The commander reported to Damien through the mental link spell that Allen and Selene were captured and headed to the palace under armed guard escort, order by the king. The captain of the royal guardsmen asked who was in charge and Allen and Selene had spoken up before Commander Bartus could speak up, he explained. He told Damien that he was going to defend the princess and the advisor to the death, but he remembered Lord Damiens's mission and he stayed his hand, the commander said.

“Thank you, for the report Commander, and yes that was very wise of you. I’ll be there shortly,’ Damien cut the link to the commander, waved his hand and took off into the air at breakneck speed leaving a small crater in the ground. To get the report from the commander in person. Damien had to go meet this king, he wasn't angry or calm. Damien felt whatever emotion in between, almost indifferent. He had to stop getting so close to these people on this planet. They were nothing but a means to get home. His daughter was the goal. She will always be the goal.

When it came to this king, Damien felt like he had to make an entrance or maybe a statement. He wanted to ask Allen what to do when dealing with a monarch but Allen was currently at the mercy of the man who wanted Damiens head. Since this king forced his hand, Damien was going to respond in kind. Force with force. Damien flew on thinking about if he was going to stop pretenses and show his hand. If he was going to make it home then he had to obtain the power of the gods. He needs to be a god himself to gain followers. Damien felt like he was doing everything wrong. One that shows power. Why not? Was he strong enough, yet? Damien didn't know but now compared to where he was when he arrived. His power and control increased by leaps and bounds while in the training dimension. The battle experience he received was invaluable. Especially with a sword. He was by no means a master swordsman but he's practiced with one over the last two years and learned how to swing a sword effectively. Getting closer to the caravan, Damien had made up his mind.

An old man had been watching the spot for hours to see if the young man would surface again. The old man grew tired of waiting and had taken a small nap and unluckily for him had missed his target. Damien was already long gone.

….hours earlier in the throne room.

King Ganish had this Lord's foreigner princess and his advisor standing in front of him as he sat on his elaborate throne. When they entered the throne room, the woman stole the attention of everyone in the room. She was a dark haired beauty fit for any king and her eyes were like emeralds. The king instantly wanted her to be courted by his sons. She had on a beautiful aqua blue ball gown. A beautifully crafted tiara lined with diamond and a large emerald encrusted jewel. She was regal and carried herself with grace and her steps careful and measured. Almost as if she is a...warrior? No, that couldn’t be right. Countries didn’t let women become warriors, especially nobility. Yet, that couldn’t be right the king instantly dismissed the thought. Or maybe he just refused to believe it. The man walked in with a very elaborate black and green robe with shiny boots, under the robe the man had a chainmail long shirt on, and a cloak and a hooded cloak. The emblem of the Mythical Beast on his belt was clearly made of platinum and also jewel encrusted well as the woman’s tiara with the shiny green jewel that looked to be an Emerald. What made the king pause when the two people were stopped by his guards was the staff in the woman's hand. The king didn't know how he didn’t see that first! The staff was made of a platinum staff lined with formation runes and topped with a beautifully crafted, multicolored caged Jewel!

A stunned Ganish instantly looked at his court mage who himself had a shocked look on his face after noticing the girls' staff. The normally talkative court archmage was just at a loss of words. He was staring at the staff in awe. The immense power that was in the staff made the archmage's hands shake with desire. Where did she get such a legendary item! The court mage thought. The mana radiating from the staff was leaking out of it shows it was legendary but somehow amateurish? The court mage couldn't understand what was happening. Any true stave maker knows to contain the mana leakage so that the power in the staff is hidden, but in this case, the staff's power is like an open book to a mage who knows what to look for. A mage like himself. That staff clearly had portal magic! Yet, that power had been lost! The staff has a ball of energy, no not energy! It was mana! It looked like a condensed mana pool or some strange mutation of one! He had to have it! The court mage looked at the staff feverishly. The archmage was so engulfed in his thoughts that he hadn't heard the king speak his name.

This look hadn't escaped the king's notice. The king spoke in a low volume to his court mage, "Mage Joston, what do you see, with your mage sight? Is that woman a mage? Y-y-yes my liege, she is, but also I think this advisor has a mana pool also. I-I'm not sure what's going on. I've never heard of a princess mage or a random advisor being a mage either. There is definitely something off about this kingdom, about this whole situation if he were being honest. The king didn't make it to his station by ignoring his gut feelings. His gut feeling told him that he should not anger these two people in front of him. Not, before he had some answers.

The king turned his attention back to the two standing before him. He was going to use intimidation to get his answers, but that was before he had the conundrum of all these sudden new mages appearing inside of his kingdom. How in the 7 hells, are there this many unaccounted for! The king thought to himself. The king took a slow measured breath, calmed his mind and used diplomacy instead.

" Advisor to this neighboring foreign nation, do you care to explain how I have a large unsanctioned merchant caravan in my kingdom? With an untold number of mages also no less, is that correct? Advisor you may speak."

"Thank you, great king," Allen responded with a bow of his head.

"We do have mages in your kingdom, but only 3. Lord Donte, Selene here, and Attis the Master mage to Lord Donte whom we left at the caravan. We were brought here on...such short notice. We were not trying to escape the king's notice or we would not have had such a large caravan. We do have intentions for being in your kingdom, but none of which a for any malice. We are all here on a peacekeeping mission to this great kingdom and to increase the coffers in both kingdoms, but also, to introduce our neighboring kingdom of Numara. We are not an invasion force by any means, we are just a simple merchant group with guards. Our Lord Donte also wanted to have an audience with the king himself, but of course, events have transpired a bit unexpectedly with our sudden summons. We will gladly wait for our lord to arrive before continuing. Upon our arrival, we were to present the king with gifts, but that was left at the caravan. My liege."

The king had many questions to ask the advisor but when he began his questioning he was suddenly interrupted, with the thick throne room doors suddenly opening….

….earlier back at the merchant caravan.

When Damein landed. His commander was saluting him but many of the Algarian soldiers on the outer wall were shocked. That should not have been possible with the mana shield surrounding the city. Damien simply froze time around himself and opened a portal through to the other side. To the soldiers below, it looked like Damien passed straight through. When the soldiers were about to sound the alarm, a ranked guard in the distance waved them off. Damien looked like he was to be expected. Damien already knew the situation from his debrief. He commanded Attis to come over to him. When he did Attis stopped and stared at him.

“What are you staring at Mage Attis?” Damien asked the man.

“Your power my Lord, I can’t feel it! Before you left the caravan. I could feel your mana, but now I can’t feel anything. How strong have you gotten to where I can’t even feel your power any longer as a master mage. You must be a Sorcerer! Having control of all the elements, even light and dark. It is the beginning of mastery of the advanced elements. Or so the little bits and pieces that I’ve about sorcerers in the books on the history of magic that I scrounged up from the villages that we passed. Not all of us was, locked away and brooding. Attis explained.

“Advanced elements? And when di-”

Damien was cut off when a mounted royal escort of 20 men arrived in the Gold and dark blue coat of arms.

The large soldier in the front spoke first.

“The king demands an immediate audience with Lord Donte. This is not to be taken as a request.”

Damien didn’t like the soldier's tone, but the soldier was only doing his job nothing more. It’s the king that Damien had an issue with not these men.

“Commander Brutus and Mage Attis”, Damien motioned to the carriage and entered followed by the two men. The carriage driver snapped his reins and the horses began to trot. The guards escorting Damien’s were shocked that these horses could trot so fast even while pulling a carriage. The soldiers' horses had to travel at a quicker pace. The guard captain wondered where this Lord found such a magnificent beast.

Damien was still dressed in his ragged clothes from his training. Damien had fixed his clothing issue long ago while training with magical constructs. Weaker construct he can make permanent. It took almost the full two years to figure it out but he had finally managed after all that time failing He willed the magical construct of an all red hooded mage robe with black inlays. His Platinum wolf emblem was on his right side of his chest and was seemingly embedded into the fabric. The eyes and teeth were inlaid diamonds along with the border of the emblem. Damien’s robe was black inlay had crushed diamonds to give a sparkling effect. Damien made himself a golden crown with 7 pointed tips made of high gold and platinum both of which are slightly, but noticeably lighter color than the lesser visions of the expensive metal. On the front of the crown was a glowing mage stone. Above the six points on the crown showed one of the six elements. One fire that burned blue, then to red, then white and back to blue again over and over. The next had a tiny half-dollar sized boulder that changed into the sand, then a random piece of metal and it would start over again. This was the same for each of the elements that he unlocked. Of course, Damien had a fitted normal shirt and trousers underneath his mage armor and had with leather boots.

By the time he had finished his ensemble, the carriage had stopped. Damien suppressed his mana back down to where he was when he arrived on this planet. He wanted to show he was at the level of an archmage, not a sorcerer. That was his trump card should anything go wrong in this confrontation. Damien stepped out of the carriage and he was instantly in awe. The massive palace was beautiful and standing next to it Damien had to stare straight up trying to see the top of the palace. Even though it was made of stone, it looked almost like it was glass and Damien noticed the castle glowed slightly wherever the sun touched the stone walls. It was a sight to behold. Damien walked up a fair amount of stairs before reaching a courtyard.

As Damien passed though the beautiful massive courtyard which doubled as a beautiful garden, he couldn’t help with a myriad of beautiful colors, all kinds of strange flowers and plants. Damen and his groups continued on through the court, into the doors palace itself. The guards walked the group all of the way to doors and many winding and confusing corridors which none of the group had an issue remembering with their enhanced intellect. That's not even counting Damiens's map from the system. When Damien’s group arrived the throne room doors began to open. Damien would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous. He was actually about to meet a real life king who had been trained in court politics his whole life. Damien only had one weapon if his magical entrance didn’t work, the ancient art of bullshit.

Damien summoned his staff in his hand and strode forward through the massive doors and into and even massive throne room. His crown glowed with its elements, his elaborate staff glowed and he let his magical aura glow a purple hue around him. Damien radiated power There were rows upon rows of cushioned benches in the back and the benches gradually turned into rows upon rows of the same type of chair with the very front row in elaborate wooden chairs. All of the seats were packed with finely dressed men and women and in speak me cases, kids and teens. Nothing in the room topped the throne though, it was lined with a lion and dragon roaring on each handle with masterful designs engraved into. It was very beautiful. Sunlight shone through the glass panels on the roof to give the room light and everything was visible. Like the 500 guards that entered the room followed by 20 mages.

Damien noticed the sweaty mage visibly relax. Damien noticed the kings white knuckles when he looked at commander Brutus, to the crown Damiens head, turn back to the commander. The crowd gasped looking at Damiens clothes and crown. Even Selene and Allen were taken aback. The hurriedly went to stand behind Damien, not in fear, but in protection. With not a hint of fear over the number. The king noticed they had a look of possibly winning and leaving out of this throne room alive. No, they looked certain of it within a doubt in their minds. All of the veteran soldiers noticed this and became nervous. The king's quickening pulse had shown that he had noticed this also.

The King spoke first his voice not coming out as strongly as he would have liked.

"Lord Donte, I presume. You have gained a bit of a reputation in your short arrival here in my kingdom." The king gestured at the crown on Damien's head and continued, "I am sure we can cut all pretenses now and end the charade shall we, Lord Damien. The crowd gasped and you could hear loud murmurs from the massive. Your advisor told me a good story but, I always found that it's best to hear from a man himself. Who are you? Where are you from? And why have you come to threaten my throne?" With that last sentence, the king struggled to take the next breath so he became quiet and waited on Damien's reply. The room held its breath.

"Hello, I am King Damien Sorlen of the kingdom of Numera. Firstly I come bearing gifts to show my good faith and will to the king. I wouldn’t bring the riches of my kingdom to announce war." With those words, Damien waved his hands in front of him and summoned an elaborate large and a medium sized chest. The commander and Allen, stepped up and casually picked up both boxes walking over to be placed in front of the king. Some of the guards and mages began to unsheath their blades and mages readied their spells, but the king waved them all off. The men stood down but the Warriors kept their hands on their weapons. Yet, it wasn’t until both of the men set the chests down and opened them up, that the large crowd gasped. The large chest half the size of a man contained, high platinum coins to the brim and the medium sized elaborate chest was filled with all different types of the rare stones including 2 bowling ball sized mage stones. In the large chest alone was enough to start a kingdom all on its own. Yet, it was the two mage stones that had taken away everyone’s breath. No one knows how much these mage stones were worth. They were enormous and spoke volumes about the wealth of his kingdom. No one in the room could say anything so Damien spoke first, shaking the people out of their shock. His words now demanded everyone's attention in the room.

"King Ganish, I have claimed the wilds as my kingdom. I have braved the dangers of one of the most inhospitable places in the know and made it my home. I have even gained the notice of the gods. Yet, I do not wish to cause conflict. I am simply trying to keep my kingdom thriving and offering a trade to a neighboring kingdom" Frowning and looking back at Allen and Selene, Damien continued, "I'll even ignore the slight you've caused against my subjects. I'll even ignore the bounty put on my head, without even hearing my side of the story. In order for us to have peace and increase trade. I'll even wait until you see our wares at the merchant caravan before deciding. I guarantee you'll be, please. There is nothing, but benefit when it comes to dealing with my kingdom. I need time to ponder on my time in your kingdom, I will take my leave, but my caravan will stay. If you agree then they are at your service, if you do not, then they will leave immediately. Safely I'm sure." Damien looked intently at the king for a moment showing that it would be no other way.

Before the king could utter another word, Damien lifted a finger and he made the wind pick up in the throne. Cracking sounds began and a large dome of electricity formed in front of Damien and his group he summoned a pitched black portal without even moving. The dark portal then gradually began show colors and then a clear picture. Inside the portal showed the inside of a large magnificent hall, with tens of mages coming and going through doors and you a large staircase going up farther than could be seen in the portal. Some of the mages of various ages carried with them books or scrolls, some had swords and multicolored beakers, but they all had the staves with mage stones orbs! They stopped when the portal came into view, the mages began waving or was screaming Damien's name. Damien smiled and stepped forward into his portal followed by his group, and Damien didn't not looking back.