TS4: Chapter 51 (Patreon)

Thorn's answer seemed at once to confuse and enlighten the master of the ruins, and slowly he sat up, his eyes taking on an almost excited light.

"Fascinating. Truly fascinating."

Though it was clear that there was something he was picking up on that Thorn wasn't aware of, the master of the tower waved his hand.

"Very well. You still have some of your reward left. What is it you would choose?"

Thinking about it for a moment, Thorn found that he honestly wasn't sure. It wasn't until Eve reminded him that he remembered his original goal in competing in the challenge.

"I would like to study your forging techniques," Thorn said. "The ruin contains a significant amount of metal alloy, and I would love to learn the secret of how to make it."

"An intelligent request," the master of the ruin replied. "One more intelligent than any I have ever received, for in it lies the secrets of the Renith Empire. Very well. So as you have asked, you shall receive."

With a gesture, a glowing crystal appeared in front of the mage, floating over to land on Thorn's palm.

"This crystal contains all of the knowledge you seek. Simply place it to your forehead, and you will come to understand. It contains not only the recipe, but the records of our great smiths who used it. You will find the secrets of arcane forging, the skill upon which the Renith Empire was built. In return, I ask you one simple thing. Do not share it with anyone."

The way that the mage spoke caused Thorn to pause, his mind moving swiftly, as he tried to understand the intent behind what the mage was trying to say. It didn't take him long, and with a musing expression, he held up the crystal, looking as the light shined through it.

"Huh. This seems like another trap."

"Oh?" The mage asked, amused. "Do tell."

"You told me, back in the Test of Magic, that the Renith Empire was destroyed by those who were jealous. What were they jealous of, I wonder?" Thorn said, his gaze meeting the mage's. "Now you tell me that your empire, your once great empire, was built primarily because of the forging methods contained in this gem. If those two things are both true, it holds that what others were jealous of was this crystal right here. The secrets of forging that made your empire famous. And so it stands to reason, if I display these in the outside world, I will likely gather the same attention. By promising not to share these secrets with anybody, I may very well be condemning myself to fight against the same foes that you once faced."

Slowly, as Thorn spoke, the master of the tower's expression shifted, his smile fading away, replaced with a deep and seemingly endless calm. Silence filled the grand hall, but after a moment, Thorn chuckled and nodded.

"Very well, I shall guard your secrets with my life."

His words echoed strangely, as if each one was being imprinted into the world around him, creating an immutable law that would last for all eternity. The air around Thorn shook, and in a flash, he found himself standing outside of the tall tower at the center of the ruins. Immediately, his voice channel exploded as his E.V.E. reconnected.

"Thorn, where are you?" He could hear Huginn's voice and the stress it contained.

"I'm outside the main tower," he said. "What's going on?"

"We're being chased," Huginn replied. "Nearly everyone's wounded, and if something doesn't happen fast, we're going to be cornered. We need some reinforcement."

Closing his eyes, Thorn's mental sense exploded out of him. When he had entered the ruins, it had been compressed, forced into a simple two-mile radius by the density of the mana. Yet now, it seemed to have connected to the underlying structure of the ruin, and it easily extended to cover the entire central area. As soon as he spotted Huginn, he also saw the rest of his team running for their lives from a giant horde of god beasts and saints, as well as a smattering of other teams. It was clear that everyone was absolutely furious with the way that the challenge had played out.

Though most teams had managed to at least get something, it was barely a pittance compared to what they had expected. Thorn pulled his staff from his dimensional ring where he had stored it, smiled, and stepped through the yellow gate that appeared in front of him. He appeared directly behind his team and in the path of the charging horde. There were at least half a dozen 9th tier fighters, along with two 9th tier mages, and more 8th tier warriors and god beasts than he could count. All of them ground to a halt when they saw Thorn appear. There was something about his presence that they found unsettling, a faintness that screamed of intense danger.

The only one who didn't seem to care was the jackal god beast Haskell, who let out a roar and lunged forward, intending to slay Thorn where he stood. Thorn's eyes narrowed, and he raised a hand as if to block, when suddenly his forehead furrowed. As soon as Haskell jumped towards him, Thorn found a thought rising unbidden in his mind. He didn't know if it was the way that Haskell was attacking, or if it was the new absolute fire affinity that had awoken it, but with an almost curious expression, he lifted his staff and stepped forward, launching an attack of his own.

At first, his attack looked weak, almost as if there was no strength behind it, and Haskell grinned ferociously, showing his massive, sharp teeth. Yet more rapidly than anyone could react, the halberd shooting towards him began to grow in power, transforming from a tiny spark into a raging forest fire that crashed down around him with unstoppable force. A scream of pain and fear was torn from Haskell's lips as he unleashed his devouring domain to its full strength and the flames that Thorn wielded only seemed to grow more excited as they met the wind-based domain of the jackal god beast.

Haskell turned and fled as fast as he could, only making it two steps before his domain had been entirely devoured by the fierce flame. After a third step, his body began to burn as well. Desperate to put the flames out, he threw himself to the ground only to fall into the massive jaws of stone and shadow rose up around him, biting down fiercely and dragging him into the ground. This wasn't the first time that Thorn had displayed this move, but after hearing the fierce crunch that rang across the battlefield, everyone gained a new appreciation for its potency.

Walking forward calmly, Thorn stood over the place where Haskell's body had been buried, absorbing the faint green divinity that trickled up to him. Killing a god beast was normally a dreadfully difficult affair, even more so when that god beast was in the ninth tier yet Thorn seemed to have accomplished it with utmost ease. Looking around with what he thought was a pleasant expression, he ignored the flinches that his smile caused and spoke in a clear voice.

"The challenge is over. Everyone can go home."

When no one moved, his eyebrows slowly rose, and the blade extending from the end of his staff began to burn with a faint purple flame.

"Anyone who doesn't want to is welcome to come and try their strength, but I can guarantee that I will not be pulling any punches."

The saints were the first ones to retreat. Thorn's status as part of the temple of man already made it difficult for them to fight against him. And now that he had slain one of the tier nine god beasts, they had even less reason. Looking pale, Ascendant Quilla and Ascendant Lesior both led their teams away, causing Consecrate Kendal, who had a nasty gash across one cheek, to grin triumphantly. The members of the Seekers Alliance were the next to go, slowly backing up in their various teams and vanishing into the ruins.

It was the god beasts who still remained. Though curiously, more of them were staring at Sparky than were staring at Thorn. Realizing something must have happened, Thorn glanced at the harmless-looking man, who returned an equally harmless-looking smile.

"Something I should know?" Thorn asked, as Huginn came and landed on his shoulder.

"Oh, nothing much," Huginn replied. "Sparky there just ate a couple of people. And by people, I mean god beasts. And by ate, I mean absorbed their divinity. Something that shouldn't be possible."

Coughing into his fist, Thorn wagged a finger at Sparky.

"I thought I told you to stop doing that," he said, causing Sparky to grin.

"Sorry, bad habit," the god beast said, as angry hisses rose from the enemies that surrounded them.

The humorous expression on Thorn's face faded as he looked over the gathered god beasts.

"Regardless of what he's done, you'll have to take it up with him later," Thorn said, his eyes narrowing, "Unless you fancy coming and throwing away your life under my blade right now."

Again, none of them moved. As the silence stretched to nearly a minute, Thorn turned and gestured for his team to gather.

"Let's go," he said, and with a tap of his staff, a spell construct appeared around them.

Thorn half expected one of the god beasts to attack in the middle of the teleportation, disrupting it and keeping them there, but his attack against Haskel's death must have impacted them more than he thought, because none of them shifted so much as an inch, until after Thorn and the others were gone.

Thanks to his expanded mental sense, Thorn was able to put them almost right next to the Seeker Alliance base, where the shop he had set up was still doing brisk trade. Seeing him walk out of the ruins, Celeria walked over, her hand still holding onto the handle of the sword that Thorn had given her. A faint smile played around her lips, and she bowed as Thorn approached.

"Congratulations on your success," she said. "I've heard that you swept the challenge already."

"I hadn't realized the word spread so fast," Thorn said, surprised.

"The Golden Scale Alliance has a considerable information network," she replied. "Not only here, but other places as well."

Unsure what that meant, Thorn waited for her to continue, and was surprised when she bowed, deeper this time.

"We had not realized that you were the disciple of the Steward. Had we known, we would have offered you the respect that you deserve."

Waving his hand, Thorn dismissed her words.

"I'd much rather have the respect my actions afford than the respect my position affords," he said. "Don't worry about it. How have sales been?"

"Steady. The quality of your weapons is simply too good, and so we've had a consistent stream. We've gathered a considerable number of flame-attributed elemental natural treasures for you," Celeriasaid.

Wincing slightly, he nodded, "Ah, right. Well, we can stop that. I don't have much use for them anymore, though I'm sure they're not bad to have."

Seeing that Celeria was confused by his words, Thorn changed the subject, not bothering to explain himself. "I'm going to be leaving soon," he said. "Would you be interested in cutting a deal for the rest of the weapons?"

"Absolutely," Celeria said without hesitation. "Name your price."

Scratching his chin, Thorn's mental sense swept over the store, noting which weapons were still around. Almost a dozen of them had been sold, an impressive number, speaking to the skill of the Golden Scale Alliance in attracting customers. Typically he had charged three natural treasures for each weapon, and so now he held up a single finger to Celeria.

"If you can trade all of these fire natural treasures out for wind or water natural treasures, I'll give you all of the weapons for one apiece."

Celeria, who had fully expected to get Thorn to rake her over the coals, was startled by the price and quickly nodded.

"Absolutely," she said. "Yes, we'll absolutely take that deal."

Within an hour, she had returned, carrying a large chest packed to the brim with wind and water attributed natural treasures. It was an incredible variety of items, from various colored liquids trapped in special jars to seashells and feathers from powerful elemental beasts. Not bothering to look through the chest, Thorn gestured for Boreg to carry it, and the ape god-beast put it up on his shoulder.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Thorn said.

"If we are interested in more weapons from the Grandmaster, where should we find you?" Celeria asked.

Thorn just shrugged.

"I'll generally be around," he said. "If you have a specific request, you can always send it to Intra Mundum, care of the Steward, and I'll get it next time I visit."

The only other stop Thorn needed to make was to the camp of the Temple of Man. He left Stello, Sparky, and the god-beasts to wait by the ruins' exit, while he and Consecrate Kendal headed back to speak to the temple's commanding officer and return the map they had borrowed.

Along the way, seeing the glances that Consecrate Kendal was giving him, Thorn couldn't help but feel amused.

"Something the matter?" he asked.

Consecrate Kendal shook his head. "No. I was just thinking how fortunate it was that I got to meet you. I assume you're going to try to join the team to gain one of the positions for Urmag’Tal's Puzzle."

"I am," Thorn said, nodding.

"Well, if you have space, let me know," Kendal said. "It would be an honor to work with you again."

He pulled a small token from his pouch, handing it over to Thorn.

"If you go to the temple and give them this token, they'll be able to contact me," he said. "I'm going to hang out in the ruins and see what I can dig up with my rewards. But like I said, if you need a hand, just give me a call, and I'll come running."

As they stepped into the camp, Thorn felt the weight of stares directed his way. Consecrate Kendal, noticing them as well, began to grow nervous. "Do you want me to take the map back?" he asked, his voice a whisper.

But Thorn shook his head. Thanks to his mental sense, he knew what was waiting for them in the tent. And as they stepped inside, he was confronted by Ascendant Quilla and Ascendant Lesior, and both of the ninth tier fighters that they had brought from each of their families.

With a wide grin, Thorn raised his hand to greet them. "Hello, everybody. Nice to see you've all gathered here. Anybody trade for anything good with your points?"