The Sin of Greed

The rushing sound of whirling energy cascaded against his eardrums as he left the Rift. Opening his eyes to see that Cyrus ended up in some cave in the middle of nowhere. When the Rift closed behind him, he found that there was light coming from an entrance to the cave. He looked around finding the cave wasn't that deep at all, he walked towards the entrance. What he saw when he left the entrance was an amazing and beautiful sight.

Cyrus stood at the foot of an enormous tree, hundreds of feet into the air as its trunk vanished into the clouds. Birds of multiple colors flew through the air, the tree itself was a radiant white color that glowed slightly. When looking around, he saw that the cave itself was just one of many. As he stepped to the edge, he saw the roots of the tree expanding across a few miles of ground. Wherever he was, it was a peaceful place.

"The young mortal has finally arrived!" A booming voice announced overhead. When he looked up he saw golden and green winged creature sitting on a branch. Spreading its wings it glided down to his location causing Cyrus to retreat to avoid getting crushed. Who he saw was the same creature that gave him the Keystone, Fafnir.

His eyes made of gold and green stared right into Cyrus' own eyes, locked together. "You had me waiting for a while, I thought you'd never show up." He raised his right claw up as he inspected the talons, "I was beginning to think you were too afraid to use my little gift. So tell me," he paused stretching his head close to Cyrus' face. "Can you tell how strong I am?"

Cyrus looked up above Fafnir's head and saw that he was almost double his own level. He even had an icon next to his name that was strange. But then he realized that what the icon might be, "You are a aberrant Chaos Beast. A conscious being like that of Fenrir and others. Able to pass on their power to others if defeated or given."

Fafnir smiled, "Very good laddie, you have learned a thing or two about us. Now," the dragon turned to the tree, "What is this, can you guess?" Cyrus looked up at the tree, having trouble seeing through the cloud cover. He shrugged which Fafnir sighed, "A great treasure to the gods of our realm, the tree that connects all worlds, or at least the representation of it. The Yggdrasil, a great tree of life and creation."

Cyrus looked at Fafnir, "Why did you want to bring me here? I see that it's an impressive tree, but what is the point of me being here?" Fafnir snorted and lowered his head closer to Cyrus.

"Child, you are here because I am very possessive when it comes to interesting things and people. You, an inheritor, took Fenrir's power for yourself and I wonder if you die, do I get take his power from you?" The large dragon smirked, "However, I don't think it's possible since I am not a human. The Aesir Gods don't particularly like our kind, both me and Fenrir. I don't need them suddenly coming after me like they did when Fenrir got imprisoned by Odin, Thor, and Tyr."

Fenrir chuckled in Cyrus' mind, "And that fool got what he deserved, ate his hand like I ate your arm." Fenrir then went quiet again as Fafnir continued to ramble about himself and the gods of old. While Cyrus was looking out over the side to see what seemed to be torchlight coming from near the base of the tree. Using his enhanced vision he could see that it was a small group of armed warriors, but from here he couldn't tell. Having a medium build, yet muscular, with swords, spears, shield, bows, everything to combat your basic beasts and other humans. But for some reason, Cyrus got a very odd feeling in the pit of his stomach.

That is when Fenrir and Fafnir both spoke at once, "Valkyries..." That is when he saw it, wings spread from their backs as they started to shout words to hard for him to hear. Just that they pointed out Cyrus' and Fafnir's location and were now flying towards them. Cyrus knew danger was coming it was first time he felt as if death was looking over him. Looking at their weapons made his back ache and itch. That is when they decided to flee, summoning Visne both he and Fafnir took off.

Fafnir led the way as he weaved through the bare low branches of the Yggdrasil. Visne's form was more lean and flexible than Fafnir's allowing them to weave easily through the branches. While Fafnir had to climb over them and use the trunk of the large tree itself to maneuver.

"That wyvern is quite a pretty creature. She moves so gracefully," Cyrus then looked down at Visne as Fafnir claimed his summon as a female wyvern. "I wouldn't mind... oh look out!" Before he could finish his sentence, Valkyrie came from above raising their weapons. Cyrus outstretched his left hand as it began to shine with a white glow.

"Radiant Light!" A large flash of light blinded the Valkyries allowing Visne to dodge the attacks. She moved and weaved through the warrior women. That's when he could hear them speaking.

"Don't let those dragons escape! Odin's as decree is to protect the Yggdrasil from all mortals!" The ones that were blinded recovered and returned to chase them. Fafnir smiled as he reached to an upper branch. He perched himself and turned around as he pulled out a gold coin.

"I don't like throwing away my gold, I would rather you spend the money, but this is pretty dire." He flicked the coin out, it rang throughout the vast area. It fell briefly before stopping and spinning rapidly, expanding into a golden portal. "Pass through to my home, we will be safe there!" He dove into the portal from the other side as his body passed through it, rippling like a golden puddle. Visne huffed and used her massive wings to push them up before closing them to her body and flew through the gold portal. As she was almost through she felt something on her tail as she passed through. Cyrus turned and could see a Valkyrie holding onto Visne as the wound up in a cave full of mountains of gold.

Cyrus returned Visne back to his summon pool and turned to face the Valkyrie. "What do you want?" He asked the warrior, drawing his Chained Blade. She stood and looked down on Cyrus, as she stood as tall as his sister if not bigger. Before she could even draw her blade, Fafnir roared behind him. The Valkyrie looked up and then her eyes locked onto the gold and the various jewels and weapons in the hoard. Her eyes were glossed over with a gold glow as she would slowly walk over towards the gold pile in front of Fafnir.

"Oh the mighty Valkyrie, symbols of peace and war. Leading the fallen to their resting place in Valhalla. Proud warriors, that have no weakness, except in here, everyone becomes beholden to their greed." Though when he looked at Cyrus he saw that he wasn't entranced by any of the gold. With a roll of his eyes, Fafnir then clicked the gold and it swirled around the Valkyrie before he breathed green fire on the mound. Melting the gold over the Valkyrie, molding her into a statue.

Returning his gaze to Cyrus he sighed, "Inheritor, Cyrus Reinhard, the one who holds the power of Fenrir, the World Eater. The bringer of Ragnarok, and my little insurance policy. Why do you seek power? As I remember you wanted power before, but why?"

Cyrus looked up at Fafnir then to the gold around him. It was a lot of gold, but every time he looked at a mound, his system gave him the same message.

[Resisted the Cave of Greed's effect.]

When he returned his eyes to meet Fafnir's he told him that he wanted to fight the shadows. To prevent the world of earth and those in the expanse of Order and Chaos from falling to them. He wanted power now for the reason of protecting what family and friends he had. He needed to get stronger but the limitation from not having another shackle was slowing him down.

When Fafnir saw and heard the reasoning behind his desire, it was honest. He didn't have any ulterior motive or hidden desire. For the Cave of Greed prevented lies from leaving the lips of one's mouth. Even for Fafnir himself.

"Well, if you want power, you will have to kill me." It was simple, the words were so simple that they made Cyrus flinch and become speechless. He didn't expect such a response from Fafnir nor that kind of action.

"What do you mean I have to kill you?" Cyrus asked, trying to understand what he meant. The gold dragon sighed and waved a claw at Cyrus.

"Child, your power was given to you by Fenrir when he died correct? Cause that grumpy wolf wouldn't just give his power to anyone." Which he was right about that, for Fenrir was killed but he sacrificed his arm to win that fight. "Now, to see what strength you're at, I want you to hit me with your hardest hitting attack you got. See if you can break through my scales."

Cyrus looked Fafnir and then looked away, "But can't Aberrant Beasts transfer their powers? Why can't we do that?" But Fafnir's throat rumbled out of frustration and impatience.

"Because you have the Wolf's Hunger! Ye gain power from yer fallen foes, am I wrong! So stop hesitating and hit me!" He roared and lunged at Cyrus. In his mind, this was an attack meant to get Cyrus to retaliate. What he didn't expect was Fenrir to manifest and grab hold of his left foreleg and throw the large dragon into a pile of gold. Fenrir was roughly half Fafnir's size but had a lot of power to back it up. Growling and slapping Cyrus with his tail.

"Wake up and fight! Our power is to take from others, we kill him, we get his power. This is how we get stronger!" Fenrir got low and was preparing for a counter attack as Fafnir rolled out of the pile of gold.

The dragon laughed and chuckled by the surprise and at the words of the old wolf, "Oh ho ho, ye got me good there old boy. Now, let your master do the fighting and not his pet." He said, antagonizing Fenrir which made him pounce out of anger. As Fenrir went to latch onto Fafnir, he found that his scales were incredibly hard and he couldn't break through. Then a claw grabbed hold of Fenrir and pinned him to the ground.

Cyrus snapped out of his daze as he saw Fenrir in danger. Quickly he reacted by pulling out an empowered spell thanks to Grimm and cast a Blast spell. A flicker of green light from Fafnir's mouth manifested as he was about to breathe fire all over Fenrir. But just before he could, suddenly his lungs had the oxygen sucked out. As a condensed sphere of energy appeared right in front of Fafnir and rapidly expanded in a powerful explosion that shook the cave and collapsed piles of gold.

This explosion caused Fafnir to be flung back against a pillar of stone as Fenrir was return back into Cyrus' summon pool. The effect of the empowered Blast was that instead of 1.5x damage at the center, it increases to 2x the damage which he also enhanced his INT stat and increased his STR stat. With a glimmer of amusement in Fafnir's eyes as he had believed he would have made the best gamble in his life.