บท 19: Descent
The Lich, mere moments away from death, froze. Seeing Amon's sincere gaze, its horrifying skull flashed a final smile before it faded to dust.
From the beginning, even before he'd been betrayed, Amon knew the Lich had merely been toying with them, not using even a fraction of its power. That was why he'd told the prince they originally needed to escape.
He exhaled a breath.
"I don't understand what's going on. It's all so fast. So sudden. So nonsensical."
Due to the weird effects of the Dungeon, these last few years had felt like one singular instance in time to Amon.
Seconds felt like years, decades like minutes, and moments like eternities.
He was losing his mind.
He took another breath in and exhaled once more.
'I'm not gonna let them break me. These rivers of magma will serve as tempering to my body of steel and soul of diamond.' he thought, repeating to himself one of his grandfather's famed sayings.
Endlessly, he repeated those words until he calmed down, only then did he look around.
He wasn't very surprised to find the man of stone standing before him.
"Well, I truly did not expect her to hand you the win so easily. I expected you to lose an arm or two in the process, but aiya, what can a man do if not prostrate himself to the ebbs and flows of fate?" He spoke, chuckling as the orb of white floated down to fall into his palm.
Suddenly, his body blurred and to his left and right, copies of him appeared, identical in both aura and appearance.
"As you know, this is all a big game to get the legacy of the first warlock, my master. The writings that Prince of yours saw on the walls of the mazes you went through to get here were meant to be studied, not used. By studying them, you could solve the entire maze without having to battle a single enemy, but you guys decided to bulldoze through this for some reason."
Amon's pupils widened.
"Or maybe that Prince of yours purposefully allowed you guys to dive in and battle to test your limits. Hm, that's probably how he opened the gate to leave. He's quite cunning, isn't he?"
The man of stone laughed.
"Either way, you would've been the only one able to inherit my master's legacy, so not much is lost," he casually said, greatly shocking Amon. "To inherit his legacy, you must not have formed any aether mark and have broken at least one of the three thousand eight hundred limiters."
Amon was left speechless.
"You're quite lucky," he mused. "Anyway, as you were told by your little companion, the path of a warlock is a Variant Supreme Path that must be practiced along the Golden Path, but this isn't all. My master's legacy has three sides—There's the True Gold side, Variant Supreme side, and the Life and Death side."
"In essence, you're going to be walking upon five paths at once all at the supreme grade."
Amon took a deep breath and calmed down.
"I suppose the True Gold Side or Path is an empowered form of the Gold Path, yes?" he asked.
To this, the man of stone shook his head.
"No, the True Gold path is THE original path. The golden path people practice is a watered-down path the elite created to keep the status quo in check. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer."
Hearing this, Amon couldn't help but sigh once again. Had he walked on the Golden Path taught by the third prince's scholars, he would've ruined his potential without even being aware of it.
"Haha! I told you the bastard was cunning!" he laughed out loud. "It wouldn't surprise me if he wasn't actually a cripple but rather in the middle of experimenting something, maybe creating his own supreme path. This planet contains strangely powerful individuals, so who knows."
"Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked," his tone finally got serious. "There are ten main floors, each separated by a hundred minor levels. Each main floor contains a tenth of the master's legacy, and each minor level contains a portion of his grand library. Your goal is simple—reach the last floor and claim all ten portions of his legacy."
"But you will have to do so without forming a single aether mark, and by the time you reach the last floor, you must have shattered the last limiter. If it isn't obvious enough, the requirements to walk upon so many supreme paths at once are incredibly high."
The orb of white suddenly split in three, each landing on the palm of one of the three versions of the man of stone.
"And my task will be simple. Accompany and train you along the way."
Suddenly, he grinned.
"Are you ready, young man?"
***
BANG!
The gate they used to enter, at the mountain's foot, suddenly exploded as it expelled them out.
In the next instant, another loud Boom! echoed, and the entire mountain was rendered to ashes.
Standing behind a shield Awa had formed at the last minute, Prince Kuwan looked at the empty and desolate plain where the mountain had once stood.
The emotion that swirled within his pupils of gold and red was unreadable as he reminisced upon everything that had happened over the last ten years.
'This was necessary.'
He had to get rid of Amon. Despite being the most brilliant of his toys, he was the only one he'd never managed to subdue and break.
He couldn't have such a dangerous slumbering dragon around him, and seeing Amon unleash such power at the last moment confirmed his thoughts.
Standing up, he slicked his hair back and looked around, seemingly looking for something.
"Your highness, it is as you had predicted," one of his royal guards kneeled before him. "Not even a second had passed in the real world. This means the time within the ruins was warped."
A toothy grin bloomed on the prince's face.
"Perfect."
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