"So, the willing undead became some sort of messed up worshippers, soldiers, and priests? Then the experiments became messed up undead like these that are always in pain…" The first was somewhat a question but the second was angry as Remey trailed off. No one bothered to answer. They knew that she was saying it out loud so that she could hold it closer to her resolve as she fought more undead later.
"We just managed to free these ones so they can live out their lives. Midnight, don't be angry that you didn't see them. I can feel it. There was no way you would discern darkness rune carved bones in the darkness while you used shadow wrapping. As much as you knew, there were just littered bones until the night fell." Walker made sure to keep Midnight out of her own head.
Since they had discovered and Walker had shared the all around appraisal with them, Midnight hadn't even made a soft growl. She had just moved to begin cutting every rusted and semi broken chain that he could. Her efforts were clear to the entire group.
One positive thing though, was that the more they freed the dark tomb guardians from their fate as Being literal moving attractions for darkness, Alice managed to set up more light elemental crystals around. They were also able to brighten the room more. In turn, the party managed to discover more runes and the fact that the pillars were also carved with the faintest of false death runes.
"If these runes are here, then I bet anything they go deeper too. Everything needs to be supported somehow. A treehouse won't stand without a tree." Gil used a common elven analogy. It stood for the structure that holds something. Most often used when someone is talking about training. But it did fit here very well.
"Then we can follow them below floors and crush things more easily." Remey grover her fist in her hands and even Alice appeared to be more motivated by this discovery. It was odd to see her mirroring Remey a little, but since Alice and Remey could work together with the light mana, it made sense. Reney's light affinity knuckles could be greatly boosted by Alice's songs.
"That's good. We can try to see where the main structures are. These pillars might be like keys that lock everything together. Walker, you already said that all the stone work holds each piece together based on how it was carved and assembled. That's how it lasted for so long, right?" Su was analyzing it in her own way. She knew if this was the case then they wouldn't be able to just collapse this entire place. They would need to break multiple parts to collapse it.
"I don't think we should break it. There is a dragon ruin sealed somewhere here. And we might want to go through all the ruins later and destroy any chance that the knowledge here could be found. Yes, some things are important but other stuff should be lost to time." Gil looked at the room he had just seen for the first time. The small parts of bodies made him feel that this shouldn't be.
Yet, Midnight's sudden angered growl proved that there was something very wrong. "Gone! All gone!" the growling dragon voice was filled with rage. Midnight had seen multiple body parts from other monsters and even the lost angels here. Now though, there was almost nothing. Just bloody remnants and the odd piece of a sand worm.
"Calm down, you already showed us the passageway to the ritual chamber you found before. We are about to put those monsters and angels to rest. The undead that dragged and used them are going to be gone soon enough. Especially when Alice starts singing in their precious cursed room." Walker felt every bit of anger from Midnight.
In the time that the scouts had been inside to the point that the groups were moving inside the ruins, the undead had begun to act. This was certainly because of the timing of day changing to night, but it was definitely worth the anger. This meant that the bodies of angels and monsters were about to be used to awaken worse undead. These abominations could rise and battle immediately. That would be terrible, the system even proved that with the chain quest starting.
The entire party had already made their efforts to scrape off the false death runes. Gil had not let a single one escape his sharp eyesight. His goal here was to make sure that he used his daggers to slice through each one without anyone needed to work harder. The closeness of these ruins made it harder to use his bow, therefore, he had to put in different effort. But that was fine, he knew that he was still acting above and beyond what he was expected to do. Especially by using the elven skills to break this tragedy.
As the party oriented themselves in front of a new passageway, everyone sensed the changes in the air. It wasn't just the fact that there were multiple different manas radiating from it. There was also the fact that there was just a general feeling of dread from it. The sounds of undead moving and bones breaking also ensured that things were not going well inside.
"We are going to wrap everyone in darkness. Alice, keep the crystals ready. When we enter and you get the signal, throw the light mana crystals in the air to make things harder for the undead." Walker and Midnight worked together to use the shadow wrapping skill. But Walker manipulated it more as Midnight let him take control of it. The shadows expanded and wrapped everyone in the party, easily hiding their walk in to the passageway.
More undead came in to sight very quickly. The open space was the cleanest yet, to a degree. The space had been cleared and the party could tell that some stone coffins had been moved in. They sat in perfect formations with cleaned runes leading to them. Some of the coffins even had new rune carvings on them.
It was the undead that caught Walker's attention though. Many mummified worshippers moved around here and there cleaning, moving parts of bodies, specifically blood and organs, here and there. But a group of three undead stood out most because they had bone staffs with different monster skulls at the top. Beside them were also two very large undead that appeared to only follow their orders whenever they would point at something with their bone staffs.
'Lesser mummified priest
The lesser mummified priests were the weakest followers of the false death god. They were more than willing to trade their lives and flesh for the chance to worship their god for eternity. In doing so, they used their own bones to create staffs by fusing them with monster bones. This caused them to be able to absorb more mana from around them. At the same time, it caused them to become physically weaker.
They will often use their control of death mana, darkness mana, and ritual runes to raise the slumbering undead. Each can only control the mummified worshippers and the mummified amalgamations to work with them in raising the other undead. They will send many undead at any attacker and will try to weaken enemies with debuffs. These undead were never able to become necromancers in life like some higher mummified priests.'
'Mummified amalgamation
Similar to the undead amalgamations, these mummified amalgamations were the flesh and bones left over from those that betrayed the faith of the false death god. They were forcefully mummified and stuck together with unique threads made of darkness beast furs.
They are without minds and can not be controlled due to their odd anatomy. Instead, mana must be used in close proximity to make them follow orders. They are very strong and can be beaten many times without being defeated. However, they are slow to recover, some even take a week to reclaim an arm. They are strictly for meat shields and lifting heavy things.
While they are slow and strong, they are also used as materials. Some of the experimentations that do not stop need materials. The mummified parts of these mummified amalgamations can still be used and are torn from them. It is a blessing that the mind is not present in this undead.'
Realizing that the mummified amalgamations didn't have a mind hit Walker hard. That meant that some of the trapped undead had minds trapped within them. Some willingly, and others unwillingy. It brought him more and more anger the more he thought of it. The horrifying fact that some experimented beings might be trapped in their own hell for too many years to count.
….
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