Shaper missed a step as he walked to the throne room. His bond with Magnalius went haywire. The sensation was so intense that Shaper could taste chaos magic pulsing through their bond.

It filled him with horror, causing some of his darkest memories to resurface. Suddenly, he was transported back to ancient time, to the One Empire or more precisely to its birth where already a thousand-year-old Shaper met a young boy with a truly broken Talent, one that allowed the boy to see the spiritual matrix of the reality around him. It was the first time when Shaper truly saw the depth and complexity of the world. He also found out why trying to take advantage of the System was deadly.

The System shielded life from Chaos. It diminished and stifled power, true, but Chaos could not be controlled. By its nature, it shredded existence itself into messy pieces.

Back then, this hadn’t been enough to sway Shaper and so his experimentation continued until his golden boy was killed by chaos magic.

Shaper took a deep breath, shoving the memory away. That was unexpected. Something like this didn’t happen to Shaper in over a thousand years.

Magnalius, Shaper pulled at their bond, but his spiritual companion resisted. I order you to return.

A blast of spiritual energy shot through the bond, bringing Magnalius back to Shaper. Spiritual companions weren’t indestructible. Their destruction wasn’t fatal to their masters but there were some consequences. Until now, Shaper hadn’t considered the possibility of anything on Earth to put a scratch on Magnalius. After all, there were only a few sources of power that could touch a spiritual companion.

What returned to Shaper were half-shredded remnants of Magnalius. He was alive and he’d fully recover but it’d have to be fuelled by Shaper, making him weaker.

Has Keynes Kid done it to you?

You wish, came a ragged reply.

Magnalius fell silent, entering recovery mode. The drain on Shaper’s spiritual energy was noticeable. Nothing that would stop him from fulfilling the vision though.

The throne room was as Shaper expected it to be, packed with people. There was a great debate in progress. The king yelled at his royals for failing to defend the gate. His reaction was understandable. The gate should have been defended but the Cult of Shaper did its part and sabotaged the defence.

“…RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS FOUND AND BROUGHT HERE!” the king roared.

Shaper sensed mixed responses from the gathered. The majority of the royals didn’t understand what was going on and so they reverted to using something Shaper’s own court had used to do as well, they blamed others.

The whole throne room split into several factions, baring teeth at each other. Even though the entire court was one large family, there was no love between them.

Threats and accusations were thrown left and right until the king roared again.

“SILENCE!”

The gathered royals fell silent. The king used the moment and said calmly and quietly, “I want the monsters gone from my city, you have one hour. If you fail, I won’t be looking for culprits, I’ll kill you all. Understood?”

That evoked a different kind of silence, a stunned one. Glances were exchanged, and the atmosphere changed from angry to wary to worried in a couple of seconds.

It took them a few more seconds to respond. They started to drop to their knees assuring the king that his will was going to be fulfilled. Many of them lied but the king was too pathetic to sense it. That man was barely in the Medium stage.

As the king turned away from them, his guards created a protective wall between him and the royals. The meaning behind this was clear and the royals quickly filed out of the throne room, chattering vividly.

The guards soon scattered around the throne room securing all exits. The king turned to his first servant, the king’s hand on the backrest of the throne.

“Who’s behind this?”

The first servant didn’t hesitate and replied as he’d been instructed.

“The Cult of Shaper.”

The king hissed angrily, his fingers biting into the soft material of the backrest.

“Those traitors… I should’ve known, they were much more active lately.” The king looked at his throne. “Send the word. I want every cultist in the dungeon by the end of the day. It’s time to make a purge.”

Shaper decided that it was the moment he should introduce himself to the king. He put on one of his newly acquired regal robes, golden with white and silver ornaments. It was crafted from Level 1 rift materials and gave a minor attribute bonus to stats that didn’t make a difference to Shaper.

Instead of dropping his aura camouflage that hid Shaper from the senses of the king, his servant and the guards, Shaper decided to do it his way. He approached one of the walls, placed his hand on it and then started to feed his mana to it.

The wall drank it greedily, taking almost half of Shaper’s mana, which even with a highly cultivated mana core, was a lot. The mana reached a rune hidden inside the wall. It was the activation rune that linked the control of the palace with Shaper’s bracelet. All of this was ancient and created thanks to one broken Talent.

“WHO ARE YOU?!” the king shouted. “GUARDS, ARREST THIS MAN!”

It looked like Shaper’s aura control slipped when he fed the rune. Magnalius’s recovery was taking quite a chunk of Shaper’s spiritual energy and this seemed to have an impact on Shaper’s spiritual proficiency. He didn’t know that. It didn’t matter.

He turned around seeing a dozen guards running at him. His aura hit them like a truck, sending each guard to their knees. Without a second glance at the remaining guards who stood frozen in place, Shaper’s eyes rested on the king and his servant. The king’s wide eyes jumped between Shaper and the fallen guards.

“Your time is over,” Shaper said as he started walking toward the throne. “You fulfilled your role. Now, you have a choice. Leave now or I will kill you.”

“W-what… What role? Wha—who are you?”

“I am the first and final ruler of the Capital, once known as Actium. I built this place and I will rule from now on.” To add weight to his words, Shaper used his bracelet. The room started to shift and change. Stone walls covered by gold paint with shining blue-white runes. Then the floor became like a black mirror. Where the current king’s throne stood, now another one started to emerge. The king yelped and threw himself on the floor.

The new throne was made out of gleaming platinum and white gold, its backrest was massive, as tall as four adults standing one on top of another. The changes to the throne didn’t stop there. It was raised five metres above the level of the floor, with wide stairs as the only access to it. The fringes of the throne twisted as the liquid metal started falling into shapes. Some of them were meaningless, they just looked good, others represented Shaper’s past conquests.

The ceiling raised, deforming the rest of the palace, which would be rectified easily once Shaper fed the palace’s runes with mana from the tribesmen. Beams of pure light fell on the seat, causing the entire throne to sparkle.

One thing the current rulers failed to understand was the importance of a throne. Just standing in the presence of such a magnificent object made people’s knees weak and their hearts beat faster. Shaper’s throne humbled the greatest kings and emperors of his time. They once stood here or in many other places like the Capital and trembled before Shaper.

Shaper ascended his throne, remembering how it’d been to be the ruler of the world. He sat down, the throne, seemingly hard and uncomfortable, yielded to his needs making sure it fit him perfectly.

The throne was loaded with many different types of runes, and like the Labyrinth of Worth, these runes could annihilate anyone in the throne room. Shaper’s awareness was augmented by the throne. Some guards shook off the shock and were dragging the king toward the door.

Shaper didn’t need him. His job had been to overthrow the previous king—Akarys—which stopped the Capital from joining the World Government. King Akarys and President Vichy Ottoman had plans that went even further, they wanted to reveal Shaper’s secrets but their minds were too small to comprehend the consequences of that move.

Shaper let the king go, fate would take care of him.

“Afran,” Shaper said, his voice magnified by the throne. “Bring my cult to me.”

***

Vivena landed near the tribesmen, many monsters instantly broke away from the group and attacked her. They were of a common rarity. Not even a challenge to her, she realised as she smashed the head of a bear-like creature. There were actually several types of monsters, all of the common rarity. They must come from the same rift. The monsters were mostly animals too, which made sense.

Even though these were common rarity monsters, the amount of essence from them was far greater than from the dominion monsters, although not as much as from the monsters inside a rift. There were essence penalties but Vivena didn’t know the details.

She didn’t use the essence toward the progress to Level 5 though. First, she wanted to gain the Elevated stage. Isako convinced her that this should be Vivena’s priority.

Before Vivena fell into a familiar rhythm, Isako warned her that Haruka was coming over. Her head snapped in his direction, he was twenty metres from her, killing monsters as he walked toward her.

“Vivena!” he called to her then asked as he got closer. “What are you doing here?”

She didn’t answer for a long minute, occupied by the swarm of monsters. She didn’t actually know what to say. Why was she here? She didn’t have any business helping those traitors. There were countless places that deserved her help more than the Capital.

“Are you okay, Vivena?” Haruka came within several metres of her.

“Not a step closer,” she said sharply, he stopped.

“Vivena, I didn’t know.”

She actually believed him. It was unlikely the Capital’s royals would risk telling him their plan. Vivena’s grandfather wouldn’t bother involving her either.

“I misjudged your people,” she told him. “They are not different from those beyond the wall.”

“So do I. I’m sorry… I’m sorry about Keynes. If I told him everything, he wouldn’t have died. I’ll never forgive myself for this.”

Vivena frowned, not understanding. Did something happen to Keynes?

Isako… she said to her spiritual companion with growing fear. Go check on Keynes. Please, fast.

“What do you mean?” she asked Haruka, trying to keep her face neutral.

Haruka’s expression was one of shame, for a moment he lost concentration and was almost decapitated by an oversized mantis. He killed it the next second.

“He hasn’t come out of the labyrinth. He lost.”

Vivena remembered the king’s words. Only the first place could survive the race, everyone else had to die. But Keynes lived. How?

“Are you sure?” she asked, sounding confused.

“Yes. I was there when the Capital’s champion walked out of the labyrinth.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Pandora and one other person, a young man wearing a pristine white robe. Both were as proficient at killing monsters as Vivena and Haruka.

“What are you doing here?” Pandora asked as she stepped next to her brother.

“I’m asking myself the same question.” Vivena gave her a cold stare. While it was highly unlikely for Haruka to be involved in the betrayal, Pandora was a different story. She was an arrogant bitch who had had issues with Keynes from the beginning…

“That’s the outsider girl,” said the man who joined the siblings. “What are you waiting for? Arrest her.”

Vivena readied herself to shoot into the sky in a heartbeat. She wasn’t stupid. She’d seen these two fight and she wouldn’t defeat them without her serum. The newcomer too felt strong.

Isako, why does it take you so long? I need you here.

“We won’t arrest anyone, Aestar,” Haruka said. “Our parents betrayed her, not the other way around.”

“Watch your mouth,” Aestar snapped. “You’re talk—”

They were forced to split up as the larger-than-usual wave of monsters charged them. They quickly dealt with the monsters, and soon after that, reinforcement arrived. Temporarily relieved, Vivena, Haruka, Pandora and Aestar moved away from the fight.

I cannot find Keynes. Isako delivered bad news. Vivena bit an angry scream. She wasn’t finished with him.

“It’s time for me to go.”

“Vivena, wait,” Haruka said.

Aestar swore, glaring at Haruka.

“Have you lost your mind? She’s wanted. You must apprehend her.”

Pandora crossed her arms and turned her back on the two guys while they eyed each other. Vivena didn’t move from her spot but the need to find Keynes burned her feet like hot embers.

“I’ve told you already. She hasn’t betrayed anyone. In fact, she came to our help when she didn’t need to.”

Aestar closed his eyes, thinking. When he cracked one eye open, it was glued to Vivena.

“Why would my parents want you arrested?” So he wasn’t part of the plot either.

“That’s something you must ask them.” She had strong suspicions but with them thinking that Keynes was dead, she couldn’t be sure that Keynes was the motive.

“I will but you must go with us.”

Vivena shook her head.

“I don’t think you can afford to fight me when your city is invaded from two sides. When that oversized ape gets to the palace something bad will happen. On top of that, if no one will clear the rift, the flood of monsters won’t stop.”

“Rift?” Haruka blinked, confused.

Vivena raised in the air. To his credit, Aestar didn’t try to stop her. Vivena’s words must have gotten to him.

“Good luck.”

“Wait, Vivena!”

She didn’t look back. She had to find Keynes and take him to Geneva. The Capital wasn’t hers to save.