Shades of the New World

Just as they were enjoying their free time, Elina knocked on Evin's door.

Evin floated towards the door, a form of training for his flying skills.

"What happened?" Evin asked, it shouldn't be dinner time, as it was still the afternoon.

"Some people are asking for you outside at the backdoor. I think they're Easterners," Elina explained.

"What? What need would they have from me?"

"I don't know, I wanted to direct them to the bakery, but they told me to tell you that they were mages, and would like to discuss some things with you"

Evin glanced at Rith, to see if she knew something, but was only met with a flat stare from the latter.

'Fucking Cosmic Professionalism…' Evin cursed.

"I'll go meet them, then, Elina, please prepare some snacks and drinks at the table," he asked and went to walk down the stairs.

Reaching the door and opening it, he was met with three dark-skinned individuals, wearing white robes and all carrying a bag on their waists. All of them had shaved their heads, with some piercings decorating their faces. The man in the middle was donning golden piercings, so perhaps he was the leader of the group. He was about to say something to him, but Evin interrupted him.

"Please enter," Evin invited them, and the three unhurriedly followed after him.

They sat at the living room table, and Elina soon brought some a teacup with some buns.

After she left the room, Evin introduced himself.

"My name is Eviendra, but people call me Evin for short. I heard you wanted to meet me. May I ask why?"

"What a polite Child. My name is Elashin Orveth. We were visiting your family's bakery and heard him talk about you being a Child of the Empress. Our curiosity was ignited, so we decided to meet you and offer you some opportunities," explained Elashin in the Imperial language, with a hard accent that Evin guessed was an eastern one.

"I'm definitely glad that I warrant such attention. Please tell me more about your offer," Evin had no beef with the Easterners, so he did not mind listening to their offer.

"First, we'd like to tell you about some things. You must have heard about the Varas'hati Empire, yes?"

"Of course, who in this World doesn't know about the name of your Empire," Evin replied in a polite tone.

As the two were talking, Elashin's subordinates calmly sipped their tea and enjoyed the delicacies on the table. Clearly not interested in the conversation. And as far as Evin could tell, the two regarded their superior below themselves, only following his orders because they were forced to. Their superior, on the other hand, seemed to not mind it, only concentrating on completing their job successfully.

"Yes, and our Varas'hati Empire has begun our work in the new religion of Ascendants,"

"Ascendants? please tell me more about it"

"Of course. You must know that in the world of Alvox, where the Empress resides, it is not that practical to create a religion. But our Varas'hati Empire believes that there are more individuals that are at least strong as, or even stronger than our Empress. They all must have their divine kingdoms, where they rule over their mortal civilizations, but for some reason, our Empress does not allow us, citizens of Alvox, to meet such civilizations," Elashin explained with fervor.

"Oh, and why would she do that?" Evin asked, feeling that the words of the man might have some semblance of truth. He himself came from another World after all.

"Because she is afraid, my dear Child. She is afraid that when we, citizens of Alvox, meet such ascendants, we would prefer them over an Empress that shows no care towards her people. She is afraid that those stronger than her would take over her rule, to grant us mortals a chance to see exactly what kind of treatment we were missing under the rule of the Empress," Elashin said.

'Now I understand why his subordinates don't respect him, they feel he is a madman'

But he knew a bit more than them with his reincarnation and everything, so did not share their contempt for Elashin.

"Go on," Evin said, genuinely interested in the information.

"And what do you think are the benefits of falling under the wings of stronger deities? Our religious leader says that our technological and magical prowess would become better by leaps and bounds, leaving behind our primitive lifestyle. As you must know, knowledge of matters is the most important thing for mages. If you know the scientific reasons for why some phenomena happen in the World, you can easily replicate them with the Worlds. Our leader explains that the citizens of those other Worlds, have a much better understanding of the World compared to us. If we are able to access that knowledge, who knows what glorious abilities we can derive from it? Perhaps we could even derive the usage of the World of Time?" Elashin ended his passionate speech with an obvious bait in the end.

'This guy sounds so sure of the matter. I'm guessing that one person from a World with such a god reincarnated upon Alvox at some point,' Evin guessed. He always wondered if there were other reincarnators who fell upon The Empire from other worlds like himself.

"Interesting religion. But tell me, what does that have to do with me?" Evin asked.

"Because, my dear Child, I wish for you to leave this backward town and follow us back to the East. We will be able to show you exactly what you are missing," Elashin said confidently.

"You can't expect someone to follow you just because you asked them to, right? What do you have to offer me?" Evin asked, surprised with Elashin's confidence.

"Of course. We will offer you the best instructors for your foundation, and we will not be frugal with the resources you might need. Whatever resources you may have found here, we will be sure to have more of it for you. Our empire's love for the Children are not falsehoods," Elashin continued.

"What kind of resources would they be?"

"Well, my Child, the most basic resources would be, needless to say, lodestones, gold, magical devices and manpower. After which, you might be allowed access to weapons and armor of your choice, Core Shards, tamable World Sprites and even fully intact World Cores! But the most important piece of resource that you might want would be insights to our racial abilities," Elashin smirked.

Evin did find the matter quite alluring. He heard about World Cores and Core Shards, but he did not know what a World Sprite was. He guessed that since Elashin said they were tamable; it must mean they're living beings.

Evin was thinking about these things, but did not show anything different on his face.

"Oh, your invincibility… That is quite interesting. What kind of restrictions will you impose upon me for your resources?" Evin asked.

"You will be asked to swear fealty to the Religion of Ascendants. To never betray them and their interests," Elashin said smilingly.

Evin found it interesting that he wouldn't have Evin swear fealty to the Varas'hati Empire. Elashin seemed more and more suspicious to Evin.

"It is very interesting. By the way, what were you doing here? All the way at the North-Western Corner of our Kingdom?" Evin wanted to ask for some info, before concluding the conversation.

"We were searching for a lost artifact of our Empire. It is supposed to be a weapon, perhaps a sword or a spear… Our Empire was searching for it for quite a long time, but we finally received a hint that it might be around this area. We are currently gathering information around this area, so we have an idea of where to search for it," Elashin replied earnestly.

"Is that so?" Evin found that he did not find the matter interesting, and he also realized that the man could be lying about it. But since he didn't lose anything for asking, he did not mind.

"I will think about the matter more before deciding. But for now, I don't have any interest in your methods. I don't lack resources, so the only thing I'm interested in is your racial ability, which is not enough to make me jump ship. Sorry for your time," Evin politely declined.