Continuing north, he eventually found the temple for the final trial. It was carved within a mountain, with the plants overtaking the entire place. It looked like an ancient temple, as if humans hadn't set foot here in thousands of years.
Getting closer to the entrance of the temple, he found a large entrance followed by dark corridors guiding a way deeper into the mountain. Taking a step inside, the sound echoed for a bit. Staring into the corridor, Lucas scanned it with his willpower only to find it went a lot deeper than expected.
Looking at the walls, there were a bunch of murals depicted on them. Some parts had been lost to time, but he could make out the most from them. It started with a few drawings of a round object covered in a few patches.
'The world?'
Around the circle, drawings of massive creatures with large wings were dominating the planet. Lucas investigated the depictions up close to see what they would've looked like in the real world.
These crude jagged imitations were just that, comparing them to the Wyvern, they looked bigger and more flexible. Walking further down the corridors, it started to get very dark. Raising his hand, he summoned a flame to take a closer look at the murals.
The images of dragons were covering the planet until an image of a human appeared. But besides this one human were many more. They all faced the dragons with spears, swords and bows in their hands.
Eventually the depictions of humans lessened and lessened as the dragons increased once more until a striking image came. The humans took the stairs to go down. Standing still in front of this mural, Lucas looked around him.
'Humans came here to shelter from the dragons?'
In this place, the dragons couldn't reach them, being stuck at the entrance. Eventually the humans started to grow bigger in scale again until something strange happened again.
The humans until now were always drawn in black, but now a white, red, blue, green and purple human appeared. Lucas frowned, not understanding what this was supposed to depict.
The colorful humans surrounded a black one, what Lucas thought to be a normal human. Together, they ventured back upstairs and fought back against the dragons. One by one, the dragons seemed to fall against them.
Humans started to come back upstairs as they populated the lands again. The colorful ones kept the fight against the dragons but had trouble with one dragon in particular. It's drawing was much bigger and imposing then the others, a massive black dragon, seemingly trice the size of a normal dragon was pushing them back.
The fight was depicted for multiple murals until the dragon was bested by the human depicted in black. The next murals were all destroyed. Inspecting the damage, it was done intentionally. Lucas was interested in history since it could help him avoid mistakes people made in the past, but he couldn't understand what this was trying to say.
'So, to summarize, dragons ruled the planet, humans came and lost. They went Underground and cultivated their strength to come back and beat them. The leader of the dragons was stronger than expected, but lost in the end.'
'Seems about right. Too bad some punk destroyed the rest, it was getting interesting.'
'So when humans came into existence, dragons were already everywhere?'
'Couldn't tell ya to be honest. Humans don't exactly pop out of the ground. Besides, this was created in a temple, the artist must've been some kind of religious fanatic that can't think straight in the first place.'
Lucas inspected the murals for a bit longer before moving on. While he was very interested in how the world came to be and what happened, in the end, all that mattered was the here and now.
Moving from corridor to corridor, Lucas found the same murals playing the story over and over again, each time cut off after the dragons were defeated. At a certain point Lucas thought he was walking in circles.
If there was one thing that Lucas was certain off, it was his lack of spatial awareness. He was able to get lost in the Blue Fire Academy that wasn't even that big. Now, it felt like a maze that had no end.
The only reason he kept moving was because he was able to detect that the hallways weren't perfect copies of one another, giving him the sign that he was somewhere new.
At a certain point he came to an open room. In the center of the room, a platform was lower than the rest, with stairs leading to it from the four corners. Walking a bit to the side, Lucas walked around the lowered floor.
Not because he was afraid of it being a trap, no, it was because someone was sitting there. An old woman with her back facing the entrance, Lucas moved around to see her face.
She sat in a meditative stance with a walking cane in front of her. If someone said she was supposed to have died and come back to life, Lucas would just nod. Her wrinkles started to sag over her other wrinkles. She looked as if she was as old as the temple they were standing in.
Black and blue spots were visible over her face and hands. Her body was hunched and there was barely any movement, yet Lucas didn't underestimate her. Looking at her with his Magic Vision showed how alive she actually was.
'Should we interrupt her?'
'And get ourselves killed? You idiot, let the grandma meditate in peace. Let's go deeper.'
Leaving the woman by herself, Lucas ventured deeper into the hall. A bit down the corridor he saw a large entrance with stairs leading to it. Someone else was sitting on the steps with a slightly hunched back.
Lucas stepped forward until he reached the man. Bowing ever so slightly, Lucas made his presence known. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, your majesty. Or should I add a former to that?"
The man lifted his head, his face stone-cold he spoke with a deep tone. "So you finally came, pawn."
"Pawn?", Lucas frowned to hear such a thing come out of his mouth. He was the one who created plans that stretched out far, but he had to admit he fell to the Queen. So he was able to come to terms with the fact that some people were better than him.
"Why do you say so?", Lucas asked, since it still didn't make any sense for him to know about it.
"Do you think it was a coincidence you met Thurin there? Princes don't often find themselves so far away in the wilderness.", he said with a straight face.
"Are you telling me you knew what was going to happen?", Lucas had already experienced a large loss at both the Queen fox and the assassin. To have this old man in front of him play around with him as well annoyed him to no end.
"Enough talking.", he stood up, his physique still visible through the loose clothing. He might've been a bit older and supposedly dead for a long time, but he sure looked like he could give Grok a run for his money.
"We've barely talked.", Lucas rebuked as they had only said a few sentences each.
"I'm not here to talk, if you want answers, follow me.", walking past him, Lucas found it bizarre. Here he was visiting an ancient temple in the hopes of succeeding the final trial and boosting his strength. Instead, he found an ancient woman who looked like she could kill him in an instant and the former Emperor of the Empire he had just left behind.
Walking back in the corridors they arrived at the mediation spot for the old woman, but this time she stood up straight at the other end, leaving the lowered platform.
The Emperor walked down the steps, turned around and waited for Lucas to join him.
"What are you doing, get ready.", he said with a very tiny tinge of annoyance, as if he had been waiting for a very long time for him to appear.
Lucas didn't step down though, he could clearly see something was up, but following along didn't sit right with him.
"Explain what's happening, and I might join you."
The Emperor looked towards Lucas with his cold eyes, leaving no room for any kind of emotion. "We're to fight, the winner gets a wish fulfilled by her.", he pointed behind him, to the old woman who was holding on to her cane for to gain a steady footing.
Lucas didn't really believe what was happening, fighting with Aurelian didn't sit right with him. "A wish? That seems a bit too good to be true, the stories about you never mentioned you were this naive."
The Emperor didn't even blink or flinch in the slightest, his heart was as cold as stone as his rationality fueled his personality. "I don't consider myself naive, I have a contract.", his tone dry as ever.
Lucas focussed on the woman, but she was already gone. He didn't even notice her disappearance. His willpower was constantly scanning the surroundings, but she moved in his field of vision without him even comprehending it.
Taking a step back, a gnarly hand entered his view, a piece of parchment clutched between her decrepit fingers. Lucas found his heart beating a tad faster to realize how powerful she truly was. Her age didn't mean anything except that she was more experienced than he could ever hope for.
Seeing her simply stand there waiting for Lucas to grab the scroll the terms were extremely simple.
'Beat Aurelian in a fight and you will be granted a wish.'
'This shit seems like a trap.'
'...'
'What?'
'I feel like... we're just following along someone's preset path. Everything that happened wasn't due to luck or coincidence but due to... I don't know.'
'Hah! So you finally noticed it? I told you long ago something was up.'
'Yes, but then it seemed stupid and ignorant.'
'What?'
'Now Aurelian clearly stated that us meeting Thurin was meant to happen. This means that he knew about us arriving in the Underground as well as the situation in the kingdom. Did he know about the Queen?'
'You know an easy way to figure it out? Beating the shit out of him. He said he would give us the answers if we won.'
'Will he still be alive after that?'
'Who knows.'
Signing the contract, it vanished into light before entering the old lady. Lucas blinked only for her to vanish and appear on the other side of the arena again. Lucas, now having a clear objective and reward, found no reason to not fight against him.
In the end, it was a Rank 2 mage who experienced Two Trials against someone who was a No Rank mage and experienced Three Trials. The match up was unbalanced and thus unfair, but Lucas wouldn't complain.
To him, this was an easy reward. If it meant beating up this old man, so be it. Still, Lucas had already experienced trouble twice lately, both with Galen and Selicia, so he knew not to underestimate his opponent.
'Well, I guess a Dark Beam would end it too easily.'
'Just burn him alive, I can attest that shit sucks incredibly.'
'All humans have an instinctual desire and fear for fire. While used in so many beautiful ways, it also becomes a weapon capable of destroying entire lives.'
'Don't get philosophical on me now, focus on the battle, idiot.'
Lucas took the steps down and prepared himself. Raising his arms, he felt that this shouldn't be all that difficult.
The crone stood motionless as Aurelian simply stared through Lucas. From the four corners, the ground lit up, casting an eerie dark blue light over the arena. Aurelian's gaze was unflinching, and with deliberate slowness, he began advancing.
Lucas tightened his stance, summoning mana to reinforce his body. He let Aurelian close the distance, keen to read his opponent's rhythm. Lucas learned from Galen that throwing someone off balance was the perfect time to counterattack. All he had to do was wait for his opponent to stretch his arm, dodge it and push it to the side. Then he would have a clear opening.
As Aurelian's arm shot forward in a sharp jab, Lucas deflected it with a twist of his wrist, angling the strike aside. He immediately countered with a straight punch to Aurelian's ribs, but the older man caught Lucas's fist mid-air, his grip iron-like.
Before Lucas could react, Aurelian yanked him forward, slamming their foreheads together with a resounding crack. Pain shot through Lucas's skull as he staggered back, momentarily dazed. Aurelian capitalized, grabbing Lucas by the arm and hurling him across the arena like a rag doll.
Lucas landed hard but rolled into a crouch, raising his hands as a blue fireball materialized between his palms. With a sharp motion, he hurled the blazing orb straight at Aurelian. While he did have training from Galen, he was going up against someone that could easily best Galen in a fight.
There was no point in keeping it fair. Lucas watched as the ball of flames rapidly flew towards Aurelian, but his demeanor didn't change in the slightest. It felt as if he couldn't care less.
Magic was something unknown in the Underground, but he had not even the slightest hint of a reaction. He simply raised his fist and punched towards the ball of flames.
'Is he going to burn his hands to stop the attack?'
'No, this bastard is stronger than I thought.'
Aurelian's punch stopped right before hitting the spell, but the mere movement of air was enough to burst the spell.
"Using pure air pressure to stop a spell? Do you think that will work for every kind? Just give up.", Lucas said as he conjured a bunch of elemental spears, launching them without hesitation.
Aurelian's eyes darted between them all before he suddenly moved at a rapid pace. Using both fists and legs, he destroyed each spear with ease while using limited movements. Lucas summoned them again, only adding a Dark Spear in the middle.
Aurelian had no knowledge of elements, if he used the same tactic, he would lose a limb. But the man easily dodged the black spear before destroying the others. His speed was inhuman. He almost instantly went for the spears that would reach him first, calculating that in less than a second was nothing short of impressive.
Lucas waved his hand to the side, creating a large flame wall. Aurelian took a step back before attacking the wave like anything else. Punching a hole through the wave of flames, it revealed a Dark Spear right behind it.
His eyes caught on the spear and never let go as he twisted his body, narrowly avoiding a direct hit, but the spear grazed his shoulder, leaving a shallow cut that smoked with dark energy. Still, he looked perfectly fine as he stood tall, waiting for the next attack with the same straight face.
They stood there for a second, giving Lucas an idea, he smirked to himself. "I don't know why you decided to leave the kingdom, but Thurin would've loved it if you didn't leave."
"It was destined to happen."
"I'm sure he would've been delighted to hear that his death was all part of your destiny."
Aurelian almost flinched hearing this, his head turned to the old woman to find her smiling ever so slightly. By the time his eyes focussed back on the spot Lucas was he found nothing.
Turning his body his eyes moved from one side of the room to the other, only to find no one there.
BOOM
An explosion appeared right where Aurelian was standing. Lucas, who was invisible to Aurelian waited with baiting breath. The smoke cleared only to find Aurelian stand strong, his upper torso now revealed.
His athletic physique was chiseled and covered in tons of scars. The amount no ordinary soldier could have. The explosion which would've obliterated any normal human only scratched him slightly.
Aurelian still had the same stone-cold look on him, but Lucas could tell there was something different. There was a certain anger boiling inside of him, only visible through his clenched fists that were so tight that his veins started to bulge out.
Scanning the room he couldn't find Lucas in the slightest. Playing on his weakness, Lucas could only be noticed through willpower, and for that, you needed a Mental Sphere. The likes of which, Aurelian didn't have as an inhabitant of the Underground.
It was a dirty tactic in an unfair fight, honor was thrown away as he used the most despicable spell against him. But Lucas couldn't care less, this was a battle, and each battle needed a victor. If it meant winning in the end, there was no stratagem he wouldn't use.
And even with such a massive disadvantage, Aurelian didn't look scared in the slightest. It was clear that Lucas had to reevaluate his opponent once more.