Rio began flying around the room looking for anything he could use to his advantage as the old man returned to controlling the town.
Rio noticed several large sigils carved into the walls, despite the heat radiating from within the room, the sigils remained cool. Looking closely he noticed that they each had the image of a familiar book front in center.
The book was similar to what Alberoth had appeared to him as before he was reborn.
"Hey, Alberoth! Do you want to explain what this is?"
Rio was pissed at the thought of being trapped in a town created by this childish book.
manifesting himself, Alberoth hesitated before giving his attempt at an apology.
"Okay, So I may have had one or two apprentices here or there. But none of them were this strong, as far as I remember. Although, I guess it has been a few years since I was last awake." Alberoth tried his best to give a reasonable explanation as to why his own student was capable of restraining his power.
"One or two?" Rio questioned as he began to doubt Alberoths words.
"I guess I should rephrase. I don't quite remember most of them aside from me two greatest students." Alberoth continued as he became noticeably smug after mentioning his students.
"Although I guess I might have been a little careless with my previous students." Alberoth continued as he began to reminisce about the past. "I don't really recall their names, and I never bothered to ask either." Alberoth added smugly.
"You're telling me you don't even know their names? What kind of teacher are you! You should know every single thing about your students!" Rio yelled angrily.
"Don't yell at me. I just don't have the time to pay attention to each and every one of them." Alberoth shouted back, trying his hardest to remain calm. "It's not like their name matters anyhow. All you have to do is kill this one so we can get out of here. Watching you bumble about in this disgusting place is putting a toll on my psyche."
"Well, if you want out so badly, how about you help me? I've been doing all of the work so you have no right to complain. If you just let me work in peace, I'll gladly finish this guy off in no time." Rio started with a confident tone as he began to inspect the room for any more clues he could use.
"Yeah, yeah. you do whatever you nerds do. I'll be watching."
Alberoths presence fading but not before delivering one more jab towards Rio.
"Always has to have the last laugh doesn't he." Rio muttered under his breath as he planned out his next move, But as hard as he tried, There was nothing he could think of that would help him in killing the old man.
His only option seemed to be fighting the man head on, but that would surely spell his death. He was surrounded by the man's body on all sides.
Rio gave it some thought before committing himself to the idea. It was now or never. He formed Panoply around him and began charging as much energy as his body could hold.
As he charged the room began to tremble. Rio didn't know Panoply had so much power as he had almost lost balance from the shaking of the room.
The sound of tearing and explosions could be heard as the old man turned around towards Rio.
"Rio's heart almost stopped as he hadn't finished charging yet. He wanted to at least take the man by surprise.
He had almost given up on building his energy when he noticed that the old man wasn't looking at him. Instead, He was staring towards the ceiling with a panicked expression as the sounds of destruction became clear.
Rio was just as confused as the old man when he heard a faint voice muffled by the sand.
"I know you're down there you mutt!!"
Rio didn't know what to think of what he heard but he felt like he had heard the voice before.
The voice continued shouting insult after insult towards him as it was closing the distance.
The old man began doing what he could as the sand around the room began to harden in the hopes of stopping the intruder. And after all of the man's hard work, The walls crumbled in a flash as a large bipedal creature landed in the center of the room separating Rio from the old man.
"There you are!"
After a short glance, Rio knew exactly who he was.
Standing between Rio and the old man was Zeran, fuming with anger.
He was reequipped with a similar jetpack to his previous one but the detail that really caught Rio's eye was his arm. The arm that he had cut off was now replaced with a new one made up of a collection of metal wires. The wires were wrapped around his wrist and forearm until they met in the middle where they were joined together to form a metallic hand with a thick black glove. The fingers were sharpened to a point that they would have been more effective as knives than fingers.
He stood tall as he slowly crept towards Rio.
"There's nowhere to run now, mutt! This is where you die!"
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