Phase 23 “The Forbidden Memories”
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“You shouldn't be here, my Prince,” a voice woke him from his sleep. “The king has proclaimed this is a restricted place.” He had been unaware that he was even in this area. He opened his eyes and saw two royal guards standing in front of him.
"Who are you?" he said. Both of the guards looked at each other and did not respond back. After muttering an expletive under his breath, he managed to get up and get by the guards. After muttering a curse under his breath, he managed to force himself to get up and eventually walked past the guards.
He overheard the guards criticising his bad behaviour, but he did not give a damn about it. He was tired of all the luxurious things and wanted nothing more. He used to admire and adore the king, his father. But the king went mad after the death of his wife, who is his beloved mother.
“Prince Lucas,” a servant bowed to him. “Your father, King Cecilion, is looking for you.”
Lucas gave a slight nod as he made his way to the king's chamber. He was informed that the king would be waiting for him in the restricted place. It was very strange. His father would never, ever allow anyone to get close to that location. There, he would simply take a nap until he was eventually shooed away by the guards. After a brief conversation with the security guards, he was allowed to proceed inside. It appeared to be a cave made of stone, but when he touched the surface, he found it was actually clay. After the death of the queen, he was aware that his father was constructing some kind of hidden room in the palace garden. He couldn't help but wonder why the cave seemed so familiar to him.
His father explained to him that he had undertaken experiments in order to produce medicine here so that no one else would have to endure the unidentified illness that had taken the life of their cherished queen. Lucas was aware that his father, King Cecilion, had brought a great deal of dead bodies from the kingdom to this location for scientific study. No, the king did not tell his son face to face; instead, he just gathered his own resources.
The claim that the queen passed away due to illness was untrue. It was a murder. His mother, Queen Carmilla, also known as Empress Anssac, had been murdered by an assassin working for the Blood Demon. It was due to the fact that she had excellent intelligence that she was able to suspect a Blood Demon plot to invade Anssac.
After walking through the tunnel for a while, he emerged into a large square space that was adorned with some pillars. He was horrified to see that a few of the stone beds contained patients who were still alive. He was aware that everyone had been presumed to have passed away. How could they still be alive when Lucas was positive that he had seen their dead bodies when his father's personal guard brought them here? In addition, their eyes appeared lifeless and icy, giving the impression that they were soulless puppets. Some torched light his way in his confusion. He continued on till he reached an altar in the middle of the room and climbed the stairs. There, his father was anxiously awaiting his arrival.
“Son, look at this... I finally managed to bring her back...”
Lucas peered inside the stone tomb in front of him, and he immediately let out a horrified cry upon seeing what was inside. His mother, who was also the queen, was smiling at him as she stood up and gently stroked his cheek. No, Lucas thought desperately, this cannot be happening. He was able to make out some of the carving on the tomb shining a little as the figure of his mother emerged from it. Although he was perplexed, Lucas was delighted to see his mother once more.
Then, all of a sudden, everything became a nightmare. The queen lost her mind and began attacking the king. Soon after, the other patients followed suit. Lucas screamed as he ran as quickly as he could. He managed to escape and was able to seal the door behind him before any of the undead could leave the room and followed him.
He was taken aback when he heard a voice say, “What a fool, to think he can bring the dead one back to life...” Lucas recognised his father's shaman standing next to him. Lucas was aware that it was this person who gave his father the idea and made his father obsessed with trying to bring his mother back to life. He just knew it.
“This is all your fault!” Lucas attempted to slay the shaman with his sword, but all he managed to do was slash the air instead. Lucas let the door open as the dead stormed out of the cave due to their fruitless attack. Lucas screamed while being bitten and hurt, dying as his vision became blurry.
“You let them out... Then allow your whole cherished people to dance with the undead!” The shaman laughed maniacally as he vanished into thin air, leaving the undead to slaughter all of the citizens of the kingdom. As far as they were aware, the citizens of the kingdom had vanished into thin air the following morning, and nobody had any idea what had happened.
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