The three-hour period came to an end, the team members who had ventured out to explore the dilapidated streets of the royal city regrouped at the designated meeting point. After confirming their numbers and everyone reports about their findings, soon the group moved to the deeper parts of the city.
As they walked along the wide street, they gradually made their way nearer to the core of the city, passing through the devastated walls that marked the dividing line between the Inner and Core parts f the city. The walls bore scars not of the battle but rather the eating of time. A damaged royal insignia being barely visible on both sides of the wall. A short distance away, two enormous metal doors lay flung aside as if they were violently ripped of the walls.
On the distance the silhouettes of three buildings could be seen. Despite the ravages of time, the majority of buildings in this area didn't have scars of battle that could be seen in the other parts of the city they the group walk by earlier, when looking at their surrounding everyone would end up pondering the type of the protective enchantments that must have shielded this area during and after the battle. The damage they observed wasn't the aftermath of a recent conflict, but rather the inevitable decay caused by the relentless passage of years.
Going through the gate, the group continued along the broad main road. in there the ground was made of elegant white stones that formed a path that led into the distance. at its end the silhouettes of three giant buildings stood even though they weren't completely visible they emanated an aura of grandeur and majesty.
On the centre stood a magnificent castle, seemingly crafted from pure gold. on each side stood a building, as if respectfully guarding the castle's right and left sides, Despite the ravaging of time the majority of the three buildings were nearly perfectly preserved, withstanding the test of time, prompting the visitors to once again speculate about level of the protective formation that covered the area.
Sometime later, the group stood before the massive golden outer gates of the giant golden castle as it exuded a magnificent air.
" This castle gives a similar feeling to the ancient royal palace of the Golden King, such magnificence and luxury... " one of the team members remarked in awe,
beside him, Allen's had an expression saying he is totally disagreeing, with his eyebrow twitching as he said " What magnificence? this thing just screams ' I AM A PRODIGAL SON OF A #####, ...whoever built this has no taste at all! ",
" ....What an eyesore, ...hopefully, we find a bunch of good treasures inside otherwise I will break this castle down and sell it in the black market " Allen mumbled.
Charlotte and the team members beside him had black lines over their faces when they heard Allen's mumbles.
With the three captains working together, they finally managed to push open the castle gates.
Once the gates opened, and the dust cleared, the view of a figure standing opposite to the group gave chills to everyone, that person had no aura, but the image of him standing there, wearing an ancient rusty armour and holding a pitch-black sword, exuding no aura but still everyone felt like a venomous gaze had fallen upon them.
Suddenly following a sizzling sound, a hazy dark red mist came out of the armour, the sword and the ground surrounding it, by the time it caught everyone's attention, Crimson-coloured gaseous flames rose up the sky exuding demonic might, taking the shape of a giant lion, with the smell of blood filling the air, the demonic lion roared at the sky as it jumped towards the group.
" That's a king realm Spirit! " one of the team members remarked with shock.
A dense mist enveloped the surroundings followed by everyone feeling their senses restricted, instantly Thomas's figure flashed as he stood beside Allen, also at some point in time Charlotte had un-noticeably shortened the distance between her and Allen to stand beside him,
At the head of the group, one of the captains took a step forward, and his aura erupted, pushing the demonic aura back, taking out a great sword, sword intent gathered at the tip of the sword as the captain lifted the blade pointing to the sky,
Energy revolved and enveloped the blade, creating a phantom of a bigger sword in the sky, following the sharp sound of the air getting torn apart, the sword's edge flashed as it descended in a blur, splitting the body of the lion into two halves, followed by a pain-filled roar, the spirit body of the lion transformed into crimson demonic aura and rushed back to the pitch-black sword,
With its tip planted in the ground and after absorbing the crimson demonic aura the sword gained an iridescent black-ish crimson luster to its body, shining with a demonic seduction, baiting others to take it for themselves.
looking at the black sword, the captain lowered his sword and said " This sword should be the vessel that allowed the lion spirit to survive to the present day, chances are it was the contracted spirit of this knight."
" Almost there...." Thomas said as he walked in front of the sword and picked it up, " This sword is in reality the true body of that lion spirit, it's of a rare spirit race that once contracted has the ability to transform into objects.... ".
While talking, red mist came out of the sword and surrounded Thomas's hand that was holding the sword, his eyes turned red for a moment as his aura fluctuated and he exuded killing intent!.
" THOMAS! "
The loud voice condensed into steam of unique energy that struck Thomas's soul, Clarity returned to Thomas's eyes, with an angry scowl, in a swift manner Thomas started drawing complicated diagrams in the air made of spirit energy, moments later a complicated high-levelled sealing formation was placed on the sword, with it the luster on the blade dimmed and the sharpness it exuded disappeared!.
Looking at the sword on Thomas's hand, Charlotte eyes squinted as she examined the spirit formation " It's a cursed demonic weapon! " she said in mild shock.
After sealing the demonic sword, Thomas brought it in front of Allen, " Prince, this is a cursed spirit weapon that served as the vessel for the demonic lion spirit from earlier, its at the king realm, with the demonic spirit inhabiting it injured I sealed them both the spirit and the curse ".
As Thomas spoke he respectfully handed the sword to Allen,
Taking the sword Allen inspected it curiously, different thoughts ran through his head as he traced his fingers along the sharp edges of the sword, even when sealed the sharp edge made a fine cut on Allen's finger.
Shocked, Allen removed his finger while surrounding it with his spiritual energy preventing even a drop of blood from falling into the sword. As a cursed item if he made a bond with it carelessly and while not knowing what curse and effects it will have on him, such a thing will definitely get a special place in the rankings of the most disastrous things he had ever done.
...
" Cursed Artifacts are as they are named, artifacts that carry curses within in turn for paying a certain price the user gets to enjoy a certain amount of power, they usually can be used by anyone with any cultivation realm as long they can pay the price, such prices can range from lifespan, blood, souls, or other strange conditions related to the curse. signing a bond with a cursed weapon is usually done via a contract using blood or a soul fragment as a medium " .
" Breaking such bonds is very troublesome at best, it is the norm for a cursed artifacts spirit to ask for an exorbitant, near impossible price to break a bond and if by chance the other party managed to satisfy such requests the chances for the cursed spirit to back down from it's promise is always high ".