Going back a bit in time.
Still at the imperial capital's reception, the receptionist briefly explained to Darian:
"To register and move into the capital, each person needs to pay the equivalent of two million Merit Points. Every month, keeping your registration valid will cost half a million per person."
Darian already knew that every hundred Merit Points equaled a thousand in Imperial currency. So two million just to register and move was an insane amount. But he didn't care — he had 777 million to spend.
"Many High Humans live outside the capital with their families because of how expensive it is. But inside the capital live the Empire's largest clan and several smaller ones. It's an extremely good place to build connections and trade your points for resources with others. So the cost is considered small compared to the benefits."
She finished her explanation, and Darian nodded in understanding. The woman looked at Rhea, who nodded as well, signaling that she'd show him around and they wouldn't need a guide. The receptionist then handed Darian three registration cards.
"Get a plane ready for us. He's going to bring his family immediately," Rhea told the receptionist.
The woman nodded and went back to the counter. A few minutes later, they were taken to an area outside the city. It was a small airport, and they boarded a simple, classic-looking plane with no pilot.
"My flying speed with my blessing is really limited because of how almost non-existent the elements are in our universe. I could burn a lot of energy and go faster, sure, but it's not worth it. Aircrafts are cheap to rent in the capital." She explained while they got on.
Darian nodded — he could feel the elements easily. On Earth, and probably everywhere in their universe, they were so weak it was like they didn't even exist. Which meant using the techniques he'd developed was out of the question.
High Humans had to generate the elements completely to use them with their blessings — which made it way more energy-consuming.
"You can rent these and travel anywhere inside the Empire, but going to another Empire or even getting close to the ocean is totally forbidden. Just keep in mind: you're being watched at all times." Rhea went on seriously, staring at him.
"The Empire's rules are absolute. You're not just a regular human anymore — you're a weapon. And yeah, the other Empires are anything but allies. They won't risk letting someone like you slip over to the other side."
Darian nodded again. Rhea had already mentioned some of the rules before, and made it very clear what kind of punishment came with breaking them.
He needed to stay sharp. In most cases, mistakes wouldn't fall on him directly — the Empire didn't want to lose a High Human by locking him up or killing him. Instead, they'd go after the regular people connected to him first.
Darian told the plane's AI the name of the city where he and his siblings lived. It was in the far northeast of the capital, near the sea — the closest point to the Aeternum Atlantis Empire, where his father had been born.
Rhea sighed quietly as the plane sped up. A city like that probably had a strong underground presence. Life for ordinary people must've been brutally hard there.
In less than ten minutes, they arrived.
The plane landed in a nearby area and stayed put. It had an active defense system — if anyone tried anything, the AI would detect it and could respond lethally.
But Rhea set it to just fire a warning shot into the sky, so they'd be alerted instead.
With how few people were left on Earth, AI had taken over most tasks and had evolved a lot. In terms of tech, that was probably the only big leap since the 21st century. But even that was enough to change everything — regular humans didn't have much use anymore. The machines handled all the simple, repetitive work.
Rhea put a cloak over her flashy clothes, and together they entered the city.
The city was split into three separate sectors. One of them had house-sized buildings and was rich — some of the poorer High Humans lived there.
They passed through the second sector. She found it plain, but not as poor as she'd imagined… until Darian made a turn, and they ended up in the run-down outskirts — the last sector. That's where the real poverty hit — everything was filthy, old, and stank.
Since Darian's father died, they'd lived there — it was all his mom could afford. Darian didn't have memories from back then, but his mom had said that they used to live in a different city and had a totally different life.
His mom once had a rare job, working in the city's richest district, where someone from the Empire lived. But she had no connections to protect herself. Her salary was almost nothing — like scraps thrown to beggars.
With the ring's power, Darian could speak telepathically, so he explained all that to Rhea on the way.
He trusted her, at least a little. He could see her karma — pure to a mind-blowing degree. And also, she wasn't obligated to stick with him or help him with everything. She was wasting her time because she wanted to help him as much as she could. Her only real job was to bring him to her clan and train him for his future mission.
Darian just didn't mention the tragic end his mother met. But he didn't need to — it was pretty obvious. Rhea already knew it was just him and his siblings now. No mother.
Finally, they arrived at a very small, very old house.
Darian sighed and stepped forward, pushing the door open.
"!"
The moment he stepped inside, he saw something terrifying...
His eyes widened, and his heart started pounding.
The scene was crystal clear. Signs of a fight everywhere—things broken, flipped over.
Almost panicking, Darian ran deeper into the house. He checked both bedrooms and the bathroom, but no one was there. Still... the few old pieces of furniture had all been knocked over, torn apart, broken.
Rhea was right behind him, alarmed by what she was seeing.
Darian didn't say a word. His mind raced, and then he bolted out of the house.
Nearby, there was another house that looked pretty much the same.
*BANG!*
He just meant to punch the door, but even using just a bit of his strength, it completely exploded.
Inside, an old lady's eyes went wide.
"WHAT HAPPENED TO LUCY AND LUCIUS?!"
Darian's voice came out like a fierce roar, loud as hell. His red eyes gleamed with a bloody light, and the furious aura of a High Human burst out of him, slamming into the old woman like a hammer.
"They... ten days ago..." the woman stammered, totally panicked. "Those filthy men…"
"UNDERWORLD!" Darian cut her off and turned around, storming out of the house.
He didn't even look back. His feet immediately carried him in a new direction. It was toward an abandoned city nearby. If he ran full speed, he figured he could get there in an hour.
But then he felt himself stop—something held him back.
A hand gripped his shoulder and locked him in place.
"Where are you going?" Rhea stared into his eyes.
"To save them, obviously. They got taken because of me. They won't kill them—they wanna use them to get to me. It's only been ten days... they should still be okay..." Darian said coldly, but at the end, his eyes welled up, just thinking about what his siblings might be going through because of him.
"You can't just go like this."
He heard that and glared at her. "Why not?"
"A High Human can't kill regular humans. That's one of the Empire's rules," Rhea said.
"Fuck that. Since when do those laws ever protect the weak? There won't be a problem, because I swear no one's walking out alive. Dead men don't talk." His voice was filled with hate.
She scoffed. "Don't go thinking you're all-powerful now. You forget why it's called the Underworld? Because they smuggle artifacts from all over the empires. Sure, you can kill them easily. But they might have hidden stuff—artifacts that record what you do and send it to people far away, or do weird shit. Plenty of High Humans have died because of something like that. Never underestimate what power from another universe can do."
"Doesn't matter," Darian snapped, brushing her hand off his shoulder. "I'm gonna save them, even if I have to burn the whole damn Underworld down and kill every last one of them."