"Oh, you've gotten stronger, and so quickly, impressive. Some spend eons and never reach level 300, but you passed it in decades, last I saw you, you were at level 250, still facing your second seal, and now you're at level 315, explains the report you made in your soul report. In my entire life, this is the fastest growth I have ever seen. Good luck though, everything from here on is going to be constant, get used to that number."
…
"Not one for words – no progress on that front. If you're here to go up to the Laurels, you should go find the Grand Master, he'll take you there. I don't have access."
He was right about the Knight, ever since it broke the seal; it had only grown by a single level. Unlike others though, it would spend spans of time being stuck at a single level, but after time spent in stagnation, it would instantaneously grow insanely strong. Others, like Devan, however had to train and thus remember every level they were on before the next.
'He is right about one thing; I better get used to this level… I really need a dungeon.'
"where will I find him?" – answered the Knight.
"He is still not here; he should be back in a few months or so."
"where did he say he went?"
"There was something he was handling for the last couple of years. After each tournament, he goes back to the easternmost continent, three continents from here – Gfoun Zil. He usually doesn't come back, but he does plan to come back in a few months on your request."
'A few months…'
"I can teleport him here and send him on his way myself – you got a map?"
"well, I think you can find one by the Marshals."
"I'll be on my way then."
While walking through the hallways the Knight heard a lot of noise coming from the Academy/HQ doors but didn't feel bothered by them. It soon arrived at the door to the Marshals quarters, but right before it even touched the handle it heard the calm, rough, and assuring voice of the old man from behind it.
"Really, you were going to fetch me… I overheard (extra-ordinary reality rendering) ... You're just like them at times you know - impatient."
The Knight rarely ever gets surprised, in fact never. It creates multiple mental scenarios per second, just to keep from being caught off guard. In this moment, however, the Knight just thought this surprise to be interesting.
"Yes, Grand Master."
***
There were walking through the corridors, both the Knight and Grand Master Juval the III.
"They told me just a few years back that a knight would come bearing an invitation. When they said 'hero', I knew who they were talking about. I prepared to arrive later this year, but after you sent your message, saying that you will be back today, the Laurels sent me a message too, one telling me to get back here by the end of today!
Imagine, I was all the way in Gfoun Zil. I had to move so fast, even had to move so many things up my list. I had to check in with the others on my way back and see if they needed help. I also had to check in with the southeastern exploit…"
He then looked at the Knight, 'Still as silent as ever.' – thought the Grand Master.
'Still as talkative of an old man as ever.' – thought the Knight.
"Anyway, imagine being in the middle of duties and suddenly told to drop all of them and come. I'm sure you can imagine my surprise. I figured that you would get an invitation, you are rather famous, the 'dark hunter' they call you. The stories say that on multiple occasions you single handedly held the darkness back and rescued entire towns."
He then looked at the Knight again. "The most interesting part of all this absurdity is that I know it's true. At first, I thought they were all just a little excited about the immergence of a 'hero', the Laurels I mean. I get it too; it really has been that long since the last hero. And sure enough, you were shaping up to not be a disappointment.
The thing I could not figure out though, is why they would order me to come back so quickly. You have to understand, I've been the Grand Master for centuries and in all that time, this is the first time I had been given an order. Sure, it's the house of Mother, but they usually keep to themselves.
Anyway, my point is, do forgive Devan, even I didn't know that I'd be back so urgently, the request for my presence today did not go through him. I had to use [Alter Plurgnce]."
The Knight finally broke its gaze from the path ahead and looked and the Grand Master with a hint of confusion.
"Don't worry about that, you'll learn Plurgence once you reach Banneret status."
The Knight then looked ahead once again, it knew no answer would come.
"They must really be excited about this whole thing. Not to mention you're even stronger than last I met you. I never thought I'd be having another conversation with you so soon, I thought I'd next speak to you when you become Banneret, which was supposed to be ages ahead.
It's outrageous considering that you're the most recent knight Bachelor, no-one passed to become a Knight Bachelor during the last two tournaments… Oh, we're here."
He then turned to these doors. Solid and bolted down. Just for the fun of it, the Knight tried to teleport inside. Not that it could teleport through these walls, but this room pushed back even harder than the walls. In fact, the Knight was sure of something.
'It has to be, these doors are as strong, no, they're stronger than the training grounds beneath...'
"Really boss!?" – Mugaw.
'In fact, the only places that have resisted my teleportation to this extent are certain rooms in the Palace of Elleria, including the royal Archives. Thirdly, is that spirit dome where the one manipulating fate is hiding. In second place the house of mother, sitting at fourth, the island above has some invisible force that refuses even the notion of teleporting. And at first, the dungeons.'
"This must be incredible if it just bumped the training sphere where Avarice pummelled you from fifth down to sixth place."
The Knight ignored Mugaw, it didn't miss its jab, trying to provoke a void being was futility at its best. The Grand Master then placed its hand on the door. But the Knight could see more, it saw his soul partially enter the door, then the door opened.
'It's got a soul inside this door. A powerful one.'
Then they walked in. the Grand Master then began rambling on about things. The Knight listened, taking note of the important things he mentioned once in a while. It was too bad, nothing the Grand Master said was truly that important.
Once inside the Knight came to an empty room. A perfect cube. White clear walls. Nothing on them. The room was so clear that once the Knight and Juval entered, their shadows disappeared. Now the Knight knew it.
'Even if someone somehow got through the door, there is no way to enter this room without an invitation.'
The Knight then walked to the centre with the Grand Master. There, the room vanished. The walls extending far until it became there was nothing in sight. Just white emptiness. Not even the floor beneath them remained. Then all of it collapsed into a point. including the Knight and Juval. Just like a crumpled-up piece of paper the room unfolded, and so did the Knight and Juval. As if they had just been shifted from 3D to 2D to 1D then 0D. Then in 0D they were unfolded back to 3D – just elsewhere.
The Knight instantly recognised this power. 'The power over dimensions I see. A permanence created by an incredibly powerful user at that. Sure, it has been made into something harmless, but this room has become a law of reality now. Even if the Academy was gone, this room and this dimensional loop would still be here.'
This was the power it had seen so many dark knights use. 'Now it makes sense why they knew it, surely they weren't hoping to reach this level…?'
The Knight then thought about the one who made this room – 'I wonder how they were in a fight.'
This was something only achieved by the utmost mastery over a power. It did not teleport them; it moved their dimensions. It was something more akin to a dimensional elevator. It moved them upwards, but first it shifted their physical and spectral dimensions to 0D then once it put them on the Island it turned them back into their beings.
The Knight could tell this was not like teleport, it was more like going invisible and phasing through things and reappearing on a similar room on the island above.
'This place is not only protected by the walls around Arulli, but by the Knights, the doors, the room itself, the warping dimensions, and even the repelling force around the Island. Nothing short of you getting an invite can give you access. Who are they really?'
The Knight then looked at the Grand Master as he headed for the doors, as if going back the way they came, unphased by all of it. For some reason the Knight expected a witty remark from Mugaw, but just then it felt it, the feather was empty, Mugaw had been forced off. The vermin without vessels on its body were a part of it, and so were the souls inside it. Only Mugaw was stopped at the entrance to the room below, it didn't even make it past the door on the room at the Academy.
'I guess invite only means invite only?'
The doors were opened again in the same fashion. This one also possessed a soul, even if the Knight could not see them. Juval stood there and looked at the Knight – "You get used to it."
Then the Knight followed him out. Through the doors was something the Knight never expected to see. This made it realise something.
'The view from outside is an illusion.'
This place was lush full of grass and life. This room was like a shed, far off in the distance. The main building was at the centre. There was a stone path leading there. The Knight then felt the energies of the island.
'I can't believe it, but it has to be, this place, it wasn't made using powers, by the looks of it, the only use in power was on the stone path, the barrier and the dimension room.'
The Knight realised this because natural things have the simple desires of the Beginning and End – the desire to just be. Grass made from powers like that made by forest folk, has a faint but imbedded desire within them, that carried a voice of their creator, and this grass didn't have such voices.
The Knight knew about such things, most of everything was made using powers. Most of living things can't survive in this world. The planets temperature had even risen multiple times due to Red Scorch and the Knight alone and promptly dropped.
"Beautiful isn't it." – said a sweet voice, as it interrupted the Knight's thoughts.
"weak." – responded the Knight without much defence.
She smiled, "I somehow knew you would say something interesting."
The brick road was protection for the grass from those with invites. If anyone took a step on those grounds, this normal growth would never be able to grow ever again. An island that was never meant to contain power. Even the trees seemed to not have this personal voice.
It even had a stream of water, that moved straight though the island and being teleported at both ends. 'Is it a loop or connected to a larger source of water.'
The Knight glared all around. This garden was almost as alluring as the one made by the queen. 'Not even close...'
Through all the vibrant greenery – dripping with the drops of morning dew. The sparling reflections in the stream of divine blue waters. The noises the stream made as it weathered through the stones seen through the clear surface.
The calm on the surface of the pond that had formed. The light passing through the dome and reflected by the dew. The soft and soothing rustle of the leaves in the wind. The faint and busy noise of the caretakers of this place – the ants that made barely any, the birds that sang, the shifting of sand as some dug through it, the fluttering of bees as they pollinated.
The rainbow of colours of the flower bed even gave off a scent that could put a baby to sleep. The feel of the tree-cooled breeze as it made it through the armour, and hit the cold unfeeling, and dead skin of the Knight.
For, through all this, the Knight only thought about how it would go about changing the sixth component during the next soul crafting session, because all of this beauty was lost on it.