With This Treasure, I Summon Primordial Weapons
Chapter 19: Visitor

Chapter 19: Visitor

Godric took a slow breath, trying to calm his racing heart as his gaze shifted across a hundred or so imprisoned beasts.

With his back turned toward the leader of the settlement, he couldn’t help but frown slightly.

’How can they keep them here?’

It wasn’t a question of morals. He could understand why they wanted control. What did confuse him was the actual logistics of it. Normally, a summoner could dismiss their beast and send it to their Core Space with a flicker of intent.

Godric took a step forward and studied the metal bar a little closer.

It felt as damp as the bricks of the city above, but more than that, as his hand reached to touch it, he felt a sudden draw of mana leave his body.

"Some form of Mana Distortion," Daren explained, quickly catching on to what was going through Godric’s head. "When I first arrived in this place, this tower was in ruins. We hid in its broken walls for almost a year until one of us lost it, and we had to lock him up..."

Daren let out a sound that sounded almost like a chuckle. "That’s when we found out. The tower draws on mana from whatever is behind those bars and uses it to rebuild itself."

Godric’s head turned toward Daren as if expecting him to say he was joking.

’The tower rebuilds itself?’

The idea sounded ridiculous at first, but the more he thought of it, the more he remembered how every other building in the city was in complete ruin while the tower looked almost completely untouched, the more sense it made.

"From that point onwards, we offered everyone who arrived a deal. They kept their beast here in exchange for protection. Some refused at first, but in the end all complied." Daren paused for a moment, walking a couple of steps down the corridor, before continuing. "That was the deal Torr would’ve offered you."

"Would’ve?" Godric asked calmly, as though he didn’t find the idea threatening.

Daren didn’t reply right away.

Instead, he took his time walking back toward Godric, his hand brushing against the bars just enough to make the beasts snap their maws at him but not enough for their teeth to reach him.

"Godric, the Great Houses, they’re all fools. Fighting against one another while beasts take our land by miles each day..." Daren shook his head, his jaw tightening. "We need one leader, not five battling against one another. You know... your House suggested it once. And guess what the others did... They laughed. I even overheard my father plan with the rest to ’destroy the Blackstars once for all’..."

Daren chuckled to himself at the idea and looked straight at Godric. "It seems they failed at even that."

Godric frowned slightly as he pondered his family’s downfall.

This entire time he believed it all happened because of his father’s foolishness.

But what if other forces were at play? What if instead of an all-out battle, the other houses decided to orchestrate their downfall?

Something cold moved between Godric’s eyes, and Daren found it a cue to continue.

"Your House understood something the others never did. One leader, one army united by a single purpose: To destroy the monsters taking over our world." He gestured at the corridor, at the tower above it, at all of it. "That’s why I kept everyone here all these years, why I built an army of people loyal to me. When I return, I plan on doing just that."

Godric frowned slightly. "Kept?"

Daren smiled as he replied. "All these years... you can’t truly think I haven’t found the way out?"

"So why not return? Why not go and carry out your plan?"

"There is one last thing I must accomplish before that. Then, we can return and accomplish the mission your house started."

Unlike Torr, who had a way of sweet-talking, Daren was the complete opposite, and Godric had already noted the difference.

The way Daren manipulated people was by giving them a purpose, an idea of doing what he wanted, and framing it as their goal.

Carrying out what Godric’s grandfather had started? He almost made it seem as though their roles were reversed and it was Godric who was trying to recruit him.

Before either of the men could break the silence, a sudden creak of the door coming from up the narrow staircase broke the silence.

They both turned to see Torr leading a skinny man with torn and muddied clothes down the stairs.

The moment they reached the bottom of the staircase, the skinny man took off, running past Godric and Daren and pressing his arms against the metal bars.

"I’m here! I’m here now!" he yelled toward one of the beasts inside.

Daren’s gaze lingered on the skinny man for only a second before turning toward Torr, who shrank under his gaze.

"He... he had a visit scheduled." Torr explained before Daren could ask.

’They lock their beasts then give them visit schedules? ...That’s cruel.’

Beside Godric, Daren’s expression twitched.

Without speaking a single word, he walked slowly toward the skinny man pressing against the bars, which drained his mana with each second.

"Your devotion to a beast is quite impressive," he said, placing his hand on the skinny man’s shoulder.

Only now did the visitor realise who was standing beside him. He opened his mouth and tried to speak, but between his stuttering and ragged breathing, no words came out.

"I think we should reward summoners as devoted as yourself." With his hand still on the man’s shoulder, Daren turned toward Torr. "Don’t you think?"

Without another word, Torr walked hurriedly toward the visitor, while Daren turned around and walked slowly toward Godric.

The two men passed each other a second later, and the moment Torr reached the visitor, he grabbed it by both shoulders.

"What? Wait—!"

The man’s cry barely had the time to leave his lips before his body clashed against the metal bars.

At first, it simply pressed against them, but a second later, the bars shifted, and the visitor’s body was pulled inside.

The beasts inside didn’t waste a single second.

They rushed from every corner of the cell, lunging straight at the skinny visitor.

Godric didn’t move.

The entire recruitment speech still echoed in his head while the man who gave it and had tried to be reasonable moments earlier had just ordered the execution of a visitor on a whim.

Daren reached him a second later, his expression as calm as it had been the entire walk. "Now, where were we?"