The capital of the Elven Empire spread across a vast expanse of land, surrounded on all sides by towering trees that stood like natural walls around the massive city. It was the centre of comrce and activity, ho to tens of millions of elves and beings of other races, all contributing to the constant movent that defined the city.
Its beauty was imdiately apparent, with buildings of all kinds, from small hos to high-rise structures, crafted from a blend of wood and stone. The city managed to rge nature and civilisation almost perfectly, with trees and greenery seamlessly integrated into its design, giving the impression that the forest and the city had grown together rather than one replacing the other.
At the centre of this tropolis stood two of the greatest symbols of the Elven Empire.
The first was the Elverston Citadel, the palace of the Elven Emperor and one of Aidos’ Transcendent Level existences, a majestic structure with towering spires, layered terraces, and intricate designs that showcased both authority and elegance, its presence alone commanding attention across the capital.
The second was the true centre of Lustea, that which the citadel had been built around.
A colossal tree rising up into the clouds, surrounded by a barrier that restrained the imnse magic power and universal law energy it constantly radiated.
The World Tree of Aidos.
Its presence alone was overwhelming, and anyone below Level 700, the minimum required to manipulate ambient law energy, wouldn’t survive if they crossed even an inch past that barrier.
The teleportation arranged for Evan’s group brought them straight into the grounds of Elverston Citadel, with its teleportation restrictions temporarily eased to permit warping directly inside.
The mont they arrived, Laurene imdiately lifted her gaze toward what she had been told about many tis and had seen in dozens of pictures.
Her Mystic Eyes of Truth, already active, looked upon the World Tree, past the barrier surrounding it and into its true nature.
"...hwwhat?"
That was the only dumbfounded sound that left her mouth as she saw the true form of the World Tree, a massive tree connected to the planet, fused with a giant snake that seed long enough to coil around the planet.
"So that’s where Lios ended up..." she muttered under her breath.
At that, Evan walked over beside her, slipping his hands into his pockets as he said, "I told you, didn’t I? It was damaged before. Now it’s been restored."
Laurene nodded quietly as she recalled Evan telling her that, and she deactivated her Mystic Eyes, a soft breath leaving her lips as she shook her head.
"I didn’t think one of the Iremiths ended up like this..."
She turned to face Evan, eting his eyes as she asked, "The damage, it wasn’t from 1000 years ago, was it?"
Evan shook his head at the question.
"It’s from an even greater war of all worlds that happened before that. The war that regressed this world’s civilisation. The damage was so severe that Lios had to fuse with it to keep it from collapsing, which would be disastrous, considering it serves as the planet’s ambient energy regulation device."
"Is that so?"
Laurene turned her attention back to the tree, tempted to activate her Mystic Eyes again, but she held herself back as Abigail, who had spent this ti giving instructions to the soldiers and castle officials who ca to receive them, turned around and spoke.
"A private eting room has been prepared, and accommodations are ready as well, so we can either proceed straight to business or take so ti to rest and handle business later."
Raising a hand toward them, she added with a smile, "The choice is yours."
At that, Evan turned to look at Eliza and Leoniel, and before he could say anything, they both spoke.
"Business."
"Business first."
He shrugged, then glanced at Laurene, who repeated the sa word, and at that, he looked back at Abigail.
"Looks like our course of action’s been decided."
"Indeed," Abigail replied, turning to look at the Imperial Mages behind her as she ordered, "Activate the door."
They nodded and moved off, while Abigail turned back to Evan’s group and gestured for them to follow.
As they walked, she began to explain.
"The Citadel is quite large, to the point that walking from one area to another isn’t ti-efficient. Because of that, we have special ’doors’ installed in certain locations that link to other parts of the castle through spatial magic.
Most of these doors remain active at all tis, drawing on ambient spatial law energy, but those that lead to the Emperor’s palace are kept inactive unless required."
Abigail led them into one of the citadel’s buildings, one that contained a circular hall with over a dozen doors arranged around it, each one glowing with condensed law energy.
Directly across from the entrance was a larger door with a more ornate design, and the mages who had hurried ahead of Abigail stood on either side, their hands on the handles as they channelled magic power into it.
When they approached, the mages opened the door, revealing a swirling portal of magic power which Abigail stepped through, with the rest of the group following behind.
They arrived in a similar hall on the other side, except that aside from the exit, which was directly opposite the door they had co through, this hall contained no other doors.
Moving through that exit, they ca upon a small grass courtyard with a fountain at its centre, and following Abigail’s lead, they entered the castle behind it before heading toward the conference drawing room that had been prepared for them.
The room contained eight identical, ornately designed sofas arranged around a central table with refreshnts set out, and seated on one of those chairs was the green, long-haired and eyed High-Elf that Evan had t in the Zeraxes Archipelago, the ’Elven Emperor’ Zaos.
All the mbers of the group, aside from Abigail and Evan, imdiately bowed and offered greetings to the Elven Empire’s sovereign ruler, only lifting their heads after being told to do so and noticing Evan already seated comfortably on Zaos’s left-hand side, while Abigail took her place on his right.
As a Marquis of the GWE, Evan’s behaviour could be seen as rude, but he simply didn’t have it in him to follow those established customs when not in public, especially when the other party was aware of his true power level.
Zaos, however, didn’t appear bothered, having already been inford by Kolvar that Evan dropped all formalities in private and only used them in public settings.
He told the others to sit, and as they did, Evan went straight to the point.
"Did you pass on my request to Lios? That I wanted to speak with him about Ashe?"
"I did," Zaos replied curtly. "He’s expecting you."
"Thanks. I’ll head to him right after we’re done here," Evan said, reaching forward to grab the wine bottle placed in front of his seat.
"You have questions for , don’t you?"
He removed the cork and began pouring a drink for himself, and at that action, Zaos watched him in silence before finally speaking.
"Kolvar ntioned you’re working on sothing you’re calling the ’Transcendent Project’. Explain."
That question caused Evan to pause for a mont, after which he set the bottle down and downed the glass of wine.
"About that..." he muttered, placing the empty glass on the table.
"Is there a problem?" Zaos asked.
"No," Evan replied, shaking his head. "I’m just considering whether I should show you certain things..."
Evan leaned back in his seat, looking up at the chandelier on the ceiling in silence as he sank into thought.
’Might as well do this and have a recording of the explanation.’
After reaching a decision, Evan blinked, and the flow of magic power sustaining the lights in the room was cut off, plunging the space into darkness.
He then tapped the table with his finger, creating an image with his hologram generation skill as he spoke.
"What I’m about to show you will likely leave all of you lost for words, but it’s necessary for you to understand the core of my project and where my confidence in its success cos from."
The hologram image turned into a video, displaying the perspective of soone observing a massive planet from a distance in space.
"These are my mories. A fragnt of sothing I witnessed when I was sent back in ti."
The mont Evan spoke, gasps filled the room as fissures spread across the planet’s surface in the hologram, resembling veins of molten light, while continent-sized fragnts of rock were hurled into space with such force that they collided with the moon and shattered it into pieces.
Before they could even process the shock of the moon’s destruction, the planet itself exploded, a colossal wave of energy expanding outward with a blast so bright it eclipsed the nearby stars for an instant.
"...what in tarnation...?" Zaos muttered, his brows deeply furrowed, and hearing him, Evan turned in his direction and said,
"Didn’t I tell you, Elven Emperor? I killed a planet."
Evan’s words echoed through the ears of everyone in the room, their eyes widened with varying degrees of shock as they watched the planet reduced to drifting fragnts of debris within the vacuum of space.
At that mont, two unfamiliar voices echoed out, one of them stirring a sense of nostalgia within Evan.
[What a waste of energy.]
[Not if I have anything to say about it.]
Evan imdiately leaned toward Eliza, who sat on his left, speaking in a low voice to her as the video continued.
"Those are Arthur and Jamie. The two I told you fought the Planet’s Incarnation with ."
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