RGR009 - An Unexpected Encounter

As we began our journey into Zoma's castle, we noticed the similarities between it and the Dragonlord's castle pretty quickly. The first floor had a similar layout, although this castle seems much larger. There are four staircases leading down to the first basement level, and having explored them in detail, we found they're all linked to one another, and to a passage with a neverending stair loop. So we took that one lying prisoner's advice and headed for the throne room, where we assumed we'd end up anyway. Along the way, we reached a chamber lined with large statues, and as we entered, a stone slab appeared to block our exit.

We moved on toward the throne room, only to find that path blocked as well. So we stood, scratching our heads for a moment, and walked back the way we came, and as we did, we heard voices challenging us to a fight. We were immediately pulled into a battle with two Granite Titans, enemies we really don't like dealing with due to their high attack power, high defense, high HP, and likely HP regeneration ability. We took our damage and defeated them, only to soon after be forced into another identical battle. After this battle, we noticed that for each victory, two statues disappeared from the room, until all 8 were gone. With all the Granite Titans defeated, the stone slabs disappeared, and we were able to continue on to the throne room.

Theron had to cast StepGuard to keep us from taking damage from the throne room's floor, but we quickly stepped behind the throne and began searching, and found a stairway just as we thought we would.

Can't we just bribe you?

Oh, please. This has always been here.

Each level of the castle was more difficult than the last, with revolving floors and increasingly powerful enemies everywhere to stop our progress. We had to fight our way through the castle many times before we reached the fourth basement level, where we happened upon a battle in progress. It was my father, Ortega, fighting King Hydra! Unfortunately, the battle didn't go well, and King Hydra ran off after Ortega fell. We caught his final words, but had no time to mourn, since we were getting so close to Zoma.

Or we could help him. Just saying.

Dad, NOOOO!!!

But it's me!

Dad could've used this...

This kind of puts a damper on the whole thing, you know?