Chapter 40: 40: Afraid of Fate

Kyros was extremely worried. He didn't know what happened. A thousand thoughts were happening as he looked around at the area.

Aron and the group were slowly analyzing their surrounding. Many of the knights didn't know what had happened. They all witnessed the strange energy that sucked them all into a new place.

Kyros was frantically looking around the place. Even when he activated Micro-Management, he found an area that was covered in the fog of war. The Temple was not even on the map he saw. He could see that there was an arrow indicating where the Temple was.

"What happened?" Aron asked.

"I don't know. Something must have happened!" Kyros frowned.

"What did you do?" One of the Knights shouted at the vampire bloodlings.

The vampire was frightened. Although he had the power to easily kill this knight, he reacted in fear.

"It's not his fault... ugh! My head!" Kyros pretended to have a headache.

"Fate is Intervening. Success limiter breached... The Fate Temple bestows its... trials?" Kyros muttered with a confused expression.

"Kyros? What did you say?"

"These words... These words appeared on my head! I don't understand!" Kyros frowned.

"Fate is intervening... The Fate Temple? Men. It looks like the Temple bestows great blessings but offers great challenges to us." Aron deduced.

"What do you mean, Uncle?" Kyros feigned ignorance. His priority was to remove any doubt that the vampire bloodlings were involved in this sudden occurrence.

"You said it yourself. Fate is intervening. Kyros, it seems that because you are the first to have seen the temple, it bestowed some form of connection with you. That's why it displayed those words to you. As for what's happening, it seems that every blessing we got from the temple has a price that we should pay!" Aron explained.

"What price?" The knight asked.

"I don't know. Everyone, be on your guard. Men, arm the vampires with the weapons and armor that they wore. And shame on you for blaming these children." Aron immediately chastised.

The knight said nothing but did not apologize to the vampire.

"We have to move. We don't know where we are... But for some reason... I know that the temple is that way." Kyros pointed at a direction.

"Alright. Kyros, send your scouts ahead to ensure our safety. Everyone stays close and be on your battle formations. Kids, what are your names?" Aron asked.

Kyros glanced at the three slaves. Their previous haggard and wounded appearance were gone. Their awakening as a Vampire changed their constitution making the two young boys appear handsome and strong.

The young girl had a dangerously beautiful face. The scarlet hair that she wore had transformed and had a brighter shade of red.

Kyros could not help but be reminded of another vampire slave who took care of him when he was young.

"Mechiel..." Kyros could not help but mutter as he recalled the woman who gave her life for him.

"I'm Avary." The first boy said.

"Gregory." The other boy answered.

"Scarlet." The girl answered.

"Alright. Right now, you are all vassal knights to the Steele Family. I don't think my brother will appreciate it if I force him to adopt vampire kids." Aron chuckled.

Kyros had already summoned his two Shadow Familiars. They only saw one shadow move, but the two were actually moving together that it looked like one. When they entered the darkness, one moved ahead, and the other retreated to the back and began to explore the other way.

Aron began to talk with his men and asked the details of what they gained. Although only a few of them managed to gain a level up, the most important win was the creation of a mana pool. This mana would increase as they leveled up and would help them get a chance to find a class change. But even without class change, knights with MP are more valuable as they could equip themselves with basic magic.

With this, the group kept moving, but Aron kept instructing what their magic can do and how it was possible to use it as force energy.

The addition of the vampire trio also needed the group to reassess their battle formation. The three were slaves who had little training in combat.

Aron continued to issue simple commands on how the three could act.

Kyros focused on exploring the place.

The more they walked, the more grim Kyros's expression was.

"The trails of the lizards... Are over a hundred. We are deep within their nest." Kyros gave the grim assessment.

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"What? Should we move faster?"

"It might make a commotion. And running ahead could be dangerous. Let's maintain my scouts." Kyros sighed.

Aron nodded, and knights had a dreadful expression on their faces.

"Men, turn off your torches! And keep one of your eyes closed! Our eyes adjust the darker or brighter it gets. If you keep one eye closed or covered, it will adjust its sight to see better in the dark. This torch can easily be turned off and on. I might have to cut the light if the lizards are chasing us and bring it back up. So whenever I turn off the torch, use the eye that you closed. And if the light is back, use the first eye that was used to see in bright areas. Are we clear?" Kyros relayed the instructions.

The group nodded.

Kyros still had to show them, and in the next few minutes, he showed them how effective this trick was.

"So that's why bandits and raiders had eye-patches..." One of the knights realized.

"Right. Instant night vision. We use this to our advantage as well. The lizards have poor vision and mainly rely on scent. But if I use this trick to make the area suddenly brighter, it could blind them or surprise them." Kyros explained.

With that, the group continued their long track. Kyros was careful to observe and send his scouts ahead to search for enemies. But there seemed to be no enemies.

"Fate is cruel. But why did the Temple do this?" Calaminus finally asked.

"I could only make a few guesses. It looks like the Temple is directing the way Fate affects me. It offers me coincidences and gives me great luck that somehow allowed me to grow stronger. But at the same time, it will do this. It will make things extremely difficult for me. Success limiter is now working against me, and the Temple threw me right into the depths of this cave. It's trying to limit my successes."

"You mean... the success of these knights? The temple is trying to kill them?!"

"Fate is trying to kill them. The Temple gave me a shot at protecting them. It transforms the twists of fate into periods of tribulation. That's why it waited before it sent me. It could have tried to send only a few of my knights here to let them die. But it didn't. It gave me a chance to protect them."

"But these tracks! There could be hundreds of Lizards here! And look! Your familiar who scouted the north region found golems! This twist of fate endangers you! This isn't just a success limitation anymore! Fate is trying to kill you!"

"That's exactly the point. All the previous successes I've had were not affected by the Success Limiter. But now, all that Fate should have done is tied into a single bundle and thrown at me! That's why this circumstance that Fate has thrown me in is very, very dangerous! I made the wrong analysis. It looks like Fate should be feared! I feared being weak, but it seems Fate will push me and be forced to search for power!"

"And to think this situation happened because of the Success Limiter? What happens in Life Limiter? Or beyond it? What situations will Fate bring?" Calaminus was horrified at the thought of Kyros's future endeavor..

"We both have to get stronger, Calaminus. That's our only choice. This arrangement helps me have a chance of fighting back. Honestly, I prefer this. This way, I know that the curses will primarily be concentrated on my immediate friends and me because the Tempel sort of creates a target over me but holds it back until I breach the limit. We can make preparations on how to save my friends and family. Even her..." Kyros frowned.

"Then this should be a terrifying reminder for us. Everything that we managed to achieve was not good enough. The situation now looks grim. Even with you ere, can you save everyone?"

"That, I'm not certain. But I'd rather be given a chance to save or help them directly, instead of being distant and have no way to save them. We should think of ways of how we can outsmart Fate. This only happened when my Uncle finally found the means to become Force Paladin. It seems to add up certain breakthroughs or achievements and victories to gauge if we broke the meter. We have to be careful next time and carefully plot how to outsmart it..." Kyros frowned.

"Stick close, everybody. There's something strange up ahead." Aron warned.

"Warriors instinct..." Kyros recalled what his father said about his uncle. He was a man who had a rare trait called Warriors instinct which could detect danger.

"Oh right! Your father said that your Uncle had something similar to the Spider-sense when he was at his prime!"

"Shut it! Don't get the author in trouble! It's called Warriors Instinct, ok?!" Kyros cursed.

Even before Kyros could wonder at the strange words he could see, he finally realized what had happened. His shadow familiars had limitations. It could not see underground. Unlike the previous encounters, the Lizards would dig their way underground. Kyros's keen sense would have noticed it. But now, the Lizards burrowed themselves at a far distance and waited. They waited for Kyros's team to approach. And this was how they escaped Kyros's senses.

"They're underground!" Kyros shouted as he ran ahead and activate Pronto. With the Vermillion Earth Sword, Kyros stabbed on the ground.

"ROAR!" A pained roar was heard as several large lizards suddenly surfaced.

A great tremor was heard as several lizards suddenly surfaced and began to run towards them.

The number of lizards that surfaced was too numerous.

"Retreat! We're dead if we stay here!" Kyros ordered.

The group immediately retreated.

Kyros sent out all of his shadow ghouls to attack the lizards while they retreated.

All seven shadow ghouls leaped out and attacked one lizard at a time and began to stab and cut them.

While some lizards tried to help their allies, the rest continued to chase after them.

The group ran as fast as they could.

But the echoing sounds of lizards hissing and roaring made everyone tremble.

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