OLD Chapter 209 (UPDATE AS OF 11/23/23 - These original chapters 195-210 will be pushed out to another future part of the book or recycled. New chapters starting at 195 are being posted after the original 210, and these original chapters will soon be removed. For now, skip ahead to the NEW Chapter 195 past old 210) (Patreon)

Chapter 209

The largest of the stone golems twitched in its throne, and a heavy grating sound began to echo through the chamber when it rose from the large throne between mountains of treasure.  Dust fell from its ancient crown, and a staff with glowing blue orb flickered to life at its side as the twenty foot tall creature held out a hand at full height to stare Riven and his two minions down.

The other golems were also standing now, golden lights illuminating the cracks along their bodies as their stone eyes blankly stared ahead.  None of them aside from the central king bore weapons, but none of them needed to when their stone fists could likely do enough damage already.

“A key to the temple has announced its presence.  I am here to-” The king’s deep, echoing voice abruptly stopped, and he twitched slightly as parts of his lower right leg and torso began to spark.

“I am here to test-”

“I am here to help you see-”

“I am here-”

The king rumbled and shook his head as if to shrug off a headache, slamming his orbed staff into the ground and releasing a shockwave of power that cleared the gold and platinum coins from around them - pushing the waves of wealth to the sides to make way for the battle to come.  The cracks in the stone body emanating golden light soon began to die out, instead releasing an ominous black mist that fizzled away.  Black cracks started moving up the staff as well, and the blue light it was radiating quickly changed to a dark and dreary gray.  “An intruder has been detected.  Elimination commencing.”

Athela held up one of her arachnid limbs and waved it around.  “Any chance we can just talk about this?  No!?  Well it was worth a try.”

There was no reply, but Riven could sense that something about this room was calling to him.  Resonating with him. He could feel a foreign yet familiar presence of power entering his body, somehow making him more than what he otherwise was, yet he could not pinpoint the reason or rhyme to it.

His red eyes narrowed under his hood, and blood mana began rolling up his arms - covering them in wisps of power that flowed like silk.  Dozens of spinning bloody razors appeared around him, transforming into storm orbs radiating black lightning and blood under the influence of his path.  Athela moved left and Fimrindle disappeared entirely, and then the ground cracked under an influx of power from both sides.

The world turned gray.  The golems along the side didn’t move an inch, but the larger crown-wearing golem in the middle tore forward through the air so fast that Riven didn’t have time to react.  The golem’s staff crashed into his chest, shattering bones and-

The vision quickly dispersed and only lasted two seconds of time, and Riven blinked it away in confusion as the crown-wearing golem tore through the air towards-

*BOOM*

Riven’s fist made impact with the golem’s face, unleashing all the pent up blood mana in his right arm.  The stone of the golem’s nose shattered, and Riven delivered an uppercut with his left next; unleashing his other arm’s mana and sending a blood lance rocketing through the head of the creature before spinning underneath the momentum of the larger foe.

*CRASH*

The room shook as all of his bloody razors shot forward like missiles, colliding with the downed creature and blowing small holes in its body in a shower of stone.  It wasn’t nearly as potent as it’d be outside the abyss, and he could only muster a minor amount of his aura here, but it was still enough for this.

Debris skyrocketed into the air when the guardian let out a deep rumble.  It stood up, missing half of its head to stare at him before pieces of its body began swirling around in the air - repairing its wounds to rebuild the head before Riven’s very eyes.

The world turned gray.  Abruptly the staff of the creature rose up and swatted Athela away, connecting against her softer body with a sonic boom, plastering her insides against the-

His premonition of a gray world faded as the staff abruptly rose to swat Athela away, but Riven tore through a rift in space and summoned a spinning bloody razor in his right hand.  The bloody razor warped under his influence to form another ball of black and red power, and empowering it with an enormous amount of his mana - he shoved the magical orb of destruction into the creature’s right elbow joint with a sneer.

*CRACK*

The stone forearm of the creature flew off, and Athela’s six blades crunched into stone right when Fimrindle’s scythe crashed into the back of the creature’s head - then was ripped down the back-center.  The scythe tore something metallic out of the golem and flung it aside, and the iron scarecrow stared blankly at the golem king while it began to groan and rise again.

The ass beating commenced.

Riven continued infusing his body with blood energy and using storm orbs to smash into the golem’s body.  Fimrindle’s scythe continued tearing out metal entrails and flinging them away like a grinder, and Athela’s webs were continually renewed to hold it in place and subdue the golem while her claws and bladestore at its front.

Meanwhile the other golems just stared, unmoving from their positions and seemingly uncaring about how their comrade was being torn limb from limb.

That was a bit odd, and this entire scenario was also a bit easy.  What were these insights he seemed to have out of nowhere?  His malignant prophecy wasn’t activating, was it?  At the very least it wasn’t telling him about the activation, and unlike normal activations of his skill - these fast and fleeting images were only about 2 or 3 seconds out into the future.

It was certainly a new experience for him, but the sensation felt… right.  The ancient and long dormant mana in this room resonated with his soul, with these strange sensations of peering into the future with small glimpses of what was to come.  And yet…

[Malignant Prophecy has gained the Battle Sight perk by absorbing ambient mana of primordial origin.  Flamebearer of the Everseer has been obtained.  ERROR.  Maximum possible malignancy points have been acquired.  Update determined, a Tribulation from the heavens has been set for dabbling in the taboo:  The Temple of Time has been sealed.  An Eldrova and its cohort have been unleashed from Pandora, and will await you upon this final trial.]

Riven blinked at the notification, stopping halfway through clobbering the statue-like creature.

Then the pain came.

Blinding golden light erupted from Riven’s skin where cracks tore his body apart, and he began to scream as a torturous sensation etched itself into his mind.  It was like his body was being poked with thousands of hot needles, and he suddenly felt his very soul begin to combat the foreign presence as tendrils of gold began tearing into his soul aperture to weave around his pillars and core.  The only part of his soul aperture not under siege was Gluttony’s Sin core, the fundamental part of his clone body, as any attempt to embrace the sin aspect of himself was quickly and ravenously devoured by the eleven sin shards residing there.  They came out as hungry maws, tearing away the golden lights and eradicating anything that neared the black ominous orb rotating around the rest of his soul, but even they could only do so much to resist.

“Riven!  What’s happening!?” Athela yelled out in surprise, and she ran over to him to put a hand on his body - only to withdraw it with a hiss of pain as the golden energies burned her skin away.  “COCK!  FUCK that hurts!”

Instead she reached for his spatial bag and pulled out a health potion next, but stopped when Riven’s screaming faded away and the golden lights along his skin settled down.  She cocked an eyebrow, hesitantly stepped around to look him in the eye, and watched as sweat beaded along his face to drip off his chin.  “Damn.  What was that about?  And you look like a snack when you’re all sweaty like that!  We should make you do laps around back home regularly before coming to bed.”

Riven shuddered with an eye roll as she giggled, basking in the lack of pain and then blinking tears away to look down at his arms.  The robe he’d been wearing was shredded, revealing his bare body underneath.  The golden cracks in his pale skin still remained, covering his entire body, and funnily enough the tattoo on his arm where ‘Mark of the Sinner’ had been present was now gone.

He did a brief check on his sin body and saw that the unholy mark was still present there, so what exactly had happened?

His status page came back as a blur of text and symbols he didn’t recognize, and both he and Athela frowned at the display when they heard a loud crunch behind them.  Turning simultaneously, the two saw Fimrindle’s scythe embedded in the side of the ruined golem underneath him - blankly staring back at them through the X’s for eyes carved into its head.

“Any of you know what an eldrova is?  Or a heavenly tribulation?” Riven asked under his breath between pants, holding up a hand to watch the radiating golden light flowing out from the cracks covering his body - but before either minion could answer him, a notification appeared before his eyes.

CONGRATULATIONS

CONGRATULATIONS

CONGRATULATIONS

YOU HAVE DEFEATED THE MINIBOSS: TEMPLE OF TIME TREASURE GUARDIAN.

[Sufficient ambient mana of unique origin has been absorbed.  Your key has been upgraded.  You have gained access to the Temple of Time’s treasury, please choose what you wish before proceeding to the next area.]

[You have gained 1 level.  Congratulations!]

***

Thousands upon thousands of eyes glimmered in the dark as they opened one by one, emitting pale lights in a vast empty chasm.  Hundreds, thousands, and then hundreds of thousands of eel-like appendages with enormous maws that could swallow houses grit their teeth and opened to hiss at the disturbance they sensed.

The young, underdeveloped eldrova pondered this anomaly, this curiosity, and waited for the shift in space to evade it once more.  But this time, unlike all the times before it, the prison of Pandora began to creak open.

For the first time in tens of millenia, the system was letting it out to hunt.

[Quest Dispensed: Kill Riven Thane.  Just like the last attempt at acquiring the title of Everseer, an eldrova has been called to maintain balance in the multiverse.  For taking part in unorthodox, taboo practices, the heavens have sentenced Riven Thane to death.  Elysium’s intervention places you as the highest tier eldrova able to be sent.  The heavens have acknowledged Elysium’s will, and you been unchained.  Hunt this malpractitioner down, and devour his soul.  Do this, and obtain your freedom from Pandora forever as per the fatebound agreement.]

The eldrova’s eyes gleamed in anticipation, the enormous body shifted and began to swim through space into the light, and legions of its minions behind it cried for blood in deafening cacophony.

It was finally time to leave this wretched place, and the eldrova would not fail to grasp at the opportunity it’d been given.

***

More of the golems had come from places unknown to watch Riven and his two minions as they recovered.  They were not hostile, nor were the strange robed figures - men and women made out of pure gold.  Dozens of them were now present, and dozens more were pouring in from around the mounds of treasure further into the temple’s treasury.

They all silently waited, watching, unmoving from their spots as they all stared Riven down in anticipation - as if wanting him and waiting for him to speak.

Neither Fimrindle nor Athela knew what these strange beings were doing, and neither of them knew what an Eldrova was.  Athela did have an idea of what a tribulation was though, as she’d heard about the heavens sending them down time to time to smite demons throughout the eons with incredibly difficult tasks, but the details were always foggy as the tribulations were very rare phenomenon.  They were also usually kept to focus on demonkind, as the heavens were the birthplace of the angels and had a very steep grudge against the hells where demons reigned supreme.

That in itself brought Riven a lot more questions he’d have to explore at another time.  The heavens, the way Athela spoke about them, were living places?  Or was it a living singular place?  Were the Hells the same?  Riven didn’t know nor did he have time to explore that train of thought more as he cleared his throat to address the situation in front of him.

“I defeated the trial… I hope that means I don’t have to fight any of you in turn.”  Riven said hopefully, still glancing down at his bare body where golden light flickered and shifted along the cracks all over his skin.

One of the hooded figures, a tall woman made out of pure gold with long hair down to her shoulders, stepped forward with a nod.  “Of course.  You have earned the right to take what you wish from this place, Flamebearer.  The Temple of Time recognizes your key as having ascended to the second step.  Perhaps, unlike the last one to attempt to take the mantle, you will succeed where she did not.”

Riven’s shoulders sagged in relief, getting a giggle from Athela who was ogling him from behind, and he gave the golden woman a nod in return.  He looked around, suddenly dumbstruck again at the sheer volume of wealth lining the enormous room.  He couldn’t even see where the room ended due to the mountains of treasure, with weapons, coins, books, scrolls, artifacts, baubles and various other things there that would no doubt make most kings cry with envy.  “I must ask though… Why was that trial so easy?  What is this odd feeling I get by being here in this room?  And what is an eldrova?  Do you happen to know any of this?  Why are you attacking me at one moment, then letting me sift through all your stuff?  Are you not angry that I killed one of your own?”

The others around them turned to look at the golden woman in silence, and she slowly nodded to clasp her hands in front of her.  She reminded him very much of a monk with the way she held herself and the robes she donned, and she took another step forward to better look at his skin.  “This trial was not one meant to kill you.  It was one meant to push you while in the presence of primordial time, in the presence of the essence of time.  There are many things I wish to speak to you about, Flamebearer, but do not fret about the golem.  He will be reborn as long as the temple stays intact.   It was a very simple, but necessary trial, and any who possessed one of three keys would be able to pursue it.  The dragons await, but we are concerned that your third key will not be sufficient.  We can only hope.”

“That didn’t answer my other questions.  What is an eldrova?  What is this ‘third key’ your talking about, because to my knowledge it’s only me and that guy Thale who hold the keys to this temple.  We’re completely missing the third.  And what is this ‘essence’ of time?”

The golden woman smiled and bowed her head in reverence.  “The essence of time is that of the three dragons.  It is their combined soul, a masterwork of an era long past - long before the current system came to be.  They await a Flamebearer, but in order to pass into their final burial ground, you must have all three keys present to enter.  The second key remains with your other body and can be transferred here with Gluttony’s support, as the great maw has already acknowledged your attempt and awaits the right moment.  There is a third key here in the temple, but it is not of true lineage.  It is a copy of a long lost race, placed in a body by the matriarch of your clan by infusing the dead creature’s blood into a human by utilizing a parasite.  It ruined the boy many years ago, but by utilizing her visions at great cost to herself - this was the most likely way to succeed.  This has been a plan long in the making, young vampire of the Blood Moon Requiem, and should it come to fruition - we will all be blessed for it.  Unfortunately, the heavens do not agree - and wish to maintain balance.  The commandments weep at the thought of your ascent.  They fear that the eternal war will be swayed in favor of the demons should your transcendence come to pass, and have unlocked Pandora to prevent it.  The eldrova they send here has already passed into the temple, and before you acquire the final prize - it will challenge you.  Be prepared, take time here to cultivate the new paths before you, and perhaps we will all survive this eternal torment to leave this place behind.  Come, follow me, we will help you cultivate your new paths and teach you our ways before you travel into the final chamber.  Feel free to pick anything of this treasury for your own gain, and all questions you have will finally be answered.”