Re: Love & Magic

“Your highness Morgana, sorry to call you here again, but those two have returned and entered the palace,” Mordred said after Morgana appeared on her castle’s throne.

“Good. Now, get them to activate that waypoint, so that I could go there from over here,” Morgana said as a smile appeared on her face. “Soon, that legacy will be mine.”

It was unfortunate that she couldn’t go into that castle from outside. Unless someone weak managed to survive the gap and reach the bottom via some means like Zevien and Vernisia did, they could end up there. But people like her would trigger the Blood Monarch’s power and die. She didn’t know why the Blood Monarch barred entry of people above a certain level that could survive the fall, but then trigger the power and die. While weaker magicians would never survive in the abyss with their meager strength.

Of course, other stronger beings could easily go there, but they didn’t bother and respected the Blood Monarch’s boundaries.

“Lead them properly inside, and don’t let them die stupidly before they finish their job,” Morgana said to Mordred.

“I will try my best, your highness!” Mordred said firmly. “It’s unfortunate that my shadow cannot do anything there except just exist. But I will do my best.”

…

“Is this really an old castle?” Zevien muttered as he and Vernisia entered the castle after being shocked.

The castle was not how they expected it to be. It had exquisite furniture, carpets, beautiful dark red and dark gold lamps that lit up the hall, and not a single spec of dust or anything.

The castle looked very clean from the inside, unlike its gloomy appearance from the outside.

“Let’s go to the throne hall. The waypoint is there,” Mordred said before moving towards a corridor from the hall.

Zevien and Vernisia nodded as they started following Mordred. Their anxiety was reduced by a lot after entering the castle, which is strange.

After they went out of the corridor and went to the left passage, they encountered some wolves.

“Uhh… so, you were right,” Zevien was speechless as he saw the wolves. The wolves were indeed big, and they looked dangerous.

“Hahaha, I told you. These wolves have been trapped here for a long time. They are just bags of bones,” Mordred laughed.

The wolves were lying on the floor, and all of them were shriveled. It’s like they were barely living.

“They also need food to live and survive, but I guess they found nothing of that sort here,” Vernisia wryly shook her head.

“Well, just end their misery,” Mordred said.

Vernisia waved her hand and used <Wind Roaring Tiger> in its original form as a wide gust of wind blew forward with tiny wind blades and killed all wolves.

“Let’s continue,” Mordred said as he continued moving in the same passage. “The throne hall is behind that door.”

Zevien and Vernisia could see a door at the end of the passage.

Shortly, they arrived in front of the door, and Zevien pushed it open.

“Wow,” Vernisia and Zevien both were surprised to see the majesty of the throne hall. It gave such a high royal vampire vibe.

There were stone statues on the walls, a dark-red carpet, two fountains on both sides, and many other decorations, along with the majestic throne at the end of the hall. It was made of stone and refined with metal. It had a dark-gold border and red pattern, but its seat was covered with black leather filled with some soft material.

On top of the throne’s seat was a palm-sized tiny exquisite box, that made Zevien’s heart beat fast involuntarily, and he felt strange.

“Uhh… you see that warped wings statue on the right side of the throne? That’s the waypoint. Just stand in the center of that and put your hand on that orb before infusing a small amount of mana to activate the waypoint. After that, you can teleport outside.”

“Let’s go, Zevien,” Vernisia said as moved towards the waypoint while holding Zevien’s hand.

Zevien nodded, but his gaze was stuck to the throne. ‘What’s going on? The closer I get to it, the more I am getting agitated, and my magic eidos body…’

Zevien peeked inside his magic eidos body and was startled to see the vampire blood he had stored there acting up. The blood was not still like it always used to be, but it was boiling and getting crazy.

“Wait!” Zevien said as he paused on his steps, which also stopped Vernisia.

Vernisia looked at Zevien, confusedly. “Any suspicious things?”

“That box,” Zevien said as he pointed at the box.

Mordred was shocked beyond belief when he saw Zevien pointing his finger at the throne. ‘HOW?’

“What box?” Vernisia looked at the throne but saw nothing there. “I don’t see any box, Zev,” she said with confusion on her face.

“Eh? You can’t see that strange box on the throne?”

“Hmm, no. There’s nothing there,” Vernisia shook her head.

Zevien looked at Mordred, but he couldn’t see this shadow’s expression due to its shadowy body. However, if he could see, then he would see a shocked face.

“Do you see anything there?” Zevien asked Mordred.

Mordred quickly got back his composure and shook his head. “I don’t see anything there. You must be having some illusion or something. This throne tends to do that since master Blood Monarch was also proficient in charm magic.”

“Really?” Zevien muttered doubtfully. After thinking for a second, he used <Blood Morphing Art> and transformed into a vampire.

“Arghhhhhhhhhh!! Y-y-y-y-you?” Mordred screamed and was shocked as he stammered and stuttered, even startling Zevien and Vernisia.

“Why do you have master’s blood?!!” Mordred screamed on top of his shadowy lunge.

“Jeez, you scared us,” Vernisia rolled her eyes.

“What do you mean? I got this blood from a blood pond when I just awakened this labyrinth’s connection and arrived here,” Zevien said before he remembered something. ‘Wait!! Tarto said that there was someone below the pond. Could it be…’

‘When you just awakened its connection? Damn it,’ Mordred cursed in his mind. ‘So Master went to such a weak area and hid there so no one else could find him? Damn it! No wonder we couldn’t find his body anywhere deep in the labyrinth, nor those big shots knew about it.’

“I want to see that box. It’s like I am being called,” Zevien said as he moved towards the throne, but Vernisia quickly stopped him.

“Are you sure?” Vernisia asked worriedly. “Are you absolutely sure that it won’t bring you trouble?”

“Not sure, but there has to be a reason for me to have this feeling and the blood in my body acting up,” Zevien said with a frown. “It really doesn’t feel like I will be harmed by that box.”

“Wait, no!! Don’t do that,” Mordred quickly appeared in front of Zevien and stopped him.

“Why?” Zevien asked as he narrowed his eyes.