We sat tight for two hours while I got control over myself. I was pretty confident I was fine after the first hour but no one wanted to take the extra risk. I attempted to connect to the mark but nothing worked. The Eye of Heaven showed me the energy inside after a while but that was it. The mark had absorbed a lot of energy. The energy it had managed to steal was immense. Far more than I realized, there was probably enough energy inside to gain one or two levels in my current state. The strange part was its attunement. It clearly had one only I had never seen this kind before.

  It was a weird golden color that reminded me of the prisoner's hair. Our working theory was that it was somehow related to the Tao of Light, though it was very different from what I saw with Romulus. Of course, his was closer to the sun than pure light, so that might explain the situation. Regardless of the strangeness of the mark, the cube was definitely worth it. The additional level was worth it alone since almost nothing in here gave spiritual energy.

  "Alright, let's go. I don't want to be in here forever and the longer we are all gone the more chances for Amara to erupt into chaos."

  "What do you think would happen? We are still alive, the leaderboard didn't change, and it's not like someone is going to overthrow you in a few days," Aaliyah said as she got to her feet.

  I shrugged. "True but I am more concerned about a quest. The last thing I want is for the System to start something without me knowing."

  "Well, we could pick up the pace if you want," Trey said as he and Xerxes walked over. "We would need to stop going through each room."

  "Eh, we will be fine. I like the artwork." I expanded my Tao field and headed toward the exit. "I also don't want to risk anything here getting out. Ideally, I want to find a way to resolve the memories or at least map them out. It would be a waste of resources if we couldn't use this place."

  "Already planning your future castle?" Trey laughed. "It's a bit big for us though."

  "Nah, this place is a bit old-fashioned for me. Plus I don't want to climb the stairs to get everywhere. If we become friends with a clan of giants or something though it could be a good trade. It's mainly the forge if we can get it ignited we might be able to build some nice weapons. Better than the stuff made with Earth's equipment anyway. Worse case we would have a second forge so it would still be a win.

  "What if we can't deal with the memories?" Aaliyah asked.

  "Well in that case we would restrict everyone to building. We haven't encountered too many dangers inside. Not counting the statues." As if my words were prophetic, a wall opened and two stone statues stepped out. These statues wielded stone spears in their left hand but were otherwise identical to the rest. We fell into our familiar battle strategy and dispatched both of them.

  "Huh you know these guys are a bit too easy," Trey said as he picked up one of the spearheads. He placed it into his storage and jogged toward the other end of the hall.

  "I mean you both are getting stronger so you should be able to handle it on your own. Of course, that assumes you don't get complacent. Once we leave we should have a sparing session."

  Aaliyah shook her head almost as soon as the words left my lips. "I think I've had enough of sparring with you. At least until I get to your level. There is something I want to discuss with you when we have a free moment."

  "We should keep moving." Xerxes said. "I want to find a good hunt and these statues are not worthy prey."

  I raised an eyebrow at the Qilin and looked over at the pile of burned rubble that used to be the statues. "They are pretty strong. I mean they would be somewhere near the top on Earth. At least in the top ten."

  "There is more to a hunt than power. They do not think nor do they have instinct. They just attack. It is disgusting."

  I shrugged and turned my attention back to the others. Who looked both irritated and curious. I quickly explained our conversation before we decided to move forward. "Do you think you could scout ahead?" I asked Aaliyah.

  She paused as if considering it for a moment. Her spiritual energy surged a moment later and she disappeared in a wave of shadow. "I got to get another movement ability. That's dope."

  "You can literally open magic portals," Trey replied. "Like a doorway to another spot and you can go further than we can."

  I shrugged. "The greedy are never satisfied." I ducked out of the way as he swiped at me and then jogged forward. We gave the next few rooms a cursory look but there wasn't much to see. This area was likely built for servants. The rooms were nearly identical and lacked any real customization. It reminded me a bit of being in a college dorm hall. Only it smelled better.

  Aaliyah reappeared when we reached the next flight of stairs. She gave a quick accounting of what she found before disappearing again. I activated Ethereal Convocation so she could update me in real-time. The next two floors are pretty identical to this one. There are pieces of furniture that could be valuable but nothing that would draw much attention. We decided to skip them for now. We would come back later and empty this stuff out after we dumped our storage. We eventually made our way back to the atrium which meant it was time to explore the main staircase.

  I decided to withdraw my Tao field to not risk drawing the attention of either a memory or an array. I activated Apportation to take us to the top of the staircase but no sooner had we stepped out of the portal did a pair of statues appeared. Both of them were made of metal and drew swords from their right legs. "Split up as we planned. Work together and join me when you can."

  I could practically feel the apprehension from Aaliyah and Trey but Xerxes wasn't deterred. He unleashed a blast of flame into the right-most statue. The flame wasn't enough to cause any serious damage but it was enough to draw its attention. After that, the rest of the trio moved forward. I waited until they put some distance between me and the last statue before I activated my abilities. I formed a dozen spatial blades and shot them forward like shards of glass. They slammed into the statue.

  A dozen scratches marred its form before it had crossed half the distance to me. Energy surged into Psychic Aegis until an Indigo wall sprung forward. The statue raised its sword and tried to split it in two. The wall buckled but held. A grin formed on my face as I formed a halo of blades. It brought its sword down again this time a spider web of cracks formed from the impact sight. It wouldn't survive another hit so abandoned the spell and focused on offense. I launched blade after blade in a desperate offensive designed to rip this thing apart.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  I managed to take off the statue's left hand before I had to retreat. I took the time to check on the others as I retreated away from the stairs. Blood poured from a nasty cut on the right side of Xerxes' body. The wound was deep but the Qilin hadn't stopped his attacks. If anything his ferocity had grown. Every once in a while the darkness around the statue would shift and a dagger would find a weak spot. Somewhere the metal wasn't quite as thick.

  Her dagger was just barely strong enough to puncture the metal but with her new skill that was changing. Each hit made her faster which in turn let her get more hits. The statue wasn't stupid though. It nearly split her in half when she tried to go for its throat. Trey was the unsung hero in the exchange. He had activated his transformation skill. His skin turned almost volcanic as he launched balls of flame into the statue. He darted in and out with his wings just often enough to stop Xerxes from taking major wounds.

  A scream of danger brought my focus back to my opponent. His sword swung with a finality that left no illusions. I ducked just in time to avoid the statue taking my head. For a fraction of a second, I was about to deliver a punch to the underside of the blade. Instead, I went to expand my Tao field when a familiar sensation passed over me. It was so abrupt that I lost my focus and stumbled backward. Another swing of the statue's blade nearly took my right arm.

  None of that mattered when I figured out what the sensation wanted me to do. I could've smacked myself at the simplicity of the idea. Instead of forming a proper field, I aimed the Strand of Compression in front of me. I had to form a blade of spatial blade to keep the statue off me long enough to make it work but when I did I couldn't help but laugh. I took a step only that one step took me nearly fifty feet away. The drain on my psychic energy was immense, more so than forming ten blades but the results were more than worth it.

  Effectively I had made a pseudo-movement spell. It wasn't as good as Apportation or whatever Aaliyah used for the shadows but it was great at what I needed. I was pulled from my reverie when the statue attacked again. I repeated my actions though I pulled back on the amount of energy expended just a bit. This time one step took me about twenty feet away. I unleashed another round of attacks at the back of the statue in the moments it took to find me again.

  The pattern repeated itself three more times before I found a new problem. Between using my Tao for attacks and movement I was burning psychic energy. My head throbbed like someone had taken a jackhammer to it. The statue wasn't doing much better. It had managed to keep its sword hand but its right leg was gone and it could barely stand. The problem was that I was having a hard time forming more attacks. My last half dozen spatial blades were too weak to cut through the metal.

  Thankfully that problem was solved a second later as two blasts of flame slammed into it. Almost as soon as the flames died the darkness at the statue's feet coalesced and Aaliyah stepped out. Her darkness already swinging for the wound on its neck. She slammed her daggers home and then twisted her wrist. In the next moment, the statue's head popped off and the battle was over.

  I grinned and moved to sit against the wall. "Good work. Cover me for a moment. I need to recover some psychic energy." Despite my best efforts it took me ten minutes to fall into meditation. I wasn't able to go into a proper trance so my recovery took longer than I would have liked. When my headache was gone and I felt confident enough to fight at nearly full power I decided to get a move on. I didn't want to keep everyone waiting and I didn't want to risk getting into another battle.

  "Are we ready to move out?" I asked as I got to my feet. I cracked my neck and rolled my shoulders.

  "Yeah, Aaliyah went to scout ahead but didn't find anything dangerous. She said there was a door that scared her. She stayed away from it."

  "Alright, well that's fine I assume that whatever we need to find in there. Either that or the king." Based on the look on Trey's face my joke wasn't appreciated.

  "I didn't smell anything living from the door. I do not think there is a king inside." Xerxes replied.

  "That's a slight relief. I doubt there will be a king statue but there might be some kind of knight. A last defender of the king kind of thing." I expanded my soul sense to keep an eye on things just in case before I called Aaliyah back through my spell. It took her a few minutes to return and then we sat out together. The next room was a large hallway flanked by statues. Thankfully these statues were just for aesthetics. Further, these statues were incredibly detailed. They were the kind of things that Renaissance artists would be jealous of. I briefly considered putting the statues in my ring but they were too big to do it whole. There was no way I would break any of them.

  That felt like a crime against humanity or giant kind I suppose. We decided to spend several minutes admiring the statues before we reached the final door. This one was a higher-quality version of the one we entered to get into the demi-plane. It was made out of the same material though the images were engraved with much higher quality. Almost as if the stone was liquid at first and they slowly drew them in. "I wonder if we could find a stone carver inheritance," I asked not expecting an answer.

  I checked the door for any signs of an array and found nothing. The door was just a door. There was a slight sense of danger. Not enough to worry me but that couldn't be said about the others. I released the Tao of Adamance to firm everyone's resolve and then pushed the door open. The door slowly swung open. As soon as it was open a dozen flame lights appeared on either side of us. The flames bathed the path in front of us in red and orange. The room was surprisingly empty. It was made out of grey stone and there was a single massive throne at the far end. The areas to our right and left were empty except for stone plaques. Plaques that I assumed people were supposed to stand next to.

  There was a beautiful black carpet that went from the door to the base of the stairs in front of the throne. The whole scene felt both awe-inspiring and depressing. Part of me could only wonder what this room would have looked like at its best. When it was full of giants they held court or whatever giants did. Of course, that part reminded us that we would have likely been killed if we entered during that time.

  I let my soul spread through the area in search of whatever had my danger sense going off. After several seconds of nothing I took a step forward. I gestured to the others when nothing happened and we continued forward. I spread my senses over the plaques and found that they were names. Naturally, I didn't recognize any of them which also meant that our earlier assumption was likely correct. We either didn't have access to the space where important people lived or we just didn't hadn't found it yet.

  I committed the names closest to the throne to memory and prepared to move on. Before I could get within a hundred feet of the throne a massive flame practically exploded about 50 feet above. The flame might as well have been a sun when compared to the flame that lit up earlier. Alongside the flame came a spectral figure on the throne. The figure was above twenty feet tall with bronze skin. He wore metallic armor with animated flames that spread through it. There was a double-sided axe leaning against a now resplendent throne.

  A second later the image shattered and it was like two images existed at the same time. One where the king sat upon a resplendent throne and another that was the room we were currently in.

  "Curious." The king's voice slammed into me a like freight truck. I was forced back a step while the other dropped to one knee. I expanded my Tao field to defend them but it was like putting a band-aid on a stab wound. If the king wanted any of us dead he would just have to speak. A small amount of energy traveled through into spectral throat and then he opened his mouth. I braced myself only this time the voice was weaker. I still felt it in every part of my body but it was only painful.

  "Who are you? And why do you intrude upon my sanctum?"