The fourteenth room was a tomb. Sarcophagus at the center. hieroglyphs on the walls.
Kentaro: "The final seal. Release it, and the guardian awakens."
Ruo: "What guardian?"
The sarcophagus lid slides open.
A figure rose, ancient, wrapped in linen, eyes burning with eternal fire.
The Mummy Lord.
It moved faster than anything that size should. Its fists struck like thunder.
Tania: "Dragon flame!"
The Mummy Lord absorbed it, redirecting it back.
Kent: "Light!"
The Mummy Lord shattered the light, darkness filling the room.
Alya: "It's adapting. Learning."
Ruo: "Then we don't give it time."
He attacked, lightning blazing, blue and brilliant.
Kent followed with golden light. Mira wove spells. Selene struck with her shape-shifting weapon. Alya commanded the shadows. Finny bent gravity. Kanade struck from the edges. Tania breathed fire.
They fought as one.
The Mummy Lord fell.
Akira: "Teamwork. The pyramid cannot break what is whole."
They entered the fifteenth room, exhausted, drained, but alive.
Seven hours had passed.
Thanks to Lady Lyra and Sage Veyron, they had brought food and water. Their energy was drained. They were tired.
In the center of the chamber stood the Mysterious Person.
Ruo: "You were here the whole time?"
Mysterious Person: "I arrived when you did. I waited."
Mira: "Why didn't you help?"
Mysterious Person: "Because this was your trial."
Selene: "We passed?"
Mysterious Person: "You survived. The real test has not yet begun."
Kent: "What test?"
He didn't answer.
The shadows in the chamber deepened. Figures emerged, translucent, familiar.
The wills of their parents.
Ruo's parents: "You have grown."
kent's parents: "You carry our hope."
Mira and Selene's parents: "You carry our dream."
Alya's parents: "You carry our future."
Kanade's parents: "You carry our legacy."
Tania's parents: "You carry our fire."
Mysterious Person: "Now choose. Your parents left treasures here. Designed for you. For the cores you have, the cores you need."
Ruo: "How did they know?"
Alya's Father: "We knew your cores before you did."
Kent's Mother: "We watched. We waited. We prepared."
The treasures materialized, each glowing with light unique to its recipient.
Ruo approached a sword humming with void energy.
Kent a shield pulsing with transformation power.
Mira a staff that shimmered with alchemy.
Selene a weapon that spoke in every language.
Alya a circlet that blazed with fox-fire and elemental mastery.
Kanade claws that bent time and space.
Tania a blade that held gravity and stars.
Finny gold and silver coins, gravity stones.
Nihil watched, not moving. Malakor stood apart. The Mysterious Person took nothing.
Everyone thought: "He doesn't need anything. Nihil is his clone. malakor is his servant."
But then, everyone who chose a treasure heard a voice in their minds.
Voices of the sacrificed ones: "Now you are our vessels. You cannot regain control of your bodies."
Ruo: "What?"
Kent: "What is this?"
Female Voice (Wu Shenmei): "The Mysterious Person is the real traitor. He is the mastermind behind everything."
Mysterious Person smiled. His black eyes deepened, endless abyss, bottomless void.
Mysterious Person: "You are the real traitors. I knew. From the beginning. Ten years ago."
Ruo: "What?"
Mysterious Person: "Magnus Valdris's 111th concubine. Wu Shenmei. The mastermind behind the omnirank World Seventeen. Behind the King of Evil. Gown Kibutsuji."
Kent: "No..."
Mysterious Person: "Those who sacrificed themselves in the war against Gown Kibutsuji were already on her side. They were acting. Now they have revived, using their wills."
He looked at the wills, his face expressionless.
Mysterious Person: "Magnus is so kind. He still doesn't know. I have no intention to tell him."
Wu Shenmei's Will: "If we kill you, Magnus will never know what happened here. Your secrets die with you."
Mysterious Person: "I don't intend to kill you. Not yet. I want something from you."
Wu Shenmei's Will: "Then you accept my previous offer? Sleep with me every day. Join my side. Together, we can rule the omniverse. Your armies, ny armies. Twelve worlds under our command. The Sovereign Omniverse Association will fear us."
Mysterious Person: "Ridiculous. I don't need someone like you. You're not worth standing beside me. You're not eligible."
Wu Shenmei's Will: "No one has insulted me like this! I am the 111th concubine of the Ruler of Omnirank World three!"
Mysterious Person: "You are one of the worst women I have seen. In this world, across infinite world."
Her will raged.
Wu Shenmei's Will: "Kill them! All of them! The Mysterious Person, Nihil Zhou, Malakor!"
The wills surged forward, controlling Ruo, Kent, Mira, Selene, Alya, Akira Sato, Kentaro Miura, Sage Cedric.
But Kanade did not move. Sage Veyron did not move. Saint Serene did not move.
Wu Shenmei's Will: "Why aren't you attacking?"
Kanade: "I am loyal to him."
Sage Veyron: "We made a choice."
Flashback: The Lake of Healing.
Saint Serene: healed, standing without support, "How can we ever thank you?"
Mysterious Person: "You don't need to. You are family."
Saint Serene: "Family?"
Mysterious Person: "I chose you. But I need something from you."
Sage Veyron: "Anything."
Mysterious Person: "Work for me. Secretly. I cannot tell you the truth now. But this will help save the world."
They looked at each other.
Sage Veyron: "We agree."
Saint Serene: "We are in your debt."
End Flashback.
The controlled ones attacked.
Ruo moved against his will, lightning blazing. Kent raised his light. Mira and Selene fought side by side, their bodies not their own.
Alya struck with a fox-fire. Tania breathed dragon flame. Akira moved with precision. Kentaro bent gravity. Sage Cedric summoned roots.
Kanade blocked their attacks. Sage Veyron imposed rules. Saint Serene used her wisdom to anticipate their moves.
Nihil Zhou fought with a dream and mirror. Malakor burned with sun fire.
The Mysterious Person watched.
He did not fight.
Tears formed in the controlled ones' eyes. They could not stop their bodies. They could not stop their attacks.
Ruo's eyes: "I'm sorry..."
Kent's eyes: "I can't control..."
Mira's eyes: "Please..."
Selene's eyes: "Stop me..."
Alya's eyes: "I don't want this..."
The Mysterious Person stepped forward.
Mysterious Person: "I command you. All wills. Stop. Gather in my hands."
The wills tore free from their hosts, streaming toward his palm. Even Wu Shemei's will was pulled, struggling.
Wu Shenmei's Will: "Impossible! No one command a will."
Mysterious Person: "I can command nothing. I can command everything."
He closed his hand. The wills were contained.
Wu Shenmei's Will: "Why didn't you tell Magnus?"
Mysterious Person: "It is not necessary."
Wu Shenmei's Will: "If you don't tell him, I will return. Stronger. With more allies."
Mysterious Person: "Then I will store you where you cannot return."
He opened a dimensional rift, pushing the wills inside.
The controlled ones fell to the ground.
One hour passed. They woke, one by one.
Ruo took twenty-one minutes longer than the others.
Mira: "What happened?"
Kent: "We were controlled."
Selene: "Our parents, they weren't..."
Mysterious Person: "They wanted immortality. Power. They made their children tools for that goal."
Ruo: "Why didn't you tell us?"
Mysterious Person: "You weren't ready."
Alya: "Are they gone?"
Mysterious Person: "They are stored. The danger is gone."
Mira: "What do we do now?"
Mysterious Person: "You use the cores your parents left. They are yours now."
Kent: "We can't..."
Mysterious Person: "You can. If something happens, I will handle it."
Kent reached for his core, Transformation (rare). Then another, Null (nullification/neutralizer), Legendary.
Mira took her core, Alchemy.
Selene took hers, Omniglossia(rarer).
Mysterious Person: "This core helps you to speak, write, read, understand all languages."
As they were twins, their parents had only one core. They got only one core each, not like Kent.
Alya took two cores, Genesis Tail and Trideca.
Mysterious Person: "Genesis Tail is the tenth tail. Trideca refers to mastery of thirteen elements. In the future, you should obtain the title 'Sovereign Inari.'"
Kanade took two cores, Time (Chronomancy) and Space.
Tania took two, Gravity and Star.
Finny took gold coins (around 1000), silver coins (around 4000), and many resources related to gravity. He was not from this world.
Ruo reached for his cores.
They were not natural.
Mysterious Person: "Your parents had no cores. I used resources and my refinement path. I created tow artificial cores."
Ruo's Third Core: Void (Legendary).
Ruo's Fourth Core: Theft (Legendary).
Everyone stared.
Mysterious Person: "The Theft core belonged to the Primordial Architect of Stolen Cores. The Primordial Origin of Error. The Fourth Ruler of Omnirank World Seventeen after the collision. His attainment in Theft and Error paths were Peak Supreme Grandmaster."
Ruo: "How did you get it?"
Mysterious Person: "When I met him, I asked about it. He replied: 'Existence itself is theft. Nature steals your youth to give you age; the earth steals your body to give life to grass. To be a thief is simply to take back what the world is constantly stealing from you. It is the ultimate expression of efficiency and survival. The universe has rules, but those rules are not perfect. Theft is the act of finding the bug in reality, stealing the distance between two points to teleport, or stealing a heartbeat to stay alive. It is the art of being the glitch in the system."
He looked at Nihil.
Mysterious Person: "Ruo, Nihil will teach you. He has the core of Plunder."
Ruo: "I agree."
Nihil: "We will train together."
In the dimension where the wills were stored, the souls of the False Ones, those who had dared to speak off the Empress were imprisoned.
They died. They rebirthed. They died again.
Voice of the Mysterious Person: "You have to die two hundred seventy-six more times. Then you will be erased for eternity. Your existence will be erased from every timeline. Every space. This is your punishment for the words you used for my Empress."
The other wills watched in horror.
Wu Shenmei's Will: "He kills them for words. He erases them from existence."
She shuddered.
Wu Shenmei's Will: "I hope he does not do that to me."
Mysterious Person: telepathically, "You may receive a blessing or a curse from someone. It could become another core."
Ruo: telepathically, "Will you help me?"
Mysterious Person: telepathically, "Yes. But you must do tasks for me in return."
Ruo: telepathically, "I agree."
Assassin: telepathically, "Why didn't you use me?"
Mysterious Person: telepathically, "You were not the right choice."
Assassin: telepathically, "I am the seventh ranked assassin in the omniverse. I can erase concepts. Manipulate time and space. Phase through attacks. See the future. I used all my powers on you. I failed. Backlash."
Mysterious Person: telepathically, "I know."
Assassin: telepathically, "Why didn't you react?"
Mysterious Person: telepathically, "I don't need to."
Assassin: telepathically, "Then why keep me?"
Mysterious Person: telepathically, "I want the wills for a goal. Not to destroy them. They will be good resources for upcoming events."
Assassin: telepathically, "And me?"
Mysterious Person: telepathically, "You will be useful. A tool for my goals."
The Mysterious Person gathered the remaining resources, coins, treasures, artifacts, and gave them to Nihil.
Mysterious Person: "For cores. Later. Not now. Tell no one."
Nihil: "Understand."
At the doorway, the group hesitated.
Ruo and Mira: together, "Why didn't you stop us from taking the resources?"
Mysterious Person: "the eighth path. Betrayal. I wanted you to walk it. To taste treachery, disloyalty from your own parents."
Shame filled them.
They realized what had happened nine years ago. Everyone had stood against the one who tried to protect them.
Outside the pyramid, the Mysterious Person turned. His expressionless face. Those endless, bottomless eyes.
Mysterious Person: "No one told you about the rankings of beasts and creatures. Other than humans, variant humans, Demi-humans."
He raised his hand. Words appeared in the air.
Beast Rankings:
1.Feral
2.Corrupted
3.Matriarch
4.Varon
5.Ravager
6.Overlord
7.Tyrant
8.Warden
9.Apex
10.Archon
11.Weaver
12.Null
13.Venerable
14.Progenitor
15.Chronicler
Mysterious Person: "My Phoenix is Venerable. Nearly Progenitor."
Mira: "That's incredible!"
Selene: "Your Phoenix could destroy cities."
Mysterious Person: "Cities. Continents. Worlds."