Goldheath isn't like any other town.
Its level of abnormality cannot even be compared to Kinsfield in the present time.
Maybe it's because of their equally unusual rulers, or as they call it; "Instigators".
"Look at this place! It's just beaming with gold! And more gold! And even more gold!" Marc was astonished as he took a peek at every little corner in Golden Core, the town's central area.
"There's just so much things to do here!" The boy kept ranting about how beautiful everything is, similarly to how a kid tells their parents how everything's so cool in an amusement park.
"Come on, kid. Let's get something to eat before we fade away due to being too famished." Rhenda jaunted towards a stall, clearly excited to eat some good food.
To their disbelief, they saw that every single piece of edible food is somehow overly yellow and not at all appetizing.
"I don't care about the color! Please just give me whatever's the bestseller to you constructs!" Minne wailed in hunger as she gave her a flaxen, gear-shaped burger.
"Woah, this burger actually looks pretty impressive. I wonder how the Goldheads make them."
Without hesitation, she took an outstandingly sizeable bite. Her face lit up in astonishment, as judging by her face, the burger tasted incredibly delicious, especially for an inhuman food.
She made one of those "MMM!" sounds in only a matter seconds after taking that bite.
"I am glad you enjoyed our meal, ma'am!" Lisa, the main chef of Aurum House, and the stall cheered.
"GIVE US MORE OF YOUR FOOD! WE'RE WILLING TO PAY LOTS OF VERMEIL FOR THIS!" Marc placed their order, now all they have to do was wait. At that point in time, they had gained top priority over the rest of the constructs, which were simply Goldhead Citizens.
Exactly fourteen minutes later, their buffet-like meal had finished rustling up, and it was ready to be eaten. It did NOT take long for the three hungry Markeners to consume every metal-themed burger, pasta, and meat dish that Lisa had prepared.
"Five star meal, totally!" Minne babbled as she plonked her entire pocket of Vermeil on the counter.
"KEEP THE CHANGE, YOU DESERVE IT!" She offered as the three of them walked away from the stall to check out more things to do, while letting the eaten food digest.
They saw a levitating pyramid.
Hold on, a levitating pyramid? Like the pyramid that Minne and Marc saw in the peculiar, dark room?
"Excuse me, but can you please explain what this is?" Marc pointed out the pyramid as the Goldhead picked it up from the similar-looking pedestal.
"This is a Halten, an otherworldy prism used to hold memories together, with the aid of Pith and another Deific. Deifics are beings that are responsible for the birthing of a particular force, or a particular race of lifeforms that have control over said force. This prism is know to store the very essence of memories even before our time." the Goldhead explained.
"So that's what we call Errin, Hanes, and every other God of every other tribe?"
"Yeah, 'Deifics'. It has a nice ring to it, though."
"They say these things come from lands miraculous, only accessible by a rift on the edge of a cliff. Don't know if they're lying, but it sounds pretty sketchy, doesn't it?"
"HOW DARE YOU DOUBT THE EXISTENCE OF MARKEN!"
The Goldhead's face became abundantly bewildered.
...
"GODDAMNIT, MINNE! YOU BLEW OUR COVER!"
"Apologies, but he was disrespecting the miraculous terrafirma!"
"Oh, would both of you stop fighting already?"
"You don't get it since you aren't a Markener!"
"Wait, how can the boy talk to us?"
"Oh yeah, about that, I awakened him as a Memorus."
"WHY WOULD YOU AWAKEN A RANDOM?! DON'T YOU KNOW THE POSSIBLE CASUALTIES?!"
"Oh would you two just SHUT UP ALREADY? We're trying to have fun and you're disrupting it!"
"What? I don't get what you're saying, ma'am. Just move along now."
"You were lucky this time, Minne."
"Well, that wasn't too much fun." Minne joked about as they left the stall.
The trio strode about Golden Core a bit more, until they reached the end of the town hub...
"Cenotaph of Zeltin, the Deific of gold and other valuable bullions. Her unknowable whereabouts she shall prosper in."
"Zeltin..? She must've suffered a great deal of affliction to get such a memorial." Rhenda grieved as she laid her hands on the foot of the statue.
Silently, in the back of her head, she thought;
"I miss you, old friend. Wherever could you be..."
"Apparently, the Instigators do not know about this memorial, which begs the question; why did the Goldheads build a shrine that's not even related to the Instigators, but rather a figure that believably disappeared long ago?" Minne pondered to herself, as she stares at the statue even deeper.
"Unless, that's what the Instigators are hiding. They could be covering up the fact that they did something inordinately dire to Zeltin. Why else would she simply disappear and never come back for her constructs..?" Marc, too, started contemplating.
Meanwhile, Rhenda was there mourning over her avowedly dead friend.
"We should ask them." Shedding a tear, Rhenda stood up from the stone bench.
"WHAT?! Are you insane?! We could get killed by those cynical Instigators!"
"So what? I deeply desire to avenge my fallen friend." The Loreseer indicated in a deadpan tone.
"Take the elevator to the final floor. I would like to see what is in there, and what makes it such a secret."
Rhenda, already resentful for the alleged act of the Instigators, starts walking back to the spire.
"Oh, Marc, now is a good time for me to explain all the runes. A red rune stitches up all wounds, an orange rune conjures up whatever the user deems worthy of it, a yellow rune gives out money in the currency of the user's choice, a green rune, of course, is used to teleport, a sky blue rune is used to change clothes or look, a navy blue rune is used to summon an entity, a purple rune is used to gain a temporary ability or advantage, a pink rune is used to look back into a memory, and a black rune is used to eradicate an existing, weak lifeform. Get it?" Minne elucidated as Marc gave a slight nod.
As soon as they got out of Zeltin's pathway, Auro saunters toward them and welcomes them back.
"Wishing to visit the Instigators again?" the Goldhead queried with his faint little smile.
"Yes. Now let us through." Rhenda irritably demanded.
Without saying a word, Auro and the rest of the Goldheads cleared the walkway to the spire.
Taking the elevator, the button going up to the top floor isn't functional, so they just had to use a large green rune.
Usually, if there are passengers on the spire's elevator, the Instigators would be informed about them.
"At which hour shall those three arriveth at our flo'r?" Altan rhetorically asked the other two.
"Those gents did get on the elevat'r five minutes ago; they shouldst beest h're by anon."
The elevator made its little "Ding!" sound as it opened.
"What? Wh're art those gents? I'm certain we did get notified of their elevat'r rideth and who is't those gents, but wherefore art those gents just suddenly gone?"
Unbeknownst to the Instigators, they were already at the top floor.
There was only one word to describe the "attic" of the spire; corpses.
Corpses everywhere. Some were massacred, some were tortured, some were missing some parts.
"EEh! This place reeks of flesh and broken promises! What even happened here?!" Marc mused as he backpedalled to the elevator.
But there was one corpse that stood out to the three, especially to Rhenda.
Zeltin's body. Her mangled corpse that the Instigators evidently took the Pith of and injected it into the golden constructs.
"...Zeltin..?"
"...well..."
"...now I know you're in a better place now..."
"...heh..."
"...don't worry..."
"...the Golden Rule shall apply here..."
"...how they mangled you..."
"...took your lifeblood..."
"...that..."
"...THAT SHALL BE THEIR FATE."
Rhenda, fueling with rage and resentment, dropped all the tenets she learned in Marken and immediately took the elevator down to the Instigators.
"Wh're even-"
Igolide's sentence was cut off by the elevator's signature "Ding!" as Rhenda snaps her fingers with the entire room turning into an empty, red void.
"YOU SHALL PAY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO ZELTIN AND THE OTHERS!"
