Chapter 45: Key

"Damn it! I lost my bets" Anthony cursed

"He's just a child, it was expected for him to not win the whole tournament" Professor Woods pointed out "I on the other hand made a lot, I did lose my money since I thought that he would lose at the quarter finals like his sister, but I at least made a profit."

"Is there a reason for why you're here today?" Anthony asked "You were supposed to be out for today"

"The adventurers' guild have found the jade fragments that we've been looking for" he reported

"What? You mean the one from that book?"

"Yes, the exact same ones, and from some of the reports I received, one of the fragments was found by the guild named 'Ominous Scourges'"

"That is a horrible name" Anthony commented "But I've never heard of them before"

"Right, I said the same thing, they should change that" Professor Woods agreed "But it's the guild that was created by the Silvers, which includes our current person of interest, Perseus Silver"

"Send a letter of invitation to these children, I want a private meeting with them, I want to know more about this jade fragment," Anthony ordered "After all, we won't be able to get any direct information from Aenon."

"I will do as you wish" Professor Woods bowed "But there is one more thing you should know, it is the reason why I've come despite my busy schedule, some of our spies overheard a conversation from one of the Silvers, Perseus heard the voices"

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, we overheard it from a conversation of Emma Steel and Dabria Silver, they were having a private lunch after their quest to that cave and were worried of Perseus who claimed to hear voices" Woods nodded "The adventurers' guild also know about this but doesn't know what it means yet and are still investigating about it, but us on the other hand... "

"Yes, Perseus Silver is the key" Anthony nodded "Make sure none of this leaks out, first the skulls, then the fragments and now the key has been found. This is bad, keep the information even more limited, I must hold a meeting with the other councilors after this, how many beside us know about this?

"No more than a dozen"

"Good, keep it that way for now" Anthony nodded "Swear them to secrecy or they will forfeit their life"

"What about the royals? They must also know of this"

"I will invite them to the meeting too, they also need to know about this but we must be extra cautious this time, the spiritual world must never know of this, otherwise the life of Perseus Silver will greatly endangered."

*****

"Guild master, I've brought good news and bad news" Albert reported

"For you to come in person, means that it must important" Aenon chuckled

"We have found a scroll that gives us a clue of what the jade fragments really are"

"Well a clue is good, but you don't have to report about it to me in person"

"That's where the bad news come in, it is related to the 400 year war" Albert said "The jade fragments, even fully assembled is only a part of something else, but we have no clue on what it is yet"

Aenon's eye then gleamed.

"Ooh, now that is very very bad news" Aenon said seriously this time "It is similar to the skulls, but it might be even more dangerous. Expand the search further, and as always, make sure it doesn't leak"

"There is already a small group of people who knows about it, maybe even more than us" Albert reported "The Artian councilors"

*****

"That's 3, we got 3 of the skulls" Leona reported to the rest of her colleagues

"Is your arm alright yet?" one of the shadowed figure asked

"Almost, but we just need 9 more and we already know all the location, the summoning won't be long now" Leona laughed "Even that bastard Aenon would be useless when the day comes"

*****

Perseus was holding his head in pain again. He haven't heard the voices since his guild found the jade fragment, but now he's starting to hear it again.

"Stop the summoning" the voice said as it then started to echo throughout his head "Don't let it happen"

"What's wrong?" Cordelia asked as she was concerned "This doesn't look like a nervous breakdown"

"The voices, they're back" Perseus muttered "Ahhh"

The pain become unbearable as his knee buckled and he falls to the ground. It was nothing like last time, he never felt pain like this before. Nova then picked him up and place him on the living room sofa.

"You are our key, unite, you must" it continued

It echoed again in his head and it gets worse every second as it kept repeating the same thing. It wasn't long till he passed out from the pain.

"His match is tomorrow" Emma said "He can't fight like this, even if he recovers today, he won't be fit enough to fight"

"Yes, we must let him rest, I'm sure he'll understand if we surrender in his place right?" Dabria asked and checked his temperature "It's hot, he's having a fever"

"Just surrender for him, this is unusual even for us" Ace said "I've never seen him like this"

"Yes, I'm sure he'll understand," Siege agreed "At the end of the day, he still get 4th place, and that is amazing for his age, if he's mad afterwards, me and Ace will take care of it. He can't stay mad at us"

"Well I'm on it" Elliot said as he turned to leave "You guys help him recover"