Kyle looked around the city one last time.
Sadly, there was nothing else of note. Just a bunch of nice materials here and there.
Eventually, Kyle left the cave and went back to the Inheritance Crypt.
"Welcome back, Lord Kyle," Granite said after Kyle came back. "Did everything go as expected?"
"Kinda," Kyle said. "The important thing is that I'm now in the Third Realm."
"That's good to know," Granite spoke.
While they were talking, the door of the Inheritance Crypt opened by itself.
Sulfur changed his shape into a rock snake and squeezed through the entrance before he changed his body to its usual shape outside of the Inheritance Crypt.
"Nice to see you again, Lord Kyle," Sulfur said with a smile.
"Hey, Sulfur," Kyle said casually.
Then, the ground shook as the dog-dragon thing came back.
Granite slowly walked to the entrance of the Inheritance Crypt, and Sulfur stepped forward.
Kyle raised an eyebrow.
Hieronymus, the dog thing, was standing behind Kyle, while Sulfur stood in front of him, with Granite behind him.
"That looks like a combat formation," Kyle commented.
"Protocol Betrayal has been initiated," Granite said with an even voice. "Do you truly believe Lord Theodor didn't have safeguards against a traitorous inheritor?"
"Ah, so, you noticed, huh?" Kyle asked awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head.
"Of course we did," Granite said. "The fluctuations of the Inheritance Crystal are gone."
"You have destroyed the Inheritance Crystal. You are planning on accepting our Lord's gifts without paying them back."
"Hey!" Kyle shouted in protest. "That's not true! I'm still going to repay Theodor for everything he has done for me! The destruction of the Inheritance Crystal has nothing to do with it!"
"The Inheritance Crystal was forcing me to become weaker. If I had listened to the Inheritance Crystal during my breakthrough, I wouldn't be as powerful as I am now."
"Theodor would want his inheritor to be as powerful as possible, right? After all, the inheritor needs to be strong enough to kill King Skysand."
At that moment, a concentrated ball of fire appeared beside Granite.
"Explain," Granite said evenly.
Kyle furrowed his brows as he watched Granite prepare more Spells.
'Sneaky! This guy wants me to keep talking so that he can prepare more Spells. Sure enough, this is Theodor's Golem,' Kyle thought.
Then, he sighed. 'Why am I even explaining myself? They are like the Inheritance Sphere. They are not living beings capable of reasoning. They have their parameters, and they are trying to fulfill them with any means necessary.'
Kyle looked at Sulfur. "Do we really have to go through this?" he asked.
A concentrated ice spear appeared beside Granite.
Sulfur just smiled politely. "No, we don't, Lord Kyle. We can still talk about this."
When Kyle heard that, he knew that there was no choice.
Sulfur had always been so nice, but that was because he was programmed to be nice.
He was the good cop to Granite's bad cop.
The good cop was never on the side of the accused, despite acting like they were.
Kyle looked around the three of them.
He remembered the first time he had seen Sulfur.
Back then, Sulfur had been so nice and forthcoming.
But then, he remembered how there had been several bloody stains in the hallway of people refusing to partake in the trial.
Sulfur was acting nice, but he definitely wasn't nice.
He was like some kind of android that shouted that there was nothing to worry about while executing one civilian after another.
He was also like an advisor to the king who seemed reasonable and nice, but as soon as another advisor confided in him that there were things the king could improve, he would go to the king and report the traitor.
Kyle looked at the dog-dragon.
This was the silent but obvious assassin. Nobody would bat an eye if the dog just stood up and walked away. After all, it was a dog, and it did whatever it wanted.
But in truth, it followed commands. Who was to say that the dog wouldn't secretly kill someone during one of its regular walks?
Theodor had been the most powerful Master Artificer in the kingdom.
Theodor himself never truly participated in the fight. A good Artificer didn't need to command their golems. After all, good golems had programming that allowed them to fight on their own.
'Kinda funny,' Kyle thought. 'Theodor is already dead, but his power has not weakened. In essence, I am facing Theodor right now.'
Lord Theodor, Advisor to King Skysand.
The image of the half-destroyed mountain in the peninsula entered Kyle's mind.
Sulfur had thrown a Monster against the mountain, destroying its peak.
When Kyle had seen that, he couldn't have imagined the level of power one needed to achieve something like that.
No human could do something like that, right?
And now, Kyl was facing Theodor at his prime.
'Yeah, well, whatcha gonna do? Might as well use this opportunity to test out my new power.'
The head of Kyle's hammer vanished, and a stream of metal formed a new hammerhead.
In an instant, Kyle had gotten rid of his old hammer and forged a new one out of the metal of one of the dead Metal Elementals in his Soul Space.
His power had increased significantly, and using Rank A Materials was no longer impossible.
Kyle was now three times as powerful as an Initial Expert with an Aristocrat's Body, and those were three times as powerful as Kyle before he had advanced.
In short, with the advancement, Kyle's power had increased by around nine times!
The difference between the Kyle who had left the Inheritance Crypt to fight a Metal Elemental and the Kyle who had come back was significant.
"You know, three against one is a big unfair," Kyle said, looking at Sulfur.
"I want this to be a fair fight."
"So, are there like three more of you that can join?"
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