"So all we have to do is find his gem?" Robert asked as the group walked up to the castle gate, and inserted the key into it. The crystal key slid in smoothly with a click before it began spinning in a circle. As the key spun, its speed began to increase and the gate began to rise into the air. Once it was at five meters in the air, the door stopped raising and the group cautiously walked in.
"Yeah, but he never told me what the gem looked like, so keep your eyes open for anything. He also told me that there may still be operating crystal creatures inside the castle, and we should be on guard for an attack," Sydra said as he peered around the crystal yard they were standing in. After the group had fully passed the gate it began to slowly descend back to the ground.
'Click' A slot on the gate opened up and the key was ejected into Sydra's hands, who put it away into his backpack. As he was closing his backpack, crystal torches along the walls began to light up and illuminate the interior of the castle.
"Woah... Why did the torches just turn on? That's a little creepy," Cidre said as he glanced around. At the moment the group was in the courtyard, surrounded by nine victorian-styled crystal houses that formed a semi-circle. The crystal house in the middle was the largest, as it was five stories high and around thirty meters wide. The rest of the houses were one story shorter than the last, with the two houses at the ends of the semi-circle only being one story.
"I think the torches lit up because we entered the castle. I believe the key that operates the gate also triggered the mechanism that activated the torches. By the way, did you guys notice that the crystal glass was standing on is moving beneath our feet? I wonder just how proficient the master of this castle was when it came to using his power, to be able to imitate something as flexible as grass with crystals," Sydra said as he knelt and ran his fingers through the grass, leaving small trails behind. Plucking a piece of grass out of the ground, Sydra marveled at the complexity of its creation.
Looking around, Sydra noticed that there were trees in the courtyard as well, with green crystal leaves, dark crystal bark, and lovely red crystal flowers. Unlike the castle walls that were made solely out of blue crystal, the grass, trees, and houses were all decorated with colorful crystals, that enhanced the sight produced.
"True... So where should we start looking for treasure " Robert asked, not paying much attention to the surroundings, and focusing on the goal at hand. Sighing, Sydra stood up and looked at the houses in front of them.
"Erich and Robert, you guys take the middle house and explore it together since it is the biggest. Cidre will go and explore the house on the left end, and I shall explore the house on the right end. Once the two of you finish with the middle house, split into two and start going through the other houses. The two groups should end up meeting together at the fourth house on either side. Does that sound like a good idea?" Sydra asked as he looked at the others who were nodding their heads in agreement.
"Yeah, in that case, let's get started," Erich said as he and Robert headed over to the middle house. Turning around, Sydra headed off to the first house he was going to explore, but along the way, he stopped at one of the trees and plucked a flower of it. Spinning the crystal flower in his hand, Sydra got a feeling that the tree was alive and decided to place his hand on it. Sending his conscious into it, Sydra was surprised to see that his guess was correct.
"So these crystal trees are actually alive, and that is the reason these flowers are exuding a presence," Sydra said as he thought back to how when he had first entered the castle he got the feeling that his group wasn't the only living thing in here. "So we're these crystal trees brought here, or we're they created by someone's power?" Sandra asked himself as he sent the crystal flower to his Arbor Sanctum before he finished his walk over to the first house.
Walking up the white crystal steps of the house, Sydra knocked on the door before waiting a few seconds to enter. He wanted to make sure that people weren't living inside the home, before he just barged in. Seeing no one come to the door, Sydra decided it was fine to enter and pushed open the door.
As the door swung open a cold breeze blew past Sydra from inside the house, giving him goosebumps up and down his arms. Raising the temperature around him a little bit, Sydra entered the house and looked around the hallway he was in. The house was illuminated by torches that we're mounted on the wall, and a crystal rug was lain out on the floor. Rubbing his hand across the rug, Sydra determined it was like the grass outside by being soft to the touch.
Standing back up, Sydra walked down the hallway and entered the first room, which turned out to be a bathroom. Just like everything else, the entirety of the bathroom was made from crystal, and this included the toilet. Curious, Sydra headed over to the sink and turned on the faucet to if the water would be made from crystals as well.
"Hmm, it seems that the plumbing is actually connected to a water source, and it's not just more crystals," Sydra said as he dried his hand off on his shirt, considering the only towel in the room was made from crystals and couldn't be used to dry him off.
Leaving the bathroom, Sydra continued to look around the house, but in the end, he only found a few common items that looked cool made from crystal. After sending those items into his Arbor Sanctum to be used as decorations around his palace, Sydra left the first house and headed over to the second house, which was two stories tall.
"Hopefully I'll find something of more use in this house," Sydra said as he headed up the steps, and entered the first floor. Walking around, Sydra noticed that the first floor of the house closely resembled the first house he had explored. The only difference was the items he was able to find, one of which was a crystal spyglass that was enchanted with runes. The enchantment allowed the user of the spyglass to see through obstructions that blocked what the user wanted to see. If a perverted man was to get his hands on this, no woman would ever feel safe about their privacy.
"Let's see how well this thing works," Sydra said as he headed up to the second floor of the house and looked out a window. Raising the spyglass to his eye, Sydra looked through the crystal walls of the middle house to see how Erich and Robert were doing.
"Oh, seems they are still on the second floor, but I guess that makes sense as that house is really wide," Sydra said as he pulled the spyglass away from his eye and put it inside his Arbor Sanctum. Turning around, Sydra looked around at the second floor of the house to see what he could find. Walking into the first room, Sydra was surprised to see it was filled with crystal faces on tables. The crystal faces were showing a variety of emotions, with the most common one being seriousness.
"I guess this room was used for artwork," Sydra said as he picked up a face that had a silly grin sculpted onto it. Flipping the head upside down, Sydra saw the name Louis Wizen written there. Placing the head back down on the table, Sydra picked up another one and saw the same name written on it as well.
"Hmm, I guess that was the name of the guy who had the power to manipulate crystals. He was quite good at using his power as these heads are incredibly detailed," Sydra said as he walked around the room and looked at the other faces.
A few minutes later, Sydra had finished admiring the art work and was closing the door behind him as he left. He had decided to leave all the faces in the room, and move onto the next room, but before he could open the next door he heard a loud crash from outside the house. Racing to the window, Sydra saw Robert flying through the air with his neck being strangled by a crystal gargoyle.
'Crash' Robert smashed his war hammer into the arm of the crystal gargoyle, shattering it completely, before he slammed into the ground. As crystal shards flew into the air from the crater made, Robert jumped up and rushed towards the place the gargoyle had landed, fire surrounding his hammer.
"Oh great, it looks like we're about to get into another battle," Sydra said as he raced out of the house and towards Robert, who was engaging the the gargoyle.