"Heh, where did you even hear that from? You got fooled by a rumor so foolish? Now leave, do not disturb this ceremony any longer." The old man said in a very annoyed voice.
"But, we have got a message directly from the headquarters. I think you should take a look at this first. We were unable to access the message." One of the men said apologetically.
"Oh? It must be a message meant for only high high-ranking official. Give it to me. Only I can read that message." Said the old man as he finally got up from the puddle of blood he was sitting on from earlier.
Taking the scroll in his hand, the ring on his finger started glowing green. When he opened the scroll, there was nothing written on the paper. However, after a few seconds, as the glow on the ring started decreasing, words started appearing on the letter.
'This is a decree for anyone currently out on the mission for the artifact. Everyone must halt their actions immediately; this is of utmost importance. It does not matter if you have yet to acquire the artifact or if you already have it. Everyone reading this must return to the headquarters immediately. We are currently in a state of emergency. Anyone ignoring this order will be deemed a traitor.
Time of the message is 3 am, everyone must be here in the headquarters by the time of noon the next day.'
'What the fuck? What is going on?' The old man wondered, as a frown was visible on his face after reading.
"Sir, is there a problem?" Asked one of the men as he started getting nervous after seeing an unusual behaviour from the old man.
"No, it's nothing. Go tell everyone, we are done here. We will be leaving this place immediately. There is no time to waste, start running." The old man said, growing a little impatient as he saw the time. He was sure that if he didn't leave immediately, he would be late. He didn't want to arrive later than the time mentioned in the scroll.
"One more thing, you stupid punks. From now on, if you get these kinds of messages, come to me immediately." The old man said.
"Yes, sir, we will keep that in mind." Said both the men. 'But, he was the one who told us not to disrupt him,' one of the men grumbled inside; however, he didn't dare to show any on the outside.
Hopefully, I won't be late. I don't even want to imagine what might happen to me if I am even a little late. Well, at least I have got the artifact that we were supposed to retrieve. I wonder if others were successful in their mission. Either way, I am going to be getting a reward for my hard work for sure.' The old man said as he fiddled with a strange-looking object in his hand.
The attack that happened in the city of Blackwater wasn't an isolated incident at all. Many places in the entire continent were attacked on that night. Some places were able to defend themself from the sudden attack, while in some places, small villages or towns fell overnight. News of these sudden attacks spread throughout the continent, and people started panicking. Everyone felt something big was about to happen.
.....
Early in the morning on the day that came after the night of mysterious attacks. Middle of a mountain range, where living seemed impossible because of the steep hills. The mountains that reached the sky were covered in thick fog, covering most of the beauty of the mountains. Among the countless mountains, a single mountain stood the tallest, and even human eyes wouldn't be able to see the peak of the mountain.
The entire mountain was filled with trees; many of the trees looked ancient, but no one knew just how long those trees had lived. However, one thing was sure: the trees were very ancient. Not just the trees, even the living beings inside the mountain were stronger. The aura around the monsters was so high, no normal human would ever dare to approach them.
The most surprising part about the mountain was that, on top of the towering mountain, there was an ancient castle. The design of the castle looked like something out of a fantasy movie. The entire castle was built around a huge tree; it seemed like the sole purpose of the castle being near the tree was to protect the tree itself.
The castle itself was green in color, although the castle was gigantic and stood towering on top of the mountain. The castle was sorely unable to hide the greatness of the tree that the castle was surrounded it. However, it didn't even seem like the castle was trying to hide the beauty of the tree; instead, it felt more like the castle itself was trying to be a part of the tree. If anyone was looking at the castle from a very distant away, they would be unable to differentiate between the tree and the castle; they would only be able to see a giant tree in the distance.
Inside the castle, many people seemed to be working. Some were cleaning the floor, some cooked food, some washed the dishes, while some meditated. All of them were doing odd jobs around the castle, and everyone wore different clothes. Everything about the people inside the castle seemed different; however, 2 things were the same between all of them.
First thing was that all of them gave off a very strong aura; anyone weak if they were to walk up to them, they would instantly feel suffocated because of the spiritual pressure they were giving off while doing just normal things. While some of them had scars all over their body, some had none; that didn't mean that some were weak and some were strong, all of them seemed to be equally matched.
Secondly, the most bizarre and shocking similarity between them was that all of them had long and pointy ears. Their ears were completely different from those of humans, and even their faces resembled those of angels, as they were so beautiful. Even scars weren't able to hide their beauty at all.
Most of the people in the castle seemed quite busy doing odd jobs around the castle. There was an elderly man who was seated in a lotus position inside a garden, and the garden was at the foot of a tree. The garden looked surreal; the entire area that the garden covered was very vast. The entirety of the garden contained countless varieties of plants, and many fruits and flowers were growing in the garden. If anyone saw the fruits, no one would have been able to resist the temptation to pick them for themselves. However, an elderly man with the same pointed ears was seated in the garden, meditating, his expression made it seem like he was totally unaware of the surrounding area he was currently in.
The elderly were facing towards the giant tree, the garden was growing around the tree, and it seemed like the tree itself was providing the nutrients for the garden.
The entire atmosphere inside the garden seemed surreal as only the sound of birds and insects was audible. However, that peace was soon broken as the sounds of footsteps were heard all of a sudden.