"Many years ago, the world faced what had gone down in history as the most chaotic days in human existence.
War ravaged, countries fell, destruction followed by every nook and cranny, all seemed lost and people had already given up on life itself until..."
A silhouette of a man in his thirties could be seen raising a longsword high in the sky before charging towards demonic-looking creatures.
"A Hero appeared and brought an end to the chaos. Sadly that wasn't until most of the population of the world that time was destroyed"
He stood atop a pile of the creatures as he shouted his battle cry...
"His final words before he vanished were"
"When the six authorities have bonded, Ragnarok will rise once again"
"He was the first relic user"
The man disappeared...
A woman was revealed to be reading from a book titled "Last Days of the old era" before closing it and placing it back on a shelf amidst other books.
She seemed to be in a library.
She was clad in red armor like a knight and a cloak hiding her face, had blond hair dropping down to her back level.
"Lady Serena!!" A man came rushing towards her holding a newspaper.
"Shhhhhhh"
She pushed her index on her lips and shushed him gesturing that they are in a library and not the only people there.
He looked around perplexed at the many Nonfriendly eyes glaring down at him making him bow his head down a bit to say 'I'm sorry for the intrusion, won't happen again'
He began to speak with a low tone
"Milady, a crypt has been sighted near a border town in our territory, there is no relic energy coming from it though, seems to be a Village level Crypt!".
He finished and raised his head to be met with the heart-stealing face of his commander, Lady Serena.
A woman of few words and many actions, she is also the district commander of the Regrah District, the neighboring District sitting between Kondo and Geria.
She truly was a woman that every man could only dream of having.
This young woman in her early twenties began to speak for the first time, her voice was as calm as the summer see...
"It says it appeared right in the middle of one the routes leading to Kondo from here, maybe it has something to do with the prison incident from last week"
She paused a bit.
Since it was a low-grade crypt it's sure to dissolve on its own.
"Conroy, deploy a few men to scout the area and make sure no one enters for their own good, there's no need to raid the Crypt."
The man named Conroy who was her right-hand man received a message on his phone which made him drop the phone entirely before nervously speaking...
"Co-com-commander! The crypt has upgraded to B-Rank!!"
A few moments ago...
In a darkling forest along the path to Regrah, Ace and Reginald were staring down a portal that suddenly just appeared in front of them.
"Woah this is the first time I'm seeing a crypt portal."
Reginald awed.
Ace and Reginald were on their way to Regrah to meet up with an old associate of Reginald whom he claims was an expert crafter and would make an emblem for Ace.
'Solemn! we can finally become a full-fledge clan'
"It is a low grade one, probably has no relics in it"
Reginald interrupted ace's thought only for him to enter another trance of thought.
Ace did not even make a nudge as he stared blankly at the portal as if he could hear a voice coming from the other side.
He started to move his hand as he reached out for the portal while trying to take a step forward only to be stopped by the master thief
"Hey what do you think you're doing?" Reginald grabbed Ace's arm.
"That's dangerous! We don't know what's on the other side of this portal."
Ace on the other hand snapped out of his daze only to push Reginald back and swipe his hat.
"Argh! what do you that for? You little pun-"
The hat started to glow a faint yellow light in resonance with the portal as it came closer to the portal.
Reginald was shocked at the strange thing that was happening to the hat his dad gave him and his that before that and ao forth...
"Ace! What did you do!!" he grabbed him by his collar and made a face with his other hand.
"You couldn't feel it because you can't use seismic sense, from the looks of it, this is not an ordinary hat".
Yes, unbeknownst to Reginald, his hat was a relic, and it is currently undergoing its first awakening now by siphoning the energy from the portal.
He explained to the thief.
There were three main ways of obtaining a relic.
The most common way was raiding a Crypt.
The second and rarest was being selected by a relic.
The third way was by inheriting a family heirloom, a relic passed down to generations of relatives if they were alive and in this case, was the Hat of Lupin Relic.
The Gentleman Thief who sort out Justice by breaking the law in the old world's country of France, his most noticeable feature was the hat he wore which is now in the possession of his descendant - Reginald Starr.
"You saying that all this time i had a relic and it's that hat?"
Reginald asked as his eyes lit up in excitement.
"I'll be able to use abilities similar to yours then"
"Yes and No" Ace interjected
"You see, there are several types of relics each with their unique abilities relating to the Name behind the relic, like yours now, it's bound to have thief-like abilities to make you an even better thief and since it is an heirloom-type relic your affinity with this relic will be very high and you can use it without having any mastery in using Ain"
"Ohh" Reginald listened attentively like he was in a class
The Portal started growing bigger and sucked the hat in, catching Ace and Reginald off guard in the process.
"That thing ate my hat! give it back!!!"
Without a second's thought, Reginald jumped into the portal and Ace tried to follow, but before he could jump...
An arrow was shot towards his direction which he caught with seemingly zero effort.
"He caught the arrow ma'am!"
On the other side of the portal...
"Ouch!"
Reginald fell hard on his behind and mumbled as he picked himself up
He dusted himself off and looked ahead towards the scenery in front of him. The place he was in wasn't very big
He was in a dark modern world showroom with security lights beaming all over, but what caught his attention was his hat that was across the other side of the room.
He plopped down at the recent turn of events
Whenever a crypt bearing a relic appeared two things were usually confirmed...
One is that there would be a test or puzzle to see if the raider is worthy enough to bond with the relic.
But this case was different.
Heirloom relics bond with their owners without them having to undergo any series of tests, the fact that Reginald had to take a test meant that the relic doesn't deem him worthy.
Lupin's Hat belonged to a master class thief and strategist it might not like the idea that its newest owner was a lowly fraud who was easily duped and caught so His. Ain Affinity with the relic dropped before Ace could awaken it.
Ain is known as the "Self-force", the power within every single living organism.
It was first discovered Eight hundred years ago as humanity's last stand in fighting off the control of the relics.
A relic can either be controlled by using Ain to make it bend to its owner's wield.
Or by using Affinity, matching certain conditions depending on the type of relic to be able to use it.
In Reginald's case, he had to be a master thief and gentleman.
"Oh great! I have to get past these security lights if I want my hat back".
He retorted as he rolled up his sleeves ready for action
Back outside...
"He caught the arrow ma'am".
Conroy was reporting to his commander using the comms he was wearing
Ace who was just about to go after Reginald was attacked by Conroy and his relic - Apollo's Bow
"My apologies but you and your cohort are under arrest by the order of my esteemed commander for illegal trespassing in a crypt"
He aimed his bow again and this time a golden radiant arrow formed as he released his grip and the arrow flew towards Ace.
Ace rolled out of harm's way but before he knew it his opponent was nowhere to be seen.
"Up here!"
Conroy jumped high up. From Ace's perspective, Conroy was blocking the sun as he readied another attack
"Sun purge!"
He shot an even brighter arrow that moved faster, this time ace could barely dodge it completely, the arrow brushed through his shoulder while he was dodging and a sudden jolt of pain struck him
"Arghhh"
He checked the spot he was hit and it was burning
"This is my relic's power!"
Conroy explained at the now on knees Ace as he readied another attack.
"Even a slight brush can cause severe pain equaling a 3rd-degree burn, now surrender and I won't have to hurt you any further, my Commander is a merciful person I'm su-"
Conroy couldn't believe what he was seeing...
'A monster...'
What he saw was a dark aura, above Ace as the burning wound he gave him vanished.
He stood up and faced Conroy with dreaded eyes that looked like the eyes of a wolf ready to attack.
Ace called upon his shadow as it wrapped itself around his arm and forming Spikes, the aura intensifying further making Conroy quiver in fear
" You have one chance..."
He said in a cold and darkened voice, unlike the cheerful manner he normally speaks.
"Run".
Conroy plopped down and stumbled while getting up and running as far as he could.
'I have to get the commander, this guy is insane!'
He quickly changed his mission after witnessing a wild angry beast.
As he gradually vanished from the scene towards the direction of the district, Ace reverted to his normal form and turned towards the portal.
"Now, let's go save Regii hehe"
He spoke cheerfully and jumped into the portal.
"Huff... Huff. Huff, just a little bit more..."
Reginald had finally made his way to the hat after numerous attempts to maneuver through the laser beams.
It seems that if he touches a beam by even a hair's length he'll be teleported back to the starting point.
After hundreds of retries, he finally got his hat back.
"Yessssss!!".
He bawled in excitement as he took the hat from the display stand
Then...
CLUNK!!!
He tripped the trap that was placed on top of the stand where the hat was placed on and the walls of the room started to move...
"Oh shit (- -)"