Chapter 1: Evrhaln

The kindgom of Altia stretched from the vast mountain ranges of Ashtar to the coastal region of Pendrake. The second largest in area, the kingdom fell short behind only the Erubian empire, but even then there was not much of a difference. The two huge nations where seperated by just a stretch of mountains, the locals called it Var-gatium or the seat of gods, but it was more popularly know as the the Great Barrier. The name had a thousand year long history to it.

The continent of Evrhaln, which means Ever Prospering, was a strange one. If the people there had a satellite and knew English, they would without a doublt call the continent a C shaped land mass. While it wasn't an exact C, any earthling would have a huge urge it to call it so. And this C shape continent is actually split into two parts and the only thing that connects these two huge land masses is Var-gatium.

Var-gatium, the seat of gods, was not something that always been there. Before a thousand years ago, the continet of Evrhaln did not have a mountain range in between itself, infact it was not even a single continent. Long before there existend the kindgom of Altia or the Erubian empire, was the time of the Ishtars. Ishtars of the north, the red skinned people who lived like nomads and the Ishtars of the south, dark skinned people who lead a more civilized life. The north called itself Ishvakar, meaning the land of Isha while the south called itself Ishlak, which meant the children of Isha. Both people followed the teaching of the goddess Isha, the one who creates, and considered themselves the direct descendants of the goddess. As for the truth to that matter, that is for another time.

Neither of the people wanted to acknowledge the other party, which, need not to say, led to skirmishes. On the year 2319, war broke out between the two people. The Ishvakars, for the first time had united under their hero, Erub Bor and had marched in millions to settle score once and for all. The council of Ishtar too proclaimed war and send their massive army. But the two did not confront each either immediately, fact is, they could not even if they wanted to.

The Freinan Independent Islands, a cluster of three massive islands and numerous smaller islands, boasting a combined population and military similar to the southern Ishtarians, was situated between the two Ishtar halves. Frei, the goddess of life, had found her way to the of the people of Freina. Almost all of the people lived in the massive central islands, while the other much smaller islands had hardly any civilization. The islands were surrounded by the waters of Bergol, a massive salt water body which stretched a few thousand kilometers. Bergol was the passage that connected Evrhaln's two mighty oceans but was much shallower and full of life. As if to justify the name, the islands were beautiful, lush, paradises. The people believed that their goddess was always looking after them and so it was their duty to look after the nature which was the goddess' blessing. It might have been this thought process that led to the rise of a nation that had found the perfect harmony between science and magic. Historians later claimed that this rise was mainly the result of the magi, a new class of people that were proficient in various sciences as well the mysteries of magic. The brightest magi had come together to develop technologies that had flipped the world outside down for the people of Freina. Life flourished, economies rose, goverments were setup, proper military, education system. The magi had spearheaded various projects which had soon led to the establishment of the Freinan Independence. In the span of few decades, they propelled themselves from a cluster of beautiful islands to a power that could rival any in the continent. They had even developed magic guns and cannons, even laser guns were a dream not too far.

And so when the two rivalves had decided that it was time to settle the score between themselves, they did not expect a tertiary power to stop them. Both sides of Ishtar were dumbsturck when the leaders of either side had a sudden visit from Freinan ambassadors. The two could not believe that a new nation had propped itself up while they were not looking. In a rage, the council ordered the ambassadors executed and then declared war against Freina. But the military might of Ishlak were rendered futile infront by the magi. Ishlak was terror struck, the council was in a disarray. The thought that their elites could not even a lift a finger on the magi left a deep wound in them. The Ishlak soon went to a long period of slumber, cutting of any little contact it had with the outside world. The Ishvakars on the other hand had extended a friendly hand towards the ambassadors. The hero Erub had welcomed the ambassadors with open hands and his attitude did not change even when the ambassadors introduced themselves as magis. Lores say that he was elated when he heard that the ambassadors where people who could manipulate mana.

The year 2320 saw the break of a civil war in the Ishvakar, the anti magi faction of Ishvakar had declared war against the heretic hero who had embraced the vile power of magic. Magic was considered as a blessing of the goddess of life. Ishtars believed that mana, the source of magic, was a kind of life essence and was the blessing of Frei and not Isha. They believed that they should not use anything that is not provided by their goddess and strictly refused any association with magic, the avoided it like the plague. The rebels had brougt forth a huge army and had tried to overthrow the hero's rule. Erub found himself outnumberd by a huge margin but refused to surrender. With what little army he had he faced the enemies that came in waves. The revels had expected an easy victory but little did they know that Erub had already formed a coalition with Freina and had already obtained relics that had powers beyond their imagination. One such item was Erub's long sword, the sword would turn red whenever he was holding it, the sword could then tear through even their armors with ease. The entire hero side was equipped with powerful relics, the war soon began to shuft towards their momentum. The rebel leaders could only sit and watch as their huge army got reduced to he fraction if its size in mere days. The war ended and peace returned. The rebel leaders were publicly executed. On that day the hero declared the formation of the kingdom of Borvia and the unification of all the tribes of the north under his name.

The Friena government welcomed the declaration. The two nations turned into allies and trade between the nation began to flourish. The life of Borvians from that point onwards went through dramatic changes, yet their belief never waned. Years of peace followed and Borvia began to form into a proper kindgom. They actively started implementing reforms similar to Freina, also acitvely supporting magic and its use under the new hero king's Erub van Borvia name.

But this peace did not last long. In the year 2420, during the celebration of the founding day, Borvia was victim to another rebellion, but his time it was a huge success for the rebels. The hero king had long passed away and his timid son had taken over. The boy who was hardly 18, soon tunred into a puppet king. Corruption rampaged the kindgom the next few years, crime rose to unprecedented levels, life had turned to hell. The conservatives that had hid themselves well under the rule of the hero king had once again started to band up. They held secret meeting and slowly but steadily built their forces up. The made use of the fact that the entire government had turned into a pack of greedy monsters that only cared about wealth. A decade and more had passed since the hero king died, the once lively kindgom now had lonely streets and empty stomachs. The people had long since lost hope in their failure of a king and his minsiters and so when the rebel forces made themselves visible to the world, they gathered the support of the people. And on the day of founding, they succeeded in a coupe and overturned the king's rule. The royal family but had managed to escape and find asylum in Freina.

The rebels then executed all the officials who had shown even the smallest corruption, it was truly a purge. The new government, now a council of leaders like the Ishlak, used the next few years to stabilze the kingdom which was now called the kingdom of Isha.

Year 2431, Ishlak armies marched towards the southern islands of Freina. They then captured the smaller uninhabited islands where they built massibe bases and factories. The magi nation did not notice thus until it was too long. They had never expected any kind of hostility since they believed their might had struck enough fear on their two neighbors. But Ishlak, ever since their first meeting with the magi, had then dedicated itself to counter the magi. They had spend decades and were finaly able to obtain power that could go against the magi. They were finally able to develop a mechanism that could rend magis unable to manupilate mana. With such a machine in their hand, the Ishlaks were sure that they could wipe out the Freinan Independence.

They took their time conquering the smaller islands, slowly but steadily they crawled towards the main islands as their built arrays that would effect mana. They had managed to conquer 80 percent of the southern islands, which itself number more than 50, when the Freina finally understood what was going on. The magis immediately asked the Ishlaks to withdraw only to be ignored. War soon broke out, the magi who were initially confident soon found true terror. The mana that had always been a part if their body, that which always had been under their command refused to listen to them. A magi that could not control mana was just a normal human. Freina soon saw a huge loss in their lower rank magis. Information about the anti magi machines reached them pretty quick and so Freina dispatched its elite group of higher tier magis. And war once again turned tides.

Albert closed the thick book and then laid back on his father's wooden chair as he stretched his limbs. A long depressed sigh escaped his mouth as he stared at the celing of his father's study.

"I really am not in Earth anymore", the boy muttered with disbelief. It has been a week since that day, the day he found himself in the middle of nowhere. He had crawled himself towards a tree in the middle of a night and had screamed like a girl, only to lose his consciousness soon. The next thing he remembered was waking up in an unfamiliar room surrounded by strangers. But before he could open his mouth, he was assaulted by a sharp pain in his head and a flurry of memories. The people who had labelled strangers a few moments ago now had turned into his family. Panic stricken the boy started to struggle. Noticing their son awake the family were elated. They did not notice that their beloved son was no longer the same. They tried to calm the boy down as they hugged and consoled him. The warmth in their words and actions brought the some peace to the boy's mind but he was still confused. They had told him that his habit of sleep walking had taken him to the nearby river and that they found them lying unconscious on the river bank.

"The tree."

He had checked the rivershore were he was said to be found, but he could not find the huge tree under which he had taken a shelter anywhere. He had looked around under the moon light and had clearly seen the tree, he had even laid back on it. Kane could not recall ever seeing the river at all also.

"Like world transfer was not enough!"

Kane had decided to adjust to his new lifestyle and had slowly made steps towards it. He found out that Albert, the original, had been a quiet but good kid. He would not interact much with others but had always been kind boy. He had good grades and also was under going training in magic and swordsmanship. While everyone would complain about his lack of communication, all of them had a smile on their face when ever his name came up. His friends called hik bookworm but they relied up on him, Albert was in fact the ring leader much to the surprise of Kane.

While he had a general idea of things, Kane who had decided to live as Albert, started gathering information. Luckily his father who was the town mayor had a study with plenty of books and Albert had permission to use the study when it was free. His previous image of a bookworm helped a lot when he had shut himself in the study. His father, Henry Freeman was out of town for some official business and so study was completely his to use. He had easily found what he was looking for and has been engagee with the thick book since. Yet, he had only covered only half the book. Albert felt tired from all the non stop reading, it was already time for lunch and so he decided to take a break.

His father's manor was not so big, not so small either. A three storey house with ample space for 20 or so people. The mayor's manor as it was called was a privilege only the mayor had and in Altia it was hereditary. It was more like a landed noble but had much less power. While he was the mayor, he did not hold absolute say. Every town in Altia had a council of gaurdians headed by the mayor. Any new laws or orders had to be passed with a majority. There were 11 gaurdians including the mayor, the others were people who held prominent places in the society and where chosen by the kindgom every 5 years. Only the mayor kept his seat, unless the kindgom decides to strip the mayor off his power.

Albert found his new home not so satisfying as he compared it to his old home but could not do anything about it. He had his own room on the third, infact only he used the third floor. The others of his family, his sisters had a room each on the second floor. His older brother too had a room of his own on the same floor as his sister. His mom and dad shared a room in the first floor. the manor had a little too many rooms but most of them were unused byt kept clean by the maids.

It was a little past 12, Albert could hear his mom and the maids in the kitchen. He slowly made his way towards the kitchen, too much reading was hurting his head a little.

"Mother", he called as his eyes fell on the 40sh so woman who had the same black hair as him. Her was neatly platted and hung till her waist. Albert had noticed that the attire of the people resembled closely to the mid century europe. He himself was wearing a pair of trousers and a white full sleeved shirt. He was slightly over 5 foot and had a well built body due to all his training. His black hair was long enough to cover his face and so he had always sported a man bun. He was not certainly the most handsome man to have walked the lands but a good amount of ladies would consider him handsome. It took a while for Albert to get used to his sturdy body, he who had been confined to bed for three long years now had access to a body that was overflowing with life. In the past few days he had thanked the gods a million times for the new body but he would soon fight his tears when his old parents and his home came to memory.

The woman had a smile on her face as she turned towards her second son. Even he could say that his mom should have been a real beauty some years ago but time had started to show its effect on her too. Albert had never seen his mother without a smile, she was always warm, as if Frei herself had come down.

"You are out finally. Took you long enough. Hurry, go wash your face. I will have something to eat ready by then", she ruffled his loosely tied hair as she showered all her love to her second son.

Albert stood there for a while to let his mother play around with his hair, he then washed his face in cold water a few times. There was a mirror that reflected just his face. Albert could see his tired face, a completely new face. His hair style resulted in exposing his entire forehead. His dark brown eyes had a lot of life in it even though he appearee tired. Wiping off his face with a piece of cloth Albert sat down in the dining room on his designated chair.

The table was long enough for 20 people to sit comfortably. But the Freeman family only had 6 members. The seats cornered around Henry, the main bread earner. Albert's brother, Rake sat to Henry's left, while the right was reserved to Henry's wife, Hesa. Albert sat next to his brother and the sisters sat to their mother's right.

Hesa had already arranged the dishes on the table. Food was something that Albert did not look forward to much. While the ingredients tasted similar the choice of food was so limited that Albert was already feeling sick of the food. As always his lunch was a boiled potato, some meat soup with huge chunks, some milk, some loafs of brown bread and an egg. This had repeated every day all three times and to a person who had know the delicacy of food, the current food was too bland. Nevertheless Albert gobbled down the food, evening are reserved for training and if he went empty stomach he would surely die. He finished his lunch fast and then rinsed his mouth with the milk. With his stomach now completely stocked, Albert found his bed. He had time till evening before practice began, Albert decided to take a nap before he did all that sweating.