An Order Knight led the way with Murphy following close behind, passing through the still-uncleared area of the Central Tower.
The air was still thick with the stench of gunpowder and blood. The groans of the wounded and the sounds of soldiers moving corpses rose and fell in waves.
In the stone passage leading to the upper levels of the Inner Castle, torchlight flickered on the walls, stretching their shadows long and then short.
Just as Murphy’s right foot was about to step into the passage’s shadow.
HUMMM!
An extrely faint tremor passed by without any warning.
And then, the entire world... froze.
The Order Knight in front was frozen in his posture of leading the way, the respectful expression on his face solidified. His raised right foot hung in mid-air, a few inches from the ground.
A corner of his cape behind him was fixed in the air as if held by an invisible nail, completely motionless.
The dancing flas of the torches on the passage walls beca solidified, amber-like shapes of orange-yellow.
The dust motes floating in the air were locked in place, clearly visible.
The faint groans and shouts from the distance stopped abruptly, replaced by an absolute, dead silence.
No, it wasn’t completely still.
Murphy, and the scabbard at his waist.
Or rather, there was still movent in the area imdiately around him.
Murphy stopped in his tracks. His eyes turned icy in an instant, his muscles tensed, and his Qi was already surging silently through his ridians. His perception sharpened to its absolute peak.
He slowly turned his head, his gaze as sharp as a sword, sweeping to his side.
Three paces away, in the shadows of a bend in the passage, a person had appeared at so unknown point.
The man wore simple, iron-gray casual clothes. He was tall and stood straight, his hands clasped behind his back.
His gray-blue eyes watched Murphy calmly, as if he had been waiting there for a long ti.
The Ironspine Duke, Hakon Perik.
He stood there, out of place with the frozen space-ti around him, yet he also seed to blend perfectly into the absolute silence, becoming one of the only two "living" parts of this still tableau.
There were no Energy Fluctuations, no signs of spatial distortion. He had simply appeared, silent and unseen, as if he had been there from the very beginning.
"Governor of lfield," Duke Hakon began, his voice level and exceptionally clear in the dead silence. "There’s no need to be tense. I have co only to put your mind at ease."
Murphy’s expression remained impassive, but his gaze grew several degrees colder. "At ease? At ease about what?"
His voice was equally clear, echoing in the frozen space-ti.
A faint, inscrutable smile touched the corners of Duke Hakon’s mouth.
He did not answer directly, instead stepping slowly out of the shadows to stand before Murphy.
His steps were steady. He walked on the "frozen" dust without leaving any footprints.
"Living creatures tend to seek advantages and avoid harm. That is their nature," Duke Hakon said slowly. "But humans, especially people like you, sotis make choices that seem to court danger and shun benefit. This is not foolishness. It is because so-called ’advantages’ and ’disadvantages’ are never absolute, but a matter of subjective balance."
He paused, his gaze fixed on Murphy’s face.
"You clearly knew that Blackstone Fortress is not a safe place. The dangers of the Deep Red Wilderness, the unknown behind the Plane Passage, and even the tangled web of powers within this very fortress... With the ability and wisdom you have shown, it would not have been difficult for you to stay away."
"But you ca. And you ca back." His voice was soft, yet it carried imnse force. "And you did so in a manner that was almost a declaration, returning to this collapsing battlefield as a Legend. Why?"
His gray-blue eyes narrowed slightly.
"It’s because of the Monte Territory, isn’t it? That barren land into which you’ve poured your heart and soul, the subjects who trust you, and your most important family. They are your ’advantages,’ and also your ’disadvantages.’ Protecting them is your ’subjective balance.’"
The humming from the scabbard at Murphy’s waist had, at so point, quieted down, becoming exceptionally still.
"Did you go to the trouble of enlightening just to say this, Lord Duke?" Murphy’s voice was still flat. "Or do you have so special opinion or arrangent concerning this subjective balance I’ve chosen?"
Duke Hakon did not answer imdiately.
He looked up slightly at the stone ceiling, illuminated by the frozen flas, as if lost in reminiscence.
"In a ti long, long ago," his voice grew distant, "when the world of Wizards had just given birth to the first glimr of civilization, there was a group of people... They walked a Path completely different from that of most seekers of knowledge and explorers."
"Wizards pursue knowledge and power, understand the laws of the world, and even glimpse the trajectory of fate."
"But that group of people, they did not focus on ’what is’ or ’why it is,’ but rather... ’how it should be.’"
"How it should be?" Murphy’s eyes flickered.
"Yes, ’how it should be.’" Duke Hakon’s gaze returned to Murphy. In the depths of his gray-blue eyes, countless stars seed to be born and die. "They observe, they asure, and they... intervene. Not for personal power or the continuation of a race, but to maintain a... balance... on a much grander scale."
"Balance?" Murphy’s brow furrowed slightly. "So, your balance is to open a Plane Passage to the Deep Red Wilderness, let monsters run rampant, and destroy the Continent?"
Duke Hakon let out a low laugh.
There was no offense or anger in his laughter, but rather a kind of detachnt, as if he were looking down upon the mortal world.
"Destruction? Creation? To judge the work of a Balance Keeper by mortal standards of good and evil, of gain and loss, is a grave fallacy." He shook his head. "Our work is far more complex than that, and far colder."
His voice beca calm and solemn.
"The work of a Balance Keeper includes building reefs of order in the ceaseless maelstrom of chaotic planes, cultivating the seeds of life in primordial voids devoid of living things, and imprisoning world-shattering brute force within reasonable shackles."
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