The fog tower looks vertical and long from the outside, but inside it is a wide and straight road. The mages went deep along the road, passed through a double door, and came to an unbelievably wide vaulted hall.
The throne of the Skeleton Lord stands on the high steps deep in the hall. The steps are paved with obsidian. The throne is made of numerous bones. A giant dragon skeleton sits on top of the throne. The empty eye sockets above the skull burn with eternal flames. .
Burris approached the throne slowly, stopped at a polite enough distance, and saluted the old man he hadn't seen for a long time.
The man on the throne wore the same black cloak as Burris, with a hood over his face. Seeing Burris, he stood up slowly: "My friend? Is it you?"
"My lord, it's me," Burris replied, "I kept my original promise, and here I am."
The Skeleton Lord walked down the steps and slowly took off his hood.
After seeing his appearance, Estee, who was standing behind Burris, was taken aback. In her imagination, the Lord of Skeletons looked roughly like liches: shriveled skin clinging to the bones, and many gems embedded in the bones... But the creatures walking towards them at this time were far away. Far beyond her expectations: his head does have a lich style, and there are ghost fires in the eye sockets that are common in liches and necromancer knights, but he has one more pair of demonic long horns than those things, four pairs The fangs of a beast, his exposed skin is covered with black scales, and the scales have reddish light, which looks like blood ripples from a distance.
The Skeleton King went straight to Burris, reached out and picked off his hood. What happened next surprised Esther who was on the sidelines even more: the Lord of Skeletons was silent at first, and then took a few steps back, covering his mouth with his scaly hands, and the ghostly fire in his eyes kept flickering.
"Borris Gershaw?" said the Lord of Bones in a low, majestic voice, "No, it can't be you... In my memory, you have charming gray-green eyes, soft flaxen hair, Nimble and beautiful hands... But now this... this can't be you! The mage in front of me is ordinary-looking, has no ears, is missing a hand, and even has no hair!"
Boris coughed awkwardly, and pointed to the coffin behind him: "My lord, I am very old, and I am in danger of sudden death at any time, so I temporarily changed my body. My original body is over there."
Lord Skeleton walked to the side of the coffin, looked at the peaceful face of the old man in the crystal window: "But...he has no hair either."
"I am eighty-four, my lord."
So the Maharaja took a closer look: "Oh, yes! Take a closer look, this face does have your old appearance."
Burris bowed again and urged cryptically: "My lord, I kept my promise and found a way to return you to freedom. Now I invite you to leave the fog tower and go to my world. Why don't we talk about the old days slowly? "
Maharaja nodded: "It makes sense. What is your method?"
Boris looked back at Esther again, and Esther felt cold all over her body for no reason.
"I consulted a lot of ancient books, and finally found this method," Burris said. "My lord, you have to be mentally prepared. This method is slightly indecent, and I'm afraid it will make you laugh."
"I try not to laugh, you say."
"I have activated several spells in sequence in advance, successfully weakening the bondage of this plane to you... Uh, now... after this..."
"Why are you hesitating, keep talking."
Boris turned around, grabbed Esther's wrist with his thin hands, and pushed her to the Lord of Bones: "I will offer you the only descendant of the silver blood, the morning glow singer, and the knight king Pacia—Sa Princess Esterine Pacia of the Ge Empire!"
"What?" Estee yelled. When she was a child, she always believed that "it must be nothing good for an adult to suddenly call your full name", and it turns out that this is the same when she is an adult!
She subconsciously broke away from her mentor's hand. Boris' new body was crippled and weak, and was no match for her in terms of strength. When she wanted to escape, the Lord of Skeletons held her shoulders. Estee didn't dare to look back. She could clearly smell the breath of death from the Skeleton Lord's body, and those cold, scaly hands made her tremble all over.
Lord Skeleton held the princess steady and looked at Burris blankly: "What did you just say?"
"I said, I want to offer you..."
"No, what did you say her name was? Why is her name so long?"
Burris felt a tightness in his chest... What happened to this meeting? Why is the atmosphere completely different from what I imagined before? His spells are all right, and the Majesty's attitude is also good, but there is a strange feeling when it progresses...
The mage secretly made a judgment: it must be because of the temperament of the Lord of Skeletons. The Skeleton Lord in my memory is noble and majestic, with fearsome power all over his body. Ordinary human beings are as low as dust in front of him... But if you think about it carefully, the Skeleton Lord didn't say much at all. Most of the time, Boris himself was talking non-stop... After the exchange of promises, the Skeleton Lord had to return to the alien plane, so Boris thought he didn't understand the character of the Maharaja.
"Her name is Esterine Pacia," Burris explained as patiently as possible, "You don't need to memorize such a long title and name, I usually call her Esther."
"You said she was a princess?" The Maharaja looked at the girl in his hand, "Why do I think she is more like a mage? She was by your side just now, and I thought she was your apprentice or daughter."
"She is indeed my apprentice, and she is also the princess of the Sago Empire. My lord, you may not know those human kingdoms. The Sago Empire is the most powerful country in the Ten-Nation Confederation. Their royal family claims to have inherited the ancient demigods. blood..."
The Lord of Bones is not interested in history and mythology. He observed Esther carefully: the quality of her robe was better than Burris's, and the jewelry and hair accessories on her body were simple in style but very textured. Coupled with her long golden wavy hair and sapphire-colored eyes, this It is indeed a standard princess image.
"I'm still very surprised," said the Skeleton Monarch. "In my impression, human nobles would never be contaminated with secret arts, let alone study necromancy. What's going on now? What has become of your world? Has the princess become a necromancer?"
Boris sighed: "My lord, let's continue to deal with the matter of returning you to freedom. Can we talk about these details in the future?"
"No, I want to listen now." Maharaja held his head up.
"Prioritize things..."
"Not at all."
"I'm doing it for your benefit..." Burris' bald head was covered with sweat.
"It's not only my benefit, but also the mutual benefit of the two of us. I want to regain my freedom, and you also want my help. So tell me quickly, I'm curious."
"Well," Boris sighed, "it's like this. Many years ago, the king and queen of Sargo were invited to a settlement country in the southeast. Because of a barbarian ambush, they lost contact with the accompanying ministers. They avoided it all the way. Chasing and killing, I wanted to return to my country as soon as possible, but I escaped into the 'Mountain of No Return' by mistake... "
"What are the Mountains of No Return?"
"It's where my mage's tower is. That piece of land doesn't belong to any country, it belongs to me alone. In short, the hungry king and queen broke into my experimental field, pulled out my dragon's blood flower, dug up my Black stone grass, cooked a pot of something that looked like beet and potato soup... halfway through eating, the queen passed out. The king also felt unwell, he hugged his wife to the mage's tower with the last bit of strength, crying and begging me Save her... The queen was already pregnant at the time, and the situation was very dangerous."
The Lord of Bones interrupted him: "Let me guess! The crops they ate must be your experimental medicinal materials, right? You were very angry about this, so you cast a cruel curse on the queen's child..."
"I didn't..." Boris looked at Estee helplessly, and the apprentice calmly stared at the ground, as if he had given up struggling.
The majesty continued to speculate: "Or this is the case - you promised to save them, but you have a condition, the condition is that they give you the child who is about to be born! So you got Princess Estee! You locked her in On your tower, she sits at the window every day combing her long hair, and often sings... "
"It's a bit close, but it's not like that," Boris said weakly. "I did make a condition. The condition is that the Mountains of No Return must sign an agreement with the Sago Empire, and my land will be protected. The king agreed. I also Tell him that the queen is in a special situation. Although I can save her, I cannot guarantee the future health of the child in her womb. The child was attacked by poison before it was born, and it is very likely that the child will not live to be fourteen years old in the future.
"I suggested that they send the child here while they were still young, and I would take care of it. After confirming that the child is safe, I will return it to them... But the king disagreed. Years passed, and Princess Estee's body became more and more serious. Poor. At the beginning, the royal family handed her over to the temple, but those people couldn’t save her at all, and her condition continued to deteriorate day by day... When she was thirteen years old, the king thought that she might not live to be fourteen. That’s why I hurriedly sent her to my tower.”
There was a very subtle expression on the face of the Lord of Skeletons. Since his facial structure was different from that of a human, Boris couldn't tell what the expression meant.
"Looking at it this way, you are so kind?" The Maharaja sighed, "Why did you help the king and queen for no reason? And save the princess?"
"It's not for no reason." Boris glanced at Esther again. He had a premonition that the following words would make her very uncomfortable. "Helping the king is to sign an agreement with Sago, and saving the princess is to consolidate the relationship with their country. relationship. I can’t just want benefits but refuse to give, right? Originally Estee was just my patient, but later I discovered that she is very talented in casting spells, and she also showed great interest in the secrets between life and death ... In this way, she was a princess when she was in the empire, but she is an apprentice here, I appreciate her very much, and she can also help me."
Sure enough, Esther said sadly: "Teacher, I finally understand. What you said about admiring my talent...is all false? You agree with me only because I am useful?"
Burris looked at her with love in his eyes: "No, my princess, you are really talented, I didn't lie to you. You are the youngest of my apprentices, but you are the most qualified .At the same time, you are indeed 'useful'. These two reasons are not contradictory. Many things in the world are not either one or the other, but the result of many reasons. You are still young, and you will understand when you are old …”
Estee sneered and shook her head: "You said before that you needed an important assistant, so you asked me to come here with you, but...you just need to sacrifice a princess, and I happen to be a princess..."
Boris was shocked: "Sacrifice? Who is going to sacrifice you? This silly boy... what are you thinking?"
"Eh? Isn't it..."
"No!" Boris cleared his throat and looked at the Lord of Bones. "My lord, I was interrupted by you just now, and now I will explain to you again. In addition to the spellcasting I completed in advance, if I want to break the curse, To take you away, there is one more necessary step... I found this step in an ancient document. It sounds very simple, very classical, and... a little funny. The specific method is... Cough, a princess with noble blood is needed Volunteering to kiss you."
Lord Skeleton was stunned: "Am I a frog?"
"Of course you are not," Boris said, "please think about it carefully, this condition seems simple, but it is actually very difficult to achieve. Who can easily find a real princess? Who can casually connect to the door of the alien plane? Who can weaken the binding force of the cursed plane? Who can easily lead a living princess to break through the guardians of the plane? Who can make the princess voluntarily kiss without coercion? I have been preparing for this for a long time, so I can see it like this It's easy to get up."
Maharaja nodded, thinking it made sense. He looked at the princess in his hand and asked her: "Then, if you give me a kiss, I can break the curse on my body."
Estee raised her head, stared at him for a while, then kissed the back of his hand helplessly. After the kiss, of course nothing happened.
Boris reminded: "Of course you can't do it with your hands, you have to kiss your mouth, my child! You can be forgiven for not reading enough magic books, don't you even read fairy tale books? A princess' kiss must be kissed to succeed!"
Estee looked disgusted: "Teacher, I have always respected you and trusted you, but you didn't tell me anything in advance. You tricked me here and asked me to kiss a high-level undead creature that doesn't even have lips... Anyway, I am the princess of Sago! My father has no other children, so I am not only the only princess, but also the first heir to the throne in the future! Is this how you treat the future queen? The princess or queen can kiss whoever they say ?"
Burris reminded her: "Your uncle has two sons and a daughter, he might do something to you in the future..."
"Didn't we agree, if one day you will help me..."
The necromancer said: "So, child, in order for us to continue to cooperate harmoniously in the future, you have to give something now, right? You just need a kiss, not your throne or chastity. Do you know who the adult in front of you is?" ?The Lord of Skeletons was born in the realm of the gods and appeared in the black lake in front of the Hall of the Dead... Do you know how many spellcasters have tried to find him? Now he is willing to condescend to be our ally, but you are not even willing to offer a kiss ?Child, you have also promised before the God of Arcane Magic that you would respect magic as the only truth and regard secular interests as the second... We can even sacrifice our own souls when necessary, but now you are stingy with a mere kiss? "
It took me a long time to recite this passage... The princess listened indifferently, and sighed: "Okay. I can kiss him. But... I have never kissed any man in my life. I don't know how to do it." Yes. Teacher, please give me a kiss first, and set an example for me."
"What?" Boris shook his hand holding the staff.
"You kiss the Lord of Skeletons first, as long as you do it, I will do the same."