Beneath the Kingdom

…

A few hours ago before the Imperial Army managed to breach the walls…

Walking down the road with ease, he was trying to find entertainment while randomly doing stuffs that can help him enjoy the life in this merged world. Nobody knows who he is nor would anyone notice his presence. His appearance is that of a mysterious man that flies the banner of the Sacranopolis Empire and the insignia of Dragonia.

He is no other than Queaz.

Even being an Imperial official and a Dragonian, he played little to no effort in the Dragonians' schemes or even trying to show that he's one of the empire's official.

"…it's getting too boring here, too."

He reached his pocket and looked at his pocket watch. "Only a few hours left before you reach here, eh, Mastermind?"

It was roughly five hours before the Imperial Army reached the frontline and alarmed everyone. Queaz looked around him coldly, "…it's very peaceful in here. Do they even know what happened out there beyond the walls?" he thought.

"…well, it's not my deal if they're wicked or not." Queaz continued his calm and peaceful walk. He turned into a small alleyway. In there, he saw few impoverished people leaning against the building walls beside them. Queaz walked through them anyway, since no one will notice his presence. Not even his footsteps.

"…No matter what villages, towns, cities and kingdoms I visit, there will always be poor indigent people."

At the end of the alleyway, he took the left turn into a big street. Suddenly, a kid with tattered clothing crashed into him. Queaz didn't move at all, he simply glared at the kid. The little kid looked up into his face and backed off and prostrated in front of him while saying a thousand sorry. Queaz didn't respond and bypassed the prostrating kid. The little kid got back up and was about to leave in a rush.

"…kid."

The child got shocked after suddenly called. The kid looked back to Queaz with a scared face. Queaz didn't turn around facing the kid, he simply said: "…pick your targets carefully. That is… if you want to mug someone." Queaz showed his hand from his coat pocket, revealing three small pouches.

The kid was surprised. The kid believed having two pouches, but it's already gone. The kid did attempt to steal Queaz's money sack but ended up being stolen back with all that kid's pouch stolen, too.

Queaz then threw one pouch to the kid. The kid wasn't brave enough to pick the pouch back from the ground near the kid.

"I gave you back your pouch. But only one of them, think of it as a lesson to not mug unsuspecting people."

The kid slightly cried that one more pouch wasn't returned. Queaz then said, "Everyone you find will never be one same person… if you're not careful, you might end up being killed without you even knowing it."

Queaz then left the kid and headed off. The kid cried afterwards, but when the kid opened the pouch, the kid realized that the man just now didn't gave back the pouch belonged to the kid. He gave HIS pouch full of silver coins. The kid cried harder afterwards.

…

..

.

An hour later…

Queaz was in front of a library. "Hoh…" he remembered many people from humans, Dragonians, and many other races recommended him a bunch of times to go to library if he wanted to find entertainment in his free time. But the problem is… Queaz wasn't fond of reading. He spent his time being an observer in many places around the world for a year now. He discarded his acquaintances' recommendations and walked away from the library.

Nothing sparked his interest in Napre Kingdom, apparently. He walked for hours already if not daily, even though he saw few crimes happening on the streets, he will only become a spectator. There was no merit for him to help them, so he thought. Even with him not helping, the kingdom soldiers, either vanguards or regulars will come to the rescue few seconds later.

"I will have myself finished orbiting around the kingdom in a couple moments now…" he piqued. But suddenly, he felt an unusual force suddenly tingle his senses.

"…this is… dense mana energy…!" he paused for a moment to focus sensing. He closed his mind into emptiness to search in the furthest distance. "This mana energy… came from the southern district, huh…?"

Queaz then decided to walk to the southern district, which he had visited before.

…

Southern district…

The mana energy was tough. There were many elementalists, mages, and soldiers in the area but none of them could sense the oddity happening in the region. Queaz, however, could sense it, along with other Dragonians.

"…if there were any other Dragonians around here, they might be here to track the dense mana energy," said Queaz guessingly.

He then proceeded to reduce the distance between him and the source of mana energy. He ended up in a tight alleyway blocked by many wooden boxes. The area around the alley was also empty, there were no people walking by this turn.

"Well, well… isn't this an interesting thing?" said Queaz to himself. His mana sensors detected intense field of mana energy being massed through the alleyway.

He climbed the boxes. From there, he saw an old well. The aura around the well was unusually gloomy. His senses sensed it clearly: the mana energy undoubtedly came from that well. Queaz sighed, "Hoh… who could've made this rousing mana energy, eh?"

He jumped off the boxes and saw a weird creature lying on the ground. "Huh…? A monster?" he checked the creature, only to found out that it was dead. "Wait, is it, though…? It looked like a hornet…"

He stood back up. He realized that there were tens of the same creatures scattered around the well. And of course, all of them were dead and had horrible looks. Queaz walked to the edge of the well, he looked into the darkness looming inside the well. By anyone's eyes would think that the well was pitch black, old and not maintained. Even mosses covered most of the well's walls.

But in Queaz eyes… he saw trails of flowing mana energy getting absorbed into the well slowly. Suddenly, a buzzing noise was heard. Queaz realized instantly there were monsters inside this well, and he was right. His hand caught a hornet trying to sting him. He quickly smashed the hornet into the wall, painting its blood on the wall.

"…heh. This is absolutely interesting."

Queaz then dropped himself into the dark well.

…

Five hours later…

Battle was raging on the surface. Queaz simply ignored the rambling above him and kept on exploring the secret underground cave. There were only one way in and out. He went deeper and further. It ate some time already. His guess about monsters in this well was proved. There were too many monsters inside a tight and small cave. "…if they're all combined, they could destroy an entire civilization."

Queaz walked calmly while using his palm to light the way. Even faced with numerous monsters, none of them attacked Queaz. They backed off as soon as Queaz stepped near them.

After some time later, he ended up inside a wider area. In there, he discovered something.

"This is…" he said quietly. "…the source of these monsters' appearance… huh?" he added. Queaz saw a short pillar about his height, there was an orb above it glowing in red. "The monsters spawned from here, eh…?"

He walked closer to the pillar. Queaz felt an intese mana energy being used up from the orb. "Hoh… Any simpleton who could sense this mana energy would die if they sense it from this distance."

"Judging by its appearance… this 'thing' might be controlled solely by a powerful creature, possibly a creature that can be compared to Dragonians."

Suddenly, beneath Queaz's foot lighted up a reddish magic circle. From there he said:

"Crafting such magical tools weren't wrong, but if it were made to destroy a civilization entirely…

…then it is absolutely false."

Queaz touched the orb and it instantly shattered into tiny bits. Soon, the monsters in the cave disintegrated into thin air. "…huh…?" he said in slight surprise. "The orb was that fragile…?"

He then stopped his magic and thought "No, it can't be fragile."

"Every magical tools and items are all interconnected with its primary creator. If this orb got shattered all of sudden when I touched it… it can only mean one thing…

…the creator of this orb has been killed. Somewhere, in the surface, that is."

Suddenly, Queaz heard a shout and many rough footsteps coming close. "There were people who enter this well? No, wait… judging by the sound of the footsteps, they're most likely this kingdom's soldiers, huh?" said Queaz guessingly. He must get out before the soldiers see him. There's only one way out and it was invaded already.

"Hmph, I don't like using my magic too often… but it can't be helped, huh?"

"Stop righ there!"

Queaz was right. They were the Napreans. But before the Napreans even could catch him, he had blinded them with a severe brightness and disappeared instantly.

"DAMMIT! He escaped!" said one of the Naprean soldiers.

"What shall we do now… the causer of the swarming monsters was that asshole, right?"

"Absolutely, there was no reason for him to stay here in this isolated place aside from controlling those insect monsters."

The soldiers rambled, but their lead taskforce was silent. He kept on staring sharply and cynically to the place where the presumed 'Entomancer' had escaped. "Sir… What are we going to do now…?" asked one of the soldiers to their leader, who was a vanguard knight.

The leader then closed his eyes, "The monsters were gone and dead. Buggers, we nearly had him." He said angrily.

"Let us return back for now. What's important that the monsters won't reappear again for some time," the vanguard commanded.

"Yes, sir!" all of the soldiers began retracing their way back except one remaining by the vanguard's side. "Let's get going, Sir Sean."

The vanguard recovered from his deep thoughts, he accepted the offer.

"Fine, let us go, then."