Thankfully it was pretty dark already.
I slipped out of my quarters bare foot trying to make my heavy steps as silence as possible.
Let's say it, it was impossible.
I had pulled over myself a sleeping robe trying to camouflage myself but I doubted it would be useful either. Rather I looked really suspicious.
Whatever, I had to hurry up.
Some guards noticed me eventually along servants as well as they paused, their eyes widening at me.
"Just taking a stroll."
A very lame excuse but no one said anything just nodding at me respectfully.
Somehow I managed to get myself outside the castle and I made my way to the most precious place of the Kingdom of Helios.
It stood right behind the palace, a structure impossible to miss.
In fact even blind people would feel the heat of it.
Raising my gaze I saw the huge towering structure.
A tower indeed.
And atop of it was a blinding burning white sphere of fire.
A miniature sun.
This was the treasure of Helios.
The reason the Kingdom existed and made so many other Kingdoms envious.
The Flame of Helios, born from the founder of the Kingdom, Apollina's death, a thousand years ago. A giant sun hovering in the air burning with quite intensity though I could tell that despite how it looked, its glow and fire had diminished after my father's death.
Because it had lost its guardian.
And this wasn't a good news.
Because despite the Flame being out greatest blessing it was also our greatest vulnerability.
The Flame blessed everyone in the Kingdom yeah. It strengthened crops and helped healing the sick. It made our soldiers stronger. But that kind of threatening power, also made us a target.
Every ambitious neighbors would like to have such a power within their hands.
As I continued to stare up, I felt how restless the Flame was.
"Alright, let's do it."
I approached slowly the tower.
The structure was protected by wards created during Apollina's Era when the Tower was built actually. The runes were etched so deep that they looked part of the stones themselves.
No one could enter the Tower except those of the royal blood.
And even if they managed that, the heat could seriously injure them.
Thankfully though my blood wasn't ordinary blood as my father used to remind me.
The heat shouldn't be able to kill me.
I hope so.
I stepped inside the tower and arrived in the vast circular room.
Large golden circles covered the floor, filled with runes that seemed to glow under the firelight above.
Apollina's successor built this place thousand years ago, after Apollina's death.
Raising my gaze I saw the burning sun directly above, n and age long spring staircases that led to it.
The stairs looked dizzyingly high by the way.
No time to hesitated.
I started climbing them immediately.
And God…the climbing felt worse than the heat…
My body this soft and weak heavy body wasn't built for physical tasks. It required too much efforts!
I felt like my thighs burned but nothing to do with the actual heat. This was beyond embarrassing for myself./
"Come on…" I grunted gritting my teeth, sweat pouring down my face and back, soaking the robe I wore.
But I continued.
This was the only way forward.
If I couldn't even climb damn stairs, I was never surveying my damn fate.
Until now I had spent my lifetime running from my responsibilities.
I had been a coward.
I didn't believe in myself.
But today it had to change.
It had to fucking change.
I had to prove everyone that they were wrong.
More importantly, I had to prove myself that I was better than this.
The only fear I had now was to disappoint my father, of dying, of watching the Kingdom I grew up crumble, watching my family dies.
There would be nothing worse than that.
After ten agonizing minutes that felt like hours, I finally reached the top.
The heat hit me stronger there. If before it felt uncomfortable now it felt truly dangerous.
I was fairly certain that any ordinary person would have already turned to ashes standing where I stood.
My eyes were locked ahead, at the burning sun. And the light was so intense it blinded me completely.
I raised my hand to shield my eyes from the both the light and heat and walked forward.
The air turned hotter by each inch I stepped closer.
When I finally reached the edge, standing directly before the torching Flame of Helios, within nothing between us but the heated air, I lowered my hand and forced myself to look at it.
Pain exploded across my exposed face.
I felt my flesh beginning to burn, second-degrees burns spreading across my chest and chest, my robe already having disintegrated to ashes.
And that smell of burned meat filled my nostrils.
Oh fuck.
Now I genuinely started feeling scared I might die.
I really could die here.
And I might actually.
But I didn't succeed this, if I turned back now, crawled down this stairs and returned day comfortable bed I'd die anyway in that cursed Game.
I would never survive this world with my mentality.
If I was a random fatty I might have but I wasn't a random guy.
I was Lumiel Helios, Heir of the Kingdom and now King.
So instead of dying pathetically murdered, assassinated in my sleep or poisoned, whatever way I died in that game…dying by attempting the ritual was a much honorable way to die.
"Apollina," I called out to the ancestor.
I never prayed before.
She was treated like semi deity in the Kingdom but I always considered her more as someone amazing.
"Bless me."
I whispered and spread my arms wide.
Closing my eyes I let myself fall in to the sun head first.
Burning sensation crashed over me instantly, pain that boggled belief.
Evert nerves ending seemed to have ignited at once. My scream died before it could form and darkness swallowed me whole.
And after a split of second, that felt very long, the pain vanished altogether.
Just gone as if it hadn't existed in the first place.
"What the—?"
I opened my eyes and immediately threw my hand up, blinded by brightness that had nothing to do with the burning Flame of Helios.
It was the soft light from the open blue sky.
Wait, wasn't the sky pitch black just a second ago?
Pressing my palms against the ground, I felt immediately cold grasses beneath me.
"What in the hell…" I looked around.
A prairie stretched out around me in every directions.
Grasses swayed in a quiet and cold breeze. The horizon seemed endlessly distance, bleeding perfectly into the perfect and cloudless blue sky.
"Is this heaven?"
I thought of it differently…
A giggle immediately shattered the silence following my question making me jump out.
I spun around nearly snapping my own neck.
A woman stood there.
My jaw hung open as I stared at her.
I had never seen someone this beautiful ever before and believe I had met a lot of beautiful women in my past life.
She had long golden blond hair that seemed a bit pale cascading down past her shoulders in waterfalls. Her eyes looked like burnt amber, like two pools of molten suns like mine actually.
"This is not heaven, no," she said amused.
I blinked twice making sure I wasn't dreaming.
"Who are you?" I asked carefully.
She reached out her hand toward me.
Her lips curved into the most beautiful smile I had seen.
"Apollina."