The large round desk with chairs made of wood had stacks of papers, pens and people sitting around it. It lay underneath a great Victorian chandelier which lit the entire room, covering everything with it's yellow light beam. The old dwarven king sat upon his mighty throne, bored. He takes a sip from his golden goblet as he thinks of what could have been, ignoring the constant chatter surrounding him.

With his each fingers occupied by 1 gold ring with emerald gems like his eyes, the thick bearded man with a rather small long nose wore a violet purple tunic with a black toga, and a gold crown on his head.

He had forgotten what he originally wanted to be, but the challenges he had faced forced him to be the ruthless king he is today. Back then he had ambition; the drive to do something that deviated from the norm. Now he is just sitting of his chair, letting all his regrets wash over him.

The gentlemen he was surrounded by all wore either black or purple cloaks as a show of wealth and power. All were heads of departments and trusted advisors for the king who oversees his city.

"Your majesty?" Dalokol interrupted. He turned his head.

"Yes? What is it?"

"The head Pensaetop wants to know your majesty's answer."

"Oh... uh. What do you suggest Head Pensaetop Morrak, what do you advise?"

"I advise your majesty to invest 2,500 gold coins they ask for."

"Who?"

"The church your majesty. They are asking for 2,500 gold coins to renovate all the churches to the new architectural style. It is projected to help increase the people's faith in the church and your majesty himself."

He grunts.

"Fine. I Accept. What is the next line of business needs settling?"

Dakolol coughed twice, "Me, your majesty."

He picks up his papers on the table.

"Lord Emkum requests his majesty for 8,700 gold coins to build a new long lines and equip them with agerkells to move in and out large mining equipment and ores collected.

Though the mine seemed to be not be special as it seems, it lacks any materials that could justify the steep investment. I even investigated to see for myself if it had any blue mana crystals. It is increasingly unlikely that there are any."

"Who gave you the tour?"

"Lork Emkum himself your majesty."

"Your majesty, I would like to add to this topic myself. May I have your majesty's permission?" asked Jothar Darkcoat. He was the head of the Mines. He oversees a helps them a lot, and a long friend of Emkum. He wore a black robe like Dakolol himself, but his bread was much shorter, his nose larger, and his eyes were an emerald green.

"You shall." he said.

"I myself have sent off an investigator to report me his findings of Lord Emkum's mine. According to his words. The mine has at least 12% more blue stones than any ordinary mine. On top of that, it has some of them most valuable rare violet mana crystals. I would like to question where the Head Inzperian got his information."

Dakolol stayed quiet. He thought for a moment.

"I think your man had mixed it up with a different mine. He might be talking about Lord Orilgoun Greatbow's mine. It would be foolish of me to lie directly in front of his majesty."

"Well, we shall soon see Head Inzperian Dakolol. Your majesty, I have brought the report on the mines right with me. Your majesty can read it from your majesty's sharp eyes to confirm." he passed a red file and gave it to his majesty while smirking at Dakolol. King Adrom opened it up and began skimming though it.

"Is this the report he himself made or was it written by you?"

"The report was sent off by Lord Emkum to the castle itself today. I just received it only before the start of this meeting."

"I will take your word for it then."

"So what is your majesty's verdict?" asked Dakolol.

"Well according to this report, I will not be directing funds to Lord Emkum's mine."

"eh?" Jothar froze.

"According to this report, the mines do not have anything noteworthy contained in it. It would not make any sense for me to waste my money."

"Your majesty..."

"You yourself said that Lord Emkum send it over to me. According to this report, there is nothing his mines can give. Am I wrong."

Jothar opened his mouth, yet nothing came out. He sighed.

"Alright your majesty."

"Moving on. Is that it?"

"No your majesty, there is one more topic that needs to be discussed. The mysterious beings."

Adrom, in a long time, sat straight and put down his goblet down. He looked at Vongrum, waiting patiently for him to talk. It was the whole reason why he came to the boring meeting in the first place. Vongrum takes his papers and reads aloud to them.

"In the following months, our spies have gathered that Princess Mirabelle of the empire of Novaskoska had a vision. It detailed that she saw 'an eye looking at the kingdom'. The following days, she described another vision, one where demons have invaded a different realm and got beaten back hardly.

In her own words, there were said to be 'tall glass, stone and steel foreign structures, all over the place that overlooks the terrain. The ground meanwhile was covered in a black like rock with white paint and yellow paint on it, with metallic beasts either roaming around or sleeping on the sides.'

Now this was told in a meeting by many of the Ferrian kings in some castle. The announcement was given to the public 5 days after their meeting occurred."

"These beings fought off demons?"

"Yes your majesty, that was what they gathered."

"There is a lot to unpack here. Does anyone know when this happen?"

A minister with round glasses raised his hand. "This might refer to the the otherworldly demonic invasion that occurred 545 years ago."

"Of course, the Head of Education Umduhr Herros would be the one to know of such historical trivia." Umduhr smiled, feeling a sense of pride.

"Thank you Umduhr. Now sit down."

"I would like to ask one question from Head Spumaser your majesty."

"Go ahead."

"Head Spumaser Vongrum, I would like to confirm a quote from the report. Did it say something along the lines of 'metallic beasts'?" Vongrum checks his notes.

"Yes, I can confirm it does indeed say that."

"Could that mean... They might be like... us?" he says as he uses his hands to point at him.

Adrom turns his head at Dakolol.

"Your majesty, I propose the theory that, the threat. the being that the realm is facing against might be in regards similar to us."

"What do mean Dakolol?" Jothar asked. Everyone glared at him.

"I apologize your majesty! I did not for permission from your majesty. Please have mercy." he said while kneeling on the ground. Dakolol and his buddies tried to hide his smile, while the others were in a neutral stance, still glaring at him. Adrom simply sighed.

"Get up Jothar. You are forgiven. Now go back to your seat." he said. Adrom turned to Dakolol.

"Elaborate your hypothesis Dakolol."

"Well your highness. The beings we might be fighting might be a mechanical one. Similar to how we understand the world and try and use it. Like how many little components go into making an agertraw work, they might found out how to leave their realm behind."

"What about the eye? Vongrum told us about something about the eye."

"I am not sure about that your majesty. The most likeliest option is that they have a discovered something we don't know of."

"Could be. What else?"

Another dwarf with purple robes raised his hand. His face was covered in a mask, and his beard shaven clean.

"What is it Head of Education Umduhr Herros?"

"Your majesty, I propose that they might have... a different reason for what these things are. From what I know, they might be the only being in the other world, correct?"

Vongrum nodded.

...And since magic seems to be common among beings with intelligence, with ones that don't tend to be driven extinct or into hiding like us dwarves. I propose these beings might possess enormous wisdom and knowledge of magic, and they might have compounded that with their mechanical wisdom and knowledge.

Since most of our machinery requires a sort of mana crystal to function, they might have even more powerful mana crystals which they have available to create them. Or they managed to utilized existing mana crystals more efficiently."

"That is all well and good Umduhr. Thank you. Anyone else?"

There were more hypothesis thrown around. Some included metallic beings being the creatures from the other side. Some argued for Devine entities. All were respectfully debating and sharing their thoughts.

On the surface, the dwarves that had metal collars with chains attached to their necks, connecting all to groups of 5. They were all either swinging their axes to cut down the trees or dragging the lumber to the ground.

What they didn't know was that high above them, a drone was chilling on the surface, trying to infect their city with recording nanomachines.