The sun had passed the middle of the sky for a long time now.
The noise of the competition had faded and the shouts had gone silent, and after hours of battle and competition, a calm silence had settled over the main territory of the Vorhelm clan.
Three people were moving along an old stone road.
Lian Vorhelm, Seris Pendragon, Nova Drakeheart, and in front of them Damian Vorhelm was walking.
This path went into the depths of the clan’s territory, a place where even most of the clan members were never allowed to enter.
On both sides of the road were old trees, some of which were probably over a hundred years old.
A gentle wind flowed among the branches, and unlike the competition field, there was no excitement or pressure here.
Just silence... Damian did not say anything for a long time, as if he was lost in thought, then suddenly his voice broke the silence of the path.
"Congratulations."
All three looked at him, and in silence they listened to whatever he was going to say.
"All of you fought well."
Then his gaze fixed on Lian and he was silent for a few seconds, then he said slowly.
"But I have to admit... you were far beyond what I expected."
"Then I won the bet." A faint smile appeared on Lian’s face, of course he had not forgotten their bet.
Because of that same bet he had planned to treat his family a little easier, but unfortunately Celestia’s behavior did not allow that to happen.
Damian stared at him for a few moments, then shook his head.
"That’s right, you won the bet." No further explanation was needed, both of them knew exactly what that bet meant.
A bet that at that time seemed almost impossible, he himself had made this bet only so that he could bring this boy back to the clan.
At that time he thought he had been clever and had taken advantage of Lian’s pride and arrogance and had forced him to accept a bet that he would definitely lose.
But it turned out that at that time he was the foolish and arrogant one, not his nephew, and now he had decisively lost that bet.
Then Damian spoke again.
"From now on, no one from the Vorhelm clan will cause you trouble or bother you." His voice was completely serious.
"At least as long as I am alive." Then he paused briefly and continued.
"But are you still sure you don’t want to come back?"
Nova unconsciously raised her head, even Seris gave Lian a quick look, they did not understand what these two were talking about, but whatever it was, it seemed interesting.
While it did not matter to Seris, Nova felt that this information might be useful.
Damian continued.
"If you come back, you will become the center of the clan, no one can ignore you anymore, no one, and you can definitely compete for the inheritance."
"My mind has not changed." But Lian’s answer came almost immediately.
Damian did not say anything for a few seconds, then he let out a long sigh, a sigh that smelled more of disappointment than of tiredness.
"Then I can’t do anything." There was no anger in his voice, only acceptance, he had already understood that he could not change Lian’s decision.
A few minutes later he suddenly let out a short laugh, a strange laugh that came from satisfaction and not mockery or humiliation.
"But you should know one thing, the others are going crazy." Damian continued.
"If they could turn back time... they would do anything to stop you from coming back, especially those two women and the factions behind them."
"They are going to suffer a lot from this ceremony and especially the duels, the humiliation is nothing, more elders and members of the clan will now turn against them."
"I can even now smell the regret that they did not try to stop your return haha."
"Fools, they thought that by your return they could finally eliminate you for good."
For a moment Lian did not say anything, this was something he could imagine very well, the humiliation his family had suffered was not as simple as it seemed.
None of the clan’s youths could make it into the top three, and the entire clan would hold Celestia responsible for this, and that was enough for her to gradually become isolated.
If Seraphina was here she would definitely be shocked... because Lian had told her that he would make the Vorhelm clan regret trying to force him back.
And that really did happen in the end... she would probably find out sooner or later, the news of today would not take long to spread.
A calm smile appeared on his face and then he asked.
"But in any case, they could not stop my return, none of them can stop the patriarch’s orders, right?"
Damian did not even think for a moment.
"That’s right, none of them." His voice was completely firm, this was a truth that no one in the Vorhelm clan could deny.
The ultimate power was still in the hands of the patriarch, it did not matter how many elders opposed him, it did not matter how many factions had formed, if the patriarch decided to bring Lian back... no one could stand against him.
After that Damian changed the subject.
"Now let me explain about the Celestial Treasury."
This time the attention of all three was completely caught, even Seris, who was usually indifferent to most things.
"The Celestial Treasury was built about two hundred and fifty years ago, after the first great wave of exploration of the Ruined Realms."
"At that time the great clans realized that some treasures were too valuable to be kept in ordinary storage, so each clan built a great treasury for itself."
He paused for a moment.
"We Vorhelms built the Celestial Treasury."
"From that time until today... every generation of Vorhelms has added their best achievements and the best treasures they obtained to the treasury."
"And now inside it there are things whose value some of them cannot even be measured."
"Like what?" Nova asked quietly, where she came from, even though it was a powerful force, they did not have anything close to the Celestial Treasury.
Damian smiled.
"Ancient and legendary weapons, combat legacies, cores of very powerful monsters, monster corpses, rare skill books, skills that were lost centuries ago."
Then he fixed his gaze forward.
"Some of the things inside the treasury... even for me, they have incalculable value."
This sentence made Nova unconsciously take a deep breath, if Damian was saying such a thing... then the real value of the treasury was probably beyond imagination.
Her eyes shone with excitement... if she could obtain such a thing, maybe she could even become the best in her guild and obtain the position of the next leader.
The further they went, the more the surroundings changed, the trees became fewer, the rocks became larger, and the air seemed heavier.
After a while they entered an area that was clearly different from the rest.
Powerful guards were stationed in various places, each of them alone seemed stronger than many of the awakened ones in the government’s army that Lian had seen.
Shining lines could be seen on the ground, complex magical arrays, multiple protective layers, and mana waves were constantly flowing in the air.
"This level of protection... it’s like they are protecting the heart of an empire." Nova thought to herself.
Her entire guild did not have this much protection!
Finally they reached the end of the path, but there was nothing there, no building and no castle, no gate and not even a cave, practically nothing!.
Just an empty space.
Nova frowned.
Seris also seemed a little curious for the first time.
"Where is it?" she looked around and asked.
Damian smiled, then he took a step forward, raised his hand and placed his palm on the empty space in front of him.
At that same moment... the air began to ripple, like the surface of a calm lake when a stone is thrown into it.
The ripples grew larger, space bent and then... a crack appeared in reality itself.
Nova’s eyes opened wide in surprise, even Lian was silent for a moment, a massive energy was pouring out from inside the crack.
Old, ancient and powerful, as if another world existed on the other side of the crack.
Damian stepped toward it, then turned to the three, a faint smile appeared on his face.
"Welcome to the Celestial Treasury of the Vorhelm clan."