Roxy's Shop...

Roxy was in his basement workshop where he had been for the past two days as he worked on making accurate adjustments to his Closed void scroll and felt he was getting ever closer to success when the first set of his trap runes went off upstairs.

Immediately, he began climbing up the stairs to where the intruder was.

He was careful to be light on his feet so as not to alert the intruder to his presence before any actual use of cultivation senses.

The first set of traps had shut the whole top floor down and completely shut out any light from the outside and that sent the room into perpetual darkness.

"State your Purpose here" Roxy said as he was now on the controlling Rune circle of the many trap Arrays in his shop and even as he asked for a statement of purpose, he was already activating the array's offensive powers.

"She said you would be unreasonable and possibly shoot on sight but I never thought it would be this bad" said a deep voice before there was a bright glow, following which the Rune attacks completely shut down.

The windows even opened up and cast the room into the brightness of the afternoon.

The light revealed the intruder to be a tall and buff man with rippling muscles.

Roxy took a battle stance as he frowned at how his Rune traps had been deactivated.

He still had some that were not yet in use but he had been hiding out and had been paranoid long enough to know it was pointless to use it now as the cause of the deactivation was none other than the energy of a semi saint which Rune attacks were useless against.

That said, he had other contingencies planned for this sort of situation.

A rune circle rolled out from a corner of the store and joined the one he had been using to control the traps.

Immediately, Cosmic energy in the atmosphere began to converge around him,

"I don't know who the hell you are, but... I'm not going down without a fight." He said and his frown deepened.

The intruder pointed the seal in his hand towards the Runemaster,

"Calm down old man, I'm Ehrlich, the princess sent me." Ehrlich said and after a closer look at the seal, Roxy concurred but his frown did not lessen,

"Why didn't you say that in the first place. Activating these Arrays are tiring, you know"

"I apologize" Ehrlich said as Roxy relaxed his stance to lead the way down to his basement.

While they walked, Ehrlich asked,

"The map. Is it with you?"

Roxy seemed to find the question amusing as he turned to face the tall and buff man,

"Why would it be? It wasn't me who stole it, was it?" He asked.

Ehrlich exhaled as an expression of his impatience.

He had planned to just drop by, get the map and return to the princess before the day was over.

He did not particularly like being in the Doxon Duchy.

"Well, the moment I arrived, I attempted contacting him but for some reason, I cannot seem to connect with his communication Talisman. Where is he?" He asked

Roxy shrugged,

"Who knows. It is hardly my business what he does with his time. Whatever business I had with him ended the moment he arrived here safely after getting the map." He said and then paused before taking on a thoughtful expression,

"Although, I hear almost every youngster who is at the Cosmic phenomenon realm and Cosmic Aurora realm is at the Garden of Peril attempting to get the Primal fruit that is said to have grown there" he added almost like an afterthought before bending down to peer even harder at the scroll on his work desk.

"Garden of Peril. What's that?" Ehrlich asked

"Oh, it's just a treasure trove for cultivation resources where chances of survival are very low. However, if one can brave the dangers, the rewards are quite enticing.

It's hard to tell if the kid will return alive"

All this, Roxy said with a nonchalance that Ehrlich found hard to agree with,

"If he dies, what becomes of the map?" He asked.

Once again Roxy shrugged,

"I reckon it will be on his body awaiting retrieval. If you prove brave enough to attempt the retrieval, that is. You happen to fall quite nicely in the category of those who lose their lives in the Garden."

Ehrlich frowned but said nothing.

Eventually, Roxy looked up from his project,

"So, what are you going to do? Are you going there? Cause if you are, I can offer you directions. Your presence here is distracting me anyway..."

Once again, Ehrlich said nothing as he looked unable to make a decision.

...

Meanwhile, in the Garden,

Proclaiming that they were not at the center and that they were going to slip away to find the actual center and get the Primal fruit had been easy for Hal, however, the situation proved not to be cooperative with his plans.

The Antonov brothers did not face Hal and his ladies. After all, they might dislike Amelia but she was still an Antonov (half an Antonov at least) and they had no real intentions of killing her.

Putting her down was very much on the table but killing was not.

Besides, there was so much more at stake now than petty dislike.

The one who tossed the first attack to Hal was Vihaan. (No surprise there)

The battle royale was truly off to a carnage start as people did not fight just for the Primal fruit, no, the fruit was now at the back of their minds.

What they fought for was survival.

They needed to survive.

The situation finally let it sink into many of their heads that family name and power were not helpful when they were truly alone... And when your fate is to be decided by a psychopathic freak who grins with joy at the brutal wrenching loss of body parts.

Cosmic Aurora realm cultivators among those present could not truly take advantage of their superior cultivation as there were other cosmic Aurora who challenged their strength and drew them into grueling one on one battles.

However, one on one battles soon lost any appeal after a cosmic Aurora realm expert nearly lost his life to the partnership of the Kruger brothers.

Brad was at the Cosmic Aurora realm and challenged the Cosmic Aurora expert but it had only being to distract him so that his brother Bray could attempt to pierce the Cosmic Aurora expert's chest from behind.

The way they saw it, it did not matter which realm of cultivation their opponent was, as long as they could get to stab said opponent in the heart.

Their plan actually had a bit of merit.

The distraction had worked well enough and the target was only able to survive thanks to his constant use of Cosmic energy to shield his body.

However, there was no rest for the weary as Bray yelled cheerfully,

"So close. Let's go again. One more time. I have a good feeling about this one."

"Young masters Brad and Bray, be careful" said a fairly older man who was fending off attacks from another Cosmic Aurora realm expert and was one of the experts of the Kruger family and had come along for extra protection.

He was not the only bodyguard present of course as many were actually thanking their lucky stars for the foresight that had seen them bringing guards as they were now proving quite handy.

Anyway,

Hal summoned his Cosmic Armament in a second and cut through the cosmic attack that had come from Vihaan and was quick to deflect the one that came after with the flat side of his blade.

He sighed in annoyance as their surroundings were suddenly filled with battling people and he groaned at the inability to leave here and search for the garden center.

Maybe others were panicking but Hal and his ladies were not.

You see, while the Garden prevented communication-talisman signals, it did not prevent Hal's telepathic connection with his ladies.

He had already told Emily of the situation in the Garden but told her not to move in an attempt to protect them just yet.

When she asked why, he simply said he saw no reason to do so until things were really desperate.

'When things are desperate? There's a gardener intent on killing all of you. How much more desperate can it get?' She had asked with a slight hint of panic in her voice.

'First off, this gardener doesn't fear semi saints which means he has enough confidence to at the very least hold them off' Hal had argued.

'Then I'll bring a Saint' Emily said determinedly.

'Or you can calm down and stand by. If things get too upsetting, I will contact you. I just wanted you to be ready.'

He cut off the connection then.

"Die Bastard" Vihaan yelled and boosted his speed with an explosive blast of cosmic energy.

However, while he did become fast, he lacked the ability to change course and a sidestep saw him running past Hal who took his time to blast him in the back with a Cosmic attack imbued with a cosmic phenomenon.

"Ahhh" Vihaan yelled as he was hit into the ground by the attack.

He rolled and returned to his feet quickly while ignoring his pain but Hal was no longer where he was before.

"What the...?" He began to look around to spot him but before he could complete his look-around,

*Bam!*

Hal was punching the side of his face.

"Ack" he groaned.

"Vihaan" Delaney yelled and ran to his side along with others from their group. Those from her family as well as Vihaan's.

They were quite a number.

Hal relented his pursuit to continue going on the attack as he had a sudden idea.

He looked over at Amelia and Karmen who were making subtle use of their Demonic bloodlines to imbue themselves and work in a partnership to hold back attackers and if possible, defeat them.

"Everyone, listen up. Before you go completely nuts and kill each other, this is not the Center of the Garden" he said in a loud voice that only those in his area really heard.

However, many would soon notice something when his side stopped battling in confusion,

"What are you talking about?" Cheslav asked with a frown, sporting a few bruises.

Hal turned to him but spoke in a still loud voice,

"This is not the center of the garden. We are being tricked" he said.

"And how do you know that?" Jelena asked.

Hal shrugged,

"Simple, look at the ground"