?[Titan Guild, Headquarters.]
Daniel Parker, the guild master of the strongest guild on Earth, was looking at a small display on his desk, all the while twirling what appeared to be a chest piece made of gold.
It was the king, the most important and most useless piece in chess. His fingers seemed to be made of gold as well, and this ‘gold’ was like liquid, flowing into the chest piece. The piece had veins like those of a living being, and gold was the blood that lowed through it.
The office he resided in was as lavish as every, where everything was gold, to the seat he was sitting on and the most minor decoration. The walls, ceilings, doors…everything.
And everything seemed to be moving, like a living being. The blood which was gold flowed through everything in this place, all originating from him.
Like he was the heart of this strange…organism.
“Little Richard has had some cover operations…”
He muttered, His secretary, a beautiful woman wearing gold glasses and a golden dress, heard the words, but didn’t say anything. Fearing she would make him angry with her nonsense.
Daniel had no need for a secretary, he was a workaholic. She knew the only reason she was here was to satisfy the needs of the board, and to keep up a public image. Her job mostly consisted of standing in one place, or bringing him refreshments, which he rarely asked for.
For so long, he had simply been staring into the display on his desk, which showcased footage of Twilight’s headquarters back in Askolt city. The footage was being provided through a summon of Daniels, and the man had been staring at this for three entire days, not eating or drinking anything.
He would sometimes play chess with himself, but he never completed his matches, seemingly losing interest.
“Do you see this?”
A chill went down her spine as the man finally called for her, something that had almost never happened during the entire time she had served him.
“…”
She stayed silent, thinking he was just talking to himself, which he did quite often.
“Do you see this?”
He repeated, and looked at her straight in the eyes. His gold eyes, which seemed more metallic than organic, pierced into her and made her have goosebumps all throughout.
“No, Please enlighten me.”
“Expected.”
She honestly didn’t know what he was talking about. She also wasn’t stupid enough to answer something else and possibly get killed…or worse, turned into a statue of gold.
The most horrific punishment that could exist, where Daniel turned his enemies into statues of gold and decorated them in the headquarters. They were alive, yet they were not.
She paid closer attention to the footage, but could not find anything of note, they were just the normal things… People going in and going out. Normal people tending to their work.
“Do you see the people with rings?” .𝒎
“Yes.”
She affirmed, among the dozens of people entering and exiting the office, there were few who were wearing rings, most likely married individuals. That was what she had thought.
“The rings they are wearing, What do you think they are?”
He asked, keeping his tone gentle, The secretary tried her best to identify the rings, but because of the distance and size of those things on the display, she couldn’t.
She thought that maybe they were the revered spatial rings of Twilight, but she thought the more sensible thing was to assume they were marriage rings, after all, why would normal employees have those rings?
“Marri-”
“Wrong.”
She was quietened before she could even finish her sentence, she froze, thinking she had made a grave mistake. She fearfully waited for what would happen, sincerely wishing that it wasn’t ‘that’.
The man was cruel, but rewarding. Those who did their jobs were rewarded, and those that didn’t often met a cruel fate. He didn’t even spare his children from this.
How many of his own children had he turned into statues? No wonder both his remaining daughters hated him.
Absolutely loathed him. Yet the man didn’t care.
“Spatial rings.”
“Indeed.”
She just agreed with him, not wanting to attract his ire. Whatever he would say, just agree to it.
“The same spatial rings, yet the ’employees’ keep changing. The rings have been well disguised as well…”
The footage on the display changed, this time showing a man, dressed like a hoodlum, approaching a truck. He went into the back of the truck and exited soon after, leaving the area. He was also wearing a spatial ring.
“That man…”
“Finally, you have some smarts in you. He’s the same, isn’t he?”
“No, sir…he is different.”
He didn’t look like any of the employees who were wearing the rings, he looked out of shape and completely different, with an unkept beard.
“…”
Daniel was silent. She realized her mistake, but before she could correct it, Daniel sighed.
“The artificial hair, the bodysuit and the haggard appearance he has, All fake.”
“You can’t even see that.”
It wasn’t her fault! How would one be able to discern those things… How?! She was human, not a monster. Only a psychopath could notice such miniscule differences.
‘Ah…’
She forgot the man in front of her was a psychopath.
“My apologies, I seemed to have made a mistake.”
“Many mistakes.”
He seemed to have lost interest, He continued mumbling.
“To buy the rights of a dungeon where there are black rocks and the sky is cracked… And even the wellingtons are in on this…”
“Haha…”
He let out a laugh, She wondered what he was up to this time, but was thankful that she kept her life.
“They are building a portal… I didn’t think that kid could have found coordinates so quickly. Seems like he isn’t all brawn.”
He yawned, and said to his secretary.
“Bring me something to dri-”
But he stopped, noticing that her entire body had been turned to gold already.
“Oh.”
It seems he had done it out of instinct, she was simply annoying.
“Liquidate.”
He said, and the golden statue melted and turned to liquid, becoming a part of the room.
“Haaaa…”
He stood up, for the first time in days and stretched a little, Then went outside, completely ignoring the fact that his secretary was now gone, forever.
********
[Alan Peccator POV.]
I followed Lanesha’s instructions and immediately began to practice the breathing technique. Soon enough, I got the hang of it and entered the realm within my body. Where my masteries of the elements resided.
‘I don’t know what to call this…’
I thought, as I entered and saw the vast expanse of space, and the ice world and spatial clouds.
The ice world was the manifestation of my mastery in frost, whilst the astral clouds that of space. I had visited this ‘place’ multiple times, mostly to meditate or check up on the two objects.
I really should give this thing a name, but I guess I can leave that for a later date. Furthermore…why did Lanesha want me to come here?
Was there something that she couldn’t say in the outside world, but if it was…would coming here really solve that? I don’t think so. 𝑖.𝘤ℴ𝘮
‘She should know best.’
I thought, and waited for her to send a message, or anything.
I closed my eyes and tried to meditate in this place. It had been quite a while since I started to meditate.
“You look quite cute when you are serious, you know?”
I heard a voice, directly into my right ear. It was cold, and exuded a cold mist, and my body shivered. I felt cold, and at home.
I hurriedly opened my eyes, and slammed my fist towards my right. This was an instinctive reaction, and it was strong. Almost all of my strength was aimed at it.
But it was stopped by just a breath. A breath of cold energy that froze my body. My body, immune to cold. It was frozen in an instant.
Yet it didn’t feel like I was a statue of ice, simply…i was stopped. Like my muscles have shut down and my body no longer willed to fight. Like it had accepted the fate that would follow if I dared to engage.
“Don’t do that.”
The voice was heard in my ear once again, and it brought with it a sense of calm, warming my body and thawing it.
I looked at the origin, finally being able to move my head. And I saw a woman, more beautiful than anything I could even imagine.
With white hair that cascaded down her broad shoulders like an avalanche, longer than her body, having eyes as…crystal like ice, but possessing a unique to element to them as well, Her lips were adorned with a lipstick, cyan and having glitters, Her eyelashes were long, and added a more mystical and alluring look. Her breasts were twin peaks themselves, covered in blankets of snow, which in this case was a dress of full blue, covering all of her body to her neck, revealing no skin beneath her neck.
“What, Surprised?”
She said, smiling, in her mellow and cold voice. It was strange to describe the voice as such
I couldn’t help but be drawn towards her.
𝘪𝑎.𝘤𝑜𝑚