"Fine, I accept your offer go ahead and open the vault." Gastor smiled wider and gripped his massive sword tightly as he threw his cigarette to the ground. With a mighty swing, he crashed the sword into the vault door. A glimmering light erupted from the impact and a sheet of Zight revealed itself as the Wards protected the door.
Cypher kept his guard up in case Gastor tried anything funny. He was already quite fast, so Cypher couldn't afford to be caught off guard. Gastor worked relentlessly to slash and hack at the Wards protecting the vault. From what Cypher could tell, they were close to giving out. This surprised him as he had expected them to have made much less progress given the amount of time they had occupied this place.
Still, Gastor proved to be quite powerful. Perhaps it had something to do with his Rank-Four body. Most of the weaker Wards were long gone. Only the stronger ones remained. Those, from what Cypher could tell, were the ones in the fourth Rank. Even a few Wards in the lower tier of the fifth rank still lingered. These however were quite shabby and poorly constructed from what he could tell and relied heavily on the lower-tier wards to function correctly.
Cypher stepped back as Gastor reared back his blade and sent an unreal amount of energy into it. His muscles bulged and veins began popping out as he charged up a mighty attack. A vortex of energy swirled around Gastor and his blade began to pulse with a bright yellow light.
With a mighty yell, he swung the blade through the air. When the blade made contact with the wall of Wards, a harsh screeching sound erupted within the room. Gastor's Conduction level dropped by a massive amount, his body falling into the bottom tier of the Third rank, and his Zight fluctuated around him.
Cypher was shocked to see such a technique. Years of training were exhausted in the blink of an eye, however, the results of that sacrifice quickly showed themselves. Large cracks spread out from the impact site and soon the sound of shattering glass filled the room. The Wards had broken.
Cypher could only stare on, dumbstruck as he watched pseudo-Rank-Five Wards shatter like they were nothing under Gastor's attack. He had no idea how the man had pulled that off even with the sacrifice of an entire rank worth of training. Then again, Gastor and his hired men had been hammering away at those enchantments for quite a while now. As for Gastor's Zweihander, however, it didn't withstand the attack and shattered into pieces. Each one hit the ground and fell apart into piles of dust and flickering enchantments.
"There we go! That took a bit longer than I expected and I'm sad to see one of my weapons wasted like that, but you’ve got me in a bit of a time crunch… In any event, the deed is done. I would have preferred to not use that method to break in, we were almost inside. Still, it'll be worth it once you see what Lord Fayaldin keeps in here," said Gastor with a frown.
"You keep saying that, but let's just open the vault already. I'm eager to get this mission over with," replied Cypher. His patience was waning and he was eager to see an end to this whole situation.
"Hmm, that's fine with me kid. Remember though, I get to take what I want before I leave," added Gastor.
"Fine, but if you're wrong..." began Cypher.
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"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Plus, now I’m too weak to withstand your spells so you’ve got me in a bit of a bind. Let's get this over with," interrupted Gastor. He moved to the vault door, and with a mighty heave pulled it open. A bright light began to pour out from the edges and soon the entire vault door swung open and slammed against the wall with a loud thud.
Cypher looked inside and his mouth dropped open as he beheld what was inside. Gastor’s expression darkened and headed inside with a mournful stride. Cypher, on the other hand, walked in slowly and looked around. In every available inch of space along the walls, people were hanging from chains. Each one was suspended in a veil of Zight that served to keep them alive without the need for food water or air. They were in some kind of stasis and even the flow of time around their bodies seemed to be acting strange.
Cypher's mind ran wild with possibilities as he stared on in disbelief. What was Fayaldin holding these people for, and why on earth was he doing it like this? More importantly, where were all the riches he had spoken of back in Dungor? Cypher looked around and saw only a few large chests. They couldn't possibly contain enough riches for a noble like Fayaldin.
He moved to one of the people hanging from the walls and pressed his hand against the veil of Zight. It shattered and fell away like dried wax, and as the Zight dispersed into the air the man hanging from the chains began to stir. His eyes shot open and panic washed over him as he looked down at Cypher.
"P-Please... no more... We've told you everything we know already!" The man began to squirm and twist in his bonds and Cypher flashed him a pleading look.
"Calm down sir, I'm not here to harm you!" Cypher replied. However, the man didn't seem to believe him, fear was all that lingered behind his eyes. Gastor had been all but silent and as Cypher looked towards him, he saw the man pulling a woman free from her bonds on the wall. As soon as she was free, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly.
She wept for several moments, Gastor squeezing her tightly and stroking the back of her head as she did. Cypher gritted his teeth and got to work freeing the man in front of him. After that, he spent several minutes releasing the others. Most of them remained unconscious but a few stared around in a horrified daze as they watched Cypher work to release the many other people kept prisoner here.
In only a matter of about thirty minutes, Cypher had freed over 75 captives within the vault. Most of them lay on the ground or sat with their backs against the walls muttering to themselves. Others were laid about crying at the torments they had seemingly suffered. He was conflicted about letting them all go, but given the pitiful state that most of them were in, he felt compelled to. He had many questions about this whole situation and most of them seemed to be ones that only Fayaldin could answer.
Gastor walked over to Cypher, the woman still in his arms, "I told you that Fayaldin wasn't on the up and up. These people... All of them belong to a resistance band known as Mother's Grace. A growing faction of the nobles in this country is currently plotting to overthrow the Matriarch and turn all of Farnor into a dictatorship run by one man."
Gastor looked down at Cypher with a deadly serious expression on his face, "I don't think I need to tell you who that man is."
"No… Th-that couldn't be right, could it?" stammered Cypher.
"Ask anyone here. Go on! Use your power to read their minds, you'll find that all of them are resistance fighters against this wicked uprising. Why else do you think I resorted to hiring ruthless bandits? I had to bolster my forces somehow… I hate to be the one to tell you, but you've been played, kid." Gastor said with a grim expression. He looked almost as if he was genuinely sympathetic to Cypher.
Cypher couldn't believe that this was happening. However, the looks on the faces of the people around him told him everything he needed to know. Fayaldin had indeed used him as a battering ram to take out Gastor and the rest of Mother's Grace. Cypher's rage boiled up inside him and he turned to the exit of the vault. Fayaldin would answer for this!