Chapter Seven
Devona knew they were getting close to the Lieutenant of Grenth's lair… partially because their feline guides had abruptly turned tail… and partially because the first gruesome undead animates had just entered her vision further down the tunnel.
They weren't the animated remains of the cat people like some of the few who could communicate in upper-world tongue claimed, instead they were patchwork golems of likely whatever could be found, so that no one minion looked even remotely similar to another.
The foremost, for example, had one leg nearly a foot larger than the other, so it hobbled forward, slumping to compensate for the drastic length difference. Others had three or more arms; some only had half a head… quite a gruesome wall of undead flesh.
And judging from the incessant, if morbidly slow, progress they were making towards the four adventurers, one could correctly assume talk or any other form of casual negotiation wasn't on their mind… what little mind they had, at any rate.
Devona didn't feel the desire to wait for the undead to make the first move, charging forward, the muscles in her arms tightening in anticipation of her coming strike, a sidelong swipe that crunched the brittle shoulder of the closest bone minion, the momentum from impact following through and crushing another monster between the first and the tunnel wall, forcing the unnatural life from both.
Her attack momentarily left her defenses open, but Aidan had her covered, a smoldering arrow imbedding itself into the chest of a charging attacker, its dried flesh almost spontaneously bursting into flame. It staggered backward in recoil, fingers of fire jumping onto three nearby undead as its combusting kin passed.
The fire might have slowly spread down the line had said line not been completely turned into a billowing bonfire by Cynn's spell, sending jets of flame crashing into the tunnel ceiling, the fiery fingers dancing over their heads as it spread along the tunnel roof.
The stench of burning undead flesh caused Devona to stagger backwards, and that left her ill-prepared for the rush from the next line of undead that forced its way through the smoldering piles that formed in the wall of flames. Two creatures grappled the warrior at the waist, knocking her over, and then three more buried her in a mass of undead flesh.
She screamed in pain as one fanged maw bit into her cheek, warm blood rolling down into her ear, and inciting the pile into an even more frenzied mauling. Claws ripped at her armor, occasionally slipping through the sturdy protection and slicing into her arms and abdomen, while she thrashed violently to shake them off. Apparently more joined in, as the weight on her body drastically increased, momentarily rending Devona helpless against the assault. The stench from her adversaries was not making it easy to breathe, nor could she cough the putrid air from her lungs. Already the creeping blackness of fainting was nibbling at the edges of her vision…
Then as abruptly as the pressure increased, the inverse happened. The swarm was forced away with an unseen, holy hand, allowing Devona to stagger to her hands and knees. A pair of warm hands slipped under her shoulders, and Aidan assisted her to Mhenlo, who had healing prayers at the ready while Cynn held back the charge with repeated flares and balls of fire.
Finally, the warrior could clear her lungs, coughing violently as Mhenlo mended her external injuries. Once completed, she pushed away Aidan, who was trying to keep her seated, and climbed to her feet, just in time to nearly get bumped by a backing-up Cynn.
"These things are endless!" The elementalist growled. "Perhaps once you're done filling the holes in our fearless leader, someone could give me a hand?"
At that moment, one swifter specimen of the undead horde slipped under Cynn's burning barrage, swiping upward and catching the elementalist in the chest. Cynn's eyes bulged then rolled into the back of her head, her lifeless body falling over backwards. In response, Aidan fired two successive arrows that brought the beast down then Devona charged back into the fray as Mhenlo sent entreaties to Dwayna to bring life back to his fallen comrade.
Devona was not going to be taken off guard this time, even as the smell of burning undead was still heavy in the air, slashing through a countless stream of foes with her Rinblade until she gathered up the hammer she had dropped after initially being tackled.
Mhenlo meanwhile sighed in relief as he saw Cynn's chest suddenly burst upward in a deep inhaling breath. While Dwayna had never refused his pleas for aid before, he always harbored a small thread of worry that one day, his gods would spurn him, and those that he cared about would suffer because of it.
Cynn slowly rose; her lips turned downward in a mean scowl. "Took you long enough." She snapped at him, and with a sigh and a teasing smile added, "But I suppose I owe you thanks anyway. Now let's get these freaks, shall we?" The elementalist turned about and wasted no time gathering and releasing her power onto the river of undead still pressing forward.
Mhenlo half-grinned and shook his head. Some things never changed.
Then, for no reason any of the four could immediately discern, the tide of monsters stopped, turned, and fell back as fast as they could manage. The adventures were so baffled by the action that they didn't immediately press their apparent advantage. At best, the battle had been even… a full retreat made no sense to any of them.
Finally, a lone figure emerged from the darkness where the army had retreated, a Flesh Golem similar to the beasts the four had fought on Perdition Rock. It stopped just upon entering their vision, and beckoned with one misshapen hand before slowly turning about, and disappearing into the darkness down the tunnel once more.
"I think it wants us to follow." Aidan remarked, earning him a patronizing eye roll from Cynn.
"You think?" The elementalist drawled.
Devona gestured with a sweeping arm, and said, "Well, let's not keep it waiting then."
It remained just within sight as the tunnel turned downward deeper into the mountains, but whether that was because the golem was moving just slow enough to keep the creeping adventures close enough, or if the four were keeping as safe of distance as they could was anyone's guess.
The torch, that Cynn was now carrying, seemed to illuminate less of their surroundings the further they traveled, even though the flame was not even so much as flickering, and after roughly a mile, the walls of the tunnel began to expand, and the torch abruptly quit.
Before Cynn could attempt to reignite the wood, a circle of dim violet orbs burst to life with unnatural flame; casting their surroundings in an eerie, ghostly light. They were now in a neatly carved chamber, with sharp, well maintained corners and straight flat walls. Said walls were formed from carefully and meticulously measured brick, a stark contrast to the random, haphazard construction of the cat-people, or the random gouges of the caves and tunnels themselves.
Ten large statues made from what appeared to be granite flanked the west and east walls, large traditional semblances of the death god Grenth himself, five to each side. And in front of the south wall, a massive throne of solid stone was inhabited by the behemoth Lieutenant of Grenth himself.
"Stay your arms, Ascendants." The monstrosity said with a deep, yet subdued, gravely voice. "A fight need not occur today, especially since I suspect you have been grossly misled by the Mron."
"I would assume the Mron are the feline people we encountered before coming here?" Mhenlo asked.
"Indeed." Grenth's Lieutenant said. "They no doubt told you how they were oppressed and enslaved by the Sslethi people, who you have come to know as the Forgotten. How the gods chased them into these caves and set me upon them to butcher them to the last… just as they have told all the adventurers who stumbled upon them over the centuries."
"Actually, we found their tale somewhat suspicious." Devona said.
"Then you are smarter than the other would-be-heroes." The great undead lord said with what sounded like a sigh. "When the first races were born from the dust of the world, all the races were meant to balance each other. The Mron, however, sought to subvert that balance."
The Lieutenant of Grenth adjusted himself slightly in his throne, then said, "I won't bore you with the details of the Mron's treachery, but in short, they sought to trick the other races out of the magic gifts they had been bestowed with. In response, the gods stripped the Mron of their own blessings, and cast them into the bowels of these mountains, where I was set upon to keep them in their prison until the chosen time."
"The chosen time?" Aidan asked.
"You must know of the dragon prophet Glint, you would have met her shortly after your ascension if Glint's prophecies are true to form. She had many such prophecies like the one that entwined you, and one of them pertains to the Mron. When the Heir of Storms comes to claim them, then my task will be completed, and I may finally join my brethren in the deep chasms of the Underworld."
"But for thousands of years? Don't you think that's an awfully long time to punish an entire race of beings?" Mhenlo queried.
"I loathe being here nearly as much as they." was the curt rejoinder. "Nonetheless, my duty is clear, and until that duty is completed, I will not disobey the will of my master."
"While that is all well and good, and since you claim there is no need for a fight between us, then perhaps we can be on our way without further distraction?" Devona said, near grumpy. "We have to make all due haste to…"
"The Forgotten Academy. If I remember correctly, that is the name your people have given it in recent eras." Grenth's Lieutenant interrupted. "Of course I know that's what you're looking for. There's no other reason humans would willingly enter these mountains nowadays."
The undead lord raised its left hand, and with a flick of its wrist, a portion of the south wall folded in on itself to reveal yet another tunnel through the mountain above. "This passage will lead you out of the caves. The academy you seek will be four miles to the southeast, just on the edge of the Crystal Desert."
Devona again took the lead, not even extending partings as she strode past. She just wanted to get out of those damned tunnels and back on task as quickly as she could manage.
"One word of warning." The Lieutenant of Grenth said, "You will only find the Forgotten Academy if the people within wish for you to find it."
Devona huffed disdainfully at the undead behemoth's assertion, and never looked back as she escorted her party into the tunnel and towards the exit of the mountains.