Niko entered the dim interior of the dilapidated castle. He closed his eyes, pushing his senses to their limit as he made sure there weren't any monsters inside.
There were no sounds of snarling beasts, no stench of blood, and no strong enough traces of the Abyss's power.
Having made sure that there weren't any threats, he gestured for Hana to come inside and led the way through the castle's main hall.
The hall was vast and spacious, its marble floor covered by soft carpets and its walls decorated with banners, glowing devices that acted as torches, and glass panels that projected the images of the kings who ruled the kingdom over the ages.
But it was also in ruin, the carpets torn, ripped and covered in soot, the walls cracked and broken.
The banners mounted on the walls were shredded apart, the emblems depicted on them now completely unrecognizable. The light sources were broken, their light dim and flickering.
The glass panels were all cracked and damaged, making the images projected from them appear horribly distorted, their body parts all being positioned incorrectly.
There was even an image that had the king's eyes on his teeth and his tongue on his knee, while his nose had been replaced by his ear!
Hana shifted slightly, feeling a bit uncomfortable looking at the bizarre images.
The two of them moved towards the end of the hall, looking up at the higher floors.
Niko intended to visit the throne room that could be seen on one of the upper floors, since Leta had told him that kings often hid secret passageways in the throne room to allow them to escape the castle if they were in danger.
If there was such a passageway, the two of them could use it to get outside the city. That would take them a lot less time than having to climb the towering city walls.
So, the two of them moved towards the metallic stairway that led to the upper floors.
Or at least, it would have led to the upper floors, had it not been horribly broken, reduced to a pile of metal chunks.
The few pieces of it that remained intact rose up and down the floors in an erratic manner.
Shaking his head, Niko created a bone ramp leading to the floor with the throne room.
While walking up the ramp, he couldn't help but notice how high the throne room was. The castle had four floors above the ground floor, and the throne room was all the way up on the fourth one, which protruded above the castle's protective walls
There really wasn't any advantage of that, in fact, it would only make it harder to protect the throne room. So then why would it be placed like that?
And then there were the lavish decorations all around the castle. Sure, a king's castle would likely be quite luxurious, but this was simply ridiculous.
There were almost as many gems on the walls as there were bricks, and every other item was made at least partially of gold.
In fact, the whole city was like that — lavish and ostentatious. Ever since he had stepped into this ruined city, Niko had noticed that everything here seemed rather luxurious, too much so even.
The boxes full of lavish jewelery, the ridiculous number of priceless gems adorning every other structure, the marble statues that ridiculed other races, the huge statue of the king made entirely out of gold.
It didn't even feel like any of it was for the purpose of adding beauty, rather it just felt like they had wanted to...show off.
It was as if they had wanted to always remind themselves and every person who ever visited the city of how wealthy and powerful they were.
They even made those strange platforms that carried a person as soon as they left their house, taking them wherever they wanted, as if even the act of walking on their own two feet was debasing to the pride of these people.
He shook his head, before glancing at Hana, who gazed around the castle with curious eyes, her face beaming with joy as she studied every inch of her surroundings.
Well, at least someone was enjoying this view.
Niko couldn't help but smile as he watched her.
Eventually, they reached the uppermost floor. The throne room stood just ahead, it's metal doors closed off by strange, complex mechanisms.
Sadly, monsters never did have much regard for complexities, as the Abyss Spawns seemed to have torn right through the marble wall beside the doors.
Niko and Hana entered through the gap in the wall, walking into the large throne room.
The sight that greeted them didn't come as a surprise.
There must have been a time when this vast chamber stood as one of a kind in the entire city, its grandeur unmatched and its importance unparalleled.
But now, it was just the same as everything else in this ruined city — a broken mess of metal, soot and stone, stripped of all its beauty and prestige.
The ground was shattered, the walls were broken, the furniture and decoration were riddled with claw marks.
Even the tall throne that sat atop the marble dais looked as if some massive beast had taken a bite out of it.
And just behind that throne was what would have been the entrance to the king's secret escape route. Now, however, that entrance was blocked off by debris.
Niko tried punching through the wall of rubble, but it turned out to be far thicker than he had thought, not even budging in the face of his monstrous strength.
Niko sighed dejectedly, turning around to tell Hana that they'd have to find another way.
But Hana clearly wasn't too concerned, as she was already sitting on what remained of the throne by the time Niko turned around.
She looked around to see if she could find the crown and, not seeing it anywhere, decided to pick up a large, golden necklace that was lying on the floor, wearing it on her head as a makeshift crown.
Niko walked up to her and raised an eyebrow, to which Hana responded by proudly leaning back on the throne as she pretended to be a queen.
Niko crossed his arms and rolled his eyes, but then Hana leaned forward and looked at him with wide, sparkling eyes as she pleaded him to play along.
Suddenly feeling cornered, Niko's eyes darted around, trying to find something he could use as an excuse.
Failing to find anything and feeling his willpower rapidly crumbling in the face of Hana's adorable insistence, he let out a dejected sigh and nodded.
And that was how Niko ended up playing the role of a royal servant, fanning Her Majesty as she lounged upon her lofty throne — while one of his summoned skeletons, wearing a helmet it had found lying around, played the role of a royal knight.