欧洲无人区天空码头IV

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"Some girl, she\'s a bit crazy if you ask me."

"That\'s rich, coming from you..."

Their journey through the labyrinth was coming to an end, he could feel it.

While the paths they took were still convoluted, it felt like the knot was untying itself.

Progressing through the city felt like a lot of back and forth at first, while now that they were near the middle, it felt a little more straightforward.

The amount of husks lying around hadn\'t dropped, the city was still paved with them no matter how closer they were getting.

Some of them seemed less out of it, following them with their eyes.

Jax completely ignored them, while Mori still took a moment to look at them.

Only look.

I can\'t save everyone. It\'s also not my job to save everyone.

Saving a husk seemed like a task that required too much investment.

Giving purpose in a world that has none. Where everything is destined for ruins over millions of years. Everyone forced to live through those years in a brutally painful manner...

There was death.

Maybe.

How does death work in a realm like this?

Mori was right behind Jax, paying attention to his surroundings while playing with chains.

"How hard can it be?" he whispered to himself.

"We\'re there."

Mori looked up from his hand, laying eyes on the castle he had seen poking out of the walls.

It wasn\'t much of a castle, more a palace.

One in ruins, at least.

Several walls were collapsed, the main doors broken and lying on their backs.

The roof and overall structure was somehow still in place, while holes did show up here and there.

It was massive, with large supporting pillars facing them.

They weren\'t just circular, but sculpted with a level of details that seemed unreal. Hard to believe it was stone hand-carved.

Mori started walking again, impatient to see one of those pillars up-close.

"Give people an extreme amount of time to work on those and you get a good result," said Jax, as if he read Mori\'s mind.

They were crossing something that looked like an extremely large street. Before reaching the palace\'s broken doors was a sort of stone garden.

Nothing truly outstanding about it, besides how the slow incline was bringing them up to the entrance, instead of stairs.

On each sides were sculptures of beasts and monsters Mori couldn\'t dream of.

They slowly made their way up the ramp.

"Those husks are staying away from this palace?" asked Mori.

"I keep this place clean. After all, I live here. I do not want to have those depressive beings around."

"Makes sense."

As they finally got in front of the palace doors, Mori could see how impressive they truly were. Just looking at them made him feel heavy.

His feet, however, started to drag debris and dust around. Crossing the entrance brought a smell of \'old\' abandoned house.

The hall they stepped into was gigantic.

The first room people were met with was truly breathtaking.

There was no second floors, straight above them was the roof they could see from the outside. A bold choice to waste space that could\'ve been used, but Mori could understand why.

Whoever created this place had an eye for flashy.

The pillars, the rugs, the walls, the torches, the paintings... Everything had so much details, it felt like he was in a dream.

Mori stepped toward the wall on his left, where a painting was hung up.

"Alright, take your time. Literally. It doesn\'t matter much," said Jax.

"Huhuh."

His eyes didn\'t leave the painting as he approached it. It was a king on a throne, but the closer he got the more he could see inside of it.

Everyone depicted around was so well painted that it almost felt like a photograph, yet it clearly wasn\'t. The people standing around on both sides, all the way up the main stairs that lead to a throne.

In a room that looked like this one.

Mori turned around, it was indeed the same one.

Straight away, opposite to the entrance was stairs going up, but no throne on top of it.

Instead, it simply lead to another set of doors.

Those doors, however, were of a different breed.

While those that opened to the palace were made of wood, these were made of metal.

They weren\'t as big or impressive, if anything, it was the opposite.

The dark metal that clearly stood the test of time looked heavy and sturdy.

Following Mori\'s gaze, Jax spoke up.

"Yeah, that\'s where that loser\'s staying."

"Loser?"

Jax pointed to the painting behind Mori.

"Yeah, that guy on the throne. The one who\'s wearing the crown the old man was gonna give you."

"That king?"

"Yeah. As this place started to crumble he moved his throne in the room behind those doors. Good luck opening them, everyone tried, not possible. That whole room is locked in some sort of magic."

"Not even you or Maël?"

"Oh no, truly nobody since those doors closed. Some scratches and dents on them are from us, but that\'s it."

Mori went back to the middle of the room, joining Jax.

The stairs that lead to the metal doors also had a smaller set of stairs on each side, along the back wall, going left and right.

Jax moved forward, quickly followed by Mori.

"This room is the worst."

"Looks hard to beat."

"That loser forcing us to walk past his little secret room. This layout just screams \'Look at me, I\'m still here and still the king\'. I avoid coming in from the main entrance. This place reeks."

They approached the metal doors, but Jax quickly turned right, taking the smaller stairs leading to a standard wooden door.

Taking a few steps toward the door, and out of curiosity, Mori put his hand on the metal door, causing Jax to roll his eyes.

"I... recognize this."