6 Awakening

As Artemis stepped through the portal he was frozen in shock, completely taken aback by what he saw. Even though he knew that it should be day in the overworld it was currently dark as night all around him. Barthiz was still clasping at her chest trying to get the pain to go away, seeing this Artemis came out of his daze and smiled smugly at Barthiz.

"The pain will remain until absolute loyalty is engraved into your very soul, but in the meantime you can reduce the pain by consciously acknowledging that you belong to me now."

Barthiz struggled to lift her head and glared at Artemis.

"NEVER! I will never submit to you, I will never be loyal to you! For all I care you can be taken to heaven right now to suffer the 92 creator tribulations!"

Artemis sighed deeply hearing this as her current hate for him was the only downfall of this method of subjugation, while he knew the consequences of the words she just said and knew that after her punishment came she would give up, stronger willed people will not give up as she is about to. Almost immediately after the words escaped her mouth she felt the scorching chain grow tighter and fell it digging into her heart slowly destroying it, she was unable to bear the pain.

"I give! You are my one true lord and I will never disobey I swear please make the pain go away, I beg of you!"

After she said those words the pain immediately decreased by a substantial amount, although the pain was still very much there it was much more manageable, she would be able to live and complete any orders she was given without much hindrance from the pain. Hearing her words Artemis smiled before looking up at the sky still curious about the current phenomena, he started concentrating his power to his eyes greatly enhancing his vision. He looked around for any signs of life or structures people or other entities could live in, he did not find either of those but he found something else that confirmed his suspicions of his current situation.

He gazed into the distance and saw that hundreds of miles away there was a bizarre scene, the darkness suddenly ended and there was the brightness of day along with clear blue skies. He lifted his hand up resting his elbow on his other arm while stroking the small beard her grew over his years of hibernation, pondering over the Kingdom of Dawn's current situation.

'What circumstances in the kingdom could have led to this, did they offend a true god? That doesn't make sense though as true gods have not been seen since all of creation was still young, but what else could it possibly be? Even if it was me at full power I would only be able to accomplish this over the radius of one large city and even that is pushing it, and not only that but it would require constant power feeding into it which would be unrealistic. If I were to constantly channel my power into something like this I would be so weak that a slightly stronger wind than usual might kill me!'

Artemis shuttered at the thought of the power required to cause and maintain such a large formation. He immediately decided that he needed to retrieve his son and leave as soon as possible, but as he looked over the plains there was a small problem. It had been 1400 years! The landscape had changed, there were now small hills where there weren't any before and coupled with the formations Gaolun had placed in the underground altar to keep any energy waves from escaping finding his son was going to prove to be a headache.

"Barthiz we are going to search the area, I will be in a state of walking meditation to sense the underground altar as we walk. Unless it is an emergency do not disturb me. Do you understand?"

Barthiz nodded her head feverntly as she did not want to risk the return of that horrible pain from before. Artemis slightly nodded in satisfaction as he proceeded to close his eyes and enter a heightened state of awareness before walking in a random direction in search of the altar. After four hours of searching just as Artemis was about to lose his focus in rage he finally found something, a sensed the corner of a room just a few hundred feet in front of him. He immediately increased his pace and as he approached a smile appeared on his face getting larger and larger as he got closer.

'Finally I've found it! Gaolun if you were alive I would surely kill you slowly for this! No point in thinking about that though I must hurry and get into the altar!'

Artemis immediately stopped when he arrived above the altar and stomped hard onto the ground resulting in the ceiling of the altar to cave in bringing all the dirt above with it. Artemis lightly landed on the fallen dirt waiting for the dust to settle. As the dust settled he was finally able to see a stone slab and the figure of a young man lying chained on top of it. Artemis was truly happy to finally see his son in person even though he was created with the purpose of being a tool for the invasion it did not change the fact the he was his son and his only one at that. Artemis stared for a few moments at his son sizing him up. Lucas had short black hair and a well built muscular body. Artemis nodded his head in slight satisfaction, although he was not as intimidating as he wanted him to be he still had a build that would make any potential opponents have second thoughts.

'Enough waiting the time has finally come, You have rested long enough my son it is time for you to awaken!'

Artemis gently stretched his hand out and lightly tapped on the binding chains, the chains immediately turned into metal dust before being blown away by the wind. After a few moments Lucas slightly groaned before once again opening his silvery eyes for the first time in 1400 years.

1900 A.D in the evening of the 1st of the Blooming Lotus

The true demon emperor awakened his son from his 1400 year slumber, it was precisely this time on this day of this year that would would be mentioned numerous times in many historical texts of the future.