"Paneria?" Raghav lowered his head, lifting his eyebrows as confusion took over his face. The King noticed his expressions and nodded. "Yes, this planet is Paneria; it seems you are unfamiliar with the term." Raghav nodded as he leaned back. "My planet is called Earth."
The King blinked as he heard the name. "That is a beautiful name, Earth. May I ask a question? It has been bothering me for some time." Raghav extended his hand towards the king, gesturing him to ask his question. "How are you so calm? From the moment you entered this room, I sensed no fear, no anger from you. I was expecting you to lash out at us for ripping you out from your world and stealing your life. If not, I had imagined you would be afraid to lose your life."
The King stared at the man who sat opposite of him; Raghav blankly stared into the King's eyes before the right side of his lips curled up. "What would either of those emotions get me? Anger would most likely end with me receiving the same treatment as the man in the throne room, thrown in a cell. Beside I would feel angry if I had anything of value that got left behind on Earth. All the things that I hold dear came with me."
Raghav stopped to take a sip of water, letting the words sink in. "As for why, I do not fear for my life. Fearing won't change anything." The King could not fully understand the meaning behind those words as he leaned forward. "What?"
Raghav leaned back, regaining his seriousness. "Everyone dies, whether it be today, tomorrow, even right now; no one knows how long they will live, but one thing is certain, everyone dies. So tell me, is there any point in being afraid of dying? it is inevitable. A person should try to save himself when his life is in danger; I do not deny that; but fearing for your our life is not something we should do."
Everyone in the room was left speechless upon hearing those words. Until the King swallowed the saliva forming in his mouth. "I am at a loss for words to describe what I feel hearing your words."
Raghav chuckled as he leaned forward, gently stretching his hand towards the King, Observing Reinhardt. He placed his hand on the King's shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "Forget about it; tell me more about Paneria. Do you have a map of the planet? It would help me understand the world better?"
The King blinked, gathering himself as he looked at Vaughn. Who understood the King's wish and went out of the room. The King looked back at Raghav as he wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. "It is on its way."
Raghav nodded as he stood up, walking up to Reinhardt and stretched his hand out towards him. "I believe I did not get the pleasure of learning your name. You are a knight, yes?"
Reinhardt looked down at the man before him; there must have been a height difference of four inches even if Reinhardt took off his helmet.
He surveyed the man standing before him before taking his hand and shaking it. "I am Reinhardt, the captain of the Royal Guards. It is a pleasure to meet you, Raghav Suryanshi."
Raghav chuckled as he looked back at the King. "He got my last name correct in one meeting; I am impressed."
Raghav then moved and bowed slightly in front of the queen. "I am sorry, I did not do this earlier, Mam."
He then stood up and turned to look at Aurelia, gently lowered his head. "Thank you for guarding me in the throne room. May I know your name?"
Aurelia smiled just as she did in the main hall. "No need to thank me, Sir Raghav. My name is Aurelia Reid, the daughter of King Belreid and Queen Anessa Reid."
Raghav looked up before turning to the King. "Is Reid your family name?"
The King nodded as Raghav got more confused. "But your name is Belreid, its one word; should it not be Bel Reid if Reid is the family name?"
The King gently shook his head as Raghav returned to his seat waiting for the King's explanation. "In our lineage, the males have the name Reid as a part of their birth name, and so my name is Belreid."
Raghav nodded as he now understood the reason behind the name as Vaughn returned to the room with two scrolls and laid them on the table. The king gestured at Vaughn. "This is our Prime Minister, Vaughn Denley Bonre."
Raghav nodded as he and Vaughn looked at one another before he turned to look at the map. He opened the larger scroll and spread it across the table.
.
.
.
His expression twisted to a confused one as he looked at the map. "The world is completely different from mine. If my hunch is correct, we are here, yes?" He then pointed to the word Rine written on the map as he looked at the King for approval, who simply nodded.
Raghav then moved his fingers a bit towards north and stopped on the word THE FOG. "What is that?"
The King looked at the word as he sighed. "On the northern end of our planet, exists a gigantic fog that does not allow anyone to enter it. That is not the only strange phenomenon in our world." He then grabbed Raghav's finger and guided it to the word THE HOLE at the bottom.
"On the Southern end of our world exists a gigantic hole; it also does not allow anyone to enter it. All we see is darkness."
Raghav retreated his finger as he looked at the map in its entirety. He then looked at the king. "So this is the entire planet." "No."
Raghav looked back at the King in shock. "There's more?"
The King nodded as he placed a hand on the map. "This is only half our planet; the other half is not added to any maps because of being a vast, empty ocean."
Raghav looked down at the map. 'This is half; this already seems bigger than Earth.' He then looked forward at the King as he saw sadness in the King's eye. "Something you want to tell?"
The King looked Raghav in the eye before looking down and shaking his head. "No, there is nothing."
Raghav nodded as he observed the rest of the map. 'The Istreid, Arenithis, Abyssara, Solara, Haringdom, Eldrathis, Kharundar, Vornathis, Xalath. In total, there are nine kingdoms spread across four continents. The continents themselves are pretty interesting as well. Wait a minute!'
Raghav looked at the King as he placed a finger on the Long continent. "If what you say is true that this is half the planet and the other side is nothing but ocean, then that would mean that the long continent is a key part of the world's trade. Yes?" The king nodded as he smiled. "You are smart, I will give you that, because of the long distance the people of the Estria and Astralith Continent prefer to travel through the Long continent to save time, they have to pay increased taxes to pass through Abyssara Kingdom but it is still far better than travelling 129,000 Km of Empty Ocean."
Raghav stood up from his seat, placing both hands on the table. "Excuse me, WHAT? 129,000 Km of ocean? How big is this planet?" Everyone looked at Raghav as he looked back at them, regaining his composure as he sat down.
The king smiled. "I take it that your planet is smaller than ours?" Raghav nodded, pulling out a map of earth from his packet as he placed it on the table. "This is my world at its widest; the circumference is 40,000 km." The King formed a puzzled expression. "Widest? Is your planet not a perfect sphere?" "Yours is?" The King nodded as Raghav stared at him. "My planet is wider, in the middle, then it is at the top and bottom." Raghav looked up at the King. "How long is a kilometer here?" "One thousand meters. On yours?" "Same as yours. Is this a meter in your world?"
Raghav then pulled out a measuring tape from his pocket and pulled it out until he reached the one meter mark. Everyone looked at the measuring tape as Aurelia pulled out her sword and aligned the blade with the measuring tape.
Once she confirmed the length, she sheathed her blade. "It is a meter in our world as well." Raghav let go of the tape as it reeled back in. "I see."
Raghav placed the measuring tape back in his pockets. The king looked at him, taking back the map as well. "Do you always carry these items with you?"
Raghav shook his head. "Yes, I had them in my bag, the one tied to the bike. I took them out and brought them with me since I wanted to know the basics of this world, such as its structure, measurements and other things. But I guess we can leave that for later. Right now, I am more curious about Mana."
King Belreid stood up from his seat as Raghav followed his lead. "A demonstration would help you understand better. Anessa, you stay here and rest."
Queen Anessa nodded as she looked at Reinhardt. "Keep your king safe." Reinhardt placed a hand on his chest, looking at the Queen. "With my life."
Then, the King, Aurelia, Raghav, Reinhardt and Vaughn left the room.
Walking through the corridor, Raghav looked at the architecture and the paintings placed on the walls. Then, as they approached a door, Raghav looked at the guards; they wore different armour as compared to Reinhardt. Theirs were black and red, compared to Reinhardt's white.
As the Door opened came an open corridor as he looked to his left he saw just how high he was. 'I must be around sixty meters high.' He then shifted his gaze to the arena separated from the castle. They walked a few more steps before turning left and crossing an arch bridge to reach the arena. Raghav stopped at the beginning of the bridge as he looked to the right. 'There is another corridor on the right; there are more ways to enter the arena, it seems.' He then crossed the bridge while looking down at the slanted roof below him.
At the opposite ends were seats meant for the spectators. The middle of those seats contained an empty section for royalty.
As they stood in the center of the arena, Raghav took notice its gigantic size. 'Even if you exclude the seats, the arena itself has a radius of forty-five meters, at the very least.'
He looked at the King. "What is the purpose of this arena?" The king grinned as he extended his hand. "For tournaments and trials by combat."
"Trials by combat?" "Yes, our founder believed a man can choose a trial by combat to save his life; he believed if it was his fate to survive he would survive but if his fate was to die, he would die."
Raghav looked at the ground as he found many marks on the ground.
The king took off his coat and turned to Raghav. "Mana is the all-encompassing energy that fuels life itself. It flows through all, but only some have a sensitivity to sense it to wield it." He stretched his hand forward as a yellowish glow appeared in his hand and soon there was a fire in his palm.
"Its applications are far and wide." As he flicked his palm, letting the fire die out and stretched his hand towards Reinhardt, pulling his sword out of its sheath and into his hands. "You can move objects with your mind by focusing your mana on it; you can create fire, water, wind currents, electricity." He then showcased the four elements by imbuing the sword with them.
He then dropped the blade to the ground as the ground cracked. "You can increase gravity, decrease it and even shift it." The sword then flew towards Reinhardt's feet as he kicked it up and placed it back.
Raghav watched all of this with narrow eyes. The king smiled as he continued. "You can also enhance your own body, protect it and your surroundings by enforcing it with Mana; you can lift more, hit harder, move faster, and you can even enhance your senses. And this does not stop to just your body; you can imbue a stick with mana and use it against a sword. Although I would suggest against it, as you would need an unprecedented amount of mana to make that stick last against someone else using mana on a sword."
Raghav nodded as he moved his tongue in his mouth. "Is that all?" The king shook his head. "No, certainly not. You can cast spells as well, but they are tricky as you have to follow certain processes to successfully perform them, they are ill suited for combat but are the most valuable aspect of Mana usage, healing magic, teleportation, transmutation, not to forget summoning."
"I can use simple spells, but not complex spells that require one to gather items, draw runes. Hence, I belong to the warrior sect."
"The warrior sect?" "Yes, people who are able to utilise Mana for combat are classified as warrior, while people who are able to perform spells are classified as mages, this distinction helps identify the person's talents and assign him a role that benefits from those talents. Although these are not fixed, as someone can qualify for both if he has enough talent in both combat and magic. Our first King Istreid was a master in both sects capable of erasing mountains with his mana blasts and skilled with summoning magic capable of summoning meteors the size of entire kingdoms."
Raghav's eyes widened in shock as he placed a hand over his mouth. "That is a terrifying amount of power." "It truly is, only a few beings on the planet possess power of that magnitude."
Raghav pondered with his hand on his chin. 'Physical enhancement, manipulation of the mana to produce fire, water, it must be by turning mana into those elements. Then comes the spells that are cast, summoning, teleporting and healing. Wait healing?"
His head shot towards the King. "You say Mana can heal, then why has your arm not been healed?" The king looked down at his arm. "The mana blast that took my arm was imbued with sacrificial magic, magic that requires a sacrifice to be made to a dark entity, who gives a portion of Chaos magic to the mage who made the sacrifice, it is impossible to heal the damage by such an attack."
Raghav looked down, processing the information.
The King sighed, looking at the twin comet in the sky as Raghav followed his gaze. "Two thousand and fifty-two years ago, King Vardenia visited the Solara Kingdom. He heard a prophecy from the sky itself."
"What was the prophecy?" The king looked at Reinhardt and Vaughn as he gritted his teeth. "After the 108th cycle of the twin comet, evil shall rise again and the world will fall under great peril. A hero would appear with the comet itself to save all that is." The king took a pause, admiring the comet. "This was the prophecy that King Vardenia told the people. This is the reason we summoned you here."
Raghav looked at everyone around as they nodded, confirming the king's word. "It was a lie."
Everyone looked at King Belreid with a shocked expression. Vaughn stepped forward, looking the king in the eyes. "What do you mean, a lie?"
King Belreid stopped looking at the comet as he looked at Raghav. "King Vardenia hid the true prophecy from the people and for two thousand and fifty-two years, this prophecy has been the closely guarded secret of the world. Only known to the Kings of the nine Kingdom"
Raghav looked at the king with narrow eyes. "Go on."
The king sighed. "The true identity of the evil is of The King of Hell. The prophecy spoke. 'Crimson shall shatter and The King in Hell shall walk among mortals once more. A war between the Divine and the Condemned shall begin till either Fall Heaven or Burn Hell.' This is the true prophecy that King Vardenia heard in Solara Kingdom."
Raghav was confused as he approached the King. "That does not speak of the Hero at all and neither the twin comet." The king placed his hand on Raghav's shoulder. "That is because the comet and the hero were added to the fake prophecy by King Istreid, who saw a vision of the future at the end of the Great War. I would have told you the original fake prophecy, but I, myself, do not know it. You can ask King Vardenia himself when you meet him."
Raghav's eyes widened as he failed to understand the words. "He is alive?" "Yes, he is an elf. They live for thousands of years."
"So…" "I believe it is getting late. We should head back to our rooms. Aurelia, please escort the Hero to his room."
The King began walking away with Reinhardt and Vaughn by his side.
Aurelia walked over to Raghav and stood beside him. "You feel it too?" Raghav looked at her and nodded. The two then walked back to the Raghav's room at the end of the royal wing.
Raghav looked at his door, then to his left, at Aurelia, who stood at the door to her room. She felt his gaze and looked at him. "Good night, Princess." He smiled at her before entering his room.
Aurelia stood there with wide eyes. 'That smile was just like Kanah's. I will have to uncover the connection between them.' She then opened her door and entered her room.
A few seconds later, the door to Raghav's room opened as he stepped out, walking into the dark corridor.