Broken World - Part I - Awakening of the Beastmaster - #8CCMay24

Chapter 38 : opening the hidden castle

The group led by Onambélé is now in the huge throne room of the main building. He and his wife Mani are at the top of a long row of steps that lead to the thrones. Two massive and imposing stone thrones. Onambélé looks at the four young people below with a pensive air.

"As you know, a long time ago the Emana lineage divided into several branches. My Bizimana lineage and the Memana Lineage which continue to this day. Our distant common ancestors who had the duty to protect and guide men spread throughout the world and founded several clans. Of course, the rules have changed and we are now acting in the shadows, but let us take advantage of moments like this to remember our past and our mission, that of keeping the peace in our world. Without taking sides. Our mission is just to make sure that men remain on the human plane and beasts on the bestial plane. Of course, we can use our authority if necessary, but peaceful coexistence is the ideal for which we must aspire." Onambélé said solemnly. He looks Bindzi in the eye. "Bindzi, I see that you love and respect my daughter. Treat this world with the same respect with which you treat her. Your authority is far too powerful. Every time you take action, a disaster can happen. Measure your actions."

After this long speech, Onambélé turns his gaze to Ama.

"Ama, would you like to join me?" Onambélé said.

It is strange to see Onambélé invite his daughter to sit where his wife should be sitting, but what follows is even more surprising. The garden in the middle of the castle disappears and the central part of the castle, which for some is just a legend, appears. It is even more majestic than the other three.

Guided by Onambélé, the group heads towards the entrance of the central part of the castle that has just appeared.

"Why hide something so beautiful?" Bindzi asks.

"Each clan used its own method to isolate the rifts between the planes. Your ancestors built an underground castle, ours this castle whose central part can be sealed using a technique of our family." Comments Ékobo who until now has remained silent since his arrival.

"It requires a man and a woman of our blood to open or close that building." Ama comments.

"I understand better why Ama sat in the Queen's place. That means...'' Bindzi said without going to the end of his thought by considering what it implies.

This castle was really beautiful from the outside. It looked like a monument to the glory of a sovereign with an inflated ego. However, once inside, things became very different. The gigantic corridors are separated by huge doors that give a fortress feel to this structure. Not being there for sightseeing, the group heads straight to the throne room of this castle. Bindzi had already noticed many similarities with the underground castle that is located on the Emana estate. The architecture is different but you can see that the spirit in which the two structures were built was the same. The goal was to prevent everything inside from leaving without permission.

Finally arriving in front of the throne room, they pass a huge door made of metal and decorated with multiple engravings of humans dominating beasts. The interior of the throne room is gigantic, it looks like an arena with a long series of steps leading to two thrones. The circular shaped room has no decoration that one would expect from a throne room. Just statues of men and women all accompanied by one or more beasts. Some of these statues support a huge mezzanine that goes around the room. Bindzi can no longer remain silent.

"This room strangely reminds me of the throne room of the underground castle." Bindzi said.

"These structures basically play the same role, but this one has something special." Onambélé retorts.

"What is special about her, dear father? '' asks Ama, who has already visited the two castles.

"More than anything, our ancestors venerated the strength and purity of blood. So, they turned this room, whose main purpose is to prevent beasts from entering the human plane, into a test of strength and bravery. Several kings had obtained and lost their crowns in this hall. For some reason lost in the history of this world, there are places where the bestial plane and ours are strongly connected. Throughout history, families of masters have settled there and built various structures to limit the entry of beasts on our plane. Beasts sometimes pass through unlisted areas, but areas like these have a high chance of beasts appearing at least once a month, posing a risk to the population. Our ancestors had therefore built this room to subjugate any beast wishing to enter through this rift. Over time, it became an arena where brave masters came to demonstrate their power to the king to win his favor, or where the most daring came to confront the king in order to take his crown. The only condition was to be a direct descendant of Moto Ndimba and to be able to trace his family tree back to the latter without union with another lineage and even less with a human. After all, the king was just the most powerful descendant of Moto Ndimba living in these lands." Onambélé replies without being asked.

Noticing that there had been no activity in this room, they went out and headed for the castle's library.

After a few searches on various shelves, Onambélé pulls out an old book. Its light cover resembles the skin of an animal and its pages are so old that they can crumble at the slightest mishandling.

"Ama, you told me about a painting you saw when you met Enama. The scarlet claw is it. We don't talk about it much because it's a stain in the history of the masters that all the bloodlines have tried to hide." Commented Onambélé. "Once the Mvé lineage, one of the greatest lineages this world has known. Far from being the greatest, it was still respected because of a significant contribution it had made in the distant past. They had the particularity of dominating the beasts in an extremely brutal way. The Mvé clan had the largest number of Abyssal Masters. But their methods gradually brought them to the brink of ruin."

The story goes that the clan was sorely lacking in fighting strength, but they were proud and did not want to rely on others. Their people suffered and suffered more and more attacks. The masters who participated in the campaigns of subordination, as they called it, were younger and younger.

In a campaign led by their clan leader Abanda Mvé, all but one master was killed. This master looked relatively young despite his very advanced age and had no particular skills in combat. The white garment he wore under his armor was bloody. On his chest, at the level of his heart, you could see this claw mark. His heart had been pierced by four powerful claws. However, this man was there to testify to it.

He preserved this bloody garment as a mark of his dominion over death. He believed himself invincible, immortal. A few days later he was crowned chief of the clan. He led the clan and brought prosperity to it. He was strong and ruthless, but he soon realized that he, who thought he had dominated death, was very far from immortality. As time went by, he felt himself slowly aging and sensed that this slow aging was going to lead him to his end.

He undertook a quest that is said to lead him to immortality. His authority, rapid healing, had become instant healing. Even illness or old age were no longer fatal to him. As long as his body was not completely destroyed, he could heal himself instantly.

He married and continued his reign for a time, then entrusted that responsibility to his first son. His wife had grown old, his son looked older than him. All grew old and left this world. Essissima Mvé still looked like a young man in his twenties. He played an advisory role and from time to time participated in the increasingly brutal subjugation operations. His clansmen sometimes criticized him for being too brutal. Eventually, he was increasingly sidelined in the management of the clan's affairs. His descendants no longer felt any attachment to him. He had just become a relic of the past. A stain on the clan that they didn't know how to get rid of.

He ends up leaving the clan of his own accord. No one knows where he had gone, but the fact is that when he returned, several centuries after his departure. He found his clan in even worse decrepitude than when he had taken power. In anger, he killed the clan leader Olama Essissima and took control of the clan.

With overwhelming power and unparalleled brutality, he set out to conquer the world. In his opinion, the territory entrusted to him was not sufficient to satisfy his greatness.

Essissima Mvé killed indiscriminately. Masters, human or beast, all those who had the misfortune to oppose him had no chance of seeing the next day.