Emperor Eurpeia sat on a throne, his jaw clenched and his eyes filled with a fiery rage.
The humiliation he had suffered on Earth was still fresh.
Back then, Archibald had decided to kill him. But it was thanks to the interference of the Ancestors of those families that he was able to live. After that, the event triggered before he could do much to rectify the situation.
Even now, he wasn't sure of what happened entirely. All he knew was that he had entered the Dynamic Field Dungeon, and then he got lost in a forest. When he woke up, he was heavily injured and there were holes riddling his body.
He had felt drained of practically everything. Not once had he even seen the enemy; it was ridiculous.
Somehow, everything was just resolved, and he was treated like some sort of child that had to be thrown into timeout before he got too rowdy around the adults.
It was a suffocating feeling, but that wasn't even the worst part about what happened.
When he returned to Eurpeia, he immediately began trying to find a method to change things, and the obvious solution was their secret realm—the very same realm he had tried to chase down the Twin Moon Healers for daring to step into and take advantage of.
Ever since then, he had had eyes on it, but he didn't want to enter recklessly before he understood it. He understood that with these types of things, you usually only got one shot at it.
But then he almost died again.
After deciding on taking the risk, he ended up almost dying again.
As he was deciphering what the hell was going on, he was hit by tidal waves and had to pour everything he had into climbing his way out so he didn't drown.
Because he was still quite injured, that had only made things all the worse.
Luckily, he was healed before coming into this Quest, but back then, he hadn't had such a luxury.
For a man who had done nothing but succeed all his life to have his life in the hands of others not just once, but twice over, and in such close succession at that…
He was livid.
Watching Sylas' name jump, and then jump again, that fury began to smolder within him.
BOOM!
Emperor Eurpeia suddenly stood to his feet. His armor clinked into place. With a step, he had already appeared outside, only to find what could only be described as a giant of a man standing amidst the rubble of his city wall.
—
[Moose (???)]
[Level: ???]
—
The Emperor was stunned. Who the hell was this? And why was he radiating an aura that only Demons should have?
A crown flickered into existence above Moose's head, blackened and filled with the scent of death. All of a sudden, the Emperor felt as though his Aether Treasure was greatly suppressed, as though it couldn't even breathe properly in this smog.
BANG!
There was a flicker in the Emperor's eyes, and he couldn't even see what was happening clearly.
All he felt was a spike of pain… and then numbness.
His body stopped violently shaking. He slowly looked down at his chest, finding a fist having run right through it.
"Three… times…" he muttered as his eyes dimmed.
Never did he think he would suffer so many humiliations in a row.
Moose reached down, wrenching the Emperor's head from his neck as though he was unscrewing a bottle cap. Opening his mouth, he bit down, taking a huge chunk out of his skull.
"So that's why…" Moose said calmly.
The big man had been wondering for a while why it was those Ancestors would go out of their way to save this man. It seemed that he had that scent on him too.
"Those fools. Don't they know how dangerous that is?"
Moose indifferently said this as though he wasn't walking an even more dangerous path than that.
As much as they wanted to kill that Race, even the system wanted to kill him.
"I'll be taking this, then."
Moose took another enormous bite and shattered the City Stele. But oddly enough, his name didn't appear on the rankings.
**
Sylviaa Paige was about to close the notification window when Emperor Eurpeia's name vanished from the list. She frowned, subconsciously looking at Sylas' name again, only to realize that Sylas hadn't budged.
'It happened again. Are these challenges of the Quest killing them? Or something else? And why is it only happening to the people of Earth? Is it a coincidence?'
This was already the third time it happened. She probably spent more time studying the Leaderboard than anyone else. There were no notifications or timelines to check on. The only way to note changes to the leaderboard was to observe it either all the time or frequently.
Sylas was too busy trying to speed run things, so it was inevitable that he would miss a great deal, but that was a price that he was willing to pay.
Sylviaa, however… had no such constraints and had decided that her strategy would be to observe and gather as much information as she could, even in exchange for slower progress.
But those who knew her knew that it was only natural… ever since her youth, she had always been the most diligent, she had always been the best.
Her eyes stared at Sylas' name for a long while.
She didn't know what triggered this, but she knew that it was her chance.
'I am the best,' she said to herself slowly.
This Sylviaa was none other than the very same petite woman of Legacy.
She, along with many heroes of Earth, had been pulled here. And many of them had the same goal.
Surpass the looming legend that was Sylas Grimblade.
Sylas, however…
He was playing on a completely different board.
…
Sylas had already crossed to the end of the tundra. He wasn't sure if he had left any enemies behind, but what he did know was that he needed a method of finding people quickly.
He pulled out his World Scepter.
If Aether Treasures could be mutated by the Metarock of this Quest world… what about a World Treasure?
He already knew that the Fragmented City Stele given at the start wouldn't work. He needed something stronger...
But didn't he also have a ridiculous amount of Metarock on him right this moment?
The question was... how should he use it?
Sylas racked his brain. There was such a good opportunity right here. He would use it even if it meant sacrificing the World Scepter. But the how eluded him.