Magic chronicles 2: Rise of the empire

Chapter 1: Chino's discovery

     It's been three years after Surtr was defeated. Chino has been exploring the world they live in, to which they have named Ground Omega.

     Chino is walking through a forest, her bag nearly full of relics of the "old world" she's found along the journey, she will probably go home soon to drop off her stuff.

     "My home feels more like a warehouse. Heh, wouldn't have it any other way." She says to herself. She notices an uncharted portal, she checks the runes, and it leads nowhere she's ever been. She decides to activate it, and when she goes through it, she finds something stunning.

     She finds herself in an altar, with many runes written along the walls, a long path lies before her. She starts walking, reading as she goes along.

     "Atlas... Time... Freezes? The atlas of time freezes aging?" She reads, shocked. She finds herself in a large chamber in the center, with a large white orb with multiple gyroscopic rings surrounding it. This must be it. She thinks to herself. 

     "May as well send a message of its location to the Lords." She thinks aloud, she writes a quick message, then throws it through a portal to her home. She then does as the writing said. She places her hand on the pad in front of it. Then channels a small amount of energy into it, the orb in the middle starts to glow with a white light. Multiple layers of spell circles surrounds her. She gasps in pain, energy draining from her rapidly. The "immortalization" took about a minute, but Chino survived. She quickly took note of exactly how much power was drained, because if you lose all your energy, you die.

     She leaves the temple, feeling great about not aging. She decides that now, after finding all the relics she has, that she will go home. She quickly writes down the runes of the portal, then departs. She is having fun running through the forest, about a Kilo unit away is an entrance to Xalengard, but she thinks that she will run around a bit longer, it's not often she isn't busy looking for things to bring home, and when she is home, she's teaching magic to younger people with potential. As she's running, she sees a man she hasn't seen before, sleek leather shirt and blue cloak with royal looking golden accents, he sits. 

     "I don't recognize you, so, who are you?  I can tell you aren't part of the empire." She asks, he looks up, and she sees a scar over one eye, still shining blue, and a mask covering his lower face with the same accents as the hood.

     "No, I'm not from your 'empire'. My name is Kian Belsarion, I know you met my brother. He lost control of himself and lost his body to the void. I've been tracking him down for years, it seems over the last few months he's been attacking your empire's bases. If you do see him ever, his name is Kellan." He says. Chino looks concerned.

     "Well, alright. I'm sure we have a couple people that could snap him out of his... Trance, we'll call it." She says, and continues on her way, he thanks her, but Chino didn't turn around. She was too busy thinking. 

     The void captured a man... Wait, was the void creature we encountered before the empire's creation Kellan..? If so, it will be at least a little awkward when we bring him back to us. She realized, she reached one of the gates to Xalengard, the guards immediately opened it, and she steps back into the empire, the city paths are bustling with activity, she smiles at what the empire has become. Only three years ago did most of the world's population die out. She walks through the streets of the city until she finds her shop where she sells old items that she finds along the way. She steps in, one of her workers greeted her. She gave thanks and headed to the storage area.

     "So what all did you find this go-around?" The employee asked, Chino's told him about a few relics, but knew better to tell him about the atlas. She leaves her shop after emptying her backpack, she then rushes towards the palace. When she got there, a guard looked at her.

     "Why in such a rush, Chino? Regardless, it's important, I wouldn't stop you anyway." He says, and shrugs, he lets his hand drift towards the entrance. Chino runs in, she then goes to the table of the mage lords, she then fires a magic bolt into the center, which calls all mage lords to meet.

     The first to appear was Jenos, who is in the lowest seat of ten, in a few weeks will there be a tournament, where he will have to fight to keep his title. He looked a bit surprised that Chino was the one that called the meeting. Then Sora and Kieba appeared. They looked interested, then Yuri and Zephrous. The sixth to appear was Drake, then Sakura. The other three, the new faces, Midnight, Iado, and Alastair, all appeared at once.

     "Well, you called us here, Chino. Therefore, what matter have you discovered to be this important?" Sora asked, she nodded, and stepped onto a platform that orbits around the table. What she said to them all was shocking.

     "I have discovered a very powerful artifact, called the atlas of time. To my knowledge, I am the first to use it. But, what it does is very beneficial for anyone who can handle it. The atlas freezes the aging process. Thus, granting eternal life, I have recorded precisely how much power it takes from a mage, if they don't have enough, they die." Chino explains, they all seemed completely taken aback by the thought of living forever. Sora got up.

     "Eternal life, for those strong enough? In my mind, it seems it's meant to make the elite mages and mage lords to have longer time to protect the rest." He says, the other lords murmur agreement to its intention of use, Chino looks happy that she found this gift, they authorized expanding the palace underground areas to make room to put the portal that leads to the atlas, Chino then takes Sora to the original teleport location to destroy it, they can't let just anyone find out it's existence. They most certainly don't want citizens to die just because they accidentally found it.