Julian nodded, impressed by how quickly his daughters had recovered their focus despite the emotional trauma they just experienced.
But even as he began to plan their next move, Chronovax’s final words echoed in his mind, impossible to ignore.
You will lose everything, one by one. Fate itself is opposed to your existence.
Julian pushed the thought aside. He would deal with fate when it ca for him. Right now, he had daughters to protect and a mystery to solve.
"Co," he said, gesturing toward the east, where Cassandra had sensed the distant settlent. "We have work to do."
He closed his eyes, focusing his energy. "We’ll teleport to the outskirts. Hold onto ."
His three daughters imdiately moved closer, each placing a hand on his shoulders or arms.
Reality rippled, and in an instant, they vanished from the vast green grounds. They reappeared on a small hill overlooking what appeared to be a settlent. Julian’s eyes imdiately began scanning the area, taking in details.
The first thing he noticed was that this was so sort of noble estate. But weirdly, it was dium-sized, nothing like the grand cities he rembered from the Ares Kingdom.
The second thing he noticed, with growing confusion, was the building structure.
"This is... dieval," Julian muttered, his brow furrowing in confusion. Despite being a noble estate, the structures here were strangely primitive compared to what he rembered.
The Ares Kingdom was far more advanced. This looked like it had been pulled from a history book, from an era hundreds of years in the past.
"Father?" Seraphine asked, noting his confusion. "What’s wrong?"
"The architecture," Julian replied quietly. "It’s wrong. This should be more advanced. Unless..."
He focused his vision, using a small amount of mana to enhance his sight, and looked toward what appeared to be the entrance to the settlent. There was a small gate, guarded by two figures in simple armor.
And then Julian saw the people moving through the gate, and his entire world tilted.
"Elves," he whispered, shock evident in his voice.
His eyes had fallen on one particular figure—a woman with hair the color of moonlight, so white it was almost silver. Her face was ethereally beautiful, with features too perfect to be human. And her ears were long... gracefully pointed ears.
She was an elf. A real, living elf.
"Father, look there," Seraphine said, pointing to another area near the gate.
Julian’s gaze shifted, and his shock deepened.
Beastn. Real beastn.
One had the body of a lion—not a hybrid like so of the creatures in his Throne of Gods, but a fully evolved being. It walked upright on two powerful legs, its body covered in golden fur. It wore clothing—actual tailored clothing designed for its unique physique—and carried tools like any craftsman.
Another was clearly wolf-based, with gray fur and amber eyes, speaking cheerfully with a human rchant.
A third appeared to be so kind of bird person.
These creatures were different from anything in his own world. They weren’t awkward hybrids or experints. These were proper, fully evolved species—as natural as humans were.
"What kind of place is this?" Lyanna whispered, her eyes wide with wonder. "Father, I’ve never seen creatures like this in any of the records from our world."
Cassandra was equally amazed. "They’re so... normal. They’re just living their lives like anyone else. Trading, talking, working."
Julian’s mind was racing, and suddenly a thought ford in his mind.
The dieval architecture.
The presence of elves and beastn.
The fact that he didn’t recognize this place despite having proper knowledge of the original world... ant...
"This is not the Ares Kingdom," Julian said slowly.
His daughters turned to him sharply.
"What?" Seraphine asked. "But Father, you said we were returning to your original world. Where you died."
"We are in my original world," Julian confird, his voice distant as mories surfaced. "But this is not the Ares Kingdom. This is... this is the Hers Kingdom."
The three daughters looked at him blankly, the na aning nothing to them.
Julian’s expression was troubled as he continued, speaking more to himself than to them.
"The Hers Kingdom. The kingdom that closed its gates and never had any diplomacy with any other kingdom. No trade, no communication, no contact of any kind."
He paused, staring at the settlent below.
"In the Ares Kingdom, we knew it existed—it was on our maps, and our nobles spoke of it in histories. But nobody had been there in living mory. Nobody knew what happened inside its borders. It was completely sealed off from the rest of the world."
"Why?" Lyanna asked. "Why would an entire kingdom isolate itself like that?"
"Nobody knew," Julian replied. "There were theories, of course. So said they were protecting ancient secrets. Others claid they had discovered magic too dangerous to share. So believed they had made contact with beings from other realms and were studying them in secret."
He gestured toward the elves and beastn moving through the settlent below.
"Looking at this now, I’d say at least so of those theories were correct. The Ares Kingdom had no elves, no true beastn like these. These species don’t exist in the rest of this world."
Seraphine’s sharp mind was already working through his words. "So the Hers Kingdom sealed itself off because it had non-human populations? That seems... extre."
"Unless there was more to it," Julian said thoughtfully. "Unless the presence of these species was connected to sothing larger. Sothing that required isolation to protect—or to hide."
Cassandra spoke up, her voice uncertain. "Father, if you died in the Ares Kingdom, why did we erge here? Shouldn’t the portal have brought us back to where you originally were?"
That was an excellent question, and Julian didn’t have a good answer.
"I don’t know," he admitted. "The portal should have brought us to the Ares Kingdom, to familiar territory. But instead we’re here, in a place I’ve never been."
A terrible thought occurred to him.
"Unless..." he started slowly. "Unless this is where Death’s servant is."
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