282 THE REALM OF THE EMPEROR'S CHESS
"How did you break our strongest shield?" Ramses demanded, his voice trembling with disbelief.
"Yeah, how did you do that?" Sujira added, her eyes wide with astonishment.
Leo straightened, his tone even as he explained. "The shield around the cage was always there, but it's not active until now. I scanned and copied the magic codes of the cage's inactive state when we came inside before it activated. All I did was overwrite the current codes with the old ones, effectively restoring it to its dormant condition."
"What? You knew about the trap beforehand, why did you fall to it in the first place?" Ramses asked in shock.
"Impossible that you'll know of our magic prison, you struggled to break it before," Dassa added.
Leo merely smiled. It was Petunia who answered.
"Well, we have to buy time for husband to break the code in the shield. We just threw in some helpless expressions to create the proper atmosphere", she replied smilingly.
Sujira smiled with her in acknowledgment.
Dassa's expression darkened, but a flicker of grudging admiration crossed her face. "Codes eh…. I remember now", she said before pausing to gather her thoughts.
"The soul of your dear friend, the woman who gave me this treasured body, told me about your abilities, Lilleo Gullee," she said, her voice laced with venom. "She claimed you could manipulate magic. 'Codes' you call them, and it seems she was right."
"Get out of Dassa's fucking body," Leo commanded, his voice cold and unyielding.
"Why would I?" the Godmother taunted. "This body has a constitution that is far too valuable to give up. Besides, the original host in this body is long gone. Even if I leave only an empty shell will remain. A dead body."
Then she laughed.
Leo clenched his fists. "We need to get out of here. Now," he said to his companions.
Just then, golden dragon apparitions materialized around them.
"Dragon Rakhshasa Transformation Sutra"
Without a word, the dragons lifted them into the air and sped toward the dungeon's exit.
"You won't escape my dungeon so easily!" Lady Dassa screamed, her voice echoing like thunder.
The dragons surged forward, their ethereal forms cutting through the oppressive air with ease. They neared the portal, but as they were about to pass through, the portal's glow shifted violently.
The world twisted all of a sudden.
----
An unseen force wrenched them apart, flinging each of them in a different direction.
Leo blinked and was momentarily disoriented.
He found himself trapped within a shimmering, translucent cubicle of magic, suspended in a vast and endless void. Around him, the others were similarly confined, their forms distorted by the eerie glow of their prisons.
"Where the fuck are we?" Petunia's voice echoed faintly, her figure barely visible through her enclosure.
Leo's jaw tightened as he assessed the strange realm. "This isn't the bloody dungeon anymore," he muttered grimly.
The void around them pulsed with ominous energy, and an oppressive silence pressed down on their senses. They were alone, yet together, stranded in the depths of an unknown realm.
"What the hell is this?!" Petunia shouted, slamming her fists against the barrier. Sparks of energy crackled upon impact, but the cubicle remained unyielding.
Leo scanned their surroundings. "Sujira, do you recognize this? Is this another trap in this fucking vault?"
Sujira shook her head, her expression darkening. "No, I've never seen anything like it before in the Temple of Hera. This is not the temple's magic."
A voice, smooth and mocking, echoed through the void. "She's right. This magic doesn't belong to the Temple of Hera. It belongs to me. Hahaha…. Welcome to my world, my game?"
Leo turned sharply.
Opposite them, another cubicle materialized, revealing Emperor Ramses seated on a grand throne. His regal garments shimmered under an eerie glow, his eyes gleaming with amusement.
Above his enormous cubicle, the apparition of an ethereal chess piece of King appeared.
Next to him stood Lady Dassa, the Godmother of the Temple of Hera. Her body glowed with a golden brilliance surrounded by a magnificent magical crown and above her was projected the chess piece of Queen.
"Damn it, they trapped us again in another stupid magic prison," Leo muttered under his breath. "What is this fucking place? Who the hell are you?" Leo demanded, his voice sharp and angry.
The emperor leaned forward, smirking. "This? This is my beautiful chessboard."
He gestured grandly to the vast arena stretching beneath them—a battlefield designed like an enormous chessboard. "Care to play a game?"
Leo and his wives looked around them in this vast realm.
Then came the realization of their predicament. They were not just captives in a magical realm. They became pieces in the Emperor's twisted chess game.
"We are caught inside a fucking chess game", Leo said.
"How do we get out of here?" Sujira asked.
"You'll not get out of my chessboard until the game finishes...hahaha", Ramses replied to them and laughed.
The chessboard sprawled beneath them unlike a regular chess game.
This board was squares filled with looming figures of demonic creatures contained within large cubic sphere representing Knights, Bishops, towering Rooks, and a legion of grotesque, snarling Pawns.
These were chess pieces each occupied by malicious mutated characters.
At the center of the opposite side, Emperor Ramses occupied the 'King' position upon his throne, with Godmother Dassa standing as the 'Queen.'
Leo turned to his own side and felt a wave of unease.
There were only three pieces. Himself in the 'King' position, Petunia as 'Queen,' and Sujira assigned the role of the 'Rook.'
"We don't have all the chess pieces. They have every piece of chess, and some pieces have more than one occupying it. This is fucking unfair", Petunia complained.
"Where did the emperor's chess pieces come from? I don't see all those monsters coming with him when he was here?" Sujira asked.
It was the emperor who replied to her.
"These chess pieces are attachments to mother…", he explained when Lady Dassa threw him a stern look. He wasn't supposed to reveal the secret of their powers.
"This fucking chess game – is stacked against us from the very start", Leo admitted.
"Welcome to the Realm of the Emperor's Chess."