The Last Primal

Even after the warning Aiden gave to him, Drake didn't spend much time thinking about his answer. After merely a few seconds, the strict look on his face softened into a reassuring smile as he met Aiden's eyes with his own.

"Don't you worry about me, Aiden. Although I'm not as monstrously strong as you, I am a skilled swordsman, after all." He patted the hilt of his adorned sword hanging in its lustrous sheathe on his right. "Mort and I will be able to handle ourselves fine! I will stay with you, so just lead the way!"

"Hah… do as you want, but don't say I didn't warn you." Aiden sighed, not wanting to waste time arguing with him any longer. As dawn had already passed and they were marching further and further into the day, he wanted to hasten this last and hopefully not too long part of their adventure.

Shifting his attention from the silver-haired prince, he turned to take in the ground floor of this towering structure carefully.

The hallway they arrived in, was the base floor of the building, and as such, to their right, on the far side, an ominous-looking, matte black, double-door barred their way, that would lead them out of the building and back to the orcs' campsite.

To their right, the hallway ended with a simple dark brown wooden door. The door, unlike the many others that could be seen along either side of the walls, looked quite old, ancient. The wood was already weary, torn by the relentless passing of time. The door had no handle on it, and instead of a regular keyhole, a strange violet gemstone, a beautiful amethyst could be seen elevating the archaic look of the age-old oak wood barrier and giving it a more mysterious feel.

Scarlet, silk carpet was draped on the floor over the marble tile. All in all, the hallway that Aiden mostly ignored when he arrived looked quite astonishing, completely out-of-place in such a barbaric tribal campsite.

Despite the royal feel the place gave, besides Aiden, no one in the group was surprised by the least bit. For Drake, he already got over his shock when he was first brought here. As for Roas and the rest of the servants, they couldn't really care about this place at all. To them, this was just merely an already abandoned bastion of their enemies and not a marvel of architecture. After all, although they have evolved, they still originated from a species that lived in muddy huts and tents…

"So, where to now?" Drake asked, breaking the short silence, and pulling Aiden out of his reverie.

"Hmm… I'm not entirely sure…" Aiden answered thoughtfully, slowly scanning the hallway. As he did so, he also sent out invisible waves of energy. Using his trusty [Dark Sense] ability he wanted to make sure that there were no more surprises along the way.

As the pulses returned to him, he glanced over at his System's Generated Map only to see that they should safe. There were some strange responses coming from the direction of the gemstoned door, but at this time, neither he nor the system could discern if it would be harmful or not. He only felt a small pulsating source of heat, some energy coming from behind, further below.

After a brief moment of thinking, he turned towards the aged door to their left and pointed towards it.

"I believe that we will find what I seek behind that door."

'Young Master, would you please allow us servants to go ahead and check if there is any trap ahead?' Roas's concerned voice suddenly resounded in his mind. Following his voice, Aiden could feel the activation of all the connections he shared with his servants. He could feel the same worry and concern coming from each of them.

They were all worried about the same situation happening as before. Not wanting to speak while in the presence of the human, they all focused on the magical connection instead. Being able to feel their true emotions, Aiden didn't want to deny this wish from them.

'Sure, you can check this floor and try the door as well. However, don't be disheartened if you fail to open it, as I have a feeling that it will only work for me…'

'No, Young Master! Don't worry!' Roas' excited voice came almost instantly which was a great contrast to his still stoic, cold look he gave outwardly.

As he approved, in the next moment, Roas, Glohn, Gob, and even Galina turned towards the run-down wooden door on the left and left the group. As they slowly approached the destination, they made sure to check each and every room they came across.

Seeing their receding figures, Drake looked puzzled. Why did they suddenly decide to go ahead? Why didn't they say a word? Are they trying to trick them?

"Umm… Aiden…" He leaned closer to the boy and whispered with a worried tone.

Looking at Drake's face, Aiden almost couldn't hold in his laughter. He knew what he was concerned about. After all, they spoke using the mental channel. Still, with great difficulty, he retained his usual carefree, friendly look. With a masked calmness, he asked.

"What is it?"

"Those four… Why did they leave so suddenly? What are they doing? Are they planning something?"

Unable to contain it any longer, Aiden erupted into hearty laughter.

"No, don't worry about it. They just wanted to go ahead and check if there were any traps, like what we saw when we first got to this building." He explained after calming down. "We were also ambushed on the higher floors, so now they are not going to take the chance. It's better to just let them do it."

Aiden's explanation didn't answer all the questions he had, but he decided to not force it for the time being. There were way too many mysteries surrounding the boy already, in fact, his whole being was an enigma.

He, despite not looking like it, was incredibly strong and at the same time, agile. He had an unknown power emanating from his body. He could supposedly use some very strong illusion, most likely a bloodline skill or a heritage skill perhaps. Where did he come from, which family's lost child could he be?

Such skillset cannot come from a commoner background after all. Also his family, he saw back in the Slums… That masked lady he was with… she had one of the royal artifacts, just like the blonde girl.

'Could they be some distant exiled part of the family? But if that is the case, how do they own not one but two of the artifacts? That just makes no sense…' He lamented.

'I need to investigate, his whole family is strange…'

He was pulled back to reality by the voice of the boy in question.

"You okay there? If you want you can stay and wait for us here, but we need to go on now." Looking at the absent-minded prince, Aiden voiced his thoughts. Not bothered to wait for his response, he turned around and began walking away.

"Hey, wait up!" After a couple of steps, Drake's voice came from behind, quickly rushing after the group.

---

The oak wood door had no handle to push, no keyhole to unlock. Besides the palm-sized dazzling, violet amethyst etched into the center of the frame, it was just an archaic slab of wood.

Still, despite all that, the door seemed to be locked in some way, as no matter how hard they pushed, they couldn't make it budge. After a few failed attempts, the strongest of the servants, Roas even tried breaking it, but no matter how hard he crashed into it, how hard he kicked or hit it, the weary wooden slab never gave in, it firmly resisted against the aggressor.

No matter what source of magic they tried, nor Galina's light, Roas's Darkness, or Fire, they couldn't make the door move. In the end, they had to give up and notify the young master.

"Hmm… So it resisted all 4 of you. Interesting…" Aiden muttered, leaning closer to the gemstone. "I guess to open it, we need to interact with this gemstone some way. The question is how? My first idea would have been to use your unique Dark Energy… but that was a no-go I guess…."

Turning to face Roas to his right, he asked him. The fluent way as he switched from his general common to the orcish still surprised and perplexed Drake behind him. Still, he remained quiet, focusing his attention on the gemstone in front of them.

"[Orc] Did you feel anything when you used your Darkness? Was there any feedback at all?"

"[Orc] No, young master. The door or the gem was completely unresponsive no matter what we tried. I apologize for being useless!" He bowed deeply.

"[Orc] It's not your fault. This one is special… Maybe we are missing someth-" He spoke, although mostly to himself, however, suddenly he felt a familiar surge of energy coming from the depth of his Soul Space. He felt a previously dormant presence reach out to him.

The mature, clear, albeit still weak voice of his dear companion, Enya resounded suddenly in his mind.

"[Put your palm over the gemstone. This door will only open to a Primal. Nothing else can force it open… Don't be afraid, Aiden…]

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