William was freed from the protective grouping as Victor was seemingly happy with the safety in the room.

"Alright it looks like the workshop's security is already dealt with, at least for this part of the base. But keep an eye on the corridor here."

The instructions too keep an eye on the door was not meant as an order to anyone but rather advice to not relax, more so for William rather than Rigel.

Victor stared at the now fully sealed flame before sighting as he visible relaxed a bit.

"Sorry William, I was going to let you keep whatever was affecting the mantises but this isn't something I can let you have."

There was a little confusion from William as he assumed that Rigel would get it.

"Shouldn't Rigel get it? He's been here for years right?"

There was a small smile on Rigel's face as he was comfortable enough to pat Williams shoulder. Victor was also happy but a mischievous smile was on his face as he asked Rigel if he wanted it.

"Don't worry William, Rigel will be rewarded for his achievements. But Rigel, maybe you rather keep the flame?"

"I'd much rather stay alive and get something else."

This confused William more as he couldn't help but ask what he meant.

"Why would you die?"

Victor nodded towards Rigel before going towards the shattered glass and picking up a small piece.

The look Rigel had was one that showed he had a hard time thinking about how he should explain something.

"Do you know of the cult of the heavenly demon?"

As William tried to think of what he knew he could only remember a single mentioned in a book.

"It's a major power from the northern expanse which is antagonistic towards most other forces."

"Correct. The cult, or church of the heavenly demon as they call themselves, are people of all walks of life who worship an unknown God, if it is one. They value strength even more than sects and are very aggressive. The flame of the heavenly demon is a target of worship for them. They'll kill anyone they need to get their hands on it whenever one of the flames appear, so not giving them the flame would make you a heretic and would put you as their enemy."

This was the most William had heard of any religion except the church of empyrean primacy, normally just called The Church as it was the largest church in the world who worshiped the strongest pantheon in the world, supposedly. But information was scarce as no one in the clan was especially religious and William wasn't interested in it. He didn't even know all the different clans in the kingdom much less the different powers which had the center of power in other parts of the world.

But this brought up another question, couldn't you simply give the cult the flame?

"Is the cult evil enough to kill you even if you give them the flame?"

Rigel was happy as William had asked exactly what he wanted so he could fulfill his duty as a teacher, even if he technically wouldn't start until after Williams journey, and his teaching area was not politics.

"No, the cult wouldn't kill you if you gave them the flame, they would even handsomely reward you. But, the cult aggressive behaviour has made them many enemies, even if the cult has been more silent in recent years their bad blood runs deep and isn't easily forgotten. These enemies probably wouldn't attack you simply for helping the cult once, but they wouldn't be happy with you, the most troublesome would be The Church as they are in direct conflict with the cult. Also just because they wouldn't go out of the way to attack you, many would definitely attack you if they got the opportunity."

There was nothing William could do except nod as Rigel was fully in a teacher mode and continued speaking.

"Remember that any help you give to one place will affect other places and therefore powers and forces will judge you by who you help and who you don't. Also it should be obvious but don't call the cult a cult near them, simply call them a church or followers of the heavenly demon if you are unfortunate to be in the presence of the cult at the same time as the church of empyrean primacy."

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William couldn't think of a situation were he would be near two opposing religious groups at the same time, but thought it important enough to remember as he could easily imagine himself angering both groups at the same time if he wasn't careful.

"I'll remember to be careful what I say near them."

"Good, good. But you probably don't need to be worried as the cult has its base somewhere far in the northern expanse and rarely come out, or if they do they'll be moving undercover. Unless their priests sensed the appearance of the flame, which is unlikely with how the barrier of the workshop distorted and hid the aura of the flame.... This should also be obvious but you shouldn't ever tell anyone what we found here."

William had no intention of telling anyone what was here. Not that he even knew anyone outside the clan. Although the unknown group which broke in first worried him a little now.

"Wouldn't the group which broke in here first tell someone about the flame?"

"Doubtful, they covered all their tracks so telling anyone what was here would simply leave traces about who they were. Besides, from how they simply took one item, and ignored the rest of them it would indicate that they had a very specific purpose here."

Victor came over at exactly those words as if alerted by them. He was holding another piece of glass that was the same size as an small ant.

"Rigel, I'm unsure but what do you sense from this?"

The voice and face of Victor was serious as he asked Rigel to confirm what he sensed from the glass shard as if reluctant to believe what his own superior sense told him.

Rigel held the glass in his hand before closing the hand and his eyes as he shut out everything else and fully focused on the shard.

His words held uncertainty when he spoke after almost a minute of silence.

"I think I can sense some lingering spacial energy. Although it feels different, some sort of variant maybe? There's to little for me to be sure."

The words seemed to have disheartened Victor as his face flashed with worry before sighting and returning to normal as he spoke.

"Well, whatever happens, happens. Your guess was close but I think the energy is of the dimensional affinity. Whatever the altar held must have been giving off an abnormally large amount of dimensional energy. Even the glass from the flame isn't holding any of the flames residual energy."

William looked towards the flame, he had a hard time believing that the fifth treasure was better than the flame in terms of energy output as he remembered the pure pressure that had been emanating from flame while it was still mostly sealed in its glass chamber. Victor broke William out of his thoughts as his mind became filled with the image of a fire crawling and spreading in the sky like a unstoppable wave, changing the sky from a calm blue into a red orange mix that was ever-present. Not satisfied with only staying in the sky, the flame burning the very heavens started to rain down sparks on a vibrant endless forest until the earth matched the sky.

"Let's retreat for now. We need to inform the Clan and reinforce and investigate the rest of this workshop."

William followed Victor out automatically as he hadn't fully recovered from the thoughts filling his mind.

It wasn't until William exited the barrier that he recovered enough to actually pay attention on what he was doing. Even if his breathing was uneven and he still felt the cold sweat, at least mentally he was stable enough to think.

Looking back at the hole in the wall William let his eyes wander to the countless unhatched eggs which hugged the wall in clusters.

"Hey grandpa, what about the eggs?"

Victor was shaken from his own thoughts as he answered.

"The rest of the clan can take care of that when they get here. But we will make sure that there aren't any variant before we give one of the druid circles the eggs, although they will probably just hatch the eggs in some place where they believe they could help nature recover."

This made William think of a passage that he had read in a book before. What was poison to one could be medicine to another. The mantises would have brought havoc to this forest if Rigel hadn't kept them in check but now the new generation would help another forest heal.

When they entered the room were William had healed the fox there was nothing there. No corpses, no skeleton remains, nothing. William could have sworn that when they left the room they had left it with the corpses there, planning to take them with them while returning. This was mostly done because William wanted to use them to hide the fox.

William's my mental state had mostly calmed down after the sight of fire burning everything but with his inability to find the fox he became agitated again. The longer he couldn't find the fox the more anxious he became as something else that he couldn't identify also increased his worries, he continued searching for the fox where he knew they had left it.

The runes were still there and they were obviously still active as they shone. Victor and Rigel looked as William searched for the fox before Victor signaled Rigel to calm him down.

"William, you don't need to worry. The fox has recovered and is safe. So calm down."

William couldn't find any trace of the fox and there wasn't any place to hide in the chamber so he had no choice but to listen and trust Rigel.

With a last look over the room William hoped for the safety of the fox before leaving the chamber.

Hidden behind an shimmering cave wall identical to the rest of the walls, two clear ice blue eyes stared at William as he left.

Rigel and Victor looked on as William began leaving the cave. Rigel wanted to stop him but Victor stopped him.

"Don't worry I've put a life preserving spell on him. Let him learn the lesson a final time to make sure it's properly ingrained."

Rigel was visible worried as he looked at the ground, hidden among the naturally uneven ground something heavy had continuously pressed the ground down as it had moved around the room. With no good enough reason, Rigel could only nod his head.

Coming from a powerful clan had many advantages but they also tended to be strict in their training. Even if the training was proved efficient, the harshness of the training made Rigel happy that he came from a normal household and could take his time training, instead of this trial by fire.

William could feel the air coming from the opening in the tunnel. It was colder than the cave but it wasn't a harsh cold but a refreshing one that made him take a deep breath and hasten his walking speed slightly. He still hadn't noticed that Victor and Rigel were no longer visible.