Hours later, Neo sat in his room at Helen's inn.
Ding!
(Welcome, creator. Conditions for activating Pandora's Forge have been met. Do you wish to awaken the forge?)
The words hung in his vision, crisp and clear, the letters glowing in a game-like interface. It shocked him abruptly. For a long moment, Neo just stared.
Then it hit him.
Don't tell me… this is one of those system things.
A laugh bubbled up from his chest—dry, disbelieving. *Hahaha—* Coughing violently, he cut himself off, his still-healing body protesting. But the excitement didn't fade. A real, genuine smile touched his lips for the first time since waking up in this world.
"Yes?" he whispered to the empty room.
(Initializing…)
(Starting forge…)
(Failed. Creator does not possess the necessary energy to start the forge space.)
DING!
(Required energy detected. The creator's permission is needed to start absorption. Do you accept?)
Remembering the novels from Earth, Neo didn't hesitate. "Yes!" he said, a little too loudly in his enthusiasm.
(Starting forge…)
Suddenly, the tattoos he had began lighting up in golden colors, slowly starting from his fingers. It scared the hell out of him as he recalled the experience of getting these strange tattoos in the first place. But his fears were just that—fears. There was no pain. He watched the characters on his arm light up toward his elbow, moving upwards slowly.
Bam!!!
Suddenly, an old man rushed into his room with a panicked expression.
"What the hell are you doing? Stop it right this instant!" the old man spoke hurriedly, scaring Neo, who had no idea who he was or what he meant.
"But, I don—" Neo began, but the old man cut him short, suddenly summoning a rope, bronze in color and looking a little too old, as he bound Neo up.
(Error… Energy threshold not reached. attempting a restart.)
(Failed… attempting a restart.)
With the text that kept repeating in his vision, he was torn between the strange old man and his malfunctioning system.
"Um… what's this!!!" Suddenly, he was floating—actually floating—moving behind the panicked old man as he hurried along.
They finally came across Helen, who was still focused on her work, her relic moving carefully as she stitched a wound precisely with her light elemental threads.
"Helen, we need to go now!!"
Turning her attention, she was shocked at the sight of Neo, bound with a rope and floating. Neo, finally seeing a chance to speak to someone whom he knew, directed his words at the surprised Helen.
"Helen! You know this person, right?..... Tell him to put me down, dammit!" He spoke through gritted teeth as he kept struggling within the ropes.
"Gramps, w.. what is this? Put him down now, that's my patient." She spoke with surprise written all over her features.
'Sigh,' the old man, seeing that the conversation was wasting precious time, decided to pull Helen along by her arm, moving quickly into his study without another word. He walked toward the wall, channeled his spiritual energy into it, and a door suddenly appeared. He walked in quickly, the bound Neo floating behind him while he held Helen's hand, her relic still summoned and floating beside her.
"Gramps, y.. you're s.. scaring me. Where are we going?" She was panicking at this moment as she kept looking around. She didn't recognize the room at all; hell, she didn't even know of its existence.
The dark room was filled with parchments and chests, with a single chair and table sitting at the right end. Suddenly, the old man waved his hand. His spiritual energy, under precise control, flowed steadily, lifting several parchments and chests. They floated toward him and disappeared in a flash into his storage ring.
He stood still for a couple of seconds, urgency etched on his face, but the sadness in his eyes was clear. After a moment of hesitation, he regained his composure. He waved at the bound Neo, drawing him closer as they stood together in the middle of the room.
He finally spoke, his voice laced with urgency. "Don't move!!!... Helen, call back your relic quickly."
Helen quickly waved her hand, sending her relic back into her soul space. Neo, sensing the seriousness in his voice, stayed still as they both watched. Though their reasons for complying were different, it was undeniable that the situation was totally out of their control.
The old man muttered to himself in a low, growling voice as he tapped into his Fire element. "All these decades… and we have to start over like this." Raising his right foot, not before encasing Neo and Helen in a protective shell of his spiritual energy, he stomped lightly.
Blazing red fire spread in a circle, turning everything left in the room to ash—chairs, tables, leftover parchments, and chests. The entire room emptied out in three seconds. Under his control, the fire didn't spread past the room, dying down once the space was bare.
Neo was just as shocked as Helen, who finally mustered the courage to ask her grandfather this time in a small, pleading voice. "Gramps?… What's going on?"
Sensing the trembling in her voice, he mustered a smile. "Grandpa will explain soon, sweet Helen. Just hold on for now." Channeling his spiritual energy, he focused it into the floor beneath them.
An array began to light up slowly in bright blue, extending until it finally completed a complicated magic circle. He reinforced the spiritual energy covering Neo and Helen, ensuring their safety.
The moment the array was finally ready. The entire building started shaking violently.
"Just as expected," he whispered to himself. Turning to Neo, who was still confused by the series of events, he said, "You better… have a reason for all this."
Whoosh!
All three of them disappeared in a flash of blue light immediately after he spoke, just before the array imploded on itself, cracking the floor and sending splinters flying within the room.
***
Meanwhile, at that moment, a figure draped in darkness—a living shadow that coiled and turned around his form—stood in the sky above the inn. His spiritual energy was fully spread out, scanning the rooms below.
When he first arrived, he had attempted to scan the entire inn with a minimal amount of energy to find the cause of the disturbance. But with several hidden arrays lighting up immediately, he was forced to brute force it. He released the full spiritual energy of a Rank 8 Ascendant, causing a rumble like an earthquake to descend upon the entire building. He destroyed the protective array on the building and retracted his energy immediately to avoid crushing the structure to dust—a reflection of his fearsome control.
"Hmm… the spiritual energy is gone?" He spoke with shock evident in his tone.
Immediately after he spoke, he dropped into a free fall towards the building. Instead of a catastrophic landing, he dissolved into the shadows of the building and silently reappeared inside the room where Neo had stayed before being rushed out. "Interesting…" he mused playfully.
He disappeared quickly into the shadows once more, this time reappearing in the room where Neo, Helen, and her grandfather had just used the array.
"A spatial array, it seems… Not bad, destroying it to avoid a trace. At least they are not so fearless as to plot under the watch of the Emperor." Suddenly, he whipped his head up, sensing an approaching presence.
Unlike his quiet entry, the new presence approached with the sound of rolling thunder. He carved a hole through the roof, dropping directly into the room where the figure cloaked in darkness waited silently.
He stepped into the chamber—a tall figure radiating trembling lightning tendrils. He stood at an impressive height, looking at the shadowed figure with his double-colored pupils, one brown and the other a golden color like the lightning he emitted with white hair waving in the wind as he spoke.
"Oh, it's you… How does what happens in my territory concern my father? I know you don't act without his orders." His tone measured as he waited for a response.
The figure draped in darkness was the same ascendant who served as the Golden Emperor's right hand. His presence here showed how seriously the Emperor took what had happened, as he was never usually involved in the territories granted to his children.
"I greet the First Prince, Romulus. I am here under the order of the Emperor. He sensed the disturbance here and sent me from the Central Continent."
Romulus remained silent for a while. He had never been able to properly weigh the level of his father's power, but he had an idea. Today, that illusion was shattered by the fact that his father had sensed a disturbance within the Northern Continent all the way from the Central Continent and sent his executioner in time, way before Romulus himself, who resided in the Northern Continent, could even reach the area.
'Sigh.' He decided not to think about it. Even if he wasn't as great at movement abilities as his father's executioner, he should have reached this position first.
"So, what have you discovered?" Romulus asked in a firm voice, a raised eyebrow directed at the executioner whose entire figure was shrouded in darkness. He couldn't even see his face; the man was almost non-existent. Only the aid of his spiritual senses kept him in sight.
"First Prince, I'm sure you feel the total lack of spiritual energy in the 20-kilometer radius. Although it's recovering, I have to say that whatever was being done here was either unexpected or the culprits were incredibly fearless." He paused for a moment, with Romulus waiting for him to finish.
He continued, "Although I've ruled out the possibility of their fearlessness—the destroyed spatial array used moments before I stepped in is proof of that—I still can't totally say that they were unaware of the consequences of acting within the Templar Order's domain." He spoke in an apathetic voice, as if unbothered by whatever had happened in the building.
Romulus, hearing this, fully spread his spiritual energy to the entire building, confirming the theory with a frown. On the planet of Zekaa, there were only a handful of ascendants that could contend with their sheer authority. His voice rumbled, clear anger lacing his words at this event, especially with it happening in his territory.
"Who do you think the suspect is? From the level of Fire elemental manipulation performed here, there are a few suspects on my mind, but they are allies of the Templar empire itself. I'm sure our lack of action in the past decades hasn't made them stupid enough to think they can challenge my Father's empire." The pride mixed with anger in the First Prince's voice was evident.
The executioner nodded, replying with certainty. "I can say for a fact that the Blackstone Empire has a hand in this matter, if they are not the main culprit. The array design is definitely their work. But that is all I've been able to gather so far. It doesn't place them squarely at the front of this event, but they were involved in one way or another."
Romulus wore a grave frown, considering the matter with utmost seriousness. It had happened within his territory, under his watch.