"Me?! What the hell can I do?! I have enough on my plate with the fact I'm a frickin' skeleton an all!"
"Calm down it's nothing too strenuous in fact It's something you can do on the fly without even trying"
If Seth had eyebrows, one of them would be raised at Lloyd's statement and the other dipped.
Seeing Seth's silence and confusion the king continued.
"I just need you to find my descendants"
"You have descendants? I thought you died here?"
"Of course, I have them, I wouldn't be a king if I couldn't plan ahead to not end the family at my time; As soon as I got suspicious of an attack on the capital, I sent away my wife and children, I also have a few concubines that left as well with a few more children but they weren't as safe as my main descendants so I'm not sure what happened to them"
'Oh, sure, rub in your experience why don't you' he thought spitefully at the kings 'boasting'.
"Okay so you saved some of your family back then but who knows whether they'll be alive now or not, I still have no idea how long it's been" he said with doubts.
"Ah yes, you mentioned that before but unfortunately I don't have an accurate way of recounting either… I can say it's been more than 1024 years though since this room contained an instrument to count the time since I entered, unfortunately I didn't think I would have stuck here for that long."
'So at least 1024 years huh, at this point I'm really not surprised with all I've seen'
"As for your first point, I know at least one of them is alive" Lloyd proclaimed as he tapped the side of the throne he was sitting upon, a small compartment opened and out came a pedestal with an amulet resting on it, it was made of seemingly pure gold with a silver pattern crossing it, inlaid within the centre was a blood red stone that glimmered with slightly bright light.
'That thing must cost more than a pretty penny, hell I think I could have survived for my entire life if I sold that as I was before!'
Lloyd looked at the amulet with a glimmer of hope before picking it up and holding it out so Seth could look at it closer.
"This is the heirloom amulet of the Reverie clan [Bloodline Rose], it has always resided in this room and would have forever if nothing happened to us…"
"And you're showing me this, why?"
"If it wasn't obvious enough from its name, this gem here is made using the blood of the first King Reverie and an extremely rare core from a monster known as a [Blood Stalker], it's a creature that used to be famous for its ability to track down any relative of the blood bearer it consumed however they were hunted until extinction, at least as far as we know" Lloyd rubbed the gem on the amulet like he was looking at his first borne child.
"The main function of this amulet is simple, to show whether the Reverie bloodline still goes on, as long as it even has a small glimmer in its gem, there is someone alive with the first king's bloodline out there somewhere!"
'To think something that useful exists, well maybe not useful for the average person but for any royal family or those against them it's almost priceless!'
"Not only that, but the core will also shine with a brighter if someone with the bloodline nears it and a brilliant light if they touch it, meaning it's perfect for finding my descendants"
"But why isn't it reacting to you?" Seth couldn't help but question.
"Because this isn't a fleshly body, it only reacts to the blood within someone and nothing else" The king relied with a brooding tone.
'Oh right, that was stupid of me' Seth gave himself a knock on the head which let out a hollow *bonk*
"So, basically, you want me to carry that around and try to find your descendants and then…?"
"If you manage to find one, I want you to be a judge of their character, if you find someone that seems worthy of the Reverie royal family then I want you to bring them here"
"A judge of character…? And you think you can trust me with doing something like that?" His doubts were filling his mind at a fast pace.
"As a king I believe I can tell when someone is worthy" Lloyd said after relaxing once more on the throne and smirking.
"That, and being contracted with such a spirit that even Azula knows well, you couldn't be a bad character"
("That's right, you wouldn't have been contracted with me if you were a piece of sh- I mean an unworthy person! Being a skeleton means nothing to that!") Silva said with a hint of pride.
Seth glanced at Silva and thought about how its façade of a noble seemed to crack occasionally, he soon shrugged and looked up at Lloyd on the throne before huffing and replying.
"Okay but what do I get out of this? It may seem like a small task to you, but I still have a lot to deal with myself you know?"
"Kehahaha! I am technically your king and I'm ordering you, you know, but that's fine I would feel less at ease if you didn't at least show a little greed, I feel I can entrust this to your as you were also a citizen of my kingdom so I shall grant you a reward, once you succeed, I'll allow you to choose some things from this treasury"
Seth's eye sockets lit up with a gold glitter as if they were reflecting the riches he saw around the room, clearly, he was motivated.
("You're forgetting something little prince, don't get ahead of yourself") Azula reminded Lloyd while floating in the air behind him.
"Ah, oh, right, I was excited to finally see one of my descendants finally, yeah before all this happens you need to do something else; you came here looking for something I assume?" Lloyd directed a question towards the skeleton which suddenly jogged his memory.
"Oh right! I came to find a way out of this damn ravine! Is there a way out here?" Seth quickly remembered, he had been too star struck with the treasury and everything after to think about it.
"Yes, but not at the moment"
"What do you mean?"
("There's a teleportation array residing in the bottom of the central pillar; however, it isn't functioning at the moment; It's being blocked") Azula replied for Lloyd.
"Blocked? How?" Seth was confused beyond belief; he had never heard of a way to block teleportation arrays, though he could chalk it up to his limited knowledge on them.
"The arrays in this room and the central pillar, ah that's the centre tower by the way, they're all powered by the spirit ley-lines within the ravine so they're fully functioning, but the teleportation array is different, it uses a ley-line that connects to the outside and that ley-line is, well, Azula can explain since I don't fully understand myself" Lloyd said glancing at the azure dragon above him.
("To put it simply it's corrupted, we can no longer use it for the array since it's been influenced by something and we can't do anything about it on our end, it's like the string connecting two points being twisted and knotted preventing a smooth flow of spirit energy")
("How would it become corrupted though? I've never heard of anything of the sort…") Silva replied with an astonished tone, apparently this was a first for him as well.
("Of course, you wouldn't recognise it, but I would because it's not the first time I've seen such a thing, however I still don't understand it fully, it's like a black mist has covered the pure light of spirits and is smothering it; The last time I saw such a thing was right before the attack on the capital and I'm sure it isn't just a coincidence")
"That's right, what was that thing?! That giant shadow…" Seth recalled the chilling memory he got from the old soldier's core when he consumed it, but this caused Lloyd to furrow his brows.
"How do you know about that? I thought you passed well before it happened?"
"Well, um, I'm a monster now so I have some methods" Seth quickly made a vague excuse.
"Right… Well, whatever, all I know is that thing wasn't a monster, I don't know what it was, but it was far more terrifying than the creatures that followed its first assault, just one swipe from that thing created this entire ravine and sunk the capital below ground! If it weren't for the formation protecting us, we would have been squashed immediately." He recalled, goosebumps travelling quickly up his spiritual body.
("That thing… I really don't know what to call it but its very existence was beyond twisted, at first I thought it was a spirit, then human, then something else all at once, even I felt nauseous at the sight of such a thing") Azula's glowing eyes dimmed at the memory she had.
"From what I've heard from Azula the influence this time around is far weaker than it was that time so it shouldn't be too much to handle, I would do it myself but I cannot leave this room so it will have to be you, we need you to find the source of corruption and destroy it!"