With This Treasure, I Summon Primordial Weapons
Chapter 32: Showdown

Chapter 32: Showdown

Hours bled into one another, slipping past in a blurred race against a ticking clock. Godric used every spare moment he had, squeezing each passing minute before he finally arrived at the base of the central dark spire.

The tower looked far less alive than it had when he first set foot here. Where there used to be merchants and buyers all around the courtyard, there was now only a suffocating stillness.

He crossed the lower plaza, his hand resting tightly on the pommel of his sword.

The people of the settlement stood scattered across the grounds, looking uncomfortably similar to the hollows Godric had seen back in the sanctuary.

A scout leaned against a pillar, a lieutenant stared blankly over the railing. None of them moved. None of them turned to acknowledge his presence. Their eyes were wide and unblinking, tracking his every step as though something, or rather, someone else, was looking directly through them.

Godric kept his head up and didn’t linger.

He ascended the endless staircase of the spire, each step echoing faintly across the tower, until he finally reached the top floor.

Godric watched the handle of the heavy doors for a second before pushing it open and stepping inside.

The semi-familiar inside of Daren’s chamber came to life, illuminated by dim, flickering glows of torches scattered around the room.

At the far end of the chamber, Daren sat patiently at a seat that looked much more like a throne than a normal chair.

"Godric," Daren said, leaning back in his high-backed seat, a thin, expectant smile stretching across his face. "You made it."

Godric stopped a few paces away. He didn’t offer a greeting. He stood there, unmoving, his posture relaxed despite the intense strain radiating from him.

"You look tired, Godric," Daren chuckled, taking in the pale sheen on the man’s face. "Holding Raven’s life in your hands must be a heavy burden to carry all this way."

Godric tilted his head slightly, his eyes fixated on Daren with an eerie, unblinking stillness. When he spoke, his voice was a low, measured rasp, completely devoid of heat or panic.

"It’s not the walk, Daren." Godric took a quiet, heavy breath, letting his chest steady. "Honestly, I’m just impressed by Torr."

Daren’s smile faltered slightly, his brow furrowing. "Torr?"

"The man held this ability so effortlessly," Godric said softly, his voice flat. He took a couple of steps toward Daren’s desk and sat across from him. "Spreading an explosive ability across an entire city isn’t easy. He truly was a capable man... shame you let him die."

Daren sat up, his eyes sharpening as he tried to sense the mana fluctuating through the stone beneath his boots. "What are you talking about?"

"Every hour I spent coming back here," Godric murmured, leaning back in his seat, "every minute you thought I was playing along with your little puppet show... I was using Torr’s ability. It’s laid out under every inch of this city. A single thought is all it takes for your plan to turn to ash.

He stopped, meeting Daren’s gaze with cold, dead eyes.

"Now," Godric said quiet enough to be a secret. "Let’s talk."

Daren lingered in a long, complete silence before settling down in his seat.

"You’re bluffing," then, before Godric could even disprove it, the man continued. "Even if you’re not, there is no way you would kill everything in here just to escape."

"I’ve killed a classmate to keep a lie. I’ve killed Torr for my plan." Godric paused for a moment, then leaned forward slightly. "Do you really think I’d hesitate to blow up a city full of puppets?"

Daren’s eyes narrowed, searching Godric’s pale face for the subtle twitches of a desperate man trying to sell a lie. But there was nothing.

"You speak as though you’ve already won," Daren said softly, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the desk. "You forget whose tower you’re sitting in, Godric. You blow this city, you burn with it. And so does Raven and everybody else I have under my command."

’That’s where the sunrise comes in,’ Godric thought with a faint trickle of a smile as a faint vibration ran beneath their boots.

Realising what was happening, Daren slammed his fists against the desk. "Give me eternal flame, and I’ll release them from my command!"

Godric stayed quiet.

Daren’s face twitched, the faint sound of sand grinding against the dark city echoed from outside the window.

"Will you let everyone out there die?"

"They are under your control, not mine," Godric replied unhurriedly, as though the sand that was about to consume everything and everyone didn’t exist. "You need them, don’t you? Your plan to rule... You need an army of slaves to do it with."

Daren lingered, watching Godric’s flat expression for a couple of moments before breaking his hold on everyone out there at once.

In an instant, chaos ensued as everyone rushed against the oncoming sand.

A second later, the door to their right swung open, and both Valentina and Raven stepped inside.

Unlike everyone else in the settlement, the girls still had hollow looks on their faces, still walking like a pair of marionettes moved by invisible strings.

"Release them," Godric said, his voice flat to the point of boredom. "Send them out, and the flame is yours."

Daren searched his face, hunting for a flinch, a hesitation, anything. He found only empty stillness.

With a subtle flick of Daren’s finger, the two girls pivoted in unison. Without a second of hesitation or a flicker of instinct, they marched to the window frame and pitched themselves out into the dunes below.

Daren rose slowly from his throne, a cold, hungry smile spreading across his face. "Now. The eternal flame."

Godric tracked the faint thuds of their boots hitting the sand outside. The second the sound reached his ears, his gaze drifted back to Daren.

"Of course," Godric murmured, rising to his feet.

He spread his arms wide, and in that moment, the entire city beneath the sand erupted.

"It’s all yours."

Countless copies of Godric’s sword detonated in unison, erupting into a sea of violet fire. The flame spread like a wildfire, tearing through every street, pillar, and foundation of the ancient city before surging upward into the spine of the tower.

Daren realised what had happened a moment too late. Rage twisted his face as he grabbed a dagger from his desk and lunged forward, desperate to strike Godric down once and for all.

But before the steel could even reach him, the floor beneath their feet turned into nothing.

A pillar of purple flame rose straight to the sky.

Godric felt gravity vanish. As the final trace of mana drained completely from his body, his consciousness slipped away, leaving him in a complete, silent freefall into the fire below.

Outside, Raven stumbled across the shifting crimson dunes, her eyes locked onto the horizon. She watched in horror as the only part of the city visible above the desert, the peak of the dark spire, was consumed by the roaring violet light.

"Godric!" she screamed.

And in that split second, the world went completely dark. Not just for her, but for every soul trapped inside the dungeon gate.

Raven’s eyes snapped open with a sharp, ragged gasp.

Her knees buckled, and she dropped hard onto the cold tile floor of an Elyune Academy corridor. The blinding sunlight streaming through the tall glass windows hurt her eyes. The dry, suffocating heat of the desert was gone, replaced by the familiar, clean scent of polished stone.

Passing students halted in their tracks, blinking in absolute disbelief. Within seconds, the distant clatter of boots signalled the arrival of academy faculty, but Raven saw none of it.

Her breath hitched as her gaze drifted to the young man lying motionlessly on the tiles beside her.

Godric was pale, covered in pieces of burned fabric, and completely unmoving.

"Godric..." Raven whispered.

She crawled forward and collapsed over him, resting her head against his chest. Beneath her ear, after a long, agonising second of silence, his heart beat in a slow, steady rhythm.

He was breathing.

He had dragged them all through hell, stopped a tyrant’s rule, and survived the fall.

"Your head’s heavy," he suddenly murmured.

Raven pulled back, her face inches from his as she stared straight into his deep blue eyes.

A shaky, disbelieving laugh escaped her lips as her hands landed on both sides of his face. "You’re an idiot," she whispered, her voice cracking. "A completely suicidal idiot."