Chapter 15: The Paragon

  According to the file the cult was created during the reign of Queen Jade, the second queen of the Luminos, after she had a supposed encounter with the worshiped dark god, she and her unnamed accomplice was given the power to wield the dark power, they massed a following but got into a fight with Jade. Theres a large gap in between the texts, meaning nobody knew what had happened after the fight, only that she was able to reenter the Kingdom under the guise of a business woman. Thats when it ends, but nothing on the auction master, meaning hes something else altogether, or theres nothing more to him.

" According to the files here the source of power for all disciples is further in the facility, taking it out would make it easier to deal them, “ Jo explains pulling a usb out, " But um, do you wanna talk about this,” He asks, turning to me with a file of me open up on the screen. They knew my affinity to the dark energy, Henry must’ve sent word already. “ I would but I don't really know either, as I said before It just kinda happened, we should move on, see if we can find anything else,” I’d rather not linger on that any longer. Further down the hall were more doors, the hall kept going. Most of the rooms were labeled at the door, storage and whatnot. One of the doors were open, the lingering feeling of darkness energy radiated strongly from there, but that wasn’t the only thing there. She was also here. " Henry had told me what happened with the treasure kingdom branch, but then again he was never that great with leading others. He did warn me about the possibility of you coming here,” she says with a cynical smile, pacing the room while maintaining eye contact. Her gaze was the same as when we had first met, except the dark red was brighter, she spoke little of Henry and the other disciples, " It truly is a shame what happened to the Treasure branch, “ she spoke but her expression says otherwise, " I didn’t come here to fight you, simply speaking with you is enough for now, the “Anomaly” as Henry first referred to you as. “Anyway, this has been fun but I’ll be taking my leave now,” Astar says leaving the way we came, engaging her in combat wouldn’t end well for either side, more so for me considering her strengths are unknown, however I think shes stronger than me, Jo had understood that as well, he had already moved onto the next room through the door on the opposite end. The presence of darkness was heavier. Jo had gotten ahead and found the source of the cults power, “We can easily take down the cult know if we remove their source of power,” Jo reports, scanning the large crystal, the center had a faint red glow and it emitted a strange blackish red smoke, it seems Jo couldn’t see it without a connection. Considering how Astar just let us go must mean she isn't tethered down to a source, making her all the more dangerous. I channel a small amount of dark energy into my fist as I strike the chunk fast, causing it to splinter and shatter, the red glow at the center was gone, the smoke dissapaiting. This small win seemed to help Jo relax a bit, " I had called for backup when I had found the crystal, the Adventurers will clean this place out, but it seems the data on Astar being the cult leader was never copied onto the drive, must’ve been a fail safe in case someone tried to steal it, “ Jo explains as we emerge from the hidden stairway back into the auction house. The adventurers had the place under tight lock down, they were doing a search of the building to see if they can find anything else. An unwelcoming face awaited me outside however,

" Halt, under the authority of the kingdom you are to be detained until further notice,” Anthony states, his troops positioned with their weapons aimed at me, before I could speak up someone else does, “ It wouldn’t be very wise of you to do so, Commander Anthony,” Aurum says, “ I forgot I had some business here and wanted to see how it was going with the cult,” She says. Anthony was confused as to what was happening. “I order you all to stand down, the law or whatever it was you called it can wait, or would you like to speak to the Shadow Queen,” Aurum orders, turning her gaze toward the others, with it carried a heavy sense of order. She would turn her gaze back to Anthony. Despite being a council member, rulers such as Aurum had higher authority over them, and since this kingdom was without ruler she would be the highest ranking. Anthony with no say in this gestures his men to back down, " Thank you again, Aurum but why are you here, don’t you have a kingdom to run?” I ask, she wasn’t wearing the cape, a sheathed sword clipped to her belt, “As I said before, I had some business to take care of, Im also not very fond of that guy, not sure why the old man insisted on making him a council member. Other than that I happened to be in the area so I dropped by to see how you’d handled the cult this time,” she says, “ when you Finish things here, I wish to speak to you about something,” Aurum states, whatever it was must’ve been important, I thank her again for easing things out with Anthony, " I’ll contact you if I find anything new about the cult, but for now you should wrap things up with Onyx, I’ll deal with this somehow,” Jo says, I thank him as well before making my way back to the ship. Laying neatly on my seat was a seat of armor with a small paper attached, “ Consider this a parting gift, for when we meet again we’ll be allies,” yours truly, followed by Astars signature, it was strange when she let us remove the source of her cults power, perhaps theirs more to her plan than I know. The armor was plain, nothing can be seen even with enhanced sight, slipping into the armor aside from the right gauntlet, for some reason the emperors gauntlet wont come off, no matter how hard I pulled it remained fused to my hand, oh well. I make my way to the palace, where Aurum was waiting to speak to me. Hopefully this can be resolved quickly.