It was complete luck.
They had put a grid on top of their assud path of the road, estimated in relation to where the roads in Tathnuachan t the village border, and were making their way down. Because they were on a tir, they had been assigning higher and lower priority to squares. Most of the squares down the path had been low priority, because the path itself was absolutely gone. What they were looking for were the waypoints and cities along the road, and since they had icons that suggested a rough location of those, they moved quickly towards them.
Still, to find one after just a day was the reverse level of luck of hitting a mine on first click in Minesweeper.
This barrier was, all things considered, less impressive. A singular, rather small, pyramid stood in the middle of what once may have been so kind resting spot. Rubble half-covered by vegetation suggested buildings of wood and cobblestone to have stood around once, but there was nothing left of those.
“Should I get Velka?” Aclysia asked.
“Yes,” John answered. They had barely started the day. For Aclysia to get the birdcat (disguised as a really large dog to the mundane eye) and get her to the Illusion Barrier would only take a few minutes. “…Jane, what are you doing?”
Aclysia was barely even out of the barrier that the feline Lightbearer had started to move. “Looking around?”
“I feel the need to remind you that the fact that this barrier is still here ans that sothing is most likely still alive in it.”
“Ya an the disease that doesn’t harm us because we’re super-special-aweso?”
“…You have been rewatching Yugioh Abridged while I wasn’t looking, didn’t you?”
“Ya know what I am about.”
“Chinese cartoons and its derivatives?”
“That joke is even less funny now that we have Lulu around.” John was about to throw a warning at her, but she was already rolling her eyes. “Co on, tiger, we’re in the middle of literally nowhere. Ya think soone is watching us?
“I’d like to be certain on the off chance there is.”
“You’re being absurd levels of paranoid.” Rave strutted further towards the ziggurat. “Plus, if there’s anything dangerous around, don’t ya wanna take care of it before Velka cos in?”
Grumbling, John followed her. Having a strong-willed first fiancée ant just going with the flow sotis. Together they stepped up to the ziggurat. It was very similar to the one that Norahnon’s forces had found. John took minor pleasure in the fact that this one was one level taller though.
John was studying the glyphs and pictures carved into the stone. Moss stuck to the stone here and there, but by and large the structure appeared untouched. A quick inspection revealed that none of the roots had burrowed into the stone. It had clearly been shaped by magic, but the reinforcents that had been woven into the material appeared to have worn off over ti. ‘Probably shaped by a stone mage and never properly enchanted,’ he theorized. ‘The carvings seem to be purely ornantal.’
Rave lost no ti climbing the flight of stairs. Momo would have cried at the disrespect for the ancient architecture, especially when the feline Lightbearer jumped on top of the altar. “I am on top of the wo- uhhhh… Tiger, I think ya should look at this.”
Worried by her tone, John teleported up to her with Magus Step instantly. He turned his head and imdiately saw what she ant. Vegetation had made it difficult to see from the ground level, but from the elevated position of the altar, a number of grooves beca apparent. John squatted down a bit, to try and emulate the height of the average person at the ti in this area of the world.
The grooves were a number of geoglyphs, created by people either digging trenches or repeatedly walking the sa path until the earth had compacted. Magic also was a possibility, of course, but had the supernatural been utilized, John felt that the shape would have been a little less crude. It was one long line extending from where they were, with a serrated curve starting at its tip and ending to the east side of the ziggurat. Opposite was a shorter but much broader line.
“A dagger?” John theorized.
“…Just realized that maybe it’s kinda disrespectful to stand on the very top of the altar,” Rave said and hopped off. “Probably where people got sacrificed in mass.” One of her cat ears turned. “Did ya hear that?”
John had not, not at first anyhow, but whatever Rave had heard was quickly getting closer. There were footsteps of hard soles on stone and a mindless groaning. The combination invoked an image that was swiftly proven true.
Out of the opening in the base of the ziggurat stumbled a mummy. The desiccated corpse was leathery skin over bones and ard with a singular knife. There was one particularity about it though: a hole where the heart was supposed to be.
“No will inside that one, it’s just a reanimated body,” John inford Rave. “Level 21.”
“Awww, that’s so cute,” the feline Lightbearer said.
The mummy had just enough intelligence to stumble towards the staircase and then up. Once it was at the very top, Rave poked its forehead with several tis more speed than an enemy, especially a slow-witted undead, of this level could ever hope to react to. It fell back down, groaning and moaning as it went.
John did chuckle at that. Both of them were so used to sights both real and fictional (courtesy of Raids) so much more terrifying that a desiccated corpse hardly registered. “Try to kill it in a way that leaves the majority of the corpse intact,” John requested.
“Can do.” Rave leapt down the stairs and landed next to the barely standing mummy. One jab to the neck and the bones under the skin snapped like a dry twig. Undead typically could sustain a fair amount of damage, but the level difference involved made a decisive, lethal blow. “It’s like touching an oily raisin,” Rave complained while she put the mummy down.
John read the Observe over once more as she did so. “Been a while since I had an Observe window that’s imdiately useful,” he told her.
“What’s it telling ya?” Rave asked and leapt back up to him. Where her hands ca close to him, Particle Skin created miniscule silver sparks. “Guess that’s expected.”
“It is indeed,” John said and moved the window so she could read it easier. “Three things we learn from this. One, there are Mummy Lords; two, Huitzi is indeed involved; three, the Grim Reaper taught that god things.”
“I thought it was specifically a thing that, outside the fact that they each have unique abilities and a Sanctum, gods couldn’t really teach each other magic?” Rave asked. “Since, ya know, they’re all imbued with Faith.”
“Depends,” John answered. “For the unique abilities, you’re right, but the Horned Rat and Enki both learned and created new arcane spells. Seems reasonable that, if Huitzi already had necromantic powers, that specific spells in that category could be taught.” He humd to himself. “Although I do wonder why go to the Grim Reaper specifically to learn about necromancy 101.”
“FYI, I do hear more of them,” Rave inford him.
“It was probably a scout.” John started to walk down the staircase. “Let’s see if we can find one of these Mummy Lords.”
Entering the ziggurat had them imdiately assaulted by three more mummies that had sat in the corners of the room like draugrs in every single Skyrim ruin. Ending the animation of these bodies for the second ti was barely a consideration. That left them in a roughly four tre by four tre chamber, half of which was claid by a hole that led straight downwards.
“Yay, sacrifice pits,” Rave said after they had peered over the edge. There were bones down there, a whole lot of them. The smooth wall of the pit stopped about a tre before it touched the bottom.
John considered whether that was worth exploring. A decision that was almost made for him when a very excited Magryph stord into the room and excitedly leapt for the hole. He caught himself before he could fall and grabbed the fully grown chira by the scruff in the process. Velka squawked in protest when she was yanked back to solid ground.
“Sit!” John ordered.
Velka may have been a bratty, thieving, disrespectful leech on his purse, but she was not stupid. Catching the tone of the man that had raised her (alongside a long list of won), the Magryph put her bottom on the stone. Like a crow standing still while it was observed, the bird-cat inched a little bit closer to the hole each ti he looked away.
John grabbed her by the beak.
Velka hated it when he did that, just like most cats hated having a finger on their nose. She pulled her head back, but he did not let go. Eventually she let out a particularly deep cawing sound that John associated with her surrendering. After he let go, she stayed put.
Usually, John would have thrown her a proverbial bone now, but the presence of the Abyssal pathogen ant that he had no treats in his inventory. “So we’re definitely going down there,” John said. “Not sure if we’ll take her along…”
“What’cha fearing?”
“If one mummy carries trace amounts of the disease, a bunch of them might carry more. Velka hasn’t gotten infected so far, but I don’t know if we should tempt fate….”
“At this point, I’m pretty sure the disease is designed for humans,” Rave told him.
A fair assumption, all things considered. In the absence of treats, John was rewarding Velka with scratches. It appeased the Magryph well enough. Cute little ows filled the Aztec chamber, while he considered. He looked at Velka, then sighed. “I’ll have to get another Tar level…” he mumbled.
“My apologies for not holding her back, Master,” Aclysia apologized, making her own presence known. “She entered the barrier before . By the ti I had followed, she had already sprinted into this building.”
“It’s that valuable, huh? Fine… Follow.” John jumped into the pit, Velka, Rave, and Aclysia in tow.
They dropped the five tres into the pile of bones. Velka lost no ti fitting between the ceiling and the floor with barely a crouch. The humanoids on the team had to squat down and waddle. Rave giggled. “Ain’t what people normally think about world leaders exploring old ruins, is it?”
“A conga line of adults mimicking penguins in a bone pit? No, probably not,” John answered and focused on his extra senses.
Now that there was less stone between them, John could sense the presence of an underground complex. Air and shadow existed behind a notable barrier. Velka scratched at the ancient stone where that barrier was thinnest. She warbled angrily, showing the full arsenal of her Australian Magpie vocal range.
Scratching turned to pecking. Pecking turned to studying. John had barely waddled his way over, that Velka decided to walk away. Ducking and weaving, she kept repositioning her head to look at the environnt from different angles.
John looked at the wall where she had pecked and spotted particularly shaped grooves and a button of so kind. The button did not give when he pressed it. ‘A riddle?’ the Gar thought and turned to Velka.
Who was turning sothing by pulling at it with her beak. Sothing loudly clunked. It made Velka raise her head. Panther-like ears turned. John could hear it too, the slow ticking of gears turning. A tir was running. She dashed back over to where John was. He gave her the honour of pressing the button. The wall opened up, the floor tilted down, and the four of them slipped into a new chamber.
“I am so confused and I loved that!” Rave said. “That’s weird old temple stuff!”
“Probably a trial. Those thrown into the pit either solve it or starve to death.”
“Doesn’t seem like a hard trial,” Rave joked.
“Probably is after the five-tre drop breaks the average person’s ribs.”
John enjoyed standing straight again. He also enjoyed the fact that the entity in the chamber was literally rattling. The room was rectangular, about ten tres deep, and slanted further underground. Every two tres, a doorway led into a smaller side chamber.
At the end of this main room was a dais and on that dais was a throne and on the throne was a mummy. This one was covered in objects of gold and gemstone. A lesser person who had passed that test would have been impressed by the sight. Instead, the mummy was actively trembling in fear at their arrival.
‘Diseased Knives, huh?’ John thought. ‘Well, since this one knows fear, maybe it can still talk.’ “Mummy Lord, there is no need to co to blows.”
The jaws of the mummy opened. The beginning of a word began to surface from its throat. Then, a tear in space opened next to its head. Crimson energy, like flowing blood, entered the mummy through the ear.
The Mummy Lord’s jaw parted wide, an inhuman roar leaving it in place of any words. The nearby chambers all echoed with the groans of awakening undead.
What followed could hardly be called a fight. John wouldn’t even call it a massacre. In the ti it took the various undead to shuffle out of their resting positions, they had all been disposed of by Rave and Aclysia. John approached the Mummy Lord, swiped away an attack effortlessly, then studied the frenzied undead.
‘That looked like what the god-warrior drew power from,’ he thought. ‘Is Huitzi empowering and manipulating his minions by repaying them for their sacrifices? How did that magic trigger? Was it deliberate or automatic? If it was the forr, then I have to wonder what the range of that god’s awareness is.’
The Gar got no answers out of the thrashing undead. A consideration went through his head to confine the creature until the effect of the spell ran out.
‘I won’t stay long enough to make that worthwhile,’ he thought and snapped the Mummy Lord’s neck. “Observe said we’re at the edge of the Diseased Knives’ territory,” he inford his companions.
“That sounds ominous,” Rave comnted.
Aclysia stepped out of the last mummification chamber. “It appears these side rooms were just mummy storage,” she inford them. “That aside, what do you make of that na, Master? Diseased Knives sounds to like they weaponized the Purple.”
“Such a la na, by the way.”
John ignored his first fiancée and answered Aclysia instead, while lowering the Mummy Lord back into its/his throne. The title and Observe suggested using the male pronoun, but considering the state and that it had counted as a monster, gender probably did not apply anymore. “The hopeful interpretation is that they were called the Diseased Knives because their knives gave the final rites to the diseased. Not sure if that ans we’ll find a cure here, but we’ll at least find more intel. One item.”
That last bit went to Velka, who had been creeping closer to the corpse. The limitation was primarily because John wanted this site preserved for Momo and future generations. Optimally, after all of this was done, his fairy maid would have more to show for this expedition than rubble.
Still, because of how gungho Velka had been, he felt that there was sothing more to the lightly enchanted gold that covered the corpse. The swiftness with which she struck only added to that idea.
What ca out was another purple athyst amulet. It was, in fact, the sa kind all around. Because of the ti it was made in, it was not a replica, just an amulet of similar make. Observe even told John that it was from the sa craftsman. At the front was the symbol of the axolotl again, the head frills unmistakable. The inscription on the back, however, was different.
“The spring water monster is… sated?” John tried to translate the pictograph. The symbols were not clear to him.
Best to send Momo a photo.
User Comments
0 comments from readers