Chapter 1 *Aldan’s Diary* —Entry 1— I almost could not believe it. Though I devoted my whole life to this cause, I never thought I would succeed. I’ve found it. The truth of this world, which none of us knew. The real reason summoned heroes have soul fragments, and what it means. I am one step closer to my ultimate goal. Though I do not have the power to do anything, I must avenge our mother. At the same time, I must not be rash in my decision. My younger siblings’ lives are at stake. For now, at least. To break out of this endless loop, I need to obtain power. Untouchable power, one unrivaled by anything else. Several theories have been said about it, but none are accurate. This does not mean I shall take this new development as a failure. Not at all. In fact, due to this new information, I know how to move on from here. My path is chock-full of danger, this is how I know I am headed in the correct direction. After all, an empty house has no guards… —Estelle—“Ugh

*Present time* —Elrand Daewynd— The halls were pleasantly empty. It must be my mother’s doing. Since the day I first escaped, the queen had been giving me more freedom to keep me nearby. It was quite astute of her. No matter how much I may have cared of any of them, there is no way I would have stayed here if I felt trapped. I might have escaped long before my Hlia. My father though…he did not quite agree on the amount of freedom given to me but the Queen’s word was final. Elven power was hereditary, making my mother higher than the King. He still had authority, just lower than the Queen. Must be tough to be in such a relationship. I shook my head and cleared my thoughts. Why though had she called for me? I’m pretty sure I abstained from my usual mischief. Surely it is not something I had done. I knocked on her door. “Enter.” I ran through all the things I may have done unconsciously. I braced myself. Every time the Queen called for me, it ended up the way. Well,

First I’m forced to come back to this place, now they want me to help them? These morons must have more than a few screws loose. I silently seethed and schooled my face. Neutrality was important, especially with mother so close. That woman had the eyes of a hawk, even the tiniest twitch of my face would be spotted before I even knew I did it. “Please, follow me.” We obeyed, and our footsteps echoed all around us. Was the castle empty? It seemed awfully deserted. Intricate patterns which seemed to glow with every step we took ran across the ceiling. Eleanor stared, mesmerized. I sighed. Figured the palace would still be intact after all this time. I can’t really blame my sister. No matter how I hate this place, even I was awed when I saw the elaborate design in which it had been built. Catholy, for whatever reason, was deep in thought, barely even observing her surroundings. Would you look at that. I never thought I would see the she dropped her guard when on duty. Q

The sound of rushing water drowned out all other sounds. Quinn strained his eyes to see past the mist covered veil at the edge of the falls, but he couldn’t make out a thing. He sighed. “Seems you like sighing nowadays. Why is that?” Quinn didn’t think his reaction was odd. In fact, Kyra was the weird one for accepting this situation so easily. Even the others were looking restless. Well, there were some who simply looked bored, but that was besides the point. Kyra, who was leading the expedition had yet to look up from the book she was reading. “How can you be so relaxed? It has been over an hour since we came here and yet, we are unable to locate what he is searching for. How sure was it to appear here?”Kyra ignored his worries, turning another page. “You doubt the commander’s power? I can tell you from experience, unless it’s something on his level of power or greater, things will happen as he said they will. I mean, predicting such a level of danger would require a lot of concent

“I’ll take the pain. Every single thing thrown my way threatens to break me down and tear me apart. Yes, even through the chaos of hell, I won’t give up my faith.”—OrionElsewhere…In a place seemingly everywhere and nowhere all at once, white was the only visible color. Arranged in seemingly endless rows, strange devices with large glass cases attached in the middle were lined up, each emitting an eerie light. The cases were filled with some sort of clear liquid and within them were humanoid beings.At the moment, only a few appeared to be functional. They resembled hibernation capsules a renowned researcher had invented, but these were vastly different. And while the beings inside were indeed in hibernation, most of them looked more dead than alive. The contraptions purpose was to keep the bodies in suspended animation, but perhaps due to some malfunction, many of bodies held within were already decomposing. These devices were visible as far as the eye could see. In total