❆ ❆ ❆ ❆ Eight ❆ ❆ ❆ ❆

The Secret of the Regalian Kingdom

It was pitch black. After feeling the walls, Snow came up to what felt like an iron door. She put all her body weight into pushing it. Finally, the door screeched open just wide enough where she could fit through it.

Now, Snow found herself in a strange tunnel. A streak of blue light came from the end of the passage. The corridor itself looked nothing like a castle hall. Wooden support beams held up the walls and ceiling. Rusted swords and abandoned ballistas littered the floor. Snow cautiously stepped through this abandoned tunnel towards the light at the end of the tunnel.

The corridor led Snow to a large chamber with massive silver pillars that formed a swirl around its center. The center of the chamber was indented and had a magnificent floating rune. The rune was ginormous, and at a closer look, Snow’s ears began to ring slightly from its humming energy. The rune had multiple rings, each with a different pattern of lines and symbols. Snow immediately recognized its similarity to the picture she saw in her mother’s log book and that monstrous black book.

For all Snow’s uncertainty, one thing was sure; she did not belong here, and this rune was not to be touched.

A door screeched open on the other end of the chamber.

Snow hid behind one of the silver pillars.

“Do you feel it? It is here.” A deep voice echoed from the other end of the chamber.

Cloaked figures walked into the runes’ light and began to surround it. Their cloaks were unordinary; the light caused the veils to change to an iridescent color.

“This is it—the world seal. Left guarded by mere sentries. The queen is a fool.”

“Keeper, how long will this take?”

Snow peeked from behind her pillar. A tall knight in black armor spoke to an old, frail-looking man wearing one of the colorful cloaks.

The old man observed the rune.

“This… far surpassed my expectations. This seal is by far the strongest seal I’ve ever seen. It uses a combination of multiple ancient formulae, each ring with a more complex algorithm than the last. I thought it would simply hold a simple pocket of energy, but no, it’s sealing an astronomical amount of frost magic! If we open this, the sheer pressure would probably kill us all. Amazing!”

The sheer power of the seal gave the old man more happiness and curiosity than fear. Did they really intend on opening such a thing?

“Get it done. Break the seal.”

Not good.

A bright red light formed under each mage as a runic symbol materialized underneath each of them. The old man pulled out a stone sphere and began to levitate. The orb shot a magic beam into the rune.

“Key is already overheating. Increase support input by thirty percent! We can not let the key break, or the seal will reform!” The small, frail man yelled at the casters in an old strained voice.

The ‘key’ looked like a simple stone orb.

“Internal temperature lowering. The key has stabilized.” The floating old man said in strained satisfaction.

The humming from the rune increased in intensity before the outer ring of the seal shattered.

“First seal is destroyed!” The old man proudly declared.

A distortion formed underneath the rune, and a white mist began to seep out.

“Keep going.” The tall black knight demanded.

“Frost energy is leaking. Make sure you stay stabilized on the chosen frequency.” One of the support mages added.

After a minute, a deafening screech started rippling out from the rune; this one cracked the ground. Snow covered her ears. She felt like her head was going to explode. All heard the sound of shattering glass; The mages destroyed the next ring.

The distortion turned into a small rift. A snowy wasteland faded in and out as a freezing cold from the rift. The temperature in the room dropped drastically, even making Snow shiver.

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“Air essence leaking from the rift. It seems you were right. The anti-magic cloaks work.”

“The golden one would never lie.” The black knight commented back.

Snow didn’t know what to do. If these people took out the royal sentries, how would she stand a chance against them? There must be some way to stop them.

Footsteps echoed into the chamber. Everybody immediately grew quiet.

It was Lamille.

The knight in the black armor drew his weapon and pointed it at Lamille, who was barely standing in the light.

“Do you truly wish the world to end? What is the goal of this plan of insanity?!” Lamille yelled.

The black knight only reacted with a calm declaration.

“That answer is simple. Freedom.”

“Wait…You are a black knight? How did you escape?!” Lamille radiated with both shock and fear.

“The gold one has blessed me with freedom.” Black tar dripped from the knight’s armor, and his neck and limbs grew inhumanely. He was quickly forming into a horrific figure. “I long for frostblood, but I guess yours will do, elf.”

“Third seal is about to break! Once the third ring breaks, the rune will no longer be able to self-sustain!” Everyone in the chamber heard the status update from the floating old man.

Lamille glared at the old man and then at the black knight. It was now or never.

The black knight charged at Lamille like a dog, dragging his sword behind him.

Lamille’s green hair extended to her feet, brown lines formed all over her body, and a crown of wood grew from her head.

“You face a sage, dog!”

The black knight pounced at her.

Lamille slid to the right, aided by a gust of wind. The black knight’s blade smashed at the ground a foot away, missing Lamille. The knight turned to his left. Lamille had her palm up inches away from his face. A swirl of wind ran down her arm before she blasted the knight towards the left side of the room. The knight smashed into the wall, breaking his neck, and fell to the ground motionless. Lamille then turned her attention to the mages around the rune, pointing both her hands up at them.

“Protect me!” The old man commanded. All the mages surrounding the seal ran past the old man and put up a line of defensive runes. “She’s an elven sage. Use counter runes for her wind magic.” The old man commanded, and all the defensive runes turned near transparent.

“Stop your ritual now, or I will kill you all.” Lamille gave them a single warning.

“And how would you do that? You are far from your little tree, sage. All you have is magic.”

Lamille’s face scrunched further in anger.

“Fatally incorrect.”

All the mages heard a burrowing noise underneath them.

Multiple roots shot out of the ground, stabbing the mages through their runes and impaling them to the ceiling.

The only one left was the old man, who was still floating. The third ring was brought to a deafening hum.

“So close, damnit!” The old man turned his attention back to the seal to finish it.

Lamille stepped forward and began summoning another root under the old man. The root shot up and paused just before hitting him.

Lamille was interrupted by the black knight. The black knight was back on her and had his sword impaled in her gut. It all happened in an instant.

“Delicious.” The black knight was absorbing Lamille’s blood through his sword. His body grew slightly larger. The crown of wood began to darken and crack, and the lines on her body faded. Finally, Lamille fell to her knees. The knight leaned up to her face. “Your strength merits your guardianship of this seal. However, defeating a black blood would take a lot more than a sage.”

“I... don’t need... to defeat you,” Lamille uttered before she reached forward and grabbed his chest. “Sothra Sil, save those hearts who are fleeting, at the cost of my own beating!”

The fading lines on Lamille’s body flashed green as a new root exploded from the ground around the black knight, wrapping around him tightly like a cacoon, forming a miniature tree. Lamille ripped her hand from the bark and stumbled towards the old man. Beads of sweat dripped from her face as her skin began to pale. Lamille fell to the ground.

“That didn’t go too well for you, did it? I, Runic Master Targhon, will still break this world seal!” The old man shouted over the deafening screech.

A blue flash flew past the old man, severing his hands off.

“Ahhhhhhhh!” He cried in pain and fell to the ground. Snow was just in front of him, holding the frost sword. She bent down and picked up the orb key.

“You’re right. It’s over.” Snow declared as the old man balled up on the floor, cradling his hands.

“Good... Job... Snow.” Lamille uttered, barely able to hold up her head.

“Lamille!” Snow began running to Lamille when suddenly, the wooden prison exploded, and the black knight emerged out, stepping in between them.

The knight’s tar-like substance oozed over his wounds, closing them.

“My senses have deceived me. You are the threat which I smelled.”

The key was no longer channeling, but it began glowing gold. The black knight reacted with slow and menacing laughter. “I never knew such a child was possible. You are more abomination than me!”

Snow looked at the glowing key and then back at the knight

“I will not allow you to destroy the seal.” Snow pointed the frost blade at the black knight. The knight stopped at the display of it.

“That key is powered by souls, you are doing a good job of speeding it up," He looked at the frostblade, "Can you slay me?” The knight hung its neck to the side, far past the breaking point of a normal human body.

Snow could sense the gaping abyss that was his hunger growing larger and larger. This ‘knight’ was not human in the slightest; not just because it was beyond human form, her body sensed a level of dread that her mind refuted was possible.

“No, I’ll just settle for saving my Kingdom.” Snow looked to Lamille, Who was watching from the ground. “Goodbye, Lamille. Thank you for everything.”

Upon hearing that the black knight reacted violently, he dashed forward, leaving a tar path behind him. Snow leaped backward, avoiding its crutches by mere inches, and disappeared into the rift. The rift closed immediately after.

“NO!” The knight cursed in anger.

The seal regained most of its third ring back. The room was dead silent, leaving only the trickling corpses, a crying old man, Lamille, and the black knight.

The black knight turned to Lamille.

“You will pay.”