Slowly yet steadily, the gate that stood against the flow of time since the Ancient Era began to open.

Within the gap of the moving gate, the wonder of the world, inside the Forbidden Palace was filled with colourful and sparkling crystals, each and every one of them held the incredible wealth beyond normal person's imagination.

The first thing that the emperor and the rest saw was the giant black pillar, there was unknown language engraved on it, the material of this mysterious pillar was unknown, but to be able to remain unscathed since the long past, it must be extraordinary.

As everyone was eager to rush into the heaven on earth, the strange repression force pushed everyone except the Blood Emperor, the Grand Archmage, and the prince and princess.

Then, there was an emotionless sound rang within everyone's soul.

Only the emperor and the mage knew about this age-old language.

"Everyone, in front of us is the Forbidden Palace, only the one with pure bloodline of the Emperors and mages at least Archmage could enter."

The emperor said solemnly.

Everyone was too shocked to think about anything, they could only stand there silently, not knowing what to do.

"Everyone else must stay at our palace, and if anyone told the outsider about what happened today."

There is no need to say anymore, everyone was scared stiff.

So, everyone else was escorted by Slien, heading back to the Emperor Palace.

The first prince and the second princess looked at the Blood Emperor and Grand Archmage, soon they followed the two into the wondrous palace, the secret hidden from the world began unravelling before their own eyes.

The first thing they saw was the strange black pillar, both the emperor and the mage went ahead to read the engraved symbols.

"The first Wonder before you is the Hall of Crisis, the hope for the restoration of the empire lied within here."

The mage spoke the translated version of the symbols, just for the prince and princess.

Behind the black pillar were two black vaults, probably made with the same material like that black pillar, in front of the vault was a magical sentence created from the glowing ancient runes, floating aimlessly.

"The first vault contained wealth enough to rebuild the capital of the ancient empire."

"To open the vault, one must have a drop of the Emperors or their descendants' blood, or performed the seal breaking ritual of the Archmage in front of the vault."

Everyone in the Hall of Crisis was shocked because all Archmages in the empire were the legend of their own, they numbered less than one hundred, scattered across the Morning Star era, to meet one was the greatest honour of their life.

Even the Grand Archmage is only a step above Archmage, he had to live for centuries, just to reach Archmage and spent countless years and luck to reach where he was right now.

But compared to the treasure the vault held inside, the need for the Archmage was really justified.

"The second vault contained wealth enough to buy the entire demi-human kingdom."

"The requirement to open the vault is an imperial artefact and a drop of Emperor's bloodline, or seal breaking ritual of the Grand Archmage."

The imperial artefact was the artefact that the emperors of the humanity personally used, by dripping their blood into the artefacts, they will recognise their owner.

Although the wealth to buy the demi-human kingdom was unbelievable, but that was the kingdom of the past when they were still the slaves of the humanity.

Even so, the wealth of this calibre was still something that the current empire couldn't compare to, as it was on its last leg.

"So many treasures, with all of this, we will be able to withstand the demi-humans' invasion."

The second princess said proudly, she wanted to impress her father.

But, contested to her expectation, the emperor and the first prince shook their heads.

"With only wealth, one could only go so far, there is not much time left, it is impossible to strengthen ourselves with just this amount of time, wealth alone couldn't do it, everything has a limit too."

The first prince explained to her younger, naive sister.

With no more treasures that could save the future of the empire, they headed toward the elegant white door, there was indeed a sentence formed by the sparkling runes.

"To enter the next room, one must insert an imperial artefact on the Door of Greed."

Without any communication, the first prince pulled out his Dragon Slayer and stabbed it gently into the gap between the door.

Suddenly, the vision of everyone within the Hall of Crysis went white, after the whiteness died down, all of them found themselves in a completely strange realm.

They weren't in the Forbidden Palace anymore, they were in a throne room, there were many royal guards who wore the greyish armour, made from another unknown material, stood in the straight line waiting for someone.

After a short moment of observing the divine hall, an old man had been seen walking slowly toward the throne, he wore a white lose robe and his aura was as calm as the ocean.

The moment he sat on his eternal throne, his aura multiplied by orders of magnitude, nearly suffocated the weak second princess.

"This is the record of me, the Scholar Emperor."

The Scholar Emperor said with a hint of sadness.

"If you are seeing this record, that means the Hall of Crisis wasn't able to help you to overcome the enemies, the next Wonder is the Storage of Disaster, which stored a large amount of the imperial artefacts since the ancient time, but, each of them needs to have the soul of our descendant bind with them."

The old sage pulled out an odd looking book.

"This is my imperial artefact, the Book of Learning in which it recorded the knowledge of the magic spell and demonic ritual."

He handed the book toward them, they watched as the book slowly disappeared.

"Lastly, I prayed that the second Wonder is all it needed to overcome the formidable threat humanity is facing."

The Scholar Emperor waved his hand, many mysterious looking runes began to appear as his hand move.

The runes connected to each other, creating a grand formation covering the entire sky.

The strong light came forth from all direction and everything went white once again.

...

After they regained their vision, they were back at the Forbidden Palace, inside the Hall of Crisis again.

"So that must be the legendary Time Crystal."

The excited mage held his new book tightly.

"Old friend, what is this magical Time Crystal?"

Others were very curious as well.

"It is the legendary recording device, said to be able to store any movement or sound for any given amount of time, they were even more precious than the artefacts during the Ancient Era, legend stated that there was only one Time Crystal in the entire empire."

Time Crystal, even the Grand Emperors weren't willing to use one unless it was absolutely necessary, wealth alone simply couldn't buy it.

"To be able to afford such a treasure, the origin of this Forbidden Palace sure is incomprehensible, that great emperor, the Scholar Emperor, he should be even before the Ancient Era."

Before the Ancient Era was the untraceable era, not a single valid information could be found, the only thing they knew was even the great figures of the ancient still didn't know anything about it, the Grand Emperors weren't willing to speak about it.

Even if the rumours of the said era was found, there were nowhere to justified their truthfulness.

The emperor knew that they were dealing with something beyond imagination, they needed to be very careful.

As for Grand Archmage, he was too excited by the new artefact to talk with the Blood Emperor, the Book of Learning, kept in mind that this is the knowledge from the truly ancient time, they were the treasure beyond anything.

After a brief period of discussion between the royalties, everyone began to enter the Storage of Disaster.

Inside the second Wonder, there were many transparent crystals, in each of them were many types of treasures, some were weapons, others were books, they must be the imperial artefacts of all the previous emperors.

Before one could extend their hand to one of the nearest crystals, the same kind of sentences like the first Wonder began to appear as well.

"Inside was the imperial artefacts since time immemorial, each of them contained the final desires and regrets of the owners, for you to used them, you must complete the last wish of the owner before it could be used."

"To receive them, bind your soul with the weapons, be warned, only one weapon could be retrieved by a person, choose wisely, the future of humanity depends on your choice."

Everyone looked at each other, there was no needed to talk, all of them except the old mage rushed into the nearest artefacts, they tried their hardest to find perhaps the last hope of the empire.

The Grand Archmage too also tried his hardest to understand the knowledge of the ancient, maybe there was the secret to save the humanity and regain their formal peak.

Time quickly flew by without anyone of them noticing.

...

At the Emperor Palace, the Guest Hall.

Almost every officials and nobles were relaxing in the dinner hall, countless maids and butlers were running around, trying their best to serve their master.

At the comfortable chair in corner of the hall, sat alone the saintess.

She was doing her daily meditating, analyzing her past experiences, calming her restless soul.

After it was done, she gazed into the wildness, letting herself lose in her lively fantasy, about her long lost past.

The scenery within her memory began to resurface in her anxious mind.

But, at the moment she saw him, all the sadness and grief she suffered immediately vanished and all her happiness and inner peace surge through her body.

She was intoxicated by her broken dream, a dream that won't happen.

Suddenly, a sound of a footstep rang into her ears, the sound it produced was not loud, but it was filled with anger and pain, just like herself.

She, who was pulled out of her heaven, was very upset, she directly stared at the person who disturbed her fantasy, her reality.

He was the Grand Noble, with his silver cane, he calmly walked toward the saintess, his mind was brimming with immense sorrow, but his considerate manner didn't expose any of them.

Only those who had experienced them could understand the pain.

As a failure of a father, he didn't even have the courage to face his daughter again.

But he still needed her, for his clan, for his family.

But most importantly, for himself.

So he must confront the devil within the human skin, the saintess.

"Your Highness, the saintess, would you mind if we were to talk about the past for a moment?"