Chapter 201: The Empty Throne

The stone stairs stretched high up into the old palace, cold and completely silent.

Nathan led the team upward, keeping a tight grip on Moonlight. The silver bow cast a soft, clean glow against the broken brick walls. The fight down in the vault had taken a lot out of them. Garrett was breathing heavily, his heavy boots dragging a little on the stone steps. Dillon rubbed a hand over his tired face, and Elise leaned quietly on her staff as they climbed. But there was no time to sit down and rest. The Throne was right above them, waiting in the dark.

Corvus walked right beside Nathan. The old guide wiped a dirty sleeve across his face, clearing away the tears that were still falling.

"I really thought we were going to die down there," Corvus whispered. His voice shook in the quiet stairwell. "My people have guarded this ruined palace for hundreds of years. The dark magic was always there. It was just a fact of life for us. I never thought I would actually live to see that vault wiped clean."

"The Shepherd is losing his grip on this World," Nathan said firmly, keeping his eyes on the top of the stairs. "But we aren’t completely done yet. We still have to fix the top."

They finally reached the top step and pushed through a set of heavy, rotting wooden doors.

The main throne room opened up in front of them. It was massive, drafty, and empty. At the very back of the room, sitting on a raised block of black stone, was the broken Throne. The giant stone chair was still split right down the middle, the two halves leaning away from each other like they had been chopped by a giant axe.

The sick, bright green light from before was gone. But a dull, ugly grey pulse still hummed deep inside the crack of the stone. The Throne was still broken. It was still waiting for something.

"We killed the splinter down in the basement," Elise said, walking slowly into the room. She kept her staff raised, casting a blue light over the dusty floor. "But the throne itself is still damaged. The magical connection hasn’t come back."

Nathan turned to look at Corvus. "You told us the old kings used to sit in that throne to listen to the World. To bond with it. If the Shepherd’s rot is gone from the roots downstairs, maybe the bridge can be rebuilt."

Corvus walked slowly toward the raised platform. He looked terrified of the stone, but he forced himself to climb the few steps. He reached out with a shaking, scarred hand and gently touched the cracked rock.

He let out a long breath. "I can feel it," he said softly. "It is very faint. Like a weak heartbeat. The Throne is trying to heal itself. It wants to pull back together. It just needs... something to start the process."

"What does it need?" Dillon asked, stepping into the room and looking around nervously.

Corvus closed his eyes, keeping his hand flat against the cold stone. "It needs a ruler. It needs a person to sit on it. Someone to complete the circuit and spark the bond." He slowly opened his eyes and looked back down at Nathan. "But I am not that person. Yes, I have the blood of the old kings. But I have spent my entire life living like a rat in the dirt. I am a scavenger. A guard. I am not a king."

"Maybe the dirt is exactly where a king should come from right now," Nathan said simply.

Corvus stared at him, his eyes wide. "You want me to sit on the Throne?"

"I want you to try," Nathan said, taking a step closer. "Look at this place, Corvus. General Kael just wants to conquer people. The Vine Council just wants to hide in their trees. If the bond is really trying to heal, and if the curse is really broken, then someone has to take the very first step. It has to be someone who actually understands how much this World has suffered. Someone who has been protecting it this whole time."

’The man has absolutely no ambition,’ Kuro’s voice echoed quietly in Nathan’s mind. She was standing in the shadows near the door, completely still. ’He does not want power. That makes him safe.’

Corvus stood frozen on the platform for a long time. He looked down at his dirty, torn clothes. He looked at his scarred hands. Then, he looked back at the broken stone chair.

When his expression finally changed, it wasn’t out of fear, and it wasn’t out of greed. It was just a quiet, heavy acceptance. He looked like a tired man picking up a very heavy bag.

"My entire life, I was told this chair was a death sentence," Corvus said quietly. His voice echoed off the empty walls. "I was told that anyone who touched it would go mad, and that our empire was better off staying broken." He let out a long, shaky sigh. "But maybe we were wrong. Maybe the Throne was just waiting for someone who didn’t actually want to sit on it."

He turned around to face the front of the room. The team watched him in total silence. Garrett tightened his grip on his heavy mace. Mirko held her breath, her pink eyes wide. Shiro watched carefully, her face completely calm.

Corvus took one step backward. His scarred hands were shaking badly. He bent his knees, lowered himself down, and sat on the cold stone.

For a long moment, absolutely nothing happened. The room was dead quiet.

Then, the Throne began to glow.

It started deep inside the crack. A clean, silver-grey light slowly bubbled up to the surface. It flowed across the dark stone like water spreading over dry dirt. Then came the sound. A loud, heavy grinding noise shook the room. The floor vibrated beneath Nathan’s boots.

The two broken halves of the massive chair were actually moving. They were grinding across the stone floor, slowly pulling toward each other to close the gap.

Corvus gasped loudly. His body went stiff, and he gripped the armrests. His eyes went wide. Nathan could literally see the magic forming. A bright, silver string of light connected the man to the stone. It was a bridge that had been broken for hundreds of years, finally stitching itself back together.

The silver glow grew brighter and brighter. The Throne was healing. And sitting in the center of the light, the tired, dirty scavenger looked like he was becoming something much more. He was becoming a king.

Then, in a single heartbeat, the light changed.

The clean silver violently shifted. It turned into a bright, sickening, radioactive green.

The heavy grinding noise stopped with a sharp CRACK. Corvus’s body went totally rigid, locking into place like a statue. His head snapped back. His eyes flew wide open, but the white parts were completely gone. His eyes were solid, pitch black—empty holes that reflected nothing at all.

The glow from the Throne started pulsing like a sick, rapid heartbeat. And a voice echoed through the massive hall.

It wasn’t Corvus’s voice. It was the Shepherd.

"Did you really think you could break my curse that easily, little rabbit king?"

Nathan’s blood turned to ice. He took a fast step back, raising his bow. "No! We destroyed the splinter!"

"You destroyed one splinter, yes," the Shepherd’s voice answered. It didn’t come from Corvus. It seemed to bleed out of the walls, dropping from the ceiling and rising from the floor all at once. "But I left more than one tiny piece of myself buried in this World. And now, your shiny new king has found the second one."

Corvus’s body started to shake violently. Thick lines of glowing green light spread up his neck and across his face, looking exactly like the cracks in the broken stone. He thrashed against the chair, fighting for control of his own body.

His mouth ripped open. For just a split second, the horrible blackness in his eyes flickered, and his real, human voice broke through the magic.

"Help me," Corvus choked out, tears mixing with the green light on his face. "Please. Do not let him take me."

Nathan ripped an arrow from his quiver and locked it onto Moonlight’s string. He felt his B-Rank mana roar to life in his chest, pushing the fear away.

"Everyone, get ready!" Nathan yelled, aiming right at the Throne. "We are not losing him!"

The green light flared blindingly bright, lighting up the entire room. The Shepherd’s cold, mocking laughter filled the hall, shaking the dust from the ceiling. The second battle for the Throne was about to begin.