Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

          Wrik woke up among the headaches, though he had not opened his eyes. Some visions came to him, something that he would rather not see. He heard the screaming of his mad mother, saw Lucas and Anton getting beaten by a few men. But Lucas and Anton in the vision were just boys, one was barely 14 while the other was around 12. He gritted his teeth unconsciously, and saw another boy, getting involved in the conflict. 

His alter ego told him to not try to close the wall, but he did exactly that, getting conscious. Well, patching up would be the right words to describe it. The wall was already old with thousands of cracks in it. It had been protecting him since he was a kid, he did not know how much he could hold on to it. 

Opening his eyes, he found they were inside some cave. And after a few moments, clearly hit him. The white armour was already removed from his body, though there were not a lot of wounds on his body, most of them were taken care of. Though the black bracelet was still on his wrist.

          Dim blue lights were lit in two spots. One where Balat was helping Anton on taking care of the world and the other place where Rosie was discussing with Ryat. 

          His waking up caught everyone's attention. "Where are we?" he asked as remembered this should not be the place they should be teleporting to. "How long was I away? Where is Nirav?" 

          None of the four answered at once before Ryat answered. "We are ten kilometres away from the teleporting spot. It's still within the bounds of the sixth floor." 

          Ryat waited for a second and let Anton answer. "There was a tracker in one of my bullets," Anton said, shaking his head. "Moving out was the only option for us." 

          "So they already have our location?" He asked, sucking in a cold breath.

          "Yes," Ryat continued and told him about the curfew, that they could not move using the warp gate to return to Gala. "Don't worry though, we will find a way to return to Gala before the questioner comes. But for the important matter, did you get the item?" 

          Wrik considered for a moment and saw everyone looking at him. He had not had the time to mention to others that he had the item in the situation they were in before. "I have it," he said and showed the spatial pouch. "Though this thing is an enigma to me." 

          "Do not open it now," Ryat said. "We have to remove the trackers in a special way before we can think about it." 

          "That is alright, but where is Nirav?" Wrik asked 

          Nobody answered for a second, and he saw Anton glaring at Ryat. 

          "What happened?" he asked again, frowning. 

          "He could not make it," Ryat said, sighing. "Though he had a backup plan for getting out." 

          "I see," Wrik said and looked down. His body was still tired, and they still were not in safety and here he was hearing one of their teammates might have got caught. 

          "Don't worry, Nirav is harder than he looks," Rosie said and got up. "You should all get some rest before we have to move again." 

          Wrik shook his head and got up. He had to tell them about the crazy hypothesis he had come up with his alter ego before choosing the next step. What if they turned from here and found Lord Rudyard was waiting for them in the path? 

          "There is something I need to mention," Wrik started and told them everything about it. Most of their eyes widened hearing all these, but the mastermind of their group Ryat was silently listening to all these.

          "These all seemed a little far-fetched to me," Rosie said, "No offence." 

          "None taken, Wrik said. "And you would not say that if you ever held the item in your hand. Ryat, what do you think? I know it looks outrageous as Lord Rudyard would have been waging his family if he did something like this, but you should know what men could do for power." 

          Ryat nodded. 

          "What are you really buying into this?" Rosie said.

          "Even before Wrik said it, I had this in mind, but I was not there, so it was hard for me to guess this," Ryat said slowly. "But now that another person said it, I think it's a valid point that we should consider. And Rosie, do I need to tell you about how power-hungry Lord Rudyard is?

          "We could have started with any other noble house, but do you know why I started with Lord Rudyard? It was not just for the ancient item, but because he was too dangerous of a man that could not be left alone, much less the connection he built up throughout the last decade. Honestly, he is a man that I loathe."

          Wrik frowned. It appeared there was a personal agenda there between Ryat and the other party 

          "With our general location being exposed, we need to consider every possible way to before fleeing from here," Ryat said. "Luckily they have not seen your faces, so we have some advantages. There was no way they would believe that two guys who did not even climb more than six floors were capable of stealing the item.

          "So, Wrik and Anton will have the easiest way out of here. All you two have to do is a blend in with the people that were climbing the tower and you will have your way with the inquisitor in places. As for us, we will have to move in a roundabout way before we could return. 

          "Will they let us leave without checking our spatial pouch?" Wrik asked. Inside his spatial pouch was all the item. from the white armour that screamed about the robbery to the stolen goods, all of it was inside. 

          "They would not have the power to check that," Ryat said. "But Lord Rudyard might find a way around the privacy law. I assume you two could take care of a few low-grade inquisitors?" 

          Wrik and Anton did not answer, though a few of the inquisitors would not be a problem, but if a dozen came at the same time, then it would be quite the problem. 

          "I know what you fear," Ryat said. "Give me the item. I'll patch it so that they would not even find a sign of mana or supernatural about it." 

          Saying that, Ryat opened his pouch and brought the palanquin out of it. It was quite unnatural to see such a big item opening from such a tiny pouch. 

          He opened the gate and said to Wrik, "Come in. this is something that would block any trace if not put by an origin level designer."

          Wrik sucked in a breath. He knew this item was something unusual the time he had seen it, but hearing it from Ryat did make a difference. This guy was really a walking treasure trove. He wondered how many of them were stolen goods.

          Wrik went inside the palanquin and saw a lot of stuff thrown all over. Ryat sealed the palanquin and put them off. He told him to bring out the pouch. 

          This palanquin could block any interference of formation below the origin level. Luckily, there was no origin level designer alive, at least not known to the public.

          Wrik brought out the two most important things out of the pouch, the white armour set and the golden orb that was still bright, though it did not do anything strange when he touched it.

          Ryat frowned at once, looking at the orb. "Keep it away from me," he said and brought out his red omega cube. He scanned the item with it and when the result came, his eyes widened even further. 

          "This is," the bald man asked. "How did you manage to bring it?"

          "I'm not sure actually," Wrik said.

          Ryat did not ask anything, as his explanation was enough. "Unfortunately, it appears I could not patch it with my ability," he said, and opened a hologram out with a lot of webs of pattern all over the direction, it was just like when Wrik first touched the item first, though now it was a lot less and only an illusion. "Do you see it, it would assault anyone it contacted with an outrageous amount of information. I'm actually wondering how you can keep it in your palm like that." 

          "It did assault my brain with an outrageous amount of knowledge, but somehow I won the war, after that it did nothing," Wrik said. 

          "That means your mental fortitude is far stronger than any master, though that would not explain all that," Ryat said and brought out a few more devices. "Looks like you have to do the patching, though I'm not sure if the device I have could manage that. Though removing the tracker in it would not be a problem." 

          Wrik nodded and pointed to the white armour. "What about the armour?" he asked. 

          "You can give it another colour, though the creator of it wanted it to be white," Ryat stopped. "Right, I heard you awakened your Light elemental. You could use it to make it look like some other colour."