The three legacy fighters who introduced me to the rules of the arena when I first entered Valor City float before me now, unmoving while dark orange soul energy courses through their bodies.
Maria points at them and speaks up.
"Hey, it's them! We had dinner with them together that one night. The legacy fighters at the arena... They were underground the first time we ran from the 5th ranked Dark Guard! Is this where they were taken? What's... going on here...?"
Abby, Monk, and Lith stare at the pod with surprised expressions as they are very familiar with these three individuals as well.
My Soul Energy expands to start filling the room and trapping away more of the Soul Energy that lingers and pours out of the pods. I continue to step forward until I'm faced right up against the glass of the middle tank of liquid with Ace, the swordsman, floating with his eyes closed wearing the exact same gear as he did on the day of their capture.
However, all of the magic power has been drained from them, and it seems as if it is just a plain metal sword by his side and clothing and armor with no enchantments at all.
I speak up.
"They're alive... but not for long..."
I can feel that their vitality is directly linked with the remaining Soul Energy in the room.
The moment we opened this door the seal to the outside world was broken. As I began absorbing their remaining borrowed lifeline, the timer for their elimination sped up very quickly.
With no orders to follow, and their commander deceased, the only thing they can do is wait for the Soul Energy around them to naturally disperse. There's no telling how long a process like this would take, and I'm not entirely sure it's possible. Their bones and organs are soaked with Dense Orange Soul Energy.
We stand in silence as my red Aura creeps around the back of the room too, soaking up every bit of orange mist, only leaving the dense stores that are left inside the three fighters remaining.
Monk speaks up next.
"What if you attempt to wash away their curse, like you did with my master?"
I nod, allowing the red energy to creep up over the tops of the tanks and down into the water.
"That's exactly my plan. I'll give them the same choice."
The red energy fills the entire room now, devouring the surrounding orange energy that is inside the tubs now, creeping closer to the three bodies inside. I let a wave of telepathy hit the fighters while the dark red flames ignite underwater and surround their bodies entirely.
The same statement that echoed throughout the heads of all of the Dark One's troops echoes through their minds.
"Pledge your loyalty, or burn to ash."
My Soul Energy seeps into their bodies and dense red flames fill the entire room as the highest amount of Soul Energy that needs to be dispersed is directly attacked.
Everyone here attached to my link is unaffected by my flames.
It takes a full 10 seconds for my fire to die down, and all of the water and glass from the tubs to shatter and disintegrate as well.
Every drop of orange Soul Energy that infected these fighters' vitals, bones, and inner parts of their soul are burned away.
I feel three brand new links of loyalty connect with me, and when the red Soul energy flames dissipate, the only thing left behind is the three fighters looking up at all of us in awe, like they just woke up from a long slumber.
Max, the shield, makes eye contact with me and smiles with light lips before collapsing onto the ground.
Sia, the earth user who now has had this power stripped away from her manages to let out a faint whisper.
"It's you... The Flame Emperor..."
Then collapses as well.
Ace falls to one knee, keeping himself awake longer than any of the others.
"You saved us. Whoever you people really are... We are indebted to you."
His eyes scan the room, recognizing Monk, Maria, and Abby after me, then bows his head.
He falls forward and passes out onto the floor after this too and the room falls silent once again.
I nod with a satisfied look on my face.
"It worked."
Lith speaks up, staring at the sight before him in awe.
"W-What worked? What did you just do? I definitely recognize those three..."
I speak up again..
"I need you to get some rooms ready. Whether that's in the Galeheart tower or in the Gold district of Valor City. I don't have enough infrastructure for this many new people back in Sector 2 just yet..."
I think to myself while nodding, and Lith agrees to sort out the arrangements.
Lith uses a teleport crystal to quickly get back to his tower and get some of his Royal Guards on payroll to come and help.
At the same time, I use the elevator to go down to the 58th floor to find 2 more tubs of orange liquid and 2 more fighters that I've never seen before.
Without wasting time, I use the same method of focusing a telepathy wave into their heads to give them an ultimatum, then purge the orange soul energy from their bodies.
To my surprise, it works again.
Both fighters fall to the floor and have a brief moment of consciousness before falling asleep on the floor.
I move down floors again, repeating the process with the three more tubs on the 57th.
A little overconfident in my abilities, I assume this test will go just like all of the others, but once given a choice, only 2 of the 3 captured fighters create links of loyalty with me. The final member is burned to ash along with the Lich King's Soul Energy that courses through his body.
As we travel downward floor to floor, this becomes a more common occurrence.
About 20% of the unconscious fighters when given a chance to live under my rule, or die with the Soul Energy they are bonded with, choose the latter.
To me, if they do not accept my terms, they are nothing more than pawns of the Lich King's army.
Everyone in these pods is between level 400 and 750. They are clearly a special group chosen by the Dark One for experiments.
Possibly to be turned into Wraiths, or even to be trained up to level 1000 and turned into Dark Guards. The Lich King's true motives with this tower are unknown to me.
They are all very strong, but have nothing on their status sheets.
Once we make it all the way down to the bottom of the tower on floor 1, 93 new links of loyalty have been added to my Rising Emperor's domain, and they are all at a similar level as the three squad leaders in my army, and at a similar mana control as the Elite soldiers.
As we do, Lith and some of his hired guards come in and out of the past floors and bring the passed out fighters back to the Galeheart tower to rest in their private facilities. The extras are brought to various smaller hotels in the Gold District with close connections to the Galeheart Mercenary Guild.
Lith recognizes almost every one of the fighters on the top 30 floors or so as past arena contestants that mysteriously stopped showing up over the last few months. Some are from the midday events, while others were even top-ranked legacy fighters before Ace, Max, Sia, and Monk took the stage.
Many people on the lower floors are unrecognizable to both of us, and are most likely just random adventurers and hunters that were kidnapped in the Dark Continent as the Lich King has been expanding his domain over the years.
I've managed to save over 80% of them from rotting away inside this tower for eternity. If they choose to join my ranks when they wake up, the size of my army just grew a significant amount in both strength and numbers. However, based on how long Monk's master has been sleeping, there is no estimate on how long this slumber will actually last.
Once they're all taken care of, we leave this tower and walk through the empty streets again to enter the 3rd and final tower.
After I cut open the wall at its base, just like the past two, we walk inside and the sight we see is very interesting.
The lights flicker on automatically like all of the other buildings. There are many many floors above, just like the building we just left. However, there is no elevator in the lobby that leads up to them, and using all of my perception senses, I'm positive that none of these higher floors have anything stored on them.
Other than the ground level floor we stand on, this massive tower is an empty mana shielded shell.
At the back of the lobby, there is a large metal box with blue holograms hovering over it connected to intricate-looking interfaces.
It is split into three sections, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, with numbers ticking away on each of them.
Lith's eyes open wide at the sight of this machinery, but my vision is more focused on the single square opening in the center of the room that has a ladder leading hundreds of meters down into the ground.
Lith speaks out while walking over to the machine.
"This is the machine that tracks all of the wristbands in the city. It may seem like a small device, but this small box controls and keeps the balance of power in this city. It tracks all transactions between wristbands, collects the midnight tax, and is linked to the city-wide surveillance network."
As he says this, my focus is swayed quite a bit, but the faint pure white Qi reading that comes from down below us captures most of my attention.
I reply.
"Well- There's no use in ruining a good thing. Make sure that control box stays safe. We'll keep the midnight tax ongoing and continue blocking off areas of the city to monetary tiered restrictions. It may even be safer to bring this device into the GaleHeart Tower for more protection. Leaving it out in the open here could be risky."
My gaze turns back to the enormous hole in the ground.
Everyone else on my team senses there is something down in the darkness as well.
Fisher and Lydia even peer over the edge.
Monk speaks up.
"I think I know exactly what is down there... We have one beneath the monastery, but it isn't nearly as massive."
His words linger, and I begin to build a visual in my mind of the cave system below the City that is connected to this long open entrance using my Soul Energy senses.
The silence is broken by Ember's comment next.
"I think I know too. This explains how the Dark One and all of its guards managed to get so much stronger while it was here in the city."
Everyone is mesmerized by the faint waves of Qi flowing up from the darkness and very curious about Monk and Ember's words.
I jump into the small square hole and begin floating down, deep underground to see for myself what exactly is below this final tower.
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