Michael followed Hamon until he reached a giant door made of some kind of silver metal. The door was built with countless nuts and bolts. On top of these mechanisms, Michael sensed countless runes. Hamon stopped a meter before the steel door. He looked around as though he was searching for something. Michael wished he had the system to disable all the runes. Luckily, Michael had an expert in runes. He was about to call for Elidyr when Hamon raised his palm. Michael noticed a glowing rune on Hamon's palm. For some reason, the gears in the door started to move faster and faster. Additionally, icy blue runes began to radiate brighter light on the door. Michael heard these mechanisms rolling within the door. Hamon slowly moved his palm toward the door. When Hamon's palm was just a few inches away from the door, an invisible force pulled his hand toward it. Hamon's hand got stuck on the door. Hamon did not shout but seemed relatively calm. The door did not freak him out as much as the Dark Lord beside him did.
Hamon and Michael waited for the door to open. However, Mciahel was pretty surprised and, to be honest, startled. It seemed to him like Hamon had a way of opening the vault all this time, yet he waited for no reason.
"You can open the vault door?" asked Michael. He wanted to confirm Hamon's stupidity.
"Yes," Hamon nodded.
Michael couldn't keep his hands from slapping the back of Hamon's head. Hamin was pretty startled but kept his hand on the door.
"You had a way to open the vault door all this time, and you decided not to take the elven rune and kill Tannatar until now?" asked Michael.
"It's not my fault he and his wife couldn't have a child for almost eighty years, give or take," Hamon shrugged.
To Hamon's surprise, Michael chuckled.
"So you were waiting for them to have children as much as them? It's funny, but I do admire your patience," Michael smiled. When Hamon saw the smile on the Dark Lord's face, he was truly surprised. His smile brought such warmth to Hamon's heart and almost made Hamon wonder why in the hell everyone was afraid of this guy. He looked so friendly and good-looking with a smile. Michael did his best to keep the pressure of being the Dark Lord gets to him. He didn't want to end up like his previous self, who had to reset the entire universe to fix his mistakes.
A few minutes later, the gears finally stopped as Michael noticed the runes fading away. Michael did not care about how Hamon managed to disable the runes and the mechanisms. All he cared about was the elven rune within the vault. The vault door creaked. It slowly slid open, revealing a room surrounded by four marble walls. The vault was a meter thick. It would weigh at least a tone. Michael realized why no one opted for breaking the vault door using explosives. It would take a nuclear warhead to destroy this one.
In the center of the room, Michael saw a golden plate hovering in the air within an energy shield. There was a glowing rune on the golden plate. It suddenly pulsated a wave of energy as though it had sensed something. At that same time, the rune on Hamon's palm produced an otherworldly whistling noise. The golden plate moved toward Hamon but was stopped by the energy shield. Hamon's legs turned to jelly, seeing the rune after so many years. He slowly took a step forward. On the other hand, Michael walked toward the elven rune to find a way to free it from the energy shield.
Michael's eyes flickered. He activated the X-ray vision to locate the source that was powering the energy shield. Michael noticed a purple heat wave running from the ground below the golden plate into the wall on the other side. Michael made his way to the wall and ran his fingers through the wall. He knocked on the wall for a moment to gauge how thick these walls were. The dark flames coiled around Michael's fist. He was about to punch the wall when he sensed several beings on their way to the vault.
Michael slowly turned around to welcome the party while Hamon walked toward the rune in slow motion.
"Hamon!"
Suddenly, a dominant voice echoed through the empty vault. The voice snapped Hamon out of his daze. His body became rigid. Hamon slowly turned around. Hamon's mind went blank when he saw Tannatar and his royal guards at the vault doorway. Michael wondered what made Tannatar ignore his children and return to the vault until he saw a glow on his hand. If Michael had to guess, he would say Tannatar had another rune on his hand. In a blink of an eye, Michael appeared behind Tannatar. The soldiers were caught off guard by his speed. Before they could react, Michael shut the vault door, trapping Tannatar alone in the vault with them. Normally, it would take spells and special arrays to shut the door coles because it was too damn heavy. But to Michael, this steel door was no different than a wooden door in a tavern.
Even the Half Immortals of the same level as him didn't possess such godly strength. His raw strength was another perk of being a god. Tannatar was startled.
"My Lord!"
"Open this door!"
"Lord Tannatar!"
The soldiers shouted from outside, yet only Michael could hear them. To Hamon and Tannatar, it was all silence.
"What's the meaning of this Hamon? And who is this?" Tannatar pointed at Michael, who returned to the place he was a second ago.
"What the hell are you not in the lonely mountain?" Hamon blabbered in shock.
"Wait…how do you know-" Tannatar held his words as realization hit him.
"What did you do?!" Tannatar dashed at Hamon with uncontrollable rage. He grabbed Hamon by his collar and shook him.
"Tell me you had nothing to do with my kids being taken away?" Tannatar growled at Hamon. He didn't want to believe Hamon betrayed him. He had known Hamon for almost seventy years. Tannatar thought of Hamon as his own family.
"Yes, I took them!" Hamon roared, pushing Tannatar to the ground. Michael witnessed their feud without lifting a finger. The golden plate with the elven rune drew his attention the most. He felt familiar energy from the plate, which seemed strange to Michael. It would have been easy to scan the plate with the system if it didn't go offline. Since it wasn't the case, Michael had to rely on himself.
It almost felt like there was something powerful hiding within the golden plate. When Michael focused on it, he heard a low-pitched roar coming from the plate. This roar was filled with rage like a wounded beast was trapped within.
"How do I feel when you took everything from me?!" Hamon lunged at Tannatar before he could get to his feet. Hamon got on top of Tannatar and punched him in the face. Tannatar grabbed Hamon's neck and rolled over, turning the tables on Hamon. But Tannatar did not punch Hamon. He was more shocked and stunned than he was furious.
"I treated you like my family!"
"You killed my entire family!" Once again, Hamon roared. He scratched Tannatar's hands, tearing his robes.
"Okay, I had enough," Michael rolled his eyes. He just waved his hand as Hamon and Tannatar blasted away from each other. They hit the walls opposite each other. They tried to free themselves, but a powerful invisible force held them to the wall.
"You have to listen to Hamon's story first," Michael said to Tannatar. Michael flicked his wrist as Tannatar couldn't open his mouth. He felt like an invisible hand keeping his mouth shut.
"Hamon, tell him what he did to you. Get everything off of your chest," Michael turned his gaze to Hamon. It didn't take Hamon long to spew the same story he told Michael. Only this time, his tone was filled with more rage and murderous intent. While recalling his story for the second time, blood trickled down from Hamon's nose. Tannatar's eyes widened and filled with shock. When Hamon finished his story, Michael noticed Tannatar's eyes watering up. Michael was surprised. Tannatar's eyes didn't look like a killer's. Michael had seen enough killers to know Tannatar may be innocent.
Michael now wanted to hear Tannatar's side of the story. Hence, he shut Hamon's mouth and let Tannatar speak.
"I didn't kill Airdan…" Tannatar's voice stuttered.
"He was my best friend," tears gushed out of Tannatar's eyes. Hamon roared, but no words came out of his mouth.
"He gave this elven rune to protect it because he suspected someone was planning to steal it and use it for nefarious purposes," Tannatar sobbed.
"Now that's a twist," Mcihael's brows arched up.
"I'd rather die than murder my best friend. If Airdan wanted my life, I would have given it to him gladly," said Tannatar.
Michael took a deep breath. He looked at Hamon,
"Seems like you want to know his side of the story,"
To be honest, Michael wanted to know Tannatarr's part of the story more than Hamon wanted. He spent a year in the Genric family as Elmer, so Michael felt a little bit of compassion toward the Genric family. At the same time, he felt Hamon's actions were somewhat justifiable after learning what Tannatar did to Hamlets. However, Michael's thoughts changed when Tannatar completely denied killing Airdan Hamlet and stealing the elven rune.
"Your kids are safe. Just tell him your side of the story," Michael said to Tannatar. Tannatar believed this complete stranger for some reason. After taking a few deep breaths, Tannatar began to tell what happened between Airdan and him before he departed for Awor from the Ozer continent. Tannatar's story completely contradicted Hamon's part of the story. According to him, Airdan Hamlet, the house head of the Hamlet family, asked Tannatar to take the elven rune and leave for the Awor continent. He suspected someone within the Hamlet family was planning to take the elven rune and present it to none other than the Dark Lord himself. It was shocking, to say the least. Michael was caught off guard. Initially, Tannatar refused to do that, but Airdan insisted, giving him no choice. As a lonely adventurer, Tannatar had no family then. So he agreed to take the elven rune away to save Airdan's family. But he never thought his entire family would be wiped out by a plague that only affected the Hamlets. Even after founding the Genric family, Tannatar did not stop looking for survivors. Unfortunately, he found no one and concluded the entire Hamlet family was wiped out.
"So someone from the order was living with the Hamlets," Michael sighed. He knew he or she probably died from the strange sickness that hit Hamlets. But Michael couldn't figure out how Airdan learned about the order member's plan. Michael refused to believe they were sloppy enough to let Airdan learn about their plan. The members of the order were extremely cautious and cunning. They survived centuries without being discovered by the Guardian Guild or the Skyhall. So how could Airdan, a mere lord of a family find them? Something told Michael there was more to the story than Hamon and Tannatar told him. Unfortunately, Michael doubted either of them knew the full story behind Airdan's decision.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢