"Your Majesty, the Blood Emperor."

The saintess kneeled down and bowed toward the emperor with absolute respect.

"This lowly one has come here in place of the Pope because his holiness wasn't able to come here in time, please pardon us for our inability to follow the emperor's decree."

The saintess spoke not too slow or too fast, but clearly, she was very nervous.

To be able to see such a flawless ruler in her lifetime was the blessing in and out of itself.

"Let's us not waste any time and head to the Forbidden Palace, Grand Noble, tell the saintess the necessary information she needed to know."

The emperor commanded.

The saintess was startled, but she regained her compose shortly after.

After the commanded had been announced, the Blood Emperor calmly stood up and walked toward the heavily guarded palace behind the Emperor Palace.

He was followed by his two most outstanding descendants, the first prince and the second princess.

The rest soon surpassed their excitement and quickly followed them.

...

Before the emperor was an era-old entrance, it was sealed by multiple restrictions that were from at least the Ancient Era, with no way to solve the restrictions, the palace was always sealed up.

Until today.

Just before the nobles started to discuss the palace, an envoy unexpectedly rushed toward the Blood Emperor.

"Pardon this servant rudeness, your majesty."

The envoy hastily bowed toward the emperor.

"The demi-human had captured many officials and nobles at the border of our empire, however, they haven't killed any of them yet, the elf princess demanded that the Grand Noble and the Blood Emperor must go there immediately, for they will kill one every hour."

The envoy retreated back after he finished speaking.

"Your majesty, please save them."

The uproar had started within the circle of the nobles and officials.

The Grand Noble shook his head silently, waiting for the emperor's decree.

"We have no need to keep them alive, those who were captured are the betrayers of the empire."

The second princess said with confidence, waiting for the emperor to compliment her.

A smile emerged on the Grand Noble face, but the emperor only nodded at her.

This is the true royalty, filled with wisdom and confidence.

The Grand Noble thought so.

As the second princess felt down, the first prince quickly came to consult her.

After the hassle died down, the emperor slowly raised his hand and chanted an unknown word, probably magic spell.

A colourful ring on his index finger started to shine brightly with golden beam shooting toward the blue sky.

While everyone was shocked, a figure slowly faded into existence.

That figure was an old man, he wore a black loose robe, almost his entire body was concealed with unexplainable grey fog, everything else that the figure wore was unknown to all.

In this palace, there were only five persons who knew the identity of this old man.

"We give our greeting to Grand Archmage."

The first prince, the second princess, the saintess and the Grand Noble bowed toward the elderly figure.

"It's been a long time, old friend."

The emperor smiled, this old man was his closest friend and he is also the only one who is still alive.

"You have never come to me just to see me, tell me, what happen this time?"

The old man said with a sense of relaxation in his voice.

"The lost era of legend."

The emperor said some vague words in a serious manner.

The old man suddenly turned stiffed, he mumbled something unrecognisable.

Suddenly, a huge amount of magical fog surrounded the Blood emperor and the Grand Archmage, effectively block all senses from the outside from observing them.

As the uproar was once again come back, but this time, the Grand Noble was the one who stopped it.

"That senior is our legendary Grand Archmage, so there is no need to worry about the safety of his majesty, because with him there, that place is the safest place on this plane."

The nobles and officials looked at both the prince and the princess, after seeing that the two were calm, they felt that their worry wasn't necessary.

...

Within the mist of concealment.

"So, what's happen during my seclusion?"

The mage asked the emperor.

"The Great King of the demi-human is too powerful, we won the small battle, but lost the overall war."

The emperor said to the archmage.

After a long absence of sound, the Grand Archmage asked the Blood Emperor again just to confirm.

"Are you really going to use it?"

His voice was filled with worry and anxiety.

He, as the strongest mage of the empire, knew the formidable power of the Ancient Era, the Morning Star Era was just the shadow of the legacy of the legend.

Despair was one of the strongest artefacts of the Human Empire, but the cost of using it was unimaginable.

"But, is this really the scenarios that the Grand Emperors wish for us to use?"

The mage was unsure, even in the Timeless War, the Grand Emperor didn't dare to use it.

"There is no such thing like that, my friend, the usage of this artefact was for the survival of the humanity, the Timeless War had no impact on the survival of the empire."

The emperor explained.

"Who else knew about it other than you and me?"

The old mage asked.

"Only my son."

Said the emperor.

"Let hope that fate is still on our side."

Both of them said softly.

The Grand Archmage gestured his hand strangely.

...

"Look, the mist is slowly disappearing."

Someone shouted, attracting everyone attention.

Everyone regained their compose, they silently watched the fog dissolved.

They saw two figures coming out of the fog, they were the Blood Emperor and the Grand Archmage.

"Father, Lord Mage."

The two prince and princess quickly ran toward their father and bowed to both the emperor and old man.

"Your majesty, what do you want to do?"

The Grand Noble humbly asked the emperor, for the Grand Archmage to come, the situation was very serious.

Slowly, the Blood Emperor pulled an unknown object out, it was a silver key, but the feeling it gave off was much more profound than any artefact Aceros had ever seen.

Suddenly, the temperature around the palace started to drop, to the point where the coldness could penetrate the skin of any normal human.

But, every noble and official had to learn basic uses of magic, so they have no problem withstood the coldness.

Only the first prince and Slein that couldn't use any magic, but as the two were one of the strongest warriors of the empire, their body had already broken through the limit of the human, their body could easily endure the skin-piercing cold.

The beautiful yet ancient palace turned sinister the moment the key was taken out, the dark mist started to pour out of the gap between the structure of the Forbidden Palace.

There were scrambled mess of laughing of the madman, crying of the maiden, echoed within one's own mind, begging to be released from this cursed hall.

Some of the nobles and officials abruptly shouted some unknowable language, some suddenly crying and collapsed to the ground.

As everyone was about to break out running for their own lives, the mage pulled out a magnificent torch, it was engraved with the golden symbols.

The moment the torch lighted up, the barrier of light was formed, not even a single evil entities were able to cross the barrier without getting burnt by the golden flame.

The one that was shouting unknown language regained his sanity,

but he was traumatized, unable to speak for a long time.

But unfortunately, the one that collapsed on the ground made no movement, his eyes were lifeless, his soul couldn't be safe anymore.

After the incident, everyone had learnt their lesson, they all tried to stick close to the royalty and the old mage.

...

While everything was happening in the empire

The spies had arrived at the kingdom of demi-humans.

"Your majesty, the humans haven't sent anyone to negotiate with us yet."

The spy said while kneeling on the ground with his head touched the floor.

"There is no surprise about that, if the emperor was that stupid, the empire would have been ours already."

The Great King of the demi-humans said lightly as he continued to slip the finest wine.

After a moment of thinking, the elven king suddenly asked the spy.

"What about the information of our new princess, my beautiful Relica?"

The royalties of the demi-humans weren't decided by the bloodline, they were handpicked from the best of them all, every race of demi-humans could be the royalties if their talent excess others.

The newest elf princess of the Demi-human Kingdom, Relica, had the best talent in magic and planning of all the royalties, rival even the Great King, with her secret intelligent network, she could find any information about the empire.

And her figure was stunningly beautiful, even made the Great King fell for her.

But her origin was a complete mystery, some even said that she was the true descendant of the royalty of the Ancient Era.

"Her Highness the princess Relica is now rushing back to the capital, your majesty, in about a week, she would be yours to take."

The spy excitedly spoke.

The princess was her superior, if she could get into the good book of the king, she would definitely have a good future.

"What would you do about the rest of the noble and official, your majesty?"

Another elf asked the king.

"Spare them, for now, they still have their uses."

The Great King grinned, the master plan started to formulate within his mind.

A plan that would crumble the foundation of the Human Empire, for the glory of the Demi-human Kingdom.

...

As the silver key glowed brighter, the magical force within nature started to get sucked into the ancient key, making the atmosphere uncomfortable.

Everyone except the emperor and the mage felt suffocated because of the absence of the magical force of nature.

The symbols that were engraved on the structure of the entire Forbidden Palace started to glow.

The palace itself used to be like an old ancient ruin, but it transformed into the heavenly kingdom, one could only imagine the holiness of the inside of the palace.

As everyone was surveying at the marvellous palace, the loud noise travelled in all direction.

And slowly, the large gate of judgement started to open.