“What do you mean by that?” I couldn’t help but ask after a long minute of silence.

“In each generation, a single descendant of my race will carry the holy mark of our race. In that mark, and with an unknown method to me, that place is hidden.”

“Is it there?” I screamed out in shock while pointing towards his chest. And he nodded.

“When the last guardian dies, another one will be selected by the mark. He will get that brand over his chest and carry it for the rest of his life. Only by using his blood can this seal be broken. And once broken, what’s stored inside will be released.”

“Your people are stored in that mark?” I couldn’t help but eye that symbol in puzzlement and disbelief.

“I don’t know what’s stored in there,” and he just exposed such a shocking piece of news, “I only got a message when I was six years old. I have to find a world, safe enough to not get discovered by anyone else and then I can release what’s inside that mark. At the same time, if I couldn’t, then the mark will find someone else after my death. This kept going for a long time already, as I learnt from that message.”

“This…” I looked at him again. A single man was shouldering the troubles of an entire race and carrying its fate on his own was something shocking and admirable.

In one way, he wasn’t that different from me. We both were carrying the fate of our races. But in his case, he was trying to help his race survive, and I wanted my race to strive.

“So that won’t violate your rules, right?” he asked in anticipation and hope, and I couldn’t help but inwardly sigh.

If it was just like what he said, then it was indeed safe to bring his people here. But the issue still remained in that he didn’t know what was sealed inside his mark.

Could it be a weapon of mass destruction? It couldn’t be that, right?

If so, then why was such a mark handed from one generation to another with the request of finding a good place for their people to stay?

His race couldn’t be such maniacs to create a weapon to destroy a good place like mine indeed, right?

It was a possibility, yet a very low one. So I hurriedly threw it away from my mind, and started to consider other things.

If his race was living in that mark, how could they do that? The most acceptable possibility was for that mark to be linked to another world.

p What if that world was already discovered and crushed? What if I linked my world here to it and ended up inviting scary folks to my place?

I stood in silence, weighing down the benefits and risks. “Fine, but you will come with me towards the surface first,” I decided to link his world to mine at one of the most formidable places in this world; my first training ground.

Even if I ended up inviting enemies, I’d be confident in crushing them using the forces there. And by then I’d hurry and find a way to seal that link or even shatter it to pieces.

“It’s all ok to me as long as we are still inside this world of yours,” he completed and didn’t show any sign of rejection.

But doing such a great thing couldn’t be done in front of other eyes. During this time, he kept whispering to me on a far corner in my chariot.

Yet I planned to bring the paragons first to Isac, leave them with her, before returning back to this world.

The trip didn’t take that long. I told Isac about these dudes, left them with her to deal with their future arrangement.

Then I made sure to warn everyone there to be ready to start conquering other worlds. I wasted lots of time dealing with that last world and war. And since then I took my time to show paragons around.

Even if I didn’t take that much time thanks to the time difference between the two worlds, I didn’t want to come later on and find my forces still not ready.

“Let’s go,” after getting all these things done, I led Stephen alone with me back into my second Earth world.

Then I jumped towards the first training ground, and there I selected the spot close to the portal zone.

If things went south at any moment, I’d fetch many messengers and ask for reinforcements from everywhere else.

“You can do it here,” I pointed at that place and waited for Stephen to do his magic.

His gruesome looking wound at his left shoulder was still oozing blood. I knew that such a price would have to be paid in full, and such would take a long time to heal.

He touched his wound without any care or hesitation, then started to draw the same symbol again.

During the time I took to get my things done, that symbol vanished fast and without even noticing it.

This time his finger didn’t stop after drawing that symbol. He kept drawing smaller ones around, forming another crescent around it formed out by tiny stars.

Once done, he clenched his fist and placed his bloodied fist over that symbol as if he was triggering something.

And then he punched his chest fiercely enough to make him stumble a few steps to the back.

I was sure if his face wasn’t covered up, he’d indeed look quite pale.

Just before I could ask him anything, that symbol seemed to absorb his blood. And then it got all shiny all of sudden, before releasing a thick pillar of red light that expanded to envelop the entire sky.

When I looked closer, it felt like red clouds were taking shape out there. And these clouds started to expand and reach places away from here in mere breaths time.