“We are here at last.” Tyronne stepped out of the carriage, and waked the others up. “This is the Enigmatic Tower.” He pointed at the plainly built tower, mostly out of concrete and iron bars. Nobody knew why somebody would build something like this atop the Enigmatic Vault. The Order used it as their Headquarters, no less. It was immense in size, five floors were used as barracks and gave accommodation to at least three thousand associates. Although it functioned as the stronghold to protect the Vault at all cost, there were several floors dedicated to conferences, commerce, food and leisurely activities. The main hall was a huge, empty hall with curly stairs at the sides, and had a hologram in the middle that was probably fuelled by something in the Vault. This hologram was an orange sketch of the world map with two laurels of the same colour, crossing each other in the middle of background. There was an option to go up, but no ordinary visitor could get to the floor underground that was the copy of the main hall, but without the hologram. Instead, a door was present, which was made of the strongest titanium alloy and several other almost unbreakable materials, and was towering over the stairs, dominating the timid hole with the words of ‘Project Blackheart’ carved into the terrifying transom.

“The Paragons had taken up the name ‘Blackheart’ to name themselves the true successor of the Enigmatic Vault. Lots of them wanted to open that door, but the Order denied. To siege and conquer mountainous region is almost impossible without losing too much resources and manpower, which would lead to a state that is weakened. It would be nothing more than the prey of its neighbours.” explained the Paragon out of the blue. He was wearing his ceremonial clothes, the exact same he wore at the festival, Mia and Noah had their uniforms on.

The whole area was a highland surrounded and embraced by mountains almost reaching the stars and imposing a stern picture of grandeur and magnificence. No trees were present, only roads and tunnels, which could be blown up any time if an invasion was in progress.

“We have been coming for a long time now, shouldn’t we have some rest?” asked Mia.

“Have you finished with the main points of my speech yet?”

“No.”

“You shouldn’t have fallen asleep.”

“When will the Convergence take place?”

“I do not know yet.”

“I have time then.”

“I used to improvise. This meeting is useless anyways. But I want to take a look at the Vault.”

“Tyronne Blackheart, or Tyrant Blackheart?” Barked a man at the gates of The Tower. He had a muscular body, but nothing else. His face resembled a hamsters’, he was shaven and had short hair. His uniform was orange and had black armour plates fixated on it to protect the body from AC and standard bullets, melee weapons. “I see you have new lapdogs as well.”

“George, the pussy-witted, Enigua. I heard that the old man died a month ago, but I never figured you would be their next leader. I see you are the Grandmaster of the Order now. That surname you took up is horrible.”

“Yours is a copy of an old joke.”

“Not a very pleasant way to meet again, is it?”

“No, it is not. I couldn’t forget all the atrocities you have done. Those life you sacrificed, the war you are waging. I can only despise you.”

“Politics is not about feelings, only about power. Do not forget who I am. If you tell how you feel when we meet, I can make up plans to discourage you from your life, but it does not worth the effort, though.”

“At least I do not have a harem.”

“Good for you. You must be satisfied with yourself.”

“Prick.”

“Stupid shit. Your pride is worthless.”

“At least I do not kill people, if they do not see eye to eye with me.”

“At least I did not lick the asses of the elders in the Shadow Council to get promoted. You are nothing, but a nuisance. Seriously, what administrative failure made you Grandmaster?”

“I was voted on, and won, not like you.”

“I fought my way to greatness, you just posed as a valiant and diligent knight, just to be a jester.”

“I am the Grandmaster of the Order of the Underworld, a man swore to protect the Vault against malevolent maggots, such as yourself.”

“I couldn’t care less. You are no more than a conceited little bitch with a fancy title. Your power resembles a rotten husk of a tree cut out by malnourished beavers.” The Grandmaster seemed to explode at any minute. “Now, tell me the basic information. Do not forget that you are a Grandmaster, you cannot segregate envoys of another country, and you, surely, do not want to anger the strongest.”

Then he obediently showed Tyronne the ropes, then the Champion of Virtues ignored his presence and turned away.

”Oi, Mia. They gave two rooms for the three of us. Whom do you want to sleep with?” he smiled, and signalled to move forward.

“Alone, preferably, or you could sleep on the couch.”

“Well, then I’ll take mine, you should go for yours.” He told the details. “Conference floor, Guest’s corridor, fifteenth room. You should cheer Noah up, he haven’t even said a word. You could ease each other’s suffering you know. It is easier than you think.”

“Why are you so horny all the time?”

“Because I am attracted to your being. You are a beautiful woman, aren’t you? Sex keeps me sane, I cannot be serious all the time that just messes up my mind. I love to deceive people, but it needs much attention and I get tired easily.” He lied.

“For fun, huh?”

“I am only human. Otherwise I would have made you cower before me, and did something really unpleasant to you, like many of the other Paragons would have. They were monsters, causing famine and suffering purposely but I do things differently. That is why a part of the upper strata is not satisfied with my actions.” He looked at her with his grey-blue eyes seriously.

“Eh?”

“I imagined you to be evil, yet you seem to be a decent person.” A young male with a black beard and short black hair introduced himself. His features included a diamond shaped head, small nose, healthy skin, green eyes which were not very far from each other, yet it was not malformed, resulting in a weirdly handsome character. He was in traditional northern clothes, which were black fur coat, leather trousers, long necked boots, a white shirt and a small beaver pelt hat, all of which were ornamented with golden filaments. “I am Ivan Bogatstvy, envoy of The Northern Association.” They stopped in the middle of the main hall.

“I do not know you, do I?” Tyronne asked, knowing the answer.

“No, but my father attended your inauguration, he might be familiar. His name is Dimitri.”

“Yeah, I remember. I think he wanted and audience with me, so that he can influence me with money and numbers. I called him a shithead sent all the way back he had come from. I saw right through him.”

“He wanted me to give you this.” He draw a piece of paper out of his pocket. “This is the key code of the Commercial Hub.”

“Isn’t that treason?”

“I was told to give it to you.”

“What do you want for that?”

“Peace. Preferably a trade contract.”

“What if I took that by force?”

“That is why we would like to give it to you.”

“I mean, the code, not the random set of numbers you just show me.”

“Huh?”

“It is fake, son. Didn’t you know?”

Ivan was surprised or at least acted alike. “Why would you think that?”

“I saw five types of characters in your code. It should only be four.”

“How do you know? There might be different encryption methods used in different hubs.”

“Sounds an awful lot of work, and it would be unreasonable. Too much effort, almost no gain.”

“Sure.”

“I suppose your father gave you the code to satisfy me, so that I would let my guards down and watch you prepare for war while I am doing nothing. He is an idiot, isn’t he?”

“We do not mean any harm, and I am only doing what I am told to do.”

“Fear not for I have already acquired your key code.” He turned away. “We will talk at the meeting.”

The other two had already left for their rooms when he decided to climb the stairs. Reaching the Conference floor, a young girl approached him and called by his name.

“Paragon Tyronne Blackheart. It is an honour to meet you.”

“When did I become a housewife to be interrupted all the time? Do I have to do the dishes now?” he thought. “In any other case I would have introduced myself, but since you did not let me, I would be honoured, if you did yours.” He looked at the girl.

“My name is Leah, the Envoy of the Districts.” The woman’s properties included light brown hair and blue eyes, a plain outfit which was made of red linen and was carefully adjusted to her body. A skirt and a top, and some strangely braided hair that was all. Although her facial structure was considered to be average, she had some delicate features as well, such as gorgeous hands and slim body.

“She is not as attractive as Mia, but has the perfect tits though. I have to be careful. She seems to be agitated. Oh, I remember. She is new. Why did she accept?” he wondered.

“I would like to present you our gift.” She handed a over a piece of paper.

“Oh, the key code?”

“Yes. We would like to establish a peaceful relationship with our neighbour.”

“Thank you. See you at the meeting.” He replied. “I think you underestimate espionage. Ethan did not even had to conceal himself to get into the Cultural Hub.” He thought while he smiled, and set off to his subordinates’ room.

“Are you in there?”

“Yes.” Mia shouted.

“Now that we are here, the Grandmaster wants to start the meeting. Are you capable?”

“Yes.” Both of them replied.

“Noah come with me.” He stood up. “Mia, you can do whatever you want. Do you have money?” he handed over a pouch of coins. “Tend to the other servants as well, you are their supervisor now. Also, you might want to peak in the documents I arranged for you. It might be of use later.”

Tyronne left the room with Noah following him. Their destination was the Conference Room, which was on the other side of the level. While walking, he started to talk to Noah.

“Are you still depressed?”

“How could I not be?”

“Death is natural. You should get used to losing people. Many of my acquaintances and friends could die any day.”

“I saw my best friend being disembowelled.”

“I saw my best friend leave a woman behind, because someone murdered him while tending to his duty. You could have saved her.”

“How? Why are you blaming me?”

“Why didn’t you live a humble life? Why did you kill?”

“I saw no other way.”

“For what?”

“To protect.”

“My ass. You just wanted revenge, didn’t you? You are still a child. Take the blame and move on. Bad situations sometimes does more good than harm. Death is always at your doorstep. If you think you are to blame alone, she played right alongside you.”

“But why do I feel like collapsing in any minute? Why do I have to bear the mistakes I made? Why am I a lapdog of my enemy? She wouldn’t have wanted this. I can’t take it anymore.”

“I think she only wanted you to find your place in this world. Your past is permanent unlike your future. You can still fix your life, you are still young. But I think it is fate that brought us together. You might kill me, but I am willing to take a risk.”

“Kill you? After what you have done for Mia?”

“I have too many sins to atone for. I was the reason your girlfriend died, right? I killed Mia’s father as well, not to mention I have to take the blame for my subordinates’ actions. I told you, if you have anything you need, just point at them. Girl, boy I do not care. I’ll get it for you, because I couldn’t keep my promise. I couldn’t follow Edward’s way of thinking. I miss him.”

“Edward?”

“Yes,. You know him, I am sure. He wanted me to change the way our nation works. If you hadn’t killed him, We would be living in a Utopia.” Noah collapsed. “Are you okay?”

“I… I…”

“Yes, I know. You can’t do anything against it, so bear with me. The only thing that satisfies me is to be on the top of the hierarchy, to call myself the best. I am sure you know what I am talking about.”

“Heeh.”

“Stop being a pussy.” He thought as Noah was starting to behave strangely. “Now I have done it.” Tyronne slapped Noah with all his power, he even had two rings on his left hand. It left two small wounds on his face. He was gawking at Tyronne with a mixture of fear and surprise. “Let us go to the Conference Room, try not to succumb to your shitty thoughts. You can take your time to stand up as well.” Everybody was watching the scene. Everyone stopped as they heard the resonation of that extraordinary slap.

“It is a ten out of ten.” murmured a guard, astonished at the elegant technique of slapping an employee. A whistle could be heard from the audience. Meanwhile, Noah stood up and started to reintegrate with his duty.

Opening the door, all of the envoys greeted the Paragon. As the chamber contained a pentagon shaped stone table, only his seat remained empty. The envoys, namely, Ivan, Leah and EB-3, and the Grandmaster who was impatient and almost irritated over the situation, were waiting for the start of the meeting. The war has been going on for several years now, nobody reckoned that it would be a sign of eternal joy.

“We have been waiting for thirty minutes now.”

“You shouldn’t have come early.” The Paragon sat down without going through the ceremony.

“We still have a ceremony to complete.” George protested.

“Who cares? We all want to carry on with our lives and duties, we do not need a ceremony lasting half an hour. Sit down already.”

Everyone sat down.

“How do you dare?”

“Should I unleash my wrath upon everyone? You know I would destroy the others eventually. Painters, merchants and lifeless robots cannot stop me. You know that well.”

“You want the Vault, am I right?” Ivan asked.

“Yes. If you let me, I’ll leave you all alone.”

“You could just destroy us with what you find.” pointed Leah out.

“Why would I? I would have done that long ago, if my objective was world domination.”

“What do you achieve with opening the Vault?”

“Knowledge.”

“You could just use our hubs instead.” Leah proposed.

“That is not a valid option.” Said the bot, helping Tyronne out. “Our people chose not to share the hub’s code with any of you.”

“I declared war because they did not gave me their code. I do not need an access to their knowledge. I need only the code. I presented them an ultimatum, they rejected.” He said. “I want to know more about the Old World, no less, no more. This is the only way to go. After that, I might abdicate and be an exile. I would discover the Outlands. I had enough. I want to know more about the world. It can’T be that only we survived.” He thought.

“Do you think anyone would give it to you by their own free will?” asked the Grandmaster.

“Yes, if they do not want to die.”

“That’s not how you practice of free will.”

“On the contrary. The subject can choose between life and death. I wouldn’t cut one’s head off without a reason. That is unnecessary.”

“That is just blasphemy.”

“I have been here since the formation of this useless conference. What did you wish to achieve?”

“Peace.”

“Give me the codes, then.”

“We protect the Vault in order not to give it to someone like you.”

“What do you know about me? I am sure you know nothing. I think you are just afraid to lose your job. That is all.”

“Let’s take a break, shall we?” proposed Ivan. “This is getting out of hand.” All of them stood up. “We shall continue in ten minutes.”

“What do you think, Noah?”

“You are the dominant aspect.”

“Sure, but about the envoys.”

“Ivan is stressed, tries desperately to remain in control, the bot is just a bot, and George is a strange person. His pride is too much.”

“Anything else?”

“Huh?”

“About Leah.” he smiled. “You like her, don’t you?” he froze. “Oh, so you remembered your girlfriend. But at least you could forget her for quite some time. I am proud.” Noah regained his weary glance.

A guard opened the door, went to George and whispered to him. “The Vault…activated… who.” Tyronne read some of his words. “Send for the Vanguard, this is getting interesting, someone just activated the Vault. Go.”

He stood up and approached the door.

“You are forbidden to leave the room. If this is an attempt to assassinate us, it is much safer here.”

“I am well aware of that, but I have to check on the Vault. If someone managed to open it, I do not have to continue this war.”

“We should go together, then.” Proposed the other organic envoys. On arrival, they saw nothing, but a monitor which reactivated itself after a long slumber. It was located beside the door, under that was a hole. “Warning. The Tectonic Discharger is unstable, please evacuate.”