Chapter 23 - The Eternal Throne
Serpent's Peak - Summit - Few days after.
After Chris, Death, and Alito scaled through the clock tower where the Deposed King was, the trio reached a huge bell tower with multiple serpent-like heads.
Death grunted as a purple aura surrounded him, transformed into his Reaper Form, and sliced off the metal chains attached on the bell. The bell dropped down the hole, ringing down as it descended.
The ground shook, creating tremors beneath their feet. Death, Chris, and Alito looked up as they saw a colosseum-like structure loomed ahead.
The colosseum-like silhouette became clearer as seconds past, revealing itself the Eternal Throne with two dragons' heads clashing each other as they attempted to drag it to the one who summoned them. Massive, ghastly sails shaped like fins materialised on the head's side.
"Don't lose me." Death grumbled.
"You think we would?" Chris replied.
Alito transformed into Lifebane as Chris attached it to her waist.
Death and Chris sprinted towards the edge of the cliff and took a huge leap down, spreading their limbs apart as they glided towards one of the dragon's scaly heads.
Chris's Project Tundra quickly concentrated its magnetic fillings and Liquid Nitrogen to the dampeners that were mechanically augmented into her legs.
Chris landed at the head on her legs, rolled over for a few times, she quickly got on her feet, and sprinted along with Death riding on Despair.
Death saw a pathway surrounding the Eternal Throne's bottom.
"Now!" the Pale Rider jumped, with Chris following.
Both Death and Chris dug their hands deep and slid down the walls, traversing between the left and right now and then.
The duo finally landed on the wooden pathway that Death spotted just moments earlier.
Chris, Death, and Alito climbed up the pathway and eventually reached the Eternal Throne ten minutes later.
A huge jagged tower with pointy spikes as 'ears' loomed in front of them as lamps hung across the pathway in chains. Wooden planks hung over midair as they made the spikes that decorated the open air like a prison. A sinister looking door resided at the tower itself with a big skeleton insignia - the symbol of the Lord of Bones.
There were four guards standing in throughout the pathway, and at the center of it all, resided a soul with a hood and cloak around its body. He has glowing green eyes and bony jaws. He held many blades and daggers around its waists, and two swords stabbed on his back. He was muscular, but not big enough to lose any sense of agility and finesse that he possessed as he practised his dual-swordplay.
The figure stopped on his feet as he soon noticed the Pale Rider, Chris, and Alito approaching him.
"Huh...Did the Chancellor send you three? Well, Horsemen, and the two women, I've beaten death once. And I can do it again." the figure frowned.
"I've no idea what're you talking about, neither do they." Death shrugged as Chris and Alito nodded along.
The figure grunted. "Of course not, you still reek of hope. You couldn't have met the Chancellor."
"The Chancellor?" Chris wondered.
"He doesn't sound like much." Death asked.
"For years, his words have dripped venom beneath the Lord of Bone's ears. He all but sits upon the Eternal Throne. Demanding...service!" the figure replied.
"You looked very experienced in battle, for one. May we ask for your name?" Chris wondered calmly.
"I am the Master of Blades. And all that remains of a warrior once called Draven from the Kingdom of Man. I should have passed through the Well of Souls, long ago. But I won my freedom in the Arena - only to fall beneath the Dead King's whip." he frowned.
"You survived the Arena, well - parts of you did. Yet you fell to the Dead King's whip?" Death wondered.
"Yes. I fought for life...to return and lead a great army that would conquer all, deliver peace throughout Earth, and to prove that humanity can thrive on their own. But here, I serve. I, Draven, who never bowed to any man. That the Lord of Bones is something less is no comfort." he sighed.
"A person who's doesn't deliver promise don't get my respect either. Besides, the Lord of Bones's time might come to an end." Chris nodded.
"Really?" Draven wondered.
Death, Chris, and Alito nodded.
Entrance to the Lord of Bones
Chris, Alito, and Death approached the door leading to the Lord of Bones, but two Undead Guards blocked their ways.
"No one seeks the Dead King;s audience without seeking the Chancellor." the left guard frowned.
Death frowned, clenching his fists.
"I don't take orders from guards like you!" Death replied as he nodded to the two women and nodded. Alito transformed into Lifebane once more.
Without warning, both Death and Chris grabbed the guards, knocked their weapons off, and plunged Harvestor and Lifebane into the Guards' belly through their spiritual arcane energies.
"Guards down! Guards down!" the six guards in the lower level screamed as they charged straight into the fray.
Death summoned three ghouls, Chris summoned her ice skeleton, and Alito summoned her wind skeleton.
The guards fought Death's ghouls against their will thanks to the lure magic.
Chris's skeleton slide towards its victim's back, summoned razor-sharp icicle claws, and slashed the Guard with acrobatic moves adopted from Chris's fighting style.
Alito's skeleton threw forth several wind-shaped shurikens imbued with arcane spirit magic and sliced through the Guards' flesh, weakening them altogether. The guards attempted to cleave the wind skeleton but it simply dispersed and appeared behind them, slashing away.
With too much to concentrate, the Dead Guards failed to notice Death freezing his share with Harvestor Revenge, threw his dual Possessed Scythe around his body, and ripping the Guards' spine apart.
Chris punched the ground, summoned several ice spikes around her and froze the guards.
"Zandetsu: Ripping Wreckage!"
Time soon slowed to a crawl as Chris unleashed a flurry of slashes with her Lifebane, ripped the Guards' flesh through their armor in seconds, and landed on the other side of the field with her back facing the skeleton troops. Clenching her fists, the energy slashed shattered and smashed her frozen victims to pieces.
The battle ended shortly after, with Draven watching behind, nodding softly and chuckling.
"Both warriors, too, don't take kindly to disrespect too. Their swordplay certainly impressed me beyond my expectations. Maybe what they said might be true..."
A skeletal figure with a green wiz robe of gradient tones appeared strides behind Chris, Alito, and Death. The skeleton wore a spectral hood, a black scaly armor beneath the robe, two skeleton shoulder pads, and has two bony hands.
His face was a wrinkled skeleton with no eyes, a hole on his nasal area, and a fleshless jaw. The figure's eyes widened as he shook his head.
"No! What in the name of the Dead Kingdom is this mess?" the figure gasped.
"Ah...the Chancellor." Death frowned.
"A Rider, in the Kingdom of the Dead? This can never do! Why are you making a ruckus in the Eternal Throne? Plus, who are these two women beside you?" the Chancellor snarled.
Death placed the Chancellor on scythe point.
"Don't think you can say 'You can't kill that which is already dead.'. I know what every dead people will say. I have killed many undeads on my way throughout the eons, and I can do it again. Now bring me to the Dead King!" Death roared.
"Alito and I have killed many necromancers' undeads during my two years adventure that the Guild had sent me to. So...don't, what people say in Asia about speaking blindly, be like a bull in a china shop." Chris frowned.
The Chancellor's eyes widened at the dead guards around the trio disintegrating into nothingness.
"You must go to the Gilded Arena to seek audience!" the Chancellor snapped back.
Death held his scythe closer to the Chancellor's neck, his possessed scythe growling in hunger for the Chancellor's arcane magic.
"I am not dead yet, and neither dies Chris and Alito, so open up the door!" Death shot back.
The Chancellor gulped.
"I...I...cannot...deny you."
*BANG!*
The slam of the giant door rang the entire Undead Court as the trio marched into it. Two undead guards stood beside an old, ancient throne made of stone. There, the Lord of Bones lay in slumber.
The Lord of Bones was as its name could suggest, made with bones throughout his body and forming a devil-like horn by his right. His shoulder bones had spikes on them.
His waist belt has gold and brown highlights as a flowing, dusty green cloth spread down to his legs.
In the middle of his waist belt was a skeleton symbol. He wore two wrist guards made of rib shaped bones. His wrinkled face laid a scowling look upon his face, even in slumber.
The Lord of Bones stirred for a moment, then opened his eyes as he awoke to see Death, Chris, and Alito standing in front of him. He frowned in disdain as he cracked his neck and his shoulders.
"You stink of the living, Horsemen, of souls long overdue. As for the two women,, what brings you here to my Kingdom when you're not even dead? You are not welcome here, and how dare you kill my guards who are guarding my entrance!" the Dead Lord bellowed.
"Pity, I'm starting to enjoy the atmosphere. Besides, the Gilded Arena is for the dead only. If we're still 'alive' by your standards, and your guards threatened to kill us, it's only natural we kill them." Death frowned.
The Lord of Bones frowned and grumbled. "True...Besides, they are not my concern. My concern is that you are enjoying the atmosphere. If that's what you said, then you have not been here long."
The Lord of Bones waved his right, bony arms as millions of hands reached out to the trio.
"Billions of souls crowd my kingdom, all of Humanity, wailing for vengeance against the ones responsible." the Lord of Bones frowned as he clenched his right fists, sealing the wailing souls back.
"Those souls...Falling under the Dead King's rule of Fear and Terror...I just hope the Dead Lord could get into the real deal soon." Chris thought.
"But, I see you are already familiar with such music." the Lord of Bones continued as Death glanced at the amulet fragments on his right chest.
"And you two! Who are you to barge into my kingdom with the Pale Rider?" the Lord of Bones growled.
"We're just here to seek the Well of Souls with Death, O Lord. We are not clowning around." Chris answered politely.
The Lord of Bones frowned and his eyes glowed. He could not read if Chris and Alito were lying. After all, the two women were from other dimension and he was able to read emotions and souls from this dimension only.
"Is it true, Death?" the Lord of Bones replied. The Pale Rider nodded.
"And what do you seek there, power over life and death? Or do you hope for absolution, kin-slayer? I wondered where the souls of your brethren had gone, for they never passed through my realm." the Lord of Bones grunted.
"Your 'realm' hardly needs more subjects. They should deal with the task at hand." Death replied.
"True, yet I must face this rabble without the Lords who serve me!" the Lord of Bones frowned.
"That's not our concern." Death shot back.
"Besides, O Lord, if the Dead Lords served you, shouldn't it be your responsibility to find them?" Alito asked.
"I have way too many responsibilities to hold! If I leave the Court, the souls will haunt me and I had enough of their wailing!" the Lord of Bones bellowed.
"No offence. But what Death said is right. Why should we care about the affairs of the dead when it's your job, right? I guess we should go now...sorry to disturb your slumber." Chris bowed as she took her leave.
"Make it your concern!" the Lord of Bones screeched and the Icy Maiden stopped dead on her track. "And I will grant you your request." he calmly continued.
Chris gave a small smirk, then resumed her calm and collected expression.
"Alright...we'll bite." Chris nodded.
A large green hologram map appeared in front of Death, Chris, and Alito. It has the map of the entire Dead Plains with three dots by the North-west, South-west, and East.
"Find my three Dead Lords, and wake them from their slumber." the Lord of Bones replied as he condensed the green 'map' into a green sphere. "Use this and bend them to your will."
The condensed orb seared itself into Death's right arm and caused an excruciating pain. Death grumbled as he managed to hold the pain handily.
"Return the Lords to me, that they might share my burden." the Lord of Bones smirked.
Outside the Undead Court...
"What do you know about the Dead King, Chancellor?" Death asked.
The Chancellor, still grumbling after the threatening incident, replied, "His reign is eternal. His word is law. And his time is invaluable. Aside from the three of you kicking up a ruckus in the middle of nowhere, I ensure that he need only speak with those who are worthy." the Chancellor replied.
"You only wished to kill us because you think we can't kill the Arena's Champion, right? No wonder you rarely see him, Chancellor." Death snarled.
The Chancellor grumbled once more in discontent.
"The Lord of Bones ain't the first king to rule the Dead Kingdom, right?" Chris asked.
"There...was another. A creäture called Argul, too mad to be kept upon the throne. I helped my Lord to rid of him, and even destroyed a few of his servants. Tsk, tsk...What would my Lord do without me?" the Chancellor snickered.
"What does Achidna have to with your kingdom? Last I heard, she had one of her own." Death wondered.
"The shadow realm, Ysilik - yes. Where the Sisters Sightless spin their webs. Many of my Lord's foes escaped there, when his rule was still young. We hunted them down. Achidna herself barely escaped. Perhaps she took shelter here, and yet weaves her evil." the Chancellor replied.
After Chris, Alito, and Death managed to teleport to the Dead Plains via Waypoint Teleportation...
"Alright, what's with finding the three Dead Lords?" Death frowned.
"The Soul Arbiter told us that the Three Dead Lords were once part of the Four Pillars of The Dead protecting Argul. The Arbiter is one the four Pillars and the only one not to succumb to the Lord of Bones's rule. The Arbiter also told us that the Lord of Bones had too much responsibility seeing to the souls since humankind's extinction. If we go and seek the Lord of Bones, he will most likely request us to recover the Dead Lords since he is very busy." Chris explained.
"True, but what does that have to do with our next mission?" Death wondered.
"The Soul Arbiter told us that the Interdiction is what forced the Dead Kingdom under the Lord of Bones's rule, it's also what gives him the ability to destroy the Four Horsemen when they are not under the Seven Seals' power." Chris replied.
"His invincibility." Death frowned.
"Yes. We find the Dead Lords; ask them about the source which powers the Lord of Bones's Interdiction and yala!" Chris snapped her right fingers.
"Why would he give us the source of his powers if there's a possibility that we might kill him?" Death wondered.
"The Dead King has one weakness based on his speech and attitude - Pride." Alito replied.
"Granted. But..." Death scratched his head.
"The criminals' way of life - they always convince themselves that they are the best, so much so that they actually believe their own bullshit." Chris explained.
"The Dead King convinces himself that he will be invincible due to the Interdiction and it will not be destroyed, not knowing that there might be people like us who will make him vulnerable?" Death's eyes lit up.
"Yala!" Chris and Alito nodded.
Death found himself chuckling. "Well, well, well...The Charred Councils weren't wrong when they said that humans might be weak, but their cunning is essential to the Balance."
"You're smart, I give you that." Death praised and nodded.
"We're not, Pale Rider." Chris dismissed. "You are smarter than we do, the only reason we are able to figure this out is because the Dead King and the Chancellor are getting sloppy."
"Complacency or greed. It's always one of the two that brings them down. In the Dead King and the Chancellor's case...that makes two." Alito simpered.
"Not so much knowledge as it's the commonsense of all living things, including you and I. Well, that happened..." Death chuckled.
"Now let's stop dilly-dallying and get the Phariseer." Chris simpered as she summoned her Audi Le Mans Quattro.
As Death rode on Despair, the pale Rider began to develop even more respect for the human race in general.
"Chris...Alito...I don't care if you reckoned yourselves to be no longer human. You still have the human soul that possesses the cunning and ruthlessness towards enemies, and the kindness towards friends and allies, and the determination and honor to get things done - to keep promises without betrayal. Maybe what Eidard said is true - you need time...Not a matter of 'how', but a matter of 'when'..."