Chapter 81: The Trial of Commanders
Nobody moved for several seconds.
Golden lamps burned from iron posts along the main path. Then Arthur took the first step. His boots echoed softly on the ancient stone, and the others’ footsteps joined one by one.
Sun looked at the houses along the path. "This feels different from the rest of it," he said.
Athena was already looking. "Because it wasn’t part of the larger district," she said. "Everything else was infrastructure, storage, logistics. This was set apart." She looked at the homes compared to the rest. "It was protected."
Arthur looked at the golden lamps still burning. "Like nothing ever reached it," he said.
The King’s Mark pointed forward, through the center of the village, and they walked.
Details arrived as they moved.
Training yards beside nearly every house.
Commander insignias carved above every doorway, the same symbol in different stylistic variations, like each family had added its own interpretation over generations.
Vedas had slowed. "Everyone who lived here," he said. "They were all Commanders?"
"No," Athena said, gesturing at the insignias. "Commander families. This was where Commanders lived with their descendants. Their children. Their children’s children." She looked at the scope of the village. "Not just a rank. A lineage."
Arthur whistled. "That’s actually pretty awesome," he said.
He walked beside Mithra between two rows of homes.
"Imagine growing up here," he said.
Mithra smiled. "You’d get lost constantly," she said.
"Probably," Arthur said. "But it’d be interesting."
Sun, from behind: "You’d accidentally activate something dangerous before breakfast."
Arthur considered this. "That’s also possible," he said.
Mithra laughed. "I’d spend all day dragging you back to safety."
Arthur grinned. "You’ve gotten good at that," he said.
Athena had stopped beside one of the houses, crouched, running her fingers along the exterior wall of the entryway, where the stone had small carved lines at irregular intervals. Different heights. Beside each, tiny Goblin script.
"They were measuring their children’s heights," she said.
Arthur noticed an old stone table outside one home. Small stone bowls rested on top, tiny wooden stools around it. One bowl still held a few dried seeds.
He smiled at this and kept walking.
Vedas had moved slightly ahead. Outside one house, leaning against the wall at a height that suggested a child had left it there, not an adult, was a wooden spear.
The wood was old. Barely larger than a child’s forearm. The point was practice-blunted. Vedas crouched and picked it up carefully with both hands.
He held it a moment.
Arthur had been watching. "Someone was practicing," he said.
Vedas stood. "A future Commander," he said.
He blinked, then smiled.
They kept walking.
...
The King’s Mark burned brighter as they reached the center of the village.
The trail turned toward a building unlike anything else in the underground district: taller, shaped to be looked at and walked toward rather than simply occupied. Three statues flanked the entrance, each holding a spear ready, the stone worn smooth but the intent still clear.
The enormous doors stood open.
"This is the actual trial," Arthur said.
Sun looked at the glowing trail. "You mean the trail figured that out," he said.
Arthur nodded. "Team effort," he said.
"I’ll give you partial credit," Mithra said.
The chamber inside was circular, large enough to hold the entire team without anyone needing to stand near the walls. Three Commander statues stood at equal intervals, massive, each holding a spear above the stone floor.
The moment Arthur crossed the threshold, two of the statues stayed still.
The third turned its head.
Golden light ignited in the carved spaces where its eyes were.
It turned toward Vedas.
Arthur leaned toward him. "I think it’s interested in you," he said quietly.
Vedas looked at the statue. It didn’t move further.
Athena had already started examining the base for runes. Sun studied the mechanism points connecting the statue to the floor. Mithra studied the room’s geometry. Melo’s eyes lit up. Kong crossed his arms, ready.
Arthur scratched his cheek. "What if Vedas stood in front of it," he said.
Everyone looked at him.
Vedas walked to the spot directly in front of the statue.
The floor clicked.
The chamber activated.
Sun turned to Arthur slowly. "How did you know that?" he said.
"Lucky," Arthur said.
Sun looked at the ceiling. "I’m starting to genuinely dislike luck," he said.
...
The third statue stepped down from its base.
Unlike the animated constructs they’d faced before, it moved like something built to fight people who knew what they were doing. Its crown was a Commander’s crown. The spear in its hands was sized for someone who knew how to use one.
It stopped. Looked at Vedas.
The Commander Guardian drove its spear into the stone floor.
Golden light rippled across the chamber.
Twenty Golden Goblin Warriors stepped out of glowing circles and fell instantly into formation.
Shield bearers locked together in front.
Spears leveled from behind.
Archers took position along the flanks.
A sharp War Cry echoed through the chamber, and every warrior moved as one.
Arthur’s eyes lit up. "...That’s incredible."
"INCREDIBLE IS THE WRONG RESPONSE!" Sun shouted as he crashed into the nearest shield wall.
The formation barely moved.
"They’re not fighting separately," Athena called. "The Guardian is commanding all of them!"
Arthur watched the battlefield for a second, then smiled. "They’re adapting to every move we make." He couldn’t stop smiling. "He’s amazing."
Sun blocked another spear. "Could you admire him AFTER we win?!"
Arthur ducked under an attack. "I’m doing both!"
Vedas lowered his spear. "Then we’ll adapt faster."
The Guardian pointed its spear. The entire formation shifted. Shield bearers surged forward while the spears behind thrust through the narrow gaps.
Arthur stepped into the attack instead of backing off, hooking one shield aside just long enough to expose the line behind it.
"Now!"
Vedas exploded through the opening. His spear flashed three times. Three warriors dissolved into golden light before the formation closed again.
Melo’s eyes glowed. Dozens of phantom Goblins charged across the chamber from every direction.
The formations hesitated. Some turned toward the illusions. Others tightened their defenses.
For the first time, the Guardian’s commands conflicted.
"Left side!" Arthur shouted.
Sun and Kong were already moving. Sun swept beneath the shields, breaking the formation apart, while Kong crashed through the opening with both fists, scattering warriors. Athena planted her weapon against another shield wall, and the impact stopped the advance completely.
"Athy!"
The owl folded her wings and dove, slashing across the spear bearers’ faces. Blinded, they stumbled into each other, opening another gap.
Arthur didn’t hesitate. "Vedas!"
His partner was already moving, sprinting straight at the Commander Guardian.
Golden warriors rushed to intercept him. Arthur cut across their path, Sun and Kong smashed through the flank, and Melo’s illusions forced the remaining defenders to turn on enemies that didn’t exist.
Every obstacle disappeared.
Vedas reached the Guardian.
Their spears collided.
CLANG!
The Guardian adjusted. Vedas adjusted faster.
The second clash knocked the Guardian’s spear off line. The third drove it backward. The fourth shattered its guard.
Golden cracks raced across the ancient construct.
The Guardian looked directly at Vedas. "Excellent."
Then its gaze shifted briefly to Arthur.
Arthur smiled at it. "I know, my partner is amazing, isn’t he?"
The Guardian’s eyes shone. "A Commander... requires companions like you."
Arthur blinked. "Me?"
The Guardian nodded once. "Never stand behind him. Always beside him."
Arthur smiled. "Of course I would. My partner would worry if I didn’t."
"A-Arthur!"
He laughed as the Guardian closed its eyes. "Good." Then, to everyone’s surprise, it lowered its spear.
It nodded once. "Finished it."
Vedas’s eyes narrowed, and he thrust his spear through its chest.
The Guardian smiled slowly. "Well done..."
The chamber fell silent.
The Guardian looked down at the weapon buried in its body, then raised its eyes to Vedas, and smiled. The twenty Golden Goblin Warriors lowered their weapons together.
Then the first one knelt. Then the second. One by one, at a pace that felt genuine rather than automatic, all twenty faced Vedas and lowered to one knee.
The chamber went quiet.
The Crown Commander Guardian walked forward and removed from its helmet a fragment of golden crown, catching the chamber’s light and doing more with it than the light had been doing before.
It held the fragment out. "You have proven yourself," it said.
Vedas took the fragment with both hands.
The light coming from it wasn’t the fragment being lit. It was the fragment responding, the way something responds when held by the thing it had been waiting for.
Golden light moved outward from his hands, through the chamber walls, into the village beyond, through the village into the wider underground district.
The lamps that had been burning patiently along the paths brightened.
The Commander statues along the roads lit up. Ancient banners moved in air that had no wind.
Athena whispered, "The entire area recognized him."
Sun whistled low. "Okay," he said. "That’s actually quite remarkable."
Arthur grinned.
Mithra folded her arms. "I never doubted him," she said, with the confidence of someone who’d doubted other things, just not this.
Vedas looked at the fragment. "Thank you," he said.
The Guardian looked slowly around the chamber. Toward the Commander statues. Toward the village beyond. Then back to Vedas. "I can finally rest now. Thank you, and I hope you go further than all of us."
Cracks began appearing over the Guardian’s form. Then it broke into pieces and fell to the ground.
Nobody spoke.
Even Sun looked away quietly.
Arthur smiled. "Yeah. Have a good rest. You’ve done more than enough."
Vedas trembled but kept staring ahead, crown fragment in hand. Arthur stepped forward and patted his partner’s back. "It’s good you didn’t look away, buddy. Don’t worry, we’ll make a good story about this, so they won’t be forgotten."
"R-Really?"
"Of course. So stand tall. You’re the one they acknowledge and bow to."
Vedas trembled, then stood up straight with a determined look. He smiled, looked at the Crown Fragment, and touched it.
The King’s Mark erupted.
...
The chamber was not the chamber.
Arthur couldn’t count them.
Hundreds of thousands of Goblins.
They stretched across the land until they disappeared over the horizon.
Not one massive crowd. Organized.
Archers stood along both flanks with enormous bows. Wolf riders waited near the front, dark mounts pawing at the ground. Healers moved behind the battle lines, ready to support the warriors. Commander banners rose above each formation, marking who led every unit.
It wasn’t just an army. It was a kingdom prepared for war.
At the very front stood one figure.
The Goblin King.
He held a massive hammer in one hand and an equally enormous spear in the other. He was so large the mountain behind him looked small by comparison.
Slowly, the Goblin King looked toward the mountain.
Then he raised the hammer.
Nobody breathed as they couldn’t imagine what came next.
Every Goblin roared and the sound shook the world.
The Goblin King threw the hammer. It shot into the sky, disappearing into the clouds.
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
Then—
BOOM!
The mountain exploded. An enormous hole blasted straight through its center as countless tons of rock vanished in an instant. The roar reached Arthur a heartbeat later, shaking the ground under his feet.
"This will become our kingdom," the Goblin King said.
The memory shifted to what had been built inside that opening: the roads, the crystal lamps, the Commander district, the trial chamber itself. Everything they’d walked through.
"We weren’t beneath a mountain." Arthur looked at where they stood. "The mountain was made into the kingdom."
Athena’s notebook hit the floor as she stared blankly at the scene. Athy kept tapping her face with no reaction.
Sun started laughing in disbelief. "I’m never underestimating the Goblins again."
Arthur nodded seriously. "Good decision."
"I think they earned that much," Mithra laughed. "But it does seem the mural was real."
Arthur nodded. "I guess it was obvious. Why else would they carve it?"
Mithra smiled. "Yep."
Sun looked slowly between them both. "I swear, you two make impossible things sound completely normal."
Vedas was looking at the same figure. "Someday," he said.
Arthur heard it and smiled. "Yeah," he said.
Then a notification appeared.
[Additional Evolution Data Unlocked]
[Goblin King Evolution — Requirement Updated]
[Restore Ancient King’s Authority: 1 / 3]
Arthur looked at the notification, then smiled. "We can easily find all of them in a week."
Sun looked over. "What, in a week?"
"Discover all of the mystery for the goblins before leaving, of course."
Sun sighed. "...I hate that answer."
"Why is that?" Athena asked, raising a brow.
"It means we’re going to get dragged into something terrifying."
"That might happen," Arthur nodded, which only made Sun groan louder.
Then everyone paused.
The Crown Fragment lifted out of Vedas’s hands. Not floated: moved with direction, straight toward Arthur’s King’s Mark, and when it reached the mark it didn’t sit beside it or hover above it. It merged with it, a flash of gold, then a steady glow different from what the mark had been before.
The chamber shook.
A voice that didn’t belong to the Guardian, and hadn’t been present in the room, arrived in the room anyway.
"The First Commander has been acknowledged."
The shaking settled.
"Awaiting the remaining two."
Then it was quiet.
Arthur looked at his hand.
He grinned. "We’re a third of the way there," he said.
Sun stared at the mark. "The crown fragment went INTO your hand," he said. "Are we not going to address that?"
"It’s part of the mystery," Arthur said. "Figuring it out is the fun part."
"That’s true," Mithra said.
"IT IS NOT—" Sun stopped. He looked at the ceiling. He looked at his team. "Can anyone here act like a reasonable person for five minutes?" he said.
Athy chirped.
Kong gave a thumbs up.
Sun looked at both of them.
"Everyone," he said. "I meant everyone."
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