The Blood Casket

Campaign: Resurgent Despair

Chapter 10 / 4-1

The Blood Casket

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Impending Disaster

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Legendary Resting Place

Summary

The prince meets up with Chelle and Valyx, and once again sees a vision of the war from 300 years ago. Everyone then learns of the Blood Casket—which the Founder King used to seal the Other's soul into the blood of his royal descendants—before continuing the pursuit.

Dialogue

Clave Loy'elune Hey, that's... Hmm? Hrm. Chelle and Valyx! I guess I should have expected you two would show up. As a general of the empire, it is only natural for me to respond to a request from my lord—no matter who that lord may be. And as a lady, I try to respond to ALL invitations with the courtesy due them. And you both came alone? No attendants or guards? *sigh* Of course I couldn't bring attendants. Huh? Honestly, have you people even looked AROUND recently? Clave Loy'elune is the place where the Founder King and the Other had their climactic showdown! The secrets of the royal bloodline sleep within these halls. It's not a place to casually bring just anyone. True... Really, I'd prefer you bid your fair colleagues there adieu as well. Errr... But I suppose it matters not. I can't imagine you can do anything, even with what knowledge you might gain here. Now then! Shall we take advantage of this opportunity and watch this grand drama unfold together? It will be SUCH fun! There's another monument over here. Then let the curtain lift! Places, everyone! Urk... Not even with the sacred blade can I lay this beast low! You were mistaken from the start to rely upon that wretched sword. It is naught but a symbol of slavery! To treat that as a "gift" from the goddess... You are a fool too stupid even to feel shame at his own ignorance! And now...you are without recourse. Yield to me, Alberius! W-wrong... I still...have a way... I still have a way to seal you! What?! I had hoped to not resort to this... but you leave me no choice! GYAAAAARRRGH! Y-yes... Have you lost your wits, you fool? Or are you simply so craven you would rather impale yourself upon that blade than face defeat at my hand? I am...fully possessed of my faculties, fiend. I am...taking the power of this sacred sword...into my blood! What?! This is the only method remaining for me to seal you away... The secret art of the Blood Casket! Explain yourself, mortal! You will sleep forever in a casket of my own blood. Your very soul will be sealed inside it for all eternity! You fool! If you do that, my soul will be forever joined to those of your descendants! If you do this thing, I will simply find a way to claim one of them as my new form! Your so-called "plan" is naught but a mere distraction to my dominion! Ah, but have you forgotten the secret of my blood, Morsayati? Ah! I have the dragonblood, a gift and blessing of the wyrms themselves. It is enough to seal away even your otherworldly power! It will blend into my blood, and over the generations your very being will fade to nothing. This is the hope I entrust to my descendants! Base idiocy! One day, Alberius, you will realize the fruitlessness of this endeavor! Sleep within my blood, Morsayati! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! It is over. The struggle...ends here... The soul of the Other...is in...our blood... ...Is that the reason our father changed? I see now! The fragment we found in the first Binding Ruin must have awakened the Other in the royal bloodline! I care not for the reasons. I care only that our dear father lost his battle to the Other. That's cold, Chelle. Valyx? What do you make of all this? The kingdom must not be sundered. Peace can only be achieved and kept through the rule of a single power. If that is the Other, so be it. How can you say that?! Think about what happens to the people if the Other is allowed to take control! Then you must unite the kingdom under your own rule. Are you telling me to kill Zethia?! That decision rests with you alone. Choose what you will protect, and what you will abandon. I... Alberius had to make some pretty tough choices of his own, boss. I mean, hell! He locked up the Other's soul inside all of his descendants! But because he had the courage to make such a choice, he was able to bring about an end to his long struggle with the fiend. No. What we have seen is not the end. Do you know something else, Zodiark? I once believed that King Alberius had destroyed the physical body of Morsayati and sealed away his soul. However, the body was not destroyed. Instead, it was scattered across Grastaea at the end of the battle. What...? Morsayati's body was a source of evil. Fiends spawned near it continuously— fiends far stronger than the average. When the king learned of this, he took the sacred sword he used to defeat the Other and shattered it into countless pieces. Well, THAT seems insane! Even in pieces, the sacred blade held the power to seal away the Other. Therefore, he seeded the pieces in various lands in an attempt to stay the villain's power. And those became the Sacred Shards! By placing the Sacred Shards in any area that held a part of the Other, he was able to hold back the power of the Other's flesh. His search for the scattered pieces of the Other eventually brought him once more to Clave Loy'elune. Okay, so? What happened next? ...... Hey! You can't stop talking THERE! Alberius's end is shrouded in mystery. He vanished suddenly, and none yet live who know his whereabouts thereafter. What happened to His Majesty?! Tell us, you fool dragon! Easy, Cleo—freakin' out ain't a good look for ya. We'll probably find the answer a little ways down the road here, yeah? He's right. And if we're lucky, we'll find Zethia waiting for us.