Three stone knights stood blocking the way to the throne room in a row. They were all silent and motionless, waiting for a new threat to emerge.
They didn't have to wait too long, as from the dark came out a white haired boy accompanied by a dark spirit. He seemed weak, and feeble, but he had a relived smile on his face.
"You guys won't leave that place right? Is it that your arrogant, or just stupid?"
They didn't responded.
'What was I expecting?'
Raising his hand, he summoned a familiar sphere of white light, but then it changed as it seemingly shrank down to the size of a bullet. As it did however, the shine it gave off intensified, radiating a strange and threatening power.
But still, the knights did not move.
Aiming the bullet right at the knight wielding a sword, Epsilon recalled how it almost lobbed his head off.
Now it was time for his revenge.
Before he fired, Bob muttered in his ear,
"Remember, aim for the head. That's where the soul shard powering them is kept."
Pure and blinding, the bullet of light tore through the air with no sound, leaving only the searing whisper of it passing. It left behind a thin, trembling line of radiance that faded almost before the eye could follow it—like lightning drawn into a single, perfect point.
It pierced through the stone knights skull with ease, before imploding with even greater power than before. Fragments splintered everywhere, as it collapsed to one knee before lifelessly falling over.
The other three knights did not react.
"It worked!"
It wasn't just its piercing power that increased, but its speed too. Even the explosion that came afterwards, had also been improved. Although it did take a bit of time to charge depending on how strong he wanted it to be, the compressed bullet was largely a success.
Shortly after his dormant ability recovered, he repeated those steps with the other two stone knights. One by one, they went down without even putting up a fight.
To Epsilons dismay, the spell did not announce their deaths, but he figured that it was because they didn't have souls. Although they did have a soul fragment, since they had been around for god knows how long, they were practically running on fumes. The essence left inside wasn't even enough to saturate his core by 1 digit.
Whatever disappointment he felt though, was quickly washed away by his new found technique.
"With that amount of power, I could easily pierce through the shells of those yellow tails. I think I could even compress it further too!"
Sighing, he walked back to go fetch Ki Song, before making his way into the throne room at last.
**
It was vast and hollow, its ceiling lost in shadow. Cold air hung heavy with the scent of old stone and dust, carrying the faint echo of footsteps long gone. Towering pillars lined the hall in perfect symmetry, each one carved with worn reliefs, their surfaces slick with age, as between them, the darkness pooled like water.
At the far end, a broad staircase rose from the floor in sweeping steps of blue and gold carpet. The stairs towered towards raised dais, where the throne awaited, carved from white marble and lined in gold. It certainly didn't look comfy.
Epsilon took in the atmosphere for a moment, breathing the cold air in heavily.
"Why'd you bring us to the throne room anyway? Shouldn't there be a treasury instead?"
Bob explained,
"You can only reach the treasury from the throne room. I spent most of my time in here, but at the same time I liked having my treasures close by. So I installed a secret room connected to here where I could keep all my valuables."
"That makes sense.. I guess. So where is it now?"
Bob led Epsilon ahead, as he firmly held onto Ki Songs wrist and followed close behind. He led them across the hall, taking them up the grand steps before arriving before the grand throne. Seeing it up close, Epsilon could properly admire its craftsmanship, as well as the many intricate details that he didn't notice before, such as the array of patterns and inconsistent symbols.
Bob circled around the throne silently, recalling how much he liked it when he first received it.
"I remember the day when Dolkin gifted me with this chair. He's the one who made all the stone knights by the way. He was an excellent artesian, as well as a sorcerer."
"Okay? Now where's the damn treasury."
Bob seemed to hesitantly turn away before slowly floating elsewhere. Before he could go too far, Epsilon quickly snatched him out of the air. He asked once again while hiding his frustration with a forced smile.
"Where's the damn treasury."
"I don't remember!"
Sighing, he released the spirit from his wrath.
'He remembers everything BUT the important details...'
"What am I going to do with you?"
Turning his focus back to the room, he tried to look for any potential hot spots. Apart from the exit on the other side, there were no other obvious doors nor connecting rooms of any kind.
'Is it a hidden room? I'm not good at this type of stuff.'
He could always remember struggling at puzzles as a kid. Any time he encountered a hard problem, he always relied on Nero.
'Nope! Nope! Nope! He's not around, I need to do this myself!'
First off, what clues did he have? Well, he had to think back about Bob himself since it was his castle after all. What was an object that he had a lot of attachment too in this room?
Looking back at the throne, he got a devious idea. Raising his hand, he activated his dormant ability, while creating another compressed bullet of light.
"Epsilon? What are you doing?"
With a smirk on his face, he fired away. It only needed to travel a short distance before making contact with the chair. To his immediate regret, it ricocheted off and bounced into a pillar, exploding on contact.
The spirit laughed at the failure.
"Ha ha!"
Shortly after, the entire castle began to tremor and shake. Epsilon thought he would be swept of his feet, but then it quickly subsided.
'Was that me..?'
He thought that at first. Although the timing was coincidental, it was just too absurd. Quickly he recognised the true culprit.
"That spider..."
They had predicted that it would break through tomorrow, but could it happen even sooner?
'Nah.. I'm NEVER wrong.'
Walking back up to the throne, he wandered around while analysing it, hoping to find any key details or maybe a hidden switch. But there was nothing. Growing restless, he decided to sit down on it, hoping to find a new perspective.
Of course, Bob complained,
"Oi! That's my throne!"
With a simple glare, he quickly quietened down.
The seat, though carved from white marble, seemed to cradle him, its surface smooth and cool rather than cruel. He shifted uncertainly, running a calloused hand along one of the armrests. It felt solid and immovable, like it had been waiting centuries just for someone to sit there. A small laugh escaped him, half disbelief, half awe.
"It's more comfortable then I thought."
But still, he had discovered nothing.
'Maybe I'm thinking about it wrong? Rather than from Bob's perspective, why don't I try thinking of the crafters? He was a sorcerer too.. so...'
He signalled Bob to re-enter his body, and then commanded him to channel soul essence into the chair. Nothing happened either.
'Bob...'
"I'm sorry!"
While contemplating, his attention turned to Ki Song. Thanks to her mind being constantly bombarded by the mind hex of this place, she had effectively entered a vegetative state. Although she could show limited responses, such as walking when being tugged, or talking in short bursts, she wasn't very helpful at the moment.
'She's saved my life despite that though.'
Right now, she was just staring into space blankly.
Or was she?
'What are you looking at?'
Right now she was facing the doorway that they had passed by. There wasn't anything special about it, aside from the three remains of the stone knights, but it also seemed damaged somehow. There were hinges for doors, but apparently they had been ripped off some time ago.
Epsilon couldn't notice anything off about them at first, but after a while, he finally realized...
Around the doors arch, written in an almost unnoticeable size, was the lost language of the dream realm. Of course, the nightmare spell translated it for him right away once he saw it, to which he read almost immediately. It was a short, simple phrase.
But one that left him completely bamboozled.
"Bob... what the hell!? And I mean what the hell!?!"