It was satisfyingly ironic to Zorat that Victor, who was probably impatiently searching for a means to do him over, would indirectly, through his very own daughter, deliver to Zorat the object of his own unmaking.

Zorat ran his gaze over the necklace in his hand, as its information was automatically displayed to his mind’s eye....

*****

[Eridnor’s Mark (Tails)]

[A piece of elvish and dwarvish magic engineering, designed as a head and tails pair. If either piece is destroyed, the other piece will resonate, initiating a one-time teleportation displacement of its bearer to the sight of the incident. The marker can be destroyed intentionally, or automatically self-destruct when it senses its bearer’s life in danger]

[Single Use]

****

Hehehe... how nice of you, Victor.

Saying those words, Zorat proceeded to deactivate his void domain spell as he appeared physically inside the vault....

Immediately, all the alerting formations embedded in the walls and floors of the vault were triggered, as they began to glow a pulsing blue...

Grining, Zorat, directly crushed the emerald gem embedded inside the necklace in his hands, letting the broken pieces fall to the ground as he again reactivated his void domain, disappearing from existence once more.

But Zorat did not leave...

Instead, he walked over to a corner by the white wall, relaxing on the surface with his legs crossed and arms folded over his chest.

He watched, smiling, as the pieces of broken gem began to dissipate into a boiling bright blue fog, shrouding the center of the white space in concentrated mana before slowly fading out....

As the fog cleared.... A familiar someone was now standing in its place, looking pensively around before frantically screaming out loud...

"LARA! LARA! WHERE ARE YOU ?!!" Victor yelled as he ran around the strange white space in which he now found himself.

He had been in his office after concluding ’discourses’ with the royal court secretary on a method to destroy the one who had soiled his daughter.

Then came the ping from the other half of Eridnor’s necklace, which he always wore around his neck. And the other half, he had gifted his daughter.

This would only mean one thing... Kaelara’s life was in danger.

He had no idea how she might have found herself in a life-threatening situation when she should be resting in her room...

Still, he couldn’t play with his daughter’s life, so he went along with the spatial displacement and appeared in this strange place.

Victor arrived in fear, not knowing what might have already happened to his daughter.

He ran around the white space, and he was starting to feel the restriction on his mana pool, which meant this was no ordinary space.

"LARA! DEAR! ...ANSWER ME! ARE YOU HERE! ?"

After going around the entire space in less than three seconds as a result of being in the paragon realm, Victor realised that something was very strange about this whole situation.

There was the fact that his mana was being suppressed, and there was always the metal door at the end that was looking needlessly sturdy, considering this was an empty white room.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Victor muttered in confusion as he ran his hawk eye through the space, his single moustache twitching nervously.

He also just noticed that there are formation circuits spiralling through the entire white room.

The more Victor noticed, the tenser he became. As a shrewd man himself, it became more obvious by the second what type of situation he had stepped into....

"Shit. It’s a trap!"

Victor’s instincts screamed at him as he blazed straight at the sturdy metal door.

He wasn’t exactly sure what kind of place he was in, but he knew nothing good would come from remaining in there.

Mustering all the lingering mana he could, Victor activated his ability on full blast as massive boulders began to materialize mid-air before launching at immense velocities straight at the metal door.

But the door wasn’t budging.

"What in the world is happening ?!" Victor blurted in frustration before resuming his Desperate attacks at the door.

All that had transpired since Victor arrived had taken place in the span of just a little over ten seconds, and just as insane as Victor’s reaction time is, so too were those of others in a similar realm.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Victor jumped back instantly as he heard the opening sound from the metal door.

He was sweating profusely and breathing raggedly as he prepared himself for what might lie behind those sturdy doors.

Victor is one of the strongest people in the entire kingdom....

The person on the other side might just be as strong as him, or maybe a little stronger. So, he was sure to escape the moment the metal door opened.

Steeling his resolve, Victor got into position as bullets of massive boulders took shape in the air around him.

CLANG! CLANG!.

The vault opening sound finally stopped, as the sturdy metal door sprang open...

But Victor was presented with a sight he never would have imagined in a million years.

Looking at the figures in front of him, he cast one last look around the empty vault, as the picture of what the situation looked like came into full view.

Victor’s heart dropped to his stomach, raising both his hands as he allowed the boulders he had conjured to dissipate, he tried to plead his case....

"Wait... I think there is a misunderstanding..." He mumbled, but before he could add another syllable, what felt like an ocean of compressed mana descended upon Victor, instantly bringing him to his knees and spurting blood from all of his orifices.

It was like a mountain of concentrated mana was being pressed against him and almost turning him to paste.

In the hallway were a few figures veiled in grey robes, with King Helion Starfall standing obediently behind them.

Where Victor struggled on the white floor, with his eyes glazed bloody red, he didn’t need any more clarification on the identities of these individuals.

These are the group of people he had allied with another kingdom to bring down if he ever wanted to usurp the throne of Ursula.

The shadowy enforcers.

And he seemed to have been caught up in a sinister plot. Several thoughts ran through Victor as he lay there.

’Who ?!’

’Was it Helion ?!’

’No, it can’t be... he’s too soft.’

’maybe Elowen ?. no. she doesn’t have the means.’

’can it be him ?... ’

A certain evil someone came to mind. considering there is already a connection between he and his daughter. But the issue of infiltrating the vault made him dismiss that idea. it has to be a royal with access to the vault.

’i can’t be that person too..’

’Then who?....damn it. I have to get out of this!’

’If I could just reach my ministers...’

Victor struggled with all his strength, but it was like a literal mountain was on top of him. He knows now where he was, and what would soon happen to him.

But then he remembered what had actually brought him there as he screamed...

"YOU BASTARDS!. WHERE’S MY DAUGHTER ?!

"YOU MAKE SUCH SHAMEFUL PLOYS?! DO YOU NOT FEAR THE GODDESSES’ OATH?!"

But none of the figures or the king reacted until the leading figure stepped forward slowly, almost weakly.

He was holding a cane to support his movement as he cast his gaze into the now-empty vault. Suddenly, a murderous rage erupted as the volume of mana compressing Victor more than doubled, causing multiple of his bones to shatter.

Victor yelled out loud as his face contorted in pain on the floor. He lay there helplessly as he looked up at the monstrous human that was so effortlessly containing him.

"A Malverin would dare to steal from the Starfall’s...." A withered voice came from the leading veiled figure, still keeping his gaze on the empty treasury.

"Victor, is it?" The figure muttered as he cast his shadwed veiled face at Victor on the floor.

"I knew your father. He was a wise man... such a shame."

"Helion."

"Yes, honored Ancestor." King Helion answered respectfully as he stepped forward.

"Make certain all the kingdom’s assets are recovered.... through whatever means necessary."

"Yes, Ancestor."

"And... " He turns to look at Victor, still plastered to the floor.

"Right after.... Execute this one....Publicly."

"Also... imprison his entire household. And make sure every one of his other allies who might have had a hand in this is swiftly curled.... tonight. "

"Yes, Ancestor."

Saying those words, the veiled man faded from view, while the other veiled figures went to retrieve Victor Malverin before dragging him out in the direction of the palace’s dungeons.

Zorat, who had been having the most pleasurable experience, was extra pleased because he had gotten a little more insight into the workings of the royal family....

And the perceptibly old figure from earlier, whom the king had addressed as Ancestor, was in fact the strongest individual he had seen in this world so far.

A half-step Transcendent.... How cute.