Chapter 46

  In the castle, the Hell Knights guarding the entrance with an unkept disciple. With them stood the masked girl, Lara. The mages of the castle were in the rear, in front of the main house where the main protection array stood ready to activate it at the leader’s command.

  On the top of the watchtower of the castle, a conscripted guard stood, surveilling all the area around. The air was still tense, with war at its brink. The guards and knights were armed and ready.

  The guard on the watchtower announced, “The rescue team is returning, open the gates.”

  The huge pitch-black gates of the black castle opened up.

  Lera stood in the front. Then Leo and Melody entered. Behind them, the knights, and in came a carriage, their faces filled with sorrow.

  “The princess?” asked Lara.

  Leo got down from the horse and went to the carriage and opened its doors, revealing an injured princess lying on the carriage, her wounds tied up. She was still unconscious.

  “She will live,” said Leo.

  A sound came from within the other side of the carriage.

  Lara, who stood away, stepped forward, her eyes now in front of the door. Her pupils widened. A tear fell through the mask. The scene in front of her froze her.

  “Ryan,” she called out, her voice breaking.

  “We will find a way to save him,” said Leo, his voice as steady as a boat on a stormy sea.

  “Maybe the journal could hold some answers,” said Melody.

  “First, knights, close the gate. Activate the barrier. Be on guard and keep close lookout for any movement,” said Leo.

  The knights received the command and got to work. The mages poured their mana into the core of the formation, forming a dome covering the whole of the castle.

  After seeing this, Leo continued, “Let’s go in now.”

  He himself carried Ryan inside, with his limbs still tied.

  Inside the castle, in the room of the Hell Star, Grey, Melody, Lara, Leo, and the zombified Ryan tied up stood, with Riley still lying in Grey’s bed. Leo sat next to her, performing his treatment.

  “Is she alright?” asked the anxious Hell Star.

  “The treatment was given in time. She is just exhausted. She will wake up after a while,” replied Leo, calming down Grey.

  “Now, Sister Lara, take out the book,” Leo asked.

  Lara took it out of her robe. “Here, Leo.”

  She placed it in his hands.

  Leo opened it and began to read.

  “Today I visited the graveyard of mother and to pray to the totem of life. On the way, I saw something—a green sinister mana leaking in the air around the totem.”

  “It’s been a week since my last visit to the totem. This time I took an expert on mana, the head blood mage of the Hell Star castle. We investigated and found something very disturbing, but it’s not something we can be hasty about. We need more investigation, more proof.”

  “We have been investigating still for one month now. As time goes on, our suspicion is only being confirmed. We need to let father know this immediately.”

  “It’s been a week since last log. I tried to talk to my father, but he still didn’t give me time to speak. We decided it’s no use trying to explain it to others. We took it upon ourselves to put an end to this.”

  “It’s been a month since we decided to take it upon ourselves. Today we finally found the source, the true problem—the totem of life. It doesn’t let the souls pass on. Instead, it is trapping the souls, using its anguish and pain as fuel and living its life. It’s like a parasite preying on all innocent souls, forever denying them rest. It’s giving the illusion of keeping the land lush when it is but releasing residual energy to make that illusion.”

  “It’s been a week since last log. The head mage found a solution. To free the souls, we need to destroy the totem of life, but there were three problems. First, the totem is too intertwined to the mana of this land. If we forcibly destroy it, then the land itself loses its vitality, becoming a dead zone unfit for life. Even if we manage to destroy the totem, the souls it’s imprisoned need to be released before we try to destroy it. If not, the souls will be obliterated instead of getting peace. Finally, the main problem—we didn’t have time. The totem has been maturing for centuries. Just one more year—if it reaches full maturity—then it will be capable of forcefully imprisoning even the living souls. If that happens, then all of the demon realm shall meet its doom.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “It’s been six months since the last record. After referring to the ancient texts, we found a solution. On the day of the blood moon, the connection between the totem and the land is severed. Then our head mage and I dabbled in the art of magic engineering. After studying the core of the great shield protecting the forest of nightmares, we devised a jewel—the emerald tear—capable of holding souls and releasing them. We needed a conduit for this emerald to connect it to the ground where the souls rested. There we got the bone staff. It was made from the spine of my grandfather, whose grave I desecrated, but it was all worth it. Now we just have to wait for the blood moon.”

  “It’s been two months since then. We assembled a team of trustworthy blood mages under the head blood mage. Tomorrow is the day. I tried to talk to father about it, but he is too busy preparing to go to the central palace to enjoy the feast of His Majesty. I gave the orders for the soldiers to assemble to be on guard outside the graveyard, just in case. I hope everything works out.”

  Leo read these out loud.

  “Forgive me, my son,” whispered Grey, with tears filling his battle-hardened face.

  He turned the page.

  “From here, it is written in blood—the final record he made before he died,” said Lara.

  “Continue, Leo,” asked Melody.

  Leo took a deep breath and started to read as he slid his fingers over the bloodied pages.

  “It went wrong. The resentment, the cursed mana, was too strong. The ritual started. The souls all began to settle down into the emerald tear, the ivory staff acting as the perfect conduit. The totem began to break, but something unexpected happened. As the souls began to flow into the emerald, their bodies started to rise from the ground. I, who was holding the staff, could feel them. It felt like I could command them at will. The ritual continued. The emerald filled up—almost ninety percent of the souls salvaged. At that time, something happened. The totem’s self-preservation activated. The cursed mana it released was stronger than we expected. It tried to devour us, make us fall into temptation. It first tried me, but a Hell Knight shall not fall to mere temptations. Then it tried to corrupt the head mage. He too was but a guardian of this domain, a Hell spawn—he resisted. The other mages too did the same. When we thought it was over, the cursed mana swept around and affected the youngest of the mages—the head mage’s son—instilling into him the idea that with the gem he could be a ruler of undead, a king. Greed clouded his vision. He stabbed me. The ritual was interrupted. The souls began to frenzy. The undead began attacking us and heading towards the village. As soon as he stabbed me, the head mage’s son snapped out of it. The head mage had him, but a father’s love stopped him from doing anything. Using this chance, the head mage’s son ran away. The undead began to overwhelm us. Only about a hundred knights remained. We tried our best to keep them at bay, but more than a hundred thousand undead corpses rose up. The knights were overwhelmed, but we managed to form a line to protect the citizens. A few still managed to get past us. The knights started dying. Almost all the knights were bitten. They too turned into undead due to the cursed mana infiltrating them. Only the few we left back in the castle remained. They were evacuating the people. When all seemed dire, a knight clad head to toe in crimson armour, bearing a crimson sword, came. He was wandering near the area. He took out his crimson sword. A crimson light shined, rivalling the moon’s light, filled the sky, overwhelming the celestial in the sky. When the light died down, in an instant the corpses were reduced to dust. Just as he arrived, he vanished in the wind. We were saved, but alas it was too late to continue the ritual. So we made a decision—something that will haunt the world for years to come. Since we couldn’t completely destroy the totem, we decided to make sure to leave a gap large enough so that on every full moon the souls could escape via that gap and prevent the full maturation of this parasite. We unleashed a necessary evil. The head mage, for the sin of not stopping his son, made a prison of corpses with his life to protect the emerald tear from the wrong hand. Only the worthy one shall ever find it. It is too late for me. I delayed the curse as much as I could, but I too was bitten. Since I was bitten, I know all the changes that this curse causes. I shall record it for posterity. A mana circle that can possibly reverse the mana curse may bring back newly bitten. It’s too late for me, but I trust my father—he will find a way. I wanted to ask whoever finds this journal to say to my father that I am sorry.”

  The entry ended. The next page held the mana changes and a solution—a mana circle to reverse the curse—but it was only half written. The blood trail stopped midway.

  Leo sat down. His shoulders dropped. His eyes moistened.

  “Is there no way to save Ryan?”

  “Don’t give up, Leo. We will find a way,” said Melody.

  Leo wiped his eyes. “Get me that emerald tear and the staff,” continued Melody.

  Lara handed the staff to Melody. She took out the emerald she held. The emerald was placed on the staff. Nothing happened.

  “Why is nothing happening?” asked Grey with frustration.

  “Maybe it went out of power,” said Goodwin.

  Melody’s eyes sparked. She gathered mana in her hands. The emerald began to glow. The staff began to fuse with the emerald, in the process giving out a blinding emerald glow.

  The undead Gilbert saw this light and ran away into the tunnel. Ryan, on the other hand, was tied up, unable to run. His soul was sucked in. He became obedient.

  “The head mage’s son… he was the current head mage who created the blood tear,” said the Hell Star.

  A guard rushed in and said, “The undead army is coming, commander.”

  Leo spoke, “Sister Lara, Melody, let’s go. Sir Grey, rest here. Take care of Ryan and your daughter.”

  Helplessly, Grey nodded.

  Leo followed the mage, with Melody and Lara behind him. Gilbert was still missing. Riley was still unconscious on the bed.

  They arrived at the front of the castle.

  Leo spoke, “Hear me, demons of the Hell Star’s domain. Tonight we are facing the greatest threat this kingdom has ever seen. We are what stands between the undead and the innocent demons of the kingdom. The enemy numbers over ten thousand undead. We are outnumbered by a lot. I don’t know if we will survive tonight, or if you will ever see your families, but I know one thing for sure—those damn undead army shall not pass. Even if one of us still stands breathing. So demons, raise your swords. We have some undead to kill.”

  The demons shouted, their voices reaching the skies as they got ready to face the war.

  On the other side, the head mage standing behind the undead king whispered, “Just a bit longer and I shall be the ultimate ruler. Father, I will prove to you how right I was and conquer the whole realm,” with a sinister laugh.

  In front of him, Garry commanded, “My army, forward. Today we triumph by making this land a graveyard of corpses.”