Second World-Novel

It took almost half a minute before Diana finally reacted.

For the first time, she knelt with a bowed head. "Forgive me, Your Majesty. For my transgression, I deserve punishment."

"Stand up, Governor Malva," Jack said. "We both just start knowing each other better. But I do hope you will be more cooperating from now on."

"You can count on me, Your Majesty," Diana replied.

Jack figured her loyalty points should have increased, but he would need to go back to his throne to find out. The Officers Overview was one of the offline operations in the Monarch System.

"Good. Now, show me this demonic portal," Jack said. "Considering this city is still functioning as normal, I assume everything is fine."

"It is, Your Majesty. The closing of the portal has continued for almost two centuries. We are more than halfway through the process already," Diana informed.

The two walked to the back of the city hall. The mass was still crowding in front. If the two of them just waltz over to where the demonic portal was located, it would draw too much attention to the place.

They entered a carriage that was stationed there. Followed by a pair of guards on steeds, they rode out from the city hall.

Before coming to Themonium, Jack had investigated via the monarch system where the demonic portal might be located. Thebalder mentioned that the ancient ruin was underground. Hence, the entrance was most likely through a building not accessible to the public. A building owned by the Malva house.

Jack had checked the city map through the City Overview screen. As the ruler of the city, Malva house owned many establishments. But the most likely one was a large private warehouse. It was large enough to house a large number of people and was only accessible to people authorized by the Malva house.

Another supporting point for why that warehouse was the most likely entrance, was that the building owned by the Oder of Magi was next to it. The mages could easily enter the warehouse unnoticed through secret doors in the alley between the two buildings.

Jack had found seemingly fine rectangle lines in the two opposite walls of the alley when he was doing his earlier tour around the city. Those must be the secret doors.

Confirming his hypothesis, through the small slits of the windows of the carriage, he saw that they were entering this private warehouse.

The door of the warehouse closed after they entered.

"Your Majesty, Governor, we have arrived," the carriage driver informed while opening the carriage's door.

Diana exited first. Jack followed behind. Inside what was supposed to be a warehouse, was a garrison of armored soldiers. There were barricades, and further behind were scorpions affixed at higher elevations with soldiers manning them. All the barricades and scorpions were facing the center of the warehouse, which was a large hole with stairs going under.

Jack supposed that hole was the entrance to the ancient ruin.

Diana led Jack into that hole, followed by a squad of soldiers. Underneath, Jack saw a series of excavated tunnels. Most of the original walls of the ruin had crumbled. Replacing the walls were metal posts used to hold the ceiling so it didn't crumble.

Because many of the walls of the ancient ruin had crumbled, Jack had a broad view of this underground's extremely wide cavern complex. He saw some soldiers fighting monsters in the distance.

Following his gaze, Diana explained, "Even though we are right under a city, this underground section here is considered wilderness. Monsters frequently spawned in this place, so we regularly cleared the place so these monsters didn't cause problems for the mages who were sealing the portal.

Jack soon saw the mages Diana was talking about. Within the center of the cavern, was a large dome structure of black color. People in mage's clothes were seen surrounding this dome.

As they got nearer, Jack realized the dome structure was not actually a structure. It was a dome made of black light.

"That is the seal that blocked the demonic creatures from coming out. The portal is inside that seal," Diana explained.

"So, how do we know the portal is closing?" Jack asked.

"I will leave that explanation to the Order of Magi people," Diana replied.

Diana stopped them when they were near the light dome. There was a rune diagram forming a circle on the ground. Jack sensed this circle formed a protective barrier. This barrier must be to prevent the monsters around the ruin from coming near the dome.

One of the mages around the dome noticed them and came by. He made a gesture and interacted with the rune diagram on the ground. Jack sensed the invisible barrier giving way in front of them. The mage gestured for them to come in.

Only Diana and Jack entered, the other soldiers stayed guarding outside the barrier. The mage closed the protective barrier again after Jack and Diana entered.

"This is Severus," Diana introduced the mage who had let them through the barrier. "He is the supervisor from the Order of Magi. He oversees this portal-sealing operation."

Diana then introduced Jack. "This is King Storm Wind, the newly crowned king of Themisphere."

"Your Majesty," Severus gave a respectful bow. But his countenance showed that he was peeved by this interruption. "What can I help the two of you with?" He asked.

"How goes the portal sealing operation?" Jack asked.

"Despite constant interruptions, smoothly," Severus answered.

"Ehem!" Diana cleared her throat. She understood Severus was being purposefully sarcastic.

Jack didn't show any sign of being offended. He walked toward the black light dome, which prompted Severus to stop him.

"Your Majesty! Please don't approach needlessly. You might disrupt the sealing process," he said urgently.

But Jack continued to walk forward. Although Severus was displeased, he didn't dare to physically stop the king.

"Don't worry, I know a thing or two about magic," Jack said.

"With all due respect, Your Majesty. Any spell-caster can say that they understand magic, but very few actually do. The intrigue of the mystic way is deeper than just a simple casting of a spell. We, from the Order of Magi, pride ourselves in this study and thus, knows more about magic than other spellcasters."

"Oh? Then I should be qualified. I am also a member of the Order of Magi," Jack said.

Severus chuckled. "Your Majesty might be a member, but a low-ranking member is not proficient enough..."

Severus stopped talking when Jack equipped his Honorary Magi title. As one of the high-profile members of the faction, Severus knew that only the leader of his faction could issue this title.