"Fisia, okay I remember now. I'll leave most of the discussion to you and the commanders, I'll come in if I feel the need to"
"Yes your majesty" Edward bowed slightly while walking.
The moved through the castle and entered into a separate building. They moved through into the royal guards' building, into a strategy room.
Edward put his arm out, signalling for Hou to stop, which he did. The servants to the side of Hou moved forward and opened up the doors to the room, looking down not daring to look into military secrets.
Hou, king George, walked past the servants into the strategy room. It was a large room than one would think, in the centre was a large circular table and in the middle of that, a map on the kingdom.
On the map, there were pins and small flags, there were also small painted wooden pieces, presumably representing the troops.
Hou naturally went to the largest seat, the second largest being a mage with a long white robe. This was the magic tower leader, Archmage Araxis. Although Hou did not inherit any memories of him, through his reading, anybody could recognise him.
The only figure comparable to the king in popularity, he was the strongest archmage in history. Inside the tower was something that was incomprehensible.
According to the books Hou read, inside the magic tower was a whole separate world!
A works created by a human, this was truly transcending above all of humanity. This was the work of a god, only a good could possibly create a new world.
However Hou knew that because of his focus on the works he created, he had little power remaining to help king George and the Solus kingdom.
As the meeting went on, king George sat still looking upon it, merely watching. Similarly, Araxis too sat still not commenting. These two figures were too far above it all to worry, they were merely there to represent their respective authorities.
However, as Hou was absorbing the information, he occasionally saw the archmage looking at him. But for some reason, he did not feel that he was looking at king George but HIM.
Once the meeting concluded, Hou stood up to leave after giving his thanks for the meeting. That was until the archmage finally acted, he summoned his staff out of thin air and banged it on the ground.
As the staff hit the ground, magic activated, Hou was brought into an unknown space, and in front of him Araxis materialised.
They were in a white void, no sense of depth could be made out, it seemed endless yet suffocating.
"Where am I, release me this instant!" Hou spoke and as usual it was filtered through his kingly body.
"You are in a space I created through magic. To explain simply, I have made the space we inhabit into my own, all laws in my control."
"How... impressive archmage."
"Well, yes it is impressive but.... It's not real is it"
"What do you mean...?" Hou felt his heart racing and he started to sweat.
"Well I am an archmage, even you who does not come from this world knows how strong I am. This is a dream isn't it, or not a dream but a.... recreation?"
"..yes, this is some sort of recreation of something, at least from my knowledge"
"A day ago, I noticed something was off, the queue felt differently. This must've been when you came into this world. My memories say nothings changed but I can feel it, I've become aware. This world isn't real and I am not real, I am just a recreation of the real me. Tell me, what is this place, who are you and where do you come from? Don't think of lying, I am much stronger than you can even imagine."
Hou thought for a moment and realised he could not go against somebody this powerful, even if he wad in his original body, and so he talked.
"You can call me Hou, and I live in a world with people called 'cultivators" who are similar to Magus. And there's something similar to mana called qi. And instead of bending laws, we use spirits that are connected to the laws themselves, but we can them parts of the dao."
"... It is just as I thought, fine sit down" Araxis sat down and under him a chair formed from nothing, as he gestured for Hou to do the same.
Hou tentatively bent his legs and sat down, under him a comfortable chair turned from the void.
"What do you mean, 'just as you thought'" Hou was becoming confused at this archmage and started to think he might be a little crazy.
"I believe, like I, you are not exactly real. But you are not the same as me, you have the ability to leave, that is if my theory is right..."
"I don't understand, what are you saying, just tell me straight. What is your theory"
"I made another world, one composed of my own laws. In that world, I did something, I created a new set of laws the world would operate on. Instead of mana and laws, there were qi and Dao. I, or the real me, created your works. You could say I am your God."
This hit Hou like a lightning strike, he had already felt this once before, but this was much more intense. He had already had his world flipped when he found out about cultivators and how his whole island was trapped and used by cultivators as a fighting ground.
When Hou found out about that he had noone to fight against, the cultivators were too strong and he could not see them. He had to get stronger.
And now he found even that was all a lie, he was a lie, an experiment by a more powerful being than he.
Araxis, noting Hou's reaction, continued.
"This might be a lot to take in but, listen to me. You want to leave this world right, and then you want to leave your 'real' world. You want to have true freedom? If so, then listen to me. I too want to live, with my strength I could implant myself into your mind and Implode this recreation of a world. When you are back, you need only become a stronger and stronger cultivator, take over that works, and eventually absorb it, using it's laws, Dao, to create a new body in the real world."