Chapter 53
The party ended up in an elevated area overlooking an enormous room or a hall. Six large pillars loomed large, two of them flanking the short set of stairs that led down into a large area that had the other four that were arranged similar to the previous room. A large, patchy symbol that looked like a bush was in the middle of the floor. As they looked down the stairs, Nene looked behind them and was troubled by the statue that overlooked the hall. A large hooded figure with head bowed down with long tendrils of… something coming out of its hood. She couldn't tell if it was locks of hair or a well-groomed beard. However, a loud thud echoed through the hall and the party quickly ducked back into the passage. Then, they peeked around the corner to see what was trudging into the hall.
A large troll lumbered into the hall from the left side of the hall. Its skin was, surprisingly, rotting off with many parts of its body had patches revealing the inner muscle and bone. It sniffed the air for a moment before growling and turning to its left and heading out the other exit. The party waited with bated breath until the troll disappeared into the darkness. They let loose a sigh of relief.
"Okay, so… what now?" asked Nene worriedly, "If that is the thing that was sealed here..."
"It moved rather slowly, so maybe we might have some time to check out the hall," suggested Aloe with a smirk, "There's two doors off to the right side there that needs some checking out."
Thinking that was a good idea, they hurried down the stairs and immediately went straight for the two doors. They checked out the left door first; it was a flat surface with nothing on it. No keyhole. No lock.
"Eh? Is this a magic door like the one on the island?" asked Polka in confusion. Turning to Lamy, she continued to question, "Hey, Lamy. Can do that magic thing you did on the door?"
"I doubt I will have enough time to set up the ritual for this," denied the cleric.
"Then, maybe search where that troll came from?" suggested Botan, "We may still have time and maybe we might find out how to open these doors."
That definitely sounded like a good idea. However, after they turned around and hurried across the hall, the center of the hall suddenly lit up the moment they crossed the strange symbol on the floor. Before they could shout out their surprise, the party vanished.
With a buzz in the air, Polka and Lamy collapsed to the floor. They blinked and looked around as they got to their feet. It was a dimly lit and empty room with a sarcophagus in the corner with a doorway leading to another room. The monk ducked into the other room and was disappointed to find nobody else there. On the other hand, there was another sarcophagus there along with a large wooden chest. Across the doorway was a single torch that dimly lit up the room, lighting up the moment they were teleported into the room
"Well, that was annoying," grumbled the half-snow elf as she looked around.
Noticing the door, she walked over to take a look. Compared to the two doors she looked at earlier, this one had a hole on the left side.
"Hey, what are you looking at?"
She replied, "Polka, I think we need to search the place for a key. I think this is a keyhole."
"Ooh, good idea, Lamy," exclaimed the monk excitedly.
"Indeed."
They fell silent. The third voice came from behind them. Very slowly and very hesitantly, they turned around. A wispy, ethereal-looking humanoid with pale-grey skin and distorted face that sported hideous scars and bright, glowing eyes. Their eyes widened and the ghostly apparition shrieked incoherently at them angrily, its hair spreading out wildly and adding to the horrifying visage.
At first, Polka was shocked but had steeled herself. She had encountered ghosts before and horrific death had bothered her a lot. It still does. However, after her experience in the swamp that time, she was a lot calmer save for the time Anya scared her accidentally. Hence, she held her ground against what she figured out was a banshee.
Lamy was not so lucky. The moment the apparition shrieked, the cleric shrieked as well, bolting away from the door, and cowering in the corner of the room furthest away from the door and from the sarcophagus. The banshee blinked at the outrageous reaction, stunned for the moment. It then proceeded to glare at the monk, who unabashedly slipped into a fighting stance.
"Er... can we talk this out?" she asked right before the banshee wailed with all her might.
With a buzz in the air, Aloe, Botan, and Nene collapsed to the floor. They blinked and looked around as they got to their feet. It was a rather large-ish room with a few sarcophagi and large chests. Two sarcophagi were at opposite corners while the last one was positioned horizontally against the opposing wall to the corners. All there were arranged equally apart from each other like in a triangular position. One chest was between the two corner sarcophagi and directly opposite the third one. The remaining two chests were along the wall nearest to one of the corner sarcophagi. In the empty corners were various pieces of rubble that had fallen from the worn ceiling. Above the central sarcophagi was a single torch that dimly lit up the room, lighting up the moment they were teleported into the room.
"Gah, stupid teleportation circles in the middle of the hall," grumbled the succubus as she dusted herself off. She then went off to look at the other two chests off to the side.
"Hmm, a keyhole?" muttered Nene as she examined the stone door after getting up. There was a hole on its left side.
Botan said nothing but looked around the room. She then approached the central chest and looked it over. It seemed like an ordinary chest though, considering the amount of dust on it, it must be very old. She carefully brushed the dust off to try and find any identifying features. The top part of the chest was revealed to have an emblem similar to the symbol they saw in the middle of the hall earlier. She then touched the lock and it crumbled to pieces, prompting her to sound off in surprise. This brought the other two over to see what was happening.
As they gathered around the chest, the sarcophagi lids began to shift and move. The loud movement tore their attention away from the chest and much to their surprise and horror, three mummies pushed the lids away and were now getting out of the sarcophagi. The attention of the wrapped undead was fully focused on them and their glowing yellow eyes spoke of burning vengeance for disturbed rest.
The wail rang in Polka's ears even though she quickly covered them. It only lasted for a while before she uncovered them. Wasting no time, she quickly landed a few punches before the banshee could react. Her fists glowed an ethereal purple color as her strikes landed true. The ghostly apparition shouted in pain, much to her surprise. It tried grabbing her face but she leaned back and swayed out of the way. When that failed, it ducked into the wall. She blinked in shock before she noticed the same ghost coming out the other side and heading straight for Lamy.
"Oi, ghost! Your fight is here!" she shouted as she rushed in to stop it.
Snapping its head back with a flying knee, she sent several more punches at it. Most of it missed, save one, which struck its head again. After failing to trade blows with her, the banshee floated up to the ceiling.
"I will kill you and drain your life," it snarled angrily.
"Lamy! Come on! You have to get over this!" she urged her friend, ignoring what the ghost said.
"Ignore me, will you-"
The banshee got cut off when an inky spectral fist slammed into her face. A second punch crashed into its body.
"You can just shut up!" Polka retorted, "None of my friends are passing today. I'm making sure of it."
It shrieked in anger and shouted, "You! You! Your trinkets and baubles make you arrogant. What happens when I take them away!?"
It suddenly surged forward and tried pulling her amulet from her neck. Surprised, she grabbed its arms while it struggled to get a hold of Doris' gift. However, it could never hold anything as it suddenly exploded into ghostly mist. Glancing over to the side, she saw a shaky half-snow elf on her feet and hand outstretched towards her. The hand slumped to her side and she let out a breath of relief.
"Are you alright?" asked the monk as the cleric slowly walked over to the sarcophagus and looked inside.
"I… will be fine. We need to find... our friends," she stated in a wavering voice as she reached inside to pick up a long rod with some bumps on it, "Alright… we try this one."
The both of them hurried over to the door, with Polka helping Lamy to get there, and pushed the rod inside the keyhole, bump first. Twisting it a little triggered a click and the door shifted a little. Slowly pushing it outward, they peeked outside. They caught sight of the rotting troll walking out of the passage and heading to where it came from. It seems they were in the hall from before. The doors were actually the ones they were examining earlier.
"Any idea where they are?" whispered the fennec girl worriedly.
"I have no clue… but I have a risky idea," replied the half-snow elf, "Both of us step into the circle. Seeing that we got sent here, they might be in another room."
"Risky is right," muttered the former, "Alright. Let's try."
"I really hope I am right about this," mumbled the latter as they ran out of the room and jumped into the circle.
Polka found herself in the room again. Her eyebrow twitched in annoyance.
"What the-"
"Interlopers..."
A dagger landed and embedded into its chest. Arrows flew and missed due to sudden fear. All this did not deter the mummies as they got out of their sarcophagi and rushed them down. Nene was frightened but she quashed it down and sharpened her focus. Ducking under the mummy's fist, she stepped through the mist and reappeared next to the central sarcophagus with a word. She brandished her lute and started singing. At first, it was an uplifting song, the magic in the song bolstering and steeling the nerves of her friends against the fearful undead. After a few lines, she swapped songs to sing about debilitating her enemies.
However, in spite of this, the wrapped undead seemed to be winning. A few lucky blows almost did Botan in, even after she roared and transformed. The ceiling wasn't high enough for Aloe to fly and attack from range, and one of her wounds started glowing an eerie green.
"Watch out behind you!" she called out.
The lion girl roared out her thanks as she dodged out of the way. The lore bard then prepared her voice. Playing a note, she sang a single note, rising in crescendo. An earth-shattering explosion of sound erupted, blasting the two mummies attacking the archer.
"Be relieved," chanted Aloe, a green glow washing over the archer, as she swiped the chest of a mummy.
"We can do this!" roared Botan as she swiped the mummy in front of her as well.
"Watch out!"
The first punch missed. The second from the other mummy hit true. Nene shouted in horror as the lion girl crumpled to the floor. She let off another sound explosion and ripped the two mummies to pieces. Suddenly, Lamy appeared in the room. Almost immediately, she knelt down next to the archer and started healing her. The succubus assisted with her own healing and brought her back thanks to her help. Growling, the archer got to her feet while picking up her magic bow. Taking aim, she filled the mummy's head with arrows, causing it to keel over as the magic animating it got disrupted.
"Oh, my goddess. I beseech you, grant this boon to your servant," the cleric chanted as she extended her arms to the side, palms facing up with her eyes closed, "Lend us your aid and healing to your most beautiful protectors."
Healing washed over the lion girl and the succubus, bringing some relief to the former but some minor wincing from the latter.
"What's wrong?" asked the half-snow elf while Nene went and checked over Botan.
She hissed and motioned to her side, where the wound was still glowing that sickly-green color, "I do feel better, but this seems to flare up when I get healed."
After taking a closer look, she narrowed her eyes and stated seriously, "This is… mummy rot. Hold still, I think I can remove this." She then placed her hand over the wound and chanted, "My goddess, hear the pleadings of your servant and remove this curse of pain and suffering."
Her hand gained a soothing, white gleam and the green glow slowly receded until it disappeared.
Aloe let out a sigh of relief and said, "Thanks, Lamy."
"And we found the key… I think," spoke up Nene as she pulled a bumpy rod similar to what was found by the cleric earlier.
"Huh, some nice stuff in here," announced Botan as she opened the chest with the broken lock.
"Perhaps we should leave them there," stated the half-snow elf, "I think they are the reason the mummies got up in the first place."
"There's some stories on how these kinds of things are cursed too," quipped the lore bard as she opened the door and pushed it outwards.
"Okay, no. Once is enough," declared Aloe as she headed to the open door, both her and the lion girl swearing off touching those things.
Outside, they walked down a short flight of stairs down into a long passage. To their left, they could see the hall where the teleportation circle was. To the right, a short way before rounding a corner. As they discussed what to do, Polka ran down the passage and after a few seconds, rejoined them.
"Move! We have to move! That troll is heading back here!" she whispered as loudly as she could as she reached them.
The party then ran down the right path and turned the corner. They followed the way and around another corner, coming across a chest and another stone door. The door, the same as the others, had no keyhole on their side.
"What are we going to do?" asked Nene as she grabbed her head in despair, "If there's no way to get through the door, we're trapped."
"Guh, there has to be some secret way of opening this," muttered Lamy as she ran her hands over the stone door and the doorway, hoping to find some hidden switch.
"Rah… Hmm, nothing in here," Botan told the others after kicking off the lock on the chest and opening it.
"Shh! Keep it down," hushed Polka worriedly, "Any louder and it'll hear us."
Aloe, keeping silent for that moment, finally had enough and aimed her crystal at the door, "Lamy, move. I'll use that spell to explode the doors."
"What? No, stop," protested the cleric as she grabbed the succubus' crystal, "If you blow it up, then there is no way of stopping it from following us. Just help me find the secret, and we can get in and close the door behind us."
"Look, we can just blow up the door and once we are inside, we can blow up the doorway and collapse it. Easy," she hissed back, trying to convince the half-snow elf over to her side.
"Makes sense," quipped the lion girl in agreement.
"What?"
"I'll help," added the lore bard.
"But-"
"Whatever is happening, make it happen now," warned the fennec fox girl, quickly leaving the corner, "It's coming."
"Ah, screw this. I'm-"
Before the succubus could finish, the stone door suddenly opened outwards. Eerie green light shone out from the interior and a voice said, "I rather if you do not-"
Immediately, everyone ran inside. Once that was done, Botan immediately slammed the door shut with all her might, crashing with a boom and a faint click.
"How annoying."
They looked to the owner of the voice, who had gotten out of their way. He wore a rich blue cape and flowing green robes, though now partially tattered, seemed to have resisted the ages much better than expected. Gold bracelets on his wrists and a golden circlet on his head with the very front of it in the shape of a cobra. Girded to his side was a scimitar, its pommel a cobra biting down on a precious gemstone. An emerald, it looks like. The man himself was wrapped up in cloth and bandages with green glowing orbs in place of eyes.
AN: Hello again, readers. Welcome back.
The place was kind of large. The troll roaming around didn't help. And, Unfortunate for them, the doors of the hall seem to be... faceless. It doesn't help that the party was suddenly split by a strange circle. In one room are Lamy and Polka. In another are Botan, Aloe, and Nene. As we have seen in many of their 'horror game dates', Lamy scares easily but recovers quickly with the 'husband' around. She does not have the luxury right now. So, it falls to Polka, which honestly went pretty well for her. On the other hand, the other three did not fare too well with the mummies. It took some creative thinking by our shaken cleric to reunite the party.
Successfully leaving the room, they hear the troll coming back. Running down the other way, they reach a dead end as well as a door. As they made hurried discussions on what to do, the door opens.
Next chapter, we get to know about the mysterious stranger and the identity of what was supposed to be imprisoned here. Thank you for reading and have a good day, dear readers.