Chương 33: A Helping Hand

"So what now?" Scule asked, peering at what had to be his own glowing notification. Vin briefly wondered what Scule's tiny notifications would look like compared to his own, but he forced himself to remain focused.

"What do you mean, 'what now?'" Shia asked.

"This doesn't change anything. We head in there and grab some divine artifacts. Shouldn't you be itching to get your Rogue fingers on something shiny and powerful?"

"I prefer to keep my itchy fingers attached to my itchy palms, thank you," Scule said, nervously petting Reginald.

"I don't like the look of this weird glowing notification, or the freaky bubble. Rule number one of surviving on the streets; if you don't like the look of something, you turn around and run the other direction."

"What happened to that big talk about robbing the holy district and prestiging?" Shia snorted.

"You can't prestige if you're dead," Scule said matter of factly.

"Shia, it's alright, he doesn't have to go in if he doesn't want to," Vin said, peering into the bubble. It seemed to encompass the entire central building of the holy district, which meant there was no way around entering the Sanctum if they wanted to try and get their hands on the divine artifacts.

"Just means more rare, powerful, priceless artifacts for us, right?"

"Oof, you really know how to hit a Rogue where it hurts," Scule winced, his eyes flicking over his shoulder to the golden bricks making up the majority of the buildings. Vin could practically see the thoughts turning in his head. If those were just the common building materials… What were they keeping inside the Sanctum? After a few moments, Scule sighed, shaking his head.

"I'm booking it out of there at the first sight of danger, alright? I don't want to hear any complaining when I don't play the hero."

"No complaints here," Vin grinned.

"Everybody ready?" Getting nods from his companions, and even a quiet squeak from Reginald, Vin turned to the bubble. Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward. Entering the Divine Sanctum was a bit anticlimactic. Sure, he hadn't expected one of the Gods to come down and greet him personally, but he thought there would be something. The feeling of being scoured by holy fire? Tingling across his extremities as the Gods judged him from far above? A deep, echoing gong from the heavens?

Instead, there was a slight popping in his ears, as if the pressure of his surroundings had changed. He also felt a strangely familiar burst of warmth in his chest, but he couldn't quite place the feeling.

"Huh," Scule said after following Vin into the bubble once he'd confirmed it was safe. Rubbing an ear, the petian frowned.

"Kinda expected more, you know?"

"Let's not grow complacent," Shia warned, her grip tightening on her staff.

"The bubble encompasses the entire central colosseum. There's no telling what waits for us inside." Taking the elf's advice to heart, the three of them gingerly walked deeper into the Divine Sanctum. Vin half expected something to jump out at them any moment, but the holy district remained as silent and empty as when they'd first arrived. They quickly passed the large, gleaming pillars of metal and found themselves standing outside the grand entrance to the colosseum, staring up at the shining doors.

"Moment of truth," Vin muttered, pushing the doors open. It required every ounce of his Alka-enhanced strength, but he managed to push them open a few feet. Just enough for them to enter without having to squeeze in. Well, him and Shia anyway. Scule and Reginald were able to stroll on in with room to spare. Despite the tiny man's clear worry, that didn't stop him from being the first one to rush into the supposed treasure chamber as soon as the door cracked open.

Following after, Vin stepped into the colosseum and stared in awe at his surroundings. The holy district's central colosseum was actually one massive room larger than any single building he'd ever stepped foot in. There were countless rows of pedestals stretching out across the entire open floor, and while the vast majority of them were strangely empty, that still left dozens upon dozens of items that he could actively feel powerful magics radiating off of.

But despite all the artifacts just lying around for the taking, Vin's attention was focused elsewhere. Directly in the center of the room, hovering about thirty feet off the ground and surrounded by a ring of statues holding their arms up to the sky, was a miniature sun. Nearly the size of a car, the glowing white sphere spun lazily as it gave off magical pressure equivalent to that of a nuclear reactor; the force of its magic almost enough to make Vin shield his eyes.

But despite its grandiose nature, Vin quickly realized something was very wrong. As the sphere turned, he was shocked to see a significant number of dark cracks spider-webbing their way across the sphere's surface. The artifact was severely damaged, and it was still outputting that kind of magical pressure. What would it have felt like if it were whole?

"Beautiful isn't it?" Vin tore his eyes from the giant sphere, spinning to face the source of the unknown voice. Sitting with his back against the wall was a bedraggled man who looked like he had seen better days. He had long, knotted grey hair that was a tangled mess, and a scraggly beard that clearly hadn't seen a razor in some time.

The elderly man wore a simple white robe that was covered in layers of dirt and dust as if he'd rolled around on the ground before sitting in that exact position, unmoving for the last year. Nodding toward the sphere, the man gave him a wide grin, revealing a surprising set of pristine teeth that didn't look like they belonged to him.

"I remember the first time I laid eyes on Qiatha's greatest work. Took me three days to get those spots out of my eyes!" The man laughed, his laughter booming across the entire colosseum like cannon fire.

"Granted, I was a lower level back then, and the Grand Artifact was unbroken."

"Are you one of the divine warriors?" Shia called out, her staff shaking slightly as she aimed it at the stranger.

"Me? A divine warrior?" The man chuckled, shaking his head.

"No, the Gods never saw fit to bless someone like me with a piece of themselves. Even so, they couldn't dispute the fact that I was skilled. Skilled enough to be made master of the vault anyway." Vin's heart sank as the man pushed himself to his feet, shaking the dust off his robe and giving them a crazed grin. Only now did Vin spot the sheathed short sword the man was holding.

"Care to tell me what brings you four here?" The man asked, nodding off to the side. Following his gaze, Vin spotted a wide eyed Scule pressed against the back of one of the far pillars, doing his best to hide. From the angle he was hiding, the stranger shouldn't have been able to see him at all.

"We're looking for a divine artifact to help put a ghost to rest," Vin said, somehow instinctively knowing that lying to this man was a bad idea.

"Everyone with divinity seems to have vanished, so we thought this place would be the best spot to find an artifact."

"Oh, I'm well aware they've vanished," the man said, barking out another laugh.

"I was surrounded by hundreds of them when the Gods ripped us from our world. Those wide eyes and startled faces were hilarious when they were all left behind!" You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"The people with divinity were left behind on their corrupt worlds?" Shia asked, taking a half step forward.

"They weren't put somewhere else?"

"That's certainly what it looked like to me," the man shrugged.

"Granted, I was a little busy answering a surprise question from the System. Tell me, if you were given the chance to leave a world ravaged by endless swarms of monsters and full of holier-than-you pricks, and exchange it for a brand new one where you could start over and didn't have to spend your days helping freshly blessed idiots pick out artifacts far more powerful than they had any right taking, what would you do?" Vin shot Shia a concerned glance.

The longer the man seemed to speak, the more unhinged and angrier he began to sound. Before either of them could reply, he continued.

"Only it turns out, if your level is too high, not even the gods themselves can give you a fresh start! No, the best they can do is send you an apology and separate you from the fancy new System; trapping you in a bubble and watching as you slowly wither away, separated from the rest of humanity!" Shaking his sheathed sword up at the heavens, the man screamed, the sheer volume of his voice causing Vin to wince and take a half step back.

He didn't know what level the man was, but he had a feeling that if the colosseum had been made of any weaker materials its very walls may have started to shake from his cries. The stranger made the Trunkback's roar seem like a pathetic whimper.

"Trapped in a bubble," the man muttered after his scream puttered out. Blowing a ragged strand of hair away from his face, he turned to glare at them.

"The one, lone benefit to this hell of course being that I no longer needed to deal with random upstarts coming and bothering me for artifacts that they have no right taking."

'Uh oh,' Alka said, mirroring his own thoughts as his heart began racing. Shia was clearly getting the same dangerous vibe he was, because she held her hands up placatingly, doing her best to look harmless as she gave him a warm smile.

"Our apologies, we didn't-" It was Vin's own enhanced focus that let him track even the blur of the man's movements, but it was thanks to the bonus strength and dexterity he received from Alka that he was able to shove the elf out of the way of the man's slash in time as it somehow traveled dozens of feet from his blade in a heartbeat, aimed directly at his companion. Though he wasn't quite fast enough.

Vin felt a slight pinch in his arm as Shia stumbled to the side and the man's attack blasted past them, carving a deep groove in the stone floor as it traveled across the entire length of the colosseum before slicing deep into the far wall. Glancing at his arm, Vin stared in confusion at the stump that sat where his hand should be. Despite the ring of barkskin that supposedly increased his durability, his left arm had been sliced clean off just below the elbow.

The cut was so clean in fact, that his own body didn't seem to realize it had been harmed for a moment. Vin stared at the sight of his own bone and muscle for a brief second, before blood finally began spurting out of his missing limb.

"Vin!" Shia cried, her face paling at the sight of his missing arm. Hurrying to her feet, she rushed over and began casting." Renewal!" She cried, pumping life magic into his stump as quickly as she could. Huh. Shouldn't this hurt a lot more than it does? Vin wondered blankly, staring at his missing arm as the life magic slowly worked to seal off the wound and stop the bleeding. He felt like he should be screaming or crying right now, but he just felt strangely lightheaded and cold.

'Vin, you're going into shock,' Alka warned him, her voice sounding strained.

'I can feel your body freaking out. The life magic will help, but I need you to stay focused, alright?'

"Sure, no problem," Vin muttered out loud, earning himself an even more concerned look from Shia as his arm slowly closed. It seemed like Renewal was strong enough to seal the wound, but not enough to regrow his arm. During all this, the man simply watched, laughing maniacally to himself as Shia worked desperately to save Vin's life. The man's sword was finally unsheathed, and Vin found himself staring at the shining blade that had just claimed his arm.

He felt like the blade should be stained red, coated in his dripping blood. Instead, it looked pristine, as if it had even just been polished.

"Oh man, I forgot how much I loved watching the weaklings struggle," the man laughed, wiping a tear from his eye.

"Tell you what, you guys came here for some divinity right? Well, the only thing I can think of more entertaining than just killing you all, is watching your hopes die first." Sheathing his sword once more, the crazed man sat back down and waved toward the ring of statues surrounding the grand artifact in the center of the room.

"Go on and try praying to the Gods with those statues of them. Plead to them for help, ask for their assistance, whatever, just go try talking to them. Once you realize that even the Gods have abandoned this new world, once your last hope is lost and you realize you're truly alone, then I'll kill you." Licking his lips, the man shuddered at the thought.

"Don't listen to him Vin, focus on my voice," Shia whispered, continuing to cast Renewal into his arm despite the fact that his wound was fully healed. The blood had finally stopped and he had a fresh layer of skin stretched over where the second half of his arm should be.

"Alka, I know you probably want to try fighting that guy, but he's way too strong, and Vin needs every extra point of vigor he's getting from you right now. The man's giving us a chance to put some distance between us, so we're going to happily follow his instructions and then come up with a plan. Come on." Leading Vin by the stump, Shia brought the two of them away from the deranged warrior and toward the center of the room.

Vin was still finding it difficult to focus on any one thing for more than a few seconds, but he let himself be led, trusting in Shia's judgement. He wasn't the only one it seemed, because despite the restlessness he could sense from Alka shifting around inside him, the ghost continued echoing him instead of shooting out to take a crack at their attacker. Before he knew it, he realized he was standing before the ring of statues.

Each statue was of a God staring up toward the Grand Artifact; their arms outstretched toward the glowing artifact floating above them as though they were the ones keeping it afloat. Vin found himself staring into the face of a carefully carved woman wearing some sort of fancy robe and sandals. Her smile was so realistic it seemed to give off a layer of warmth, and her long hair was somehow carved so delicately there were individual strands hanging suspended in the air.

The craftsmanship and detail were so impressive he bet half the stone village would have traded their personal crafting tools just to get a glance at the statue. Trying to focus, he shook his head, laying a hand on the statue and closing his eyes. The stone cloth felt almost real under his fingertips, and he could have sworn he felt the material shift at his touch. He didn't really know what he was supposed to do, but he figured it couldn't hurt to go with the classic.

It was that or get attacked by the crazed man once more after all. Uh… hello… God? Gods? Whomever? … Are you there? As he'd expected, there was no answer. Sweating, Vin imagined the man waiting for them unsheathing his sword again with a grin before coming to lop off his other arm. Look, I don't know how this works exactly… but we could really use your help right now.

The guy that is holding us at sword point might not be one of your people directly, but I think he worked for them, and that kinda makes him your responsibility, in my opinion. Realizing he was rambling, Vin sighed, gritting his teeth. I don't know if you can hear me, or if you're even truly Gods or whatever, but I do know you're real. Or at least something up there is.

You threatened to kill me the moment I stepped foot on this new world, and seeing as that wasn't my fault in the slightest, I feel like the very least you could do is answer me. You owe me that much. Vin waited with bated breath, straining his ears as he listened for some sort of reply. But there was nothing but silence. His heart began pounding as he accepted that they would have to work together to find a way to beat the high-level man on their own.

Shaking, Vin slowly let his now only hand fall from the woman's statue as he took a step back, opening his eyes and turning toward Shia. But she was gone. Vin spun around, eyes widening as he realized he was once more standing in a black void identical to the one he'd found himself stuck in when he first came to this world. His heart pounding for an entirely different reason, he turned back to the stone statue only to find himself looking at a smiling woman standing before him.

The impossibly lifelike statue was no longer made of stone, and the very much flesh and blood woman now standing before him gave him a warm smile like someone greeting an old friend.

"Hello again Vin," the woman said, her voice sounding almost artificial to his ears. It was like someone had taken the top hundred most beautiful voices he'd ever heard and blended them together somehow. The effect was both hypnotic, and slightly disturbing. Seeing she had Vin's full attention, the woman nodded.

"Let's chat."