"It's nice to see you as well, Wester," Queen Primordium answered.
"I presume you're here because of our young friend here?" Wester asked. "I think I already know why you're here."
"How will we proceed?" Queen Primordium asked.
Wester turned to Shang and looked at him while he scratched his chin in thought. "You have a fivefold Spirit Sense, right?"
Shang nodded.
"You're not a Mage, right?" Wester asked.
Shang nodded again.
Wester absentmindedly nodded a couple of times as he fell into thought.
"Difficult," Wester said. "We don't really think about the supremacy of Mages in our everyday life. Everyone that we know is already a Mage."
"Only when there is actual contrast can we take note of the difference."
"I'm no different," Wester added. "I haven't even entertained the possibility that a warrior might become powerful enough to rival King Contenders. That possibility just seems so far in the future."
Wester remained silent for a couple of seconds.
Queen Primordium and Shang didn't say anything.
"Past, present, and future," Wester said. "In the past, Mages were antagonistic to warriors. In the present, Mages are interested in raising warriors."
"The future is still uncertain."
"Will the past be repeated, or will there be cooperation?"
Wester stayed silent for a while again.
"The past dictates the future, but the past isn't always correct. Regret is a word, and if the past were always correct, regret wouldn't exist."
"We are people of the present, not of the past."
"These decisions can only be made by the people of the past," Wester said.
"Then, this means…" Queen Primordium slowly said.
Wester nodded. "I must ask the Ancestor."
A bit of Shang's nervousness returned.
The Lightning Emperor.
Lucius had said that not even an Emperor could see through Humanity, but there were many things an Emperor could do. Maybe there were other ways to find out about Shang's Affinity.
"You two wait here," Wester said before leaving his room and walking over to the bigger door beside his own.
Right now, Shang wasn't sure if he wanted to meet the Lightning Emperor or not.
The closer he got to him, the more dangerous it would be, but Shang also didn't want to be left in the dark.
Shang wanted to ask the Custodian about his warrior's body, but he decided that this was a topic better left for later.
For now, it was important to see whether Shang would survive or not.
Sure enough, the unveiling of Shang's true power had created monumental waves, and the news would even reach the Lightning Emperor, one of the ten strongest beings in the world.
Meanwhile, Wester was walking through the long corridor and stopped in front of a simple door.
As always, he politely knocked and entered a moment later.
"Hello, Wester," an old man sitting behind a desk said in a friendly voice. At the moment, the Lightning Emperor was reading through a book while correcting some things.
"Good evening, sir," Wester said as he entered the office.
"Did we find them?" the Lightning Emperor asked.
"Sadly, no, sir," Wester answered.
The Lightning Emperor released a long sigh. "And here I was hoping that I would finally have something positive to report to the others."
"Ever since the Fifth Realm Abominations started appearing, the others have been complaining more and more. You know, in the beginning, they actually didn't care as much. Sure, they were complaining a bit, but that was more for show."
"But as soon as their towns and cities start to disappear, they suddenly complain. You know, I've tried to get their help for a long time, but they always said that they were too busy."
"And now, suddenly, everyone is offering their help to find the Child of Calamity. Honestly, if they had offered their help earlier, we might have found the Child of Calamity by now."
"But now…" the Lightning Emperor said before he released another sigh. "Let's face it. Several centuries have passed, and the Child of Calamity must have found out about their status. Even more, they probably even found a way to hide."
Wester remained silent. The Lightning Emperor wasn't a fan of having a big social circle, and Wester was basically the only being below the Mage Emperor Realm that he talked to.
Of course, that also meant that the Lightning Emperor didn't have many people to vent his frustrations to.
Wester was used to listening to the Lightning Emperor's complaining.
"You know," the Lightning Emperor continued, "we could have probably found them in the first couple of years, but since we only have access to a couple of Mage Lords to scour the entire world, we couldn't have searched as effectively as was necessary."
"If the others had just agreed to search through their own territories, things wouldn't be like this."
"Now, everyone's willing to help. It took how many million deaths?"
"Around 80, sir," Wester said.
"Huh?" the Lightning Emperor uttered in confusion.
"80 million deaths, sir," Wester said. "At least, those are the number of deaths in our territory."
The Lightning Emperor blinked a couple of times in surprise. "Only?"
Wester nodded. "Kiran reacted very efficiently and effectively to the changing parameters."
"Well, that's good to hear," the Lightning Emperor said with positive surprise. "Adam and Kali recently told me how many they lost. They lost over 700 million. I anticipated that we would be at something like 300 million."
"80 million, huh. Seems like Kiran has done excellent work," the Lightning Emperor praised.
"Anyway, we should really get onto finding the Child of Calamity. I think the next course of action would be to make every Archmage outside our forces undertake a bloodline test. Give them a Grade Five Mana Crystal for their troubles," the Lightning Emperor nodded.
"Yes, sir," Wester said.
Silence.
After around ten seconds, the Lightning Emperor looked away from his book and looked at Wester with furrowed brows.
Having Wester standing there in silence and looking at him made the Lightning Emperor feel uncomfortable.
"Do you need anything else, Wester?" he asked carefully.
"Sir, I'm not here because of the Child of Calamity," Wester said.
The Lightning Emperor blinked a couple of times in surprise. "But then why-"
Silence.
"Oh, I did it again, didn't I?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," Wester answered.
The Lightning Emperor sighed. "I told you that you could just interrupt and tell me when I do that."
"I know, sir," Wester said, "but I do enjoy listening to your complaints."
The Lightning Emperor laughed a bit in discomfort. "Alright, as long as you know."
"Anyway, what brings you here then, Wester?"
