Chapter 458: The Empty Throne

It should be mentioned that not all of them had signs of moving. It was roughly a third of those still standing that had the signs, dotted around the corridor with no discernable pattern most likely so that they would blend in with the normal Armour sets to trick any invaders.

Of course, there were also the sets that had fallen apart. Those definitely didn’t show signs of moving, and were subsequently covered in moss.

Belladonna picked one of the fallen chestplates off the ground, casually brushing off the moss and the small strings of cobwebs from the discarded armour.

“If I had to guess, they are golems of some kind. Enchanted to move according to their masters will, like puppets dancing along when you pull their strings.”

“Wait… They have strings? So if we cut those, then they will be powerless.” Figg gasped, starting to sweep his staff above all of the suits of armour. Batting away the strings of spider-web that had gathered over the years.

“Of course not,” Belladonna laughed, “Don’t be ridiculous. Nothing could control these with just some little threads. I just wish I knew how they enchanted them… It would be so amazing to study.”

She sighed, turning over the armour in her hands now that it was clean. It glinted softly in the small amount of ambient light, but no sparkle or shine revealed the secrets that they held.

At least on this armour, Belladonna could not see any runic carvings or sense any lingering Elven magic.

There was the option of breaking open one of the ones that they knew moved, but there was a strong chance that they would take such an action as a hostile attack, and defend themselves. She might not know exactly what why they weren’t attacking, but that didn’t mean she was ready to throw it away just at the chance of learning something.

That would come later, when she had time to be stupid and reckless. Being on a time crunch really made things less fun, even if she spent a bit too much of that crunch socialising and messing around.

She had to have some fun after all.

Black sludge pushed out of the pores on Belladonna’s hand and rapidly engulfed the armour in her hands. It swallowed every inch of it, then retreated back under her skin leaving her hands completey empty, as her slimy friend examined the new material that it had absorbed.

The hem of the dress that Belladonna had yet to change out of extended as it came alive. It grew outwards, forming a black tidal wave that swallowed the armour scattered across the floor, rapidly dissolving and absorbing it for further study.

Belladonna took one last look at the idle Armour sets, before letting out a heavy sigh and proceeding onwards. The sooner they could get this done, the sooner she could get swarmed by a thousand armour golems in her efforts to study them.

As they moved deeper, the corridors seemed to twist and turn, even doubling back onto themselves and stretching on for an impossible amount of time. New branches sprouted here and there, and familiar decorations became far too familiar as they were seeing them over and over again.

The labyrinthine design of the city and the chaotic growth of nature had combined into one, with an extra dash of lingering Elven magic, to make a castle that was nearly impossible for intruders to navigate their way through.

It was intentionally designed to disorentate and confuse invaders, leading them to become lost in the castle they thought to invade.

Surprisingly, this was where Raev came in handy. As the Avatar of Sylvi, he had some tricks up his sleeve, and more importantly knew a thing or two about the tricks of others.

Sylvi was not only the trickster Goddess, but the Goddess of those who loved to wander. She was said to protect those that wander through the lands, and return lost children to their parents (or snatch them away to another plane, depending on how she was feeling)

So trying to stop her Avatar from wandering where they liked, through tricks, deception and illusions was bound to fail.

Raev led them through the traps without a single care, and barely even realising he was doing it he was that out of his mind on Figgs magically grown concoction of ‘natural highs’, but at least he had fun doing it.

Eventually, Raev’s masterful and definitely intentional guiding led them to the throne room where a lone knight knelt with his back to the group, and his head lowered before an empty throne of knotted wood and stone.

Compared to the rest of the armours, who were mainly white in their colouring, this knight had a pale blue with much more golden accents on his armour.

“Thank god we made it,” Figg sighed, strolling towards the throne. “So do we just have to sit down there and- Woah!”

He was dragged back and thrown onto the ground by the scruff of his neck, as Belladonna appeared before him in a blur. A gust of wind slammed into him a moment later, caused by the sudden movement of the knight who was suddenly looming over him – and who’s massive broadsword was currently buried half way into Belladonna’s raised arm.

Belladonna grit her teeth, keeping the muscles of her arm tight as they squeezed either side of the blade, stopping it from moving any further.

She glared into the eyes of the knights helmet, and saw only emptiness staring back at her.

It was a hollow helmet, cracked along the face guard that turned the slotted section into a twisted, almost excited grin that was eerily familiar.

Belladonna tilted her head as she stared into those hollow sockets, a motion that the knight reflected as the cape on its back fluttered, catching up with the rest of its movements.

A moment later he ripped his sword from her arm and leapt backwards, gaining some distance as he lifted his sword into a defensive position, droplets of her dark red blood trickling down the edge.

Belladonna raised her hand, gesturing for the rest of her party to stand back.

“This one is just between me and our new host. We need to have a little talk about how to properly greet your guests.”