Alexander felt a sense of fear as the voice reached his ears. It was smooth, stiff and, more than anything, haunting. Ketovan moved in front of him, like guarding a child. A light green tinted transparent spere covered both of them as Ketovan faced the owner of the voice.
"Bishop Kinley. What a pleasure!" Ketovan said. His voice hinted at many things — fear, anger and many not so good ones.
"I see you reached the threshold level, boy," the voice said.
When Alex turned there, he saw a woman roughly 5 feet in height. She had an athletic body; her hair was a sea of crimson ocean behind her. She was wearing the same type of clothes as Renald, but the purple and gold switched with red and white. It is not clear, but some kind of crest was imprinted on the backside of her attire. A black belt was shut tight around her waist, and a small dagger was held onto it.
"Yes, Bishop Kinley. Luck was at my side, helping me to advance," Ketovan said, his hands instinctively reaching his long sword on his back.
"don't get worked on Motsari," the woman said. "Heard your brother is coming?"
"Yes, Bishop Kinley. Vincent is arriving in a week." Ketovan said.
"Got any boons yet?" the woman asked
"One from my god. It called domain of the eternal ruler," he said. "I found nothing in the scriptures of hegemon. I was about to reach out to the Church of the Wizard today, and here you are," Ketovan said
"Good, meet me once after your job with Renald is complete," she said, taking two steps front.
Alex started to feel uncomfortable; it was like some hand was reaching into his mind and pulling out things, memories, emotions and fears. They took out things, looked at them for some time and then replaced them.
Ketovan created another layer of a sphere, this time a blue one, over the existing green one. Suddenly the discomfort vanished, and Alex eased.
"Pull that thing down," the woman orders.
"Bishop Kinley. Irritating or harming Alexander will not be taken easily by the Church of the Hegemon. He is a user of the core of hegemony." Ketovan said, pulling up another barrier against it again.
The woman had her patience. In the blink of an eye, she took her dagger out and then disappeared into thin air. After a time frame so small that even millisecond is large, she was standing back of Ketovan. Her dagger was pointed at Alex's neck, its dark read blade already reminding Alex what its color even after it slit his throat. The spheres Ketovan pulled up broke like tissues and there Ketovan stood unknown than the woman was behind him, thoughts away from killing his companion for at least the next century.
"Got some nerves boy, stopping me at your rank is like avoiding breathing. I am no orc or soulless beast to be stopped by a mere commander ranker when myself am at the upper echelons of noble rank," she said, revealing her position.
"Leave him, Kat." a voice came from the side. It was familiar but lacked the tint of excitement and softness it had. It was Renald walking near them, his wand was still rested around his belt, its purple wood shimmered with gold glinting in the clear sky ' sunlight.
The woman backed away not even thinking twice and moved towards Renald to stand face to face with him. She was the taller one, but anyone with mana eyes could see what was going between their silent eye matches.
Behind Renald was a giant, dragon-like bird, the creature is so big that it can swallow the Sun to explain the occurrence of eclipses. It has a beak of steel, and its claws too are of steel. His eyes are mirrors, and each single feather is a sharp sword. It journeys and haunts again, lurking under the earth. Behind the woman was a Sphinx. It looked the quite opposite of Renald's aura beast, with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle.
Alex instantly activated his vision skill, all seeing eyes. His eyes turned black with streams of gold and silver flowing int the black. His mind adapted fast. Everything was black except for the gold light that came out of Ketovan, Renald and the woman who he believed was the local bishop at the church of a conceptual being called wizard.
The bird and the sphinx roared at each other but never clashed. The woman knew her chance of survival was minimal if Renald let his golem army free over her, and Renald knew it was not advised to attack a bishop of another church outside a holy war.
They both moved back and eased up.
"It was a pleasure." Renald said
"Same here, Ren," the woman said and disappeared into thin air.
"Who was she?" Alex asked.
"Katerine Kinley, the riddle empress. She is the local bishop of the church of wizards for 45 years. Noble rank lv 89. One of the top contenders for the first royal ranker from this city in 500 years." Renald said, pulling his aura beast back.
***************
Mira Diva was sitting in her tree house. It was less of a house and more of a villa built over the largest tree in the forest. It had been 2000 years since their city fell. Her father escorted their people to a safe location that was unknown to their attacker.
She was still normal rank. Her larger pale green eyes matched her hair and several veins shaped tattoo over her body. She looked like 9-year-old girl. She wore a deep green and white frock.
Like her everyday routine, she woke up and gazed at the vast view that her room balcony provided her. She started her day by watching the haunting view their last home gave her. The trees burnt to crisps, and the temple of the ancients standing at the very edge of it reminding what grandeur the city had once seen before falling at the hands of mere mortals.
The forest was their god. It raised them, fed them and, most importantly, protected them. It was a common mother to every forest dweller that once lived in it.
This day it was different; she woke up late, the sun shining dimly behind the clouds that covered the sky. The previous day, some had used the core of hegemony not even 400 kilometers away from the small settlement of forest dwellers. And today, the temple of the ancients was missing.
A building 3 floors above ground and unnumerable floors below was missing, leaving a deep hole inside the ground. She heard her father yelling orders at their remaining soldiers to go and look near the fallen city.
He called out to her.
"Mira!"
"Yes, father."
"Get ready we are going to Daro," he said, entering her room, patting her on the head and leaving.
She sighed, letting the tension loosen.
"It has been 2000 years and still the world feels to torment us more." She said, sighing.
***************
Alex was left speechless as he enters the campus of the Church of hegemon. It was huge and could be confused for a small village dedicated to the worship of the hegemon. 5,000 acers of pure blessed land. He could feel an odd sense of submission when he was walking on the land of the hegemon.
"This is a sizeable piece of land the city gave up for a church." Alex said
"We are one of the largest churches after all. This is a medium sized church, the main church in Skyfall," Renald said.
"We have other races other that human and their kind, right?" Alex asked, looking at a 100 feet sculpture of the hegemon.
The face was not clear; he wore long cloak with no crest. His body was stiff not out of pressure but out of duty. It indicated one thing. To have control, you need to be in control.
"Yes, 11 planets, hundreds of moons. The number of races goes up in hundreds." Renald said.
"Then why does everything seem so human bound. Everything related to humans and their kin. I have not seen at least one person from the other species in my days here." Alex asked
"You are on the human planet; you only see humans and their subspecies here. The world is a conservative's place. Major races usually tend to keep to themselves and their kin. In fact, only individuals at least royal rank are allowed to leave their planet." Ketovan said.
"There are some royal rankers in major cities working in embassies to help the royal rankers belonging to their kind who came there on a quest or as tourists." Renald said, approaching a stone arc at the far end of the church campus.
It was 14 feet in length and 6 feet in breadth. Its shone wall had the crest of the Church of the Hegemon on it. It was two feet of thick stone.
"I never thought you would use this for his first. It quite dangerous for you too," Renald said, speaking to Ketovan.
"It is his after all. He is the user of the core of hegemony. He owns it and every other one we have on every planet." Ketovan said. Alex's voice came out in an instant.
"I own what exactly?"