Chapter 515: The Mausoleum
Laz had only ever fought a few gods before and each time they got stronger. Or, as he only figured out now, they were waking up later which meant they restored more of their strength before doing so. At least, that was what he figured. Neferia was keeping up with the four sisters, but only barely. If anything, there was a stalemate going on in which neither side was able to inflict significant blows on one another.]
Death was a silent and deadly killer, striking hard at every weakness Neferia let show.
War was a down right madwoman, taking her attacks head on and striking back in the same manner.
Famine was a little less obvious, with her staff, she sometimes attack Neferia head on, causing an opening to occur for War or Death, or sometimes she messed with the very area around Neferia, draining the energy from the air, causing the ground to collapse beneath her or even doing this weird thing where she could drain the blood from the tiny open wounds whenever one would occur. They would heal quickly so the blood loss was minimal, but doing it constantly over and over again was definitely draining to Neferia.
As for Pestilence, she was summoning these toxic balls of gas and liquid and shooting them straight at her, causing her skin to corrode momentarily before it went back to normal. Other times, it looked like runes would appear on Neferia, causing her to stumble and miss step, something the other’s took advantage of quickly.
Between the four of them, team work was perfect. They never let up, never gave Neferia a chance to counter attack or distracting her while she tried. They were obviously skilled in working together so despite their realm disadvantage, Neferia couldn’t stop them.
Of course, there was something else that Laz was considering as well. Neferia didn’t look strong, her body looked weak and pale in the first place. While her skeletons ran rampant around the guards and Chosen, she herself didn’t fit the fighter type. Laz could only surmise that the reason the girls could keep up so well was because of this. On the same note, if she wasn’t a god, she wouldn’t have lasted this long either.
As for the chosen, more had arrived from the men’s side, including their warden who was on par with Warden McKnight. While they both had their own authority, it was clear by the orders McKnight was giving that she was in charge overall.
Unless one spoke about Annie.
She was visible on the field, causing tornados that would sweep away the smaller ones and trap the large ones. She could cut them down with these strange blades of wind that seemed stronger than steel. And she flew on this disks made of wind, she was like a reaper of bones, easily being the biggest influence on the battle field.
Strangely though despite their success, the number of skeletons seemed to be increasing and not decreasing. What’s more, the sizes and shapes of them keep getting bigger and more strange. One of them even looked like the skeleton of a horse with wings and a bone sticking out of it’s forehead while another one looked like it was a lizard with wings of it’s own.
"How the fuck is... is that a unicorn and a fucking dragon?" Laz said looking around. He knew that it wasn’t Neferia who was summoning these things, her hands were already busy dealing with the girls.
Laz finally saw that at some point, these beasts no longer appeared from the ground, but were charging out of a hole in the floor, one that Laz thought was really close to where the bathroom must have been before it was destroyed.
Seeing as how he didn’t have anything else to do at the moment, Laz decided to go take a walk.
Coming upon the hole, monster and beast skeletons of all types were rising out of it, either flying on wings that didn’t have either skin or muscle tissue, or crawling up along the walls and charging forward, not paying attention to anything but the fight a head of them.
Seeing that he was being ignore, Laz walked to the side of the hole and looked down, using his Heaven’s Gaze to peer into the darkness.
Down there, he say what he figured was the cause. The doors to the Mausoleum were wide open and the skeletons were charging forward from it like a rived who’s damn had just burst.
The entire chamber was filled with them, all of them intent on making it to the surface some how or another.
*I’m going to see if I can put an end to this wave,* Laz said, glancing over at Famine who was closest to him before they both turned back to their respective tasks.
*Be care master,* was Famine’s only reply.
Not seeing an easy way down, Laz could only jump, heading straight to the top of the lone structure.
As he got down, things flew past him, ignoring him. Even the ones on the walls seemed oblivious to his presence. Once he had gotten close enough, Laz brought his hand up in front of him and slowly lowered it, palm side down. Doing so caused his speed to drop as it seemed like gravity had lost it’s hold on him, which was exactly what had happened.
Hitting the roof of the building, Laz landed gently before releasing his hold on the force of gravity around him, allowing it to bind him again naturally.
Looking around, Laz didn’t notice a door, but he did notice that the top of the building seemed to have a skylight, looking up at the roof above him.
’Why would a place where the dead rest need a view of the sky?’ Laz said, looking up but not seeing anything before looking back down at the thin sheets of glass.
Next to the skylight was a small, almost invisible latch made of the same pale white stone that the entire Mausoleum was built from. Walking over to it, Laz grabbed the handle and lifted, revealing a staircase spiral going straight down inside.
Laz took it without hesitation.
The inside of the place was much larger than the outside by an unbelievable amount. It looked as though he had stepped foot into a huge library with shelves upon shelves of books in every direction. At the far end, closest to the back was what looked like living quarters. A massive bed room, sitting area, dining area and even a kitchen was tucked away behind the rows upon rows of books. In the center of the entire building was an alter, upon which sat an empty coffin. It didn’t take much thought to know that it seemed like Neferia had been inside the coffin before she had awoken, apparently due to their intrusion into the place.
Looking over at the door, Laz noticed that there was a huge, greyish circle of light that seemed to be like a portal while facing the outside of the structure. Any one wishing to enter from that way would be constantly stopped as the flow of skeletons just kept coming. On the sides of the portal, seeming like the anchor that kept it open and upright were two massive black pillars, radiating a strange glow.
Not knowing what else to look at and not even sure if he could read the books, Laz instead decided to go check out the alter.
Coming up close to it, Laz noticed the thing was made out of bones. What was worse was that a large number of the bones were the perfect size and shape of human bones. As for the skulls, there were only two that looked human, the rest being from various other creatures, some of whom Laz recognized, some he didn’t.
All of this was sitting on one side of the coffin, the side facing the door. Walking around it, Laz discovered more bones and more skeletons. Thinking it was nothing more that her taste in decoration, Laz was about to see what else caught his attention and maybe check out the giant pillars to see if there was some sort of control on them when something caught his attention.
In the dead center on this side of the coffin was a huge skull that looked more human than anything else in here. What’s more, in the eye’s of this skull glowed two green flames, almost like eyes.
They looked at Laz and he looked back, unafraid.,
’Help me...’ Laz heard, like a voice in the wind,
"Help who?" Laz asked out loud.
"Please... You are the only chance I have. Please..." The voice said as it trailed off.
Laz found himself looking at the huge skull again, the lights in it’s eyes a little less bright.
"Wait... wait....
’Those words, that request....’
Laz thought for a few more minutes before something finally came to mind.
Holding out the black flame in his hand, Laz brought it closer and closer to the skull before plunging it into the depths of it’s mouth.
