The Primordial Puzzle

In the meeting room of the three Generals, a young swordsman walked in.

"What do you geezers want?"

Gantala wiggled his finger at the boy.

"Now now Roro, is that a way to talk to your lovely uncles and aunt?"

"Grr, I told you two getting this troublemaker will only make matters worse."

Axel was pissed at the boy's rude manner of addressing them.

Mel walked over to Rohan and handed him the map with a mark on it.

"Here, with this, you can trace the perpetrators that killed your brother."

The boy raised his eyebrows and took a look at the map.

"We hereby grant you permission to take whatever action you deem necessary as long as you slaughter every single one of Aegis."

Rohan chuckled as he threw the map and sliced it to dozens of pieces with his blinding fast sword technique.

Axel clenched his fist while Gantala giggled as Mel kept a stoic face.

"You think I would let somebody get away with killing my brother?"

He took out his phone which contains coordinates of the Dragonheart.

"I've already tracked them down. And I plan on ending them without any help from either of you geezers, so sit tight and..."

He seethes his sword as he continued.

"...Don't get in my way."

He walked away leaving the dumbfounded Generals to their thoughts.

"You sure letting him act on his own is a good thing? Only Khan was able to control him, and even he has a hard time doing that. We don't want any incident with another Region."

"Well, all we can do now is wait Axy."

Lily town is a major tourist attraction area in the entire Kirivard Region famous for its Dawn Lilies and also the site of one of the 12 Zodiac Crypts.

Crypts that can never dissolve no matter how many times someone clears their tests.

It never became a problem because these crypts have no record of releasing any of their Rebeasts to the outside world.

Rebeasts or Relic beasts are creatures created from the gathered energy of a crypt that has been around for a long time without being cleared.

It's incredibly rare to stumble upon a relic beast and they usually have powers and appearances similar to the relic dwelling inside a crypt. Their power level is determined by the rank of the relic.

"This place is beautiful Sir Ace."

Ace and co have arrived here not long before and are preparing to raid their first crypt together.

"So, this crypt will take us to the primordial relic?"

"Nope, we're here for the puzzle piece that can only be retrieved from each of the 12 zodiac crypts."

Clans searching for the primordial relic have to solve what is known as the primordial puzzle.

The first step towards solving said puzzle was to gather the 12 puzzle pieces from each of the zodiac crypts.

After only gathering these pieces will the map leading to the location of the primordial crypt be revealed.

"Eight hundred years of history and no Clan has been able to solve the puzzle."

"That's right, most clans could only come close to possessing three puzzle pieces. It was due to the difficulty of the 12 zodiac crypts."

The 12 zodiacs listed by their order of difficulty were:

AQUARIUS - C GRADE

CAPRICORN - B GRADE

ARIES - B GRADE

PISCES - B GRADE

VIRGO - A GRADE 

SAGITTARIUS - A GRADE

TAURUS - S GRADE

LEO - S GRADE

GEMINI - S GRADE

CANCER - S GRADE

SCORPIO - SS GRADE

LIBRA - SSS GRADE

Clearing even the lower difficulty crypts is not an easy feat, and one cannot buy or acquire a puzzle piece from someone who has cleared a crypt as the puzzle piece is permanently linked to the souls of those present when its crypt was cleared.

"A puzzle piece takes the form of a tattoo on the hands of whoever solves the crypt."

"Thus, most people call them puzzle marks instead."

"If it's a clan that clears a zodiac crypt, the marks appear around a mark of the clan's emblem. It's a great mystery how an emblem is registered into a zodiac crypt as all these processes are automatic." 

Reginald who had been silently listening to Ace's and Vorus's explanation of crypts seemed to have noticed a blacksmith shop.

"Hey guys, mind if we check out that shop?"

The gang was currently inside a blacksmith shop as Reginald pulled out a familiar sword and gave the blacksmith.

"Wait, isn't that Radakar's sword!?"

"You still have that thing with you?"

"Yup."

Reginald answered the two with a pride look on his face as he turned his gaze back to the blacksmith.

"Hey Mr, is it possible to melt this and turn it into a sword of my design?"

He asked as he pulled out a blueprint. The blacksmith's eyes flared up as he admired the blueprint he was given. With tears rolling out of his eyes he gladly accepted Reginald's request.

"I will be honored to make such a unique and delicate design come to life. Come back tomorrow for your sword."

"Great! Thanks."

The team was currently back on the streets enjoying their popsicles while each carrying bags of supplies that they'll need for their journey as they were now approaching dragon heart.

"Hey, demon spawn."

"Yeah?"

"You said there were others that have cleared these zodiac crypts, even though it's impossible to snatch a puzzle piece from them why can't we just ask them how to safely solve each puzzle."

"I'm afraid that's impossible too."

"Lemme guess, the puzzle changes whenever a new challenger arrives."

"Yeah, and even if asking was possible I'd kick anyone out of the clan if they did that."

Ace was serious.

He wanted to experience an adventure of a lifetime creating bonds with the people that he meets on this journey. Be it friendly bonds or even rivalry.

Also for someone like Ace, getting cheats from others that worked hard to solve each puzzle was a dishonorable thing to do.

Reginald smiled.

"I understand, it won't be an adventure without all the thrills and excitement along the way."

"Hahaha of course the Captain would not accept such a vile manner of solving the crypts."

'It would have been nice if we had a shortcut.'

Conroy pondered with invisible tears gushing out of his eyes.

Conroy might have joined the clan but he was still a coward. He was skilled to some extent having received direct training from a district commander, but he was someone who would run away from a fight if he thinks he will lose just like he did the first time he met Ace.

This was also the reason behind Serena's decision to have him accompany Ace.

Originally she wanted Conroy to train under Vorus, that was until she learned that Vorus will be accompanying the Brave that defeated him in combat.

"Who knows he might actually develop a backbone."

Was her thoughts when she decided to have Conroy join Aegis.

But Conroy was still a coward.

"Ahhhhhhh I've got to get to safety!"

Few moments after they reached Dragon heart, they were attacked by a formidable opponent.

"Ace Shadows, you are hereby sentenced to death for the murder of Rada Khan."

Rohan who appeared out of nowhere led out a sinister aura as he pointed his blade at the crew.