[RW] Chapter V: Mountaintop Castle

"Ow, my head," I muttered in pain as I managed to get myself off the floor. A cursory inspection of my condition showed no broken bones, which was a win in my books.

'Everything green?' the voice in my head asked.

"Yeah, nothing's broken, thankfully; although, I'm sore all over."

Grabbing my sword and returning it to its scabbard, I exited the skull from where I came in and admired my handiwork. The giant bone centipede that had killed me hundreds of times was now lying in a dead heap across the snow field. A sense of euphoria permeated my whole being.

"I finally killed you, didn't I? How do you like me now, huh?" I yelled with barely held ectasy while kicking the skull a few more times just for the hell of it.

'Stop being childish,' it chided.

"Fuck you! I deserve this," I retorted while kicking it a few more times.

After my burning hate and rage subsided for a bit; reluctantly, I stopped kicking the monster. "Let's see what you've given me as a farewell gift."

Focusing on the name Osseous Exoarmor, the image of an armor made of white bony plates covered with various enscriptions appeared before his eyes.

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[Osseous Exoarmor: An armor made of the bones of a thousand people and then enscribed with various enchantment using long forgotten magic. Some say the souls of those whose bones were used to make the armor still inhabit it.]

Memory Name: Osseous Exoarmor

Memory Rank: Awakened

Memory Tier: IV

Memory Type: Armor

Enchantments: [Death Aegis], [Living Bone], [Soul Cry]

[Death Aegis]

Enchantment Description: Magic runes enscribed onto the armor provide the wearer with high protection against physical and soul attacks.

[Living Bone]

Enchantment Description: The armor is alive, allowing the wearer to shape it to suit their needs.

[Soul Cry]

Enchantment Description: Skulls emerge from the armor's surface and let out the horrendous wail of the thousand souls trapped in the armor, deafening any listener other than the wearer.

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"*whistles* Nice," I said to myself as I read the runes. "Now, how does one summon memories again?"

I tried to focus on the memory itself, appearing on my body. The next moment, white plates of interlocking ridged bones covered my entire body while bony pauldrons covered the shoulders. Moreover, bony bracers protected my arms completely.

(Image)

Despite its bulky appearance, it was strangely comfortable to move in and offered no resistance against movement. "Now, let's see what you can do."

The [Death Aegis] is passive defensive enchantment, and I'm not keen on testing it out just yet. Moreover, I had a sinking suspicion that I had already got a taste of the [Soul Cry].

Finally, the one I was most hopeful for: the [Living Bone] enchantment. The armor changes shape to fit my needs, huh? Let's see, maybe I need a shield, and just as I thought about it, the bracer on my left arm expanded into a bony-white kite shield that covered half my body.

"Cool," I admired the shield that had just formed. It looked solid enough to block some nasty blows. "Maybe....."

The left bracer of my armor returned to its normal shape, but not for long as immediately after, two sharp bony spikes emerged from both bracers. The next second, they flattened into two sharp blades before returning back to their original shape.

However, the most amazing feature I discovered was when I caught a glimpse of the dead creature's bony appendages. After a few seconds of deep thinking, four spider-like legs erupted from the armor's back and lifted me up from the ground.

I was laughing and cheering like a kid at disneyland only to later remember my situation.

'Big whoop! You got a knock off symbiote suit. Stay focused.'

"Right," I replied as the euphoria of using my first memory subsided, "only a little left to go to finally wake up from this nightmare."

Thus, I retracted the bony spider legs and walked across the field to finally pass through the frozen arches after so long. After passing the arches, the surrounding gradually began to change: the stone mountain slowly began to give way to ice and frost, and old and worn weapons and armor caked with rust and old blood were scattered around with increasing quantity.

Soon, I found myself looking directly at an oddly familiar ginormous delapitated castle that looked as if it was made of blackish-blue stone sitting right at the top of the mountain. The entrance to the castle was broken as if someone tried to break through it forcefully. Moreover, piles upon piles of ownerless swords, hammers, spears, armors, and shields were scattered around the castle entrace. Also, bones of different shapes and sizes were scattered or even piled over at one place or another.

(Image)

It looked like a war was waged right at the entrance of its castle. I half expected the bones to come back to life like their brethren down the mountain. Luckily, the owners of these bones seemed to value their eternal slumber.

"What the hell happened here?" I asked no one in particular as I passed through the desolate scene and into the castle. Inside the castle was even worse than the outside with the walls gouged out and some even outright destroyed. With every step I took, something crunched beneath me. Inspecting carefully, I was shocked to see pieces of what seemed to be bones to be scattered all throughout the hall. Most of it had been pulverized into bonedust that covered the floor like a fine white carpet.

'Doesn't this place remind you of something?' the voice asked in a rare shaky tone of voice.

"It looks familiar, but... I can't seem to remember where I had seen it."

Soon enough, I reached the end of the long hallway and came face to face with tightly shut double doors made of some dark metal. The doors had no handles, so I tried to push them. Fortunately, the door seemed to be magical in nature since it opened automatically as soon as I used the slightest force.

What greeted me on the other side was a huge, dark room. As soon as I took a step inside the room, the two torches hanging from the sides of the door flared with ethereal blue flames. With each step I took deeper into the room, it slowly got illumiated by torches on huge support columns that held up the room's roof.

I passed by various ice statues that were scattered around the room. They looked eerily life-like, especially with the expressions of horror and desperation on their faces. Some of these statues had very long ears, some were about half the height of the others, some even looked like some sort of minotaurs, while others looked like humans wearing some sort of fantasy armor.

Suddenly, as I was nearing the end of the room, the door behind me slammed shut with a Bang! The final torches at the end of the room flared furiously illuminating what the darkness had hid.

'Motherfucker... We're toast,' despair was palpable in the voice's tone, 'alright, it was good knowing you. Adios.'

I couldn't hear the voice over the banging of my heart as it threatened to leave my chest.

"No, no, not you. Anything but you!" I muttered in horror at what I was seeing as I took shaky steps backward. Sitting on a throne encased in ice while gripping his iconic sword is the Lich King of the Scourge himself - Arthas Menethil.

(Image)

My eyes were shut, awaiting my imminent demise; yet, nothing came. No feeling of head being lopped off, no sword gouging my guts out, and no gauntlets crushing my skull. It was only when I took a second look at the man sitting on the frozen throne that I noticed the things I turned a blind eye to due to fear and shock

Firstly, he didn't have his Helmet of Domination, so his face was barred for the world to see. A deathly pale face framed by stark white hair that reached his shoulders. His eyes were closed, making him give have an oddly peaceful expression one wouldn't normally attribute to the Lord of the Undead Scourge.

(Image)

Second, his body was marred with cracks originating from a single sword sticking into his chest right over the heart. He looked like a broken mirror being held on a thread and would break down with the slightest disturbance.

Against my better judgement, I found myself approaching the occupied throne as if in a trance; which, if I am being honest, I may as well have been since the when I reached the throne I did something no one in his right mind would do.

I reached out my hand and grabbed the runic bastard sword Frostmourne right from the Lich King's grasp. The moment I touched the sword, the cracks covering the Lich King's body expanded rapidly, and the next second, he disintegrated into dust causing the sword piercing him to clank onto the floor.

Moreover, I was actually okay after touching THE Frostmourne, I didn't feel anything possessing me, nor did my soul get eaten or something. I don't know, with the Lich King crumbling to dust and now a passive Frostmourne, it all felt somehow anticlimactic. I half expected to fight the Lich King and die against him a couple of thousand times.

Then the familiar voice of the spell whispered in my ear:

[You have slain a Fallen Titan, Fragment of the Lich King.]

[You have gained a memory: Teardrop Amulet.]

[Wake up, William! Your nightmare is over.]

[Prepare for appraisal...]

Then, everything went black.