke. “T-Thank you sir!”
Looking up due to the sudden disruption, the branch manager noticed that John was still there. “Sure, sure…” was the absentminded answer of him, but before he was able to turn back to his documents, he had to notice that John still had the documents in his hand and was about to leave. “What about the documents?”
“Oh… S-sorry!” Flustered, his ex-subordinate quickly put the parchment back on the desk, bowed and left. Keeping the door open.
Sighing, the man got up and walked to the door.
“So we got rid of him? Will it be fine?” Though before he could close it, his secretary interrupted him.
“Most likely, to both questions. And it doesn’t really matter what happens to him. We aren’t the only ones sending someone to the realm. Sometimes i question how he even got to level 100… Anyway. Please send a note up that we need someone to take over for the vacancy.” Using the opportunity he also delegated a few tasks, before getting back to his own work. Having a store as a public face was good, but all the red tape involved with it, especially in the regions under direct control of the Followers of Law was sometimes nearly too much…
