The blazing torchlight of Ashlyn revealed a sight that made Harper's breath catch in her throat. As expected, it illuminated human bodies in all of the closed cages. However...she had assumed that the cage from which issued the vile noises would be occupied, and that one alone. Instead, every single cage that remained closed held a human not just intact, but alive.
Though 'alive' might have been a strange way to put it. Four pairs of glossy eyes stared their way. Their owners lay against the backs of their containers completely silent and still, without even the steady and rhythmic movement of their chests to confirm that they still drew breath. All of them appeared damaged in some way, but in a surgical rather than traumatic manner. For instance, one lacked a forearm, clearly and cleanly removed with some kind of saw, if Harper could guess. Her eyes did not linger for long on these individuals, however, and it was with palpable terror that she beheld the being in that noisy fifth cage. If the others looked like recently-deceased corpses imbued with life, this one had been dead for a long while. Its sallow, gaunt flesh was pulled taut over its bones, and its sunken face held no trace of humanity—only a demonic, primal violence. The others wore clothing that identified them as townsfolk, though dirty and in some places tattered, but his one wore nothing. It could only be a nightmare come to life.
Ashlyn's march forward made Harper think that she would be the one to do humanity a favor by immolating this horrendous thing without further ado, but just to be sure, she called in a small voice,
”Please destroy that thing. Even get rid of the bones, if you can.” Following this, she moved closer to one of the occupied cages. The eyes within followed her, but rather than a blank and inhuman stare, they contained just a smidgen of what Harper imagined could be fear. Though thoroughly freaked out, Harper resolved to take a chance, even in a bone-chilling place like this.
”Are...are you still, um, still alive?”Slowly, the undead opened its mouth, revealing that its tongue had been cut out. Just the fact that this tormented being could still think and respond like a human filled her with all sorts of conflicting feelings and burgeoning thoughts. Harper mused on this while shivering in fear. The organization of this place, as well as the various injuries of the occupants, all indicated that a person with a functioning mind was or had been in charge, carrying out experiments in secret and making sure that his subjects couldn't speak about it. That barbaric act did have one weakness, however. Still not daring to believe that she was conversing with an undead being, Harper swallowed her saliva and asked,
”Did someone do this to you?”Its uncanny nod sent a shiver down Harper's spine.
”A necromancer?”After a moment, the living corpse shook its head.
”Is he still around?”The monster shrugged. The essentially human act did not help the ninja's nerves.
”You...you don't know. Well...have you seen him recently?”It shook its head. Harper snuck a glance at the deformed undead at the other end of the hall.
”What is that?”She did not expect an answer from the captive considering the freeform wording of her question, but nevertheless it began to move. First it pointed a bony finger at Harper, then with its other hand held up a fist. Quiet as a grave, Harper watched it point to itself, then hold up one finger. Next it pointed toward the greater undead, and it held up three fingers. Lastly it indicated the large, broken cage, and it held up two. With its thumb, it traced a line across its withered throat in the universal sign for
death. Two and two made four in Harper's mind.
”Wait...you're telling me, that's how many times the things in here have died? Or been killed? Like, a degenerative condition?”Though the big word seemed to confuse the undead slightly, it answered the young ninja with a nod.
”Then we have to get out of here immediately and tell Master Sanders. There's some sort of psycho on the loose making undead. Maybe this is the plague from Eigenalle.” This remark she directed at Ashlyn and Thor. Before she could turn away, the piteous creature inside the cage grasped the bars and rattled them weakly, transmitting its desire to be free. Harper blanched.
”I...I'm sorry, but until we know the nature of whatever this thing is, we can't let you go. I think you're still essentially human, really, but we've got to know for sure. After this whole thing is done, we'll come back and let you out, alright?” At this, the undead sank backward, the flicker of hope in its glossy eyes gone.
The spiders didn't last long.
Against the onslaught of three rage-filled warriors with weapons and magic aplenty, even large arachnids in great number posed little threat. In less than a minute the grotto was soaked in the stinking innards of the creatures, and those that remained scattered in an attempt to flee. Needless to say, some of those were eviscerated or pulverized as well, but a few did slip away into shadows. For a few moments following the end of the fight, everyone just stood around, breathing steadily as their killing intent subsided. Soon enough it faded away, leaving three men in a smelly cave with no visible exits. Mercury strode to the side of one of the craters in the floor, and stared through it to the bottom of the canyon hundreds of meters below. He whistled.
”Hell of a drop. I don't know how we're gonna get out of this place. On the plus side, if we do, the enemy probably thinks we're dead.” He assumed the adversary to be a group, thinking that a single overweight woman couldn't possibly be the sole perpetrator of what he expected to be an underlying conspiracy. Of course, all of this was merely guesswork on his part.
”Any ideas?”The stroll to the cemetery passed by silently for the most part. When prompted by Damian to respond, Ni Rensa gave a shrug.
”Call it a kitty's intuition, but I've felt like that ever since we've got here. But whatever it is, Frenzy Plant can handle it.” Her tail twitched proudly just moments before the blades on her shoes clinked on stone, signaling if her eyes couldn't already tell that she'd arrived in the graveyard, the only place in Belka with paved paths. Such extravagance seemed wasted on the dead, but she was sure that it meant a lot to the town's living to respect the departed in such a manner.
Before long the three split up, sauntering among the rows of headstones in search of anything out of the ordinary. Since the burial ceremony's conclusion about an hour ago, the place was abandoned. As she rounded the corner of a blocky mini-mausoleum, however, the former dark mage Eliza discovered that this wasn't exactly the case. In front of a somewhat isolated headstoen in a foxhole sat a young man, bent over, with ash-gray clothes. He seemed to be in mourning, carrying out a vigil to honor the departed, but he did glance Eliza's way when she appeared. Though her unique attire captured his attention for a moment, he silently turned back to stare at the headstone. Quietly, so as not to disturb him, Eliza approached. Her sharp eyes easily made out the rock's inscription.
”Singed” Willard Iagobretski. Well, this is the spot. This guy must be a friend or something. Spotting Damian a ways off, Eliza waved to him to come over and see if he could find anything.
To Sanders' satisfaction, the teams he dispatched the schoolhouse, the clerics' chapel, and the fight outside the gates all returned at about the same time. He did not need to speak to either Chester Graham or Morimoto Tsubano to get an idea of how their mission went down, but he listened attentively to the reports of lieutenants Brass and Fortinbras. Though the news of some kind of flesh pit in the chapel used for healing surprised him, that information did not strike him as particularly relevant, but he wore a sagacious frown as he heard the words of the Arctic Mage.
”An outsider who turned out to be a serial killer. The probability of that man being the refugee from Eigenalle is extremely high. Did you get any indication that he might have brought a disease with him?”Fortinbras replied in the negative. At this point, Jillian Suede, who had been waiting in the sidelines, made herself known.
”Sir! Jus' a few minutes ago, I saw the Phoenix Winger headin' to the graveyard with Eliza and Ni. But I ain't seen the other teams.”This could only mean one thing. Frenzy Plant operated with utmost efficiency, ignoring all distractions in pursuit of the goal.
”Thor and Enma's teams must have found something, then. We have no way of knowing where Thor, Harper, and Ashlyn are, but the fact that Enma's team discovered something in the marketplace puts me on edge. Lieutenant Brass: please take Argus, Ike, Riona, and Tsubano to the marketplace. Seek out our allies and confirm their location, then assist them.”
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