Chapter 512: Exploring the old castle  

Spending his time as a dragon, Ray didn't really remember where small things and such were located. He remembered the general direction of terrain and areas, but to him he thought one city was like all the others.

Once in the past he had asked Bliss about where his dragon body was being kept, since he remembered being trapped by the large crystals and she had said that she would not tell him.

'Is it because if I find it, there is a chance to get my old body back? But then what happens to this body?' Ray started to think. Every time he went to the next beast stage by consuming crystals, he became closer to what he once was. However one thing was clear - this was a different body to his old one.

He didn't know how it worked, was it because his soul was in his body and he was altering his human one, or something else.

Still, out of curiosity, he chose to go ahead and walk closer to the castle. With each step, he would see large craters from magical spells. Part of the castle wall had fallen down and snow now grew over it, from where his feet were planted to on top of the wall.

Everything was coming back to him, this was the day that had changed his life.

"It happened before the shadow even existed, I don't know why I never thought the place would be in the shadow continent."

Perhaps in the past Ray would have gone looking for it if he had never established the Redwings. Was there even any reason for him to look round and check out the place, to bring up memories of the past?

He took a step back and turned away.

'Obviously I have gone in the wrong direction.' But then something stopped. It was as if his body was urging him to turn around and head back the other way.

In the end, he couldn't fight it any longer and started to walk up to the castle. When approaching the walls, it was clear that no one had lived here for a long time, not even the Shadow seemed to have used the place as a fortress like it had done in the other areas.

'Is there a reason for that?'

Using his strength, Ray pulled on the door which was heavy, it would have taken at least thirty men to pull such a thing, and since it hadn't been opened in a long time it was even harder. With Ray's strength and Ki he was able to open it, but not without making a loud metallic screeching.

The door was opened just wide enough for him to fit in and he carried on walking through.

"Just like before, there are no people here, not even bones. Bliss had cleared the place before our fight was to take place, and it looks like they never set foot here again."

Taking a step forward past the gate walls and next to the castle doors, Ray could feel it now. He couldn't feel it before but there was a strange energy emanating from the castle. Looking at the ground, that's when he noticed that it wasn't black, it was brown like regular dirt.

'The shadow can't even get close to the castle, is it because of the strange power? That's why there's no shadow here.' The strange power was one that was familiar to Ray, but he couldn't be too sure yet, as he opened the castle doors and walked in.

The power he could feel was the same, he thought that it might have gotten stronger when stepping in the castle but it hadn't. The same energy was spilling all over the place, and Ray couldn't get a hold of it.

"The only thing I can do is start looking around I guess."

He started to explore room by room, but there wasn't much interest. Most of it was what you would usually find in a castle, ornaments and more, but then there was the chance for Ray to go in two directions.

A staircase leading down deep and below, or one that led straight to the top of the castle.

"Would I have to explore room by room? This is going to take a while."

And it did, Ray decided to go up the stairs first checking each floor, trying to locate the power. On the way down he could have a look at whatever was under the castle before leaving. As expected though, most of the floors had nothing of interest until Ray had reached one of the very top floors, it would have been where the king's throne room would have been.

"No glathrium door or Dwarf made locks, how old is this kingdom?" Ray thought as he pushed the door open, and to his surprise there was finally something of interest.

Standing in front of him were five men in strange red armour, one of them wielding a large sword.

The reason why it stood out was because each person looked to be wearing a piece of armour that stood out compared to the rest of what they were wearing. One person had red shoulder guards while the rest of the armour on its body was rusted.

Another, had red parts covering the leg, and so on. Then one was holding nothing but the sword.

Looking closer, Ray could see that these men, although standing, were nothing but bones that had died long ago, and from each of their equipment he could feel something.

"Maybe I can see how you died and who you really are." Ray thought as he started to cast a spell. The spell would show these men's last moments.

It was only after witnessing their tough lives, Ray would learn that these five men were the past dragon knights, and the equipment they were carrying were the dragon weapons.

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