Back to present.
Though the glass case had so far managed to handle the heat of the gauntlet but now cracks were appearing on it, flames came of the cracks and burned the nearby walls.
Seeing this Levi and Eli positioned themselves in front of Antares in defensive positions, there shields shielding him from the flames and heat. A white aura was surrounding them and they were pouring all of it on their shield to create a wall blocking the flames.
These flames illuminated the whole room so much blinding Antares and the rest.
"Your highness, you must evacuate now!" Eli spoke his tone showing how bad their situation was, they could buy Antares sometime to escape and hold the flames.
"Not without you guys." Antares said" We will make it all back alive." Before he could touch Levi and Eli shoulder.
The glass case containing the gauntlet broke the gauntlet could be seen floating on its own midair.
It flew straight towards Antares at a blinging speed, seeing this Levi quickly reacted and placed himself with his shield high to protect Antares from the impact.
But just as it was about to hit him, the gauntlet broke apart and then went to assemble itself on Antares's left hand.
Antares could feel the scorching heat on his hand, it was as if he had placed his hand in magma and fell down due to the pain.
Antares brought out his exoskeleton on his free hand and tried to remove the gauntlet but no avail, it was stuck as if it was glued on his hand.
Seeing this Levi raised his sword high "I'm sorry but this might hurt my lord." Seeing Levi'sword high he knew he was about struck the gauntlet, he stretched his hand while closing his eyes hoping the strike will damage the gauntlet, Levi poured all his aura into his sword and struck the gauntlet, "SHINGGGG" the brutal sound of metals clanging together fell into Antares' ears, he quickly opened his eyes to see if the attack worked but there was no damage at all on the gauntlet and the burning sensation he was on his arm amplified.
"Damn system explain what's going on". Antares groaned.
[ The gauntlet has been building up mana and it has become supercharged it's looking for a way to release it in one go]
"In other words, an explosion." Antares said.
[Yes host, an explosion that with the strength and heat of an exploding sun will occur.]
"Shit, it doesn't have to be that strong." Antares cursed in his mind "that will definitely kill us...... damn it." After thinking at the speed of light Antares found no solution. "How much time do I have" he asked.
[Less than a minute.]
"Damn it, you should've said it sooner!" Antares groaned.
"Wait a minute, what if...." An idea flashed in Antares' mind.
"I'm going to take this thing out, you two stay here." Antares used all the strength he had in had in his body to say that sentence." No matter what don't follow me" he added.
"Please come back safely, lord Antares." Said Eli as his brother Levi had tears running down his face, the feeling of watching his lord suffering in front of him and the fact that he could not do anything about it, was too much for him.
"I promise, I'll be back." He gave them a soft smile while hiding the unbearable pain.
Levi and Eli could only watch turn his back since there was nothing they could do.
"To the second floor.... NOW" Antares said out loud and his voice startled his guards who had never heard him raise his voice.
At that same moment Antares disappeared from the room and appeared on the second floor.
"Alright you damn shitty piece of junk, it's just you and I now." Antares said with a wicked smile, clearly the pain had affected him so severely that he was no longer thinking straight.
At that same moment, the gauntlet started shining brightly with a heat so strong that it could kill a normal human, luckily Antares was a human. He was an Antman and that was his advantage.
Antmen had the ability to create a tough exoskeleton covering their skins providing better defense than some armors and since Antares was gifted with the elder ant physique, his exoskeleton was bound to be stronger than a regular one.
"Now it time to end this." Antares said as a dark red exoskeleton formed on his skin and covered his whole body, even his face apart from his clothes.
His plan was to use his exoskeleton as a shield to protect him and withstand the explosion.
He lifted his left hand where the gauntlet was attached high in the air and struck the ground with all his strength.
BOOM!
At once the gauntlet released all its pent-up mana in a single deadly explosion setting everything ablaze. The echoes of the explosion could be felt on the other floors and this directly put Levi and Eli on alert mode.
They left the treasury and went to look for Antares.
A gigantic crater was formed where the explosion had occurred and in the middle of it, someone was lying on his back coughing heavily like someone with lung cancer.
It was Antares, his upper clothes were burnt and only part of his trouser remained, his red exoskeleton had now become black as charcoal with cracks all over it.
"That hurts." Antares said as he used the little bit strength, he was remaining with to stand, his exoskeleton bit by bit fell to the ground, giving space to his light brown skin which had now become a bit red from the heat of the explosion.
He looked at his hand left hand where the gauntlet had been all the time and he could no longer feel the burning pain from it, meaning that it had evacuated all the pent mana it had accumulated.
[Ding...…. By surviving the mana explosion of the ancient artifact Helios' grip, it has submitted to you and recognized you as its legitimate owner.]
The gauntlet then turned into a golden bracelet on Antares left wrist.
"Hmmmmm, a 3-star artifact.... This was worth it." He said as he stretched his body to relieve it from the lingering pain he was felling.
"Now, how am I going to explain this to Zarah." he said as he looked at his clothes that were now ashes.