Chapter 177: Luminator
As Lidia and Slimo continued bowing their heads, the Queen looked at Slimo with a smirk.
"And here I was thinking you both should be honored to be in my presence. Little did I know, I should have been the one honored to be in your presence, Slimo Kin."
A wry chuckle escaped her mouth.
"To think the Prince of Paria Empire himself is my personal servant! By Zalo, no one will ever believe me!"
Slimo finally decided to speak.
"You call me a Prince rather than a murderer?"
"I do not care what kind of inner struggle you must have had with your older brother. I simply thought you would be much stronger... for being royalty and such. What Zalo are you hiding from me?"
"I do not carry one."
"Impossible."
The room fell silent.
"I truly was never blessed with one. Why must you think it impossible?"
"Because no ordinary human can survive the dangers of this world, let alone the assassins sent out to murder them, all of whom contain powerful Zalo’s."
"I hate to correct you, but it is true. I have never been blessed with one."
The queen stood up and stretched her arms using her staff.
"Are you willing to bet this womans life on it?"
Suddenly a green beam shot from her emerald staff and wrapped around Lidia’s neck. She struggled and kicked in its grasp, but she was strangely still able to breathe. Slimo stood up worriedly.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
"This staff I carry is capable of reversing the time to any and all things it touches. I made some modifications to it so the beam itself can become tangible if I wish... to an extent. Tell me what your Zalo is, and the woman doesn’t get reversed to a time before she was even born."
"I swear to Zalo, I do not have one! Can’t you simply get a charm that lets you see if I have a power or not?! And what is the point in finding out if I have a power?!"
"The point is you and this woman are a danger to this kingdom. I need to keep you both under my boot and make sure you stay there."
Lidia managed to get her arms between the strange beam. She used her strength and moved it away from her neck with little struggle. In no time at all, the beam collapsed, allowing her to fall to the ground. A stern expression painted her face.
"I don’t think it’s a good idea getting on her bad side... believe me, I’ve been there. If there’s anyones Zalo you should worry about, it’s hers."
Steam slowly came off of Lidia’s arms. Her anger was reaching a boiling point. Slimo put a hand on her shoulder to try and calm her down. Big mistake.
Lidia looked at Slimo with wide eyes, death reflecting in her pupils.
"don’t touch me..."
Slimo put his hands up and backed away slowly. Even the Queen appeared to get nervous and cleared her throat.
"I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. How about I give you both a reassignment? No more wall duty and you both can work together!"
Lidia appeared to calm down hearing the last part.
"What will you have us do?"
"There’s a library in the basement of this palace. I don’t know what is happening down there, but guards keep disappearing whenever they investigate it. Strangely, the only thing left of them is their armor. It’s as if they simply disappear into nothingness. From what I hear, the same phenomena have been occurring at our education center. I want you two to be in charge of figuring out what is causing this and fix it if you can. Report to me with any findings that require my attention. You will both be working together, of course. Does this seem like a reasonable assignment?"
Lidia stayed silent, but her eyes looked much calmer than before. Slimo tried to get her attention to see if she was okay with the assignment, to no avail.
"It’s a good assignment. We will get started immediately."
Slimo grabbed Lidia’s hand and dragged her out of the throne room. He could tell she still resented the Queen for the sudden attack but was keeping silent about it... until they were finally out of earshot.
"I’m going to kill that homewrecker. Who the hell does she think she is?!"
"Homewrecker? What are you-... never mind. Let’s just find the basement to this place."
After a short while of wandering around the pristine palace, they finally found a stairwell leading downward. As they walked down the steps, Lidia started talking with Slimo once more.
"How much longer do you think we should stay in this place? I already know we’re stuck here, but I don’t like how the Queen was acting. And I am not talking about her attempt at choking me."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"I mean, I mangled two of her elite guards. I left their corpses hardly recognizable in the middle of a hallway, yet she didn’t seem to know it happened. Wouldn’t the palace be on higher alert if they found two of their most powerful guard mangled beyond recognition?"
Slimo rubbed his chin.
"Perhaps she knew you would be attacked. The time loop that you mentioned to me the other day, that is her power. When I first read her power, there were two thoughts that entered my mind about your situation. Either the Queen had certain checkpoints around the palace with time loops, or she had purposefully set one up in a place she knew you would go. After the little stunt I saw today, I am more inclined to think it is the second one."
Lidia came to a sudden realization.
"Maybe she thought it was you who did it."
Slimo’s heart dropped. She was right. Looking at it from the Queens perspective, Slimo was a powerful wanted murderer whose capabilities were completely unknown to anyone. Compared to a seemingly average woman, he was the most likely culprit between them.
"That must be why she attacked you in the throne room. She wanted to see how I managed to kill her elite guards, when it was never me to begin with. She must have realized that when you broke free of her staffs hold with ease. Then that also means-"
Lidia cut him off.
"She sent us both down here to get rid of us, not to do her stupid errands."
After declaring this, both Lidia and Slimo looked at each other.
Suddenly, they both burst out laughing.
"She really has no idea who she’s dealing with, does she?! What an idiot!!"
"Aw man. We are the funniest people in the world sometimes. I can’t believe she thought it was a good idea to bring us together! There’s hardly anything we can’t deal with!"
"Let’s take our time doing this. I like having this alone time with you, even if it means diving into a dangerous, haunted dungeon."
Lidia smiled brightly and grabbed hold of Slimo’s hand. Together, they both walked lightly into a dark library. The only light around them was a chandelier whose candles were halfway burned. Some of them were missing from their spots.
"Why the hell does she bother illuminating the place if people keep disappearing here?"
"If there’s something important down here worth coming down for. Or if she’s hiding something, this would be the place I would hide it."
"Interesting. What exactly are we looking for? Bodies? Armor? A ghost?"
"It sounds like a ghost, but those things aren’t as powerful as fairytales say. They are infant beasts at best from what I’ve dealt with."
Lidia ignored him as she scanned books in large, wooden shelves. All of them were caked with dust. Some books had their spine severely dented or bent, but the pages were all intact.
After three moments of searching, Lidia called out to Slimo.
"Did you find anything?"
"I found dust-covered novels and history books. Beyond that, nope. Not a thing. How about you?"
"Nothing at all. I was hoping to at least find a secret passage or something. I’ve read about those in fantasy books when I was little."
"Believe it or not, there aren’t as many secret passages as you may think."
"What?! Why not?!"
"They are simply too easy to find. Especially if someone has a special Zalo power. It is much more efficient to just heavily guard your treasures."
Lidia slouched and leaned against a bookshelf.
"That’s so boring though..."
Suddenly, the bookshelf she leaned against lifted backward and made a clicking sound. The ground around them started rumbling. The bookshelves all around them started melting into the floor, a wall started to open a small passage, and torches lit themselves down a long hallway that was revealed. Lidia’s eyes glimmered at the sight.
"SECRET PASSAGE!!"
Slimo sighed.
"See? I told you it was too easy to find them."
Lidia ignored him, grabbed his hand, and started dragging him down the long, lit hallway.
"What do you think we’re going to find?! Treasure?! A special charm?! Forbidden knowledge?"
"Probably the monster that causes these disappearances. This is where I would hide if I was one."
Lidia smacked him lightly over the head.
"Stop taking the fun out of this!"
Once they reached the end of the hallway, a strange, coiled serpent statue rested above a plaque in a strange language. Its fangs were barred and its tail looked to have a sharp point to it. Slimo approached the plaque cautiously before throwing a rock in its direction. With a sigh of relief, he led them forward even further.
"I wanted to make sure it wasn’t another guardian. We seem to be fine."
"What does the plaque say? I can’t read it at all."
"It’s in a language similar to what they had in the lost Empire. I had to learn it when I was younger for negotiating purposes."
Slimo put his fingers against the statue’s surface, clearing the dust that covered most of it.
"...It’s a message. It reads: "For Zalo wasn’t just my family, but a dear friend... my master who I miss. His passing means corruption spreads further in this world, spreads further into me. To those who find my message, I give you an answer. The powers you carry are cursed. Any of those with one are doomed to befall a tragic destiny. Awaken yourself. Awaken yourself. Awaken yourself. Oh, Heart of Zalo, tail of The Great Serpant, Eye of the Frost Monarch... I sink further into madness... further into corruption. Goodbye, my dear friends."
Suddenly, the statue of the serpent began to move lightly. The sharp, pointed tail zipped past Slimo and stabbed Lidia through her armor and into her stomach.
"NO!"
Slimo crashed his elbow down on the tail, shattering it to pieces before rushing over to aid Lidia. Lidia collapsed on the ground writhing in pain.
"Lidia?! Are you okay?! I don’t see any bleeding..."
Suddenly, the words around Lidia began to change, as if her Zalo itself had undergone a transformation. Lidia laid on the ground as a soothing voice whispered into her ear.
"Congratulations... you have awakened your Zalo... undergoing transformation process... welcome home, Luminator."
