
"The thought crossed my mind," Tymon said before casually warning them. "If you try anything, I'll rip your hearts out."
There was light laughter that echoed off the narrow walls as they descended a staircase.
"Rip our hearts out? You're joking, right?" one of the klevonians laughed nervously.
"No," Tymon said flatly.
The laughter stopped, leaving an awkward silence.
"Oh...," the klevonian coughed.
"I'm not in the business of getting my friends killed," Gahiji jokingly assured him. "We have no malicious intentions. But to prove our allegiance, I'm about to show you something very interesting. Something no one but a select few of Deviants knows about."
Eventually, Tymon was led to a part of an underground space that was even older than the ones they'd just come from. The walls were of stone instead of hardened neta and had carvings of owls in several different locations.
"This is deep beneath the old Sphinx Crest House," Gahiji told him.
In the middle of the room, there was a large, black cube with a thick door that had seemingly been closed for millions, if not billions, of years.
"None of us has been able to get inside. From the looks of it, no one has." Gahiji said as they circled the object. "Figured it was a vault. Whatever's inside must be significant if it was worth the smartest Crest hiding and locking it away here."
At closer inspection, the vault seemed to be made of a weird black material Tymon had seen yet.
"From what we can tell, it's made of black vakinine—a mineral only formed on a planet called Vake," Gahiji said.
"One of the Celestials' home planets," Tymon remembered the conversation between mercenaries from earlier and a vakumite being mentioned on the ancient monument.
"Yeah," Gahiji replied, touching the metal. "But I don't think this is your typical vakinine..."
Tymon noticed the key ports on the vault seemed to require energy, but Gahiji stopped him as he was about to apply some of his own.
"Whoa! That's not a good idea," he warned. "It doesn't want our energy. Everyone who's tried to open it was drained of their energy until they died. This thing'll suck even a pneumarian dry and still won't open."
He pointed at the black material closely.
"See the red and blue energy swirling within its texture? We think that's positive and negative void energy."
Tymon looked at him expressionlessly.
"Oh, right, you're new. Void energy is the unique energy vakumites use," Gahiji explained briefly. "We use spirit energy, they use void energy. There are others too, depending on the race."
"Hm. Why would something from a foreign world be hidden here?" Tymon asked, curious.
"We don't know. Whoever hid this here did it a long time ago. But this is high-grade vakumite tech, so whatever's inside must be extremely valuable."
Having all the information, Tymon sighed.
Mysterious dog, mysterious woman, now a mysterious box. It's been one thing after another, he thought to himself.
"Look, I know I'm new, but this thing's clearly valuable, and if it's what you say and someone went through the efforts of hiding it here, then whatever is inside could cause an inter-territorial conflict. From my understanding, a Celestial is powerful enough to destroy a planet, right? Pissing one off can't be good for Cindar, so why not report this?" Tymon asked, wondering what this group had just pulled him into.
"It's not like we're the ones who put it here," Gahiji stated, seeing the potential concerns. "The whole point of the group is that we don't report to either of the nations. Besides, if I told either nation, they'd either keep it and try to use whatever is inside for themselves, inform the Neutral Corp, or contact the Void Celestial himself. Either way, conflict could occur depending on what's inside. We have enough of that as is."
Tymon grunted, seeing his point. With the planet in a state of disarray, bringing in extraterrestrial influences on top wasn't what anyone needed right now. Besides, if this were vakumite technology, they'd probably need a vakumite to answer any questions.
Tymon considered informing Alissia, but he knew she lacked the emotional control necessary to juggle the potential crisis this could bring and the current issues they were trying to figure out. Even after a year, she hadn't had many chances to grow as a leader yet, so he decided he'd let her know it was appropriate.
"I've got something I'm focusing on already, but once everything's settled, I'll figure out the situation with the vault later," Tymon assured him. "For now, continue to keep it to yourselves."
"You got it," Gahiji nodded before they prepared to leave.
After leaving the underground from another hidden entrance in the old Sphinx Crest House, before Tymon took off, he turned to Gahiji.
"One more thing. Since you guys are gonna fall under me, then you'll need to stop indiscriminately trying to kill others for power. Self-defense is one thing, but I can't have you all doing that under my name because that'd affect the person I follow."
"Your Crest Head, right?" Gahiji asked. "Normally, I'd tell you you're making a mistake falling under one of them, but I'll trust your judgment."
"Wait. Then how do we get the power to evolve?" one of the klevonians traveling with them asked.
"You don't," Tymon stated, leaving no room for debate. "So many klevonians go down that path, right? How many klevonians have evolved from relying on stealing energy from others?"
"Not many. Most are killed in the process," the klevonian answered reluctantly, but seeing the bigger picture.
"Look, the team I'm part of: they were born and given ascension marks the same way I was. Unlike other klevonians, we can only feed off specific aspects, but it still kills whoever's energy we take, but we don't because we try not to kill. We especially don't do it just to get stronger, so neither will you."
"That statement you made about death earlier, that your aspect?" Gahiji asked him.
He's not just a muscle head, then, Tymon thought. He has been leading this group on his own...
"Yeah, I'm different from the others. I get stronger simply by being near someone as they die."
"So, you're immortal and you get stronger the more death you're surrounded by...," Gahiji pondered.
15Please respect copyright.PENANA0r8lmMpvih