Chapter 92: Ancient horrors

The room we entered was lit up with torches. No more blue crystals. But the colour of the flame was blue.

It was a room with a ceiling that went to the sky. Empty all around. Each footstep I took echoed around the room. Even my breathing could be heard.

But in the middle of the room, a rectangular altar made of white marble stood. Cracks on the floor ran through the room and met at the altar in the middle. They were straight and had sudden changes in direction.

"What's this?" Amelia asked as she looked around the room in awe.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," I replied to her. "This must be some kind of ritual room,"

"All of this looks… alien,"

"True," I said. "There must be something in here…"

I looked around the room trying to spot anything. Slowly walking towards the altar and looking around it to find something, anything.

The altar was dusty. That's the first thing I noticed. This place must've not been touched in centuries.

"Hold on…" I muttered. "This is not an altar…"

"What is it then?" Amelia said as she stood beside me.

"This is… a coffin!"

"Heh!?" Amelia exclaimed. "A-a coffin? In such a grand room!?"

There was cryptic writing on top of what I assumed was the altar. It was in a language I couldn't speak. The writing was similar to hieroglyphics. They were similar to drawings.

"Can you read what this says?" I asked Amelia.

She looked down at the coffin and tried to decrypt it. But even she was puzzled by it.

"Nope, this language is out of my memory,"

"So this must be really old, huh?" I scratched my chin and muttered.

Leaving the coffin aside, this room is massive. There must be something else hidden.

I walked around the coffin to see if anything else was next to it. Nothing, only dust and moss.

The torches on the wall were also massive. They were put up high and massive in size compared to normal torches. Only a few were scattered around at the same height. But the small number of torches could light the entire room with ease.

An unsettling feeling grew in my chest the longer I spent here. An unknown coffin in the middle of a dome-shaped room, colossal blue torches lighting the room. Empty and isolated. Cold and lonely.

Amelia walked around slowly as she tried to figure out clues. She looked at the cracks in the floor which intrigued me as well.

They were cut perfectly. Again, it looked like a machine had done it. All of this must have links to a lost civilization.

Dwarf skeletons, massive rooms, a coffin as big as a house, a floating ice floor. None of these made sense logically. All of this is linked to some unexplained reason.

"Papa, the coffin lid can be opened," Amelia said as I stared at a wall.

"What? This can be opened?" I exclaimed before rushing back.

"Look, this is the lid on top,"

I checked and sure enough, this was just the coffin door. It was a massive door that could be forced open.

But do I dare open it?

"Amelia, grow larger and pull this off,"

I began to untie the rucksack on her. This coffin would be the answer to all the strange happenings in this cave.

She grew taller and larger till she reached a decent size. Standing on her hind legs as her front feet became hands with colossal claws.

"Get ready," She said as she put one claw under the coffin.

I stepped back and grabbed onto my swords, ready to unsheath and fight. I take a deep breath and calm myself, trying to not break at the tension.

She gently moves her claw up. As expected, the top slowly unlocked. It screeched and screamed as it slowly opened for the first time in perhaps eons.

It cracks open. A thin crack inside the coffin.

Amelia continues. She continued till the top was completely off. Slowly, she let gravity do its thing.

The top slides off and falls on the floor, falling back and cracking. The coffin was finally open.

Amelia stayed the same size as she looked into the coffin. Slowly, I pluck up my courage and walk towards the coffin. My right hand rested on my sword's handle, just for safety.

There it lay, the lifeless body of a creature that I'd never seen. Creature may not be the right word to describe it. The figure was of a human but the body was of a devil. No, that's not it…

This is armour. It was made of black material. The darkest material I had ever seen. The armour was too big to fit any human. Not even wolf clans in their feral phase can fit inside this.

Who does this belong to? Is this armour or is this a statue?

I was left speechless, clueless. Amelia and I struggled to find answers for this… thing.

The armour was not ordinary either. Every shape of each piece was a masterpiece. From the chest piece to the leggings. The edges were still sharp even to this day. As if this armour was made just a week ago.

One piece I hadn't looked at was the helmet. But when I noticed it, my mind could not comprehend it.

It covered the whole face. All of it. Only leaving a T-shaped gap in the middle. Letting the mouth, eyes and nose be exposed. Two devilish horns stuck out from the forehead and pointed forward.

Sharp spikes on the shoulder pads and sharp designs on the entire armour. This was no ordinary armour, this belonged to a warrior, a knight.

The hands were placed on its stomach, grabbing hold of a mighty sword that rested gently on top of the armour. It was the same colour as the rest of the armour, perhaps made of the same material. A material that I wish I knew of.

"W-what is this…" Amelia muttered, after staring at it for a while.

"No clue…" I answered softly. "This is… armour… But it's too big to fit anyone…"

"It looks so human… yet so evil…" Amelia said, perfectly describing what I was thinking.

Both of us were curious but afraid. I didn't want to touch it, Amelia didn't want to ruin it.

After picking up some courage, I reach out with my right hand. I place it on the gauntlet, measuring the size of its hands to mine.

Compared to it, my hands were tiny. They could not compare.

To my worst fears, it happened.

Two red dots began to glow from the eyes of the helmet. I looked at it as my skin turned pale. My blood went cold as my heart began to race.

Two glowing dots were coming from the eyes. It looked at me as if they were eyes. I looked back at it with fear in me for the first time.

The torches that lit up the room turned crimson, similar to my hair.

It suddenly began to move. The floor beneath us began to rumble and shake. All the cracks on the floor glowed a dark red hue, similar to the torch.

My body wouldn't move. My hand was stuck to the hand I was comparing to. While I stood there, frozen in place, it began to move.

First, it's hands. It gripped the handle of its mighty sword. As it lifted its ancient body, the room began to shake.

It turns its head towards me, looking at me with its terrifying red eyes, glowing in the dim light. Its horns pointed towards me.

"Who disrupted my peace?" A demonic deep voice spoke out.

I looked up at the titan as it slowly arose from its slumber. It stood tall, as tall as Amelia in her current form. It looked at her before slowly looking down at me.

"Dragon… Human… A connection links you two together…" The same voice said.

All I could do was stand before it as it stared down at me. My limbs were locked, frozen in place. There is nothing I could do in front of it.

"'Tis you who has awakened me?" He asked.

A simple nod was my answer.

"Then you may suffer consequences,"

Before I could react, I blinked for a split second. At that same moment, a strong pain shot out of my back. Something was behind me. I was laying about something.

My ears screeched with a high-pitched noise. I couldn't move or do anything–completely unable to react

"Papa! Wake up!" Amelia's voice cried out to me, faintly through my confusion.

I opened my eyes once again. Slowly squinting them open and seeing a blurry vision. My body ached as I lay in a fetal position.

A sense of claustrophobia struck me. I was stuck somewhere. My vision cleared and I realised where I was.

Inside a hole in the wall. Sounds of Amelia's wings flapping screamed in my ears. Her conjuring fire and electricity also echoed.

"What… happened…" I muttered in my daze.

"You were flung into the wall!" Amelia shouted. "He's an enemy! A really strong one!"

Enemy… strong…

There was no time to waste. I need to help Amelia.

I got back on my feet as my back and arms ached. They were definitely broken. No way can I heal myself either.

"Hold on… Amelia…" I said to her in telepathy. "Papa's coming…"

"There's an army of his minions he just summoned. Make sure you come back to your senses before you fight!"

Both of my legs were shaking, my left arm was twisted the wrong way and a throbbing headache started. My back must've incurred injuries as well.

As I slowly made it to the exit of the hole, I looked at the arena I was once standing in.

I was high up in the wall, at least three stories up. The coffin in the middle was crushed, and crumbled into pieces.

A black titanic being with a sword as dark as night danced around an obsidian dragon that floated over its head, flapping her mighty wings and dodging as the titan tried to hack and slash at it.

I twisted my arm back to normal, A jolt of pain shot through but I could use my arm like normal.

Suddenly, Amelia roared in pain. I looked back at the fight scene and realised why.

The titan managed to land a hit on her. Her scales were pierced through. Its sword cut through with ease as if she was made of normal skin and meat.

Her colossal body crashed on the floor as the sword left a cut through her body. The titan was walking up to her, ready to kill her.

"Oi, what do you think you're doing…?" I shouted out to grab its attention.

My voice reached his ears. He turned and looked at me with his glowing red eyes.

"Throwing me into a wall and then messing with my daughter… Do you think you're higher than me? A king? Do you find yourself higher than a dragon as well?"

"'It's you who thinks lightly of me," The devilish voice says. "You think you are mighty with a dragon… and the body of a prodigy. You stand no chance,"

"I didn't survive through the slums for nothing," I muttered. "There's a reason I survived that hell. The reason was to live and not die a pathetic death,"

"Your life ends here,"

"You don't decide, I do,"

As his minions surrounded Amelia, I jumped down from the hole and landed on my feet. The ground beneath me cracked as I landed.

"You have strength…" The titan says, "But it's nothing,"

"Leave the dragon and fight me," I said while smiling and limping. "Fight the parent, not the child,"

He pointed his finger towards me. All his minions turned in sync and looked at me before charging at me.

My wooden sword would be useless, but might as well put it to use.

As the army of minions grew closer, I unsheathed both of my swords. I stood in stance and took a deep breath.

"This will be fun," I said as a wide grin grew on my face.

The army surrounded me and flailed their swords in the air. They wore armour similar to the titan but were smaller, much smaller. They were the same height as me.

I dashed forward with wind burst and cut through them with ease. Even with armour, the velocity that carried me was enough to cut through the strongest material.

They were just hunks of armour. Nothing inside them. The armour is their body, not a protective layer. But it's a hard body to break through.

There was no question of morality at this moment. It was a decision of life or death, fight or flight. I fought through the crowds with all the elements I could use.

Water and electricity are mixed together to create puddles of electrifying zones. Ice spikes to damage the bodies. My arsenal was much bigger than they could handle.

"Yeah!? That's all you got!? You are all just metal bins!" I exclaimed in excitement.

Adrenaline pumped through my body as I massacred the soulless animated minions. One after the other, I destroyed each and every one. They were all difficult to pierce through but easy to use magic on.

All I have to do is huddle them together and shoot a fireball at them. They die in one massive fireball.

"Keep 'em coming! I have infinite mana and energy! You can't tire me out!"

My ego leaked through with every kill I made. I couldn't contain my maniacal laughter. The satisfaction of grouping them and killing them was overwhelming. There was no question of morality, only murder.

FELIX'S POV

The sun was beginning to set already. Only a single day passed since Artorius left and yet, everything feels much blander.

Artorius always had a plan or agenda for him. Since I was his butler, I always followed him everywhere. But this time I had nothing to do. For the first time, I was left in charge of the entire palace for more than twelve hours.

Vincent also had work. He had to stay with Wilkins till dinner time. After eight o'clock, his work was over and he could come back to the palace.

"Ah~ there's nothing to do," I yawned while rolling around my bed, bored out of my mind.

The staff have been working as usual. Zenith was in the capital once again, or in the outskirts. He was in charge of the elite force that guarded the cave while Artorius was gone.

Leo on the other hand, went to the mountains as ordered by Artorius. He is on quite an adventurous expedition.

Meanwhile, I was left to relax the meantime. Alexander has work too. Before Artorius left, they planned together that Alexander would marry Olivia after he returned.

"He must be enjoying his time at the capital with her…" I whispered while rolling over to my side.

Since I was left with no work, I might as well look for something to work on.