Reward

Formica towered over the ruins of Tripoli's royal palace. 

After finishing off the soldiers on the exterior, he smashed a hand through the palace's roof and dug around for more food. 

Formica was like a child trying to get the last cookie from the jar. 

He found several hundred people lying about, and he happily ate their bodies. Formica was not one to let a meal go to waste. 

Formica was satisfied with this, for he had eaten well. In only a little over ten minutes he had eaten nearly two thousand people. This included around three hundred powered individuals, all ranging from the weak to strong variety. 

The massive progenitor turned towards Draco, and Draco thought that the terrifying monster was smiling. 

His mandibles were clicking together with glee, and his sharp teeth were showing as he bared them towards Draco. 

Except, Draco felt no hostility from Formica. 

**Little Ant! I am positively stuffed. I haven't had a meal this filling in a millenia.** Formica sent to Draco. 

Draco laughed awkwardly. Truthfully, he was quite terrified of everything he had witnessed. 

However, he put this out of his mind as he looked up at Formica. 

'It's been a pleasure, Lord Formica.' Draco replied mentally. 

**I am incapable of lying. I told you I will provide you with a reward, so I will honor my word.** 

Draco bowed his head, eager to hear what his reward will be. 

Formica continued, **You may keep the horn I have given you. Whenever you require aid, I shall allow you to summon me three times.** 

This was better than Draco expected, and he was grateful. 

After witnessing Formica's power, Draco was glad to have access to such a powerful ally. 

When Draco looked at the remains of the palace in the distance, something came to his mind. 

'Thank you for generosity. I have just one thing to ask.' thought Draco. 

**Speak.** 

Draco pointed towards the ruined palace, 'Can you move some of that rubble out of the way? I wish to pillage those ruins.'

Formica nodded his massive head, **Very well. I understand I have made quite a mess.** 

After saying this, Formica pushed the ruins of the palace away. His long arms sent thousands of pounds of rubble flying into the city's surroundings, destroying several more buildings in the process. 

When he was done, the palace was almost completely demolished. All that remained now were the palace's foundations. 

After Formica cleared away what was left of the palace, he looked back towards Draco. 

**I will now be returning to my slumber. I have over eaten, so I will need some time to fully digest my meal. Do not summon me for a few years.** 

Draco was speechless when he heard this, but he was in no position to complain. Hopefully he wouldn't need to summon Formica for a while. 

To Draco's surprise, Formica began to walk out of the city with booming footsteps. 

The progenitor demolished entire blocks and neighborhoods with each few steps. By the time he had reached the city's walls, he had left a trail of destruction in his wake. 

Formica walked through the wall, smashing it to pieces in the process, and continued to walk through the desert.

Draco saw him stop around a mile from the walls, and he began to dig down and burrow himself within the sand. 

Soon only his towering bone spurs were visible, and this time they were as tall as the highest buildings in the city.

Draco almost felt sorry for the innocent people who were likely killed during Formica's rampage. 

However, he was much too excited to reach the palace's grounds to give it much thought. 

Draco promptly turned around to walk towards the armored bus that was still hidden within an alleyway. 

He found that half of the surrounding buildings had been destroyed by Formica, but luckily the bus was still intact.

Walking up to the bus, he saw Snow rushing out of it as she ran up to him. She jumped into his arms, glad to see him safe. 

"Draco, you're okay! Did you see that monster?! He showed up out of nowhere, and it looked like the same one from the desert!" she exclaimed, her tone frantic. 

Draco smiled at her, pulling her away from him, "I know, that was part of my plan."

Snow suddenly realized something, and she looked at the ruined city surrounding her. 

"W-wait, don't tell me Draco. You caused this? How could you do something like that!" she yelled. 

Draco shook his head, "It had to be done. I made a promise to that monster, and I had to fulfill it."

Tears began to stream down from Snow's face when she heard this. 

"You're the monster! Do you know how many innocent people died today?" she cried. 

Draco simply sighed, patting her on the head, "I had no choice, Snow." 

Snow grew angry, and she pushed Draco's hand off of her head, "You always have a choice, Draco. You chose to kill these people." 

Draco tried to say something to explain himself, but before he could say anything more Snow had already stormed off towards the bus. 

Shaking his head, Draco walked into the bus after her. 

He saw all of the soldiers within the bus looking at him in fear and awe. They had all seen him interact with Formica back in the desert, so they likely assumed he was the one who was responsible for the city's destruction. 

Snow was back in the bus' passenger seat, wiping tears from her face as she stared out of the window. 

She was clearly still upset, so Draco let her be. 

Draco called out to Addo, "Addo, take the bus out of this alley and pull up to the palace. We have some looting to do." 

Addo silently nodded his head and followed Draco's orders, driving the bus towards the palace in the distance. 

As they arrived in front of the palace ruins, everyone stared at it with wide eyes. They saw that the once magnificent royal palace was now reduced to rubble. 

Draco broke them out of their reverie, "All right, everyone out! We're going to be looting this place clean." he said. 

Hearing this, everyone grabbed their weapons and climbed out of the bus. 

The green stone that made up the palace's floors was now cracked and destroyed, revealing the foundation beneath it in many places.

At first glance, there was nothing but stone and broken pillars as far as their eyes could see. 

However, upon closer inspection they found some items of value amongst the ruins. 

There were a few broken statues lying around that were made entirely of gold, and Draco had his men round them up and haul them back towards the armored bus. 

While they were doing that, Draco continued to look around the palace remains for anything else of interest. 

After all, this was Libya's royal palace! There was surely something else of value hiding with these ruins. 

As Draco was thinking this, something caught his eye towards the center of the ruins. 

There seemed to be a patch of metal in the ground in contrast to the stone surroundings, and this metal was blocked off by a chunk of rubble.

Draco walked up to this rubble and lifted it up, rolling it off of the metal below it. 

This revealed that the metal patch he had seen was actually a door of some sorts. 

The door looked like a hatch that was built into the ground, and the powerful aura it was radiating made Draco certain that it was no ordinary door. 

The door was made of some unknown black metal that shimmered under the light of the setting sun. There was also a circular hole in the middle of this door that was about a fist's width in diameter. 

He tried to grab the large handle that was built into it, but after pulling with all of his strength it didn't even budge. 

Sighing, Draco realized that he wasn't strong enough to brute force his way through. 

'I wish I had asked Formica to open this door up for me before they left.' Draco thought ruefully.

There was nothing he could do about it now though, so he decided to look around for a key or something he could use to open it. 

Draco told his men to spread out and search for anything that looked like a key, and they spent the next hour pushing small chunks of rubble around as they searched. 

They found several trinkets that looked valuable, and even weapons and armor that had the aura of artifacts. However, they found nothing that looked like it would open up the door.

Draco was beginning to think they should give up, for they had already found a tremendous amount of gold and a large amount of artifacts. 

'What we have found already should serve to fund my forces for a long while. It's just unfortunate we couldn't find a way into that door.' he thought. 

Suddenly, one of his soldiers called out to him from across the palace ruins. 


Draco quickly rushed over to them, and he saw that they were standing next to what looked to be the crushed remains of an opulent throne. 

Next to this smashed throne was a glimmering green disk. 

This disk shimmered as it radiated a strange aura that was similar to the metal door he had found earlier. 

Draco hurriedly bent over to grab this disk, and he smiled as he clapped the soldier in the back. 

"Good work!" he said, running back towards the hatch that stood within the floor. 

Draco crouched down and placed the disk in the small hole in the center of this hatch, for it looked like it would fit. 

He laughed joyfully as the disk disappeared within the door. 

Green light then began to shine from the hole, evidently this was the correct key.

Draco pulled on the door's handle and was pleased to see the hatch begin to open upwards. 

Once opened, cold air blew from inside the hatch as it revealed a dark passageway that led to an unknown area. 

Draco was excited to see what this passageway hid within its depths.