A Man's Greed.

Crawling out from underneath the ground was a horror that mere description did no justice. First to be seen were its hands, if anyone could call them that: blood-red weavings of glistening metallic material, claws as long as a man's arm extended from them.

Forming out of the creature's arm were sharp and deadly blades, curving in an unnerving arc, their edges forever stained crimson from the blood of its prior victims.

Then, its head emerged, a face covered by bandages wrapped loosely and carelessly enough to allow one glimpse into what it hid beneath—a human face. Yes, it was burnt and obscenely disfigured, but it held a similarity in a manner as eerie as one could conceive.

The rest of its body, which was of the same metallic texture as its hands, was similarly adorned with loosely wrapped bandages that could have been pristine white at some point, but were now stained with blood.

Numerous thick wire-like strings protruded from its nightmarish form, wiggling menacingly in the air and producing subtle whistling sounds. Finally, noticed last, was the smell—a truly disgusting torment to the nostrils, akin to the odor of a rotten corpse. It was the acrid tang of despair.

"It's it, it really is it... The Agraedian Reaper," Robes muttered in complete disbelief, shock, and more potently, fear, as he gazed at the creature that now stood before them. In its presence, he could almost feel his legs buckle beneath him.

"Can you see it? Tell me, what are its weak points?" Blindfold asked, his composure strong as he began concocting a more calculated approach to the situation, almost as if already prepared for the worst.

"Weak points?" Robes let out a humorless chuckle, turning away from the reaper to Blindfold. "It... has no such thing."

"Thinking of fighting a dominion while suppressed, that is very foolish confidence," Asari glanced at Blindfold, her demeanor starkly different from the rest. She showed no signs of panic like the other candidates, nor did she need to force herself to remain calm like Blindfold.

"This shouldn't be possible," Blindfold muttered in frustration before looking up at Hariga. "With the level of taming in this time, taming a creature this powerful is impossible... So how..."

Hariga, already grinning ear to ear, widened his smile further upon hearing the question, as if he had been eagerly waiting for it to be asked.

"You're all about to die, so I might as well tell you of my genius," Hariga laughed before beginning. "Many years ago, when I had first found the reaper in the broken mountain, I had nearly lost my life attempting to tame it... But I never gave up. I remained, I studied it: patterns, behavior, internal workings... And with the help of my brothers, I obtained its serum excreted from its glands."

The creature tamer's voice gained more confidence as he spoke.

"After a research that almost cost my life if I was just mere droplets off, after enduring pain many men will never know, I discovered what changed everything, allowed me control great power: The Agraedian Reaper is meant to be a servant, but to who? The one who possesses..."

"... The most amount of its serum in their brain," Aldric completed from the darkness.

The sound of the black star blade dragging on the floor echoed across the entirety of the throne room as Aldric walked into it. He limped slightly and his steps swayed, clearly exhausted—yet held an aura of terrifying and unchallengable control.

"When the reaper sees this serum in the brain, it activates a primal urge of obedience to the one who possesses the most of the serum—Such a painful way at power, and a dangerous gamble when attempting to make sure you have more serum in your brain than someone else," Aldric continued, his blade still dragging as he walked through the room. The other candidates stared at him in disbelief, more surprised at the fact he was still alive than how he knew this.

"Who-who are you?" Hariga stuttered in shock.

Aldric let out a wry smile, turned to him, and asked, "Does it matter?"

Something about Aldric's voice, his eyes as well, stirred a feeling of discomfort in the creature tamer.

"You're right, it doesn't matter," Hariga steeled himself. "Reaper, Attack!"

Silence followed. The reaper simply remained standing where it was, unmoving.

"Attack!" Hariga screamed again, but nothing changed.

"Attack! Attack them! Now!"

The reaper was yet to move, the silence of the throne room only broken by a chuckle from Aldric, a small tremor of amusement that swiftly morphed into hysterical laughter.

Then he stopped, faced the reaper, and spoke.

"Kneel..."

In response, with swiftness, the creature kneeled before them.

No one could hide their shock, and one could almost hear the sound of Hariga's heart drop. While Aldric, with a devious smile that showed contempt, continued his stroll through the room. He then reached the throne and with a sigh, he sat upon it, his sword leaning at his side.

Aldric assessed the expressions of everyone before him. For the candidates, fear and relief battled for dominance on their faces, and for the lost men, it was expressions of pure terror.

"You've done well," Blindfold smiled. "Take care of them and let's be done with this trial."

Aldric gazed at Blindfold for a while before speaking.

"Aren't you one audacious bastard," he grinned. "Giving orders even when you're about to die."

Blindfold's fist clenched, and his calm facade quickly dissipated.

"Is this because we left you? We had no choice. It wasn't intended betrayal."

"Betrayal?" Aldric laughed. "You think I care about such sentiments." He looked at Blindfold, his gaze almost piercing through the cloth that obscured his eyes. "I simply am... Just a terrible and greedy person, more so than all of you. After all, why have a percentage of the First's blessing when I can have it all?"

Aldric leaned back in the throne he sat upon.

"I had endured indescribable pain to sit here, to do this," his voice lowered, a dark and menacing edge to it. "So the least you all can do... Is make your deaths entertaining."

"What... What are you going to do?" Muscles asked, causing Aldric to glance at him before turning to the creature.

"Reaper," Aldric called out, making the creature to let out a shriek in response. "Break the limbs of those two," Al pointed to the lost men.

"... And kill the rest," he finished.