Chapter 26 - Before the meeting

The young man bowed.

"O great spirit. May I inquire? Are you the former guardian spirit of the Barford Empire?" He asked and put down the book.

Liam, caught off guard, thought for a few moments before he said some words to the girl.

She then repeated word for word to the young man.

"I understand. We believe that a great cataclysm forced the invading force away, but at the cost of almost all life." He said and opened the book.

"This is a copy of the 10 surviving books that confirmed the existence of something beyond our times."

He said and opened the book. Pages in black and white appeared and depicted tales of a thriving civilization before a great enemy appeared and destroyed them all.

A bunch of memories flooded inside. He tried to ignore them as his face twitched in silence.

So foreign and yet a feeling remained inside. If he dared, he'd know everything of what happened that day.

He asked them about the situation about this world for a bit before he retired.

The next day the young man came again with a bunch of strongmen.

In the next 3 days, they built a simple shack and some fences, before the strongmen retired.

The young man moved in. From time to time, the young girl came and played around while looking at a certain spot from time to time.

On day 4th, Liam could communicate with the young man just fine.

He looked at him.

His features held some semblance to the young girl. He looked quite dashing with a stoic expression, short black hair, and a brown crystal between his eyebrows.

Liam learned quite a lot about him.

Terran, a rare talent from the countryside. He joined the elemental church at a young age and received a lot of attention.

The church caught him off guard.

Terran said that the entire church worshiped spirits that worshiped their God.

No one knew who or what the God looked like. The spirits always said one thing.

That if the God falls, the end is inevitable.

To fight off the intruder. The spirits realised that they couldn't do it alone.

And to help them. Their God gave humans a gift when he recreated them.

The crystal above their eyebrows. It held infinite possibilities, and yet not even the spirits knew much about it.

Over the years, as the people developed fast under the guidance of the spirits.

A religion sprouted up.

Terran, although talented, didn't have much access and didn't know a lot.

He knew that the church of five elements gave humans and spirits a great fighting chance at defending against the enemy and strengthened the barrier.

Right now, the entire world looked the same as the drawn map of the era before the cataclysm.

With the exception of the now free parts of the world.

Liam observed it for a bit before he returned to his own stuff.

Terran living here provided him with a lot of information, but that ended there.

He couldn't give him anything tangible just yet.

Their power growth also depended on the spirits. People in the surroundings would send a signal through prayer.

When a spirit appeared, people would send some of their stored energy.

If the spirit comes out victorious and returns. Energy gained from outer space gets distributed back to them.

The more you give, the more you stand to lose or gain. A technique which paved the way to fast growth.

All parties benefited immensely. Other options existed as well.

People could try to absorb the surrounding compatible mana. A large part of elites worked on it for over a century already.

However, the potential and limit never exceeded anything useful.

Until they found the ruins of a base in the North East of the central continent. Like a floodgate, people learned a lot.

Something existed before.

With it came the existence called Morpheus. Magical being akin to spirits that single-handedly moved the entire human race by thousands of years ahead.

People believed that if they found him. They might be able to get it to improve their techniques.

"Our leading theory about the cataclysm showed that the cataclysm targeted the intruder and not all life. Therefore, that based hidden away managed to survive with minimal damage." Terran said.

Liam told him that he might have some ideas. However, he needed resources and manpower.

Of course, Terran had nowhere near enough authority for this. He admitted that he had already contacted the headquarters.

In a month or two, they might arrive. Then, the real negotiations would begin.

Liam returned to his experimenting. The little girl Alice gave him one concrete evidence.

Mana that he gathered actually existed. It had the power to influence the world.

That in itself gave him good news. Moreover, he observed their crystals on their heads.

Terran had a much more condensed and stable light inside than Alice.

If he grasped the fundamental reason for their growth inside their crystals, then he might be able to condense a core of sorts as well.

Liam also held some confidence in the mana liquid he created. Such a process Terran never heard about.

Time passed by and a month flew by.

Terran didn't do much during this time except reading various books.

Liam had grasped some knowledge of the current language and kept creating more mana liquid.

Instead of wasting time on random experiments. He'd get an answer pretty fast when they arrived.

Sure enough, a month and a half later, they arrived.

Terran looked at the sky as the sky seemed to lose colour for a moment. Then, a bright flash blinded everything.

Once the light subsided. 3 people stood in the sky as if standing on solid ground.

Terran squinted his eyes as he barely made out their figures.

The group looked down, and with one motion, appeared above Terran.

"Terran greets the 3 elders." He said and put one knee on the ground.

1 middle-aged man and 2 women as if in their twenties at most.

The man had a unique-looking crystal. Half of it bright red and other light blue, it sometimes flashed as if fighting with each other, but the man seemingly ignored it.

The other two women were much less majestic.

One had a crystal filled with bright and at a first glance shallow light green crystal.

The second one is the second opposite. Without looking properly, one would think the crystal became black.

Instead, a deep, enigmatic blue hid inside the crystal. Waiting for the moment to shine with an incredible light.

Liam then noticed something incredible. When the connection began to grow.

All of them flinched. No one noticed, but he knew that their bodies must have reacted to his skill.

Liam clicked his tongue and decided to play around with the skill more now that mana existed.

He might receive a pleasant surprise after all.

Terran welcomed them and became their entourage, explaining and doing anything they wanted.

They decided to wait until Liam established a connection with them.

Some things that they would like to discuss with the spirit might be out of his current level.

Of course, first they had to probe the spirit a bit. It wouldn't be nice if some kind of demon broke its way into the world and pretended to be someone important.

"Oh~ I am first! Name's Blythe, pleasure to meet ya! Young, beautiful and waiting for a suitor~." Said the woman with a bright green light.

"You guys used to do this, right? Salutations general!" She said and saluted with a cheeky smile.

She became the person he had the greatest affinity with so far. Just one hour and Liam established a proper connection.

The second connection came 2 days later.

"Spirit of the past era, pleasure to meet you. I go by the name Talia Lake." She said in one concise shot.

5 days later came the third and final connection needed to begin the entire process.

Although it could have started with just one elder. The other two refused to be left out.

Especially the man.

"I am called Akand Brimstone. I hope that our cooperation ends in a fruitful end." He said.

"Liam right? Don't get fooled by his name! Wait, you probably don't know what it means yet. Hehe~ he may look like a calm brick, but whenever he's fighting, he explodes like a volcano!

Also, what's up with his name? Brimstone? Seriously? That's like the lamest family name ever! When I become a title holder, I'll name myself something cool and exciting!" Said a voice in one breath as she appeared out of nowhere.

When she heard Akand introduce himself. She couldn't help it.

Looking at that expression must have been worth it as she held back her laugh.

By now, Akand looked quite stoic. Except for the mana crystal on his forehead.

Before, the two colours remained in an equilibrium. Now, the fire almost engulfed the ice and threatened to burst out.

"Jeez~ can you chill? It's just a joke~." She said and vanished a second later to escape his wrath.

He heaved a sigh, and the crystal returned to its original position.

"I apologise." He said, called Blythe back and summoned Talia.

Liam looked at the three. Blythe had a much more solemn expression, though he felt a bit of unwillingness from deep within.