The heavy wooden doors creak open, their sound cutting through the oppressive silence.
A faint, sickly light seeps into the dark chamber, barely illuminating the edges of the room.
Shadows coil around every surface like a living presence, cold and unmoving, sending forth a spine-chilling aura for anyone who dared meet their eyes within.
At the far end of the room, a figure sits on a throne made from obsidian, its edges sharp and filled with thorns.
The figure is still, save for the slow, deliberate tapping of fingers against the armrest.
Cloaked in a dark robe, the upper part of the face is obscured, yet the smooth blade-like lines that cross diagonally on the face can be clearly seen, and the gaze from beneath the robe is palpable, like a predator sizing up its prey.
A man stepped forward, coming through the heavy doors.
He walked calmly and unhurriedly, yet the faintest tremor in his movements betrayed his unease.
Coming to a stand about ten meters before the figure, he then went down on one knee.
The silence returns, stretching through the room and growing ever more oppressive, until finally a voice, low and cold, slices through the air like the fastest of blades.
"You've come."
The voice boomed loudly through the hall, shaking even the walls, and the figure kneeling tremored even more.
"Yes, Sir Magnar!"
"We have sent forth a report and created the bounty, giving the best rewards that have ever been offered in hundreds of years for whoever finds a remnant of the God's Fall sect."
"We have also set forth a law at the entrance of the city, where everyone who comes in must reveal their Fused Artifacts before they are allowed entry."
"Things are all progressing the way you want it," the kneeling figure said, a deep hum covering the entire area.
"Hmmm."
"But are you sure, sir, that there really is a person who possesses the Void Stone and is currently in hiding?"
"According to our reports, everyone of the God's Slave Sect members fought to their death."
"And our armies have scoured the various existences, and none fitting a fugitive have been found," the kneeling man said in deep confusion.
"There's no need to worry about whether there exists a man or not. I can bet my life that that bastard called Luther wouldn't go down so easily."
"He was called the Supreme Magus for a reason."
"I wouldn't even doubt it if someone told me a thousand years from now that he came back to life."
"Luther is a mad and cunning man!"
"He must have given the stone to a figure who will become the next Luther soon."
"And if my guess is right, none would be able to withstand the allurement of fusing with a Supreme-Grade Artifact."
"Verily his successor will fuse with it, and then he will be caught."
"Once he gets caught, then Luther's legacy will end forever, and soon I will take the stone from him, rewriting the history of us Magi!"
The man said, his voice filled with an unyielding determination and resolve.
"You can leave now!" He commanded, and a moment later, the kneeling figure bowed before rising and disappearing away from the place.
Left alone was the chilling silence and the figure, whose eyes flashed with an otherworldly light.
"You took away everything from me, Luther. And now, I will take away all of yours too."
"An eye for an eye!"
---
Lucian could barely slept through the night.
All that was on his mind was the stone he currently had clutched around his neck, but eventually, he forced himself as his eyes slowly shut, and soon he drifted off to sleep.
Morning came faster than the blink of an eye, as the golden sunlight peeked through the gaps between the large leaves, illuminating his face and immediately forcing him awake.
"It's today!" Lucian said to himself as he instinctively moved his hand onto his necklace, wanting to begin, but he stopped at the last second.
According to what he had been told about the Artifact binding process, one can stay in the position for close to a few days, and in such a state, too much movement is not allowed, and the body must be in a singular place and I'm harmony.
If he was I'm the sect which had its Artifact fusion chambers, then all would be fine, but right now, Lucian was in the forest, where there was no food or water.
He didn't know how long the fusing process would last, but he knew well he needed to possess the basic essentials to survive, so he didn't need to move throughout the duration.
The Void Stone was no doubt a high-grade Artifact, and the higher the grade of an Artifact, the more undisturbed one must be before bonding.
That was why he couldn't afford even the slightest distraction at all before beginning the process, so the first thing he planned to do was to try and retrieve some more fruits.
They contained water and should be able to last him for a few days while he remained in the position.
Lucian had found a fruit tree yesterday night, from which he had picked a few fruits, so he didn't need to go searching.
With skill and precision, he climbed down the tree and silently disappeared into the dense forest in the direction of where he remembered the fruit tree was.
He had only walked for less than two hours when he finally arrived before what he was looking for.
But looking at it, Lucian noticed there was something wrong...
Firstly, there were footprints, pretty large but of a distinct humanoid form, and the fruit on the tree had greatly reduced compared to what he had seen.
In fact, there were barely any fruit left.
With narrowed eyes, he looked around the area but found nothing, so he knelt to the first footprint before picking up his hand and sniffing it.
Immediately, his eyes flashed, and he deduced who it was.
"Aboriginals."