Arc 2- The Chains That Bind The Heart, Start!

  Truth is watching the second tournament of The Ascended Crucible. Compared to the first one, this one is extremely boring. No unique abilities, and all of them are Grade 2 or below. Truth walks out into the hallway, wondering when something interesting is gonna happen again. All of the vassals have bright futures.

  *Truth: Valerian picked well-*

  Before he could fully process that thought, the wall exploded in front of him. When the smoke clears, Truth sees an exhausted Blake; the rest of the vassals and Victor are on a shadow ox. Pax is nowhere to be seen, and all of the vassals look like they are on the verge of death. Before anything else, Truth quickly shouts.

  [Truth: Get them a room in the infirmary immediately!]

  As a team comes to take them down in the infirmary. Truth asks Blake what happened. Blake looks to the ground, gritting his teeth in anger.

  [Blake: Zane… That bastard. None of us were strong enough. Aric is gone.]

  Blake is very distraught, and Truth can see this.

  *Truth: He is distressed, and that's making him exaggerate. I can still sense Aric alive; let me pinpoint his location.*

  Truth focuses for a second.

  *Truth: The demon continent?!?! What the hell? That is all the way across the world! Something like that would require teleportation abilities far stronger than the best teleport spells! I need to see what happened!*

  Truth looks at Blake, and his eyes glow. Memories of the entire event flood into Truth's mind, and his face goes cold.

  [Truth: Zane… So that is the power of the man who defeated Riga… Blake, don’t worry! I will treat all of your friends personally!]

  Truth goes into the infirmary, and Blake waits outside. Blake looks down at the forbidden library key in his hand and grips it tight.

  *Blake: I was too weak! I couldn’t do anything! I couldn’t save anyone! I need to get stronger!*

  After a while, Truth comes back out.

  [Truth: I was able to heal them all to the state that they were before they met Zane. There should be no lasting damage at all. They should be waking up in a few minutes. In the meantime, I will arrange a personal carriage to take you guys to the king. In the meantime, I want to talk to you personally.]

  Truth takes Blake into the room where he received his rewards in the past. Blake looks around at the pitch darkness surrounding them. Truth turns around.

  [Truth: A lot of things have happened; you're smart. I like you, very unlike your dad. In that same vein…]

  Veins of anger grow all over Truth's body. He is seething.

  [Truth: Nothing bad can happen to Pax. I won’t tell you why, but we absolutely can’t let anything bad happen to Pax! Under any circumstances!]

  In reality, Truth is scared of anything happening to Riga; Truth is very loyal to Riga for what he did during the war. Truth extends his hand.

  [Truth: Let’s make a deal.]

  Blake is intrigued; he just looks at Truth. Truth elaborates.

  [Truth: It is a simple deal. You see, I can’t leave to help you; I made this seal too strong for me to leave. I will give you one of my eyes. “The God Eye of Knowledge.” Use it to save Pax. Of course, since it’s only one, you will be limited in what you can do. With only one eye, you will only be able to see intentions. You can tell if someone is lying or not. It will also allow you to memorize anything you see perfectly, unlike Peak, who relies on his reflexes to dodge previously seen attacks. If you take these eyes, every attack you are hit with, no matter how long ago or complex, will never work on you again. Of course, I have prepared something else due to the lack of power from only one eye.]

  An item appears in Truth's hand. It is an orange gemstone.

  [Truth: This is the item your father requested of me during his deal. He probably is not coming to see me for a while. So I will give it to you. It is called the ‘Aether Forge’. It has the ability to absorb netsu from the air and use it to boost yourself. An extremely rare item used for people who cannot control netsu to reach higher powers. One of my eyes and this forge could be yours.]

  Upon hearing all of this, Blake only has one question.

  [Blake: What do I have to give up?]

  Truth smiles.

  [Truth: Your life. This is the deal. You will save Pax. I want proof of Pax’s safety within 1 month, or else your life will be forfeit. If you bring me proof, you get to keep these two items; if you don’t, you will die immediately on the spot. Do we have a deal?]

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Truth puts out his hand. Blake thinks about it for a second.

  *Blake: I need to get stronger! I will save Pax! If these can help me, then…*

  Blake takes Truth's hand.

  [Blake: It’s a no-brainer.]

  Truth smiles as one of his eyes closes. Blake feels a pain coursing through him. He falls to the ground, clutching his right eye. His eye turns completely black, and a white key forms in the middle of it. Blake slowly gets up, clutching his eye. Truth throws the Aether Forge at Blake, who grabs it.

  [Truth: I recommend keeping that eye closed for now—one more thing. The more you use the eye, the stronger it will become, and you will unlock more abilities as you use it. It is going to be disorientating for the first few days for a human. Let's try it out, though. Look at me.]

  Blake opens his eyes—one pitch black with a white key symbol in the middle—and stares at Zane. Through his God Eye, the world looks weird. It has a black tint to it, and the words “intention” and “feeling” appear above Truth. Words start to appear after intention and feeling: “Save.” and “Happy.”

  [Truth: Let’s try out that lie-detecting feature! I am a cow.]

  Blake sees a red aura emit from Truth.

  [Blake: That is a lie.]

  [Truth: Correct! Now, I am a God.]

  A green aura starts to emit from Truth.

  [Blake: That is the truth.]

  [Truth: Correct again. Now, let’s try a hard one. I want to save Pax.]

  Blake's heart drops, and chills run across his entire body as he sees red emitting from Truth.

  [Blake: L-Lie?]

  [Truth: Correct! Pax is not the one I want to save. Since you have my eye, you should be able to see him soon. So I won’t explain. Don’t worry, our deal still stands.]

  Blake sighs. He wants to question further but knows that Truth won’t answer any questions related to this.

  [Blake: I think I understand it now. Take me to see my friends.]

  Truth leads Blake back to the infirmary. Blake is immediately overloaded as everyone's intentions and feelings flood his mind. He sees the nurses talking and red and green auras around them. Blake is about to close his eyes before powering through it. He has to get over this quickly in order to save Pax as soon as possible. He goes into the room with the vassals. Silence. They are just sitting up, not saying anything. Blake uses his eyes to read their intentions and feelings. He also noticed that everyone's names are appearing now.

  *Blake: I can see names now? Is this what Truth means by the eye gaining more abilities as I use it? I wonder how strong it can become.]

  [Selene Rivers.

  Intention: I will kill Zane. I will kill every Aspect.

  Feeling: Wrath.]

  [Peak Whitlock.

  Intention: I will save Pax no matter what.

  Feeling: Determination]

  [Azarath Goldwyn.

  Intention: We can’t beat that.

  Feeling: Fear.]

  [Harpstein Valerian.

  Intention: How did this happen?

  Feeling: Confusion.]

  Taking in everyone's intentions and emotions, Blake speaks up. He reveals his deal with Truth and asserts that they will get Pax back no matter the cost. Harpstein sighs and stands up. Harpstein puts his hand on Blake's shoulder.

  [Harpstein: You are right. We will save Pax, and we will prepare to head back to the palace. Any thoughts?]

  Peak perks up with a smile on his face.

  [Peak: Yeah! Let's beat the snot out of Zane and these other Aspects!]

  Peak walks out to the carriage. Harpstein goes out to it as well. Blake looks at Azarath and Selene. After a while, Azarath gets up.

  [Azarath: If we can talk about this more in the palace, then I will go.]

  Blake looks at Selene.

  [Blake: Come on, we have to go.]

  Selene gets up and walks to the carriage in uneasy silence. Blake knows her intentions but does not have the words to say anything else. The ride home this time was uneventful. Selene just watched nature. Peak calmed Azarath down, and he was no longer scared. Harpstein and Victor are keeping watch. Blake just watches everything on the inside. After what seemed like a few hours, they arrived at the palace.

  *Harpstein: Only a few hours? Just how fast are Truths carriages?*

  They open the door and walk into the palace. They are greeted by Lyra, who is watering plants. She sees them and immediately screams and drops her watering bucket.

  [Lyra: Y-You guys are finally back?!? You are not supposed to be back for a few days?!? Where is Aric?]

  Harpstein just looks at her.

  [Harpstein: Get us an audience with Father immediately.]

  Lyra says a meek [ok] and starts to leave, but a person stops her. Harpstein immediately grits his teeth and sweats upon seeing the man.

  [???: Word has already reached Father about what happened an hour ago.]

  The man has white hair and eyes, is a little taller than Harpstein, and wears a white suit. He walks up to Harpstein and slaps him across the face. Everyone is shocked as Harpstein bows to the man.

  [???: You know you are too weak to be getting into fights. You should have stayed here just as I told you to.]

  [Harpstein: Is that all, brother?]

  Selene walks up and looks at Harpstein.

  [Selene: Do you know this loser?]

  Selene snared with anger. She was already angry, but she was ready to kill this guy for slapping Harpstein.

  Harpstein stops her and smiles.

  [Harpstein: Oh, you guys never met. This is my brother, his name is…]

  The vassals all look confused and shocked as they hear his name. The 15-year-old prodigy, the unregistered Special Grade, the heir to the throne, and the current second strongest man in the entire world.

  『Lyric Valerian』

  To be continued…