Novel Full Chapter 902: The Castle
Chapter 902: The Castle
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The castle Angelo talked about was hidden within the core inheritance zone itself.
They had to go there and, with Angelo’s clearance, access the location. The same access was given to Cedric later on.
The castle was large and looked as if it were floating aimlessly in the void. It’s surrounded with space debris of all shapes and sizes; they even seem to form a rather expansive belt around it as if the castle itself had a strong gravitational pull.
“This is the Origin Heaven Castle,” Angelo said. “Well, to be honest, this castle doesn’t have a name. It was rumored to be the home of the creator of the Origin Heaven Continent, but none of us are able to really confirm that.”
“Even the first ones who arrived here couldn’t, so what chance do we have?”
“Anyway, it isn’t ours, and it’s not our place to claim it just like that, so we eventually settled on calling it the ’Origin Heaven Castle,’ just for distinction, even though it’s frankly a not-so-creative name.”
Cedric nodded. He didn’t care too much, really.
He could feel the castle’s ancientness and uniqueness. This had been around for a long, long while. Even the most ordinary material has passed the test of time. He could also feel the presence of several enchantments in the castle.
Ones that made it impervious to damage, some that could stabilize its location amidst its aimless drifting in the void, spatial expansions from within, etc. Basically, it has everything it needs to be habitable and adaptable to any environment.
“Is there anyone here besides you?” Cedric asked, because frankly, he couldn’t sense any other people here.
“Humans? No,” Angelo shook his head. “Other creatures? Yes. But there are only five. And they are rather anti-social. There are a lot of ghosts, though, and most of them are servants of this castle, or more specifically, the one who set up all of this.”
Angelo then looked at him and said, “Some of them were the ones in charge of the trials and the matters of The Other Side.”
“Basically, these ghosts are the ones that are keeping this castle and this entire thing functioning. You’d get looks from them, but they will generally stay out of your way.”
“They won’t even talk to you unless you talk to them first or if they need to talk to you. Just ignore them for the most part and don’t interfere with their work. Don’t make that mistake; you won’t like what happens next.”
Cedric listened to his advice and swore to remember it. Yeah, he had no plans to interfere with how things work here unless he absolutely had to. They’re already gracious enough to let him stay here; he won’t overstep his welcome.
Angelo then led him into the castle, where Cedric got to see how the ghosts worked in real time.
Like he said, Cedric got looks from the ghosts. Ones that are ranging from mere curiosity to mild offense, the latter came from, presumably, the ones who are directly in charge of the trials.
But like Angelo said, they stayed clear out of their way. Cedric did his best to ignore them, and he will try to convince himself that they didn’t exist unless he needed to talk to them or they came to him.
The castle was definitely larger inside than the outside. There were a lot of things to see inside, but Cedric wasn’t in a hurry. He could explore later, especially now that he’s no longer pressed on time.
Still, Angelo gave him a very brief tour of the castle. He was pointed to the places that he could visit and those that he couldn’t and shouldn’t even think about approaching regardless of the circumstances.
After that, he was led to the residences within the castle.
“The rooms are bigger on the inside. It has everything that you need; you can even grow your own food in there if you’d like. However, if, somehow, there’s something missing in there that you want, summon a ghost and tell them your needs; they’ll try to accommodate you.”
“Understood.” Cedric nodded.
“Alright, that’s about it.” Angelo was about to conclude matters for today, but he froze as if he just remembered something.
“Right, you remember when I said that there are five other people aside from us here who are still participating in the trials?”
Cedric nodded.
“I told you they’re anti-social, but the truth is, I’m downplaying that. They dislike everyone else who isn’t them.” Angelo’s face went serious as he said this. “To each of them, the others are more than rivals. This is a matter of life and death.”
Cedric tilted his head in surprise.
“Now that you’ve come this far, the next, and the last, checkpoint for you, for us, is to be the master of this place. I believe I’ve already explained to you how to achieve that, right?”
Cedric nodded and said, “Mastering all of the origin laws does that. If I, or any of us, reached that point, that person becomes the master of this place.”
“Exactly.” Angelo nodded, his face solemn as he warned him. “The other five, they’ve been here longer than us, and by us, I mean both of us combined.”
“We are all competing to be the master of this place, and to be the master of this place means being responsible for everything, including the very lives of the people that still remain here.”
“You’ve got to understand, this isn’t a small matter. Becoming a master of this place means that you’ve already reached the very peak of existence. Not just the Supreme Will, even the Origin Source Laws will be at your command. That is an outrageous power and responsibility to bear.”
“You will essentially own not just this castle but the whole of the Lost Void. Hell, everything in existence would start answering to you, whether they like it or not, at that point.”
“Who lives or dies depends on your very whims, and that applies to everyone and everything. You are absolute.”
“And we? All of us are racing to that goal. Whoever reaches it first is the winner. And the winner takes it all.”
“That’s why you can’t expect them to be nice to you. Hell, expect them to be rude and everything!”
“I’m not saying that they’d try to kill you, because they can’t. Altercations are forbidden here. They also can’t bribe or command the ghosts in this castle to do their bidding either since they’d see themselves hurt first before that happens.”
“And yes, somebody made that attempt before. His ending was very ugly, so don’t even try it.”
“They are, however, not forbidden from talking. And if you ever meet them, you can basically expect them to verbally abuse you. When that happens, I hope you keep your temper.”
“That’s them playing dirty. They want to force your hand, to make you make a mistake. If you attack them, you offend the sanctity of this castle, and you’d be punished for it.”
“They won’t feel bad about that, I promise you. In fact, they’d go out of their way to do it as many times as needed to eliminate you from the race. They’d do it to each other too. The less competition there was, the better.”
“And since you’re new here, they will definitely target you. Be prepared for that.”
“I see.” Cedric nodded. He understood where Angelo was coming from. He also assumed that the man was speaking from experience.
“Believe it or not, you don’t have to worry about that with me.” Angelo smiled. “It’s simply because you’re human, just like me. And I feel like it’s my responsibility to look after you.”
“Hell, I wouldn’t have shown up in front of you in the first place if you weren’t human. Usually, it’s one of the ghosts’ jobs to do that; I just asked them if I could do it instead because we’re of the same species.”
“I don’t care if you believe me or not. I just ask that, should you beat us in the race, spare me. I’d like to live as I have, even though it’s boring and repetitive. I promise I won’t stand in your way. I’d do the same if I beat you and others too.”
Cedric looked at Angelo’s eyes for a bit as if he were searching for his sincerity. Angelo met his gaze squarely and didn’t falter. Cedric nodded and said:
“Alright, sure. It’s a deal.” He shook the man’s hands.
Really, Angelo never had to worry about that. Cedric never thought about killing everybody else just to gain full control of everything anyway. Besides, Angelo had been very accommodating since then and helped him a great deal by answering his queries.
He hadn’t given Cedric any reasons to antagonize him, so it’s not a big deal to agree.
Angelo looked relieved after that. He then left Cedric to pick his own residence for the remainder of his stay here.
Cedric didn’t take long; every room looked the same, so he just picked one of the closest to him and went inside.
And Angelo was right; the room was definitely way bigger on the inside.