Both Orou and Grizz kept watching as the Black Knights followed Vaar to the palace. There was not a single soul in sight as the Black Knights swept the streets but countless eyes cautiously looked outside of their windows in order to see who won the fight. Those who could were trying to escape the city while the barrier was still down, while others were keeping still in fear of being caught and killed. After a few minutes, they had finally arrived before the palace, though from the first glance, it seemed to be completely empty. Vaar waved his hand and a few knights rushed into the palace, with him following behind them.

Before he actually entered the palace, Orou saw Ashtan lean next to Vaar and say something, to which Vaar slowly nodded and turned his head to look directly upon Orou and Grizz, who thought themselves to be hidden on top of a roof. Orou’s heart started racing as he had seen the entirety of the fight and knew what Vaar was capable of. He was ready to flee as soon as Vaar made any sudden movements, but the worst did not come to be. Instead, Vaar smiled towards Orou and Grizz and with the same metallic screeching as before, he shouted out: “You don’t have to hide there, my saviors. Without you, I wouldn’t be able to escape and come here. Come, let’s take a look at my new palace.”

Both Orou and Grizz were sceptical of Vaar’s words, but the two of them didn’t have a choice in the matter. Vaar clearly wouldn’t take no for an answer and provoking him would be the last thing they needed. Slowly making their way down the roof, the Black Knights parted ways to reveal a path towards Vaar before once more closing their formation, leaving no exit for Orou and Grizz to escape if worse came to worst. Still, Vaar didn’t have any intention of harming them as he gestured towards the castle and chuckled to himself before proceeding to walk inside.

Vaar’s chuckle sent shivers down Orou’s spine, hearing it from a distance was one thing but now that they were right next to him, it was a completely different experience. Orou didn’t know how or why, but Vaar’s words instilled an unnatural sense of fear within him that was only amplified the closer they stood to him. Now that Orou got a good look at him, Vaar’s metallic body looked completely different than expected. From a distance, it looked like his body was made out of metal but standing closer, Orou could see that it was a mixture of his old skin and bones melded together into a huge mass that made up his original body.

The three of them entered the palace side by side, but not a single beastman awaited them there. It looked like the palace was looted, the vases made from gold were nowhere to be found and the massive chandelier that was hanging there earlier was gone. Vaar sighed as he looked at both pictographs on the walls and the massive gates leading to the throne room. He approached closer to the pictograph depicting a massive beastman ruling over everyone and everything and placed his finger on the depicted king, saying to himself: “The palace might have changed but the dream of all beastmen still lives on.”

As Vaar was lost in his own memories, several knights, who had made their way into the palace earlier came from the left and right doors, reporting their findings to Vaar. As expected, everyone that might have originally lived here had evacuated. The princess and several nobles were nowhere to be found, although the knights found a beastman desperately trying to get into the throne room, most likely to profit the most out of situation. Of course, the beastman was executed on the spot with not a single trace left of his being, but the Black Knight's couldn’t make their way into the throne room, which seemed to be locked by some sort of spell.

The three of them approached the double doors and very clearly, the doors had two massive, blue chains wrapping around them, preventing anyone from entering or exiting from the throne room. Vaar lifted his arm and the air around them started to ripple and lash out at them, but before he struck out, he looked directly at Orou. Slowly lowering his hand, he said to Orou: “Since you were the one to free me from the barrier, why don’t you show me what you can do. Break these two chains and I’ll give you the opportunity to serve me well into the future.”

Although Orou didn’t have any intention of dealing with Vaar for a prolonged period, it would be very foolish to disobey Vaar for such a simple task. Casting spirit vision on himself, Orou saw that the spirit chains weren’t anything special. The formation of the spirit chains was similar to the barrier he saw surrounding the city, with several spirit threads looping around to create the outline of the chains and the spirits forming the inside of the chains. Still, Orou had to wrack his head for a minute or two for a solution. The spirit chains looked to be very solid and from a first glance, Orou couldn’t see any flaw or weakness in the formation.

Now that Orou had seen what the black strands could do, he had a new-found respect for them, and in return, he realised what kind of spell he had created. Focusing his mind and concentrating on the spirits, he conjured two serpents made from blood to float above his and Vaar’s heads. The two serpents charged towards the chains and wrapped around them, using their fangs to bite at the chains. It was a slow process, but over the course of several minutes, Orou saw the black strand that was running through the serpents take effect on the spirit chains. The black strand was seemingly lashing out at the spirits, which made the spirits that were bound in place tremble in fear. It started to devour some of the spirits which were resisting, making it seem like the serpents were corroding the chains. Finally, after several more minutes, the chains snapped in half and the spirits scattered, into and beyond the throne room.

Vaar’s face was a mixture of amusement and bewilderment as he kept on staring at the two blood serpents, not minding the fact that the way inside of the throne room was clear. Without even looking at Orou, Vaar leaped several meters into the air and somehow grabbed a hold of the blood serpent, to which the serpent responded by lashing out with its tail and biting into Vaar’s arm. Surprisingly, both the tail and the fangs landed onto Vaar’s body without doing any damage, though Orou could see the black strand within the serpents and the sickly glow around Vaar clashing. Unlike other black strands, this one didn’t shrink away from the challenge and behaved like it’s authority was provoked by the sickly glow.

“This is the spell that I cast during the feast, but how come it’s been changed so much. Originally, it was meant to absorb world strands from the bodies of others and deliver them to me, but this serpent seems to have developed a will of its own. The more you feed it, the more it will grow and perhaps one day, it will no longer be a spell but become a spirit body of its own. How interesting.” Vaar’s hand was holding the serpent’s mouth shut with an iron-like grip as he examined the serpent from all sides, peering directly into it and taking a closer look at the black strand inside of it. After a few more minutes of playing around, he tossed it back into the air and opened the double doors with ease, laying his feet on the golden floor beneath him.

Orou had to do everything in his power to stop the serpent from attacking Vaar and now that Vaar had said it, he could feel the serpent becoming much stronger and aggressive with each time that he used it, as if it was developing its own will. Leaving Grizz and dashing next to Vaar, he absentmindedly wondered about what Vaar had said. Although he had said only a few sentences, those sentences had raised more than several questions inside of Orou’s head.