[CHQ] Dawn of the Dead

[Alaina]

Celica:

 

As the girl started to wander down the darker path, she would be met with a downward staircase as well. Going down it, it would become clear to her why the path was darker then the rest. It wasn't as though there were less veins then the other paths, but rather they seemed to have been covered up. Small patches of some kind of shadow-like substance placed over the veins at seemingly random intervals, though with increasing frequency the closer the blue haired girl got to the end of the path. Touching the shadows would reveal that they were much colder to the touch then the rest of the surrounding area. At the end of the path, would be a room not discimilar to the one that Kasayee and Vincent had been in. A simple box like area with even larger patches of shadows covering all of the veins around it. The main difference, however, would be plaque affixed a pillar in the center of the room, with four coffins surrounding it. 

 

The plaque read, "Oh Hero of Ruin, disaster incarnate, guide my troubled hands." Looking around, the coffins would each have their own specific symbol on them, representing different tarot cards. One was emblazoned with The Devil, one Death, one The Tower, and one Strength. If she tried to, Celica would be able to, with some effort, shove a lid off a coffin if she so chose. While taking her time to make the decision, the shadows atop the ceiling started to gather together and slowly form a small mound of shadow.  

 

Kasayee:

 

As she jumped through the well, a more than confusing feeling would take over as the girl passed the shadows. Being spat out towards the ground, the confusion would come from her exit point being a wall, despite having jumped down a hole. After getting over that and looking around the room, she would notice that the place felt colder then the room she was just in. While the veins were still present on the ground, in equal density to the room prior, the ceiling seemed to tell a different story. Black shadows seemed to line the ceiling, and upon Kasayee's arrival, the shadows started to converge nearby an already present mound and begin to coalesce. 

 

In the center of this room stood a small column, with a plaque on it that read, "and though shadows stalked my life, I found refuge in ruin." Around Kasayee would see that the three other walls seemed to have some kind of core to them, a point where all the veins met up and pulsed the strongest. One wall seemed to mirror the floor, another seemed to have broken links across the veins on a wall that seemed more weathered and one that seemed to have smaller and thinner strands across it on a wall that seemed to be nearly black. 

 

Vincent:

 

Vincent was still outside in that box of a room. With a hole. After that lizard girl ditched him. Rude. But yeah. Still there. Just, being Vincent. Looking at magic stuff. Yeah. 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Kasayee stumbled as she fell into the room at an angle she hadn't been expecting. She went down. Yet came out going forward. This place even defied the nature of gravity...The more she went through this place the less comfortable she became. Not quite irritable but it certainly wasn't a place she wanted to be.

 

And there was no signs of any restless spirits. Despite the nature of a tomb. She hadn't even seen a single undead, unless that creature was one, so she still had no idea how this linked to the zombie problem. Or if it even did. But she was here now so there wasn't much to be done.

 

There was no sign of the creature from before. Either it got even better at hiding, or it went somewhere else instead, or it got swallowed up in those shadows that were trying to be sneaky up on the ceiling. The first was doubtful, Kasayee at least had that much confidence in herself. The second, given the lack of exits as far as she could tell, seemed unlikely. Yet the third also felt wrong.

 

Without many options she went to examine the plaque. "and though shadows stalked my life, I found refuge in ruin."

 

It seemed to be part of a longer story. Perhaps down one of the other paths? She didn't really concern herself much about that, though, as it didn't seem relevant to her objective. The first part likely referred to the shadows above her, which were continuing to gather, but the second?

 

The column seemed to sturdy to ruin, so she doubted that was the key, so she looked around the room once more.

 

Her eyes fell upon the weathered wall. If anything was to be ruined it would be that. Why she was so fixated on ruin she wasn't sure. It just felt right. An instinctive gut feeling. And what else was there to do now but listen to her gut?

 

She crossed the floor and ran her hand down the wall until she reached its core. As she did the red of the veins began to shift around her hand. She noticed that the wall seemed softer here than anywhere else. And so she did the only logical thing. She pushed.

 

Her hand slipped through the wall as though it were clay and found what felt like a rigid knob on the other side. Curious she grasped it. Turning, pushing, it wasn't until she began to pull that she felt it move. As it did, though, there was resistance. As though it was attached to something that was pulling back at her.

 

Undeterred, Kasayee stuck her other hand in to see if she could feel what it was attached to, to no avail.

 

With a shrug she just grabbed onto the knob with both hands and pulled. Pulled. Pulled...As she kept going the walls began to crack until suddenly they crumbled entirely. Hopping back a bit to avoid any debris she took note of the doorway in front of her. Covered in a now familiar shadowy substance.

 

This reminded her to look up at the shadows above her. The one that looked to be gathering shadows now had formed a hand of some sort. One that was stretching forwards. Though only about half a foot.

Out of curiosity Kasayee tossed the knob at the hand. The shadows parted slightly and the knob passed through them. They seemed undeterred by her actions.

 

Deciding that this was not the place for her, Kasayee went through the doorway.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"Hm, fascinating."

Under her lantern's tiny light illuminating her way, Celica kept going on her way while scribbling notes about what she found on the path she was going. The veins were apparently seemingly as abundant as the other paths, but something cold and shadowy was covering them. She considered to try burning or collapsing it, but a site like this would be too precious to just destroy or damage in any way.

 

After a while, she reached the main complex. Four coffins on a box-shaped room greeted her. A cryptic note, and four tarot cards adorned the area. She wrote them all down in her notes, before coming to one of the coffins. The first one she chose was the one with Tower emblazoned on it. She looked around for a while to see that nobody and nothing was following her, and then she placed her hand on the lid, shifting it aside with a light motion. The lid soon crumbled as she did so, like old age had eaten it up, returning it to dust.

 

"I wonder, where are the others? Hopefully they're the one to find the secret about the undeads. I think I would be here for a while..."

 

---

[Alaina]

Celica

 

As Celica opened upon the Tower coffin, she would be greeted with the sight of a shadowy doorway, similar to the one she saw at the entrance of the Mausoleum, with red veins seemingly coming out of it as well. Furthermore, the other coffins around her crumbled as she did, leaving only a singular pathway before her. If she were to look up, the shadowed clump would have formed a hand reaching downward, though it was barely off the wall. Once walking through the shadowed path, Celica was then met with a new room.

 

In spite of going downward, she too was ejected from a doorway affixed to one of the walls, likely being a disorienting experience. The floor was as shadowed as the one that she had just come from, with the ceiling following suit. Above Celica, she would see a mound of shadow with a hand reaching out, as she had before, that was curiously at the same length as the one in the room she had been in prior. Moving around the room was creatures that appeared oddly humanoid in shape. They paid no mind to the girl who there, merely moving around. There four of the creatures, one with two white lights across its face, one with one, one with none and that was simply missing a head. There was a plaque in the center, quite like the last room, that read

 

"Shattered Window

Darkened Pane 

I close the soul's 

Only lane. 

 

The path will open

When struck with pain 

Of mortal coil 

Freed from its chains." 

 

Kasayee

 

As Kasayee stepped through the shadowed doorway, surprisingly this did not come with some sort of shift in orientation. Instead, she in an area that seemed different from the ones she had in prior. The core difference being the sheer size of the room, being roughly 3 times in size of the room prior. The most striking difference of the room was that there were shambling corpses inside of it. They were strange creatures, some seeming to be covered in the same red particles as the veins on the ground, and the others that had a shadow aura about them. The one with red aura seemed to be more feral looking in nature, still whole in form though with slight rot and decay over them. The shadowed ones seemed to be mostly broken in form with chunks of flesh missing, though held together completely and entirely by some kind of thick shadowy material. There were seven of each. The creatures did not seem to notice Kasayee, and in fact, did not seem to know at all where they were even going, merely groaning and nearly bumping into each other many times.

 

Were she to look up, she'd see that the ceiling, while similarly large as the room, had the same strange shadowy cover over it as the room prior did, with a shadowy hand stretching out from it. Curiously, the hand seemed to be at the same length as it was when she was in the room prior. Closer to the door, and on a stone pylon, was yet another plaque. "Yet no matter the ruin I bring, a hero I won't be. A curse that stalks me still, one that cannot break. Yet still, I will find salvation in the ruins of the hell I create." 

 

Vincent

 

Man can you believe that lizard girl. So rude. Like actually just leaving you there. By yourself. But hey, it's probably not so bad. Hey was that a fly that just buzzed in your face? Just kidding, there's no flies here. It's a very good place to eat sweets in. No rats either. What a a great home.  

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

So this is where the zombies were. She had been surprised to not see any of them up until this point. Though there was only fourteen and...they were very different from those up above. Though they were equally aimless in their shambling. It made it easy for Kasayee to step forward and examine the plaque.

 

More words about whoever was entombed here. It did not seem like a happy story in the slightest. Perhaps this place was made to contain this...curse. Though it seemed to not be doing a good job at that anymore.

 

Looking around the room it was clear there wasn't any obvious differences like in the previous. The walls were just walls with the strange veins. The ceiling had the sneaky shadow hand still. Perhaps it was in every room. Or perhaps it was following her.

Either way it looked like there wasn't something obvious for her to go for this time.

 

So she looked towards the undead. Perhaps if she cleared them out something would change. But where to start?

She'd gotten this far by following the veins so perhaps the red ones would be the correct choice?
But then again the shadow ones might be the least natural to this place. It could be the cause of the curse...

Though, thinking of the undead from above, they seemed to be fairly in tact. There was logic to the thought that these fresher zombies were newer. Something caused by a recent development.

 

Walking up to one of the red zombies, noticing it still didn't react, she grabbed onto its arm. It reacted them, pausing, due to being held, and let out a growl. Kasayee put force into her tugging and tore the zombie's arm right off. It tried to swipe at her, faster than expected, but not as fast as the creature from before.

She ducked under its arm and grabbed onto that one too before ripping it off, disarming the zombie in all senses of the word.

 

The creature proceeded to try and hunch over to bite Kasayee so she grabbed its face and began to examine its body again. It seemed to have no eyes whatsoever, which could explain its earlier actions, and the red veins looked to be centered around the chest.

She transformed her hand into a claw and slashed across the chest, watching as the veins shuttered and the creature made a gasping noise. Curious she thrust her claw into the chest and ripped backwards, intending to pull the veins out.

 

A chunk of zombie flesh came out and the red vanished from the creatures body before it fell to the ground.

 

The room began to stir in that moment and the zombies turned to her direction and began rushing her.

She let out a sigh. Kasayee had hoped it would be a simple matter of going from one to another and yet now it seemed she would have to work a bit for it.

 

Kasayee shrugged. Extermination time.

As it looked like all of the zombies were moving at her she decided to see how the shadow ones reacted next. Charging one of them, she was lunged at by a pair of zombies on her way there.

 

She pushed one to the side and knocked the other back with a shoulder slam, and continued towards her target. It swung at her, with arms that stretched past what they should be able to, and she had to duck to the side. She brought her claw up to slice through the shadowy substance that looked to allow the arms to stretch. Her claws cut through easily, and she could feel the unnaturally cold coming from it, and the arm flopped to the ground. Only for the shadow to reach out to grab at the arm again.

 

Before it could do so she thrust her claw into this one's chest, as that's where the shadows converged, much like the veins, and tore a chunk out. This caused the zombie to fall as well. However the shadow surged upward instead of vanishing and combined with the shadows there, making the hand grow.

 

So it would be good to leave those for last. Noted.

 

She turned in time for the red zombie that she had pushed aside to come at her and she transformed her other hand to thrust into this zombie's chest as well, dropping it. The other zombies had gotten close to her by now so she transformed into bird form and took the the skies, leading the zombies in the other direction for a while before doubling back and swiftly moving towards the back end of the horde.

 

She transformed back just in time to bring her feet down into one of the red zombie's shoulders, driving it to the ground and stumbling off of it. Her stumble allowed it to grab onto her legs in an attempt to drag itself towards its mouth. She twisted her body to thrust her arm into the thing's chest, killing it the same way as the other.

 

However there was something that changed. The shadow-covered zombie she had slain before had recovered its shadows and got back up, without any more injury than it had since before Kasayee attacked it.

 

Well that just meant she would avoid killing them for now. She only had four more of the red veined ones to go.
Unfortunately the nearest one who was going after her was one with shadows. It attacked her right as she finished off the other and, as she was crouched, she couldn't easily avoid it. She then decided to go forward to avoid the actual claw part of its hand and ended up getting an arm slammed onto her shoulder.

 

She winced as she was struck. They were stronger than average that's for sure. Being this close she couldn't exactly to ignore the creature but she didn't want to kill it and add to the ceiling shadow. So she slashed her claw across one of its legs to bring it down temporarily and dove towards a nearby red one.

 

She backhanded the creature's hand as it clawed at her and thrust her own claw into its chest.

 

Three left.

Kasayee backed up a bit, crouching low, observing the scene. Her breathing was getting heavier as she had exerted herself more than she wanted. There were many still here but they didn't seem all too dangerous.

She really wanted to take a nap. She missed her tree.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

Magni, Sovereign of Ruin. One of the legendary knights from Fraxinus' legends, whose exploits had been recorded in numerous tales and retellings. He and eleven other were the pride of the kingdom in its past glory days, serving underneath a legendary king whose exploits paved the way for the survival and flourishing of humans in Arbolia in the chaotic early centuries following the Cataclysm.

 

Yet, despite there being so many tales written about the king, something was still missing. The king's name had disappeared in the mists of history. An anomaly to be sure, especially with how popular the knights serving underneath him had been throughout the centuries. Magni, whose tomb Celica was currently exploring. Sigrdifa the Victorious, the half-elven knight who led the final war against the Wraith King's and drove off his army from Melia once and for all. Remiel the Lord of Thunder, who successfully led the expedition to complete the first general map of Arbolia, facing untold amount of adversity along the way. And who could forget Gristra the Lord of Light, slayer of dragons? Each of the twelve Ashen Knights had books and books of stories centering around them, fact and fiction both. Even the king himself had a lot of tales centering around him.

 

Yet, his name was erased from history. Celica was convinced that it was a deliberate effort, and it had been one of her motivations to research more about the Ashen Knights and their mysterious king. It wasn't her only reasoning and definitely not the most definitive one, but it had been her original drive since she was young.

 

And that was why she's here. That was a part of why she resurrected Cherry Heart.

 

In this darkened room that Celica had fallen into, she noticed the same shadowed arm as the one she saw moments before she entered the passage beyond the coffin. Around her were shadows too, with varying interesting features that set them apart from each other. A plaque was on the center of the room, another riddle for her to solve apparently. Celica took a while to ponder about its meaning, and after a while of considering, she went towards the headless one.

 

Taking a deep breath beforehand, she slashed the creature without any hesitations. Riddles would be nice, but she had not much time for it right now. If she guessed wrong, if she triggered a trap...

 

That would be fine. The others weren't here right now, so it would all be fine.

 

---

[Alaina]

Celica

 

As Celica slashed the headless shadow, the creature started to convulse and write a bit. Soon, its body burst into an explosion of shadow. As the shadow passed through Celica, she would feel an unnatural cold momentarily take her, and the shadows would float their way up to the ceiling. As it merged with the shadows on the ceiling, the shadow hand started to twitch, until the arm grew two more feet off the ceiling. The ceiling was 18 feet tall, and the hand was now extending four feet off of it. After this happened, the other shadows stopped staying still, and started to move towards the girl with the blade, trying to reach out with their shadowed hands.

 

Vincent

 

Yep, it is quite roomy in this room. Also quite boxy. It was at this point that a sound could be heard, the sound of a baseball hitting a catcher's glove dead on. Yes, this was indeed the sound of a strike. Of course, this sound didn't actually exist, so Vincent didn't actually hear anything like that. But it's fun to think he did. 

 

???

 

One. There was only one form that had traveled through here. There were two. They would travel together. Or at least, it believed they would. Yet there was only one. And that one had become none. A second never appeared. It waited. And waited. Yet no other sound came. It was confused, yet it would not stay in wait for the second one to arrive. It let go. Its feet hit the ground below. There was a crash earlier. That was where the first had vanished to. It would follow. And it would hunt. Slowly but surely, it prowled towards the doorway.

 

[spoiler=OOC]

Aiight, as it has been over two weeks since Hollow has posted, he is granted with one strike. At three he will be ejected from the quest. From this point on, I will be posting without waiting for Hollow, and strikes will accrue every two host posts or one host post within a week or more time frame. 

 

Cow you can keep killing zombies, but after two more kills, you'll be greeted with a familiar guest. 

 

 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Undead sure were tenacious. Kasayee had just tossed aside another chunk of zombie chest after the nearest zombie rushed her. They were unnatural creations but the most disturbing part about them was how they never seemed to rest. That was an unthinkable thing to the young Druid.

 

She had two more of the red zombies left. What she'd do once those were dead and only the shadow zombies were left was something she didn't think much about. She'd figure that out when it happened and not before. Thinking too far ahead was inviting complacency and would leave her instincts dull.

 

The last two red zombies were at the back of the pack so she had to transform into bird form once again. However as she made it part way to the other wall her attempt to draw them over there was interrupted as one of the shadow zombies lashed out and slammed its hand down on her bird body. She transformed before hitting the ground to lessen the blow but, landing on all fours, the impact still stung.

 

The zombie grabbed at her with the other hand as well and rushed towards her, ready to bite into her exposed flesh.

 

She was forced to thrust her claw through the undead's chest. She hadn't wanted to kill another one of them, knowing what effect it had, but this was an emergency.

 

As she stood she noticed the other two red zombies were also nearby. But something else took her attention as well. "I guess the shadow really did eat it." She thought to herself as the creature from before skulked out of the room that she had left from. Well, he would just have to wait.

 

She kept her attention on the creature enough to tell where it was moving. It would be problematic if she lost track of it again.

 

This didn't stop her from tearing the jaw off of the red zombie that tried to bite her face while she was looking at the creature. Nor did it stop her from tearing its chest out.

 

Just one left.

And seven seemingly indestructible zombies, an ever-present shadow hand, and some sneaky tomb crawler.

Maybe she should rethink this "guild" thing.

[Hälō]

"... Oh. f***. W-What the hell was that about?!" Vincent suddenly snapped back to attention. What made him space out like that? Inspecting the area around him, he took note of the strange magic particles still drifting about and sighed. Maybe they were starting to have an effect on him?

 

Shaking off the feeling that he had just been sleeping for weeks, Vincent leaped into the hole in the center of the room. He still had a job to do...

 

Stumbling into the same room Kasayee had, the boy did not bother inspecting the writing or even take notice of the hand of shadow coming from the roof. It seemed the tiny druid was nice enough to leave her green particles around like little bread crumbs, and he was tracking her like a bloodhound. 

 

Finally finding himself in the larger tomb, Vincent quickly formed an arrow. After watching the druid dispatch one of the similar color, Vincent sent his shot flying through the skull of the second red zombie that was approaching her before lowering his bow and taking another step into the room. 

 

"Yo,"

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"So the shadows from here extended the length of the arm above. Should I destroy the ceiling?

 

No...definitely not. This is a sacred place, I can't desecrate it just like that."

 

Celica found herself being surrounded by the three remaining shadows. Perhaps she had picked the wrong target to remove, but at this time she wasn't really in the mood to solve anything. She slathered her blade with something from her bag, and then using her lantern, she ignited it, causing it to go ablaze just as the shadows started their offensive. The cold earlier didn't really bother her, and perhaps the soul of the dead would appreciate having something to warm them up.

 

"Well. Here goes."

 

Taking a deep breath, she then launched a quick triple thrust to one of the shadow, before rapidly moving aside to avoid the reaching arms and slashed another vertically. The fire served as a good way to make a distance between her and them and allowed her to always see her surrounding well enough. For the one she hadn't attacked yet, she simply swung her blade towards it, and some of the flames were launched straight at the shadow as the oil in it were thrown, hopefully burning it.

 

---

[Alaina]

Kasayee and Vincent:

 

As the creature entered the room, it seemed to suddenly be unsure of what to focus on. With eight shapes in the room, all clustered towards each other, it was having a hard time discerning what was what. And so, it let out a howl. As it did, the zombies seemed to turn around, their attention focusing on it instead of Kasayee. With that, it was able to discern where the lizard girl was, getting ready to charge its way through the zombies, when another sound was able to be heard from behind it. A familiar noise that always happened prior to it being struck, it understood who it was behind it. The creature turned around, bounding at the boy, and attempting to dig its claws into his abdomen. 

 

The zombie that was shot by Vincent was suddenly hit in the head by an arrow. The nearly fell off the body, ripping at the neck and dangling there. The zombie was able to still move around and keep itself standing, though unlike the others that seemed to be charging at the creature and Vincent, this one seemed to have no idea where anything was and was simply moving around randomly flailing its arms about.

 

Celcia:

 

As the girl struck with her flaming sword at the shadows, they hadn't managed to grab onto her before each and every one of them being destroyed. When the one with the two white lights and the one with one light in its head were killed, the same thing that had happened when she had killed the first shadow happened. A burst of shadows flowed through the girl and then drifted into the ceiling, twice. Celica would feel strangely chilly and more tired then the effort she had expended thus far would warrant. The hand would convulse again, before growing a total of four more feet, extending eight feet off the ceiling. As the one with no lights was killed, it exploded into wisps of shadow, dissipating without causing any fatigue to Celica or extending the shadowed  arm. Instead, the wall opposite of the one Celica had come from crumbled, revealing another shadowed doorway. 

 

Were she to go through the door, she would be met with a room that was far different than all the others anyone had encountered thus far. The room seemed to be wider and longer than the others. While it was was still stoned, the ground looked more as though there was patches of dirt and grass peeking through the worn stone floor and the overall quality of the stone in the room seemed far more weathered than anywhere else in the Mausoleum. The red veins were still in this room, much larger than the ones that Celica would have seen prior to now. However, in spite of this, their brightness was still diluted through the plethora of shadows. The ceiling still had shadows entirely covering it, with the shadowed hand she had seen prior extending 8 and a half feet off of the ceiling. Curiously, there were five other mounds of shadow at the top of the room, though only four of them seemed to start gathering and growing. 

 

Around the walls, Celica would be able to see five other doorways, similar to the one that she had walked through, though they would not be shadowed and instead a simple stone wall. The room itself was bare, save for a few objects towards the center. A singular stone coffin, simple in design, though with a crest depicting a tower collapsing emblazoned on the side. The coffin itself was covered in the red veins, as everything else was, yet it seemed as though one could clearly track the flow of energy out from the coffin. While the stone was clearly gray, it was difficult to make out as the box was nearly entirely covered in shadow. Near the coffin was a small stone column, not much higher then the coffin itself, with a plaque on it. The plaque read: 

 

"Though even a hero as great as he was only human. And no human could hope to match their curse. No human could hope to break free from fates reigns. And so I will take the mantle of his fate. With his title, I will bring decay. With his name, I will bring ruin. And in ruin, I will find freedom. Here lies Magni, the Sovereign of Ruin." 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Ah. There he was. Humans were really slow, weren't they? Kasayee watched as the zombie in front of her wandered around in circles with its head dangling. Well that made it easy for her.

 

The creature from before, and the rest of the zombies, the shadow ones, were going for the human. If they weren't hunting her she didn't have to deal with them. Not like killing those zombies did anything anyway.

 

She thrust her claw into the chest of the zombie in front of her. Once the last red zombie fell the wall opposite the doorway she entered crumbled, revealing yet another shadowed door. Well. There was nothing for her here. The objective wasn't here and she didn't need to waste energy killing that thing. If her companion couldn't handle this then nature had deemed him too weak.

 

Right before entering the doorway, however, she did call out to him. "Don't kill the undead covered in shadows." After all that thing had followed her this far it seemed. It getting even bigger would be less than pleasant later on.

 

She emerged into a wide and long room. The room caused Kasayee to smile very slightly as she noticed nature was attempting to reclaim even this place. Nature always found a way. There was a coffin in the middle which seemed clearly to be important by how the veins surrounded it. On the ceiling was a familiar hand. Only extra long. And there were five...wait. She glanced at the mound that wasn't moving. It didn't look like another one of those creatures that she had encountered twice already but she wouldn't keep her attention away from it for too long at a time. Just in case.

 

She noticed the girl she had come here with on the other side of the room. Well. That was convenient.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"I see. The true part of the mausoleum. It was truly nice to see with my own two eyes."

 

Inside of the primary mausoleum room, Celica took a moment to take note and observe the area in glee. Humming a tune to herself, she observed the shadows above her and the coffin, and the veins that were connected to it. There's a plaque too, clearly an epitaph for the knight that rested here. After a while, seeing that no one else was around, Celica knelt before the coffin, the decorated sword being held before her. She took a deep breath for a moment, and started speaking in a clear and focused voice.

 

"Pardon me for borrowing your sword, Knight of Ruin. Although you no longer could hear my voice, this humble servant of yours shall see the glory of your king be restored.

I swore upon myself, Celica Elirea Solais and this sword Laevateinn, that I shall fulfill that promise."

 

Getting up after satisfying herself with her oath, Celica let her sword to unleash its glow for the time being. The crimson glow complemented the red veins on the tomb  nicely, or so she had the impression of so far. Using the light of the sword to look around the area in a clearer state, she decided to visit the epitaph and see what kind of message were written there.

 

"Though even a hero as great as he was only human. And no human could hope to match their curse. No human could hope to break free from fates reigns. And so I will take the mantle of his fate. With his title, I will bring decay. With his name, I will bring ruin. And in ruin, I will find freedom. Here lies Magni, the Sovereign of Ruin."

 

And so, Celica stopped in her tracks. She never heard about someone succeeding the Lord of Ruin and taking his name. That was never mentioned anywhere. That was an anomaly if she could say so. She couldn't really see how aged the writing was, but thinking about it, there was no way the incident in the village, that she admittedly didn't put much thought about so far, would be caused by anything that was directly connected with Magni and his powers. She turned to light the veins near the coffin, and noticed some sort of flowing energy coming out of the coffin throughout the veins.

 

This was not an epitaph. This was a declaration.

 

Of course, Celica was angry. Someone had desecrated the tomb of one of the legendary knights. And took his name and mantle, using it for their own purpose. Just as Kasayee would enter the room, the lizard druid would be able to see Celica activating her sword and turning the top of the coffin into dust as she desperately pursued some sense about the situation.

 

---

[Hälō]

BGM

"Great." Vincent grunted in annoyance whilst forming a current of red magic particles under his feet, and ridding it backwards into the air just as the creature's claws sliced at his chest, leaving a new cut. Ignoring the stinging sensation, the boy quickly formed a piercing arrow fired it off towards his attacker.

Watching as the creature attempted to swat the arrow away with it's hand, Vincent smirked as it's screech filled the room upon having a large hole torn through it's palm.

"Don't kill the undead covered in shadows." The druid girl called out, causing him to glance behind the creature just in time to see her vanish through another doorway, leaving him alone with the beast and the horde of zombies...

"You're kidding, right?!" Vince barked after the girl, only to have his attention stolen by a sudden movement from the creature in the center of the room. Watching as the beast brutally impaled one of the nearby zombies, Vincent quickly dove to the side as the shambling corps was sent flying at him with a savage overhand throw.

"b****..." He growled a final curse for the druid, as the zombie's body hit the ground next to him and began looking around as if it were very confused. "Oh well... guess that means we get to spend some quality time, big guy!" The boy sneered back at the clawed creature as it began running towards him.

Kicking the zombie to the side, Vincent waited for the creature to lunge whilst quickly moving his hands across his bow's neck, changing it's shape and bringing it's end to a wicked point. When the two met, Vincent grunted with effort whilst thrusting his newly formed spear towards his opponents face.

The exchange was swift, and left the creature tumbling across the ground with a fresh wound across it's other hand. Though it was nearly as bad as the hole left from the drill shot, Vincent figured it was fine payback for the scratches it left on his chest earlier.

Despite the injury, the creature quickly brought itself back up to it's feet. Though it appeared to be ready to continue the battle it instead seemed to freeze up for a moment before suddenly shifting it's attention to the doorway that the lizard b**** had bailed through.

Before Vincent could react, the creature rushed towards the doorway, vanishing through the shadows and leaving Vincent alone with the rest of the zombies. "Go get her, tiger..." Vincent sighed before relaxing his stance. Though his hunter instincts urged him to follow after his prey, he turned his attention to the remanning zombies, recalling the lizard b****'s warning about the ones covered in shadow.

Replaying the image of the head rolling off the one he had shot upon entering the room, Vincent slowly approached the zombie that had been thrown at him. Arching an eyebrow, he quickly thrusted his spear through it's eye socket and lifted it's head off it's body with a quick maneuver.

The zombie seemed almost completely unaffected by this. Though without a head it could no long tell where it was going and was no longer a threat as it stumbled around blindly. Smirking, Vincent looked around at the remaining five zombies as they slowly made their way towards him.

.....

.......

..........

A few moments later, Vincent stood whistling at the entrance of the shadow door that led to the next room. On his shoulder rested his spear, ornamented with six zombie heads, who's owners were now shambling around the room even more aimlessly than before.

"Welp, time to see what's behind door number two..." Vincent spoke to the heads on his spear as he traversed the doorway of darkness in pursuit the druid and the creature.

[Alaina]

As Celica's sword struck the coffin, the lid of it was turned to ash. And though Celica may have been expecting to see a body within, there was no such thing. The coffin had remained empty, save for a black spike planted into the coffin, glowing with veins of the red magical energy. As the lid was broken, a large column of shadows shot itself upward from the coffin, knocking Celica backward. As the column subsided, strands of shadow seemed to move up from the spike and coalesce into a humanoid figure. The figure seemed to lack legs, instead it's lower half just turning into a ghost-like tail that connected itself to the spike. Its figure did not seem to have any bulk to it and it looked as though it were wearing some kind of robe. While it had wisps coming off of its head, as if to denote the presence of hair, the most striking feature was the singular glowing red sphere the center-left side of its face. The phantom-like creature floated, its attention turning to Celica. 

 

Before the girl could react, one of the phantom's arms shot forward, striking the girl in the chest. The hand seemed to go through her body, and Celica would feel as though a hand was clutching her heart. The arm then detached itself from the phantom, all of the shadows flowing at and into Celica. The blue-headed woman would then feel unnaturally cold, as if ice was just dumped over her, and she would soon find it impossible to have the energy to stand. And so, collapsing to the ground, the girl fell unconscious, lying in front of the coffin. The situation for Kasayee seemed to only worsen as the creature from the room prior had just entered. Seeming to prowl around a bit, the creature merely seemed to wait for the lizard girl to make her move first before it moved. Meanwhile, the phantom started to drift more in the direction of the druid. 

 

This would be the scene that Vincent would walk in on. As he moved in though, both the creature and the phantom paused for a bit. The creature then began to charge at the druid, while the phantom turned its attention to Vincent. As it floated towards the hunter, it raised its remaining arm and suddenly, the arm extended straight towards him. Meanwhile, the creature would simply swipe at Kasayee with its much less wounded hand when it was in range. 

 

All the while ceiling hands continued to grow. The largest one was currently 8 and a half feet off the ceiling. Four more seemed to just start growing, merely being half a foot off the ceiling. The inert one, however, sprung to life, coming four and a half feet off the ceiling as Vincent entered the room. Once again, the ceiling was 18 feet tall. 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Kasayee watched as the girl destroyed the coffin lid with ease. She was strong it seemed. Stronger than she had appeared before. This was...well she didn't really care actually. As the druid stepped forward she noticed the shadows surge from the coffin. Destroying the lid may have been...unwise.

 

The creature was unusual. It seemed almost like a spirit but it most certainly was not. And it was fast. Dropping the other girl in a mere moment. Kasayee felt something in that moment. Something from the coffin...a spiritual energy. The first since she had come here. It was like a beacon to the girl.

 

Though there was a pair of problems in her way. One was the creature who had come into the room just now. Did the other one die? That was fast. The second was the phantom itself which was drifting her way. She wasn't sure how to fight it though the glowing red was certainly a target. She did however know how to fight the creature from before.

 

Ah so he wasn't dead. She noticed Vincent coming in not long after the creature. Perhaps the creature just did not think him to be tasty enough to kill. Whatever the case the phantom was heading for him now. At least she didn't need to deal with it unless the human failed like the other one.

 

On top of all that the hands were growing on the ceiling. She had to work quickly and now she had a charging creature coming for her.

As it swiped at her she ducked under the swing and, hands transforming into claws, slashed at the creature's leg, intending to main it and slow its movement considerably.

Her claw made purchase into the creature's flesh but as it did the creature used its other claw to attempt to stab her tail.

 

Thankfully she could move her tail somewhat. At least enough to make it moving target. She turned and, with a slight snarl, moved to bite the creature's wrist. The bite seemed to do the trick and the creature pulled away.

Hm. The taste reminded her of a corpse. A rotten one. It was also ashy and cold. Seems she would not be using this thing to feed herself.

The creature lunged forward to bite her instead and Kasayee, expecting such a reaction, thrust her first up into the thing's jaw. It didn't stun it as much as she hoped and the creature then tried to kick her.

 

The druid transformed into her bird form and flew back. She didn't actually want to fight this thing right now. She had a goal in mind. That coffin. Something was there. Something that she instinctively felt she had to speak with.

[Hälō]

BGM

 

Aw, so they had saved him a seat in the s*** show after all. Having already been ready for a fight, Vincent quickly dived out of the way of the spectral hand, causing it to phase through the ground a few feet behind where he was standing.

 

With a flick of his spear, he sent the zombie heads tumbling on to the ground whilst doing his best to get a map of the magic particles in the room. It was difficult. Those nauseating red and black magic particles where extremely dense here, pluming out from the coffin and filling entire room in a manner that had begun to become disorienting for the boy as he started to move around the edge of the room to analyze is foe.

 

Though before he could investigate further, the phantom hand shot from the ground and raced towards him yet again. Grunting with effort Vincent quickly thrusted his spear into a nearby wall, boosting himself up into the air mere moments before the hand would have ran him through.

 

He landed on his hands and knees. After wincing in pain from the wounds on his chest, Vincent eyes narrowed as an idea struck. Whistling towards the beast that had engaged the druid, Vincent broke into a full sprint towards the monster as he watched the disembodied hand phase through another wall. 

 

The plan was simple. He just had t-

 

"f***." The boy spat in annoyance as he watched the shadow hand reel itself back towards the main body instead of pursuing him. Shifting towards the druid seconds after reconnecting with the phantom, the hand then proceeded to shoot towards the druid as she flew backwards away from her own opponent, who had had chosen to ignore Vincent's whistle in favor of sprinting towards it's prey in an attempt to sandwich her between two attacks .

 

"I don't think so..." 

 

Whipping both hands in a circular motion, Vincent channeled a mass of the red and black particles into a mighty current. Ignoring the sickening cold sensation of the vile particles gave him, the boy skillfully rode the current at high speed, snatching up the bird just before the ghost hand could close itself around her and out-speeding the creature's charge.

 

"Whatever's causing all this is coming from that coffin..." He addressed the druid whilst bringing himself to a sliding halt. Releasing her from his grip, Vincent wasted time in forming a glowing red bow and taking up a ready stance. He was panting, having been left slightly winded from the combination of his injuries and the energy spent in that last trick. "We don't need to be friends, but unless you're interested in dying here, we need to work together."   

[Alaina]

Boss Music

 

As the bird had been moved away from the attack of the monsters, the shadowed hand struck the creature instead of anything else. The creature continued its leap, not deterred in the slightest by this and closed the distance between it and the coffin. As it landed, the hand of the phantom continued to stay in the creature, and soon the shadowed arm started to reel itself into the body of the creature. However, unlike what happened with Celica, this time, the entirety of the phantom seemed to be pulled towards where it was located. As it did, the creature let out a howl ,as the shadows were completely absorbed into its body. Red pulsating veins covered its body, as a cloak of shadows draped around it. A single red light on the center-left side of its face formed, and parts of its body seemed to dissipate in the blackness of the shadows. The now shadowed creature back-pedaled, looking straight towards where Vincent and Kasayee were, roaring, as if challenging the two of them. 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

The druid wasn't all too happy about being grabbed suddenly.

"Whatever's causing all this is coming from that coffin..."

 

As soon as he let her go she transformed back into her normal form, hair mussed up from the rough handling the man gave her, and gave him a blank stare.

"We don't need to be friends, but unless you're interested in dying here, we need to work together." 

 

"That is why I was going to the coffin." She said. She already knew that was the goal. She likely knew better than he did what was so important about the coffin. Glancing over at the creature she watched as it began to..fuse together. A very unnerving sight to be sure, and something that simply should not be, but the worst part was that it had placed itself between them and the coffin.

 

She sighed. "I suppose we have to kill it first." Her tone was annoyed as she turned and went in its direction. "I don't know how to work together." She stated plainly. "If you wish to work together you'll have to do it yourself."

 

With that she walked straight towards the creature, gaze locked onto the red light on its face. A literal beacon this time. Her instincts were screaming at her that it was where she would strike if she got the opportunity.

 

It looked about ready to pounce, though it didn't move from its spot, and Kasayee kept up her determined walk. She was getting quite close to the creature now, about halfway, when it suddenly charged.

 

It brought a claw back, intending to swipe at her, and Kasayee dove forward before transforming into her lizard form, to scurry underneath its legs. The creature lunged past but its hand remained in its previous position. It struck the ground and began dragging itself towards her, the arm stretching more than should be possible.

Kasayee realized she wouldn't be able to go forward any longer without running into the hand and so she doubled back, turning into her bird form and flying at the back of the creature's head.

 

The creature dug its feet into the ground and stopped its forward momentum, before suddenly slingshotting, using its arm, back towards the coffin.

 

Kasayee transformed back to her normal form, feeling somewhat worn out from all the transforming she had been doing, and grabbed for the thing as it flew towards her. One hand grabbing onto its left shoulder and the other onto the back of its head.

 

As the creature landed back on its feet and she made contact she could feel a cold sensation in her gut, as well as becoming even more fatigued, which must have happened due to touching this...thing. Oddly the shadowy aura seemed to lessen after her actions.

Nonetheless she kept her grip. If she could get a chance to attack the strange glow from this position she'd take it.
As long as she didn't go numb or pass out first.

[Hälō]

"I suppose we have to kill it first." Vincent rolled his eyes as the druid simply began to stroll towards their new opposition without formulating a plan with him.  "I don't know how to work together." She in an annoyingly plain tone. "If you wish to work together you'll have to do it yourself."

 

"Alright, I'll just try not to shoot you then." He called after her whilst gathering the magic particles the lizard girl dispersed each time she transformed. "Maybe." In an instant, a single  explosive arrow formed in his hands and hummed with energy just as the words left his lips.

 

Expertly watching the short scuffle between the two creatures, Vincent saw his opening when the girl leap onto the larger beast's back. Intent seizing the opportunity, he quickly sent his arrow sailing towards the creature's feet. Smirking with a hunters satisfaction, Vincent watched a bright red explosion blossomed from the point of impact, causing a large amount flesh to be blown off the shadow monster's left leg.

 

"Tsk," 

 

However his satisfaction was short lived. Though the creature was sent stumbling backwards by his attack, Vincent noticed with minor annoyance that a layer of shadow had already began manifesting to cover the new wound.

 

Well at least he got it's attention...

 

Extending it's right arm to insane lengths, the shadow creature reached out towards Vincent whilst also bringing it's left hand up as if it intended to grab at the druid that clung to it's back.  

 

Anticipating such an attack, Vincent was quick to roll to his right. Tumbling to his feet with a gasp of air, the young hunter started to sprint across the permitter of the room, being sure to move to the opposite side of the extended arm. As he dashed, he brought his free hand down towards his bow and began gathering particles for the next exchange. 

 

 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Kasayee frowned at Vincent's attack. Did he not notice the glowing face? Did he not realize that the shadows regenerated? Surely Humans had better instincts than that, right?
 
At least the man was good at dodging.
 
Kasayee managed to keep a hold of the creature, though now it was trying to grab her face. Well if it came too close she would bite its hand but before that...
The druid went to claw at the creature's face herself, aiming for the glowing spot.

Her claw managed to pierce the creature's flesh and it was clear it must have done something as the thing continued its screaming. Though it didn't stop its previous movements as Kasayee would have hoped for.
Once its hand got near she bit down upon it, tasting the disgusting flavor from before, and she felt it grip her face.
 
It began to pull and Kasayee dug her claw into its face and bit down even harder. Still undeterred the creature tore her off of it. Literally tore as bits of its flesh came off with her as she was thrown to the ground. The shadows tried to wrap around the creature's hand wound, but there was shadows spilling out of the head wound like a plume of smoke, and the red light seemed to be a bit scattered, but ultimately they reformed into a single light, albeit a bit obscured by the shadows from the wound.

 

Kasayee looked up and believed her instincts were true. Just like the undead from before. She must destroy the light.

As it attacked her again, with her wounded claw, Kasayee charged forward to dodge and transformed into her lizard form. It brought both arms, including the one chasing Vincent, towards her in an attempt to stop the girl but she managed to slip by. Her goal to get underneath the thing and, depending what happens from here, either make another break for the coffin or transform into her full sized form while right underneath the thing.

[Hälō]

"Scatter Shot!" Letting his arrow fly moments before druid would meet the creature, Vincent watched with satisfaction as his attack split in mid-flight. Separating into a countless rain of bolts, the attack rained down on the creature with surprising force, causing it to stumble to the side, and allowing the lizard to slip past and continue towards the coffin. 

 

Smirking with satisfaction Vincent changed directions so that he was now sprinting towards the coffin as well. Though having been on the perimeter of the battle, this only served to make it so that the creature would now have projectiles coming from the direction it would need to proceed if it wanted to keep chasing after the druid. 

 

"Let's hope she knows what she's doing..." The boy mumbled to himself as he forged his next arrow. 

 

With it's focused now divided between the two intruders, the creature brought one of it's claws up and shot it off towards Vincent whilst charging towards the tiny druid with it's free hand raised. It was moving noticeably slower now, presumably from it's wounds...

 

Seeing the danger coming his way, Vincent brought his bow up towards the rapidly extending claw. Though he found himself hesitating.

 

"..."

 

The boy's gaze flickered to the druid. Though he hated to admit it, her getting to the coffin seemed like their best chance at ending whatever bad mojo that was at work in this place.

 

Suddenly he knew exactly what he to do...

 

"D-Damn it..." Groaning at the prospect of getting clawed for the third time today, Vincent shifted his bow slightly and took a knee before squinting to line up his shot. "This working together by myself s*** really blows!" Was his battle cry as he sent his arrow sailing across the room instead of using it to defend himself. 

 

A bright red explosion lit up the area as Vincent's explosive arrow found it's mark in the arm the creature had extended towards the druid, ripping it from the main body and causing the thing's claws to tumble to the ground. Luckily this caused the arm extending towards Vincent to recoil moments before rending the boy's face, leaving him sighing with relief.

 

Whilst the shadows began to try to reconnect the severed arm, the creature continued to move. Though now even slower than before.  

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Kasayee didn't even pay attention as the creature attacked, and as the other one stopped the attack. She was aware it happened but as it didn't cause her any harm she didn't bother worrying about it farther. Instead she took to bird form in order to reach the coffin faster, not being able to reach more then six feet in height due to the shadow hands that were getting ever nearer.

 

The druid transformed right at the far edge of the coffin and glanced inside.

 

She took a deep breath, steadying herself, and sensed for the presence she felt earlier. What she heard was an amalgamation of multiple voices calling out. "Why are you here?" Kasayee said to them.

 

The black spike in the coffin, with the veins connected, seemed to be the only thing in the coffin. And the pained voices that answered Kasayee didn't give her any indication of what to do.

 

So she grabbed the spike. It was solid. And extremely cold. Wincing a bit she started to pull on the object. There was a resistance, but, it reminded her of the wall from earlier. So she figured if she managed to pull that out...

 

Kasayee got into the coffin, steadying herself, for leverage and grabbed onto the spike with both hands. Straining her body she began to pull with more strength than before.

 

The spike slowly, very slowly, began to pull upwards. She grit her teeth and kept pulling, sweat brimming on her brow, as the resistance was almost too much for the small girl. However she had enough strength to keep it up and it was nearly pulled free....

 

And then the creature appeared once more, roaring in her face and raising a claw to strike her. She knew if she let go she might not be able to pull the spike up more and so she kept her grip. Kasayee hissed back defiantly as the creature went to attack.

 

And got an arrow to the face for its trouble. It jerked away and gave her time to finish pulling the spike free.

[Alaina]

As Kasayee freed the spike from the coffin, it was clear that the red veins had been attached to it. However, no longer in its resting place, they pulled back only to eventually snap off themselves. As the creature got back up, seeming desperate to stop the lizard girl, the shadowed tether that connected the creature and the spike seemed to vanish. As it did, the shadowed aura around the body of the beast vanished. The single red light started to spasm, flickering and moving around every which direction, the shadow that had mended the wounds of the creature started to vanish, leaving nothing to hold the body together. Missing an arm, a leg and part of its face, the creature slumped down onto the ground as the red light vanished and the creature exploded into a plume of dark smoke. 

 

The shadowed hands that had been reaching down as well started to spasm, slowly reeling back into the ceiling that they came from. Each and everyone had returned to a small cluster, and those clusters merely vanished as the shadows across the ceiling dissipated, revealing the bare, black ceiling above. The red veins started to flicker, varying in brightness and intensity, before they started to explode into bursts of red light. While probably not the most pleasant to look at directly, it did no harm to the people as the whole room started to explode into red light. The walls and ceiling started to shift, though, sounding as though they were on the verge of collapse as the whole room began to rumble. There was no exit for the people inside, as any of the shadowed doors were merely solid wall now. However, as the room continued to break apart, shadows would begin flooding from the cracks, slowly but quickly speeding up in haste. They chilled to the touch but were otherwise harmless. As the room had been entirely filled with shadow, the vision of all inside the room was obscured. However, when they next opened their eyes after feeling a strange sense of displacement, they would find themselves in a very similar room. 

 

Nearly identical in design, the trio would find themselves inside the mausoleum. The walls and floor were very much still aged with patches of dirt and grass breaking through the floor, though they were a dull gray instead of the black that they had seen prior. The room was far smaller than it had been before, not cramped for the trio but not with much room to move around as it the walking space was dominated by the sole coffin in the room. None of the walls had doors on them, bar the one that was the entrance from the outside, and there was no signs of veins or shadows around. While Vincent would be able to see traces of red light in the room, they seemed to be merely lingering there but slowly dissipating as well. The coffin still had a plaque on it, but this one was much simpler in design and said something entirely different. 

 

"Here lies Magni, Sovereign of Ruin.

While most are broken by curses, he was forged by his. 

Though ruin was his fate, salvation was his life. 

Shattering the dangers of old to forge the lives of the new 

For this, we offer our thanks."

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"Uh..."

 

Celica's head hurted quite a bit when she finally was able to open her eyes. Her sword was still on her grips, though it seemed that a battle had just erupted in this room, with both Vincent and Kasayee ended up dealing with it cleanly. Though, soon everything became dark as shadows enveloped the area, and the next thing Celica knew, she found herself back at the mausoleum room. Almost exactly like the previous one, but it was clear that a significant amount of changes were there. For one, it was quite a lot smaller, and it felt less like a labyrinth and more like an actual mausoleum now. And another that caught her interest immediately was the change in plaque. It became simpler, and even from a glance, the text had changed. Trying her best to shake off the dizzy feeling from being knocked out earlier, Celica dragged herself towards the plaque so she could see what really was written on it after all.

 

"Here lies Magni, Sovereign of Ruin.

While most are broken by curses, he was forged by his. 

Though ruin was his fate, salvation was his life. 

Shattering the dangers of old to forge the lives of the new 

For this, we offer our thanks."

 

"Ah...that is more like it."

 

Seeing what was written on it now, Celica became sure that this really was the proper mausoleum now rather than whatever it was before. Though, she would also realize that what just happened made it clear that someone was trying to tamper with the mausoleum, and even worse, they used Magni's name to do it. Turning around to see her two guildmembers, she wondered where Selena went, but first of all, she had to address the ones that were here right now.

 

"Thank you for dealing with whatever happened here, and pardon me for not being much of use. I'm not sure whether we really had dealt with the undead issues of this town fully, but from what I saw earlier, someone really was trying to do something with this tomb.

 

What did you guys fight earlier, anyway?"

 

---