The word ‘vault’ wasn’t really accurate, whenever Gaius thought about it. The Pinnacle’s explanation had made the boy think about some odd reward system, where overcoming the set trial would entitle you to a single treasure. Like one of those capsule machines or something that the kids on Earth loved to drop coins into.

To begin the challenge, one just needed to enter the person-sized passage carved into the huge vault door. Gaius wasn’t too sure what was the point of having such a huge door, but it was the Holy Temple’s style to be annoyingly glitzy, mysterious and an all-around pain in the posterior. A few people had already tried their hand, but since Gaius couldn’t see any of the fights, he’d went ahead to assume that they were relatively successful in their challenge.

“Alright, who’s up next?” Kolya asked, his eyes looking at the bunch from the North.

Gaius stepped out soundlessly. He had seen enough, and the longer he waited, the lower the chances of picking something useful was. The first few entrants had left the vault with a face full of doubt, probably because they didn’t know whether they made the right choice.

He had no intention of making that face when he came out.

The Pinnacle glanced at him, and then nodded. “Your turn, then. Go get something nice.”

“Naturally,” Gaius replied. According to him, he would be shown a list of items once he was done with his opponent. Although Nexus wasn’t with him right now, the little fellow had shared with him a good way of identifying useful items.

First, anything that wasn’t metallic was excluded, since Zeroth Armaments — the offensive kinds, at least — were almost always crafted with unique metals. Second, anything that was too embellished was a no-go. Zeroth Armaments were almost always simple in design, partially because their construction was delicate to the point that anything superfluous would gravely affect their performance. The last point, unfortunately, wasn’t applicable; the items couldn’t be physically appraised beforehand.

Running through these points in his head, he approached the small, person-sized opening and stepped through it. The interior of the little tunnel was brightly lit, and after turning a few corners, the boy stopped at a warning sign that blocked his path.

“’Beyond this is the point of no return’,” Gaius read out loud. “’To leave, kill the one who comes after.’ Hmm. Spooky.”

Walking around the sign, he stepped into the arena beyond, and a thump echoed around the room as the entrance closed. Gaius didn’t care about that; the entrance was supposed to seal up once someone stepped through it.

The inside was a wide-open space, with a ceiling some five metres high. There was nothing of note; everything was a featureless dull grey, a stark contrast to the glitziness earlier.

A mass of shadows began to gather in the middle of the room. Dark flames twisted and writhed, before a silhouette Gaius’ size stepped out of the raging inferno. In its right hand was a dagger, and in the left was a…cane. The boy regarded the sight for a moment, narrowing his eyes. If he didn’t get it wrong — and he rarely did — his opponent wasn’t just any normal Knight. No. His opponent was a replica of himself, complete with equipment.

“Interesting,” Gaius murmured. The ring on his finger blinked, leaving only a solid band of gold, and the Terminus appeared in his hand. “I’ve never fought anyone with a Zeroth Armament before. I can’t believe the first opponent to use one would be myself.”

He licked his lips, and the thoughts of whatever treasure left his mind. “Bring it.”

A jet of black light slammed into his barrier a moment later. He dodged to the side a moment later, just as his defences shattered — like the Terminus, the Custodian could shatter any energy defences with ease, even that of the great gods. As that thought flashed through his mind, Gaius pushed off the ground, turning into a blur to close in on his shadow. He wasn’t going to let his enemy fire off more shots like that than necessary, and a moment later, Gaius was in striking range.

The Terminus carved out multiple arcs of light as he slashed out over thirty times in a second. His joints burned slightly, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. Sparks flew as the shadow met his onslaught blow for blow, and Gaius grinned as he felt a strength equal to his own meet his frenzied assault.

It was rare to find an opponent who fought like him, and at the risk of sounding self-opinionated, as good as him when it came to close-combat. Ever since he obtained the Terminus, fights ended when the opponent’s weapon broke. But this shadow…

Euphoria coursed through him once more as another flurry of strikes were met by his own, which was drowned out swiftly by Gaius’ sorrowful realisation that the shadowy opponent couldn’t replicate his ability entirely. For one, of the various Abilities he had, the shadow could only replicate passive ones. Furthermore, there was no Barrier surrounding his foe, nor could it use the Dragoon like he did.

And more importantly, the shadow was unable to ignore the incredible properties of the Terminus. Sure, it could block attacks from the Terminus, but after a while, it was beginning to falter. The anti-energy properties of Gaius’ Terminus were taking a toll on this foe, who was entirely made up of energy itself. As the flames dwindled, the shadow’s strength continued to fall, to the point that it wasn’t being able to put up any more resistance.

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The shadowy replica of his Terminus shattered as it crossed blades with the real thing once more, and Gaius followed up by forcing the dagger through its torso. His enemy staggered backwards, dropping onto a knee in an incredibly humanlike action. The shadow’s left hand was clutching its stomach, while a metal sword had appeared in its right.

It was prepared to die, but it wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Dark, flaming eyes looked at Gaius as he moved forward to deal the finishing blow, and in that instant, the boy was reminded of the snowpyres.

“I’m not sure if you can hear me,” he said, “but thank you for the good fight.”

He moved in a moment later.

The metal sword shot upwards in an attempt to parry his attack, but Gaius slammed it aside with the Terminus’ hilt, disarming the shadow. The longsword curved into an arc, the boy plunging the Terminus into the shadow’s throat a moment later.

It shuddered as Gaius withdrew the Terminus. The shadowy flames turned into a cold blaze, scattering a few seconds later. A clarion call echoed around the featureless room and at the same time, a small elevated platform tunnelled up from the ground.

Gaius picked up the longsword and made his way over, where the spoils of victory awaited him.

The elevated platform had an oddly futuristic machine sitting on it, something like an arcade machine of sorts, complete with buttons and a receiving tray. From the Pinnacle’s explanation, simply approaching it would have it display an entire list of objects and artefacts. Users only had five minutes to choose, or else a random item would be dispensed, which would be a pity.

Gaius approached the machine, the longsword in his left hand. It didn’t come with a scabbard, nor did he have anything to hang it on, so he held onto it instead. The possibility that it was actually useful had crossed his mind more than once, after all.

Stepping onto the platform, he was about to look through the list when the machine made a few weird sounds. Before he could do anything, the screen fizzled out, and without warning, two pieces of metal appeared at the tray, rolling towards his feet with a clatter.

The platform began to descend a moment later, along with the machine. There was a grindy sound as a passageway opened up, and Gaius blinked twice as he belatedly realised that the vault had just prevented him from choosing a spoil of war.

Before the two pieces of metal could disappear with the machine, Gaius picked them up. His hands now full, he threw one last glance at the scam machine, and then headed for the exit, his face now as unpleasant as the ones that he’d seen earlier. He finally understood why everyone else had a doubtful look on their face — they weren’t wondering if there was something better; they were wondering if something had gone wrong.

The way out was as uneventful as the way in, and soon, Gaius found himself leaving through the passageway he came in. Everyone looked at him closely, but since everyone from the North had a mask on, all they could see was his grumpy frown.

“Ahem.” Pinnacle Kolya. “It would seem that something went wrong with the vault. But that’s not really something I could control, so…please don’t go after my private vault.”

Gaius rolled his eyes, and then set down the spoils of war.

A sword that was shoulder-height.

Two pauldrons that looked like something stolen from a knight in the Middle Ages of Earth.

None of them looked particularly impressive, but Gaius had a feeling that the latter was definitely a decent treasure. More importantly, he somehow knew that those pauldrons would definitely fit him, even though his body stature was too small for it.

A destiny of sorts.

The sword, however, wasn’t of much use to the Gaius now, but in a few years, when puberty hit like a truck…of course, he didn’t know whether it was anything useful, however. If it was just an ordinary weapon…

“I suppose these things are rather decent,” Gaius commented idly. “I’m satisfied, I guess.”

“Even though you didn’t get to choose?” Kolya asked. “I pegged you as one who would never suffer a loss where possible, but I guess people can always grow.”

For some reason, Gaius felt insulted, but he didn’t press the topic.

“Didn’t know I was that kind of guy,” he replied. “Did I seem that way to you, Galina?”

“He’s just projecting, don’t mind him.” The Oracle reached out and flicked the Pinnacle’s forehead. “It’s a bad habit of his; I’ve been trying to ease him out of this.”

“You seem to have many bad habits,” Gaius said. “Anyway, I’m going to try this nice-looking pair of pauldrons out. Maybe feel like a knight or something while I’m at it.”

“A kid with plate armour?” Kolya squatted down and assessed Gaius. “Sounds fun. Sofia, do we have any plate armour lying around? The kid-sized ones?”

“They’ve been taken already,” she replied.

Kid-sized plate armour? Gaius rubbed his nose, and then decided to ignore that intriguing little exchange. He wanted to ask, but he was currently occupied with fitting the pauldrons onto his shoulders, which were currently changing its very form. Everyone else was also watching intently, as the shoulder armour continued to change shape, and after a few minutes of morphing, it had changed into a metallic mantle of sorts.

“That’s… somewhat a let-down,” Pinnacle Kolya said. Gaius looked at the strip of metal, which was now a grey collar of sorts. It sat on his shoulders and ended at the base of the neck, and if he wasn’t looking at it now, the boy wouldn’t even notice its presence.

“At least it’s not obtrusive,” Gaius replied. “I get the feeling that it’s lacking a cape, which—”

His words cut off as a black cape fell around him, their origins the strip of metal armour on his shoulders.

“You were saying? Looks like my vault is safe after all. You got a real nice piece of work there, eh? Lucky me.” His gaze shifted over to the steady stream of disappointed fellows, who were staring over at them with those words, and then hollered, “Keep moving! The conference has yet to end! I’m shooing everyone away at midnight, so you lot better speed up!”

His words sent them bustling once more, and after nodding in satisfaction, he began to talk to the other members of the State Council. Gaius wasn’t interested, so he shifted his attention to the bunch from the East…and on Paragon Shizo.

He was wondering when the best time to strike was. Now that he had some time to cool off, he was distinctly aware that killing off someone — a Paragon no less — was going to be a huge problem for the conference at large.

The killing would have to wait.