Irwyn slowly phased back into reality and found himself in a small circular room. The walls and ceiling were covered with pure white plaster while the floor was built from a single large marble tile. Irwyn also quickly noticed Elizabeth lying on the ground next to him. Without any qualms he picked the unconscious girl up and stepped towards the only exit: A large metal slab which moved out of the way by itself as soon as Irwyn approached. That allowed him to step into a long hallway built of similar materials. On one side of the hallway there were endless metal doors identical to the one Irwyn had just stepped through. On the other side there were large pictures of identical arrows pointing to the right, however, looking in that direction only allowed Irwyn to see that the hallway appeared to be infinite, as he could see the end even with his amplified senses; it was just endless long rows of doorways and arrows as far as eye could see.
Without much hesitation Irwyn stepped towards that infinity. On his first step his vision shifted slightly as though he was feeling dizzy, however, Irwyn knew that instead he had been transported by an extremely potent spatial magic. Although he could not feel it with his current strength, Irwyn knew that there was ancient magecraft at work in this hallway.
With each step his vision blurred momentarily, but Irwyn kept going. After a total of 10 steps the secenery warped entirely: In front of him appeared a simple wooden office desk with hills of paper sheets behind which there was a seated illusionary looking man.
“First tier I assume?” the man merely glanced at Irwyn and Elizabeth without much interest before he quickly picked up 2 papers from within a pile, “Please fill up these formulas.”
“I am already a member,” Irwyn just smiled back. This caused the man to raise an eyebrow, however, he was not taken aback.
“Reincarnator or resurrector?” the man very calmly asked as he opened one of the many drawers of his desk and began to skim through it.
“Reincarnator with a sigil,” Irwyn answered him.
“Oh,” the man finally looked at Irwyn properly, and let go of a stack of papers that he was just about to take out of a drawer. Instead he opened a different drawer and took out a black tablet before presenting it to Irwyn, “If you would, please,” he said with newfound politeness. Irwyn did not hesitate as he freed one of his hands from holding Elizabeth and dexterously drew a couple of symbols he knew by heart. Meanwhile, the clerk waved his hand over a certain spot on the table, and a white projection appeared in front of him. As soon as Irwyn finished the last touches of his sigils, letters quickly manifested on the white screen.
Based on the clerk’s expression, the letters were different from what he had expected, as Instead of walls of text and information he saw just two sentences written in needlessly large letters: Confidential information, requires the director’s personal clearance to access. Report immediately directly to the director codename: SUN.
“It would seem this is beyond my qualification,” the man laughed a bit nervously as he stole a glance at the smiling Irwyn. Seeing no reaction to his words he opened another drawer and took out a circular marble. After shaking it he put it right in front of his mouth and spoke with the clearest voice he could manage: “To the Director. Codename: Sun,” when those words left his mouth the device glittered for a moment before it vanished. The next few seconds passed in awkward silence between Irwyn and the clerk. It was only ended when Irwyn’s vision once again shifted.
Now he found himself in a different room. The base design was similar as there was also a man seated behind an office desk, however, the two rooms could simply not be compared when it came to vanity. This new room had countless decorations such as statues, busts, plants, and even a large window which revealed a picture-like mountain range behind it.
“It has been a long time, Ignis Lumen,” the man seated behind the desk spoke with a joyous tone. He was a slightly chubby middle-aged man with a decently handsome face, and well-kept hair. He was wearing a perfectly fitting suit and tie.
“I go by Irwyn von Blackburg right now,” Irwyn smiled back at the man, “It’s really been too long, Golem.”
“How have you been in the last 3000 years?” the man asked with a beaming smile on his face.
“The usual, mostly dealing with the Crown,” Irwyn sighed deeply, but did not let it affect his mood too much.
“I have heard from your brother that its end is nigh,” Golem’s smile reduced as he solemnly spoke.
“Yes. This should be the last time I have to ascend the spire. Hopefully, nothing will go wrong,” Irwyn nodded resolutely.
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“That’s good to hear,” Golem sighed in relief before his face twisted into a grin as he looked at Elizabeth, “I see you are already making preparations for what to do once your duty is finally done.”
“Not really,” Irwyn’s expression did not change “I am just raising her as a powerful pawn. Moreover, a personal quest triggered when I met her.”
“You used to be so much easier to embarrass back before time,” Golem sighed before focusing on the second sentence that Irwyn spoke, “Meeting of fate, requires two individuals with star, and void star prismatic affinities both on Herald level to meet before their first trial is concluded. Quite frankly, I completely forgot this quest even existence since I thought such a situation was impossible.”
“It used to be,” Irwyn nodded, “Do you know what is going on? Why are there so many Heralds and Seekers appearing. I have seen 5 people with such talent just within the 12 years I spent in the North, and I assume it is also a global trend.”
“As always, you are quick witted,” Golem nodded his head. His eyes drifted around the room for a split second as though he was checking for possible eavesdroppers before he once again opened his mouth, “Something happened to the mana reserves of Logos,” Golem finally spoke.
“What!?” Irwyn was immediately startled as a frown surfaced on his face. The mana reserves of Logos was the largest storage space of mana to ever exist, and by a landslide at that. The space was created by the aspect of Logos himself, and it was fundamentally merged into the system of Logos. All the power of levels, skills, and attributes was distributed form that place, while all the mana taxed by Logos for using its sorcery was returned there. It was perhaps the greatest aspect Artefact across all realities. It was unthinkable that something might have happened to it.
“Around 25 years ago half of all the energy in the reserves vanished in a single instant,” Golem solemnly announced.
“How is that possible?” Irwyn quickly calmed himself down, but he was still deeply frowning.
“We have absolutely no idea,” Golem shook his head, “I have personally conducted the investigation, but I did not find a single clue. It was done perfectly.”
“Just who in the world would have the ability and dare to… Could it be?” a single name and face came to mind out all those Irwyn had seen during his long existence.
“I thought the same thing. That is why I personally checked, and I can confirm that he is still perfectly sealed in the Abyssal ridge. No trace of any tampering with the fetters,” Golem could easily guess what Irwyn was thinking. It was the most likely conclusion after all.
“The other 6?” Irwyn asked about the next most likely culprits.
“They were just as surprised as you, and denied any connection with the event. However, they helped me with investigating, and we found something interesting. Many areas with natural treasures in the prime material plane suddenly had an increase in their energy, and when we add that power with the mana necessary for the birth of all the Seekers, and Heralds in the past 25 years, the total is just a bit short of the amount which had vanished.”
“So the culprit didn’t keep that immense power,” Irwyn concluded.
“Yes. Although the remnant we still haven’t accounted for is not small, it should be nothing in the eyes of a being who can flawlessly steal from Logos,” Golem nodded, “However, that makes him even more mysterious, since we have no idea what the culprit’s motive might be.”
“Well, I will trust you will get to the bottom of this thing,” Irwyn eventually sighed. He could not do anything about it as he was right now, “Instead I am rather interested what is the reward for that personal quest,” Irwyn spoke honestly. Back then he had used his skill Overseer which should be able to see anything within Logos, however, what he got was: [Reward: Hidden (Overseer: Item does not exist)]
In other words, the reward was not yet generated at the time, or much more likely it was an item which existed outside of Logos. Most such items were within the great Treasury of Logos inside which there were countless vaults with various treasures. The metal from which those vaults were made was forged by the aspects to be impenetrable even by the system of Logos. Some contained such treasures that even Golem himself could not open them under normal circumstances. A general rule of thumb for rarity was how low the vault’s number was: The weakest items might be in the vault numbered above the 10 million mark, meanwhile almost all items numbered below 1000 were aspect artefacts or items otherwise related to the power of the aspects. In fact, Irwyn only knew about a few of the low number items, and that was only because of his close relationship with them. For example, he knew that the vault number 3 held what remained of the heart of Lumen herself. Despite the obvious power of such an artefact, it was merely ranked 3rd. It was difficult to imagine just what might be in the 2nd and 1st. Not that he would dare open those. They were locked so that they would not be misused. Irwyn himself was not an aspect, how could he trust himself to not misuse them if he took them from his own volition.
“Then let me find out. I have been quite interested myself when I noticed the quest was triggered, however, Logos wouldn’t let me access the information before it was completed,” Golem laughed as he waved his hand. A large white projection appeared in front of him, and a moment later hundreds of numbers began to flash across the screen.
“Well, this is unexpected,” Golem took only a second to read all the numbers before he spoke with a frown.
“Do you not recognise the code number?” Irwyn raised an eyebrow “I thought that you knew all of the codes in the top 10,000 by heart.”
“It’s not that I don’t recognise it,” Golem shook his head. He looked at the numbers once one more just to double-check before he spoke again, “Congratulations. It would seem like we will both finally get to see what is in the vault number 10.”