Evolution: A Warlock's Rise To Power

Chapter 115: Into The Castle

Lucan was woken from his dream of strangling More Food by Silent giving him a gentle kiss. His spirits were instantly lifted.

"Let's get moving, I want to check on More Food." She said.

Lucan frowned but didn't say anything as he followed her out.

"Food lady, I kept watch. Nobody came. I get food now."

"That's right, here you go." She said, giving him some fresh fruit from her bag.

Without hesitation, the lunar goblin snatched them from her hands and began stuffing his face.

She passed Lucan a container of dried oats. "It's the only thing left that doesn't need to be prepared."

Lucan grumbled but took the food.

"More Food, we are going to sneak into a castle. You should head back to the forest, I am sure your tribe misses you." Silent said to the goblin.

More Food actually stopped eating and spat on the ground. "Tribe kick More Food out. They say blue skin bad sign. I not allowed to go back, but they dumb, I don't want to go back."

"We might die where we are going, it is best you go somewhere else." Lucan said to the goblin.

"Lujan no worry, I protect Food Lady."

Lucan scowled. "I will protect her."

"Pfft, More Food protect Food Lady. Luhan can't be trusted."

"Alright, boys. I don't need either of you to protect me. Stop looking down on me. This lady is strong and deadly." Silent said while flexing her non-existent muscles.

"I help anyway." The goblin said.

"Alright, you can help secure our escape route. Make sure nobody blocks our exit when we go in. If you can do that, I will give you more food."

The goblin nodded eagerly.

After eating, they packed up the camp and started to circle around the city, approaching the castle. As they drew closer, they could see the planeshifters unloading cargo from their anchored ship and taking it into the castle.

"My body, my throne, my castle. Gilden, you took everything from me, and now you are even giving it away to others. I will make you pay for this." The Ghost King muttered.

"In due time." Lucan said. "First thing first, do you have a way to sneak into the castle? Striding through the front door doesn't sound like a good option."

"I have a secret entrance that goes through the dungeons."

"Good." Lucan said, then he turned to the mouse. "Why would you put a secret entrance there, wouldn't that make it easier for prisoners to escape?"

"I-. Uh-. Don't question this great king, what would a lowly baron know about these sorts of things."

Lucan snorted but didn't pry into the obvious design flaw.

The party moved around the back of the castle, making sure to stay far from the anchored ship.

"It should be down here." The Ghost King said, leading them to where the sewer dumped out the back of the castle.

"Tell me we don't have to crawl through that." Lucan said, pointing to the poop pipe.

"No way, we will walk on top of it. Pull out the fifth brick from the bottom, reach in and you will feel a switch. Push it to the right, whatever you do, make sure not to go left."

Lucan did as instructed. There was a soft click from behind the wall.

"Okay, put the brick back. Now take out the one three places to the left and six up. This switch you do want to push to the left."

Following the instructions, there was a soft hiss. The brick section of the wall came lose and the warlock pushed it, allowing it to swing on its hinges.

They went in. Silent was last. She turned to More Food. "Make sure to guard this place well, we may need to come out in a hurry."

"I will make sure Food lady can leave when she wants." The goblin nodded.

Silent smiled and shut the door 95% of the way and followed Lucan inside.

More Food waited about five minutes before a sinister grin spread across his face. He pushed open the door and entered the castle.

***

Lucan slowly moved through the dungeon. The cells were empty and there were no guards. The castle had been deserted for a long time. The Ghost King assured him that his servants left the same time he was banished from the ethereal realm. Hopefully, nobody had moved in and the only other people they would find in the castle would be the planeshifters.

"Which way to the vault room?" Lucan whispered.

"We don't want to go to the vault room. My personal vault can only be accessed from the rear courtyard."

"Then let's go." The warlock said, motioning for the mouse to point the way.

They slowly moved up the steps. Up ahead they could hear bodies shifting around. Lucan's thermal vision showed three people walking down the hallway. Letting them pass, they stepped out and headed the other direction.

Without managing to get direct eyesight on the planeshifters Lucan was unable to tell what level they were. That was one of the reasons he was hesitant to ambush them. The other, He still had his race change quest. Right now, he was playing both sides. If he took action against the tribe, he would most likely be forced to side with the Ghost King as the only way to complete the quest. He didn't know how far the guardians vision reached and had no desire to test it at this time.

After working there way through the castle for half an hour, they came to the entrance of the rear courtyard.

They had to find another way in. As luck would have it, the planeshifters were setting their supplies around the entrance.

'What the hell are they doing?' Lucan asked himself but could find no reason for them to be setting several crates around the courtyards entrance.

The Ghost King led them up a floor, to a bedroom that overlooked the courtyard. Peering out the window, they saw several planeshifters setting up a formation in its center.

Even with all his knowledge of formations, Lucan had no idea what this one did.

"F*cking hell." The Ghost King whispered. "How does that Bastard Gilden know where my vault is?"

"Gilden?" Lucan asked.

"My half-brother. The planeshifter in the center with the long coat that reaches the floor."

"Chief, the formation is ready, we just require the last ingredient." Said a planeshifter to Gilden.

"Good, we only need to wait then."

"How much longer?"

"Not long at all." Said Gilden, with a smile of delight he turned to the window that Lucan and the others were peering out off. "Little brother, come out and play."

The Ghost King and the others pulled back and remained quiet.

"If you don't want to come out, I will be forced to use other means." Gilden nodded to the men next to the crates at the entrance.

Prying off the lid. Hundreds of birds took to the sky.

The Ghost King sighed in resignation and left the body of Little Brown.

"What are you doing?" Silent said, trying to get him to come back.

"Those are soul swallows. They directly feed on ghosts. Even if I stayed in the mouse it wouldn't make a difference. They would still find me and consume me." He turned away from the rogue and floated out over the courtyard. "Okay, enough, I am here."

"Good." Gilden said. With a wave of his hand the swallows were covered with a green energy and sent off into a different realm.

Lucan studied the magic carefully, but it was too quick, he wouldn't be able to recreate the effect unless he watched Gilden perform that trick over 100 times.

Gilden waved his hand again and shackle made of ethereal energy wrapped around the Ghost King and dragged him towards the center of the formation.

"After you escaped, I knew you couldn't resist coming back to your castle, it was only a matter of time."

"You knew!?! How did you know I escaped?"

"That was easy, you were never actually alone down there. I always had someone, or something watching you. You can never be too careful. As hard as I tried to cover my tracks, you managed to find evidence that proved I was the one who collapsed a portion of the ethereal realm and let the devils flood into the material plane. If you could do it once, you may be able to do it again."

The Ghost King's mood seemed to switch. He happily smiled. "So bold of you to say such things aloud, do you think that because you created a new tribe of your own you are invincible?" He said with a snicker.

Gilden remained unfazed. "Your hidden shrine was removed long ago. Ha, ha, ha, the look on your face was great, you thought you had finally gotten me. Stupid brother, do you think I would speak so freely without first securing the surroundings. There are no shrines within 100 miles, the guardians can't hear a word I am saying. And since I am not so stupid as to bring a sacred relic with me, they have no idea what is happening. Could it be that you have one? Ha, ha, ha, you don't even have a body, you have nothing."

"Oh, you mean something like this."

Gilden's head snapped towards the window to see Lucan holding the guardian's amulet. Suddenly four large eyes appeared in the courtyard staring down at the gathering of Planeshifters.