System's POV
chapter-197

Dixon and Payton, who were sitting beside Thirteen, looked at the boy with shocked expressions on their faces.

Neither of them had been aware that the Third Party that was behind the war was actually a Majin Prince.

Thirteen didn't tell them anything, and the only reason why he didn't mind sharing this information with them now was because they were already his slaves.

With a word from him, the two Champions wouldn't be able to share this news with anyone, which would prevent the news from spreading.

"Tell me, Lord Arthas, did the thieves manage to steal that artifact from your hands?" Thirteen asked.

This was a very important question because depending on Arthas' answer, he would have to adjust his plans accordingly.

"Half," Arthas replied. "The thieves only stole half of it."

"I see." Thirteen pondered. "Thank you for being honest with me. In exchange for telling me this information, allow me to tell you who the lackey of Arundel is among the Barbarians. He is also the one responsible for stealing the artifact from your hands. His name is Gael Scar."

"Impossible!" Arthas immediately interjected. "It can't be him. He can't be a traitor!"

Thirteen shrugged because he didn't really care whether Arthas believed him or not because he had a plan to make the City Lord believe him.

"Since you have the other half of the treasure, I'm sure that it will resonate once we get close to its other half," Thirteen said. "I plan to visit Drada City to retrieve the other half of your artifact. If you want, you can join me. That is the only way for you to see, and confirm with your own eyes, whether I'm telling the truth or not.

"But, since I don't know what it looks like, can you let me see the other half of the Artifact? That will give me a clue for what to search for."

Arthas pondered for a bit before taking out the medallion that he was wearing on his neck.

He didn't pass it over to Thirteen, and simply held it in his hands, forcing the boy to look at its design and memorize it.

"… A Pharus," Thirteen muttered. "I should have known… now it makes perfect sense."

The golden medallion that Arthas was holding had a single symbol in it which read "Fehu".

It was an ancient language that meant wealth, abundance, and material gain.

It looked like the letter "F", but the only difference was that the two horizontal lines connecting to the vertical line were slanted upwards.

"A Pharus?" Arthas' eyes widened in shock. "How did you know that this is part of a Pharus?"

Thirteen raised his hand to stop Arthas from saying anything because he had reached some kind of enlightenment, and he didn't want to be disturbed, while he organized the information that was pouring inside his head.

Arthas reigned in his emotions and waited for the boy to answer his question. Five minutes later, Thirteen regained his composure and looked at the City Lord with a grim look on his face.

"City Lord, did you try to use the complete Pharus in the past?" Thirteen inquired. "Did you succeed in activating it?"

"Yes," Arthas answered, while looking at Zion with suspicion. "But, nothing happened."

Thirteen patted his chest in relief because the worst case scenario didn't happen. A Pharus could only be used once, so this meant that he still had a chance of activating it.

"Listen to me, Lord Arthas, I now understand how we can defeat the Majin Prince," Thirteen said with conviction. "But, I need your help to retrieve the other half. It is of the utmost importance that we retrieve it before the war starts. Without it, we're done for."

Even as Thirteen spoke, various thoughts and ideas flowed inside his head, making him curse not only his Father, the System God, but Laplace Demon, and The One as well for giving the Wanderers a mission that was nearly impossible to complete.

He doubted that there was anyone who knew how to activate a Pharus among the Wanderers, which would ultimately cause their mission to fail.

Thirteen didn't know if this was just a coincidence, or his Father, the System God, sent him to the Valbarra Archipelago for this very reason.

He didn't want to believe that his Old Man had something bigger in mind, but as things stood, he could not think of any other reason why he spawned in the Houdini Desert, and met with the other Wanderers whose mission was to light the Beacon of Hope.

Seeing that he was losing control over his emotions, Thirteen forcefully took a few deep breaths in order to calm himself down. Once he had regained his composure, he gazed at the City Lord with an unyielding gaze.

"Lord Arthas, come with me to Drada City," Thirteen met the City Lord's gaze steadily. "The truth is waiting for you there."

Two hours later…

Thirteen, Dixon, and Payton arrived back at the warehouse.

The seven-year-old had ordered the two Champions to keep everything that they heard a secret from everyone.

After making sure that the two understood how serious the situation was, he ordered Cristopher and Giga Chad to watch over the door of his room, to prevent anyone from entering.

Although Cristopher and the Chad Skunk had no idea why they were given this order, they decided to obey and sat in front of the door of Zion's room to act as guards.

With the chubby boy and the chubby skunk guarding the door, Thirteen was certain that no one would disturb him.

Taking a deep breath, Thirteen calmed his senses before speaking out a sentence.

"I want to invoke Article 13 of the Contract."

As soon as the boy said those words, the world around him suddenly lost all of its colors before it shattered into countless pieces.

Thirteen found himself staring at the Celestial Realm, where a Giant Sun shone brightly above his head.

The boy's gaze then landed on the two most powerful beings that governed Solterra and Pangea, who had long been expecting his arrival.

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