A group of nervous youths stood beneath a gate of gold that almost seemed to beam down with its own light. At the highest point of the gate’s arch, a stone that looked like the most polished of diamonds stood tall and proud.
But other than it, the room itself was impossibly vast and almost entirely empty of other structures. It felt like if you walked in one direction for too long and lost sight of the arch, you would forever lose your way, never to return.
Familiar faces swam amidst the youth. Blain, Chogh, Skinny, even the squire Grey had lovingly named Forearms of Destruction in his mind. Though, given the fact even his stoic face looked like it had seen better days, he probably hadn’t been doing much "destroying" in recent memory.
They weren’t supposed to be here, at least not so early.
For Blain and Chogh, it was still fine. They had only had a week left in their training when Grey met them, and a few days had passed since then. At worst, they were losing a couple of days at most.
But for the others, it was worse. Skinny had had almost a month left, Forearms of Destruction had more than two weeks.
It seemed that every squire who had less than a month of training left was called here, forced to undergo their trials earlier than they would have liked. And even now, they had no idea why that was.
They weren’t even laughing or joking around like they usually did. Though, part of that was certainly the fact that two of the strongest Holy Knights of their order were present—that being Sir Ovaal and Sir Trolley.
Neither man seemed to be in a particularly jovial mood either. They knew it was unfair what they were doing to these young men, but what other choice did they have?
If they were going to die, it was better to do it in the trials anyway. And if they came out and performed well, maybe they would have a small tick of a better chance at surviving the Armageddon that was sure to fall at their front steps.
The envoy of the Valdi would arrive soon, and they wanted to open up the trials so that Grey could enter and not be questioned directly. If the envoy took the opportunity to simply kill Grey, then all their chances would evaporate right before them.
Sir Ovaal was the one that suggested they allow the others to enter at the same time. For one, they didn’t want to offend the envoy too badly, so more youths entering at once would make it less obvious that they were just trying to hide Grey. And second, this would give the youths their own chance to fight for survival.
But there was someone who was very clearly not here right now, and that was the man responsible for why all of this had to happen in the first place.
Sir Ovaal gritted his teeth and looked at Edmun. The questioning in his eyes was evident, but he didn’t want the other youths to hear him.
"He will be here." Edmun said as confidently as he could.
Honestly, he got the feeling that Grey was the sort that kept his word, but he truly hadn’t been the lad’s master for long enough to be 100% certain.
Edmun looked away, hiding his nervousness away in his heart. Was it a mistake to let Grey go off and do his own thing these last few days? But what could he even teach someone who had awakened the Mark of the Buddha and the Paladin Frames on his own?
He half felt that he was in over his head, and half felt that this was the disciple he had been waiting for his entire life as a Vanguard Class.
But if that disciple ran away, then it didn’t matter what sort of power he had. His lack of backbone wouldn’t lead him very far.
That was when there was a ripple in the air, followed by a string of curses.
"Why the fuck is this place so fucking hard to find? Did you guys know there’s some imperial concubine place in the church? I feel like someone should investigate that. On the one hand, it’s been a while since I’ve seen a sight like that, but on the other, what happened to purity and celibacy?"
Grey tugged at his crotch, rearranging something with a look of annoyance on his face. This was probably the longest he had gone without busting, this entire world was a nightmare. There wasn’t even any porn, and there were those annoying live viewers watching his every move.
How long had it been now? Even if he didn’t count his loops, it was still almost a week. That was practically an eternity.
Then they threw that sort of temptation in his face. He had half a mind to burn the entire church to the ground.
Edmun’s eye twitched.
Ovaal’s lip twitched.
Blain and the others looked at Grey for a long while before they all burst into laughter.
Grey looked up. "What the hell are you chuckle nuts laughing about? This is a serious matter. Did you know this asshole didn’t tell me I have to be celibate? Who made these rules?"
Edmun cleared his throat. Actually, as a Paladin, those rules didn’t actually apply to Grey, but Edmun wasn’t about to tell him that. The boy clearly needed some discipline.
"Grey, that wasn’t an ’imperial concubine place’. Those are the nuns of our palace. Please refrain from entering their private quarters."
"Well I didn’t even know we had nuns, what a useful master you are."
Grey tugged at his crotch one more time before he settled down and sighed. Stretching out his back and swaying from side to side, he did a little hop and then landed back on the ground.
"Alright, let’s do this." Grey looked over to Blain and Chogh. "Let me enter with just the two of them, the others aren’t ready. If I don’t succeed, then you can let them enter."
After saying this, Grey didn’t wait. With a flash in his steps, he charged into the gate.