บท 21: Chapter 20 - A Goblin, A King, and the Head of Security?

Tect and Shota have spent two days searching houses and fighting rats. The rats always attack in the night and leave before dawn, no other creatures seem to live here, it's likely the rats have eaten any that did. Tect and Shota have taken to sleeping after the rats leave and waking before noon. So far they have had no issues and have managed to find a few more crystals after searching dozens of houses.

As Tect and Shota walk through the town on the third day, they see a wall in the distance. It starts off as a thin black line but gradually grows to over 30ft tall. Along what is left of the road is a large arch that would have once held a set of doors, but now stands empty. The stone of the arch is like melted candle wax and feels smooth like crystal. "What kind of heat must it have taken to melt this stone and the houses of the town like this. The heat must have killed everyone in an instant." Shota was in awe of the level of power he was seeing. Tect looked past the archway, there he could see the remains of two large buildings and a massive crater. The walls of the crater sparkled in the sun, the basin had been turned to glass and had the appearance of splashing water.

"Let's step through, I think we have found what we were looking for." Tect and Shota cautiously step through the gate. The area beyond is all crystalized from high heat. Except, the building to the left of the crater, it's scorched on the crater side, but the rest of the building still looks brand new. The building to the right did not fare so well, it looked like it had been an impressive but modestly sized palace. Now it looked like the mound of wax found at the base of ill kept candelabras.

"I think since we finally have an intact building we should take our time and search it thoroughly. If it doesn't show signs of rats we may be able to use it as a base while we search the area." Shota nodded, "Good Idea boss, I'm right behind you." Tect rolled his eyes, "Didn't you come here to protect me?" "Nope, I came to keep you out of trouble. We know how impressionable you are, coming to a city all alone by yourself, I had to make sure you didn't join a street gang." Shota laughed, Tect shook his head, and they moved toward the intact building.

As they came to the front Tect noticed a sign. "Mountain Heart Security Office" As Tect approached the door a red crystal by the handle flashed, "Administrator Detected, Welcome Administrator." With a hiss the door slid open, the sight past the door was amazing. The inside of the building was made from polished marble. The alternating bands of white, grey and the occasional black had veins of glowing crystal weaving through. The light given off was bright but was not harsh and the two goblins eyes barely needed time to adjust. The building looked freshly cleaned, and soon the two realized why. A giant silver slime scooted past them leaving a slightly moist trail that smelled of sweetpea and cherry blossom.

"Psst, Tect, do you think we could get this guy to live with us? I hate cleaning, and it smells sooooooo good in here." Tect shook his head, "Even if we did two weeks in it would quit, you are the biggest slob I have ever seen. No one slime can handle that."

The two carefully stepped around the big slime the rooms around them all contained desk made of a beautiful dark wood, the papers and supplies inside the desk had unfortunately broken down over time. Still it was an amazing sight. They checked the stairs and found a set that led down and a set that led up, they moved to the lower floor first.

In this basement area there were two main rooms. The first room was full of prison cells, though they were all empty. The second room was full of metal tables, along one wall was a shelf full of strange jars. The content of the jars had long ago liquified though and only a few jars still had intact items in them. Onc jar held a shining blue scale, though it was hard to tell if it was from a reptile, a fish, or some other manner of beast. One jar contained what appeared to be a spiky version of a sparkleball. It had a metal tag that read Isopoda Lumnos. "So this must be an older kind of sparkleball. The spikes look rad." Tect handed Shota the jar so he could look it over. The final jar held a glowing golden feather. The feather looked like it was made of metal and when Tect swirled the jar the feather made a clinking sound as it hit the glass. "What kind of crazy animal has metal feathers?" The jar had a tag that read "Feather of Lumnos" Tect stored all three jars in his bag of holding. The small room was getting crowded, half was full of food and water, and the other half had all the crystals, herbs, and now jars. The bag would be full if the other floors had decent stuff in them.

Tect and Shota went back up the stairs and proceeded to the second floor. This floor was full of small dias like the one from the control room, but there was no hollow in the center. Tect tried to get them to react, but they seemed like they had lost power. The pair didn't waste much time here. Obviously the place was dead.

The Third floor landing had 3 doors with small signs. Two of the doors were locked and wouldn't open, their signs read, Armory, and Barracks. The Third door which was accessible read Locker Room. It seemed to be a large bathroom but unlike anything the goblins had ever seen before. They opened some of the small metal cabinets inside but only found rotten cloth and a few corroded metal pieces. They found this floor to be the most boring and moved to the fourth floor.

At the fourth floor landing was a single door that read, "Azulak, Head of Security. As Tect approached the door a red crystal flashed and the door opened. The sight beyond nearly gave Shota a heart attack. The room was easily 5 times the size of any other room and the ceiling was at least 25ft high. The reason for this was immediately obvious. On the left side of the room was the massive skeleton of a dragon. The skeleton was made of shining white crystal, except for the snout, horns, and parts of the sternum which had been charred black and showed signs of a large puncture wound. In the skeleton's claws was a massive glowing blue crystal that looked like a heart. In Front of it was a golden device with 3 claws, exactly like the crystal holder in the gate control room, but much larger.

Tect stepped towards the skeleton, Shota grabbed his arm. "Don't go boss, what if that thing is still alive?" Tect looked at Shota, his face full of obvious skepticism. "It's a skeleton, it doesn't even have muscles left. What could it possibly do?" Shota was still very nervous, "I guess, but be careful." Tect crept forward slowly, the closer he got to the skeleton the colder the air felt. The bones were beautiful white crystals, Tect found himself wondering if all dragons bones were like this. He touched the shoulder blade, it was smooth and cold. He stepped to the front, the snout looked like it had been burned by whatever had destroyed the city. There was even some charring on the teeth, and the eye sockets.

Tect moved closer to the claw that held the crystal heart. "Shota, do you think this is the crystal that powers the city?" Shota shook his head, "It doesn't look that strong. Maybe it just powers this building." Tect reached out to touch the heart, as he had gotten nearer, the adventurer's ring on his hand began to glow, but he failed to notice that in time. Suddenly the heart flashed and a beam of light shot out and hit Tect right in the head.

Everything fell to darkness around him. In the darkness a blue flame appeared. "Hahahahah, I knew one day one of you idiot humans would come along. That stupid Ring of Ardent will be your doom now. Once I possess your body I will find a new vessel then I will destroy all of your human cities. Muahahahahaha!" Tect was slightly confused. "Are you talking to me?" The flame flared, "Of course I am. Who else would I be talking too." "Well just so you know, I'm not human, I'm a goblin." The flame came closer to him, he could see points in the fire that looked like eyes studying him. "Really? You don't look like a Goblin. You look like a Human and Orc made a stunted child." Tect laughed, "I used to be much shorter, but about a week ago my body changed.'' The fire shifted left and right studying Tect. "I see it now, I've been asleep since the god Lumnos attacked, so I didn't realize what had happened. Your body shows signs of a Curse of Divine Punishment, your mana core is mostly sealed, and your connection to Kopal is nearly non-existent. All in all you're basically not a goblin anymore. It is interesting though, your manacore is nearly sealed except for a tiny portion, it shines in the blue shades that elves usually have. Without that you never could have evolved into a Hob."

Tect was stunned, this was a lot of information to take in. "I don't understand any of that, but do you know why I have changed?" The flame flickered for a moment, "Don't you understand anything, you came here for king candidate training right? Who is your sponsor?"

"I have no sponsor, and I think I should probably fill you in on a few things. First of all, I'm the first king candidate in like, 20,000 years. Second, no goblin has ever transformed like me. Finally, I have no clue who Kopal is but since it's been so long they are probably dead."

The flame flares wildly, "20,000 years! How can you be so sure?" "The control room system told me that there was a divinity level spell that killed everyone about 20,000 years ago" The flame shrunk quite small, "I've failed then. I was supposed to protect the Mountain Heart. If Lumnos won then I guess that explains everything. He killed off the goblin cities, then cursed those who fled. Kopal must be imprisoned as well since they can't kill him." The flame flared so ferociously, "Little goblin we must set this right. Your people must be restored or I shall not regain my honor."

Tect thought for a moment, "I'm all for breaking the curse on my people, but I won't help you get vengeance for something that happened so far in the past not even the elves probably remember it. My people will not be going to war with humans." The flames dulled, "Ok, I can agree to this, so long as we attempt to find me a new body as well. The egg of any dragon blooded creature is all I need for my rebirth, and in exchange I shall assist you in breaking the curse on your people." Tect agreed to the persons terms and the Dragon whose name was Azulak moved out of his head and into the adventurer's ring.

Shota held Tect, it had been hours since he passed out. Shota could here the rats outside the building, and occasionally there was a terrible impact that shook the building. Shota found a window and looked out only to see a massive rat, 10 times the size of the others, slam it's tail into the burned wall of the building.

The Rat King had come to take vengeance for all the children the two goblins had slain.