“Are you the brat who stole from me?” the male imperial asked in a threatening tone.

The question did not surprise Red, considering Reinhart had already revealed to him he was also aware of the fact the boy was responsible for that theft.

Red nodded. “It was me.”

The man smiled. “And did you make good use of those talismans?”

The boy nodded again. “We used some of them to kill your other companions.”

“You what?!” the female imperial stared at him in anger.

It looked like she was about to charge at the boy, but her companion held her back.

The imperial measured him with a skeptical gaze. “There’s no way they would lose to someone as weak as you.”

“You’re right.” Red nodded. “I had help, though… Here I can show you proof.”

He took out a compass from his pouch, showing it to the imperials.

“This is what you were using to navigate in the trial, wasn’t it?” Red asked.

The woman’s face twisted in anger once she saw the item. “You cultivator scum, I’ll kill you!”

“Enough!” her companion once more held her back. He was also staring at Red with hostility, but unlike the woman, it didn’t seem like the man was about to lose his cool.

“What do you expect to do by telling us this?” the imperial asked. “Do you just intend on angering us and making the few remaining minutes of your life that much more painful?”

“I was just hoping to learn why you were here.” the boy said.

Red was actually just trying to buy time as he came up with a plan, but he wasn’t about to let the imperials know that.

“You are not the one asking questions here.” the man shot him down. “Tell us how you got this far and we’ll make your death as painless as possible.”

Red nodded. “Sure, what do you want to know?”

He put on a cooperative guise, but the boy’s mind was trying to come up with countless plans on how to get out of this situation alive. Unfortunately for him, the two imperials were watching him like hawks, and Red felt that the slightest movement of his part might end up with him dead.

‘What do I do?’

“How did you get past the snake?” the man asked.

“One of the bandits told us how to do it.” Red said.

“Useless scum.” the man frowned. “And how exactly did you manage to get to the mountain this quickly?"

“I used the compass.” the boy said.

“Don’t lie to me.” the imperial pointed his glowing sword at the boy. “You have no idea how to make it work, and the others would never tell you.”

He wasn’t wrong about that. Red thought about lying further, but he didn’t want to enrage the man any more.

“I used the tornadoes.” Red said. “They were the solution to finding those invisible buildings.”

“I see…” the man nodded with a satisfied expression. “And the fog? How did you pass it?”

“I sneaked through.”

The man frowned again. “If necessary, we can wring the information out of you by force.”

This time, Red hesitated. That was, however, when he felt a familiar fluctuation enter his crimson sense. He felt compelled to look over in the direction it came from, but the boy didn’t want to give it away to his opponents.

“We’re wasting our time.” the female imperial said. “We should just torture him until he speaks.”

Her companion seemed to be considering the idea, but he seemed hesitant. Red guessed this was because he was afraid the boy might be hiding something, or that someone else might be around to support him. This was a reasonable concern. After all, someone who had made it this far in the trial would have their own powers to rely on.

Red decided to play on those fears.

“The spirit let me through.” he said.

“The spirit?” the man looked surprised.

“Yes.” Red nodded. “It said you had an unfair advantage over the other competitors, so it let me through the last few trials.”

The imperial was skeptical. “The spirit would never do that!”

“I thought so too. But it was apparently angry at how you were using those compasses and how you knew all the trials challenges before coming in.”

What Red said was half-true. The lion at the gate said something to that effect to him. The boy just decided to embellish it a bit.

It apparently had an effect on the imperials as expressions of doubt came to them. In the meantime, Red felt the fluctuation getting closer to them. The boy didn’t know if the appearance of this individual on the scene would benefit him or not, but it was his only hope of getting out of this.

“How do we know you’re speaking the truth?” the male imperial asked with a grave tone.

“I would have never made it this far without their help.” Red said. He had actually passed through the fog on his own, but he wasn’t certain he would have made it inside the mountain if that stone lion didn’t let him through.

This seemed to be enough to convince the man, as his expression became overwritten with concern.

“This is not right, Dumas!” the woman looked at her companion with a distressed expression. “The ancestor would never do this to us! He sent us his visions!”

The man’s frown deepened. However, a resolute expression came to him a few moments later. “There is no room for doubt, Vega. We don’t know if this child is telling the truth, and even if he is, there must be a reason for the ancestor’s actions.”

“R-Right!” the woman nodded with a flustered look. “I will not doubt the ancestor’s will again!”

Red observed the whole interaction with slight curiosity. Still, his primary concern was still on how to get out of this place alive. He sensed the fluctuation had stopped moving and was within fifty meters of them, seemingly unnoticed by the imperials.

Red didn’t know what they were waiting for, but he knew he had to buy more time.

“You said you are from the Water Dragon Sect, correct?” the imperial asked him again.

Red nodded.

The man frowned. “Red hair, no older than 10… You are the kid that arrived in town a few months ago, aren’t you?”

The boy didn’t respond. He didn’t like where this conversation seemed to be headed.

The woman looked at her companion with surprise. “Dumas, are you suggesting…?”

The man raised his hand to interrupt her. He examined Red with a steely gaze. “Are you the slave we have been looking for?”

Red felt his stomach sink. He refused to respond, but that seemed to be enough confirmation for the imperial.

“In retrospect, we should have looked further into you.” the man said. “We were quick to dismiss you as the slave since the information we were given mentioned that they were a powerful and dangerous individual… We thought a child like you didn’t fit such a description, and yet, here you are - one of the only survivors of this trial.”

“… What do you want from me?” Red asked.

“We have been ordered to capture and bring you back to our superiors. In case that wasn’t possible, then we should exterminate you through any possible means...” the man’s grip around his sword tightened. “It just so happens there’s no real way to imprison anyone inside this trial, is there?”

The boy knew what he meant. The hawk had said once the trial was done, it would teleport everyone out of it back to the general region where they entered. This meant you couldn’t really force anyone to remain your prisoner once this trial was done, and this in turn only meant one thing for Red.

He tensed, his hand hovering over the purple arrow-head.

“You shouldn’t fight back.” the man shook his head. “Since you cooperated, I promise to make the last moments of your life as painless as possible.”

The imperial started to walk forward, while his companion took out a talisman and stared at Red. She was waiting for any sudden movements.

The boy braced himself and prepared to put up a last struggle against the imperials, when he felt the recently arrived fluctuation move. This was immediately accompanied by shrill laughter.

“Ack! Look what we have! Foolish imperials! All lost, far from home!”

“Who’s there?!” the man swiveled around in search of the source of the voice.

A small monkey hopped out from behind a pile of rocks. What stood out in the creature, though, was the fact its body seemed to be rotting and yet it could still move and talk.

“Undead!” the female imperial exclaimed, throwing her talisman at the monkey.

Another blade of wind formed out of thin air and shot towards the small animal. The monkey didn’t even have time to move before its body disintegrated under the wind energy in a shower of gore.

Red’s eyes twitched. Was his supposed savior dead just like that?

A few moments later, though, he sensed another fluctuation enter his crimson sense.

A vulture similar to the ones they had fought in the desert landed on one of the rocks up above, screeching in anger. This beast, too, seemed to be partially rotted.

“Rude, rude!” the undead vulture screamed at the imperials. “Idiot! Savage! Don’t interrupt when I speak!”

“This… How…” the woman stared at the creature in disbelief.

“It’s a necromancer.” her companion said with a serious expression.

The woman’s face fell, staring at the creature with caution and fear.

The vulture laughed. “That’s it! Fear me, flee from me! Ants should know superiors!”

“Undead scum!” the female imperial glared at the undead. “Creatures like you are a violation to life itself! You shouldn’t be permitted to live!”

The bird continued to laugh. “Then kill me! Kill me! Waste another talisman! How many you have?!”

The woman seemed on the verge of doing just that, but her companion held her back.

“We need to run.” he said.

The female hesitated, but ended up nodding.

They turned around and started to run towards the stairs Rickard had just ascended.

“NO! NO!” the bird screeched at them. “Was not done talking!”

Red felt even more fluctuations enter his detection range. Suddenly, from behind the stone walls surrounding the platform, dozens of undead vultures appeared out of nowhere, charging at the imperials.

“The other way!” the man said to his companion, as they both turned around and headed towards the other set of stairs leading to the foot of the mountain.

At the same time, the female imperial activated another talisman, and an omnidirectional barrier appeared around them. The undead vultures all clashed against the shield, scratching at it with their talons in an almost berserk state.

The shield stood for the moment, though, and the imperials made progress towards the stairs. They had even ignored Red on the way, who stood to the side watching the unfolding events.

The vulture perched on top of the rock screeched as it saw the imperials on the verge of escaping. “Said I was not done talking!”

Suddenly, Red felt even more fluctuations appear around him as additional undead vultures joined the fight. Within the flock, the boy felt some of these creatures were stronger than the others. When they appeared before his eyes, Red was able to confirm it by their enormous sizes compared to their brethren.

These were vulture zombies in the Lesser Ring Realm. There were almost a dozen of them, too.

These birds came crashing down onto the shield. Soon enough, Red couldn’t even see the imperials under the countless birds that surrounded them, pecking and clawing at their protection. The imperials didn’t seem to be advancing any longer under this overwhelming siege.

The sounds of screeching from the undead vultures were almost deafening, and the boy had to cover his ears. He couldn’t see what was happening to the imperials, but soon enough he started to hear sounds of struggle and the light of talisman from beneath the bird pile.

It was to no avail, though. As some of the monsters fell, Red saw more of them fly from beyond the stone wall to reinforce their companions. It was a ruthless strategy of throwing bodies at your opponents, and there was nothing the imperials could do to fight back no matter how many talismans they had.

Almost a minute later, the sounds of struggle stopped. The zombie birds flew back, landing around the platform and away from the center of the struggle.

Red could finally see what had become of the imperials. There were only unrecognizable bits and pieces of gore strewn around the ground, and even their plate armor and equipment had been torn and destroyed to an unrecognizable state. The undead army had left nothing behind.

The vulture perched atop the stone wall laughed. “It’s what you get! Be more respectful next life!”

Red looked over at the creature. At this point, he didn’t feel the slightest bit of apprehension or fear from being surrounded by these zombie vultures. After all, what could he do against this kind of opponent?

“Long time no see, kid!” the vulture looked at him. “Knew you’d come! Now… Let’s talk!”