In the days following Michael's and Karslon's talks, all the immortals in the empire received a letter from Karslon Dumbledore. The letter contained a simple request - to meet with him at the light tower. This was not all that big of a deal. While Karslon rarely invited them, they did not need to necessarily attend. It was especially true of the immortals from smaller races who did not have many people in the light tower. But, there were a few terms in the letter that caused a storm in the minds of these experts.

First of all, the letter stated that all immortal experts were invited. And secondly, the issue being discussed was said to be in the code - calamity. There were a few codes used in the light empire to define the magnitude or impact of certain events. The increasing order of importance was as such:

Code - Mishap

Code - Disaster

Code - Calamity

The death of the fenil tribe immortal expert was a code - mishap situation. Even the death of a single immortal expert was not enough to truly shake the light empire's foundation. Code - mishap was the level where the empire would recover naturally with time. At the code - disaster level, it was something that could cause long-lasting damage to the empire. If the light tower was to suddenly vanish one day or if a group of middle-rank races were to betray the empire, it would be the code - disaster level of incident.

It was easy to understand that code - disaster event had not been seen for several thousand years.

At such a time, a code - calamity incident was not something that anyone would expect. To put simply, code - calamity meant an event that could potentially destroy the empire in its entirety.

The reactions of the immortals ranged from doubt to outright denial. Many shouted from their resting place calling Karslon a madman who had finally gone crazy due to his research.

In the elven kingdom's capital, in the royal palace, the five immortal experts of the royal family gathered for a quick meeting after receiving Karslon's letter. They all had different appearances. Three looked middle-aged, one looked like a mortal man in his sixties and the other looked like a teenage kid. But their auras were sufficient to declare to the world that they were immortals.

Immortal experts had a body that had distilled the laws. Thus, they could change their appearance to a certain extent. It was not possible to morph into someone from a different race or gender but they could control their age appearance quite well. How the immortals looked relied on what they wanted to look like.

As they sat in the meeting chamber, the elven king said:

Elven King : You all should have seen the letter that Karslon sent. What are your views on it?

Ragnar : The old coot went mad.

This statement caused the others to frown. While it was quite inconceivable for a code calamity event to happen, Karslon was a very respected scholar. They all looked at Ragnar with annoyed eyes.

Ragnar : What? You think it is more likely that a code calamity event is occurring than that an immortal who is very, very old went senile?

Teenage immortal : As if you are so young?

Ragnar : Mestrome, you are the one that wants to be young looking all like a teenage boy. You think I don't know that you go around looking like that to get young maidens fall for you. Think you are some ikemen? Trying to attract young maidens?

Mestrome : Yeah I look like this because I like looking young. At least I am not salivating after my own descendent!

Elven King : Enough! You guys are getting on my nerves. This is not the time to bicker. Send message to all the immortals in the kingdom asking them to report to the palace. Karslon is from our race. We need to support him even if he has gone insane. Besides, who knows what he uncovered in his research?

A similar meeting was held in the werebeast kingdom as well. They too were filled with contempt about this. But Kevin's words silenced them all.

Kevin : Teacher is the greatest scholar in the plane right now. If you dare to disrespect him, I shall personally destroy your body!

Karslon had always held great respect in Kevin's heart. And while he himself was unconvinced, he was still willing to listen to all that he had to say.

The experts around all nodded their heads. The beast emperor was too powerful. Even though he was quite young for an immortal, he enjoyed his position due to his strength. While he was not at the level of immortal slayer - he was not too far off. Destroying the body of an immortal once was no big deal.

And while immortals had great restorative properties, it was not as if they were immune to pain.

The middle-level races did not even question Karslon's judgement. The light tower was an entity that could influence the werebeasts and elves, the two high-rank races in the light empire. These experts did not have the right to question.

As such, in only half a month almost all immortals arrived at the light tower. But this was a secret meeting and thus almost no one knew of this incident. Even Michael was unaware.

The meeting table was set and 36 immortals were sitting at one side of the table and 6 on the other side. This was pretty much the strength of the entire light empire.

The immortals arrived in the duration of a few hours and were given a token upon arrival. The token had the Styx Soul Incarnation Scripture inscribed in it. After going through the token, the immortals of the empire went into big shock. There was no one among them who had not practised soul cultivation or was stupid.

In the few hours of wait before the meeting, they all had derived many things and had become extremely serious. They knew the magnitude of this matter.

The meeting started at the appointed time. Karslon addressed the crowd:

Karslon : You have all seen the cultivation art and might even have guessed that the level of this art is too high. The expert who has created this art is so powerful that he might be stronger than the plane-will!

No one rejected this comment. Almost all people had derived this and were in the state of incredible shock. They had already realized that this technique was incredible and if Karslon had this technique, it must have come from outside.

Karslon : You might have already guessed this but let me state it clearly, we have made outside contact. The contact was made to me by some existence whom I could not percieve. The level of this existence's power or comprehension was too high to estimate. And the being gave me a warning of an impending invasion.

Karslon was obviously lying when he said that he was the one who had been contacted. This was because it was more believable and it would protect Michael. He did not want his disciple getting unwanted attention.

Karslon told the experts gathered around about almost all he knew.

Karslon : It is very likely that the invaders would have even stronger cultivation than us and thus we might loose even with the plane-will on our side. The reason I called all of you is to discuss our approach. I myself can not handle this big of a responsibility.

Ragnar : Is it that easy to pull off an invasion. To travel in the law ocean, you need experts at immortal body and soul realm. I refuse to believe that the so called devils have an entire army of such experts. If that is the case, we might as well just live our lives and get slaughtered when they come.

Kevin : I don't think so. Can you not see the level of the cultivation technique? Such an expert would be so powerful that we might as well be ants in front of them. In such a scenario, they might very well trailblaze a path through the law ocean for normal experts to cross.

Ragnar (shouting) : Then again, if someone like that is on their side, we are already done for!!

Kevin : That is not completely true as well. Think from this perspective, say you want to invade the dark empire. Would you yourself go to some mortal village to take it down or just break the military fort near it and let your soldiers hande the rest. The top end experts must have other things to do than to come to an injured plane. They would probably open the path and not bother with it. We can have a chance if we can defend.

Elven King : I agree. But suppose that the village in your example was surprisingly resilient. There will be more and more powerful enemies coming untill it is wiped out. If we are really going to be invaded, we might not really survive. We don't yet know the reason for invasion or the enemies' exact power either. We need to make a decision.

Karslon : I have thought on this issue for a long time before calling you all. From what I know, the invasion will start slowly and eventually gain momentum. We need to prepare out defences. As an empire, we are not much. All our races are only a hundred thousand years old. Our reserve powers are laughable. We need to involve others as well. What do you think?

Someone from the barbarians : Lord Karslon is speaking the truth. We need to begin preparing our defences. As an empire, we are too weak against a planar invasion. So we also need to tell the others. The best method should be to increase our defences and the number of soldiers. The other thing would be to convince the god-beasts. They are the most ancient people around. This invasion should be more of their responsibility.

Kevin : They would not believe us. You should know another thing. The hundred year war is coming up. They might think that we are trying to pull out from the war. The dark empire would simmply claim it as a ploy.

Karslon : We can only do our best. Let us write an official letter with all the evidence we have and send it across Aterna to the dark empire, the land of god-beasts and the neural empire. Besides, we need to allocate all our resources to the army. Let us establish the forts with reinforcements. Improve the quality of weapons and armours of the soldiers. And also, pass down the information among the perfect realm experts and saints to look out for possible mysterious happenings. We need to prepare ourselves and be alert so that we are not caught off guard.

The meeting came to an end after the decision was made but the immortals that left were much more serious than when they arrived. This event was even beyond the code - calamity. It practically endangered the entire plane. The only way to deal with this was to be alert.

In the next month, the light army underwent a complete makeover. The perfect realm experts who knew started organising the army. The veterans were called in and harsh training began. But, all this happened secretly. The light empire had pretty much decided to give up on the hundred-year war. They pulled out all the experts with potential and started a separate division of the army - devil slayers.

In the devil slayer division, only the best were selected. The perks offered were beyond extravagant. 10 years of service was enough to grant the status of a noble. This was irrespective of contribution. The money being offered as pay could rival the yearly income of the weakest races.

The announcement caused different elites to get super excited. There was a simple clause - the devil slayer division must be loyal to the extreme and be ready to hand over their lives at a moment's notice.

The people were still ready for it. After all, Aterna was already fairly dangerous and there were usually battles between races. The experts in the plane were not scared of the possibility of death.

Then, all the retired soldiers were called back by the army. They were to be used in the upcoming hundred-year war.

This caused enormous retaliation from the populace. The people got out on the streets to ask their leaders. It was then that the leaders of different races informed them of a potential invasion by a powerful enemy from beyond.

No one knew what beyond was or who the enemy was but looking at the expressions of the leaders, they knew that war was coming - one much bigger than the hundred-year war.

The retired soldiers did not even flinch and gladly accepted to become cannon fodder for the sake of future generations.

All this happened over time in a year. But at the end of the year, almost everyone in the light empire knew about a potential war with the 'beyond' and the devil slayers that would be at the front lines in the war.

The dark empire simply laughed off the efforts of the light empire. The three progenitors of the vampires issued orders to hasten the preparations for the hundred-year war. The ghoul king also had a similar reaction. But, they too kept the possibility of invasion at the back if their mind.

Thus, they too directed their information network to keep an eye out.

But their preparations for the enemy from 'beyond' were not all that serious and various people believed it to be a sham. The dark empire did not outright refuse the claim as there was some unexplained evidence of otherworldly contact. But, they did claim that the invasion was only a possibility and not enough to worry about.

Besides, the invasion would occur in the future. If they could win some territory in this war, they would have more resources and place to expand. Then they could prepare for the invasion later.

This was what they were thinking. But they had no idea at the time that it would lead to tears of regret.

The neutral empire too began their preparations for a possible invasion. The neutral empire was a collection of different races that could cultivate the 'dark' scriptures as well as the 'light' scriptures. This did not mean that they were more powerful but they had more paths to choose from. The neutral empire was as powerful as the light and dark empire but they were lacking a bit in the top end powerhouses.

The god-beasts did not show any reactions. It was no surprise as they were the most secluded race. But only the god-beasts knew that all immortals of the god-beasts race had been greatly distressed by the news. They knew of more secrets than the new races. Thus, they began their own preparations as well. They would reveal them when the invasion started.

As all the races prepared for the possible invasion, Michael too was working to increase his power. The grand changes in Aterna were not hidden and he knew that the future had already changed a lot. He was happy too. It was like that the year passed and Michael turned 13.

He then went back to the human kingdom during the vacations. There were some things that he had to do.