Chapter 670: The Past
The Golden Shield dived into the dungeon that had appeared for several years without being conquered. Despite the promises of wealth and strength inside it, the dungeon was still feared as one of the Sins Dungeon: Avarice.
The portal was in front of them, flickering with ominous light as the group stood in front of it. As the guild tasked with conquering this dungeon failed, it became a public domain that anyone could challenge. After all, it has been turned from a resource into a threat to the kingdom.
"Seref is yet to be here," said Mirani as he turned toward their group. "That idiot is never on time, it seems. Does he think we would wait for him forever?"
"If we don"t, then this dungeon becomes several times harder," said their mage with a smile. "Leader is our leader for a reason: we can rest a.s.sured with his back in front of us because he never loses!"
"Do not say that in front of him. He would get c.o.c.ky."
"Never!"
The group laughed, and some of the tension diffused. Mirani smiled helplessly before shaking his head at their lax att.i.tude. However, as long as it was Seref, the crowd was entertained.
Their leader was visiting one of their members, Sleepy Monk. The man declined Mirani"s invitation, but Seref said he would convince him. However, when the man finally arrived, he was alone and with a glum face.
"Failed?"
"I just did not find him, although I looked everywhere," Seref shook his head before changing the subject. "Is everyone here?"
"All and prepared."
"Then, let"s dive!"
The party moved as one and entered the dungeon. The first layer was a breeze for them, the second, and the third. However, after the fourth, it started to get more difficult. The giant cave became more s.p.a.cious, and more enormous monsters began appearing.
The group was tired, but Seref pushed them to the limits. The Sleepy Monk was usually the one who healed them, but he was not there this time. As soon as they reached the fifth layer, a change occurred.
A fissure appeared before the Golden Shield while they were resting and healing. Although tired, they were still in a joyful mood with Seref in the center. However, their leader was taciturn, even when the fissure appeared.
"A spatial crack?" frowned Mirani as he created a shield over his comrades, protecting them. This has never happened to them before, and the figure who came out of it was far from being a monster. "…a human?"
It was a cloaked man who attacked them as soon as he appeared. Mirani"s shield broke in an instant, and he watched his comrades fall dead under this man"s monstrous strength. Then, one after the other, his comrades died, and not even Seref could stand up to him.
"Mirani!" shouted Seref while his face was covered with blood. "You should run away from here! As long as you reach the entrance, then you can escape this place! I will hold him back!"
Mirani did not understand, but all he remembered was his friend shielding them. Then, before he could object, the remaining two living comrades grabbed him and started to run away.
"You cowardly b.a.s.t.a.r.ds! Let go of me! Seref is… Seref is…!" shouted Mirani as he reached toward Seref, but his comrades did not let go.
"This is the only way some of us can live!" shouted one of his comrades, but Mirani was not listening. Instead, he struggled to break free, but before long, the three reached the end of the dungeon.
However, the cloaked man appeared in front of them. It struck one of them, sending him flying through the air. The other member, an archer woman and a mother of two grabbed Mirani and threw him toward the layer"s gate.
Mirani slammed to the runic door as the archer blocked the man"s path. After coming to his sense, Mirani created another shield, but it broke before the man even touched it. Shouting was useless, and so was Mirani.
His shields were useless for the first time in his life. Before, even if a monster was stronger than them, Mirani could defend against it for a short while. Then, however, his shields never broke like today.
The cloaked man gripped the archer"s neck and snapped it. Then, after throwing her away, the cloaked man walked toward him. Mirani met the pair of bloodl.u.s.t eyes, and his body froze. Then, almost instinctively, he reached toward the dungeon"s exit.
The next moment, he was outside, sprawled on the ground. Mirani was still shaking when Master Azkavan found him. Even before explaining what was happening, Mirani was again shocked.
"The rest… all of them are… dead… Seref is…" tried Mirani to explain, his body still covered with the blood of his comrades. However, Master Azkavan did not react as he antic.i.p.ated. Instead, he grabbed Mirani by the collar to interrogate him.
"Mirani," glared the guild master at him. "Seref stole something precious from the headquarters. This is not a joke, Mirani. The thing that he took was far more valuable than the guild itself. I need you to tell me where he is now. What did he do inside?"
Mirani stared at the guild master with confusion before his whole world crumbled. The next few days pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye, and the death of every party member was published all day long.
The TV was broadcasting it nonstop in Mirani"s room, where several interrogations occurred. First, they accused Seref of theft, but the man was never found. This led Mirani to believe that his friend was alive somewhere, but he never thought Seref would steal from their guild.
A few days later, Sarah Silvera and her two boys came to his hospital room. Mirani stared at the two polite kids and the tired mother with a bleeding heart, believing it was his fault for failing to protect their father.
"Mirani…" started Sarah Silvera while holding the shoulders of their children. "Everlasting Stream and the media paint my husband as a thief. So I came and brought my children… to know the truth."
As he stared at those hollow eyes and fearful kids, Mirani could not lie. He told them what happened, although he mentioned that Seref didn"t die but had probably fallen through the fissure that appeared.
After telling the story, the kids and their mother wept inside his room. It seems the guild was taking back everything they had given to Seref, leaving the family almost bankrupt. Mirani suggested that he pays for everything, but the oldest child of Seref, who carried his same face, refused.
"My father took care of us all this time, and until the end, he fought for his friends. I will fight in his stead now to clear his name and never let them win."
Mirani stared at the boy with surprise, and for the briefest moment, he had a hallucination. The young Arthur Silvera had brown eyes, but they looked golden in the sunlight coming from the window.
The family left after that and never accepted his offers of help. Finally, however, Mirani purchased Seref"s old equipment from them. Then, a few years after the incident, the mature Arthur Silvera walked into his shop, asking for his father"s sword and armor.
***
Mirani glared at the man in front of him, whose golden eyes unsettled him. The words he said when drunk still resonated in his mind: golden is the most powerful!
"What is the meaning of this, Seref?" said Mirani as he took a step forward. "When that fissure appeared in the middle of the dungeon, and that anomaly appeared, you were the one to stay behind, for our sakes! But now, you work with the invaders to harm your family?"
Mirani did not want to believe any of this. He wanted to take this man down and reveal his true form: a shapeshifter who took his friend"s face. However, with the same expression Mirani saw a thousand times before, Seref smiled.
"It is useless to act as the hero now," said Seref. "I was the one who planned that attack on our party. I just needed all of you to get me to the fifth layer before I had to make it look like an incident. Do you want to know why you were the one to live, Mirani?"
"…why?" asked Mirani. This question had tormented him for years, and he couldn"t help but play along.
"You worshiped me the most at that time," smiled Seref. "I knew that if I let you live, you would make sure to clear my name in front of Arthur and Oren. That was your purpose… but it is no longer needed."
Seref Silvera threw his wife over the graveled pavement, making her roll several times and slam to the wall. Mirani could not believe that his kindhearted friend was now treating his wife like this.
It was then that Mirani realized that in all the years that he knew Seref, the man never talked about his wife. It was only the two boys who carried Seref"s blood.