"Man~, but seriously, this place is a wreck even if it did somehow remain in one piece"
After entering the gates Seth was greeted with an almost barren site, what should have been a large field of flowers and a massive garden proclaimed one of the most beautiful spots in the world was now just basically a flat of dirt and some rocks laying about here and there.
He used all of this senses to try find anything, but the mana flow appeared dead in the area as well as the spiritual flow being no different from outside, no sense of life either not even a peep though that wasn't too different from before.
'The mana here is definitely a lot weaker, I guess the stone walls and the castle uses the surrounding mana to reinforce itself passively that's why it remained in such 'good' shape; If I remember it was called 'Corene Stone', it was a fairly expensive material and only key locations, or things made to last were made using them.'
One thing he did notice was that there didn't seem to be any bones or such laying out in the open on this plain, he wasn't sure why this was though.
Making his way further in he reached a second set of gates leading to a duller section made entirely of stone, but before that was a large gap.
'Ah I guess this was the moat?'
"The garden outer section was mostly for show whereas the inner section is the main castle area then"
("Do you know you talk to yourself a lot?")
"Fu-&*^%"
Seth was way too focused observing the situation that he ended up streaming profanities when he suddenly heard a voice appear next to him.
Of course, he suddenly stopped and stared with blazing eye (sockets) at the small spirit floating next to him.
"If you were awake, you should say something first!"
("I just did")
"Before you scare the shit out of me!"
("You're a walking bone man what have you got to be scared of?")
"Oh, just shut up…"
He couldn't help but sigh as he ended that conversation.
"So, you're fine now?"
("Well, I wouldn't say fine, if I didn't have you trying to disturb my nap every hour or so I would have had a nicer sleep.")
"Wait you could hear me? Could have said something…"
("It's not like there was anything important happening so I just kept sleeping, anyway I'm here for a reason now")
"And?"
("That")
The small silver capybara points its front paw towards the castle that Seth was heading to.
"What's wrong with it?"
("There's nothing wrong in particular, well I don't think it'll be worth talking about we'll just see how it goes")
"What's with that… at least tell me something."
("I'll do so if I need to but for now, I'll just say take your steps lightly")
'Way to be ominous as hell…'
("Now, off you go, I'll be half awake in case you need me")
Silva then returned to a streak of light once more entering Seth.
"The hell? Wait and what do you mean I talk to myself a lot?"
'…'
"Oh god I really do?! This silence must be getting to me I need civilisation quick!"
With new vigour and a hint of caution in his step Seth waded towards the large gap, what was likely the former moat was just a dry trench of dirt, but if you took a closer look, you could see that the bottom was made of cracked mud with objects embedded here and there.
'And there's the bones'
Countless bodies inlaid within the dried mud stacked up on top of each other, hundreds, probably thousands or more in just what he could see, the concentration here was ridiculous compared to the outer walls.
Looking at their postures even if they had been here for an awfully long time they seemed to the clawing and trying to grab the edges of the lake to escape from something, as they all faced towards the inner castle, however one after the next they piled up on each other creating a death trap.
Chills ran down his bones, he didn't know why but in particular this scene gave him a deep sense of fear.
'What were they running from?' was the only question Seth felt he could ask.
Other than that, there was reluctance filling him, this used to be a moat and with a moat comes a bridge however…
"Not there…"
In between the passage on each side there was nothing to cross, most likely it was made of a wood and had rotted away long ago, unfortunately that means there was only one way across.
He reluctantly returned his vision to the pile up from hell and sighed once more.
"In for a penny in for a pound I guess."
He hopped down without hesitation because he was sure if he did wait, his ability to cross it would have waned even more.
As his bones landed in the trench, they let out a small crack came from the bottom, yet Seth refused to look down.
'Okay, I might be a skeleton now but that doesn't fucking mean I want to happily walk on top of a field of bones!'
He quickly made pace accompanied by various cracking and breaking sounds with every few steps, it took him a minute or two to reach the other side, he had to use his fingers to dig footholds in the dry mud to climb his way out which took a few more minutes and it wasn't too long before he pulled himself up and plopped himself down on the other side.
'I am NOT going that way if I need to come back even if I have to make another bridge'
As he said that something struck him in his mind.
'Wait… i saw there was no bridge because it rotted but what if it wasn't because of that? The people outside were clearly desperate to get in so they would have taken a bridge if there was one, was it left up? Or was it burned down or something?'
He didn't like what he was thinking about but after that short walk negativity flooded his head for a bit before he managed to pull himself together and proceed inwards.
The stone flooring was also made of the white corene stone, so it was still in decent condition, as he made his way into the more open area the view made him stop for a second.
The castles condition was even better than he initially thought, although parts were crumbled and cracked it at least kept its form for the most part, as mentioned before the five towers which stood tall on the outer section of the inner area were crumbled and yet the one that pierced and grew up to the sky from the centre of the castle remained in good condition.
'I'm not sure on how the castle interior is laid out but that spire looks suspicious as hell I'll definitely need to check it out'
He headed straight towards the castle since that was the main important in his mind, other than a distance from the castle there appeared to be some smaller buildings, he could only assume they were the barracks for the royal guard and servant quarters among other lifestyle buildings, so he didn't put any importance in them.
The grand entrance was in a condition he wasn't expecting, the massive metal doors were crushed and broken inwards and the stone around it was riddled with holes and impacts that made it look like swiss cheese.
'Whatever scared the wits out of the moat people must have made it inside then'
He couldn't help but pause at the sight and think for a second.
'The only thing I know of that, well, attacked the capital was the giant shadow but this obviously isn't the work of that, was it people? Or some creatures? I know too little, but I honestly hope I don't encounter anything of the sort inside'
He stepped through the wreckage of the entrance and entered the grand halls for the first time in his life, the moment he entered he was greeted with a hall full of destruction, tens of soldiers clad in full armour laid sprawled across the ground in various positions assumingly all that was left of them was bones, but Seth couldn't tell because of the protection they were wearing.
"Even the royal guard were slaughtered like this, who the hell were the enemies?"
He stepped over the corpses one by one taking quick glances as he passed, he kept checking the states of the armour they wore and the weapons they wielded, inwardly he rejoiced because they were in much better condition than what he'd seen before some even near 'good' condition.
'Even if I don't find anything else this is a good haul, I can finally have some armour and a decent weapon! I may be bones, but I still don't enjoy being naked, I hadn't found anything until now, so this is great.'
He happily checked over his potential gear one by one not caring for the bones inside but then Silva's little 'warning' echoed in his mind.
"Oh god I hope none of these bodies are undead"
And the moment he said that-
*Clank*
From further down the hall a metallic sound rang out and repeated itself sounding like footsteps getting closer.
("You jinxed it")
"Your input is not needed!"
With an enemy before him, the battle begins once more.