Nameless King

Wain, Ern, Erza, and Alas were in no hurry to intervene in the duel. They were regaining their strength while watching the battle of three different races.

Axalt's group was winning thanks to one of them. Their main fighter was a tall guy with long red hair and eyes as dark as the abyss. He wore a scarlet robe with simple bandage shoes.

"Surrender. If you leave now, I will spare you, otherwise, prepare to die!" He exclaimed as he slammed his fists against each other, creating a fiery wave.

"Damn! Why is he so strong!" Some Construct exclaimed.

"Looks like we have no choice. Let's go!" The leader of the band Plants shouted.

They quickly left, so only Axalts were left at the root.

"Yang Li, you are the strongest as always!" The girl beside him muttered as she clung tightly to him, "What would we do without you? It's much more dangerous here than we thought."

"I warned you about this. This is the Forgotten Forest, this is not something funny. I won't always be able to protect you, you must be careful as you could get killed." Yang Li said calmly.

"Don't worry. No one can defeat you anyway." The girl smiled.

Yang Li nodded. He looked around as he still felt threatened even though his two opponents had left the battlefield. Yang Li looked up as he noticed two people, an Elf sitting on a root and a girl with long black and red hair. She smiled back at him as she waved her hand.

'Who is it...?' Yang Li muttered anxiously to himself.

'Whooooooooooosh.

Suddenly, two blurry silhouettes appeared next to him.

Yang Li instantly reacted as he pushed the girl aside and tried to attack, but no sooner had he made half a turn than the silhouettes put their hands on his shoulders, so they pressed him tightly to the ground.

"Don't move." Ern smirked, "Otherwise, you won't get out of here, believe me."

"Who are you?!" Yang Li exclaimed furiously as he tried to stand up, but he could not move even slightly despite his immense strength.

"Where is the key?" Wain calmly asked.

"The key? What key? I don't know what you're talking about!" Yang Li exclaimed.

"You shouldn't lie." Wain said coldly, "You are in the test area, and you are the strongest here, so you definitely passed the test. You have the key, if you want to survive, then give it to me." Wain uttered as he pressed Yang Li's hand tightly against his back so hard that he had to kick lightly to break it.

"Wait, wait!" Yang Li exclaimed, "I really don't know what you're talking about. I came here just a few minutes ago because I saw pillars of smoke from afar. I thought something interesting was going on here, but other than the Plants and Constructs group, I didn't see anything else! I swear!"

Wain was silent as he looked at Ern. He wasn't sure how he should have acted in such a situation. Unfortunately, he couldn't read minds.

"Well... I know one proven way." Ern sighed as he grabbed Yang Li by the hair, "Swear to your Spirit that you don't have the key."

Yang Li frowned as his gaze grew serious, "I don't have the key. Swear on my Spirit."

"Okay, he's not the one we need. Let's get out of here." Ern lost all interest in him, loosened his grip and his silhouette blurred.

"Why did you decide to let him go?" Wain asked as he appeared behind Ern.

"You just know too little about the Axalts, their Spirit is the most precious thing they have. Perhaps Spirit is even more important to them than family. Spirit holds a special position in their society, almost sacred, so if you make an Axalt swear by their Spirit, the answer is sure to be true." Ern waved his hand.

"Doesn't that mean Axalts can always tell the truth?" Wain asked.

"Yeah... But, that only works if Axalts have no other choice since swearing to their Spirit is a serious humiliation for them."

"I see." Wain nodded.

"Hey! Why did you let him go?" Erza exclaimed as she ran up to them with a puzzled look.

"He doesn't have a key, that's for sure." Wain shook his head, "Frankly, it's disappointing. Looks like someone passed the test before he came and already took the key, so... I don't know where we're going. Finding the other keys was harder than I thought it would be."

Wain, Erza, Ern, and Alas stayed at the root. They had nowhere to go in a hurry, so they decided to wait a while. The Great Tree had a lot of exciting things going on all the time, with dozens of people fighting, being tested, and receiving rewards. Wain thought something might have clued them in on how to find the rest of the people with the keys.

"I'm sick of it!" Erza exclaimed, got up and slammed her fist on the root causing it to crack, "We've been sitting here for over twenty minutes, and all we do is watch others fight! It's like we have a cinema or a tea party here, although in that case, we're definitely missing popcorn or fucking tea!"

"Well... Maybe you're right, but I don't mind sitting here a little longer." Wain uttered with his hands behind his head lying down, "We have nowhere to rush. Sooner or later, the situation will become clearer. We just have to wait until we feel something or until someone finds us."

"This is too boring anyway!" Erza exclaimed.

"Instead of complaining, you'd better actually make us some tea." Ern grinned, "I have everything I need with me. What do you say?"

"Fuck you!"

Whooooooooooosh.

Suddenly a bright column of light appeared near their root, and a silhouette emerged from it.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Wain's ring trembled as two keys, Gluttony Key and Greed Key, appeared in front of him. They looked toward the silhouette like compass arrows.

"Looks like the universe heard your whining and decided to take pity on you." Wain smiled.