Empire of Eternal Dawn, Capital city Lanastre, Sun Moon Palace Throne room.

”What is that thing?” Emperor Valentius IX inquired. The royal court mage before him panted heavily. Crouched on one knee, she held the remote viewing spell open for the Emperor to see through.

Before Valentius, the blue orb that was like a window to the underworld itself, displayed a strange and frightening sight. Someone clad in dark flames, with a frightening blood red staff whose burning red eye stared hatred at him directly through the spell.

He was scared.

Squinting, the Emperor could make out an eerily familiar symbol glowing on the creature's forehead. Beyond that symbol, something else made the Emperor jump. He saw a small black horn. It was hard to make out in the dark waters of the forbidden underground region, but he saw it. By the grace of the light, he saw it.

”Demonkin?” The emperor asked, puzzled and frightened. The Court mage shook her head. ”No, my Emperor. That cannot be. Demonkin are weak creatures, good slaves due to their extreme longevity, but nothing else. No matter how you look at it, standing so casually at the bottom of the forbidden underground lake is impossible. What we're seeing is probably the ghost of a great mage that existed long ago or something, but...”

”But?” The Emperor prompted. He was tired of this region. Ever since they had discovered it a decade ago, he had been exploring it and trying to find a way to breach it, but it had given him nothing but trouble in return. He did not like having an unknown, potentially dangerous and unexplored region situated so close to his empire, but if it was some strange high level dungeon, the winds of fortune would greatly favour him.

It looked like that place had alot of untapped potential, but so far the Emperor had been unsuccessful, until now. They had finally hit a remote viewing correctly and gotten a good look around the place, but what they found frightened the shit out of him.

”I sensed powerful space magic ripples from that thing just moments ago, my Emperor. If that's a ghost, such would be impossible, and yet I cannot see how anything can have shields strong enough to survive beneath a mile of water for a prolonged period of time. That kind of pressure would crush even me in mere minutes, but it doesn't look like that thing cares about such things. Not to mention the fact that I've sensed many extremely powerful monster entities, yet none of them even dare approach this figure...”

”Widthdraw at once Myria. Whatever we do, we must not draw the wrath of that creature. For now, we should cease the exploration of the underground lake.” Beads of cold sweat rolled down the Emperor's forehead and his withered hands shook as he gripped the armrest of his throne. That symbol, he remembered it now. He had seen it before in the old archives.

There were very few things that the man known as Emperor Valentius IX feared, but one of them was that symbol.

The fact that the bearer of the symbol was clearly a demonkin, made his old bones rattle with dread. In the past few decades alone, his Empire had hunted and enslaved demonkin not by the thousands, but by the millions, and through the trade of the exclusive demonkin slaves, his Empire had gained immeasurable wealth and power, enough that he felt confident that he could easily take out the Azure kingdom without leaving himself open to retaliation from Their allies in the north.

It wouldn't be long before he could start challenging the Conglomerate, even. But that symbol remained firmly lodged inside his mind.

This crisis was far more severe than anything the Empire had previously faced.

”Myria, request the aid of the tower. Call for a war council, Code red. Meeting in the council hall. Anyone who doesn't attend will be considered a traitor to the Empire. Send out an official announcement.”