"Is this normal?" Laz asked, turning to Blake.

"I don’t know... but I don’t think so. In the time I was here, the castle gates were always opened since there was never a need to close them," Blake responded.

"Seems like we don’t know what to expect," Laz said, walking forward.

"Be ready," he commanded as he walked up to the door. Grabbing it Laz began to pull, but the gates didn’t move. Gritting his teeth, Laz dug his feet into the ground and using his entire body, he pulled even harder. With the same strength it would have taken to pull against a semi trying to speed the other way, Laz was able to get the massive door to swing open, inch by inch until there was enough room for two people to enter, side by side.

Two, Seven and Sixteen were the first to go in, followed closely by Blake and the rest, weapons drawn as though expecting a fight. What they got was a massive but empty inner hall, devoid of people.

"The torches are lit and there is no sign of blood or fighting," Sixteen said as he quickly looked around, taking in everything in the area with a practiced eye.

"It’s strangely quiet though. If people were here, where would they go?" Two asked, turning to Blake.

"This is just the wall entrance that leads to the anteroom. Keep following the path forward until we get to the throne room which is the most secured room in the entire castle."

"A mayor with a throne room?" Laz asked, raising his eyebrow. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"It’s never normally used. In fact, in a show of respect to the Emperor, the mayor tried to have the throne removed and sent as a present to the capitol, but no matter what they did they couldn’t remove it from the dais."

"I’m getting more and more interested in this place," Laz said with a small chuckle, wondering just how angry the Emperor must have been to know there was a throne room in another castle that wasn’t his. What was more interesting though was just how out of place this castle was as even the Emperor seemed powerless against it.

’Could it actually be a divine tool? Like the Library?’ Laz said, thinking back to the giant floating building he had left behind.

As they continued forward in full readiness, they were met with nothing but lit torches and haunting silence. Even when the arrived at the doors to the throne room, a massive, twenty foot affair that seemed like iron inlaid with gold accents laid out in spiral design patterns, they didn’t see anything out of the ordinary and the door was fully shut.

Walking up to it, Laz paused for a moment before gripping one of the massive handles and pulling.

"Sir. With the door being locked from the inside, there should be no way we can open it from out here. We would be better off yelling for....." Blake cut off as he saw Laz successfully open the door, these ones swinging quite a bit more easily that the even bigger doors on the gate.

"I don’t think anyone is in there," Seven said, popping his head in for a look.

Inside the massive hall were two rows of stone pillars, one on each side that held up the huge, arched ceiling. While empty otherwise, the walls seemed to be lined with swords, axes and other weapons inlaid into the walls while a massive red carpet led from the door to the dais. Sitting on top of the hard stone was a golden, high backed throne, covered in golden carvings and plush red velvet cushions. Behind this throne was a huge, stained-glass, window that went from the floor to the ceiling. Epics battles seemed to be picture in every stain of the window, like some sort of picture into the past. Even more interesting was that every battle pictured was different and each seemed equally as intense.

They also didn’t seem to occur on this planet as some of the backgrounds and scenery seemed alien to this dimension.

"Amazing," Laz said as he got a closer look.

"First. Perhaps now isn’t the time?" Two said and Laz turned to see Blake walking over to a side door towards the back.

"Where does this lead?" Laz asked, walking over.

"I’m not sure. I think it’s a basement of some sorts. There are a lot of passages that lead downwards, or so I was told. But there was never a complete map written of this place. Still, the only other safe place I can think of would be in the lower chambers of the castle. If they weren’t here... maybe they were all gathered there? This is the only actual entrance that I know of and even that was something learned on accident..." Blake said, turning the handle and opening the door.

Laz felt like there were a lot of things this Blake wasn’t telling them... but he couldn’t really blame the guy. They’d only known each other for a few days now.

’Still though, some of these secrets might be dangerous. If he is just using us...’ Laz didn’t finish the thought, but still kept it close.

As the door swung open, it reveal an old stone staircase that spiraled downwards, taking them deep into the the depths of the place. Considering the castle sat on nothing but a giant rock, Laz couldn’t help but wonder just what poor guy ended up having to dig this thing out. Still, despite it’s depth, they finally reached the end and entered a massive hall, many times bigger than the hall the throne was located in. All along the outside of the hall, there were even more doors carved into the rock face that showed they went to different areas of the castle.

But the thing that caught Laz’s eye the most was a massive fire roaring in a huge copper pot in the middle of the room. The fire was a strange greenish color and had flecks of white going through it, a color scheme that wasn’t normal in the slightest. All around the fire were hundreds of guards dressed in battle gear along with a massive group of poorly dressed individuals that Laz could only assume was some of the missing townsfolk. They were all bound and shackled and being held in check by the guards while a dais raised before the copper pot contained several men in dark robes doing what Laz could only guess was some strange ritual.

"Is this normal?" Laz turned to ask Blake, wanting to make sure.

"I.... no...."

"Well then...I don’t want to see how this ends. Anyone have a different opinion?" Laz then turned to ask the others who all shook their heads no.

"Well... the hard part is the next choice we make. Either we go in full tilt and kill the guards who come to stop us but let the others take the prisoners hostage. Or we try to sneak our way forward and get in close before they can detect us. From the feeling I’m getting here.... I don’t think there is much time left either," Laz said as all of his hair was standing on end. Whatever they were doing was working and it wasn’t a nice feeling.

"I think the choice has been made for us. We don’t have the time left to go slow anymore," Two said, pointing to the extremely faint but rapidly appearing face above the fire.

"Fuck me..." Laz said, thinking for a minute that running was always an option before remembering he was trapped here and there would be no where to go eventually.

"Alright let’s do this... LEEERRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYYY...."

SMACK!

Laz hit the back of Blake’s head hard.

"HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW.... YOU KNOW WHAT? NEVERMIND, GOOOOOO!" Laz shouted and ran forward, the others filing in quickly behind him and taking off.

The guards, having not expected anyone to show up, weren’t prepared as their weapons were still down while their attention on the quiet and frightened prisoners was slipping away into a kind of sleepy daze.

Despite this, they quickly realized what was going on and reacted, drawing swords and charging at the intruders.

"QUICKLY! FINISH IT!" Said one of the masked men on the dais. The man chanting nodded but didn’t look over, instead fully concentrating on what he was doing.

As the guards rushed out, they fell quickly, obviously unable to handle the battle hardened prisoners who now made up Laz’s legion.

"Throw in the blood sacrifices," came the order from one of the masked robed individuals and they quickly set to grabbing the chained and spooked people and tossing them into the fire. This made Laz’s legion even more angry and they slaughtered the guards without mercy, cutting a path to the terrified people before more than a dozen had perished. As for the remaining guards, they had gathered around the dais, intent to protect the robed figures with their lives.

Quickly pulling them out of there, the prisoners were soon on the other side of the hall with the men and women of the legion standing between them and the hellfire.

"I guess we have no choice," sighed one of the figures as he pulled out a knife and with a massive downward stab, cut off one of his own fingers. He then picked up the discard digit and began writing something out on a wooden table next to him.

All at once, the eyes of the guards glowed green and before Laz could even noticed the change, the guards turned around, running and jumping strait into the offering fire without hesitation.

"STOP THEM!" Laz called as he and the other’s rushed over.

But it was too late.

The image above the fire was now completely solid.

It opened it’s eyes