Below the kingdom of Averon lay a vast maze, its tunnels winding like the roots of some ancient, slumbering beast. It sprawled beneath the entire kingdom, stretching so far that it was said to influence over sixty percent of the known world. Countless paths branched from each corridor, lined with traps both mechanical and magical, so intricate that even a lifetime might not be enough to reach its end.
Footsteps echoed violently through the stone halls—someone was running. Swift, purposeful, and unrelenting. The figure darted around a corner, barely slowing for the traps that triggered with deafening clicks and flashes of light. It was the prince. Kai Averon. Seventeen years old. The last of the Averon bloodline, and with that heritage came the weight of a kingdom and the burden of secrets only he could wield.
Ahead, monsters emerged from the shadows. Towering, grotesque creatures that seemed to have been stitched together from nightmare itself. Their skin was slick and black, glistening under the faint torchlight, and strange glands of shifting colors pulsed along their torsos, secreting fluids that hissed when they touched the stone floor. Their heads were elongated, eyes glimmering with predatory intelligence, mandibles opening to reveal rows of needle-like teeth. Muscles coiled visibly beneath their hide, rippling with unnatural strength, and each step they took sent tremors through the corridor.
Kai did not falter. He moved like water, sliding between their claws, his motions a blur. In an instant, the monsters were gone—reduced to fragments of themselves, vanishing into nothing. The hall fell silent once more, as if it had never been disturbed at all.
The prince paused for a heartbeat, chest rising and falling steadily. His eyes scanned the path ahead, where the massive doors of the vault waited, white and imposing, faint runes etched across their surface. Shadows clung to the edges, remnants of a darkness that had seeped into the world over centuries. Kai remembered this place from his youth, when his father had brought him here. Then, it had seemed a place of safety and wonder. Now, it was a threshold to something far more dangerous.
Kai tightened his grip on his weapon, ready for what awaited beyond.
Kai burst into motion, dashing straight for the hooded figure at the cube's side. His sword gleamed with light as he swung downward—
—but something intercepted him. A blur. A crushing strike. He barely brought his blade up in time. The impact rattled his arms, his grip quivering from the sheer force behind it.
He skidded backward across the stone floor, boots grinding sparks.
When his vision steadied, he saw them.
Three towering figures stepped out from the edges of the chamber, their massive bodies fractured, veins of black crawling through what was once pristine white stone.
Kai's eyes widened. "The Guardian Golems of the Vault…?!"
Once, they had been revered protectors, the final defense of Averon's greatest secret. But now—corruption seeped into every part of them, twisting their forms.
The first was crimson-skinned, its torso sprouting four arms, each brandishing a jagged stone blade. Its stance was unnervingly precise, a warrior born of endless drills. The second loomed taller, golden patterns glowing faintly across its chest. Three eyes blazed with unholy fire, each turning independently, tracking Kai with unnatural focus. The third… Kai almost missed it. No eyes. No sound. Its presence was so faint, so diminished, that even standing before him, it felt like an illusion. But his instincts screamed otherwise—it was death hidden in silence.
Kai's grip tightened on his blade. His heart pounded.
** So they're infected. That explains it. Their combat abilities… enhanced beyond what they were meant to be. **
For a heartbeat, doubt clawed at him. Before, uncorrupted, he might've had a chance at victory. Now empowered by the darkness of Zor'Khul? He can still win, but the only question is how much they differ due to being infected.
He set his jaw.
** So what. I cannot let Averon fall. I am the last of the royal bloodline. I am Kai Averon. **
His sword hummed in response. It wasn't just a blade—it was an artifact, a relic forged from Genesis, one of the two primal forces of existence itself. In his hands, it pulsed with living energy, eager to cut through corruption.
Kai's body glowed faintly as he drew upon his trump card: True Chi. The power his ancestors had feared, a force so pure and volatile that mortals who touched it burned away. But he had survived it, endured it, bent it enough to wield.
His aura surged. His presence shook the chamber.
The crimson golem roared first, lunging forward with four blades slashing in deadly harmony. Sparks shrieked as Kai parried the first, dodged the second, rolled past the third—only to meet the fourth head-on. His Genesis sword clashed with corrupted stone, and where they touched, the golem's arm cracked, fragments disintegrating into dust.
But the moment was short-lived.
The three-eyed golem raised its arms. The chamber is lit with power. From every direction, blades of golden energy materialized, slashing toward him from impossible angles.
Kai blurred into motion. His body streaked through the vault in flashes of light, dodging, deflecting, cutting what he could. Each blade exploded on impact, shaking the vault.
Then—an opening. He lunged for the golden caster.
A shadow moved. Too late.
The eyeless one erupted from the ground beneath him, its fist colliding with his side. The impact thundered, bones creaking under the pressure. Kai was sent sprawling, skidding across the stone, blood spraying from his lips.
He groaned, dragging himself up, sweat dripping into his eyes.
** Their coordination… perfect. Melee pins me down. Caster rains death. Assassin punishes the gaps. If I fight them head-on, I lose. **
The crimson one charged again, blades spinning in a whirlwind. Kai met it strike for strike, his blade singing. He used its weight, redirecting its own momentum, deflecting sword after sword—but the three-eyed golem's next spell descended.
This time, spheres of searing energy fell like meteors, forcing Kai to abandon his counterattack. He sprinted, the explosions behind him cracking the floor apart.
The assassin struck again, slipping from the shadows, claws aimed for his throat.
But Kai was ready. His sword flashed, narrowly intercepting the strike. The impact tore through his arm, nearly dislocating it, but he managed to shove the silent golem back.
Kai staggered back, clutching his side where the assassin's strike had landed. Blood trickled from his lip, his breaths sharp, ragged.
But his mind was racing. Remembering and thinking of any exploits he could take advantage of.
** Finally got it! That's my only option for winning.**
His grip tightened on the hilt.
** I'd better be careful. I will have only 1 chance, and that's my only option for winning.**
He forced his aching body into motion, sword raised once more.
The battle raged, shaking the vault to its core. Kai's blade rang against four jagged swords at once, sparks spraying in blinding arcs. The crimson warrior pressed harder, each blow heavier than the last, driving him back.
Above, golden spheres rained down, exploding in concussive waves that cracked the floor beneath his boots. Each time he dodged one, the assassin was there, slipping from the shadows, claws raking for his throat.
Relentless.
Suffocating.
And though Kai met every strike, his body bore the toll. Cuts traced his arms and legs. Blood streaked his side. His breath grew ragged, his vision blurred.
The three pressed in, unyielding.
Kai staggered, his knees dipping, his chest heaving as though his strength was gone. His sword wavered in his grip. He looked broken. Slowing.
The shaman's three eyes blazed. It had been waiting for this. Energy thickened the air as threads of golden light wove together above its hands. The immobilization spell.
His eyes showed a look of horror.
He lunged straight for the shaman in order to disrupt its casting. The crimson warrior and the assassin, noticing this, closed in, blades and claws intercepting, pinning him in place.
Finally, the shaman unleashed the spell.
The vault blazed with golden brilliance.
When the light dimmed, the warrior and the assassin stood still, bodies transmuted into gleaming statues of gold.
The shaman's three eyes widened. It looked around frantically. Only two statues. Where was the third?
"Got you now."
The voice whispered from behind.
The shaman spun, panic flashing across its features—but too late. Kai's Genesis blade pierced clean through its chest, burning with True Chi. Cracks spread like wildfire across its stone body before it shattered in a burst of dust and light.
Silence reclaimed the vault.
Earlier, when the spell was about to fall, Kai's eyes snapped open. The tiny dots he had planted earlier across the two guardians during his fight, trying to fake his struggle, flared to life, glowing like stars under their stone skin. From each mark, threads burst forth, snapping tight around their limbs and torsos, locking them in place.
At the same instant, Kai pressed his will into the ground sigil he had hidden mid-battle. His body flickered—vanishing.
The shaman's immobilization struck, flooding the chamber in golden light. But instead of Kai, the surge crashed into the bound warrior and assassin. Their bodies stiffened, gleamed, and in moments they stood frozen—transformed into statues of radiant gold.
With it, the three guardians of the vault—beings of stone and legend that had endured for centuries—fell in less than a single minute. By all rights, such a battle should have raged far longer, shaking the very halls of Averon. But that is the measure of ordinary warriors. This was a clash between powers beyond mortal reckoning. To those who might have witnessed it, there would be no struggle, no exchange of blows—only the sudden silence after, and the drifting haze of dust where titans had once stood.