Knock, knock, knock.
A young man knocked on a big wooden door.
"Come in," came from behind the door.
The young man with grey hair opened the door and walked into the room.
It was a nice and cozy study with a couple of books.
On the table at the back of the study sat a friendly-looking old man who was currently reading a book.
"Sir, we received one more complaint from the Water Emperor, two more from the Wind Emperor, and four more from the Twilight Royalty," the young man said with professional politeness.
The older man on the table only sighed in helplessness.
"Is it because of the increased quantity of Abominations again, Wester?" the old man asked.
Wester, the butler, nodded. "Correct, sir."
The older man sighed once again. "By how much did it increase this time?"
"Compared to 20 years ago, the quantity of Abominations has doubled, sir," Wester explained.
The older man rubbed his temple with one of his hands. "I guess we can't chalk this up to coincidence anymore."
"I was surprised that you managed to do that until now," Wester said with an unchanging expression.
Once again, the older man sighed. "So, the Child of Calamity actually is out there, and they have reached the Adept Realm."
"It seems so, sir," Wester said.
"Well, I guess we have to widen the scope of our search. How long ago did the old Child of Calamity die?"
"About fourteen years, sir," Wester answered professionally.
"Fourteen years, huh?" the old man mused. "That's a bit more on the faster side for reaching the Adept Realm, but not completely outstanding yet. However, it is still far faster than for any of the Areas."
Wester didn't answer.
"It seems like the Child of Calamity has been born outside the Areas, but we should still be careful."
"Wester," the old man said as he made his decision. "Get Sarah to inspect every Adept below twenty years of age. However, for the Areas, it should be fine if we ask the supervisors to do it."
Wester nodded. "Searching through that many people will take far longer than the last time. The last time, we only looked at newborns. This time, it might take several weeks."
"I know," the old man said with a sigh. "That's why I didn't want to give the order previously. The other Emperors will probably try to do something sneaky while such a large portion of our forces are occupied. I swear, they only complain so much so that they can bite a huge chunk out of our territories."
"But that's what I get for volunteering to become the one responsible for keeping the Child of Calamity in check. It worked out great for so many years, but now, it's suddenly a problem."
The old man sighed once again.
"I wonder if this is your doing, Lucius," he said to no one in particular. "Is this some kind of hint for us?"
"Well, it doesn't really matter," the old man said as he leaned back to read the book some more. "Wester, please go ahead with the search."
"Of course, sir," Wester said.
Then, he performed a polite bow and left the study.
After Wester left the room, the older man groaned.
"Who cares about more Abominations? It's just two ants instead of one. Just stop complaining," he grumbled to himself.
Then, he focused on his book again.
A couple of minutes later, over a thousand lightning bolts shot away from the mansion, followed by a bright beam of grey light. Wherever the beam passed, space seemed to warp.
...
"By order of the Lightning Emperor, you are hereby tasked to check your Area for the Child of Calamity. We suspect they are below twenty years old and have reached the Adept Realm."
A man with golden armor sparkling with lightning spoke these words to a young man with white hair wearing some simple robes.
"Understood," the young man answered respectfully. "I will have an answer by tomorrow."
The man in golden armor nodded.
BANG!
With an explosion of lightning, the man in golden armor vanished again.
The middle-aged man with grey hair narrowed his eyes.
A second later, he also exploded into a bolt of lightning, but the bolt was far weaker and slower than the bolt of the man with golden armor.
Over the next hour, the man visited five Archmages, but none of them had any idea about the person their supervisor was looking for, but they promised that they would check every Adept below 25 years old, just to be safe.
The supervisor told them that he needed an answer by tomorrow.
And then, the supervisor went to the last Archmage in his responsible Area.
BANG!
A lightning bolt struck down on a grassy hill, singing the grass around it.
After the lightning bolt vanished, the supervisor was unveiled.
In front of him stood a tall and muscular man who only wore white pants. Right now, that man stood on the hill, his entire body sweaty and vibrating with power as Lightning and Wind Mana around him came out of his being in complex and mystical ways.
The man's eyes remained closed, even though the arrival of the supervisor couldn't go unnoticed.
"I have a couple of questions and a task for you," the supervisor said emotionlessly.
"Shoot," King Skythunder answered without opening his eyes.
"You have noticed that there are far more Abominations appearing all around the world in the last couple of years, right?" the supervisor asked.
"I don't know about the world, but my Kingdom has more than usual. If you want the specific number, ask someone from the Council. I don't really care," King Skythunder answered.
The supervisor's brows furrowed.
He really didn't like this Archmage's attitude.
"Do you know about any young human that could possibly be related to the Abominations? It could be anything. Anything that could connect them to the Abominations in some way," the supervisor said.
King Skythunder only smirked while his eyes remained closed.
"Do I look like someone that comes into contact with a lot of weaklings? Well, ignoring the High Mages," he answered.
"That was not my question," the supervisor said with a deep and threatening tone. "Do you know about such a person or not? I'm here on the orders of the Lightning Emperor personally!"
King Skythunder's smirk widened.
Then, he opened his eyes and looked at the supervisor.
"No."
When the supervisor saw King Skythunder's expression, rage bubbled up inside of him.
His instincts were telling him that King Skythunder was lying, but that didn't make much sense.
King Skythunder was a crazy person, but he wouldn't resist the Lightning Emperor's orders.
After some seconds, the supervisor snorted aggressively.
'He's trying to mess with me. I'm pretty sure he only wants to get a rise out of me.'
'I swear, every time we meet, he somehow tries to provoke me without actually going against my orders.'
'Does he have a death wish?!'
"Fine," the supervisor said. "I want you to inspect every single Adept below twenty years of age for any kind of possible connection to the Abominations."
"You do it. This is your Area, not mine," King Skythunder answered with a smirk as he closed his eyes again to focus on his training.
Rage exploded inside the supervisor's chest, but he didn't say anything.
He had learned that arguing with King Skythunder only ended up with him becoming angrier.
Sadly, he couldn't kill King Skythunder since that would destroy the equilibrium of his entire Area. Additionally, the Skythunder Kingdom was doing an amazing job at fostering powerful Mages.
Without another word, the supervisor left.
He didn't really think that the person everyone was searching for was within the small Skythunder Kingdom, which was why the supervisor didn't search through it. Also, the King of that Kingdom had already said that he didn't know of anyone.
And a day later, the supervisor gave his feedback to the man with golden armor.
"My Area doesn't have a person connected to the Abominations."
