An ancient chandelier hung in the empty hallway. The remains of the once golden pillars stayed stalwart at the either side while sheltering pedestals of the dead ministers.
Gloomy rays of the golden light felt like a mist, entering from the open sidewall. From there, one could see the rubbles of the marble stones scattered across dead city.
"hah! What a travesty!" a deep voice echoed from the end of the hallway.
A dais rose above and a young man stood atop the throne…or what of it remained.
His white training shirt fluttered as cold wind of the winter blew from the sidewall. His legs crossed over each other and his arm rested on the armrest of the throne. His bleak-hollow eyes, exuding nothing but condescendence.
He slowly parted his dry lips and said slowly "I am the king!"
"see Lucy? I finally have my own palace and an entire city for myself! haha"
His maniacal voice echoed in the empty hallway as looked around and spat
"see this? I even saved everyone. Now, no one will die. I have given them all their required eternal rest deep within the depths of the world…?"
His voice continued to Bellow in the empty hallway as he sat on the throne, meanwhile the rubbles nearby the pillars shook slightly. There was a white creature, with beautiful white mirroring white scales on its body. the white sense the presence on the throne and quickly closed the distance between the throne and herself
The beautiful white radiance reached the armrest and them quickly slithered around his arm, before wrapping itself around the neck of the young man.
"what! Why isn't she answering me? does she think she can disobey me and stay alive. I will bury that ungrateful wench in the undergrou—Ah!"
The young man's Bellowing fury subsided as suddenly, a pair of something sharp pierced through his neck and he felt his whole body burning.
He stood up and then stumbled down the dais, resulting in rolling down to the hall.
Then his wail resounded, but now it looked somewhat warmer than before. like a cry of a child "Ack!"
His eyes gained back their warmer colour and clarity reflected through them. he quickly stood up and looked down his shoulders
Hiss!
"…"
He blankly looked at the Lucy and recalled the past few minutes.
His facial expressions turning worser from worser "W-was that me!?"
He cursed as he looked at the dais which held the shattered throne…or the infamous shattered throne.
"Lucy! Y-you saved me! I thought I was going to die there. thanks to your help, now I have verified the throne authenticity. It is exactly just like how it is described in the documents."
The young boy beamed a reluctant smile and patted Lucy's head. In response, the white snake just hissed at him help and again coiled herself on his dainty neck.
Buzz!
Suddenly the communication device in the young boy's ears buzzed before a crisp voice echoed in his ears
[Flame! it's me Javier. Have you searched inside the castle?]
Instantly, Flame flinched. He had completely forgot that he had to search for a special item in the hallway, but as soon as he saw the infamous throne, he couldn't help himself and forgot about the mission.
The young boy, Flame fell silent for a while then, replied hurriedly "y-yes! yes. I am almost there. only one or two rooms are lefts. I will be there quickly after searching inside them!"
The communication device didn't respond immediately. For once Flame felt sweat rolling down his neck in anxiety.
[alright! Just don't forget to look at the Timer. we can come back here later again]
Flame didn't wait and nodded furiously "yeah! Yeah! You are right, of course right. I will don't worry—" he paused and looked at his wrist, where a digital device like watch was wrapped around his arm.
some digits were glowing in green colour
[01:39:00]
The numbers changed
[01:38:59]
"I still have an hour and thirty nine minutes left no—thirty eight— don't worry. I will meet you at the city plaza"
[ok! That's sound good]
Click!
And then the device turned off.
Flame took a deep breath and fell on the floor from exhaustion. It was never easy to find for good excuses. Not when you have to be honest.
Even then, Flame couldn't tell Javier that he was testing a high-level ancient artifact.
And while doing his public services, He had completely forgotten about the mission!
He felt extremely ashamed of himself when It was him who insisted for taking a mission when he was only hired as a porter for expedition. Though, Flame had some prior experience of Rifts with his friends, he was still not adept to take on missions on his own.
He wasn't even an Awakened yet!
Only Awakened were allowed to take missions and respond to the Ancient Calls. Descendants like him were not even allowed to be anywhere near them. Descendants are like the most useless people in the current world.
But, Flame was different. He had already thought about a backup.
He patted his shoulder and then a cute little white snakes peeked out of her head from his training shirt.
Lucy's eyes were drooping from all the exhaustion as she looked at Flame "so, my dear Lucy! You know you are the most beautiful creature in the entire world. Not only that no human can compare to your otherworldly charm, not even the Lunars…though Blood queen is a different thi—Ack!"
Before Flame could continue his cheeky praises, Lucy dug her thin fangs into his neck. Instantly, flashing two fresh pen-point like marks on his pale skin
Flame caressed his delicate skin and felt the various different similar perforations spread across.
His face winced from pain for a brief moment, before he turned to look at Lucy indignantly
"ha! Sorry! but, you know that wasn't me. it was the Benevolent Tyrant! He was the one who was spouting all the non-sense. And please don't poke new holes!"
Hiss!
The white snake hissed and stared her vermillion eyes at Flame, before relenting and rolling her eyes
Flame sighed and asked "good! see! That was what I was talking about. I wasn't lying when I said that you are the most genius person…"
He rambled on for some few more moments, until Lucy opened her mouth, but Flame stopped his buttering at the right moment and cleared his throat
"Ahem! Ahem! So, you get it. anyway, let's handle the important task at hand—" Slowly, Flame's face turned stern and his eyes sparkling strangely "have you searched the area around? was there anything special? Like some Arcane grade Relic or even perhaps gold? Maybe silver?"
Lucy fell silent, listening to the shamelessness of her friend, but eventually she hissed and shook her head
Flame shoulders dropped instantly after finding nothing important. Though, he was here to find the special material of the Call…who was going to stop him from gaining some extra loot? Right?
He quickly walked out of the throne room and climbed the stairs
Soon, he found himself on the second floor of the fallen castle. Unlike the throne room, it looked much preserved. Though, the walls looked corroded from aging, the rooms and beds were still intact.
The white snake rested on his shoulder, while Flame continued to search all the remaining rooms one by one.
As he had expected, he was not going to find anything special in this short time. from a glance, the rooms were nothing special except the ancient extravagance and spider webs.
If there was really something special in the castle, the government and the other Arcane families must have already scavenged it. What Flame wanted was actually an old painting, which was supposed to be somewhere 'still' inside the castle
In the end, Flame sighed and left the fallen castle
While heading down, Flame decided to check on the mission details for once again.
He tapped his watch two times with his index finger and instantly rays of light scattered from it, forming the holographic screen before him.
[Ancient's call: The last wish of The Benevolent Tyrant's Heir]
[Descriptions: Anzi, was the nickname given to eldest prince by the youngest princess. She looked so pretty and gorgeous that Anzi couldn't help but feel his heart flutter. With a deep resolve, he had decided to take down his father from the throne and become the new king, but he was late.
In the end, he was left with nothing but deep regret and anguish. The Eldest prince couldn't do anything, but weep in his sorrow of weakness. Even during his last moments in the underground chambers, he remembered the wall where sweet smile of princess was etched for eternity]
[Rewards: Ancient's blessings]