Chapter 690: No Time For Mourning

It took a while for them to calm down and the girl in purple to explain. The sword was the previous possession of their king. He held it while conquering worlds, but once the battles were done and their people were the strongest in the galaxy, he sealed up the sword, knowing that it was a sword of bad luck and ill omen. Even with that being the case, buried secrets don’t stay buried forever and enemies from outside their realm came looking for it. With their search, they brought destruction to their people and their empire which fell in a matter of days to these strange wanderers of the stars. Their leader, long knowing that something like this might happen, had planned for many long years and using lost and ancient knowledge, created this fortress to safeguard a small group of their people to at least ensure their race didn’t die out entirely.

While it succeeded, the result was that they were sealed for all these years without even knowing it. As for what had called Nagi to them, that was because of the girl in purple. While they were fully sealed, her power had slightly leaked after all these years and as a divine beast, Nagi had felt it, something so ancient and strong that she had been drawn to it.

"Wait... so does that mean you know of the black castle that was located on these lands?" Laz asked at one point, blurting it out before he could think better of it.

The girl in purple looked confused before one of the others whispered in her ear. The girl in purple then nodded.

"It was an ancient place even back in our empire, from a time before it. But it had always been there. The king once said that while the black castle is not dangerous, there is a certain dark aura or loss and loneliness to it. While people lived there though, they never really found the cause. It was originally thought that we could survive by hiding in that castle, but the ability to preserve our bodies wasn’t something it was equip for, hence why he built this place," the girl in purple explained. After listening to it, Laz thought it made sense, but also thought it seemed like something was missing. Still, it explained Nagi’s memories of people living their for a long time, coming back soon after, but then going silent for a long time again when this small portion of their world was trapped in the void before becoming a pocket dimension. And while Nagi was safe, what the girl said was right. The safest place to be would have been in the sealed stated and they would have still needed to build the fortress to perform the action anyway.

After that surprise explanation was done, Laz looked at the group that seemed to be made up of mostly younger people, teenagers in his eyes, with several older ones as well. Even then though, they were mid twenties at best with only two of them being older, early thirties at the latest. They were also the strongest among the group, obviously ones who were sent as protectors while the rest were young enough to have many years of reproduction ahead of them. Surprisingly though, they were still gods.

Laz noticed that the two older ones, both males were also constantly sneaking glances at the young woman in purple. While one of them was doing so with reverence, the other had another look in his eye, one that Laz recognized right away and knew carried no good intentions.

"Well. I am sorry about your situation and would offer you any help I could, but our current situation isn’t exactly good either. We are besieged on all sides by a demon beast army controlled by the shadow of an ancient god who is close to being an ancient god itself. Currently, this pocket dimension has fallen and we are about to fight out last battle of survival. Although I can’t offer you much right now, we can at least spare you all rooms to rest and food to eat along with some help dealing with your fallen companions," Hera spoke up, indicating the several hundred who didn’t wake from their sleep.

The girl in purple turned to them before bowing her head and speaking, as though saying a prayer. Her people joined her in her actions before she turned back to Hera.

"We would normally burn their bodies so that they may return to the great ether and join the halls of our people," the girl said.

Hera nodded.

"We can have them brought to the surface and host a grand burial in a few hours after you’ve all had a chance to rest and take care of yourselves." 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

The girl turned to talk to the two older men who went back and forth with her for a bit. The one with the nasty looked spoke the most and seemed the most angry, but ended up shutting up finally after the girl pointed to Laz several times with a look on her face like she was encouraging him to bring up his complaints to the one who defeated him so easily earlier.

With that, the girl turned to Hera and agreed to her offer. Hera then nodded again and spoke.

"My name is Hera. I am the Empress of what remains of our Empire," Hera said, introducing herself.

"Greetings. My name is Tamesis. I was the daughter of our great and fallen king," the girl in purple said, returning the greeting.

"Is there anything we should be careful of while moving your dead?" Hera asked.

"No. Our people believed their bodies to be nothing but shells for the soul. As the soul has left, be only burn the bodies to remove the tether binding them to this life," Tamesis replied.

"Alright. I shall order my guards to bring them all to the surface. If you would, please have your people follow me and my servants and we shall get you set up in rooms."

"Thank you," Tamesis replied and instructed her people to follow.

Laz stayed in the room as everyone left, looking around, as though searching for something. The sword had been put away as he didn’t want it to intimidate the people, but it had left some sort of a message with him. Something about finding a source. Laz didn’t bother asking Tamesis or her people since he got the impression that they had no idea about the workings of the fortress as the king had kept everything so secret.

Once he saw everyone leave, he allowed his heaven’s gaze to illuminate his eyes and began to look around. Seeing nothing other than what was there though, he almost gave up until a quick look over the dais seemed to suggest that there was something not made of rock underneath it. Laz squatted down and felt around, finding a seem in the otherwise smooth rock. Taking it as a puzzle box, Laz kept searching until he found a hidden mechanism that released a latch, allowing a drawer to open.

Within the drawer was a thin book, bound in a material he didn’t recognize and bound with runes that were also foreign, along with a strange piece of wood that seemed little more than a stick. The strange thing was the stick had three leaves on it that still looked like they were alive.

Three sets of footsteps reappeared as Tamesis returned with the two older ones.

"You can’t use that book," Tamesis said in her native tongue.

"I wasn’t planning on using it on my own," Laz replied, also in her native tongue, surprising her.

"I thought only the little one could understand our language?"

"She can as her bloodline traces back to the beginning of chaos itself. But as for me, after hearing you speak and her speak, it started making a lot of sense to me and so here we are. You didn’t head to your rooms?" Laz asked.

"I noticed you stayed here and wished to speak. These two won’t let me go anywhere by myself so they accompanied me. As for that Empress, she and that weird looking one saw us return this way, but didn’t say anything and just let us go. Probably because they assume you wouldn’t be in any danger."

"They assumed right," Laz said standing up, the book hiding the small branch of wood.

"I wouldn’t say that. While it’s true that in a physical sense, you are far stronger than us, that’s only in a physical sense," Tamesis said as she waved a hand. Several strange lights turned on on the dais and began blinking. Several strands of lights descended from the ceiling then and like ropes, quickly circled around Laz, binding him in place.

"I see. I did doubt that a fortress such as this wouldn’t have at least a few more defenses than just the ability to shift through the void. And if one of you were to know of it, it would be the kings daughter," Laz responded back with a laugh, testing the strange bonds.

"You can’t escape. These chains could have imprisoned even an ancient god like my father. While you are strong, you aren’t on that level just yet. Please hand over the book and I shall release you," Tamesis said, her voice firm but gentle.

"What’s in this book that you need it so badly? Hmm?" Laz asked, shaking it just a little.

"It’s the full guide to controlling the fortress. My father did tell me a few things, but obviously there would be a lot to remember. Before we were sealed, he told me where he stored it and how to retrieve it after we awoke. As he didn’t know what kind of situation we would be in after that happened, he didn’t allow me to have it personally. He just gave me enough knowledge to ensure that I would be able to protect myself in this room once I did awake. Now if you please? I wish you and your people no harm, but I can not have anyone else using this fortress except for our people," Tamesis replied.

"Then what do you plan to do as far as the Empress and the others here go? Are you planning on helping them?" Laz asked, curious.

"While I thank them for reviving us, our legacy lays within this place. As such, we shall leave this place and your people to their fates. There should be enough power left for us to disappear with only the fortress this time and find a planet to land on and conquer so that we might begin rebuilding our empire, as was my father’s instructions."

"So you will leave them here to die?"

"Their fate isn’t my concern. Now if you please?"

"Well. I would like to... but it seems like we have another problem first," Laz said, shaking his head.

"What do you?" Tamesis turned her head just in time to witness the guard with the nasty look stab the other guard in the back with a massive blade. The man only had enough time to turn and look at his attacker while mumbling ’Why?’ before he dropped to the ground.

Tamesis was about to wave her hand to activate the restraint system, but found that she couldn’t move. The guard with the nasty looked had moved faster than she could react and bound her, sealing her with a strange rune to the point where she couldn’t even speak.

"Ha! HA HA HA HA. So easy. To think you would make this so easy on me. Now, not only do I have you, but I also know how to control this fortress. It’s like everything has been handed to me without needing to lift a finger. Ah... how many years did I have to hide and plan, just to be frozen up with you, thinking I would die with you? But now I can have everything I ever wanted, including you, your highness. What a great, glorious and beautiful morning. Truly, my prayers to the darkness have been answered. Oh... don’t look at me like that your highness. You have no idea how beautiful you are or how many of us dreamed of making you ours one day. And I became the final winner of it all. Well now, before we are missed and those bugs come looking for us, I should eliminate you first. Besides, the things I plan on doing with her highness... well... I would prefer an all female audience, if you know what I mean? While they aren’t exactly our people, there were some in the crowd who I could deem worthy enough to serve me as I’m sure someone like yourself knows. Anyway. Thanks for making this all happen so easily, even if you did beat me rather badly earlier. But since you did help me out with all this, I shall give you a quick death. Goodbye!" The nasty looking man said as he raised his sword.

Laz simply shook his head then walked forward, breaking out of the strands of light confining him.

The man who was about to kill him looked shock as his face suddenly went pale.

"That’s.... impossible..."

"Well... Yeah. But as it turns out, I got a little lucky. Now then... shall we get to the ass beating? Hmm? Did I translate that right? Oh... you pissed yourself. I guess that means I did!"