Chapter 16: Heir of the Royal Elves
At first, Abium was nervous due to the strange emptiness but braced himself to step ahead.
He first moved towards the right side grand hall but soon got disappointed as he only saw rusty chairs and tables inside. After that, he moved towards the next hall and realized that he was in the armory. There were many swords and armors, but all crumbled into powder once he picked them up.
"Even the armors are crumbling, huh. How long has it been since the people abandoned this city?" He couldn't help but mutter.
He then moved towards the palace library and saw that many books were placed in order. But most of the books were already beyond restoration. Although some books looked alright, they too were written in some mystic letters.
He casually took out a book, opened the outer cover, and looked inside.
'Hm? What is this book? Letters look so familiar?'
In that book, he saw those characters inscribed in some ancient language. He didn't grasp any words, but he knew somehow it resembled more like a modern Elven Language.
After observing a few more books, Abium vaguely guessed that the tower must be related to some ancient elves.
'Still, the problem lies in why did they abandon everything and disappear without a trace? Why didn't I even see a single skeleton?' He got puzzled inside and thought exploring other areas might give him some clues.
He continued to explore the library for an hour and finally managed to take all the books that remained in good condition.
'I got a total of 43 books.' He placed the last book on the metallic table and tried to open it. Unlike other books, this one appeared unique.
But he soon noticed that a mysterious power appeared around the book and blocked him from opening it!
He tried several times, but it didn't budge an inch.
The book was old and heavy, and the leather felt soft and delicate as he ran his fingers over the faded blue bindings. He then shifted his gaze towards the front cover and saw a symbol of a circle with half of it being a sun and half of it being a moon.
'It seems I got my hands on something precious. The book might have some ancient knowledge about elves.' He nodded his head thoughtfully.
In truth, he had a habit of learning more about history and knowledge of ancient times.
For him, knowledge was always an important key factor in one's life.
'Seers may be powerful enough to know the future, while Mages may have powerful spells even to induce fear in the Gods' mind, but if they lack the knowledge to understand the truth of the power or use it properly, they will disappear one day. So, if I want to become a pinnacle existence, I need to understand everything.' While muttering, he looked at the mysterious book and stored it in his space ring.
Who knows? It might present him with some benefits.
In the past, Abium heard that Count Henry entered a dungeon called 'Dark Dungeon' in the Keris Kingdom and obtained a 'knowledge' related artifact.
No one knew how it helped him, but Henry became 2nd tier mage within six years and became a peerless genius of the generation.
But later, he betrayed the Peral kingdom and became a duke of Wadel Kingdom.
Abium didn't care much about Count Henry's betrayal. But he had long thought of obtaining the knowledge artifact for himself.
'I've more time to prepare for the Dark Dungeon adventure.' He thought to himself and walked out of the library.
After that, Abium stepped on the large hallway, walked past the treasury, and found nothing but piles of dust.
Then, he continued walks further towards the end of the hallway and soon arrived in front of a 4-meter tall metallic gate.
Upon glancing at the gate, Abium instantly realized that he had already reached the throne hall.
After hesitating for a second, he pushed it with his hands and opened it with full force.
An enormous hall appeared in his sight the next second!
He glanced around the surroundings and assumed it could hold at least a thousand people inside.
A large golden throne lay at the other end, and multiple metal chairs were placed on both sides.
But what made his face stiffen up was the pile of skeletons that appeared on the red-carpeted floor!
At that moment, he also noticed something unusual a few ten meters away from the throne and squinted his eyes.
He saw an enormous transparent crystal at the center of the grand hall and within that crystal was a hideous creature and six elves.
The hideous creature appeared more like a humanoid and stood frozen like a statue.
Surrounding that creature were six elves, stabbing the humanoid creature using strange blackish rods, and they looked more like ancient mages.
'Hmm? The elven mages seemed to have cast some forbidden magic spell and created this crystal to seal this creature.' He vaguely guessed it.
Abium thought something catastrophe must have occurred inside this city when entering this city.
But now, this confirmed his doubt.
However, he got no clue where this creature came from and what this creature was?
'It seems its arrival caused the Elves to leave this city.' He narrowed his eyes, took a few steps away from that enormous crystal, and studied the creature quietly.
Although it looked more like a demon from the abyss, Abium felt something was off about it.
The creature was around 2 to 3 meters tall, had dark red skin, a unique greyish horn on the forehead area, twelve pitch-black eyes on both sides of its face, and an ugly mouth with its black tongue.
Even though it was still in a sealed state, Abium felt a dense killing aura from it.
'I feel like an insect in front of this creature. I should get away from this throne hall.' He thought to himself and tried to move his gaze away from that humanoid creature!
But the next instant, a shock appeared on his face.
'What happened? Why couldn't I look away?'
At that moment, he noticed a strange sense of affection appeared towards that creepy humanoid creature!
Simultaneously, a foreign power appeared out of nowhere and affected his thought process.
The next instant, Abium felt that the creature sealed inside the crystalline glass was not some dangerous monster but a close friend!
He stopped resisting the foreign power a moment later, peered deep into that creature's eyes, and stepped forward.
'Come closer. I will make you the king of this plane!'
A tempting girlish voice came near his ears, causing him to nod subconsciously.
Just as Abium was about to take the second step, a small electric current-like energy passed all over his body from somewhere and erased the foreign energy from entering his soul.
He instantly woke up from the mind-controlled state and took three steps back warily.
'Wait! Why couldn't I remember anything that happened a while ago?' A look of alarm appeared on his face.
At the same time, he touched his space ring, took out the long sword from it, and unsheathed it.
After that, he gripped the sword hilt tighter, stared at the sealed creature, and frowned.
'What happened?' Although he couldn't understand why he suddenly started walking towards the strange creature, he felt that a sense of uneasy appeared in his heart.
'Something is wrong.' He quickly averted his gaze and shifted towards the tens of skeletons that appeared on the carpeted floor.
He also saw a skeleton on the golden throne and furrowed.
'Is he a King?'
But one thing caused his heart to beat faster.
'All those skeletons' skulls are facing that monstrous crystal! What the heck? They died because of that creature?' He also recalled his earlier strange action and hurriedly turned around.
At that moment, he knew that this creature was more dangerous than anyone he had faced and decided to get the hell out of this place.
'F*ck the vision! I shouldn't have come to this Forgotten Land recklessly.' Cursing inwardly, he fastened his footsteps towards the opened metallic gate, walked out of the throne hall, and looked at the hallway.
But the next instant, his face stiffened up.
He saw a lady with green hair was standing in the hallway and was staring at him with a surprised face.
She was a young woman with bright emerald green eyes, had bark-like skin, long wavy hair, a green cape, wore a white dress that was cut elegantly. She also wore a crown with flowers on her head and held a book in her right hand.
But what startled him was not her sudden arrival but her appearance itself.
Unlike other humans, her body appeared more like an illusionary hologram!
"Who are you?" He instantly pointed his sword tip at the young woman and asked warily.
Meanwhile, the young woman soon returned to her calm state and waved her hand.
A second later, an invisible power appeared out of nowhere and stopped Abium from moving forward.
He tried to move his hand but couldn't.
"Don't worry. I mean no harm to you." She said as she took a step forward, arrived closer towards Abium, and looked at him up and down.
"I'm a little surprised by what you did earlier. How did you resist that Evil Being's temptation?" She asked in curiosity.
Meanwhile, Abium frowned deeply and asked.
"What do you mean? I did nothing."
"Hmm? You don't remember?"
She furrowed her brows and soon shook her head.
"Forget it. I'm Azolla, the spirit of this Star Tower. I've been waiting for your arrival for 10,000 years, Heir of the Royal Elves." She said with a smile and bowed her head a little.