The Emperor’s authority within the islands was absolute. Whatever he wished for was done. If you received a summons from him, then you would go meet him. No questions asked. Drop everything that you were currently doing and head over to the Empyreal Palace.

Frixin grabbed the obnoxiously located envelope out of the air. There actually was not a letter in the envelope, more like an identification to show to the guards that the Emperor had called for her. Even she was not allowed to just waltz into the throne room whenever she wished. Almost nobody could, only certain Imperial family members were allowed to go wherever they wanted.

Leaving her food on the table, she flew up, until she was a decent bit above the normal buildings. She still had to be lower than the Empyreal Spire, which marked the territorial boundaries for flight height. And then flew towards the Palace.

She landed in front of the Eternal Steps. A series of stairs leading up to the Palace. It was considered rude to just fly through the gates, so everyone had to walk up the steps. She also could not just bound up the steps, she had to be courteous and walk up one at a time. All one hundred and thirty-one of them, one for each year since the crowning of the First Emperor, Alexander Etiran the First.

Upon arriving at the first gate, all she had to do was show her summons letter, and the guards let her through. No one was dumb enough to try and fake an Imperial Summons. After all, it contained the Emperor’s unique magical signal, and the punishment for trying to fake one was death. There were a lot of laws about the Emperor that resulted in capital punishment.

After moving through the gates, she entered the outer courtyard surrounding the actual Palace. It seemed a nice area, with paved stone pathways and a myriad of beautiful plants along the walkway. However, most of them were poisonous, venomous, or straight-up monsters. Hence the nickname for the outer courtyard was the Path to Death. There have been a few casualties in the courtyard. Mostly ignorant people entering the palace for the first time.

There was also a fountain located in the courtyard, in between the Palace doors and the gate. It looked normal; however, its water was from the Fairy Spring. Some of the most potent and mana-saturated water in the entire world. The Empire had “borrowed” a great deal of it when they were constructing the Palace. Since it contained a finite amount of water, there was a barrier surrounding it, preventing anything from leaving or entering the fountain.

Finally, after so much unnecessary walking, she arrived in front of the Palace doors. They were flanked by two Palace Captains, the elites of the Palace Guards, who were elites of the normal guard. She felt bad for them. They had to be standing at attention, for the entire day, in their full armor. Again, she had to show them the Summons before allowing her to enter.

They slammed their spears into the ground, and the Palace doors slowly began to open. Extremely slowly. Granted, they were huge doors, around five times taller than she was and five times as wide. Like the rest of the Palace, they were inlaid with adamantium, mana saturated gold compound, and mithril, silver saturated with mana. The majority of the Palace was built with dark iron, which was steel saturated with mana, turning it significantly darker. It looked terrifying, with it being mainly dark grey with greenish-silver and reddish-gold accents. The materials basically made the Palace a fortress. Virtually impenetrable, even without the massive protective arrays defending it.

She stood there, tapping her boots against the ground, waiting for the stupid Gods' forsaken door to finally open up. The doors had to be completely open before she could enter, as was proper etiquette. There was a bunch of rules that seemed exceedingly unnecessary, but they were rules set by the Emperor. And etiquette had to be followed in his presence.

Once the doors fully opened, Frixin entered the throne room at a pace of one step a second. Only the Emperor and his family could walk faster. The throne room was exquisitely decorated, mostly made out of adamantium. It was the most protected room in the entire Empire, with so many magical protections around it that she could barely discern all of them.

Tapestries hung from each of the columns. They depicted portraits of the previous Emperors and their parents, glowering over the throne room. A massive stained-glass ceiling covered the center of the roof, parallel to the carpet. It was a timeline of the Empire. Starting from its birth, located above the entrance, to the nearest date of significance, the crowning of the Fifth Emperor, which was located around one-fifth of the way to the Empyrean Throne. The rest of the ceiling was clear glass, unfinished, waiting for its time to come.

She looked down and slowly walked along the intricately patterned red and gold carpet. Near the end of the carpet, the patterns stopped, leading into the golden Imperial Eldrissis Coat of Arms. It was two intertwined leviathans, the most powerful sea monsters, in the shape of a figure eight biting each other’s tails. Piercing through them was a simple longsword, with a skull as the pommel, the divine weapon of Anthrohom.

She knelt in front of the Coat of Arms, looking straight at the floor with her right hand over her heart. She had never laid eyes on the Emperor. Only the First General had the right to. She only knew his voice, terrifyingly powerful and deep, with a lot of mana for emphasis. It was the voice of an unyielding leader, once who would make the world bend to their will.

“Sixth General. I have been waiting for you.”

It took almost all of her willpower not to reflexively throw up a shield. Doing so would be seen as treason to the Empire, and would result in capital punishment. As soon as she entered the palace, she was required to deactivate all of her protective barriers.

“I have recently received some interesting documents from the null laboratory. About a certain intelligent beast.”

She tried not to react, but it was futile. And a cold sweat passed over her. There were a lot of different paths that the Emperor could take, and almost all of them were not good for her health.

The Emperor began to laugh. Not a hearty joyful one, nor the laugh of a madman. On the surface, it was mirthful, finding the situation funny. But there was an undertone to his laugh. One that was cold, brought on by the enjoyment of his power that he had over others.

“Relax, you aren’t in trouble. Yet. You currently do not have a familiar, correct?”

Even though she was being addressed, she would not speak. She was only allowed to reply to the Emperor when he allowed him to.

“You're no fun. Speak.”

“Correct.”

“Then you will make it your familiar.”

Frixin looked up in shock before her head was forcefully pushed back down. A familiar was a bond between a human and a monster. One of absolute trust and loyalty. It was ancient magic, but no one understood how it worked, but it did. Through a ritual, it would connect the two together, linking them until their death.

The owner, for lack of a better term, could send their thoughts to their familiar. Commanding them to do certain things. But the thoughts of the familiar could also trickle back, influencing the owner.

There was a nasty incident a century back, where a tamer made too many familiars and went berserk. Since the strength and number of familiars depended on the owner’s mana and will, he was an amazing combatant, even without his familiars. It was one of the first emergency commissions requested by the Adventurer’s Guild. In the end, it resulted in one hundred and fifteen injuries, twenty deaths, and a rule of no more than two familiars.

Usually, the more powerful you became, the more of a liability familiars became. Military-grade magic required intense concentration and meticulous mana control, which familiars only made more complicated due to their low levels of intelligence.

The only familiars that did not influence their masters would be the dragons and their subspecies. Dragons were born intelligent, while certain lesser dragons and wyverns became more intelligent as they grew up. However, dragons seldom bent to humans, so the only way to have a dragon as a familiar was to find a wyvern egg and raise it.

“I do believe that the subject is much more intelligent than Moore thinks it is. And if my full hypothesis is correct, then it could be the most powerful weapon in this world. We could use it to strike back against the Directory. Take back what is rightfully ours! AND PUNISH THOSE THAT HUMILIATED US!”

By the end of the Emperor’s rant, he was fully shouting. Frixin had to brace herself on the carpet, whilst the tapestries flew off of the columns and flew everywhere. Due to the materials of the throne room, it did not shake at all, but she was fairly sure that it had caused some damage elsewhere in the palace.

“Dismissed!”

She was launched out of the throne room like a canon and flew out the doors. Now that she was out of the palace, she could use magic again. Activating her barriers and then wind magic to readjust her position. She hated the way that everyone had to leave the throne room. It was very uncomfortable and quite disorienting.

But she had now received an Imperial command. And if there is something that she learned throughout her time at the Empire, it was that an Imperial command was to be done immediately.

She flew above the Spire into international airspace. Here, supersonic flight was allowed. She gathered her mana to create a launchpad and shot towards the null laboratory.

Either the Emperor was right, and she would become even stronger than she is now. Or he was wrong, and then her career would be over.