Chapter 633 From The Dead
Downward through the castle, they jogged, with the young King easily keeping pace with Wolfe. Despite his size, his strength and stamina were well beyond human standards, so even at this pace, he wouldn't have any trouble crossing the entire Royal Palace without slowing.
The path kept leading them downward, away from the populated areas of the Palace, and then eventually out from under the main portion of the Palace completely.
"I know where we are. These are the Royal Crypts. Could the crown still be bonded to either the previous King or one of the attempted usurpers?" The King whispered.
"It's possible. The bond is definitely headed this way, though, and we're very close now. Are there guards at the crypt? I know you don't just leave the Royal Crypts open for visitors or vandals to enter." Wolfe asked.
"Not from this side. These tunnels are only accessible from the Royal Quarters, and they're charmed so that you can't pass without the crown. If you had wanted to leave me behind, you would have had to go the long way through the public areas." The King explained.
"There, to the left. Now, into this crypt, and we're at the location. Do you know whose crypt this is?" Wolfe whispered, afraid that his voice would carry, even though there was a sealed door in front of him.
"Going by the fresh feeling of the crypt, this must be one of the most recent ones to be occupied, it might even be the previous King's. It's definitely in the reigning Royal area, and not in the High Noble crypts, though." The King whispered.
Wolfe surrounded the door in air magic to keep it from squeaking, and gently nudged it open a few centimetres so he could see through. The crypt was pitch black, but there was a pair of large stone sarcophagi in the middle of the floor.
"The previous King and Queen." The boy whispered, his voice thick with emotions.
As Wolfe recalled, these were his grandparents, and the rest of his immediate family would likely be in the next room. The young King had not had an easy childhood.
The link didn't lead to the King's sarcophagus, but to something inside the Queen's. It seemed crass to open it to look inside, so Wolfe increased the power to [Detect Hidden] and followed the link into the stone container. It led directly to a simple golden sceptre with a gem on top that was covered in layers of inscriptions.
Wolfe examined it silently as he tried to determine how to disentangle the link to the crown from the spell. Then he realized that it wasn't meant to be disentangled. There were three spells on that gem. Some form of soul link, the one that connected to the crown, a complex summoning array that Wolfe was mentally memorizing for later, and then one that was very familiar to him.
The gem had [Eternal Vigilance] cast upon it. The previous Monarch, either the King or Queen, was not dead. At least not truly dead, only dead in body.
If he was right, then touching the crown to the gem on the sceptre and activating the three arrays would summon a new body and rebuild the link.
"What sort of people were the last King and Queen?" Wolfe asked quietly, while still blocking the door with his body so that the King didn't move into the room.
"They were kind. Too kind, as it turned out, when they trusted their subordinates enough to let them get to the defensive arrays and begin the coup attempt. Many viewed them as weak, but they were beloved by the commoners.
In fact, it was the common folk, backed by the guards, who are mostly commoner born, who kept me alive through the battle until a strong enough faction formed to put me on the throne and stop the rebellion of the Nobles."
Wolfe frowned. "And what do you think would happen if one of them came back from the dead?" Wolfe asked.
"You can do that?"
Wolfe shook his head. "Not really. But hypothetically, what would happen?"
The King shrugged. "Well, if they hadn't been so soft on their people and held back from battle, then they would certainly have kept their position. They were both true Demon Kings. Rank Nine, at the peak. The King died in his sleep, and the Queen allowed herself to be taken by the nobles in her grief. They sealed her powers before killing her."
Wolfe smiled at the young Demon, and gently lifted the lid from the sarcophagus, then used gravity magic to bring the sceptre to him.
"Please hand me the crown, and remain here behind the wall. What I'm about to do could be extremely dangerous, and if it fails, I don't want you injured. But if it works, then there will be no dispute about whom the true King here is."
The boy looked at the green glowing amulet on his arm. Wolfe was telling the truth, according to the magic. He smiled a little at Wolfe's concern for him, as the insistence that he did not want the boy injured was also shown to be wholly true.
So, he backed up out of sight, despite his reluctance to let the crown out of his sight even for a few seconds. His hold on the position was tenuous enough that he really couldn't risk losing any more claim to the position. But he didn't have a choice, this had to be done, or he would never gain the power he needed.
The influx of power from Wolfe's magic would certainly alert the guards up above, but the outer door was welded shut, and it would not be quick to open, even with Earth Magic. Wolfe would only have a few minutes, but few spells needed more than that.
The sound of footsteps echoed through the hidden tunnel where it passed near the main hallway, and the King became more nervous as he could still feel Wolfe forming the spell, adding more and more power to it.
Then suddenly, it felt like every bit of mana was drained from his body. All that he could pull, every bit of both of his mana cores was emptied, and a flow of mana so thick that he could feel it passing by him like flowing water passed through the walls, headed for the crypt.
Whatever Wolfe had done was way beyond what anyone at Rank Five should be able to do, he decided, right before the world went dark and he passed out.
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