Chapter 33: How the Earth Cries

MIKA

The adventurers take time to eat and heal. Mika investigates the house further. "Another hole," she calls out.

The crying noises were louder the closer they got to the hole.

Alek scanned its depths. "Can you see anything?" Grym asks.

"Just black," Alek responds.

The ground around the hole begins to tremble, and before Mika and the others can react, they fall into the blackness below. Mika lands hard on her shield, with Kana landing on her. The oracle's elbow makes contact with her shoulder. Instinctively, Mika pushed Kana roughly to end the sharp pain that spread into her arm and chest. In the distance, Alek grunts as he lands atop something that makes a loud crunching noise. The light from above illuminates the space around them and dims as it moves further into the room.

"Shit!" Alek exclaims as he stumbles to his feet and closers to the others. Taki and the stray cat screech and meow furiously.

Next to Mika on her left, Grym remains on the ground. Blood streaked down his forehead and was splattered on a nearby boulder. Mika picks up her pack that came off when falling and lights a touch. Not that she needed it. She knew what was in the room, she thought. It would have been better for morale if she didn't. When Mika raised the flame, she inhaled sharply. Thirty zombies stood shuffling in place. Several were already coming towards them at the first hint of their disturbance. Heavy wailing sounds in the room.

"Shit!" Mika said, repeating Alek's sentiment.

Alek scoffs. "Exactly."

Kana moves slowly to the master dwarf and touches him. A warm light covers his head wound, and he begins to stir. She shakes him. "Wake up, Grym!" Kana rushes.

Mika and Alek move in front to a defensive position. The champion raises her shield, fear in her creeping up her spine. She takes a deep breath resolving to get her team out alive, whether she had to sacrifice herself or not. She tightened her grip on the hilt of her sword. Roaring, she rushed forward with her shield out in front of her, bashing into one zombie before thrusting her blade into another. She whips around to use her shield and sword in a one-two combo against several other zombies. Alek joins the fray, destroying as many as possible to give Kana the chance to heal Grym and get him on his feet.

Kana shifts behind them. "We need to get out of this room."

She was right. They had no cover outside of two small boulders. Not enough to provide adequate protection.

"The door is behind them." Alek rushes into a whirlwind of magical and physical attacks against the undead onslaught.

Kana brightens almost blindingly. Energy pools into her cupped hand. A flurry of beams and energy missiles fire straight at the door. Six of the zombies fall to the ground while three are disintegrated.

Mika breathes heavily as Kana has now provided a hole for them to get to the exit. "Help Kana." Mika leads the charge forward.


KANA

The underground tunnels seemed to go on forever. Shafts of light lit the way from random holes in the ground that Mika surmised would lead to the buildings above. The floor was covered in potholes, rubble, and random corpses.

Grym's body was starting to get cumbersome. His weight was tiring Kana out. Up ahead was a brightly lit room.

The team enters in a rush. They look back to hear if anything is following them.

Alek shifts Grym taking his total weight. He places him gently on the ground. Taki and the stray keep Kana company as she finishes healing him. Mika and Alek look around the room.

Grym sits up. "Where are we?". He asks gruffly. The gash no longer mars his forehead.

"Not sure," Kana replies with a shrug. She looks around. A massive pool takes up most of the cavern. Bats flit above them and huddle in pockets along the rooftop of the cave. The sound of dripping echoes in various areas of the room. The pool is a sludge of blood and water as a dozen bodies float inside it. A pile of clothes, shoes, pictures, and packs are stacked high next to the water. A satchel slides down as Alek shuffles through the pile. Lifting it, a spellbook falls, landing on the floor.

"That looks like the book Agrit asked us to bring back," Mika says.

The master dwarf shakes his head.

Alek walks over a hands Kana the book. Visions of Jacra and Agrit working on it through the night fills her mind. She places it in her pack.


The group takes an hour to rest and moves to the next area. The room is as lit as the last. Cries and sniffles echo softly the closer they approach. Kana points to an alcove. "Look, Mika! Alek!"

"Help! Help us!" Behind roughly shaped bars are missing villagers. Three pens are built into the walls surrounding them. They all cry out for help. Kana rushes to the latch of one of the jails. Hands reach out to grab her, and she fumbles with the lock. Suddenly they fall silent. A clicking noise and metal rattling catch the adventurer's attention. Four skeletons stand before them, clad in mail armor.

"Let's do this," Mika says, cracking her neck. "I'm tired of this fucking place."

Taki screeches and scratches the ground toward an opening on the other side of the room.

Two of the skeletons shamble toward Alek and the other towards Mika. Mika bullrushes her combatant, impatient to finish this encounter. She bashes the monster hard with her shield once, then again before it falls to the ground.

Alek runs to one of the skeletons kicking off a pillar and impaling a skeleton, then telepathically shooting gravel and stone with his other hand to smash the monster's side.

A sound bursts out from Grymlop to hit the skeleton. The sheer force knocks it prone. Kana bludgeons the monster with a shaft of energy. Its bones clatter, some of them fracturing or falling off completely.

The cats go ballistic again, this time jumping in place. A disturbingly disfigured man carrying a scythe enters the room. Holding a booking in another hand, he whispers dark words that slam into Alek, and the dark magus is flung to the ground.

Mika takes the skull off the downed skeleton in front of her and turns to the other one. It moves to slash at her with a rusted sword just as Mika is raising hers to attack. The skeleton catches her on the arm, causing Mika to falter in her strike. The skeleton moves to assault her again. She quickly sides steps but slams into a slab of granite that's been used as an altar. Pain splinters through her arm and lower back. Her sword clangs on the ground. A glimmer catches her eye as she spots a ceremonial dagger covered in dark dried blood. Black wax spilled on it from a knocked-over candle. The green tip indicated it was a venom dagger. She thrust it into the skeleton's neck as the monster skimmed her side with its sword. It falls to the ground.

"ARGHHHHH!" the necromancer bellows. 'I'm going to enjoy killing you." He smiles snidely as he readies another spell. "I'll kill them first." He says, pointing towards the villagers. "so you can witness the beauty of my power. Then I'll flay you. One. At a. Time. He releases another spell at the already downed Alek, who grunts loudly at the pain.

Kana releases two bolts out at the necromancer. He deflects one but not the other. He grunts his frustration again before retreating down the hall he came from. "Kill them, you bastards!"

Grym drags Alek over to the side as Kana flings beam after beam at the last zombie. A piece of its ribcage flings off with each bolt. From behind, Mika beheads the skeleton with her katana.

She smiles at Mika. "Thanks."

"No problem." Kana had briefly seen Mika fighting the skeleton earlier. Some of her wondered how it would be if she were that strong. Kana had lived in fear since they'd first encountered Fiorna's Faith. She'd been living in fear since she joined the Looking Glass. Her desire to make a difference and restore her once beautiful nation to its former glory kept her going through the years. She suspected they all wanted that. She'd seen too much for a girl her age. No one should have to live the way they did. Always in fear. Kana doubted the others felt very much fear, though. Even pushed to the ground, Alek seemed fearless as ever. Grym and Mika were just as fierce. Grym's healing magic way outpaced her own. Mika's presence alone was a force in and of itself.

"I found this." Mika held out a small blade. Tiny jewels encrusted its hilt. Kana takes it. Flashes of villagers on the altar are tied down as the necromancer cuts into their flesh. They scream in agony as poison rips through their bodies. Blood sprays on the ground and over the dark lord's face and ceremonial garments. His face in a manic smile, his eyes gleaming in delight as the pain becomes worse for his victims.

Kana's vision releases her. She tries to catch her breath. "He wasn't always evil. He was one of them once. Someone did this to him. Then unleashed him on the village."

"The necromancer that was here earlier?" Grym asks for clarification.

She nods. She takes a deep breath to prevent hurling in front of the others. She always hated her vision. She resented her "powers." Most of the other oracles didn't have to experience the feelings of the images. Or would only share the sense of whoever the owner of the said object was. She experienced all emotions, good, bad, horrific, attached to the thing she touched. With a shaky hand, she placed the dagger of venom in her pack.

Sensing her discomfort, Taki flicked his tail along her leg and meowed. His midnight coat shimmered like the night sky as if a galaxy was displayed on his fur. It was mesmerizing, and Kana took full advantage of the distraction.

Grym and Kana heal the group. "Let's go," Grym says. Kana had never seen him this angry before.

"What about the survivors," Mika asks.

"They are safe for now inside the pens." Grym walks to the hall the necromancer fled down. "We'll release them after taking this monster down." He says over his shoulder.

"I like the sound of that," Alek replies. His dark smile displays his fangs prominently, his eyes glowing crimson.

The team rushes down the dark hallway. It was time to end this, Kana says to herself. For the first time, fear wasn't the emotions that spread through her body but something else entirely. A feeling Kana reveled in.