Return of the Sealed Archmage 2 [V.1]

This is the first draft of chapter 2, not sure if it's too wordy of an opener with the epigraph or if it sets the tone right, so I'm open to feedback.

Gonna be adding a lot more words to this chapter, but if you wanted to read ahead- open to both free and paid patreons for now

2: 

“When I found him, a lone child lying upon the land of the town that was no longer, I knew I had a choice. 

I could take him and leave Nureya behind, to the wastelands ruled by the five warlords, where strength alone held currency. Few would bother a Master Magus who wished to be left to his own devices and there, in that harsh sanctuary,  I could teach him about language and history, artifact sciences and literature and most crucially, about love and compassion— all things he would need not to become a monster. For I knew, that was how the world would see him, what the powers that be would sculpt him to become, whether he wished for it or not. 

The other choice was the one I took, what others saw as loyalty to the crown but a decision I took for Nureya. No matter how quickly our research in artifacts progressed, without even a single Grandmaster Magus amongst our ranks, we were reliant upon a few quill strokes on paper for our natural defense. To rely upon the capricious natures of the Eidolons for our safety was no safety at all and yet…

I regret the choice I made on that day. 

For in choosing to remain loyal to my own kingdom, I deprived the world of man of our salvation.”

- Private Diary of Master Magus (Illusion) Alek Von Serano, dated 20th Janvier 62 P.D., Property of the Kingdom of Nureya, Status: Classified. 

Nine Hundred Cycles later. 

16th Juli 962 P.D. 

Fifty Klicks north from village Wandermere, unnamed cave system.

Twenty years ago, a Daemon Ashkin that had been part of a scouting mission to study the coastal regions of the Kingdom of Nureya for any staging ground that could be used for future invasions had encountered an an unnamed cave system fifty klicks north of an unassuming village that had a population of six-hundred or so and was defended by a Tier 1 Mana Barrier. 

An inadequate protection in most cases, but this deep into Nureya’s territory and it made sense why the Kingdom did not think stricter security measures were required. Due to the coastal region being densely forested and the fact that the residents of Wandermere had no reason to venture this far north, it wasn’t a surprise that the cave systems had gone by undiscovered. 

The Daemon Ashkin’s scouting team was only one of hundreds that had been deployed across the human kingdoms that called the Heartlands their home, so it could be said that it was merely by chance that they had encountered a cave system in the far-flung outer reaches of the Eldergrove. 

It was also by chance that they had lost three of their five members to the World Rank Temporal Stasis spell that had been placed upon the entrance of the cave systems. There was only one being in the world capable of casting a Chronomancy Spell at the Archmage level, a human that had died four hundred years ago. The Eidolon of Time had taken an incomplete, unreliable and impossibly inefficient school of magic and refined and developed it to the World Rank stage and for that accomplishment, even the daemons respected and feared him. 

It had taken three Harbringers to slay the Eidolon, a cost that had been too heavy— having set their plans for the Heartlands back by decades, if not centuries. His secrets had seemingly died with him, for any traces, records and even samples of organic material affected by the Time Eidolon’s magic was worth it’s weight in mana stones, both in the human and the daemon world.