"Eh?" Zack felt as though he was lagging when he heard Hayden's words. He knew that the Hayden in front of him was different from the one he knew but the lines didn't sound right to him.
"That's why you are here, right? To attend the test of faith and join the armies of the four kings so that you fight with them when the war comes?" Hayden asked while tilting his head as Zack's eyes widened.
'I guess this is the moment I vanish.' He was about to question Hayden when he saw that his finger was fading slowly. There was no point in asking a question if he was going to fade anyways.
"Thanks, Hayden." He replied before he arrived in an enclosed marble room.
"You looked lost there for a second." The real Hayden, the one Zack knew, commented as he saw his friend's eyes come back to focus again.
"I was just thinking about something," Zack shrugged it of before remembering that he hadn't told Emma about the incidents he had see. 'I will do that after we get out of here.'
"Mhm, let's just get to my office." Hayden replied nonchalantly as he dripped some of him blood on the marbles.
He hadn't let his wound heal and used the blood to gain access to his office in the true underworld which was a city situated barely five hours away from Lelisawol.
"Cities close to the capital are supposed to fear it and have less crime rate. I guess the opposite is true here." Zack muttered as he and hayden appeared in the office.
It had been designed the same way as his office back at the capital with no visible distance. Hayden just sighed and sat down.
"That is the thing, no one can know about this place unless he or she is introduced to it and once that has been done, they can never reveal about the place to another person unless he or she brings them here.
However, they are also bound by an oath to not being able to tell anyone or harm this place in any possible manner." Hayden finished before a grin appeared on his face.
Even the true ruler of the Eizenburgh kingdom's underworld couldn't break the oath as it was an oath of existence that he himself swore.
However, Hayden was bound by nothing since the oath had directly been passed to the true ruler when he entered Hayden's body as a parasite.
'Something good always comes out of a bad situation I guess.' Hayden thought with a smile as he saw Zack tally the map he had received from Ken with the one present in Hayden's room.
"Ok so one of the strongholds is situated in the far north, blocked by a river on three sides and heavily guarded on the remaining one. The second stronghold is situated at the heart of the true black market, making it almost impossible to enter the place."
Zack declared as he closed the map and sighed. Since the second option was much more difficult than the one, the two of them decided to go the first stronghold.
The one ruling it was Jojozo which was a very unique name for someone belonging to the game world. According to Hayden, Jojozo was called the ice fist and was known for his deadly ice themed attacks.
"Then I guess I just have to make things too hot for him to handle."
"I don't know whether that was intentional or not but its fine. Let's go there then." Hayden suddenly placed his hand on Zack's shoulder and closed his eyes.
A black light descended on their bodies as they vanished from his office and appeared out in the open.
"Perhaps you meant frozen rivers?"
"Uh…" Hayden was stumped for a second as the two of them appeared in a snow covered field.
All around them was pure white snow, be it the trees or the ground. The sky was covered by black clouds as even more snow was piling up around them.
Zack didn't say anything and instead used his blue flames to clear up the area. He easily melted all the snow around him and could see the ground below him.
"I guess we can go over from any of the rivers since I can fly." Zack commented as the two of them started making their way to the stronghold.
"If only I could teleport us directly to the stronghold." Hayden muttered as he stuck close to Jason's side otherwise he would have frozen solid.
Hayden could at most travel to the border of the stronghold but that would mean that he and Zack would have to risk their identity.
'I wonder if the remaining contender is also a king of the underworld. These guys are way more greedy than they should be.'
After walking around for a few hours, Zack and Hayden finally saw a human-made structure a few meters away from them.
The would have almost missed it if not for its odd shape. The structure was an igloo made in the middle of nowhere which made it look suspicious.
Zack didn't even bat an eye as he pointed his hand towards the igloo and burned it with his blue flames. After receiving a part of his memories, Zack had realized that he could now fell the heat living beings released meaning that he could track living beings.
He sensed that there was no type of energy coming out of the igloo and despite it being a risky move, he decided to burn the entire thing down.
"…"
"Don't give me that look. If something happens now, it would have most likely happened sooner or later."
"Ok…"
"You still sound as though you don't trust me." Without realizing, Zack had started speaking and behaving in a slightly different manner.
He had gone through a personality change when he had retained some of his memories. Zack wanted to know more about his past which meant that he would have to gain more memories.
'And the quest for that starts with destroying an igloo. What a thing to behold.'
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