Sand.
Sand everywhere.
Sand clung to her skin, sticking to her face and even around her lips where they had been touching the bare floor. When the guards were done with whatever had been going on they must have brought her here. She couldn't remember anything after the punches they rained down on her outside of doors of the dungeon.
This room's floor was covered in the little granules and each of them dug into Wiz's skin. Too much of her was cold, exposed. Gone were her clothes. She went to move, but everything was dark and even with her dark vision it took a second for her eyes to adjust.
Even without her eye sight available, she could smell the dead. When she had been in the cell earlier she had sensed them, but they were much closer now. The putrid smell of rotten flesh permeated the air. Wiz grasped for the thin chain that should have been around her neck, feeling for her magical charm. The guards had thrown it on the floor of the cell where Aqua and the others were. Was part of that smell her? How long had she been here?
Things came into focus she spotted figures moving back and forth. They didn't look her direction or even acknowledge each other, sometimes bumping into one another. Zombies andThere were more of them here than she could have figured from what she felt earlier.
There must have been an anti-magic field in the cell they were holding her in. It's the only way that she could have missed all of this. Carefully, she pushed herself to her feet. The skin where the guards had grabbed her earlier was burning, her face was still sore from the punch.
Wiz bundled her arms around her nude body, covering herself as best she could as she rose from the ground to make her way toward the wall. The other undead bumped her as they moved, but none of them responded in any way besides a passive moan. Sand scrapped at the bottoms of her feet with each step.
"I see you've returned to the world of the living, not in the literal sense of course," came a voice that seemed to reverberate through the room. The person was far off using a spell, probably Thaumaturgy, minor transmutation cantrip—nothing that even the most mundane mages could pull off. "You're a sight to behold: that fresh, pale skin, a body with next to no wear or blemishes, all of your limbs intact. You're an exquisite work of art."
It was a struggle for Wiz to manage even a low level detect magic spell, but she used it to point her way toward the speaker. "Work of art?" Wiz asked. "What do you want from me?" Her eyes had fully adjusted, she could see the slack, naked flesh of the zombies drooping from the bones of the rotted bodies.
"I practically just told you, huh?" The voice asked.
His voice didn't ring any bells, but something about the way that he spoke told her that she should know him or that he had more intimate knowledge of her. Then again a voice was an easy enough thing to describe. "Y-You're building an army," Wiz said, the words leaving her lips the moment that she realized that it had to be true.
"You're not as perceptive as I thought," the voice said. "Besides, who builds an army out of something so valuable to the right person?"
Wiz kept making her way toward the source of the magic, feeling her way through the ripples of magic in the ether. "I'm not sure I understand?" She asked.
"All will be made clear in due time," he said. "What you need to know now is that you're very important to us, Lich," he said. "And to think you came to us!"
Brushing between two of the zombies, Wiz finally reached wall of the room, her hands flattened against the bricks as she felt for any sign of a way out. From what she could see down the wall there was no doors or windows. Panic set in, but she couldn't manage to cast anything that would be of any help. Detect magic was one thing, but a higher level spell or even healing would be impossible for her at this point.
Wiz pressed her back against the wall and sat down on the floor slowly. She folded her arms around knees, pulling them to her chest, glancing out across the room filled with the shuffling undead.
Kazuma, Aqua and the others would come to find her. Yeah, they would search for her. That was the kind of thing that they did. They helped each other. They wouldn't abandon her here. If they were still alive. If they hadn't abandoned her already.
In the aftermath of their escape there was bound to be someone who came to investigate the noise. Kazuma tore through the three of their cells hunting for anything that they could use to fight back. Their weapons had been taken from from omg the way down here, though they were more than likely stored near enough by.
Darkness grabbed hold of one of the wrought iron bars with her gloved hand, giving it a hardy tug. "Maybe—" she grunted. "Maybe we could pry one of these off of here…" Darkness finished.
"Not fast enough, we made a pretty big commotion," said Megumin as she bent down to examine the ironwork at the junctions. "It looks like it's pretty sturdy—even given how big you are."
"It's not polite to call a lady 'big'," Darkness chided her.
"Maybe we could flood the hall," Aqua said after what had clearly been a lot of thought. "Or…or, I could create a magical weapon!" She snapped.
"Those only last for a single attack," Kazuma said.
"Hmm, then we make it count," said Megumin.
Darkness filled in the next part of the plan. "If we pick a weapon form that pierces through our enemies and catches them the moment the door is opened we can get as many of them as possible!"
Kazuma nodded. "Right. Aqua, can you conjure the weapon as a ballista?"
A thunderous sound echoed from somewhere above them. Boot and armor clad feet padded across the floor of the room overhead, presumably coming for them. "Aqua!" Kazuma yelled.
The blue haired Goddess turned to them, there seemed to be something glinting in her eye and a hint of magic about her. Aqua was at her best when she was utterly and desperately needed. "I've got it."
The sounds above them moved in a rapid line across toward the end of the hall and could be heard descending the stairs into the dungeon. Aqua moved a hand above her head in a quick loop, motioning through the somatic components of the spell in an almost rapid and rehearsed fashion. "SPIRITUAL WEAPON!" Aqua bellowed in a voice that seemed to demand power from the heavens themselves.
A translucent, glowing ballista appeared in the center of the hallway giving off such a light that the world around them seemed darker for it. The door to the dungeons burst in, pounding into the wall as it was kicked open. Before the guards could call out or even set one foot past the threshold, Aqua made a deft motion and the ghostly siege weapon fired. The bolt of magic energy tore into the men, not bothering to damage their armor or even touch it and instead tearing right through the very center of all of them.
The spiritual weapon spell faded and Kazuma was tugging at her arm. "We have to get moving."
"You don't boss me around you good for nothing NEET," Aqua grumbled.
"We don't have time for this," Kazuma said jerking her by the arm. Darkness and Megumin followed.
When they were stepping over the row of corpses that appeared to have been skewered by an unseen force, Darkness paused mid-step to admire the carnage. "It must be awfully exciting; the feel of something piercing through your breastplate like that and knowing that no amount of armor will save you from the decadent torture…"
"Megumin, get her!" Kazuma said. The young mage grabbed the crusader at the wrist towing her through the door and up the stairs. Kazuma spoke again as they ascended to out of the dungeon. "Are you fantasizing about being skewered by an invisible weapon now? Ugh, why am I not surprised?"
The room that they entered was some sort of staging area for the prison guards. Their own weapons had been stored in the first room that they checked that was off to the side of this one. The entrance to said room had been on the other side of a heavy looking desk. Megumin handed it out their retrieved gear: Aqua's staff, the sword and bow Kazuma carried, Darkness's sword along with Megumin's own staff.
"We're not sure how far the noise reached. Others might know we're coming," Kazuma said.
"Doesn't stop what we have to do," Megumin said. "Doesn't this whole place feel strangely unlike Alcanretia and Aqua's cul—CHURCH when we found them there?"
Darkness inspected the blade of her, checking it with a discerning eye. "Those bastards better not have been playing with this," she muttered. Then as if she heard what was being discussed she sheathed her weapon and looked up. "Yeah, when we were in Alcanretia no one tried to kill us as much as they tried trick us into joining their religion. Well, until they found out I followed Eris, that is…"
Aqua shook her head. "There's noway these…assholes are my followers," she said.
"Why, because they don't believe you're you?" Megumin asked.
"No—a Goddess can feel worship. It's like a warming aura. In a holy place like this I should be bathed in it," Aqua said.
Megumin sighed. "I guess that the whole 'them keeping undead around' part doesn't really make sense with who you are."
"Let's purge these non-believers, before they ruin my good name," Aqua said.
"We need to hurry; I'll lead the way," said Darkness as she moved for the staircase that led up into a higher part of the abbey.
The hall at the top of the stairs was vacant, the walls were purple brick lined with torches. The reddish carpet crunched beneath their feet as they spread out into the hall surveying the area.
"No indication of which way we should head," Megumin said.
Aqua sniffed the air. "The undead are that way…" She pointed down the hall in the direction at Kazuma's back. "…and I sense a Lich."
"That's almost assuredly Wiz," said Megumin.
Of all of the skills that Aqua could claim as her own, this was one of the few that the others wouldn't tease her about. "I'll lead the way," Aqua said nodding confidently. They struck off down the hall with her out front.