???

  Unnamed Sanctuary — Northern Mountains.

  At the top of the snow covered mountains, a man stepped forward towards a large, large fortress, with its walls towering up so high - they easily dwarfed everything around it. The guards at the top of the walls noticed the approaching man, with one of them quickly going over to the horn on the wall.

  “You there! Cease your approach at once, you are on holy grounds! Turn back and leave, otherwise we’ll be forced to use force!” The guard announced to the approaching man with the horn, his voice booming and echoing through it. The man stopped, before looking up at the guards, his head and face covered by a hood and a mask, through which a pair of bluish grey eyes shone brightly. Then, a magic circle formed behind the man, which shot out a single arrow at such high speed – it took but a blink before it had pierced through the guards chest.

  The other guards panicked, before quickly rushing to pick up their crossbows.

  However, before they could fire – more magic circles formed around the man, all firing the same, high speed arrows that easily blitzed over and killed the men, dropping them like flies. One of the guards rushed to ring the alarm bell, but right as his arm reached it, it was suddenly grabbed by the man. The guard looked at the man with wide eyes.

  “How did you—?!’’

  Slice.

  Within a split second, the guard's head was gone – spiked up onto a nearby spear. Letting the body fall to the ground, the man leapt off of the wall and back on the front of the sanctuary, before turning around towards the gates.

  Inside the sanctuary walls, guards, monks and practitioners moved around – chatting, laughing and whatever else. Then, in a moment's notice, the entire sanctuary shook. Everyone stopped, falling silent.

  “What was that?”

  “Is it an earthquake?’’

  The entire place continued to lightly shake for a bit, before it stopped. Silence, again. It seemed as though it had been a passing thing — perhaps nothing to stress over. The inhabitants of the sanctuary were about to return to their usual days, before suddenly the gates of the sanctuary blasted open – flying through the air and crushing many guards and monks under them.

  Those that didn’t get crushed fell into chaos, quickly flinging to their weapons and rushing towards the gates – all shouting to reinforce them.

  “Attack! We’re under attack! Everyone, reinforce the main gates—” The guard calling to his fellow comrades suddenly went silent. With swift movement, the man who was covered by the hood and his mask had somehow reached him in an instant, before plunging his arm straight through the man's chest, ripping his heart out. “Silence is the way to survival.” The man whispered gently in the guard's ear, before crushing the heart he had ripped out and pulling his arm back out, the guard's body falling to the ground lifeless – his blood spilling across the ground in a puddle.

  The other guards all stared at the man in fear and confusion, before one of them cracked. “Attack—!” Right as he gave the command and all of them charged the man, he took one step forward. A blink went by and he was gone, walking towards the main sanctuary building itself – the guards, all cleanly sliced apart in less than an instant.

  It was as if a demon rampaged through.

  The surviving guards were overwhelmed by terror, either trying to run away or charge at the man – however, all of them met the same fate. Without the man making any clear movements, they fell one after the other, all experiencing all manner of different deaths.

  The monks who were also present in the sanctuary each hid – praying that they make it out of this alive. However, despite the man not even seeing where they ran to hide, he appeared in front of the cowering monks, before grabbing one of them up by his collar. “P-Please, spare m-me…!” The monk begged, tears streaming down his face, as his entire body trembled tremendously.

  The man remained silent, before staring the monk directly in the eyes.

  “Where is the key?” He asked, his voice distorted and deep, as if a filter was layered on top of it. The monk shakily shook his head. “I-I don’t know…! The High Monk never lets i-information like that leak o-out beyond the council..!”

  The man sighed, dropping the cowering monk before turning around and moving away from them all. Right before he disappeared, the man stopped, throwing a gaze at them over his shoulder.

  “You’d be wise to remain silent.” He said simply.

  The monks all nodded. Then, right as the man turned away to leave them, the monks all fell to the ground wailing in pain as they fell to the ground, their eyes bleeding out – their eyes having been destroyed in a blink.

  As the man moved back towards the main sanctuary building, the doors of it flew open, as two wyverns flew out, with riders on top of them. The riders and their beasts flew into the sky, before turning around and dashing down towards the man – the wyverns letting out a wailing roar, while the riders on top of them aimed their crossbows at the man, firing several poison laced arrows. The man stopped, before looking at the wyvern riders and sighing in annoyance.

  “Keep your pets at bay.” He said, before the heads of the wyverns flew clean off, with the man then vanishing from sight, appearing behind one of the riders and grabbing him, throwing him off of the falling wyvern before leaping off himself and with a swift grab of the dead wyverns tail, tossed it at the other dead wyvern and its rider, the two colliding, crushing the rider before their bodies destroyed the top of the sanctuary's building.

  The man landed back down onto the ground, brushing off his robes, before moving towards the open doors of the main building. Guards dressed in much heavier armour than the ones on the outside rushed out and towards the man – clearly the sanctuary attempt at stopping him – however the man simply moved past them in a blink of an eye, the men falling to the ground, each one having had their heart ripped out and crushed in an instant.

  Then, the man moved up and into the sanctuary building itself.

  Inside, the building looked as one would expect a sanctuary designed for worshipping the gods and protecting sacred items would look. More guards rushed at the man, but the story was no different.

  They couldn’t even get close to him, before suffering some sort of death, with the masked man simply continuing his movement forward, undisturbed.

  He moved swiftly through the long hall of the building, reaching the deepest chamber in no time. Pushing the gates open, he was greeted by a wide open room and a single monk – the High Monk as well as the prophet of the sanctuary. The monk was in a meditating pose at the center of the room, in front of him, a large mural of an abstract image depicting a being that the monks in the sanctuary worshipped.

  The man stopped at the staircase, staring at the High Monk.

  “Prophet Heydda—”

  “I have awaited your arrival.”

  The monk cut him off.

  The man raised an eyebrow under his mask. “You were expecting me?”

  The High Monk exhaled, turning his head slightly around to look at him over his right shoulder. “I am a prophet of Urphas. I receive revelations of the events to come.” The masked man walked down the rest of the stairs, reaching the bottom and stopping. The High Monk rose to his feet, murmuring some words of gratitude to Urphas before turning to face the man.

  “If you knew I was coming, you also know why I am here.”

  “Indeed. I have already seen how this event will play out.”

  The monk confirmed before walking over to a small table nearby, picking up a ladle of water from a wooden bowl on the table and drinking it. “Then don’t make it difficult. Where is the key to the artifact?”

  The High Monk remained silent.

  The man moved to the middle of the room, eyeing Heydda the entire time, before moving his gaze up at the mural in front of which the monk had been meditating moments before. “Goddess of Clarity Urphas… Said to bring justice and news to the world, as well as write prophecies in the endless sea of stars in the sky above us.” He moved around the mural, laughing to himself lightly.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “What did your people call her again?... Ah, I remember. The Guide of Humans.” He said, appearing in front of the monk, with just the small table between him and Heydda. The monk placed down his ladle, before taking in a deep breath and letting out a heavy exhale. “I must tell you, that you should give up your pursuit of the artifact held within this sanctuary. Acquiring it will not bring you any good.”

  “Really? Asking me to simply give up and leave, even when you know how this will end?” The man laughed. Heydda sighed.

  “Just because the future has been prophesied by Urphas, does not mean I should sit back and allow it to play out. I am a prophet, however, I am also a spokesman of Urphas. I have the authority to try and change her prophecy.” The monk responded to the man, before moving his arms behind his back.

  The man remained silent before shaking his head lightly.

  “I need the artifact. Apologies, prophet Heydda, but talking me out of this will be impossible.”

  Heydda nodded, acknowledging the man's words. “I know. But what kind of prophet doesn’t at least try?” The man sighed, before stepping towards the monk. In a blink, he was gone. However, the monk swiftly leapt out of the way, landing far away from the man. The man's eyes shone a bit brighter for a second, as if he was surprised that the monk had managed to react and dodge his attack.

  “You move fast. Faster than I could ever hope to react. However, no matter how fast you may be, you cannot outspeed the eyes of Urphas.” The man turned around to look at the monk, laughing to himself lightly.

  “You put your faith in that god too much, prophet Heydda.”

  “It is better to have faith, than end up like you, emissary of darkness.”

  The man moved towards Heydda a bit, light chuckling leaving his mouth. “What is the point of life, if you have to put faith in someone else to survive, even after you have grown up? Growing your own strength is the only way to ensure you can survive in this world.” The man responded to the monk, before walking up to the mural and looking at it with his mask's eyes shining brightly and sharply. “These gods that the world lifts onto such a high pedestal don’t deserve the faith they are given. They take away the mortal world's ability to grow to ensure that they place faith in them to survive.”

  The man then punched the mural, cracking the stone a bit.

  “Tell me prophet, is it fair that the gods do that? That they take away what they don’t want mortals to have, just to fuel their own power?”

  Heydda remained silent.

  Then, he sighed.

  “I have no need to pay attention to such blasphemous thoughts. The gods are where we find strength, to have faith in them does not mean to give up your own strength. It is to ask for them to act as a witness of your own strength.”

  “Well, what great witnesses they are then.” The man stated mockingly.

  The monk closed his eyes, placing his arms behind him. “Your quest will not bring you the utopia that you think it will.” The man scoffed. “And how do you know? Did Urphas tell you that as well?”

  The man walked towards the monk slowly.

  “Of course she would. To them, I am a threat to their order and control. If I manage to change the mindset of their most devoted followers, they’ll lose their influence.” The man mocked, before stopping. “Answer me prophet.”

  “You are beyond arrogant for assuming that the gods would feel threatened by you or your actions. As strong as you may be, you can never hope to reach your hand towards the sky and touch the gods. They are beyond all of us – that includes you as well, emissary of the darkness.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, prophet.”

  The man responded immediately.

  “And how am I wrong?”

  “Because the gods are not far beyond us. Sure, perhaps I cannot hope to even graze them at my current strength, however, once I am finished with my quest, that won’t be an issue any longer.” The man stepped forward, in a blink appearing in front of the prophet, before grabbing him by the neck and lifting him in the air. “I will force the gods to look me in the eyes when they cast their gazes down. I will make them look at me as the avatar of their doom, as their equal, not someone beneath them.”

  The monk gasped for air in the man's tight grip.

  “You won’t… succeed. N-No matter your plan… it will f-fail.” The monk looked directly in the man's eyes, his facial expression remaining calm. “The darkness… it blinds y-you.”

  The man scoffed again.

  “My vision is clearer than yours, prophet.”

  Then, the man threw the monk against the mural – smashing the painting in the mural with Heyddas body. Heydda hit the ground after his smash into the mural, rubble falling after him as he coughed and gasped for air. “Enough stalling. Where is the key?”

  “E-Even if I was to tell you, the g-ground upon which the artifact rests i-is sacred, blessed by the g-gods… An emissary of darkness, such as yourself, could never take a step on it.” The man picked up the prophet by his collar, lifting him up from the ground before sighing and shaking his head. “A sacred ground does not concern me. What I want to know is where the key to the artifact is. So quit wasting time and spill it, prophet.”

  Heydda breathed heavily, coughing up blood before beginning to recite a prayer. “Urphas, o’ the grand and mighty queen in the sky, please cast your gaze onto this faithful devotee of yours and grant him your protection—”

  “You are so irritating.” The man smashed the prophet into the mural, before plunging his arm straight into his chest, gripping his heart. Heydda coughed up blood, looking the man in the eyes, his vision blurring. However, even now, he continued to recite the prayer.

  “U-Urphas…. o’ grand and… mighty q-queen in the sky…—”

  Then, the man ripped out Heyddas heart, sending his body falling to the ground, lifeless. The man sighed, crushing the heart, before looking at where the mural was stained by the high monk's blood. Under the stone layer of it, something new was faintly visible. “I see. Clever, I suppose.”

  Then, the man, with his hand stained with the monks blood, drew the symbol of Urphas onto the mural ( ? ) using the blood of the monks blood before backing up. The symbol lit up, before the mural broke apart. The entire building shook violently, before the room suddenly shifted. It widened in space, the center opening into a large hole. From the depths of the hole, rose up a platform, which after it reached the top stopped, causing the entire building to stop its movement as well.

  At the center of the newly raised platform was a podium.

  On the podium, a goblet. A white steel goblet, with red gems decorating it all around. Inside the goblet, was a small white flame, which gently crackled. The man smiled under his mask. “The White Goblet. At last, I have found it.” Then, in an instant he moved past it, having grabbed the goblet.

  Though the monk claimed that the ground the goblet was on had been ‘blessed’ and a ‘sacred’ land, which would normally ensure that individuals like him wouldn’t be able to reach it – the man had a trick up his sleeve. Even if he himself wasn’t able to touch the goblet, his arm, which was stained in the monk's blood, was capable of bypassing this so-called ‘sacred protection’ around the goblet, for the blood of the High Monk was similarly ‘blessed’ by the gods.

  He looked over at the dead monk's body, sighing.

  “May you rest with your ‘goddess’ now, prophet. Enjoy your time in her oh so grand kingdom as much as you can – for when I come for Urphas, that kingdom will fall.” The man stated, before the shadows under him morphed up and around him, with the man vanishing in the shadows.

  The sanctuary had fallen in rapid succession, with a single man being at its center. However, what he wished to do with the White Goblet, would remain unknown for a long, long time.