After the ceremony, Miko and everyone else gathered in the palace.

“Man, I was sweating back there. I never expected for you to pick a fight with our citizens like that.”

Leon said to Miko.

“It’s not like I can start being friendly with them after all this time.”

Miko answered while Sasha wrapped his cut hand with a bandage.

“You’re really good at manipulating emotions.”

Celine approached him.

“I haven’t seen in you in years and you’ve grown to resemble Nero in more than looks.”

“Why, thank you for complimenting my genes.”

Celine frowned and looked at Nero.

“I didn’t manipulate anyone I just spoke the truth. I didn’t tell a lie during my speech. I will slaughter anyone that stands in my way. Regardless if they're family or stranger.”

“That is the right way to do things.”

Marcel approached Miko.

“In a situation like this, weakness and indecisiveness are unwanted. Kill when you must kill, that’s the only way to achieve victory.”

(Marcel Dragna, I haven’t met him since I last visited Niflheim. As expected of Karim, Dario, and Rin’s father…He gives off quite the pressure. He’s closer to Andreas than Rouge in terms of personality though.)

Miko showed Marcel a smirk.

“It good to have people who agree with me.”

At that moment, six lights appeared in front of Miko. From them came Tiamat and the Guardian Beasts.

“How did it go?”

“It took some time since we didn’t have Gaius but we were able to do it.”

Tia answered Miko with a bit of exhaustion on her face. Miko, on the other hand, had a look of excitement.

“That’s great. That’s marvelous news.”

He looked at the Guardian Beasts.

“You all did great.”

They nodded.

“What’s going on? Why are you suddenly so excited?”

Joesph asked Miko, who showed a huge grin.

“Gather everyone from the Golden and Catastrophic Generations. Gramps, tell Falkon to bring his children too.”

Miko started walking away.

“We’re heading into the Clan Treasury.”

After everyone was gathered, Miko led them down the stairway which led to the treasury underneath the palace. The golden stairs glowed in the dark and illuminated their path in the dark space.

“I came here once before with Momo and Tia to retrieve Ishma. Normally, only Gramps who is the emperor can enter but not even him was allowed to take anything out.”

“That’s because the treasury was built to store treasure discovered or plundered by the leader of the empire. My master loved beautiful things so he built a room to store them.”

Tia nodded to what Joesph said.

“However, there’s more to the story.”

At that moment, the place lit up and everything became clear to them. They saw a corridor and a giant black door at the end. They quickly approached it and saw that it had an insignia of a red eye on it. Tia walked up to the door and placed her hand on it. The door suddenly opened with a deafening sound. A golden light rushed out and further illuminated the corridors.

“Let’s go.”

Tia walked in with everyone following behind her.

“Woah.”

Inside the treasure vault was huge. What they saw inside was a world of riches. There were mountains of gold and jewels. There were all kinds of weaponry hang up in glass cases. Some beautiful and attractive. Some crude and terrifying. There were countless suits of armor on display, all in glass cases with labels. To the sides, there were hundreds of bookshelves with books that gave off an ancient aura. There were also scroll racks with thousands of scrolls. There was also a lot of art like sculptures and statues.

Although it was a treasury, there wasn't only gold, there were legendary weapons, priceless training manuals, magic books that held the secret techniques of the clan made by Augustus and his five generals, archives that recorded what happened during the war, and most importantly, the bodies of Augustus and his five children are immortalized into gold statues here. Tia and the group stopped before these statues.

“My master…”

Joesph kneeled before Augustus’s statue. Nero and his cousins kneeled before their parents’ statues. Soon, everyone except Miko, Tia, Ace, and Sora were kneeling.

“Do you not care about things like this either?”

Ace whispered to Miko.

“It would be wrong to kneel when I feel no reverence to these people.”

Miko leaped and landed in front of Augustus’ statue.

“What are you doing?”

Miko didn’t answer Joesph and continued to look at the statue.

“Heh.”

He released a low chuckle and turned to face everyone.

“How is your first visit to the treasury? Was your mind blown? Was it an otherworldly experience? Regardless if it was or not, it’s time to say goodbye.”

“Goodbye? This isn't the destination? I thought that we would use what’s in here to strengthen the empire?”

“What’s in here is good but not enough to take on the world. We’ll use this to strengthen our soldiers but not our main forces.”

Tia approached the statues while answering Alexus.

“To take on the world, we must use the true resources of the Dragna Clan.”

Miko placed his hand on Augustus’s statue.

“We must begin our return to the pinnacle.”

Augustus’s statue lit up which caused people to back away. The statues of his five children lit up one after the other. The treasury started to rumble.

“What the hell is happening?!”

“I have no idea.”

“Huh?!”

Everyone looked at Miko with shocked faces.

“I know that something’s here but I don’t know what will happen if you try to get it this way.”

“Isn’t this bad?”

“Actually, compare to before when we tried it this is pretty calm.”

“Yeah. We were thrown into other dimensions, teleported into the sun, had our bodies distorted, frozen, etc…”

Sirrush and Lahmu’s comments caused the blood to drain from everyone’s faces.

“It took time but we got rid of most of the defensive mechanisms.”

Tia watched as Miko was enveloped in light.

*BAM!*

His body became a blur. Everyone turned around and saw Miko embedded in the wall. Blood leaked from every part of his body.

“Mi-”

*Boom!*

A thundering sound reverberated in the room. They turned their heads.

“You son of a….!”

Miko’s foot was pressing against a golden barrier protecting the statues. He was flung again but this time he was caught by Nero.

“Rouge!”

He called out to Rouge while squirming in Nero’s arms.

“Use your ring and touched the statue! It should be fine now, it just hit me with its last defense!”

Rouge nodded at the raging Miko.

(He’s pretty pissed. It must’ve really hurt.)

Rouge approached the statue of Augustus and placed his hand on it.

“?!”

Static ran through his body. Information started flowing into his head. He took his trembling hand off the statue.

“Augustus left two inheritances?”

“What?!”

Rouge’s words were like a bolt of thunder to those in the room.

“Are you sure, Rouge?!”

Even Joesph couldn’t stay calm. Rouge nodded.

“The ring just transferred this information to me.”

“Augustus is no fool. He wouldn’t leave one inheritance and made it so that only someone with the Ruler’s Contract can use it.”

Nero let go of Miko who had calmed down.

“He prepared another inheritance, one that can only be accessed by the Dragna Clan Leader. The problem is that this inheritance was harder to obtain because you needed a being known as Gaius to open it. If a Clan Leader was chosen before she made a contract with Krow then she would serve that person and not him.”

Tia explained.

“Wait, Lady Tiamat. Did you know about this? Did my master tell you?”

“No, Augustus didn’t tell me. Ajax did.”

“My brother did?”

Ishma spoke up.

“It was after the war. He found me before I went back to the Summit of Gods, and told me about it. Apparently, it’s just insurance. He also said that I should only tell people I believe can revive the empire’s glory. So I told Miko.”

“Wait, wait, wait. My brother’s alive?! I heard he died in the war!”

Tia shook her head.

“I don’t know his or the other Generals’ statuses. However, when I last met them they all had fatal wounds…”

“I see.”

Ishma became dejected. Regis comforted her from the side.

“Wait, is the inheritance in the statues?”

“No, the statues are to serve as a portal to the real Treasury. The one we’re standing in is just for show.”

“Then why was I stored here?”

“Because it would be easier for you to find a partner.”

Miko answered Ishma as he approached the statues again.

“Rouge, do you know how to open the portal?”

Rouge nodded and placed his ring hand on the torso of Augustus’s statue.

“By the name of Augustus, show me the path to victory!”

The room was dyed in light causing everyone to close their eyes. When they opened them they were transported to a room filled with bookshelves that stretched on for miles.

“Are we in a library?”

Everyone started looking around in wonder. Miko grabbed the book nearest to him. He opened it and started reading. His eyes widen. He started flipping through the book as fast as he could while reading the pages. He closed when it was done. The book lit up and transformed into a dagger.

“I see.”

“What just happened?”

Miko grinned.

“These books contain lost techniques from all the eras, not only the primal era. Not only that, inside them are treasures matching the technique taught in the books. Once you’ve learned the technique, you’ll obtain the treasure.”

Miko showed off the dagger in his hand.

“This was forged from the bones of an extinct demonic beast. The book contained information on how to forge it and blades of similar quality. Once it was confirmed that I understood what I read, I obtained the dagger. Since I already had this knowledge it didn’t take long.”

Miko threw the dagger to Rouge, who started to inspect it. He rubbed his fingertip on the blade.

“…Incredible. It can’t kill them but this blade can cut a Divine Being without using magic to strengthen it.”

“The bone it’s made from has anti-magic properties. So unless you protect yourself with Vita, it will cut through magical defenses.”

Miko explained.

“Amazing. You’re telling me that all these books have similar treasures inside them? They have to be millions of books here.”

“Yes, but this is definitely a different type of inheritance from the one Krow has.”

“What do you mean?”

Kirika asked.

“From what I heard, Augustus’s Inheritance is supposed to save the empire from a crisis. This is amazing but for a different reason. This inheritance is for raising future generations. It will take years to see results.”

“That is true. After all, if you don’t master what is taught in the books you won’t obtain the treasures inside. Also, it’ll take time to find what is compatible with each person.”

Nero agreed with Miko.

“I believe it’s like this. The inheritance in Krow’s possession has Augustus’s techniques and weapons he used in his lifetime. This inheritance has techniques meant to groom the next generation. The Present and the Future. Both are equally as important which is why they were meant to complement each other. The first Inheritance will breed another Augustus, while the second one will breed warriors who will walk their own path.”

Everyone started to realize how farsighted the man known as Augustus really was.

“It might seem like we got the bad end of the stick but that’s not true.”

Miko took another book.

“This library will ensure that the Dragna Empire will reign for a very long time.”

“However, we still have the problem of our enemies soon coming after us.”

Andreas said.

“We need to strengthen our current forces or we won’t have a future.”

“Don’t worry. We have time.”

Miko showed three fingers.

“Three years, give me three years and I can use this library to make the entire Golden Generation reach the Divine Realm.”

Everyone’s eyes widened.

“Do you think it’s impossible? Well, I don’t. During the War For Supremacy, it was the norm for people their age to reach the Divine Realm. It wasn’t because they were more talented back then, it was because of the environment they lived in. They had to grow stronger to survive. We will replicate the achievements of that era using the knowledge Augustus left behind. We’re already fighting for survival after all.”

“Do you think our enemies will wait that long?”

“New Era will. Think about it. Why haven’t they come to destroy us yet? It’s because they would lose too many resources trying to eradicate us. Why? Because we still have members who they aren’t confident they can defeat without risking their lives. They’ll need to make preparations and gather their strength. After all, they must also think about what happens after they fight us. If they win and are too weak to defend themselves from the rest of the world, then only destruction awaits them.”

Miko smirked.

“I’m certain that they won’t make any major moves on us for at least a few years. We’ll use that time to strengthen ourselves.”

“And what about the rest of the world?”

“Are there any other organizations out there that would risk an all-out war with an empire with 3 Deiciders, at least 5 Divine Proxies, at least a dozen people who rival that strength, and their numerous allies?”

Miko shrugged.

“I can’t think of anyone who’s crazy enough or hate us to such an extent that they would attempt that, among the few Powerhouses in the world that can take us. If you can think of anyone let me know.”

Everyone became silent. It was just as Miko said, they couldn’t think of anyone like that. However—

(You say that with a smile on your face, but I can sense it.)

Tia was looking at him with concern.

(I can sense that you’re worrying that there might actually be someone like that out there, who we aren’t aware of. A hidden assassin who is aiming for our heads while we’re oblivious.)

Miko showed a wry smile.

“If there was indeed someone like that out there, I officially have the worst luck in the world.”