The party that Auclair had briefly acquainted himself with rushed into the vault. Auclair followed closely behind them and his eyes widened at the vault's lavish interior.
The walls had beautiful marble statues carved into them, everything had a gold embellishing. Ornate chandeliers with crystals hung high on the ceiling radiating a magnificent shimmer. It was all integrated into a long hallway that branched off a certain points.
'For a poverty stricken world, its sickening.' Auclair thought.
Further into the hall were dozens of soldiers and guards. Among them were quite a few giant soldiers mixed in.
Like the giant soldier that protected the vault, these giant soldier's wore crimson armor.
Gwen and Vincent looked around the room in worry. There were enemies in front of and behind the two. The quickly realized that they alone couldn't take on all the soldiers and guards.
The hall was grew silent as everyone sized up their opponents. A few whispers broke out and the shifting of gear could be softly heard as everyone prepared for a fight.
The guards and soldiers slowly drew their swords, spears, bows, and crossbows. The group of contestants readied their magic and weapons.
Gwen and Vincent grew unsteady and Gwen whispered into her brother's ear.
Auclair watched the two siblings silently talk and ignored the increasingly rowdy surroundings. He decided to check what fate had to say about their karma.
'Not bad people, not good people either.'
Then Auclair frowned.
'There's something sinister here.'
Auclair couldn't tell what exactly, but the further into the hall he looked, the more tangled the threads of fate became. It was a sure sign of something twisted that shouldn't exist, a sign of something created by an outer god.
Auclair's lip curled in disgust.
His body currently wasn't strong enough to stop anything an average outer god would do, but judging by the quality of the world, it was a low level outer god.
Auclair determined he'd need to actually see whatever was causing the problem to further brainstorm a solution. That was if he even tried to solve it at all, he had more important things to do.
Then there was a yell.
Without any further prompting the two sides began their fight. The long range magic slaughtered the guards and soldiers, it was a complete massacre. The arrows launched from the guards couldn't hit anyone in the absolute chaos that the magic created.
In that massacre, Gwen and Vincent grabbed each other and Gwen raised them towards the chandeliers with her chain.
All of the king's protectors, save for the giants, quickly fell. The giants were extremely quick to devise a plan. Those with tower shields placed themselves at the front and bore the brunt of the attack. They slowly began advancing while some of the giant soldiers scavenged their fallen brethren for their bows and arrows.
The now bowmen raised themselves and nocked their arrows. They pulled their strings back and began firing at the contestants. Upon releasing the bowstrings, the bows split from the sheer force.
The bowmen of course didn't forget about the two hanging precariously from a chandelier. However, Vincent barely managed to block the mighty arrows with his shield.
The other contestants weren't as lucky. While nobody directly died, there were a few gravely injured. The healer quickly started to get to work as they made a special hand symbol. A green aura floated to the ground and set a perimeter around the injured who all gathered together.
Their wounds slowly started stitching together while the giants slowly advanced.
Auclair casually twirled an arrow he had caught in his hand. He was looking at the mission's objective again and thinking.
[Take the ring from the fraudulent king.]
It was smarter to just complete the quest and make it to first place. He could get to the champion's wish faster that way.
Due to his recent self-described 'anger management accident,' Auclair had more than enough strength to counteract his leaking core and make it to the end of the trial. In fact, at this point it would just be wasteful to consume any more hearts as it wouldn't really make much of a difference.
The giant soldiers finally began reaching the contestants with only three falling from magic with a handful more being injured.
The two sides began clashing at close range and Auclair watched on for a moment in silence as he continued twirling the arrow.
A giant stabbed a spear towards Auclair's chest, but he sidestepped it. He hit the spear up with his knee and nonchalantly grabbed it.
He tossed the arrow he had and it slipped past the visor of the soldier's helmet and pierced the giant's head.
The giant fell with a loud thud that was obscured by the chaos right next to the two. Auclair raised the giant's spear and began twirling it too with a smile.
"What was it you called me?" Auclair suddenly yelled to the siblings.
It was just as Gwen and Vincent were about to try to make their escape and head for the treasure further into the vault. They instinctively looked towards Auclair when they felt an alarming presence.
"Wasn't it Mr. Legs?" Auclair asked.
The two of them had an ominous premonition. Cold sweat started creeping down their backs, their bodies chilled and goosebumps grew on their skin.
"The name is Auclair."
Gwen and Vincent's time had run out. Fate had decided to severe their threads.
As such, Auclair bent back and strengthened his grip on the spear. The brother and sister went wide-eyed and Auclair launched the spear forward before the two could further react.
The spear shot through Vincent's chest and Gwen's stomach, flying out the other end.
Vincent gasped for air, only to find blood quickly fill his lungs. Blood quickly shot out of mouth and his grip on his sister grew faint. He fell all the way to the hard marble without any resistance.
Gwen's eyes flickered for a moment and the chain that was latched onto the chandelier started wavering. She looked down and saw her brother's motionless body on the floor. Her eyes grew blurrier and blurrier and the chain finally disappeared, sending her into a free fall.
Auclair looked at their two bodies with disinterest before he started walking forward. He confirmed their threads of fate had been severed, now it was time to get the king's ring.
The other party looked towards Auclair in shock but had to focus on their own battle. They thought that maybe the man had his reasons, so they didn't bother with him anymore.
It was the opposite for the crimson soldiers however. It was their goal to stop anyone from advancing, so they took priority over Auclair who had gone ahead of the other contestants.
The spear had landed on the other side of the hall, far from Auclair, so all he had were his fists.
The bows had long been broken by the strength of the crimson soldiers, so a tower knight with a spear, a fencing knight with no shield, and a great sword wielding knight all stepped forward to duel Auclair.
Auclair eyed his three opponents. The tower knight stood at the forefront with his massive shield covering him and the other two soldiers.
'This will be tough.' Auclair silently thought to himself.
Back at the Iron Tower, Hero and Alex just entered a meeting room. Sitting in sharp clothes were the members of the Iron Syndicate's board. They usually looked at the two men with feigned delight.
Behind their smiling eyes was an open hostility. Their forked tongues poked and prodded Alex and Hero at every opportunity they had. Had Hero not forged the Syndicate himself, the two would've been ousted long ago.
However, this time, they had dropped their smiling faces and donned worry clearly upon their faces. There wasn't even a hint of hostility.
"Alex, Hero, take a seat. We need to talk to you about a report that hit my desk this morning from Contestant Investigations."
Hero's heart skipped a beat.
'If they've found out about Auclair, they might've gone to the gods. Then they would've found out that Yohr escaped. Shit.'
He thought to himself in panic, but he hid the panic behind an amazing poker face.
"It's about the previous champion."
Hero sighed slightly through his nose. But then his brows raised in confusion.
"What about him?"
"His wish was problematic… Extremely problematic."
"How so? How did you even find out what his wish was?"
"Because we coincidentally stumbled upon it." Another man cut in. "During regular maintenance of the Tower's core, we found the champion there."
"What?" Hero blurted out.
"Apparently, Reynfry wish involves the core. He's talking to it and its responding to him."
"…" Hero remained silent.
"You know something don't you? Reynfry is protecting the core now, we can't get close to it. He's the strongest champion ever, and he's preventing access to it. What I want to know is why?"
"If my father knows something, it is of none of your concern." Alex defended his father.
The members of the board only spared Alex a passing glance before they looked back at Hero.
"Know your place boy. The adults are talking." One of the board members remarked.
The room grew quiet.
"...fine." Hero spat after some time. He slowly made his way to a chair and sat.
"Before any of you were even in your daddy's ballsack-"
The other ancients in the room frowned at the vulgar remark but didn't say anything.
"-there was a question that always lingered on my mind. As you all know, I had constant contact with the gods. We searched for the god you all still refuse to admit exists. Either way, it was strange to me.
"They kept coming back to this place, this very tower we have attempted to take over. The gods have complex relationships, some are lovers, some friends, others are brothers and sisters. They all govern over this realm and others, but where did they come from? And why did they live here specifically?
"It wasn't until far later on when I discovered it. A passing remark so insignificant, yet it changed my life, and everyone's life in this realm altogether. It was what prompted me to create this empire. Do you know what I heard?"
"What?"
"They said,'Father has woken up.' Not once had I ever heard of a 'father' before. That's when I knew there was another god that created all of them. The Primordial. The reason the gods lived here was to stay close to their creator. To this day, I remember my encounter with him."
Hero paused for a moment while he reminisced about his past.
"He asked me for a wish."
Auclair stood in the silent hallway. The contestant group's healer stood next to him with tears rushing down their face.
All of their companions had died. The vast majority died at the soldier's hands, but the surviving few Auclair had killed. He had said something about their time being up. The healer was confident that he could save his gravely injured friends, but Auclair had said nothing could be done.
However Auclair had told them he'd let them live if they healed him.
It was a bluff however, he wouldn't kill them either way because fate told him not to, but he needed healing if he were to continue the trial.
He would've done it himself, but he still couldn't use magic.
The soldiers were tougher than expected. The fencer almost took Auclair's head off, and the soldier with the great sword almost cut him in half. Auclair managed to crush the tower knight's chest, killing them. Then without the proper defense, the other two crumbled rather quickly.
Auclair looked at the healer who finished their job and thanked them. They would most likely hate him for the rest of his life. It was something Auclair was familiar with though.
Auclair silently walked down the hall in his blood-soaked clothes with a few hearts to replenish his strength. The king's thread of fate was heading in the same direction as the ominous feeling that he detected earlier.
He clicked his tongue in disappointment and left the hallway, entering another hallway instead.
Some moments passed, then some more.
Then Gwen's eyes fluttered open in defiance. She spotted her lifeless brother just out of her reach. Despite the pain, she crawled towards her brother with gritted teeth and screaming muscles. The gaping hole in her stomach gushed out blood with each slow crawl.
She grabbed her brother with clenched hands and tightly hugged him. Her eyes were full of an indescribable rage as tears flowed freely.
"I will bring you back."
She proclaimed in a whisper with utmost conviction and confidence.
"And I will kill Auclair."