Chapter 364: The Ruins (Part Two)

We kept on walking. 

"Is there any reason why your mother was captured?"

I tried to mostly stick to the shadows but with all the walls and houses barely standing, it was a lot harder than I thought. 

"We," she sighed. "The people revolted. The top bunch wanted to go to war but the people didn't. And so, a revolt took place, mother led the rebels and we fell."

A war, huh?

Only people who didn't know what war truly was and just how devastating it was, were dumb enough to go out seeking it. 

"Wouldn't it have been easy for you to rescue your mother once the war broke out and-"

"Yes, it would have. But I'm afraid I'm no longer a royal guard and they will probably behead her before setting out for the battle, anyway."

It made sense. 

Anyway, this place kept getting denser and denser. 

The houses were now much closer to each other and some were larger than others. Some of the houses were even intact- kind of. 

We were getting close to the center of the city?

"And where do you think we'd find this undead?"

"I actually don't know. Most of the legends say he died in the throne room and never left. Though, I doubt that's true."

"Well, we better find out."

After all the castle- the almost falling down- but it wasn't falling- castle, was just in front of us. We were still maybe half a kilo away but damn that thing was large. 

Some groans came from around us. There were undead here, though the number was far less than the forests. And the few that were here, were mostly just hidden in the shadows. After all, it was daytime and without the protection of the forests, they were kind of useless.

***

Our footsteps reverberated. 

The castle was empty in hindsight. But I knew for a fact, this place was crawling with undead and most were humanoid. 

"I've been meaning to ask but-" But the girl paused and stayed a bit too close to me. 

We both had torches in hand. 

The fire was burning bright and the light was keeping the undead and darkness away. 

Why did we need torches?

The castle- was mostly intact. But, with all the vines and trees and all that, light kind of didn't penetrate in. Meaning, this place was pretty dark, almost as though night. 

"What?"

"The undead mostly just ignore you. Is there a reason for that?"

"Not sure." Did undead only attack the living? No, they ate their kinds too, and that's why I wasn't sure. Though it kind of didn't matter. 

The girl became quiet. But we kept walking. 

There were rooms here and there. None of the rooms had any doors or windows. And the rooms were empty too. 

The stones had mostly worn out but they were still holding their place. This place was very well built. 

The vines here were thicker than my arm. They were even crawling on the ground and had veins like they were alive or something. 

Then again trees had life too but this was something different. 

And most of the vines were coming from the second floor. This was a three-story building and the stairs were almost saying 'stay away from me.'

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Frankly, I didn't like where this was going. 

"I'm guessing the throne room is on the third floor?" 

I figured there'd be plenty of undead here. But to my surprise, the number was actually less than what I saw just outside. 

"That would be my guess too, yes."

Sigh, but it was too late to backtrack. 

The stair was normal, not the spiral type. 

The architecture of this place was reminding me of the Roman ruins back on earth, though the interior of this palace was more reminiscent of the Egyptians than the Romans. 

There were scribbles on the walls but they weren't readable. 

Anyway, I carefully placed my feet on the stair and saw whether it'd collapse or not. 

It didn't. 

"Let's go."

I kept going up, but I kept all my senses on full throttle. In case, there was an undead attack, the stair breaking, or maybe the girl betraying me, I'd be ready. 

But none of that happened. The stairway didn't break. The undead just left alone and the girl was too concerned about our surroundings than to attack me. 

Anyway, we successfully reached the second floor and started exploring. The layout was basically the same but just with fewer rooms. The number of undead was also lower but I did notice one or two floating ghost-like things: spirits, probably. Everything left us alone though. 

All the rooms were empty and surprising there wasn't any dust. 

"If everyone died, wouldn't there at least be dust or the debris of their things?"

But I didn't see anything. Five thousand years was no joke, but still nothing?

It was almost as though…

"I think the vines are moving…" The girl said. "It's possible-"

I'd seen predatory trees before. It reminded me of the pirating days but, yeah, those were good days. 

It was possible this tree was responsible for finishing up the remains. But that was just hypothetical. 

Then it was possible the undead the girl talked about wasn't real. Though I couldn't be sure about either. 

"Let's be careful." With that said, we finished scanning the whole floor but as our first guess stood, the throne room was probably on the third floor. Cause this whole floor was also empty. 

Even the stairway was filled with vines. And this one was perhaps a bit too cramped. There were vines stretching from the bottom of the stair past the ceiling, obstructing our path.

'So, the vines are actually holding this place together?' No wonder, this three-story palace didn't crumble yet. 

I unsheathed my knife and with quick slices, cut open a path. Once cut, the vines throbbed like veins and leaked a white musky substance, and gradually stopped leaking. 'This thing's just like-' Yeah, there was no need for guessing, these plants were dangerous and they were definitely alive. And that white substance was corrosive. 

I signaled the girl and we kept on going up. I often cut the vines but I also tried to avoid it as much as possible. 

Once up, things were different. 

For one, the vines were abundant but more importantly, there were no more undead and there were maybe three-four rooms on this whole floor. 

The first two rooms were empty but judging by the size, I'd say those were the royal rooms. 

As for the third? 

Yeah, it was the throne room. And though I didn't know if there was any undead in here or not, there was certainly a plant here. 

A plant that wiggled its vines like tentacles. 

Sigh.

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