The Climb

Fenrir was summoned as well as Visne, to begin their next tier evolution. Cyrus watched as Fenrir took his quadrupedal form and doubled in size. Standing at 9 feet tall Fenrir could notice his body had increased in strength and durability. The feeling of power rushing though Fenrir as he entered into a new tier.

Visne also was going through the evolutionary change as their size of a horse was increased to that of a small aircraft. Cyrus guessed Visne looked to have the body of a helicopter but the wingspan of a propeller plane. Their body was thicker as it looked like leafless branches sprouted on their head. Horns of that wood like skin formed as well as the mouth had form a slight overbite. Visne looked pretty much the same except for the size increase and horns.

That is when Cyrus got the notifications that his summon max had doubled to 8. His stats got a massive boost from Fenrir hitting Beta Tier, while the summons' abilities reached new levels. Fenrir could now equip armor on either of his forms. But would require the material and designs for them both. His Vanishing Step cooldown reduced by a whole minute. While his Howl could cause fear in Chaos Beasts lower tier than himself. Finally his Bite added fire damage to the attack.

Visne's attacks also increased allowing them to Spit 3 corrosive gel globs at targets and his Goo Spray can be a line as well as a cone. Nothing much else increased for Visne other than their HP doubling to 108. Cyrus was happy with the upgrades for them as the two summons returned. This allowed Cyrus to view the statistics on Delrune, the Haunted Blade. He also put the new points he got for leveling, 2 Strength, 1 Dexterity, and 1 point into Stamina.

[STR: 16 (8)]

[DEX: 14 (7)]

[STM: 15 (7)]

[INT: 18 (9)]

Summoning Delrune he finally got to have a proper look at the blade. It didn't look like it originally did when Thomas was wielding it, for it was more slender and a single edged sword. It didn't have a guard to protect the wielder from getting hurt if wielded improperly. But it had a long handle, a long black blade, and the symbol of a dragon's head on the base of the blade. It was a double edged blade that extended out to 1.5m. The pummel of hilt had a pointed blade that only stuck out half a foot out from the hilt. A indentation in the middle of the blade that seemed to come from the dragon's mouth as it traveled up to the tip of the blade. Just stopping 6 inches from the tip, it seemed to be a groove that seemed to be important to one of the blade's abilities.

Delrune then began to float on it's own next to Cyrus and had its tip pointed towards the ground as to not be in an active attacking mode. Reading some of the abilities of Delrune made Cyrus really interested in its capabilities in the future and to fights they would get in. But for the moment he saw the skill Lord's Call from Delrune and Recall which was added from having Delrune in his list of summons.

[Lord's Call: Delrune can return to your hand from any distance as it flies to your hand.]

[Recall: Weapons that aren't in your hand or inventory can be called to return to your hand.]

Both seemed pretty simple and straight forward, which was good. Returning Delrune to his shackle he saw it appeared as a smaller version of itself etched into the shackle. With that Cyrus returned to Chase and Thomas who had been talking about the events leading to them being separated for so long. Until they got to Cyrus who they both looked at.

"Cyrus is the one who calmed Taurus down, he kept his promise and I allowed him into the vault." Thomas looked shocked, but Chase held up a hand, "He is under the protection of our family name. I trust him and he possibly is a descendent of the same Reinhard family that our father fought against for so many years. He doesn't know his line goes back that far besides, he said he will help rescue our father." Chase stood and brushed himself off as Thomas did the same.

"Well if that is true, then we must hurry," He looked around for a weapon, but was unable to find one. That is when Cyrus decided to bring out the Withered Dragon Sword.

"Here, this could be handy for you to use," holding it out to Thomas made him look down and then towards Cyrus. Slowly taking the blade from his hands and holding it within his own.

Giving it a few swings and even activating the swords extended fire blade, "This is a unique weapon, I shall wield it with care." He bowed and Cyrus gave him the sheathe removing the item from his inventory. Sheathing the weapon, Thomas looked towards the door leading forward, "Do you think we will face more enemies ahead?"

Cyrus and Chase both nodded, "Most definitely, but luckily I think we will be able to make a quick pit stop along the way." Cyrus walked forward to the door and placed his hands on it. It opened revealing the portal. He then turned to Thomas, "Would you like to join our party to save your father?" Chase looked at Thomas, then after a brief pause he nodded.

[Thomas Galihath has joined your party!]

Closing the window and walking through the portal, they wound up at Whisper's shop again. With Chase and Thomas in toe they looked to find Cyrus already approaching Whisper with a slip of paper in his hand. Setting the slip on the counter he slid it to the cloaked figure.

"I have managed to save Thomas, what did you have for me if I did so?" Cyrus asked, watching Whisper take the slip of paper. It then burst into blue flames in his hand, the flames circled and began to form an object. With a small flash, the flames became a type of circular object. Sliding it back to Cyrus Whisper smiled.

"Important key... keep with you... at top of castle... there is secret... take it..." With that Cyrus picked up the object and its description was simple put as "Key of the Throne." Looking at the front was a symbol of a bat and a blood drop over a city. On the back of the object was a odd mechanism that seemed able to be inserted into another mechanism. It seemed dormant, which he guessed it would activate when it was placed where it belongs.

Chase walked over and saw the object and widened his eyes, "Is that father's personal vault key? How did Whisper come of it?" Whisper smiled at Chase and explained that their father gave it to him.

"Safe keeping... present to... Inheritor... when strong... enough..." He then bowed his head and then held out his hand. "Coins?" Cyrus turned to look at Chase and Cyrus, then back to Whisper. Placing his hand over the counter he deposited 10,000 coins. Whisper froze, "Why... so much?"

Cyrus smiled, "For helping me and them when we needed it, think of it as a returned gift for being someone I can rely on." Whisper looked at the coins then to Cyrus. Slowly waving his hand over the coins they vanished under his cloak. That is when he reached out and placed a hand over Cyrus.

[Whisper's relationship with you has increased drastically!]

[Whisper is offering a Blessing, would you like to receive this Blessing?]

Cyrus nodded and smiled at Whisper, who let a small flame billow above his head. It slowly descended to then phase through Cyrus' body. Nothing seemed to really change, but the notification appeared.

[Spell Blessing acquired: Whisper's Flame]

[Whisper's Flame: Allows you empower your weapons with this flame. Holy Fire element added to list of attributes.]

Cyrus felt like his body was sharing two different energies. One that was filled with Chaos, the other like it had a lighter feeling. It was a warm welcoming feeling rather than the chaotic nature of Chaos energy. He didn't know it, but he had been given energies of Order, the opposite force that keeps a balance of Chaos. These blessings would be handy if he made more allies with the people of the Worlds of Chaos. Something he questioned though was the "Holy Fire" attribute that Whisper gave to him.

He was about to ask but Whisper held a finger to his cowl, which kept his mouth shut. "You will... learn... in time..." Then Whisper opened the gate and allowed them to step through. Thomas was curious as to who this Cyrus was, he was rapidly gaining power and able to harness them with ease. If it was true that he was of the Reinhard family line, then it would make sense. But the shackle was what seemed to through it off. Maybe he will find out more if he stuck with him, for being a Reinhard, was a threat that put fear in vampires before. But Cyrus didn't have a grudge or hatred towards them.

As they crossed into the next portal they got to work. Clearing the room that was littered with zombies and ghouls. Skeletal Mages in the back prepared their spells as they entered. Cyrus saw that there were more of them, and it meant one thing, time to level up. Summoning Fenrir and Delrune as Chase and Thomas went into the fray of combat. Fenrir took his true form and howled, causing the ghouls to cower in fear, however the Zombies were unaffected as they we resistant to fear effects. Unless it was done with powers of a Healer or Paladin class.

Delrune flew into Cyrus' hand, he lifted the sword and dropped it down with a downward strike. A blade of blue energy was sent out and collided with a zombie cutting them in half. His stats were high and strong enough to deal with the fodder. A crossed his face as he went in and swung the massive blade around. Cutting down Zombies and Ghouls alike. It was a blood bath as they were decimating the room full of creatures. He noticed that even with there being more creatures to kill, the Chaos Meter only went up by half the total amount killed.

20 zombies only came up to 50 CM, 10 ghouls came up to 200 CM, and the 5 mages came up to 25 CM. His system let him know that because of the amount of people in the party the amount of Chaos he gained would be reduced by half. As they cleared the room, Cyrus received the loot chest and got 300 coins. That is when they saw the next door and went through. This time it seemed that two werewolves and a Black Knight were on this floor.

Cyrus asked to let Fenrir handle the Werewolves and Black Knight. Chase and Thomas nodded, as Fenrir walked forward and changed to his bipedal form. His new form had symbols going around his neck and up his right arm. They seemed to match the ones on the shackle as he howled. He was ready to fight, which Cyrus used "Whisper's Flame" blessing on Fenrir. His purple flames were added with a tint of blue, which seemed to bolster his attack power than he first expected.

Fenrir used his Vanishing Step to gain a huge speed boost over the Werewolves and Black Knight. In the blink of an eye the werewolves had fallen apart from slashes along their bodies. While the Black Knight looked about before it had a burning clawed hand reach through its chest from the back. In Fenrir's hand was the crystal of the Black Knight. Which he pulled out and ate it in front of the Black Knight.

Both of the brothers saw this and were surprised by the sudden take down of two Deltas and a Beta. Even Cyrus was shocked by Fenrir's ferocity, though he guessed it was because of the skill Fenrir had called "Godly Rage". Each of the attack he did hit twice, which meant that creatures this low would have difficulty keeping up. But anything could be different when it came to Betas. Some were just stronger than others, while the gap between them and Alphas were high. A low level Alpha was considered still 10 times stronger than the strongest Beta.

The Black Knights were more around the lower middle end of that scale. He wasn't close enough to determine their levels as his senses would tell him. However, they must have been slightly weaker than Fenrir when he had the increased speed and double attack. With the fight over, they continued up to the next floor. The door warned them of a two headed beast ridden by a powerful knight. Chase and Thomas knew who it was, telling Cyrus that he would prove difficult even with all of them together. But that didn't stop any of their drives to reach the top. For if they didn't hurry, then the leader of the castle would die. Besides the fact that Yuri and Samantha's phantoms were still with them.

They stopped by one of the fountains that Cyrus found on the first floor to recover and then set off. While Yuri and Samantha did the same, for they had figured out that the fountain had healing properties. Thomas actually pulled out a flask and dipped it into the water and handed it to Cyrus.

"Something that you should keep with you when you need it. Natalie's Tears are a protected treasure that goes through this whole castle. Healing even grievous wounds." He thanked Thomas and added it to his inventory. They passed through the door and Cyrus caught a glimpse of Samantha looking at him. He wasn't sure if she actually saw him, but he had a weird chill up his spine when she did. He wondered what they had to fight on their floors when he encountered the bosses he had. He guessed it was different creatures and areas instead of the special instance he was in.

The party went through the door and came to an arena filled with cheering undead and even vampires. Though they seemed to be silhouetted and unable to determine who the fighters were. Cyrus assumed that it was part of an illusion that obscured their true forms from the crowd. Chase and Thomas got into a ready stance as they saw the floor open. Cyrus knew little of a how arenas worked in history, but seeing his party get into a fighting stance, he decided to summon Delrune and hold him in his hand.

Out of the hole came the sound of horses galloping, but not just that, as soon as the sound crested the top of the hole. They saw a two headed horse with black smoke coming from its mouths and nostrils, carrying a man clad in armor as black as night with silver accents. The helmet had eyes that glowed with blue mist as the chariot came to a stop.

Chase spoke up, "That is Master Godfrey Wilhelm, Champion of the Colosseum." The tall man of 6 feet and 5 inches left his chariot and walked towards the group. Placing a large axe down in a pose that reminded him of a knight at ease. The axe head down in the sandstone while the handle was up towards Godfrey's head.