Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

The moment after the buff man was transported to the farthest part of the Doxon Duchy where there was a teleportation circle to welcome his arrival, Rita, Lillian, and Jared fell to the ground.

All three took deep breaths to calm themselves.

Lillian was not even dwelling on the fact that her last resort to escape out of this tomb in case of a particular situation they were useless against was mow used up.

Once they could bear to stand, the Blood knight stood to her feet and stepped toward the floating key which she grabbed hold of and pulled off the pillar of light it had been in. The pillar of light had been responsible for its float in the first place.

Once the key was out of the pillar of light, it shut off, and along with that came the shut down of the Array.

While excited at their accomplishment (coming out on top in the battle royale) especially after Lillian and Rita had reaped so much essence (blood and sexual), neither of the three were overly eager to enter through the doors. At least not without recovering a fair bit of their Cosmic energy reserves as well as the ability to efficiently use their bloodlines (in the case of Lillian and Rita).

Also, they had no intentions of letting their spoils (all the spatial rings and treasures containing the stored arsenal of the dead) go to waste...

***

Hal watched, along with the seven others who had not been in a rush to go through the doors, as the raiders began attempting an exit out of the room of riches.

The puppets within did not let them go as they wished of course and went after all the deserters with the same intensity they had shown against the greedy dead.

Now, Hal was not against their greed.

He actually respected it.

After all, he was the same, if not worse.

That said, it was still quite funny to see them get smacked around by the puppets and it was funny to see them try and fail to bring down the puppets.

So rather than watch their attempts that he actually felt was bound to fail (including their escape attempts), he first turned his eyes to the other silver double doors and as his mind became filled with thoughts of his women going through challenges on the other side of those doors, he tried to contact them through telepathy.

Once again, the only one his telepathy was able to reach and interact with was Emily. His senses were shut off from the others.

Then he directed his thoughts to Sassy who was still wound around his arm,

"Reconnaissance" he said to her through their unique master-familiar telepathic connection and the serpent was quick to uncoil from his arm and perform reconnaissance by his command.

She made use of nothing more than her natural mobility and just as it had proven capable in evading human perception, her miniature serpent form once again proved itself.

None of the puppets gave me an inkling that she was noticed and that was after she went through the legs of one of them and slid over the leg of another.

Sassy successfully arrived at the other side of the door and she began wandering about its front and planned to eventually slither up protecting structures in search of what its point of entry could be.

While it was safe to assume that the key would be hidden just like the keys to the double doors, it did not hurt to search, and eventually, Sassy did find something, or more accurately, she triggered something...

She triggered a voice that spoke directly into her mind and as a consequence, thanks to the connection between her and her master, if spoke to Hal as well.

In fact, it seemed to target him specifically,

"HOW DARE YOU?"

The voice took Hal by surprise and he froze before his environs changed...

Suddenly, he was no longer standing before a doorway that led into a room of riches but in a white room with a man who looked to be in his forties.

The man was wearing a simple (in style) robe that was sewn with luxurious material and he looked at Hal with an expressionless smile.

Hal could tell that this was not real...

He was in an illusion and while he got the feeling that he could pull himself out of the illusion if he so wished, he did not want to... At least not yet.

Instead, he furrowed his brows ever so slightly as though to signal the man to get on with whatever he had to say rather than beat around the bush.

The man's expression did not change,

"You have some nerve. Breaking into my tomb and showing me attitude" the man said and Hal smirked,

"That's redundant. Am I supposed to show you respect after disturbing your final resting?" he asked.

The man shrugged,

"It's the least you could do"

Hal took a deep breath and eyed the man again while looking deeply into his dark eyes,

"Is there actually a point to this illusion. Are you going to attack me? Do you have some sort of ominous warning perhaps?" he asked.

The man nodded with his expression still the same and suddenly he was an inch away from Hal and his face was pressed closely to Hal's as he said,

"Actually yes, I do have a warning for you... Get out before it's too late"

It was quite intimidating and it actually had Hal rethinking his decision to come here. It had him considering getting the fuck out of the tomb while he indeed still could.

However, even while he had this thought, he would not be the man he was if he did not know how to hide his reactions, keep them to himself and smile cockily as he said,

"Ohhh, scary... Can't wait to see what else you try to keep me out of that clearly very important room..."

He was not even done with the statement that he was thrown out of the illusion and was back staring through the doorway at the room of riches...

Emily had noticed his lapse in attention and asked in a concerned tone through their telepathy,

"Are you alright?"

Hal nodded, both mentally as well as physically as he told her through telepathy,

"I'm fine. Be ready though... There is an intricate Array of Illusions in front of that door"

Lucile eyed both Hal and Emily as she noticed their peculiar behavior and Hal, sensing her attention on him, looked at her by his side and grinned.

Lucile rolled her eyes and looked away from him.

It was happening again.

He was with her but his attention was on other women.

Sure, he had come here with Emily whose grey eyes made it clear she was an Antonov and whose demeanor made it clear she was a high-class Antonov and that made it a little better than the last time she had been with Hal but still...

Anyway, her looking away was not only because she was pouting at Hal but also because at that moment, a beautiful young lady with emerald green eyes and sensuous curves suddenly materialized in the room of riches.

Not too far away from the door.

The lady who was none other than Sassy was dressed according to Doxon customs and looked to have no idea why she was in the room.

Sassy's confusion was real.

The illusion had mostly attacked Hal despite going through her but it had left her mind jumbled and before she could regain full control of her thinking faculties, she had reverted to her human form...

"Where the hell did she come from?" Ergo asked and Sassy's eyes were almost on Hal when one of the puppets noticed her and instantly turned on her.

*Bang*

It swung at her with its weapon and in a show of impressive agility and reflexes, Sassy leaped away.

She flexed her wrists and was suddenly wielding two daggers that were oozing the green mist of her toxic Serpent bloodline.

She wasted no time tossing her dagger at the puppet which deflected the weapon to the side and attempted another swing of its weapon...

This time, the alteration was catching the attention of other puppets who prepared to move in.

Sassy ignored them as she covered herself in scales to boost her defense and reduce the effect of the puppet's hit which connected...

*BAM!*

As she slid back while holding in a blood spurt, she flexed her hand and the dagger that had been spinning away upon deflection stopped spinning in mid-air with its blade pointing at the puppet and then pierced sharply towards the puppet's exposed armpit...

*Shingg!!!*

... The toxic Mist formed an added fortification for the weapon's piercing ability so that it went through the puppet with no issues only to come out of the other side.

The puppet who was attempting an attack paused and the glow in its eyes dimmed as it fell to its knees before then falling face-first.

The first puppet to be defeated in the room of riches...

Falling to the quietest attack thus far...

An attack worthy of Hal's familiar.