Once they finished unpacking their things, it was a short tram ride over to the Louvre, the most iconic museum in Paris. Carmen read Daniel a fun fact about the place on the way there — apparently, it used to be a castle.

Only that would explain the massive stone walls, the pointed towers, the grand courtyards that gave the Louvre a majestic appearance. He would’ve taken a picture if it wasn’t for the sunshine cresting from the blue roofs and from the brilliant glass diamond pyramids in the middle. The glare would’ve made it pointless. The museum flanked around a massive open center area, with the three glass pyramids being the center of attention for a huge line.

“No, come on! Are we really gonna wait that long to get in there?” he said, gesturing to the line as they strolled through the massive open concrete area in the middle.

“Oh, of course not,” Mr. Stone said. He led them in a different direction, towards a set of stairs that led underground. “A close contact of mine that lives here runs a YouTube channel, and he advised me on a better way to enter the Louvre that doesn’t involve the line at the front door.”

“Do you have a friend from France here to help us?” Carmen asked.

“Or are they a French ‘more than friend’? Eh?” Raph raised his eyebrows, jabbing at Mr. Stone lightly with an elbow as they descended the worn tan stairs.

Mr. Stone chuckled. “No, no. You three will meet him soon enough. He’s just a bit of an…eccentric personality. Follow me — I told him we’ll meet him within the Richelieu.”

They descended the stairs, passing a man cleaning the stairs and continuing through a set of glass double doors. An inverted glass pyramid pierced through the skylight ceiling of the underground mall’s open lobby area, letting in the sunlight. In front of a tech store, two women exchanged blows, though their slow pace made it seem more like training than a real fight.

Through the underground mall, they reached an entrance for the Louvre with no line. It had two different security checks, but in only fifteen minutes, they finally entered the Richelieu wing. It was a spacious museum hall with a glass ceiling and tan brick walls lined with statues and sculptures. As they continued, a statue of a man made of moss caught Daniel’s attention.

From there, they were off to the races. It was exhibit after exhibit — first the ancient ancient artifacts from before time even had numbers, to the decorative european arts, to even the paintings from northern europe. For her parents sake and maybe for her own, Carmen took a picture of borderline everything they passed, every unintelligible painting, every sculpture of someone dead long ago.

Mr. Stone offered a key piece of insight on a few pieces. One painting from the French Revolution depicted a climactic battle between a royalist vampire Fighter, and a revolutionist Fighter with powers like a witch. It was hard to look and believe it was real — but apparently, it had single handedly turned the tides of the revolution. A set of letters were displayed in another glass box, the writings of a man whose Fighter abilities transformed him into a werewolf, earning discrimination from his friends and family amidst the chaotic times.

Mr. Stone had been through the museum before, during his time as Flow. They offered free entry to any Fighters in the top one-hundred, hoping they’d visit the Louvre for “inspiration” for their next fights. Two men were struck by the “inspiration”, inspired enough to argue over the semantics of a statue until it boiled over into them challenging each other to a Fight.

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No inspiration struck Daniel, no other key pieces of insight until they reached the exhibit for French paintings. One hooked him and grabbed him by the heart: a swordsman clad in heavenly white armor danced with his blade, eyes alight with a pinpoint focus on his opponent. Most of the other pedestrians and tourists gave it a quick look or a quick pic and passed by, but a key few stood mesmerized by the image.

Daniel became one, too. He pointed up at the painting, tapping Carmen on her shoulder as she and Raph laughed at an exaggerated sculpture. “Hey, y’all see this?”

Carmen raised an eyebrow. “A swordsman? Cool. Whoa, Raph, look at that one!”

They left to go look at another comically exaggerated French piece, but Daniel stayed, transfixed by the sheer power radiating from his pose. By the looks of it, his opponent had gone for an attack, but the painting depicted the swordsman dodging, leaving an afterimage. His eyes fell below the artwork, to a plaque with a few lines.

“Eternity has left this world for another. Seek the place where the sun sets, and follow the portal of light,” it read.

“Mesmerized by Eternite, I see?”

A dark-skinned man with a strong accent strolled up next to Daniel, age showing in the wrinkles and in his trimmed beard. His chiseled muscles and his lean build were visible through his black compression shirt.

“Who?”

“L'Épée d'Éternité, the Timeless Swordsman. It’s French for ‘The Sword of Eternity’, but that’s a bit of a mouthful in either language, so most people refer to the legend as Eternite.”

Daniel chuckled. “A legend? What, does he have some buried treasure?”

“I guess you could say that,” the man returned his smile. “It’s more like he’s the treasure. He was a fencer-turned Fighter back in the 18th century, one of the first in all of French history to reach the top million in the world. And then…” The man made a gesture. “Poof.”

“Gone, just like that?”

“This painting and the message below it are the only remaining clues. No one knows the creator of this painting, and no one knows where or even how it was painted. Tracing the date of its creation goes back to when Eternite had gone missing entirely. And yet, a valid listing still exists for him on the Fighter network.”

Daniel gasped. “What rank is he?”

“Still about the same, a little over a million, even after all these centuries. A Fighter’s record should disappear after they die, so for his listing to still be there…”

“Means he’s still out there somewhere!” Daniel leaned in closer to the guardrail to read the message underneath the painting, noting it mentally for later.

“Somewhere, maybe. But, so many people have tried to hunt him down and failed that it’s more like a local mystery than anything else. Some kids get scared by thinking Eternite’s going to punish any bad children that stay up too late!” The man threw his head back in laughter. “Anyway, you seem interested.”

Daniel shrugged. “A guy hidden who knows where, but somewhere in Paris? Right in the range I’m looking for? Sounds like the kind of challenge for me.”

The man nodded. “Well, Daniel, you’d better make sure you’re ready for such a task.”

In that moment, the color drained from Daniel’s heart. His mind flashed back to the event at the gas station mere days ago, and the man’s friendly tone became that of a snake. Was this another one of Apex’s thugs? How did she know they had left?

Daniel gulped, turning his head slowly. “How do you know my name?”

The man grinned. “Because I challenge you to a ranked Fight, Chase.”