Sealed in Steel [ Tank Litrpg ]

When Elian left the fort, the fire nearby was put out. But other areas had started to blaze, the colors of the flames matching the sky as the sunset.

He stood on the tier of Vigor Hill, looking over the waist-high wall at the orange accenting the levels below. From here, part of Energy Hill was visible. There were also fires over there of different colors, probably caused by magic. He wagered other hills had their problems too.

The flying mages had a hard time putting out the flames and stopping riots because there were so many. People around Elian whispered in horror as the town descended into chaos. He had seen a couple of sports riots back on Earth. A riot over religion was much, much worse.

This was Thalman's doing, Elian was sure. Whatever the other priests did to restrict Thalman wasn't working, or he had set this up beforehand.

I'm going to find the answers I'm looking for, Elian thought, deciding to meet Thalman.

Before leaving Vigor Hill, he tried to look for Thorren. The innkeeper told him that the family of red-haired Rakhonites had already packed up and left. Reckless he may be, Thorren prioritized protecting his family. He must've sensed things would go bad quickly after seeing the commotions start.

"Thanks!" Elian said, waving to the innkeeper as he exited the door. "Keep yourself safe."

"I'm going to close for the day." The innkeeper shut the door. Elian heard bolts drawn on the other side.

Forge Hill didn't fare better than Vigor Hill. There were fewer fires because they were prepared for it, given the amount of forging, both magical and physical, going on here. Instead, they had plenty of masked looters, breaking into the stores, as the guards were preoccupied stopping a mass of red robes fighting an equally large number of blue robes in the town center.

Elian stuck to the alleyways. A couple of times, guards chased him, thinking he was one of the thieves. It was fortunately easy to lose his pursuers in the crowds. They found some other troublemakers to deal with.

The way to the southern gate was mostly empty because no one wanted to go that way.

The gate didn't have human guards—they may've been called elsewhere. A lone golem was posted there as a replacement. It opened its eye as Elian came close.

"I'm going to the Forbidden Temple," he told the golem. He hoped his message would reach Priestess Khalamundi and she'd realize something was wrong. "Thalman asked me to meet him there."

He didn't say any more because he didn't have anything solid on Thalman. Borlen and the others wouldn't back him up in front of the priests.

He didn't go to the temple for help because he didn't want to risk running into Thalman sympathizers. They must be out there, causing these troubles, following his instructions before he was restrained by the other priests. That or Thalman had found a way to break free and his clones were free to materialize. Either way, Elian would just waste time heading to the temple. He wasn't even sure he could reach it; the guards that closed off Temple Hill wouldn't let him through.

Come meet me and Priest Ihadir today… That was Thalman's message that Borlen passed on.

Elian took the mention of Ihadir to mean that the overdosed hulk was currently assigned to guard Thalman. From the little Elian knew of Ihadir, he wouldn't be a capable guard. If Thalman broke free from his prison, what would Ihadir's steroid potions do? It wasn't like Ihadir could endlessly pummel clones with his barrel-sized fists. Compare that to Yonnik who could stop movement.

This was why Thalman decided that this was the day for… Elian didn't know.

"Thalman knows I'm Cursed," Elian muttered. It was his assurance that Thalman wouldn't hurt him. In fact, Thalman might want them to join forces as fellow Cursed Penitents. Thalman helping him train supported this theory.

Elian accelerated into a full run to the Dark Forest. It'd take several hours of leisurely hiking to reach the Forbidden Temple. He'd just take rests along the way, using Viney's Rejuvenating Roots to recover. Minutes passed. An hour. It was getting dark. He sat under a tree and took root with Viney. The soreness of his fatigued leg muscles went away and his breath started to steady.

How can I convince Thalman to stop his plans? Elian didn't even know what those plans were.

But they'd surely prove disastrous for the hills. The Temples of Tribulation must stand strong to face the Giant invasion.

And he must save the people now too. Elian reminded himself that the smaller picture shouldn't be lost in the bigger picture. Even more so that he lost the Timekeeper's Boon.

Continuing his journey, Elian conjured glowing Aether constructs to light his way.

Run, run, run.

Another hour passed. And another. He took a few breaks in between.

What could be happening on the hills now? Have the priests controlled the blazing upheavals? Did they get his message? They must be aware of Thalman's danger. Could he trust—?

"Woah!" Lost in thoughts, Elian ran over a cliff. He extended his right arm; Viney shot out, anchoring into a tree trunk. Elian grasped the vines and pulled himself back up. "Is that the Forbidden Temple?"

Stretching in front of him was a crater as wide as Temple Hill, illuminated by the half-moon shining bright in the cloudless sky. In the middle rose the impressive Forbidden Temple, its exquisite stone gleaming under the moonlight. Its spires were taller than he previously thought because they rose from deep inside this crater, not on leveled ground.

Looking right, he noticed the crater lengthening. It wasn't circular. And the odd ridges over there could be…

"Finger imprints?" Elian blinked as if that'd make sense of the sight. "This freaking huge crater is the aftermath of a Tribulation."

He didn't notice it when he passed by here with Yonnik and Thorren. Yonnik's ball of chains moved too fast, and the crater was too wide to discern its shape from the center. This was the biggest crater left behind a Tribulation that he had seen so far.

The catfolk Penitent who did this must be insanely powerful. Could this be the final Tribulation of a maxed-out Greater Boon of the Magistrate? Was there an end to the Tribulations?

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But he didn't have time to marvel or puzzle over the crater. The Forbidden Temple was within sight. He just had to go down.

The quickest way to do that was what he stopped himself from doing moments earlier.

Just jump.

"Ahhh!" Elian yelled into the night.

He tumbled down the cliff wall, bouncing off rocks and breaking branches. It took him around half a minute to finally land on the ground.

No injuries. No pain. Clothes torn, as expected.

He got up and headed to the Forbidden Temple. He passed by the ruins of a city taken over by greenery. Vines had torn down statues and walls, and ancient roads were obscured by dirt.

There should be dangerous monsters around but Elian couldn't sense any. What he could feel was a dark miasma curling out of the shadowed arches of the Forbidden Temple. It was almost like a stench, but he couldn't smell anything. It chilled the surroundings and calmed the winds so that not one leaf rustled. A different kind of sinister from what he had felt before passing through the Dark Forest.

"Does this mean Thalman has already escaped?" Elian asked the statue of a catfolk archer atop a shattered fountain.

He got his answer soon enough.

Atop the ancient temple's main staircase stood a man smiling broadly, his glasses and bald head reflecting the moon—Priest Thalman. Ihadir or other priests were nowhere to be seen. Thalman waited for Elian to climb the stairs with a hundred steps. It was a laborious task with the oppressive atmosphere.

"A good day for devotion, new brother," Thalman said as Elian stood in front of him.

"Devotion? New brother? Is that what you said to me when we first met?"

"Indeed. Twenty-seven days ago, that was."

"Just twenty-seven days?" Elian couldn't detect any presence from this guy. Still a clone. Fingers crossed that Thalman's true body remained sealed. "Not too long, huh? Felt like I've been here for way longer. Since you've recreated our first meeting—sorry for not remembering my lines—are you going to give me a tour of the Forbidden Temple next?"

The clone floated ahead, his long robes hiding his feet. Elian remembered this part. He had also seen Thalman normally walk; the floating gimmick was just to appear mystical to aspiring Penitents.

Thalman with an amused voice, "Let me be your guide for a better you."

"Is that another line from our first meeting? Has a different meaning now compared to back then."

They passed through a doorway that was big enough to fit a Giant and entered a grand hall partly shrouded in shadows. Moonlight lancing through holes in the walls and ceiling highlighted certain parts of the catfolk building.

Elian expected the hall to have hints of its long-gone grandeur. Horrible sculptures and carvings like those self-flagellating catfolk in other parts of the Dark Forest. Could also be something tame, like processions or prayer. None of those were here.

It was a large dome with runes carved deep into the stone. The runes glowed blood red as they passed beneath. The strokes of each inscription didn't make much sense for rune construction. It wasn't how humans made runes, nor was it how ancient civilizations from whom humans copied made theirs. They also weren't like the symbols in other catfolk ruins that Elian had seen.

But Elian had seen these runes before.

"Those are on the golden bracelet of the Hundred-Armed Magistrate," he said, recognizing a couple of them.

The others were of similar construction. Bizarre. Illogical. Yet familiar. And he was sure he had seen them elsewhere before arriving at the Temples of Tribulation. But where? Not Wendell's farm, surely. Should be his past life then.

"You have a good memory, brother Elian," Thalman said.

"Can you explain about them? You gave me a tour of the silver and golden halls last time. This could be a reenactment. Did the catfolk have a hand in making the Magistrate's bracelet? Is it connected to its powers?"

"Many questions, you have," Thalman said, chuckling lightly. "I suppose I can answer some now, for you'll have more later. The runes were carved by the catfolk. This is their temple, after all. But they aren't the inventors of those runes. Neither did they craft the Magistrate's bracelet. Can you guess who did?"

"Another ancient civilization. One I'm not familiar with because I have yet to encounter these runes before meeting the Magistrate." Elian lied so Thalman would be more inclined to explain. He felt a sense of dread looking at the runes.

"An ancient civilization, indeed. Powerful. Unrivalled. Long-lived. The Giants."

Elian's eyes widened. He paused in his steps. I remember now!

Those were the same inscriptions on the Giant King's eyes as he channeled the power of the awoken Elder Giant standing behind him. The result was the Curse on Elian. He didn't immediately remember it because the last moments before dying were woozy.

This was even more reason to save the Temples of Tribulation. He needed the research and knowledge of the priests to defeat the Giants. There must be something here they could use.

"Giants?" Elian allowed only a small hint of interest in his voice. "That's an incredible source. Even more incredible that the catfolk found a source. Aren't records of most of Giant magic gone?"

"Wiped clean by the Giants themselves before they sailed to the Forgotten Lands," Thalman said. "Or so, the legends say. But the catfolk is an ancient race as well, perhaps rising alongside the Giants and ending way before the ."

"What did the catfolk use these runes for? Powering the Magistrate? Maybe something to do with the bracelet. The reverse could also be possible. Were they drawing power from the Magistrate?"

"A little bit of both," Thalman said. "Ambrose could tell you more about it—it's his expertise, after all—if he wasn't a sack of potatoes who wakes up only twenty minutes a day, if at all."

Elian didn't react to Thalman's statement. This was the first crack on Thalman's façade of the good and caring priest. A hint of his disdain for his fellow priests. Elin waited for his next words.

"However, there's an aspect of these runes that I am more familiar with than Ambrose," said Thalman. "For ten years, I have researched them." He paused. Only the sound of Elian's footsteps on olden stone echoed through the vast hall. Then he dramatically continued, "These runes keep a deity's body on the mortal plane."

"Huh?"

"A simplification, of course. There are other requisites. But that is their main function."

"What do you mean?" Elian asked. "Like the Magistrate's hand? It has those runes up there. But I don't recall body parts of other deities having them."

"Quite an experience you had to have met other deities with such rare forms. Tell me, why are parts of their body on the mortal plane? Weren't they supposed to have Ascended?"

"I didn't know I'd be quizzed here," Elian guardedly replied. "Perhaps I shouldn't have come because I haven't studied."

Thalman laughed. "Indulge me on this, brother Elian. Share what you recall of the old stories."

"Alright then. Deities fought during the War of the Gods a long, long time ago. Pretty descriptive event. Some of their divine body parts were broken off in the fight and left behind after the Ascension. Simple as that. Owners of those parts use them to exert their power on this mortal plane from the celestial plane. I assume that's the case with the Hundred-Armed Magistrate."

"Divine body parts as an anchor, yes. No deity was wholly left behind."

Elian shrugged. "That was what they agreed upon, as the stories go. No more divine beings here so mortals could develop. They then forged the Covenant to give mortals a bit of their power. And that's our situation now."

"Good, brother Elian. You remember the old stories well. But what if there were… exceptions? What if some of those deities didn't Ascend?"

"That's… impossible," Elian said. His heart began to beat faster. It wasn't the first time he had heard of this theory.

In his past life, there were rumors of a deity that remained on Earth after the Ascension—the Elder Giant.