Hey guys! Sorry about the delay in updating this. Stuff came up, and I was working in some other DnD stories which will be featured later, but I finally shut everything else down and forced myself to finish this chapter. So without further ado, I present Chapter 10.

Chapter 10: The Blood of the Dead

"Barry, are you sure they were here?" Nexa questioned.

"Yes, I'm sure. This is where my tracking spell puts them," Barry replied.

"Well tracking isn't your major so I wouldn't put too much faith in it," Nexa said cooly.

"Hey! Rude!" Barry cried indignantly.

"Stop being mean to each other," Ea looked back at her arguing teammates. "It's not going to get us anywhere." She said.

Nexa crossed her arms, "So what do you suggest we do?" she asked, her eyes drifting to the rundown tavern that Barry's spell had led them to. There was a big hole in the side of the tavern and inside, the walls had scorch marks.

"Youch," Barry commented as he looked at the burn marks. "Must have been a fire here."

Acheron! Ea thought, even if it was a bit of a stretch. Lots of wizards, and monsters, used fire magic. Plus, fires could start from other causes too (though it was unlikely since most fire monsters were major pyromaniacs and arsonists).

"We'll just ask some questions," Ea said. She walked up to a man exiting the tavern, "Excuse me, sir, can you tell me what happened here?"

"A fire," the man replied.

"We can see that. We want to know what caused the fire," snapped Nexa.

"There were three wizards, plus Dusk Jillian Luzon and Jackolopieous Entreri."

"Luzon and Entreri?" Barry asked. "As in the King and Queen of Crime?"

"Yes, them two," the man replied. "Those five fought off a helhound and a helmed horror before running off."

He was here! Ea thought.

"Where did they go?" Nexa asked.

The man shrugged. "Beats me." Before walking off.

"Well Acheron and the others were here, which means my tracking spell worked," Barry said.

Nexa sighed. "But we still don't know where they are."

Ea looked over at a newspaper stand and saw several familiar faces. She pointed at it, "Hey, look at that."

Barry gave a coin to the newsboy and opened the paper. Immediately, the headline caught their attention.

Mage Uses Criminals From Scarlet Prison to Help Close Gates of Helheim

Following the headline was a line of mugshots, labeled with the names and brief description of the criminals they featured: Levi Grace, Harleia Tormentor, Kao Lian, Romero Falone, Torque Feng, Ara Naïlo, Astryd Warpiker.

"Well, who's the mage?" Nexa asked.

Barry tapped another picture. The familiar smirking face of their red haired, copper eyed half elf classmate stared back at them.

Acheron Blackfire.

"So we're finally going to the Midgard Gate," Dusk said, tossing one of her knives up into the air and catching it by the handle.

"Yep," Acheron said. "Ugh, why do mountains have to have so much snow?" he complained, lifted his robes up so the ends (which were already damp with melted snow) wouldn't drag through the snow.

Miri forged ahead. The ice and snow didn't bother her, in fact, it just made her stronger.

"So does anyone actually know how to close the gates?" Levi asked.

"Yes, I have the spell," Aroconus snapped at him.

Levi arched an eyebrow, "Oh, do you?"

"I'm not stupid. I wouldn't let you guys go in without a way to solve the problem we're trying to solve," Aroconus said.

"How nice it is to know you care," Levi said sarcastically.

"Oh, I just meant them," Aroconus motioned to Miri, Acheron, Irene, Krista, and even Lian. "I could care less about what happened to the rest of you."

Levi snorted. "Ass."

"Says the murderer."

"Why, you little-!"

"Shut up, you guys," Miri snapped.

Amazingly, they shut up. Miri just figured neither of them wanted another incident. For the next few minutes, they climbed in complete silence. Not even Acheron was speaking. And then they reached the end of the path.

"Why with the big rocks?" Acheron whispered, walking forward. He climbed on top of the two bottom rocks to see above the others. "Whoa." he breathed.

"What is it?" Miri asked as she climbed up next to him to see what was going on.

There was a rather large plateau, at the end of which a massive portal, bigger than any portal Miri had ever seen before, swirled ominously. She could feel the cold aura of death radiating from it.

"And there's the death knight," Aroconus had joined them. He pointed to a dark figure pacing in front of the portal. It was humanoid enough, dressed fully in fine white armor, similar to the set of armor Ara Naïlo had on. A long cape flowed behind it. But when she looked closer, she saw that its hands were barely covered with rotten flesh.

Definitely dead.

The death knight suddenly stopped walking.

Beside her, Acheron tensed, "What's it doing?"

The death knight turned its head farther than a normal human should have been able to, looking in their general direction. Its face was hidden by its helmet, but instead of eyes, it had two pinpoints of orange light. They sent shivers down the ice sorceress's spine.

"It senses us," Levi said darkly. The three mages jumped; they hadn't even heard him come up next to them. He ignored their surprise and drew his blades, "The fight begins."

He leaped over the blades in one smooth jump and silently charged at the death knight.

The death knight dodged, the plates of its armor clunking against each other. He pointed one palm at the open portal, and a flash of light momentarily blinded them all. When it faded, a bunch of rotting corpses stumbled out of the portal. There must have been dozens of them.

Miri cringed at the sight of their mangled bodies, "What… What type of zombies are those?"

"They appear to be simple walkers," Aroconus said. "But since they're from Helheim, there's no telling what else they can do. Don't let them touch you."

"Avoid their hands, got it," Levi said, jumping back from a swiping zombie.

"Yeah, yeah," Harleia said, waving them off.

"Magic users need to come with me to close the portal," said Aroconus. "The rest of you, kill those zombies and the death knight!"

"But they're already dead!" Ara smirked, though Miri suspected she was just trying to annoy Aroconus.

"You know what I mean," snapped Aroconus. "Let's go!"

Jackolopieous watched Aroconus lead Acheron, Miri and Harleia over to the portal. Levi drove the death knight out of their path and Irene and Krista fended off zombies that tried to go for the magic users.

He caught Dusk's eye and she smirked, tossing one of her knives into the air and catching it. "Ready to kill some zombies?"

"Yep," Jackolopieous said.

A zombie tried to swipe at him and he jumped in the air, sailing over the monster in a wide arc, executing a flip as he did so. He turned and tried to swipe at the zombie, but he'd misjudged the zombie's position and ended up missing entirely.

Nearby, he heard Ara snicker, "Good shot, assassin!"

"Shut up," Jackolopieous grit his teeth and swiped again, this time landing a hit and slashing through the zombie's abdomen. As the monster groaned in pain, Dusk jumped down from behind and decapitated it in one clean cut.

She landed gracefully and rolled to one side on her back, her legs in the air and successfully kicking two zombies in the face. Jackolopieous lunged in their direction and skewered both of them from the side with his sword.

Dusk sprang in the air and spun, her blades cutting into several zombies that had jumped up as well. Jackolopieous slid under a zombie between its legs and cut it in half.

Dusk landed like a cat, her right half covered in zombie blood. She looked over her shoulder at Ara and smiled crookedly, "How's that for a good shot, Nailo?"

Ara growled before slashing at several zombies with her sword.

Dusk snickered before she looked around. Jackolopieous did so to. A circle of zombies had surrounded them.

"Well," Jackolopieous declared, raising his sword, "Some things just can't be helped."

He and Dusk charged at the zombies, blades whistling.

It was literally a bloodbath. The red liquid sprayed everywhere, dowsing Jackolopieous and Dusk until they looked like they'd been showering in the stuff. The circle of zombies had turned out to be bigger than Jackolopieous had anticipated, and they just kept coming. And he kept killing them. He slashed with his swords until all the zombies that had thought they could take him and Dusk were lying on the ground, so mangled they almost made him feel sorry for doing it.

Levi leaped at the death knight, but the undead creature lifted his sword and blocked him. However, Levi sent his second sword to the knight unprotected side and plunged it in between the cracks of its armor as hard as he could.

The death knight screamed in pain, blood leaking out from in between the edges of the armor. When Levi pulled his blade out, it was slick with blood. The knight let out a gurgling noise that might have been a growl and slashed at Levi with his sword. Levi sidestepped to avoid the blade before spin-attacking the knight, managing to loosen the knight's armor a bit by subtly severing some straps.

The death knight then saw the magic users going towards the portal and letting out a shriek of outrage. It turned towards them and started stumbling in their direction.

Levi cursed under his breath before growling and hefting his swords. With a few graceful strides, he was close enough to swing his sword and completely slice the straps of the monster's breastplate. The chest armor fell away, leaving its entire torso vulnerable. Levi wasted no time in stabbing it.

Finally, he was getting somewhere.

So that's all I've got for you guys tonight. What'd you think?