Necromaster
Chapter 5- Epilogue
"Marco. Marco, are you still alive?" Heckapoo's voice rang out, her voice muffled by the stone. "Marco… aren't you supposed to say Pola or whatever you told me?"
"H-poo. H-poo, I'm here." Marco hollered, doing his best to knock on the lid of the tomb.
"Marco? Marco, I told you not to call- Wait, you're in there? Wow." Heckapoo answered, her voice closer than before, her tone more than a little surprised. "Awww, you got me a stud in a box. I'm touched."
"Funny, H-poo. Funny." Marco forced himself to laugh, the stench of the zombie king starting to get to him. "A-any chance you could get me outta here? I… I'm kinda stuck."
"Honestly Marco, going out to the club. Even just a nice dinner. Date night doesn't have to be balls to the wall nutso." Heckapoo joked, clearly tapping her fist on the stone covering of the tomb. "Tell you what, next time we just jump over the death canyons on our dragoncycles. How does that sound?"
"Hek, seriously. I got about a minute of air left in here… Please?" Marco pleaded, it was about as uncomfortable for him as being squished in that stone box. Before he knew it, a small knife the size of his finger pierced the stone slab not two inches from his face, the enchanted locks holding it in place doing nothing to stop it. Like a crowbar, the small knife cracked open a corner of the stone allowing air to funnel into the tomb. Marco took a deep a breath as he could in relief. "Oh, thank god."
"Goddess, actually." Peaking out the opening best he could, Marco could see Heckapoo shrug as she casually grabbed hold of a rock the size of his dragoncycle sitting on the stone slab and tossed it to the side as if it was just another brick. "Semantics, whatever."
"Sorry, Hek, I…gah." Marco grunted as he tried prying off the stone slab himself, again with all four of his limbs. Unlike before the slab wasn't already half closed and he didn't have the threat of impending doom to motivate him so it proved a bit harder than before. Still peaking out the opening, Marco tried to keep his mouth from falling open as he saw Heckapoo grab hold of the slab and with the strength of just one of her fingers flicked it off of him like it was a dinner plate. "I-I always forget how strong you are, damn."
"Meh, divinity has its perks." Heckapoo smiled at Marco as she sat next to him on its ledge. Marco himself sat up and enjoyed a good deep breath then exhaling before leaning over and kissing the queen of the crossroads. "Someone's glad to be alive, or is it just because you get to add another thing to that list of yours. Skeletal slammer. Zombie smasher. Wait, I got it. Divine dead guy dasher?"
"Uh, necro-slayer." Marco smiled, stepping out of the tomb and onto the alter.
"What was that you said about 'standard'?" Heckapoo shook her head playfully. "For shame."
"With badass titles you don't wanna make'em too complicated." Marco gave a quiet chuckle. "Patron saint of good times gone bad."
"Glossaryc knows why, I actually don't know how I got that title?" Heckapoo rolled her one visible eye. Marco folded his arms at her. The maid of mischief opened her mouth to speak but decided to just shrug instead.
That was when they both heard the sound of stumbled shambling coming from the temples entrance. Looking over, Marco could see that just like the expected large stones and debris littered the temple grand hall. The relatively few zombies there were inside when it caved in were flattened into necro-pancakes. As for the necromaster himself, there was no sign in all the rubble. The new zombies were pouring in, stumbling and climbing over their fallen cohorts and right at the only two living souls in the temple.
Marco was tired. No shame in admitting that after four rounds of combat and a cave-in, but one last fight had to be fought. The necro-slayer pulled out his sword.
"No, no. I got this." Heckapoo said, putting her hand on his chest and gently pressing him back as she stepped toward the legion of undead. "You just sit back and relax."
And like that it was decided. As Marco sat back on the tomb that saved his life, he saw Heckapoo divide herself into around two dozen or so clones of herself. Not unlike the demonic priests that Marco fought earlier, every last one of the Heckapoo's pulled out a pair of scissors, and in the exact same way broke them apart and held the pieces at the ready like daggers. Then, they charged.
Looking at it like he was sitting in an arena, Marco couldn't help but think it was a little unfair. For the zombies. In mere minutes, the small army of Heckapoo's cleared out the cemetery and as he would learn later, the greater graveyard outside the walls. Turning any surviving zombies that managed to stumble into her into mulch. As she did, Marco looked to his side and discovered that the zombie king's body some how did survive the temple's collapse and was still sitting pretty in the dirt. Noticing he still had the black ichor on his blade, Marco pulled at the fancy robe on the skeleton and used that to clean his sword. Amazingly it did the trick.
"Hey, Mar-Mar." Heckapoo said walking back into the temple, her eye playfully narrowed at Marco as she emphasized the last bit. The necro-slayer didn't know how, but he could tell that it was the real, original, whatever her. "Thanks for luring that idiot out in the open. He wouldn't have come out if he knew I was here."
"A bit forced." Marco shrugged as he put his sword away. "And you're welcome. How long was he hiding form you?"
"Uhhh, I don't even know anymore. A long time."
Heckapoo shrugged herself as she looked around at what remained of the temple's grand hall, eventually stopping at where the necromaster had stood before the collapse. Marco watched, again trying not to let it show how impressed he was when with the same casualness as she saved him, Heckapoo grabbed hold of the large rocks dotting the spot and tossed away them like they were made of paper not stone. Soon enough, Heckapoo found her prize. What was left of the glowing necromancer was just as battered and smashed as one might expect. Strangely enough the skull of the zombie king was perfectly fine, it was even still jabbering as Heckapoo ripped off the still green arm of the necromaster and grabbed the skull.
"Finally."
Heckapoo sighed in cold satisfaction, staring down at the zombie king's skull, which actually stopped moving. Narrowing his gaze, Marco had to admit, he'd never thought a skull could look terrified before. With about as much care as taking a cookie out of a jar, Heckapoo slid the crown off the skull before tossing the thing like it was yesterday's garbage at a wall. The skull burst to pieces on contact.
"Sooo, that's what he was after?" Marco tilted his head at Heckapoo, her gaze firmly at the emerald sitting center in the crown. "Besides the graveyard, I mean."
Heckapoo's eye snapped over to Marco, not unlike the necromaster when the dragon slayer insulted him, though instead of a snarl he received a sneaky little smirk. Marco felt a little pang in his gut at that, he tried not to let it show, though he did raise an eyebrow at the maid of mischief as she raised the crown at him. An emerald was entombed dead center in the front. Sitting there, Marco could see Heckapoo gathering her power and focusing it into the crown. The dragoncycle rider gripped his sword.
Before Marco knew it… Look, Heckapoo is called the queen of the crossroads for a reason. She's able to cut holes in thin air, or water, or even nothing at all and it creates a path. A path that can take her anywhere. The now necro-slayer, with permission, had used it more than once. As anyone who'd seen it happened will tell you, what was happening now didn't look anything like it.
A ball of green lightning appeared in front of Marco before bolts the same electricity shot out into three arms which then connected themselves to each other, turning what was once just empty air into a triangle of emerald lightning. A portal. A path to another point in space, time, or dimensions. Hell even all thee above. Marco didn't try looking directly at it, peak through its threshold to see where it led. His eyes were already starting to hurt, and he wasn't even looking straight at it. Instead, Marco peeked around it to Heckapoo, who's smirk had twisted to a rage filled snarl, her gaze fixed on the jewel before she gripped it with her other hand… and crushed it. Crushed a solid crystal of magical power into powder like it was a clay cup. The portal vanished not a moment later.
"Finally." Heckapoo breathed, dropping the now bent ring that was once a crown. Landing atop a pile of jade dust in a clang on the ground. "You have no idea how much trouble that thing caused me back in the day."
"He said he spent all this time building an army." Marco said, looking up from the crown. "Should we be worried."
"Meh." Heckapoo shrugged, rolling her eye. "Their king's dead. The top stooges will kill each other just for the chance to be in charge. I give the so-called empire of 'stuff not alive', a week or so before it crumbles."
"Well, you would know." Marco said, hopping off the stone coffin and walking over to the crown before picking it up and tossing it back where it belonged. In the tomb. Though now it was just a twisted ring of gold with no power.
Turning back around Marco couldn't help but notice how… out of place everything was. The baddies he had to take down. Not the enemies themselves. That wasn't the strange part. Now that the walls had come down, Marco turned his gaze toward the mausoleums in the courtyard, the statues, then the rows of tombstones. Each one was different. Different strengths. Different power. Different species. All of which had the scars of battle carved into them, with signs pointing they got'em before they died. All of which was capped off with how the place they were laid to rest in was a site of burial. Of morning. Common cause. All of which were buried with both their weapons andwhat looked like uniforms. It hit Marco like a steel fist to the face.
This was a military graveyard.
"Ya know," Marco turned toward Heckapoo… who was just standing there looking at him. Not in the playful way like before, but like how one might look at a rat that just made it through a maze. "All the stuff here. Where it is. I can only guess the story of this place."
"It does have a story." Heckapoo said, as if she just stated the color of the sky while she walked up next to him. The queen of the crossroads looked about the place herself, though her face gave nothing away. Not even disinterest. After what felt like a moment too long, Marco opened his mouth to talk but Heckapoo beat him to it. "Its a remnant of a war from long ago. A bad memory for those that still know about it. Its why necro-whatsit wanted it so bad. Perfect recruitment source."
"Creepy as it gets right there."
"Which is why we're leaving." Heckapoo waved a hand, dismissing both Marco and their conversation as she walked past him to the nearest hole in the wall. Which just happened to be the actual exit before the doors were blown off.
Shrugging as he fallowed right behind her, but Marco stopped himself when he saw the familiar green glow. Looking down at a certain pile of rubble, the necro-slayer kneeled down next to the necromaster. His body wasn't just broken, but pulverized. As his meaty bits were still green, his bones still made themselves visible... or rather the snapped twigs and broken glass that were once his bones were still visible. Because that's what they looked like. Some of which even managed to break the jade skin and snap out to the surface, which showed they really were just as black and charred as advertised. Not so strangely, there was no blood to be found. If it had been anyone else there should've been a splatter. As for his skull... it was somewhere between a rolled up tube of toothpaste and a smashed pumpkin. Marco shook his head at that as he stood up. Bad way to go. But it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. The necro-slayer sighed as he walked over the body and out of the temple.
The both of them stopped about half way down the stairs. Heckapoo crossed her arms as her visible eye started darting around before landing on the trails of smoke a fair bit outside the graveyard, not far from where the beast landed. She tilted her head to the side at that. Marco smiled to himself and at the lack of flames in the dead valley. Doing his best not to step on or in the various zombie parts littering the place, Marco raised an eyebrow as he stepped in front of her.
"Where's nacho's… actually, why'd you send'er off? She would've been real handy in that fight."
"You saw the beast crash, right?" Marco tilted his head at her. "I had to send'er to take care of the fire before it got out of control."
"And how would your own fire-breathing beast stop it?" Heckapoo tilted her own head at him. "Seems like adding on more fuel, doesn't it."
"You'd think. One wildfire is all but unstoppable." Marco said holding up one finger. "But two snuff each other out."
"Huh, hadn't thought of that." Heckapoo raised her one visible eyebrow at him. "Clever."
"Ya know how some people might have a dry season?" Marco folded his arms at her with a smirk. "Where I'm from has a wildfire season. I know a thing or two about putting'em out."
"Explains a bit." Heckapoo smirked back at him. "Never stop surprising me Muscles."
The necro-slayer gave a little bow before he put two fingers to his lips and whistled as loudly as he could. A few breaths later, Nachos the dragoncycle dropped out of the sky with the speed and grace that would make a war hawk jealous and landed in front of them. The both of them took their seat on the winged beast that had wheels for feet. Marco up front, using the horns as handles. Heckapoo was right behind him, her hands wrapped around his stomach. Feeling like he should show off a bit, Marco revved up Nacho's lungs and flew off the ground with a small gust of fire behind them as they soared into the sky.
"Sooo..." Marco shrugged, trying to think of their best interdenominational watering hole to go. It was usually what the two did after something like that day. "Tavern?"
"Actually, I have a better idea…" Heckapoo whispered into his ear, her breath hot and teasing on his skin, her voice all kinds of enticing. Marco felt his eyes all but shoot out of his head as he felt Heckapoo's hand slide down from his gut and onto his belt buckle. Just hovering there and pulling it tight against him. "Slayer."
"Uhhh..." Marco was tired. He really was. After a day like the one he had, there was no shame or reason he shouldn't be...but when an actual goddess has her hand on you like that? Well, its hard to say no. Still didn't change the fact that the necro-slayer was so exhausted that he wouldn't be surprised if his legs fell asleep the second he sat down on his mount. "Hek, I'm flattered but ah... I-"
"Feel like you're gonna pass out for a few days?" Heckapoo interrupted him, using the belt buckle to give him a half hearted front wedgie... which had the effect of showing to Marco, that his lower body was indeed dead tired. "Just wanted to make sure you didn't get any ideas there Muscles."
"I-I... That obvious, huh?"
"How'd you phrase it..." Heckapoo asked, letting go of his belt buckle and scratching the back of her head. "Ah, I've ridden you like a mechanical bull in worse places. But when I went to leave, not a word from you Mr. Slayer. That said everything."
"Yeah..." Marco sighed, growing a lopsided smile as he did. The necro-slayer could already feel the adrenaline wearing off and his eyes getting heavy, even as he was traveling faster than most animals had a right to hundreds of feet in the air over a land of death. "Any chance I could crash at your place for a bit?"
"W-What? No. You will not be crashing at my place." Heckapoo said, her voice confused and insulted. "You're crazy. Just land there. I've already got clones making up a bed and food's waiting for ya. Eat some before you clock out, okay?"
"Ha, you really should open up you're own temple. You'd have people lining up to worship you, ya know that?" Marco joked as he leaned back enough to kiss her cheek. "Thank's H-poo."
"And just like that, I'm going to draw on you when you sleep." Heckapoo teased before kissing the back of Marco's head as she opened a portal in front of Nacho's path.
"Worth it."
